中秋节

I apologize that I haven’t posted in a while. This post was originally written on Wednesday, September 29. My host family’s Internet was broken for quite a long time, so I haven’t been able to make any posts.

Last Wednesday, September 22^nd, was the Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon Festival). There was no school that day, and so I woke up to a pretty boring morning. I really did nothing all morning until all of a sudden at about noon the doorbell kept ringing. My host family had apparently invited guests over for lunch. A family of three plus a friend of the son and my host father’s friend ate with us. I had previously met my host father’s friend before, but I had not met this family. They were seriously one of the nicest families I’ve ever encountered. Exactly three seconds after I met them they gave me a really nice gift. It’s a book of what people keep telling me are called traditional Chinese “paper cuts” in English, but I don’t think that’s the actual name. I would look it up, but the Internet is currently broken (hence the huge gap between the time this was posted and the post before it). After I got this gift my host father’s friend also gave me a gift. He gave me this really fancy box of China’s “National Treasure” from Nanjing. There are four rocks inside the box, and I have no idea what any of it says, but I’m just going to trust that it’s a good gift because it looks nice. Anyway, at this point I was really embarrassed because I was given two awesome gifts, and I had absolutely nothing to give to them in return. Well, actually, I have a few Lady Gaga CDs with me, but I felt that those weren’t an appropriate “thank you so much for the gift. I have a gift for you, too!” type of gift.

For lunch there were seventeen dishes. Yes, I counted. I can’t even begin to describe what kind of dishes there were, so I’ll just talk about crab. Chinese people don’t take off shells or bones before food is served. When served fish, the head is almost always on, and every single bone is still inside. When a Chinese person goes to eat fish, they just stick it in their mouth and magically spit out the bones. I have sort of gotten used to this. I’ve also gotten used to taking off shrimp heads, tails, legs, and remaining parts of the shell at the dinner table. I thought that I had finally somewhat adapted to eating like a Chinese person. And then I was served crab during the Moon Festival. I was just sitting at the table eating some eggplant, and all of a sudden someone threw a crab into my bowl. A whole crab, just out of a boiling pot of water. I started at the crab for several minutes. I pretended like it wasn’t there. I ate more eggplant. I moved on to eggs. I even de-shelled and ate a few shrimp. Then someone mentioned the crab. I pretended that I didn’t hear them. Then another person mentioned the crab. I pretended that I didn’t understand the Chinese. Then someone pointed the crab and clearly told me to eat it. There was no way out of it. I picked up the crab. I looked at the crab. I put the crab down. I turned it over. I picked up the crab. I put the crab down. Finally I was saved. The woman sitting next to me offered to help me eat my crab. She picked up the crab, and three seconds later half of the outside shell was gone. Keep in mind that this woman had no knife, scissors, fork, or chopsticks to help her. The crab was delicious. She slowly taught me how to work my way around the crab. The legs took a bit of time, but it was definitely worth it considering how good it tasted. I am now proud to say that I am capable of eating a whole crab with only my hands.

About an hour after lunch I got in the car with the family that came over for lunch. I thought we were going to a park, but we ended up at a swimming pool. I have heard many horror stories about swimming pools in China. According to everything I’ve heard, they are extremely crowded, dirty, and full of spit (I guess just like the rest of China?). This was definitely not the case with this pool. It was very quiet, and there were maybe ten other people in the same pool as us. The family’s sixteen-year-old son and I swam for a while, and then I left and went home.

When I got home we ate dinner. This was the first time that I’ve had a smaller dinner than lunch in China. It still tasted great, though. I even disassembled two crabs and ate them. After dinner my host family and I watched a program on TV for the Moon Festival. It consisted of much singing and dancing, and altogether it was pretty well done. While watching we ate moon cakes and some unknown dried fruit. After the show was over, I was told to watch the moon.

