More pictures!

Catching up on pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002755&l=642f5&id=1181220088

苏州 - Suzhou

Our group took our third and final program trip together and visited the city of Suzhou. Like most of the cities we visit in China, Suzhou is a very ancient city. It was once a capital of the Spring and Autumn Period, where the King Helu humbling named the city the Great City of Helu. The city is most famous for its gardens and landscaping. Walking through the center of town, we crossed many beautiful canals and little picturesque streets. We stayed at a very nice hostel that was right along a pedestrian street that followed a canal. It gave the city a kind of cozy feeling for me, even though it rained on our last day there. The highlights of the trip included a visit to the Suzhou Museum and the Humble Administrator's Garden. Both are best shown through pictures, so you can look through my facebook album at your leisure.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002713&l=59b38&id=1181220088

Happy Thanksgiving!

The semester is coming to its inevitable end! Craziness! Like all semesters, time has picked up speed since the first few weeks. A lot has been going on, but unfortunately this blogging site never loads very well because of the slow internet. Because of this, I'm quite behind in things that I want to share. To make up for this, I will give a quick update of some of my recent activities.

Thanksgiving was just a while ago and rolled around without much of a fuss. It's kind of strange to go to class on days like Thanksgiving, but at the same time, no one was making a big deal about it. (Except the Americans, who had to complain a little bit about going to class.) I can feel the same thing happening with Christmas. Even though I'm sure the holiday season is in full swing in the States, including baking, music, lights, and of course shopping, there's nothing much happening here to hint that Christmas is approaching. It's not even very cold. It dipped below freezing a few nights ago, but otherwise we are having pretty mild weather. I don't expect to see Hangzhou covered in snow. They did have a very heavy snowfall last January, and I'm sure the city was gorgeous covered in snow. The city is very pretty now too. The crisp cool weather goes nicely with the changing colors of the leaves. When I look out our hallway windows, I can see a still very green hill in the background, with auburn red leaves right next to our building. Very pretty. I'll have to go down to West Lake soon to see how the leaves are changing there as well.

Assemble the dumplings!

Back to the topic of Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving last Friday night by getting together with all the students on our program, our program director, and his son who did most of the great cooking. For dinner we ate some nicely prepared duck and lots of jiaozi or dumplings. We all worked for our dinner by helping to assemble the dumplings. Since we made lots of dumplings, we got to eat lots of dumplings! We also had some fruit, sugar cane, and chocolate to snack on. Even if it didn't feel like Thanksgiving, we had a very fun, cozy night together!

Our handiwork

上海 = Shanghai!

A few weeks ago our group took a weekend trip to Shanghai. It was a quick trip, but we got to see some really great sights. The nice thing is that Shanghai is just an hour and a half train ride away!

Here are some highlights from the trip!

Our first night in Shanghai, we went to a very nice restaurant and had dinner. It is very fun to have elaborate dinners like these, especially on Central's tab. :) Dinner included some delicious tuna sashimi and amazing scallops...I didn't even know I liked scallops!

Sashimi sculpture and scallop treasures

Our first night also included a walk to the Bund, an area along the river that runs through Shanghai. This area is close to the seaports that made Shanghai the entrance point for many Westerners in earlier years. Because of this, the Bund has mainly very European-looking buildings. It was a little strange to walk around and sometimes get the feeling that we were transported to Europe!

European architecture along the Bund

The Bund is also a great place to see the famous Shanghai skyline. They are constantly building in Shanghai and the skyline has some very tall buildings. One of the most recognizable is the Pearl Tower. The skyline also shows the tallest building in China, the Shanghai World Financial Center. This is one of the tallest in the world.

In front of the "Pearl"

Our trip also included an interesting tour around the Shanghai Modern Art Museum. The Museum was right on People's Square in an old brick building....covered in technicolor ants. The ants were actually an exhibit. The museum was pretty amusing to look through and there were a lot of multimedia exhibits. Most of the time I just had to smile and enjoy other people's enjoyment of the art because I had a hard time appreciating the art. The Chinese people in the museum really liked taking pictures in front of all the art, especially big dinosaur/people sculptures on one floor. Needless to say, the museum fulfilled my need for modern art for a few years.

Dinosaur sculptures with human heads
Some examples of life imitating art

They are very busy in Shanghai getting ready for the 2010 World Expo. We visited an Urban Planning Museum that showed all the elaborate buildings and setups they will have for 2010. One of my favorite buildings that they are planning is the China exhibition hall, which is basically an upside down pagoda. Another reason to come back to visit China!

All in all, we had a really great time in Shanghai. The weekend went quickly, but I felt like I got a good feel of the city. Shanghai was very different from Hangzhou and even Beijing. With all the Western-influence architecture, we always knew we were in a totally different city. Walking around at night, the city glows with colorful signs and lights in every direction. Also, we saw tons of foreigners in Shanghai, many tourists but also many who live and work in the city. Because of this, we got to eat some western foods that we wouldn't normally find in Hangzhou. (Chicken panini and root beer! yummm...)

