(Cady)Hello!
I can't believe that we're finally in Hangzhou! Now that we've officially experienced two full days here, not to mention it's Friday, I think I got a fairly good day to write about. The city is great, I'm not sure what Emily and Nick have written about it, but I will elaborate. It's very modern and clean, but not too fast-paced. Well, the roads are actually. Hangzhou may have the most people biking to school and work of any city we've visited so far. Our school is huge compared to Dover-Sherborn. There's over a thousand kids in each grade here! We're not ants though, that's for sure. We get stared at a lot since we're the only white kids walking around campus (save for Emily, but a lot of people know that she's Korean now). People are so friendly though, many students stop in the halls just to say hello. A woman on the street today shouted, "Hello! Welcome to China!!" So most people are very excited that we're here. It's strange getting so much attention, but naturally we make the most of it seeing as how two of us are spotlight loving theater kids anyways. I think we've all settled into our host families for the most part.
My sister is adorable and sweet- her english name is Eve. We live on the 17th and 18th floor (her family bought two apartments and knocked out the floor in between them is what my understanding is) of a big apartment building very close to the high school. The apartment has three floors and it's very nice. Eve has a little brother whose english name is Tony, which is very interesting considering the one child policy. She told me today that her mom and dad were able to have a second child because they lived in a different (smaller) city then where the policy was not as strictly enforced. They did have to pay a 20,000 RMB fine for it though. Her aunt also lives with them and does all of the laundry and the cooking. I have actually only met my host dad once, during Eve's birthday dinner at Pizza Hut the other night. Both of her parents are very fashinable, which is appropriate I guess since their company sells clothing (they're in the fashion merchandising area is what my understanding is). They usually work late, though the mom did show up half way through dinner tonight. It's alright that they're not extremely interested in me though since Eve more than makes up for it. She's very curious and always eager to practice her english with me. We've decided that I should learn at least one new phrase everyday. Yesterday's was "see you later!" (dai hui jian!) and today's is "good morning" (zao shang hao). I also learned how to say "nice to meet you" before coming here, which came in handy when I finally met Eve's parents. Oh, I mentioned Eve's birthday- it was yesterday. After school we picked up a green tea flavored cake from her favorite bakery called Free Mori (the bakery, not the cake). Yes, we had her birthday dinner at Pizza Hut. BUT the Pizza Huts here are very, very different from the pizza huts back home. They're actually pretty fancy. I was confused when Eve told me to pick a soup off of the menu even though she had already selected a type of pizza. Dinner came sort of in courses. We got our soup first, then sweet glazed chicken thighs, then little steaks, and then finally a small pizza, which was all had a piece of. Very ritzy compared to Pizza Hut back at home! Her parents didn't believe me then when I said I was full so I had a showdown with her father over the last slice. In the end I ate the front of it and he had the crust after it had sat on my plate long enough for him to be thuroughly convinced that I wasn't secretely still starving. I was a little intimidated by her parents in the beginning. For example, the first question her father asked me was, "what do your parents do?" Ella told me today though that that is actually a very traditional question for Chinese parents to ask children. Neither of Eve's parents speak english which makes communication fairly difficult, but when they are around they seem at amused at least by my attempts at Chinese. They told Eve that they should invite another foreigner to their home so that her brother can practice english all the time as well. I suppose I am the Wang family's walking, talking Rosetta Stone.
So last night I stayed up late putting together a powerpoint for our english class today. Eve's english teacher was very enthusiastic about me giving a presentation so, for his benefit, I deciphered powerpoint entirely in characters and pulled pictures of my family and friends off of facebook. This morning was typical of my new routine here. Get up at 6:30, downstairs by 6:50, eat some bread and milk from a juicebox, and off to school at 7:00. It's about a fifteen minute walk to the school from Eve's house, so her location is really very convenient. Emily, Nick, Drew, Terry, and I were supposed to have our two private morning classes today but our first teacher canceled. Helen (an english teacher and Terry's liason of sorts) told us we could go to our host siblings' classes for a while, but since we didn't want to come in and cause a distraction in the middle of lessons we went and saw Terry's apartment instead. It's actually very nice, but I'm sure she'll write about it the day after tomorrow, which is her day to blog. Then back to school where we worked in our cubicles in the language office for a while since we had fourty minutes before we needed to be at our second private morning lesson. I looked up the names of different animals in Chinese.
