Where we were: Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, about 1.5 hours by fast train to Shanghai, known for being nestled on iconic Lake Tai as well as being one of the most rapidly developing cities in China (contributing to its nickname of "Little Shanghai")
Who the "we" is: Alek, Max, Rob, Kellianne, yours truly
What we did: spent the remaining few days of our midterm break travel week exploring this beautiful city
What we are: extremely xingyun, lucky! (you know the Chinese emphasize the concept of "luck" when we novices have already learned about 8 words somehow related to our one-c-shy-of-a-hen-utterance)
The good fortune began with a significantly better train experience than what got us to Taishan. Though our travel group was halved on the train, we all had hard sleepers, aka a bed out of the six in each partitioned room in the car. The kicker: don't sit up too fast! The beds are three stacked vertically. 
Totally fine for us college kids as we rested, chatted with some really adorable munchkins and their parents, and discussed during- and post-China ambitions from 7:18am until elderly dinner time.
Xingyun continued, involving backstory: the main reason we chose to come here was because it is the hometown of Alek's freshman year roommate, Danny. Considering the fact that Danny's not at home because he's a Carleton student too, Alek got into contact with Danny's family just for some possible sightseeing tips and help making a hotel reservation. And perhaps it would be great to have dinner with Danny's parents sometime.
Our expectations were to figure out logistics on our own and definitely to not impose. But with Chinese hospitality compounded by the fact that Danny had stayed with Alek's family for a while, we were all by extension swept off our feet!
Chen Baba and Chen Mama, as we were delighted they were delighted about that form of address, remained in contact with Alek (who quickly became a second son to them) to pick us up from the train station! It was wonderful to be received by a loving family who had never met us, and even more unexpectedly, following careful watch over us checking into our hotel, came the invite "20 minutes? Is 20 minutes okay to bring up your bags and wash your faces before we go to dinner?"
Best xingyun of all: not being allowed to pay for anything the entire week except for our hotel and being given the royal+tourist+family treatment by such a sweet Chinese family.
Chinese hospitality:
- Family friends are friends too, everyone gets wrapped up into connections and love.
- Friends of only children are even more precious.
- Chinese mothers especially can be fiercely protective of the brood (see above for whom this entails), which sometimes results in going out of her way to love us but also demand things from others for us.
- Dinners out usually involve a surprising amount of alcohol.
- To that effect, men in particular drink wine like it's beer and timing of "ganbei" (Chinese cheers, literally "dry glass") becomes strategic depending on how drunk you'd like to see your cohorts.
- Thankfully it's customary to not force females to drink more than they are comfortable with (I'm good with one glass of red wine, thanks!).
Over dishes of various fruits, seafood, and xiaolongbao (small dragon buns, my new favorite), "xiexie" and "ganbei" rounded the table, people's Chinese got a little more fluid, and everybody got a little bit giddier.
Another adjustment: Southern accents. Not howdy y'all, but enough blending of the sometimes harsh Northern sh- sounds into s- sounds, already existent in Mandarin as their own sound so that if tones are lost on you, confusion of numbers 10 and 4 could cause quite an issue!
I forgot to mention, Danny's family doesn't speak very much English, so this was full-on Mandarin practice week. Ears? Please distinguish tones. Brain: remember some vocab. Face: form words. When that fails, expressions: communicate meaning!
We (mostly functioned) chatted away the night away with the Chens and their friends, one of our favorites being an unforgettable, everybody's-gotta-love, kind of Chinese businessman named Tim who gave us the giggles as he inserted "It's okay? It's okay? It's okay!" into many a topic to ensure we were taken care of.
Were we ever taken care of. Instead of leaving us kids with some tourist tips, "What time should we meet you in the morning? 8:30?" Being taken to destinations by drivers, also, was another concept of luxury that this public-transport-idealizing, hopefully humble Minnesota girl was not exactly comfortable with nor accustomed to. Everything they did for us was completely beyond expected, beyond necessary, beyond sweet. Some serious anpai. Just two syllables to connote "to arrange," "it's all taken care of," "don't worry about anything, we'll take care of you."
