Bonus points for anybody who can tell me what the title is from. (Yes, it is a quote.) I'll give you a hint: It was a short running TV show. Anybody? Well, I'll tell you. The show is called Hopkins. It's a real life show/documentary about the lives of doctors at John's Hopkins Hospital. If you are at all interested in medicine, I would seriously recommend it. I love it. This is a quote that one of the doctors said to his wife, when she called him at work, at night, upset because he hadn't been home in a while. It also happens to be the only quote that I can remember from the show. The only reason that I can remember it is because when he said it, I can remember thinking "What a dipshit. Who says that to their wife?" As it turns out, this quote was also the theme of the day.
I've spent a lot of time today trying to decide how much about today I should put into this blog. That's the problem with blogging. While it is a great way to let people know what you do with your time during the day, it is impossible to put everything in. And you shouldn't put everything in. At least in my blog, everything is always a little bit censored. I have to be careful to maintain a balance between sarcasm and happiness. It's a very very thin line.
I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I am happy to be in China. It's so familiar and so different at exactly the same time. (Try to wrap your head around that one if you can... I don't even know what I am trying to say, so good luck.) But even though I am happy to be here, I still want to be back in America. I'm torn. It's the travelers curse. And it is not an easy life style here. I am tired, and my head hurts from too much Chinese. But I am a masochist.
I tell you all of this to try to help you understand why sometimes I may seem down, and sometimes I seem up. It's because I feel both, all the time. I am not depressed, or unhappy to be here. But my feelings are more complicated than just happy or sad. I am not complaining, I am not whining. I am simply trying to express myself. And do it in such a way as to not make you think that I am a whiny cry baby. I mean, who doesn't want to give a good impression?
So, back to my day. I normally become more and more awake in the mornings as the week goes on, so at least today was better than yesterday. But only until about 10. Then things went downhill really fast. I got my homework back from yesterday. Let's just say that I didn't do as well as I normally do, and leave it at that. To put it mildly, I was upset. (I am a type A personality... it's in my nature.) And yet, I had to carry on, and sit through class like I really didn't just want to run to the bathroom and scream and cry. I sternly told myself "you need to get your emotions under control" and carried on. And I have to say, I did a pretty good job. I got through class, maybe with a couple more mistakes than normal, but I got through. And I sat through Chinese tables, no problem. I got time on my own for 30 minutes after lunch, and thought that I was in the clear. My bad.
After lunch, we have an hour of one on one with a teacher. The first thing my teacher asked me? "Take out your homework." At that point, it is safe to say that my emotions were no longer under control. It's a good thing that she brought tissues.
In my defense, I have been feeling frustrated for a couple of weeks now. Fourth year Chinese is about making the change from spoken, informal Chinese to written, formal Chinese. Doesn't sound difficult, you say? Think about when you were first starting to write a paper. Think about the sweat, blood and tears that it took to get to you finally start to learn how to write a formal paper, and not use informal words. Now think about doing that in another language. Yeah. I know. OUCH. I'm trying to learn formal Chinese, and learn more characters at the same time. So I am allowed to feel overwhelmed occasionally. Today, I just happened to have reached maximum capacity.
All I can say is, thank - insert something awesome here - for the gym. Seriously. It is quickly becoming my anchor. There is something so completely mind clearing about exercising to the point that your head is actually spinning. That's where I was today. I had to sit down to bring myself back to Earth. I had another session with Jack today. I think that he was in a bad mood, but at least I got to work out. I was still a little tired from the other day, so it was definitely not my best day in the gym ever. But it was infinitely better than not going at all. I am always exhausted to the bone afterwards, and happy as a pig in shit. Exercising washes away all your worries, and that is certainly how I felt when I left after an hour.
I spent the rest of the night studying. I know, how thrilling. But hey, someone has to do it! Not all of us are lucky enough to bum around all summer.... :) I went to the teachers office hours for help, and surprise surprise, it helped! This is going to become a nightly occurrence.
And that was my day. What an emotional roller-coaster, I know. And now, after finishing my cup of tea, I am getting ready to go to bed, happy and content with myself for the moment. I trust you not to think too badly of me after this story. Everybody has their down moments. Mine just happened to come along today. But, everything is a learning experience. Today was one of those. I am still happy to be in China, it is just not an easy road. But hey, you have to step out of your comfort zone to grow, right? Well, watch me grow by leaps and bounds.
And now, this girl needs her beauty sleep. Good night!
P.S. I am happy to report that I could actually wear my backpack today. My bruises don't hurt at all any more. They have actually faded to that disgusting yellowish brown healing color. I have never been so happy to have my back look so disgusting. :)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
外国人 (Foreigners)
Before I get into today's post, can I just say, if you haven't had your weekly dose of Doctor Who, then STOP READING MY BLOG AND HEAD IMMEDIATELY THE QUICKEST ONLINE MOVIE WEBSITE AND WATCH IT. SUCH A GOOD SHOW. I just finished watching the most recent episode, and it was so amazing. I can't get over how much I love it. So. If you don't watch it, well, better late than never. START START START. You will not regret it. And if you do... Well, then I suppose there is just no help for you.
Foreigners. What do you think when I say that? Depending on where you are, your answer might be different. Maybe you think of someone with a different skin color. Maybe you think of someone with a different idea than you. And maybe you think of something completely different. Only you know. But think about it. So much of the time, we try to be politically correct, and not think about differences, and instead think about what brings us together. Don't get me wrong, that is good as well, but sometimes, it's good to think about your surroundings, and who you spend your days around. Foreigners. What do you think?
Foreigners. I am in China right now, so my opinion is probably completely different from yours. But when I hear that word, I think white people. I think about people who speak English, French, German, Russian, anything that is not Chinese (or some dialect therein). I think about people who haven't grown up here, who look around them with the wide eyed wonder that is normally only found in small children. I think about the people who walk down the street with earbuds in their ears, blasting music. I think about people who wear sunglasses, and give other foreigners the evil eye when walking down the street. Does that match what you thought?
I've been giving a lot of thought to the idea of foreigners over the past couple of weeks. Mostly because while I am in China, I am a foreigner. I don't fit in with most of the other people in this country. So what sets foreigners apart? Well, lets first discuss the obvious. First and foremost, language. Don't be under any illusions, Chinese is an extremely difficult language to master. It is impossible to be fluent, you can just get to a point where class rooms can no longer teach you things. Secondly, for most of us, skin color and hair color. Gasp! I said those naughty words! Skin color. What a touchy subject in America. But it's true. Here, my skin tone automatically sets me apart, and draws stares on the street. Why? Chinese think that white skin is beautiful, and it is different from them. Well, those are the big 3 reasons. Now lets get down to the not so obvious reasons.
Most of these reasons come from behavior patterns, and a cultural difference. Firstly, the majority of foreign women, if they are used to wearing shorts or skirts, shave their legs and armpits. The majority of Chinese women? Not so much. A lot do, of course, but nearly as large a percentage as that of foreign women. Clothes set us apart as well. The large majority of Chinese people wear fairly conservative clothes. Foreigners... Well, you know. I don't need to tell you about that.
Personality is another biggy. When I walk down the street, and encounter another foreigner, I can guarantee that I will either not be acknowledged, laughed at, or given the shit look. The not being acknowledged is a testament to the idea that the other foreigner is way too cool and independent to have to resort to smiling and strange foreigners on the street. Laughed at? Testament to the fact that the other foreigner thinks that they have much more China knowledge than I do, and that therefore they know better than me, and pity me. And the shit look? Easy. Translation: "This is my country bitch, get out." For some reason, foreigners get very protective of China, and of their normal haunts, and it is not at all welcome to see another foreigner there. Why do I know all of this? 1) because I am a foreigner and 2) I may or may not be guilty of most of these things as well.
I have found that most foreigners in Beijing are either extremely intense, or extremely edgy. China has a way of screwing with your head. In a good way though. It's a test. Can you stand up the pressure? Only China will tell. There are a lot of foreigners here who become extremely paranoid, always watching their money bags and personal belongings, convinced they have to guard against an entire country, all of whom are trying to steal from them (which is of course, completely ridiculous.) These foreigners also tend to have a tired and frazzled look on their face all the time. Easy to spot, believe me. That used to be me.
The other category? Intense foreigners. The ones who are convinced that they have shed their Western bonds and become Chinese themselves. They KNOW that they know better than you, and will take every opportunity to prove it.
Is that enough broad generalizations for you? These are just my own ideas, something that I was thinking about as I walked down the street. There are a lot of foreigners in my area, so I have a lot of time to think about it. Of course, I am a foreigner myself, and I am no better than the rest of them. Don't think I am being hypocritical, I group myself in amongst all of those foreigners that I just criticized. I'm not naive enough to think that I am the one perfect foreigner in Beijing. I know that I also have a superior attitude sometimes, but I am trying to get rid of it. Hey, I never said that I was perfect.
Okay, I'll stop with the bad generalizations, and give you a glimpse into my life today. The overall theme? Exhaustion. What is it about Monday that makes one tired? No matter how much sleep you get the night before, you are always going to be tired. My friend Kirie described it perfectly. "I feel like I am jet lagged from the weekend. I have to get used to waking up early, and going to bed early during the week, and then doing the opposite on the weekend. It's exhausting."
So the challenge of today was just to keep my eyes open, and try my hardest to answer the questions. It was not easy thought. This morning, during the first class, my teacher would ask me questions, and it would take me a couple of moments to answer, while my brain sluggishly tried to process the question. I wasn't fooling anybody. Actually, our entire class was like this. Even the teacher said that she didn't like Mondays. Who can blame her?
I think that she knew that I was particularly tired (maybe someone put a stamp on my face) because she didn't ask me nearly as many questions as she asked the other students though. She has done this in the past though. I can't tell if it is because I was so tired, or because she doesn't like me. More tests will be required before I can come to a conclusion.
Class dragged by for most of the day, and then for the rest of it, I stayed inside, and studied. I am desperately trying to get on top of my workload. I can get all of it done, but I just can't remember the English meaning of my new words. This is going to come back to bite me in the ass sooner rather than later, but so far, so good. I think that our teachers know that we can't remember anything, because they really don't test us on the meanings. Except when a word comes up in the text. And then I just hope against hope that I can decipher the meaning from the surrounding words.
Well my loves, I think that that is a long enough post for today. I really didn't do a whole lot today, because I was way too tired. I will have more good stories tomorrow. It's a gym day tomorrow! Prepare yourselves.
P.S. My back was so sore today that I couldn't wear my backpack. I think that next time someone says that I have too much trash in my body, I will just use a loofa.
As always, questions and comments.
Foreigners. What do you think when I say that? Depending on where you are, your answer might be different. Maybe you think of someone with a different skin color. Maybe you think of someone with a different idea than you. And maybe you think of something completely different. Only you know. But think about it. So much of the time, we try to be politically correct, and not think about differences, and instead think about what brings us together. Don't get me wrong, that is good as well, but sometimes, it's good to think about your surroundings, and who you spend your days around. Foreigners. What do you think?
Foreigners. I am in China right now, so my opinion is probably completely different from yours. But when I hear that word, I think white people. I think about people who speak English, French, German, Russian, anything that is not Chinese (or some dialect therein). I think about people who haven't grown up here, who look around them with the wide eyed wonder that is normally only found in small children. I think about the people who walk down the street with earbuds in their ears, blasting music. I think about people who wear sunglasses, and give other foreigners the evil eye when walking down the street. Does that match what you thought?
