(Nick)
We have been in Hangzhou for six days now and each day seems to get better than the last! Today we went back to school after an amazing weekend, so I will tell you what my weekend was like (Now that we are not the "Gang of Four" anymore, this trip is a lot more individualized).
On Friday after school, my host brother Raven, three of his classmates, and I played badminton for a couple hours. It was great fun and although they play badminton a lot more often in China than I do in the states, I wasn't half bad. After badminton, we took a city bus to Hefang Road, an old street in Hangzhou known for its many shops and ancient medicine factories. After walking down Hufeng St., we ate dinner at a gourmet American restaurant you might recognize - McDonalds! It is actually not so cheap here and the actual restaurant is much nicer and more modern (compared to the U.S.). After our fattening meal, I'm positive we managed to burn it all off. We walked to West Lake (Xihu in Chinese) and probably walked for almost 3 hours. It was absolutely beautiful at night - all the lights from the many buildings on the other side reflected on the water. One of Raven's friends, whose English name is Samuel, wanted to speak English with me but was really shy and nervous (A common theme that I've noticed thus far in Hangzhou). His friends convinced him to and we ended up talking for the entirety of our 3 hour walk. Samuel is VERY interested in history (according to Raven he knows more than his history teacher), and I, being the history nut that I am, was more than happy to talk about it. Samuel gave me an overview of China's history for a while (and by a while I mean 2 hours...with such a long history, you can't possibly give a "brief" overview), and I gave him an overview of American history (which wasn't very hard, considering China is thousands and thousands of years older). We then talked about our two countries in general - he's not a fan of the Chinese education system and is quite envious of American students. We talked about the reputations of our two countries....I told him how I felt about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the Three Gorges Dam project , and he told me about his thoughts on the war in Iraq. We talked about the upcoming 2008 Presidential election - he thinks it is a very important election for the U.S. and thought it was great that a woman and an African American were both running for President. His English was not the best when we started talking, but by the end of our long conversation, he was a lot more comfortable and his English was rather good! It was a great thing for both of us - not only did he get to practice his English, but both of us learned a lot in the process. After our stroll, we went to a Starbucks near the lake. Raven and his friends told me that Starbucks is quite popular for young men in China, which I was very happy to learn. We sipped our tea and coffee as we talked about a variety of things - sports, music, movies, and even girls (which was rather amusing for me...there is quite a difference in the dating scene here...it is pretty much nonexistent among high school students). It was a great way to spend Friday night, and as much as I love Cady, Drew, and Emily, it was refreshing to be with new friends and completely away from everything familiar.
On Saturday, we took a trip to West Lake (during the day this time) with our host siblings, Terry, Michelle (English teacher), and two other teachers. We walked around West Lake, ate a delicious lunch (including duck tongue!), and then took boats out in West Lake. I'd heard so much before coming to Hangzhou about how beautiful West Lake is...boy was everyone right, it sure is beautiful! As we were out in the middle of the lake, one quote definitely popped into my mind - "There's heaven and then there's Hangzhou." After a gorgeous day on the lake, my host family took me out to dinner at a really nice restaurant. Lucky for us, a wedding reception was happening at the restaurant at the same time! It was very interesting to see but I felt weird watching a total stranger's wedding reception! After dinner, we all saw Atonement in the cinema which was very well done.
