before I forget...

Yesterday I went to the supermarket in search of candy for Chinese New Year to share with my classmates today (we were all assigned traditional Chinese holidays to research - each holiday has its own particular food - mine was particularly easy to find, since Chinese New Year is set to arrive February 18th).  While heading down the chips aisle in search of Oreos I ran across a bag of... Cheetos!  my favorite unhealthy snack.  I was SO excited!  That is, until I got home, and opened the bag.  What was in the bag was certainly Cheetos-shaped, but definitely not Cheetos-flavored.  Instead of the expected Day-Glo orange cheddar flavor, it was... teriyaki steak.  A friend of mine was already taken in by ketchup-flavored potato chips, and I think I ate a green-tea flavored ice cream bar for dessert tonight.  But teriyaki steak flavored Cheetos are really beyond the pale.  For all those who can read Chinese characters: beware 日式牛排���蜚��力��癆�阨�瘤���癆�鈞齔�当緕�蒹�瘤糯�齊Γ街飼�銓蜥繻�黶聽�鈞齔�莱��蜴�續�緕�蒹�纃闔�閼甃�辮鞳鴉蜴��鈔�闔纖�赱�鱚�葹鰾�瘤粡纉��纈���硼���癇鳫�肚癘闥繖�瘤糯�瘤��纐緕�闥黼���瘤糯�癇諷����鋳縺�會��縄癘闥����鈞齔���閹��竚癈鼾癆纉�鋏蜚�鈑踟�鱸繖�蒹�鱚瘢�鴣鈬�闔踟��齔蜚��阨�痰阨���黼竢鈔�赱�鬯�碵雹���瘤阡蒹��鴈蜴��鱚痲��矼肬鱚�阨�癆�堯

Blink 182 and Burritos

For some reason, I was thinking this afternoon "if I could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?"  And no, it wouldn't be Blink 182 and burritos.  Maybe it's the fact that being in language school full-time reminds me of summer school in Middlebury, but if I could have anything, or be anywhere, I would be back in language school going for the same walk I did every day after dinner - down from campus to the bridge connecting Frog Hollow to Marbleworks, standing on the bridge, watching the waterfall.  Somehow, it was reassuring to get away from the artificiality of speaking Russian all the time, and get in touch with something eternal, unchanging, and powerful.  Ever since I was very very little going to visit my grandparents in Middlebury, and short enough that I couldn't see over the edge of the Main Street bridge over the falls without jumping up a little (which really used to freak out my mom), I've thought those falls were really cool.  Maybe it's the same feeling I get when I look up at Mt. Greylock in Williamstown - the same feeling that no matter how I scored on what paper or what test, the mountains would always be there, still the same.

 

Last weekend I started reading a book called "Soul Mountain", the focus of which is the role of the individual in Chinese society.  In a place where lines are tightly drawn, and rigid boxes surround what is knowable, acceptable, and available, where does the individual seeking his own path fit in?  If you are fine with filling your days with fashion magazines and computer games, then maybe you never question what lies outside the gate.  China, for all its elements of the ridiculous, has clearly defined what is OK and what is not.  The whole concept of ridiculousness (for me embodied by the above statement, the two being the band I was listening to on my Ipod this afternoon, and the food I want to be eating right now) just doesn't exist here the way it does back home.  There are things here that definitely defy explanation - for instance, the three-wheeled bicycle cart I passed on my way home yesterday, piled high with what looked like about three huge wardrobes - ten feet wide and five feet deep - for all that the whole idea of trying to load all of that on a bicycle was ridiculous, the three guys doing it were very, very serious about it, and they were GOING to make it work! 

 

This may require more thought as time goes on, or maybe I'm just hungry and want to go get food.  In any case, perhaps to sum things up: maybe you can quickly judge a country by who you can put on stage as a sock puppet.  In the US, I can't imagine there being a public figure that you couldn't have a sock puppet imitate.  In China?  the only websites with Mao sock puppets that showed up with a Google search were based in the US - and they were blocked.

Boyfriend trouble!

