Forever Spring Kunming

So with less than 48 hours of exploring Xi'an, we were off to the airport, and ready to begin our next adventure in the Spring City, Kunming. Kunming is on a plateau with an elevation significantly higher than Denver. Although I do not know the science behind this yet, I understand that because of this plateau, Kunming is forever spring. Cool, breezy, and beautiful all the time (except when it rains).

Our schooling here takes place in a university setting. There is no doubt that our host leader is clearly very organized. For example, the first night we arrived, we received a calender with a schedule for every day in Kunming mapped out for us. Each of us had our host families waiting, and our personal university volunteers calling our name. The first night was slightly awkward, which is of course to be expected, but I feel as though I became much more comfortable even more quickly with this family than in Harbin. Either my Chinese is improving, or maybe I am just getting much better at adjusting more quickly. After only a few days, I am already part of the family. 

I am pretty sure I have met every one related to them as well. I have a host mother, father and two older sisters. In addition I also have two older "brothers" as well. My host father is a businessman. He is a type of tea merchant. He travels selling the famous Pu er tea unique to Yunnan Province (where Kunming is the capital). He also has a cute tea shop which I visited. I even made tea for my family this evening.

This picture above, is my host father, myself, Cici, Jingjing, my host mother, and my wai po (my mother's mother).

My host mother (and father) speak little to no English at all. In a way though I actually prefer this, since it affords me the opportunity to use my Chinese without a backup. One sister is 24 and is working towards her graduate degree in some technical design. Her English name, or what I call her, is CiCi. My other sister is 22 and is studying for her GRE's (is preparing towards a post-graduate education). Her English name is Katherine, but I just call her Jingjing.

Only some of the extended family

Myself with my two host sisters and Tsun behind us.

My two older “brothers” are friends of the family who are ALWAYS around, literally part of the family. Frank is CiCi's boyfriend of 5 years and future husband. He is really sweet and picks me up from school everyday. Tsun is a good friend of my host mothers son, who is working in Kunming. My host family takes care of him and he spends almost all his free time with us. Both are roughly 25 and are lots of fun. I like being a part of this older family. I feel it gives me a window into the lives of the young people of China. Mid-20 year olds in America are almost always living away from home in America, but in China it's quite the opposite. They really do not leave home until they marry. I had learned about this before coming to China and I was curious about the type of life that 20 year olds in China have. The truth is, that they go out at night, have fun just like we do, and are not studying at home 24/7. I definitely feel lucky to have been put into this great family. We go out all the time. I have really been given the opportunity to see the city from a different angle than many of the other kids on this program, whose siblings may be very young. As much fun as this is, it does result in significantly less sleep than needed. Warning: I may be ever more exhausted than expected when I return home in about a week!

Cici is teaching me to play the gu jin (a traditional Chinese instrument).