chineseredhead

: chineseredhead; July 6th, 2009

I have been home for one week and I still haven't quite adjusted to the time change yet. This is normal I suppose!
Here are some things that have "shocked" me since I have been home:

-how many over-weight people are in America
-how diverse America is (people look different, dress differently, people speak different languages)
-many people drive to get places

I just thought I would jot these down. It's funny because I thought coming back to America would be a lot worse than it has been. I talked to people who have been traveling for years and have said that coming home can be the hardest thing. So far it hasn't. Maybe school will be more of an adjustment.

I also like to listen to how people think of China. Sometimes their ideas are extremely exaggerated and out of proportion, others have a very romantic idea of the place, and some just don't know anything about the country.

It was hard coming home and having to go to my grandmother's funeral. It was sad, but at the same time it was really comforting and nice to see my family. They were so familiar it was almost as if I hadn't left at all. I didn't realize how many of them read my blog! It made me very happy to hear how people already knew some of my stories I was telling because they had already read my blog.

One thing my friends say when they first see me is "it's almost like you never left!" It's so strange because I feel the same way.

I still take pictures even though I am home. Taking pictures in China has helped me notice things around me so now I take pictures more. I would have never taken pictures in Torrance before China, because it's Torrance and I live here so why would I want to. But now I notice interesting things that I didn't before. Like road signs with stickers on them, funny liquor store signs, old houses, vacant lots etc.

I miss China. I really want to go back, but I have only just come home and everyday is like a little adventure.

Home 在家

: chineseredhead; June 29th, 2009

The day we left was the hardest day of the whole year.
Hardly anyone slept on the night of the 27th. Everyone (almost) came out of the hotel to the coach bus to say goodbye. It was a cry fest. Everyone sooner or later was bawling their heads off. It wasn't even teary crying it was heavy-breathing-gasping-red-faced-back-crushing-hug-crying.
When our baggage was loaded onto the coach it still required ten more minutes to get everyone flying within three hours on the bus. The French, The Americans, The Norwegians and one German boy got on the bus. I continued to cry, others continued to cry. The bus driver must have thought we were all out of our heads.
After finding our check-in desk we realized we were so early that we still had to wait two more hours before anyone started working. Of course when the time came my bag was seven kilograms more than the 23kg limit. Carol Gong was my service person and I tried my best to talk her out of charging me 150USD for my seven extra kilograms. I told her my life story but she still wouldn't budge. It's not like they make commission off the bags! I still ended up paying.
We had an extra three hours in the terminal after security and customs. Bekah, Lee, and I decided to head up to the food court. Lee had Italian food, Bekah and I had Burger King （漢堡王 han bao wang). A large group of traveling Texan school children came by to eat. They had only been in China for 17 days (someone had asked them). They were headed to Hong Kong. Bekah, Lee and I made fun of their maroon uniforms. We also laughed at their greenness to China and the Chinese language. It was pretty mean of us, but we did it quietly. They were too busy commenting on how weird their Fanta bottles looked to notice.
The plane ride was a long one. Philamon (from Seattle) ended up talking with a Chinese man for most of the plane ride about China and how Taiwan is a part of China. The man claimed he was very familiar with Chinese history and thought he should tell Philamon what was right. He had studied in a university in China. I told Philamon to take everything this man said with a grain of salt because the way Chinese history is taught in school isn't always the way it happened. The man heard me speaking to Philamon and started telling me in Chinese
"You see Taiwan's problem is that-"
I told the man that I didn't want to discuss this with him because I was too tired. I couldn't be bothered to debate with this man about the independence of Taiwan.
The rest of the plane ride was spent listening to music, sipping water, discussing our exchange, watching movies (He's Just Not That Into You), hanging around the emergency exit door, and sleeping.
Customs was not as stressful as we had all imagined. We said goodbye to Lee who was to be picked up by her mother in SFO. I lost my boarding pass so I had to go and get that reprinted before moving through security. I sort of felt strange being back. For once I wasn't the only person who wasn't Chinese. Everyone looked different and dressed differently from Chinese people. It was a little overwhelming and hard to take in all at once.
On the plane to Los Angeles Bekah and I befriended a wonderful woman from Jamaica who had light green eyes. She was very interested in our exchange and wanted something like that for her son. Despite being from Jamaica she had no accent whatsoever. She told us that she came to the United States for college and has lived here ever since. She was really nice. Her husband was a pilot. She told Bekah and I about the status of gay marriage in the US. This topic was not discussed in China so we were eager to know.
Seeing my family at the airport was strange. They stood near the escalator where passengers come down to collect their baggage. Spencer was the first to hug me. The first things I noticed were how long my mom's and sister's hair had gotten. How tall Spencer was! I introduced my AFS friends, waited for my bags, said goodbye, and went with my family to the car.
The ride home was numb. Mallory was chatting away about random things that had happened while I was gone. Spencer was calling out models of cars that we drove past. Lunch was "Y" Not Burger with a chocolate milkshake.
Matilda came over and presented me with invaluable cookie dough and chocolate chip cookies, as well as several periodicals to catch me up on current events. We chatted for a while and she sat down to lunch with me and my family. After a bit Alex Pine came over. All the chatting was done in a very quick and jet-lagged manner. After they left I tried on my suit for the funeral then sat on the living room couch unsuccessfully trying not to nod off. My dad woke me up and I used the computer which helped me stay awake.
Michael came over for dinner, we had pizza. My mom sat on the couch going through old photos of my grandmother. If a photo was deemed worthy it was passed to my sister who then scanned the photo with great care. Meanwhile Michael and I chatted about various things while my mother beckoned me to do laundry or move something to my room. When he left I can't remember much what happened. I think I unpacked a few things then went to bed.
It's been a tiresome time to say the least. But a nice tiresome time at that.

