The Halfway Point: A Photo Essay

The fact that we're halfway done is nuts. But. More importantly, this past weekend we went on a three-day trip to see the border between North Korea and China. This will mostly be a photo-essay since I took so many pictures, so I hope you enjoy!

We started off with an overnight train ride to 丹东, with hard sleeper seats this time instead of soft sleepers - meaning no little cabins of four people, just a big open car divided into sections of 6 beds each. After playing cards for a bit with Jeff, his roommate, and 郭亭廷, we chatted for a long time before heading to bed around midnight. In the morning, we were in 丹东.

Hard sleeper cabin

From there, we headed to the local supermarket to buy lunch before making the two hour ride to a half-bridge to North Korea. We made a pit stop on the way and got our first look at 朝鲜.

At the supermarket...

Pitstop at 河口

A first view of 朝鲜

The half-bridge was also a memorial to Chinese involvement in the Korean War. While we were there, actually, a group of veterans from the Korean War and others came to visit as well. They were surprised by our group of Americans, but not hostile.

There were busts of soldiers lining one walk

Half-bridge to North Korea

Obligatory picture with me in it, and also 刘国勇 and 黄慧英

Video: The banks of North Korea

Veterans

From there, we headed to our hotel for the night, 满家寨满清园景观区, featuring traditional 满族 decorations and clothes. There, we watched an ethnic performance and then had a bonfire to roast lamb.

Our hotel's interior

The exterior

大鸦, or opium

On this picture...迟小波 asked 巴西's roommate, Tengfei, whether it was a "fun activity". This was out of a lack of a vocabulary - "fun activity" was used to mean drug, because after all, what Chinese textbook would include a chapter on drugs? - but Tengfei was a bit ruffled. "No, no, no," he said emphatically (he uses more English than many of the other roommates, but the rest of this conversation was in Chinese). "Like marijuana," he said, "very bad." "So...a fun activity, right?" 小波 responded. "No no no no no," Tengfei answered. "From England, right?" I asked, and added something about war. Tengfei seemed relieved and 小波 understood why Tengfei had been getting upset. The conversation was neither very tense nor very long, but between a person less relaxed than Tengfei or less genuinely kind than 小波 I can see how this might have been a difficult interaction. My belief in the importance of history/cultural understanding was reaffirmed.

The show we watched that night was interesting enough - not spectacular, but pretty and short.

Traditional 满族 dress

Lion dance!

Was beautiful

I liked the flags

Dragons

Video: Dragon Dance

After the show, we had our bonfire under some trees in the courtyard to avoid the rain. We taught our Chinese friends how to make s'mores! They were amazed by the concept of roasting marshmallows.

Lamb + marshmallows

There was karaoke

Video: 对面的女孩看过来

Also spontaneous fireworks

And an impromptu dance party in the rain! But I was too busy dancing to take pictures. The next morning we got to boat, see a thousand-year-old pine tree, and look at a waterfall, all before lunch!

Our boat

On a boat

Me on a boat

Riverside

Video: Moving Riverside

Thousand-year-old pine tree

Making wishes

Excellent Engrish

Waterfall!

Jeff and I, courtesy of his roommate Weiqiang

Chinese roommates having fun

These guys...

Afterwards, we returned to 满家寨 for lunch before heading to (a potentially fake) segment of the Great Wall/more looking at North Korea

长城

North Korea across the 鸭绿江

Ali and I at the highest outpost

The very, very steep way down

North Korea as seen from under an overhang in the mountain

Video: There was eerie music. I'm not sure if it comes through in the video, but it was there.

At the bottom, you could dress up in hanbok and take a picture in front of North Korea

It was only that far away...

That night, we stayed at a hotel in 丹东 proper, right near the banks of the 鸭绿江. We had an amazing experience with dinner. We went to a Korean restaurant right around the corner from our hotel, and got a private room because our group was 17 or 18 people strong. The room was beautiful. You had to take your shoes off in the entryway before stepping onto the raised platform that was the rest of the floor. The table was a round slab of wood over a sunken round cutout, and we sat on the floor with our legs dangling down into that hole. The windows of the room faced the river, and for some reason there was a great fireworks show on the banks of the river that night, as big as the ones on the 4th of July. We watched it for a while before indulging in delicious Korean food on CET's dime.

Afterwards, I ended up with a group of 8 male students intent on hunting down cold beer. There was none to be found, so they settled on warm ones from the supermarket before we all headed back to the banks of the river and met up with some other students. We hung out and chatted for a few hours, those who wanted drinking beer, all just enjoying ourselves. We Americans forgot that in the US one can't just drink in public until one of the Chinese roommates asked about it... I like the relaxed drinking laws in China. It makes for a much more laid-back dining.

