Massive Post Mainly Written on Plane but Posted Now Because I Have WiFi!

So the Pre-Orientation stuff was written as the days were going on.  I was just unable to post.  I've kept things mostly as they were and have added some notes when necessary.  I apologize for repeated information.

Pre-Orientation Part 1:

So today I woke up at 5, made sure I had everything and finally began my adventure.  It wasn't quite the restful night I needed to jumpstart an early day.  I kept tossing and turning.  I was nervous. 

Needless to say the day didn't go quite as well as I had hoped.  For one, I couldn't find my phone and so we ended up searching everywhere for it.  My phone was also almost dead.  I figured it was no big deal.  I'd just charge it as I waited for my flight at the airport.  It turns out something is wrong with the cord I brought with me.  I should have known.  The iPad I brought to Skype with people with was also just about dead despite being plugged in all night.  So I did the sensible thing.  I bought a new cord at the airport while waiting around for my connecting flight.  Unfortunately, despite looking like the right cord, it wasn't.  On the bright side, I have a backup now if something happens to my Nook charger. 

I know I'm complaining a lot.  The phone thing just kind of threw me for a loop.  It was also just a long day in general.  Our flight was delayed in Chicago.  Not too long, about 40 minutes, but enough to be freaked out about missing orientation and having no way to contact American Councils without a phone.  I ended up making it to Orientation just fine.  Someone came and picked up the seven of us currently waiting.  She said it really wasn't any problem.  There had been some 5-hour delays earlier. 

The plane rides in general wasn't all that bad.  I finished Phantom of the Opera and felt more than a little hipster because as I read I listened to the Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical.   On the way to DC, I scrutinized the other passengers.  I thought there had to be at least one other person traveling from Chicago.  There was, but I didn't meet him until later when we all laughed and told stories about our home states on the car ride to the hotel. 

Almost everyone here is from a different state.  There are a couple duplicates from New York and California, but that's to be expected.  The closest person I've talked to is from Iowa and they were going to the other city.  (Update:  I talked to a girl today at the airport who was from Madison, Wisconsin, so that was exciting.) 

We're apparently the "advanced cities" at this orientation.  That of course means some of the students are incredibly fluent and can easily handle themselves in different situations.  My opinion of my own skills keeps sinking by the minute.  I'm definitely in for a rough time.  Based on a show of hands, it seems roughly ¾ have already been to China in some way shape or form.  Some have actually lived in China for extended periods of time.  One girl for eight years.  This trip will definitely improve my Chinese, but it's unnerving to have our resident director say things like "Well of course, you guys know how to say that" Um Not Really.  Luckily my roommate has been incredibly kind and explained things about not only the language but also about China and the airplane trip to China.  (I followed some of her advice about our first meal on the plane.  She said that it was best to avoid any airline "meat" as it wasn't going to taste anything like you thought it would and it could make you sick.  The pasta I tried was actually pretty good.  At least better than I expected.  About on par with Cafeteria food.)

 I think we're going to be friends. 

Another slight dilemma was the fact that just based off when my flight left and came in, I didn't really eat today.  I had breakfast at the Minneapolis airport at 7:30 and dinner at 5:30.  Dinner wasn't even all that appetizing.  I'm looking forward to all the Chinese food.  Our resident director keeps talking about how amazing it is.

There's no Wi-Fi in this hotel so I'll probably end up posting this when I'm actually in China, after I have suffered an even longer day of travel.  (HAHA sidenote from the airplane.  I'm not really feeling all that bad yet. It's only been a few hours but the plane is huge. And I have more room than on the bus trip to New York with the Orchestra. )

Pre-Departure Day 2

I think I've covered that for some unknown reason my roommate and I were up early.  We called the night before and went down to breakfast right as it was opening.  This hotel is actually fantastic.  The elevator is pretty cool.  It's glass and the view of the lobby is incredible.  The lobby is landscaped completely with a pond, Koi, a bridge and lots of plants.  There's also a statue of a Giant Panda (hopefully I'll be able to see a live Panda in China.) 

Colleen, my roommate, and I were some of the first people down to breakfast.  The hotel breakfast was actually good.  The pancakes tasted like actual food, not cardboard, and there was a chef that could make really good spinach and mushroom omelets.  

