Clifton Park, New York: August 18, 2008

I’m done with China. So strange to think. Time really is a funny thing since it felt like I was there forever and yet hardly there at all. I left on the 16^th and arrived home on the 17^th. My flight back was uneventful-another 13 hour straight flight of sitting in uncomfortable chairs eating airplane food (which is surprisingly good. But then, it better be if it’s two of our main meals for a day). I didn’t sleep much this flight, but it still went fast enough.

So, just a few ending observations before I conclude entirely.

Bubble tea is overrated but still very good. I didn’t like it before I left America and now I do. Although, finding bubble tea that lives up to the Asian variant might be difficult.

Food is amazing. We need to just forget about eating healthy and enjoy eating. Doing that and including proper amounts of exercise and smaller sized portions will make many people happy, just not all those people who make millions off the dieting scams. If you’re ever headed to the Beijing area, Peking duck can be fantastic. It’s not a lie when they say you NEED to try it at a good restaurant.

I learned that Pineapple is not good for girls to eat even if nobody would tell me exactly why. Papaya is good for girls because it seems to help them develop their chest area. I’ll pass on that, though I guess I could understand why so many Chinese girls would like to eat more papaya.

In order to decease the number of auto accidents, we should throw out nearly all currently established road rules in this country. At first this seems like it would do the opposite, however, without the road rules we have currently the following would occur:

• People would have to learn how to think on their feet to avoid the many obstacles they would encounter in strange and unusual road places

• Less people will want to drive because of the apparent danger in doing so, which helps the environment

• Failing the first two, it’s an excellent way to thin the herd of people who can’t think on their feet or still insist on driving

Overall my experience was one of the most amazing I’ve had so far in my twenty years of life and I’m am grateful beyond words to my family, friends, and teachers that have helped make this sort of opportunity a possibility for me.

It’d be impossible to describe everything I felt and saw this summer since there was so many new things that I encountered, but I hope that this captured some of them in a memorable and entertaining manner. Let’s hope that next summer will be just as amazing as this one!

周乐海

Kaela Chow

Beijing, China: August 15, 2008

Can you say you’ve been to an Olympic event? I can, and it was awesome! Today Tao and I hung out around the his dad’s apartment until it was time to go to the Beijing University Aeronautics and Astronautics gymnasium (what a mouthful of a name) to see the men’s 85kg weight lifting competition.

At first I was a little disappointed since there weren’t any countries other than China I felt strongly about, but that turned around pretty quickly. I mean, these men are athletes first, but entertainers second and with the exception of the Kazakhstan were all very interesting to watch and engaged the crowd.

Our seats were in the very very top of the right side, but the view was still good. We were going to move a little closer if there were empty seats anywhere, but aside from the reserved seating, every seat in that building was occupied. I didn’t realize weightlifting was such a followed event.

Belarus was on fire the whole event, even if he came in second to China. The first event was the snatch-they would lift a bar straight over their head. I was shocked at how much they were able to fling over their head-anywhere from 161 and 184kg (355-405lb). Belarus broke the previous Olympic record of 182 by successfully lifting 184kg. The crowd loved it and he was pretty excited about it too, as was his trainer.

During the time between the first and second event they had two pairs of acrobats come out and do a few stunts, which were somewhat impressive. There was also a lion run and what I mean by that is, you know the dragon dance? Well, instead of a dragon costume, there were two Chinese lions that chased around another actor holding a ball and did all sorts of jumps and twists. It was a pretty amusing thing to watch during the half time.

The second event was the clean and jerk-they would lift the bar first to the chest and rest it on their collar before throwing it over their head. They could load even more weight on this bar, anywhere between 195 and 210kg (427-462lb).

Part of the excitement of this event was that it had everything, from breaking records, to failure and injury. The Armenian failed to make a single successful attempt at the clean and jerk, which eliminated him from the competition and Turkey hit/hurt his knee which prevented him from continuing to compete. Belarus also broke the world record for the clean and jerk (yet another record for this guy! What a feather in his cap). After one of France’s lifts he walked off the platform and fainted flat on his face. Knowing he was ok, allowed the amusement value of witnessing that to fully come through (and man, it was comical).

I was really surprised with how supportive the crowd was of all the athletes, no matter which country they were from. Of course, when China came out they were like a bunch of soccer fans, but everyone wanted each person to make a successful lift. When the Armenian was on his final clean and jerk attempt to stay in the competition, everyone started cheering for him. A hush would descend among the entire building whenever anyone would start their lifts so they could concentrate and then cheering would begin as they were holding/trying to hold the bar up for the required seconds. It was a nice warm fuzzy feeling to see so much support for everyone.

