As I write this, I’m sitting in Hangzhou City Library with my host sister, Sunny. It’s Sunny’s family tradition to come with her parents to this gigantic, beautiful library to do their work every Sunday, which I'm 100% on board with because I love libraries and the wifi here is magnificent.
I moved into Sunny’s apartment on Wednesday of last week, after a bumpy nighttime sleeper train from Beijing and a warm welcome from the Hangzhou High School staff. I was a little bit worried that after the thrill of travel -a different hotel everyday, airports, monuments, hikes- that I would be more prone to homesickness in Hangzhou. I wasn’t wrong, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that being in a school and in somebody else’s home made us all yearn for our own family, friends, and bed. It even felt weird to not be living with Jenny anymore, we had gotten so used to the constancy of each other’s company. The first couple of days we all felt the difficulty of adjusting to the new environment.
For me, though, homesickness was fleeting. I’ve lived in the suburbs for all of my memorable life. Hangzhou, on the other hand, is a massive city, and Hangzhou High School is nestled right in the midst of it. I experienced a culture shock not just between Chinese and Western culture, but between urban and rural culture. I’m very lucky, because Sunny lives on the 19th floor of a building just a ten minute walk from the school. My feelings of missing home began to evaporate when I looked out my window Thursday morning to see a vista of skyscrapers, and when I sat down to a yummy Chinese breakfast of Bok Choy, rice buns, and porridge.
I think the school took a bit more time to adjust to.The staff who take care of us are such friendly and wonderful people and they’ve set up a really neat schedule for us; we spend the first two 40 minute periods sitting in on our host-student’s classes, and then the next two periods we have a class just for us. On the first morning, this special class was Fitness. Now, the thing that really took some getting used to for us is that in China it’s not really customary to have indoor heating. In fact, many people will open windows to let in fresh air, because they believe it’s good for one’s health. So, when we arrived at the fitness center on a 34 degree windy day, we were very, very cold. Fortunately, we did some zumba dancing which warmed us up, but when we got to go into a heated building for lunch, it was a huge relief. That afternoon we toured Hangzhou High School’s sister campus (which, by the way, is nicer than many US colleges I’ve toured), and then we got to spend the rest of the afternoon doing homework.
It’s having some time alone to work and explore when things really started to sink in. I noticed that all students have hot water with them at all times, which is vital if you want to stay warm, and they carry snacks with them as well, because time between breakfast, lunch, and the end of the school day is quite long. I spent some time doing my schoolwork from home (the best way to cure homesickness), and by the time Sunny and I walked home, I was feeling much, much better. Sure, I still miss my family and my dog and driving my car through forested roads, but Hangzhou is unlike any city I’ve ever been to, and living in it is unlike any opportunity I’ve ever had. I’m so glad I get to spend the next month here, and I’m sure I’ll have more experiences to share in the coming weeks.
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