Well I thought I'd try for pictures once again, and this time achieved success! (sometimes phrases like "achieved success" that sound weird in my English are probably direct translations from Chinese). I think afternoons are the best time to do internet uploads and downloads without interruption. Here are some people I hung out with a lot this semester who are leaving Saturday and I might never see them again. We paid maybe 2.00 US to use this mast to hit this bell 6 times each. It is usually fifty cents or so for three hits--maybe they liked us? This was in Xi'an.
This is a garden at the temple near that crazy building in one of my last pictures. The temple was one of the most peaceful places I have been to in my life.
"Huge wave is dangerous. Don't be closer please." Silly sign posted by request from Ben Gudorf. It was a beautiful day.
Someone asked me once if there was lots of evidence in Beijing that the Olympics were going on. Huge posters like this were everywhere; there are fewer now. They'd often hide construction sites or future constructions sites. Beautification I guess?
The park pavilions often have people hanging out playing music and dancing. I think this is awesome. This is Beihai Park north of the Forbidden City. You can see the lake in the background. That is North Lake or Beihai. Hai is actually sea--I'm not too clear about water names and how that works out in translation...Yao?

Rgh No Pictures

Well it has been much too long since I last posted, and this will be short, but I wanted to say hi anyway and let y'all know what I've been up to:

I tried to post pictures twice but failed twice.

This is our last week of classes but thankfully it is almost all just preparation for finals and finals, no new lessons. Preparing is not too hard, so I am not stressing out about things, and might even actually get normal sleep!

Because of that I spent this whole afternoon on the internet reserving rooms for travel I will do over the break: one week with a fellow student, and two weeks with Jake. Places to see: Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing (yes I know I live there but Jake doesn't so we are going to check out the sites for a while, and go to the Great Wall), Qufu (Confucius's hometown), Tai Shan (a mountain) and Qingdao, a place I have already been to and really liked. So if I am a good blogger I will let you know how all of that stuff goes and send pictures.

This past weekend was a lot of fun because I sang karaoke with new Chinese friends, who I met through a fellow student at my program. They are really awesome and I am looking forward to hanging out with them more next semester, practicing Chinese and learning a little bit more about what life is like for Chinese college students, as well as hanging out with cool people, which is the most important. I sang "My Heart Will Go On," by Celine Dion, "Baby One More Time," by Britney Spears, and "Girlfriend," by Avril Lavigne at their request, and some Beatles tunes of my own choosing. It was a great time, but we were there for five hours!!!

Well that's all, back to studying for finals...miss you all!

我终于有照片！

Guys this is so great! The internet is letting me put up pictures again. I heard the internet is always patchy here in October...why that is whoooooo knows. These pictures are in backwards order, so if you want to match them with earlier posts about my adventures in these various places, think reverse chronological order. The first two pictures are from our trip to Xi'an.

What is this building? It is the not-so-secret headquarters of an evil alien empire who is planning to take over the earth by brainwashing the Chinese and then using them as it's earth-destroying tools. Okay actually it is outside of a beautiful Buddhist temple, and one teacher told us that the relics that are currently in the temple will eventually go in this building, and it is supposed to be two praying hands. Seriously though...I don't know. It is huge.


These are the world-famous terracotta warriors. You should look at the picture in close up because they have different faces. I really liked the building they were in. It was built over them, it is massive and it has a huge arched ceiling. This is the kind of tourist place you have to go to, but then you are afraid it won't be that good because you've already seen lots of pictures, but then you are blown away by the hugeness of it and the history of it. It really gets your imagination going to think about what sort of person would want this stuff with him when he dies and what sort of society you'd have to have to actually achieve it. What the heck? was a question I asked a lot in Xi'an.


This is me doing a cartwheel on the beach in Qingdao. Please don't look at this one up close, I'm sure it's awful, I haven't even looked at it up close. But I loved Qingdao. This cartwheel is a cartwheel of pure joy.


This is from our trip to the "countryside" outside of Beijing. It was pretty awesome, because we got to see all of these old pagodas, and climb a mountain that was not too intense, and sleep in hotel add-ons to people's houses. I forgot what I wrote about the countryside before, so we can all go look at it when we are done writing/reading this.

This is the now world-famous 鸟巢，Niaochao，Bird's Nest. During the Paralympics (a while ago), I went with some friends to see 7-on-7 soccer. It was a lot of fun and I got to see Olympic Park. If you look really closely they still have the flame going up on top. Sorry about the fence, but we didn't go any closer.

Well all of this pictures are from a long time ago, so a quick update on how I am now: just fine. Getting weirded out that there are only three weeks of this semester left. Most of my friends here are leaving, so I have to start over with that in January. The trip to Huangshan Mountain was less than ideal--it rained the whole time and I got sick. But I did talk to an old guy in a store about his cat for twenty minutes. So it was worth it.

