Wrapping It Up, Getting Home

I'll do this last post just to wrap up the end of my experience and put a close to this crazy time in the Orient. After graduation we basically had a day left in Harbin before we headed out to Beijing via train the next morning. After getting unnecessarily lost on the way to Pizza Hut (Robbie Smith was leading, what a terrible mistake) we had a fantastic time arguing with the Pizza Hut server about the size of the pizza and the price. They brought out the wrong size pizza, then said they'd add another small one and it would be fair--but it clearly wouldn't have been, so we refused. They were angry. We were angry. Then Kerri did the math on a napkin (I think she even used pi to estimate area or something...it was crazy) to prove they were wrong...they didn't really like that. Anyway, we ate our stupid pizza and paid the ridiculous bill. I was still hungry.

For the rest of the afternoon we just wandered around Harbin. I bought a suit jacket for my brother. When I re-met the group and tried it on to show them, some random lady came up, felt the fabric of the jacket, smiled real sketchy like, then walked off. I didn't even realize she was doing it at the time, but everyone told me two seconds after the fact. There was also one lady trying to sell something useless--I don't even remember what--and was saying, "One kuai, one kuai, one kuai, one kuai", repeating the price over and over again. So I walked over to her and said, "Excuse me, but how much is it?" At first she was confused, then she just smiled and said, "Crazy foreigner." We both laughed, it was pretty funny I guess.

So the next morning we set off toward Beijing in a nice sleeper train. Everyone just kind of hung out in the dining car, since we all seemed to have a couple Chinese strangers in our room who had annexed it for the night. It wasn't until my girlfriend started getting a bit upset over leaving Harbin that I realized I would probably never see these people again. Not just my classmates...some of then I would actually see...but our Chinese roommates. We had made friends with a lot of them. Actually, I made better friends with Yue Yang and Huang Lin than my roommate, and I still keep in touch with them. Since I do plan on going back to China, there's always a possibility of seeing them, but the chances are about as slim as China's population is large.

When we woke up--or rather for me, opened my eyes, since I can never sleep on those trains--we were in Beijing. After that train ride, and two-month semester, I felt kind of like the lady at the service desk of our hotel. Our one night stay at a western-style hotel included a western-style buffet. It was awesome; hit that up twice. We first set out to the dirt market--I guess kind of like a flea market (shown in the second pic). This one guy tried to sell me this ridiculous hat (first picture) and said I could look like an indian, like that is something I've always strove for. This guy was crazy. He even did the full expression, as you can see in the picture. We haggled for some art and random stuff that would later become souvenirs and Christmas gifts.

That night we went to Houhai Lake, which is the same place I ran around for days on end last summer. The night life there is really great, so we just kind of hung out for a while. When we decided that we weren't willing to pay the absurd prices to sit on one of the outside couches to have some beer (drinking inside is much cheaper, but that defeats the purpose) we just headed back to the hotel. It was past midnight anyway, and people had to get up for flights. Sometime between then and when we left for the airport the next day, I bought some corn flavored ice cream. I tried it just before Robbie, who is eating it like a cob in the fourth picture. To tell the truth, I probably could have finished it if I was really hungry...

Leaving the next day was kind of sad, but pretty exciting. I was ready to get back to overpriced burgers, democracy, personal transportation, the REAL football, and the fattest population in the world. Going to the airport I could already smell America. Lauren and Chelsea, from my class, were on the same flight, so we all split two cabs. Apparently these two girls knew the system. You just tell the Chinese service person that since we're tall Americans, we should get the emergency exit. It worked, and it was awesome. Chelsea just gave me a sleeping pill and I konked out for the 13 hour flight. I knew I was in America when I smelled the sweet clean air of Los Angeles (and yes, it was clean compared to China's air, I just didn't realize it until I had something to compare to).

I arrived back in Jacksonville at about 6:30 am. I had to be at the airport for my flight to Nashville at 1:00. Thus ensued a blitzkrieg of packing, but I was happy to be home, if only for about four hours.

Graduation

So I know no one is reading at this point...four months after the fact...but I'm doing this more for my sake than for anyone else. Kind of just want to remember what went down while it's still semi-clear in my head. Anyway, I finished up the semester, and I figured my grades would be okay (about 3 months after graduation I found out my actual grades, which is a ridiculous amount of time considering Vandy is CET's biggest customer). It was really a great feeling to have all that over with and see the huge improvements. Some of the teachers gave speeches, as well as the head of CET Harbin, Ren Laoshi (in the first picture), and they were actually pretty meaningful. Ren Laoshi was awesome. I secretly had a crush on her...not really, but sort of. She was an awesome teacher--so nice about everything, and always tried to make every interaction with her a learning experience. But anyway, I usually tune those speeches out and stare off into space, but this time I actually listened. Maybe it was just because they were speaking Chinese and I had to listen closely, but whatever.

They brought the food out, which, for the most part was pretty horrible. Ding Lobi and I had this thing (not sure what it was), and it was probably the worst taste I've ever tasted. At the end of the ceremony--after receiving our diplomas--the language pledge was lifted, and we could speak English again. It was kind of awkward. Some people's voices sounded a lot different when they spoke English, and actually, at our table we continued to speak Chinese because at least half the people sitting there were Chinese, and communication was just easier that way.

But before all this, they gave awards for the person who most stuck to the language pledge, which was Hu Ketong. On the way to graduation he was drank a pint of beer...10:00 in the morning...that's awesome. That award was decided by peer voting, and a few friends and I wrote in Robbie Smith, aka Ding Lobi, who frequently--almost absurdly often--violated the language pledge. It was pretty funny. And there were other awards, such as Most Improved. I didn't get any of them--not really that surprised. It was crazy to think back to the time eight weeks earlier when I walked into the room with 30 odd people who looked like they were going to embarrass me back into 5th grade with their intense Chinese. At graduation this same group of people were (pretty much) all my friends, and some of them very good friends...In the second picture I'm with Huang Lin, probably one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He was always willing to drop whatever he was doing just to talk or hang out. I could definitely take a lesson from him. So yea, I definitely gained a lot more than just better Chinese in Harbin.

