Calligraphy Class

I had my first day of Calligraphy class this week. Who knew that there was so much to learn about Calligraphy?! Calligraphy in China is a lot like Calligraphy in America, except obviously with characters instead of phonetic words. 
Our teacher was from China but he had the thickest british accent because he lived in England for fifteen years. He is a very awesome man, with extraordinary english speaking abilities. 
First of all, I am sure no one knows this, and I surely didn't, but did you know that Mao Ze Dong is a very accomplished calligrapher? His calligraphy is one of a kind and pretty amazing. He did a lot of calligraphy for Beijing University because he was teacher her during the cultural revolution. 

His Calligraphy is so awesome because it is so different and out of the ordinary than the usual calligraphy that people learn, which is very boxy. He also uses cursive which has lots of loops and is very beautiful, and gives the calligrapher a lot of creative license.

Our teacher was very helpful. I had no idea how hard it is to learn calligraphy. Using a paint brush is really satisfying though. The key is knowing how much pressure to put onto the paintbrush at what times and to know what speed to go. It is surely a complex art. 

People used to be required in China to take Calligraphy class in primary school, but are no longer required. It reminds me of the way that cursive is disappearing in the US. I know that I had to learn cursive when I was in elementary school, but I never use it. And I doubt the generation below me will even learn it at all.

Once I become a more accomplished calligrapher I will put some of my artwork up!

Buddhism Continues

Today I had my second visit to a Buddhist place of study. It was at a teahouse very near to Beijing Daxue’s campus. Luckily one of the Chinese roommates accompanied me, or else I may have never found it.

There was a room in the back of the teahouse where everyone congregated. Every one had matching books, sort of like bibles, that had Buddhist sutras. A girl next to me shared hers, but I couldn’t read a word of it because it was in traditional characters and I had no idea what the context was or what some of the vocabulary was. I however did not understand very much of what went on in the study group, but I did understand when they were talking about not eating meat.

People were extremely nice to me and very welcoming. I met two people from Thailand who currently study at Beijing Daxue. In Thailand a lot of people are Buddhist. People read lines from the Buddhist sutras and then a teacher talked about what I am assuming was the meaning of it. Then she would ask certain people questions and they would respond. This was more like a Buddhist study group, which I have never experienced. I’ve only experienced Buddhist meditation classes and lecture classes.

After the class I made friends with the Thai students and a few of the people from the class asked us to join them for tea. Drinking tea is very formal here, one person pours the tea for everyone, it’s kind of like having a “dealer” for your tea. Then they gave us books about Buddhism and a movie about a famous monk, all for free.

Next weekend I am going to go to the English study group. I’m sure that it will be more beneficial for me because I will understand what people are talking about. But this was a good experience to have because I got to practice my listening skills for Chinese. As one can imagine, people talk really fast, or what seems to be really fast because I am such an amateur.

My Birthday in China

Finding out more about Chinese culture:

Today was my birthday in China. Let me tell you that it is awesome to have your birthday in China. Every one I have met here has been so nice to me on my Birthday. When I woke up this morning, my Chinese roommate had prepared noodles for me with sauce. In China it is custom to eat noodles on your birthday because it represents longevity. So I woke up to a nice surprise!

My roommate had also gotten me bubble tea the night before because I have been talking about it a lot and how much I love it. Bubble tea is very delicious here. If it wasn’t good I would be really sad.

Then throughout the day all the Chinese roommates have been giving me presents! My roommate gave me a porcelain glass with artwork on it that was really beautiful. The other roommate across the room from me gave me a pair of beautiful wooden chopsticks.

Last night when I was out on the town, people kept buying me drinks to wish me a happy birthday! It was so wonderful!

My teacher just emailed me as well telling me that tomorrow in class she will have a gift for me for my birthday. I love my teacher because she is only 24 and she is super young and down to earth. We have gone out to eat dinner and connected on so many levels. Sometimes I feel like she is just my friend who is teaching my Chinese! Or my older sister.

