Mobile Disco

中国,别忘记我! (China, don't forget me!)

2008-08-31T13:23:00.017+08:00

我爱你中国!
Here's the thing: in America I fear the fetishization of my Chinese culture and in China I shied away from any fixations of my American upbringing.

Yes, I recognize the perverse irony of the reversed situations. For the most part, my worries were unfounded; everyone was incredibly welcoming and open and made me feel as though I were returning to a home(land) instead of visiting as a tourist. I did feel the need to reassure people that I wasn't a complete cultural sellout, which meant actively trying to improve my spoken and written Chinese, not complaining about living discomforts, following social etiquette, and eating everything offered to me. The last thing I wanted was to appear elitist and ungrateful. The only bumps were in the first two weeks, when everyone treated me as if I'd break at the slightest inconvenience or culture clash. Then, of course, there were those moments when people tried to stereotype my own preferences as those of America as a whole. . . I can't even remember how many times I had to tell people that just because I don't drink carbonated beverages doesn't mean Americans don't drink Pepsi and Coke. Or that just because I refuse to go out the door without a shower first every day doesn't mean Americans are all obsessed with hygiene (though they are, in comparison to the Chinese, anyway). Stereotyping, what easy traps you lay. I have enough trouble representing myself, much less representing an entire nation of people.

When I visited China in the past, I never stayed longer than a month, and a month was usually the most I could stand; by the end of the 4 weeks I couldn't wait to return to America. Maybe it's only because I lived by myself this year and had more executive control over my life, but I desperately didn't want to leave after 8 weeks. Even now, I miss the early morning jian bing runs, the dodging of 6 lane traffic, and the endless hunts for street food. I miss the convenience of stores at my fingertips and the knowledge that everything can be fixed, that there's a service for every trade. When I would attempt to navigate Xi'an by public transport or when I'd try to learn new words, I always thought of it as re-learning my city, re-learning my language. I miss that feeling. Would it still be the same had I been born in the United States? Maybe. I don't know.

I'd love to return to China in the future and stay longer, maybe one or two years. China's going to change exponentially in the near future, and I really want to be part of it. But I guess only time can tell what will actually happen. School starts again next week, and my summer is officially over. This post marks my 25th entry on Mobile Disco and most likely my last, until further notice. I'm not exactly new to blogging or traveling - I travelblogged my way through my study abroad semester in Germany last Fall, but I'm glad that I kept with the China blogging even after I returned to the United States; I feel satisfied with my coverage of topics and events. I can't really think of any more posts that would make my China experience even more comprehensive.

To people who actually took the time to read what I wrote, thanks for staying with me. :)

Interruption in your regular visual viewing

2008-08-29T02:35:00.002+08:00

The amount of coverage (print and media alike) and focus on China this summer has been staggering; there hasn't yet been a day since I've been back that I haven't read an opinion piece or journalism article or watched a documentary or heard a political soundbite on China's domestic and international movements and ambitions. Don't worry, I don't plan on talking politics. What I want to discuss is the type of comments often found in response to the media coverage, particularly comments regular viewers and readers make to online articles. The overwhelming Western belief is that the bulk of the Chinese population -- the blue-collar laborers, the union workers, the farmers -- are quietly suppressed by the government, that they're unhappy with their country, and are waiting to be rescued from oppression. What shocked me even further is that any dissenting voices attempting to defend China and the living conditions of its people were immediately ripped apart and accused of perjury. In fact, the popular belief seems so sound that many convince themselves that any defending voices must be undercover Chinese government officials trolling Western media outlets to spread more lies about the motherland. They cite that since many websites are banned in China, the only way a Chinese person can read condemning articles is through special government treatment, never mind the millions of Chinese people abroad in the rest of the world. Of course no normal Chinese person would defend China of his or her own free will.

What? Again, what? I'll be the first person to admit China's flaws and shortcomings (of which there are many, on immense scale) but I feel unless people wish to prevent a China vs "rest of the world" mentality (which will only lead to trouble), Western nations especially need to stop underestimating China's cultural and historic legacy. It's true, the Chinese government excels at propaganda, at whipping up the population into a frenzy, of promoting a patriotism that puts America to shame. And yet, it's important to remember that China contains over a billion people, scattered over thousands of miles, and technology such as television and the internet is still a luxury concept to millions. Bureaucracy is unavoidable, and there are a lot of interceptions and red-tape between the decisions made by the central government in Beijing and the people in the country. But this disconnect doesn't damper the pride Chinese people have in their country or (especially) in their ethnicity. No matter what China's government is like, China is still a land full of Chinese, and that's not going to change.

I met with hospital directors and university presidents and I also went home to my grandparents, into the heart of Shaanxi where you can find a spot that overlooks miles and miles of fruit orchards and not much else. If anything, I've found that farmers in the country are even quicker to defend China than the leaders in the city; people are proud of where they've come from, how far they've come, and how far China can and will go. Living conditions are still astronomically unbalanced and the poverty can be frightening. But give the Chinese people some credit; they love their country not because the government forces them but because they recognize the thousands of years of China's history and accomplishments, that despite class disputes they still share the same culture and race. The common ethnicity is a double-edged sword: too much compassion for one's country & race may encourage the overlooking of grievances or violations made by the government, and I'm sure that's a balance that China will continue to struggle to find for years to come.

Way to a country's heart is through its food

2008-08-24T03:52:00.008+08:00

In my 2-week absence, I: watched a lot of Olympics; despaired over the commentary, video montages, & media coverage; fell in love with Ryan Lochte. He doesn't quite fill the void in my heart left from Pieter van den Hoogenband, but he'll do. In my spare time, I also hung out with friends, accumulated even more "stuff" to take back to Boston, attended six (6) sleepovers, and marathoned 8 episodes of China's live action Prince of Tennis drama. Yeah, my newfound "azn-ness" acquired from China still hasn't faded.

I've been waiting all summer to write up my obligatory food post, and I'd originally saved it for the Opening Ceremony, which has now turned into. . . the Closing Ceremony. . . I did say timeliness isn't my best trait. :T

On average, I ate out about 5 times a week; there's just so much variety for food in China, and especially in Xi'an, that it seemed a waste not to take advantage. Or so I told myself. Most of the time either teachers or family friends and classmates invited me out to lunch and dinner. I've already written about the complex etiquette of formal dining, and by the end of my 2 months, I was pretty burnt out from the higher dining experience. Even casual eating among friends and family can turn into a complicated affair. Chinese banquet restaurants always follow a strict course order: cold meat appetizers, cold vegetable dishes, hot vegetable & meat plates, hot meat cuts, soup, and then usually a large cauldron of hand-rolled noodles to round off the meal. Perhaps in the more Southern parts of China restaurants will also serve rice in the beginning of the meal to eat with your vegetables & meat, but Xi'an natives usually only order rice for guests or tourists. We're loyal to our wheat & flour; the only rice we eat is stewed in congee. (In my opinion, no other city can top Xi'an's specialty noodles and dumplings.) The problem with the course order, however, is that you invariably fill up on vegetables and meat, which to my American carb-obsessed body means. . . I simply eat vegetables and meat until I can't force them down anymore but I still don't feel "full". No one's hungry by the time the noodles make an appearance as the last dish; often times, the noodles are only ordered as a customary show of, "Look! Everyone is so full and content that we even have a giant pot of food leftover!" The Chinese middle class enjoys extravagance.

