February 6th, 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:
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.
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| Me and my roommate Zhang Xuehe at the Buddhist Temple |
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| 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.
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| Here is a toilet. You have to squat to use it. It's on the ground. REALLY hard to use for Americans. |
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| 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.
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