Be Our Guest!

Heading to Chengdu from Beijing at last. Don’t let the Shanghai newspaper fool you.

A warm welcome from The Experimental School of Suangliu Middle School (ESSMS). Marria, another China NSLI-Y partcipant, is the person in the photo.

Another warm welcome from ESSMS before their spectacular show.

We finally made it to Chengdu after multiple cancellations and difficulties. At 7:30 am, we said goodbye to the Aulympic Airport Hotel and headed to the Beijing airport. After checking our bags and going through security, we took a bus across the tarmac to the China Southern Airlines plane flying us, and many others, from Beijing to Chengdu. I must say that that flight was one of the most enjoyable flights I've had. The airplane food, including rice and chicken, fish, and vegetable stir-fry, additional vegetables, orange slices, yogurt, a sweet treat, and a spicy beet topping, was actually pretty good. Additionally, the airplane music was very relaxing with hints of Asian cultural infusion. There was some turbulence, but overall, the flight was wonderful. Once we arrived in Chengdu, we were greeted by some teachers/facility and the principal of The Experimental School of Suangliu Middle School (ESSMS). They quickly loaded us onto a bus and took us to the ESSMS where we took a pre-examination to test our Chinese skills. As of so far, we've taken a total of three Chinese tests for placement into Chinese classes, being either beginner, intermediate, or advanced. After doing a quick Chinese oral and written test, we all headed to a lecture room filled with students, faculty, and some host families. To welcome us to the community, students at ESSMS performed different shows. Some primary school students danced in sparkly purple dresses with bright red bows in their hair in boxes that looked like cars. One girl sang a Chinese song, and a group of four girls danced to music that I'm pretty sure was from Latin America. Another young girl wearing traditional Chinese clothing played a traditional Chinese instrument. To top it all off, two boys sang "Chengdu", a very popular Chinese song. My favorite part of the whole show was my host sister's speech. Before the singing and dancing, my host sister gave a quick speech about being a host family and how she thought that I was a good girl. Afterwards, 吴璨 gave me a sign she made and a stuffed panda bear she had purchased. Then, we went to a shop right across from ESSMS to purchase ice cream. I tried a milk pudding popsicle, and I must say it was very good; 10 out of 10, recommend.

After a long journey and a long day, they took me to their home, being a humble apartment 40 minutes away from the school, where I meet their energetic dog named Potato. They gave me a pair of bright pink slippers to walk around the house in and a cup for tea/hot water. They even gave me a wash bowl to wash underclothes because apparently they don't wash those in the washer and dryer like most people do in America. My host family is so kind and accommodating. I feel so welcome.