Frustrations and Mountain Adventures

大家好!

Since my last post, I went on a trip to Le Shan and Emei Shan (mountains), I’ll put photos at the end of the post.

Today, I’d like to chat with you all about frustration I’ve experienced while abroad. It’s a very general topic, but it’s not something I think I’ve touched on in previous posts. I’d like to share some frustrations I’ve felt, as well as frustrations I’ve avoided.

First and foremost, it’s been frustrating not being with my fellow Pios during the loss of another leadership student, and I send well-wishes to everyone affected by the loss.

Secondly, I’ve felt some frustration handling things at MC from the other side of the world. Don’t take for granted how easy it is to walk into your professor’s office when you need to talk to them, or always being surrounded by people who can get you to the right answer. I am probably much more worried about registering for classes right now than I would be if I were at MC this semester, and I am dealing with this while being exactly 12 hours ahead of everyone.

Mostly, I want to talk about how I’ve been able to avoid other kinds of frustrations while in China. When learning a foreign language, there is quite a bit of uncertainty and risk-taking involved. Even doing simple tasks that would be a cinch in the US can be intimidating in China. For example, I recently got my hair cut and colored in a salon, and it was a nerve-wracking experience. Going to the salon in the US is something I enjoy (despite the awkward small talk), but salon vocabulary isn’t exactly something you learn in a Chinese class, and I was afraid they wouldn’t understand what I wanted. The experience went much more smoothly than I anticipated, and it was at least partially due to my obvious foreignness. People tend to be more patient with me. One of my friends is Chinese, but was raised in the US, and I am in a higher level of Chinese than she is. When we go out together, people usually try to speak to her first and are surprised when I respond to them instead.

On the other hand, sometimes I don’t have to say anything at all. I’m dealing with a bad cold this week, and I didn’t bring any American cold medicine. My program director wrote down the name and brand of Chinese cough syrup on an index card, I walked into the pharmacy and handed them the card and some money, and left without saying anything. (As a side note, the cough syrup is magical and provides instant relief and the US needs to get on this).

I knew  before I came to China that I would stick out obviously as a foreigner, but I didn’t consider any advantages that would have, so I wanted to take the opportunity to share my thoughts with you all.

Anyway, here are some photos of the Le Shan Buddha and views while hiking Emei Shan:

好久不见

Hello, readers!

I apologize for the lack in posts – my already poor Wi-Fi decided to go out this week and won’t be fixed until sometime next week. I’m writing this post from a cute Tibetan café with lots of plants and overpriced coffee.

 

Since my last post, I’ve been getting settled into the routine of classes. I’m only taking 13 credit hours, but the program I’m using only offers intensive language courses. So basically, I’ve already finished all of the content that the CHIN 302 class at MC will learn this semester, and it’s only week five. I have a final exam this week, then we're jumping into two more semesters worth of content. Needless to say, I’ve been very busy with work, and I haven’t done anything horribly exciting.

 As I get more and more settled in here, things in general are less exciting. I’ve gotten used to some things about Chinese culture that used to bother me. For example, lines are a rare thing here. I get genuinely surprised when I go into a store to buy something and there’s a line-up at the register. Most of the time, there’s just a crowd of people and whoever puts their goods on the counter first gets to pay. A few weeks ago, this really bothered me, but I’ve grown to kind of like it, or at least not mind it.

I’ve also gotten a job since my last post, tutoring a twelve year-old girl in English. She’s getting ready for her junior high interview, and needs to work on her writing and vocabulary, so I go to her house once a week and help her for an hour, then they feed me dinner. She lives in a wealthy neighborhood, in an actual house, with her mom, sister, and their nanny. It’s been quite the experience getting to know them. A general rule is that the more Western something is, the more expensive it is. For example, Western food costs about 10-15 USD, which doesn’t seem too bad until you remember that you can eat Chinese food for 2-4USD. The neighborhood they live in is very Western, and they live in a Western style house instead of a Chinese apartment, so you can guess just how wealthy they probably are. I don’t think the neighborhood I live in (Wuhou) is bad, but it just doesn’t compare to the glitz of their neighborhood (Tongzilin), and I do walk past a Maserati and Ferrari dealership on my way to their house. How exciting.

This weekend we took a field trip to the Jinsha museum. Jinsha was an ancient civilization that was discovered when trying to dig the foundation for a new apartment complex in Chengdu. They stopped the building of the apartment complex and instead turned the area into an archeological site, then built the museum around it. When you go through the museum, you get to see the actual site, which was unlike any museum I’ve been to in the US. Some of the object they discovered included sacrificial animal bones and tusks, which were preserved from being buried. These objects would decay if they were removed, so the archaeologists reburied them. The Art History nerd in me had an awesome time here, and I plan on visiting other Chinese museums while I’m here. Pictures of the museum are below.

An elephant tusk preserved in silicone

The Modi River

Cong - these represent the Earth.

The archaeological site.

A burial site - the Jinsha people were buried, but without coffins.

The symbol of Jinsha, a sun surrounded by birds.

As always, I look forward to reading any comments and answering any questions you might have!

First (crazy) Week Complete!