We thought our second class (which was actually our first today) was going to be kung fu, but when we got to the gym our teacher pulled out a bunch of badminton rackets. We all like badmiton well enough so we thought it would be fun to play. In reality, we spent about fourty minutes working on our badminton form and doing silly drills on how to properly hit the birdie. I think our teacher became frustrated with our lousy badminton form and eventually gave up and let us just volley it over the net, even if we did do it all wrong. Then, she led us to a different room where we brought out mats, took off our shoes, and began to do... yoga! We didn't actually figure out that it was yoga until the very end. Up until that point we thought we were doing some sort of strange Chinese strength building class (which I supose we were). It was actually very enjoyable, not to mention good for the core. Then, of course, came the time of day I was looking forward to. Lunch! I have decided that I like having only bread and milk for breakfast because it leaves me with a very big appetite for lunch, which is very delicious here since we get special meals. Today we had sweet riceball soup, sweet and sour pork, some sort of green veggie, diced ham, orange jello, watermelon, and two types of meat on toothpicks. I don't know if that sounds appetizing or not, but take my word for it- lunch here is very good. After that, Ella and her friend Patrick (who is basically the Chinese version of Nick) took us to get pearl milk tea which I LOVE. I have had it today and yesterday. Eve says it's the most popular drink in China and she was very surprised to learn that most people in America have never heard of it before. It's what it sounds like- a milk tea, usually with black rice balls in the bottom (or tapioca balls maybe?). Today I got mine with a black tea base, the balls, coffee flavored squares and pudding squares in it. Patrick said I was crazy because it would be way too sweet, but I thought it was excellent. I had a green tea one yesterday which was also delicious. I think I will be drinking milk tea every day from now on!
After lunch break was english class. I gave my presentation which went very well- I think everyone was impressed and a little bit scared by the fact that I talk very quickly in a loud voice. Up until then I hadn't gotten a change to formally introduce myself to the class. When I finally asked if there were any questions all they asked was "do you have a boyfriend?" Well, I explained the whole dating is okay in high school in America thing, and no I don't, all of that. Then they asked if I would sing for them since I like musicals so much. I said that I would make a deal and if one of them came up and sang for the class then I would. So a girl came up and sang a new Backstreet Boys song, so then I sang a song from Rent for them (our english teacher is a big Rent fan), and then a boy came up to sing a song by the famous Chinese rapper, Jay. It was all a lot of fun, so I think the presentation went very well. Our english teacher was pleased too- he came back to class later to give me an english magazine on Hangzhou and a book on Chinese speech and characters to help me improve my Chinese. He also put some of a movie on my flashdrive because apparenly there is a specific song that he wants me to learn and teach to the class next week since it's a very popular song here... I guess my singing went over well (even if my face was a little red afterwards!).
In the afternoon Eve got her hair cut. I thought about getting mine done too but Eve was so nervous that I might get a bad cut and be unhappy that she talked me out of it (I may be an impulsive buyer but I only get haircuts once in a blue moon, so it wasn't very hard to convince me not to). That's alright though because if I decide that I want to get one later, there are lots of salons around where we live. I finally got my laundry back, having clean clothing is amazing. Then dinner at Eve's after which we met up with Drew (not his host brother though- he stayed in to do homework) and then Penny and Emily too. The five of us went over to West Lake to see what it looks like at night. It's huge and very pretty with all the buildings around it all lit up. We walked a long ways, got the sugar-coated strawberries we love so much, and ended up at KFC eating frenchfries and ice cream. Then Penny and Emily took a taxi home and Drew, Eve and I walked on until we didn't know where we were and decided to take a taxi also. All in all, a day of much eating and much walking. Which in my book is a good day. Then my quick shower routine. As Emily and Nick have probably said, they don't really believe in heat here so it's very cold at night. I got an extra blanket for my bed last night though, which was a great improvement from my first night here. Speaking of which, I am going to go curl up under said blankets now.
Goodnight everyone!