The next morning, we took a boat ride on the river to look at North Korea again.

We're all 99% sure that ferris wheel is just for show

Note the North Korean flag being flown on these masts

Later, we headed to the city of 沈阳 in order to catch our train. With our 4 hours of free time before the ride back to 哈尔滨, we went to a big shopping street to look around. We ate at a famous dumpling restaurant and looked at the (already closed for the evening) 沈阳故宫.

So many peopleeee

老边饺子 were delicious, even if the service was terrible...

沈阳故宫

We found an arcade in a shopping mall to while away the rest of our time. Too much fun.

亭廷 plays "Tread Beetle"

慧英 plays air hockey

Tianbo races an armadillo?

Racing!

And the most fun game of all, throw balls at things like cats on bicycles

The ride home was fine, although we arrived at 6 am. I feel very, very bad for the people who had 8 am class on Monday. I didn't and I was still exhausted enough to be needing naps Tuesday afternoon.

And that ends this monster of a post! Sorry for multimedia-overload. One month left. Hoo boy.

More Intersections

So, I am overdue on this post. But last Monday (I think?) my suitemate's Chinese roommate 王璐 brought the two of us as well as her new Russian boyfriend Denis (I think that's how it's spelled? He was also an international student living in our dorm) to meet her older sister's family over dinner before Denis had to head home to Moscow the next morning. Her older sister, her husband, and their son (11 years old, I think) treated us to a delicious hotpot meal at a very nice restaurant. We talked about everything from traditional Russian folk music to tap dancing, with interjections of Russian and English when the topic called for it - 王璐's uncle had studied a bit of Russian, I think, and my suitemate Ali has taken a semester of it. I was even able to talk with Denis about Cheburashka, an adorable Russian children's show my future-suitemate at Yale showed me earlier this year (holy cow, how great is the theme song? I think I just like music in minor keys. I feel like Russian music would suit me). 王璐 and Denis are proficient in English - Denis spent some time abroad in Los Angeles, so we had a lot to talk about. As the four of us walked home together after dinner, I was just amazed by how much there was to relate over (another little sidenote: Denis' cell phone ringtone was none other than the Chinese song I'd been searching for on Baidu. When I visited China during the summer of 2006, my friends and I had a good laugh at the music video. I heard it again in a grocery store a few days prior to our dinner, and had been looking for it since. Who would think a kid from Moscow would be my key to finding this moderately old Chinese song?).

Denis, his roommate Pasha, and a third Russian friend of theirs, Brandon, were all leaving for Moscow at 6 am the next morning, so Ali and I were invited to their little moving-out party. Denis was already packed up, so he and 王璐 disappeared for a while, and Ali and I drank tea from a very lovely traditional Chinese tea set with Brandon while Pasha packed, and later, their Korean friend Min joined us. If I didn't have 8 am class, I'm sure Ali and I would have stayed through the night. As it was, I left around 11 pm to do my homework - but not without promising to show them some tap dancing a little later (our Light Fellowship guide book recommended bringing things in the event of a talent show, so I brought my taps with me to China). When I brought it up at dinner, Denis was amazed. I don't think they have many tap dancers in Russia - or China or Korea, for that matter.

Around midnight, Min, Brandon, Dennis, 王璐, and Ali came to my room and I did some timesteps for them before fumbled through what I remembered of one of our dances from the TAPS show this year. Embarrassing, but worth it for the chance to hang out. Brandon then showed us a few things with a wushu practice sword he'd bought here.

Overall, the night was a real...I don't think I'd call it a wake-up call, but it really renewed my interest in studying. To be honest, I'd been sort of falling off the week prior. It's summertime, and I definitely didn't have enough time to recover from the schoolwork of freshman year to be excited about more classes. I was learning but conversations in Chinese often still became rapidly difficult, not having the proper vocabulary to express myself. I missed my family, my friends and my hometown, and I was alone in my room with the internet a lot because my Chinese roommate had mysteriously disappeared. But. Drinking tea with a girl from Georgetown, a kid from Moscow, and a girl from Korea while watching a redheaded Russian pack a year's worth of study abroad into Mickey Mouse luggage that only could come from China - this was definitely an experience I never would have had if I wasn't here studying Chinese. It's crazy to me to think about how many events must have occurred to have us all sitting in that room together. A map of Russia on the wall with Chinese characters, a Korean-Chinese textbook, some form of Indic alphabet hung on the wall (was Denis studying Hindi too, I wondered) - it was all a little surreal. Despite being terrifically unprepared for Tuesday's classes, I'm very glad that 王璐 invited me along with her and Ali that night. My sense of purpose has been renewed. This is why I study languages.

