Well, I’m about as far away from anywhere I’ve ever lived as I can be. This summer (2008) I’m studying Chinese…in China! The program is called the Institute of East Asian Studies (affiliated with American University).
My flight left on the 14th at 5:30 (it was supposed to leave at 4:30…-_-‘) and was about 13 hours. It sounds a lot more daunting than it actually was. I think I slept for the first several, putzed around for another couple and took 2 hour naps following. It’s a little too early to say since I haven’t tried to sleep a night after a full day here yet, but I think I managed to time it to avoid the jet lag too. Beijing is exactly 12 hours different from New York.
I got in around 7:30pm (Beijing time) and had to go through customs. I would have been out of customs in 20 minutes, but I happened along a little confusion. See, you needed to fill out an exit card, which is what they called it on the little board read outs above each counter. However, a little non-descript table labeled “arrival cards” was in the back and I didn’t even see it. So I had to go back and wait at the end of the line, which was much longer than when I first got there. So it took me about an hour to get through. The upside to that was I didn’t have to wait for my luggage at all; I found it right when I saw the claim. Granted, that was probably because they were the last two left.
The rest of the evening was spent being picked up by my hosts, going to have dinner, and going to bed because tomorrow/today is/was orientation!
It’s like a dream come true. No, not the 7 page test entirely in Chinese characters I don’t remember or have never seen before, or the blotched oral interview where I couldn’t think of anything to say so I told them I had a younger brother, three cats, and two lizards. No, what’s really really great and wonderful is that I’m an international student! I can finally fit in with the rest of my friends; you know like the ones I hang out with from Russia, India, Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Trinidad, etc. Course, when I return I’ll again be a boring domestic student, but I was once too! (take that freshman I haven’t met yet who look at me strange when I say I’m from Florida at Colgate International Community meetings!)
So we had the test, which I know we all bombed. The highest score was a 68, but it was only a placement test to determine which group we should be put in. There are three classes of 3-4 people. There are about 13 of us this summer. Then we had a group lunch where the food just never stopped coming. It’s difficult for me to tell you what the dishes where, since I can’t remember their names, but it was a lot of stuff. Beef, chicken, white rice (which is bland as hell but a great bed), lamb on toothpicks, shredded tofu which looked like octopus tentacles, pumpkin slices, taro (which is a root that when cubed is very much like a potato in shape and texture), and some vegetable dishes. A highlight of my day was learning the Chinese word for broccoli-I’m not sure why but it was. In case you’re wondering it’s something akin to “xilanhau”.
After lunch we met with Dr. Youli Sun (Tao’s dad) since he’s the program director and he talked to us about the language pledge we were going to sign. Stuff about commitment and things like that. That was all normal stuff you can image. But how about this- we were in the basement-turned classroom of one of the neighboring buildings and they could not open the doors when we went to leave. I mean, stuck stuck wait for ten minutes until someone figures it out. I mean, you’ve got a room full of college kids, 2 master degree holders, and 2 PhDs, and we could not open that door. Really entertaining really.
We took a tour of Beida (<-Peking University) next and that went on for quite some time. A Physics major named Ben was our guide and took us around. Like all the other Universities in China, it’s walled in with gates placed at strategic locations. The campus is quite beautiful, at least on the North East end. Hopefully I’ll convince myself that I’m not lazy and go back and take some pictures. I can’t say the same some parts of the rest.
The NE side had a sizable lake named “No name lake”- it’s some Taoist thing. Nameless things have power or are unable to be overpowered, bleh blah, something something. There were willows and other trees I couldn’t identify but looked like some sort of oak around the lake and forested areas in general. It took us a while to figure out that the white bases of the brown trees up until about 3 feet was bug repellant. And here I thought it was some exotic multi-colored tree species.
The library is impressive and apparently the biggest in all of East Asia. When I mean the building went up and out forever, I mean it. It was HUGE. And designed in a typical Asianish fashioned as you would image with flaring roofs and stone lions nearby. Which I might add, are anatomically correct. The female lion is on the left holding a ball, and the male on the right holding something which I can’t currently remember.
We also attempted and did get gym membership access. That was an interesting experience as the girl was a little abrupt, though really not rude, and we decided to agree that 200 yuan was too much for 2 weeks. We (though not I) talked ourselves into a group discount.
Tour ended, we went back to the office to get our books and class assignments and I walked back to where I’m staying. Took a detour or two to look at what shops are nearby. Bootlegged DVDs here I come! Hehe, lol, just kidding...maybe…
Now I’m sitting around relaxing and getting around to writing this. I probably won’t have much to say, since most days will be the same I think, going to class from 9 to 5 and then sleeping like a log. But we’ll see.
First impressions of this new place-
There is no sky. I thought it was foggy when I landed and that’s why it was a little unclear, but today dawned semi-bright and gray. The Sun’s blocked out. Rather depressing when you think about it from an ecological and human mental standpoint. I hear it clears up when it rains. Also depressing.
Traffic wasn’t as bad as I first had expected. Yeah there are a lot of people on the road, cars, bikes, and peds, but not the constant stop and go I had expected. Again, I’ll have to wait and see if that changes once I’ve see more of the city over time.
Watching people go around wearing facemasks is a little disconcerting and vaguely worrisome. The air is very…less than clean. The reasons for that are obvious
I have never seen so many bikes in all my life. Big bikes, small bikes, tricked out bikes, bikes that look like mopeds but aren’t, mopeds that are also bikes. It’s amazing really. What’s even more amazing is that the bikes, cars, and people don’t crash into each other. There seems to be a blatant disregard for each other but some sort of magnetic polarization that keeps them all from colliding. It’s interesting to see how fast you pick that up too. I seem to have already lost screaming-run away factor of a car coming at you. Now it’s more of a “meh step to 2 feet to the side” attitude.
Two weeks in Beijing. I’m looking forward to it and have set my goals at speaking at a much higher proficiency level than I’m at currently, if not fluently, and not getting run over by a bike or car.
