Final Week (39)

As I reach my last couple of days in Shanghai, I could not possibly hope to describe in any number of words how unbelievably life-changing this entire experience has been for me. I will thus finish this record of my time in China by saying although I am very excited to come back to the States and start the next phase of my life, I will dearly treasure and miss so many aspects of this place and this experience. However, I know I will always carry it in my heart and brain wherever I go, forever and ever. 

Now I will leave you with the classic cliché of "a picture is worth a thousand words" in describing this week of goodbyes. I am so absolutely grateful to have met and become so close to all of these beautiful humans.

My last time eating my favorite dish in all of China: vegetable fried rice with all kinds of magical spice:

With the lovely owners of this delicious Northwest noodle joint!

Giving my graduation speech (my Japanese friend Koki who will be attending college in China next year also gave a wonderful one):

Language Class 2 (Reo, Paris, Yas, Keiondre, Brady, Carmen, Saori, Maike, Me, Sun Lao Shi and Ge Lao shi) 

Two of the best teachers in the world! 孙老师和葛老师 (Sun and Ge)

After our graduation ceremony, class 2 went with Sun and Ge to a Sichuan restaurant. It was one of the most authentic and deliciously spicy that I have had outside of Chengdu and it was one of the most fun restaurant experiences I have had all year! We played a bunch of games, one of which was that we couldn't use the Chinese versions of "me/I", "you" and "he/she" or else we have to choose "truth or dare". I ended up having to ask a waiter if I could hug a waiter (he said he wasn't allowed). Such a wonderful last dinner here!

With Reo, Saori and the top of Yas's head

With Eriko

With Chihiro 

With Johanna 

With Eirik

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Our favorite Xin Jiang noodle place is back and even better! We think all our previous visits helped them pay for the remodeling, which makes me very happy. I'll miss them so much when I leave! 

On Sunday night we went to the acrobatic circus! It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen and I was dangerously close to running away and joining their troupe. There was everything from traditional Chinese Vase juggling, to gangsta hoop-jumpers, silk dancers, motorcyclists riding around in a metal globe and oh so much more. Unfortunately we weren't able to take photos, but I highly recommend a visit if ever you are in Shanghai. 

Wednesday morning, we filmed "A Day in the Life of a Student at Jiao Zhong", which will be used to remember this wonderful year as well as recruit others to the international student program in the future.  

In the early afternoon, we learned how to wrap 粽子 (zong zi or sticky rice + meat/dates in leaves) for the Dragon Boat Festival, which is this weekend. This holiday food comes from the legend of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet in the Warring States period who jumped into a river because he'd rather die than see his state overrun. His countrymen loved him so much that they rowed dragon boats down the river to save his body and give him a proper burial. They threw zong zi into the river so that the fish would eat those rather than Qu Yuan's body. 

In the late afternoon, we all presented our research projects. Everyone did a wonderful job! Again, my topic was Contemporary Shanghainese perspectives on and uses of Chinese medicine. Maike studied Chinese sign language and deaf culture; Tilden looked at Chinese beauty ideals; Sara, the history and culture of dumplings and steamed buns; Brady, Chinese young people's practical life skills; Paris, Shanghai's public transportation system; Carmen, the history of the Bund; Megan, child-raising in China; and Keiondre, the Chinese Hu Kou migration system. 

Thursday, our school organized some outside activities for us. We were supposed to travel to Suzhou this week, but for a couple reasons (some violent acts outside of Shanghai, the international meeting last week, etc.), no high school students are allowed to travel outside of Shanghai. 

The activities ended up being very fun anyway though! We went for a picnic at a park, where we also got to ride some awesome tandem bikes, and went to see the new X-Men movie (which was great but apparently different in some ways than the version showing in the States... Let's just say there was a lot less Hugh Jackman nudity in our Chinese version haha). After that we went all together to eat dinner at "Grandma's Kitchen".

It was lovely to spend some time with everyone in the international department before we leave and it was all-in-all a really excellent day! 

Saturday morning my host mom taught me how to make soy milk from scratch! 

I'm really looking forward to culinary projects this summer and I'll definitely have to try her awesomely simple recipe when I get home! 

Saturday afternoon, I had lunch with Duoduo (my yoga teacher friend). This year would not have been anywhere near as amazing without Duoduo and I am so grateful to call such a kind, intelligent and funny person my good friend. 

Sunday, we celebrated my Estonian friend Johanna's birthday! I'll miss her so so much, but visiting her is definitely on the top of my European travels list!