Enjoy, and now that pictures are working I should be able to share more more often, working my way up to the present.

P.S. Title of the post is "I finally have pictures!"

Halloween Wandering

Today I took my weekly Friday test, which I felt went pretty well.

Then I started filming a movie with two other students--it is homework--we had to write it, plan it, and then act in it. Thanks to Jake for giving me some experience with this sort of thing. I made a lovely stickfigure storyboard, and bossed everybody around, and it was really fun. I think our teachers are going to put the movies on Youtube. If so, you will be able to see it but not understand it because it is all in Chinese.

After that, we had our Friday lunch, which is when students go out to lunch with teachers and our program pays for it. I really like this experience because there are usually eleven or so of us, so we order eleven dishes, and then we all share.

Then the weather was great again, so I went to my favorite park, and went back to explore Russiantown a little more. Russian town was cool because all the people trying to sell things spoke Russian to me, also every other store was a fur store, which was cool and scary. Also some people looked really tough. I would not want to cross them.

I bought a hat and scarf for the winter for about a dollar fifty US each. Tonight I am going to have dinner with my Chinese family, then go to our school's Halloween party. I plan to dress up in black and red with fake red eyelashes, I guess it will be a little devilish?

I don't think I am going to make it to nine posts because I really have nothing else to say today.

Seven is pretty close though.

想家

The title is, xiang jia, or homesick, approximately. I remembered this is the thing I wanted to tell you all right as I signed my name, but I cheated and decided to put it here. It is very hard to say what homesick means. It doesn't mean I want to go home, exactly. It doesn't mean I regret coming here in any way. In part it means that when I love the weather, I want to share it with people that I love. In part it means that after about two months of getting adjusted, I finally had time to realize how far away I was. I think in Pittsburgh I go to Ohio every two months or so, so maybe it has something to do with that. But what happened this week is that I started to miss everyone, and rivers, and trees, and hills, and corn, and food, and even maybe reading hard articles and writing long essays, and everything I love from home all at once. So I wanted to tell you because if you are reading this I probably thought of you. And I miss you.

OHctober, I will miss you.

Well I am a little disappointed in myself because tomorrow is the 31st and I will not have 9 posts unless I am very silly today and tomorrow. I haven't decided yet whether or not to go for it. We will wait and see.

The weather here was beautiful all month except for a few overcast pollution-y days. I heard Pittsburgh has been really cold, so I guess that means Ohio too maybe? I spent lots of time outside, going to parks, walking, studying in too-expensive cafes, etc.

You might like to know whether or not I will celebrate Halloween. The answer is yes. I have not had much time to think of a costume so right now it is a black dress and red tights. I did buy fake red eyelashes though. We are having a party with our school at the gym most of us are members of. it is a pretty cushy place so it might be okay. It might just be really awkward. It is weird to go into grocery stores and not see candy and decorations everywhere. I went to a foreign grocery store in the embassy district to buy my eyelashes and a halloween-themed present for my Chinese host family, who I am visiting for dinner tomorrow before our Halloween party.

Also, Molly! the foreign grocery store is on a street with lots of Russian restaurants, I guess it is sort of a Russiatown? Today two women asked me if I was Russian.

Also, it was Jake's birthday this past Tuesday. Happy Birthday Jake! I am jealous of your having a birthday in my favorite month, but I guess since I can celebrate it with you that is okay.

I am nervous because I am writing the first draft of my research paper this weekend, and excited because on Wednesday morning we are leaving for Huang Shan （黄山) 。Check out the pictures, because I don't know if I will be able to post any. Goals for this weekend include researching other picture posting options.

I had one last thing to say but now I forget it. At least I know if I want to post again, it will only bring me one step closer to my goal of 9 posts by tomorrow at midnight!

Love,
Jen

Midterms!

So it's midterms week, which is pretty stressful. I probably should not be writing you all. But I have my October quota, also this is a nice break from studying.

This past weekend I went to the Mu-seum of NATURAL HISTORY! (that is for my dad, from that dinosaur movie-We're Back!) It cost about a dollar fifty and was pretty fun--they had formaldehyded sea creatures and amphibians, taxidermied mammals, and pinned up insects, some unbelievably large. I am glad I don't live in a place with unbelievably large beetles. All the signs were in Chinese, but they had English titles. Also, it was for kids, so the Chinese was sort of simple, which meant I could understand some of it. The English titles were also fun--translations here are often sub-par, which means hilarious. "An animal protecting starts within each of us."

Also, there was an eight year old girl there giving speeches like she was a tour guide--it looked like maybe a school assignment because there was an adult there taking notes? She just talked and talked so professionally for a few minutes at each "stop" on her tour, and she didn't seem to be the least bit nervous.

