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!

Qingdao, China: August 05, 2008

For our last weekend in Yantai some of us wanted to go dancing (I didn’t want to go this time) and some of us just wanted to chill somewhere. Of course, we didn’t know where to do the latter so we all headed out to go dancing. Some guys suggested we stop by a “Russian” bar to get a few drinks since they’d be cheaper than at BabyFace. Of course, the only reason we called it a Russian bar was because the brochures that one lady was handing out on the street for it had both English and Russian, but strangely, no Chinese.

When we got there the place was absolutely deserted. It was the four of us who decided to check it out, and three staff workers. Mind you, it was only 13:00. (By now, I’m used to using the 24 hour time format so if I say 16:20 next time I meet you, that’s why). But, that was fine because there was a Wii with Wii tennis, an electric guitar and a drum set, and a hilarious attempt at an English drink menu. For instance, Jack Daniels was Flak Danels and pudding was put down as padding. We ended up playing cards while two guys tried to rock out on the musical instruments. Too bad they were really badly kept up. More fun than actually listening to them was watching the looks on their faces as they first looked at the condition of the high hat (a type of drum set symbol).

Sunday was spent sleeping and if not sleeping, then studying for Monday’s final. The final didn’t go so badly in my opinion, but who knows. We haven’t gotten it back. I’ll assume the best and then erase it from my memory.

With the end of the final, came the unofficial end of the program. What would anyone do when they finish a 9 week Chinese intensive learning program? Why sleep of course! For five straight hours. I can’t even justify the amount of time spent sleeping on mental exhaustion because while it might have been taxing, it wasn’t THAT taxing.

Tuesday morning we were headed to Qingdao to spend a few days sightseeing and so once again, people wanted to go dancing. Now, I like dancing, but dancing every weekend gets a little tiresome, even with the previous days coffee bar break. But like a good fellow student I went along. Of course, the fact that we were meeting a couple of Russian’s had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to go. Nope, not at all…

We went to a different bar then we usually went to. It was more of a play pool club. Pretty nice place to just hang out. The Russians were also awesome kids. They were from Sibera and studying either Chinese or Business/International relations with their school for a month in Yantai. Why Yantai I’m not really sure. Through a series of events, myself and another girl ended up going to (yet another) dance club with the two we’d met at the pool place and two of their friends. There was so much language sliding that anything we tried to speak was just being murdered without chance of revival. Besides the fact that between the two of us girls, I knew more Russian (I totally impressed them with my ability to say “Without you I can’t see the sun” and “I don’t want to live without you” in a grammatically correct fashion), and they knew only a serviceable amount of English, both of our Chinese skills could have used a lot of work. But as things often do, everything worked out and we had a fantastic time. By the end of it, I couldn’t speak in any one language continuously. It’s a great experience trying to use the Russian you know to describe a Chinese word so you can explain a situation in English. Not generally very effective, but fun nonetheless.

The bus ride to Qingdao was uneventful, though a almost a bit of a shock to be in a big city again. Yantai is a large city of about 6 million people, but it has a small town feel, especially where we were staying. Qingdao is much more urbanized and shiny. They also had Olympic stuff everywhere since it’s the host city for sailing and wind surfing.

After being waited on hand and foot at lunch, we took a small siesta and then headed to the major attraction of Qingdao- the Tsingdao beer factory! After learning how beer is made, it almost makes me want to not drink it. The idea of drinking yeast is a little weird, but I’ve eaten weirder things while here so I was totally over that feeling in about five minutes. Some people I know would have loved to spend days in that place *coughPapaandUncleJeffcough* but I was suitably impressed myself. The history of the factory is very interesting since through most of its history it was owned by either Germans (the instigators of its creation) and the Japanese. There was a bunch of historic machinery, labels, etc. of the various stages the factory and the beer has gone through. One label read “Tsingdao Beer-Absolutely Pure” and under it was a swastika. I’ve got a good picture of that one. You can guess who owned the factory at that point of time.

I also tasted the best beer I will ever consume in my life. Less than a day old, Tsingdao unfiltered beer was a joy to behold. Never again will I get to hold such a young specimen of perfection. For something like 40 kuai we could get our picture taken and put on a label for our very own bottle of beer. A keepsake if you will. I declined, but would definitely recommend it if you ever want to show something off on your mantle or liquor cabinet.

After seeing the factory and the various levels of production that goes into bottling beer, I can completely see how factor workers routinely lose fingers, arms and their sanity. The bottles and cans fly past at sometimes literally blinding speed and the staff are meant to make sure that everything’s A-ok. We watched one man sit on a stool and stare at bottles going past. He probably does that 6 days a week for 10 to 12 hours. I can’t imagine a more perfect version of hell. A green tinted hell of mental atrophy.

The last thing for the day was a leisurely boat ride up and down the coast to show off the city in all its modern glinting glory. It wasn’t like the speed boat at Penglaige; this was a larger boat. The kind you would go on to go whale watching (which I’ve done and can be great fun). I was expecting to be a little queasy since I’m not known to have the sturdiest sea legs, but I was fine. This makes me want to test the theory that maybe I’ve gotten over it. Common sense tells me that I’ll end up regretting the time I spend trying to test that theory, but since when do 20 year olds listen to common sense? Now, if only I could commandeer a large enough boat and someone who knew how to drive it…

Yantai, China: July 31, 2008

It’s high time someone looked into claims that they make or believe the ones others make.

