I want to skip ahead and away from Yunnan to tell you about my experiences recently in Beijing. Obviously I have a lot to say about the Yunnan trip, but I don't want to delay my current happening any longer.
We started school two weeks ago. I am taking the equivalent of 20 credits at Elon this semester, which is actually overload, but I couldn't resist not taking one of my classes. I am enrolled in Intensive Beginner Chinese, China in the World Economy, Chinese Political Philosophy, and Sino-U.S. Relations. Intensive beginner chinese is taking the equivalent of two semesters of Chinese (although the equivalent to learning chinese in America is actually around 5 or 6 semesters because it is so hard to learn) jam packed into one. Therefore this counts as a doubley loaded class (8 credits instead of the typical four). We have Chinese from 9:50 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Most of the kids in this class have taken Chinese before so it is really frustrating for me because the class is so fast paced and I am one of two people that have never seen a single character or pronounced a single word...and yes we do learn the characters and have to be able to read them and no its not like there are just 26 characters and one character can have several meanings. It is also frustrating because again if you know me you know I don't like failing things and if I am going to be bad at something well I typically just avoid it and take the easy way out. Well I am actually trying to challenge myself in new ways and accept the fact that I'm not going to be #1 (for now). Crazy notion I know, but I am actually trying to conquer a weakness plus I couldn't stand the idea of taking baby chinese and leaving here without being able to fully converse with natives.
My other classes are awesome. They only run once a week for three hours though and most of the professors are businessmen or teach at other universities during the day and teach at UIBE (University of International Business and Economics) at night. Soooo when I would typically be spending my nights out on the field reffing or supervisoring at Elon, I am actually just sitting down for class in Beijing. Mondays are the worst because I have Chinese in the morning and then Chinese Political Philosophy from 4:30-7:15 p.m. and China in the World Economy right after from 7:30 - yes 10:15 p.m. at night. Needless to say I am starving for dinner by the time I get out and my friends and I who coincidentally have the same schedule go to McDonalds every Monday night since all the restaurants are closed by this time, but why lie the transfatty goodness of Western McDonalds is amazing after eating Chinese food for the rest of the week. My Sino-U.S. Relations class is on Wednesday, thus being my only Wednesday class from 7:30-10:15 p.m.
My economy professor is a scholar gone businessman from the U.S. that was one of the first Americans granted admission into China in the late 1970's when China opened its foreign doors to the world. He also came over with our Dean of the The Beijing Center so it is always really fascinating to listen to them speak. This is especially true coming from a business stand point like Hawke who can relate after 30 years to American lifestyle v. Chinese lifestyle and culture because realistically I am only here for four months and that barely scratches the surface of looking at these differing viewpoints. The class is really interesting and it is unlike any other econ course I have taken before. We look at China's history compared to what was going in world history and how China contributed or lack of contributed to the rest of the world through the time periods. We then try to hypothesis the ingrained thought at the back of every Chinese persons' mind as to why with such a rich historical culture and innovation their was this great divulgence the Western world developed into these industrial nations and it took China almost another two centuries to begin to modernize.
This also corresponds to my Chinese political philosophy class which examines why the government in historical contexts has made the decisions it has made due in large part to the philosophical ideas of the country throughout its history. We talk a lot about Confucianism and Daoism, it is all very interesting and the professor is this cute little Chinese woman who has a PhD in philosophy. Finally, my Sino-U.S. relations class is similar accounts for all the 20th century occurrences of China- U.S. relations and what each interaction meant to the countries and where we stand today. My professor for that class is a Chinese man who is really hard to understand and is very opinionated. Dean Moses told my friend Maryanne that he is known throughout China for his dealing with this topic and is also a very big Communist party member...cool kinda.
Besides classes, I am just living a normal life. I know how to use basic phrases to get myself around the city and ordering food and what not. Every time I come home I feel really accomplished and proud of myself. Everything over here is really cheap, I spend maybe $10 a day on food for my three meals and if we go anywhere, which is typically by taxi, splitting the cab fair is individually under $1.
At night we are typical college students, we know where the bar district is and we go dancing a lot but always make sure we go to and from together so parents don't be worried. Last weekend we actually went to this techno club and heard the currently #1 in world Dj Paul van Dyk. It was awesome to say the least to just dance with glow sticks and wave our arms in the air to beat of the techno. Oh and the club floor had hydraulic floors aka soooo cool.
On Wednesdays since I don't have class until night time and two of my friends don't have class at all we try to do cultural events during the day to enhance our Beijing experience and make sure we see everything. If we don't go on Wednesdays we make another attempt with the rest of our crew on Satudays, but this is a new development so I don't really have much to mention yet.
