Se7en

Seven 

My 月考 (Yuekao / monthly test) did in fact go well! 

I've also started working on a supplemental textbook with more complicated vocabulary and grammatical structures, so that's keeping me busy on the academic front. 

We met our language partners for the first time this week! Each one of the international language students is paired with a Chinese student to meet once a week to work on our respective languages of study. My partner is a dance enthusiast named Yi chen. So far, we've only spoken Chinese but it's a great exchange and automatic friendship. She is so sweet!

We also made these beautiful kites in art class: 

Reo (from Japan) and I painted this one that has our Chinese names and "Feel the wind" in Japanese. 

I haven't flown a kite in such a long time and I forgot how much of a blast it is (and how much work!) 

(Class 1 & 2 international students from left to right: Saori, Eriko, Johanna, Tilden, Maike, Megan, Yasu, Vitaly, Me, Reo, Keoindre, Carmen, Sarah, Julie, Paris, Jens, Brady, Noah, Eric). 

On the extracurricular front: I went to my first choir practice this Monday! It is taught in English by an American IB teacher and we sing all sorts of music, but I also get the opportunity to speak Chinese with the other lovely Chinese students there. There is a great guy whose English name is Howard who always wears a black suit coat and combat boots and carries a brief case. Didi is also an cute and awesome alto who plans to attend Rochester University next year! 

During the practice, we warmed up with a variation of "Amazing Grace" and then started working on a four-part French Renaissance piece called "Mille regretz". I am a soprano but am singing the tenor part an octave higher for this song, because there aren't enough tenors.

It's a really supportive and fun group to be a part of and I am really excited to be participating! 

On Thursday, I had a model UN meeting. I represented Malaysia on the topic of Iran's nuclear program. 

Friday was the track meet! 

Our singing/yoga/kungfu opening ceremony performance was a hit! 

As for my event, I was glad the sports meet was changed to Friday because it meant I got a couple extra days to prepare for the long jump. My roommate Megan was a total track rockstar in the States before breaking her ankle pole vaulting this spring, so she helped train me. Many thanks to Megan, because despite the total lack of prior experience, I just made the cut for a prize at 8th place (out of about 30 people)! 

Coach Megan and me: 

Me jumping (3.65m was my best): 

The other international students who made the preliminary cuts (Koki, Brady, Keiondre Paris, and Noah) did so well in their running and shotput events, racking up two first place titles, two third place titles, and a fifth place title! So proud to be part of this group! 

Saturday, I went with my host mom to a street market. She taught me how to ask the price of things in Shanghainese and so all the sellers were really surprised at a random foreigner asking them how much their apples were in the regional dialect. It was a cool experience and we bought some delicious breakfast noodles, apples, and tofu (the variety and quality of tofu products here really puts America to shame). Also I really loved this regal lady selling eggs: 

Later that day, I rode the subway to meet up with my NSLI-Y (American) classmates and our RD (resident director) for an outing to Jing'an Temple, which was terrific!

After we looked at the temple, Tilden, Megan and I explored the French Concession part of Shanghai. We had some great food and got some Chinese medicine cupping done! I am definitely starting to feel at home in this magnificent city! 

Six

It's been six weeks since I left home: the longest I've ever been away. I was away for six weeks both when I was in Chengdu on the NSLI-Y summer program in 2011 and this past spring while doing my senior research project in Philadelphia with the U.S. Forest Service Urban Field Station and grassroots revitalization organizations. Anyway, this 1/6 mark allows me a little bit of a framework in which to reflect more on my (emotional) experience... 

The passing of time feels immensely strange. Time is flying by, but the time here has been so rich and full that it feels like it's been ages since I came to China. Then it also feels like it was just yesterday that I first stepped off the airplane in the Shanghai airport. It's difficult to explain, but it's all a little like a dream. 

