Last Day at Hanggao ... [LAST POST OF 2008 GROUP]

(Nick)

Before I talk about today, I must comment on last night's farewell banquet. It was so cool to see both of our host families, teachers, and friends together in one room - the energy was amazing. The food was delicious (of course) and there were many, many toasts throughout the meal. Drew, Emily, Cady, and I toasted both Madame Miao (the principal) and Lu Naichuan, the exchange coordinator. Madame Miao came over to each table and told our host families what she thought of us (according to her I am very handsome and my speech in Chinese was the best out of the four of us...HA). It was a great night and it was so hard to leave at the end.

Today was our last day at Hanggao. Jerry and I were a bit late to school, as usual, because Jerry overslept....rather than receiving detentions for being late too many times, students just get their name written down and they might be spoken to but most of the time they are just required to sing in front of their class!! There is definitely more trust between students and faculty...and it works. They never skip class, never leave class to go to the bathroom, and it is rare when a student is absent due to illness. I guess this is due to Hanggao requiring high marks on an exam to even be admitted, but it is pretty refreshing to see a school where everyone is in nearly perfect harmony. Anyways, this morning our papercutting class was cancelled because our teacher had a meeting, so instead we went to Free Mori and bought some delicious pastries, and also wrote our names on an apron that we later gave to our chef as a farewell gift. The next class we had was P.E., where we played badminton basically the entire time. We gave both of our P.E. teachers gifts, our male teacher a New England photography book and our female teacher a 2007 Grammy Nominees CD. We will miss both of them a lot....considering how much we have eaten here we might be needing them back in America after our families see just how much weight we've gained.

We then had our last Hanggao lunch. We presented our chef with the apron that we decorated, and then took a photo with him...he was very happy! All of our host siblings are very sad that its our last meal because once we leave, they will have to go back to eating the normal school food (which is apparently pretty bad). Patrick and Ella came into our room and we took some photos together. We walked out to English corner for the last time! I am really going to miss English corner, its definitely my favorite time of the day because we get to socialize! It's hard to socialize during the rest of the day since the students are so focused on their classes. It is also the only time we get to see Patrick, Ella, Frank, and Kathleen, the busy seniors...they have to sacrifice a lot each day to go to English corner when all their classmates are studying, and we are very grateful that they care so much about seeing us. English corner today consisted of LOTS of picture taking, email address exchanges, and presents! It was really overwhelming because there were so many people I wanted to talk with and take a photo with but not enough time! I tried my best to hug as many people goodbye as possible, take as many photos as possible, and yes, sing into one of my classmates recording devices so they will forever have my rendition of "I want it that way," by the Backstreet Boys. I will miss English corner so much...it feels like just yesterday that we had our first one! It is so fun to hang out with all the students at Hanggao without them having to worry about schoolwork (well, for the most part).

In the afternoon I took some time to write letters to Helen, Rose, and Derek, all English teachers that I have grown pretty close with and will miss a lot! The English department has been so hospitable...the 5 of us must be quite a pain to have in the English office but they have survived. I am going to miss Helen the most...she has basically been like a mother to us. Not only did she take Terry under her wing while we were in Hangzhou, but also us as well. She is so helpful and always so interested in us. I only wish I could've been at DS when she was the teacher of the Spring 2004 Chinese delegation. Four years later, and she still has a Dover-Sherborn nalgene water bottle and a DSMS sticker in her cubicle. She clearly got so much out of her time in the U.S. and her way of giving back is always being there for us! It is people like her that make me realize just how life-altering this exchange really is. I hope that I can see her again sometime in the near future! I am definitely going to miss her smiling face every morning at Hanggao.

After school I played badminton with some of my old classmates from Class 1. I'd really missed playing with them, as it had been 2 weeks since I switched host brothers, so it was really nice to be with them again! However, once we were done playing, it meant I had to say goodbye to all of them which was really sad. I hope to come back to Hangzhou sometime in the next couple years, but you never know, and although email is great, the prospect of not seeing them is too hard to bear!