Classes are Over, but the Lessons Keep Coming

Tuesday we had our last class, and immediately afterward I cracked open a 13 cent beer (not really, but they are cheaper than dirt--or at least cheaper than Coke). Now we're into finals. These last few days I have felt my Chinese language abilities come to a pinnacle. While I have everyday conversations with my classmates, it's not the same as talking with a real Chinese person--when talking to another student you have to lower your vocabulary, because maybe the other person doesn't know a word that you know, or you don't know a word they do. The end result is a dumbed-down conversation.

But yesterday starting with the conversation with the taxi driver about all kinds of stuff, including China's and the U.S.'s pollution; continuing through my 15 minute oral report/Q&A on China's non-public economy; and finishing up with my 20 minute oral interview/test with my Chinese Spoken Language teacher today, I can finally see the full effects of two months of not speaking English. I think the real topper was when Ren Laoshi, the director of this CET program in Harbin, personally sat in on my oral report, and in the end commented on how much I had improved (My teacher at Vandy also has an advisory position with CET, and a relationship with Ren Laoshi and other teachers at the program, so many teachers knew me before I even got here). She has been so helpful through this program, and I hear from others who had her as a teacher here last year that she was an extremely good one. I'm really not surprised.

Anyway, so the continuing lessons I was referring to in my title actually concerns the aforementioned taxi driver--I was with him on my way to Bank of China--the main bank of China and the only place you can exchange money. To simplify China's banking system, it has 4 banks: Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of China (BOC). From what my teacher tells me, there really is no difference, except that Bank of China is the main one (the names have nothing to do with the customers' occupations).

So I'm at BOC at about 12 noon, and the first thing I notice is the mass chaos of probably more than 50 customers banking/waiting to be served. I'd been there before, but not when it was this busy, so I only knew that you had to take a number when I saw other people holding them. But where to get them? After looking around for a good few minutes I figured out that the BOC "manager on duty" was handing them out next to the printing machine. After waiting behind 3 or 4 other people waiting to talk with him, I finally told him what I wanted to do--exchange travelers checks--and which window I needed to go to. He gave me my number--only 7 people in front of me--but failed to give me the form to fill out while I wait.

Well no problem, I'll just go to the Form Table and find it. After digging through the unorganized forms, I realized that it wasn't there. I went back over to the "manager" and waited another few minutes behind people, then asked where the form was. He dug around a bit, and finally found it. I sit down and fill it out in all of 3 minutes, and then notice that there are still 7 people in front of me. But this is because they only have 1 worker behind the Foreign Currency Exchange windows. After waiting 20 minutes only to have 1 person in front of me finish, I go over to the "manager" and ask him if it is always this slow. He said because it is between 12:00 and 1:00, it is "rest time." I've also noticed this practice at the hospital I went to for my leg x-ray: between 12:00 and 1:30 there, things just shut down.

This is one huge difference between China's economy (banks especially) and the U.S.'s economy: in the States, when you have a room that full of customers, your private banks are going to alternate workers in and out, or tell them to take their lunch break during the slow times; in China, when all the banks are owned by the government, who cares? What are your customers going to do, go to one of the other 3 banks you own?

So after waiting another 10 or so minutes while one more person is served, it's my turn: the other people in front of me have given up. I get the window and tell the lady that I'd like to exchange travelers checks. At this point, as expected, she tells me that from 12-1:00 you can't exchange travelers checks--for what reason I didn't understand, but I don't think there's an international law about exchanging travelers checks during lunch time. I tell her that the "manager on duty" said that I could exchange them now, and she said "he doesn't know." (Now you know why I've been putting "manager" in quotations) So now I've got 15 minutes to kill until 1:00, and I didn't bring anything (material for my oral presentation later that day) to do, so I walk outside and just kind of stare into space.

Nearly 15 minutes later I'm back in the bank and sure enough, 20 or so workers march into the room and take their positions--the staff has just doubled. I go to the first open window I see (the lady said since I already waited an hour, I didn't need a waiting number). It takes me all of 5 minutes and I'm out of that god-forbidden place.

As you can tell, my experience with Chinese state-owned-enterprises wasn't exactly a positive one. While I have been saying that China just has 4 banks, this isn't completely true. China entered the WTO in 2002, and their 5 year grace period for implementing economic reforms, such as opening up their banking industry to foreign and private competition, has just expired. Citibank already has branches in Beijing and Shanghai, and is the first-ever bank in China to launch a drive-through ATM.

This is what opening up their banking system and economy will do--increase the quality of service. And as you can tell, I definitely think it needs it.

Sorry for the lack of pictures...nothing that interesting happen lately, except getting little sleep and studying until my head hurts.

Kareoke--Chinese Style (kind of like everything else I do in China)

Wow, it's been a long time. This last week of schoolwork was pretty tough--I actually felt like I was back at Vandy. A large part of the reason it was so tough was because I went to see a doctor to get my leg X-rayed for bone damage (if you didn't know I've been fighting a calf strain for some 2+ weeks now). Turns out there is no bone problem, and I have thus started swimming religiously. Taking a taxi to and from the swimming center, swimming, and showering all together might be about 3 hours. Hence my delinquency.

But I want to fill you in on a pretty bizarre and surprisingly good time we had singing karaoke last weekend. A bunch of us decided to go out to the main strip, and then after walking around for long enough, a couple people suggested we go sing karaoke. I was pretty reluctant to go at first, as it was already 10:30...far past my bedtime. But obviously I went--it was a place called KTV--which stands for "Karaoke Television" and is a reference to MTV. You might be able to tell from the pictures that the facilities are pretty plush.

