And I have the t-shirt to prove it!
Our day started with a bus ride at 7AM. We arrived at the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall around 9AM after a gorgeous drive through the mountains. I fell asleep sometime while we were still in an urban area, and when I woke up, we were in the mountains and I could not take my eyes off what was outside my window.
We got off the bus, stopped at the restroom, and then proceeded up a slope to get to the wall itself. Going up the slope was more difficult than any of the climbing we did on the wall itself. The Wall has steps and towers, and the steps are uneven. They can be very shallow or very steep, and they often vary within the same staircase. The towers were nice because they gave us some shade on a sunny day. It was breezy on the Wall, so the heat was not too terribly oppressive.
The thing about the Great Wall is that after a while, all the stone looks the same. The views, however, change with every step and I found myself saying, "Oh my G-d this is SO BEAUTIFUL!!" repeatedly throughout the day. I took a lot of pictures of scenery because it was that special. The beauty of nature is so different from the beauty of a cityscape, and I think I enjoyed it even more after being in Beijing itself for two weeks. The air was so clear and we could see the sky and the sun for the first time since we arrived.
I find it hard to tell this experience as a story because so much of it was, "this is so pretty!" or "let's take a picture here!" or "we're going to the next tower; be careful on the stairs." We did have a souvenir seller follow us on our entire trek, which was a pretty clever business model because the tourists notice and will buy because she did the entire walk. I brought one bottle of water on the climb with me and had three more after we were done. Well, one was a soda. And I had an ice cream bar as well because it was hot. But we did a lot of physical activity, so it's okay.
We headed back to campus around 2PM, and we arrived around 4. I fell asleep on the way back, and when I woke up and looked out the window, BAM! Olympic Village/Stadium. Casual Bird's Nest and Water Cube right outside our bus window. It looks so much bigger in person! I took a shower first thing when we got back, then did a load of laundry because it was a very sweaty day. I had dinner on campus, and then had a quiet, restful night in.
Today is awesome because I climbed the Great Wall of China!!!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Beijing Zoo
Today started out quite normally: yogurt for breakfast, 3 hours of Chinese class (we had an electronic dictation and we had to type in Chinese rather than write), lunch. At lunch, Zhang Laoshi (of the program) informed us that Public Health class was cancelled for the afternoon, so I went to the zoo with four other people.
I'm glad I went to the zoo because if I hadn't, I would have been mad at myself and wondered what it was like, but now that I've gone, I don't feel the need to go back to see the exhibits I missed. The zoo was kind of depressing. It was clearly designed for the humans to enjoy rather than for the animals to be comfortable and to teach about nature, wildlife, and habitats. There were beautiful walking paths, lakes, and green areas. We first saw a large exhibit of pheasants (chickens), followed by a skunk, then a raccoon, and foxes. These were disappointing, since they are the ordinary wildlife in our region of the US.
We weren't sure if we got tickets for a boat tour, so we went to the boat, and found out we didn't get those tickets, but went to see the elephants nearby. It was more fun to climb on the statues of elephants than to see the animals because their pens were about the same size as the foxes'. They looked very sad in such a small space, but were majestic as ever.
Our group really enjoyed the enormous statue of a puma (we think) that we saw as we walked back toward the lions and tigers. Those enclosures were pretty cool, and the animals were out and visible. We then went over to the Australian exhibit where we saw kangaroos, an emu, and another large bird whose name eludes me. Those were pretty cool as well.
We tried to see the tapirs because it's my favorite animal that nobody's heard of and my dad likes them, but the tapirs were not out and I was sad. From there, we went to see the pandas. The panda exhibit is a special ticket you buy before entering and there were two houses that we went into. In the first one, the pandas were visible, but looked tired and were not social at all. I was pretty upset by how dirty they looked and the way visitors were banging on the plexiglass of the enclosure. The pandas have a good amount of space relative to their size, so at least they weren't as cramped as the elephants.
The second house had better lighting, and there were two pandas in the exhibit. One was sitting further back eating a whole stack of bamboo and the other was sitting in a rocking chair. The chair panda got out of the chair, moseyed around a bit, then climbed up and rested on a rock in a very deliberate pose. These were the most adorable animals.
After the zoo, about 20 of us met up to go to dinner for one student's birthday. In addition to the students from our trip, he had three friends from home who are also in Beijing join us. I ran into language partner Eric on the subway, which was the strangest coincidence that we ended up in the same car completely unplanned. We tried to go to a dumpling/dim sum restaurant, but we did not have sufficiently good directions, so we ended up splitting our group and half going to Korean barbeque and the other half eating Sichuan. I was in the Chinese food group with the birthday boy, and we had a great time. Matt is hilarious, and the food was amazing. We had a potato dish, bok choy, noodles, baozi, pork, duck, beef, fish, and another breadlike dish. It was all delicious! They brought the fish to our table while it was still twitching in a plastic bag before cooking it and bringing it back to us, which was a very Chinese experience to have.
One big thing I've learned this week is that to get around in China, you have to be pushy. Nobody just waits in a line; they push to the front and make themselves heard. You can't hang back because people will just cut in front of you. It's a difficult balance to be sufficiently pushy to get what I need without being a rude American, but I think I'm getting there because I was the first one to get a subway ticket the last few times. It's a pretty big culture shift, and we are all wondering what it will be like to go home and have to wait once again in just six weeks.
Today is awesome because I saw a panda in a rocking chair.
I'm glad I went to the zoo because if I hadn't, I would have been mad at myself and wondered what it was like, but now that I've gone, I don't feel the need to go back to see the exhibits I missed. The zoo was kind of depressing. It was clearly designed for the humans to enjoy rather than for the animals to be comfortable and to teach about nature, wildlife, and habitats. There were beautiful walking paths, lakes, and green areas. We first saw a large exhibit of pheasants (chickens), followed by a skunk, then a raccoon, and foxes. These were disappointing, since they are the ordinary wildlife in our region of the US.
We weren't sure if we got tickets for a boat tour, so we went to the boat, and found out we didn't get those tickets, but went to see the elephants nearby. It was more fun to climb on the statues of elephants than to see the animals because their pens were about the same size as the foxes'. They looked very sad in such a small space, but were majestic as ever.
Our group really enjoyed the enormous statue of a puma (we think) that we saw as we walked back toward the lions and tigers. Those enclosures were pretty cool, and the animals were out and visible. We then went over to the Australian exhibit where we saw kangaroos, an emu, and another large bird whose name eludes me. Those were pretty cool as well.
We tried to see the tapirs because it's my favorite animal that nobody's heard of and my dad likes them, but the tapirs were not out and I was sad. From there, we went to see the pandas. The panda exhibit is a special ticket you buy before entering and there were two houses that we went into. In the first one, the pandas were visible, but looked tired and were not social at all. I was pretty upset by how dirty they looked and the way visitors were banging on the plexiglass of the enclosure. The pandas have a good amount of space relative to their size, so at least they weren't as cramped as the elephants.
The second house had better lighting, and there were two pandas in the exhibit. One was sitting further back eating a whole stack of bamboo and the other was sitting in a rocking chair. The chair panda got out of the chair, moseyed around a bit, then climbed up and rested on a rock in a very deliberate pose. These were the most adorable animals.
After the zoo, about 20 of us met up to go to dinner for one student's birthday. In addition to the students from our trip, he had three friends from home who are also in Beijing join us. I ran into language partner Eric on the subway, which was the strangest coincidence that we ended up in the same car completely unplanned. We tried to go to a dumpling/dim sum restaurant, but we did not have sufficiently good directions, so we ended up splitting our group and half going to Korean barbeque and the other half eating Sichuan. I was in the Chinese food group with the birthday boy, and we had a great time. Matt is hilarious, and the food was amazing. We had a potato dish, bok choy, noodles, baozi, pork, duck, beef, fish, and another breadlike dish. It was all delicious! They brought the fish to our table while it was still twitching in a plastic bag before cooking it and bringing it back to us, which was a very Chinese experience to have.
One big thing I've learned this week is that to get around in China, you have to be pushy. Nobody just waits in a line; they push to the front and make themselves heard. You can't hang back because people will just cut in front of you. It's a difficult balance to be sufficiently pushy to get what I need without being a rude American, but I think I'm getting there because I was the first one to get a subway ticket the last few times. It's a pretty big culture shift, and we are all wondering what it will be like to go home and have to wait once again in just six weeks.
Today is awesome because I saw a panda in a rocking chair.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Peking University Health Science Center and Zoo Market
Today was our first hospital site visit for Public Health. We got on our bus in the rain at 8:30AM and drove to the Peking University Health Science Center. Dr. Yi met us there, and we walked (outside and in the rain) to see the various buildings that make up the hospital campus. It takes up a few city blocks and has restaurants and shops interspersed with the medical buildings. We went inside the general hospital outpatient building, the mental hospital building, and the reproductive health building.
This hospital has many famous doctors in China, so people travel from other provinces just to be treated there. It is known for sports medicine (they were on call for the 2008 Olympics), eye care, and reproductive health (they were the first successful in vitro fertilization in China). The 2,000 doctors see 8,000 outpatients daily, and the inpatients are in different buildings from the general hospital we saw.
The general hospital has six floors (we rode a lot of escalators) with different wings that each have a specialty. The interior design is modern and clean, somewhere between the traditional hospital sharpness and the new style of holisitc decor to promote healing. Patients enter the hospital and go to the specialists they think that they need to see. They even self-diagnose if they think they need surgery and will go straight to see a surgeon. There are no appointments in the Chinese health system, so patients start lining up as early as 3AM to stand in line to get their name on the list to see the doctor they want to see. Then they are given a number and wait to be called.
Billing happens at the end, and the health insurance covers a percentage of the treatments, but Chinese health insurance (the country is 92% covered) has high premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. They get papers stamped for their reimbursements, see the pharmacists who have OTC drugs, prescription drugs (usually only the ones on the Essential Medicines List), and Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies. TCM at this hospital is on the sixth floor and was the least crowded of the waiting areas. Things are expensive at the pharmacy! I looked at the price of a One Touch Ultra Mini Glucometer, and it was 528 Yuan, which is $88 US. You can get one of these meters at CVS for $20, so I was shocked at the markup. Another flaw with billing in the Chinese system is the way fee for service works. The prescribing doctor gets a commission for each test he/she prescribes, and since the government has capped doctors' salaries, they use this part of the system to over prescribe unnecessary tests (which happens but cannot be proven) to increase their salaries. The waiting room for the lab was packed, and there are touch screen kiosks for patients to print their test results once they are available.
When you see a picture of a crowded waiting room, it gives you an idea of what you will see when you go to that kind of hospital. Being there in person and walking through and past the hordes of people trying to see a specific doctor (whether it's the appropriate person or not) is a totally different experience. The Chinese healthcare system is 100% about who the patients trust, so public hospitals like the one we visited today are extremely crowded and busy, while smaller clinics see very few patients because the doctors are not as famous.