If only...

The Chinese really like to spit. I remember walking around during my first week in China, and hearing a violent and alarming noise. It sounded like a small furry animal getting sucked into a vacuum and shot back out. It turned out it was just someone gathering some phlegm and spitting it out onto the sidewalk. It was my first time of many to hear that noise. Whenever we go out and walk around, we usually see many people releasing some phlegm-age. Each time I see them do this, I'm more and more convinced that I probably can't even spit like they do. Somehow it seems like they are cleansing themselves from deep within. They might even think that we're gross because we spend our lives swallowing our spit. I do know that if the Olympics would have had a Spitting event, we would have been dominated... the Chinese are phlegm champions.

More Dormitory Exploring

Here are some more features of my dorm room.



I have troubadours outside my room! This is Corey showing Kalah how his "guqin" works.




This is my awesome, tiny homework book. This is where I practice my characters and write sentences. Oh yeah, Mickey is hardcore.




This is my first assigned essay in my Chinese class. It is about introducing my lovely family! (If you are a Renes, you must learn Chinese to know what I have to say about you!)




The final feature in my Chinese dorm room. Here, I have a cell phone. I finally, somewhat reluctantly, entered the new millenium.... with the cheapest cell phone I could buy. I mostly use it as an alarm clock.

Thank you for joining me in this short tour of my dorm room in China!

Dormitory Exploring - Food and Drink

I decided to show some of the small details of my dorm room that show something about my time in China. There are a few things here in my room that you probably wouldn't find in my dorm room in the U.S. Let's take a look...



A Chinese staple, the water boiler. These are an essential here in China. You'll find them in hotels, we had them on our train, and I'm guessing there are in every home in the country. I can fill this up with boiling water at the end of the hallway. It keeps the water really hot for about a day. My boiler is pink and lovely.




My Chinese dorm room is stocked with tea! Right now I have some longjin green tea, which Hangzhou is famous for, and some perfumed tea. My tea cup has a filter that keeps me from chugging the tea leaves.




Cantaloupe gum! It's tasty.




Liquids are always good. Here in China I buy a lot of bottled water. Also, I like to get this orange juice. If you can tell from the label, it's the Minute Maid brand, but it's pretty different from U.S. orange juice because it's suuuper pulpy. But I do happen to like chewy juice. The middle bottle is a new discovery....apple flavor milk! It's actually more like a yogurt drink. I think it might be healthy because it has half of the word "nutritional" on it. Sometime it's hard to know.




Korean lunch to go! We have three Korean restaurants really close to our dorm and have been eating there more often lately. I like these sushi rolls that have ham, egg, and veggies. Also, it's not a Korean meal without some spicy kimchi.

What kind of massage?

I thought this was an amusing sign. I assumed it was a poor translation but found out there is actually some meaning behind it. In China, there is a tradition of having blind masseurs since you are usually not clothed while getting a massage. This way, you can maintain decency and still get a good massage! Not all massage places are like this, but if I want a blind masseur, I know where to go!

Digging into Chinese!

大家好！

As can be expected, my days have been filled with a lot of Chinese language study. It’s going pretty well, and I feel like I’m picking up words and grammar more quickly as time goes on. It was slow going at first, but now I’m starting to get more and more confident with speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It’s been really interesting studying a language in such a different language family. There are so many differences and “Chinese surprises” that keep me on my toes. Here are some of the most unique parts of my language study so far.

One of the most important parts of Chinese is the use of tones. They are very challenging to learn, but they also make Chinese very melodic. Tones are basically the different pitches used in speaking. There are four tones (plus one neutral tone) that make Chinese words differ in meaning. We have tones in English, but they mostly give nonverbal information about our sentences, like emphasis, surprise, or questioning. In Chinese, saying a word with a different tone usually makes it a completely different word. The common example is that saying “ma” four different ways can mean horse, mother, scold, or linen. For another example, today in our listening class we learned about the different kinds of teas. Green tea ( 渌茶 )is pronounced “lü cha” with “lü” as a falling tone. If you ask for some green tea, but accidentally pronounce “lü” with a rising tone, you are asking for donkey tea. This does not exist, and you probably don’t want to tempt them into creating that concoction for you. A lot of times as a language learner, you can depend on the fact that people will know what you’re saying because of context, but to be really clear you have to be very aware of your tones.