I've been giving a lot of thought to the idea of foreigners over the past couple of weeks. Mostly because while I am in China, I am a foreigner. I don't fit in with most of the other people in this country. So what sets foreigners apart? Well, lets first discuss the obvious. First and foremost, language. Don't be under any illusions, Chinese is an extremely difficult language to master. It is impossible to be fluent, you can just get to a point where class rooms can no longer teach you things. Secondly, for most of us, skin color and hair color. Gasp! I said those naughty words! Skin color. What a touchy subject in America. But it's true. Here, my skin tone automatically sets me apart, and draws stares on the street. Why? Chinese think that white skin is beautiful, and it is different from them. Well, those are the big 3 reasons. Now lets get down to the not so obvious reasons.
Most of these reasons come from behavior patterns, and a cultural difference. Firstly, the majority of foreign women, if they are used to wearing shorts or skirts, shave their legs and armpits. The majority of Chinese women? Not so much. A lot do, of course, but nearly as large a percentage as that of foreign women. Clothes set us apart as well. The large majority of Chinese people wear fairly conservative clothes. Foreigners... Well, you know. I don't need to tell you about that.
Personality is another biggy. When I walk down the street, and encounter another foreigner, I can guarantee that I will either not be acknowledged, laughed at, or given the shit look. The not being acknowledged is a testament to the idea that the other foreigner is way too cool and independent to have to resort to smiling and strange foreigners on the street. Laughed at? Testament to the fact that the other foreigner thinks that they have much more China knowledge than I do, and that therefore they know better than me, and pity me. And the shit look? Easy. Translation: "This is my country bitch, get out." For some reason, foreigners get very protective of China, and of their normal haunts, and it is not at all welcome to see another foreigner there. Why do I know all of this? 1) because I am a foreigner and 2) I may or may not be guilty of most of these things as well.
I have found that most foreigners in Beijing are either extremely intense, or extremely edgy. China has a way of screwing with your head. In a good way though. It's a test. Can you stand up the pressure? Only China will tell. There are a lot of foreigners here who become extremely paranoid, always watching their money bags and personal belongings, convinced they have to guard against an entire country, all of whom are trying to steal from them (which is of course, completely ridiculous.) These foreigners also tend to have a tired and frazzled look on their face all the time. Easy to spot, believe me. That used to be me.
The other category? Intense foreigners. The ones who are convinced that they have shed their Western bonds and become Chinese themselves. They KNOW that they know better than you, and will take every opportunity to prove it.
Is that enough broad generalizations for you? These are just my own ideas, something that I was thinking about as I walked down the street. There are a lot of foreigners in my area, so I have a lot of time to think about it. Of course, I am a foreigner myself, and I am no better than the rest of them. Don't think I am being hypocritical, I group myself in amongst all of those foreigners that I just criticized. I'm not naive enough to think that I am the one perfect foreigner in Beijing. I know that I also have a superior attitude sometimes, but I am trying to get rid of it. Hey, I never said that I was perfect.
Okay, I'll stop with the bad generalizations, and give you a glimpse into my life today. The overall theme? Exhaustion. What is it about Monday that makes one tired? No matter how much sleep you get the night before, you are always going to be tired. My friend Kirie described it perfectly. "I feel like I am jet lagged from the weekend. I have to get used to waking up early, and going to bed early during the week, and then doing the opposite on the weekend. It's exhausting."
So the challenge of today was just to keep my eyes open, and try my hardest to answer the questions. It was not easy thought. This morning, during the first class, my teacher would ask me questions, and it would take me a couple of moments to answer, while my brain sluggishly tried to process the question. I wasn't fooling anybody. Actually, our entire class was like this. Even the teacher said that she didn't like Mondays. Who can blame her?
I think that she knew that I was particularly tired (maybe someone put a stamp on my face) because she didn't ask me nearly as many questions as she asked the other students though. She has done this in the past though. I can't tell if it is because I was so tired, or because she doesn't like me. More tests will be required before I can come to a conclusion.
Class dragged by for most of the day, and then for the rest of it, I stayed inside, and studied. I am desperately trying to get on top of my workload. I can get all of it done, but I just can't remember the English meaning of my new words. This is going to come back to bite me in the ass sooner rather than later, but so far, so good. I think that our teachers know that we can't remember anything, because they really don't test us on the meanings. Except when a word comes up in the text. And then I just hope against hope that I can decipher the meaning from the surrounding words.
Well my loves, I think that that is a long enough post for today. I really didn't do a whole lot today, because I was way too tired. I will have more good stories tomorrow. It's a gym day tomorrow! Prepare yourselves.
P.S. My back was so sore today that I couldn't wear my backpack. I think that next time someone says that I have too much trash in my body, I will just use a loofa.
As always, questions and comments.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Spelling
It has been pointed out to me that my spelling is atrocious. My apologies! I don't actually proofread any of my posts
Can't Touch This!
No. Stop laughing. You seriously CANNOT TOUCH THIS. I will slap you. I will. Don't tempt me.
In case you were not sure, this is in reference to how my back felt this morning when I woke up. It is a very good thing that I normally sleep on my stomach (weird, I know. You will get over it) because I could not lie on my back. Even now, just before I go to bed, I still can't lie on my back without pain. That is because, over night, my already existing bruises have now flourished. They are now covering my entire back, and have now changed colors to become a lovely mixture of purple and red. You can't even distinguish one bruise from the next on the top part of my back. Not to worry though! I have pictures. Wouldn't want to make you imagine this on your own. Ask me about it when I get back to America.
This was just driven home when I tried to take a shower, and learned the hard way that A) taking my shirt off was a bitch and B) I couldn't handle the pressure of the water on my shoulders. This would certainly make for an interesting day. I was tempted to just not go outside all day, and not wear a shirt, because it hurt to raise my arms above my head. It took me a while to convince myself that YES, going outside is a good thing, and YES, I should be social.
My day was dominated by studying. I have a 4 page 课文 (text from my book) to read and understand (which was not easy. It was a transcript of an interview, and they did their damned best to make sure that I would not be able to understand it. I prevailed in the end.) In addition, I had to write a 700 character essay, due tomorrow. The topic? My mom. I love my mom, and I think she is one of the best people in the world, but seriously, what I am supposed to say about her in an essay? I really don't like topics like this. Much too broad. I simply resorted to telling lots of stories, and making it super cheesy. Teachers love that kind of stuff.
I also had a meeting with my language partner today. It's always a little bit awkward, because I never know what to do with her. She is not supposed to go off campus with me, because it is "too dangerous" (please.) so we just end up staying on campus, and talking. But campus is not big, and we don't know each other that well, so our topics of conversation are severely limited; mostly just to what I will be able to understand. My Chinese level is at this weird spot where I am basically good enough to get by in most conversations, and it's really hard for me to improve my Chinese by just talking to people. This basically just keeps my Chinese where it is. She has the same problem trying to decide what to do with me. I suggested getting dinner or something next time we meet. That should take some of the awkwardness away.
I have a confession to make. I tried, TWICE, to cancel my session with Jack today. I went once, tried to cancel, got talked out of it, went back a couple hours later for a take 2, and got talked out of it again. I did my darndest to wimp out, and Jack wouldn't let me. Which I suppose is a testament to him. I think that he thought I was crazy.
I did end up going. After finishing my essay, and most of the text, I went. It hurt just to put my jog bra on. I was NOT excited to be going to work out. But I still went. I grabbed my water bottle and towel, and soldiered on out the door. They are not lying when they say getting out the door and getting to the gym is the hardest part about going to the gym. Once you are there, piece of cake.
Jack didn't particularly care that my back was one big bruise. The way that our session started? A massage. Yes, you heard right, I let him massage my bruises. It was oh so comfortable. After that, the fun began. Today was focused on my back and arms. By the half way point, my arms were already nearing the muscle failure point. At that point, I got brave, and told him that I would lie on my back and work on my abs. And surprisingly, it was not as painful as I thought it would be. Throughout the whole work out, he kept giving me massages, and kneading my back. It was not as comfortable as it could of been, but I could handle it. And it definitely got easier as my muscles started to warm up, and I got used to moving around my bruises. By the end of it, I was completely buggered, and my back barely hurt at all. My friend Grace was at the gym, and was shocked when I took my shirt off to show her my back. I probably would be shocked too.
I made a new friend. Louis. He is one of the trainers at the gym. I think that they all just don't know what to do with me, so they just start talking. I am one of the only white girls who has a personal trainer help her lift weights, and who isn't afraid of adding more weight on. And they think that all the Harvard kids are geniuses (they don't need to know that I am not ACTUALLY a Harvard kid... Just doing the program.) Either way, I walked out of the gym feeling completely exhausted, and like a complete badass.
To sum up, even though my back is one huge bruise, and I can't put a shirt on without wincing, I did all my homework, met with my language partner, went to the gym, and got a massage. Awesome? I think so. Whoever said human beings are limited was wrong. So far, so good.
As a side note, I am really amazed at how well it is going working out with a Chinese personal trainer. I was a little suspicious when I first got there, but I was not sure of their quality, but it is really working well. I can see a huge change in my body, and it has only been 2 weeks! I am already much stronger. And he didn't mention that I needed to lose weight. That, my friends, is what I call a step in the right direction!
Good night, and good luck!
(As always, questions and comments are appreciated. )
In case you were not sure, this is in reference to how my back felt this morning when I woke up. It is a very good thing that I normally sleep on my stomach (weird, I know. You will get over it) because I could not lie on my back. Even now, just before I go to bed, I still can't lie on my back without pain. That is because, over night, my already existing bruises have now flourished. They are now covering my entire back, and have now changed colors to become a lovely mixture of purple and red. You can't even distinguish one bruise from the next on the top part of my back. Not to worry though! I have pictures. Wouldn't want to make you imagine this on your own. Ask me about it when I get back to America.
This was just driven home when I tried to take a shower, and learned the hard way that A) taking my shirt off was a bitch and B) I couldn't handle the pressure of the water on my shoulders. This would certainly make for an interesting day. I was tempted to just not go outside all day, and not wear a shirt, because it hurt to raise my arms above my head. It took me a while to convince myself that YES, going outside is a good thing, and YES, I should be social.
My day was dominated by studying. I have a 4 page 课文 (text from my book) to read and understand (which was not easy. It was a transcript of an interview, and they did their damned best to make sure that I would not be able to understand it. I prevailed in the end.) In addition, I had to write a 700 character essay, due tomorrow. The topic? My mom. I love my mom, and I think she is one of the best people in the world, but seriously, what I am supposed to say about her in an essay? I really don't like topics like this. Much too broad. I simply resorted to telling lots of stories, and making it super cheesy. Teachers love that kind of stuff.
I also had a meeting with my language partner today. It's always a little bit awkward, because I never know what to do with her. She is not supposed to go off campus with me, because it is "too dangerous" (please.) so we just end up staying on campus, and talking. But campus is not big, and we don't know each other that well, so our topics of conversation are severely limited; mostly just to what I will be able to understand. My Chinese level is at this weird spot where I am basically good enough to get by in most conversations, and it's really hard for me to improve my Chinese by just talking to people. This basically just keeps my Chinese where it is. She has the same problem trying to decide what to do with me. I suggested getting dinner or something next time we meet. That should take some of the awkwardness away.
I have a confession to make. I tried, TWICE, to cancel my session with Jack today. I went once, tried to cancel, got talked out of it, went back a couple hours later for a take 2, and got talked out of it again. I did my darndest to wimp out, and Jack wouldn't let me. Which I suppose is a testament to him. I think that he thought I was crazy.
