A Bearcat in China

November 13, 2007

2007-11-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

After having typed up my trip journal this past weekend, I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on my trip to China this past summer. Reading some of these entries has made me cringe, because I feel like many times I come off as arrogant and narrow-minded. I have to remind myself that all of these entries were written while I was experiencing severe culture shock, which explains some of the insensitivity with which I wrote.

I’m very grateful for the chance to have been able to (briefly) experience one of the world’s greatest countries and nations. Going to China was one of the most exciting, strange, and eye-opening experiences of my life. One day, I would like to go back.

For those of you more curious about my trip, or if you’d like to contact me further, I can be reached at eiratansey@gmail.com. In addition, all of the pictures from my trip can be found on my Flickr page, at www.flickr.com/photos/eiratansey.

July 15, 2007, somewhere near Chicago

2007-11-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

It was acceptable in the 80s
It was acceptable at the time
I got love for you if you were born in the 80s, the 80s
I’ve got hugs for you if you were born in the 80s, the 80s
I’ll do things for you if you were born in the 80s, the 80s

Wow – these are the only lyrics to my new favorite song. I have no clue if they’re native English speakers or who the band is. I’ve listened to almost every song on the XM stations that I like – and the above song has been on the world (which means mostly European) pop station several times. I’m in love with it and I need to download it as soon as I get home (after I speak a ton of English and enjoy tap water straight from the faucet). Just a few more hours to go! We’re getting into Chicago 30 minutes early. And here ends my supply of paper, therefore, the End!

July 15, 2007, sometime in the evening, somewhere over a Northern latitude, on the plane back to Chicago

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Terra Cotta Soldiers 2, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Oh, on the plane, we’re returning to 美国! We spent the last one and a half days in Xi’an, which was awesome – maybe it was just because it was a chance of scenery from Dalian? We all really liked it – there was a cool, chillaxed vibe to it, despite how touristy it is. It also – and I realize what a dumb/ignorant thing this is to say – but the city seemed more “Chinese” than Dalian did – probably because Xi’an is such a historical city, and Dalian has only been something more than a fishing village for one hundred years. Anyway, I really dug Xi’an, and I’m slightly (slightly!) bummed that we didn’t get to actually study there, as it was our original plan to study there.

Our first day in Xi’an, we went to the city wall. Our tour guide was this awesome dude named Richard – and he told us that he was the person who stood with the host of “the Amazing Race” at the end of the Xi’an leg of the show a few years back. I had an “Ohmygod, are you serious?!” moment, because I remember watching that episode (at the height of my Amazing Race obsession) though I only remembered that the contestants had to go to the Terracotta soldiers. Anyway, so on our first day, we went to the Xi’an city wall – very cool. The group wanted to go this Feng Shui museum on the wall. It seemed pretty boring though, almost as soon as we got in. Chris and I dipped, and we rented bikes to ride along the wall. It was well worth the 20 yuan. The wall, though it has been repaved and rebuilt in many sections, still has some extreme potholes in its paving stones. Not to mention that the rental bikes were fairly rickety – let’s just say my bum and my bits were slightly achy afterward. It was so much fun though to ride among the tourists and crazy holes. I’m sort of surprised I didn’t sustain any major injuries, I am definitely now on “Team Ride a Bike at a Famous Sight” – riding the bikes at Versailles last year was definitely one of my favorite things I did in Paris.

So the second day we went to the Terracotta soldiers. I wasn’t disappointed – I was sort of afraid I might be underwhelmed, because the warriors have been on my “top ten sights I want to see in my life” for years. I’ve actually never compiled such a list, maybe I should do it now?

1. the Three Gorges Dam
2. the California redwoods
3. Brazil. During Carnivale.
4. Uluru (? Ayer’s Rock in Australia)
5. a sloth in some tropical rainforest
6. a German brewery
7. at a World Cup game, when either Brazil, Italy, or England is playing
8. Norway. Not sure what, exactly.
9. a real iceberg, before they all melt
10. the Vatican. Don’t care much for religion, but I do find most religious architecture in Europe to be pretty awe-inspiring

That was actually harder to write than I thought.

Anywho, the terracotta soldiers were super awesome – I had been under the impression that when it was discovered, most of the soldiers were intact. As it turns out, all were pretty smashed up (because of the farmer’s rebellion after the emperor died, and no one was around to take care of the tombs), so to see all the soldiers – which were painstakingly glued back together – in the pits was pretty breath taking. The three pits are still being excavated (thirty years after their discovery) and soldiers are still being put back together. I really enjoyed seeing them – definitely up there with the Great Wall (though I didn’t drink a beer at the terracotta soldiers!).

After that we went to see the summer palace in Xi’an, which was at the bottom of a pretty hill, and it had some cool looking hot springs. We also finished some shopping at the Muslim market (hello cute cell phone charms!).

Jade, Jon, Kellie, Chris and I ended up going to the KTV (karaoke) place down the street from our hotel a few hours after our dinner (“it’s our last night in China! We haven’t tried karaoke yet!”). It was a lot more fun than I expected. We sang some pretty ridiculous songs – like “Imagine”, “Living on a Prayer”, and “Lucky Be a Lady”. Or was it “The Lady is a Tramp”…? After that we went to the 24 hour McDonalds.

I think it’s like 10 pm or so – haven’t looked at a watch for a while. I’m not very sleepy, and anyway I’m shit at sleeping on planes.

United Airlines has some XM radio playlists you can listen to. I’ve been rocking out to the stations – I didn’t realize how much I missed listening to music. It’s been nice to have a respite from my laptop, cellphone, and iPod, but to be honest, I’m looking forward to getting back to a lot of my spoiled American creature comforts.

July 12, 2007, 3:35 pm

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The Big Ship 1, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Ugh, I have a foul dry cough – fingers crossed that it’s not because of the disgusting mold growing on the wall outside of Adam and Caroline’s room for a couple of weeks – there’s some starting to grow outside of my room, too. Thank goodness we’re only here about another twelve hours.

Yesterday we went to see this crazy big boat in Lushun – it can accommodate an actual train (forty attached cars, if I recall. Maybe more?) and also has a ton of passenger cabins. Right now it is only transporting cargo, but in a few months it will also begin transporting passengers and automobiles. It was pretty fun to see, actually. It was so BIG! Being on this trip has made me think about some of the things I want to do in my year off before grad school – I’ve always loved the idea of working on a boat, and it seems like the easiest way to do that would be working on a cruise ship. I’m intrigued – definitely going to start looking into it when I get home. I’m also interested in coming back to China as an ESL teacher. I have talked to one of the school officials about it, and he said I could be certified in the US. I can’t quite put my finger on anything in particular I like about Chinese culture, but I know I would like to come back. There is something fascinating about this country, how it is absolutely speeding ahead like a bullet train, yet in a lot of ways it’s incredibly old-fashioned and conservative. I’m not even sure how serious I am about Chinese as a language (I’d like to continue studying it even if it isn’t useful to my professional career). But I think I’d really like to come back.

I also would really like to work abroad somewhere else, too – I need to look into BUNAC – I would be delighted to find work somewhere like England or Australia. I pretty much want to combine as much work and travel as possible before attending grad school.

Last night we were given quite the Goodbye party – it appears that this is another Chinese cultural difference – really formal goodbye stuff. First, we met with some university officials where we got a transcript of our experience and each received a cool gift of a framed fossil from the Lushun area (haven’t opened mine yet, but it seems they are all fossils of little fishies). Then there was a Going Away party/show at the hotel for us – it was very lovely, but also kind of over the top. There were a couple of dance numbers, some martial arts demonstrations, singing, even a calligraphy demonstration. We sang the Moli hua (about the jasmine flowers) song towards the end. It was weird to hear all the MCs go on about friendship and international ties when I had probably met only about a tenth of the people in attendance. We were grumbling a bit this morning about the nationalistic overtones, which, if you read between the lines, were definitely there. Lots of stuff about China’s culture and how wonderful it is, etc etc. And of course Chinese culture is fascinating, and of course we came here to learn more about it and appreciate it – but there sometimes is this attitude here that is so China-obsessed that the rhetoric about cross-cultural learning sometimes seems like window dressing. In all fairness, of course, I could easily see a similar situation in the US.