When you first walk into the building, you notice that everything's a good bit cleaner and newer than the facilities of any other building you've been into lately. There are many rooms, and you can rent one out for about $6 an hour (if you think that's cheap, try dividing it between 6 people--it's like splitting hairs). From what I hear it's a popular place to make business deals--yea, not over round of golf, but an hour or two of karaoke. From what I've read online there is supposedly something called a "Special KTV" where men can choose a hostess for the night--basically an escort service--but these are mostly in Taiwan. So while my friends were taking care of registration and such, I kind of just checked the place out.

Like I said, the facilities were comparable to anything you'd see in the States, and they even had these cool looking water dishes all around with marbles in the bottom (see pic). In some childish reflex, what did I do? Oh yea, I stuck my finger in the water. As soon as I did it I realized what that pretty dish's purpose was: it was a spit dish. While spitting has greatly been reduced by changing attitudes toward it here in China, it's still living strong. In the locker room at the swimming pool I go to there's spit buckets next to every group of lockers, and at every end of the lanes of the swimming pool.

So anyway, that was stupid, but it was on to the karaoke. Starting out we sang some Chinese songs, which were ridiculously fast for our Chinese language abilities. Then our machine had some problems coordinating the words with the music, so after getting that figured out, we sung Britney Spears' "Drive Me Crazy", Backstreet Boys' (personal favorite for karaoke) "Tell Me Why", Van Halen's "Jump", Aerosmith's "Dream On", that song from Grease (don't remember, the girls picked that one), a plethora of Disney songs: "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?", "Under the Sea", "A Whole New World" and more. That's me in the 3rd picture getting way too into "A Whole New World" (thanks Cody and Jeff).

Probably the funniest point came when we were singing "Beauty and the Beast."

When the karaoke machine doesn't have a music video for the song (most didn't) it would play this stock footage to stand in as the background movie. This background movie, which looked liked it was shot by one person about 30 years ago, just got weirder and weirder. At one point, the movie was just this Chinese farmer in the middle of nowhere hoeing away. At another point it was at a public swimming pool in the United States, focusing on one person for about a minute and then another person for a minute.

Needless to say, the background movie didn't

lend to the vibe of the music, but this was especially true during "Beauty and the Beast." Of course, this is a pretty romantic song--it is about love at least. However, when the song came on, the background movie instantly switched to some mid-1900s black and white war movie. If you look at the picture you can see the solider with the rifle slung over his back. There's nothing better than singing "Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme..." while watching a solider brutally assault the opposition.

We left at 1:00am, a whopping $2 poorer, and happy we all decided to do it. There was also a feeling of awkwardness, because we're not allowed to SPEAK English, but we had just SUNG a lot of English. Maybe we were bending the rules a bit, but how often do you get to stick your hand in a spit dish?

Lost in Translation

In the past 6 weeks my friends and I have discovered a new past time: finding the craziest 翻译 (fanyi), which means "translations." I'm sure if you're a Spanish speaker, you see some pretty funny translations in the States. However, because Chinese and English are so far apart linguistically, you often get some pretty laughable translations.

There's an obvious divide on where the best translations are: you're private companies, especially foreign ones such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour are going to have the best translations--they're paying translators a good sum of money not to screw it up, and it's in their best interest to look like a competent company. Your little local Chinese restaurants are okay, although you don't see much translations there in the first place. They often get some translations wrong, but many Chinese have command of the English language, so it's not a problem for them. The worst is certainly your public parks and attractions. There's really nothing hinging on whether or not they get these translations right or not--people are still going to come to their parks for their beauty, or in my case, the hilarious translations.

So below throughout this post there are some signs and other funny stuff either I or my friends have seen, some more laughable the others.

In the 2nd picture of the rock, if you look to the left of it you can see the "firm" rock in the background. They weren't joking around, that thing wasn't going anywhere.

On the picture of the red material, you're guess is as good as mine--I'm still trying to figure it out.

The picture of the disco club with the Indian prominently mounted on the entrance--we didn't actually go in--is pretty interesting. My classmate Robbie, when he first saw it, aptly put it, "A disco with Cowboys, Indians, and neon lights--it looks like someone watched way too many American movies and mashed them all together."

I think my favorite has to be the last picture. It's on the same type of sign as the first one and a few others--these were all found at Sun Island the first weekend here. Of course, Sun Island is a a big attraction here in Harbin, and of course it's government owned and run.

Other than wasting my time looking for ridiculous translations, I have been studying, even if my blogs don't exactly portray it. This last was pretty cool because things are finally starting to click. I'm actually retaining vocab and grammar, and I can watch a Chinese TV program or read simple newspaper articles with minimal difficulty. I've also switched several websites over to Chinese language, and also portions of my computer's operating system. It's kind of slow at first working with all that Chinese, and kind of scary when a pop up box comes up in Chinese and you're not sure whether you're deleting important things (or course, you kind of have to consult the dictionary). But all this helps, and now I don't even think twice about speaking Chinese. Kind of a shame I have to go back in two weeks.

This weekend we go bowling, so I'm gonna put some people to shame. I'll let you know how the slaughtering goes.

The Closest Thing to Family at 7000 Miles Away

Anyone who's traveled, and has any attachment to their family whatsoever (okay, maybe not the brothers), knows what home sickness is all about. While I do "suffer" from this "sickness", it's not as extreme as a lot of people (after all, I only go home from college 3 times a year). But when you're in a different country, the situation isn't quite the same.