My favorite way of soaking up Chinese culinary culture is sampling all the different delicacies a city offers via street carts and stalls. Unfortunately, most of the time I had to sneak around to eat some of my favorite foods because the adults tend to frown upon street eating (sanitation safety is often an issue) and instead took me out for food like. . . raw beef dipped in wasabi and roast duck. But fear not, for I grew up with protective Asian parents and know how to budget double city lifestyles. Pictorial proof!

Typical Chinese banquet spread (mid-meal, post-appetizer)

Typical dinner at home for a family of 4 +1

Fish dumplings with portobello mushrooms

Morning jian bian stuffed with chives and rice noodles

Eggplant potsticker

Classic Xi'an noodles with vegetables

Ma po tofu!!! One of my favorite Chinese dishes

Another jian bing with peanut sauce, spices, and pickled vegetables

a Chinese style döner

Dry fish & shrimp hot pot with lots and lots and lotsss of spices

Hand-cut long noodles, served dry with vegetables

Genuine dimsum with rice congee

Relax, these were vegetarian but they definitely tasted strange
There are still a ton of Xi'an specialty foods that I forgot to visually record, such as lian pi, rou jia mo, and yang rou pao. Not to mention the insane amount and variety of fruit I consumed every day. I ate basically everything I came across in China; I definitely wasn't a picky eater. I told everyone that I'll eat anything, just maybe not a lot of it. Mostly, I didn't want people to think of me as a snobby Chinese-turned-American who could only eat fried rice and stir fry. I guess I'm still culturally sensitive to perceptions and expectations.

Surprisingly, I didn't crave a lot of American foods during my stay, but I did lust after (1) good chocolate, especially dark, and (2) cupcakes & cake in general. Diary products, with the exception of yogurt, are a bust in China, because almost everyone drinks powdered milk and thus use powdered milk in baking instead of thick & creamy whole milk. I vainly tried bakery after bakery, to no avail. I even treated Xiao Ke out to (way overpriced) Häagen-Dazs one afternoon in desperation for quality dairy, only to find the ice-cream inferior to its German/American counterparts. Oh well, I ate enough in China; according to the tailors and seamstresses, I probably should've gone without dessert for the summer, anyway.

What I'll miss the most from China: suan nai!!! Literally translated as "sour milk", culturally translated as "yogurt", only. . . drinkable. Gosh, this stuff is delicious; I'd drink two cartons every morning for breakfast. American GoGurt and yogurt drinks just aren't the same.

Clothes: pieces of fabric and so, so much more

2008-08-08T17:19:00.002+08:00

Olympics start today! YAYYY. I was going to celebrate by writing up the food-post that I've been accruing all summer long, but after some consideration I decided my tailoring & clothes post has more backlog leverage.

Labor in China is ridiculously cheap, and even though the falling of the U.S. dollar (so brutal) and improved living conditions in China have hiked up fees in recent times, one of my most anticipated experiments this summer was trying out tailor-made clothes. Depending on what quality fabric you select, what style you want, and where you get it made, the price might end up only slightly less than a ready-made item in a department store, but (1) you know you're definitely not paying for the "brand" name (2) the clothing is fitted custom for your body and (3) you get executive power over styling details.

I'd been dreaming about this dress for months and managed to have it made for about 10 USD (including fabric costs). High-quality silk, cotton, jersey, and woolblends are also much easier to come by over there than in the U.S. - a few years ago, my mother fitted all of our house's curtains in China and shipped them over using huge boxes. I know there's a lot of expressed concern over the quality of China-made items, and though my experience has been mixed, one of the truly awesome things about China is the amount of custom-made detailing available: it's just as easy to commission a painting rather than buying one from a store; street carts and stores sell all kinds of personalized souvenirs; fabric and accessory shops almost always include personal tailors and seamstresses. The price will be steeper than mass-production, obviously, but definitely worth the cost.

For me, the best part of tailor-made clothes is choosing the fabric - the possibilities are endless! It's best to browse with someone who's familiar with different fabrics, of course, but most shop owners are happy to answer basic questions about quality and how many meters you'd need for a shirt or skirt or dress. The most important part of dealing with tailors is staying firm - Chinese people are rather opinionated and much more blunt than the West. When I drew out the above dress and shirt for the first seamstress I went to, she flat-out told me she couldn't do it. Hey, no problem. I just crossed the street to another tailor shop. (Thanks, 1.3 billion population!) I don't even know how many times I heard that my desired "style" will look ugly or argued over measurements and lengths. Hey, I'm the one who's going to wear it, not them. And everyone seems to assume that if you're a young girl, you will gain weight within the next year and therefore should make all of your clothes "loose-fitting". Um, what? No. If say I have a small upper-body frame, I mean it. Half the reason why I like tailored clothes is because the clothes in the stores are always too big on top. And! Most tailors will also try to make everything knee-length. Resist. If you want a shorter hem, push for it. I adamently told her I wanted my dress short(er) and I still came back to see. . . knee-length. Join the 21st century, China, please.

Making this dress was a nightmare. I argued with the seamstress for half an hour, first with her disagreeing with my fabric choice & color and then with her insisting that, "This style dress will look horrible on you! It has no shape!" Yes, I know, I want a trapeze shift dress in light gray. She finally relented after I refused to back down; the dress still finished slightly loose around my sides and. . . yes, knee-length, but otherwise I'm pleased with the shape. It's deadly showing doubt in China; a sales person will swoop in on your insecurity before you can even blink. Also: people in the clothing industry love commenting on other people's bodies and weights. Don't take it personally; I'm not considered skinny in China, either.

As for popular fashion right now. . . the amount of people and the cheap labor also means that fashion trends switch every few months. The clothes I saw in stores this summer were already completely different than the styles I saw last summer in Xi'an. A safe way of describing youth style is that mainstream boys & girls will dress in whatever's popular in Korea right now, and the more hip, stylish youth dress in whatever's popular in Japan. Hilarious, but true. I saw a lot of empire waistlines, babydoll dresses, bubble skirts, ruffles, vests, and pale colors thanks to Korea, and then I saw fake eyebrows, monstrous nails, striped thigh-high socks, acid-wash skinny jeans, and platforms thanks to Japan. Most of the clothes in small stores and street stalls are low quality, where you're mostly buying the style alone and not the fabric (think Forever 21), but you can buy shirts for under 30 RMB (~5 USD) and dresses for under 50 RMB (~7 USD). The most curious discovery this summer dealt with the higher quality and Chinese brand name clothing found in upscale malls or small boutiques. Somehow "luxury" clothing in China has become even more expensive than regular department clothes in America, even though the quality is comparable and there's still no return policy for most stores in China. It's become the new status symbol for the rising middle class, buying brands at the higher the price, the better. Personally, if I'm going to dish out a couple hundred USD on a pair of designer jeans, I'd rather go with an established American or European brand than a Chinese brand that I haven't heard of, but I suppose the "status" of the "symbol" is different there than here. Some of the spending habits I observed from the teachers at the university even made me feel conservative, and I'm pretty weak in the face of clothes. /:)

You only realize the vastness of China when. . .

