你好啊！好久不见你们！！(Hey! Long time no see guys!)
Here's a good fact for you guys! Blogging when you're tired leads to you not including everything you want to talk/blog about...I left out the field trip I went on last weekend, to Wuqiao!
Wuqiao covers an area of 583 square kilometers with a population of 280,000 and 444 natural villages under its jurisdiction. More than 1500 years old, Wuqiao is an old county with a vivid and rich history and culture. Wuqiao is situated in the center of the Huabei Plains and has a pleasant climate for most of the year, and can be visited any time of the year.
Wuqiao was the first Chinese city to open up its doors to the world under the "Open Door" policy.Now Wuqiao has become a flourishing city. People in Wuqiao today, young or old, often possess astonishing acrobatic ability. This county has produced many famous acrobats. Wuqiao performers can be found in acrobatic troupes throughout China and around the world.
Our field trip began with a hellishly long bus ride, almost 3 hours! Okay, maybe it was two, but if you know me well, you'd know that one of my defining traits is impatience! When I'm excited about something, I want it to happen immediately, and a two thousand hour bus ride is considered cruel and unusual in my book! Okay, back to the facts, our driver today was the beloved Mao Shifu! I'm not sure if I've introduced 茅 (Muh-ow) 师傅 (Shi-foo; Note, pronounce 'shi' as if you were about to swear..!) to you guys, but if I haven't, I will recitfy that oversight right now. Mao Shifu, to put it simply, is the best driver in all of China! He navigates the treacherous streets as if he was born driving. He never gets lost, and never loses his cool. He also has never been cut off in traffic, which is an accomplishment, for in China it is not uncommon to get cut off, while you're cutting someone else off! 真的（jun-duh; really)! As testament to the greatness of this guy, two of my study abroad mates, Trevor and Mike (Sonar) composed and performed a song in his honor. Which made the bus ride slightly less torturous.
Two million hours later,maybe three, we arrived at Wuqiao! At first I wasn't very impressed, actually I was really disappointed. Once we exited the bus, all I could see was a run down restaurant, and a parking lot-thing that had a ton of broken bikes and motorcycles in it. I looked at our Director, Teng Laoshi, possibly with a "what the hell were you thinking bringing us here?!" look on my face, but as I wasn't looking at myself at the time, I cannot say for sure that it was there. After we stretched and unwound from the arduous bus ride, a little sprite of a women appeared. I'd say she walked up, or even approached, but I honestly didn't see her approach, so when she began speaking to us, in Chinese, most of us were startled...not me of course, it takes a lot to startle one such as I.
The appearance of the fairy lady, she really was a small woman, signaled the beginning of our tour. She led us around and talked to us in Chinese and English. Honestly, I understood her Chinese way more than I expected to, so I guess that my Chinese comprehension level has risen. We walked around the outside of this huge square like structure, saw some cool statues, and got bit by a ton of misquitos. I saved my classmates from getting bitten by killing the hated misquitos whenever I saw them land on them, often with an open-handed smack...two in particular, Trevor and Koblar, received the most of these. Funny thing is they didn't seem too appreciative of my efforts; Trevor actually chased me for a short distance, haha! I told them I'd get them back for their repeated smacks on my back, they said that they were killing misquitos then. But, I normally drench myself in Off misquito repellant, and I'm sure that there weren't any misquitos anywhere near me, another clue to this was the mischeivous smirks on their cursed faces whenever I looked at them...
After walking around, we entered the structure. My previous disappointment faded away. Wuqiao is a beautiful place, green vegetation is everywhere, with hues of red and pink sprinkled throughout, flowers of course, oh and vases too! The first attraction we viewed was an agility and balancing act. This lady would balance a rod on her bottom lip, or forehead, and place objects on the opposite end; the objects were teapots, plates, and vases. Following her was a act in which a female, using only her feet, manipulated a giant vase. She'd tumble it end over end, spun it by running with her feet, and to us further, she duplicated all of these feats with a little boy holding tightly to the vase. She then moved on to a feat of strength and balance, a long pole was placed on her feet, and two ladies sat in harnesses on both ends, she then began to rotate them round and round, speeding up as time progressed. Her act was the end of this particular attraction's schedule, so we moved on.
The next show we saw was one in which slight of hand was used. Once we entered, I was immediately singled out, to my abject horror, to come to the very front with the guy entertaining us. Luckily all he wanted to do was to show everyone that I was an African American, I even got a front row seat out of it! His show wasn't that impressive, he would continuously switch a small soft plush ball in and out of teacups, which were placed upside down on the table in front of him. He'd talk to distract the crowd, and move the ball from teacup to teacup. Since I couldn't understand a word of what he said, I wasn't distracted, and after five minutes of close observation, I fugured out how he accomplished his 'magic'; The balls he works with are soft for a reason, soft objects are easily gripped by the fingers, and being small as well, are easily concealed. When he'd place a ball under a teapot, he never actualy placed it under the teapot, all he did was lift the cup, and set it down, while setting it down, he'd manipulate the ball through his fingers till it was secured between his pinky and ring finger, the crowd never saw this because he'd hold his hand in such a way as this would be shielded from their view. I don't wanna take away from what he did, his hands and fingers have a great deal of dexterity, I think I'd have to practice for a month or so to perform those motions at the speed he did, and I know what he did!
After the slight of hand guy, came the small monkeys. This part of Wuqiao I did not enjoy. Actually I hated this part, the monkeys looked scared to death, and it made me really mad. So, I'm gonna not write about this, but I'll post the pictures. We saw a run down lionness, which was also pregnant, and was forced to slide down a rusty metal slide. An old tiger that you could actually ride, my Director didn't have to tell me no for me to not get on it. The last thing I wanted was to be in a closed cage with a tiger!
The next part of our Wuqiao experience was borderline gross. It centered around self torture; There were a total of tree men, one's specialty was bending a thick iron blade by beating it against his ribs, and straightening it by beating it against his head. The second guy was probably the most impressiv out of the three, he was a really old, really fat guy. He broke bricks with his hands and head, and chopped lettuce on his gut with a really sharp cleaver, he demonstrated how sharp it was by slicing fruit and lettuce and some wood... The last guy was by far the grossest! He swallowed steel balls that were bigger than an average sized fist, and then he made them come back up! Gross right?! He then proceeded to swallow two sword blades, and inserted about foot of wire in his nose, and made it come out of his eye sockets. Which caused our Director to gag. Needless to say, I did not take any pictures of this! After the gruesome threesome, we headed to a pavilion for the main attraction, Wuqiao acrobats!
Wuqiao acrobats have definitely earned their reputation, they were magnificent. I often found myself clapping like a little kid, and heartily wishing I'd brought a camcorder with me. They performed balancing acts that I'd thought impossible. I loved the show from beginning to end, and wish I possessed the words to effectively paint a picture of what they did. Hopefully you'll be satisfied with the pictures I've taken.
After Wuqiao, we ate lunch, headed home, and ate dinner, all three events were uneventful, so I will not bore you with the details...but what I will give you is an update on Justin! I'm glad he's my roommate, for it seems only Justin can continuously injure himself. If his stomach isn't hurting (because he's eaten something he shouldn't have!), he's fallen and hurt his knee, head, or shoulder. I woke up Sunday morning and saw that Justin's face was discolored, I vigorously shook him and asked if he knew that he had blood on his face. He answered positively, and proceeded to tell me about his day. During martial arts class, he had to chase our teacher, or our teacher had to chase him...it was a game of cat and mouse. Well whomever was doing the chasin, Justin decided it'd be a good idea to fall and hurt his knee. So there lay Justin bleeding profusely on Chinese soil, looking not unlike a small child who wanted his mother. They patched Justin up, and sent him on his way. Then that night, drunk Justin decided he was strong enough to give a piggy-back ride to Mike (Sonar), and then Trevor thought he was strong enough to give them both a piggy-back ride, at the same time! So, with Sonar on his back, Justin began to run at Trevor with the intention to jump onto his back, but his intentions and what happened are two entirely different things. Justin tackled Trevor instead, and they all came tumbling down... The funny thing is that Trevor and Sonar were fine, just a little dirty from the ground. Justin, on the other hand, bruised his shoulder very deeply, and cut/scraped his face. Justin now has trouble getting dressed and undressed, and I am not about to help him. I will continue to stare at him and shake my head while thinking that only someone like Justin could possibly do all that to himself in one day. The next morning, after he told me, he managed to smash his toes with a chair. So, I'm looking forward to, and the same time dreading, what poor Justin will do to himself next! Oh, and don't you worry, I will relay every detail, because Justin doesn't have access to this blog, so I will reap no repercussions from divulging these facts! ;-)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Week 2
Week 2 was altogether pretty short, but it started off pretty well. I'd just aced another exam and was feeling pretty good about myself. Yes, if you just HAVE to know, I outscored poor Justin, yet again! Class with our favorite teacher 梅老师(Mei Laoshi) has only gotten better. She really is a talented lady, and what's more, I heard through the Chinese grapevine that she's coming to America in the fall! She hasn't chosen a school yet, but her current choices are MSU and UCLA. My class and I were trying our best to get her to choose MSU, but to be honest, after a little research I found that UCLA's program is actually rated higher than MSU's. So, I can't, in good conscience, continue to tell her to choose MSU. But, in bad conscience, I damn sure can; only time will tell which state my conscience will be in when she asks me. (I will probably tell her UCLA...(>_<))
This week in school we learned about interviewing; How to interview, what vocabulary to use, and how to flip our weaknesses (Ha, as if I had any! j/k) into strengths (So, in essence she taught us how to lie in Chinese). We also learned about Chinese humor, which is to say, she highlighted how strange Chinese humor is. I've studied for 2+ years, and I've yet you understand it. But, it may be me; maybe I'm not of sound enough mind to connect the funny dots that forms a hilarious image. You give it a try; here are a couple of their ideas of a joke/funny saying. "When I was young, I had a lot of friends, and my room was small. When they came over to visit, my mom said to me, 'What do you do? Do you hang them up in your wardrobe?'" Did you laugh yet? Try this one, "Chinese people who study abroad and return to China are called 海外归来(Hai Wai Gui Lai) they call them 海归(Hai Gui) for short, so a lot of people call them 海龟 (Hai Gui), which is to call them sea turtles (That's the punch line...). If you can laugh at this, then comment and explain how it all works to me please.