I did end up going. After finishing my essay, and most of the text, I went. It hurt just to put my jog bra on. I was NOT excited to be going to work out. But I still went. I grabbed my water bottle and towel, and soldiered on out the door. They are not lying when they say getting out the door and getting to the gym is the hardest part about going to the gym. Once you are there, piece of cake.
Jack didn't particularly care that my back was one big bruise. The way that our session started? A massage. Yes, you heard right, I let him massage my bruises. It was oh so comfortable. After that, the fun began. Today was focused on my back and arms. By the half way point, my arms were already nearing the muscle failure point. At that point, I got brave, and told him that I would lie on my back and work on my abs. And surprisingly, it was not as painful as I thought it would be. Throughout the whole work out, he kept giving me massages, and kneading my back. It was not as comfortable as it could of been, but I could handle it. And it definitely got easier as my muscles started to warm up, and I got used to moving around my bruises. By the end of it, I was completely buggered, and my back barely hurt at all. My friend Grace was at the gym, and was shocked when I took my shirt off to show her my back. I probably would be shocked too.
I made a new friend. Louis. He is one of the trainers at the gym. I think that they all just don't know what to do with me, so they just start talking. I am one of the only white girls who has a personal trainer help her lift weights, and who isn't afraid of adding more weight on. And they think that all the Harvard kids are geniuses (they don't need to know that I am not ACTUALLY a Harvard kid... Just doing the program.) Either way, I walked out of the gym feeling completely exhausted, and like a complete badass.
To sum up, even though my back is one huge bruise, and I can't put a shirt on without wincing, I did all my homework, met with my language partner, went to the gym, and got a massage. Awesome? I think so. Whoever said human beings are limited was wrong. So far, so good.
As a side note, I am really amazed at how well it is going working out with a Chinese personal trainer. I was a little suspicious when I first got there, but I was not sure of their quality, but it is really working well. I can see a huge change in my body, and it has only been 2 weeks! I am already much stronger. And he didn't mention that I needed to lose weight. That, my friends, is what I call a step in the right direction!
Good night, and good luck!
(As always, questions and comments are appreciated. )
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Pain? No Problem.
Did you miss me? I missed you. And now, without further ado, my Saturday night!
I am going to skip over most of my day. For personal reasons, mostly relating to the fact that I don't want you to know just how pathetically boring my day was, and just how much of an uninteresting person I really am. So, skip ahead to about 7 at night. Since I have skipped most of my day, let me set the stage. If you have been the Beijing, imagine a typical Beijing night, with people crowding the streets. If you haven't been to Beijing, then let me help you paint a picture. Start with a blank canvass. Now imagine a wide street, masses of cars, hundreds of Chinese people, bikes, and couples walking around under umbrellas. Now add some trash onto the street, and some huge buildings made of glass and steel. And the finishing touch? Come on, you know this one. Smog! That's right, take your beautiful picture, and now mess it up by putting copious amounts of smog into it. And that my friends, in China in a nutshell, and the stage for my adventure last night.
As a way to bring ourselves back to sanity, my new found friend Grace and I decided to have a girls night on the town, which basically included getting dinner and massage. What more could you want? We decided to go to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. I know, horror of horrors, going to a Japanese restaurant in China. But seriously. I wanted lamb shishkabobs (or however you spell it - also known as 羊肉串) and miso soup. And yes, we did keep speaking Chinese. We aren't THAT white.
Dinner was satisfactory. Needless to say, I doubt it possible to find stellar Japanese food in China. But forget about that. Now we are getting to the actual story that I wanted to tell you. The massage.
China massages are amazing. These little Chinese women might look slight, but believe me when I say that they are amazingly strong when it comes to massages. I was in pain a couple of times. I had a woman give me a massage last night, and she was as strong as any man I have ever met. My friend had a guy giving her a massage, but I didn't ask how it was going (NO SHE WAS NOT GETTING A HAPPY ENDING. My god, get your head out of the gutter.) They were such nice people. For the entire hour that we were getting a massage (full body massage, 1 hour, $10.01. And that is how it is done in China) we just chatted. They kept asking us if we had boyfriends, and then telling us that we needed to get Chinese boyfriends (and yes, both of us needed more than one each) because they would cook for us. I will never get used to China.
They couldn't speak English, but I felt like overall, our Chinese definitely held up. Fun was had by all. We just chatted about every thing for an hour. Then my lady dropped the bomb: did we want to get cupping done? How about scrapping?
I don't know if you know what those things are, so let me digress for a second a describe it to you. Both are forms of Chinese medicine, aimed at getting rid of the trash in your body, and making you more healthy. Cupping basically involves suctioning glass jars onto your back, and then leaving them there for 10 minutes. They put a piece of cloth dipped in alcohol into the jar, light it on fire to suck the air out, and then suction it onto your back. I had over 10 of them put onto my back. The result? Huge, octopus looking bruises all over your back.
Scraping is just as fun. They rub oil all over your back, as lubrication I guess, and then literally take a scraper, and start scraping the top layer of skin off your back. Sounds comfortable, doesn't it? IT'S NOT. It hurt like a kick in the head. I kept saying that it hurt. Her response? "You'll be fine. I'm not using any pressure. The guy that came in before you, I was using a lot of pressure. Like THIS (at which point she used pressure. OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH) And he was fine. I have a lot of people that come in once a month to get this done. You just aren't used to it. It's almost over." That is some great encouragement, right there. Read between the lines: suck it up white girl!
That lasted for 10 minutes. I was ready to get up and leave right then. (Grace, who was watching this, said that when she was done, I had a huge red line right down my back bone. I can only imagine what it looked like. I'm surprised she stayed.) So picture that. Now, guess what was next? If you guessed cupping, you would be right. My torturer (as she will hence forth be known) grabbed 16 of those glass jars, and started suctioning them on to my back, and then left them there for 10 minutes. It actually doesn't hurt as much as you think it would, it just feels super weird, because your skin is being sucked up. It hurts if you laugh though. I was more than ready to have them off by the end of 10 minutes though. The whole time, I kept asking, how much longer, how much longer?
My person was super cute though. She kept saying that she cried the first time she got this done to her, so she was impressed that I wasn't crying. (It didn't hurt THAT much.) She said "You can clearly withstand pain. You didn't complain during the massage, and now you are doing this." My response? "I can't handle pain, I am just really really stupid." That got a laugh out of everyone in the room. I could already feel the bruising by the time I put my shirt back on though. And after I paid for all of it and looked in the mirror, I saw HUGE, octopus sucker like bruises, all over my back, in addition to the scrapping bruising that was covering my back. I also saw the huge red line that was down my back.
The only thing that I can liken it to, if you haven't seen it before, is that I would imagine someone who has just been dragged for a mile behind a bus would probably have a back that looks something like mine right now. Oh, the colors. One huge bruise, from my neck to my butt. I keep telling myself that it is an experience that I needed to have. I'm in China, I should do that at least once. It's not going to stop me from sleeping on my stomach tonight though.
Dinner: $5.15
Massage, scraping, and cupping: $18.23
Story of why I looked like I was subjected to domestic violence? Priceless
As always, questions and comments!
I am going to skip over most of my day. For personal reasons, mostly relating to the fact that I don't want you to know just how pathetically boring my day was, and just how much of an uninteresting person I really am. So, skip ahead to about 7 at night. Since I have skipped most of my day, let me set the stage. If you have been the Beijing, imagine a typical Beijing night, with people crowding the streets. If you haven't been to Beijing, then let me help you paint a picture. Start with a blank canvass. Now imagine a wide street, masses of cars, hundreds of Chinese people, bikes, and couples walking around under umbrellas. Now add some trash onto the street, and some huge buildings made of glass and steel. And the finishing touch? Come on, you know this one. Smog! That's right, take your beautiful picture, and now mess it up by putting copious amounts of smog into it. And that my friends, in China in a nutshell, and the stage for my adventure last night.
As a way to bring ourselves back to sanity, my new found friend Grace and I decided to have a girls night on the town, which basically included getting dinner and massage. What more could you want? We decided to go to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. I know, horror of horrors, going to a Japanese restaurant in China. But seriously. I wanted lamb shishkabobs (or however you spell it - also known as 羊肉串) and miso soup. And yes, we did keep speaking Chinese. We aren't THAT white.
Dinner was satisfactory. Needless to say, I doubt it possible to find stellar Japanese food in China. But forget about that. Now we are getting to the actual story that I wanted to tell you. The massage.
China massages are amazing. These little Chinese women might look slight, but believe me when I say that they are amazingly strong when it comes to massages. I was in pain a couple of times. I had a woman give me a massage last night, and she was as strong as any man I have ever met. My friend had a guy giving her a massage, but I didn't ask how it was going (NO SHE WAS NOT GETTING A HAPPY ENDING. My god, get your head out of the gutter.) They were such nice people. For the entire hour that we were getting a massage (full body massage, 1 hour, $10.01. And that is how it is done in China) we just chatted. They kept asking us if we had boyfriends, and then telling us that we needed to get Chinese boyfriends (and yes, both of us needed more than one each) because they would cook for us. I will never get used to China.
They couldn't speak English, but I felt like overall, our Chinese definitely held up. Fun was had by all. We just chatted about every thing for an hour. Then my lady dropped the bomb: did we want to get cupping done? How about scrapping?
I don't know if you know what those things are, so let me digress for a second a describe it to you. Both are forms of Chinese medicine, aimed at getting rid of the trash in your body, and making you more healthy. Cupping basically involves suctioning glass jars onto your back, and then leaving them there for 10 minutes. They put a piece of cloth dipped in alcohol into the jar, light it on fire to suck the air out, and then suction it onto your back. I had over 10 of them put onto my back. The result? Huge, octopus looking bruises all over your back.
Scraping is just as fun. They rub oil all over your back, as lubrication I guess, and then literally take a scraper, and start scraping the top layer of skin off your back. Sounds comfortable, doesn't it? IT'S NOT. It hurt like a kick in the head. I kept saying that it hurt. Her response? "You'll be fine. I'm not using any pressure. The guy that came in before you, I was using a lot of pressure. Like THIS (at which point she used pressure. OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH) And he was fine. I have a lot of people that come in once a month to get this done. You just aren't used to it. It's almost over." That is some great encouragement, right there. Read between the lines: suck it up white girl!
That lasted for 10 minutes. I was ready to get up and leave right then. (Grace, who was watching this, said that when she was done, I had a huge red line right down my back bone. I can only imagine what it looked like. I'm surprised she stayed.) So picture that. Now, guess what was next? If you guessed cupping, you would be right. My torturer (as she will hence forth be known) grabbed 16 of those glass jars, and started suctioning them on to my back, and then left them there for 10 minutes. It actually doesn't hurt as much as you think it would, it just feels super weird, because your skin is being sucked up. It hurts if you laugh though. I was more than ready to have them off by the end of 10 minutes though. The whole time, I kept asking, how much longer, how much longer?
My person was super cute though. She kept saying that she cried the first time she got this done to her, so she was impressed that I wasn't crying. (It didn't hurt THAT much.) She said "You can clearly withstand pain. You didn't complain during the massage, and now you are doing this." My response? "I can't handle pain, I am just really really stupid." That got a laugh out of everyone in the room. I could already feel the bruising by the time I put my shirt back on though. And after I paid for all of it and looked in the mirror, I saw HUGE, octopus sucker like bruises, all over my back, in addition to the scrapping bruising that was covering my back. I also saw the huge red line that was down my back.
