[FINAL POST of 2014 Exchange] So Long, Farewell…

(Heather)

Wow, time has flown by. At the risk of sounding repetitive (per the other blog posts, and the final blog posts of previous groups), I can’t believe we leave for home today…where did the last two months go? While I am of course thrilled to see my family, friends, and loved ones, I am also going to deeply miss some of the people I’ve met here, and miss seeing such amazing things each and every day, whether in Hangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Huangshan, Xi’an, Lijiang, Dali, Shaxi, Kunming, Guilin, Yangshuo, or Hong Kong. I think that’s a complete list, yes? Wait! I forgot the side trips! Wuzhen, Xiaoxing…

Beijing!!!

(Caitlin)

I’m going to start off with how absolutely bizarre it is that this is my very last blog post in China. Two months is a long time, and it’s been fantastic. All right, on to Beijing.

We arrived on our train at around seven-thirty AM, where our new tour guide, Hans, met us. He told us that he got his English name directly from his family name, Han, so his business card actually reads “Hans Han”. We went straight to our hotel for check-in, and a quick shower and change of clothes. I’m beyond glad we stopped first, because after that we hit the ground running.

Shaoxing and More

(Max)

Well, we just enjoyed our last week at Hangzhou High School. Our last weekend was a fun one; it was spent going to Shaoxing on Saturday and biking on Sunday. We were lucky enough to have an entire weekend of sunny 75 degree weather.

Our Last Weekend in Hangzhou and Our Last Day at Hangzhou High School

(Dareus)

As our last weekend in Hangzhou set in on Friday night, we sat down at a café with DiDi, Kay, and Cindy for a few drinks and some war stories. It almost felt like nothing was wrong and it was just another weekend on the streets of Hangzhou. Only now do I realize that this was the last gathering that the eight of us would have. DiDi, Kay, and Cindy were the students who came to our school last year and they have been immensely helpful in translating and planning our day to day activities and visits. A big thank you to them. 

Lazy Sunday

(Timmy)

Finally, a break to all the traveling and the routine of school! Today, Sunday, was one of the most relaxing days of the trip. I actually got to sleep in for once, which was nice. (In China, my usual wake up time of noon has changed to about nine o’clock on weekends). After waking up, my host dad, David, and I went to Zhejiang University to walk around. Zhejiang has multiple campuses just like some colleges in America; the difference between this location and the campus my previous host family took me to was drastic.

Our Very Last Day in Hangzhou

(Caitlin)

So today is our very last day in Hangzhou. That is a really weird sentence to write, this feels completely bizarre. Saying goodbye to my host family this morning was just really, kind of unexpectedly, sad. Saying goodbye to my first host family was weird enough, but I’ve seen Willow in the past few weeks since, so it wasn’t goodbye forever. This time, especially since my host sister, Lei, was sick this morning and unable to come to school, it is for good. She promised to email me, and we’re definitely going to stay in touch, but I’ll miss John and Mary, my host parents (those are their English names, obviously). The thing about host families is that they made me feel so at home, and both of my host families were so kind and went so out of their way to be so welcoming, that the little box of Salem Gibraltar’s and sea glass bracelet I brought over for gifts seem kinda dinky.

Superlatives

(Heather)

As an organizational freak, (and yes, I readily admit this…ask my senior year college roommate about the line of demarcation down the center of our room) there’s little I adore more than lists. Likewise, as a high school teacher, I’m quite familiar with the superlatives that are given to seniors each year—I always enjoy hearing the buzz about who has been deemed “best dressed,” or as having the “best car,” etc. So, then, it seems to make sense to compose a list of superlatives—China style.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

(Timmy)

Saturday, March 15, 2014. Today, the Barnyard Bunch (our official name now), ventured into one of the most dangerous, (safe) and harsh (beautiful) of places in all of China. We would be dropped off an hour and a half away from civilization, (Hangzhou) and we would have to survive for half a day in a foreign area. Can we survive in this unforgiving, (very nice) wasteland (extremely green area)? This is…MAN VS. CHINA!

