Here Begins My Summer Adventure in China

So on the 4 hour flight from Narita to Beijing, I ended up sitting across the aisle from another student headed to my program – Bram, from Vanderbilt College. This is extra surprising because contrary to some incorrect idea I had, there are actually only 24 kids on this program. It was really nice to have someone to talk to on the plane. We planned on getting a taxi together once we landed, but we were met almost immediately by CET staff there, so we didn’t have to worry about it after all. We waited together in the airport as more and more students arrived, and finally about 8 of us got on a bus together to our hotel – but not before I ran into Chris Young on my way out! Amazing, Yale, amazing. You are everywhere. I wish we hadn’t been leaving so I could have stopped to talk to him for a bit.

Once in the hotel, I met my roommate, Ali from Georgetown. We relaxed a little bit before meeting up with some others to go out and find dinner. We all ended up in this alleyway behind our hotel at a 小吃摊 kind of place – fast, small street food, basically. The tables are set up outside, with stools surrounding them, and it’s all more than casual. I think I heard from someone that it was 新疆-style food (interestingly, this Wikipedia page is banned in China)? I have no idea. We got kebabs of mutton and beef, some 白菜 in a delicious sauce and shredded potatoes with a few green pepper slices mixed in. Apparently the salt in the mutton was strong for some people, but I really enjoyed it. I only wish it all wasn’t so small – we were all very unsure of what to order (and I think a little scared of how…less than sanitary the place was), so we didn’t get too much. There were enough of us to fill two tables, so we traded some kebabs for some 汤 that the other table had ordered. It was pretty delicious as well, but the extra long noodles made it difficult to eat (long noodles = long life, so it’s bad luck to cut them). I left dinner feeling content but not terribly full, but oh well. We’ll save that for when we’re more sure of the restaurants, I guess.

After that, my roommate and I headed back to the room for a bit before heading out to find a 网吧 nearby. Finding it took a bit because the 网吧 sign was actually on a building a few to the right of where the 网吧 actually was. We climbed three flights of stairs before finding an "Adults Only" sign that sketched us out even more before finding it. Bram and Dung were there to help us login. I typed up emails as fast as I could so as to not hold up my roommate, and then we headed back to get some rest.

This morning, we had an orientation meeting after the free breakfast buffet in the hotel (delicious! I love scrambled eggs + fried rice for breakfast, as I discovered last time I was here with Dr. Zhou). We mostly filled out forms after introducing ourselves. I like that our program is so small – I’m sure we’ll all be close by the time these two months are over. My roommate and I headed back to our rooms to pack up our suitcases (they’re going to be shipped to us in Harbin, and because we won’t get them until Tuesday, we packed smaller bags with essentials), and then headed to the supermarket with a group to pick up some necessities.

The supermarket was an interesting experience. My biggest problem was finding conditioner, because I didn’t have time to find shampoo and conditioner before I left. I really, really, really should have brought my dictionary with me! After finding some hair products with English and Chinese on them I was able to figure out the characters for shampoo and conditioner, but I still couldn’t decipher what each product was for. My curly hair is a little hard to deal with without a good conditioner, I remembered when it took me an hour to comb the tangles out of my hair last night. Eventually one of my friends recommended the same color bottle of herbal essences her sister uses – hopefully it’s the frizz control one. I also got an umbrella and some mouthwash. I’ll worry about shampoo later, since the hotel has a bunch.

After the supermarket Dung and I had to get passport photos taken, and then we all headed to a hot pot place for lunch. It was really good, but we had to eat kind of quickly to meet up with the group for a visit to the Temple of Heaven.

It was beautiful, but today was so, so, so grey and smoggy (my throat hurts. Really. I read somewhere that breathing the air for a day in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes…) it was hard to see things from far away, let alone get good pictures. But here’s what I got:

After seeing all the attractions, a group of us decided to look for the Underground City. We walked through the surrounding park on our way out, and when we heard strange, upbeat music Jeff definitely called "old people ballroom dancing." He was right.