最後一天 Last Day June 26th 2009 二零零九年六月二十六日

: chineseredhead; June 26th, 2009

This morning I woke up at 8:50am and raced to put on my clothes. I packed a change of clothes an a bathing suit into a Carrefour plastic bag that I have been using, grabbed my grey messenger bag and headed downstairs. I passed loads of parents, teachers, students, and workers loitering around our campus (there must be some sort of test going on, or test results coming out) and exited through the main gate. I stood there and looked around for Diego (Brazil) and Giuliano (Italy). They weren't there. Chinese people were staring at me because the ground was wet and I wear sandals. Lately I wear sandals because it is too hot for socks.
I call Diego, his alarm didn't go off and he is late. I walk over to the little grocery store that I often buy Ya-Ha coffee from in the mornings. Giuliano walks out drinking a can of coke and says hey. I tell him that Diego is late. I take my three green "Americano" Ya-ha (雅哈)cartoned coffees. The woman knows me now. There are empty cigarrette boxes on the counter. I am instantly excited and ask her if I can have them. She looks surprised and says yes. She walks over to a shelf and lifts up several boxes of sanitary napkins (the brand is 自由一點 zi you yi dian meaning "A Little Freedom")and hands me several colorful gaudy cigarette boxes. I tell her we do not have boxes like these in America. She smiles. She probably thinks I am crazy.
Giuliano and I waiting at the front gate for anothe half hour until Diego our "Brazilian Ape" friend arrives. We call him an ape because he is so huge and strong.
We are going to hotsprings in a district located outside the city of Chongqing about 25 to 45 minutes away by taxi.
When we get off the freeway (高速公路 gao su gong lu: high speed public road, that you have to pay for) the road into the valley where our hotspring is located was very rocky and crevice-y. Very bumpy and uncomfortable. The taxi driver was complaining and cussing about the road. Meanwhile the outside was lush and green. We were surrounded by tree-covered hills and mountains. The little shops on the side of the road looked old and dilapidated. Most of them were made of concrete and had faded signs over the doorways. Countryside folk lingered outside watching the road and sitting on blue plastic deng zi (凳子 stools). Most people in the countryside are tanner because they spend more time outside for whatever reason. Darker skin is a big no no in Chinese culture. Many of the creams here contain whitening. And a girl must never marry a man darker than she.
The taxi dropped us off near a bridge. The bridge was surrounded by stalls selling cigarettes, noodles, and bathing suits. From the bridge you can look down upon the muddy river and admire the rusting boats that you can rent. I still think the scenery is quite picturesque because it is so green.
The hotspring we go into is marketed as a spa. The inside is very nice, covered in stone. It feels very five-star but the price is just right. Because it is "summer" it costs less than 10 USD to use the facilities. The reason why this hotspring is so nice and so well maintained is because the owner is foreign. He is Taiwanese in fact. Taipei is famous for its hotsprings, and that's why I think this one was done so well.
After getting our lockers and changing we find the outside is well landscaped, clean, and the water is just right. We dip in the fish pool for a while to be nibbled by small fish. They eat away our dead skin.
We spent several hours here then around 1pm catch a bus to 李家沱 Lijiatuo then call a cab back to 沙坪壩 Shapingba District (where we all live)。
I still haven't packed completely. I am still stocking up on Chinese magazines for the plane ride. I haven't eaten lunch yet. I still need to get my certificate from my teacher Ms. Ma (馬燕飛 Ma Yanfei). Then I meet my host mom in downtown district of Jiefangbei (解放碑 Liberation Monument) to take her to the global doctor that works in the Hilton. He is an expensive doctor that usually caters to foreigners. My hostmom has been sick for a long time and nothing the Chinese doctors do helps. Plus Chinese doctors only have 10 minutes per patient. This is what happens when there are too many patients and not enough doctors.

