PANDAAAS AND CHEEEESE!

(Alaina)

Hello!

First, a quick note about my week:

I want to mention an unusual interaction I had with my host sister Yimei. We were talking when Yimei unintentionally brought up a political issue (I think its better not to name it specifically or go into details) that I feel strongly about. Though I know she didn't mean to launch a political discussion and didn't realize how heavy her words were, she made a few casual comments that I felt I couldn't ignore completely. I told her that her statements were not necessarily true and asked about her background knowledge on the issue, suggesting that she may be missing part of the story. I was stunned at how quickly she became very upset, particularly since she had made the inflammatory claims and I had only asked for her reasoning. She sounded near tears when she told me that since we have different opinions, we can't talk about it, and since I'm not Chinese, I'll never understand her point of view and there's no use trying. This mentality is what really struck me. I know this sounds epically corny, but I feel like that statement is literally the antithesis of a major American ideal. I told Yimei that no, I didn't yet understand where she was coming from, but I might be able to if she helped me. I told her that I didn't want to change her opinion, just understand it- that's why I'm here in China, to learn things that only Chinese people can teach me. From there the cliches built- it's good to have different opinions, in America we like to talk about them, no one will ever understand without talking, lalala. Somehow my speech actually carried some merit; Yimei believed that I was just curious and let down her guard. She ended up telling me about the things she has read and learned, and the personal opinions she had drawn from that information. When she asked me to do the same it was clear that our facts have a huge chasm running between them. I think we both viewed each other's take on it with skepticism. Though neither of us believed the new revelations, we both found it interesting to compare our versions of the truth, if somewhat bemusedly. The whole thing began as a sticky situation, but in the end I'm glad it happened. The political discussion yielded cultural lessons.

Now, on to Wednesday

Spoiler alert: PANDAAAS and CHEEESE.

We arrived in Shanghai around 11am after a comfortable hour(ish) on the high speed train. After several subway lines and a short walk we were able to check into our hotel and begin our Shanghai adventure. And where do all adventures start? The zoo!! We were all resolved to see pandas while in China, and a major incentive of the Shanghai trip was the fact that several pandas have been relocated from Chengdu for the World Expo. The weather alternated between drizzles and showers, and while it wasn't as cold as the psychotic news reports predicted, I was preparing mentally for a potentially miserable trek. On the contrary, the drizzles ended up being an amazing stroke of good luck. The entire zoo was utterly deserted; sadly this meant all the food stands were closed, but that aside, it was much more fun having the place to ourselves. After visiting West Lake on a nice day, I can say that when it comes to tourist destinations, I absolutely prefer a chilly breeze and open walkways to the massive crowds of sunny days. We were worried that the animals would all be hiding due to the rain, but once again, the weather proved to be our greatest ally. When we made our way to the pandas we found that there was an outside enclosure connected to an indoor enclosure, the latter of which was roofed and contained only by glass. Rather than scattered around the large outdoor enclosure as they would be on a good day, all ten pandas were chilling in the much smaller indoor component. They were SO CUTE!! We spent about an hour watching them play, roughhouse, sleep, and look generally huggable from just across the glass. We also watched them get fed bowls of milk (?), carrots and bamboo. I took about 80 pictures, that's how unbelievable it was: a line of 10 pandas drinking milk, a panda hanging from a log, a panda sitting on his butt on a slide, a panda eating a carrot, a panda with a big belly... I swear, it never got old!! It was absolutely amazing to see SO many pandas SO close and with no need to share. The fact that this was possible thanks to crappy weather also adds a nice moral to the story. :)

After saying goodbye to our ten best friends, we visited a few more noteworthy animals. First, we saw a huge lion, also particularly interesting because he was so close and active. Despite the raw power and majesty, I think he was just as unhappy as any kitty to be out in the rain. Unlike other kitties, however, this lion began to growl and roar, seemingly at us. There is no way to describe a full-blown lion roar experienced at close quarters with no background noise or distraction. We also saw a giraffe that was practically knocking its head on the glass, adorable giant-chipmunk-tiny-deer things, elephants, and a silverback gorilla. I visited a major zoo in Bangkok that was not up to my humane-treatment standards, so I was happy to see that the conditions were just as good as the nicer American zoos and it was probably a bit cleaner and less smelly too. I probably should have expected this; as the World Expo is sure to demonstrate, Shanghai is an immensely modern, sophisticated, and international city.

Wow… the zoo was so exciting I didn't really pay attention to the rest of the day. I guess I was still playing with pandas in my head.

Oh, yeah! Food! Unfortunately for those interested in Chinese cuisine, this was not a cultural dinner… but it was VERY much enjoyed. We had driven to a small traditiional shopping street to look around and have dinner. Cassie and I, of course, were very quick to spot a beautiful, shining, majestic… Americann diner!!! They nailed the decor, complete with mirrored walls and leather booths. Cassie, Alex, and Sandy got burgers / fries, Lauren got pesto feta penne, Derrick got creamy shrimp fettuccine and I got an egg / bacon / cheese breakfast burrito with potatoes (breakfast for dinner! True diner style!). To seal the deal Lauren and I also shared cheese fries… withh REAL cheese, not the gross liquid nacho kind. Now, you've got to realize, legit cheese fries are difficult to come by in the US. I was PHYCHED. Ahhh, so satisfying. I've missed cheese! Other than the problematic lack of cheese, it's not that I'm tired of Chinese food itself, just the monotony. I've realized that at home I would never eat the same kind of food multiple days in a row. I miss the variety.

The shopping street was very nice to walk around. Most of us didn't buy anything because it was pricey (stores rather than stalls), but there were lots of neat things to look at. In particular, there were several photography stores displaying and selling gorgeous prints. I was interested to note that almost all employed the same Photophop gimmick, which I thought enhanced some pictures and was very distracting in others.

From the shopping street we met Derek's friend. They tried to take us to some kind of bar, but as all the party spots were full, we ended up in a nice coffee shop. The two quickly supplied all of us with very large frappacino drinks, complete with whipped cream. We tried to protest this addition to the unnecessarily generous food offers, failed, accepted the delicious chocolate yum drinks, and made quick work of them. This seems to be a repeating occurrence.

Uhm, I think that's all we did (the pandas! The pandas in my brain are blocking out everything else!). It was really a great day!

Yeeeeey

Kaybye

Thanks for reading,

Shanghai Here We Come!

(Alex)

Good evening America,

Its a fine Tuesday night over here, and the rain is coming down very, very hard.  The weather today started off mediocre and eventually spiraled into this storm.  It seems like last week's heat wave was short lived, but we can only hope for more good weather for the next two weeks.  At this point, we are all getting acquainted with our new host families and are doing well, but we already miss our old way of life with the first group of kids.  Li Tianle has been nothing but nice, but I miss Charlie and his family so much.  I guess I got closer to him than I thought I had, but its a very good thing I still see him at school, or else....I would cry (kidding).  Tianle lives about a half hour drive out of the city so I am also a bit further way from everyone, but his house is very nice and I am glad to have such luck to be with such a great and welcoming family.  They are all Christian and I very much enjoy the differences of their lifestyle as opposed to mine.  I plan on going to church with my family one weekend and I am really interested in how a Chinese church will be.  Tianle's father is actually building a church in the community for those who wish to worship and that shows his dedication and good attitude both to his religion and his neighborhood.  They are intrigued that I am Jewish, but I am not surprised seeing how very few Chinese are.  I have actually been teaching Charlie and Tianle a little bit of Hebrew here and there and they both love it!  Another shift for me is that instead of waking up at 6:40 am, I now get up around 6 am or earlier!  We live further away and we have to beat the Chang Long (Long Dragon a.k.a traffic) to get to school on time.  I told this to Charlie at school and he just laughed like usual, and I stood there reflecting on my shame...but we both enjoy picking on each other; he truly is my little brother (don't worry Jake!). 

