Chapter 1: The First Chapter

As of today yesterday two days ago (haha it took me a while to finish this) it has been 24 days since my last blog post, 2 weeks since I left Minneapolis, and now 1 week since I first arrived at my final destination of Haikou, Hainan.

What have I been up to this whole time? 

Well, to be honest, I don't remember much about the days leading up to my departure other than that shortly after sharing my first post about "feeling neither 'excited' nor 'nervous'" I began freaking out as it finally hit me that I was leaving my house and family for 10 months straight, and all I had packed was a box of cereal and maple syrup!

Then you might assume that it was a "good scared," and that as I was getting more and more nervous about leaving I was also getting more and more excited about going... wrong! I don't think it ever actually hit me that I was going to China while I was still at home, and so that excitement was nonexistent (I think it had worn off long back in the spring after I had found out I was actually going). I remember my brother asking me if I was starting to feel excited a few days before I left, and I responded that I still wasn't and then he said something like, "Well, you better change that."

...Thanks.

And then I left. My mom and I flew out to LA on the 13th, and the first thing I did was buy a new suitcase which already broke (it was only $30 so whatever), I checked✔️ into my first hotel of the week, and we checked✔️ out Hollywood, Bel Air, and "the sickest pads in the 90210 hahahahaha." Then went to see what the nearby Thai town was all about, and after that we drove down to check out Chinatown ('cause why not). The next few days we spent seeing other parts Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica, and the beautiful City of Industry.

Right before getting dropped off at hotel #2 for my LA orientation, we stopped at In-N-Out Burger, which sadly I was unable to enjoy as I was too anxious to eat.

Orientation in LA was for two nights, and it included the US year students for China and Hong Kong, as well as semester students for China and Japan. Overall there were about 23 or 24 of us, and we all got to learn a little bit about everyone else's country (which almost everyone else thought was stupid and unnessecary but actually I thought the Japan part was really interesting). We all took a field trip to Manhattan Beach and got to hang out by the water, which I very much appreciated. Then the next day, those of us flying into Hong Kong (so the 10 of us going to Hong Kong and China) woke up at 5:30am for breakfast, and left for the airport at 6:30am for a 9:30am departure.

The flight was disorientingly long— almost 14 hours. In LA time we woke up at 5:30am and got off the plane close to midnight; but wait, the fun did not stop there. After that flight we split up into four groups: Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou (Canton, same thing). Only two people were staying in Hong Kong and they got to leave the airport right away (it was mid-afternoon in Hong Kong). The largest group was headed to their connecting flight to Beijing, which they had to run to since their original flight was delayed or cancelled or something. Then the last two groups (more like one group since there was only one person going to Shanghai) had time to leisurely make our way to our gates. I was one of three going to Guangzhou, and we had a painfully long layover considering we had been awake for about 20 hours, so we waited with the girl going to Shanghai until her flight began boarding, 

(we might look rough in this picture because we were feeling pretty rough)

but after that the three of us were on our own. This was around 5:00pm or so, and we were having trouble finding our gate as it wasn't showing up on the list of departures, so we killed some time navigating the massive Hong Kong airport. Our gate ended up being in this little island of a concourse that we had to take a bus tram to, and there we waited... for a 7:50pm boarding time, which ended up not being until 8:30pm.

I pinched myself to stay awake throughout that hour-long flight for two reasons. 1. Because I was determined to beat jet lag, and 2. it would be the first time I would ever see the People's Republic of China, which I know is corny, but seriously, it was a big deal.

First impressions? Well it was very dark out, and also foggy (or hazy? I don't know...). It was hot, even though it was the middle of the night, and the jetway smelled the way it does anytime you land somewhere tropical. The three of us, half asleep trudged out of the airplane into this grandiose tall, glass-walled, glass-ceilinged terminal. Customs/immigration were painless and quick, but getting our bags took about 20 or more minutes... or maybe I was just tired... but it took a long time because our flights baggage was combined with a flight from Dubai. We were picked up and taken by car an hour away to a neighboring city of Guangzhou's, 佛山 Fó Shān, which, if you've ever seen the first Ip Man film you will recall is the hometown of the late master of Wing Chung style Kung Fu and mentor to Bruce Lee, Ip Man (about whom the film is aptly named). This somewhat obscure city in China has a population of FIVE MILLION people. And if you have seen Ip Man, this place looks nothing it does in the movie. When we arrived it was midnight, and most lights were off, so I figured we were just in some "small" city outside of Guangzhou with only about 30 or so high rises/skyscrapers. I had no idea where we were, so I figured if it wasn't Guangzhou, it was pretty small. I was dead wrong.

