Day 35: Last Day

Tuesday, June 10

Photos 1 & 2: From the 100th floor

Photo 3: Dancing at dinner

The day started with a lively discussion regarding the events of the past week. In the effort to save funds for other activities, we held the forum in the hotel dining room instead of in the "magnificent" conference hall. This required the moving of some chairs to accommodate us. The wait staff appeared visibly distraught and aired their concerns with us. Fortunately Dong Laoshi was able to verbal judo her way into allowing us to stay. The discussion was led by Alvin, Jonny, Tyler and me. Perhaps it was the result of our thought provoking questions or maybe it was because today was our last day, but shy Steven "Shuige" Chin had a lot to say. At one point in time he gave a monologue lasting nearly 30 minutes.

At noon, we took the subway to the central business district (CBD) of Pudong. We walked over to the Super Brand Mall. While the brands inside the mall were fairly super, the exterior was anything but. As one of the older buildings in the district, the facade was showing its age amongst all the skyscrapers. Our first order of business was lunch. Rebecca and I made our way to the bottom level of the mall and came upon a Japanese udon restaurant.  There were quite a few people in line, probably around 30.  Unless they were all hipsters, standing in line for some obscure ironic reason, the popularity of the restaurant was likely representative of the quality of food. So thus we got in line.  

Following our bowls of beef curry noodles, we met back up with the rest of the group and headed over to the Taiping building to hear from Charlie Wang. Situated on the 17th floor, Charlie's office had an incredible view of the heart of the CBD. His architecture firm had played a significant role in many of the towers within the CBD. Our discussion revolved around the development and growth of the Shanghai region over the past 40 years. It's incredible to think about how quickly this city has boomed, particularly in the past 15 years.  At that point in time, there were only a handful of highrises; today Shanghai is home to nearly 30 million people.

After our pleasant discussion, we walked next door to Shanghai's World Financial Center. This building sat on land that was originally meant to be a park. City planners had wanted to mimic that of New York City's Central Park. But given the economic boom, the Chinese government decided to disregard green spaces and rise towers instead. We took the five meters per second elevator up to the 100th floor observatory. After numerous poses and photo ops, I took the elevator back down to the ground floor, not realizing the entire group was still on the skywalk. Thus began a chapter of my life which shall hereforth be known as "The Great Struggle".

Separated from the group, I was now out in the wild to fend for myself. Armed with only a paper clip, chewing gum, and a pack of rubber bands, I started a signal fire to alert my fellow classmates. Unfortunately the police came and extinguished my hopes of being rescued. Realizing I may never see the group again, I relinquished any thoughts of rescue or reunion and decided to forge a new life. As I prepared myself for a life of panhandling, I received a text message from Bobo with the name of our next destination.

I made my way to the Banana Leaf restaurant after 90 minutes of exile. We were seated in a private room at a very large round table. In the nearly 6 weeks of the dialogue, this was the first time all 18 of us were sitting at the same table. How very fitting for our last group meal. The food was delicious and the company was delightful.  Everyone offered a toast of gratitude for each other, the program, and especially Alex and Dong Laoshi. Jimmy was overcome with emotions during the toasts. Tears rolled from his eyes uncontrollably.

In just a few short weeks, we've experienced some very amazing things together and learned more about the country and ourselves than expected. The special bond forged through the time we've spent will be forever cherished.

- Hochiang

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Day 34: Li Bin's Studio, Chinese Language, Food Safety and Censorship Speakers

Monday, June 9

Photo 1: Li Bin's 'sketch' for his Nelson Mandela painting

Photo 2: Obligatory panorama of the studio

Photo 3: The selfie game is strong in a room of creativity

Photo 4: Forcing smiles after Dong Laoshi showed us who was boss (Food was amazing though!)

Photo 5: !@#!$@#! aka the Chinese plays mind games with censorship

My hotel room in Shanghai is pretty awesome. I'm on the 11th floor in a corner room so I get not one, but two windows of the Shanghai cityscape. One of them, which happens to be across from my bed, fills the room with the glow of the morning haze. There's nothing like being greeted by Shanghai's city pollution at 5:30 in the morning, a treat I get for forgetting to put down the window shade last night. But whatever, I'm not as bothered by China's pollution as much as I'm unnerved by the ghost that haunts our hotel room. The ghost is somewhere in the bathroom, in the pipes I assume since it only makes noises whenever the toilet flushes or whenever we take a shower. For those who know what a harpsichord sounds like, bless your soul because those are the sounds I hear every time, eerie tones that go along with the sound of flushing water. And for the skeptics, I'm convinced it's a ghost because the only other room that has those eerie sounds is Kim's and Conley's room, which is right across from Mika's and my room. It's okay; I think it's friendly, though it sucks knowing that a supernatural being watches you do your business. Maybe it has some courtesy but I'm not sure, I don't frequently encounter ghosts let alone a Chinese ghost.

As I hear the ghost singing away while Mika takes her morning shower, I somehow block the noises and start working on some essays that are due at the end of the dialogue. I'm in my zone, becoming a typing zombie as I get down the points that I think need to be mentioned. Then again, it's early in the morning and nothing I think at this time usually makes much sense. Yet I can't fall back asleep because the muse of the bathroom is too loud, this is a big 矛盾. Somehow, I lose track of time and end up almost missing the meet up time at the lobby at 9:00. I want to blame it on the ghost but I don't want it to get angry. I also didn't get any breakfast so as our group was walking to the subway, I ran ahead to buy some Oreos and a bottle of water. It's not much but I heard it may have been better than the hotel's free breakfast.