I have been learning so much more about the culture here that I forget it when it is time to write it down. And I can’t remember if I am repeating myself or not.

A point of view that I discovered was interesting: All the people and the pushing and shoving without lines of any sort are actually better than the lines we form in America?

Let me explain:

I realized that I kind of like that people don’t form lines here because it makes the process equal for everyone and no one gets offended when you push them! So the reason it is more equal is because in America, it is whoever gets there first gets a spot on the subway, bus, etc. And the people who get there later don’t get the same opportunity to the front or getting on the bus, subway, etc. In China, everyone gets an equal chance. Because if you get there later, you can just push and shove your way into the front and no one will complain about you “cutting” the line or being disrespectful because everyone does it here. Also people usually wont get mad if you push them, and people don’t apologize. So you don’t even have to worry about offending anyone and because it’s what everyone does, you don’t’ even mind when people shove you because you realize that they aren’t doing it with bad intentions, it’s just what they do.  And maybe I like that way better than America. Who’s to say our ways of doing things are the better ways anyway? And that’s something to think about. I can already anticipate the culture shock when I get back to America. Oh boy.

Buddhism in China

Longquan Si Buddhist temple

On Saturday I took a two hour bus ride to the country side of China where I found the Buddhist temple that I will be taking classes at and hopefully volunteering at on weekends. I have a Chinese tutor for my Independent study so she and two of her friends went a long with me. It was really nice of them to go with me, especially my tutor, since I had never gone there before and since my Chinese isn’t that great.

Upon arrival I saw the first mountains I’ve ever seen in China! They were absolutely beautiful! They reminded me of mountains in Colorado and Utah. The Buddhist temple is in a national park, so there was a huge map of things that one could do around that area. It’s so nice in China that you can basically take the bus everywhere! People can take public transportation to almost any part in China. People don’t even have to get their Driver’s License! I wouldn’t want to drive in China because the traffic is AWFUL and the driving is something that I am not used to, you really have to be okay with butting your way in front of someone and honking your horn excessively and almost running over pedestrians…not something I am really accustomed to. It would take a lot of courage for me to drive here. The people I have met here tell me that they don’t have their driver’s license, and they ask me if a lot of people have them in America. They tell me that they hear in order to go to America, they need a driver’s license, know how to speak English, and a VISA. My program director even told me that it took her a lot of courage to start driving and get used to the way that people drive in China and she is from here!

The Buddhist temple was absolutely beautiful. It was made of stone and of course had a wall around it because almost everything has walls around it here! I’m not talking just any ordinary wall either; it was one of those traditional walls/gates with gold handles you use to knock on doors with. There were two ginko trees inside the temple and one of the bridges was over a thousand years old!

Before entering the temple we met a woman who belonged to the temple and she was so excited to meet us and meet a foreigner like me who was interested in Buddhism and being involved in the temple’s activities and classes. She gave me her phone number right away. I find that people here give out their information so quickly, and a lot of people genuinely want to meet you and are excited about meeting you. I don’t think it is about being a foreigner either. At least I hope that everyone likes to meet people here, because that would make me really happy.

The woman commented on all the stray animals outside of the temple and told me that they were her friends and she fed them all the time. I thought it was really great that she told me that because I always wonder about the strays here (there are so many!).

Her name was Yuan Yuan. She took us inside the temple. The temple was serving a vegetarian lunch for free, so she asked if we could have a meal there and they let us! We are complete foreigners who don’t even participate in the temple and they fed us. It was so incredibly nice. We couldn’t talk upon entering the eating area, so the woman taught us hand signals for asking for more food or for less food.

People were staring at me because I was the only white person/foreigner in the temple. People who I am assuming were volunteers served us lunch. Yuan Yuan had told us that we were supposed to finish all our food, but she said it in Chinese and I misinterpreted what she had sad. I thought she said that we would finish all our food because the food wasn’t that good. But what she actually said was that you must only take what you can eat and finish it all. This is a great philosophy and something I’ve read about that Buddhists believe in. I however did not finish my food because my chopsticks handling skills did not allow me to. The person sitting next to me had to tell my tutor in Chinese that I had to finish all my food. I felt really embarrassed after that and they went to get me a spoon so that I could finish all of it. The other girls that I was with, my tutor and her friends, had never been to a Buddhist temple and didn’t know much about it, so I found that they were surprised and in awe just as much as I was. And even though there was a slight language barrier between all of us, I felt like we all connected at that moment.

