Bye!

I'm leaving for the Yunnan Province for 2 weeks! So I'll be pretty much unreachable during that time.

Wish me luck!

Maybe when I'm not so tired....

I'm really sorry for the lack of interesting/introspective entries lately... even though I only have three classes, they all keep me pretty busy and tired.

I think I'll follow suit with Clay and describe a typical day for me in Beijing...

I wake up at around 6:45am (I know...disgusting) and get ready for my Chinese class which begins at 8:00am. This entails getting dressed, prettified and doing some last minute studying of characters for our TingXie.
When class begins at 8 we hand in our homework and have our daily tingxie...this entails usually the teacher reading around some words from the day's lesson and us writing the characters, pinyin, and english meaning. There's also 2 non-aural sections which are usually English translations into Chinese characters and pinyin, and then pinyin into characters into english. Buh. I pretty much hate these things...

We then have class for about an hour in which we go over the sentence patterns that we are supposed to know for the lesson as well as the vocabulary. After this we break for 10 minutes where all of us usually congregate in the hall and complain about how tired we are and how boring/hard our TingXie was for the day. After our break we have class again for another hour where we drill the sentence patterns. After another 10 minute break we have class AGAIN where we usually go over some supplementary material that's more colloquial (kou yu=ko you) and then go over that. We then either have a 40 minute break or a 10 minute break after which we split into discussion sections of 3 and just sit around and talk. Some people use the 40 minute breaks for naps--I have yet to do this.

Then it's LUNCH. We usually go to 'Food Alley' and eat family style, we usually order like one less dish then there is people, plus rice of course! Remember, if you want your rice WITH your meal you have to tell them to bring it first...otherwise they will bring it last to like cleanse the palate or something, I'm not exactly sure. The dishes we seem to order most are Gong Bao Ji Ding (Kung Pao Chicken) and Qie Zi (chiyee-zuh= eggplant)--people laugh at Persephone and Cory and Me because we always get the same thing...oh well, I know what I like, man. If there's no time for family style dining we go to the Xiao Chi (sheyow-chr=little eating place) and get noodles or Gong Bao Ji Ding. We almost always go to  this little store in food alley and buy snacks and/or green tea and/or diet coke for the day...

After this sometimes I have Literature which is interesting or sometimes I have a break in which I say I will do homework but will almost always fall asleep hardcore...like I said it's pathetic but I really cannot function without a nap. If I don't have literature the rest of my day is free to study Chinese and have dinner with peeps.

If I DO have Lit after the class I have a break in which I will take a nap if I haven't before and study for my philosophy class which meets 6-7:30. I've only had once but is pretty interesting...I'm going to work to try and think in abstractions again, though...all of this straight-edged econ has ruined my mind.  After this people have gone to dinner already so I'm left to fend for myself--usually getting something quick so I can come back and study until about 12-1 when I pass out.

Work hard. Play hard. I don't know if these words have ever really applied to me but they do now... It's sort of like what we were talking about in Philosophy class today...yin and yang, everythig in balance and opposition. We cannot have something exist without its opposite--this is the Dao. You look at the Chinese language and its this way too... Have you eaten? (Ni chi fan, bu chi fan?= Have you eaten, or not eaten?) Questions are often asked in this way...two given opposite states. Perhaps this pervades the Chinese culture and work ethic as well...you work until you cannot work anymore, you play until you cannot play anymore and so on and so on-- a continuous changing of one state of being into another--it's opposite.

hmmm, maybe these philosophers were onto something.... 

One of those list entries you do when you're too lazy to write an actual entry.

Things done since last post:

- switching from film into philosophy, which is hard too, but at least its in english
- completed my first week of class
- found a hair straightener (paid too much for it, but I am vain)
- figured out how to use an ATM
- went to sanlitunr again...
- got frustrated with a waitress and literally threw money at her
- ate pretty delicious noodles
- actually felt smart(ish) in chinese class
- bought mickey mouse washcloths
- was not afriad
- was afraid

Today I might go to the silk market and bargain my way to a whole bunch of new stuffffff..

Lates. 

Booooooo (or should I say ?)

Wow today was very draining.

This morning our chinese class went really fast and was bu hao yisi (boo how E suh=embarassing). Every time I think about them teaching us Chinese I feel that its somewhat like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing how much sticks. Sometimes I feel like I am in front of a firing squad, but instead of bullets (or spaghetti) they just keep throwing Chinese characters, sentence patterns and grammar at me.

After class we went to a noodle place and it was so crowded that we had to sit with a random dude. I talked to him a bit (IN CHINESE!) and then most of the rest of them went to sociology class while I came back to the dorms to take a much needed nap. I have found that doing this whole ordeal is a lot like when I was in high school, when I was forced to wake up at an ungodly early hour and then had too take naps because I was continually sooooo tiiiirrreeeed. I tried to nap for only half an hour but I think my body needed more deep sleep so it kind of turned into more like an hour. I woke up in time for Literature, though.