2008-08-06T22:25:00.008+08:00

Can't believe I still have so much China backlog, bear with me for a bit here. :( Remember all those long weeks ago when I talked about flying to Ürümchi? Well, uh, I WENT. The trip was pretty spontaneous, and everyone told me how I ought to have waited until July when the grape orchards ripened and tourist attractions reached their peak, but my main reason for going was to see my aunt and ☆ Cousin ☆. My best friend C. teased me all last summer about my cousin complex, but the only family I have in the States is my parents and a brother 8 years my junior, so it's really exciting to have a relative my age who also understands me so well. It's bizarre, the Cousin and I only met once at age 12 for 10 days, but I feel like we really bonded in our vulnerable preteen state. Anyway, I'm yet unconvinced on the influences of genetics on personality and attitude, but the Cousin and I grew up in definitely very different cultures and environments and we have almost the exact same tastes and opinions, so. Maybe science is onto something. :) I miss him terribly, which my college friends can testify is a rare occurence for me; I easily miss places and eras and certain moments or atmospheres, but I rarely miss actual people. I can't help but feel as though so many of my social ineptitudes and struggles would be solved had I only a close relative my own age here in the U.S. :( Cousin remarked that even though I appear so American at first glance, he's surprised at how traditionally Chinese I appear at times; I guess my inexplicable faith in blood ties is one of them.

The XinJiang province (and the city of Ürümchi in particular) is interesting in that minorities make up a sizeable part of the population. And not just minority as in "Asian-but-not-Han-Chinese" but as in immigrants - largely from Pakistan and the Middle East. You know those obnoxious people in America who will stare at minorities or foreigners in public areas, as if they'd never seen someone of a different skin color before? I'm ashamed to admit that somehow China turns me into one of those people. Maybe it's because the majority of China is just so. . . homogeneously Chinese that I grow used to seeing Han Chinese faces and so the sight of a minority or foreigner automatically makes me stop and stare. That was me my entire 5 days in Ürümchi. I promise I'm much more politically correct in the States, okay. The Cousin told me that his university has probably a quarter minority population and even though most of the kids were born and grew up in China and can speak fluent Chinese, they always speak Turkish (??) among themselves. Also apparently the Chinese government promotes affirmative action; who knew. I wanted to see the Cousin's dormroom and tried sneaking up the stairs twice but was thwarted each time by the cleaning lady who immediately screeched, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED IN BOYS ROOM!!" Sabotage. :(

The Cousin skipped class to show me around campus / Ürümchi

He took me up to Red Mountain, the highest point in the city

Only China would put a nature reserve so close to the highway. . .

a Turkish dish that's become a XinJiaing regional specialty
Funny story: I don't like eating meat and fish in China because the Chinese don't believe in serving without bones (usually very small and prickly ones) because kids learn from a young age how to spit them out. Ummm, not me. I didn't even realize there were (small) bones inside the lamb pieces until Cousin paused in his eating, stared at my plate, and then asked, "Where are the bones you spit out?" I stared back blankly. "Oh, are we supposed to spit them out?" I replied weakly. "HAVE YOU BEEN SWALLOWING THEM?" his jaw dropped. "You're like a 5 year old, I can't even believe it."

So, ummm, yes. I prefer staying vegetarian in China. Also I possibly need to learn how to properly chew my food.

The only real touristing I did during my 5-day stay in Ürümchi / Wulumuqi was a day trip to Heavenly Pool, which was even more beautiful than Lake Namtso in Tibet and thankfully a lot less freezing. I wanted to climb up, but the tour guide advised against it due to time restraints, so we took a bus up and then rode the cable car down. We ended up having to climb up 1000 steps to see the temple, though, so that made the mountain experience at least a little bit more "authentic". The view was stunning.

Entrance at the midpoint of the mountain

Climbing up the steps to the temple

Cloudy skies and the mountain peaks

A sense of past peace now passed

Locals renting traditional wear for photo-ops

The lake gave an overwhelming sense of loneliness

The lake under clearer skies with the thousand-year old elm tree on the dock

Cable cars! Better than the amusement park equivalent

Perfect for street racing, yes? Yes.

Cousin and me riding the cable car down
The rest of my days in XinJiang was spent romping around Ürümchi with the Cousin. We saw Kung Fu Panda in dubbed Mandarin in a movie theater, navigated our way through construction sites at midnight, and sat around in restaurants and cafés for hours eating ice-cream and idly catching up on the past 8 years.

SUGAR COATED HAWTHORNES ON A STICK, gosh so delicious

Spicy lamb skewers, another regional specialty

XinJiang noodles with-- you guessed it, lamb and spicy peppers
Ürümchi was probably my favorite part of China this year; the week felt so relaxing and full of fun. It probably helps that the Cousin did all the planning and executive work and I could just enjoy myself without any of the stress. /:) The Cousin attentively asked if I was hungry or thirsty throughout the day, guided me when crossing the street, carried my bag for me (look, it was heavy. . . ), and occasionally even held up my umbrella (oh, boys in China). I told him hanging out with him was even better than having a boyfriend (perks but no stress) and he confessed that he treats me better than he treats his girlfriend. As C. would say, the cousin complex lives on. . . Hilariously, when I first stepped into his room, I noticed a framed picture of a girl by his desk, and I had a brief petty flash of, "WHO IS IT >:O!!" before I realized. . . oh wait, it's me. :")

What the tour books won't tell you

2008-07-26T16:09:00.003+08:00

Okay, timeliness is definitely not my strength. Point: I'm back home! In America! It seems a bit paradoxical to blog about my China experiences from my pale pink bedcovers in my cozy little Midwest suburb, but after some thought I decided it's best to record my perspectives in one place for the sake of completion. Plus, as long as I finish all of my planned posts and topics before the end of summer, they should still count, right? Yes.

I went mountain climbing the weekend before I left. Unfortunately & typically of myself, I misheard the phone call and mistook the mountain name for a park. Hence, I scaled ~2000 feet whilst wearing open-toed sandals, a ruffly tank top, and over-sized earrings and wrist bangles. Don't try this at home, kids.

People kept giving me strange looks as they passed me :(

At least the natural lighting was superb

"Restaurant" lake view

Gotta play up the "Chinese-ness" for the tourists, right?
I've been putting off my Huang Ling and Yellow River post for a while now, but the mountain-climbing experience reminded me of how I wanted to address the tourism industry in China. Namely, it sucks. I've done my fair share of traveling around China, usually with professional traveling agencies, and the standard and quality makes me never want to travel again. I'm referring mostly to natural landmarks outside of cities. I noticed last year when my mother and I went to Tibet that entrance fees for museums or nature reserves are incredibly steep, usually 50-150 RMB (~8 - ~25 USD, but the difference is actually even more severe due to difference in incomes), and the reserves are usually very poorly upkept, with holes-in-the-ground for restrooms (my tolerance is pretty baller) and food I don't even want to take pictures of. I don't understand the logic: the tourism industry is so profitable right now; the standard of living (in the cities) has escalated quickly in the past few years, and people in China are making more money, which means more money to spend on vacation, traveling, leisure. And the majority of people don't mind splurging on comfort when it comes to vacation; when you've dished out thousands for train tickets, tour buses, guides, and entrance fees, the extra assurance of safety and carefree enjoyment seems like small expenses. And yet.

