The 1st rule of Chinese Driver's Education 101 - There are no rules ...

(Chris Estabrook, teacher)

Hello everybody. I'm sure that you've all been anxiously awaiting my first blog post. :) Our blog is blocked over here in China, so I haven't been able to read what Colin and Lizzy have posted. I'm sure their posts were very clever, witty and observant, so I'll do my best to match wits with those two -although I'm sure they'll have me beat. I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Lijiang. There are 4 people hovering over my shoulder staring at my screen. The idea of personal space doesn't really exist here.
 
First, I just have to say that I couldn't ask for 3 better travel companions.  Lizzy, Colin and Ryan have been wonderful.  They're funny, patient, adventurous...yet appropriately cautious, and downright cool!  This has been one of the most amazing and eye-opening experiences of my life so far and I'm glad I have three great people to share it with.  I'm starting to understand that Colin is going to be the prankster of the group ...

Li River to Yangshuo

(Lizzy Briskin)

Ni Hao!

It’s only our fourth day here in China, but we have already seen so much that it feels like we have been here for weeks. Yesterday we took the Li River Boat Cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo, a relatively small city.

The landscape in this part of China is amazing. The entire area was once an ocean, but what remains now is the thriving Li River surrounded by dramatic karst mountains that appear randomly, jutting straight out of the otherwise flat landscape. We had amazing views of the scenery on the four-hour boat cruise ...

Blogo Numero Uno

(Colin Braun)

Approximately 54 hours have elapsed since the Fantastic Four rose from their beds on Thursday, February 3^rd, 2011, at about 3:00 AM.  During this time, we have spent a good 22 hours on planes, and crossed twelve time zones.  Our initial flight departed Boston at 6:01 AM, and we arrived in Hong Kong 23 hours later, 17 years in the future.  There ARE flying cars.  Not much can be said about the flying, other than the crippling feeling of helplessness felt by at least myself, having for a majority of the flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong been absolutely clueless as to the remaining time.  Also, the food was terrible ...

Arrived in Hong Kong, safe and sound

(Andy)

The group has arrived safe and sound, and Chris has posted the first pictures (upper right).  Because the flight arrived an hour early, they were able to enjoy the fabulous New Year fireworks over Hong Kong Harbor, from the convenience of their strategically chosen room at the Kowloon YWCA!  The Year of the Rabbit has officially begun!

(FIRST POST of 2011 Exchange)The Fantastic Four's Adventure Begins ... finally!

(posted by Andy Vizulis)

After anticipating the most exciting adventure of your high school career for almost a year, wouldn't it stand to reason that a snowstorm would throw plans into disarray in the final 24 hours? But of course! This is New England after all. Though originally scheduled to depart Wednesday morning at 6:01am, the flight was already cancelled on Tuesday because of this year's "if it's Wednesday, it's a giant snowstorm" weather pattern.

But by Thursday morning, everyone had dug out, de-iced and made it safely from Dover and Sherborn to Logan Airport. 6:01am is not a pleasant departure time, especially having to be there a couple of hours early. The only positive is that getting through check-in should be a breeze, right?  Wrong! Due to the cancelled flights the day before, lines were the longest seen since the Exchange began.

With only a half hour left before departure, we all said our hasty (and tearful) goodbyes to this year's group, consisting of Ryan Dougherty, Colin Braun, Elizabeth Briskin (Lizzy), and middle-school Spanish teacher Christopher Estabrook as chaperone. If previous years are any indication, the Fantastic Four (self-dubbed!) will have indescribable experiences they will never forget.  Check back regularly to follow their exploits!

(FINAL POST of 2010 Exchange)Saying Goodbye to a Magnificent Adventure!