This week, was an exceptional week for me and my tutor. I'm learning a ton from 张超 (Zhang Chao). He still spits when he talks, and licks out that tongue of his when he cracks a joke, but I just wipe my face, avert my eyes and press on with my questions! This week we talked about purchasing things, haggling, eating in restaurants, and similarities and differences in both of our cultures. It was really interesting to learn that you can negotiate prices only in some stores. In the bigger stores, the ones that have a more professional look about them, you must accept the price ‘as is’, or walk out. We did a lot of walking out… But, in all of the other places, and they far outnumbered the professional places, you can barter till your heart’s content. I developed a really effective strategy; the merchant would say a price and then I’d cut it in half, then cut that in twain, and stick with that price until they caved! Which they usually did, if they didn’t I’d just walk away and console myself with the pocketful of money I was still in possession of. To my abject disappointment, I could not barter in the sword store, even though it didn’t look professional at all! But, I did not voice my disappointment too loudly, for I was absolutely sure that the owner knew well the dance of blades, and I definitely did not want him to dance all over me! So, I purchase my beloved sword, for about 25 dollars American, and went about my business! I also am quite sure that I will return there…I think I’m gonna buy my sister Ariel, and my favorite Japanese friend Ryo a souvenir from that place. Okay, I’m gonna jump of that tangent and return to my recitation. My tutor and I walked about the market for about an hour, then we went to dinner with his girlfriend, who coincidentally has the same name as he does, 张超!
Now, I knew he had a girlfriend, but I didn’t know that she would look as stunning as she did. She is a knockout, the only flaw she had was that she lived in China. She is a graduate student here in 南开大学(Nankai University), and she loves talking to foreigners. My tutor said that she acts like his mom, and controls his life (Seems like life in China isn’t as different as I’d thought! It’s probably a good thing that an ocean separates me from some certain females who would have problems with what I’ve just typed; Ariel, Mama, etc.). But I found her to be very soft spoken, and considerate. Actually, you would be very hard pressed to find an inconsiderate Chinese person. Talking to her was easy, well it had an easy feel to it, despite my stumbling and none-too-fluent Chinese. Luckily she knows English, so when I absolutely couldn’t explain what I meant in Chinese, I could resort to English. We ate Chinese noodles, called 面 (Mian). According to my tutor, the province where his girlfriend hails from eats nothing but noodles, no matter what time of day! He also believes that if the American saying of, “You are what you eat” applied here, he’s afraid that he’d eventually be married to a noodle! I think he forgot that his girlfriend understood English as well as he, for a short time later, he was assaulted by a flying noodle. It surprised us both, but when we looked, his girlfriend’s hands weren’t anywhere near her food. Though she did give me a smile when her boyfriend looked away. I had beef with my noodles, as did the female 张超. My tutor ate noodles and some really spicy chicken, I don’t like really spicy food, so when he offered me a taste, I declined before he’d finished speaking. My tutor also ordered some other dish that he couldn’t translate into English, I’m going to hold firm to the belief that it was seafood, despite the fact that I’d never seen anything in ocean, sea, lake, river, stream, brook, puddle, or dew drop that resembled what I ate. Despite its looks (God I wish I’d taken a picture of it!) it was quite tasty, it had a sweet taste to it, reminiscent of candy. We finished our meal, and headed home. We had to cross the street to get back to the University, and I was almost ran over by the police! I shouted out loud that I hate Chinese traffic, my tutor and his woman laughed at me, and we made it to the other side in one piece. I said bye, went to my room, and said a prayer of thanks to the Lord above for keeping me safe from the Demon that is China’s traffic. Oh! My tutor invited me to visit his family next week, so I'll be writing about that next time!
Roommate update! Justin and I get along just fine. Despite the fact that I think he goes to bed way too early, it makes it difficult to Skype with family and friends. The one thing that makes up for this flaw is Drunk Justin! Drunk Justin says yes to anything you want, laughs all the time, even if nothing has been said! Drunk Justin also says “I am drunk, maybe a little too drunk,” every ten minutes or so, it’s like clockwork! So, since Drunk Justin is so amenable, he has agreed to a number of things that he otherwise wouldn’t have agreed to. The worst of these things is trying to catch a mosquito in his mouth and to swallow it! No, he didn’t actually do it, or rather he didn’t succeed because he was too damn drunk to be coordinated enough. Right now Justin is sitting at his desk watching ‘Mean Girls’ on his laptop. Oblivious to the fact that I’m talking about him, and I don’t think he even remembers trying to do the mosquito thing…and I’m not gonna remind him! I wouldn’t normally mess with drunk people, but I’ve been too long exposed to my best friend David Sanderson, and I guess some of his ways rubbed off on me.
Okay I think that’s it for week 2, sorry if this wasn’t entertaining! I’ll be posting week 3 very soon guys! Happy reading and see you soon! Oh, and don't forget to comment, it let's me know that somebody is reading this!
再见！
-罗可斯
This week in school we learned about interviewing; How to interview, what vocabulary to use, and how to flip our weaknesses (Ha, as if I had any! j/k) into strengths (So, in essence she taught us how to lie in Chinese). We also learned about Chinese humor, which is to say, she highlighted how strange Chinese humor is. I've studied for 2+ years, and I've yet you understand it. But, it may be me; maybe I'm not of sound enough mind to connect the funny dots that forms a hilarious image. You give it a try; here are a couple of their ideas of a joke/funny saying. "When I was young, I had a lot of friends, and my room was small. When they came over to visit, my mom said to me, 'What do you do? Do you hang them up in your wardrobe?'" Did you laugh yet? Try this one, "Chinese people who study abroad and return to China are called 海外归来(Hai Wai Gui Lai) they call them 海归(Hai Gui) for short, so a lot of people call them 海龟 (Hai Gui), which is to call them sea turtles (That's the punch line...). If you can laugh at this, then comment and explain how it all works to me please.
This week, was an exceptional week for me and my tutor. I'm learning a ton from 张超 (Zhang Chao). He still spits when he talks, and licks out that tongue of his when he cracks a joke, but I just wipe my face, avert my eyes and press on with my questions! This week we talked about purchasing things, haggling, eating in restaurants, and similarities and differences in both of our cultures. It was really interesting to learn that you can negotiate prices only in some stores. In the bigger stores, the ones that have a more professional look about them, you must accept the price ‘as is’, or walk out. We did a lot of walking out… But, in all of the other places, and they far outnumbered the professional places, you can barter till your heart’s content. I developed a really effective strategy; the merchant would say a price and then I’d cut it in half, then cut that in twain, and stick with that price until they caved! Which they usually did, if they didn’t I’d just walk away and console myself with the pocketful of money I was still in possession of. To my abject disappointment, I could not barter in the sword store, even though it didn’t look professional at all! But, I did not voice my disappointment too loudly, for I was absolutely sure that the owner knew well the dance of blades, and I definitely did not want him to dance all over me! So, I purchase my beloved sword, for about 25 dollars American, and went about my business! I also am quite sure that I will return there…I think I’m gonna buy my sister Ariel, and my favorite Japanese friend Ryo a souvenir from that place. Okay, I’m gonna jump of that tangent and return to my recitation. My tutor and I walked about the market for about an hour, then we went to dinner with his girlfriend, who coincidentally has the same name as he does, 张超!