Sorry for nausea-inducing video quality, but this was the best (p.s. see how grey the air was? Yeah.):

Our search for the Underground City took us on a long, ultimately fruitless walk, but I enjoyed seeing the city (despite the thick smog). We decided to research and look for it tomorrow. Some things we saw on our walk:

Physics Bridge?

The entrance to some performance hall.

The beginning of my collection of Engrish:

C’mon, guys. Please be self-restraint.

I went to dinner with Elizabeth from Brandeis at the same hot pot restaurant we went to for lunch. I wasn’t feeling terribly adventurous by myself. Afterwards I went to the hotel’s business center to see if I could get free internet – it wasn’t, so I checked my email very fast and failed at trying to email a post to blogger. Ah, well. When I get my computer access set up in Harbin I can test how well GLadder works. Now I’m drinking jasmine tea (Ross, it reminds me of that restaurant you and Dani love) in my room and about to study for our written placement exam tomorrow. But during dinner I was inspired about my goals for China:

• Broaden my taste in food. Now, I love food, but I’m a little picky about what I eat. There was a peanut sauce for dipping the food in at the hot pot place. Someone at lunch said "everything tastes better soaked in peanut sauce" and in my head I definitely begged to differ – I usually avoid it because I don’t like it too much – but I gave it a try and it was really great. I even ate the green peppers in the potato thing we got last night and they weren’t terrible. The cilantro mixed into the peanut sauce though... I don’t think I’ll ever like cilantro. Blech.
• Lose my self-consciousness about speaking in Chinese. I thought I’d made a lot of progress towards overcoming this during the past year at Yale, but faced with a whole group of people who also study the language and can probably pinpoint my mistakes has made me more nervous again (not to mention the fact that many of the students are at a higher level than me. I’ve been deferring to them, which is not good in terms of me gaining experience). I also think this is pertinent because it occurred to me today that China is not a very self-conscious kind of place. Watching all the old people "ballroom dancing" in the park, I was struck by how much these people could care less about what anyone watching might think. This can be a strength and a weakness – the nuts traffic in Beijing and all over China is also a testament to a Chinese lack of self-consciousness, I think. I don’t want to make sweeping generalizations about a whole people, but (in my so far limited exploration of the world) I’ve found that there are salient ideas characterizing every society that, once internalized, provide a powerful lens for understanding many facets of the culture: for example, independence in America or politeness in Japan. I have yet to come to a strong understanding of Chinese culture, which brings me to my next goal...
• Discover what makes Chinese culture tick. I can’t even bring to mind stereotypes of Chinese culture, to be honest. What is it that distinguishes Chinese culture from every other culture in the world? I want to understand. Maybe it has to do with reverence for the government, as per Maoist communism? I don’t know. This will require much observation and thought. I only hope that I don’t shut down from too much schoolwork. I’m still so exhausted from the past year I’m finding it very difficult to look forward to getting back into the grind, even if it’s a grind in an entirely different language.
• Make at least one Chinese friend with whom I keep in touch with. I’m terrible at keeping in touch. This is no good. I also find it pretty difficult to bond with girls in general. But I want to make a friend in China – hopefully my Chinese roommate – with whom it is important for me to keep up with. Someday I’ll figure it out.
• Don’t waste money. I see you, dude. You think it’s ok to spend on everything that will bring you a good experience. Well, if you don’t want to break your bank account, keep it under control, yo. You’ve got to make it to the end of the summer (you also have a savings account to fill). Don’t get too silly. Don’t be afraid of haggling for a fair price. And don’t buy junk you don’t need!
• Have fun! I won’t let schoolwork, money worries, or language insecurities keep me down. This summer is supposed to be about fun while learning a language, right? So I will. I will! There are some really awesome people in this program and I want to have a great time with them. Do it do it do it.

Ok, that’s really all for now. I have to study before I fall asleep!