中国很牛 und Deutschland auch

5 Months Post-Haerbin Update!

2009-11-02T22:07:00.000-08:00

Alright, so it has been five months and I'm back to being a grad student. I have decided to peace back together some of the loose ends from the summer (stories for your enjoyment that I didn't have a chance to include earlier). To start off, some things I am missing a lot and the Chinese wedding I was lucky enough to witness. I am clearly missing the great pickup soccer and basketball games after class and picking up on trash talk in Chinese. With classes and not much free time, this just isn't possible. Of course the Chinese population in D.C. is a bit on the sparse side...unless you go out to the real Chinatown of D.C., Rockville (or Wokville as some call it). When you are back for several months from any experience abroad, there are certain things you can't replace. From time to time I need to get out the old soccer jersey dedicated to our pickup soccer team formed this summer. It is probably the one item from the summer that brings back a lot of great memories from Haerbin. I'm also missing the amazing "Dongbei hua" or Northeast accent that I just can't get enough of. I admit it will always be second to "beijing hua" or the Beijing accent but it very much has its own special points. And then there are the great Chinese and American friends from the summer that I have had trouble keeping up with as expected. Life always has to get in the way and you just can't seem to revert back to the days when things were simpler and commitments fewer. As for Haerbin food, that also can't be matched back in the U.S., as well as the amazing fuwuyuaner (service women) that always had a smile on their face and were always eager to start a side conversation with the foreigners that could speak Chinese.

Okay, enough reminiscing from me this time and onto the wedding story. So, one day in class my professor asked out of the blue if we wanted to go to a wedding. Of course we all took her up on the offer and later that week were off to her husband's friend's wedding. Now of course we were the token foreigners at the wedding out of the hundred or so guests in the hotel ballroom. Each table naturally had a "lazy Susan" (side note: I still have never used this word to call the round, spinning thing at every banquet-style table. It just sounds like a strange word to me.) so I knew that food would be had. And food there was, and by food, I mean a LOT of it. I guess a wedding in China is a huge feast. There are some amazing pictures of the plates stacked in balance, one upon the other, in perfect symmetry. It really was a work of art. Along with the food, there were the double happiness cigarettes at each table a fish for prosperity (since it sounds like the Chinese word for wealth...the Chinese are so auspicious). But aside from food on the table and whatnot, I made some peculiar observations throughout the ceremony: people were dressed very casual. The occasion could have been for anything really if you were just looking at what people were wearing. Another thing that immediately caught my attention was people not paying attention at all to the proceedings. I knew that the ceremony would lack religious aspects of the traditional American wedding since they are officially atheist, but everyone could care less and only were interested in eating and talking to their friends supposedly. I guess it didn't help that the MC was emulating the persona of a dating show host auctioning off the girl for a one-off date. Between cheesy musical interludes, the MC detailed their life stories, how they met, who there parents were and their family history. Then it was off to thank the parents for raising them well and then it was over. The bride and groom went to each table drinking "baijiu" (alcohol that tastes like pure gasoline and is in fact almost pure alcohol). They evenutally came to our table, thanked us for being there and took a drink with us. The experience was interesting to say the least and left me asking questions about what marriage means in today's Chinese society. It is fascinating that the Western culture of "weddings" can be taken and warped around a uniquely Chinese culture. I feel like this could have more repercussions than I first considered.

*Be on the lookout for another Haerbin story next week!

The Neimenggu (Inner Mongolia) Experience

2009-06-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

For now check out a bunch of Harbin and Inner Mongolia pictures I just uploaded to my Flickr page (the first link in the links section). Later today I will finally get this blog post out of the way. Lots more on the way...

Well, that "later today" passed without a blog post...blame The Great Firewall for that. Somehow my Internet failed and did not save the post. SO I'll try to recap it here. Bright and early on Saturday morning we hopped on the night train from Harbin to Hailaer in Inner Mongolia. After a mostly sleepless night we were off to a Japanese War of Aggression Memorial, built on a former major Japanese base in the Manchuria region. You guessed it, this was not your typical museum, as most museums seem to be in China. This “memorial” had a battlefield with tanks and soldiers, actual bones of Japanese soldiers viewed through a see-through glass floor, a “magic carpet ride” tour through Inner Mongolia, a shooting range if you wanted to test out your favorite weapon, and the preserved Japanese tunnel complex deep underground. Expectedly the museum had a very anti-Japanese feel to it and detailed all of the terrible things the Japanese did to Chinese POWs. Later on we stopped by a traditional Inner Mongolia tourist attraction in the beautiful landscape of the Inner Mongolian grasslands. Just picture wild horses galloping around a never-ending plain, while cattle roam around boundless grass. After wondering around the countryside, riding horses (for the first time), and enjoying some real Inner Mongolian lamb, we stopped by a homestead right along the highway. The family there had an incredible set-up, getting most of their energy from a single windmill, which powered their TV and homemade satellite. Supposedly passersby donated most of what they had, as the mother and father’s children were off on their own in the city at this point. After busing 2-3 hours north to a border city, the distinct prevalence of Russian influence was everywhere. Even more so than Harbin, all signage was in Russian. The next day on the way to the border, our tour guide gave me a Mongolian name by the name of “ta la” or beautiful grassland. Not sure what that means but it sounds good to me. Stopping at a lake to relax and get lunch, we were able to ride ATVs and a dune buggy-like vehicle through a rocky, dried out lake…another first for the trip. At the border, the authorities were originally not going to let us up close to the border but finally relented. And I’m glad they did. From the arch of the Chinese side of the border, I spotted some Russian guards on patrol around the fence on the Russian side. Other than the nice views of Russia, other Chinese visitors wanted to get their picture taken with me and other people on the program…not surprising. Although I was thinking about at the time why they wanted pictures with us if they all thought we were Russians as everyone around Harbin thinks. Later in the day, it was off to another tourist trap, but an amazing tourist trap at that. Imagine a city of Russian babushka dolls…this is where we were. Hundreds of life-sized dolls of every great person in the world were there amazingly. Michael Jordan had grey skin with a moustache and pair of wings to give you a sense of the incredible display.

Coming up next: A Chinese wedding, Harbin, and campus living.

Harbin at the Heilongdaxue Post-Week One

2009-06-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

(Picture: Outside my dorm)

So it has been a bit over a week so far and much has happened as far as the program goes. First, the beginning of classes has come and gone. Our schedule is 8am-noon, and then 1-3pm or some days 1-5pm in the afternoon. It is intense, but I feel my Chinese getting better every day. This is in addition to the hours of homework we have every night to memorize how to write characters, memorize entire Chinese conversations, write sentences for new vocabulary, grammar work, etc. Other than the classwork, we are basically all on a 24/7 language pledge to only speak in Chinese. At this point I'm already starting to feel like I am losing my English so it doesn't make much sense to talk in English even though we only must speak in Chinese from 8am-8pm every day.

Well, I'll try to recap the non-class stuff so far. After we made it in to Harbin all of our "julis" (class helpers/Heilongjiang University students) met us along with our teachers. The students are all really nice and have helped me try to grasp the large campus that I'm now living on. With one of the julis we've started a regular soccer pickup session that tends to attract other Heida students. The other day we ended up playing a three on three game outside some tennis courts. Some key soccer terminology I've picked up so far is "dian qiu" (juggle a soccer ball), "pan qiu" (step-over). This week I made it over to the massive shopping complex across the street from campus, which is like the Beijing Silk Market without all the drama. Most of the complex is bargain-only, which my "juli" told our class before we headed over for our "zuoye" (homework)...buy misspelled English T-shirts. I ended up talking one of the vendors down from 49 kuai to about 25, which is decent. They were much harder to bargain with I think because less foreigners traverse that area. Other than the immediate campus area I've been able to explore the city a bit. We all took a day to go to Zhong Yang Jie, a street famous for its foreign origins but now is more or less a tourist attraction full of Russian goods stores hawking everything Russian. A person in my program ended up spotting a Russian doll painted with President Obama's oversize head. Upon asking the salesperson to open it up, there was Kim Jong Il's smiling face, followed by Sadaam Hussain and Ahmedinajad. It was truely an amazing find. That night we also found Harbin's big snack street with Chuaner of all kinds, lamb, beef, pork, tofu, squid, and more (meat on a stick, Chinese BBQ-style). Last weekend we quickly went by the main town square that still hosts the Sophia Church, originally built by the Russians a hundred years ago. It really does feel bizarre how Russian this city is. Everyone thinks I'm Russian because I'm white and foreign. I never thought that I would ever see Chinese speak to me in Russian before Chinese or English. I feel like I'm living in a dream world every day. A few days back though it hit me again that I am in China. It was a beautiful day so I decided to study outside in one of the green areas on campus. I spotted some recent college grads taking pictures at one of the prettiest parts of campus when I heard behind me in Chinese, "o na shi yi ge laowai, women yinggai zai zheer pai zhao" (Oh, there's a foreigner, we should take the picture right there). I was in the background of their grad shot of course studying away. Times like these bring me back to the reality of the wacky world of China.

Lost in China...and Proxy Found

2009-06-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

It has now been a little over a week since I got to China and much has happened that will require posts upon posts to catch up with. One reason you have not heard from me is due to the fact that proxies are a tough commodity these days. First you should go to check out some picture I posted recently here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22759391@N08/ (these are all from my phone since I had issues with plugging in my camera...those will be posted soon).

DAY 1.
Now I'll try to start with the arrival in Beijing. So after the 40 of us in the program got to Beijing after a 13 hour flight, which was only two hours in fact, we were all checked for swine flu by the government health officials with a hear seeking ray gun as found in the Jetsons. Little did we know, we would soon get to know this temperature gun very well over the next week or so. Each day we have been checked for our temperature to make sure we don't bring in another case of the swine flu. We were told to limit our interactions with Chinese students on the Heilongjiang campus once we got to Harbin and basically self-quarantine ourselves, but that started a few days later. In Beijing we stayed at Houhai, a pretty area right next to a bunch of hutongs (the famous Beijing alleyways where most people used to live) and a major bar district. So the first Beijing dinner we had was great...gongbao jiding (kung pao chicken), tieban niurou (beef in sizzling dish), a basi dish (candied floss...more like caramel sugar-like stuff covering fruit), and more. It really is great to eat real Chinese food again and makes me appreciate how much better it is than American Chinese food. At night, we had some China issues as usual. One was acquiring towels. So we asked for "maojin" which translates to washcloth and got a towel about a foot long. Then we had sink problems as it wouldn't drain and the fuwuyuanr (desk person) came over to fix it in no time at all. We didn't look too smart when we could not figure out how to push the drain in but it was our first day and all. Later that night one of the directors warned us of the danger of the "wenzi" (mosquitoes) if we kept our door open but there were none to be found. I think the Chinese have a phobia of the wenzi.

Day 2.
I woke up early to grab my first jianbing in years (literally). Ever since my program a few years ago in China I have had jianbing as my desktop background. They are that good. So a friend from the program and I found the nearest stand and discovered the word for the crunching thing that goes in the middle of the jianbing (which gives it the crunch): "bao cui" or crispy thin (cooking style) - this is what my dictionary told me at least. Still no idea what it is made out of. So then I was off on a mission to meet up with my good friend Charlie and Chengwei, a Chinese friend of mine. On the subway over to Wudaokou, I noticed a few differences right away. One was the Line 15 changes...no longer does a person have to walk a mile outside to make the transfer, but you still have to walk a mile doors on moving sidewalks. And the "fapiao" people are gone (those that asked for transfer receipts to hawk them off to their employers for a buck). The city instituted a new ticket system in the meantime, using electronic reusable cards that machines swallow at the final stop you make. Since I had some time to spare in Wudaokou I walked along the street to Beida to see my former home. I was shocked that it didn't change much in two years. Much was the same, save a few stores and restaurants here and there. Campus was the same old, great campus, except this time everyone had to show ID to get in, including Beida students. After hanging out at a lake on campus for a bit (including my first of many pictures with Chinese people) I headed over to our old favorite restaurant in the area, a Yunnan style place. The food was great, as was catching up with friends. After that it was time to check out the Bird's Nest (the Olympic Stadium) and the Water Cube (housing the swimming pool and other water events). I was blown away but how huge an area the central Olympics studiums take up. The space must be multiple times bigger than Tiananmen Square. I was wondering to myself how many people and businesses must have been displaced from the area for the massive construction project. After taking lots of pics and being asked to take my picture by Chinese people yet again (but this time with the Olympic Mascots!), it was time for Beijing Kaoya (Peking Duck) with the program. I'll say that it wasn't the best duck but still great! I did sure miss not being able to eat the Duck Heart, as it is by far the best part of the duck in my opinion.

Day 3.
The last day in BJ consisted of breakfast in rainy Beijing, the 798 modern art district, a Sichuan style lunch, US embassy visit, another visit to the Silk Market, and then Bill's BBQ. I'll always remember the guy from Bill's Texas BBQ, our last taste of the West before Haerbin. After we got settled at our table a waiter came over and said "Ni Howdy!" in a thick Beijing accent. It was one of the funniest things I have seen. Later in the night he only addressed us with "Howdy Partner." Ah China. Later that night it was time to go to our program base in Haerbin, at Heilongjiang University. After a long night train, we made it to Haerbin and were welcomed by all the staff and students that were to guide us through the summer.

So far the program has been a blast. Sure it is a lot of work and has been intense much of the time, but everyone is friendly and wants us to improve our Chinese. It's a great environment, if not bizarre one with all of the Russians everywhere. We'll just say that I've already been spoken to in Russian and been toasted to Stalin by the Harbin people. More to come soon...

One Week Away...

2009-05-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

In the past week I have been making all the final preparations for Harbin, but I'll get to that later. A few crazy experiences in Chinese restaurants are worth noting. The first in Delaware a few weeks back and the second in DC just a few days ago (see picture above).

So my parents took me out to an "authentic" Delawarean Chinese Restaurant and they told me that I should practice my Chinese by ordering for everyone. So I went ahead and did it (they even had 铁板牛肉! - sizzling beef in a skillet, or one of my favorite dishes at a place at Peking University called the Medicine House). In short, the waitress was really impressed by my Chinese (as all Chinese are when Westerners can speak some Mandarin) and she told me that she would come back later to talk in length. Eventually she came back to the table and invited me to live with her family in Shaoyang (west of Harbin but north of Beijing). She said that she was once a professor at a university there along with her husband. I could never figure out just how she ended up at a Chinese restaurant in Wilmington, Delaware of all places. The waitress said that I could make a lot of money teaching English and living with her family. Although this sounds crazy to meet someone and immediately be invited to their home, this is quite normal with Chinese people. When I was living and studying in Beijing, once you were able to penetrate the so-called "cultural wall of separation" people were extremely open, friendly, and welcoming. Despite this, I was still surprised that a Chinese restaurant waitress would invite me to live with their family thousands upon thousands of miles away. Well, maybe this guanxi (connection) could pay some dividends in the future. To make it in China you have to "pocket" this sort of guanxi and call on it when needed. Who knows? Haha.

The second recent experience at a Chinese restaurant was, of course, at 五月花 (The Mayflower). My friend Althea, who I was in China for four months with, gave me a call and said she wanted to grab some Chinese food. So all we could think of was the terrible, well maybe not so terrible, Chinese place in Tenleytown near AU. After we tried to order "off the menu" for dishes we used to get in Beijing, to some failure and some success, we went and sat down only to find the sign (picture above) on the wall next to us! Only 30 minutes to eat our food and leave. After laughing for a while we settled that it was indeed practical given the max capacity of 10 (if that). But then how many people do you ever see inside Mayflower?? Usually no one or maybe a few high school kids grabbing an after school snack. Ahh Chinese restaurants...it will sure be nice to have the real thing all the time with a whole lot more of a selection. Only five more days...

THE FINAL HARBIN COUNTDOWN

2009-05-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Here is the official final countdown clock to...Harbin (actually this countdown is really the exact time I should be landing in Beijing):

Countdown To Harbin

BACK! And it is almost time for Ha-er-bin

2009-05-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Alright, so today marks the first post to the blog in 2009. This is of course because I will be returning to China this summer (Harbin specifically) and need a place to record my thoughts and experiences for my friends and strangers (you) and for myself. Hopefully I will have some time to upload pictures and write here during the intensive immersion Chinese boot camp that I am about to embark on...in about three weeks time. Check out the new YouTube feed for all that you need to know about Harbin (or what YouTube would like you to know). There's also an air pollution monitor that I added to the site out of curiosity. Harbin is in the northern most province of China, Heilongjiang. More to come soon about what I'm thinking about Harbin, this summer, and the crazy experiences awaiting me. That's all for now. Please leave me comments and I'll get back to you (and follow my blog on the right side of the blog to get updates as soon as I post!)! The language pledge is only a few weeks away now...

Unearthing my Scholar Programm Portfolio

2008-10-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

After stumbling upon my Scholar Programm portfolio, I decided it was time to put them in a place where they cannot be lost to posterity. Later I will translate them when I have some time but for now here they are. In the next days and weeks I will recount some of the highlights from my München experience that I didn't get to in the last few months I was there. I'll also reflect on the reassimilation process that I am now experiencing.

30.April.2008

Als das Scholar Programm auf ihre erste Aktion gingen, war ich in Wegberg, eine kleine Stadt in der Nähe von Düsseldorf und Köln in Nordrhein-Westfalen, für den Christi Himmelfahrt Feiertag. Ich war da in Wegberg, um meine ehemalige Gastfamilie und andere Freunde zu sehen. Natürlich auch ein Grund für meine Reise war diese Ecke von Norddeutschland noch ein Mal zu erleben. Wegberg ist eine interessante Stadt sehr ähnlich wie meine Heimatstadt, Concord, New Hampshire. Es gibt circa 30,000 Menschen in Wegberg, ungefähr das gleiche Bevölkerung wie Concord, mit vielen von den Leuten in kleinen Dörfern außerhalb des Stadtzentrums. Die Stadt liegt direkt an der Grenze mit den Niederlanden und Concord ist nur Stunden Weg von Kanada. Also, noch eine Ähnlichkeit ist die Konservierung der Kultur. In Wegberg gibt es ein Flachmuseum, das die landwirtschaftliche Herkunft zeigt. Das Flachmuseum hat funktionierende Maschinen und Demonstrationen von dem Prozess des Flachs. In meiner Heimstadt haben wir auch ein Museum für die Concord Coach, ein Fahrwagen, dass half die Wirtschaft Concords im 19. Jahrhundert. Noch eine interessante Sache über Wegberg ist die alte funktionierende Windmühlen überall der Innenstadt. Sie sehen schön aus und geben noch Strom zu der Stadt. Ich finde es sehr nett, dass heutzutage in kleinen Dörfer Kultur noch konserviert könnte. Überall der Welt spielt Globalisierung eine zu große Rolle meiner Meinung nach. Wegberg ist eine kleine Hoffnung für mich, dass in der Zukunft ähnliche deutsche Städte und ausländische Städte weiter ihre Kultur festhalten können.

