China Day 21: July 25, 2010 Sunday

Up early for a talk with my husband and then roommate, Jenny, and I went to the flower shop to buy some flowers for our Chinese host families.

My family arrived at 8:25, five minutes earlier than promised. I met them: Ken, Alice and daughter Mary. (How funny, I have an Uncle Ken and Aunt Alice, so I have those names down.)

Mary had given me pretty good schedule so I was somewhat prepared, but it turned out to be even a better experience than I had hoped.

The day began with a great tour of their apartment.

Most everyone in the city in china lives in an apartment, which is most often owned not rented. The Chen family live in a very nice apartment that they have been in only two years.

It is so lovely. I got the kind of tour that could especially be facilitated by a young person: all of the nooks and crannies and storage areas. The home was spotless and wonderful. The kitchen was really space aged. They even let me look inside their dishwasher.

The bedrooms were spacious, and they had a guest room where grandma used to live when Mary was a baby. It was fun to see the things they had set up for Feng Shui (the Chinese art of how things are placed and arranged for the best flow of energy.) There were two mythical creatures that were part dragon and part lion that were placed facing a window out of which you could see the hospital.

These creatures are set to protect the family from the bad energy of sick and dying people.

The daughter, Mary is quite an artist and she let me look through her portfolio of drawings. They were lovely!

And then we walked around the complex gardens. These were very extensive being surrounded by many apartment buildings but having the same common space with a swimming pool, community gardens, children’s play areas, walking paths. It was a relief to know that although the building is very dense, there are these lovely green spaces.

I went with them to a two-hour badminton coaching session for their family.... I haven't had such a hard workout in years. I was dripping with sweat.

Luckily they thought to bring me a shirt to change into. I thought that I would watch Mary play and take some video, maybe hit a bit, but it was a huge workout and lesson for all of us! The coach was very serious. I really enjoyed it, but stated with quite a humiliation because I couldn’t hit a serve over. I probably missed 75 of the first 100 serves I tried. And they would just give me back the shuttle cock (really nice ones with feathers on them).

FINALLY, Ken thought of allowing me a really lame little backhand shot which I could do (thank God!) We played and played. Mary finally told me I could rest for a while and she would play with her friends. I join in a bit more, but was really grateful I could stop.

The coach asked to have his photo taken with me and the whole gang got in on it: coach, assistant coaches, Mary’s two friends, their mothers, even the video camera guy….oh yes, I didn’t mention that I had a videographer from the school following me around this whole day shoot me in my glory and the agony of defeat. I don’t know what I would have done without that spare shirt! Oh my! I am going to try to get a copy of the raw footage from that taping. Should be a good show.

After badminton, we went to the mall to a bookstore.

Ken helped me to find two wonderful books in English of authentic Chinese folktales and classic tales and myths. I had previously asked four of the Chinese teachers who teach English and none of them knew of such a book. I will enjoy learning these stories when I get home.

Mary then surprised me with a beautiful original piece of artwork that she had drawn for me and that they had had professionally matted and framed. Wow! What a special gift!

We then went to lunch (Mary invited her two friends t o come along). We had very wonderful food. Much better than to nice food we have everyday at the hotel and at the school lunches. What a feast. We ate and ate!

Then a little stroll behind the restaurant. I played some Rock, Paper, Scissors. They were playing in Chinese first and then switched to English to include me. Very nice!

An additional walk in the park was last on the agenda.

There, we found the local version of a dog park or dog beach with tons of dogs and owners. They would throw tennis balls for the dogs and dogs would swim like crazy. Some things need no translating.

During the walk, there was more chance to talk, especially with Ken about his observations about china, and worries he has for his daughter’s future. He and Alice have already set aside $140,000 for Mary’s college education. He acknowledged that this might not be enough, but that she is only 11 years old. Ken finished his MBA degree a couple of years ago. He would so enjoy talking to Dick, my husband.

They invited Dick and I to return to China and that we could stay at their home and perhaps we could all travel together. How cool would that be?

It was such an incredibly wonderfully great day. Wow! I thought several times, “Now THIS is what I came to China for!”

Evening took a meeting and getting ready for week number three. Tired and sure I will feel sore after all that exercise today. Ken and Alice both said they thought I did well with the badminton. Alice called and told the school that I very clever because I learned the game so quickly, and Ken said that someone my age in China would not be expected to have done so well, so I guess I wasn’t a total badminton loser. Whew!