Saturday 10/4/08

Academics are going well. The difficulty of the material (36 new words every two days with a quiz to make sure we learn them) is balanced by the generosity of the grading. (Who’s ever heard of taking of .1 of a point?) My teachers are both excellent. Our class begins Monday through Friday at 8:30 (and unlike Carleton and Island School we have bells that make class actually start on time) and we start with a 2 hour Chinese language lecture. This is given for the 300 level class by Li Laoshi who is quiet, composed, on top of it, very clear, very nice, and has the exact same facial structure and smile as Zhao Laoshi. Our textbook does not have any English even for the new words, which are explained in simple Chinese that I still am unable to understand. This ends up making preparing for class a time intensive process and often frustrating futile because of how highly idiomatic many of the words/expressions are. This is actually one of my criticisms of the Chinese class. I am being taught charming idioms for love at first sight and prince charming but I often find myself unable to keep up in just normal conversation. I won’t pretend my Chinese isn’t improving and the classes are both enjoyable and useful (especially the grammar and speaking) but…. The second 2 hours (10:30 to 12:30) are taught by Ye Laoshi who is very nice, very frank, very aggressive, and very funny. It mostly consists of her reviewing information taught in the first class, forcing people to talk, and her talking about her love life and asking about ours. It’s funny, in class, she talks to someone else in the class and I think “oooh I know that” but when she talks to me the flight instinct kicks in, my brain shuts down, my eyes get really wide and I look like an idiot…oh well. I also have the bad habit of imagining the resulting battles if the Chinese Characters on the chalk board were to fight. (龙 is a vicious looking character.) It gives my face an intent expression that tends to make me get called on despite the fact that the only thing in mind is 急 getting gutted by 传。 It’s sometimes fun to try to make up an answer on the spot having no clue what the prompt is but, yes, mom, I’m working on it.

We take a couple other classes which I’ll summarize quickly and then I’ll start studying for my quiz. My study habits here have changed drastically. I go to bed at 10 and get up at 5. It’s been working so far.

Mondays: Tai Chi. Our female teacher is, I think, attractive and bends in ways that no human being was ever meant to. The class itself is remarkably difficult. My lack of coordination and muscles make things rough. Especially when moving at 1/100th of the speed you want to move at. Fun. We also have Calligraphy which is also a trial of patience and is remarkably humbling.

Tuesdays and Thursdays: Zhao Laoshi teaches his cultural history of China which seems to mostly be nice little forays into his mind and metaphors. Zhao Laoshi is, I think, at this point universally revered by the class and could (but does not) come to class and preach infanticide without damaging in the least his following. Also, today he treated us all to hot pot (which was amazing.) The class is mostly taught pictorially with very, very good sketches put on the chalk board and interesting verbal cues like “Confucius, duck, arrow.” Also last class he was talking about prehistoric man and drew literally the perfect cranial structure for a Neanderthal on the chalk board. It was more accurate than the pictures in science magazines. It was amazing.

Wednesdays: Beijing Opera. Our Prof. was an actor. If I ever have his stage presence I will be able to rule the world. He can sing, he can dance, he loves John, he shouts, he entirely makes up for the aesthetic problems of Beijing Opera.

Friday: Wushu or martial arts. I am sore in parts of my body that I did not know could be.

For the record: I am enjoying Tianjin so much that I wish I had another term here with the same routine. 5 weeks seems too short a time. As always if you have questions, comments, suggestions email me and randolpn@carleton.edu or post.

Friday 10/2/08

This week is a holiday in China. We are the only people in the country who are currently going to school. On Tuesday we got the day off and for most people that meant watching pirated DVD’s and procrastinating on doing homework. We then met after dinner at Zhao Laoshi’s house and watched his interview that was being played on the English speaking channel before the National Holiday celebration coverage. It was very interesting. He was being interviewed with an advisor to British Embassy on how China’s status in the world had changed in 2008. The interviewer was infuriating. He was some little Chinese man that was trying to William F. Buckley and only succeeding in being both insulting, condescending, and inarticulate. The British guy took hours to say nothing and Zhao Laoshi was only asked the most idiotic questions. His answers were, I think, significantly better than the other guy’s but he would be cut off frequently by both his aggressive and annoying companions. Oh well.