(Sandy)

April 10

The last few hours in China! What a strange day…I think we are all feeling a “healthy ambivalence” about getting on a jet to fly home. No doubt, of course we are all missing our families, friends, pets and yearning for normalcy, but it is also sad to say goodbye to a magnificent adventure. Each day brought new insight into the daily living and personalities of those we have met, daring attempts at consuming a pastiche of exotic foods, unbelievable ancient and contemporary sights that many only get to view in books, new sounds of the repetitive city noises and the rural quiet of the farmland, new friends and our homes away from home, and new customs of hospitality that sometime make very independent people a bit uncomfortable…like having someone always wanting to hold your backpack and packages, people always asking if you are tired and need a rest, always being led like a child or being told to “sit, sit!” It is all a bit surreal.

Completing the Beijing Trifecta

(Lauren)

Beijing Day 3

First on today's agenda was a trip to Beijing's famous Temple of Heaven. When we got to the temple, we were immediately besieged by vendors selling cheap children's toys. Surprisingly, the toys were very popular amongst thelocal Chinese. Many of the Chinese elders used the small park in front of the main temple as a local gathering place to socialize and exercise. On our way through the park, we were confronted with the spectacle of old Chinese people dancing to pop music. They were all very good and totally in-sync.

Yes ... I (h)ate scorpion!

(Alex)

Hello America, for the last time in China you will hear from me.

We arrived in Beijing this morning at 6:35 am. The train ride was very nice despite the insane amounts of luggage we all had. I am actually quite surprised we got off the train so easily and quickly, but all went smoothly from transferring to the hotel. We all had trouble letting go of our friends and families and Hangzhou, but it is nice to be travelling one last time before we return to America! At this point we are all craving some good old fashioned American food whether it be cheese or a nice diner burger. The food here has been great (I will get to more of this in a little bit), but I can't wait to have some teryaki turkey and apple pie (mom that's a request please).

Farewell Hangzhou Friends

(Cassie)

Hello everyone. Our last day in Hangzhou...and what a long and eventful day it was! Get comfortable, because this is going to be a long blog.

Today was a day of many lasts . I got up at my usual time to eat my last breakfast with Jiawen - delicious baozi, as usual. I seriously want to attempt to find them when I get home...they re pretty awesome. We were a bit more solemn at breakfast than usual, and Jiawen informed me that she d most likely cry at some point during the day. After breakfast, we wrestled my bags down to the car and loaded them in for my last trip to Hanggao. Once at school, we took my bags to the front building only to find that the bus that was supposed to be waiting for us was M.I.A. I had promised Sandy I would help her get her bags to the apartment, so I left my bags and headed to meet her. We ended up getting a good arm workout out of it because the key to the gate to the school near her apartment hadn t arrived yet. The two Westerners dragging bags down the middle of Silk Street got some pretty weird looks. Unfortunately the bus still hadn t arrived when we got there, but Wu Laoshi was nice enough to less us leave all of our stuff in her office until we could load it in.

Once our luggage was all squared away we went up to the English office to wait to go to our 10:30 farewell meeting. When we got there we realized that nobody d seen Lauren. Her host dad had dropped her bags off and they were with the other luggage but there was no sign of her. I went to her class to find her and she was there...taking a nap on her desk before class started. Apparently this is a regular occurrence. I wish I had her ability to sleep so easily and to to wake up so quickly. With everyone together we sat and chatted with Helen until our host siblings arrived and it was time to go. Everyone s host siblings had little presents for us, as did Liam. My favorite one was an adorable frame given to me by Yin - It looked like a cat. She knows I really like cats. After she gave it to me, she, Jiawen, and I took a picture together so I can fill it when I get home.

We again went to the meeting room where we d originally been welcomed and had met Madame Miao. This time the room was at its most full. We began by hearing a speech from the headmistress bidding us farewell and welcoming us back again (translated for us by Derek). Then, we each said a small piece about how we felt about our time in Hangzhou and what we loved about the experience. Afterwards, each of our host siblings spoke about what they d gained from living with us for two weeks. Each one was very heartwarming, but I was most moved (of course) by my own sisters. Jiawen cried, as promised, and Yin told me she loved me. At this point, it was all I could do not to keep from crying. After a couple more speeches by the administration we got into the bus to go to the restaurant in which we d be having our banquet lunch.