I’m referring, of course, to this bedbug thing. First of all, I’m of the inclination that there were never any bed bugs at all. The reasons why it was assumed we had cases of them:

• The others say they could feel them jumping on them
• The problem persisted until the sheets were changed/areas around the bed were sprayed with Raid
• The others tried to tell me that bed bugs are invisible to the naked eye and therefore couldn’t find the individuals

My reasons for disbelieving their convictions:

• Bed bugs can’t jump, fly, hop, or do anything other than crawl, bite, and make more bedbugs. I think you would feel something crawling on you and be able to tell it apart from something hopping on you.
• Bed bugs are notorious to get rid of. According to the Pest Control Site of Canada, sprays are not enough, and there’s a whole procedure they have to go through. With our hotel only spraying and changing the sheets resulting in no more problems, it seems unlikely it could be any sort of infestation.
• The guy who tried to tell me bed bugs are invisible is wrong. At hatching they’re about the size of a poppy seed and adults are 1/4inch unfed and significantly larger after a blood meal.
• It is also true that they don’t like light and it’s hard to find the actual bugs, but their evidence can be found if you know where to look. I have looked, and so far, all I’ve found are splatted mosquitoes on the walls.

*I have come to these conclusions from many official pest control websites*

Therefore, I do not believe any of us have had bed bugs at any point, or if we did, such a minor case it’s not worth mentioning (which seems unlikely given their nature). This is not to rule out something since we were bitten by something at least once and Jeronimo might still be. I just don’t think they were bed bugs.

Moving on to other observations, Mulan is just as an amazingly awesome excellent bundle of movie package in Chinese as in English. It’s great to be able to just understand some of the speech without subtitles (cause it’s translated weird anyway). Some parts in the Chinese version are a lot funnier than the English version just because of the way the language works. It’s fantabulous. One instance would include the moment when Mulan tells her mom, “I’m here!” [to get ready for the matchmaker interview]. In the English version, it’s just another line; in Chinese, the way those three words are delivered is hilarious.

Yantai, China: July 29, 2008

Remember how I said that the strange daily rain in Beijing was man-made?

http://en.beijing2008.cn/ceremonies/headlines/n214485376.shtml

Welcome to the world; we are our own gods and leave ourselves bereft of anyone to pray to.

Yantai, China: July 28, 2008

I think we must have eaten something bad last night. Today found me throwing up in the wee hours of the morning, a different student with a bad stomach ache, and another needing to frequent the bathroom all day. I thought I was sick the first week when I was here. Nope, that was just a little bit of discomfort and inconvenience. Today was a sleep-in-until-2pm-don’t-leave-bed-until-dinner day. On the bright side, I spent my time in bed productively and watched Wally-E, a super cute movie. Who knew robot love could be so awesome?

Yantai, China: July 27, 2008

Wee! Yet another fun weekend come and almost gone. I’ll start with Friday since Friday is a very good place to start.

After our test I followed my typical Friday pattern. Walk back to the dorm, go on the computer for an hour or two, tell myself I’ll sleep for an hour and end up sleeping for 4, wake up and walk dazedly into someone’s room where I listen to what plans have been concocted for that evening. Adam always seems to catch me right as I’m stumbling out of the room and usually remarks on how awake I am right after I nearly crash into a wall.

We went out to a KTV place with all our professors and later dragged them to our usual club hang out. KTV is a karaoke chain that lines the streets in every Chinese city we’ve been to (all two of them). It’s almost like a hotel, with private rooms you rent out and you can order food and drinks, etc. There’s a TV screen where the words scroll across along with random pictures to the songs your singing. Most of them involved some scantly clad woman leaning against a railing looking forlorn. Or dogs. There was quite a few of people petting dogs. Which is strange when you’re singing Country Road or songs by the Beatles. Some of the songs were hard for us to sing since they would scroll the words in Chinese characters…most of us could go “ni!” once in a while with those kinds of songs.

It was a lot of fun, probably because one or two people were really into it and our professors were so cute. Two of them did a duet to a song (that we now have the first 2 lines imbedded in our minds and break out into whenever we hear the words in normal conversation-“No problem! Really no problem!”) and were actually quite good. I’d gained a reputation for singing several weeks ago since I find it fun to take sentences and fit them to any tune. It generally comes out garbled and mostly in gibberish, but that does not detract from my amusement.

They didn’t want to go to the club and we all but dragged them with us. None of them are really the party animal type. Some of them had never been dancing before! Not that I’ve been really either; maybe 8 or 9 times, at least half of which have been during this summer.

We also got there really early, maybe 10 o’clock, so there was no body dancing yet. Waiting for other people to start would have taken too long and our teachers’ little interest that there was would have been utterly killed, so we owned the dance floor for the first half hour. Myself, Jeronimo, and Adam got the party started and again dragged our teachers on to the dance floor. They would try to escape every once in a while but we’d catch them before they got too far. Of course, a few were painfully awkward at first but eventually found their stride and after an hour they were the ones dragging us back to the floor when we took a break. It was probably the best Friday night of the entire summer.

The next day we all got on a bus (which still is quite scary and even in sleep I feel slightly nervous when the bus jerks or sways violently) and headed to a place called Penglaige. I don’t believe it has an English translation but if you were to look up the place where the Eight Immortals flew/jumped(?) into the sea, you could probably find it online.

It’s a very picturesque place, with sea cliffs and turquoise blue ocean complete the city right on the coast. There’s also the hundreds of peddlers since it is a tourist destination. We weren’t there too long but we did hike up to a pavilion where you could overlook the entire coast side and tie red ribbons to the railings for luck and wishes. Lazy people had the option of taking a gondola up (which I really would have loved to do instead but our headmaster was all gung-ho about the climbing).

There were a bunch of motor boats zipping up and down the shore, which at first I thought was probably a huge pollution factor. But then we got to ride on one and I stopped caring completely. They were taking people up to the famous part of the cliff where it was said the Immortals flew/jumped into the sea and a dragon could be seen snaking around the wall. I didn’t see either, but the cliffs were pretty cool.

