Home stays and school visits
Yesterday was a long day! We (Pam and I) started by eating breakfast with our host family. My host family served something which I don’t know the name of, but it was a tortilla-like thing with chives inside wrapped around a bundle of fried bread. It was very good, but very filling! We also had a milky sort of drink served in a bowl. Our host student said it was made from some kind of bean (not soy), but she couldn’t describe exactly how it was made.
We then went to the high school with our host student at 7am (they are in school from 7-5!). Our group broke up into smaller groups of three, and each group visited either a kindergarten or a primary school. My group walked to a kindergarten where we were greeted at the door by a group of little kids who did a welcome dance for us with pompoms. Then they grabbed us, dragged us into their dance, and gave us leis they had made out of paper. We went into their classroom and sat with them on their tiny chairs as they introduced themselves to us. Then they made beautiful paintings for us by drawing with white crayons and then painting over it with blue paint. The paint didn’t stick to the crayon, so the pattern they had drawn showed through. I was surprised that with so much paint and so many kindergarteners, only one little girl got paint on her clothes – and it was immediately cleaned up.
Next, we went into a gymnasium-like room where we watched three dances. The first dance was sort of Middle Eastern, the next was done in ballet costumes, and the third was a little dance/silent play about the Red Army and the forming of the People’s Republic of China. It was strange to see little girls marching around and saluting in Red Army uniforms. Then we played a bunch of games with them, and they gave us cards and the now-dry paintings from before. During the performances, I was sitting next to a little girl who kept talking to me in Chinese. She would say something and then look at me expectantly, but all I could do was smile at her because I had no idea what she said. She would keep looking at me like, Well? Aren’t you going to say anything? She had probably never met someone who couldn’t speak her language, and so it was a mystery to her that I simply couldn’t understand what she was saying.
We went back to the high school for lunch, and later went to a classroom to mingle with students. They seemed very shy and unsure of using English, but most of them spoke very well and asked us questions about university life and what we thought of China. After some chatting (and some arm-wrestling), we went to an auditorium where there were more students, and we were welcomed yet again and given performances of music and tai chi. We also played games with them; I played musical chairs and won! Julianne and I were the last two players left, so we received beautiful little cell phone bags as prizes.
After taking what seemed like hundreds of pictures with the students, we went to a furniture factory for a tour. The factory was huge, and most of the thousands of workers employed there live in factory dormitories since they come from different provinces. An interesting fact about this factory is that the material comes from the United States, is made into furniture here in China, and then most of the products are shipped back to the United States to be sold in stores such as Macy’s.
Around five-o’clock, we were picked up at the high school by our host families and went to their houses to have dinner. The dinner at my host family’s house was cooked by the father, and was quite good. We had fish, shrimp, broccoli with eggs, soup, a green vegetable that translated as “yellow ground vegetable”, a celery and carrot dish, and a pork and beans dish that was my favorite. They kept asking us if we thought the food was “very delicious” – no pressure or anything . They also kept putting more food on our plates and we finally had to say we were full.
We were invited to watch TV when we were done eating, and while we were watching a news program in English, our host family brought out gifts for us. They gave us each a set of chopsticks, a silk shawl, and a silk bathrobe. They were so beautiful that I felt my Minnesota book I had given them the night before was quite inadequate. Our host family is obviously well off; their apartment has two bathrooms, three bedrooms, a few extra rooms, an upstairs, nice furniture, and a very large TV. The father works in the financial part of the county government where he plans the finances for the coming year. The mother is a tax collector, and goes to work in a military-like uniform. The daughter (her English name is Judy, but I don’t know the parents names – neither of them speak English) speaks VERY good English and has a better accent than most of the people I have heard.
After such a long day, a nice hot shower and an air-conditioned bedroom were just what I needed (and exactly what I got).