When we got to the restaurant Alaina, Lauren, and I all changed into our dresses and Sandy changed into her jacket. Alex had come prepared...he was already in his vest. We emerged to kind compliments and sat down to a complex and wonderful lunch. My favorites were some garlic mashed potatoes, baozi filled with meat and onions (of course), and congee made with rice and greens. About halfway through the meal we began our speeches. I was incredibly nervous - not only do I dislike speaking in front of large groups of people, but I was also worried I d utterly butcher my Chinese pronunciation. But we were met by laughter and applause at all of the right times, so I think we were pretty successful. I think Ning probably made the funniest comment...when Lauren asked her if she could understand the speech, Ning said Yes...now...may I please have a copy of the speech so that I can read it? . After our speeches we sat back down to dinner. Once we'd finished eating we proceeded to take what must have been hundreds of pictures...we all joked that it was like prom.

We changed again (ironically, it was raining and we didn t want to ruin the silk) and got back into the bus to go back to the school. We had some time to kill, so Alex hung out with Derek, while the girls and Liam went to grab some milk tea and talked about travel dreams of ours. Soon enough our time had run out and we made our way back through the rain to the school.

I ll be frank, the next half hour was pretty miserable. All of our host siblings met us at the first of building of the school. While everyone was attempting to avoid thinking about it, we all knew that final goodbyes were impending. Finally, Derek told us it was time to go and we all made our final goodbyes to all of our siblings. I promised to email both of my host sisters as soon as I got back to America, partook in many hugs, and waved goodbye through foggy bus windows.

We got to the train station a bit early, so we sat amid our many bags and talked with Liam, Derek, Tianle, and Charlie. They had all come to help us get onto the train. All too soon 17:44 rolled around and we made our way onto the train. It was a bit rushed and our goodbyes at the station were hurried, but that was probably for the better as the earlier farewells had been difficult.

The train was quite nice! Each room had four beds and a small table near the large window. We could barely hear the sound of the train as we sat on our beds. The four kids were in one room, while Sandy was next door. From 6 til about 10 (we went to bed early as we knew we had to get up early) we talked, did MadLibs, and ate the snacks we d brought with us. Then we said goodnight and went to bed. I stayed up for a little while to look at the Chinese landscape flying past the window, then fell asleep.

So that s all from me as far as blogs go... It s remarkable that we ll be heading back to the States soon. I ve had a wonderful and life-changing time here over the past eight weeks. Goodbye and see everyone soon!

Disco Rollerblading on the Last Weekend in Hangzhou

(Lauren)

Hangzhou Day 31

For the first time since we have been in China, our group has been separated for a period of several days. Although I think everyone was a little apprehensive about this, I think it was nice to have spent our last weekend in Hangzhou with our host families.

Saturday morning, my host mom and I went to the West Lake to take a bus tour of the scenic sites. (Hongan had to stay home to do her homework). The tour provided a nice overview of the different parts of the lake. It is so huge, I had not realized how much of it I hadn't seen, even though we've been going there every weekend!

For lunch, my host mom took me to a restaurant that served famous Hangzhou snacks. We had "Wawatou" which are little triangular pastries, "hongtang," a type of dumpling soup, and my personal favorite "xiaolong baozi" which are also sort of like dumplings. My host mom was particularly thrillled, because everyone at the restaurant assumed she was my translator, which made her very proud!

After lunch, we went back to one of the scenic spots we'd passed earlier. Gou's Villa, as it was called, used to be the private residence of a partiuclarly wealthy man, and was converted into a tourist site after his death. The villa was made up of several very traditional houses overlooking the lake. As it was not one of the most popular tourist destinations at the lake, we had the place practically to ourselves. It was nice to finally get an appreciation for the beauty and peace that West Lake offers when there aren't crowds of people around!

