Last Weekend in Hangzhou

Friday (August 9)
I'm going to be honest --- I barely studied for my Chinese final. After coming home from the fundraising event the night before, there was just not enough time. Hence, Michelle, Haley, Alex and I were scrambling to study during class, break, and lunch. Oh, and we took more pictures in class after we gave our teachers their gifts~ We also exchanged QQ numbers and email addresses. Sob, I can't even log onto my QQ now, because I don't remember my log-in information.

Final lunch day at our favorite smoothie and shave ice shop! We were all super sad, since this was our prime hangout spot.

Alex and Matthew enjoying their $2 noodles from next door

Since it was our final day, we got a picture with the owner for memories~

I didn't get to see my score, but Sander saw it (I don't know how) and told me I got around a 74 or so. Everyone else in my class received a score around that number, so I guess I didn't do too bad? 74 translates over to C, though, so I wanted to cry. But Sander said I did a really good job o___o So I guess I did good? Sander is one of the top students in his class, so I'm going to take his word for it. I guess I just have to remind myself that 100's are almost never handed out in China. Chinese teachers believe that their students can always do better, so 100's are a big no-no.

After finals were over, it was time to celebrate! While the majority of the group went shopping, Angelo, Ryan, Xochitl and I got massages at a "blind" massage place. Technically, only one of the workers was blind...the rest could see. But it doesn't matter. I didn't get a massage, but Ryan, Xochitl and Angelo seemed to enjoy it. I think they've been to that massage place like 5 times while we were in Hangzhou.

Ryan posing for the camera LOL. Doesn't he look so relaxed?

When the massages were over, the four of us took a bus to 文二路. Kaelan's birthday was today, so her host sister invited all of us (including host siblings) to a fancy dinner. I had steak and a strawberry milkshake.

My table

A green cherry from Kaelan's birthday cake (PC: Angelo)

Wow, this is a bad picture LOL

Since we didn't want the celebration to end, we made an impromptu stop at a nearby KTV. We sang about 4 songs, and then the KTV machine broke...so we had to leave.

It was around 9:30 p.m. by the time we left, but Will and I weren't done celebrating yet. It was our last official night to spend with friends, so we took a taxi to Sander's place to hangout with Sander, Nancy, Matthew, Michelle, Haley, and Alex. 

Picture on Sander's rooftop

Alex, Matthew and I got bored so we went downstairs and walked around Sander's neighborhood. At around 11:55 pm, we were all pooped out. I caught a taxi and was on my way home. When I got to my house, it was already past midnight, so the gates to my community were locked. This came as a surprise, because I didn't know they locked it at night?! How was I supposed to get if it was locked?! I waited around for 10 minutes or so, before a couple of guys  working in the hair salon in front of the community told me how to get in through a back alley. I probably should have been more cautious, but hey, I was desperate. Anyways, I walked through the back alley, found my apartment complex, walked up four flights of stairs, went into my room, and crashed.

Saturday (August 10)

Woke up bright and early because today was graduation day! 

Left to right: D, Sage, my host sister, me, my host parents

Each of us (including our host siblings) received a certificate, certifying our graduation from the NSLI-Y program. Then the principal of our host school gave us gifts (Chinese dictionaries), we gave a speech in Chinese about our time in Hangzhou, and then more certificates were handed out. Get this, I won 1st place in the NSLI-Y "speech competition" for my Chinese level, LOL Apparently our NSLI-Y presentation was a secret speech competition (at least that's what our teachers told our host siblings...why does everything have to be a competition in China?!). The teachers critiqued us, and I guess I got the highest score for the middle Chinese level~ Wow, haha. Definitely was not expecting that. The principal of the school also said I did a really good job and that I sounded quite fluent ;___; So humbled by that compliment!!

The principal and me

#1 woooo

After the recognition portion of the graduation was over, the host siblings put on a surprise presentation for us. Each one of them gave a little speech, and then they sang for us (including Tu laoshi and D!). At this point, Alex, Michelle and I broke down in tears, because a slideshow was playing at the same time and we all got really sad and nostalgic. 

More pictures were taken and then graduation was over.

Final class picture with both of our teachers

The 19 Americans and our host siblings

Can you tell by my swollen nose that I cried?

Lunch was held at the hotel right across from our school. While we were there, we did the most American-thing we could do: sign each other's Chinese dictionaries. Our host siblings saw what we were doing and did the same. 

Nancy and me

Sander and me

After lunch, my host family and I went shopping for food and stationary items. And guess what? I asked them to take me back to the stationary store I visited with Michelle and Alex, hehe. My host sister bought me a pack of Hangzhou postcards to take home, even though I told her I could buy it myself ;__; She's so sweet. When we got home, my host family had to go to my host mom's office...so I took the bus to Sander's house by myself. 

My last time taking the bus --- I had to snap a picture for memories

Walking to Sander's place

We went on the rooftop again and hung out for several hours before I had to go home for dinner. 