The school has already taken us to tian'an men sqr and the drum and bell towers and plan on taking us throughout the semester to the Forbidden City, the Great Wall (it's way too cold to go right now), Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace.
Ok well my life is currently and continuously consumed with learning chinese characters so I should probably get back to that now before I embarrass myself in class again tomorrow (unlikely since this is a daily occurrence).
Peace and love Chinese style!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
the market game and the Dai Village
So after our little raft trip down the river, we got out only to hear from Peg (our director) that we should get dried off, change our clothes on the bus if we need to and then they are going to walk us to the market to play a little game. Now since most of you know me pretty well, you know I am very competitive, but I was tired, wet, and cold and I really just am not a fan of Chinese markets. If you have never been to China, you may have heard of the the silk market, the pearl market, yashow clothing market and think why is she about to complain. Well I like those markets, I on the other hand do not like the food markets, which is where we were about to head.
So before I go into graphic detail, I'll explain the game first. We were supposed to make our own groups of like 5 or something and then they have gave each group 10 kuai (the equivalent of $1.50) and we had to buy a certain amount of 10 different food items by bargaining with the people selling. All prices are up for negotiation in this country, it's great. However, there were two groups of returners (kids here for two semesters and can speak Chinese pretty well) and so there was no point in my mind of playing because well I wasn't going to win. Not being able to speak the language at this point was really taking off my natural competitive nature. Ok so we get into the market and let me paint this picture for you-- its basically like a city block where people sell their fruits, vegetables, basically any kind of food. Well along with that comes meat, but unlike America where meat comes dyed and nicely packaged on a styrofoam plate covered with cling wrap in China it is still alive. The benefit of this is you can take the meat, and when I mean meat I am also referring to any type of warm or cold blooded animal or fish, home and have it as your personal livestock thus not having to go back to the market every day or week. If this is not the choice for you and you just want the meat not to raise it any longer, well then they can kill it right there for you.
It was this point when I nearly became a vegetarian. I like the American way of pretending meat doesn't actually come from the killing of an animal...call me crazy. So my team members are negotiating for some vegetable or another and I am standing behind them taking in the scenery and the not so pretty and clean smells. So I go to turn away from the table and about five feet away my eyes fall upon a woman who has her hand around a (live) chicken's throat and to my amazement she has a knife in her hand. Now two things baffled me at this moment 1. I have never seen someone actually hold a chicken like that and 2. this is the first utensil I have seen in China (fork, knife, spoon, I only ever see chopsticks). And then she simply takes the knife to the chickens throat like no big deal. The Chinese like to preserve the whole chicken to eat ( i.e. head, beak, claw feet things) so the slit which is now gushing blood from the chicken who is crying bloody murder is like a horror film you just can't seem to take your eyes off of no matter how much you want to. So I had been staring at this large basin type of canister thing that is pasted red earlier not knowing what it was when the woman slams the dying chicken inside (now realizing the red paste is chicken blood) and the canister rocks back and forth with eardrum penetrating screams of the chicken until two minutes later it is finally dead and can be pulled out to begin the plucking and cleaning process. It is no small wonder how this country contracts bird flu and sars because it is just plain dirty.
As we walked further through the market, past the (still alive) chickens we are pretty much walking through blood (thankfully I was one of the lucky ones still wearing closed toed shoes) when we pass tanks of fish, snakes, frogs splashing water out of the basin they are in with the mucky water hitting our clothes if we dared to get too close. Anyways that was pretty much a breaking point for me, but I have moved past it and oddly it has become somewhat normal although I can still not stand the smells of the market. Oh and as predicted, my team didn't win and then we were told we were eating lunch there before getting back on the bus to our next destination. I ate dumplings and noodles.
Our next stop was our second village stay of the trip with the Dai minority group in the Mannuanle Village. The people were really nice and their houses are made out of bamboo. The look like hanging towers and are surrounded by spacious courtyards below. The upper story, which is basically the house is two meters above the ground, which is made accessible by a wooden (and at times not so stable) ladder. When we first arrived as a sign of welcoming they spritz us with water while they are dressed in their ethnic clothing. We did not have any planned events with them for a couple of hours so after we were each settled in our house all the TBC'ers met back up at the local basketball court where we challanged the local basketball team to a game. We now know why the Chinese won so many gold medals at this years Olympics, they have endurance. We're a fairly athletic group, but every five to ten minutes we would switch subs in and our because we were huffing and puffing. The Chinese kids only switched in and out to stop for a cigarette break, I don't know how their lungs work, but I am pretty sure my life would have ended right there if I had tried that and this went on for a good two hours before our families called us back in for dinner.