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Monday we had our finals! All the NSLI-Y Americans did, that is. We leave a couple weeks earlier than everyone else, so this month's monthly test (月考) counted as our final. 

We tested in listening, comprehensive Chinese (writing/reading) and speaking. For our speaking test, we each had to speak for 3 minutes on a picture we were given during the test. We also had to prepare a 5 minute presentation over the weekend on a topic our teacher gave us. Our speaking teacher Ge Lao Shi is pretty hip and so the topics were as well. My topic was "乐活族" (le huo zu) or those who have lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS) and who basically live by the mantra "do good, feel good, look good". This group of people is definitely becoming larger and larger in China and it was really fun to research (I also happen to fall under a lot of the groups' characteristics such as doing yoga, eating healthily and working to protect the environment, etc. which is funny because we chose our topics from a hat...) 

The others' topics were also very interesting! Maike talked about Chinese heritage sites (世界文化遗产); Keiondre, about the "low carbon life" (低碳生活); Reo, about online trading (网络代购); Paris, about gender differences (男女有别); Carmen, about "doing what you love and loving what you do" when it comes to employment (爱一行改一行，改一行爱一行); Saori, about the slow movement (慢活族); Yas about the weak/spoiled "strawberry generation" (草莓族); and finally Brady gave us a look into the secret lives of fire fighters (消防员背后的酸甜苦辣).

All the tests went well and it feels oh-so-good to be done! 

I also got the chance to finish knitting my scarf Monday afternoon! Just in time for summer! ;) 

Tuesday was the singing competition! 

Maike and my Zebra duet went well as did our version of "Bruises" with Sara, but the real stars of the show were our Japanese friends, who belted out everything from local Okinawa folk songs to contemporary Chinese rap:

Wednesday we had off because a bunch of important world leaders came to Shanghai for an international meeting so I went with Megan, Tilden, Sara, Maike, Chihiro and Julia to Tian Zi Fang. It was such a wonderful summer day and a great girls' day out! 

Thursday in our speaking class we watched an awesome (although slightly confusing) movie called "Secret" (不能说的秘密) about love, pianos and time travel. 

On Friday after school, I went to meet Chen, a Chinese student studying astronomy at the U of A in Tucson who my dad and sister befriended at a science lecture a few months ago; he is traveling around China for the summer and currently in Shanghai! We went to a cool old water own; it was nice to meet him and realize again how very very small the world actually is. 

Saturday, I spent the day with Sara and Megan at a Korean spa! It was probably the most relaxed I've felt in my 9 months in China. There were four different flavored nude pools (a rose one, a ginseng one, a super hot one, and a cool one), a regular steam room and sauna as well as saunas with volcanic rock and infrared beds, an oxygen room, and even an ice room! We also got salt scrub massages, which were awesome. And the best part of all was that it all came out to only be about 25 U.S. dollars for the entire day! I am definitely going to have to get used to how expensive everything is in the States!

36

This is one of my last few blog posts! 

I can't believe how fast the time is going. 

On Tuesday, we went for a final visit to the Shanghai consulate and met with Katie, the public affairs FSO (foreign service officer) who we talked with about re-entry and reverse culture shock as well as about internship/career possibilities. 

Over this year, I've actually decided working in the foreign service or political/bureaucratic government in general is not my ideal. I've missed studying science a great deal and would like to meld environmental and botanical sciences with environmental justice and human rights in a more grassroots sort of way. Regardlessly, it was great talking to Katie. She's very young and fun and loves to tell stories. 

On Wednesday, I met with my language partner Yi Chen. I am really so grateful to have such a dedicated and patient friend/tutor! 

Although there is no question that I want to continue my Chinese studies when I return, I'm not sure if college language classes are the way for me to go (the AP will exempt me from college language requirements). I was thinking it would be great to take advantage of some opportunities in San Francisco's Chinatown / working with Chinese immigrants in the city, but I think finding a language partner at Stanford with whom I can frequently chat is something I definitely want to do. 

Thursday at lunch, we got the devastating news from Julia and Chihiro that our favorite "Xin Jiang" (兰州拉面) restaurant was shut down. I don't even know how to express how much we loved this place, except to say that some of us went there twice a day every day for weeks. 

In the afternoon, I was playing my guitar on the grass in our courtyard and Anton came up and told me I was now a "real hippie" and promptly asked if he could borrow my guitar (and wear my green chakra glasses) to sing us some Russian ballads:

I also taught Sara to knit! She's a very concentrated student! 

