vtemti
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As you all may know my, daughter Christine is currently in China. Here are the latest from her. Enjoy 
I got email again! I am living with a wonderful family in Xi'an, which
is a city that is much cleaner and much less chaotic than Beijing. There
were many begger in Beijing, but I haven't met one on the streets here.
The family I am with now has a daughter who is an English teacher, her
name is Jessica and she is 26. In the same house, her mother, father and
cousin live as well. Her father is a Tai Ji master and he will be
teaching Tai Ji to my group for our stay here in Xi'an. I have many
stories to tell, especially out of the Liu Fu village. They treated me
well, but it was odd too.
There was a little girl I met in Luoyang park the night before going to
Liu Fu village. She ended up being at the house I was to stay in for my
first homestay. She was not part of the family though, but she was
somehow related. It turns out that the family was trying to get me to
bring her to America to live with me next year! Of course, I said no
politely and I left it at that.
Things are going smoothly now. In Xi'an, I will be visiting many areas.
One in particular is the Terra Cotta warriors, which I can't wait for.
Today I had a 3 hour lecture on the history of China's dynasies, so the
Terra Cotta Warriors came up and it turned out to be very interesting.
I am glad things are going well in Chester. I am still working on
finding your shot glass! I haven't forgotten! If you want to email me
again, I'll be here for the next 4 days. Talk to you soon.
Love, Chris
Hi again,
I have had a great time in Xi'an these past 4 days. My family has been
terrific. Tonight was the farewell banquet where all the families and
group members got together to say farewell and thanks for letting us
stay in this city with them. It was also partly a talent show. My family
wanted me to sing solo, so I talked with my group members and they let
me sing the final song we were all supposed to sing as a group solo. I
hope I was good. I had Jessica (my host sister) videotape it so you can
judge for yourself how well I sung when you see it.l I have over 2 hours
of film taped, so you had better get ready for a long home movie night
since I have about 7 more days to go!
I have had a blast bartering prices and getting lower amounts on things
I have wanted. My most recent purchase (which I am very proud of) came
from a museum gift shop. I was looking at a heart shaped pendant with a
turquoise stone on the side and asked how much it was. The lady said 900
yuan, which there wasn't any way I was going to pay. I originally walked
away and told her I didn't have enough money and that 150 yuan was all I
could afford. After 20 minutes, she came looking for me and asked me
again my lowest price on the piece. I walked back to the counter with
her and said 150 yuan, to which she chuckled and said the lowest she
could give "just to me" (to which I thought, "yeah, riiiight") was about
400 yuan. I still said no and raised mine to 175 yuan. She lowered hers
to 300 yuan, and I said to her, "I am a poor student without much money
to spend." I then said to her, "its ok, I don't want to put you out
since I know this is a little price for that piece of jewlery, I can
always go elsewhere" (just to let you know, I actually had 3,000 yuan in
my wallet at the time, hehehehe). She talked with her co-workers, and I
think it was the fact that I said I would go elsehwere that did it. She
let me buy it for 175 yuan instead of the original 900 yuan. Needless to
say, I was very pleased with myself. Two of the groups guides, Sho Whey
and Pei Pei where watching me the whole time and told me afterwards,
"even Chinese can't get prices that good when they are bargaining." My
host sister, who has seen me barter, says I have a talent and asked if I
have had experience in this, to which I replied, "no."
Tomorrow I go to a hotel (I think) to stay for the night, then it is off
to stay with the meow people (that is the correct pronounciation, not
the spelling). They are pretty poor and will not have computers, so I
wont be able to receive any emails after tomorrow night. I am hoping
there will be computers at the hotel. If not, I will be able to contact
you when I am in Shanghai. Hope things are going well over in America!
P.S. I got your shot glasses. They came in a box of six. It is a normal
cardboard box. I asked for something fancier, and they didn't have
anything. It was tough to find them! Jessica had to help me find
something that looked like a shot glass, since no one seemed to
understand what I was talking about! The shot glasses are pretty small,
but I like them and I hope you will like them too.
Also, please say hi to Grandma and Grandpa for me. And also say Happy
Birthday to Ryan! I have been sending him emails, but he hasn't returned
any of them. I don't think he is checking his emails, so please tell him
to do so. He should have at least 2 emails in his "masterchief" account.
