A favorite past time nowadays is playing video games. We think of the Nintendo Wii, or the X Box 360, or the Play Station 3. Or some others prefer the Hand-Held like the DS or PSP. We have all this free time to waste so we are all able to play them. New games are always coming out for about $50 each. But in China students don’t spend their money on new video games. Most of them don’t own any systems. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any, but they are very rare to see. There are a lot of fake PSP and other hand helds. But they aren’t interested in buying these things. This doesn’t mean that they don’t play games, they do. They play their video games through the computer. They are huge computer games fans. The most popular game is Cross Fire. It’s an online game where you could play with friends or random people. My brother Peter showed me this game. There are many other games. There are other shooting games and adventure games. There are also other types of games, most games are based on war. Another popular game is a studying game. I don’t know the game itself but Peter, Lucy and Iris told me about it. It seems to be another popular fun game. Another good thing about computer games are that they are free and easy to get. But they have to be careful for viruses. But these students don’t play these games all the time. Maybe for a short period of time in the weekend. Maybe that’s something we could learn from them.
The music of China is a very unique part of the culture of China. Cultural music in china usually contains drums, bells, and flutes which come in many different sizes, shapes, and materials. In China i saw drums that were small, big, huge, short, and tall. These drums were also in many shapes such as octagons, circular, and many more shapes. The drums were made of all sorts of materials such as wood, stone, metal, and much more. These weren't as simple as just size, shape, and material they were much more complex in that they were very detailed with many colors and different drawings of animals, flowers, shapes, writings, and they sometimes also had accessories hanging of them. The bells were more simple then the drums were because the bells were just eight bells hanging of wood with spikes, writing, or drawings on them and they weren't as colorful as the drums were. The flutes were more like the bells as well because they were just in different sizes with different pictures and they were all brown. These instruments weren't all about how cool they looked, it was more about what they could with the right person handling them, which was the true beauty behind these instruments.
To most Americans the People’s Republic of China’s Communist government is one that threatens America and jeopardizes Chinese lives for the benefit of their national economy. However, the Chinese people seem to have a different perspective of their own government.
Despite its label as a Communist country, the Chinese government implemented a capitalist economy in 1978. This decision allows for private businesses and a wide range of family incomes to be created, which include those at a poverty level. Currently led by Hu Jintao, China seems to be prosperous and rapidly rising to be one of the world’s largest economies. However, most of its people seem to live in poverty. When riding a train from Xi’an to Nanjing, the Chinese Exchange club students witnessed people who were impoverished. We went to the second class area and found ourselves with people, both children and adults alike, sitting on the floor – this was a twenty-four-hour overnight train. We offered the people fruits that we had available, and while they seemed to take them, they looked around at one another and politely declined. On the other hand, while with our host families, we got to experience another side of China. Our host parents were professionals, with careers as doctors, and editors and police officers. While one may think that they must have an abundance of money, that is not the case. While in a gathering, my host mother asked Monica and I what her social status would be like in the United States, Monica asked, “well, how much do you make a year?” My host mother responded, “twenty-four thousand” and Monica simply said, “You would be poor, like really poor” which brought laughter to the group. (Of course, the cost of living is much lower in China than in the United States, so twenty-four thousand goes a lot further!)
China, known for its many intellectuals, fails to inform its people of political matters that deal with Taiwan and critical opinion of China. Taiwan claims to be a separate country from mainland China and is in the midst of fighting for its independence. Yet, when presented with this fact Peter, one of the Chinese students, was shocked. He asked Ms. McMurdo for a clarification of the situation. Once Ms. McMurdo’s explanation concluded, Mina, the Chinese teacher, turned to Ms. McMurdo and asked her to not speak of the issue because the students are not taught about it in school. Additionally, the Chinese government continues to censor the information that travels through its people. China censors political speech and information, including on the Internet, which is why when attempting to log onto American websites such as YouTube and Facebook one will find an “error” on their screen.
In spite of the fact that most of China’s people live in poverty and are censored, the Chinese people remain loyal to the government. When asked to give her opinion on China’s Communist party Autumn, my host mother, declared her love and appreciation for the government. She stated, “I really like the government. I think Hu Jintao really loves the people, he cares about everybody.” Fearing her response, I decided to challenge her statement and said, “Well, the government seems to be doing certain things such as creating a large amount of pollution that could be deadly to the Chinese people.” She took a pause to collect her thoughts and said “they are trying to fix that.”
The second part of the exchange club had begun – the New York experience. We were determined to show the Chinese students a good time! Every day was packed with activities that would be enjoyable to foreigners; however, one particular day stands out.
It was the day before the Chinese students were going back to China, the night before Manny, my Chinese sister, was really into American films so I offered to take her out to the movies. We found ourselves in 34th and bought two movie tickets to see Something Borrowed. The movie didn’t start for another two hours so we decided to go shopping first. She wanted to buy makeup for her mother so I took her to Sephora where an employee proceeded to help her. She then said she wanted to buy some shoes for herself and a tie for her father so we went to Macys. After the shopping we went to go see the movie, and while she didn’t understand some of the jokes she seemed to be amused by the leading man.