The only thing that I can liken it to, if you haven't seen it before, is that I would imagine someone who has just been dragged for a mile behind a bus would probably have a back that looks something like mine right now. Oh, the colors. One huge bruise, from my neck to my butt. I keep telling myself that it is an experience that I needed to have. I'm in China, I should do that at least once. It's not going to stop me from sleeping on my stomach tonight though.
Dinner: $5.15
Massage, scraping, and cupping: $18.23
Story of why I looked like I was subjected to domestic violence? Priceless
As always, questions and comments!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Testing, Testing
Eyebrows. What do you think about them? Do you think about them? Probably not. I normally don't. Everyone has them, they are just a normal part of our features. We really only notice their absence, not their presence. But I was in class today, looking at someone's profile, and just noticing their face (not in the stalkerish way! As in, I was looking at their features) and I noticed just how weird we really look. Have you ever done that? Just looked at someone's face, and dissected their features? It's creepy. It's like looking at someone, totally detached from feeling. Take the eyebrows for instance. They are huge, abnormal clumps of hair that are grouped on our face, for the whole world to see. If, on a girl, there was that much hair, under her nose, for example, she would either shave it off, or never go outside (well, I would, anyway. Couldn't say for sure that everyone would.) But no, because all of this hair is above our eyes, in a straightish line, IT'S OKAY. Weird. Truly, our eyebrows are weird.
Ears are another one of those features that don't make sense. Sure, we need them for hearing, but they are these huge fleshy clumps that stick OUT from our head. They are these huge ugly things that everyone has, and that we all except. Hell, some people even get turned on by them. But if you look at them, not thinking about their function, just looking at how they are placed on someone's head, maybe you will understand what I mean.
I know what you must be saying to yourself right now. Hell, maybe you are screaming it to your computer, hoping against hope that I will someone here it all the way over here in China. "Sophie, are you crazy? You have eyebrows, you have ears. They are perfectly normal!!!" I know, I know! And I'm quite happy with my eyebrows and ears, as well. They are pretty standard. But it was just something that I was noticing, walking around campus and around the city. They are really strange features. But we think they are normal. I don't know, maybe I am not explaining it properly. What do you think?
But I digress. I will stop talking about crazy abstract things like eyebrows and ears, and start talking about the really interesting cultural problems that I run into 7000 miles away from home. That is, after all, why you give up 10 minutes of your day to read my blog, is it not? And believe me, I am truly honored that you do.
My day started with a test. How is that for a Friday morning? Every Friday, at 8 AM, we have a two hour test, on the chapters in our book that we had done the previous week. It is such a nice way to wake up, believe me. (In case you missed it, I have just maxed out on my sarcasm.) We didn't have a verbal test this week, which is definitely a step up. Just a written one. Oh well. Better than a kick in the head. (I say this a lot, but technically, I have never been kicked the head, so I wouldn't really know. But I will assume it is better. And NO, I do not want someone to volunteer to show me, THANK YOU.)
After testing, we still had two hours of class. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I heard that. I will admit, when I was done with the test, I was more than ready to head back to the dorms, and go to sleep. Can you blame a girl? I woke up at 6:30! By 10:00, it is already nap time. As it turned out, all that we were doing in class was just talking about the video that we had watched. You remember, the where were each guy had three girls in tow. Ah, there is the lightbulb turning on. The first hour was pretty normal. Just your basic watch a section of the movie, and answer questions. The real cultural debate followed an hour later.
For the last hour of class, we sat in our small groups, and talked. At first we talked about love, then we talked about marriage, and kids, and adulterers. I know, a weird topic of conversation for class, but what are you going to do? We spent the better part of an hour making wild generalizations about America and China based on the opinions and experiences of us 5 people in the room: 4 American teenagers, and 1 Chinese teacher. Some of our generalizations? Chinese women are expected to be married by the time they are 30, otherwise they are considered old maids. American women are a lot more independent. We think that it is weird to have 3 people in one relationship. The third person in a relationship are proud to be so in China. Just to name a few. Good times were had by all, I would say. I mean, we were allowed to sit there and just enjoy ourselves and Chinese for an hour. How could that be anything except a good time?
Lunch on Tuesdays and Fridays are always amazing, because we don't have to pay for them. We have Chinese tables twice a week, where we eat lunch with our teachers. Today, it was a small group, because we ate lunch with our Social Studies project groups. After lunch, I had to go reapply for a visa. Did I forget to mention? My visa won't let me stay in China for long enough. I know. I was pissed when I found out. So I had to go to their office today, and repay the fee, and reapply. That was not such a good time.
DVD stores. Part of the reason that I came back to China may or may not be related to my drive to update my DVD collection. And that is as far into that story as I am going to go. Needless to say, I came back from an hour trip to the store with 4 more tools of entertainment, and one of them didn't work, which then resulted in a little bit of creativity on my part. And it really is not nearly as interesting of a story as I am making it out to be.
So what do my Friday afternoons look like, you might ask. Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. They are exceedingly boring. It is kind of like the shock after a hurricane. Everyone just retreats back to their room to lick their wounds from the week. It's my time to bring my head back to reality, and unwind. Meaning, I spent the majority of my afternoon on facebook. And let me tell you, I have never hated the time difference more. Because, seriously, who is online at 2 or 3 in the morning? No one. And that is my problem.
The one nice thing about having my own room though, is that I have my own space. When in a big city (especially one like Beijing) there are people everywhere, all around you all the time, and while that definitely has its benefits, it's nice just to be on your own sometimes, and relax, in your own space, without people being around you all the time. That is exactly what I did, all afternoon. It was beautiful.
A bunch of people went out to sing karaoke tonight. In a large group of 外国人 (foreigners). I went along for dinner. We ended up grabbing a room in a Japanese restaurant, 6 stories up. While eating my noodles, I looked out over a busy Chinese market, and laughing along with 10 of my peers. Awesome, right? How often do you get to look over a scene like that? If you are from Davis, and go to school in Burlington (like I do) then the answer is seldom to never. So believe me when I say that I loved it.
And I can now feel all my wit and charm leaving me. Meaning that it is time for me to go bed. So, my lovelies, I will bid you goodnight! Until next time. As always, questions and comments are appreciated :)
Ears are another one of those features that don't make sense. Sure, we need them for hearing, but they are these huge fleshy clumps that stick OUT from our head. They are these huge ugly things that everyone has, and that we all except. Hell, some people even get turned on by them. But if you look at them, not thinking about their function, just looking at how they are placed on someone's head, maybe you will understand what I mean.
I know what you must be saying to yourself right now. Hell, maybe you are screaming it to your computer, hoping against hope that I will someone here it all the way over here in China. "Sophie, are you crazy? You have eyebrows, you have ears. They are perfectly normal!!!" I know, I know! And I'm quite happy with my eyebrows and ears, as well. They are pretty standard. But it was just something that I was noticing, walking around campus and around the city. They are really strange features. But we think they are normal. I don't know, maybe I am not explaining it properly. What do you think?
But I digress. I will stop talking about crazy abstract things like eyebrows and ears, and start talking about the really interesting cultural problems that I run into 7000 miles away from home. That is, after all, why you give up 10 minutes of your day to read my blog, is it not? And believe me, I am truly honored that you do.
My day started with a test. How is that for a Friday morning? Every Friday, at 8 AM, we have a two hour test, on the chapters in our book that we had done the previous week. It is such a nice way to wake up, believe me. (In case you missed it, I have just maxed out on my sarcasm.) We didn't have a verbal test this week, which is definitely a step up. Just a written one. Oh well. Better than a kick in the head. (I say this a lot, but technically, I have never been kicked the head, so I wouldn't really know. But I will assume it is better. And NO, I do not want someone to volunteer to show me, THANK YOU.)
After testing, we still had two hours of class. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I heard that. I will admit, when I was done with the test, I was more than ready to head back to the dorms, and go to sleep. Can you blame a girl? I woke up at 6:30! By 10:00, it is already nap time. As it turned out, all that we were doing in class was just talking about the video that we had watched. You remember, the where were each guy had three girls in tow. Ah, there is the lightbulb turning on. The first hour was pretty normal. Just your basic watch a section of the movie, and answer questions. The real cultural debate followed an hour later.
For the last hour of class, we sat in our small groups, and talked. At first we talked about love, then we talked about marriage, and kids, and adulterers. I know, a weird topic of conversation for class, but what are you going to do? We spent the better part of an hour making wild generalizations about America and China based on the opinions and experiences of us 5 people in the room: 4 American teenagers, and 1 Chinese teacher. Some of our generalizations? Chinese women are expected to be married by the time they are 30, otherwise they are considered old maids. American women are a lot more independent. We think that it is weird to have 3 people in one relationship. The third person in a relationship are proud to be so in China. Just to name a few. Good times were had by all, I would say. I mean, we were allowed to sit there and just enjoy ourselves and Chinese for an hour. How could that be anything except a good time?
Lunch on Tuesdays and Fridays are always amazing, because we don't have to pay for them. We have Chinese tables twice a week, where we eat lunch with our teachers. Today, it was a small group, because we ate lunch with our Social Studies project groups. After lunch, I had to go reapply for a visa. Did I forget to mention? My visa won't let me stay in China for long enough. I know. I was pissed when I found out. So I had to go to their office today, and repay the fee, and reapply. That was not such a good time.
DVD stores. Part of the reason that I came back to China may or may not be related to my drive to update my DVD collection. And that is as far into that story as I am going to go. Needless to say, I came back from an hour trip to the store with 4 more tools of entertainment, and one of them didn't work, which then resulted in a little bit of creativity on my part. And it really is not nearly as interesting of a story as I am making it out to be.
So what do my Friday afternoons look like, you might ask. Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. They are exceedingly boring. It is kind of like the shock after a hurricane. Everyone just retreats back to their room to lick their wounds from the week. It's my time to bring my head back to reality, and unwind. Meaning, I spent the majority of my afternoon on facebook. And let me tell you, I have never hated the time difference more. Because, seriously, who is online at 2 or 3 in the morning? No one. And that is my problem.
The one nice thing about having my own room though, is that I have my own space. When in a big city (especially one like Beijing) there are people everywhere, all around you all the time, and while that definitely has its benefits, it's nice just to be on your own sometimes, and relax, in your own space, without people being around you all the time. That is exactly what I did, all afternoon. It was beautiful.
A bunch of people went out to sing karaoke tonight. In a large group of 外国人 (foreigners). I went along for dinner. We ended up grabbing a room in a Japanese restaurant, 6 stories up. While eating my noodles, I looked out over a busy Chinese market, and laughing along with 10 of my peers. Awesome, right? How often do you get to look over a scene like that? If you are from Davis, and go to school in Burlington (like I do) then the answer is seldom to never. So believe me when I say that I loved it.
And I can now feel all my wit and charm leaving me. Meaning that it is time for me to go bed. So, my lovelies, I will bid you goodnight! Until next time. As always, questions and comments are appreciated :)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
When I Say Hate...
I spent a lot of time trying to think up a good title for today's post. There are so many veins that this blog could take, so many tangents that I could go off on. A lot of things happened today that I think should be written down. Maybe not important in the long run, but enough to make my day interesting never the less. In the end, this was the best title I could think of. The one that provides the broadest umbrella for my unending stories. What does it mean? Well now, I am glad that you asked.
I'm going to skip the boring part of my day, meaning that I am going to leave it up to your imagination what happened in class. Like I have said before, there is absolutely no way that I can make 5 hours of Chinese class sound interesting. Except for the one small part where we spent time trying to give Lady Gaga a name. For some reason, she always comes up as the examples in our class.