We read 'A Madman's Diary' for today which was pretty interesting. The weird thing about taking an english class taught by a chinese person, however, is that some people's ideas sometimes get lost in translation, so some of the nuances of what people say are just breezed over. Still, its nice being eased into an english class when you haven't taken one since Freshman year of college. I had like 30 minute after class to study chinese and then I had film. This is where it gets painful.

This class was 3 hours all in Chinese about film, all our papers will be in Chinese and all our Presentations will be in Chinese... First of all, I can't sit and pay attention to ANYTHING for three hours, let alone not in my native language, so really, this class was brutal, and will continue to be so. We talked for like 3 hours about Film stuff like camera angles and techniques, or something I'm not really sure--essentially I felt really dumb. And the guy STILL went 15 minutes over until 9:15 PM!!! C'mon now! I have to study other things! I have to switch out of this class pronto...I will be talking to people tomorrow about that.

Because of this lonnngg class, I had no dinner so came back RAVENOUS and went to the convenience store to find some food (Diet Coke and Lays is dinner, I guess) and saw a guy puking on the street. cute.

Off to study.

I lied

Here's a pick of Abla, Persephone, Cory and Me on our sweet ice bikes at Hou Hai (stolen from Scott)

Sorry no pictures this time...

I haven't gone any interesting places the past couple days because of class. My Chinese class alone is around 50 characters per night that I have to memorize for our TingXie (ting-shyeh= dictation) so I have been studying pretty much non-stop only stopping for food and sleep (sometimes).

Every morning I have Chinese class at 8:00 am for 2.5 hours (with like two ten minute breaks) and then a smaller discussion class for about 40 minutes. Let me tell you, this is pretty much like torture. Don't they know that us American students can't function before 10 in the morning??? Just today, I set my alarm for 6:45 and didn't get up until 7:18... my body just does not want to move at that time of day. Furthermore, they cram sentence patterns and new vocabulary into your heads as fast as possible, I don't know how anyone could retain it without extensive review...and who has time for that when you're studying for the next day's lesson.

Today, I also had my first Contemporary Chinese Literature class, in which we will be studying Chinese Literature starting from the May 4th Literary Movement (1919) until today. I'm not entirely clear on the details of Chinese Literary History--he tried to explain it, but those of you who who know me know that I cannot stand history (or really any other academic subject for that matter). However, from my understanding, it was around this time of political and cultural revolution (really, when is China NOT going through political and cultural revolution?!?) that China began to write literature using the modern vernacular as opposed to the ancient languages only understood by the nobles. So I won't be reading any Tang poems or Oracle bones, which maybe will work in my favor...but maybe not. It might be interesting once we get to read some stuff. I don't have my film class until Thursday.

It's really weird switching between Chinese and English...there are definitely some people not heartily adhering to the language pledge so its really confusing when you're trying to think/speak in Chinese and there is English around you. Also, the differing levels of the students mean that you constantly have to express yourself at least three times before anyone can understand you. I am getting better at ordering food though...especially when the menus have pictures! Hen jiandan! (hun jyen-dahn=really easy)

每个天士新的天. 我还不知道我觉得怎么样.

oooooopppsss

So sorry I haven't updated for like 2 days (Jeez, Maggie you update what....like once a week? C'mon now. Maybe you should come online if you're so interested in my life :-P).This is late because I couldn't get my pictures to upload until today when Scott, who is apparently a magical computer whiz kid got it to work. Also, the lens on my camera cracked so the pictures have weird lighting effects on them.

The day before yesterday (Saturday) I had planned on going to TianAnMen but instead decided to go to the Summer Palace because I figured that getting to Tiananmen via public transportation would be pretty easy compared to the Summer Palace.

I'm not gonna lie, it was kinda boring, and kind of cold. The buildings were nice too look at, but I think I seriously saw like 10 rooms where the tour guide said the emperor  liked to watch the nature and drink tea... seriously man how many spots does the emperor need to do this? Plus it was freezing cold... I took some pretty pictures but after a couple of hours I was ready to go.

We came back to the dorm where I was mad exhausted and decided to take a nap...sleeping through dinner (oopsies). When I woke up people told me we were going to go to WangFuJin, which is this shopping district nearish the Forbidden City. We had been told stories of a night market, so I had thought maybe I could find something to eat there.

REALLY BAD CHOICE!!! This night market, although it had food, was definitely NOT the food I wanted to be eating. Essentially, this market was filled with many kinds of 'Chuanr' (Chwar=kabobs) But these Chuanr were not your regular run-of-the-mill chuanr these chuanr were really really weird...scorpion, lizard, deer, and I think it was some sort of pupa on a stick...ew! Plus everything was being served in the open air without the use of gloves...so not too sanitary. Ergo, I wasn't really feelin' it. Took some neat pictures and hailed a cab back to the dorms.

