Meichen and Maddie Take Inner Mongolia

Hello Everyone!
I just got back from a very hectic, but very exciting Spring Festival Holiday. Last Sunday (Feb. 15th) Meichen and I got on a plane to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, where Meichen grew up, to meet her family for Chinese New Year. We left the dorms around 6:30am for 9:00am flight and we landed around1:00pm. Her dad was there waiting to pick us up. From the airport we went straight to her Aunt's (her moms sister, the second oldest of EIGHT children) house for a quick lunch. After a very authentic and delicious Chinese meal (one of many on this trip) Meichen and I braved the cold to checkout her old high school and the surrounding city. Hohhot, although it is obviously not as big as Shanghai, is a very well developed city. They even have their own version of those City Bikes. Not even Shanghai has that! After a quick tour around Hohhot where Meichen told me about her life as a Chinese high school student, we got back in the car for a two hour trip to Ordus, which is the town Meichen's father (who I just call baba) works.

Baba works for an energy power plant in Ordus. The family has two apartments, one close to the power plant and the other back in Hohhot. To my understanding the apartment near the power plant is more like a dormitory for the workers and their families to stay at for convenience. When we arrived, we had Hot Pot for dinner. It was absolutely delicious! That night we played several rounds of pingpong and badminton before going off to bed.

Day 2:
On the second day we woke up around 7:00am so that Meichen could take me around Ordus. I'm not sure how many people reading this have ever ridden on a Chinese public bus before, but it is quite the adventure. Many of the Chinese choose this mode of transportation because it is only 1 kuai to get on. So Meichen and I hopped on and we went to go visit a Church as well as a really pretty park that was built on top of a mountain. After walking outside for about 2 hours we went back inside the warmth and took a short nap before we ate some more Chinese food. (I should mention that I took the week off for my marathon training for this trip. I figured I wouldn't have the time or means to run my weeks worth of miles). After we ate, baba wanted us to take a tour of the power plant, so we could see where he worked. To my knowledge baba is the deputy manager of this plant. When he walked in the room all the workers stood up, which tells me he is likely a very important man.

Meichen's cousin also joined us on this trip to practice her English. She was a junior in high school and she really wants to attend NYUSH as well. She was very nervous to try to talk to me at first, but once she saw how easily Meichen and I spoke Chinglish (Chinese and English) she realized she had nothing to worry about.

There was one mix up, though. While on the way to Meichen's grandparents house, we took two cars. Meichen wanted her cousin to practice more English so baba me and her cousin were in one car while Meichen and mama were in the other. While we were in the car, Li Tong, the cousin, asked me what our horses in America were made out of. I was bit confused by the question. She asked, "are they made of stone or wood? In China our horses are made out of stone and wood sometimes." I was so confused, so I said no our horses in America are real, and she just stared at me so confused. I tried to type 'real' into a translator but that just confused her more. And then I started to question why China didn't have real horses. I thought it was like a Troy story or a Terra-cotta warrior thing. Then she asked me if my dad made our horse, and I was like, "no. we don't own a horse" and at this point I was getting really frustrated with her horse questions. Then it dawned on me that she meant HOUSES. I have never laughed so hard in my life. The funny thing is that if she had just said it in Chinese I would have known what she was trying to say. haha lesson learned.

Also on the way to Grandma's house we passed through a desert. It was still really cold but there were sand dunes and pretty views, so we stopped to take some pictures. ( Never fear, I will be posting those later)

Meichen's grandparents (both sets) live in the same town. However she quickly told me that she is far closer with her dad's parents than her moms, since her dad is only one of three children and her mother has such a large family. For lunch, however, we ate with her moms parents. Thus began the endless meetings of distant relatives. Everywhere I turned it felt like Meichen had a new family member to introduce me to. They were all very kind and patient with my Chinese. None of them spoke any English. While I mostly listened to the conversation, I was also able to answer a lot of their direct questions, which I was pretty proud of.