The next day, my host family and I went back to their hometown for the Qingming Festival. Their hometown, Xin'An Jiang, is a very famous water town. The river flowing through the town is clean and pure, and people could drink directly out of the water (although I'm not sure how sanitary this practice was, considering people also did their laundry directly in the water). Most of China's bottled water supply comes from the river, and my host mom was very proud to inform me that her hometown's river provided the bottled water for the Beijing Olympics!

We went over for lunch at Hongan's grandparents' apartment, where I also met her aunt, uncle, and cousin. After a quick lunch, Hongan's uncle drove my host mom, Hongan, her cousin, and me over to a place where we could ride dragon boats down the river. On our way downstream, we passed a large bridge made up of red arches. My host dad had designed the bridge, and named it the "Rainbow Bridge" after Hongan (whose name translates to rainbow in English).

Once we had finished the tour, Hongan, her cousin, and I went to the park. There were bumper cars at the park, so we rode them. I don't think I've ever ridden bumper cars before, but I was surprised to find how violent they were. The seatbelts were particularly poor - I can't help but think that a company with the same standards in the U.S. would be regularly sued for whiplash!

We left the park and decided to go rollerblading. Naively, I assumed we were going to a skate park. Actually, we were going to a club. The large room where we rollerbladed was lit with three disco balls, the Chinese equivalent of disco music was playing, and the entire room was smoky. It was very funny to watch other people rollerblade. The boys especially knew a lot of cool tricks, but they'd seemed to have forgotten to learn basic ones such as "turning" or "stopping." Therefore, people were constantly crashing into each other (or into walls or pillars).

We rollerbladed for a while, then went out to dinner with Hongan's parents and some of their friends. Hongan's mom's friend's son came later to practice his oral English. I thought this was going to be somewhat disastrous (many people ask to practice, few want to speak), but when my host mom took him, Hongan and I over to another friend's house, he opened up somewhat. The other friend's daughter also wanted to practice English, so the four of us went down into the basement to play Poker. I didn't know how to play Poker, but I caught on fairly quickly. Then my host mom decided to join the game to "help me," but kept accidentally revealing all my cards instead! I didn't win many games, but it was a lot of fun anyway!

After Poker, we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Tomorrow, we will be saying our goodbyes to everyone in Xin'An Jiang and heading back to Hangzhou. I can't believe I have only one more day left with my host family! I have really enjoyed being with them and will miss them a lot.

Until next time!

Kites, KTV and "Finger Food"

(Alaina)

Wow, I can’t believe it’s April! I feel like just yesterday I was marveling over it being March.

Today started slowly before rapidly picking up the pace. Yimei had classes in the morning, so I slept until 9:30 (I can’t sleep any later! I bet my parents can’t believe it) and lounged around being lazy for a couple hours (that they can probably believe). Yimei came home with a friend named Lucy, and the three of us were dropped off along the Beijing- Hangzhou canal. We met up with three more friends, and after a bit of searching and miscommunication, finally found Alex, David, and several more of their posse. I wasn’t expecting a large group activity, so it was a nice surprise. Though I hadn’t met any of the other kids, they were all outgoing and very friendly so I enjoyed talking to them. The plan was to take the “river bus” down the canal, but first we had to kill an hour or so before the boat came. We did so by buying kites and flying them while everyone got acquainted. Thanks to the wind, there were another dozen kite-flyers in the same plaza. I don’t think you’d ever see teenagers and adults flying kites in the middle of the city at home. I love that whenever I look up, the sky is dotted with swatches of darting color.

Most of us got on the canal boat while a few had to take taxis because there wasn’t enough room. It looked just like a train inside, with a narrow isle and seats on either side. The ride wasn’t particularly noteworthy. When we got off there was some confusion and lag time before we decided to head for KTV. (It seems that plans are never well organized. I often feel that communication skills are lacking.) It took us a 30 minute bus ride to get to the KTV building, where we got a private room that was similar to the one we had earlier in the trip. Students are always surprised that this form of KTV is not popular in America; I’m not sure if it exists at all. Alex and I sang a song together and somehow managed to escape solo embarrassment. The most interesting singer of this round was Jungle, who I suspect Alex has mentioned in previous blogs. He’s extremely outgoing and apparently a class clown, as evident in the jumping included in his songs. Once again, I was amazed by how great most of the voices were. How do they all sing so well??