In general though, I feel wonderful: happy, healthy, and confident. I was a tad bit surprised how effortless it felt to adapt to the culture here and the past weeks have been extremely fulfilling. I don't feel homesick, but I am glad for the modern technology that allows me to stay in regular touch with people back home. It's also really great to take advantage of China Post! I love sending and receiving letters/post cards. I've started decorating the wall above the desk in my dorm with little tidbits from the letters I receive. My mom has been sending me articles from magazines I like but can't get here. I have yet to put up a picture on LA communal living from the Feminist magazine Bust, but I  have a cut-out from a Rolling Stone article on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (above my Tucson desert landscape mug):

Although I don't really feel any culture shock and would argue I am much less nostalgic for American food, holidays, conveniences, etc. than some of my American peers, being away from home in a foreign country does make me appreciate the delicious food my family cooks in Tucson. I also already miss Mexican food a lot (burritos! quesadillas! tamales!) but I must say I am so grateful to have these nine months to expose myself to delicious authentic Chinese food (I know I'll miss it dearly when I return to the states)! 

As for language abilities, I can tell I've improved greatly, but being here also makes me realize how much I still don't know! So sometimes it's frustratingly hard to accurately gauge my progress. When I take practice AP/HSK tests, I do see how far I've come just in these past weeks though. I also have to remember to rejoice in the little successes such as holding my own in a coherent conversation on a complicated subject or having someone (especially one with fabulous English) who starts out speaking English to me when we first meet change to Mandarin when I respond in my Chinese. Additionally, I didn't really think about it until a friend from back home asked me about it, but I have started dreaming in Mandarin! At least partly! 

Sometimes I worry that I should be constantly finding more ways to challenge myself linguistically, but then I also have to remind myself that keeping a good level of mental health is important as well. For example, after a week of being with my host family and not speaking a sentence of English the whole time, I have to remind myself that it's okay for me to listen to radio podcasts or read a book in English instead of studying more Chinese. Because almost all our classes focus on Chinese language learning, I try to keep a balance and stimulate myself intellectually with podcasts like Radiolab, TED Radio hour, and CBC's Q as well as books on astrophysics, neurology, and anthropological examinations of post-Socialist China's culture around food, medicine, and sexuality.   

I also have a playlist of pick-me-up songs that I listen to if I'm ever feeling down (which is fortunately not very often)! 

I'll share it here:  

1. Postcard from a Dream (Toast and Jelly) - Poi Dog Pondering 

2. Grateful - Au Revoir Simone 

3. Ghost of a Corporate Future - Regina Spektor 

4. My Girls - Animal Collective 

5. California - Joni Mitchell 

6. Elle Me Dit - MIKA 

7. Facing East - Thievery Corporation  

8. Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush 

9. Un Dia - Juana Molina 

10. Innocent Bones - Iron & Wine 

11. The Park - Feist 

12. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips

13. This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - The Talking heads 

14. Give Love - MC Yogi 

15. This Is The Way - Devendra Banhart 

16. Meetings Along the Edge - Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass 

17. Let Go - Frou Frou 

18. In a Foreign Tongue - Rainbow Chan 

Now a little about this past week: 

Our dorm received a couple "improvements" this week, the first of which my roommate Megan and I are pretty happy about: our water heater was finally fixed. Megan and I are pretty compatible in general and were both pretty chill (no pun intended) about taking cold showers but as the weather is getting colder and colder, the prospect of hopping into freezing water was getting less and less attractive, so we're pretty glad. 

The second addition was the installment of speaker phones in the hallways. These speakers blare screeching wake-up call music in the morning and say in a harsh and ominous voice in Chinese and English "Classmates, you must be very tired. It is time to go to sleep!" at night. They also randomly blare obnoxious music throughout the day. Not so stoked on them, but they are also kind of hilarious...

On Tuesday, Tilden and I gave our presentation in music class on Xin Jiang's traditional music. Because we have a large population of Uyghur students at our school on a diplomatic scholarship from the Chinese government, we got to borrow some of their instruments for the presentation. Such beautiful instruments, history, and melodies! Here's a cool video that exemplifies Xin Jiang instruments in the performance of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". 

This week in our PE class we started also started learning Kung fu, which is something I am also psyched about. 

On Friday we had our all-day monthly test （月考）on writing/reading, listening, and speaking. The the proctor gave me the wrong essay prompt (I was supposed to get a more complicated one than the others in my class) and didn't realize it until I had finished the test so it was a little nerve-wracking having only having a little time to write the second essay. But other than that, I feel everything went well! 