This is a really good link to see how tones work and what they sound like in Chinese. And there’s a game so you can test your tonal skills!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/games/tones.shtml

As we often say in class, 汉语语法不太难，汉字很难 - “Hanyu yufa bu tai nan, Hanzi hen nan.” In English, "Chinese grammar is not too hard, Chinese characters are very hard." Chinese grammar really isn’t too hard for a few reasons. First, Chinese tends to stick with single-morphemes, words without added parts. For example, verbs don’t have any conjugation to accommodate tense or the subject; tense is shown in context or with a word added. Also, while we like to chock our English sentences full of information, adverbs, and so forth, the Chinese tend to say just as much in fewer words. In English, we even borrowed the very efficient Chinese phrase 好久不见 – hao jiu bu jian --- or “long time no see.” There’s no denying that “long time no see” gets the point across that “I have not seen you in a long time.” We learned in class that if you plan to go see the doctor you can say 我要看病 - “wo yao kan bing.” Literally each word is “I want to see/look sick.” While this seems a little strange, it makes sense in Chinese because you’re saying that you are sick and you are going to go show the doctor that you are sick.

Measure words are another part of Chinese that is pretty interesting. There’s not much of an equivalent in English. Basically, measure words are always needed when saying there are a certain number of an object. In English, we can say “three books” or “five people,” but in Chinese you always need to put a measure word in between the number and the noun. It’s kind of like when we say “three pairs of pants” or “two pieces of paper.” Measure words can be pretty tricky in Chinese because there are many, many different ones for all the different kinds of nouns. The most common measure word (and the fall-back if you can’t remember the right one) is “ge” 个. There are lots more though, such as a measure word for books (“ben” 本), a measure word for things that are paper, but thinner than books like maps or newspapers (“zhang” 张), different measure words for drinks (“bei”杯，”ping”瓶，”he”盒), a measure word for writing utensils (“zhi” 枝), a measure word for vehicles (“liang” 辆), etc., etc. It can be a little daunting to try to remember all of the unique measure words. It’s just one of those things that you have to memorize until it’s instinctive. The cool part about measure words is that it sometimes shows how the Chinese categorize things a little differently than we probably would. For example, the measure word “tiao” 条 is used for snakes, rivers, pants, skirts, dragons, and noodles. It seems like a funny combination, but all of the objects are long and flowing. Makes sense, right?

Another part of Chinese that can be pretty amusing is the transliteration of certain words. Sometimes, these words sound pretty close to English, but it is different enough to be entertaining. For example, the Chinese really, really love their KFC. Here in China, the restaurant is called “kuhn-duh-gee” like Kentucky. Chocolate is “chow-kuh-lee.” One of my favorites, hamburger is pronounced “han-bow-bow.” A jacket is a “geeya-kuh.” We just learned today that if you say you drive a “gee-poo” car, you are the proud owner of a Jeep. I probably laughed the most when I heard the transliteration of Harry Potter, which goes something like “hah-lee boh-tuh.” It’s fun to hear these kinds of words that are reminiscent of English while keeping a distinct Chinese sound.

Between tones, grammar, and measure words, I’m keeping busy with Chinese! I study quite a bit to keep up with my classes and try to use as much Chinese as I can when I’m out and about. I’m not expecting to master the language while I’m here, but I think it will be a great souvenir that I’ll take home with me!

So for now, 再见！Bye!

In Bloom

The light slips through the trees and lands on the orange-zested ground. The air is buzzing with the smell of sweet nectar. I walk around the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens, and I am one of many who came to see the signs of the new season. The trees and ground are speckled orange and golden yellow with tiny flowers. Cooler weather in Hangzhou has started the shift from summer to fall, and these flowers are more signs of autumn --- cheerful and downward-floating. The osmanthus are in bloom.

I set out this afternoon with a book, water, and some snacks in my backpack. I was going to the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens beyond the west side of our campus, just a fifteen-minute walk. The night before, our program director had told us to start looking for osmanthus around Hangzhou. As he told us, osmanthus is the city flower of Hangzhou and usually blooms in early October. The sweet osmanthus tree is an evergreen that is very typical Chinese, and so the name doesn’t translate very well into English. In Chinese, the tree’s flowers are called “guihua.” After walking through the garden’s main gate, I could already smell something new --- I had found osmanthus! I slipped under the shade of the grove and took in my surroundings.

An old Chinese saying goes, “When osmanthus flowers bloom, happy events will come.” The blooms of “guihua” are associated with happiness for several reasons. I understood the enjoyment of the flowers very soon after I started walking around the grove. Though the “guihua” had just begun to bloom, the ground was already a carpet of creamsicle-orange blooms. It looked like a warm-weathered orange snowfall. Some trees had golden osmanthus blossoms, which blended a sunny yellow with orange. Slight breezes delicately brought down more flowers as I walked down the path. Chinese families and friends gathered in clusters in the shade, sitting at tables and drinking tea or picnicking on the ground. It was amusing to walk past and notice the people who had been sitting at their tables the longest --- the orange blossoms really stand out when gathered on top of a head of black hair.

Another enjoyable part of osmanthus is the sweet fragrance. My guidebook refers to the smell as “intoxicatingly fragrant,” and this is not too far from the truth. The little blooms have a surprisingly powerful smell, which is very sweet and borders on citrusy. Besides tickling the nose, the fragrant osmanthus is also practical. The flowers can make a sweet glace soup, osmanthus wine, and even perfume. It’s no wonder that the sound “gui” in “guihua” can mean valuable, as well as honorable and distinguished.