On Sunday, my host family took me to the Thousand Island Lake (Qiandao Hu). We went with my host mother's friend and her daughter, and it took about a 2 hour drive on the highway to get there. First we went to a river near the lake and ate lunch on a boat. The lunch consisted of fish from the river and it was so delicious! My host father kept on putting the most delicious parts of each fish in my bowl of rice and I couldn't resist, but I came out absolutely stuffed. After lunch, we drove to the Thousand Island Lake. My host family just purchased a luxury timeshare in a hotel overlooking the lake, and it is currently being built, so we viewed a model of what it is going to look like. Now I knew my host family must have quite a bit of money after seeing their apartment in Hangzhou, but their new timeshare is going to be incredible. Raven told me that I should convince my parents to also buy a timeshare in the same complex.......yeah, okay, i'm sure my parents would be totally fine spending 1.1 million yuan on a timeshare half way around the world. My host parents did invite me to come visit them over my holiday break next year, since their new timeshare will be ready by then....all I can say is, now wouldn't that be nice! After a tour of their timeshare model, we took out a speedboat on the lake. This lake is HUGE compared to West Lake...I'm pretty sure you can see it on a map of China. As the name infers, there are supposedly over 1000 islands...not sure if it is true or not, but the point is there are a lot of islands! We got off on one of them, named Monkey Island, that is home to probably 50 or so wild monkeys. Raven brought some dried tofu which he threw near the monkeys so they could eat it. They weren't very interested, and took a liking to the oranges that a young couple was throwing towards them. It reminded me a lot of Emeishan, but not nearly as touristy and there were no old women to yell at you if you got too close. There was quite a bit of trash on the beach, though, and the idea of throwing tons of food at wild animals wasn't very appealing to me. Overall, though, the lake was gorgeous and the water was very clear and looked fairly clean (for China standards, of course). We took a ton of photos throughout the day...it felt like every time a photo was being taken, I had to be in it, even a photo of my host mother's friend and her daughter. We drove back to Hangzhou after a beautiful day (Raven and I both took naps in the car - the sun sure does make you tired). Once we were back in Hangzhou, my host family took me out to dinner yet again (I guess eating out is a must on weekends, despite my host father's excellent cooking skills).
Today we went back to school. Monday morning is different from any other morning: there is a morning ceremony before classes, where all the students line up by class and march onto the field/track, watch the Chinese flag get raised, and listen to the Vice Principal speak (since Madame Miao, the Principal, is at a conference in Beijing). A girl from my class, who apparently is the head of my class, also spoke in front of everyone. I felt pretty awkward being the only one in a sea of over 2,000 students not wearing a uniform (besides Cady, Drew, and Emily of course), but luckily we got our uniforms a couple hours later!
Our first class today was Chinese. In addition to our Chinese teacher, Gao Li, we were pleasantly surprised to see that we had an English translator now, a grade three (senior) student who is already into Beijing Language University to study arabic, and doesn't need to be in his classes anymore. His English name is Baker, and he has a British/Australian accent (His mom lives in the UK and he spent his summers when he was younger in Australia). We all love his accent. William, the English teacher who will be coming to Dover-Sherborn this spring, popped into our class and told us that our uniforms were in our cubicles in the English office, along with candy that he left us. We were all so excited to finally get out uniforms! It was our second Chinese class, and a pretty unique one at that! We spent about 30 minutes reviewing the different cities and provinces we've visited and then learned some new food words. Gao Li then took us to a restaurant near campus to eat the foods we had just learned how to say (talk about an interactive way of learning). We ate Hun tun (small wontons in soup), jiao zi (dumplings), and diao zha shao bing (Gao Li described it as a Chinese pizza..it was basically scallion pancakes). We had all just eaten very large breakfasts from our host families, but we managed to eat a good amount of the food that Gao Li ordered for us. It was so nice of him to take us. It definitely brought us all back to our Modern China Tutorial days when we would get Chinese food with Ms. Viz! After Chinese "class," we went up to the English office and got our uniforms, which of course we immediately put on. They all look great and we definitely feel like we are now a part of the school rather than complete foreigners. Now, let's just hope that we don't lose Emily...now that she has a uniform, she fits right in!
After Chinese, we had gym class. We thought that Baker, our translator, was just for Chinese class, but were happy to find out that he is our translator for all of our classes...talk about hospitality! Our gym class is private unlike the P.E. classes that we attend with our host siblings in the afternoon. We have our own teacher, who we don't know the name of yet but we absolutely love. She is so cute, always smiling and very energetic. We started out by doing cheerleading....i know....pom poms and all! None of us are by any means what you would call cheerleaders so we all had a lot of fun pretending to be peppy and spirited. We learned a fairly difficult routine and then did it along to music. It was quite a scene...too bad nobody got it on tape! I'm sure many of my fellow Calculus students back in DS would pay to see a video of Mrs. Luskin cheerleading. Many Hangzhou High School students tried to peak into our room to see us making fools of ourselves, but we were really embarrassed and our teacher finally told the students to stop watching so we could actually get through our routine without being bright red. It turned out to be rather tiring and we only learned a part of the routine, so we will finish it next class. We then moved onto strength and conditioning....we did many different kinds of crunches and bum-strengthening exercises that hurt SO much, but we managed to get through it because our teacher was smiling the whole time. We are all expecting to be sore tomorrow. We finished class by doing yoga (like last class) which was a relaxing way to end the class.
