We spent a few hours at the Xi’an Museum, where a tour guide told us about ancient artifacts such as food and wine vessels, ancient weapons, and gold currency. Back on the bus, we changed course to a scenic route through the beautiful Chinese countryside on new tour busses. Our local guides told us that we were going to stay in the well-to-do farmers’ homes. This area is considered to be rich compared to the rest of cities we had passed.
We finally arrived at a town center where the local women, in beautiful blue costumes, doing a fan dance, warmly welcomed our 3 busses!
We were invited to dance along with the locals (which was a proposition that some of us gladly accepted). The local women kept their patience as they taught us the four steps in their traditional fan dance. It was basically a diagonal box step to the beat of large drums.
Four to six MYA students and parents were assigned to one villa where a local family kindly opened up their doors for us. One of the fan dancers took four of us to her home, where it was among the best homes in the vast area of Xi’an, as the tour guide had explained. She was so kind, and immediately made us feel more at home than ever, even though we are halfway across the world. She was constantly offering assistance and helped us carry our bags up the stairs, and brought us a snack. Even though she spoke very, very little English, I still felt like we could understand each other without using words. It was amazing to see how much communication took place without literally saying anything. Nonverbal communication was a critical point of getting through to each other. We began to introduce ourselves, and she must’ve understood because she introduced herself in return. She went outside on the back porch to fold sheets, and we saw that she was struggling to complete that task all by herself. She was blatantly surprised when she found us standing beside her, and motioning toward the sheet, offering some helping hands. She gave us each a very pretty necklace with a heart on it that was handmade! Everybody received one, but each was slightly different. They were all stuffed with some sort of herb or tealeaf because it smelled delicious. We serenaded her our instruments because we knew that music was a universal language that everybody can understand.
Hao Yi Lee cooked us a delicious gourmet meal and we departed for a jazz concert. All of the locals and MYA students, and even high-school students part of the “People to People Student Ambassadors” program from New York were in attendance. There were the cutest little kids there who were so friendly to all of the foreigners and newcomers. Some of them spoke a little English so it was very interesting to communicate with them. There were little girls who would come up to strangers in their town and hold their hands and ask to play tag or a card game. They also loved to be picked up and tickled.
July 31st 10:20 PM Xi’an, China
The jazz concert was fantastic and all of the Chinese people were eager to hear “Western” music, as they called it. The children were dancing with us and playing games like they had known us forever. It gave us a very comforting feeling to be welcomed without the slightest bit of uncertainty or hesitation by the locals.
I met a bunch of kids who were our age and some of them spoke great English. After talking to them for a while, I realized that even though many things about us are different, including our culture, appearance, or even beliefs, and even though we live on completely different sides of the world and don’t speak the same language, there are so many similarities between us. We play the same games, enjoy the same music, laugh at the same things, and we all know how to have fun with each other.
Being surrounded in their culture and simply experiencing their way of life makes me realize that we still have a lot to learn. We might think that there’s only one-way to do something and that we have all the answers. But the truth is, that no matter what age, gender, nationality or religion somebody is, we are all still learning. Going to a completely new place and experiencing unthinkable things opens up many opportunities of learning about somebody else’s culture. Basically, we all have a lot to learn. So when you visit a brand new place, open up your eyes and ears and get as much out of the experience as you possibly can.
Goodnight! Or as they say...Wan Shang Hao!
Devon & Jorie