Now, I knew he had a girlfriend, but I didn’t know that she would look as stunning as she did. She is a knockout, the only flaw she had was that she lived in China. She is a graduate student here in 南开大学(Nankai University), and she loves talking to foreigners. My tutor said that she acts like his mom, and controls his life (Seems like life in China isn’t as different as I’d thought! It’s probably a good thing that an ocean separates me from some certain females who would have problems with what I’ve just typed; Ariel, Mama, etc.). But I found her to be very soft spoken, and considerate. Actually, you would be very hard pressed to find an inconsiderate Chinese person. Talking to her was easy, well it had an easy feel to it, despite my stumbling and none-too-fluent Chinese. Luckily she knows English, so when I absolutely couldn’t explain what I meant in Chinese, I could resort to English. We ate Chinese noodles, called 面 (Mian). According to my tutor, the province where his girlfriend hails from eats nothing but noodles, no matter what time of day! He also believes that if the American saying of, “You are what you eat” applied here, he’s afraid that he’d eventually be married to a noodle! I think he forgot that his girlfriend understood English as well as he, for a short time later, he was assaulted by a flying noodle. It surprised us both, but when we looked, his girlfriend’s hands weren’t anywhere near her food. Though she did give me a smile when her boyfriend looked away. I had beef with my noodles, as did the female 张超. My tutor ate noodles and some really spicy chicken, I don’t like really spicy food, so when he offered me a taste, I declined before he’d finished speaking. My tutor also ordered some other dish that he couldn’t translate into English, I’m going to hold firm to the belief that it was seafood, despite the fact that I’d never seen anything in ocean, sea, lake, river, stream, brook, puddle, or dew drop that resembled what I ate. Despite its looks (God I wish I’d taken a picture of it!) it was quite tasty, it had a sweet taste to it, reminiscent of candy. We finished our meal, and headed home. We had to cross the street to get back to the University, and I was almost ran over by the police! I shouted out loud that I hate Chinese traffic, my tutor and his woman laughed at me, and we made it to the other side in one piece. I said bye, went to my room, and said a prayer of thanks to the Lord above for keeping me safe from the Demon that is China’s traffic. Oh! My tutor invited me to visit his family next week, so I'll be writing about that next time!
Roommate update! Justin and I get along just fine. Despite the fact that I think he goes to bed way too early, it makes it difficult to Skype with family and friends. The one thing that makes up for this flaw is Drunk Justin! Drunk Justin says yes to anything you want, laughs all the time, even if nothing has been said! Drunk Justin also says “I am drunk, maybe a little too drunk,” every ten minutes or so, it’s like clockwork! So, since Drunk Justin is so amenable, he has agreed to a number of things that he otherwise wouldn’t have agreed to. The worst of these things is trying to catch a mosquito in his mouth and to swallow it! No, he didn’t actually do it, or rather he didn’t succeed because he was too damn drunk to be coordinated enough. Right now Justin is sitting at his desk watching ‘Mean Girls’ on his laptop. Oblivious to the fact that I’m talking about him, and I don’t think he even remembers trying to do the mosquito thing…and I’m not gonna remind him! I wouldn’t normally mess with drunk people, but I’ve been too long exposed to my best friend David Sanderson, and I guess some of his ways rubbed off on me.
Okay I think that’s it for week 2, sorry if this wasn’t entertaining! I’ll be posting week 3 very soon guys! Happy reading and see you soon! Oh, and don't forget to comment, it let's me know that somebody is reading this!
再见！
-罗可斯
Friday, June 4, 2010
Intro to Tianjin + Week 1
Before I delve into the depths of my first week here, I must amend an oversight from a previous blog. I commented on two beautiful people who helped me stay awake before my flight, well there were three! I forgot my beautiful sister, Ariel, who drove me...nay! Upon her back she conveyed me to Metro Airport, through treacherous landscapes. She faced demons and dragons and not once did she allow my eyes to close during that arduous trek! So, unto thee I give thy due, O Sister Mine! 谢谢您(Thanks)!
So, our hiatus in Tianjin begins with a brief tour of the city, the tour was indeed brief1 So, I researched it, for I would not set before thine eyes anything less than my best! It may be a little dry, though I have certainly whittled out the tedious facts, but here is the history of Tianjin;
Tianjin (meaning “port for the emperor”) is widely known as “Jin’gu”, “Jinmen”, etc. The history of Tianjin dates back to the digging of the Grand Cannal in Sui Dynasty (581-618). The present Sancha Hekou near Jin’ gang Bridge used to be the confluence of the South Canal and the North Canal. And it is from this place that Tianjin has expanded and developed. After the middle period of Tang Dynasty (618-907), Tianjin developed into a ferry terminal for the transportation of grain and silk from the south to the north. In Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) and Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), with the establishment of “Zhigu Zhai” and “Haijin Town”, Tianjin became a town of great military significance as well as a hub for the water transportation of grains.
blah blah blah, that's boring, so I'm gonna summarize for you...Tianjin became a fortress, then a city fortress. It then became an actual city, and this is what is often said about it: "Tianjin is a glistening pearl by the Bohai Sea, and it will surely become even brighter." This is what I say, " First off, pearls don't glow, or emit any kind of light! Secondly, Tianjin is a city, not a pearl, and it certainly doesn't do anything remotely close to glistening! I say this because of one crucial fact. Some long dead emperor guy thought it would be nice to float supplies along a river to his palace, and the fact that there weren't any rivers in the Tianjin area was just a minor detail, a mere setback. He had one cut into the ground, and obviously that's all there was to it right? Nothing else needed, right? Wrong, he did not give a thought to filtration or purification, two things all natural rivers have. So, a thousand years later, this non-purifying, unfiltrated....mess... sits outside my dorm room window, and it stinks to high heaven. On the bright side, if it's gloomy outside, and you squint...it looks really pretty. But, Tianjin is a city rich in Culture and History, and has many other things to offer.
Week 1
Our first day of school was full of surprise and adaptation. It began with an Opening Ceremony, during which we all listened to the Dean of Nankai Uniersity's Chinese Department give a speech, in Chinese (didn't understand a word of it!), and who was to be our primary instructor, Mei Laoshi (May L-ow-shi), also gifted us with a beautiful speech in Chinese (this one was translated for us.). Following the ceremony, we were sent to class. The Chinese are really adamant about education! Okay, we all were aware that our classes would be given in Chinese, but we thought we'd have some form of written documentation informing us of our homework assignments. Well, we were wrong, we were told in Chinese (rapidly spoken I might add!), what our first homework assignment would be. All of us misunderstood and studied the wrong things! Thus, we all performed poorly on the first quiz. But, there is some silver lining around this dark cloud, I learned that if I brought my voice recorder to class, I could record and later replay the words my teacher spoke until I understood them! So, that was the last quiz I plan to perform poorly on!
We have three teachers here, the first is Mei (May) Laoshi. She is by far my favorite teacher. She is fun, interesting, funny, and an outstanding teacher. She manages to relate the lessons to our American style life and thinking, and during our breaks and after class, she will join us and play hacky sack (don't know if I spelled that right). By the way, I learned how to play hacky sack, in China it's called 踢毽子(Ti Jianzi). The second teacher is Li Laoshi. She is very boring, and speaks to us as if we were retarded kindergarden children. The good thing about her way of teaching, is that I completely understand evreything that she says! I will leave it at that. Now, my third teacher is an artist, literally. I forgot her name, but she has over 50 pieces of her work in the Tianjin Art Museum. She is my caligraphy teacher, which I take once a week. I've discovered that I'm horrible at caligrapy, but my teacher told me I will get better (she promised), and that I'm not too shabby at painting. She made us paint some flowers in a vase, Chinese people go wild for flowers, and even wilder for a vase! After class, we met our tutors. My tutor's name is Zhang Chao, he's a pretty cool guy. He has this startling habit of licking out his tongue whenever he tells a joke, and he spits a lot when he talks. But, that aside, I really like him, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from him. We scheduled the days we'd meet and have our tutorial sessions, then submitted our schedules to our Director, Teng Laoshi.
My weekly schedule is like this; Monday through Friday, our entire class has Chinese language study from 8:30-12:10, on Mondays we have an additional culture study (the first week's study was Chinese Medicinal Practices, and I think the next is Traditional Chinese Cooking!) Wednesdays is the day I have my Caligraphy class. Now, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have mandatory tutoring sessions with my tutor, Zhang Chao - whose name I've forgotten ten times already...! We have a quiz everyday we do not have a test, so I study everyday, even on the weekends. This is a large part of the reason I am not up to date with this blog. But, as my Sister (Hey fool!), Eric Stanko (oh hey!), and Ryo (balls and wieners!) would say, "Excuses excuses...and some other vulgar curse words that I will not write!" (Mama, I hope you read this, and realize your Little Angel is a Big Devil!)
When I could find the time, I went out to walk around and see whatever I could. I observed some interesting things about China. 1.) Traffic is way worse than I originally thought it to be. My roomie and I went sight-seeing/shopping, and were being driven in a taxi. We were in oncoming traffic so much, that by the fifth time we barely acknowledged the fact. 2) Women in China has been through a lot. As my tutor and I were walking down the street I noticed some really tiny shoes. I remarked upon them saying that surely they were for infants or little children. He refuted my statement, and began explaining to me how things were done in early China. Apparently when a female child reached the age of 10-12, her foot was bound, and remained bound until she'd realized her full growth. Because men in that day and age thought small feet (and small waists as well) were extremely attractive, so women were forced to cater to the men's fetishes. My tutor's grandmother had her feet bound, and she told him that after a long while, she lost the majority of the feeling in her feet. But, before that happened, she was in constant pain and discomfort. A side not to this, is that when the great flood washed through Tianjin , the women with bound feet could not walk very steadily, let alone run, and a large majority of them were washed away by the flood! Women also had to wear really high collars, which prevented them from turning their heads to look around. The men didn't want their women's eyes wandering, freedom like that only belonged to a man. I know what you're thinking, and you're right, simply barbaric. We Americans would never ever deform or torture ourselves to appease anyone! I thought so too, until I remembered that we did...corsets, high heels, or bustiers anyone? Anyway, the third thing I learned is that family is highly valued here, more so than anything else. Here, it's a crime to not take care of your parents in their old age. Children continue to live with their parents until they marry, and it doesn't matter if you're a male or female. During a wedding ceremony, I had the opportunity to attend one!, the parents of the bride and groom are honored, and the wife and groom must serve their soon-to-be-spouse's parents tea (did I mention that I HATE tea?)