Hotsprings

Getting Ready 準備ing好了

: chineseredhead; June 22nd, 2009

I am still in shock. There is so little time left here in China.
I am absolutely not certain about how I feel. I am a bit nervous about how much adustment I will need to go through once I get there.
I told my parents yesterday that for the past nine months they have just been phone calls and emails to me. They have also been permission slips and text messages. It will be strange that to me that they are actually tangible human beings.
I will actually be able to pick up my phone and call my friends. They could be at my door in a matter of minutes. Not in a matter of days, hours, miles, leagues, kilometers. (However the same cannot be said for my AFS friends). I can have doughnuts. I know exactly where to find them．I will know how they taste. I can have cookie dough, pre-made! Sushi, newspapers, books, magazines, television, cinema, friends, family, a pug dog, Channukah, Christmas, 4th of July, the beach, Thanksgiving, school, my room, my bed, a good shower, socks, a really nice smelling detergent, museums, water I can drink from the tap! The list goes on.
Yet this does not mean I am completely shirking China. However I am not certain that I could ever live here. I need to see Taiwan first. Being here has changed me (not so much don't worry!) and my ideas about what I want to do in the future. I am not certain. I am very glad that I went to China before college. It was necessary to get a taste of the country before deciding whether or not I should continue with China or not.
I know I will miss my host family terribly. Especially our Chinglish conversations. When I say Chinglish I mean this:

"今天我很tired了,可能我早一點sleep."
(I am tired today, maybe I will go to sleep a bit earlier.)
"沒關係,tomorrow晚一點起床is okay."
（No problem, it's okay to wake up late tomorrow.)

My host dad is so eager to learn English.
I have taught him words like:
muggy (the weather in Chongqing is very muggy so he likes this word a lot)
colleague
take care of
care about
employee
and casual (He often tells me that we are a casual family. Which means that if I don't want to eat fried rice that day I can simple say "no thank you," and no one bats an eyelid.)

He somehow finds a way to use these words everyday! It's incredible!

