Check off "Attend a Business Dinner in China"

(Nick)

We have already been in Hangzhou for more than 2 weeks! Time sure does fly here.

Yesterday was Raven's 16th birthday! I was originally supposed to stay with Raven for the second part of the exchange, but he told me that he wanted to celebrate his birthday with me so that is why I stayed with him first. Two days ago we went to a really good bakery called Free Mori to order a cake, and we picked it up yesterday. We went to a restaurant across the Qiantang River Bridge that was a little sketchy looking on the outside, but according to Raven, is the only restaurant in Hangzhou that still has the traditional Hangzhou cuisine! In the front, they had many different tanks of various aquatic animals - catfish, turtles, shrimp, and eels! Immediately upon arriving, four catfish were taken out of the tanks and taken to the kitchen for us! After a great meal, I sang happy birthday to Raven (Zhe ni shengri quai le) and gave him two CDs that I had bought during lunch break (Maroon 5 and Gorillaz). Later that night, we lit candles on the delicious raspberry pudding cake from Free Mori. We sang happy birthday (in English this time, his parents are trying to learn more English since Raven is coming to America next year). Before Raven blew out the candles, he spent a good 5 minutes with his eyes closed, praying (I guess its the Chinese equivalent of making a wish before blowing out the candles!). The cake was delicious and it was so great to be able to celebrate Raven's birthday while I'm here!

This morning we had Chinese and Calligraphy. In Chinese, we translated Walt Whitman's poem, "Oh, Captain! My Captain," (Chuan Zhang! Wo de chuan zhang!) into Chinese. Our teacher, Gao Li, had to leave early and attend a meeting, so we spent the remainder of the period playing ping pong. We got our daily fix of milk tea at our usual spot (the two guys who work there now know who we are and have memorized what we order each time). We had calligraphy next (which we have grown to love). Each day we have a competition for who can get the most "very good"'s from our teacher, Yang laoshi...they are hard to come by! Towards the end of each class, he sits down and "grades" our calligraphy sheets....there are the rare "very good"'s, the occasional "OK"'s, and the ever so frequent grunting noise as he draws a line across a line of characters and then says "NO!" He is so funny and his rather blunt grading system has helped us get a lot better at calligraphy.

After classes, we had lunch (which of course included our chef coming into our room, inspecting our reactions to his meal, and then laughing with us). Patrick and Ella came in as usual and because it was raining, we went to a classroom for English corner. Emily, Drew, and I left early, though, to go silk shopping (for the second day in a row). Yesterday, as you may recall, we got silk for our vests/dresses, and today we wanted to do some silk shopping for family and friends. Silk street runs parallel to Hangzhou High School (talk about a great location...in comparison, Dover-Sherborn High School runs parallel to, well, NOTHING). I bought silk scarves for my mom and grandmother, and a silk tie for my dad. Both Emily and Drew also made many great purchases! In P.E., the badminton kids were watching a movie but Michelle, a girl in Cady's class, managed to convince the gym teacher that we didn't have to watch the movie and we could play a game of badminton...so we did...on the wet badminton court outside. Cady, Raven, Nolan (Raven's friend), and I enjoyed a (slippery) game of badminton.

Derek (English teacher) invited Cady and I to come to English club last period to teach two songs. We taught them "Let it Be" by the Beatles and "Good Riddance (Time of your life)" by Green Day. We typed out each song on Derek's laptop, which was projected on the board. Cady and I sang each song first, then we spoke each line and had the class repeat it, and finally we sang it altogether. "Let it Be" seemed to go fine but the Green Day song was a little difficult lyrically and melodically for the class. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun to teach them and I think they really enjoyed learning the songs! After English Club, Derek and Michael asked me if I want to help out with a sort of musical revue that they are planning at Hangzhou High School. They want me to choose talented people to be in it! I am looking forward to it...considering I had to miss my senior musical at DS, I am always up for anything theater related.

