Finding China

  Finding China

My name is Raheal Mengistu and I live in Auckland, New Zealand. When I was young, I had a very fun adventure travelling to Shanghai, China where I went to school for 6 weeks. How did I travel to China so well?

One day, my family and myself were talking to a family friend named Wallis, about her schooldays in China. In Auckland, the population is 1 million but in Shanghai, it is 14.35 million so I had a lot of people asking me about Auckland. One person even asked me “Do you know a movie called ‘Shanghai Knights’”? I remembered this movie was based with Jackie Chan, my favorite actor. At that time, I couldn't speak Chinese but I could understand a little. My parents had been always been telling me to learn and so….. I thought “Yes!” My parents were doubting a lot about this because I had never been far away from my parents before. How could I manage all this? And how would they manage? But the more I thought about it, the more I was excited. I didn't mind a lot about leaving my parents in the airport crying.

When I go to China, I went to my school. My school was called Ping-He Bilingual School. (Bilingual means 2 languages and they are used to teach in our school which is Chinese and English). It was a new school with new buildings, huge grounds and there were about 2000 people in the school. I was in a class with 12 girls. I’m short for my age, even in New Zealand and I felt like a small giant next to them. Most of the kids came from Shanghai. Sometimes, both of their parents worked in their job which was why the kids were boarded. Like I didn't have any siblings, none of them had siblings as well! China’s one child per family rule is very strict in the Chinese cities. We had a mum who looked after us. Like other parents, she could get very grumpy easily! When I was still in China, it was winter and very cold weather. At night, the temperature dropped to below zero. Luckily, the rooms were heated and I was at the end of the room away from the open window.  

The biggest embarrassment was the lack of privacy - there were no doors on the toilets or showers. But instead the showers had curtains which I was lucky. The girls I met at school were very kind and friendly. On my first night, everyone crowded around me. One girl named Sophie said “Can I be your friend?” That was one of the best things that ever happened to me in China. Sophie knew a little bit of English. She even taught me how to introduce myself in Chinese.

Before going to school, we had to be showered, dressed and ready for breakfast by 6:30 am. Class started at 7:00 and finished at 5:00. We had 1 hour for homework each night, so there wasn't much time for anything else. Chinese children worked a lot harder than I was used to working in New Zealand. There were 12 boys and girls in my class. We studied English, science, maths, PE, art, calligraphy, music and history. Apart from science and music, we were taught in an old-fashioned way. But I quite liked having goals set for me that I could work towards to a lot harder. Sometimes these day, we were given a book and told to memorize passages. We were punished if we didn't. Doing PE was not my favorite time! Each day we had to do 100 press-ups and a 100 sit ups and then they would tell us to run around the track 50 times. I was exactly a lot fitter by the time  I left New Zealand. There was a beautiful swimming pool which wasn't even heated but I didn't seem to care. The girls didn't like going to the deep end so I’d just played along with them instead of the deep end because I might drown. Sometimes being short could be a good or bad thing.

On the menus, I didn't like the food at all. It wasn't like the Chinese cooking I was used to back home. Breakfast was a steamed bun filled with vegetables and meat. Once, we had a salted duck egg which I didn't eat. For lunch, we’d have rice with cold prawns or pork and vegetables. Dinner would be soup, rice, vegetables, and meat in gravy. Sometimes we got a warm chocolate milk drink, and we had a banana and an orange each day. If I didn't like the food, I’d go to bed feeling hungry!

On the first week, I was very happy. Then the novelty wore off and I got terribly homesick. Everyone stared at me which made things go so worse. That’s the worst part of being short. I really missed my parents and friends, my dog, my cat, my chickens, my violin, the clean air. Well for sure, I missed everything! I was able to text people and I’d ring my Mum every day which really helped a lot. My Mum said that our toll bill was so big she could have bought the phone company.

Once I got over being homesick, I began to enjoy myself especially knowing it was a short time in China. What did I learn these past 6 weeks in China? Well, Chinese kids work a lot harder than us. They’re also more respectful to adults and teachers. Next time maybe you should go to China just like me!!!!!

By: Raheal Mengistu