Harbin Kitty

Catching Up Part 2: Fantastic Conversation, Famous Ice Cream, Puppy Farms?, and Buluosi Jiuba

2009-09-01T20:02:00.001-07:00

My memory of this weekend has already become a little fuzzy, which is really disappointing, but I will do my best to capture what I can remember. I can't remember what was going on Friday evening, but sometime Friday night I happened upon our activities room full of people. I sat down and ended up in an hours long conversation with 白凯丽, 文博's roommate Weiqiang, 余休's roommate Bingnan, and 丽莎. We talked about so many things that I made sure to write myself a list right afterwards so I wouldn't forget: minzhudan/gonghedan/lvsedan (otherwise known as the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Green Party), America's indian problem, American names, airplane companies, conspiracy theorists (Bingnan said "不相信别人," or people who don't trust other people), and religion and marriage. Bingnan kept surprising me with how much American culture he had familiarized himself with; 凯丽 and I were glad to help him fill in the holes. The most interesting one came when we were talking about minorities and - though it took us a bit to realize it - Bingnan was operating under the assumption that American Indians and African Americans face exactly the same problems in American society. We spent a while after that trying to explain reservations, poor political representation, obesity, education problems and the like. But I have to say, I was as amazed by the breadth of our conversation as the depth. Being able to flow from one topic to another without any huge drops in my level of understanding made me really appreciate what the past weeks of living in China had done for my listening ability, and more importantly, my ability to ask the key questions that lead to understanding of a topic or a word I don't understand. I am absolutely not yet perfect at that - I wouldn't even say I'm great at it - but I'm very glad it's developing.

On Saturday, we went to Old Harbin, a district of the city where the old-timey, turn-of-the-century Russian architecture has been preserved (as opposed to the newer Russian architecture up and down the streets...everywhere else in Harbin). Have some pretty pictures and then I'll talk about it:

Mosque in Harbin

The sign said girls in shorts/skirts weren't allowed, but they didn't stop us from coming in to look.

This local Muslim was very glad to talk with us.

老哈尔滨

We went to a famous dessert place to get ice cream. So. Good.

The market street was packed

An outdoor pet market. All I could think about were American puppy/kitten farms... But they were all so adorable...

The woman put bow stickers on their heads because she said it was good-looking. They are pretty cute.

丽莎's roommate Fengyue (so unbelievably sweet) and fish!

After wandering in this part of the city with 丽莎, her roommate, and 国勇, we went to eat in a Muslim restaurant - it was delicious. I think I've been very spoiled by food in China, actually.
Everything was always so tasty that I think I was desensitized to just how tasty everything was. Going back to the Yale caf will be a little difficult - not that Yale food is bad, just often bland.

That night, I had an adventure of adventures. I finally decided to go out with the group of my classmates that usually went out to bars every weekend - 梅择儒, our elected leader on the weekly quest for bars (we joked about him having a bar-radar), promised me dancing, so of course I was going to go out. And I have to say, I had so much fun I only wish I'd gotten up the effort to go out sooner. We started out at Earth, the bar we'd all gone to together during our first weekend in Harbin. I chatted with two of the new Fullbright student's roommates and had the interesting experience of watching inter-cultural drinking games at the bar - the bartenders filled a bunch of shotglasses lined up along the bar full of beer and then everyone crowded aroudn cheered and counted as the contestant tried to drink as many as he could as fast as possible. There was a lot of spurting beer, but Korea came out on top. Also caught sight of the only gay (possibly) couple I've seen in China - after the victorious Korean guy retreated to the bathroom, he was met on his way out by another guy and there was embracing and talking with faces very close. One of the roommates I was talking to was amazed; he said it was the first homosexual action he's seen in public as well, despite living in China all his life and also having decided he himself is bisexual. As a huge sidenote, I am very, very interested to know about gay culture in China. We had a few gay Americans in our group, and most of the roommates were surprised and interested by it. There wasn't any real prejudice, I don't think, just simple curiosity, or the shrug-of-shoulders, I'm-not-offended-but-I-don't-understand kind of reaction, from what my friend said. I could go on a huge tangent here and talk about our discussion (in English, after the language pledge was over) of Chinese sexuality (another thing I wonder about), but I'll save that for a later post.