Shanghai and New Host Families

(Caitlin)

I think it’s fair to say that at this point quite a lot has been said about our weekend trip to Shanghai. I’m not going to spend this whole post talking about it, but I have to talk about it a little bit. I mean, I’m not going to go to Shanghai (!) and not mention it even a little in my blog. That would just seem so wrong.

The Night Circus

(Heather)

Over the summer, I read Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, which was a rich and vibrant novel about a mysterious, supernatural, traveling night circus. It was a fantastic piece of magical realism, but I’d bet money Erin’s never been to China.

Friday night (March 14), I witnessed my own night circus, and while there were no acrobats, trapeze artists, or pachyderms, there were plenty of illusionists, magicians, and fortune-tellers.

Time Travel

(Heather)

Oh, how I wish time travel was possible—for multiple reasons. First and foremost, I want to go back and spend more time in Shanghai, as it was fantastic! Two and a half days was simply not enough time to see and do everything we wanted to see and do in such an incredible city. Please don’t misunderstand me—we packed a lot into the time we had, but there’s so much left undone.

Sick in Shanghai

(Dareus)

Unfortunately right before our weekend excursion to Shanghai, I somehow got a bacterial blood infection which caused me a fever so I was mostly restricted to the hotel room and the surrounding block. There were a few occasions when I felt good enough to go out and see things so I’ll talk about those but also about my experience at a Chinese hospital.

Shanghai Nights

(Max)

So this past weekend we traveled to Shanghai by speed train. Shanghai was actually the city that I was most looking forward to seeing before the trip started and it did not disappoint. We did a series of activities that even the most veteran tourists would be proud of.

Football Brings the World Together

(Timmy)

events of March 2

Sunday morning, I got some much-needed rest. It’s amazing what 13 hours of sleep does for you. My host brother Kevin took me down the street to Zhejiang University for some lunch. There is a food court there that sells strictly Islamic food, so we went there, and it was delicious. Earlier in the trip someone wrote about the big bowls of soup in Xi’an with the pancake noodles. We basically had that again, but this soup had noodles and some kind of vegetable. I was still full from the giant lunch we had yesterday, so I didn’t eat a lot. Kevin, on the other hand, was very hungry and had a lot of food, so we walked around campus to burn it off. He showed me the different buildings around campus, and the surrounding area. We went back to the apartment for a few hours for some rest and so Kevin could finish his homework.

Snapshot

(Heather)

This will be a very brief blog post, as I’m quite tired at the moment. Nevertheless, I wanted to provide all of you a brief glimpse or snapshot of my life here in China. In particular, I want to write about my commute to school each day.

All. The. Things.

(Heather)

China is a dangerous place. Now, before anyone goes off in a tizzy of worry, I don’t mean to imply that China is a physically dangerous place, nor do I mean that I’ve felt unsafe at any point (other than from the mopeds and scooters that careen precariously close to me on the street).

No, China is dangerous for your wallet and bank account, as there are so many things. There are so many pretty, lovely, stunning, beautiful, charming, intricate, delicate, rustic, artisan, whimsical, clever, unique, colorful, shiny, soft, sleek, silky, heavenly, gorgeous, ethereal, exquisite things. How about those adjectives?

Teachers and Teaching!

(Heather)

Before I write anything else, let me tell you about a new survival strategy I’ve adopted…it works well when you’re trying to cross the street with a delicate birthday cake in a box, and are faced with an onslaught of cars that largely ignore traffic lights or walk signals. I call it the “stand close to but on the other side of traffic from a local, and then mirror and match every step he or she takes” method. It’s worked so far, though I do have some guilt at effectively using local Hangzhou residents as unwitting shields against aggressive bicyclists, moped-ists (is that a word?) and motorists.

I Just Wish There Was a Way….

(Dareus)

I’m going to give you the lowdown on what we did today because that is what I am supposed to do; later I will tell you what I really want to talk about. 

So today started off with an exceptionally tasty breakfast. I inhaled what is called Ba Tsung in the backseat of my host dad’s car on the way to school at 6:30 in the morning. Ba Tsung is essentially sticky rice, meat, peanuts, and mushrooms formed into roughly the shape of a triangular prism. This triangle of rice and stuff is then wrapped in banana leaves and steamed to cook it. Afterwards you unwrap this geometric prism of deliciousness and eat it. So that was worth noting. 