People were so nice to me at the temple; they couldn’t stop smiling at me. I got information on classes and volunteering there. They told me that they wanted help with translating and making sure English translations were correct. I would feel so great if I could help them with this, because I believe that being a translator is such an important job in the world. It helps people communicate with each other who otherwise might not be able to, and I think everyone has the right to communicate with everyone. And the way that China established Buddhism in the first place was by Chinese people travelling to India and bringing back the scripts to China, then translating them into Chinese.

"No Naked Flames"

I am excited to go back to the temple next time and to be able to volunteer and participate in classes. I might stay entire weekends there because they offer free overnight housing to volunteers. This could be a really interesting experience for me.

Inside the buddhist temple - eating area

The view from the buddhist temple

Kung Fu Acrobatics

Kung fu!

On Friday night one of our teachers took us to a show that was a play about a zen master who studied kungfu. The show had kungfu and acrobatics in it! The acrobatics were fantastic. The little kids in the show must have been about seven years old and they could do flips on their heads, I kid you not, and if you can try to even imagine they would flip and land on their head and then flip again…

There were so many tourists there; it was a huge tourist trap. The play was in English with Chinese subtitles. I thought it was interesting because before the show started I noticed that there was a screen for subtitles. Naturally, since we are in China, I figured that the screen was for English subtitles. Nope, the screen was for Chinese subtitles. This was pretty shocking to me, but it made sense because there were mostly tourists there. The Chinese subtitles however were in traditional characters, and China no longer uses traditional characters, they use simplified instead, so I wonder how many of the younger generation can actually understand those subtitles.

My favorite part in the show was when the kungfu zen master got really physically strong and he could break boards with his head and the narrator of the show said, “Master Chen was at his strongest, but sometimes when you are at your strongest you are actually at your lowest”. Since Master Chen’s ego was so high because he was so strong, he stopped meditating and having discipline and started to use his strength to show off. The point of kungfu was to use it for defense and use it wisely, that’s why meditation and control go along very well with kungfu.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

February, 14th, 2012

I have caught a cold and today my program director made me an appointment at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Beijing that specializes in moxibustion. Moxibustion is a type of treatment that deals with applying heat to the body in areas where a sickness occurs. Traditional Chinese medicine mostly entails treatments like moxibustion, acupuncture, and medicines made out of natural ingredients. It is a holistic approach to curing disease and illness. It pays attention to qi energy in the body and yin and yang – opposites (hot and cold, energetic and calm etc.)

 The people who work at this clinic are also apparently all Buddhists. I am trying to get an apprenticeship here for my independent study on Buddhism so my program director and I decided that it would be a good idea for me to go in person and to get treated for my cold (gan mao).

It was my first experience travelling in Beijing completely on my own using the public transportation, namely the bus system. In my mind, this is the most challenging form of public transportation for a foreigner in a country that does not speak your language. Initially I did get lost. I got on a bus going in the wrong direction because my teacher didn’t tell me which direction to go in. I didn’t know how to read the bus signs either so I wasn’t sure what direction to go in. I must have entered the wrong bus or the right bus depending on how you look at it. The bus driver kicked me off the bus at the second stop. I didn’t understand exactly what she was saying in Chinese but it had to do with not being able to ride on the bus anymore and pointing at the door. It was actually a good thing I got off the bus because I was going the wrong direction!

I called my teacher and she helped me figure out that I was going the wrong direction so I got on a bus going the opposite direction. A lot of people on the bus were staring at me, this is what I imagined going on in their heads, “A foreigner using the bus all by herself?! What is this? And she looks so young!”

