i believe some people would call this a "great american day" in the tonghe international apartments. this evening, sarah and i fixed a fabulous american feast of grilled cheese sandwiches, campbell's corn chowder, and jello chocolate pudding for our precious chinese roommates, sue and yanan. needless to say, finding the ingredients for this meal was a little bit of a quest, since none of the items are found in a normal chinese kitchen. but the search was totally worthwhile, on account of our precious roomies, who we are going to miss like CRAZY when we depart in a week and a half.
i truly believe that sarah and i are the luckiest out of the entire alliance bunch, 对不起 other roommates! sue and yanan are best friends, in their junior year together at the shanghai university of finance and economics. they have been so warm and excited about us from the start. at the welcome dinner, yanan pounced on sarah and gave her a huge hug (we weren't exactly sure about physical contact in china but there it was!). within the first two weeks, they took us to fudan's best xiaolong bao restaurant and showed us what to order since there is no english menu. yanan also took sarah to the SUFE pool to swim one afternoon, and skyped with her parents. "happy birthday xiaoxue mother!" is perhaps one of the most endearing things i have ever heard.
sue and i have had our share of adventures too. she came with a bunch of us on our day trip to the zhujiajiao river town and saved our souls in countless ways. she took sarah and i to the SUFE night market for amazing xinjiang roasted meat skewers and half-watermelons eaten straight with a spoon. she are both busy but usually catch up in the room every couple days, and often run errands at the mall together, coming back with a huge bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts to share. like with any good girl friends, i think the best parts of our relationship are food and gossip. we love to chat about the kids in our program, our own activities, and differences between life in china and america (most often, differences between college student male/female interactions! ha). i feel so lucky that she takes the time and energy to have those complex conversations with me - it has to be like talking with a 4 year old. she is great at speaking slowly and clearly and using words that i will understand. and she tries to only laugh at my pronunciation when she knows i am laughing too ;) like when i told her that i was craving "locust noodles" or my "chair hurt" all day *see below.
it has also been a pleasure to learn more about sue - her family, background, hometown, etc. sue's parents are from jiangsu, an eastern coastal province adjacent to shanghai. but they moved far inland, to western guizhou, where she was born and raised. sue explained that her parents, like many successful people from the most developed eastern provinces, moved west to be part of that region's development. so her mother works in the hotel industry, and her father works for a defense company that does contracts with the chinese government. it was hilarious to tease sue while she tried to explain that her father's work is confidential, but he doesn't have a "license to kill!" obviously, sue is an only child. but we often talk about her younger cousins, because they play the role of her brothers and sisters. i pointed out, and she agreed, that later generations after the one child policy do not even have cousins their age to interact with.
anyway, that is sue. back to grilled cheese :) the girls LOVED it. and to my delight, they liked it even better with ketchup, which is my fave. sarah and i loved watching them because they had clearly never seen so much cheese at a time. cheese is not really big here. yanan is so cute too, she came after we had finished cooking and assumed that we had made corn chowder from scratch. girl, we are americans. can + soup concentrate + water = dinnertime. last but not least, the girls died eating the jello chocolate pudding. they were stunned by the chocolate flavor... chocolate is another thing that you rarely see here, and if you do, it's a watered down form that americans don't really enjoy. in fact, the jello pudding can't even be purchased here. apparently some american student's parents sent the powder by care package last semester, and they never got around to making it. so it was just sitting in michelle's office. ahhh, the delights of cultural exchange.
it was a dream evening, and now i am writing this ridiculously long post to avoid studying for two exams tomorrow and preparing for a presentation the next day. but the memories are worth recording, right?! tomorrow's morning test is an exit exam, to compare our language level at the placement exam with our level after 7 weeks of intensive study. the afternoon test is our pm class final exam, yikes! friday's presentation is a song and skit by each class, performed for everyone and 王老师，the head teacher. our's features a chinese rendition of lady gaga's "bad romance"... it should be highly entertaining.
if i did not have an epic, cross-country journey to look forward to on the 9th, i would be freaking out about leaving shanghai in less than two weeks! but right now, i am indiscriminately excited. until next time, 再见！
* maja = locust = majiang = sesame
weizi = chair = wei = stomach
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
western china
it's done. i am going to tibet.
i never thought i would be going to tibet! it's hard to communicate how excited i am - and a little bewildered at my own ambition. but the plane tickets have been purchased, permit is being arranged, i have chosen hostels, and i know what train tickets i will need to buy for the following legs of the trip. in august, i am traveling across western china! i have just over 2 weeks between classes ending here in shanghai, and beginning at BLCU in beijing. here is my rough itinerary:
i never thought i would be going to tibet! it's hard to communicate how excited i am - and a little bewildered at my own ambition. but the plane tickets have been purchased, permit is being arranged, i have chosen hostels, and i know what train tickets i will need to buy for the following legs of the trip. in august, i am traveling across western china! i have just over 2 weeks between classes ending here in shanghai, and beginning at BLCU in beijing. here is my rough itinerary:
8/9 fly shanghai to chengdu
8/9-8/14 stay in chengdu at jiatong hostel, visit friends from fudan and their families, explore the city and make a day trip to hike e'mei shan
8/14 fly chengdu to lhasa
8/14-8/18 rest for a day on account of the altitude, then tour lhasa with random tibet backpacker man for three days
8/18-8/20 famous tibet train to xian
8/20-8/24 stay in xian, visit terra cotta warriors, stay in the muslim quarter
8/24-8/25 xian to beijing by overnight train
8/25 program in beijing begins!