Now, to be quite honest, I don’t really know what the Moon Festival is. It falls on a day in autumn when there is a full moon. My host brother told me that the moon on the night of the Moon Festival is the brightest full moon all year. As it says on one of my moon cake boxes, “May we all be blessed with longevity. Though far apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.” Moon cakes are eaten around the time of the festival to celebrate. The only reason people have given me as to why moon cakes are eaten is because “they are round, like the moon.” In the past two weeks I have eaten too many moon cakes. They’re filled with different ingredients such as eggs, coconut, bean paste, nuts, meat that really isn’t meat, and other fruits. People keep giving me moon cakes. My host father and mother each got a bunch of boxes from their companies, so they gave me many “to experience the culture.” I was satisfied with the amount of moon cakes I was given until I went to school one day where the principal gave me a gigantic box. Once again I was embarrassed because I had nothing to give in return. When my classmates saw the moon cakes that the school gave me, their first reaction was “Wow! Our school never gives anyone anything!” The second reaction was “Wow! Those are the most expensive kind!” Maybe I should bring a Lady Gaga CD for the principal…

On Sunday the 26^th I went to Beijing for a YFU meeting. I travelled with the Thai student living in Tianjin. It’s really easy to get to Beijing and doesn’t take much time. When we got there, we had a little bit of time before our meeting started, so I suggested we do something touristy. We decided to go to Tiananmen Square. We had no idea about whether or not to get off at the Tiananmen East subway station or the Tiananmen West subway station, so we arbitrarily decided on Tiananmen East. When we got off, we did what we always do in China, and that is follow the crowd (and yes, there is always a crowd). So we followed the crowd for about twenty minutes until we were in this courtyard-like area between some really old and pretty Chinese walls and buildings. Finally we reached a gate where you could buy tickets and guides. We were really confused because there is obviously no entrance fee to get into Tiananmen Square, so we just left. On the way out we were just like “Where in the world are we?” until we got to the street and I realized that we had been trying to enter the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square was across the street. Woops.

We went to Tiananmen Square for a bit, and I have to admit that it was a little anticlimactic. Not really much to do or see there. We went to the YFU meeting, and it was really fun to see all of the students again. After the meeting we walked around aimlessly for a bit. The public transportation in Beijing is extremely convenient, so we took the subway to some area where they have a lot of street food. We ate a really tasty and random dinner, and then the Thai girl and I left to return to Tianjin.

Sunday, October 10 update: I am still hoarding moon cakes in my room.

上海!

The train ride to Shanghai was about eleven hours. My classmates and I were put into the first class, soft sleeper beds, which are very nice. I had no problem sleeping the whole train ride and could actually move. Also, the conductor told me “no smoking” maybe ten times in English, and I did not hear her say it once in Chinese.

The purpose of our class trip to Shanghai was primarily to see the Expo. The Shanghai Expo is the world’s 2010 fair. I think I read that there are about two hundred countries represented and fifty corporations. A few of the pavilions I visited were Coca-Cola (did you know that Coca-Cola has a mascot?), the Space Pavilion, SAIC-GM, Norway, Romania, Canada, Australia, Czech Republic, Mexico, Italy, Nepal, Chile, a few more countries that I cannot remember, and a bunch of exhibits on cities. I also visited the United States Pavilion, which seemed to be pretty popular. Many of my classmates told me that this was the only one that they wanted to see. It consisted of three videos all dealing with “the American spirit,” and it was a bit lame. The SAIC-GM pavilion was absolutely amazing (and well worth the three hour line). I saw some really advanced technology that I have never seen before. I also visited a pavilion that contained a lot of historical information, and there were Chinese artifacts from 10000 BC on display. Interestingly enough, my classmates thought it was “no big deal.” All of the pavilions were well designed and aesthetically pleasing, but the lines were outrageous. The line for Saudi Arabia was seven hours. Some of my (very crazy) classmates were brave enough to wait in this line, but considering it was maybe one hundred degrees outside, I decided to skip it.

On the Friday of our trip, my class visited a high school in Shanghai. It was incredibly boring, and no one wanted to be there. It was interesting to see that the school had twenty Ping-Pong tables, though. I had to sit through a random math class, and they were learning vectors. It was horrible. The school also decided to not let us sit in desks, so we crouched on these tiny stools in the back of the classroom.

After visiting the school we were given time to explore Shanghai. Two of my classmates and I went to the Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC). The SWFC is the tallest building in China, and it apparently has the highest observatory deck in the world. The elevator ride to the top was much longer than I expected, but as expected in China they decided to pack one trillion people into one square inch. Shanghai is really a gigantic city. The city spans miles and miles in all directions, and the edges of the city are not visible. After visiting the SWFC I walked around Nanjing Road for a bit. I’ve been told that Nanjing Road is famous for shopping. It was fun to explore the area with some of my classmates.