I believe after that I took another nap. I’ve been taking naps all the time now, it’s a bad habit to get into since once I get back to school I’ll have no more time to take naps. Then we had dinner and hung out in someone’s room until about midnight playing chess, chatting, and listening to music. At midnight we decided that a trip to the beach was in order.

Perhaps I should mention one area in which Chinese and American dorms differ…Chinese dorms lock at night. As in, past 10:30-11ish you cannot leave or get back into the dorm. We were lucky since there were ladies that lived there who could let us in if we rang some dinger. Regular Chinese students just can’t be out past 10:30. This might explain why the nightlife in China seems to be a little lacking-all the people who are young enough to actually enjoy life are stuck inside. Not that I’m saying people over college age can’t enjoy life…they just don’t go to dance clubs or bars.

You can also imagine that since we went out somewhere every weekend and wouldn’t come back until 1 or 2 in the morning, we were not very popular with these ladies. Nonetheless, we woke up one of the ladies to let us out and went to the beach to play cards. I left after an hour but some others stayed and I found out the next day went swimming in the water. It seems that the water had glowing algae of some sort. As cool as we think that is, we’re a little cautious in assuming that that algae is supposed to naturally glow, given state of environmental standards here…

Yantai, China: July 21, 2008

Last weekend was pretty neat. On Saturday we went out to breakfast together at a local restaurant, not one of my favorites sadly, and then went on an hour bus ride. We arrived a scenic little garden looking complex, which turned out to be Castel Chateau, Yantai’s vineyard. We took a tour of the factory, my favorite part being the cellar. Not only was it super comfortable/borderline cold down there, but the barrels of wine were fascinating. Like something out of a classic novella (I would use the word “novel” there, but I think novella sounds cooler. Hopefully it also means the same thing as novel).

We also got free samples of their red and white wine. I like the white wine a lot better, but it certainly didn’t taste like any white wine I’ve ever had. Almost like red wine in a white wine’s body/appearance. We as a whole are not impressed with Chinese wines. Of course, this could partially be due to the fact that most of us have been to some of the most prominent wine countries (France, Spain, Italy) and those are hard to top… so we’re snobs. If I were going to Germany, I’d probably have that same right with beer. Oh well, at least that can’t be ruined for me too soon.

Tones are very important. I knew this, I know this, but for people who don’t, you should. For instance, while I was trying to explain that I’d seen an Internet bar across the street, I managed to call one of my professor a bastard (only the word for it in Chinese is a lot more serious than in English). Lucky for me, they all find this highly entertaining.

Our class assignment today was to go out to the market and buy a present for two of our other professors. My partner and I ended up buying a huge black bag since her old one was a little broken. We made them open it while we were still there since the Chinese don’t tend to open their presents right away in front of their guests. We covered that thoroughly in class and discussed the differences between our cultures.

My other two class mates gave our only guy professor a stuffed bunny. It’s an inside joke since we all called him “Old Rabbit”. I have no idea why, but we do. They wanted to get him a boy rabbit since he’s a guy, which they did. Later we were informed that in China, giving a guy a rabbit implies that you think he’s gay ( I didn’t catch if the gender was important or just the species). Oi! I was rather glad we ended up with a person we could have get something simple, like a purse/bag.

I also find two things of interest today. The first being the best ice cream ever-vanilla oatmeal. They eat strange ice cream here but this is really good. The other ones we’ve tried so far have only been so so.

There was also a lime green spider hanging in its web today. I really wanted to take a picture of it, since I’ve never seen a neon lime green spider (but only on its abdomen) like it before, but it got washed away in the downpour that happened later that afternoon. :/

Yantai, China: July 18, 2008

Had a test today. I think it went very well. I’m never the first one to walk out of a test, most especially not a Chinese test so it was a rare and unlikely to happen again pleasant feeling.

In fact, it almost compensates for the fact that I have bed bugs. This morning I woke up and had little bites on my left arm. But only in one spot; a bit strange. Two other classmates have had a minor issue with it not so long ago, so I guess it’s my turn. It doesn’t freak me out at all even, though I used to think it would if it ever happened. I’m actually just a little insulted that they would bite me. Insulted! I would have expected maybe some horrification or disgust, but no. Just insulted. I told the women about it downstairs and I wish I knew what they told me. I’m pretty sure they said they’d change out the mattress and sheets later today. No big deal. Quite honestly, if I had to choose, I’d much rather have the bed bugs than the mosquitoes since their bites don’t hurt or itch and they don’t transmit any diseases (the only bloodsucker that can say that aside from vampires. But I guess if you turned into a monster when something bit you that could qualify as disease…).

Gamble JUST knocked a fly unconscious with her pillow. Literally as I’m typing. Not killed, knocked unconscious. Last night a giant, biggest housefly/horse fly I’ve ever seen fly in through our window as I was disposing of the body of a mosquito. It’s been flying up in the ceiling ever since and decided to land on her bed. She grabbed her pillow and wacked it twice, which only made it stumble around onto one of my sandals. Then we threw him out the window too. Maybe he’ll drown. Cause you know, it’s raining again.

Yantai, China: July 16, 2008

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here one month and only have another 3 weeks to go. Time has really flown by, but in one of the good ways.

I’ve adjusted more to the food than I thought, or at least the eating practices. I like eating with wooden chopsticks more than forks or spoons now and if we have to eat at a place that gives us plastic chopsticks or worse, metal ones, the looks of distain are never ending. Environmental friendliness is a good thing, and I know Asia’s bamboo forests take a heavy hit with all the disposable wooden chopsticks manufactured from them, but plastic is just too hard to eat with. It hardly picks up the food and metal ones are even worse. I have secured my own 3 pairs of wooden chopsticks so I don’t have to use forks all the time when I go home.