After school, my host mother, Raven, and I walked to the Zhejiang International Hotel and met up with my host father for dinner. Once we got there, my host father said he would have to eat separately with his business partners, so it was just my host mother, Raven, and I at the table. (Speaking of which, it took me about a week and a half to realize that yes, my host father has a job (he is a businessman), and no, his job is not being a mom). Then my host father came out and said that his business partners wanted to meet me so we can eat in their private room. We went into the room and 4 of his business partners were there (only 2 wives were present). I shook hands with all of them (hand shakes in China last SO much longer than in America). One of my host father's business partners told my host father that i was "sui" (handsome) and he then proceeded to make a tost to the "handsome American boy." Now that was just the beginning of all the tosts...it felt like each person made a toast to every single person in the room, individually. All of my stereotypes of Chinese business dinners ended up being true....lots of alcohol and lots of cigarettes. Each businessman must've smoked at least a pack of cigarettes throughout the whole meal. The actual meal was delicious....goose liver, crab eggs, baby squid, and eggplant! At about the middle part of the meal I found out that the business partner sitting directly across from me was "the boss." So, of course, I toasted the boss of the company! I also found out that although all of these men were Chinese, they came from all over! The one who spoke the best English (and gave a toast to the "handsome American boy") lives in Germany, and another lives in Tokyo, Japan! They asked who I supported for the upcoming presidential election, and I told them Obama.....and then I said "George Bush...bu hao, bu hao" and they all laughed. They asked if I had heard about the New York governor who recently resigned (they sure are up to date with their U.S. news), which I had. Even though I don't know that much Chinese, I could actually understand a surprising amount of what they were talking about....or at least I got the gist of what they were saying. The meal lasted a couple hours so by the end I felt like I was about to pop! Once all the men took out their papers/portfolios (and actually started conducting business...) my host mother, Raven, and I decided to take a taxi home. I said goodbye (zaijian) to all the men, and shook all their hands (once again). They all seemed like great guys and I was glad to have gotten the chance to meet them. I can now check off "attend a Chinese business dinner" off of my list of things to do in life. It really was a sight to see!

Life in Hangzhou is going so well. There is SO much to say but unfortunately, it is late, and I need to sleep. Tomorrow we switch host families which is going to be very hard. Not looking forward to saying goodbye to my host family! But I can't complain - I've got a second host brother and family who are ready to host me, and who knows what is in store for the second portion of our Hangzhou adventure!

Wednesday: Tailored to Please!

(Ms. Luskin)

My day proved to be quite a departure from our usual Wednesday…

I’d been asked to speak to Hu Kun Lin’s (William’s) year-two English classes during the first two periods, so I knew that I’d miss the early class for Team China today. I’ve really enjoyed chatting with these classes, and find they quite enjoy a mixture of stories about America interspersed with my responses to questions that they are brave enough to ask eventually. These young people hang from every word when I talk about student life at DS: class length (long); lunch time (appallingly short!); passing time (almost unthinkable, since the kids here stay in the same classroom for most of the day, but do expect their customary 15 minutes free between classes!); the wide variety of club and sports activities (astonishing!). Every classroom has had its own topics of interest, but student dating, the upcoming Presidential election, and US university admissions are recurrent themes. All the students are remarkably attentive; I’d anticipated a polite lack of yawns, but these kids are completely engaged in what we Americans have to say! (After lunch yesterday, Team China accompanied me in pairs to speak with two eleventh-grade classes, which changed the classroom dynamic quite a bit!)

Overhead projectors here are “old technology” now, and rarely have worked in the classrooms I’ve visited, so while one of my photos zigzags down the left aisle, a similar photo makes its way down the right aisle. Eventually, the pictures travel forward again, while kids chuckle and point out this-and-that in the pictures. Fun to see them relax from their earnestness, too!

After the English classes, I headed back to the English office to drop off my photos, only to find that my box from the States had arrived at long last, more than five weeks after it was shipped! Naichuan has been bickering with Customs, who wished to charge a goodly amount of additional duty on this package, so I was delighted to find out that he’d prevailed upon them to knock the price down considerably. (Who knew you could bargain with a government??) With Cui Hongxiang’s (Helen’s) help, and to my unending relief, I unpacked the box and brought a load of gifts safely to my apartment around the corner. (I’d been a bit tormented by nightmares of the box remaining in limbo while we headed home, bereft of American thank-you gifts to share with our friends here!) This happy task took us right up to lunch time; in our lunch room: the familiar wide variety of food, the familiar visit from our chef, the familiar chatter of all the young folk. As the kids headed to English Corner and I ran off to get a bit of emailing done, we agreed to meet at 2:00, since Cui Hongxiang had volunteered to take us silk shopping. Woohoo!

If you’ve ever seen last year’s blog, I’ll tell you that our experience was quite the same. At the silk warehouse, there were numerous samples from which to choose, but many colorways of a pattern proved not to be in stock. In the end, people winnowed their preferences down to one each: a silvery-grey-and-white happiness symbol for Drew, a classic ink-blue dragon fabric for Nick, a lovely green tone-on-tone pattern that haunted Cady through several compare-and-contrast pairings, and a stunning plum blossom (in plum!) with a gunmetal background for Emily – oh, and a peacock blue plum blossom pattern for me. Next, we trekked off to the marketplace across the street from school for lining fabric, and then found that our tailor happened to be in her shop there as we passed by, so the measuring began! We don’t yet know the timing for delivery, but soon enough, the guys will have their vests and we womenfolk our dresses, each with of the details we requested from out tailor. Look out, prom night, here comes Team China!