The positive enjoyment of the osmanthus flowers can be seen through years of Chinese history. An old folktale tells of sweet osmanthus trees growing on the moon and showering blossoms on temples and mountains. Those in the temples saw the blossoms as gifts from heaven. From this tale, feudal Chinese had the saying that anyone who passed the highest imperial examinations had “plucked the osmanthus branch from the moon.” Throughout history, the blossoms have continued to represent goodwill.

I walked further around the garden and found a seat to enjoy the scene. Through the osmanthus trees, gentle strains of light fell on those around me. Two older women napped on a bench while a third woman knitted. Chinese of all ages played cards and peeled fruit and shelled seeds. The delicate osmanthus blooms fell on each person. The colorful seeds didn’t miss one head of hair. In the relaxed and cheerful atmosphere, it was easy to imagine that life falls like the osmanthus --- tiny, fragrant bits of goodwill.

Back from Beijing!

We’re back! After a week in Beijing, all of us Central students have returned “home” to Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. The trip was very full: full of new sights, lots of walking, good food, and pictures. As the capital city of China and historical hotspot, Beijing had a lot to offer us. We got in on some very cool history, some wall climbing, and people pushing. I’ll try to fill you in on the highlights and new things that we learned.

The first highlight of the trip was the opportunity to see a new part of China. Just as the different sections of the U.S. have distinctions, there are a lot of variances between the regions of China. I wish I could say I knew some of these differences, but I’ve spent most of my time in Hangzhou, which is in the southeast corner of the country. Beijing is in the northeast corner of China; the character for “bei” in Beijing means “north.” A few things changed significantly after we went north. While it’s been really warm in Hangzhou this whole semester, Beijing was really nice and cool. We were happy to shiver a little bit since we sometimes felt like we were melting in Hangzhou. It always seemed a little foggy in Beijing but this was the “haze” that comes from the pollution in the area. Many of us had a hard time getting used to the difference in air quality and many got colds, coughs, and runny noses. Everyone survived though, and we enjoyed a couple of really nice clear days towards the end of our trip. Another change in the new environment was a little difference in accent. While Standard Mandarin Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect, the Beijinger’s tend to put an “r” sound at the end of lots more words. It was fun to pick up on a few of these differences between the regions.

Many, many people

Seeing 1 billion Chinese in 7 days

Beijing also introduced the new concept of an infinite number of people. Since our trip to Beijing was right around a national holiday, we shared Beijing with many, many Chinese tourists from all around the country. Beijing is already a very populated city. We spent a lot of time on the subway and had some fun experiences with being pushed and packed to make space for the greatest number of bodies. Our most crowded experience came in the Forbidden City, which made us realize the irony that it should be called the Least Forbidden City. Because we had so many crowds around us, we got a taste of some good Chinese nonverbal communication. Namely pushing and getting jostled around. When we visited the Beijing Museum, many of us were frustrated by people who would literally push us out of the way to see something better. I was also getting frustrated but I felt a lot better after a woman accidentally bumped into me, apologized, and then her cute little son apologized to me in English. While things like this bothered us, we took it with a grain of salt. I even became more aggressive when I walked through crowds, otherwise I would have gotten far behind the rest of my group. I could sense my idea of the “pushing practice” changing. With hundreds of people at a subway station, the flow of people would be so much slower if everyone stopped to let others in front of them and worried about bumping into each other. With the Chinese mindset, an empty subway can be filled in less than 10 seconds. Of course, aggressiveness is sometimes counterproductive like when people push onto a subway car before they let the other people off.

We conquered the Great Wall!

The Sights

Of course a big part of our trip to Beijing was seeing the sights. My favorite day by far was the Great Wall. Mao Zedong is quoted as saying that you are not a real man until you climb the Great Wall. We were all happy to become real men. We left early in the morning to get to the Great Wall and were driven by one of David’s friends Mr. Li. Right away, we knew Mr. Li was awesome when he stood up to a lazy guard at our hotel in heroic style. We all cheered. He also possessed the great Chinese ability to be a really aggressive and yet a miraculously safe driver. He and another driver drove us a few hours out to a less crowded stretch of the Great Wall. The weather was nice and cool and relatively clear. We climbed around for a good three or four hours, taking pictures and taking it in. Of course, it was beautiful. I had to keep reminding myself how much history was in each step we were climbing. It was fun to look out and try to imagine how far the wall stretches, compared to the little part that we walked along. We were all glad that we weren’t messengers who had to run along the stations of the wall.

Sadly, our program director David lost his famous cowboy hat to the wind. We all grieved over the fact that our leader would no longer have his signature hat, especially since it helped us find him in big crowds. After we climbed the Wall, some of us decided to take a zip line down across a body of water in the valley right by the Wall. It was a quick ride, but a great view. Also, a little less walking on our poor feet!

Chicken dinner!

