Honk if you... just honk.

I swear, the horn has got to be just as important to the Chinese driver as the steering wheel it's attached to.  Drivers here will honk at ANYTHING.  Buses honk at cars that wait for pedestrians.  Cars honk at the bicycles cruising slowly down the middle of the highway.  I saw an ambulance get honked at today.  Maybe the horn is over-used because the traditional American one-fingered salute is unseen... or maybe that's just because it's too cold to roll down the window.

 

Today is Wednesday, which means a blog entry is in order to avoid having to start writing what will, yet again, be one of the worst things ever written in Chinese.  For some reason, I remembered one of my favorite lines from Billy Madison this afternoon when I started thinking about what I wanted to write about - the part at the end where the teacher remarks that everyone in the room is now dumber for having listened to Billy's speech.  I really feel like the essays I write are an insult to the 4000 year history of the Chinese written language, and that NO ONE will derive any benefit whatsoever from battling through whatever horrible grammar and incorrectly written characters I can manage to cough up.  Oh well. 

 

Today was actually a pretty fun day.  We went to the Capital Museum this afternoon, and got to look at lots of old relics.  OK - that was not descriptive enough.  They had a lot of Buddha statues, carved jade, ancient cooking pots, beautiful pottery... really a good collection!  I only wish we had had more time to look at everything.  Definitely a place worth returning to, though.

 

After we got back to school, I went out in search of a birthday cake, because tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY!!!  I found a cake that I liked in a "European-style" bakery, but then was at a total loss when they asked me what kind of filling I wanted... I picked "tilamisu", as that is the only one where I could pretty easily figure out the English translation!  After I ordered the cake, I headed next door to the grocery store to pick up napkins and paper plates.  Believe it or not, I found everything I was looking for, and it only took one conversation along the following lines:

 

Me to store employee: "Do you have any plastic forks?" (after a quick trip to the dictionary to figure out the words for "plastic" and "fork" - Cake is not a food easily eaten with chopsticks...)

Employee: (predictably) "What?"

Me: "Plastic forks.  My birthday is tomorrow.  I want to eat a cake."

Employee: "Cakes are over there" (points)

Me:  "No - I ordered a cake already.  How do I eat it?"

Employee: "With a [unintelligible word]."

Me:  "Right, but where do I buy that thing you just mentioned?"

Employee:  "I don't know.  Go ask the people selling the cakes."

 

I swear I am not making any of that up.  However, she was right about the forks being in the cake section.  I also bought some milk, as I always have cake with milk, though according to my roommate the Chinese don't drink milk with cake - they drink Coke. 

 

I will leave you with one final thought, and then I really need to get started on this thing:

 

Principal: Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
 

I'm 29 tomorrow!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

ni hao, Lynette!

my apologies for not writing in here last night - I totally forgot!  Plus, nothing really exciting happened.  I saw the guy who thinks I look like a Desperate Housewife again, and the above title is a direct quote.  Yesterday morning was spent in class; yesterday afternoon was spent watching what quite possibly could be the most boring / poorly produced documentary video ever made on the Yuan Ming Yuan - basically the Chinese version of Versailles which a combined force of French and English troops burned to the ground in 1860 (Apparently the Americans returned a few years later to help them finish the job off).  The filmmakers used a computer to "recreate" the buildings based on sketches - so basically, it looked like people in Chinese costume walking through a video game based on Chinese traditional architecture (with some godawful baroque palaces thrown in).  OK - I didn't like the movie!

 

And... that was kind of it.  This afternoon we're heading to the Capital Museum, so hopefully I'll have some news to report from that.  more later!

News Update

I was just told by one of the Chinese roommates that I look like Lynette on Desperate Housewives (a show which, believe it or not, has already been imported into China).  This was meant, he assured me, as a compliment.  Not having any idea who Lynette is (I think I've only seen about an episode-and-a-half of that show), I headed over to the computer lab to do some google-research.  Now really: do I look like Felicity Huffman?  I wish I could enable comments... while the internet has speeded up enough so I can get on google with no problem, I still can't get on Blogger.  In any case... talk amongst yourselves!

mmm... pizza....

