我的同学们 - My Fellow Students

First of all, this blog would not exist if Shanna hadn't shown me her blog and gave me the idea. She didn't actually arrive to the pre-departure orientation until late the first night, so I didn't meet her until we sat down the next morning for breakfast and then to start our orientation sessions. One of the first things that we did during the PDO was get placed into out teams. We opened the handbooks that were randomly spread out across the different tables in the room to see what color we were given. Shanna and I, along with three other people around us, had the same pink slip and therefore became members of team four. Luckily almost all of us in our group clicked and got to know one another very quickly. I knew Shanna was funny and from Maryland, but I had no idea that we would have so much in common. We share the same sense of witty and sometimes cynical humor, we complain and enjoy the same things, and if one of us is laughing it is rare that the other isn't. We both hate seafood, so we naturally had tons of jokes about the irony of going to a coastal city in China famous for the exact food that we don't like. We kept finding things that about the Chinese way of life that were different from what we were used to and sometimes inconvenient, but nevertheless funny. We came up with a phrase that started when we realized that showering in our dorms didn't quite make us feel clean. We would say "leave it to China to ruin showering!"Of course we didn't truly feel this way, but the phrase stuck and we replaced "showering" with other verbs and nouns. These include, "leave it to China to ruin: nice weather, dumplings, beds, the internet, going for a walk (because of the cicada pee)." I don't know what I would have done without Shanna on this trip, but I know that if I didn't have the privilege of being her friends I wouldn't have had half the fun as I did. Thank you Shanna for being my friend and putting up with my wacky dispositions and crazy Californian views.

Merrick Gilston is a rising senior from the upper east side of Manhattan, and doesn't match the stereotype of at the area at all - in the best way, of course. We got along well because we both value humor, care a lot about this trip, and share many of the same goals. When we first met him at the PDO, we were confused because it seemed like he was simultaneously a Chinese language and academic nerd and also a soccer-loving athletic kid who brought a white supplement powder on the trip that the Newark Airport TSA would then mistake it for cocaine. He ended up in my team, and we have been pretty tight ever since. Thanks Merrick for being so fun on this trip, always speaking your mind, making us laugh, but also making learning Chinese in 中级班 even more fun. I hope we can meet up when I visit New York next.

Wan Laoshi (万老师), aka 万姐姐，万阿姨，万奶奶，or just 万) is objectively the chillest person in the entire People's Republic of China. She is not only a teenager in a college-graduates body, and not only hilarious, but also unbelievably intelligent. She majored in Chinese and just graduated from Xiamen University. We learned that while chaperoning for NSLI-Y, she also works as a self-taught statistics and analysis whiz at Baidu, China's equivalent to Google. She is working on an algorithm to test the accuracy of Baidu's search engine compared to its competitors. In September, she is leaving Xiamen to go to teach Chinese in Belgrade, Serbia. Wan Laoshi's full name is Wan Wenting (万文婷), but those closest to her call her Wan Jie Jie (万姐姐), or sister Wan, a way of addressing someone that represents closeness and friendship. I really hope to stay in touch with her because she is a truly wonderful person. Wan Jie Jie, thank you for always being there for us when we needed it most and for being the adventurous human you are. 万姐姐，谢谢你成为我的姐姐，我的朋友，和我的老师。

蔡老师 is on the far-right

Speaking of Wan Laoshi, I could never forget Cai Laoshi (蔡老师), Wan Laoshi's roommate and also the most fashionable, tech-savvy, and teenage-like chaperone on the trip. She is from Quanzhou (next to Xiamen) and speaks 闽南话 (Min Nan Hua), the local language. You can always find Cai Laoshi doing one of four things: sleeping (she sleeps until about five minutes before we all need to be at the classroom building), fixing a computer, wifi-router, or some other technological device, skipping through the hallway, or on her huge iPhone texting or taking photos. Interestingly, she speaks less frequently than most of the chaperones, but when she does, it is loud, sarcastic, and distinguishable. I learned that she lived in the Hague for a year while studying at Leiden University, so we conversed about that quite a bit. She clearly loves to adventure out into the world and have fun, but she is also a Xiamen University student, so she is an intellectual. I will always remember that she helped me get Wi-Fi in my bedroom at my host family's house. Thank you Cai Laoshi for being youthful and not allowing those in power to boss you around.

Xiuling Stein-Leonard keeps me sane because she is a fellow Californian, and she gets it. She finds the same comments and perspectives off-putting, and more importantly, we use the same slang. Xiuling was born in China but adopted by a Jewish couple - two artists in Los Angeles. She was also in my Chinese class, 中级班. I had a lot of fun getting to know her, and will really miss her extroverted but humble nature. I certainly won't ever forget when she let Shanna and I cut 7 inches off of her hair. Thanks Xiuling for sitting with me during class and always finding ways to make being here so comfortable!

I have never stretched my mind so far as I have in my discussions with Joy Ashford. Joy is a rising junior from Pennsylvania who attends a fairly conservative boarding school in Virginia. Her parents are conservative non-denominational Christians, and Joy is quite religious as well. However, Joy is far from both the description of her parents as well as many Christians I have met in my life. While she attends church every Sunday, she disagrees and questions much of what the pastor says, and most importantly cannot stand the hate and intolerance that often ties stems from religious institutions. Joy is the first Christian I have met ho loves being questioned and having discussions about the intersection of science and religion. She even asked me to teacher her biology, as she learns very inaccurate and filtered information in school. I am so glad to have met someone who showed me where I can find common ground with religion and that there is a new wave of Christians who are not only tolerant but are interested in questioning what they are taught. Joy is also a very enthusiastic fan of Hillary, which has made it fun to rant about why we love her so much. Aside from her political and religious views, Joy is also so much fun and is an incredible speaker of Chinese. Thank you Joy for always questioning me, pushing my brain to think even more deeply, and for being an awesome person to travel to Xiamen with.

Catherine (麦嘉欣, Mak Gaa Jan) is from Hong Kong, but since she studied Mandarin for her whole academic career, she was able to attend Xiamen University. She has been my tutor for almost the entire rime, and has taught me so much about the Chinese language but also about what it means to have a friend in China. I think part of the reason that she is so great at teaching Chinese is because she herself had to learn it as a second language – her mother tongue is Cantonese. I had so much fun talking with her during tutoring time. I learned just last week that after she completed her final exams, she was supposed to go back to Hong Kong, but stayed in Xiamen to continue tutoring Kelby and me. Both this and the chocolate birthday cake she bought me are a true indicator of her good heart. I will be forever thankful for the friendship she gave to me and hopefully one day I can come to Hong Kong for a visit. 我想感谢你！你是最好的辅导老师。因为你是我中国的姐姐，所以我不会忘记你，我会想你！