Hustle and Bustle

This morning I broke the news to Mama that my camera was gone. She freaked out and started talking so fast that I couldn't keep up. I told her the whole story (or as much as I could convey in her language) then she worked up every single way of getting the camera back. They ranged from calling the police to check security footage to see what cab I got into, to asking one of the school professors to take me around to retrace my steps. She noticed that I wasn't eating as much for breakfast, attributing it to my loss. She was a great encouragement saying that this was not a big problem. If I lost my health it would be a big problem but I have a good life and a camera is too small to worry about - I could always get a new one.

Baba returned home then took me over to IES to figure things out. Brian - the program director - broke the news to me that there was really nothing I could do and should start dealing with the loss internally. He also gave me a chengyu (Chinese saying), 吃一堑长一智meaning we learn from our mistakes. Chinese are so full of wisdom.

All that commotion made me late from heading over to the Silk Market with Andy and Vinh. I took the subway there, which took about 45 minutes. Right outside of the subway was a Starbucks, I had to investigate. I decided to purchase a black cup of coffee which ended up being 18 元 (just under $3) and the quality did not compare with that of the US, which you think it would seeing as it is way closer to huge coffee plantations than we are. The Silk Market was pretty cool. It wasn't what I was expecting because it was in a building with several floors dedicated to a general theme. I went up to the one floor where they sold silk and bartered with them for a while. Now bartering is really fun. What you've got to do is be really friendly and speak to them in their own language. Its crazy to believe but these guys speak fluent Engish...and/or French...and/or Russian...on top of Mandarin. They should work in foreign affairs.

We had our fill of haggling for the day so I split off from them and went to meet Adam! Adam Gemar (a high school friend and the brother of one of my best friends) is also here, to visit his freshman roommate who lives in Beijing. Talk about small world! I met him at Wangfujing then we went out for lunch at this Taiwanese place. Pretty spendy bill (by China standards) but I must say it was worth the food we ate. After that we walked around the streets and through the super touristy food vendors. He said he ate scorpions on a stick a few days ago but I was not willing to try it. We ended up getting strawberries on a stick dipped in a syrup that gives them a hard shell. I wish I had my camera this whole time so I could document it. He walked me to the subway station then we agreed to meet on my side of town for lunch on Monday.

I did some fieldwork on the subway which was pretty boring. I chose to observe the passengers from one line as the train got to its terminal destination. People are all traveling home for Spring Festival so many carry suitcases with them that take up much space. The platforms are also super crowded and people often do not make it into the train before the doors close on an already jam-packed car. I'll have to do this observation two more times as part of my homework for the month.

Staying Optimistic

Breakfast this morning was a little more western than I've yet had. It was a bowl of milk (that came out of a room-temperature pouch) and sliced bread, and these really sweet bite sized sugary dough things. Mama came back late last night and woke up early for work so Baba and I were left to eat alone.

Class with Jeremiah was interesting as usual. Today he tried to explain China's political system, which from a foreign perspective seems complex...and power centralized. Apparently this year is the 10 year handoff of power from Hu Jintao to someone else. Not only does the head of state change, but so do each office official down to the local level. China is advertising that this is going to be a peaceful exchange of power without the "vicious hatred of campaigning like the Americans." I cracked a smile at that one.

We had a guest speaker today, Wu Qing. She was a fiery constitutional activist who fights the government left and right it seems. She was the first person ever to vote no in the People's Congress and fights for women's rights in rural regions. Her plea was to raise legal awareness and urging 'global citizens' to rise up. She was captivating and presented in a very different way, using her life story to get her points across.

A few classmates and I studied up in the library for a while then decided it was lunch time. We walked down my alley, that my apartment was on, and found a sit in place. We couldn't completely read the menu so we just pointed at something and expected a surprise. It ended up being noodle soup and greens - not too bad. Back at BeiWai I transitioned to another group of students who just walked around and made observations of the neighborhood. We ended up in a supermarket pretty far from school. I wish there was one of these smack dab in the middle of Northfield because I'd go there all the time. They had everything from tea makers to assorted mushrooms to Pepsi brand underwear and socks. After that Andy and I walked around some alleys to take pictures. People are starting to get the red lanterns and Spring Festival decorations up. It's really starting to look like the China as seen in the movies.