This school week blew by, and was filled with quizzes and other scholarly things like reading, translating, and homework, you know all the stuff that makes life fun. It ended on a pretty good note, I had a test, on which I scored a 95% to the disgruntlement of my roommate. Apparently he thinks it's really unfair that he studied practically the entire weekend before the exam, while I only watched movies, shopped, skyped with some friends, and did a 30 minute cram session right before the test, and outscored him. Justin, some people have to study, and some people don't, and some people have really great short term memories...! Okay, it's late and speaking of the devil, dear Justin just walked in drunk on Chinese alcohol. I'm gonna sign off and catch you cats later! hopefully with hilarious drunk Justin stories! Until next time!
再见！(Zaijian-bye)
-罗可斯
So, our hiatus in Tianjin begins with a brief tour of the city, the tour was indeed brief1 So, I researched it, for I would not set before thine eyes anything less than my best! It may be a little dry, though I have certainly whittled out the tedious facts, but here is the history of Tianjin;
Tianjin (meaning “port for the emperor”) is widely known as “Jin’gu”, “Jinmen”, etc. The history of Tianjin dates back to the digging of the Grand Cannal in Sui Dynasty (581-618). The present Sancha Hekou near Jin’ gang Bridge used to be the confluence of the South Canal and the North Canal. And it is from this place that Tianjin has expanded and developed. After the middle period of Tang Dynasty (618-907), Tianjin developed into a ferry terminal for the transportation of grain and silk from the south to the north. In Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) and Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), with the establishment of “Zhigu Zhai” and “Haijin Town”, Tianjin became a town of great military significance as well as a hub for the water transportation of grains.
blah blah blah, that's boring, so I'm gonna summarize for you...Tianjin became a fortress, then a city fortress. It then became an actual city, and this is what is often said about it: "Tianjin is a glistening pearl by the Bohai Sea, and it will surely become even brighter." This is what I say, " First off, pearls don't glow, or emit any kind of light! Secondly, Tianjin is a city, not a pearl, and it certainly doesn't do anything remotely close to glistening! I say this because of one crucial fact. Some long dead emperor guy thought it would be nice to float supplies along a river to his palace, and the fact that there weren't any rivers in the Tianjin area was just a minor detail, a mere setback. He had one cut into the ground, and obviously that's all there was to it right? Nothing else needed, right? Wrong, he did not give a thought to filtration or purification, two things all natural rivers have. So, a thousand years later, this non-purifying, unfiltrated....mess... sits outside my dorm room window, and it stinks to high heaven. On the bright side, if it's gloomy outside, and you squint...it looks really pretty. But, Tianjin is a city rich in Culture and History, and has many other things to offer.
Week 1
Our first day of school was full of surprise and adaptation. It began with an Opening Ceremony, during which we all listened to the Dean of Nankai Uniersity's Chinese Department give a speech, in Chinese (didn't understand a word of it!), and who was to be our primary instructor, Mei Laoshi (May L-ow-shi), also gifted us with a beautiful speech in Chinese (this one was translated for us.). Following the ceremony, we were sent to class. The Chinese are really adamant about education! Okay, we all were aware that our classes would be given in Chinese, but we thought we'd have some form of written documentation informing us of our homework assignments. Well, we were wrong, we were told in Chinese (rapidly spoken I might add!), what our first homework assignment would be. All of us misunderstood and studied the wrong things! Thus, we all performed poorly on the first quiz. But, there is some silver lining around this dark cloud, I learned that if I brought my voice recorder to class, I could record and later replay the words my teacher spoke until I understood them! So, that was the last quiz I plan to perform poorly on!
We have three teachers here, the first is Mei (May) Laoshi. She is by far my favorite teacher. She is fun, interesting, funny, and an outstanding teacher. She manages to relate the lessons to our American style life and thinking, and during our breaks and after class, she will join us and play hacky sack (don't know if I spelled that right). By the way, I learned how to play hacky sack, in China it's called 踢毽子(Ti Jianzi). The second teacher is Li Laoshi. She is very boring, and speaks to us as if we were retarded kindergarden children. The good thing about her way of teaching, is that I completely understand evreything that she says! I will leave it at that. Now, my third teacher is an artist, literally. I forgot her name, but she has over 50 pieces of her work in the Tianjin Art Museum. She is my caligraphy teacher, which I take once a week. I've discovered that I'm horrible at caligrapy, but my teacher told me I will get better (she promised), and that I'm not too shabby at painting. She made us paint some flowers in a vase, Chinese people go wild for flowers, and even wilder for a vase! After class, we met our tutors. My tutor's name is Zhang Chao, he's a pretty cool guy. He has this startling habit of licking out his tongue whenever he tells a joke, and he spits a lot when he talks. But, that aside, I really like him, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from him. We scheduled the days we'd meet and have our tutorial sessions, then submitted our schedules to our Director, Teng Laoshi.
My weekly schedule is like this; Monday through Friday, our entire class has Chinese language study from 8:30-12:10, on Mondays we have an additional culture study (the first week's study was Chinese Medicinal Practices, and I think the next is Traditional Chinese Cooking!) Wednesdays is the day I have my Caligraphy class. Now, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have mandatory tutoring sessions with my tutor, Zhang Chao - whose name I've forgotten ten times already...! We have a quiz everyday we do not have a test, so I study everyday, even on the weekends. This is a large part of the reason I am not up to date with this blog. But, as my Sister (Hey fool!), Eric Stanko (oh hey!), and Ryo (balls and wieners!) would say, "Excuses excuses...and some other vulgar curse words that I will not write!" (Mama, I hope you read this, and realize your Little Angel is a Big Devil!)
When I could find the time, I went out to walk around and see whatever I could. I observed some interesting things about China. 1.) Traffic is way worse than I originally thought it to be. My roomie and I went sight-seeing/shopping, and were being driven in a taxi. We were in oncoming traffic so much, that by the fifth time we barely acknowledged the fact. 2) Women in China has been through a lot. As my tutor and I were walking down the street I noticed some really tiny shoes. I remarked upon them saying that surely they were for infants or little children. He refuted my statement, and began explaining to me how things were done in early China. Apparently when a female child reached the age of 10-12, her foot was bound, and remained bound until she'd realized her full growth. Because men in that day and age thought small feet (and small waists as well) were extremely attractive, so women were forced to cater to the men's fetishes. My tutor's grandmother had her feet bound, and she told him that after a long while, she lost the majority of the feeling in her feet. But, before that happened, she was in constant pain and discomfort. A side not to this, is that when the great flood washed through Tianjin , the women with bound feet could not walk very steadily, let alone run, and a large majority of them were washed away by the flood! Women also had to wear really high collars, which prevented them from turning their heads to look around. The men didn't want their women's eyes wandering, freedom like that only belonged to a man. I know what you're thinking, and you're right, simply barbaric. We Americans would never ever deform or torture ourselves to appease anyone! I thought so too, until I remembered that we did...corsets, high heels, or bustiers anyone? Anyway, the third thing I learned is that family is highly valued here, more so than anything else. Here, it's a crime to not take care of your parents in their old age. Children continue to live with their parents until they marry, and it doesn't matter if you're a male or female. During a wedding ceremony, I had the opportunity to attend one!, the parents of the bride and groom are honored, and the wife and groom must serve their soon-to-be-spouse's parents tea (did I mention that I HATE tea?)
This school week blew by, and was filled with quizzes and other scholarly things like reading, translating, and homework, you know all the stuff that makes life fun. It ended on a pretty good note, I had a test, on which I scored a 95% to the disgruntlement of my roommate. Apparently he thinks it's really unfair that he studied practically the entire weekend before the exam, while I only watched movies, shopped, skyped with some friends, and did a 30 minute cram session right before the test, and outscored him. Justin, some people have to study, and some people don't, and some people have really great short term memories...! Okay, it's late and speaking of the devil, dear Justin just walked in drunk on Chinese alcohol. I'm gonna sign off and catch you cats later! hopefully with hilarious drunk Justin stories! Until next time!
再见！(Zaijian-bye)
-罗可斯
Saturday, May 29, 2010
First 3 days!
