(FINAL POST of 2010 Exchange)Saying Goodbye to a Magnificent Adventure!

(Sandy)

April 10

The last few hours in China! What a strange day…I think we are all feeling a “healthy ambivalence” about getting on a jet to fly home. No doubt, of course we are all missing our families, friends, pets and yearning for normalcy, but it is also sad to say goodbye to a magnificent adventure. Each day brought new insight into the daily living and personalities of those we have met, daring attempts at consuming a pastiche of exotic foods, unbelievable ancient and contemporary sights that many only get to view in books, new sounds of the repetitive city noises and the rural quiet of the farmland, new friends and our homes away from home, and new customs of hospitality that sometime make very independent people a bit uncomfortable…like having someone always wanting to hold your backpack and packages, people always asking if you are tired and need a rest, always being led like a child or being told to “sit, sit!” It is all a bit surreal.

Completing the Beijing Trifecta

(Lauren)

Beijing Day 3

First on today's agenda was a trip to Beijing's famous Temple of Heaven. When we got to the temple, we were immediately besieged by vendors selling cheap children's toys. Surprisingly, the toys were very popular amongst thelocal Chinese. Many of the Chinese elders used the small park in front of the main temple as a local gathering place to socialize and exercise. On our way through the park, we were confronted with the spectacle of old Chinese people dancing to pop music. They were all very good and totally in-sync.

Yes ... I (h)ate scorpion!

(Alex)

Hello America, for the last time in China you will hear from me.

We arrived in Beijing this morning at 6:35 am. The train ride was very nice despite the insane amounts of luggage we all had. I am actually quite surprised we got off the train so easily and quickly, but all went smoothly from transferring to the hotel. We all had trouble letting go of our friends and families and Hangzhou, but it is nice to be travelling one last time before we return to America! At this point we are all craving some good old fashioned American food whether it be cheese or a nice diner burger. The food here has been great (I will get to more of this in a little bit), but I can't wait to have some teryaki turkey and apple pie (mom that's a request please).

Farewell Hangzhou Friends

(Cassie)

Hello everyone. Our last day in Hangzhou...and what a long and eventful day it was! Get comfortable, because this is going to be a long blog.

Today was a day of many lasts . I got up at my usual time to eat my last breakfast with Jiawen - delicious baozi, as usual. I seriously want to attempt to find them when I get home...they re pretty awesome. We were a bit more solemn at breakfast than usual, and Jiawen informed me that she d most likely cry at some point during the day. After breakfast, we wrestled my bags down to the car and loaded them in for my last trip to Hanggao. Once at school, we took my bags to the front building only to find that the bus that was supposed to be waiting for us was M.I.A. I had promised Sandy I would help her get her bags to the apartment, so I left my bags and headed to meet her. We ended up getting a good arm workout out of it because the key to the gate to the school near her apartment hadn t arrived yet. The two Westerners dragging bags down the middle of Silk Street got some pretty weird looks. Unfortunately the bus still hadn t arrived when we got there, but Wu Laoshi was nice enough to less us leave all of our stuff in her office until we could load it in.

Once our luggage was all squared away we went up to the English office to wait to go to our 10:30 farewell meeting. When we got there we realized that nobody d seen Lauren. Her host dad had dropped her bags off and they were with the other luggage but there was no sign of her. I went to her class to find her and she was there...taking a nap on her desk before class started. Apparently this is a regular occurrence. I wish I had her ability to sleep so easily and to to wake up so quickly. With everyone together we sat and chatted with Helen until our host siblings arrived and it was time to go. Everyone s host siblings had little presents for us, as did Liam. My favorite one was an adorable frame given to me by Yin - It looked like a cat. She knows I really like cats. After she gave it to me, she, Jiawen, and I took a picture together so I can fill it when I get home.

We again went to the meeting room where we d originally been welcomed and had met Madame Miao. This time the room was at its most full. We began by hearing a speech from the headmistress bidding us farewell and welcoming us back again (translated for us by Derek). Then, we each said a small piece about how we felt about our time in Hangzhou and what we loved about the experience. Afterwards, each of our host siblings spoke about what they d gained from living with us for two weeks. Each one was very heartwarming, but I was most moved (of course) by my own sisters. Jiawen cried, as promised, and Yin told me she loved me. At this point, it was all I could do not to keep from crying. After a couple more speeches by the administration we got into the bus to go to the restaurant in which we d be having our banquet lunch.

When we got to the restaurant Alaina, Lauren, and I all changed into our dresses and Sandy changed into her jacket. Alex had come prepared...he was already in his vest. We emerged to kind compliments and sat down to a complex and wonderful lunch. My favorites were some garlic mashed potatoes, baozi filled with meat and onions (of course), and congee made with rice and greens. About halfway through the meal we began our speeches. I was incredibly nervous - not only do I dislike speaking in front of large groups of people, but I was also worried I d utterly butcher my Chinese pronunciation. But we were met by laughter and applause at all of the right times, so I think we were pretty successful. I think Ning probably made the funniest comment...when Lauren asked her if she could understand the speech, Ning said Yes...now...may I please have a copy of the speech so that I can read it? . After our speeches we sat back down to dinner. Once we'd finished eating we proceeded to take what must have been hundreds of pictures...we all joked that it was like prom.