 Dinner tonight was cornmeal soup, mantou, fish, old Beijing jelly stuff, and pork noodles. I told Baba and Mama that it was a classmate's birthday and we wanted to go around town. We ended up going to a couple clubs for fun but it got lame so me and a few others took a cab back to a pizza joint by the school. Unfortunately, I lost my camera. I think it was left in the cab. And even worse was the fact that I didn't grab the receipt from the driver so I have no idea what cab it was. Someone told me that I might as well forget about it. We sat in PBD for a while and I felt awful. The only thing I could do was pray to God it would show up and have faith it would show up. It was kind of a bummer night after that so I just went home.

Food for Thought

 The best thing to eat, I found, is something called "huajuan." I've mentioned them before. It is a pastry with some sort of sweet bean paste in between layers of dough; I could eat them all day! I ate a few for breakfast (Baba noticed how I really enjoy them) along with a duck egg. Now the duck egg wasn't that great. It was boiled or soaked in salt water so its saltiness was overwhelming, and so was the aftertaste.

I had some down time before class started at 11:30 so I went around behind East BeiWai to soak in the backalley flavor of China. I walked up to a stand on the street (it was more like the bed of a cart) selling ginger and bought some. This thing was as big as a dinner plate, too bad I can't bring it home but I'll end up eating it bit by bit probably. After that I stepped into this convenience shop to buy some yogurt. The dairy here is interesting, I can't tell if it is fresh or not but the yogurt was sitting out for a while before I drank it. That's right I drank it because the yogurt had the consistency of milk.

Today for 'class' we went to Houhai - the market district. First we got lunch provided at a nearby restaurant. The food was good and just kept coming. By the time we were putting our coats on the egg drop soup arrived. It's a faux pas to leave food at the table here because China is on the brink of famine, but we had to. We walked down the ridiculously long road to the nearest subway station then all made our way to Xinjiekou St. We entered the narrow streets of the hutongs (alleyways) where the fun shopping is done. First, our group passed through the meat market where all the butchered or unbutchered meat sat out on display in the open air. The same went for fish. The place had an interesting smell that did not leave the nostrils easily. Our tour took us into the bigger part of the market where virtually everything is sold, and cheap fruit can be bought. I ended up buying those mouth numbing peppers called 'maojia' to bring home.

We made our way out of the market and onto this lakeside pathway. For those unfamiliar with Beijing, there are a few lakes to the left of the Forbidden City. These were frozen enough for people to skate and fish on this time of year. Once we walked around the largest lake, the Drum Tower came into view and we ended up climbing it. The way up was one long staircase inclining four stories at about a 60 degree incline. The top gave us a great view of half the city, and a good perspective of how bad the smog was. We could barely see the Forbidden City's north end.

Gege (older brother) and his wife were over for supper again. We ate supper in the gaze of the TV and talked about lots of things. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad popped on the news, so I asked what they thought of him. Gege said they like people who make trouble for America because China doesn't like America to be the 'voice of the world.' I thought it was a valuable opinion. We ate dai4yu3 for dinner, which is a long skinny fish. It was tasty considering I don't enjoy fish at all. We also had this rice, nut, and date porridge that was amazing.

Once Gege and his wife left, I got my grammar lesson in Chinese. It was confusing but I retained most of it (I think). We talked about the air quality and I asked why it was so bad. They gave reasons, but more focused on how it is getting better. They said high emission vehicles are no longer allowed, factories are forced to move away, and coal is not legal to burn anymore. I am starting to get along better with Mama than Baba I think. She is way more verbally understandable and can explain things really well if I don't get it. Baba, however, is just a blast to joke around with. His sense of humor is pretty funny when I get it. After a while my brain cold only hold so much Chinese lessons, so I'd have to start fresh tomorrow.