Hot tea is served at every meal instead of any sort of water (or any cold beverage. The Chinese are really adamant about not eating cold stuff with food-it makes you sick) I think my soda addicted classmates have gotten used to the warm Pepsi by now. It bothers me no longer though. We went to a Korean restaurant for lunch yesterday and they served chilled water with the meal. I couldn’t drink it. Then I realized that I made my own tea in a thermos when I ate instant noodles in the room. Now I have to find a cheap but sturdy teapot so I can continue to drink proper loose leaf tea. The idea of tea bags has become abhorrent to me. Thank you China for ruining my ability to drink liquids like a normal American, haha.

I love my Korean friends, but I’m afraid I just don’t like their food. Maybe if I wasn’t fretting over the fact I can’t drink anything but tea at meals or eat with metal chopsticks (seriously hard to do, and all Korean restaurants seem to use metal chopsticks…) it’d be easier to like. But who knows…I’ll just have to go to Korea and find out the right way. It’s probably Chinesified Korean food I’ve been eating anyhoo.

Usually when I keep journals I mention a topic more often than others because it makes a big impression on me. This has almost always been food. And while I can say that the food is definitely a new experience (and I can now almost read a Chinese menu-something I’m rather proud of) Yantai has shown me the power of rain and what happens when a campus isn’t designed to drain. The walkways are all vaguely like trenches and when it rains, it rains really hard (and can do it all day long), so that the sidewalks can have ankle deep water covering them. It’s no wonder the mosquitoes are more numerous than ants.

That last statement is actually a lie; I’ve seen a lot of ants here lately. I think they must have sprayed for bugs because there are a lot of large bug (cicada, grasshopper, beetles) corpses that just kinda dropped off the trees and the ants are carrying away their carcasses. I’d look at them longer but other people stare at me even more when I’m looking at dead bugs than when I’m just walking back to the dorm.

There are also HUGE spiders here. No exaggeration we found one in a web that was about the size of a ping pong ball both in depth and diameter. I tried to take a picture of it but the size of it isn’t really captured appropriately. We’d see these giant webs that looked like they’d been vacated only to realize days later that the spiders just come out at night. There is also some version of silk tunnel spiders in all the bushes. They build a little canopy of silk in their part of the bush and live there. I counted about 20 on a single small bush one day. It’s all rather fascinating. Once, when I was walking back with my teacher he asked me if I like spiders, since I was looking at a bunch of them again. I said yes and he said Chinese people like them too cause they taste good. -_-;

Yantai, China: July 14, 2008

Since nothing interesting happened today, I feel like writing some quotes of today.

Yantai’s Beach: “…the water is okay to swim in because people in our program went in and did not get sick last summer…”

-From the program’s handout, pg. 27

“Your head looks funny.”

-Professor Huang talking about the top of one of my characters

“Where are you from? You’re pretty.”

-Guy getting me my bubble tea at dinner. It’s a good thing he didn’t try to tell my Chinese was any good because then I would have definitely have known he was lying.

Yantai, China: July 12, 2008

Today was interesting and vaguely stressful…but first, the weekdays!

Gamble and I figured out what to do about the mosquitoes. We grabbed our shoes (I grabbed her sandals and she had her slippers-why would I want dead bug guts on my shoes?) and went on a room raid. The first time we seriously killed about 20 mosquitoes without any exaggeration at all. It took us a while to do since they would fly up and sit on the ceiling and we’d have to try to get them down. There’s also a bunch of footprints on our walls and bathroom door. I can only imagine what the cleaning ladies think we were doing. Now it’s more manageable with us only having to kill about five a night.

Thursday night we had to study for our big Friday test, which we did like good dutiful students. We had an odd study break though in our room. Gamble’s friend had told her a few minutes earlier over IM that he found “stately knees” attractive and sexy. We wanted to know what a stately knee was and if we had them, so we took my camera and shot about 37 pictures of our knees at various angles and with various props. I have to admit that was one of the strangest study breaks I think I’ll ever had. If you haven’t ever really considered your knees before, let me tell you-they’re an ugly necessity of our body. They just never look good in pictures. EVER. But apparently we had stately knees.

Yesterday we went out to a bar, then a dance club. Most bars basically consist of plastic tables under a cheap umbrella, but the dance club was pretty fun again. I didn’t dance much since I just wanted to watch. Chinese clubs overall are pretty dull compared to the European and American scene. Clubs close at like 1am or 1:30. Strange.

Today I slept in and didn’t do much until about 5:30pm when Gamble, Natalie (another classmate), and I went to go do a practical interview for teaching 6 and 7 year olds English. We didn’t know that it basically involved teaching the class right then and there. I was first, which was terrible since we didn’t know how old they’d be, how much English they already knew or anything. So I winged it and started with the Alphabet, colors, shapes, and numbers. Didn’t do too badly but since I had no idea what else I was supposed to do it was kinda eh ah. Gamble got it and we found out she’ll be teaching them everyday for an hour. Makes me a little glad I didn’t get it. I liked teaching it, but I’d definitely need a little more practice and I also think I’d like doing it at a higher level, maybe high school. It didn’t help that there was the judge guy in the background, I was clueless, and all their parents were there too. What a scene to have seen. I fully appreciate anyone who teaches well much more right now. And parent day should be abolished in schools altogether.

The kids were really cute because they did know some of the stuff already and some were really enthusiastic to show off their skills. We also had them learn the “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes” song and let them come to the front of the classroom and perform. It was like a mini recital. Very cute.