As flawed as the American health system is (and I truly disparage the bureaucracy of our fee for service system), I think the Chinese system is worse. For a country with so much governmental control, I was expecting things to be more organized and less every man for himself. Our guide told us that there are people who will wait at the reproductive health center to get places in line and then sell them for 500 Yuan, and people pay because they want to see the doctors. She also told us about a trial for an online appointment system to see doctors rather than a walk in and wait system, but people booked many appointments and did not show up, so nobody got to see the doctor that day. There is a serious cultural shift that needs to occur for any of these health systems to work, and that kind of change takes a huge amount of public influence, and I am not sure anyone can be so commanding since Mao.
Having a walk in only system leaves many gaps. Not everyone gets seen, and since there is no general practitioner to recommend a specialist, the patients can go to the wrong person and not have time to see the proper person. Until today I did not think that GPs were a good feature of a health system, but now I think that it is very important to have an expert who can recommend the proper treatment path. If there are not enough beds, the patients are told to go elsewhere (no transport, and this even happens to women in labor). For chronic condition follow up appointments, the patients have to come in and hope that there's time for them to be seen, and they won't necessarily have the same doctor for consecutive appointments. There is no concept of having "your" doctor in China.
The mental hospital was interesting. It was an older building, still crowded, and the trivia there was that at exam time, students will check in because of stress and be fine as soon as the test is past. The reproductive health hospital was very crowded with both men and women. Because of education and salaries, people are starting their families much later in China, but children are still highly prized and valued, so being able to have a baby is very important. With age, both the men and the women may need interventions to aid conception, so this hospital is packed. Interestingly enough, abortion is legal in China and it happens quite often with younger women and girls who are not of family-starting age.
The hospital tour took all morning, and we re-joined our Political and Economic Development classmates for lunch (which was very late because the rain makes people order delivery, so it took longer than expected). After lunch, I went with Marissa and Maitreyi to the Zoo Market. There are clothing markets across the street from the Beijing Zoo, which has its own subway stop. We originally wanted to go to the zoo, but it was raining (did I mention the rain?), so we went to the indoor market instead.
It was HUGE!! It was also filled with things I did not want/need to buy, but I enjoyed the experience. I almost got another fanny pack, but I decided that the one I have is enough. All the stalls had the same type of merchandise, so after a while of looking at the same shirts, shorts, dresses, and shoes (there were multiple floors of shoes), we went home. I think the market was a good experience, but after the Pearl Market, it wasn't as exciting, particularly because I think Pearl Market had better stuff, or at least more variety. We were all interested in buying souvenir-type things, and this place did not have that.
I have started to recognize Chinese characters as we go around the city. For instance, I found "hao" on the subway. It feels really cool to be understanding things after just two weeks. I washed my sheets this afternoon, and there was a repairman working on the dryer, and he said something to me that included the word "meiguo," which means America, and that's all I caught from what he said, but I would not have gotten even that much last week. Unfortunately, I did not get to use the dryer, so I now have sheets hanging from my armoir doors in my room.
I had dinner with five other people from my program and two of the language partners. We ate at the noodle cafeteria on campus. Mine were slightly spicy and had peanut sauce. I also had an egg with them. It was tasty. After dinner, I came home. and wrapped up my day with some serious studying for tomorrow's Chinese test.
Today is awesome because it was all experiential learning.
This hospital has many famous doctors in China, so people travel from other provinces just to be treated there. It is known for sports medicine (they were on call for the 2008 Olympics), eye care, and reproductive health (they were the first successful in vitro fertilization in China). The 2,000 doctors see 8,000 outpatients daily, and the inpatients are in different buildings from the general hospital we saw.
The general hospital has six floors (we rode a lot of escalators) with different wings that each have a specialty. The interior design is modern and clean, somewhere between the traditional hospital sharpness and the new style of holisitc decor to promote healing. Patients enter the hospital and go to the specialists they think that they need to see. They even self-diagnose if they think they need surgery and will go straight to see a surgeon. There are no appointments in the Chinese health system, so patients start lining up as early as 3AM to stand in line to get their name on the list to see the doctor they want to see. Then they are given a number and wait to be called.
Billing happens at the end, and the health insurance covers a percentage of the treatments, but Chinese health insurance (the country is 92% covered) has high premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. They get papers stamped for their reimbursements, see the pharmacists who have OTC drugs, prescription drugs (usually only the ones on the Essential Medicines List), and Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies. TCM at this hospital is on the sixth floor and was the least crowded of the waiting areas. Things are expensive at the pharmacy! I looked at the price of a One Touch Ultra Mini Glucometer, and it was 528 Yuan, which is $88 US. You can get one of these meters at CVS for $20, so I was shocked at the markup. Another flaw with billing in the Chinese system is the way fee for service works. The prescribing doctor gets a commission for each test he/she prescribes, and since the government has capped doctors' salaries, they use this part of the system to over prescribe unnecessary tests (which happens but cannot be proven) to increase their salaries. The waiting room for the lab was packed, and there are touch screen kiosks for patients to print their test results once they are available.
When you see a picture of a crowded waiting room, it gives you an idea of what you will see when you go to that kind of hospital. Being there in person and walking through and past the hordes of people trying to see a specific doctor (whether it's the appropriate person or not) is a totally different experience. The Chinese healthcare system is 100% about who the patients trust, so public hospitals like the one we visited today are extremely crowded and busy, while smaller clinics see very few patients because the doctors are not as famous.
As flawed as the American health system is (and I truly disparage the bureaucracy of our fee for service system), I think the Chinese system is worse. For a country with so much governmental control, I was expecting things to be more organized and less every man for himself. Our guide told us that there are people who will wait at the reproductive health center to get places in line and then sell them for 500 Yuan, and people pay because they want to see the doctors. She also told us about a trial for an online appointment system to see doctors rather than a walk in and wait system, but people booked many appointments and did not show up, so nobody got to see the doctor that day. There is a serious cultural shift that needs to occur for any of these health systems to work, and that kind of change takes a huge amount of public influence, and I am not sure anyone can be so commanding since Mao.
Having a walk in only system leaves many gaps. Not everyone gets seen, and since there is no general practitioner to recommend a specialist, the patients can go to the wrong person and not have time to see the proper person. Until today I did not think that GPs were a good feature of a health system, but now I think that it is very important to have an expert who can recommend the proper treatment path. If there are not enough beds, the patients are told to go elsewhere (no transport, and this even happens to women in labor). For chronic condition follow up appointments, the patients have to come in and hope that there's time for them to be seen, and they won't necessarily have the same doctor for consecutive appointments. There is no concept of having "your" doctor in China.
The mental hospital was interesting. It was an older building, still crowded, and the trivia there was that at exam time, students will check in because of stress and be fine as soon as the test is past. The reproductive health hospital was very crowded with both men and women. Because of education and salaries, people are starting their families much later in China, but children are still highly prized and valued, so being able to have a baby is very important. With age, both the men and the women may need interventions to aid conception, so this hospital is packed. Interestingly enough, abortion is legal in China and it happens quite often with younger women and girls who are not of family-starting age.
The hospital tour took all morning, and we re-joined our Political and Economic Development classmates for lunch (which was very late because the rain makes people order delivery, so it took longer than expected). After lunch, I went with Marissa and Maitreyi to the Zoo Market. There are clothing markets across the street from the Beijing Zoo, which has its own subway stop. We originally wanted to go to the zoo, but it was raining (did I mention the rain?), so we went to the indoor market instead.
It was HUGE!! It was also filled with things I did not want/need to buy, but I enjoyed the experience. I almost got another fanny pack, but I decided that the one I have is enough. All the stalls had the same type of merchandise, so after a while of looking at the same shirts, shorts, dresses, and shoes (there were multiple floors of shoes), we went home. I think the market was a good experience, but after the Pearl Market, it wasn't as exciting, particularly because I think Pearl Market had better stuff, or at least more variety. We were all interested in buying souvenir-type things, and this place did not have that.
I have started to recognize Chinese characters as we go around the city. For instance, I found "hao" on the subway. It feels really cool to be understanding things after just two weeks. I washed my sheets this afternoon, and there was a repairman working on the dryer, and he said something to me that included the word "meiguo," which means America, and that's all I caught from what he said, but I would not have gotten even that much last week. Unfortunately, I did not get to use the dryer, so I now have sheets hanging from my armoir doors in my room.
I had dinner with five other people from my program and two of the language partners. We ate at the noodle cafeteria on campus. Mine were slightly spicy and had peanut sauce. I also had an egg with them. It was tasty. After dinner, I came home. and wrapped up my day with some serious studying for tomorrow's Chinese test.
Today is awesome because it was all experiential learning.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
More Learning
There's a whole lot of learning going on here!! In just a few days, I have compiled a stack of about 40 flashcards in characters, pinyin, and English translation for all my Chinese vocabulary. In addition to these vocab words from the book, we went through some survival words and phrases in class today, so I can finally count as well as tell you the day of the week, the month of the year, and what kind of meat I will eat. I seriously love Chinese class. We learn so much, it's so fun, and our teacher and TAs are the sweetest people ever. They push us to be out of the comfort zone, but never let us get to the panic zone. It's just wonderful.
We had pizza for lunch today, and it was a rather fluffy crust with sauce and veggies or Asian sauce and veggies and chicken. I tried those two kinds, and there were two with sausage/ham on them. During our midday break, I started my Chinese homework because I have a lot to do before Friday's class when we have a test. In public health, we had the same teacher we had on the first day, and he finished talking about the schooling required to be a doctor/public health professional in China before moving onto food borne diseases in China. He talked a lot about what the hormones and antibiotics do to the food, and it was interesting, but also a little freaky. We have our field trip tomorrow, which should be fun.
After class, my suitemate and I got ice cream bars and stopped in the housing service office to refresh our hot water because it shut off again. Students who are here year round have limited electricity and hot water, so we have to get a card that recharges the hot water for our room when we run out. Our university has a deal here or something that it's unlimited for us, which is nice, but still a nuisance that our water can shut off mid-shower. I did more Chinese homework, and then Andrea and I met our language partners for dinner.
Helen was coming from her singing class where they spent a lot of time learning a few lines of "Seasons of Love," so she was a bit frustrated with the class because she already knew the song. We met up with Andrea's buddy, and then went to a noodle place on campus for dinner. The noodles were a regional specialty, and they were very soft. They reminded me of egg noodles in shape, except long like fettuccine, and much softer. They were in a sauce/soup that had beans, mushrooms, beef, and cilantro in it. I'm not a fan of cilantro, but the dish as a whole tasted good. I particularly liked the noodles. Next time I'm going to try either that kind with tomatoes and eggs like Andrea's language partner had, or I'll go to a different window for a different kind.