Anyway, we left Earth at about 2 am to head to Buluosi (Blues) Bar, which apparently gives free beer to foreigners in order to entice an exotic clientele. They certainly succeeded - at the bar, there were barely any natives, it seemed. We had a booth on the second floor, and my first real impression of the place was amazement at the intercultural minglings on the dance floor. There were a lot of Russians, some Koreans, some Africans, some Indians, some Spanish-speaking peoples, a few English-speakers (I think I heard an Irish accent from one guy?) and probably more. Watching the different dance styles was fascinating. Indian-guy backing off Spanish-speaking-sexpot trying to grind on him, Russian dudes awkwardly bouncing or throwing themselves around on top of the speakers, Russian girls...well, if regular Russian style weren't flashy enough, this bar did a lot of Russian prostitute business, so most of the Russian girls were in stilettos and super-tight/skimpy outfits. A super-short, flowy dress with only a thong underneath? Yeah, bad idea, especially if you let yourself get thrown around on a pole by some drunk Irish dude. There was a stripper pole right in front of the DJ booth, and this one drunk and rather unattractive Russian chick was hanging on it for most of the night. She also kept trying to get anyone and everyone to put on a show with her. I loved the super-young Chinese barkeep who clearly didn't understand her advances at all - everytime she grabbed him, he sort of tolerated it for a minute then moved off to his own corner of the stripper-pole-platform to just bounce happily by himself. Yay innocence?

I had a great time dancing my heart out despite the fact that the DJ only played about 10 or so American songs - and repeated them several times - in addition to weird Russian techno and some good Korean songs. Discovered a great dancing buddy in my friend 英杰 and I plan on going to visit him in New York and go clubbing. Got to laugh at one of the Fullbright roommates who obliviously kept interrupting 梅择儒 and the Russian girl he was dancing with. We danced until the sun came up, literally, although that's not hard at all to do in Harbin, where the sun rises around 3 am. A little past 5 am we had a problem, though. 梅择儒's Russian chick had a boyfriend, apparently, and he was none too happy with her flirting with 梅择儒 all in his face. He kept grabbing her and trying to make her leave, and she was obviously unhappy about it. 梅择儒 wasn't about to let the boyfriend just drag this girl away, so he, the boyfriend, and the boyfriend's much more aggressive friend left the dance floor to exchange words. Sensing a barfight, we all followed, not wanting to leave our buddy alone with these guys. We'd heard stories about nasty Russian barfights and were not eager to leave him prey to whomever wanted to get upset. The chick's friends got involved, the like 5 other people left in the bar came to watch, and the bartenders were unhappy. After making sure that the girl wasn't going to be taken against her will, we all bounced quick at the bartenders' insistence (Fullbright roommate this whole time was still very oblivious to the situation. It was less funny than before, considering). On our taxi ride home in the bright, bright sunlight we passed morning markets already open - old people and their early rising, you know. I passed out for much of Sunday, but it was such a fun night overall. I love dancing.

And that was weekend #...6? Terrifying that school (like, Yale school, sophomore-year school) is starting tomorrow! But I won't abandon this blog for at least two more entries. I need to finish the story!

Catching Up Part 1: Babies, Old People, KTVs, and That-Low-Point-The-Fellowship-Warned-You-About

2009-08-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

Edit 8/12/09: pictures added!

I have been (exceedingly) lax in blogging the past few weeks, and for that I apologize. I've been keeping notes though, so I 'll try to go in order of things that have happened since I last posted. Also, since Picasa (the place I've been uploading photos) has also been censored in China since entering into partnership with Blogger, I'll have to add pictures later. Check back!