The food was the best meal we had had on the trip thus far. Salted, roasted peanuts, shredded potatoes, beef, chicken, tomato and egg, soup, and a yellow watermelon and bananas from their farms. Afterwards the village put on a dance performance for us followed by fireworks and a kongming light show. Fireworks at this point are fireworks, but the kongming light show was unbelievable. It is basically these paper lanterns that are anywhere from like 5 feet to 15 feet tall that have a little device attached at the bottom that is lit on fire and floats up to heaven. I guess its simplicity is what was most striking about it. The Chinese used to use this method as a means of communication, but now continue to use as a way of sending wishes up to heaven to be granted. One of the kids on the trip made a good point by saying its a very anti-American gesture in a way because we always want to hold on to everything and keep everything within our reach because that's who we are and we like being in control of things. But this was another experience of letting go of something and believing that it could actually bring you to what you wanted rather than keeping that tight grip on things and forcing our way to be made. Probably not the best description I have given, but hopefully you will somewhat understand the thought.
Afterwards we went back to our houses and got ready for bed which was mats on the floor with a mosquito net surrounding us. In the morning we woke up to the sound of our host mom killing one of the chickens outside with the roosters just beginning their morning cock-a-doodle doos right after (probably around 5 am). After breakfast we left for our next stop which was Dali, in which we had to take an hour flight to.
So before I go into graphic detail, I'll explain the game first. We were supposed to make our own groups of like 5 or something and then they have gave each group 10 kuai (the equivalent of $1.50) and we had to buy a certain amount of 10 different food items by bargaining with the people selling. All prices are up for negotiation in this country, it's great. However, there were two groups of returners (kids here for two semesters and can speak Chinese pretty well) and so there was no point in my mind of playing because well I wasn't going to win. Not being able to speak the language at this point was really taking off my natural competitive nature. Ok so we get into the market and let me paint this picture for you-- its basically like a city block where people sell their fruits, vegetables, basically any kind of food. Well along with that comes meat, but unlike America where meat comes dyed and nicely packaged on a styrofoam plate covered with cling wrap in China it is still alive. The benefit of this is you can take the meat, and when I mean meat I am also referring to any type of warm or cold blooded animal or fish, home and have it as your personal livestock thus not having to go back to the market every day or week. If this is not the choice for you and you just want the meat not to raise it any longer, well then they can kill it right there for you.
It was this point when I nearly became a vegetarian. I like the American way of pretending meat doesn't actually come from the killing of an animal...call me crazy. So my team members are negotiating for some vegetable or another and I am standing behind them taking in the scenery and the not so pretty and clean smells. So I go to turn away from the table and about five feet away my eyes fall upon a woman who has her hand around a (live) chicken's throat and to my amazement she has a knife in her hand. Now two things baffled me at this moment 1. I have never seen someone actually hold a chicken like that and 2. this is the first utensil I have seen in China (fork, knife, spoon, I only ever see chopsticks). And then she simply takes the knife to the chickens throat like no big deal. The Chinese like to preserve the whole chicken to eat ( i.e. head, beak, claw feet things) so the slit which is now gushing blood from the chicken who is crying bloody murder is like a horror film you just can't seem to take your eyes off of no matter how much you want to. So I had been staring at this large basin type of canister thing that is pasted red earlier not knowing what it was when the woman slams the dying chicken inside (now realizing the red paste is chicken blood) and the canister rocks back and forth with eardrum penetrating screams of the chicken until two minutes later it is finally dead and can be pulled out to begin the plucking and cleaning process. It is no small wonder how this country contracts bird flu and sars because it is just plain dirty.
As we walked further through the market, past the (still alive) chickens we are pretty much walking through blood (thankfully I was one of the lucky ones still wearing closed toed shoes) when we pass tanks of fish, snakes, frogs splashing water out of the basin they are in with the mucky water hitting our clothes if we dared to get too close. Anyways that was pretty much a breaking point for me, but I have moved past it and oddly it has become somewhat normal although I can still not stand the smells of the market. Oh and as predicted, my team didn't win and then we were told we were eating lunch there before getting back on the bus to our next destination. I ate dumplings and noodles.