The next day I slept in lateish, and tried to do homework but then ended up going out to lunch and then ice skating at HouHai(hoe-hi=back sea, its like a little area in Beijing with a little lake/river dealie and has a lot of bars and stuff. Stupid me  I forgot my socks but luckily they had nifty ice BIKES! These were like a cross between a bike, ice skates, and a sled, where you pedaled across the ice...so fun! They even had little stands on the ice that were selling fruit and chuanr so you could ice skate and eat...although carrying a pointy stick while you're skating is probably not the smartest idea. So we did that for awhile and then got Starbucks where I got a Vanilla Latte for 33 kuai, tai gui!!! (tie gway=too expensive)

We came back to get our books for our courses and have official kick off dinner of our language pledge. I was literally so nervous about the pledge and about the upcoming school day that I could not eat. They assigned us to our teams: I'm on team Oceania, which is the green team...they taught us how to say Oceania but it is probably the hardest one to say so I definitely forgot how. I came back and studied my butt off until about 1:00 when I hit the hay...

Fei's Chinese Lesson Thing #1

This Character is Fu (Foo) and means luck or lucky. Around Chinese New Year lots of families and businesses put this character up on their doors. However, sometimes the character is turned upside down on the doors, like the second picture. At first when I saw this I was like ummmmmm...what? But then I was told it was a pun.

Fu by itself means lucky.
When you want to say something is upside down, or flipped you say it is "dao le"
"Dao le" however, can also mean arrived.

So when one says "Ni de fu dao le" (nee duh foo dao luh), "You're luck is upside down" it really means "You're luck has arrived!"

Oh those Chinese are punny, don't you think?

heyyyyyy macarena!!

So yesterday didn't have much stuff in it but each thing I did was very exciting (sort of)

I woke up early and putzed around a bit and then when Emily got up I asked her to take me to the hospital for my knees which was a good 40 minute- 1 hour bus ride away from Bei Wai... and this was with little-no traffic...god help me if I ever have an emergency. There was a lot of cool stuff to see along the way though, so I'll have to remember that bus route again-- I even saw something that said 'Costume Store', mom, but Chinese translations to english can be kind of inaccurate sometimes (example 'Fried Surfac' instead of noodles, or rice being simply translated as 'food')... so I don't know if it was really a costume store.

We had to go to the Emergency room section because I didn't have an appointment. I'm glad Emily was there because there was some mixup with the insurance that IES provides and she got it straitened out for me using her chinese. It was a very nice, clean hospital, comparable to hospitals in the united states and most everyone spoke english, but it was still nice to have Emily because if something was getting lost in translation she was there to help me out. They checked me out and did an ultrasound so make sure I didn't have blood clots in my legs, but pretty much just said that it was probably just inflammation and gave me more ibuprofen, telling me to take 4, 3 times a day and then some hydrocodone  for the pain (because I had told the doctor about me having to crawl up the stairs). They said if it doesn't get better by monday I'll go in to see the orthopedist...Emily and I had lunch at a XinJiang (sheen jyahng) restaurant which has this really good fried bread stuff...tasty stuff and then took the bus back to campus.

I got back around 3 and was pissed cuz I had missed the outing to KTV, which is the karaoke place and so I pretty much took a nap until 6:30 when a bunch of us had signed up to  go to an all you can eat/drink hot pot restaurant where good times ensued.

Mom and Dad, I am definitely taking you to this restaurant. It is all you can eat/drink (alcohol included) hot pot for 65 kuai (9.75 USD). I didn't know what hot pot was when I signed up, but essentially, they give you a pot of boiling hot water and then the restaurant is full of uncooked veggies, meats, seafood, and noodles (plus other cooked things to eat with your food) and then you put all your stuff in the pot to cook and then eat it! My favorite part was the make your own sauce, where they had a bunch of sauce ingredients and you mix them all together for a yummy concoction, i think mine was soy and chives or something.

In general, giving americans the opportunity to eat and drink all they can is kind of a bad idea in my opinion. We really lived up to our reputation as ugly americans. In all seriousness though, if you come to China and are not good at holding your liquor, beware of baijiu (bye-jeeyoh= white liquor). It is essentially Everclear, so like 100-120 proof alcohol. It can really mess you up so just be smart...some people sadly were not last night.

