It's been more than two months you guys! Hangzhou is beginning to feel like home. I know I say that in every post but I feel that statement more and more strongly every day. Our roots are slowly growing deeper and deeper. This is a good place. We have been so full of gratitude to all of the love we have received from the people here. Hundreds of countless acts that have brought us comfort and peace in the midst of our most anxious moments. Is there some way we could ever repay these people?
I am so grateful for this experience. It's often surreal. I've caught myself many times thinking, "this is China! I LIVE IN CHINA! What?!" It's amazing to understand that millions of people call this city home. This is where they work, where they go to school, where they are raising their families. This is where they're from. They're swirling in self-made circles of routine. Millions of individual experiences inter tangling to create the most spectacular display of life. And I'm here in the middle of it all. Slowly creating my own circle.
Morning walks to pickup breakfast and a short stop at the fruit stand. Audrey and Paige are off to school by 7:30. There's Chinese study from 9-11am. Then we go to the gym just to come back home excited to sit down and get some school work done before video chatting with a friend for Seminary. The afternoon varies, sometimes we stay at home all day or take the bus to the grocery store. We've started going out on adventures to places around town. We're constantly mixing into the community is small ways.
A couple weeks ago we went to Hangzhou Normal University (yes, really that's what its called. There's no escaping the fact that you're completely average here...) to get some photos printed. Walking around the beautiful and practically endless campus made me start tossing ideas around of what it would be like to study here.
We made finally made it to West Lake too! It's the pride of Hangzhou it seems. Everyone asks "have you been to the XiHu yet?" as a standard question of conversation for foreigners. It's big and beautiful; with thousands of years of history, love stories, and poems written out of it's deep waters. But we're not a huge fan of engaging in umm . . . habits of the elderly. Walking slowly, relaxed dancing on the pagodas, feeding birds, sitting in a very slow moving boat. It was quite beautiful though. The leaves are changing color in preparation for the chilly winter ahead. The pollution is settling in like a nice, freezing, death inducing blanket. But it was nice to get out.
Our acquisition of the language is coming slowing. Very slowly. It's going to take a lot of time, dedicated focus, and repetition before we are proficient. And I'm realizing while all of those things are vital, mindset is the most powerful thing; and it can be a tool or it can be a barrier. There have been so many moments when I just know if I relaxed a little and tried to understand I would be able to pick out enough words to understand what the āyí (housemaid/lunchlady/janitor) in the gym locker room is trying to tell me. But I let myself get so caught up in the thoughts of "Why do all the words she is saying sound exactly the same? Why is this language! what, that doesn't make sense! Great. Now I'm losing my English too?!" All the while feeling flustered because she is now motioning in all directions and pointing at me and talking a little louder. I don't want to keep relying on this blasted crutch of "tīng bù dōng" (I can hear but I don't understand) that will probably get her to leave me alone but not get me any closer to the goals I've set to learn this language. Nevertheless those words slip out of my mouth along with a "dùi bù chí" (I'm sorry) and she kind of chuckles and nods away.
Suddenly something swelled up inside me, I couldn't just let this sweet lady walk away without at least trying to understand what she was so passionately trying to tell me. The words "Nî jiào shénme mìngzi?" (What's your name?) tripped out of my lips and she swirled around so gleefully then came really close and very deliberately annunciated her three syllable name... that I can't remember. But it was enough to break the ice and then we were awkwardly communicating about me being American and my family and us living here and how tall I am, etcetera. It's a blur but the awe and excitement in her eyes was special. It's these little interactions that inspire my entire soul to learn this language. I can't keep being a burden to these people! Not that it's anything extreme. But we really do rely on their patience, honesty, and generosity every day.
I'm excited to be able to experience a similar interaction again in a years time. Me walking into a room and seeing jaws drop half way and eyes open a little wider than normal. Maybe one of the more outgoing will approach me. And I'll say "Nî hâo ma?" then proceed to ask them about their life, and their family, and how wonderful China is. How amazing it will be, to really be able to figure out who these people are. To hear their stories and gain a greater understanding of what it's like to live in their circle.
I don't think the six of us could ever give back enough goodness to match the goodness we have received. But we can show our gratitude and respect by learning to speak their language. And what a language it is! But seeing as more than one billion people speak it every day, we figure it must be possible somehow. For now we will rejoice every time we can pick out a word or two, make a simple request understandable, (it's weird to think "I have a thick American accent") and get out of our comfort zone just enough to say something simple.
"I like chance meetings, life is full of them. Every day, without realizing it, I pass people whom I should know." —Krzysztof Kieslowski