For Huang Ling & the Yellow River, we drove 5 hours out of Xi'an; the entrance fee to see the Yellow River waterfall alone was 80 RMB, and inside was literally a small waterfall roped off the rocks, a (nearly empty) hotel + restaurant, and a few small stands selling souvenir goods. To use the flush toilet inside the restaurant (was not even that clean), I had to pay 0.50 RMB. (The hole-in-the-grounds were free, of course.) Similarly, the food sold inside was overpriced and inedible; we waited until the 5 hour drive back to Xi'an to eat dinner. I asked a couple of the teachers at the university about why touristing in China is so expensive and unsatisfying, and they said that the tourism industry has grown too fast; add to the fact that most natural landmarks are outside of the cities in the farmlands, where people are poor and land is undeveloped. The gap between the cities and not-cities is truly startling; one develops too fast, the other not at all. How is the country supposed to move forward together if this continues.

Sorry, off-topic rant. In short: there are many things I adore about China, with its endless entertainment and opportunities for leisure, but all of them exist (for me) in the city, and touristing is not one of them. The one exception I've found in Xi'an is the Terra Cotta soldiers museum; the entrance fee is expensive but the facilities are clean (even the public restrooms!) and the displays really show off China's age and legacy. I remember eating lunch inside and not wanting to vomit afterwards, so A++.

Huang Ling (recognized birthplace of the Han Chinese) was actually interesting, too, except the tour guide spoke in rapid Chinese with lots of references to Chinese history, none of which I've learned before. The structure of the museum was very open and gave off an aura of great triumph and severity.

Looking down at the rest of Huang Ling from the pillar

Paying respects

Old-fashioned sun clock

500-year-old tree
Perhaps I judged the Yellow River waterfall too harshly because I've seen Niagara Falls several times already? But it's hard to stir great emotion when I'm staring at the eponymous yellow water as the waterfall spat up cool sprays of. . . mud droplets.

Undisturbed all these thousands of years

You can see a rainbow in the river if you're lucky

The English Director made me wear this. . .

My province is picturesque :")
Tomorrow I leave for a family vacation to. . . Virginia & Chesapeake Bay. Considering I just returned home and have barely recovered from jet lag, I'm a bit reluctant to go. Twelve-hour car rides with the family, what's not to love, right? More China reports once I get home (yet again).

Yum, stereotypes!

2008-07-18T00:41:00.002+08:00

I've fallen terminally ill. . . with summer laziness. I got back into Xi'an yesterday afternoon and already my social calendar is booked through the weekend. It kills me. I want to lie under my air conditioner and eat fruit in my pajamas all morning long. (Instead, I was woken up today at 8 AM by an electric drill next door. Sabotage!)

Remember how I got a facial a couple weeks ago? The beautician told me her nephew currently attends university in the States too, and asked for my contact information. (I give out my phone number like candy in China; might as well, I'm on a time limit here, anyway.) A few days ago, her nephew called me and invited me out for a coffee; I met with him this morning. Before we even talked for 30 minutes I could tell that he came from a stereotypical upper middle class city home, two parents, traditional upbringing. (Confirmed: his dad is a university professor, and he grew up in the university school yard.) I might as well take this opportunity to launch into my take on youth in Xi'an.

Modern Chinese culture is so different from America's that I'm not even sure how to begin. The most apparent differences are easy to observe: Chinese students often start school at 8 AM and don't go home until 6 or 7 PM, only to hurriedly eat dinner and then write three or four hours of homework before they're quickly ushered into bed by concerned parents and then woken up the next morning at 6 AM. Middle school (7-9th grade / ages 13-15) is considered the most sensitive time; testing into a good high school often directly determines if you'll test into a good university or not. And trust me, the average Chinese parents have only one dream: their child (1 family, 1 child policy) getting into a respectable major at a top-ranked university. Which, applying to university in China hinges only on your entrance exam score; 18 years of labor boiled down to a 2-day exam. The entire city seems to undergo lock-down during that weekend in June. Unlike in the West, where there are still respectable alternatives to traditional university education; mainstream population doesn't tend to look down on art/music schools (apart from the occasional "starving artist" joke), culinary schools, graphic design / architecture / fashion institutes, postponing a year or two to study abroad, or volunteering for a couple years for an NGO. From what I've personally experienced in China, either you manage to attend a ranked university directly after high school or you've brought shame to your parents; the Chinese rumor mill is more vicious than anything an American suburb can cook up.

As a result, Chinese city youth divides into two main groups: either they are "good", had high marks during middle and high school, and study a regular major (language, medicine, accounting, computer, finance, etc) at a regular university, or. . . . . they don't. Of course, both groups divide even further and there are crucial nuances to both, but for the stereotypical Chinese adult and elderly, that's all they judge by. Xiao Ke, because she's studying media/entertainment hosting at a specialized university, is often immediately classified into the second category, even though she's one of the most practical people I know in China. The first time I made plans to go out with her, the English Director even told me to "be careful" because "she's not normal". This kind of biased behavior is often self-fulfilling; students who are not naturally inclined toward mathematics and Chinese literature and ~the respectable life~ are isolated and misunderstood by parents and teachers, and these students instead turn to outside validation, further widening the mistrust between them and mainstream society. Okay, that sounds pretty dramatic, but the condescension I've seen directed toward "abnormal" city youth makes even my American-Midwest-raised heart churn.

What's worse is that the reactions toward these two types of youth have a polarizing effect - ordinary youth tend to be excruciatingly ordinary (i.e. boring) and peculiar youth tend to be unapproachable (i.e. intimidating). The former has little time for anything outside of books and exams up until university (see: obedient) and the latter learns from a young age to be independently defensive. I have a difficult time connecting with either, but that's the same with any culture clash in any part of the world.

Which finally brings me to the second half of my birthday story. After the Boy called, I hailed a cab to the club, and when I found their table, they had already ordered 16 bottles of beer (Coor's Light & Beck's), 2 packs of cigarettes, and a fruit bowl. For essentially 4 people. (I drank half a beer, felt my face flush, and decided to stop so that I wouldn't end my birthday looking like a cherry.) That night was the first time I finally met ~abnormal city youth~ (obviously my parents' friends' children and the university professors' and administrators' children fell in the first category of students). The Boy's friends included two boys and a girl: one boy had an asymmetrical faux-hawk haircut, dyed light brown, with a pierced ear and nose ring; the other boy had thickly spiked brownish-red hair, thick plastic glasses, a nose piercing, and wore. . . an orange paisley button-down shirt; the girl probably had at least a half centimeter worth of foundation, fake eye-lashes and fake eyebrows, and introduced herself as. . . . Candy. She asked for my phone number and MSN handle and held my hand when we went to find the restroom together; I found her delightfully adorable. (Note: the second boy and the girl had been going out for over a year, but occasionally the second boy would unexpectedly grab the first boy's face and touch lips; manly. . . love. . . . ? The girl didn't even blink.)

They outlined their afternoon schedule for me: the four of them met up and ate an early dinner; then they went to a hair salon and all had their hair washed and styled (usually 5-10 RMB ~1 USD); then the girl had her make-up done (also 5-10 RMB ~1 USD); as soon as they stepped outside one of her eyebrows fell off (.....) so they had to go back inside and have that fixed (her boyfriend jokingly threatened that if her eyebrow fell off again he would just rip the other one off to match); then they leisurely made their way to the club and staked a table. The night before they went to a karaoke bar at around midnight; sometimes they'll also go to an arcade and play DDR for a few hours. If nothing else, internet bars usually stay open all night long. (I'm pretty sure if the English Director's 14-year-old son even stepped foot into any of these places, she would have a heart attack on the spot. The English Director, by the way, is not considered conservative here; she's considered a justifiably concerned mother.)

