An International Christmas

'Tis the season.

I remember a few years ago my family had a very international Christmas.  We had presents under the tree from the "Japanese Santa," the "Hong Kong Santa," the "Malaysian Santa," etc.  (Funny how all the Santas represented under our tree corresponded to places my dad had been that year.)  But this year I'm having another sort of international Christmas. 

Today was our Christmas service at my fellowship.  It was marvelous!  I was blessed to be able to join the choir, and have had a great time in the last three weeks going to choir practice and getting to know many others in the fellowship from the other schools.  But let me give you a picture of how international this Christmas service was...

We started with a bunch of carols.  That wasn't particularly international compared to usual here, but the praise team still consisted of people from at least 6 countries.

For the message, we had four people each speak about five minutes.  Of those four, two were American and two were African.  I was actually honored to be asked to be one of those speakers, so I talked about Luke 2:17-20.  Specifically, I talked about Mary's reaction (as compared with the shepherds') and asked if we are each pondering the meaning of this season.

After the message(s), we got into the "program" that had been put together just for today.  A Sri Lankan dance. The Sunday school choir.  A Filipino Joseph, a Nigerian Mary, and an Indian wise man.  An African dance.  And a choir full of Africans, Indians... and one white girl. 

It was marvelous! 

And I really enjoyed singing Silent Night with a beat.  I guess that's what happens when the choir director is from Guinea Bassu.

Since I'm not entirely sure what my plans are for the rest of the Christmas season (i.e. for Christmas day itself), I'll refrain from telling you about that until after the 25th.  But in the meantime, it was such a blessing to be able to celebrate the season with brothers and sisters from around the world today. 

Class

Imagine you are sitting in your college class one day when your teacher asks "Who is planning to take the final exam?"  Now imagine that class is a foreign language class, and the question was not asked in English, causing you to question whether you actually understood the teacher at all.  What? Why would the teacher ask who is going to take the final?  Doesn't everyone take it?

 

Apparently not if it's a Chinese language class in China.  Turns out since I'm simply taking these classes for my own benefit (and to pass the language exam I will have next year in the U.S.), there is no compelling reason for me to take the exam.  In fact, the teachers are encouraging us to NOT take the exam if you don't need to.  Strange.

 

So I will not be taking any exams this semester.  What a great way to study!  Study for myself and not for a test.

 

The nice thing about not taking the finals is that I have an entire extra week off for the winter break.  Classes will run through December 31 (with no days off for Christmas...), the first and second will be off for the holiday, and then exams will run the following week.  But I will simply be done on the 31st.  And when do classes start up again, you ask?  March.  Yes, I literally have two months off.  How sweet is that?! 

 

Before you all start thinking that the Chinese have such an easy educational system, though, let me explain.  In the U.S. schools usually have 2 (or 3) weeks off for Christmas/winter, and maybe 10 weeks for the summer.  In China, the winter and the summer breaks are both 6 weeks long.  So after I start classes in March, I will be in class straight through until July (with exams, which I won't take, finishing around the 15th of July).  So it's just a different schedule, not necessarily an easier one.

 

So enough about the academic schedule.  What about my classes themselves?  I have had several very entertaining classes recently.  In fact, I can say that I'm enjoying my Chinese classes now more than ever.  We've gotten comfortable with the teachers, and the students who don't really care are no longer coming.  Which does mean that my class of 15-20 is often only a class of 5-8 now, but I'm okay with that.  In fact, Friday we only had four.  Just more chance to practice and learn! 

 

In my listening class the other day, we had an incredibly entertaining conversation about zoos.  Our teacher is approximately my age, still a masters student here, and she was saying that all zoos are essentially the same.  So my Czech friend and I tried explaining to her how zoos in different countries can actually be incredibly different.  We were hysterical over the truth of dog petting zoos in China and our experiences of goats eating our maps in the petting zoos elsewhere.  But I think the most hilarious was when my Czech friend didn't know how to say "ape" so she simply explained what she meant... "almost-a-person monkey."

 

In my reading class recently, we learned that there actually is grammar in Chinese.  I've spent four years studying Chinese already, but it wasn't until last week that any of my teachers actually admitted that there is grammar and a set of structures to the language.  It really would have been nice, though, for my first few teachers to have explained such things.  They could have used English to help us understand!  It's not easy to learn Chinese grammar using only the Chinese language to explain it. 

 

My speaking class is the "worst" of my classes, in the sense that our teacher doesn't actually understand that he should have us speak in class.  But now that we usually start the class with only me and the Czech girl there, it's getting better.  And we had fun learning all sorts of computer terms the other day.  Again, a little bit difficult, since some of the terms I don't even understand if I hear them in English!

 

Finally, my jingdu class is great.  (Jingdu is a term for critical reading, but the class functions as the basic grammar class.  This is the class we have most often, and the jingdu teacher is our primary teacher.)  Last week, our teacher was telling us that since she has been teaching Chinese to foreigners for 12 years, her Chinese has deteriorated.  I could totally relate!  (What can I say, my English has... lowered.)  Her stories about hanging out with her friends and using very basic Chinese were hilarious and all too familiar.  But the even more hilarious story she told us a week ago was about how she had gone out the night before with her friend and had 6 beers, without eating anything except one peanut.  It's not every teacher who will admit to her class that she still has a hangover!  But we were sympathetic... we told her we should just end class early. :)

 

 

The holiday season

It's the holiday season!  One of my favorite things to do around the holidays is to think back on all the previous years and how I have celebrated in the past.  For example, every Thanksgiving I remember that one year my family celebrated Thanksgiving in a castle, the year we ate a free turkey-less Thanksgiving dinner in Key West, and the year my mom spilled the turkey grease all over the floor of the kitchen.  (Sorry Mom.)  Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now I have one more in the books to look back on: Peking Duck in Shenyang with 130 people.  This was certainly the largest T-day dinner I've ever participated in!

 

But one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is that the Christmas season follows it.  I have recently been thinking back to the last time I spent a good portion of the Christmas season in China, that time in Beijing.  I remember that Christmas being very bizarre, because I had basically no "season" before the 25th.  If I hadn't had a calendar, I probably could have spent the whole season in Beijing without ever realizing it was Christmas!  Remembering how disappointed I was to miss out on the thrills of Advent, I've been much more particular this year about recognizing the season. 

 

Since the first week of Advent, the music in my room has been set to one thing: a certain oratorio by Handel that just seems to fit the season.  To make things even cheerier, though, I successfully decorated my dorm room yesterday.  I spent 30 kuai (about $5) on a 1 meter tall tree and all the decorations to go on it.  Seemed like a good deal to me, and with a room as small as mine, just a simple tree can effectively change the dynamics of the entire place.

 

I am also excited to have joined a choir for the Christmas service at my fellowship.  We've only practiced one song so far, but it's been fun to actually learn the alto line to Silent Night.  (Well, okay, it's not actually the traditional alto line for the hymn, since we're singing a jazzed up version.  But it's fun anyway.)  Saturday afternoon we have choir practice at the Medical University, and I'm looking forward to the hours of singing Christmas carols and spending time with many of my friends. 

 

The most touching part of the season thus far, though, was definitely receiving a package from my "family" in DC.  What a joy and blessing!  Not only are all the Dutch treats and hot chocolate ridiculously tasty and enjoyable, they also make great decorations under my tree.  And somehow they also seem to attract people to come hang out with me in my room. :)

 

Speaking of Dutch things, many of you might know of the Dutch holiday that precedes Christmas: Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day).  Certainly, growing up in a Dutch-American community meant I learned about Sinterklaas in school and occasionally "celebrated" that day.  This year, however, I happen to have a lot of Belgian friends who all celebrate Sinterklaas regularly!  It was terrific amounts of fun to be able to celebrate the holiday with them this year. 

 

For those of you who did not have the privilege to learn about Sinterklaas growing up, let me explain how one would celebrate the holiday.  Sinterklaas is remarkably similar to Christmas.  There's a guy named "Sinterklaas" (St. Nicholas) and his helper Black Pete.  They have a white horse.  The night before, children all across the Netherlands and Belgium place their shoes outside the door, and leave a carrot or something of the sort for the horse to eat.  During the night, Sinterklaas and Black Pete come through and leave presents (usually candy) in the shoes.  But if the children have been bad, they are taken away in Black Pete's bag.  That's certainly stronger motivation than simply not getting a gift from Santa Claus!

