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.

Men,

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！

Reliable Internet Access, Strings Attached

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.