We met at the school gate at around 5 PM, where we were joined by Patrick, Ella, and Baker. We went to our favorite Japanese restaurant near the school for a quick dinner before Patrick had to leave for more classes. Speaking of Patrick, I am pretty sure he is the Chinese version of me. We have a lot in common and even though I've only known him for 5 weeks, I would consider him one of my best friends. I think I will probably miss him the most out of anyone in Hangzhou, just because its not everyday that you meet someone who is exactly like you, and it will be hard to be so far away from him. I know he is someone that I will always keep in touch with, though, and hopefully our paths will cross sooner rather than later. Anyways, after a Japanese dinner and Patrick's departure, we took a public bus to Xihu (West Lake). We walked around for a bit, which was nice with the warm breeze. We went to Starbucks and sat around talking for a good 2 or 3 hours! It was glorious. At around 10 PM, we took taxis home (which is actually a hard task, vacant taxis are hard to find), and Baker dropped me off at my host families apartment complex. Since this was the last time I was seeing Baker, I hugged him goodbye. Baker was such an important part of our days at Hanggao, considering he was the translator for all of our teachers. He is probably the nicest, most warm-hearted person I know. I will miss him so much.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Hangzhou. Today was definitely pretty emotional though, since Hanggao has become so important to us in the last 5 weeks. It is hard to believe that it is basically all over. This exchange has changed my life in so many ways. But when I say exchange, I guess its really just the people involved that have changed my life. I am definitely going to miss living in China a lot, but most of all, I am going to miss all the people that I have connected with. I can't imagine my life without these people and I hope that this is just the beginning of a lifetime of friendships. As I transition back into Dover-Sherborn High School next week I will always carry with me the many unique experiences of my time in China. This was the best decision I ever made in high school, and no matter how stressful, tiring, and sometimes, awful high school was, my 2 months in China are what I will always remember when I think of high school. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. Thank you DS (but mainly Viz) for giving me this opportunity.

See y'all in the USA! We will be arriving Tuesday night and I am totally going to school on Wednesday to see everyone. Zaijian Zhong guo, Ni hao Mei guo!

Yang Ni Ke

The Great Banquet

(Drew)

Well this is probably my last blog entry in China. Just the realization of this is making me sad. It depends how busy we are in Shanghai but i doubt ill have time for another blog entry because it would be on the day we leave. So updates on my travels. Our morning classes have been going great. We finished our "masterpieces" in both Ccalligraphy and Chinese Painting. Our body and Kung Fu classes keep us in shape while we stuff our faces with Chinese food. When i get back i might take a little time off from dumplings and noodles though. This week we have given all our teacher gifts out to show appreciation to all the teachers who took time to teach an extra class in the morning. My abilities at Ping Pong, Badminton and Running have all seen dramatic improvement over the last 5 weeks. I wish we played more badminton back in the states, its sort of the Chinese equivalent to Tennis. Everyone plays.

ooo... host dad brought me an apple (peeled), gotta love the hospitality in this place.

Today i got up a little earlier than usual. "Usual" has turned into 10 minutes before i leave in which i gobble whatever i can on the table before heading out the door. This morning i had a little more time to prepare for my day. I got to school (safely i might add, each day adds new perils to my trip to and from school) and did the normal routine, checked up on e-mail and chatted with team china before our Chinese class. We dedicated today's Chinese class to translating small scripts we wrote in English into Chinese. Today was the day of our going away banquet, which went very successfully (ill get to that later). After Baker the Bread maker helped us translate, we spent the rest of class practicing the actual speaking to each other, i knew it would be a train wreck if i didn't. Our second class today was calligraphy, but we already finished our "masterpieces" and didn't really have anything to work on. Yang Lao Shi said that we could take home the brushes we have been using as gifts. Yang Lao Shi is definitely one of Team China's many favorite teachers. We spent most of the class working on other constructive things, reading and writing etc. as well as practicing our speaches. First period in the afternoon was gym for Nick, Emily and Me, they played badminton while i spent the time practicing my Ping Pong with Joe. Second period i had to run home and get my silk vest for the banquet that i did not realize i would need because i assumed we had time between school and the banquet. I took a quick shower and changed as well, it was very warm today (over 70 degrees). Last period we had a farewell meeting just like the one we had at the beginning of stay in Hangzhou with all the administration at the school and all our host brothers and sisters along with various other teachers. We said our final thoughts about our stay and gave our deepest thanks for our trip and the hospitality they showed us while at Hanggao. We exchanged gifts and took many pictures.