From Clueless to Celebrity and Back Again…

(Heather)

After our trip to the Xixi Wetlands on Saturday—which was beautiful if quite rainy and wet—I ventured out to find myself a bite to eat. I ended up at a nearby coffee bar/restaurant, primarily because I’d read a few good things about the locale online, and additionally because they had an English menu I could point to and frantically gesture at. Miraculously, what I had pointed to appeared before me, and I was quite content for awhile with my dinner and the free wifi provided. Then, I realized I’d been waiting for the bill. For awhile…for a long while. So, I made eye contact with the waiter, smiled, and tried to mime check or bill by drawing a square and signing my name in the air. Yup! I was excited and elated and confident I’d been successful in communicating my desire. The waiter walked away with purpose, and came back with…

A Musical Day in Hangzhou

(Caitlin)

Monday started out like most days in Hangzhou do, with an early wake-up and a delicious home cooked breakfast courtesy of my host mother. We were running a tad late that morning, so Willow (my host sister) joined me and the boys in room 209 during the morning meeting, and we all chatted for a while before we had our classes. Around 9:30 we were wondering where our translator was, because usually Crowtis or Cindy or Dee-Dee comes to meet us in 209, but we headed out to go to our first music class anyways. When we got there we were greeted by Kay, the third student who had come to DS last year. We were all really psyched to see Kay, because we’d only seen her on the first day in Hangzhou, but apparently her schedule changed, and she told us that she would be out translator for the next few weeks.

Hospitality at its Highest

(Max)

This past week has certainly been one to remember. Last Sunday I joined my host mother and brother for dinner at quite a nice restaurant. We were having the dinner as a celebration of my host brother’s cousin’s tenth birthday. This was my host mother’s brother’s son.

So, we arrived at the restaurant where the rest of the family was waiting.

Museum City

(Timmy)

“Oh god, I don’t want to wake up now.” Back in America, the earliest my Saturday mornings would start was around 11 o’clock. Today I woke up at a nightmarish 6:30. I had to force myself to turn off the alarm blaring right beside my hand. When I finally did get up, I prepared myself for the day in a sluggish manner. My host dad took a taxi with me to the high school where the group, (we haven’t decided on a name yet), agreed to meet that day. It was a rainy day, fitting for the wetlands we were going to see. I said bye to my host dad as he left for the airport, (he left for his nephew’s wedding), and double checked to see if I had everything.

½ School ½ Green Tea

(Dareus)

If you’ve read the previous posts then you probably know what our average “school day” is. Regardless, I will tell you how today started. Four knocks on my bedroom door woke me up and initiated the daily routine of choosing my clothes which usually includes the blue and white school uniform jacket that I was given a few days after arriving here at Hangzhou. A shower later I hopped in my host dad’s car with breakfast in hand and then fell asleep for the one hour and ten minutes it takes us to get there. We usually take the back gate into school grounds. Since this high school is obviously a city there are always two students with red sashes standing on either side of the gate to help filter out people who aren’t students and are trying to enter the campus.

Hangzhou High School! (HangGao)

(Caitlin)

The last week has been, well, crazy. We arrived a little more than a week ago, and since then, we’ve all settled into a rhythm. Wake up early, have breakfast (which is delicious, by the way, but I’ll get to that later), and head out into the crazy traffic jam on our way to school. In the mornings, we all go to class with our host siblings first thing, for the first two classes. It’s kinda cool, seeing a class that I might have already taken at home, like physics, but in a different language. I can’t exactly understand what the teacher may be saying, but I can understand what’s on the board, so I can still pretty much follow along.

The ABC’s of China!

(Heather)

Below, in alphabetical order, you can find some of my thoughts on China thus far!

