In which I represent my country on my face.

Preparing to host the upcoming G20 conference has become an obsession for the city of Hangzhou.  Why did they renovate the entire Westlake region?  G20.  Why are they repaving the roads?  G20.  Why do you think it necessary for me to carry my passport and residency papers at all times?  Heightened security from G20.  Banners are everywhere, everyone is talking about it.

I didn’t think that my involvement in G20 would extend past carrying my passport until last Friday when I got voluntold by Lopair to speak at a G20 preparation event happening the following Tuesday.  Why me (and Anne, my classmate)?  Because a friend-of-a-friend had connections in the government, we speak manageable amounts of Mandarin, and mostly because we’re foreigners.

They gave us a short script to practice, which occupied most of our Mandarin class time that day.  The script had us introduce ourselves in our native languages, declare that we worked for local government organizations (which was of course not true), get the crowed pumped for G20， and introduce the first speaker (in English… for some reason).  The script also specified that we should appear wearing 旗袍 (qipao, traditional Chinese dress) and with our countries’ flags painted on our faces.  That seemed a little strange to us, but the dresses would be ours to keep as gifts.

Not sure if I’m ready for this level of patriotism. I’m also jealous of Anne’s easy-to-paint German three-striped flag.

Since the event (though not close to where I live) was also near the Grand Canal, I had planned to take the river boat bus.  Yes, that’s a public bus that’s actually a boat and theoretically the fastest mode of transportation to where I needed to go.  3 kuai for a ferry down the river, no traffic jams, no transfers, I was so excited!  Unfortunately, I found out when I reached the dock at 8:20am that the ferry wasn’t running that day.  The little faith in public transportation I had accumulated since coming to China got crushed in that moment, so sad.  I took a taxi instead, but the river bus is still on my to-do list.

We all arrived in time for a quick rehearsal, then got taken dress shopping.  Interestingly, my Chinese textbook had an entire chapter dedicated to qipao shopping “this one is too short, that one’s made out of silk, this green qipao is prettier than that red one, etc.”  (I am constantly amazed at how applicable my textbook’s scenarios have been to my experiences in China.)  The event hall happened to be right beside the silk district which was convenient.

Silk shopping with Anne

After getting lunch, killing time touring a Chinese pharmacy, picking up our dresses, and a lot of walking, we returned to the event and changed (and painted flags on our faces).  Everything went smoothly until right before the start of the event when a lady came up to us and asked for an interview and whether our Chinese was good.  Anne had been saying how much she wanted to be on television and now was our chance!  Unfortunately, though, interviewing in Chinese is not as easy as delivering a prepared script.  Actually, the biggest problem wasn’t the Chinese, it was the fact that we had only the faintest idea of what the event was about, why we were there, and (along with the rest of Hangzhou’s population) had almost no idea what G20 was and would probably be out of town during the event with our Chinese families.  We BS’ed our way through the interview, floundering (even in English) and mostly talking about how beautiful Hangzhou was, and returned to our seats.  I really hope that interview never makes it on television, but since we’re foreigners it probably will…

Anne’s face pretty well represents how this interview went.

Our short presentation went well enough.  We stayed for the rest of the event and discovered that it was some sort of speech competition.  The speakers must have been talking about G20, but seemed to mostly be talking about what a wonderful city Hangzhou is (so perhaps a more elegant version of our interviews).  At the end we got called up again to take photos with the winner and got free T-shirts.

“迎接G20, 我们准备好了，你们准备好了吗?!”

With the contestants, speech winner (center) and… other important people? Thanks to the speech winner we aren’t the only ones in the building wearing qipao.  Despite our small role in the event they put us front and center for the photos.

Some girls asked for my photo, so we posed together with our silk fans (another gift).

I’m still not really sure what to think of this experience.  It wasn’t bad, just weird.  Probably the most confusing form of attention I’ve received in China.  It was a cool experience to speak Chinese into a microphone in front of a room full of exclusively Chinese people at a Chinese event.  Also, the bribery worked and I am very happy with my new silk dress.

I should really, REALLY, figure out what G20 is now… but I can’t find a good resource online that is in English and everyone I ask here is as clueless as I am.  One thing is for certain, though: important foreigners are coming to Hangzhou and we must prepare!

Monday, June 27

This past weekend we (me and my Chinese family) took a weekend trip to the countryside not far from Hangzhou to visit the grandparents, all four of them.  I’ve never seen the Chinese countryside and all elderly Chinese people I’ve met have been so sweet to me so it’s something I’d been looking forward to all week.  I was also just looking forward to being with my family full-time since Jony the whole family would be together (kids being at school all day is something I never experienced in a home school family, it’s actually nothing to do with China.)

