What’s Really Important?

I’ll be honest,when I first laid my eyes onto my little town of Şarkikaraağaç, I became a little disappointed. It is so small compared to Seattle, maybe half to three-fourths of the size of the Beacon Hill neighborhood. I thought I needed to be near large, famous mosques, monuments and tourist attractions to have a good time in Turkey for a whole year, but it didn’t take to long to prove myself wrong.

A family here can live happily with maybe 200 to 250 Turkish Lira a month, and a Lira is almost equal to a United States Dollar. After a month with my family, I realized that they almost never went grocery shopping, maybe once in a while to buy rice, salt, sugar and flour. But all of the jams, salads, juices, and meals I eat and drink are homemade, with fruits and vegetables picked fresh from a garden. There isn’t really much a family needs to spend their money on but maybe the bills.

Şarkikaraağaç may not be as ‘modern’ as cities such as Istanbul, or Ankara, but this is what makes my town better. I can’t even tell you what my electricity bill is back home in Seattle is–too many numbers–but here, it’s maybe 17 Liras.

I was amazed at the fact that my little Şarkikaraağaç had things like electricity that can randomly cut off , but it wouldn’t matter because it happened today for almost 12 hours and I had no idea. We cook our food with propane, and our water is heated by the sun. It took me over 30 days to notice this, when it was right in front of my eyes. Every single rooftop of the apartment homes, schools, and buildings have solar panels which heats up the water we use every single day.

After this realization, a light switch flipped in my head. Before, I thought that I knew that a person can live well and be happy without a lot of material possessions, but now I know. Back home I rocked my Prada glasses, never wore the same shirt twice without washing it, took long hot showers everyday, and texting on my phone like the world was going to end if I stopped. Now I’m wearing the same school uniform every day, taking less frequent showers, and only using a bucket full of water when I do, and I don’t even need a phone here, why call someone when you can just walk to wherever they are?

All in all, the past month living in Turkey didn’t make me thankful for the things I had back home, it made me realized why did I even waste my time and effort buying it, and throwing a fit just to get it, when I’m even more happy here without it.

I think i will in this letter concentrate on people.

Foreigners:

First of all there are a lot lot of foreigners here in Changzhou. Whether for study, like in a school, or through a Company, you can find a lot of them just hanging around. It isn’t like I will find one everyday but there are, of course, foreign hotspots. There at least 24 high school exchange students from various countries and they all speak some English. At my school, besides us 9 Americans there is a Venezuelan, Else,(pronounced ell-say) and a German, Jannis (pronounced Yannis). One of the Americans, Masha, speaks Russian and a guy named Jonathan (we call him yony (pronounced yo-knee)) speaks Hebrew. A whole bunch studied different languages. There is an American named Karl who went to Japan so can speak some Japanese. There is another American, Andrew, who can speak some Spanish because he did a program in Chile for two months. Two kids, Evan and Katty, both studied French but are fast losing their ability because of learning Chinese.

So it is very much a language loving group of foreigners. However I would have to say that aren’t exactly culture loving foreigners and definitely don’t like the restrictions and lifestyle of China. It is very much people are trying to find western food and the same stuff they would do in America i.e. smoke weed, drink venzualan rum, club hopping, and other stuff. That is the vibe I kind of get off of some of the people here. If this sounds like a very negative thing I don’t really think it is. It is very natural to want to be in a comfort zone and with people and food and languages that you understand. BUT we aren’t in our respective home countries and it is really everybodies descision whether they want to stay or leave or whatever. I really like these guys and they are really friendly they are also really smart. I have also met some other foreigners from different countries and its been good meeting them too.

Chinese:

Now here is where it gets confusing. I am Chinese in America but American in China. I guess I don’t really fall under either category. I have to say I don’t really have Chinese friends. It is just they are shy and I am shy and so it is sometimes really silent. Also it is hard for them to speak English because all the English that they learn is for Tests so they don’t really practice speaking.

