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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