Holidays

October 1 is the Chinese version of the 4th of July in the U.S., which means we have several days off (again) coming up.  I'm finding it interesting, though, to see how China approaches their holidays in terms of vacation time.  The government has given three days off to everyone: Wednesday through Friday, October 1-3.  Conveniently, Friday leads into a weekend, so essentially there are five days off.  So far that makes sense... that's how it would work in the U.S., too.

 

But five days is not enough.  So the government has apparently urged everyone to treat the Saturday and Sunday before the holiday as a Monday and Tuesday, so that Monday and Tuesday could be a weekend.  By putting two weekends with the three days off, we have a full week!  The down side was definitely going to class seven days in a row last week... but today (Monday), I'm just as glad to be free for a full seven days! 

 

Seven days off is definitely enough time to do some traveling.  Furthermore, the weather is already starting to change, and I'm not sure how easy travel will be come winter.  So, as I've already mentioned, I leave tomorrow for Inner Mongolia.  [Just a side note: Inner Mongolia is not the same as Mongolia, which is a country.  Inner Mongolia is a province in China.  I won't be leaving the country for this trip.] 

 

But today?  My plan was to hang around in the dorms and "get things done" (i.e. do laundry, study, pack, etc).  Of course, plans hardly ever go as planned, especially when living as a college student in a foreign country.  So I ended up at Wu'ai Market, the largest market in Shenyang.  It's the authentic Chinese kind: walk in and be bombarded with hoardes of merchants all trying to sell you all variety of items.  But the three of us who went today did very well.  One pair of warm wool slippers, one handbag, a few hangars, and a pair of sheep's wool long underwear later, I walked out of the market spending far less than I expected.  That's always a good feeling!  And I enjoyed practicing my Chinese... especially my "tingli" (listening) as I tried to understand what all the merchants were saying about us.  My favorite was when I was bartering with a merchant - totally in Chinese - and the merchant's coworker started telling her to charge me more because I was a "rich foreigner."  Why she thought I didn't understand her Chinese - as I was using Chinese - I don't know, but it was comical.  She was surprised when I confronted her to say that I wasn't a "rich foreigner" at all.  Needless to say, I got a good deal on that buy.

 

The other surprising part of my day was getting a phone call at 7:30 a.m. from one of the teachers in the internatioanl culture center here at my university.  He asked me to come in to talk with him today.  Starting after the holiday, I will be helping them out with some of their English language students.  Ideal times, a convenient location, and nice reimbursement! 

 

The three of us going to Inner Mongolia don't know yet when we'll be coming back.  Most likely I'm going to miss at least one day of school after the holiday, but somehow it seems appropriate.  Spending 44 hours on trains is hardly worth it if we don't take our time there.  But the biggest factor will be finding a train back that has seats available.  Needless to say, though, I'm not expecting to have internet connection while we're gone, so this blog is probably going to be pretty quiet for the next week or so.  But you can look forward to lots of stories and pictures when I get back!

 

 

Random thoughts

Asparagus juice.  Seriously, who drinks that? 

 

Giving my phone number to a taxi driver?  Definitely a big no-no in the U.S., but apparently it's kosher in China.  At least when your taxi driver wants you to tutor his son in English. 

 

I am amazed at the Chinese ingenuity when it comes to keeping hot water hot.  Every university student has a really large thermos (I mean really large... think 2-3 feet tall) that they bring to the hot water unit to fill up.  Because LiaoDa's international dorm also only has hot water 5 1/2 hours a day and the hot water unit for drinking is 5 floors down from me, I decided to invest in one of those recently.  Turns out it lasts as hot water to drink/use for at least 48 hours!  How amazing is that!

 

Being sick in China?  Definitely not fun.  But with the sudden drop in temperature to a low of 3 Celsius (about 37F), many of us are getting sick.  Yippee.

 

Week-long Chinese holiday?  Count me in!  I bought my train ticket today to leave Tuesday for Inner Mongolia with my Belgian friends.  Unfortunately, all the sleepers (beds) and soft seats were taken, so we'll be enjoying our 22 hour train ride on hard seats.  We'll see if we're still friends after that. :)

 

 

What a day

For the most part, I'm trying not to use this blog as a way to mention every little thing I do every single day.  That gets far too boring.  But today's been pretty unusual, so perhaps I'll mention more about today than I usually do.