My categorization is over-simplified and excludes a lot of circumstances and exceptions, but I honestly do feel that there's a distinct line drawn between "good" and "bad" kids here, and that line often depends on school marks. In America parents worry about substance abuse and teen pregnancy. In China parents worry about their kids placing in the bottom half of the class. It's impossible to compare the two school systems, and I dislike when people try. Just because in America high school students only attend class for 6 hours instead of 10 doesn't automatically mean they face no hardship and only play around; the pressure is different. Extracurriculars are nonexistent in China. Community service is rare. Peer pressure isn't a problem. When I tell the teachers here how my parents and I often clashed on high school, they automatically assume, "Oh, because your parents wanted you to study and you wanted to play?" No, my parents and I fought because they wanted me to memorize my Chemistry textbook when I wanted to prepare for a Debate meet. (In America I get incredibly defensive when people talk down China, and in China I get equally defensive when people talk down America. Despite everything, I have faith in America's youth. We may play hard but we know when it's go time. Also: America is not filled with obese people! Gosh! I'll save China and its obsession with weight for another day. Hint: in China I'm considered average / can afford to lose a few pounds.)

I'll round off this monstrous entry with a few pictures of Chinese university campuses. I've visited 3 or 4 campuses in China in different cities, and they mainly follow the same layout. Unlike the West which likes to adopt Gothic architecture for university quads, universities in China have very little special architectural design. They're obviously not going to fashion classroom buildings to look like temples (though how cool would that be) and they're also not going to adopt "old" European style (old by European standards is but a baby step in China's time frame, after all). Almost all the universities are also inside cities; suburbs don't exist in mainland China.

Usual university entrance (gated for regulation and safety purposes)

Typical street (lined with trees)

Grassy park area inside the campus

Table tennis court and clothesline outside the student dorms

祝你生日快乐 (now you know how to say 'Happy Birthday' in Chinese)

2008-07-12T21:23:00.004+08:00

Finally! My long, long, long overdue birthday post. I am no longer a teenager; hold on a moment while I sob in the corner. If I must recap just a few moments from the past decade, they'd probably include eating instant ramen straight out of the bag at sleepovers, attempting to write poetry for the first time, discovering the existence of the internet, writing anonymous love letters at age 16 (and then working up the courage to deliver them), swinging in the rain until midnight with school the next day, photoshoots in red and white. I miss high school, but I never hope to relive it. Isn't this life? A piecemeal of odd memories cobbled together from the remnants of emotions. Growing up is nothing more than bluffing your way through fears and turning firsts into habits, after all. I've obsessively journaled since the age of 14, and it's always a head-trip, looking back on what I used to write. Where does the time ago? (I know, I sound like an old woman rather than 20. Humor me.)

Firstly, I've spent the past 5 birthdays away from home: three times in China (16, 19, 20), once in Baltimore (17), once in Boston (18). Unlike my previous few birthdays, my 20th was amazing. . . ly productive. I set my alarm for 8:30 AM and was out the door by 9:15 AM to go to 35th Hospital by the Big Goose Pagoda, my ~real birth place~. I am hilariously sentimental about things like this. I told the English Director that the only two places I genuinely wanted to see this summer in Xi'an are (1) Xi Bei University, my mother's alma mater and (2) the hospital where I was born. Obviously things have changed a lot in the past 20 years - 35th used to be a military hospital and has since changed names, expanded, shifted location, etc. The Obstetrics Wing, however, still stayed the same all these years.

A tourist even in hospitals

This building hasn't changed in 20 years, the nurse told me

Possibly the room where I was born (?!?!?!)
The day was miserably rainy all day long, and I immediately regretted wearing a pure white dress and flats as soon as I stepped outside, but there was no time to correct mistakes - I spent the rest of the day zipping from one part of Xi'an to another, running errands, fitting myself for a qi pao, buying fabric for my aunt. I managed to rest for an hour for lunch, where I ate shou mian, a Chinese birthday tradition of eating long, thin noodles to ensure a long, vivacious life.

For dinner, the English Department threw me a party. I teared up.

My 20th birthday cake :)

Ate so much delicious food that night; check out the bok choy display in particular

Me + family friend + English Department
I wish I could fully express just how fantastic and wonderful the people at the university have been to me; their kindness far extends past simple professionalism, and I have lacked absolutely nothing the 6 weeks I spent in Xi'an. The English Director adopted me like her own daughter; I ate dinner at her house pretty much every night and even once spent the night when we both watched a Korean drama until 2 A.M. (her idea, not mine). Whenever I had an errand I needed to run or simply wanted to go shopping, one of the English teachers immediately volunteered to help. I feel so incredibly lucky. :( Their hospitality makes me want to come back sometime in the future again. I love that China still feels like home; I hope that feeling never changes.

I left my apartment at 9 in the morning and I didn't return until 10 at night. And as soon as I stepped in the door, the Boy called (don't get excited, I've sinced stopped seeing him) and told me he was at a club with 3 friends who all wanted to celebrate my birthday with me. I had enough time to crack open a caffeinated drink, refresh my eye make-up, and slip on a pair of earrings before going out into the rain again and hailing a cab back toward city center. The rest of this story includes an overview of Xi'an city youth, too, so for the sake of not convoluting this entry further, I'll save this last segment (as well as university campus photos) for next time. STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT ON CHANNEL CHERRYLET. . . .

Clubbing in Xi'an 101

2008-07-10T19:52:00.006+08:00

The Friday before my birthday weekend, Xiao Ke decided it was time to show me Xi'an nightlife. Little did she know just exactly what that would entail. (Hilariously, despite living in Xi'an her entire life, she spends most of her free time hidden away in an internet bar, playing multi-person RPGs such as. . . World of Warcraft. I seriously would've never guessed. To help with navigation around the city, Xiao Ke dragged along one of her former classmates.) We stopped by an upscale plaza and abused their air conditioning while people-watching the shoppers inside Gucci, Fendi, and Chloé. "Those stores only need to sell one purse to pay off a month's rent," her classmate told us. Luxury brands are the same on every continent.

Then they took me through the bar district, where I saw tons of foreigners loading up on European beer (from the window signs, Heineken is a favorite here). It doesn't matter if you're inside a countryside restaurant or an expensive city pub; as long as you're in China, the place is guaranteed to be overstaffed (by Western standards). Just walking down the street involved dodging dozens of servers and bartenders hawking their respective bars, offering deals, coaxing us to come in, sit down, try a ~special deal~ they're having that night, etc. I almost wanted to shield my face and make a break for it.

Mei Mei plaza = prime people-watching stake-out

Every building lining this street is a bar
We passed the Bell Tower and made our way to the Drum Tower, where we spent an hour leisurely inspecting street vender merchandise and stuffing our faces with street meat and dried fruit. I know I already said that Xi'an is filled with people but it warrants a second saying: Xi'an. Is filled. With People.

Impossible to take a picture of the Drum Tower without the McDonald's sign. . . THINK OF THE SYMBOLISM. . .