First, and most importantly, as of July 22nd, 2009 I am a big sister for the second time! I am, of course, very sad that I couldn't be home for her birth. Buuuut I will be home in less than a week! With gifts! I can't wait to meet you, baby sister!

New baby celebration!

Suntanning

Too cute for words.

Next up, the weekend of the 26th-27th. Our planned activity that weekend was called "Lunch with Old People" and consisted of us interviewing retired Hagongda professors over lunch. It was an alright activity - good food, and the professors were nice and all - but the location was poorly chosen. It was dark in the restaurant even in the middle of the afternoon, and because we were all talking at the same time and many of the professors had quiet voices, it was harder than it should have been to communicate. I assumed it was the combination of dark + no breakfast + lack of sleep that made me very dizzy sitting there in that restaurant, but in retrospect it might have been the cold that manifested itself later that week.

Other events that weekend: Friday night we went out to karaoke (or KTV, as it's called here in China)! I love singing, but the thing language pledges is one can't sing English songs, Japanese songs, or any kind of songs that aren't Chinese. And the thing about Chinese is, if you don't know how to read a character, it's difficult to even guess how it's pronounced. And the thing about KTVs is, 95% of the song lyrics are written using traditional characters, as opposed to the simplified ones I've been studying for 5 years now. Needless to say, I mostly enjoyed listening to our Chinese roommates sing that night. But I did manage a Jay Chou song ( thank you, 7th grade at Harvard-Westlake) and 老鼠爱大米 (thank you, Carter Chang). Saturday night I stayed in with 巴西, 文博, his roommate, 余休's roommate and 娜莎 to watch 《四个婚礼和一个葬礼》, otherwise known as Four Weddings and a Funeral. Yeah, I definitely didn't understand any witty banter that might have gone on, but that movie just made me angry and vaguely disgusted. The impressions I got: Hugh Grant is endearing but confused and rather inconsiderate, the old guy is vaguely amusing but mostly over-the-top, the woman is a maneater but that's ok because she's American and mysterious, and the one chick who seems sensible ends up with nothing in the end. Cool, movie. Excellent message. On Sunday, 文博 and his roommate, 慧英, 白凯丽 and I all went to see Wen Miao Confucian temple, which is apparently the largest wooden temple in the northeast. It was a pretty laid-back sort of day.

Wen Miao

独占鳌头：The saying roughly translates to "stand alone on the Ao's head" (an Ao[鳌] being a mystical tortoise thing), but really means to come out on top. Putting money on the Ao's head ensures good grades, good luck, etc.

孔子 himself

Another large university in the area. Yale may have beautiful gothic architecture, but it certainly doesn't look like this.

Mao and crew chilling in front of the college's supermarket.

Another temple we went to visit on Sunday

Praying and burning incense

Grandma teaching her grandson about religion

Temples were right next to an amusement park

The sky here is almost always gorgeous

I think the following week was probably my low point here in Harbin (for reference: the Light Fellowship required all recipients to attend a pre-departure meeting in which they went over important information about acclimating to life abroad. A key part of the presentation was the W-curve of cultural acclimation - I did a quick search and found a site that sums up the curve pretty well here). It wasn't a spectacular low - I wasn't inconsolably upset or anything - it was more like the creeping apathy one might associate with depression. I was irritated by a few of the people in the dorms but Hagongda's campus held no interest for me; I wasn't really in touch with anyone from home and the internet in the dorms was often frustratingly slow without even taking into account the annoyance of censorship; I got sick in the middle of the week; and struggling through my last class on Friday - which also happens to be my least favorite course here - it occurred to me that I didn't really know why I was studying the language. I looked at some character on the blackboard, and clear as day the thought "I refuse to remember this" popped into my head. It left my head as soon as it entered, really, but it left me wondering all the same.