altogether, this 5000+ kilometer journey will be under $1000 for transportation and housing, which earned the stamp of approval from mom and dad. of course, that doesn't really say anything because any money that goes toward tibet instead of tuition will be taken out in loans and paid back by yours truly after graduation...! anyway, i am here, and to me it seems worthwhile. one cost hidden in there -which i am rather bitter about - is the permit, guide, and prearranged dormitory housing that is required for an independent foreigner to visit tibet. however, i was aware that there would be plenty of hoops to jump through from the start, so i cannot really complain. this is my chance, and i want to take it!
besides the sheer expanse and unfamiliarity of western china, the other challenge that i am seriously excited to tackle is traveling on my own :) in shanghai, i have enjoyed my group's company but also really enjoyed going out and seeing parts of the city on my own. i know that 100% independent travel is a far cry from a day out on your own, but i am genuinely looking forward to it. mom and dad, i will buy like 32 MCI cards in shanghai before i go so i can call you all the time. don't worry!
AHHHHHHHHHHH TIBET.
moganshan
today our director michelle organized a little excursion over to moganshan lu, shanghai's central art district (similar to 798 in beijing, but not quite as large or famous). although i am always suspicious of contemporary art, i looked forward to doing something engaging but relaxing this afternoon before we start another week.
i was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed moganshan, or "M50." it's just an series of alleyways with studios on all levels of industrial-style buildings. many of the artists live in their studios and are present/working as you visit. all the work is interesting... some of it makes subtle political commentary, some is just done in observation of modern china, some makes no sense at all, but everything (from my perspective) was very good. i also liked seeing chinese people featured in portraits and asian motifs in sculpture, because those things just aren't as common in american museums or galleries.
the coolest part of moganshan is how friendly the artists and their assistants are. even though i have studied art history, i always feel intimidated by the kanbuqi 看不起, or looking down on others, that usually accompanies modern art. yet at moganshan, artists asked me where i was from, whether or not i liked their work, which works were more interesting than others, etc. they wanted to exchange business cards and explain their artistic methods... some of which were hard to follow in chinese but i was nevertheless gratified that they wanted to share with me! here i am with one of moganshan's most famous artists, xu weiqiang, known in shanghai for his deconstuctionism. in another studio, an artist's assistant poured out his heart to me about how he had been rejected from 3 different finance grad programs and just wanted to become a painter!
so that was moganshan. a lovely way to end the weekend. this week we take our exit exam (an ungraded test that is meant to show our progress since we took the placement exam in june). can't think of anything else interesting coming up, but if i do you will be the first to know as always.
city weekend
this post is affectionately named after the website where we find all of shanghai's events, drink deals, new listings, etc... cityweekend.com. for a girl such as myself, who refuses to pay cover charge and doesn't really care enough to pay for drinks, cityweekend is pretty darn useful. they have a beijing site too - fabulous.
anyway, this weekend was all about playing with friends and experiencing the finer points of shanghai's famous nightlife. on friday and saturday, we got dressed up and headed to some places that are slightly classier than our usual destinations - namely bar rouge and M1NT. they are both on the bund. bar rouge is normally 100 rmb to enter but they listed a password on cityweekend for free entry that night (hence, probably the first and last night i ever go there). when we arrived on the bund, it was a gorgeous, clear night and we could see the bar's huge balcony on the 7th floor of one of the old, concession-style buildings on the water. as you can see below, the cover charge is clearly for the fantastic view of the huangpu river and pudong new area (first picture picture clearly shows the view; second is sort of a failure, but i wanted to capture the atmosphere)
bar rouge is a pretty, modern, wood/metal space, with an equally large rectangular balcony where you can hang out in the open air. the glamorous scene is enhanced by the fact that everyone around you is speaking french, spanish, or italian... very little english and no chinese! a friend commented that it feels as if you are in some upscale club in london or paris. the music was amazing, best we have heard in shanghai yet. really well-mixed house.
at bar rouge we met some engineering students from georgia tech that are studying at tsinghua in beijing, but were visiting shanghai for a week. i suppose that since they were just here for a while, they wanted to go all out every night. they invited us to join their reserved table at M1NT on saturday. M1NT, like bar rouge, is all about the view. its on the 24th story of a building just behind the old bund mansions. i forgot to take a picture out the window :( but either way it is also pretty swanky, everything is black and shiny. there is art in the bathrooms and a casual shark tank lining the hall between the dance floor and lounge. at first i wasn't crazy about the music and it was suffocatingly crowded, but later on they played some fun, offbeat stuff and the floor cleared a little bit.
with sunday evening's hindsight, i would say that M1NT is not exactly worthy the hype (and door hassles, and dress code), but bar rouge is simply too beautiful and international to resist. hope to go again, but only two more weekends in shanghai!
