太陽出來喜洋洋！愛

The sun came out which makes me very happy!

Today is day four of my Chinese life, and my last day of summer before classes start tomorrow, so I figure I will do one last post before I have to start studying Chinese all day every day and going to class and doing homework. But don't get spoiled and think I will be writing so often, I am just taking advantage of the fact that I now have internet access in my dorm room, which right now feels like a huge luxury.
For four days I have just been eating, speaking, and absorbing, as well as adapting to small changes, like new smells. I never realized before how much weight I put on how things smell. Certain things are comforting smells: the smell of my house when a fresh challah has just been baked, Jenny's baby lotion smell, Zoe's slightly cat-like odor. In Hangzhou, while I feel like I am adapting relatively well to the huge change of speaking a different language all the time and only understanding half of what is going on around me, it is the smallest things like the smell of decomposing sewage in the street, the lovely smell of car exhaust, and even the smell of unfamiliar foods that really gets to me and makes me think about the fact that I have entered into a completely different world. You wouldn't think that something as small as smelling the soap that I brought from home would make me feel better, but it does. (For those of you who like to joke about my non-fictional aversion to showers, this must be a shocking fact.)
I also realize that in this blog so far I have talked a lot about myself and less about China itself. The school that is the host institution for my program is called Zhe Jiang (the province that I am in, of which Hangzhou is the capital) Gong Ye Daxue, meaning Zhe Jiang Institute of Technology. This means, as it means at any Institute of Technology (and especially in China) that the boys far out number the girls (a fact that when I brought up with my roommate today made her hit me). It has 30,000 students and a very enclosed campus with three main gates. The city of Hangzhou, which has almost seven million people, pretty much engulfs you as soon as you step out of a gate. It is loud, filled with many motorized and just as many man-powered moving machines all rushing to get somewhere. There are restaurants, street vendors, small animals, markets with fruits, meats, bread, teas, and pretty much anything else that you might want to buy. It has also been cloudy and kind of smoggy, but today the sun came out for the first time and that was a wonderful thing (and I learned the word for sun in Chinese).
People have been asking about what news I have gotten about Mccain's VP and the outside world in general. My answer is not much. But this is just because I have not sought it out, not because it is not accessible. There is an English language newspaper that I have yet to read, and soon when I am drowning in characters I will probably procrastinate by going to NewYorkTimes.com or something to catch up with the English speaking world.

Ni Hao, Wo Jiao Lin Ke Xi!

For those of you that don't speak Chinese, and I don't know why you wouldn't because it is really a fun language to speak, the title of this post says...Hello! My name is Lin Ke Xi...that is my name here. I am slowly getting used to it. After about 27 hours of travel on three planes, two cars, and one bus I arrived in Hangzhou, a city in China's southeast near Shanghai on Wednesday night around 9:oopm. Since then it has been a rollercoaster with me at times feeling like this was the best thing that I could ever chosen to do and feeling really confident in my ability to communicate, and other times thinking, how could have a chosen to do this, what have I gotten myself into, I don't understand anything that is going on around me. But overall, at this moment I am really happy to be here. My Chinese roommate is great, she is very patient with me and takes care of me and makes sure that I don't get hit by buses, taxis, bicycles, or motorized scooters. It has only been two days but I feel like it has been much much longer. We have had a few orientation meetings (at which we are allowed to speak english) but otherwise it is Chinese all the time. No english music allowed, no english movies, not even english Karaoke...this is serious business. Today we split into teams and what on an extremely long scavenger hunt all over the city and then we had a performance tonight where we sang Chinese pop songs, recited Chinese tongue twisters, and reenacted funny skits from the day. We have two more days of orientation and then classes start monday.
It's crazy to be here, but at the same time I don't even have time to think about that because I am too busy trying to communicate and understand what is going on around me and not embarrass myself anymore than necessary. I have also been eating a lot of rice. Meal times are confusing, I usually don't really know what I am eating, but that is part of the fun. Also, my chopstick skills are getting better at every meal.

Goodbye World

In less than 6 hours I will leave my house. I will go to a place I have never been before and meet completely new people. I will live in a place that is foreign to me in every way and I will try to communicate in a language that is generally accepted to be the hardest language in the world. I am (really) scared. But mostly, I am excited to see how I do in such circumstances. I have never done this to myself before and while I know it is going to be nearly impossible, I am going to do it anyway. So there.
Thankyou to all of my family and friends that have been so supportive over the past few months (and throughout my whole life) as I have prepared myself for this journey. It really means a lot to know that so many people are pulling for me. I will think of you all often.
This blog is going to be my main means of communication with the 'outside world.' While I will try to write in it as much as I can, my travel/life philosophy (be where you are) might make my entries less than what some of you anxious readers out there might want. But don't worry. I am fine. I am happy. I am learning. I might be out eating bugs.