After the museum we went to a huge park nearby with a rose garden and Tiantan Temple, where the emperor used to go to pray for good harvests.

Things I like in China: Visiting my donut friend, eating a Korean dish called Bibimbap, yoga, parks, translations, spicy food, small restaurants, using Chinese to talk to storekeepers, roses everywhere, fall weather, street cart food, the fact that my Chinese is actually getting better.

Things I am starting to not like: classes being the same every day, missing American food and friends, forgetting tones, forgetting words, trying to remember everything, not knowing what people are talking about half of the time, only being able to say really simple sentences and ideas because my Chinese is not good enough for more complicated ones.

Think of the above as descriptive more than complaints.

P.S.

I noticed today I had 9 entries for August and September, so I've got some catching up to do now that it's halfway through October and I only have 2. Also, I am getting more used to studying and life here, so I can take a break every now and again to write you all. So check back for more good times and long sentences from Beijing!

In Xi'an

Pictures still are not working :( I guess when I come back to the US I will just upload all 1,000 plus of them to Flick'r or something and you can look at them when you have more important things to do that you don't want to do.

It's been a crazy few weeks, first Qingdao, then two days back in Beijing, then Xi'an for a week. Xi'an is in the middle of China approximately. Xi'an was the capital of China during different times in its history, but most famously (as far as I can tell) during the Tang Dynasty. You could probably say the Tang Dynasty (around 700AD) was China's heyday--a lot of what we (Americans) think of when we think of Chinese art, silk, poetry, architecture, etc, is from around that time.

Xi'an has ridiculously beautiful parks with pagodas (I especially liked the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, or 大雁塔). The old city walls are still standing and you can walk or bike around the top of them (imagine the Great Wall sort of only in a square shape around a much smaller area). Also, in part because of it's location on the Silk Road, Xi'an has a largeish Muslim population and a Muslim Quarter. We found a restaurant where they seemed genuinely afraid we would only speak English (It was a little out of the way from the tourist areas) and ordered a spicy noodle bread lamb or mutton (it is all sheep in Chinese) soup thanks to our Lonely Planet guidebook, which has pinyin with tones (Chinese romanization), Chinese characters, and English descriptions of food, so you can say anything and say it about right.

There are many famous sites outside of Xi'an, archaeological sites, temples, and a hot springs bath resort (I think it was used as long ago as the Tang Dynasty, if not earlier). The most famous site by far is the Terracotta Warriors--thousands of soldiers and other objects arranged perfectly to protect the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, or 秦始皇 in the afterlife. I saw some of these at the Dayton Art Museum in a travelling exhibit as a young Jen, but it was pretty amazing to see them all in their original habitat.

We also saw a beautiful Buddhist Temple, Famen Temple, known for holding four of the Buddha's fingers, among other things. The temple still has an active monastery with around 300 monks. I can't describe how peaceful the atmosphere was, or how beautiful the gardens were. In particular, I liked their huge vegetable garden, bordered by persimmons, and their cute, if shy, cats. At the hot springs I soaked my feet for 3 dollars, 20 minutes, which was probably still too much, and saw a neon light up picture of magma so I could learn about how the hot springs worked.

The countryside around Xi'an is very fertile, so agriculture is huge. I don't know why, but since I always pictured China as very industrial in my mind, I assumed agriculture would be more industrialized too, sort of like Ohio with giant tractors clogging up the roads. Instead, I saw mostly "manpower"--people's rooftops were covered with bright yellow drying corn, and the front yards were filled with cornstalks. I saw people shucking corn in their front yards, and putting it into carts in the fields. Also! They grow pomegranates, and people sell them at most of the tourist sites. Pomegranates are really tasty and really annoying to eat. In class, almost every new grammatical structure we learn has an example sentence that refers to China's economic development. I have definitely seen that development, but it comes in so many different forms, from giant upscale malls with genuine European designers and prices higher than the US, to fakes markets, to small temporary booths, to individual sellers on the streets. I could get my bike or my shoes fixed on a street corner for fifty cents, or buy a BMW down the street for I don't even know how many tens of thousands of dollars. A cup of coffee in a coffeeshop costs almost twice as much as a huge meal in a standard restaurant.

Bottom line: China is really interesting and I'm glad I'm here.

Qingdao Tsingtao

Pictures haven't been working lately, so I'm going to take a break from them and just write. I spent the weekend with four friends in Qingdao, a city on the Pacific Ocean, about 6 hours by a fast train and 10 hours or so by bus from Beijing. It is famous for producing Tsingtao Beer and for its history as a German port city (yes, the two are related). Tsingtao is an old romanization of the city's name, like Peking instead of Beijing I really wish I could send you pictures.