How did I get out of that groove? To be honest, I ignored it. Classes couldn't be skipped, a plane ticket home couldn't be bought, and even if it could, I wasn't about to give up on this great opportunity. My reason for studying Chinese became "why not?" for a while, which, while a pretty weak reason, is better than no reason. To be even more honest, I can't really write eloquently right now about re-connecting with my love for Chinese culture because having to prepare for finals is obviously a downer and I really just can't wait to be home right now. But I will say that as more time passes I find myself wishing that China and the US were closer. If there were some way for me to attend classes on the weekdays and go home every few weekends, life would be perfect. I really do enjoy studying here and familiarizing myself with the culture, but there are just some times when no place but home will do.

Anyway, I need to study now, but since I don't have class anymore I should have time to update more often! Part 2 will be up very shortly.

The Halfway Point: A Photo Essay

2009-07-22T03:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-10T20:39:00.001-07:00

(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

2009-07-08T01:25:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Men,

2009-06-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

I like you. You are some of my best friends, my boyfriend, and my family.

But you see, if you stop me in the street, the intimidation/annoyance factor usually outweighs the any-desire-I-might-have-had-to-speak-to-you factor.

If you stop me in the lobby of my dorm and try to chat me up while I am trying to leave, you should know that I won't go out of my way to speak to you again.

If you continue to try to convince me to break my language pledge so I can make aimless small talk with you in English, you are far too sure of yourself and I already don't like you.

If you follow me to the cafeteria despite the fact that I am only speaking Chinese and doing my best to get rid of you, you are a certain kind of special and you can rest assured that we will not become friends.

Also, to women and men alike, if you live and study in China, you should probably at least attempt to speak a little.

Now, that I've vented, the question is do I make up a topic for the 300-character essay that is due tomorrow, or do I ask the teacher to tell me what I'm actually supposed to be writing about? I'm leaning towards the latter because it is 2 am and I have class at 8 am. I was not a very good student this weekend. But the good (/terrible if I want good grades) news is I finally got internet in my room! Anyway, a more substantial update will come when I shouldn't be sleeping or studying. I can't believe 1/8 weeks is already over. I think I'm getting the hang of classes (though maybe not the homework) and I really do feel like I'm making a lot of progress. I do miss home, though. Harbin weather has been nice this week, but strange: sunny and breezy for most of the day with out-of-nowhere, massive thunderstorms (I have never in my life witnesses such loud, long bursts of thunder. Sometimes it sounds like gunshots). California will always be the place to be. But it's bedtime. I'm happy I finally learned how to say goodnight so my roommate and I don't fall asleep in silence. 晚安！

Fast Post! Fast Post!

2009-06-24T02:42:00.000-07:00

I will write much more later, but I'm supposed to be going to dinner shortly, so I should probably leave this coffee shop soon.

Harbin is wonderful. I really like it here. The weather's great and...

Well, it's ridiculously windy and I think raining outside now so maybe I won't be rushing this post to make it to dinner. My computer and all. But! Harbin's summer weather has been pretty nice up till now (I don't want to discourage any other potential visitors).

Today was our third day of classes and our third full day speaking only Chinese. We began on Sunday afternoon, just after our lunches with our one-on-one class professors - in which it was highly suggested that we only speak Chinese, so I guess our language pledge started around 12 pm that day.

The lunch was...a scary start, I have to say. I'm definitely doubting my topic now because I think it's going to be even more difficult than I initially thought. I was too embarrassed by my lack of skills to ask my professor anything really illuminating, so I mostly listened to him talk about things like 东北人's taste in food and...well, I didn't understand a lot of what he said. What made the whole thing even more awkward was he told me at the beginning of the meal that he didn't like how I held my chopsticks, assuming I guess that I hadn't used them much before. He showed me his grip, and instructed me to hold them like that. We were eating 饺子 and I was dropping them all over the place trying to hold the chopsticks the way he wanted me to instead of the way I usually hold them. Big, fat FAIL. My normal grip isn't bad! Oh well. It gave me a reason to laugh instead of looking lost, I guess.