After KTV Alex and David left the group to meet up with Derek while the rest of us went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Okay, I realize that every time I write the blog I’ve just eaten Western food, but I swear it’s not actually a usual occurrence!! This is the first cheese fix since my last Shanghai blog. Admittedly, I did thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the stuffed crust pizza and potato mushroom cheese gratin. It was interesting to see how surprised and slightly taken-aback everyone was to hear that the fries, pizza, and chicken wings we ordered would all be eaten by hand in America. This is particularly interesting because in most ways I think Chinese eating customs are far less polite and orderly than those in America. Everyone slurps drinks, reaches across the table, eats straight from the serving dish, holds bowls right up to the face, eats noodles by the dangling mouthful, and spits things back out. Personally, I’m perfectly happy to accept a downgrade in manner regulation, as it makes eating much easier. Conversely, the Chinese students were clearly not comfortable eating food with their hands. I did convince a few brave souls that finger food is meant for the fingers, but most continued to attack the pizza and fries with fork and knife.

At this point most of the group dispersed while Yimei and two boys named Bear and Island continued to search for entertainment. (I’m starting to like their use of real words as names. It's fun!) We walked to a movie theater, but there were no English movies playing anytime soon. Luckily, there was an ice cream shop to make our walk worthwhile. I’ve found that it’s (shockingly!) common for kids here to not like desserts. Island didn’t get ice cream because it’s “too sweet.” Blasphemy!!!!

We continued to wander the streets for a while and when we couldn’t find anything of interest we walked to Bear’s home. I wish I had met him earlier because he was great to spend time with. Boys have been especially shy around me, and though Bear is soft-spoken, he is also confident. He introduced us to his mother and ushered us to the sofa where Mr. Bean was promptly selected as the evening’s entertainment. It was perfect because there isn’t much speaking, and we could all chuckle at his expressions. Before we left, Bear’s mother presented me with a gift of two blue china tea cups that were probably pulled right out of the cupboard. I get too many gifts!!! All I did was walk into her house and watch movies with her son for an hour, why do I (and none of the other guests) deserve a gift?! Anyway, from there Yimei and I got picked up and here I am now, ready to go to sleep!

Ah, but the topic of gifts reminded me of someone I should introduce you to. About two weeks ago I helped with the student radio show that Sandy described earlier. The girl asking questions asked about movies, so I told her Tim Burton was my favorite director. We could barely finish the interview because she also loves Tim Burton / Johnny Depp movies, and is just as well versed in them as I am. I think we were both so excited to share such a specific interest given the huge difference between our lives. Rinka (her English name) and I began talking about movies and plots, from Edward Scissor Hands to Sweeny Todd, which broke that initial ice and let us find even more in common. Since then she has come to every English Corner. We get along perfectly. Gifts reminded me of her because on Thursday she gave me a gift that is definitely the best I have received so far. It’s a Chinese children’s book called “when we are together” and Rinka put a post-it on each page translating the words. In a long and incredibly sweet note, she said that she loves it though the story is simple. To give you a taste, here are a few pages: “a little girl, a crocodile, a gray bear, a giraffe, a piglet, and a lion are all friends. They paint together. They have fun on the moon together. When the feel tired and have a rest, they still stay together. Even in their dreams, they are still best friends.” Awww!! There are a few kids I’ll really miss. Actually to be honest, since we haven’t known each other long it’s not exactly that I’ll miss my new friends. It’s really that I’m sad we won’t be able to develop the great relationships that we would given more time. I’ve met some people who I know I could become very close to, and though I’ll always remember and absolutely try to keep in touch, we can’t continue to build our friendship in the same way. This is the bittersweet element to making friends abroad.

This time next week we’ll be on a plane!!!! WOW. I’ll save those thoughts for my last blog.

Mkay thanks for reading!