After the Wall we had a “late lunch” in a nearby village. Since the village was so close to the Chinese border, it also had an ancient wall for protection. This kept the village closed in and those who lived there had to park their cars in an outside parking lot and then walk through the narrow streets. We were able to walk on top of the wall and peek in on the courtyards and gardens of the homes. It really opened our eyes to a new, more rural side of China. We had dinner in the courtyard of one of the homes. It was a delicious late lunch (at 6:00pm) and we filled up on meat, fresh veggies, rice, and mantou (steamed buns). We even got to see killing and preparation of the two chickens in our dinner. We drove home and slept very well that night.

Imbibing knowledge from David

Treasures of China

Other highlights of the trip include the historical parts of Beijing. Our first night in China we went to Tiananmen Square and saw the front of the Forbidden City all lit up. We were also able to see the Temple of Heaven, a very beautiful and huge complex built during the Ming Dynasty. We were also able to visit the Capital Museum, which housed hundreds of artifacts of Chinese culture and history. My favorite part of the museum was an exhibit called the Treasure Room that had examples of Chinese treasures such as calligraphy, painting, jade, carved ivory, and religious statues.


Tourist pose in front of the Temple of Heaven

One of the biggest attractions in Beijing is the Forbidden City. This is the huge complex in the middle of the city where the emperors of China lived. We walked through some of the city and got an idea for just how huge the palace was. There are huge courtyards and ornately decorated buildings throughout. As we could see, the emperor was well protected and well taken care of. Before the trip, we watched a movie that showed the life of the last emperor of China (called The Last Emperor) and I reverted back to scenes in the movie to try to imagine the Forbidden City without the crowds: just one emperor and hundreds of people devoted to him.

Forbidden City

Mmmm…yummy

The last highlight of our Beijing trip was the food. We had some great meals, including some new foods. My favorite meal was mushroom hot pot at a restaurant specializing in lots of varieties of mushrooms. The basis of hot pot is that it is a big soup that is cooked in front of you, and things are added right at your table. Our hot pot had a chicken, five different kinds of mushroom, green vegetables, and lastly, lamb slices. The broth was delicious, and I loved the mushrooms even though I’ve never liked them very much before. We also tried some Peking duck on one of our last nights. Beijing is famous for this dish. You can eat these slices of duck with a special sauce, some cucumber and onion, and then package it up in a paper-thin bread wrap. I’m glad to still be trying lots of new Chinese foods. Still, since we’re a group of American students we often talk about and share our food cravings. We all miss cheese terribly as well as sandwiches and pasta. One night in Beijing, we went to a restaurant called Cat’s Eye Pizza where we enjoyed some very authentic Western food. We were almost glad the restaurant wasn’t in Hangzhou because it would be too tempting to go there everyday!

Going Home

We wrapped up our Beijing trip with a trip to a few Buddhist and Confucian temples and dinner at our hotel. Our way from Hangzhou to Beijing and back was an overnight train. Thankfully, we got sleeper cars both times and had a pretty relaxing ride. I had a strange experience on the way back since I had the bottom bunk and mostly one Chinese family as neighbors. As I groggily woke up on the train, I realized that the whole family of six was sitting around me, one on my bed, and they were all watching me. The Chinese sometimes stare at us with a look that seems very close to amazement. It’s a look that is usually too fascinated and innocent to seem rude. This is the look that I was getting as I tried to wake up. They ended up being a very nice family who quickly sent their daughter to get me hot water when I started to try to make coffee. They also shared their food with me, and I taught them some origami when they looked curiously at the origami we had made the night before. It was fun to try out some of my Chinese with them and get to know their names and where they lived.

The rest of the trip home we filled with talking, snacks, Yahtzee, coloring, and relaxing. It was a good time to think about the trip that was wrapping up. We got to see so much while we were in Beijing. For me it was the kind of week filled with experiences that helped me keep some perspective of my time in China. I realized that there are so many facets in Chinese culture and people yet to be discovered. Since I live in an international dorm, it’s sometimes easy for me to see the Chinese as a big clumped-together group. It’s humbling for me to admit that I group the people of China together so much. I think there’s a barrier created by language, outer appearances, and those cultural differences that I don’t quite understand or put my finger to quite yet. Also, I’m dealing with a lot of changes and I think I instinctively simplify my concept of the Chinese people together to give my brain some rest. But I want to get to know more families like the one on the train and break down the barrier some more. I want to talk to some more people who have all different perspectives of China and life in general. Obviously the richness of culture is not in sameness but diversity, and I have to reach out to see more of that diversity. It will take some work.

We start classes again this week and will continue climbing the great wall of the Chinese language. My week in Beijing was a good, tiring, and full one. I am very lucky to see everything that I did and have this amazing Chinese experience!

Putting the "study" in study abroad

Classes have started!