No, the really interesting part happened after class was over. One of the most important aspects of HBA is the 社会调查, or Social Studies project, that we all have to do in two weeks. The bare bones of the project is basically that we can pick a topic, anything at all to do in China, anywhere in China, research it, interview people, and then write a report in Chinese. Some people are going to Inner Mongolia, some to Qingdao or Shanghai. And some are doing their own projects, or moving out to the Beijing countryside. Me? Well, I spent most of my day trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to do. When I first got here, I was all set to stay in Beijing, and research Chinese medicine, acupuncture to be specific. And then I learned about the Inner Mongolia trip. And all my plans went out the window. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to go to Inner Mongolia? I KNOW. I spent most of my day walking around, asking anybody that would listen if I should stay in Beijing, or go to Inner Mongolia. Basically, I was asking people to make my decision for me. And then I came to a realization. I don't want to do research in Inner Mongolia. I want to go to Inner Mongolia to have fun. I would much rather research acupuncture. That is completely fascinating to me. So, after much stress, I have decided to stay in Beijing, and design my own research project. There goes my weekend.
The second fun thing that happened today? The gym. Oh, the gym. It is a place that we love to hate, a place where we push ourselves to the very brink of our abilities. Last time I went, I was told that I was too fat, and that if I lost 10 pounds, I would be pretty. Huh. It wasn't a nice thing to hear, but it did motivate me to go back. So I walked in, paid my fee for a personal trainer, and got cracking. This guy (I think his English name is Jack) is one of the funniest Chinese people I have met. He has muscles about the size of my head, and thinks it is absolutely hysterical that a white girl like me will go to the gym to lift weights. He also thinks that I am awesome, because I am his strongest female...client, I guess would be the word. And I am white. It cracks him up. Me? I just feel resigned to it. I think that you have to be a bit of a masochist to love working out. Maybe that is why I keep going back. Pushing yourself to the point of muscle failure is so rewarding. At the end of the day, you know that you worked your ass off, and falling into bed has never felt so good.
I worked hard. Sure, it wasn't a Crossfit workout, but my arms and legs felt like jelly, and I was fully ready to curl up on the ground, and just hole up there for a while. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to. I did get some lovely little massages though. That makes it completely worth the money. I do wish that he would drop the whole "lose weight, then you will be pretty" thing though. I have already given him money, bloody hell! The sales pitch worked.
Telling you in detail what I did at the gym would be a boring story. It is enough to say that by the end of it, I was exhausted, couldn't really feel any of my limbs, and absolutely loved the massage that I got at the end. I was happy, right up until the point that Jack told me I shouldn't eat meat, or a big dinner tonight. Now, I don't know about you, but after I work out, I need protein. Stat. And anything else is lovely as well. But I did as he said. I have stuck it out. I ate an obscene amount of fruit (no, seriously. You would be ashamed. Good thing I was in my room.) and studied. 3 tests tomorrow. Fun stuff.
There were so many times, while working out, that he would pick up the weights, look at me, and go "One more time." In the spirit of every exhausted athlete, I wanted to break out into rude words, but unfortunately, there is no such thing as sarcasm in Chinese. Saying "I hate you" would literally mean I ate you, not "Please don't make me do this one more time." So I held my tongue. But damn, it was not happy. Maybe that is why I laugh so much when I go to the gym. It's either laugh, or cry. I chose laughter.
Not sure how this whole, not really eating dinner thing is going to work out. I am a teenage girl, I need food! We'll see what happens. It was nice to actually have fruit again though. My room is overflowing with it. And it is so nice to hurt from going to the gym! It's a nice hurt. It's a proud kind of hurt. You get to look at people and think, that's right, I went to the gym, you didn't. What now? :)
Back to studying now. But believe me, I will show Jack. By the end of 9 weeks, I'll be outlifting him. Well, maybe not, but you get the point. It's a goal, anyway.
Questions and comments!
I'm going to skip the boring part of my day, meaning that I am going to leave it up to your imagination what happened in class. Like I have said before, there is absolutely no way that I can make 5 hours of Chinese class sound interesting. Except for the one small part where we spent time trying to give Lady Gaga a name. For some reason, she always comes up as the examples in our class.
No, the really interesting part happened after class was over. One of the most important aspects of HBA is the 社会调查, or Social Studies project, that we all have to do in two weeks. The bare bones of the project is basically that we can pick a topic, anything at all to do in China, anywhere in China, research it, interview people, and then write a report in Chinese. Some people are going to Inner Mongolia, some to Qingdao or Shanghai. And some are doing their own projects, or moving out to the Beijing countryside. Me? Well, I spent most of my day trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to do. When I first got here, I was all set to stay in Beijing, and research Chinese medicine, acupuncture to be specific. And then I learned about the Inner Mongolia trip. And all my plans went out the window. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to go to Inner Mongolia? I KNOW. I spent most of my day walking around, asking anybody that would listen if I should stay in Beijing, or go to Inner Mongolia. Basically, I was asking people to make my decision for me. And then I came to a realization. I don't want to do research in Inner Mongolia. I want to go to Inner Mongolia to have fun. I would much rather research acupuncture. That is completely fascinating to me. So, after much stress, I have decided to stay in Beijing, and design my own research project. There goes my weekend.
The second fun thing that happened today? The gym. Oh, the gym. It is a place that we love to hate, a place where we push ourselves to the very brink of our abilities. Last time I went, I was told that I was too fat, and that if I lost 10 pounds, I would be pretty. Huh. It wasn't a nice thing to hear, but it did motivate me to go back. So I walked in, paid my fee for a personal trainer, and got cracking. This guy (I think his English name is Jack) is one of the funniest Chinese people I have met. He has muscles about the size of my head, and thinks it is absolutely hysterical that a white girl like me will go to the gym to lift weights. He also thinks that I am awesome, because I am his strongest female...client, I guess would be the word. And I am white. It cracks him up. Me? I just feel resigned to it. I think that you have to be a bit of a masochist to love working out. Maybe that is why I keep going back. Pushing yourself to the point of muscle failure is so rewarding. At the end of the day, you know that you worked your ass off, and falling into bed has never felt so good.
I worked hard. Sure, it wasn't a Crossfit workout, but my arms and legs felt like jelly, and I was fully ready to curl up on the ground, and just hole up there for a while. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to. I did get some lovely little massages though. That makes it completely worth the money. I do wish that he would drop the whole "lose weight, then you will be pretty" thing though. I have already given him money, bloody hell! The sales pitch worked.
Telling you in detail what I did at the gym would be a boring story. It is enough to say that by the end of it, I was exhausted, couldn't really feel any of my limbs, and absolutely loved the massage that I got at the end. I was happy, right up until the point that Jack told me I shouldn't eat meat, or a big dinner tonight. Now, I don't know about you, but after I work out, I need protein. Stat. And anything else is lovely as well. But I did as he said. I have stuck it out. I ate an obscene amount of fruit (no, seriously. You would be ashamed. Good thing I was in my room.) and studied. 3 tests tomorrow. Fun stuff.
There were so many times, while working out, that he would pick up the weights, look at me, and go "One more time." In the spirit of every exhausted athlete, I wanted to break out into rude words, but unfortunately, there is no such thing as sarcasm in Chinese. Saying "I hate you" would literally mean I ate you, not "Please don't make me do this one more time." So I held my tongue. But damn, it was not happy. Maybe that is why I laugh so much when I go to the gym. It's either laugh, or cry. I chose laughter.
Not sure how this whole, not really eating dinner thing is going to work out. I am a teenage girl, I need food! We'll see what happens. It was nice to actually have fruit again though. My room is overflowing with it. And it is so nice to hurt from going to the gym! It's a nice hurt. It's a proud kind of hurt. You get to look at people and think, that's right, I went to the gym, you didn't. What now? :)
Back to studying now. But believe me, I will show Jack. By the end of 9 weeks, I'll be outlifting him. Well, maybe not, but you get the point. It's a goal, anyway.
Questions and comments!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
I Can Feel the Pressure
Greetings from the Other side of the world. The weather is lovely here in the future. Nothing to particularly exciting has happened that I can tell you about. Well, nothing that you can do anything about at least. I kind of like the whole me being in the future thing though. I feel like if I paired up with someone from home, we could have a superhero thing going on. How awesome would that be?
There is a good reason I didn't post a blog yesterday. Nothing interesting happened. Well, not too interesting. The highlight of my day was having to sit through an almost 2 hour long movie, in Chinese, called Cellphone. It was the story of two best friends, who both had mistresses. (There was some serious advertising going on for Motorola, as well.) Both of them continuously used their cellphones, and both of them got caught in the end. It was such a weird story. The moral that I got was that if you are ever going to cheat on your significant other, get another cellphone, and make sure that you only use that one to communicate. Otherwise, you are screwed.
I am still not entirely sure what was going on. As far as I can tell, no one in the room really knew what was going on, except that each of the guys had WAY too many women to juggle. My god, I have no idea how they did anything else, honestly. Even with subtitles, I still couldn't understand it. Definitely not one of the best movies that I have ever seen.
Today had much of the same frustrations. Our textbook was talking about how Chinese college students view America. While that sounds simple, I am sure, the grammer, and many of the words that we used, were not simple. By the end of the day, I was exceedingly frustrated. My poor one on one teacher. She must have thought that I was on the brink of mental instability.
There was a special occasion today though. One of the economics professors at the college that we are at came to talk to us. The topic of his speech was "You Can't Understand China Without Understanding China's Countryside." He is apparently very well known, often advising the people in government on topics regarding China's development. But none of this made any difference as soon as he opened his mouth. Sure, I understood some of it, but lets be serious here. When someone opens there mouth, and starts speaking at a mile a minute in a language that is not the one that you grew up with, it will take a while to understand. Thankfully, there was a person there who translated what he said into simpler Chinese, and sometimes even into English! I would call that a win.
But even with the language problems, he was still very interesting to listen to. He had some fantastic ideas about how to help the country progress, and how to shorten the distance between standards of living in the cities and in the country sides. It really got me thinking. Recently, I have realized that I really want to work in China, and be a part of this country for the rest of my life. I also want to be able to do my part to help bring China into development. A lot still needs to be done before China can be considered developed, and I want to do my part in helping make this happen. Who knows how, but it will happen. Maybe I will go to Med School. Maybe I won't. I have time to decide.
Sorry, my stories today are not quite as interesting and sarcastic as normal. I'm sure that my posts will continue in that vein soon enough. Until then, enjoy yourselves! It's summer people, get out and experience the weather.
All my love.
There is a good reason I didn't post a blog yesterday. Nothing interesting happened. Well, not too interesting. The highlight of my day was having to sit through an almost 2 hour long movie, in Chinese, called Cellphone. It was the story of two best friends, who both had mistresses. (There was some serious advertising going on for Motorola, as well.) Both of them continuously used their cellphones, and both of them got caught in the end. It was such a weird story. The moral that I got was that if you are ever going to cheat on your significant other, get another cellphone, and make sure that you only use that one to communicate. Otherwise, you are screwed.
I am still not entirely sure what was going on. As far as I can tell, no one in the room really knew what was going on, except that each of the guys had WAY too many women to juggle. My god, I have no idea how they did anything else, honestly. Even with subtitles, I still couldn't understand it. Definitely not one of the best movies that I have ever seen.
Today had much of the same frustrations. Our textbook was talking about how Chinese college students view America. While that sounds simple, I am sure, the grammer, and many of the words that we used, were not simple. By the end of the day, I was exceedingly frustrated. My poor one on one teacher. She must have thought that I was on the brink of mental instability.