Anyway, the first day of classes was ok. Hard, but mostly because I didn't prepare properly. Now that I know what to expect, and now that I've had a few class meetings to get used to classroom Chinese and being a student again, I think I'll be ok. I'm taking a 4 person conversational Chinese class, a 5 person newspaper reading class, a 2 person pronunciation class, and my one-on-one class about 相声 (see first post) - which I still haven't had my first class in, actually. It was moved so that we could finally move out of our hotel and into dorm rooms on HIT's campus.

Speaking of, our hotel room:

Tory said it.

The hotel was nice - free breakfast and pretty much on campus - but I'm really glad to be living in the dorms now. Aaaand I met my Chinese roommate last night! She's very nice - a bit soft spoken, but she doesn't speak crazy fast or anything so I can mostly understand her. Or, I can mostly decipher words, I should say. I definitely don't always comprehend what's being said. But we had a very long conversation last night, which was constantly amazing to me. About three times during the conversation it was like I pulled out of what was going on and was astounded by the fact that everything that had gone on wasn't in English. It was a weird feeling, sort of like: since I'd comprehended so much (...a moderate amount), I felt like the conversation must have been in English. But it wasn't. And I was amazed. But then I'd focus in again because if I didn't I'd really lose what what going on. Very strange...but comforting to know, I guess, that such a thing is possible. I just hope I'm not giving her incorrect impressions of America with my poor ability to explain things.

I pretty much love living on campus. It's exciting to be an international student, and it's exciting to be getting to know a whole new school. Chinese supermarkets? Amazing. There's one on campus. Plus smaller stands selling food everywhere. I love it. And, of course, I love how cheap food is everywhere. Today I had a fantastic breakfast for 2.5元 - and I mean fantastic in the sense of I bought it because it was something I'd never seen before.

Turns out it was like a cinnamon roll minus the cinnamon plus red bean paste with a savory meal on top. I expected it to be gross but was pleasantly surprised. Delicious.

I had ice cream for 1元 and then a giiiant 包子 for another 1元 (China also is full of AMAZING ice cream bars, for the record). Love, love, love. Some more food:

We all went out for a meal and the CET people ordered this 东北 delicacy. A hunk of meat + bone that came with gloves and a straw with which to suck out the bone marrow. Bones kind of gross me out, but I did try a little. It was like...grainy fat. Not my favorite, but not gross.

Hot pot, or 火锅. Before...

And after.

Finally, because I need to get dinner and start my homework and the rain has let up, the notebook I bought for class yesterday. I really bought it for the cover.

"This is the most comfortable note book you have ever run into. Buy me!" it said. And I obeyed.

Reliable Internet Access, Strings Attached

2009-06-20T01:55:00.000-07:00

Just to let you all know, those last two posts were brought to you courtesy of 5+ hours of fiddling with stuff and finding workarounds for China's Great Firewall. Blogger is blocked in China. GLadder + Picasa + more coding than should be necessary enabled me to put pictures in. I'm still working on embedding that video. Arg.

Anyway, we took a sleeper train overnight and are now situated in our hotel in Harbin (due to swine flu precautions we're not allowed to move into the dorms just yet). We took a quick tour of the HIT campus after a meeting about academics and the oral segment of the placement exam (!!! So glad that's over!). Afterwards, a smaller group of us went exploring/food hunting for a little bit. So far, I really like Harbin. The weather's much cooler than in Beijing, the streets less packed, and the whole place feels much friendlier. I also like that people here don't really speak English. In Beijing there were people everywhere who spoke English, often cutting off my (admittedly few) efforts to speak Chinese. This is what I came here for.

Also also, now that we're finally kind of settling in, I think this will get much less expensive - relatively, of course, because China's not really expensive anyway. I had 6 包子 for lunch for 2元, which is less than 50 cents American. Excellent.

Here Begins My Summer Adventure in China

2009-06-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Tokyo Tokyo Tokyo!

