Family Values

There are only two people in my program who are staying in the homes of Chinese families while here in Nanjing; however, there are a handful of people who are staying the full year and have asked me in these first few weeks if I would suggest switching to home-stay for their second semester. My answer? Yes. Do it. And if your host family is anything like mine, you are going to be set for the semester.

Let me introduce you to my new little family. My host mom and dad, or as I call them “Ayi” and “Shushu” (aunt and uncle, respectively), are wonderful. Ayi is an accountant and Shushu does something in the business management sector, but I still haven't really been able to figure out exactly what he does because of the language barrier. Regardless, from day one, these two made it their mission to make sure this clueless, gangly, American boy would feel at home half-way across the world. Somehow, they succeeded almost immediately. I have my own space to do work and relax, full reign over everything in the house, and the freedom to explore Nanjing at my leisure as long as I let them know where I am.

No doubt about it, Ayi is the one running the ship. She cooks most of the meals, does all of the laundry, and was the one walking me to the bus stop for the first few days to make sure how I knew how to get from our apartment to school - it's about a 40 minute commute that I am proud to have mastered at this point, but don't ask me where any of the other buses go because I have no idea. Ayi doesn't speak much English, but she uses her phone to translate things that I don't understand (most things) and we've got along just splendidly over the first few weeks.

Shushu has been a bit more reserved, mainly because he doesn't speak a lick of English and it's taken him a bit longer to get used to playing charades and “translation tag” with me. That said, Ayi was on her own little vacation last week so with just the guys hanging out in the house, I spent some quality time with Shushu and he's really a sweet guy. I realize that I don't have any pictures of these two yet, but I'll take care of that shortly.

Living here is extremely easy. There is always a home-cooked breakfast waiting for me at seven in the morning and the same goes for dinner. All of my laundry is done for me. When I was sitting on my butt watching the Patriots (1-0) pick apart Pittsburgh's defense at 11am, Ayi waltzed into my room and asked me what I wanted from Pizza Hut. It was the first time I've drank bubble tea with pizza and it was glorious. When Ayi or Shushu are home, they won't even let me clean my own dishes. And before you start harassing me for not doing my own chores (I definitely deserve the harassment) I will emphasize that I am specifically not allowed to help around the house. On a number of occasions, I have started to take my plates to the sink and Shushu will point at me and insist that I let him handle them. Part of this is that I'm new and they want me to comfortable, but I've also begun to pick up on of the key characteristics of the modern – yet traditional – Chinese family; the children are at the center of the familial universe. Getting me to school, forcing me to eat as much as physically possible so that I won't be so skinny, making sure I have my sword for tai chi class (more on that later); these are of the utmost importance. If I'm doing my homework, the house could be burning to the ground and Ayi would tell me to stay focused while she handles it. And I have been able to observe this phenomenon two-fold because it turns out there is an even taller, skinnier, Chinese version of myself living a room over. His name is Jerry.

“Jerry”, a name which he chose in English class (as all Chinese students do) because he loves Tom & Jerry, has quickly won over my heart and soul. He speaks English exceptionally well for a sixteen year old Chinese boy and I find myself continuously surprised by his depth of understanding. He is the ultimate translation tool whenever I'm at home, we play the same video games, and he's also really damn funny. He's incessantly curious about American life, very talkative, and I've been able to garner more insight about Chinese culture from him than any other source.

Jerry: the Man, the Myth, the Legend

For example, he recently took me to Xuanwu Lake, a very popular destination here in Nanjing for tourists and locals alike. At night, the place lights up and thousands of people come to dance, eat, exercise, and enjoy each others' presence. Jerry and I were walking through the throngs of people when he said to me something along the lines of: 'I like being in big crowds. It makes me feel safe.' Now as an American, I've always thought of big crowds as places where people get trampled – sure it's fun to be with lots of people, but “safe” certainly wouldn't have been my word to describe this mass of humanity. Then he started to tell me about when he studied abroad in Toronto for a few months. He said that he got so lonely sometimes, while walking what he considered to be empty streets, that he would go into Burger King just to have someone to talk to. This impression of solace and contentment in congregation took me by surprise. In a place that is infamous for being crowded, I suppose it makes sense that Jerry feels most at peace/home when surrounded by thousands of strangers, but I also found myself wishing cities in America were more like that. Do I sound socialist yet? #BernieSanders2016

Honestly, I wrote everything above this line about a week ago and I've just been kept too busy with schoolwork and last weekend's group excursion to post anything, but I will now rapid fire all of the amazing things I've done in the last couple of weeks.

• Visited Long Chuan, an ancient village that has survived more than 1600 years. Not only was it a fascinating look at more rural Chinese life, but I also love old stuff.
• Hiked the Huihang Ancient Trail, an ancient trade route used by merchants in Anhui Province hundreds of years ago. It was stunningly beautiful and the pictures I will post don't do it justice by any means.
• Stayed in a decently-kept hostel in the middle of the mountains where I was coerced into: dancing with random Chinese people, riding on one girl's back around a fire pit, and dressing up like a woman which spurred a Chinese business retreat group to take hundreds of pictures of me.
• Toured around Hangzhou, another huge city in the southeast of China, famous for the awe-inspiring Ling Yin Temple and West Lake, a massive body of water that is a mainstay of traditional Chinese folklore.
• Celebrated my 21st birthday with dinner at a fancy restaurant with my extended host family (Ayi's sister, brother-in-law, and Jerry's grandparents also came) and a lot of karaoke. I sang "I Will Survive" with my friend Nick and we killed it.