 

So how do three Belgians and two Americans celebrate Sinterklaas in China?  Wow, we had fun.  We decided to play a game: we all put our shoes outside our doors, and over the course of 36 hours everyone had to put something in everybody else's shoes.  The catch? You couldn't get caught.  The punishment for getting caught was having to make dinner for the group of us on the 18th (the night before the one girl will go back to Belgium... sad!). 

 

It was so much fun to go buy a few things and have to stealthily put them in everyone's shoes.  Especially since we don't all live in the dorm here.  It was also fun to randomly find bags of goodies outside my door!  (The best was definitely the packet of real American taco seasoning from the American guy! Apparently he's stockpiled but has to get rid of it before moving next month.)  The most hilarious part of the game, though, had to have been when someone actually got caught.  G was standing outside one girl's door to drop a present, but she hadn't put any shoes out.  So while standing there, he called her cell.  Since she was simply inside her room and could hear his voice on the other side of the door, she caught him red-handed. 

 

The down side?  Let's be honest, none of us really want to eat G's cooking.  So we told him he should just pay for our dinner at a restaurant instead. :)

 

So all told, I'm thoroughly enjoying my holiday season thus far.  I even had far more fun with Sinterklaas than usual.  Although I'll admit, Christmas day itself will probably be a little bit difficult...

 

 

 

More things to be thankful for...

8. I'm thankful for my own private western-style toilet.  Seriously.  On a day-to-day basis, I don't think I would mind too much not having it.  I mean, I'm pretty used to using the other variety.  But let me just say that spending all Sunday night in and out of my bathroom throwing up into a western-style toilet (and sitting on a relatively clean floor next to it) was a much more pleasant way to be sick than to have had to use the public squatties located down the hall.

 

9. I'm thankful for friends here studying at the Medical University who are relatively fluent in medical Chinese (since they do their studies entirely in Chinese).  It's comforting to know that if I ever do actually have to go to a Chinese hospital, these friends would be there in a heartbeat to help me, and they'd actually know what's going on. 

 

10. Finally, I'm thankful for the progress I'm already making in getting better, and for not having to go to a hospital anyway (even if I do have people to help me).  Seriously, don't be too worried.  My body just decided Sunday night to get rid of any possible hazards from within my system.  I don't know why.  But by now I'm eating small bits of basic foods (crackers, noodles, eggs, apples), and getting better.  I even attended all my classes today!  So by the end of the week, I'm sure I'll be back to normal entirely. :)

Things I'm thankful for...

This week Americans around the world celebrated Thanksgiving.  My celebration did not include the traditional turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie, but there is still plenty for me to be thankful for.  So here's a list of just a few of them.

1. I'm thankful for the many friends I've made here in Shenyang, both Chinese and otherwise.  In particular, I'm thankful that many of them attended the same Thanksgiving dinner of Peking Roast Duck (hey, at least it's a bird) on Thursday.  I expected that I would know the majority of the 130 people in attendance, but it turned out to be a lot of Chinese people I didn't know.  Furthermore, the organizers tried to have us sit randomly so we would have to get to know new people at our tables.  That's a great idea in theory, but on a day like Thanksgiving, I was certainly thankful to have three of my favorite people here also sitting at my table.

2. I'm thankful for the occasional opportunity to eat Western food.  Last week, G & WT invited me over to eat spaghetti.  Real spaghetti.  Mmm.  And we topped it off with real chocolate pudding.  Yeah, I'm thankful for microwavable recipes of chocolate pudding, too. 

3.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to buy relatively inexpensive clothes here to fend off the cold.  Because it is really cold.  Last weekend I successfully bought a nice red ski coat, which the lady assured me would be warm enough all winter.  I was less thrilled with the lady at that market who pretended to not understand my Chinese, just to try to rip me off, but I refused to buy anything from her and found others who were much friendlier.  (When I walked away from that lady, I heard her tell her coworker in Chinese, "Wow, her Chinese was actually pretty good!")  Also, I'm thankful for the Chinese invention of really really thick nylons.  Superbly thick.  Basically, they're pants but designed to look like nylons.  So right now I can wear them with a skirt to go to fellowship.  Of course, in the worst of winter I won't be doing that, but I'm thankful to have the option right now.  And I'm thankful that option only cost me 20 kuai to buy… about $2.50.

4. I'm thankful for fun winter activities.  My most recent adventures have included a trip to the "sports center" of Shenyang, where you can buy all variety of sporting gear from the real name brands.  The story of how and why I got there is a bit bizarre, but it worked out.  Two weeks ago, the girl I tutor on Saturdays and I wandered around a nearby store, simply to give us something entertaining to do as we practiced English.  As we passed the athletic gear, I simply asked about where someone would buy ice skates if they would happen to want them.  Apparently that got translated in her mind to me really really wanting to buy ice skates.  So the following week, our outing was to the sports center to find me some ice skates.  I'm thankful, for one, that the ice skates only cost me 95 kuai (since I couldn't very well get out of buying them after she had gone through so much work for me).  I'm also thankful, though, for the option of ice skating this winter.  I actually went today for the first time, and remembered just how much fun ice skating is.  Now I just need to convince some friends of mine that it's fun and that they should get some ice skates, too. 

5. I'm thankful for Chinese families who welcome me into their houses.  Today, the girl I tutor invited me to her house to eat Hot Pot with her family.  Her family is from Dalian, an ocean town, so they had lots of seafood in the hot pot.  Wow, I like shrimp done that way.  And even oysters aren't too bad when cooked in the hot pot.  But better than the food was the fact that I could interact with a Chinese family, see how they live, and even practice my Chinese a bit.

6. I'm thankful for the occasional random opportunity that comes up that I could never have anticipated or expected.  This past week, I had a girl approach me – in English – saying that she is a journalist for a magazine and wanted to interview me.  The following day, we got together and I learned a lot of interesting things from her.  And I believe this is one way that I will be able to improve my networking opportunities here.  Yeah, I'm thankful for that.

7. I'm thankful for all the fun activities that I have going on every day that prevent me from writing any more on this blog.  Like right now.  There is certainly plenty more I'm thankful for, but I have to go… I have dinner plans.

Warning: This post has no theme

Apparently juzi have dropped in price.  Remember a week ago when I bought 5 kuai worth of this tangerine-type fruit, and surprisingly went home with more than 20?  Today my 5 kuai turned into 50 juzi.  Oops.  That's gonna take me a while to eat.

My other new favorite fruit to eat here is something I just discovered: dragon eyes.  (Seriously, that's the name.)  If you've ever eaten a lychee, you'd understand why I like these dragon eyes.  They are very similar, except that the outer peel is thin, smooth(esque), and light brown.  Okay, so from the outside they don't look anything alike.  But inside, they both have that juicy translucent white fruit around a big smooth pit.  Mmm.

The Japanese claim to be a homogenous people.  The Chinese have never claimed such a thing, since officially there are 56 ethnic groups across this vast, diverse country.  Understanding that, can anyone explain to me why every Chinese person gets their hair cut on the same day?  Really.  It's a holiday.  And to make it even more official, it's even based on the lunar calendar!  So, everybody mark your 2009 calendars... the second day of the second month on the lunar calendar we have to all go get our hair cut.  (If only I knew when that day will be...)

Speaking of hair, let me just say that it is incredibly strange to get more compliments on my hair on the days that I don't wash it than on the days I do.  Creepy.  In the U.S., if I don't wash my hair on a specific day, people just think it looks greasy and gross (which is what I think).  But apparently here it's the preferable style.  I get more compliments those days.  But I won't complain; it means those mornings I get no hot water in my room (or even no water at all, which is even more exciting) I don't have to be too self-conscious going out.  But note to self: don't forget to revert back to washing your hair every day when you get back to the States.  Greasy hair is not okay there.

One of my English classes on Monday was telling me that they often play soccer matches against the other classes here at LiaoDa.  Despite the ridiculously cold weather, they apparently play at 8:00 a.m.  That turned out to be great timing for me, though, because I got to go watch them for a few minutes Tuesday morning before heading to my Chinese class at 8:30.  Can I just say, it was so much fun to have an entire soccer team stop in the middle of a game to wave and say hi to me!  I think it made their day that I showed up to support them, even if it was for only a few minutes.