2009-06-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

After a lovely last night at home spent with my family and my best friend (and my mom's amazing tacos, and about a pound of frozen yogurt), I got on my 1:20 pm flight from LAX to Narita without too much trouble. We were running a little late so I didn't have time to pick up some last minute items I needed or take advantage of a no-international-fees ATM in LAX, unfortunately. Dealing with money stresses me out :( but oh well, what's done is done.

The flight was pretty nice – not as nice as the flight Claire and I took to Japan and back last year, but still nice. I slept for the first hour or so, then watched Valkyrie, a Japanese movie called The Triumphant General Rouge, and (I don't even know if I should admit to this) Confessions of a Shopaholic. See my only real problems with the flight (I was on Japanese Airlines) were that you couldn't pick when to start the movies, and that the movie selection (in English) was so poor. On my last international flight I took the opportunity to watch a bunch of foreign language films because I figured they'd be much harder to come by than American ones back home. I even lucked out on a 6-hour flight home from Yale once – the plane was a connecting flight from somewhere international, so I had my pick of movies for free instead of the $6 or $7 fee they charge per movie domestically. But on the flight I was on this time, only two Japanese movies had English subtitles; everything else came in only the original language with Japanese subtitles. Disappointing, but not the end of the world. The food was great. Other than watching movies, I slept and read my Chinese dictionary.

We got into Narita around 5 pm, and by 6 pm I had a bus ticket to Shinjuku and was figuring out how to contact my parents. Turns out I had my watch set for Chinese time and forgot to remind myself that Japan time is an hour later, so I took a bus an hour later than necessary, but it worked out ok. I had an adventure trying to use a Japanese cell phone to text John and then met him at Shinjuku station with the help of payphones. Because it was raining pretty hard by then (rain season in Tokyo), we headed straight back to his cute little house near Shinjuku. John wins for getting my embarrassingly heavy suitcase up the two narrow staircases to his room. Tatami mats! Shoji doors! So wonderful. We did some catching up and some planning for Tuesday and then went to bed.

Tuesday was amazing, in one word. We started off in Akiba for some wandering and found a really cheap, fast, and generous curry place for breakfast/lunch. After some more wandering (Yodobashi Camera!)(did you know they make puzzles of Kingdom Hearts? And Final Fantasy? I was amazed and covetous), we stopped at a bakery for Japanese-style pastries. So good.

Melon Bread with whipped cream, melon custard, and melon jam-ish-stuff inside. So gooood.

After a little more wandering, we headed to SEE THE GIANT GUNDAM HOMG!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy when John suggested we go see it – I thought Odaiba was too far away, but I was wrong! I don't think they're entirely finished yet but…wow.

Gundam towering over the people.

We also saw another Statue of Liberty? Does France just give these away for kicks?

???

Then we went to Roppongi looking to hit up the Tokyo Tower. It took us a looong time to find it, so by the time we did dusk was falling and it had just lit up. Beautiful, and worth the effort (but not worth the ¥800-something to go up to the observing deck).

Upshot

We were assaulted there by middle schoolers who wanted a picture with the exotic Americans. "Herro?" is not a stereotype of their accent, it was actually that thick. But speaking of herro,

We also saw this there. Japan = cute embodied.

From Roppongi we headed to Harajuku, for precisely the reason I came to Japan: absolutely delicious food.

KYUSHU JANGARRA RAMEN. THE. BEST. EVER.

So it was raining a little when we left Harajuku station to head for ramen. While we were at Jangarra, it started pouring harder than I think I've ever seen it. But this did not keep us from our final destination: crepes, Japanese-style!

Mixed berries and frozen yogurt + chocolate ice cream, caramel, and cinnamon. Oh my, so worth the wetness.

We huddled under an overhang to eat, and continued huddling for a while trying to wait out the rain, but it was not to be. I tried to take John to Kiddyland, this really cool store with floors and floors of toys, but it was closed :( Since it was still pouring, we decided to head back home.