Put It into Perspective

Today was pretty chill. Breakfast at 8, class at 9. Jeremiah had us develop working definitions of 'modern' and 'China.' This created a lot of discussion about how the two seemed to go together before we actually saw China. Yes, they've got the world's best airport and a mighty fine subway system. However we must not begin to internally criticize modern China from a modern West point of view. For example modernity for China consists of getting rid of all the open-air markets, shrink wrap all the food, then put it on shelves in a store. Our definition is not buying stuff off of supermarket shelves but rather go to the local farmers market to purchase produce. In a sense, China is trying to make a name for itself in the world for pushing this modernity. But it's like forcing a nickname.

For the second half of class class, a professor emeritus spoke to us on the development of Beijing. It's been a city for 3000 years, and the capitol of China for about 800 years! Talk about old. He laid out the city as a chessboard grid with a center of symbolic power to go along with the fengshui of tradition. This is where it gets good. He then described Washington D.C. in an extremely freemason style, going through all these combinations of buildings and drawing shapes in the city plan. We just sort of giggled to ourselves. But I mean most of what he said was thought out and presented in a unique way. 

The rest of the day was free. I did some writing for class then went out to do field notes. This involved buying fruit from a fruit stand on the street then taking notes on what was good or what could have been done better. Pretty simple. Actually, I bout two really good apples, a big orange, and a dragon fruit for 17 元 which comes out to be $2.70. It was all fresh, but needed to be washed because of the air quality.

At 4:30 I headed past my apartment building to snoop around the neighborhood. I ended up finding this tea shop and went in. I had to do more field notes on what will help you know China more deeply. I figured a teahouse would do the trick. I stepped in and the owner was asleep in front of his TV, because no one else was there. I asked him if I could have tea so he proceeded to get the stuff ready for me. There were a bunch of things at my table for the tea making process: a pot to steep the tea, a strainer and pot for the tea water, my cup, and small statues of a mouse and tiger. All these things were made of clay and each had special name and purpose. The guy sat down across from me and did everything. We chatted, meaning I'd ask a question or mention something and he'd rant on and on not knowing that I only understood about 20% of it. But it was fun and the atmosphere gave me the impression that this is where all the old retired guys came to catch up. Walking back home, I stepped into a tiny grocery store to check it out. Talk about compact! This place had just about everything under the sun and in the space of a tennis court. I ended up buying some REALLY cheap tea there.

Tonight was the first interview with a Chinese resident, my Baba. First we ate a dinner of what seemed like a bottomless dumpling bowl. Baba asked me how many dumplings I could eat and apparently 10 means 25 over here. I was stuffed after dinner because he kept ushering me to eat more. Who would pass up home made dumplings? Our interview was at home and Baba did a great job. I couldn't tell if he was nervous or not because he turned really red and smiled. He also had a great way of explaining things that we couldn't understand. No surprise, for the rest of the night he watched the soap opera "给你生命给我爱“ which translates to "Give You Life Give Me Love." Actually watching primetime TV here goes uninterrupted by advertisements due to recent government policy, so I see the increase in 'addiction' to television.

Night On The Town

昨天的京剧怎么样？

The first thing I saw this morning was Baba leaning out the window of the 7th story apartment to smoke a few cigarettes. As I walked to class, I noticed it was way smoggier than normal. Usually the visibility is a mile, but this morning was half of that.

Today's first class was taught by Jeremiah, and we talked about our biggest observations at the village we stayed at. It's interesting to see what the village dynamics were, even though I didn't see most of them. For example having a car for them opens up an entire world. Not only are they able to have a longer travel radius, they can go to the city. This means they have access to much more than those without a car. In addition, it allows them to bring their kids to school every day rather then having them boarded at the school. And the village had about 1500 dogs that started barking at about 4 in the morning and wouldn't shut up. Once they smelled us, their alarm bells went off, and barked. That was their main function in the village.

