Abroad in Beijing: August 2015

Early June 2015, as I stayed up all night packing my things to get ready for the big trip to China, I reflected on what it would be like living there for an entire year. I had never traveled such a distance out of the country before and it would be my first time crossing overseas. Well I must have been daydreaming about it too much. By the time I made it to the airport, I had minutes before the airplane was about to take off. At the counter, I experienced problems with the ticket and apparently I was switched airlines without being notified. I was stunned. I was told they would probably have to take me off of the flight, but luckily they got me on the plane just in time. I sat watching out of the window as my little hometown disappeared under the clouds, wondering whether or not my parents were still at the airport waiting to see the plane take off or if they were already back on the road. I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't actually the plane to go to China yet. Instead, I was heading to Washington D.C. for orientation with the rest of the group that was selected for the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program.

Once I arrived, I gathered my suitcases and waited outside for my ride to take me to the grand hotel where our orientation was being held. My parents had decided to come meet me in D.C. because they had always wanted to come see the capital for themselves, and it gave us the opportunity to spend a little extra time together as a family. At the hotel, we were all surprised by the luxurious atmosphere we were gazing at. It was obviously an expensive hotel to stay in, but thankfully CLS footed the bill. My parents on the other hand opted for a cheaper place to stay. Those next few days CLS staff would inform us more about what their expectations were for us and what support would be given to us during the program. We all introduced ourselves to each other, and then in the evening, we were free to explore the city on our own, but I mostly spent the evenings going out to eat with my family.

On the final day, I had one last opportunity before I left to go see the White House and shop for some extra gifts for my host family. I was aware that gift-giving in China was culturally important, so I had done a lot of research online and purchased things that I thought my host family would like. It was only during this orientation that I found out which host family I would be staying with over the summer though, and after discovering that I would have a younger host sister, I went out and bought her a cute souvenir teddy bear that I found in one of the D.C. shops. Early the next morning, we all left together to the airport and prepared for the long journey ahead of us. I tried studying a little bit during the plane ride so that I could feel ready for the classes, but for the majority of the flight, I was out cold. As we drew closer to China, our flight attendants informed us that we were passing over the islands of Japan and that if we looked out the window, we could catch a glimpse of them. Shortly after this sight, we descended into the fog and finally arrived in Shanghai.

Leaving the terminal, a huge crowd of people was waiting near the main entrance of the airport, shouting and waving at us from behind a rope to purchase sim cards for our phones or to use their transportation services. All of a sudden, we heard someone calling for us. It was a representative from CLS who was there to greet us and bring us safely to Suzhou. We followed him out and quickly scooted onto the bus, and as we were being delivered to our destination, many of us had our sight fixed on our surroundings. The first thing we saw after leaving Shanghai were several fields and plots of farming land. Occasionally we'd pass by a billboard with some Chinese characters on it, which made everything feel so alien until one of the more knowledgeable students explained what they meant. It was a surreal sensation realizing that I was on the other side of the world from my home at that moment. I couldn't believe that I was actually in China.

The trip felt quicker than it actually was. By the evening we finally made it to Suzhou and checked into our hotel with the luggage. We soon after had our first meal together, but I felt a little uneasy eating dinner because a lot of the food wasn't recognizable and the eating style was completely different from what I anticipated. Of course we were using chopsticks, but then there was also this huge revolving glass disk centered on our table with several dishes of food on it that we all had to share. We were supposed to pick what foods we wanted to add to our tiny bowls of rice, but it made me self-conscious about taking too much to eat with all of the others watching. Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking this, as much of the food sadly went to waste by the end of the meal. Most people instead kept asking for refills on their bowls of rice. Only the ones who were actually familiar with authentic Chinese food were willing to eat the good stuff and be able to leave full, while the rest of us went out for snacks to fill our stomachs after we were given the rest of the evening off to explore the area.

