Friday, January 21, 2011

深圳,香港

It took a bus, taxi, train, feet, train, subway, and more feet to get to my final destination in Shenzhen. The second of the two train rides was 24-hours long. The other students and I had beds, though, so it wasn’t that bad. The bad part was that there was no food served, and the only food that was available for purchase was pretty expensive and didn’t look very appetizing. The second I got off the train, I felt warm. There were palm trees. It was paradise.

I also started to hear a lot of Cantonese, which sounds like a really cool, fun language. The Shenzhen Subway has its recordings in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. That made all of us Northerners really happy to hear, just because it was something new. The Shenzhen accent was really weird to hear, though. Shenzhen is the newest city in China, and it’s made up of people from all over China (but apparently mostly from the South). I was told that because all of these people with different accents come together, they sort of blend together, and it’s pretty different. Many people in Shenzhen sounds like they have lisps; many cannot pronounce the “sh” and “zh” sounds. It was sort of hard to get used to, but after a few days it did sound natural. Shenzhenren (深圳人, or Shenzhen people in Chinese, is what I’ll call them, considering I don’t know their English demonym), like many other southerners in China, can’t really pronounce the “R” sound that is commonly found in Northerners’ speech, so they just avoid saying it. That being said, many Shenzhenren think and told me that Northerners use this sound in excess. I, for one, really like to use the “R” because I think it sounds really fun and unrestrained, but because I didn’t really hear it in Shenzhen, I found myself using it less and less. Now that I’m back in Tianjin, I’ve made sure to pick it up again!

Everyone had temporary host families in Shenzhen. It was clear that most of the host families were very rich. Mine had two children, which is very uncommon in China, and most people say only the rich can afford it. Their son is in the US right now studying, though, so I didn’t get to meet him. For the first night of my stay, my 16-year-old host sister’s best friend slept over. They were really typical 16-year-old girls who made everything a huge deal. They didn’t stop giggling for the whole night, and everything they did (cooking, turning on the TV, showing me the garbage) they had trouble with and turned into a show. It felt like living in a Taiwanese TV drama.

Our YFU orientation in Shenzhen was pretty boring for the most part. We just kind of sat around and talked about the first half of our years and how the next half should be spent. It was cool to see all the people I met in Beijing and meet more people. I’ve never had so many friends from all around the world!


Shenzhen is a really cool city. The climate is great, the people are really nice, the food was pretty good (I had some really good, spicy stuff!), and it felt like it had a small town feel even though it’s a pretty big city. Of course I didn’t get to see most of Shenzhen as I was only there for a few days and most of it was spent in meetings, but I did get to see a cool, modern area of shops and small eateries that was of course super crowded (Shenzhen is still China). Overall it felt really lively. Like I said before, Shenzhen is the newest city, so people also say that its people are the youngest. It definitely feels a lot younger.

On my last day in the South, Saturday, we went to Hong Kong! It took us way too long to get to Hong Kong because we are such a big group and was a very hectic day, but it was totally worth it. Hong Kong is really amazing. The subway system, although expensive, is really efficient. The first stop we made was pretty touristy. We went to an area that is like Hong Kong’s version of the Hollywood area with all the stars’ names and handprints (sorry I’m totally drawing a blank on both the Hollywood and Hong Kong names). There was an amazing view of the harbor, which just looks so modern and gigantic. I also got to try some catfish on a stick! Very tasty.

After that we just walked around and looked for a place to eat. This was very hard because we were in a really wealthy, shopping-oriented part of the city. We eventually found something (That wasn’t dim sum! I’m still really disappointed that I couldn’t find dim sum in Hong kong. I will never forgive myself for that!) unmemorable to eat, and then we were off to just look around.

Hong Kong has so many foreigners it’s ridiculous. Everywhere you look there’s foreigners. The other exchange students and I were pretty shocked by this, and some of us even forgot what it looks like to b surrounded by so many foreigners. It felt very European, while still managing to kind of feel Chinese. Hong Kong, however, differs greatly from China in terms of simple social rules. Someone in Hong Kong held the door open for me. I was seriously so shocked I took a picture of that door. While a friend and I were crossing a street, suddenly we noticed it was QUIET (no honking!) and all of the other pedestrians were waiting at a red light. We had completely forgotten that people actually wait at red lights. We now all feel like when we go back to our countries, we’re going to be pretty socially inept, and this is only after five months! Hong Kong also felt very clean, which was a nice change from China.

