My Story With The Nelsons
——Wang tianhe
In this winter holiday, as a member of Jiujiang teacher and student delegation, I attended a U.S.A. exchange program organized by the City Board of Education. This was also my first time to America. I feel lucky and grateful. The city for exchange is Louisville, Kentucky. We arrived the airport in Louisville in the evening of January 31stafter a long flight. Host families had already been waiting there. In the distance, noticing a lady and a handsome little boy holding a board with my name on it, I walked toward them excitedly. That’s how I met The Nelsons. It’s also the beginning of my story.
Mom, from my host family, drove us home. Hardly to see night view of the city in the car because of the snow, Mom caringly stopped the car and walked with me for a while. She pointed to the nearby Ohio River and introduced it is the only river in the city. Dense woods lay around it. Separated apartments are orderly arranged on each side of the road. My first impression of the town is...what a tranquil, natural and clean place!
Car finally stopped in front of a red apartment. That’s my host family, the Nelsons’ home. Although it was snowing outside, I felt very warm inside, especially with a fireplace burning. I only saw this kind of house design, maybe a European style in general, on TV. Mom guided me to my room, a large place with a big bed in it. The decoration warmed my heart. I felt home.
The Nelsons has four people. Mom is Tricia, Father is Jim, the bigger brother is Jamie, the younger one named Connor. The brothers are very adorable, especially Connor, lovely as a doll. They also raise a dog, Rocko and a cat, Dusty. Now, I am accepted as another member of the family. They are my American parents and brothers.
Because this was my first time ever being abroad and I was new to this family. At first, I was a little bit reserved, not knowing how to react or communicate. But all the family members were very enthusiastic; the two brothers always invited me to play with them. Gradually, I was influenced by their hospitality, involved in my new family and started to experience a new life whole-heartedly.
I’ll start with the food. Different from what we eat for breakfast in China, like crullers (“you tiao” in Chinese) and steamed buns (“baozi” in Chinese), every morning, Mom would make each of us a dessert, along with tomato sauce and a glass of milk. Jamie and I would have lunch in school cafeteria, normally it’s a buffet. At first I couldn’t get used to it, because vegetables there are eaten raw, not like everything in China are thoroughly cooked. However, I adapted myself to it. On weekends, we normally go outside to play and ate fast-food, like KFC. Compared with KFC chain stores in China, local KFC tasted better, but poor on products’ variety. KFC’s hometown is Kentucky; its headquarter locates in Louisville. At evenings, we usually ate at home. The family sit together. Dishes were served in order by Mom. Then we’d pass the course around, each spooned out the amount needed. We often talked while eating; I would tell them what had happened during the day. Communication brought us closer and added more and more intimacy among us. In three meals, dinner was always the most fancy one. My American parents would cook by themselves, serving soup, fried dishes and fruit salad.
Attending American classes was an important part of our exchange program. I was allocated to study in an independent school, KCD, equivalent to a domestic key school. Mom drove Jamie and I to school everyday. Father would take Connor to another school. On campus, while Jamie went to his own class, I would sit in on different classes of each grade with other Jiujiang students. Classroom arrangements are casual. Almost each subject has its own classroom, decorated in different styles. We had classes from history, art, music, physics to P.E. The room for art and craft lesson displays vivid clay sculptures. We made potteries with local students. There are various instruments in music room. Students sit together in a circle to learn. The platform in physical schoolroom is a standardized lab table, very convenient for teachers’ demonstration. I showed them the power-point I made and introduced Jiujiang’s scenery and history. There are only 19 students in each class, so they have lots of space to move around. Kids are divided into different groups. Same group members sit together around a desk. We as visitors can join whichever group we’d like and communicate with them. Each classroom has bookshelves. Students can leave seats to fetch whatever books they need in class without informing teachers. During P.E. Class and lunch breaks, they have various physical activities, some I had never seen in China. For ball games only, they play basketball, football, ping-pong and Cross. Besides, they play frisbees. In KCD, foreign language study has three main kinds, including French, Spanish and Latin. Children can choose one or two to learn. Classes start at 8:05 a.m. everyday and close at 15:05 p.m.. After school, while Jamie was finishing his homework on library’s computer, I would go online and waited Mom to pick us home. The library is large. Librarians here carefully fulfilled their duties, wrapping each book, sweeping the floor. Outside the library, there is a small fountain. The whole place looked clean and neat, showing a unity of standstill and movement.