Yesterday, (Thursday) was very cool. We were supposed to meet outside of one of the classrooms at 6am. We took this to mean the bus would leave 7am and so planned on waking up at 6:45am. Instead we were woken with a knock on the door and a shouted “We were supposed to leave 15min ago.” Some of us (a little more than half) signed up to participate in Dragon Boat races. Over the last two weeks we have had 3 practices on the Tianjin River The river is about 20 degrees warmer than the air outside, which we’ve decided is due to nuclear waste dumped into it. It has a similar color and consistency to sewage, (perhaps a little bit more watery) and I heard a body was discovered in it fairly recently. The practices themselves were exhausting. The boat is filled 2/3 with Carleton students and the 1/3 with a German, a couple Chinese, a Korean, a Spaniard, and another American. Practice was 2:30 to 5:30 of sprints. Dragon boats work sort of like an outrigger canoe except that there are 22 people in the boat. The paddles are similar as is the technique. There is a person at the front who beats the drum and a person in back who steers. These practices were training us for yesterday’s race that was humbling. We planned our excuse if we didn’t win to be because the Chinese have been doing this since birth. We were not expecting to be competing exclusively against foreigners and being demolished by the Russian and Italian teams that flew to China exclusively for this race. We went to the coast for the races which was nice and we were given matching track suits. It was a lot of fun and we only came in last place once.

Friday 10/2/08

Everyone is doing well and I think enjoying the program. We are almost always together (which has its disadvantages and its advantages) and everyone seems to get along well and to be doing fine. However, for the benefit of parents and in honor of the paraolympics I’m going to give a brief summary of everyone’s current condition using a single word spelled backwards.
Alan: kcis (but recovering)
Allison: tsol (but will be found soon)
Bekson: gnihcaop
Ben: sedarahc gniyalp (with roommate who only speaks Japanese)
Brenden: dezicinis
Chris: snospmis eht gnihctaw
David: ykrans
Divya: gnilggig
Duncan: gnivrats (having trouble adjusting to Chinese food)
Fred: nainrofilac
Grace: nacnud
John: evets (apparently the translation of his Chinese name)
Katherine: tuo gnikrow
Lydia: oooooooooohca (gnizeens)
Me: siht gniyojne
Molina: !!!!!!gnojhaM
Mark: tnrubnus
Pa: teiuq
Peter: bacov egnarts gniwonk ylsuolucarim
Rachel: tneduts tcefrep
Richard: gib
Rita: gnidaer
Teagan: gnihgual
Tenzen: tneulf
Trey: dyslexic (not really. Doing very well but someone had to be disabled.)
Zach: peelsa

Wednesday 10/1/08

These are tidbits that I jotted down and do not know how they fit in chronologically. I need to stop titling them “today.” They are, however, interesting.

Beijing Opera: We went to Beijing Opera today. It was fascinating. I didn’t understand a word of it and I often thought my eardrums would begin to pour blood, but the costumes, the acting, and the amazing skill required to do everything made it a worthwhile experience. Also the audience was so involved and would laugh and spit so energetically that it was a very fun. To my ear at least, the singing is 难听 or unpleasant to listen to. It lacks the continuity in my mind to be considered music but the skill required to jump from one note to another completely unrelated octaves away is, I think, without parallel in the western world. Apparently the other opera had a bunch of choreographed Kung Fu fights. I think, I would have liked that.

Yuebing: I have a problem. Now that the Mid Autumn Festival is long over, the Moon Cakes (Yuebing) are on sale. I happened to have had the perfect yuebing in Mongolia and eat between 2 and 6 of the sweet filled pastries a day in search of another. Some taste like fruit cakes, some taste like (to quote Zach) stale gummy bears, or pumpkin, or sweet potato, or red bean, or…

Five Roads Cultural Tour: I came to this under false pretenses. We were told that we should come to see the Five Roads Cultural Tour in the concession district. (Much of Tianjin has Victorian style architecture from it’s periods under Western domination.) I went with the expectation of touring five roads that I assumed were particularly cultural. What I did not expect was no tour, no five roads, and, really, no historical or cultural sights what-so-ever. We were, I think, brought to be photographed. (Which, upon reflection, at least in my case, is understandable.) No, seriously, there were a bunch of party officials and some diplomats on a raised platform above a part of the street where a bunch of cameramen would film us. There was then a small parade where many groups of scantily clad haole (white) women came in and did terrible dances. (I think, I’m a prude. I don’t approve of cheerleaders in America, let alone here where they’re so conspicuously inappropriate. Especially considering how 难看 they all were.) The diplomats on the platform were usually unsuccessful at hiding their distaste. (There was a Russian thing that was good and a drum act that was also good but the Brazilian dancers would have been inappropriate at a strip club.) We then listened to a speech by the local party leader, were photographed some more, given Chinese flags to wave, and bussed back to school. I’m glad I went. I’m still completely confused as to what we witnessed but it has given me a lot to think about.

Internet: Internet is really hard to get. Phone cards run in the 5 USD per 2 min range. The phones are ridiculously picky and won’t even let you call an 800 number phone card (the ones you buy here, you actually stick into the phone.) Internet places are open almost always during our classes and more infrequently when we’re not in class. There is a substantial time difference. We also have a homework load that results in my getting 13 hours of sleep on Saturday night to try to compensate for the complete lack of sleep over the week. So, if your children, or boyfriends, or whatever, are not calling it’s not their fault. It’s really hard.

