Kites, KTV and "Finger Food"

(Alaina)

Wow, I can’t believe it’s April! I feel like just yesterday I was marveling over it being March.

Today started slowly before rapidly picking up the pace. Yimei had classes in the morning, so I slept until 9:30 (I can’t sleep any later! I bet my parents can’t believe it) and lounged around being lazy for a couple hours (that they can probably believe). Yimei came home with a friend named Lucy, and the three of us were dropped off along the Beijing- Hangzhou canal. We met up with three more friends, and after a bit of searching and miscommunication, finally found Alex, David, and several more of their posse. I wasn’t expecting a large group activity, so it was a nice surprise. Though I hadn’t met any of the other kids, they were all outgoing and very friendly so I enjoyed talking to them. The plan was to take the “river bus” down the canal, but first we had to kill an hour or so before the boat came. We did so by buying kites and flying them while everyone got acquainted. Thanks to the wind, there were another dozen kite-flyers in the same plaza. I don’t think you’d ever see teenagers and adults flying kites in the middle of the city at home. I love that whenever I look up, the sky is dotted with swatches of darting color.

Most of us got on the canal boat while a few had to take taxis because there wasn’t enough room. It looked just like a train inside, with a narrow isle and seats on either side. The ride wasn’t particularly noteworthy. When we got off there was some confusion and lag time before we decided to head for KTV. (It seems that plans are never well organized. I often feel that communication skills are lacking.) It took us a 30 minute bus ride to get to the KTV building, where we got a private room that was similar to the one we had earlier in the trip. Students are always surprised that this form of KTV is not popular in America; I’m not sure if it exists at all. Alex and I sang a song together and somehow managed to escape solo embarrassment. The most interesting singer of this round was Jungle, who I suspect Alex has mentioned in previous blogs. He’s extremely outgoing and apparently a class clown, as evident in the jumping included in his songs. Once again, I was amazed by how great most of the voices were. How do they all sing so well??

After KTV Alex and David left the group to meet up with Derek while the rest of us went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Okay, I realize that every time I write the blog I’ve just eaten Western food, but I swear it’s not actually a usual occurrence!! This is the first cheese fix since my last Shanghai blog. Admittedly, I did thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the stuffed crust pizza and potato mushroom cheese gratin. It was interesting to see how surprised and slightly taken-aback everyone was to hear that the fries, pizza, and chicken wings we ordered would all be eaten by hand in America. This is particularly interesting because in most ways I think Chinese eating customs are far less polite and orderly than those in America. Everyone slurps drinks, reaches across the table, eats straight from the serving dish, holds bowls right up to the face, eats noodles by the dangling mouthful, and spits things back out. Personally, I’m perfectly happy to accept a downgrade in manner regulation, as it makes eating much easier. Conversely, the Chinese students were clearly not comfortable eating food with their hands. I did convince a few brave souls that finger food is meant for the fingers, but most continued to attack the pizza and fries with fork and knife.

At this point most of the group dispersed while Yimei and two boys named Bear and Island continued to search for entertainment. (I’m starting to like their use of real words as names. It's fun!) We walked to a movie theater, but there were no English movies playing anytime soon. Luckily, there was an ice cream shop to make our walk worthwhile. I’ve found that it’s (shockingly!) common for kids here to not like desserts. Island didn’t get ice cream because it’s “too sweet.” Blasphemy!!!!

We continued to wander the streets for a while and when we couldn’t find anything of interest we walked to Bear’s home. I wish I had met him earlier because he was great to spend time with. Boys have been especially shy around me, and though Bear is soft-spoken, he is also confident. He introduced us to his mother and ushered us to the sofa where Mr. Bean was promptly selected as the evening’s entertainment. It was perfect because there isn’t much speaking, and we could all chuckle at his expressions. Before we left, Bear’s mother presented me with a gift of two blue china tea cups that were probably pulled right out of the cupboard. I get too many gifts!!! All I did was walk into her house and watch movies with her son for an hour, why do I (and none of the other guests) deserve a gift?! Anyway, from there Yimei and I got picked up and here I am now, ready to go to sleep!