And now begins my formal education in China. Last week Tuesday, after two weeks of settling in, we finally began classes. I was really glad when we got started because a big reason I’m here in China is to dig into the language as much as possible. The first few weeks here I heard a lot of Chinese but wasn’t able to absorb or practice very much of it. It was all a little overwhelming and very easy to rely on people in the group who knew a lot of Chinese. Now with classes I’m more motivated to try out more Chinese.

A big challenge has been getting over the anxiety of saying things incorrectly. I tend to not say anything if I’m not sure if I can say it right. My host family in the Netherlands teased me that I didn’t say much of anything in Dutch until I started speaking in completely full and correct sentences. This was pretty much the case. I really wanted to observe and grasp the language as much as possible before jumping in. Now I’m doing my best to jump in a little earlier so that I can learn from my mistakes. As a rule, no one really enjoys learning from mistakes, but I’m hoping for good results. Also, I am hoping for a lot of very patient Chinese speakers. --- Just wait for it…I will eventually reach the end of the sentence.

Language classes span the week from Monday to Friday, from 8:00 to 11:30. On Tuesday our class is in the afternoon instead of morning. I was put in level 1.5 after some placement tests. The oral exam was short, but the written exam made my brain ache after four months of school-free summer. My brain is fine now, and its contained Chinese knowledge was pretty well matched up to the right level. Our first week of classes has been moderately intense review of many characters and things I learned in last year’s beginning Chinese. We’re reviewing the goodies like greetings, introductions, money, family, and food. I have to work the most at remembering the characters that go along with the words we’re learning. We have three different teacher: for comprehensive Chinese, listening, and speaking. All of our teachers are Chinese women who are really very nice, but mean business. Our comprehensive teacher isn’t opposed to giving extra homework to those late for class. She is very good at explaining grammar points though and noticed the day that I had a bad cold and kindly told me to drink lots of water and rest. Our speaking teacher is a ball of energy whose voice could break through the walls. There’s no way we miss the tones of the words when she’s talking. We got to introduce our family with a picture in class the other day, and she was so amazed how handsome and beautiful (shuai, piaoliang) everyone in my picture was. She has a way of saying things with her eyes almost as big as her voice that makes “so beautiful, so handsome” very funny.



While classes have just started, we actually have a little vacation coming up. Next week is a week-long national holiday, which is when most in China will get out of school and work and go visit family and travel. We are having school Saturday and Sunday this week to make up the vacation time. Our group, however, leaves Saturday night for Beijing! As comes with the Central China program package, we are spending a week in Beijing. We leave by train Saturday night, and will travel for about 14 hours. The agenda for the week includes the Forbidden Palace, the Great Wall, the old and new royal palaces, and a great restaurant where we’ll have some Peking duck. I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m sure it will be an amazing, exhausting, scenic, and incredible trip. Actually, those adjectives probably sum up my time in China so far. Now, as I continue with classes, I should probably add “educational” to the mix. What’s a study abroad without a little studying?

Picture time!

Today is a day off. As we've scooted around town the past few days, it is very nice to have this Sunday to relax. Yesterday was a different kind of day. After trying out a new Szechuan restaurant for lunch and enjoying the food and low cost, we headed back to our dorm. We realized we hadn't left much time before we had to meet for our outing and we had to buy our books before we left. Thankfully, most of us did find our books and bought them in time. It was amazing to be able to buy all my books for about twenty dollars instead of hundreds of dollars. No ridiculous markup here!

After book buying, we took off for a tour of the Xixi Wetlands. Our tour was put together by people who work for a local English-language magazine about China and Hangzhou called InTouch. They shuttled us to the wetlands in buses and even gave us some drinks and moon cakes for the occasion! This weekend is Mid-Autumn Festival, where families get together to celebrate and eating different kinds of moon cakes is very important. They are pretty tasty; they are dense pastry cakes filled with nuts, bean paste, egg yolk, or even meat. We arrived at the Wetlands Park and we were provided with umbrellas since it was raining. We all laughed at how wet we were becoming on our wetlands trip. We then took a boat tour around the wetlands. It really is a pretty big area and we saw some birds and one flying fish. The strange thing about our tour was the photographers and cameramen that followed us and recorded our tour. InTouch magazine did the tour for us for free and apparently, it was a pretty big publicity opportunity for them. So, much of our night was recorded and we were quite spoiled with attention.

After the tour we had a great supper with lots of dishes we couldn't name right away. We ended up with twenty-some dishes at our table...way too much food than we could ever eat. I tried abalone for the first and last time. Then, we were given a very nice Chinese tea set as a gift for coming. And then, our entertainment started up. Two craftsmen starting working in our room and made gifts for us. One man could make figures out of reeds and I got a very nice dragonfly from him. He basically made it in three minutes. We watched the other man for a long time. He made clay figurines on sticks, which doesn't sound impressive, but we were mesmerized. He could make the most ornate figures in 5-10 minutes without any problem. His hands and figures worked so fast that sometimes I looked away and all the sudden a figure he had been working on would suddenly have full arms and legs. The most fun thing was that he could take requests and make anything you could name without hesitation. People in our group got dragons, a bear, rhino, tiger, and turtle. I asked for a panda and got a very cute panda holding some bamboo. We were quite amazed by him and ecstatic with our free gifts!