Yesterday was marvelous.  A Korean friend of mine asked me recently if she could give my number to her Chinese friend who wanted to meet an American.  Of course I said yes, that I'd be willing to meet him, even if I might not have time to tutor him or whatever.  So anyway, yesterday we met up.  I'm not entirely sure why he wanted to meet me, because I had imagined it was to practice his English.  Turns out we ended up spending 2 full hours talking (with a second Chinese guy there as well), but 95% of the conversation was in Chinese.  Sweet!  It was awesome to be able to practice with interesting native speakers.  The only down side was that some of the things they talked about, I really really wished I could have understood better.  They were giving me their perspectives on certain issues in international relations and politics, as well as on various cultural differences between the East and the West.  While I understood enough to follow along generally, I really wanted to understand fully.  Oh, to speak this language fluently!

Scared of winter

Shenyang is cold. Ridiculously cold. Turns out learning that Shenyang is the same latitude as Grand Rapids, MI (where I did my undergraduate studies) was not a beneficial thing for my mental preparation for winter.  Shenyang is much colder than Grand Rapids. 

 

For starters, I probably wore long underwear in Grand Rapids four or five times a winter... and those four or five times corresponded exactly with the four or five times I went out for extended periods of time to go ice skating or sledding.  (Sure, I went sledding more than that.  But I didn't always wear the long underwear when I went.)  Shenyang?  I tried to wait as long as possible before putting on the long underwear... and I got all the way to the second week of October.  Seriously.  Don't think I've been wearing it every day since, because I certainly haven't, but by now I'm wearing it for at least part of most days.  Today I even thought about wearing two pairs at once.  I'm going to hold off on that as long as possible, but I'm sure it's going to happen before the winter passes.

 

Secondly, coats.  I bought a nice black pea coat in GR my first year there, for all of $9.  (What a great purchase, by the way... nine bucks for five winters?  Can't beat that!)  Although I had another coat in GR, I managed most of the time with just the pea coat.  And in DC this past year?  I never wore another one.  But I can't even count the number of people in Shenyang who have looked at this pea coat with astonishment, greatly concerned that I might think I could possibly get away with this coat for the winter.  Many have said it is already not enough for me, that I should be wearing a warmer coat.  Note to self: go to the market sometime this week to pick up a warmer coat.

 

I have this marvelous perk on my cell phone right now (one of those 3 month free trials that tries to get you hooked so that you start paying for the service after that).  Every day or two I get the weather report via text message. Granted, it's all written in Chinese, but impressively I can actually read the weather report without a problem.  At least as long as there's nothing totally bizarre in it.  So the message this afternoon says that tomorrow's high will be -5 C and the low will be -15.  (For you Fahrenheit fans out there, that comes out to a range of +5 to +23. That's chilly.) Yikes.  But what's even scarier than those numbers is the realization that until 24 hours ago, we were hardly hitting temperatures below freezing... and I was already freezing back then! 

 

So the temperature by the numbers might not seem all that much different - at least so far - than winters in GR, but somehow the cold is much more chilling.  Three factors come to mind: First, I spend much more time outside here.  For example, when I have classes in the evenings, I walk half an hour to the school.  Which means I walk half an hour home at 9:00 at night, too.  Second, even inside is not very warm. There is technically something known as "heat" here, but if that makes you think of what we have in the U.S., you're wrong.  It helps, but not that much.  It's still quite chilly inside.  Thankfully, I have a south-facing window, which I think actually helps more than the heat.  Finally, every Shenyang person I've talked to about the cold has mentioned that the cold here is a very dry cold, which makes it feel so much worse.  It also makes my skin very dry...

 

So that's my thoughts on the cold in Shenyang, at least so far.  But I would be remiss if I did not tell you about what happened yesterday: it snowed!  Now don't get too excited; I didn't actually see snow falling from the sky.  However, I know it snowed.  Here's my story.

 

After fellowship yesterday evening, a friend and I went out to go bowling.  Bowling is a preferable sport in winter, in my opinion, because it's indoors.  So we were certainly cold as we arrived at the bowling alley, but when we entered the weather was quite clear.  Several hours later, as we walked out, we commented to each other that it must have rained since the ground was all wet.  Strange.  But it was not raining at that point in time, so we grabbed a taxi and headed off.  Ten minutes later, we both saw it: a car driving next to us covered in snow. "Where on earth did that car come from that it has snow on it?"  Yes, I really asked that question.  Perhaps even more embarrassingly, neither of us really thought anything of it except that it was bizarre.  Until we got off at Middle Street and started walking up to a restaurant for dinner.  The benches and signs dusted with snow there made us realize we had been totally wrong.  It had not rained at all, but it had snowed.

 

Seriously, a snow covered car did not give it away to me.  That's embarrassing. 

Nuts & Fruits

I think I ate 6 juzi (the tangerine type fruit) yesterday, and I've already eaten three this morning.  Is that a problem? 

 

In other news concerning food, let me just say that hazelnuts are amazing!  I have found a wholesale shop that sells nuts, which tend to be fairly expensive around here.  One of their specialties is hazelnuts.  Although I've always loved the hazelnut flavor (think Nutella), I've never actually eaten a hazelnut before.  I definitely had to buy half a jin of them after they had me taste one!  (My only problem now is figuring out how to crack the shell on the ones that aren't already cracked.  I don't have a nutcracker here, nor do I think I could find one if I wanted to.  So far my teeth have worked out the best of anything.)

 

After finishing my classes last night, I stopped by Tesco (the supermarket) on my way home.  I was superbly excited to learn that it is actually possible to buy lemons and avocadoes there!　The lemons were basically two for 14 kuai, which isn't terrible for a fruit that is hard to get.  (To give some context to that, I could but about 16 bananas for the same price, or 60 juzi.  It would also be a reasonable amount for a very good Chinese meal for one in a restaurant.)  On the other hand, the avocadoes were 51 kuai per jin.  Ouch.  (A jin is 500 grams.  I'm not exactly sure how that relates back to avocadoes, because I've never actually weighed an avocado before.  But I normally buy peanuts for 8 kuai per jin and the hazelnuts, a real specialty, were 40 kuai per jin.) So needless to say, the guacamole will occur only on rare occasion.

 

Now for a story unrelated to food.  Yesterday my friend in the dorms decided he wanted to buy his own washing machine to keep in his bathroom.  Technically there are washers in the dorm, but for the seven floors there are only 4 washers.  And of those four usually only two work.  For a while none of them did.  Right.  So obviously the washers are not the most convenient thing around here, so I understand that this friend of mine - who will be here for another 3 years - wants something more convenient.  I had the afternoon free yesterday, so he and I went off in search of a small washer.  It was so entertaining! Instead of going to the major stores that would carry new ones, we found the "used appliances alley" nearby and set out to find a used washer that would suit his needs.  Turns out there wasn't one, so we'll have to go to the main store afterall, but I'm still glad we started in the alley.  How often do you get to see an alley full of old washers, refrigerators, toilets, freezers, etc, all for sale?  Or have fun using your Chinese with the alley salesmen who have possibly never had a foreign customer before?　

 

On another interesting note about costs here, the prices we were quoted for the washers were around 200 or 300 kuai.  That's only 2 or 3 kg of avocadoes!　(Or 7 drinks at Starbucks.)

 

Internet & insults

My goal this week was to attend every single one of my Chinese classes.  This goal has gotten quite a variety of reactions from those I've told, from "don't you usually attend all your classes?" to "why on earth would you actually want to attend them all?"  Almost daily my own reaction to the Chinese courses here sways from one extreme to the other.  But to briefly answer both of those questions, for any of you who are wanting to ask, I usually attend 4 of the 5 days in a week because it is surprisingly draining to spend 17.5 hours in class in a foreign language and managed to study every night on top of that.  So my sanity has occasionally required that I miss a few hours. But obviously, my purpose for being here this semester is to learn Chinese, and a Chinese language class is a logical place to spend my time in order to try to achieve that goal.  Hence my wanting to attend every class this week.

 

Now I just have to say, it's not my fault that I am falling short on that goal this week!  Turns out I will not personally be in every one of my Chinese classes, but does it count anyway since my books were in all of them?  Here's what happened... Wednesday morning I faithfully got up and went to class.  All of you are aware, I believe, of my lack of internet in my dorm, which is starting to really drive me nuts. So two of my friends from the dorm - also without internet - joined me during the last 10 minute break (before the final 45 minute class) to go bring up the issue again with our head teacher.  Her office is just two floors below my classroom, and I often go see her during the break with no problem.  Not this time.