The hotel we stayed in isn’t legally allowed to host foreigners, so every time I entered the hotel, I was supposed to sneak up into my room. Well, one night when I was running up to my room, the man at the front desk spotted me. He started screaming in Chinese, and of course I had no idea what was going on. A few of my classmates started screaming, and then my teachers started screaming. I obviously had to leave the hotel (how many people can say they’ve been kicked out of a Chinese hotel?), and I slept the next two nights on the street. No, just kidding. I found another hotel a whole block away.

Luckily for me, the new (and much cleaner) hotel had an amazing duck stand in front of it. I think I ate a whole duck one night. I also tried KFC, and it was pretty fantastic. I think I’ve now had Chinese KFC more times than American KFC.

The train ride back to Tianjin was exactly the same as the train ride to Shanghai, except I watched the worst scary movie I’ve ever seen with three of my classmates. I returned to Tianjin Sunday morning, and on Monday my first week of school started. I missed a few of my classes to go take a medical examination to complete my residency permit. The medical examination was very strange. They required that I get x-rays and an ultrasound done, among many other tests.

Friday was teacher’s day. They put me in a video because they wanted to get a shot of a foreigner. I had to say some random stuff about teachers in English, and I also had to speak a little Chinese. Apparently the video is going to be shown to the whole school, but considering that teacher’s day already passed and I didn’t see the video, I think they might have been lying.

Today is the last day of a four-day weekend. The World Economic Forum is currently going on in Tianjin, so the government thought it would be a great idea to close down all the streets. With no streets people obviously can’t get to school, so we have these two days off. Unfortunately, I now have to go to school next weekend to make up for these lost two days. This school week (is it still called a week if it’s over seven days?) ahead of me is ten days long. No break.

Random observation: Louis Vuitton is everywhere. Don’t ask me if it’s real or fake, but it’s everywhere. Shoes, suitcases, pillowcases, seatbelt covers, and taxi floor mats… everywhere.

Also, today is my one-month anniversary of being in China! I don’t really know what to say other than I’ve eaten more eggs in this one month than in the rest of my life. I think I’m going to go to the store now and treat myself to some new junk food. Until next time, enjoy your weekend (I won’t!)! 

Birthday Food: Yes, More Food

It turns out that my first day of school wasn’t actually an official day of school. It was just a day where students receive their textbooks and clean their classroom. I met some classmates who were really nice, and then afterwards I went out to lunch at McDonald’s with my host brother and his friends. After eating we played this Chinese card game (which I won every time), and I was actually inside a McDonald’s for over three hours. Only in China…

This past Saturday I woke up really early and went to the driving range with my host mom. I just sat there while she golfed because it was way too hot. Afterwards she drove to a huge parking lot in between a bunch of traditional Chinese buildings, and I thought we were at a shopping mall. It was actually my first touristy experience in Tianjin (and I took no pictures… oops)! The place was called Tianjin Shi Jia Da Yuan. According to my ticket, it is “the first mansion in the north of China” and “the first theatre in the cnit mansion,” whatever that means. It was a lot of fun to walk around it and see traditional Chinese buildings, though. I also saw a bunch of pictures of Mao and a miniature performance of the Beijing Opera.

On the way home from Tianjin Shi Jia Da Yuan, my host mom bought some patties with meat for me to eat. I only noticed that the paper it was wrapped in said “donkey meat donkey meat” after I had finished. For dinner we went out for hot pot, which I had been dying to try. We mostly had lamb, and it was fantastic.

Saturday was my host father’s mother’s birthday, so my host family and I traveled to Hebei province. It was about a two-hour drive, and I met my host father’s entire family. I think there were about twenty people total, and so I think you readers should know what that means by now. Food. Lots and lots of food. So much food. Too much food. After eating all of this food, everyone napped. Perhaps it was a Chinese siesta?

When we left Hubei, I thought we were on our back home. It turns out I was wrong once again. We went to the Tanggu district of Tianjin to meet my host mother’s sister, husband, and son. At their house we ate more food. My host parents left my host brother and me there, and they just kept feeding us for what felt like forever. On the train ride home an adorable girl no older than four peed on the door two inches away from my foot. Her mother held her there to pee.

Today was my first real day of school! My host brother and I were late (woops), but we somehow managed to sneak into our class’ line in the schoolyard. All the classes stood in lines and listened to different administrators talk, and then they all sang the national anthem. It was really awkward because everyone wore the school uniform except for me.