We were allowed to relax for a few days before our classes would start, just so we could get used to the culture a little bit before we were slammed with coursework. When it finally came time to meet our host families, we were all waiting excitedly in the hotel lobby room for them to come in and search for us. As we watched other students’ families take them away one by one, we were eager to meet our own and could only imagine what they looked like and what their personalities would be like. I was lucky to have one of the CLS teachers as my host father, as he had experience teaching students like me and knew how to speak with someone who was nervous about their limited ability to use the language. Unfortunately only he was able to come get me at the time, so I would have to wait until later on to meet the rest of the family.

Once we arrived at their apartment, my first impression was that their home was absolutely gorgeous. It was a little cozy, but the place was spotless, the hardwood floors were kept shining, and all of the furniture matched really nicely together. I kept insisting that I loved their home decor, but the father, in the traditional Chinese way of showing modesty, would stop me right there and try to say otherwise. In the corner of the living room, I spotted an adorable pet bunny they called Tuzi 兔子, which simply meant "rabbit" in Mandarin. He had a funky little hairdo on his head and a very friendly temperament. I enjoyed petting his soft fur for a few moments before my host father guided me to the room I would be sleeping in for the rest of the summer. He left me to relax and unpack for about an hour before his wife and daughter would arrive back home. As soon as they walked in through the front door, I felt as though I was that new puppy dog a parent brings home to surprise the kids. The daughter was very eager and jumping around excitedly to meet me, and I was ecstatic to finally get to see her and her mother. The grandmother also walked in with them, and it was then that I learned that she also lived with the family. They each introduced themselves to me by their Chinese names, but my host mother and host sister also gave me their English nicknames to refer to them by. My host grandmother I would come to refer to as my A Yi 阿姨, a typical form of address for older women, and my host father I would continue to refer to as my teacher. When I arrived in China, I initially told everyone that they could call me Ai Li Xia 爱丽夏, so as to make it easier for people to pronounce my English name. However, my host father would later on suggest I pick up a more authentic Chinese sounding name and ask me what my favorite season is. After giving my response, he came up with a name for me: An Xia 安夏, meaning "Peaceful Summer".

After we met all of our families and spent some time getting to know them, we were finally called in to Soochow (Suzhou) University to see what level of classes we would be best suited in. The professors gave us each a private interview to test our abilities to speak in Mandarin, chatting with us casually and adjusting the pace until we could understand what they were saying and respond to them appropriately. We would also be told to read passages from class books of various levels so as to test our ability to recognize Chinese characters. It was shortly after this point a lot of us hit the realization that our language skills weren't what we might have thought they were, and it left some people feeling a little discouraged when they didn't make it into the higher level classes. I started off at an intermediate low level, which I was content with. I cared more about the progress I would make rather than where I was starting, so I was indifferent to the news except for the anticipation I felt for classes to get started.

Once the program began, we were only allowed to speak using Mandarin. If we were caught speaking any other language than our target language, we would be written up with the threat of being sent back home if we had too many violations. It wasn't so bad though. This requirement is what allowed our language skills to improve so quickly throughout the program. Eventually, as it became more natural, some of us would even start thinking and dreaming in the language. Once a week, we held our hourly meetings to see each other and discuss our experiences and upcoming plans. This was the one time where we would be allowed to speak in English and chill out a little bit. Our host families had to follow a similar rule where they could only speak to us in Mandarin. There was rumor of some families trying to take advantage of the program by using their foreign guests to teach their children English. To some extent it was true. My host mother had asked me if I would be willing to help her daughter a little bit with her English, at least until CLS representatives sent out a reminder to families that we were only allowed to speak in our target language. I would still occasionally say things to my host sister in English, like "good night" or "how are you today", as she only had a rudimentary understanding of the language and I didn't see it as a threat to my own progress. However, there was one person for example who consistently complained that his host brother would not stop speaking to him in English, and he was almost at that point where he was going to have to be placed in another host family, if CLS could arrange it.