After the hot pot, some of us took cabs to SanLiTuanr (sahn-lee-twar= i don't know what it means) which is one of the pretty hopping bar districts around Beijing--don't worry I didn't drink anymore I know my limits. It brings a lot of foreign people, it seems to me that this is where all the expats and tourists go, so when all the Chinese people get back I'll have to figure out where they go. As a result, there were a lot of beggars here trying to get money from the foreigners. The beggars here are smart so they use cute little kids to  come up to people with big hearts like me to try to get money...it gets really really hard to turn them down but with so many around I would probably get swarmed if I tried to give some. There were also a few drunk Chinese people trying to practice their english..."hello", "how are you", "I'm going to kill you" simple stuff like that...We went to Shooters and some other places where they were playing pseudo-popular american tunes...including, yes, the macarena. We danced a bit and came back and were probably ripped off by the cabbie, but I guess it is karma for not giving money to the beggars...

Maybe I'm making friends? Possibly?

Leave me comments!

Picture Summary:
- Persephone and Scott having some sort of deep discussion, probably hashing out a scheme to steal some BaiJiu from the restaurant.
- Delicious Hot Pot goodies
- Me, Sean, and Persephone in the bathroom. It was Sean's host family that I stayed with on New Years.
- Like, I said all you and eat and drink is just not a good idea when americans are around.

Ooops

I think I just electrocuted myself....

...I'll take curly hair thanks....

laaaaa laaa LA

Today was unexpectedly long feeling....

I woke up at 8:30 for no reason at all and talked on the comp to family and friends for awhile until we decided to go out to the street fair which was  a bus ride and a few subway rides away. We took a bus to the subway stop where I bought a transit card, so now I can travel around on public transportation for less. Hooray. The bus and subway were shoulder to shoulder people which I'm told is actually pretty empty for a Chinese bus/subway...can't wait til all those 10 million people come back from their vacations...

We got to the fair, bought tickets and walked around....there was a lot to see and buy and eat but not too many interesting activities. There was a supposed 'freak show' but we were too skeptical to go inside. The festival itself very crowded and they were selling a lot of silly things including huge glasses with '2008' on them, funny colored wigs, mylar windmills, and about a million  types of weird schlack on a stick that you wave around in the air to be festive. We walked around for a really long time, took a lot of pictures and got REALLY cold. I have to say though, its really amazing to see all these Chinese people all in one place Scott bought a Chinese yo-yo and Matt bought a communist hat. I shenged my qian because I know fair goods are not good quality.

After the fair we took the subway to a restaurant that Michelle, a girl who's already been in Beijing for 9 months knew. The food was pretty good and there was a mini chinese dance performance during dinner! Neat! After we ate we took the bus back to campus where I literally had to crawl up the stairs because my legs wouldn't carry me anymore. Emily, my other RA, is probably going to take me to the hospital tomorrow, if nothing else so I can get a knee brace and some more drugs, pray that nothing is actually wrong with me everyone. Wish me luck.

Pictures
- FESTIVAL...this means red lanterns...everywhere
- Some of my floor: Persephone, Alba and Jingo...(thats the back of Michelle's head, she doesn't live with us though)
- A very festive fellow
- A view of how crowded this thing was
- CHINESE DANCING!!! (I feel this girl and I look sort of alike)

Xin Nian Kuai le!

Happppyyyyy new yearrrrr....

Today was not very busy I tried to rest up and make my knees get better...if they aren't better soon I think I might have to go to the hospital.

I woke up lateish today (like 8:30) and putzed around on the comp for a bit and went up to my advising appointment. In addition to 320 I will be taking a Chinese film class that meets once a week on Mondays for 3 hours (buhhhh) and a Chinese literature class that meets on Tuesday and Thursday for 1.5 hours. No class on Wednesday...random...but good

After my appointment I was STARVING so I came back downstairs and saw Matt, Persephone and Jingo eating delicious looking thingies so me and Scott went down the street to what we call 'Food Alley' to get some Dian Bing which is like a crepe type dealie with eggs and scallions and hot sauce stuff--pretty much the yummiest breakfast thing ever and they make it right in front of  you just like crepes! After we came back I started some laundry and putzed around a little more and tried to rest up.

It wasn't long before I got antsy and lonely so I went out to take some pictures of my local area before I got too accustomed to my surroundings and thought they weren't special anymore. So I walked around taking pictures and then came back and went out to lunch with some peeps. We didn't have much time before we were supposed to meet our host families for chinese new year so we just ate at this local restaurant called 'Stairway to Love'. It's a pretty western joint, and accordingly, the most expensive meal I've had here, even if it was only 6 bucks. I managed to order (IN CHINESE!) a chicken sandwich with french fries and a diet coke. It was a cute cafe place that has wireless access so I can definitely see myself sitting there studying and whatnot. After we finished up we came back to campus to quickly get change, grab gifts for the families and leave.

