More Intersections

So, I am overdue on this post. But last Monday (I think?) my suitemate's Chinese roommate 王璐 brought the two of us as well as her new Russian boyfriend Denis (I think that's how it's spelled? He was also an international student living in our dorm) to meet her older sister's family over dinner before Denis had to head home to Moscow the next morning. Her older sister, her husband, and their son (11 years old, I think) treated us to a delicious hotpot meal at a very nice restaurant. We talked about everything from traditional Russian folk music to tap dancing, with interjections of Russian and English when the topic called for it - 王璐's uncle had studied a bit of Russian, I think, and my suitemate Ali has taken a semester of it. I was even able to talk with Denis about Cheburashka, an adorable Russian children's show my future-suitemate at Yale showed me earlier this year (holy cow, how great is the theme song? I think I just like music in minor keys. I feel like Russian music would suit me). 王璐 and Denis are proficient in English - Denis spent some time abroad in Los Angeles, so we had a lot to talk about. As the four of us walked home together after dinner, I was just amazed by how much there was to relate over (another little sidenote: Denis' cell phone ringtone was none other than the Chinese song I'd been searching for on Baidu. When I visited China during the summer of 2006, my friends and I had a good laugh at the music video. I heard it again in a grocery store a few days prior to our dinner, and had been looking for it since. Who would think a kid from Moscow would be my key to finding this moderately old Chinese song?).

Denis, his roommate Pasha, and a third Russian friend of theirs, Brandon, were all leaving for Moscow at 6 am the next morning, so Ali and I were invited to their little moving-out party. Denis was already packed up, so he and 王璐 disappeared for a while, and Ali and I drank tea from a very lovely traditional Chinese tea set with Brandon while Pasha packed, and later, their Korean friend Min joined us. If I didn't have 8 am class, I'm sure Ali and I would have stayed through the night. As it was, I left around 11 pm to do my homework - but not without promising to show them some tap dancing a little later (our Light Fellowship guide book recommended bringing things in the event of a talent show, so I brought my taps with me to China). When I brought it up at dinner, Denis was amazed. I don't think they have many tap dancers in Russia - or China or Korea, for that matter.

Around midnight, Min, Brandon, Dennis, 王璐, and Ali came to my room and I did some timesteps for them before fumbled through what I remembered of one of our dances from the TAPS show this year. Embarrassing, but worth it for the chance to hang out. Brandon then showed us a few things with a wushu practice sword he'd bought here.

Overall, the night was a real...I don't think I'd call it a wake-up call, but it really renewed my interest in studying. To be honest, I'd been sort of falling off the week prior. It's summertime, and I definitely didn't have enough time to recover from the schoolwork of freshman year to be excited about more classes. I was learning but conversations in Chinese often still became rapidly difficult, not having the proper vocabulary to express myself. I missed my family, my friends and my hometown, and I was alone in my room with the internet a lot because my Chinese roommate had mysteriously disappeared. But. Drinking tea with a girl from Georgetown, a kid from Moscow, and a girl from Korea while watching a redheaded Russian pack a year's worth of study abroad into Mickey Mouse luggage that only could come from China - this was definitely an experience I never would have had if I wasn't here studying Chinese. It's crazy to me to think about how many events must have occurred to have us all sitting in that room together. A map of Russia on the wall with Chinese characters, a Korean-Chinese textbook, some form of Indic alphabet hung on the wall (was Denis studying Hindi too, I wondered) - it was all a little surreal. Despite being terrifically unprepared for Tuesday's classes, I'm very glad that 王璐 invited me along with her and Ali that night. My sense of purpose has been renewed. This is why I study languages.