Love, Chris
I got email again! I am living with a wonderful family in Xi'an, which
is a city that is much cleaner and much less chaotic than Beijing. There
were many begger in Beijing, but I haven't met one on the streets here.
The family I am with now has a daughter who is an English teacher, her
name is Jessica and she is 26. In the same house, her mother, father and
cousin live as well. Her father is a Tai Ji master and he will be
teaching Tai Ji to my group for our stay here in Xi'an. I have many
stories to tell, especially out of the Liu Fu village. They treated me
well, but it was odd too.
There was a little girl I met in Luoyang park the night before going to
Liu Fu village. She ended up being at the house I was to stay in for my
first homestay. She was not part of the family though, but she was
somehow related. It turns out that the family was trying to get me to
bring her to America to live with me next year! Of course, I said no
politely and I left it at that.
Things are going smoothly now. In Xi'an, I will be visiting many areas.
One in particular is the Terra Cotta warriors, which I can't wait for.
Today I had a 3 hour lecture on the history of China's dynasies, so the
Terra Cotta Warriors came up and it turned out to be very interesting.
I am glad things are going well in Chester. I am still working on
finding your shot glass! I haven't forgotten! If you want to email me
again, I'll be here for the next 4 days. Talk to you soon.
Love, Chris
Hi again,
I have had a great time in Xi'an these past 4 days. My family has been
terrific. Tonight was the farewell banquet where all the families and
group members got together to say farewell and thanks for letting us
stay in this city with them. It was also partly a talent show. My family
wanted me to sing solo, so I talked with my group members and they let
me sing the final song we were all supposed to sing as a group solo. I
hope I was good. I had Jessica (my host sister) videotape it so you can
judge for yourself how well I sung when you see it.l I have over 2 hours
of film taped, so you had better get ready for a long home movie night
since I have about 7 more days to go!
I have had a blast bartering prices and getting lower amounts on things
I have wanted. My most recent purchase (which I am very proud of) came
from a museum gift shop. I was looking at a heart shaped pendant with a
turquoise stone on the side and asked how much it was. The lady said 900
yuan, which there wasn't any way I was going to pay. I originally walked
away and told her I didn't have enough money and that 150 yuan was all I
could afford. After 20 minutes, she came looking for me and asked me
again my lowest price on the piece. I walked back to the counter with
her and said 150 yuan, to which she chuckled and said the lowest she
could give "just to me" (to which I thought, "yeah, riiiight") was about
400 yuan. I still said no and raised mine to 175 yuan. She lowered hers
to 300 yuan, and I said to her, "I am a poor student without much money
to spend." I then said to her, "its ok, I don't want to put you out
since I know this is a little price for that piece of jewlery, I can
always go elsewhere" (just to let you know, I actually had 3,000 yuan in
my wallet at the time, hehehehe). She talked with her co-workers, and I
think it was the fact that I said I would go elsehwere that did it. She
let me buy it for 175 yuan instead of the original 900 yuan. Needless to
say, I was very pleased with myself. Two of the groups guides, Sho Whey
and Pei Pei where watching me the whole time and told me afterwards,
"even Chinese can't get prices that good when they are bargaining." My
host sister, who has seen me barter, says I have a talent and asked if I
have had experience in this, to which I replied, "no."
Tomorrow I go to a hotel (I think) to stay for the night, then it is off
to stay with the meow people (that is the correct pronounciation, not
the spelling). They are pretty poor and will not have computers, so I
wont be able to receive any emails after tomorrow night. I am hoping
there will be computers at the hotel. If not, I will be able to contact
you when I am in Shanghai. Hope things are going well over in America!
P.S. I got your shot glasses. They came in a box of six. It is a normal
cardboard box. I asked for something fancier, and they didn't have
anything. It was tough to find them! Jessica had to help me find
something that looked like a shot glass, since no one seemed to
understand what I was talking about! The shot glasses are pretty small,
but I like them and I hope you will like them too.
Also, please say hi to Grandma and Grandpa for me. And also say Happy
Birthday to Ryan! I have been sending him emails, but he hasn't returned
any of them. I don't think he is checking his emails, so please tell him
to do so. He should have at least 2 emails in his "masterchief" account.
Love, Chris
h34r: in them, then I wouldn't be doing it. In fact, one of the qualifying requirments of this program is that she is to share what she accomplished and learned while in China. She plans to give a seminar when she returns to college that will be open for staff, students and the local community.
