Knot too Difficult?

Walking in to the new community.

My Chinese knot. Knot the best.

Before class, we were given subway cards. I feel like its a little late in the program, but any free resource is highly appreciated. I've been using the subway quite a bit on the weekends, and my host family has let me use their subway card. Any who, I would like to share an observation on expectations versus realities. When I applied for this program, I acknowledged that it was very selective with only about 15% to 20% of the applicants actually being accepted. With that in mind, I felt that all of those accepted would be people genuinely passionate about learning Chinese, people who would be willing to work hard and be respectful. Although the majority of those accepted fit this picture, there are a few people in the Chinese Chengdu NSLI-Y group who surprise me a little bit. In my class, there is one individual who I'm shocked that they were accepted. This individual doesn't study what we learn in class very often and doesn't seem to care about learning Chinese. At one point, this person even said something really disrespectful to the teacher's face, but our Chinese teacher, knowing little English, didn't understand what they said. They continue to make jokes all the time that go way to far in that they are racist, sometimes explicit, and often just downright rude and ungrateful. For example, one time I was near this individual and I heard them say how it was NSLI-Y's fault for this horrible present situation and how their host family hates them. I just want to express the point that selective programs and universities don't always select the perfect candidates. The people who are chosen are all still humans with dynamic emotions and personalities, and some of the people are just downright rude and arrogant. I will step off my soap box again. In the afternoon, we headed to another small community called Suangliu Gui She Qu. I believe this community is a bit unique because of the resources it provides to its residents. Unlike the community I live in, this community has a craft store place that reminds me a little of Rosie the Riveter in that it aims to provide jobs to jobless women in the community. There is another place for kids whose parents have gone to jobs in farther locations and who were left with their grandparents. This place gives kids a place to play, do crafts, be cared for, and even volunteer. We saw another place for mothers and a different place for elders that provide similar social and practical resources. It seems that volunteerism is engrained in this community. Today we were “volunteering” again. Once again, though I had a great time and new experience, I don’t think what we did should be considered volunteering; it was more of a cultural activity. At first, we talked with the older people, at least attempted to, and played card games. We only did this for about 15 minutes, and the old people seemed a little confused as to why a large group of Americans were crashing their quiet time. Afterwards, we went to the kids place to make Chinese knots. It was incredibly difficult. I have no clue how somebody came up this style of making a knot. Let me just say that there were no bunny ears involved. After another photo op, we headed back to school, and 吴璨 and I headed home. Twenty-two plums and two pears later, I had a nice dinner with my host family of leftovers and some of my favorites. Exciting news, my host parents told me that we are going to go to Leshan county in the Sichuan Province to see the big Buddha statue this weekend. I think there was a picture of this statue in my AP World textbook.