Week 6: Homestay Happenings

This homestay thing is going quite fast! It has already been a week! But i suppose that's a good sign that I'm happy with my homestay family. I do not quite know what I expected going into the homestay part, but so far its been a mix of the anticipated and the unexpected.

I moved out of the dorm Monday morning (and of course, even though i had the most time to pack, I was the one who waited until the very last minute and I was struggling to zip up my enormous suitcase when I should have been walking over to our lecture room). Monday was just meet the family and move-in day. My "zhong guo [China]" mama could not make it to pick me up, so it was just my "zhong guo baba" and I in the car ride to their apartment. Mildly awkward, but he actually speaks quite good English and has been to the US before. (However, while it made the car ride less awkward, my plan of being forced to speak more Chinese kinda went out the door as everyone - baba, mama, mimi the meimei- except popo [grandma on mom's side] speaks better English than I speak Chinese.

But they've all been very nice. They had been told I was a vegetarian (I'm not, but I basically am in China- their veggies are better than their meat) and while some other SIT students families still tried to offer them meat mine has been really good about it (probably because I said i really like fish and so they just give me exorbitant amounts of that, which is fine with me :-).

TCM Pharmacy

Tuesday we visited a traditional medicine clinic, watched people get acupuncture and "cupping." (Accupunture I'd consider, however, the "cupping" process leaves these HUGE welts as it uses natural suction to "draw out the toxins" so I'm just really hoping I don't get sick in China.

Then we went to see a "jingju" performance at a teahouse near the Bird and Flower market. "Jingju"/Beijing opera I believe must be another acquired taste. All the singing is very high pitched and the instruments. . . well lets just say they are not going for any soothing or quiet sounds. . . The makeup and costuming is quite intense, and its rather androgynous - from my limited jingju experience men will sometimes play women, women will sometimes play big important generals- they use the costumes and special gestures to indicate their sex and station in society.

PoPo makes me lunch and dinner everyday. I have my usual class schedule except now I live about a 20 minute walk from the university. (I walk by the train tracks, its a popular short cut.) Two chinese classes (which i can't believe I only have one more week of language classes left!) taijichuan in between, home for lunch, rest time, lecture back at school, internet time at the library and then I'm back for dinner at 6:30 )then homework. . . My little sister [Meimei] has to wake up before me and is usually in bed after me. Especially for the first two-three days I think i saw her a grand total of 5 minutes. Both my homestay parents are professors at ShiDa, one of the like 5 universities just on Yieryi Street. I think they're both lawyers, because at least the Dad teaches law classes. The mom does some teaching and consulting, but I think her focus is somehow related to the economy, she does a lot with watching the Chinese and foreign markets. Actually, we often talk about the economy and even the upcoming US election. I love it. The FIRST night I was here, one of the first questions my zhongguo baba asked me was what I thought of the elections. Then he asked if I was a Republican or Democrat, then who I was voting for. Then at lunch the next day we talked about how horribly the US economy is doing and how the Chinese stock market is also suffering greatly.

Its quite the quiet atmosphere. (Except for all the asian children reinforcing stereotypes as any time of day, you can always hear someone practicing piano or violin, etc from the surrounding apartment buildings). They have a very nice apartment, quite fancy for the area. I have my own room, complete with balcony. There's pretty much an unspoken schedule and other than dinner and lunch they pretty much leave me alone to do my own thing. (I think they assume I have absurd amounts of homework to do too).

However, then, sometimes, they surprise me. Yesterday (Friday), I came home expecting that I'd probably just end up watching a pirated DVD as I didn't have homework and everybody else would be doing their own thing, especially as Mimi still had a normal class schedule on Saturday. But when i got home, the Dad asked me if I wanted to accompany him and zhongguo Mama to a Chinese wedding of a family friend. (Of course I did!). It was quite different though from an American wedding reception. For one thing, i wore jeans and was not out of place in the slightest. Secondly, there was an ABSURD amount of people there. There was like a main room for like the closer family, complete with a stage and throughout the dinner there was entertainment, a singer, dancers and kids running around the whole thing playing with confetti and sticking their hands in the pieces of cake. However, apparently drinking at weddings is universal. Its especially customary for the bride and groom to go around to every table and toast with them. (Often with baijiu [the hard liquor of choice in China]).

Wo gen Mama, Baba

Xinlang, xinliang, he wo (Groom, bride and me)

Today I just relaxed and finally went for a run in Kunming. Its interesting to see how everyone adjusts to this homestay business, a stranger staying in your house, being a stranger in a stranger's house. But I think we're all finally getting used to it. After the wedding last night, my homestay mom kept updating me on how the price of oil was dropping, then today the two of us played badminton together and jumped rope. Tonight at dinner, some of the family gossip was translated for me. My homestay mom's little brother and PoPo's son lives nearby and PoPo actually spends about half the time there and apparently this brother/son lives with his girlfriend but they have separate rooms. She's "lazy," and at 28 (quite old on the acceptable Chinese marriage age spectrum) refuses to marry the brother/son because his monthly salary isn't high enough yet. It was one of the strangest situations I've ever heard. (Unfortunately, I only grasped all this because it was translated to me. . . maybe next week will be that moment when I miraculously understand everything? I'm not holding my breath. . . .)