In Which I Miss Yale, Have Strange Dreams and My Family is Awesome

So, I had a dream last night in which my best friend, a kid from my program (李英杰), an Inuzuka from Naruto and I were the main characters, and the guy from the movie The Wrestler + Dolly Parton (they were married) and my best friend's mom and sister played supporting roles. It seemed like the Inuzuka was in charge of our little group. We were staying at Dolly Parton's house and had to sneak out when the guy from The Wrestler started cooking dinner (it was apparently that bad, and the Inuzuka said he'd get violent if he caught us trying to leave). We were also using their house as a base to participate in some sort of widely-attended outdoor activity. I kept going back to Ross' house for supplies, and his mom and sister were eating cereal there. Uh...perhaps I should stop reading stories about ninja before sleeping too little.

In other news, the other day I was hot and I thought "Winter at Yale wasn't that bad. Stepping outside was pretty refreshing, and my purple coat is comfy." East Coast, I concede the point. I see how people could want to live on you, could grow fond of you even. I am glad I get the chance to live on you. However, I do not concede the battle for the best coast. The West still wins.

In other other news, I have the best family ever. We adopted two new kittens (adorable!) and WITHOUT ANY PROMPTING FROM ME my family named them Link and Mei. It does not get any better. I miss you, family!

And since I can't leave comments because of China's censorship, GENE I LOVE YOU and I finished Coffee Prince senior year? Unless they made a new season?! I miss you and I'll be home soon/come visit me at Yale please! Daniel, I'm glad you've un-stalkered yourself. Naruto >>>> Dragonball Z. John, DAAAAANZO WHAAAAAAAAAAT I wanted to kill something after reading that chapter! I need the next update. Also you just reminded me there's probably a new FMA out. Time to go read! Oh, and I hope your week-long adventure is going amazingly!

Gee

(I'll update this with a link to YouTube when I can...I hate Chinese censorship...But for now, you can search "Gee - Girls Generation" on YouTube if you don't know what I'm talking about)

From my suitemate's room.

I avoided starting a Korean or Japanese drama series before I left for China, thinking I should spend my time watching a Chinese one instead, both for comprehension practice and to maybe find something to talk about with my future roommate. Well, as it turns out, the Chinese girl next door loves Korean dramas (actually, a lot of China does. A ton of Korean dramas are dubbed/subtitled and played on Chinese TV). Dang.

And the girl in the coffee shop loving Naruto? I'm so glad I can relate. But who would have thought? And on a side note, I think Chinese anime fans are way more hardcore than American ones. From what I can decipher of Chinese Naruto fanpages, fans write essays - weekly - to theorize about plot, character development, and the Naruto-universe. I wish my reading ability was high enough to understand their theories. I'm sure it would be fascinating.

I feel like I should have more insightful thoughts about this intersection of cultures, but it is Saturday and I plan to exercise my brain as little as possible. I also feel like living much of my time in Chinese has made my English far less articulate than usual...so I apologize for the overuse of the word "amazing" in the last post.

I have no roommate, and I'm not entirely sure what I should do today (this weekend we're subsidized to do activities with our roommate). But. Whatever it is, it should probably include a lot of homework.

Also, I dreamed about rescuing a kitten and it was the best dream ever. That is all.

Too many pictures

Apologies in advance for photo-overload.

So we're already halfway done with week 3 here in Harbin and time is flying. But before I talk about new stuff I should probably talk about the last week or so.

We moved into the international student dorms two weeks ago. Here are some pictures of my room (from before my roommate moved in):

My side of the room

My roommate's side

My roommate, 李斯琼 or Li Siqiong, is fairly quiet and very studious. Her major is something to do with circuitry? The small things inside cell phones and the like - that was as far as I got with my limited vocabulary. Because she had a lot of big tests the past few weeks, she often wouldn't come back to the room at night because she was studying. I think all the undergraduates just got finished with their classes for summer, but my roommate was still mysteriously missing this weekend and last night. It's nice being able to stay up late studying but...it's also kind of lonely. It's like the last time I came to China - I was the only girl in my group, so I always had a room to myself. No one to go out to breakfast or dinner with, no one to get me out of my room. But this time around I'm much more comfortable going out and finding things to do myself, and it really forces me to actively make friends with the other Chinese roommates. All in all I guess it's ok. And hopefully now that she's done testing my roommate will join in our weekend activities.

Speaking of which, this weekend we went hiking to celebrate the 4th of July. It was a lot of fun because a lot of the Chinese roommates joined us. It probably took us 3 hours to hike up the mountain - it was an easy climb, and we stopped a lot to chat and rest - and about an hour to hike down after chilling at the top for a bit.

Playing with a jianzi, I think it was called?