Ah, but the topic of gifts reminded me of someone I should introduce you to. About two weeks ago I helped with the student radio show that Sandy described earlier. The girl asking questions asked about movies, so I told her Tim Burton was my favorite director. We could barely finish the interview because she also loves Tim Burton / Johnny Depp movies, and is just as well versed in them as I am. I think we were both so excited to share such a specific interest given the huge difference between our lives. Rinka (her English name) and I began talking about movies and plots, from Edward Scissor Hands to Sweeny Todd, which broke that initial ice and let us find even more in common. Since then she has come to every English Corner. We get along perfectly. Gifts reminded me of her because on Thursday she gave me a gift that is definitely the best I have received so far. It’s a Chinese children’s book called “when we are together” and Rinka put a post-it on each page translating the words. In a long and incredibly sweet note, she said that she loves it though the story is simple. To give you a taste, here are a few pages: “a little girl, a crocodile, a gray bear, a giraffe, a piglet, and a lion are all friends. They paint together. They have fun on the moon together. When the feel tired and have a rest, they still stay together. Even in their dreams, they are still best friends.” Awww!! There are a few kids I’ll really miss. Actually to be honest, since we haven’t known each other long it’s not exactly that I’ll miss my new friends. It’s really that I’m sad we won’t be able to develop the great relationships that we would given more time. I’ve met some people who I know I could become very close to, and though I’ll always remember and absolutely try to keep in touch, we can’t continue to build our friendship in the same way. This is the bittersweet element to making friends abroad.

This time next week we’ll be on a plane!!!! WOW. I’ll save those thoughts for my last blog.

Mkay thanks for reading!

Last Day at Hanggao

(Alex)

Good evening all!

As we approach our final week in China, we are all cramming in last minute activities and plans. Our time has flown by and we can't believe that today was our last day at Hanggao! We had our final aerobics class with the dance teacher and Liam today, and though it may not have been the most fun class, the act of poorly dancing and jump roping will be missed. Liam and I tried our hardest to maintain a jump rope today with the teacher, but she was way too fast! The teacher just giggle at our attempts to keep up with her pace, but we all gave it our best try. After the class we all headed to our final meal with Chef Wang and were very glad to see he prepared us pizza, ribs, chicken wing, and chocolate covered peanuts (my favorite)! We all enjoyed the meal very much and will miss the living daylight out of Chef Wang and his amazing and extremely funny personality! Soon after, English Corner time was arriving, and today we had the biggest crowd yet. Word had spread that it was our final day of school so even people that we have never met before showed up! It was surprisingly big for us, but we all loved the company so much. Joe and Kitty showed up along with Alaina's friend, my two pals named Vapor and Little Bread, and a ton of other students wishing us the best travels and safe ways. It was here that we all truly recognized how much a part of Hanggao is in our lives and how much our stay here has affected Hanggao. The students and teachers alike are all so awesome and friendly and they will be missed dearly and we are so grateful to have had the pleasure of their presence.

Later in the day as we began to hand out our gifts to teachers, we found each one of them and individually gave their gifts. Every teacher was very stubborn about accepting the gifts, but it is all part of the Chinese culture. William had plans for us to go out to Zhejiang University to see Bob and a few others, so we met him and Ivan at the English Corner well at 3 pm. From there we all drove thirty minutes to get to the University to see the Team America 2008 students for the last time (minus Alice). Bob showed up with friends including Sam (the boy from 2008 who had the astronomy competiton that could not make it), Tony, and Rough. Rough speaks outstanding English, and he lived in the US for a year with his father nine years ago. We talked about University life whilst taking a tour of the college on a golf cart. Bob was our guide so of course things could get out of hand. After the short tour, we all sat down next to the river that runs through campus and played an intense series of Uno. We couldn't play San Guo Sha because the game is all in Chinese and the rules are too complicated, but Uno was so fun and funny to play. It was Sandy's first time playing, and she completely swept the first round of cards, setting up the next few rounds to be really heated. At one point, four people at once had Uno and that was quite a moment, but after Uno something hilarious happened walking back to the cars. To begin, Lauren's head is a magnet for sports balls to hit. She has been hit by ping pong balls, a birdie, and a basketball all in the course of a few weeks, and a second basketball just added to the list. Rough brought a basketball with him to play with later, but Bob hijacked it and started fooling around with it. He was playing and he accidentally bounced it off the back of Lauren's head and it went bouncing and rolled into the river. It was hysterical with everybody laughing including poor Lauren! We spent the next half hour trying to fish the basketball out of the river with a long piece of bamboo, big rocks, and tons of branches. After finally getting the ball, we made sure that Bob never touched that ball again the whole night and we all headed off to dinner.