The buses are not the best form of transportation here but they do come quite promptly – about every five minutes or even every two minutes. But upon getting on the bus, there was a huge amount of traffic and it wasn’t rush hour. It took me an hour and a half to get to this clinic and I ended up being almost an hour late because of getting lost. My teacher didn’t warn me or even tell me how long the trip would take. The directions she gave me were according to her the way people give directions in China, all based on landmarks. Boy do I wish my brain worked this way, but no, google maps! Why do you spoil me so!!! I am incapable of finding things based on landmarks. It wasn’t all my fault, the directions also didn’t say how far or where to turn, they just said, look for this big super market in the southern direction…super helpful…not.

So I went around the city once I got off the bus asking people where this one supermarket was and finally someone pointed me in a precise and correct direction where I found the supermarket and luckily the clinic was right next to it.

My treatment was pretty awesome. It was heat and massage, and this was for treating a cold! First they offered me tea then they asked me what areas were hurting. I had to talk in Chinese only, but had definitely forgotten some terms so as you can imagine there was a lot of pointing involved.

In the treatment room there was a massage table. Imagine a room in America that is in a typical spa; that was the room. At first my doctor massaged some areas in my chest in order to release the cold. Then he massaged some, what I am guessing are typical acupressure points in the body. He then applied heat with what looked like a huge incense stick burning, and held it up near my skin. After applying heat he was basically massaging the sickness out of me. The sickness I have, since it is a cold, is considered a sickness containing too much yin, because yin is cold. When yin and yang get out of balance, that it is when one catches a sickness or a disease. My yin in my body is at a higher level then my yang – heat. Therefore he was using yang – heat therapy in order to extract the yin from my body. It is all very spiritual and holistic and extremely interesting.

After my massage therapy I had to drink a soup/oatmeal like drink that was purple and had something mashed up in it. I can’t say it was delicious, but it was drinkable. The people at the clinic talked to me a lot and seemed to like me. They told me that my Chinese was good, which I am always surprised to hear because I feel like I don’t know anything here and that people are always speaking too fast for me to understand.

Upon leaving I once again took the bus and I could tell that I smelled like an 8 pack a day smoker because of the burning incense that they applied at the clinic. I could even smell myself, which is always a bad sign.

This adventure turned into a five-hour journey. It was totally worth it, and nothing I could have ever experienced as a tourist. I love not being a tourist.

The Act of Bargaining

The act of bargaining

Over the weekend my fellow Pitzer classmates and I decided to take an adventure over to the silk market. This is a very famous place in china for it’s fake aspect and infamous act of bargaining. All the products there are fake and the people at each shop try to overcharge you by about 10 times the actual amount. They think that foreigners will get convinced that they are either buying something real, or that it is worth the price it would be in America. The silk market is about a 30 to 45 minute subway ride from Beijing University. It has about 6 stories and it is built like a shopping mall but each little shop is like a stand that you would see selling t-shirts out on the street in New York city.

I had no intent to buy any clothes really because I figured it wasn’t worth it. I did not go to the silk market intending to buy anything, which I think was a pretty good decision because I only bought one thing, and those were fake beats headphones by Dr. Dre. These headphones cost $300 dollars in the US, we got them for 40$. I would say it was a pretty darn good deal. We tried out a lot of the beats headphones and phone the best quality ones in terms of sound. Apparently according to my friend, they sound exactly like the real beats. I’m not sure what the real beats sound like, but upon putting on the headphones:

1. I didn’t know they were noise cancelling so that came as a big and splendid surprise

2. It sounded like there was a concert happening right in front of me, except with really clear and perfect sound quality

The best thing about beats headphones is the bass and drum aspect of them. They are made for rap and hip hop music, obviously because they were made by dr. dre, but other music sounds absolutely amazing as well. What I found sounds really amazing is Sigur Ros and that’s all I have been listening to this week since I bought the headphones as I walk around and explore China. It provides a good sound track for exploring and pondering.

Here is a music video with a song by Sigur Ros: Glosoli
If you feel like listening to some icelandic music, it's amazing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwQmDvuORY0&feature=related

Basically beats headphones make you feel like you are high, with out actually having to be high. The music is AMAZING.