 

Class started at 8:30 a.m., as usual, and I sat in the lower level class for the third day in a row.  This morning was the first time I sat in the main grammar class, though, which is 4 of the 10 classes we have in a week.  (The breakdown goes like this: 4 grammar classes, 3 speaking classes, 2 listening classes, and 1 reading class per week.  But obviously every skill is used in every class.)  The grammar teacher is considered your primary teacher, so I was curious to see what I thought of the lower class's grammar teacher.  Turns out I really liked her: middle-aged Chinese lady who really cares about her students.  Kind of a mom to us.  Awesome.  As I sat through class, though, I was surprised to realize I understood just about 100% of what she said.  The few words I didn't know she explained because no one knew.  After class I approached her to ask about switching to her class, and I had a really helpful conversation with her.  Since the higher class is too difficult and the lower class is too easy, I asked for her opinion on where I should study.  She recommended that I stay in the higher class and get a tutor for the first month or two, because in that time I should be able to catch up.  On the other hand, the lower class is going to remain too slow for me, and waiting for the other students to catch up to me is a waste of a lot of time and opportunity. 

 

I'm going to take her advice.  But for the second class today, I hadn't prepared to go to the higher level.  Therefore, I decided it was a better use of my time to leave and study on my own than sit in the lower level speaking class, since that was far too easy for me as well.  So I'm trying to get ready for class tomorrow... wish me well...

 

After some studying and some lunch, I stopped at a store with another student to try to find some superglue.  What a comical experience!  Having forgotten to look up the Chinese for "superglue" before going, we were left to our own devices for asking the clerk if they sold any.  So here was my plan: pick up some regular glue meant for paper and ask if they have "a really strong version of this."  Apparently that doesn't make sense in Chinese.  Who knew?  So we spent about 5 minutes trying to explain that we had a plastic tray that needed to be fixed, so we needed "strong glue."  Amazing how long it took them to understand.  In the end it at least partially worked out.  We came home with superglue, even if the superglue ended up not working to fix the tray.  Oh well.

 

Later on I left campus to go teach.  I go to a different branch every time I teach, so it's always fun to see where in Shenyang I end up after getting into a taxi and showing the driver the address that they have texted to me.  Today's location?  Directly across the street from the Carrefour store that I used to frequent when I was living in Shenyang two years ago!  It's been three weeks, but I finally found where I used to live!  Unfortunately, I didn't really have time to go wander my way down to the actual school where I had lived then, but it's fun to know where it was.  And now I know how to ask a taxi driver in the future to take me there.  I also learned it's only 9.3 kilometers from where I live now, so if I'm ever in the mood for a nice long run...

 

The second session of my classes today was really really interesting.  The students were very advanced speakers, so we spent the entire hour just talking.  But they were very interested in my studies in the U.S. and what I want to do down the road.  So we talked extensively - and quite openly - about many IR and poli sci issues.  Fascinating, and educational, to hear what they had to say. 

 

 

 

Diplomatic experience comes in all forms

Interesting experience yesterday.  We had our first joint fellowship of the semester, where all the student fellowships from the various schools come together instead of meeting separately.  The last week of the month we meet jointly instead of on our own campuses.  I was really surprised yesterday to find out that there are more than 50 people who attend these various groups! 

 

I spend a lot of time with a certain couple here at LiaoDa, also foreigners, from a European country.  The guy grew up within the RCC tradition, simply because of the country he's from, but neither he nor his parents are particularly commited to it.  The girl is ethnically Chinese, but born and raised in this European country, so she does not come from that tradition at all.  Given how much time I spend with this couple, I have obviously talked about the group I meet with on Sundays and Wednesdays.  To my surprise, the guy asked me yesterday if he would be allowed to join us. 

 

Even more surprising was that he managed to convince his girlfriend, who has no interest in it, to join us as well.  Obviously I was excited to have them go with me, and eager to see their reactions. 