We changed again (ironically, it was raining and we didn t want to ruin the silk) and got back into the bus to go back to the school. We had some time to kill, so Alex hung out with Derek, while the girls and Liam went to grab some milk tea and talked about travel dreams of ours. Soon enough our time had run out and we made our way back through the rain to the school.

I ll be frank, the next half hour was pretty miserable. All of our host siblings met us at the first of building of the school. While everyone was attempting to avoid thinking about it, we all knew that final goodbyes were impending. Finally, Derek told us it was time to go and we all made our final goodbyes to all of our siblings. I promised to email both of my host sisters as soon as I got back to America, partook in many hugs, and waved goodbye through foggy bus windows.

We got to the train station a bit early, so we sat amid our many bags and talked with Liam, Derek, Tianle, and Charlie. They had all come to help us get onto the train. All too soon 17:44 rolled around and we made our way onto the train. It was a bit rushed and our goodbyes at the station were hurried, but that was probably for the better as the earlier farewells had been difficult.

The train was quite nice! Each room had four beds and a small table near the large window. We could barely hear the sound of the train as we sat on our beds. The four kids were in one room, while Sandy was next door. From 6 til about 10 (we went to bed early as we knew we had to get up early) we talked, did MadLibs, and ate the snacks we d brought with us. Then we said goodnight and went to bed. I stayed up for a little while to look at the Chinese landscape flying past the window, then fell asleep.

So that s all from me as far as blogs go... It s remarkable that we ll be heading back to the States soon. I ve had a wonderful and life-changing time here over the past eight weeks. Goodbye and see everyone soon!

Disco Rollerblading on the Last Weekend in Hangzhou

(Lauren)

Hangzhou Day 31

For the first time since we have been in China, our group has been separated for a period of several days. Although I think everyone was a little apprehensive about this, I think it was nice to have spent our last weekend in Hangzhou with our host families.

Saturday morning, my host mom and I went to the West Lake to take a bus tour of the scenic sites. (Hongan had to stay home to do her homework). The tour provided a nice overview of the different parts of the lake. It is so huge, I had not realized how much of it I hadn't seen, even though we've been going there every weekend!

For lunch, my host mom took me to a restaurant that served famous Hangzhou snacks. We had "Wawatou" which are little triangular pastries, "hongtang," a type of dumpling soup, and my personal favorite "xiaolong baozi" which are also sort of like dumplings. My host mom was particularly thrillled, because everyone at the restaurant assumed she was my translator, which made her very proud!

After lunch, we went back to one of the scenic spots we'd passed earlier. Gou's Villa, as it was called, used to be the private residence of a partiuclarly wealthy man, and was converted into a tourist site after his death. The villa was made up of several very traditional houses overlooking the lake. As it was not one of the most popular tourist destinations at the lake, we had the place practically to ourselves. It was nice to finally get an appreciation for the beauty and peace that West Lake offers when there aren't crowds of people around!

The next day, my host family and I went back to their hometown for the Qingming Festival. Their hometown, Xin'An Jiang, is a very famous water town. The river flowing through the town is clean and pure, and people could drink directly out of the water (although I'm not sure how sanitary this practice was, considering people also did their laundry directly in the water). Most of China's bottled water supply comes from the river, and my host mom was very proud to inform me that her hometown's river provided the bottled water for the Beijing Olympics!

We went over for lunch at Hongan's grandparents' apartment, where I also met her aunt, uncle, and cousin. After a quick lunch, Hongan's uncle drove my host mom, Hongan, her cousin, and me over to a place where we could ride dragon boats down the river. On our way downstream, we passed a large bridge made up of red arches. My host dad had designed the bridge, and named it the "Rainbow Bridge" after Hongan (whose name translates to rainbow in English).

Once we had finished the tour, Hongan, her cousin, and I went to the park. There were bumper cars at the park, so we rode them. I don't think I've ever ridden bumper cars before, but I was surprised to find how violent they were. The seatbelts were particularly poor - I can't help but think that a company with the same standards in the U.S. would be regularly sued for whiplash!

We left the park and decided to go rollerblading. Naively, I assumed we were going to a skate park. Actually, we were going to a club. The large room where we rollerbladed was lit with three disco balls, the Chinese equivalent of disco music was playing, and the entire room was smoky. It was very funny to watch other people rollerblade. The boys especially knew a lot of cool tricks, but they'd seemed to have forgotten to learn basic ones such as "turning" or "stopping." Therefore, people were constantly crashing into each other (or into walls or pillars).

We rollerbladed for a while, then went out to dinner with Hongan's parents and some of their friends. Hongan's mom's friend's son came later to practice his oral English. I thought this was going to be somewhat disastrous (many people ask to practice, few want to speak), but when my host mom took him, Hongan and I over to another friend's house, he opened up somewhat. The other friend's daughter also wanted to practice English, so the four of us went down into the basement to play Poker. I didn't know how to play Poker, but I caught on fairly quickly. Then my host mom decided to join the game to "help me," but kept accidentally revealing all my cards instead! I didn't win many games, but it was a lot of fun anyway!

After Poker, we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Tomorrow, we will be saying our goodbyes to everyone in Xin'An Jiang and heading back to Hangzhou. I can't believe I have only one more day left with my host family! I have really enjoyed being with them and will miss them a lot.

Until next time!