China is going to give me a claustrophobia complex

Lamb skewers, a Xi'an favorite

Sugared fruit syrup over rice - a sweet & sticky summer treat
I told Xiao Ke the first week I met her how my ~summer dream~ is to try clubbing in Xi'an. "Discos don't usually start until midnight. . ." she said hesitantly. "No problem!" I answered, "Just tell your mother you're sleeping over at my place for the night, and we can stay out until whenever!" ---- to which she promptly replied, "You are crazy."

(/_\)

But she remembered my wish and informed her classmate, who thought for a moment and then said slowly, "I guess there's no harm in checking one out. . . " (famous last words)

We went up Club Salsa and took a tour of a place, dodging various buzzed dancers and servers laden with beer buckets. The inside reminded me a lot of clubs in Europe, with the dim pockets of lounge chairs and tables, a flashing dance floor, and a raised platform of professional dancers. The theme that night was apparently military? Six girls in army wear and machine guns; they looked better than they danced. We stayed inside for about 20 minutes, before winding our way out again. As soon as we exited onto the street, Xiao Ke grabbed my arm and said firmly, "Let's taxi back, change clothes, and dance until morning."

I always knew I had a fifth sense for choosing friends who understand me perfectly.

Let's break down the clubbing scene in Xi'an: one, clubs have no cover charge. There's also no charge for bag check. However, if you want to sit down before 1 A.M., each table has a 200 RMB (~30 USD) base charge, which equates to either two bottles of hard alcohol or 8 bottles of beer or 10 bottles of water or 5 fruit bowls or. . . you get the idea. By Western standards, clubbing is pretty cheap, especially if you go with friends. But I get the feeling that clubbing is an isolated culture in China, with its own population niche. The average age seems to fall between 20 and 30, with the occasional older male. You won't find a lot of college students; university dorms here normally lock down at 11 or 12 PM, effectively cutting student night life. (Of course, there are ways around curfew - you can just resolve to not go back until morning; there are plenty of discos, karaoke bars, and tea cafés that open all night.)

I want to categorize Xi'an clubbers into three main groups: one, the younger crowd that no longer attends school or attends a specialized university (likely studying art, dance, or music). Two, university graduates who have already started working and living alone (mostly 20s or 30s). Three, rich kids who can afford this lifestyle and have parents who don't care.

Surprising discovery of the night: men in China are pretty aggressive. I got physically pulled toward the dance floor three or four times, despite verbally and physically refusing; I also couldn't stay in one place too long or else someone would insist on buying me a drink. At one point a server actually approached Xiao Ke and me and told us that there was a table of college boys who requested (lolol definitely category #3 of clubbers) for us to drink with them; when we declined, the server told us we'd better relocate, unless we wanted trouble. I went clubbing twice in the States and five or six times in Europe, and these kind of things never happened, not even once. Verdict: drag a male friend along when clubbing in China; when in doubt, you never go wrong with a wingman.

Music judgment: think 80s extended disco remixes. Thankfully no American Top 40 and ridiculous rave techno, but there were a few tracks that had 8 minutes worth of repetitive bass beats that eventually gave even me a headache. And my tolerance for trashy electronica is unparalleled along the East Coast, trust me.

When in China, act Chinese

2008-07-07T12:07:00.003+08:00

I'm back at my grandparents! I have my laptop, a wireless internet card prone to disconnect me without warning, and an English GRE review book. I think it is royally unfair that I'm in China, and I still have to memorize English vocabulary. On the upside, my written Chinese vocabulary has expanded from maybe 50 words to 100. Laughing so hard, will I ever actually learn my mother language. =_= My spoken Chinese is passable now; I can do basic errands by myself, ask for directions, converse with strangers, etc. Before, usually within 3 sentences someone could spot that I wasn't from China; now I can hold a full conversation and have the other person just assume that I'm not from Xi'an. One of the main words that I've heard over and over this year is 气质 / qi zhi (a person's temperament, air, quality). I can't tell the difference between myself and the next girl on the street, but as soon as I step inside a store or meet someone new, they immediately tell me that my qi zhi is different. Reactions have been pretty polarized: either people think I look incredibly Eastern Chinese and therefore must be Chinese and the difference lies elsewhere (I walked into a fabric store last week and could feel everyone turn to stare at me as I awkwardly rustled through some fabric; one of the owners eventually came up to me and asked if I was a fashion student ??? random) or people keep guessing that. . . . I'm Korean. I don't see it, sorry.

I bought a couple meters of different fabrics and I plan to have some dresses made here. Will report back with results after they're finished. :) I also bought a custom-made qi pao! I've been wavering on buying one for weeks now, in fear that I won't have anywhere to wear it once I return to America, but hopefully this style is casual enough to wear out in public.

Old-style Chinese wear in old-style China
I got a haircut a few days ago, and the hairdresser cut off too much. :( My hair grows pretty fast, though, and Shaanxi is ridiculously humid right now, so the shorter the hair, the better. Because I've also felt particularly indulgent recently, I went in for a facial and a full-body massage. The salon told me that the normal facial schedule here is one per week! If I remember correctly, in the States a facial is recommended once per month. Once per week seems a little extravagant. :o

I guess my skin looks better. . . ?
The beautician kept refering to me as xiao gu niang (little girl) the entire time, and after a while I curiously asked her to guess my age. No way you're older than 16, she said confidently. (/_\) (/_\) (/_\) She also guessed I was Korean. (/_\) (/_\) (/_\) I am a walking identity crisis.

Remember how I got sick my first week in Xi'an? My cough has persisted even 6 weeks later, despite a visit to the hospital, lots of rest, and injesting several different kind of pills every day. Xiao Ke's mother suggested the Chinese method of sucking cold/bad air out of your body a few days ago, and I figured: when in China, might as well do as the Chinese do. Little did I know what I got myself into.

Sucking the cold air out of my body
Your skin should turn white if your body is healthy and purple if you have sickness. I apparently am very sick. The swelling eventually went down, and I wasn't allowed to let water or wind touch my back for the next 2 days.

24 hours after my cold/bad air was sucked
On one hand, my cough seems a little better? On the other hand, there appears to be. . . 6 gigantic bruises on my back. . . . but it was worth a try, at least. Part of me is kind of curious about acupuncture. . . . ahaha, maybe next time. /:)

I have 4 entries worth of backlog from before my trip to XinJiang, and I'm going to try to post them within the next few days. Prepare yourselves for some intense picture spam. :)

Olympic fever

2008-07-05T01:12:00.005+08:00

Today the Olympic torch came to Xi'an! I crawled out of bed at the tender hour of 6:30 AM; people started poring into the streets at around 6 AM. I looked up the torch route the night before, but I didn't anticipate the level of mass hysteria I faced as soon as I stepped outside. The starting point for the torch was the Small Goose Pagoda, which is about a 15 minute walking distance from where I live - unfortunately, most of the small streets were closed off, and ⁮I didn't so much as walk in the general direction as I was swept away by a stormy sea of red flags and "I love China" shirts. Seriously never have I seen so much patriotism in such a concentrated space. Most businesses here forbid people to take the day off, but most of the universities in Xi'an have already dismissed for summer vacation - no surprises on where you could probably find the tens of thousands of students this morning. I walked as far as one of the streets on the planned route and then. . . I couldn't walk anymore. Literally. A solid wall of people completely obstructed any sort of traffic or movement. Once I wrestled my way out of the crowd, I admitted defeat and headed back - fighting against the people current actually made me kind of claustrophobic. I don't even want to discuss how many times I got hit / scraped / bruised by bikes this morning. After waiting 10 minutes (!!!) for a morning jian bing, I staggered into my apartment at 9 AM, cranked up the aircon, and watched the torch passing on television from my sofa. Bliss.

