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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