At Vandy, before you leave for your study abroad destination, they give you a handout called "The Mood Graph" or something to that effect--not really sure, threw mine away. As stupid as it sounds, it is pretty accurate. When first arriving at, say for example China, you've got a little culture shock but are really happy overall, checking everything out. About 1/3 of the way in you get a little depressed, a little tired of your roommate's idiosyncrasies or eating your 300th bowl of rice--all you want are some chicken enchiladas. At about the 1/2 way point you get in the groove, and everything's cool. Hit the 3/4 mark and you start getting excited about going home but at the same time enjoying everything in China and a little sad that you'll soon be leaving.

That's about where I am right now. Excited to see all you people back in the States (I'm as surprised as you are) but just starting to really get to know these people here--kind of stinks I'll have to leave. So when Yinglian (English name is Helen) came to Harbin last week, it was the closest I'll come to being with family during these 2 months. If you don't remember, she's the lady I stayed with last summer in Beijing and had a real good time hanging with her son Daniel. She was in Harbin for a few days visiting her parents (Harbin's her hometown).

She had initially planned on inviting me to her parent's newly remodeled house, but since it wasn't done she instead took me out to a Bavarian barbecue restaurant with her childhood friend Mrs. Yuan (couldn't remember her first name) and her son.

The first picture is us at the restaurant with Daniel on the left. This was my second time at this restaurant and both times they had singing and dancing Russians (I think I told you about them in the first or second post). First off, I'm not a big fan of Russian women, but these were loud (couldn't have a conversation at the table) AND they were dancing right in front of the buffet bar. I think I was the only one up getting food at the buffet bar while they were dancing, squeezing my way between their twirls and spins to get to the goods. Yinglian asked me, "Do you think they are beautiful?" There was just something awkward about how she said it, really funny actually. She often asks me if I think so-and-so is "beautiful," and I usually give her a straight answer. Of course, the way I use Chinese is probably beyond awkward, so I can't talk.

Anyway, the dinner was nice--got to meet Mrs. Yuan (on the far right in the 2nd pic; Yinglian is in the white shirt), who is going to have me over for dinner soon. I gave Daniel an Amelia Island t-shirt and some sharks' teeth that my mom sent me because I was stupid and forgot to bring gifts. And Yinglian invited me to stay at her house when I return to Beijing for my flight back (although I think I have to stay at a hotel with the program). It is sure nice to know I have someone I can depend on in a country where I'm so isolated. And if you're one of my college or high school friends reading this, and thinking this post was a bit...fruity, sorry but some of it just had to be said.

The Story of a Chinese Schoolboy

Okay, so it's not really a "story" about any specific "schoolboy." (Just typing "schoolboy" brings to mind the Dumb and Dumber quote by Jim Carey, "I desperately want to make love to a schoolboy.") Actually, I was sitting here in my room on an uneventful Friday night--except that I helped a couple neighbors fix their toilet--and started talking with my roommate and his friend, Yue Yang. He's probably my favorite Chinese friend here in Harbin because he's talks really clearly and doesn't hesitate to help you--and he's just an all around cool guy (He prefers American rap over Chinese music).

Anyway, we eventually got to the topic about college life and what it's like growing up in China--specifically going to school. Some of the stuff they told me was crazy, and some hilarious. I'll share what I've got with you here. (This first picture is HIT's main building--designed by Russians, if you couldn't tell)

Students start out in Kindergarten at about age 3-4--pretty standard, but that's about where the similarities end. Elementary school runs from age 5 or 6 to 11 or 12. This includes grades 1-5. At elementary school students are expected to arrive around 7:15 a.m. and study on their own and get situated until 8:00, when classes officially start. They then sit through 5 classes in the morning, in a similar structure to America where the teachers come to the students. The afternoon holds a 2 hour rest/lunch break, 2 more classes, and individual study time. Students head home around 5:30. Let me just reemphasize, THIS IS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

I told Yue Yang and Hongbo that if this was the States, and you told 2nd graders they had "Individual Study Time," it would be mass chaos. They then enlightened me with probably the funniest thing I heard all night. It seems students are instilled with a very strict sense of conduct and personal behaviour. Sitting at your desk with perfect posture, you have two options: you can hold your hands together behind your back, or you can lay your forearms on the edge of your desk running parallel to your body and one on top of the other (they are nice enough to let you choose which forearm you want situated on top). When the teacher asks a question, and you think you know the answer, you are expected to raise your top forearm like your elbow has a hinge connecting it to your other hand's fingers. When you are called on, you are expected to stand up (of course with perfect posture) and answer the question, with arms at your side, and national pride in your heart. This practice usually ends at 4th grade, but my friends said many students continue to do it out of habit, and many college students still stand up when called upon. (This 2nd pic is one of our classes--that's a pretty large one--and has no relation to this story)

Come 4th grade, they start writing long articles with no Pinyin--what students first learn before the Chinese characters, which helps them learn pronunciation. Middle school runs from 6th grade to 9th grade, and it is here that they start learning to form English sentences. Sometime during elementary school they begin learning the alphabet and basic words. At the same time they are continuing to study the Chinese language, and begin learning Chinese and world history. It is also during middle school that they start night study time: an average middle school day would be similar to the layout of elementary school I stated above, except that instead of being done for the day at 5:30pm, you have to return at for class time/individual study from 7:30-9:30pm. Most aspects of high school (grades 10-12) are similar except that night study runs later--10:00pm.

If that's not enough, you have what's called a Cram School, which are popular all throughout Asia. Ten or 15 years ago, this would be an afternoon/night school that focused primarily on math, Chinese, or English language skills. It used to be mostly for poor students or students who want to get ahead, but now, it's the situation where if you don't attend you're falling behind and hurting your chances of attending a good college. Where they fit this into that busy day I'm not sure, but it's an option that's getting more and more popular--especially since these days you can choose other Cram Schools, ones that specialize in art, music, etc. If families choose not to go down that route, parents often times give their children homework they create. My Chinese teacher at Vandy personally told us she gives her son homework almost every day.

