The JamKid Blogs China
Long-time readers of JamSideDown know a bit about the JamKid, profiled two years ago here, and featured in our trip to the Iowa caucus here.
He is Jamie Manley, my oldest son and at 16, no longer a kid. During his freshman year in high school, Jamie studied Chinese history and seemed to like it.
He wanted to take Mandarin Chinese as a sophomore. Fine — after all, Mandarin is the world’s most popular language (English being fourth, after Arabic and Spanish, although people debate these things).
Perhaps ten months ago, Jamie announced that he wanted to move to China and spend his junior year in high school there. He was pretty sure there must be some way to do it.
Ahem. Gulp. A fifteen year old proposing to move out of the house right after he turns sixteen?
Was he serious about moving to China before he got his driver’s license? While I thought about this development, his Mom said what I was thinking: “No way. You are not moving out at age 16. Forget it.”
Like most Dads, I make up the decisions about these things as I go along. I try not to have too many hard and fast rules, but one of my cardinal principles has always been to never, under any circumstances at all, mess with my kid’s dreams.
Clearly, Jamie had given this a lot of thought. We left it up to him to figure out and his Mom harbored hopes that his interest would fade. I never had a moment’s doubt that he would find a program, get admitted, and take off.
He left for Beijing last week.
We took a special vacation as a family just before his departure so that we could get a bunch of time with him. We were all a bit nervous the night before his flight, but we drove him to the airport, left him with a gaggle of anxious students and a few grown-ups who run his school.
Then he was gone.
I was sad beyond words to see him go. I walked into walls for about two days (as did he — but I wasn’t jet-lagged).
We knew he had arrived but had not heard much for about a week. Jamie’s school warned us that they (quite rightly) do not want him online, doing Facebook, or calling home often. This is not a trip, they reminded him. You have an amazing opportunity to live in China with a Chinese family. You not only get to learn Chinese, you get to learn about China. Get off the internet, jump in, and make the most of it.
Which makes perfect sense, except that I want to know what is going on with my kid (yeah, I know. I said he’s no longer a kid. Sheesh.) Where is he living? What is his Chinese family like? What is his school like? What is China like? How is he doing?
Before he left, Jamie set up a blog. I had urged him to do it, and frankly I didn’t know if he would actually write much. On the other hand, he is a terrific photographer, so I figured at least we’d see some good pictures. Before he left, he posted an entry on the Olympics and another on packing. We were delighted that he had posted a quick shot of his new family when he arrived.
Tonight however, he posted an amazing and extended account of his arrival and first few wide-eyed days in China. Once again, he did me proud. It turns out that the JamKid can blog. And really well.
Sample, from a trip to buy a bike in large Beijing department store:
The store had at least five levels, and sold everything from exotic fish to bicycles. There was food, household items, school supplies, electronics, movies, books –they had everything. The bike section was a few floors up and was situated in the corner of the store. The most common bikes were very utilitarian one speed bikes that can be seen all over Beijing.
Since the bike section was nowhere near an exit, I tested the bike by riding around the store (the school supplies section to be exact), weaving in an out of the aisles and trying my best to avoid shoppers. I can only imagine how I looked to spectators — a six foot tall white kid riding a bike around a Chinese superstore trying not to knock over the pens and notebooks.
Check it here — and bookmark his blog here. It will make for outstanding reading and will, if he keeps it up, document a year that will profoundly shape his life.
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