BEIJING CONNECTION

By Joe Scalzo

Reardon family is hosting a Chinese exchange student

John Dong, 15, is getting a close-up view of America’s most popular game.

YOUNGSTOWN — This story started with a simple question.

Last spring, as a 15-year-old boy from Beijing was preparing for the biggest test — and the biggest quest — of his young life, Ursuline principal Patricia Fleming approached football coach Dan Reardon and asked him if he would consider hosting a foreign exchange student from China.

Reardon, who was mere months away from what was shaping up to be a very long football season, thought it sounded interesting, but he also knew he only had one vote.

He needed four.

His wife, Amanda, and his two kids, Emma and Matthew, held the others.

“The short story is, I sent her [Amanda] a text that said, ‘Do you want to host an exchange student from Beijing?’” Reardon said. “And I don’t know if she was serious or joking, but she said sure.”

That’s it? That’s it.

“We’re pretty laid-back,” Amanda said. “I was like, ‘Uh, OK.’”

Understand this: The Reardons live in a small house on the West Side. They have three bedrooms. To make room, 8-year-old Emma and 6-year-old Matthew would need to share a room.

Their response? “OK.”

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Emma said. “It’s sort of like having an older brother.”

That’s it? That’s it.

“One thing about us is, we really think traveling teaches you so much about so many things,” Reardon said. “We try to take our kids to different places when we can and we thought it would be a good opportunity for them to just share another culture.”

Added Amanda, “It’s something we always wished we would have done in college, like go away and study abroad for a semester or a quarter. We thought maybe this would be a good experience for them, to understand how it works so maybe down the road it would be something they would want to do.”

Meanwhile, halfway across the world, John Dong was stressed. He was spending most of his free time preparing for a standardized test given to all Chinese students after junior high. He was also trying to get a visa, polish up his English and get ready for what would be a pretty big culture change.

“I was under a lot of pressure at that time,” Dong said. “My father said, ‘If you cannot bear that kind of pressure, you do not have to go.’

“I said, ‘I can bear it.’”

John, who turned 16 in September, had never been out of China. But, like a lot of students in Beijing, he had studied English for much of his life.

At first, it was just two or three classes a week. But over the last three years, he took an extra English class — these are usually taught by Americans, Canadians and Australians visiting the country — that lasted three hours every Saturday. He’d always thought of going to college in America, but high school? That was different.

Would it be worth it?

“My father told me, ‘You cannot make your life longer, but you can make it wider,’” John said. “He said, ‘You can see more things, experience more things and make your life more colorful.

“So I said, ‘OK. Yes, I’d like to go.’”

Pretty inspiring, eh? Well, there’s one more thing.

“I was pretty excited because I had heard there were some gorgeous girls in America,” he said.

Hearing that, Reardon laughed and said, “He’s a 16-year-old boy. What do you expect?”

Now. Understand that China isn’t like America, particularly when it comes to family. Because of the massive population — 1.3 billion, give or take a few — parents are only allowed to have one child, unless they’re lucky enough to have twins.

Parents with two kids are put on a list and cannot get a job unless they own their own business, which is rare. John’s father was the head of the Olympic Affairs Department for the Bank of China, meaning he’d have little free time over the summer. Giving up his son would be a huge sacrifice.

He did it anyway. And he used to his access to make sure his son enjoyed his last weeks in Beijing.

John’s father had an all-access pass to every sporting event — he saw Michael Phelps swim preliminaries and he watched the gold medal basketball game between the U.S. and Spain — and Dong got to go to several events, including a basketball game between China and Angola.

Once the Games ended, the real fun began. John flew to America, where he immediately experienced culture shock. Chinese people are friendly, but shy. They usually don’t say hello to strangers.

America is different.

“The first day I came to America, there was a girl who gave me a hug,” said John, whose eyes light with the memory. “I said, ‘This is pretty cool.’”

John, a sophomore, joined Ursuline’s cross country team — he finished a respectable 49th at this year’s district meet, third-best on the team — and learned football from Reardon’s parents.

(He understands offense and defense, but he hasn’t quite grasped how to question the coach’s play-calling or complain that his friends aren’t getting enough playing time.)

He taught Matthew and Emma how to write their names in Chinese letters. He jumped on Reardon’s trampoline with Emma and played backyard football with Matthew. He told the kids Chinese fairy tales and learned about Jesus (John did not grow up in a religious background) and, on Wednesday, snagged a hot date to the school dance.

But the biggest sign that he’d become a de facto Northeast Ohioan was when he started complaining about the weather.

“It’s cold here,” he said, smiling. “We don’t get this much snow in Beijing.”

Johne-mails his parents often and calls at least once every other week. He misses Chinese food because, you see, the Chinese food here is Americanized Chinese food. Only the vegetables are the same. And get this, he’d never even heard of a fortune cookie until he got to the States.

“Isn’t that a sham?” Dan said, laughing.

Johneven tried to speak Chinese to the owner of a West Side Chinese restaurant. It didn’t work. Her Chinese was rusty and her dialect was different and, well, “I did not understand what she was talking about,” John said, laughing. “Maybe when I get back to China, I won’t understand what they’re talking about.”

Fortunately, John loves American food. Before he came here, he thought American food was boring, just a bunch of hamburgers and french fries and, occasionally, a chicken sandwich. Instead, he fell in love with pizza and pasta and — Youngstowners will, ahem, eat this up — cavatelli.

“It’s been interesting,” Amanda said. “We’re having fun.”

“Everyone is so friendly,” John said. “My classmates, my cross country teammates. Even people I don’t know come up to me and say, ‘Hi John.’”

John will be in America until June. Because Dan has been busy with football season — you may have heard the Irish are playing a game today — he’s missed out on some of the experience.

But over Christmas, the Reardons will visit one of Dan’s brothers in Houston, driving across America (with a slight detour to see Elvis’ house in Graceland), soaking up the country and its culture.

Now. Remember this. The Reardons could have said no last Spring. They could have told Fleming it was too much of a hassle, what with Dan’s schedule and their kids’ ages and their house’s size and ... well, you get the picture.

In short, they could have said, “Why us?”

It’s a fair question. A good one, actually. But, you see, just as this story started with a simple question, it also ends with one. Or, more accurately, a simple answer.

Why not?

scalzo@vindy.com