Hello Again!

So the last week since my Chinese brother's wedding has been a busy one. I had a midterm in government and Chinese quizzes every day as usual. We've got a Chinese midterm coming up this upcoming thursday though, so this next week is going to be packed with Chinese.

Recently, I've found my Chinese to be getting much much better. I'm beginning to be able to explain a story or an experience to my host family only having to use my dictionary for a few choice words. I've also found that there are several very simple subject areas where I can hold a pretty good conversation. These subject areas mostly have to do with introducing myself and meeting someone else. I can now explain where I am from, what I like to do, and explain why I am in China. I can then understand the person I am talking to when I ask them the same questions. There are other areas where I am becoming quite comfortable speaking Chinese, but I've found that I can hold a pretty smooth conversation within these areas.

This week I had the opportunity to meet my Chinese brother and sister's co- workers. They have different jobs so I met their co- workers on separate occasions. My sister works at an army hospital. So she is a part of the army. Meeting her co- workers was very interesting for me especially when I found out that all of her co- workers and her boss who was present are party members. It was cool to just hang out with them and eat and drink. They want to take me out to KTV sometime. I think that would be a ton of fun, however the one worry I would have would be the amount of alcohol I may be forced to consume. In China, if someone toasts then you must drink with them (it's considered a bit rude not to), and if they say ganbei, that means you have to finish what is in your glass. haha My Chinese sister's boss particularly enjoyed ganbei's and we were at lunch... So naturally I would guess he would drink even more in a KTV type of situation. So while I would be wary of this situation, I think I would fair fine because I've got the foreigner card for not understanding customs if I stopped doing the ganbei's, and then I could always make up an excuse and say I'm sick. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to say I've drank enough and I don't want to get drunk. That card doesn't seem to trump Chinese people's insistence on you drinking. I'm really excited to hopefully get to talk to my Chinese sister and her co- workers about how the party works once my Chinese is pretty good. To foreigners, the party is very much a mystery. The only in we really have understanding the process in which decisions are made come from the documents of government meetings leading up to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. We just read a few of those in Government and Politics class.

Meeting my brother's co- workers was quite similar to meeting my sister's co- workers. We met them at dinner and ate, and through the process of many toasts put a bit of a dent in the boxes upon boxes of alcohol that my family has left over from the wedding. Fortunately I didn't have to make up any excuses to not drink as none of my brother's friends like to drink too much and therefore didn't envoke any ganbei's. The dinner with my brother's co- workers was more or less an introduction of his new wife to them. So it was cool to once again, just as at the wedding, see my brother run between three tables toasting and visiting with everyone present.

Thursday night, despite having class the next day, two friends and I went out salsa dancing. Originally the plan was for the group to be much larger. One of our friends continues to lose weight here in China and has had a lot of trouble putting any back on, and she's dipped into a weight that doctors here consider to be dangerous. So she has decided upon her parent's and a few doctor's prompting to go back home. Originally we were going out to spend time with her, but she ended up deciding to go back to the IES dorms after dinner, taking several of our other friends with her. This depleted our numbers to three. Despite the small numbers it was a great time and my salsa improved quite a bit with the help of an instructor at the club. So much fun!

That brings me to this weekend. I tried to plan a surprise going away party for Hanna, but her friends that are closer to her than I am told me that she probably wouldn't appreciate it as she doesn't really want to call attention to herself. I wasn't told not to have it until after I'd already sent out an e-mail to all of IES. This situation presented two really cool opportunities. One was seeing how tight knit our study abroad program is. I sent out the e- mail and immediately had people to help and was told by many people that it was a really cool idea, and they were really looking forward to it. The other cool opportunity came in canceling the party. Having received complement's on the idea there was a selfish part of me that didn't want to cancel the party. So having to cancel it gave "Dad" an opportunity to humble me to his will. All take all of those opportunities. I love seeing "dad" increase in my life, and me decrease.

Well, I love all of you and hope you're doing well!

