Monday was the Mid Autumn Festival.  Everyone at school was looking forward to the dinner festivities.  I did not.  I was actaully afraid to find out that there would not be anything special because Song Laoshi did not said anything about.  (That morning though he seemed somewhat excited when he walked out to the farmer’s market, also unusual because the maid is usually the one who does that. ) Our Chinese classes were cancel for the day, but we still have the area studies classes, which means Internship and Translation for me. 
 
In the internship class we learn more about Deng Xiao Ping and Mao’s economic philosophy and the differences between Foreign Investment Enterprises (Joint Ventures vs Wholely Owned Foreign Enterprises), Private vs Public sectors in China.  Private sector is on the rise while the Public sector is reduced to a small, but steady number.  To my surprise, FIE also reduced to a small number, especially with JVs, but small sector of WOFE increased just a little bit.  Some of the benefits of having jobs in Public Enterprises have been reduced/limited to a portion of what its used to be in the Iron Rice bowl era.  Now people have to sign work contracts.   The Hu Kou system is also not as strictly enforced as before; migrant workers can apply to change residency, which may affect their social benefits and pensions.  Government lighten up the restrictions on private businesses–don’t know the details.
 
In Translation class, I learned that the word for word translation doesn’t work with Chinese.  For our class, some details could be dropped to make the sentence better understood in English and it’s better to translate to something that English readers can relate with.  Like a Chinese person singing “Yah Yi ya la” could be translate to “Doe Ray Me Fa So…”  Each of the Chinese words has multiple meanings and we learned that some of them does not mean what we learned in class.  Like the word “Bu Gao Xing,” meaning unhappy could also mean lonely, sad, depressed…We are having so much fun in this class arguing and searching for the right word that would fit in the text.  We used the thesaurus a lot.  Our instructor is very particular on not using the same word multiple times–he said it makes reading boring. He also had us translated the first two lines of song and since it rhymed in Chinese we had to make it rhyme in English too.  (I will send you our final version of the text when we’re done.)
 
I went home early, well earlier than usual.  The dinner table was already set and the maid was busy cooking.  There were a couple of dishes on the table but dinner is not until 6:30.  I took a nap when the maid said she did not wanted any help.  When I got up, the guests were already there–Song Laoshi’s girl friend, Dr. Meng, and her daughter, Mo Mo.  Then his other friend, Mr. Xu, came in.  He’s from Taiwan and lived in San Francisco and is working as a journalist in Beijing.  During dinner, Mo Mo talking about her travels in Italy and a year of studies in New York.  Mo Mo is studying to be an architect and has only one year left before graduation.  We had duck with winter melon and seaweed soup, some pork dish (with fat and skin and meat in one bite-I didn’t eat it), boiled prawns, purple sweet potatoes, and a few more regular dishes.  Occasionally, Mr. Xu would pause and translate the conversation for me, which I could understand only in parts because they were speaking really fast.  After dinner we moved to the study and talked more on politics and the current affairs.  When I added the U.S. side of the story, Song Laoshi was amazed and thanked me for my insights.  He said I spoke in succinct but so insightful sentences.  I excused myself about 9 to do some homework and prepare for the next day.  No Moon cakes though–I bought them 2 moon cakes, but they didn’t eat them.  May be there’s too much food on the table for desserts.
 
