Sunny Skies and Winding Down!

(Allison) 

Ok, so time is really starting to fly here in Hangzhou. Fortunately, this week – it stopped raining!! We had a few beautiful days! But then rain returned yesterday…oh well.

Last Friday was National Women’s Day here in China!

In the morning….we had Hangzhou history class – Our history teacher Zhao Yi Bin is a wonderful man.  I cannot remember if I have blogged about him already. He is very interested in ancient history – and also knowing more about how history teachers teach in the U.S. I really wish that I could speak Chinese so that we could chat.

Then off to the gym for Kung Fu class – Mark, Li and Alex are working on perfecting their series. Our teacher, Liu Laoshi, also attempted to teach us some Tai Chi. He told us to clear our minds and imagine that we were standing on a beach facing the ocean.  After our sorry attempt at Tai Chi…Li and Mark decided to play ping pong. Bruce, Alex, Liu Laoshi and I played an intense game of badminton. Our teacher taught me how to properly serve…between my serve and his skills we beat Alex and Bruce – twice!

Because it is National Women’s Day ….all of the women teachers at the school received the afternoon off to go to a tea house. Rose and I rode our bikes down Fengqi  Road (a very busy road that the school is located on.), towards the West Lake, and arrived at the tea house. The tea house was very large; we walked up to the second floor. In the middle of the second floor, there was a huge buffet of all sorts of Chinese food.  On each side there were little rooms with a big table and comfy chairs. We found some seats with some of the math teachers from Hanggao –we ordered tea – I had flower tea - Rose had green tea, and then went out to the buffet.  Once again, there was an insane amount of food. I tried some sort of famous Hangzhou snack – a flour cake with shallot and sauce.  We spent the afternoon drinking tea, snacking and relaxing. Then we rode back to the school…I met up with Lianna, Star (Li’s second host sister), Mark, Tao Tao, and Bruce…and we headed out to get something to eat and do some shopping..

On Saturday, we traveled out to Wu Zhen! It was fantastic. Derek, Ms. Zhu Wei., and Mr. Pan (both administrators at the school) accompanied us.. Wu Zhen is a well preserved historic town about an hour and a half outside of Hangzhou. Because it was Saturday, and not raining – there were a ton of people there... we meandered our way through the swarms…and explored. The town is absolutely picturesque…lined with canals, classic Chinese buildings, humpback bridges…Lianna described it as Lijiang meets Plymouth Plantation..  soo nice…. We took the bus back to the school…snacking, listening to music and napping...

Derek and I took a taxi over to the section of Hangzhou-- where he and Susan attended university. This area of Hangzhou reminded me so much of the strip of Com. Ave. near BU… college students everywhere, shops and all sorts of places to get food. We met Susan at the Curry Bistro. When we arrived she had milk tea waiting for us…mine had these little black pearls in the bottom that were made out of sticky rice!

Sunday

I do not have a cell phone here in China. It is nice…but it does cause me a little bit of anxiety … and it makes making plans rather challenging. People just say -- ok meet me here at this time¦and I just have to trust them.

Star (Li’s current host sister) called me in the morning, (I do have a phone in the apartment) and told me to meet Mark and Tao at the school gate at 1:30… I walked to the school – the sun was shining!! Tao Tao’s mom drove us over the Baishan Road – the road that runs along the north end of the West Lake… We were meeting Bruce, Star, Sue, Lianna, Harry, Alex and Sonny to hike up Bao Shu Shan pagoda. Once everyone arrived – we were off. We climbed up Bao Shi Hill and reached the pagoda.  There were people everywhere up there! (six million people live in the city and greater Hangzhou area) Just past the pagoda are all of these rocks that you can climb.…Bruce, Harry, Sonnny and Alex climbed up a very large rock..

We strolled around and hung out at the top for awhile..and then walked down the hill along a path…there were various people selling things – some of them were selling stinky tofu…it is these small squares of fried tofu…but it smells soooo bad-horrible...we picked up the pace. At the bottom -- we walked along Beishan Road once again -- people everywhere along the lake…and walking on the Bai Causeway.. The students all decided to camp out at a Starbucks¦ I decided to walk along the east side of the lake for awhile. I discovered a statue of Marco Polo – in his writings he said that Hangzhou was the most beautiful and splendid city in the world! On the way back to the apartment, I decided to check out some of the Hangzhou clothing stores…

Monday

A beautiful, sun shining day! In the morning, we had calligraphy and Chinese…after lunch with Bruce, Tao, Star and Sunny –we went to broadcast club! One of my friends from English Corner..Brianna or Chen Yun…has been asking us to come to broadcast club for a few weeks now….we finally committed to a day! During the lunch break, a few students put on a radio show...they mostly play music, but some times they interview people. Brianna asked us various questions about our lives in the U.S. and our experiences in China.

After broadcast club we went to English corner... Joe one of the students coming to DSHS this year – showed up!

After having dinner at the school, I decided to ride my bike down to the Bai Causeway…there were too many people there on Sunday to walk it. I rode down the very scenic Beishan Road … and then back over the Bai Causeway… the West Lake is so pretty and relaxing at night...

This morning -we had Chinese painting class! I love this class. Our teacher is a very talented artist.  Today, we were joined by a delegation from Athens Academy – that is located in Athens, Georgia - 10 students, a high school history teacher - Beth, and their headmaster – Robert. They had traveled in Beijing for a few days and arrived in Hangzhou – Monday afternoon. There school is possibly going to set up an exchange similar to the DS one…

Our teacher presented the new students with some paper cutting, a Chinese folk craft.  Mark and Li attempted some advanced paper cuts... Alex and I decided to paint.  I painted a fish...and then something between a shrimp and a lobster -then I attempted to paint a duck...

The Georgian students went on a tour of the school…and our teacher took us up to her gallery/office to show us some of her work. She has traveled to Europe, and enjoys painting European buildings and landscape scenes.

Off to lunch...today, instead of our usual round table, the chef and his staff transformed the room into a buffet set-up… because they had to feed the DS exchange and the Athens exchange…

The last period of the day we were invited to Harry’s class for a class meeting/party. Alex went to Sonny’s class meeting/party. We played some English games, and they put on a performance of the Peking Opera and made us join in!