A Colony of Squirrels on the Moon, Losing at Chess (Again), and Other Assorted Stories from my First Week in the PRC

I love the feeling of being a regular traversing the Pacific Ocean. This was my 7th transpacific flight within a 1 year span and I felt well accustomed as the hours flew by. A couple of new mothers sat in front of me, so I had brightly smiling Chinese baby faces to entertain me for 12 hours. Also finished the whole 1st season of This Is Us and I’ll definitely need to continue that in the near future.

Upon landing in Shenzhen I was immediately reminded of the fact that I don’t speak or understand anything resembling Chinese despite my desperate efforts to study on my HelloChinese language app (which its voice recognition software can be more than sketchy on many occasions). In broken Chinese I wandered around the terminal to try and find a place to check in for my final connecting flight. Finally, a kind woman in red came up to me with a cell phone and used a translation app she had to help me out. I took off for Hangzhou shortly after.

In the long-awaited 80 degree fahrenheit heat and humidity, I was met by my host parents in the pick-up zone of the airport at around 1 AM, and we climbed into their Porsche SUV. I attempted to explain in broken Chinese how excited I was to be there and that I love warm weather, and we all pulled out our phones to make sure we’d been saying the right things. As soon as we arrived home, I was shown to my new room and I went to sleep immediately in my cosy little alcove.

The next morning I woke up relatively early and was greeted by this view overlooking the river:

There was beautiful, traditional Chinese music playing in the distance, fishermen and cargo ships traversing the river’s tide, sounds of life from all around… and it was perfect.

I was met by the Grandmother a few hours later. She only speaks Chinese, but the language we both communicated very well on was food. Incredible, delicious, simple and satisfying food. Dumpling soup, stir fried vegetables, rice porridge, durian, lots of pork and beef… I’m in heaven. She took me to the wet market with her as well this week and taught me the vegetable names. A few days later she took me to the bus station and the bus driver nearly closed the door on her as she was giving me instructions I couldn’t understand on where I should get off. Don’t worry, I made it to where I needed to go safely. Luckily we are able to communicate and translate through WeChat which has been very convenient and a great learning tool. She is a very kind woman.

I’ve noticed now how much the Philippines takes after China food-wise, infrastructure-wise, and other-wise-wise. I didn’t realise before just how closely they’re related, and how truly Asian the Philippines is. It’s also annoying that my brain keeps on wanting to hear Tagalog words from Chinese ones, and having to force myself to stop thinking in Tagalog and open up a new center of thought in my brain.

My host parents Mark and Susan have two boys, Oscar and Hank. I spend most of my time with 7-year-old Oscar, who attends an international school about 20 minutes away from home. He is a very talented, creative, and competitive kid. It’s been a blast to get to know him. Our games together usually consist of Pacific Rim robot action figures fighting giant hand monsters, while little finger people run away in terror and try to jump in slow motion. We also enjoy reading science books and making fun of the pictures. One time there was a picture of an astronaut squirrel and so, naturally, we developed an entire story around it together. Essentially, the squirrels were exiled from Earth and had to form a new colony on the Moon. Many were lost on the journey due to fart poisoning. Rest in peace, little guys.

Oscar’s 10-year-old brother Hank will join us occasionally for playing Uno and approved iPad games (when their mother allows it). Hank also plays the guitar and I’ve been helping him learn some blues riffs. I can tell he likes it but I’m not quite sure he’s accustomed to the style yet. I showed him a video of Elvis performing Hound Dog live and he looked more confused than impressed. Soon, I hope, he will hear the call of Rock n Roll.

Oscar has a very busy schedule. He takes Chess lessons twice a week (I joined in on one lesson and the teacher challenged me to a battle, except he removed his Queen. He still won handily despite the handicap much to his amusement. I hope that doesn’t make him sound mean, he’s actually a great guy, and he speaks great English which is helpful), piano lessons twice a week, basketball and art lessons once a week, and an evening computer class once a week, all on top of regular school homework and extracurricular online homework. No wonder sometimes he acts out a bit. I don’t blame him. Between all of this craziness we still manage to have a lot of fun and learn tremendously from each other.

On Friday evening a huge rainstorm rolled in. Mark got really excited and suggested we take a walk down by the river. He loves rain. We ran out in the downpour towards the biker trail following the river’s bank. As the rain lightened, we took a relaxing walk and swapped stories. The sun began to set and gave the city a beautiful pinkish hue. When we came back in, night had fallen and I watched from the window as a massive LED light show illuminated the sides of the skyrise buildings across the river.

I’m really grateful for this wonderful family’s generosity and patience as I slowly learn their language and help with their children’s hectic schedules. I’m excited for what’s in store this Chinese Summer in Hangzhou.

P.S.

I bought wax berries for the first time yesterday and now they’re my favorite thing.