anyway, this weekend was all about playing with friends and experiencing the finer points of shanghai's famous nightlife. on friday and saturday, we got dressed up and headed to some places that are slightly classier than our usual destinations - namely bar rouge and M1NT. they are both on the bund. bar rouge is normally 100 rmb to enter but they listed a password on cityweekend for free entry that night (hence, probably the first and last night i ever go there). when we arrived on the bund, it was a gorgeous, clear night and we could see the bar's huge balcony on the 7th floor of one of the old, concession-style buildings on the water. as you can see below, the cover charge is clearly for the fantastic view of the huangpu river and pudong new area (first picture picture clearly shows the view; second is sort of a failure, but i wanted to capture the atmosphere)
at bar rouge we met some engineering students from georgia tech that are studying at tsinghua in beijing, but were visiting shanghai for a week. i suppose that since they were just here for a while, they wanted to go all out every night. they invited us to join their reserved table at M1NT on saturday. M1NT, like bar rouge, is all about the view. its on the 24th story of a building just behind the old bund mansions. i forgot to take a picture out the window :( but either way it is also pretty swanky, everything is black and shiny. there is art in the bathrooms and a casual shark tank lining the hall between the dance floor and lounge. at first i wasn't crazy about the music and it was suffocatingly crowded, but later on they played some fun, offbeat stuff and the floor cleared a little bit.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
popo
this blog post is mainly for my family, but if you like stories of crazy coincidences and long lost loved ones, you might also appreciate it.
anyway, we sat and talked in her living room for hours. she is extremely healthy and lively, but her mind shows her age a little bit. she kept repeating how much she loved my mother and father, how much they loved her, and how well she got along with each of my grandmothers. she remembers the layout of our home, and how my room and my brothers room were right next to hers, so if she ever heard us crying she would come straight away and give us something to eat! she also remembers sitting by the playpen and throwing us "cereals" while she knitted us sweaters or mended clothes. she thinks my mom is the most hardworking lady in the world and my dad is the most handsome dude. ha. she bragged, since she was a midwife in her career, she knew best how to take care of babies! so here she is, reunited with one of her babies. below that, with her children and a great grandson at the dinner table:
from the time when i was 8 months old to when i was 3 years old, a shanghainese nanny took care of me (and my brother, he was born somewhere in there..!). at the time, this nanny was already 65 years old or so. she had retired, and her kids were already all grown up and living independently in shanghai or elsewhere in china. after she left my family, my parents continued to send christmas cards and try to keep in touch, but we really didn't know that much about "popo" other than the fact that she had returned to shanghai.
when i decided to come to shanghai for the summer, we tried to contact her! even though we knew she must be at like 85 years old now. we succeeded in reaching her by phone and having teddy speak shanghainese dialect with her to find out her address. so now you can probably guess... yesterday i went to see my popo, for the first time in 17 years :)
she lives 13 metro stops away from me in zhongshan park. i went over to her apartment around 3 and stayed all the way until 8! it was a whirlwind experience but i will try to record some of the more important details. my popo met me at the gate to her apartment complex, aided by her daughter. apparently she had waited out in the sun the entire hour that it took me to traverse shanghai! couldn't be convinced otherwise.
we went inside and i met the two sons with whom she lives. they are all very nice and have a lovely, several-generation home. little did i know, popo altogether has 3 daughters, 4 sons, 9 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren! more amazing yet, she is now 87 years old, and all her children are in their 50s and 60s. her great grandchildren are my age or a bit younger. here's her home:
we had all these conversations entirely in mandarin (a second language for both of us, since popo's family speaks shanghai dialect). by the time we had eaten a wonderful home-cooked meal, my head ached from thinking and trying so hard to understand and speak chinese for such an extended period of time. but i can't think of anything more rewarding. she cried when i left and made me promise to come back and stay one night. the only things she said in english the entire day were "tigertail, los alamitos" "san diego grandma" and "i love you grace" :)
tallest tower
i continue struggling to keep my blog up to date! yesterday, i wrote about the weekend. today, i will write about monday night and our trip to the top of the shanghai world financial center- one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world. the tower in dubai is overall taller, but the wfc gets the title of "highest observation deck in the world." we chose to go on monday night because monday was the clearest day that we have witnessed thus far in shanghai. it's hard to describe just how hazy and ... disgusting... it is on a daily basis here. usually when you go to the bund, your pictures just show your face and a cloudy-white background. no river or buildings to be seen. but monday was gorgeous :) here's the view from my room... you can see buildings that i had literally never seen before in my 5 weeks here.
on our orientation tour of shanghai back in june, the guide explained that the wfc was initially designed to look like a giant knife piercing the sky. obviously, that didn't appeal to some people, so they changed the design to resemble a bottle opener! a tall, solid rectangle with a trapezoid-shaped gap in the top. the 100th floor observation deck (four hundred and ninety two meters up in the sky) is the glass-floored top of the trapezoid.
soooo i was pretty excited for this journey to the top with sarah and john, but my spirits waned a little when we had to throw down 150 kuai for tickets (that's 22 USD, but here, it's enough to eat for a week. not cool). oh well, it's one of those life experiences, right? wrong! when we exited the elevator on the 94th floor, i was dizzy and disoriented, which has never happened to me before in relation to heights! after one more elevator ride to the 100th floor, we walked out onto the glass platform and could watch clouds blowing at some 30 miles per hour through the hole in the building beneath our feet. at this point, i was extremely uncomfortable...... just barely coherent enough to enjoy the view.