I also ate some squid on a stick today (not too good, but not bad either) and played badminton with some Korean students. I’m really bad, and not in a good way.

In the upcoming days I’ll be studying and studying. Useful, if not always exciting.

Yantai, China: July 6th, 2008

It can rain here in Yantai. I mean, downpour for hours. I got caught in the rain Friday after our test and got soaked through the bone. The first time that happened earlier in the week I got a little sniffle/cold that lasted a day or two. Luckily this time no such thing occurred.

Today is a bright and sunny day so I decided I’d go to the beach and work on my tan. It really is a pleasant beach contrary to what people have tried to tell us. I also met a recent Yantai graduate and his friend and conversed with him for a while. They wanted to take a picture with me, so I did. Funny really, haven’t had that many people come up to me and ask to take a picture with me before. It’s kinda like being a mini celebrity.

Yesterday I spent nearly the entire day in the room either sleeping or reading. For dinner we went to the University restaurant and made dumplings. I’ve made them before so mine didn’t look quite as sorry as some of the other kids, but you could tell some people were really into cooking (since theirs ended up looking like what it was supposed to look like instead of blobs). We also had a giant cake because it’s Adam’s birthday today. He’s 21 and planning on writing his essay. There really is no fun in turning 21 overseas.

For the Forth of July we went to one of the two bars downtown called Babyface. It was different and once you got used to the pulsing music and darkness/flashing lights, it was a lot of fun. We danced a whole bunch and made a few new friends. There was another group of foreigners there and as we were leaving we were talking to one of the guys who happened to be British. He said that they were from all over (America, England, Russia, Finland) studying Kungfu. One girl wacked him with a glow stick when he said he was from England (the poor guy was so confused) and then proceeded to lecture us on how we shouldn’t flirt with “national enemies who taxed us without representation” on our day of Independence. We then proceeded to sing the National Anthem as we walked back to the dorm. It was amusing to say the least.

The most irritating thing about Yantai would be the multitude of mosquitoes in our room at night. We can kill four each night and still miss two or three. Everyone is has tons of bits; they like my arms for some reason. I’m not sure how they get in since our window screen is always closed.

My apartment in Beijing didn’t have any mosquitoes nor a roommate. Now I have both. I like my roommate a lot. Her name is Gamble (and that’s her legal name) and she’s one of those adventure types who’s been all over Cambodia, Indonesia, and China. Probably some other places I’m forgetting. We get along quite well with the biggest difference between us being our sleeping schedules, but it doesn’t bother us. I easily sleep through her up through the entire night, and she sleeps through me being up around 7am in the mornings. But otherwise we have fun together.

Not much else to report currently, other than I’ve begun to dream in Chinese about half the time. It’s weird and vaguely frustrating since I know the Chinese isn’t always right and I’ll try to fix it in my head while I’m dreaming. Very bizarre and awkward to do.

Yantai, China: July 2, 2008

In addition to the 6 hours of regular class we have during the day, there were three additional classes we could sign up for-calligraphy (Monday), pronunciation (Tuesday), and culture (Wednesday). I of course signed up for all three. I’ve only had the pronunciation and culture class since Monday was orientation and I’m going to guess of the three, I’ll like pronunciation the least. At least it’ll be helpful (hopefully).

Our first culture class dealt with food and I found several things worth mentioning. First, China is a big place and the different areas have different food preferences. For instance, rice is the staple in the south (the dividing line between north and south is Shanghai) while in the north its noodles. Northerners eat porridge; Southerners eat soup. This isn’t to say both things can’t be found in both places, only that certain places put more effort into different types of dishes. The Western parts of China like to eat sour dishes while the Eastern parts eat more sweet dishes (the southern island of Hainan makes for a good East West divider).

Chinese also think eating certain things is strange, but we’re told in Canton anything goes. It’s in Canton that you see the markets with skinned rats, snake pens, dog, and cat meat. Boiled pinkies (newborn rats and mice) are considered a delicacy and are eaten whole. There are also the equivalent of dog meat fondu places there. Our professors think a lot of the stuff eaten in Canton is just weird (like cat meat) and told us that 2004 SARS outbreak was partially because people in Canton were eating really strange and not entirely healthy creatures. But who knows.

Offal, which I believe is the internal organs of some creature, is considered good for the eyes and supposedly boosts intelligence so parents feed their kids lots of it. We couldn’t figure out what the teacher was calling it in English for a while and during the spelling game we asked her if she meant “awful”. We think offal might as well be spelled awful.

Literal translations of food can be funny too. For instance, “long xia” translates to dragon shrimp. We call it lobster. “Tianji” equals field chicken, also known as frog. And “jiweijiu” becomes roster tail alcohol or a cocktail (think Bloody Mary). Fun right?

Back in America, when we pose for pictures we say “cheese”. Chinese say “qiezi” (eggplant). Why do we say cheese again? It seems like a silly thing to say…

We also briefly touched on the health care system in China since it was in one of our lessons. Waiting rooms are ticket line style. If you’ve bought meat at a grocery store, it’s like that. Maybe also like waiting at the DMV. You’re given a ticket number and wait for a doctor to see you. According to our professors, it costs about 5-7 kuai to see the doctor. That’s 0.71-1 dollar. You then have to buy whatever medicine they recommend, but I can’t image it’s that expensive either. Let’s all look at our insurance co-pay and groan for a moment in comparison.

Tomorrow’s the Forth of July. Funny how out of context things like holidays lose all meaning. We might try to celebrate and buy some fireworks or something else, but we’ll see. If we can’t find fireworks, I’ll be convinced it’s cause they use them all during the week of the Chinese New Year. I’m told it sounds like World War III the night of and small to medium battles each night for a week before.