I've been taking lots of pictures these past few weeks and thought I'd share them for all those who are not on facebook. These links should work for sharing. The pictures and comments will probably fill in the nooks and crannies of things I haven't fit into my blog yet. Enjoy!

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002433&l=719e8&id=1181220088

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002468&l=4c89f&id=1181220088

Up, Down, All Around

Saturday has come and another week in China is wrapping up. Classes haven’t started yet and this has given our group lots of time to see some sights in Hangzhou. The past week we’ve been going on half-day outings to see some things around the city.

On Sunday, we went down to a crafts market where lots of Chinese handicrafts are sold. The market was a bustling place and was full of authentic antiques and some cheaper, less authentic items. The Chinese really have a lot of special traditional crafts and goods. We looked for a long time at a small shop that had paper cuts. While the name “paper cuts” doesn’t bring up very positive imagery, they really are beautiful. Paper cuts are basically designs cut out of really thin, usually red paper. The designs are more intricate than you could ever imagine cutting with a scissors. This tradition of paper cutting goes back thousands of years to the Han Dynasty and the designs are most often used as decorations around the house. The paper will be cut into Chinese designs or characters such as the one for fortune.

Some other crafts include woodcarving, silk, jewelry, fans, and paintings. The paintings are lush watercolors with village scenes or dragons or tigers. Wherever you look around the crafts market, there are a lot of colors and textures. It was really interesting to notice the change that occurred after we went to eat and came back down the street at night. There was a lot more music and lanterns and smells that came out. It’s funny how a certain place can have an entirely different personality at a different time of day.

Another highlight from the week included the Lingyin Temple. We hopped on a bus to go to this site of many Buddhist temples. We walked through lots of grottos where all different buddhas were carved into the stone. Then we walked through all the temples where more ornate shrines were built. The temples were tall and incredibly decorated. Many people seemed to be just passing through as tourists, but many others would kneel on the pillows by the shrines to pray to the Buddha. The smell of incense started to get to me after a while, but it was an interesting walk-through.

It was interesting to consider the importance of the temples to the Chinese. I couldn’t help but wonder how many looked on the temples as a historical building, a spiritual site, or simply a beautiful structure. Obviously from my standing, the building were really ornate, beautiful, and historical, but not much more. As I looked around at some of the Chinese, I couldn’t tell what they thought about it. I would imagine many to be proud to see such a cultural beauty from there country. Some might not be Buddhists at all but feel the desire to pray to the statues there out of a sudden feeling of spirituality. I’ve studied a little about Christianity in China, but not much about Buddhism so I can’t make too many guesses.

One of our last outings this week was a visit to the Tiger Spring and Pagoda of Six Harmonies. It was an interesting day. The Tiger Spring is where stories say that two tigers dug up a spring and the water that came out was the best water for a special kind of tea. After we saw that spring, some of our group decided that they wanted to go through the hills to get to the Pagoda of Six Harmonies. This meant a two-hour sweaty hike up and down and across the hills. It’s still quite warm and muggy in Hangzhou, so needless to say we were a little tired and uncomfortable. I’ve never been a big hiker so I did my best. My best including a lot of panting and sweating and occasionally dropping to sit on a flat rock. We made it however and the scenery was incredibly gorgeous as we hiked. Then we climbed to the top of the pagoda and got a 360 degree view of Hangzhou and the big river that divides the newer part of town. We were quite proud of ourselves, or at least I was, for surviving that far. Sometimes, it takes a lot of feeling awful to get to the point where you can feel good about accomplishing something. A nice view at the end doesn’t hurt. As the semester continuing to pick up speed, valleys, and hills, I hope the view at the end is a great one.

Food is...

Food is so many things at one time. In health magazines, they say you should just think of food as fuel and an energy source for the next workout. How can it be that simple though? Food fills in so many aspects of living. Food is a comfort; smells, tastes, textures evoke the desire to settle into memories of the familiar and linger there just a while. Food is a past time; I don't think I am the only one guilty of eating when I'm bored. Food is a social activity. Sitting elbow to elbow, people are brought closer by the food they eat together. Lastly, food is a physical need. No one can do without it for more than a few days.

Seeing as food presents itself in so many parts of life, I am encountering a new kind of eating lifestyle in China. Food here has been filling in the many needs of my life. As with all new lifestyles, it has required some bravery and adjustments. All in all, I've liked the food so far. It's funny to think about the Chinese food that I'm eating here and the Chinese food that I often had in the States. In some ways, it's very different but in other ways it feels like I should have fortune cookies at the end of every meal.