Cady
I can't believe that we're finally in Hangzhou! Now that we've officially experienced two full days here, not to mention it's Friday, I think I got a fairly good day to write about. The city is great, I'm not sure what Emily and Nick have written about it, but I will elaborate. It's very modern and clean, but not too fast-paced. Well, the roads are actually. Hangzhou may have the most people biking to school and work of any city we've visited so far. Our school is huge compared to Dover-Sherborn. There's over a thousand kids in each grade here! We're not ants though, that's for sure. We get stared at a lot since we're the only white kids walking around campus (save for Emily, but a lot of people know that she's Korean now). People are so friendly though, many students stop in the halls just to say hello. A woman on the street today shouted, "Hello! Welcome to China!!" So most people are very excited that we're here. It's strange getting so much attention, but naturally we make the most of it seeing as how two of us are spotlight loving theater kids anyways. I think we've all settled into our host families for the most part.
My sister is adorable and sweet- her english name is Eve. We live on the 17th and 18th floor (her family bought two apartments and knocked out the floor in between them is what my understanding is) of a big apartment building very close to the high school. The apartment has three floors and it's very nice. Eve has a little brother whose english name is Tony, which is very interesting considering the one child policy. She told me today that her mom and dad were able to have a second child because they lived in a different (smaller) city then where the policy was not as strictly enforced. They did have to pay a 20,000 RMB fine for it though. Her aunt also lives with them and does all of the laundry and the cooking. I have actually only met my host dad once, during Eve's birthday dinner at Pizza Hut the other night. Both of her parents are very fashinable, which is appropriate I guess since their company sells clothing (they're in the fashion merchandising area is what my understanding is). They usually work late, though the mom did show up half way through dinner tonight. It's alright that they're not extremely interested in me though since Eve more than makes up for it. She's very curious and always eager to practice her english with me. We've decided that I should learn at least one new phrase everyday. Yesterday's was "see you later!" (dai hui jian!) and today's is "good morning" (zao shang hao). I also learned how to say "nice to meet you" before coming here, which came in handy when I finally met Eve's parents. Oh, I mentioned Eve's birthday- it was yesterday. After school we picked up a green tea flavored cake from her favorite bakery called Free Mori (the bakery, not the cake). Yes, we had her birthday dinner at Pizza Hut. BUT the Pizza Huts here are very, very different from the pizza huts back home. They're actually pretty fancy. I was confused when Eve told me to pick a soup off of the menu even though she had already selected a type of pizza. Dinner came sort of in courses. We got our soup first, then sweet glazed chicken thighs, then little steaks, and then finally a small pizza, which was all had a piece of. Very ritzy compared to Pizza Hut back at home! Her parents didn't believe me then when I said I was full so I had a showdown with her father over the last slice. In the end I ate the front of it and he had the crust after it had sat on my plate long enough for him to be thuroughly convinced that I wasn't secretely still starving. I was a little intimidated by her parents in the beginning. For example, the first question her father asked me was, "what do your parents do?" Ella told me today though that that is actually a very traditional question for Chinese parents to ask children. Neither of Eve's parents speak english which makes communication fairly difficult, but when they are around they seem at amused at least by my attempts at Chinese. They told Eve that they should invite another foreigner to their home so that her brother can practice english all the time as well. I suppose I am the Wang family's walking, talking Rosetta Stone.
So last night I stayed up late putting together a powerpoint for our english class today. Eve's english teacher was very enthusiastic about me giving a presentation so, for his benefit, I deciphered powerpoint entirely in characters and pulled pictures of my family and friends off of facebook. This morning was typical of my new routine here. Get up at 6:30, downstairs by 6:50, eat some bread and milk from a juicebox, and off to school at 7:00. It's about a fifteen minute walk to the school from Eve's house, so her location is really very convenient. Emily, Nick, Drew, Terry, and I were supposed to have our two private morning classes today but our first teacher canceled. Helen (an english teacher and Terry's liason of sorts) told us we could go to our host siblings' classes for a while, but since we didn't want to come in and cause a distraction in the middle of lessons we went and saw Terry's apartment instead. It's actually very nice, but I'm sure she'll write about it the day after tomorrow, which is her day to blog. Then back to school where we worked in our cubicles in the language office for a while since we had fourty minutes before we needed to be at our second private morning lesson. I looked up the names of different animals in Chinese.