Yantai, China: June 30th, 2008

Cheap seafood, beer, and drunk Chinese friends make for a fun night. The Chinese can’t seem to hold their liquor, though beer is awful stuff. How do men and women drink it after college? That is all.

Yantai, China: June 29, 2008

Yantai! I like it so much better than Beijing (this stated after only one day of observation so my opinion my change). The train actually took something closer to 14 hours, but I managed to keep a normal sleeping schedule and woke up around 8. Of course, I woke up to a train conductor asking me for my ticket. My Chinese after immediately waking up seems to be nonexistent, but then again, I lack English skills at that point in my day as well. At least I could find my ticket to give her. One of the boys had to hunt for a long while before he found it.

We got on a bus and drove onto the school campus where we dropped off our stuff at the international hotel/dorm we’re staying in and then went and had breakfast. Breakfast is the worst meal of the day in terms of things that I like to eat and China is no different. Bleh food all around. Thank goodness for lunch and dinner. If only breakfast could be something more dinner.

The place we were eating at was hosting a wedding after party and were putting up decorations and goodie bags. They were also doing a sound check on the stereo system was hilarious since they guy just went, “Wei? Wei?” for a solid 7 minutes.

Breakfasting having been finished we returned to the dorm where we unpacked and/or took showers. I did both, though taking a shower was very unpleasant. In hindsight I feel stupid since my roommate found out how it works (not that she could figure it out. She went down to the front desk and had them show her). The knobs are not entirely the same here and so I couldn’t get it to something other than scalding hot or ice cold. I ended up taking an ice cold shower-I hear they’re good for your health. I’d rather be sick.

That bathroom shower is also a little weird in that it’s the entire bathroom. It’s called a wet shower and has a drain in the corner so you grab the hose and bath anywhere you like.

However, I must thank some higher power for the Western style toilet in our bathroom. We never did figure out the sense of a swatting toilet in a moving train. (And you know how kids always imagine that when you go to the bathroom in a plane it just goes to the ground? Apparently, Chinese trains really do that)

I’m definitely getting a less than sanitary sense from this country. In a bunch of ways. Nothing that really makes me shudder but yeah…anyway.

Took a nap and then joined some other students in a foray to the beach. It really is only about a five minute walk from our dorm. It’s not the nicest beach I’ve ever been to, but it’s also not the worst. The others complained about a smell, but I didn’t really notice anything. I think I’m a little used to beaches smelling like sea and stinky fish (as they called it). The sand was a little greenish, but I believe that was due to the fact the tide was out. I’m not going to ask questions. But like I said, not the worst and not nearly as bad as people we leading us to believe.

After the beach we waited a little while then went to dinner. We were starving because we’d napped through lunch. Seven of us went out the West gate and down a row of shops (soon to become a favorite stopping place of mine). It had a bunch of little places to eat and outside sea food vendors. Like skewered whole squid. I think I’ll try some tomorrow. There’s also this roasted bread with sweet spread on one side and salty on the other. We had some for dinner and I ate mine, and two other classmate’s who didn’t want theirs. Then I went and bought another one later this evening. It’s like heaven…bread on two wooden skewer sticks.

Dinner was at this little sketchy looking restaurant that served phenomenal food. It was also really cheap. We got several things of tea, bread, 7 dishes, and some beer for 83 kuai (11 kuai a person or a dollar and a half). And it was GOOD food. I mean, really excellent food. We’d really like to order some of it again, but we don’t know any of the names. Other than clams. I’m going to eat a boat load of clams in this city.

There was also a bakery next door where some of us bought desserts of various kinds. I’m waiting to go back for the tiramisu cake slice.

We came back and hung around for a while. Spent some time on the lobby’s computers. There’s no internet available in our rooms until after July 1^st so we have to use the three public computers in the lobby. And they’re in Korean. There’s a huge Korean population here in Yantai, both as immigrant restaurant workers and students. It’s only about an hour flight and however many hours by boat from here to Korea so people come.

We played cards in the lobby with some of them. We were playing Egyptian Rat Rummy (a fun game complete with physical violence. Just kidding-there’s only card slapping) and two guys came down to use the computers and began to talk with us a little. We asked them if they’d like to play and they did, along with a girl friend of theirs. One guy got really into it and was pretty funny to listen to. Trying to explain a semi-complicated card game in a language that’s not native to you to people to who it’s not native either can be complicated. Luckily, someone along the line invented hand gestures, the solver of all ills.

I also found out that women really exist with the high pitched voices you hear in some anime cartoons and movies. I was pretty well floored to hear the pitch of one girl using a computer next to me while she was talking to a friend. I’d figure it’d be painful to talk that high.

Later I went out with another group of people to the Yantai night market, something really interesting. Basically a market where people sell a lot of the same stuff, complete with fruit, cigarettes, fried stuff on sticks, Chinese burritos, and socks. Once you got into the alley ways where more complicated food is cooked, I couldn’t decide whether to look down to avoid all the “stuff” on the ground, or to not look and pretend I didn’t know it was there. As I said, some aspects of China strike me as a little unsanitary.

Came back, watched them play a little more cards and then I tried to figure out why the DVDs I bought weren’t playing in my computer. They were about 90 cents but I want them to work, darn it! The other bootlegged copies I bought worked. Why isn’t it easy to get illegal things to work properly?!