Wanted: A Weekend Time Machine

(Drew)

I had a great weekend. It began on Friday with going out to KTV with our host brothers and sisters and one of my new friends from school Michael. Michael wants to come to America for College so he is taking a four part test with reading, writing, speaking and listening. Although i forget the name of this test its all in English and tests to make sure kids could get by in an American university setting. Michael is allowed to write something up for his spoken part of the test and asked me to help edit it with him as a native speaker. Saturday the school took us to a pottery museum/factory. We all made our best attempts on a pottery wheel making what sort of look like pots. We got a little frustrated, and the pottery master had to re-center our pots several times. Later on Saturday i had supper with my family which was followed by Eve and Cady coming over for movie night. It really ended up being just me and Cady watching Across the Universe because Eve and Mark just worked on homework. Sunday morning Eric, one of my classmates, took me sightseeing in Hangzhou. His mother is English who works several hours outside Hangzhou so she doesn't come often. His mom has never spoken to a native speaker of English before so her spoken English was probably not representative of her actual knowledge of English. Her English was still very good.

We went to Li Feng Pagoda on the south shore of West Lake (Xi Hu). We took a bunch of pictures of our trip with Eric's I-phone. I didn't realize that it was an I-phone until today when he had it in school. It was a perfect day for seeing the Pagoda. There are five floors to the pagoda each one has artwork all around the walls. The wood carvings on the first floor were absolutely amazing I'm regretting not bringing my camera. The view from the top was gorgeous (no not resembling a gorge). You could most of west lake which still had a layer of mist around it because it was still before noon and the sun had not scorched it off yet. We also walked through the hill adjacent to the pagoda which was very tranquil and shady, again regretting not bringing my camera. After the pagoda we drove through a park near by before heading back to my house.

For lunch we went over to Eves house where Cady had made us pancakes. Slightly lemony but still good, and all was well because they had a jar of peanut butter. Everything is good with peanut butter, that should be one of Newtons laws actually. I was very full from lunch and had only a few minutes back at the house before i set off with mark and two of his friends to a nearby agricultural university that had ping pong tables you could rent out. Marks parents also showed up to exercise. I ended up playing marks dad in ping pong for quite some time. I played ping pong for about 4 hours straight. I'm addicted. Although i think I'm getting pretty good at ping pong i was playing next to a kid (I'm estimating to be 9 years old) who could barely see over the table and I'm pretty certain i would not be able to score a single point on him.

Ive found that everyone in China loves sports, although in Hangzhou high school i don't see a lot of talent besides in ping pong and badminton. Those are the two sports that everyone can play in China. Hangzhou High school along with many others in China are big fans of the NBA more specifically the Houston rockets with Yao Ming and Tracy Macgrady (T-mac as I've heard him referred several times).

My running after school is going well. I think our private gym classes are awesome for keeping us in shape. We do yoga type stuff that improves our flexibility and strength. We also have done a lot of core exercises which is important for a runner, like me :).

Monday English corner we met many new people, English corner is growing exponentially it seems. By the end of the trip the entire school plus some random strays off the streets will be attending. Monday we met the four kids that are coming to D-S. I already like them naturally. They all seem very friendly. I also met two junior girls, one of which had gone abroad last year for six months to Washington state. If she hadn't told me that she had been to America i probably would have guessed because the way she talked was very Americanized. I found we speak with many expressions and not proper English in every day conversation. When you speak to your average Hangzhou student they use proper English. The girl i met talked very much like i do with my friends and used expressions just like us. She also just arrived at the school this semester and seems not to follow the rules such as no pierced ears and wearing a uniform, what a rebel. Many seniors don't wear uniforms either, they always use excuses such as it is in the wash or its lost. We have already been asked many times what we are doing next weekend, its quickly turning in a problem only having two days on the weekend. I want to see so many people and do different stuff with my various friends i need some sort of time machine to do everything.

Another awesome blog post to keep everyone back home entertained. One last quick note. They finally gave me a chair in class, YES! so comfortable... until now i had a little stool with no back. And i can lean back in my chair because I'm in my back row (sorry mom).

Ants in Pants?

(Cady)

Hello everyone!