Andrea and I stopped for bottled drinks on the way home, then I finished writing my Chinese characters and started writing this blog. I wasn't going to do anything special tonight after deciding I was too tired to do the hour commute for a jazz/swing night with some of my friends, but then another group was going to the nearby pizza place, so I went there and had a great time. I met my neighbors on my way home, and then finished both my homework and this blog and went to bed.
Today is notsome because my blister that was almost gone now has a blister of its own. I have lost all hope of pain-free walking while at the Great Wall on Saturday. And I have been wearing exclusively sneakers on this trip, so the blisters are particularly bothersome because I was wearing what we at camp call "smart shoes."
Today is awesome because of the extremely pleasant weather! It was neither too hot nor rainy today, which was the first time the climate felt good in the time that I've been here.
We had pizza for lunch today, and it was a rather fluffy crust with sauce and veggies or Asian sauce and veggies and chicken. I tried those two kinds, and there were two with sausage/ham on them. During our midday break, I started my Chinese homework because I have a lot to do before Friday's class when we have a test. In public health, we had the same teacher we had on the first day, and he finished talking about the schooling required to be a doctor/public health professional in China before moving onto food borne diseases in China. He talked a lot about what the hormones and antibiotics do to the food, and it was interesting, but also a little freaky. We have our field trip tomorrow, which should be fun.
After class, my suitemate and I got ice cream bars and stopped in the housing service office to refresh our hot water because it shut off again. Students who are here year round have limited electricity and hot water, so we have to get a card that recharges the hot water for our room when we run out. Our university has a deal here or something that it's unlimited for us, which is nice, but still a nuisance that our water can shut off mid-shower. I did more Chinese homework, and then Andrea and I met our language partners for dinner.
Helen was coming from her singing class where they spent a lot of time learning a few lines of "Seasons of Love," so she was a bit frustrated with the class because she already knew the song. We met up with Andrea's buddy, and then went to a noodle place on campus for dinner. The noodles were a regional specialty, and they were very soft. They reminded me of egg noodles in shape, except long like fettuccine, and much softer. They were in a sauce/soup that had beans, mushrooms, beef, and cilantro in it. I'm not a fan of cilantro, but the dish as a whole tasted good. I particularly liked the noodles. Next time I'm going to try either that kind with tomatoes and eggs like Andrea's language partner had, or I'll go to a different window for a different kind.
Andrea and I stopped for bottled drinks on the way home, then I finished writing my Chinese characters and started writing this blog. I wasn't going to do anything special tonight after deciding I was too tired to do the hour commute for a jazz/swing night with some of my friends, but then another group was going to the nearby pizza place, so I went there and had a great time. I met my neighbors on my way home, and then finished both my homework and this blog and went to bed.
Today is notsome because my blister that was almost gone now has a blister of its own. I have lost all hope of pain-free walking while at the Great Wall on Saturday. And I have been wearing exclusively sneakers on this trip, so the blisters are particularly bothersome because I was wearing what we at camp call "smart shoes."
Today is awesome because of the extremely pleasant weather! It was neither too hot nor rainy today, which was the first time the climate felt good in the time that I've been here.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Asking for Tea
I hit a milestone for my time in China: I asked for tea in the shop today! There is a small store on the first floor of the building where we have Chinese class, and I wanted to buy an iced tea, so I went down during our break expecting to be able to take one from a cooler then pay like I have been, but the fridge was behind the counter. I pointed and said "cha" and the lady handed me the tea. SUCCESS!!! Achievement unlocked. I am so stupidly proud of myself for doing this, but it's the first time I've done that, and it feels really good.
We did vocab work in Chinese today and learned 9 more characters. We had 2 hours of review before our quiz, and she left the characters on the board while we had to write them, so the dictation went very well. We had the Japanese lunches again, and I had a nice break in my dorm room before public health class. We had a quantitative researcher lecture on maternal and child health and infectious diseases in China with a focus on the Millennium Development Goals (4, 5, and 7). Because the focus was so quantitative, it was kind of a dry lecture, but the policy of increasing hospital births has made a huge difference in maternal mortality and neonatal mortality. Public health is a longer class, but since we have different lecturers each day, we don't have homework, so it is worth it.
After class, I went back to the dorm to do my Chinese homework, check e-mail, and then head out for dinner. I met up with friends at 6:00, and we went to the cafeteria. I ate rice and a dish with chicken and green peppers and ginger. It was good, but I also tried a couple of dishes that I didn't end up eating (one was deceptively cold and the other was deceptively pork; the food was very inexpensive, so I wasn't busting my budget). I like eating in the cafeteria because it's the food that the students eat, so it's real Chinese food. Comparing it to my college dining hall, I realize it's probably not the best sample of the local fare, but I'm experiencing what life is really like here at PKU.
After dinner, we were heading over to the on campus superstore, Wu Mei, when we got caught in a flash rainstorm. As we waited under the cover of a bank, we realized (I was with Robert, Matt, Feifei, and Brain, btw) there was another store that was three stalls down on the street. We went there instead of Wu Mei, and I think it was better. It had a wider selection of foods that were good for dorm storage and breakfast in addition to other necessary items (toilet paper) and tchochkes (alarm clocks, reading lights, etc.). I got some breakfast rolls, green tea, crackers, peanut mochi, and dried mango, and I'm very happy to have these things. They will last a while.
Attached to the grocery is a store that sells pens, padfolios, notebooks, linens, and PKU merch. I found a calligraphy pen in the bins, and I got it to practice my characters with. I wrote "I am a foreign student. My name is Bai He." on a piece of paper I had, and I love the way this pen makes my characters look. I'm excited to use it in class tomorrow :)
The last few days have been kind of rainy here. Today was the worst, with major water falling from the sky as I had to walk to my morning class, but it still remains hot (though not oppressively so). I was glad to have my umbrella, but it would be way too hot for galoshes. There are tons of puddles on campus and the water that pools looks really gross and muddy and dirty, so it's a game to try to avoid stepping in them. Galoshes would be useful, and it is certainly not sandal weather.
I think all of us are really adjusting to life here and settling into a calm existence. It's nice to have a pattern to my days while still having time to plan excursions to the zoo and Olympic village. I really like everything I'm doing, and can't wait to experience whatever comes next!
Today is awesome because I finally spoke Chinese to a Chinese person and was understood!
We did vocab work in Chinese today and learned 9 more characters. We had 2 hours of review before our quiz, and she left the characters on the board while we had to write them, so the dictation went very well. We had the Japanese lunches again, and I had a nice break in my dorm room before public health class. We had a quantitative researcher lecture on maternal and child health and infectious diseases in China with a focus on the Millennium Development Goals (4, 5, and 7). Because the focus was so quantitative, it was kind of a dry lecture, but the policy of increasing hospital births has made a huge difference in maternal mortality and neonatal mortality. Public health is a longer class, but since we have different lecturers each day, we don't have homework, so it is worth it.
After class, I went back to the dorm to do my Chinese homework, check e-mail, and then head out for dinner. I met up with friends at 6:00, and we went to the cafeteria. I ate rice and a dish with chicken and green peppers and ginger. It was good, but I also tried a couple of dishes that I didn't end up eating (one was deceptively cold and the other was deceptively pork; the food was very inexpensive, so I wasn't busting my budget). I like eating in the cafeteria because it's the food that the students eat, so it's real Chinese food. Comparing it to my college dining hall, I realize it's probably not the best sample of the local fare, but I'm experiencing what life is really like here at PKU.
After dinner, we were heading over to the on campus superstore, Wu Mei, when we got caught in a flash rainstorm. As we waited under the cover of a bank, we realized (I was with Robert, Matt, Feifei, and Brain, btw) there was another store that was three stalls down on the street. We went there instead of Wu Mei, and I think it was better. It had a wider selection of foods that were good for dorm storage and breakfast in addition to other necessary items (toilet paper) and tchochkes (alarm clocks, reading lights, etc.). I got some breakfast rolls, green tea, crackers, peanut mochi, and dried mango, and I'm very happy to have these things. They will last a while.
Attached to the grocery is a store that sells pens, padfolios, notebooks, linens, and PKU merch. I found a calligraphy pen in the bins, and I got it to practice my characters with. I wrote "I am a foreign student. My name is Bai He." on a piece of paper I had, and I love the way this pen makes my characters look. I'm excited to use it in class tomorrow :)
The last few days have been kind of rainy here. Today was the worst, with major water falling from the sky as I had to walk to my morning class, but it still remains hot (though not oppressively so). I was glad to have my umbrella, but it would be way too hot for galoshes. There are tons of puddles on campus and the water that pools looks really gross and muddy and dirty, so it's a game to try to avoid stepping in them. Galoshes would be useful, and it is certainly not sandal weather.
I think all of us are really adjusting to life here and settling into a calm existence. It's nice to have a pattern to my days while still having time to plan excursions to the zoo and Olympic village. I really like everything I'm doing, and can't wait to experience whatever comes next!
Today is awesome because I finally spoke Chinese to a Chinese person and was understood!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Our First Ordinary Day
Today was the first day that felt like we were finding a rhythm and routine to our weeks in China. We met at 8:30 to get updates about Chinese classes, had class 9-12, lunch, break, class 2-4, then free evening.
During Chinese class, we first reviewed all the pronunciation material we learned in the first two classes, then had a dictation quiz, then started the first chapter in our book by learning the 16-word vocab list. We have a dictation quiz tomorrow on the words in both characters and pinyin, the pronunciation, the meaning, and she will be stringing them into sentences. I'm quite nervous and have made flashcards to study in addition to the homework of writing each character six times. I also got my Chinese name today. Our second TA said, "do you like flowers?" and when I said yes, she said my name should be Lily, which is pronounced "bai he" (in pinyin; for those who don't do pinyin, it sounds like "bye huh?"). I like the name because Lily Evans is probably my favorite character in Harry Potter. It is strange to have a name that does not start with an "s" or "st" sound, though.
We had lunchboxes for lunch today. Mine had chicken but there were other meats, a fried egg, a bok choy rice noodle side dish, and a spicy celery side dish. In the meeting portion, Gu Laoshi told us that he is making a trip to Shanghai to meet with our university's President and that the first Public Health field trip is on Thursday. I'm pretty excited for a field trip, and we have one a week for the remainder of the first four.
During the break, a group of us went to put money on our student IDs so we could eat a on-campus cafeterias. It was a pretty simple process: you put your card on the machine, hand them cash, and then they put the cast through the scanner, which adds the value to your card. After that, I made a trip to the supermarket for lotion and flashcard paper, then got back to the dorm for a quick break before Public Health class.