Today has been pretty chillax so far. I was determined to try to sleep in today – I turned my alarm clock off, and I ended up waking up at 6:27. My alarm usually goes off at 6:30. Argh. So then I attempted to nestle down in bed (and tried not to think about the random mosquito bites I had suddenly acquired overnight), and thought maybe I’d fall back asleep, but no such luck. Man, I haven’t slept in since we left Cincinnati, and I miss it. All I want to do is wake up at 9 or 10, and then roll around for a while before I actually bother to get up.

Anyway, I’m mostly packed up – I need to weigh my luggage and make sure it weighs less than 44 kilograms. (Oh God. I hope. I’ve already thrown out some clothes and my backpack is pretty stuffed.)

There’s this great little restaurant near the college campus we’ve been hitting up recently, so we ate there (well, Jade, Jon, Nick and I) again today. They have great spicy food. Mmm. Our other favorite place is this very dirty place where they have the best wings I’ve ever tasted. The Wingmaster (the owner) is always outside, shirtless, and he has this strange Amish style beard (no moustache). He lords over the grill and the whole thing is probably a US public health nightmare but the chicken is so good (the stuff it’s covered in is spicy and awesome) none of us gives a shit. It’s where we got the 100 wings for Alfred and Eric’s going away/dance party.

This afternoon Killy and I went on a bike ride (those two person side-by-side bikes) through the World Peace Park. We found Chris there (everyone has been doing their own thing today) and it was nice to get to hang out by the ocean again before we leave.

I finally broke out the “Upgrade me violently” shirt. Hard to think of where I could wear it in the States, but I’m so glad I ended up buying it.

July 11, 2007

2007-11-11T21:13:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can’t believe our time in China is almost done. Today we had our final examination – a bit of a formality since in reality, back at UC, this is either a pass/fail deal. The class was split into two groups, and we had to perform a skit in Chinese. My group has Jay, Chris, and Jon in it. Our skit was much shorter than the other group (Nick, Kellie, Adam and Caroline) and we should have probably had more dialogue. Oh well. I’m quite glad it’s over.

July 9, 2007

2007-11-11T21:11:00.001-08:00

Beijing Opera 2, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

I know I’m becoming something of a broken record, but this trip has made me realize how much I actually do love Western culture. Today has been a very “You can take the girl out of America, but you can’t take the American out of the girl” kind of day.

So Friday night was our big dance party/Goodbye party for Eric and Alfred. We (well, Nick and Alfred were the main organizers) got tons and tons of beer, lots of wings from the Wingmaster (the guy who runs this delicious wing shop next to the university), and soda and some snacks. The party started around 6:30, and when I headed down around 6:40, there were about forty people all sitting around the couches (it seemed that most of Alfred’s three classes show up), and they all had beers, but very few people outside our group were dancing.

This is the first thing we learned about Chinese students at dance parties: the vast majority of them are clueless. It wasn’t like at an American party where you have some wallflowers and the usual “I don’t dance” people. It was frightening, almost, how many were just sitting there watching instead of getting up and moving. Very slowly, we were able to get a lot of people up – what was funny was periodically everyone would be up grooving, and just as fast, everyone would be down on the couches again. A few Chinese students were surprisingly brilliant dancers (my theory is they’re all secretly from Shanghai and go clubbing) – one guy in a tank top was getting a little freaky at times (picture a gangly ostrich getting electrocuted and having a seizure), but he was quite an entertaining dancer. He had a (male) friend in a beige shirt who was kind of cute – I actually was kind of jealous that beige shirt dude didn’t dance with me more. And they had a female friend that was awesome at breaking it down.

Watching the majority of Chinese students though… it was like middle school, but everyone was over eighteen. Sometimes it seems miraculous to me that people in this country are so shy, but they managed to boink at least one billion times. Several Chinese students told me this was the first time they had ever danced. Wow. I guess at one point, Nick told a guy to just go ask a girl to dance, but he was like “No, you ask her for me…” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I usually like shy boys back home in the States, but the shyness that Chinese boys have make the guys I’ve dated look like James Bond.

The other thing that has really struck me about Chinese youth is their attitudes towards drinking. I’ve found a lot of them have this attitude like “If you drink, bad things will happen” – but because very few of them drink frequently, when they do drink, they go overboard – and then their attitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This has made me realize that having a huge drinking culture – even a binge drinking culture – has its silver lining: you learn very quickly what your own personal levels of sober-tipsy-drunk-smashed are. Every American student I know who drinks can tick off exactly how much alcohol (whether it’s beer, wine or liquor) it takes to get them wasted. They might ignore these lines, but at least they are aware of them. Not many Chinese students I’ve met have the same personal awareness. At the party, towards the end, we cut off the beer. A couple of people got sloshed and puked after only a few beers.

Anyway, it all turned out pretty well. We cleaned up and managed to drink the rest.

On Saturday we rode into Dalian to see some of the sights. Along the ocean there is a very large park, and at one end is this big concrete structure that looks kind of like an open book, but the pages are pointed up. According to Jade, it was originally built at a viewing platform when George Bush (the first, I imagine) came to Dalian for a visit. It’s quite fun to walk up, except as soon as you get up towards the top, you start to slide back down.

After seeing some more things around the park, we took a scenic drive around the rocky coastline of part of the city. Apparently that route was formerly used as a military route. For part of it, we got out of the bus and walked a short way. I had to pee really bad, but my, am I glad we took our little roadside walk – Dalian has a lot of random sculptures around, and what did we see on a grassy bank but a GIANT SNAIL!! I proceeded to flip out and ran across the road with barely a glance in either direction. Dumb, I know, considering it is China. The snail sculpture was huge – probably at least six feet long and four feet high. I sat on its neck and took some pictures with it. Awww. I can now say I sat on a giant snail in China. I think everyone in the group was amused (or horrified?) by the scale of my snail obsession.

After our walk we went to a hot pot restaurant (lamb for me, again). Then we went to see a Beijing opera, which was very cool. They performed excerpts from three operas – Farewell my Concubine (lots of warbling and high-pitched talking, generally sad), a story about a matchmaker and a jade bracelet (warbling, all parts played by men, generally comedic), and the Monkey King (action packed! fight scenes! the best costumes! generally exciting!). As evidenced by the very punctuated description, I enjoyed the Monkey King the most. We arrived at the theater a bit early, and got the chance to see the actors put on some of their makeup, which was cool. I really enjoyed it, even the more boring first two acts. Beijing opera is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and the makeup they use to convey character attributes is pretty fascinating. Our music teacher taught us about the color symbolism the previous day, but unfortunately I didn’t remember much of it when we went to see the opera.

Alfred and Eric left us on Sunday. I went down to the lobby that morning and saw them, but I had been under the impression that we were seeing them off at the airport. So I didn’t really properly say goodbye to either of them, and didn’t realize we weren’t actually going to the airport until Jon enlightened me after Alfred and Eric drove away in the program director’s car. Oops. Well, at least I got my picture taken with Alfred, and Eric should be at the reunion picnic.