So, today Nick figured out that we leave Hangzhou exactly three weeks from yesterday. Wow. It's amazing to me that we've already been in Hangzhou for over two weeks, and even more astonishing that we are leaving in what now seems like a very short amount of time. We're switching host brothers and sisters this Friday too! It's very bitter-sweet I think. I'm going to miss Eve a lot. I have now taken to calling her Pinky because she's rather cute and small and in love with the color pink. On the other hand, I really like my second host sister, Doris. I haven't had the chance to spend a lot of time with her yet, even though she's in class five with me. Actually, I'm the only member of Team China that's going to be in the same class for the entire exchange which also has it's good and bad points. I'm happy with the situation though because I'll still be able to see Eve every day and I'll be able to become closer with the classmates I'm already friends with. Not to mention there's still some kids in my class that I've never even talked to. That may sound ridiculous, but keep in mind that there are about fifty kids in each class, and not all of them are outgoing enough to just come up and talk to me. I'm making progress on that front though, never fear.

I think the weekend has been thoroughly covered, seeing as how Em did the blog for yesterday and we spent pretty much the entire day together. Although it was just a weird coincidence that we both had pancake disasters on the same morning. I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but we did make it to KTV on Friday night, which was lots of fun. We'll definitely be back for Ella's birthday and possibly sooner if time allows. It's pretty much the perfect night out, well for Nick and I at least. Seriously, a private room where you hang out with your friends and sing all night long- what more could we ask for? Anyways, Em ended up sleeping over last night so this morning was one big getting ready for school party. Since we had a "guest," we ate breakfast at home instead of on the road, which ended up making Eve late to school. I mention this because it's really quite funny what happens when someone is late to Hangzhou High School. There are class meetings every Tuesday during eighth period where the kids who were late to school throughout the past week have to sing songs for the class. It's really very funny, though some kids are very embarrassed by the ritual. Eve says that since I was late today too (even though it's not on record) she's going to make me sing with her tomorrow. So be it. Speaking of Eve, she just came running up to the third floor with a large cup of milk tea for me that her little brother brought home. It's like my prayers being answered!

Anyways, our first class this morning was Chinese. We focused on shopping, which would have probably come in handy before going yesterday with Emily and Ella, but better late than never. Then we had private PE which turned into another day of cheerleading. Hey, I thought it was pretty fun. As I may have said before, we're all pretty good at laughing at ourselves when it comes to that sort of a thing. Then we used some weight training equipment, did an ab workout, and finished with some strength training on the mats. I told our gym teacher that we're going to bring her back to America so that she can whip us into shape every day. Lucky for us, lunch was next- we always feel very ready for lunch after private PE. Then English corner! There were actually a lot of kids waiting for us today when we got there, which was naturally very exciting. As Em mentioned, we met the kids who are coming to America. They all seem very curious and outgoing so I think that they'll find socializing at DS only minimally scarring. Oh, I'm only kidding, I know they're going to have a blast in America. We'll make sure of it. "Team America" (not to be confused with the film), as we informed them they would be called from now on, is made up of Ivan, Alice, Sam, and Bob. Two girls and two boys- sound familiar? A group of girls from my class came to English corner too, including both of my host sisters. Crazy Michael who refers to everyone, including Terry (though we informed him today that only Team China could speak to her that way), as "sexy" showed up too. Good turn out today- hopefully it continues to grow.

After that it was once again time for afternoon classes. I had to explain the term "ants in your pants" to my desk mate, Garbo, because I was particularly energetic today. I only spent one period journaling because Garbo and I talked all through Geography and History. The first because she, along with the rest of the class, never pays attention during Geography, and the second because we ended up having so much fun during the first. Then eighth period was running class which is where the entire sophomore grade runs two laps around the track and then splits off to have PE. So badminton, as usual. Free Mori with Eve and Drew after school. I have a cinnamon walnut roll for tomorrow morning. Tonight we mixed things up a bit by going out to dinner. Eve's parents took us out to dinner at a fancy restaurant along West Lake. The food was fantastic, and the waiters at this obsessive-compulsive way of filling up your teacup literally the second you drained it. Now that's what I call service. For my family's reference, I had shrimp, scallops, and crab legs tonight all of which I enjoyed very much. Now, I'm a pretty bold eater but shellfish has never really whet my appetite. As Em said this morning though, I am now completely unfazed by anything edible at this point, and I actually enjoy pretty much everything I try. I've been playing with the idea of trying the whole fried scorpions on Hefeng Street because, honestly, what's more badass (can I say that on the blog?) than eating scorpion?

Well, I will leave you with happy thoughts of exotic (and maybe kind of scary) food. As always, I hope all is well in Massachusetts. Is it still a winter wonderland? All I have to say is hah hah. See you all in three weeks!

Women’s Day on (last) Friday!