Everyday, after school is our entertainment time. The Nelsons’ basement is specially designed for this purpose. Jamie, Connor and I would play ping-pong down there. The ping-pong table was put up with boards and battens, temporarily found by father. We would watch TV or practice basketball shots with a small ball. My two brothers really like slamming dunks. They usually became sweaty after practices. Speaking of basketball, I have a LOT to say. 11-year-old Jamie joined two basketball teams; 9-year-old Connor joined three. From these, you can see their passion about playing basketball. Sometimes, after school, we played in the open area just in front of the house. Occasionally, father would join us and gave instructions from time to time. We were devoted but also with great ease. Sometimes we lowered the basket and dunked, it felt so great! Jamie and Connor had trainings twice or three times a week. I often went to watch them. Players in training classes were small, including both boys and girls. Their bodies were only about twice as large as the ball. All the players were very devoted during the training, competing against each other. I once asked Connor, is attending three basketball teams tiring? His answer was NO, because he loved it. Through them, I can tell why America’s basketball leads the world. Besides regular training classes, on weekends, they had competitions to play now and then. I watched some of the matches. Despite players’ young age, they fought for scores aggressively. Audiences also played a vital role, full of passion. I remembered at the end of one competition, when a small player hit an amazing 3-point buzzer and sent the match into overtime, he won a standing ovation. What a wonderful shoot! Jamie and Connor had great performances too. They were the main players on the court. Jamie scored 6 points once. Connor gained 8 points in another game. However, they never cared much about the results. They thought it was even more important to eat good food after games. How lovely!
Compared to NBA, a name more familiar to us Chinese; Nelsons prefer NCAA, namely National Collegiate Athletic Association. They knew how I loved watching basketball games; so on a weekend, they drove me to KFC center for a female basketball game. It’s my first live game in a large stadium and it felt really different! All the cheering squad dancing, passionate young fans yelling were infectious and awesome! Sometimes the big screen flashed “MAKE SOME NOISE!” and waves of shouts and whistles erupted like crazy. We watched another male basketball game on TV at home, with guest team University of Louisville against home team University of Notre Dame. Just when we thought the game would end with University of Louisville’s sweeping victory, University of Notre Dame miraculously scored 12 points within the last 42 seconds, throwing the whole game into overtime. At both the second and fourth overtime, University of Notre Dame worked wonders and equaled the score at the last moment. Jamie, Connor and I applauded for the fifth overtime on our couch. Finally by the end of the fifth overtime, University of Louisville missed a three-point shot and lost the game. Fans for University of Notre Dame flooded into the filed, celebrating with players as if they’d won the National Champion. We watched the whole game till dawn. I’m so lucky to watch such a wonderful game with five overtimes during my short visit in Louisville. I’m going to share my excitement with my classmates in China.
I had a great time with the Nelsons. They took me shopping, watching horse racing, bowling and playing Ping-Pong. We even visited a Swiss man in his eighties and invited other children for party at home. Sometimes I taught Jamie and Connor simple Chinese characters and dialogues. All in all, every day is full of joy.
On the Eve of Chinese New year, Mom and I pasted spring festival couplets and paper-cuts to the door and windows, a perfect harmony between Chinese and western culture. I sent them some gifts with Chinese features, such as pens, chopsticks, cups and pencil vases made of porcelain, Peking opera facial masks and Chinese knots. The school held a delightful spring festival party for us and there I even had a long-lost taste of Chinese food.
How time flies! The exchange soon came to an end and I had to leave Louisville and the Nelsons. The evening before my departure, I lied in bed, replaying in my mind every moment with the Nelsons during those days. Sleep escaped me, so I went to my litter brothers’ room. Sensing my sadness, they didn’t say a word, just hugged me tightly.
In the morning of Feb. 11th, 2013 local time, we got up very early. Mom cooked my favorite food. This was the last time I had breakfast at the Nelsons, who knows when I can have another opportunity?
After breakfast, mom gave me a notebook with photos and letters from each member of the Nelsons. I clutched the notebook and hugged them again. All I could say was I love you! I also gave mom a notebook with my wishes for them in Chinese. My English wasn’t enough for my feeling, if only they could understand Chinese! I hope my small gifts from China can be a reminder of our time together.
Finally it’s time to say goodbye. After Mom led me and Jamie in the bus I waved goodbye to dad and Connor through the window glass. I was so sad that I just couldn’t spare them more glances. After the bus pulled up at school, I hugged mom and Jamie again. Mom was smiling, but there were tears in her eyes. I’m afraid I’m going to cry too, so I said “Mom I love you” and didn’t dare to look them in the eyes again.
I’m very grateful to Nelsons for their care and hospitality. The different culture and life style I experienced there have become one of my sweetest memories. I will always love my American mom, dad and little brothers as I love my own family.
Adieu, Louisville! Adieu, my dear Nelsons!
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