A few notable characters in my normal Chinese class are a girl named Gu Niao. She is a kind of weird looking girl but isn’t afraid of doing anything and she seems to be very outspoken. She has talked with me a couple times. Also a guy named Wang Hao he seems to be the class clown. At camp he sang some BeiJing opera style stuff and he also seems to be the one who is Zhao Siji. Which means Looking for excitement but actually is like looking for trouble. He is a funny guy.

Usually whenever I first meet someone my Chinese is good enough where as soon as they find out that I am an American they always say “keshi ni shi……” which means “but you are….” So I guess I can trick people into thinking I am chinese. My host Mother and Father both speak Changzhou dialect. My host mother was born some where I think in the Central north part of China. I think she said it was Tian shui. But she moved to chang zhou when she was in Fifth grade so speaks the local dialect as well as Mandarin. She is a really nice mother and she helps me learn Chinese a lot and doesn’t really have any problems with the way I act. My host Father was born and raised in Changzhou he grew up here so he speaks mandarin with a slight accent. Before he actually didn’t need to speak Mandarin but he could understand because on T.V. it was all mandarin.

I mostly talk about Chinese culture and language with my host parents because it is an easy subject to talk about. I don’t really know much of their stories but hopefully in the future I can ask them to tell me their stories. My host brother is a typical Chinese student. He starts school at 7:00 ends at 5:15 stays at school to do home work until about 9:00. He is a pretty cool guy, though. He doesn’t really try and force me to do anything and we get along fine. He likes soccer a lot, so I play with him and his friends sometimes.

I can only hope that I will meet more and more people while I am here in Chang Zhou.

Once more, if you have any question? Comments? I have time.

Other notable events:

1. went to 我的爸爸的老家。That meant meeting my Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai. Also some really good food. Also a ton of bugs flys and mosquitos (they lived out in the countryside).
2. Participated in the sports meet. That meant getting my ass kicked in the 100metre and 110 hurdles. But it also meant no classes which was cool.
3. Saw part of the 60 year anniversary parade. Hu Jintao looks like a robot.
4. Ate some dong po zhu rou. For those who don’t know that’s basicly a slice of bacon about an inch thick but really tender and juicy and delicious and good and all the wonderful things in life put together.
5. Met some more people, laughed some more, enjoyed life some more, and lived in china (some more?).

The Beginning

I woke up at 4:30 to get to the airport. Alex came with me and gave me a sweater. <3 I’ll be nice and warm in Harbin. =D Then I ended up being alone on the plane and all the other AFSers got to be together on the plane. T.T I wanted to sit near Gabe, because he was the only other person I knew. T.T But he was, like 5 rows behind me. I nearly cried a bunch of times on the plane. Not sure if it was because I was happy to go or if it was because I was homesick. =/ But I landed in LA and got together with the other AFSers. That’s when I noticed that there was a guy on the plane who I met at pre-departure orientation. He waved and I waved back. His name is Zach.

We all got our luggage and found the van that was supposed to pick us up. There was Gabe, Zach, me, and this one girl who isn’t from Seattle, but from Washington, who was headed to Japan. Then, later on, another guy got on. I think his name is Cameron and he’s going to China, too. At the hotel, there were so many people already there. AFS had its own little corner and was making people sign-in and taking everyone’s temperature. And giving us booklets to read and fill out a survey. We then got our rooms with roommates. I got put in the same room with the girl from Washington heading to Japan. Sadly, I don’t remember her name. O.o So then we had orientation the whole day except for a few breaks and meals. I met tons of people. There was even a guy from the UK who has dual citizenship, which is how he got the NSLI scholarship. O.O Then we had to go to sleep by 11. The problem was that the people heading to China had to wake up at 4, but the people going to Japan got to get up at like 8. So, I had to figure out a way to get up in the morning without waking up my roommate. -.-

But I got it done and got downstairs. We had to get our temperature checked again and get 7 face masks before heading to a bus to get to the airport. I sat next to a girl with dual citizenship. She’s Russian and American. o.o

