I’m sure after the homestay weekend, every single one of us couldn’t wait to come back to Zengxianzi building, to see familiar faces, and to be able to chat without any language barriers. My first day was definitely awkward, especially when my fluent in English meimei left for extra classes on Saturday, and I was left with my shushu and ayi, whom can only speak a few English words. However, I tried to “embrace the awkwardness” and found out that they are rather enthusiastic about explaining Chinese cultures and customs.
This morning, I left home 30 minutes before class started, and arrived 30 minutes after class started. Nanjing traffic was so bad that it took me an hour to get to class. A few people I talked to had to leave home before 7 to be able to show up at 8. After class, everyone gathered around on the first floor of Zengxianzi building, excitedly talked about their first weekend with their host families. The feelings were mixed, but we do try very hard in using our limited Chinese vocabulary to communicate with our host families.
In the afternoon, we had optional calligraphy and taiji classes. In between, we had our second group meeting. The heated discussion was successfully led by our fellow students. The topic was East vs. West culture in the way they conduct business in China. The visit to Nanjing Stock Exchange, our guest speakers Ms. Heng and Mr. Helmut Gusten definitely had somehow affected our perspective of conducting business in China.
At 4, we all met up to walk to Amity Foundation, a Christian based Chinese NGO who promotes social welfare and rural development. Ms. She gave us a presentation of Amity Foundation and what it has done in the past. The statistic she presented was astounding. Even after all the work that Chinese NGO have done, there are still so much work to left to do. It was enlightening to hear about the government support, even for a faith based organization such Amity.
At 5:30, my shushu was already waiting for me in front of ZXZ building. Luckily, traffic was very light, it only took us about 25 minutes to get home. Dinner was already laid out when my shushu and I arrived at home. During dinner, my ayi cheerfully introduced each and every one of the dishes to me in Chinese. My Chinese food vocabulary had improved a great deal just by 2 days staying here. When my meimei left the dinning table early to go study; my shushu, my ayi, and I continued talking for 2 more hours. They introduced me to Chinese literature (Chinese fairytales, Hong Lou Meng, and a famous author name Jin Yong [Louis Cha Leung Yung].) Compared to my first day arrived at their house, my Chinese speaking skills had improved a great deal. By the end of today, I hope everyone would see homestay in a more positive light as I am now seeing it.
Zaijian,
- Lop
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