I've been meaning to update my blog a lot more often this week, but I have just been so tired and the internet is a hassle here. But I finally got it! So the first week has gone by very fast and slow... if that makes sense. The trip to China was so long and exhausting...about 24 hours of straight traveling, and when we arrived in Shanghai, we immediately hopped on a bus and took a 3 hour ride to Hangzhou. The view out of the bus window was amazing. Unfortunately, I was so tired and my stomach hurt from the plane (and its plane food) that I slept most of the way. The first stop we made, a rest stop, was definitely a shock to me. It was a little area with food and bathrooms, and the food was...traditional Chinese food...the first thing I saw was a pile of duck heads, or "ya tou," and then other piles of food like whole frogs, chickens, alongside other unidentifiable interesting things...
fast forward: meeting my host family: a family of 3- my host father, mother, and sister, Wang Zhe- she’s 17. My family’s very very very nice and hospitable. They had a room all ready for me, and even installed an air conditioning machine in my room to make me feel comfortable...! they don't know much English, which was a bummer, but I guess it's actually good. My host sister goes to the school that I am attending this summer, and she is a grade below me. At first I was afraid she didn't like me, because she wouldn't really talk to me, but I found out that it was because she was embarrassed because she thinks her English is poor. haha, its better than my Chinese... I think its great!
so school: the second day in China I took a placement exam to determine which class I will be put in (there are 20 students and there are 3 classes- based on level). it was terrible. I thought I failed lol but I got placed in the middle level! School has been difficult so far... we have 4 hours a day and the teachers will not speak English... only a few words if need be. most of the class time I’m confused and lost, (not much of a surprise), but I manage to quickly scribble down notes about everything I don't understand. we have about 25 characters/phrases to memorize every night and a quiz ("ting xie"- which means "listen, write") every day on our vocab.
After Chinese class, we have lunch. All the American exchange students eat lunch together in the cafeteria. they serve us a tray of Chinese food, which is definitely interesting. the first day I was given a pile of cartilage-like meat. I didn't find out until later that I had eaten pig ear for lunch. The next day I asked for "su cai", which means vegetarian food, haha!
After lunch we have 45 minutes of free time, or nap time for Chinese students. I really like this time period and think we should have this in America... ;) but then again, my host sister told me that she regularly has school from 7 am to 6 pm, then goes somewhere else for an after-school math class, because she doesn't think the math at her school is good enough... now I understand why these students need a little nap period.
Then we have a couple hours of culture class. Culture class has been a fun, relaxing time for me. We have explored the art of Tai Chi, paper cutting, making dumplings, and folk songs. The only difficult thing is still that our teachers only speak Chinese, so I can’t understand much of the information. Also, Tai Chi was surprisingly tiring. I see a bunch of older Chinese people in the parks in the morning doing some sort of daily taichi routine, so I assumed it’d be a piece of cake. Actually, it required so much concentration and balance and by the end I was so sore! Now I have a new level of respect for these men and women I see in the park every morning.
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