When to When?

7-6. Seven in the morning to six at night.  The school day for a typical student at the Jiamusi number one middle school lasts eleven hours, from seven a.m. to six p.m.   After one day spent at home, bonding with my host father, I left for my first day of school at about six thirty in the morning. 

First, I should clarify a few things.  In China, Middle School is equivalent to US high school.  The ages of the students range from 14 to 18.  In China, the middle schools are all ranked. The smartest kids go to the number one school and the second smartest to the number two school and so on.  And in China, school is taken very seriously. 

Upon arrival at the school I was escorted to my class.  As I entered the classroom, all sixty-five students gave a tremendous applause! (How is that for making me feel welcome?) 

My School

Two students sit at each desk, and I found my place in the back of the room (thank God) where I was assigned a “desk mate” who I later found out is considered to be the class athlete.  Throughout the day he tried to teach me a few words as I mindlessly stared at the gibberish on the blackboard.  You can’t imagine how slow time passes when you can’t understand anything being said!  Finally, lunch came along, and I had the opportunity to catch up with the other exchange students in the “canteen”, the school’s questionable cafeteria (even by American school’s criteria!).  After only an hour, it was back to the books. 

It is amazing how you are treated when you are from the west.  People stare at you, try to take pictures with you, say hello to you and try to have a conversation with you.  Girls giggle when you walk by and guys try to ask you about American athletics.  Also striking – but not surprising is the great deal of respect they have for the United States. 

What is surprising is that they seem to fear American boys.  After being told repeatedly by many different teachers and AFS volunteers that relationships between boys and girls are not allowed in Chinese schools, I asked my Finnish friend if he thought the warnings were a little extreme.  He said that although he heard about the rule from previous studying, it had not been mentioned to him by any AFS volunteers or teachers.  Mystified by this, I asked my German and Italian friends, and heard the same thing.  My final conclusion is that they stereotype American boys as sex obsessed and good at wooing girls!

I am concerned that the next day I was viewed as being a little flirty with two girls in my class, and as a result all 65 students were yelled at.  Either that or they were yelled at for talking.  Or the teacher was just being really loud.  Who knows?! 

My Chinese has been improving though, as has my relationship with my host family.  On my birthday, after a long day at school, my host father picked me up and brought me to an unknown building (well, most of them are unknown to me at this point).  I assumed it was just a typical errand and followed him upstairs.  We entered a private dining room where I found my host mother, aunt and brother. They told me that the other AFS students would be there soon and that we would celebrate my 17^th birthday!  While in America I am considered to be 16, in China they celebrate the first birthday when you are born – so here, I just turned 17.

After a delicious, multi-course meal, each one of the host families (although I had barely met them) gave me a birthday present.  My host brother and father gave me a tiger piggy bank (as it is the year of the tiger).  My host aunt gave me a pencil holder, and my host mother gave me a tiger glass.  I also received another pencil holder made of a special kind of nut, which is only available in Jiamusi, and an ornate pottery bull, detailed with different kinds of luck.  My German friend was kind enough to give me a gift that I can describe only as a holographic time telling laser pointer of sorts.  My Finnish friend gave me a much needed bar of chocolate (chocolate is not very common in China). 

It’s great to be seventeen!  My only regret is that I skipped my sixteenth birthday…

A Match for New York?

Before departing for China, I went to Los Angeles hoping that I would find another New York.  Those of you, who have been to Los Angeles, can understand my disappointment when I found an extremely large suburb.  I am not saying that I didn’t like LA.  On the contrary, I loved it – so much so that I am considering becoming bicoastal!  When I arrived in Beijing, I finally found what I had been looking for -  a competitor for New York.  Another Super City - sky scrapers, pollution and a real hustle.  Beijing is massive in both land mass and population.  I had heard that the pollution was bad, but I found it absurd.  In fact, when we departed from the airport it seemed as though a fog had descended onto the whole of the city (I was reminded of Bolvine in the Thirteenth Warrior, preparing to fight off the eaters of the dead!). 

We drove to an apartment on the outskirts of the city, which was surprisingly nice, but quite different from a New York apartment.  I was lucky enough to not have a roommate due to a computing error of some kind.  Although we were suffering from severe jetlag, we were not given the opportunity to rest.  Instead, we went through yet another AFS orientation. (I am feeling very oriented!)  We were told that the next day, weather permitting, we would visit the Great Wall.  Unfortunately, the weather did not permit, and we visited a sports center and a massive art complex (which was quite impressive).

 

I was very excited and relieved to hear that three other AFS students were assigned to Jiamusi: a girl from Italy, a boy from Finland and another boy from Germany.  Early the next morning we boarded the train for the next leg of our trip – 24 hours to Jiamusi!  Fortunately I was so exhausted that I slept for about 18 hours, the rest of the trip, we got to know each other and passed the time playing cards.  You can imagine our anticipation to meet our families as the hours passed.

My new home town:  Jiamusi

When we arrived, we were surprised to be greeted by quite a crowd!  Each of our host families and our teachers came to meet us.  We quickly sorted out who belonged to whom and the four AFS students went our separate ways with our new families.  My host father, my host mother, my host aunt, and my host brother (who is a couple of months younger than I), all went out to lunch for a fantastic traditional Chinese meal.  Fortunately, my host brother speaks a little English or, we really would have been lost.  The four of us then returned to their apartment complex, which is at a fantastic spot overlooking the river, and I was shown the ropes around the building.  After a few misunderstandings, including one in which my host brother wanted to take a shower with me, (it’s a long story) I went to bed for a night of much needed sleep.