Bookstore: I went to the main bookstore in Tianjin. It is very much worth going. It is seven floors of paradise. The entire first floor is all Chinese as a second language or English as a second language. Basically every classic piece of literature from anywhere has an edition that has on one side the Chinese and the other side the English. This is also a good place to buy a Chinese English electronic dictionary. They make everything easier. (I don’t need to buy one, I have a roommate who has one.) I also went to the ATM to get out money and it said that I had 0 RMB. My entire world came crashing down. How I was going to survive in China on the 5 USD in pocket suddenly became an issue. It ended up just being a sadistic machine but for a moment there…

Antiques Market: I have a terrible sense of direction but there is a street where a bunch of street vendors peddle antiques or very good imitations for very negotiable prices. Go. Don't ask me for directions I've already gotten several people lost that way. I thought I’d be really good at haggling but once that put their arm around my shoulder and call me friend I fold. My policy so far has been to not pay for anything more than 50% of the asking price. There’s a lot of cool stuff, lots of communist poster, pins, etc. One of the vendors we were talking to asked where we were from (I went with my roommate Alan) and I said America. She smiled and said America giving the thumbs up sign. She then said Japan, held her pinkie, and shook it making a genuinely menacing sound. The resentment is still very much here.

Ancient Culture Street: This is again like the Five Roads. My expectations of an ancient culture street would be a bunch of historical buildings on a road maybe with souvenir shops. Instead there is a network of streets all of them new in imitation of traditional China and all of them selling something. There are people everywhere, and the vendors are so aggressive its shocking and almost always overwhelming. However, the stuff they’re selling is very interesting. Even without negotiating the price the amount they charge for an original, medium sized, painting that you actually see painted is like 5 USD. After a little negotiation it is 2.5 USD and, I at least, feel bad.

Clubbing: Lots of clubs in Tianjin. I’m a prude. I don’t really approve. Especially these places where the tables all have hookahs which makes the entire place look like my mental picture of an opium den. It was nice to dance a bit but the music was so loud that my heart was reconsidering the advisability of its beat. The music was amazing, though. There were a couple songs so grossly inappropriate that I am trying not to think about the let alone write them. The lyrics are all in English which is unfortunate. It was really funny though seeing Chinese people who you know have no idea what they’re saying singing things about their sexual organs and prostitution that defy comprehension in any language. There was also an intriguing song that had two lyrics: “What is you password?” Techno beats. “Your password has been accepted.”

Wednesday 9/24/08

I thought I was going to die today. I went to the swimming pool. Nankai has wonderful new sports facilities for the Olympics. (As the Olympics took place 100mi away, why the Olympics were relevant escapes me but they emphasize it rather strongly.) Included in the huge new and shiny complex is a massive swimming pool with bunch of Chinese people slowly either doing laps or drowning or bathing (it is often hard to discern which.) I went to the front desk and asked for a swim card. I know that the varsity swimmers on our trip had been using it so I paid about 120 kuai for the remainder of my time here in Tianjin. (That’s about 15 bucks.) It seemed to me to be a reasonable price but I think it’s fairly representative of China. Everything is cheap but you need to pay for everything. (You need to pay for napkins.) First I tried to get into the pool in my surf trunks but they wouldn’t let me. I tried to explain in broken Chinese that my surf trunks were significantly cleaner than their air but at last I was ushered to some shop that tried to sell me a variety of skin tight swimming wear. Turning down the distinctly Asian and ungodly cross between jammers and a speedo I bought a pair of jammers and entered the dressing room where I was serenaded by many naked Chinese men singing. I changed somewhere more discrete and entered the pool.

I decided on choosing the lane that seemed most deserted and was stopped while I was going in by one of the lifeguards. I’ve been able to follow conversations almost always a little bit but I was somewhat caught off guard and so had no clue what he was saying. He held up two fingers which seemed to indicate some form of peace and gently pushed me into the water with the command of 游泳 or swim. I started swimming and would look back occasionally to see him shouting at me and indicating me to go on. I started swimming faster and faster hoping that at some point when I looked back he would disappear. This never happened. After 2 laps I felt done with the shouting and tried to get out of the pool. I was pushed back into the pool and told through body language to put my hands above my head. Remembering the guards outside of the swimming facility I quickly became convinced that I was going to be shot and considered whether if I were to hide under the semi obese man slowly swimming past me I could use him as a shield. It also occurred to me that I am a foot taller and 100lbs heavier than every other person in the room. Perhaps if I were to overpower the lifeguard and dive through a window the military… After a little bit he motioned me over and helped me out of the water, made me sign some forms, and gave me a red bracelet. In hindsight I think in the initial conversation he was telling me that I was trying to swim in the deep end of the pool and I needed to pass a test that he was willing to supervise that involved me swimming two laps at whatever speed I wanted to and 3 minutes of treading water with my hands above my head. In hindsight.