Orientation was very informative, but very long.  We spent the entire day in one room on the 12^th floor of the American Councils building.  It's hard to keep forty young adults (cough high schoolers and new college freshman cough.  Sorry at Orientation the mantra seemed to be "You're not kids or high school students.  You're young adults") in line for 10 hours.  Some of the participants were a little rowdy by the end of it.  I was definitely having trouble sitting in my seat. 

We started the day with an excellent presentation from the State Department.  There was a guy who had worked as a diplomat for quite some time but was currently on domestic assignment.  He was very charismatic and had such a passion for everything he did.  I've been thinking a lot more about the future recently.  It seems only right.  Junior Year is when you have to start exploring all the options of colleges and future career opportunities.   I've actually even been thinking a lot about diplomacy as a possible career path.  It combines my love of language, culture, history and civics.  It was enlightening to hear someone speak who actually had the job.  He also talked about the opportunities open to NSLI-Y alumni and other opportunities in general about interning with the Department of State. 

I'm incredibly grateful that today I talked to some people who also felt like their Chinese was limited compared to some of our peers.  It was just such a relief to find out I wasn't the only one who could carry on an in-depth conversation about politics.  Our resident director also encouraged us and stated that we'd get the most out of this experience.

While we're in China, we're going to have free time, about two hours every weekday. And we're with our host families all weekend.  Our Resident Director suggested we have a bucket list so that we would actually explore the city instead of just "hanging out".  Colleen and I went downstairs to the lobby to use the computers to do some research.  We discovered some really awesome things.  Colleen has been to China already so she had some ideas too.  So far I want to walk in the human sized hamster balls they have on the lakes in the parks, see the water/music/laser show on a fountain near the Wild Goose Pagoda, bike on the city walls, eat food in the Muslim Quarter, go to Tang Paradise and take a cable car up Hua Shan (that sacred Tibetan Mountain I mentioned in an earlier post). 

Tang Paradise is a Chinese amusement park based off the Tang dynasty.  There are acrobats, Chinese lion dances, stilt walkers and other cool cultural displays.  It might be kind of touristy but I still think it will be cool. 

 Well, I'm off to bed I have a long flight tomorrow.  The kids going to the other city have to be ready to go at 2:30 AM.  Thank goodness I'm going to Xi'an. 

 On the flight

I'm writing to you live from the airplane as we cruise over Northern Canada, basically the arctic.  The flight is not nearly as bad as I anticipated.  I'm hoping that's not just because we have 9 hours and 25 minutes left of this flight to Beijing.  I'm not even really tired yet.  People kept saying, "You'll be exhausted and sleep on the flight.  You'll just nod off and you won't even know you fell asleep."  So far, I'm fairly wide-awake and excited by the plane ride not sick of it.  

I've never been in a plane like this before.  It's absolutely huge!  There are 3 sections of seats (3 columns with 3 seats each).  I feel like I have so much room to walk around.  I also have an aisle seat, but even if I didn't there would be a surprising amount of legroom.  Each seat is equipped with a little television set.  There were movies and TV shows, but I didn't really care all that much about those.  I have so many movies of my own on my computer and I have some studying I want to get done before I meet my host family.  I actually traded seats with another NSLI-Y student.  He wanted to watch something, but his screen stopped working.  I had been experimented a little with mine before take off.  I couldn't get the settings to function in English.  Every time I tried, it would be in French, Portuguese or Dutch. 

I could get the settings to work in Chinese and was looking forward to starting the immersion process early.  With some trial and error I was able to get Frozen to start playing.  I was excited to watch Frozen in Chinese.  To my dismay, it was in English with Chinese subtitles.  Despite the fact that I had wanted to watch movies in English in the first place, I was disappointed.  I was more than willing to trade my temperamental screen for a nonworking one. 

The move actually worked out extremely well in my favor.  I began conversing with the lady next to me.  She was an American going with her daughter to China to pick up the baby the daughter was adopting a baby.  She also had an extremely interesting job.  She has traveled all over the world. 

Airplane food was also nothing like I expected.  I had some pasta (ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach), salad, bread and a chocolate brownie.  The pasta was better than my school's ravioli, although I don't know if that says more about airplane food or the food of Woodbury High School.  It was actually warm too.  I had a preconceived notion that airplane food would be all be cold and soggy.  I thought it had to be a disaster based on how comedians always make jokes about it. 

Despite the length, this flight is actually pretty cool.  The only other negative thing I can really say about it is the fact that the air conditioning is turned on full blast.  I'm not one to get cold easily, but this plane is cold, colder than the back of Killian's Chemistry classroom.  There doesn't seem to be a way to turn off the air conditioners either.  It's a good thing I moved my cardigan to my carry on. 

