Sunday March 6th, 2011- Getting a Feel of the Chinese Lifestyle

Elise and I woke up around seven to be ready by 8:00AM. We came down to the lobby, by the little orange tree, with all of our luggage and loaded it onto the bus. Our travel bus, it would take us all around Wuhan for the beginning of our China adventure.

Our first stop of the day was breakfast. We got driven to a street that had many and I mean MANY food vendors. There were so many options for breakfast. I remember being so overwhelmed by all the choices I had to eat from. I ended up having some dumplings and dried noodles. My first real Chinese meal! And repeat this was for breakfast. Some of the other options were fruit, tofu, sushi, etc. It was all very different foods compared to the United States. Everything was also very cheap compared to the United States. For example to get a bottle of water in China it is only about 80 cents. Where as in the United States it averages around $1.50 to get a bottle of water.

Just randomly there was this little boy who came up to Elise, Sean and I asking us if we had a Face book. We didn’t really understand his English so I believe we just nodded and smiled. This little boy went on to talk about how he has been to America before. He then pulled out this little handheld flashlight from his pocket to show to us. He said he got it in America. This little boy was obviously very shocked to see Americans in China. Everyone on the streets was staring as we walked by because we look so different from them. Also we were not in the traveling/ vacational time to be in China.

This little boy was my first interaction in China, other than our tour guides. I feel as though this interaction helped me realize what was to come during the rest of the week up ahead. At that moment I realized that I just got to open my mind and take in the culture.

The next part of the day we went to this religion thing. No idea what it was called? Religion has never really been something I am extremely interested in. I think it is fascinating and I would love learning about it if I had more time in my life. However, I didn’t grow up being forced to go to church. Therefore, I see the importance of it and what people may get out of it, but I don’t know much about it at the same time. I wish I was more knowledgeable about the subject of religion, I really do. This trip definitely helped me understand more about it though; I wish I had more experiences like this on a day-to-day basis.

Anyways, we walked into these big archway red doors and these women were handing out three incense sticks. These sticks were then lit on fire and we were to wave them around so the flame went out. While waving the flame out we were supposed to make a wish. We walked more into this building and there were at least 3 different rooms to pray. All rooms had a different significance.

In this same location we went to find our Buddha. Our Buddha was supposed to be able to tell us how to be better people or what to improve on. This I really enjoyed. There was this huge room filled with gold sculptures (Buddha’s). Each one of us was supposed to find one that reached out to us or appealed to us. After you found one females were supposed to count to the right and males were supposed to count to the left. You count however old you are. The Buddha you land on is your Buddha. The number of my Buddha was 158. Therefore, I went up to the little stand and got a gold card of that number to see what my Buddha told me. One of our tour guides, Linda, read me what my gold card said, considering it was all in Chinese. It meant basically to never to give up on something. Linda told me that if I keep climbing a mountain I will be fine but if I go down the mountain then bad things can happen. This card really reached out to me. It made sense to my life.

After this we went to lunch and moved on to see a major park in Wuhan. This park was beautiful. It was on water and there were many figurines and statues everywhere. Lots of pictures were taken but unfortunately the weather was very foggy. Or it could have been smog. The air in China isn’t the cleanest.

At lunch was when a group of us girls used the fabulous “ squatty potty” for the first time. Basically just a hole in the ground.

Next we went to a major museum based on the history of China. At the museum there was a bell show. It was very interesting to see a form of Chinese Music. The show was very short and felt, as though it should have gone on much longer. The fact that they were hitting bells and making music was really cool to me.

After the museum we met up with our host families. This is where the trip starts to get real interesting and amazing in my personal opinion. Our student’s name that took Elise and I in was named Cathy. We drove back to her house and had dinner with her two parents and two grandparents as well. Luckily the father also spoke English as well as Cathy so that helped out a lot at the dinner table.

Eating dinner there was very interesting. Somewhat awkward. But looking back on it I am ecstatic we did these host stays. It was our first real night in Wuhan, so looking at the food right away; it wasn’t too appealing to me. For starters there was a dish of just ROOTS on the table., along with plenty of other dishes. I wasn’t eating much, but Elise was doing a great job at eating the food even though I could tell she was hesitant. The father looked specifically at me and was like “ In China if you don’t try a little of each dish it is considered rude.” Therefore, I tried to eat, but to be honest I was very nauseous just from the sight of some of the food. But honestly I don’t think it was the food it was more of the idea that the family was watching me eat. I know to them they were watching just to make sure I was happy with my meal but it made me quite uncomfortable. I felt really bad, because I am not a rude person at all but I honestly couldn’t force myself to eat it.

An interesting side note, I coughed at the table and covered my mouth. The father looks at me again, and was like oh in China we don’t cover our mouths. If someone has the flu we just all get it. Also the grampy was farting like the entire dinner and not even thinking anything of it. It is interesting to see what rude is to us Americans and what is rude to them.

Our first night with our host families was an early night in. Elise and I were exhausted still from the travel. It was an overall good night with the family, even though dinner was a little awkward. But it was a great experience.