I woke up early today for the breakfast with the RAs.  We split into different 3 groups again.  Each RA lead us to their favorite places to have breakfast (all within 5 minutes walking distance to the campus).  Since I already went with Signe, I decided to go with Travis today.  Travis lead us to a dumplings place/convenient store.  They have steamed buns too.  They sell 3 different kinds: pork, beef, and vegetarian (mostly fried cabbage and spinach.)  The vegetarian ones tastes pretty good, even our picky eaters like them too. 

After breakfast, our morning activities consisted of classes on Culture Simulation, Diversity, and Core goal setting.  Our group started with culture simulation first, which is lead by Jeremiah and Chad the anthropologist.  Our group was divided again into two small groups.  My group is to discern the other group’s culture/social conducts by watching their behavior.  While we were discussing the rules and the ways to interpret their behavior and try to interact with them, the other group went into the garden and received instructions on what to do and their “society” rules.  About ten minutes later, we went to the other side.  The other group, about 10 people, formed two lines, by gender.  They (now referred to as ladies and men) were linked shoulder-to-shoulder (facing different direction), talking to each other.  The ladies had their hands clasped in front and the men had their hands clasped behind them. After making these observations, a couple of the guys tried to talk to the men without imitating their posture rules, the men walked away.  The girls in my group mirrored the ladies’ posture and attempted to talk with them, the ladies walked away.  Later we realized that there were these short pauses after each sentences and that we have to be our shoulder has to stay touching with their shoulder (ex. my left with their left or my right with their right).  I finally had a successful mingling with the ladies.  Then it’s our group’s turn to be observed.  Our rules were: 1. We can only speak to the people of the same gender.  2.  We can only answer direct yes/no questions.  3. Our answer is based on the questioner’s facial expression.  If they’re smiling the answer is “yes”.  If not, the answer is “no”.  We have to walk away if the questioner is not of the same gender or asking the wrong type of question.  The other group figured out the first rule very quickly.  It took them about 10 minutes to figure out the second rule.  Since we could only answer in yes/no, the other group was confused because they took all our answers as facts.  They thought we were a bunch of compulsive liars.  It was particularly funny when the ladies were frustrated with our answers (they smiled a lot.)  They needed the instructors help to figure out the 3rd rule.  I think this is a great party game.

After that session, we went inside for the classroom briefing on diversity, which is not as fun.  We talked about the term “lao wai” (old foreigner).  Those who with Caucasian appearance would be called with that term.  The local Chinese may think of them as tourist attractions and will take photos of them (sometimes in their faces.)  Many of them will be surprised to hear the white men talking in Chinese and will compliment the men no matter how badly they speak Chinese.  The RAs said that the term Lao wai can be an endearment, so we should not take offense.  Also, those who look like Chinese will be expected to speak fluent Chinese and understood what the Chinese people said.  That would be tough since some of us just begun learning and the Beijingers have very strong accent.  They tend to add “r” to every word.  (ex. “ah” would sound like “ar”)

After that is the Goal setting class.  We listed our top ten goals to accomplish while we’re in Beijing.  Most people want to be able to have a conversation with a cab driver, take the subway without getting lost, or to get lost, explore an new area, and came back.  Some want to learn to cook a couple of Chinese dishes.  My list is something like this:
1. Go site seeing in Hang Zhou, Su Zhou, Guilin, Xi’An, Summer palaces, the Forbidden Palace, Confucius temple and Tianmen Square.   (I might not get to Guilin or Xi’An–too far).
2. take a lot of pictures of those sites
3.  be able to understand the news broadcasts (they speak very fast) and reiterate the summary.
4.  write down my thoughts and daily experience so I won’t forget it
5. be able to write more Chinese words and be better at it
6.  eat Beijing duck
7.  learn more about doing business in China and how to build a resume.
8.  do tai chi
9. have a conversation with a Chinese person about politics and Chinese government
10. learn how to bargain with a vendor