i wasn't too embarrassed because john was suffering exactly the same symptoms! so we snapped our pictures and headed down as fast as we could, hopped in a cab, and went home-sweet-home. i guess i am glad i went, since the wfc is a shanghai must-see, and i would've wondered about it forever if i didn't go! but i'll be staying away from skyscrapers for a while.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
southern capital
NANJING 南京
famous location of many of china's historical events (qing dynasty southern headquarters during the 19th century, sun yat sen founded the chinese republic and was elected, chiang kai shek and the guomindang's base before fleeing to taiwan, and finally, communist party liberation in 1949). infamous location of the nanjing massacre; 300,000 victims at the hands of japanese attack/occupation in 1937, lives on in memory akin to a "chinese holocaust."
because nanjing has so much history, and it's only 3 hours away by local train (1.5 by high speed train), it was an automatic travel destination for me. although it felt a little chaotic to cram it in the weekend after we went to beijing, time is running short, so i was off! 8 other students from my program joined. on friday afternoon, mid-monsoon, we threw our backpacks in our apartments, grabbed our luggage, and cabbed to the shanghai railway station. thanks to a ladies' night out on thursday, i completely passed out for the train ride, but i am told that at least 5 chinese families and 1 dog circulated through the seat next to me. gotta love the regional train!
we arrived around 5 pm and headed to our hostel (we all bunked in one big dorm room) and then out to the surrounding area, fuzimiao. this is a hoppin' little pedestrian district with nanjing's famous confucian temple and tons of stores and street food. i've noticed this arrangement to be customary in china. an area that used to attract worshippers is built up to also become and modern eating/shopping playground- just like cheng huang miao in shanghai.
on friday night, we went out to a bar-club-thing that becca recommended from her time living in nanjing. it also happened to be written up in lonely planet so of course i was on board. i will not detail the evening but it suffices to say that foreigner do not frequent this bar... we were instantly treated to a table and several bottles by the manager, who throughout the night brought friends and favorite guests over to meet us, along with a ton of other random people. highly amusing! and very different from shanghai, where the clubs are filled with foreigners [only].
on saturday, our only full day, we packed in the history. AM: zijin shan, the woodsy hill outside the city where dr. sun yat sen is entombed in a giant, ming dynasty era mausoleum. sun yat sen is recognized by both the guomindang and the communist party as the founding father of modern china, so his burial place is a big deal. nevertheless, they do not enforce the "silence" and "no pictures" rules. this is china, i don't know how you could get people to follow either of those directions! below: some of the 392 steps up to the mausoleum, the group at the top.
in the afternoon, we retreated to a giant indoor mall for heavy doses of 空调 (kongtiao, aka AIR CONDITIONING) and retail therapy after our heavy museum experience. nanjing is correctly nicknamed one of china's "four furnaces" along with shanghai, beijing, and tianjin. my question is, if these places are the hottest, most humid, and most miserable in this entire country... why does everyone live in them?
ah yes, well anyway the weekend was over way too quickly. at 6 pm we boarded our train back to shanghai (props to nanjing for the coolest view from a train station ever, see below). i slept... duh. and as if the weekend had not been enough, i met up with the fabulous travis holler upon return to shanghai! he is at fudan for a short two weeks with a GW course. imagine that :) so there is nanjing for you! next posts will be WFC and visiting popo. so behind!
famous location of many of china's historical events (qing dynasty southern headquarters during the 19th century, sun yat sen founded the chinese republic and was elected, chiang kai shek and the guomindang's base before fleeing to taiwan, and finally, communist party liberation in 1949). infamous location of the nanjing massacre; 300,000 victims at the hands of japanese attack/occupation in 1937, lives on in memory akin to a "chinese holocaust."
because nanjing has so much history, and it's only 3 hours away by local train (1.5 by high speed train), it was an automatic travel destination for me. although it felt a little chaotic to cram it in the weekend after we went to beijing, time is running short, so i was off! 8 other students from my program joined. on friday afternoon, mid-monsoon, we threw our backpacks in our apartments, grabbed our luggage, and cabbed to the shanghai railway station. thanks to a ladies' night out on thursday, i completely passed out for the train ride, but i am told that at least 5 chinese families and 1 dog circulated through the seat next to me. gotta love the regional train!
we arrived around 5 pm and headed to our hostel (we all bunked in one big dorm room) and then out to the surrounding area, fuzimiao. this is a hoppin' little pedestrian district with nanjing's famous confucian temple and tons of stores and street food. i've noticed this arrangement to be customary in china. an area that used to attract worshippers is built up to also become and modern eating/shopping playground- just like cheng huang miao in shanghai.