Speaking of soccer fans, you know when you’re watching a Latin American soccer game and the announcer screams “GOOOAAALLLL!!!!!” whenever someone scores and it goes on for nearly five minutes? The guy sitting next to me was exactly like that for China’s really big successful lifts, only he was saying “HAAOOOOO” (good/excellent/fantastic/etc).

The first winning lift China did was first considered good and then the judges reversed their decision. You could tell how many people in the room understood English because everything during the entire event was announced first in French (the official Olympic language), then English, and finally Chinese. When I heard I was like, “What?! Why?!” but everyone was just kind of listening and waiting. Then when it was announced in Chinese, a chorus of boos went up. It was rather amusing. But China did the same lift again and it was considered good and ended up winning. I’m still not sure how that worked his both he and Belarus lifted the same amount of weight. In order to win, they judges add up the highest successful lifts for both events to have a total weight lifted amount and whoever lifted the most wins. But as I said, if there’s a tie I don’t know how that works out.

Since China won, the atmosphere was very festive leaving the place and I saw one guy just sort of jumping around and handing out cigarettes to people who’d have them (and some who didn’t seem to want them too). It was pretty late by then too, since the event didn’t start until about 7 and ended at 9. I came back to the apartment and packed up my things since tomorrow I’m flying out. I’ve really enjoyed my time in China this summer, and not even the prospect of another 13 straight hour flight can bother with it at the moment.

Beijing, China: August 14, 2008

OMG WOMEN’S TEAM SABER FENCING FINAL! BEST PLAYED MATCH EVER!!!

To recap, Ukraine vs. China, a total of 9 fencers on each team. Target total number of hits for a team total was 45. By the last set of fencers, China had a 7 point lead. It ended with a 44 vs. 44 match point battle where both fencers hit each other. They were so close that they couldn’t decide a winner and made them redo the last bout. Another double touch occurred but Ukraine won the bout and the gold medal.

Beijing, China: August 12, 2008

So we went to the Silk market again today-such a touristy place, but perfect for me. Just enough shopping of actual items and people want to talk to you. Granted, they want to sell you something, but eh, who doesn’t?

Because of the Olympics and the touristy nature of the Silk Market this time when we went there were tourists with plastic ID badges around their neck. Thank you Olympics for making it obvious who the Olympic athletes are. I can’t imagine it’d be difficult to kill one of them if I had the intent, since they stood out so much, but all I wanted was a picture. I met and took a picture with an Ambassador of Chad, two French foilers (fencers), two Russian Swimmers, a Puerto Rican judo-ist, two guys from Colombia who I couldn’t communicate with since I forgot all my Spanish, one guy from Latvia and another from Lithuania, and a guy from the orchestra (who was probably American). I’m glad I have those pictures. Even if I didn’t always come out all that great, how many times do I get to take picture with Olympic athletes?

I also bought a few last minute gifts for people and tea for myself. Shopping is an adventure, especially when there’s too much stuff to choose from. I’m a proponent of giving people fewer options. It just all blends together into one giant mass of money spending potential. But on an interesting note, while we were talking to the vendors of a lighter stall, we were informed that earlier today George W. Bush had come to the market and had been fairly swamped with people wanting to take pictures with him. The attraction is somewhat lost on me…

Does anyone know those little flag pins you can put on your clothes? The ones that are generally pretty cheap and I can’t really imagine why you’d wear on outside of July 4^th? Well, apparently, they are a trade all by themselves in the vendor culture of China. I literally mean trade. What you can do (and I didn’t know this until I tried it myself) if buy a few pins of your country or any one that catches your fancy and wear it on your sleeve. As you walk around, vendors will sometimes want to trade you your pin for one of theirs. It can also be used to negotiate the price of whatever you’re attempting to buy down, ie: I’ll give you 4 kuai and this pin instead of 6 kuai. They like collecting things from foreigners it seems. Though I think Chinese nationals can also use the pin system, but perhaps to a lesser degree. I mean, if I’m wearing the American pin and give it to them, it seems a little more Americany than if a Chinese person was wearing the pin and traded it to them.

I didn’t expect it to work since it’s pin trading, but not five minutes after I put one American flag and Canadian flag pin on each sleeve, a girl from the sheets area pulled me aside and said she’d trade me pins. I gave her my American pin and I got this really awesome looking Beijing Olympic 2008 pin. Imagine that- pin trading. A useful purpose to those tacking looking things.

As the day progressed into evening we traveled to the Wangfujing area of Beijing. It’s a renovated shopping plus night market district where cars can’t go. It creates almost a boardwalk atmosphere, expect there’s no boardwalk…or beach…or ocean…There was a giant foreign bookstore (that I didn’t get to see because it was closed) among various other buildings. One of them must have been a sports store since there was a much larger than life plastic Yao Ming on the front of one (but then again, I could be wrong and the Chinese might just like to decorate things with him).