Translation: As the Scholar Program was on their first outing, I was in Wegberg, a small town in near Düsseldorf and Cologne in Nordrhein-Westfalen, for the Christi Himmelfahrt holiday. I was there in Wegberg in order to see my former host family and other friends. Naturally, another reason for visiting was to experience this corner of Northern Germany again. Wegberg is an interesting city, similar to my hometown, Concord, NH. There are about 30,000 people living in Wegberg, approximately the same population as Concord, with most of the people living in small areas outside the main town center. Wegberg is directly on the Dutch border while Concord is only a few hours away from Canada. Another similarity is the conservation of culture. In Wegberg there is a Flach Museum that displays the origins of the land economy. It has functioning machines and demonstrations of the process of the flach. In my hometown we have a museum for the Concord Coach, a car driven by horses, that helped Concord's economy in the 19th Century. Another interesting thing about Wegberg is the old functioning windmills all over the town center. They look good and provide more electricity to the town. I find it nice that in today's small towns culture can still be conserved. Throughout the world, globalization plays too great of a role. Wegberg is a small hope for me that in the future similar German towns and foreign towns can hold onto their culture.

20.May.2008

Am 20. Mai gingen wir ins Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, um das Tanzstück „Körpersprachen“ zu anschauen. Ich habe niemals richtiges professionelles Tanzen gesehen, so dieses Erlebnis war komplett neu für mich. Ich erwartete etwas ähnlich wie Ballett, weil ich das nur im Fernsehen erlebt habe. Zu meiner Überraschung war das Tanzen schnell und rasch mit allen Körperbewegungen möglich. Ich fühlte mich wie diese Aufführung aus der Zukunft kam und mein Job als Zuschauer war eine Interpretierung zu schaffen. Trotzdem fiel es mir sehr und die verschiedene Auswahl in den verschiedenen Stücken war besonders interessant für mich. Die Musik und Requisiten auf der Bühne formte mein Verständnis mehr als die Bewegungen des Körpers. Das Teil von „Körpersprachen“ mit den Ballonen dachte ich an Wolken im Himmel mit den ab und zu rapiden Bewegungen der Ballonen. Der Musikwahl von klassischer Musik im ersten Teil schien wie ihre Rolle war Irreal. Meine erste Eindruck war dieses Stück irgendwie eine betrunkene Szene zeigte, aber nicht im Realität. Die Bewegungen und Musik waren nicht parallel in meinem Kopf und vielleicht war das der geplante Zweck des Stücks. Das Gespräch nachher mit dem Tanzenleiter war ganz interessant, besonders war die Kenntnis, dass es keine Improvisation gab!

30.May. 2008

Am 30. Mai fuhren wir nach Murnau, um die Stadt, Kunst im Schloßmuseum und das Haus von berühmten Blauen Reiter Künstler (Kandinsky und Gabrielle Münter). Meine Eindrücke der Stadt waren wirklich gut, weil das Wetter nett war (nur für einige Stunde) und ich fühlte mich wie ich in einer künstlerischen altmodischen Stadt. Die Fassade der Gebäude auf der Hauptstraße war original renoviert. Als ich an die schöne Landschaft schaute, dachte ich, dass die großen Berge im Hintergrund von einem Künstler gemalt wurden. Auch war die Stimmung in der Innenstadt ziemlich gut. Ich habe bemerkt, dass die Menschen in Murnau ganz freundlich waren und genoss ihr wunderschönes kleines Dorf.
Also im Schlossmuseum Murnau gefällt mir das Teil von der blauen Reiter am besten. Besonders waren die Malereien von Murnau, wobei die expressionistischen Elemente am schönsten waren. Es war interessant für mich zu herausfinden, dass in Murnau gab es die meisten Nazis. Ich war total überrascht über diese Tatsache und besonders wieso viele Künstlern in Murnau wohnten. Die Geschichte über den Schriftsteller Ödön von Horvath in der Murnau Kneipe war sehr interessant, tatsächlich wie er mit den behauptet und dann später zog nach Wien um. Also, das Haus war richtig schön für die Blaue Reiter Künstlern. Obwohl wir nicht wandern könnten, waren meine Erfahrungen in Murnau klasse.

31.May.2008

Den 31. Mai war ein Tag, dass ich für fast eine Monat erwartete. Am diesen Tag war natürlich „Die Lange Nacht der Musik.“ Ab 20 Uhr bis 3 Uhr morgens gab es 400 Konzerte überall München für nur einen gesamten Eintritt. Mein erster Stopp war beim Hotel Prinzessin Elisabeth für „The Foundation.“ Sie spielten viele Funk und Soul Hits populär in Amerika und auch einige deutsche Lieder. Die Bühne war ganz klein für einen Band mit neun Musiker und Musikerin und deswegen war es ein viel besseres Erlebnis, da ich war ziemlich nah zu der Bühne. Es gaben ein Sänger, Sängerin, ein paar Saxophonen und Trompeten, ein Schlagzeug und Gitarren. Für mich war es wirklich spannend, weil Funk- und Soulmusik einige meine Lieblingsmusikstile sind. Also, der nächste Stopp war wieder in dem Sendlinger Tor Stadtviertel für „Fuckuall.“ Der komische Name und Beschreibung im Festbuch allein brachte mir und meine Freunde zu diesem Cafe. Es gab einfach ein DJ, aber auch eine Frau, die über die Musik sang. Es war ziemlich experimental, aber hatte mir trotzdem gern. Nächste war eine schnelle Fahrt mit der Party-Tram zu Gasteig für den Cello-Band von Jens. Auf die Party-Tram gab es ein brasilianischer Gitarrist sogar! Der Cello-Band war das Highlight meiner Musiknacht. Fünf Cellos spielten Coverversionen von berühmten Heavymetal Lieder und auch klassische Leider. Der Gegensatz dieses Bands war etwas, die ich vorher niemals erlebt.

4.June.2008

Am 4. Juni war die nächste Aktion mit dem Scholar Programm in BMW-Welt. Vor der Aktion freute ich sehr auf diese Aktion, weil ich neue Architektur und Technologie mag. Als ich in den Museum hinein gingen bin, habe ich sofort das Dach von drinnen bemerkt. Es war etwas, dass ich niemals im Leben sah. Man könnte durch das Dach ein bisschen hinein anschauen und die Klimaanlage und Heizung sehen. Das Dach war auch besonders, weil es so hin und her war. Keine zwei Teile des Daches hatten eine ähnliche Ecke. Es war wirklich eine Süßigkeit für meine Augen zu erleben.
Also, die Architekturfürung war völlig mit Tatsachen, dass ich mich nicht wirklich umfassen könnte. Das Gebäude kostete circa 500 Millionen Euro! Es war vielleicht zu groß für nur ein Museum nur für BMW, aber wenn man viel Geld hat, könnte man wie er willst ausgeben. Wie die Patricia sagte, ich war auch enttäuscht, dass BMW nicht ein Umweltfreundliches Gebäude in 2007 bauen könnte. Es gab Solarzelle auf das Dach, aber sie versorgten weniger als die Hälfte der Energie vom Gebäude. Wenn man viel Geld und lebt im 21. Jahrhundert, in dem nur die Schützung der Umwelt unsere Welt sparen könnte, BMW schafft ein riesiges Gebäude, das nicht umweltverträglich ist. Allerdings, war die super moderne Architektur das Highlight für mich.

22.June.2008

Weil ich das romantische Guitarrenmusik Konzert mit der Gruppe verpasste, versuchte ich ein ähnliches Konzert zu finden. Glücklicherweise am 22. Juni fand ich ein Konzert von einem klassischen Jazzgitarristen, Philipp Stauber, beim „Unterfahrt“, eine der beste Jazzklubs in München. Auf dem Programm sagte es, dass es ein „Jam Session“ sein würde, aber als ich an dem Jazzklub hinein kam, war es noch nicht ein „Jam Session“. Es gab ein Klavier, Schlagzeug, Bass und natürlich die Gitarre. Die Musiker waren schon Profis. Ich hörte keine Fehler und die Solos waren wahnsinnig gut. Der Philipp Stauber auf klassische Jazzgitarre erinnerte ich mich an amerikanische Surfgitarre. Vielleicht war es die Benutzung von Akkorde in einer Reihenfolge. Die meisten seiner Spielzeit hatte er seine Augen nicht auf; das zeigt einen guter Musiker mit einem Gefühl auf seinem Instrument.
Die Beziehungen zwischen die vier Musiker waren sehr gut, weil die Solos fehlerlos waren und die Gruppe immer in Kontrolle in der Jam Session war. Mehrere Musiker kamen von den Sitzplätzen auf der Bühne, aber sie waren trotzdem immer in der richtigen Zeit. Das Konzert lief ganz schnell vorbei, weil ich viele Spaß hatte. Es ist immer eine Freude für mich ein Live Konzert zu anschauen, wenn die Musiker komplett gut spielen. Es gibt eine Zauberhaft auf der Bühne und diese Abend fühlte ich mich diese Gefühl.

28.June.2008

Am 28. Juni fuhr ich mit einem Freund zum Deutschen Museum. Ich hörte von jemand, dass es das größte Museum für Technik und Naturwissenschaft in der Welt ist. Das war ein Grund für meine Lust auf diese Museum zu besichtigen und auch denn ich sah immer das Museum, als ich in dieser Stadtviertel war. Es ist wirklich ein riesiges Gebäude, das man von überall der Nähe sehen kann. Mit drei Obergeschosse und eine Erdgeschoss war es unmöglich für mich die Hälfe der Ausstellung zu anschauen. Zuerst gab es eine große Schiff Ausstellung, als wir die Türe eintraten. Alles Mögliches war dabei. Es gab alte Paddelboote, wahre Schiffe, Fotos von riesigen Kreuzfahrtschiffen und Information über die wirkliche Boottechnik. Es war ganz interessant zu lernen, wie eine Motorzimmer funktioniert und die verschiedene Teile von einem Boot. Später sah ich Flugzeugtechnik, Radar und andere Instrumententechnik und eben Drucktechnik. Ich fand es interessant, dass Zeitungen heutzutage wurden mit dem gleichen Prozess als vorher gedruckt. Heute ist die Technologie viel besser mit dem Computer und so weiter, aber beim Druck der Zeitungen ist nichts verändert. Noch etwas über das Museum zu erwähnen ist das Alter der Ausstellungen. Es sah wie es 20 Jahren alt war aus. Ist das schlecht für ein Technik und Naturwissenschaft Museum? Vielleicht. Meiner Meinung nach sollen alle Museen wichtige Technologie präservieren, aber auch ganz neue Sachen haben. Wenn die altmodische Museenstücke eine Reflexion auf die Gegenwart erregt, dann erreicht das Museum ihr Ziel.

4.July.2008

Am 4. Juli, der Tag der amerikanischen Unabhängigkeit, gab es Uni-Sommerfest 2008 im Hauptgebäude. Das Fest überraschte mir völlig. Ich erwartete nur einige Bühne mit Bands, aber auf dem Programm stand Bands, Swing Tanz, Komödie, Poetry Slam, Discos und mehr! Also zuerst schaute ich an eine brasilianische Trommelgruppe. Die Trommler waren perfekt im Takt, weil sie einen pfeifenden Trommelleiter hatten. Ich bin eine große Fan von brasilianischer Musik, so deshalb gefällte es mir sehr. Mein nächster Stopp war bei Poetry Slam und es war das Highlight meiner Nacht. Der Raum für Poetry Slam war überfüllt und war deswegen sehr heiß, aber ich vergaß gleich diese Unbequemlichkeiten, als die Poetry Slam begann. Die Themen waren nicht gleiche, sondern verschiedene Themen, die von dem Schriftsteller entschieden wurde. Der Wettbewerb war zwischen Schweizer Schriftsteller und Münchener Schriftsteller und es gab viele Runde, bis eine Seite gewann. Die Themen waren wirklich interessant für mich. Ein paar Beispiele sind die 68er (in Deutschland und Amerika) und eine Banane in einer schweizerischen Supermarkt. Die Emotionen in jedem Gespräch und die Gefühle in der Stimme gab die Leistungen eine besondere Meinung. Ich wurde gerne empfehlen Poetry Slam mindestens einmal im Leben persönlich zu erleben.

11.July.2008

Letzten Freitag am 11. Juli 2008 fuhren wir zu der Pasinger Fabrik, direkt an der S-Bahn, um Cosi Fan Tutte zu anschauen. Es war aufregend für mich, weil das meine erste Erfahrung in der Oper war. Und hier in München meine erste Oper zu erleben! Wahnsinn! Ich wusste, dass diese Oper ursprünglich auf Italienisch war, so ich überlegte mir eine italienischsprachige Oper. Zu meiner Überraschung war diese Oper auf Deutsch und Italienisch. Noch eine Überraschung war die „Oper Spielhaus“ sehr klein. Es sah aus wie es nicht ursprünglich für Opern gebaut wurde. Meine erste Eindruck war, dass die ganze Ton im Haus wurde schlecht sein. Glücklicherweise war der Ton super. Die Orchestra spielte wunderbar mit den Sängern auf die Bühne und ab und zu in der Mitte der Zuschauer. Obwohl ich nicht alle die Wörter verstehen könnte, verstand ich den wichtigsten Inhalt der Geschichte. Meiner Meinung nach wären andere Opern besser als diese Oper. Die Geschichte war für mich nicht so interessant, weil ich normalerweise Liebesgeschichte nicht gern habe. Trotzdem diese Oper hatte viele lustige Teile und war wirklich spannend. Nun muss ich zu anderen Opern im Amerika gehen. Es wäre auch interessant Opern in riesigen Staatsopern zu anschauen.

*** Translations of these entries: coming soon! Sorry these are coming 4 months late but it's always better late than never.

Warum München so porno ist (Why Munich is so awesome)

2008-05-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Yes the title of this post you are reading is real. Porno in the Umgangsprache (slang) these days means awesome. How do words such as these come about in language? I'm going to think about that question for a while. Well here goes the list for München moments (which incidentally I made for Beijing back on July 12th of last year. Again I will update this later in the semester:

1. The ridiculous amount of cafes - They are literally everywhere and filled from opening to closing. It makes you question if people actually work in this city. Leopoldstraße in Schwabing is a good place to go if you want to find a cafe as the sidewalks are barely wide enough for people to pass through. I think München is one of the few places in the world that has extra wide sidewalks so that cafes can set up on it.

2. Schick Haarschnitte (Stylish Haircuts) - Well I had first hand experience with this the other day when I got a hair cut. My hair was transformed for a moment into a jell-infused rock star. For some reason the guy cutting my hair would not let me tell him how to cut my hair. He went on about how it can only be this way to look good. Haha. Other than this first-hand experience, München is a pretty good place to go if you want to see some crazy haircuts. I have seen thus far anything from mohawks to spiked hair to everything else really.

3. Bier everywhere and anytime, including in the StuSta - Although this is true througout Germany, München takes it to another level. In the StuStadt there are bars in every building and everyday for one hour the Getränkverkauf (drink store) opens and sells kiste (crates) of bier. In the Innenstadt (downtown), all of the München Beers are represented and have there own Biergarten and restaurant. In the Englisher Garten there are at least 5, one about 10 minutes from the StuStadt. Otherwise, Biergärten are everywhere in the city, in every part.

4. FKK - Oh FKK. This acronym stands for Freie Körper Kultur or in Englisch something like Freeing Your Body Culture which really means loving to be naked all the time. This peculiar "kultur" is readily found in the English Garden. Yes people just walk around in the nude...it is a good thing that I haven't seen this yet (I guess I must be walking through the safe areas.)

5. Bayerisch! - Servus! Oh Bayerisch. This is an unintelligible dialect only spoken in Bayern. There is a reason why people say that Bayern is not really Germany! Haha. It is amazing that the German language can be spoken in such a crazy accent that people from northern Germany can't understand it. I certainly never will.

6. Echte Schallplatten Läden + Cool Music Venues - There are real record stores in München, some with lots of turntables in the middle of the store so that you can preview any record you like. I feel like you just can't find places like that in the US. And the music venues here in München are definitely above average. My favorite place so far is a place called "Die Registrateur" which is inside a huge building with lots of offices. The venue itself seems to be in a former conference room, but the stage is tiny and the atmosphere is great. Bands actually have to walk through the crowd to get to the stage.

7. Wearing around Tracht in Everyday Life - I'm sure you have seen the bayerische "tracht" before (traditional clothing), for example Lederhosen, Dirndls, and hunting gear. Common sense would say that tracht is just for holidays and tourists, but in reality they are not...tracht is worn all the time. I see people all the time in the English Garden walking around in Lederhosen and Dirndls, and the other day while I was walking on the U-Bahn platform I saw a man coming off the train dressed in a full hunter's uniform, complete with a long feather sticking out of his green hat. Also no ones stares at you if you happen to be wearing Tracht because it is so common.

8. Fleich + Auszogne + Viktualienmarkt (Meat+"Undressed pastries"+Victuals Market) - The Viktualienmarkt is the butcher mecca of München. Müncheners sure love there Fleich here and go to the market to find their favorite butcher shop. Then they can go and grab a Auszogne, which is a doughnut but more flat with less substance. The Auszognes can also be found at certain cafes and the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Pagoda). Although its touristy, the Viktualienmarkt that is, it's nice to walk around and take in the scene.

9. Teuer, Teuer, Teuer (Expensive x 3) - München is really really expensive. There's really no way around it with the Euro and all, but München is definitely one, if not the most expensive place in Germany. After a while, you start to think that certain things are cheap when you know that in the US it would be half the price. It's scary. But there are things to do here without spending money or very little, that would be relaxing in the Englischer Garten and going to museums on Sundays.

10. Fußball Fans on the U-Bahn (Soccer Fans) - I love Fußball Fans. My first day here I ran into a bunch on the U-Bahn and they were singing songs and throwing out insults of the other team's players.