As for the school day, we had our Chinese Painting class today and we began preparing to make our final "masterpiece" or so our teacher called it.  The girls are all excellent artists, so I feel very intimidated when they paint well and I can hardly paint a straight line for my life.  Couple this with the fact that my hands are really big and you have a recipe for destruction!  My first few paintings here were like caveman prints, except mine were just smudges of Chinese ink; it was quite embarrassing.  I feel like I have improved though (no matter how little), and I have begun to enjoy the class more.  When we finish our Chinese painting lesson, we all paint what we feel like or talk to Liam to pass the time, but we all very much enjoy our Chinese painting and calligraphy classes and wish we could have more of them.

Today was also a big day for the Shanghai Five.  We had our first meeting with Madame Miao..  She had been in Beijing for a while at the National People's Conference and was very busy these last few weeks, so it was finally great to meet the woman who clothes-lined our chances of going to Tibet.  She is a nice lady who runs a tight ship over here at Hanggao and takes pride in it.  Derek was there to help translate our meeting and we all discussed how thankful we were to be able to visit the school for one month.  Alaina, Cassie, Lauren, and I all individually introduced ourselves and Mrs. Thibeault gave her all the gifts from America that were brought for her.  I taught Sandy a cool phrase for when giving a gift to a Chinese person (Wo song gei ni) which translates into I give you a gift, but she kept thinking I was setting her up to say bad words in Chinese.  It was funny, but when she said it and it turned out to be an actual phrase I saw how relieved she was.  I love to joke around with Sandy just because she is fun to be around and is very gullible sometimes.  Her reactions are also priceless, however she is learning how to counter me at my own game and she is starting to become the jokester herself.  This is not good for me!  But anyway, after our meeting we headed home with our siblings and the rain began.

Tomorrow is going to be amazing!  Shanghai here we come!  I am very excited about going to Shanghai and seeing the Pandas, the Bund, and all the other cool sites and high rises there.  Alaina and Lauren both have their blog days scheduled while we are away, but they will be unable to write the blog when we are there, so there will be a big update on Shanghai on this Friday, so get ready!  Tianle and I are going to go do work now, but check back soon to hear from the Shanghai Five once we have officially been there!  Derek will be coming with us and help us get around and we all can't wait.  Goodnight America, until next time.     

We Are Sooo Busy!

(Sandy)

Hello Blog-readers!

Let me begin by saying that each day is filled with new adventures and often we are not made fully aware of exactly what they may be until we arrive at "the sight". It is my belief that our hosts know the daily plan so we all just go with the flow. Sometimes, for me anyway, the plan includes being passed off to the next family in the middle of the day. I am forgetting how to think for myself and how to organize a day. We are sooo busy, that I have had no time to sketch...thank goodness for cameras. The hospitality and friendliness is "over-the -top". We are all thinking that it may be difficult to return to reality after being treated like royalty for two months! 

This morning's CCTV9 news station had an interesting piece about Chinese weddings. There was a huge wedding expo held in Shanghai and it appears that weddings no longer reflect those of just thirty years ago when one black & white photo and a ring were the necessities. Now, weddings can cost between 80,000 and 100,000 yuan and bring in 2.5 per cent of the GNP of China. Each year for the last two years, over 10,000,000 registered to get married. During the course of our stay here, we have seen many couples getting their pre-wedding photos taken at some of the picturesque places we've visited. The pre-wedding photos are quite a production with the future bride and groom dressing in many different oufits and posing for what could be a Style or GQ magazine cover...some actually quite provocative!

As I was heading for my morning pick-up at the school's front gate, there were as usual, many many orange-clad workers using their long bamboo tongs to pick up rubbish and to keep the streets free of any unsightly refuse. Sometimes, they are hooded, masked and gloved and resemble a neon Darth Vader! They work hard and do a great job!

Boy have we had some unusual dishes while in Hangzhou and for the most part at least a few of us have tried everything. I definitely have my "never-try- again" list but am glad that we were offered turtle meat and shell, duck tongue, jellyfish, chicken feet, teeny little fish that look like a 2-inch portion of a round shoelace and a variety of vegetables that I have not seen before. My personal favorite food is the sweetened lotus root, bamboo shoots in all it's forms, and a clear gelatinous soup with dropped egg and tiny sweet marble-sized bean-paste filled dumplings...often used as a dessert.

I was asked to participate in the school's noon-time student-run radio broadcast. It was a lot of fun and the girls who run it are quite professional. One in particular wants to be news commentator an I believe that she will succeed. She reminds me of Katie Couric. I was asked to speak about DS, my family, my favorite Chinese foods and....why I think art is important!!! Those of you who know me can imagine my impassioned delight to have to speak about that subject. After they restled the microphone out of my hand...(just kidding)...! I referred them to the Internet, to Eliot Eisner and the Ten Things that the Arts Teach...it was all very interesting. This Friday, I believe Alaina will join me for another radio interview.

Lauren and I and her host family visited the Tie Sha River area...a man-made canal at the sight of the old East Gate of old Hangzhou. There is a replica of the gate that also houses a small museum exhibiting a variety of items from that era as well as the original base structure. The Mom is a history teacher, so there was an abundance of information being disseminated with great energy. The Tie Sha River connects Beijing with Hangzhou and was used by the emporer to visit Hangzhou during the spring and to oversee the planting. We also climbed Jade Emperor Mountain (a guzzillion more stairs) which is the highest peak in Hangzhou and offers a great view of West Lake and the eight-sided planting fields that the emporer visited. We walked all around it and through the gently curved walkway that divides the yin/yang tree-filled design in the center of the fields. The locals and tourists enjoy the park and fields...some future brides and grooms were having their photos taken there...and some children were playing ball over a large replica of the "farming calendar" invented by Wang Zhen in 1313.

We also visited the pottery and kiln museums that displayed the ancient processes as well as both original and contemporary pottery made only in Hangzhou...the Southern Song Dynasty Guan Pottery. Because Jade was and is still admired, the potters attempt to replicate the beauty and characteristics of jade in the pottery glaze. I will end as I began...everyday there are new and wonderful adventures to experience!

Best, Sandy

"The Man in the Egg ... He Was Really Big!"

(Cassie)

Hello all! I'm now writing from my new host family's apartment...as I'm sure you've already heard that we made the move last Friday. My new 16 year old host sister's name is Ling Jiawen, and she lives on the tenth floor of a highrise along with her fifteen year old brother and parents. Her family is from the countryside and thus is able to have two children...the rule is that if a rural family's first child is a girl they may have another child. Although Jiawen's family moved to Hangzhou shortly after she was born, the rule still applied. Jiawen is very energetic and quite fit. She proudly told me that she is the strongest girl in her class, and I'm not surprised. She is a bundle of happy energy. Her English is impeccable; she went to a special primary school, so she has been learning English for three years longer than most of the other students at Hanggao. She has been nice enough to agree to help me improve my Chinese pronunciation if I'll help her with her vocabulary, which she feels "is quite poor" but really is the opposite.

This morning, we began our day with blueberry muffins that we had bought at a bakery yesterday. After breakfast, we walked about five minutes to meet two of Jiawen's classmates and friends who all live nearby and therefore have joined in a car pool. After introductions and several questions about which Johnny Depp movies I've seen (one of Jiawen's classmates is a big fan) we got in the car to come to school.