 

Just imagine this.  Our teacher was upset to hear we were still having this problem, so she called the head office for the dormitory.  (She's the head of student affairs for the foreign students.)  There was a significant amount of yelling - all in Chinese, of course.  Then she called another office - the network office - and there was more yelling.  She turned to us again and asked us to wait with her for the top people of those two offices to each come join us in her office to discuss the matter with the appropriate people (since she has more clout with us sitting there, of course).  And this was when I realized I would not be making it back to my class.

 

The two other bosses showed up, and there was even more yelling.  It's really entertaining to watch Chinese people argue.  I also figured it was okay that I was missing class, since I was having lots of fun practicing my tingli (listening comprehension) with all the excitement in that room.  From what I picked up, most of the yelling was centered on casting responsibility onto other offices and refusing to accept another office's authority to tell them what to do.  I was amazed at how little coordination and cooperation there was!  But, somehow things must always calm down.  For these three bosses, the solution was coffee.  Three coffees were ordered, and as soon as they arrived the yelling all but stopped.  Who knew coffee had so much power? 

 

The conversation moved more productively from there, and after nearly an hour in that office they finally decided they could have someone come to our rooms to check the problem.  Yes.  That was the solution.  Seems to me it shouldn't take so much time, so much yelling, and so much money spent on coffee to get such a simple thing done, but who am I to say how things should be run here?  And I won't complain.  As promised, the gentlemen from the network office came to our rooms that afternoon to check out the problems. 

 

Problem solved?  Unfortunately, no.  The others' have internet again, because they apparently had a fairly simple problem.  Mine, however, is not fixed and will not be fixed.  Because all of this took place in Chinese, I'm not entirely sure what the actual problem is, but I was told it was a "very serious and very old problem" that is not specific to my room but affects a large portion of the dorm.  And when I asked if they would fix it, they responded "meiyou banfa" ("there's nothing we can do").  Hmm.  I don't really believe that... there clearly is a way to provide internet in every room of the dorm if they really wanted to.  But as much as I tried to use my limited Chinese to argue that point, they weren't moved to do anything.  And I didn't have any hot water to make coffee to try convincing them. 

 

I was impressed with my communication skills, however, when the gentlemen gave me a few options of what I could do myself for internet.  DSL is apparently an option, as is something through the cell phone companies that is put directly onto my computer, but both cost a decent chunk of change.  So we'll see.  For now, my friend has internet again, so I'll just use his. (Which, by the way, was the first suggestion the gentlemen had for me.)

 

In other news, I have learned several interesting things recently.  First, China has a fairly extensive use of solar power, at least compared to that in the U.S.  Many houses and buildings here have solar panels that are used to heat water for showering.  According to one of my students, the system only  costs about RMB2000-3000 ($300-450) to install, which is quite cheap when considering how much money will be saved in the long term.   

 

The second interesting thing I learned is that the number 8 is actually not a traditionally favored number in China.  Nowadays, eight is a lucky number because the pronunciation is similar to that of "get rich" (which is a desirable thing around here).  However, I just learned that in traditional Chinese thought (before the concept of getting rich was widespread among the people), eight was an unlucky number.  The reason is still slightly unclear to me, but it has to do with the way the digit is written - everything centers on one point.  

 

Other interesting bits of information related to numbers: Never call someone "250" because it is apparently a terrible insult.  You should also never call a women "three-eight."  The more-or-less equivalent for a male would be to say that he has a green hat... which apparently means that his wife has slept with another man.  (Okay, I don't think calling a woman "three-eight" means her husband has slept with another girl; I think it means something more like she's easy.  But I'm not quite sure.  Either way, I don't plan on using it.) 

 

That's all the interesting tidbits I have for today.  I have more English classes tomorrow, so perhaps there is more to come.  But I will leave you with this: wholesale fruit markets are amazing.  I have to walk right by one on my way to/from the school I'm at in the evenings, so I stopped today to pick up some juzi (something like a tangerine - delicious!).  I asked for 5 kuai of them, which is less than $1.  To my surprise, I came home with more than twenty juzi!  Gotta love cheap healthy food!    

Starbucks. Gotta love it.

Life in a foreign country is fabulous. Everyone should try it sometime. (Okay, maybe not everyone, but anyone who is fairly flexible and likes adventure.) Keeping this blog up-to-date has been much harder than I anticipated, not because I have too little to talk about, but because I have too many adventures and too little time on the internet to write about them! Today I had a few hours free, so I decided to have a new adventure here in Shenyang: find the bus that will take me to the nearest Starbucks, where I can get real decaf coffee and free wireless internet! It's been a marvelous adventure... a 1 kuai bus ride, an actual conversation with a friendly English-speaking Chinese lad, and a vanilla latte later, I'm having a great night and I'm updating all of you on the status of life in Shenyang. Also... (drumroll, please) uploading pictures! Check out this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/vrieland/Autumn#

Let's see, where to start. Last week Tuesday, two of my classmates invited me to their apartment for dinner. It's a Korean couple, although the guy speaks very good English. (It was an interesting combination of English, Chinese, and Korean around the apartment that night!) We had some absolutely delicious Korean food for dinner, and I made chocolate pudding for dessert. (Woo-hoo for finding powdered cocoa here!) Of course, eating Korean food, using multiple languages to communicate, and learning something about another culture is fun, but the fellowship that night was especially good. They will definitely continue to be my friends.

Here's another story about a Korean. Different girl. I met this girl maybe a month and a half ago at the Sunday meeting I go to, although we're both students at LiaoDa. Her spoken English is quite limited, although she understands a lot that others say, but her Chinese is relatively equivalent to mine (we're in the same level class, but she speaks with more fluency than I do). On Saturday night, I was walking up the stairs to my dorm room when I ran into this girl on the steps. We stopped to talk, and ended up having an incredibly meaningful conversation basically entirely in Chinese. She and I are very similar in many many ways, so we could understand each other even when our words were quite limited. We shared about our families and our upbringings, and we shared about our reasons for being in China and our goals for the future. And we even shared about how we might be able to do some specific thinking in the upward direction for each other. What a marvelous thing!

Wow, it's fun to go back and think through the past week. It makes me realize just how blessed it has been! The people I meet up with on Sunday have also established regular gatherings on Wednesday evenings at the various universities around Shenyang. The LiaoDa group is the smallest of them, but it's definitely a good group. This week, however, I was asked to visit one of the other universities and speak with them. It was particularly exciting to see who hangs out at that one (a lot fewer black or white faces around there...) and to be a part of it for a week.

Speaking of last Wednesday, some important stuff was going on in the US that day. (Remember, there's a time difference... it was 12:00 noon here on Wednesday when the polls closed in the western timezone on Tuesday.) As a good American, I decided to skip my Chinese classes that morning to watch the election results come in. Thankfully, Al Jazeera in English was covering the election starting at 6:00 a.m. here (which was obviously earlier than I started watching). So I hung out in my friend's room and had fun watching the events. Let me tell you, though, that it was a really interesting experience to watch the first (partially) black man get elected to be President of the United States while sitting next to several Africans, including a Kenyan. I seriously think I was the least invested person in the room, even though I was the only American!

Sometimes adventures don't go quite as planned. Okay, let's be honest, that's what adventures are... they aren't supposed to go as planned. But if that's the case, Saturday was really an adventure! A friend of mine from the Sunday fellowship invited me to go out to the countryside. Since I have not really ever been to a Chinese countryside, it seemed like a good thing to do. Besides, this is the friend who has a motorbike... and riding a motorbike out to the countryside really sounded like fun! So despite the cold weather, we set off about 10:30 in the morning in his "car" to go to the countryside. (On a side note, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this friend of mine has managed to find not one, but two, helmets here in China. That must be hard to do, since I hardly ever see a Chinese person wearing a helmet. But not only was a helmet a good thing for the safety factor, it was also a whole lot warmer to have my whole head protected from the wind!)

The first thing we did was go ride by the Olympic Stadium. Now, for those of you who are confused because you didn't think I lived in Beijing, you're right. I'm not in Beijing. But the city of Shenyang played host for the soccer matches during the Olympics. So there's an Olympic stadium here, too. It was fun to go see it, and especially to ride around that area of town. When I was in Shenyang two years ago (for those of you who don't know, I was in Shenyang two years ago...), I was living very close to where the stadium currently stands. The entire area has changed completely! I could hardly find my way around at all, and not just because I tend to be a bit directionally-challenged.