Our next stop was our second village stay of the trip with the Dai minority group in the Mannuanle Village. The people were really nice and their houses are made out of bamboo. The look like hanging towers and are surrounded by spacious courtyards below. The upper story, which is basically the house is two meters above the ground, which is made accessible by a wooden (and at times not so stable) ladder. When we first arrived as a sign of welcoming they spritz us with water while they are dressed in their ethnic clothing. We did not have any planned events with them for a couple of hours so after we were each settled in our house all the TBC'ers met back up at the local basketball court where we challanged the local basketball team to a game. We now know why the Chinese won so many gold medals at this years Olympics, they have endurance. We're a fairly athletic group, but every five to ten minutes we would switch subs in and our because we were huffing and puffing. The Chinese kids only switched in and out to stop for a cigarette break, I don't know how their lungs work, but I am pretty sure my life would have ended right there if I had tried that and this went on for a good two hours before our families called us back in for dinner.
The food was the best meal we had had on the trip thus far. Salted, roasted peanuts, shredded potatoes, beef, chicken, tomato and egg, soup, and a yellow watermelon and bananas from their farms. Afterwards the village put on a dance performance for us followed by fireworks and a kongming light show. Fireworks at this point are fireworks, but the kongming light show was unbelievable. It is basically these paper lanterns that are anywhere from like 5 feet to 15 feet tall that have a little device attached at the bottom that is lit on fire and floats up to heaven. I guess its simplicity is what was most striking about it. The Chinese used to use this method as a means of communication, but now continue to use as a way of sending wishes up to heaven to be granted. One of the kids on the trip made a good point by saying its a very anti-American gesture in a way because we always want to hold on to everything and keep everything within our reach because that's who we are and we like being in control of things. But this was another experience of letting go of something and believing that it could actually bring you to what you wanted rather than keeping that tight grip on things and forcing our way to be made. Probably not the best description I have given, but hopefully you will somewhat understand the thought.
Afterwards we went back to our houses and got ready for bed which was mats on the floor with a mosquito net surrounding us. In the morning we woke up to the sound of our host mom killing one of the chickens outside with the roosters just beginning their morning cock-a-doodle doos right after (probably around 5 am). After breakfast we left for our next stop which was Dali, in which we had to take an hour flight to.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
oh yunnan
Ok so I’m tired of the Chinese internet. It is always slow.
Anyways…. The next morning we left the Mushan Village and traveled all day to the Jianshui. The bus ride overall was around 9 hours with a break for lunch and dinner. We traveled through the most beautiful countryside and mountains even though at times I was worried that our bus was going to fall over the edge of the dirt road. (mom don’t be scared I am still alive)
Anyways when we finally got to Jianshui a bunch of us went to visit a Confucius Temple. It was built in the Yuan Dynasty and is the second biggest Confucius Temple in all of China. During World War II the city was bombed several times and at one point the temple was actually struck and signs can still be seen. Afterwards we met up with a bunch of the other kids and walked through the city and just outside the city walls. This is where we had our first interactions with fireworks.
I haven’t been afraid of fireworks since I was 10 when I didn’t like the noise and refused to go to the park on 4th of July, but China brought out a whole new fear. Lets first start out by saying that the Chinese celebrate their New Year for a total of three weeks. The beginning of the celebration is a week before the actual New Year and commences two weeks after. This means that by the time we arrived in China the New Year was already under way. The color red and fireworks are used through out this period to ward off evil spirits and they are everywhere. Every street is decorated in red and every sidewalk is filed with stands selling fireworks. Of course being Americans who couldn’t resist the temptations of fireworks that are usually forbidden at home and cheap as hell, the boys bought enough to keep them entertained through the night.
So eventually we all went and got dumplings for dinner and then met back up with the rest of the TBCers to go to a performance at Chaoyang Lou tea house. The performance was a very old local music performance with traditional intruments. Afterwards, back at the hotel we were invited to a wedding reception out in the main courtyard, just another sign of how Meiguorens are treated like celebrities.
The next day we had our last really long bus ride to Jinghong City which is located along the Mekong River and is the capital of Xishuang Banna Autonomous Prefecture. The county is known as having an eternal Spring, climate-wise. Craving food Erin, Jasmine, Ben, Cait and I went on a search for food. Now since it is the New Year season in a lot of main cities stores, shops and restaurants stay closed because the Chinese go back to their hometowns to celebrate with their families. So we found this little hole in the wall restaurant and not knowing any Chinese we just asked for a beef dish and rice. The beef was just well different so we decided to try again with chicken. Bad decision. The next thing we knew we had a plate of chicken probably gizzard with a head and the claws included. Yum.
