The Perks of Being a Chinese-Speaking Foreigner

Heyyy there! Sorry for the long pause between my last post and this. Mom always says that "the fans" are waiting for another one - so here it is. While I don't believe that I have lots of fans I do want to say thanks to whoever has been reading my blog - it's been a nice comfort during my time here to have the ability to tell of my adventures.

Hangzhou is doing pretty well by me. It is, however, FREEZING. It snowed very briefly last week - but we're not counting it as a snow day because it was that rainy/snowy mixture. But still - damn! The weather today was a balmy 10 degrees - which reminds me a lot of Midd -- when in February if it turns 38 degrees we're all out in tank tops. Hangzhou's weather has supposedly not been this cold at this time in November ifor the past 20 plus years. The biggest problem is that our classrooms and rooms are dangerously close to the temperatures outside. And our air conditioner doubles as our heater - it is not strong at all, and does very little to heat up our decently wide room. That said, we all feel really pathetic and rude for complaining so much about our rooms, classrooms, and the halls of our dorm, because none of the other Chinese students ANYWHERE (dorms, classrooms, etc.) have heat. They all just get used to it and deal with it - even when the temperatures continue to drop. I think that is one "story" that sums up our experience - our time in China is largely influenced by our skin color and status as foreigners. It does also make me think though. In the larger scope, how does my experience compare to Chinese students?

Another event that REALLY showed me the other day how much more we get to experience due to our skin color and language ability was when Taryn, Cameron, and I went to one of Hangzhou's museums - full of scissor, knife, umbrella, and fan exhibits. After walking through the scissor exhibit a woman was sitting at a table cutting out paper into "Chinese paper art," or at least that is what I"m calling it. (http://www.chinancient.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Paper-Cutting-01-297x300.jpg -- ALL done by hand). We stood around for a little bit, mesmerized by the type of art she was creating with just a small pair of scissors. We all made some comments about how we thought she was doing amazing work - and she immediately asked us if we understood what she was saying and upon realizing we did began to feverishly explain to us the work she did. She then gave me a small cut out of a frog, showed Taryn how to make one herself, and gave Cameron the one she had just made. Meanwhile, lots of Chinese were standing around, all of whom she paid no attention to. At one point a Chinese boy came up to her shoulder to look at what she was doing and she simply said "Get away, you're going to ruin my work." At the end of her mini tutorial (we had to say multiple times we had to go before she gave up on trying to teach me how to make a "much more complicated design," since we all know how that would've turned out), she gave us, free of charge, three of her already-completed larger pieces of art - and all originally 15 yuan each. I then wanted to buy two of my own, and she dropped the price down without me making any attempt at bargaining (which I hadn't been planning on doing anyways as it was all her own original work.) So in the end I left with 4 pieces of her original work for 20 yuan total.

After leaving the musem the three of us talked about how we didn't think these type of experiences would've happened if we were back in the States or studying abroad in Europe. In Hangzhou there really is a sense of curiosity re foreigners and a real sense of awe when they learn that we can all speak Chinese. I don't think I would've had the chance to talk to as many of the restaurant owners, or get as good prices as I can get at the silk market, or get special entry into a variety of exhibits and demonstrations if I wasn't a white skinned Chinese speaking American. It's a weird thing to wrap my mind around, but also something that I really am going to miss. As part of my continuing to wonder if I have had every experience I wanted to in Hangzhou - I wonder if I should've spent more time looking at it from that angle. Where can I have an experience that I would have NO chance to in America. But in some sense I do think I've done that. The other thing I've found is that a lot of times we can't plan the types of experiences we have. In our efforts to see different parts of Hangzhou that might not be touristy, we were able to meet all kinds of different people and learn all kinds of different things. And that is definitely something that I'm glad about.

I hope everyone is gearing up for a great Thanksgiving week. We are all pretty bummed here about missing Thanksgiving, but we're keeping going by the fact that our time is almost up and Christmas is closer than we think. I personally can't wait until after Thanksgiving - as we have all decided that that is when we will start blasting the Christmas music. I just also want to say to Mom, Dad, Marsh, Alice, Clark, and Caeli that it is going to be very odd not watching the parade, helping out in the kitchen, and spending time with you this Thanksgiving. Have a great time - eat lots of mashed potatoes - and start looking forward to next year's Thanksgiving. Love and miss you all -- happy holiday season (officially!)