That class was taught by a different professor today. He talked about China's healthcare system. I felt like the lecture was low on content and high on Mao for the time we were given, but I now have a sense of the Chinese healthcare system. There are various governmental administrative levels, and each level manages its own population's health. 92% of the citizens have health insurance, but between premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, they still pay a lot for healthcare. The providers are in a few different types of facilities, and patients do not make an appointment to see a physician, they just show up and wait.
Between the lack of public health infrastructure, lack of access, overuse of antibiotics, and prohibitive costs of healthcare in China, I actually prefer the American system, as flawed and profit-driven as it is. It scares me that in China doctors are more likely to prescribe unnecessary drugs and procedures just so they can increase their salaries (which two professors have independently and explicitly stated). Particularly with the overuse of antibiotics, I worry about drug resistant disease becoming increasingly dangerous in the future.
After class, I did my Chinese work, then had dinner in an on-campus cafeteria with a group of friends. We got there as they were closing, so we got the last of the food. I had cabbage and rice. After we finished, we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. We got back from dinner, I showered, blogged, studied, and went to bed.
Since today was kind of routine, I have to mention that when I step outside every day, and it was one of the first things I noticed, China smells different. Sure, you can attribute it to the air pollution, different water, food stalls, and squat toilets, but this is a distinct environmental feature. I think that the US has a particular smell, too, but we don't always notice it as much when it's the everyday thing. When I worked at camp last summer, camp always smells green to me because of the trees and grass. Home home and college smell blue in a kind of neutral way, with car exhaust and lake water being key scents. I'd classify China as a grey, foggy kind of smell, There is something there that is hard to pinpoint, and the things I listed above are each a component, but they are part of a more complex whole. It's not the most pleasant smell, but it's what I'm living in right now.
Today is awesome because I am recognizing words, phrases, and sequences in Chinese. Now if only I could synthesize it myself!
During Chinese class, we first reviewed all the pronunciation material we learned in the first two classes, then had a dictation quiz, then started the first chapter in our book by learning the 16-word vocab list. We have a dictation quiz tomorrow on the words in both characters and pinyin, the pronunciation, the meaning, and she will be stringing them into sentences. I'm quite nervous and have made flashcards to study in addition to the homework of writing each character six times. I also got my Chinese name today. Our second TA said, "do you like flowers?" and when I said yes, she said my name should be Lily, which is pronounced "bai he" (in pinyin; for those who don't do pinyin, it sounds like "bye huh?"). I like the name because Lily Evans is probably my favorite character in Harry Potter. It is strange to have a name that does not start with an "s" or "st" sound, though.
We had lunchboxes for lunch today. Mine had chicken but there were other meats, a fried egg, a bok choy rice noodle side dish, and a spicy celery side dish. In the meeting portion, Gu Laoshi told us that he is making a trip to Shanghai to meet with our university's President and that the first Public Health field trip is on Thursday. I'm pretty excited for a field trip, and we have one a week for the remainder of the first four.
During the break, a group of us went to put money on our student IDs so we could eat a on-campus cafeterias. It was a pretty simple process: you put your card on the machine, hand them cash, and then they put the cast through the scanner, which adds the value to your card. After that, I made a trip to the supermarket for lotion and flashcard paper, then got back to the dorm for a quick break before Public Health class.
That class was taught by a different professor today. He talked about China's healthcare system. I felt like the lecture was low on content and high on Mao for the time we were given, but I now have a sense of the Chinese healthcare system. There are various governmental administrative levels, and each level manages its own population's health. 92% of the citizens have health insurance, but between premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, they still pay a lot for healthcare. The providers are in a few different types of facilities, and patients do not make an appointment to see a physician, they just show up and wait.
Between the lack of public health infrastructure, lack of access, overuse of antibiotics, and prohibitive costs of healthcare in China, I actually prefer the American system, as flawed and profit-driven as it is. It scares me that in China doctors are more likely to prescribe unnecessary drugs and procedures just so they can increase their salaries (which two professors have independently and explicitly stated). Particularly with the overuse of antibiotics, I worry about drug resistant disease becoming increasingly dangerous in the future.
After class, I did my Chinese work, then had dinner in an on-campus cafeteria with a group of friends. We got there as they were closing, so we got the last of the food. I had cabbage and rice. After we finished, we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. We got back from dinner, I showered, blogged, studied, and went to bed.
Since today was kind of routine, I have to mention that when I step outside every day, and it was one of the first things I noticed, China smells different. Sure, you can attribute it to the air pollution, different water, food stalls, and squat toilets, but this is a distinct environmental feature. I think that the US has a particular smell, too, but we don't always notice it as much when it's the everyday thing. When I worked at camp last summer, camp always smells green to me because of the trees and grass. Home home and college smell blue in a kind of neutral way, with car exhaust and lake water being key scents. I'd classify China as a grey, foggy kind of smell, There is something there that is hard to pinpoint, and the things I listed above are each a component, but they are part of a more complex whole. It's not the most pleasant smell, but it's what I'm living in right now.
Today is awesome because I am recognizing words, phrases, and sequences in Chinese. Now if only I could synthesize it myself!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Pearl Market
Today was our first Sunday, which is our only day of the week that is entirely free of programming. I started out by planning on sleeping late, but actually waking up at 7AM and doing laundry. The machine does four different cycles, one costing one more 1Yuan coin than the other, and drying costs 1Yuan. I only had 2 coins, so I did one "quick wash" cycle, which took care of all my machine washable colors. I didn't use the dryer because I was told it was not very effective and I didn't have a third coin. I usually get 1Yuan bills in change rather than the coins and there isn't a machine to change them, so I have to get the coins as change from either the subway or vending machines.
At 10:30, I Skyped with my family who are all back in the States. It was 10:30PM on Saturday night there, and they had just returned from a family gathering. This was the first time I had spoken with them (rather than e-mailed) since arriving in China, and it felt good to be able to just talk. It's hard to arrange these times because of the 12-hour time difference, but I am going to start waking up early to Skype before class on a weekday so we can realistically talk at a moderately reasonable hour for both parties.
Once I was done Skyping, I coordinated with my suitemate Andrea, and we met up with our friend Maddy for lunch and then going to the Pearl Market for shopping. It was Maddy's birthday today, so we were in a festive mood. We had lunch at a cafe in the dorm area (building 5) where we each ordered a panini sandwich and a beverage. I had tuna, and it tasted really good. The sandwich was bread, tuna salad, ketchup, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, and it was warm. I drank a diet coke. My friends each had the ham panini, Maddy drank a coffee drink, and Andrea drank water.
The Hoqiao Pearl Market is about an hour away from campus. We took the subway, line 4 to line 10 to line 5, and it landed us directly across the street. The Pearl Market is indoors, four stories high, and bazaar-style. We really enjoyed bargaining with the vendors. Andrea, Maddy, and I met up with our friends Helen and Haley while we were there, and Haley won as the expert bargainer. There was a silk robe that the vendor was trying to sell her for about 1000Yuan that she got for 50, which is less than 10USD.
I got a set of makeup brushes (marketed as Bobbi Brown, whether they are or not, they are soft and a full set in a case, and I like them, particularly because I'm getting more into makeup) and Maddy and I got fanny packs for excursions. The packs are knockoff Le Sportsac bags; hers is traditional fanny pack shape and mine is a convertible square purse/fanny pack, depending on which straps I use. I bargained both of these items to less than half of the original asking price, and spent 102Yuan. They had multi-tools for sale, and I really wanted to get one for use in the theater when I get back to the US, but they weren't good enough quality for it to be worthwhile. The pliers were held by a flimsy spring and the tools were on the outside with nothing to lock them in place. I'm very happy with my purchases.
We headed back on the subway so we could put our stuff away and then head out for Maddy's birthday dinner. We met up with some more friends and Maddy's language partner, then walked over to a place called Laker's Pizza. The pizza was really good, and they have some great deals throughout the week. For instance, Sunday is free coffee all day, and 6-8PM there is a discount on medium and large pizzas. It was very good pizza! We all enjoyed having some plainer food after the many flavors of Chinese food. That said, I could still eat Asian flavors all the time (except I've had my fill of hot pot).
We walked back to campus, got ice cream bars from the C-Store, then went home to do homework and go to sleep! I took a shower, blogged, then practiced listening for tomorrow's Chinese quiz on pronunciation (we have to write pinyin (English transliteration) based on what we hear).
Today is awesome because of Skype and bargaining for fanny packs.
At 10:30, I Skyped with my family who are all back in the States. It was 10:30PM on Saturday night there, and they had just returned from a family gathering. This was the first time I had spoken with them (rather than e-mailed) since arriving in China, and it felt good to be able to just talk. It's hard to arrange these times because of the 12-hour time difference, but I am going to start waking up early to Skype before class on a weekday so we can realistically talk at a moderately reasonable hour for both parties.
Once I was done Skyping, I coordinated with my suitemate Andrea, and we met up with our friend Maddy for lunch and then going to the Pearl Market for shopping. It was Maddy's birthday today, so we were in a festive mood. We had lunch at a cafe in the dorm area (building 5) where we each ordered a panini sandwich and a beverage. I had tuna, and it tasted really good. The sandwich was bread, tuna salad, ketchup, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, and it was warm. I drank a diet coke. My friends each had the ham panini, Maddy drank a coffee drink, and Andrea drank water.
The Hoqiao Pearl Market is about an hour away from campus. We took the subway, line 4 to line 10 to line 5, and it landed us directly across the street. The Pearl Market is indoors, four stories high, and bazaar-style. We really enjoyed bargaining with the vendors. Andrea, Maddy, and I met up with our friends Helen and Haley while we were there, and Haley won as the expert bargainer. There was a silk robe that the vendor was trying to sell her for about 1000Yuan that she got for 50, which is less than 10USD.
I got a set of makeup brushes (marketed as Bobbi Brown, whether they are or not, they are soft and a full set in a case, and I like them, particularly because I'm getting more into makeup) and Maddy and I got fanny packs for excursions. The packs are knockoff Le Sportsac bags; hers is traditional fanny pack shape and mine is a convertible square purse/fanny pack, depending on which straps I use. I bargained both of these items to less than half of the original asking price, and spent 102Yuan. They had multi-tools for sale, and I really wanted to get one for use in the theater when I get back to the US, but they weren't good enough quality for it to be worthwhile. The pliers were held by a flimsy spring and the tools were on the outside with nothing to lock them in place. I'm very happy with my purchases.
We headed back on the subway so we could put our stuff away and then head out for Maddy's birthday dinner. We met up with some more friends and Maddy's language partner, then walked over to a place called Laker's Pizza. The pizza was really good, and they have some great deals throughout the week. For instance, Sunday is free coffee all day, and 6-8PM there is a discount on medium and large pizzas. It was very good pizza! We all enjoyed having some plainer food after the many flavors of Chinese food. That said, I could still eat Asian flavors all the time (except I've had my fill of hot pot).
