Changzhou, China 2010

Hello everyone who is still reading! I guess I will just sum up the rest of my trip and have some real closure. So I will pick up on Wednesday (last Wednesday). I had my last full evening with my family. We chatted and played games and showed each other pieces of culture. It was really fun, and after that, I especially didn't want to go home. But it didn't really matter if I wanted to or not. Thursday, we had a half day of school taking pictures and participating in a closing ceremony. Then we went home and packed. My suitcase weighed about 45 pounds, quite a bit more than the 25 or so that I brought. Then I had to find something to do so I wouldn't be idly waiting. My sister and I sang some karaoke, then I wrote each person in my family a letter, thanking them and telling them how much I felt like a part of the family. My host mom, sister, and I went out to dinner, incidentally at the same restaurant we went to on my first day in Changzhou. Then after we and my host father got home, we went to the train station. We had to wait there for a very long hour or so, then it was time to say goodbye. I was really sad to leave my family. They had done so much for me, and I really did feel like they were my parents and my little sister. They all hugged me, which I was thankful for. I was tearing up a bit as I left. Hopefully we will see each other again.

The time in Beijing was very anxious for me. I was also tired, so I was not in the best of moods. We kept counting down our lasts. Our last time using the squatty potty (I'm not going to miss that one!), our last meal with chopsticks, our last milk tea. Luckily the time did not pass too slow, and before I knew it, we were on the plane. The plane ride was not bad. I sat next to my friend Miranda, and we passed the time chatting and watching movies. Soon enough we landed. It was hard to say good bye to Miranda and my other friends from Changzhou. We're from all over the US, so we can't really visit each other often. Then some of us who had connecting flights the next day went to the hotel. At the hotel, I had the best burger I have ever eaten in my life. Of course, that was coming off of 6 weeks of Chinese food. Then I slept in the most comfortable bed ever. It felt like I was sleeping on a cloud.

I got home at around 11:30 on Sunday morning. My parents, brother, and boyfriend were there waiting for me. It was really nice to see them, and I'm sure they got sick of me talking so much about my trip. Since then, I've mostly been hanging out with my family, unpacking, getting ready for college, etc.

It's very strange being home. I'm really into the normal summer routine now, and it feels impossible that a week ago I was living in China. In some ways, it feels like I was never there. Maybe it was just a very elaborate dream. Of course, my way of thinking changed. I think the reverse culture shock I am experiencing is not because all the signs are in English or because I can drive, although those things were weird, but more about how I can fit my trip and my new perspective into my normal life. My life in Changzhou kind of did become my normal life. Sometimes it felt more real than my life in Madison, so it was bizarre just to drop it. I know I can't go back to it, and even if I could, it would never be the same. It's just a confusing thing to wrap your head around. Nevertheless, I am glad to be back, and I am excited to start college. I will just have to take as much of my trip with me as I can, and recognize that it is over now. Overall, I had a great experience, and I felt like I grew a lot as a person, especially in matters of flexibility. This concludes my blog. Thank you to everyone who stuck with it til the end!

Until the next big adventure,
Mikaela

Hello everyone!

This may very well be my last time writing, depending on how early I finish packing tomorrow and how desperate I am to find something to fill my time. Our train leaves tomorrow at 10:30 at night. Unfortunatley, we do not get beds as we did on our way here, but only "soft" seats. Who knows if they are actually soft, though. We have a closing ceremony tomorrow morning, but then we have between 12:30 and 9:30 to pack. I have a feeling I will be very anxious the whole time, especially because I don't think it will take that long to get all of my things together. Even right now I am constantly waiting for the time to pass. It's not like I hate it here, I just am in the awkward in-between phase. Basically, most of my stuff here in Changzhou is done, but I won't be home for another 4 days. I think it will be a very L O N G 4 days.

I guess rather than complaining about my anxious anticipation, I can also write about what has happened since yesterday. We had a Tai Chi test yesterday afternoon, which is kind of weird considering we haven't done Tai Chi for about 3 or 4 weeks. Anyway, I got an A, which was pretty exciting. That woman was stingy with the good grades! We finished very early, so several of us who live in the same area decided to go to a supermarket on our way home. I managed to find an attractive traditional Chinese dress for under $10! Of course, I had to buy it. Not quite sure when I will have the chance to wear it, but it looks really good on me, it was cheap, and it is one of the more recognizable Chinese souvenirs. Hooray! I also got some nice gifts and bought myself a cross stitch. My host sister is really into them (along with a ton of other Chinese young people), so she showed me how to do it when we got home. I don't know if I will be able to finish it, but maybe on the plane (if I can bring a needle and scissors on, that is).