Today's big news was that my roommate broke up with her boyfriend.  She went out earlier this morning to help another American student that she's friends with buy some kind of jade dragon figurine.  On the way back to the dormitory on the subway, she saw a guy who looked like her boyfriend with another girl.  When she called him about it, he was very short with her, and apparently, not that friendly.  When she suggested they break up, he agreed.

 

The problem with all of this is that ever since the decision was made, she's been either talking to me about it, or talking to other people on the phone about it.  I don't really know what to say - mostly because what I say would have to be said in Chinese, and I just don't have any background in what to say to people when their boyfriend turns out to be really creepy - other than, "well, you think THAT'S bad, well MY story's even WORSE...!" which I'm not sure is all that helpful.  I told her she should call her mom, because I think no matter where you're from, moms always know what to say - though dads aren't bad, either!  (and together with a sister's offer to kick them in the shins really hard, it's an unbeatable combination!)  How do you say, "there's a lid for every pot" in Chinese?  "There's a spoon for every wok?"  not sure...

 

Today's big project was getting pictures developed - went to the Kodak place down the street with my USB drive, and an hour later, had prints of all the photos I've taken so far.  I'm going to be mailing them home soon, so Mom and Dad, keep an eye out!  I figured that's the best way to show you what I've been doing so far, and there's a bunch of good pictures of my birthday party in there (minus the ones of my roommate and her now ex-boyfriend, which have all since been ripped in half).

 

I am now off to shower and do more homework... argh.  I am REALLY bummed to be missing the Superbowl - it's set to broadcast live in Beijing starting at 7:00 AM tomorrow morning - just in time for class.  No commercials, and no Prince halftime show.  Plus, no chance to hear Chinese color commentary.  I wonder what "touchdown" is in Chinese...? 

 

time to check the laundry in the dryer... more later!

guis in black spandex

Last night a bunch of my classmates and I headed into town to watch a performance of Beijing Opera.  I tried and tried to find an English explanation of what we saw, but no luck.  It was an opera set in the Song Dynasty about a man falsely accused of murdering the woman he loved (sort of a 12th century Fugitive).  The judge set to hear the case decides to sleep on it before he decides the man's fate, and during his sleep the murdered woman appears to him in a dream, explaining the real situation.  She was helped by my favorite character in the opera, the "油流鬼" - you liu gui - or "ghost in charge of adding oil to lamps".  There were a lot of guis (ghosts) in the opera, all clad in black spandex bodysuits with neon colored pleated skirts, all capable of various acrobatic feats (it got kind of strange in parts).  All in all, though, it was much more entertaining than I thought it would be, and just really intere sting to watch.

 

I'm headed off now to grab some dinner - will write more tomorrow about today's activities.  zai jian!

文兰下车！

Today was kind of stressful.  It began with my weekly 10 minute oral test (not too bad), but then I decided to Go To The Post Office.  My roommate offered to take me, which was really nice of her, but also very, very stressful.  My roommates treatment of me is sort of the way you'd treat a space alien, a pet, and a small child all rolled into one.  She couldn't be nicer or friendlier, and I think the main problem is that this is the first time she's been exposed to someone from another country, so she doesn't really know what's hard and what's easy, but just sometimes...

 

When you're in a foreign country, the biggest problem is figuring out how things work - what's different, and what's the same.  What's easy, and what's hard.  For example - riding a bus in itself is no problem.  Knowing where to get off the bus is really, really hard.  Getting on the right bus in the first place is probably the biggest challenge of all!  However, once you know where you're going, it's a piece of cake, and if you can look out the window and recognize your destination, then you don't need your roommate to yell at you across the bus, "文兰下车!" which translates into, "Helena!  Get off the bus!"  Once you put me on the right bus home, I recognize home when I see it!  It's funny how humans are programmed to be able to recognize where their bed / all their stuff is.