From the top of Sander's apartment

Because this was my last night in Hangzhou, I decided to walk home instead of take the bus. I wanted to soak my surroundings in before I had to leave...and, of course, take pictures :P

My host family and I had our last dinner, and then I went park dancing one final time.

Final dinner as a family

After park dancing, my host mom and sister took me shopping at a small night market several blocks away. It was quite the walk, but well worth it. I bought some small hair clips, a huge cup of lemonade, and a huge photo book of EXO. I saw this same photobook on Ebay for $40....I bought mine at a small magazine shop one block away from my host family's house for only $7. Needless to say, I was a very happy EXO fan. 

Walking back, I told my host mom and sister to head into the apartment first, because I wanted to buy something at the shop outside of the community. I think I spent about an hour in there, figuring out what I wanted to buy, before I came back. 

When I got to my room, my sister had left a huge gift bag for me on my bed. There were so many cute things in it, and she wrote me a very nice letter too. Again, I got really nostalgic. But not before having to pack everything up and clean everything out of the room. Lets just say that both of my luggage were bulging. I don't know how I managed to fit everything in there. After that, I showered and slept, because I was extremely exhausted. My last night in Hangzhou~

Final Week in Hangzhou Pt. 2

Wednesday (August 7) 
We visited a Chinese tea museum after classes today. There wasn't much to look at, but I thought it was still okay.

Making tea, hahahaha

PC: Angelo Perez

After our group trip to the tea museum, Sander, Haley, Michelle, Matthew and I took a taxi to a building nearby my bus station. It was supposedly a place where Chinese kids come to take English classes to prepare for the TOEFL and SATs. Apparently, Sander had taken us to an "English Corner" that he organized and wanted us to participate in. Speaking English to Chinese teens? Well, that's kinda counterproductive towards our goal of Chinese fluency, but this was the least we could do for Sander after all that he has done for us.

We didn't do much conversing...it was actually very awkward. One of the Chinese guys spent most of his time hitting on Michelle, uhhh. But it seems as if most of them there wanted to go to Stanford, Harvard, etc. I have high hopes for them!

While I was at the "English Corner," I kind of lost track of time and came home late for dinner --- around 7 p.m. I felt so bad, because my host family was waiting for me to come home before having dinner ;____; I apologized over and over again, but they assured me that it was okay. The bus ride home was really relaxing. I've never been on the bus this late before, so I just sat and stared outside at the neon lights with my earphones on.

Thursday (August 8)

Classes were very chill today. Since our final exams were taking place the next day, we spent most of class reviewing and taking pictures for memories.

张老师的课

李老师的课

At lunch, Alex and I walked over to our favorite smoothie and shave ice place!! We bought our drinks there, went next door to buy a bowl of noodles for only $2, and made our way back to the smoothie place to eat. I can not get enough of this store.

After lunch, the whole group had a re-entry workshop administered by D and Sage. I don't remember too much about the re-entry workshop, but Sage did show us videos of her year in Beijing with NSLI-Y! We also got to see videos of her dance crew back in Beijing. Sage is soooo good at dancing. Seriously, so amazing. To top it all off, Sage bought us cream puffs and mini ice cream cones.

The ice cream cone was so tiny (it was really cute!)

When the workshop was over, Haley, Nancy (Haley's host sister), Michelle, Riona (Michelle's host sister), Matthew, Sander (Matthew's host brother), Estella (my host sister), and I took a bus to the rich part of Hangzhou to sell paper flowers for charity event. I later found out that this rich part of town included Wulin Street. And the mall we were selling paper flowers at was the same one we visited back on July 4th --- with the museum, Starbucks, and Paris Baguette. 

Walking to the mall

I still can not believe Nancy and Riona made all of those paper flowers. There was a lot! I want to say that we did a pretty good job of selling them, but it was tough. Not a lot of people wanted to buy them. Matthew was the most successful out of all of us. His tactic was to go into an elevator full of Chinese women and persuade them to buy a rose or two. He did this about 10 times, and actually sold quite a bit. LOL, and we all made fun of him for it at first......who knew...

Nancy and Riona's classmates helping out with the fundraiser

Who said Chinese people are short?!

Final Week in Hangzhou Pt. 1

After reading over my past two posts, I realized that I skipped over August 1. I guess I'll just add it onto this post then. Sorry for the disorganization! My memory is really starting to fail me...