At dinner, we all talked about our stay in China the past 2 months and reflected on our experiences. While that was fun, somehow movies got brought up into the conversation and that took the main topic of the night. William loves movies as much as Derek and I do, and Bob was writing down all the movies we were talking about to go see later. The dinner was a great unofficial close to our stay in Hangzhou, but the night was not over. We all went back to William's house to play guitar hero and to meet his family. It was the girls first time meeting Emma (Hu Xiao Ai) and they all fell in love with her! She is extremely cute and hilarious too. During Guitar Hero, she would get up and dance to the songs and hug William's leg during his guitar solo. We played for an hour and a half, and then we departed ways. I said bye to Bob and Ivan for the last time that night and I will miss them too much! It had been two years since I had seen them, and it could be even longer until I see them again so I really enjoyed this night. Tomorrow all of us and our host siblings are supposed to get together so I hope that works out, but for now I leave you all.

See you in a week!

"Til Next Time"...

 (Cassie)

April already! Happy April Fools Day everyone.  Before I get into my blog, I just want to say that unlike St. Patrick's Day the Chinese do celebrate this holiday.  I was tricked! But more about that later.

This morning, Jiawen and I began our day a rather unusual breakfast.  I'd mentioned to my family (haven't learned my lesson about that yet) that I miss peanut butter, so yesterday Jiawen and I went to the store to pick up a jar of Skippy and a loaf of bread.  So breakfast was half a peanut butter sandwich, half a sweetened condensed milk sandwich (which is better than it sounds), and half a ketchup sandwich (I gave that half to Jiawen).  Jiawen eats more slowly than I do, so we walked out the door while she was still munching her condiment sandwich.  It was suspiciously overcast (although the forecast said clear skies) so I made sure to grab my umbrella.  And sure enough, it began to rain around 9.  The weather forecasts are remarkably inaccurate here.  At least they're consistent!

My first class of the day was Chinese along with the rest of the DS delegation.  For the first half of the class we read a Chinese version of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" called "Long Lai Le" (a wolf is coming).  By the time we'd finished we could manage to read through the whole story without pinyin...I was pretty proud of this achievement as there were many new words.  During the second half of the class we worked with Qiu Laoshi (our Chinese teacher) and Derek to translate our speeches for the banquet.  We owe them...we certainly couldn't have managed it and if we'd tried it would've sounded like a mess.  They both took our speeches with them at the end of the class, and even finished them before the end of the day.  Talk about awesome!  After Chinese we had calligraphy.  As we've had so few classes (this was only our third) the teacher told us we should continue to practice and he would write out some Chinese sayings for us so that we could take them home with us.  The writing was beautiful.  Mine said that "A good person loves others".  He even completed them with his official seal. 

As Liam was sick today, Michelle (another Hanggao senior applying to American schools that we know) stepped in and acted as translator for us.  She and a friend came to lunch with us.  By this time it was pouring, so we didn't have English corner; however, we were joined by some of our friends in our lunch room.  One Year 2 student of Alaina's even gave her a short children's book (which was adorable) that she'd translated herself.  Before the end of lunch we took a field trip to the observatory, which houses the school's ginormous (the biggest in Hangzhou) telescope and is where the astronomy club meets.  Although we couldn't use the telescope in the rain the view from the observatory was still stunning.  It's on the fifth story and is higher than any of the other school buildings.  We stayed and chatted with some of the students in the observatory for a bit until the bell rang. I headed back to meet Jiawen at her classroom. 