(Ms. Luskin)

The rhythm of the school week shifted today: no morning classes for the female faculty on Women’s Day! Instead, the women drifted at their leisure to a teahouse a few blocks away from school. This restaurant is quite expansive in layout, with winding hallways and noticeably high ceilings. As we meandered our way to the tables that the school had reserved for us, the flooring shifted: bluestone pavers, glass panels under which goldfish lazed along, a short arched bamboo “bridge to nowhere.” Semi-private eating areas alternated from one side (a screened seating area, perched over a shallow granite-faced rectangular pool)… to the next (a series of small rooms, much like Japanese tatami rooms, with a sunken table embedded in the raised floor and surrounded by seating pillows)… to the next (our area by the windows, with a series of pairs of pillowed benches wrapped around a glistening table, each with a bamboo stand at one end supporting a glass water-pot steaming over a warmer.) Much of the decorating had a very contemporary twist: dramatic lighting, large plant arrangements, various finishes on glass wall panels, small iridescent tiles above vessel sinks in the lav. All this set up a marked contrast with of a statue (of whom??) fronted by a low votive fruit arrangement on a bed of sand, wrapped in glass walls! A puzzle to tantalize our thoughts as we arrived and left!

Cui Hongxiang (Helen) was my companion, and we drank tea, and chatted, and explored the extensive buffet (several times, in fact!) until early afternoon. Full to bursting (and rather pining for a nap!), we made our way back to school in time for her afternoon classes. My afternoons this week have filled up with visits to English classes, where I’ve mostly shown photos of my family and home as a jumping-off-point to talk about life in America. The students have been shy at first, but very attentive, and each time some bold soul has been willing to ask the first question! Today, I’m making a concerted effort to catch up with the emails that stacked up while we were traveling – working on 2/10, now, in hopes of making my way toward 2/23 by the time we leave! My school day ends with a short bite in the now-quiet ding room; then I’m off to read the book Emily lent me, skipping my usual amusement: CCTV’s evening report on the minutiae of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing!

The Pancake Fiasco!

(Emily)