For the first time since we arrived, the weather was nice enough this morning to have the weekly school meeting. This meeting occurs every Monday before school, weather permitting. The meeting was rather militaristic. All of the students formed single file lines which were seperated by class number and gender. The meeting began with the marching of the Chinese flag to the flag pole and its raising to the Chinese national anthem. Then, the entire student body made an about face to watch the day's speech makers - a first year student and a math teacher. After this the students were dismissed and the five of us went to handiwork class. In today's class, we did needlework. Each of us worked on a small wallet which had a cartoonistic, happy picture on it. Unfortunately, all of these wallets (excpet Alex's, he got lucky) had very small pieces which were quite difficult. For those of you who know me well (and probably some of those who don't), you're aware that I am quite clumsy. It was a wonder that I didn't end up with a needle or a pair of scissors protruding from one of my limbs.

We all managed to make it through the class with all of our fingers and proceeded to lunch. After a wonderful lunch, Sandy left for her radio interview and the rest of us made our way to our usual spot for English corner. Today we had a group of about twelve, and we played what seems to be a favorite game in China. It is a mix of truth or dare and pick a number. Basically, one person picks a number, and whichever person picks that number is the victim of the number-picker. The number-picker gets to ask his or her victim any question he or she wants. If the victim refuses to answer the question, he or she instead must do whatever the number-picker asks. We never get too crazy, but today it ended up that Alex had to climb a tree and I had to carry one of the girls around on my back when we refused to answer questions. As always, it was amusing and triggered lots of laughs. After far too short a time we all went to the first of our afternoon classes.

For the five of us, this meant Chinese. Our Chinese class was taught jointly by our teacher and Liam. Our lesson with Liam consisted mainly of a review of everything we've learned so far in the class and a very strange Chinese story. It was about a giant man who lived in a giant egg, where he slept for 18,000 years before emerging to form the sky and earth. We found it so hilarious that it prompted Alaina to write down a direct quote, which was "the man in the egg, he was really big". Looking back, we may seem nuts for being so amused by something like this, but at the time it was wicked funny. After Liam taught us, our teacher took over to give us some vocab about our favorite...FOOD! We learned some new words as well as some old ones. This class wound to a close, and we all went our seperate ways.

When I met Jiawen, she told me that she had music class. During her music class, we watched a segment from Cats and listened to some Tibetan music. It was very unique; franky, I've never heard anything like it. After the Tibetan music, we heard some traditional Chinese singing. Then, the teacher (who has a very strong, smooth voice) sang some traditional music. It was a very interesting class.

At the end of the day, Jiawen had a free period. We went for a run together. By the end, the heat had us sweating bullets. We ran for about three miles, then went to see Lauren, Hongan, Alex, and Tianle, who were playing badminton. We were also joined by Charlie. After a short time the final bell rang and we headed for home. On the way, we stopped to get some ice cream.

The process of getting home was much longer than I'd expected. It took us about an hour from start to finish. We walked about fifteen minutes to catch a bus. Then, we rode the bus for another fifteen minutes. Finally, we got off the bus to walk for about a half an hour. As the weather was wonderful the walking was quite enjoyable, but I'm not looking forward to doing it in the rain that's predicted for tomorrow. As Jiawen is always so happy, however, I'm sure it'll still be fun. When we got home, I met Jiaming, Jiawen's cousin. Jiaming stays with Jiawen's family during the week because it is far closer to her school than her own home is. Then, we ate a delicious dinner which included soup with mushrooms and pork, tofu and celery, and the omnipresent rice, among other things. Jiawen, Jiaming, Mrs. Ling, and I then went to go shopping at the nearby grocery store, which was huge and very crowded. After picking up some necessities, Jiawen and her mom began to pick out food. I must say, they really have me pinned. It was very funny actually. I'd told Jiawen that I like baozi on Friday; she and her mom proceeded to buy a whopping seven varieties of baozi, despite my protests. I didn't protest too much, to be honest. A) I do really like baozi, and B) they both seemed to be having a lot of fun picking out unusual varieties of baozi. The most outlandish was probably a type which is in the shape of rabbits, complete with little red eyes. After shopping, we carried the groceries home. Then, Jiawen began her homework. She seems to have far less than Yin...either I would guess all of her energy helps her to be very efficient. She had all of it finished by 10:30! Tomorrow, she tells me we will begin to sample the baozi. That's all for today! Til next time...

Movies, Medicine, Moving ...

(Lauren)

The last time I wrote I was about to head into my last few days with Ning and her family, and they did their utmost to make them memorable.  Originally, we had planned to go the movies Tuesday night, but our plans were postponed in honor of Derek's birthday.  So we went on Wednesday instead.  I had thought that a Chinese movie theater would be fairly similar to an American one, so I was surprised to find out that it's considered perfectly acceptable to walk into one with a full meal.  In fact, I didn't see anyone selling food at all within the theater, one of the biggest sub-industries (or rip-offs) of American cinema.  I was also pleasantly surprised to find that Chinese movies have no previews!

Thursday morning, Sandy and I took some time out of our morning classes (Chinese and calligraphy) to go to the Zhejiang Provincial Peoples' Hospital with Derek.  We were shown around the premises by an off-duty surgeon whom Derek knew.  The hospital is comprised of two main buildings, one for chronic cases, and the other for emergencies.  Each building had many sub-departments, and I was particularly interested to learn that massage therapy and acupuncture were both offered as a valid remedies.  I had thought that such treatments might be primarily handled by private practitioners, such as Dr. Lily in Yangshuo.

Because we were already at the hospital, Derek decided to show us how a typical visit might go.  First, he had to register at the front desk.  Within minutes, we were being usured into the doctor's office.  I wondered whether Derek's insurance card, which identified him as a Party member, had sped the process up for us. He said that it was unusual for him to see a doctor so quickly, and that we would have had to wait for quite a while if we had come during a busier period.

On the other hand, Derek's "Party card" was a helpful medical record.  All of his information was written in an attached booklet, which allowed the doctor to see very quickly what previous complaints he'd had, and the medicines he'd used.  He was given a diagnosis and prescription, once again in under ten minutes.  And how much does medicine cost in China?  With his insurance, Derek payed a mere two yuan!

After looking around the many different departments of the hospital, the three of us returned to school.  In the afternoon, Alaina and I went to Zhejiang University to visit Steve Landy (which I believe was covered in her last entry).  I would just like to add that it was a pleasure to meet Steve, who offered a lot of great advice about tourist destinations in Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing!

Thursday night was quiet.  I did not enjoy having to pack up all my things again.  I was amazed at how big a job it was, since I had thought that I'd been pretty good about leaving most of my things in my suitcase!  Packing was made more difficult by the fact that my suitcase had reached its absolute maximum capacity back in Xi'an, and would no longer hold all my things.  But with creative use of space (and the loan of many bags from my host mom), I managed to get everything ready for the move.

Friday was bittersweet.  I was excited to meet my new host family, but at the same time, I was sad to be leaving Ning and anxious about having to meet and adjust to a whole new set of family and friends.  We began the evening by playing pool with our host siblings and the friends we'd made in the two weeks we'd spent in our first class.  Some of us were better pool players than others, but we all had fun.  After we had finished, Ning and I met up with my new host family to go out to dinner.

My new host sister, Pan Hongan, was more reserved than Ning, but equally sweet.  At dinner, I was left mainly to my own devices, as Ning and my new host mother had conversed in Chinese (my name was mentioned a lot, so I suspect it was a crash course in my various likes and dislikes).  The most unusual food we ate at dinner?  Donkey meat.  I have to say, of all the really exotic/strange foods I've tried in China, donkey is easily my favorite...though I'm not particularly anxious to eat more of it!  We also had a really delicious type of warm black rice juice, which I hadn't tried before, but enjoyed a lot.