We had lunch next, which was delicious, but we were all stuffed from our Chinese class trip to the restaurant. Kathleen (whom I hadn't seen yet), Ella, and Patrick popped into our private lunch room. We still had almost an hour left in our lunch period so we all sat on the grass near the front gate of the school and just hung out and talked. We all love our host siblings to death but its so nice to have friends that are our own age as well. After lunch period, we headed off to our respected host sibling's classroom. Today, Raven had the Chinese equivalent of industrial technology, History, Politics, and P.E. In industrial technology, we cut some type of metal with saws (I helped out Raven's friends when their arms got tired from sawing). History class seemed to be a World History class, and we watched a movie in addition to viewing notes on powerpoint (Every teacher has a laptop that they bring around with a powerpoint presentation of that particular day's lesson). I couldn't really understand Politics, although we did watch a short clip of what seemed to be about the heavy snow that hit southern China right before we arrived, and I'm assuming it was about the government's response to this natural disaster. In P.E., each class ran two laps around the track. Each class was in two lines, a line for the boys and a line for the girls. Music was blasted as we ran. Then me and some of my friends played badminton for the remainder of the period.
Tonight my host family and I viewed each other's photos and we talked about many different things. They love America and my host parents look forward to visiting next year when Raven is attending high school in Los Angeles. In my last entry, I said that Raven will be there for one year on an exchange, but it turns out that he will be there for the remainder of high school (2 years). His parents think the American education system is very good so that is why he is going. Raven is an only child (well, it is pretty hard NOT to be an only child in China due to the One Child Policy), and he is very close to his parents (Just like me...gotta love only child syndrome). I have grown very close with my host parents despite the language barrier, and I think that because I am so used to being an only child, I am quite used to the constant attention. I do feel bad, however, because my host mother is constantly comparing me and Raven, telling him that he needs to wear his pants higher (like me), wear brighter colors (like me), and do well in school (apparently they think I am smart just because I am into college). I do try hard to remind them that Raven is one of the best English speakers in his class and that Hangzhou High School as well as the school in L.A. that he will be attending next year are both excellent, prestigious schools. My host mother hates the English name that my host brother gave himself, Raven, and its really funny because everyday she will say (Raven...bu hao...bu hao)...and then call him by his Chinese name, Xie Jing Yi. His parents call him Yang Yang as a nickname though, but they can't do that while I am here since my name is Yang Ni Ke! I am so happy with my host family and it is a perfect fit for me. Sure, it is sometimes difficult for us to communicate, but every time I use a new Chinese word my host parents are so impressed and every time they use a new English word I tell them "Hun hao" (very good). They are very funny and we definitely share many laughs.
I will be honest when I say that when I first became interested in this exchange, it was the travel portion that was the most enticing to me. Travel has always been a huge interest of mine and this was the perfect opportunity to see another part of the world at such a young age. But the last six days have proven to me that nothing can compare to actual human interaction. I had a lot of fun during the 3 weeks of travel, but this is so much better! All the anxiety I had about Hangzhou has gone away and I am having so much fun. I learned a lot while traveling, but I have found that I have learned so much more just from making new friends here and stepping out of my comfort zone. I feel so much more accomplished after a day at Hangzhou High School than I did during any of the travel days, no matter how great the city! When I first came into my classroom last Wednesday, I noticed some hesitation and I wasn't sure what to make of it. But I have since realized that the students are just very shy when using their English and they were very scared to approach me. I am probably the least intimidating person...ever...so i found that rather amusing. After a couple days, however, they warmed up to me and began asking lots of questions about my life in America.
After just six days, I already know that this is going to be one hard goodbye. But I can't even think about that right now...I just want to enjoy Hangzhou while it lasts!
Hope everyone at home is doing well!