I felt very confused about what language to use to communicate with vendors in China. I know that they speak Cantonese, not Mandarin, but it also used to be a British colony, so I’d heard that many people speak English. Conversations all ended up being very wacky. Here’s an example of me buying ice-cream:


Me: Hello,还有没有这个冰淇淋?明白吗?
Ice-cream man: Which one? This one?
Me: Yes.
Ice-cream man: 有,六块.
Me: 我的朋友也想买一个,可是他没有香港元。可以用人民币吗?
Ice-cream man: 可以.
Me: Okay, then she’ll have one, too.
Ice-cream man: 行,Ten Renminbi.
Me: Okay, okay. 谢谢!
Ice-cream man: Cantonese.

At the end of the day when it got darker, we went to Victoria Peak. There’s a tram that goes to the top, and then BAM. The whole skyline can be seen from sort of an above angle, and at night this was really spectacular. I’ve really never seen anything like it before. Definitely the coolest skyline I’ve ever seen! They also had a Burger King up there…

The next day we headed back for Tianjin. This time the train ride was 30 hours, though. Unfortunately I had some stomach problems, and the train had the world’s worst bathroom, so that wasn’t the best train ride of my life. But still, I am alive!

Tomorrow I’m going to Beijing with my host brother to visit my host grandmother for a week. After that we will go visit more relatives in Shanxi Province for the Chinese New Year! Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! 新年快乐!

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Switch

I switched host families on Wednesday, December 29. My last host family was not working out, so I moved into a new family with two parents and a sixteen-year-old son. I no longer live in Tianjin’s Hexi District; I’m living in the Nankai District. So far I can tell that my new family is really nice, and I’m very happy here.

This family lives in a pretty neat part of Nankai District. I’m really close to Tianjin’s largest park, the Tianjin Water Park (it’s just a big park with lakes and nice views), the Tianjin Library, and there are many buses that come to the bus stop right in front of our apartment, so I can pretty much get to anywhere I want to go. I also live relatively close to the Tianjin Olympic Stadium, which was used to host the 2008 Olympic Games’ soccer matches. My school is only five bus stops away, so I can get to and from school pretty quickly. The only downside of this location is that the closest subway station is pretty far away. Tianjin’s subway is pretty bad though (as it’s unfinished and only has one line) so this isn’t a huge issue.

My host family has a cat named Mimi. I’ve never lived with a cat before and am not a cat person, so it was a little hard for me to get used to at first. The first night I slept here she climbed into my bed and scared me unbelievably much. I have no idea what breed (do cats even have breeds?) of cat she is, so I’m sorry if any of you cat-lover readers are curious. I’ve slowly gotten used to living with Mimi, but I’m pretty sure that she doesn’t like me very much.

My host family isn’t from Tianjin; they’re from Shanxi Province, where we will be visiting in a few weeks for the Chinese New Year! Because I just switched families, my new family is constantly feeding me to welcome me (of course they are). Everyday we eat Shanxi cai, or food from Shanxi Province. It’s pretty different from the food from Tianjin. We don’t often eat rice. Instead, we eat mantou, which I actually prefer. Mantou is translated into English as steamed buns, but other than that I don’t know how to explain it, so I refer you to Google or Wikipedia (or Baidu if you’re feeling brave enough to figure out Chinese characters!). Shanxi cai has a lot of vinegar in it.  I’ve also been told that it’s fairly common to eat donkey, and we’ve been eating that sort of frequently. There’s been a lot of soup, too. I’ve started eating these dumplings in a soup called Tangyuan (汤圆). While I’m almost positive that the soup part is just boiled water, these little dumplings are made out of rice flour and are filled with a type of peanut or red bean puree. They’re really sweet, fluffy, and taste great; however, China has changed my taste buds quite a bit. I am no longer able to eat that many sweets.