We walked back to campus, got ice cream bars from the C-Store, then went home to do homework and go to sleep! I took a shower, blogged, then practiced listening for tomorrow's Chinese quiz on pronunciation (we have to write pinyin (English transliteration) based on what we hear).
Today is awesome because of Skype and bargaining for fanny packs.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
American Tourist with a Fanny Pack
Yup, that's me! But really, the fanny pack was so convenient today. My friend Maddy and I are getting matching awesome ones this week to take on the rest of the excursions.
Today was our first excursion, and we left campus promptly at 8AM to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. At about quarter to the hour, my suitemate Andrea and I tried to go to the C-Store to buy yogurt, but it doesn't open until 8:30 on weekends, so lesson learned. We had about a half an hour bus ride to our destinations, during which Gu Laoshi and our tour guide Lee gave us some background on the Forbidden City (no comments about Tiananmen Square other than not to bring up politics).
The Forbidden City was the residence of the Emperor during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are three areas: the political area (where events were held), the residential area, and the gardens. The compound was built 1403-1416.
We arrived at Tiananmen Square, and it was very surreal to be in a place that I had seen so many photographs of. We walked all around the monument to the forgotten soldiers, which has friezes around the base of all the wars of China's history. We took a photo in the famous picture of Chairman Mao in the background, and as soon as we broke from our pose, we were bombarded by people trying to sell Little Red Books, Mao watches, postcards, and other knickknacks.
From there, we walked under the street to get to the Forbidden City. We spent four hours inside, walking from area to area with one stop for lunch. All of the buildings are red with gold, blue, and green details. There were many symbols and treasures in the compound, and my favorite stop was the theater. It was beautiful, and it had a system to lower people from the ceiling as well as raise them from under the stage. There was an exhibit of humongous jade carvings in addition to so many other cultural relics. I took over 200 photos because the architecture was so beautiful.
We got back to PKU's campus at 1:45, and had a nice break before heading out for dinner. I went out with a group of four other friends, and we had hot pot (again). I think that's my last hot pot for a while >.< We then stopped at the dorms to pick up a few friends, then headed to the nightlife part of town. We went to three different places, and it was very much a place for foreigners to go. Nonetheless, it was fun, and we headed home around midnight. People have been going out for a few nights now, and I've been curious as to what they're doing, but now that I've gone, I'm not sure if I need/want to go again. It was fine, but I'd rather do something else with my time.
Today is awesome because I got to experience, in person, places I had read about in history books.
Today was our first excursion, and we left campus promptly at 8AM to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. At about quarter to the hour, my suitemate Andrea and I tried to go to the C-Store to buy yogurt, but it doesn't open until 8:30 on weekends, so lesson learned. We had about a half an hour bus ride to our destinations, during which Gu Laoshi and our tour guide Lee gave us some background on the Forbidden City (no comments about Tiananmen Square other than not to bring up politics).
The Forbidden City was the residence of the Emperor during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are three areas: the political area (where events were held), the residential area, and the gardens. The compound was built 1403-1416.
We arrived at Tiananmen Square, and it was very surreal to be in a place that I had seen so many photographs of. We walked all around the monument to the forgotten soldiers, which has friezes around the base of all the wars of China's history. We took a photo in the famous picture of Chairman Mao in the background, and as soon as we broke from our pose, we were bombarded by people trying to sell Little Red Books, Mao watches, postcards, and other knickknacks.
From there, we walked under the street to get to the Forbidden City. We spent four hours inside, walking from area to area with one stop for lunch. All of the buildings are red with gold, blue, and green details. There were many symbols and treasures in the compound, and my favorite stop was the theater. It was beautiful, and it had a system to lower people from the ceiling as well as raise them from under the stage. There was an exhibit of humongous jade carvings in addition to so many other cultural relics. I took over 200 photos because the architecture was so beautiful.
We got back to PKU's campus at 1:45, and had a nice break before heading out for dinner. I went out with a group of four other friends, and we had hot pot (again). I think that's my last hot pot for a while >.< We then stopped at the dorms to pick up a few friends, then headed to the nightlife part of town. We went to three different places, and it was very much a place for foreigners to go. Nonetheless, it was fun, and we headed home around midnight. People have been going out for a few nights now, and I've been curious as to what they're doing, but now that I've gone, I'm not sure if I need/want to go again. It was fine, but I'd rather do something else with my time.
Today is awesome because I got to experience, in person, places I had read about in history books.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Dragon Boat Day
Today, Friday, was the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which means it's a national holiday in China called Dragon Boat Day (Duānwǔ Jié). The festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States Period (c. 340 BCE – 278 BCE). He died by drowning in a river, and to honor him, the local people dropped zhongzi (a special kind of rice dumping, see below) into the water. The rice was wrapped in bamboo leaves so the fish could not eat them, and the racing of dragon boats stemmed from the boats scaring the fish away.
Now, people celebrate by eating zhongzi and racing dragon boats. Because of the holiday, we did not have classes today (except for the Economics class, which is not taught by a Chinese professor). Instead of morning language classes, we went to a restaurant called Campus and learned how to wrap dumplings (jiaozi), which we ate for lunch along with zhongzi.
I picked up the wrapping technique pretty quickly, and the dumplings were really good. There were two types of pork filling, which I did not eat, and a vegetable and egg filling, which was delicious. I've found that the foods are less sweet and less salty than in the US while still tasting wonderful, which I really like. The dumplings were eaten with a sauce combination you created yourself; the options on the cart were soy sauce, garlic, chili, and vinegar that you could mix however you liked. After trying a couple combinations, I preferred mine plain.
The zhongzi are triangular sticky rice dumplings with sweet or savory fillings that are wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled for around two hours. I liked the rice part of mine, but it had a fruit filling that was not something I would have chosen for myself if given all the options. There were pits, and I think I would have liked a smoother filling or a meat that I knew what it was. They were very sticky, but fun to eat, and it was nice to partake in the tradition. Other fillings were red bean paste, possibly another fruit, and meat ones (not sure how many varieties).
This part of the day ended at 11:15, and then I got to go back to the dorm to chill for a while. I ran into my language buddy Eric on the pedestrian bridge on the way back to the dorm, and we are going to make plans for Sunday.
At 5:00, I met my other language partner, Helen, for dinner. She took me to a campus cafeteria where we at zhongzi (it had a bean filling that I really liked, but the rice is still my favorite part), a squash dish, spinach, a noodle dish, and watermelon. Everything tasted good, and I need to load money onto my card to eat in cafeterias since it is so simple. You get a plate of food, then swipe your ID to pay for it. After eating, we went for a walk around campus, particularly past her department's building and the lake, then I showed her where I'm living. We were together until 8:00, and it was really nice to see how much we really do have in common.
By the time we parted ways, the rest of my American group had left the campus area for dinner/nighttime activities, so I had a quiet night in the dorm. I would have tried to meet up with them to hang out, but I can't get around the city without a person who can speak Chinese and help me. I felt a bit lame staying home, but I'm glad to have some extra sleep before an early morning. We have to be on the buses to Tiananmen Square at 8:00, which means I have to be up by 7, and that would be harder if I had been out late.
Today is awesome because of cooking lessons and zhongzi.
Now, people celebrate by eating zhongzi and racing dragon boats. Because of the holiday, we did not have classes today (except for the Economics class, which is not taught by a Chinese professor). Instead of morning language classes, we went to a restaurant called Campus and learned how to wrap dumplings (jiaozi), which we ate for lunch along with zhongzi.
I picked up the wrapping technique pretty quickly, and the dumplings were really good. There were two types of pork filling, which I did not eat, and a vegetable and egg filling, which was delicious. I've found that the foods are less sweet and less salty than in the US while still tasting wonderful, which I really like. The dumplings were eaten with a sauce combination you created yourself; the options on the cart were soy sauce, garlic, chili, and vinegar that you could mix however you liked. After trying a couple combinations, I preferred mine plain.
The zhongzi are triangular sticky rice dumplings with sweet or savory fillings that are wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled for around two hours. I liked the rice part of mine, but it had a fruit filling that was not something I would have chosen for myself if given all the options. There were pits, and I think I would have liked a smoother filling or a meat that I knew what it was. They were very sticky, but fun to eat, and it was nice to partake in the tradition. Other fillings were red bean paste, possibly another fruit, and meat ones (not sure how many varieties).
This part of the day ended at 11:15, and then I got to go back to the dorm to chill for a while. I ran into my language buddy Eric on the pedestrian bridge on the way back to the dorm, and we are going to make plans for Sunday.
At 5:00, I met my other language partner, Helen, for dinner. She took me to a campus cafeteria where we at zhongzi (it had a bean filling that I really liked, but the rice is still my favorite part), a squash dish, spinach, a noodle dish, and watermelon. Everything tasted good, and I need to load money onto my card to eat in cafeterias since it is so simple. You get a plate of food, then swipe your ID to pay for it. After eating, we went for a walk around campus, particularly past her department's building and the lake, then I showed her where I'm living. We were together until 8:00, and it was really nice to see how much we really do have in common.
By the time we parted ways, the rest of my American group had left the campus area for dinner/nighttime activities, so I had a quiet night in the dorm. I would have tried to meet up with them to hang out, but I can't get around the city without a person who can speak Chinese and help me. I felt a bit lame staying home, but I'm glad to have some extra sleep before an early morning. We have to be on the buses to Tiananmen Square at 8:00, which means I have to be up by 7, and that would be harder if I had been out late.
Today is awesome because of cooking lessons and zhongzi.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Getting Through a Full School Day
Today was a day that felt like the beginning of a routine in the best
way possible. I woke up, got dressed and such, went to the C-Store for
my Disney yogurt, and then met up with my classmates to walk to the
Russian Building for Chinese class at 9AM.
In class, we started with a review then a dictation. In the dictation, Zhang Laoshi read us 10 different syllables, and we had to write the pinyin of the correct initial, final, and tonal sounds. I did pretty well, but it was good that this was a practice; now I know what to expect, how best to study, and where I need to improve. I got one of the initial-finals wrong and two of the tones. She gave us mirrors today so we could look at our mouth shapes and muscle usage to see how to position ourselves to correctly pronounce the sounds. We finished the groupings of syllables, then played a game to put it all together. We finished by learning to write the characters for "sorry" and how to type in Microsoft Word in Chinese.
Our class managed to walk from the Russian Building to Building 3 correctly today, and we had Japanese food for lunch. Mine was chicken and vegetables with sauce over rice, but there were also vegetarian, beef, pork, and combination. We have a short meeting during lunch where Gu Laoshi updates us on the goings on, and we finalized plans for the next couple days. Tomorrow is a holiday, so we have a special day planned, which I will write about tomorrow.