Today's big news: successfully ordered a pizza for delivery!  OK, so I didn't actually order the pizza on the phone, because I asked one of the Chinese roommates to do it for me, but I did talk to the delivery guy when he got lost, and told him how to get to the school (the streets here, apart from the main streets, are NOT very well marked - in order to get home from Starbucks, I know to turn right after the playground).  Basically, I told the guy that the school was located in between the Guoyi Hotel and the police station.  Which is true, in a sense (there's a street corner involved, but not knowing either of the streets involved, I decided to ignore that).  I think he must have understood, because the pizza arrived about ten minutes later.  It was ten dollars total (including delivery) which is considered outrageously expensive for dinner in China, and I even felt a bit awkward about spending 75 yuan on a pizza, but it was REALLY good, and they DELIVERED it, which was even better!  and tomorrow... leftover pizza for breakfast!

 

Apart from the pizza, not much incredibly exciting happened today.  Right now I should be filling in my "Chinese Dynasty" chart, which involves doing internet research to find key dates and cultural contributions for the earliest Chinese dynasties.  Bo-ring.  grrr...  I really need to get this done, though, as in half an hour I need to head up to the TV room so I can try on my new suit!  The tailors will be here to make the final adjustments.  Hopefully I will still be the same size as I was last week, though with all the food I've been eating, I'm not sure.  Man... I really miss running.  My walk around the neighborhood yesterday in search of "American Pie 5" was pretty good exercise, but not the same.

 

There are a couple of broader themes I was thinking about today in terms of Chinese society - I don't have time to go into them in depth now, but just to remind myself: remembering and forgetting.  Self-reflection?  paving over. culture of victimhood?  What does it say about a society when the only memoirs are written by successful businessmen?  there are no victims here.

Ability to Success

I had only one goal in mind for today: go out and buy a pirated copy of "American Pie 5" on the street.  I like having goals like this, because you never know what you're going to run into on the way (or what's almost going to run into you, i.e. a bus).  Among the things I found:

 

1.  A flyer for a pizza delivery service.  The pizza is delivered by (what else?) a guy on a three-wheeled bicycle.  Will have to try this soon, with my roommate's help! (I don't think my Chinese skills extend to ordering food over the phone).

 

2.  The entrance to the subway (it's farther away than I thought).

 

3.  The nearest hospital (just in case).

 

4.  American Pie 5!  For only 5 RMB! (approx. 65 cents).  Hard to describe the packaging - the writing on the cover included English, German, and Chinese.  Who knew speaking German would be useful in China?  I will have to go back there again - they had a lot of good stuff spread out on the sidewalk.

 

5.  The guys selling DVDs were outside of a huge indoor flea market that I had been taken to as part of my tour around the neighborhood the second day I was in Beijing.  I went inside looking for random stuff to buy for people as presents.  What a trip!  The most accurate way I can think of to describe it is just a random assortment of all the stuff that fell off the back of the truck before it could be exported to the United States (and some stuff that never would have made it on, like the thermos I bought with a picture of an alpine skier on it and the words "NO REASON TO GET FREEDOM".  I really don't think that's the message they were going for....)  In any case, much random stuff was purchased, which hopefully I will get around to mailing soon.  Charlie, my one regret is the present I was thinking of buying for you - a heart-shaped keychain with a picture of Mao on it.  It was HEART-SHAPED.  And it had MAO on it.  Alas, I passed it up, thinking I could find something better.  But if you really want it, let me know, and I can go back and get it for you!

 

6.  After the indoor flea-market got too claustrophobic for me I headed out in search of the foreign-language bookstore.  It was actually a Chinese bookstore with an English language section - the caveat being that the English language section included two shelves of classic British novels (Dickens, Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence, etc.) and about fifteen shelves of business English (the amount of English learning materials in that bookstore was almost unbelievable).  I wound up buying an enormous dictionary (the same one we had at FSI), the sixth Harry Potter book in Chinese, and "The Berenstein Bears and the Messy Room" in Chinese (SO cute!).  While buying the books, I somehow managed to get myself a customer card, and learned a useful method for not having to fill out a lot of personal information on forms.  Here's how it works: 1) Get the form. 2) Stare at the form like it's written in Chinese (because it is). 3) Slowly write your name (in Chinese), mark that you're female, and write your age. 4) When it asks what your cell phone number is, take your phone out of your pocket and try and find where it tells you what your own number is (I have no idea what my cell phone number is offhand - I really need to write it down somewhere). 5) By the time you get around to trying to remember what your address is, they will have taken pity on you, and will have given you the card without you having to fill anything else out.  Success!  10% off.