There are a few staples that I am enjoying quite a bit. Of course, I have been eating lots of rice. I'm becoming used to having this as my daily staple instead of bread. Still, I like to have some bread with peanut butter in the morning for breakfast. The interesting thing about rice is that in restaurants it is brought out a long while after the main dishes. This is customary because the restaurant doesn't want you to think that it is trying to fill you up with rice and be too full to try its dishes. It's a matter of pride and goes back to an old tradition of rice being for the lower classes.

Along with rice, tea is a must. I am really enjoying drinking lots of tea and trying some really good varieties. I'll have instant coffee every once in a while, but since tea is so much more Chinese, I'm trying to make the switch. We haven't gone to a tea house yet, but I'm excited to see more of China's tea culture. Tea houses require a big time commitment since it's expected that you stay for three to four hours just talking, drinking tea, and eating from complimentary buffets.

Along with rice, we have also been eating a lot of noodles. There is a noodle shop down a few streets from our dorm that we have visited a few times. The bowls are huge and we can really get our fill there. Plus, it's not very expensive. This is true for most restaurants around the city. Unless it is really fancy or Western-style, the food is very cheap. We have a meal stipend of about five dollars a day and this is pretty reasonable to stick to. In our dorm building's cafeteria we can have a drink, entree, and fried rice for less than two dollars. Such a good feeling for those of us who are Dutch!

I have tried a few new foods that I would consider strange. Many of our meals we order small dishes for everyone to pick at and share so that is a good way to try new things. I have had some very good duck a couple times, but I am looking forward to trying it in Beijing where it is most famous. Also, we went as a whole group to a 100-year old restaurant that was famous for its lamb. The lamb was extremely tasty and the ten of us finished two legs in a matter of minutes! Also, I have tried tofu made a few different ways. I am still deciding what I think about it. Lastly, I have eaten some snake and eel. The snake was fried and served with shrimp, which I liked until someone started talking too much about the snake when it was alive. I really enjoyed the eel which was served in a salty sauce with eggplant and onions. Tonight we found a Taoist temple by West Lake and on the way back we stopped for some supper. As we walked in, the restaurant owner greeted us and we asked what they served. He reached behind him and picked up a figure of Donkey from Shrek. We were a little confused at first, but he assured us that all foreigners loved their restaurant's donkey dish. So we had some donkey for supper!

As the weeks go by and we hop from restaurant to restaurant, I hope to try many more new things. I'll keep you posted with my favorites!

Lingering on West Lake

While classes are coming up soon and we'll have to start learning vocabulary and characters, right now I am learning to enjoy the sights of Hangzhou. So far I've learned that West Lake is gorgeous. Anyone who goes to Hangzhou inevitably ends up seeing the sites of West Lake and would be unfortunate to miss the opportunity.

The past few days we've been doing some sightseeing with our group of nine students and program director. Needless to say, we are pretty dependent on our program director at this point. David Purnell lived in China in the 80s and has been here a year and a half. He has quite an extensive history of traveling and has a wealth of anecdotes that he shares with us. Most helpfully, he knows Chinese, Hangzhou, and Chinese culture very well. I'm looking forward to having some linguistics courses with him.

The objective of our past few outings has been to get us used to the bus system and starting to put together a map of the city in our head. Also, any time that we're walking down the street or waiting for a bus, we get some more cultural insights ala Dr. Purnell. The first two days we visited West Lake. West Lake is nestled between the city of Hangzhou and the western hills. Fortunately, our dorm is probably only a half an hour walk from the lake. West Lake is the pride of the city. There are countless poems about the lake and accounts of the lake mesmerizing visitors to the city. One such poem comes from the poet-governor Su Dongpo from the Northern Song Dynasty 800 years ago:

The shimmering ripples delight the eye on sunny days;
The dimming hills present a rare view in rainy haze.
West Lake may be compared to Beauty Xi Zi at her best,
It becomes her to be richly adorned or plainly dressed.

It is said that Marco Polo visited Hangzhou and said that it was "without a doubt the finest and most splendid city in the world." This also illustrates some of the history of Hangzhou. The city has been around for thousands of years and was at one point the capital of the Song Dynasty. Nowadays it is the capital of the Zhejiang province. David has told us that not many foreigners make it to Hangzhou, but it is a very popular place for the Chinese from other cities to visit. He said it is kind of like the Chinese Las Vegas because it has an informal "what happens in Hangzhou, stays in Hangzhou" understanding. Of course, we're not getting into that kind of trouble here in Hangzhou.

Our outings to West Lake have definitely left us wanting more. It has always been hazy when we have visited, but it is still gorgeous. We're just at the end of seeing any lotus flowers on the lake, but there are still the big green leaves everywhere. There is so much to explore around the entire lake. There are many paths and it is very nice to walk the causeways that divide it. There are two very narrow causeways that give a different view of the lake. Last time we walked down the causeway, there were a few people with big kites and tiny butterfly kites. For yet another view, I hope to cruise around the water in one of the many touristy boats.

I'll leave with another verse about Hangzhou from Bai Juyi:

One cannot bear to leave Hangzhou --
Part of the reason -- West Lake.