February 5th, 2012
Meeting our roommates:
We met our roommates today around 5pm. They are all very nice and very friendly. They speak English pretty well, better than I can speak Chinese. However, my roommate, Zhang Xuehe told me that people in China learn how to read and write a lot better than they learn how to speak English. It is similar in America.
We went out for Cantonese food today and it was delicious. It was much different from Northern Chinese food. There was a lot of duck and vegetables. Pork is also a big thing in China. We had fried rice, which was EXTREMELY different from the fried rice in America. It was WAY better, and way fresher. I highly recommend Cantonese fried rice. It basically had bacon in it. People in China also eat way more of the animal. Dishes that are popular that I’ve noticed on the menu are liver and intestines. I have no idea if I will try them, but if someone gives me something to try and tells me that it is really good I will probably try it. My roommate told me that rice in Northern China is way tastier than in Southern China and that people prefer to have rice from Northern China.
After going out for dinner we went to a Karaoke bar. Karaoke bars are much different in China than in America. First of all people LOVE Karaoke in China and second of all it is not a bar, it doesn’t serve drinks and it is not in a bar. It is in a building that looks like a hotel and has a little shop with candy and drinks and then separate rooms for Karaoke. The room looks like the inside of a Limo, they have a couch and no windows, and they give you complementary drinks and snacks. I enjoyed Karaoke way more than I thought I would. It was kind of therapeutic.
I have my first homework assignment, which is to write an essay in Chinese and to Review what I have learned. One thing about the Chinese language is that it can escape your mind really quickly. The most important thing to do is to review.
I just thought of a few differences in China:
1. They don’t have note cards here; this will make it hard for me to memorize my Chinese vocabulary
2. Another thing is that people don’t give out bags in grocery stores or convenience stores, if you want a bag it costs extra.
3. College is NOT EXPENSIVE. Meaning college tuition. It is 5,000 yuan, look up the conversion rate online, it will shock you. We told our roommates the price of college in America, they told us it would kill them if it was that expensive. However, there are a lot of extra fees, such as gym memberships, deposits, dining hall meals etc. But Beijing Daxue is apparently the Harvard of Beijing, it must be the most expensive college, it has 20,000 students and it is only 5,000 yuan! It will make me sad when college tuitions become more expensive.
One similar thing in China:
Prices are WAY higher in places like movie theaters and hotels and bars. I bought a water bottle in a Chinese Seven Eleven and it was 1.50 Kuai. I wanted to buy a water bottle at the karaoke bar store, it was half the size of the one I bought in the seven eleven and it was 12 kuai, that’s about 6 or 7 times more expensive.
Tomorrow is the Lantern festival. We are going to go back to Qianmen to celebrate it near Tienanmen square. I wanted to share this picture of Tienanmen square where a man is standing in front of a bunch of army tanks.
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| This is a picture taken in Tienanmen square during the protests of June 4th, 1989 and the Tienanmen square massacre. Notice the man in the white shirt standing in front of the tanks. It is a perfect representation of the day of June 4th, 1989. The protests were protesting communism and people wanted to progress towards democracy and liberty and social reform. A lot of protesters were students and eventually on June 4th the People's liberation Army came in and fired at protestors. |
Many people have told me before I left for China that I would be entering a really interesting place because it is still a Communist country. Yes in ways it is communist, but not really AT ALL. Please define communism because this is not communism. There may be restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of press, but China is moving more towards socialism and eventually our capitalist democratic society in America. So far what I have experienced here is a capitalist society. When I go into rural China I'm sure that's when I will experience less of a capitalist society.
My roommate told me that Chinese people do not know much about the massacre of June 4th, 1989. She said that it is definitely not in textbooks and it must have been shocking for her to see this picture as well. People here do not have Google or Facebook and one of the other roommates told us that you need to pay in order to get BBC.
There will be lots of pictures up tomorrow so keep posted!
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