After about 20 minutes we set off for the banquet. The banquet was massive. We had 5 large tables completely filled with people. Our list was just about 50 people which included all people who were related to the exchanged, our entire host families, our teachers at Hanggao and of course Patrick. Team China loves Patrick. Each of us got a table with both of our host families. At my table i made many toasts to my host families and to Patick, Ella and Baker who were all at my table. I thanked my host families for everything and had lots of fun chatting with them. My two host fathers did toasts to each other every couple minutes and proceeded to chug a small glass of wine each time. Team China made many toasts including Lu Naichuan and Madam Miao. We took lots of photos of all the different groups of people, we had lots of fun. The banquet was a great way to wrap up our stay in Hangzhou, we celebrated our stay rather than mourned our departure.

Fleeting Moments

(Terry)

Sunny skies overhead today; cherry blossom petals swirl along the driveway with the breeze, and we try our very best to ignore that clock ticking in the background. Offhand comments acquire more import, a casual snapshot becomes the last picture arm-in-arm with a now-dear friend, and there's a piquancy to all the little happenings that compose our day.

We've done our darndest to concentrate on morning classes. To our endless delight, we find that Yang Laoshi has crafted and stamped calligraphy for each of us -- loads of framing work now awaits us at home. Brushes swirled busily across numerous sheets of paper, and we find Yang Laoshi liberal with praise today: so many red circles and "very good"s! After he leaves us, poetry and portraits are our self-assigned work, until our history teacher joins us. We peer at the powerpoint he's prepared about some of the highlights of Hangzhou, including the Lingjing and Daoist temples. (We'll visit the Lingjing Temple this Saturday.) Class ends with a trip out to take pictures with the nearly century-old cherry tree as background. After our customary huge lunch, the young folk all head out to English Corner while laundry beckons me around the block to my washing machine!

The Chicken Masterpiece

(Cady)

Hey everyone!This may just be my last blog entry of the trip, unless we end up getting to an internet cafe in Shanghai. The exchange is really coming to an end. The big trip, the one we spent nearly an entire year anticipating, is almost over. The fact that we'll be graduating soon, going off to college, voting in a presidential election, and fending for ourselves is really beginning to hit me. These realizations, along with the fact that I'll soon be back in Dover-Sherborn, are scary but so exciting. That doesn't seem entirely related to China, but this trip has been such an integral part of my senior year that I'm sure it's played a part in the whole "growing up" thing. Anyways, this blog entry is really supposed to be about Tuesday. So here we go.Our first and only class on Tuesdays is Chinese Painting. Unfortunately, our teacher wasn't actually there. We decided to paint anyways though (don't worry, Baker said it was fine). We were supposed to be making our "masterpieces" since it was our final Chinese Painting class. I felt a little disgruntled- we were supposed to be making brilliant works after all! Sure, I like Chinese Painting, but it's difficult and therefore sometimes very frustrating. On tuesday, however, I opened the book of birds to a rooster that I have been admiring since day one. I proclaimed, "I am going to make a chicken....and it is going to be a masterpiece!" And I did. Well, okay, the chicken isn't quite like the one in the book. I am very proud of it though, since it actually resembles a chicken MORE than it does a worthless blob. Mission codename chicken is successful.After I completed my masterpiece chicken, I was quite ready to retire my brushes. Drew was having painter's block, so we went together to get milk tea and lollipops while the other three continued painting. I will be quite sad when I no longer have every day access to milk tea. Also, lollipops here cost wu (five) jiao. Like a dime, shi (ten) jiao is equal to one yuan. Therefore, one yuan gets you two lollipops, which means that seven yuan, which is equal to one US dollar, get you fourteen lollipops. I just thought that I would impress that figure on you. Fourteen lollipops for one dollar. Oh, I love China. Then again, at the rate the dollar is falling, soon it may only buy thirteen lollipops. I would suggest that all US citizens go out and buy all fourteen lollipops while they still can.We did a variety of things in the afternoon. The tailor, once again, brought back our dresses. I was finally satisfied with mine- I'm actually quite happy with it now. As of today, Emily's is good now too. Success! Nick and I rehearsed for the "play." Have we written about that? We acted out scenes from The Million Pound Bank Note with a couple of my classmates and then performed them for my entire class today (I am writing this on Wednesday, by the way). I acted in a restaurant scene, speaking a total of three lines which I, much to the awe of my classmates, memorized after one practice. I was actually really impressed by how quickly they managed to memorize their lines since not all of them even speak English very well.After rehearsal, Doris and I took the bus home. Very crowded. Her uncle then picked us up and brought us to a nice restaurant where we had dinner with my host mom, her brother and his wife, and her mom. At home, my host mother has taken to forcing Doris and I to eat every last bite of every dish she prepares. Her mother is almost exactly the same as she is, so you can imagine that between the two of them urging me "eat more! eat more!" I certainly ate more. My first, second, and third stomachs were very, very full. Then home, shower, computer, bed. You know the drill. And that's about it for Tuesday.In exactly a week we will be on a plane bound for America! We're getting excited to see everyone back home. Nick even has a small posse of admirers lined up to meet him at the airport. Well, see you all then!Cady