Well, my first 3 days in China were a whirlwind of activity! After getting off the plane, my group went straight to our hotel, which was quite nice actually. The only problem or grievance I had was that the shower compartment was really small, but it's uniqueness made up for that. It had so many sites that water spewed from that I found myself taking longer than average showers simply to play and fiddle with the knobs...I successfully managed to get every site to emit water! (It was a great achievement, because the directions were in Chinese, and I didn't fully understand it, and the English translation was so broken that it would have served just as well NOT being there.) I digress, well my successful tweaking of the shower brought me an immense amount of joy, but the same cannot be said for my roommate, Justin, because when he took his shower after me, one of the nozzles happened (by pure coincidence) to be aimed at his face (I had absolutely nothing to do with this...!) But, I did laugh when I heard him yell, I also heard a sound that sounded an awful lot like him falling or something being dropped...
After dropping off our luggage in our rooms, and showering, we headed into the city to begin our tour. Our first stop was the site of the 2008 Olympics, called the Bird's Nest. When we arrived I was really excited, I thought I was gonna see some amazing things, you know...like maybe that druggie Phelps would show up and give us a tour of the Water Cube. That didn't happen, we walked around a huge empty area. We did see some pretty sweet buildings, there was one that was designed to have the outline of a dragon. ( I took a picture of it, and will add it to the slide show soon!) We saw the Water Cube, it looks good in the day time, but our 北京导游(tour guide) told us that it is dazzling at night, when the city lights and the high powered beams at its base are shining on it. There was also a stadium that was built so cunningly that whereever you sat inside, you would be the same distance from the center! I don't know exactly how this works, and may have misunderstood my guide, but there you have it. I still think that if someone sat in front of you, that person would be closer to the center... Shortly thereafter our guide told us we had an hour to see whatever we wanted and to meet back at the tour bus. I saw some really nice statues, spoke some horrible Chinese to this old Chinese guy who laughed and just said 'Hello' in English, and met my guide back at the bus. Afterwards we went to eat our very first Traditional Chinese meal.
A lot of Chinese culture centers around the dining table, this is where the bulk of networking, deepening of friendships, and general conversation takes place. Our meal started with tea, EVERY meal starts with tea, if it is a traditional meal. After the tea is placed on a Lazy Susan-like contraption, the other dishes follow; Meat dishes in sauce, vegetable dishes in sauce, rice, soda (Normally Coke or Sprite), with the very last dish being fruit. Once the fruit is served, it is time for you to leave. So if you ever find yourself partaking of a Chinese meal, and your host serves you fruit, get your coat ready and tighten the laces of your walking shoes, cause he wants you gone, lol. Not really, but it does signal the end of the meal, no more dishes follow. Feel free to chat it up after you've eaten fruit. The real signal to leave, is when you're host stands and makes a remark concerning time, hearing this you're suppose to vacate the premises. When you do leave, your host may accompany you for a portion of your journey home, the longer your host accompanies you, the more he/she respects you. All in all, the meal was great, as was every meal I've eaten here so far. But, with all of these meals, I've had two revelations unveil themselves to me; one being that I HATE tea, and the other is that the Chinese use a heck of a lot of oil when they cook. A surprising facet of the restaurant that we went to was that it was also a jewelry/other stuff store. It specialized in pearls. Immediately following our meal, we were given a demonstration on how to remove pearls from clams. Apparently there are fresh water and salt water clams. Fresh water clams normally produce anywhere from 12 to two dozen pearls in one go, whose colors are pink, black, white and an off white color. The salt water clams only produce one (lazy prats), and the colors are either white or gold. We were also taught how to distinguish real pearls from fake; if you rub a supposed pearl and it is rough, it is authentic, but if it is smooth then it is about as good as tea, which is to say not at all! If you cannot tell if it is rough or smooth, simply rub to pearls together, then wipe them with your finger, and light white dust should come off it is real. After our meal and pearl session - and after I bought my mom a pearl necklace, we went to the 颐和园 (Summer Palace).
The Summer Palace is the last imperial resort built in feudal China. It consists mainly of the Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. Hills and water surfaces are studded with a host of palaces, temples, chambers, and kiosks, and the Western Hills in the distance combine with the nearby Jade Spring Hill and the pagoda atop it to form a beautiful backdrop. It is considered a veritable record book about the life and political activities of the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty; Apparently, a Dowagess, the late wife of an Emperor, decided that she liked power too much to just let it slip from her gilded hands. So, she chose first her son, and later when he died, her nephew to assume the throne after her husband kicked Bhudda's bucket. During each of their reigns, it was she who ruled, for her son was very weak willed, and her nephew was no stronger. During her tyrannical rule she had a birthday (Go figure!), and on said birthday, decided that a Summer Palace would be an awesome birthday gift to give one's self, so she did...oh! She also gifted herself with a marble boat to boot, which was made out of wood because marble doesn't float, and painted to resemble marble, which I thought was devlishly clever. (Side note, the boat was later destroyed during one of the many invasions of China, by the Hans I think, I'm not exactly sure, so don't quote me...) I wish I could pamper myself like this one day, maybe gift myself with a marble skidoo? Back to the story, the Dowagess, in return for all of her past actions, was gifted by the people with the fitting name of Dragon Lady. Oh, and as a random fact for you, she was the first person in China, maybe Asia altogether, to use a telephone. After seeing the Summer palace, our day ended, we went to our hotel, where I promptly took another shower so that I might have a second go at all of those beautiful knobs, and fell asleep.....and woke up at 3A.M because jet lag lagged the dickens out of me!
Day 2 began with breakfast! It was really good, well the food that I ate was anyway. There was some unholy things on the breakfast buffet table. There were these boiled eggs that were brown, I'm not talking about the shell, the actual part that should be white was brown, so I passed that over quickly. I held my plate extra high, just in case it decided to jump on my plate of its own accord...you can never be too sure in a foreign country. After breaking our fast, we headed to 天安门广场 Tian'An Men Square, which roughly translates into Heaven's gate. Tian'An Men Square was originally the main entrance to the imperial palace in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the past, emperors promulgated imperial edicts from the gate tower when grand celebration ceremonies were held. After China was 'liberated', this square became the symbol of New China. As a fitting result, the governing officials built the government building there. We left the square forty minutes later, and after I took a thousand photos with Nationals; everyone wanted to take pictures with the black guy, at first it was flattering, then it became ridiculous. During pictures, the Chinese has this weird habit of rubbing your ear lobe during the picture, it was a little unnerving, and after the fifth/sixth time, I began artfully avoiding the weird caress. From the square we went underground for a brief jaunt, and emerged to merge into a huge line entering the 故宫(Palace Museum)
The Palace Museum, formally called the Forbidden City, is located in the center of Beijing. Actually it was quite close to my hotel. It extends 750 meters from east to west and 960 meters from north to south, the 720, 000 square meter city is the largest palatial complex in the world. It served as the seat of imperial power during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911), needless to say the Dragon Lady resided here! The city was divided into 3 sections with the outer most available for commoners, the middle for important governing officials, and the innermost for the imperial family and their attendants and such. A cool fact about the Forbidden City, is that in each square located within, each of the Chinese elements can be found; Air,Water, Fire, Earth, and Metal. On each structure was little gargoyle-like structures, who's purpose was to keep evil/bad spirits away. Another cool fact is that it has 9,999 rooms within it. The emperors considered themselves the sons of God, and since no son can have more than his father, and since they saw 10,000 as the perfect number, consigned themselves to have only 1 less. It is said that if you live in each room for only one day, constantly moving to another, it would talk roughly thirty years to live in them all! Walking through all that was exhausting, and by the end, we all wanted to sit down and do absolutely nothing, by the end I heartily wished for a segway. Of course we didn't, but we wanted to. Following the Palace of 'oh my God it takes a long time to walk through!' was the 天坛 (Temple of Heaven) and a nice ride to see a Chinese childrens' play at the National Grand Theater.
The Temple of Heaven is my favorite place so far. It is located in southern Beijing, it was built in 1420, during the regn of Emperor Yongle. It covers an area of 2,730,000 square meters, and is the site upon which emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to Heaven, and prayed for rain and a good harvest. It was a long walk, and honestly, I stopped listening to our guide, because I began distractedly thinking, "Who the HELL would want to do all of this walking in one day!", we walked somewhere around 12-15 miles so far, not even including the distance to and from the bus, and we were no where near done yet! So, I won't regale you with fuzzy facts...after the temple of Heavenly Fatigue, we went to the theater.
The play wasn't performed by children, but rather it was meant to be performed for them. The play was about the Monkey King, and I really enjoyed watching them sing and dance to the music, but I had no idea what they were saying. So, I understood very little during the first half of the show, during intermission a fellow study abroad student filled me in on the actual book, and what was suppose to happen during the second half, so, I could roughly follow it thereafter. The Monkey King was a bit of a douche to everyone, he went up to heaven and beat up all of the guys/gods up there, encountered bhudda and ended up pissing on his hand. Bhudda slammed a mountain on top of him, thus trapped the Monkey King was unable to do anything. Along came a wondering monk, who freed the Monkey King after placing some helmet on him, which allowed the monk to exert his will and control the Monkey King....so on and so forth, the Monkey King becomes a disciple and becomes a Bhudda eventually, along with a pig, and his monk master guy. There was another disciple who was a monster, literally, but he didn't make the cut, because he was a coward as well. End scene: Went to sleep, woke up at 4A.M and hated life until it was time for breakfast...damn jet lag!