PICTURES!

Ancient gate in Long Chuan

Inside the Hu Family Ancestral Hall 

Not pictured: sweatier me at the top of the mountain

A shrine at Ling Yin Temple

Assorted Fun Facts!

Recently I've come across a number of silly little things that I wanted to share so I think I'll start tacking them on at the end of blog posts like this.

• Not only is Pizza Hut delicious here, it's also a sit down restaurant complete with waiting staff and a huge menu. When I went to one in Hangzhou last weekend, I ordered a margarita with my pizza.
• There's a big brand of sporting goods in China called "Defeat" which is a terrible name for sporting goods. When I explained what it meant to Jerry, he thought it was hilarious. Chinese and English do not translate well at all so I see stuff like this all the time. Google "bad Chinese translation signs" if you don't know what I'm talking about.
• Minions, as in the minions from the Despicable Me movies and subsequent spin-off, are just as popular in China as in the US. In fact, there's a delivery service here that rides around on mopeds dressed up like minions, picking up take-out food for you. There is no escape.

First Impressions

I made it to Nanjing and even though it's only been a few days, I feel like I've been here for weeks. If you haven't heard anything from me, it's not because I don't miss you all dearly, I've just been incredibly busy and the internet is a struggle. 

It seems crazy to think that just last week I spent 18 hours on planes from Boston to Hong Kong to Nanjing. But thinking back on my travel marathon, even in economy class, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the flights were. I flew Cathay Pacific Airlines and the service was better than any American airline I've flown. Tasty meals, a huge selection of movies, TV, and music on-demand, and we flew over the Arctic Circle which was pretty cool.

Your best friend on a 15 hour flight.

The Hong Kong airport is basically a really fancy mall with planes. As I was walking to the terminal, I had my first real "Woah, I'm the only white person" moment. Needless to say, I've gotten a bit more used to that feeling in my first week here, but it's still a humbling experience. Essentially, I have no idea where I am 95% of the time and everyone around me knows it. At the very least, I've started to get my bearings around the Nanjing University campus.

Nanjing is so much greener than I thought it would be! There are trees everywhere. Most of the city is covered in foliage which gives it a sort of "lost city" feel. Plus, I'm sure it helps with the air quality and, as my new host brother told me today, Nanjing is one of the cleanest big cities in China. The true downtown area is more like NYC with skyscrapers all around you and large open shopping areas. Plus, there's just as many shops and restaurants under the city and everything is connected with a complex series of tunnels that is also integrated pretty seamlessly with the subway system, which, by the way, seems significantly more convenient and clean than the T in Boston.

These are called Wutong Trees and they're all over the place.

Speaking of Boston, if you thought people were bad drivers in Massachusetts, Nanjing traffic is that times a THOUSAND. Oh my god, it is so dangerous. First of all, the streets are just as wide and busy as any major metropolis, but everyone is twice as aggressive so cars are constantly weaving in and out, beeping at each other non-stop, especially taxis. Plus, there are thousands of people whipping around on mopeds. These people a) don't wear helmets b) often have their child/dog sitting in their laps and c) do not pay any attention to traffic lights. Add the fact that pedestrians are constantly crossing, frequently waiting in the middle of the road like it's a median (there are no medians), and you have roads that are genuinely terrifying. Oh, and did I mention that most of the roads in between the main drag are too narrow for two full lanes but somehow carry two-way traffic? Even a masshole like myself can honestly say that I will never drive here. Luckily, as I touched on earlier, public transportation is convenient and very cheap, so I certainly don't have to.

That's another thing I've grown to love about Nanjing: the prices. Today I went out for lunch with a bunch of people in my program. We went to a little restaurant across the street from our classroom building and I had a large plate of stir fried rice with chicken and a glass of tea (tea and/or water is free in almost every local eatery). There was a ton of food - good tasting, mind you - and I didn't finish it all. I've found that the portions here are consistently larger than in the US. I paid 12 Yuan. The conversion rate for Yuan to US Dollars? 6.5 to 1. So for a large meal and beverage, I paid about what I pay for a soda at the gas station in the US.

Long story short; Nanjing is a really cool city, the dollar goes a very long way, and people drive like maniacs.

Now the really exciting part of my day today was getting to meet my host family. In fact, I'm currently typing at a desk in my fully-furnished new room that was set up with stuffed Spongebob and Patrick Star toys and a whiteboard welcoming me into "our new family." I am already in love with these people after 8 hours. But I'm going to hold off on writing about them more until the next post. I can already tell that this transition is going to be much easier than expected.

These people understand me.

So even though my placement test today assured me I'm still god awful at Mandarin, life here in China is great.