I stayed with her for two periods (Chinese and history).  She regaled me with a longwinded explanation of her terrible math test that morning, and I did KenKen puzzles (math puzzles similar to sudoku but with arithmetic).  Then at three I went to meet everyone at the English office.  Helen had offered to take us suitcase shopping as all of our bags are no longer be under the fifty pound weight limit for flying (lots of gifts).  The place we went to was an indoor labyrinth of small peddlers selling everything from books to fake flowers.  I'm very glad we didn't attempt to go on our own because A) we would have gotten very lost and B) as soon as any of the vendors saw us they jacked up their prices.  We all managed to find bags that were at a good price as Helen helped us bargain.  Bags in hand, we then went back to Sandy's apartment to eat cookies (yum!) and get all of our gifts for teachers and administration wrapped.  When 4:45 rolled around I went back to meet Jiawen at school.  She'd and her classmates had just come from an awards ceremony in which students received accolades for academics and outstanding performance in a teenage organization run by the goverment.  This organization is called Gong Qing Tuan - it's name is the China Communist Youth League in English.  Jiawen received an award for playing a particularly good role in this organization.  I'm not sure exactly what her role in it is, but she says she enjoys it.  On our way out of the school a Year 2 student (who later introduced herself as Lynn) offered me a "biscuit".  Being gullible, I was slightly surprised but I smiled and took it.  I opened the wrapper to eat it as she watched and saw...a piece of green chalk.  I ended up a bit embarrassed and with green chalk all over my hands, but we laughed and I could tell it made Lynn really happy that she'd managed to pull off her trick, so I really didn't mind it.  Plus, Jiawen ran to another friend and got to reuse Lynn's trick. 

After this we made our way home.  Her father came to pick us up so that we wouldn't have to walk through the rain.  We had a tasty dinner of mushrooms, along with a dish potatoes, carrots, and beef, congealed duck blood and tofu soup, stir-fried noodles, and bokchoy greens.  After dinner, Jiawen, Jiaming (her cousin), and I took a walk.  I ended up going to buy lollipops for my class as tomorrow is my last day of class at Hangzhou.  When we got back I showed Jiawen's family all of my pictures and they in turn showed me pictures of their vacation to Xinjiang and Beijing two years ago.  It was a lot of fun. 

I can't get over the fact that we leave in five days!  As I've said before, our time here has flown by!  I'm really going to miss the people and culture of Hangzhou when I leave.  This is my second to last blog, so I'll be saying "'til next time" for the last time today. I'll talk to you after we've left Hangzhou! 'Til next time...

Winding Down...

(Sandy)

Getting up and walking to school every morning has morphed from a new adventure into my usual routine...a very pleasant one. This morning I "taught" two classes, normally a one-hour time limit.  Today the second one  lasted over two hours! The kids did not want me to leave and their politics teacher was fine with the extended time...so I continued to answer questions. Obama, Google, the Dali Lama, Ivy League schools, SATs, family, teenagers vs. parents, music, movies, Sports teams, starting up your own small business, the differences and similarities between Hangao and DS and their students, uniforms and not being able to curl or color your hair at Hangao were just some of the topics. There's never a dull moment in class!

In the afternoon I had the pleasure of being escorted around West Lake by Naichuan (Ms. Viz's counterpart at Hangao) and William (the young teacher who came to DS two years ago) . We went for a boat ride to one of the islands and strolled around the beautifully manicured park. Cherry and plum blossoms were beginning to appear and lots of petunias were adding an abundance of color to the very green spring grass. Even though it was the middle of a work day, there were plenty of people enjoying the pleasant weather and the serenity of the park. After returning from the island, Naichuan and William took me for tea at what they told me is Ms. Viz's favorite spot. We climbed the stairs to reach the top floor of the 200+ year-old teahouse that overlooks West Lake. It's name is something like, "Mansion Overlooking the Lake". The structure is made of dark wood which is carved, scrolled, latticed, and highly designed. Beautiful and highly decorated Chinese lanterns drop from what looks like a suspended 5"X8" pieced tile ceiling. It was a lovely afternoon sipping Hangzhou green tea and nibbling on dried berries, mango and cashews.

After tea, Madame Miao, Principal of Hangao, hosted a dinner for us at a very nice restaurant. Alex, Alaina, Cassie and Lauren and all their host siblings were in attendance as well as some school officials. It was a very nice evening with lots of different seafood dishes and many toasts to a variety of things...some of which I did not even understand!! Along with watermelon and pineapple, there was a fun little dessert that looked like a puffed ball of Cool Whip...sweet, sticky and lip-sticking. Another busy day in beautiful Hangzhou..."a little piece of heaven on earth" as they like to say.   