Ellas's Birthday

(Emily)

sunday was the day that the team china kids had been looking forward to since the beginning of the week- it was the day of ella's birthday party!

ella's birthday party started at 10am at a kareoke place across the street from the one that we have been going to (haoledi). this one was chosen because ella though it had the most american songs and it did not disappoint. even though it was 10 in the morning and we were all a little tired, we perked up after being in the room. besides us, ella had invited patrick, aj, and cerrus (sp?) along with last year's group: frank, kathleen, and rose. it was a ton of fun. we sang the requisite songs (britney spears and beatles) and even some new ones. cady did an amazing rendition of the intro of lonely by akon and we even tried to sing zhong guo hua. the latter was not as successful as we would have liked it to be but we have the 'zhong guo hua' part down now. patrick's really good at dancing and as he was singing love stoned by justin timberlake, he also danced along. pretty soon, it was time to go to lunch, which was at a japanese restaurant around the corner.

the food at the restaurant was delicious- i was very happy with my yaki udon with miso soup. frank also presented us with a roasted chicken that he had bought for us in the morning, so we had a little of that as well. after lunch, kathleen, rose, and frank had to go. we went SHOPPING! the boys were really excited for this part because they really wanted patrick to help them pick out some new clothes. we went to the downtown part of hangzhou and looked around the outlets (very very very hot and crowded- bu hao!). the boys didn't find anything that they thought was worth buying (they did try on a lot of clothes) and in the end, it was cady and i that ended up making purchases (she-a sweatshirt shirt with a rainbow god on it from jasonwood and me-a summer 'frock' with a square neck from only). such is life.

after bidding patrick, aj, and cerrus goodbye (they all had places to go), the five of us walked along the west lake...sort of. we were all freaked out at the large amount of people swarming the causeway (it was a beautiful day so go figure), so we just sat on the edge of the water, getting many odd looks, and just chilling. it was a very team china.

after ella's birthday, i went back home and met my host mom's brother along with his wife and daughter. the daughter is in fifth grade and has pretty good rudimentary english. we went to wal-mart together after dinner and she was able to tell me her favorite foods as well as ask me various questions. she also thought my attempts at speaking chinese were highly hilarious and helped me with identifying some foods in chinese.

and this is how sunday went. until next time, zai jian!

Happy Easter!