I thought about heading to the Tsukiji fish market for amazing morning sushi since Claire and I didn't manage to wake up early enough on our last trip, but I decided against it. I didn't want to risk missing my flight. I want to come back to Japan sometime within the next year with Light, so hopefully I'll be back soon!

The next morning I left John's house around 7 am to get to Shinjuku station for my 85 minute bus trip to Narita.

John's cute little house. I'm mad jealous of it.

Realizing I hadn't taken any pictures of myself here, I tried to get one using the self-timer on my camera. My battery died before I could get a non-blurry picture, though.

Sorry, Mom.

I had epic misadventures trying to get from where John lives to Shinjuku station, and pushing my suitcase all over was not too much fun. I made it to the bus about an hour later than I intended, but thankfully security at Narita didn't take too long. I did have a rough stop, though: after making it on to so many flights with me, my little pink pocket knife finally got confiscated. R.I.P. little buddy, I'll miss you :(

I'm going to end this entry here and start a new one regarding my adventures so far in Beijing – after this, my Light Fellowship summer abroad begins for real. Goodbye, Japan! Be back soon!

To-Do List

2009-06-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

More as a reminder to myself than a real entry:

Go to the bank (overdraft charge refund, exchanging money (get yen too!), turn off savings thingy)
Photocopy passport and things
Check CET and CIE websites...
Pack. Holy cow. I'm so tired of moving stuff around
Get some snacks - for the flight and for in China (gifts too?)
Fix computer????
Put some shows/movies on computer
Study study study
Set some goals for China

7 days! 7 days!

Less than a month to Harbin!

2009-05-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

So, I leave on June 14th for two months abroad - two months with the barest minimum of English; two months away from the lovely weather of my hometown, Los Angeles; two months that I've barely begun thinking about because I only left Yale yesterday. An adventure, to be sure, but one I really need to start preparing for! I'm excited because I get to stop in Tokyo on the way there, to visit a friend and to enjoy my favorite Japanese foods. After that, I'll be in Harbin, China for two months of intensive Chinese classes, hopefully the equivalent of a full year of Chinese study at Yale. My goal is to be fluent by the end of the program - or at least comfortable enough with the language to have "meaningful conversations," as my high school Chinese teacher used to call them.

I chose Harbin because I didn't want a traditional study abroad experience. Everyone goes to Beijing, so I wanted to look for something different. I was also heavily influenced by the (very few) posts on the Light Fellowship Bulletin Board about the program by past fellows. One of the things I find most intriguing about the CET-Harbin program is that we get to pick a subject of our choice, in addition to our regular Chinese classes, to be instructed in. Following Dr. Zhou's Chinese New Year presentations past, I decided to study comic dialogues - xiang4 sheng (相声). I think I read somewhere once that you sound truly like a native if you can joke in a language (and with the proper emphasis and accent, of course) - the nuances and cultural references involved in joking, after all, require great insight into the language. It also can't hurt to be able to make jokes in coversation. I'm not entirely sure what to expect in terms of how the class will work (we had to submit a basic lesson plan as well as potential textbooks as part of the application, and I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about in those arenas) but I'm really looking forward to the progress I'll make in this class in particular.

What I'm most afraid of right now is losing my ability to remain poised and polite in conversation. My spoken Chinese is serviceable after a year of practicing in class and with my language partner, but in addition to fumbling for vocabulary (and grammar and tones...), I'm quite sure I know nothing about sounding polite and respectful in Chinese. I really hate making people upset, but I know that language and cultural missteps are inevitable, at this stage. Hopefully I don't say anything so insensitive "对不起" can't fix it (dui4 bu4 qi3). I also really hope that my near-obsession with Japanese language and culture and growing interest in Korean language and culture don't distract me too much...I've got to learn Chinese first! Then I can start worrying about learning new languages. I must exercise dishiprine, as my 12-Pack friends would say.

Anyway, I am so grateful that the Light Fellowship program decided to give me a fellowship for the summer, and that the CET program granted me admission. 25 days to Chinaaaaaaa!