We headed back to Hongan's apartment, and after a little while, I said a reluctant goodbye to Ning.  Shortly after, both Hongan and I went to bed, since we had to up early the next day to go to the Wu Zhen Water Town.

And now on to my actual day, Saturday, and our trip to Wu Zhen...

Early Saturday morning, Hongan and I drove to the school to meet up with the others.  I was introduced to Cassie's new host sister, Jiawen, Alaina's sister, Yi Mei, and Alex's brother, Tianleng.  Together with Sandy and William, we drove out to Wu Zhen, which is a small village located about an hour and a half drive outside of Hangzhou.  It is a highly historic village, which the government has taken care to preserve.  The people living there live in the same way as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago.  It is also a "water town," which means that rivers flow throughout the town and form the basis of its economy.  Hongan likened it to Venice, based on its connection to the Hangzhou-Beijing canal and the fact that it is easiest to get from place to place by boat.

In Wu Zhen, we visited many small museums (each museum was only one or two rooms large).  We visited a museum displaying traditional clothes, which in this area tended to be fairly dull-colored, loose silk pants and shirts for both men and women.  Then we stopped at a currency exhibition.  I thought it was going to be a display of old Chinese money, but it turned out to be a collection of all the different types of money that the Chinese get from foreigners.  We saw money from Thailand, Uganda, Colombia, Paraguay, and Nigeria to name a few - but I couldn't find U.S. dollars anywhere!
Afterwards, we went to a tie-dye store.  It wasn't as interesting as the one we visited in Dali (Sandy suspected that the products weren't really tie-dyed, but were really "boutiqued," which I think means stenciled - I'm sorry, I don't remember the term exactly).  Even so, Alex and William amused themselves by playing around with the drying cloth, which in turn amused the rest of us.  Last, we stopped at an old-style pawnshop.  Its teller desk, for lack of a better term, seemed more appropriate for a prison than a pawnshop.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures behind the bars of the desk.

After a very large lunch, we went back outside and saw a shadow puppet show.  Since Alex had missed the show we saw at the Song Dynasty Theme Park a few weeks ago, he was really pleased that one was being performed.  Once the show was over, the group split up to go shopping, but we only had a few minutes before it was time for our boat ride!

The boat ride through Wu Zhen was one of the highlights of the day for me.  The boats were tiny, rickety things that constantly rocked from side to side, but I thought that was part of their charm.  Cassie, who was in my boat, agreed with Hongan's Venice comparison, saying that the little boats reminded her of gondolas.  The scenery of Wu Zhen, the rustic, typical Chinese old-style houses, seemed like something out of the wuxia movies that I'd seen, such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."  I really felt like I was seeing a China that so far had only existed in my imagination.

The boat ride was our last activity of the day, so we got back on the bus and returned to the school.  Hongan and I walked back to our apartment and had dinner.  Hongan's mom, a history and geography teacher, is also an excellent cook.  I am now somewhat capable of eating long noodles with chopsticks (which is an impressive feat, for those who know how long the Chinese make their noodles!)

We ate dinner early, because Hongan has an extra math and physics class on Saturday nights.  So while she was at her class, my host parents and I decided to go "climb a mountain," as my host mom would say.  Actually, the mountain was more of a hill.  We climbed up to the Baochu Pagoda overlooking the West Lake.  The pagoda is about 1500 years old, and is a beautiful structure made out of white stones.  Around it are a series of narrow rock fissures, which we squeezed through to get to the top of the hill.  From the top, we had an excellent view of Hangzhou and the West Lake at night.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

We made our way back down, and headed back to the apartment, where we were later joined by Hongan.  I was very tired, so I headed to bed early.  Tomorrow, we will visit three more scenic spots around the West Lake: the Jade Emperor Hill, the China Celadon Museum, and the Eight Diagonal Fields personally planted by the Song Emperor Gaozhong!

Transitions

(Alaina)

Hello!

This week started off with an unexpected bang. Last period on Tuesday was a “class discussion,” during which the class threw a party for me. Lauren’s class didn’t have anything planned, so she ended up joining me. The party started with Chinese tongue twisters that Lauren and I were forced to try, and then we demonstrated some English tongue twisters that the students tried. We played two rounds of charades, one with me guessing and one with Lauren guessing. I was guessing jobs, such as butcher, midwife, and “cleaner,” while Lauren guessed famous people, such as Marylyn Monroe, Obama (the student acting just said “black” and looked awkward for a minute before Lauren got it), and Michael Jackson.

Now, I expected that the class would give me something small as a going-away gift, and I was right; they gave me a class shirt, which every student in the class has. What I didn’t expect was the onslaught of gifts that continued pouring in. There were probably 25 students who each bought me something. The first girl to give a gift also asked for a hug, so after that they came up one by one to exchange a gift for a hug. This did get dicey for the few boys who got me gifts... the first one I’ve talked to a few times, and he got me a beautiful fan/holder set in one of those pretty Chinese boxes. As this was an especially elaborate gift, of course I gave him a hug too… and a chorus of giggles and muffled shrieks ensued. (It’s funny… the relationship between high school boys and girls is about equivalent to that of American middle schoolers.) I’m not sure if this was socially correct, but I didn’t know what else to do. The next boy got also got an awkward hug, again to the great amusement of the class, and the last boy gave his gift at arms length before running back to his seat. The runner who refused a hug also gave the most incredible gift- a paper swan made out of a zillion tiny paper folds that he made himself over an entire summer vacation. In the accompanying note, which was so sweet, he said he had made it several years ago, but was unable to find its new owner until now. Other gifts include: elaborate beaded handbag, panda bottle opener, ceramic angel, Hello Kitty hourglass, mini Beijing Opera masks, wooden kitty with fishing pole, Buddha necklace, tiny teapot, stuffed tiger。。。 and the list goes on. I was absolutely stunned! I assumed there was some agreement or at least suggestion that people were supposed to bring me gifts, but Ling is positive that there wasn’t, and everyone just decided to bring one on his own. She told me it’s because I’m “very popular in the class”… but I haven’t done anything to deserve so much!! The only time I’m in their class is during lessons I don’t understand, when I silently read. Between classes only a few students regularly talk to me, while the rest are too shy or too busy with school work. I honestly can’t understand it very well. I try very hard to seem approachable and start conversation with everyone, but many of my classmates never reciprocated. Plenty of students didn’t give gifts, so why did the ones who never talked to me still give one? I’m not sure if they felt culturally obligated out of politeness or if they really wanted to give me something and were presumably just too shy to talk more. I’ve just never been in a situation like that! Needless to say, I grew more and more flustered as the pile at my feet grew, and all I could think to do was give bigger hugs!

The rest of the week passed without special event until we got to Friday (my blog day) and of course moving day. As our last hurrah we went out after school with our host siblings, Ning’s friend Bella, and Hong Ye, the senior I talked about in an earlier blog (she got into UCLA, by the way!! I’m so happy for her!). Originally the plan was to go ice skating, but that somehow morphed (perhaps for the better) into playing pool. We went to a giant arcade / pool room that seems to be a popular student hang-out spot. Several of our members, American and Chinese, had never played pool before, so our games included numerous scratches, several balls flying off the table, and frequent laughter. Ling and I were picked up to go to a fancy dinner with six or so of her mom’s friends. It wasn’t exactly my ideal last dinner, since the friends showed didn’t speak English and showed no interest in me, but there were good garlic potatoes. :)

From the restaurant we drove back to Ling’s big apartment, where I packed the last of my things. Given the massive load of gifts I’ve received here, my bag is bulging to say the least. I know that people usually buy another bag to go home, and until recently I didn’t know why. I certainly haven’t bought enough to warrant another piece of luggage, but now I know where at least half of that acquired weight comes from! My new host parents arrived quickly, and after brief goodbyes, we drove to my new home.

