China Exchange Group Blog

Due to lack of blogging, I'll direct you all to the group's blog:

http://brooklinechex.wordpress.com/

Driver's Ed

Welcome Ceremony: Super Girl

Welcome Ceremony: We're All in this Together

Swearing

On Friday, we gave our introductions, in Chinese, to the 300 or so students present at our welcome ceremony. Thus, 300 or so students also heard me cuss in Chinese. Supposedly hearing foreigners swear is funny, because I had to take a long pause for the laughter to cease.

I said "gou tui", which supposedly is a derogatory synonym for "follower". This is also the name of one of my dogs.

When my Chinese family introduced their dogs, they told me that they had named Gou Tui after the literal meaning, "dog leg". My other dog, Coffee, had lost her leg due to an accident at the hospital. To repay my family, the hospital purchased them a new dog. Supposedly, a lost leg equals a new dog; thus, "gou tui" came to be. 

The next time I call out my dog's name, I'll take a peek at my family's expressions. My dogs sleep in my bathroom and have claimed it as their home; in the mornings, I struggle to usher them out, so I can shower in privacy. It must be pretty hilarious to see a frazzled American sixteen year-old unknowingly call out cuss words at 6:30 am. 

Passing Notes

There is no question that I am labeled as “the American” in my immersion classes. This distinction makes it hard to reach out to people; it doesn't help that I sit in the back of the room. My view consists of a sea of white and blue uniforms with indistinguishable ponytails and crew cuts. At the end of the first week, I had just started to associate faces with seating arrangements. When I got to school the next morning, the transferring of papers and water bottles confirmed my fear: they were changing seats. Now the smart girl next to the window, and the basketball star sitting in front of me disappeared back into the ocean of uniforms. Yet again, I was the sailor who had lost her bearings at sea.

In the US, I am usually first to initiate social interactions. However in China, I am clueless as to finding common interests with my classmates. Thus, I was planning on using my deskmate, Samuel, as a harbor. 

Everyday I heard stories from my American classmates about the various Chinese kids passing notes to them, and asking for their contact information. My friends would leave class bearing gifts that ranged from keychains, to globe-sized pillows. But still, everyday, my only social pride came from my interactions with Samuel. I started to question the reasons why my American friends were socially progressing so much faster than I was. Were the kids in my class particularly shy, or was I giving off an intimidating vibe? I could be content without presents, as long as I achieved my secret goal: to get a note passed to me in class.

Then slowly, my classmates started approaching me. It started one day, when an eager boy came up to me, asking if I watched some American wrestling TV show. Desperate for interaction, I started fabricating an incredible fascination with watching sweaty bodies get pummeled to the ground. Just as I was getting into it, the bell rung for class to start. Then physics class brought an hour's worth of incomprehensible Chinese lecture, that served as background noise for me to reflect upon my insincerity.

The next day, I had my second interaction with a student. A girl came up to me, and asked if I liked Jesse McCartney. This was the only time that I have ever been relieved to be versed in girly, American music. After class, the students started leaking into the corridors, and with her by my side, I navigated the stream of bodies with ease; we belted out “Beautiful Soul” all the way to morning exercises.

Then today, the Jesse McCartney girl passed me my first note. I was contemplating keeping it for my sentimental box, when I decided that would be too creepy, and I regretfully sent my reply on the reverse-side. However, I was able to mentally check off my secret goal, and in doing so, have set another one for myself: to hang out with my classmates. 

Bathroom Difficulties

The public bathrooms here are pretty much holes in the ground that can flush. With a flushing mechanism, one would think that these might be pleasant: the liberty to squat without having to worry about splash. However, in China, I never half to ask where these bathrooms are because I can smell the feces from a mile away.

I was happy to find a regular toilet at my new home: this lead me to believe my bathroom experience might be relatively easy here. On the contrary. About a week in, I was in my bathroom getting ready for bed when I saw a silhouette pass the frosted glass part of my bathroom door. (My bathroom door is wooden, with a fairly large oval of frosted glass in the center, and there is a mirrored design intersecting this glass.) After spitting out my mouthwash, I went to check the reverse side of the door to make sure that nobody could see inside my bathroom. To my surprise, I discovered that the "mirrored design" on my door is actually a one-way mirror: so that passerby's can see perfectly clearly into my bathroom, while from the inside, it just looks like a mirror.

To clarify what I mean by "perfectly clear": from the outside of the bathroom, I could see the bristles on my toothbrush at the sink. To add to my uneasiness, I do not have a shower curtain in my bathroom, so for the week-or-so that I had been there, I had been showering openly for anybody curious enough to take a peek. 

I do not want to know why my family installed a one-way mirror in the first place. Perhaps to explain, I will share another uncomfortable story: one day, I was waiting in line for a public restroom, when one of the stall doors swung open. The woman inside was still urinating, and made no effort whatsoever to re-close the door. Then we made eye-contact.... I started blushing, however her face remained calm and unembarrassed. She finished her business, wiped, and walked past me to the sinks to wash her hands. I cannot generalize this experience to claim that all Chinese people are open with their bodies, however, I would imagine that this woman I made eye-contact with wouldn't mind having a transparent bathroom door in her home. 

After my discovery about the door, I waited until everybody had gone to sleep, then stole back to the bathroom to tape up a cloth I found in my room. For the whole next week, I was anticipating questions about the cloth, so I prepared my Chinese phrase, "ni ke yi kan zai wo de ce suo", meaning "you can see in my bathroom". I was so excited to use this phrase, for which I never got the chance to say. Instead, I came home tonight to find my cloth replaced by a pitiful newspaper covering. Obviously, the person doing the taping didn't realize that the border of the oval was the most transparent part. Because nobody was home, I took the liberty to finish covering the glass with scrap wrapping paper. I am proud to say that my job of it would satisfy a person with OCD; my family members probably think I'm crazy, but my privacy is worth their silent judgements.