Breakfast was good, still avoided those most questionably hued eggs though! Day 3 was pretty fun and I had my first adventure. We went to 香山(Fragrant Hill), which, upon arrival, I duly named Stinky Mountain. There were a lot of flowers, but the area surrounding the 'hill' (it was a mountain, I have the pictures to prove it!) emitted some really...interesting aromas. I chose to join three of my fellow students; Trevor, Michael (Sonar), and Koblar (That is his first name, and he is American). We walked for a bit, and decided we want to ride the cable car to the top of the mountain. So, we navigated our way to the station where tickets were available for purchase, and purchased what we thought were round-trip tickets. They were not, and we were screwed! Upon reaching the top of the mountain, we had to go back down by foot. It was tortuous, I've been exposed to some difficult tasks what with being in the army and all, but....this was horrible. It was hellishly hot, and I only had a half bottle of water for sustenance. Thus armed, we began our trip down the mountain.
It started off easy enough, the stairs were cut into the mountain so it was easy going...at first. I don't know who supervised the cutting of those stairs, but whoever did it must have taken a break, or died! The stairs became hazardous, slanting steeply, becoming jaged, and at some points they were not stairs so much as they were a collection of rocks. We had to tread carefully during this point. We all were breathing hard, had sweat pouring down our faces, backs, legs, hell I think my soul was sweating too! We passed a lot of Chinese nationals, who'd given up and sat down to massage their legs, and whatnot. There was this one Chinese woman who was terribly fit. She yelled , "快点儿，快点儿!", which means go faster! We moved over and let her pass, she passed, and then began yelling at the people who were then ahead of her. After descending about a mile and a half, the stairs became safer, and we could pick up the pace. I forgot to mention that we only had an hour and a half to get back to the bus...so, about 2 and a half miles of stairs later, with a couple of short rest breaks, we reached the road, and began walking back to the bus. About half way down the mountain, my legs were shaking like the dickens, and I thought I was gonna go tumbling down the mountain, I later learned that all of us felt that way. We reach the bus, and find out we have to walk even farther to go eat lunch.
At lunch, we get the opportunity to try the famous Peking Duck, it was great! After lunch I got to peruse a shop that sells swords and knives, and nunchucks. I decided then that I'd buy a sword and send it home. I didn't purchase it from that place, but I will get one soon.
Our tour ended there, we filed on the bus and headed tothe University where we were to study, 南开大学(Nankai University). in Tianjin, China. The bus ride was really long; we were in a traffic jam that put any ever experienced in the U.S. to shame. People were walking past us, and we were going so slow, that we never passed them again! At one point we stood still for nigh on an hour. The reason for the traffic jam was a vehicular accident, in China, they don't respond very effectively to accidents and such. But, this prompted our guide to present us with a surprising fact; In Northern China there are 3 accidents each day, on average. I say surprising because the Chinese drive like a herd of wildebeast stampedes! They rarely even acknowledge the lanes lines, often times driving into oncoming traffic, they honk continuously, and cutting people off here is the norm. I could not...no...would not drive here, ever! We got to the University eventually, received our room keys, picked up our laundry cards, dropped off our stuff, and went out for a tour of Tianjin...
I will stop here, I think I've written too much and will give you a reprieve. But I will give you an update on my new camera; it is very well behaved, and it doesn't give me any 'lip' or trouble like the last one. There was this one time, in Tian'An Men Square, where it thought to test it's limits by shutting off at inappropriate times...but after I threatened to remove his 'batteries', he snapped right back in line! You have to put down rebellious tendencies early, if you wait, you'll have a more difficult time of it...
Till next time!
-罗可斯
After dropping off our luggage in our rooms, and showering, we headed into the city to begin our tour. Our first stop was the site of the 2008 Olympics, called the Bird's Nest. When we arrived I was really excited, I thought I was gonna see some amazing things, you know...like maybe that druggie Phelps would show up and give us a tour of the Water Cube. That didn't happen, we walked around a huge empty area. We did see some pretty sweet buildings, there was one that was designed to have the outline of a dragon. ( I took a picture of it, and will add it to the slide show soon!) We saw the Water Cube, it looks good in the day time, but our 北京导游(tour guide) told us that it is dazzling at night, when the city lights and the high powered beams at its base are shining on it. There was also a stadium that was built so cunningly that whereever you sat inside, you would be the same distance from the center! I don't know exactly how this works, and may have misunderstood my guide, but there you have it. I still think that if someone sat in front of you, that person would be closer to the center... Shortly thereafter our guide told us we had an hour to see whatever we wanted and to meet back at the tour bus. I saw some really nice statues, spoke some horrible Chinese to this old Chinese guy who laughed and just said 'Hello' in English, and met my guide back at the bus. Afterwards we went to eat our very first Traditional Chinese meal.
A lot of Chinese culture centers around the dining table, this is where the bulk of networking, deepening of friendships, and general conversation takes place. Our meal started with tea, EVERY meal starts with tea, if it is a traditional meal. After the tea is placed on a Lazy Susan-like contraption, the other dishes follow; Meat dishes in sauce, vegetable dishes in sauce, rice, soda (Normally Coke or Sprite), with the very last dish being fruit. Once the fruit is served, it is time for you to leave. So if you ever find yourself partaking of a Chinese meal, and your host serves you fruit, get your coat ready and tighten the laces of your walking shoes, cause he wants you gone, lol. Not really, but it does signal the end of the meal, no more dishes follow. Feel free to chat it up after you've eaten fruit. The real signal to leave, is when you're host stands and makes a remark concerning time, hearing this you're suppose to vacate the premises. When you do leave, your host may accompany you for a portion of your journey home, the longer your host accompanies you, the more he/she respects you. All in all, the meal was great, as was every meal I've eaten here so far. But, with all of these meals, I've had two revelations unveil themselves to me; one being that I HATE tea, and the other is that the Chinese use a heck of a lot of oil when they cook. A surprising facet of the restaurant that we went to was that it was also a jewelry/other stuff store. It specialized in pearls. Immediately following our meal, we were given a demonstration on how to remove pearls from clams. Apparently there are fresh water and salt water clams. Fresh water clams normally produce anywhere from 12 to two dozen pearls in one go, whose colors are pink, black, white and an off white color. The salt water clams only produce one (lazy prats), and the colors are either white or gold. We were also taught how to distinguish real pearls from fake; if you rub a supposed pearl and it is rough, it is authentic, but if it is smooth then it is about as good as tea, which is to say not at all! If you cannot tell if it is rough or smooth, simply rub to pearls together, then wipe them with your finger, and light white dust should come off it is real. After our meal and pearl session - and after I bought my mom a pearl necklace, we went to the 颐和园 (Summer Palace).
The Summer Palace is the last imperial resort built in feudal China. It consists mainly of the Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. Hills and water surfaces are studded with a host of palaces, temples, chambers, and kiosks, and the Western Hills in the distance combine with the nearby Jade Spring Hill and the pagoda atop it to form a beautiful backdrop. It is considered a veritable record book about the life and political activities of the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty; Apparently, a Dowagess, the late wife of an Emperor, decided that she liked power too much to just let it slip from her gilded hands. So, she chose first her son, and later when he died, her nephew to assume the throne after her husband kicked Bhudda's bucket. During each of their reigns, it was she who ruled, for her son was very weak willed, and her nephew was no stronger. During her tyrannical rule she had a birthday (Go figure!), and on said birthday, decided that a Summer Palace would be an awesome birthday gift to give one's self, so she did...oh! She also gifted herself with a marble boat to boot, which was made out of wood because marble doesn't float, and painted to resemble marble, which I thought was devlishly clever. (Side note, the boat was later destroyed during one of the many invasions of China, by the Hans I think, I'm not exactly sure, so don't quote me...) I wish I could pamper myself like this one day, maybe gift myself with a marble skidoo? Back to the story, the Dowagess, in return for all of her past actions, was gifted by the people with the fitting name of Dragon Lady. Oh, and as a random fact for you, she was the first person in China, maybe Asia altogether, to use a telephone. After seeing the Summer palace, our day ended, we went to our hotel, where I promptly took another shower so that I might have a second go at all of those beautiful knobs, and fell asleep.....and woke up at 3A.M because jet lag lagged the dickens out of me!