 I have to admit, at this point I wish we were staying with one family the whole time. I feel like I had just fully settled into my first family. The communication between Ling and I has improved tremendously, and it’s just now that we’re really in tune. It takes at least two weeks to make a great friend- to learn how to joke with each other and when to stay quiet- and I’m sad that I’ll now see her much less. I can definitely appreciate the value of experiencing life in two different families, but it’s just so exhausting to start over- to learn the ins and outs of a new family, to reintroduce myself to a new set of classmates... I think the result will be many good friends rather than a few great ones, and if I had a choice now, I would pick the latter.

That being said, so far so good! I’m staying with the Li family, which consists of a mother, father, and my host sister Yimei. They live in an apartment near the school that’s also perfectly comfortable, if a bit smaller and less shiny than Ling’s. They don’t have an extra bedroom, so I’m staying in Yimei’s room while she sleeps on a cot in another room... I’d rather not evict her from her room, but sleeping on the cot myself was not an option. Her bed is admitedly very big and comfy. My only house-related complaint (thank god it’s warm outside and heat is no longer necessary!) is that the bathroom door is decently translucent glass... this confuses me.

My host parents are both professors of Chinese medicine in a university. The father apparently writes and reads English excellently, but doesn’t speak it or understand much speech. Nonetheless, we can somewhat communicate- perhaps we’ll have a written conversation soon. Yimei speaks with especially good structure and grammar, though I’ve already figured out that she often pretends to understand me when she doesn’t really. I’m sure we’ll become more in sync with time. She seems to be less affectionate and outgoing than Ling, but maybe she just needs to get comfortable first. She’s is extremely thoughtful (Today: do you like coconut juice? Uhh, yes. *a whole jug of coconut milk and a stack of cups magically pops out of her backpack*). While I’m partially inclined to say that the black-hold backpack is quite convenient, all things considered, I hope she stops treating me with such special attention. This family dotes on my every need to a thoroughly unnecessary extent. Yimei is constantly apologizing for everything, and the family asks me what I want for every meal so they can plan around me. I want everyone to relax! Every time Yimei has trouble saying something, she looks just as flustered as I felt during my gift extravaganza!

Well, that’s all for now.

More updates on the host family soon.

Thanks for reading,

Approaching a Bittersweet Weekend

(Alex)

Hey America!

As we approach the end of our stay with the first set of host families, we all realize how much we are going to miss them all.  I know the girls have all become close with there siblings, but for me and Charlie, I am actually more upset than I thought.  We will still see them at school, but I know I will miss going home to his family and having amazing dinner conversations, funny food incidents, and Charlie's hysterical sense of comedy.  

I made sure that I spent as much time with Charlie today as I could because I love attending his classes and meeting all his classmates, but today we had a lot of our own classes.  Steve Landy, who is now studying at Zhejiang University, came with William to pick us up to tour his campus, but only Alaina and Lauren went.  I heard it was great, but I needed to take care of some things with Charlie and his classmates.  Tomorrow we are supposed to go out somewhere with Derek, and will probably not see our siblings that much, so today was set aside for Charlie in my schedule.  Cassie couldn't go to the University because she got pretty sick and had to go see a doctor, but I am sure she is fine because she is really tough and knows how to take care of herself really well as she has proved in multiple instances while traveling.

Aside from that, today was another fine school day at Hanggao with a great lunch, Chinese class, and our favorite; Chinese Calligraphy.  I am horrible at art, but I really love calligraphy.  We have all improved since week one, but I can't wait to see what turns out our last week.  At the end of the day, Helen brought in a tailor to help us with our measurements for our new and spiffy chinese clothes.  I saw the girls pick their dresses out and I was very jealous of them (just kidding).  It was quite funny because they all took a while to choose their dresses, but I walked in late and they just gave me a vest design that I had no say in!  I wasn't mad or angry, but it saved time because the girls took their time in choosing their dresses, but hey, they are allowed to (I am not).  

As I leave you, we are all approaching a bittersweet weekend with leaving our old host siblings to join our new ones.  We will travel to Wuzhen town on Saturday and we all look forward to going and bonding with our siblings, so with this I leave you all.  Have a good friday and enjoy your weekend.

St. Patrick's Day in China

(Cassie)

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Unsurprisingly, no one here celebrates it.  But I wore a bit of green anyway.  It was amusing explaining what the holiday is to Yin this morning...I think she got the impression that it is a day of worshipping weeds and small red-haired men.  We talked about St. Patrick's Day and other American holidays over a delicious breakfast of steamed buns with sweet red bean paste in the center.  After our discussion and breakfast, we made our way to school. 

I began my school day in English class.  William was teaching.  The class discussed holidays around the world...thus why Yin and I had gone into depth about holidays during breakfast.  The class was most amazed and disturbed by a movie about Dia de los Muertos, which contained people wearing skeleton costumes and dancing in a cemetery.  The class was wrapped up with a discussion of the similarities and differences between holidays in different countries.  After this came Chinese class, in which I finished the book "Freakanomics". 

After the second lesson with our host siblings, we all met Liam and our kungfu teacher in the gym for our second session.  After several laps and some stretching, we began the period by learning the rest of the moves in the kickboxing series we'd began to learn during the first class.  We finished the routine!  It took many tries, but we managed to learn the entire sequence.  After this, we had some free time in which I ran, Alex and Liam played ping pong and basketball, Alaina drew, and Lauren learned a few badminton tricks from the teacher.  After I ran, the teacher then attempted to teach me how to balance a soccer ball on my head.  While he managed to balance the ball for an impressive amount of time, it didn't exactly go well for me.  Let me put it this way...he laughed at me to the point where he cried a bit.  At the end of the period, we headed to lunch, which was delicious and included fresh fruit and (to Alaina's delight) no condiments! Both she and Alex hate mayo, and she isn't a fan of ketchup either. 

Then, we had English corner for the first time! At 12:30, we all went to sit out on the grass near the entrance of the school.  We were joined by a small but lively group of four seniors.  One, named Joe, had met us yesterday and informed us that he would've been part of the delegation last year.  Another girl named Michelle told us that she had applied to American universities and Williams is her favorite.  She ended up coming with us when we went to cooking class.  I'm so happy the weather has finally been consistently nice long enough for us to start English corner! It was a lot of fun to meet some new and interesting people, and I'm looking forward to doing it on a regular basis. 

At the end of English corner we went to cooking class.  Today, we were taught to cut up fruit in such a way that it looked beautiful and delicious.  It was just as fun to make as it was to eat.  After all the fruit had been eaten, Sandy made a work of art which looked rather like a dragon and included a mouth of watermelon rind and toothpicks, eyes made out of strawberry slices, and a tongue made of orange peel.  We had a little bit of down time after making our fruit masterpiece, so some of us sat out in the beautiful warm sunshine (it was in the 70s and clear today) while others sat inside and chatted. We were joined by Ning, her friend Bella, and Charlie, who later accompanied us when we went to buy silk.  I found it remarkable that they could just leave school without telling anyone...I'm not sure why but Hanggao is much more relaxed about having students come and go about campus.  It might be the location...none of the students use cars to go anywhere because anything one could possibly want is within walking distance. 