We got to the San Fran airport and got all checked in. We had like an hour to wait to board, but then the flight got delayed, so we had to wait an extra half hour. At the airport, this guy came up to us and told us he and his friend were from Coasta Rico and were part of AFS heading to China. That was pretty awesome. On the plane ride, I sat next to a guy named Benjamin. It turns out he’s exactly 12 hours older than me! O.o Scary, right? He didn’t know much Chinese, so I tried to teach him some. The flight was only an hour long. When we got to San Fran, we had to get to the other gate to get transferred. We didn’t have to wait that long though, from what I can remember. There was wifi there, but you had to have a T-mobile account to get on, so that sucked. -.- But my friend Zach and I were talking about the word for bathroom because we were trying to teach our UK friend, Matthew (Matt). There was a Chinese guy sitting in front of us. He heard us talking. Later, when I went to go try to get online at a charging station, he came by and talked to me in Chinese. He said my Chinese is pretty good. ^.^ I’m very proud. (I’d also like to take this time to thank any and all Chinese teachers I’ve ever had who made me practice speaking.)

My plane ride to Beijing was 11 HOURS. I sat next to a girl who’s name I don’t remember. She didn’t really talk to me. T.T But the people around me were talking a lot. They were talking about different languages and also trying to teach Benjamin (the guy who’s 12 hours older than me) how to say “I’m allergic to peanuts”. So yeah. It was interesting to hear the conversations about other languages. I fell asleep every once in a while and the meals this time weren’t actually that bad! I walked around a bit too and tried to talk to other AFSers. They were talking about movies though and I haven’t watched that many, so I left. Once we got to the Beijing airport, we were met up by AFS-China. We got onto a bus and headed off some far place. All the luggage couldn’t fit on the bus though, so a second bus had to be brought in. O.o Darn Americans. We went really far away to, apparently, a university, but the rooms are like hotel rooms. It’s pretty hot here, but it doesn’t seem as hot as it was the last time I was here.

It’s been so awesome here so far. Everyone who’s going to China is here, from all over the world. There are people from Thailand, Germany, Italy, Australia, Austria, Denmark, a girl from Japan, Switzerland, and a bunch of other places. I’ve been trying to get to know more people, but most people like to stay in their own groups with their own countries. Bleh.

It’s crazy here in China, though. People here are deathly afraid of swine flu. We’ve gotten our temperature checked every day. And today/yesterday, 3 people from the US got sent to the hospital for throwing up and a couple people were sick with a high temperature. So now we’re ALL in quarantine! -.- We missed an orientation and now we’re stuck in here for lunch too, as far as I know. I don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here. I really don’t want to miss the field trip to the Great Wall. T.T Right now my roommate has a friend over who’s like a room or two down. They talk a lot about boys and stuff. I feel bad. =/ My roommate said she would prefer to be in a room with her. And I was right next to her when she said that. I feel hecka bad. I guess I’m not girly enough? They talk about boys and things like that. This is why I like hanging out with the guys better, like Zach, Gabe, and Matt. But the guys have rooms on the other side of the campus, so I can’t sneak out like the girl who’s in here right now. If I get desperate enough, I’ll probably sneak out. -.- BLEH! So yeah, that’s all I got so far for right now. I’d tell what we learned at orientation, but it’s not that important for you guys to know. So yeah.

Pictures and HighLights

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures are from Shang hai and a little from when we went to the changzhou zoo. I need to take more pictures of school and stuff but this is all i have. i sent stuff through kodak it should work.

http://www.kodakgallery.ca/ShareLanding.action?c=71vtmh8t.8dqcbnwt&x=0&y=ar2zbs&localeid=en_CA

Other notable events:

1.went to 我的爸爸的老家。That meant meeting my Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai. Also some really good food. Also a ton of bugs, flies and mosquitoes (they lived out in the countryside).

2.Participated in the sports meet. That meant getting my ass kicked in the 100 metre and 110 hurdles. But it also meant no classes which was cool.