This week Paris, Keiondre, Maike, Johanna and I all auditioned for the choir! I'm so excited to start this upcoming Monday! I brought my guitar to China and I have been playing / singing almost everyday but it'll be sweet to sing in a group! And it's a fantastic way to bond with Chinese IB students (who plan on going abroad for college). I also found out that the model UN club in which I participate is actually not part of the IB program, but a club in the normal Chinese curriculum. Some IB students participate in that one, but I guess I should have know since it's mostly conducted in Chinese. Anyway, I'm glad to share activities with all kinds of Chinese students! 

At first it was a little frustrating to make Chinese friends because we are separated in language-specific classes and they are so busy (as am I)! But participating in these clubs has really given me so many opportunities to befriend people. 

In terms of friendships, I feel so happy to have become close with so many wonderful people! My host family is simply superb; my American, International, and Chinese friends are all stellar, and my teachers are all splendid! 

This Saturday, I rode the subway and met up with 多多 (Duoduo), a 29-year-old family friend / yoga teacher / actor-comedian in Shanghai. 

I took Duoduo's yoga class at the Y+ studio in the fancy French concession neighborhood and afterward we went out for some delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice. I feel so honored to have made the acquaintance of such a kind and generous person! Even though his English is impeccable, he speaks rapid Chinese with me and helps correct me to make my grammar more natural. He also said he'd take me to more yoga classes, his stand-up comedy performances, and some amazing vegetarian restaurants (he's Buddhist and thus doesn't eat meat). I am so stoked to get to know him and to get acquainted with the yoga community here! 

The outlines for our first semester NSLI-Y research projects are due this upcoming Monday, so this week I finished up some initial work for that. Again, I'll be examining the role of public green space in Shanghai. I've found some really interesting secondary resources, but I'm also excited to go out and take some more pointed observational data, visit the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, and interview interview interview! The final projects are due in December: consisting of a written and oral presentation of my findings in the target language (Chinese). I'm also writing a paper of sorts in English, which I think will really come in handy as a jumping off point later if/when I want to tackle an Urban Studies topic in University. 

Finally, this upcoming Wednesday, our school is holding a track meet. I've never participated in track sports of any kind, but our mantra has become "This Is China, Might As Well (TIC, MAW" and thus I decided to compete in the 100m sprint and the long jump. So I spent this week training for that as well as practicing our class's performance for the opening ceremony. My classmates are going to sing a famous love song "Wo He Ni" (Me and You) while I do a short yoga sequence of arm balances, splits, etc in front of them and then some other classmates do a martial arts performance. It'll certainly be interesting!

Post 5

As a participant in my Chinese High school Jiao Da Fu Zhong's Model United Nations, on Monday I went to an all day United Nations Development Program conference with two other Shanghai high schools. I was chosen to represent China in the English-speaking delegation (a huge honor and responsibility)! The topic was "utilization of oil-gas resources in the Arctic". Because I was at my host family's house in Pudong all last week and thus had very limited access to the Internet for research, I was pretty nervous. But it turned out to be an amazing (albeit grueling 11 hours of) experience. 

Although the official working language was English, no one was particularly interested in speaking English (or able for that matter...I actually must commend everyone participating in the English section for their bravery). Much of the conference and discussion was thus conducted in Chinese, which was difficult but actually beneficial for me, being a language student. Additionally, because I was the only fluent English speaker in the room, I ended up writing all the summarizing "working papers", "draft directives", and "draft resolutions" for my BLOC in terms of actual U.N. protocol, so I learned loads about that process. Although we didn't pass a final resolution by the end of the day, we addressed solutions for crises in dwindling resources, land sovereignty, fragile natural environments, and sustainable technology. At the very end, I was so honored to win an "Outstanding Delegate" award with a couple other delegates.

I also got a chance that day to exercise my urban transport skills (which I think are some of the most important and exciting about living in any new place). I successfully navigated the Shanghai bus system all by myself for the first time. I also rode a taxi back that night with some schoolmates, but we had to battle a typhoon and I ended up arriving drenched and breathless at Monday's night study. All said and done, I'm always up for exhausting rainy days. 