A: Attention Span:
I’ve only been “teaching” for two days thus far, but American students take note—students here listen to EVERY WORD you say with rapt attention. In fact, I’m reasonably certain I could read straight from an IRS tax manual to the Chinese students, and they’d listen quietly, avidly, and respectfully. I’m chalking this up to the vast differences in pedagogy between our two countries—in China, the teacher is the expert, and classes are conducted as such. The teacher presents material, and students listen, absorb, and retain. There are few questions, and the concept of “tell me your thoughts about this poem or story” is completely foreign. In fact, I spoke with a student today who is likely spending a year at a high school in Canada, and her biggest fear revolved around this difference—she was terrified at the thought of having to put forth her own thoughts about class material.

West Lake & Plum Blossoms

(Heather)

My apologies to those of you reading this blog post—there’s no creative title this time round. There’s a reason for this, however. You see, as a group we spent Saturday at the infamous West Lake in Hangzhou, and on Sunday I had the opportunity to see the stunningly lovely peach and plum blossoms at the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens. As everything I’ve seen over the past two days has been so, well, just so lovely, I feel that trying to force creativity or compose a saccharine metaphor would inevitably fall flat and detract from the actual beauty of what we’ve (I’ve!) seen.

“Oooh, Kill ‘em” at Ping Pong

(Timmy)

Student’s log. Day 3. It has been 3 days since the group has infiltrated the high school. We have begun to gain the student’s trust. Actually the first few days have been a little awkward for us, but only because most of us don’t understand what they are saying. Today was much better because over the last few days, I have been able to make more friends. At the end of second period today, two girls came up to me and gave me what I think are postcards. We talked for a little bit in broken English and Chinese until I went to meet the rest of the group in room 209, our base of operations. I thought I was doing alright socially, but apparently Max has an entourage of students that always visit him. They are all nice people, but they took the last cookie from our snack bowl.

First Days in Hangzhou

(Max)

So it has been a couple of days now since our last post as a result of my not having a computer charger so the blame falls on me. We have finally arrived in Hangzhou after what has seemed like a lifetime of traveling but actually only been a little less than three weeks. Our arrival to Hangzhou High School was quite prestigious with the administration here making us feel like celebrities.

Japan or China?

(Dareus)

The morning started like you would expect it to with the three of us in a room. We woke up late, kinda showered, ran to breakfast and then realized the time we had set was a half hour earlier than we thought it was. Other than the crazed start to the day the rest of it was relatively relaxed and calm. After a drive that I didn’t see because I was asleep, we arrived at Hong Cun village. If any of you have been to the Peabody Essex Museum you’ve probably seen the old Chinese house that was rebuilt inside of the museum. That house was disassembled in this village and reassembled at the Peabody Essex Museum. The good majority of the houses look like that one. 

Huang Shan Day Two

(Caitlin) 

On our second day in Huang Shan (if you count the day we arrived from Xi’an), we got up pretty early to begin our day, and after a quick breakfast in the hotel, we met up with our guide, Phillip, to leave for the mountains. And so, around eight-thirty, after some hurried Wi-Fi using and phone checking, we piled into the van and took off.

Hup, two three four, hup two three four…

(Heather)

No, we didn’t really march, trek, or sojourn the other day. We did, however, spend our last day in Xi’an visiting what was, to me, the highlight of our time there—the terracotta warriors. I’ve wanted to see the warriors ever since I was little, and, in particular, have been looking forward to them since I realized I’d be traveling with this year’s group.

Chinese Culture, and American Appetites

(Timmy)

Today was a long day for the group, but it was also one of the more memorable days. We started by visiting Pangliu village on the outskirts of Xi’an. The drive to Pangliu village was short, but exciting because we finally met Richard Wang, a friend of Mrs. Viz and the tour guide who we owe a great deal of gratitude to for this exchange.

Last Day in Lijiang and First Day in Xi’an

(Max)

On our last day in Lijiang we got an early start with our guide Evan and set out to visit the Black Dragon Pools. It was quite nice to have an activity close enough to our hotel that we could just walk. The pools were amazingly clear and the scenery of the overall park was picturesque. A bridge stretched over one of the pools and we had an absolutely beautiful view of Lijiang’s snow mountain, which we had ascended a day earlier. Oh, and before I forget, on our walk to the pools we passed by a kind gentleman with a monkey, with whom Timmy and I took our picture. I’m really not sure of the type of monkey, but the little thing was dressed up like a tiny bellhop and as the picture was taken he was sitting in my hand, rubbing his cheek against mine; it was adorable.