 

What I didn't expect was how the meeting was went.  It turned into a 3 hour activity, with dinner after that.  Nothing about it was even remotely like what I am used to.  We sang some songs, none of which I knew, and most of which we repeated ad nauseum as one girl led.  Someone spoke for a bit, which was fine although I only agreed with part of what she said.  Then we had a time for people to make new or renewed commitments, which is not typically a part of my experience.  There was also some intercessory work going on, which included people on the ground and some strange sounds.  Clearly, I was a bit out of my comfort zone for most of the night.

 

So were my friends.

 

Afterwards, we had to taxi back to our own school.  I was in a taxi with the couple and one of the African guys.  It was a bit awkward when the European guy started asking me about my thoughts on the evening, because I knew he and the African guy were coming from very different perspectives. 

 

How do I diplomatically navigate such a situation?  The couple was very uncomfortable all evening and was very surprised by what went on.  The African guy, although not necessarily used to such an approach from his own tradition, was fully integrated into the activities there.  And, as it turned out, the taxi driver could apparently understand much of what I said.  So that adds a third level to take into consideration!

 

So it was an interesting exercise, to try to express myself clearly without offending or distancing anyone by my perspective.  Especially since so much of my reaction to the evening was yet unclear to even myself. 

Fun around Shenyang

I have several little stories or anecdotes to share, but as much as I've tried I cannot come up with a single theme that unites them.  Except China, of course.  But China is the theme of this entire blog, so I cannot legitimize making it the theme of this single post.  So instead of trying to present these various anecdotes with some sort of profound insight on how they're interconnected, I'm just simply going to share them.  Something stream-of-consciousness-esque.

 

Last week Friday we didn't have class.  To this day, I don't know precisely why, except that there was supposedly some sort of sports activity.  Given all the context clues (which is one of the most important tools for communication, I believe), I think it was more or less a "field day" for all LiaoDa students.  But the activities were on the new campus, and I certainly did not make it up in time to take the bus there at 7:30 a.m.  So I didn't see it.  Instead, I took one of my African friends from the dorm here, grabbed a taxi, and went down to "gu-gong," the old Imperial Palace here in Shenyang.  [Little historic aside for those of you who are interested: Shenyang was established as the Manchurian capital in 1625.  In 1644, the Manchus took over Beijing to establish the Qing dynasty.  At that time, they moved their capital to the Forbidden City in Beijing, but continued to use the palace here as a summer resort.  There's a lot more of interest in Shenyang's history, but this is the simplified version of what relates to Gu-gong.]  We didn't actually go into the palace that day, since you have to pay for it. However, we headed down that way because two years ago when I was in Shenyang I frequently wandered around that part of town.  I even frequented specific stores and made friends with some owners. 

 

Certainly my favorite shop from two years ago was a little scroll shop.  In our wanderings about on Friday, my friend and I found that scroll shop and went in.  To my surprise and honor, the owner remembered me!  It was so exciting to be back there and talk with the owner and some others in the shop.  I certainly think it will be a place I visit frequently this year.  I even think I will have a nice uplifting scroll made soon that I can hang in my room here. 

 

The other exciting experience this week that relates back to my time here two years ago was meeting up with one of my former students.  Even though we have been out of touch for more than a year and a half, she was very excited to hear that I am back and very eager to meet up with me.  So she took me out to dinner last night.  [Guess where... yup, KFC.  Seriously, if a Chinese person were to visit me in the U.S., I would definitely NOT take him/her to a Chinese restaurant.  Why do the Chinese always want to take me out for American food?]  It was fun to see someone I know and to catch up with her.  She lives on the other side of the city and obviously works full time teaching, so I don't know that I'll get to see her too much, but whenever the opportunity arises I will certainly be pleased. 

 

Speaking of meeting up with Chinese people, I had a really interesting experience the other night.  Saturday I came home from some English classes to find people playing volleyball outside the dorm.  There was no way I could turn that down, so of course I joined them.  Let me tell you, though, it's interesting to learn to play a sport in a different language!  Chinese was the only common language among us, so instead of calling "mine!' to take a ball, I am training myself to call "wo de!"  And instead of saying "good job" or "nice play" or things like that, I have to come up with Chinese versions.  What a strange thing! 