On Tuesday, I went with Jiao Da Fu Zhong's international department to a military training camp outside of Shanghai. Let me just say now: it wasn't really a military training. Even though it was held at the site where Chinese high school students do their requisite military training, the area is also a resort of sorts and our trip was more like a fun team-building retreat to bond with all the other international students (from countries as diverse as Japan, North/South Korea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Estonia, Germany, Russia, Norway, and Kazakstan). It was cool to get to spend some time with the class three students (who are are studying all subjects in Chinese, and a lot of whom are preparing to attend University in Shanghai next year).

The first day it was still pouring rain from the typhoon and the streets were flooded so we didn't get to the camp (really a nice hotel with canteen, gift shop and activity centers in addition to navy and air force equipment randomly stored around the grounds) until the afternoon, but we still had time to do some activities.

First we all were blind-folded and had to make a boy-girl-boy-girl triangle with eleven people on each side holding a climbing rope that was tied up in the middle of the floor. This was an extraordinarily hard task, seeing as everyone speaks different languages, but we ended up working it out after 40 minutes and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We then broke into three teams. My team consisted of Paris and Carmen from the U.S.; Koki, Yasu and Leo from Japan; Meru from Kazakstan; Tianfu from Myanmar; Sora, Yejing and Donghuan from Korea). We first had to come up with a team name (ours was the Lao hu or tiger team), team song (liang zhi Lao hu: a child nursery rhyme about strange fast-running tigers) and a team slogan ("Lao hu jia you, Lao hu jia you, hen ke ai, hen qi guai, hen li hai" which basically means "go tigers, go tigers, very cute, very strange, very rad". Yes, I know I know but it sounds better shouted in Chinese and like I said before: it's hard coming up with these things when the group members speak 5 different languages). We did a "poison river" type competition between the teams where all 11 had to get across on 9 little mats without touching the ground or letting go of any of the mats. We all finished (our group was second) but we lost a lot of our mats to the poison river and in the end the coach scolded us all for not putting the three groups' remaining mats together to get back across (honestly I think it's silly when people try to teach cooperation lessons this way because the framing of the task is so important!) but I got the point. 

After dinner, we hung out until we got the lesson on how to fold our blankets / tidy our rooms in the morning (they check and we have to do push ups if anything is out of order or we are late). We also learned that each team had to do a performance the third day so we set about preparing for that until curfew at 10. 

The second day, we did actually do some military training: marching and saluting up and down the (strangely New-England-esque tree-lined) drive for three hours. I've never done any military training in my life and being the resident pacifist hippie, I surprisingly enjoyed it more than most people. But it was mostly because it was such a bizarre experience and that the military coach was really funny and sweet and let us take lots of breaks before ending and having lunch, during which Noah (from Germany) and my two American roommates (Megan and Sarah) went exploring and found a lake with an enormous navy carrier that was turned into a tank/plane museum. It was super rad. Unfortunately I forgot to take my phone/camera so I didn't really get any photos...

But after midday break, our teams met up to do some more cooperation activities. First we had to walk about half a mile with all our group members legs attached. My team actually won and it was cool but I got one of the biggest burns of my life (compared to some of the climbing fall burns I have had, that's saying something) on my lower leg from the Velcro attaching our legs.  

Once we got to the activity area, we had to get our teams through an "electric fence" with holes in it and over a 10 foot wall in as short a time as possible (our team won again with a two minute time!) 

Later, we explored the base a little more, finding some interesting log cabin/Russian castle architectural blends and some beautiful pine forests. That night, we continued preparing for our performances and at the end of that practice session, broke out into a mini dance party.

The third day we marched around again in the morning and I took this picture with our military coach, Tilden (American) and Johanna (Estonian): 

In the afternoon we climbed a high rope course (where you can only use the wooden planks and not the climbing or side ropes). Paris (American) and I were successfully 1st! Here's our NSLI-Y resident director Sarah/Shasha tackling the course with our culture teacher Ms. Zhou: 

AND THEN WE GOT TO ROCK CLIMB!!! Although there are a couple climbing gyms in Shanghai that I have yet to check out, climbing is definitely not something that is big here and is most definitely something I can't wait to get back to when I get home (and head to Northern California in the fall). Although no one else got to the top, it was an easy route, but there was some nice texture and overhangs! Regardless, I was so happy to get a little vertical time.

