Week 4 - June 7-June 13

Hey everyone, sorry the blog has not been on time recently we have been so busy I have not been able to write much. This week we took a trip to Beijing to see the capitol of China. Beijing is the second largest city in the world behind Mexico City, Mexico. Beijing has an estimated population between 14 and 20 million people and let me tell you it is sprawling. First, I would like to tell you about how we got to Beijing. Our teacher 陈老师 (Mrs. Mei-Chi Chen Piletz) decided it would be a good idea for us to experience domestic travel in China by way of train. Now, Chinese trains are not like Amtrak in the states. On Amtrak you are given a room and you have a lot of privacy but on Chinese trains just like everywhere in China, privacy is a little different here. Basically you are given a bed inside a small room. Some of the rooms have 4 beds while some of the rooms have 6 beds. The beds are not soft and are not very big, so for someone of my size it is not easy to get comfortable. Now, outside the rooms are hallways that are kind of like a community area where people can sit and talk or eat and drink. The train ride was all in all around 13 hours long and so many people just try to sleep through the night and make the trip that much easier. I on the other hand could not sleep very well so I thought it to be a wonderful time to practice my speaking skills with some of China’s people. I met some very nice people on the train, some business people, some students, and some people just taking a vacation or holiday. I met a very nice gentleman who was on his way home to be with his wife because she was about to have their first child. This was wonderful to talk to him about but it made me miss Kaci that much more. I also met a girl returning to Beijing from visiting her parents and like me she did not sleep very well on trains so, she decided that meeting a native English speaker would be a good chance to practice her English which I didn’t mind since I was trying to practice my Chinese. After arriving in Beijing we stepped off the train to be met by teachers and classmates. After leaving the train station we headed to the hotel that we would be staying at which was a hotel for international students studying abroad. After arriving at our hotel we had a short rest then headed off to see some historical sites in Beijing. First we went to Tiananmen Square which is actually the center of Beijing and the biggest square in the world. We stood at the gates of the Forbidden City and took so many pictures. The main reason we took so many pictures is that random people stop you and ask to take pictures with you simply because you are a foreigner. After walking around the square for awhile some students decided to go back to the hotel while the rest of us decided to go to a park where we could see a historic area of Beijing that many foreigners love to go to play hackie sack and enjoy the local nightlife. After enjoying some local treats and beverages we decided to go back to the hotel to get some sleep because of the things that we had planned for the next couple of days. The next day we awoke and went off on our way to the Great Wall. Now, until then I had only seen pictures of this but let me tell you that nothing compares to actually walking up the stairs of this ancient wall. Now of course the Great Wall is a huge tourist attraction from people all over the world but as you stand on the steps you really can feel what it must have been like to walk these steps in the ancient world. You can still feel the presence of the many men who had fought and died on these mountains defending their territories and homeland. It is absolutely breathtaking and no words could ever describe it. It was beyond belief.

After our day at the Great Wall we went back to the hotel for a rest but I felt that this was a good time for me to get out and explore a little of Beijing without the presence of the group. So I gathered my things and headed off to Olympic Park which was not too far from my hotel. Arriving there I met up with a friend who studies in Beijing and she gave me the basic tour. I got to see the Bird’s Nest which is the stadium that many of the 2008 Olympic Games took place and I also got to see the building where Michael Phelps made his historic medal run.

After touring the park and talking with some of the locals we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to our rooms. The next day we awoke and went to the Summer Palace which was an actual Palace for the Emperor and his court in earlier days. This palace was remarkable and beautiful. The size and architecture of the buildings within the Palace gates were absolutely amazing. Here we found many local people enjoying the day by singing, dancing, and even practicing calligraphy. Beijing was a very interesting place. It is an extremely modern city with the fast pace lifestyle of a city its size, but there were also some interesting parts of Beijing that seem really relaxing and slow. It has a wonderful mix of people and styles. Next week we will be going to An Kang for the Dragonboat Festival which is a nationally celebrated holiday within China. I hope everyone is well and keep watching for my next post.

First Round of China Pics

From Kaci -- Some pics of things he's been talking about in the blog...

