So I know you’re all wondering, what happened to this new blogger girl? Did she fall off the face of the earth? Did the Chinese government permanently quarantine her? Don’t worry, despite the fact that someone on my plane was actually quarantined (not joking, the white hazmat suits worn by the government officials were a little freaky), I made it ☺. I’ve been super busy between homework, class, and acclimating myself to Beijing life. I started in on my third week of classes today, so I’m actually really getting settled here. I haven’t posted recently because I haven’t been able to find the time! But I figure, now I have MUCH too much to write about, so I better jump on it!
First of all, the language pledge. How the heck am I surviving? By writing in English, occasionally talking to my parents and friends on Skype in English (Skype is my American LIFELINE by the way), reading English, and listening to English music. But NO speaking English with anyone on my program! It means that making friends here happens in a slightly different way than it might otherwise. Of course, this is a huge over-generalization, but I think that when speaking another language, everyone’s personality changes a little bit, which means that speaking only Chinese not only brings out different aspects of our personalities than normal, but also changes how we all interact with each other. Weirdly enough I find it easier to be outgoing in Chinese than in English; somehow it is less awkward for me to introduce myself, ask someone what school they’re from, and start up a conversation with them in Chinese. One of my friends is a ball of energy when speaking Mandarin, and I’m pretty sure she’s pretty energetic in English too, but Chinese magnifies it by a lot! It is pretty easy to get to know everyone at ACC on a very superficial level. Getting to know my fellow ACC students deeply, though, well that’s a little harder. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have good friends here or won’t make them, but sometimes I feel like I’m in slow motion. One of the classes that we have here, whose name can be rougly translated as “one-student class” is particularly helpful in overcoming the language difficulties and frustrations I often experience. Since I have this class, just me and a teacher, every day, I have the chance to ask questions, get a lot of personal attention (mostly grammatical and pronunciation correction), learn about my teacher’s perceptions of America (after explaining what GUGS is: “What? You mean your school has a club just for grilling hamburgers? American life is so colorful!”), and really get to know my teachers as more than just teachers. I usually come out of this class feeling suprisingly upbeat, instead of the discouraged lack of will to ever speak Mandarin again that you might expect after being corrected for an hour. It is one of ACC’s more unique features as a program.
Despite my intense four hours of class a day, massive loads of homework (uh can we talk about how I have roughly 80-100 words to memorize daily, not 60?), and the feeling of being bogged down by it all sometimes, I have actually been able to start experiencing the REAL China, the China that you really couldn’t know about unless you lived here. Good thing, since I live here now (wow, that is weird to write!). One of the stranger experiences I’ve had was one night when getting dinner with some friends (just to note: we live in the foreign students’ dormitory and have a cafeteria, but the restaurants near campus have better food for cheaper prices, so we eat out almost all the time). We went down the street a few blocks to an outdoor chuanr restaurant (it’s actually called chuan, but with the Beijing accent, you pronounce it chuar—chwaar). Everything was pretty normal as far as eating out in China goes. The waitress asked us how many people were in our group, brought us to our table, and then we asked for a menu and tried to figure out what to eat. After asking her to point out pictures of the dishes she was describing (she was talking fast enough that none of us had a clue exactly what was being said) and checking out what neighboring tables had ordered, we decided on eggplant, tofu, Chinese broccoli, rice, of course, and lamb chuanr (mini-skewers of meat roasted with tasty spices). While waiting for our food, I happened to notice that the big chuanr oven was pretty close to our table. And then I couldn’t believe what I saw before me. Hairdryers? REALLY? HAIRDRYERS to roast meat?? My first thought was, “I really hope my dinner is actually well done.” But then I just had to laugh out loud, because that is China for you. As strange as this hairdryer situation might seem, I think it actually illuminates a few interesting Chinese qualities: resourcefulness, hard work, and competition. Though few Americans I know would ever think of using a hair dryer to cook their meat, this specific restaurant’s strategy probably helped them cook more meat faster, and thus get ahead of competing businesses by providing speedy and quality food (uh well at least the chuanr I ate was…) to customers.
While on the topic of food, tonight at dinner, I earned myself the nickname qiezi, which means “eggplant.” Why, you ask? Because when we eat family-style (as we often do), I always request that we order eggplant. For some reason it is one of those dishes that Chinese restaurants just cannot seem to mess up, so no matter where you go, it is a pretty safe and tasty bet. Funnily enough, though Americans say “cheese” when taking pictures, the Chinese say “qiezi.” I’m not sure exactly what I think of this nickname of mine yet, but I sure as heck don’t plan on responding to it regularly, otherwise I’ll be turning around every time someone wants to take a picture.
I think I’ve talked enough about food for one post (though I haven’t written about my cooking class yet…next time)…on the flip side, I actually joined a gym here, which is probably a good thing since I 吃饱了 (eat my fill) at every dinner. Though paying my 6-month membership fee was pretty expensive (yes, even by American standards) and necessitated a trip to the bank to cash traveler’s checks, the fact that I paid so much to join has motivated me to go there pretty frequently, and take advantage of the free classes offered. On Sunday with my newfound gym buddy, a fellow ACC student, I tried my first-ever yoga class in China. Despite the fact that I understood only bits and phrases of what the instructor was saying, she still had a very calming voice, and the class moved pretty slowly, so I was able to watch everyone else shift poses and follow suit. I think I’ve got to go back; it was the perfect way to relax and I was pretty proud of myself at the end for surviving as well as I did. Another plus about the gym: I have made friends with the towel lady (you give her your membership card, which says your name–she said she thought my name was very pretty, so thank you, Li Laoshi for naming me!–and then she gives you a towel, big or small depending on your request). On my first day at the gym I bought a lock from her to use on the lockers. The only problem was I had no clue how to say “lock”. Through gestures and roundabout description, I made my request known, and she patiently explained how to use the lock, called 锁 (suo3) in Chinese. So you see, in China, if you lack a certain vocabulary word, it can be the perfect excuse to make a new friend.
Unfortunately I must now go work on learning my vocab words for tomorrow, but next time: host family, Great Wall, and other Beijing excursions. Promise. 再见 (byebye!).