The next day we left the hotel to go to a school accross the street where the gateway orientation was held. As soon as I walked out, the first thing I noticed was we were surrounded by skyscrapers and restaurants, all kinds of things that went completely dark and invisible at night, and that wasn't even the strange part. What was really staggering was the school. It was MASSIVE. you walked in through this large, guarded gateway, which led into a long, expansive square that included a giant stone sign with the school's name, as well as an enormous school seal on the building opposite of the gate. Little did I know that this only made up a tiny corner of this seemingly endless school campus which included lunchrooms (that alone took up 4 or so floors of a building that would make up an entire school in the US), classrooms, student dorms, faculty dorms, and sports facilities. It was so huge it had maps all over the place, and I almost regret not taking a picture of one as it showed just how numerous and large the facilities were. 

After a bit more orientation, the took us for a cultural tour of the city, and wow, it was so huge. I know I've said that about everything in the city but it was never ending. Skyscraper after skyscraper, enormous apartment complex after enormous apartment complex. The way the city is laid out is not really something I can describe, I figure you have to just be there to really get a sense of how crazy big this place was. 

The funny thing is, Foshan is only the third largest city in Guangdong Provence alone! So that's how I first saw China.

Anyway, the rest of the day was really cool, but also really not (that was a play on words, you'll get it soon). The first thing we did was visit an old temple, which I honestly don't remember what it was for, but it was beautifully colorful and intricate and fascinating. Keep in mind that we're we're this huge group of foreigners all wearing bright red shirts and glaring yellow hats, so the first thing I remember walking into the temple was this one Chinese guy taking pictures, not of the temple, but of us! Hahahahaha I thought it was hilarious! He saw that I saw him and we both started laughing, even though for him it was probably out of embarrassment, but he didn't shy away so neither of us seemed too uncomfortable about it. Walking into the temple main part of the temple was amazing, I won't even bother describing it I'll just let you look at the pictures. 

Then we turned the corner and my jaw dropped: they were performing 粤剧 yuè jù, Cantonese Opera, the Guangdong style of Chinese Opera, and it was beautiful.

(This is sort of a bad picture and for some reason this app wouldn't let me uplaod my own videos so...)

Ah, I could've sat there all day I was so happy, but after too short of time the tour guide told us it was time to move on (I wasn't actually listening to what she was saying but I knew it would be bad to stay behind so I left, reluctantly). After going through most of the temple, we came to an outdoor performance space surrounded by people waiting for the Lion Dance to begin. 

(Again, it won't let me upload videos and I don't have any pictures so sorry everyone :/ ) 

It was deathly hot and humid out, and I was not quite used to the not-having-free-water-wherever-you-go thing so I was also on the verge of dehydration. The Lion Dance was really cool of course, but I thought the opera was a million times better (I guess I'm a nerd like that), but everybody else seemed to enjoy the Lion Dance a lot so 🤷‍♂️.

After that we went to a hundreds-of-years-old porcelain factory. 

It was also the longest factory? Idk that's what they said but I might've misheard them. There was an old village-style neighborhood (mostly geared towards tourism I think) behind the factory, but it was extremely quaint, almost European with its narrow stone footpaths and small porcelain shops that lined them. 

We got to play with porcelain clay and make our own tiles, but we didn't get to fire them hahahaha so it was kind of pointless but I had fun with it. As I said before, it was extremely cool, but it was also really hot, so really cool but not cool... it was a bad joke. you don't need to laugh, it's not like I can hear you...

The next day the five of us going to Hainan took the hour-long flight from the Guangzhou airport to the Meilan airport in the island's capital, and my host city, Haikou. I think we flew over Guangzhou or some other large city on the flight which was really cool, but pretty much the entire time we were over land, it was city. Yeah there were eventually farms but they were compact and skyscrapers were sprinkled amongs them all.

And as we were landing in Hainan, we flew right over the city.

I was met at the airport by my host mother, whom I call 蔡妈妈 Cài māma, and I learned right away that she plays/has an erhu (yay!). The drive to the family's home was beautiful: palm tree-lined, flowers blooming, and along a river in the early evening. On the way we picked up my host brother, 蔡广利 Cài Guǎnglì, but I call him 弟弟 dìdi (little brother), and he calls me 哥哥 gēge (older brother). He just turned 10, so this year he's going into fourth grade.

He really is still just a little kid, and he talks a lot. And you know how kids that age tend to have a lot to say, but they can't quite be able to form their sentences in their heads before blurring it out, and it comes out all stuttery and mumbly? That's pretty much him, so I rarely understand when he tries to explain things to me 😂, but he sure is cute. Think Squirt, the little turtle from Finding Nemo, and that's pretty much him.

Their house is beautiful and is on the top two floors of the apartment building. They also have a vegetable garden on the rooftop that also has two chickens that lay fresh eggs (the family owns a large farm in Guangdong I believe, which is where the father was working/is now stuck due to a typhoon, so actually I have not met him yet). The first night my host mother made me dumplings and bought me a little cake (little did she know, dumplings are my favorite food!) all of which I did not expect as I had not told her it was my birthday, so it was a very pleasant surprise and a great first day to my exchange.

Ok I think this is long enough for now, but I have so much to write about this first week alone so I'll write "chapter 2" really soon.

Stay tuned.