 

I don't know why I keep writing about the busses in China... it's just that every time I ride one, it strikes me how, even though the busses themselves are identical to the ones in Germany in terms of manufacturing, the whole bus riding phenomenon is entirely different.  For instance, in Germany there is a yellow line next to the driver.  You do NOT stand in front of the yellow line.  You get on the bus, put your money in the box, and it gives you exact change.  In China, (at least today, when the busses are crowded), you stand in the wheelwell and hope you don't get clocked in the head when the doors open at the next stop.  Today, I was able to make my way up from the wheelwell to stand about six inches away from the driver.  It was cool, because I could look right out the front of the bus.  The highlight of the day was going through an intersection where the traffic lights were out - BOY, is that chaos in China!  Fortunately, we were in a bus, but imagine two lanes of traffic coming from each direction, people trying to turn in ALL directions, and random bicycles/three wheeled carts trying to make their way through it all, PLUS busses and trucks and pedestrians... I swear, there's a certain energy and joy in China that would be lost in a more regulated society.  In a very fundamental way, standing right next to the bus driver while you inch your way through utter chaos is FUN.  Provided of course, that the truck coming from the right stops in time!

 

One thing I've really noticed about China is the amount of crap that people have dangling from their rear-view mirrors.  I don't really know how to explain it - mostly it will be a square with a character or two inscribed in it, with a red tassel dangling below.  Everything dangling from the rear-view mirror will be red, and most of it will be tasseled at least once if not twice.  The BUS I was riding in today had two oversized tassels hanging from the rear-view mirror, both of them with the characters "平安" which in English translates into "Safe journey" or "Godspeed".  If anyone needs all the lucky talismans they can get, it's a bus driver in China...!

 

The post office was incredibly stressful, mostly because my roommate kept telling me how to do everything, even the things that were written in English.  "See that? That's where you write your name."  "Yes, I see!  It says, "Sender".  It's in English!"  She did help me out with my return address, which was really nice.  It's just hard to explain to someone what foreigners have trouble with.  She sees me have trouble with what to her is the easiest thing in the world - writing my return address - and assumes that if I have trouble with that, I'm definitely going to have trouble with the customs forms.  Except that the return address requires writing characters, and the customs forms are in English (and she KEPT telling me to "write clearly! write clearly!"  to which I kept responding, "I AM writing clearly!  Every American postal worker will be able to read that, and I woudn't need to cross so many things out if you didn't keep interrupting me to tell me to write clearly!!!")  But in the end, it was a successful trip.  We stopped by the grocery store on the way home, where she carefully guided me through the store, and asked me what color underwear Americans like to wear.  Apparently, the Chinese favor red or green colored underwear, and NO one wears white underwear (in China, red is the luckiest color, and white is the color of death).  I mentioned that some Americans like to wear black underwear, which lead to the question, "but what if you're wearing white pants?" to which I responded, "then you wear white underwear!" which then lead to the whole white underwear being unlucky bit.  Honestly.  Some things don't need explanation!

 

ok... off now to shower, then head out to Beijing Opera tonight.  I am going all out and putting on makeup - my roommate is very interested in the fact that I will be putting on makeup, and wants to watch, to see if Americans put on their makeup differently.  Man - I stress out enough with the whole makeup thing to start with... how different can it be?  I mean, it's all the same - just the colors are different.

 

Beijing Opera report tomorrow - stay tuned!

mischief managed!

ok... now back to China!  I just got back from dinner at Sizzler, which was really similar to Ponderosa (do they still have those?) on the East Coast.  it was awesome, in kind of an odd way.  I mean, I ordered a hamburger and a beer, which both tasted just like home, except that I wasn't at home, I was in Beijing.  Everything was the same, except that the Pepsi can in front of me was written in Chinese.  It was a very odd feeling.  There was country music playing on the stereo system, and everything at the salad bar was totally American - enough so that my roommate had to ask me what everything was, and I felt daring enough to do something that I've been warned many times I should never, ever do in China, which is eat lettuce and uncooked vegetables... oddly enough, I think the best part of the evening was eating salad, because I usually eat salad pretty often, and I haven't been able to at all since I've been here.