 Best to all, Sandy 

My Feelings on "Paper" ... ?

(Lauren)

Hangzhou Day 26

A quick summary of recent events before I talk about today...

Going back to school on Friday after having two days off was pretty painful. The only good thing about it was having the opportunity to sit through many of Hongan's classes, which meant meeting more of her classmates. The most interesting class by far is history, though it comes with a certain degree of stress. Because Hongan and Ning have the same history teacher, he felt perfectly comfortable including me in the lesson. To be fair, he had included me a little bit when I was in Ning's class, but at that point they were studying the Great Depression and Roosevelt, so the questions were fairly straightforward. Unfortunately, Hongan's class was studying the history of paper-making (and no, I have no idea why two classes with the same teachers had such a wildly differing curriculum). The first question out of the teacher's mouth was, "What are your feelings on paper?" This question was followed shortly thereafter by "Do you know what the four greatest Chinese inventions are?" (yes, thank you Ms. Viz!) and "What did the ancient Europeans write on before the Chinese invented paper?" I had absolutely no idea how to answer the questions. Fortunately, Hongan didn't understand any of my answers, so hopefully everyone assumed I had said really intelligent things - so intelligent, they were untranslatable!

After school, we stopped to watch Cassie referee a soccer game (she did a great job) and went to the movies, which was a lot of fun.

On Saturday, after our group activities were finished, Hongan and I helped my host mom make dumplings for dinner. I felt very satisfied at having made my own meal. But then I actually tried some. Let's just say I was really, really bad at making the dumplings. For some reason, I found it very difficult to stick the two sides of the dumplings together around the meaty filling, so the majority exploded when they were boiled. Then, I accidentally drowned them all in vinegar and soy sauce. Fortunately Hongan's mom took pity on me and made proper ones, which were excellent. Clearly, I don't have a future as a gourmet dumpling chef.

Sunday morning, Hongan's family and I went to the Xixi National Wetlands Park. According to Hongan's mom, who is a history teacher, Hangzhou was once almost entirely under the water. The area where we live was only manually filled in within the last hundred years. The government has taken care to make sure that some of this history is preserved. In the park, many smaller lakes and ponds are connected, forming a vast waterland that stretches the entire length of the city. Hongan, her mom, and I got in line for the scenic boat tour, while my host dad waited for us in the car. I was surprised to see such a long line a mere forty minutes after the opening of the park! I was pleasantly surprised, however. While a line of a comparative length in America would have meant waiting at least three hours, in China, lines move very quickly. Within forty minutes, we were on the boat.

Xixi has four main islands that are within easy access. We stopped at one of them, and saw the view of the park from an old pagoda. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see the others, since we had to be at Alex's house by one.

We spent a pleasant afternoon with Alex and his host family, although we missed Sandy, Alaina, and Alaina's sister Yi Mei, who were fishing. It was especially nice to see Steve Landy again, and for Cassie and I to have the opportunity to meet Bob, Alex's former host brother. After eating dinner with Alex's family, Hongan and I returned to our apartment.

Last night was especially memorable for me. My host dad was able to end his work day a bit earlier than usual, so he and I practiced Taichi. I really enjoyed it, considerably more than I anticipated! Watching my host dad do the moves, I thought Taichi was very beautiful, but couldn't believe such easy movements counted as exercise. Doing it myself, I was pleased to find that the moves really were as easy as they looked, so I was able to perform them reasonably well reasonably quickly. The difficulty with Taichi is the exaggerated slowness of the movements. Although each individual movement is simple, and most are quite comfortable, the slow transition from one position to another makes it very difficult to hold. I didn't realize from watching just how long I would have to hold each position for. I got tired much more quickly than I anticipated, but it was incredibly satisfying (much more so than the dumpling fiasco).

And now, on to today...