Yours,

Colton

Chinese Weddings and my Experience with my Homestay thus far

所有的中国人都是我的老师。This phrase (All Chinese people are my teachers) may best describe my experience in China so far, particularly within my home- stay. For those in China for the first time, I feel that each day is a learning experience. Whether it is learning to dodge traffic across the street, peel grapes, watch your back for sneaky electric bike riders, to bargain ferociously, the language, or Chinese culture, every day includes a new lesson to be learned. This learning experience has been most evident within the confines of my Chinese home- stay or as I would rather call them, my Chinese family.

I recently had the opportunity to attend and in some ways take active part in my Chinese older brother’s wedding. This is where I got my lesson on Chinese culture for the day, and I really want to share my experiences as I think others will find them quite interesting and in some cases humorous. Having been to a few American weddings, the differences were stark, and I often found myself wondering what exactly was going on. The day began around eight when most of my mother’s family gathered at our house before heading to the wedding ceremony. After a typical breakfast of baozi (bread with a meat and vegetable filling) and milk, we left in a train of cars whose drivers consisted mostly of co- workers and friends. We arrived at a hotel close by and then went in. We then went up to the bride’s room and began a process of negotiating for the bride’s family to open the door and let us in to the room to pick up the bride to go to the wedding. After several rounds of negotiating, which included a surplus of coaxing (through the cracked door), excessive knocking or pounding on the door, the exchange of countless hong bao (decorated red envelopes filled with money), and a song sung by myself (thankfully per-prepared for the IES singing competition the night before) the bride’s family allowed us in. Then we were finally permitted to accompany the bride to the wedding after the groom found the bride’s shoes, which were hidden only for the groom to find. Once arriving at the wedding venue, another hotel, it took all of a few minutes to realize that the wedding about to take place was going to be much different than the American weddings I have seen. This realization came as I entered the room to the tune of the Star Wars sound track, followed by Olympics music. The differences continued, ranging from the lack of a formal hand off of the bride to the groom by the bride’s father to an exchanging of gifts between the bride and groom and their new parents-in-law. After watching the bride and groom move from table to table toasting and playing games prepared for them by guests, the wedding was over and it was time to head home.

While getting to go to a Chinese wedding was an absolutely incredible experience, what I think what has been the most fulfilling part of my home-stay experience is actually feeling like I am now part of a Chinese family. It’s hard for me to explain why I feel this way or how I came to feel this way. I am in the lowest level of the language intensive program, and while my Chinese improves daily, my conversations with my family seldom pass the level of most three or four year-olds. What I do know is that there is some feeling of understanding and love between my host mother and I, even if I only understand about thirty percent of what she says to me. This is where my opening statement that 所有的中国人都是我的老师 relates. Living in a home- stay, not only do I learn new Chinese words, phrases, and culture on a daily basis, but I also learn about love and being part of a family. Before I ever met my home- stay family I made a decision that I wanted to become a part of the family, not just be a foreign exchange student. With this mind- set I have learned so much about how I should love my own family in the U.S. I feel that often times having grown up with our parents and siblings for our entire life we lose intentionality in establishing and building relationships with them. I know that this is a truth in my life and one that I seek to change. Each day in China, I think about making an effort to spend time with my mom and brother. It started out as simple as just doing my homework in the living room, and has moved to day trips with my host mom, which often include my friends as well. It’s this intentionality that I have learned the most from. Seeing how simply making an effort to spend time with someone has fostered a relationship that I would associate with familial love, has forced me to think about how poorly I have invested in my relationships with my own parents. It’s forced me to think of ways I can begin to make this intentional effort when I get back to college in America. Through the process of learning to become a part of a Chinese family I feel that I have not only realized the value of my own family and the depth to which I love them, but also how to better express my love for my family. While, I greatly value the learning of the Chinese culture and Chinese language that my home- stay family leads me in, it is the knowledge I have gained on loving my family that I treasure the most. I will conclude by saying I love you Mom, Dad, and Kiersten, and I can’t wait to see all of you this Christmas.

- God Bless

Colton Houseman- 何凯涛

Home Sweet Beijing

Hello!