After the meeting, I came back to my room for a break, then had Public Health class at 2:00. The professor is an MD PhD and the head of the department of Social Medicine at BeiDa. He did a lecture on public health concerns and reforms in China. He compared China to the US and Japan a lot, particularly in relation to swine flu response and income to cost of living ratio. It was a lot of things I already knew with the statistical numbers filled in, but it was taught in a very Chinese way, and I can only describe it that way based on how it was unique compared to teaching in the US along the lines of what I've been experiencing here.
Once classes were done for the day, I got to take another break before dinner. I met a group at 6:00, and we ended up at the same restaurant that I was at last night. I was the only one who had been there before, so it was kind of cool to know what the food would be even though I could neither communicate nor read. I also successfully used a public restroom for the first time on this trip, so that was a good milestone to have passed. We ate hot pot with clear and curry broths, lamb, beef, tofu, potato, mushroom, fish ball, cabbage, and spinach. It was just as good the second night.
After dinner, the group went underground from where the restaurant was to go to the arcade. It was really fun! There were all types of games, from the classic basketball and claw games to Plants vs. Zombies, Fruit Ninja, and a variation of DDR that had the foot pads in an X and incorporated arm movements by using a motion sensing camera. I won 276 tickets on my own, but nobody else wanted theirs, so I ended up with a total of 528 tickets. To redeem them, we needed a card, but we didn't know how to get a card, but then one of the guys said, "oh, this card?" and whips one out of his pocket. Since 528 tickets could get me a pencil, I kept the card and will add tickets the next time I go.
I've been feeling kind of like a toddler in my helplessness to communicate. I joke that I am illiterate, but in Chinese, I am. While I know I'm learning, it's still hard for me to be so dependent on my friends who do know Chinese. Though, today the language started sounding less foreign.
Today is awesome because the arcade was really cool!
In class, we started with a review then a dictation. In the dictation, Zhang Laoshi read us 10 different syllables, and we had to write the pinyin of the correct initial, final, and tonal sounds. I did pretty well, but it was good that this was a practice; now I know what to expect, how best to study, and where I need to improve. I got one of the initial-finals wrong and two of the tones. She gave us mirrors today so we could look at our mouth shapes and muscle usage to see how to position ourselves to correctly pronounce the sounds. We finished the groupings of syllables, then played a game to put it all together. We finished by learning to write the characters for "sorry" and how to type in Microsoft Word in Chinese.
Our class managed to walk from the Russian Building to Building 3 correctly today, and we had Japanese food for lunch. Mine was chicken and vegetables with sauce over rice, but there were also vegetarian, beef, pork, and combination. We have a short meeting during lunch where Gu Laoshi updates us on the goings on, and we finalized plans for the next couple days. Tomorrow is a holiday, so we have a special day planned, which I will write about tomorrow.
After the meeting, I came back to my room for a break, then had Public Health class at 2:00. The professor is an MD PhD and the head of the department of Social Medicine at BeiDa. He did a lecture on public health concerns and reforms in China. He compared China to the US and Japan a lot, particularly in relation to swine flu response and income to cost of living ratio. It was a lot of things I already knew with the statistical numbers filled in, but it was taught in a very Chinese way, and I can only describe it that way based on how it was unique compared to teaching in the US along the lines of what I've been experiencing here.
Once classes were done for the day, I got to take another break before dinner. I met a group at 6:00, and we ended up at the same restaurant that I was at last night. I was the only one who had been there before, so it was kind of cool to know what the food would be even though I could neither communicate nor read. I also successfully used a public restroom for the first time on this trip, so that was a good milestone to have passed. We ate hot pot with clear and curry broths, lamb, beef, tofu, potato, mushroom, fish ball, cabbage, and spinach. It was just as good the second night.
After dinner, the group went underground from where the restaurant was to go to the arcade. It was really fun! There were all types of games, from the classic basketball and claw games to Plants vs. Zombies, Fruit Ninja, and a variation of DDR that had the foot pads in an X and incorporated arm movements by using a motion sensing camera. I won 276 tickets on my own, but nobody else wanted theirs, so I ended up with a total of 528 tickets. To redeem them, we needed a card, but we didn't know how to get a card, but then one of the guys said, "oh, this card?" and whips one out of his pocket. Since 528 tickets could get me a pencil, I kept the card and will add tickets the next time I go.
I've been feeling kind of like a toddler in my helplessness to communicate. I joke that I am illiterate, but in Chinese, I am. While I know I'm learning, it's still hard for me to be so dependent on my friends who do know Chinese. Though, today the language started sounding less foreign.
Today is awesome because the arcade was really cool!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Supermarket Struggles and Successes
Today was another big day in Beijing!! I woke up around 5, hung out in my room until about 8, then got yogurt and coffee for breakfast. I tried a new yogurt (not the Disney kind), and it was plain flavored but really delicious. I am a HUGE fan of Chinese yogurt. And food in general. More on that later.
At 8:30, the entire group met up to go to our first classes, Chinese language. I am in the beginning group, and none of us know any Chinese. We were walked to the Russian Language Building, which is a huge and gorgeous pagoday-style building, and we had class in room 207. My professor is Zhang Laoshi ("Teacher Zhang;" we also have a Zhang Laoshi as the second coordinator of the trip, so it's a little confusing), and her first TA (we are getting another one) is Lulu. They are wonderful. They are so patient with us as we struggle through learning pronunciation that is so different from English and they really help us through it. In class, we learned the basic vowel sounds and how they work with consonants. We learned a few words and phrases (mao=cat; wo jiao Stephanie=my name is Stephanie, etc.), the four tones, and how to write the characters for "ni hao." Our homework was both to work through the book (we have reading and listening to do) and to learn about the Dragon Boat Festival, which is on Friday. There is a traditional rice dumpling called zhaozi that is eaten for this holiday, and we are also ordered to find those to try.
After the three-hour class, we walked to Classroom Building 3 for lunch. However, our class let out early and we ended up in Classroom Building 2 instead, so I had to call Professor Gu so he could direct us. It was bad because every person in the group was equally clueless as to how to communicate in Chinese. I was very proud to know the way from the Russian Building to the Classroom Buildings, though.
We ate baozi for lunch, and mine were filled with one with spinach and one with mushrooms and possibly egg or tofu. They were delicious; simple and yummy. We ended up having about an hour between lunch and class, so I headed back to my dorm so I could use the western-style bathroom. It's a bit of a struggle to both stay hydrated and find the type of bathroom I'm used to when I need it, but I'm figuring it out. After an unsuccessful trip to the shop to try to find a folder, I met with another Public Health girl to walk to our 2:00 class together. However, about 20 minutes into the hour, Professor Gu informed us that there had been some confusion between institutions as to when our classes started, so we did not have Public Health class today. We start tomorrow.
Instead of going to class, a bunch of us went to the superstore on campus called Wu Mei to pick up some odds and ends. I got a folder for my class papers and a sleeve for my ID and key cards. We had time to explore, so we did, and I love looking around the shops because the items are so different than what we have in the States. The packages and products are different, there are lots of pictures on the outsides of things, and it's just all so new. I love staring at everything. I'm just trying to take it all in.
After Wu Mei, I had a break in my dorm when I started my homework. Around 5:00 I texted my friend Maddy to see if she had dinner plans yet, and she and her roommate, our friend Helen, were going to the supermarket one subway stop away, and I went with them.
The subway is amazing. You go down, buy a farecard using a touchscreen system that charges by the number of stops. You get your bag x-rayed, then scan your farecard to go through the turnstyle. The platforms and stations are so clean, and the trains are very clean, fresh, and high-tech as well. I did not feel dirty when I touched the handrail, which I normally do when I ride trains.
We got off after one stop, then had to find the entrance to the Carrefour. We walked around the block until we found it, and this area was bustling with lots of technology and fast food businesses. When we finally got inside, we realized it was a shopping mall, so we had to walk through the mall, past all the other shops, until we got to the supermarket section.
The first floor had all housewares, which was good because I wanted a swiffer-type broom or mop for my room so I could clean my floor (which gets tracked up easily), and my friends wanted mugs for making tea. I also got a reusable water bottle so I can refill that from a gallon-sized bottle instead of buying all individual-size bottles multiple times every day. I got my swiffer, but that was a huge struggle. I don't speak Chinese, but in China, there are salespeople everywhere you talk to you and have to sell things a certain way. At Bed Bath and Beyond, I would go to the wall, look at the broom/mops, choose the one I want, and leave; but here, I can't read the packages, and the salesmen had to put the thing together for me before I could buy it. Helen is fluent in spoken Chinese, so she translated and helped me get what I wanted, but I was kind of embarrassed by how difficult it was and frustrated by my inability to be useful and communicate.
We then went upstairs to get food items. I got juice boxes, a whale-shaped thing I haven't tried yet, and a very large jug of water (I think it's more than a gallon). We looked at gorgeous baked goods that were totally different than other bakery items I've seen, different fruits, and lots of packages I did not recognize even slightly. I'm finding that because food is such an integral part of a culture, that shops and supermarkets are fun places to get a feel for what people buy to eat, use, and have. It was really fun!
However, major struggle number two came at checkout. I had grabbed two apples and a bakery roll, and all three of us had these types of items, but we were supposed to weigh them before going to check out. None of us knew this, so it became a problem when I, the one who doesn't understand the language, was the first to go through the line. All three of us scrapped those items because we couldn't go back to weigh them at that point, but I am fully confident that I will get to try them at some point during this trip.
We took the subway back to campus, put our things in our dorm rooms, and went to dinner with the addition of Helen's cousin (a Beijinger) and Julia, a girl from our program who I have language class with. I got to introduce myself to him using the Mandarin I learned earlier in the day, so that was pretty awesome. We walked through campus from the east side to the west side where just off campus is a place called "Food Street" where they serve street food; we ate dinner at a hot pot chain restaurant called xiabu xiabu.
Helen's cousin ordered for us. We had a pot that was divided into two and contained classic broth and curry broth. This was put on a hot plate that was embedded in the middle of the dining table. This came to a boil. As this occurred, we ordered vegetables, lamb, and beef to put in the broth. These things came to the table raw, but we put them in the boiling broths, which cooked the thin slices of meat, and then we pulled the things out, dipped them in peanut sauce, and ate them. My favorite thing was the tofu. I liked both the regular and the frozen tofu, but I prefer the regular tofu. The regular tofu gets that soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture while the frozen tofu is spongier. The whole meal was delicous :)
After dinner, we walked back through campus to the dorms, where I cleaned my floor, set up my water bottle, took a shower, finished my homework, wrote this blog, and went to sleep. I am so tired right now that I have needed to rest while writing this post. Time to keep adjusting to the time change! Yay!
