Saturday, July 23, 2016

Friday evening was dedicated to meeting/ moving in with our host families. Instead of having tutor time, we all gathered in the lecture hall with our soon to be families for the next two weeks. We lined up on stage and one by one they called out names and our host families came up to "claim us" as 陈老师 would say. Thankfully, we were called in alphabetically order by our last name, so I wasn't last on stage.

Only my host dad was able to come pick me up, not sure why. After I was "claimed" I went back to the dorm to grab my luggage. My host dad led me to his car, which is very nice (hint #1 that they are wealthy). We drove for 30 minutes in silence as I tried my hardest to stay awake. I think I fell asleep for a few seconds and when I woke up I heard him talking on the phone saying 睡觉 which means sleep. We finally arrived to a normal apartment complex, nothing too fancy. It was surrounded by shops and is right next to a mall that I cannot wait to go to. Once inside the elevator my host dad, Jason, hit the button for the 16th level; the penthouse (hint #2 that they are wealthy). The elevator doors opened to two closed off mud rooms. We turned to the right; their apartment. He knocked on the door and a girl, my age, opened it. She didn't seem too excited to see me at first but she later warmed up to me. I found out that they have a 16 year old daughter, 2 year old son, a niece (who is staying with them for a few weeks) and a maid/ nanny who lives with them full time (hint #3 that they are wealthy).

Their apartment is beautiful. It has a glass chandelier that hangs over the family room. They led me to my room which is on the second floor of their 4 story penthouse. It is nice, especially since it has it's own AC unit. Then the 2 girls gave me a tour of the apartment. On the third floor is the nanny's and baby's room. The 4th floor is the roof that they use for a garden where they planted pumpkins, tomatoes, and other veggies.

For dinner last night, they took me to a 5 star hotel by the ocean (hint #4 that they are wealthy). It was a buffet inside the hotel with all sorts of food; from french fries to entire fish heads. I adventured a little and ate some fish (not the full fish) and had other beef and vegetable dishes. Dinner was very yummy but also very awkward. We all sat in silence, not knowing what to talk about. When we would talk the mom would be asking me a lot of weird questions about American schools, trying to make them sound bad.

The next day I got up at 6:30 to have breakfast at 7 and leave for class at 7:35. Oh guess who my neighbor is? SKYLAR! Isn't that crazy, out of all the people I have Skylar as a neighbor. Also another kid, Aidan, lives across the street from us. So today, Aidan's host father drove us to 厦门大学 for class and my host dad picked us all up. After class we all had dinner together which was tofu with shrimp, rice, green beans, and more fish. I tried a little bit of everything except the fish because they still had their eyes on them. My host family is very westernized. When people were down eating they got up and moved over to the family room area and turned on the TV. I expected it to be formal and a strict family meal. Also, they know almost perfect English which helps me communicate with them easily. They still talk to me in Chinese but if I do not understand what they are saying, they repeat it in English. 
Their adorable dog!!
  
The view outside my bedroom
The view from the top floor
After dinner my host "sisters" and I went to Walmart which is a high class super market here. It was only a 5 minute walk away. There we bought food for a Western styled breakfast that we are making tomorrow for the family. Once we bought our eggs, watermelon, bananas, and orange juice we were planning on going to this big mall that was close by as well. But while walking back we ran into Aidan. It was funny because I didn't see Aidan since it was so dark but my host sisters pointed him out to me and asked if that was one of my American friends because his Chinese was so bad. They told us that we had all been invited to Skylar's building (which is next to mine) for tea. We ran upstairs to put the groceries away and then went back to join Aidan and Skylar, as long as their host families, for tea.

There we drank tea and talked a little. They were discussing if we wanted to go to the country side of China for Skylar's birthday, which is next Sunday (I'm pretty sure we are going). After talking and drinking boiling hot tea, all the kids (including host siblings) went into Skylar's room to work on homework. After 30 minutes of half doing homework and half talking we went back to our apartment.


My host family/ 我的中国家
July 23, 2016

My host family/ 我的中国家

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Yesterday, we were given the privilege to go to the most famous tourist spot in all of 厦门。 鼓浪屿 is a small island that you can see from 厦门大学. On preview NSLI-Y 厦门 programs, they never scheduled for the students to visit this island, because they always expect the host families to take the children. But last year a lot of host families didn't take the participants; therefore, this year they decided to take us as a treat. We rented an entire charter bus for a 15 minute ride. Even though the ride was so short, I still fell asleep. I woke up when the bus stopped at a drop off place 5 minutes away from the ferry dock. We walked to the dock and the chaperones passed out our passports and tickets. We put our bag through a scanned, since at all public transportation requires security checks. It was pretty simple but apparently one person in our group, Leo who happens to be from Maryland as well, forgot to pick up his bag after security check. Once through security and check in, we waited for the ferry to arrive. The sign above the platform over the water said "no jaywalking"; like people have jaywalked across the ocean.