At the beginning of classes, we also met our tutors and language partners. Each of the tutors would be in charge of helping two CLS students each day after class and their sessions would be guided based on the individual needs of the students. Each student would have a half-hour to ask any questions they had or to seek clarification on some of the grammar points they struggled to understand in class. Half-way through the program after midterms, our professors and tutors would switch out and we would have new people come in to teach us. Most of them were very friendly and uplifting, and if we had any difficulties outside of class, they were there just as much to support us as the CLS staff were. Our language partners stuck with us throughout the entirety of the program though. We would only meet with them maybe once a week, but usually we would find fun activities to do together. The language partners would often get together and plan trips for us to do things like going to the movies, eating at popular restaurants, visiting the zoo and art museum, or seeing local monuments such as the Tiger Hill Pagoda (Hu Qiu Ta 虎丘塔 ). They were also the ones to introduce us to Ping Jiang Lu 平江路, a famous street market in Suzhou where you can find many souvenir shops, restaurants, and even a cat cafe. It is also a tourist attraction, so pickpocketing in this location isn’t uncommon. One of my classmates got her wallet stolen here on the first day.

The language classes were very intense, lasting about four hours each day with short breaks in between. On an average day after I met with my tutor, I would usually start right away on my homework and studying. We had hours of homework every day on top of the hours of classwork, so we were always kept busy. Oftentimes it felt as though we were not given enough time to spend with our host families because of all the homework. I would always be up late at night finishing work and it often worried my host mother about my health. Usually our day-to-day assignments entailed memorizing a lot of vocabulary and writing characters, reviewing important grammar, interviewing Chinese people and preparing our daily oral presentations about them, reading passages and memorizing their key words, and typing up corrected work from previous classes to send to our professors. Whenever we received assignments back from our professors, it was important to check what mistakes we made so that we wouldn't make them again. The classes were kept small, so the professors were able to keep track of what kind of mistakes each of us made fairly easily and they would be quick to point it out if we repeated them. In addition to the language classes, we also had our weekly taichi and calligraphy classes. We had to choose between one of the two as a minimum requirement, but most of us chose to take both classes out of interest.

Aside from the busy student life, being in Suzhou was very peaceful and interesting. In the summertime it was often rainy and hot, leaving air feeling very humid. Usually when I went to class or explored the city, I carried around my little Chinese hand fan and an umbrella to keep cool and dry. Suzhou is also very beautiful and referred to as the "Venice of China" for all of its canals, parks, and gardens. In the neighboring area next to my host family's home was a park they often liked to walk to in the evenings after dinner. There, you could watch a large group of old women and some men dancing to traditional Chinese style music on a stereo that was brought from one of their homes. My host mother told me that it was a common outdoor activity in China called Guang Chang Wu 广场舞 (public square dancing). I watched as my 阿姨 joined in the fun, but normally when I went to the park with my host family, I walked around the path with my host mother as she let her daughter play with the other children on the playground.

There wasn't an overwhelming number of foreigners in the area, so we still received attention that you wouldn't get so much of as in the cities that have more expats, like Beijing and Shanghai. As I started my walk to school every morning, I often heard people refer to me as Laowai 老外 (foreigner). It was not usually said out of negativity, rather it was just used to make a remark about the obvious. I stood out very easily with my blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. Sometimes these features would garner more attention than I expected though. I was once at a local park with a friend practicing a couple rounds of archery at a random stand we found, and as some folk watched us play, they all started to crowd around requesting I pose with them after I asked the stand owner to use my phone to take a photo of me. I never really declined anyone that asked to take a photo with me while I was in China, unless they tried to force it on me, because I felt it presented a good opportunity to talk with people. However, it did get annoying sometimes when I was trying to relax and enjoy the tourist spots with my friends.