We went into Dalian again yesterday (with several Japanese people from the hotel on the bus too) and went to this great HUGE market. It was like the Silk Market in Beijing, except without the irritating shop owners and no touristy overtones. The place was enormous though – I picked up a lot of great stuff – Jay Chou cds (a very popular Taiwanese singer), a calligraphy brush and ink, and a set of the translated Journey to the West (the Monkey King). I had been thinking of buying the book when I got home, and though I now cringe at how much room they’re taking up in my luggage, it was very hard to resist the four volumes for 50 yuan (about $7). I also picked up possibly the worst Bad English phrase shirt yet… Chris and I dipped very close before our meeting time, and kept running past stalls trying to find inappropriate shirts (“not weird enough!”). But I struck gold – the shirt is so horribly weird and offensively suggestive (suggestively offensive?) that I had to buy it – without even trying it on. It says, “Upgrade Me!! Violently” and in the middle is the female symbol angled the way the male symbol usually is, and across that it says “I feel fantastic!” with some other random gibberish on the shirt. Oh my. Unfortunately we couldn’t find an equally ridiculous shirt for Chris. We also randomly met a fluent in English young Japanese dude who accompanied us to McDonalds and Starbucks (God, I can’t wait to be back in the US where I don’t have to travel one hour to get a decent cup of coffee). We hit a couple more stores, and I have now officially put the brakes on buying stuff. I have something for everyone back home, though to be honest, most of the stuff I bought is for myself.

I’m getting a bit nervous about my luggage for the return trip – I’ve quasi-packed (mostly all my new stuff I’ve bought), and there isn’t a ton of room left for the clothes I came here with. I’m afraid I might have to throw some out – I haven’t seen a Chinese equivalent of Oxfam anywhere, and I imagine there might be some cultural rule against giving your clothes away to someone – there doesn’t seem to be much charity in China. Maybe because of its Communist past? I dunno. Charity does seem to be a product of capitalist guilt.

There is a scale in the lobby that I’ll probably borrow briefly – just to weigh how much I’ve already packed and what I will have to throw out here. Argh! I really hate just throwing out perfectly usable stuff, but I really don’t know what else to do. Jade says that because we’re traveling as a group, they’ll be more lenient about the weight of each individual’s luggage, but I don’t really want to hedge my bets.

July 5, 2007 1:00 pm

2007-11-11T21:07:00.001-08:00

Reality is definitely stranger than fiction.

Right now I’m watching this Chinese show which is basically a Chinese rapper contest – with very little rapping – they just dance around to American rap and grab a mic once in a while. This is the most Chinglish (Chinese/English) thing I’ve seen on TV yet, I guess because there really aren’t any translations for “hip hop”, “popping”, and “B-boy”. Haha, Lord this is weird.

So far the judges (two Chinese guys as well – they look like they might actually be rappers?) have shown the contestants how to hide a (fake) gun in their waistband and how to find the right white shoes. Then all the (male) contestants had to posture (to Big Boi from Outkast’s “I Like the Way You Move”) and were judged, and several small groups performed a little dance number. None of the music was bleeped out, I suppose because no one really grasps the meaning of “shake that ass” or “my n----”…? One funny thing was when a bunch of guys grabbed mics and sang, “Shake that X for me”, while the same “Shake that X for me” flashed across the screen in some neon green English font. But the music was “Shake that ass for me”. So were the Chinese guys singing the clean version? Was it a mistranslation? Do they even know what ‘ass’ is, or do they think it’s really ‘X’? I’m so confused!

We’re having a big party at the hotel tomorrow – Alfred is returning to Atlanta this weekend, and Eric has to leave us early due to a ROTC test back at UC. And it’s the last weekend for the rest of our group. We leave for Xi’an on Friday the 13th. We’re going to play some ridiculously American music, lots of food and 啤酒, and hopefully some general craziness. Alfred is inviting the three classes he taught over the last two months – so hopefully we’ll all get our dance on.

I am almost to the end of my doctor imposed contact lens ban. I got a minor eye infection the day before (!) coming to China, so the doctor I was able to see at the last minute back in Cincy gave me drops and asked me to not wear my contacts for two to four weeks. If I can make it until Sunday, that’d be exactly four weeks. I’m really tempted to stop wearing glasses and start up the contacts right now, but I’m going to try to hold out. I just really miss wearing contacts. I feel more attractive and confident with contacts, though I’m not really trying to impress anyone here.

In other news, I want Graeters peach ice cream and cheddar cheese. But not at the same time.

July 5, 2007, 11:10 am

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Down in the hall watching two of our Laoshis playing (or attempting to) pool. Quite endearing because they aren’t very good, but then, neither am I.

I think one of the biggest initial culture shocks of coming to China is seeing the ridiculous ways people drive. All lane marks, traffic lights and signs are merely suggestions – guidelines would be putting it too strongly. First, there are always lots of bicycles, trucks, motorbikes, cars, and the occasional mule drawn card on all of the town roads. Then the roads are pretty shitty to begin with, unless you’re traveling on a well-maintained highway. If a bus idling on the side is in your way, you don’t wait for it to go, you just swerve into oncoming traffic, miss the car coming at you by six inches, and get back into your original lane. Usually we’re in the hotel bus when we drive into Dalian, so we see the scary driving moments, but it isn’t as scary because we’re in a big bus.

But when we travel by small car – like when we took the taxis to Lushun – you see the constant narrow misses a lot closer – because you aren’t as high up in a car. I actually enjoy the experience of driving with chaotic cab drivers (whether in the States or abroad) but even yesterday’s taxi ride to Lushun left my heart in my throat a few times. I just had to keep closing my eyes or look out the window at the scenery so I wouldn’t see the swerve around the truck with one foot of clearance.

And crossing streets feels like an exercise in evolution. As Jade says, in the US, the car will stop for you. Here, you stop for the car. Even crossing in crosswalks is fairly precarious – I just try to wait until a big group of people has massed, and then I scurry across with them.

Also, I’ve only seen one bicycle helmet (save for the obvious sport cycling teams) since we’ve come to China – and it was on a European looking guy riding a bike in Beijing. I can’t imagine learning how to ride a bike or drive a car on actual roads in China, but I guess the chaos is pretty normal if you grow up with it. And we’ve only seen one or two accident scenes since we’ve been here – it’s like Chinese drivers are both the best and the worst drivers in the world. They completely ignore everything American drivers obey, but they’re brilliant drivers because they seem to have less accidents than we do. I guess this is what we’d call “organized chaos”.

July 5, 2007, 8:15 am

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Aww, I’m currently having a touch of homesickness. CCTV9 just had a short bit on Independence Day activities in the US (I believe it is currently 8:15 pm July 4 back home – I always forget that we are twelve hours ahead here in China).

I really, really do miss American culture. I miss the decorum of American “do it yourself” – they don’t like you to bus your own tray in KFC, because someone has a job just to do that. I guess it’s good someone gets a job, but I think having to bus your own keeps you humble (in theory). A bunch of us were bitching about getting stared at, and Jade told us that there really aren’t any etiquette rules against staring in China. Yet they’re also so reserved about discussing private matters – it’s strange how different cultures have such contradictory guidelines for proper behavior. Time for class…

July 4, 2007

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Yay! It’s July 4th … but in China. Today was super awesome – we had the day off class, and we took some taxis to Lushun, which is closer than Dalian, though not as big. We went to the department store and supermarket there, as well as a few bookstores, and KFC for lunch. Yum!

I finally bought something cool for Mom – a jigsaw puzzle – 1,000 pieces – it’s a map of the world with both Chinese and English names – and the best part is the projection used – China is in the Western Hemisphere and the United States is in the Eastern Hemisphere. I finally found a decent Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary, only 36 yuan – less than US $5. Would have cost at least two times that in the States. I won’t lie – I love buying stuff in this country.

One of the stranger things I’ve bought in China was a particular children’s picture book – full of military words like “mortar” and “anti-aircraft artillery” – with the characters and pinyin! I also got some more innocuous kids books (some very simple stories and more wholesome picture books), but I just couldn’t pass up the weapons picture book – now I can learn how to say, “Look, there’s an aircraft carrier!” Lord, this picture book is fucked up. Caroline bought a similar one that’s all different types of guns. My.

