Hammering the Beggar's Chicken

(Nick)

On Friday night, as you probably know, we switched host families. My first host family drove me (and my bajillion bags) to my new host families home. I said goodbye to my host father and gave him a hug, and then my host mother took me into my new host families home. We sat down with my new host family and my first host mom talked with them about me and what i like to eat (chie zi...eggplant). Then I said goodbye to my first host mom and Raven...which was really sad...we were all crying as they were boarding the elevator. I felt bad crying because i didn't want my new host family to feel inferior, but at the same time, i really was sad at the prospect of not seeing Raven and his parents all the time anymore. Hangzhou is a city of 6 million, not of 4,000 like Sherborn and 6,000 of Dover, so its not like I will see them around....I will see them at our farewell banquet though! Raven and I are emailing each other daily. While I was staying with my first host family, Raven, his mom, and I would always say "bu hao" when his father smoked. I told him that I want him to quit so he can be healthy. Well, now that I left, according to Raven (in his emails), his father has made a vow to quit before Raven comes to America in September! Raven and I are quite pleased.

My new host family situation is quite a bit different than my last! This time around I have grandparents! Jerry lives in an apartment with his grandparents, and his parents live in a separate apartment on another floor. His mom visits frequently for meals, but his dad seems very tied up with work so I only see him on weekends. I really like the concept of living with grandparents...it adds a whole different perspective. They are basically like real parents to him though, as he calls them baba and mama. He told me to call them Wai gong (for my grandfather) and Wai po (for my grandmother) which I have started to use a lot. Their apartment is really nice. Not nearly as western as my last one...a lot more Chinese feeling, but still very comfortable. I have a plasma television and brand new computer in my room, as well as a heated queen-sized bed...it doesn't get much better than this. My new home is located in downtown Hangzhou, about a 10 minute walk from Hangzhou High School. In the morning my host mother drives us to school and then we walk home in the afternoon (or should I say evening, school gets out at 5 PM!). My host parents work in the same building but they drive to work separately - my mom in her Toyota Camry and my dad in his Audi A6 (yes, I am aware that I am a car nut). Jerry said that their hour's vary...sometimes they will come home at 7 PM and sometimes at 2 AM, because they are out with clients playing mah jong! So my grandparents are the ones I see the most. Since they don't work anymore, they do all the cooking and various house jobs. I come home everyday and my bed is freshly made, and my clean laundry is folded neatly on my bed. I could get used to this! Jerry is really cool...and pretty goofy like me. His English isn't as good as Raven's though. He walks around with a pocket electronic English dictionary and whenever he can't remember how to say something, he whips out the dictionary. I never thought someone would take longer than I do to get ready in the morning, but Jerry sure does! In the time that I spend showering and eating breakfast, Jerry is applying his hair gel. It is definitely a confidence booster, I guess! Jerry and Joe (Drew's host brother) are good friends and they are hilarious together...always playing tricks on each other.

On Sunday, my host family took me to the Xixi National Wetland Park in the outskirts of western Hangzhou. It is a beautiful park and we spent a couple hours on a wooden boat cruising around the wetlands! After some beautiful scenery we drove to Lou Wai Lou restaurant, perhaps the most famous in Hangzhou. Present at the meal was not only Jerry, my host parents, and grandparents, but also Jerry's cousins, aunt, and uncle. When my host parents asked what I wanted to drink, I said Sprite. The waitress then proceeded to pour sprite in everyone's cups...oops! Jerry's father asked if I wanted beer and wine, which, considering I just made a room full of mostly adults get served sprite, of course i did! It wasn't really a big deal though..we all had 3 glasses each of sprite, beer, and wine respectively.The meal was outstanding (as to be expected)...dongpo pork, Xihu (west lake) fish with vinegar sauce, and yes, beggar's chicken! It takes four or five hours to cook, and they cook it in a clay shell. The waitress brought it out and my host father told me to go over to her. She handed me a hammer which I used to break open the clay. Jerry told me that I will now have good luck since I hammered the beggar's chicken open! The intense cooking process is so worth it - the beggar's chicken was delicious.

This morning wai gong woke me me up at 6:20 and i showered, ate a delicious breakfast of fried dumplings, hard boiled eggs in vinegar, and oatmeal. My host mother drove us to school as usual but the traffic is so bad, and even though we are close to school, we were a bit late. This morning we had Chinese painting! I think we all agree that it is our favorite class. We have it for three hours and it is so relaxing. Our teacher is such a talented artist, though, so it is sometimes embarrassing to paint while she is looking over my shoulder. Today I painted a cherry blossom tree, Drew and Emily painted sparrows, Cady painted a pumpkin and Terry painted flowers. My cherry blossom tree came out pretty well considering I am a horrid painter, but then of course, with my luck, as I was writing my name in Chinese characters, it made one big black blob. Laoshi to the rescue! She made my ugly black blob into a beautiful sparrow...i really envy her ability to transform even the ugliest thing into perfection. Terry is rather good at painting flowers and the teacher is always really impressed with her work. Drew just makes all of us look bad. In the middle of our three hour painting block we had a half hour break which we spent getting nai cha (milk tea) and then we bought some cheap iPod speakers in the market across from Hanggao...so we can listen to music during classes like Chinese painting!

After class we had lunch as usual, and then English corner. A lot of my former classmates (from Raven's class) come to English corner now. I've gotten so many presents from them - a Chinese fan with a poem in both Chinese and English written on it as well as a personalized note, a bracelet with my Chinese name engraved on a stone, and a book of Hangzhou postcards. I miss my old class so much....the guys were really funny, and the girls were really sweet and never got too shy around me. We went to classes with our host siblings next. Jerry and Joe are in the same class, so naturally Drew and I are in the same class. Drew finished Angels & Demons and he brought in the 7th Harry Potter for me to read...a big mistake because now I am hooked and I have an 8 page AP Gov position paper due when I get back to America on US/China foreign policy...ahhhh. During the last period we had class meeting. First we watched two Beijing Olympics (propaganda...what? did I just say that?) videos that I guess were intended to get the Chinese students excited for the Olympics...yeah, not hard at all considering they've been waiting since 2000 to finally see August 2008 come around. They cheered really loudly after each video clip. Then Drew and I went up in front of the class and introduced ourselves for 15 minutes...we talked about our activities and interests, high school in America, drivers licenses, and of course, the college process. After, we played a game that was basically like Olympics charades....two teams with two people on each, one person had to act out a particular sport and the other had the guess it. Drew and I dominated.

That is all for today. Time is going by so fast...in exactly two weeks we will be landing in Boston :( Our stay in Hangzhou is just too short! If I could choose to spend an entire year at Hanggao...I totally would. I just know that I am getting attached to so many people here and saying goodbye is going to be awful. Ric sent us an email saying that a former DS China Exchange student, Julia Stevenson (2004) commented on our blog...her words made me realize just how precious are time at Hanggao is. Sure, we can study abroad in China during junior year of college (like her), but we are never going to have an experience like this ever again. I think it is finally hitting home that we are coming closer to the end of a journey that has lasted about a year now in total (Application, interview, Modern China Tutorial, Chinese class, and finally CHINA). Okay, 2 more weeks to make the best of it. Ready, set, GO!