My North face jacket that I bought in America, that was 150$ had a pocket zipper break this week. I wonder where it was made – probably somewhere in Asia – and if the clothing at the silk market are maybe just as good as the real products?

Bargaining can get extremely intense, especially at places like the silk market. This is because the people who work here are probably migrant workers and are really desperate. I had a very interesting experience with one of the shop workers.

I was at a hat booth and the woman told me that the hat was 380 kuai…A complete overpricing of a hat that is fake and in China. She asked me how much I wanted to pay and I told her 60 kuai, which she proceeded to tell me was impossible. As I started to walk away she began to decrease the price until finally she decreased it to 60 kuai. Then I decided that I was actually paying too much and didn’t even want the hat that badly so I told her I didn’t want it anymore unless she was going to decrease the price more. She got so mad at me she started yelling at me in Chinese, (we had already been speaking to each other in Chinese) and she started to hit me and push and shove me, so hard that I lost my balance. It was really strange and kind of sad that she was that desperate to sell that hat. It was also definitely culture shock, this sort of thing would NEVER happen in America.

The Silk Market

Chinese Bars, Supermarkets, Malls, and Other Rants

Chinese Bars, Supermarkets, Malls, and other rants

February, 10^th, 2012

             The last few days have been pretty uneventful because we had our first week of classes and orientation sessions. Chinese class has been really helpful for me because I am the only student! I feel like one of those rich kids from way back in history who was rich enough to afford a private tutor for school subjects. Upon being in China I have realized really how much Chinese class in America has applied to being in the actual country of origin of the language I have been studying. Are you surprised to hear that I am pretty much an amateur in China?
             I have realized something pretty monumental, and it is not just about studying a language when you are not immersed in the culture and country of the language, but it is also about the school that I now study Chinese at – Pomona College. Pomona College strives to be a prestigious school with a rigorous academic schedule. How can you learn a language if you are speeding through it? In addition, Pomona puts its emphasis on writing and reading, there is very little emphasis on speaking. Isn’t speaking the most important part of learning a language? If you just know how to write a language or read a language, it is not really applicable to life. Whereas, if you know how to speak a language, that is where you really succeed in life. Well, what I have experienced at Pomona College is that we speed through the chapters so quickly and try to cram in so much, that I forget almost everything I learned after I finish the class. In fact, I forget almost everything I learned after I finish a Chapter in my Chinese class, because the class is based on cramming vocabulary and grammar structures so quickly into your head that it isn’t possible to succeed or remember things unless you are a superhuman memorization machine. I however, am no machine, and it is most definitely not possible for me to memorize a language so fast. Upon looking at the Syllabus of the class that I should be in this semester for Chinese, I saw that we use two textbooks at the same time! WHAT? Does that even make sense? While using one of the textbooks to actually study from and use in the class, the other textbook is assigned reading assignments every week. This textbook that is assigned reading assignments is NOT in ANY way a reading assignment type of textbook. It has vocabulary and grammar structures that you can’t just read in order to LEARN.
             In my conclusion and rant about Pomona College and how important it is to be prestigious, I have concluded that I am no longer going to take Chinese at Pomona. I should have learned and retained so much more than I did. I am learning so much more here in China, and no it is not because I am in China and using the language a whole lot, because I am actually not using it that much, but it is because my Chinese class here goes at a much slower pace and focuses on the speaking part of the language. Upon showing my Director here the syllabus, she told me that it looked way too hard and way too fast to even be possible. I completely agree with her. She also asked me, “Why do they give you so much and so little time to complete it.” It’s insane. I am just going to study Chinese independently because I ACTUALLY want to learn the language, I don’t want to just speed through it like some super human maniac who just wants the title of a minor in Chinese. It’s absolutely insane. And this is why a title does not define how smart and how educated someone is. People who actually go more in depth and learn a subject so that they come out with knowledge that they can retain, are the smarter people. Whether or not those people come from Pomona or Harvard, I am not sure, I bet it depends on the person and the teachers.