The next day we went to Nannuo Mountain where we hiked all afternoon. This is the area of the Hani ethnic minority, descendants of a branch of the ancient Qiang people, a nomadic tribe from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. They are famous for their rubber trees and harvesting of tea leaves from 800 year-old “King Tea Trees.”
When we got back from the hike the tour guides had set up a bike tour around the city for us. But when you get a bunch of college students together with a competitive edge the bike tour turned into a race. We quickly lost about ¾ of the group including our guide and just happened to take the bridge across the Mekong River and outside the city. The road took us along the Mekong river up and over hills with some beautiful sights. None of us wanting to be the first to stop we rode for around 2 hours and we were all completely drenched by the time we found our way back to the hotel. I’m proud to say I led the pack for the majority of the way too.
Later we went to the Mengle Great Buddha Temple. I was really excited about this because it is Chinese religions that have always somewhat fascinated me. However, this temple was not what I was expecting. It was HUGE and I mean massive and covered in gold and it wasn’t old, which is one of my main attractions, but it was beautiful. We were able to witness the monks nightly chants, which I guess was like attending a mass from the outside looking in. It was weird though. The monks were of all ages, mostly children, and came in and out, it seemed, as they pleased. We even saw one little boy take out his cell phone and text someone and another teenager leave to take a phone call. After every couple of chants the monks’ curiousity of the white people in the back of the room overtook their focus and they would turn to look at us, another time in which I felt this wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Discussing this with a couple of friends later on our way back to the hotel, Kelly made a good point by saying that they are students and while we expected something really religious this was more of just a class to them. Thinking about it this made perfect sense, if they were to come into our classroom they would see exactly the same thing.
That night we went to Meimei’s café and got pizza and looked for a place to go out to for the night. After a good search we ended up at this awesome gay techno club.
Day 6 we started off by rafting down the Mekong River to Ganlanba which was about 2 hours away. It was freezing and we mistakenly got into water fights among the boats, which just made us wet and even more cold.
Next supplement soon…..
Anyways…. The next morning we left the Mushan Village and traveled all day to the Jianshui. The bus ride overall was around 9 hours with a break for lunch and dinner. We traveled through the most beautiful countryside and mountains even though at times I was worried that our bus was going to fall over the edge of the dirt road. (mom don’t be scared I am still alive)
Anyways when we finally got to Jianshui a bunch of us went to visit a Confucius Temple. It was built in the Yuan Dynasty and is the second biggest Confucius Temple in all of China. During World War II the city was bombed several times and at one point the temple was actually struck and signs can still be seen. Afterwards we met up with a bunch of the other kids and walked through the city and just outside the city walls. This is where we had our first interactions with fireworks.
I haven’t been afraid of fireworks since I was 10 when I didn’t like the noise and refused to go to the park on 4th of July, but China brought out a whole new fear. Lets first start out by saying that the Chinese celebrate their New Year for a total of three weeks. The beginning of the celebration is a week before the actual New Year and commences two weeks after. This means that by the time we arrived in China the New Year was already under way. The color red and fireworks are used through out this period to ward off evil spirits and they are everywhere. Every street is decorated in red and every sidewalk is filed with stands selling fireworks. Of course being Americans who couldn’t resist the temptations of fireworks that are usually forbidden at home and cheap as hell, the boys bought enough to keep them entertained through the night.
So eventually we all went and got dumplings for dinner and then met back up with the rest of the TBCers to go to a performance at Chaoyang Lou tea house. The performance was a very old local music performance with traditional intruments. Afterwards, back at the hotel we were invited to a wedding reception out in the main courtyard, just another sign of how Meiguorens are treated like celebrities.
The next day we had our last really long bus ride to Jinghong City which is located along the Mekong River and is the capital of Xishuang Banna Autonomous Prefecture. The county is known as having an eternal Spring, climate-wise. Craving food Erin, Jasmine, Ben, Cait and I went on a search for food. Now since it is the New Year season in a lot of main cities stores, shops and restaurants stay closed because the Chinese go back to their hometowns to celebrate with their families. So we found this little hole in the wall restaurant and not knowing any Chinese we just asked for a beef dish and rice. The beef was just well different so we decided to try again with chicken. Bad decision. The next thing we knew we had a plate of chicken probably gizzard with a head and the claws included. Yum.
The next day we went to Nannuo Mountain where we hiked all afternoon. This is the area of the Hani ethnic minority, descendants of a branch of the ancient Qiang people, a nomadic tribe from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. They are famous for their rubber trees and harvesting of tea leaves from 800 year-old “King Tea Trees.”
