24

I have been in China for six months! 

No better way to celebrate this landmark than to start our second semester at the High School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University!

The first day back we had tests (as all the Chinese students do). We tested in comprehensive Chinese, listening and speaking. They weren't bad at all though; I had done all of our winter break review homework and it's convenient that just living my daily life ("on break") happens to be great for language practice and improvement. 

Regardlessly, everyone actually seemed excited to get back into the swing of things.

Our schedule is pretty much the same as last semester, with comprehensive Chinese, speaking, listening as well as culture, computer technology, art, music and PE classes. We're all excited though because this semester we have a free period before lunch. Although we are encouraged to use this time to meet with teachers, it'll also give me some extra time to read, do yoga, play guitar, make art and do other things that often get pushed aside because of the busyness of the school week. 

We're also excited to welcome two new Korean students to class 1 and Maike, who moved from class 1 into my class (2). 

On Monday, Maike and I decided to do some collaging. I decorated the notebook that I use for sketches and poetry (which I also used the last time I was in China):

In our Tuesday music class, we found out that we'll be working on a musical this semester. Because our music teacher hadn't decided which musical yet or prepared the materials, we watched the filmed version of the musical Cats, which I've heard SO much about but had never actually seen. It was quite interesting... but I am still excited to do a musical anyway. 

In our comprehensive Chinese class on Wednesday, we were to give a short speech on the customs we've found to be different between our Chinese host families and our own. It was an interesting exercise because arriving in China as someone who was already pretty open culturally and after living in this country for six months, I feel like I've definitely become accustomed to almost everything. Sometimes when people (like my Hangzhou host family did) ask me how things are different in the States, it takes me a while to think of things... Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the things I talked about here--

1) Exchanging outdoor shoes for slippers as soon as you enter anyone's house. Although in the States, my family doesn't require guests to take their shoes off at the door, my family normally does (so that's something I am used to). However, living in a warm place, I don't usually find it necessary to wear slippers and am definitely a barefoot person at heart (I often walk around the streets of my neighborhood barefoot), so the constant wearing of shoes outside and inside was something I had to get used to. 

2) Eating family style meals: in China, a variety of shared dishes are placed in the center of the table and throughout the meal, everyone takes little bits of what they want and puts it in their individual rice bowl. I was pretty used to eating the staple foods of rice, tofu, and vegetables when I got here, but I was definitely used to the American style of serving everyone their individual portions at the beginning of the meal. Now, I don't have strong feelings one way or another and definitely see positives and negatives to both; I guess I feel like it's best to do whatever the norm is where I am. 

3) Not drinking beverages with meals: this is something I have gotten used to, but not something I'll likely adopt when I return home. I did, however, prefer hot or room temperature beverages (the norm here) before I came and will continue happily drinking that way, even if people think I'm weird when I ask for water with no ice at restaurants. 

4) The intense/continuous study habits of my host sister and other Chinese students: I knew Chinese students were very focused on their studies, but the idea of staying in one's room the entire weekend studying was something I had to wrap my mind around. My host sister definitely takes breaks to play games on her iPad, etc. and I take the weekends to go out and explore the city, but as a very active, outdoorsy person, sometimes I feel a little cooped up (basically I miss hiking and climbing in the mountains). 

5) Not using a heater in the house: this makes sense in order to save energy and I am totally fine wearing my snowboarding coat around the house, but one thing I have found is that although I can bundle up as much as possible, my "fragile desert" hands have developed something called 冻疮 (dong chuang) where basically my fingers swell and experience intense blistering from the continuous exposure to cold inside and outside. I've been trying to wear gloves as much as possible and am utilizing lots of coconut oil, but regardlessly, I look forward very much to spring!

Thursday I went to the post office to send off some postcards and to get steamed buns (包子). We also went to a vegetable/meat/tofu market just to explore and had some cute conversations with some of the people at the stands (they wanted to tell us all about their different kinds of tofu: the extent of which IS pretty impressive). 

I'd like to go exploring off campus a little more during the week this semester, because it's definitely a great education in itself.

Saturday, we went on a NSLI-Y excursion to the art museum. There was an awesome exhibit where they digitized one of the most famous Chinese painted scrolls, so you walk through a room where the painting literally comes to life with video and sound and you feel like you're part of the scene. 

It was also cool to see in other exhibits some of the different influences of Western Romantic, Post-Impressionist, Cubist movements played out in a Chinese context.

Afterward, I finally went back to the Yayoi Kusama (草间弥生) exhibit 「我的--个梦」("A Dream I Dreamed") at the museum of contemporary art in People's Square. The line was even longer than when I went before but since I am moving to the suburbs with my host family next weekend, I didn't think I'd get another chance. There were even a group of people selling their place in line. I stayed away from them and I waited two hours but the exhibit was totally worth it; it was terrific! And I even made friends with a cute couple who are both art students in Hangzhou, to boot! 