Chatting with these street vendors was nice and there was one older woman at a painting stall who was fun to talk to. I ended up talking a little about the Cultural Revolution with her as I looked at her wares. These conversations are so much harder than it would seem since a lot of the words that I would need to use are just a wee bit advanced, however, it’s still fun and good practice.

During one of our forays into a food alley we came across some American and German students and made friends with them. The catalyst for that happened to be scorpions. Yes, those crawly insects with stingers. There was a stall in the wall that was selling strange food items (sea dogs, scorpions, cicada nymphs, and starfish among more normal things) and we wanted to see them eat the scorpions. To begin with five of them were stuck on a skewer live (they would twitch now and again) and when you indicated you wanted one, they would quite literally fling it into a McDonald-looking deep fryer and cook them for you. Only four people in their group wanted to try it, so they offered the fifth one to me. Actually, I really enjoyed it. Compared to the silk worm pupae and whole squid, this tasted really good. I just pinched off the stinger. The heat should have made it harmless, but still, I wasn’t entirely willing to take that chance. One other guy also let me have a bite of his starfish-not good. It’s like crunching on something burned.

We also bought a skewer of candied fruits. There were several kinds, grapes, apple, pears, and something I couldn’t identify. Basically they would boil sugar in water and dip fruit in and let the candy coating harder around it. We had grapes and they were extremely sweet. I can only image that the sugar water also soaked into all the pores of the fruit to get it that sweet, even with the hard coating outside. You could crack a tooth on it if you weren’t careful.

After we left the students to go on their way, we headed toward one of the four Catholic churches in all of Beijing. It was originally called “St. Joseph’s Church” but now it’s just known as Wangfujing’s Catholic Church. It was nice to see lit up in the night. Like all smoothly paved areas, there were some trick bikers and skateboarders around, but it wasn’t too bad. We couldn’t get in to see the inside, so I have to assume it’s a nice on the inside as the outside. A group of four older people were giving a mini-performance (and very possibly impromptu) for other people sitting around on the benches and wall on traditional instruments. They have a very distinct sounds to them and I imagine it takes a lot of skill to play, though that applies for every instrument.

On the subway back to the apartment, I met an Australian Olympic rower. So I met fencers and rowers today-my life is complete and I can die satisfied. That guy was kinda crazy (in a good fun way) and if he’s an example Aussies, I want to move to Australia tomorrow.

I’m not sure what day or where else to mention this, but I traveled halfway around the world and met up with someone I see regularly at Colgate. Wouldn’t it have been easier to do while still in the US? Apparently not. Shannon, the captain of our fencing team was in Beijing watching a lot of the fencing competitions, plus some other things, so her and her dad joined us for dinner one night. It was kind of like a hot pot place, only it wasn’t a pot but a skillet. Eating is another never ending adventure. But we had fun and it was a brand new experience to see someone I actually knew from school over the summer, even if it was only for dinner. I tell you, Colgate follows you for the rest of your life, to the delight some/me and horror of others/can’t imagine who. The next Friday the 13^th (Colgate day) I want to be abroad and wearing our stuff just to see who around the world knows. You can find us everywhere; we are invading. Be afraid.

Beijing, China: August 10, 2008

The Olympics are in swing and China’s off to a nice golden start. We’ve had the tv running nonstop so we what whatever events they’re broadcasting. There’s only three channels covering the Olympics; personally I think there ought to be more. But we’ve seen gymnastics, volleyball, handball, soccer, basketball (the America vs. China game was poorly played in my opinion by both sides), some swimming (didn’t see the actual M. Phelps win, but I saw reruns), badminton, weightlifting, a little bit of boxing, whitewater kayaking and canoeing, the men’s 4 and women’s quads rowing, synchronized diving, and some others I’m probably forgetting. I really wanted to watch some of the fencing, but they don’t seem to be showing it on TV. America swept all three medals in the women’s individual saber fencing event. Woo! The men’s 8 boat also won their heat, but it’ll be a tight semi-final.

Tao and I went to the Silk Market. It’s a an indoor shopping area. I might have made the illusion weeks ago, but it’s really like Agraba in Aladdin. In addition to the cool little things you could buy, it was crawling with tourists and Olympic athletes. I took pictures with several (a Puerto Rican Judo guy, and a Chad ambassador come to mind).

It’s strange to see so many white people in China. We were used to being the only foreigners for such a while and to come back and see them everywhere is kinda strange. I’m almost jealous too. I’m not special anymore because of them! Darn it. And because they’re all here, Beijing is all expensive (relatively). Time to find another interesting cheap country to tour.

Just kidding. I’d hate to have to learn yet another language so I could make sure I wasn’t eating chicken hearts.