While waiting for the host family to pick us up (there were 4 of us, me, Sean (who actually lives with this family), Anya, and Dan) I witnessed probably the most scary thing I have ever seen. I'm kind of unclear about the details but all of a sudden I see this  guy run over and literally tear a branch off a tree and start swinging at this other guy, yelling. The other guy was holding this woman in front of him, using her for protection while she was struggling to get away. I think something happend where like the tree-branch guy and the lady were husband and wife and the other dude had cheated them or something... I don't really know. In any case it was really scary. Sean's host dad picked us up in his Jag and drove us to his really nice apartment, all the while telling us the ways that China was better than America, and telling Dan that he should find a girlfriend in Harbin because they're tall just like he is.

New Years was probably the most fun I've had since I've been here. We ended up at this couple's house that is VERY dapper and  probably nicer than most houses in the US. We  talked for a bit (IN CHINESE), and looked at pictures and made Jiaozi (dumplings) because it is Chinese tradition. The Chinese couple was hilarious and the dad liked to make fun of america and say how China was much better in  every way (at least I think he was joking). We ate and drank a LOT! The host dad got me, Dan and Sean pretty drunk with all their toasts over and over again. I ended up biting into a Jiaozi with a date inside which Aiyi (aunt or older woman) said meant that I would get a boyfriend this year (yessss). We had a really good time teaching them english phrases like 'Super Duper' and they had a fun time making fun of us because we were drunk. Sean went into his room and passed out and the rest of us slept on couches until midnight when the fireworks started going CRAZY!!!!! Literally, the fourth of july and new  years do not even hold a candle (ha ha ha) to the amount of fireworks that go on during Chinese new year. We looked out of the window of the apartment and fireworks were literally going  off all over the city, some not even 30 feet from our window...they're still going on as I type this. I have videos but they really will not do it justice. We even went outside to light some of our own, before Aiyi drove us home.

Somewhat fittingly, Aiyi drove us back to campus and as we got out a bum came up and approached us for money. No matter how well off some people may be by capitalizing on China's immense economic growth and development, some will always be left by the wayside. 

Pictures--
- Beebles in China!
- The Food Alley where there's restaurants and fruit stands and whatnot.
- A sort of outdoor exercise pavilion. These things are all over. They kind of remind me of Curves...maybe I would use them if it weren't so cold outside.
- The neighborhood where I go grocery shopping.
- Fireworks over Beijing
- Naima Mora from America's Next Top Model?!?!

Buh

So apparently my awesome NO BUGLING picture was not posted so here it is....

ROAR!

Ok so this is the second time I've written a really neat entry and it's gotten deleted cuz the internet timed out... so sorry if this sucks.

Highlights of the day:
-Had 'Mystery Beijing':
We were given little slips of paper with locations written on them and were supposed to find them in Beijing. We were not allowed to use taxis or to ask anyone who was an American for directions. My group found our location with the help of one of the leaders(who somehow ended up with us), but were pretty tired, cold and HUNGRY by the time we got there. We ate pretty quickly and came back to Beiwai for lunch.

-Lunch:
Some people are just assholes and make me ashamed to be an American...I'm sorry

-After Lunch:
Boring Lecture.
Recieved our coursepacks for our language classes that we'll be starting next week. I tested into 320, which is sort of like the class between the intermediate and the advanced levels...which is probably where I belong and is what I had to get into to get credit from UPS. So yay!
Had the Yunnan trip lottery and got Trip C even without having to use the cripple card.
Cultural Simulation was silly. Couldn't we experience the actual culture? We are in Beijing after all...

-Dinner:
Me and some others somehow ended up with this same asshole from lunch. Nobody likes this guy, I wish he would realize it and buzz off. Kim, who is from Hong Kong and speaks very good Chinese ordered us some good (AND CHEAP) food.

-After Dinner:
Chinese Acrobats.
My eye for circus tricks is too critical as always. The highlight was the group of ladies with the diablos, or Chinese yo-yos who I thought were probably retired little girls from Cirque...glad to know they're still putting their skills to good use.

-Night:
Floor meeting to set community standards

-Pics:
For all of your information, I have to post via email because blogspot is blocked in China. Ergo, I cannot format pictures and make them pretty for you so you will have to bear   with me in that regard. I don't even know what order they'll be in when they post, but one is a pineapple with rice inside that we got at a Dai restaurant. One is my group and I at our destination for Mystery Beijing--Jiang Shan Gong Yuan. One is a picture of the fountain just inside West Campus. One is the front of BeiWai with the 'Beijing' part cut off (oops I'll try again another time). One is a picture of my dorm. And one is a picture of my favorite sign that's all around Beijing--NO BUGLING!!! I think it means no noise but I haven't asked anyone yet.