 

But that wasn't the interesting experience I was going to tell you about.  (It was an interesting experience, though.)  After playing, I was heading back up to my room, dripping sweat.  (Nice, eh?)  Somebody came out of the staircase and stopped me, so of course I stopped to see what the guy wanted.  Turns out he's a Chinese guy from a city 1.5 hours from here, studying at LiaoDa for an MBA just on the weekends.  But he's an English teacher in his city, and he speaks English very very well.  Long story short, we met up that evening for about two hours and talked - in a combination of English and Chinese - about all sorts of things.  In many ways, he is a male Chinese version of myself, if that makes any sense.  Or maybe he's the opposite of myself.  Something like that.  While he's never been abroad, he studied English and Western culture extensively in school.  Through the course of his studies, though, he has developed a sort of Western perspective and understanding on many issues.  I am quite the opposite: through my studies, I have developed a sort of Chinese perspective and understanding on some issues.  So in our conversation, which ranged from China's development and economic growth to the Olympics and just about everything else possible, we often found ourselves taking on the perspective that stereotypically should have been the way the other person thought.  What a strange experience! 

 

In terms of my daily life in China, I am enjoying myself tremendously.  Any day I don't have class (which, if you read the last post, is far more often than one would expect), I try to get up and run in the morning.  It's one of my favorite things to do here, because I can see a lot more in a given amount of time than if I'm just walking around.  And the people you see and/or meet as a white girl running along the streets or through the parks in a city like Shenyang are just fascinating.  But Sunday morning was definitely the most entertaining run I've had yet: I got completely lost.  Oops!  I left LiaoDa's campus having turned left, and ran up the road a ways until I found a river.  The river had a thin park with sidewalks running along both sides of it, so I decided to follow the river for a while.  Unfortunately, when I ran out of park along the river, I had no idea where I was.  (Of course, I was never actually in any danger.  I easily could have retraced my steps to get back, or I could have grabbed a taxi.  I never go out without enough money for a taxi ride in case of such situations.  Because if you have money, you can never really be lost in Shenyang... you just tell the taxi driver to take you to LiaoDa.  It's incredibly convenient.)  But instead of turning around and seeing the same things again, I just wandered along the roads and picked corners to take at random.  Impressively enough, I managed to find my way back and I even know what I did! 

 

One of the other entertaining parts of my daily life here is what I have dubbed Chinese MTV.  Having never really watched MTV in the US, I don't really know if it's a fair name.  But that's what I call it.  Whenever I'm in my room, I turn on my TV to the station that plays music videos.  It's hilarious, though, because about a third of the music is American!  Obviously a good bit of it is Chinese, but not nearly as much as I would have expected.  I enjoy it, though, because I'm getting to know the Chinese music that's popular right now, which means recognizing it when I'm out and hear it.  And since Chinese MTV often (not always) puts the lyrics as captions on the screen, I can even start learning the words! 

 

As an aside, let me just say that my TV only actually has 5 channels, which has limited my choices for improving my Chinese through watching TV.  Because of those 5 channels, one is in French, one is in Arabic, one is in Korean, one is Chinese MTV, and then there is one lonely channel that is actually in Chinese.  So sometimes I watch that one, too.  But the music is more entertaining, since I don't really understand what the Chinese one is about most of the time. 

 

Learning Chinese

Learning Chinese, like most things in life, is easier said than done.  But 17.5 hours of classes every week and the opportunity to use the language with native speakers on a daily basis should certainly help.  Or so I am telling myself.  I'm starting to wonder, though, if that's actually true.  More classes seem to be cancelled than meet, and my speaking with native speakers tends to revolve around food at restaurants and directions to taxi drivers.  But my biggest dilemma regarding my Chinese studies at the moment is that I can't seem to find a class that suits my current ability in the language.