Each day began with Chen Mama and/or Chen Baba taking time out of their busy schedules to pick us up from our hotel, bring us to all the sights of Wuxi we could squeeze in during daylight as well as drag along more of Danny's family members and old friends to pei (accompany) us. I feel like each day was so full they would each be worthy of their own post!
In light of the fact that I cannot go into detail on every single thing we did this week nor thank them profusely for the innumerable ways they spoiled us for the week, I will try to be as descriptive as possible hopefully without losing the forest through the trees.
Simple things that made life even more special this week:
- The Chens bringing us bottled water and bananas for our daily excursions.
- Talking with Chen Mama about why we hardly ever see locals toting or drinking H20 (apparently people hardly drink water, but they drink lots of tea once they get home!)
- Stories and opinions from Danny's friends as well as Chen Lao (Old Chen), Danny's great uncle, world traveler, daily ping-pong player
- Finally getting to ask what some of the foods actually were that we had been fed before, and receiving answers such as pigeon wing, bamboo, lotus root, Lake Tai silver fish fried rice, etc.
- Visiting their flat, understanding more of Danny's life and wonderful family, being force-fed mooncakes, soups, and fruits, and sharing silly stories about Danny - what's the fun in meeting a friend's family if you don't get a little dirt?
- Being told that they could see Danny in all of us.
The week in photographs:
Wuxi, just like any other city in China's eastern expanse has its complexity. While we have seen a lot of the facets of poorer, developing China, this week we have definitely been privy to witness a few of the intricacies of a finer Chinese lifestyle. China to me seems quite like a growing pains-ridden teenager that really wants to be considered self-sufficient and independent by the adults but craves a flat screen tv without knowing how to do their own laundry.
Rob: "Well, this is the second-biggest Buddha statue I've ever seen." He's seen more of China than we have, but this one is still 88m tall, and it simply amazes me how China finds money for such intricate projects such as this statue from the top of which we looked out over the city's outskirts and its accompanying radiant temple.
Day One's next stop: Lake Taihu. Whose English name is redundant because hu means lake. So Lake Tai: youngsters frolicking, couples taking peaceful walks through the bamboo forests, elderly watching the boats pass, fishers netting their catch, teenagers taking stereotypical posing photos by the glittering waves.
These waves weren't exactly glittering. Note: color not dramatized. However polluted they were, these waves made for some excellent rock skipping. Max taught Sophie, Danny's high school friend, the basics, and two minutes later, Chen Lao flicked his wrist once and sent a rock 10 skips into the lake!
A market with Danny's younger cousin (whose name translates to Smile Snow in English!) where we were offered "pocket hamsters" and where we witnessed an unfortunate trend: animals too big; cages too small.
A lunch of xiaolongbao, a dumpling filled with sweetened beef and a soup that threatens to burn through your tongue if you don't bite a tiny hole in the dumpling skin and sip the soup first.
My first visit to a cave! Followed by working on our oxygen intake by tromping up the steps of the surrounding mountain through the bamboo forests.
The view from the peak was a different kind of breathtaking from that of Taishan - up here we were simply engulfed by a brisk fog that made it seem like we were on the only hill rising into the thin air.
Taking an unusual route down to the foothills. Rather than taking the cable car or using our feet, we took the slide! Strapping on these rather ridiculous looking purple pants, our gloved hands became brakes and we met the Chens at the bottom!
A day trip to China's best water town, Zhouzhuang: the meeting point of five rivers where residents still need to hop in boats to commute to other parts of the city. Where the peasants live and the rich visit. Motto: "Xiao qiao, liu shui, ren jia," small bridges, flowing water, homes of the people. Winding streets, rundown yet quaint white-and-black architecture, tourist shops with the artisans making their crafts right in their hole-in-the-wall. Stares from the other tourists. And our own boat ride complete with the folk songs by our boat driver along the streams of this Chinese Venice.
One last dinner with the Chen's and their friends! Many different dishes were devoured, glasses of wine emptied (my glass stuck with the watermelon juice), and laughs echoed on our final night in their lovely hometown.
Chen family, thank you again for everything! And Danny, thanks for loaning us your family and friends for the week! The best midterm break we could ever dream of: making not just Chinese friends, but Chinese family.