After lunch we went to her dad's parents house and that was our living quarters for the next 5 days. We had such a great time there. We played Mahjong (which I learned completely in Chinese! Baba taught me), went to a Chinese movie, and watched the Chinese New Year special on TV. The eating was basically endless. By the fifth day, I knew I was not Chinese, because I could only eat a bowl of rice before I was telling them I was already full. They laughed at how much more they were eating than me, but Meichen's grandma came to the conclusion that Chinese food just makes white people full faster.
New Years Eve and Day were especially crazy. The fireworks were endless! Let me tell you now, there are no regulations for these fireworks. They set them off where ever! There are literally open bonfires on the sidewalks! When we went out to set ours off I was so scared I was going to get hit by one I couldn't stay outside for long. Of course Meichen's family thought it was hilarious that I was so scared. They just shook their heads and said "foreigner". I had to laugh at that. It was painfully obvious I had never experienced fireworks like they do.
On New Years Day we went around to everyones house and said "过年好“ which is a version of "Happy New Year". For dinner we had a meat and sauerkraut dish. That made me laugh, because we have almost the exact same dish for our New Year's in the states. What a small world!
Throughout our stay I had so many fun conversations with grandma and mama. Grandma was basically the head of the household, and you could tell she was a strong women. I caught her staring at me a lot and every time I looked back at her we would burst out laughing. When it was time to leave, she said to me in Chinese, "did you like your stay here." I answered "of course" to which she replied "Then you never have to leave". I was so touched, by her kindness. I would have stayed there forever just playing Mahjong with her, but it was time to return to Hohhot.
Mama knew some English and tried practicing on me, while she taught me Chinese. Meichen thought our communication system was hysterical. There was a lot of hand gestures and pointing involved. The theme of almost all our conversations was whether or not I was cold (which she always insisted I was, because I don't wear layers on my legs) and whether or I was hungry. I rarely was, but she kept telling me to eat. It became an inside joke with the family. She would say in Chinese "吃吃吃吃吃“ （eat eat eat...) and I would say "不吃不吃不吃(no no no...) really fast.
After a long stay at Grandmas, we returned to Hohhot where Meichen and I caught up on sleep and hung out with some of her high school classmates. We even got the chance to visit a temple! On the last night Meichen looked at me and said. "Ok Maddie, I think you've had enough Chinese food for one little foreigner" and she took me to Pizza Hut. I have to say, I have never loved my roommate more than that moment. I'll be honest, I wanted nothing more than a personal pan pizza after eating three meals a day of Chinese dish after Chinese dish. I think I may have cried a little when she told me our dinner plans. haha.

The next day we were back on a plane to the dorms. I'm pretty sure her parents are already planning next year's events. They really want my family to come and join the fun, but I had to explain to them that Americans don't get off for this holiday.

This week I hit the halfway mark in my training for the marathon. Also I have a Stat midterm tomorrow and I am a part of Candidate weekend for the incoming Chinese freshmen this weekend and next! I am very excited to help the evaluation process and to give back a little to the University!

Love from Shanghai,
Maddie

Update on life/ Sorry I haven't posted in a while...

Hello everyone!

This semester of college is proving to be way busier than the last. I've barely had any free time since school started up, which explains the lack of posting. My schedule this semester is difficult but I'm enjoying it. I am currently in my first calculus class ever, and I actually really like it. My professor goes really fast, but he explains it all really well. Which is all you can really ask for in a math professor. Unfortunately I will only get to have him for half the semester because the professor we were originally supposed to have is on sick leave for seven weeks but is coming back mid semester. The logistics of it are kind of a mess because the math professor I have right now literally got on a plane the night before classes started and just showed up to the first lecture. haha

As for the rest of my classes, Chinese just keeps getting harder and harder. But my laoshi is really pushing our speaking levels this semester, so the progress I'm making is really exciting. GPS had our first guest lecturer, Catharine Mackinnon, come last week. It was a true honor to hear her speak, as she is one of the worlds most famous feminists. (I'll be honest, I may have freaked out just a little).

This weekend my friends and I went to an expat market called jiashan market and there was all kinds of foods represented by almost every country you could think of. There a lot of little international children running around and the food was absolutely delicious! It was also really fun to ask all the vendors why they are living in Shanghai. A lot of them just came to Shanghai on vacation and fell in love. Unfortunately the market is closing up until April, but now that we know about it, we will definitely be returning!

Today I reached the 9 mile mark in my marathon training. I am beginning to loathe the treadmill, but I have friends taking shifts on who gets to talk to me as I run. The people who work at the gym know me too well now, and they've basically marked off a treadmill for me because I'm down there so often.
Spring festival is approaching, and Meichen and I are getting so excited to go to Inner Mongolia. The other day her mom was Skyping us, and she said that I could call her 妈妈 which means mother in Chinese. I was so honored.

I will try to update this thing more often. I leave in about a week for Inner Mongolia and I unfortunately won't have google access there. I plan on journalling and then spamming the blog with day to day updates when I get back.

Love from Shanghai,
Maddie