I woke up this morning to an explosion.
The past week Beijing has been like a war zone.
Today is the last day of Chunjie, the Chinese Spring Festival.

Last week, several friends came to my homestay to celebrate the New Year with my Chinese host family. My host parents were amazing hosts and completely spoiled us. They spent most of the night running back and forth between the kitchen and the dinner table, making us amazing foods, and way too much, as is customary for Chinese family style dining. They were constantly making sure we had enough food and that we were happy, as well as explaining the traditions of Chinese New Year. We watched the CCTV New Year’s Gala, which is the most watched television program in China every year. It is a collection of all the best artists in China who perform.

As is part of the Chunjie tradition, around eleven ‘o clock at night, we started to ‘bao jiaozi’, meaning making our own dumplings. It is a tradition in China that on New Years Eve, you and your family make your own jiaozi, and only eat the jiaozi after midnight, so in the new year. This brings good luck and fortune. Depending on where you are in China, the traditions may vary, for instance there are parts in the South of China where people eat very long noodles, because the length of the noodles signifies longevity.

Making Jiaozi for the first time was really fun, especially with everyone there. It also makes me appreciate every jiaozi I eat that much more, because making them is not easy, especially not if you want to make them look nice. It was a shame that some of us (myself included) mostly butchered them completely. But it was definitely a learning experience!

After midnight, we all went outside to set off fireworks.
What I had heard was indeed true, it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The moment we stepped outside all our senses were assaulted. It was like walking into a war zone. There were explosions everywhere, and at times the sky was lit up so brightly by all the fireworks, it was light as day. That mixed in with the deafening explosions and the smell of spent fireworks as well as seeing many of the neighbors outside smiling, wishing each other a happy new year was really a great sight.

What many didn’t realize, including myself was that Chunjie is a week long celebration. This meant that the fireworks did not stop. The whole week, everyday, during the day and at night, I’ve been hearing explosions nearby, both at my homestay and at school. This is really cool because it shows just how important this holiday is for the Chinese people. My host family asked me if we had anything like this in the US. The only thing that could start to describe Chunjie in China would be Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July and New Year’s Eve all in one week.

Also next week Friday several classmates and I have planned a weekend trip to Harbin in the north of China. The reason for our visit is the International Ice Festival. So next week some packing tips will follow.

Location: Beijing, China

Chun Jie, the Spring Festival, the coming of the Chinese New Year, all happens this Saturday at midnight. The coming year is the year of the snake. It’s really awesome to see Beijing being completely transformed in preparation for the year’s largest holiday. Buildings, roads, parks, restaurants are all being decorated in red. Red is the color bringing luck, and warding off evil spirits.

Since I am staying with a homestay family, I will have the opportunity to experience the coming of the New Year from a truly Chinese perspective. Where better to experience the largest Chinese holiday of the year, than in the nation’s capital? I’ve been told it involves family, a lot of home-made dumplings, drinking, and specifically massive amounts of fireworks. The description given by my homestay family was, imagine 4^th of July in the US, multiply that by 22 million (the amount of people living in Beijing) and that for 5 nights in a row. There are quite a few students who do not have a homestay family, but they will be able to spend Chun Jie with the other homestay families. My family will be hosting a total of 7 students. Also, the extended family of my homestay family might make an appearance, so I’m really excited.

For Chun Jie, I will also have a few days off next week, since all of China basically shuts down. Even now most restaurants and small shops are already closed. This is because most shop owners travel back home to the countryside to be with their families. This makes getting lunch for instance, a significant challenge. During my days off however, I plan to go with several classmates to visit Harbin, in the north of China. This city is famous for its International Ice Festival, which features massive ice sculptures made by artists from all over China. I am immensely looking forward to this trip, as we will be taking a sleeper train to Harbin (about 12 hours).

I’ll try to post some pictures of the celebrations next week.

To everyone Xin Nian Kuai Le!!

(happy new year!)

Location: Beijing, China

Last thursday classes started.
The classes are really interesting, but really intense.
My program uses a ‘block system’, which means I take two classes at a time, one of which is always Chinese language. Right now, I am taking a history course, ‘Understanding China’. This course gives a general overview of Chinese history, geography and culture. I have two and a half hours in the morning of Chinese history, and two hours of Chinese language in the afternoon. Language classes are really small which makes them really intense. This also however allows one to ask many more questions and gives one more opportunity to actively practice one’s language skills. After my language classes, I have a one on one tuition session with my teacher. These sessions allow me to work on either my weak points or things that interest me. This is great to help me improve or just learn more about the things that are important to me.

The workload is descent, but I think the key to success is well-timed study breaks.
What better to enjoy a study break than a tasty donkey burger? Or maybe some starfish, or a scorpion, or some centipede?
Right down the road from campus there is a specialty restaurant that sells everything donkey. Not being that adventurous yet, I decided to try the donkey burger, instead of the donkey heart. Despite one’s initial reluctance, it was really good! The meat was very lean and very tasty. 

Location: Beijing, China

Nabianr, 那边儿, or ‘over there’ in Chinese was a phrase unknown to me before today, but I won’t forget it anytime soon.

The first few days in Beijing were jam packed with orientation and ‘ice-breaker’ activities. This gave all the students the chance to conquer the immense jet lag, and to get to know each other. Tuesday however was the first day that we actually got to explore Haidian, the neighborhood in which the university is located. Mind you, when I say neighborhood, this is a neighborhood with over two million people. This means it was a really big area to explore. We split up into pairs, and were given a destination somewhere in Haidian (without the address, in Chinese characters only), and we had to first figure out what the place was, and then ask for directions, and use public transportation to get there. When I asked people right outside the university, I didn’t have much luck. This is because Beijing is so large, that people aren’t very familiar with area’s in which they don’t live or work. Deciding to start walking in an arbitrary direction, I finally found someone who had at least heard of my destination. When asking him how to get there, his reply was: nabianr, over there, and he vaguely indicated somewhere down the street. I kept walking in that general direction until I found someone else to ask. They indicated a side street, and said again: nabianr. Walking down that side street, I reached a major intersection, asking another person for direction, who indicated I had to turn left, and then: nabianr, after an hour and a half of walking, I asked if the destination was within walking distance, the person said yes, just go: nabianr. In the end, it turned out that I could have taken a subway to my destination, and that it was NOT within walking distance. But overall it was really cool to walk around in the area. Everything is so different here that it was a blast seeing all the people and how they lived their daily lives. Really every time I go out into the city and walk around, it’s an adventure.

Anyhow, lesson learnt, if you’re going somewhere, find out where the general area is, and then ask for directions once you arrive. Nabianr can be really, really far away.

Location: Beijing, China