hello everyone! saturday started with an attempt at making pancakes. the previous evening, i announced that i wanted to make pancakes for my host family; after all they have done for me and all the great food they've fed me, i wanted to show my gratitude by cooking something for them. pancakes sounded easy enough. i started off trying to get the measurements right....without measuring cups. i looked high and low and there wasn't a single measuring cup to be found.... so i tried to eyeball it. i'm no paula deen or giada, so this in itself was disastrous. not even the butter had measuring increments on it. oh, and the milk was from a box (i.e. juice box...except milk....milk box?). i punched a hole into the box and squeezed what i kinda guesstimated was the right amount. and i measured the flour with a paper cup.... it was a mess. i figured if i could at least get it to the right consistency that everything would be fine. i mean, how bad can you mess up pancakes? evidently, pretty bad. the batter started off waaay too thick, so i added more milk. the batter was a gloppy mess that wouldn't spread out in the pan (it just sat there....looking like jabba the hut). oh, and i was using a wok to fry the pancakes. i couldn't find a frying pan (at the end of cooking the pancakes, my host mom produced a pan out of the bowels of the cupboard). then, i added peanut butter in an effort to make it less gross. bad move. however, they did turn out....mildly edible. my host parents came in and picked at it, making the standard "mmm" noises and trying to pretend that they weren't as bad as they actually were. after eating a couple pieces, i wasn't hungry anymore. this was almost as bad as the time i burned the thanksgiving soup (i believe it was squash and leek for anyone who was curious). all this being said and done, i'm not that bad a baker. i can make pastries and cookies. but alas, many chinese families do not have ovens. to quote eve: "why would you have an oven if you could go out and buy pastries easily and cheaply?for lunch, my family took me out for noodles! i had pigs foot with the noodles (apparently it's good for your skin...it's a little too fatty for me though). at this point i'm pretty unfazed by anything. after trying cicada (it was tasty and a little spicy, but the amount of labor required to get a little piece of bug innards isn't worth it) and blood (like tofu...but red....and...bloody), i've gotten used to trying (almost) anything (i haven't tried stinky tofu yet but richard says he's never had it because of the smell so i don't feel as guilty not trying it). after lunch, i met up with cady and ella for a day o' retail! there, i learned that cady had coincidentally tried to make apple pancakes for her family. it was a similar tale of woe and hearbreak; she added 3 tablespoons of lemon juice instead of the correct 3 teaspoons and her pancakes were rendered lemony deathcakes. but she says that they added peanut butter, which made it a little better. we started off at the intime department store, which sold high-end clothing (like the equivalent of bloomingdales). we then progressed to wulin street, which is known as a women's fashion street. it was amazing. so many cool little clothing shops of all different sorts of tastes. ella took us to her favorite store named 2%. it soon turned into our favorite store. the walls were covered with sweet comic book graphics and the clothes were funky. perfect for cady and i. cady picked out a baggy turquoise sweater with a skeleton on it, among other things. the graphic t-shirts were all unique. cady also got a sparkly superhero t-shirt. i opted for a neon yellow t-shirt that has a knitted pattern on the front. at the very end of our expedition, we found boots for me! surprisingly, they were cheaper than my t-shirt. ella and cady helped me bargain it down from 210 yuan to 120 yuan. after a long day of shopping, we were all pretty hungry. we met ella's dad at a thai restaurant that was on the west lake. ella's dad is really nice and reminds me for some reason of tom hanks (maybe from the way he smiles). cady disagrees and says that he reminds her most of richard because he's so good natured and always smiling, which i agree with. the thai food was delicious! hao chi, if you will. we had mushrooms in a peeled pumpkin, beef with cashews, crab curry, and green beans. my favorite dish was the crab curry. the crab was excellent- probably the best crab i've had on this trip- and mixed with the curry sauce, it was even better. after eating to our hearts' content, we bid farewell to ella's dad and waddled our way into a taxi that then took us to the traveler's bar, where we met up with nick, drew, terry, derek (an english teacher- extremely cool), and his friend rossi. the traveler's bar was very pirates of the carribean (in an authentic way- not hokey), down to entrance door (it had a grate at the top and an old fashioned latch). at each solid wood table there were two little red candles and at the center of the bar was a huge cast iron chandelier which i swear was burning real candles. true to its moniker, there was art hung up from all over the world (we sat upstairs by some egyptian pieces). we were on a balcony, looking down on the stage. the live music was excellent. the people who sang had voices comparable to signed artists. as a backdrop for the stage, there was a mural with famous people in a band. included were osama bin laden, saddam hussein, george dubbya, and yasir arafat. derek treated us to drinks (think ginger ale, sprite, and tea) and popcorn (kettle corn to be exact) and we alternately watched the musicians and watched rossi do magic tricks for us. rossi was extremely good looking in an artsy way (this isn't just me talking- i have terry, cady, and ella to back me up). he had longish floppy hair that was wavy and slighly curled at the end with intellectual looking glasses (very 'i own an art gallery') and very straight teeth (i didn't pick up on this, but cady swears by it). rossi also has a sweet job: basically, he trains the ronald mcdonalds and comes up with new tricks and whatnot for them to do. he was quite a character and his english was really good, so we were able to catch all his jokes and the narratives to his magic tricks. cady and nick said he's like a chinese greg bornstein. he did an array of card, coin, and rubber band trick. but that's not all- he also then whipped out a bag of balloons and started to blow them up and make animals for us. he made monkeys, pigs, bunnies, flowers, dogs, and mice. quite sick. at the end of the evening we were all exhausted an at around 10, cady ella and i bid everyone goodnight and we took a cab back to where cady and eve live. ella lives 5 minutes away, so she was able to take the same cab back with us. i slept over at eve's last night because penny lives further away from the bar, so getting back late in the evening would be a little difficult. i had a fitful night's sleep and here i am, writing to you from the teacher's room. this is emily ahn- you stay classy, ds! p.s. we met the kids coming to america!!! they're awesome but i'll let whoever's doing today talk more about them (i think it's cady).

Stinky Tofu, KTV and Pottery Making Adventures

(Nick)

All is still going very well in Hangzhou! We have all settled into the school routine nicely (though I guess this is not a very hard task considering our lives are not nearly as stressful as all the students around us!).

Since Terry wasn't at school yesterday (it was International Women's Day), I will talk about yesterday in addition to today. We had our first Chinese handicrafts class! We focused on papercutting - which turned out to be rather difficult! We started out by cutting out a Chinese good luck symbol, which wasn't too hard at all. Then our teacher pulled out a sheet with all the Olympic mascots, and cut them all out. There are five Olympic mascots: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini - if you put them all together they form - "Beijing Huanying Ni", which means Beijing welcomes you. I chose Beibei, Baker (our translator) chose Jingjing, Drew chose Huanhuan, Emily chose Yingying, and Cady chose Nini. We glued together three different colored sheets of paper, with the mascot on top. Then, we each used exacto knives to carve out our Olympic mascots. It was very hard!!! The mascots have a lot of small, detailed components that are hard to carve out, and you have to push hard with your knife to get through each sheet of paper. We all had trouble with it, but Drew managed to finish his, Cady is almost done, and.......Emily and I had to start over because we totally butchered our mascots. Oh well, hopefully we can get better at papercutting. Our teacher told us that next class we would focus on Chinese knot bracelets which we are looking forward to!