My first day of school was pretty fun. I enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing different parts of the school. My school is located in a really convenient area; for lunch there are many restaurant options. Some of my classmates and I went to a skewer and soup restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately my class doesn’t do eye exercises (more on this later), so the day just ended after my last class was over.

Tomorrow I’m going to Shanghai with my class. We’re going to see the EXPO and meet another school. We’ll go to Shanghai Tuesday night and arrive Wednesday midday.

Fireworks and Dodging Cars

A few days ago I was just sitting in the living room with my host brother, and out of nowhere I heard something that sounded like cannons being shot. So of course I had to inquire. I asked my host brother if he knew what the sound was, and he just turned to me and said, “Hmm… maybe fireworks?” I opened the curtain and BAM. No more than three feet away from the side of an apartment building, people were launching off fireworks. I asked my host brother what the reason was and he just said, “Maybe it’s their birthday or maybe they are just happy.” He then continued to casually read the book in his lap.

Since my last post I have been fed very much (of course). I’ve tried zhajiang mian, lamb dumplings, and Beijing duck, which was fantastic. Three days ago we went out for Korean barbecue, and I saw another foreigner on the street. I could not stop staring.

I’ve also become an expert at crossing the street. I enjoy crossing the street now. I’ve renamed it “Dodging Cars”. I have also successfully taken the bus to my Chinese classes alone.

Today was the last day of my language class. I previously forgot to mention that my class was at Tianjin Foreign Studies University. Tomorrow is my first day of school. I will get to and from school by bicycle. The first day is a half-day, so I might go out to lunch with my host brother’s classmates after!

On a completely different note, the mosquitoes in Tianjin are deadly. Never come here. You will die.

It’s Not Over Until They Bring Out the Fruit

The last day of our orientation went well. One of the volunteers even gave us a demonstration on how to use a squatter toilet. All of the students living in Beijing got picked up by their host families at about five o’clock. Then all of the other students left the hostel to go to Tianjin. The group consisted of two German girls, a Thai girl, and me.  We had to take a super crowded bus to get to the train station, and the train station was actually across from Tiananmen Square, but I didn’t get to see it. We got to the subway during rush hour, and it was super super packed. When we walked in, we had to put our bags through a security checkpoint, but the person at the checkpoint wasn’t even looking at the screen.  When we finally got to the actual train, we had to wait three times because they were all too crowded, and when we got on the train, no one could move at all. We then transferred trains and had to wait just as long for a less packed train which we couldn’t really fit on anyway. Eventually we got to Tianjin. It’s easy to tell when you get to the city because the air is much dirtier.

My host parents, host brother, and host uncle (my host father’s driver) picked me up at the train station. My host uncle drove to dinner, and on the way my host brother and I talked. His spoken English is actually amazing. I found out that he’s not even planning on taking the Gao Kao because he plans on going to college in the US. On the way to dinner, my host mother showed me the tallest building in Tianjin. For dinner we ate at the Goubuli restaurant. Gobuli (Go Believe in English) is a Tianjin baozi brand. The restaurant was amazing. We had pork, beef, vegetable, and seafood baozi with tofu soup, mushrooms, and some unknown vegetable. My favorite baozi was the one with seafood. According to my host brother, “Tianjin’s seafood is beautiful and diverse.” After eating about sixty pounds of baozi, my host family kept on putting more on my plate. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much in my life. I kept telling them that I was full, but they still fed me. Finally, after eating maybe sixty pounds more, I just refused.

When we arrived at my host family’s apartment, they gave me a pair of house shoes. The apartment is located on the fifth floor of a really nice area. I unpacked in my room, and my host mother wouldn’t let me put my shoes into the wardrobe because it’s unlucky. After unpacking I went and watched TV in Chinese that I obviously couldn’t understand. My host family then proceeded to feed me fruit.  I died. And then took a shower and went to bed.

I had to get up at six-thirty the next morning because I had to be at Tianjin Foreign Studies University at nine for my Chinese class, and we also had to drop my host brother off at his SAT class. We ate at a cafeteria-like restaurant on our way. My host mother got me a bowl of rice porridge, two English muffin-type sandwiches filled with egg and ham, and three of these famous Tianjin fried dough sticks. I can’t remember the name of the dough sticks. I died again. There was too much food.