To begin our errand, Helen picked us all up.  We then proceeded to walk down the nearby silk shoppping road, then turned into a neighborhood, made many turns, and ended up on a busy street again.  I would've gotten so lost if I'd been on my own.  We then stopped in a shop to pick out the silk for our qipaos (for Lauren, Alaina, and I), jacket (for Sandy), and vest (for Alex).  Remarkably, we all ended up with blue and green hues.  We'll match well at the banquet.  After we'd looked over seemingly endless reams of silk, we headed back to the school in time for clubs. 

Alaina and I were headed for the English club today.  We spent most of the club teaching the kids, who were very enthusiastic, an American song.  We'd chosen "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.  Coincidentally, I'd found out the night before that Derek loves Jason Mraz, so he'd volunteered to get some music videos with lyrics for us.  With these to aid us, we managed to teach the class the whole song and they were singing it by the end of the period!  It was alot of fun, and the happy song definitely matched the weather and our moods well.

With the end of the club came the end of the school day.  Yin and I rode bikes home as usual, then took a longer route to walk home so that she could show me her middle school and so we could enjoy the weather and the setting sun.  When we got back, I read and she drew until we sat down to dinner, which was three dishes - carmelized onions and egg, stirfried beef and potato, and cold (but not raw) cauliflower - all of which were delicious.  After dinner, Yin went to attack her huge mountain of homework, while I worked on some of my own schoolwork.  That's it for today!  We're all having a really great time.  I can't believe that we'll already be moving in with our second host families the day after tomorrow.  'Til next time.

"Duck, Duck, Goose"

(Sandy)

Once again I took my very lovely walk down the silk street to make my way to school. The locals were out sweeping their walkways, washing down stubborn stains, sipping morning soups and racheting open the huge locks set into place the night before. It is important not to mentally drift away too far while walking because VERY quiet motor bikes suddenly appear within inches of your body as workers scurry to their jobs. Pedal bikes are also whizzing by, but, not nearly as many as I remembered from my last visit in 2001.

First class this morning was Chinese painting. We were once again given books to look at and to copy from...to practice for our final work. I think I may ask her to demo for us and let us copy her technique stroke by stroke. We will all get much more from the class that way.

At lunch we were once again served some very interesting dishes...always a visual delight and most of the time a puzzle as to what some of it actually is. We all devoured the sweet mangos and worked our way around the meats that were served. I will admit that processed meats are not my favorite so I gave my skewered medallions to Charlie, Alex's host. He is a tall thin young man with an appetite like no other person I know. The host kids and some of their friends usually join us at some point during lunch, so instead of wasting the food we do not eat, we share it with them. It usually all disappears. Knowing that Alaina loves milk tea, her host sister always brings her a container at lunch. The look of pure satisfaction on Alaina's face is priceless! Lauren's host, Ning, is a delight and always shows up with hugs. Cassie's host sister always wears a great big smile...braces and all!

After lunch, I had two classes with William the young Chinese English-language teacher that came to our school a couple of years ago. As always, it was great fun and very informative for both the students and me as we exchanged questions and answers about many different things. In nearly every class I am asked about politics, American schools, and American teenage culture. The class questions and the "quiet conversations" that I have had with students has changed greatly since 2001. There is a greater desire for worldwide open communication and for personal freedoms and choices. In 2001 when I asked students what they hoped to be as an adult, they could not even comprehend the idea of having a choice...not anymore!

During last period, Cassie, Alex and I were again with William's class. Outside in one of the courtyards, the Chinese taught us a "tag" game that everyone appeared to enjoy very much on this beautiful warm day. Alex and Cassie then taught them "duck, duck, goose"...a very different game when there are over fifty kids sitting in a circle. At the end of the class, were were thanked for our participation and given gifts. Cassie and Alex received beautiful pieces of calligraphy painted by one of the student's fathers and another gift of personal notes from the students. Be sure to ask Cassie about hers, the quotes are priceless ! I received a floral brush painting by the same father. What a great bunch of kids all around!

In the evening, we all went to a birthday dinner for Derek (the teacher who will be coming to DS in April) and his wife and another special couple in their lives. It seems that "Rossi" was in university with Derek and actually introduced him to his future wife. Rossi is also a very fun guy...making balloon animals and large balloon machine guns and doing magic tricks with cards and ropes. After university, Rossi decided that being a teacher was not for him...he said that if he taught the way he wanted to he'd be fired. He and Alex spent quite a while discussing historical war facts...I think their acquaintance will turn into a friendship! The evening ended with taxi rides home for some of us, but I think Derek and Alex may have gone out shopping for videos for his senior project.

All the best, Sandy

Flagging Taxis in Hangzhou

(Lauren)

Before I write about what happened today, I would like to briefly recap my experiences with my host family since the last time that I wrote.

I believe that I ended my last blog preparing to play a Thursday night Wii Golf with my host parents.  Actually, the golf game was a much bigger event than I was anticipating.  My host parents and grandparents (Waigong and Waipo) all wanted to play, and my other set of host grandparents (Yeye and Nainai) came over to the apartment to join in.  The first game was played between myself and my host parents.  Unfortunately, I had never played Wii golf before, and had no idea how to properly judge the strength of my shots.  I was +7 after the very first hole!  Yeye and Nainai found my abysmal playing absolutely hysterical.  Fortunately, Nainai played me in the next game, and did just as badly, so I felt a lot less self-conscious.  Of course, I lost both games...

Friday night karaoke has already been written about, so I'd just like to briefly repeat how amazing our Chinese friends are at singing! It's my theory that speaking a tonal language helps to develop an accurate pitch.  I also think that music in general is a bigger part of Chinese culture than American.  Ning, my host sister, is constantly humming along to some tune!

Saturday the group went to the beautiful West Lake, and to the Hefang Cultural Shopping Street.  By far the most interesting cultural experience for me was trying to navigate the public transportation system in Hangzhou.  Because Ning had an important astronomy competition Saturday, she did not accompany us to the West Lake.  Instead, her best friend, Bella, and a second friend, Susie, went with me.  Unfortunately, this meant that when the others were picked up by their host parents, I had no direct way of getting home.  Bella and Susie thought the simplest thing to do would be for the three of us to take a taxi.  In China, this is much easier said than done.

Because the West Lake is a very popular tourist destination, it is incredibly difficult finding an empty taxi.  Bizarrely, even when we did manage to flag down an empty one, the taxi drivers seemed to be following specific routes.  We were repeatedly told that Ning's apartment was "too far" from the West Lake for the taxis to drive us.  So after an hour of this, Susie went home (how she managed this, I have no idea), and Bella decided that the two of us should take a bus instead.  I have never seen more crowded busses in my life.  Every time a bus pulled up to the stop, a huge mob of people would swarm it.  Busses were filled well beyond capacity.  Some were so full that a few unlucky people had to jump off to avoid being crushed by the doors.

Several busses came and went, but the crowd never lessened.  Bella decided to try a taxi again.  Unfortunately, by this point we had been trying to get some form of transportation for two hours, from 3:30 to 5:30.  And what happens at 5:30?  The cab drivers all go home for dinner.  And for the few that remained on the street, Ning's apartment was still "too far" to go.  So Bella and I ate "zongzi" at a cafe while we waited for the cabbies to come back to work at 6:30.  "Zongzi" are Bella's favorite food, and they are really delicious and filling.  They are essentially big squares of fried rice mixed up with an unidentified meat...and exactly what I wanted after walking for two and a half hours!  But as it turned out, even after 6:30 it was impossible to get a taxi.  We finally managed to get through to Ning's family, and got picked up by my host mom at 7:00.  What an evening!

According to Bella, the fact that Hangzhou lacks any kind of subway system makes it extremely difficult to use public transportation, since there are always mobs of people trying to squeeze onto fairly limited numbers of taxis and busses.  I definitely learned that the hard way!