The ferry came at the perfect timely. The entire ride we had a perfect view of the city and sunset. The clouds looked like cotton candy creating the PERFECT PICTURE. The ferry ride was literally 2 minutes long, like the wait to get on the ferry was longer than the actually ride.

Once on the island we divided into our 5 groups and walked around the island with our chaperones. Our group chaperone is Cai 老师. She is like a teenage; always on her phone. She even had to use 百度, which is China's google, to search how to get around 鼓浪屿. We made so many wrong turns forcing us to back track the way we came from. We walked along street shops selling a variety of things, from ice cream to pearls. I actually stopped to buy a pearl ring, which the chaperones help me bargain down to 50 元. We walked in a giant circle, which was suspected since we were on an island. We walked on the beach for 30 minutes then went to see embassies on the island (they were still in the making).

We all meet back at the ferry dock at 9:30 and hopped on the 9:45 ferry. Luckily Leo didn't have any bags to put through security or else I bet he would have lost it as well.  We rode on the ferry for 2 minutes again to get back to the main island. Then walked to the bus stop, rode the bus back to campus, then walked to our dorms.

Our curfew was at 10:30 that night, giving us 30 minutes to hang out with our friends. Dr. Lin (one of the chaperones) left today (Thursday) to return back to her home town. She is becoming a university teacher so she had to go back to wrap up a project she was working on with another professor. So when she came to check if we were in our rooms at 10:30, Sydney and I gave her a gift (just chocolates from America). She was so grateful and told us to WeChat her if we needed anything.

Famous building on 厦门大学
Today (Thursday, July 21) was another normal day of classes. Our new unit is about shopping so 杨老师 showed us how to use TaoBao (the Chinese amazon that has FREE 2 day shipping). During the lunch break, Skylar and I met up with one of the Chinese tutors we used to have named Lexie. We had lunch with her at the cafeteria. After that she showed us where the bookstore was because we wanted to look at cool 厦门大学 tshirts. We ended up not buying anything and just headed to culture class at 1:30. Since we have an oral proficiency test tomorrow, instead of a culture lecture we had time to prepare for it. Next I had Chinese paper cutting. I learned that our class switch off everyday so one day is Chinese knot tying and the next is Chinese paper cutting. Tutor time was normal, we just practiced pronunciation and more grammar.

Skylar, Lexie, and I
For dinner me and some friends went to the restaurant on the first floor of our dorms. I got sweet and sour pork and dumplings. We ate and then walked around the campus. Skylar and I went back to the bookstore and he bought a tshirt. I wanted to buy a 厦门大学 hat but I didn't like any at the bookstore. I ended up finding one in the Student Union building.

Tonight I finished packing because WE MOVE INTO OUR HOST FAMILIES TOMORROW!
The schedule tomorrow is:
Regular class 9-11:50
Lunch break 12-1:30
OPI 1:30-2:30
Interest groups 2:40-3:20
3:30 MEET OUR HOST FAMILIES
-we have a small ceremony to meet our host families
-around 4:30 we will move out of our dorms and leave....

I'm excited to move in with my host family but also nervous that it will be awkward and hard to communicated. I learned that my host family is pretty well off with 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms in their home. They also have a 15 year old daughter and a dog!!!
鼓浪屿
July 21, 2016

鼓浪屿

Monday, July 18, 2016

July birthdays
Sunday, July 17, we celebrated all the July birthdays. After a regular day schedule we went to a restaurant instead of the cafeteria, for dinner. The restaurant was on the first floor of our dorm building. They ordered our food ahead of time (they asked us during class what we wanted) so it was ready when we got there at 5:30. I ordered a spicy chicken dish and it was so spicy is partially burned all the taste buds off. I couldn't finish it but another girl, Jessica, got the wrong dish so she gave it to me to eat since they made her another meal. After we finished eating our meals they brought out the cakes! Since there were 4 people with birthdays in July (Michael, Andy, Tim, and most importantly, Skylar), they had 4 different cakes. They were so pretty and so yummy! We sang happy birthday in Chinese 4 different times for everyone and then they began to cut the cake. Everyone got a slice and ate every bit, trying to savor the delicious taste!
Sydney and I ready for the concert
After dinner we walked over to the 厦门大学 music hall. Remember the high school we visit last week, 厦门外国语学校? They were the ones who preformed. They invited us (since it was at the 厦门大学 campus) and gave us free tickets. It was their 10 anniversary concert at 厦门大学 so a lot of alumni came to play as well as the students. They were absolutely amazing! They all played so passionately, even the ones in the back row. The concert lasted for 3 hours; super long but super good.