When we got back from the hike the tour guides had set up a bike tour around the city for us. But when you get a bunch of college students together with a competitive edge the bike tour turned into a race. We quickly lost about ¾ of the group including our guide and just happened to take the bridge across the Mekong River and outside the city. The road took us along the Mekong river up and over hills with some beautiful sights. None of us wanting to be the first to stop we rode for around 2 hours and we were all completely drenched by the time we found our way back to the hotel. I’m proud to say I led the pack for the majority of the way too.
Later we went to the Mengle Great Buddha Temple. I was really excited about this because it is Chinese religions that have always somewhat fascinated me. However, this temple was not what I was expecting. It was HUGE and I mean massive and covered in gold and it wasn’t old, which is one of my main attractions, but it was beautiful. We were able to witness the monks nightly chants, which I guess was like attending a mass from the outside looking in. It was weird though. The monks were of all ages, mostly children, and came in and out, it seemed, as they pleased. We even saw one little boy take out his cell phone and text someone and another teenager leave to take a phone call. After every couple of chants the monks’ curiousity of the white people in the back of the room overtook their focus and they would turn to look at us, another time in which I felt this wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Discussing this with a couple of friends later on our way back to the hotel, Kelly made a good point by saying that they are students and while we expected something really religious this was more of just a class to them. Thinking about it this made perfect sense, if they were to come into our classroom they would see exactly the same thing.
That night we went to Meimei’s café and got pizza and looked for a place to go out to for the night. After a good search we ended up at this awesome gay techno club.
Day 6 we started off by rafting down the Mekong River to Ganlanba which was about 2 hours away. It was freezing and we mistakenly got into water fights among the boats, which just made us wet and even more cold.
Next supplement soon…..
Friday, February 13, 2009
Yunnan: first two days (of 14)
Ok so I’ll try and make this worth your while since I haven’t posted in so long. Honestly though, the two week excursion we went on to the Yunnan Province (in which we didn’t have internet) was a little overwhelming to even think about writing about since it was two of the best weeks I have lived in my short life.
I’ll start you off from the beginning. We left Beijing at 5:30 in the morning on Jan. 19. We took a three-hour flight to Kunming, which is the capital of the Yunnan Province. When we got there we got on our first tour bus and met our first guide, Kenny, a wannabe pop star with a really good voice for singing Mariah Carey and Backstreet Boys (the Chinese live for karaoke, also known in China as KTV).
We got to our first hotel and unpacked and got lunch. Thank goodness for the returners ( the kids that have already been at TBC for a semester) because without them I am not sure I would have ate for two weeks.
After lunch we had our first mandatory lecture because after all this was an academic excursion. Professor Yang Fuquan talked to us about all the different ethnic minorities in Yunnan. In China, the majority of the population is Han, but then there are 56 other minorities in the country, 23 of which live in the Yunnan Province.
Afterwards Sam, Paris, Erin, Cait and I walked around town being touristy (as if being white isn’t touristy enough) and taking pictures. That was the first time I realized that China is not like the U.S. It is common in Southern China for restaurants to hang their slabs of meat in the from the rafters at the front of the store to dry, not to mention they gut their fish on the sides of the street as well as hang the ducks (already skinned) they are going to roast for the night.
At night we went to the Dynamic Yunnan show, a large scale song and dance performance featuring the dance traditions of different ethnic minority groups. Unfortunately, a lot of us were really tired but this time and well I fell asleep. I tried to stay awake, but really all I really remember is Chinese singing, which is in a very high pitch, and colors swirling.
The next day we got on the bus and we stopped in Tonghai for lunch, a random village that was very authentic, but very hard for us to choose which lovely (and I use this term loosely) restaurant to eat in. Wild China (our tour guides) dropped us in many of these random villages for lunch and because of it this is when we all began to resent the company.
From there we went to Mushan Village where the majority of the Yi people (minority group) lived. It was here where we had our first home stay. --I’ll try to post pictures of the village.—When we got off the bus the Yi women were dressed and waiting in their original ethnic dresses with the dragon in the air and a shot of bijou for each of us, the equivalent of taking a shot of rubbing alcohol. Anyways, Paris and I were roommates for the night in one of the houses. The village was like something out of a story that you read about, but never think you will actually witness. Paris and I were talking and it reminded us of what we would have imagined colonial America to have looked like at one time. It was a beautiful village on the side of a hill. They raised all their own food something that I actually found somewhat baffling, even though I know many people actually do. Most of us went on a hike and, get ready because I will be using this phrase a lot, but pictures don’t even do justice.