A big tower at the top of the mountain that we could climb

The landscape was, of course, beautiful:

This reminds me of that scene in Princess Mononoke...

I love the sky here in Harbin

My suitemate Ali and I

巴西 conquered the mountain with his walking stick.

On the way down, though, it started raining, and then pouring. It wasn't too bad while we were in the trees, but when we got down into flat plains and open farmland, there was water and mud everywhere. My white running shoes are now brown. But it was an adventure, and certainly worth the climb.

Crops, umbrellas and mud

The bus ride back was a wonderful nap. Since we were all wet and muddy, we had 15 minutes to change once we got back to the dorms, and then we all went out to dinner at the most amazing place I've been to yet.

It was called 金汉斯, or Golden Hans, and it was a German-themed Brazilian-style meat-skewer-place/buffet. All the workers were dressed in plaid and ruffles and the decor was going for old Germany. It was wonderful and we all stuffed ourselves, to stay the least. I had a good time talking to my friend Jeff's roommate, Weiqiang (I don't know the characters for his name).

The meat plate they kept refilling, but we could also go to the buffet. Amazing.

金汉斯

Note the authentic German decor...

BUTWEARESTILLINCHINA! as you can see

Anyway, on Sunday I went with Dung and 琼恩 to try to buy new clothes. I didn't bring many because clothes in China are cheap, and I didn't want to pack much. I kind of forgot how much I dislike haggling and how difficult sizes are to find in China, but thankfully the large market we went to was having a sale, so we weren't allowed to haggle. Being out and about in the city was nice, even though it was only for a few hours. I'd like to go back by myself sometime soon - I definitely didn't stop to look at everything I was interested in because I didn't want to bore my two male friends. We had a fun conversation at one point with these two middle-aged Chinese men. They (and all the storekeepers we talked to,actually) asked us the inevitable "where are you from? Oh, America!" kinds of questions, and inquired about my heritage. I cannot figure out why I have been taken for Asian so many times (my high school biology teacher? That doesn't even make sense). One of the shopkeepers we talked to told me my skin color was Chinese. But these two middle aged men in particular - after I explained to them that I was half black, one asked me if I was related to Obama. Excellent. Haha, of course I am. Didn't you know? I very much enjoyed our outing.

Outside of those two adventures, I've just been doing schoolwork, schoolwork, schoolwork. And eating. I love the supermarket too much. I go there all the time. This is very bad for my health, and so as to not come home 500 pounds heavier, I've started running. This is a miracle, really, because I usually avoid running at all costs. But I've discovered it's actually not that terrible, and I rather enjoy not having to think about anything.

We also started our extracurricular classes last week. I'm taking an erhu class and a Chinese cooking class. Our cooking teacher is amazing. 86 years old! And so energetic. Old Asian men are the best. For our first class we just talked about basic things, but this Friday and every Friday afterward we'll be going to his house to prepare dishes. I'm really excited to see what we get to make! Going into the erhu class, I somehow forgot that everything would be in Chinese. I am a musician but I know no musical vocabulary in Chinese. It was a bit difficult, but for this reason I am very glad I decided to sign up for this class at the last minute. I don't know what I'll do with my 180元 erhu when I return home, but the vocabulary will be invaluable

And along the lines of learning new vocabulary sets, I discovered that the woman who works in my favorite coffee shop loves Naruto - she noticed my Naruto wallet, of course. When she first commented on my wallet, I was so excited, but I quickly realized I had no words with which to discuss my favorite pastime. I did some searching around online and learned the names of the characters in Chinese, but all the manga scans online used traditional characters which I had no hope of reading. So last week I went to the newsstand outside our dorms and bought a recent volume of the manga (they sell manga at newsstands here!! Amazing). Thankfully it was simplified. So far I've only read through the first chapter, with much aid of a dictionary. But where I usually find constantly referring to a dictionary rather arduous, reading Naruto made it fairly enjoyable. And, as I discovered when trying to read an article about North Korea for my newspaper reading class, vocabulary about attacking things is pretty useful.

I think the best moments I have here (outside of good conversations) are when I can recognize characters without having studied them in-depth, or connect texts from one class to another place. This happens a lot with my one-on-one texts - in that class, we read through one xiangsheng per every two lessons, and while they're very interesting, they're also full of characters I don't know. But recognizing the word for "fan" in casual conversation from an old story about a Chinese painter, or recognizing "mount an attack" in the newspaper from reading Naruto - I feel like I'm learning all the time while I'm here in China. It's a great feeling. It's also really awesome to connect with people. I can't wait to play the Naruto PSP game with my coffee shop friend!

Anyway, I apologize for the long time since my last update. I'll try to write more often (and less lengthily) from now on. I've got homework to do. Talk to you all soon :)