Dumpling Monsters and the Curse of UNO

(Ryan)

It has been more than a week since we arrived in Hangzhou, and I am loving my stay here.  The city is beautiful!  Everywhere you look there is something nice to see, whether it be trees, parks, water ways, old architecture, stone carvings, statues, or the modern buildings.  After our hectic train journey into the city, it was nice to finally get some rest and relaxation ...

My host brother and mother brought me out to a beautiful park.  Not only did the park have beautiful trees and gardens, but it also had really cool buildings in the old Chinese-style architecture.  Some of these buildings were museums.  One of the museums we went into was full of a lot of interesting modern art pieces.  The part I liked the most about the park was the plum blossom area.  Plum blossom trees of all different shapes and colors dotted the landscape as far as the eye could see.  People were out and about admiring the scenery in the warm spring air (including us).

School here has been really enjoyable so far.  The school is massive compared to DS.  It looks more like a college campus than a high school.  The school also has it's own museum on-campus that tells the history of the school that dates back more than 100 years.  Some parts of the day we follow around our host siblings, and other parts we have our own classes.  During our own classes we do anything and everything Chinese.  So far we have done calligraphy, made kites, done Chinese paper cutting, practiced Kung Fu, learned some dancing (to the opening song of the world cup???????), and taken Chinese language classes.  It has been a blast so far and I can't wait for more classes this week.  Unfortunately, there is a bit of a language gap between us and the teachers.  Luckily Dawn is always with us as our go to Hangzhou friend and translator.  Dawn came to DS last year, and it's great that we get to hang out so much while we're over here.  Tony and Vapor (Hangzhou students from last year) have also made their appearances.  Tony was even nice enough to bring us dumplings and special Hangzhou fried bread for lunch.  Speaking of lunch: THE LUNCHES HERE ARE AMAZING.  Every day we get to eat in our own private room where we get served delicious food.  I feel like I'm eating at a fancy restaurant every time I eat lunch at school.  After lunch we have English corner.  At first people were shy about talking to us, but after a few days more and more people came.  It's a lot of fun talking to the people here and getting to know about the way they live and the differences between our daily lives.  After school, my host brother and I bike home to his apartment building.

We have been doing a lot outside of school.  A few days ago we got together at Lizzy's host grandparent's house to make dumplings.  Colin was the most experienced among us at making dumplings, so his came out the best.  Mine were pretty terrible at first, but eventually took the right shape towards the end (except for one monster dumpling that had two covers because there was too much filling for just one).  After the dumplings were steamed, we feasted on our hard labor.  It was delicious.  After dinner we started to play UNO.  Unfortunately, after the practice round, the game never ended.  As soon as someone had one card left, fate would barrage them with cards until they had about half the deck.  We finally decided to end the game at 8:45 when the grandparents went to bed and the school (where my host brother and I had left our bikes) was about to close.

Last Saturday, we went on a trip to West Lake, a famous destination point in Hangzhou.  Unfortunately for us, the day we went was very cloudy, and it was hard to see in the distance.  But the lake was still beautiful even when it wasn't at its full potential.  The parks and museums near the lake were also very interesting.  After a delicious lunch at a local restaurant, we got on a boat to tour the lake.  The boat was like a gondola, with a person rowing the boat forward from the back.  The water was very peaceful and the old architecture that dotted the islands, shores, and mountains near the lake added to the lake's natural beauty.  I only wish I could have seen the lake on a brighter day.  I am sure it would be even more spectacular than it already is.  I can't believe how much I have done in the past week.  I am loving Hangzhou and can't wait to see what's coming next.