A Rainy Day in Hangzhou

(Deanna)

I was woken up by the sound of my rather calm alarm clock and looked out of my room window to see rain. After getting ready for school, I went downstairs to what seemed to be a very quiet house at 06:45. My host mum was in the kitchen warming up some milk and I made my morning coffee. I put my boots on and whilst our voyage to school, I noticed that it seemed like a rather sleepy morning, everyone yawning in the car; my host sister Rong Danqing and I fell asleep on the way to school. Waking up in time to get out of the car, the streets this morning were particularly less inhabited by cars but more occupied by us all trying to go to our classrooms.

I went to the usual room: room 209 and we started talking about a video that we are planning to make with the direction of our translator, Tom. We tried to sort out our roles in the videos and before long, it was time for Aerobics class. We all knew that we’d review Gangnam Style, the dance that we learned last class and in reviewing, we learned parts of the dance that really tired me out. I realised that in dancing, my dancing skills were slightly better last class than this class. I feel proud of myself because I can now say that I know the whole Gangnam Style dance. We were given a new task, one that I haven’t done since probably elementary school, jump rope. I jumped rope as efficiently as possible but when asked to jump once while the rope passes twice seemed impossible. Apple showed us that it was in fact not impossible and that she is fantastic at jump rope. Michael was a natural at jumping rope and it was super impressive to all of us. I admit, I think Michael and Apple were the best at this skill. Brandon and Michael took on the task of jumping under the same big jump rope and it was successful and quite funny for me to see the boys jumping rope and basically me failing at it.

Tired and hungry, we walked (umbrellas in hand, of course) in the rain to eat lunch. While eating lunch, Mifield popped in and stayed with us for our lunch hour. Due to the pouring rain, there was no English Corner, unfortunately. It saddened me because I truly love talking to all the Hanggao students during this time. We went to the Silk Museum where we learned about silkworms, the process to making silk, silk clothing from different times in Chinese history and how our modern day wardrobe uses silk! We all enjoyed this museum a lot, we were able to really get a sense of how clothing has changed over time and how the process to making silk clothing has evolved. In returning to the school, we went to our host siblings and headed home.

Rong Danqing and I with my host dad went to a fancy restaurant where I ate tender, delicious beef with steamed vegetables and hot coffee. We all thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and headed home. I worked with Rong Danqing on my Chinese Culture homework where I have to memorise a poem in Chinese with correct pronunciation for tomorrow’s class. We worked for 30 minutes together and I worked on my own repeating the poem and trying to sort out which characters were a struggle for me. After working on my homework, I caught up with my Mum back home on the phone and my host Mum came in and surprised me with a gift. My host Mum got me a beautiful Hangzhou woven silk scarf and Pashmina scarf. Both beautiful gifts, I thanked my host mum many times and she proceeded to tell me that when I switch to my new host family on Friday that she’d miss me and she reiterated what my host dad told me the other day that “In the beginning, I had one daughter, and now I have two.” In hearing those words, it struck me, how wonderful and compassionate my host family is and how thankful I am for their kindness.

Hopefully wherever you all are, it’s a little bit less rainy and you’re cherishing each day (despite the weather) with the people encountered.

Until next time,
Deanna M. Biddy x