We went to Qingdao for a few reasons--it's not far, it's pretty, and they were having an international beer festival. Aside from some trouble getting tickets on the way back (we eventually did), the weekend was pretty great. First of all, it has always been my dream to travel by train (a fairly simple one, and now realized!). It was just as I had hoped it would be--cheap, a good view, and very comfortable. We stayed in a youth hostel that was located in an old observatory (hint hint Jake and Billy--the future?), with a restaurant/bar on the roof patio, and very nice conditions. We met a Slovenian guy and his Korean girlfriend on the roof. The guy had been a Chinese major in college and now works in business in Beijing--he was very "cool" in a cool kids kind of way and gave us the downlow on how to get work in Beijing. I think it would be a pretty sweet job to own and operate a youth hostel. There were people there from all over the world as well as Chinese people. Imagine the conversations you would get to have every day.

Speaking of conversations, my Chinese is getting better to the point that I'm not afraid to talk to people anymore, which is really important when traveling in a new city. Also, even though the staff at the hostel could speak English, once we used Chinese to speak to them they used Chinese to speak to us. They assumed we knew what they were saying, and for the most part we did!

While exploring Qingdao I had my first experience with bargaining (I am not so great at it), ate fried scorpions (two because the first one was pretty tasty and my friend bought a bag of 15), ate lots of fresh seafood, went to a great park with a hill where you could see all of the German, traditional Chinese, and modern architecture, and of course, the beer festival. At the beer festival a group of Chinese people cleared a table for us, and proceeded to give us free beer, chicken necks, regular chicken kebabs, and bread, and we all took pictures and hooted and hollered and had a good time. The most common things shouted were "China Welcomes You, Qingdao Welcomes You, and Best Friends, Best Friends."

The beaches were nice, peaceful, the water was warm, lots of wedding pictures were being taken, and my favorite thing was a 3km walking path along the beaches that had willow trees and occasional snack stands.

We came back on an overnight bus and arrived at Beijing around 5 Monday morning. Now, Tuesday evening, we are heading out at 7:30 on an overnight bus to Xi'an. That means, next week I'll have stories about the world famous terracotta warriors and more, because Xi'an has a long long important history. One of my teachers has a friend who is a history teacher there, and I think she invited me to go with her when they meet up. I hope so!

The Wild American Magazine Chase, The Forbidden City, and other Stories

Hello all!

It has been a while since I last blogged, in part because I have been out seeing Beijing more, which means I have to study more efficiently, which makes me pretty tired. Also, I caught a cold this week, which also kept me drinking lots of fluids and trying to take better care of myself. But now my cold is almost completely gone and my Sunday is pretty free, so I thought I'd let you guys know what I've been up to a little bit! This is the Forbidden City. As one of my lessons explains, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Beijing, so it is always crowded with people.
The Forbidden City (or Gu Gong) is huge--this is one corner courtyard but they extend almost as far as you can see. I am not sure how best to explain it. You keep walking and there are just more and more of them. Being in places like this always makes me imagine what it used to look like in its prime. What were people wearing? What did they do?
The detail on the buildings is amazing. These are animals--there is a good story behind this that my teacher told us but I usually understand about 30% of what they say, so it is not enough to repeat it for you guys.
I hardly ever give you all pictures of me, so here's one! These are classmates and friends and schoolmates, and two teachers. We have a good time.
Whenever I see beautiful gardens, I want to take pictures for my mom. I loved this one. I probably could have spent another two hours at the Forbidden City at least looking at things I didn't get to see, like more gardens, but we were tired at this point and had to go home. Next time!

There is so much more I want to tell you about. Last weekend we went to a village in the country and stayed with people there. Their houses have been converted to be able to welcome tourists. They cooked for us, and we climbed a mountain and saw pagodas. Also there were cute dogs.

Then, Wednesday was my roommate's birthday, so after class I embarked on a quest to find her an American magazine under the pretext of "going somewhere else to study." Three subway stops and two bookstores later, I found a rack with Newsweek, the Economist, Time, and Vogue.
It was a good adventure and it forced me to use my Chinese to ask for directions and help.

Finally, I started work on my research project, which involves going to historical neighborhoods and interviewing people who live there about what they think about tourism in their neighborhoods. My Chinese is good enough to ask the questions I want to ask, but not good enough to understand the responses fully, so a teacher went with me to help with the hard parts.

All of these last three adventures have pictures and more stories, so if we are lucky I'll elaborate later this week.

Disclaimer

I want to take a short short second to acknowledge that this blog is an account of my totally subjective experience in Beijing. Some of the things I talk about I could be misunderstanding, and sometimes I could be completely wrong! I hate making generalizations (all Chinese do this, that, etc., all foreigners are like this), but it's easy to do in such a strange and new situation. So anyway I'll do my best to avoid generalizations, and give you the best account I can of my experiences. One thing that I think sucks about blogging is that there is no editor. So before you publish, no one tells you whether or not you sound like a jerk or you're full of crap or it's too long or you have grammar errors. You find that out after other people read it. And I am not the best at editing my own stuff. Okay disclaimer over.