11. Millions of restaurants that are always filled - Whenever you walk into a restaurant it is filled with people! And there are restaurants everywhere. So this logic doesn't make much sense or people just go out a lot.

12. Meeting people from Tunisia and Georgia - München is an international city. There are people here from South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, everywhere. And what allows us to communicate? German more often than not.

13. Super efficient transport system and Olympiapark - The U-Bahn and S-Bahn system in München is flawless. It is usually on time and the cars are always clean. They are also putting in more and more brand-new cars that actually automate the voice that says: Bitte zurück bleiben! (Please stay back!). That has to be the one thing missing from the new trains...the authenticity of the Münchener U-Bahn drivers talking in their thick Bayerisch accent. Sometimes they even greet you as you come on the train! Where else does that happen? One more thing to add here is the 2 Way Escalator! Yes, you read that correctly. The escalators go both ways depending on who reaches the escalator first. A motion sensor determines this.

14. Hearing old 80s songs in Kneipen that I almost forgot (more of Germany thing) paired with traditional bayerische Lieder - Most Kneipen (bars) love playing those classic bayerische Hits that everyone knows. Then they bust into Michael Jackson and everyone knows the lyrics...but then they don't know what they mean. What a shame.

15. Dogs can ride the U-Bahn without a leash - The dogs here are unbelievably tame. I see them all the time ride without making any noise. In the states, dogs would definitely misbehave. It would just have to happen that way.

16. XXXXL Me Please! (Everything is big here) - You start with 0.5 Liter beer in your neck of the woods? Here we start with 1.0 Liter. You start with a regular-sized pretzel? Here you start with a gigantic pretzel. It's just taken for granted that everything is super-sized here. München is definitely great for those with big appetites and someone who appreciates hearty portions of whatever they please. No food experience will be quite the same, or drinking experience for that matter.

17. Is China following me? The Chinese are everywhere! - After I arrived here, I noticed immidietely that there are a lot of Chinese people here! I was amazed to hear it on the U-Bahn, in the middle of the city and even in Studentenstadt. Definitely reassuring to know that I haven't lost much, since I can understand what is being said. Ha I guess I'm not losing everything I've learned!

18. Kultur, Kultur, Kultur (Culture x 3) - It's hard to live in München without noticing the crazy amounts of culture around you. For starters, big "Kultur Kultur" round announcement boards are all over the city. They are at every park, outside every subway stop. These boards are covered with posters announcing every cultural event in the city. I don't know what I'm going to do without them back home.

Catching Up On Blog Posts...Wie Immer

2008-05-08T16:07:00.001-07:00

But this time I mean it. There's so much to say and so little time but I am pledging to make a commitment to write here more often. I will get to my Wegberg trip (to see my friends and host family from my exchange program in high school) but for now I am going to write a bit about the Uni and my classes over here because that is after all why I am here (or perhaps Biergärten? haha, no that's not completely true). My two classes at the LMU are actually on the Englischer Garten, a beautiful park that spans from the northern part of the city (where I live in Studentenstadt) all the way to Marienplatz (where the famous Rathaus stands). My first class on Tuesday, "Transnational Networks and the Dynamics of Conflict Resolution", taught in English by a Greek professor, is one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken. It deals with illigitamate actors who get in the way of peace agreements and stall them for their own advantage (spoilers) and new states (countries) that have formed within recognized countries. A lot of the stuff we talk about is on the cutting-edge of the field that not a lot of people have written about. We also talk about criminal and terrorist networks and how they carry their operations underground. I have never studied anything about the topics brought up in the course so it's all fascinating. The other course is "Der politische Islam in Internationale Beziehungen" (The political islam in IR). It is in German but all of the texts are in Englisch except a few. It is challenging to translate the texts in my head into German, especially talking about IR theory in German but it is a good challenge and the professor is really accomadating. Well that is it for classes at the University. Other than my German class, I am taking a Modern German Literature class, in which we read a lot of modern poems and discuss them. My professor is an older gentleman with a white mustasche, who is a very traditional German professor and loves talking about poetry! He gets really into the poems that we discuss and makes the class interesting. Herr Kunisch types up class papers on his typewriter and then makes copies of them for us. It is refreshing to have a traditional, "old-school" professor for a change. And that is about it on the academic side (excluding German of course).

Next up: Wegberg!

The Week Long Trip to Austria and Slovenia

2008-04-26T01:00:00.001-07:00

So a few weeks back myself and 5 others from my program took part in the brand new Wien-Graz Seminar. The first part was led by one of the professors in our program who leads the JY Scholars program (leading cultural excursions through Munich, especially theatre). She was born in Wien (Vienna), so she knew the city inside and out. The first day we were there she took us around the city on essentially a walking tour. We passed through the museum district, saw the Kaiser Franz Josef's official residence and offices (of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and part of the Habsburg family). Then we walked by the towering Stephansdom (Stephan Cathedral) and looked around the architecture of the Innenstadt (Inner City). Later on we took a tour focused just on the architecture of Wien. I have to say Wien architecture blows München away. Walking around the Innenstadt every building seemed to have a different, unique style. The Jugendstil (Art-Neuvo) style was especially prominent throughout the city. The details around window frames and in small hidden courtyards were incredible. It was clear that Wien was a grand city back in the time of the Kaiser although it still is today. Another highlight of Wien was Schloss Schönbrunn, one of Wien's cultural relics. The rooms inside were decedant and full of minute details. One interesting story that I learned on the tour was about one painting of the kaiserly family with guests in the great hall. The painting included Mozart as a child, who stands out because he is the only child in the painting...but it turns out that Mozart was never there. The painter was ordered to include him because he became so famous and they wanted to make it up to Mozart. Another thing I found interesting there was all of the Chinese paintings. Apparently Elisabeth, Franz Josef's wife, loved Chinese art so they bought Chinese paintings on rice paper from China and brought them all the way to Austria. I guess it wasn't too much of a financial hit since they had the money. Other highlights of Wien were going into old-fashion cafes that seemed to have not changed since the turn of the century, finding a small brewery that had Chili Beer, having real Wiener Schnitzel (which lives up to its reputation and is the best Schnitzel in the world...although I only had it once and it was massive, going over the edges of a large-size plate), drinking "Apfelsaft gespritzt" instead of Apfelschorle, and saying the word "Beisl" instead of Kneipe. Wien was a lot of fun, and much more that what I had seen in a day years ago.

Next we were on our way to Fürstenfeld by way of Graz. The second part of the tour was led by our advisor HP Söder, who is pretty much the coolest guy in the world. So the time we had in Fürstenfeld/Graz/Maribor was a great time and much more than it looked on paper. We were the guinea pigs for going to Fürstenfeld because JYM was thinking of starting an intercultural program with an institute there. Fürstenfeld has a unique location, being on the eastern border of Austria, within driving distance of Hungary and Slovenia. It was a beautiful town, buried away in the Austrian countryside far away from any sort of tourists. One of the highlights of this part of the trip was definitely going to the Zotter chocolate factory in the Austrian countryside. Over the course of the tour we tried pure cocoa, pure chocolate, the entire range of chocolate from white to dark to 100% cocoa, chocolate covered nuts containing various flavors, flavors of chocolate mixed into hot milk such as curry and peppermint, and then finally the entire catalogue of chocolate offerings. Another highlight was going to a farm/winery that made the meat and cheese and all of the wine themselves. We had a great dinner consisting of platters of cheeses, various meats, and wine. Driving around the windy, hilly, roads around Fürstenfeld was also really enjoyable. The weather was beautiful and the landscape picturesque. Small towns in the distance surrounded by mountains and a magnificent castle towering over the edge of a cliff over the horizon. After spending a few days in Fürstenfeld I felt as though I could live out in the countryside for a while. Life just seemed so peaceful, without any worries or concerns about the world. Before we came back to München, we made a day trip to Graz, the third largest city in Austria. Graz was a really pretty city, reminding me of a smaller Wien, with the similar architectural style, and a feeling of a tightly nit community. We went up to the clock tower that looks down at the city and could see into Hungary and Slovenia. The flowers were starting to bloom and Spring definitely felt like it had finally arrived. For our last night in Fürstenfeld we all went to a Kneipe (bar) that had a biker band playing by the name of Aliens. Of course, HP, the student advisor of JYM, went out the night before to find out what was happening in town that night. In his words, "Oh my God! It's the Aliens! In Concert! AHHH!" (imagine this in a German accent). He really made the trip one to remember. Oh, so I guess I skipped over Slovenia (Maribor was the only city we went to there). It was interesting but the tour was not too great. You could immediately see the differences between Slovenia and Austria. Slovenia, only being part of the EU for a few years still felt as though it wasn't part of the EU. You could tell that their economy and especially tourism was just not up to par. A lot of buildings had not been rebuilt and it was clear that they are in a crossroads between past and future. The trip was a great end to my orientation period and I was able to see a lot that I otherwise would probably have never seen.

Blog Updates...Statt Posts

2008-04-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

So now you can see a bunch of pictures from Germany and my week long excursion through Austria and Slowenia (click the first link in the link section). I also put up a brand new YouTube bar featuring the best indie band in Deutschland: Tomte. Enjoy...lots of posts on the way in the coming days.

Auf Geht's Bayern Kämpfen Und Siegen!

2008-04-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

TSV 1860 München Cheers:

SECHSZIG (palms out over head facing the field), clap clap clap, SECHSZIG, clap clap clap (TRANSLATION: 60, 60)

Weiß Blau, Weiß Blau TSV! Weiß Blau, Weiß Blau TSV! (sung before the game to an epic song in order to get the crowd energized) (TRANSLATION: White, Blue, White Blue TSV)

Auf Geht's Löwen, Kämpfen und Siegen! (series of handclaps) Auf Geht's Löwen, Kämpfen und Siegen! (along with the shortened version which is just Auf Geht's Löwen, Auf Geht's! (to the rhythm and sound of the traditional DEFENSE cheer in basketball) (TRANSLATION: Let's Go Lions, Fight and Conquer)

***special for the game I watched...Dritte Liga, Jena ist Dabei! Dritte Liga, Jena ist Dabei! (Jena, the opponent was in 2nd to last place in the 2nd league, so the crowd was saying they should be in the 3rd league) (TRANSLATION: 3rd League, Jena is there!)

FC Bayern München Cheers:

Auf Geht's Bayern, Kämpfen und Siegen! (series of claps...) Auf Geht's Bayern, Kämpfen und Siegen! (Translation: Let's Go Bayern, Fight and Win...or Conquer)

BAYYYYYYEEEEERRRRN! (one side of stands) BAAAYYYYYEEERRRN (other side answers...this repeats for a while). This cheer caused shivers to jolt up my back. Imagine 60,000 people yelling all at once. Incredible.

STEH AUF WENN IHR BAYERN SEID! (Translation: Stand Up If You Are For Bayern) (yelled by the small and dedicated group of super-fans) Response: The entire crowd in the non-standing seats raises to its feet in unison and begins to clap faster and faster. At the same time the crowd sings "SHEH AUF WENN IHR BAYERN SEID!" Another goosebump moment that cannot be described unless one experiences this.

At some point I will make the appropriate Fußball post that this blog so deserves and needs. This is a taste for now since some of you out there in the Internets have said the posts aren't coming as soon as you would like. For your knowledge, I was gone for the past week in Austria and Slovenia on a trip before classes start this week. There is a lot to write about that trip so hopefully I will have some time in the next few days to write about it. Ciao from Bayern.

Abstecher ins Abenteuer und Döner

2008-03-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

That title translates to something like this: Walk on the Wild Side and Döner. Yes, Döner cannot be translated into Englisch. It is an inalienable part of German culture (yes, the Declaration of Independence just came to mind). I decided today that Döner is my favorite food in this world: a amazing combination of salat, lots of veggies, strange dressings, käse (cheese), and a kind of meat that is indescribable and varies from Döner-Shop to Döner-Shop. I have heard rumors that the meat is a hybrid of lamb and chicken, other places have said beef...all that really matters is that it is LECKER (tastes so so good). Usually the meat is placed at strategic places in the pita-like toasted bread, some on top and some at the bottom with all of the tasty goodness in the middle. Today, I had only my second Döner in my 2 weeks or so of being here in München thus far. And I decided that I have not had the proper amount of Döner one must eat if one lives here.

So lots of Abenteuer (adventure) happened this past week. After the mighty Eagles fell to Tennessee by a close margin (we were tied with 5 minutes left!) the adventures began. I have to say I'm proud of my school and my team for coming up so big and almost pulling off one of the greatest upsets in the history of the NCAA Tournament. Over the weekend I went out to Schloss Nymphenburg and had my first ever castle experience in Deutschland. This Schloss was gigantic, actually it is so big that it is a majority of the area of München by the same name. So I walked around with a friend for a few hours through the grounds, taking in the beautiful grounds. Later in the week, a friend and I went to see "Der Herr der Ringe" (the first Lord of the Rings film) with the entire Münchener Philharmonie and two choirs, the University Chor and a Children's Chor. But before we got in to the show, we had to get tickets. It was sold out, so we ended up writing a sign (Wir brauchen Karten...We need tickets!). Most people that walked past us and saw the sign laughed with their buddy and made jokes about it. It was definitely interesting to see people's reactions...I almost felt part of a pyschology experiment. About half of the concert-goers pointed out that people were selling tickets 5 feet away from us! Did they really think we didn't see people selling tickets?!? We needed 2 to go to the show, so 1 would not be good enough (which is what we told them). So one woman finally had 2 tickets she wanted to sell for a bit less than face value, but really far away from the stage. We decided to pass and see if we could get something better. Our luck seemed to fade away quickly when a couple rushed up to the woman and bought them off of her. I honestly thought it was the end and there was no hope left....until 5-10 minutes before show-time. A guy came up to us and offered his one ticket and we told him we needed two, but THEN one guy said he had 2 and they were great seats. We ended up getting them for less than half of the face value. These seats were dead center, one section back, just perfect seats. And the performance was beyond epic. I have never experienced anything like this and probably will not again. I had chills running down my spine for the whole film. I literally felt part of the movie and the music was really incredible. I had never sat down and listened to the LOTR soundtrack but in this setting I appreciated it so much more. The soloists were right on and the music matched and exceeded the epicness of an already epic film. All I can say is 2009 = The Two Towers in München.

The First Week+ in München

2008-03-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ahh it really is great to be back in Germany. And München has so far lived up to the hype of being the most liveable city in the world. The first week was a lot of work and a bunch of information thrown at us all at once but now I feel like I am beginning to settle in. When I landed in München and got through customs and such, my friend Allyson was there to pick me up. We went straight to the Studentenstadt where we would be living this semester. At first I was in a bit of shock to be back in Germany again. I was really excited but for some reason nerves were crawling around in my stomach. I guess all of the anticipation was just coming to a head after I got off the plane.

Well, the first week was busy to say the least. But to start it off, my friend from AU and I walked through the Englischer Garten. It is one of the largest urban parks in the world, and it was beautiful. The park extends from our dorms all the way to Marienplazt, where the Rathaus is. We walked along the Isar River, eating some apples, enjoying the great weather (all of the other days have been either cold and cloudy or cold and rainy/snowy). It was packed with tours around different parts of the city and the Studentenstadt. The first of the tours was led by the program advisor, Hans-Peter Söder (a great guy), who brought us through the "downtown" area around the famous Rathaus. He took us into small markets, the Viktualienmarkt, which is an open pedestrian-only area that has lots of stalls, and lots of random places. The next day we went through the process of obtaining a permit to live in München (Anmeldung auf Deutsch) and filled out lots of paperwork for a variety of things. We learned about how to pick out classes and apply. In the early part of the week we went on a tour of the StuStadt by a student at the Uni. We all didn't understand much of what he said with a thick Bayrisch accent and lots of local slang. I guess I did learn a bit better about the services in our little town. The big news of the first few days I was in München was American University making the NCAA Tournament! I listened to the game with my friend from AU and we were both amazed this was the year we finally did it.

Over the weekend my friend Pete from high school came to visit with a friend from his school (they were traveling through Europe after a program in the Middle East). They came on the day of the big St. Patty's Day Parade and Celebration, which incidentely came on the day before the real St. Patty's Day for some reason. Anyway, it was a great time, complete with Irish bands and dance troupes. Odeonsplatz was packed with people and beer tents. We met some Germans there and went with them to an Irish pub later on. It was quite the day. They stayed for a few days so we went out a few times for dinner and hung out a bit. It was nice having company the first week or so, even though it was a bit stressful. I had not seen him for a while so it was great to see him again, especially in München. Earlier this week we went on a tour of the University and saw the Weiße Rose Memorial Museum inside the main building of the University. It was incredible to think that we were in the same building where one of the biggest student uprisings against the Nazi regime took place. Other than all of the homework and projects over this past week, we also had a night tour of München that was great. Our guide, Michael, told us of the history of München as a small village and then the boom it saw when salt was found in large quantities. We saw the residence of Ludwig I and a few churches along the way but it was mainly about the hip clubs and bars around the area. He showed us lots of great, cheap restaurants and other neat places. One place was a bar that only was lit by red light and had rows of fans running on the far wall. I guess it was used as a public bathing place in the old days. Haha. He also brought us to one of the most expensive hotels in München and we went to the rooftop which gave us a great view of the city by night. Well, this Easter weekend a friend and I tried to find some of the places on the tour and we were not too successful. The roads are all so similar and really confusing to navigate. Oh well, it was an adventure at least and we ended up having a good night after all. The rest of the weekend was a bunch of relaxing, seeing the AU NCAA tournament game and going to the Zoo (where we thought there was a big easter egg hunt but it turned out to be inside a small hut).

So the first week has been great so far! There have been a lot of adjustments, such as buying groceries and cooking (in China I didn't need to do any of this), getting to know the people in my program, and settling into the Studentenstadt. My German is improving every day and I'm confident I will be ready for when classes start.