After a series of transfers, we arrive to our destination. Almost. Because of schedule changes and slight delays, we had to hurry over ASAP, so we all hailed taxis to drive us two minutes straight down to Li Bin's home studio. Yea, I did say we were in a hurry so I guess that trip was worth it. Anyway, Li Bin is an ex-Red Guard who chose the life of a political painter. And by political painter, I mean adding really subtle humor and symbolism in many of his works. He started painting since he was around 12, so I was just super awe inspired by this guy with a great jolly personality. He was super friendly to all of us and even fed us with watermelon and took pictures of us to use as references for his next painting. Not going to lie, I think I cheesed super hard while he was taking my photo. 茄子 to the extreme!

We went back to our hotel area to grab lunch and I was supposed to go with Jonny and the others for this choose-your-own-food-to-put-in-a-soup kind of meal. But then Dong Laoshi tempted me away with Hong Kong style lunch, which was conveniently located in front of the subway. And Hong Kong food speaks to my soul like no other, so I guess the Shanghai food adventures will have to wait a bit longer. By the way, if anyone has eaten with Dong Laoshi before, then they know how sneaky she can be when paying for the bill. Luther, Jimmy, and I offered to split amongst us three and I even stole the bill away from her hands, thanks to the years of practice I had eating at dimsum restaurants with my family. All to no avail because at the end of our meal, she slapped down her money on the table and Jimmy, Luther, and I were left gaping with our mouths full of delicious food as Dong Laoshi suavely left to prepare for the speakers. That's some next level authority right there. 'Next time,' we all thought as we finished our meal feeling like we got served. But it was all good food so it was a good lunchtime.

We had two speakers almost back-to-back. John Pasden spoke about learning the Chinese language as a foreigner, giving us great anecdotes about how he made the executive decision to abandon his life plan in pursuit of Chinese. And he gave us tips, or rather, the secrets to greatly improve your Chinese 水平. I shall only disclose one as to keep you all on your toes: learn to love to talk about random crap. Like how cool Dong Laoshi was at lunchtime. Or how I have a ghost in my bathroom. So as long as it's all in Chinese it's all relevant. Wu Heng was the second speaker and he spoke a bit about his food safety database and censorship in China. The way he describes it makes it feel like the Chinese are playing a dangerous tug-of-war with the government as well as their food. The Chinese are great at making up new words to get around sensitive 'banned' words and sometimes smart enough to eat enough different foods to avoid being poisoned. As Wu Heng said, people learn to rotate their poisons in China.

I think that's what they said anyway. Again I can't be too sure, I'm writing this sleep deprived and after hours of sitting in that nasty conference room with a sorry excuse of a 空调. What air conditioner blows hot air, I will never know but if you guys ever need a room like that, it's located on the second floor of the Magnificent Hotel (hehe, magnificent). We all melted in that room but the nice break between speakers gave everyone a breather. Except Jimmy. He kinda curled into a ball on one of the nearby couches and slept away like a cat, hehe. I wish I had the picture to prove it to you but alas, I failed to whip out my camera in time. Oh well, another day I suppose, although we don't have much time until this dialogue ends. Challenge accepted anyway.

- Bobo

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Day 33: Free Day!

Sunday, June 8

Photo 1: Brunch with Conley and Kim

Photo 2: Making friends in the fabric district

Photos 3 & 4: Promoting the French Open

Today was our first free day. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but pretty much all of us had been looking forward to this day since the beginning of the trip. I finished up some work this morning (we have essays and journals due this coming week), and then went to brunch with Conley and Kim (attached is a picture of them...#modelstatus). The food was pretty good, but the condensed milk buns were a bummer – way too much butter, and not enough milk.

This morning, Judy told us that she went to get her suit done in the fabric district and that they had really cool stores and shops, so we decided to go. We found our way there pretty well, especially considering the fact that Conley and I are both directionally challenged. Before even entering the fabric section we were mesmerized by the little stores outside – they have so many little trinkets: necklaces, bracelets, keychains, fans, and all types of little cute things that make really good presents. Of course, bargaining is a must, and since Conley and Kim both feel uncomfortable bargaining, I did it for them. 

Then we went into the actual fabric district – wow! So many little stores, all specialized in different handmade items – suits, dresses, shirts, cloths, scarfs, everything you can imagine. I bought some presents (won't specify what because they are likely reading this blog), and Conley got a cashmere coat! I tried to take some good pictures for today's blog but most of them are just Conley and Kim making weird faces... 

After this excursion, of course we wanted to do some more shopping, so we headed over to Nanjing Lu. This street reminds me a little of New York – bright lights everywhere, so many huge stores, and lots and lots of people. Also, the people in China are really aggressive in trying to make you visit their store. On this street, there was a big event for the French Open. I asked Conley to take a picture of me holding a big tennis ball, but then a photographer came over and was so intrigued by Conley that he asked her to model for him... it was really funny. 

So far I really do like Shanghai, but I don't like the fact that there are so many wai guo ren (foreigners) because then you don't feel as special. Compared to Nanjing and Beijing, there are so many more foreigners here, and I've especially noticed lots of Europeans. 

We kept walking down Nanjing Lu for a while, and kept stopping in stores on our way. We stopped at one little boutique that gave us free samples of a face mask on our hands which was fun. There were so many stores on that road that we also have in America – H&M, Sephora, Forever 21, etc. We stopped into these stores to look around, and of course many of the products were similar, but they also had products that you definitely can not find in the United States. In Sephora, they had these little Chinese face masks that I had never seen in America.