 

On my way out, I looked to see what the new books were that they had on display.  There were two groups.  Group One had books about successful entrepreneurs telling their life stories, and books telling you how to get-rich-quick - the above-mentioned "Ability to Success" being one.  There was also a six-volume series entitled "Economic Imperialism"....and I think it's referencing the future, not the past.  Group Two had history books on World War Two.  There were no current political titles - the closest I could find was a biography of Bill Clinton in English.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any English language magazines either - when I asked the woman behind the counter, she looked at me like I had just asked for an ice-cream cone, and said, "This is a bookstore."  Oh well.  I stopped at a magazine kiosk on my way back home - the three Chinese language imports from America they had were Cosmo, Good Housekeeping, and Outside Magazine.  I bought Outside - (户外) - hopefully will be interesting!

 

So, that's about it for today.  I'm now headed back to my room to get started on homework, and drink tea out of my new Thermos.  Today was a very tiring lots of walking type of day, but I can put my feet up tonight and watch American Pie 5 if I finish my homework in time... ability to success achieved!

Even more crazy randomness...

The nice thing about being in Beijing is that it's very hard for your life to settle into a boring routine.  All you really need to do is venture outside with sort of an idea of what you want to do, and you're sure to run into something interesting.

 

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Cindy and I ventured out with the idea that we were going to seek out a "blind massage" place and get a massage.  It had been recommended by one of the school directors, and we figured what the heck - we'll go see what it's all about.  The school's handbook had the place marked on the map, and it seemed easy enough.  Until we realized that the school's map was very, very, very inaccurate.

 

I'm thinking now that they might have done it on purpose, to make us ask random people questions, and practice using our vocabulary.  I got to startle quite a number of people by walking up to them on the street and asking them, in Chinese, where the blind massage place was.  NO one seemed to know, until we finally walked into a pharmacy and asked the people behind the counter - they told us it was across the street, and sure enough, there it was.  Not quite sure what we were getting ourselves into, we knocked on the door, and sure enough, it was opened by a blind woman.

 

I'm still not sure about the whole blind massage thing.  The woman was very nice, and we wound up getting hour-and-a-half long massages (clothes ON, as it was freezing cold!) for 100 RMB each, which works out to around $13.  I felt a LOT better walking out than I did walking in, and I think I may go back next week - a very good way to relax after a week of classes!  We were able to chat in Chinese with the people giving the massages, who were only able to identify us as foreigners by listening to our voices.  I wonder what your concept of race is when you're blind - do you even think in terms of race, or only in terms of nationality?  or of language, or accent?  Shel Silverstein wrote a poem called "No Difference" (just googled it, which is how I remember!) about how human beings all look the same when you turn off the light.  As wary as I was about getting a blind massage, it was nice to be treated just as a different sounding voice, and not a different looking person.

 

Speaking of being treated like a different looking person, the next stop after the blind massage place was the hair studio - my friend wanted to get her bangs trimmed, and needed me along for moral support (as well as to serve as a translator!)  My knowledge of hair-Chinese is severely lacking, but I started talking to the hairdressers, who found me VERY interesting, and picked up a few words.  "Zhi" means straight (not only in the sense of hair, which is how I can remember it).  One hairdresser told me that if I came back next Friday for a haircut, he would make my hair "zhi".  I tried telling him that NOTHING on earth can make my hair do anything it doesn't want to, and my hair, as a rule, is obstinately, randomly wavy.  Wavy, if I can remember correctly, is "zhuan".  I also learned the words for "layers" and "gradually tapered" (in a sense), but have since totally forgotten them.  Part of me is tempted to go back and see what he does to my hair (I got a huge kick out of talking to him, as he has this awful Sichuan accent, which was good listening practice - for example, standard Chinese for "China" and "to speak" is "Zhongguo" and "shuo hua".  His accent turned those words into "Zongguo" and "suo hua".  No "h" to be found anywhere).  However, I really like my hair the way it is, in its wavy randomness, so I think I'll keep it for now!

 

Off to find the foreign language bookstore - this day has been rather dull so far, and it needs some adventure! (but not too much)  I'll try and write about my Chinese bookstore experiences later - maybe they'll have current MAGAZINES! that would be awesome.  zai jian!

new lows in procrastination

OK, so theoretically I should currently be writing a paper entitled "Challenges in the Chinese Educational System."  As remarkable as it may seem, I have absolutely no desire to write it.  For me, writing things in Chinese is about as much fun as anasthesia-free oral surgery, and about as painful.  The entire year and a half I've been studying Chinese, I have never had to write ANYTHING.  Having to start now is AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL and I HATE it.  Of course, it's an excellent opportunity to improve my Chinese, and having to write things really does help your comprehension of the language (at least in theory), so I should be all gung-ho about writing as much as I can while I'm here... um... yeah.