 

Classes are divided from A to F, with A being the most advanced students and F being those who have never studied Chinese before.  When I took the placement test, the teacher told me that she would put me in the C class, but that it might be too difficult for me (in which case I could move down to D).  I attended the C class for the first 6 days (which was the first two weeks... like I said, as many classes are cancelled as meet).  But I felt like I was constantly behind.  The books were challenging and the other students in the class were definitely more advanced than me.  With four different types of classes all requiring you to preview lessons before going to class, plus having to study the materials after class, I was spending way too much time outside of class studying and still hardly keeping up in class.  So I decided to try the D class.

 

Turns out I'm the most advanced student in D.  While I hardly spoke in the C class, I speak quite a bit in D.  And the books are quite easy.  I attended class without having ever looked at the materials beforehand (since I bought the books 10 minutes before class), and had no problem keeping up.  In today's reading, there were only 3 or 4 terms I had to look up. 

 

So I can't really decide.  Is it better to try pushing myself with the harder class - despite not following it much at all while I'm there -and just hope I'll start to catch up in a month or two, or is it better to actually understand what's going on in class and really learn that material well?  Is it better to use materials where I have to look up 30+ words per page or where I know all but 3 or 4 words?  Is it better to sit quietly, hoping the teacher will forget to pick me to speak that day since I don't really understand what the class is talking about, or is it better to be one of the first people to chime in, without even being asked?  Is it better to expose myself to a wide range of more difficult vocabulary or learn and be able to use a smaller set of somewhat simpler words?  If anyone knows what I should do, let me know.

 

"Zhong qiu jie kuai le!"

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! 

 

Sunday was a major Chinese holiday, called the Mid-Autumn Festival.  Traditionally, everyone tries to go home to see their families, everyone eats moon cakes and jiaozi, and everyone looks at the full moon.  How it can be called the Mid-Autumn festival when autumn seems to just be starting, I don't know.  But I enjoyed the time off of school, the moon cakes (which actually aren't as good as you would expect - it's just a thin flavorless pastry around a whole lot of some sort of filling, but most of the fillings aren't very tasty), and the full moon.  Mostly the time off of school. 

 

Besides having Monday off (because the holiday fell on the weekend), Tuesday was LiaoDa's 60th anniversary so we had a second day off.  There was a ceremony Tuesday evening in celebration, but I decided going out to eat with three Italians and three Africans would be more entertaining than the ceremony.  From the sounds of it, I was right.  I was told it was "so typically Chinese... everyone looked like some kind of fruit, insect, or alien... it's a bit over the top."  Yeah, I enjoyed my tasty meal at a fancy Chinese restaurant. 

 

Of course human beings are all procrastinators, so from finishing class at noon on Friday until Tuesday afternoon, I did not study any Chinese.  Oops.  At least, I didn't study from any Chinese textbooks.  I did find myself using quite a bit of Chinese out in town, so I suppose that counts for something.  But needless to say, the other good thing about skipping the ceremony Tuesday night was having time to prepare for class on Wednesday.

 

Lest you think it is now totally back to the grindstone for me after having those two days off, I must tell you about the rest of the week.  Wednesday I had class.  Uneventful, but I'm sure I learned something.  Thursday?  I'm skipping.  All the new students like me are being taken to the police station to get our residency permits.  Given the hours of the police station, we have to leave at 8:00 a.m.  Obviously, that makes it difficult to be in class by 8:30.  (Let's be honest, this is China.  Most likely the bus won't have even left yet by 8:30.) 

 

And Friday?  I know we don't have class.  And I know there is some sort of sporting event going on.  But either my Chinese is not good enough to have understood why a sporting event means we don't have class, or the logic of it has simply escaped me.  Either way, I won't complain about another day off of school. 

 

So what have I been doing with all my spare time, since I haven't been in class or studying?  Besides moving into my new room and trying to creatively (and cheaply) decorate, I've been teaching a few English classes, exploring more of Shenyang (primarily near LiaoDa), and hanging out with the many new friends I'm making.  Sounds fun, eh?  Yeah, it is.

 

Although I won't lie.  Holidays that are all about family are hard when you can't be with your family.  Even ones that you don't traditionally celebrate.