Some of the other students and I have determined that our flights to and from China are basically time traveling.  We're leaping forward now.  We spend all of Thursday on a plane despite the fact we had a flight that left at 12:30 PM eastern time and our flight being only 13 hours.  Then on the way back, we arrive only two hours after we left despite the same length of time on the plane.   It's definitely amusing to think of the time zones as time travel.  I'm sure Sarah would love it.  (It's not quite the TARDIS but it sure is something.)

I'm excited to land in the Beijing airport.  Apparently it's really pretty.  There's also a McDonald's right outside Customs so I might be able to have one last American meal before I eat Chinese food for the next month.  It's not like I don't want to dive right into all the delicious food.  I just don't want to risk upsetting my stomach for the plane ride to Xi'an.  The bathrooms are pretty small on the airplane and there's always a rather formable line.  Colleen said during the layover (all three hours of it) we should find Starbucks (Xing Ba Ke Ka Fei or at least that's how I think the pinyin goes.)  Starbucks are apparently rare in China, but the one's that exist are extremely good.  By that point I think we'll be starved for caffeine. 

I'm not sure if this trip will help or hurt my tea obsession.  On the one hand, I'll be surrounded by delicious tea and not be thought of as strange because I like tea.  (After all, everyone deserves tea.) On the other, I will be drinking tea at every meal for 6 weeks.  That could make anyone sick of it.  Either way, my suitcase on the way home should be very full of tea. 

I meet my host family tonight, but I'll probably have more on that in my next post.  I'm not sure I'll have the energy after everything.  I think the urge to sleep has finally hit me.  The airplane is dark and quite a few people are asleep, some have been since we went up in the air.  I guess it's a good idea.  Its 4:50 AM in China right now.  I might be able to get a little over the jetlag. Either way I think this is a good place to say Zài jiàn. 

Laura 

Update:  We're only currently flying over Russia, over Siberia.  1897 miles to Destination. We've traveled 5020 miles.  We still have 3 hours and 50 minutes until we get to Beijing.  I'm actually so tired of the flight.  Getting slightly frustrated.  I mean it's been a long flight.  Also frustratingly all the windows are closed and everything is dark.  I'm just frustrated.  I've moved to another seat now.  This one with a working TV.  I've watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  They gave us an awful ham sandwich and some really good gelato.  When we land, I'm going to get some large heavily caffeinated beverage, possibly coffee, despite the fact I hate coffee with a burning passion.  I've slept for a total of 10-15 minutes.  I know it was around that much because I noticed how much I missed on my audiobook.  Maybe I should actually sleep, but then I probably won't be able to sleep tonight (or tomorrow or whatever. We've crossed the International Date Line).  

Meeting New People.

So I actually wrote up a longer article about the first day of orientation but I only have internet on my phone. So I figured I would just write something from here. Also side note, I don't really have a working charger for my phone. I borrowed my roommate's to charge now. Luckily in a few days it won't really matter , but it's still an inconvenience. 

Honestly, this is a bit more intense than I thought. Some of the kids are very, very, very good at Chinese already, basically fluent. Based on the show of hands, I'd say about 3/4 of them have already been to China. I knew I am going to learn  a lot. I just didn't think I would have to be as proficient and knowledgable on all things Chinese the first day. 

My roommate and I were up early. 5:45 Eastern time. So 4:45 Laura time.  Oddly I'm not even really sure why. Our alarms were set for much later but we just woke up instinctively. 

I'm currently people watching from the "living room" of our hotel room.

  

On my way!

I'm currently sitting at my gate in the Minneapolis airport, getting ready to go. 

If you can't tell, despite having swim practice at 6AM, I'm still not a morning person.  But then again I was tossing and turning most of the night. I was nervous. 

This somehow didn't go through so you're getting it now. 

Word Association and Pre-Departure Jitters

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   

Where is Xi'an?

I leave Minnesota a week from today.   It’s actually really hard to believe.  I’m not ready.  I spent the better part of last week shopping for everything I might need: clothes for school, 3 pairs of shoes, summer reading list, luggage and gifts for my host family.  I’m not even done looking for host family gifts yet.  I’m supposed to bring things that represent Minnesota, but I’m more than a little confused.  Minnesota doesn’t have a lot of material goods that define it.  We’re known for our endless winters, mountains of snow, ten thousand lakes and their corresponding cabins, and the Mall of America.  I can’t very well put any of these things in a box and ship them to China with me. 

