Wanderlust + NSLI-Y Videos

Well, it's been almost a year since my NSLI-Y trip, and I'm still feeling the effects of wanderlust. In fact, it's gotten so bad that I find myself checking the Hawaiian Airlines site more than I should be. I miss China...a lot. Because I've been feeling a bit nostalgic lately, I decided to upload the few videos I took while I was in Hangzhou. It's not much (whipping out my phone is just too much work), but hopefully they will do. HD is available for all of the videos by the way!

Learning a Mongolian Dance

Learning Martial Arts

KTV Adventures

Park/Square Dancing

My Class vs. A Roach

Matthew's Birthday Celebration

Walking Around Hangzhou/Riding the Bus

Closing Ceremony (Speech and Song by Host Siblings)

Anyways, this is pretty much it for this post! Alex and I are meeting Haley in Arizona during August for a little NSLI-Y reunion, so that should be fun. I really can't believe this reunion is happening though, haha. I mentioned in my "Goodbye Hangzhou" post that we wanted to meet up in LA during the summer, and here we are, actually making it happen...except in Arizona. Seriously, thank you NSLI-Y for all of the friendships I have made.

Resiliency

Whoever said senior year is easy was obviously lying. This past month, in particular, has been especially tough on me. Last Thursday, after months of waiting, I was finally notified that I was not a recipient of the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship. Was I disappointed? Of course. I poured my heart and soul into the required eight essays, forcing myself to pull all-nighters in order to perfect my application. I desired this scholarship more than anything else in the world, and for good reasons - as a scholar, the burden of paying for college would be completely eliminated. But, again, despite how much I wanted this, I was not chosen. Seeing the thin envelope in my dad's car, I quietly told my dad that I was not selected. He quickly comforted me, and reminded me that disappointments are inevitable.

Although I was not selected as a Gates Millennium Scholar, I just want to thank everyone for all of the support and encouragement you have provided me. I was heartbroken, yes, but I have come to understand that this does not define me nor my accomplishments. I am honored and  lucky to have even made it this far - being selected as a finalist out of 52,000 applicants. Congratulations to those selected as part of the 2014 cohort! I am so incredibly happy for all of you, especially after seeing all of your "selfies" and posts :) You are all so deserving of this scholarship. I know many of you have had to overcome many adversities in your lives, so I am very glad that Gates will open up numerous opportunities for the lot of you.

To my fellow non-recipients - whether for Gates, NSLI-Y, or anything else - please know that rejection and failure does not signify the end of the world. Paying for college may come as a bit of a struggle now, but it's merely a minor setback. Achieving your PhD, MBA, etc is entirely possible if you continue to work hard. I know you are all capable of this, because I have seen the resiliency, optimism,and humility that you have all displayed in the face of this disappointment. As for me, I have already started working towards my own goals. I wish you all the very best in life, and to my fellow Gates applicants, I wish you the very best in your college endeavors :)

Before I end my post, I would just like to give a big thanks to NSLI-Y, American Councils, and the US Department of State. This is long overdue, but I just wanted to say that I am very grateful to have received the opportunity to travel to Hangzhou last summer. I have made incredible life-long friends while I was there, and it is because of my experiences with NSLI-Y that I have been able to remain resilient in the face of failure and rejection. To those embarking on their own NSLI-Y journeys this year - especially those going to Hangzhou - I hope you are all ready for the greatest experiences of your lives :) And last but not least, here is my final NSLI-Y post. One year after starting this blog, I am finally ending this amazing journey :)

Sunday (August 11)

Final day in Hangzhou, and I was a complete mess. From the moment I arrived in front of the school, I started crying like a baby. Luckily, I wasn't the only one feeling all somber - Alex, Michelle, Nancy, and Sander were sobbing with me too.

Our host families waving goodbye to us

Boarding the bus, we called Sander and my host sister one last time before we had to turn in our NSLI-Y phones. I think Sander was still crying, because he sounded really sniffly and sad over the phone ;__; The ride back to Shanghai was about 3 hours, and then we boarded a 13-hour flight back to Chicago. When we reached Chicago, I cried again. Because I was the only one staying overnight in Chicago (everyone else had a connecting flight), I had to say goodbye to everyone within minutes of passing customs. Goodbyes have never been easy for me. 

Can you tell I cried?

Until Next Time,

Christine

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.

More Pictures

Here are some pictures I've taken over the last 5 weeks.

Last picture was from PDO Day 2