When we got back to the village we played jiantsa and basketball with the little boys and the women prepared dinner for us. Surprisingly, we didn’t see many little girls, but later found out that they aren’t allowed to play outside during the day. At dinner, the women sang what can only be referred to as a bijou song and then went to all the tables and had us take another shot. At least this killed anything that our stomachs may not have agreed with food wise.
After dinner, the women put on a performance for us for two hours where they showcased their ethnic dances, including the dragon dance. In return though we had to give them a little performance in which Jerome sang TLC Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls (that was put in their for the Eloners).
We then had a huge bonfire where all of us danced around before departing back to our own huts. Luckily our host saw us walking and showed us back to our house (the town was very confusing with narrow passages). As we got further and further away from the glow of the bonfire and Paris and I looked up to see the most beautiful stars I have ever seen in my life (until the next two villages we stayed at). No wonder people made constellations back in the day, you could actually pick them out instead of just guessing like at home.
When we got back to our guestroom, which was attached to the house we washed up (bathroom without a toilet, yeahhh try that) and got ready for bed (big piece of plywood). Paris and I tried to fall asleep quickly in order to not think too much about where we were sleeping. Unfortunately I woke up several times during the night with chickens hopping on and off of our guestroom roof and then of course at the crack of down the roosters started.
Lucky for us after each village stay we could always look forward to a long bus ride to catch up on some sleep. Anyways I’ll leave the next section for later. Hope this satisfies some of your appetite until tomorrow.
I’ll start you off from the beginning. We left Beijing at 5:30 in the morning on Jan. 19. We took a three-hour flight to Kunming, which is the capital of the Yunnan Province. When we got there we got on our first tour bus and met our first guide, Kenny, a wannabe pop star with a really good voice for singing Mariah Carey and Backstreet Boys (the Chinese live for karaoke, also known in China as KTV).
We got to our first hotel and unpacked and got lunch. Thank goodness for the returners ( the kids that have already been at TBC for a semester) because without them I am not sure I would have ate for two weeks.
After lunch we had our first mandatory lecture because after all this was an academic excursion. Professor Yang Fuquan talked to us about all the different ethnic minorities in Yunnan. In China, the majority of the population is Han, but then there are 56 other minorities in the country, 23 of which live in the Yunnan Province.
Afterwards Sam, Paris, Erin, Cait and I walked around town being touristy (as if being white isn’t touristy enough) and taking pictures. That was the first time I realized that China is not like the U.S. It is common in Southern China for restaurants to hang their slabs of meat in the from the rafters at the front of the store to dry, not to mention they gut their fish on the sides of the street as well as hang the ducks (already skinned) they are going to roast for the night.
At night we went to the Dynamic Yunnan show, a large scale song and dance performance featuring the dance traditions of different ethnic minority groups. Unfortunately, a lot of us were really tired but this time and well I fell asleep. I tried to stay awake, but really all I really remember is Chinese singing, which is in a very high pitch, and colors swirling.
The next day we got on the bus and we stopped in Tonghai for lunch, a random village that was very authentic, but very hard for us to choose which lovely (and I use this term loosely) restaurant to eat in. Wild China (our tour guides) dropped us in many of these random villages for lunch and because of it this is when we all began to resent the company.
From there we went to Mushan Village where the majority of the Yi people (minority group) lived. It was here where we had our first home stay. --I’ll try to post pictures of the village.—When we got off the bus the Yi women were dressed and waiting in their original ethnic dresses with the dragon in the air and a shot of bijou for each of us, the equivalent of taking a shot of rubbing alcohol. Anyways, Paris and I were roommates for the night in one of the houses. The village was like something out of a story that you read about, but never think you will actually witness. Paris and I were talking and it reminded us of what we would have imagined colonial America to have looked like at one time. It was a beautiful village on the side of a hill. They raised all their own food something that I actually found somewhat baffling, even though I know many people actually do. Most of us went on a hike and, get ready because I will be using this phrase a lot, but pictures don’t even do justice.
When we got back to the village we played jiantsa and basketball with the little boys and the women prepared dinner for us. Surprisingly, we didn’t see many little girls, but later found out that they aren’t allowed to play outside during the day. At dinner, the women sang what can only be referred to as a bijou song and then went to all the tables and had us take another shot. At least this killed anything that our stomachs may not have agreed with food wise.
After dinner, the women put on a performance for us for two hours where they showcased their ethnic dances, including the dragon dance. In return though we had to give them a little performance in which Jerome sang TLC Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls (that was put in their for the Eloners).