My cold was a bit worse last night. It wasn't that bad during the day, but I was super sniffley that evening. It was annoying because I don't exactly know how they feel about blowing your nose or sniffling in Chinese culture. Do they find it repulsive? How would I know? Anyway, besides the cross stitching, I also spent the evening studying for our final Mandarin test, which was this morning. I got a 97% on it, which I am proud of. Of course, it turns out our 'practice' from yesterday was taken directly from the test, so I think that helped me out quite a bit. We'll see how much I actually learned when I take the UW Chinese placement test.

Well, I believe that's about all for now. Here's the plan for the next few days, in case anyone is interested. As I said, we take the train to Beijing Thursday night. On Friday, we have an end-of-stay orientation, whatever that means. Then on Saturday, we fly out of Beijing at around 3:30 in the afternoon, and arrive in New York around 5:30 the same day. Haha I wish it really was only a two hour flight... then we spend the night in New York, and then I fly to Madison via Chicago on Sunday morning. Wow, I really wish I could just skip over all of the traveling and just be there already

As I said, I may write tomorrow. Also, if I have the time and motivation when I get home, I might add a closing entry along with some photos.

Peace!
Mikaela

Sorry I had to cut off yesterday! I will begin with Saturday. My host father was still out of town (did I mention that he was out of town?), so my host mom, Zhang Yan, and I went out for the morning. We had a traditional Chinese breakfast, which consisted of fried bread dipped in a crushed-bean, water, and sugar mixture (it was actually pretty good, strange as it sounds) and a tortilla like thing with veggies on the inside. I was a little uneasy when they told me we would have a Chinese breakfast, but I really liked all of the food! Then we went shopping around a mall. We actually saw Ben, one of the other American students, there, which was quite a coincidence. Then we went out for a traditional Chinese lunch. We had these sweet balls of some kind of starch (amazing!!), ground corn in hot water (boring to the point of tasting disgusting), a block of really heavy strawberry something which looked better than it tasted, and a really good pastry thing with sugar inside it. Not quite as good as breakfast, but still not too awful.

After shopping and lunch and everything, we went home and chilled for a couple hours. Then we decided to go to my host aunt and uncle's house (the ones with the 2 year old) and afterwards to Dinosaur Park, Changzhou's amusement park! For dinner, I had dumplings but everyone else had something else, for some reason. I don't really understand why.... but they were made by my host aunt's mother, and they were delicious! After dinner, we took a semi-crowded bus to Dinosaur Park carrying a stroller. I'm sure people were mad at us. Dinosaur Park was not as cool as I expected. Actually, it would have been cool if there weren't so many people. Zhang Yan and I split from the adults (well, I guess I'm an adult too.... from the older generation, let's say) to go on rides. However, we couldn't find a single one, even of the lame ones, that had a wait of less than an hour. We didn't really want to wait that long, so we went to the dinosaur museum, which wasn't actually that great. Then we watched the parade. The floats were pretty cool, very ornate, and with many lights. There were also a lot of skimpily clad women dancing, which I found strange for China. Sure enough, they were all foreigners. Then we decided we should go on at least one ride, so we waited for an hour and a half for a swing type thing. It was actually really fun, but I don't know if it was worth an hour and a half... Then we left at 11 at night, and purely out of coincidence, we met up with my host mom's brother in the gift shop. It was decided that instead of driving an hour home, her brother, his wife, and their 11-year-old twin boys would stay overnight at our house. I still don't know how the sleeping arrangements worked out, but we only have 3 bedrooms and I was by myself. I felt bad that I was taking up so much space, but then again, I would only feel comfortable sleeping with Zhang Yan, and I'm guessing she slept with her parents. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

On Sunday, everyone woke up late. We ended up having a Chinese breakfast two days in a row because we had company. I hope my family didn't drastically change their eating habits just for me. Anyway, over breakfast, my host mom instigated a conversation between me and the twins. I had to introduce myself and my family in Chinese, and then they had to do the same in English. Then my uncle and I had an interesting conversation comparing the education systems in China and the US (in English). They left at around noon, and then I was told we would also be leaving to visit my host father's family in the countryside.

It was about a two hour drive to get there, but we stopped for lunch and also to take pictures of a lake. We were greeted by my father's parents when we arrived. They didn't speak any English, but I could understand at least my grandmother in Chinese (kind of). I thought it might be an awkward day, but it didn't turn out to bad. First, Zhang Yan and I helped my grandmother peel some kind of vegetable. Then the two of them taught me how to play REAL Mah Jong. Turns out, it is nothing like the game on the computer. I managed to understand despite the language barrier, and it's actually pretty fun. You need some skill, but also a lot of luck. Then my host mother, Zhang Yan, and I went for a walk. I think we walked by a hotel or something. The scenery was beautiful. They had a lake, and the village was surrounded by lush green mountains. I don't really know what makes something a mountain as opposed to a hill, because they were pretty short but also looked more mountainy than hilly. Anyway, then we came back for dinner (which wasn't dog or anything too crazy), and then left. In all, we spent about 3.5 hours there and 4 hours in the car. Oh well.