I swam for probably an hour and while I was leaving was accosted by another lifeguard who asked where I was from. I told him America and he started talking about how beautiful America was and then he started talking about something that I could not understand in the slightest. I ended the conversation feeling humbled at my Chinese abilities and guilty at the show of affection for America. I feel like it would be hard to find people in America who like either America or China with that lively affection. I am still perplexed as to why the Chinese seem to like America so much. Having recently ended a Cold War and genuinely negative relations it seems that China would be more justified in disliking us than almost any other country. (Espeacially considering the amount of their population we’re killing with our tobacco.) It was very interesting. I will try to get pictures of this place up ASAP. Talk to me peoples of the world! I can change!

Sunday 9/21/08

Today I discovered 2 things. 1. Possibly my favorite food ever. They have some sort of egg burrito in the morning with tofu, egg, delicious fried bread, and some really good spices. They are around 20 US cents. 2. I was wandering in Tianjin with my roommate Alan and Diviya. (I’ll correct the spelling of that on Monday) and we stumbled across the natural history museum. It is very cool and very troubling. It involves a lot of fine specimens of the art of taxidermy (pandas), an aquarium (that consists of a bunch of big fish in small tanks, sea turtles, sharks, and a single very lonely seal,) dinosaur models, and a bunch of cool looking dead bugs. It was very cool but the amount of sea turtles I found very troubling.

Saturday 9/19/08

We are now fully transitioned from being nomadic tourists to the routine of school. Our drive from Mongolia was uneventful excepting some truly remarkable driving by our bus driver. The prejudice that Asians are incapable of driving is absolutely absurd. True, the drivers here don’t drive safely but their knowledge of the exact size of their vehicle (so that they can squeeze past another car and merge perfectly into a space exactly 1/189th of an inch more than the length of their vehicle) and their knowledge of their brake reaction time (so that they can stop so close to you after waiting so long to slow down that your entire life flashes before your eyes) leaves me in a constant state of awe (and fear.)

Accommodations: We arrived at Tianjin sometime in the evening on Thursday. For those who don’t know Tianjin is about an hour drive makai (towards the sea) of Beijing. It is China’s fourth largest city and home to Nankai University, where Zhao Laoshi grew up and one of the best universities in China. It was rather demoralizing coming back from the wide rolling plains and blue sky of Inner Mongolia to the crowded frenetic energy of a city and to smog that obscures everything more than a block and a half away. (I thought it was so bad I couldn’t see the face of the person next to me but that was just because my contact fell out.) We are settled in a dorm called the “Yi Yuan Hotel” which is probably a better description than dorm. It is an on-campus hotel in all including name. The rooms are set up in the universal hotel layout twin beds facing TV’s and we have room service. Over all, the accommodations are wonderful. (It’s nice to have a full toilet again. The ingenuity and flexibility required to successfully use a squatter has been taxing my hamstrings and my brain. As a note, toilet paper here comes in the bring your own variety.) I will attempt to post the address here where packages can be sent.

Food: Nankai is really a very cool school. It is in a sense a world unto itself, it is connected to elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools, it has its own gym, market, street venders, restaurants, liquor stores, residential neighborhoods, young children doing bizarre exercise routines on Saturdays, old men who play xiaqi (Chinese Chess,) libraries, lakes, statues, parks, it’s actually quite impressive. So far the highlight of the area is Xinan Cun (literally Southwest Village.) It is basically two streets of street vendors and small restaurants, hair cutting places, pirated dvd sales booths, and a small supermarket. Mostly though the food is cheap and delicious. Something that was new to me is called 包子 or Baozi. For .5 kuai (or about 7 cents) you can buy 1 steamed ball of dough filled with either meat or vegetable mixes. All of them are delicious if not necessarily easy on the stomach. There is fried rice 炒饭, steamed noodles, and a variety of red bean filled pastries. Meals average around a dollar.

Academics: On Thursday we met our Chinese buddies (Nankai students who are majoring in teaching Chinese as a foreign language) and had one hour of forced conversation. It is difficult to avoid issues like politics in a one-hour conversation about Chinese culture. I oscillate between depression at how little of the conversations I can understand and surprise at the amount of what I say that they seem to be able to understand. I’ve always considered speaking to be the biggest issue in my Chinese so I was both relieved and somewhat sad to find myself taking a completely written placement test on today. I studied about three hours too many for that test but… oh well. After that we had class for about an hour. The teachers seem nice and look like they might be 22…if that. (Then again, here I have a lot of trouble determining ages so they may very well be in their mid-sixties.) We’ll see how that goes. I’ll try to get this posted soon. Please send feedback for those who haven’t yet and for those who have thank you. 再见