So, my first semester in China has ended, but my time in China has only just begun. I moved from 北京 to Shijiazhuang (石家庄) for my winter break. 石家庄 is the capital and largest city of Hebei Province. I am so happy to get the chance to stay with a host family during my winter break. My Chinese friend was kind enough to ask her family if I could stay with them and now here I am living with a Chinese family. It’s been a time. Most times, I’m really confused by what’s going on and I don’t understand everything that’s been said to me. However, I’m really looking forward to improving my Chinese.
I stayed with my host family for about a month. The first couple of days were very overwhelming as I met everyone. There was 阿姨 (ayi)，叔叔 (shushu)，二姨 (eryi)，小姨 (xiao yi)，姥爷 (laoye)，姥姥 (laolao) and those were just the people that I met on the first day. It felt like every other day I was meeting a new family member. Family is really important in China, and I experienced that first on with my family. They all wanted to talk to me and show me things. At times it was hard because they didn't speak English and I didn't know what to say in Chinese. Another thing that confused me was that I had to change houses three times. They explained why in Chinese but I didn't really understand. It was funny because they would ask me if it was okay that we were going to a different house. Of course it was okay. I just didn't know why. After the first week, we went to one house and we stayed there for the remainder of my stay with them.
I went to a couple of places in 石家庄. I visited Xi Jinping's old workplace, an ancient town in 石家庄 and a the Hebei Museum. I didn't visit too many places but it was nice to just enjoy a slower pace of life after traveling for a couple of weeks and having school. It was nice to have family meals again and I learned a lot about Chinese lifestyle. After lunch, everyone would take a nap. I quite like this change. I've noticed this at my internship too. After everyone finishes lunch, they have about a half hour to take a quick nap. We would also go for walks after dinner which was nice too. I think we should start to implement these into our lives in America.
One thing that we did every night was watch the national swimming finals in Hangzhou. My family would always put it on because they knew I could understand it even though it was in Chinese. It was a good way to hang out at the end of the night and we were all able to understand what was going on. Also it was a competition so there was a lot of cheering going for China and the United States (加油!).
All in all, I'm so happy that I had the opportunity to live with a host family. I can now say that I have a family in China and I hope that one day they can visit me in America.
Until next time!
再见！
郎马乐
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