Other than that--I was able to get out a little this week. I hung out with Yanan, the girl at the donut shop, and saw a couple of games of Paralymic soccer. I have pictures, but it takes forever to put them up and we have a test tomorrow I need to study for. So this weekend expect pictures and more fun times from your friend in Beijing, Jennifer S.................M...............

Dumplings

Today I went by myself to get dumplings (or jiaozi) for lunch. I am getting less and less afear'd of talking with regular people, so I am not clinging to other students for help as much as I did last week. Anyway, at the dumpling place, a guy sitting there just hanging out told me my jeans were cool and asked me how much they cost. Now I got these jeans for around 6 dollars at a secondhand store in America and I had no idea how to explain that, or whether or not he wanted the price in dollars or renminbi. So I just stood there all speechless. Anyway eventually I managed to explain that they were very cheap because they were secondhand, and they asked me if I went to the local university (yes), and I think it all went well. But I was still really confused most of the time. I like to think that three to five months from now I will be able to sit and have lunch and chat it up with the regulars, but we'll see.

Speaking of chatting it up with the regulars, I am beginning to realize that if you let it, ACC will control your entire life, leaving no time for that sort of fun. Homework takes hours every day, and you are surrounded for the most part by other American students. If you want, they plan sightseeing on the weekends with teachers. Sometimes I don't even feel like I'm in Beijing, just this weird building in nowhereland where a bunch of people get together and study Chinese.

I get that feeling in college too sometimes--when you are so caught up in your work and never leave your dorm, you start to feel like you aren't really existing in a tangible world. It's worse in China though, because I came here to experience China, not just learn Chinese. In addition, only using Chinese with my American classmates is never going to help me improve drastically because we all use the simplest easiest language to get across what we need to say.

The point is, I think I need to get out a little more. I want to be able to use what I'm learning with people on the street, but also to taste smell touch and see a little more of Beijing than I did this past week. That is what I hate about dormitories--in Pittsburgh and here--they really inhibit the full use of the senses. So...I'll keep you updated on how this goes.

More Pictures Deng Deng

Tiananmen Square. I didn't get any really great pictures because this was the same day as the park trip and by this time I was exhausted--also there was nowhere to sit down. It's basically just a huge open space surrounded by museum-y type buildings with lots of people milling around and a big ol' picture of Chairman Mao on the front of the Tiananmen--the building in this picture.
This is part of the gardens in Tiananmen Square built for the Olympics. They are really pretty, and the reason there are not a million people in this picture is that it is actually separated off by that yellow line. In other areas the yellow line was closer, so you couldn't get a picture without a million peoples' heads in the way.
This is St. Joseph's or the Dongtang Cathedral. You can read a little bit about it's history here. It was closed when we went but I'd like to go back when it is open sometime.
Okay this is a huge statue of Yao Ming on a building. Yeah. I am thinking it is just for the Olympics, but we'll see.
And these are the infamous scorpions (and sea horses) fried on a stick. No, I did not eat them. I probably won't. But you can buy these on a street where you can buy many kinds of food on sticks, like really delicious looking roasted corn.

Well that was pictures for today. We had our first test which wasn't too hard, and then I spent today mostly resting from the long week. I also washed my clothes by hand because it seems the washing machine will stretch them out or something, so it's only good for t-shirts and jeans. My digestive system hasn't been happy for like a week now, but it's not a huge problem. I am going to cook my own food for the first time tomorrow so I can start to get more vegetables in my diet. Oh! And I am taking two extracurriculars taught by our ACC teachers--Chinese cooking and taichi. Also, we met our Chinese host mom. She was very nice but communication is kind of hard. Hopefully I'll get to do some cool stuff with her family.

This week I spent so much time in my room studying that I barely realized I was in China. I hope there will be more time for interacting with people and exploring as I get more accustomed to my work.

My Classes (this entry might be a little boring)

Hello friends:

My mom wanted to know about what classes are like so here you go:

We have four classes:

da ban ke: big lecture (10 students)

first there is a small quiz--they say words and we have to write the characters, and they can pick any of your 40-70 vocab words from the night before so you have to know them.
then they go over the material and tell you other ways to use it.

today for example, our lesson taught us how to say "chinese people fondly remember/miss the word "comrade/tongzhi" because you can use it for all kinds of people, men women old and young, and they are all equal, but now they have different words for those things."
then in class we learned how to say "chinese people fondly remember/miss/cherish the memory of Mao Zedong"

sometimes they talk quickly but if you have already studied the material the night before you can keep up pretty easily. also a lot of it is written on the board.

