Update

I arrived in China early September, and everything is going really well. Being in China I have a lot of time think. One thing I have a lot to think about is this really abstract idea that I call my “pot of gold”. This amazing treasure is not a fortune, but rather an understanding of world and oneself that I have been looking for ever since my first study abroad experience in China my senior year of high school. Weirdly, recently I have been treating the idea of “the pot gold” as if it were a tangible pot of gold, and I have traveling around for it. A couple of weeks ago I went of a three day hike with a couple of friends in the Hebei province. We climbed to the top, it was beautiful. Sadly, it started to rain, then hail, then snow. We all almost froze to death. Though this experience was amazing, sadly I did not find what I was looking for.

Next I went on a series of camping trips some in the forest and some in the city (literally in the city , my friends and would pitch a tent in a park or next to the river the surrounds city that I live in). Again sadly, I was not able to find the understanding I was searching for. I feel this is a powerful time in life, I am communicating with many new people and doing good things for my new community (like teach English at Orphanage and visiting senior citizens in the city ( a small tangent: the seniors citizens love me and they find it amazing that I can speak Chinese)). Everyday is a new cultural experience and my courses are engaging (and hard because I am studying literature, ancient Chinese, linguistics all in Chinese).

Well this ends my short update. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the profound impact that One WorldNow! has had my search for my “pot of gold”. I will definitely stay in touch.

Life in Recife

I wake up and get ready- it´s just me and the maid, Didi because everyone else is already at school and work. I´m not used to having a maid around making breakfast for me, it is a bit awkward and she doesn´t speak English so we are creating our own little language of hand signals and Portu-glish. But she makes very good tapioca and toast and we are learning to communicate- I think my Portuguese is improving, hopefully. I walk to ABA, who is hosting us YAs. It is only a few blocks, and just taking a walk in Recife is different than Seattle. The sidewalks are a bit topsy-turvy, and something I should mention is that Brazilians are pretty crazy drivers. There doesnt seem to be any concept of traffic laws, lanes, speed limits or crosswalks. So we pedestrians have a friendly agreement with cars: just dont get hit. We usually start the day with Portuguese classes, and then the rest of each day is different all the time. Yesterday, we visited Pro-Criaça, an NGO where streetchildren can do art and theater to keep them out of trouble. They did amazing capoeira for us, and I bought some tea cups they made. Or the other day, we visted a public school and talked about the United States- it is pretty insane, we sit in font of a ton of kids who are all ogling us and they all usually want our emails, Facebooks, and Orkut, which is the Brazilian Facebook.

Today we went to the beach, Boa Viagem, in teh morning. I didn´t swim because of the sharks but we played Brazilian vs. American frisbee, drank water from coconuts and got kind of burned.

Later we bussed to a flea market type area called Mercado São José. It was smelly, dirty, loud, crazy and an old man spit near me but it was amazing! Every side of Brazil is different and exciting in its own way.  Matt haggled a Brasil flag from R$70 down to only 45! While we stand out and got a million stares and a few ´Gringo!´calls, we had a great time buying stuff and even witnessing an impromptu dance performance. You see the other side of Brazil; a girl who was 10 years old and couldn´t read followed us and we bought Mentos from her.  The wealth here is in extremes: a block away from my siblings´private school with a man sitting in the elevator pressing buttons is a group of men washing a horse in the river. Feral cats and dogs are everywhere, and yet a maid washes my sneakers for me. It´s a big problem.

However, this day was anything but depressing because I FINALLY completed my shopping goal and bought a Kaká jersey! It was R$15, which is about $7 maybe in the USA- score! I also got a Messi one much to the chagrin of my Brazilan counterparts, ha. You just can´t find this stuff in America!

Tomorrow we get to the University of Pernambuco at 5AM to take a bus to help flood victims in a nearby city. So early, but it will be a good experience. Tchau and Beijos!

Recife

If you want to imagine me in Recife, my homestay city, just think about stepping into the wet, humid tropical room of the zoo. It’s rainy but never cold! Super beautiful and such a crazy city. Everyone lives in apartments and yet I have seen a horse and buggy twice. Kids come up to our car window trying to sell food and yet my host siblings and I cab to sushi on a Friday night. As my host dad said, many discrepancies.

So far I have achieved my eating amazing fruit goal-have you ever heard of asarolla? Me neither but it is amazing. 

In Brasilia

Hey guys, I’m in Brasilia, Brasil right now! Sorry I haven’t gptten to write much, but a lot has happened. We are on the go from 6:30AM to 9:30 PM, doing tons of stuff. Here is a brief highlight of some of the best things I’ve done so far.