Take Care,
Ni Ke
We have been in Hangzhou for six days now and each day seems to get better than the last! Today we went back to school after an amazing weekend, so I will tell you what my weekend was like (Now that we are not the "Gang of Four" anymore, this trip is a lot more individualized).
On Friday after school, my host brother Raven, three of his classmates, and I played badminton for a couple hours. It was great fun and although they play badminton a lot more often in China than I do in the states, I wasn't half bad. After badminton, we took a city bus to Hefang Road, an old street in Hangzhou known for its many shops and ancient medicine factories. After walking down Hufeng St., we ate dinner at a gourmet American restaurant you might recognize - McDonalds! It is actually not so cheap here and the actual restaurant is much nicer and more modern (compared to the U.S.). After our fattening meal, I'm positive we managed to burn it all off. We walked to West Lake (Xihu in Chinese) and probably walked for almost 3 hours. It was absolutely beautiful at night - all the lights from the many buildings on the other side reflected on the water. One of Raven's friends, whose English name is Samuel, wanted to speak English with me but was really shy and nervous (A common theme that I've noticed thus far in Hangzhou). His friends convinced him to and we ended up talking for the entirety of our 3 hour walk. Samuel is VERY interested in history (according to Raven he knows more than his history teacher), and I, being the history nut that I am, was more than happy to talk about it. Samuel gave me an overview of China's history for a while (and by a while I mean 2 hours...with such a long history, you can't possibly give a "brief" overview), and I gave him an overview of American history (which wasn't very hard, considering China is thousands and thousands of years older). We then talked about our two countries in general - he's not a fan of the Chinese education system and is quite envious of American students. We talked about the reputations of our two countries....I told him how I felt about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and the Three Gorges Dam project , and he told me about his thoughts on the war in Iraq. We talked about the upcoming 2008 Presidential election - he thinks it is a very important election for the U.S. and thought it was great that a woman and an African American were both running for President. His English was not the best when we started talking, but by the end of our long conversation, he was a lot more comfortable and his English was rather good! It was a great thing for both of us - not only did he get to practice his English, but both of us learned a lot in the process. After our stroll, we went to a Starbucks near the lake. Raven and his friends told me that Starbucks is quite popular for young men in China, which I was very happy to learn. We sipped our tea and coffee as we talked about a variety of things - sports, music, movies, and even girls (which was rather amusing for me...there is quite a difference in the dating scene here...it is pretty much nonexistent among high school students). It was a great way to spend Friday night, and as much as I love Cady, Drew, and Emily, it was refreshing to be with new friends and completely away from everything familiar.
On Saturday, we took a trip to West Lake (during the day this time) with our host siblings, Terry, Michelle (English teacher), and two other teachers. We walked around West Lake, ate a delicious lunch (including duck tongue!), and then took boats out in West Lake. I'd heard so much before coming to Hangzhou about how beautiful West Lake is...boy was everyone right, it sure is beautiful! As we were out in the middle of the lake, one quote definitely popped into my mind - "There's heaven and then there's Hangzhou." After a gorgeous day on the lake, my host family took me out to dinner at a really nice restaurant. Lucky for us, a wedding reception was happening at the restaurant at the same time! It was very interesting to see but I felt weird watching a total stranger's wedding reception! After dinner, we all saw Atonement in the cinema which was very well done.