From there, the plan was to take a certain road out to the countryside, a road that my friend knows goes to the countryside. Unfortunately, the entirety of China is under construction, including this road. So we asked some security guys how we could go, and we asked some random ladies walking on the sidewalk, and we asked some guy on another motorbike, and we asked some construction workers... Unfortunately, the fear of "losing face" drives most Chinese people to give an answer to one's questions whether or not they know the answer. So everyone we asked told us something different. So we more or less rode around in circles, lost around Shenyang, until we got hungry. Then we found a random restaurant and went in to fill our tummies, warm up, and recharge our battery. (Seriously, battery-powered transportation! It rocks!) Three hours later, we finally left the restaurant and headed off again... finally figuring out where we were but still having no idea how to get from there to the countryside. So we did some more wandering, stopped a couple places, and then ate dinner at a different restaurant. It definitely turned into a fun day, but despite the best of intentions we never actually made it out to see the famed Chinese countryside.

Other fun experiences of the week included going bowling with two Chinese ladies on Thursday; coming home to find a party going on in the dorm on Friday night, which meant I could have fun for the evening without braving the cold or spending any money; and being adventurous in trying some new street food and visiting some new places, although some of those adventures turned out better than others. Sunday night was particularly exciting with the discovery of a new western-food restaurant that serves - wait for it - lasagna! Good lasagna, too! Actually, it hardly resembles the lasagna I grew up on, but it has noodles, tomato sauce, and meat. It was tasty. They also served real pizza, instead of the nasty Chinese-style pizza of most "western" places around here. And best of all, it wasn't too terribly expensive. (The 38 kuai for the lasagna is a lot compared to the 6-8 kuai meals I often eat at the Chinese restaurants, but compared to the 33 kuai I just spent on a drink at Starbucks, it seems reasonable. I was actually just talking today with my friend G about how our concept of money is so profoundly different here than it is when we're back home. Which things are expensive and which are cheap is something I'm still adjusting to.)

And now I'm sitting in Starbucks, thinking about all these various adventures from the past week but feeling like I could be right back in the U.S. right now. Except, of course, that everyone walking by outside is Chinese and the people behind me are speaking a language I only pretend to understand...

One sketchy night

I just had one of the best days and one of the sketchiest nights of my life.  Okay, that might be exaggerating a little, but at least now you're interested. :)

Every Saturday afternoon I tutor a high school girl in English.  Why I went and committed all my Saturdays to this, I'm not sure, but so far it's been fine.  The girl speaks English incredibly well, so we mostly just sit around chatting or studying math for the SAT II.  (Thanks to my mom's help, I have the privilege of teaching her matrices.)  Yesterday the girl asked to meet a little later than usual, and then decided to invite me to her house for dinner!  What an awesome opportunity!  She lives with her parents and her aunt, and her male cousin lives with them during the weekends (when he doesn't stay at his boarding school).  Of course, the food was incredible, but even more exciting was simply being able to see how a Chinese family interacts.  And the fact that most of them actually don't speak English meant that I got to do some practicing, too.  Sweet! 

I felt bad having to rush dinner with the family, but before I knew I would be doing that, I had already agreed to meet up with someone else for the evening.  All the foreign students here keep telling me that I'm too friendly and know far too many people.  The fact that I got together last night with an out-of-town friend (from a city I've never even been to) might prove them right.  Might. 

So my friend lives about an hour and a half from Shenyang, but comes relatively frequently to take classes on the weekends.  Whenever he comes to town, he calls me up so we can do something.  Last night, I thought we were just going out to get drinks.  Boy, was I wrong! 

We went with two of his classmates, one black gentleman from Senegal who I already knew from the dorm, and one rich Chinese guy from a different city about an hour away.  On a side note, I recommend making friends with rich people any time you go somewhere knew.  It's convenient to have rich friends.  The rich Chinese guy from last night has a car, so we all got in and went to a bar I had never been to before.  Turns out it's the best Western food in Shenyang!  Seriously, we had steak.  Dang.  So we hung around there for a while and then met two other people who we invited to join us to go to KTV - Chinese karaoke.  If the only karaoke you've ever done was in the U.S., you seriously don't know what karaoke can be.  Here, you rent a room just for your own group, with couches and your own karaoke machine.  Of course, you have to order snacks and drinks as well, but I don't think most Chinese people would be willing to sing karaoke without a little alcohol.  So the group of six of us had some food, some drinks, and a lot of fun singing and dancing together. 

At 2 a.m. the KTV closes, so obviously we had to go.  To my surprise, though, the original group of four of us didn't go back to school.  No, no, we went to the "shower place."  This was seriously one of the most bizarre experiences of my life.  Not having any idea what we were doing, speaking only some Chinese, and being after 2 a.m... yeah, it was interesting.  The first thing you do in this place is go shower.  Obviously, the males and females don't shower together, but that meant that I was separated from the three guys I arrived with - and left to my own devices to figure out the "shower place."  Turns out trying to communicate with a Chinese lady while standing naked is a little bit awkward.  But I successfully showered, and then put on some clothes they provided to go upstairs and meet back up with the guys.  (I only failed at finding a comb to use on my hair after washing it.  Eh, oh well.)

Upstairs, we were in a large room filled with recliners.  Since it was already so late when we arrived, a lot of the recliners were already being used by sleeping people (mostly males).  So we took four recliners next to each other in the back row, and sat back to relax.  Soon enough, along came three attractive Chinese ladies and one attractive Chinese man.  You probably figured out already that the male was for me.  And we got foot massages.  Now here is a question I actually want an answer to: why on earth do we not have foot massages like this in the U.S.?  Amazing!  After spending a good long time massaging our feet, the masseuses actually then massaged our entire legs.  It's marvelous.  The only slight down-side is that all four of our masseuses actually wanted to talk with me, since I was the random white girl who showed up, but even that was fun.  Good practice once again.  (Actually, did I mention that the rich guy hardly speaks English?  So there was a lot of Chinese going around all night.  It was fine until the guy was slurring his words due to the alcohol, but then I just talked with the others in English.) 

After the massages, I expected we would be finishing up and heading home.  Nope.  Wrong again.  We actually slept there, in those recliners.  What a strange experience!  Sleeping in a room full of Chinese men (and one Senegalese).  But it was fun.  My friend who had initially invited me out was in the recliner next to mine, so we chatted anytime neither of us were sleeping... which was actually quite often, since apparently every grown Chinese man snores.   That doesn't really surprise me, though, given how many years they've had of breathing in this kind of air. 

About 7:30 a.m., my friend and I got up and ate some breakfast while the rich guy and the Senegalese kept sleeping.  Eventually they woke up as well and we set off.  On the way out, it was back to the awkward talking-to-Chinese-ladies-while-naked situation, but it went much smoother the second time around. 

Now I arrived back to campus at 9:00 a.m., and I just have to laugh when I think about my evening.  What a bizarre set of experiences, but how exciting to have seen so much of the inside of Chinese life in the last 24 hours!  And possibly the best part of it all?  I didn't have to pay a single fen (i.e. Chinese penny).  Like I said, making rich friends is the way to go!

The bizarre things are always the most fun

After several boring hours of Chinese class (okay, come on, talking about statistics on old people is boring in any language), I had my first real chance to "hang out": in Chinese.  And it was awesome!  I'm tutoring a girl who is moving to Canada at the end of December but who speaks very little English.  It's been a bit of a challenge on the one hand, but quite an opportunity for me since I have to use a lot of Chinese to be understood.  One of her favorite activities, like any high school girl, is shopping, so when I mentioned that I will need to buy some warm things for winter, she was eager to help.  So this afternoon, she took me to a famous shopping area in Shenyang.  But since it's significantly easier for us to communicate in Chinese than in English, I got to spend the entire time practicing my language skills! 

The shopping itself was fun.  Basically, we went to Shenyang's version of a mall.  But if you are thinking in terms of a mall in the U.S. or Canada, scratch that and try again.  It's more like a market than a mall, but it's more like a mall than the actual markets around here.  Yeah, maybe that made sense.  I managed to avoid spending too much money, but I did buy some good mittens and a hat made from rabbit hair. 

After the shopping, we decided to go get my hair cut.  For any of you who have been in an Asian country before, you might have some idea of what it might be like to be a blond and get your hair cut in an Asian salon.  My hair doesn't function like most Chinese girls' hair.  But it turned out fine, considering how terrible it could have been.  Actually, I don't know yet how I feel about it.  The only people who have seen me so far have all been Chinese, so they all liked it.  It's definitely a Chinese style.  We'll see what my African, Flemish, and sole American friend say about it. 