-Health:
Physical--Both my knees hurt very badly...I'm kind of glad that tomorrow we essentially have a free day. I feel bad that my desire to take in what Beijing has to offer does not override the pain that my body feels every moment that I'm walking around. Like I want to go out at night but sometimes my body is just too tired and hurts so much that I don't want to be miserable...Today was the first day I didn't wake up with out a headache and also the first day I didn't wake up before 7 in the morning! Maybe the rest of my body will follow suit.

Mental-- I don't even know. I guess I'm having a hard time making friends. It's weird for me to say that because this hasn't really been a problem for me in the past. I'm not used to not having someone to sit next to or walk beside or talk with. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid because even though its only the 4th? day I feel like I just don't have anyone that I can relate to yet. I guess its just I'm at a point where  everything would be so much  easier if I had a friend and being in a foreign place you just want something solid you can count on... Even though time is passing quickly, it seems so much slower when you're by yourself a lot of the time.

...who can say where the road goes...
...where the day goes
...only time...

Bit by bit...putting it together

I am sorry for the lack of updatage, I tried to update this morning
but it deleted it, and then I had to go take a test real quick...so
this update will cover the last two days.

Saturday:
Yesterday, they told us to wake up at 8:00 am to take us on a
Supermarket run and a tour of the neighborhood. We walked from our
dorm on the west side of campus, through this underground tunnel
dealie and into the east side, through the east side until we came to
a place with a lot of street vendors and small stores. This place was
a lot more like what I had expected Beijing to be like, although still
perhaps more technologically advanced then I might have expected--
people selling stuff in their little shops, riding bikes all around,
people with horse-drawn carts of fresh goods like oranges and cabbage
and, yes, even some hanging red lanterns, Clay. However, amidst the
quaint folk were taxis "zipping" (I use this term loosely because
traffic is terrible and impossibly slwow) past us and nearly clippling
us as we walked by. This part of town had several small food vendors,
including a dumpling man who gave you like eight dumplings for like
2-3 kuai (which is like 30-35 cents) so kind of a sweet deal. The IES
'helpers' brought us to the middle of this chaos and told us to just
'Go!'-- gee thanks guys. I kind of wanted some dumplings and was
pretty hungry but my 100 kuai bills were too big for such a small
purchase so, with the help of my RA Steve who also went to UPS, I
bought a card of minutes for my cellphone from a magazine stand
nearby.

They then took us a little farther in and took us to the supermarket
called the ChaoShiFan, the people who needed cellphones only stopped
for a bit while the people who already had them stayed to shop. This
market was actually sort of like a Cub Foods/Safeway on top of a
Walgreens/CVS because it was two stories and the main floor had fresh
fruits veggies and meats and the basement had other random crap. The
first thing that struck me was that this store was extremely loud and
crowded (are we noticing a pattern?). As soon as we walked in we were
assaulted by two Chinese ladies toting cups of unidentifiable white
goo, yelling something I couldn't really understand but took to mean
EAT THIS, didn't though...not that adventureous yet. Again the IES
people said to 'Go!'--how very helpful. While I was there I bought a
three-pronged compatable extension cord (YESSSSS), Diet Coke with
Lemon (which I didn't notice until later--I should have noticed the
yellow cap), some hangers, and some ritz crackers. Today I went again
and brought back more diet cokes and other random crap--I think this
place will be much appreciated by me.

After coming back to the dorm for a quick stop to drop off our stuff
we headed back over to East campus for a boring lecture. After the
boring lecture we went to lunch with some of the language teachers and
orientation leaders, where we ate a LOT! I also started to notice
that choosing to wear my cute shoes instead of my functional shoes
was probably a dumb idea because I had blisters on my heals. While we
were at the restaurant though, I began to notice a sort of weird
dynamic between us (even the the teachers, not just us foreigners) and
the fuwuyuan (which can also mean waiter, or anyone in a serivice
position). During the meal, I witnessed what my western perspective
thought to be kind of rude. Whenever we wanted anything one of the
teachers would shout essentially, 'HEY, fuwuyuan, give us some rice!!'
I'd seen some of these same behaviors in the continuing students who
are our 'orientation leaders' but had written it off as just dumb. But
when I saw the teachers doing it too I stopped to think about it. It
seemed odd to me that a place that values filial piety so highly could
be so seemingly disrespectul to someone who serves them. It could have
been an age difference thing, or maybe in China this behavior is not
rude or disrespectful at all. Sort of along these same lines, when I
was in the supermarket, occasionally I would bump into someone and
would go to say, 'dui bu qi' (sorry) only to realize that they had
already moved on. I guess in China you really can't dwell on stuff
like that because its so crowded--people probably get bumped all the
time. We walked back to campus and I got to talk (in CHINESE) to the
Language director, Xiao Zhao Laoshi, she is very nice and when I was
done, this girl Sarah in my orientation group (who also likes singing
and wants to join a choir here) was all 'Omg you're Chinese is so
good' I guess I am improving already!

