tsingtao

you are witnessing the symptoms of blog withdrawal, and blog binge.

but as long as i am sitting at the computer, i might as well continue. here begins the tale of an epic warrick-journey to [what we thought to be!] my mother's ancestral home: the port city of qingdao 青岛, in shandong 山东 province. for all of you beer drinkers out there, the germans occupied qingdao for a period beginning in the 1890s and founded the brewery there. their romanization is "tsingtao," hence the title :)

on friday morning, after discussing who would bring toothpaste and debating where to hide dad's laptop for the weekend, the three of us caught a cab to beijing south train station. we successfully passed through security with no less than three genuine swiss army knives (shout out and many thanks to the kaech family), then had a picnic lunch with sandwiches and baked goods from tous les jours (i think of geena and the identical chinese 'paris baguette' bakery in cerritos). we then boarded our super-modern bullet train for the 6 hour ride to the coast. as is his habit, dad spouted "shandong fun facts" all the way there. tallest people in china, third richest province, large producer of wheat and wine, tsingtao beer accounted for 98% of china's exports in the 1960s-70s....


when we arrived in qingdao at 7 pm, mom's cousin yi huang, and his brother-in-law, shui li, met us at the train station. of course, my reservation for a family suite at qingdao's hostelling international proved a faux pas... sometime in our six hours on the train, yi huang had cancelled our reservation and re-booked us at the 4 star 红日酒店 (Red Day Inn) in the scenic badaguan hills area. mom had met yi huang for the first time just two weeks before, while he was on a business trip in california. however, he has been in touch with my aunt and other family members for a while. we had never met shui li, or "jiefu" (his kinship title, literally sister-husband), because he has never been to america. from the start, they were both incredibly enthusiastic, humorous, and gracious hosts. we immediately felt so lucky to have them.

we had a sort of welcoming banquet that night at the hotel. dad received a crash course in chinese toasting customs. of course, we imbibed in tsingtao beer. to quote yi huang's relatively well-spoken english: "i am host. you are guest. i am master!!! when i say we drink, you drink! when i finish drink, you must drink more!" luckily, yi huang didn't actually hold daddy to it. this could be because he and jiefu were appeased by the speed at which i 干杯 (literally "dry the glass"). thank you alpha phi?

never mind all the toasting, these boys were down to business. the next morning, we met at 8:30 to make our visit to yi huang's 84 year old mother... my mom's aunt. the purpose of our visit was to pay respects, and learn more about our own family (i think most people would be shocked regarding how little we actually know). over tea and moon cakes (moon festival is tomorrow!), we learned that my grandmother and her siblings were actually all born in yantai 烟台, which is also in shandong province. we also got what seemed to be a more accurate timeline of my grandma's life before coming to america. in the end, all the info is still quite blurry, but we were most happy connect with some of our remaining family members here, and welcome a relationship with my generation... yi huang and jiefu's daughters, who are 20 and 27, studying and working in australia. another blessing was to see my great aunt growing old comfortably, thanks to yi huang and jiefu's success supporting their family. because my grandma left around 1955, she was absent for periods of extreme turmoil here. disparity and misunderstandings may have strained our family relationships before, but it seems as if it won't have to be that way in the future.



after visiting, we hopped back in the car with jiefu and yi huang to begin our comprehensive tour of the beautiful port city. this included: the german governor's mansion, the catholic church, the lutheran church and famous old clock, the beach, a seaside buffet, xinhaoshan park and pagoda with scenic views of the city and ocean, the badaguan boardwalk, and the olympic sailing complex. from a few of the pictures, i'm sure you will deduce why qingdao is nicknamed "the switzerland of the east." it's a surprisingly nice combination of european and chinese architecture. plus, coming from beijing, it is stunningly clean, charming, and relaxed.





after dinner with yi huang's mother, we were driven home and promptly fell into bed. i will fast forward through sunday because this is too long and i am too tired! of course, the best part was a visit to the tsingtao beer factory and museum. surprisingly, the original factory (1903) and giant modern factory continue to share the same site! father and daughter could have spent much more quality time there together, but we will save that for our next visit.



last but not least, a chuckle-worthy photo of a chinese bride chasing daddy around. perhaps due to the nice weather, and also to the approaching autumn festival, wedding couples were out in full force taking their photos. we [seriously] came upon at least 100 couples throughout the weekend, posing by churches, beaches, parks, what have you. sorry girls! this one already has a chinese wife.

the warricks go to china

this post goes out to anyone who has questioned my blogging habits while abroad. many of you have asked why i consistently write... are you bored in china? aren't you too tired? shouldn't you be studying? do you have friends?