O HAY CLAUSTROPHOBIA

中国加油!!

Eventually people gave up and resorted to trusty CCTV 5
P.S. Happy 4th of July to those of you in the States! What I wouldn't give for a hot dog or hamburger right now, let me tell you. :(

Still the best 4 years of your life?

2008-06-25T10:10:00.001+08:00

I have a few precious hours of internet before my flight to XinJiang today so I should probably recap the "teaching English in Asia" experience. Classes ended last Friday, and I had to give an oral exam to the English majors - I think I was more terrified than the students. I taught 4.5 weeks at the university, a total of 52 units, to 3 different majors. I've never had any intention to pursue teaching or education, and teaching English as a second language is particularly difficult, but I think my time here has been (at the very least) personally rewarding. To the people who go by themselves to an Asian country to teach English without knowing country's language - I can't even imagine the hardships they must face. I taught university students, most of whom had studied English for at least 5 or 6 years, and even then I often had to repeat or translate about half of what I said in Chinese for them to understand. Most of the students here also have very little opportunity to interact with genuine native English speakers - it's not like the United States where even middle and high schools tend to hire native speakers for foreign language classes.

Teachers and students have an interesting relationship here. Even at university, absences must be excused and teachers often know by name who doesn't attend lecture and further investigate reasons. Students also have mandatory study time here - usually once or twice a week they must go to a classroom and "study by themselves" while a teacher supervises. What? How is it studying by yourself if it's mandatory! In America, I feel as if the majority of class time is spent learning new material with very little time set aside for reviewing; that usually is left for homework or self-studying. Here, students probably have double the class time and spend the extra time reviewing, then reviewing some more. (And then they go home and review some more.)
The teacher supervision found in the university here is even more than the supervision found in high schools in America. I've found that unless I give the students very specific instructions or questions, they often don't quite know how to reply; this approach is so different from what I'm used to and it took me over a week before I started learning how to handle the difference.

And for anything that the teacher doesn't supervise, the responsibility usually falls to the class monitor. As I mentioned previously, every class has one student who's responsible for the entire class - this includes knowing where other students are at a given moment in the day, why someone is absent, lecture time changes, exam schedules, etc. The English director told me that a good class monitor makes a teacher's job much more relaxed, and the position has its own perks and advantages (particularly in the future after graduation). But of course, here, from a very young age people are taught that they are not only responsible for themselves but also for their classmates, family, friends. The other side of the individualism coin, right?

Half of the foreign nursing class (one of my favorites)

A couple students caught up with me after class and requested a picture

When the West creeps into the East

2008-06-23T22:34:00.005+08:00

I CAN'T BLOG AS FAST AS I LIVE; so many things have happened in the past week alone that I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. I have: celebrated two birthday dinners, one of which was mine (!!!); went clubbing until 3 A.M. with friends; somehow acquired a boy (at the club no less) and managed to see him every day since without anyone finding out (a feat, considering someone is always accompanying me. . . at any moment of the day); made possibly questionable decisions, because he calls me approximately 6 times a day and I have approximately 4 days left in Xi'an; visited the hospital where I was born and maybe even seen the room where my mother gave birth; fitted myself for a custom-made qi pao; went to Huang Ling, the supposed birthplace of the Han Chinese; seen the Yellow River, the mother river of mother China. Other subjects I also need to address: food in Xi'an, city youth culture, and seriously how Eastern Chinese I apparently look.

Oh, yes, and I'm leaving for XinJiang on Wednesday for 5 days to visit my aunt and cousin, both of whom I haven't seen in 8 years. (No impromptu Hong Kong trip for me this year, woe, but Wulumuqi is a tolerable compromise; the scenery is supposed to rival Tibet.)

I promise to document everything with pictures, but I might need to wait until after I come back from XinJiang, or maybe even until I leave for my grandparents's house before I unload my massive backlog. I'm only staying in Xi'an for 3 or 4 more days between XinJiang and Da Li, and I don't want to waste any time; there's still so much I want to do, so many people I won't have a chance again to see.

Today, the long overdue Chinese wedding post - last Sunday, 6/15 (a fortuitous day in the Lunar calendar), one of the teachers in our school's English department got married! I'd never attended a wedding before, American or Chinese, so I was pretty excited.

My first wedding invitation!
The wedding had both Western and Chinese influences: the bride walked down the aisle and exchanged vows in a white wedding gown, but she changed into a red qi pao for the toasting and celebratory drinks. Chinese weddings are so rowdy; there were (1) sparklers, (2) confetti, and (3) bubbles during the exchanging of the vows, and instead of a minister there was an. . . MC (red shirt)? Who rapped and sang the vows. Hilarious. The wedding lasted a total of 2 hours, including lunch, and everything seemed to blur together. We started eating as they exchanged vows and finished eating as they did the toast, and then everyone just. . . left. Still a good time for all, natch. Interesting cultural note: they gifted every table with a bottle of rice wine and a pack of cigarettes. Every male I have encountered in China smokes; almost makes me feel nostalgic for Germany.

Seating tables and arrangements

Bride and groom preparing to walk down the aisle!

So you think you can dance (China edition)

2008-06-18T10:14:00.003+08:00

Last Thursday Xiao Ke invited me to watch the Ti Yu University dance teams practice for their Saturday competition. It was my first taste of competitive dancing in China, because usually these types of events and activities have very little publicity in mainstream society. Chinese dancing seems to break down into three main categories: street dancing (hip hop), cheerleading, and this. . . ambiguous hybrid between cheerleading and gymnastics. Pictures speak more words than I ever could, so:

Ti Yu University dance practice room

The face of modern Chinese dance

Xiao Ke doing her street moves

Some of the girls competing were almost scarily young
I also went to the competition on Saturday to cheer on Xiao Ke, and it was a good opportunity to check out university level & style of dancing here in China. And I must say: one, China loves its cheerleading; two, the music for every category except hip hop was techno; three, China also loves its. . . glitter; four, Chinese street dancing not. . . quite. . . up to universal standards. Xiao Ke's hip hop team was by far the best; some of the others were a little painful to watch. One all-boy group from Shi Gong University did a robot popping number that was incredibly entertaining & crowd pleasing; popping is pretty popular in Asia right now.

Most adorable girl in China y/y

Picture this with a techno beat

This gym had no air-conditioning; imagine the humidity

I was mesmorized by this guy's manbag and had to sneak a picture
The dance competition was seriously a paradise for peaple-watching, because the students there were mostly the kind of students I never get a chance to see on a regular basis. The only downside was the absolute sea of Mei Yuan (an art school) students, who wouldn't stop screaming and squeezing whenever one of their teams took the floor. One of them elbowed me in the face as I was recording a video, but at least, one, I managed to capture the priceless gymnastics/cheerling. . . style. . . for future posterity and, two, I verified that pretentious hipsters are the same on every continent.