And if you noticed the emphasis on math (how they previously could only choose from language or math), it's true that math is king over here. Every large city and province has a Math Olympics (think Spelling Bee) and teachers push students pretty hard to compete and to eventually advance to the national level--it's kind of a big deal.

So arriving at college, most Chinese students think life is pretty sweet. They've already gotten into a college, the fruit of all those night classes and Cram Schools. However, depending on the student, a Chinese college student will attend 20-32 hours of class per week (The U.S. standard is 15). I guess it's necessary when you have 10 different classes (e.g. Economics, Biology, Calculus). When I told my friends I was taking 4 classes for a total of 12 hours per week, they just laughed. And college here in China is a bargain, relatively speaking. At Harbin Institute of Technology, my host college here and one of the top 10 in the country, annual tuition is runs around $750 and annual dorm/books is about $500. Can't argue with that! When I told them that my all inclusive college bill runs around $50,000, and I almost had to check for their pulse. (This last pic is St. Sophia's Cathedral, the most photographed building in Harbin--I still haven't personally seen it)

It seems the hot major is Information Technology. If you graduate with this major or find the right job--one with one of China's monopolies (The oil companies are especially good--there's only 3: PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC)--you can command an annual salary of over $6000. However, pulling this off is tough, and most college grads earn about half that amount. They told me that companies to work for are divided into tiers, according to desirability. The first tier would be a British or American company, under that would be a Japanese or Korean one, then a Hong Kong or Taiwanese enterprise, and on the 4th tier would be a Chinese one.

I hope this gives you a little bit of insight into the details of school life here in China, and I hope I didn't bore you to death with the details. If you've heard different than what I've got here in this post, I'd love to hear what you have to say--maybe some of this info is wrong. But you have to take it with a grain of salt: my friends told me this was their experience, so other students' experiences are certain to have some differences.

Chinese Food: An American Dish in Harbin (Part II)

Authentic Chinese food, in my opinion, is awesome, and awesomely cheap. However, despite all the options, sometimes you just get sick of Chinese food...or rather, your stomach does. So you look for the next best alternative. I've only been to McDonald's once, but when I did I ordered 3 sandwiches (the portions are that small and I was that hungry).

So, starting off with breakfast. I usually go to the college supermarket and pick up more than enough hot pastries/"stuff I don't know what is" for about 25 cents...not only because it's cheap, but also because it's delicious. Thus, I only go for the cereal when I have class starting before the supermarket opens. But these are your basic options--as you can see Nestle has a stranglehold on the market. The Strawberry Milk Stars on the left is especially good.

Sandwiches, an American staple, are pretty hard to come by. The majority of dishes here are eaten out of a bowl. A classmate and I were able to find a western-style restaurant called Hamamas, which was opened by a guy from South Africa. The food was the real thing, and we got to chat with him for a while. It was kind of weird at first to find out the he too had come to study Chinese. You sort of get this idea that only people from English speaking countries come to study Chinese. I don't know where that idea comes from, but it just sort of happens.

Besides that delicious double cheeseburger from Hamamas, you kind of have to make your own, sandwiches, like the one you can see in the 2nd picture. A little ham and delicious fresh brown bread gets the job done.

The pizza at the college supermarket is not your standard American pie (3rd pic). It's kind of like a salad on breading. There's no sauce, a little cheese, ham, carrots, peas and some peppers/lettuce (hard to determine).

If you want to go out and really splurge on some American food, then you've got three main choices: KFC (the biggest chain), McDonald's and Pizza Hut (I hear Papa John's is moving in, and I've seen many Starbucks in Beijing, but none in Harbin). If you're going for class, then you've got to head to Pizza Hut. This Pizza Hut experience was unlike any other--completely opposite of the ones in the States where you walk in, seat yourself, and have a server, who's wearing an aged uniform that doesn't look quite clean enough, get your order screwed up because she wasn't paying attention to you in the first place.

No, when we first walked in I thought it was Cheesecake Factory. There was modern art hanging on the walls, which were painted in dark shades of red and yellow, and live plants interspersed throughout the restaurant. The modern hanging lights had a dim setting and the entire premise was spotless. The bathrooms were the nicest I've encountered in China, and the sinks were of the basin type. Compared to the other customers, we were under dressed. A couple in the other booth was snapping pictures (apparently it was a big occasion--not that unusual: my Chinese teacher at Vandy tells me that when McDonald's first opened in Beijing you might have to wait up to an hour in a line out the door, and people were even getting married there).

All the servers sported long black skirts with white-collared shirts and a black bow tie, completed with makeup and their hair pulled back. It is Chinese custom for the server to give you the menu and then wait at the table while you look it over and decide. In my opinion, this is a bit annoying--like they expect you to have the menu memorized. With my Chinese reading abilities, of course it takes me a while to decide (it takes me long enough to decide in American restaurants with English menus!). One time one server got so mad that I was taking more than 2 minutes that she let another server serve me. I think this method of waiting at the table comes not only out of custom, but also the fact that labor is so cheap and restaurants are overstaffed, thus leaving each server with little work.

So back to the point: at Pizza Hut, they let you look over the menu on your own--almost like they had been instructed to do so--after all, it's an American company. Looking over the menu, we saw that under the 13 inch Supreme pizza, it said it serves 2-3 people. The 9 inch pizza said it served 1-2 people. What is this amateur hour? Maybe those are what serving sizes are "supposed" to be, but who are we kidding? Despite my warning and suggestion that a 13 inch and 9 inch wouldn't be enough, we ordered anyway. I was right--we ended up "politely" fighting over the last half piece (we had 3 guys and 1 girl). I easily could have eaten both the 13 inch and 9 inch myself, and still hit the salad bar at the same time. Thus, although the pizza was pretty good (still sans tomato sauce), I left hungry and broke. The meal for me was about 3x what I'd normally pay for dinner. But all in all it was an interesting experience, and I'll probably go back so that I can use the bathrooms.