Chinese Bars:

We went to a Chinese Bar in Wudaokou, which is an area for international students in particular. Our Chinese teacher told us that China doesn’t really have bars; the bars are mostly American bars, and Chinese people don’t really go to them. There were a lot of Chinese people at the bar we went to but there were also a lot of international students. The more recent generation of Chinese are much more “American”, meaning that their values and ideas have changed from their more traditional Chinese parents and ancestors.

After going to the bar, I don’t know if I can get myself to ever go back. I haven’t ever experienced so much smoking in one area in my life. By the end of the night my eyes started to burn and when I returned home my hair had absorbed most of the smoke in the bar. The music was turned up so loud that I thought my eardrums were going to break. It was definitely not an ideal place to be. I do not recommend bars in China.

Malls:

The malls here are absurdly huge. Westernization and industrialization have just gone overboard here. The prices are also more expensive than in America at big malls. We went into the Apple store, let me just say, I have never seen a two story Apple store and SO MANY people in an Apple store before. I am sure part of this is because China has a huge population.

China is basically the same size as the US but it has over a billion people. A question on my mind that has been bugging me recently is how come China has such a huge population? Everyone knows there are way too many people here, but no one has told me why. And I’m sure the answer is extremely complicated and not because of one reason. One factor I’m sure is also that China has been around for much longer than America, and in the future, America could be having the same problem as China. Another factor is that when agriculture and farming was important before industrialization it was important for farmers to have a lot of children to help them with the work on farms. I bet a lot of people also didn’t know that the one child policy does not apply to everyone in China. The one child policy does not apply to minorities in China. The minorities are allowed two children. I know that one of the minorities is the Islamic Chinese.

Outside of the Apple store there were people that had bought Iphones from the same apple store and were trying to resell them right in front of the store. They had to be 300 meters away from the store, but they were still allowed to do this. This is what reminded us that we were in China and not America. It felt like we were in America because the malls look exactly the same in China. Another thing that amazes me is how much pirating goes on in China. I mean, there are huge stores that sell all pirated material such as DVD’s, CD’s, Softwares, etc. If someone were to setup a store like that in America, they would be in Jail for life.

Taxis:

Don’t take Taxis in China. You will get ripped off big time. If you are really desperate, then it’s not going to be too bad, but if you can avoid it, at all costs do it! Take the subway or the bus. Actually, the subway is so easy to use and to navigate.

Today we had a stressful experience in a taxicab. It took the most heavy traffic way to the place we were going, and then didn’t actually go to the destination we requested. Then when we had our Director talk to him on the phone and tell him in Chinese how to get to the destination, he went around in a circle and went back to basically the same place and requested that we get out of the taxi. It was really rude and he charged us way more than we should have been charged. We got charged 70 kuai. If we had taken the subway, we would have been charged 2 kuai each.  Basically in China people will go out of their way to rip off foreigners, which leads me to my next topic… racism in China.

Racism:

Our Director today told us, “I admit, China is probably one of the most racist countries”. This is something I actually dislike about China. They are especially racist against black people. If you go into supermarkets, you will see lightening cream, instead of tanning cream, which is what people use in the states to look more tan. Well people in China want to look whiter. And even though people like Americans here, they are still racist against them by trying to rip them off because they are foreigners. As I learn more about racism in China, I will have more to say, but as of right now this is most of what I know.

Being Queer in China:

The biggest issue about being queer in China is between children and their parents. Parents don’t want their children to be queer because they want them to marry a person of the opposite sex and have kids. Having ancestors is extremely important in China. I am not sure if people know about or use donors here but I wonder if they knew about it, if they would accept it.

Religion and queerness is not an issue here because not many people are religious. Therefore, not many people can say that they don’t accept queer people because of what the bible says or because it is against their religion.

I still don’t know very much about this, but once I do I will comment on it more.

Independent study project:

I am now officially doing my independent study project on Buddhism in China so be prepared for a second blog all about that. It’s going to be really exciting! I will start out with attending a Buddhist temple and events their and probably conducting some interviews.