This is my favorite pic of what he's sent to me! It's from the entrance to one of the parks he's visited. Maybe Qujiang Park from his Week 2 blog, but I'm not entirely sure.




The Drum Tower in Xian from Week 2




I don't think he's written about this one, and I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce or spell it correctly!







Enjoy!!

Week 3 - May 31-June 6

Hey guys! This week I wanted to talk a little about the food here and how we are adjusting to it, but I also want to talk about the adventurous eating I have found myself taking part in. First of all, the food is different than what I pictured. Because of the Chinese restaurants at home I had an idea that maybe the food would not be so good. I have also heard that it takes the western stomach a lot of time to adjust to the cooking style and all the spices that is used in other countries but for me I have eaten everything without fear and so far I have been rewarded with a happy stomach. Now food is served different here and eating styles are also very different. First and foremost are the chopsticks. The chopsticks will make you or break you and it seemed the first time we sat down for a meal that not one of us was very proficient with them but the native eater seems to have some problems with it as well so now I don’t fell like such a klutz at the table. Another huge difference is the way that food is served. Now if you are simply eating by yourself, of course you have your own food and you will not be sharing with anyone, but if you have a group of friends the food is served family style much like eating Sunday dinner at my grandmothers' homes as a child or even now for holidays. Everyone eats from all the dishes. Another thing that is a little strange to the western way of thinking is that you are not given napkins at your meal. Most Chinese people know to bring their own. Now for the best part the dishes and the taste. Chinese food and I mean food that Chinese people actually eat is simply prepared. Most people ask for a bowl of rice with their meal because rice is a very simple source of nutrition. When a population is as big as China’s there has to be a simple and cheap way to feed everyone. The dishes are usually always served with a huge amount of vegetables within each dish. Peppers and cabbage are widely used for dishes. The dishes are usually made up of beef, pork, chicken, or lamb. Lamb is not as widely used in the states but you have local spots that really know how lamb should be cooked. Out here lamb is used more than any other meat except pork. Another difference is that China is a tea culture so usually green or black tea is served with every meal much like the complementary glass of water that is given in most western restaurants. Ok, enough about tradition let’s get into what Chinese cuisine is really like. Street food is king here. No matter where you go in the city there are local vendors at every corner serving up tasty treats to the masses. I guess I have watched too many food shows on the travel channel because I search out for the strangest things that I can find and boy did I find it. Our first step off of campus and on to the streets of Xi’an your nasal cavity is bombarded with the smell of stinky tofu. If I could describe the smell to you the closet thing I could compare it with is the smell of rotten plant matter mix with sweaty feet. I know that it does not sound appetizing at all but once I tried it I was completely hooked. Now every time I smell this horrible smell I go in search for the vender. It is horribly wonderful; this is the only words I can use for it. Many Chinese people find the slightly fermented taste to be extremely appetizing. Although this type of taste is one that we do not have at home I really enjoy it. My next culinary adventures also took place on the street by eating skewered pieces of meat cook in a mysterious liquid filled with spices that make one’s mind more interested in eating what is cooked in there. But it is not for the faint of heart because most of the meats that are cooked within this are parts that Americans usually don’t eat such as beef lung, eye balls, pig toes, and other such body parts. If you have never tried intestinal organs of animals you probably will gag at the smell due to the freshness of the meat, but if you are an intestine lover these are the carts for you. I have tried everything possible and I have yet to get sick but they say there are some absolutes here and one is if you are foreign you will either throw up a lot or have diarrhea before your journey ends but luckily I am still in the clear. Other than street foods there are some styles of food that are cultural treasures here in China and one is called Chinese hotpot. Chinese hotpot is a style of eating that I have never seen before coming here. It is like fondue except you are cooking raw meat and vegetables. The pot or hotpot is brought to the table usually it is split into two sections one for the spice lovers such as myself and the other for the non-spice lover. Usually the meat, which is generally lamb, is sliced super thin so it cooks fast is brought out first and then the veggies follow, but there is a definite procedure to cooking the meat. First you must wait until the soup inside the pot is boiling then the meat is dropped in. After the meat is dropped in the soup will calm but the key is to wait until the soup boils the second time and then the met is ready for you to eat. This style of eating is not only a way to enjoy good food but also a way to enjoy good friends and conversation. Most importantly you do not want to over fill the containers with too many items because then it takes a long time to cook and you risk getting sick from eating semi raw meat. Moreover, hotpot is really a chance to get to know or enjoy engaging conversation. A big difference in the way many American restaurants atmosphere is and the atmosphere that Chinese restaurants have is that usually in American restaurants people generally talk very quiet among their perspective group, but here it is very common to be loud and enjoy yourself and enjoy your company while sometimes even engaging strangers. Food culture is amazing here it seems every city has local treats and rare foods that I have never even heard of. Everything I have eaten has been wonderful. The other students in our group laugh at me for trying all these strange foods but I tell them I have a cast iron stomach and can eat just about anything. Next week we are heading to Beijing to see the sights there so stay tuned for the next episode.


