Saturday, September 17, 2011
Well...it has been one month now since I got on the plane bound for Minneapolis (while my luggage got on the one bound for Cincinnati). I sometimes feel like saying: "it's already been a month!" while at other times I feel like saying: "it's only been a month?" Today has been very hard because of the anniversary and a collection of other things--my marching band back home has their first competition today, and my host-family and I went shopping at one of the supermarkets (something I loved doing with my mom).
Thus, today has been filled with many tears that came out dry as I tried to hide my sadness. I am spending exactly ten months away from my family, my ticket home being marked for June 17. One month has passed, leaving nine more to go--saying it like that makes it seem as though time has flown by!
Missing people and familiar things is starting to get easier knowing that, by the Grace of God, I will see them all soon. What I am probably missing the most right now is the little things that we all take for granted--the way my clothes are folded and the fresh smell they have after being washed, the way my bed feels after a long day, the feeling of a sense of belonging whenever I would walk through the front door of my house, the way a smile from a stranger in the hallway will completely change your day, and most of all, the warm-feeling that I have in my heart when my parents say, "I love you," before I go to bed or school. I think that, while we all may try to deny it, most of us don't regard those things as something special in our lives. However, speaking from experience, these things should be cherished for as long as possible. As the old saying goes: 'You never realize how much you love something until it is gone.' While life here is certainly starting to get easier and better, it will never be just like home...

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Time to talk about what school life is like now that my final schedule is set: I'm not taking a lot of classes, and most of the ones that I am taking are by myself. I have three Calligraphy classes every week, but I haven't accomplished much in them so far. My skills are quite bad right now, but I'm trying to persevere. Another "traditionally Chinese" class that I have is Kongfu. Due to having it, which I'm assuming will fulfill my P.E. credit back home, I will probably be getting rid of my P.E. class here (It's extremely boring!). Math and English are my only core classes that I have. Math is by myself with a teacher who knows a little English. It's been hard for her to figure out what I'm supposed to learn, but I think we're starting to make some progress. English is my only class with students (besides drawing, but we don't do much in that class), so that is my main interaction time.
My Chinese is coming along fairly well--I know 27 characters, including my new Chinese name: Mi (like "Me") Liang. I have ten classes every week (classes are 45 mins. each) with two different teachers. One teaches me (for six classes) the basics of the structure of the language and the characters. The other teaches me how to make conversation with others; we mainly just practice talking . It's nice having my own two private teachers to help me learn the language; it makes me feel very important! ha ha
The rest of my time is spent in my office in "self-study." I have more some days that others. On Tuesdays, for example, I have it from 10:30 to 3:25 with lunch in the middle. It's very hard to find a way to spend five hours of time, but luckily, I (only I) am allowed to go off-campus. Thus, for today, I took a walk to the nearby McDonald's in order to get some Western-food into me. It wasn't very noisy, so I read a book as I ate. The experience was nice--the food was very much like home, and it was a very relaxing setting (Well...as relaxing as a fast-food restaurant can be.). That trip only took an hour, though. I'll probably do this on most Tuesdays: take a bus to somewhere downtown and just enjoy the city.

Monday, September 26, 2011
Yesterday was a really great day with the family. The local Volkswagen dealership organized a trip for some of its customers (I'm told a lot of dealers do this) to Da Shi ("Big Stone") Mountain in Liyang. It took a while to get there, but the place was absolutely breath-taking--a lake with mountains (more like large hills) on three sides that had fruit trees and tea growing on each of the slopes. It was one of those places that you could visit a million times and always take a different path. I'll send pictures soon since it is hard to describe and probably hard to visualize.
After that was all done and we got back home, my host-father, host-brother and I stayed outside and took turns playing catch. I think this was the first time that I've played baseball/catch since I got glasses, and I'm am pleased to say that I was much better now that I could actually see the ball. Something felt very right about having a ball and glove in my hand--I'll have to get a new glove once I get back to the States.
To end the day, we went to a really great restaurant--and it happened to be run by the organizers of our earlier trip! The food was delicious. I got to have my first bowl of egg drop soup (Finally!), so I was very happy. I tried everything--including the shrimp and calamari. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be; it was just too chewy.

Friday, October 7, 2011
Today is the last day of our week-long vacation due to National Day (Oct. 1) and the Double-Ninth Festival (Oct. 5).--We have to go to school tomorrow and Sunday because of the vacation, which really stinks. The time has been nice, but we haven't done much; my host-brother had too much homework.
On Saturday, we went to the wedding of my host-father's colleague, and then we later went to a dinner-party with my host-father's side of the family. The wedding was nice. There aren't any set traditions, so some things were of Chinese origin, and some things were from the West--including "Here Comes the Bride." Food is the biggest party of Chinese life, so there was tons (literally) of it--some good, some bad. They even had shrimp that was nearly the size of my head! (I was too scared to try it.)
As for the dinner-party, the food was even better, and the family was really friendly. Only my immediate family knows English, but that didn't stop everyone from trying to talk to me. They were all fascinated by me and would become ecstatic even when I would simply say ni hao (hello)! In return, everyone would all try to say hello to me in English. The oldest member of the family was the great grandmother. She seemed really sweet, but she being so old and frail (She was only four feet tall at the most!).--She seemed to be "with it," though. Once we were finished with dinner, half of us decided to walk through the nearby park next to Tianning Temple. If there's one thing that the Chinese know how to do well more than anything else, it's designing beautiful parks. They are always laid out perfectly, giving the best views of everything you want to see; it was absolutely gorgeous!
Wednesday was the only other day with some excitement (partly because I just got over a bad three-day cold). I meet one of my Chinese teachers and a student of hers that she teaches privately for lunch. She choose a Thai-styled restaurant which had great food--I finally had my first spring roll! I really enjoyed the live music, too. The group would go around to each table and play/sing a song. They knew some English ones, so they sang one for me; it was really great!
...And that brings me up to this point! These slow days give me a lot of time to think--sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. Today became especially hard because I skyped with my parents this morning. It's very hard to be away from them, but it's even harder knowing how much they would love it here.--I wish they could go through this journey with me.
Best Wishes Always,
Jonathan A. Miller