Wednesday, August 1st
8:00 AM
Ni Hao! We have just left our host families at the Hu Xi’an village, where we spent the night with some of the nicest people we have met so far on this trip. The fun started last night when we met our host family. Hannah started calling her “Ma”, or mother, and it stuck. She lives with her husband, who we called Ba Ba, her son, and her grandson, Hao Hao. He is eleven and very intimidated by the thought of four American teenage girls staying in his house. Ma made us a ding ding ding ding ding ding hao dinner. (the more dings, the better). It was like a Chinese burrito. The “tortilla” was made of egg and chives, and the fillings were noodles, egg, tomato, cucumber, and peanuts. It was really good. We have never been so full from one meal our entire trip. Ma kept coming in and telling us to eat more, putting more food on our plates until we were way past satisfaction and dangerously close to uncomfortable. The dining room was small, with only a table, a refrigerator, and a bookshelf. And a lazy susan on the table. Big surprise. On the bookshelf was a potholder tile with the White House and an American Flag on it. Ba Ba picked it up and motioned to us that he had been there. He was very proud of it and it was proudly displayed on the shelf.
When we had finished eating, Ba Ba came in with an erhu (air – hoo), a traditional Chinese instrument. It’s the size of a violin, you play it like a cello, and it only has 2 strings. He held it out to Hannah and motioned for her to play. Being a cello player, she had no problem figuring out how to play a song. We passed it around the table, where Elisabeth proceeded to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and Evelyn, who is also a violin player, had no problem. As it came to Cala, we all realized why she plays the french horn and not a string instrument – when she does, she sounds like a dying frog. She eventually got a little better, and was able to play her solo from the second movement of Tchaik 5 on the erhu. Well, she tried anyways. Then Ba Ba played a song and made it seem so easy to play, and after attempting to play, we appreciated his talent and music all the more.
After dinner, Ma led us to the village square, which was literally a giant concrete square with a playground next to it and a fountain. A few of us taught the children traditional American dances, such as the Macerena, the Hokey Pokey, and the Chicken Dance. Then the women of the village enlightened us with their culture by performing a traditional fan dance. Some women were selling man-made flowers over on the side. We decided to buy one for Ma, and settled on a purple one. Then the jazz band began to play.
A chaperone and a student from MYA began to swing dance to the jazz, and soon others joined in. We tried, and made fools of ourselves. So we got Dan B. to teach us the proper jitterbug. We spent 20 minutes practicing and listening to jazz music, and by the time the last song rolled around, ‘Sing Sing Sing’, more commonly known as “The Chips Ahoy Song”, we were ready to show off our sweet dance moves. We could twirl properly, and even do some tricks, such as the pretzel and the dip. Everyone was very impressed, considering how we had looked 20 minutes earlier. 
Jazz finished up and we returned to our host houses. We gave Ma the flower and said, “wo ai ni”, which means I love you. She and Ba Ba accepted it with a smile and a hearty laugh, repeating “wo ai ni”
We were all hot and sweaty from our intense swing dancing, and wanted to take showers. However, we soon discovered that the shower wasn’t exactly what we imagined. Picture a bathroom with a toilet and sink, and then randomly stick a showerhead on the wall. Ta-da! Our bathroom. Let’s just say it was interesting. After 3 showers, the drain in the floor had not collected all of the water and the bathroom was flooded in about 3 inches of water. We fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow because of our eventful and exhausting night. Oh, and because we got up at 4:00 in the morning to go to the airport. Maybe that was it too.
The next morning, Ma woke us up at 6:30 so we could have breakfast at 7. For breakfast there was fried bread, hard-boiled eggs, and bloody rice gruel. Yes, we said bloody rice gruel. Ma came in holding a small picture in her hands. It was of the four of us with her in front of her house that had been taken by one of the chaperones in our group last night. She showed it to us and said “Wo ai ni”, kissed it, and placed it on her heart. She then put it next to Ba Ba’s White House tile on the bookshelf.
We left for the buses, and when it was time for us to leave, we all gave her hugs and said “wo ai ni”. She laughed and said, “sank you” before going back to her house. We will miss Ma and her hospitality. We can’t imagine how weird it is to let random American girls just stay in your house, but her warm and welcoming nature made us feel right at home and more than welcome, something we soon won’t forget.
Love, Cala and Hannah A.
PS – Wo ai ni Vivien! Ni hao gorgeous! And Ni hao sexy, Leslie
What a great experience! What was so incredibly daunting on the bus ride to Xi’an, turned to be one of our most cherished memories of this tour. Staying with a host family in a Chinese farmer’s village seemed like such a heavy chore to us at first, but with the warmest hospitality imaginable from our gracious hosts, that thought was quickly extinguished. We drove up in our three large tour busses, and were welcomed with the locals dancing with ornamental fans to a heavy drumbeat. Then we were matched up with our hosts “ma's (moms) and led back to their homes, Austin, Spencer, Matt, and I (James) stayed with a farmer’s wife and her daughter. The dinner they served was amazing! Frankly, it was my favorite meal in China so far. We felt so guilty for not eating everything on the table, but our stomachs were close to bursting point. Then we went to the town square and enjoyed some jazz and dancing. Back home, I ventured a shower. Beside from the game of Russian roulette I played with the water temperature (the water randomly shifted from sub-arctic cold to molten lava hot), the night was very nice. We watched some Korean drama with our ma’s daughter, Wo-Shu and went to bed. My bed was a wooden coffee table with a pillow top, but I slept like a log! (Factoring in the 4:00 AM wake-up call earlier that day could only explain this.) We woke up to a huge breakfast and, after some pictures, we were walked back to our fellow MYA-ers. BONG!
-James F., violist
PS – Shout out to everyone back at home! See you soon!
China Hu Xi'an Peasants' Painting by Pan Xiaoling, member of the China Artist Association.
The village we stayed in has several local artists in residence. We were able to view the art galleries and watch Pan Xiaoling create one of her paintings for us. Of course, we were encouraged to make purchases of the artwork and some of us took advantage of this great opportunity to own an original painting by a Chinese artist.