On Sunday, my host family took me to the Thousand Island Lake (Qiandao Hu). We went with my host mother's friend and her daughter, and it took about a 2 hour drive on the highway to get there. First we went to a river near the lake and ate lunch on a boat. The lunch consisted of fish from the river and it was so delicious! My host father kept on putting the most delicious parts of each fish in my bowl of rice and I couldn't resist, but I came out absolutely stuffed. After lunch, we drove to the Thousand Island Lake. My host family just purchased a luxury timeshare in a hotel overlooking the lake, and it is currently being built, so we viewed a model of what it is going to look like. Now I knew my host family must have quite a bit of money after seeing their apartment in Hangzhou, but their new timeshare is going to be incredible. Raven told me that I should convince my parents to also buy a timeshare in the same complex.......yeah, okay, i'm sure my parents would be totally fine spending 1.1 million yuan on a timeshare half way around the world. My host parents did invite me to come visit them over my holiday break next year, since their new timeshare will be ready by then....all I can say is, now wouldn't that be nice! After a tour of their timeshare model, we took out a speedboat on the lake. This lake is HUGE compared to West Lake...I'm pretty sure you can see it on a map of China. As the name infers, there are supposedly over 1000 islands...not sure if it is true or not, but the point is there are a lot of islands! We got off on one of them, named Monkey Island, that is home to probably 50 or so wild monkeys. Raven brought some dried tofu which he threw near the monkeys so they could eat it. They weren't very interested, and took a liking to the oranges that a young couple was throwing towards them. It reminded me a lot of Emeishan, but not nearly as touristy and there were no old women to yell at you if you got too close. There was quite a bit of trash on the beach, though, and the idea of throwing tons of food at wild animals wasn't very appealing to me. Overall, though, the lake was gorgeous and the water was very clear and looked fairly clean (for China standards, of course). We took a ton of photos throughout the day...it felt like every time a photo was being taken, I had to be in it, even a photo of my host mother's friend and her daughter. We drove back to Hangzhou after a beautiful day (Raven and I both took naps in the car - the sun sure does make you tired). Once we were back in Hangzhou, my host family took me out to dinner yet again (I guess eating out is a must on weekends, despite my host father's excellent cooking skills).
Today we went back to school. Monday morning is different from any other morning: there is a morning ceremony before classes, where all the students line up by class and march onto the field/track, watch the Chinese flag get raised, and listen to the Vice Principal speak (since Madame Miao, the Principal, is at a conference in Beijing). A girl from my class, who apparently is the head of my class, also spoke in front of everyone. I felt pretty awkward being the only one in a sea of over 2,000 students not wearing a uniform (besides Cady, Drew, and Emily of course), but luckily we got our uniforms a couple hours later!
Our first class today was Chinese. In addition to our Chinese teacher, Gao Li, we were pleasantly surprised to see that we had an English translator now, a grade three (senior) student who is already into Beijing Language University to study arabic, and doesn't need to be in his classes anymore. His English name is Baker, and he has a British/Australian accent (His mom lives in the UK and he spent his summers when he was younger in Australia). We all love his accent. William, the English teacher who will be coming to Dover-Sherborn this spring, popped into our class and told us that our uniforms were in our cubicles in the English office, along with candy that he left us. We were all so excited to finally get out uniforms! It was our second Chinese class, and a pretty unique one at that! We spent about 30 minutes reviewing the different cities and provinces we've visited and then learned some new food words. Gao Li then took us to a restaurant near campus to eat the foods we had just learned how to say (talk about an interactive way of learning). We ate Hun tun (small wontons in soup), jiao zi (dumplings), and diao zha shao bing (Gao Li described it as a Chinese pizza..it was basically scallion pancakes). We had all just eaten very large breakfasts from our host families, but we managed to eat a good amount of the food that Gao Li ordered for us. It was so nice of him to take us. It definitely brought us all back to our Modern China Tutorial days when we would get Chinese food with Ms. Viz! After Chinese "class," we went up to the English office and got our uniforms, which of course we immediately put on. They all look great and we definitely feel like we are now a part of the school rather than complete foreigners. Now, let's just hope that we don't lose Emily...now that she has a uniform, she fits right in!
After Chinese, we had gym class. We thought that Baker, our translator, was just for Chinese class, but were happy to find out that he is our translator for all of our classes...talk about hospitality! Our gym class is private unlike the P.E. classes that we attend with our host siblings in the afternoon. We have our own teacher, who we don't know the name of yet but we absolutely love. She is so cute, always smiling and very energetic. We started out by doing cheerleading....i know....pom poms and all! None of us are by any means what you would call cheerleaders so we all had a lot of fun pretending to be peppy and spirited. We learned a fairly difficult routine and then did it along to music. It was quite a scene...too bad nobody got it on tape! I'm sure many of my fellow Calculus students back in DS would pay to see a video of Mrs. Luskin cheerleading. Many Hangzhou High School students tried to peak into our room to see us making fools of ourselves, but we were really embarrassed and our teacher finally told the students to stop watching so we could actually get through our routine without being bright red. It turned out to be rather tiring and we only learned a part of the routine, so we will finish it next class. We then moved onto strength and conditioning....we did many different kinds of crunches and bum-strengthening exercises that hurt SO much, but we managed to get through it because our teacher was smiling the whole time. We are all expecting to be sore tomorrow. We finished class by doing yoga (like last class) which was a relaxing way to end the class.