After our long day of excursions we were exhausted and starving, so we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went out to eat. Alex took us to a little 'hole in the wall' type of place where we got rice and veggies (after a while in China, you just try not to think about how the food is made or what's in it and just eat it.. most of the time it's really good).  Kim wanted bao zi (steamed buns) so I went to help her look for them but we couldn't find them since they are considered a breakfast food, so instead she got pork kebabs (her fave). While we were waiting for her food I asked for a little packet of soy sauce, but instead I got a plastic bag with an absurd amount of soy sauce in it. It looked kind of like the bag you get when you buy a fish.

We went back to the hotel room to eat. Never in my life did I think I would be using a water bottle cap to dip in a plastic bag full of soy sauce and pour onto a dish I bought from a hole in the wall restaurant. But I embraced it. Overall today was really fun to explore, and it was nice to be able to relax for a little and not worry about having to be somewhere at an exact time. I can't wait for the rest of the week in Shanghai, and the extra week that I am staying after this program ends! 

At the same time, everyone is thinking about the trip coming to an end, and I know most of us are really sad. I am still surprised at how well all of us get along and how much I really like every single person on this trip, and I really hope we can all hang out when we are back at school in Northeastern.

Good night everyone!

- Molly

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Day 32: The Adventures of Jimmy

Saturday, June 7

Photo 1: My Host Family

Photo 2: Professional photography skills

Photo 3: Conley and Molly attempting to break Alvin's back

Photo 4: On the Bund

I don't think I've ever gotten 7 hours of continuous sleep since coming to China. This morning, during that time when I'm too awake to fall asleep but too tired to get up, I started wondering how I would write my blog today. It seems like whenever I write blogs I turn in my journals late. And the extra credit from writing blogs (so Alex doesn't have to) probably doesn't make up for my lower quality journals. But I enjoy writing these.

I started looking for my iPod in my bed somewhere, because I wanted to fall asleep while listening to music last night, which I haven't done in a while. I couldn't find it though, and figured it fell through the crack between the bed and the wall. My search bore no fruit though. I didn't find my iPod either. So I got up for some of that typical morning relief that we humans often partake in. 

While writing, I was watching a cat directly across from me in the window. It seemed so surreal; the way it moved was so snappy. It was wondering, "Hello, sir, may I come in for a chat?" But I said, "Sorry Mr. Cat, I'm allergic to your feline-ness." I started singing One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful to him. That didn't make him run, but after I finished the song he slowly walked away…

My host brother dropped down his head and greeted me from above, as he likes to do. We exchanged 早s. 

I've now been under the care of my host family for nearly 168 hours. Kudos to them for putting up with me for that long, but as any sensible person would do, they finally kicked me out. I packed up my bags and stumbled out onto the street, bawling my eyes out. As I dragged myself along through the streets, making a scene, the Chinese people watched me thinking, "Look at that 外国人 overreacting because he brought too much luggage and can't handle carrying it! 哈哈哈!" I'm just kidding, they only stared at me silently. 

Not knowing what to do, I made my way to our old classroom building that has chairs in the lobby. It was all about the chairs. To my surprise, my fellow 同学们 were there too. They had all suffered a similar fate. Hochiang was lying on his side wailing and running in full circles on the floor, impressively managing to swing both of his arms even though one was pinned down. Seong graced us with some spectacular piano playing that appropriately fit the mood. Alex and Dong Laoshi had overstayed their welcome in the Xiyuan Hotel as well, and were sporting some crazy haircuts. Maybe that's why they got kicked out. After a 1-hour group therapy session reflecting on why our behavior during the past week had led to this moment, we decided it was time to leave Nanjing, and set out on our journey to Shanghai.

We returned to Nanjing Railway Station via coach bus, and were immensely fortunate to experience Waiting Area 2. We'd waited in Waiting Area 3 when we were going to Anhui, but I'd already had enough of that. If we had the misfortune of having to wait in Waiting Area 3 again, I would have waited in Waiting Area 1 instead. If anyone tried to stop me I would have waited for them to stop trying to stop me and waited there anyway. And if that didn't work I wouldn't have waited at all, so that nobody could have stopped me from waiting in any of the waiting areas. 

We were in train car 1, which was not an indication of luxury. It meant we had to walk to the farthest end of the train. But that was okay because I waited in Waiting Area 2. And I had the pleasure of sitting next to Bobo, who was twice startled by trains passing by next to us going the opposite way. When I say startled I mean slightly petrified. She insisted she wasn't crazy. Life is amusing sometimes.

We arrived in Shanghai relatively quickly, and over packed another coach bus with our luggage before going to the Magnificent International Hotel. I can't stand how big and nice our rooms are; it makes me sick. 

After dropping off our bags, we sluggishly congregated in the lobby to talk to Wang Wenhao, a travel agent helping us with post-trip arrangements. Hochiang, Molly, Dong Laoshi, and Mr. Wang put in most of the work. Some people went out to explore a bit while others stuck around. Then at 6 we walked to the Zilanmen restaurant for a 2000+ Yuan meal. I could handle not being able to eat at Hai Di Lao, but tonight my heart and stomach were filled with sorrow watching all of the food disappear into peoples' mouths. 

After dinner, we had a dialogue with Jin Ge, an ethnographer, documentary filmmaker, writer, and Senior Design Researcher at IDEO global design consultancy. After the discussion, Tyler and Luther wanted to sell their souls to him. Conley also wanted to see how much the remaining pieces of her soul could get her. It was likely because of his astounding creativity and bottomless depth of analytical thought. He certainly left me speechless, a rare happening indeed. 

On our way out of the building, Molly and Alvin went through that phase I think all of us go through at some point in our lives: the balancing a water bottle on top of your head phase. But I guess that's not common here, as they quickly gained a large Chinese fan base. But soon they had to stop since they were slowing us down. 