PM: nanjing presidential palace. think of every important chinese leader between 1850-1950... they did business here. lin zexu, sun yat sen, chiang kai shek, etc. you can see one of the palace courtyards and sun yat sen and chiang kai shek's reception room.
on sunday morning, we braced ourselves for the nanjing massacre museum and memorial. this was a much longer visit than expected. the museum is extensive and there are actually several memorials to walk though. here, i decline to write my opinions on chinese-japanese relations, chinese nationalism, or the massacre in relation to the communist party.. but email me if you are curious, i guess? this museum definitely highlighted each of those issues.
ah yes, well anyway the weekend was over way too quickly. at 6 pm we boarded our train back to shanghai (props to nanjing for the coolest view from a train station ever, see below). i slept... duh. and as if the weekend had not been enough, i met up with the fabulous travis holler upon return to shanghai! he is at fudan for a short two weeks with a GW course. imagine that :) so there is nanjing for you! next posts will be WFC and visiting popo. so behind!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
studies
goodness gracious! i have not written in a week and have too much to talk about. i may write a few entries today in order to catch up (apologies). highlights from this past week were:
- last week's classes flew by, probably because we were traveling on either end of the week. also, we didn't have any tests, because we took our midterm exam on wednesday the 14th, before leaving for beijing
- last tuesday, i ventured over to the pudong "new area" for the first time with karen, to meet up with one of her friends from university of kentucky that graduated and now teaches english to 13 year olds here in shanghai. he took us for amazing doner kebab, with a little chinese twist! he also showed us around the district a little bit. the pudong new area has all sprung up within the last 10 years... extremely rapid development. i swear it is another planet. more pictures to come from my trip to the top of the world financial center last night.
- last wednesday was john bryan's birthday, so we all went to helen's for western dinner and celebration. mama karen brought amazing mango pudding and black forest cakes from 85 degrees celsius, a popular shanghai bakery. 生日很好过。yay for finally posting good pictures of helen's...
- on thursday, lots of the girls went to club G+ (jackie chan's former club!!!) in xintiandi for the ladies' night deal. it was alright. if there is one thing we have learned, it's that real shanghai people mostly go out to karaoke places. the clubs are all europeans and americans! but wait until you hear about the nightlife in nanjing...
- on friday, we left for nanjing straight after class. of course, nanjing will get its own post.
anyway, you are probably wondering why this entry is called "studies" if nothing i have mentioned so far pertains to my academic endeavors. well, i promise that between all these activities, i am working very hard in school. because i have neglected to write about it, my grandma has sent a few interview questions. as a former school teacher, she demands to know :) so everybody else... fast forward to nanjing entry haha.
1. How many classes do you have?
every day is different. on monday i have 3 morning classes; tuesday 3 morning classes, 2 afternoon classes; wednesday 3 morning classes, 1 afternoon class, 1 one-on-one tutoring session with my main teacher to work on weaknesses or talk about problems in class; thursday 3 morning classes, 2 afternoon classes; friday 3 morning classes.
2. Who are your instructor and what are their backgrounds?
i have three laoshimen 老师们, teachers. shi laoshi is my main teacher. he is 23 years old, currently working on a graduate degree somewhere in shanghai but teaches us in the morning. overall he is a great teacher and lets his sense of humor show when we are working hard! my second teacher is zhao laoshi. everyone loves her because she is loud and hilarious (some would say obnoxious but we definitely wouldn't). she's a stickler for pronunciation and will make you repeat it until you say it perfectly! i was intimidated by her at first, but she came to beijing with us and really bonded with the group. she is 25 years old, from guilin. my afternoon teacher is wen laoshi, who is probably also about 25. very soft-spoken, feminine, and easy-going. we definitely need someone like her to go easier on us when we are super sleepy by 2 pm.
3. How many hours are you in class?
each class is about 45 minutes, with 10 minute breaks in between. we also have 1 hour to get lunch at any of the hundreds of cheap restaurants or street food vendors surrounding fudan.
4. By what method is your language instruction delivered?
anyone who has taken chinese with a native chinese teacher can answer this question! it is amazing how uniform the teaching methods are (minus the difference in pace; here we cover a lesson a day whereas at GW we covered a lesson each week and a half). there are three parts to teaching and learning chinese: 预习，练习，复习。preview, practice, review.
each night, we students [ideally] do homework that practices and reviews the day's lesson, then [ideally] preview the next day's lesson. we read the text, grammar, and new vocabulary. we memorize the characters that are new, and look up the ones used in the text that we haven't learned before. since i am in a class slightly above my level, there are usually LOTS of these unfamiliar characters.
in class the next day, we are called on to read out loud from the text (they are making sure we have learned the new words, can use them, pronounce them correctly). immediately after, we close our books and have to write a dictation given by the teacher (graded to make sure we have memorized how to write the new characters, about 25 new ones a day). the rest of the morning, we are drilled (question-answer) on the new words and cultural concepts presented in the text... and then on the grammar (ask and/or answer questions according to a pattern). it's very speaking intensive... and exhausting. you're always on your toes.
in the afternoon, we repeat it with wen laoshi and a different textbook and lesson.
5. How many students are there in your class?
in my class, chinese 201, we are altogether 6 girls! the program is divided into 4 classes, per the placement test we took when we arrived in june. 101, 201, 301, and 401 (the highest class is for native/heritage speakers that need to work on writing, grammar, and advanced vocab that their parents might not have used in the house). hey mom! shouldn't i be in that class?!?! i wish... :)
so that's it! grandma, you will forever be an amazing teacher at heart. hope this answers all your questions!