People stare at us a lot. And say “Hello”. I guess they don’t see a lot of foreigners. One thing I didn’t see at all today was any other non-Chinese or Korean person. Not a single blond/natural red/light brown colored hair style to be found. In Beijing there were a few foreigners around, but here there seems to be none. Least it’ll be easy to find the group if I ever lose track of them. “Hey, have you seen any white people around lately?” should work nicely. All the tourists/foreign students seem to be Caucasian. I think I saw one black guy in all of Beijing. I can only imagine what they’d think of us if we went to some remote rural village.

The final match of Euro Cup soccer is on tonight. I wanted to watch it but it’s too hard to find a working TV. Hopefully Spain loses to Germany. I’m spiteful because they beat Russia out of the finals. Despite not knowing the language, customs, history, holidays, or government system, I think I’d make a pretty patriotic Russian on occasion. Though I suppose I could say that about Trinidad, Canada, China, India, Australia, and being a Tiger Woods fan. No, I’m not a huge lover of soccer, though I think it’s an interesting sport when there are people who can play it well (aka, not football-loving Americans). I just find the cute players and the ability to kick a guy on purpose and make it look like an accident a great combination.

Tomorrow is our Yantai University orientation and then back to the grind! Or whatever the idiom is in Chinese…maybe back on the dragon?

Someplace between Beijing and Yantai: June 28, 2008

This is going to be a long long entry A) because I’ve a lot of ground to cover and B) I have 13 hours to kill.

Currently I’m riding on an overnight train to Yantai and it’s about a 13 hour trip-just as long as my flight from New York to Beijing! But I’ll write more on that a little later.

Last Sunday Tao and I went to go meet his family at his dad’s apartment and then go out to lunch. I’m pretty sure I convinced them that I’d either make a great Chinese wife or am a complete idiot, mostly because I managed to only say hello and good bye despite having taken two years of Chinese. Slightly embarrassing. Though, I can say I understood most of what they were saying, whether about me or not. They think I’m very tall and were surprised at my ability to use chopsticks so thoroughly (I think I’ll buy a couple of pairs so I can keep using them when I return to the states. They’re entertaining and soothing to eat with, as well as slightly-more-than-occasionally frustrating). They also discovered that I won’t eat pork, the reason I gave being religious reasons-which is true- and now I wonder if they might think I’m either Jewish or Muslim. Maybe more the latter since Tao and I had dinner with one of his Aunts that night at a Xinjiang restaurant-the area with a population of Chinese Muslims (guaranteed no pork for dinner…).

That afternoon was a day at an indoor market, which is a lot of fun. I’m better at bargaining, though still make a few mistakes. I meant to tell one woman I’d pay 20 yuan for a carving and managed to say 20,000. We laughed a bit at that.

My gift shopping accomplished for my trip, I can now focus the rest of my money on buying food. I’ve decided that if I’ve renounced vegetarianism for these 2 months, I might as well do it completely (aside from pork) and enjoy myself. Beef is a newfound wonder, though I’m more interested in trying the stuff that’s a little more out there. Like donkey, rabbit, or BBQ squid. However, it might take a while to get to the sea slugs and chickens/ducks/geese with their heads and skin still on…

Tao and I also went to Tiantan on Sunday, a large Buddhist temple for that used to be used for praying for a bountiful harvest. It was a big place with a lot of grass and trees. It doubled as a park and there were people doing Tai Chi, some ribbon waving thing, and classical style music practice. There were some guys with s(z)itars, flutes, and other things I didn’t quite recognize practicing together in one of the corner squares. It was pretty cool. Buildings were impressive as always and there are some pictures of it.

I have to imagine that the Beijing area makes a lot of money off these historic monuments and areas. You have to pay to get onto the grounds and then pay something in addition to enter each main attraction. Still, buy American and European standards, its chicken scratch and I don’t feel bad about shelling out 20 or 30 yuan to see things (maybe 2 or 3 US dollars).

I have another observation and after discussing it with some students, we’re still confused on how things work. Babies don’t wear diapers here. I thought the first few toddlers I saw with large open holes in their pants/shorts were anomalies but apparently, it’s not. We haven’t figure out what exactly is the Chinese system for smaller toddlers but one of the students say the older babies just run away from their parents and do their business. You’d think it’d be unsanitary for an entire city to have un-diapered babies…I will ask one of our professors at some point and see if they can’t enlighten us a little.

Monday night I ate dinner with Tao and his dad at a hot pot place. Hot pot is basically the Chinese equivalent of Fondue. You drop vegetables, meat, and other things into boiling water and wait for it to cook. It’s fun to do with friends, though it can be almost like a James Bond mission to find the piece of something you’re looking for and then manage to pick it up. Beijing is big on hot pot during the winter and sheep is the meat of choice to eat in it. I had some…wasn’t too bad.

We each got to pile a plate of things to put in the hot pot and since I don’t know what most things are, I try to go with what looks familiar/good. Some things are innocuous enough-leafy greens and stuff. Looks can be deceiving however. For instance, I found some tofu and what looked like brown tofu. I figured, “Oh, they must use a different sort of bean curd, I’ll try this.” Turns out it wasn’t. It was actually congealed pig’s blood, cut into cubs that look a lot like tofu. Of course, I’m informed of this after I eat it. It’s almost useless to ask what things are so my questions on food have been more streamlined; “Is it meat? What kind? Does it taste good?”. I should have employed this method in this case, but it looked familiar. Note to self: don’t make assumptions…

Classes are going well I think. I’m learning stuff and practicing my ability to say things. My listening ability is much much better than my speaking ability. Probably because it gets used more often. We also get a little bit of fun trivia on Thursday since we officially ended class a little early. Mostly how the Simplified Character system isn’t really what people think it is or how it came to be. Apparently, the CCP at the time told everyone they designed/had it designed to make it easier for the common man to read and write, which might be true, but most of the simplified characters were taken from the Japanese. The Japanese borrowed the characters many many years prior and made them simpler, then the Chinese took them back. Lol. And out of about 60,000 character combinations, only 1500 were simplified. So, not what most people not-in-the-know think.