Last Day at Hanggao

(Alex)

Good evening all!

As we approach our final week in China, we are all cramming in last minute activities and plans. Our time has flown by and we can't believe that today was our last day at Hanggao! We had our final aerobics class with the dance teacher and Liam today, and though it may not have been the most fun class, the act of poorly dancing and jump roping will be missed. Liam and I tried our hardest to maintain a jump rope today with the teacher, but she was way too fast! The teacher just giggle at our attempts to keep up with her pace, but we all gave it our best try. After the class we all headed to our final meal with Chef Wang and were very glad to see he prepared us pizza, ribs, chicken wing, and chocolate covered peanuts (my favorite)! We all enjoyed the meal very much and will miss the living daylight out of Chef Wang and his amazing and extremely funny personality! Soon after, English Corner time was arriving, and today we had the biggest crowd yet. Word had spread that it was our final day of school so even people that we have never met before showed up! It was surprisingly big for us, but we all loved the company so much. Joe and Kitty showed up along with Alaina's friend, my two pals named Vapor and Little Bread, and a ton of other students wishing us the best travels and safe ways. It was here that we all truly recognized how much a part of Hanggao is in our lives and how much our stay here has affected Hanggao. The students and teachers alike are all so awesome and friendly and they will be missed dearly and we are so grateful to have had the pleasure of their presence.

Later in the day as we began to hand out our gifts to teachers, we found each one of them and individually gave their gifts. Every teacher was very stubborn about accepting the gifts, but it is all part of the Chinese culture. William had plans for us to go out to Zhejiang University to see Bob and a few others, so we met him and Ivan at the English Corner well at 3 pm. From there we all drove thirty minutes to get to the University to see the Team America 2008 students for the last time (minus Alice). Bob showed up with friends including Sam (the boy from 2008 who had the astronomy competiton that could not make it), Tony, and Rough. Rough speaks outstanding English, and he lived in the US for a year with his father nine years ago. We talked about University life whilst taking a tour of the college on a golf cart. Bob was our guide so of course things could get out of hand. After the short tour, we all sat down next to the river that runs through campus and played an intense series of Uno. We couldn't play San Guo Sha because the game is all in Chinese and the rules are too complicated, but Uno was so fun and funny to play. It was Sandy's first time playing, and she completely swept the first round of cards, setting up the next few rounds to be really heated. At one point, four people at once had Uno and that was quite a moment, but after Uno something hilarious happened walking back to the cars. To begin, Lauren's head is a magnet for sports balls to hit. She has been hit by ping pong balls, a birdie, and a basketball all in the course of a few weeks, and a second basketball just added to the list. Rough brought a basketball with him to play with later, but Bob hijacked it and started fooling around with it. He was playing and he accidentally bounced it off the back of Lauren's head and it went bouncing and rolled into the river. It was hysterical with everybody laughing including poor Lauren! We spent the next half hour trying to fish the basketball out of the river with a long piece of bamboo, big rocks, and tons of branches. After finally getting the ball, we made sure that Bob never touched that ball again the whole night and we all headed off to dinner.

At dinner, we all talked about our stay in China the past 2 months and reflected on our experiences. While that was fun, somehow movies got brought up into the conversation and that took the main topic of the night. William loves movies as much as Derek and I do, and Bob was writing down all the movies we were talking about to go see later. The dinner was a great unofficial close to our stay in Hangzhou, but the night was not over. We all went back to William's house to play guitar hero and to meet his family. It was the girls first time meeting Emma (Hu Xiao Ai) and they all fell in love with her! She is extremely cute and hilarious too. During Guitar Hero, she would get up and dance to the songs and hug William's leg during his guitar solo. We played for an hour and a half, and then we departed ways. I said bye to Bob and Ivan for the last time that night and I will miss them too much! It had been two years since I had seen them, and it could be even longer until I see them again so I really enjoyed this night. Tomorrow all of us and our host siblings are supposed to get together so I hope that works out, but for now I leave you all.

See you in a week!