Finally… HANGZHOU!!

(Alex)

Well, we finally made it. As I write this, I am sitting in my new room in my host brother Xu Taoyin’s house (his English name is Joshua). What a wild morning. Waking up in a moving train was quite an experience, although I did sleep surprisingly well. Our ridiculously cramped quarters made it hard to stretch out, and it was a struggle trying to get all of our bags organized before the train arrived in the station. 

Pulling into a drizzly Hangzhou station, we were almost immediately accosted by a group of some 20 odd people, all of our host families, and officials of the school. We met Derek, the teacher who has been selected to come to DS this year, Naichuan, the MAN (I totally did not know he was a he) who pretty much organized the trip on this end, and who very kindly had prepared some breakfast for us in bags, both my host brothers, Xu Taoyin and Sun Xuan, as well as the other host siblings of Mark and Li. 

We proceeded rather slowly outside, where a bus picked us up and took us straight to school. And if you thought we would draw attention traveling in China… you would have thought we had three heads traveling through the school to our meeting room. Everywhere we went students would pause and point, or, those more bold would snap a quick sketchy picture of the four new-comers to their school. However, this attention was certainly not of the negative sort, with everyone going out of their way to make us feel especially at home. After a brief meeting in what looked like a business meeting room, we were lead away from each other (marking the first day we would be completely by ourselves since this adventure began) by our new host siblings, and into their respective classes. 

My first host brother, Josh, is a shy but very intelligent guy who seems to be the envy of his entire class, by merit of his hosting one of the American’s. As we shuffled into class, the students all stared at me and just began to clap… which was extremely awkward, but an obviously very kind gesture. We settled down and the first teacher of the day, an English teacher who actually came to DS my freshman year (whose name escapes me at pres. time), and I was treated to the experience of a Chinese English lesson. It was pretty basic, but everyone in the class was extremely disciplined and studious, and made far more progress studying English than many of our students back home who studied other languages. It was fascinating and revealing to just sit back and witness the very different class dynamic and the behavior of the students. 

Although after English class, I didn’t really understand any of the lessons, I really did find my time spent in the class was interesting and informative. We took a break for one of the famous Hangzhou lunches made by The Chef, who has already become one of my favorite people in Hanggao (the slang name for the school we are staying at). The lunch was delicious, as hosts and exchange students alike were stunned by what the schools kitchens provided for us. 

After lunch we had more classes, and, although it was by no means a grind, I can’t say I wasn’t a little relieved to hear the bell at 4:30 sound the end of classes. We were then taken to the Headmistresses Office for a proper welcoming ceremony. On the way, who should show up but Kathleen (Ma Chaoren), one of the exchange students with Jin Shuang, a student I hosted my sophomore year. It was great to see her again, she looked a lot more grown up, and to hear how she was doing. She sends love to all those back home in the States, especially the Maddens, and Mrs. Viz! Madam Miao, select members of the administration, Naichuan, and almost the entire English department (including William!), were present at the ceremony to speak to us and welcome us very warmly to the school.  Allison also made a very nice speech and presented gifts to the school. Following the ceremony, we were taken to the school’s very own history museum to learn more about the prestigious schools long and storied past, including, of course, pictures of past exchanges!! Mrs. Viz will be happy to know that she is forever enshrined within the museum in both photographic and written form. 

Next, out to dinner with all the welcoming faculty, which was great but served much more seafood than I cared to try… Sorry Viz! Finally, after a really overwhelming day, we went home to our host families. My family is amazing, very kind and sweet, and although their English is not very good, has made every effort to make me feel at home. It looks like a great beginning to our much-anticipated Hangzhou experience. I don’t really know the next time I will blog, although I think the group consensus is that they will come less frequently now… I don’t know. Hope everything is well back home, and hope to finally upload some pictures!