Here are my impressions of the countryside:it wasn't as cut off from the world as I expected. At the hotel, there were still Pepsi cans in the trash and T-shirts with English writing hanging up to dry. However, it didn't feel the same. It was dirtier, or something. I don't really know how to describe it. It just seemed like everything was older, and that even though they weren't cut off from the world, they still didn't have the new technology or anything. I can't really describe it. I'm glad that I was able to go and see it, though.

Unfortunately, the long time in the car gave me a lot of time to think about the fact that I would be home in a week. The thought made me happy and sad, and since that point, I have always had leaving at the front of my mind. It's really a shame. I want to be able to enjoy my last days here, but I am always thinking about home.

Monday it was back to school. We have a final test on Wednesday, so we've been spending time getting ready for that. Then in the afternoon, our lesson on Chinese medicine did not go as long as expected, so I went shopping. I got a shirt for myself, some gifts, and paper for practicing characters. Then afterschool I went shopping again with my host mom and sister. I told them I would like a dress before I left (because some places they are really cheap), so they were determined to find one for me. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one that was cute and in my price range (about $20 max). Alas. I just hope they are not set on me finding one, because really, I don't care. I would like one, but only if it's cute and cheap. Also, I have a bit of a cold and because of it had my first practical lesson on Chinese medicine. My host mom was worried I had my air conditioning too cold, but really, it's always above 80 degrees in my room. Anyway, I had this tea stuff that didn't taste great last night and at breakfast this morning. If it works, that would be really sweet. I don't really want a cold on the 14 hour plane ride.

Until tomorrow!

The above title is pretty much a run down of my weekend. As you can probably guess, I have quite a bit to write, but I don't know if I will be able to finish writing it now. So just to warn you, I might have to cut off in the middle.

Here it goes.

On Thursday early early in the morning, we got on the bus to go to the Shanghai World Expo! The group I was walking around with had about 8 people, so it was a little inconvinient, but it worked. The first thing we did was take pictures with the China pavillion. The line to get in is apparently 5 hours, so we weren't going to waste our day doing that. That was our philosophy for most of the day. If it's more than 30 minutes, it's not worth it. We went into the Asian area first, and walked around some smaller counrties, Iran, North Korea (which wasn't as interesting as you might think), and Vietnam to name a few. We also went into Nepal's, which had a place to climb on the roof. And, from the roof, you could see the Shanghai skyline! We didn't spend the night in Shanghai (which was really disappointing), so that was about the most I got to see of it. Still, it was pretty exciting to be able to see such a recognizable and famous city. After lunch, Miranda and I split off of the group, which made our lives a lot easier. We walked around some Pacific countries. I signed a petition to save the Komodo dragons in Indonesia's pavillion. Then we went to the Caribbean and the Americas. Miranda and I decided to practice our Spanish with some of the local people. We talked to a woman from Ecuador (I told her about my trip) and a guy from Bolivia. I was so impressed with how well I could communicate, especially compared to my Chinese! We had dinner in the Mexico pavillion. Yum.... tacos really hit the spot after 5 weeks of Chinese food. We also went to the African pavillion which had about 25 countries represented. In general, I really liked the smaller pavillions because the people selling things were willing to talk with us about their country. We actually ended up getting hit on quite a bit, which kind of funny. Then we walked around the European pavillions and took pictures from the outside. The architecture was pretty spectacular. I realized that my description here doesn't really make it sound that exciting, but really it was! Inside each pavillion, there was just a taste of the local culture, and I came out of almost everyone saying "I want to go there!" In all, it was an exciting (but also exhausting day). I'm glad we were able to go!