A lot of us in the group feel that our Chinese really improves when they loosen our leash and let us strike out on our own. Usually we’re kept on such a short leash – but getting the chance to run around the shops of Lushun and practice our “survival Chinese” (as Jade calls it) is invaluable. As Jade points out, it’s still crucial to learn new vocabulary by being studious – but the real life use is incredible (both incredibly frustrating, and incredibly rewarding when you vaguely manage to have a quasi-conversation with someone in Chinese).

Several of us in the group are obsessed with seeking out terrible English translations. It’s not with malicious intent, I don’t think any of us have the attitude, “Oh haha, dumb Chinese people can’t handle English.” Probably because we realize how goddamn hard Chinese is, so it’s hard to posture about language superiority when we can barely get around without help from Jade, Jay, or one of the Laoshis.

Anyway, some of the English translations are so awful you have to be amused. We especially like seeing unfortunate English phrases on t-shirts. I’ve seen a shirt worn by someone on campus that said “National American Cakewalk Stadium”. Eric swears up and down he saw a tee on a girl that said “Rock My Kitty”. So at the shops today, Chris and I were hell-bent on finding some ridiculous shirts. I found one that was pretty crude – I didn’t buy it, but I was tempted – it had a sexy girl on it, and it said “Please give pleasure to me”, and there was a second line that said, “Let’s dance in my body”. Whoa!

I ended up buying a tee at the big Chinese version of Meijers or Wal-Mart in the basement of the department store (Trust-Mart, I think). It’s baby blue (maybe the end of my black tee era?) with these random little cartoon characters (pigs? dogs with pink noses?) and pink writing: “Life to be worthy of a ration being, must be WORTHY”.

Right.

I have more I want to (need to!) write about, but I should really go to bed right now. Until then, I’m off! (Just saw another Beijing 2008 commercial – 400 days to go! I love those commercials)

July 3, 2007

2007-11-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Anytime I travel – even if it’s within the US for just a short time – I always marvel at how well I get along with so little stuff. I’ve travelled enough that I know how little to pack to get along, and I always do. Usually I’m not as strict with myself as I should be, and I end up slightly over-packing.

Usually though, I pack the right stuff, just not as smartly as I could have – of course, hindsight is 20/20 whenever one travels. I probably only needed one sarong on this trip (not two), but I wish I had brought one more t-shirt (I brought four). I don’t think I should have a problem bringing home all my stuff – I still want to buy some more souvenirs for people back home – I’ve bought most of what I want for myself. Our art teacher supposedly sells her art, I’m thinking of buying something for Mom’s wedding.

Naturally, thinking about my consumption styles when travelling versus at home comes up a lot. Here I’ve bought a lot of snacks, but all our meals are provided so my food buying has been pretty limited. I think the biggest thing I have noticed about consumption is China is the clothing – a lot of people seem to wear the same shirt or outfit several times a week. I think it must be that most Chinese people, even students, have far fewer clothes than their American counterparts. It makes me wonder if the average Chinese person has a wardrobe not much bigger than what I brought in my luggage. And then I think about how many clothes I have back home…

Travelling definitely triggers my periodic moods of “Oh my God, I have too much stuff, I need to get rid of it all!” I had to move all my shit (with the gracious help of Sara and Avril) into Mom’s house right before coming to China. Her front room was filled with boxes for a couple of days. I imagine if I were to try to write down all the stuff I have in storage, I couldn’t manage to list even a third of it. Which makes you wonder, how necessary is the two-thirds you can’t remember?

I definitely need to deal with some of it – when I move again (hopefully by September, possibly with Rose). I do not want to move all that ridiculousness. Further, it’s not really fair to take up all of Mom’s storage space as well.

I used to be obsessed with this idea that maybe I could get rid of enough stuff so that I could fit it all into a car. And not to get too Freudian on myself, but I wonder if that desire stems from how much I moved as a kid. I hate moving to this day, and if I owned a lot less crap, it would be easier to move it all. I guess I always feel like I should be ready to pick up and move, since the longest I’ve ever lived in one place was in Delhi, for about seven years. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the concept of putting down roots and living in one place for several years. I suppose being so familiar with mobility is both a blessing and a curse.

Anyway, when I get home, I am fully committing myself to Team More Fun-Less Stuff.

July 2, 2007

2007-11-11T13:11:00.001-08:00

Everyone getting their Awards, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Awww, today is Jay’s birthday. We had a birthday cake for him at dinner. The cake was pretty tasty, but I do miss American style cakes and desserts. Cakes here are fluffier – like angel food cakes without as much of the good sweetness. And there isn’t much frosting on cakes and it’s not very sweet or creamy. Still – it’s cake.

Today we got to judge an English song contest. I guess being native English speakers was the only qualification for being judges. Our friend Killy sang this song called “God is a Girl” that Kellie (our American Kellie) and I helped her with a few weeks ago. This guy (who’s English name is Oscar) sang the R. Kelly song “I Believe I Can Fly”. While his English pronunciation wasn’t as good as the others, his performance was ridiculously wonderful. The “I Believe I Can Fly” guy and Killy had really good performances. I thought there was going to be one overall winner, but as it turned out, the top four (including Oscar and Killy) got “distinctive awards”. I guess my American sensibility was like, “What, no winner, winner?” Ah..

We also sang – or attempted to sing – the Butterfly Lovers song. In Chinese. It’s such a beautiful song and we butchered it pretty badly. They clapped for us, at least.

July 4th is around the corner – I rarely get patriotic, but being in China has made me feel very proud to live in America… I kind of want to bust out some patriotic songs in a few days.

July 1, 2007

2007-11-11T13:05:00.001-08:00

Polar World, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Another rainy weekend. Yesterday we went to Dalian and saw this aquarium/polar zoo place. It was interesting in a vaguely sensory overload sort of way. I liked seeing the beluga whales. I always feel guilty visiting zoos because the animals rarely look happy, and their spaces almost always look cramped. There weren’t any big areas for the animals at this aquarium/polar zoo. I felt really bad for the polar bear – no buddies around stuck in an indoor enclosure that was far too small. They had a pretty cool dolphin show, though.

After that we had lunch and then had a ride to our teacher, Tong Laoshi’s family’s house. They were very gracious and welcoming, and had a nice apartment – her dad is a judge and apparently pretty well off. Her mother and a friend made us some delicious dumplings, and then her father took us out to a huoguo, which is a hot pot restaurant. You sit at a table, and there is an electric hot plate in the center. They turn it on, and place a divided pot on top. One side of the pot has a spicy broth, the other side has a mild broth. You choose what kind of meat you want, and they bring out slivers of the (raw) meat on plates, along with tofu and greens and potatoes. Then once the broths start boiling, you start tossing stuff in and pulling it out once it’s cooked. Yummy yummy. We split our table into two sides (lamb and beef), though we ended up sharing a lot of the meat. I stuck to lamb, and my, was it tasty!

Tong Laoshi’s dad got wind of our interest in finding some fireworks (since July 4 is around the corner and the boys are always joking about setting off fireworks near the construction site next to our hotel), and through some connections, got us a ton from a friend who works at a fireworks place. They didn’t think it would be a good idea for us to set them off at the school, so after the hot pot we set off a ton of them in the lot behind Tong Laoshi’s apartment. We drew quite a crowd – a bit awkward – as someone pointed out, wouldn’t it be strange if a bunch of non-English speaking Chinese showed up in our neighborhood back home and set off a ton of fireworks? I tried to keep telling myself we were the family’s guests and to enjoy the show – some of them were quite big and spectacular.

