Today was my last Friday in the U.S. for some time. I'm almost completely packed and I finally feel like I have a decent gift for my host family. There has been a lot of shopping over the last few days. (And I'm not really a shopping fan unless it's for books. I could spend hours in almost any bookstore.)
Today was also my last summer swim practice. During the summer, my club team has early morning practices and doubles (two practices on one day) twice a week. I've been swimming since I was 9, so this vigorous routine is almost second nature. Saying goodbye to my coaches and friends today at practice really reminded me that I'm leaving. I'm going halfway around the world. For a while, my trip to China has seemed almost like a dream, just some point in the far off future. Now it's very much a reality.
Am I excited? Absolutely! I feel like I've spent the entire school year waiting for my trip. First, it was waiting for the application to load as the website kept crashing as students all over the country tried to submit applications. I was up until 4 in the morning with my laptop in one hand and my Chemistry textbook in the other. Then it was waiting for my results. A couple months later, I was waiting for every crumb of information I got about my hosting city, family and the program in general, just anxious for my adventure to begin.
And yet now, despite how long I've spent waiting, I don't know if I'm ready. I've packed and repacked certain things. I've second-guessed my host gifts. I've doubled the amount of shoes I own just in case mine weren't suitable. (I wear size 10, not a very common size in China.) I've fretted over the size of my backpack and its status as a personal item. I know I'm probably just nervous. I'll feel a lot better once I'm on the plane to D.C. for pre-departure orientation. I'll be able to ask all the questions I could possibly want.
About a month ago, as part of our preparation, all finalists were required to fill out a survey about the country they would be studying in. One question in particular stood out to me. It was a word association question: What is the first positive thing you think of about your host country? (Or something along those lines)
I'm not a fan of word association questions in general. I always think of so many things at once that I have no clue which idea came first or I think of something incredibly random. In English class, one of our words was Antarctica. Now unlike my classmates who came up with ice, penguins, cold, snow and white, I thought of the hole in the ozone layer. Yeah, definitely not a huge fan of word association.
I had three simultaneous thoughts about China. They were: the Great Wall, Mulan and Ye Shiwen.
The Great Wall: The first is pretty self-explanatory. The Great Wall is one of the wonders of the world, a structure so massive people often say it can be seen from space. (It can't but that doesn't make it any less grand.) I don't think I'll get to see the wall on my trip. It's a ways away, but I'll still get to see other examples of ancient architecture like the City Wall in Xi'an.
Mulan: The Disney movie Mulan was one of my favorite movies growing up. I knew all the words in all the songs and most of the dialogue. Anyone in my history class can testify my love for this movie. I practically jumped in my seat when my teacher used a clip as an introduction to our unit on the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties (and then proceeded to mouth the words to the song). I know Mulan is a Disneyfication of the Ballad of Mulan, a legendary figure of Chinese folklore, but that doesn't mean I like it any less. I'm just excited to see what China is really like and be able to meet new people.
Ye Shiwen: Ye Shiwen is a Chinese swimmer. Her name might be recognizable from the 2012 London Olympics. She won the gold medal in both the 200M IM (Individual Medley) and the 400M IM at age 16. My sisters and I all swim so when the summer Olympics are on, it's swimming all the time. I remember watching on the couch cheering for American Elizabeth Beisel during the 400 IM as Ye Shiwen over took her on the last 50. It was an incredible feat to watch. Her technique was beautiful and it was hard to believe she was only a few years older than I was.
The rest of the world didn't seem to agree with me. Only seconds after she had touched, Ye Shiwen was accused of doping. Her freestyle leg was just .03 seconds slower than Ryan Lochte's, and her last 50 was actually slightly faster (a fifth of a second). These numbers were talked about over and over despite the fact her final time was a good deal slower, only just barely broke the World Record for Woman and also was well within a respectable distance of her best time. Ye Shiwen's race didn't come out of nowhere. She had medaled in the event in the Asian Games and the World Cup since 2010.
The following school year I had to do a project for Chinese class on a celebrity. I automatically picked Ye Shiwen. I had been inspired at the games. Here was a teenager who had done incredible things through her dedication. She had left home and had trained continuously. She had won 50 medals by the time she was 10 and at age 11, she got to speak with her parents once a week. I never would have been able to do that for swimming. There are days when I dread going to practice. Ye Shiwen was also someone I remembered because despite all the accusations, she kept swimming. She didn't let what people were saying about her effect her love of the sport.
It may not have been a traditional answer by any means but sometimes word association can really reveal something even you don't quite understand. I know this is getting long and I still have some preparation I want to do before I go to bed tonight, so I'll leave it at this.
Zài jiàn,
Laura
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