We stayed over night in a place called Wuxi, which we toured on Friday. In Wuxi, there is the biggest statue of Buddha in China! And really, it was freaking HUGE! We had to drive to the other side of a big lake, but even then we could see the figure of a human standing in the mountains. Apparently the entire thing was made for tourism, and really doesn't have that much spiritual activity. Too bad, I think it would have been cooler if it was more real. First, we went inside a large temple. We had to wear cloth coverings over our shoes to show reverance. The temple really was beautiful, but in some places the colorful lights made it seem a bit gaudy. Still, the artwork was so intricate, and it was really different to be seeing religious artwork that wasn't Christian. I haven't really been exposed to that kind of thing before (in real life, that is). Then we worked our way up the hill to the Buddha. Along the way there were many shrines and statues honoring Buddha. In one of them, a man gave us prayer beads. At first I wasn't sure if we were supposed to pay for them, but he didn't do anything when I just walked away, so I assume it was OK. We finally made it to the Buddha. His toes came about to my shoulders, if that helps you imagine his size. It was incredible. We noticed people rubbing his toenails, so we did too. Then one of our volunteers told us that the right side was to get a boy, and the left was to get a girl. Upon hearing this, me and my friend Julie Ann moved over to the left side. Although I guess that's about right, since I want a boy and a girl. Maybe the Chinese people can only rub one foot because they can only have one child. Then we went back down the hill to a main square where there was a show. There was water and music, and then this flower-like statue opened to reveal a baby Buddha, which turned in a circle once and then was again enveloped by the flower. It was strange, but kind of cool. Like the rest of the day, I found myself wishing I knew more about the symbolism and rituals of everything. It was a bit frustrating not to know anything, and also not to be able to read signs explaining things. Oh well. It was still really cool.

On Friday night, I got back home exhausted from the long trip. My host father still wasn't home, so my host mother, Zhang Yan, and I went out to eat and met my host aunt, uncle, and cousin. We had fast food stew, which was different. Then we went shopping in the supermarket. I was really tired, so I went to bed pretty early when we got home.

Anyway, my computer time will be up in 2 minutes, so I think I will stop there. I will continue writing about the weekend tomorrow. Sorry to leave you hanging!

I'll be home in 6 days! Wow!
Mikaela

Yesterday afternoon, we had a presentation about Chinese festivals. It was interesting, but I still think it would have been greatly enhanced if they had actually given us the typical food instead of showing pictures We finished early, so we decided to watch a movie. We decided on Super Bad, which was a terrible movie, but also pretty darn funny. There still was time after the movie, so Miranda and I decided to go to the Gucci mall (that's what we call it because it has a huge Gucci store and a ton of name brand stores) to explore. We had heard that the top of the building had cheaper stuff, so we took an elevator (which may have been a staff elevator) to the 8th floor. We got off... and saw only offices. Oops. We got back onto the elevator, and the man who had just gotten on asked us if we needed help. We told him we were looking for cheaper stuff on the top floor, but he didn't seem to know what we were talking about. So we rode the elevator back up to the 1st floor and left. As soon as he was out of sight, Miranda and I busted up laughing. Wow.... everything we do here is an adventure.

Then we decided to catch the bus across the street from the mall. Unfortunately, there was not a cross walk going the direction we wanted, so we had to cross the street 3 times total. Except, there wasn't a crosswalk the 3rd way, either. So we went underground to cross the street. It seemed like it should be easy to find the stairs, but it did not work out as planned. When we finally climbed the stairs, we realized that we were right by the mall where we had started. Great. We went back underground, and found the staircase in a place that we already passed, and finally got to the side of the road we wanted. Ugh... then our bus didn't come for 10 minutes, and when it came, it was like a full body massage. I actually had to hold onto Miranda because she couldn't get to a place to hold on. I made it home eventually, about 15 minutes late.

After dinner, my family and I went to the Olympic Sports Center to meet up with my host aunt and uncle and cousin. My little cousin is so cute! He is 2 years old, and always wants us to watch him as he plays on the playground or sings a song. We walked around the area for a while, and just talked. I understood a bit. Also, they asked me how my opinion of China had changed since I came here. I couldn't really think of anything to say. It's hard to explain, especially while I am here experiencing it. Maybe it will be easier to put into words when I'm further away. Anyway, I did tell them that Americans think Chinese people eat cat and dog. They told me that some families in the country do eat dog, but they didn't . Apparently, no one anywhere eats cat, just FYI. We went home, studied, and went to bed.

This morning, we went swimming! First, though, we went to a presentation. We were all really confused. We had been told we were going swimming, but there had been no mention of listening to a presentation or anything. Anyway, we sat through it, and then went to an indoor swimming pool. It felt good on such a hot day, and it was a lot of fun!

Also, apparently some repair man advertized his phone number as the number of my cell phone here, so I have been getting about 2 phone calls a day from people wondering if I can fix their air conditioning or TVs and stuff... It's kind of annoying, especially because I can't really communicate in Chinese over the phone. In other news, as I mentioned before, I will be going to Shanghai tomorrow, and also some other place that I don't remember the name of. As a result, I probably won't write again until Monday.

Mikaela