Yesterday, Ning, her mom, and I went to the National Silk Museum (Hangzhou is particularly famous for its silk).  It was surprisingly small for a national museum, which increased its intimacy.  The exhibits were quite detailed on all aspects of silk production.  Since I didn't know that much about silk, I was really interested in learning about the different weaves that went into different types of silk (for example, certain weaves produce a shinier surface than others).  It was also interesting seeing the models of the process - the amount of effort that goes into making goods is simply enormous!  But my favorite exhibit included examples of the clothes worn throughout the ages.  Whereas Westerners think of monarchs wearing "royal purple," traditional Chinese emperors wore yellow.  In another example, Ning explained to me that the loose, shapeless style of the Qing era women's dress indicated social repression.  In earlier, freer times, clothes had been more form-flattering.

Once we had finished with the silk museum, we headed over to a celadon museum.  We didn't see too many of those exhibits, but we did get to make our own pottery!  It was fun, extremely messy work.  Neither Ning nor I was any good at it, but we were proud of our meager efforts nonetheless.

Dinner was notable mainly for the fact that we ate duck tongue.  It was very chewy and rubbery, and I am mildly traumatized by the fact that my host family decided to follow up yesterday's tongue with the rest of the animal tonight.  The Chinese are much less picky about what parts of the animal they eat than Westerners are...

Now, on to today.

After homeroom, Ning dropped me off to meet the others for our first "handiwork" lesson.  Today's class was kite making.  The teacher, Mr. Wang, was a very nice man, who seemed to find it amusing to fail to mention important instructions until after we had messed our kites up in some way.  In many respects, kite making seemed like it should be a straightforward class, since we were making diamond-shaped kites, and not fancy ones (although Sandy made a pretty successful fancy one).  Unfortunately, after slaving over our kites for hours, we discovered that none of them were balanced properly, and so they did not fly.  Such is life.

We went straight from handiwork to lunch, which was good (as always!)   Then we went to Chinese.  Class started with a review of what we had learned in the last lesson.  Sadly, we had never actually learned any of the words we were supposedly reviewing.  The teacher tried to teach us how to use our "review" words in phrases, but only Liam, our Chinese translator, was able to follow what he was saying.  He also tried to have us translate simple phrases from English into Chinese, but he only understood what we were saying if we were able to come up with the exact phrase that he had prepared (I think the more people know English, the more they can understand the sentence structures that an English-speaker will come up with and get the gist of the sentence, but the teacher doesn't know much English).  It was at this point that the teacher more or less gave up.  We went to a fruit store instead, and bought fruit.  We ate the fruit (bananas and a strange Chinese mini-orange).  Then we walked around a couple of nearby streets, and scouted out potential shopping sites.  It was very pleasant.  We returned to the school, listened to a Chinese song, and then class was over.

I went back to Ning's class for geography, and spent last period playing pingpong with Ning, Bella, and Alaina.  I managed to win a game against Ning, which was pretty exciting.

Tomorrow, I look forward to Chinese painting...and a trip to the movies after school!

"Coming Full Circle"

(Alaina)

Hello!

It feels like we’ve been in Hangzhou for much longer than a week. We’re now getting back into the school routine, albeit a very different one. My classmates are getting used to me and becoming more willing to test out their English. A highlight of the week was when Sandy was scheduled to speak in the room next to mine, and since I was in a Chinese physics lesson, I joined her. The class was much more exuberant and curious than my own class had been during my Q&A period. Sandy deserves most of the credit for this; she has a fantastic ability to break the ice and get everyone feeling comfortable by being generally approachable and (of course) telling amusing stories. After she introduced her home and family, we asked for questions, after which there wasn’t a moment of silence. The array of questions was wide and interesting: what are your physics tests like? What kinds of pets do you have? How does a wallaby survive in your climate? What do you think of Marylyn Manson? How does Chinese and American sightseeing compare? Is it rude to take pictures of foreigners? What’s your favorite basketball team? Can you see the Milky Way Galaxy in Dover? Do you sing? No, you don’t... WILL YOU SING US A SONG ANYWAYS??!? They were very persistent with that last (unfortunate) question. Given how outgoing and friendly the students were being, I couldn’t refuse despite mild embarrassment. I copied a move that Cady made two years ago and demanded that the question-asker sing her own song first… this may not have been the best decision, as she was clearly interested in my singing because she herself is very talented. The students here LOVE Avril Lavigne and I still remember some songs from long-ago obsession, so I sang Skater Boy after the class promised to sing along. I’m still not sure if I escaped with my pride intact.

Earlier this week I was introduced to Hong Ye, a senior who wanted to meet me because she is also waiting to hear from American universities. Not only is she “Chairman” of the school, but we are applying to a few of the same colleges. (Competition!! Kidding… mostly.) When Ling told me that she wanted to talk about college, I expected more of the same questions, namely SAT scores and what schools “want” in essays. Instead, I found that Ye was feeling just like me- nervous and eager to talk about those nerves with someone in the same situation. Her English is fantastic, and she has much more confidence than most students here. College talk broke the ice, but we ended up chatting for over an hour about everything from food to internet censorship. It was by far the most natural and fluid conversation I’ve had so far with a Chinese student. She may be the first person to immediately treat me simply as a friend rather than a foreigner who (a) deserves special attention, or (b) is intimidating. Since Ye knows she’s going to an American college (she’s already into a safety), she doesn’t have to take the life-consuming Chinese university entrance exam, so she still goes to school but doesn’t really need to attend classes. A few times she’s pulled me out of the Chinese classes I don’t understand to spend the period talking. I greatly appreciate this alternative… I can hardly snub the student Chairman, after all. :)

While Ling’s classes are generally very boring, I am occasionally roused from my reading/daydreaming when placed suddenly on the hot seat. Last week I was reading during a physics class when suddenly I heard “Alaina” in the middle of a Chinese sentence and the whole class turned to me. I looked up and, sure enough, the PowerPoint featured several white men, a sign which often precludes an awkward speech from me. The teacher then asked me to teach the class about NASA and the first moon landing. I had no idea in what context they were being mentioned, and of course the teacher would specify no further. While I may have made a few valid points, I mostly blanked (given the spotlight in my eyes) and blatantly made things up. Perhaps they’ll attribute the new information to the “American perspective.” Sorry history teachers, I 50-70% failed you on this one.

That’s most of my notes for the week. Saturday was spend with the group, so onto Sunday!

This was our first Hangzhou day all to ourselves. Of course Ling and I took the opportunity to… SLEEP IN! Given 3 weeks of intense traveling and a busy school week, my first lazy morning/afternoon was very nice. I got up around 10:30, and then had several hours free to organize my life a bit. Ling and I finally reentered the world at 2:00, when her TOEFL class began. For those who don’t know, the TOEFL is a standardized test of the English language that American high schools and colleges require of non-native speakers. I thought it would be interesting for a few reasons: (a) I wanted to meet kids who want to come to America (b) I was curious how the class is taught and how advanced the material is (c) Since I’m in AP Spanish I’ll be taking a test in my own second language that’s very similar to the TOEFL, so I wanted to compare the two classes. The teacher was very small, very enthusiastic, and a bit lacking in his English skills. He began by lecturing about dangerous spelling mistakes, such as “adapt / adopt,” that change the meaning of sentences. He then launched into a two hour PowerPoint presentation, every page titled “How raters access your writing.” Once again, I was surprised by how much Chinese was used in an English class, particularly among students who plan to live in an English-speaking country. I was only slightly surprised by the number of basic mistakes in their TOEFL workbook. I was most surprised by a strange interaction I had with the teacher. While trying to explain the word “culture,” he gave the examples of architecture and food before pointing out that I had dyed my hair (my roots are slightly visible), so therefore “wanting to look beautiful” is part of my culture. Apparently, a student told the teacher he had been rude to me, so later the teacher came up to me said that’s just how he teaches so he doesn’t care. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed that in Chinese he would have found something more tactful than “I don’t care.” It was all very amusing.