 

OK... fast forward to the last paragraph of this blog (and then I really need to start writing the second paragraph of my essay).  There is one final footnote I want to make to the conversation I had with the Chinese college student yesterday.  In all of the questions he asked me about American society, there was one I forgot to mention: he asked me if Santa Claus was real.  With all the American movies he's seen, he's seen a lot of Santas, but no one to give him a definitive answer on whether or not Santa is real or not.  At first I couldn't take his question seriously, and said "of course there's a Santa!"  He looked kind of confused, then asked "but how does he fit down your chimneys?  how does that work?  does he really deliver presents???"  Only then did I realize how serious he was, and quickly corrected myself.  THAT is how far the Chinese are separated from "real" American life; of course, American understanding of China isn't much better.  I just remembered today that when Chinese president Hu Jintao visited Washington last summer, he was introduced as the president of the Republic of China (aka Taiwan).  Yes, Virginia, there IS a difference between the ROC and the PRC, and if you want to have anything to do with China, you had better learn it!

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too...much...homework!!!

I don't have much time to write, or much to write about, but wanted to share another story from yesterday before I forget.  It's not the most exciting, but it says a lot about Chinese society, especially their views on credit spending.  The Chinese, even more than the Germans, look down on taking out and repaying loans, and spending money that they haven't earned.  Even though the phenomenon of taking out a loan to buy a $400 cell phone has become more common, the loans are generally repaid within a year, with high payments made every month.  As I understand it, there are no student loans - if you can't pay tuition fees, you don't go to school.

 

OK, so here's the story (intended as a joke of sorts, told to me by the same Chinese guy who wanted background info on American Pie 5):  An American woman dies and goes to heaven.  At the pearly gates, she says, "what bad timing!  I just finished paying off the mortgage on my house!"  Right afterwards, a Chinese woman dies.  She says, "what bad timing!  I just finished saving up the money to buy a house!"

 

It will be very interesting to see how the Chinese aversion to credit impacts their future economic development.  How big a role does credit play in a developing economy?  I took a grand total of zero econ classes in college, so I can't really say.  The use of ATM/debit cards here is very common, but the use of credit cards is NOT.  It's not a matter of convenience, it's a matter of pride. 

 

On another, totally different note: once again, I can't get on Gmail at ALL.  Apologies to those I owe email to - I will try and sneak in here early Friday morning and get to it then!  now off to write a 600 character essay on the current state of the educational system in China, which I can't even begin to describe in English, let alone Chinese.  Should be interesting!  more later-

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Mp3疯狂搜-新歌热歌高速下

Stiffler's brother rides a horse???

This afternoon my entire class headed over to the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT, China's answer to MIT) to talk with a group of students about their educational experiences in China.  At least, that's what we were supposed to talk about.  We wound up splitting up into pairs, and my conversation partner was not at all interested in talking about China's educational system, and much more interested in talking about American society.  I asked him where all of his information about America had come from, and his answer: "television, and the American Pie movies."  Apparently, there are five American Pie movies now (I've only seen the first two), and the last one features Stiffler's brother (or as the Chinese guy put it, "Si-di-fi-le's didi") riding a horse to go look for some girl.  He asked me if that was typical for an American high school.  In all seriousness, he asked me if my highschool was like the highschool in the American Pie movies.  I seriously have to go find a pirated copy of American Pie 5 and watch it, just to find out what the Chinese think of us.  Every single other Chinese student I talked to had seen American Pie 5, and they all seemed to like it, especially the part where the kid rides the horse.  Weirdness!

 

In other news, tonight I went for a tailored suit fitting - 800 RMB for a tailored wool suit (that's approx. $100).  Hopefully it will turn out OK!  It was a bit awkward getting measured, though - I've never done the whole tailor thing before, and it's a bit up-close-and-personal... hopefully the thing will fit right!

 

Basically, between discussing the finer details of the American Pie movies in Chinese all afternoon, going to dinner, rehearsing a ridiculous dialog for class tomorrow, and getting fitted for a suit, I've managed to get no work at all done, and it's already really late and I have to start my homework.  that's all for now - stay tuned for tomorrow!

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Mp3疯狂搜-新歌热歌高速下

P.S.

In case you're wondering what the Chinese writing is at the bottom of the post, it's a Yahoo ad.  I switched over to a Chinese Yahoo account to do blog posts, as in the time it took me to send one email on Gmail, I was able to write the entire last post.  time for Yahoo!

