Week 3

So sorry for neglecting my blog, but I've just been so busy and lazy to blog (each post takes me about an hour to write...so it's really time-consuming). Time flies so fast in China...I've already been here for 3 weeks. Despite how hot Hangzhou is, I love China a lot. I love how cheap the food is, how cheap the bargaining markets are, how many different kinds of ice cream there are, the people, etc. I have 3 weeks left, and I'm already getting sad about leaving. Six weeks just isn't enough time.

I find that the easiest way to recollect my thoughts is to just divide it up by days:

Sunday (July 14)

My host mom and sister brought me to a bargaining market today. One word to describe the shopping: AMAZING. There are so many stores lined up in there, and they literally have everything: shoes, bags, toiletries, cosmetics, clothes, toys, pens, notebooks, and various other items. I bought two dresses, two headbands, and some things for school. I spent only 77 元, which is about $12. The two dresses were only 35 元, or about $6. How cheap is that? They were cute dresses, too. I love shopping here LOL. Best day ever. The only downside was the bus ride back home. I wanted to cry at how packed it was. 

Monday + Tuesday (July 15+16)

Things weren't too interesting these two days, so I don't remember a lot of what happened. All I know was that we had Chinese calligraphy class after lunch on Monday and a lecture on the Chinese zodiacs on Tuesday. I would post a picture of my calligraphy, but they are horrendous...so no pictures, sorry. I also went to the grocery store today...found some Super Junior-M peanut butter cookie bars, bought some blueberry Pocky (never had these before), and found out that Super Junior was in Hawaii while I am in China. My luck....

Wednesday (July 17)

My Chinese teacher, 李老师, is the best. That is all. He treated my class (Olive, Me, Alex, Kaelin, Haley, and Michelle) to lunch today, and everything was so delicious. It was the best lunch that we've had in a while because the school's lunch is 不好. 

After lunch, 张老师 gave all of the Americans a lecture on Chinese food culture. It was pretty interesting to learn about the different types of cuisines in China. My favorite would have to be food from the Guangdong province because I love Cantonese food. Sorry Zhejiang, I can't part with my Canto food. When the lecture was over, we took a private bus to Hefang Street. Hefang Street was okay...but you could definitely tell it was primarily a tourist spot because everything was overpriced. The only thing I bought from there was a Coca-cola slurpee, which wasn't even a slurpee; it was just regular coke with some ice in it. Michelle bought some tea, so we were able to witness the preparing and serving of tea (the saleslady made us sit  while she made the tea in front of us). Kaelin, Matthew and Will also got their pictures taken with some Chinese people. Female Alex (we also have a male Alex - Frankly I think male Alex looks like a Max, though) wanted to get into the picture too, but the Chinese girls told her "不用你" and pushed her out of the picture LOL. Alex is full Chinese, so yeah. No love for Michelle, Alex, Haley and me because we're either half or full Chinese...so no one wants to take a picture with us. We don't look 外国人 enough ;___; Instead, people ask us to take the picture for them. Pffft. Whatevers. 

In the evening, D and Sage came to my house for a visit. One word to describe it: awkward. I just felt really nervous and tired. Only my host mom was home at the time because my host dad was picking my host sister up from her night classes. He basically just asked us about how things were going, how I liked the food, and other things. The awkward part were the awkward silences that would take over after we finished talking about each topic. Awkward. 

Oh, I also found out that the host moms have a QQ chat as well (before, I mentioned that the host siblings have one to talk about us). Well, the host moms also have one, where they talk about the Americans in it. Funny. 

Thursday (July 18）

Today, we had a culture class on Longjing green tea and oolong tea. The class was pretty cool because the teacher let us make the tea by ourselves. The tea trays are so cute--the cups are so tiny and 很可爱. After that, we had another RD meeting with D. Sage wasn't there because she other business to attend to (which I won't go into, but I'm just very disappointed. I'm very fortunate to be placed in Hangzhou because we're all good kids. LOL. Actually, we're all such goody-too shoes. Seriously. We joke that the only "scandalous" thing that we do is party in the Walmart 15 mins away from the host institution...which is pretty true.). It felt weird having D give us the idiom of the week instead of Sage. I would tell you guys the idiom, but I don't remember it. 

After dinner, my host mom and sister brought me to this park along this famous river/canal (it's a world heritage site, btw--the river/canal), and I witnessed some dancing. We actually saw two dances going on in different places of the park (the park is huge). One was under a bridge, so it was completely dark, and the other was on a well-lit stage l o l. I didn't dance today, but I told my host mom that I wanted to come back again tomorrow and try it. 

Friday (July 19)

李老师 IS THE BEST. YEEE.  We watched 功夫熊猫 (Kungfu Panda) in class today. It was in Chinese, of course, with Chinese subtitles. I couldn't follow the voices, but I was able to follow the Chinese subtitles for a bit because my reading is better than my listening skills. Something I found strange was that the actors were not saying the same thing as the Chinese subtitles...I think my teacher mentioned something about it being dubbed by Taiwanese singers/people? Something like that...so they have different phrases and expressions from Mainland Chinese, so the subtitles and the speaking parts are not saying the same thing. 

After lunch, we went boating in West Lake. The boat made two rounds around the whole lake (which is huge). Since it was super hot, I caved in and spent 7 元 on a blueberry ice cream cone. Even though it's technically only $1...my wallet was crying because I could have gotten that same ice cream for 3 元 at a non-tourist spot. Boo. Oh wells. It was delicious. I love Chinese ice cream. Ice cream is one of the best things about China. When we got back to the school, our host siblings were there and we got to play cards with them. My group played BS, Egyptian War (which I found out is not how it is called by the rest of the US....I guess only Hawaii then), and some Chinese card games. Egyptian War got pretty intense when people were trying to slap the cards, in order to get back into the game. This reminded me of 8th grade...when Caroline broke Sara's nail because she slapped the cards too hard while playing this game LOL. Good times. 

After dinner, my host mom, sister and I went back to the park again. We settled on the dancing ladies underneath the bridge. I actually danced today, and it was so much fun. My host sister didn't dance as much because she thought the dancing was 很奇怪 (strange). I personally liked the dancing. It's pretty cool how everyone there knows the dance; it was like a flash mob. I had a lot of fun. I also had fun watching my host mom dance because, well, it was just a funny sight to see. I'm planning to go dancing again soon...and I can cross this off my China bucket-list. Yay~

Right now, my host family and I are watching ‘Voice of China,' which is on every Friday. It's supposedly really popular in China, just like The Voice in America. Tomorrow, I'm going shopping with Alex, Michelle, Haley, and Kaelin. Super excited for that. I'll probably head to bed early tonight because being in China is just so tiring. Even though I sleep for 7 hours each day (which is way more than the amount of sleep I get in Hawaii), I'm still always so tired. I have the hardest time staying awake in my Chinese classes because of that. I think it's because of the heat and the weather. It's just the type of weather that makes people feel sleepy all of the time. 

Anyways, I'm going to go shower, watch some more Voice of China, and head to bed. I am all pooped out for the day.

Until next time, 

Christine