the answer to all of the above is: no matter how busy i am, writing maintains high-priority. i believe my experiences here are meaningless if i don't take the time to reflect on them, and write them somewhere for when my memory fails me.

of course, all those "beliefs" were trashed the minute my long-awaited visitors arrived. two fridays ago, the 10th, i met andrew at the airport, spent the afternoon with him in chaoyang, and took him out to meet my classmates in sanlitun. saturday morning, i participated in a hutong tour with my alliance classmates, then jetted back to the airport to pick up mommy and daddy! we had a simple dinner in wudaokou and got them settled at their hotel. the rest... is chaos

HIGHLIGHTS

* playing tour guide with mom and dad for their first day in beijing. andrew also tagged along! i decided to hit three essential locations (which are conveniently proximate to each other): tiananmen square, the gate of heavenly peace (where mao declared the foundation of the PRC in 1949), and the forbidden city (home of ming and qing emperors). hopefully my tour participants learned more than just how exhausting it is to get around this mammoth city!



* afternoon tea at the peninsula in wangfujing. not nearly as glamourous as the hong kong version, but certainly enjoyable and necessary relaxation for mom and dad after their visit to the temple of heaven in the beating beijing sun. the wangfujing bookstore also proved highly entertaining, mom and i were absorbed with a chinese zodiac book ("the winter-born sheep will have a difficult life, because of the lack of grass to eat in the cold months and the propensity of humans to kill and eat the sheep"). dad picked up a trotsky biography...

* taking mom and dad to restaurants that seem so sketchy to them, but to me, have to come to represent delicious and cheap fare. nevermind the obnoxious fluorescent lights, screeching waitresses, or guys at the next table with their shirts off, taking shots of baijiu and spitting fish bones on the floor. i also brought them to experience the madness that is the BLCU cafeteria at mealtime. no wonder they have begun to frequent western chains such as kfc, mcdonalds, and pizza hut.

* i didn't get to participate in this one, but dad mom and andrew went to the military museum! of course... dad said it was awesome, mom said they were there FOREVER, and andrew said "your dad is a nerd." ok, maybe not in so few words. but that was the gist. hahaaa

* taking andrew out with my alliance classmates. apparently we are a rowdy bunch. also, nomm'ing korean BBQ for the first time at a well-known place down the street from my school. just like fudan, wudaokou's universities are chock-full of students from korea and japan. andrew is a friend to koreans all over the world, so obviously it went well.

so that's last week! pictures will be added later, if i can hijack a few from dad's computer (haven't been able to juggle tour guide AND photographer). the above are from andrew's nikon. needless to say, i was also keeping my routine of 3 hours of chinese, 3 hours of chinese film/economics/sociology a day, plus the according homework. this week's english classes debated mao's political and social legacy, discussed the economy that deng xiaoping had to work with when he came to power in 1978, and introduced us to the ideal socialist man through propaganda films of the 1960s. obviously, all music to this china-geek's ears.

so even if i have stretched myself in a few too many directions, it has been highly rewarding. andrew was safely off to HK on friday, and mom + dad and i made our pilgrimage to my ancestral province, shandong 山东, this weekend (next post!) i am so happy to have mom and dad staying in wudaokou, just across the street from me. they are really getting the experience. perhaps i will post a concluding interview with them at the end of the week ;) i know they have lots to share!

friends and family

hello hellooo. i am exhausted, but writing this evening because a whirlwind of activity is approaching, and i know i won't be touching my computer until at least monday! in the next 48 hours, it appears that america is coming to me :) andrew pazdon arrives at peking international airport from vietnam at 3 pm, friday. after morning class, i'll go meet him there, we'll ditch his stuff at his hotel, and get started on conquering beijing! he'll be here till tuesday (see www.yankeesojourn.com ... aren't we just a bunch of little bloggers?) then, 4 pm saturday, MAMIE AND DAVE WARRICK arrive at the very same airport and come to stay with me in wudaokou for the next 12 days! ahhhh i am far too excited. winter clothes, chocolate, tide to-go, and pepto-bismol will also be in tow. score.

some tentative plans with andrew include:

1. eating. what else would we do.
2. taking him to get a qipao (traditional chinese dress) tailored for someone special at home!
3. meeting up with friends from my program at the bars in sanlitun 'expat town'
4. hearing about vietnam and being really jealous

with mommy and daddy:

1. showing them around wudaokou's universities, restaurants, shopping centers, and parks, which together form the world's sweetest student ghetto
2. walmart
3. a little orientation into the city (tiananmen, forbidden city, etc) on sunday, before i must return to classroom confines on monday. pressure is on for tour-guide grace :(
4. high tea at the peninsula because it's mommy's bday and i'm a princess muahaha. sorry dad.
5. the capital museum and military museum, among beijing's other obvious tourist attractions
6. a weekend trip to qingdao (shandong province) to visit relatives we have never met and see an ancestral home we have never seen!
7. visiting an orphanage for mentally disabled children that we are connected to through a friend at home
8. meeting various friends of mommy's, because obviously she has guanxi 关系 even in beijing :)

ah yes, clearly my mind is set on the week ahead. as far as the week past, it's quite a blur. adding our english-taught major classes into the afternoons (understanding china through film, contemporary china's sociology, china's economy since 1970) + gym routine/pick up soccer with BLCU students + coincidentally hanging out with a high school friend that discovered i was in beijing + going out in wudaokou (let's classify that constructively under group bonding) + tons of chinese homework = no time to breathe! i would love to write more but i have a test tomorrow and i'm falling asleep on the keyboard. i will try to detail my courses, professors, and some of wudaokou's drink deals in the next edition ;)

beijing week #1

ah, 11:48 on a sunday morning. woke up at 10 (admittedly a little dazed), skyped with the fam back at the ranch (glorious!), lazily wrote out plans for the rest of the week, and now homework and errands loom. what to do? blog.

the main points of this week were 1) getting into the swing of our chinese classes, 2) settling in at BLCU and getting to know wudaokou better, 3) planning for my mummy and daddy's imminent visit!!!

chinese classes: ouch. back to 3 hours of intense instruction a week. but in this case, i am a lucky one. over the summer, i was baptized in the fire of the alliance teaching style, so i more or less know what to expect. my new classmates in 中文 301 at BLCU seem to be sharing my reaction from those first few weeks... feeling completely lost, like expectations are sky-high, and wanting to cry. two students actually dropped down to 201 so now our class is just 4 people (me, namgyel from bhutan, and two native cantonese speakers: jen my roommate and alex my hallmate).

this week, we will begin our afternoon classes. for everyone, that includes "contemporary chinese society" from 2-5 on tuesdays. for me, that also includes "chinese economy since 1970" from 2-5 on wednesdays.

finally, we also met with our language partners... meetings are 1 hour, 3 times a week. my partner is named liu jing 刘婧。she is a 25 year old graduate student earning a degree to teach english from BLCU. at first glance, you might wonder why she needs to acquire this degree, because she already looks like a teacher! that expression.. the glasses.. slightly cold demeanor...to my relief, our conversations are actually quite lively and enjoyable :) i'm just bummed that our relationship will be limited to "teacher-student," given that other alliance kids are already planning shopping dates and weekend trips with their language partners. plus, i miss sue and our ordinary friend-roommate-relationship immensely. nothing improved my chinese more than that!

BLCU: this week, my classmates and i spent our precious few free afternoons exploring the neighborhood and scoping out the places we will eat, drink, shop, bank, and meet our various other daily needs this semester. activities included: shopping for ridiculously cheap high heels at the nearest mall, waiting 50 minutes in line at the bank of china AND witnessing a fight there, interviewing a group of cheerful italians over lunch on what they like to do in beijing, making a little excursion to the nearby great bell temple, and participating in a local scavenger hunt put together by han bing.

here's your own little introduction to the campus! the international student building, the view from my room, our lovely abode (complete with tibetan prayer flags from my trip and piles of jen's phillies paraphenalia), and the BLCU cafeteria at lunchtime.





ah, and of course, witnessing my classmates' first encounters with chinese nightlife... priceless. like all american college students abroad, myself included, they are stunned by the (1) legality (2) dirt cheap prices of alcoholic beverages in china. our first night out had catastrophic consequences for some :P wudaokou's bars are truly student paradise though. packed with other internationals, inexpensive, and easy to get to (literally around the corner). last night, a few of us girls also ventured across town to the expat bar area, sanlitun. i'm happy because chinese people are actually much more present in the nightlife here than in SH.

i will spare you the details of preparing for my parent's visit, but basically they concern train tickets, hotel reservations in beijing and qingdao, cell phones, trying to contact "long lost relatives" in shandong province, etc. more interesting... our scavenger hunt ended at the beautiful qing dyansty summer palace last night. i was so happy for a second chance to return here on a cool, not-too-crowded day. over the summer when we visited, it was 100+ degrees, 80% humidity, with no room to breathe and chinese guides screaming into megaphones in every direction. last night was perfect! :)