Our only class today was Chinese painting. As our regular teacher was at an important meeting, Liam introduced us to Mrs. Zhu, the substitute. Mrs. Zhu began the lesson by demonstrating the proper techniques for painting traditionally. After spending three weeks trying to learn this ourselves out of books, everyone appreciated Mrs. Zhu's practical demonstration. Alaina and Cassie produced very beautiful work, and Alex showed a lot of talent for someone who claimed he had none! I'm still unable to paint anything that looks traditional, but both our regular art teacher and Mrs. Zhu have been fascinated and amused (or bemused, sometimes it's hard to tell) with the psychedelic line designs I have made. Apparently, there is a particularly famous Chinese artist who paints in a similar style...

After painting, we headed over to the cafeteria for lunch (delicious, as usual) and then went to English Corner. There, we met one of the girls who will be coming to DS in the spring. Her name is Alina for the moment, but will probably be changed as she thinks it sounds too much like "Alaina." She seemed very nice, if somewhat shy.

In the afternoon, we decided to head over to Sandy's apartment to sort out the various teacher and administrator gifts for the banquet. While it took several hours, we were very satisfied with our final decisions, and felt like we had had a productive afternoon. Alaina introduced us to a donut and milk tea shop she had been to, and so we stopped for a quick snack before heading back to Hanggao for our respective class meetings.

Hongan's class had planned several games for us to play during the meeting. First, we played musical chairs. In the first round, I was one of the last two standing, along with one other boy. It was hysterical: whenever the music would stop playing, we would look at each other and then look at the seat, but neither of us wanted to get the other out! I suspect the boy felt awkward about trying to beat me. He got over his awkwardness after a couple tries, though. Then, various members of the class sang songs. One boy had brought in his guitar, and played music from the Backstreet Boys. He was an excellent guitar player - and of course, all of the kids who got up to sing were fantastic singers! I have no idea how it's possible that everyone in China is so musically talented.

After the meeting, Hongan and I headed back to the apartment, where we spent a quiet evening. Tomorrow, we look forward to dinner with Madame Miao! 

Urban Fishing

(Alaina)

Hello!

On Saturday I had a great evening with my host parents. After the school-organized events, they picked me up and took me to a new part of Hangzhou along the river, where a large theater is located. It was a gorgeous day and the whole area was beautiful, particularly noteworthy for the innovative architectural design. The main courtyard was scattered with people flying kites and also enjoying the nice weather. We had a lovely time walking and lurching through conversation. My host father speaks enough English that we can usually communicate everything to each other with the help of many gestures and a tiny red dictionary (at first I thought he was toting Mao’s Little Red Book!). He is so good humored and enthusiastic in his efforts to ask questions and give information. Interestingly enough, he’s the first person to ask me what I don’t like about China; I appreciate that his curiosity runs beyond the typical pleasantries and factual basics. (My answer was the structure of high school and the university entrance process... in simplified language of course.)

We walked to a great dinner at a restraint overlooking the river. We got fried dumplings with pork and vegetables, eggplant and snow peas, potatoes in a dark soy sauce (they ordered those not me!), sweet “beauty soup” with watermelon and little clear jelly things, extremely spicy beef and peas, and lotus root in a sweet honey sauce. Not only was the food great, but in the next hour I ended up laughing so much my life span must have increased by at least five years. For this, I have three things to thank. First: one of the menu dishes was translated as “Fire man is a bowl of beans.” Enough said. Second: I was having extreme difficulty picking up a bloated dumpling with my chopsticks so after significant fumbling, I snatched it with my hand and plopped it onto my plate. Three young waitresses were standing nearby watching and all three absolutely cracked up. They literally ran away to conceal their blatantly laughing at me, and for the rest of the night they avoided the table and cracked up while serving. I was very amused that they were so embarrassed that I had seen them making fun of me (someone should’ve told them it happens regularly), so I exacerbated the matter by making faces and speaking kindergarten Chinese. Finally, the most epic of the comical moments: my host dad walked into a pool. The restaurant was built above the river, so in several places the floor turned into clear glass we were able to walk over. It got dark while we were eating, so when we left the restaurant I was excited to see that the large decorative pool, which was perfectly level with the ground, was lit from underwater with multicolor lights. The water was so still it looked like an illusion similar to the glass we walked on earlier. I ran up and pretended to step on it, saying that it was very dangerous because the water looked like glass. My meaning was clearly lost, because my host dad then strolled over, made a big show of raising his leg... and actually walking right into the calf-deep water! If I’ve succeeded in conveying even the smallest degree of the true hilarity, you will be laughing out-loud right now, as I currently am. He and my mom genuinely laughed too, so no worries. He also thought it was funny when we were heading home and I told him I was scared he would drive into a lake.