 

and in case the MP3 didn't give it away, it's an ad for a music service!

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an eph in the midst...

Today's big news was that my classmates found out I went to Williams.  Now not only do I have to deal with being a tall blond haired alien among the Chinese, I have to deal my classmates saying, "but you went to WILLIAMS??? you look so normal!"  I guess that's the risk of everyone else in your class but one being a current Middlebury student.  They were all very nice about it, after the initial shock... but now I've really got to start studying so I can represent!

 

I've decided that the Chinese "yield" signs are really more of a suggestion than a command - it might have something to do with the character written upon them, "让" (pronounced "rang").  The word, depending on the context in which it's used, can either mean "to yield" or "to compel".  In traffic, ideally, it would mean "to yield".  However, in practice, especially if you are a bus, it means "to compel".  I saw living proof of this yesterday when I went for a walk after grabbing a coffee at McDonald's.  I was standing by one particularly busy intersection with a "让" sign waiting for my coffee to cool, and observing traffic.  There is a definite hierarchy - bus, van, car, three-wheeled motoche, bicycle, pedestrian, old lady with cane moving slowly.  Seriously - the old lady with the cane got honked at. 

 

Not much new craziness to report from today.  Gmail is still my archenemy - I have been trying to send my application for Harbin for about fifteen minutes now.  It seems to think, and think, and think, and THEN decide that "the system is unable to perform this operation.  Please try again later."  Arrrrghhhh!  It seems like all systems are go for the move up to Harbin, though.  They just need to find a professor that can work with my topic, and they might need to change my topic slightly if they can't find someone suitable, but hopefully things will work out. 

 

Oh - and before I forget.  My dad pointed out that I never answered the question I posed before going to IKEA, which was basically, does it all come from China or is it imported?  answer: almost ALL of it comes from China, and it's noticeably cheaper than the US (but still relatively expensive for China).  The difference in the cost of basic goods between the US and China is overwhelming.  Luxury goods are about the same, but you really notice the difference when you're eating in a restaurant, or going grocery shopping.  There's basically just less STUFF to buy here, so unless you're hell-bent on going out and spending a lot of money on clothes or electronics or whatever, it's actually hard to spend money on a daily basis.  It's a much simpler life.  (of course, my daily life is basically spent within a three-block radius of the school.  were I to venture out, I'm sure I could find a lot more complexity!)

 

Gmail just went through.  off to do more homework!

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Mp3疯狂搜-新歌热歌高速下

great wall!

hello everyone! (and a special hello to Mrs. Johnson's students!)  I wish I could post pictures up here, so you could see how small I look in comparison to the Great Wall, but the internet is still too slow for that, so I will have to describe it as best I can!

 

We all piled into two busses early yesterday morning, and headed out about due north of Beijing.  Beijing city itself is surrounded by "ring roads" - circular highways that loop around the city - so you can tell how far out you are by which ring road you're on.  The first ring road is a mythical loop around the Forbidden City - it doesn't exist in reality, but serves as a marker for the "true" center of Beijing.  I live just outside the second ring road in the northwestern part of the city.  The third ring road is pretty built up, and the fourth ring road is where the IKEA is (on the northeastern corner).  To give you an idea of how congested the traffic in the city is, it took us a good twenty or thirty minutes just to make our way from the second ring road to the third, and then to the expressway leading out of the city - and all this on a Saturday morning!

 

Beijing goes from all tall buildings to fields pretty quickly - reminded me a lot of most major German cities.  It took us about an hour to get to the Wall once we left the fifth ring road behind us (I think that sixth and seventh ring roads are in the works) - our bus driver got lost at one point, and had to pull over to the side of the road to ask someone for directions in an unintelligible local dialect, but it was a brief detour, and we were soon on our way again. 

 

The mountains around Beijing seem to rise up out of nowhere - maybe the closest comparison is the way the Rocky Mountains rise up west of Denver.  The road got narrower and narrower as we headed up into the hills, and then dead-ended abruptly at the parking lot.  (If anyone wants to look up pictures online, just google Mutianyu Great Wall, as that's where we were).  There was no pass through the mountains where we were - just a very steep rise, and up on top of the mountain... a very big wall!

