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Yunnan: Part One

Yunnan Part 1:

As part of our learning experience, IES arranged for us to go on a 2 week trip to Yunnan Province, including many a cool cities and villages. It was a four hour flight from Beijing to Kunming. When we arrived, I was amazed! Compared to the frigid sub-zero capital, Kunming seemed like paradise. My teacher described it as the San Francisco of China: palm trees, mountains in the distance, 70 degrees in the winter and 80 degrees in the summer. Yeah, pretty nice.

We stayed there for a few nights before heading out to a different city called Dali. Dali is known for its historic significance as well as its old city, which features old school Chinese architecture and quaint stores and shops. There we did a bicycle trip and even went to a hot spring. The hot spring actually surprised me a bit. Apparently, most hot springs are sulfur hot springs. That means that the hot water is accompanied by a foul-ish-but-you’ll-get-used-to-it-egg/fart smell. This was especially apparent when I took a poo and washed my hands with warm water. I thought to myself “dang, it couldn’t have been THAT bad”. Also, in Kunming and basically all of Yunnan, the bathrooms are characterized by squatter style toilets, no toilet papers supplied, no soap in the sink, and no towels/dryer. As a person with limited leg flexibility, it took a good getting used to and training from my more balance sensitive friends before I could effectively cop a squat. Also, bring your own toilet paper and sand sanitizers. Although some of the nicer hotels will have completely western style bathrooms.

We had a buttload of hiking trips. I think we had 4 hiking days in total, which is complete nonsense if you ask me. Beautiful, awe-inspiring, and majestic. But complete nonsense. The first one was by a smallish mountain in Dali. It was well paved, the incline was gentle, and the altitude wasn’t too high. Completely doable, I thought. But the fact that there was no fence freaked me out something fierce. I walked almost exclusively on the right, where the comfort of a mountainous wall was present. The second/third hiking trip was on Tiger Leaping Gorge. If you don’t know anything about Tiger Leaping Gorge, it’s the second largest gorge in the world, the first being the Grand Canyon. Compared to the small mountain in Dali, which was fully equipped with a chairlift to take us halfway up and a gondola to take us the full way down, TLG was hell wrapped in tortured filled with contemplative suicide. No fences, rocky slopey terrain, bridges made from 4 pieces of timber lying next to each other, waterfalls. It was the real deal. It was the mother of all hikes. I came, I saw, I conquered. Then I died.

I went to bathroom on the most gorgeous bathroom in the world. It was at a guest house/hostel deep within the mountain summit. The bathroom is made up of 3 walls, two of them are on the side and one of them is the door. The last side is an open air expansion facing the heart of TGL. I took a pee while beholding the most beautiful sight I have ever beheld. It was kind of cool. Oh yeah, and I tagged this as a “global citizenship” thing because… well, I guess the travels made me more cosmopolitan and thus a citizen of the global variety. Mehh.

Next up, pics and Yunnan: Part 2

Location: Kunming, China

Hoppy New Years!

First and foremost, Hoppy Belated Chinese New Years everyone. Its the year of the Rabbit. Last year was year of the tiger, if you didn’t know. So for all of those who were born on the year 2000 or the year 1988, it’s your lucky year!

Every year from late January until mid February occurs the Chinese Spring Festival called Chunjie (lit. Spring Holiday). It’s basically Chinese New Years sandwiched between two weeks of total economic and industrial halt. The beginning of the Chunjie is marked with some stores closing. From there, little by little stores, restaurants, stands, supermarkets, and retailers succumb mysteriously as both vendors and buyers disappear from the streets. The height of this happens during Chinese New Years Eve itself. Basically, zero stores are open. None at all. Well, maybe except Wal-mart or stores of that kind. Everyone has gone home for the holidays to spend time with their families. Then after New Years day, stores start opening again and China steps out of hibernation into full industrial light-speed. Oh, and it’s a transportational nightmare during this time. Actually, that’s not true, because most days and especially during rush hour it’s a transportational nightmare. But even more so during Chunjie. Imagine one billion people trying to go home in the same 1 week time span, half of those who are migrant workers. And then imagine them trying to go back to their work places thereafter. Its crazy, I say.