Two last things:

1) We got our "formal" uniforms this week.

None of us are impressed with the incongruously beige skirt and I'm not sure when exactly we are supposed to wear this outfit, but as someone who has never experienced uniforms, I still find it quite fun. 

and 

2) I wanted to share this poster that the school is using to advertise the international language program:

the picture is of Keiondre, Reo, Maike and me and we all find it kind of hilarious because even though they took and retook our picture about a hundred times, it still turned out super strange (怪怪的).

23

Last Saturday, we reunited with our Beijing NSLI-Y compatriots to spend a wonderful week in the lovely city of Hangzhou. 

I was particularly excited about the location for our second week of American Councils winter break programming because it was the site for my sister Xóchitl's program last summer (her resident director D, who is the RD for the kids in Beijing, organized this week's activities and the city, school, teachers and some of the host siblings were all the same for her). Xóchitl is probably the one I miss most in the world and so it was really wonderful to connect with her by spending time exploring her first home city in China. 

The first night in Hangzhou, we settled into the dorms at the Zhejiang University international department and watched the Olympics opening ceremony! I don't usually watch much of the Winter Olympics, so it was fun to be surrounded by people who were really into it and it was really interesting watching it through the Chinese media channels. 

On Sunday, it snowed! It was actual record low temperatures for Hangzhou this week (kind of ironic because Xóchitl experience record highs last summer). 

But no matter the weather, we dove right into the week's activities: an exploration of the city's culture in the form of a friendly scavenger hunt type of competition. 

My team was called the Tea Cups (茶杯), which we found fitting seeing as Hangzhou is the place in China most famous for its tea. My group included Keiondre (from Shanghai) and Cameron (from Beijing). We had an awesome time exploring the university and high school campuses as well as the surrounding area: including a meat/vegetable market to complete today's tasks (map making and price gathering). 

After we finished our tasks, we settled into this rad casbah-esque coffee shop with cushions and delicious rose tea.

We ate lunch at the school during which our task points for the morning were counted. After lunch, we learned a rad Mongolian dance from a Chou lao shi (who knew Xóchitl last summer!) and then went on a boat trip on the West lake and to the Yue Fei Temple.

On Monday we had the day to explore the downtown area, which was really neat. 

That evening we went to Mango Thai, a wonderful restaurant that Xó recommended. The spicy coconut vegetable curry was absolutely to die for!

Tuesday we went to the tea museum and beautiful fields!

There was an awesome group of Africans there who are touring Hangzhou on break from a yearlong military training outside of Beijing. They were so sweet and kept asking in French to take pictures with me. 

I learned a lot about the different kinds of tea as well as the tea making process and tasted some delicious tea! 

There was a rather disturbing occurrence when we were heading back to the bus and Paris got hit by a woman on a scooter who then got super angry and almost attacked Paris and wouldn't let go of him because she wanted some kind of compensation (for what I'm not sure since it was obviously her fault and neither she not her scooter were injured). We ended up calling the police and it was all worked out but it definitely shook everyone up a little bit. It was sad because she seemed really desperate, but apparently this is a rather common issue in China; there was even a skit about this very same situation happening on the New Years TV gala where they represent news stories from the year. 

In the afternoon, we went to an old emperor's home (a huge maze of beautiful rooms, walls and even caves)!

After that, we went to a famous Chinese medicine apothecary which was totally rad and walked around and tasted some of Hangzhou's famous treats. 

Wednesday, we had a lecture on Buddhism in China and then went to the famous Lei Feng Pagoda. The view of Hangzhou and the surrounding mountains was astounding.

After lunch, we had a lesson on Beijing opera and got to paint some masks!

Later that afternoon we went to the Ling Yin Buddhist temple which had absolutely gorgeous cave carvings of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas. 

After visiting the temple, we met our Hangzhou host families! Mine was super sweet and took me out to a restaurant called 外婆家 or Grandma's House where we ate all kinds of delicious food before coming home to their apartment where my Hangzhou host sister and I spent a long while sharing musicians/bands that we like.

Thursday afternoon, my host sister Si yue and I rode the bus to the High School Attached to Zhe Jiang University (our host school) for an afternoon learning and playing ma jiang! I learned to play a long time ago, but always feel a little rusty so it was nice to brush up on my skills and interact with all the Hangzhou host siblings! 

That evening, my host family taught me some Hangzhou dialect and my host sister taught me some currently-popular colloquialisms that will help me become more "di dao" (native)! My host sister's head teacher came to make a house call as they occasionally do (not something that happens in the U.S.) so I also got a little time to myself to relax, which was nice. 