- last week's classes flew by, probably because we were traveling on either end of the week. also, we didn't have any tests, because we took our midterm exam on wednesday the 14th, before leaving for beijing
- last tuesday, i ventured over to the pudong "new area" for the first time with karen, to meet up with one of her friends from university of kentucky that graduated and now teaches english to 13 year olds here in shanghai. he took us for amazing doner kebab, with a little chinese twist! he also showed us around the district a little bit. the pudong new area has all sprung up within the last 10 years... extremely rapid development. i swear it is another planet. more pictures to come from my trip to the top of the world financial center last night.
anyway, you are probably wondering why this entry is called "studies" if nothing i have mentioned so far pertains to my academic endeavors. well, i promise that between all these activities, i am working very hard in school. because i have neglected to write about it, my grandma has sent a few interview questions. as a former school teacher, she demands to know :) so everybody else... fast forward to nanjing entry haha.
1. How many classes do you have?
every day is different. on monday i have 3 morning classes; tuesday 3 morning classes, 2 afternoon classes; wednesday 3 morning classes, 1 afternoon class, 1 one-on-one tutoring session with my main teacher to work on weaknesses or talk about problems in class; thursday 3 morning classes, 2 afternoon classes; friday 3 morning classes.
2. Who are your instructor and what are their backgrounds?
i have three laoshimen 老师们, teachers. shi laoshi is my main teacher. he is 23 years old, currently working on a graduate degree somewhere in shanghai but teaches us in the morning. overall he is a great teacher and lets his sense of humor show when we are working hard! my second teacher is zhao laoshi. everyone loves her because she is loud and hilarious (some would say obnoxious but we definitely wouldn't). she's a stickler for pronunciation and will make you repeat it until you say it perfectly! i was intimidated by her at first, but she came to beijing with us and really bonded with the group. she is 25 years old, from guilin. my afternoon teacher is wen laoshi, who is probably also about 25. very soft-spoken, feminine, and easy-going. we definitely need someone like her to go easier on us when we are super sleepy by 2 pm.
3. How many hours are you in class?
each class is about 45 minutes, with 10 minute breaks in between. we also have 1 hour to get lunch at any of the hundreds of cheap restaurants or street food vendors surrounding fudan.
4. By what method is your language instruction delivered?
anyone who has taken chinese with a native chinese teacher can answer this question! it is amazing how uniform the teaching methods are (minus the difference in pace; here we cover a lesson a day whereas at GW we covered a lesson each week and a half). there are three parts to teaching and learning chinese: 预习，练习，复习。preview, practice, review.
each night, we students [ideally] do homework that practices and reviews the day's lesson, then [ideally] preview the next day's lesson. we read the text, grammar, and new vocabulary. we memorize the characters that are new, and look up the ones used in the text that we haven't learned before. since i am in a class slightly above my level, there are usually LOTS of these unfamiliar characters.
in class the next day, we are called on to read out loud from the text (they are making sure we have learned the new words, can use them, pronounce them correctly). immediately after, we close our books and have to write a dictation given by the teacher (graded to make sure we have memorized how to write the new characters, about 25 new ones a day). the rest of the morning, we are drilled (question-answer) on the new words and cultural concepts presented in the text... and then on the grammar (ask and/or answer questions according to a pattern). it's very speaking intensive... and exhausting. you're always on your toes.
in the afternoon, we repeat it with wen laoshi and a different textbook and lesson.
5. How many students are there in your class?
in my class, chinese 201, we are altogether 6 girls! the program is divided into 4 classes, per the placement test we took when we arrived in june. 101, 201, 301, and 401 (the highest class is for native/heritage speakers that need to work on writing, grammar, and advanced vocab that their parents might not have used in the house). hey mom! shouldn't i be in that class?!?! i wish... :)
so that's it! grandma, you will forever be an amazing teacher at heart. hope this answers all your questions!
Monday, July 12, 2010
i love BJ
i strongly regret not bringing my laptop to beijing, because now i am stuck jamming 4.5 days of intense touring into ONE blog post! here i go.
DAY 1.5
"one and a half," because we boarded the overnight fast-train in shanghai at 9:30 pm wednesday, and arrived in beijing at 7:30 am thursday. alliance treated us to the finest accommodations, soft-sleeper beds with only 4 people to a cubby hole. the rooms are air conditioned and comfortable!
after the initial running from room to room and screaming like giddy little kids, we all slept soundly from about midnight to 6:30. at the station in beijing, we were greeted by our guide for the weekend, tom zhang! such a patient guy, very funny at times. i certainly do not have the talents to herd 20+ college students around china's capital. he took us to our hotel, the soluxe courtyard, for breakfast straightaway. the hotel was amazing- it is comprised of old-beijing "hutong" alleyways with rooms tucked in the different courtyards. we were falling asleep in our rice porridge, but thankfully the next activity was a walking tour of the surrounding area: houhai lake (smack in the middle of the city, surrounded by bars and cafes) and the hutong community (we had lunch in this family's house!). you can see tom, our guide, and michelle, our director.
after lunch, we boarded the bus to the summer palace, about one hour outside the city. everybody promptly plugged in their ipods and passed out... dad would be proud. the palace was insanely hot and crowded. i will try to revisit in the fall, because i think we were all slightly beyond appreciation! there's a beautiful lake and many pavilions, but this picture about sums up our experience:
everyone was happy to return home and finally shower. for dinner, i split off with a few people to dine on "ghost street," famous for restaurants with raging hot roast fish 麻辣烤鱼. having natives to order dinner is potentially one of my favorite parts about being here!