Walking down Nanjing Lu, we caught sight of Alex and Dong Laoshi walking on the opposite side. Bobo and I decided to work on our stalking skills and tailed them for a while. Our ultimate goal was to get a picture to submit with the blog and creep them out a bit, not that we're creepy or anything. Getting a good picture was notably difficult. We've both decided not to become private investigators. 

Soon after Alex and Dong Laoshi slipped out of our sights, everyone caught up with us and we continued heading towards the Bund. Before getting a group picture, there was a conversation about asking someone who couldn't outrun us to take it. Then we kept walking around and soon started returning to the hotel. Molly honed her bargaining skills on the street. 

Late in the evening, many of us hung around at the hotel. Hochiang pulled off some pretty awful card tricks. Tyler made it rain on Bobo with cards and money. Conley and Seong tortured her trying to get her to go out with them. Tyler showed me his puppy-dog face and my heart shattered into a million pieces. Other stuff happened. 

Now that we're in Shanghai, the end of our time together as a group seems way too close. It's very sad :(  

- Jimmy

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Day 31: Internship Excursion

Friday, June 6

At the beginning of the week, I was somewhat skeptical about living with a strange family as a home guest. I have never done so before, and this was also the longest time we – the program – would be apart. However, the end of the week came faster than I originally expected. Feeling somewhat nostalgic, I have never been ready to return to the US after traveling abroad. But I had an amazing week with my host family and the intern site I took part in. Everyday attending the intern from 8:00 to about 17:00 is not too stressful – unless you have been coffee-deprived this entire dialogue, like myself! Although there were some dull moments during Johnny's and my intern, the holistic experience is worthwhile. We made new friends and can keep in contact. Also, we now have incredible contacts if ever needed. Not quite finished yet, but our last week kicks-off tomorrow when we relocate to Shanghai for our last few shenanigans.

The past week Johnny and I interned at Dingxing Civil Society Organization Service Centre. We were granted some first-hand experience with an organization that has very close ties with the municipal government and the communities it services. Throughout the week, two workers treated us to lunch at a fairly new mall complex. The first time we went, we parked in the underground garage. Not alone, there was an adorable tabby kitten. I felt horrible for the poor thing. She is just a baby and all alone because the mum was nowhere near by. 

But, need to move on back to happy thoughts now. So before lunch today we were presented a rather special surprise as we were brought to a Buddhist temple site. We got to walk around the magnificent, elaborately detailed and decorated area. Astoundingly picturesque and serene, the space truly is a perfect sanctuary. As we were walking around, we passed by some monks as well. Just thought I'd mention that – you know, because we were at a temple. The Chinese women do always amaze me though. This happened on the Great Wall, at our hike of Huang Mountain in Anhui Province, and now here. Chinese women love to where high-heeled shoes when doing these types of adventures. Our co-workers were not shy of this fact. It baffles me how anyone can do so. Well, I suppose as long as it's not me, continue being fashionable. So after our walk around, we returned to one of the main offices located in Nanjing where we ate lunch. Today was a total plot twist compared to the rest of the week. After we all finished, we presented our gifts for our co-workers and the boss. While we were getting ready to leave, I was backing up and people love to place gigantic posters in the most random places, so I sort of bumped into it and it almost fell over. So embarrassing.

After we left though, I returned to my host family's place for one last night. As usual, they were so generous with their meals. They always serve large meals even though there are only five of us. I swear I've become so fat just in this past week. But I'm not complaining, the food was always incredibly delicious. However, this was our last meal together as we need to be and out early tomorrow to meet back on campus at Nanjing University to catch our train for Shanghai! I'm so excited! Had I attended NYU instead I would have eventually ended up here in Shanghai, but because of Northeastern I am here so much earlier! Never thought of traveling to China before, but it has been totally worth the time. Just wish it could be longer. But next time you hear from us, we'll be in SHANGHAI!

- Tim

Day 30: Hai Di Lao and Hu Jie

Thursday, June 5

Photo 1: Molly in the chemistry lab

Photo 2: Molly and I at our internship

Photo 3: Hai Di Lao

Photo 4: Hu Jie

On the third day of our internship with the Chemistry Department at Nanda, Molly and I continued to help the Ph.D. student we've been learning from with her experiments and attended a lecture by the Vice President of Cambridge University, Chemistry Professor Jeremy Sanders, who's well known among those in the fields of biology and chemistry. The previous two days, the people we worked for paid for our lunches, so today we paid for theirs. It required standing between them and the cashier. After lunch, we set up a separation compound to separate a product from reactants and possible side products … but unless your my or Molly's parents, you probably don't want to know about our adventures in the chemistry lab, so I'll move on to Hot Pot at Hai Di Lao.

From the first step inside, Hai Di Lao is a very fancy restaurant, but it also provides quite a bit of free service. When we first sat down in the waiting room, we were provided with plum juice and a plate of cucumbers. If there had been more time, some students would have gotten free manicures. Inside the dining room, they placed our backpacks in special closets set into the wall. The thing I liked most was the salad bar where we could mix personal dipping sauces – so no one had to conform to anyone else's odd preferences. My peanut chili sauce might have been the weirdest though (this is an indication that my parents should take me to a Thai restaurant when I get back). Most of the meal consisted of people stealing each other's meat, which vanished off plates within a few minutes, while the vegetarian students had mostly uninhibited access to any of the vegetables. Late in the meal, Dong Laoshi had the restaurant send in a man who did a "noodle dance" that involved swinging a long rope of noodles around the room to stretch it out in a complex pattern and scaring Kim by almost hitting her in the head with the noodle rope.  