First we visited Lisa’s parents.  We arrived in time for lunch.  Grandpa strikes me as the sort of guy who could look at any animal you care to name, declare it to be “delicious!”, and know exactly how to prepare it.  Among our lunch items were frog, soft-shelled turtle, and freshly caught fish.  Two of Lisa’s sisters and a next door neighbor were there as well.

For the first time since I arrived in Hangzhou the weather wasn’t hot.  It was drizzling throughout the day, but I was too busy enjoying the wonderful feeling of not-sweating to care.

Grandpa playing the Erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument with a beautiful and unique sound.

Grandma cooking on her wood-burning stove. It’s not necessary, just preferable.

One of grandpa’s art pieces.

Grandpa carves tree roots into animals. So cool!

小黑and 小黄 (“little black” and “little yellow”). Jony enjoyed feeding them frog bones after lunch.

Grandpa cleaning his fish nets.

After an afternoon of chatting, snacking on fruit, playing with the neighbor’s baby, playing cards and learning animals names with Jony, and eating dinner, we got in the car again and drove about an hour to visit grandparents#2′ house.  We would spend Saturday night there.

Here we met David’s parents as well as some of his siblings, including an Aunt and cousin I’d already met before.  I asked David how big Davids family is and apparently he has five brothers and sisters!

Picking cucumbers in the garden.

Exploring the neighborhood with my family.

Jony woke up with a slight cold Sunday morning and is giving me his best grumpy face.

Morning view from the back steps of the house.

Despite the turtle, frog legs, and chicken feet, these family gatherings did not feel so different than the ones I’m used to back home.  Well, besides the fact that nobody was celebrating a birthday. 😉  I can’t wait to go back!

P.S.   For a few more countryside pictures, check out my photo scavenger hunt page.  I was able to fill in quite a few items this weekend!

June 27

I’ve now been living with my new Chinese family in Hangzhou for a little over a week.  Before I came along they were a family of four.  Lisa (Mom), David (Dad), 17 year old Belle (Daughter, currently at school in Australia), and 7 year old Jony (Son).  They live in a nice spacious apartment on the top floor of the building overlooking the Grand Canal in Hangzhou.  I am staying in Belle’s old bedroom.

A lovely view from the pedestrian bridge over the Grand Canal.

Village-style street beside the canal.

Waterway across the street from the apartment building.

Au Pair means different things to different people around the world.  In the West the job of an Au Pair is primarily viewed as a nanny.  However, in China the overwhelming priority is English immersion and basic language tutoring.  My primary job is to help Jony improve his English while I’m here.

Playing badminton together in the apartment complex courtyard

The Surprises

English level:  I knew before I arrived via Skype that Belle has fluent English (though she’s still in Australia right now) and Jony only knows basic words and phrases.  I confirmed when I arrived that the Dad barely knows a word of English (he was on a business trip at the time of the interview), but the mom’s English level was a pleasant surprise.  She was too shy to speak a word over Skype but it turns out she knows quite a lot of English and has great listening comprehension.  She also speaks reasonably-paced crisp Mandarin so the language barrier has not been an issue.  Yay!

The Work Schedule: Jony is at Kindergarten from 8:30am to 4:00pm every week day and usually has a 1-2 hour lesson in the afternoon (he has piano, Taekwondo, Chinese writing, and English lessons throughout the week).  All this means that I have almost the reverse of a 9-5 job.  I eat breakfast in the morning, take Jony to Kindergarten, then have a huge chunk of free time to fill as I please (though I do have Mandarin classes to attend twice a week during that time).  I’m getting to know the area, the bus routes, and a few local friends but for the most part I feel unemployed.  If I were here on a work visa I would be very tempted to accept a tutoring job offer (which are plentiful).  I do have one day off a week, but it’s almost irrelevant.

The Boss: Apparently the agency I went through to get this position (Smaller Earth) is only a hiring agency.  After I finished my application I stopped hearing from them.  The real agency running this program is called Lopair and most of the other Au Pairs didn’t go through a secondary hiring agency at all.  Smaller Earth certainly did their job, but in retrospect they were probably an unnecessary middleman.

~

This first week I’ve been learning the family’s daily routine, learning my way around the neighborhood, meeting all this teachers for different evening lessons, getting to know family friends and relatives, figuring out the balance of English, Chinese, and body language I need to communicate with Jony, and figuring out what his parents’ expectations are for helping him learn English.