The Apple Store in China

People standing outside the Apple store selling Iphones from the same Apple Store

What?! What happened to our Childhood? hahahaha.

Just a funny book we saw in a book store. People who are pretty good at English here like to say Wow a lot. And then I realized, I do say wow a lot! hahaha.

 

Michael Jackson impersonator in Sanlitun

Hot Pot and First day of Class

Hot Pot and First Day of Classes

February 7^th, 2012

Today I had the first day of Mandarin Class. I am the only one in my section, which is Intermediate Chinese! All of my classmates are beginners so we aren’t in the same class. I basically have my own tutor because it is just one teacher and I. This will help me learn Chinese so much better because I will be required to learn the material thoroughly. Also, It is guaranteed that I will be called on in class.

Today was not a very eventful day because we had class for two hours in the morning and that’s it. Most of us were feeling pretty lazy as well. The highlight of the day however was definitely dinner. I wonder if anyone in America has ever heard of Hot Pot? I surely have not heard of it. So let me explain:

Hot pot is very common in China, especially during the winter because it is warm. Basically at a hot pot restaurant everyone has their own personal bowl and flame in front of them. In that bowl are lots of delicious spices. The food that you order is raw because it is cooked in the bowl in front of you. We ordered raw meets, tofu, and vegetables. Once the water in your hot pot starts boiling, you put the raw food in and take it out once it is cooked. It only takes about a minute or two to cook things! We had lamb, beef, yams, potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetables, chicken feet, and dumplings. I did not try the Chicken feet…that will have to wait until later. The hot pot meal was delicious and made me feel warm inside. It has been really cold in Beijing because of the wind chill. Today it was supposed to be 25 degrees but it felt like 16 degrees because of the wind.

If you can find a hot pot place in America, I suggest you find one and eat at it. It is a lot of fun and very tasty. Another note, it isn’t soup, so you don’t drink the water that you cook the food in afterwards or during. All of us thought that you were supposed to drink it, so we asked our roommates, “Why didn’t they give us spoons to drink the soup with”, and they told us that you don’t drink the water.

Tomorrow we have Mandarin class and our Traditional Chinese Medicine course. In this course we get to be in the field. We get to assist people with acupuncture and other traditional Chinese medicine procedures. It is going to be very exciting!

In China I have not been using a cell phone at all. I don’t text or call anyone throughout the day or night. This has been really freeing for me. You should definitely try it out sometime. I have gotten work done a lot faster and been able to concentrate so much easier. I want to only use my phone to make plans to meet up with people, which means that I want to stop having texting conversations. Texting can be so distracting. I probably get a text every five minutes throughout the day in America.

This weekend I am going to try to organize a trip to a fairly local hot springs. The reason I say fairly local is because I heard that the hot springs are not close by. But I think it sounds ideal because it is so cold outside. I wonder if hot springs are only open when it is warm outside? I guess I will find out.

Lantern Festival

February 6^th, 2012

Lantern Festival

Today was the coldest day in Beijing. I bet it is easy to guess why! The WIND!!! The wind was strong today; when I woke up I could hear it rattling my window. I have never been this cold in my life! My legs felt numb and I could not feel my face, it felt like it would just fall right off. I need some better clothes, ones that are not California made.

 You can look at this website and see how cold it is in Beijing right now: 

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxdetail/CHXX0008?dayNum=0

Today was the Lantern Festival in China. Every night we have been hearing Fire crackers go off, but tonight people have been setting off what seems to be like a million of them. As we were walking down the street someone set off firecrackers that went off on the sidewalk and it scared the living daylights out of all of us. It was also extremely smoky and made us cough up a storm. 

                              Here is a short video of the fire crackers

Before nighttime we went to a Buddhist temple called Yonghegong Buddhist Temple. Many people went there to pray today. There was a huge fire pit and people had huge incense sticks that they dipped into the fire and lit. As their incense burned they prayed and bowed. Praying mostly consists of a wish or praying to Buddha. There was also a Buddha shrine and people would put their incense in front of it after it was burnt out and sit on the floor or stand and pray. People would bow three times and put their hands together in prayer fashion. The Buddhist temple was humongous. 