Friday, we had a group discussion about innovation in America and China and then prepared for our final presentations, using our experiences this week to discuss the subject of tradition and innovation in Jiangnan culture. 

Everyone did very well and after the presentations, we had the final award ceremony in which my team took first place! 

Because it was officially the last day of the spring festival (元宵节: yuan xiao jie or lantern festival ), I celebrated that evening with my Hangzhou host family by going to the neighborhood where there was a show that included dancing, singing and taiji. We also ate 汤圆 (tang yuan: sesame paste surrounded by a glutinous rice mixture) and guessed the riddles (猜灯谜 cai deng mi) on the lanterns for prizes! 

It was a very lovely way to end this amazing week, because Saturday we headed back to Shanghai for a weekend to prepare for school, which begins again on the 17th. 

It was an absolutely amazing week though. I couldn't believe how stunning Hangzhou is, and I think it's honestly one of my favorite cities in China so far.

22

Sunday was my host mom's birthday! But birthdays aren't a huge thing here and so we just celebrated it along with the ongoing new year celebrations at my host grandparents' farm (we did have a cake though)!

This time we celebrated with my host grandma's relatives, including a college student back from Nanjing University and an aunty with a two year old daughter. We plays cards, ma jiang and ate lots of food (as per usual). I also made my host mom a birthday card (which is really rare but appreciated here) and she said "we're so lucky to have this cute of an American daughter! I love you!" which made my heart melt. 

Monday we went to my host dad's parents' house in the country. There was a particularly spirited uncle who cooked all the food; he was pretty funny and offered a good challenge to understand drunkly slurred and accented Mandarin. He kept telling me I looked exactly like Mona Lisa and there was a pretty hilarious (and slightly disturbing?) miscommunication where he was talking about young ladies being like unopened flower buds (han2 bao1) and I thought he was talking about hamburgers (han4 bao3). 

My host dad's side of the family is really into playing majiang for money (although my host dad isn't. He is a "good child" according to my host mom) so we watched them play for a little and then played our own card games with these really interesting "Stop AIDS" cards that had all sorts of crazy drawings, using sunflower seeds as currency. 

Tuesday, my host mom and I rode two buses and two metro lines to bring Carmen back to the city. Although her host family was frustratingly unclear about when they were coming back and ended up being gone for a week rather than a couple of days, we turned out to have a fine time. 

After delivering Carmen, my host mom and I brought some new year gifts to an aunt and uncle and drank some honey-pomelo tea before we went to the famous Yu yuan gardens to see the Spring Festival decorations and taste some of Shanghai's famous "snacks" (小吃). We had some sesame balls, flower tofu, vegetarian duck leg, and potato flour pudding with red bean, peanuts, corn and gogi berries. The duck leg and sesame balls were particularly tasty in my opinion.

Although I abhor shopping and tourist sites, sometimes it's fun to go to them even just for the pleasure and surprise when salespeople realize I speak Chinese (even if not superbly). While my host mom bought some clothes, I even had two sales ladies ask for my help in translating for a European tourist buying a Chinese style coat. 

I also got to bond a lot with my host mom. We talked about relationships, marriage and parenting and although the commute was long, it was good practice for next semester when my host family will no longer rent the apartment right by the school and I'll return this way to the Nanqiao apartment every weekend. 

Wednesday we went to bring more New Years gifts to relatives on my host grandfather's side. 

We got to watch the second Hobbit on a cousin's home theater, which was super cool. The cousin is obsessed with new television technology and has about about a hundred DVDs (including lots of American classics like Blade Runner and Pulp Fiction) as well as many magazines on the subject. 

I had a lot of fun playing with the cousin's 8 year old daughter Xiaoqiao (who was in the wedding with me a while back). 

My host grandmother is really close with a family that owns a hair salon in that area, so after dinner my host mom and sister got haircuts.

The hair stylist thought I was Russian or from Xin Jiang again (I still don't get it)! 

I have really started to feel at home with the extended family on my host mom's side though, which is a nice feeling. 

Thursday we went to baby cousin Kai Xin ("Happy's") 1 year old birthday banquet (the Chinese version of a baby shower but a year after the birth and where ALL the relatives are invited).

Kai Xin is honestly the happiest baby I have ever met (pretty solid supporting evidence for those who say names have influence over personality); in all the times I've seen him, I have never once seen him cry and usually he is continuously shrieking with pleasure and glee. 

One thing I have come to realize with Chinese celebrations: in those that involve cake (or sweets), the cake is always eaten first / along with the other food. I still find this a little disconcerting, coming from a culture with the strong belief that the sweets should be eaten after the more nutritious aspects of a meal... And although I am still not a huge fan of Chinese versions of Western cakes, I've decided I love the tradition of eating shou mian (super long life noodles) on birthdays and that is something I would like to carry on. 