Somewhere Over the Atlantic in Seat 31C

2008-03-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

So here I am, as the great duo Simon and Garfunkel once said in a song called “The Only Living Boy in New York”. There are about 10 more hours until I arrive in München, but I will first be stopping in London for a long layover. Well, all my stuff ended up fitting in two compact bags and I should have everything I need. So this entry is about expectations and my general thoughts going into my program in München.
1. Food and Drink– namely Döner (a Turkish Gyro-type sandwich), Knappers (a German snack with a waffle outer layer and chocolate inner layer), Wurst, Schnitzel, Brotchen (German bread that is best for breakfast with various cold cuts on top), the great street food, Bier, Apfelschorle (think sparkling apple juice), and fresh milk. Also you can add pretty much every food and drink to this list. To put it simply, German food is the best and there are no arguments against that.
2. Speaking German everyday and improving my German – This is something that I have missed for some time. In China I could not practice my German with other people, excluding some rare instances (to be expected). Now I will be in Germany for the longest stretch of time yet, so I expect to improve my German a lot. Taking all of my classes in German will help toward this end and being with other students who are motivated to improve their own German.
3. Living in München – This will be great because I have thought of perhaps living in Germany in the future. I almost positive almost 5 months living in München will do nothing to dampen this dream of mine. I hope to explore southern Germany, as I have not been there before, excluding München. I guess München will be alright, it was just named the most livable city in the world for the second year in a row.
4. Meeting other Germans and reconnecting with past friends – I still keep in touch with my friends from GAPP (German American Partnership Program), an exchange program in high school, so I hope to see them during my time in Germany. I definitely want to visit my host family again and see how they are doing. At the Uni I want to meet as many people as I can and hang out with Germans. This is the way I can improve my German a lot and Germans are just cool.
5. Not looking forward to the Euro – At this point the Euro is at an all-time high against the dollar, $1.537 = 1 Euro right now. So this will be a harsh reality after the past six months I spent in China where everything was so cheap. I hope to limit expenses where I can and not buy/eat out too much.
6. Looking forward to a Semester full of challenges and adventures – This semester is going to be difficult. I knew that when I decided on this program. Most likely, all of my classes will be in German and I will be taking regular Uni classes with other Germans. The language program is challenging, as I have heard and will push me to improve my German quickly. This semester will be one of adventure as well. I will undoubtedly be going on lots of adventures in Bavaria and having many new experiences. This is the fun part really. Every day will be an experience and challenge me to do things I have never done before. And that is why I am excited most about this Semester.
One other thing before I get some sleep before we land…the Brits use strange words and seem to not like Scotland too much if British Airways is any indicatation.

Countdown to München

2008-03-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Countdown To München

The Voyage (Part 3)

2008-03-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

Day 9: From Chengdu to Yangshuo

Although I was running on fumes from the flight from Tibet, I did manage to stay awake for enough time to see the incredible landscape outside the windows of our bus. It really looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Giant hills/mountains rising out of the ground everywhere in magnificent fashion. It was a sight that I was completely unlike anything I have seen before. In the afternoon, after we arrived, I walked around town and next to the Li River. The surroundings were gorgeous. This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, be it on TV, in the media, or in film. Words can't really describe the beauty of Yangshuo. The weather was Florida-esce in December and the scenery was out of a beautiful Chinese landscape painting. I couldn't ask for more. But there was more. As I strolled alongside the Li River I spotted rafts in the distance and wild horses running in the grass on the water's edge. Everything seemed to be in slow motion after living in Beijing for so long.

Day 10: Another Biking Adventure

In the morning, we all took a raft trip down the Li River. The trip was nice and relaxing, and the beauty of the area was really accentuated through riding along the river. Hills towered all around us as we slowly drifted along. Later on in the day, a few friends and I decided to rent some bikes and go on an adventure in the countryside. We rented really nice mountain bikes for a dollar or two for the day. These bikes were incredible to ride out in the countryside...we were all used to the crappy Beijing bikes that broke every time we rode them. Now we were speeding along the one-lane highway in the Yangshuo countryside with crop fields and giant hills all around us. We passed lots of farmers and one such farmer (most likely con-artist which we would say in the US but just another sly businesswoman) told us that she could take us to the "Assembling Dragon Caves", where we wanted to go to. So we let her lead us, and then the adventure really started. We ended up going into this town past where we wanted to go and our teacher, Xiao Laoshi, had his tire go on him. So we eventually found a biker (of the motorcycle type) who took Xiao back to Yangshuo with the bike attached to the back. It was pretty hilarious seeing our teacher with a little kiddy helmet riding on the back of a biker's back. We pressed on and Xiao came along to see the caves. The "Assembling Dragon Caves" was more of a marvel at modern Chinese tourism than anything else. The cave consisted of hundreds of neon lights creating a sort of psychedelic experience. Haha and that is not far from the truth. There was more electricity inside the caves than in the hostel in Yangshuo. Our "tour" also included two boat rides along the "canals" inside the caves. I have never heard of canals in caves, but it was humoress nonetheless. Most of the tour tried to create symbolic meaning out of the stalagtites. It was an incredible experience and worth everyone's ten dollars.

Day 11: On top of the hill

Some of our group did what I hoped to do ever since we arrived in Yangshuo, which was hiking one of the hundreds of "hills". We did that and had an amazing view from the top. As far as the eye could see it was hills and more hills, with farmland and small villages far below. Earlier in the day, a small group of us went to the area pictured on the back of the 50 kuai bill, which was much like the views from all over Yangshuo.

Day 12-end

The end of the trip was in Wuhan, of Hubei Province, which wasn't all that exciting. We went to a lecture on the current state of China's economy, but the lecturer did not have the best English. We did find a solid snack street with some tasty yangrou chuanr and mantou chuanr (lamb on a stick and bread on a stick). That chuanr is something I will always miss about China and the friendly chuanr workers who always strike up a great conversation.

The Journey (Part 2)

2008-03-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

Day 4 (continued)

So, after lots of waiting we finally boarded the train for Tibet. We were told the trip was going to last about 28 hours in all. In other words, we were ready to embark on a marathon journey on the highest elevated train in the world. The train to Lhasa, the largest city in Tibet and religious capital, was actually the nicest I encountered in my travels around China. Perhaps it was the simple fact that it was constructed in the past few years, thus everything was clean and new. The train actually had power outlets, which made everyone happy, as they could watch all of their bootleg movies and catch up on blog entries (I needed to do this pretty desperately). Another amazing thing about this train was the BATHROOMS. They were relatively clean compared to other trains where you would not dare enter. However everything inside the train was overshadowed by what was outside. The landscape was from another world, probably most reminiscent of the moon. I will probably see nothing that compares with the sheer beauty I experienced on that train. At points along the way the land became as flat as desert plains with paper mache mountains towering over us in the distance. At other times along the journey the landscape morphed into a lunar surface. Craters filled the landscape outside our train windows. Some of my friends told me that later on the train ride they saw the highest freshwater lake in the world. From the pictures they took of it, it was an incredible sight. Through the night our train covered the greatest incline in elevation, so everyone’s body naturally adjusted to the elevation.

Day 5

The next night we made it into Lhasa, at around 9:30pm (China only has one time zone even though it covers about the entire width of Europe). As we got onto our buses to get to the hotel, our tour guide put a white cloth around our necks, which is a symbol of welcoming and good luck in Tibetan culture.

Day 6

We all woke up early to go to the Potala Palace, the Dali Lama’s Winter Palace (when he was still allowed to freely live in Tibet). The Palace is elevated on the side of large hill overlooking all of Lhasa. It really is an incredible sight…check out my pictures of it in the links section where I link to all of my pictures. It is amazing that this Palace has stood for centuries and looks the way it does today. The Potala Palace was used as a governmental and religious center and continues to be used this way today. It is especially a place for Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims to visit. Some travel hundreds of miles, cowtowing by foot to get here. When we approached the Palace hundreds of pilgrams were cowtowing around it and spinning a wheel filed with religious scripture. Inside the Palace we saw the many rooms where past Dali Lama’s have used to pray and lots of Buddhas that were used for different purposes. We also were able to see the sarcophaguses of past Buddhas, which were covered in gold and money. The people of Tibet donated a lot of money for the burials of the past Buddhas. After the visit, I went with a few people to a traditional Tibetan restaurant. At the restaurant we had some delicious Yak Butter Tea along with other traditional fare such as food that had some sort of Yak product in it. Let me just tell you Tibetan food does not mix well with the Western taste. I did hear that the Yak burgers were tasty though. After lunch I walked around the bazaar surrounding the most important temple for Tibetan Buddhists. Everything and anything you can imagine was selling in this bazaar. Most of stuff for sale at the hundreds of stalls spread out over a wide area mostly around this temple and consisted of traditional Tibetan crafts and Buddhist souvenirs for the most part. Bargaining here was difficult since no one really spoke Chinese (Mandarin) or English. Somehow I was able to get across what I wanted in Chinese although most people had no idea what I was saying. Haha. Well after the bazaar experience a few friends and I decided to go into the temple although it had a steep 100-150 kuai fee. It turned out that I was really glad I decided to go! Inside were some of the most sacred relics of Tibetan Buddhism and we witnessed a ceremony that none of us will soon forget. We later discovered (with a little help from our tour guide) that the ceremony we saw was one in which people would pay to repaint and change the clothes of the Buddhas for the purpose of raising money. A procession of monks chanted prayers during the ceremony and we just looked on in awe. Later we went to roof of the temple and were able to see all of Lhasa, including the Potala Palace in the distance. At night we had a group dinner at a traditional Tibetan restaurant and watched traditional performances, including one that featured a yak composed of 2-3 people that proceeded to devour most of the people in the restaurant. Oh that meal involved a contest at our table of who could drink the most Yak Butter Tea. Yes, it was that bad. That night was a lot of wondering around the area, which turned into a ghost town excluding some kids playing soccer in the streets and pickup billiards games emerging from closed shop fronts. There were pool tables everywhere! And small pool halls that didn’t exist during the day suddenly emerged all around us. That night we stopped by a bar to try Tibetan beer (which turned out to be ridiculously strong since we were so high in elevation and our bodies weren’t yet adjusted) and I found a small CD shop to buy a few Tibetan records. The one I bought featured a man on the cover holding a guitar over his shoulder in front of the Potola Palace. Incredible.

Day 7

On the final morning in Lhasa I bargained for some last minute gifts and the grabbed lunch at a restaurant where one of the Dali Lamas famously stopped at to have a drink and met his lover at (which was a big controversy at the time as a Dali Lama is not supposed to do this sort of thing). In the afternoon we were off to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, known for its spicy food. But before we arrived we had to fly there. In the airport in Lhasa, some passengers were ready to board when suddenly they announced the flight was cancelled for some reason. I really thought a brawl was going to break out. Angry passengers were screaming at the airlines personnel and a huge crowd formed around them (This always happens when some sort of altercation takes place in China. Everyone forms a circle around the situation and start to take pictures/video and stare.). On the plane, we had a couple sitting near us that must have had a lot of phlegm in their throats because they were spitting on the floor of the plane. I thought it was hilarious while everyone else was disgusted by it. It was amazing to me that Chinese people will really spit anywhere. I had thought that this was limited to land environments but I was proved wrong yet again. I should have known by now that if you need to do your business, you do it no matter where you are. Hahaha. Well, we finally did make it to Chengdu and had a great dinner that featured about 20 different kinds of jiaozi (dumplings). It was one of the best dinners I had during my time in China. Then it was out on the town to a street called Jieli Jie. Oh by the way, close to our hotel was a giant statue of Mao that must have been fifty feet tall. Anyway, Jieli Jie was pretty neat because it was made to look like it was from the 3 Kingdoms period but actually was really new. That night we met a Chinese kid who was in a freestyle rap competition and was obsessed with American rap music. I told him that if he ever came to the US I would DJ for him and make him famous. I think he believed me.

Day 8: Pandas and more Pandas

Today we took a trip to the Panda Research Center. What did we see? You guessed it, lots and lots of pandas. I learned that there are red pandas that are much smaller than the pandas we think of and look really similar to raccoons. After seeing the pandas we went to a shrine in honor of three famous brothers in the Three Kingdoms period. The grounds were well kept and nicely restored. Later on we went to a different part of town to find a teahouse. At the teahouse we rented out a room with a TV (I have no clue why we did this) and watched The Monkey King, a famous Chinese TV show that is about the famous Monkey King legend. As with most Chinese TV shows the plot was absurd, as were the shots and camera effects. Luckily our professors found the show to be funny as well. Then we wondered outside (at night now) and came upon a stage with performers of all ages. One featured a few girls on roller skates doing tricks all while balancing on a small round platform. We then went out to dinner with Xiao Laoshi and had one of the best meals yet. I forget what we had that night but we talked about that meal for a long time afterwards. That dinner featured the famous “Talking Behind the Fuwuyuanrs Back Conversation” that was recorded by Xiao Laoshi. Even later that night, I witnessed a Chinese man play a basketball shootaround game for over 5 minutes and score over 500 points, while my best was around 100. I have to this day not seen a human being shoot a basketball as quick and accurately as that man on this day in Chengdu, China.

***Part 3, the final and last part of the journey around China is on the way.

And now we come to the Epic Trip Around China (Part 1)

2008-03-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

Finally, months after the actual trip took place I have a chance to put this trip on record. This is most definitely a concise version of what I wanted to write, but I will add to this later. For now I want to write basically what happened and what I was able to see in only a few weeks time. Before I leave for Germany, I'll post on expectations, worries, excitement and all the thoughts that come to mind before leaving the US for an extended period of time. For now, we'll go back in time to the Epic Adventure that was our end-of-program-trip.

Day 1: We started the journey with a night train to Xi'an, home of the Terracotta Warriors (Bing Ma Yong). After not a lot of sleep we arrived in Xi'an, checked into our hotel, grabbed breakfast in the hotel and then we were off to see the T. Warriors. After all of the buildup and seeing lots of pictures of them before actually seeing the real deal, I was not as amazed as I probably would have been. Still it was an incredible sight, if only because the area was so huge. Imagine giant warehouses filled with formations of warriors individually, uniquely crafted. The lunch on the grounds was yang rou with man tou which is a speciallty of the region. It was just right for the windy, chilly, raw day. Next we had some free time in the afternoon so I ended up exploring the Muslim Quarter with Andrew and we ended up running into a man who spent a lot of time in the US. He actually knew more about US culture than we did (I don't know how this was possible, but he did). So this worker at his little shop brought us to his studio to show his artwork and other students in his class. Later in the day we had a group dinner, which turned out to be another banquet since we were traveling with such a huge group, around 72 kids in addition to the office staff. After dinner, we explored the Muslim Quarter in greater detail, eating lots of chanr along the way (meat cooked on a stick) and other muslim specialties of the region like a piece of mantou doused in lots of sesame seeds and sugar-like stuff that made it really sweet. I also picked up a Jianzi that night (a Chinese hacky-sack that implements five or so multicolored feathers and tin to give the hacky-sack some sort of "substance". The street food in Xi'an was incredible (actually it was great everywhere really because in the US we don't really have "street food" per se and this street food was QUALITY).

Day 2: Waking up early, morning flight to Xining, which was the pit stop for Tibet (ie. If you can adjust to the altitude increase you go to Tibet, if not then you go ahead to Chengdu, as some in our group were forced to do). Our first day there was spent going to a mosque and hiking up Nanshan to a Daoist Temple. The temple was on the side of a mountain and really was an incredible scene. We could see all of Xining (mainly an industrial town, not that pretty) under us and lots of mountains in the distance. At night we spent some time at the big night snack/market in Xining that had lots of wild stuff. Ok, right now think of the wildest piece of meat that can be cooked and fried on a stick. What you are thinking of WAS at this snack street. The scene was incredible. Smoke billowing up into the air around us while the vendors stare at our small group, the vendors throwing in nuts into huge pots feet deep, fifty sticks with lamp skewered upon them over hot coals perpetually burning. The lamp chanr was definitley the best I had had up to that day.

Day 3: After a group breakfast we were off to the Tibetan monastery which was an eye opening experience...seeing so many Chinese minority groups and religious people that were not to be found in Beijing...but more on that later in Tibet since this was a Tibetan Buddhist Monestary. Later on we had a lecture fom a Tibetan professor at Xining U. Everyone was so tired from the day, most took a nap during this time although he was fairely captivating, providing an intro to Tibetan culture and the like. After the lecture, we were off to Tibet! To the train station! For a 24 hour+ ride on the highest train in the world!

Day 4: In the train station we saw lots of minority groups carying satchels of stuff and Buddhist monks waiting for the moment the train would board. While we were waiting around, we heard English from a foreignor at of nowhere. It was one of the most unexpected occurances in a place so far removed from the Western world. A man probably in his late 20s practically yelled at us, "I HAVEN'T SEEN WHITE PEOPLE IN OVER A YEAR! WHO ARE YOU GUYS AND WHY ARE YOU HERE!?!?" Wow. We all cracked up when he told us this. Other then our group, I and some of my friends from the summer had not seen too many white people for 6 months. We could understand where this man was coming from. It is truely hard to imagine what it is like to be the minority group until you step out of your comfort zone into a country exclusively populated by a different race. The man seemed so relieved to find someone who looked like him and could relate to his life. We understood what this man was thinking. It is not easy assimilating with a completely different culture for an extended period of time.

The Weekend Before the 2.5 Week Trip (cont.)

2008-03-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

The same day as the Underground City my pengyou men (friends) and I took a trip to Tiananmen Square, where we decided to try to visit some of the museums in the area. It turned out most were closed since we left later in the afternoon, so we went over to the People's Congress. This of course is where the CCP meets to implement laws and such for the party. It appeared that tourists like us (albeit Chinese ones, which I didn't notice at the time because when you are in China for a while you begin to forget that you look different from everyone else) were strolling into the Soviet-style architectural building with no trouble whatsoever. We took this sign as a green light to walk right in and see the inside of the mammoth building in front of us. There was a small, one foot high white fence around the entrance but we decided to ignore it and walk up to the steps. After walking past the parked cars inside the compound and passing lots of tourists without getting any stranger than normal looks (which are stares but not prolonged stares I have to say), we made it to the entrance. At this point, our friend Xiaomai (who is an American) was drinking tea and had to finish it, we were told by the friendly baoan (security guard). After he finished the tea, our baoan asked us if we were on the LIST. We told him (in Chinese of course) we had no idea there was a list. Uhh Ohh. This meant lots of mafan (TROUBLE). He got on his walkie-talkie and talked to his superiors. Now he started to lead us back to the entrance! He said that there was no way we could have made it to the doors without a permit of some kind. The head security guard then started the questioning. "How did you get to the doors? Did you pass this guard here by the opening of the gate or did you jump over the fence?!?" Our answer: "Of course we went through the opening and saw the guard right there. We didn't jump the fence. No, we didn't jump the fence." We said this of course to cover our backs because we had no idea what would happen if we said otherwise. The guard: "Did you fly over the fence then? Hahahahaha." We didn't think this was too funny although we were probably laughing inside. Our response: "No, no we didn't." After a long pause, he told us to run along and we said that we were sorry if we had done anything wrong (We honestly did not know we had done anything wrong before the baoan went on his walkie. There were no signs anywhere! How were we supposed to know?). So we walked quickly out of the entrance and went back to Beida. After the security guard told us to run along, I did spot security guards in both of the "entrances". Somehow when we walked over the short fence, there were no guards in sight and no one told us to stop what we were doing. Well, the rest of the weekend did not exceed the drama that we experienced at Tiananamen Square that day. In a few days, though, we would embark on an epic journey through the mountains and plains of China.