By the time we finished, we were already late for the dialogue with Hu Jie, a documentary filmmaker we all completed readings and a previous assignment about. He is also an artist, and let us wander around his apartment looking at his fantastic paintings, which were either of his wife or commentary on the Chinese government. We then all sat in his living room and asked Hu Jie questions and everyone learned something new about a man we'd already read so much about. My Meimei was starting to get worried by the time I got home because I was so late (and since it's currently only me and a teenage girl who just graduated from high school, that's saying something). I was really exhausted when I got back, so that's the reason why this is probably going to be up on the blog a bit late, though not as late as some of the entries I've heard about.

- Mika

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Day 29: Another Day on the Job

Wednesday, June 4 

Photo 1: I arrive at Lao Men Dong

Photo 2: Dangerous popcorn

After a rather rude awakening by a disgruntled teenage boy's mild argument with his mother, I rolled out of bed and proceeded to get dressed. Normally, this would be the portion of my morning that involved a shower, but, since Chinese culture begs to differ, the shower was forgone. 

My host family is actually pretty well off. Their home, brand new, is very elegantly furnished and everything is completely spotless. Breakfast usually consists of what Americans would think of as lunch or even dinner in Chinatown. A plate piled high with dumplings, another with ShaoMai, a small bowl of soy sauce, hot milk and a bowl of rice sat on the table when I finally was ready to eat. Overeating is a very common occurrence during the homestay. I can understand that the family does not want anything to go to waste, but, sometimes, I feel that they buy extra just to shove down my throat. I'm not complaining. The food is always delicious, plentiful and fills me up after only a few bites. This can be a problem considering the amount of it. 

Off to work. My family lives in the AnDeMen region that is located just outside of the city of Nanjing and would probably be classified as a suburb. The area reminds me of Queens and the Bronx in New York if any of you readers are familiar. To get to work I have 3 primary options: Public bus, subway or taxi. The Public bus stops directly outside of my family's apartment complex, but drops me off about 10 minutes away from work. The subway station is about 10 minutes from the apartment complex and drops  me off about 5 minutes from work. And the taxi, if you should be lucky enough to find one, is just very expensive (relative to the aforementioned public transportation). I eventually arrived at the train station and, while receiving many a look from the locals, proceeded to take the train. 

Lao Men Dong is a gentrified version of what the old/beginnings of Nanjing used to look like. My job, along with Alvin, is with a company that manages and oversees every business that is currently behind the gate and any that are looking to invest/move in. We were given the task of helping to promote the World Cup event that the area is hosting in the next couple of weeks. While at first, this seemed challenging and creative, it soon turned impossible when we learned of the many bureaucratic hoops that the company must jump through in order to get any money from their fund. This, I guess, is just one of the problems of being government owned (which they are).

The entire area is filled with cultural images and architecture. When Dong Laoshi first brought Alvin and me here, she pointed out this picture where the children are excited to come to what seems like a cloud of white smoke. She challenged us to figure out what it was. After some inquiries with employees, we found out that this was actually a traditional way of making popcorn. It is dangerous because sometimes, when the bag was turned over and opened, the popcorn kernels could fly out due to pressure and hit people. Interesting. 

After work, our bosses took us to a comedy show that was in the area. The seats normally would've been 200 RMB each, but, since we were with important people, they were free! I would've taken a picture, but the bosses didn't seem to think that would be okay. We sat and drank tea while watching the show for some time before the bosses realized that neither I nor Alvin understood what was being said. Awkward. Still a fun experience though. 

After that, we departed and headed home to our host families. Mine decides to call it a night at around 10:30 so there was only a little bit of time remaining. I played WuZiQi with the father and some interesting card games with my DiDi. All in all, it was a great day. Happy blogging. 

- Tyler 

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Day 28: Internship Begins

Tuesday, June 3

Photos: Adventures at 老门东!

This morning was a real struggle. My host sister had to be at school at 7:30am. I had originally planned to leave with my host sister, but both my host mom and I decided it would be better for me to get a bit more sleep after waking up at 6am. Unfortunately, I woke up at 8:06 am, since I forgot to set an alarm for 7am; I had to be at my internship at 8:30am. I quickly got ready, but then I saw breakfast laid out especially for me, so I felt obligated to eat it. On the dining table, there was 酒酿元宵 (jiu niang yuan xiao) and unsweetened soymilk. I fell in love with the 酒酿元宵; it was sweet, but not too sweet—perfect for breakfast. I wish I had had more time to enjoy it.

Today was the first day of internship and I was 45 minutes late. In the United States, that would have been terrible. And it still is terrible that I was late on the first day, but my supervisor, Ms. Yin Jun, was extremely nice about it. For most of my work today, I helped edit the English on the website for the Institute for International Students at Nanjing University. 

Working in China appears to be more flexible than I expected. My lunch break was three hours long, so I headed to Café Belong, which I've wanted to go to while taking classes, to enjoy some coffee and to read some of my book. After an hour or so, I returned to Zeng Xianzi and chatted with Molly and Mika. I feel like I haven't seen anyone on our dialogue forever, but it has only actually been a day (lol). We caught each other up on stories with our host families and other things we were excited to do in the upcoming week and in Shanghai. After leaving Zeng Xianzi, I ran into Jon and Tim sipping some coffee at Momentum. That was another catching up talk in itself. 

I took the 83 bus and transferred to the 43 bus, successfully without taking the wrong bus and getting lost this time. Shortly after I arrived back at my host family's home, my host mom, my host sister and I took the 43 bus further to get to 老门东 (lao men dong). I love it there. The area was full of traditional-style Chinese architecture. There were many little shops that sold delicious 小吃 (xiao chi), so we literally went from shop to shop, eating every type of food. 