 

There was a gondola going straight up the mountain, but doubting the safety of Chinese gondolas, and wanting to get some exercise, I decided to take the stairs.  There were a LOT of stairs.  Steep stairs.  About 750m straight up of stairs.  Still, at the top of the stairs was a small passageway into the Great Wall itself (there are only passageways into the Wall from the Chinese side, interestingly enough.  If you drop your hat off the wall on the Mongolian side, you're out of luck, because you're NOT getting it back!)  The Wall at its lowest is abbout 20 feet high, and it can get higher according to the terrain.  There are also places where it tips to the side a bit (and signs in Chinese telling you "do NOT lean on the Wall"). 

 

The overall length of the restored section of the Wall I was on totaled 3 km - I walked up probably about 1.5k before coming to the end.  I took a picture of the unrestored section of the wall, which I really wish I could post here - it's just amazing.  It beats Hadrian's wall hands-down.  It runs literally along the ridgetops of mountains that are a good 2000-3000 feet high, and possibly higher.  It boggles my mind how they could have built it - there's no water up there, let alone how they could have quarried the stones down below and carried them up top.  It's just unreal - from where I was, you could look across the valley and see the Wall continuing on the mountains on the other side - mountains a good 20 miles away.  How they did it I don't know, but it's just amazing!

 

It was great to get out and get some exercise on the wall - I haven't really been exercising much, mostly because I've been so busy and jet-lagged, but also because I haven't really wanted to go running - partly because of the air pollution (I really noticed the less polluted air outside of the city yesterday) and because of the whole space-alien effect - if people look at me funny when I'm just walking down the street, imagine what their reaction would be to me running down the street in spandex tights!!!  no, thanks!!!  hopefully Harbin will be a better place to get outside.  I've been going for walks here every day, just to stay active to some extent, but other than that have just been doing homework and sleeping.  Also doing random stuff like going to IKEA, but for the most part keeping things pretty low-key.

 

Today will be spent filling out my application to go to Harbin - looks like my topic will be intellectual property rights, but I have to figure out what exactly I want to focus on, and what exactly I hope to get out of it.  Hopefully will have time to do some background reading before I head up there, and Dad, don't forget to go to Franklin Pierce and find out what suggestions they might have! (thanks in advance!)  I will be back with an update later on - the internet seems to be functioning especially well today, so will keep fingers crossed that it keeps up.  more later!

made it back from IKEA!

after an hour spent on a crazy bus (I can't tell you how many times I
saw someone on a bike dart out in front of the bus thinking, "this
can't end well..." only to have the biker avoid not only the bus, but
the several cars attempting to cut the bus off, merge into the bus,
tailgate the bus, etc.)

I should preface all of this by mentioning that I love IKEA for many
of the reasons why other people hate it - because everywhere you go,
it's the same. Doesn't matter if you're in Germany, Virginia, or
China - everywhere you go, the restaurant is located just past the
kid's stuff, and right next to the escalators to go downstairs. it's
awesome! I had swedish meatballs! and coffee! in China! I've now
been to an IKEA on three continents!

time to go meet up to head to the Great Wall. stay tuned!

going to ikea!

this blog post is just to commemorate the fact that this afternoon, I will be going to IKEA in search of meatballs, coffee, and a mug (possibly also a fuzzy blanket if I can find one).  the ironic thing about IKEA?  in the US, everything there is really cheap, because it's all made in China.  In China, according to my roommate, it's all really expensive because it's imported.  which is true?  we shall see!

Phone Numbers

Phone numbers for me in Beijing:

 

Room (landline): 011-86-10-6830-0597

 

Cell phone: 011-86-1355-2036-701

 

I guess the cheapest way to call from the US is to go to one of those tiny grocery stores and get a phone card, or use one of the 10-10 something-or-other numbers.  You don't HAVE to call me... but you can if you want!!!  Also, remember that Beijing is 13 hours ahead of the east coast of the US - so when it's 9:00 PM on the east coast, it's 10:00 AM the following day in Beijing.  SO hard to keep track of, and also why I'm having a really hard time adjusting to the time change.  I will do my best not to accidentally call someone at 4:00 AM, though!

jiaozi, jiaozi, all the time...

I am taking advantage of a brief window of gmail functionality to
write this. There is a very good chance it won't work, and I will
walk away from the computer after 15 minutes of sending, reloading,
and sending again without any hope of success. It is SO frustrating
to not be able to get online, especially when my free time here is
limited. I just spent an hour re-writing what is quite possibly the
worst essay ever written in the Chinese language. For real. We never
had to write anything at FSI, so honestly I never wrote anything while
I was there that wasn't in outline form. Having to string coherent
thoughts together is a real challenge!

