Today’s simple anecdote: I said to my taxi driver “delicious” (in Chinese) after a week of teaching my students about food. What I meant to tell him was “tip”. I’ll think about that until I die...
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Every day poses new challenges. We have assumptions and expectations, but this trip continues to show me that you just have to be ready for everything. Teaching dance has been quite an experience. I came into this class with grand expectations for the performance I could put together. In my head I thought: My students will be EXCEPTIONAL, we will WOW the audience. Though, reality hit me with some dramatically abrupt force seconds into the first day of class. It is not that my expectation for the performance has changed, but that I have a much more realistic understanding of the time, talent, and ability that my class has to execute my vision. These are kids. Some of which have dabbled in dance, while others can’t seem to bend their knees to a beat; which is OK! Everyone is there to learn, even me. The first few days were quite a roller coaster. Sometimes it seemed at least half the class was excited to be there, while others made me wonder if I could ever get any of these kids excited to come to my class at the end of the day. Honestly, some kids look at you like it’d physically pain them to smile. Fortunately, things have recently taken a turn. I’ve introduced a bit of more challenging choreography to my class. At times they do get a little frustrated or confused. But, most of them have really stepped up to the challenge, and I can tell they want to get these moves down! I am very excited for them and can’t wait to share the stage with my hip-hoppers!
This past Friday was the Dragon Boat Festival. I was only slightly nervous to return to Doumen for the Dragon Boat Festival. I do wish I knew about it prior to the night before; not that it would’ve changed anything. That’s just part of living with a host fam. You have to be ready to climb a mountain in five minutes or stop your work and play chess for two hours. You never regret it though! Anyway, this second Doumen experience was much different than the first. I was not at some attraction or event. I was at a home! I was there to actually interact with local residents and participate in the lifestyle. As I got out of the car, some people from neighboring homes gave me glacial stares... expected. However, the family (Jinjie’s host father’s side) gave me an extremely warm welcome. They gave me smiles, and greetings that immediately made me feel less foreign and awkward. Of course, I had no way around the huge language barrier, but some smiles and translation through Jinjie partially made up for it. The day was super eventful. We explored the town, looking at the homes of the country side. We visited a meteorologist site, that looked like a mansion on MTV cribs from the outside. We climbed a mountain (this was number 2 of three since I’ve been to China). We also visited a small farm. This was special for me because I got to meet the brother of Jinjie’s host father’s uncle. He was a very nice man, living alone with four dogs and a cat. His lifestyle was simple but seemed SO full. He let us explore and retrieve vegetables from his garden. I made friends one of his pups and his very reserved cat. Our worlds are so immensely different. I was in awe. I thought to myself, I hope that, when I reach that age, I can have such a big heart and love for life. Furthermore, I also witnessed the full preparation of our chicken we had for dinner; including every step from when the chicken was walking around outside the house. Seeing the chicken be “put down” definitely made me think a little differently about my excessive love for meat...But I still ate that boy right up!
Karaoke night. Last night was a blast. Kristie’s host family rented us out a room for karaoke and it was a TIME. It was one of those things that you overlook and don’t realize how much fun it could be. I would not have thought to suggest this, but it was an outstanding idea. This was actually the first time the group had been out all together at night just to have fun. I, of course, served everyone some Ariana Grande and Beyoncé. And if anyone asks it was off key only because karaoke is more fun that way. No one wants a try-hard on the mic when everyone’s trying to have fun. Getting to and from this wonderful night was surely slightly stressful. Way there: I got off much before my stop with some other girl in the taxi by accident. Way home: I had to jump out of the taxi window when the meter hit 24 because I only had 25 yuan in my pocket (I actually just got out of the car but it’s more dramatic stated this way). Overall, the night was SO necessary. Every day I start to fall a little more in love with this group of people. I thank Hsiao-Mei for picking such a star team. I am a blessed guy.