First, we had 豆腐脑 (dou fu nao), also known as 豆腐花 (dou fu hua). The sweet kind was one of my favorite desserts, even back in the States and I was first introduced to the salty kind, which is also great by the way, this time in China. Next, we moved onto soup dumplings and duck blood and other internal organs with vermicelli in soup (I know it sounds gross, but it is so good!). The soup dumplings, with some vinegar and chili as the dipping sauce, were honestly the best I've ever had in my life. I had passed by someone eating scallion pancake and I immediately wanted it when I saw the shop selling it. Sadly, it wasn't what I wanted; the pancake was hard. I like to think that my dad makes it a lot better, but my host mom told me that she'll make me the softer kind with wontons tomorrow for breakfast, so I'm excited for that ^__^. After venturing into a few shops that sold souvenirs, we stopped by another shop for a drink: I had watermelon slush to cool off my "internal fire." Finally, the last food of the night was from a stand just outside老门东 (lao men dong): stinky tofu. It was yummy and much better than the one I had at Xinjiekou during Mystery Nanjing. Man, I love food.

I hope to have more adventures like this. Goodnight J

- Judy

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Day 27: Dragon Boat Festival

Monday, June 2

Photo 1: Traditional scenery at ZongTongFu (Nationalist-era Presdient's House)

Photo 2:  弟弟 and I at ZongTongFu

I slept past 9:00 am today; it a true gift as we get few opportunities to sleep late on this dialogue. My host family has me sleep in a beautiful Western-style room on the second floor, while everyone else lives downstairs, so it is rather 寂寞 (lonely) sometimes. Today tough was special since it was 端午节 (Dragon Boat Festival)! Alex and Dong Lao Shi set expectations very high since it is a highly celebrated holiday around China. However, I walked downstairs to an empty home; it was oddly quiet and seemed just like a normal day. My host father heard me walk downstairs and soon greeted me "早上好." He explained that my host brother, 弟弟, had a soccer game and we should hurry to go watch him play. We ate a quick breakfast, fried flat bread filled with scrambled egg, and rushed to make sure we didn't miss his game. As usual, my host father drove like a maniac; lanes in China are more of an idea rather than an actual tool. He zoomed between cars and seized every opportunity to get further ahead if he saw an open space, no matter who was around him. Chinese drivers may be crazy, but they are definitely skilled and confident enough to be able drive in such a manner.  

Luckily, we arrived in one piece and even with all of the rushing we found my 弟弟 enjoying a nice 休息休息. Little did I know that he still had a good two hours or so left. My host father and I explored the park and played some basketball to pass the time. Still no 端午节 celebrating. After the soccer game, 弟弟 took me on a tour of China's previous President's home; it was very traditional and beautiful but just like every other attraction in China, it was filled with tourists making it tough to move and fully enjoy the experience. We stopped by 新街口 on the way to pick up my brother's new glasses but made no effort to stay and find some 端午节 activities.

Back home, it was time for another 休息; I guess since my brother goes to school from 7:30 am to 10:00 pm he needs all the rest he can get before he has to do his homework and practice piano, all after soccer practice. The parents must also have been resting since they were nowhere in sight… a very relaxing Sunday for a big holiday. I joined in on in the fun and had a rest for a few hours. My host parents woke me up and told me to get ready as we were going out to dinner. I thought to myself, finally going to celebrate the holiday! But my luck ran short as we just went out to a restaurant nearby; the food was still delicious, although I wonder if it is worth going through all of the trouble to eat the small amount of meat on crawfish. Back home, the parents went to bed and I finally asked my 弟弟why we didn't do anything special for the holiday? His reply was simple, it just wasn't that important to his family…

I got stories from classmates about their 端午节, who had some better experiences. Many students were taught how to make the traditional holiday food, 粽子，a glutinous rice bound in bamboo leaves (one of my favorite Chinese foods). Others explored various places around Nanjing like the Confucius Temple.

Overall it was a very relaxing holiday, very similar to one I would have in the US if didn't have school.  If I really want to see how the Chinese celebrate a holiday, I need to stick around for the Chinese New Year…

- Jonny

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Day 26: Fei Cheng Wu Rao

Sunday, June 1

Photos: Dialogue students pose with some of the female contestants from China's #1 dating show, Fei Cheng Wu Rao

I wish I could write a blog about yesterday, my first day with my host family. I wasn't expecting so much to happen in one day, and it was pretty fun after I got over my initial nervousness from the whole situation. But now I need to try to entertain y'all with the events of today.

I woke up sweating at 4am today in a 27-degree room. Last night Liu Shushu gave me an extra blanket because it was cold, but then I guess he shut off the air conditioning, so it got hot…yeah, I think you understand what I'm trying to say now… So I rose to use the bathroom, and outside the window I heard a cat screaming. You may be wondering if 'screaming' is the right word to describe any sound a cat can make, but I can assure you it is. I'm not sure if it got hit by a car or a poorly thrown knife and was slowly dying, or something else was going on… 

But back to my first-world problem of being a little uncomfortably hot. So I returned to the room and stealthily searched for the A/C remote in the darkness. Finding it did not solve my problems though, as it was not so simple a task as pressing the power button and adjusting the temperature. But they don't call me 俊杰 for nothing. I got that bastard on after several grueling minutes of experimental button pressing. BUT then it was stuck on 20 degrees so I got real cold real fast, and my extra blanket was failing me, and I was failing life. 

So I'm sharing a bunk bed with my 8-year-old host brother Songling. And while lying on the bottom in those early hours of the morning, I had the pleasure of listening to him react to nightmares and make some other unrelated sounds. I don't know what he does on that top bunk sometimes, even while he's awake. There are so many weird noises coming from up there. Maybe it's better if I don't know…

(Spoiler alert: I do know, and it's not as strange as I'm leading you to believe. But I'm still not going to tell you, so I guess this isn't much of a spoiler.)