From Kaci -- Here are a couple of food pics he sent. I believe he told me there were meatballs in the middle of these rice balls.



Notice the family style dining he mentioned...

Week 2 -- May 24 - 30

Hey guys and girls, I hope that you had as good of a week as I have had. Let me start off by telling you a little about what I am doing in my classes. We attend classes in the morning and the afternoon. Our morning classes are strictly Chinese language classes. They are split up into three different sections; first we have oral Chinese, second we have intensive Chinese reading, and last we have listening. We alternate these classes each day so each day we are studying a different part of the language. Our oral class focuses on proper pronunciation of the tones. Chinese is a tonal language, there are four tones within the language and even though some of the words sound the same you must make sure that you give the proper pronunciation to that particular word or you could say something that does not make any sense to the native speaker. Our second class is intensive reading and it is very intensive. Reading the characters is the hardest part to the language for me simply because there are so many characters. To be literate a person must only be able to read about 3000 characters but there are many more that 3000 characters within the language, there are more than 50,000 characters within written Chinese. Our last class is listening, we listen to conversations or make conversations of our own and try to follow and make sense of each one. The most challenging part of these classes is that they are taught completely in Chinese so there is very little English spoken while we are in class. Also, there are more than 13 dialects of Chinese spoken throughout the country but if you can read and write Chinese you can communicate in all the dialects. Therefore just by learning the characters you can communicate in 13 different languages at once, this is unlike any other language on the planet. Although it is very difficult at this point I believe this will pay off for me and my classmates. To quote a very good friend, “The only place you will find success before work is in the dictionary.” Now our afternoon classes are culture classes so this means we learn about a particular aspect of Chinese culture. We will be studying Chinese handcrafting, Chinese tai-chi, calligraphy, Chinese songs, and traditional Chinese painting. All of these cultural aspects are taken very seriously here and our teachers for these subjects are masters of their respective subject. Now, this past week my classmates and I have simply tried to get adjusted to our classes and learn how to live here as foreigners. The biggest obstacle that we have face is ordering food. Ordering food seems simple enough but it is not at all simple when the menus are completely in Chinese but luckily enough many of the local restaurants have pictures for the menu so the language barrier is not all that difficult. So in order to eat easily every day we had student ID cards made for us and we can put money on our cards to eat in the student dining hall Also, we have students that attend here that are completely awesome and don’t mind taking us out and ordering food for us. My week started off really slow, just going to class, grabbing a bite to eat, and emerging myself in my studies. I was asked to play basketball by one of my friends here and so I went and played. Now, in the US basketball is played very different than it is here. We play more aggressive than the guys that play here and there is a huge difference in the plays that are run. In the US we tend to move a little more to the outside but here once the ball is passed in the game is pretty much played in the paint. It took me awhile to get used to it. Also, I have been going out and exploring the campus that we are on and the city. I with my classmates have become campus celebrities. Our pictures were place up on a billboard beside the basket ball courts and now it is hard to go anywhere without being stopped but I don’t mind that at all. This gives me a chance to use the language more and more. But, when students here find out that we speak English they only want to communicate with us through English. This has something to do with the history of China. Before the 1980s China was a closed country, whenever China opened its borders to more and more foreigners the people here became more aware of becoming a global citizen. Furthermore, this began a huge call the learn English in China because English was considered to be the language of the world. Now, although our week was mostly classes we were able to experience some activities here on campus. The coolest thing we have done is to attend a school performance. This is kind of like a program where student