Today is awesome because I learned Chinese!
At 8:30, the entire group met up to go to our first classes, Chinese language. I am in the beginning group, and none of us know any Chinese. We were walked to the Russian Language Building, which is a huge and gorgeous pagoday-style building, and we had class in room 207. My professor is Zhang Laoshi ("Teacher Zhang;" we also have a Zhang Laoshi as the second coordinator of the trip, so it's a little confusing), and her first TA (we are getting another one) is Lulu. They are wonderful. They are so patient with us as we struggle through learning pronunciation that is so different from English and they really help us through it. In class, we learned the basic vowel sounds and how they work with consonants. We learned a few words and phrases (mao=cat; wo jiao Stephanie=my name is Stephanie, etc.), the four tones, and how to write the characters for "ni hao." Our homework was both to work through the book (we have reading and listening to do) and to learn about the Dragon Boat Festival, which is on Friday. There is a traditional rice dumpling called zhaozi that is eaten for this holiday, and we are also ordered to find those to try.
After the three-hour class, we walked to Classroom Building 3 for lunch. However, our class let out early and we ended up in Classroom Building 2 instead, so I had to call Professor Gu so he could direct us. It was bad because every person in the group was equally clueless as to how to communicate in Chinese. I was very proud to know the way from the Russian Building to the Classroom Buildings, though.
We ate baozi for lunch, and mine were filled with one with spinach and one with mushrooms and possibly egg or tofu. They were delicious; simple and yummy. We ended up having about an hour between lunch and class, so I headed back to my dorm so I could use the western-style bathroom. It's a bit of a struggle to both stay hydrated and find the type of bathroom I'm used to when I need it, but I'm figuring it out. After an unsuccessful trip to the shop to try to find a folder, I met with another Public Health girl to walk to our 2:00 class together. However, about 20 minutes into the hour, Professor Gu informed us that there had been some confusion between institutions as to when our classes started, so we did not have Public Health class today. We start tomorrow.
Instead of going to class, a bunch of us went to the superstore on campus called Wu Mei to pick up some odds and ends. I got a folder for my class papers and a sleeve for my ID and key cards. We had time to explore, so we did, and I love looking around the shops because the items are so different than what we have in the States. The packages and products are different, there are lots of pictures on the outsides of things, and it's just all so new. I love staring at everything. I'm just trying to take it all in.
After Wu Mei, I had a break in my dorm when I started my homework. Around 5:00 I texted my friend Maddy to see if she had dinner plans yet, and she and her roommate, our friend Helen, were going to the supermarket one subway stop away, and I went with them.
The subway is amazing. You go down, buy a farecard using a touchscreen system that charges by the number of stops. You get your bag x-rayed, then scan your farecard to go through the turnstyle. The platforms and stations are so clean, and the trains are very clean, fresh, and high-tech as well. I did not feel dirty when I touched the handrail, which I normally do when I ride trains.
We got off after one stop, then had to find the entrance to the Carrefour. We walked around the block until we found it, and this area was bustling with lots of technology and fast food businesses. When we finally got inside, we realized it was a shopping mall, so we had to walk through the mall, past all the other shops, until we got to the supermarket section.
The first floor had all housewares, which was good because I wanted a swiffer-type broom or mop for my room so I could clean my floor (which gets tracked up easily), and my friends wanted mugs for making tea. I also got a reusable water bottle so I can refill that from a gallon-sized bottle instead of buying all individual-size bottles multiple times every day. I got my swiffer, but that was a huge struggle. I don't speak Chinese, but in China, there are salespeople everywhere you talk to you and have to sell things a certain way. At Bed Bath and Beyond, I would go to the wall, look at the broom/mops, choose the one I want, and leave; but here, I can't read the packages, and the salesmen had to put the thing together for me before I could buy it. Helen is fluent in spoken Chinese, so she translated and helped me get what I wanted, but I was kind of embarrassed by how difficult it was and frustrated by my inability to be useful and communicate.
We then went upstairs to get food items. I got juice boxes, a whale-shaped thing I haven't tried yet, and a very large jug of water (I think it's more than a gallon). We looked at gorgeous baked goods that were totally different than other bakery items I've seen, different fruits, and lots of packages I did not recognize even slightly. I'm finding that because food is such an integral part of a culture, that shops and supermarkets are fun places to get a feel for what people buy to eat, use, and have. It was really fun!
However, major struggle number two came at checkout. I had grabbed two apples and a bakery roll, and all three of us had these types of items, but we were supposed to weigh them before going to check out. None of us knew this, so it became a problem when I, the one who doesn't understand the language, was the first to go through the line. All three of us scrapped those items because we couldn't go back to weigh them at that point, but I am fully confident that I will get to try them at some point during this trip.
We took the subway back to campus, put our things in our dorm rooms, and went to dinner with the addition of Helen's cousin (a Beijinger) and Julia, a girl from our program who I have language class with. I got to introduce myself to him using the Mandarin I learned earlier in the day, so that was pretty awesome. We walked through campus from the east side to the west side where just off campus is a place called "Food Street" where they serve street food; we ate dinner at a hot pot chain restaurant called xiabu xiabu.
Helen's cousin ordered for us. We had a pot that was divided into two and contained classic broth and curry broth. This was put on a hot plate that was embedded in the middle of the dining table. This came to a boil. As this occurred, we ordered vegetables, lamb, and beef to put in the broth. These things came to the table raw, but we put them in the boiling broths, which cooked the thin slices of meat, and then we pulled the things out, dipped them in peanut sauce, and ate them. My favorite thing was the tofu. I liked both the regular and the frozen tofu, but I prefer the regular tofu. The regular tofu gets that soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture while the frozen tofu is spongier. The whole meal was delicous :)
After dinner, we walked back through campus to the dorms, where I cleaned my floor, set up my water bottle, took a shower, finished my homework, wrote this blog, and went to sleep. I am so tired right now that I have needed to rest while writing this post. Time to keep adjusting to the time change! Yay!
Today is awesome because I learned Chinese!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
First Full Day in Beijing
Today (Tuesday) was a very full day. I woke up at 4:30 (boo jetlag), and
relaxed in my room until about 9:00, when I went to the C-Store to get
breakfast. My friend Amanda did this program last year, and she told me to get the grapefruit flavored yogurt, but since I
don't know what anything says, I spent a long time looking at the
various products that were definitely yogurt before deciding upon the
container that had a picture of a grapefruit, a picture of the Beast
from Beauty and the Beast, and a plastic spoon in the lid. I also got a
bottled iced coffee. Both items were delicious :) I'm trying to taste as
many things as I can that we don't have in the US and I"m off to a
great start, even if I don't exactly know what I'm buying.
The entire group met at 9:30 and we did a bit of a walking tour before our orientation. At orientation, we got a history of the university (founded in 1898, 40,000 students, large international population, huge library), instructions for classes, travel, and safety, and then took a group photo. To get to the campus from our dorms, we have to cross a busy road, and Professor Gu's first bit of advice was not to cross the street. There is a pedestrian bridge that we take. The campus is huge! We show our IDs at the gates, and it is like a city inside.
After the photo, I had my first real Chinese food! There was a welcome lunch where there were so many dishes. Speeches were given by many PKU officials about partnership and trading of perspectives, and it was nice to be able to sit and chat with my fellow students. There are 42 of us (official count).
I don't know if I can remember all the dishes, but there was a noodle and seaweed salad, a spicy green bean dish, some sort of sliced meat, a small shellfish (perhaps a shrimp?), two soups (one had noodles the other had mushrooms; the mushroom soup was better), a celery dish, a really fantastic eggplant dish, duck, fish, some meat over squash, squash blossoms, two salads (one was frisee lettuce the other was cabbage), a sweet dough ball, a sweet fried thing, a meat bun, a pot with beef, carrots, and potatoes in a gravy, fried rice, and despite the length of this list I believe there was more. We had small plates, so everyone got to take a taste of everything. It was all delicious.
Meals are served family style with all the dishes on a lazy susan. Diners take from the communal plates with their chopsticks (or using the ladle if it is a soup), and if the chopsticks don't work, there is a soup spoon on the table to help.
After lunch, we walked through campus some more and Professor Gu stopped to talk about various landmarks on campus. We went to the President's house, Nameless Lake, the Pagoda, and the tomb of a journalist who brought about an improved relationship between China and the US. I took lots of pictures.
I'm very ready to start learning Chinese language for real. I've been surviving the shops with "hello" and "thank you," but I need to expand my vocabulary beyond these two words and the name of the university. (ni hao, xie xie, and Bei Da)
A bit before 2:00 we had a short break before meeting our language partners. I checked my e-mail and made a run to the C-Store. At 2:45, we met again to walk over to the meetup with our language partners. It was in an on-campus restaurant, and we first got into groups from our own schools to join with groups from the other school.
My language partner's name is Helen. She is studying International Politics and we bonded over our love of theater. Part of the exercise was to answer a set of questions and then come up with a list of similarities and differences between us, but the best part was that the similarities were many and deeper than the differences we had.
After chatting, we had a dinner with 17 different dishes: two green salads, sliced beef, dumpling, rice, soup, shrimp, beef and peppers, beef and peas, chicken, scallion cake, a meat dish I could not identify, cold noodles, and four others I can't remember right now. I loved everything I tried. The food is spicier, but the spice is very flavorful and doesn't hit you right away and blast your taste buds.
Helen had to leave a little bit early to study for her finals which are tomorrow and the following day, so her friend Eric came over to tag in and hang with me. He helped me get a cell phone, so now I can communicate with the other students on my program, him, and Helen. It's a Nokia brick phone that does calling and texting, and that's all I need it to do. I also bought towels, hangers, and a notebook for class tomorrow.
Eric and I walked around the campus for a little while and talked about Public Health, since that's the program I'm doing and it's his major. It was really fun and interesting to compare ideas and impressions transnationally. One thing he talked about was the condition of the doctor-patient relationship, and there is a similar phenomenon in the US as he observed in China.
When it started to get dark, I went home, put down my things, made another C-Store run for toilet paper and an umbrella, then blogged, showered, and slept.
Today is awesome because it was a full day in Beijing with wonderful people and really great food!
The entire group met at 9:30 and we did a bit of a walking tour before our orientation. At orientation, we got a history of the university (founded in 1898, 40,000 students, large international population, huge library), instructions for classes, travel, and safety, and then took a group photo. To get to the campus from our dorms, we have to cross a busy road, and Professor Gu's first bit of advice was not to cross the street. There is a pedestrian bridge that we take. The campus is huge! We show our IDs at the gates, and it is like a city inside.