We then had a huge bonfire where all of us danced around before departing back to our own huts. Luckily our host saw us walking and showed us back to our house (the town was very confusing with narrow passages). As we got further and further away from the glow of the bonfire and Paris and I looked up to see the most beautiful stars I have ever seen in my life (until the next two villages we stayed at). No wonder people made constellations back in the day, you could actually pick them out instead of just guessing like at home.
When we got back to our guestroom, which was attached to the house we washed up (bathroom without a toilet, yeahhh try that) and got ready for bed (big piece of plywood). Paris and I tried to fall asleep quickly in order to not think too much about where we were sleeping. Unfortunately I woke up several times during the night with chickens hopping on and off of our guestroom roof and then of course at the crack of down the roosters started.
Lucky for us after each village stay we could always look forward to a long bus ride to catch up on some sleep. Anyways I’ll leave the next section for later. Hope this satisfies some of your appetite until tomorrow.
Friday, January 16, 2009
The first day
Hi who ever is out there and I miss you.
Ok sooooo it is really only my second day, but I have sooo much to say already.
The flight was really long. We were in the air for somewhere between 13 and 14 hours, but I sat next to a girl that is in the TBC program so we talked a bit.
Yesterday we had our first round of orientation and met our host students. I'm not really sure if we have scheduled time with them or not, but my host student's english name is Black (yes he thinks its kinda ridiculous, but his teacher picked it out for him.) and no I can not even begin to try and spell his Chinese name. He showed me and three girls around the campus and through a little bit of the surrounding area. He speaks really good English. Apparently in China in order to get into a University you have to take an exam like the SAT, but there is an English part attached to it and you have to pass a certain level to even be considered. Before you enter a University you have to take another exam and it chooses what field of study you are going to be in. Black is a finance major and he loves it now. It's really weird to think of how much American students change their majors, but for Chinese students hopefully you like what is chosen for you. Also, Chinese students are obsessed with studying, even when they go home for breaks all they do is study. He knew more about the financial crisis than me so that made me feel like a really dumb American, you know besides the fact that he is speaking my language fluently and I can barely say hi in his. Apparently, Chinese students never go out or anything because its soo competitive that everyone just studies. Basically every time I would ask a question of why things were like this he would just say there are too many people in China. In Beijing alone there are 30 million people, which is insane.
The city is huge, its not like American cities where everything is stacked really high in skyscrapers, its more spread out. The air does kinda suck I guess the best way to explain it would be like if you are walking down a street and a city bus passes you and you inhale that exhaust. I keep waiting for that like bus to pass and take in the fresh air, but it just doesn't come. I figure I'll get used to it, some Chinese walk around with surgical masks so they don't breathe it in as much.
The food is crazy, surprisingly I am actually eating and I try everything that comes to the table. It's kinda weird too because you order food for the table and everyone just eats out of the bowls in the center and pass it around on a lazy susan. Andy was definitely right, just don't ask what you are eating until after you have tasted it. I think the craziest thing I have eaten so far is pig ear, I've also had goat. (If you know me well, you are probably really surprised by this). The goat was like chicken and the pig ear....well it looked like bacon kinda but in a skinny outline of an ear. It was really crunchy aka eating through the cartilage, not my cup of tea, but it is one of Black's favorites and I am determined to try everything even though I am seriously missing any form of potato right now. Also I am becoming quite the little pro with chop sticks even though I still think it is kinda dumb to eat with them because everyone, including Chinese people, hover over their food when they eat.
I live in an apartment style dorm. It looks kinda like a cheap hotel room. My bed is hard as a rock which I actually kinda like and am getting used to and is helping my back pain a lot. The bathroom is really tiny and its not like there is a shower you just use the whole bathroom as the shower and the drain is in the middle. You have to take out the toilet paper and trashcan before you shower. We're treated like royalty though. The Chinese students sleep five or six to a room, basically the size of a regular American dorm room with three sets of bunk beds. UIBE has the largest female dormitory in all of Asia, housing 10,000 women. And all the Chinese students have to travel across campus to a showering area. I kinda feel really bad that we are treated so well.
Ok welllllll I am sick of typing and we're watching Bolt in the internet lounge before we go to Tia'men Square today and go iceskating on a lake.....which Dylan, Cam, Erin and I did last night on our way to the bar ha but thats for a later time.
LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!
ps my internet isn't hooking up correctly and I can only really get on to Gmail, my blog, and thats about it soooo skype, ichat, and facebook will have to wait -- sorry.
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