That evening was our performances and BBQ.

(From left to right: Me, Meru, Carmen, Yejing, Donghuan, Sora, Tian fu, Paris, Koki... Leo and Yas are unfortunately not pictured!) 

My team did two singing numbers: one Japanese song sung by Yasu and Leo. Yasu is one of the most high-spirited dancing-obsessed people I have ever met and so that was a total blast. I also sang a Chinese pop song a cappella with Tian fu. We also had a willowy Kazakh dance and a Kung fu / yoga number. The other teams had some really talented numbers as well! After the performance we had a HUGE dance party around a bonfire. It was such a splendid experience. I love being reminded how much I love dancing and how much of a bonding experience it really is. 

The last day at the camp, we played around on a bunch of different "bridges": lines, ladders, mouse wheels, etc that crossed a little river. We then rowed together around a lake on a dragon boat and played around on some rope playground courses. I love canoeing and the playground brought me back to my jungle-gym-obsessed childhood :) We finished up at the camp (I won an MVP certificate!) and headed back to the school for a Saturday school day, Sunday break and return to the normal weekly schedule. 

国庆节 - China's national holiday

国庆节

We have seven days off for China's national holiday (Guo Qing Jie). I spent this week with my host family. 

Before I delve into this week though, I'd like to offer some pictures from the whirlwind tour of Shanghai's most famous places, on which my host mom and grandmother took me last weekend. This is me at the oriental pearl and my grandmother and me in front of some flashy Pudong brilliance:

Now for Guo Qing Jie:

The first night I went to the movie theater with my host mom and sister. The movie was called "Amazing" and was in Chinese with some English mixed in which is apparently the norm (the subtitles were in both Mandarin and English). It was about a neuropathically-controlled virtual world game where the computer program goes rogue and develops a virus that starts giving gamers heart attacks, seizures, etc. It might sound a little strange and it was definitely a little dramatic for me, but I was pleasantly surprised at the plot and at the amount I understood. There were really cool shots of Shanghai too and also (kind of randomly in my humble opinion) numerous appearances from NBA and professional Chinese basketball stars. 

On the actual national holiday (October 1st),  I went to the wedding of my host dad's cousin. It was a simple, traditional-style wedding, meaning it was held at my host dad's grandmother's country estate outside of Shanghai rather than a restaurant or hotel. Because the actual ritual part of Chinese weddings takes place privately in the home, the rest (in which we participated) basically consisted solely of eating. First there's lunch and then dinner, both during which the bride and groom come around to each table to share a toast and light cigarettes (they were kind of surprised when they first arrived at our table to find a random red-haired foreigner haha). There were literally thousands of dishes and we all got so full. I especially liked these yam-filled, sesame-covered balls and drank lots of peanut milk! 

After the wedding lunch and before the dinner, I snuck away with my host mom and sister to meet up with some of my sister's classmates and volunteer at a home for mentally/physically disabled children, most of whom are orphaned. We helped harvest edamame that the home uses to generate revenue and played with the children, playing the guitar and sing lots of songs with them. It's definitely amazing to witness how universal music is. It was overall pretty sad for me, but also inspiring. 

The first day was filled with lots activity: fruit buying and giving (fruit is a very popular gift here) and visiting with relatives whose Shanghainese I often could not understand a word of. But I also had a lot of fun. I was proud to have a long conversation with an old lady who was visiting from Sichuan (the province of my first Chinese home stay)  about urban development and economic change and there was an absolutely adorable toddler who kept toasting glasses with me. 

The second day, we worked on homework and then went to the seaside, where my host sister and I rode an intensely spin-y but awesome ride and I got a bracelet with my Chinese name （龙仁爱 "Long RenAi"）on it. 

A random tid-bit from that day was that a neighbor overheard my host sister and me talking in the elevator and he asked me if I was from the Xinzhang province (the autonomous Uyghur region in Northwestern China that has lots of foreign-looking people) and was so surprised when I told him that I'm American. Anyway, I took it as a huge compliment.