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The next day I told him that I was going to Rachel’s place for dinner and that I won’t be home for dinner.  I asked if I could bring a friend over for dinner and he said only on special occasions.  Since it’s my birthday on Saturday (lunar calendar birthday) I can bring a friend over and I need to invite Joe, the HS coordinator too.  I asked if Joe was his good friend.  He said yes and I am also his good friend since he found out how insightful I was the night before.  That comment made me happier and better than last week.   I went to school and told my friends about it.  Rachel was happy to be invited and was excited about tonight’s dinner. 
Today Wang Laoshi, our Chinese instructor, announced our first test on Friday.  He said he’ll tell us the details about the test format on Thursday but warned us to start reviewing notes.   Then I had a break until five.  I studied for a couple of hours and updated my emails and had lunch with friends at the dinning hall next door.  I went to the dessert shop with Lucy and shared a mango filled pastry–it has Garfield on it; it wasn’t bad, but not great.  In the afternoon I had a meeting with my tutor.  We reviewed some more and did the class readings.  My tutor’s name is Meng Ya.  She’s from Hebei Province and is a junior in Bei Wai University.  She is a class leader, sort of like a T.A., so she’s especially busy until four.  She showed me where she would conduct the tutoring sessions (four one hour sessions a week), all the way on the other side of campus-“the Chinese Building”.  After tutoring I went to my first meeting at the Calligraphy Club.  There I became the class translator because the instructor, Fang Laoshi does not speak Chinese.  (He reminds me of Chen Laoshi for those who went to DLI).  He’s very friendly and always welcome students to come to practice speaking Chinese with him.  His Calligraphy is excellent.  He studied calligraphy for more than 30 years (now 63 years old.)  He usually write in the traditional form but he’s well verse in all 7 Chinese writing styles, including the simplified form.  I like his grass form; flowing cursive writing.  Brief us on the history of Calligraphy and about the four treasures of study: the brush, stone slab, ink brick, and paper.  He said if he were to tell the whole history, he would have to spend about 6 months to do it fully.  It was exhausting to translate but afterward everyone praised my skills–I actually did not translate that well; I had to ask him to explain several words. ( I cheated a little bit because I already attended his class before–the previous Thursday for one hour. )
After the club, Rachel and I walked to her place and we had dinner there with her family.  Her family has 3 other persons: the mom, dad and her sixteen years old younger sister.  They all are very friendly, especially the mom.  Rachel showed me her room; a little bigger than mine.  The place has about the same square footage as my home stay and only different in arrangement of the rooms.  Her room shares a wall/window with her sister’s.  She said she always had the curtains down.  She wanted to be helpful in every way.  The dad had cooked us the tomatoes and eggs stir fry and some chicken stir fry dish; all very delicious.  I was translating the whole time.  The family and Rachel were so happy that they were able to communicate with each other. After dinner, Rachel pulled out her computer and we moved to the living room so we can start the interview.  She asked about the mom and dad’s experience in the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward–they were too young to remember.  The interview took about an hour and a half long.  Rachel was happy and apologize for the taking so much of my time–I didn’t mind though.  She gave me money for a cab ride back home.  I went home feeling really good about the meeting.  I think the family would be a good switch.  We’ll see how Rachel feels about mine on Saturday.     

Wednesday was pretty much wasted.  I thought the nearby bank would convenient but I was wrong.  I waited there for at least five hours to get service.  The bank works like the DMV in the U.S.  We had to get a number from their little automated machine and wait for our turns.  My number was pretty far down but there were only about 10 people, so I waited. (apparently, most people left for a good reason.)  I did not realized that I waited that long until I looked at my watch.  I was watching the mini drama series about a girl dressed as a guy in the world of the Qin Emperor, who likes to dress as a commoner and visit the locale.   It was pretty interesting.  The last hour seemed to stretched forever–the tellers takes about 30 mins per person and even longer during lunch time (there was a couple groups of VIP customers came in, so they had first dips on services).  They all left for lunch except for one teller.  I was really frustrated for waiting that long.  The manager seemed to only able to said sorry and that it won’t be much longer.  I should have left that bank hours ago, but on the bright side, I got my money exchanged.  I gave my teller multiples unsatisfactory reviews–he started with a two star service rating and was reduced to none–he made me waited for another half an hour and left the room several times while he was talking to me.  He’s only an intern, so it should not matter much, if he gets in trouble at all.  
In the evening, we had a group meeting at school for more info about the long trip.  They told us that a washer is not guaranteed and said that we will probably have to hand wash our clothes.  We will have a bus following us from hotels to hotels.  We will camp one night, so a backpack is recommended. They recommend that we buy sun screen lotion, hat, and a fanny pack.  We’ll be leaving next Wednesday morning at 9 by train.  While on the trip all of us will have journals to write and report when we get back from the trip.  We’ll stay with one room mate the whole time.  Mr. Eyler told us he usually pack his dependable pants that can be unzipped into shorts—I thought that’s a good idea.  The temperatures will range from in 70s during the day and 30s at night, and possible chances of rain (so I need to bring rain proof jackets and boots.)  There will be group shopping time on Friday to Decathlon-a French Outdoor clothing/gear store.  Oh, they said the staff will keep our passports for us because they can keep better track of them than we do–some students did lose them in the past but we have a perfect record–said Mr. Eyler.  We need the passports to check in at hotels.  All of us will have copies of our passport and visa on hand.