After the photo, I had my first real Chinese food! There was a welcome lunch where there were so many dishes. Speeches were given by many PKU officials about partnership and trading of perspectives, and it was nice to be able to sit and chat with my fellow students. There are 42 of us (official count).
I don't know if I can remember all the dishes, but there was a noodle and seaweed salad, a spicy green bean dish, some sort of sliced meat, a small shellfish (perhaps a shrimp?), two soups (one had noodles the other had mushrooms; the mushroom soup was better), a celery dish, a really fantastic eggplant dish, duck, fish, some meat over squash, squash blossoms, two salads (one was frisee lettuce the other was cabbage), a sweet dough ball, a sweet fried thing, a meat bun, a pot with beef, carrots, and potatoes in a gravy, fried rice, and despite the length of this list I believe there was more. We had small plates, so everyone got to take a taste of everything. It was all delicious.
Meals are served family style with all the dishes on a lazy susan. Diners take from the communal plates with their chopsticks (or using the ladle if it is a soup), and if the chopsticks don't work, there is a soup spoon on the table to help.
After lunch, we walked through campus some more and Professor Gu stopped to talk about various landmarks on campus. We went to the President's house, Nameless Lake, the Pagoda, and the tomb of a journalist who brought about an improved relationship between China and the US. I took lots of pictures.
I'm very ready to start learning Chinese language for real. I've been surviving the shops with "hello" and "thank you," but I need to expand my vocabulary beyond these two words and the name of the university. (ni hao, xie xie, and Bei Da)
A bit before 2:00 we had a short break before meeting our language partners. I checked my e-mail and made a run to the C-Store. At 2:45, we met again to walk over to the meetup with our language partners. It was in an on-campus restaurant, and we first got into groups from our own schools to join with groups from the other school.
My language partner's name is Helen. She is studying International Politics and we bonded over our love of theater. Part of the exercise was to answer a set of questions and then come up with a list of similarities and differences between us, but the best part was that the similarities were many and deeper than the differences we had.
After chatting, we had a dinner with 17 different dishes: two green salads, sliced beef, dumpling, rice, soup, shrimp, beef and peppers, beef and peas, chicken, scallion cake, a meat dish I could not identify, cold noodles, and four others I can't remember right now. I loved everything I tried. The food is spicier, but the spice is very flavorful and doesn't hit you right away and blast your taste buds.
Helen had to leave a little bit early to study for her finals which are tomorrow and the following day, so her friend Eric came over to tag in and hang with me. He helped me get a cell phone, so now I can communicate with the other students on my program, him, and Helen. It's a Nokia brick phone that does calling and texting, and that's all I need it to do. I also bought towels, hangers, and a notebook for class tomorrow.
Eric and I walked around the campus for a little while and talked about Public Health, since that's the program I'm doing and it's his major. It was really fun and interesting to compare ideas and impressions transnationally. One thing he talked about was the condition of the doctor-patient relationship, and there is a similar phenomenon in the US as he observed in China.
When it started to get dark, I went home, put down my things, made another C-Store run for toilet paper and an umbrella, then blogged, showered, and slept.
Today is awesome because it was a full day in Beijing with wonderful people and really great food!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Blog Almost Every Day in China?
I think I'm going to try to blog every day while I'm here because it will be a great way to chronicle and share what goes on. However, I anticipate that there will be some pretty ordinary days in the middle when it's all about classes and food, so perhaps almost every day is the better promise/attempt.
Well, today started at 7AM CST. I woke up, got myself dressed and ready, then my entire family took me to the airport to fly from Chicago to Beijing. My flight was scheduled for 12:05PM, so I got to the airport at 9AM to be sure I was on time. After making a wrong turn on the way to the airport and spending an extensive amount of time in the check-in line then removing 8 lbs. from my checked bag, I got to go through security. It was a simple check, but re-packing was difficult and my backpack ended up being heavier than I wanted.
On the other side of security was a huge Starbucks. Two separate lines/cashiers/pastry cases huge. I got a nice iced coffee, unsweetened with skim milk and less ice, and proceeded through the underground passage that had really cool lighting. It reminded me of the science museum.
The other end of the tunnel was my terminal, and my gate was straight ahead of the escalator. But first, I had to buy two sandwiches to take on the plane. Then I sat with Professor Carmichael, who is a fellow of my residential college, and we waited together for our plane. However, lo and behold, there was a 3.5 hour delay on our flight. This flight had a group of 9 people from my program on it. We ended up finding each other and going for walks together to different areas and shops. Sitting at the gate went so much faster when we were all together than if we had been alone. I ended up having to replace one of my sandwiches since I ate one for lunch.
We did leave on time for the new time, which was 3:30PM. We were on an older airplane, a Boeing 777, but it was pretty comfortable. I was sitting next to a man who works for the Chinese FAA, so he had some good tips for things to see while I'm here. I mostly watched Lost, colored in my MC Escher coloring book, and started reading Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I slept for an hour or two, but I wanted to make sure I would sleep at night and reset to China time, which is 12 hours later than Eastern time.
The airplane food was pretty good, and the flight attendants took very good care of us. I particularly liked watching the GPS map on my video screen because I could observe our progress. We took a route that went north from Chicago, around or over the North Pole, then south over Siberia and into Beijing. It was fascinating because I did not expect us to hit the Arctic Circle, but it makes sense since the sphere of the globe has a smaller circumference at the pole.
When we landed, it was so joyous. As a group, we proceeded to immigration, a very fast train to the next terminal, then baggage claim (which was mighty efficient) and customs. We met up with the Professors who run the program here, changed our money, and left the airport around 8:00PM Beijing time (7AM CST) to go to the dorms. I spent 22 hours between the Chicago airport, the plane ride, and Peking International Airport. It was a long day.
As we waited in PEK for the other students who would ride the bus with us, I went exploring with my friend Maddy. We were looking for a beverage. She got a mango juice from a coffee shop and ordered in Chinese. I got a bottled green tea from a convenience store and managed a "hello" and "thank you" in Mandarin to the cashier. It was kind of cool to be able to get by in a real interaction with the two words of Chinese that I know.
I tried to stay awake to see the cityscape as we drove to the University, but I fell asleep on the bus. I awoke as we were turning onto the street where the International dorms are, and managed to be alert enough to get through the check-in process. I got my room assignment and key, brought my things up, then met with another friend, Victoria, to go to the convenience store on campus to get towels, toiletries, and water to get through the night.
These dorms are more like a hotel than a dormitory. It is lovely, air conditioned, clean, has nice furniture, and came with linens. I was handed toilet paper during check-in which was a pretty clear reminder that I'm not in the US anymore, but I am pretty stoked about this trip so far.
I unpacked first, which was necessary to be able to find all the things I needed, then e-mailed home, wrote this post, and now I'm going to take a shower and go to bed!
Today is awesome because I traveled to China!!!
Well, today started at 7AM CST. I woke up, got myself dressed and ready, then my entire family took me to the airport to fly from Chicago to Beijing. My flight was scheduled for 12:05PM, so I got to the airport at 9AM to be sure I was on time. After making a wrong turn on the way to the airport and spending an extensive amount of time in the check-in line then removing 8 lbs. from my checked bag, I got to go through security. It was a simple check, but re-packing was difficult and my backpack ended up being heavier than I wanted.
On the other side of security was a huge Starbucks. Two separate lines/cashiers/pastry cases huge. I got a nice iced coffee, unsweetened with skim milk and less ice, and proceeded through the underground passage that had really cool lighting. It reminded me of the science museum.
The other end of the tunnel was my terminal, and my gate was straight ahead of the escalator. But first, I had to buy two sandwiches to take on the plane. Then I sat with Professor Carmichael, who is a fellow of my residential college, and we waited together for our plane. However, lo and behold, there was a 3.5 hour delay on our flight. This flight had a group of 9 people from my program on it. We ended up finding each other and going for walks together to different areas and shops. Sitting at the gate went so much faster when we were all together than if we had been alone. I ended up having to replace one of my sandwiches since I ate one for lunch.
We did leave on time for the new time, which was 3:30PM. We were on an older airplane, a Boeing 777, but it was pretty comfortable. I was sitting next to a man who works for the Chinese FAA, so he had some good tips for things to see while I'm here. I mostly watched Lost, colored in my MC Escher coloring book, and started reading Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I slept for an hour or two, but I wanted to make sure I would sleep at night and reset to China time, which is 12 hours later than Eastern time.
The airplane food was pretty good, and the flight attendants took very good care of us. I particularly liked watching the GPS map on my video screen because I could observe our progress. We took a route that went north from Chicago, around or over the North Pole, then south over Siberia and into Beijing. It was fascinating because I did not expect us to hit the Arctic Circle, but it makes sense since the sphere of the globe has a smaller circumference at the pole.
When we landed, it was so joyous. As a group, we proceeded to immigration, a very fast train to the next terminal, then baggage claim (which was mighty efficient) and customs. We met up with the Professors who run the program here, changed our money, and left the airport around 8:00PM Beijing time (7AM CST) to go to the dorms. I spent 22 hours between the Chicago airport, the plane ride, and Peking International Airport. It was a long day.
As we waited in PEK for the other students who would ride the bus with us, I went exploring with my friend Maddy. We were looking for a beverage. She got a mango juice from a coffee shop and ordered in Chinese. I got a bottled green tea from a convenience store and managed a "hello" and "thank you" in Mandarin to the cashier. It was kind of cool to be able to get by in a real interaction with the two words of Chinese that I know.
I tried to stay awake to see the cityscape as we drove to the University, but I fell asleep on the bus. I awoke as we were turning onto the street where the International dorms are, and managed to be alert enough to get through the check-in process. I got my room assignment and key, brought my things up, then met with another friend, Victoria, to go to the convenience store on campus to get towels, toiletries, and water to get through the night.
These dorms are more like a hotel than a dormitory. It is lovely, air conditioned, clean, has nice furniture, and came with linens. I was handed toilet paper during check-in which was a pretty clear reminder that I'm not in the US anymore, but I am pretty stoked about this trip so far.
I unpacked first, which was necessary to be able to find all the things I needed, then e-mailed home, wrote this post, and now I'm going to take a shower and go to bed!
Today is awesome because I traveled to China!!!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
New Blog!
I leave for my summer study abroad in Beijing, China, in two weeks!!
I'm not sure what my internet access will be, but I'm starting this blog while I'm still in the States and hopefully I can write here when I'm abroad.
So, I recommend "following" me and I'm going to work on adding a link to get e-mail updates when I write a post here.
I'm very excited for my summer adventures :)
I'm not sure what my internet access will be, but I'm starting this blog while I'm still in the States and hopefully I can write here when I'm abroad.
So, I recommend "following" me and I'm going to work on adding a link to get e-mail updates when I write a post here.
I'm very excited for my summer adventures :)
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