So today is Halloween.  It's been interesting answering curiosity-driven questions today about this strange American holiday.  But I'm most entertained by the fact that the two Americans and the one Canadian are all not doing anything for Halloween tonight, but all the Belgians are dressing up and going out.  They don't even celebrate Halloween in their country!  But whatever.  I decided the money to buy a costume and the 200 kuai (about $35) entrance fee to the nightclub having the party was not worth it to just go see a lot of drunk people in strange outfits. 

Instead of the party?  Yes, this is entertaining.  I am sitting alone outside on a dark and cold Halloween night at a random cement table at a random location on campus.  Why?  Because surprisingly enough, at this random cement table at a random location on campus I can actually get wireless internet!  So I decided to bundle up and sit outside to use my own computer tonight than go pay to use a public computer inside somewhere.  It may or may not have been a good choice, but it's entertaining nonetheless. 

Fun comes in all varieties

I'm a terribly irresponsible student.  I skipped my Chinese classes yesterday.  What's worse, though, is how I find ways to have fun.  I skipped class yesterday in order to attend my friend's History of Political Theory class in Chinese.  Whoa, I'm cool.

 

Actually, though, I had a great time in his class.  There are only two foreign students in the class, my friend who is African and a Russian girl.  They've told me that they probably understand less than 10% of what goes on, so I knew I wouldn't do much better.  But it was actually really interesting.  Seven students gave presentations, each on a specific theorist or movement in Western Europe from Thomas Aquinas through the Reformation.  Although it was fun to learn words like theocracy, the Rennaisance, feudal system, and dualism, I have to say that I was most excited for the presentation on John Calvin.  How awesome is that?!  (For those of you who don't know, the college I went to is named after him.)  Unfortunately, I really didn't understand much of what was said, except to know that the speaker really only talked about his political thinking and not his theological works.  But still, how often do I have the chance to hear about John Calvin from a Chinese perspective?! 

 

But like I said, skipping class to go to a political theory class that's entirely in a language I hardly understand probably does not strike most people as fun or exciting.  Eh.  What can I say?

 

In other news, I have made a new friend.  I had some free time the other day, so I decided to walk up to Carrefour, a French multi-purpose store (groceries, clothes, etc).  There are Carrefours all over China in the big cities, but it is definitely only a middle- or upper-class store.  I don't go often because the prices aren't the best and it's a 35 minute walk down there.  Occasionally, though, I like to go stock up on the few international products they sell that interest me (i.e. chocolate) and see what else might strike my fancy.  So I went there Tuesday afternoon.  As I was leaving, a Chinese lady holding a young child was walking next to me and looking at me, so I graciously acknowledged her with a "ni hao!" ("Hello!")  Unlike most times when I greet the people staring at the strange foreigner, this one actually turned into a full conversation.  Turns out, she doesn't speak any English but wants her son (who's probably about 4) to grow up learning it well.  She also lives near my school and wants to make a foreign friend, but can only use Chinese to do so.  So we exchanged phone numbers, and now I send and receive long text messages entirely in Chinese with her.  Hopefully soon we will be able to get together as well.  Although most Chinese people who talk to me want to be friends, this is the first who actually wants to make friends with me entirely using the Chinese language.  What a great opportunity to practice and learn!  So I'm excited about my new "jie jie" ("big sister").  And her son is adorable, too.

 

My involvement in the various fellowships around the city is getting quite extensive.  I never imagined coming to China that I would have so many opportunities of this kind, although none of them are entirely comfortable or familiar to me.  The latest example is that I have been asked to be the speaker at a different university's fellowship next week.  What an honor and a privilege, but what a responsibility!  Thankfully no one has officially asked me to speak on Sunday... yet...

 

Finally, a few random comments: Jasmine tea mints are better than they sound, personification is a word I will probably never use in Chinese again after learning it in class today, and this whole "Chinese milk is bad for you" thing is really annoying.  I'm ready for powdered milk to be available in the stores again.

 

 

Senile dementia, motorbikes, and choirs

Where do I even begin? 

 

Since I moved into the dorms at LiaoDa, I've been frustrated by not having internet connection in my room.  But, oh, should I have been counting my blessings.  One of my friends had internet, so I could daily go use his computer to check my email and such.  This week the internet went out all across the dorm.  Darn.  That's annoying.  So that's my excuse for why no one has heard from me in a week. 

 

With that said, I'll just start rambling about all the things that have happened in the last week or two.  Believe me, it's been a lot.  And a lot of really entertaining things that would have made great blog posts, if only I had internet...

 

First of all, suddenly it has become winter.  Literally, I went out Wednesday afternoon in flip-flops and a T-shirt, and Thursday I was wearing a winter coat.  How bizarre is that?  But the chill seems to be here to stay, and I'm not really too excited about that.  I'm amazed how cold it is.  Not that the temperature is actually that low yet (I believe it's been lows just below freezing), but there's no heat in any of the buildings and most places actually just leave doors and windows open. So there's no place to go warm up.  My hot chocolate intake has definitely increased since Thursday, which is probably not a good thing since hot chocolate is expensive in China.  But I have to have a vice of some sort, and one that helps me warm up is convenient.

 

Speaking of vices, I now have my first American friend in Shenyang.  He is an English teacher here at LiaoDa, so we met once I started giving classes here as well.  He's fun, but he always makes fun of me because he doesn't think I have any vices.  I keep saying it's hot chocolate, but he doesn't think that counts. Whatever.

 

My classes this week were quite entertaining.  In the English classes, I had my first conversations about sex and homosexuality in a Chinese classroom.  Interesting to hear the Chinese students' comments, especially after watching the culture for some time.  Let me tell you, my perceptions and their comments were definitely not in complete agreement.  In my Chinese classes, I learned some very important words this week, like cerebral cortex and senile dementia.  Yeah, I'll go practice those ones right away.  At least the Poker terms might actually come in handy!

 

So now for the really entertaining stuff: I got to ride on a motorbike last Sunday!  How cool is that?!  For those of you who have never had the privilege of seeing the driving habits of a place like China, or seeing how the countless motorbikes have their own approach to dealing with traffic, just believe me: it was exciting.  Thrilling, you could say.  I probably should have been scared for my life, but surprisingly I wasn't.  

 

Here's the story.  One of the guys from my Sunday afternoon fellowship asked me to go out for dinner with him after the service.  Yeah, okay, so I suppose that means I had a date with him.  But a date that involves a motorbike is worth having! :) No, seriously though.  Of course I agreed to grab something to eat with him, and then he told me we'd take his bike.  Woot!  So I rode on the back, initially riding side-saddle like all the Chinese women do.  That was convenient, since I was wearing a skirt.  But when he drove me home after dinner, I sat the other way to be more stable and comfortable, since it was a fairly long ride.  I was certainly less than lady-like getting on and off that way (in my skirt), but it worked.  And we had fun.    

 

So is it bad to say that my favorite part of the "date" was riding on the bike? 

 

In other news, I'm going to be published in a Belgium newspaper!  In Dutch!  This also excites me.  My friend G from Flanders (the northern region of Belgium) is the editor of a newspaper for his student organization.  Okay, okay, I never said it was a major newspaper.  But he's very curious about the Dutch traditions that have lived on in the U.S. and Canada, particularly as related to the CRC, so he asked me to write an article about that.  It was a lot of fun to write, and it's even cooler to think that he's going to translate the article into Dutch and a whole bunch of Dutch-speaking people are going to be reading it! 

 

Speaking of G, though, I love spending time with him and his girlfriend, WT.  One night this past week they invited me over to their apartment to make pannekoeken or Dutch pancakes.  Turns out Dutch pancakes are more like French crepes than the pancakes we eat with syrup in the U.S.  But they sure are tasty!  And they even had a version of Nutella to put on them!

 

This morning (Sunday), I met up with G to go try the Catholic service.  Belgium is obviously a Catholic country, so that's how G grew up.  He went to this service last week and told me he really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd give it a try myself.  Turns out that service is a whole lot more like my own tradition and like the DCCRC than the afternoon fellowship I've been going to!  But I've already made friends and gotten involved in the afternoon group, so I think I'm going to be very CRC this year and attend two services each Sunday.  That might be the only thing CRC about my experience here, but it's something, anyway! 