Day 2 began with breakfast! It was really good, well the food that I ate was anyway. There was some unholy things on the breakfast buffet table. There were these boiled eggs that were brown, I'm not talking about the shell, the actual part that should be white was brown, so I passed that over quickly. I held my plate extra high, just in case it decided to jump on my plate of its own accord...you can never be too sure in a foreign country. After breaking our fast, we headed to 天安门广场 Tian'An Men Square, which roughly translates into Heaven's gate. Tian'An Men Square was originally the main entrance to the imperial palace in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the past, emperors promulgated imperial edicts from the gate tower when grand celebration ceremonies were held. After China was 'liberated', this square became the symbol of New China. As a fitting result, the governing officials built the government building there. We left the square forty minutes later, and after I took a thousand photos with Nationals; everyone wanted to take pictures with the black guy, at first it was flattering, then it became ridiculous. During pictures, the Chinese has this weird habit of rubbing your ear lobe during the picture, it was a little unnerving, and after the fifth/sixth time, I began artfully avoiding the weird caress. From the square we went underground for a brief jaunt, and emerged to merge into a huge line entering the 故宫(Palace Museum)
The Palace Museum, formally called the Forbidden City, is located in the center of Beijing. Actually it was quite close to my hotel. It extends 750 meters from east to west and 960 meters from north to south, the 720, 000 square meter city is the largest palatial complex in the world. It served as the seat of imperial power during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911), needless to say the Dragon Lady resided here! The city was divided into 3 sections with the outer most available for commoners, the middle for important governing officials, and the innermost for the imperial family and their attendants and such. A cool fact about the Forbidden City, is that in each square located within, each of the Chinese elements can be found; Air,Water, Fire, Earth, and Metal. On each structure was little gargoyle-like structures, who's purpose was to keep evil/bad spirits away. Another cool fact is that it has 9,999 rooms within it. The emperors considered themselves the sons of God, and since no son can have more than his father, and since they saw 10,000 as the perfect number, consigned themselves to have only 1 less. It is said that if you live in each room for only one day, constantly moving to another, it would talk roughly thirty years to live in them all! Walking through all that was exhausting, and by the end, we all wanted to sit down and do absolutely nothing, by the end I heartily wished for a segway. Of course we didn't, but we wanted to. Following the Palace of 'oh my God it takes a long time to walk through!' was the 天坛 (Temple of Heaven) and a nice ride to see a Chinese childrens' play at the National Grand Theater.
The Temple of Heaven is my favorite place so far. It is located in southern Beijing, it was built in 1420, during the regn of Emperor Yongle. It covers an area of 2,730,000 square meters, and is the site upon which emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties offered sacrifices to Heaven, and prayed for rain and a good harvest. It was a long walk, and honestly, I stopped listening to our guide, because I began distractedly thinking, "Who the HELL would want to do all of this walking in one day!", we walked somewhere around 12-15 miles so far, not even including the distance to and from the bus, and we were no where near done yet! So, I won't regale you with fuzzy facts...after the temple of Heavenly Fatigue, we went to the theater.
The play wasn't performed by children, but rather it was meant to be performed for them. The play was about the Monkey King, and I really enjoyed watching them sing and dance to the music, but I had no idea what they were saying. So, I understood very little during the first half of the show, during intermission a fellow study abroad student filled me in on the actual book, and what was suppose to happen during the second half, so, I could roughly follow it thereafter. The Monkey King was a bit of a douche to everyone, he went up to heaven and beat up all of the guys/gods up there, encountered bhudda and ended up pissing on his hand. Bhudda slammed a mountain on top of him, thus trapped the Monkey King was unable to do anything. Along came a wondering monk, who freed the Monkey King after placing some helmet on him, which allowed the monk to exert his will and control the Monkey King....so on and so forth, the Monkey King becomes a disciple and becomes a Bhudda eventually, along with a pig, and his monk master guy. There was another disciple who was a monster, literally, but he didn't make the cut, because he was a coward as well. End scene: Went to sleep, woke up at 4A.M and hated life until it was time for breakfast...damn jet lag!
Breakfast was good, still avoided those most questionably hued eggs though! Day 3 was pretty fun and I had my first adventure. We went to 香山(Fragrant Hill), which, upon arrival, I duly named Stinky Mountain. There were a lot of flowers, but the area surrounding the 'hill' (it was a mountain, I have the pictures to prove it!) emitted some really...interesting aromas. I chose to join three of my fellow students; Trevor, Michael (Sonar), and Koblar (That is his first name, and he is American). We walked for a bit, and decided we want to ride the cable car to the top of the mountain. So, we navigated our way to the station where tickets were available for purchase, and purchased what we thought were round-trip tickets. They were not, and we were screwed! Upon reaching the top of the mountain, we had to go back down by foot. It was tortuous, I've been exposed to some difficult tasks what with being in the army and all, but....this was horrible. It was hellishly hot, and I only had a half bottle of water for sustenance. Thus armed, we began our trip down the mountain.
It started off easy enough, the stairs were cut into the mountain so it was easy going...at first. I don't know who supervised the cutting of those stairs, but whoever did it must have taken a break, or died! The stairs became hazardous, slanting steeply, becoming jaged, and at some points they were not stairs so much as they were a collection of rocks. We had to tread carefully during this point. We all were breathing hard, had sweat pouring down our faces, backs, legs, hell I think my soul was sweating too! We passed a lot of Chinese nationals, who'd given up and sat down to massage their legs, and whatnot. There was this one Chinese woman who was terribly fit. She yelled , "快点儿，快点儿!", which means go faster! We moved over and let her pass, she passed, and then began yelling at the people who were then ahead of her. After descending about a mile and a half, the stairs became safer, and we could pick up the pace. I forgot to mention that we only had an hour and a half to get back to the bus...so, about 2 and a half miles of stairs later, with a couple of short rest breaks, we reached the road, and began walking back to the bus. About half way down the mountain, my legs were shaking like the dickens, and I thought I was gonna go tumbling down the mountain, I later learned that all of us felt that way. We reach the bus, and find out we have to walk even farther to go eat lunch.
At lunch, we get the opportunity to try the famous Peking Duck, it was great! After lunch I got to peruse a shop that sells swords and knives, and nunchucks. I decided then that I'd buy a sword and send it home. I didn't purchase it from that place, but I will get one soon.
Our tour ended there, we filed on the bus and headed tothe University where we were to study, 南开大学(Nankai University). in Tianjin, China. The bus ride was really long; we were in a traffic jam that put any ever experienced in the U.S. to shame. People were walking past us, and we were going so slow, that we never passed them again! At one point we stood still for nigh on an hour. The reason for the traffic jam was a vehicular accident, in China, they don't respond very effectively to accidents and such. But, this prompted our guide to present us with a surprising fact; In Northern China there are 3 accidents each day, on average. I say surprising because the Chinese drive like a herd of wildebeast stampedes! They rarely even acknowledge the lanes lines, often times driving into oncoming traffic, they honk continuously, and cutting people off here is the norm. I could not...no...would not drive here, ever! We got to the University eventually, received our room keys, picked up our laundry cards, dropped off our stuff, and went out for a tour of Tianjin...
I will stop here, I think I've written too much and will give you a reprieve. But I will give you an update on my new camera; it is very well behaved, and it doesn't give me any 'lip' or trouble like the last one. There was this one time, in Tian'An Men Square, where it thought to test it's limits by shutting off at inappropriate times...but after I threatened to remove his 'batteries', he snapped right back in line! You have to put down rebellious tendencies early, if you wait, you'll have a more difficult time of it...
Till next time!
-罗可斯
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Departure...
It seems that I’m a little back logged with this blog, because a lot has happened between my last posting, and this one. So, bear with me, I will try my utmost to make this an enjoyable read…
Prior to my flight, a co-worker of mine, Diane Lane, treated me to dinner and a movie. We were also accompanied by her son, Sam, and another co-worker of ours, Sue McGhee. Our outing didn’t lack for fun, as Diane is hilarious, and her son, true to form, had me laughing as well. The funniest thing about Diane this particular night was the scream she emitted during our viewing of Nightmare on Elm Street. If you’re ever invited to accompany her to a horror/suspense thriller, please refuse because in conjunction to her hysterical screams, she hits the nearest person quite hard, and when she’s not doing either of those two things, she’s shrinking back into her seat whimpering. So, needless to say, I didn’t see the entire movie, because I was distractedly laughing at Diane for most of it.
From 10pm till about 4am, I hung out with two beautiful people, Ryo Namiki and Lindsay Yax, both of whom stayed up with me, so that I would be able to sleep on my 14+ hour flight. I lost to Lindsay in rummy (I let her win), and tried to get Ryo to play any song that I might recognize on his guitar (the kid doesn’t know how to play anything remotely ethnic or easy on the ears…just kidding)
The flight, despite my preparation, was long and torturous. The flight attendant was more suited to being a drill sergeant. A fact that she affirmed each and every time she spoke with a passenger. She ordered one of my Study Abroad group members to remove hs bag from the overhead department, and put it somewhere else, and gave him a look that had me sitting up straight and buckling my seatbelt1 The meals were okay, except for the final one. Which was a turkey sub sandwich, and caused for me to pine for the end of the flight, at which I could rapidly seek an isolated bathroom? I will never again eat a turkey sandwich on a plane…!
Getting through customs was uneventful, and relatively quick and painless. I found my study abroad Director straight away, and also my 北京导游Beijing Daoyou(Bay-gee-ungh-Dow-yo), which means Beijing Guide. For the first 3 days, we were to go on a sight-seeing tour, visiting Beijing’s most prominent and popular attractions, which I will further describe tomorrow. For tonight I have experienced my first Chinese bar(s), and am now too sleepy to narrate anymore of my experiences. What I will put down for your eyes is that tonight I met the world’s coolest Chinese kid, his name is Feng Yue (His American name was Steven, but my companions and I thought that too bland a name, and subsequently dubbed him Sonar.) I will post his picture soon…and with that I will bid you a good night, or good day…sorry again for the hurried writing, I will make it up to you in my next posting, I promise!
