Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes

Above is my pretty stellar panda with a pretty stellar background.

Today, I felt a like all eyes were on me. On my way to class, I could hear girls giggling as I passed and guys staring questionably at my face. Every where I go, it seems that people stare at me. No matter how hard I try, fitting in, at least by appearance, is not an option. Any who, I arrived to school for my first day of Chinese classes at 7:40 am. Upon arriving at the school, we all looked to see which class we were placed in. There are three different classes: Class A (Beginner), Class B (Intermediate), and Class C (Advanced). All the classes are learning a similar curriculum except the speed at which the learning takes place varies. Additionally, the teacher for Class C speaks very little English.

To my surprise, I was placed in Class C with nine others. After a morning of Chinese and confusion, we had lunch in the cafeteria. The lunch provided was a mixture of American and Chinese dishes. There was fried chicken, french fries, tofu, chicken stir fry, rice, fresh fruit, cantaloupe and plum juice, and a sponge-like dessert. After another two hours of Chinese language learning, we learned how to do Chinese paper cutting (see the picture above). I must say, my panda is looking pretty stellar. It's funny how we all started with the same pattern but ended up with completely different products.

Afterwards, I asked my host sister if I could go for a run because there is a track at ESSMS, and my running schedule has been thrown off a bit due to all the traveling. Happily I was able to run. During my run, a normal-looking boy from the school took interest in me. On my first lap around he asked me if I was a foreign exchange student to which I replied yes. On my next lap he asked me if I was tired and gave me a bottle of water he had purchased for me. It was a little odd. After a solid run around the track, my host sister and a group of her friends took me to a restaurant to eat. Near the school, there are a number of little shops selling food, stationary, books, and toys. For dinner, we went to a tiny shop with light blue walls and two rows of tables side by side. We all ate bowls of rice noodles, and I my favorite part was the Chinese sauerkraut. Wu Can told me people don't usually eat the sauerkraut, but I love pickled food. My mouth felt tingly because of the Sichuan pepper. I tried to explain it to my host sister, but she didn't quite understand what I meant when I said "my mouth" and "weird." Since my sister had evening classes, I tagged along and sat next to her while her class read ancient Chinese texts. I could understand bits and pieces, but I a lot of the words were specialized. Wu Can told me she struggled to understand the texts too. At 8:00 pm, Wu Can's father, a medium statured man with a round face and friendly eyes, drove us home. Along the way, they taught me their address from the country to the apartment number in Chinese. I cashed out as soon as we arrived at their apartment and remembered that today was the 4th of July. Happy 4th from China! 🎉