xiao ban ke: small lecture, call and response sorts of things (4 students)

this is like a drill--they ask questions and we answer using the last night's material
for example--we learned how to say "the word tongzhi is one of china's special characteristics"
then the teacher asked "what is one of america's special characteristics?"
and I answered "George W. Bush says that freedom is one of america's special characteristics." because we also learned how to say George W. Bush in our big lecture today.

etc etc (or deng deng in chinese)

dui hua ke: conversation class (2 students)

in this class we are given a topic to discuss with the other student and we have to use the day's vocabulary and grammar patterns. the teacher interacts with the conversation, asking some questions and correcting mistakes. today we had to pick an address like "comrade/tongzhi" that's connotations have changed in America. I chose why some women use Ms. instead of Miss or Mrs., which is really fun and hard to talk about in Chinese. but anyway i had to explain this to my partner who had actually never heard of this happening.
apparently a similar thing exists in china, where you used to call young women xiaojie (just like miss-not married etc), but now many women prefer nushi (which is more like ms.-could be married or not married, sort of neutral-less of a "young" sense to it).


dan ban ke: individual instruction (1 student)

absolutely my favorite class--you discuss with the teacher different things using the day's vocab etc. but you can also ask other questions and it is very helpful and lively. also, this is where you work on your independent project. mine is on tourism and culture. i will be interviewing people (in chinese!) who live in traditional housing areas in beijing or work in tourismy places there like hotels/restaurants about what they think about tourism there and changes in their culture because of it etc.

okay that was longer than i thought. hopefully informative. pictures next time of tiananmen square and maybe the forbidden city if i go with the school this weekend.

Donut Friend and Another Park

This is the girl who works at the donut shop I told you about. I want to go back and talk to her again, but right now my homework is taking over my life--4-6 hours a night. I'm still not quite accustomed to it and I'm really tired, so I probably won't do anything interesting for the next few days--just homework.
The next four pictures were taken at Dongdan Park. We went there Saturday (classes started today so I wasn't exhausted and busy yet). The best thing about parks is that mostly retired people (but some other people too) do all kinds of interesting exercises and other stuff--dancing, singing, playing instruments, doing all three of those at the same time. They are nice enough to let you try and they think it is hilarious. See below.
In the park there are a few (maybe four?) buildings like this. I am pretty sure they are all Buddhist shrines/temples, but it is hard to tell what things are when your teachers only speak Chinese with you. One had a big stone buddha in it, but the other ones don't, because they were taken by western troops around 1900. You maybe have seen one in a museum. I think I have. The temples all have fresh coats of paint, which some people might think is inauthentic. I probably can't say that because my research project has taught me that authenticity is kind of what you want it to be--for example, you could say an authentic temple would be one that's about to fall apart and be gone forever, or you could argue that an authentic temple in modern times would be repainted and have people selling souvenirs inside. So I don't know.
Okay this is what I was talking about before. It is a game like tug of war--these two guys are each holding one end of a long jumprope behind their back with their right hands. you can kind of see it if you look really close. They each pull as hard as they can in different directions to try to get the other guy to move his feet. If the other guy moves his feet, the first guy wins. It looks really painful because there is a rope rubbing on your skin pretty hard.
In this picture you can see one of my ACC classmates attempting to play. The guy he is playing against has his shirt pulled up, so you can see the welts on his skin that are apparently from playing this game. The judge in the middle was playing in the last picture. You can probably see that there are many many more people watching in the second picture. That is because it is really funny to watch young foreigners play games with retired Chinese men and lose terribly.

Speaking of being a foreigner, it is still pretty common to be the only foreigner on the street here. Most people don't care because Beijing is pretty connected to the outside world and foreigners come here a lot. Interestingly though, toddlers often will stare for a long period of time. I guess you learn at a pretty young age who looks like you and who really really doesn't look like you.

Language Pledge

We started the language pledge yesterday. It was exciting at first, but now it sucks.
I realized I can't say anything! I get nervous so I say hello when I mean goodbye and I didn't understand the cashier at the fast food chinese restaurant when she said 12 (the price of my food). a girl next to me corrected me in english pretty abruptly. I guess I was holding up the fastness of the food with my ignorance. Anyway everything is embarrassing. Apparently this stage lasts for two to three weeks. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
But I took yoga again today. I think it will bring me a little peace every now and again.
The next three days I don't have too much to do. I hope I can see some cool stuff, take pictures, and write you about it. But then I have to talk to people! We'll see :)

pictures, placement tests and kendeji

this is my dormitory and where I have classes!
ten of us went out for a "casual" lunch after our teachers took us for a tour. At Chinese restaurants you order a bunch of food and everybody shares. This place was the best tasting food so far--roasted asparagus with spicy peppers, chicken with nuts, seaweed with nuts, some potato and eggplant thing, spare-ribs, wonton soup, etc. etc. Also, we split the bill ten ways and it came down to about 20 kuai or 3 US dollars each. It is wonderful to eat so well for so cheap!
This crazy looking building is in my neighborhood. It is still being finished and when it is done it will be the CCTV (China Central Television or something) headquarters. I walk past it all the time and I still can't really believe it exists. I would like to go in that top weird corner at some point but I am guessing I will not be able to.
Chinese ad for Maidanglao--McDonalds! Note the drumsticks exploding out of the bag. I would not be sad if I didn't go to Maidanglao or Starbucks the entire time I am here, although I have already been to Pizza Hut, KFC, and Walmart. It is fun to compare and contrast. But starbucks is expensive!
This is the scene of one of my favorite China adventures so far: the donut shop. They look pretty authentic, don't they? they taste pretty authentic too. Apparently the guy who owns it is married to a taiwanese woman who learned how to make them from americans, and they make them above the store. I definitely plan to go back because I also made a friend there. I will put a picture up of her next time but this time it would only let me do five pictures for some reason.

We started the language pledge today and took our spoken placement test. written placement test and results tomorrow! I'll let you guys know.

Tonight I am going to try and take yoga at the gym. Should be interesting at least because they teach it in Chinese.

the greatest power the Internet has is to reveal just how little people care about what we write

the title to this blog entry is a quote that can be found at today's article on Savage Minds, the anthropology blog which I really enjoy reading and which I will now link to on the side of this page. It comes from an interesting blog entry that talks about how even though the internet makes writing blogs and creating groups much easier, we don't have time to really get into very much of it. i think that depends on how much time we spend on facebook, but that's just me.

today I finally didn't feel completely scared in China. I went to a store that said "Donut Shop" in English and to my surprise they had delicious american-style donuts. I spent about two hours talking to the girl who worked there IN CHINESE! I used my dictionary a lot but it was really exciting. She didn't speak much English and she was really bored because not too many people go to the "Donut Shop" (Chinese don't like things that are too sweet, and it is in an awkward location for foreigners).

I was so pumped about this that I went to the Kodak store to get passport pictures and managed to order them in Chinese, and bought some office supplies in a tiny little office supplies store.

My confidence was punctured a little when I went to join the gym and I didn't understand anything the guy said. Thankfully so many ACC students go there I knew what to do, but still, it was depressing.

My roommate and I ate at Pizza Hut tonight. It was our last meal where we could talk in English so we just decided to go for the American food too. The veggie pizza had corn, pineapple, mushrooms, tomato, and green pepper and was very very good. They had a seafood pizza too with just about any animal you can eat out of a shell on it, and escargot as an appetizer. In China Pizza Hut is a fancy affair--people get all dressed up and you sit down and they treat you very well. They also have McDonalds and KFC but those are fast food like we know it.

i have more mosquito bites than i ever have had at one time in my life. tomorrow i start the language pledge. more adventures to come!

Acclimation and a Park

I am in China!
Just as a recap--I am in Beijing studying at Associated Colleges in China, located on the campus of Central University of Economics and Business. I will be here for 8 months studying Chinese. My program is an immersion program, which means I can't speak English unless I am talking to friends and family at home.

So far jet lag isn't really getting me down. I did wake up at about 6 am, which was kind of nice. I used Skype for the first time while I was here to talk to Jake, which was awesome. I spent an hour or so translating the sign on the back of the door to my room. It is only four lines long. That was annoying, but a good exercise, and I learned that I should keep my room straightened for the cleaning ladies.

I also had my first conversation with our main teacher in Chinese. It was scary but I got through it without too many problems! The best thing about being in a language program is that the teachers will correct you in conversation, when normal people would just accept your bad Chinese as ok because you are foreign. So I will learn a lot, I think.

By far the best thing I did today was go to ritan park. It is definitely a place to relax. It was beautiful and so peaceful. There was a pond, lots of walking paths, rock formations to climb on, beautiful buildings, an outdoor cafe, an exercise area, and more. I saw people talking, doing tai chi, singing, playing instruments, playing badminton, and stretching. There were kids everywhere, and one parent instructed his toddler to wave to me. I had really good (but a little pricey) coffee there, and lunch at the outdoor cafe.

Then I walked around the embassy district and saw the Slovakian embassy! as well as Sri Lankan, Columbian, and more that I forget. I went to the Beijing Friendship Store, which is kind of like a store for foreigners. It was huge; they had groceries, gifts, and most exciting for me, a bookstore. A weird selection of books, but that's okay. I am thinking once I finish the books I brought I might try and read Don Quixote. That will keep me busy for a while.

Next time I'll take my camera and send pictures! but google image search ritan park seriously. it's beautiful.

In China!

I have arrived safely and will write more later.

In Transit

is what a package tracking website would say if I were a package being sent to Beijing. But I am a person, so I'll just have to keep you updated. I use singular pronouns when I write in my journal, so you get them too, even though there are more than one of you. We just don't have a plural you that I feel comfortable writing in English. y'all--good for talking, but not so much writing. you guys--too much work. So we'll stick with you.

I am only as far as the Columbus airport right now, but I arrived 3 hours early, which was more than necessary. The baggage lady even commented on how early I was. I overstuffed my carry-on bag, so I got stopped for them to check it, but everyone has been nice, and I did the liquids just like I was supposed to (smaller than 3 oz., sealed in a plastic bag).

Things went well this morning--my grandma made Jake and me some awesome eggs and bacon and toast and coffee, and I got out of the house on time, and I made it through all of the baggage check sort of things without any problems. I think I have to do customs in China maybe, but I didn't bring anything crazy so I should be alright. I brought a book of Classical Chinese poems Jake's sister gave me, so I might even get some bonus points.

Now I'm just sitting around, enjoying the sunrise out the window and waiting to go. More later!

Ohio

So I am in Ohio and being in Ohio means that the internet quits working randomly and then I have to restart the computer.
It also means I get to take my dog on walks, and catch up with old friends (one of whom kindly drove me back from the Greyhound Station) and of course spend time with my family.
I watched the Disney movie Mulan with my mom tonight while I studied Chinese. I forgot that I really like that movie! I know it is not historically accurate, but I wonder if it was well received in China anyway...Yao? Any thoughts?

In other news, I love the weather here and being able to see the sky from horizon to horizon without any hills. Not that hills aren't great, but Ohio summer sunsets are really really great. Also, you can see lots of stars at night.
I have been lazy and sleeping a lot. But, as I said before, I started studying Chinese tonight and I'll probably start packing (and continue a studying regimen) tomorrow. I know how to say I was abducted by aliens, which is pretty sweet: 我被外星人绑架过！or, in pinyin if you all want to give the pronunciation a shot: wo bei waixingren bangjiaguo!
And with that, I think I will go take the dog on a walk.

Nostalgia Already?

Here are some things that are going to stay in the US when I go to China:











*Quantum Leap with Ian and Valentyna and Jake (although some QL is coming with me, thanks Ian!)
*Pittsburgh, the fountain at the Point
*30 member banjo orchestras
*Roommates who are allowed to talk to me in English
*The public staircases of Pittsburgh







































I am experimenting with using photos in my blog, so have patience with the terrible layout.

So is nostalgia really simply a product of the postmodern condition? Didn't people idealize the past before that?

Also, what is the difference between nostalgia and homesickness?

Also, I love Pittsburgh.




That is all for today kids!

address!

Here is my address in China in English and Chinese:

Associated Colleges in China
Foreign Students Dormitory
Capital University of Economics and Business (CUEB)
Hong Miao, Chaoyang District
Beijing, P.R.China 100026

美国各大学联合汉语中心
留学生宿舍
首都经济贸易大学
红庙，朝阳区
中国，北京 100026

They tell us mail will get to us faster if the address is printed in Chinese (I am not sure if you also need to print it in english so it gets through the US okay, I would guess probably). Thankfully, you can copy and paste it from here and print it and then just paste it onto a letter or something. Not that I'm asking for letters or anything like that. But you know, in case you really really want to send me something...

My life is pretty boring right now...I am mostly just spending as much time as possible working on my brackenridge paper due thursday, and when I'm not working on it I'm worrying about it. It's weird being in Pittsburgh without my stuff and with some of my favorite people home visiting their families, and I'm really looking forward to going back to Ohio for two weeks on Friday morning.

Oh and finally, check out Jake's blog to the left if you want to hear about life in Pittsburgh in addition to St. Petersburg and Beijing.

back to work...ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Opening Ceremony

Don't forget the Olympic Opening Ceremonies are tonight at 8 EST on NBC. Should be interesting, and maybe even fun. Czech it out!

Skype and Molly

I have Skype now, so if you want to talk to me for free, and see my funny face, you can look for me. My name on Skype is jenyunzi, which is my American given name and my Chinese given name together. I realized yesterday that it sounds like Jenyinzer, which is a nickname for a person who speaks with a Pittsburgh accent.

I did not say Chinese first name because in China your family name comes first. Fun Fact! My full Chinese name is Mu Yunzi （穆韵姿）. Also, my given name means rhythm and movement, roughly, because I am a dancer.

Also--you can read about my roommate Molly's Adventures in Russia!!! by clicking on the link to the left. I know I will.

Still in America

I shouldn't be writing yet because I am not done with my research paper. But when I get to China, you can come here to read all about it if you are interested in that sort of thing. I will probably write a lot because I don't want to forget how to write in English--since I am not allowed to do so in my program. See you again in three weeks or something like that.