There was a special occasion today though. One of the economics professors at the college that we are at came to talk to us. The topic of his speech was "You Can't Understand China Without Understanding China's Countryside." He is apparently very well known, often advising the people in government on topics regarding China's development. But none of this made any difference as soon as he opened his mouth. Sure, I understood some of it, but lets be serious here. When someone opens there mouth, and starts speaking at a mile a minute in a language that is not the one that you grew up with, it will take a while to understand. Thankfully, there was a person there who translated what he said into simpler Chinese, and sometimes even into English! I would call that a win.
But even with the language problems, he was still very interesting to listen to. He had some fantastic ideas about how to help the country progress, and how to shorten the distance between standards of living in the cities and in the country sides. It really got me thinking. Recently, I have realized that I really want to work in China, and be a part of this country for the rest of my life. I also want to be able to do my part to help bring China into development. A lot still needs to be done before China can be considered developed, and I want to do my part in helping make this happen. Who knows how, but it will happen. Maybe I will go to Med School. Maybe I won't. I have time to decide.
Sorry, my stories today are not quite as interesting and sarcastic as normal. I'm sure that my posts will continue in that vein soon enough. Until then, enjoy yourselves! It's summer people, get out and experience the weather.
All my love.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Hi ho, hi ho, It's Off To Work We Go!
Every body has their own standards by which they divide they world. Some people say that you are either a cat person or a dog person. Others say that you are either a beer person or a mixed drinks person. Bush used to say "You are either with us, or you are against us."
I have my own standards. In my opinion, you are either a tea person, or you are a coffee person. Sure, some people say that they like both, but we all know that there is always a favorite. I can say with 100% confidence that I am a tea person, and proud of it. Black tea (English breakfast, to be exact) is what keeps me going through the day. It's what wakes me up in the morning, what gives me a burst of energy in the middle of the day, and what puts me to sleep at night. I get this from my dad, who drinks probably 8 cups of tea every day. With those kind of numbers against you, it is a wonder that I drink anything else besides tea.
This little ramble does not really have anything to do with my day, but it was something I was thinking about this morning as I was getting ready for class. The first thing I did after waking up was to put the kettle on, and then get back in bed to wait for my tea to be ready. In opinion, it is an exceedingly civilized way to start your morning. If more people did it, the world would be a better place.
My day might have started civilly (in bed drinking tea) but it quickly turned into reality. Monday of the second week of school, after a weekend of lazying about enjoying myself. Do I even need to say how hard it was to go back to class? I didn't think so. Hard to focus, hard to answer questions. By the end of class, all of us in the class were tired, and not answering questions very well. I'm surprised that the teachers didn't through the American teaching standards out the window and start beating us with rulers. I would have. As you can see, there is a reason that I have no interest in becoming a teacher.
Today's challenge of the day involved a Chinese newspaper. That's right, guess which American teenager just read a newspaper article? You guessed right. ME! I read an article about the Chinese education system. that talked about how with so many Chinese students going abroad to study, the time is ripe for a change in the education system. It was actually really interesting to read. Although it was an editorial, there is something seriously interesting about reading an international newspaper. So much of a country's culture and morals go into newspaper articles. I am starting to believe that one cannot really understand a culture, until you can begin to read the newspaper.
Chinese newspapers are special though. This special point has to do with their language. Most of the words in Chinese are two characters. But when writing newspapers, the Chinese want to save space, so they often only use one character, to represent both (and therefore represent the word). So even though when you learn the word, you learn two characters, when you read it in a newspaper, you have to be able to recognize the word as one character. I know that that is confusing, and believe me, it is not easy. I am no good at it. I spent an hour the night before, practicing with my language partner to try to understand one article. I don't even want to think about how long it would take me to read the whole newspaper. More time then I want to spend, anyway.
Otherwise? Class not so interesting. No amount of wit or sarcasm could make it interesting to read out. 3 hours of sitting in the same place learning Chinese does not make for interesting conversation.
In addition to the newspaper I had to read a 7 page text from my textbook. Fun bloody stuff. Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I have volunteered to give up my summer. Well, that's not true. I am glad that I am here, but my Chinese is definitely improving. But I am still a teenager! I like having listless summers of doing nothing.
Now ladies and gentlemen, I have to ask you to cross your fingers for me. I have to go try to rent a bike, and so far, I have not had a lot of luck. I have been there everyday for the past couple of days, but everytime, he says that there are no bikes, and to come back again tomorrow. So, hope against hope that he has a bike tonight. I sure am.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave questions or comments.
I have my own standards. In my opinion, you are either a tea person, or you are a coffee person. Sure, some people say that they like both, but we all know that there is always a favorite. I can say with 100% confidence that I am a tea person, and proud of it. Black tea (English breakfast, to be exact) is what keeps me going through the day. It's what wakes me up in the morning, what gives me a burst of energy in the middle of the day, and what puts me to sleep at night. I get this from my dad, who drinks probably 8 cups of tea every day. With those kind of numbers against you, it is a wonder that I drink anything else besides tea.
This little ramble does not really have anything to do with my day, but it was something I was thinking about this morning as I was getting ready for class. The first thing I did after waking up was to put the kettle on, and then get back in bed to wait for my tea to be ready. In opinion, it is an exceedingly civilized way to start your morning. If more people did it, the world would be a better place.
My day might have started civilly (in bed drinking tea) but it quickly turned into reality. Monday of the second week of school, after a weekend of lazying about enjoying myself. Do I even need to say how hard it was to go back to class? I didn't think so. Hard to focus, hard to answer questions. By the end of class, all of us in the class were tired, and not answering questions very well. I'm surprised that the teachers didn't through the American teaching standards out the window and start beating us with rulers. I would have. As you can see, there is a reason that I have no interest in becoming a teacher.
Today's challenge of the day involved a Chinese newspaper. That's right, guess which American teenager just read a newspaper article? You guessed right. ME! I read an article about the Chinese education system. that talked about how with so many Chinese students going abroad to study, the time is ripe for a change in the education system. It was actually really interesting to read. Although it was an editorial, there is something seriously interesting about reading an international newspaper. So much of a country's culture and morals go into newspaper articles. I am starting to believe that one cannot really understand a culture, until you can begin to read the newspaper.
Chinese newspapers are special though. This special point has to do with their language. Most of the words in Chinese are two characters. But when writing newspapers, the Chinese want to save space, so they often only use one character, to represent both (and therefore represent the word). So even though when you learn the word, you learn two characters, when you read it in a newspaper, you have to be able to recognize the word as one character. I know that that is confusing, and believe me, it is not easy. I am no good at it. I spent an hour the night before, practicing with my language partner to try to understand one article. I don't even want to think about how long it would take me to read the whole newspaper. More time then I want to spend, anyway.
Otherwise? Class not so interesting. No amount of wit or sarcasm could make it interesting to read out. 3 hours of sitting in the same place learning Chinese does not make for interesting conversation.
In addition to the newspaper I had to read a 7 page text from my textbook. Fun bloody stuff. Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I have volunteered to give up my summer. Well, that's not true. I am glad that I am here, but my Chinese is definitely improving. But I am still a teenager! I like having listless summers of doing nothing.
Now ladies and gentlemen, I have to ask you to cross your fingers for me. I have to go try to rent a bike, and so far, I have not had a lot of luck. I have been there everyday for the past couple of days, but everytime, he says that there are no bikes, and to come back again tomorrow. So, hope against hope that he has a bike tonight. I sure am.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave questions or comments.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Update: New Blog
As most of you know, I have really intense, vivid dreams. As such, I really don't want to forget them, mostly because they make such good stories. So I have decided to create a new blog, that will be devoted to my dreams. Check it out every once in a while if you are interested! There will be a link on my profile
HSK
汉语水平考试。Hanyu shuiping kaoshi. HSK. Formally known as the the TOEFL for Chinese, the test to end all tests for Chinese proficiency. Informally, it is known as the Crusher of Souls, the Destroyer of Dreams. I have found that the most common reaction that people have when asked (immediately after having finished test) is to laugh hysterically. It's the kind of sarcastic laugh that people get, when you have completely reached the end of the line, and you know that you are in over your head, and you just don't care any more. At least, that was definitely my reaction. And the reaction of the majority of my friends.
It is this test, this Destroyer of Dreams and Crusher of Souls, that I sat through for 3 hours this morning. Starting at 9, and ending at 11, taking the HSK today was supposed to set the standard for my Chinese, so that I could see how much I had improved. By the end of the summer, I want tangible proof that all of my hard work has paid off.
I'm not going to lie, it was not an easy (in case you didn't already understand that.) There were paragraphs that I would have to read, and answer questions about, and I couldn't understand the paragraph, question or the answer. How is that for making you feel small and insignificant? I have been studying Chinese for 5 years, but I am now keenly aware of just how much I still have to learn. The listening part was a bit easier (meaning that I could at least understand the question, and most of the answers).
Overall, I am glad that I took it. It was a good learning experience. The more exposure I get to it, the more that I will learn about it. Kind if like the SAT, I suppose. The only difference being, I have as long as I want to get good at it. I don't have high hopes for my grade (if it was a good day, I may have passed - gotten the lowest possible score) but who cares? I did it. I sat there for 2 and a half hours, and I took the test. I understood some of it, and I know that I got at least some of the questions right. And it was definitely easier for me than the last time I looked at the questions (last time being March, in Vermont.) That has to say something. I recognized vocabulary and grammer from class last week, and it just made me happy to know that I am more knowledgeable about Chinese now than I was a week ago when I got here. There is a confidence boost :)
Guess what my plans are for the rest of the day? If you guessed study, you are right! Sorry, I have no prize though. Just be happy with the knowledge that you can read my mind. And now, with 5 pages of Chinese calling out to me to be read, I must leave you. Goodnight from Beijing!
P.S.
Remember that I went to the gym yesterday? Remember how I said that until yesterday, I didn't know my body could bend like it did? As it turns out, I have now figured out why. The reason? My body actually CAN'T bend like that. Waking up today was painful. I can't lie straight, and walking, sitting, jogging? Ouch. My hips feel like they have been put through the shredder, and I almost fell over when I got up to turn my test in the morning. I have been walking around all day bent at the waist, imitating an old lady with back problems (except, in my case, hip problems). Conclusion? If you don't think your body is supposed to bend like that, or if it feels like it shouldn't bend like that, then it probably shouldn't. Just saying.
It is this test, this Destroyer of Dreams and Crusher of Souls, that I sat through for 3 hours this morning. Starting at 9, and ending at 11, taking the HSK today was supposed to set the standard for my Chinese, so that I could see how much I had improved. By the end of the summer, I want tangible proof that all of my hard work has paid off.
I'm not going to lie, it was not an easy (in case you didn't already understand that.) There were paragraphs that I would have to read, and answer questions about, and I couldn't understand the paragraph, question or the answer. How is that for making you feel small and insignificant? I have been studying Chinese for 5 years, but I am now keenly aware of just how much I still have to learn. The listening part was a bit easier (meaning that I could at least understand the question, and most of the answers).