I took my host family out to dinner on saturday night. I didn't know what to give them gift-wise. I took them to my hostmom's favorite restaurant and told them to eat whatever they pleased. The housekeeper was so nervous! She had never been to such a "fancy" restaurant. But I made her feel comfortable by joking with her. In the beginning she didn't even come down with us in the elevator. My host mom told me I should call her and specially invite her because "Ayi is afraid of forks and knives." She was very sweet and I finally coaxed her downstairs to walk with us to the restaurant.

Last night I stayed up 'til 2 am getting things ready for the post office. Deciding what should be sent and what shouldn't. Breakable things and DVDs cannot be sent by post in China. But I know the lady at the post office pretty well now and she doesn't check things so thoroughly. If I tell her a bag of DVDs are books she doesn't say anything :)

（Rose sitting on my hostdad's head making sure he is well fed at the restaurant I took them to the day I came back from Xi'an）。

（My room in a state of disaster whilst packing.)

Xi'an Trip 西安旅遊

: chineseredhead; June 22nd, 2009

From the 15th of June to the 20th of June AFS organized a trip to Xi'an 西安（the name means Western Peace, however the ancient name was 長安 Chang'an: Eternal Peace)！
Over all the trip was not bad. Like many other foreign tourists in Xi'an we saw the terracotta warriors (兵馬俑 bing ma yong) which were amazing. But not as super amazing as people make them out to be. We saw the Big Goose Pagoda (大雁塔 da yan ta). We also saw the Xi'an City wall which is for the most part intact.

Bekah and I tandem biked around the city wall. Apparently the ride is 9 miles. It was great. There was hardly anyone up on the wall. It had just begun to rain as we started riding. But we were getting wet and also drying at the same time. Sometimes we had to be really careful because the wall had drops where staircases began. We both enjoyed being on bikes again and seeing the inner-city from above. I think this was my favorite part of Xi'an.

Another really cool part of Xi'an was the night market in the Muslim Quarter. I bargaining for things now. It's so thrilling!** ha-ha! The Muslim Quarter is full of people shopping for souvenirs, food, scrolls, tea, Chinese Muslim food, clothes, shoes, paintings, and dried fruit. It's loud, it's noisy, it's chaotic, it's disgustingly filthy, and I love it. I did a huge amount of shopping there. It's a really good place to practice Chinese as well. Every night we were in the city of Xi'an we went there to browse.
One of the mornings in Xi'an we were taken to the Great Mosque in the Muslim Quarter. The mosque is famous for having a particular blend of Chinese architecture and Islamic influenced architecture. It was much different from other temples I have been too. The buildings were not red colored but dark grey and blue. The garden was covered in fresh rain. The whole place was very peaceful, and it didn't smell of incense.

The Muslim Quarter is an old neighborhood in Xi'an where Chinese people who follow Islam live. Because of this some Chinese consider them to be another "minority" called the Hui.

[**When I arrived in China at first I hated bargaining because I felt like I was cheating the store owners. But the great Rachael (a university student from Northern England) bluntly told me "Arthur, just be a bitch and it's fine." I know how awful that sounds, but actually it's true. Sometimes one just needs to frown and walk away at the same time saying "God, it's so expensive at this store." Other times one has to raise their voice at the shop keeper "I am a student! You know that right? Give me a cheaper price! I can't pay such a high one." The vendors say things like "I will go bankrupt if I give you such a low price." or "I have a family to feed." It's all an act though because once you buy the thing the store owners are really friendly and say how good your Chinese is and make small talk with you.]

YAN'AN 延安 (the name of this city means Prolonged Peace, and here was the low point of our trip)

However there were two days that were completely wasted. In total we spent 24hrs on a bus. Of course not 24hrs straight, but over the course of two days. During these two days we spent twenty minutes looking at a dirty "waterfall" in the Yellow River, which was actually just a large rapid. The other major thing we did was see a bogus museum about Mao filled with Chinese propaganda and mannequins of Mao and other big-name officials.
I must confess that I didn't really get along with the tour guide.
Before making it to the bogus museum she asked if we would be able to understand a tour in complete Chinese. There was a long pause.