After this we attended a lot more boring crap and then had a 'Large
Group Mixer' where we went around the IES floor and played games and
had dominoes pizza--one of the pizza's had corn on it...weird. Just to
let you all know, I live on the 3rd floor and classes are held on the
4th, so essentially whenever I need to attend class I can literally
roll out of bed and go...this will be nice, I feel, with 4-hour
language class starting at 8 in the morning. It was fine, but there
really are a lot of people in this program that are really...socially
awkward-- maybe I'll just leave it at that for now... After that we
came back down to our rooms and some us wanted to go out, but realized
we had our language placement exam at 8 in the morning....yuck. So
instead we went out to a store and bought Tsingdao pijiu (beer) for
2.5 kuai/largeish bottle. We came back and drank a bit while playing
Kings Cup and bonded and talked until about 11:30 when we decided to
call it a night.

Monday:
Today I woke up probably around 5:30 or 6 because my legs and knees
hurt so badly and I woke up with a headache, just like the previous
day...so just like yesterday I took 3 ibuprofen and 1 vitamin...I am
hoping that this pattern doesn't continue because I don't have enough
ibuprofen and kind of don't want to deal with buying drugs in China.
After just lying in bed for awhile I got dressed and walked upstairs
for my placement test. I think it went ok, considering I hadn't
studied very much at all...especially my oral portion. However, the
last portion my head hurt so badly I could not pay attention to the
test so I just quickly wrote down the remaining answers and came back
downstairs. I went to the store agaiinand then came back for MORE
LECTURES. Really I do appreciate them all but sometimes I am so tired
I am simply not taking any of the information in. The one interesting
one was where we learned about our expectations for learning Chinese.
Once the program begins, we are expected to speak Chinese 24/7 and
will be observed by our RAs and teachers...this is where the whole
living downstairs thing becomes kind of whack. In addition to our
regular schoolwork (which btw, looks soooo hard) we sign a language
pledge saying we will to the best of our abilities speak no english
at all but there are 3 'english zones' upstairs where we can speak
it. Every week we will be evaluated on our performance in adhering to
the language pledge and it will count of 5% of our final grade
(buhhhh). The twist on it though is that we will be divided into 4
teams and will be 'competing for the gold' Olympic-style to perform
the best, we will all be assigned a color/country that corresponds to
one of the Olympic rings, the 5th ring/group/country is the RAs and
teachers who will be yellow and be the judges. We also have to wear
bracelets the color of our team and if we do not wear them we get
penalized....this is so summer camp it is almost silly. Hopefully it
is effective though.....

We also had a meeting about our trip to Yunnan province which will be
coming up pretty quick here. There are 3 choices, so if any of you
have opinions you are welcome to share them only I probably won't get
your suggestions until after I've chosen. The first choice is an
ethnic studies trip in Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is near the Napa
village. This was the last lecture of the day so I don't remember much
but this is an area that has a lot of Tibetan people, just like the
rest of Yunnan and we would be staying with their families and such,
and talking about Tibetan issues and whatnot. Although this seems
neat, you have to hike up and down the gorge...my knees say...this is
not cool, although there is a cheese making component and we would get
to help build a school for one of the villages.

Choice B is also an ethnic studies trip to Lugu Lake in Naxi, which is
about an hour from Napa, the cool thing about this village is that
its one of the world's last matrilineal (sp) societies, so the people
take their mother's last names and nobody know's who their father is
and just calls everyone uncle. This is also hiking (for 5 days with
camping--UGHHHHHHHHH) but it would be around a lake, so pretty flat
and also we will have shirpas who will follow behind us in trucks,
carrying our stuff and cooking food for us.

The last choice is a growth and development studies trip to the south
of Yunnan, where it is more tropical and warm (already liking
it...Beijing is soooo coooold). It concentrates on the Mekong and how
they are growing and changing economically. This also is the one where
you meet the Dai people (peacocks mommy!) Problem: 80 mile bike ride
around a huge ass lake. However, Ai Lao Shi (the director of the IES
beijing program) says that if we are at all worried about the
physicality of any of these trips--which I am given the current state
of my knees (the left hurts when i move, the right when i'm still)
that we should choose this trip and just skip the bike ride, because
its not used to get from one place to another just as an activity for
the day. Still, it would be kinda sad to sit by myself wishing that my
knees didn't hurt ( and could ride a bike...oops).

After our last boring lecture I came back cuz by then I could not go
up and down stairs comfortably at all and took my first shower in
Beijing and am now writing this...whew it is a doozy. I've met a lot
of people, but I'm not sure if there's anyone I would consider a
friend just yet...I suppose that will come with time. Mom and Dad and
Lucinda and Clay will be excited to know there is a girl named
Persephone...so cool! I promise I will put pictures soon, I've just
been so overwhelmed by everything I haven't been comfortable enough to
stand around and take picture...plus its really cold. Once I get the
shutter clicking, itll get more interesting I promise...