Lucky for me, I could avoid all that by spending my New Years with Jarlene’s family. Jarlene is an old friend from college who now teaches in China. Her family resides in Beijing and she kindly invited me over to spend time with them. It started out with lounging around watching CCTV’s New Years special while snacking on chocolates and fruits. Then we moved on to a nice family dinner with lots of homemade Chinese dishes.

The highlight of the night was definitely the jiaozi making. Jiaozi is Chinese for dumplings. Around 11:00 pm we started making jiaozi. Mine were pretty bad, they just looked like raviolis. They were boiled for several minutes and soon there were mountains of jiaozis, cascades of jiaozis, forests of jiaozis, jiaozis far as the eye can see (and as the stomach can contain!). Intermittently throughout the night fireworks would go off every once in a while, accompanied by oohs and ahhs as I furiously tried to take pictures/videos. Little did I know that when the clock stroke midnight, something spectacular would happen.

What is the best way to describe this? WW3 in the Beijing skies? You know the MACY’s firework spectacular that every new years in the states? It was as if every man woman and child in China was armed with one of those and released it simultaneously at midnight. Sparklers, cracklers, spinners, flares, bloomers, ballistic missiles, you name it. They had it all. It was nuts I say, absolutely nuts. Actually, at one point one of the larger autofire flares was knocked to the ground shooting missiles in all directions horizontally. One of those went straight for the bushes, which caught immediately on fire. Wasting no time, half a dozen Chinese men armed with fire extinguishers ran to the scene and made short work of the brushfire. Amazing. Shocking. Exciting.

Me and the family, toasting. Ganbei!

Fireworks. Right outside the window.

My ravioli dumpling.

Location: Jarlene's Family's Home, Beijing, China

Shangke Errday

Chinese class 4 hours a day, 4 days a week. On top of that, a language pledge that relentlessly requires us to speak Chinese for the better part of the day. The IES Beijing Language Intensive Program is designed to put a full years worth of Chinese in one semester. How do they accomplish this? By quadrupling the work, and hoping half of it sticks. Every class kicks off with a dictation quiz, which to be honest is not unlike the ones we had at home. Except rather than having one or two a week, we have one every day, with two times the materials. The best way I can summarize is that our quizzes are like tests back home, and our tests are like finals. I can’t even imagine what our finals are like haha.

But not all is gloom and doom. After a few weeks of looking awkwardly at my classmates and saying, “Wo… yao… chi…fan” and having them respend, “Wo… ye… yao… chi… fan”, I think we’ve finally gotten the hang of things. Everyone is here to learn Chinese, and we there is no shame is asking questions to teachers, the Chinese roommates, or even other more experienced IES students. As much as we dread the inconvenience of the language pledge, we somehow get through the day with a combination of our oh-so-limited Chinese, wild hand gestures, facial expressions, nudges, winks, sign language, and ever useful “INSERT ENGLISH HERE zenme shuo?” (How do you say ______ in English?”. As my Chinese roommate once said, “If you don’t learn to fail, you will fail to learn”. Is this the famous Confucius wisdom that is innate to the people of China?

It amazes me how quickly people pick up on the language while here. Half the students right now are new students to this program, but the other half are continuing students from last semester. Most of them didn’t intend on doing it again at first, but it seems that they just loved the study abroad experience so much they extended it to a full year at the last minute. I feel thats a good thing. I was once sharing a cab with a bunch of classmates, and one of the returning students was able to pick up a conversation with the cab driver very well. I was shocked and amazed. And I though to myself, maybe by the end of the semester I can do that too. And maybe thats not such a long shot goal; last semester she was in the level I am in currently.

I always just thought the tongue would come naturally, and I realize that maybe not. I need to put a lot of work into this semester if I want to improve my Chinese. Talking with cab drivers, picking up new phrases and increasing fluency with my Chinese roommate, learning from other students, going out there and exploring Beijing with no inhibitions and delving into the culture. This is the kind of mindset one needs.

