ABROAD IN
Saturday, July 22nd: I woke up this morning way earlier than I thought I would. I got up at 7:45 am on a Saturday?! I decided to do some laundry. This family asked me to wash some of my own laundry, which I’m fine with. But, I’m used to using a machine, so I was a little slow at handwashing. Also, the washing room/bathroom was hot and humid because there’s no air conditioning in that part of the house, so being in there for a long period of time was kind of hard. I washed some clothes and threw them in the dryer. After the dryer, the clothes were supposed to be hanged outside, so I hung them downstairs outside (they probably dried in 5 minutes to be honest). My mom made breakfast this morning because she slept over, so I had a 烧饼 and some rice cake meat dish. I was a little annoyed though because during breakfast my mom told me (nicely) that she wants me to speak one day in Chinese and one day in English. I just responded “Uhhh ok….”, but it’s not going to happen. I am determined to speak only Chinese in this house, and only speak English if she’s wondering how to say something in English. I am not going to converse in English because I won’t improve my Chinese that way. I talked to Margie about it. Anyways, I relaxed on my bed and posted a week’s worth of blog posts until 11:30 am when I had lunch. The mom left at about 9 am and the Dad came at about 10:50 am. After eating some 面条 (noodles) for lunch, I ran out the door at 12:05 to make it to class at 1. It was extremely hot on the way there, I was feeling maybe high 90s to low 100s. I was fast walking too because I was nervous that I was going to be late. So, I was super sweaty on the subway and when I arrived at the lobby. I got there 10 minutes early so I didn’t really need to rush. Luckily, I brought an extra shirt that I was planning to run in, so I quickly changed before we left for our cultural excursion to make food. Our class that day wasn’t actually studying with books, but it was to go to a cooking class. Our bus ride was long but we went to this really cool cooking school in this sketchy neighborhood. It’s called 新东方, which is this cooking school in Nanjing. In China, if you don’t test well in the 中考, the test that determines your high school, you literally cannot attend high school. A lot of people revert to this school if they don’t do well on the 中考, apparently, but it is also a good school to become a cook if you genuinely want to. Also, there is an English campus to this school, so you can either study English or cooking at this school. As we were walking up to the lobby, we were welcomed and greeted by these high schoolers who attend this school. They were all wearing chef outfits which was cool to see. Also, when we first arrived, there were these adult chefs who were using this edible icing/liquid (?) and painting on plates. It was super cool; it was art, really. We walked through the hallways where there were cakes on display that were intricately designed, and looked delicious. We walked up a couple floors into this kitchen where there was this long dining table set up for us and watermelon slices. We all sat down and presented a little bit about American cuisine in front of around 25 people. I thought that our presentation was supposed to be in English, but it turns out it was supposed to be in Chinese so I randomly talked about Chinese food culture in America, and how especially in Seattle there’s a lot of Asian-fusion food. I also talked about holidays and how my family eats some Chinese food during Christmas. I don’t think I talked very well because I made my presentation up on the spot, but I don’t think it mattered too much. After teaching some of the students English phrases, we took some photos then headed upstairs to make some 包子. The best part was our uniforms. We all got chef uniforms to wear, and we even got hats. Alex and I forgot to take a squad pic with everyone though which we all thought was a missed opportunity. In our uniforms, we were taught by some chefs how to make these rose decorations out of clay. After trying it ourselves, we also got to 包包子 (wrap baozis). It’s so hard to wrap a baozi. At the end of wrapping it, you have to make this pocket. Wrapping 饺子 is so much easier. Overall, going to the school to make food exceeded my expectations! It was a ton of fun. There was one awkward moment, though. I was asked to do a quick interview while I was making my rose, so I decided to do it. She was filming me on this livestream. The thing is I had no idea what she was saying so I was just nodding and laughing when she laughed. Then she asked me a question and I was really confused because it sounded like she said Shui (as in water) but she really said Shei (As in who), and so she was really asking me who I would give this rose too. But, I didn’t know she was asking me a question so I literally responded 对 (which means correct). On a livestream!! She dressed like a professional person, so the livestream wasn’t to her friends, it was probably to a group of other people who were watching. She looked confused and she turned to the fluent speaker next to me to translate for me, but then I immediately understood what she meant, and said I would give it to my family back in America. Ha. Anyways, after we came back to the school it was already 6:30 pm, and it takes me an hour to get back home. I thought because my family normally eats at 6, and I didn’t want to bother them and make them save me food, I would eat at the cafeteria for dinner with some friends. Sam, Shaimu, Peter and I all went to the cafeteria to grab some dinner. We quickly finished, but it was still fun to hang around with them. After dinner, I headed back on the subway with Sam where I eventually left him to transfer lines. At home, after resting a bit, my sister and I played some cards with my host mom. It was actually a really fun time, and a lot of the games they play here are similar to American card games. I didn’t know the games at first, and it was a little hard to understand the directions in Chinese, but after watching for a minute, it was easy to catch on the stuff that I couldn’t translate. It was a lot of fun though, and I got to connect with the mom and my sister a bit more, which I was happy about.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Andrea 施安雅17-year-old XC runner and boba tea lover living in Seattle but studying abroad in China. Also, I have a cat! Archives
August 2017
Categories |