I'm trying...I'm scared...but I'm trying....

Leave me messages...I miss you all, once all this craziness is over we
will Skype...honest.

Getting There:

So here I am writing in my blog, trying to give myself some sense that I did not, in fact, fall off the face of the earth....maybe more for myself than for any of you.... Coming to you live with a stolen wireless connection and a fleeting battery life on my computer, it's Elizabeth Fei reporting from Beijing.

After a mini freakout at the airport when I realized that although my flight was continental it was being operated by Northwest and I therefore had to brave the insanely long Northwest lines instead of the short Continental ones, I managed my flight from MN to Newark without a hitch, giving me some time to rest up and catch up on my Sky Mall reading (did you know they are now marketing a Marshmellow Shooter)

When I arrived at Newark airport I knew I only had 1 hour and 40 minutes before my flight to Beijing and needed to find my gate as quickly as possible. Much to my dismay, however, Newark airport has like, NO monitors--this, naturally caused me to have another mini freakout. But after following my Beijing energies, using my noggin, and following my energies some more, I found my flight. Although I didn't have much time before we boarded, I managed to connect with a girl I had friended on Facebook, Charlotte and we had a nice chat before began to board. I even sat on the wing and just as I looked out the window I saw the TSA people pull up with my bag and put it onto the plane. So there was one less mini freakout avoided.


The plane ride was excruciatingly long, and my riding companions (two Chinese men) didn't like moving too much so I felt bad even to go to the bathroom. I watched: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Follow that Bird, some chinese movie about weird pills, some chinese show (without english subs) that kinda reminded me of oprah. I ate: steak (!) and dim sum (!) --- I am going to be more adventurous with my food choices. I also listened to the Broadway and 'Hits' musical stations while watching the little digital plane get closer and closer to Beijing. On a side note, rather than going back across the US like I had thought it would, the plane went north, over the north pole and then south through Russia and Mongolia....whatevs.

After ANOTHER mini-freakout about customs and then realizing it wasnt a big deal at all I met up with more IES folks at baggage claim and walked with them through the gates into what was officially, Beijing. The first thing that struck me was the people packed together shouting and holding up signs....and all of them were chinese, save one salient group of americans wearing gray IES sweatshirts, lucky me.

They got us to the bus and sort of just let us sit there to stew. The one thing I'm noticing about being here, both in China and as an IES student, is that there is very little regard for the individual and moreso regard for the efficiency of a machine. The IES 'helpers' did little more that act like shepherds, making sure we all stayed in one clump, not bothering to tell us where we were going on the bu s or what we would be doing when we got there or anything. Similarly, Beijing did not appear to be as quaint as I had imagined-- no cute asian people riding bikes, no big bird on a motor scooter, no red paper lanterns...just a lot of cranes and buildings and taxis. On the bus we were trying to liken the city to an american one and decided that its a bit like New York, with some harlem thrown in.

After battling Beijing traffic we pulled up to Bei Wai, where they instructed us (the Language Intensives) to get out while the others (Contemporary Issues) stayed to go elsewhere...PS. I am really jealous of these CI's because they get to have a single room in a dorm that ALSO has no curfew (our's is 11-12ish). I was sad because a lot of the people I had bonded with were CI's. After they got us out they walked us in the cold to our dorm (building 7, I think) they told us to give up our passport (WHAT) to the fuwuyuan (worker, kind of like janitor/maid/consierge person of the dorm) so we could get our room key. I was assigned to room 312 (this might change when the Chinese roommates come back from holiday, so I won't do pics just yet) and had to lug my bag and messenger bag up the stairs. By this time I was getting really overwhelmed by being shoved around and not being told anything and then come to find out that my genius idea that I'd had for getting my computer charger to work in China in fact does NOT work. One of the RA's hands me this impossibly large packet with my itinerary for orientation and then leaves again. Somehow, this sort of set me off the edge and I started crying... I tried to hold it together for my temporary roommate, who is nice but not necessarily someone I would choose to spend my time with, but I just couldn't take being thrust into a new situation with no bearings whatsoever...

I pulled myself together enough to realize how jetlagged I was and they told us we were going to dinner. This is all very blurry, because I was emotionally and physically exhausted--I ate, listened to some boring stuff, felt lonely and came back. Had a hall meeting and am now writing this.

I wish I could say my first experiences in Beijing have eased all my fears about going abroad but they really haven't....

...the only way out is up....
...a leap of faith.....

I made it...

I'm here....I'm safe...

maybe not sound...but me and all my stuff made it....

I'll try to update later.....I have to be stingy with my battery life right now because my genius idea didn't work and I have to go find a converter.....