大家好！

I arrived in Chengdu on Friday, January 13 after spending three days in Hong Kong and Macau. On the trip, we were mostly sightseeing and being typical tourists, which was pretty easy since everything in Hong Kong is labeled in both English and Cantonese. I met some of the other students in the program in the LA airport and we were on the same flight to Hong Kong. It was nice getting to know them during our trip. Hong Kong was nice to visit, but it was very fast paced. They say “a New York minute is a Hong Kong second” which is truer than you will ever know. Hong Kong and Macau are islands, so everything is very close together and is built up. The streets are narrow and loads of people are out on them, all the time. Hong Kong is a city that really never sleeps.

We spent the first day in Hong Kong going around the city and seeing notable sights. We even had dimsum at “Jumbo Floating Restauruant” for lunch, which is exactly what it sounds like.  My favorite part of our day in Hong Kong was going to the Peak. It is the highest point in Hong Kong and you can see in all directions. It’s a popular area for tourists, so there are loads of shops and restaurants with amazing views. Here is one of my pictures of the skyline from a viewing terrace:

The next morning, we took a ferry (not really a ferry, more of a water jet) to Macau. Macau was wonderful. The Portugese influence is clear in not only the signage, but also the architecture. Macau is small, so small our tour guide told us that you can walk across the island from end to end in an hour. It was much more laid back, compared to Hong Kong, even though it is very crowded for its size. We ate a Portuguese lunch, which was delicious, and had some time to explore the area. We witnessed a car accident, and the police were at the scene almost immediately. Luckily no one was hurt, and we went to see the casinos. I’ve never been to Las Vegas, but since USAC is located there, many of the other students are Vegas natives. According to them, Macau blows Las Vegas away when it comes to the casinos. We went into the Venetian, specifically, since there is a lot to do if you are under 21 and can’t gamble. It was like a city inside. Everything was gilded and it felt very euphoric. We saw both canals and lots of shops (though most of them were luxury brands so I didn’t buy anything). I did indulge in a beverage from Starbucks, but I got a local favorite, Hibiscus tea. Our tour guide took us to major historical places in Macau, including the old fort used by the Portuguese governor, complete with 360-views of the island, and the first church, which burnt down three times.  ‘

Our third day in Hong Kong was a free day, so I spent it exploring the city by myself and with some of my new friends. The next morning, we were on a plane to Chengdu. The flight was short, but it got delayed so we made it in around 3pm. We took a bus to our campus and dropped our bags in our rooms, then went to Carrefour (supermarket). The whole experience was very overwhelming. Not only were we all tired from travelling, but there are sales people in every department, pushing certain products on you in Chinese. I was just doing my best to remember what I needed to buy to live (ie sheets, blanket, towels, soap). I ended up spending more money than I was carrying in cash, and had to pay with my American credit card. I have a Discover card though, which is really great because they have an agreement with a Chinese card company, UnionPay, so the card can be accepted here. The most stressful part of the whole interaction was convincing the clerk to use my card. After about fifteen minutes of me explaining in Mandarin that my card was a domestic card, she finally used it and it worked. Phew.

Since then, life in Chengdu has been smooth sailing. Chengdu is very laid back. The streets are significantly less crowded than Hong Kong, and the locals are very patient and welcoming. The owner of a jiaozi (dumpling) restaurant even taught one of my friends how to use chopsticks and practiced her English with us. This post is quite long because I’ve had a very busy week, but I do have some initial takeaways from my texperience so far:

·      Chinese people have been very generous. I’ve only paid for my own food a few times after eating every meal out. The price tag is either so cheap that someone just picks up the bill for everyone, or we are being treated by someone older. On Monday, a publication called GoChengdu took us to the Giant Panda Research Base, located here in Chengdu, and actually had a whole panda-themed day planned for us. After seeing the real-life pandas in the morning, we went to a panda-themed KFC restaurant (the only one in the world) and they taught us how to make panda-shaped rice balls. They were so cute, I didn’t want to eat mine. They treated us to lunch and then we went to see the IFS panda sculpture, which is just a massive panda hanging off the side of a large shopping center. On the roof, you can take pictures with it (don’t worry, I’ll put copious panda photos below). They then took us to Panda Post, a local business selling creative, hand drawn postcards, stamps, and other panda-themed goodies. They let us send post cards back home for free, and then GoChengdu have us panda gift bags with a stuffed panda, a wooden postcard from Panda Post, and an English guide to living in Chengdu. Their generosity was amazing, despite having to have many, many photos taken throughout the day.

·      My idea of what is cheap and what is expensive has changed a ton already. Earlier today, we were in a convenience store looking for mugs to use to take our tea or hot water to class (in China hot water > cold water, especially since the walls are concrete and it’s always freezing). We saw some nice ones that were around 50 kuai, and we all were shook. The thing is, though… 50 kuai is less than $10USD. In the US that would be a bargain, but alas, we decided we could get a better price at Walmart later. And I do mean actual Walmart, not just a Chinese equivalent. Like, real Walmart in China, y’all. Wild.

·      Time is flexible. Everything has started late so far on this trip. My class started late today, whenever we meet for something people are late, etc. When we went with GoChengdu, we were supposed to leave at 7:20, and we didn’t leave until 7:50. No one was mad, really, it’s just the way time works.

I hope you enjoy this post! If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I’ll do what I can to answer. In the coming days, I’ll be settling into the routine of classes so my life might be boring for a while. Now, for the promised panda photos: