Discovering China, Or Attempting To.

A BitterSweet Ending.

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:51:07 -0500

Although I have been home for a little over two weeks now, I feel one last post regarding my summer in China is in order.

Once CLASSES WERE OVER (we were all a little excited when that came to pass) we were off to Beijing for a couple days of sightseeing including the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City…I would love to include a photo or two of these sights, but alas my camera decided to be uncooperative on these days (really now, camera? you couldn’t have done this on a normal, everyday school day? is what I was thinking…) and I am still waiting to get some from my friends.

But the Great Wall, now that was fantastic. I went into the experience thinking, I climbed a mountain a few weeks ago, this’ll be a piece of cake. Not so, my friends, not so. Between the beating sun and the ramps at a steeper incline than even the stairs, we decided the four hours of climbing on the Wall were just as intense, if not more, as Huang Shan. And yet totally, completely, no doubt worth it. It’s an indescribable feeling to actually be in sight of and contact with a structure home to so many stories and so much history. It’s as though, if only for that moment, you are a part of it all, both taking from and contributing to its stories and history.

Thankfully, my camera cooperated on that day.

A nice action shot, an example of the many, many stairs.

An unrestored portion of the Wall. There was a sign saying we weren’t supposed to walk beyond a certain point and thus get to this area, but shhh….

Also, while in Beijing, we were able to go to the Olympic Park and swim in the warm-up pool, where every 2008 Olympic swimming athlete, including Michael Phelps, swam. I thought this was pretty.darn.cool.

Then, concluding an amazing two months in China, ones that I will never forget, with a not-quite-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been 36-hour/three-flight journey, I was welcomed home by a loving sister and boyfriend. And virtually immediately taken to the wonderful world of the Wisconsin State Fair. Talk about immediate American re-immersion.

And here I am, back at home, getting set for another move to Chicago, another school year at DePaul, and wondering which country God will take me to next. Because wow, did He bless me with this last one.

A bit delayed.

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:36:00 -0500

Although our time in Shanghai is already finished and we have happily moved on to the sights of Beijing, I feel as though I will still introduce our daily life we mostly enjoyed, but some days barely made it through, for the past seven weeks.

These first few are all of where we lived. It was a hotel on the campus of Fudan University, where we were taking our classes. So they do both short and long term stays. With my roommate, Jasmine, we had a room with two beds, a room with two desks and a dresser, and a bathroom. Not necessarily spacious, but definitely more than I was expecting!

While I did clean up my desk a bit, it actually was not rare for it to be that clean.

Notice by the books that I had been studying but decided taking pictures was a better option.

To this day, I am still not entirely sure with what I am cooperating. I believe something to the effect of closing the door.

The view outside our bedroom window. If you have been lucky enough to skype with me (just kidding!), I was probably sitting in those chairs just inside the other window.

One of the streets on campus. The entire campus is streets rather than walkways because the campus is so incredibly large and a bike or moped is basically a necessity for every student.

This is 光华楼, Guanghua Lou, the building where we had class every day. Four hours. Every day. The weekdays definitely got to be long. We had class in the left tower on the tenth floor. They’re the tallest buildings on campus and actually make a pretty decent dent on the skyline of the area.

These are our two lovely teachers. On the left is 邢老师, she taught us for the first two hours of class directly from our textbook vocabulary lists, grammar points, and dialogues. Quizzes every day, lots of questions about the textbook story characters, lots of explaining grammar, not always lots of fun. On the right is 吴老师, she taught us for the second two hours of class for conversational practice. Lots of making up pointless sentences using specific grammar, lots of repeating unknown words, once again, not always lots of fun. But they were both incredible sweethearts with lots and lots of patience. They were both convinced they looked terrible in this photo.

This is Coco, the best drink place ever. Once we discovered that their menu was in English, we were there at least once per day, most times twice, enough for me to fill up two buy-ten-get-one-free cards. All of their drinks - different types of tea, smoothies, chocolate-type, etc., with pearls or other jellies added - are 5 to 12 元, or about $1 to $2. Fantastic. The workers at the one nearest to campus definitely recognized us on sight in not too much time at all.

This is 85° Bakery, another usual stop for us. They have breads of all kinds, breakfast-lunch, sweet-salty, big-small, fancy-simple. All fresh & delicious.

Hope you just completely enjoyed the delayed intro to our daily Shanghai life!

So, we climbed a mountain.

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 02:34:00 -0500

Third time’s a charm, right? Finally, our third try at planning a weekend to climb 黄山, Huangshan, a range with China’s tenth tallest mountain peak, it all worked out. And we couldn’t have asked for a better trip. Everything just worked out, found all necessary travel vehicles, beautiful weather, no injuries. It was just so good.

In order to maintain integrity here, I feel the need to clarify that by “climbing” I actually mean walking up a lot of steps, there were no ropes or carabineers involved. But let me tell you, there were a lot of steps. A lot lot. So I still feel that climb is a valid term. We were able to get up to the tallest peak, Bright Summit, the first evening we were there.

After dinner, we decided it would be a really good idea to climb the second tallest peak yet that night, in the dark, and then spend the night on the top (notice a hint of sarcasm there on the “really good idea”). The climb, highly dependent on the flashlights we had just bought, actually turned out quite fun. The quiet night you hear, or don’t hear, at the top of a mountain isn’t something you can get anywhere else. Sleeping on top, on the other hand, not so much fun. Someone had mentioned earlier that rocks hold heat, so we would be just fine temperature-wise through the night. I tried to say that this was, in fact, not true. Although no one agreed with me at the time, after spending five hours trying to overcome the shivering and cuddling together in an attempt at getting a few winks of sleep, they were much more willing to agree on the fact that rocks do not hold heat. But being the only people at the top of Lotus Peak to witness the sunrise was worth the awful night.

Many many stairs back down, and my calves have never hurt so much in my life.

But overall good first mountain experience for this girl. However, I left my favorite (not to mention only..) Brewers hat at the top of the mountain. A replacement would make a lovely welcome home present! Hint to Mom & Dad =)

Here are a few more pictures, but no picture could truly capture the beauty He created here.

我爱我的语伴. Or, I love my tutor.

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:31:00 -0500

This is my tutor 江纯. She is a wonderful girl. We were assigned as language partners at the beginning of my time here and are required to have a one hour tutoring session every day, ours usually end up between two and three hours without even noticing. Although these conversations are supposed to be in Chinese, they are usually about half Chinese, half English, due to the fact that she will be studying in Boston come fall and wants to be prepared for the college classes she’ll be taking. This has given her the opportunity to give me a run around on a decent number of confusing English grammar structures. Who knew it could be so darn confusing to explain something about your native language, prepositions are just no fun.

She is quite a humble person, but the coolest fact she has told me is that before the Olympic were in Beijing in 2008, she entered an essay writing contest with students from all around China for the chance to carry the torch in the relay to the starting ceremony. And, she won. That’s right, she got to carry the Olympic torch. She seemed confused at why I was so impressed by this! Also, one of our discussion topics for class was what job we would like in the future. She said she is unsure but would, roughly translated, inspire in herself and others reflection and pondering on the fundamental questions of humanity, such as why we are here, to communicate to the people of each country in the world a better understanding of Chinese culture and a better understanding of one another. Also, we have pretty much the same taste in movies. I am firmly convinced if we lived in the same country, we would be the best of friends. But hey, between the wonders of the airplane and Skype, that might still happen.

This past weekend, I asked one night if we could together go to a city for a couple days, and she whipped it all together in time to leave the next day. So we ventured together to 杭州, Hangzhou, a city a little over a hundred miles southeast of Shanghai, famous for West Lake, a pagoda, two ancient poets, and a whole bunch of temples. Lots of walking and four tired feet later, we had pretty much seen it all. The entire time we were together, she wouldn’t let me pay for a thing. My favorite of the reasons she gave for being so obstinate about the whole situation, This is my country. Only twice was I able to get money to whoever was taking it before she was able to. To which her reply was, I hate you. After which she would quickly clarify that was not, in fact, true. It was so enjoyable to just spend the weekend away with a new friend. I’m hoping these ventures with the two of us will have the chance to happen state-side come this fall.

On the island that is in the middle of West Lake.

One of the Buddhist temples we visited.

Here is a video of the accordion man and his crowd. Alas, as I...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:52:26 -0500

Here is a video of the accordion man and his crowd.

Alas, as I am not technically inclined and was unmotivated to figure out how to rotate the video, you will be required to instead rotate your head.

Sorry for any inconvenience!

A weekend of various things.

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:11:00 -0500

Every Friday we have a test for our Chinese class. These tests are not fun in any way. So, on the weekend, in an attempt to recover from the past week’s studying and general language learning frustrations, we tend to completely ignore studying of any kind and go out and do as many things as possible. This past weekend was one such weekend.

Friday night we ventured out to one of Shanghai’s well-known shopping districts 东南京路, East Nanjing Road. While the area is known for it’s high-class stores, it is known moreso for the people who walk up to you, quite aggressively, and say things such as “Bag, purse, want to buy?” or “We have watch, jewelry. Very cheap for you.” In order to get them to stop pestering you, one has to assume their most intimidating Chinese voice and choose some way of saying no. However, if you actually “want to buy”, one can choose the least sketchy asker and take them up on their offer. Upon accepting, you follow them down a little street off the main road, a street looking as though you would not want to be there by yourself after 8 p.m., and trust that they are actually taking you to a half-way legitimate place to buy knock-off (and possibly stolen?) bags, purses, watches, coats, and such. We ventured into some such stores that evening. It’s always an interesting experience to say the least.

Shopping areas in Shanghai also generally have a broad expanse of walking area simply to accommodate the crazy number of people. Quite often in the evenings you can find people who have brought out their 90’s boom boxes and are playing traditional Chinese music so whoever wants to dance can just join in! It’s quite entertaining to watch. That night, we also found a man playing accordion with a huge crowd of people that decided to sing along. Singing in Chinese has such a different sound than singing in English, but is certainly beautiful in it’s own way. All the people singing with this man were just so into it, it was great.

Saturday and Sunday we were off to Nanjing, a city known for a couple different things, a temple, a memorial, a few tombs, shopping areas. I feel as though in America we do a decent job of honoring those people who have had an effect on our nation. Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington memorials, childhood/former homes saved for the ages, gigantic faces carved into an even more gigantic rock. But I must say, China did it up right when it came to honoring Sun Yat-sen and the effect he had as the father of the Republic of China. The memorial consists of a number of different structures ascending up the Zhong Mountain where at the top is the actual burial sight. Even in the complete fog of an overcast day, it was an absolutely gorgeous view from the top. The people of China really love this guy, giving him an entire mountain and all.

This one’s for you, Mom. Yes, I am actually in China =)

Now, as studying of any kind was successfully avoided for another weekend, Hello to the coming week of class…

Better late than never.

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:44:02 -0500

Hello there, all of my Dear Family & Friends!

So yes, I have been in Shanghai, China for a month now. And yes, this is my very first post. For this, I am quite sorry. Therefore, I will just have to attempt to make it extra good. Whether or not I succeed, I’m not promising anything!

I am a big fan of photos, capturing them, looking at them, being re-invited to that moment. There is just something about photos that I love. I also am a big fan of my friends. And a thoughtful email from one such friend gave me the space to reflect a bit on my trip so far with some good questions. So, this first post will be a combo photo recap and answering some of those good questions about this whole China Thing.

1. Biggest Change? Food.

Now, considering I am quite the un-picky eater, and while I was fully expecting the biggest change to be language, the biggest change has definitely been food. Mostly because it really is one thing a person truly cannot avoid. Granted, I could survive off of the multiple McDonald’s, KFC’s, Burger King’s, and Dairy Queen’s that we are surrounded by, but I’m in China, darn it, and that just does not seem okay with me. Thus, I eat lots of noodles, lots of rice. I’m not sure I have ever consumed such a massive amount of carbohydrates in my life. There have also been a few things eaten that I am not entirely certain what they were. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s okay to keep it that way.

2. Something beautiful? 虎丘, Tiger Hill.

I’m not really sure of the meaning behind it at all, but from what I gathered, it is basically just a really pretty hill on which are lots of old buildings, located in Suzhou, about eighty miles west of Shanghai. The biggest being the Pagoda of Yunan Temple, over 1,000 years old. Whoa. It was just such a good feeling to be out of the city for the first time since arriving in China and to get a chance to see a piece of China’s vast history. Walking down whatever path you pleased, finding another something beautiful to look at, simply enjoying just being in such an ancient place. The place was absolutely full of tourists, but considering the majority were Chinese, I’m going to go ahead and say it was a legit place.

3. Something surreal? Downtown Shanghai.

We spent one entire afternoon just walking the streets of downtown, and didn’t even make the half of it. The skyscrapers are just spectacular. They have most all been built in the past twenty years as a part of Shanghai’s urban planning, and so are all quite different, unique designs. Also, much more spread out than the downtown of Chicago, so you are able to have a fuller view of each one. Walking through them held a similar kind of awe as that of being surrounded by mountains, except, of course, a different material. One just feels so tiny in comparison to the vastness of standing next to the second tallest building in the world. I now have more pictures of buildings than I will ever need.

4. Something challenging? Listening.

I feel as though my speaking ability has much improved since first coming to China. I’m not thinking so much about saying the wrong thing when it’s the simple necessity of saying something at all. But my listening ability is just so horrible. I’m scared to speak with people not so much because I am unsure what/how to say something but rather because the chances of my understanding their reply is slim to none. Listening in our classes, we know what to listen for and the general context. And, if we really aren’t getting something, our teachers are perfectly fluent in English. Real listening, a different story. Virtually no context, no hints, and no English backup. Mostly, I just feel bad for not knowing the language of the people and country I am in. Bah, a frustrating feeling.

5. Something comical? Match Making Park.

Now, this may be a bit culturally critical to talk about, but there you have it. We were walking in People’s Square one day in the park area. Lots of stone pathways lined with full, beautiful green trees. We then found ourselves in a mass of people, all conversing with one another. People were sitting in chairs and at tables along the pathways, and each person had a little sign with information such as date of birth, hometown, and college major. One of the guys first said it was a place where people could meet and find others who spoke their same dying dialect. Come to find out, it’s actually a place for parents to find mates for their children who them deem as needing one. Definitely not something I have happened upon in a park before. Also, not quite as cool as the whole dialect story, but still a bit entertaining.

I hope this has not disappointed but has sufficed as a first post of my China travels. This will be happening much more often from now on. For realz. Sending my love to each of you!