Before our next class, we walked to our favorite milk tea store and bought hot chocolate with oreos in it.....SO GOOD. Our next class was gym. We had a new teacher this time who was great, but we did miss the energetic, smily teacher we have had the last couple gym classes. We started out playing badminton - we did a couple drills and then played games. Drew played against the gym teacher, who is ridiculously good at badminton, so Drew finished the game in quite a sweat. Baker, Cady, Emily, and I had a nice relaxing game compared to the one next to us, which was fine with us! After badminton, we played ping pong. Once again, Drew and the gym teacher had another strenuous game, while the rest of us had normal, relaxing games. Although, Cady and I managed to get a little crazy during our game, to the point where we were hitting the ping pong ball over the room and acting like complete fools. I know...its probably a good thing that we have our own private gym class....and I stress the word private.

We had yet another delicious lunch (when do we not?), and as usual, our chef came in towards the beginning of our lunch and made sure everything was good. He is a really funny guy and is always laughing with us. After lunch, we went to the English "corner," aka the water well near the front gate of the school. It was kind of rainy so there weren't as many kids as usual. The first girl to come is a third year student (senior) whose English name is Cherry, which I got a kick out of because that is my grandmother's name and it is pretty rare. She wants to study Swahili in university, which we thought was SO COOL. Michael, a year 2 student, came as usual. Michael is a huge singer (like me) so of course we sang some quality tunes (we then proceeded to invite him to come with us to KTV, or karaoke, that night!).

After English corner, we went to classes as usual. However, during the first period, Drew and I came to Cady's English class because Cady's host sister, Eve, invited us. Their English teacher gave us a couple of his student's English compositions, which we read and corrected. They were very well written, but the teacher told us that often, their writing is a lot better than their speaking. Drew, Cady, and I then taught the class about the ever so popular five paragraph essay that we use in America (it was literally drilled into our heads at DS during middle school, so this was no hard task for us!). Then we sang some songs for the class: Wonderwall by Oasis and Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The teacher then showed us a song in their English book that we then proceeded to sing to them....Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It was a good time.

My host father has caught on to my incredible love for eggplant. After school, he stopped at the market and bought a ton of eggplant which, along with the bamboo shoots dish, beef dish, and egg dish, made me a happy camper at dinner. My host mother's younger sister (meimei) came over with her son, Raven's cousin, who he calls didi since he doesn't have a real younger brother. They brought along their new puppy, some sort of yappy little white dog that was pretty cute. My host family owns a lizard so we had the two meet, and the lizard ran as fast as he could up the wall onto a tall plant, where he stayed for the remainder of the night. Raven, his cousin, and I then went to KTV (karaoke) and met up with the rest of the gang. Karaoke in China is amazing. We had our own room with a large TV and a couple microphones, as well as a selection of hundreds of both Chinese and western songs. We had a really good time...and spent many, many hours singing.

This morning we met at school at 9 AM. It was raining, so instead of going to Hefang Road first, we went to an interactive pottery museum...the interactive part being that we all got to use pottery wheels! We spent about 40 minutes sculpting our pottery vases/bowls, which we all agreed was a lot of fun. The pottery wheels were a part of the museum, so every so often a group of people would come in and watch us using the wheels (the sight of a bunch of Americans trying to make pottery must've been rather amusing). The pottery we made today will be ready to pick up in a couple days! After, we walked through the museum, which had so many celadon pots and vases from the Song dynasty. The color of the celadon glaze is a beautiful, almost transparent, light green. After the pottery museum, which was very impressive, we went to lunch at yet another (extravagant) restaurant (Hangzhou High School sure does treat us well). There were so many dishes but a couple favorites were the duck tongue (once again), duck soup with bamboo shoots, beggar's chicken, and shrimp. After a fabulous lunch, we took the school's bus to Hefang Road (I'd already been, but for some of the others, this was their first time!). Compared to the rest of modern Hangzhou, Hefang road is really the only glimpse of the "old Hangzhou," and even on a rainy day, clearly people love seeing the old Hangzhou! I hadn't really seen that many westerners thus far in Hangzhou, but I saw many on Hefang Road. There are many differerent shops with beautiful artwork, crafts, instruments, silk, tea, famous foods, nuts, and very old medicine stores! We all split off with our respected host sibling and walked around for an hour and a half. It is definitely a nice break from the bustling, modern city we know as Hangzhou. The old style street with the old architecture reminded us somewhat of the other old towns we've seen in Beijing, Xi'an, Lijiang, and Yangshuo.