Today we made another trip into Dalian. I think they think if we aren’t kept occupied constantly, we’ll get a) bored, b) subversive, or c) both. We really didn’t do anything except go to some stores (I ended up going to two Starbucks, so today was very good. At the second, Jade treated me to a red bean frappucino, which was unremarkable but still pretty tasty). And one of the school officials took us out to lunch – where we had some really great beer. It was in nice cold mugs, and the best part was it didn’t taste like Tsingtao. The bathrooms at the place (which was a “Brazilian style” BBQ place – that still tasted very Chinese) were quite intriguing. At first when you go in, you see this older attendant – and then there’s this badly lit room with all these weird frosted glass tubes. You grab some toilet paper before going in, and the attendant shows you to a tube. The whole set-up would have been incredible cool, but a) the bathrooms were pretty dirty, and b) because the tubes were frosted glass, you could kind of see people inside. Weird. But the sink was cool – the faucet spit water down this glass disk, and it splashed down onto this angled pane, away from the handwasher. Reminded me of a pub I visited in Bristol.

I’ve developed this fascination with spotting white people (I should really amend this to say Westerners or something more appropriate – not all the foreigners we see are white, but they certainly constitute the majority). You always see some at Starbucks and at the touristy stuff (like the “American Gun Show” at Discover Kingdom). And I CAN’T STOP STARING AT THEM. Now I know why we get stared at – it’s like seeing a Bengal tiger in the old crazy neighborhood cat lady’s house. Actually that’s a horrible analogy. But it’s kind of weird to see non-Chinese people. I mean, I know it sounds dumb, but there are so many Chinese people everywhere – white people/Westerners stick out without even trying.

Alfred and Kellie get the most staring – people ask Kellie to take their picture with her frequently. I wonder how that feels…? Kellie is always very gracious about it.

I need to pick it up with the journalling – we’re more than halfway through our trip (three weeks, I think?) and I’m a bit behind in keeping this journal. Jade quasi-designated me the unofficial-official journal keeper of the group. She says she wants me to type it up when I get back – which I will – the abridged version, of course. I’ll leave out the stuff about pooping.

June 28, 2007

2007-11-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

Today it’s pretty cool and wet outside – apparently it’s like 95 degrees in Cincinnati lately, so the Dalian weather is very pleasant in light of that fact. I was watching some of the news and they said that Liaoning province – where we are – has been having one of the worst droughts in thirty years. So the raininess has been good for the area. Ooh today is my half-birthday. My parents used to make a bit of a deal about it…

Today is the first day in a while that my health finally feels sorted out. Something I noticed is while I was sick, I only drank water – so I had no caffeine from tea or coffee – but I didn’t really have the caffeine withdrawal headaches. Huh. I doubt I kicked it for good, because I’m back on Team 茶, but maybe if I ever decide to get off caffeine (hahahahahaha) it won’t be so bad. What am I talking about? Every time I go without coffee back home I’m in agony. Everything is topsy-turvy in China. Actually I lied – I did have a cup of coffee whilst sick, the day we went into Dalian and found the Starbucks. Hmmm…

I think it’s wonderful how crazy the entire country is going for the 2008 Beijing Olympics – there was just a commercial on CCTV9 (the English language channel) that ended with “Beijing 2008; 407 days to go!” We passed by some of the facilities in Beijing – including the big stadium that looks like it’s wrapped in bandages – I wonder if that’s where the opening ceremonies are taking place? You see it in a lot of advertising – on one of the billboards I saw in Beijing, there was a big car driving in front of the bandage stadium. Even Tsingtao cans have the Beijing logo on it – while I’m here, I need to find out what kind of paid jobs or volunteer positions are available for foreigners connected to the Olympics – after I graduate next spring, I need something to do.

There is an American (well, born in Ghana) guy here named Alfred who has been here for a couple of months. He has been teaching some classes at the university as well as learning Chinese – he’s going back to Atlanta (where he lives) but he’s been a fascinating person to talk to. We sat in on one of his classes recently and it was really quite interesting. He had breakfast with us this morning (we’ve invited him to be our guest, since only about five of us show up to breakfast on a regular basis) and he told us about how he tries to get the Chinese students in his class to think globally in terms of their education. Apparently there is almost zero government financial assistance for college students, which I find absolutely frightening (though I guess it shouldn’t surprise me). Jade was telling us that she was having a conversation with one of the school officials recently, and he was expressing his frustrations that the Chinese government is not making the financial commitment to education the way it’s pouring money into development and construction projects. Local officials are more willing and eager to finance construction because they can see the results quickly, but education is still very, very expensive and out of reach for a lot of Chinese. No matter what your point of view, this country is pretty fascinating. It reminds me of the US, in many ways – it is so big sometimes all it can see is itself, and even then sometimes it cannot see its own problems.

Aside from the obvious missing of family and friends, there are a gazillion things I miss from home/the US. Most of them are food/drink related. A list:

*An actual variety of beers. I’m sorry, but Tsingtao is actually a pretty shitty beer, I never even liked it much back in the States. But the worst thing about Tsingtao is it’s the best beer of maybe three choices of other domestic beers (in the nearby stores that is – no imports). If we have enough time during our layover at O’Hare, I’m going to an airport bar, where there’s a Sam Adams with my name on it.

* Fresh, yummy healthy food. I’m so tired of the grease and the ungodly amounts of meat we’ve been eating. I would probably piss myself if I could eat a Dewey’s house salad right now – field greens, goat cheese, dried cranberries …. yum. I mean, I’m not a vegetarian but good God I am so tired of so much meat.

* Less censorship. The boys have been buying a lot of DVDs here, and almost every one of them has been cut in some way – sometimes it’s just titty scenes, but sometimes completely random scenes are cut out for no apparent reason. If any place has made me feel privileged and blessed to be an American, it’s China.

* The diversity – I can appreciate how having a homogenous (compared to the US) population can be a great strength for a country, but it’ll be nice to go back to a place that has people of all colors. Not that Cincinnati is the most diverse place, but we look like Epcot Center compared to most places in China.

* No more staring. Most of the time it doesn’t bother me, and I try hard to remember most people are simply curious, but sometimes it makes me really uncomfortable. My Westernized etiquette kicks in, and I want to be like, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s rude to stare?” Except mama’s probably staring at us, too.

* Western conveniences. Getting water out of the tap that you can drink (though I’ve been living life on the edge and brushing my teeth with water from the tap). Pedestal toilets everywhere.

* Copies of the New York Times. I. Want. It. So. Bad.

Something I will miss about China: the ridiculous cheap stuff (viva exchange rate!) we can buy. Chris and I stopped by the student store on campus, and I got the following: two packs of ramen noodles, plastic pair of chopsticks, roll of cookies, two funky plastic mugs (for gifts), one lunchbox-bowl thingy, three decks of playing cards, and one popsicle… all for 23 yuan. Which is slightly more than $3. Awesome. Today’s exchange rate is about US$1=7.54 RMB

June 23, 2007

2007-11-10T15:16:00.001-08:00

The American Gunshow 7, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

I think there was a laxative commercial a few years ago where they shamelessly used the James Brown song “I Feel Good”. I always thought that was pretty dumb, but once I have a real shit I will probably jump for joy. God, this sucks. Well, I found some laxatives today, so godspeed you good poop.

This was a rather nice weekend (save for the lack of pooping). Yesterday I was feeling quite out of sorts and flu-y, but I went to Discovery Kingdom with the group. Discovery Kingdom I something like a mini Chinese Disney World. I only went on the mild(er) rides like the carousel and bumper cars, as my stomach would have declared an insurrection against anything much more violent.

The highlight of the park, by far, was the “American Gun Show” – an amazing slapstick, cops n’ robbers production complete with police car 180s (in the space of about six feet), Evel Knievel motorcycle jumps, sexy girls doing martial arts, and a fake helicopter lifting about six inches from the top of the set. (On a random note, I just found Seinfeld on TV! Never got into the show back home, but anything American right now tickles my fancy). Oh, and at the end of the “American Gun Show”, they played some Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Nice. The whole thing was so janky, a very flimsy looking (though it must be strong, since all these people were climbing on it and jumping off) set of a building on essentially a parking lot with covered seating surrounding it. We met some of the actors afterward, they were American, British, and German. The best was when they were like “Oh yeah, the guy on fire at the end is from Ohio, too” (really). Awesome. And the motorcycle guys were super sexy, yum.