 

Maybe the best part about the restaurant was the fact that, apart from the three guys who were there when we arrived and left shortly thereafter, everyone else in the restaurant was Chinese.  Sizzler, being a Western restaurant, is horribly expensive by Chinese standards.  The steak was 160 yuan - $20 - ten times as much as an entire dinner costs normally.  I was worried before we arrived that it would be full of Americans, but it wasn't at all.  You still get this uneasy feeling of the contrast between rich and poor, though - but isn't that how society has always worked?  It seems that here, I keep losing track of what is normal.

 

My friend Cindy bought a cake, and in China, it is traditional that the person whose birthday it is gets to wear a paper crown.  We took lots and lots of pictures, and hopefully sometime this weekend I will be able to put some of them online.  I really, really liked my crown, and I'm actually still wearing it now (I wore it outside on the street in front of the restaurant while we were waiting for a cab - I figured people were going to stare at me anyways - they might as well stare at me because I'm wearing a crown....!)

 

So, that is the story of my birthday.  It was a really fun day!  I'm now off to write a 200 character reaction to a poem we read, which was actually due this morning, but oh well.  I am now busy thinking about what I should write, other than "my reaction to this poem was that I did NOT want to write a reaction to it..." - the creativity of which will probably not be appreciated, besides which, I don't know how to write that in Chinese.  ANYWAY, I am going to stop typing now.  good night!

happy happy birthday!

so... in honor of the fact that today is my birthday, this blog post is going to be about ME.  Okay, so actually all of my blog posts are about me.  But this one promises to be especially self-absorbed.

 

I was thinking today about all the different places I've celebrated my birthday since college.  My 23rd birthday was spent running from Somerville to Harvard Square to buy a reflective vest (in the dark - I was much more visible on the way back).  I turned 24 surrounded by high school skiers out at Weston Ski Track, and learned that one of the key ingredients to making kids think you're a good coach is to make them cupcakes.  (Or at least, while they may doubt your coaching abilities, no one will question your ability to make chocolate frosting).  I turned 25 in Germany, and celebrated with a German/American snowball fight (Germans are meticulous in their snowball construction and throw like girls).  When I turned 26 I was in Arlington.  Over the course of that year, with $40 in my checking account, I moved back to Williamstown and spent my 27th birthday skiing at Prospect (and eating cupcakes again!).  I think 28 was probably my most run-of-the-mill birthday - had people over for dinner and played Apples-to-Apples.  29?  I'm in CHINA!  In a few minutes, I'm going to head out in search of steak and beer at the local Sizzler's along with my friend Cindy, who (of all strange things!) has the same birthday as I do.  29... a good age!

 

I was just reflecting a little while ago about what a crazy year it's been... from spending every day all day learning Chinese, to hearing, "I think I want to break up," from my ex-boyfriend, who then justified his decision by saying, "I've never dated anyone who's black or Asian before..."  Oddly enough, a week later he was dating someone else (neither black nor Asian) - a detail which I found out about from reading Facebook.  To top it all off, he called me a week before I left for China to tell me he was engaged.  Someday, I hope I have the opportunity to win a large cash prize in a radio call-in program looking for the best ex-boyfriend story.  Nothing can top that!!!

 

But what do you really need to get through life?  You don't need tons of money or thousands of admirers telling you you're great.  For me, I need my family, my friends - people who I can call at any time of day, for any reason.  People who will take me to random Civil War battlefields, or stand in the freezing cold to watch a bike race they're not even remotely interested in, or just people who will still climb Mt. Greylock or the Crest trail even in the pouring rain / driving ice pellets.  I know that I have a very strong network of scaffolding surrounding me, and that it's not going anywhere, anytime.  I also have, on my Ipod, the most ridiculous song in the world, so that when things are down, I have Spike Jones' "Hawaiian War Chant" to fall back on.  I would suggest that everyone go out and download that song, but I don't know where you'd find it - ask my dad!

 

ok... it's getting late now, and I have to run back to my room to get changed for dinner.  Just... life, for all its unexpected, unwanted twists and turns, is actually pretty cool.  It's a magical world, Hobbes.  Let's go exploring!