Their cousin Vincent (who’s fluent in English) is getting a prescription of Chinese traditional medicine at the historic pharmacy. You should have seen his face after he took it! XD

Having fun at the mall shopping with Lisa and her friends.

I really like the family and I think we will get along just fine.  My main adjustment has been switching my role in China from a student to a teacher.  When I speak Chinese the challenge is to understand what others say, but now speaking English with Jony my main challenge is making myself understood.  It’s a challenge since he knows so little English and I try to speak to him in English as much as possible.  However, the fact that his vocabulary is so limited means that for every new word he learns, I get to practice the Chinese word along with his English.  So far the random words in Chinese I’ve learned that are the most applicable to my life right now have been “Air Conditioning”, “Umbrella”, and “Mosquito”.  That gives you a pretty good idea of the weather in Hangzhou right now.

Here’s hoping to a good week #2!

In which I experience reverse culture shock without even leaving China…

On Wednesday I said goodbye to my friends at 九土 and took an Uber to the airport shuttle station to meet the Au Pair agency staff.  Because, you know, normal incoming Au Pairs haven’t spent the last 5 weeks living in China and that’s where the others would be showing up.

In an afternoon I left the little Chinese community I’d become a part of, and joined a group of Europeans and Americans who were fresh off the plane, jet-lagged, and freaking out over everything (in English of course).  Although on the outside I only moved out of one Chinese guest house and into another in the same city, the culture around me changed into one much more foreign than any of my other experiences in China.

The feeling was back.  I’d had the same feeling when I’d left my friends in Qingdao, and again when I left my study abroad group at the airport there the next day.  I missed my home.  I’d made so many homes and will always make more wherever I go but it still hurt.  I’m glad that I’ve gotten to travel so much within China and meet so many people, but being able to make connections quickly means it’s also always painful to leave.  I was the only Au Pair from my orientation group who was not leaving Hangzhou but I was glad not to be really leaving again.

I spent my very limited free time during orientation sending a long thank you note to Sanshui via Wechat since she hadn’t been at the house to say goodbye when I’d left, and also coordinating between my new Chinese host mom (Lisa) and Jessica so that I could go to see a play at the theater on Saturday.  That almost-out-of-reach level of communication in Chinese with friends was just what I needed to combat the culture shock and home sickness.  Normally I’d recommend making new friends as the cure to these ailments but these newest additions to my Wechat contacts would scatter all over China in less than three days and their anxiety was contagious.

One nice thing about meeting fresh arrivals, though, was seeing China as new and crazy and delicious and wonderful for the first time again.  Philip, an Au Pair from Sweden, was one of the first arrivals so although it was raining, we went for a walk near our guest house to see what was nearby.  Hangzhou’s climate feels like a rainforest most of the time so even things that wouldn’t be foreign to me (like Magnolias and red clay) were really cool to him.  Apparently meat is also really expensive in Sweden so he loves Chinese dinning.  On our walk we found a tea plantation and a trail going up the mountain, so of course we followed it.

The new arrivals and our table heaped with Chinese food. So many foreigners! haha

In the depths of the rainforest.

This giant snail that we found was definitely the highlight of orientation for me.

Philip is ready to take on China!

On Saturday morning my host family picked me up directly from my guest house, so no stress there.  I got settled into my new house and new room, got my new Chinese SIM card (no more asking to borrow strangers’ phones!), ate lunch, played with legos, went with Jony to his English lesson and chatted with the ladies working there, got a quick dinner, then got dropped off at the theater where I would meet Jessica.

Outside the theater waiting for Jessica.

Jessica had invited me to go see a play called 《夏洛特烦恼》.  It’s a comedy about a guy at his school friends’ wedding who goes back in time to his school days, thinking it’s a dream, and does all the things that he wanted to do.  I got some Chinese friends to give me the synopsis before I went because it also has a movie version which I now want to see.

I’m still not sure exactly why I paid $30 to go watch a play in a language that I barely understand, but although I didn’t get many of the jokes I did get the plot (though I was pretty confused near the end), got to spend the evening with Jessica, and could appreciate the good acting.  Live theater is something I enjoy a lot.

To my new Chinese mother’s relief I successfully made it back to the apartment.  I even had a nice chat with the taxi driver about Hangzhou and my new job.  All in all I’m happy to be back in the company of Chinese people, love my new family (at least, as much as one could expect after 24 hours of contact), and am glad to fully unpack my suitcase at last.