A few hours later I returned to the bathroom to grace myself to the solo symphony of a suffering cat (alliteration fail). I wonder if it was screaming the entire time. Where's TNR when you need them? But who could care about that when I then shut off the air conditioning with the single push of a button! Yayyyy!

And then I wrote the blog up to this point. Yesterday Liu Shushu kept forcing me to 休息休息 (rest), and every time that happened I frantically wrote everything I could remember in my journals. I'm so on top of things, guys; don't worry. I've already technically fulfilled the word count requirement for blog entries, but I'll keep going for you, my beloved viewers (if you actually exist). Hi Tyler. Hi Bobo. 

Later in the morning, we all ate breakfast together. They said they would be celebrating Children's Day while I'm out at Fei Cheng Wu Rao. It was down-pouring quite a bit this morning, and they kindly drove me back to Nanjing University to avoid the rain. 

I met Bobo at the Xiyuan lobby and then walked over to our former class building to meet everyone. Alex got sick yesterday (condolences) and was not present this morning. He's been working too hard and his body gave out, or someone poisoned his food. But he said he had a really fun time getting an IV at the hospital, so I think I'll be getting sick soon. It seems about my time to shine (with a sweaty hot fever). Oh man…I felt so hilarious writing that, so I think that means I'm really tired (it's the end of the day now), or I am really getting sick.

During our groups long awaited reunion we talked about our first day with our host families. And after Dong Laoshi changed out of her wet clothes, leaving Luther jealously soaked in misery (and rain) at the sight of her fresh, crisp outfit, we took a bus to Jiangsu Broadcasting studio. We were joined by Teal Mingledorff and another woman who I've seen before but whose name I shamefully don't remember. 

Soon after entering the studio, a couple of the "Love Corner" girls from the show started hitting on Steven, aka 帅哥, aka red T-shirt boy, because who wouldn't? Later others in the group tried to give the girls his WeChat. In the end, he let them down 帅-ly.

We were some of the first to enter the staging area, so a lot of people went around taking pictures. I didn't take good pictures today, so I had so steal them (谢谢). Soon other audience members started coming in so we had to scramble back to claim our seats. Now…

CAN YOU FEEL IT? You know, reading that typed-out does not feel as powerful as hearing the music. I apologize for being incapable of conveying the appropriate sensation to you. But anyway, that's the music that signals a male contestant dropping down the elevator to enter the stage. First up was the Alvin look-alike. To cut to the chase, he left the stage alone. Number 13, 王小玲, studied at UCLA and rapped the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song during her introduction. That won me over, and upon hearing her Tyler immediately jumped onto the stage and tried to propose, but I stopped him, if only out of pure jealously. (I'm kind of lying right now, but inhibitions aside, that's what would have happened.) Also noteworthy was Number 24, whose name I didn't get. But she wore these Mario overalls and whenever she was talking or the focus was on her, Mario theme music played. She also downed a mug of beer during the show and sparred with one of the male contestants. Then there was a dancer guy who wore polka dot pants.  Also Ben Affleck. I couldn't take notes during the show, and my memory of the other contestants is already blurry, so that's all I have for you. 

In the audience, we all sat on little blue, plastic stools, and the taping lasted several hours without any chance to stand. We got so hot and uncomfortable. Seong had no issues to speak of, though. I wasn't as interested in paying attention to the last 1 or 2 contestants because I just wanted to get up and out of the crowd, but the show is really fun to watch in a space of physical comfort. And I'm very glad I had the opportunity to see it live. 

After the taping, we were honored with a Q&A session from the show's producers. I'm doing a terrible job with names today, but my notes from the session are otherwise impeccable. 

After the Q&A, we returned to Old Friends for a group dinner before we parted again with countless tears from all, especially Hochiang. But before those tears, Bobo, Judy, Mika, and I were the group discussion leaders this week. We kept everyone waiting while trying to solidify our plan of attack. 不好意思。

I said bye to some people and we walked opposite ways, but their way turned out to be locked in, so they came back my way. How awkward. Then I sat outside Xiyuan using Wi-Fi for a few minutes; others did the same, many waiting to get picked up by their host families. 

After I finished using Wi-Fi, I said bye to Conley and Steven and went to buy an orange juice, then started walking back to my host family. I ran into Bobo waiting for a bus. I think she was nervous about finding her way back to her host family, so I decided to put her out of her misery and pushed her in front of the next bus that came by. But in this episode of Bobo vs. bus, the bus was no match for Bobo. After that she wasn't nervous anymore so she thanked me with a hug. I'm such a nice guy, I know. (I'm kind of lying again. I hope I can maintain credibility after this.) After her bus came I continued walking home.  

I found my way back to my host family without trouble, surprisingly. They made me eat more food.  Tomorrow I will learn how to refuse food (this is future me talking, because it already happened now).

I was able to hear my darling, screaming cat a few more times, as I showered, and as I was writing this blog. Also my room smells like Petco now. I'm pretty sure it didn't yesterday, not that I'm complaining. 

Jimmy

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Day 25: Homestay Begins

Saturday, May 31

Photo 1: Me, Wang Ayi and Li Munan

Photo 2: Me and Wang Ayi in front of the City Wall

Today's the day Dong Laoshi and Alex get rid of us, as we are shipped off to our homestays for the week. I woke up a little earlier, kind of tired and diseased, but needed to do laundry since I was too busy yesterday…not doing it…meh. I bumped into a couple others as well. As I waited for my laundry to finish, I decided to use Momentum's wifi from the steps of Xiyuan one last time. By 10:30, I had finished everything I needed to do, so I went down to check out of the hotel for good. A bunch of us ended up just waiting around the lobby until it was time. A mix of nerves and excitement, we headed to the classroom building, where Dong Laoshi started introducing us to our host families.