The real interesting news from today, though, is that I may be heading
to Harbin this spring instead of continuing on here in China. My
Chinese is a lot better than I thought it was, and if I stay here I'll
just be getting a lot of grammar (which I don't need), while if I go
to Harbin, I'll be able to do a one-on-one project with a Chinese
professor, which sounds a lot more interesting. I still have a lot to
do in terms of organizing the change in plans (complicated
significantly by the fact that I can't really email anyone, let alone
get on websites), but the plans are just starting to take shape.
We're allowed to choose any topic we want to research (as long as it's
not Taiwan), and I think I'm going to focus on intellectual property
rights - a very interesting topic in China right now. I have this
idea that someday I might work as an independent translator, and
having some kind of background in Chinese legalese might not be a bad
idea. Hopefully it won't be too awful!

man... my brain is starting to shut down. Time to head back to the
dorm, make some homework corrections, and get some sleep. Tomorrow I
have a review quiz, and then Saturday morning we head to the GREAT
WALL!!! can't wait. more later!

quick! before the internet shuts down again!!!

hello everyone! greetings from China! it has been a wild week so
far, and I apologize for the total lack of blog postings - it's not my
fault! it's the earthquake. Two weeks ago, there was a major
earthquake off the southern coast of Taiwan which severed the internet
connection between the mainland and the US. The result has been that
Gmail often takes about five minutes to load, and I haven't been able
to log into Blogger at all. Thanks to my Dad, who logged in for me
and changed my settings, I can now email in posts. So, hopefully from
now on in it will only get faster!

So... so much for the internet! what do I think of China?
overwhelming. EVERYTHING is different. Just... the same basic human
patterns are here - roads, tall buildings, pedestrians, busses,
taxis... but everything is bigger, more chaotic, a faster tempo. I
still haven't adjusted to it yet. Also, all the signs are in Chinese.

The people here have been wonderful so far, though. My roommate
couldn't be friendlier - she's been a lot of fun to talk to. Kind of
crazy, and lots of energy, and I'm not sure if I'd want to be her
roommate for more than a month, but it's just so fascinating to be
able to talk to someone whose background - whose whole life - is very,
very different from mine. One thing that living with her has called
to my attention is the amount of THINGS that I have - just the two
suitcases I packed to bring here surpass the amount of clothes she
brought by far. I've started translating the Chinese currency (RMB)
into dollars every time I buy something, and it becomes very obvious
very fast how much more money we have, and how much more we buy with
it. The Chinese seem to have the fundamentals of a consumer culture,
but right now they're just focusing on the bare essentials: cell
phones and electronic English/Chinese dictionaries. No kidding. In
every electronics store I've been to, those are the first things on
display - and my roommate already has both.

The fact that China is a communist country isn't immediately obvious.
There are a lot of policemen, and no bookstores. However, the
policemen are very, very friendly, and more than willing to help with
directions (as I found out last week during our "scavenger hunt" with
our roommates). Beijing is a fun place to be - TONS of little shops
(I already am keeping an eye out for gifts to bring back to people...
if you email me I will buy you a gift... (hint hint... I want email!!
helena.in.china@gmail.com...)

Things I've noticed so far that are different? 1. Pedestrians do NOT
have the right of way. At all. 2. If you are a bus, red lights do
not mean you have to stop. 3. If you are tall and have blond hair,
people will look at you like you've just gotten off a spaceship. They
will do this even if they are on a bike, and even if it means almost
falling off the bike and getting hit by a bus. 4. If you are tall
and have blond hair and can speak Chinese, people will look at you
like you've just gotten off a spaceship. But they will speak Chinese
with you, and be amazed that even space aliens are learning Chinese
these days. Also, if they are my roommate, they will compliment you
by saying that the Chinese you're studying is equal to what 5th and
6th grade students are learning! (and she will truly mean this as a
compliment!) 5. Everyone has a cell phone. Even the guy riding the
three wheeled bicycle piled high with toilet paper. 6. People sell
weird stuff on the street. 7. People sell weird stuff in
supermarkets. 8. People eat parts of animals that we don't (like the
feet). I only wish the internet connection was fast enough for me to
upload pictures.

