I will be perfectly honest. This is my second day in Xi'an and I'm struggling. I understand very little and I'm just lucky my host family speaks very good English (well the mother and sister do. The father's is minimal but still better than my Chinese).
I'm actually so lucky. I have air conditioning (if I can figure out how to work it). I have WiFi (although only in strange places in the apartment). I don't have to share a room much less a bed with my host sister. (And it's a nice room) And most importantly I have a bathroom with a western toilet that has a lock on the door. All of these things are something one or more of the other NSLI-Y participants have to deal with. Yes there is really a girl who shares a bed with her host sister. She lives in a tiny apartment with one bedroom. The sister (who is almost completely silent and when she does talk it's hard to tell if she's speaking English or Chinese because she speaks so quietly) snores incredibly loudly "worse than a fifty year old man".
The introductory ceremony was a bit odd. I mean the teachers really only spoke Chinese so most of the time I had no idea what was going on until someone started clapping. Then one of the host siblings spoke. It was the standard welcome speech but it was in English so it was automatically my favorite. Then one of the NSLI-Y people spoke and as much as I tried to follow what was going on I was just as lost as before. It was only afterward that I found out the boy was going to Harvard. I mean they said Harvard in Chinese. I barely understand simple everyday things. Why would I know how to say specific college names in Chinese?
The Pre-Test was absolutely brutal. I mean, I got maybe a word here or there. It was primarily listening. I'm not all that great at listening. I'd say it was my weakest point. I even somehow managed to mess up the speaking portion of the test. It was not fun at all.
At least the food in the cafeteria was good. I've read so many awful things about the cafeteria food on other NSLI-Y blogs. It was such a relief to have that information be completely wrong. I also enjoyed the meal because there was no one telling me to eat the bao zi. Since my family discovered I liked bao zi, they have been serving it at every meal and insisting I eat it. It was just such a relief to not see it and have it mock me.
After lunch, we were given our special phones. The phones have a Chinese SIM card so we have a local number. It also means that if someone calls us we don't pay anything. We're supposed to keep track of our balance at all times. That doesn't sound so bad until you remember our phones are all in Chinese. Every setting is written in Chinese. We can type in English and receive messages in English, but all the settings are in Chinese. I'm really figuring out my phone through trial and error.
Right now I'm waiting on my bed for my host mother to be done resting. Then we're going out to find a map. I'm sitting and typing while It's a Small World is coming through my window. Pretty ironic. And I guess the songs kind of right. A lot of the communicating I have been doing is not so much in words but in actions. Smiles, laughter, eye contact. If I had to rely on words alone, I would be so lost. Thank goodness I don't have to.
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