After that we have an activity called Mystery Beijing 1.  We were divided into pairs to find a selected place in Beijing and bring back proof of being there.  We were only permitted to ask Chinese people and asking staffs were off the limit.  My destination was a Japanese Restaurant in Wu Dao Kou (5-way intersection).  Sam, my partner, and I went to the bank first so that I can exchange my traveler’s checks and for him to withdraw cash from an ATM.  (Only certain banks accept traveler’s checks.)  I successfully exchanged my money (3.75% service charge, which is a lot cheaper than the airport).  He did not (for some reason his card did not allow him to withdraw.  He could only check his balance.)  After that we walked a while to the subway station (about 35 minutes).  We stopped at a restaurant along the way to eat lunch.  I ate beef noodle soup while he snacked on some kind of pork wrap.  Then we continued to the subway station.  He showed my how to get a subway ticket, which is similar to DC’s subway station (extremely cheap; 2 yuan per ticket to go anywhere in Beijing.) We took the blue line 4 and changed to the orange line 13.  Everywhere in the subway station is advertisements, even in the tunnel walls.  They installed flat screen TVs along the walls.  The station signs were in both Chinese and English.  The announcer also spoke English translation–with a British accent.  When we arrived at Wu Dao Kou, we came across two tourists who also spoke English.  They gave us directions to the Japanese Restaurant.  Wu Dao Kou is a high end place with every expensive products.  There were plenty of high end clothing stores, selling 400 to 500 yuan a piece of clothing (a few of them had sales, up to 50% off).  The restaurant was very fancy.  It has a black and red decor with faux bamboos columns.  The bathroom provide a toilet with seat, washing basin with soap and paper towels, something that regular restaurants don’t have.  The food was really expensive (compare to the little eatery that we just ate at; 20 for the whole meal for two).   The rolls ranged from 10 yuan to 120 yuan.  We ordered the 10 yuan one (cucumber roll).  It was very small but very tasty.  Hot tea was free.  During the day time, it was half priced so we paid 5 yuan and gave 2 yuan to the waitress.  We felt bad having been in there and only order so little at such a nice place.  We got the receipt for our proof.  Then we headed back to the subway station and made our way back to school.

We came back to school just in time for the Home Stay info session.  Mr. Eyler explained to us what we should expect at our host parents homes.  He told us about “inside clothes” and about the taking shoes off when come home.  (Chinese people believe that the street clothes are dirty so when we come home we should change into a set of clean clothes so keep the house clean. That’s one of the reasons they prefer to shower after work.)  He also said that meal times are very important and a good opportunity to practice our Chinese conversation skills.  Chinese people loves to offer food, even when you said you’re full and fruits does not count as food (a typical after dinner “dessert”.)  He stressed the importance of energy and water conservation.  Chinese people do not like to waste anything, much less electricity and water.  In one example, he said a few families will use a pan to catch the water during showering so that it can be used later as toilet water. ( a previous student asked why he needs to stand in the pan while showering.)   Chinese people also would turn off the water while soaping like we turn off the water while we brush our teeth.  He advised us to spend as much time with our host family as possible, that way we can get the most benefits out of this program.

After that, we have the Internship info session.  Nancy, the program coordinator, briefed us on  the different companies they worked with previously.  There was China Supplier ( a Business to business supplies company), a law firm, a magazine company, and a few green energy companies, and a couple of volunteer work sites.  We would have about 4 interviews with HRs of 4 companies.  Based on our interviews, HR will decide what we would do.  We have to schedule the interviews on our own, after receiving emails from the interested companies.  The Internship jobs will be all day on Wednesdays; we would be on the job for 10 days  (more if we can find the time).  We also have seminars for 2 hours on Monday afternoons.  At the end of the semester, we have to submit a report about our experience at the internship.

After that we bought our cell phones ( and SIM card).  The school arranged the transaction.  They bought the cell phones in bulk and sold us the cheap price.  I also bought a Beijing guide book.  The “market place” took longer than it was supposed to, so we had extended dinner hours.  I went with 3 other students to the local cafe for dinner (just next door).  I had seafood fried rice (delicious).  I had to remember that for some reason, fried rice takes a long time to prepared here.  I almost ran out of time.

Then school provide desserts for us: McDonald’s ice cream sundaes, fudge and strawberry.  I took the strawberry one.  It’s not as good as the ones back home.  While we ate we talked about the housing rules.  Most of it did not apply to the home stay students but we had to stay for the whole hour.  I went to bed after that.  My friends somehow still find some energy and venture out to see the night market and KTV (karaoke bar).

Interesting Notes:
-Lots of folks here own dogs.  There are pet stores with dogs and cats in cages by the window.  Beijing has a height limit on dogs.  The rich people who wants to flaunt their wealth own large dogs, just to say they can afford to pay the fines and that they don’t care what the government think. 
-Beijing is heavy on pesticides.  Some time ago, the city decided to spray the rich part of the city with an enormous amount of pesticides and ended up killing many dogs.  This almost caused a big riot. 
-Nicolas Cage is very popular here.  I saw a few commercials/advertisements featuring his new movie.
-Lots of KFC commercials/advertisements too.

Location: IES building, BFSU, Beijing, China