In the evening I decided with Susanna, Luca, Anton, Tilden, Maike, Megan, Sara, Brady, Erik and Paris to guiltily check out another "xin jiang" noodle place that Maike, Tilden and I had found on one of our nearby explorations. We were all pretty disappointed and sad, because nothing can compare with our beloved original!  

But it's a very "China thing": an entire block of shops being torn down over night with no prior warning. But the fact they can set up an outstandingly delicious noodle shop overnight makes up for the fact that they can raze them in the same amount of time. It's also a good reminder of how temporary everything is. 

HOWEVER!!! Exciting addendum: I went to our original noodle place Saturday to see it for myself and there was actually a sign that said they are just doing construction and will be open again in 10 days (Julia and Chihiro probably missed it because they don't actually read Chinese...and it did look pretty destroyed)! So anyway, it looks like we will be able to enjoy some delicious fried rice and noodles again just before we leave to the States. Yay! 

On Friday afternoon, I actually hung out with a Xin Jiang friend we met at the beginning of the year. She showed us around her dorm and updated us on her life. Because of the recent acts of terror committed in Beijing, etc. by Xin Jiang protesters and the resulting anti-Xin Jiang sentiment, my friend is only allowed to leave the school one day a month for her safety! It's a pretty intense time :( 

But we exchanged weixin (we-chat social network) information and I really do hope to keep in touch with her. I would very much like to visit Xin Jiang (my oft assumed homeland) someday. 

On Friday, I had an awesome time hanging out with my host sister. She showed me some Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert type Chinese Internet programs and also an amazing Chinese recipe website that I cannot wait to use when I get back (www.meishiji.net)! 

On Saturday, I went with Sara to the rock climbing gym one last time. It was a lot of fun, but made me really excited to climb back in the U.S. so very soon! 

Next week will be very busy with finals, the singing competition, a day off and school trip to Suzhou! 

I'll leave you with a picture of Megan, Maike and me outside of our dorm. We took it for the background PowerPoint that will accompany our singing performances in next week's competition: 

35

This week felt super long, especially since we had 6 days straight of school. It was a good week though! 

On Sunday, we had Friday's class schedule, which meant we had an extra long amount of time between the last class of the afternoon and night-study. 

Maike and I decided to get crafty once again and made collages using some of the Time Magazines that my mom has sent (one of her thoughtful clients collects them for me). As an inspiration/theme, we used the following line taken randomly from the Barbara Kingsolver book I just read: "Power, like space, it seemed to me, would always get used. People expand and bloat to fill it." 

(Mine is the collage on the left, Maike's is on the right) 

The AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam was on Wednesday!

After taking class pictures (wearing our fancy uniforms!) in the morning, Keiondre, Paris, Maike and Tilden and I got out of school to go take the test. 

Overall, I feel pretty good about it! The test is broken up into listening, reading, writing and speaking and although the actual language level of the exam didn't feel hard at all, because we hadn't been preparing for the specific AP test format this year (and have been focusing on HSK format which is quite different), the type of writing/speaking samples were the slightest bit challenging with the specific time constraints. The listening and reading were excellent though and I think we all did well regardlessly! 

It was sort of a bummer that we ended up having tons of Chinese class-work/homework to catch up on in night study though and it was definitely a very different experience taking the AP here than all the ones I've taken at my school before. 

I took the HSK 5 on Saturday! I also felt good about that test and even better being done with two big academic hurdles! All that's left is our research presentation and finals, both of which I'm not too worried about! 

:) 

34

This week was a short week for Chinese Labor Day! We had Thursday and Friday off, but had to come back Saturday night for night-study and attend school on Sunday.

Monday was Sara's birthday! We treated her to a foot massage (I got gua sha / Chinese medicinal scraping) 

and then we went to dinner at our favorite Xin Jiang noodle place. It was great! 

This week our comprehensive Chinese lessons were all about women's social position in China. It is a fascinating topic and an exciting way to test and expand our Chinese capabilities. 

On Tuesday we had a debate on the pros/cons of stay-at-home moms (全职太太) and it was interesting that even in this day and age, all the boys in our class were on the "pro" side and all the girls were on the "con" side... We also had to interview a teacher about their views; I interviewed our "dorm dad" Huo Lao Shi, who seemed to be for it except that it wasn't economically sound (his wife is also a teacher and thus they don't make a ton of money). 