Today turned out to be a day of Americans in Dalian: we went downtown and hit up Starbucks, KFC, Wal-Mat and Pizza Hut. I got so blissed out at Starbucks – a real cup of brewed coffee and they had an English language (state-published, probably China Daily) newspaper. All the same, it was heaven to read a newspaper. I found out the Reds are still at the bottom of the division. We met some expats there who told us about a Dalian expat website they made.

Picked up some intriguing stuff at Wal-Mart – jasmine hand cream and jasmine mints (Jade has gotten us hooked on the jasmine mints, and bought several 12-pack cartons for her kids who also love them). Then we found a pharmacy where Jade translated to find some laxatives (from Germany!) for me. God, I hope they kick in soon. My stomach keeps having insane cramps.

My best buy of the day – a 164 yuan dress from a nice Chinese department store (on sale!). It’s a nice girly sundress that’s white with punchy green blob flowers. I love it – it needs some slight alterations, but they are simple – I could probably manage them here even with my tiny travel sewing kit. Planning to wear it to Mom’s wedding, though finding good shoes to go with it might be a challenge – one I will have to save for the states, since I am Bigfoot compared to Chinese ladies.

We helped some students with their songs for the upcoming English song contest. Started watching “300” with some from our group. Interesting, so far. Off to bed!

June 22, 2007

2007-11-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

Ooh, our group is not doing so hot at the moment. Half of us are sick (head count right now: Adam and Caroline, Chris, Kellie, and me somewhat). I have some abdominal cramping (constipation? If I could have a really good productive shit, I would probably cry with happines) and general achiness. I also had some chills earlier, and I’ve had some sinus tension. Some of the others have had fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. No one is sure what it is, because only half the group is affected. It might’ve been something with the food, and different immune systems are reacting differently. I think, for myself, my body is freaked out by how much meat and grease I’ve been eating. Back home I eat a lot more starches (bread, pasta… we don’t have rice at all of our meals, Jade said that rice at every meal is more standard in south China) and vegetables and dairy. Here, dairy is rather non-existent and we have meat at every meal. Lukcily we usually have a plate of fruit too, so I try to eat some of that. Still though… this is 不好.

I went to bed really early (around 9:30) and woke up around 6:30. It felt really good to sleep so much (even though today’s the day I got sick) so I think I’ll go to bed even earlier tonight.

Our classes are going well – I wish we were making more progress, but I think they want us to get down several of the practice conversations in the book before we start tons of new material. Our cultural classes are mostly interesting – my favorite so far is painting, which was way fun. I hope we get to take home some of our stuff. Today we had music appreciation, which was… interesting. We learned a song about this famous Chinese story of the Butterfly Lovers, and then in true Chinese fashion, we all took turns singing the song on the Music Appreciation class karaoke set-up. Today was also cooking class (learning how to make dumplings), which I think I would have appreciated had I not been feeling yucky.

Jade had a good idea to go to the (admittedly sad and desolate looking) World Peace Park next to our hotel (the “amusement park” where we rode bikes) to get some ocean breezes. Jade, Chris, Kellie and I sat on the rocky beach for a while, and I have to say it was quite pleasant. The rocks on the beach are really cool – but they’re almost a little too perfect – you have to wonder if they were trucked in or something. I found a cool swirly looking egg shaped rock that I took back with me.

Tomorrow we’re going to some kind of amusement park/possibly combined with an aquarium in Dalian. It will be nice to go into the city – I think we all have a touch of cabin fever. Man, I am going crazy not being able to read any English language newspapers. I’d be so happy if I could find one in Dalian, even if it’s a state published one. If I had brought my laptop, I could read something online, but it’s not the same. The only English language stuff I have to read right now is Huckleberry Finn, and though Twain usually hits the spotm I’m going crazy without my New York Times. Aaaah! At least there’s a decent (state-run) English language channel of CCTV. All the news people have adopted these British accents, which I find amusing. The Chinese BBC? On, and one of the meteorologists is awesome – she isn’t Chinese but a vaguely butch looking Australian (or maybe New Zealander?). I think her name is Jennifer Eden. Awesome. CCTV9 is definitely where it’s at.

June 21, 2007

2007-11-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

I think yesterday might have been the most glaring example of culture shock I’ve encountered so far. On Wednesdays we have “interactions with Chinese students” – so we went over to the main university building, and everyone mingled in the front entrance hall. It was a bit weird, because there were no activities, but you had all these people standing around – so in the US, we would have at least had drinks and snacks around to hold, but everyone was standing up and talking. A bit awkward, from our point of view. Americans always need a distraction I suppose.

I tried to say some things in Chinese, but my tones are so all over the damn place that it’s hard for them to understand me, because I’m not pronouncing it right in the first place. I still like Chinese a lot, but it’s such a hard language. I keep wanting to say it’s harder than English, but then I’ve never had to learn the mechanics of it without already speaking it.

Anyway.

I saw Lisa again from the other night. She is not as shy as some of the other Chinese girls, and it helps that her English is excellent – so we talked about the World Cup. The other girls are nice, but they are so different than American girls. Most of them always approach in pairs or groups – I think the girls who are confident enough to introduce themselves without an entourage are so cool, it’s nice to see bold girls. I realize I’m being very American about this, but I can’t help it! One of the girls asked me after the boys came over and started talking about beer if I had ever gotten drunk. But she said it the way you ask if some knows what “s-e-x” is in third grade. I mean, how do you answer that? I would have been the perfect opportunity for some dry wit (“only everyday after my teachers make me cry”) but I had already tried to explain the concept of sarcasm to them, which was beyond comprehension. I’ve come to the conclusion that, at least for English, you cannot fully appreciate it as a language until you understand the concept of sarcasm. I’m not sure about other languages, but without sarcasm, you could barely have American humor and British humor would cease to exist. But I suppose sarcasm flies in the face of “saving face”, so I guess I can understand why sarcasm is hard to grasp, let along to recognize sarcasm in the first place.

Anyway, I tried to say something very delicate about getting drunk.

Oh, and the boys. Whoa. What was quite shocking was how utterly shy the boys were, in general. They would hang back, kind of giggle, and group up the way the girls would. They would approach, and then get shy and run away. What?! Kellie and I were trying to figure out how 21 year old guys this shy came from such a patriarchal society. I remarked to someone one of the less shy Chinese guys how shy the others seemed, and he said they thought it was because I was pretty. That’s another thing about the Chinese people we’ve met so far – they’re very quick to say, “He is so handsome, you are so beautiful”. In the States, we’re used to saying that stuff after we’ve known each other for a while, not soon after making acquaintance.

June 18, 2007

2007-11-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

Today was our first day of classes. It went pretty well – they stayed at really basic stuff, reviewing “你好” , and “你好吗？” Our teachers are all very nice. They are all young women, one is married, the rest are single.

Tonight we had a welcome dinner with several VIPs from the university, and then a welcome party thrown for us by the English language club at Dalian Jiaotong University. It was very intimidating at first – we went into this big room where about twenty students were seated, and we sat at these big long tables in front. The officials and Jade spoke, then we all introduced ourselves and talked about how nice Dalian is. We talked to the Chinese students afterward. I thought that would be the hardest part, but they had a pretty good command of English (most had studied it for several years). A few girls almost pounced on me, but they were very nice and sweet. The one with the English name Lisa had very good English. So we chitchatted back and forth for a while mostly in English. It was nice.

I’ve been jogging with some of the boys in the morning, and I’m getting tired. Bedtime!

