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My host family/ 我的中国家

China culture shock day in the life host family NSLI-Y 厦门 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.