Wednesday we discussed gender/beauty ideals in China and compared them with different cultures. When it comes to some things, there are many similar points (faces for example) but definitely not with everything (body shape for example) 

My host sister Xin was in Hong Kong this break in order to take the SAT (they don't administer it in Mainland China), but we had a good time on Wednesday night before she left! 

On Thursday, I went with Tilden to Tian Zi Fang to explore and do some shopping for souvenirs/gifts (we want to be proactive so as not to feel stressed and scramble the last week we are here). 

(Candies shaped like grapefruit and passionfruit at the awesome candy lab where you can watch them make the candy at Tian Zi Fang) 

(Beautiful construction across the street from Tian Zi Fang) 

Thursday night I also practiced my research project presentation with my host mom as part of NSLI-Y requirements. I am about done with the presentation (which we will give late May), but just need to practice, practice practice (practice makes perfect: shu neng sheng qiao 熟能生巧) in order to make it smooth and streamlined. 

Friday I went with my host mom and host brother to an amusement park! It was great to get to spend time with my host brother Bi Hao (who I never really see) and get to know my new host mom better (she is really one of the sweetest coolest people I've met here)!

(My host brother refuses to be photographed) 

There was an awesome roller coaster where the seats were shaped so it was like you are riding a motorcycle along the track. There was also a terrific one that basically dropped you vertically backwards! 

It already feels like summer! Everyone's eating ice cream and the Chinese men have started doing their classic exposed stomach move. It feels crazy to be wearing short sleeves and shorts, but as a desert girl, I'm totally loving the return to warmth.

33

The six-weeks-left mark has come and gone! It's crazy to think that before this experience, 6 weeks was the longest I'd ever been away from home. Time in general is so trippy, but the six-week period of time has come to feel both simultaneously infinite and non-existent. I do really look forward to coming home and spending the summer based in glorious Tucson sunshine before heading off to the Bay Area to start college in September, but I know I will also miss this place so much and so I'm trying to soak in every lovely moment of it that I have left! 

This week was pretty eventful! 

On Monday night, we went to an opera performance with the NSLI-Y group. My RD Shasha surprised us with her parents, who are in town from Pittsburgh! It was so cute meeting them. 

The show itself was pretty awesome too! I appreciate 越剧 (Yue Ju / the opera of this region) A LOT more than 京剧 (Jing ju: Beijing opera). The story was kind of hard to follow (the subtitles on screens to the side were helpful but the plot, which regarded family drama, was pretty complicated). The costumes and music were magnificent though! 

And even though we got soaked trying to catch a cab back to the school and almost didn't make it before curfew, it was really sweet to spend some evening time in downtown Shanghai. It's definitely then when I can really appreciate the grandness of the city. 

In our Tuesday music class, we practiced for the upcoming singing competition. 

As a group we'll be singing 最炫民族风 (Zui Xuan Min Zu Feng) where I am grouped with Vitaly from Russia and Kohe & Haiete from Japan as well as rapping with Keiondre, Yas, Paris, and Brady and having a solo of my own.

As a large group we'll also be concluding the competition with the catchy song 再见 (Zai Jian). 

For our individual Chinese song: Maike, Megan and I will be singing 斑马斑马 (Ban ma, Ban ma or Zebra, Zebra)  by 宋冬野 (Song dong ye). It's so beautiful!

We'll also be covering Chairlift's "Bruises" for our English song. 

Wednesday was a foreigner hay day! A high school basketball team from Canada came to play our school's team (the captain of which is Tilden's new friend, Simon). They were visiting a sister school in Tokyo over the past two weeks and no one (including the Canadians) were quite sure why they were here exactly. Regardlessly, they beat us pretty badly, but it was a really good game and fun to meet them! 

A group of French students also came Wednesday to study for two weeks in the Chinese department. 

It's really so weird seeing so many foreigners and hearing so much English! I realized that's going to be such a bizarre aspect about coming back to the States. 

On Friday, Keiondre, Paris, Maike, Tilden and I went to the Fudan international high school for the AP pre-aministration. We got to take a practice test, which made me feel super confident, but we also got to explore around that school a little and found a bizarre international used-book store where I found lots of ancient Arizona travel guides of all things! It was super weird, but also quite awesome. 

On Saturday, I went with Tilden to Qi Pu Lu, a humongous fake market / shopping area. It was pretty nightmarish and overwhelming for me because I hate shopping, but I ended up getting a totally decked out case for my phone (very China, but I was still psyched)... 

We also had fun getting lost in a random abandoned mall a few metro stops over. 

Also I just want to include this picture of kittens! One of the feral cats in the courtyard outside our dorms gave birth!