Thursday (August 1)
Let me just start off by saying that timing is essential when it comes to taking the bus in Hangzhou...well for the 303 bus at least. I usually head down to my bus stop at around 7:05 a.m. everyday, but today, I was a couple minutes too slow. I came down at 7:09 a.m. and just missed my usual bus. Thinking the next bus would come in a couple of minutes, I did not get too worried. But the buses were running extra slow today. The next 303 did not arrive until 7:19 a.m., and it was packed! I've never seen a bus this packed in the morning before. It was literally so packed that I had to squeeze myself through the back door, which is usually reserved for getting off the bus (Note: you get on the bus through the front door and leave through the back door). Needless to say, I didn't pay my bus fare that day lol. I'm such a bad person, but... On a side note, I am amazed at how trustful Chinese people are of other people. Because a bunch of us stepped onto the bus from the back door, we couldn't reach the card scanner located at the front of the bus. So what do Chinese people do? They pass their bus cards over to the people waiting in front of us, and they pass it over to those in front of them...until someone scans the card. And then they pass the card back to the owner. I guess I could learn a thing or two about morality from them ;__; But it was a one-time thing, I swear. Besides this one time, I have always paid my bus fare.

Anyways, the bus was moving so slow that day (even the 197) that I got to school late --- around 8 a.m. Luckily, we had another service event this day and did not start classes until noon. Our community service project was to clean up West Lake. Of course, West Lake was scorching hot, so we found the next best thing: the streets alongside a botanical garden? I think. Cleaning was pretty fun. Kaelin and I filled up our trash bag to the brim. We found a bunch of cigarette butts, a worn out shoe, a couple of plastic bottles, and a lot of plastic wrappings. (Actually, Hangzhou is pretty darn clean. We had to scour the bushes alongside the streets in order to find these things, heh). While we were cleaning, an old man came up to us and started talking to us in Chinese. He asked us how old we were, what we were doing, and where we are from. When we told him we were in the equivalent of the 2nd year of high school in China, he told us he had a grandson who was the same age as us. We talked for 10 more mins or so, and then he had to leave. Again, old people are so nice~

Reppin' our sexy green NSLI-Y shirts

Oh, a camera crew was also filming something nearby --- it looked like a movie of some sort. Matthew was apparently asked to be in it lol. They must have loved his umbrella hat.

Monday (August 5)

The long-awaited NSLI-Y presentations were today, and it was super nerve-wracking. Presenting to my class in Chinese was easy, but presenting to our host siblings and the principal and teachers of the school was another story. Luckily, I made it out alive :)

As one can see from the picture below, I did my presentation on Chinese park dancing. Even after 7 months, I still miss park dancing waaah. If you travel to China, definitely put park dancing on your list. You will not regret it.

My host sister said I did well, so I'm going to take her word for it. I think Francesca, Jake, Male Alex, and Angelo's presentations were the best though. Isabel also gave us free bread (her presentation was on Chinese bakeries), so bonus points for her! Yummy bread~

PC: Angelo Perez

My PowerPoint presentation on park dancing

Tuesday (August 6)

Today was quite the adventure. After school, Alex  took Haley, Sander, Matthew and I to a bee farm she discovered a while ago. It was way out past West Lake, so we had to take the bus there. Alex reminded us to be on the lookout because if we missed our stop, it would be a long time before we reached the next one. Being the bunch that we are, we missed our bus stop of course. And where was the next bus stop? It was on the other side of a long ass bridge, in the new part of Hangzhou (located on a separate island). The view from the bridge was so beautiful though, so I guess it wasn't too bad. After 30-45 minutes on the bus, we finally reached the new part of Hangzhou. We made our way to the bus stop going the opposite way, and got on a bus that took us back towards town...where we finally got off at the correct stop.

The bee farm was in the middle of nowhere, literally. I'm not sure how Alex found it, because it is hidden behind a bunch of trees and grass...so yeah. The grandma remembered Alex from the last time Alex came, so she brought the load of us into her house and gave us tea. There, we conversed with her and her grandson in Mandarin. Let me tell you guys, she was literally the sweetest person we have met in Hangzhou. She gave us free tea (she grows them in her bee farm) and allowed us to try her honeycombs. Wow, I've never eaten a real honeycomb before. It was interesting. I'm just glad my honeycomb did not have dead bee parts in it like Haley's one did. After eating and conversing, she brought all of us outside to look at her bees. I was too afraid to get near the bees, however, so I didn't see any. (Side note: bee farming is Alex's hobby, which explains why we were here this day).

Matthew and Haley enjoying their tea

 

After visiting the bee farm, we all headed over to Haley's place for dinner. Wow, Haley lives far away from school. I thought I lived far away, but no, Haley's place was over an hour away. But her host family's house was super nice and so modern looking! And her host mom is such a good cook!

Hiding behind Alex because I looked terrible

After dinner, we visited the long-awaited night market by Haley's house. Everything was so cheap...and so much clothes omg. I also saw EXO posters ;___; which Alex bought for her host sister, Jessica. I wish I had a night market by my house. We stayed there until around 11 p.m. before we decided to go home. My host mom called around 10 or so, but she told Nancy (Haley's host sister) that it was okay for me to be out; she just wanted to know where I was. Finally, taxi ride home with Michelle was only $2.