Great Call of China (S.A.S.S.) Read Online Free PDF

Asian, from the watercolor scrolls hanging on the walls to the rosewood chairs and the red carpeting. Uniformed servers stood by round white-clothed tables.
    Under Jenny and Mark’s instruction, a line of Chinese people who seemed slightly older than Cece formed along one wall. Cece guessed they were probably their student hosts from XU. Most of them were dressed like any college student in the States—jeans, T-shirts, shorts—and what was interesting to Cece was that most of the girls didn’t wear makeup. It was kind of refreshing.
    Mark called roll, and one by one, American kids from the S.A.S.S. program, about forty in total, went up to him, pinned name tags to their shirts, and paired up with the local students. After Cece got her name tag, she approached her host, a skinny guy wearing a Houston Rockets shirt. His badge read PETER “SHI YI” LU.
    “Hi, Cece, nice to meet you,” Peter said in accented English. “You are from Texas, right? Do you like Yao Ming?”
    “Um . . . ” Cece said, “Yao who?”
    The Great Call of China
    “Basketball,” Peter replied. He pointed at his shirt. “The Rockets?”
    “Oh.” Cece shrugged. “I’ve never heard of him.”
    “Never heard of him?” Peter’s eyes widened. “You are from Texas and you do not know about the best basketball player in the USA?! You have to learn. I will teach you.”
    “You will, will you?” Cece said, a smile tugging at her lips. There was something about Peter’s goofy nature that was endearing.
    “Yes,” Peter said, “I will have to tell you all about America.” He ushered her toward a table. “I know a lot. Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, McDonald’s. . . ”
    Cece laughed as she and Peter sat down. Jessica and Lisa joined her, along with Will, Alex, Dreyfuss, and their hosts. Jessica, Will, and Lisa had been paired with guys. And Alex and Dreyfuss were with girls.
    “Thanks for saving us a table,” Jessica said as she and her host, George, sat down. George was kind of round and short, and, judging by the way Jessica wasn’t even looking at him, she probably wasn’t thrilled to be paired with him. Lisa, sitting to George’s left, looked far more pleased with her host, Michael—a preppy guy dressed in a polo and khakis.
    Soon everyone was seated, and Cece tried to pretend it didn’t bother her that Will was now sitting directly across from her, looking especially good in a white button-down. He glanced up at her and smiled. Cece returned the smile, then quickly turned to talk to Peter again. But at that moment, Mark quieted the room as he stood at the podium. “All right, let’s begin, shall we? Welcome to the S.A.S.S. anthropology program. First, I would like to give a big hand to our hosts from our partner program at Xi’an University.”
    Everyone politely clapped.
    “I promise I’ll keep this short. The purpose of tonight’s dinner is for everyone to get to know one another. Your hosts are college students attending the Intensive English Program, or IEP, at XU. This means your objective will be to help them with their English courses as much as possible. In exchange, they will assist you with your cultural and language studies. You should meet with them as often as you can; they will be as invaluable to you as you will be to them. Now, orientation begins tomorrow. That’s Sunday, in case anyone has lost track—ten A.M. There will be an exam tomorrow, so talk with your hosts and start sharing.”
    “Exam?” Lisa complained. “About what?”
    “I have no idea,” Dreyfuss said. “But does anyone want to guess what that is?” A server had just placed a platter of what looked like shredded vegetables on the lazy Susan.
    “It’s carrot and turnip,” said Amy, Dreyfuss’s host. “Very good. Try.” She took some of the veggies, then spun the lazy Susan.
    When it came to Cece, she used her chopsticks to ease some onto her plate with grace. If there was one thing she The Great Call of China did know about being