DAY 2
in the morning we went to the UNAIDS office to hear michelle's friend humphrey wou speak about his AIDS relief work in china. his talk was very informative of the history of AIDS in china, but even more amazing were his mission, ideas, and positivity. we really owe michelle for treating us to such a genuine encounter with an american-chinese who is instigating change here.
for lunch, we tried the famous huoguo 火锅, or hot pot! a very fun and communal experience where everyone throws bits of raw meat, tofu, veggies and fish into a roiling pot of broth to cook and then eat. in the afternoon, the temple of heaven did not disappoint. since the mid 15th century, the chinese emperors came to 天坛 to perform rituals... it's easy to imagine huge processions and ceremonies as you walk from the temple to the sacrificial mound. there's me, sacrificing mark for the prosperity of the people!
last stop of the day was 牛街, beijing's central mosque. it didn't resemble a middle eastern mosque at all! but they do a wonderful job of recording the history of muslims in beijing. and they gave us sweet parachute pants so we could visit appropriately dressed. for dinner, we feasted on peking duck! no words will do, but hopefully the picture conveys the chaos.
DAY 3
万里长城。。。the great wall! my favorite part of our beijing visit. large doses of cardiovascular exertion, ancient history, fresh air, and romantic cloud cover. i have no pictures actually scaling the stairs to the wall, and i couldn't tell you exactly how many flights would be equivalent. but i can climb the 13 stories to my apartment without rest, and i rested at least 3 times on the way up to the wall! we visited at mutianyu, a ming-era section of the wall. here i am with my climbing partner, stefly, one of the chinese roommates that came along to beijing.
we traversed about 5 watchtowers before taking the cable car back down (yes, i got lazy, i regret it!). i give michelle and john major props for walking to the farthest tower AND coming back down on foot. the base of the wall is particularly fun for haggling, here's my $2 "i climbed the great wall" tshirt which is already falling apart, john with his panda hat and "i heart beijing" tshirt, and yiyi with her panda pack.
after lunch, we visited the ming tombs and spirit way, where 13 ming emperors are buried outside beijing. dinner was a fiasco- wangfujin street food market! fried dumplings, candied pineapple, soft tofu in sugar syrup, grilled lamb, fried green bean garlic pancakes, to name a few... you can see stefly persuading isabelle and i to eat some fried scorpions!
DAY 4
if you are still reading, you've made it to the last day! wahoo. this morning we visited the forbidden city. i am 不好意思 to report my disappointment. i would never want to live there! it's huge, somber, everything looks the same, and there is no greenery (because it's modeled after heaven, and you can't plant trees in the sky? questionable). of course it's extremely interesting to visit, because you can feel the weight and the history. but in terms of real estate, i would much rather make my home at the ottoman palace in istanbul... ahhh overlooking the mediterranean and eating baklava! here is the group:
we ate lunch in the 798 art district, out in the direction of the airport. i will post a picture of the area, an industrial complex converted into a maze of art galleries. however, i will not lie and say i visited any of the galleries... the girls all feasted on french crepes and then got back on the bus! ha.
here's the last photo: john and i on the plane back to shanghai. my first experience with chinese domestic air travel. i found it hilarious that the chinese airline did not enforce any of the standard safety precautions, i.e. turn of electronics, stow tray tables for landing, stuff bags under seats. the landing was reeeeal sketchy, but here i am, safe and sound!
the most important thing that i take away from this whirlwind weekend? 我爱北京。i love beijing! i was starting to feel nostalgic for shanghai, but now i cannot wait to be studying at BLCU during the fall. the ancient history, slower pace, pride in culture, and low-level sprawl all suit me... more than shanghai's skyscrapers and frenetic lifestyle. plus, tour guide tom has promised to go for drinks with me when i return!
DAY 1.5
"one and a half," because we boarded the overnight fast-train in shanghai at 9:30 pm wednesday, and arrived in beijing at 7:30 am thursday. alliance treated us to the finest accommodations, soft-sleeper beds with only 4 people to a cubby hole. the rooms are air conditioned and comfortable!
DAY 2
in the morning we went to the UNAIDS office to hear michelle's friend humphrey wou speak about his AIDS relief work in china. his talk was very informative of the history of AIDS in china, but even more amazing were his mission, ideas, and positivity. we really owe michelle for treating us to such a genuine encounter with an american-chinese who is instigating change here.
DAY 3
万里长城。。。the great wall! my favorite part of our beijing visit. large doses of cardiovascular exertion, ancient history, fresh air, and romantic cloud cover. i have no pictures actually scaling the stairs to the wall, and i couldn't tell you exactly how many flights would be equivalent. but i can climb the 13 stories to my apartment without rest, and i rested at least 3 times on the way up to the wall! we visited at mutianyu, a ming-era section of the wall. here i am with my climbing partner, stefly, one of the chinese roommates that came along to beijing.