Ling’s mom picked us up from TOEFL class at 5:00 and we went directly to have dinner with Ella’s parents. My family hosted Ella when she came to America from Hanggao in 2007. She’s now a sophomore at Mt. Holyoke College, and my family continues to see her a few times a year. Her parents managed to get my contact info from the school, and quickly invited me to dinner, a meeting that has been a long time coming. I believe Cady saw Ella’s mom very briefly two years ago, but that aside, we’ve known Ella for years but have never met her parents. I was very happy to finally make their acquaintance, and they were certainly happy to meet me too! Ella’s mother immediately gave me a hug and started manhandling me (in a very loving and motherly way) from place to place. Her father speaks very nice English, so he gave me a tour of the house, mainly in the context of “when your family comes to visit.” I saw where I could sleep, where my parents would sleep, and even where our luggage would be stored. We quickly sat down to a great dinner. They pointed out that the particular soup had been cooked because when “Vizzy” visited last year, she liked it very much. Viz, you probably didn’t know then that you’d be pre-ordering my menu for a year later! You did an excellent job though, so thank you. My favorite dishes: buttery chicken and peas, slices of cooked eel and the best marinated onions I’ve ever had, and a homemade yogurt with strawberries and sugar.

We spent the rest of the night sitting in the living room. I mostly talked with Ella’s father, and enjoyed it very much. He kept bringing me books full of pictures of places (Guilin, Hangzhou, Australia, NYC, Boston, Paris, Moscow, etc) that he or a family member had visited. We passed at least two hours looking through pictures and talking about the sights of China and other countries. If I was unoccupied for a moment he’d be up again finding a photo or a knickknack to show me, always explaining the significance and story behind it. He also gave me a large book about China as a gift for my family, which was very thoughtful. I’m running short on gifts of my own and I didn’t expect to meet them, so the best I could manage was a pretty postcard of Boston on which I wrote a note from my family expressing how happy we are to know Ella, and how nice it is to finally meet the parents willing to share her. It seemed to go over well (though everything generally does here), which made me happy.

I believe this is the epitome of “coming full circle.” It just goes to show how meaningful this program is, and in a larger sense, how meaningful short spaces of time can be. Ella stayed with our family for a measly 5 weeks, and we could have so easily left our relationship at that. Instead, she went on to study in America, and to sometimes revisit the guestroom she slept in while still a Chinese high school student. While I eat dinner with her parents in China, she’s an easy drive from my parents in Boston. I am so lucky to have these one-of-a-kind connections; these relationships that hold so much affection despite time and distance. This is what the China Exchange is about: building bridges around the word. Despite the cliché, it really happens, a fact for which I am very thankful.

Now that I’ve gotten all sentimental on you, I sign out.

Thanks for reading ...

Not Since George Carlin at Carnegie Hall ...

(Alex)

Hello China Blog followers!

I am going to write about today and yesterday seeing how I had quite a few things going on besides the group, but this weekend has been absolutely nuts!

Saturday morning was great because we all got to wake up late. I woke up at 8:30 and by our travelling standards this is average, but we have been out of school so long that waking up at 6:30 everyday is kicking my butt again! After a small breakfast, Charlie and headed out to Hanggao to meet up with the girls. We were a little late, but the traffic that morning was terrible everywhere. We drove to one end of the West Lake (The famous lake in Hangzhou) and spent an hour or so walking to the other end. The weather cleared up along the way presenting us with some great snapshots and group photos. Alaina and Lauren's host sisters were busy that morning, but Cassie's sister was with us. A few of our closer school friends came with us and provided some much needed company.

Once we reached the end of the lake, we drove to a Western styled Caribbean restaurant. The place was packed and hot as heck! Like almost every other restaurant we have been to, this one was buffet styled. The food was mediocre with the closest thing to American french fries we have had yet, but there was one little detail about this restaurant that set off all five of our food radars. ICE CREAM. Legitimate ice cream! We were so happy to have strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, and corn (yes corn) flavored ice cream. That was our main course without a doubt, and we were all so full afterwards we could barely go walk around our next destination. At this point, Alaina's host sister met up with us, but we were still one short sadly. We shopped around Wu Shan Square for a little while, but ended up going back to shop for more because it was only about 2:30 when we met back up. The shopping at Wu Shan was great and I finally found some stores that I liked! (mom that's for you).

Charlie and I have become very close for knowing each other only one week. He has been above the call in every aspect as a host brother and as a great friend. His laugh has to be the funniest thing I have ever heard since George Carlin at Carnegie Hall! It's a shame that we are all only with our host families for two weeks because I wish to get to know Charlie much more, but this does not mean we don't want to meet our other host families! We move in one week, and for me it will be bittersweet because I am no longer living with my best friend, but I am meeting my new one, Li Tianle. Sorry about the digression, but after we shopped more, Charlie and Cassie's sister decided it would be a good idea to go on a little amusement ride in Wu Shan. This ride was a miniature twister styled spin ride that looked pretty fun, but Cassie and I both let our siblings do the work. They got on and we started filming with our cameras, but I had so much trouble holding my camera still as I was laughing so hard at Charlie and his outrageous laugh and scream that I was cracking up like a maniac. It seemed like Charlie had too much of a good time, but this is false because Charlie is always enjoying life no matter where or what he does. After that we all rested in the center of the square and waited for our rides. Charlie and I were the last ones so we decided to buy a kite to fly while we waited for his dad. He taught me how to fly and reel in a Chinese kite, and yesterday was the first day I ever successfully flew a kite and managed to reel it back in amongst a sea of kites. It was an accomplishment for me and I had a blast with him today.

Later that night we had dinner with Sandy and one of Charlie's classmates named Xing Min Gong and his mother. His mom teaches math at the school, but I don't have her. A very nice family, and the dinner was very delicious. We all talked for sometime just about life in China versus life in America and how we have been getting accustomed to the change. It was very interesting and Mr. Chen (Charlie's dad) told us about his travels in America (Las Vegas, New York, etc.). When we got home, we went straight to bed, but I had no idea what was in store for tomorrow.

This whole time I have been in China, I have been communicating with Bob, the exchange student from 2008. I miss him so much and we have tried to work out a time to meet, and that day was today! Sandy and I went with Xing Min Gong's family to morning dim sum at the Hangzhou Tower Mall and it was there that Xing Min Gong's mother called Bob and set up a lunch date. I was so excited to see him again after two years I couldn't believe it. Bob was the closest thing I ever had to an older brother because of all my American family, I am the oldest. At noon, we went to greet Bob and his friend Tony, both at Zhejiang University preparing to spend the next three years at Hong Kong University. Bob looked great! Sandy and I have pictures with him, but we hope to see him again with the whole group perhaps later in the month. Bob and I caught up on life and I got to know Tony quite well too. They both have the same birthday, but Tony looks like he is much older than Bob; they fooled Sandy pretty well!

When the time came for Bob to go back to the University we all exchanged numbers and emails once again and hope to see each other again really soon. Sunday was great and I just got back from dinner at Charlie's father's parents home. The dinner was good and we all took a look at the pictures I have taken in China so far (some quite embarrassing). But with this I leave you all and have a good day America. I hope daylight savings isn't making you all very tired. Bye