I was met by my host mother, Wang Ayi, and host brother, Li Munan (Gareth). It was kind of interesting finally putting a face to the person I had been sending emails to for the past two weeks. Gareth and I chatted a little bit in English and Chinese, but Wang Ayi couldn't speak any English, so we ended up talking about simple things like age, which included a conversation about how young Alex was to be teaching. Dong Laoshi then proceeded with a speech about how weird us Americans can be before we dispersed.

I got onto Wang Ayi's car and she drove for a bit before stopping and letting a man take her place to drive the car to a gas station. After filling up the car, he drove a little further and left. I'm still not really sure what happened, but the man was apparently an acquaintance of theirs… Anyway, afterwards there was talk of going to Gareth's grandparents, but it didn't happen. We arrived at their apartment on the west side of Nanjing, which happened to be very beautiful and well-kept. It legitimately looked like something out of a magazine. Super impressed.

We headed out for lunch at New City Plaza, across the street, with the intent to eat at Pizza Hut…but the line was quite massive…lol. We ended up eating frogs at this restaurant, 一茶一坐, instead. We walked around for a bit in the plaza, which happened to have the second Librairie Avant-Garde in it. We headed back to the apartment to rest for a bit, which turned into a long conversation about family, allowing me to show my collection of photos as well as to see photos of their family, including Gareth's father. I'm still not sure if I'm going to meet him, because his work as a traffic police officer requires him to stay at Nanjing's border, only allowing him to return home once every couple of weeks.

The three of us took the 9 bus to Xinjiekou, where they brought me to the newest shopping mall in the area, the biggest bookstore in Nanjing, Fashion Lady, and 1912. We then hopped on another bus to the Nanjing Library, and walked to the Ming Wall. From the wall, Wang Ayi pointed out the apartment where her parents lived, the schools that Gareth went to, and the two buildings in Nanjing considered as eyesores to the natives. We had a lot of time to talk, which allowed me to learn that Wang Ayi's father was a war veteran. I also found out that Gareth actually hasn't gone to school in a year and when he did, he used to live at high school, rarely going home. It was definitely shocking to me, finally wrapping my head around the situation. It turns out that Gareth actually applied for Northeastern University and was accepted, but decided on Bard College instead. In order to take the SATs, though, he had to study on his own as well as go to Hong Kong to take the actual test.

We headed to a food court at Hunan Road for dinner, where we ate this massive bowl of spicy…something. It was great. Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment on the 56 bus. There was quite a walk back from the stop, since we got off early so that Wang Ayi could try to teach me how to take the buses back by myself. I think I'm gonna get lost anyway. Oh well. So as we were walking back, it turns out Wang Ayi got a ticket because she parked somewhere she wasn't supposed to.  She told me she didn't like driving because parking is a huge problem. After moving the car and getting back to the apartment, Wang Ayi and I watched today's episode of Feicheng Wurao, which started with a talk about waiguorens from Nanda being on the show…Tomorrow's gonna be an experience!

- Steven

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Day 24: Finals, Cooking Class Round 2

Friday, May 30

Photos: Cooking class moments

The most notable thing about today was that we all had our finals (except Judy and Hochiang, who had it the day before). We all were running on a few hours of sleep and a lot of coffee. It was so hard in that previous sentence to resist the urge to say "a latte" coffee. 

Anyways as far as my class (Intermediate 1) goes we pretty much all over-studied for the written part and under-studied for the oral. I personally studied writing for 3 hours when there ended up being 20 words that were all on our previous quizzes. 我不高兴. And in the oral part I literally forgot how to speak, not speak Chinese, just speak in general. Cao Laoshi felt pity for me though and let me restart it. I don't know what the other classes tests were like but I asked Alvin and Seong how they did and they both said "failed" so I think that explains enough. 

After the tests we ate food/napped and then we went to the cooking school for round 2. I was once again partners with Hochiang, to his dismay because his skills were nothing compared to my culinary prowess. That is laden with sarcasm, as my mom and dad (hi guys) will definitely pick up on. I was not a big fan of the cleaver we used to cut a small block of bean curd so I simply observed on that part. The next part was slicing it and I happily partook in that, my large, uneven slices definitely added a much needed element of texture to our dish. Our final dish was bean curd slices with vegetables in a pork broth and while I didn't taste any, the students had no complaints about mine and Hochiang's so it was clearly the best (Kim's group didn't add enough salt and Bobo's put in too much MSG - I didn't know there was such a thing). 

The second dish we made was an absolutely delicious eggplant one. I was really into cutting the eggplants, because they are surprisingly light, so I failed to notice that my trusty (now not so trusty) cooking partner had gone off on his own and made his own eggplant which left me to fend for myself. Luckily the cooking school students basically did all of the work on this one but I was freaking out for like 32 seconds. In the end all of our eggplant dishes were very good and it led to an interesting conversation about eggplant fights. After that we watched the students make sugared apples, which were incredibly hot and totally worth the tongue burn. The students gave us a really cute gift and the end and then we said our goodbyes. 

A group of people went to KTV (kareoke) with their fudaos (Language Partners). I did not attend but johnny got a cake from his so I'm assuming it went well. Judy, Kim and I wanted to go shopping so we went to Xin Jie Ko with Hochiang, Steven and Jimmy, specifically to Fashion Lady. We then went to some traditional Nanjing restaurant for dinner. It was a little expensive but we were able to watch Hochiang eat a half pound of crawfish by himself so it was worth it. Then we walked back to our hotel to sleep and on the way discovered the joy in scaring Kim by popping out from behind trees. 今天很好。

- Conley

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