Before the 2.5 Week Adventure Around China

2008-02-05T15:13:00.000-08:00

This blog post is much delayed but here it goes anyway. Before I get started, note all the changes. Lots of things are added to this here blog and as you can see, I'm preparing for München. Actually I only have a little over a week left...March 11th is the day. I'll get to all of that later but here is the China wrap-up. Very long overdue. Again, please keep your faith in me. I promise to update this more frequently than I did in China. Haha, thanks readers/friends. Oh and let me know if you have any suggestions of what I should add or what you would like to see in this space I have.

On the day before the end of the semester trip, some of my friends and I trekked across Beijing to find the Underground City built by Mao in the 60s/70s in case of a nuclear attack. Approximitely 40% of Beijingers were estimated to fit inside the Underground City upon its completion. Actually, underneath Beijing an exact replica of Tiananmen Square exists, but it was closed off to us as we later learned. After walking around the Hutongs (alleyways where most Beijingers traditionally live) and getting a bit lost we came upon the entrance to the Underground City which was faded and difficult to tell where the entrance was. After we paid the overpriced 25 kuai entrance fee. Man, 25 kuai is over 3 whole dollars! Ha, well, 25 kuai goes a long way in Zhongguo. So my first impression of the City was "this is a huge propoganda campaign". Plastered on the walls were tanks, RVs, fighter jets, past leaders, and more military portraits. However, all of these pictures were in terrible condition...blotches galore, faded corners, and even holes ripped through the center. THEN, we came upon what seemed to be wax manakins dressed up in revolutionary clothing. Let me tell you, we were scared for our lives! These were not just normal manakins, they appeared everywhere. In areas of the Underground City that were not lit, these manakins came out of nowhere. Other than the manakins, revolutionary pictures hanging in frames everywhere, water dripping on us from the many leaks in the City that had obviously not been repaired for ages, one aspect of the City definitely showed us that we were still in the year 2007. At the end of the long maze of strangely shaped hallways, we entered......a SILK SHOP. And Chinese people were taking tours of the City and then buying lots of silk at the end of the tour! How did I not consider this "tourist attraction" as not another "tourist trap"? I should have known.

(To be continued...)

Looking Back at Some Semester Happenings

2008-01-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

Well here we are. It is already January 6th, 2008, a solid two weeks since I have returned to the USA. For a few weeks now I have done nothing much, but listing to "Tommy" by the Who at this moment has somehow changed my thoughts. I am now ready to write about some things I skipped over this Semester and the epic voyage/end of the year trip. Alright, here we go:

I'll start off with 中秋节(Zhongqiu jie or the Mid-Autumn Festival). The Mid-Autumn Festival is a holiday that involves the whole family going out under the moon, eating moon cakes, and celebrating the end of the summer harvest season. Leading up to 中秋节 moon cakes started turning up in the grocery store on campus and shops starting selling them. Moon cakes are not just made in one variety; there are actually lots of variations and in different areas of Southeast Asia you can find different kinds. A moon cake, or at least the ones that I had, had the substance of a small cake with a unique filling. The week of the Festival my Arts and Culture professor gave us a bunch of varieties to try out. I tried one that had Peking Duck inside it, another with a big egg inside. Our program went to 圆明园 (Yuan Ming Gardens) close to Beida to see a lantern show and eat moon cakes under the stars and bright moon. Walking around lakes and gardens, we saw lots of families walking around the area gazing at the large lantern displays. Some were huge sprawling scenes depicting old tales and myths. The pathways throughout the park were lined with endless rows of lanterns. Interspersed along the paths were rows of red lanterns coming at us as we walked forward. Lanterns were everywhere. It was a pretty incredible sight.

Later on in the Semester Charlie and I went along with 绿色生命 (Green Life) to the Natural History Museum. There were about 8 kids from the club that came and we were the only two foreigners. They weren't too chatty so we didn't talk too much. It was still an interesting trip though. The museum looked as if it hadn't been touched in three decades. The exhibitions were sorely in need of renovation. In the reptile exhibit we spotted a boy of about 5 years old giving a tour to a group of people. I think he was being fed the information about the plants and animals through a hidden microphone. It was ridiculous how many facts he knew about the exhibit. Anyway, the real highlight of the museum had to be the Human Body Exhibit. As we walked in we were greeted with various body parts pickled in jars. It was rather disturbing but had a sort of comedic effect at the same time. Later on we saw a head split in two parts filled with phamaldahide. Later on we saw fetuses pickled in jars and entire bodies stuffed into glass containers. One particularly disturbing one was a man with a burlap bag over his head. Needless to say I had nightmares for days after this sighting. I had second thoughts on whether I should have exposed myself to such a terrible thing.

Another thing I forgot to write about is the karaoke (or Ka-La-OK as the Chinese pronounce it) experience. Ka-La-OK is quite the popular endeavor for a late night out on the town with the pengyous (friends) so I went to the karaoke bars a few times during my time in China. 17 Miles was the closest to campus so that was where I went. One time I went to KTV (the major chain of karaoke bars in China which Charlie explained to me). Another perk of 17 Miles in particular was the 80% discount. A friend of the program, actually one of the Chinese kids on the program staff had a discount card that we borrowed when we went. The place consisted of a bunch of private rooms of various sizes and luxuries. We always went to one which had free access to a buffet room. Inside on a touch screen console we could select the songs we wanted and they would go automatically to a playlist. Another thing the room had was different percussion instruments, so people that weren't singing were beating drums, bongos, and shakers. One of my favorite parts of the KTV experience was the music videos. In place of a majority of the videos were homemade equestrian tapes showing middle aged women rub horses. Others showed scantily clad women walk along the beach. One of the most disturbing videos I can remember was the one for "The Thong Song". The video consisted of little kids running through sprinklers. What could KTV have been thinking when they produced this video? We can only hope they didn't understand the lyrics. At the time I admit it was pretty hilarious.

Lastly before I get to the epic trip, which I'll post next, I never got to write about my teaching job. During the fall semester I had the opportunity to teach once a week to a first grade class. Each week I prepared for my lesson before class and then biked over to the school. The school was actually close by in a neighborhood just behind the university. I tried to start out each class with a game so that all of the kids could ease into the class. Throughout the semester, I taught them how to play Simon Says, sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, how to play Duck Duck Goose, and Telephone, among others. As I got to know the kids better they seemed to like me more and by the end of my time there all of the kids were sad to see me go. I learned a lot from teaching in English to Chinese kids. Ha, I had a lot more patients at the end compared to when I first started. I learned to mix in explanations in Chinese so that they could understand the English grammar. It was interesting teaching English because it made me realize how difficult the English language is for foreigners. Chinese is really the opposite of English, instead of complicated grammar structures, Chinese doesn't use much grammar but does have a lot of words with multiple meanings. The kids were great and I got a lot of laughs from them. One day a kid came up to me and said "My name is Panda. What is yours?" It was hilarious just hearing what they had to say in class everyday.

UPDATE: So, all of my pictures from the Semester and The Great Voyage/End of the Program Trip are up on the my pictures link. Soon or when I find some time in the next few weeks I will try to put up some captions so you know what is in the picture. Another quick thing, this page will soon be transforming into a Germany blog since I will be studying in München, Deutschland from March through July 2008. More is on the way...

Looking Back at Nanking

2007-12-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

The Voyage to Nanjing

The idea for a trip to Nanjing came in the middle of the week when a fellow student on our program on our program was dying to go to Nanjing, and coincidentally there was a graduate program open house that same weekend. So, my decision was set, a full two days before the trip. So going into the trip, we had no plans other than to visit the graduate school program. On the train, we took out our Lonely Planet book and figured out what exactly we wanted to see. The train ride was a pretty interesting experience given that we were the only foreigners on the train (that we could see). We met a doctor from Hubei Province and a few other Nanjing natives. Most of the time on the sleeper train was spent talking with them in Chinese about random things and they gave us some advice on what to see in Nanjing. Although we all didn’t get much sleep, we had lots of energy getting off the train and were all excited to see Nanjing, a city we wound not get to see on the end of the year trek around China. First we grabbed McDonald’s, even though it was 10:30am and really expensive, because we were all dying of hunger and couldn’t spot any places to eat in the area. After this we went straight to the Graduate Program at Nanjing University (collaborating with Johns Hopkins University) to check out the open house and since a few of the kids were staying in their housing at the program it made sense for this stop. We got a short tour of the facilities there, which were beautiful, and had a chance to ask some questions about the program. I discovered that all of the classes were taught in Chinese and the program was split 50/50 between Chinese and foreign students. The Graduate Program was for an MA in International Studies, so naturally all of the students had to write their own thesis in Chinese. It all sounded a little too advanced for my current level of Chinese, but it was definitely something I will consider in the future. That afternoon, I went with the rest of the kids in the program to find a hostel, which turned out to be an easy find since we had done a bit of homework before the trip (35 kuai/night close to the University…not a bad deal at all, and it even had clean showers! Amazing!). After the housing situation was straightened out, a few kids in the program and I were off to the Museum of the Nanking Massacre, which was the famous slaughter and rape of Chinese citizens in Nanjing when the Japanese attacked in the 1940s. It turned out that the museum was under renovation so we couldn’t get in but we did have a chance to walk through the construction. Past the giant cranes ripping apart houses next to the museum to presumably make more room for additions, we happened upon a bunch of people selling things on the street inside the construction site. Among the sellers with their blankets and merchandise sprawled out upon blankets, were a few men getting a haircut. This was quite the scene. Upon a massive construction site with rubble and leveled houses everywhere, spotting two older men sitting in high chairs, having their haircut, just going about their business, enjoying the pleasant fall weather. Later that afternoon we made our way over to the Nanjing Museum, one of the best ancient art museums in China. On the previous Wednesday in my Chinese Arts and Culture class, my professor used a lot of examples of pieces from the Museum in his lesson so it was neat to see the same pieces in person. I was especially interested in the porcelain pieces because we had just recently discussed the symbolism of images on Chinese porcelain pieces as well as the difficulty in creating the finest porcelain. The next day in the morning some of our friends were taking a test for the Graduate Program so we went to see the Taiping Rebellion Museum. The rebellion is one of the more bizarre religious uprisings I have heard. The leader of the Taipings thought that he was a reborn form of Jesus Christ and thought that he should be the leader of China. Inevitably the rebellion was quelled and the emperor continued to rule, but learning about the history of the rebellion and seeing some of the artifacts left over from the event was interesting. Outside of the museum were some of emperor’s gardens, which were well kept. That night we all went out for dinner with a friend’s teacher of one of the kids with us. He brought us to a pedestrian food street, where we tried out all the regional specialties of the region. We tried duck neck and lots of other strange snacks and then had dinner together. The next day we all went to see Dr. Sun Yatsen’s Mausoleum, which was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The area that the Mausoleum covered was incredible. First we entered a gate with prominent Nationalist symbols, since Sun Yatsen was the leader of the Nationalists, but also considered the founder of the People’s Republic of China as we know it today even though the communists would eventually prevail in the Civil War. Walking down a long walkway boarded by pine trees, we came to a small structure that had part of the Nationalist national anthem written in stone and then preceded to walk up hundreds of stairs to his resting place. At the top of the endless stairs, I could see all of Nanjing and the landscape around the city. Walking into the first chamber, I saw a huge stone Sun Yat-sen sitting a chair comfortable in a similar way to the Lincoln Memorial. Through this room was the actual Mausoleum itself. Inside the center of a circular room was Sun Yat-sen buried deep underneath a stone replica of Sun Yat-sen lying inside his coffin. I was totally blown away by the massive scale of it all. After seeing the entire mausoleum, I understood how revered the man is by all of China. That night we had to grab the night train since all of the other trains were sold out. It also turned out we couldn't get a sleeper so we had a hard seat for the whole ride. I don’t think people understand what it is like to not have a sleeper on an overnight train although most of the train is either hard seats or standing room only. I couldn’t sleep at all but I still made it back to Beijing on Sunday and felt back at home again.
The instant I made it back to my room I got a call from my assistant at the school I teach. She wanted to take my out hiking for the day with her family, so I couldn’t refuse although I was dead tired. She said they were waiting in their car at the middle school so I rushed over on my bike to the school and we all went to Bai Wang Shan, on the outskirts of Beijing. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the fall and the leaves finally were turning red. We walked around together and my assistant’s daughter gave my a few leaves that she found in the park. After this, they took me out for dinner at a restaurant in the area. The day was incredible and I felt like I was a part of a Chinese family for a day.

The Past 2 Weeks In Sight

2007-11-08T07:01:00.000-08:00

Bai Wang Shan park outside of Beijing with my English class helper's family.

Nanjing: Looking down from Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum.

Waiting in line to get on the metro. This is Sunday morning. Notice the crowd.

At the Natural History Museum. No Admittance into the Tiger/Bear Pit.

At a figure painter's studio. Here the artist, known for painting passive eagles is doing Hope's portrait.

Since I haven't been able to post new pics on my Picassa account and the internet is not cooperating here, I put up these pictures from the last 2 weeks. Soon these pictures will have proper captions and stories to go along with them. I'm hoping to get it up sometime in the next few days.

上海 Shanghai (The Last-Minute Adventure)

2007-10-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Again, the updates are not coming as quick as I would like, but they will come when I am able to write. The Shanghai trip originated from one Wednesday night, when I was at an artist's studio for my Chinese Arts and Culture class. I received a text message from a kid in my program who told me that there were relatively cheap tickets to Shanghai Friday afternoon. We decided to go ahead and get the tickets since our class was postponed that afternoon and we weren't going to go to Shanghai during the end of the year trip. Flash forward to the day of the trip...three of us headed out to the airport and flew a little over 2 hours to Shanghai. We arrived at about 6 and found our way to a hostel that a friend recommended. It was in the downtown area right on the Bund. The location was great and the place was clean and cheap. After checking in, we went out to grab dinner and explore the Bund area. It was a really spectacular sight at night (as you can see at the top of my blog now). Across the river I was just overtaken by a sea of lights coming from futuristic skyscrapers. Was I really in China or a different country or a different world? I still do not know. Of course on the boardwalk along the Bund there were lots of people trying to sell me stuff. I did see some interesting things, such as DJs blasting and selling their mixes, people selling kites flying in the building-lit sky, lots of plastic pigs and tomatoes being thrown into the pavement, and small metal light-up spinning tops. Immediately we were all hit with the stark contrast between new and old and China vs. the outside world. On one side of the river, the skyscrapers tower above all else, representing the future of China, while directly on the other side of the river lies European architecture. The old WWI era spheres of influence were clear everywhere I could see.

The next morning we went on a river boat tour of the Bund and got a little bit of history about the area. Going to the side of the Bund with the skyscrapers, we had to go through the "Bund Sightseeing Tunnel". This tunnel was no ordinary tunnel. It was from the future. Upon getting on a silver pod connected to tracks the doors magically closed and we were off. Soon lights began flashing all around us and we were sucked into another world, filled with magma, shooting stars, and dummies filled with air. It was perhaps the most amazing thing I've ever experienced. The special effects coupled together with the B-movie presentation put this one over the top for me. If you go to Shanghai, GO ON THE BUND SIGHTSEEING TUNNEL. We were all happy that we chose the round trip ticket, to say the least. The river tour was pretty neat but we couldn't go up to the roof since we were cheapskates and refused to pay the extra 10 kuai. After the tour, it we went up to highest bar in the world (actually this happened before the river boat tour but you don't know the difference). At the highest bar in the world, all of Shanghai looked like a scale model. Actually seeing Shanghai from above reminded me of Seoul from the Seoul Tower. Skyscrapers were literally everywhere the eye could see, except for the river. After our time in the Bund area it was onward to the French Concession. We took some time to go on the Lonely Planet communist sites walking tour and saw Sun Yat-Sen’s former residencce, Zhou Enlai’s place, where the PRC was officially signed into existence, and places where Mao crashed for a few nights. After the Communist sightseeing tour we all went to the Paulaner Brauerei! That’s right the Paulaner Brauerei! This is one of München’s finest beers, and in Shanghai there was an actual Paulaner Brauerei German restaurant. Incredible. The French Concession felt like I was being transported to Europe. The architecture showed no resemblance at all to traditional Chinese buildings. Most that we saw in the residential areas had huge gardens and ornate metal fences serving as garage doors. The shopping areas were filed with American and European expensive brand name stores and malls. We definitely had arrived in China-Europe. Well, after a great German dinner it was off to a place called ARK for some great Chinese pop, featuring pop stars in-the-making. The highlight of the night was definitely the 40-something woman wailing on the guitar with extended guitar solos. If you (the Chinese woman on guitar) are reading this, I want to tell you that you have an incredible skill and can do anything you want in life. She was that good!

The next morning we all woke up, grabbed some zaofan (breakfast), and checked out. We went off to one of best art museums in China, the Shanghai Museum. The museum was huge and we ended up seeing the calligraphy, bronze, Buddah, porcelain, traditional garmets/minority groups, painting, and other exhibits. I enjoyed the bronze exhibit the most because of the wide variety of bronze and incredible carved details. The museum as a whole was very clean and well laid-out. If you go to Shanghai, definitely stop here. They have an amazing collection. After the museum with a quick lunch break at a Uyghur restaurant, we stopped at a restaurant in the French Concession. This restaurant literally had no sign. The only way you would go there would be if you knew about it ahead of time. So, we went to the solid metal door and we saw a bunch of holes. We thought this was strange so we tried putting our hands in the holes to open the door. Suddenly a door slid open on our right and a mirror appeared. I could see the restaurant but I was looking at the restaurant’s reflection. So I turned and walked into the dark, shady restaurant laughing at the hours of thought that it would take to think of such a novel idea.