Overall, I am glad that I took it. It was a good learning experience. The more exposure I get to it, the more that I will learn about it. Kind if like the SAT, I suppose. The only difference being, I have as long as I want to get good at it. I don't have high hopes for my grade (if it was a good day, I may have passed - gotten the lowest possible score) but who cares? I did it. I sat there for 2 and a half hours, and I took the test. I understood some of it, and I know that I got at least some of the questions right. And it was definitely easier for me than the last time I looked at the questions (last time being March, in Vermont.) That has to say something. I recognized vocabulary and grammer from class last week, and it just made me happy to know that I am more knowledgeable about Chinese now than I was a week ago when I got here. There is a confidence boost :)
Guess what my plans are for the rest of the day? If you guessed study, you are right! Sorry, I have no prize though. Just be happy with the knowledge that you can read my mind. And now, with 5 pages of Chinese calling out to me to be read, I must leave you. Goodnight from Beijing!
P.S.
Remember that I went to the gym yesterday? Remember how I said that until yesterday, I didn't know my body could bend like it did? As it turns out, I have now figured out why. The reason? My body actually CAN'T bend like that. Waking up today was painful. I can't lie straight, and walking, sitting, jogging? Ouch. My hips feel like they have been put through the shredder, and I almost fell over when I got up to turn my test in the morning. I have been walking around all day bent at the waist, imitating an old lady with back problems (except, in my case, hip problems). Conclusion? If you don't think your body is supposed to bend like that, or if it feels like it shouldn't bend like that, then it probably shouldn't. Just saying.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday. That beautiful, peaceful, single day of the week when you are allowed to stay in bed until 10 in the morning, and where procrastinating is encouraged. It is a day for relaxing, for catching your breath, for enjoying life. For me, Saturday is a time for me to become human again. And that, my friends, is exactly what I have done.
The day started out slow. In the traditional lazy Saturday morning tradition, I didn't get out of bed until 9:30, surfing facebook, checking my emails. You know, all the important things that us learned college students do in the morning. By the time that lunch time rolled around, I was more than ready to get out of the white walled cell that passes for a dorm room.
Today's mantra was "A walk down memory lane." Meeting an old friend at Taiping Jiaozi Guanr... That certainly brings back memories. It was my favorite dumpling place when I was living in Beijing, and I believe it may still be my favorite place. The 13 kuai ($1.90) cab ride was completely worth it. Good times were had by all, I am sure. Not to mention the quick trip over to the DVD store... For any and all questions regarding that trip, please look to the 5th amendment. But enough with the fun stuff. Let's get down to business.
What do you think about when you think about the gym? If you go to a normal gym, you probably think about all the intimidating machines, toned people stuck in their own worlds with earbuds blasting, and the faint smell of sweat that pervades everything. If you are one of the few people who are smart enough to know and go to Crossfit, then you probably think about the community that it fosters, about the intensity of the workouts, and about the amazing adrenaline rush that you get when you are done, and lying gasping for air on the floor (Fran, anyone?)
Normally, when I am in America, this what is what I think about too. The first gym (the normal one) being the gym in Vermont, and the Crossfit gym being in California. But here in China, that is not the case at all. For most gyms here, the defining feature is a long stretch of treadmills that line the wall, and a tiny corner with a limited supply of weights. Weird? Think about it. Most Chinese don't go to the gym, and the ones who do, just walk on the treadmill.
In case I haven't filled you in enough, I actually did go to the gym today. I had a free session with a personal trainer, that I decided to cash in on today. It did not start out well. The absolute first thing he did (after saying hello, of course. Come on now, China is not THAT backwards) was to drag me over to the scale. Now, I don't know about you, but the scale and I have a little bit of a tense relationship (ie, I haven't gotten on one in probably 6 months.) It's just something I would rather not know. So imagine how thrilled I was when I got the scale, looked at the trainer, and heard him say "oh. That's not so good. You should probably lose 10 pounds." I'll be the first to admit that my Chinese is not awesome, but I would bet money that I heard correctly on that one.
He then proceeded to measure every part of my body (arms, waste, hips, thighs), before pinching all my fat, and measuring it with how many fingers he could get. Huh. It was thrilling really. And his overall conclusion? "You have a lot of fat. You should really lose it. Then you will be pretty." Gee, thanks. To be fair, I don't think he meant it how I took it. Chinese people have this annoying habit of being super honest. It can drive you crazy. I think he was just trying to help me exercise, and he was just trying to tell me how it was. But really now, what girl likes to be told that she has too much fat?
He then proceeded to give me a work out that ended me the vast majority of my body in muscle failure. One of the beauties of working out with a personal trainer though, was that in between me lifting weights, he would stretch my muscles out for me. Yes, it most definitely hurt (I am not nearly as flexible as I should be) but it was kind of awesome. And honestly, I did not know that my body could bend like that. There were times when I was convinced that I was going to rip something, or possibly lose a leg. I am happy to report that I still have 2 arms, 2 legs, and 1 head. For the moment, anyway.
That lovely, happy, completely exhausted that typically follows you around after going to the gym lasted all the way up to dinner, at which point, I simply turned into a tired hungry dictator, running for the nearest restaurant and chowing down, with my friend Kirie. I don't care what the trainer says, I am still going to eat food that I want to.
One last interesting cultural story for you to ponder on before getting on with your lives. I met with my language partner tonight, and we sat in the lobby of my building, practicing speaking Chinese. Technically, we were actually reading an article in a newspaper, and she was helping me understand it, but you know what I mean. We were sitting there, when this slightly crazy looking man sits down next to us, and asks Yu Haiying (my language partner) if I was American, to which I responded that I was (DUH, I was sitting there speaking Chinese with her. You would think that that would be a big clue that I MIGHT be able to speak Chinese.) He started using broken English to talk to me, and what I got from the conversation was that he either wanted me to model for him, or he wanted to see my room to see American culture. Needless to say, I was more than a little weirded out, and I tried every possible thing that I could to make him leave. In the end, out of anger, I think, he stopped talking to me, and started speaking Chinese to my language partner, telling her that he knew about Americans, that we were bad influences, that we only had bad motives, and were out to ruin China, and that unless I was paying her a lot of money, she should stay far away from me and not help me. This was then proceeded by a 10 year old girl worthy storm away.
I learned later (I am still iffy on this though, I didn't totally understand what Haiying was telling me) that he wanted to talk about American culture with me. Still, it was good that I didn't talk to him for too long (I told him I was busy, bloody hell!) because he was definitely a little weird. Ah well. Broken English is just one of the beauties of living in China.
Thanks for taking time out of your day to read my blog! Talk to you soon :)
The day started out slow. In the traditional lazy Saturday morning tradition, I didn't get out of bed until 9:30, surfing facebook, checking my emails. You know, all the important things that us learned college students do in the morning. By the time that lunch time rolled around, I was more than ready to get out of the white walled cell that passes for a dorm room.
Today's mantra was "A walk down memory lane." Meeting an old friend at Taiping Jiaozi Guanr... That certainly brings back memories. It was my favorite dumpling place when I was living in Beijing, and I believe it may still be my favorite place. The 13 kuai ($1.90) cab ride was completely worth it. Good times were had by all, I am sure. Not to mention the quick trip over to the DVD store... For any and all questions regarding that trip, please look to the 5th amendment. But enough with the fun stuff. Let's get down to business.
What do you think about when you think about the gym? If you go to a normal gym, you probably think about all the intimidating machines, toned people stuck in their own worlds with earbuds blasting, and the faint smell of sweat that pervades everything. If you are one of the few people who are smart enough to know and go to Crossfit, then you probably think about the community that it fosters, about the intensity of the workouts, and about the amazing adrenaline rush that you get when you are done, and lying gasping for air on the floor (Fran, anyone?)
Normally, when I am in America, this what is what I think about too. The first gym (the normal one) being the gym in Vermont, and the Crossfit gym being in California. But here in China, that is not the case at all. For most gyms here, the defining feature is a long stretch of treadmills that line the wall, and a tiny corner with a limited supply of weights. Weird? Think about it. Most Chinese don't go to the gym, and the ones who do, just walk on the treadmill.
In case I haven't filled you in enough, I actually did go to the gym today. I had a free session with a personal trainer, that I decided to cash in on today. It did not start out well. The absolute first thing he did (after saying hello, of course. Come on now, China is not THAT backwards) was to drag me over to the scale. Now, I don't know about you, but the scale and I have a little bit of a tense relationship (ie, I haven't gotten on one in probably 6 months.) It's just something I would rather not know. So imagine how thrilled I was when I got the scale, looked at the trainer, and heard him say "oh. That's not so good. You should probably lose 10 pounds." I'll be the first to admit that my Chinese is not awesome, but I would bet money that I heard correctly on that one.
He then proceeded to measure every part of my body (arms, waste, hips, thighs), before pinching all my fat, and measuring it with how many fingers he could get. Huh. It was thrilling really. And his overall conclusion? "You have a lot of fat. You should really lose it. Then you will be pretty." Gee, thanks. To be fair, I don't think he meant it how I took it. Chinese people have this annoying habit of being super honest. It can drive you crazy. I think he was just trying to help me exercise, and he was just trying to tell me how it was. But really now, what girl likes to be told that she has too much fat?
He then proceeded to give me a work out that ended me the vast majority of my body in muscle failure. One of the beauties of working out with a personal trainer though, was that in between me lifting weights, he would stretch my muscles out for me. Yes, it most definitely hurt (I am not nearly as flexible as I should be) but it was kind of awesome. And honestly, I did not know that my body could bend like that. There were times when I was convinced that I was going to rip something, or possibly lose a leg. I am happy to report that I still have 2 arms, 2 legs, and 1 head. For the moment, anyway.
That lovely, happy, completely exhausted that typically follows you around after going to the gym lasted all the way up to dinner, at which point, I simply turned into a tired hungry dictator, running for the nearest restaurant and chowing down, with my friend Kirie. I don't care what the trainer says, I am still going to eat food that I want to.
One last interesting cultural story for you to ponder on before getting on with your lives. I met with my language partner tonight, and we sat in the lobby of my building, practicing speaking Chinese. Technically, we were actually reading an article in a newspaper, and she was helping me understand it, but you know what I mean. We were sitting there, when this slightly crazy looking man sits down next to us, and asks Yu Haiying (my language partner) if I was American, to which I responded that I was (DUH, I was sitting there speaking Chinese with her. You would think that that would be a big clue that I MIGHT be able to speak Chinese.) He started using broken English to talk to me, and what I got from the conversation was that he either wanted me to model for him, or he wanted to see my room to see American culture. Needless to say, I was more than a little weirded out, and I tried every possible thing that I could to make him leave. In the end, out of anger, I think, he stopped talking to me, and started speaking Chinese to my language partner, telling her that he knew about Americans, that we were bad influences, that we only had bad motives, and were out to ruin China, and that unless I was paying her a lot of money, she should stay far away from me and not help me. This was then proceeded by a 10 year old girl worthy storm away.
I learned later (I am still iffy on this though, I didn't totally understand what Haiying was telling me) that he wanted to talk about American culture with me. Still, it was good that I didn't talk to him for too long (I told him I was busy, bloody hell!) because he was definitely a little weird. Ah well. Broken English is just one of the beauties of living in China.
Thanks for taking time out of your day to read my blog! Talk to you soon :)
The Beijing Tales: Part 1
I can't even tell you how much my heart dropped the first day that I went to class, grabbed a seat in the front row, and proceeded to stare blankly for most of the class as the teacher went on about things that I could not understand. It is seriously frustrating to be reminded, with every word, that you cannot communicate. However, it is also an experience that I would recommend to anyone. It has some serious humbling side effects.
What is that I hear you say? What else do you do with your time besides school work? Haha, don't make me laugh. Perhaps you didn't understand what I meant when I said that I have 5 hours of school every day. I mean that I sit in class for 5 hours, trying to cram an absurd (荒谬) amount of Chinese into my head, and when I am not sitting in class, I am studying, trying desperately to make sure I can at least mostly fake not being totally incompetent when I am in class. To sum up, during the week, I do my very best to imitate a cranky hermit. I'm told that this will improve my Chinese. Who knows?