Well, I've finally returned from my two week trip around Northeast China, and now am forced to begin working on the papers and projects about our travels we have to turn in to our Chinese teachers in class Thursday. So, now I must begin the arduous process of putting two weeks into one blog post. haha Here goes:

Starting out with my group (of 18 students, one Chinese teacher, and the program director) we got on an overnight train and went to Yanji. Since I have never travelled by train I was super excited despite the daunting amount of time that we had to travel on the train, 25 hours. Anyways, overnight trains consist of a hallway on the right side of the car and little open (as in lacking a door) compartments on the left side. There are six bunks in each compartment, three stacked on top of each other on each side of the compartment. I originally had a bottom bunk, but when I got to my bed a Chinese woman asked if I could switch with her mother because her mother was elderly, so of course I switched. Having a top bunk was actually quite pleasant outside of having about two feet of head room to maneuver. It really didn't matter since the only time I was in my bunk was when I was sleeping. When we arrived in Yanji we went to a Korean restaurant that had a kang. Kang is essentially a heated floor. The table you sit at is about a foot off of the floor and you sit on the floor of the kang, of course not wearing shoes. The next day we left to go hiking in Chang bai shan forest. Upon waking up, one thing immediately stood out as one looked out the window. It was going to be a wet hike... It was raining and it did not appear as if there was any mercy in mother nature's disposition for the day. So after trying to wait out the rain till 11, buying better rain gear (all camo, perfect for hiking 6 miles from the North Korean border), and heading to where we would start our hike, the rain finally subsided. When we arrived at our "trail- head" one thing became very clear. Past 15 feet into the forest, there was not a trail. Nonetheless we began our hike bushwacking through all kinds of brush scaling logs, and tip toeing through briars. After about an hour another thing was becoming quite apparent as we rambled through the forest in no particular direction. Our guide was not fully sure on where he was going. I think this became most apparent when he started rushing ahead and then looking in circles as if to find his bearings. About an hour and a half in we came to a few creeks. We passed over them without much thought and then came to what we thought were a few puddles. Then a few puddles became a strand of puddles, and the strand of puddles became somewhat of a swamp. After having soaked my shoes and socks in, at times knee deep water, almost tested the water resistance capabilities of my camera, and screamed "jia you" ( a chinese saying for like push on, or like take hope, or something of the sort, essentially its like a moral boost saying in Chinese) to fellow classmates at least a hundred times we scaled a bank to a road which I later found out was the road we were dropped off at, just deeper into the forest. Having familiarized ourselves with the terrain of some of the Korean war, learned a bit about being Rambo, and in the process exhausted each of our pairs of dry socks for our two day camping trip we continued on up the road. Eventually we were given a choice of staying on the road or bushwacking it again, as both would lead us to our "campsite." After hiking along a pretty stream and seeing how natives of the area capture frogs to eat (one foot deep holes in the ground ) and crossing a "bridge" of two logs next to each other, each of about half a foot in diameter, we got back to the road. After following the road a bit longer we came to where we thought there would be a campsite. There was no such place. haha It only got more exciting!!! After shouldering all of our suitcases, as we thought the car carrying our luggage was supposed to be able to drive to our campsite, we treked back into the forest to get to where our tour guides said our campsite was. This portion of the trip got interesting really quick as no more than 10 feet in we had to cross a bridge more rickety than the first and then a second covered in moss, with all of luggage. We finally made camp about a 10 minute hike in. There was not a cleared area and we were forced to clear the area of trees and the such ourselves, while trying to put up tents and start a fire as the sun was going down and we were losing light. We then had kabobs, fire roasted bread, and smores for dinner, and went to bed after attempting to dry our socks and shoes near the fire. I unfortunately melted a bit of one sock as apparently putting something too close to fire will do that, but reduced amount of moisture was well worth the charred top of my sock. All in all this may have been one of my favorite days of the trip. It was packed with so much adventure and adversity and everyone kept their spirits up and just kept going. It was really cool to see a group of people who didn't know each other very well to really come together in one day due to all sorts of obstacles we had to overcome to get to our campsite.