• Eaten ice cream pizza
• Watched Portuguese Hannah Montana
• Crosses the largest bridge in South America
• Eaten millions of PÃO DE QUEIJO!
• Visited an English school and taught them about Seattle
• Been in Brasilian newspaper
• Much other stuff but I can’t remember because it’s super early!

I hav to go; we have to eat breakfast (PÃO DE QUEIJO! And fruit juices you have never heard of with pineapple that would make your tastebuds do a backflip), but I will write lots more later! Here is a Portuguese phrase for you: Fica frio! It means chill out, I think

Random cultural tip: Brazilians NEVER touch their food; they eat pizza with their hands, sandwhich with a napkin, and don’t drink out of soda cans.

Leaving for Brasil!

Hey everyone! I am going to be a Youth Ambassador (YA) in Brasil for the next three weeks and I can barely contain my exhilaration right now! It’s all I have been thinking about for about the whole summer, and I can’t wait to be there. I’m going  with 12 other high schoolers from here, Tulsa, Charlotte, and Bozeman, and if you want to read about the program, which is sponsored by the US State Department, check out the website! http://migre.me/10g7n

At this time tomorrow, I will be in the air on my way to Washington DC to meet the other YAs. We’ll spend a day in the American capital, then jet off to Brasil’s capital, Brasilia for a few days. I’ll go to the Northeastern city of Recife to stay with a host family, and end the trip in Rio De Janeiro. Along the way we’ll meet Brazilian YAs, visit schools, see sights, and learn about the fascinating county. Hopefully as I travel I can keep you updated as to what’s going on here in South America.

I’ll miss Seattle and everyone, but as the Brazilians say: beijos e abraços!

P.S. Thank you OneWorld Now! for hosting this blog

At Home and Out About

Well, it’s about time for me to talk a bit about my host family huh? How should this go…

I live with a host mom and a younger host brother. The dad’s off in Shangdong working and the older brother’s off in Guangdong working, so they only visit home twice a year. Chinese New Year’s and Mid-Autumn Festival. The mom doesn’t work so she’s at home all the time. School for the brother starts next Monday, which is awfully soon…

Anyways, the mom and the brother. They’re both nice folk. Pamper me practically, even when I tell them not to haha. I guess it’s just them being kind and whatnot. The meals at home are pretty delish. Zhengzhou (Henan Province) cuisine follows the Sichuan style, so everything is loaded with peppers and other spices. Not bad really. Just needs more meat haha. I swear my family eats a serving of meat every fortnight.

My brother and I have been having a blast together. We’ve been to some landmark sites. For exampe Er Chi Tower, which is a memorial for the Chinese soldiers that died when fighting to repel Japanese forces during World War II. Er means 2 and Chi means 7 in Chinese, and Feb 7th is the day that the event occured…so yeah. Visited the Central Business District (where all the important government and business (surprise surprise!) stuff happens) and some relatives there. They have a pretty sweet place considering it’s China.

Other notable events / places so far?

Waterpark in Zhengzhou. Pretty crappy in my opinion. Half the slides were closed and the water looked kind of nasty. There was this one slide that was basically a straight drop down though…most def the highlight of that whole park.

Movies at the theaters. So far I’ve seen Karate Kid and Knight and Day (twice) in China. Karate Kid was English with Chinese subs but Knight and Day was in Chinese-dub without subtitles… Haha had to think a bit to understand all that they were saying. Not the best two movies but hey, it was fun nonetheless.

Shopping and bargaining on the streets. Man it’s so fun to bargain. Just talking to the shopkeepers and whatnot is cool. Nice way to practice Chinese while picking up some sick deals.

Xi’an. All 19 NSLI-Y kids in Zhengzhou took a 2.5 hour train ride to Xi’an this past weekend. Saw the terracotta warriors, rode a bike on the city wall (9 miles ish), went to a jade manufacture factory, shopping, etc… Honestly though my favorite part of it all was being able to stay in a hotel for a night Miss those hotels and the atmosphere in them haha.

Huang He / Yellow River was alright. There’s mud there that can support human weight, it’s pretty weird and cool at the same time.

Kung fu lessons. We’ve had two 1-hour sessions. Some master comes in and teaches us some forms. Best part though is that we got measured for some custom-made tailor-fitted kung fu clothes. So dope you don’t even know. Mmhmm…

Oh a few days ago it rained really hard at night… My host family’s building is in a neighborhood block that is a bit below road level. We live on the 4th floor, but when I woke up to go to school on Monday I was met with 1.5 feet of water to walk through… One of the nastiest 10 minutes of my life. Can anyone say dead bird in the water? Thank god that was that.

The other kids here are nice. The food is cheap. What more is there to ask for? Who needs Seattle when everything is already here

That’s all for now. G’night y’all.