To be more on the serious side, food is a problem. Yes I know, I am in China, and yes, I know, Chinese is food is good, but just take a second and think about what you eat in Chinese restaurants. Lots of food that is fried, or cooked in oil. And absolutely no crunchy vegetables. When you are in America, this is ok, because you can just go home and chow down on some carrots (or whatever your preference is) but here? Not so much. I have a secret stash of apples (okay, not so secret, they are in plain sight on my desk) but you get the idea. Especially if you are trying to eat healthy. Ha, good luck. And if you are vegetarian? Oh boy. Good luck even finding a Chinese person who understands the words "I don't eat meat." Their typical response will be "What about chicken? Pork? Fish?" I wish I was kidding.
My point is not to complain. On the contrary, I am finding that I am more and more excited to be here. My point is simply that there are a lot of things that we take for granted in America, and a lot of things that I miss about America. Simple things, like crunchy lettuce, bacon, and cereal. Sure, they have that here in China, but to actually get to it? So much more hassle then it is worth. Although, you might want to ask me again in a couple of weeks. I will probably be more desperate then.
I finally got to the gym today. The first time you sign up, they give you a personal trainer, that helps you get used to the gym. I thought that I was supposed to be meeting him today, but oops, it was supposed to be yesterday. (For some reason, I am really have some problems with dates. I feel like a shrink would have something to say about that.) It's not quite Crossfit, but it will do for the moment. It was so good to be exercising again. I even went outside to practice handstands for a while (it is definitely a work in progress, in case you were interested), but I could only stand to make a spectacle of myself for 15 minutes before calling it quits. However, I am absolutely determined to be able to walk down the road on my hands, or at least stand there for a good amount of time. It will happen.
I met my host mother for the first time tonight. Another 4th year student and I have the same host family, so it is not too bad. I probably won't be able to see them for a while, because she said that she is really busy, but that's okay. It's good to know that she is there if I need her, at least. SO AWKWARD THOUGH. We sit there, she sits there. Neither of us know what to say, but we are both there anyway. 尴尬死了。
I do believe that those are all my stories for the moment. Not very interesting, I know, but hey now, I have only been here for a week! Give me a second to catch my breath before jumping into all sorts of crazy shenanigans.
Requests for stories or presents? Then go to a radio station. JUST KIDDING. I would love to hear from you. Until then, good night!
What is that I hear you say? What else do you do with your time besides school work? Haha, don't make me laugh. Perhaps you didn't understand what I meant when I said that I have 5 hours of school every day. I mean that I sit in class for 5 hours, trying to cram an absurd (荒谬) amount of Chinese into my head, and when I am not sitting in class, I am studying, trying desperately to make sure I can at least mostly fake not being totally incompetent when I am in class. To sum up, during the week, I do my very best to imitate a cranky hermit. I'm told that this will improve my Chinese. Who knows?
To be more on the serious side, food is a problem. Yes I know, I am in China, and yes, I know, Chinese is food is good, but just take a second and think about what you eat in Chinese restaurants. Lots of food that is fried, or cooked in oil. And absolutely no crunchy vegetables. When you are in America, this is ok, because you can just go home and chow down on some carrots (or whatever your preference is) but here? Not so much. I have a secret stash of apples (okay, not so secret, they are in plain sight on my desk) but you get the idea. Especially if you are trying to eat healthy. Ha, good luck. And if you are vegetarian? Oh boy. Good luck even finding a Chinese person who understands the words "I don't eat meat." Their typical response will be "What about chicken? Pork? Fish?" I wish I was kidding.
My point is not to complain. On the contrary, I am finding that I am more and more excited to be here. My point is simply that there are a lot of things that we take for granted in America, and a lot of things that I miss about America. Simple things, like crunchy lettuce, bacon, and cereal. Sure, they have that here in China, but to actually get to it? So much more hassle then it is worth. Although, you might want to ask me again in a couple of weeks. I will probably be more desperate then.
I finally got to the gym today. The first time you sign up, they give you a personal trainer, that helps you get used to the gym. I thought that I was supposed to be meeting him today, but oops, it was supposed to be yesterday. (For some reason, I am really have some problems with dates. I feel like a shrink would have something to say about that.) It's not quite Crossfit, but it will do for the moment. It was so good to be exercising again. I even went outside to practice handstands for a while (it is definitely a work in progress, in case you were interested), but I could only stand to make a spectacle of myself for 15 minutes before calling it quits. However, I am absolutely determined to be able to walk down the road on my hands, or at least stand there for a good amount of time. It will happen.
I met my host mother for the first time tonight. Another 4th year student and I have the same host family, so it is not too bad. I probably won't be able to see them for a while, because she said that she is really busy, but that's okay. It's good to know that she is there if I need her, at least. SO AWKWARD THOUGH. We sit there, she sits there. Neither of us know what to say, but we are both there anyway. 尴尬死了。
I do believe that those are all my stories for the moment. Not very interesting, I know, but hey now, I have only been here for a week! Give me a second to catch my breath before jumping into all sorts of crazy shenanigans.
Requests for stories or presents? Then go to a radio station. JUST KIDDING. I would love to hear from you. Until then, good night!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
北京语言大学－ 哈佛北京书院
大家可以放松，我会来了！
I'm back. Who would have ever thought that I would be? When I left Beijing a little over a year ago, I was so excited to get out and get back to America that I left without looking back, and I was certainly not thinking about the next opportunity I might have to come to China. I was simply running back to the comforts/luxuries of home (and America) that are so hard to find here. You have to remember though, last time I was here I was living here for 9 months. Looking back on that, I can barely believe that I, only 17 years old at the time, up and moved to a completely strange city, where English is the foreign language, and the money has color on it. I also think that that experience was traumatic in its own right, but as we say in Chinese, 说来话长 (that is too long a story to tell here.)
I am not going to lie, it has not been an easy transition coming back to China. My mom can attest to that, judging from the frantic phone call she got from me the day after I got here, in which I had a glorious mental collapse and sobbed my eyes out. Thinking back on it, I think that a lot of my adjustment problems have come from a surprising number of sources, first and foremost being the timing of this trip. The week before I came to China, I would have sworn on...anything, really... that my plane was leaving for China on Monday. I therefore decided to put off packing until Thursday night, at the earliest. So you can imagine my shock as I was checking my email on Thursday afternoon when I had an email from United Airlines, inviting me to check in for my flight, WHICH WAS LEAVING ON FRIDAY (IE TOMORROW.) Turns out, I had gotten the dates wrong. So I freaked out, trying to pack and say goodbye to friends, old and new. So, to get back to my original point, I was very much still mentally in California when I got China, and I was not at all ready to make the mental change.
Secondly, for the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed being in California. That's right folks, you heard it, right from the horses mouth, I like California. It has taken me 18 years of complaining and running in the opposite direction to actually figure out that I like being home. I like California. I like the weather, I like the people, I like how I feel when I am home. I like being a Californian girl. And just when I was figuring this out, I did what I do best: left. And ran half way across the world, where I absolutely do not fit in. It's hard to leave a place that you don't want to leave, and I am only just realizing this. Silly me, I know.
I also just started reconnecting with my best friend in the whole wide world. Starting Crossfit also had a wonderfully positive impact on my life. I have never liked going to the gym until I was dragged kicking (but not screaming) with my mom to Crossfit. With all these things going on in my life in California, can you see why the adjustment to being in China has been difficult?
Things started to get better once I realized that California will still be there when I get back, and obviously, once classes started and I lost any free time I might have had to 回首 (look back.) I'm doing the Harvard summer school program, called the Harvard Beijing Academy (HBA). It is based at the Beijing Language and Culture University (北京语言大学), which is one the best university's for teaching foreigners in China. I signed a language pledge, so I haven't spoken English for a while now (I figure if I write this in Chinese, then that will defeat the whole purpose of blogging - keeping in touch with people). I have class (in Chinese) for 5 hours every day. We first have a lecture (with 18 people) for an hour and a half, and then 2 and a half hours of drills, followed by lunch, followed by an hour of one on one tutoring. It is a seriously intense program. Friday's are a special form of torture: 5 hours of testing. Think on that for a while. We do a chapter of Chinese a day.
So that is the logistics of the program. Shall we get to the interesting stories now? Oh yes, we shall.
I'm back. Who would have ever thought that I would be? When I left Beijing a little over a year ago, I was so excited to get out and get back to America that I left without looking back, and I was certainly not thinking about the next opportunity I might have to come to China. I was simply running back to the comforts/luxuries of home (and America) that are so hard to find here. You have to remember though, last time I was here I was living here for 9 months. Looking back on that, I can barely believe that I, only 17 years old at the time, up and moved to a completely strange city, where English is the foreign language, and the money has color on it. I also think that that experience was traumatic in its own right, but as we say in Chinese, 说来话长 (that is too long a story to tell here.)
I am not going to lie, it has not been an easy transition coming back to China. My mom can attest to that, judging from the frantic phone call she got from me the day after I got here, in which I had a glorious mental collapse and sobbed my eyes out. Thinking back on it, I think that a lot of my adjustment problems have come from a surprising number of sources, first and foremost being the timing of this trip. The week before I came to China, I would have sworn on...anything, really... that my plane was leaving for China on Monday. I therefore decided to put off packing until Thursday night, at the earliest. So you can imagine my shock as I was checking my email on Thursday afternoon when I had an email from United Airlines, inviting me to check in for my flight, WHICH WAS LEAVING ON FRIDAY (IE TOMORROW.) Turns out, I had gotten the dates wrong. So I freaked out, trying to pack and say goodbye to friends, old and new. So, to get back to my original point, I was very much still mentally in California when I got China, and I was not at all ready to make the mental change.
Secondly, for the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed being in California. That's right folks, you heard it, right from the horses mouth, I like California. It has taken me 18 years of complaining and running in the opposite direction to actually figure out that I like being home. I like California. I like the weather, I like the people, I like how I feel when I am home. I like being a Californian girl. And just when I was figuring this out, I did what I do best: left. And ran half way across the world, where I absolutely do not fit in. It's hard to leave a place that you don't want to leave, and I am only just realizing this. Silly me, I know.
I also just started reconnecting with my best friend in the whole wide world. Starting Crossfit also had a wonderfully positive impact on my life. I have never liked going to the gym until I was dragged kicking (but not screaming) with my mom to Crossfit. With all these things going on in my life in California, can you see why the adjustment to being in China has been difficult?
Things started to get better once I realized that California will still be there when I get back, and obviously, once classes started and I lost any free time I might have had to 回首 (look back.) I'm doing the Harvard summer school program, called the Harvard Beijing Academy (HBA). It is based at the Beijing Language and Culture University (北京语言大学), which is one the best university's for teaching foreigners in China. I signed a language pledge, so I haven't spoken English for a while now (I figure if I write this in Chinese, then that will defeat the whole purpose of blogging - keeping in touch with people). I have class (in Chinese) for 5 hours every day. We first have a lecture (with 18 people) for an hour and a half, and then 2 and a half hours of drills, followed by lunch, followed by an hour of one on one tutoring. It is a seriously intense program. Friday's are a special form of torture: 5 hours of testing. Think on that for a while. We do a chapter of Chinese a day.
So that is the logistics of the program. Shall we get to the interesting stories now? Oh yes, we shall.
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