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.

The Fake Weekend, Arrived

First and foremost I want to say thanks to all of you who have read and/or commented. I read all the comments, I just can't really comment back (the censorship thing). And yes, Jeff, that was Ms. Key (our ridiculous middle school bus driver) up in the front.

Anyway, we just finished our first week of classes, or rather, mayhem. The main problem was that I agreed to go with a few classmates to the bank on last Wednesday (we're backtracking a bit). We arrived on the prior Friday. Thus I went more that 5 days on $25. Don't get me wrong, I love the exchange rate (8:1), but the lack of cash just makes living a little less...comfortable. Especially when you need money for a) internet access, b) a fan (no A/C, so you have to have a fan to sleep well), c) shower towel, d) cell phone and SIM card, e) sense of where everything is...oh yea, and f) food. Obviously something had to give--so yes, I bought the towel and the food for the time being.

What added to the stress level was the fact that I tested too well in my placement test. Every student had to take an oral and written exam a day after we arrived. Apparently I tested pretty well. So well I was put in classes I shouldn't have been in. This led to 7 1/2 hours of class on Tuesday trying out pretty much every other class offered. Let me just say that speaking a language you're not fluent in is pretty tiring. It's like being a translator 24/7. Thus, after 7 1/2 hours of turning my mind into mush, I just wanted to eat dinner alone, and not talk or think (I ended up getting invited out by a classmate...jeez).

So when Wednesday arrived , I was exhausted, poor, and worried that I wasn't going to make it out alive (might be an exaggeration). After paying a visit to the banker, I am now all settled in, with internet access (I no longer have to go to one of the smokey internet cafes, full of college students playing World of Warcraft), a fan, and my sanity. Thus, to me, Wednesday was the "fake" weekend.

Note: the first picture is my room in the early stages, behind that curtain is a big window that we leave open so that we don't suffocate/sweat to death. The second picture is where all of our classes, which are just under 2 hours long apiece, take place.