Weifang School

So now we have arrived in Weifang middle school. The campus is humongous and it is even hotter here than in Beijing. We arrived here last night at around midnight. I was extremely tired, because earlier that day we climbed up the Great Wall of China and went bargain shopping again. In a way I really love bargain shopping. But sometimes the sellers can be very persistent, TOO persistent. The reason why I like bargain shopping is because most of the sellers are very friendly to Americans. That’s probably because they assume we have more money, but besides that I enjoy their kindness. They kept assuming that I was ABC (American born Chinese) I have never been told I look Chinese before my bargain shopping. One person even told me that my English was very good! So they assumed I was actually from China? That’s funny.

Climbing the great wall was a great challenge! (bad joke?) Alex and I went all the way up to the 4th checkpoint. The view was fantastic. When I look back at that event, I feel in a way humbled to stand on something that has been so old, and something that means so much to Chinese history.

The dorms here in Weifang middle school are really nice. They look better than the dorms at my college I am attending next year! We received many convenient items, including soap, shampoo, combs, mosquito spray, and other things. we have air conditioning in each room, which is such a relief! I was scared to sleep last night though in my room because I’m not familiar with the campus at all. It feels like we are in the middle of nowhere.

I met my Chinese partner today. He is really shy. He doesn’t seem to want to talk to me much, his classmates have told me that he is shy because he is very bad at English. I don’t mind that if he is bad at the language, but I would appreciate him trying harder to communicate with me. ”I’m running to class right now, I will type more later”

Arrival

Today is day 5 and we have arrived in Weifang Numero Uno middle school (Weifang number 1 middle school) It took a three hour bus ride to come here. Everyone was tired and exhausted during the plane ride and the bus ride. During the plane ride many people lost there passports, it took a fei chang long time to find those certain people’s passports. We found out that most of those passports belonged to a group that was traveling from Memphis. Total about 5 or 6 people lost there passports. It took a really long time to get on the airplane because of those people losing there passports.

When we got to the airport it was about 6:20 when we got to the middle school, it was 12:05. On the plane the person sitting next to Arielle found one of the passports. At first we arrived at the school we did not expect much, but once we opened the doors everything was supplied for us. Showering materials, soaps, even fly swatters. I’m running to class right now, I need to go now so i’ll type later

arrival in shandong

number one: it’s still hot in china. hot hot hot. i feel like i put
liquid coverup all over my skin, then dipped myself in oil paints,
then did a hundred jumping jacks. it’s gross.

number two: the campus here is really beautiful. it’s sort of
ridiculous how the trip was planned though, because we felt so rushed
as we left beijing for shandong. the checking luggage process took
forever, and we were almost late boarding our flight. it’s really
great how arielle was holding all of our passports because i think a
lot of people actually lost their passports from other groups

anyways, we got in pretty late. the dorms are nicely air conditioned,
and we have one bathroom for each 3 single dorms. they provided some
shampoo and stuff for us, along with several towels. someone got
locked into one of the showers though, which was sort of funny but
also kind of scary… they got out eventually. the showers are just in
the same room as the toilet and stuff, so it gets everything all wet.
ew.

today was nice though. we had breakfast then got introduced to our
chinese classmates. mine is named peter and he’s pretty nice. he said
my chinese was pretty good and he doesn’t speak a lot of english but i
could understand him. we did a tour of the school, which is huge.
there’s a lot of pretty rivers and a nice lake. w then had an opening
ceremony, where we were filmed and presented little mini kites, and
were treated to a few singing/musical performances by the students. it
was cool.

we then had lunch with our classmates. they were drinking tsingtao
beer, and they tried to offer it to us but of course we couldn’t have
any haha. i don’t like alcohol anyway, it tastes gross x.x

so yup! now we’re in the computer room and we’re just chillaxing.
GOOD TIMES.

buhbye until tomorrow.

After running around the airport, a fifty minute flight from Beijing and a three hour bus ride, we arrived at the place we’re spending the remainder of our trip, Weifang No. 1 Middle School in Jinan, Shandong~~! The school is HUGE and super pretty (though we didn’t see that until this morning because we got in at 12AM when it was pitch black). In the dorms, we each got our own room but have to share a two bathrooms between four people (Western bathrooms~ Unlike the public bathrooms, which are all squat…). Unlike everyone else’s room, my room was a sauna (hotter than outside TT____TT) and my AC wasn’t working. Hopefully it’ll work tonight~ <3

We also met students from Weifang. My student's name is Liu Junyi or Jenny. Everyone seemed really excited to meet, so that lightened the mood. We got a tour of the school and the students performed on traditional Chinese instruments. Also they sang two songs, one in Chinese and one in English. the head master gave a speech, as well as the head of the languages department (I think that's who he was, haha). So far, Weifang has been amazing.

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