(Nick)

Happy Easter! Today we celebrated Ella's birthday! We met up at a KTV (karaoke) around 10 AM and spent a good 2 hours singing our hearts out. Our voices were less than stellar, however, as it was so early in the morning. It was a fun group - Ella (obviously), Kathleen, Frank, and Rose (the 2007 Exchange group that came to DS), Patrick, a couple classmates of Ella's, and Drew, Emily, Cady, and I. We were all a little burnt out from a busy weekend, but we were entertained by Patrick's amazing dancing skills which made it 100 times better. After KTV, we went to a Japanese noodle restaurant for lunch. It was delicious, and despite being in a city of 6 million, i managed to see a couple classmates eating lunch at a nearby table! Rose (English teacher) paid for the meal despite our protests. After our meal, Rose, Frank, and Kathleen all had to leave because they had school-related things to attend to. We barely ever see Rose since she is always busy, and Kathleen and Frank are of course studying like crazy for the college entrance examination at the end of the year. One thing that we do have to keep in mind here is that although we are about to graduate and our lives are (somewhat) stress free, everyone here is working and studying hard. Last spring, when Ella, Frank, Kathleen, and Rose came to DS, I was experiencing the end of junior year madness and AP exams...and i barely got to see them in DS. We all wish we could've had more time with each other in both DS and in Hangzhou, but school will always interfere with that. It's too bad, but it's a fact of life.

We then went clothes shopping for a solid 3 hours. Patrick is a clothing fanatic so he took us to all the good stores, and a couple of us made some great purchases. I had to refrain from buying anything, however - my bank account is rather small at the moment and I'd prefer to not come home bankrupt. Money sure does go fast here! Hangzhou is very cosmopolitan and fashionable so it is a great city for shopping. Patrick had to leave early because he had sunday classes (considering all grade 3's have classes on saturdays that is technically a 7 day school week for him......torture). We walked to West Lake and enjoyed the scenery, although the Broken Bridge was literally covered with people completely. West Lake in general, though gorgeous, is so crowded that it is sometimes hard to fully enjoy it. The weather was fantastic...probably high 60's and very sunny...sure beats Massachusetts. Emily and Cady were picked up by Emily's host mother, and Ella, Drew, and I took a taxi back to KTV, which is close to Ella's apartment and where Drew's bike was. Ella handed me a 20 yuan bill and gave the taxi driver Jerry's address...I insisted on paying but she wouldn't budge...even on her birthday.

When I got home, my host family and I (well, minus my host father who I've seen once and is constantly working at the Bank of China) went out by the river and took pictures together. When we got back to the apartment I showed them photos from home, and they showed me photos from their recent trip to Australia and New Zealand last summer. We went out to dinner to a Thai restaurant by West Lake....it was so good. Now Jerry is doing homework and I am preparing myself for my final week at Hanggao :(

My grandparents have enjoyed teaching me the Hangzhou dialect. They taught me "mado" which means stupid or foolish guy. Whenever I say it they burst out laughing...and whenever they have relatives or friends over, they ask me to say it for them. They also find my Chairman Mao (Mao Zhushi) bag and wallet hilarious...everytime I put on my bag, which is every morning, they laugh at it. It would be interesting to hear what my grandparent's lives were like during the Mao years...but it is a somewhat touchy subject here so I haven't asked them yet. It is so weird to think that these people have lived through so much historically...China has changed dramatically over the course of their lifetimes.

We have been in China long enough that it really doesn't feel like a foreign country to me anymore. Perhaps that is just because Hangzhou is so modern, but I honestly think that I have adapted to life here. Now that we have been in one place for nearly a month, I feel connected to not just the city of Hangzhou, but to the people. The fact that I have good friends here is just so comforting and I feel like I am a part of something rather than an outsider looking in. I mean, that is not to say that my lighter hair and fair skin do not constantly attract stares 24/7, but you get the idea. Even though I can clearly remember my first day at Hanggao, it feels like I've been here for years. The people I have met in Hangzhou have made the Exchange for me. We have one more week here and I am not looking forward to the end of it. Time goes by so quickly here and before you know it we will be back at DS.

Again, Happy Easter to everyone back home!