After the Movies we headed over to Michael’s barbeque. Almost everyone was there, the six American students, the five Chinese students, some of the parents, Minna, Ms.McMurdo, and Ms.Larson (Ms.Lo was there in spirit). A lot of amazing food was served, and the music was playing. We all gathered in the living room and danced merengue, bachata, salsa, and disco together. We then broke out into different activities, some of us played cards, and some played monkey in the middle, we were all having a blast – but then the idea that the experience was coming to an end rushed in. The Chinese and American students decided to go into Michael’s room and talk, for the last time. We told each other our favorite parts of the experience and how close we felt to one another, we joked around, made a few love matches, and realized how lucky we were to be in the position that we were all in.
So we’ve finally arrived to our own city. The Big Apple! Now we only had one week to catch up on or rest and sleeping, oh and homework too. Then the students came to New York. This is where the fun began for the second time.
After we picked them up at the airport we separated. We took Peter to eat, since he was more hungry than tired. We ate the usual, rice, beans, chicken and beef. We let him try both beef and chicken. He surprised us by bringing some more tea that the father always made. Since it was late we didn’t do much, especially with him almost knocking out. This time it was my turn to take care and lookout for Peter. It was funny how we really did grow a bond as brothers. We kept playing jokes and pranks on each other. We kind of figured out the each other’s secret. And we talked like we were brothers. I guess all that time being together and having each other’s back made this possible. We went to go buy some souvenirs. He bought like one or two things the first time. The parents thought it would be good to take them out to a restaurant together. So we all went to Olive Garden. There was two funny things I noticed. One was that my father was sitting on one the end side of the table and I was sitting on the other side. Second was that it was funny seeing the Chinese Students eating. They couldn’t eat their beef because it was hard for them to cut it. They were also a bit more relaxed and laid back than in China. The next few days the teacher took us all out to some sights and to eat at a restaurant. Peter kept asking when we would eat at home again. But to his surprise we took him to visit one of my aunts. There we ate some rice, lentils, and some other style of beef. He loved it. My aunt and uncle were very happy. They then gave him a present. This reminded me of when I went to Peter’s grandparents. I started to realize that I missed them all.
Another thing was how popular the students were at school. They were always asking about Peter. Even after they left. Peter told me this is how it was when I was in china too. It was fun having him. But he didn’t like going to sleep late or sleeping late either. Then came the last days. We gave him some gifts to take home to the family and his friends and for himself too. He really liked it all. It was the least I could for the same way they took care of me. I miss those guys. We all became one big family, but we were closer back then than now. But we are still close, it’s just that time keeps interfering. I still keep on touch with peter emailing and on QQ
During the time that Tim, the student i was hosting who stood in my house i was a bit unsure about how things were going to happen. But it all turned out to be great. I say this because while I was hosting I had a lot of time to spend with him and to teach him a little bit about my culture and american culture.
The first night he arrived to the U.S. my parents, my friend, and I took Tim to a Dominican restaurant to show him that we welcome him to our home and to have him eat because my parents weren't really in the mood for cooking. The second day I took Tim to the park in front of my building to play some american basketball with my stepfather,two friends of mine, some random people in the park, and I. From the looks of it I think he really enjoyed basketball at the park because of two reasons, one because basketball is his favorite sport and two because I think he saw the differences of basketball here in America then the one in China. The rest of the time while he was in my home we went out to eat dinner at restaurants and to take the Chinese people out to see and explore New York. During the first week the Chinese people had a trip to Washington D.C. where they visited the Niagara Falls. When they returned we kept them busy every day by visiting restaurants and each others homes to get to know each other more and just have fun while hanging out together. I really enjoyed having Tim staying over at my home, and if i were to ever get another chance to do it I would do it again!
At the beginning of meeting my host student I was very excited and ready for the new experience. My China trip was still a fresh memory but I was still tired. After a day or two, I noticed Lucy didn’t really want to try new food, or go anywhere. She just wanted to shop.
My family was really welcoming and we worked together to keep Lucy comfortable. I wished her and the Chinese kids would’ve taken more advantage of this experience and would’ve tried all foods, with no excuses and no faces.
I really enjoyed the times everyone spent together, at times we really bonded and many laughs. This experience really made me see the differences between cultures, the aways Lucy and the Chinese kids were raised, and their different personalities compared to us.
Hosting someone was really hard and it was nearly impossible to keep up with homework, but I don’t regret the experience. I’m glad that everyone bonded like a family and I think that’s the best thing the American kids wanted. We just wished our host brothers and sisters were more open to new things. I also wished Lucy would’ve been more social with me.
I think it would’ve been nice if we went to trips with the kids like Empire State building and Bronx Zoo. Hopefully the Chinese kids stay in touch! And the Americans’ bond doesn’t change. I enjoyed the things I told Lucy about the city, and learned stuff I didn’t even know. I hope she listened and will never forget what she learned and saw to compare and contrast China and New York.
