It’s Not Over Until They Bring Out the Fruit

The last day of our orientation went well. One of the volunteers even gave us a demonstration on how to use a squatter toilet. All of the students living in Beijing got picked up by their host families at about five o’clock. Then all of the other students left the hostel to go to Tianjin. The group consisted of two German girls, a Thai girl, and me.  We had to take a super crowded bus to get to the train station, and the train station was actually across from Tiananmen Square, but I didn’t get to see it. We got to the subway during rush hour, and it was super super packed. When we walked in, we had to put our bags through a security checkpoint, but the person at the checkpoint wasn’t even looking at the screen.  When we finally got to the actual train, we had to wait three times because they were all too crowded, and when we got on the train, no one could move at all. We then transferred trains and had to wait just as long for a less packed train which we couldn’t really fit on anyway. Eventually we got to Tianjin. It’s easy to tell when you get to the city because the air is much dirtier.

My host parents, host brother, and host uncle (my host father’s driver) picked me up at the train station. My host uncle drove to dinner, and on the way my host brother and I talked. His spoken English is actually amazing. I found out that he’s not even planning on taking the Gao Kao because he plans on going to college in the US. On the way to dinner, my host mother showed me the tallest building in Tianjin. For dinner we ate at the Goubuli restaurant. Gobuli (Go Believe in English) is a Tianjin baozi brand. The restaurant was amazing. We had pork, beef, vegetable, and seafood baozi with tofu soup, mushrooms, and some unknown vegetable. My favorite baozi was the one with seafood. According to my host brother, “Tianjin’s seafood is beautiful and diverse.” After eating about sixty pounds of baozi, my host family kept on putting more on my plate. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much in my life. I kept telling them that I was full, but they still fed me. Finally, after eating maybe sixty pounds more, I just refused.

When we arrived at my host family’s apartment, they gave me a pair of house shoes. The apartment is located on the fifth floor of a really nice area. I unpacked in my room, and my host mother wouldn’t let me put my shoes into the wardrobe because it’s unlucky. After unpacking I went and watched TV in Chinese that I obviously couldn’t understand. My host family then proceeded to feed me fruit.  I died. And then took a shower and went to bed.

I had to get up at six-thirty the next morning because I had to be at Tianjin Foreign Studies University at nine for my Chinese class, and we also had to drop my host brother off at his SAT class. We ate at a cafeteria-like restaurant on our way. My host mother got me a bowl of rice porridge, two English muffin-type sandwiches filled with egg and ham, and three of these famous Tianjin fried dough sticks. I can’t remember the name of the dough sticks. I died again. There was too much food.

My language class consists of the other YFU students and me. We had to introduce ourselves using “key words” in Chinese, so I said that I am an American student that likes to the play the violin. During the language class we took a bus to the bookstore to buy textbooks. The bus was once again extremely crowded, and it was about thirty-six degrees Celsius outside. The bookstore was over seven stories tall, and I sort of successfully asked an employee where the Chinese books for foreigners were in Chinese. When we returned back to the university, my host mother was there to pick me up.

At home my host mom cooked me a gigantic lunch of rice, vegetables, and shrimp. It was very good, but I obviously wasn’t hungry. I ate it anyway because I didn’t want to be rude. After lunch my host mom took me to the police station to register my residency. I actually have no idea what happened at the police station, but we just sat there for a while and then left. On the way home from the police station, we stopped to buy me a cell phone. I now have a really cheap phone, so if you readers come to China, I can give you my number (which I don’t actually know)! I just sat around the house studying Chinese for the rest of the afternoon. My host brother came home a bit after six, and when he walked in he turned to me and said, “Oh here’s some food. I thought you might like it!” I once again died. Fifteen minutes after that, we ate dinner. We ate some sort of fish, and I learned how to take the head, tail, and legs off of a shrimp. I ate as much as I could, but I was full from the beginning because my host family feeds me every fifteen minutes.

My host mom never lets me help her around the house. I keep telling her that I want to help (which I can now say in Chinese!), but she won’t let me. So instead of helping my host mom clean after dinner, I just talked with my host brother. When my host mom was done cleaning, we went for a walk. I thought I was done eating, but no. We stopped at a place called Holiland (好利来), and I tried something called bingzhou which is shaved ice with fruit and beans. It was really good, but I wasn’t hungry. My host mom bought some different Chinese bread for me for breakfast. They then showed me where Pizza Hut is and what to order because they wanted me to eat there for lunch today.  When we got home my host mother turned on the English TV channel and fed me fruit. This is a good thing. In China, it’s not over until they bring out the fruit. If you ever find yourself in China, please remember this. You don’t need to speak a word of Chinese or understand an ounce of the culture. Just know that fruit is the end.

Today I woke up and had to travel to my language class by taxi. On the way home one of the other YFU students’ host mothers insisted that she drive me. When I got home I was instructed to go to Pizza Hut and order a pizza and sausages. I did not go to Pizza Hut. I did not eat. I did weigh myself, though, and I’ve gained seven pounds.