It’s been weird trying to explain to people where I’m going as well.  Xi’an is a huge city of eight million people. (And considering I’ve lived in a suburb my entire life this is going to be a rather abrupt change.) To put that in perspective, the Twin Cities has a population of 3.28 million. 

And yet, when I say I’m spending my summer in Xi’an, most of the time the next question is “So where’s the closest big city?” 

Um, that would be Xi’an. 

As a huge history buff (and an AP World History Student), I typically follow that statement with an explanation of Xi’an’s historical significance.  The city is most well known for the Terracotta Warriors unearthed there.  Over 8,000 life size clay soldiers have been discovered in 3 pits.  The soldiers were built to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.  The Emperor had been so concerned with being immortal that he had drunk mercury to prolong his life.  (Interestingly enough mercury poisoning is probably what killed him.)  He also decided that his tomb would be incredible.  Although the tomb itself has never been unearthed, legend depicts it greatly.  Here's a website if you want to learn more about the legends surrounding the tomb itself: http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/229549.htm

The terracotta warriors are in battle formation complete with weapons, uniforms and large clay horses and chariots.  The three pits show the different levels of the army. The first has the most soldiers, while the last is an officer's meeting room.  It's thought that the soldiers may have even been modeled from the real armies of China as every one is distinctly different. 

Xi'an however is so much more than just the burial ground of the Emperor who united China, ordered the construction of the Great Wall and burned many books on history and philosophy that disagreed with him.  Xi'an has over 3,100 years of history.  It was the capital of China during the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, and Tang dynasties and is known as one of China's Four Great Ancient Capitals.  The city was also the starting point of the Silk Road making it one of the biggest international cities during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).  The cultural interaction is still very prevalent today as there is a large Muslim  Quarter (about 50,000 Hui Muslims) and many universities with students coming from all over the world.  

After the mini history lesson, whoever I'm talking to realizes that I've somehow managed to avoid the point of explaining where Xi'an actually is. Well, Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi Province and is located in Eastern Central China.  It's on the Guanzhong Plain with the Qin mountains in the south and the Wei River in the north.  Xi'an is also not that far from Hua Shan, one of the five sacred Taoist mountains.  

Hua Shan: Isn't it pretty?

This explanation is often met with blank stares, but honestly I could ramble about my host city for ages.  I'm just that excited. It often helps when I mention First Lady Michelle Obama visited there recently on her trip to China.  I always find it really coincidental that I learned my host city while the First Lady was visiting it. Article about the Visit

I'm actually so excited although my two currently empty suitcases are certainly making me nervous.  

Zai Jian for now,

Laura

One Month Until China

In a month, I will be leaving for the adventure of a lifetime.   I’ll be spending seven weeks in Xi’an, China with American Councils.  I’m living with a host family and attending school there. 

I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship through the State Department in a program called NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth).  The program is designed to offer high school students opportunities to study “critical languages” abroad.  Critical languages are languages not typically taught in high schools.  This includes Chinese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hindi.   If you want any more information about NSLI-Y visit http://www.nsliforyouth.org/

It seems almost crazy to think how close I am to leaving.  I’ve spent most of the year preparing and applying for the scholarship.  There were long hours of essay writing, and frustrating moments as my computer rebelled against the application website.  I participated in an interview, where almost everyone else in my time slot was also applying for the China summer scholarship. I submitted so many medical forms.  And then there was a period of anxious waiting. 

It was such a relief at the end of March to get the email telling me I was a finalist.  I saw the email as I was walking out the door after a long day complete with play rehearsal.  The email took forever to load because of the slow school Wi-Fi and I had just about made it to the South Entrance when I read the news.  I may have spontaneously danced a crazy victory dance in the empty hall.  I definitely couldn’t stop smiling for days. 

Since then, I’ve updated medical forms, applied for my visa and taken several Chinese placement tests.  I don’t even know information about my host family yet. I do know, however, that I will have a sibling who is roughly my age and will attend my school.

I’m incredibly excited to meet my host family.  There’s something incredible about being thrown into the daily lives of a family.  I’ll be able to see their favorite places and try their favorite foods.  I'll be able to feel more at home even if I'm 6,600 miles away from Minnesota.  I should be getting more information soon,  likely within the next week and a half. 

I’ll be sure to share some more information about Xi’an next post.  Until then, zài jiàn!