I went back home late that night and dinner was still waiting for me.  The maid always have food ready, even in the early mornings.  They were happy to see me, especially Song Laoshi.  He seemed a lot friendlier and asked how my day went; something he did not bother to do before that night.  They both pestered me about having kids sometime soon.

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On Thursday our Chinese teacher announced that we will also have little projects to finish this weekend.  A 400 word initial report on our research group and a ppt presentation on one of the ethnicity group in our long trip.  Fun…none really for this weekend, besides my Birthday party, which has been moved up to lunch.  Our school had a study session with experienced tutors besides our own that night, but I was with my tutor at that time.  I think one on one is better for me.  I still feel like I’m not prepared at all.  Six parts on the written test (80%): Listening, fill in the blanks, grammar fill in the blanks, idioms, make sentences with certain grammar structure, and translation from English to Chinese and vice versa.  Then there’s also a speaking test (20%)-reading with correct pronounciation and answer a question about the readings.  I stayed late at school to study until about 9 pm.  I came back home and did my homework until midnight.

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Test today:  pretty hard.  I just completely forgot some of the words.  I think I did okay on the listening (I had to answer questions in Chinese and the difficult part is remembering what the characters look like)  and fill in the blanks.  I did alright on the sentence structures too.  I don’t think the English to Chinese translation is good at all.  My classmates also had the same problems.  We’ll find out our grades on Monday.  I picked the Mongols as my ethnic group for the presentation.  Wang Laoshi said I can write my paper on my friend’s family since they have interesting background that’s worth researching. 

After the test we had a Home Stay session where students talk about the culture shocks they experienced.  One guy said their family’s toilet is broken, so he and his family had to use a nearby out house.  He said the out house has open stalls and there’s always somebody there already.  They would wave him hello whenever he comes in.  Another person said his family even fart at the dinner table.  He said he’s finding a good opportunity to return the culture exchange.  He also said that his family members like to eat without their shirts on, probably because his house is very hot.  Mr. Eyler said it’s normal.  In the summer time most men just wear boxers around the house.  We found out that fat is a good thing here.  My maid said fat is pretty, so eat up.  (The word Pang–fat–can also mean that the person has enough meat on their body; meaning healthy.  The word for thin has a sickness radical.  The bad word for fat is Fei)  Some families already felt at ease with the students that they let the students hear them arguing.  Amy said her family actually used tape measure and taped her and then weighed her.  They were comparing her to their daughter; Amy has more meat on her (she actually quite fit.  She runs every day for her physical fitness program for Airforce ROTC.)  One person has a mah jong addict for her mother who play until 3 in the morning.  She said she’s used to it.  Most students are used to their hosts strange behaviors.

We went shopping after the session–at Decathlon.  I shopped for the boots and the special pants.  I was thinking about getting a backpack, but did not buy one.  I might go back to the store next week.  Amy also bought pants.  She got a 61 Liter backpack–about 60 U.S dollars.  I spent about 1200 Yuan while she spent 1500 Yuan. 

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Interesting Notes:

Chinese would make really loud and disgusting noises when they hack up a lugi.  They think it’s better to spit the phlem and all other germ-filled liquids than keep them in.  Occasionally we hear them on the streets.  Amy said her mother does it every morning when she brushes her teeth.

Some people will have their faucets leak on purpose.  They use buckets to catch the water.  They are “stealing” water.  When the water drips at such a small increment, the meter does not run, so they get the water for free.

Location: Beijing, China