The next day, Monday the 18th, was another regular day except we had another buddy activity. We played a game (more like a challenge) where we had to lift someone of the ground for 2 seconds only using 4 fingers and a fist. So we divided into teams of 6; 5 people to hold the person and 1 person being held. 4 out of the 5 people could only use 1 finger to lift while the 5th person used a fist. We ended up just grabbing Maddie by the belt loops on her shorts and lifting her up which gave her a huge wedgie but worked!

She loves me
After dinner Maddie, Skylar, and I planned on going to the reservoir but by the time we were ready to go it was already getting dark. Therefore we ended up just walking around campus and looking at the little shops. I bought a map of 厦门大学 which I'm going to pin on my wall back at home. I also got some cool pencils for school that have Chinese writing on them. Skylar and I were on the lookout for 厦门大学 t-shirts but we couldn't find any. Later someone told us to check the campus bookstore so we might go there another day.

Also the mommy cat gave birth!!! I saw her the other day and she was so skinny I thought it was a different cat. But no, it's the same cat. Hopefully, I get to see the babies soon!!!


Guess what?!?! We move into our host families on FRIDAY!!!

Birthday celebration
July 18, 2016

Birthday celebration

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Today was titled "mingle day" so they forced us, instead of encouraged us, to sit with the locals at lunch and dinner. Besides that today was a normal day, besides our weekly buddy activity. Last week we did a scavenger hunt to get to the know the campus. They gave us photos of locations around campus and our assignment was to find the places and take an identical picture as the ones we were given. But today was different. First we played the human knot game and then another group activity. It reminded me of musical chairs without the chairs. The loser had to go up on and do something embarrassing. I wouldn't have lost except Sydney pushed me out of the spot so I had to go up on stage with Merrick and do a Chinese folk dance we had learned in interest group. It was probably hilarious to watch.

Anyways on to the important stuff. After the buddy activity they announced the winner of this week's "strive for excellence". And the winner goes to..... Team 5. Wait what? You must be confused right now since the title of this post is "shopping trip" with 3 exclamation points. That's right, we didn't win. Team 5 did. After I heard we didn't win I tuned out until I heard the words, "Team 4 will also go shopping". Apparently within the time I wasn't listening, 杨老师, my favorite person, said that we only lost by 2 points and I earned the highest amount of points the entire week so she was awarding us even though we technically didn't win.

Outdoor shopping mall
Shopping was so much fun. We road a public bus for 1 元 which is about 15 cents in America. It was pretty crowded so we all stood up. After 4 stops we got off at a giant shopping center. They gave us 1 hour to shop inside and then we had to meet back up with our chaperones at a Starbucks. During that hour Sydney and I scooped out the entire mall before we bought anything; therefore, we would know which stores had the cheapest/ best stuff. We ended up buying everything from a store named "Mango". We each got shorts, the same pair of shorts, for 100 元 which is about 15 US dollars. I also got a shirt for 70 元. After one hour we met up at Starbucks, which on a unrelated notes is really expensive in China. We all traveled as a group to the outdoor shopping center that was down the street. There I bought another shirt for 60 元. We all walked around for another hour and looked inside some local shops. There were a few pearl stores that we digging out pearls from real oysters on the street!!!

Getting pearls
Me and Sydney happy cuz we went shopping!!!