On Friday we headed back to the apartment in inner Shanghai and Saturday we head to Hangzhou to meet up with the Beijing kids for a wicked last week of break!

21

On Monday I met up with Tilden, Paris, Megan, and Megan's boyfriend Brad (who was visiting for a couple days on cheap airplane tickets thanks to his dad working for an airline). 

We went to the famous Oriental Pearl TV Tower (东方明珠: Dong Fang Ming Zhu), which totally exceeded our expectations. There is even a roller coaster in the bottom pearl! It was crazy. 

There were also some really lively Indian tourists who kept asking to take photos with us. It was so sweet! 

And for lunch I got some delicious waffles with whipped cream, sweet peanut butter paste and condensed milk.

 

I also had some cute metro interactions that day (my favorite!) One was with a little boy who kept asking his grandmother whether or not "the foreigner" (me) spoke Chinese. When I gave him his answer he got super shy and peered out from behind his grandmother's legs to smile at me. There was another granny, grandad and their grandson who were also asking Tilden and me whether we were accustomed to different parts of Chinese culture. The grandson even asked us if we were 中国通 ("Zhong Guo Tong's": basically foreigners who are experts in Chinese language, culture, etc) and I said it's something we aspire to someday, but that we're just a couple of ordinary exchange students. Regardlessly, I took it as a huge compliment that he would even suggest that. 

Wednesday, I headed with my host family to their house in Pudong (across the river and in the Shanghai outskirts) to celebrate the new year. My classmate Carmen spent the new year with me and my host family because hers is in Thailand (our scholarship doesn't allow us to leave the country). After helping my host mom with some of the traditional "spring cleaning", Carmen, my host sister Siqi and I went to the nearby park. We made these adorable little plastic/sand paintings! My design reminded me of Shel Silverstein's "Hug-o-war" and it made me feel delightfully child-like. 

Thursday was New Year's Eve, so we went to my host grandparents' farm to prepare and eat lots of delicious food together. 

We first made and then ate lots of tasty dumplings. 

After lunch, I watched my host grandparents kill and begin to prepare one of their chickens. They did it quick and respectfully, which I really appreciated and I think connection to the process of the food we eat is superbly important, but I was surprised given my vegan-heart, how little watching the slaughter bothered me (and how much learning about the chicken's anatomy from my host granny actually fascinated me). 

That afternoon, we went to visit a great aunt who's currently in the hospital and then walked around the town a bit. 

After that, while my host mom, dad, grandma, and great grandma made New Year's Eve dinner, Carmen, Siqi and I played a variety of card games. 

After dinner, my host grandfather lit fireworks with his cigarette. So many people were lighting fireworks and firecrackers that the air everywhere was continuously crackling with sound and smoke.

We continued to play cards and chat for a while and Carmen, Siqi and I all received some Ya Sui Qian / Hong Bao (red envelope money). So generous! 

Finally, we went back to my host family's to watch the New Year tv program (the acrobats and magician were particularly impressive) and stayed up until 12 to great the year of the Horse! There were even more fireworks and from our apartment on the 23rd floor, we had a wicked view. After a while, it felt like we were in the middle of a cloud of light that kept changing color, with lanterns flying by the windows. 

It was certainly a lively and interesting first Lunar New Year's Eve in China! 

Friday we went to a movie called 澳门风云 (The Man from Macau) which didn't have English subtitles; however, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could comprehend all of it (not that the dialogue in raunchy casino action movies are super hard to understand). After the movie we had Korean barbecue, of which I realized I'm not a huge fan. All was well though, and we took the rest of the day to chill: I did yoga, listened to some Freakonomics podcasts, played the guitar and got some homework done. I also helped make more dumplings for dinner and after washing the dinner dishes, I went walking around the neighborhood with my host mom, Carmen and Siqi who then watched me dance with the elderly in the square. We also had some really interesting conversations about sororities/fraternities and phrases in English/Chinese that don't really have good translations in the opposite language. I'm finding that there's so many things in Chinese that I am unable to articulate well in English. 

Saturday we returned to my host grandparents' town and had a huge family banquet at a restaurant for a couple hours before heading across the street to sing some karaoke. I sang my usual "Wo Yi Ran Ai Ni" and my host grandad was particularly into singing, which was super cute. I also had a long and interesting conversation with a young aunt who lived in Taiwan for ten years and has lots of friends in the States before we went back to the restaurant for more dining. Although it was a little tiring and slow at times (I've never read so much of Oliver Sacks's Hallucinations in one sitting or to Justin Bieber and Chinese military songs), all in all it was a great day!