From Pingyao to Datong by Bus

2007-10-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

The delays of updating this blog are terrible. I am sorry for the wait. I literally have to force myself to sit down and write to catch up with all that has happened. Being in the midst of a Red Sox postseason and midterms is not a good recipe for blog writing. Well, here it goes: I'm going to try to recall our trip to Shanxi Province a few weeks ago. Above is a picture from the incredible Datong Grattoes which I'll get to later in the post. First we took the bus to Pingyao, which is one of the four cities left in all of China that has retained the architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Considering how large China is, I think this is a really sad situation. With China's fast development has come the destruction of a lot of treasured villages, artifacts, and history. In Beijing I see bulldozers and cranes taking out buildings that appear to be hundreds of years old. From talking with a professor who lives here in the international housing, I have acquired a real sense of how much the city has changed in just the past five years. When arriving at the gates of Pingyao's old city, I felt as though I was entering a movie set for "Raise the Red Lantern". We walked toward the hostel we would be staying for several days and all of a sudden, a drum and gong troupe marched past us. Each home along the road was marked clearly in red paint above the entrance. Sudden narrow alleyways would appear on either side of us and continue for what seemed like forever. The sudden quietness in Pingyao was especially prevalent as no cars were allowed inside the town gates. Another quick observation I made, the streets and storefronts were covered in coal. I learned later that Pingyao has one of the deepest reserves of coal in all of China. Ha, it seemed even more polluted than Beijing! Above the traditional roofs in the distance tall smokestacks were always present. The day following a night of exploring the Pingyao streets, we were free to explore all of the museums and other Pingyao sights. The Taoist temple, old government building, and outer town wall were definite highlights of the day. When entering the gates of the Taoist temple, we were greeted by giant 50 foot guards with spears and animal masks. They were pretty intimidating, especially in the position of guarding the entrance. Inside the gate, we came upon huge intense sticks and large statues inside the actually prayer room. It was neat to see Chinese people pray there because the customs were so interesting. After some people prayed, I could tell that the leaders of the temple tried to convert them and ask for donations. Most people refused that we saw for the short time we were there. Later we walked on top of the old wall around the town. The contrast between the old city and "modern Pingyao" was amazing. Outside of the gates, cars raced along the roads and black smoke ascended from the tall smoke stacks. At the old government complex, the highlight was seeing the prison cells and torture equipment. The cells looked really uncomfortable and the torture equipment was brutal. And these facilities were in use until about 10 years ago. That was a disturbing moment when I read a plaque that disclosed that information.

So, later in the day we all met and went off to Taiyuan, which was about a 2 hour drive. Oh, I forgot to mention that the drive from Beijing to Pingyao took about 9 hours. It was a lot of riding in the bus, but I can see how the program wanted us to be able to see as much as possible during our time off from classes. The only problem was that all of China had the same time off because of the national holiday, so it was packed everywhere we went. Haha, every place is usually crowded in China anyway because its China! Anyway, our next stop was a famous temple in Taiyuan called Jinci. Everything in the temple dated back thousands of years. The main temple was built entirely out of wood, which is a very rare sight in China. There were stones that had carved inscriptions of the history of the Tang Dynasty. The temple also had some famous trees that are estimated to be over two thousand years old. It was mind-blowing how old everything was there. After a few hours of exploring the area we were supposed to go to an old military general's residence but the rain washed away the visit. Instead we went straight to Datong to see the Buddist Grottoes. On our bus ride there we drove on roads with giant crater-sized holes. The wild ride consisted of weaving in and out of the potholes, including driving straight onto oncoming traffic. Everyone was slightly fearing for their lives because of the crazy driver's mindless decisions, but we made it safely to Datong. The Grottoes were incredible. Imagine entering caves filled with thousands and thousands of Buddha statues. Imagine witnessing Buddhas hundreds of feet tall. This is what I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see. There were about 20 to 30 caves open to the public, but more that were under restoration. It was saddening to see some of the caves withering away from all of the camera bulb flashes and touching of the artifacts. Hopefully they will find a way to protect the caves and outer statues from being withered away by outside elements. The Datong Grottoes are truly a wonder that you need to see to believe.

In my next entry I'll tackle the Shanghai trip that two friends and I undertook a few weekends ago. The title picture is from that trip, showing The Bund at night in all its glory. I will be regularly changing the title picture so you can see new pictures before I upload them to my Picassa album. It takes forever to do and sometimes doesn't work at all, so have patience with the pictures. Anyway, I just want to let you all know in case you haven't heard...THE BOSTON RED SOX ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!

The Epic Bicycle Voyage from Beida to Tiananmen on National Day

2007-10-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

This crazy adventure started after lunch on October 1st, National Day. After eating some tasty Baozi (bread with various meat/vegetable fillings), I was walking back to Shaoyuan, the international dorm on campus, with a few friends and then George asked me if I wanted to bike to Tiananmen Square. Before this moment, I thought we would just take the Ditie (subway) and brave the huge crowds trying to make it to the Square on the day the PRC was founded. After thinking for a moment, I thought why not bike there?! It would be a great adventure and I would get to see a lot of Beijing that I'd never seen before. At that point, I was still leery of riding my bike on the street with cars, buses, and lots of other bikes everywhere. In Beijing, transportation really is just one big free for all. Anyway, we took off at around 1pm out of the Southwest gate and headed south for a while. Ha, before we left, we glanced at a map for a rough idea of the route to get there. The trip consisted of lots of weaving amongst the traffic, walking our bikes over overpasses, and trying to maneuver in the bike lane for a clear path with the other bikes. The weather was perfect for a long bike ride, it was in the high 60s with a nice breeze. Along the way, we found some interesting things. One such thing was a museum with a giant dinosaur outside. I don't think that I have ever seen a life-size scale model of a dinosaur outside of a museum before. On the way back from Tiananmen, we spotted the PLA Sing and Dance Center. Anyway, throughout the ride, I could get a real sense of the city's pulse. Starting out in the technology district near Beida quickly became residential and then finally traditional architecture came upon us. We knew that we were near Tiananmen when all of the store fronts had traditional roofing and the crowds started to pick up. Eventually we arrived at the outer wall of the Forbidden City and then came to Tiananmen Square. What a sight it was on National Day! The sidewalks leading to the square were so packed you could not see pavement. It was like my old Chinese professor said, "Ren Hai Ren Shan" (people mountain people ocean). The streets around Tiananmen were closed off in anticipation of all the people so the road was totally empty. Riding along the outside of the Square was a cool moment. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as if each frame lasted an entire minute. From the kids waving the Chinese National Flag to the massive security presence around and in the square to the families posing in front of Mao Zedong's huge portrait in the background to the beautiful flowers everywhere. It seemed surreal. After locking the bikes up, we headed out into the Square and saw a lot of special showings for the occasion. A large portrait of Sun Yat Sen was in the center of the square with large banners on his right and left. Sun Yat Sen is thought of as the founder of modern China, although he was a Nationalist, not a Communist. We also checked out the Olympics exhibition created for the holiday. There were giant hedges carved to appear like various Olympic athletes (tennis, basketball, soccer, badminton, etc.). Then, on the opposite side, was all of China's great wonders, such as the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, and the Forbidden City. It was quite the sight, and we didn't spot many foreigners. We were quite the popular photo-op for the Chinese tourists. It helped that I was wearing my Wo Ai Zhong Guo" shirt (I love China). Since it was written in characters, a lot of people asked me about it and wanted their picture taken with me. China's National Day reminded me of the 4th of July without the party atmosphere. Everyone celebrated their country with family and friends without all of the bells and whistles that we attach to the day in the US. I think part of it has to do with the commercialization of the holiday over the years. After the day was over, I logged about 3.5 to 4 hours on my new bike. The day was another experience I won't forget anytime soon.

京666666 (The Beginning of the Reemergence of this Blog)

2007-10-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

What you are reading in the title of this post is what might be the luckiest license plate you could own in all of China. I actually saw a truck with this exact license plate at a gas station somewhere in Shanxi province this past week on our National Day Holiday trip and I knew right away that it had to be a person in the government. Who else would have the guanxi (connections) to get a plate with a number like that?

Alright, so due to the lack of updates and the heaps of material pilling up in my head that needs to see the light of day on this blog, I am going to post every couple days until I catch upon everything. I'll start with Fall Break, or you could say National Day Holiday Break. To start off the break, I played some pickup soccer at a nearby park near Tsinghua University which is just across the way from East Gate at PKU. My friend Althea and I biked down to the fields with our cleats and started passing a ball around with random people there. This soon evolved into a full-fledged 4v4 game which I wasn't ready for, at least at the level of play these guys were playing at. A Chinese friend of mine was telling me that I may be able to join his team after the break so I wanted to get some practice in. Communication took some time to get used to in terms of navigating the field and shouting instructions to my teammates but I remembered a lot of the terms from my last experience at Beida playing pickup soccer. The week before Althea and I went over to the soccer fields on a track-like surface and ended up playing in a chain-link fenced field with a bunch of Chinese college kids. I learned the words for "pass" and "shoot", as well as "goal" and "good shot" which came in really handy. I still remember walking out there seeing kids on the opposite end of the fields doing Tai Qi and Wu Shu (Martial Arts) and then other kids playing basketball on another part of the field. It was really interesting to see the mix of people in one place at the same time.

The next day I decided to go to the Temple of Heaven with some friends. This was the one major site in Beijing the program didn't take us to in the Summer so I really want to go see it. We ended up riding our bikes down to the Wudaokou Ditie (subway) and then riding all the way to southern Beijing and walking about 20 minutes from that stop to the Temple of Heaven. Walking down to the site, we ended up seeing beautiful flowers freshly planted alongside tall walls. Inside each section of the wall was a framed picture of some sort of cultural Chinese art piece. This seemed to me like some of the best pieces of sidewalk in all of Beijing. Only then did I realize that behind the walls were what the government was trying to hide with the flowers and framed cultural pieces, ramshackle housing and people living under very poor conditions. It was quite amazing to see such a stark contrast like that. This road to the Temple of Heaven actually continued all the way to the site. When we reached the park on the outside of the TOH, I was surprised by how massive it really is. From pictures I had seen before, I only thought it consisted of one main temple. My preconceptions were altered when I entered through the gates. After a few hundred yards of walking through a lush, green forest and walkway lined with pines, we finally reached the famous temple that the TOH is known for. At this main temple, the emperor would pray to the heavens for a good harvest and a long life among other things. There were a few interesting displaces specially created for National Day and the coming of the Olympics, which included an array of flowers made to look like the Olympic rings and a mosaic of plants shaped like a full moon above cypress trees (symbolizing a happy life and prosperity for all Chinese people). After looking through several smaller temples, we grabbed some tasty lunch (rice, a chicken and potato dish, and some tofu) and then went to the Echo Wall and the Circular Mount Altar. At the Echo Wall you can supposedly hear someone whisper from the opposite end of the circular wall but it was so renao (bustling with noise and excitement...yes that is the actual translation haha) that it was impossible to try it. The Chinese tourists there were yelling things like "NI HAO!!!" and "NI TING WO SHUO MA?!?" It was a really humorous sight given that you were supposed to whisper for it to work in theory. At the Circular Mount Altar, around which sacrifices were carried out, tourists would stand in the middle and put their arms up in the air in a triumphant pose. It was entertaining just to watch the Chinese tourists. I spotted another group taking a family shot at an alter which was used for sacrificing cows and other animals. I don't think I would want to look back at a family picture and see it was at a place used to sacrifice animals. Anyway, we spent most of the afternoon exploring the grounds and walking through the giant park. It was a great day to walk around and enjoy a rare but more common Beijing blue sky day.

Tomorrow I'll work on the epic voyage/bikeride from Peking University to Tiananmen Square on National Day and maybe even get to the Shanxi trip which our entire group went on last week. I'm also trying to post pictures from the past few weeks so hopefully those make it up on the site within the next few days. For now I'll leave you with some YouTube footage of Jay Chou, China's mega-super-pop/rock/rap star. Enjoy.

Bargaining and Concerting

2007-09-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I experienced the ultimate bargaining experience: The Silk Market. Imagine walking into a room and have a million people yell at you with offers and wanting you to buy something. Imagine being grabbed by the arm with a Vulcan grip that doesn't let go and drags you into a stall to buy things. Imagine having people scream at you demanding your ice cream on a stick. Yes, all of this happened to me at the Silk Market. It was like a scene out of a distant planet. Well, my mission was to buy clothes and shoes for my internship in Beijing that is part of my program this fall. So I guess I should have been expecting the craziness that was about to unfold. First I went around the indoor-mall-on-steroids-like market to see where everything was and pick my battles. Most of the salespeople started upwards of 1000 kuai for a shirt or pair of pants but I ended up bargaining them down to around 100 kuai. I figured out that the only way to get a good price was to bargain solely in Chinese. While buying shirts, the women at the stall demanded that I buy them ice cream for the deal to be completed. I laughed in their face when they told me this but there were serious. It took me a long time to decide to actually follow through with their wishes. Coming back into the market from outside with the ice creams, my friend and I were met with hostility. All of the vendors around us saw what we had and pounced. They all descended upon us and demanded that we give them our ice cream. We ended up taking a picture eating the ice cream with the vendors I bought the shirts from. It was pretty incredible to see so much bootleg merch concentrated in one place with the government's approval. I don't think a Silk Market could happen anywhere else in the world.

Part 2 of the post is dedicated to the Beijing Pop Festival this past weekend. This festival was probably the most fun I've had at a concert. So, and and some friends ended up taking the bus down to Chaoyang Park, about an hour away from campus. When we finally got to the venue we found a big amusement park just outside the stages/merch/food area. It took a while to figure out where to buy tickets but we found a white van with a tickets sign on it that seemed right. We went straight to the main stage because the bands we wanted to see were all there. First up was the Japanese band RaIN: rock and inspriration. This band is the most epic band ever to set sights on a stage, period. No one will ever eclipse them. The only way I can describe this band is 80s hair death metal. Epic guitar solos were everywhere and every song ended with the bass player throwing his guitar down to the stage. I was waiting for the lead guitarist to light his guitar on fire. Next up was Markey Ramone, the drummer from the Ramones! He had a backing band that were not so good but the comedy factor of the lead singer did not get old throughout the show. At the beginning of every song he yelled, "1,2,3,4!!!" The crowd was really into it and they did a solid job of pulling off the classic Ramones songs. Next up was Cuijian, the man who invented rock music in China and was a major political voice for a long time. He was banned from playing live shows for some time but the people loved him so the government couldn't hold him back. Anyway, the show was great. People were waving giant red flags with his face imprinted on it and singing the choruses in Chinese. Closing the night was Nine Inch Nails. I don't know how they found a way into China to play but somehow they did. Their new album was about a fascist regime who was overthrown by the people. The show was really wild and I felt lucky emerging from the show without getting hurt. The entire crowd seemed to transform into a giant mosh pit. The festival was a really incredible experience that I will always remember.

Somehow the third week of the semester is already starting tomorrow. Since this past weekend's music festival my roommates and I have put up propaganda posters that we bought on campus up around the room and opened up a lot of space. The posters are pretty neat because they are from all of the different periods of Mao's rule in China. Some of them are pretty humorous, such as one that shows the West as capitalists waving money in the air with soldiers descending upon them. I also went on a visit to a Beijing artist's studio on the 15th. It was a great experience seeing a Chinese painter demonstrating how to paint landscapes and draw calligraphy. Our professor told us that he will try to arrange more visits to different studios and museums. One other thing that happened this past week was my first English lesson. The kids in my English class are 8 and 9 years old and really wild. It might be hard to control them. Ha. But teaching is great for my Chinese because I will have to explain a lot of words and concepts in Chinese. It should be a lot of fun.

***All of the pictures are updated with captions so definitely check them out!

End of Korea/New Beginnings in Beijing

2007-09-06T02:58:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Beijing and settled now after about 10 days in Korea. I didn't wrap up my time in Korea so here it goes. On last Thursday Charlie and I went to the DMZ on a guided tour. We met up with the group at a hotel in downtown Seoul which included some interesting people from the US who are living in Japan teaching English. They thought that Korea was cheap! And they talked about how everyone is so polite in Japan. I couldn't believe what they were saying. It was like talking to people from outer space. Later we made it to the DMZ and we were told we could only take pictures at certain places due to security. The DMZ was much different than I had imagined. Going into the DMZ seemed as if we were going into a war zone which we really were doing, I just never thought it would look the way it did. Its amazing to thing that the two Koreas have been at war for over 50 years and never signed a peace treaty. After entering the DMZ zone, we walked through the 3rd infiltration tunnel with hard hats. In the 1980s the South Koreans found these tunnels that were built by the North Koreans to invade. The 3rd tunnel was built to accommodate thousands of soldiers per hour crossing over the border. It was a chilling to walk around through the tunnels while water droplets seeped through the cracks of the walls onto my helmet. Later on we went to the observation deck and saw the demarcation line with our own eyes. Our last day in Korea began with pancakes. Charlie and I decided to make an American breakfast of banana/apple pancakes and orange juice. After this we met up with friends to walk around Yoonmi's school and a street selling traditional Korean crafts. For dinner we had traditional Korean food which was really tasty. Leaving Seoul was difficult but had to be done. It was great seeing Yoonmi and our other Korean friends for a while.

So now we are back in Beijing and almost settled in at Beida. Since the homestay didn't work out for a lot of complicated reasons, I'll be staying on campus in the international student dorm. It's actually a more much convenient since I will be right next to my classes. Classes are starting again and I've had some interesting experiences to say the least. One of these experiences has been the Silk Market. What was originally just a short shopping run to pick up clothes for my internship turned into a comedic workshop on bargaining. More on that to come. I've also made several trips back to Yao Fangzi (The Medicine House) which have been great. I had the spiciest and hottest Huoguo (Hotpot) I'll ever have. Getting to the Silk Market let me experience the Beijing Subway for the first time. I had my first Beijing Kaoya (Roast Duck) experience. I found out that I'll be teaching English to Chinese kindergarteners this semester. I even caught a glimpse of the Beijing music scene last night. This weekend (the 8th and 9th) is the Beijing Pop Festival which features Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails. Not what a lot of people would characterize as pop music and not the sort of bands a communist country such as China would be likely to invite to the country's biggest music festival. Public Enemy has long been a revolutionary hip hop group and Nine Inch Nails just came out with a record about a fascist state overthrown by the people. Hmm. I'll definitely be there.