When we weren't on our own studying and learning to live in China, the CLS students would gather together on frequent trips to learn more about Chinese culture and to bond as a group. We first left together to go visit a local pastry factory and saw how they prepared some of their Chinese style treats. We were allowed to try making some for ourselves, and later in the day, some journalists came in to interview some of the students and broadcast the event on television. On another trip, we went to the Lion Grove Garden, or Shi Zi Lin 狮子林. This beautiful garden is made up of huge rock formations, stone paths, and waterways complimented by its greenery. It was almost like being in a rocky maze because it was so easy to get lost in all of its paths. After we had midterms, we went on an extra special trip to Nanjing and Hangzhou with CLS staff and some of our language partners for four days. We visited several famous sites in these cities, such as the Nanjing Museum (Nanjing Bowuguan 南京博物馆 ), the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum (Zhong Shan Ling 中山陵 ), Nanjing's Presidential Palace (Zongtong Fu 总统府 ), Hangzhou's West Lake (Xi Hu 西湖 ), and the Dreaming of the Tiger Spring (Hu Pao Meng Quan 虎跑梦泉 ). Another notable place we visited just outside of Hangzhou was Daming Mountain (Da Ming Shan 大明山 ). I was most excited about coming to this place because it had been so long since I got any real exercise. I raced up its paths with some of the other people who were full of energy, and we eventually broke off from the rest of the group and beat them to the top. As we made the climb, watching the scenery was breathtaking. It was raining hard and very humid out, with a thick fog surrounding the mountainside. The fog made everything disappear in the distance, giving the environment an air of mystery and obscurity. As we were making our descent, we found a large cave that led to a water slide down the mountain. Unfortunately, because of the rain, no one was allowed to use it, but it gave me the extra time to enjoy the hike. As we returned to our hotel that night though, we were all exhausted and immediately crashed into our beds. Later on in the program, we would also enjoy experiencing a tea ceremony together and a pottery-making workshop that a lot of us would use as an opportunity to make goodbye gifts for our host families.

With the program coming to an end, it seemed everyone was feeling a little sad that they would be leaving all of the people they've met. Being that we went through such an intensive program together, a lot of us really bonded, and our host families were so accommodating to us throughout the summer that it would be hard to forget all of their kindness. A couple weeks before our departure date, we were told that there would be a final dinner event that all of our host families and teachers would be invited to. CLS students were also going to put on a talent show for everyone that night. I offered right away to do a martial arts performance because it was killing me to have not been able to do it much over the summer. After finishing up the finals, a lot of us took the time to chat with our teachers and tutors one last time before we left, as well as to exchange gifts and take photos. In my class, we also prepared a short musical afterwards for the talent show.

On our final night in Suzhou, when we went to meet for dinner, I was really anxious to perform in front of everybody. We did not have much time to prepare for the show when we were worrying about our final exams. I only had the chance to practice once, more for the reason of being unable to find the space to do it, and it had been months since I had done any of my martial arts performance sets. Some of the other talents in the show included singing, instrument playing, and a comedy show. When it was my turn, I made a mistake when I got distracted by the music in the background, but I turned it around in the end with some board breaking. I first punched through some boards with my fists and then had some classmates break five boards over my limbs and head at once. It was a fun-looking trick I learned when I was going through my first black belt cycle, and I really wanted to take advantage of the moment to try it. At the end of the evening, we all watched a slideshow that highlighted moments from our journey together and listened to the more advanced students deliver a speech in Mandarin.

The next day, everyone was headed to the airport to go back home except for me and a couple of other students who were staying behind in China. My host family allowed me to stay an extra day to wait for my flight date to go to Hong Kong for a new visa, and in that time, we spent our last moments together hanging out. My host mother had to leave early for a business trip, so I woke up early to say goodbye to her before I went out to lunch with my host father and host sister. After searching around for some place to have my luggage shipped to Beijing where I'd be studying next, we mostly relaxed at home for the rest of the day watching TV and playing a board game that was essentially the Chinese version of Monopoly. Later at night I treated them to dinner to thank them for buying me lunch earlier on and then at home we enjoyed some fruit for dessert. I could not stop thinking about how much I was going to miss everyone. The next morning, my host father took me to my bus stop and I gave him a hug before I left. It was going to be a long school year ahead of me now, but I was excited to see where the journey would take me with how great of an experience it was in Suzhou.

Abroad in Beijing

Monday, August 31, 2015

Entry 1 - Departure and Suzhou

Entry 1 - Photos