My language class consists of the other YFU students and me. We had to introduce ourselves using “key words” in Chinese, so I said that I am an American student that likes to the play the violin. During the language class we took a bus to the bookstore to buy textbooks. The bus was once again extremely crowded, and it was about thirty-six degrees Celsius outside. The bookstore was over seven stories tall, and I sort of successfully asked an employee where the Chinese books for foreigners were in Chinese. When we returned back to the university, my host mother was there to pick me up.

At home my host mom cooked me a gigantic lunch of rice, vegetables, and shrimp. It was very good, but I obviously wasn’t hungry. I ate it anyway because I didn’t want to be rude. After lunch my host mom took me to the police station to register my residency. I actually have no idea what happened at the police station, but we just sat there for a while and then left. On the way home from the police station, we stopped to buy me a cell phone. I now have a really cheap phone, so if you readers come to China, I can give you my number (which I don’t actually know)! I just sat around the house studying Chinese for the rest of the afternoon. My host brother came home a bit after six, and when he walked in he turned to me and said, “Oh here’s some food. I thought you might like it!” I once again died. Fifteen minutes after that, we ate dinner. We ate some sort of fish, and I learned how to take the head, tail, and legs off of a shrimp. I ate as much as I could, but I was full from the beginning because my host family feeds me every fifteen minutes.

My host mom never lets me help her around the house. I keep telling her that I want to help (which I can now say in Chinese!), but she won’t let me. So instead of helping my host mom clean after dinner, I just talked with my host brother. When my host mom was done cleaning, we went for a walk. I thought I was done eating, but no. We stopped at a place called Holiland (好利来), and I tried something called bingzhou which is shaved ice with fruit and beans. It was really good, but I wasn’t hungry. My host mom bought some different Chinese bread for me for breakfast. They then showed me where Pizza Hut is and what to order because they wanted me to eat there for lunch today.  When we got home my host mother turned on the English TV channel and fed me fruit. This is a good thing. In China, it’s not over until they bring out the fruit. If you ever find yourself in China, please remember this. You don’t need to speak a word of Chinese or understand an ounce of the culture. Just know that fruit is the end.

Today I woke up and had to travel to my language class by taxi. On the way home one of the other YFU students’ host mothers insisted that she drive me. When I got home I was instructed to go to Pizza Hut and order a pizza and sausages. I did not go to Pizza Hut. I did not eat. I did weigh myself, though, and I’ve gained seven pounds.

China!

I arrived in China on Saturday at about three in the afternoon. Since then I’ve been in a hostel with other YFU students. There are five students from Germany, one from Ecuador, one from Hungary, one from Thailand, and a girl from Hawaii. Everyone is really nice, and I feel really special because everyone comes to me with English questions. So far at this post arrival orientation we’ve played some games, discussed expectations, and learned a lot about Chinese culture and family life. I’m still in Beijing, but I haven’t really seen much. Our hostel is in a hutong, and so the surrounding area seems pretty neighborly. There are lots of families eating on the streets together next to local shops.

Tomorrow is the last day of my orientation. I will then take the train to Tianjin where I will meet my host family. I will have a two-week language course, and school starts on September 1^st.

再见

The Internet in Mainland China is highly censored. Websites such as Facebook, Youtube, and Blogger are banned. Many people refer to this as the “Great Firewall of China.” This firewall is blocking my blog, so I cannot post while in China. This is where my friend Stephanie comes in. If you look to the right of my posts and down a bit, you’ll notice that this blog now has two contributors. Whenever I write a post in China, I will email it to Stephanie. Stephanie will then post it on this blog for me.

Last post I mentioned that I will be attending the Chinese division of a local school. Right after posting, I found out that I might be placed in the international division for two months to give me a better transition. After two months they would transfer me to the Chinese division and have my teachers talk to me about what grade and class would be ideal for me. It sounds like I will be able to learn a lot of different people this way. Anyway, I leave tomorrow! These past few days I’ve been organizing a lot of my clothes, overdosing on all the cheese that I will not be eating for an entire year, and today I finally packed. I was pretty successful in packing a year’s worth of clothes, gifts for my host family and a few people I will meet throughout my stay, and a portable pharmacy formed by my mother.

I depart Friday morning at seven, and I fly to San Francisco. I then fly to Beijing after a short layover. I will spend two days in Beijing for a YFU orientation, and then on the 15th I will take a train to Tianjin where I will be met by my host family. I will try my hardest to post as often as I can in China. Until then, 再见！