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~
Tuesday (August 6)
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~
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| 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)
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~
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| PC: Angelo Perez |
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| My PowerPoint presentation on park dancing |
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).
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| 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!
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| 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.
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