DAY 4
if you are still reading, you've made it to the last day! wahoo. this morning we visited the forbidden city. i am 不好意思 to report my disappointment. i would never want to live there! it's huge, somber, everything looks the same, and there is no greenery (because it's modeled after heaven, and you can't plant trees in the sky? questionable). of course it's extremely interesting to visit, because you can feel the weight and the history. but in terms of real estate, i would much rather make my home at the ottoman palace in istanbul... ahhh overlooking the mediterranean and eating baklava! here is the group:
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
beijing or bust
first the bad news: my midterm today was a disasterrrr. second the good news: i am taking these classes for pass/fail credit at GWU, the midterm is now OVER, and we are GOING TO BEIJING TONIGHT! wahooooo. it's tough to stay down around here.
this was a nice, short week. sunday (the 4th of july) was sadly anticlimactic and rather disappointing. shanghai was in the midst of a monsoon, which seemed to keep everybody from celebrating. everybody under 40 years of age, that is. we ventured out to an advertised "american bbq" but felt like we were sitting at the kids table watching all the adults get toasted. so we left! perhaps it was for the best, because we had class monday at 8:30 like always.
on monday we had lunch with director michelle after class, and were briefed on the details of our beijing trip. very exciting stuff! our itinerary is extensive... it's going to be an insanely busy four days. but i say, bring it on! all costs are included in our original program fee so i want to pack in just as much as possible. tonight we take the overnight fast-train to beijing (10 hours in 4-person sleeper bunks). tomorrow we arrive at 7 am and get started touring right away. we are seeing the big attractions: temple of heaven, forbidden city, great wall, summer palace. but because our director and many students have been to beijing before, we are also seeing a few things off the beaten path, which should be rewarding. we fly back to shanghai sunday night. i can't wait to share pictures then!
rewind back to tuesday; i intended to camp out in the cafe to study all evening, but got sucked into an indulgent western meal with my 朋友 (friends) from boston university. even i will admit, i was craving pasta/bread/salad. maggie and matt went all out with steak and salmon, kristina and sam got pasta, and i went for fish and chips. of course, we studied afterward, but i lost a good two hours to this escapade. ha!
today, i came home from class and packed. we take an alliance-hired bus to the train station at 7:45 pm (for all i complain about being tied down by group travel, this is one of the other major perks... not worrying about transportation). right now, i am settling in for a nap because i know that this train ride is going to be one wild slumber party :) 'till sunday!
this was a nice, short week. sunday (the 4th of july) was sadly anticlimactic and rather disappointing. shanghai was in the midst of a monsoon, which seemed to keep everybody from celebrating. everybody under 40 years of age, that is. we ventured out to an advertised "american bbq" but felt like we were sitting at the kids table watching all the adults get toasted. so we left! perhaps it was for the best, because we had class monday at 8:30 like always.
on monday we had lunch with director michelle after class, and were briefed on the details of our beijing trip. very exciting stuff! our itinerary is extensive... it's going to be an insanely busy four days. but i say, bring it on! all costs are included in our original program fee so i want to pack in just as much as possible. tonight we take the overnight fast-train to beijing (10 hours in 4-person sleeper bunks). tomorrow we arrive at 7 am and get started touring right away. we are seeing the big attractions: temple of heaven, forbidden city, great wall, summer palace. but because our director and many students have been to beijing before, we are also seeing a few things off the beaten path, which should be rewarding. we fly back to shanghai sunday night. i can't wait to share pictures then!
rewind back to tuesday; i intended to camp out in the cafe to study all evening, but got sucked into an indulgent western meal with my 朋友 (friends) from boston university. even i will admit, i was craving pasta/bread/salad. maggie and matt went all out with steak and salmon, kristina and sam got pasta, and i went for fish and chips. of course, we studied afterward, but i lost a good two hours to this escapade. ha!
today, i came home from class and packed. we take an alliance-hired bus to the train station at 7:45 pm (for all i complain about being tied down by group travel, this is one of the other major perks... not worrying about transportation). right now, i am settling in for a nap because i know that this train ride is going to be one wild slumber party :) 'till sunday!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
zhujiajiao
大家好！today, we made an excursion outside of shanghai to visit a small canal town called zhujiajiao. there are heaps of these "water towns" around shanghai because this is the yangtze delta... where the yangtze river empties into the china sea. suzhou is the biggest and most famous water town, but we opted to visit a smaller one for simplicity's sake. zhujiajiao features the same canals, ming/qing dynasty architecture and unaltered alleyways.
we began our day at 7 am in the tonghe lobby. from there, we took a bus and two different subway lines all the way down to southern shanghai (about 1.5 hour trip). thanks to lonely planet, we knew that the buses to zhujiajiao and other destinations left from the shanghai sightseeing bus center in south shanghai. here we are at the station... the ride is only an hour outside the city.
choosing pictures from zhujiajiao is gonna be tough! they are all gorgeous. highlights were a buddhist procession at the city clocktower, an amazing watercolor exhibition, our little gondola tour, and exploring the huge gardens of a ming official. i might add that this group survived some INCREDIBLE heat and humidity today.
finally, i am so happy to have a picture with my fabulous roomie, sue! our guardian angel today. she came with us on this excursion, and i honestly do not know if we would have made it to zhujiajiao without her :) she got 11 kids on the same bus, finagled a boat tour, and ordered a reasonably priced lunch with no sweat. basically my hero.
we happily all made it back to the bus at the appointed time and promptly passed out for the ride home. now i must run because some friends in the international dorm are going out for their last night in shanghai! i heart the weekend.
we began our day at 7 am in the tonghe lobby. from there, we took a bus and two different subway lines all the way down to southern shanghai (about 1.5 hour trip). thanks to lonely planet, we knew that the buses to zhujiajiao and other destinations left from the shanghai sightseeing bus center in south shanghai. here we are at the station... the ride is only an hour outside the city.
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