I raised my hand and said "No because we don't know such specific words that the guide will be saying."　（I meant political vocabulary etc.)

The guide new that I had studied Chinese in America for two years before coming to China.

"So you STILL can't understand Chinese even though you have studied Chinese for two years!?"

People who spoke Chinese on the bus gasped. Some people turned and started swearing at the tour guide. She wasn't very popular before anyway. She had a reputation for yelling at students for petty reasons. Others turned to me and asked what I was going to say. I was furious.

Let me just make an important note that this whole dialogue was in Chinese. And that even though our guide had studied English for ten years she still couldn't tell time properly.

"That is not what I said! I said we can't understand specific vocabulary about the communist party or about the revolution."

I gestured to some people around me in the bus.

"Some of us understand better than others. And plus we don't care about new things we want to see OLD things."

The tour guide said more things about me. How I had thrown a roll in the bus at someone and how I have no concern for anything, all I do is waste. When in fact we were all throwing this roll because we were bored out of our minds for 12 hours on the bus.

It ALWAYS seems to be that someone insults my Chinese during an argument and I remind them that "hey! wait! aren't we having this 'discussion' in Chinese now?" All they can do is nod their head. It is very "infuriating" as my mother would say.

After this argument the tour guide sort of lost authority and no one really listened to her anymore apart from when she told us of our departure times from Xi'an.

The Terracotta Warriors were quite nice. We spent a lot of time in the "pit" looking at them. I must say though I embarrassed to be an American sometimes. You have no idea how overweight American tourists are. I have never ever ever seen an in-shape American while I have been in China, apart from people that actually LIVE in China. Also American tourists can make the dumbest comments sometimes.

"D'you s'pose the warriors are terracotta? Or is that Chinese er somethin'"
A guy with the American flag on his shirt says to his wife (I assume).
"Well we's in China, so's I guess it's Chinese." she answered.
Word for word! I kid you not!

Another tour group (when I was in Sichuan a completely different trip from Xi'an) was visiting the Panda Breeding Center when I was there and I heard some exclaim:
"Wow fish! That's cool fish!"
"But It's just fish!"
"Well it's better than that grass stuff bamboo!"
"Yeah I guess that's true huh!"
"And there's water!"
"Whoa!"

Not sarcasm at all. But these people had to be my age or older. Bekah (my friend from Alaska) and I walked by them several times and wanted to die.

But anyways! I am finished ranting about my fellow citizens now!

I must pack

(Terracotta Warriors)

(Muslim Quarter's night market.CLICK FOR BETTER QUALITY)

(Biking with Bekah on the Xi'an City Wall.)

(Great Mosque's inner garden in the Muslim Quarter)

Thinking about Hong Kong

: chineseredhead; June 9th, 2009

(post about a previous trip)