October 3rd was my host sister, Siqi's 15th birthday, so we went to dinner with her grandparents, aunt, and cousin who was visiting from Nanjing University. We ate a lot (definitely a trend in Chinese celebrations) and I realized I REALLY like Cho dou fu or "stinky tofu". I also reaffirmed my dislike for Chinese cakes (there is a bunch of random fruit thrown into a light angel-food kind of mixture with really fluffy tasteless whipped cream. It made me miss my mom's birthday pound cake and fruit crisps and my dad's spicy vegan chocolate cake). 

I drew/wrote Siqi a card, which she said she loved especially since it was kind of unusual (people don't often give presents/cards on birthdays here). 

After dinner, we came home and my host mom taught (or tried to teach) me and Siqi how to use the abacus, a tool that everyone used as a calculator when she was little. We also played a card game called 斗地主 (dou di zhu or "against the landlord"). I was surprisingly successful given I am terrible at card games (probably beginner's luck haha). 

I spent October 4th mostly with my host mom: cooking, chatting (about everything from the benefits of urban greenery to gender in/equality), doing dishes, and shopping for clothes, fruit, and Chinese medicine and then walking around public parks and squares (simultaneously gathering observational data for my first semester NSLI-Y research project). 

That night, my host sister and I got out an old pin-making machine and made some cute pins. She made me one with my Chinese name and I one with her English name. I also made my host mom one with the English name I gave her: Lynn (she didn't like the one she had, which was Linda, and I figured sharing a name with climbing legend Lynn Hill wouldn't be a bad idea). I also made this moon face: 

On October 5th, we went to help prepare for another wedding where my host mom grew up.

This one was for the cousin of my host mother. I helped the nainais (grandmothers) make thousands of tang yuan's:

I particularly love the ones filled with red bean paste. They joked that making these (and the dumplings we also made) was like passing the HSK 4 and that the next step for me was to learn how to make zong zi (rice and other things wrapped in leaves) which would be like the HSK 6. For reference, the HSK tests Chinese as a second language and ranges from levels 1-6. We have to take one HSK test each semester this year as required by our school and scholarship program. I plan to take the 4 this December (which is said to be about the same level as the AP Chinese test) and we'll see which one I'll do in the spring in addition to the actual AP. My Chinese culture teacher was telling me that she wasn't even sure how well she'd do on the HSK 6 because of its difficult subtleties though, so I don't know if I'll be taking that one... 

Anyway, I also got the chance to see my grandparents' little farm that day. Coming from a family in the States that raises its own chickens and grows a lot of its own vegetables, I couldn't be more pleased with the fact that we are eating home-grown eggs, pumpkin, winter melon, eggplant, etc. everyday here. I also really connect with my host grandparents, who like to live simply and are so sweet and down-to-earth. 

Here is a picture of their driveway/orchard and some harvested sesame stalks: 

On October 6th, we woke up early to participate in the wedding. In this wedding, we were part of the wedding car procession to pick up the bride at her house. When we got there, she was in her room and the groom had to answer a riddle to enter and then do some other sort of task. He ended up doing 18 push ups before the bride let him put the ring on. They then gave the parents of the bride tea and received two red envelopes （红包） full of money. The bride and groom then fed each other a date and both spit the pits into another smaller red envelope. Then Siqi, two cousins, and I helped the bride get into the wedding car and waited for them to perform a similar ritual at the groom's house. After that, we all went to the hotel, lit fire crackers and ate.

(My host mother's grandma and great grandma with the bride and groom). 

That night we returned to our Baoshan house (near the school) so I could work with my NSLI-Y friend Tilden on our Uyghur traditional music presentation for music class. Tilden is a riot: she is from Vermont (going to UVM next year) but lived in Ecuador for two years and is fluent in Spanish. We've gotten pretty close, bonding over liberal politics, feminist poetry, nerdy radio podcasts, and obscure Argentine musicians. 

Monday I'll participate in my first all-day model UN conference and then Tuesday we leave for the "military training camp" AKA "team building retreat". 

P.S.

I almost forgot! 

Last but certainly not least, we received our uniforms!