Oh and FYE, some photos

My Chinese Class. From left to right: Kaili, Lide, Jieke (Kelly, Cliff, and Jack, respectively). Why are there only 6 desks in the shot? Well, you guessed it. Only 6 students in the class, which seems to be the average for all the classes.

Just another manic monday.

Calligraphy Class! Don’t be fooled, harder than it looks.

And don’t forget about…

THE PANDAS!!! It doesn’t really fit with the class theme, but it had to be done. This one might know kung-fu.

Will update soon, with Chunjie adventures. Chunjie is Chinese new years/spring festival, btw.

Till next time!

Location: Room 407 at Beiwai University, Beijing, China

Mystery in Beijing

I think they WANT us to get lost.

So after a series of endless orientation-ing, we finally had a break with an activity that would be enigmatically called “Mystery in Beijing”. Some sort of scavenger hunt, I presumed. Same old stuff, and afterward I can go back to my dorm and collapse into my bed after a another day of exhausting orientation meetings.

So the group met in the activity room for this mystery. Ai Laoshi, the expatriate and teacher more or less in charge of IES Study Abroad in Beijing, began to explain this event. We were to pair off, be given a piece of paper with only this written on it:

(Beijing Military Museum)

We were told to venture out and try to find this location, bring proof of being there (either a picture or a souvenir) and return by 2.30 pm. Sounds like fun, right?

So we asked the locals if they knew where the museum was, with our broken Chinese. Steve had two semester on me, so he was the de facto leader of the pair.

Take one: Steve asking two local college girls how to get to the museum

Take two: Steve asking a local college guy how to get to the museum.

Take three: Steve asks an old lady how to get to the museum

Success! The grandma happily complies and offers to take us all the way to the museum herself! I didn’t know Chinese people could be so hospitable!

My first bus experience in China. Despite the increasing number of cars on the road and the heinous rushhour traffic that often results, China has a well developed public transit system. Taking the bus only costs 1 RMB, about 15 cents. If you have a public transit card, its even cheap at 0.4 RMB. What a deal!

The grandma was really sweet. She kept on talking to us, and Steve understood a good bit, but I didn’t have a clue, which made me kind of sad. Especially since I look east Asian, the Chinese locals automatically assume I am either Chinese or can speak it better than the white laowei (foreigner) next to me… but I’m not. Too much pressure! Actually, several times so far Chinese people come up to me and spurt out rapidfire Madarin only to be greeted with a dumbfounded 2nd generation Korean mumbling “ting bu dong” (I don’t understand). But hey, I guess that’s part of the learning process and I’ll get there soon enough. Classes haven’t even started after all.

Here we are!

After we arrived at the museum, we thanked the grandma profusely and asked her to have lunch with us. She said she was busy and hurried away, but not before giving each of us a hug. Reminds me of my own grandma, in an endearing kind of way.

The man himself, Mao Zedong.

The museum itself was pretty cool. Basically lots of pistols, machine guns, tanks, airplanes, boats, swords, and even a giant missile.

I’m on a plane. Not a functioning one. I’m not flying.

After the museum, we realized how screwed we were because we didn’t know which bus we took there, we didn’t know where we were in relation to the University, and between the two of us our combined Chinese skill equaled to 1/10 of a Chinese person. So… for the sake of time (and also because its painful to relive the memories), I’ll long-story-short this adventure and say we eventually got home after 2-3 hours of wandering around the heart of Beijing. The end.

Oh yeah, and I also had my first Chinese McDonalds experience. Tastes just like home. Cost: 22 RMB, approx 3.34 USD. All things considering, slightly on the expensive side in terms of how much one should spend on a meal in China. Bust still cheaper than a value meal in the States.

Till next time!

Location: Military Museum, Beijing, China

Chasing the Sun to Beijing

On my flight I would look out the window every so often and every time I would be blasted by the sunlight bouncing beautifully around the clouds and sky. But the kicker here is this: for the entire umpteen hour flight, it was always sunny outside. Kinda cool, its like I was chasing the sun to beijing. All that extra daylight caught up with me though, felt really tired after the flight. Watched several movies, ate bad airplane food. Standard fare.