Last time I went to Hong Kong I didn't stay for very long. It would be my last trip to Hong Kong to visit my friends there and Baddi's great host family. On my last trip I took Diego (my Brazilian friend who is also an AFS exchange student in Chongqing at my school) along with me. Just like me Diego was captured by Hong Kong. The lights, the food, the signs, the people, the clothes, the weekly magazines, Seven Eleven on every corner, the MTR, the green mountains.. We even went to Macau for a day. I had long since promised Diego that we would go to Macau while we were in China. Diego wanted to see Macau because of the Portuguese influence there. And we made it!
The last two nights we stayed in Hong Kong Baddi's host family invited Diego to stay at their house. Their house is absolutely tiny! But the Ngan family is so welcoming that they couldn't care less. He was deemed "Superman" by Mrs. Ngan because of his muscular build and towering height. The night he was introduced to Baddi's host family Mrs. Ngan grabbed his arm and said "new boy-fren!" Everyone burst out laughing. After that night he was known as superman to the Ngan family. Diego's Chinese name is pronounced differently in Cantonese so superman was an easy alternative.
The night that Diego came to the Ngan's house was a funny one indeed. After saying hello and greeting everyone he took off his shoes and sat on the leather black couch next to Baddi and me. After a while I noticed a strange smell. I looked up, every Ngan was gone. Vanished. Disappeared. I realized the smell was coming from Diego's feet.
"Tong-tong!" came from the hallway.
"I think she's calling you." Baddi told me. "She" meaning Mrs. Ngan.
"Tong-tong! Tong-tong!"
I walked down the narrow hallway and into the master bedroom where the whole family was huddled. Nelson was sitting sprawled on the floor. Kathy sat holding her knees. Mr. Ngan was sitting on the bed and Mrs. Ngan was standing in the middle of the room looking at me. She closed the door.
"Super-man he he he..."
I started laughing really hard. The whole scene was just too funny. The whole family had been forced into one room because of the smell Diego's feet were emitting. Right then everyone else began laughing.
Mrs. Ngan was smiling but trying to be serious.
"No showder four day! Four days no wash!" she pointed at me while everyone was dying of laughter as well as myself. "Ho chau a!" (So stinky!)
"You tell him now he showder!" Mrs. Ngan didn't want to embarrass Diego.
I walked out of the room, down the hallway, and into the cramped living room.
"Diego your feet stink, they want you to shower!" I started laughing and so did Baddi.
The Ngans ran out of the room led by Mrs. Ngan.
"Four day no showder! Why no showder? Dirty!" She hit me, she was laughing now too.
Baddi then tried to explain that Diego had showered it was just that people sweat differently and Diego's feet stank. I then told her that's the reason I wear sandals in the hot and humid weather. Now she understood. Diego got up, smiling, and took a "showder".
While Diego was showdering everyone relaxed in the living room and watched TV. Mrs. Ngan pointed at Diego's converse sneakers and asked me to put them outside. She waved her hand in front of her face and made a funny face.
I opened the door. But before putting the shoes outside I couldn't help but teasing Mrs. Ngan. I held a shoe and waved it in her face. The whole family was howling with laughter, Baddi too.
"No no! Bad boy! Sei zai! Sei zai! Outside! Go!" She got an umbrella and started pushing me outside. More laughter erupted from the living room, I was laughing too. I was still holding shoes near her face. Somehow I turned it around. I gently pushed her out the door and started shutting it. Mr. Ngan's face was red and he was crying. Kathy sat on the floor making a strange honking noise. I never have laughed so hard in my life over something so silly.
I will always remember this night. It was one of the funniest ever. It was one of the first times I ever felt close like a family with people in China. I don't know how to describe the feeling, but it was a good one. Maybe you had to be there :)

Illuminating Appearance-ing 照相ing

: chineseredhead; June 3rd, 2009

Lately the days have been going by slowly here.
The weather is warmer than normal. However it rains quite frequently. I think I have figured out the weather here somewhat. It will rain for maybe a day or two, when it rains it is cold and windy. Then because of the rain all the pollution comes out of the sky allowing the next few days to be bright and sunny. Sunny days in Chongqing are the best for taking pictures.

My friends from England named Jane and Ed have really gotten me interested in photography. Jane and Ed are here to teach English through a year program. Many of their photos are posted on a site called flickr.com (a site that is basically just one huge photography community's album). Jane and Ed are always doing something interesting with their photos. They "collect" things which is really fun! Jane used to look for sleeping stall owners and take their photo. She also used to do laundry hanging to dry, and lettuce. One can always find lettuce somewhere here in Chongqing. Someone is drying it, selling it, throwing it away, eating it, or feeding it to something.
After they introduced this idea of "collecting" to me I started doing it too. When I was in Beijing I specially took pictures of bicycles, in Chengdu it was vegetable carts, now in Chongqing it's cigarette booths.