“How is that even silk? It looks like a picture.”

(Dareus)

I woke up in my own private room at the guesthouse in Shaxi Village with the Korean drama still on the TV from the previous night. After a breakfast of noodles black with spice, we boarded our little bus and began our trek to Lijiang. Our first stop in Lijiang was Baisha village where the most intricate embroideries were hand crafted by the Naxi minority people. The girl who showed us around told us the mind blowing fact that her trade master could separate a silk strand the width of a hair into 250 separate strands. After that she showed us an art gallery of embroideries that was far more modern than you would expect for a village so small. The thin strands of silk were melded together so well by the artisans that the color gradients challenged those of digital pictures. After that our tour guide brought us to see Naxi murals that were about the mixing of cultures and religions in the local regions. It seemed like the ideal environment where all the different religions just kept to themselves and didn’t bother each other.

Shaxi Village (2/7-2/8)

(Caitlin)

Friday morning we got up in Dali, had our breakfast at the hotel, and started on our three-hour drive to Shaxi village. About an hour and a half into our trip we pulled over at a roadside restaurant, had lunch, and met our new tour guide, Evan. After introductions and a hurried round of Oreo-purchasing at the gas station nearby, we set off for another leg of our journey. We had been warned that this part of the car ride might be a bit, well, bothersome if you tend to get motion sickness, but that didn’t end up being a problem for anyone. Instead, we were able to enjoy the view from the windows as the road snaked its way around the sides of the mountain.

More Adventures!

(Heather)

Douglas Adams once wrote, “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, ‘As pretty as an airport.’” Well, in our case, I’d actually tweak this saying, and have it read “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression ‘As pretty as a sleeper train from Kunming to Dali.’”

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Fending Off Paparazzi in Yangshuo

(Tim)

First blog post of the trip, it feels good. So far the trip has been amazing and we are all having a great time. For the past two days, we have woken up to a nice western breakfast of fried eggs, ham, sausages, vegetables, and assorted baked goods. A great part about this trip is that we aren’t always bound to pre-determined sights. With our free time, we decided to hike up a mountain to visit an old, stone pagoda.

Yangshuo Adventures

(Max)

All right, so yesterday was quite the adventure. We started the day off with a nice early start at 7:45 a.m. when our tour guide, Summer, took us to the well-known Elephant Hill. About a fifteen-minute walk from the hotel, this natural rock structure resembles a massive elephant dipping its trunk into the Li River for a drink. Local myth tells that the elephant was a servant of the jade emperor and was sent down to earth, but when the elephant realized the beauty of Guilin, he decided to stay. After about a half an hour stay at this site we returned to the hotel where our driver took us to the very famous tour attraction, the Li River cruise. I can’t even start to describe the magnificence of what we witnessed on that four-hour tour.

Jetlagged in Hong Kong ...

(Dareus)

Despite extreme jetlag from arriving the previous night we managed to wake up and gorge ourselves on a buffet style breakfast with a picturesque view of the bay of Hong Kong. The smog gave the skyline a hazy shade and completed the Hong Kong feel. Somehow we missed the plethora of things to do in Hong Kong and wandered around the coastline for a couple hours despite it being the Chinese New Year, which should have given us even more to do.

(FIRST POST of 2014 China Exchange) And They're Off!

2014 group, left to right: Dareus Chen, Tim Jaung, Max Dunn, Exchange Chair Ms Viz (not going!) Teacher Heather Lockrow, Caitlin Sheehan

The 2014 Dover-Sherborn High School China Exchange students and teacher took off for San Francisco and then Hong Kong VERY early on Wednesday morning (had to be at the airport at 4am!).  First reports from Hong Kong are that they are having a great time, enjoying New Year festivities.  More will be coming in the form of frequent blog postings, so return here often to stay in touch with their adventures over the next 8 weeks!