After class, or rather a continuation of class, we watched a documentary about women in China. It presented a very insightful perspective on the issues Chinese women face. Among them, tremendous pressure in the family circle to do almost everything from rearing children to taking care of the elderly. On top of it, they're expected to work and keep the house in order. Of course that tradition is changing as women are gaining equality. China has the highest rate of suicide among women so the government is doing a lot to change perceptions and educate women on their importance in this changing world.

For lunch a few students and I went to a nicer, sit-down restaurant where I had this pumpkin porridge, coconut rolls, custard baozi, and some kung-pao chicken (which is eons better here than anywhere else). We walked around the neighborhood and ended up going into this supermarket. I bought a few things including an awesome tea thermos. We got back to school and had 3 hours to kill before I had to leave for the opera. I worked on some things including this journal and a few applications for this summer.

When I returned home, Baba said something to me really fast like we were in a rush then pointed in a few things. I thought I had done something wrong and basically just got ready to go. Turns out it wasn't anything. We had 小吃 or "xiaochi" which is Chinese for snacks. I ate 6 big baozis and some with meat and others with veggies, then we left. The trip there was a long voyage of busses and walking.

We eventually got to the theater and met up with, I guess, his 5 middle school buddies. I was laughing on the inside because one looked like a Chinese Sir Ian Mclellan and another looked like Admiral Akbar.  Keep in mind these guys are like 65. It was fun to see Baba with his friends and act like a kid. They snuck in this huge bag of clementines and one of Baba's friends snuck me a big orange. Sounds like something I'd do back home!

The jingju itself was interesting at first. There was a big screen on the side with the song lyrics in characters and English, so I knew what was going on for the most part. I dozed off about 5 times within the 3 hour event and was awake for when they gave me clementines. I caught Baba singing along with the music a few times, so I extrapolated that he knew this particular opera. As I said before, going to the jingju was exciting for me because we learned about it so much in class and now got to experience it first hand.

The bus didn't come for a long time on our way back and I was worried it wouldn't because of how late it was. We waited about half an hour for it to come. At home, Baba turned the TV to a jingju channel because apparently he didn't get enough tonight. He brought out hot salty water with sour crab apple things for us to drink. It was good only because I felt cold and really thirsty.

A New Day in China

This morning we woke up at 5:45 from our very painful sleeping arrangements. The beds were long so as to fit about 6 people and very hard. The nice thing about them, however, was that they were heated by coal from outside the house. With the exception of some girls and guys who were too tired, we gathered together in the courtyard area to begin our hike. We even had to wait a while for our guide (80 year old chain smoker who knew these mountains better than any of us) to get better shoes on; this made some of us worry about what we were about to climb.

Apparently we were at the highest point of the Great Wall which makes for a spectacular view of the sunrise. It was about an hour long hike and at times it got very steep. The steepness in combination with two inches of snow and layers of leaves on the ground provided a great recipe for a lot of people to slip on the way up and down. Words nor pictures can express the beauty of the huge, red moon as it set behind the mountains at our back. About three-quarters of the way up it was really bright so I was under the assumption we had missed the sunrise.

Fortunately, there was a tall range of mountains the sun had to get above before we could see it. From the tower we were at there was a great view of the Wall as it Wound across mountain ridges and down into the valley behind us. We got a lot of pictures and enjoyed the sunrise, then went down. Some people preferred the ski method, others slid down on their butts. Once we arrived back at the village a wonderful breakfast of plain steam buns, noodles, and egg-rice awaited us. Our crew hit the hike back to the buses shortly after the eating finished. Since the top of the peak that morning to when we finally got to the bus, I have never felt so much pain in my toes. I wore running shoes and thought my toes were frozen solid. Turns out they weren't but I don't want a repeat of that.