Annyong (Seoul Day 3)

2007-08-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday morning Charlie and I hopped a cab to the Yantai Airport to fly Korean Air into Incheon, South Korea. The flight was really short, about 50 minutes and the flight attendants gave everyone newspapers which was cool. When we arrived at the Incheon airport, it was as if we landed on another planet. Korea is completely different from China. The airport was one of the nicest I've ever scene. All of the airport staff were really friendly and the facilities were top notch. Outside there were palm trees and lush vegetation welcoming its visitors to Korea. So we found the right limousine bus that supposedly would drop us off in downtown Seoul where our friend lives. When we got in the bus, Charlie and I were shocked to find seat belts. Korea actually has safety standards?!? After the bus driver checked everyone's seatbelt we were off toward downtown Seoul and proceeded to watch a half hour of models showing off all the latest fashions (we didn't choose to watch it, it was on a Samsung screen in front of us). Which brings me to why Seoul and Korea is so bang (great or amazing).

Why Seoul/Korea is So Bang:
1. Bakeries on every corner - Heavenly bakeries filled with things that make your body feel good. Real bread, bagels, pastries of all varieties, cream cheese filled bread...you can find it all here.

2. A great metro system - Reminds me of the NYC subway a hundred times cleaner and more high-tech. There are flat screen monitors showing live TV interspersed with safety videos featuring a man holding a bottle of liquid with one hand and using his other hand to light it on fire, and security guards tackling him before he can do anything. The metro cars also feature a luggage rack for anything you don't want to carry and either a Mario or Fanfare ring depending on if its just a regular stop (Mario ring) or if its a major transfer point (Fanfare ring). The rings tend to wake people up if they miss a stop.

3. Samsung controlling everything - Samsung literally owns Korea. Office buildings, cell phones, food, appliances, underwear, you name it and Samsung owns it.

4. Living in a high tech world - everyone is connected, finger print scanners are in and everywhere, small portable dvd players that fit in your hand, crazy mp3 players with antennae coming out of them, and the slide phones

5. The world's largest indoor amusement park - and it is called Lotte World. This park is not only indoor, it extends outside. Disney on steroids could be a good description of this place.

6. Everyone loves baseball - Koreans do not discriminate on which teams they support or unknowingly support by wearing a certain team's hat. I have seen every MLB team on either a shirt or hat here. People just love baseball which is a rare sight outside of the US.

7. Seoul has every American chain store - I mean every US chain restaurant/store, here's a rundown of what I've spotted so far: 7 Eleven, Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Outback Steakhouse, Tony Roma's, Domino's, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robbins, Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, and more.

8. Converse is hip - all of the college kids on down wear Converse, in the US Converse isn't as popular as it is here.

9. No Stares - No one stares at us in Korea. I'm not sure why, but people do not stop what they are doing and look us over for a long time. Korean culture value of respect and kindness is definitely involved here.

10. Bibimbap and Green Tea ice cream - Korean food is great. Bibimbap is a traditional Korean dish with rice and about 6 different vegetables. Green tea ice cream is green tea flavored ice cream. Both taste great.

11. Genuine courtesy and culture - People are polite and treat their elders with respect.

12. Beautiful people - A lot of Koreans wear designer clothing and sport the pop star look.

13. Cars that don't run you over - Cars yield for pedestrians most of the time.

14. Kong Tiao (AC) - Any place indoors in Seoul has air conditioning. This is a good thing since we are in Korea during the hottest time of the year.

15. Largest Museum in all of Asia - The National Museum of Korea in Seoul. It is massive, larger than any of the Smithsonians in DC. I can't describe the scale of this museum. It has everything you could imagine.

16. Orderly lines guiding all pedestrian traffic - Crosswalks have white painted arrows directing people to orderly cross the street. The metro directs people to walk to the left side of the stairs and escalators have a painted yellow line reminding people to stay to the right if people want to pass on the left. Most busy streets in Seoul don't have crosswalks but rather underground crosswalks.

17. 2-handed waves - For some reason a select group of people like to wave using 2 hands, shaking them from side to side in a rapid motion. I don't know what to make of this. It is a bit scary.

18. No censoring of any kind - No sites are banned so I can read my blog temporarily. Also newspapers are not controlled by the government which is nice for a little while.

19. Underground Stores/Restaurants - This is something that every country should have. Not only does it cut down on traffic above ground but its nice to be able to get out of the heat for a little while.

Well here's a quick rundown of what I've been doing in Seoul on my time off from classes: going to the Korean War Museum, riding the tram to the top of the Seoul Tower, stopping by the China Cultural Center and meeting some Chinese students, going to a Korean musical based on a popular drama, getting lost on the Seoul metro, trying to find banks that will actually accept my bank card, randomly finding a huge indoor mall with movie theaters and 9 other floors, playing mini-golf, touring the Seoul Museum of History for free, going on a tour of the Korean Parliament building, eating Green Tea Ice Cream, going to a giant indoor amusement park called Lotte World, walking along the new man-made river through downtown Seoul at night, exploring the largest museum in Asia, and seeing the only Chinese town in Korea.

Check out the new Korea/Seoul photo album that I uploaded a few days ago. I also put up some new links. Tomorrow (Thursday, August 30th) we're touring the DMZ. More posts on the way...

Although the summer weather is hot, Beijing people love to eat hotpot

2007-08-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

The summer program is officially over now. Well it's been a few days now but it doesn't seem that way. It still hasn't hit me yet. The title of this post was a sentence we had to memorize at the beginning of the program. For some reason it seemed appropriate to call this post that but I don't really know why. Oh, the picture at the start of this post is of our class and our 1对1 teacher who is a student at Yantai U. He gave us all handmade traditional Chinese good luck pieces. I hope to keep in touch with Zhong laoshi. The next 10 days are going to a much needed break for me. This past week was relatively uneventful. We did go to the Korean bakery a few more times which was great. This bakery is really out of a different world. They have real bagels, cinnamon rolls, French bread, smoothies, it feels like paradise on Earth considering you can't find any of this in China. Today we took our 1-on-1 professor out to the bakery before he went back to his hometown. After the bakery, I walked around campus to take some last minute pictures. Later on in the day it was time to go back to the child labor Korean restaurant and visit the 3 cone in one ice cream stand. A bunch of us went to the lake and sat around enjoying the cool night. It was a nice, relaxing night before heading off to Korea. Tomorrow myself and Charlie have to hit the chuzuche (taxi) at 8:30. We have a plan to meet our friend at the Chinese embassy which is about 15 minutes away. It should be quite the adventure even though we have all of her information. So its a week and a half before we head back to Beijing to start the fall semester. Ha, it is crazy to think about how quickly the summer program passed. 2 months are down, 4 to go.

Monsoon Season Has Arrived

2007-08-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

The last week and a half since the Qingdao trip has flown by. Some cool/interesting things that have transpired recently: a few bball games against Yantai U. students, the discovery of "Child Labor" (a Korean restaurant that only employs kids under 12), the discovery of a great jiaozi guan (dumpling restaurant), exploring the night market more, a new Chinese culture class that we have everyday taught in Chinese by a professor at Yantai U., discovering a Korean bakery that has real bagels and bread, and the coming of monsoon season. By monsoon, I seriously mean monsoon. It has been pouring for a week straight with practically no periods of sun. This past Friday we literally couldn't make it to class because there were 2 feet of water on the ground. You practically have to swim to get around. I've never seen anything like it. Tonight on our cab ride home we drive through a few feet of water on the road. Haha, luckily we didn't stall out and made it back to the dorm alright. The forecast says we're due for some better weather next week so hopefully we'll get some. On Friday we took our last test of the program (not counting the placement test that we took at the beginning of the program and the final exam). Another thing that transpired over the last week or so is the plan to go to Korea in between the Summer and Fall programs. Charlie and I are flying out from Yantai to Seoul and then back to Beijing for the fall program. We found out that we have to leave the country and reapply for a visa since the Chinese government changed their rules. I'm excited to explore Korea and see my friend there. It will be a nice break from the summer program which will definitely be needed. In the coming week I will talk more about what has been going on recently and change the blog around a bit with more links/pictures/different YouTube clips.

Chuar Never Tasted So Good

2007-08-04T02:43:00.000-07:00

On Monday and Tuesday after the 7 day work week we were in Qingdao, a coastal town that is heavily influenced by the Germans. In the early 20th century German claimed the town so today there is a distinct German quarter and the Qingdao Beer Factory. Qingdao beer is the best in all of China because it was developed by Germans, who picked Qingdao to start a beer factory because of the great mineral water in the area. We all hopped on a bus to Qingdao early Monday morning. After checking into the 30+ story hotel I walked around the city with some friends before finding a place to eat for lunch. I was happy to find that Germans did indeed live in Qingdao when I spotted a few chowing down on some squid chuar (squid on a stick). We walked by the Catholic Church built during the German occupation that somehow saved from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. I learned that the staples were hidden in the hills so that the authorities couldn't take them. The architecture in Qingdao looked as if it was taken right from München. When we all met back at the hotel after lunch it was time to take a tour of the Qingdao Pijiu Chang (Qingdao Beer Factory). Driving up to the factory, we were greeted with 30 foot bottles of Qingdao covering the roof of the building. Outside the factory was a giant fountain with a bottle of Qingdao and mugs placed around it. A little later we went into the museum detailing the history of the company and showing how the beer was made and the current processes. I was surprised that they decided to use switch from German to Chinese hops about 20 years ago because it tastes just like German beer. After the tour, which included an exhibition featuring Qingdao commercials from all over the world which were pretty hilarious, we went to the tasting room. Along with a fresh bei of pijiu, the tour guide gave us Qingdao branded "Beer Peanuts." They were pretty darn tasty. Next we entered a room that simulated what it feels like to be in a drunken state. The ceiling was actually tilted along with the floor so that your body couldn't stabilize. It was a wild room. Next we were off to the free bar which was all you can drink Qingdao Pijiu. After the factory tour, a few of us headed off to the Qingdao beach to swim and see the actual temple the Qingdao logo is based on. I brought my frisbee along and it was a big hit. We attracted a lot of attention and a lot of the kids wanted to try their shot at throwing.

At night, we went to a real, authentic Italian fanguan. When they brought out bruschetta and fresh bread everyone at the table was salivating. One bad aspect of Chinese cuisine is that you can't find real bread! You can't even find it at a grocery store here. Me and my friends came to the consensus that Chinese bread is made out of cardboard. It has to be. How else does the bread last for days without refrigeration? Anyway, I ended up ordering pasta with bolognese sauce and devoured it. It was the best and most expensive meal I've had in China. Let's just say that we were all "dropping the kuai" (this means a lot of bills we're used at the meal). At the end of the meal we asked the waiter where she would recommend to go out to. We ended up going to the the "New York Bar" which had a Phillipino band covering popular western songs. They did a killer version of Bohemian Rhapsody in all its 6 minute glory. We actually randomly met up with a lot of kids on the program so it was a really fun night.

The next morning we all woke up early for breakfast and took the bus to Laoshan Mountain. On the way, the kong tiao (AC) broke and we had to pull into a really sketchy repair shop in the middle of nowhere. While we were waiting around, I found some human hair and kuaizi (chopsticks) on the ground along with lots of other junk. We threw around the frisbee for a while and someone ended up throwing it into a pond. The retrieval of the frisbee consisted of some kids on the program riding a borrowed dingy out to the middle of the pond. It was a funny scene. The hike was a nice and relaxing but we didn't have enough time to make it to the top. We did have time to be carried up the mountain for a little while by two "people-carriers", and see a Taoist temple a little over the halfway point up the mountain. After the hike it was back to Yantai. Everyone was drained after the Qingdao trip but it was a nice break from Yantai.

Yantai at the Halfway Point

2007-07-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

So we're at the halfway point of the program now and finally settled in to the new routine in Yantai. The first weekend we were here a bunch of us went straight to the much-hyped beach "only 5 minutes away from campus". Dan brought a football and I carried along a Frisbee to throw around at the beach. It was a totally different beach experience than I've ever had. On the beach there were a bunch of boats "docked" in the sand. It added a nice touch to the beauty of the beach. Fisherman launched their boats about 20 feet away from where people were swimming. Mini-tractors drove right along the edge of the sea narrowly missing people sitting in the sand, spitting out thick clouds of black smoke across the beach. Diapers and a nice diverse assortment of waste littered the water close to shore, of course where everyone was swimming and enjoying the cool Yantai weather. Haha. It was quite the scene. At the beach we were stared at more than anywhere else. People were awestruck to see a "large olive" flying through the air (the Chinese translation of football means flying olive). We even spotted a couple videotaping us throwing the football and Frisbee. Soon a big crowd gathered on the stones at the top of the beach just to watch us. All while this was going on, Alison was getting a lot of attention because of her bikini. They just don't exist in China since everyone dresses very modestly. It was interesting to see that most of the women didn't go into the water. Some that went in wore full swim-dresses that were pretty unusual.

Yantai Da Xue's campus is really great. It's much more spread out than Beida so it isn't always packed with people all the time like it is in Beijing. Right outside our dorm is a basketball court that is always packed with kids in the afternoons. One day I went down to the courts to shoot around and soon I was involved in full court games. It amazed me that the kids played basketball in their sandals or bare feet. You have to have really tough feet to play basketball without shoes. After a few days of playing with the kids I picked up some basketball terminology. Here are a few useful phrases in case you get into a pickup game with the Chinese: "Hao Qiu" = good shot, "Lan Qiu" = to shoot, "Chuan Qiu" = to pass, "San Fen" = 3 point line. That's about all of the new vocab I've learned so far. Most of the time I just talk a lot of trash in Chinese. One day I taught the kids how to play "knockout," which was cool. It took a while to explain it in Chinese but they finally got it I think. Every time I go out to the courts they always ask me questions about the US. They are all really interested in where I came from and what I'm doing in China. Playing basketball here is a great time and I get a lot of practice with my Chinese. A few days ago I found out that most of the kids practice Judo all day and then come to the basketball courts everyday after their sessions.

At night in Yantai near the beach there are street vendors everywhere. You can find everything from fried squid on a stick to beef to every other type of meat imaginable. We discovered a great place that makes amazing fresh burritos made right in front of your eyes. There are also a lot of great, cheap Korean restaurants in the area. Today we stumbled upon a jiaozi (dumpling) place that tasted great. One night after grabbing dinner me and a few kids from AU saw to the side of the road older women dancing in a square with music blaring from speakers, so we checked it out. While talking with an older lady watching from the stage, we found out that they were doing it for exercise. We had a hard time understanding her because of her Shandonghua (Shandongese dialect), but we could make out her saying that we looked like foreigners because of our big noses. She said that Alison looked like a native Chinese because of her flat nose. The women also pointed out our hair and thought that Alison was Chinese since she had black hair. It was a really funny experience and we were all cracking up, including the old Chinese woman. We all came to the conclusion after this encounter that the people of Yantai are a lot more forthcoming than Beijingers.

So tomorrow we're heading off to Qingdao for a few days. The past week we had class everyday, that's 7 days in a row. It was an intense week, but now we have some time to travel a bit. Our schedule is to see the famous German-made Qingdao beer factory and hike Laoshan mountain.

On the Train to Yantai

2007-07-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, it’s been a while since the last blog post. Part of it has to do with not having the Internet for a few days. But lots of updates are coming soon because a lot has happened since we made it to Yantai. On Sunday night we got an email from the wise Sun zhaoshou (Professor Sun). The context of the message was to uphold the language pledge and that major class changes were taking place. Our class was cut to 5 kids, which turned out to be great because we got a lot more practice and individual attention this week. Other than class, one night I went with a few friends from AU to meet our friend from AU’s boyfriend who goes to Beida. He was a really nice guy and will be a good person to know come fall semester. Later in the week we tried to meet up for some basketball, but it didn’t work out. Other than zai lianxi he fuxi Hanyu ne (practicing and reviewing Chinese), we didn’t have much time outside of class. So our last day in Beijing we had another kaoshi (test), packed a little bit, and made our way over to Yao Fangzi (Medicine House) for the last time (for most of the kids on the program). So after the test, we all took a bus to the train station. It was a wild scene. People seemed to be growing out of the ground. The only way I can describe it is how my Chinese professor at AU described China, ren shan ren hai (people mountain people ocean). Now we’re on the train to Yantai. It’s a 14-hour ride with about 25 stops along the way…we should be in Yantai at 6:30 am tomorrow. It is really crowded and cramped but we’re making the best of it. I’m thinking I won’t be able to sleep too much tonight.

Alright we finally made it to Yantai after a long sleepless night and we are now in the Yantai University dorms. It already feels a lot different than Beijing. On the drive from the train station we saw lots of beach areas and huge freighters off in the distance. The temperature here is a lot more comfortable than Beijing. From what I’ve seen of the campus it looks really nice. I’d say it’s about 15 times larger in size than my school. The living situation will be a lot different here. We’re only allotted a certain amount of electricity and Internet use per month before we have to pay for it. I do like that we have a washer in the dorm so we don’t have to wait 2 days before our laundry is done. Now I have to get re-acclimated to a completely new place. The program will be a lot closer here than it was in Beijing since all of our professors are living with us. It will be a whole new adventure.

Beijing十一天 (Day 12)

2007-07-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

So the first week of real classes and tests are over and the weekend is finally here. I think this week was more intense than the first week since we were doing new material for the first time. We all agree that it can't get more intense at this point. It has reached a point of intensity that I've never felt before. Well, today we hiked Changcheng (The Great Wall) on a nice overcast misty day. Haha, actually it wasn't the best day to climb up Changcheng because viability was about 1/4 mile tops. But none of that mattered since it was the Great Wall. On our way up the steep not-as-touristy part of the wall we met a bunch of people from all over the world. I spotted French tourists, a choral group mainly from Florida, a bunch of Russians, and my friend saw an Iranian. On the top we met some crazy Russians that were jumping around from wall to wall thousands of feet up the Great Wall. We were all tired by the end of the climb but it was well worth it. The views were picturesque even though visibility was so low. After coming back, I went out with some friends to The Banana Leaf, supposedly one of the best Thai places in Beijing. Our That's BJ magazine described it as "Disney on speed." It couldn't have been a better description of the place. Fake trees, alligators, and a troupe of Filipino musicians/wannabe pop stars really made it live up to the hype. Alright, so finally I sat down with my buddies Alison, Charlie, and Dan, and created a list of all of the moments so far that make China so great.

Things That Make China "China" Moments:

1. Funk Pockets - These are randomly placed along the street with no sign of origin, fecal matter, or any other possible funk. Some of them are regulars, for example the bridge right across from "Kro's" that we call "Funk River".