再见，
-罗可斯（Marcus)
Prior to my flight, a co-worker of mine, Diane Lane, treated me to dinner and a movie. We were also accompanied by her son, Sam, and another co-worker of ours, Sue McGhee. Our outing didn’t lack for fun, as Diane is hilarious, and her son, true to form, had me laughing as well. The funniest thing about Diane this particular night was the scream she emitted during our viewing of Nightmare on Elm Street. If you’re ever invited to accompany her to a horror/suspense thriller, please refuse because in conjunction to her hysterical screams, she hits the nearest person quite hard, and when she’s not doing either of those two things, she’s shrinking back into her seat whimpering. So, needless to say, I didn’t see the entire movie, because I was distractedly laughing at Diane for most of it.
From 10pm till about 4am, I hung out with two beautiful people, Ryo Namiki and Lindsay Yax, both of whom stayed up with me, so that I would be able to sleep on my 14+ hour flight. I lost to Lindsay in rummy (I let her win), and tried to get Ryo to play any song that I might recognize on his guitar (the kid doesn’t know how to play anything remotely ethnic or easy on the ears…just kidding)
The flight, despite my preparation, was long and torturous. The flight attendant was more suited to being a drill sergeant. A fact that she affirmed each and every time she spoke with a passenger. She ordered one of my Study Abroad group members to remove hs bag from the overhead department, and put it somewhere else, and gave him a look that had me sitting up straight and buckling my seatbelt1 The meals were okay, except for the final one. Which was a turkey sub sandwich, and caused for me to pine for the end of the flight, at which I could rapidly seek an isolated bathroom? I will never again eat a turkey sandwich on a plane…!
Getting through customs was uneventful, and relatively quick and painless. I found my study abroad Director straight away, and also my 北京导游Beijing Daoyou(Bay-gee-ungh-Dow-yo), which means Beijing Guide. For the first 3 days, we were to go on a sight-seeing tour, visiting Beijing’s most prominent and popular attractions, which I will further describe tomorrow. For tonight I have experienced my first Chinese bar(s), and am now too sleepy to narrate anymore of my experiences. What I will put down for your eyes is that tonight I met the world’s coolest Chinese kid, his name is Feng Yue (His American name was Steven, but my companions and I thought that too bland a name, and subsequently dubbed him Sonar.) I will post his picture soon…and with that I will bid you a good night, or good day…sorry again for the hurried writing, I will make it up to you in my next posting, I promise!
再见，
-罗可斯（Marcus)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Prior to Departure - The Sequel
Hey guys! Just thought I'd hit you with a couple of updates before I leave the land of my birth! I have been trying mightily to pack, and have had some success. If it wasn't for that evil monster commonly referred to as 'this is boring and I'm gonna go do something that's not', I'd have most definitely completed this task by now.
Yesterday I drove home to have a 'Going Away' barbecue with mi familia, and as usual I had a great time! My nieces and nephew, who will be referred to as 'the kids', were a joy to be around, despite the fact that they thoroughly defeated me. I've long since been hip to their plot to take over the world one adult a time, and I think the kids underestimate themselves, they can probably defeat close to a thousand at once. Three of my sisters were there, Micheale, Ariel, and Tamar, and my oldest sister Juandell put in an appearance later on that night. None of my brothers were present; my twin brother is in Hawaii (which is certainly not an excuse by any means, and I told him so!), and my oldest brother is pretty darned old, and probably forgot - I told him that puzzles will keep his mind agile, but apparently he didn't heed my wisdom. Honestly don't know why I try! My mom was there, and she laughed a ton, which is always good to hear - you'd understand if you ever heard it. Oh, her name is JoAnne by the way. We teamed up to play some cards against Ariel and Micheale, and we actually won! (they won some games too, but this is my blog, and I won't allow any stealing of my thunder! Take that Ariel!) I actually arrived at the dinner around 4ish, in time to eat and enjoy the fruits of their labor, but I wasn't in time to assist in any way. Which is most unfortunate, for nothing makes me more happy than to slave away in a kitchen or over a hellishly hot barbecue grill. I was at the dinner till about 10:45, then headed home. On the way, a friend deemed it appropriate to harrass me via cell phone text (Eric Stanko), which kept me alert for the majority of my drive. But, after that I was really tired, and had to drink an energy drink to make the rest of the drive. Which works great by the way, because after I'd gotten home I was totally wired, and ended up going to my future roommate's apartment (Ryo Namiki) and bugged him till about 1:30 A.M. I had so much energy that I swept his floor! Energy drinks at night = not sleeping.
Oh, one last update, concerning that blasted nomadic camera! It didn't allow itself to be located for a couple days, and consequently I ordered one to be delivered to my apartment tomorrow. True to its rebellious and contentious personality, yesterday it saunters into my apartment with a smug attitude and an irritating smirk on it's evil electronic face. Actually, I found it in the bottom of a closet, UNDER a bunch of shoes and a bookbag (don't know how it got there!) But it will be I who gets the last laugh, instead of returning the new camera, I'm gonna check it out and see if it's better, and if it is...Let's just say that my wayward appliance will soon find that its assigned place on my dresser has been given to another! (evil laugh here?? not sure if it's appropriate...)
Yesterday I drove home to have a 'Going Away' barbecue with mi familia, and as usual I had a great time! My nieces and nephew, who will be referred to as 'the kids', were a joy to be around, despite the fact that they thoroughly defeated me. I've long since been hip to their plot to take over the world one adult a time, and I think the kids underestimate themselves, they can probably defeat close to a thousand at once. Three of my sisters were there, Micheale, Ariel, and Tamar, and my oldest sister Juandell put in an appearance later on that night. None of my brothers were present; my twin brother is in Hawaii (which is certainly not an excuse by any means, and I told him so!), and my oldest brother is pretty darned old, and probably forgot - I told him that puzzles will keep his mind agile, but apparently he didn't heed my wisdom. Honestly don't know why I try! My mom was there, and she laughed a ton, which is always good to hear - you'd understand if you ever heard it. Oh, her name is JoAnne by the way. We teamed up to play some cards against Ariel and Micheale, and we actually won! (they won some games too, but this is my blog, and I won't allow any stealing of my thunder! Take that Ariel!) I actually arrived at the dinner around 4ish, in time to eat and enjoy the fruits of their labor, but I wasn't in time to assist in any way. Which is most unfortunate, for nothing makes me more happy than to slave away in a kitchen or over a hellishly hot barbecue grill. I was at the dinner till about 10:45, then headed home. On the way, a friend deemed it appropriate to harrass me via cell phone text (Eric Stanko), which kept me alert for the majority of my drive. But, after that I was really tired, and had to drink an energy drink to make the rest of the drive. Which works great by the way, because after I'd gotten home I was totally wired, and ended up going to my future roommate's apartment (Ryo Namiki) and bugged him till about 1:30 A.M. I had so much energy that I swept his floor! Energy drinks at night = not sleeping.
Oh, one last update, concerning that blasted nomadic camera! It didn't allow itself to be located for a couple days, and consequently I ordered one to be delivered to my apartment tomorrow. True to its rebellious and contentious personality, yesterday it saunters into my apartment with a smug attitude and an irritating smirk on it's evil electronic face. Actually, I found it in the bottom of a closet, UNDER a bunch of shoes and a bookbag (don't know how it got there!) But it will be I who gets the last laugh, instead of returning the new camera, I'm gonna check it out and see if it's better, and if it is...Let's just say that my wayward appliance will soon find that its assigned place on my dresser has been given to another! (evil laugh here?? not sure if it's appropriate...)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Prior to Departure
So guys! I have one week, exactly, before I'm on a plane headed to China. I'm really excited! So much so that everyday seems to drag by...ugh! It's truly torturous. So, to keep myself distracted, I've been doing some cleaning, packing (not really), and some research on China. It seems that China is a country that loves to block sites that are essential to life, you know...sites like Facebook, blog sites, and anything else that is fun or social in nature. So, I faced my first challenge, how to bypass the Chinese Government's control of the internet. I am happy, and not a little excited, to say that I have succeeded. Thanks to a friend who's already over there in China, I have been armed with a program that fulfills my needs. So, have no fear, I will be able to relay my experiences while abroad.
Now, my next challenge is to actually pack and find my digital camera, which, for some strange reason, has taken in its mind to run off to some unknown locale. Hopefully it returns soon, or it will have to be replaced! I cannot condone wayward appliances, they must know their place, which is on my dresser!
Okay, that's it for now! I will hopefully have found my camera, and had a wonderful start to my Chinese experience by the next blog entry!!
-Markie Marc
Now, my next challenge is to actually pack and find my digital camera, which, for some strange reason, has taken in its mind to run off to some unknown locale. Hopefully it returns soon, or it will have to be replaced! I cannot condone wayward appliances, they must know their place, which is on my dresser!
Okay, that's it for now! I will hopefully have found my camera, and had a wonderful start to my Chinese experience by the next blog entry!!
-Markie Marc
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