Walking around Chongqing while taking pictures one can get many different reactions from the people you are photographing. I turned off the sound on my camera so people can't hear when I press the button. Some people smile and wave, others laugh and shout "bu hao kan! bu hao kan!" meaning "I am ugly!" or "I don't look good in pictures!" Some don't even notice, others look confused. Then there are the angry ones "Hey don't take my picture!" or "Go away!" I just pretend I cannot understand. Then I walk away.

Photography makes daily life here more fun, more interesting. Especially when I have to hunt for the stuff I am "collecting." When I find it, it's like a little reward! The hard part is taking the picture. I have learned a lot about all the little settings on my camera...but I have so much more to learn!

funny fact: Bu zhao xiang, means: Don't take pictures. But literally it means: No illuminate appearance!

Visiting Host Grandparents in Beijing 在北京探親

: chineseredhead; May 31st, 2009

Earlier in May I went to visit my maternal host grandparents.
A week or so after I first moved in with my new host family, my host mom told me that her mother had studied English in China's best foreign language university and also had taught English in a local Chongqing university. Later I also heard that my mother's stepfather taught English in the Beijing Foreign Language University. My host grandmother had married her English PROFESSOR! Scandalous!

I asked my host mom whether the old couple would be able to make it out to Chongqing for a visit. My host mom smiled and said to me "Lao ren zenme zou name yuan a?" which means "How can old people walk (or go ) that far?" She then asked me why I wanted to meet them. I told her I wanted to meet them because I think that their English must be good since they were around China's best foreign language school for a period of their lives. She told me that I shouldn't test their English because they'd be very nervous about that anyway. Of course I wouldn't do that! I told her as well that I'd like to hear their opinions about China etc. Can someone smell some questions about the Cultural Revolution?

A week or so later I had the trip to Beijing all planned out. I even had gifts for them. My host grandmother Chen Rui (say Chuhn Ray) is in her sixties, and my host step grandfather is 89. "Since they are a little old, you should plan things to do during the day. Waipo (grandmother) has to take care of Yeh-yeh (grandfather) so she won't take you anywhere." Luckily my German friend Natasa (who is full blood Serbian, she will make sure you know this. Please don't forget that she is also fluent in Serbian and German, as she will remind you.), and Yiny Zhang (a sweet girl from the Faroe Islands) were planning on coming down from the city of Ha'erbin already. Being bored definitely was not an issue with those two! It never is!

After getting off the airport bus in Gong Zhu Fen （公主墳）then crossing the street under an expressway overpass, where Chinese old ladies crossed streets like there was no tomorrow, I found my bus. Even though I was in Beijing, the foreigner's capital of China, I was still getting stares in this neighborhood. Maybe it was because of my huge baggage I was carrying? My host mother had loaded me down with small food, gifts, and tea for her mother. Not to mention that I already had gifts for my host grandparents!

My bus stop was 半壁店 Ban Bi Dian. (Which could be translated to "half wall shop." Chinese names for things are really interesting. I could never imagine a city translating the subway stops. Like hearing "We are now arriving Five Intersection Way Station." instead of the usual "We are now arriving at Wu Dao Kou Station.") Through the narrow door window on the bus I saw a small woman standing on the balls of her feet. She was looking inside the bus. She saw me and smiled. When the doors opened she waved a small lily-sized hand and asked in English "You are Arthur right?" She was wearing a small bright white sun hat and large black sunglasses. Her hair was a mix of gray black and brown. It was styled in a smart little bob. Her shirt was magenta and made in the style of an old Sun Yat Sen suit (the ones you see all the Chinese people wearing in old photos, except those are usually blue). Her voice sounded like dry grass. I liked her right away! She didn't even have an accent when she spoke those first words to me, she sounded perfect, just like a grandmother should sound!