Chinese Food: What did I just eat? (Part I)

As of late you've probably heard a lot about Chinese food and its safety--with headlines like "China to Execute Chief Food Inspector" and "China Shuts 180 Food Factories." While these headlines portray the dire food safety situation, at least it shows that they're working on it...they better, with the upcoming Olympics. Putting safety aside, even with my improved Chinese vocabulary I still often walk away from the table asking myself, "What did I just eat?" To me it really doesn't much matter--there's only two distinctions I make: "delicious" or "tolerable." I'll eat about anything (If you read my blog last year you know I ate stewed bullfrog--tasty, but not much meat and a lot of bones).

So in this post I want you to just see what Chinese food is all about. Of course you've got Beijing's renowned, "Peking Duck." Every weekend us classmates go on an outing. Last weekend it was to eat Beijing Duck (Peking=Beijing). There's no doubt in my mind I ate an entire duck. If you've never had it, it's mostly the crispy skin of the duck--a little oily and fatty--but excellent. You wrap it in a thin lotus leaf pancake with slivered Chinese onions and a sweet dark sauce. And of course it comes with a steep bill.

When we went the other night, not only did we have multiple ducks at the table, but we had other side dishes, and by "other dishes" I mean "20 dishes." They just kept bringing them--it was incredible. After trying one dish (2nd picture) I thought, "Pretty good, tastes like French fries." I asked my friend, only to find out it was actually fried winter melon! This is the way to eat fruit! Call up my younger brothers!

Other than Peking Duck, the staple ingredients of most Chinese dishes are: WHITE rice (you won't find any pork fried rice here), noodles, egg, beef or pork, eggplant, peppers, tofu, potato, tomato, lettuce/cabbage, an assortment of other vegetables, and of course MSG. Also, a standard snack might be a cucumber (which they eat li

ke a banana), a watermelon--extremely popular, or some processed sausage thing (pretty much like SPAM). Sour milk, while not my preference, is big

over here, and their regular milk is particularly awesome, because you don't have to refrigerate it. Of course, I do anyway, but most Chinese prefer their milk lukewarm.

Thus usual lunch dish (at least for me) is the one in the 3rd picture, which has white rice, chicken, a sunny side egg, and some random veggies...does a body good. My favorite dinner dish, which is pretty expensive ($2.50) is fried pork in a sweet sauce mixed with peppers, and pineapple...and of course a small bowl of rice. The plate's made for 2-3 people, but I usually tackle it myself.

And as my mom will be happy to know, I'm LEARNING TO COOK Chinese food (the picture is proof). Every student is allowed to choose as many extracurricular classes as they want, from "Chinese Calligraphy" to "Kung Fu" to "Cooking Chinese Food." So, being the huffing fatty that I am, naturally I chose Cooking. The first class we learned how to make eggplant, but with pork. You create a pocket out of the eggplant slice, and then insert some pork. When taking a picture, in Chinese, the equivalent to the smile-creating "cheese" is "eggplant." (pronounced "chee A zuh") Thus, when we took this picture on the right, we had the funny coincidence of saying "eggplant" when we were cooking eggplant. That was probably a very confusing explanation for something you don't think was very funny to begin with. What am I doing?

Anyway, the next week we learned how to make a cold cucumber dish (uggh). I skipped the end of the class to go with some friends to see Transformers (in English), which was amazing. Hope that gives you a better idea of what Chinese food entails. The next post will be a continuation of sorts...I know you're on the edge of your seats.

5 Star Hospitality...But I'm Definitely not at the Ritz

So, looking at this picture, you're probably wondering, was is really cool enough to be wearing pants? To break it to you all in Florida feeling the high 90's, yes, the weather stayed in the low 60's pretty much the entire day. The highest it might get over here is low 80's (although we did have a hot spell right when I arrived). Just to give you an idea, if Harbin were in the North America, it would sit somewhere in Canada. Thus, it's pretty convenient for running--I can run whenever I want and not worry about starting on fire (I've definitely felt like it on a few...many...runs in Florida).

Anyway, this post isn't as much about the weather as it is about how out of their way my Chinese friends have gone for me and other Americans here studying with me. I think I already shared with you my experience when I first arrived in Harbin...the 4 random students I met who were nice enough to go out of their way to help me find my dorm, offer to help me unpack, and then took me to the orientation meeting place. And of course, when my computer got "injured," it was Fan Wei, one of the "Fantastic 4", who helped me get it fixed.

Well, a few days ago, I got to meet up with the other three. I had had a horrible day--I had a lot of homework the night before, thus only getting about 4 hours of sleep; I ended up having a crappy lunch with a few classmates; and I got annihilated in all my classes--I left class wondering what language I'd actually been studying for the past 2 years. But this all changed when I got back from my run at 6:45. I told them I'd call them and meet them at 7:00, but when I returned from my run, they were already waiting in the lobby. Although it was a 2 hour dinner (Sichuan food), it was really entertaining and educational (as always). I learned that they and all other Chinese teenagers love Prison Break (because of the plot twists and some handsome actor) and Lost. When I told them I like Harry Potter, they asked me if I thought it was infantile. I told them to give the first book a try, and they'd see why pretty much anyone can enjoy it. Yang Jiang, the one I know the best, paid for my dinner, and I've run into her around campus many times since.

In fact, the first picture of this post was taken by a stranger I met coming back from buying $1 DVDs (We are Marshall, Manchurian Candidate, American Wedding, When Harry Met Sally, and Farewell My Concubine) and CDs (the best Chinese pop of...now, and the 80's). After taking 6 or so pictures of me--she wanted to make sure she got the picture right--she asked if I had time to chat. We ended up talking for about 45 minutes, of course all in Chinese. Turns out she had just graduated from HIT (where I'm studying) and in the end gave me her phone number...I don't know what that was all about...Just the fact that she took time to sit down with me and talk, and show genuine interest, I think says a lot. She even looked a little disappointed to see me go.