 

And I might be joining a choir.  The morning group already asked me to, even though it was my first time there, and that would give me something to do between the two meeting times.  But we'll see.  I should at least sleep on it before I go joining the choir of a place I only somewhat agree with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adjustments

Most of you know that I have plenty of experience moving to new places.  It's taken me this long to recognize it, but I am realizing there is a pattern to how I adjust myself to my new situations in life.  Upon first arrival, I am incredibly eager to meet everyone, see everything, and make as many friends as possible.  Healthy attitude, I think.  At this stage, I intentionally try to accept every social invitation offered to me.  But at some point, all the new people I am meeting start competing for my limited time, and I find myself with more social obligations than any sane person can handle.  That's when the real challenge of moving comes in: I have to make decisions about where to invest my time and what social circles are worth pursuing.  The problem is rarely that there are no worthwhile social circles or activities to join.  Rather, I usually end up having to say "no" to a lot of good opportunities. 

 

I'm hitting that stage here in Shenyang.  That stage that I really don't like.  That stage where I have to say "no."

 

Take this past week, for example.  Every morning, Monday to Friday, I'm supposed to have Chinese class from 8:30 to 12:00.  Before the week even started, I had plans for every afternoon from 1:30 to 3:00 (give or take).  Tuesday through Friday I also had evening plans (5:30-9:00, more or less), which left me with only Monday evening as a free chunk of time all week.  That didn't last long, though; Monday morning, my Chinese teacher asked me to help him with English, so I spent 5 hours with him that afternoon/evening.  (I enjoyed that, though; we went out for possibly the best Chinese food I've ever had, which is definitely saying something.)  So Monday through Friday were completely booked.

 

At least I have the weekeneds, though, right?  Yeah, good try.  Saturday I had back-to-back appointments from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., after which I enjoyed a nice little break before my evening engagements starting at 7:00.  And Sunday?  I've made it my "day off," but it's amazing how short the day is when you have commitments to the fellowship from 3:00-8:00 in the afternoon.  And this week I'm going out for dinner with someone after that. 

 

So if you've been wondering why I haven't kept up very well on this blog since writing about my trip to Inner Mongolia, maybe this helps you understand.  I've been far too busy. 

 

My goal for this coming week is to maintain a better balance in my schedule.  It's difficult, though, to know where to start cutting my activities.  I have enjoyed everything I have done in the past week, and basically in my entire time in China.  So if you have any ideas on helping me decide which good things to cut, let me know.

 

 

The things you learn

I've learned some interesting things recently. 

 

1.) The word "sarcastic" is difficult to explain in Chinese.  Seriously.  Try it.  It's hard to do.

 

2.) The Manchu people do not eat dog.  This surprises me to some extent because I've been impressed with the number of restaurants around here that have dog meat on the menu.  A lot more than I remember seeing in Beijing.  But historically Shenyang is a Manchurian city, so obviously there are a lot of Manchus.  Why do Manchus not eat dog, you ask?  Good question.  The story goes that Nurhaci, the founding father of the Manchu state (reigning from 1616-1626), was once saved by a dog from drowning in a river.  Don't ask me why Nurhaci was drowning in the river in the first place, or why the dog was there.  I'm just sharing the story I've heard.  But Manchus don't eat dog.  So don't ever serve dog meat if you invite a Manchurian over for dinner.

 

3.) Chinese men are not legally allowed to marry until the age of 22; women can marry at 20.

 

4.) You don't actually have to be a good singer or be a model to be treated like a celebrity.  You just have to be a white native-English speaker in a place like China.  No joke: I had an educated, grown Chinese man ask me the other day for my signature. 

 

5.) Guanxi (relationship) is really convenient in China.  Okay, I didn't just learn this recently, but it's been confirmed once again.  My new favorite restaurant is one just outside our school gate where the family knows me.  They know I don't like meat all that much, so whatever I order they make without meat for me. 

Inner Mongolia: Part III

After leaving the manufactured desert, the tour group headed back to Hohhot on the bus. However, we asked them to drop the three of us off in Baotou, the little city at the end of the train line from Shenyang. Since we had already toured Hohhot, we really didn’t need to go back there, especially since we could just take the train from Baotou when we were ready to head home. Somehow the willingness of the group to drop us off at the train station in Baotou turned into them dropping us off – in the rain – at a random gas station on the far outskirts of the city. We were reassured that we could definitely find a taxi there, but standing there as the bus left was a bit disconcerting. There were no taxis, and we were on a random stretch of road that didn’t look like it had much traffic besides buses and long-distance travelers. But eventually we were successful at hailing a taxi, and in to Baotou we went.

Turns out, Baotou is not a city you need to bother adding to your list of places to visit in China. In fact, I don’t really recommend going. Unless, of course, you are interested in the Steam Locomotive Museum, the sole highlight of Baotou. Yeah. G and I had great fun laughing about the Steam Locomotive Museum, which did not find its way onto our itinerary. Guess we have to go back sometime. Hehe.

Finding a hotel in Baotou, a city not accustomed to foreign visitors (apparently we aren’t the only foreigners who didn’t find the Steam Locomotive Museum terribly appealing), was quite an experience. At the first one, we were completely turned down. “We don’t take foreigners.” Well, then. Thankfully, we found a reasonably-priced one eventually, and it was a nice hotel. We spent that evening trying to find the excitement of Baotou, but it turns out there is none. Except a really tasty hot pot restaurant, which seemed like heaven after the mediocre meals with the tour group. And a bakery, which had delicious chocolate muffins. I think they sold more chocolate muffins in the 24 hours we spent near Baotou than the entire month before or after. So after discovering those two places, we went back to the hotel and had fun playing Dutch Blitz (a card game) in our room. While eating chocolate muffins.

As a side comment, it’s really entertaining to teach Dutch Blitz to Dutch people. Apparently its only the American Dutch who know the game. Who knew?! Also, trying to learn Dutch in a ger in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia is another entertaining experience. I’m pretty sure our three Chinese roommates were quite confused by the repeated awkward sounds coming out of my mouth. Especially since they didn’t know that G and WT actually speak Dutch, not English, as their native language.

Since we realized quickly that Baotou was not going to be a place we needed to spend too much time, we bought our train tickets back to Shenyang for the train leaving Sunday afternoon (after arriving in Baotou on Saturday). And since the draw of the Steam Locomotive Museum was not so strong on the three of us, we decided to spend our last morning of vacation going to another desert. The Gobi Desert supposedly starts just 60 km or so outside Baotou, so we hired a taxi for the day and headed there. (Whether it was really the Gobi Desert or not is questionable, but I’m going to say it is. Because it’s cooler to say I’ve been to the Gobi Desert than to say I’ve been to a Chinese man-made desert.) As expected, we had a blast! We spent four hours climbing the desert hills, playing in the sand, taking pictures, and enjoying the quietness and solitude of the desert. (Note: the desert we went to the second day was significantly larger than the first one, and although commercialized, the number of visitors was minimal that day. The holiday ended Sunday, so most people were already heading back to their homes to start work on Monday.)

Running around in the desert right before getting on a train for 23 hours might not have been the most brilliant thing I’ve ever decided to do, because I ended up being sandy for far longer than I would have liked. But actually it was probably a really good thing to do, to use up some energy before sitting for so long. The train ride home included a lot of reading, primarily to avoid talking to curious Chinese people around us. Particularly the drunk farmer sitting across from us. Let me tell you, Chinese is a hard language. It’s hard to have a conversation in Chinese. Especially with a farmer, whose education is not as advanced as most people I usually talk with. But it’s exceptionally difficult to understand a drunk Chinese farmer, whose words are slurred beyond all recognition. Thankfully he seemed content to do all the talking and just have us nod and throw in a “dui” or “shi ma?” every once in a while. But reading was more pleasant, so we tried to stick to that. The sleep was difficult again (did I mention we were on the hard seats again?), but I think I got one reasonable hour of sleep. And the 23 hours actually went by fairly quickly.

So that’s it. That was my trip to Inner Mongolia. Sure, there’s plenty I haven’t mentioned. For example, the donkey pulling a cart on the highway in Baotou. Or the way horses trotting together strangely resemble Chinese driving. Or why my new nickname from G is “stinky failure.” (Actually, where did that come from?) Or G and I each getting ripped off buying bananas in Baotou since we were white, but WT (who is ethnically Chinese) getting a completely normal and fair price when she went. Or being offered a teaching job in some random little city (town?) I’ve never heard of, from a lady in the tour group who liked me far too well. Or having the security guards push all the Chinese back to let the two white people through the wickets at the train station to get on the train coming home (leaving WT to fend for herself getting through). Or intentionally keeping our trash on the train neatly put together until the sweeper came through, instead of throwing the trash out the window like our Chinese seatmates were doing, just to discover that the sweeper sweeps all the trash straight out the window anyway. Or running into our couple friend from the train ride to Hohhot on the train back to Shenyang. But I have to stop somewhere, and this is already far longer than it should be. So I hope you’ve enjoyed my stories and my adventures. All in all, I recommend a trip to Inner Mongolia if you get a chance, but perhaps don’t bother adding Baotou to the itinerary (unless, of course, you’re into steam locomotives).