Beijing, China: August 8, 2008

Opening Ceremony was today! Can I just say that the opening ceremony was fantastic and if you missed it you should try to catch it on reruns somewhere? Youtube maybe. I’m a little disappointed that there wasn’t any big flaming dragon, but someone reminded me that there’s still the closing ceremony to look forward to. In case anyone was wondering why there was a giant spoon going across the stage about halfway through, it’s because the first Chinese compass was actually a magnetized spoon that pointed south. I had no idea what that was about until several days later. I thought maybe they were alluding to their love of food!

Did anyone else know that George W. Bush is the first president to attend a foreign Opening Ceremony? I didn’t and it seems strange considering people were throwing fits over the fact that there was a possibility he might not go.

The official motto of the Games is “One World, One Dream”. What I want to know is, where is this one world and what is this one dream? It seems like that’s still a long way off if we have wars breaking out during something that’s supposed to unite countries. I suppose sports can only take us so far.

I’ve decided that part of the reason the world has so many problems is that the Earth is too small. I compare it to our program as it neared the end. It became almost like a soap opera drama; not because we didn’t like each other anymore, but because there were so few of us and we saw each other all the time. People need alone time to stay sane and keep from killing each other (literally and figuratively). Hence, I think the world is too small and that’s where most, if not all, our problems with each other come from.

We were shocked when we got back to Beijing after being gone for several weeks. There’s so little trash on the streets and there’s space on the road to actually see the road. The taxi drivers all have to wear state issued uniforms and they drive like normal people, not Beijing taxi drivers. It was a monumental moment in our taxi when we realized that our driver had….used a turn signal! And there wasn’t even any cars too close to warrant it being necessary.

I don’t like it. It’s creepy. I feel unexcited in a safe-driving Beijing taxi. Where's the adrenaline? Where’s the near death thrills? Hm…maybe I should ride roller coasters instead. They at least have safety precautions and are supposed to elicit that sort of response in a person. Riding in a car…probably not so much.

Qingdao, China: August 6, 2008

Our time in Qingdao is relatively short-only two full days and today’s our last full day. First we got on a bust headed to Laoshan, one of the top mountains in China and the world. If you think of those mystic mountains in China and Asia, you’re probably thinking of the general look of Laoshan.

Unfortunately for us, the fog was rolling in thick off the ocean and prevented us from seeing almost anything. There was a lake and a waterfall we could see as we hiked up that steep mountain side. Thank goodness that there were stairs of some sorts. The stone steps were almost as bad as not having any though-with all the mist it became very slick coming down.

It really was too bad that we were basically hiking in a cloud. When I come back to China I’ll have to try to go back since I did want to see it. The trinkets the vendors were selling were pretty interesting, though every stall sold the same thing. They also sold tea that they grew right up on the mountain. I think there was also a small temple of some sort, but I didn’t go there.

I talked with some of the professors on the way down, learned a couple of phrases. I also wanted to know why the vendors were selling ceramic sculptures of something that looked like a head of cabbage. Apparently the word for that particular vegetable sounds close to money and so people think they’re auspicious. I can’t think of a suitable comparison we have in the States, though I’m sure there is one.

After we got back we all showered since we were gross from hiking in a cloud and I took a nap, as did many other people. When we woke up we hung out in the hotel until we decided to go out on a dinner run. Some students were obsessed with the idea of eating crab, though the taxi drivers told us there wasn’t really any to be found in Qingdao. Of course, the restaurant we eventually stopped at conveniently had crabs.

I might not talk all that much in class or when we’re around as a class, but when we’re in a restaurant, that is my moment to shine. Having learned a good deal of what’s on a menu seems to make the other naturally defer to my judgment in ordering dishes. I’ve also found (and this applies to all situations) that if people are indecisive, it’s really easy to just get what you want and settle the issue for everyone.

After dinner we headed around the downtown area and looked at the brightly light shops and such. I wanted to see one of Walmart’s tentacles so we looked around in that store for a bit. The food section was just like a normal U.S. Walmart expect for the really strange looking fruits and vegetables where we would see stuff like watermelons and pineapples. We couldn’t figure out how to pick one of the types up because it was the size of a medium watermelon (and weighed just as much) and was covered in very long spikes. Tao mentioned that those fruits are mildly addictive. It’s also safe to say that the Walmart bathrooms are universally bad worldwide (according to my friends. I wasn’t brave enough to enter).

Tomorrow morning we’ll have to be up at 4:20 to get ready to leave for the airport. We’re taking a flight back to Beijing since trains are very complicated with the Olympics going on. I imagine flights would be too; there’s also the bother of not knowing whether we’ll make it under the weight restrictions with our luggage. China’s more strict about their domestic flights than America. Fingers crossed!