clubs showcase their skills in a particular area, but it is also about tradition and the history of China. It started off with some of the students showcasing their skills in hip-hop dance. This was absolutely wonderful because the students were really good at dancing. Also, Chinese songs were showcased and acting. The history part came by way of women wearing traditional dress which would have been worn in the Week, Qin, and Tang dynasty which for Xi’an was the capitol of. After the program some of the students wanted to take pictures with us and simply socialize with us. Later, when the weekend came some of the students wanted to take us out to a local park. The name of the park is Qujiang park. It is different from what I would think of as a park. Usually in my mind a park is a place where sports are played but here it is a place where people can gather to enjoy the flora and fauna of china. The park was absolutely massive. At the entrance there was a small amusement park that had rides, games, and food. This reminded me of a carnival of some sort back home but it was not quite the same. Inside the park there were at least 2 large lakes which all had walking trails around and also was the home of some ancient artifacts and museums. The coolest thing about this is that it was absolutely free. So we spent the day walking, talking, and taking many pictures. The architecture of the buildings here are absolutely amazing and enchanting. It seems everywhere you look there are sights that at least I have never seen, I had only read about or seen in movies. After spending all day in the park, and by the way we were only able to see half of it due to its size we stopped at a local restaurant that served barbecue. The barbecue is different here as well as just about everything else. The meat is skewered on metal skewers and cooked over open flame. There were a lot of different kinds of meats including some familiar favorites of mine, chicken wings. After eating and drinking for awhile we were back off to campus. After a rest we later went to the airport to pick up a friend who was coming from Beijing to meet up with some girls that she studied with in America. The girls which I had met at Jackson State had been living and studying with each other for a year in America. This is where I met them. The girl we picked-up from the airport name is Zhang Shi Ling张诗玲. Shi ling and I became friends by accident. When I started to study Chinese at Jackson State I was assigned a language partner and his name was Xucheng, but Xucheng really cared nothing for helping me learn Chinese mainly because his English was very broken so he enlisted the help of his friend Shi Ling. So when I called Xucheng to meet up with me to study he would call Shi Ling and tell her to meet me instead of him. But, luckily enough Shi Ling was very helpful and we learned a lot from each other. I learned Chinese from her and she learned English/Southern English from me. Anyways, after picking her up we went back to the hotel and called it a night. The next day we went around the city sightseeing. We saw the drum tower which is another piece of Xi’an history. The Drum Tower in Xian was initially built in 1380 during the reign of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and was renovated twice in 1699 and 1740 in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is a two-storied post and panel structure, 112 feet high and 172 feet long from east to west as well as 124 feet wide from north to south. The architecture style of the Drum Tower is a combination of the styles of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Qing Dynasty. However, the Drum Tower also has some innovative features. For example, it should be mentioned that there is no iron nail used anywhere in the Drum Tower. The structure of the building is absolutely amazing and beautiful. Arriving at the Drum Tower there is an arched doorway in the centre of the south and north walls, doorway being 20 feet in both height and width. Visitors can go upstairs to the second floor, and enjoy the views around the Drum Tower. Meanwhile, you will notice that there are twenty-four drums in the north and south sides of the Drum Tower. These drums stand for the Twenty-four Solar Terms which is a kind of weather calendar created by the Chinese ancients in order to guide the agricultural production. In modern times, the Drum Tower is not used as a timer any more, but in 1996 a new drum, covered by a whole piece of cowhide was given a place on the Drum Tower. It is the biggest drum in China at the present time. Also we enjoyed a musical performance in the Drum Tower. These performances gave me some insight to the power of ancient Chinese culture. Well that is about all for this week. I will keep you guys updated farther next week.