Tonight at dinner, my host family made stinky tofu, which is Raven's favorite. I've smelled it many times before, as it is a common smell on the side of many Chinese roads in all the cities we've been to. I even ate it at the opening banquet on our first day. The smell is probably the worst smell I have ever experienced in my life...I can't even describe it in words....it is just awful!!! Well, I ate a lot of it tonight, and although it doesnt actually taste that bad, I could still smell it even when it was in my mouth! I've tried very hard to be open minded about food on this trip, and I think I've done a good job with that so far. But the stinky tofu made me cringe so much that I could not possibly hide it from my host family! They thought it was funny though, and we ended up laughing for a good five minutes about my reaction. In addition to the stinky tofu, I also ate squid eggs, which were pretty good, along with pork, bamboo shoots, and yes, EGGPLANT. My host father is such a good cook....our everyday "meals" look like gourmet Chinese food from a fancy restaurant. I told him that he should move to Boston and start up a restaurant!

A couple days ago, Ella and Patrick (who is currently in Xi'an taking an exam for a university that will allow him to study Japanese for two years in Xi'an and two years in Japan), took us to a music store during our lunch period to buy some Chinese music! I bought three CDs: Jay Cho, who seems to be the Justin Timberlake of China, Soda Green, a Taiwanese band that is a favorite of Raven's, and S.H.E., a girl band that Zhu laoshi played for us during Chinese class back in the states. It has been very interesting for me (the music lover) to get a taste of what the Chinese music scene is like. It almost feels like China is experiencing what the U.S. experienced during the late '90s. Boy bands are very popular, as well as just pop music in general. One of my friends, who I call Fly (his favorite animal is a fly), went to the Backstreet Boys concert in Hangzhou on Thursday night. He had such a good time and asked me if I liked the Backstreet Boys....I told him that I used to, ten years ago!!! I tried to explain to him that in America, not only are boy bands not very popular anymore, but not many guys listen to boy bands in the first place. Oh well, it is just a lot different here! A lot of my favorite bands (aka Guster) are not known at all here, which is understandable, but I've been having fun introducing them to Raven. I've also played Raven a bunch of songs from my a cappella group at DS (The Rest), which he loves!

One thing I've noticed while I've been staying in Hangzhou is just how much more I think about conserving than I do in the U.S. Even though it is pretty obvious that my host family is well-off, that doesn't exempt them from still wanting to conserve resources. I have found that I am a lot more aware of my use of certain resources here. I have my own thermostat in my room, and despite having the power to leave my heater on all night while I sleep, I make sure to turn it off every night, as it is not necessary. When I shower, i make sure not to spend too long. With electricity, I only use lights if I absolutely need them. There is just such a different attitude here than in the U.S. In America, we have the attitude that we spread "from sea to shining sea," with so much open space, and there is room for everybody to live comfortably. But in China, which is similar to the U.S. in land size, over 1 billion people are, for the most part, limited to eastern China because the geography in the west is pretty much unliveable. This puts a lot of pressure on the land that is liveable, tightening resources. The concept of having an actual house is unimaginable at least in the more urban areas of China. Apartment complexes are the norm here, for it would be impossible for every family in China to have their own house. I have definitely realized just how much we actually have in the U.S., and that is not necessarily a good thing. My family in the U.S. only has three people in it, and we have three cars - one car for each person. My host family, on the otherhand, has one car, yet they manage to go about everyday life in the same way that my family in the U.S. does. There is just such a difference in attitudes between the two countries. People tend to give China a lot of crap for their many environmental problems (which, don't get me wrong, definitely pose many concerns for the future), but when you compare the average Chinese citizen and the average American citizen, the Chinese conserve so much more, while the Americans use so much more. Obviously, population is the main difference between the two countries. I just think it's important not to automatically assume that the Chinese people are responsible for all these environmental problems. From what I've seen, at least, they know that they must conserve for the good of their country. The real problem is the corrupt government officials and factory owners, but that is a whole other topic. Okay, there, the enivronmentalist within me is now satisfied ;)

We have less than a week left with our first host families, and although I love my second host brother, I am not looking forward to leaving. Two and a half weeks is simply not enough time but what can you do! It will definitely be a hard goodbye, as we have gotten very close, and I am in such a comfortable place right now that I don't want to change a thing. Tomorrow, my host family is taking me shopping in Hangzhou, which will be fun. Also, one of the English teachers invited us to hear some live music with him at a club tomorrow night!

Zaijian for now!