Basketball in "Hollywood Hills"

(Alex)

Hello once again America!

As we approach week 7 we are beginning to realize how fast time is flying. It seems as if we just got off our long delay to Ninbo and were just meeting the school faculty for the first time, but we still have one week left, and we will make it count for sure! This week we begin preparing for our banquet by writing a speech and helping Wong Shifu (our chef) pick a restaurant to have it at. Expect to hear more about this topic from the others as the week progresses, but today was really fun and beautiful.

The weather was magnificent and this morning Tianle and I played basketball together when the doorbell rang. Turns out his three cousins, aunt, and uncle came by to spend the day with us. His eldest cousin is very good at basketball and showed me up on the court today, but I displayed my badminton and rugby skills to him. I taught him and Tianle how to properly throw a rugby ball and so far they are both getting surprisingly good at it. Also today, William, Bob, Bob's friend Lilian, Steve, and all the girls except Alaina and her host sister came to hang out. Alaina and Yimei were fishing today, but we missed them. We all played sports in Tianle's backyard and had snacks while talking and catching up on life. I finally gave Bob his long awaited Celtics shirt I brought him and he tried it on as soon as I gave it to him. It seems that wearing this shirt either makes you play like Ray Allen, or Bob is excellent at basketball...I think it's combination of both. Bob in return gave me a specially crafted Chinese seal made from a renowned Chinese art professor at a fine art institute. It had a personal message for me and I can't thank him enough for it. I am going to miss Bob so much when I leave Hangzhou, but hopefully over the next three years I can visit him in Hong Kong for a short while, or perhaps he could come see me in Boston.

It was also great to get to meet Steve formally and spend the afternoon with him. When I was a freshman at DS I wasn't very involved with the exchange program so I did not have the opportunity to get to meet him. We all talked about our experience so far in China along with his and the 2007 group's. I feel very lucky to have a previous exchange student willing to spend this much time with us to help in anyway, and Steve definitely deserves recognition for doing so.

Throughout the afternoon we all played basketball and passed around the rugby ball with a little badminton in between. The host siblings decided to do some homework together because sports were getting a bit tiring to them, but me, Steve, Cassie, and Lauren all passed around the rugby ball talking about college majors and topics. Bob, Lilian, and William all had to leave a little early, but everyone else stuck around for dinner at a very nice resort close by Tianle's house.

We walked about ten minutes to the restaurant and sat down at a very nice table with a view overlooking a small lake surrounding the resort. The community in which Tianle lives is called Liangzhu, and has been nicknamed the Hollywood Hills of Hangzhou by yours truly. Everyone was surprised by how far away he lived from the city and how nice his community is (I still am myself). William was telling me how lucky I am to be able to stay here, and I agree, however there was something about Charlie's apartment that made me feel like I had been there before. I don't know if I will ever feel that again, but both of my host families have been too nice to me and I can't thank them enough for that. As a matter of fact, Tianle's mother discovered I love a Chinese food called "ai qing tuan si" a Chinese breakfast/snack that is flour mixed with a plant and red bean. I have been known to devour any red bean given to me because I fell in love with it as soon as I had it here. I can be a picky eater sometimes, so it is good that the parents know what I like and don't like to eat. Next Friday we are all supposed to get together with William to have a big dinner, and I hope it all plans well. It also might be the last time I see Bob for a while so I want it to work that much more! Keep checking to see how our last week of Hanggao goes. Good night.