I think the best example of Chinese "no-holds-bar" hospitality came last weekend in Dandong. So there's about 6 of us (half of us Chinese, half American) walking next to the river and we decide to sit for a while. After talking about nothing for half an hour, we decide to go. When we get up, Allison realizes she had sat in spit, and now has it all over her behind. Now if that happened to your friend in the U.S., you tell them to take their problem to the bathroom and work it out. Not here in China. Without hesitation, the closest Chinese friend pulls out her tissue pack and starts going to work on Allison's problem. This wasn't a quick fix either: it took a good 5 minutes, and at one time another one of her Chinese friends got in on the action, making for an interesting little threesome. To say the least, it was an unusual sight, and I was lucky enough to get a picture.

An Eerie Contrast

Once again, I must apologize about my delay. All students in the program along with their Chinese roommates left Friday evening for a weekend in and around Dandong, a smaller city (similar to Nashville) bordering North Korea.

After taking an overnight train to Dandong, we hopped in boat and sped over to Dalu Island. After spending Saturday there, including some interesting Chinese karaoke by some of my classmates, we got up the next morning and went back to the mainland and headed to Bingyugou, a touristy area where you can hike (by now, I was fully expected to lead the hike...which I did), boat, jet ski, and do this crazy zip line thing across the river, for which I happily paid the $4 for two rides.

After killing it at Bingyugou, we drove into the rural countryside to stay at a farmer's house. Being that this was a farming area, there were many farmhouses, so at any given time you can see random animals (dogs, ducks, roosters, horses) just roaming around. This wasn't your state-of-the-art farming facility--they didn't even have a refrigerator. It seems they get the work done with straight back-breaking work. When I got up the next morning to run at 5:30, they were already up and working.

Running through the mountains with cornfields interspersed and streams running parallel to the road I shared with animals, I realized it was a run I'd never forget. One farmer on the street even challenged me (I was already running at 6:00/mile pace). I told him, "Lai ba" which means "Come on." In the end I think I got him by a nose, but I'm not too concerned about it either way.

However, I think the highlight of the trip came on the final day as we headed toward Dandong, which shares the Yalu River with North Korea. We first stopped at the closest point to North Korea--yes that's me standing a meter from the the Hermit Kingdom. A friend of mine actually took a picture of me as I'm climbing the fence, but he hasn't yet sent it to me. After that quick stop we continued our surge toward Dandong, where we took a boat tour on the Yalu River. At risk of overdoing the economics aspect of China, I must say that the difference between the two sides of this river was the clearest example of capitalism (or at least an open economy) at work that I've ever seen.

The first picture is North Korea, and you can see a never-moving Ferris wheel and two pillars in the water. These pillars where the base of a bridge that existed until the '50s when North Korea dismantled the bridge to the river's midway point. China's half still exists, and is a tourist attraction. (A new bridge now stands and is used only for trade)

Looking at the next picture, which is China (6 cranes are visible), you can clearly see why this is such an eerie contrast. Dandong looks approximately like Houston, while North Korea looks like a farming village...in the '50s. As we were on the boat tour, snapping pictures of these harbor workers and boatmen staring back at us with glazed over looks, it felt as if the people themselves were tourist attractions--like they weren't actually individuals but test subjects in some sick experiment where very few enter or leave the confines of the country.

So in a few words, this trip was eye-opening. We returned to the campus the next morning at 4:00, and of course, we had classes that day. I slept for 4 hours, and then drug myself to class, which I think really had no use for anyone that day. I've been recovering ever since--getting things together, so the posts will be more frequent from now on. If they're not, demand a post, just like Gale did. Lastly, I must apologize for all the pictures in this post...I know you guys hate them.

Back in the Game

Thursday 7/12, 7:45am: Roll out of bed (my roommate will sleep for another 5-6 hours)

8:00-9:00: Hammer out a 10 mile run in just over an hour

8:20: Fan Wei texts me and calls me only to find no answer (I bought a Chinese cell phone)

9:05: Fan Wei walks up to me while I'm stretching and cooling down, and then tells me the good news...

It seems my computer is completely fine!? The watermelon juice dried up and now I can use it. The HP guy said that I'll never be able to know when the/a problem will surface. He was pretty baffled at how my computer could handle so much punishment. I told him it gets it from me. My friend Fan Wei, who accompanied me to the HP shop and served as the contact point for HP, said that a Chinese computer ($800-$900) would've been one-and-done.

So naturally, I'm pretty relieved. I can save my money and my sanity. Now, back to that interesting hiking trip up Xiang Lu Mountain. (Does that first picture look a bit...gay?) I'll be the first to say this was barely a mountain--it took us about an hour and a half to reach one of the "peaks," and I probably could've done it in under an hour had I not waited for my roommate. It seems all those days of sleeping in until 3pm and being essentially bedridden finally caught up with him. Anyway, we got to the summit after some arduous climbing, then listened to some Chinese people scream as if they were being injured. For some reason, none of us Americans had any inclination to yell or scream. Must be a Chinese thing.

One thing that was obvious was the blatant disregard for the environment. It kind of spoils it when every rest stop has garbage scattered around. This difference was clearly evident when my roommate--I'm going to start calling him Hongbo, because that's his name and I think you all can handle it--and I took a quick rest on the way up to the "summit." He took out his tissue pack (yes, every Chinese person I've ever met carries one, to wipe sweat, use at restaurants, etc.) and offered me a tissue. At first I refused, but then he insisted. After using the tissue, naturally I stuck it in my pocket to wait until I found a trash can. He did what most other Chinese person would do, throw it right next to all the other trash scattered around. This wasn't that unfamiliar though--I deal with the garbage every day in the streets as I dance around it on my runs.