Me and my roommate Zhang Xuehe at the Buddhist Temple

Eli, me, Sarah, Sally

After we went to the Buddhist temple we were so cold that we stopped in a little teashop. It’s hard to describe the experience we had there but it was one of the highlights so far. We basically sat in the front of the store where there was a table and we all sat around it. The woman who at the front of the shop continuously made us different types of tea. We had jasmine tea, Oolong, and Black tea. The tea in China is indescribably better than in America. It is MUCH fresher and when it steeps in the water it expands and you can see fresh tealeaves that actually look like leaves, not like dried shriveled up spices. They use the tealeaves eight times before throwing them out. They also only steep the tea for maybe a minute before serving. The teapot was really small and so were the teacups. Basically, everything is smaller in China. In teashops it is custom to tap two fingers on the table to signify your thanks. I thought this was really awesome. 

In addition to everything being smaller here, people are smaller here. In fact, everyone is the same size; they are all little string beans. I don’t think I have seen a single overweight person, except one, and she was eating in a KFC. Sad, I know. 

Here is a toilet. You have to squat to use it. It's on the ground. REALLY hard to use for Americans.

Here is a picture of a typical plate at a restaurant in China. Tiny right?

Something I have been thinking a lot about recently is all the Asian stereotypes in the United States and all the racist or discriminatory comments people make in America. I’m sure that everyone has heard someone say, or has sad themselves that Asian drivers are bad drivers. Or someone will see a bad driver and say, oh it must be an Asian driver. Another thing is how people make fun on Asian peoples pronunciation or R’s and L’s. I wish people would take the time to learn that maybe Asian culture is different. The reason for the “bad” driving is because people drive DIFFERENTLY in China. Pedestrians don’t have the right of way; a car will literally run you over. Speaking of which, a bus almost hit us today, it was really scary. The reason for the pronunciation is that R’s are pronounced like L’s in the Chinese language. I wish that people would learn these things before they make fun of them. Quite frankly, I’m tired of people making fun of them. I don’t want people making fun of me in China for the things that I do, that is different than their culture.

When we got to Qianmen to see the lantern festival parade it had been cancelled. It was sad because we had walked a long distance from the Subway only to find out that it had been cancelled already. The reason it was cancelled was really interesting. It was because there were too many people. There are too many people in Beijing…It’s a little bit overwhelming. But having too many people at an event is dangerous, it is a safety hazard because one time there were so many people pushing and shoving each other that people got trampled and killed. I can believe that this happened because I have had my fair share of pushing and shoving already.

When we were on the subway back to Beijing University I noticed how many people take the subway. All different kinds of people take the subway. I notice that in California, especially Los Angeles, a lot of poor people take the train and subway including college students and people who are not well off. In Los Angeles a lot of creepy people take the Train…not going to lie about that. But in China, almost every kind of person takes the Subway. And I found out the reason why. One is that not everyone has a car like in America. But the second more prominent reason is because traffic is controlled in Beijing. On certain very busy days such as holidays and other busy traffic days the government announces on the news or somewhere that people with license plates ending in a certain number cannot drive their cars on the streets. Therefore they must take the subways. This number switches constantly. It is a very smart idea.

I also realized why college is so cheap here. It is because the government pays for Education. Education is very very important in China.

When we got back to our dorm rooms we made the rice dumplings that are commonly eaten on the Lantern Festival. The rice dumplings were okay, but pretty gooey and not really my kind of food. The Chinese students didn’t eat it. They said that it was too sweet for them, and that they don’t like to eat after they eat dinner. The also don’t eat chocolate or ice cream or cheese; these things are too rich for them.

Tomorrow is the first day of Mandarin Class. I am in a class all by myself. I know that I am going to improve tremendously. I have already started thinking in Mandarin, and started speaking faster. I understand it better too and it has only been about 6 days.