June 17, 2007

2007-11-10T10:50:00.001-08:00

Cherries, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Eee, it’s the first day of classes tomorrow! Today we went cherry picking, which was very cool, as I now have a big snack bag of them on my desk. We stopped by this weird “amusement park” close by to our hotel. It had these kind of weird looking, rusty rides, but we all rented (well, Jade rented for us) these bicycling-rickshaw things. Actually it was just like a bicycle for two (both pedal) with a big bench and a steering wheel on the left. Kellie and I shared one – I was the driver. It was way too much fun. We were all racing around, it was pretty amusing. We also went to a shopping center in nearby Lushun. It was like a mall on top, and a Trust-Mart (like a Wal-Mart) on the bottom. Our soon to be Chinese teachers accompanied us, and since their English is almost as shaky as our Chinese, we had to gesture a lot so they could help us find what we wanted. I got several cute character practice notebooks, stationery, snacks, a plastic bedside water cup, and this interesting bar of soap that’s used just for hand-washing clothes. All for 28 yuan. Goodness I love the exchange rate, and even more so when I only paid 50 yuan for a Japanese massage tonight – a few of us got it, and I can’t believe I got a 50 minute massage for $7. There were two male massage therapists, and the one I had really was working hard. It felt good – especially afterward – in an almost painful at times, ticklish kind of way. I guess the guy said my shoulders were hard to work, which isn’t surprising because I’m always hunched. Even people who don’t speak English notice this…

We get a lot of staring now. It gets kind of weird at times, but so it goes. Class tomorrow!

June 16, 2007

2007-11-10T10:19:00.001-08:00

Summer Palace 12, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Wow, yesterday was quite the adventure. The Summer Palace was pretty cool – there was this big
(man-made?) lake in the middle with a small island. We took this very rickety looking boat out to the island. One of the coolest things on the main part of the grounds (not on the island) was this long outdoor corridor. It was all painted and very lovely.

We had lunch and then stopped at a tea house for some tea tasting, which was quite cool. I went in on a box with some of the boys and bought a small can of jasmine tea. Then, the real adventure began – shopping at the Pearl Market (I think that was the name?) on Silk Street. I believe the whole thing is at least six floors, though we stuck to just a couple. The first nerve-wracking thing to happen was I stopped at an ATM and couldn’t remember my PIN! Later on I did remember my PIN and was able to get some money.

So the big thing about going to the market is you have to bargain – it is very overpriced for the cheap and counterfeit goods in all the stalls. So the initial asking price is outlandish, and then you have to bargain back and forth ‘til it’s settled. Jade started with me, then we found some of the boys. Probably the most ridiculous was when I bought a red trench coat – the initial asking price was 850 yuan, and somehow – I’m still not exactly sure how I pulled it off – I got it down to 135 yuan. It was quite flustering (is that a word?) and I think I started turning as red as the coat. I started walking away, they grabbed my wrist (and really latched on!) and tried to pull me back in. So we bargained some more and I kept my price around 100-120 yuan. We walked away again, and they started screeching, “Okay, okay!” So I went back, and we got it down to 135 yuan. They looked so pissed off when it was finally done. A pretty similar process happened with the things I bought after that, though the coat was definitely the most dramatic experience.

The total list of things I bought at the market:
* A cute tote bag – nice zip-top, big, good handles. Kind of like what I was trying to find before I left Cincinnati. Originally 100 yuan, got it for 80 yuan.
* The red trench. Nice belt, and even has some cute slash pockets. Originally 850 yuan, got it for 135 yuan.
* Set of vaguely tacky cartoony panda chopsticks (bamboo?). I think there were four sets (eight altogether). Originally 80 yuan, got it for 10 yuan.
*Set of four beaded coin purses (cute shapes like birds, strawberries) for something like 85 yuan – original was something like 100-120 yuan.

It was all quite entertaining. It was pretty wild and chaotic – you walk past the stalls, and everyone is like “Pretty lady, come buy t-shirt! Sexy lady, you need silk robe!” Then when you’re bargaining, you start feeling kind of guilty, because they’ll go like “Are you crazy? Are you joking? How will I make money?” – but I figure that if they were really going to lose money from your ridiculously low offer price, then they’d walk away. Although, even when you get the price you want, they get all pissy while you settle out the money.

That night we went to a street with several bars – though I saw a gazillion other tourists there. And because of the crowds and large numbers of tourists, there were several kids working as pickpockets. They were awful. I feel like I should be a generous liberal and write something about people left behind by corrupt governments. But all the rhetoric wouldn’t change how angry these kids were. They weren’t like “Ohh, please we are hungry!”, they were like “GIVE US MONEY! 100 YUAN!” They were giving the boys a real problem, but when jade told the ones bothering her to go away, they cussed her out. It’s weird, I kind of feel guilty for not feeling guilty about how much I wanted to say very nasty things to these children.

And then we got ripped off with the beer at the places we stopped at – like 400 yuan for two six-packs. Ugh. Lesson learned – avoid tourist bar areas – overpriced beer and pickpocket kids.

So today we came to Dalian. We were all thrilled to find the air so clean and blue. We are living in a building (at Dalian Jiaotong University), which is a sort of hotel/learning center for visiting students. Clean spartan rooms, meals provided, wonderful classrooms. Our teachers seem nice – a few young girls (okay, probably under 30), though I think their English is rather shaky.

Went out tonight with the group to explore our surroundings (we’re actually just outside Dalian, almost an hour’s drive). Lots of buildings being built around here (the city of Dalian has a mind-boggling number of luxury high-rise apartment complexes) so the neighborhood has a lot of construction workers. We stopped at a small general store – a giant box of bottles of beer was like 60-70 yuan – so much cheaper than where we went last night. We get stared at so much more here than in Beijing – there was a large group of construction workers outside the store we stopped in, and they were gathered around a TV watching a movie (there must have been at least twenty to forty) – they stared at us a lot. For the most part, it’s pretty polite staring, and I generally feel safe because the boys are usually close by.

So now I’m going to sleep – up early in the morning to go running!

June 15, 2007, 7:15 am

2007-11-10T09:32:00.001-08:00

The Great Wall 5, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Okay, well I am rested and ready to rock and roll.

I got up again early this morning to see if anyone else was up for the park, but the only other person up was Jade. We went to a nearby grocer and bought warm soymilk and these sweet doughy buns, though I already forget what you call them.

Surprisingly, I’m not too achey from yesterday’s walk up the Great Wall. I feel so accomplished having walked up it, and one of the striking things about it was the absolute lack of safety features – which in a weird way, kind of makes me like old structures even more. The steps near the railing are all worn down, but in the center they are smoother. Periodically, there are these sort of gates along the wall. By the time we got up to the top, we probably passed through seven or eight. They are nice and cool inside, and you can stick your head out the window to get a good view. Most alsohave a stairway inside, so you can go up to the top lookout. That’s where several of us went to get our picture taken at the top of the highest gate. When we got back to the end, I bought a green mung bean popsicle – kind of tasted like kiwi. It was funny, because some others and I were charged five yuan, but Jay – who is from Taiwan – only was charged four yuan. Heh.

After the Great Wall, we went to a cloissone factory and showroom. I bought a sweet little snail to add to my collection. Then we went to the Ming Tombs, where we saw more examples of Chinese architecture, learned a bit more about Chinese history and took some more “group photos”!

Afterward we went on a rickshaw hutong tour – Kellie and I shared a rickshaw and gasped several times when we would skirt a corner by a few inches. It was quite fun, though it did feel a bit weird to take a tour of people’s neighborhoods – reminded me of when I took the black taxi cab tour of Belfast. One of the fun parts was when we stopped at this one well-off family’s house in one of the hutongs (apparently they do quite well showing their house and courtyard to curious tourists) – the man had this very sweet white mewing kitten we took turns playing with. Awww, the kitten was so precious. The family also served us delicious jasmine tea.

Today we’re going to the Summer Palace and most exciting of all – the Silk Market. I am so stoked to try bargaining even though I’m not feeling too confident about my bargaining abilities. But I know how to say 太贵了 ! So exciting.

June 14, 2007, at the hotel

2007-11-10T09:28:00.001-08:00

The Great Wall 14, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Though it’s only about 9:00 pm, I am so tuckered out from the day’s activities that I will make this brief so I can go to sleep easier.