Today I went shopping for shoes at a mall. I apparently bought fake Nikes (when in China, right?) for the equivalent of ten US Dollars. My feet must be really big by Chinese standards because my shoe size was the largest one the store had. I think I tried on three different sizes. Anyway, as I was finishing trying on the largest size, the shopkeeper started telling me to go quickly because something was happening that I didn’t really understand. So I tried to start going faster but wasn’t absolutely rushing to my maximum ability, and then all of a sudden this woman completely freaks out. She was running around the maybe twenty square meters of the shop (“shops” in this mall aren’t really separated though, as there aren’t really any partitions between different sellers’ merchandise) talking extremely quickly, and so the only thing I could understand was “QUICKLY QUICKLY QUICKLY QUICKLY QUICKLY QUICKLY QUICKLY!” Then out of nowhere this man runs over and starts throwing these blue sheets everywhere trying to cover all of the shoes. The lady started freaking out even more (which I didn’t think was possible), so I just handed my money to her, and my friends and I quickly tried to leave. As we were leaving, we had to jump over one of these blue sheets and accidently knocked half of the shoes over. Woops. Luckily I was with a Chinese friend, so she explained to me what was happening. Apparently the female shopkeeper received a tipoff on her Walkie-Talkie that some government type person was on their way, and so she had to randomly just start hiding everything. I don’t understand why her neighbors didn’t hide their merchandise, considering it was all equally illegal. Regardless, it was a pretty hectic but interesting situation to experience.

Last Friday was my last day of school for the semester. My class has exams this week and class next week, but I won’t be in school for those two weeks! I am going to Shenzhen tomorrow for a YFU orientation, so I will try to update when I get back!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

圣诞节 and the Subway of Death

The Holiday Season doesn’t really exist in China. Most Chinese people aren’t Christian, so Christmas isn’t celebrated. With all things western, though, the Chinese have attempted to bring Christmas to China.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, decorations slowly started arriving in Tianjin. The most prominent holiday decoration would have to be a huge paper Santa head that was placed on literally every Shop’s storefront in the entire city. Other decorations include huge signs that say “MeRry ChristMas Day!!!” and grocery store workers dressed as elves.

I had the day off from school on Christmas Eve. And to my surprise, no one had to make this day up on a weekend! I did go out to lunch with some important people from my school and all the foreign teachers. We went to this nice restaurant, and it was really interesting to see what fancier, more elegant Chinese food is like. There was some sort of Chinese variant of foie gras, some really interesting jellyfish, and the world’s best tofu, among many other interesting creations. My Chinese teacher and all of the important people at the school lunch warned everyone not to go to Tianjin’s major shopping street that night, Binjiangdao (滨江道). Of course that means that after lunch I called up my Thai friend and we were off.

Apparently Chinese people celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve (if they celebrate christmas?), and they celebrate by going out. Binjiangdao was unbelievably crowded, and there were so many street vendors selling the most random things. I spotted dog clothes, Halloween masks, and stuffed animal bouquets. There’s also a big church at one end of the street, and there was a gigantic crowd of Chinese people there. According to my Chinese teacher, Chinese people don’t know what they should do on Christmas Eve, so they all go to this one church and just walk around it. Going home that night was a nightmare, too. I walked into the subway station and couldn’t figure out where to go because there were so many people everywhere. I had to stand in line for six minutes to get a ticket when it usually takes thirty seconds. While trying to get into the subway car, I literally had to jump ontop of my Thai friend. While it was definitely an interesting experience, it was not a very pleasurable one.

I spent Christmas day with friends eating a lot of food. I even found a place in Tianjin where I can buy Cheese bagels that taste real. I just need to find cream cheese next.

The day after Christmas there was a YFU Christmas party at a hotel. The hotel was absolutely hilarious. It was decorated with Renaissance style paintings, checkered floors, emerald chandeliers, three fake pianos, a spiral staircase the size of Rhode Island, Chinese calligraphy scrolls, and the ubiquitous Santa Claus faces.

Two other YFU students and I had to perform at the party of about forty people. We were asked to sing a Chinese song and didn’t know what to pick, so we picked Bie Kan Wo Zhi Shi Yi Zhi Yang (别看我只是一只羊) from a Chinese cartoon found everywhere called Xiyangyang yu Huitailang (喜洋洋灰太狼). Unfortunately we had no idea what we were doing, but we’re foreign so I guess it doesn’t matter. After our performance I was interviewed in Chinese in front of everyone, and I actually answered the questions successfully. I guess I’m making progress with my Chinese, then?

Here is a video of the Xiyangyang theme song:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTgyMzcwMzk2.html