We also learned a few jokes. I heard and (hopefully) can say them in Chinese but roughly they would be,

“Why is the sea salty? Because fish swim and get sweaty in it.”

“Which mouse has two legs? Micky Mouse. Which duck has two legs? All of them.”

Friday we had a test, which didn’t go screamingly awful in my opinion, and then took a trip to the Summer Palace. It was really foggy/smoggy that day so the pictures of the scenery didn’t really come out that well, but meh. That was also the first time the air really got to me. If you get to watch the videos I’ve been taking, that particular part has me coughing a lung or two out. One of the other guys calls his long bouts of coughing “An Ode to Beijing”. It was a long day of walking. So much walking in this country. I’m probably losing weight.

The Summer Palace was built by Empress Dowager for her own personal summer play place using funds that were supposed to be used to upgrade the royal navy. Needless to say, she was less than the most popular ruler. However, today, it makes an impressive tourist destination.

Today I met the other students at the Hotel for check out and got on a bus that took us to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (called the Palace Museum here on all tourist maps). Tiananmen Square was pretty uninteresting actually. A large space. The coolest part about it was that I was where I’d watched a documentary on the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident in my FSEM and History class. There was the monument to the student revolutionaries of the various revolutions China has had. I saw the Chinese building of Congress and Mao’s tomb. We didn’t go see him since we didn’t have time and honestly, I don’t want to. Who wants to see an entombed dead guy who created havoc for decades? Granted, he did a bunch of good things for China too, but was a classic case of megalomania. We did see that famous portrait of Mao hanging about the entrance to Tiananmen. He wasn’t all that attractive either.

[Update: The body might be a wax model because they messed up the real one trying to embalm it. Yay, even better…]

The Forbidden City was pretty cool. I think I found the building Disney based the scene in the movie Mulan where she runs up the stairs on Khan to meet and greet the Emperor. If I didn’t, I’m just going to pretend it is. It’s a little strange to see the flaring dragon and lion studded roofs and in the same horizon, see sky scrapers and cranes.

I got an answer to my questions about the stone lions that guard the entrances to some buildings. The one on the left is usually a female and under her right front paw is her baby. I always thought it looked like the big was crushing the smaller one to death, but apparently she’s playing with the cub. The one on the right is the male and he’s got a ball under his left front paw. My professor didn’t know why that was. Something about play again probably.

At the F.C there were giant iron cauldrons places everywhere. One of our professors told us that these were used to collect rainwater in case of a fire. If a fire were to break out, men with little buckets would draw water out of these much bigger iron buckets. Seems inefficient and not very effective… which might be why so many buildings had to be rebuilt after fires. Burning incense for the ancestors and invaders have a tendency to cause fires.

Speaking of rain, apparently the everyday rain we’ve been having in Beijing is man made. They’re shooting chemicals into the sky that condense water and create rain. Seems really sketchy to me…but they’ve already got enough crude in the sky, why not a little bit more? ….

We had lunch after the F.C at a little place where there was kitten and it was CUTE!!! It was like a Mountain coon cat or something. So fuzzy and friendly. Lunch saw the serving of a fish with it’s head and skin still on. I figure this is actually normal in most parts of the world, but I honestly have no idea how to eat it. And it every piece of fish here has tons of bones in it. Yick and choke!

Speaking again of food and not making assumptions, I bought my first ice cream in China while at the F.C. It was a green bar and so I assumed it was apple. No. It was actually green pea. While it tasted alright, the idea of eating sweetened and mushed frozen peas turned me off. I mean, green pea?!? (apparently, dried peas are also a favored snack)

After lunch we headed toward the train station to hop on a train that would take us from Beijing to Yantai in about 13 hours. Of course, when we got off the bus and had to walk four blocks it was just beginning to rain. It was also one of the most crowded places I’ve walked through (the winner of that miserable contest would be the Museum of Natural History’s Hope Diamond exhibit). It didn’t help that I also had to pull my luggage along behind/beside me. There’s also the unpleasant habit of funneling people through one person wide spaces. It just doesn’t work when there’s hundreds/thousands of people trying to get through a door and the entrance is narrowed single-file 10 yards ahead of it. Mass public transportation in China is something I would go through a lot of effort to avoid. Anyone who knows me would understand the significance of that statement (I’m lazy).

The actual train was a bit of a shock too. I prefer that sort of shock to that of the train station mess though. It was a sleeper car and there were six beds in a 5ft wide 7 ft long 13 foot tall alcove. Basically, stacking people on people in a very small space. Hopefully some of the pictures the others took will find their way to me and I can share them at a later date. It was a quaint and homey place. By quaint and homey I mean cramped and no privacy. However, it was fun. We were allowed to speak English while we were on the train so some other students joined the people in my cubby for cards and story sharing. We tried to have a women sitting in the hall (which was very very narrow) take a picture of us but there were complications. After a while, she took a picture of us on her camera and promised to email it to one of us. Then she just took random pictures of it. It was a little odd, but we had figured out (and she also confirmed) that she really liked taking pictures and was an amateur photographer (she’d have to be to go through nearly 10 minutes of tries for a single picture).

And so ends my first stay in Beijing. I have to say there were pleasant and enjoyable parts to the city and living there, but I’m not terribly fond of it. It’s too big for this village-living college student. I also like looking at the sky and whether it’s blocked by smog or fog doesn’t make a big difference in my book. I like the big blue over me. Perhaps my next place of residence will be somewhere like Hamilton…only in Montana.