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
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!
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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”.
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
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…
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
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)
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)
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