The next morning we woke up in our tents to the sound of rain and then as one got out of their sleeping bag the feeling of water in the bottom of their tent. Quite pleasant.... We eventually hiked a few minutes and saw two waterfalls right by our campsite. So pretty, I love waterfalls so much. Then we packed up camp and headed back across the bridges with our luggage and down the road to be picked up by our bus. We were supposed to camp two nights, but since all of our stuff was soaked and it was getting cold, we made the smart decision and let mother nature win. The next day we went to Chang Bai Shan and Tianchi. It was so incredibly pretty. Absolutely insane. I'm fairly sure it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I couldn't help but continually think about how some one could ever deny the existence of God with such beauty surrounding us every day. I also had to keep checking to make sure I wasn't dreaming. haha That day we also went to hot springs... Which was like a really large hot tub, and lots of naked asian men. haha We weren't allowed to wear bathing suits so we added a vanilla tint to the predominantly yellow population in the hot spring. It was funny to see how awkward and out of place a lot of the guys on our trip seemed to be feeling. I'd have to say that I was a bit thankful for having changed in locker rooms for football and baseball in high school as I didn't feel to nervous and was able to enjoy the hot springs. The next day we went to Yanbian. After arriving we had Korean barbeque, and it was so good. The food is cooked in the middle right in front of you and then you wrap it in lettuce slices to eat it. I definitely look forward to eating that again. The next day we went to the college in Yanbian and met with some students. The girl I got to know was named Vita. We got about an hour to hang out and it was really cool to hear about Northeast Chinese culture, Chinese college student culture, and just to hang out. For lunch we went and learned how to make Dan gao. It's essentially rice bread. You mash up sticky rice til it is like a dough and then you cook it. It was really good. After we played some dress up with some traditional Korean garb of the people who taught us to make dan gao we got the day off. Later that night I met up with Vita and one of her friends Louise for dinner because I wanted to learn more from them about Northeastern Chinese culture. I also wanted to see what they thought about "dad". Dinner was awesome and they taught me a bunch of really useful stuff. I also found out that one of them knew "Dad" and the other didn't. I'm actually hoping to talk to them some more some day, but distance may be a factor in me getting that opportunity, but I did get their e mails. The following day we went to see the North Korean border. Since our teacher was American they wouldn't let us walk on the bridge to the border line, but we still got a pretty good look at the stark difference between the two countries. My heart absolutely breaks for that country. The difference in only appearances in the two cities was enough. On top of that I simply can not comprehend the amount of brainwashing that goes on to keep the people of North Korea from revolting. That country's government is absolutely sick...

The following day we went to Harbin where we spent two nights. We had most of the time off as free time, and one of the nights was the moon festival. For the moon festival we went to a restaurant that had a nationalistic skit and then a comedian. I actually got to dance in front of the restaurant while one of my classmates beat boxed. The comedian invited one of our class to come up and beat box and the guy who went up actually knows how. It was a ton of fun. After that we went to KTV which was really fun outside of seeing my classmates drink way past their limits and me not being able to sing due to a loss of my voice because of a cold. After Harbin we went to Shiwei which was super cold. It's right on the Russian border. The town was made up of a bunch of small log cabins. It has a population of about 4,000 unless it's winter, then it drops to 400. It's practically like in Siberia so everyone goes to the cities for winter. The coolest thing about Shiwei is that I got to ride a horse for the first time. I actually got the horse to gallop too!!! It was so much fun. I'd really really love to do that again. Our last destination was the grasslands. The grasslands were really pretty. They really reminded me of Nebraska, except instead of corn, just grass. haha I caught the sunrise and sunset from the top of a little knoll both days. Great alone time to be with God. Gotta love some G- time. haha While on the grasslands we got to learn about mongolian culture a bit. My favorite parts are their dancing and the fact that they wrestle. We got to wrestle a bunch and it was so much fun. Well, I'll probably end up adding to this, but for now that's all.

Hope everything back home is absolutely awesome!!!

Yours,

Colton