It's fundamentally recognized that developing countries (China) or 3rd world countries are going to have little concern for the environment--you're not going to take care of the environment until you can meet your basic needs. Thus, the "Green-Fever" hasn't quite caught on in China (not to say we're perfect in the US).

However, probably the most interesting part of this trip was the fantastic bathroom I actually used. If Moblie rated bathrooms like it does hotels, they would give this one a negative score. If you could get past the fact that you could see everything that had been deposited into the "hole" in the last month and the human feces smeared in various places, you'd probably be okay. But then, you still had to deal with the onslaught of buzzing flies, the revolting smell, and the fact that you had no toilet paper. This bathroom was so ridiculous that I just had to take a picture(s)...I've got more if you really want to see.

So, it was after this...interesting...all day trip that I returned home to find my computer licking its wounds. But now all that's taken care of, so you can sleep well again. I know you were worried.

The Most Expensive Fruit Ever

I want to apologize for my lack of consistency thus far, but I had a rather large problem arise. Last Thursday in the mid-morning, me, a classmate and a teacher headed into town to bargain with street vendors as part of a class exercise. I won the competition by buying the most food with the least money. After buying the fruit you see in the picture, I set it on the middle shelf of my desk and jetted off to my next class.

Come Saturday me and my classmates headed to Xianglu Shan (sorry, I forget the translation now) for an all day trip of hiking. I will explain more about this interesting trip later. Anyway, we were gone from 9:00am to 6:30pm. I certainly had every intention of putting the fruit in the refrigerator, but it was too crowded and I didn't want to waste the food. So, arriving back later that day, I find a bunch of gnats circling a puddling mess of fruit juice. It seems the heat over the past two days was just too much for it. The smell was downright disgusting.

So okay, no big deal, just clean it up right? Well it wouldn't have been a problem if my computer wasn't on the shelf below. At first, I thought it just hit the top (it was closed) and made a mess on the casing. No, it actually seeped through the cracks. So what did I do? Naturally I turned it on to see if it worked (the screen flickered and then went out and the mouse didn't work).

After talking to a few of my Chinese friends, they figured the best thing to do would be to go to the HP repair shop on Monday (a convenient 5 minute walk from the dorm). So yesterday a friend took me, and of course I wasn't in the greatest mood. Well it got much better when I had the HP person tell me that it didn't look good for 3 reasons: 1) I turned it on when it was all wet inside 2) I didn't take the battery out when it happened and 3) I didn't unplug it when I realized the problem. Not only did I turn it on, I turned it on multiple times.

Thus, now my injured third arm resides at the HP service shop until it dries out (could be Wednesday or later). They can't even diagnose the problem until then. And it's not completely the cost (could be $700+ if it affected the hard drive) that worries me, it's just as much the effect it's having on my studying. So other than that apple that Adam and Eve ate in Genesis that stole innocence from mankind, I'd say this watermelon is right up there for most expensive ever.

As I'm bumming a computer right now from a friend who will need it when he gets back from dinner, I better jet. Sorry if parts of this post are disconnected or sound like a four year old composed it (notice the plethora of "so"), but I was in a hurry. The posts could be scarce until I get my lost appendage back.

By the way, for those who were having trouble posting, all of them are up there now, I just had to confirm them. I will turn this option off, since I don't have easy computer access. Hope things are going better in the States!

Island Getaway, Runaway Economy

While Wednesday felt like the weekend, when the real weekend arrived, I was happier than Michael Jackson in an elementary school (okay, that's stepping over the line). Anyway, Friday night brought an outing to The Box, a trendy, foreigner-friendly club on the main drag. "Trendy, foreigner-friendly" in Chinese translates to "expensive" in English. All the drinks were 5x as expensive as what you'd find at a regular Chinese restaurant--but still about 1/3 of the prices in the US (There's some math for you). Anyhow, me and my roommate ended up playing some foosball. As he had never played before, and with the two opponents seeming to be novices, I carried our team to two wins in which we downright embarrassed the other players. (note: my roommate took over for the girl in this pic)

(I must mention that this was at about 11:30pm on Friday night. Because my roommate agreed to do this program where he lives with me and helps me, he gets a lot of perks, one of which is staying out past 10:00pm, the curfew for all HIT college students every night.)

The next morning just before noon we took a group trip to Sun Island (太阳岛). This is the most famous park in Harbin and one of the most famous in NE China. It seems that if you live in the NE, you've been to this park. It's like the St. Augustine Fort for Floridan students: everyone's been there. You couldn't see this entire park in one day--it has a small amusement park for kids, a man-made waterfall, and the most vegetation I'd seen since I arrived in China. In the pic my roommate is on the left, with my two of my other new friends. After our western-style picnic (which was awesome) and walking around, we got to Squirrel Island. This was probably the most interesting part. The squirrels were one thing--some of them were almost black in color. But probably more intriguing was just how fascinated all the Chinese were about seeing squirrels. When I told my Chinese friend that at my college we have 3 squirrels for every student, he was pretty shocked.

On the way back from that little expedition in the bus, I saw the country's national bird, the crane. Actually, there were 18 visible at one time. Development is happening extremely fast, with an annual growth rate of over 10% (compared to 3% in the US). This growth is fueled by investment--in buildings, real estate, etc.--and some think, me included, that it's not good investment (think Tech Bubble of 2001). If China's economy drops like a rock when all these bad investments are realized, it could be real trouble for the rest of the world--especially countries like the US, which relies on China to buy many of its goods. This picture is the east side of Shanghai's Huangpu River. Just over 10 years ago this was farming land and small housing. (I've been up in that ball-shaped thing called The Oriental Pearl) The vast expanse of the city is actually on the west bank. Anyway, that's my quick two cents on what I think about China's economy--hope it didn't hurt your head too badly.