3.Saw part of the 60 year anniversary parade. Hu Jintao looks like a robot.

4.Ate some dong po zhu rou. For those who don’t know that’s basicly a slice of bacon about an inch thick but really tender and juicy and delicious and good and all the wonderful things in life put together.

5.Met some more people, laughed some more, enjoyed life some more, and lived in china (some more?).

Realization

To everybody this is another email . To me it is so much more. It is the realization of the moment of clarity. It is the point at which there is no return. It is a…. i don’t know.

Communication is a lot easier now. I am starting to understand a lot more Chinese, i think. I don’t really know how well i am speaking or whether any of my grammar is correct but the important thing is that I am improving.

I understand more words and can kind of have a conversation with anybody. But it is still so far from being able to understand all what the teachers are saying also what people say on T.V. I would say that i understand about half of what people say at least. It is a great feeling.

Notable events:

1. my friend here maybe returning because of visa problems

2. started kind of working teaching English but i am really more practicing Chinese.

3. went to chang zhou museum. learned that chang zhou is a planned city.

4. went out and ate 拉面 with my host dad. GOOD STUFF.

5. started learning spanish from a girl from Venezuela (probably spelled that wrong) named Else

9/18 – Speaking English/Chinese

Today we went to get our residence license, which took forever. Then we went to a bookstore. I wanted a book with Chinese on one side, English on the other, but I couldn’t find any. Then Merry, Diane, Zach, and I went to eat where Zach usually eats with his friends. Wasn’t that great. >.>

Then we went back to school. Diane, Matt, and I were the only ones in class, along with a few Chinese girls. I wanted to practice speaking Chinese, so I talked to Diane. Matt then tells us to speak English and tells us it’s rude to speak Chinese when we know he doesn’t know Chinese even though, as we explained, the conversation had nothing to do with him. He then says it doesn’t matter because English is our first language and we should be speaking that. I told him that English isn’t my first language and he says it doesn’t matter because I’m not fluent in Chinese. I’m very mad at him now. This is only one of many incidences that really piss me off.

After school we all ditched him and went to an arcade, which was a lot of fun. As usual, I took pictures which I will upload when I get home.

9/17 – Swine Flu Scare

Apparently there’s a swine flu scare going around, so all events have been put off: the singing contest, the sports event, and the art festival. Today we had to fill out forms for a residence license. We’re going out tomorrow to finish it, then apparently go to a book store.

It’s getting cold, so I went after school to buy a sweater with Zach. No luck for either of us. After school my dad picked us up, but he didn’t have the car because it was getting fixed, so we went out to eat and then took a taxi home. Oh, and today Ivy and some of her classmates came to clean the classroom. O.o They’re either really nice or really scared of swine flu.

9/16 – Intensity

Yesterday was intense. There was almost a fight in our classroom, between two of the Americans. Other than that though, nothing important happened. Oh, and I don’t know when this happened, but I’ve lost my zen when dealing with Matt. I’m with everyone else that he sucks. I hope I can get that zen back though. But he says a lot of things that are somewhat racist/Eurocentric/etc., that really just piss me off.

Nothing too exciting about today though, other than it being the first anniversary that I’m missing. I love you, Alex, and I miss you. Sudden though: I think I have my college essay topic now thanks to a dumb comment Matt made today. Oh, and I got to see the new house that my host family’s going to be moving into someday. It’s huge and rich-looking. And they even have a room for me. O.o

9/14 – Museums, More Songs, and Rain

Yesterday, the 5 of us went to 4 museums with the press following us. I can’t think of much to say though because the museums weren’t that interesting. They were mostly about how the Chinese beat back the Japanese and about the Communist Party.

Nothing really exciting about today either, except we got the song that we’re going to sing for the art festival. Oh, and it turns out I was one of the winners of the singing contest and will sing this Saturday. O.o

Oh, and it rained today. Everything turned yellow. O.O I got pictures of it that I’ll upload when I get back, but my camera didn’t really capture the yellowness of it. =/