The bus ride was long and quiet. We stopped at a rest station to use the bathrooms. I had to go #2 over a squatting toilet (I'm still amazed that they manufacture these anymore) so it took me longer than the others to get back on the bus. So, when I did walk back outside, the buses were pulling away. The first thought to go through my head was "oh no do I have my cell phone," then "I hope someone sees me waving." Fortunately, Dillon saw me and the bus stopped. The rest of the bus ride was sleeping time for everyone else and I read and journaled.

Once we got back I went home then showered and did laundry. They only had a washer so I am hang drying my stuff in the closet. A bunch of us went to the back after that to exchange money. The exchange rate is about 6.25 元 for every US$1. We got our cash then walked around for a while. I didn't have too much time before I had to be home for dinner so I got an apple from a stand and walked back.

At dinner, we had this pretty good (probably too salty) noodle dish. They offered me the shrimp we ate 4 days ago and had been sitting out on the table since; I courteously declined. They taught me a bunch of vocab, which I began to write down in my journal for future reference. They also taught me a few "changyus," or sayings with 4 characters. An example is "ru4 xiong3 sui2 su2" meaning "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Mama said she would be leaving early tomorrow morning on a 4 day business trip. That leaves Baba and I to hang out, and tomorrow we're going to the jingju - Beijing Opera - in a really sweet building that apparently Mama's company designed.

It was a long day, so I started to nod off as I wrote in my journal. That means was time for bed.

Scaling Greatness

This morning I woke up at 6:20 and really needed to go to the bathroom, but I decided to wait until 7:30 when I knew my parents would be up. I worked on my computer  preparing emails for a classmate to update my blog from Japan...where freedom of speech is still a right. 

Baba was watching a singing competition on TV when I got out of the room. It was kind of like American Idol but there is much more interaction between the competitors and judges. As we were eating a breakfast of noodles, cabbage, tofu, and this weird sweet pepperoni sausage, Baba asked me what I’d be doing on Tuesday night. Then he asked me if I wanted to go to the Jingju then! Jingju is Beijing Opera, one of the things we’ve learned the most about in Chinese class. I obviously said I’d love to go!

When I got to biennia I put my stuff in one of the student lounges then walked with a classmate to their breakfast. He ended up eating baozi, which by know you could probably guess is a staple. We walked back to school and I ended up going out again with some other friends. Eventually we sat in a tiny 10-seater restaurant and had about 5 trays of steamed dumplings, collectively. 

We were supposed to leave for the Great Wall around 12 but I had to change at the school and use the bathroom before the long bus ride. I ended up being the last one on the bus with Dillon, the other cross country runner on the trip. 

The ride took around two hours. It was odd to see the smog get thinner and thiner, as it did mountains began to appear in the distance and the sky turned blue. You’d never know it (because of the lack of visibility) but there are mountains all around the capitol. It’s as if the city is the center of an amphitheater. We kept ourselves busy on the bus by playing word games and telling stories.

We got to the Great Wall trail head then split into fast and slow hiking groups. I walked with the guide for most of the way and chatted it up with him. He said he’s constantly on the wall and is always tired. I told him his health is no doubt very good and he laughed. 

Once we stood on the Wall, we split off and got 2 hours to hike around and take pictures. I started out slow then realized Dillon started hiking pretty fast so by the time he was about 800 meters away, I decided to catch up to him. This involved jogging up the steep stairs and running everywhere else. Eventually I took off my jacket and put my backpack down and started running at a good pace. 

I caught up with him and we hiked a little further, but still eons farther than anyone else from the group. We took a few pictures for the cross country team then ran back all the way to where we got on the wall. 

Once we got on the bus for about 10 minutes then got off where we’d start to hike to our host village for the night. It ended up being a 1.5 hour hike and it got dark before we arrived there. The place was simple, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so hungry or thankful for a heated room in my life. After supper we sat in their courtyard area around a fire and watched fireworks being set off. 

I was super tired from today and the conversation around the fire rapidly declined so I decided to get some sleep. We’re getting up super early tomorrow so I’ll need the rest. The beds don’t look comfy but someone was already sound asleep on it so I figured it wouldn’t be so bad.