Day one: If a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s several thousand words (plus a few more for caption purposes)

Welcome to Beijing Foreing Studies University!

Courtyard near the dorms where old people practice taichi in the mornings.

My first authentic Chinese meal: BAOZI!!! Cost: 4.5 Yuan, approx 0.68 USD for a dozen delicious steamed pork dumplings. Mouth watering just thinking about it.

Apparently, Trix are for Chinese Kids too! Cost: 14 Yuan, approx 2.12 USD

First Chinese restaurant experience. It was… interesting haha. Well, even the local Chinese student said that there’s better food out there so I feel justified. They have Coke and Sprite here!

My first Chinese Pizza experience, courtesy of PBD Pisa. Apparently one of the better pizza places in the Beijing Haidian area. Taste just like home. For some reason they tape their boxes shut for delivery, UPS style. Had to rip the boxes open haha. Sarah giving her thumb of approval.

My first Chinese supermarket purchase experience. Universal extension cord (must have, due to different power outlet), toothpaste, men’s facial wash, loofa. Cost: 47.5 Yuan, approx 7.20 USD

Intersection near the University where I almost died… twice. Drivers here do not respect personal space.

More to come! Keep posted!

Location: Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China

Language Intensive…? @_@

OK, so I’m officially freaking out because apparently, the Beijing Language Intensive Program is mad intense. I had to take a language pledge that said I’ll only speak Chinese during my time in China, with few exceptions. This is crazy! I only took 3 semesters of Chinese… As far as I’m concerned I only know how to say nihao and xiexie.

So I talked to John Cho about it and all he had to say was:

“Suck it up. it’s really not that bad and it’s the main reason why you will improve so much. surround yourself with chinese speakers as much as u can and don’t be afraid to practice with random people you meet like taxi drivers and people at the mart. keep an open mind, remember to love others and not look down on others reasons for being there. you’ll be fine danny, i’d be surprised if you didn’t adjust well”

Sounds like tough love.. haha. But its reassuring. I’ll be fine. No one didn’t like their experience abroad; I won’t be the first. I’ll learn a lot and explore a lot and grow in lots of different ways. T minus two days. Lets get packing!

Till next time,

Dannie

Location: Upper Dublin (home), PA

Just 5 more weeks

Hi my name is Dannie and I’ll be going to Beijing, China during the spring semester of 2011. I’m going primarily to improve my Chinese, but also to get a full China experience.

People always ask me “are you excited to go”. Strangely enough, the answer is always “no, it hasn’t quite hit me yet”. And I reckon it won’t until i step out of Beijing National Airport on January 15th. I guess a main reason why it hasn’t hit me is because this semester was so hectic. On top of all the school work, the entire application process for studying abroad was quiet cumbersome. Applying for scholarships was also pretty taxing. But now that mostly everything has fallen into place, all my forms are in order, my plane ticket has been purchased, and I have selected my courses.. yeah, I’m a looking forward to it.

What is your biggest deterrent for studying abroad? Mine was probably cost. In terms of credits, I came in with enough to graduate on time; I’m taking mostly electives abroad but I don’t mind. I want to step out of my comfort zone and explore a grand world we live in, so that wasn’t the issue either. But even the biggest reason against going to China has been resolved! Praise God, I’m essentially going abroad for free, after all the generous scholarships I have been awarded. For anyone seriously interested in studying abroad, I believe that this could be a possibility to you, so give me a shout out if you want to learn more about the Whole World Scholarship or the Gilman Scholarship.

Isaac Newton was a famous physicist and mathematician. However, despite his accomplishments and discoveries, he humbly says, “If I have seen further than others, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants”. And in a lot of ways, I feel the same way too. I feel as though despite my own reasons for doing things and for having goals, a lot of it was derived from people who I look up to. As much as I want to take ownership of the Language Intensive Program at Beijing, it was John Cho who influenced me to do it. Rediscovery. Validity for something I think is not mine. I couldn’t quite find it here, maybe I’ll find it elsewhere.

Till next time,
Dannie Kim

Location: State College, Pennsylvania

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