On that way back to 厦门大学 we saw the ocean and actually touched the sand. It was a pretty small beach but it was beautiful (because it was dark and we couldn't see how polluted the ocean was). But once we got back the real drama happened. They gave us no curfew (just had to stay in the building) as a reward. Sydney and I chatted with some people for about an hour but around 11:15 we saw a cockroach!!! It was so gross but I'm pound to say I stayed cool, for the most part. Sydney, on the other hand, was freaking out. I quickly ran out of the room to find Jackson because he is known for killing bugs quickly and quietly, but I couldn't find him anywhere!! So I ran down the hall and asked Riley to help catch and kill the bug. First Sam came to try to help but he soon proved to be useless so Riley came. More and more people trickled in wanted to know what was going on. We picked up the bugs and scared the poor thing out into the open. They covered it with a trash can. Some genius had the bright idea that use paper as a lid but they somehow forgot about gravity. Since the paper wasn't sturdy enough the bug was able to jump out back into our room. But before that happened the guys, being typically guys, shoved the trashcan into our faces to freak us out. This is when someone, I don't even know who because their was so many people in the room wanted to watch, hit the table and knocked out our glass water bottle. It shattered all over the floor. Riley, not being very bright, didn't even realized he had dropped the bug and proceeded to carry out the EMPTY trashcan like a hero. It took 3 people to tell him that the bug was still in the room. At that point the room was packed with at least 10 people who were screaming, not aware that other people were sleeping right next door. At that point I knew 杨老师 heard all the noise from her room downstairs so while the guys handled the bug killing, I went downstairs to tell the chaperones what was going on. They came back upstairs with me to check if everything was okay. By the time I returned the cockroach was smashed on the ground. We cleaned it up as well as the glass. But Sydney was so scared still that we ended up sleeping in 杨老师 bed and she slept in ours. We went to sleep around 2:00am and woke up the next day super tired.

(Sorry no pictures of the cockroach, next time maybe haha)

I think yesterday (07/15) was the most exciting day yet.
Shopping Trip!!!
July 16, 2016

Shopping Trip!!!

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Today was Immersion Day which means ONLY Chinese speaking, NOT ENGLISH what so ever. For incentive they used the point system as a prize again. Therefore, if any adult chaperon heard/ saw you speaking English they would take away points every time. It was hard but I made it through the day, speaking less than normal. Other than immersion day, today was a normal day with classes in the morning and afternoon. Class was a little more confusing because 杨老师 couldn't use English to help us out when we were utterly confused. But I caught on pretty fast. Tomorrow is also the day we find out if we won the most points and if we win we get to go shopping tomorrow night!!! I really hope we win. I asked 杨老师 how I could earn more points and she told me to be really passionate in class tomorrow and she will give me extra points. But the thing is, I am the only person that speaks in our class already so I guess tomorrow I will be extra enthusiastic. After lunch we had more culture class which is starting to get boring because 陈老师 only lectures and lectures and lectures. A lot of people had breakdowns today because they were over stressed. Today on girl, who is the type to never be overwhelmed and is nicknamed "the mama bear of the group" had a breakdown because she felt so must pressure and was sleep deprived. My friend, Maddie, talked .to some of the chaperones about it and requested we had one afternoon off where we did a group activity like flag football. I thought that was a good idea.

We had our second Green Clean Up today except it wasn't really a "clean up". We had to pick up bikes that had fallen over and count them as we went. Team 4 got 111 but team 3 claimed they got 183 which couldn't be possible since we were only given 20 minutes to pick them up. So according to my calculations if they got 183 bikes in 20 minutes, that's 9 bikes per minutes.... seems a little far fetched. But so many people complained that they were lying so no one got points. I was fine with it because I'd rather have no one get points then another team get more points.

Our new 朋友
Anyways, at dinner I sat among the locals. I sat with Sydney and two Chinese men. One just returned back to 厦门 from studying in England for 6 months. They were both studying at 厦门大学 to get their PHDs in economy and management. Sydney made a joke about how China has no toilet paper and the men gave us tissue paper. We also got a selfie with them!!!!





Coolest cafe ever
After dinner I went back to the Cafe in the tunnel to get something to drink with Maddie and Daysha. Maddie and I got lemonade which felt like America and Daysha got watermelon juice. The lemonade was so fresh and yummy but the watermelon juice was to die for. It tasted exactly like sweet watermelon. We also took cute pictures and walked through the tunnel. There was some graffetti that I didn't see last time I went to the tunnel. I love the tunnel and China!!!

Squad
Zootopia
I think this is new?
MTV welcome to my crib

Wow, we move into our host families in 1 week!!!! Crazy!!!


Immersion Day
July 14, 2016

Immersion Day

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Our desks; the tables fold down  

Today was another normal day with classes, classes, and more classes. In Chinese class we practiced making appointment. I realized I haven't showed you what our classroom looks like. It is actually really nice. It's in the Foreign Language building which is newly renovated, except they must of forgot to update the bathrooms because they do no actually have toilets, just holes....



We were supposed to have another Green Cleanup but since we went traveling tomorrow and walked a lot, they moved it to tomorrow. I also had E-Portfolio this morning in between breakfast and classes. Don't ask me why it's called E-Portfolio because it's basically like support group. So once a week each team talks with one of the chaperones about their feelings regarding our experience with cross-culture immersion. Today we received a packet discussing culture itself and self-identification.

