Approaching a Bittersweet Weekend

(Alex)

Hey America!

As we approach the end of our stay with the first set of host families, we all realize how much we are going to miss them all.  I know the girls have all become close with there siblings, but for me and Charlie, I am actually more upset than I thought.  We will still see them at school, but I know I will miss going home to his family and having amazing dinner conversations, funny food incidents, and Charlie's hysterical sense of comedy.  

I made sure that I spent as much time with Charlie today as I could because I love attending his classes and meeting all his classmates, but today we had a lot of our own classes.  Steve Landy, who is now studying at Zhejiang University, came with William to pick us up to tour his campus, but only Alaina and Lauren went.  I heard it was great, but I needed to take care of some things with Charlie and his classmates.  Tomorrow we are supposed to go out somewhere with Derek, and will probably not see our siblings that much, so today was set aside for Charlie in my schedule.  Cassie couldn't go to the University because she got pretty sick and had to go see a doctor, but I am sure she is fine because she is really tough and knows how to take care of herself really well as she has proved in multiple instances while traveling.

Aside from that, today was another fine school day at Hanggao with a great lunch, Chinese class, and our favorite; Chinese Calligraphy.  I am horrible at art, but I really love calligraphy.  We have all improved since week one, but I can't wait to see what turns out our last week.  At the end of the day, Helen brought in a tailor to help us with our measurements for our new and spiffy chinese clothes.  I saw the girls pick their dresses out and I was very jealous of them (just kidding).  It was quite funny because they all took a while to choose their dresses, but I walked in late and they just gave me a vest design that I had no say in!  I wasn't mad or angry, but it saved time because the girls took their time in choosing their dresses, but hey, they are allowed to (I am not).  

As I leave you, we are all approaching a bittersweet weekend with leaving our old host siblings to join our new ones.  We will travel to Wuzhen town on Saturday and we all look forward to going and bonding with our siblings, so with this I leave you all.  Have a good friday and enjoy your weekend.