2. Ba Shirts (Pig Shirts) - Men who roll their shirts up to their armpits. Usually this is accompanied by a large potbelly. If its especially hot out and the humidity's up, the shirts are rolled up higher and you'll be spotting these guys with more frequency.

3. Umbrellas - It doesn't matter if the sun's out, you'll see every girl/woman sheltered by her umbrella/parasol. Sometimes the piaoliang de guniang (pretty girls) hold their umbrellas for their nan pengyous (boyfriends). I hear fair skin is important for Chinese people so no one wants a tan.

4. a. The Girlfriend Seat - The girlfriend sits sideways on the bike holding on to their nan pengyou (boyfriend). Usually the girl hold our her parasol over her boyfriend for sun protection.

4. b. The Boyfriend Seat - The opposite of "The Girlfriend Seat." A rare happening that usually results in the girlfriend struggling to pull the weight of her boyfriend.

4. c. Old Men Carrying Lots of Stuff on Their Bike - Piles of wood and scrap metal stacked eight feet high on the back of the bike while the man smokes a cigarette and moves at about 2 miles/hour.

5. The Sun - Being confused if it's the Sun or the Moon, grey sky = blazing hot weather and lots of pollution, blue sky is extremely rare.

6. Not Willing to Pay 2 Kuai for Water, but Dropping 12 Kuai for a DQ Blizzard

7. 80s Fashion - Perms, silver pants and track suits, gold shoes, Michael Jackson

8. MJ and Houston Rockets - Everyone loves Michael Jordan even though he retired years ago (he still makes an appearance on a lot of the Gatorade bottles here) and the Rockets (Yao Ming's team even though T-Mac is more popular here).

9. Being Able to Talk About People Without Them Knowing - You can talk about literally everything and no one will know. This includes: making fun of people in front of their face, talking about otherwise taboo subjects, complaining about squatters (see #11).

10. Traffic Regulations - Any sort of signage on the road is pretty much useless in China. Red means stop in the middle of the road when a car or bike is about to hit you or speed up and get to the other side of the street. Lanes are nonexistant. Honking is encouraged and used even when it isn't necessary, especially at pedestrians.

11. Toilets - The Squatter...toilets are rare and you must learn to squat and use your own toilet paper. Most of the toilets consist of holes in the ground and nothing else. This is a challenge everyday. I fear for my life at each passing moment and try to avoid the #2.

12. Getting Stared At - You know they just want to be our Gemenrs (Homeboys). Everyone seems to think we're from another planet. Alison looks a southern islander. Charlie looks like a giant and regularly gets in photo-ops with strangers. I look like an American and people like to stare at me too.

13. Olympics - Everywhere you look. Gift Stores, T-Shirts, Countdowns, Signs, Ads.

14. Being Laughed At For Attempting to Speak Chinese.

15. Pollution - Black snot and grey phlegm, inhaling about 10 packs of cigarettes/day, coming back from campus panting because you can't get enough oxygen, going for a run for 20 minutes and recovering for the next hour.

16. Public Excretion - Lots of people don't seem to be afraid to drop their pants in public and do their business without any second thoughts.

17. a. Lack of Proper Doors - Instead the Chinese love to use plastic, slime/grease/fecal matter/sweat covered door entrances.

17.b. Mega-Cantings (Cafeterias) - With the massive amount of students on campus they need cafeterias that can fill thousands of students. At lunch time, everything shuts down and everyone grabs food. These huge cafeterias are filled with students and you need eagle vision to find seats, let alone figure out how to order your food.

18. Sweat.

19. Children yelling and running wild outside at midnight. Crowds of people everywhere no matter what time or where you are.

20. Flag Raising Ceremony Every Morning at 7:50am sharp outside Haidian Gym involving morning calisthenics and saluting the flag.

21. KTV/Karaoke Everywhere - It's what people do for fun here.

22. "Wo men qu AAzhi" - "Going Dutch", Every English-speaking Chinese person seems to know this saying.

23. Bargaining - Every last kuai matters. It doesn't make a difference that 1 kuai is about 15 cents.

24. The Foreigner Stare - Westerners look at you like you're from a different planet when you say "Hello" to them. The consequence of this makes everyone turn into a disgruntled foreigner with a case of the Marco Polo Syndrome (thinking they discovered this country and no one else matters).

25. Kenny G and Titanic Everywhere - Today at the Carrefor we listened to Kenny G on repeat for the third time this week. When you don't hear Kenny G you hear the Titanic theme song blasting from the nearest speakers of the shop/restaurant.

26. Censorship - When you're in China you are being watched all the time. I can't visit anything that is .blogspot.com which this site is, so hypothetically I can't see anything I'm writing. Alison was watching CNN one time and it blacked out for about 30 seconds as they were talking about democracy. Dan was talking with a friend on Skype and mentioned something about recording equipment possibly being in the room and his computer just turned off.

We'll be adding more to this list as we think of them.

Beijing七天 (Day 7)

2007-07-09T03:38:00.000-07:00

Today we all went back to class after a busy weekend. Saturday was the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and Tiananmen Square trip all packed into one epic day. First we went to the Summer Palace where we rented paddle boats and explored the seas for an hour or so. The views were spectacular as they were all day. We made quite the scene when our boat drifted into another boat manned by American students, while Charlie tried to change boats. All of the Chinese tourists passing by us in their Dragon Boat were loving every minute of it. Other than that incident, all of the non-Western tourists were all over us and wanted us to be in their pictures. I have to say I felt like a celebrity. Throughout the day all of the street sellers were all up in our face trying to sell their bootleg merchandise. My first bargaining experience was a success. I walked away two times and finally knocked the price of the shirt down from 80 kuai to 20 kuai (about $3). Later I found out that a bunch of people were scammed and lost a few hundred kuai. The fake kuai was really hard to distinguish from real kuai...I couldn't even tell the difference. Today one of the kids that got scammed told me he used it on a cab fare and the driver didn't even notice. I guess fake kuai isn't really fake if people take it.

After a great lunch at an ethnic minority restaurant in a massive mall which included a special dance/music interlude involving the ritual of being forced to eat certain foods and drinking whatever was on the table and getting your ear pinched. The comedy of it all came when some vegetarians were forced to eat meat. It was a really good time. Then we were off to the Forbidden City (故宫). As expected, I was blown away by the sheer size of it all. We only were able to see a mere fraction of it and didn't have a chance to see all of the special collections there. Xiao Laoshi was our guide and told us an incredible amount of history. He said that for about 800 years only the Emperor, his workers, and special advisers were allowed in and when they came in they could never leave. A while after we stopped at the Starbucks to check out how ridiculous it was (I was actually surprised that there was no sign and it was a hole in the wall), we made our way to Tiananmen Square. I was pretty scared of saying anything when I saw all of the megaphones, cameras, and listening devices inside every lamppost. Plus the military presence was enormous for a public place. Well, when we finally got back home to Haidian Gym at around 6pm, the sky turned orange and we were caught in a sandstorm! I've never seen anything quite like it. For about 15 minutes I was blinded by sand but somehow made it back.

One story I forgot to talk about earlier...My roommate and I were walking back at night to our room. Getting to the place we live, you walk through an alleyway surrounded by ramshackle shacks. At the hut surrounded by a torn sheet we spotted about 10 people crowded around a TV. It was a scene you could have pulled out of China circa the 1970s. It was pretty incredible to see this in Beijing in the 20th century after all of the economic gains over the last few decades. It's just a reminder that a lot of Chinese people are in poverty and the economic growth over the years hasn't been realized by most.

Well, now all of my pictures so far are up on the link. On the next post, I'll be creating a list of all of the interesting things about China (actually it's going to be a join effort with Alison). One last thing before I dive into my Hanyu homework...Never try to make small talk with waiters in China. Someone who I won't name made the mistake of asking the waiter if her English name really was "Baby." The waiter gave him the dirtiest look I've ever seen in my life.

Beijing四天 (Day 4)

2007-07-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

大家好 (Hey everyone),

Well a lot has happened these last few days and I haven't had much time to write on here. I'm thinking I'll update the blog 2 times per week. Classes started a few days ago and they are intense, as expected. We have class from 8am to 11:30am and then an afternoon class and 1 on 1 time. The language pledge started a few days ago and we quickly found out how difficult it was to follow. But it definitely helps in learning Chinese so I think it's a nice goal to aim for. All the kids on the program are great and they are all committed to learning Chinese which helps me improve. I ended up being placed (hopefully, since today we had a re-placement test) in Wang Laoshi's and Xiao Laoshi's class who were the two teachers that taught at AU last year. It's great to have them and class is so much better here than it was in the US since it's all taught in Chinese and we get much more individual attention. I have 7 other kids in my class which is a nice size if you ask me.

China is a pretty amazing place. Every morning we wake up to "Old Suzanne" (the American children's song) played over a loudspeaker followed by hundreds of kids running outside to do their daily exercises. Going to class in the morning and seeing the crowds of people riding their bike to work and the crazy Beijing rush hour traffic is really out of a different world. Every day is an adventure trying to order at mega cafeterias that seat 1,000 people and are always almost completely full. You really just have to have a sense of humor when you're trying to get across what you want. Today I tried to order chicken and ended up with fish but it was only 5 kuai which is roughly 75 cents. It is pretty amazing to think about how much food costs here. Today I bought a banana from a street vendor for "ba mao", about 10 cents. Water is about the same price if you buy it at a store.

Yesterday I had another unexpected event that made me greater appreciate where I am. I was walking to We Mei to get some water with Charlie and Alison when we came upon a throng of children who seemed to be on a field trip. As they approached us they pointed in our direction and started to wave. Some of the kids would say "Hello, how are you?" We would say "Ni hao" back to them. It was a surreal experience and one that I probably won't forget after my time in Beijing. Tomorrow we are going to the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and Tiananmen Square. I think I'll pull my shirt up into my collar as I've seen a bunch of Beijing people do these last couple days. In the next decade or so you'll see everyone doing it. Watch out.

Beijing 一天（Day 1)

2007-07-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

Our first full day in Beijing was full of surprises. After being awakened by the pounding jackhammers working on some sort of Olympic facility nearby, I witnessed what was possibly the coolest event that I have seen thus far. All of a sudden music blasted from a loudspeaker directly outside our windows and hundreds of kids come pouring out of a school. They all lined up in formation and saluted and clapped upon their teacher's instruction. Eventually four kids came out holding a Chinese flag while the Chinese National Anthem began to play. By the end, everyone was in perfect formation saluting the flag. They then slowly filed out back into the school. It was a totally unexpected event that began my first real day in China. A few of us then embarked on our mission to find some food before the language placement exam. Eventually we went into We Mei (the Chinese equivalent of Wal-Mart) since everything seemed to be closed. We even tried to get into a 24 hour restaurant but it seemed to be closed. I ended up finding some tasty sesame rolls.

After the impossible language exam and finally seeing everyone on the program, I got to sit down with 王老师 (Wang Laoshi) who taught at AU last year. Then we went to lunch and talked with Beida students for a while. I discovered that the event that I witnessed at the school is commonplace throughout Beijing and thought of as showing honor to China. Later in the day I witnessed my first bike crash when two bikes collided head on. Good thing they weren't going fast and no one got hurt. We also saw 西门 (West Gate), on which Mao Zedong drew by hand the characters above the gate, one of the most famous symbols of Beida. Later on we met some Beida students just to make some contacts and build more guanxi (relationships that will someday benefit me). Tomorrow is the beginning of the language pledge in which I signed away my right to speak English for the next 8 weeks. In the words of Dr. Sun, the program director, "We saw, we studied, we conquered." This is what we should all think of at the end of the program. I guess we'll wait and see what happens. **SOME PICTURES ARE UP SO CHECK OUT THE LINK SECTION.

Beijing!

2007-07-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Walking in from customs was an experience in itself. I really felt as though I was stepping foot in a completely different world. Hundreds of people were crowded up against the rail holding signs and hollering out people's names in Chinese. It was a wild scene. Finally I found the sign for my program and went off in a taxi bus with the other kids in the program. I was a little bit shocked when I found that there were no seatbelts, especially because of all of the stories I heard about people's driving skills in China. Let me tell you, it was an adventure weaving between lanes and squeezing into spaces that looked to be closed off by the giant wave of cars converging from all directions. On the way to Beida we saw the National Stadium, which will be used for the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. It was incredible seeing the "Bird's Nest" up close with all of its twisting steel structures. Everyone (of the kids who arrived that afternoon) went to the Canting (cafeteria) for dinner. The food was great and it was nice to get to know some people on the program.

So later the real adventure started. After everyone went to bed, my roommate arrived after his 5 hour delayed flight and we decided to get internet access. The problem was we did not know the word for internet and how to explain very well what we wanted. The women at the front desk knew absolutely no English! Both of us were dead, but we we finally got her to understand (through lots of hand motions and other means). When we got back to the room we just laughed it off. It was an interesting experience and we both realized how little we actually know. Tomorrow will be our first full day and we will be able to see all of the campus. Wanan! (Good Night!)

***I will put up pictures soon when I have the chance...I am having trouble viewing the blog because it is being blocked by the firewall here. Hopefully you will be able to read my posts.

Somewhere in Canadian Air-Space: In Seat 33J

2007-07-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

After arriving at the airport, I sat down and read my book, a first-hand account of life during the Cultural Revolution. Soon a massive tour group from Montreal sat next to me. I overheard some conversations and butchered Chinese so I decided to step in and help them out a bit. Surprisingly they were really grateful for my help. They told me a bit about their month-long trip across China and it seemed to be the same one my grandparents are going on in a month. Cool stuff. On the flight I ended up sitting next to a Beijing businessman and his daughter. We didn’t speak much but whenever I took out my Chinese book he would say to his daughter, “You should be studying so that you’ll be able to understand stuff.” I guess I’m a positive influence on people. The choice for lunch (or should I say a tasty midnight snack) was Salmon or Fillet Minion. Needless to say I chose the Fillet Minion. The ban of all fish imports from China, breaking news on CNN while I was waiting in the airport, didn’t help my choice. So guess what came with the Fillet Minion? A fortune cookie! Why would Continental put a fortune cookie in the meal? I’ll be pondering that question for the next month. I couldn’t stop myself from cracking up because Fortune Cookies don’t exist in China. Then the moment of truth came. I opened the cookie and these ominous words of wisdom appeared on a strip of paper: “The best are not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best.” [turn over fortune] “Learn Chinese” “Xiang-nian ni” [English translation] “Miss you.” And this is how my journey to China begins.

1 Day and Change Before Beijing

2007-06-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

Last night my home team, the Boston Celtics, had a chance to pick the best Chinese player since Yao Ming. Yi Jianlian was heralded as the next great hope for Chinese basketball, but the C's passed. Instead we traded a few players for all-star Ray Allen and my boy from LSU, "Big Baby" Glen Davis! I believe the sun will rise again for the Celtics franchise...someday (as Communism did for China under Mao). Hopefully we're moving in the right direction.

Well, the bags are packed and its go time. It took most of the day today to fit everything in my luggage. Today marked the first time I've had to weigh my bags for a flight. Pretty strange if you ask me. Speaking of strange, one strange sighting was seeing a super-size package of 24 rolls of toilette paper in my luggage. Another first for trip packing. I guess you never know when a roll of toilette paper will come in handy (ie. when you're out in the countryside and there's a big hole in the ground). Sometimes you've just got to do your business when the conditions aren't so favorable.

So this is my last blog post before Bejing. I'll be in the air for about 25 hours (if you're counting the 12 hour time change, the flight is only 13 hours long...only 13 hours long). I see it as 25 hours. So the language pledge begins...NO ENGLISH or you go home. It's as simple as that. 5 hours of Chinese/day, 3 hours of Chinese/week of chatter with the locals, >50 new Chinese characters/day. All that spells I-N-T-E-N-S-E. BUT I'M PSYCHED! It's going to be great. China for 6 months. Let's Go. 走把！

3 Days Before Beijing

2007-06-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday is edging closer and I'm still not packed yet. It is a slow process, trying to think of what to pack for six months. Well, most of my clothes are laid out on the floor next to my luggage so hopefully I will have everything ready to go tonight.

Anyway, this morning started out with about six simultaneous Skype calls and Windows Messenger messages from people in China. iTalki is great and all for practicing Chinese with native speakers, but this event was probably the craziest experience of my life thus far. It is incredible how many people want to practice their English with me. After talking with Chinese college students for a few days, it seems to me they only studying in their free time. One important thing I have learned from iTalki is that the Chinese wake up earlier and go to bed earlier than most Americans. At around 10:30am (10:30pm Chinese time) almost everyone said they had to go to sleep. The other day I was online at 7:00pm (7am their time) and I already had a message on Skype waiting for me. Most of the kids I was talking with were in college, so they were around my age.

One last thing to mention. Everyone seems to be talking about the great underground rock scene in China, especially in Beijing. The more that I've heard, the more psyched I'm getting. Yesterday my friend Charlie told me about the most famous Chinese rock musician, Cui Jian, who happens to have grown up in Beijing. He is the legendary Chinese artist that broke away from traditional styles and incorporated a Western influences into his music. Old Cui is known as "The Father of Chinese Rock." I can tell you now that I'm already a big fan. In my view he is a cross between Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. What do you think he sounds like? Decide for yourself:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l8UPST1ZKSw&mode=related&search=

Countdown Clock

2007-06-27T08:42:00.001-07:00

Countdown To Beijing

4 Days Before Beijing

2007-06-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. Time sure does fly. The months of anticipation are finally coming to a head and I can almost picture a hazy outline of the Beijing airport. Last week my friend Charlie showed me a website called italki.com, which allows you to connect with people around the world and create language partners. Since then I have already made connections with students and teachers around the Beijing. It not only has helped me practice for the Intensive Chinese Immersion Program this summer, but has raised my anticipation level even higher. Just the other day I was talking with a Chinese teacher in Beijing and she was telling me about all of the things I should do there. She even gave me her contact information in case I need help with something while I am in Beijing!

Alright, so I am going to try to update this blog every day if I am near a computer. In the links section, I'll be adding sites that I find interesting. For now, I put up a link to my pictures in China that will hopefully be up-to-date. Make sure you check out the bar of YouTube videos above this post. Occasionally I will change it up when I feel the time is right. At the moment you're getting a little segment I am calling "I'm Livin' On Chinese Rock." Enjoy and leave me some comments! If there's anything you want to know about or have any other questions for me, let me know.