Inner Mongolia: Part II

Upon arriving in Hohhot, we realized we hadn’t really discussed a whole lot about what we were planning to do in Inner Mongolia. Oops. Actually, we hardly planned anything for the trip. But we knew we wanted to go to the grasslands and to the desert, since those are the things people travel to Inner Mongolia for. So a taxi driver stopped us just outside the station and asked if we wanted to go to the grasslands, and we discussed the idea with him for a bit. Since that really is a little bit sketchy and difficult to make sure we won’t get ripped off once we get in his car, we settled on going with a travel agency instead.

CITS is the only foreigner-oriented travel agency in China, so it is incredibly expensive. Therefore, we eagerly joined up with a Chinese tour group instead of the CITS English-speaking version, to save at least 50% off the cost. I’m sure we didn’t get as much information out of the trip, since the tour guide talked a lot and we only understood a bit, but it was totally worth it. We got the same experiences, and we had fun being the only foreigners in the tour group, too. And we got to practice our Chinese. A lot.

Having settled on a two-day tour with the group, we first had a day to see Hohhot by ourselves. We enjoyed wandering around the Muslim Quarter; discreetly (or not so discreetly) taking pictures of Chinese Muslims; finding the Great Mosque, which turns out to be the only non-Muslim looking building in the Muslim Quarter; eating real Muslim chuanr, which is really tasty lamb-on-a-stick; wandering through a Buddhist monastery; seeking out the best chocolate in the entire city, which ended up being Russian (yeah, it’s fun to travel with Europeans who actually know good chocolate, which is not the same thing as Chinese chocolate); and eating some more lamb, this time done in a hot pot style. Hohhot does not have much of a nightlife, which meant that Wednesday night after arriving and Thursday night after wandering the city all day, we went to the same place: the horse-racing yard, which has a strange little section with Mongolian gers (or yurts, which is the type of building that is apparently traditional Mongolian… to see what one looks like, go to the pictures of my trip). There were supposedly some performances in the evenings, but the first night we were too late, so we decided to go back the second night. Turns out we would have been better off not going back. The performance was lousy. When we left there around 8:30 p.m., we decided to take a bus back to our hotel. Strangely, a girl we met at the bus stop decided to get on our bus and make sure we got where we were going. But then she got off the bus with us and wouldn’t leave. So we ended up wandering around the central square of our area of town for more than an hour, awkwardly trying to get rid of the random girl who had attached herself to us. It was random and awkward, but at least it was in Chinese. At least we were practicing.

Friday morning we got on the tour bus and headed to the grasslands. The most awkward part of the trip was when the tour guide was trying to coax everyone into doing a “performance” on the bus to pass the time. Of course, he couldn’t pick on the adult Chinese, because their sense of losing face is too great. So the only two people who ended up “performing” were a young Chinese girl and me. I’ve never been so glad to know a Chinese kids’ song before. So I dutifully sang “Liang zhi laohu” (“Two tigers”) and everyone laughed.

The grasslands were beautiful. It’s difficult in China to get away from people, buildings, construction, and the ever-present ambition to “develop.” The grasslands of Inner Mongolia is where you almost can. Of course, going with a tour group meant that we were not actually alone and there was still a lot of manufactured fun, in the typical Chinese style, but we managed to enjoy it anyway. The whole group of us (which was about 30 people) rode horses around the grasslands for 3 hours, stopping at various sights appropriate for taking pictures and such. Of course, even riding horses through the grasslands was guided, but I was okay with that. Having never ridden a horse before, I relied heavily upon the guides telling my horse where to go. Turns out my horse knew more Chinese than I did, which was not really encouraging. Eh.

The meals in the grasslands were not thrilling. In fact, I’m pretty sure the four meals we ate with the tour group were the four blandest meals I’ve eaten in China. That’s not to say anything about traditional Mongolian food. That’s not what we ate. We ate whatever was the cheapest thing the agency could buy and get away with, since that meant more money in their pockets. So I’ll just say that we enjoyed our first meal on our own after the end of the tour, when we got to eat real Mongolian food.

After a mediocre performance around a small coal fire Friday night, the three of us decided to get away from the group and enjoy the solitude of the grasslands as much as possible. Unfortunately, the cloud cover prevented us from seeing as many stars as we had hoped to see. But we still enjoyed being out, away from the people, away from the oft-repeated questions about where we come from and why we’re in China, away from the development, away from the manufactured fun and manufactured beauty. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to get up the next morning in time to see the sun rise.

Someone had told us the sun would rise about 5:00 a.m., so we set our alarm for 4:30. We slept in a ger with three other Chinese people, whom we really never spoke to. Oops. So we quietly came in after 11 p.m., after they were all asleep, and we quietly got up at 4:30 a.m. to go see the sun rise. Ha. Bad idea. Turns out the sun doesn’t rise in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in October until after 6:00 a.m., and on the morning of October 4 this year, the sun didn’t rise at all. Oh, it got light out (eventually), but there was no sun. How disappointing! Thankfully, though, the rain didn’t start until we were back at the ger village and inside eating breakfast.

After breakfast, we all got back on the bus to head to the desert. This is a good example of the manufactured environment in China. The desert we went to wasn’t really the desert. It was just a few square kilometers of land a bit outside the city that had been filled with desert sand. But whoever had made this desert had at least thought to bring camels, too, and we got to ride the camels. Really! How cool is that!? We had fun riding the camels, although to be honest, the thought of riding a camel is about the coolest part of it. At least the day after riding a horse for three hours it was. We were still in pain from the horses, and the horses at least went faster than a slow stroll. But the awesomeness of the thought of riding a camel made the experience fun anyway. Actually, the three of us had a blast in the desert. We had sand fights, pushed each other down onto the sand, and more or less ran around like a bunch of kids. The Chinese people in our group looked on a little bit jealously, but would in no way consider joining in on our fun. The tour guide actually told us later that he liked the three of us, because we were bold and had fun yet followed instructions and returned to the group when told.

Inner Mongolia: Part I

A week of travel in China is always exciting, especially when that travel takes you beyond the limits of the China you already know. And when the travel is done with people who are becoming good friends, it becomes even better. So where do I start about my week of travel to Inner Mongolia, the northern-most province in China?

For the short version, just read the next paragraph. For the long version, keep reading. For a visual version, see the pictures of my trip.

I went with two friends to Inner Mongolia, where we hung out, rode horses in the grasslands, played in the sand of the “desert,” and practiced our Chinese with all-too-willing natives who rarely see white people. That was the trip in a very, very small nutshell.

In a much larger nutshell, I’ll start at the beginning. Tuesday afternoon I met up with a couple from Flanders, who I will refer to as G and WT, to catch a train to Hohhot (Huhehaote in Chinese… it took me all week to remember that), the capital of Inner Mongolia. Unfortunately, the train from Shenyang to Hohhot is a slow train… making the trip a thrilling 22 hours long. On hard seats. (No, I’m not just complaining about the seats by saying they were hard. Chinese trains have five types of tickets. From most expensive to cheapest, they are: soft bed, hard bed, soft seat, hard seat, and no seat. I’ve never taken a soft bed, which has more privacy than the hard beds, but the hard beds make an overnight train ride quite comfortable. Soft seats are hardly better than the hard seats. But when we bought our tickets, the only options were hard seat or no seat. Clearly, we chose the former. Especially since I think those two tickets are actually the same price.)

Impressively enough, we had a reasonably good time on the train ride out. We shared a three-person bench, which faced another bench for three and had a small table between. A young Chinese couple across from us were some of the most normal Chinese people we met on the entire trip. We taught them some card games and had fun talking with them a bit. Since they started in Shenyang and were going to Baotou, which is the end of the line, they were there the entire time we were. The third person on that bench changed several times.

Sleeping on the train was entertaining, to put it positively. G, WT, and I laid on each other as much as we could to get comfortable, but it still didn’t work out all that well. And even more entertaining was waking up every half hour or so to find Chinese people gathered around our bench, watching the foreigners sleep. Yeah, awkward. (The three of us were the only foreigners on the train, at least in the seats.)