"Are you hungry?" she asked. (Anything said in Chinese will be put in < > chevrons not quotation marks). When I answered yes she motioned over to a store near the road. < Would you like to eat dumplings? You must be hungry!> she said as we walked through the plastic curtain at the entrance of the store. In addition to ordering dumplings she also ordered 涼菜 chilled vegetable dishes. I had never had these before. They were on display in a refrigerated glass case. Through a huge glass window we watched the staff prepare our dumplings. Then Waipo picked out the chilled vegetable dishes, we crossed the street, and suddenly we were in their apartment complex. (It looked very new and clean, much better than a Chongqing complex would).

Inside I was greeted by their schnauzer 阿福 A-fu. He grabbed some house slipper and put them by Waipo's feet. She pointed at another pair then said something. He brought me my shoes! The inside of the house was very nice. Very modern. The sofas were clean and well kept. They had a flat screen television. The floor was really wood not just lenoleum! The house was very clean and it smelled nice. The kitchen was typically Chinese, tile everywhere, a sterilizer to put the dishes after they have been washed (I used to mistake them for ovens, only to be disappointed. I have lost all hope for ovens in China.)

Waipo was still sitting on a box of milk putting on her shoes, she suddenly looked up and pointed to a pale dead looking figure seated very still on the couch. I realized it was my host step grandfather: Yeh-yeh. Waipo dramatically cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered very loudly "He is almost ninety years old! So old!" Her eyes grew wide as she said this. I help but laugh. Yeh-yeh was very pale, but had red lips. He had a small buzz cut, I just barely noticed the white hair on his head. He made a sputtering noise, pulled his clasped hands under his chin and said "Hello."

That was how I met my Chinese host grandparents.

As the days went by I found that my host grandmother's life revolves around Yeh-yeh and the dog A-fu. The most exciting thing she gets to do all day is go to the grocery store and walk the dog. It's like her little daily escape. She told me once when Yeh-yeh was asleep that all he does is complain, sleep, read the newspaper, watch TV, and eat. I let her vent. I felt sorry for her. She hasn't been back to Chongqing (my city) in a long time.

Yeh-yeh's English was very good. He didn't speak it all the time that I was there but he spoke it frequently. One time after Waipo had finished putting dinner on the table he got up from the sofa, put down the newspaper and said "The world is getting smaller, so the transmission of disease is quicker." I was really surprised to hear an almost 90 year old man say those world in almost perfect English sans Chinglish accent. Then again he did work as the editor in chief for two seperate additions of the same Chinese-English Dictionary. His vocabulary was pretty incredible.

During the daytime while I was in Beijing I would go out with my friends. We had a picnic in 北海公園 (Beihai Gongyuan)Bei Hai Park next to the lake. We piled an assortment of unhealthy food on a large rock, took off our shoes, and ate. We visited the Summer Palace, the bell tower, 798 Art District, Hutongs (Beijing's little picturesque alleyways), Wangfujing shopping/snack street and so on. I　have been to Beijing before so this trip was a little refresher of the sights.

On the last afternoon I was in Beijing my host grandmother walked me out to the gate of her compound. I needed to get a taxi to the nearest subway. The air was really dry, my eyes were watering and my nose was stuffy. The wind was so strong that out of nowhere sand was blowing about the compound. (Beijing sometimes has sandstorms, but this wasn't one of them). My grandmother had A-fu on a leash.

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I am Back!

: chineseredhead; May 29th, 2009

Current Location:: Chongqing

Dear Everyone!

I finally have a blog that I can update now!
The other one: chineseredhead.blogspot.com has been blocked by China's Cyber Police. Well actually the HOST was blocked, so it wasn't my blog that caused any trouble...or so it seems. I have almost less than a month in China. However I will still be posting a lot of things on this blog! There is still so much to talk about and show you all. Sometime in the middle of June I will be going on an AFS trip to the city of Xi'an (the cultural capital of China that has the Terracotta Warriors). Stay tuned! I am sorry that I had to change blog addresses on you guys, I hope it doesn't discourage you from reading! Check this blog often because I will be updating it frequently!

-Chineseredhead (Arthur)