Speaking of lakes… on Sunday we went fishing. I’m not exactly sure why, as all the students I shared the plan with agreed that only old men go fishing. Nonetheless, Yimei had assembled a posse of 6 kids and Sandy to go with us. I always enjoy meeting people in settings that let us get to know each other better, so it was really the good company that made the day enjoyable. Hong Ye came along (it was funny to note the distinct awe with which the first years regard her) and a second year student named Dawn who will be coming to America! They were both excellent to talk with.

When we got to the fishing destination I was disappointed; it wasn’t a real lake!! I shouldn’t have been surprised by the large manmade rectangle of murky water, crisscrossed by docks full of people fishing. We rented poles and sat for a while, watching other people catching fish, before tiring pretty quickly and calling it quits. While wandering around I was interested to see pits of giant snapping turtles, ducks, chickens, and a pond teeming with hundreds of painted turtles. Turns out, of course, all the animals are born and bred to be eaten, a fact that caused me to revoke the names I had begun assigning to the turtles. We ate at a restaurant in the complex, the lobby of which included bins of frogs, red eels, and many more turtles. I enjoyed the vegetable dumplings (and redeemed my chopstick skills!).

I want to update my impression of my host sister Yimei. I am very impressed by her. The two attributes that stick out most are extreme motivation and a strong faith/pride in the larger forces of her life, including the government, the school system, and Chinese culture. She is extremely busy. On most days she goes straight from school, to dance class, to extra school, and she spends most of the weekend in classes. What confuses me is that she doesn’t seem to enjoy any of the things she works so hard for. Her dance class, for example, revolves around competitions, but from what I’ve witnessed it only stresses her out and degrades her confidence. Regardless, she chose the competitive class because the competitions force her to “be the best.” She even likes homework because it makes her improve and “be the best.” Her most definitive career goal is to get a PhD, though she hasn’t decided in what yet. I am in awe of her steadfast work ethic. I’ve realized that since I normally choose my friends, it’s very rare for me to get to know a person with whom I share little in common. It has been interesting to spend so much time with someone whose motivations and goals differ greatly from my own.

Today (Monday) was not particularly noteworthy. This is our last full week in Hangzhou and I can feel the clock ticking. I know this time will fly by. Today started with Technology, during which we made tiny flutes out of bamboo. This was my favorite project, probably because it’s my first product to function correctly. After lunch we had Chinese, when we learned about foods and holidays. The teacher, who usually teaches advanced Chinese literature, tries so hard and we really appreciate his efforts. The class has been a challenge for us all. The five of us then took some time to plan out the speeches that we’ll make during the “thank you” banquet we throw before leaving. These speeches must be made in Chinese, so we’ll have them translated first. I’m nervous that no one will understand my pronunciation.

At English corner we met another girl who will be going to America! I was quite stunned to find out that her English name is Alina, which she pronounces just like Alaina! Aaahaha!! She immediately decided to change it… I was going to protest, but it really would be too weird, particularly if she ends up in my house! We started suggesting names, and the favorites were Lea and Sophia. She seems to like soft sounding names especially that end in a’s; any suggestions?? Oh! Also, Hong Ye wants an English name that’s related to leaves or trees because her Chinese name translates to “leaf.” She’s looking for the perfect name, since she’ll be coming to America long-term. She would really appreciate some help! Willow is the best I’ve come up with. (Come on mom, you should be good at this!)

Today we also picked up and tried on our silk garments! Some alterations will be made, but I think all in all we’re happy. While it’ll be fun to wear once or twice, sadly Traditional Chinese may not be my best look. We did all choose blues and greens, so our impeccable matching pleases me very much. As no one actually wears traditional silk clothing anymore, the students are generally perplexed and amused by this endeavor; I expect there will be significant exclamation when we show up to the banquet all decked out. It’ll be fun.

Hm, I seem to be out of things to say.

Thanks for reading!

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.