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Published: June 30th 2012
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Well, as of today I will have spent one week with my new family in Zhenjiang, and I still cannot believe how lively and full of color my new home is! Driving through the streets we pass hundreds of vivid, open-air shops, overflowing with a medley of fruits, vegetables, and grains. In the evenings people dance on the street corners- some for entertainment, others for exercise! Zhenjiang seems to have everything you could possibly imagine in a city, yet it somehow manages to escape the industrial blandness which plagues so many urban areas!
We have been incredibly fortunate in having amazing and very generous families open their homes and hearts to us! While our sisters continue to attend their classes Monday through Saturday from 7am until 9pm, our new parents kindly each take a day to share a part of their city with us. We spent last Sunday resting and getting to know our families and our new homes. Monday morning, however, I was surprised to look out the window and see Megan swinging in the courtyard outside of our apartment building! Her father picked each of us up around 7am and brought us to Jinshan Park, a beautiful area,
very famous in China, with a lake, many trees, and an elaborate Buddhist temple and tower upon a hill. I loved all of the colors and the variety of expressions offered in the grand gold statues within the temple. It was unique and unlike anything I had ever seen before, yet distinctly beautiful.
After lunch we made our way to what used to be the heart of Zhenjiang: An old port. Although this part of the city is no longer beside the river, you could see the progressive layering of the road from each dynasty as far back as the early Tang years! We explored the old brick buildings and cobblestone streets with middle ramps for wheelbarrows. Despite its age, the old city center held a kind of rustic charm and was filled with wonderful antique shops! As we looked in at one traditional Chinese art workshop the calligraphy master who was working offered to demonstrate his work and even made us each a quick painting!
The next day we set out with Stephanie’s Chinese mother to visit Jiao Shan Park. Riding across the Yangtze by ferry we were stunned by the vast, even more beautiful, gardens and
temple! We walked around all morning, then rented two boats and explored even more traveling on the lake winding through the gardens. For lunch we were treated to a Chinese favorite, what they call “Hot Pot”. A large pot in the center of the table is heated with two different sauces- one spicy, and the other less so- and vegetables and sticks of meat are dumped into each, then everyone at the table just reaches in and takes some! I absolutely love the variety and sharing of food here!
By Wednesday we were ready for a more relaxing day, and Michelle’s Chinese parents invited us to their home to learn to fold Chinese dumplings with her grandparents and little cousins. Megan was the champion dumpling-folder by far, but we all got lots of practice and must have made hundreds of tiny dumplings which we enjoyed for lunch with famous Zhenjiang vinegar!
Thursday we returned to Megan’s house once more, though this time it was to learn to create Chinese calligraphy ourselves! Megan’s father explained to us the process of converting words to Chinese characters by separating the sounds through a process called pinyin, then matching each sound with
a Chinese character. He helped us find the characters for each of our names, and demonstrated the seven strokes which can be used to create all Chinese characters. We practiced- first in pencil, then with the traditional brush and ink, writing our names. The process which had seemed so simple and graceful as we watched the calligraphy master work in the old city center turned out to be very difficult!!! Nonetheless, soon we moved on to art work! He could not offer much instruction in this- but we watched as Megan’s father rapidly flicked the brush across the paper and in no time at all created a lovely scene with grass. We each chose part of a picture to try to imitate for ourselves, but it was very difficult to recreate such delicate scenes while holding stick of the brush so high up! As we completed our first painting lesson we were presented with an amazing, fresh lunch from Megan’s mother, and afterwards, instructions in playing the traditional Chinese game, Mahjong. Soon we headed to a local recreation area and played over an hour of widely-popular table tennis, then headed out to dinner again. As we made our way home,
Megan’s father offered one last stop: joining in with the exercises along the street. . . (See the video by Megan’s dad!)
On Friday we traveled to Jiangsu University with my Chinese mother. Here we met with a professor in Computer Science and one of his graduate students who offered to show us around. The campus was beautiful, although the weather was incredibly hot and humid, and not exactly suited for the occasion! Nonetheless we really enjoyed being able to compare colleges in China to those in the US. From our short visit it sure seems as though students in China are more studious, as we visited several classrooms and they all held students (including us—(see the picture on the next page!)) diligently studying even though they were not in class.
Our time in China has been absolutely amazing so far. Although we cannot always speak directly to communicate with our new families, everyone has been so accommodating—offering every effort from hand gestures to just a few familiar words, and often times even inviting an English-speaking friend to come along as each of the parents spends the day with us—and everyone seems to have a wonderful time. It
has been so exciting to see and learn so many time-honored Chinese customs and see places and things I read about in books but never imagined I would be able to see in person! I am so excited for the next three weeks in Zhenjiang!
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Megan
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Our home away from home
I can't believe how much we have done already. I think that your dumplings were really beautiful, mine had some ragged edges, but it gave them character. Also, I can't view the video on my iPad, but I hope it's not of me.