Man... what else? we're going to the Great Wall this weekend, which
hopefully will be a good opportunity for me to buy overpriced
postcards to send people. Honestly, I can't say I'm totally enjoying
myself here (class is kind of lame - too much grammar), but I think
it's going to be OK. I'm really homesick. It's kind of funny to
realize what websites you look at when every page takes at least five
minutes to load (if it loads at all). For me, it's Ephblog, the ski
team blog (combined with NENSA and Prospect - fasterskier.com won't
load), the front page of Google News (I can read the headlines but not
the articles), and that's about it. Nothing else works. So
basically, I miss Williams and skiing. If I'm going to have to go a
winter without skiing, though, this one seems like a good one to
miss...

All in all, though, things are going well. It's cold outside, but
nice and warm inside, and I'm getting better at using chopsticks.
There is a Pizza Hut nearby if I get really desperate for food, and
there's a Starbucks a few blocks away (I really, really miss having
coffee every morning). I don't like having to do homework, and
speaking of which, there's a 600 character essay I have to write for
tomorrow on cultural preservation - I've got 250 down so far, and just
have to come up with some sort of argument and a conclusion, and then
I'm done. My grade here doesn't really matter, which is nice, but I
still have to do the work - plus, there are a lot of people here from
Middlebury, so I have to represent for Williams.

arrrggghhhh... back to work. I'll try and write more soon, and more
specifically about what's out there, but for now - zai jian!

testing... testing...

If this works I will be very happy... thanks, Dad!

sooooo tired...

I don't really have time to write much tonight, except to say that I am VERY tired, which hopefully means that I will be able to get some sleep tomorrow! I leave DCA at 8:45, stopover for a few hours in Chicago, and then it's me and seat 50H all the way to Beijing - yes, I am flying coach on a 747 - hopefully will be no screaming children!

as soon as I figure out the whole internet thing in Beijing I will write more - until then, it's off for one more night's sleep in my own bed. I am going to miss this place...!

signs you've moved too much

I am currently in the process of going through all my stuff, in order to figure out how best to put it in storage while I'm in China. Naively, I thought that since I've moved around so much in the past five years (I've changed addresses eight times since I graduated from Williams, and that's not counting the times I temporarily moved back home) that all my stuff would be magically pared down, reduced to only the basic essentials, because surely I wouldn't have continued moving useless junk around with me for five years??? And surely, since I've necessarily been going through it every time I move to make sure what's there (!), I wouldn't be surprised by random stuff that I've chucked into milk crates/plastic bags every time I move... right?

Stuff I've found so far:

1. Instruction manual for cell phone which I haven't used in over two years
2. Clipless pedals for my mountain bike which I haven't gotten around to putting on yet (in plastic bag together with shoe polish, for some unknown reason)
3. Blinking rear light for bike (non-functioning, needs new battery. Has needed new battery for several years)
4. Repair kit for Whisperlite stove
5. Chain whip and spoke length gauge (only bike tools I own - inherited from my dad's old shop)
6. Lint remover
7. Actual cell phone which I haven't used in over two years. (what do you do with old cell phones? apparently, put them in a box and forget about them)
8. Pimsleur CDs for learning Mandarin Chinese which my old roommate gave to me. Never listened to.
9. Found my alpine ski goggles!!!
10. Leftover N'Sync valentines
11. 32 cent stamps
12. Granola bar (which I am currently eating - wasn't that old)

I would just like to point out that all of the above items were found IN THE SAME BOX.

Moving on, we find...

13. Can of paint which leaked all over my headlamp : (
14. CO2 cartridges
15. Padlock with no key (which I'm keeping in case I ever find the key)
16. 3-foot-high stack of Chinese books (I'm not even kidding)
17. Picture of the Middlebury Russian School soccer team
18. Bottle of Tylenol
19. Pay stubs from my work-study job at Williams
20. Expired coupon for oil change at Jiffy-Lube
21. Charlie's birthday card (sorry Charlie... you'll get it tomorrow!)

OK... that is all for now. I'm tired, and I keep sneezing from all the dust I keep stirring up. more tomorrow!

t-minus one week and counting...

So, those of you who have been reading this blog for a while may have noticed that I went through and deleted about half the posts... this was an attempt to make it look more "professional" before I show it to my parents, and also to get it back on track - though I kind of miss the old posts... they were interesting!

Chinese visa arrived via FedEx a few days ago... looks so cool! I just got back from an 8 1/2 hour drive back from New Hampshire... SO tired right now! all I want to do is sleep, but first I need to go to the bank, go get dinner, and then I should probably shower as well... I'm lying on my bed right now typing this... so comfy.... zzzzzzzzz

did I say I was trying to make this more "professional"...? well, I'll try and start tomorrow....