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

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

<3

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.

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.

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 :)

Fast Post! Fast Post!

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.