We thought our second class (which was actually our first today) was going to be kung fu, but when we got to the gym our teacher pulled out a bunch of badminton rackets. We all like badmiton well enough so we thought it would be fun to play. In reality, we spent about fourty minutes working on our badminton form and doing silly drills on how to properly hit the birdie. I think our teacher became frustrated with our lousy badminton form and eventually gave up and let us just volley it over the net, even if we did do it all wrong. Then, she led us to a different room where we brought out mats, took off our shoes, and began to do... yoga! We didn't actually figure out that it was yoga until the very end. Up until that point we thought we were doing some sort of strange Chinese strength building class (which I supose we were). It was actually very enjoyable, not to mention good for the core. Then, of course, came the time of day I was looking forward to. Lunch! I have decided that I like having only bread and milk for breakfast because it leaves me with a very big appetite for lunch, which is very delicious here since we get special meals. Today we had sweet riceball soup, sweet and sour pork, some sort of green veggie, diced ham, orange jello, watermelon, and two types of meat on toothpicks. I don't know if that sounds appetizing or not, but take my word for it- lunch here is very good. After that, Ella and her friend Patrick (who is basically the Chinese version of Nick) took us to get pearl milk tea which I LOVE. I have had it today and yesterday. Eve says it's the most popular drink in China and she was very surprised to learn that most people in America have never heard of it before. It's what it sounds like- a milk tea, usually with black rice balls in the bottom (or tapioca balls maybe?). Today I got mine with a black tea base, the balls, coffee flavored squares and pudding squares in it. Patrick said I was crazy because it would be way too sweet, but I thought it was excellent. I had a green tea one yesterday which was also delicious. I think I will be drinking milk tea every day from now on!
After lunch break was english class. I gave my presentation which went very well- I think everyone was impressed and a little bit scared by the fact that I talk very quickly in a loud voice. Up until then I hadn't gotten a change to formally introduce myself to the class. When I finally asked if there were any questions all they asked was "do you have a boyfriend?" Well, I explained the whole dating is okay in high school in America thing, and no I don't, all of that. Then they asked if I would sing for them since I like musicals so much. I said that I would make a deal and if one of them came up and sang for the class then I would. So a girl came up and sang a new Backstreet Boys song, so then I sang a song from Rent for them (our english teacher is a big Rent fan), and then a boy came up to sing a song by the famous Chinese rapper, Jay. It was all a lot of fun, so I think the presentation went very well. Our english teacher was pleased too- he came back to class later to give me an english magazine on Hangzhou and a book on Chinese speech and characters to help me improve my Chinese. He also put some of a movie on my flashdrive because apparenly there is a specific song that he wants me to learn and teach to the class next week since it's a very popular song here... I guess my singing went over well (even if my face was a little red afterwards!).
In the afternoon Eve got her hair cut. I thought about getting mine done too but Eve was so nervous that I might get a bad cut and be unhappy that she talked me out of it (I may be an impulsive buyer but I only get haircuts once in a blue moon, so it wasn't very hard to convince me not to). That's alright though because if I decide that I want to get one later, there are lots of salons around where we live. I finally got my laundry back, having clean clothing is amazing. Then dinner at Eve's after which we met up with Drew (not his host brother though- he stayed in to do homework) and then Penny and Emily too. The five of us went over to West Lake to see what it looks like at night. It's huge and very pretty with all the buildings around it all lit up. We walked a long ways, got the sugar-coated strawberries we love so much, and ended up at KFC eating frenchfries and ice cream. Then Penny and Emily took a taxi home and Drew, Eve and I walked on until we didn't know where we were and decided to take a taxi also. All in all, a day of much eating and much walking. Which in my book is a good day. Then my quick shower routine. As Emily and Nick have probably said, they don't really believe in heat here so it's very cold at night. I got an extra blanket for my bed last night though, which was a great improvement from my first night here. Speaking of which, I am going to go curl up under said blankets now.
Goodnight everyone!
Cady
2 comments:
actually, the "aunt" you mentioned here is more like a housekeeper. In China, we usually use "aunt","uncle",and "brother",
sister"to call the people older than us even not necessarily have a kinship in between. Call their names directly would be regarded as rude in some situations. ^ ^
Boba Tea is always Fun, Nice post Cady.
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