John, Nick, Jade and I started our day early by setting out to a park nearby that Nick had found. It was so pretty and lovely inside – lots of elderly people doing tai-chi and middle-aged people running. It was very green, we’ll probably go back tomorrow.

The Great Wall was amazing – we went to one section – not sure which, but it was not Badaling. I was able to make it up to the top (where the vertical climbing stopped and you started moving sideways). I was the first girl up – we had a guy from Canada take our picture inside one of the gates, and on the way back down, the boys and I had a beer. It was horrifically American, especially when we made a group of Germans take our picture with the beer cans (or were they French?) But I reckon that godawful climb to the top – during which some small girls were outpacing Chris and me – was enough to earn us a beer. Quite possibly, this was the best location for beer consumption I have ever experienced.

In all seriousness, the wall is amazing, and the mountains surrounding it are glorious. And on that note, I will finish writing today’s entry tomorrow – I am so tired right now!

June 13, 2007, back at the hotel room

2007-11-10T09:22:00.001-08:00

Forbidden City 7, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Tonight we went to an acrobatics show. Though it had some vaguely cheesy moments (like the canned music and holographic lasers) it was impressive - lots of tumbling and people lifting themselves above a whole column of people - often by one hand! The best part was the final scene- about a dozen female gymnasts did tricks on bikes, and at the end, they all made a formation - on one bike - while rolling around in a circle. Awesome.

You know, I've been thinking - the Forbidden City is so big - it reminds me of Versailles, and how the people of the french revolution used Versailles as an indictment against the excess of french royalty. I wonder if it was the same with Chinese people and the revolution. It makes me somewhat glad to be an American. Although we have certainly had our share of abuses of power, we've had nowhere near the oppression or corruption that most countries have experienced. Jade was talking today about the genius of the American founding fathers, and how that has helped America (somewhat) from falling into the traps of greed that other countries find all too familiar. An important thing to remember for even the most disillusioned and cynical Americans. Why do I always think so much about being an American when I travel? I guess it’s the most obvious way to highlight our positive and negative attributes.

Another thing we experienced a lot of today was everytime we went to a tourist attraction (Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square entrance, Temple of Heaven entrance), we were surrounded by people hawking silly tchotchkes. The usual items included Mao watches, “Rolex” watches, postcards, Beijing Olympics 2008 shirts. The best method, it seems, is to avoid all eye contact – completely ignoring them, even when they shake the items an inch from your nose. Saying “too expensive” seems to encourage them into bargaining. As irritating as it is, I do admire their persistence – and we have seen very few beggars so far. It seems important to try to keep our perspective, because it’s easy to fall into this idea that “Everyone’s out to get me!”

I appreciate many of Jade’s motherly qualities – she took pictures of us constantly throughout today’s site seeing – we heard her requests for “Group picture!” every few minutes, and being good students we complied. I imagine we must have at least a dozen group photos from today alone.

Things I am quite enjoying so far:
* The enormous use of bikes, in general. The best is when boyfriends/husbands give rides to their girlfriends/wifes on their bike. Being a bike nerd, it looks so endearing and adorable to me - most everyone has a rack on the back of their bike, so the passenger will just sit side-saddle. Awww.
* Chinese children are actually quite cute.
* I love seeing so many active old people! They stroll, play cards, talk, and today at the Temple of Heaven, we saw some playing a game that looked very similar to Hacky-sack. So cool.
* The food – lots of meat, but very fresh-tasting. I’ve never enjoyed the very Americanized Chinese food at home, but I’m pleasantly surpised by the food here. I did pass on the cow stomach lining at breakfast, but I did try these interesting gelatinous strips at lunch.

Things that aren’t exactly thrilling:
* The squat toilets. Actually, I’m pretty neutral about this. The other girls are very grossed out, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me so much – at least there are no dirty seats to hover over. The boys keep asking if we have handle bars (no). Though I’m still not entirely sure how comfortable it would be to take a shit in a squatting position.
* The air, the air, the air is so gross. My eyes are feeling better, but not as much as I’d hoped – probably because of the disgusting air that also makes it hard to breathe. Hopefully the air will be much cleaner in Dalian. Tomorrow is the Great Wall of China!

June 13, 2007

2007-11-10T08:07:00.001-08:00

Tianamen Square 13, originally uploaded by eiratansey.

Our first full day in 中国. After successfully clearing customs, we met up with our tour guides for Beijing - a sweet girl named Anna, and our driver. We ate dinner at a restaurant where we witnessed a 14-year old girl who appeared to be falling over drunk (she and her classmates had a large table). Highlights of our first meal included a lamb dish that was very spicy. Yum.

I am sharing a room with Kellie, and we're finding the room to be better than our expectations. Pretty decent bathroom and very comfortable beds.

Last night, Adam, Caroline, Kellie and I took a very long walk to a big mall - Beijing Oriental Plaza...? I think that was the name. Having aching legs, we elected to take a taxi back. Unfortunately for us, the driver decided to take the scenic route. We've since learned our lessons, next time instead of saying "Where are we?", we will say "我们在哪儿?" Jade reckons the more we speak Chinese, the less likely we will get ripped off. In theory, at least...

The biggest initial impression I have of Beijing is how dirty the air is. As we were walking around last night, it was beginning to become really irritating, A bit jarring, as I have never had breathing problems.

Our highlights so far today have been touring the Forbidden City, visiting the Temple of Heaven, and taking a quick tour of a silk showroom with some demonstrations. The Forbidden City is so huge! Actually we started off by visiting Tiananmen Square - I must say, although Mao was a pretty detestable person, is it very awe-striking to see the giant picture of him at the gate where the PRC was declared.

June 12, 1007, still on plane, near Beijing

2007-11-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

There is a woman on our plane who looks like Yoko Ono. I can't get John Lennon's song "Beautiful boy" out of my head.

Or wait, is that a Paul song?

June 11, 2007, on the 747 to Beijing

2007-11-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

Well here we go!

I cannot remember the last time I flew on United. We flew out of Cincinnati - seven students (we are meeting two others in China) and our Chinese teacher Jade. We transferred at O'Hare.

I am sitting in a center seat in the center section. I always prefer window seats, but it seems that we've been above clouds for the last couple hours.

I think it's only just starting to sink in that tomorrow I will probably have one of the most out-of-my-comfort-zone experiences of my entire life thus far. But I'm sure it will be alright - I have to say, going with a group and Jade is very reassuring. And it's kind of nice to have someone else arranging all the logistics... as opposed to my usual mode of independent travel, where I have to work out a lot of the details by myself.

According to the map on the screen in the cabin now, it appears that we are flying over Canada - we are flying over the Arctic sea, and I'm trying to figure out whether we'll actually see any night - hmmm.

Well I had brilliantly terrible timing - yesterday, my eyes were terribly irritated. I headed in to the eye doctor, at their suggestion, where after an exam, I learned I have the beginnings of an eye infection. To make a long story short, I have to put these antibiotic drops in my eyes for the next ten days. I can't wear my contacts for next ten to fourteen days, and the doctor who saw me advised that I probably shouldn't wear them for four weeks. Well, if nothing else, it lightened my packing a smidge. I'm so glad I went in - the doctor said it could have gotten much worse had I not come in. My eyes still hurt a smidge, though they're a hell of a lot better.

On a lighter note, being 21 hasn't lost all of its novelty yet - it was fun to take advantage of the free booze, even if it was a less than thrilling Heineken.

A Bearcat in China

2007-11-10T07:36:00.001-08:00

From June 11 - July 15, 2007, I went on a study trip to China with several other students and my teacher from my Chinese class at the University of Cincinnati. We visited Beijing for a few days, spent a bit over 3 weeks in Dalian (Liaoning province), and wrapped up the trip with a visit to Xi'an.

Here follows the blog version of the journal I kept during the trip.