We had lunch next, which was delicious, but we were all stuffed from our Chinese class trip to the restaurant. Kathleen (whom I hadn't seen yet), Ella, and Patrick popped into our private lunch room. We still had almost an hour left in our lunch period so we all sat on the grass near the front gate of the school and just hung out and talked. We all love our host siblings to death but its so nice to have friends that are our own age as well. After lunch period, we headed off to our respected host sibling's classroom. Today, Raven had the Chinese equivalent of industrial technology, History, Politics, and P.E. In industrial technology, we cut some type of metal with saws (I helped out Raven's friends when their arms got tired from sawing). History class seemed to be a World History class, and we watched a movie in addition to viewing notes on powerpoint (Every teacher has a laptop that they bring around with a powerpoint presentation of that particular day's lesson). I couldn't really understand Politics, although we did watch a short clip of what seemed to be about the heavy snow that hit southern China right before we arrived, and I'm assuming it was about the government's response to this natural disaster. In P.E., each class ran two laps around the track. Each class was in two lines, a line for the boys and a line for the girls. Music was blasted as we ran. Then me and some of my friends played badminton for the remainder of the period.
Tonight my host family and I viewed each other's photos and we talked about many different things. They love America and my host parents look forward to visiting next year when Raven is attending high school in Los Angeles. In my last entry, I said that Raven will be there for one year on an exchange, but it turns out that he will be there for the remainder of high school (2 years). His parents think the American education system is very good so that is why he is going. Raven is an only child (well, it is pretty hard NOT to be an only child in China due to the One Child Policy), and he is very close to his parents (Just like me...gotta love only child syndrome). I have grown very close with my host parents despite the language barrier, and I think that because I am so used to being an only child, I am quite used to the constant attention. I do feel bad, however, because my host mother is constantly comparing me and Raven, telling him that he needs to wear his pants higher (like me), wear brighter colors (like me), and do well in school (apparently they think I am smart just because I am into college). I do try hard to remind them that Raven is one of the best English speakers in his class and that Hangzhou High School as well as the school in L.A. that he will be attending next year are both excellent, prestigious schools. My host mother hates the English name that my host brother gave himself, Raven, and its really funny because everyday she will say (Raven...bu hao...bu hao)...and then call him by his Chinese name, Xie Jing Yi. His parents call him Yang Yang as a nickname though, but they can't do that while I am here since my name is Yang Ni Ke! I am so happy with my host family and it is a perfect fit for me. Sure, it is sometimes difficult for us to communicate, but every time I use a new Chinese word my host parents are so impressed and every time they use a new English word I tell them "Hun hao" (very good). They are very funny and we definitely share many laughs.
I will be honest when I say that when I first became interested in this exchange, it was the travel portion that was the most enticing to me. Travel has always been a huge interest of mine and this was the perfect opportunity to see another part of the world at such a young age. But the last six days have proven to me that nothing can compare to actual human interaction. I had a lot of fun during the 3 weeks of travel, but this is so much better! All the anxiety I had about Hangzhou has gone away and I am having so much fun. I learned a lot while traveling, but I have found that I have learned so much more just from making new friends here and stepping out of my comfort zone. I feel so much more accomplished after a day at Hangzhou High School than I did during any of the travel days, no matter how great the city! When I first came into my classroom last Wednesday, I noticed some hesitation and I wasn't sure what to make of it. But I have since realized that the students are just very shy when using their English and they were very scared to approach me. I am probably the least intimidating person...ever...so i found that rather amusing. After a couple days, however, they warmed up to me and began asking lots of questions about my life in America.
After just six days, I already know that this is going to be one hard goodbye. But I can't even think about that right now...I just want to enjoy Hangzhou while it lasts!
Hope everyone at home is doing well!
Take Care,
Ni Ke
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