The tunnel cafe sign
After classes were finished all the team leaders had a meeting with the chaperones to discuss their teams behavior and feelings about the trip so far. Apparently Team 5 is in the lead for this week. I think it is rigged because Team 4 (my team) definitely got the most points. Like I have been carrying everything for the chaperons all week for points, but that wasn't enough. :(


The tunnel
We finished eating dinner and Maddie, Skylar, and I (Cami was going to come but she was too tired) went to the tunnel again to check out the 厦门芙蓉隧道 (Xiamen Furong Tunnel) coffee house. Yes it is coffee shop inside the graffiti tunnel. It is so cool. I had seen it last time I went to the tunnel but we didn't go inside it. Anyways it is filled floor to ceiling with post-it notes that people wrote in Chinese. It also sells cell phones, books, t-shirts, magnets, postcards, and more. They also sell coffee, frapas, cold drinks, etc. It was awesome!!! I got a 厦门 tshirt and a phone case.

Cool new graffiti 
My new phone case

Today was fun and chill and I had NO HOMEWORK!!!!



七月十三号
July 13, 2016

七月十三号

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The Maritime Silk Road Museum 
Today, July 12, all of the 32 NSLI-Y 厦门 participants traveled to 泉州, an ancient city that was part of the maritime Silk Road. Our first stop was at the QuanZhou Maritime Museum. Walking into the exhibits was breathtaking with multiple real ruins displayed as well as replicas. Also because of the breeze coming from the air conditioning machines. Skylar and I have decided that next we must visit the Chinese Museum of Air Conditioners because we always tend to huddle around them when we see them.

Skylar and I sitting in front of a boat replica 
The Cross-Culture Exhibit was very impressive. What impressed me the most was that 泉州 is the only city where Hindu ruins were found. These ruins included temples and altars that have very distinct carvings on them that attracted many tourists and experts. Hinduism was a very prominent religion in China which was first introduced by immigrating Indians in the 13th century. This suggests that there was a large Hindu community in the Fujian province. This was very surprising to me because Eastern China is known for its                                                                                     very Buddhist and Muslim community.
Replica with the map of maritime silk road
The "World of Chinese Ship" exhibit was fabulous as well with its countless real boats in display. There was a raft: boat that was completely made out of an ox hide. Crazy right?!?!? Other part of the exhibit that I really liked was the miniature replicas of ship building with little plastic people figures. It reminded me of "Night of the Museum" with all the tiny people that come to life at night. I wonder if the figures in the Maritime Museum come to life when the building is closed...
After visiting most of the exhibits inside my group went outside to the Oyster Wall which is exactly what it sounds like; a wall made of oysters. Later 杨老师 told me that some houses around the area are built out of oysters as well.

For the rest of the day we traveled to three different temples. First we went to the 通淮关庙 (Tonghuai GuanYue Temple). It was stunningly beautiful and was built by the third student of Muhammad. Sadly, most of it was destroyed during Son and Yuan dynasty because of the war. We also went to another temple where a “superhero” type figure was worshipped by three different religions including Buddhism, Confucianism, and Toaism. People would come to and pray, light incense, leave gifts, and feed the gods food.
Sorry, there are no actual pictures of the inside of the temple because it is against the rules. There was actually a sign that said "No photographing" haha

Second temple we went to. Look at those dragons 
Maddie and I with our new friend :)
The last temple was my favorite because of its extraordinary architecture and history. The 开元寺 (Kaiyuan Temple) is a Buddhist temple. Although it is formally known as a Hindu-Buddhist temple, the main hall shows off the main Buddha, Vairocana Buddha. Built in the second year of Chuigong Reign, Tang Dynasty (686), the two towers located on the East and West of the temple grounds showed off their phenomenal structure reflecting early Ming Dynasty architecture. The East, regarded as Zhenguo Pagoda, was built in the second year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1238-1250).  It’s solid, octagonal wooden structure draws the attention of many. The 16 Buddhist figures carved into the wood from top to bottom is jaw dropping. The West tower, called Renshou Pagoda, was built during the same time period as the East tower. These two towers are, to this day, the tallest twin towers in China, reaching 45.06 meters high. Also fun fact: there was a tree in the temple that was 800 years old!!!!

One of the two towers 
Main temple building
Sky and I
All in all, today was a success in my opinion. I loved being able to learn more about the history of China and the city I will be staying in for the next five weeks.
泉州
July 12, 2016

泉州