The ocean that separates the apple and the tree

2008-06-13T16:22:00.002+08:00

I haven't updated in a week - sorry, sorry! I don't know where this week went; it's been such a blur. But I absolutely must get rid of my weekend backlog, because tomorrow I'm attending the Shaanxi province university dance competition to cheer on Xiao Ke and on Sunday one of the English teachers is getting married. My first wedding, exciting. :o

I went home to Da Li for the long weekend and for Dragonboat Festival. Things haven't changed at all, except for maybe that they finally paved one of the old dirt roads, so now I can bike from my dad's house to my mom's house in less than 3 minutes. I got to see my favorite cousin, Wong Dan, who is 15 and still adorable. She uses a ton of Shaanxi slang when she talks, which gives me a 5 second response lag while I try to translate her words into standard Mandarin and decipher her meaning. Oh, the Shaanxi dialect, how it still continues to elude me.

Fields and houses

Rooftop view of my grandparents' neighborhood

Grandparents' house and court yard

A typical street - we're lucky it didn't rain last weekend

My cousin Xiao Bing and the road I took to bicycle into town last summer
Alarmingly, I'm pretty sure I've gained weight in China. Everyone keeps trying to feed me and here it's considered rude not to accept. I'm usually pretty good with portion control, though, so I'm trying to figure out where the new weight is coming from. China's love for oil and a hot pan? The stir-fried vegetables? The luxury value of pork and beef? Too much grain and starch? Or maybe it's because I've been eating green bean cake after green bean cake after green bean cake after green bean cake after green bean cake. But if that's the case, I regret nothing; my love is pure.

Eating breakfast with the family on Dragonboat Festival

Zhong zi: candied beans & fruit in sweetened sticky rice; eaten during Dragonboat Festival

You tiao & you gao: the Chinese donut, often eaten in the morning
I spent two nights with my grandparents in the country and then one night at my uncle's apartment in the town. Coincidentally, my uncle sells fireworks and recently made a sale to a funeral that held the fireworks that night. Funerals are pretty rowdy over here. Imagine lots of food, inflated balloons, flowers, and live music. I almost thought we crashed an engagement party or wedding.

Fire crackers flying high in the sky

Just like a more morbid July 4th
Yesterday I booked plane tickets for an impromptu trip I'm taking at the end of June. Details later. :>

100% fruit

2008-06-06T15:53:00.002+08:00

Last Sunday the family friend took me apricot picking in the mountains south of Xi'an. She thought it'd be a fun experience for me; little does she know that my grandparents (1) are farmers and (2) used to grow apple trees. I've visited the fields every time I've come back to China, so I've seen my fair share of fruit orchards. Still, the scenery was nice, and we ate apricots straight from the trees and sometimes even from the ground. (My stomach has been a total champ so far, keep your fingers crossed for me.) The apricot orchard we visisted was completely organic - no chemicals, no synthetic fertilizers, etc. The family who grows them owns large plots of land and grow mostly vegetables - the apricots are more for sport than for sale.

Everything in China is a photo-op

Ripe for the picking

The car ride up the mountain was kind of terrifying, won't lie

China doesn't believe in (1) gutters and (2) rails
I always thought of Shaanxi as very flat, but of course I hadn't seen this view before.

We passed by a reservoir and dam

This view is worth an afternoon of sun and 4 mosquito bites
I got completely chewed up by mosquitos the few hours we spent in the fields, but seeing the country again made me really miss my grandparents. I can't wait to go home for the weekend. :) Sunday is the Dragonboat Festival, so I'll be eating one of my favorite snack foods ever - green bean cakes. *_* The translation sounds awful, but trust me they're delicious. I won't have internet access until Tuesday, so don't expect any prompt replies. As always, I'll be sure to take ridiculous amounts of pictures. :)

Living the Chinese life

2008-06-05T12:12:00.002+08:00

Up until a few years ago, the university main campus was in Xi'an, but then they built the new campus just north of the city, and so all the classes and students relocated. Most of the teachers still live in the old campus, and there are several shuttle buses in the morning and afternoon. The school set me up with an apartment in the old campus, mostly because. . . living conditions are nicer. :> The location is ace - just a short walk from major supermarkets, the Small Goose Pagoda, and the old city wall. There are tons of students living in the surrounding complexes, too, because the school rented out the old student dorms to the other surrounding universities.

The school prepared everything for me: furniture, bedding, appliances, even cooking supplies. Too bad I don't plan on cooking; there must be at least 10 different eateries within 5 minutes walk from my buliding.

Living room; I sleep on the futon because it's softer than the bed

Bedroom + closet + sunroom

Office + clothesline in background

Laundry room + still unassembled kitchen
My only stipulation before coming was that I must have a flush toilet and a shower. Along with those necessities, the school also threw in air-conditioning, a washing machine, and (currently nonfunctional) internet. A++ would come again.

My cousin who's a student at the same university I teach came back with me on Friday for the weekend. We set out on Saturday to find Ren Ren Le (large supermarket) to buy common household supplies (e.g. toilet paper, laundry detergent, band-aids). The directions we got seemed so simple, but after walking for 20 minutes we started to feel a little. . . lost. Luckily, my cousin eavesdropped on a man talking into his cell about how he's meeting someone in front of Ren Ren Le. With renewed rigor, we tailed him the remaining 2 blocks to the supermarket. See, and my parents were actually worried about me living by myself in China.

This supermarket sells everything. . . except band-aids

Throw up a o(^_^)v

2008-06-03T09:56:00.001+08:00

This summer is the 5th time I've been back to China since I left at age 5, but this is my first time coming by myself and my first real opportunity to meet people my own age in China. It's been a kind of a disappointment, because even though there are thousands of students at the university, it's always very clear how. . . different I am? Most of them grew up in the country (what I affectionately call the 'proletariat farmlands of rural China') and know very little of different cultures and lifestyles outside of a few TV shows and the internet - and even those outlets are heavily regulated by either the government or by parents. I find them all very lovely, but it's hard trying to find common ground. And then there are my parents' friends' kids, who are almost all (1) male and (2) studying medicine. =_= Needless to say, I'd become rather discouraged in finding a long-lasting friend in China.

So imagine my delight when I met Xiao Ke. Her mother's a teacher at the university, and she introduced us last week when we both had a free afternoon. Xiao Ke is in school for speaking / hosting / MC, etc, and she likes singing and dancing, particuarly hip hop. I adore her. We can talk for hours; we grew up so differently but still share so many of the same views, it's amazing. I love that she uses Chinese youth slang and can tell me about all the ~hip~ places in Xi'an and takes me to eat messy street food.

Last Tuesday she took me shopping at Xiao Zhai, a popular avenue of small shops selling everything from clothes to electronics. Xiao Ke described it as a breeding ground for Xi'an's popular youth, and the teenagers who usually frequent the stores are attractive, school drop-outs, and (lolol) pretentious. Everyone there dressed in Japanese street style, only several seasons too late. I finally bought my umbrella! It's white with pink hearts all over it, laughing so hard. We sipped on bubble tea and bought grilled octopus from a street vender, and then Xiao Ke took me to an arcade. *_* Seriously so much fun.

a girl's best friend in summer

"I'll take you to eat delicious things," Xiao Ke promised

Asia = reliving the childhood you never had
AND THEN WE WENT KARAOKING. I always knew China's karaoke clubs were sweet, but I've never been to one before. 35 RMB (~5 USD) for 3 hours, including food. The price is probably steeper than most places around Xi'an, but still pretty reasonable considering we went on a Tuesday afternoon rather than a weekend night. Artists that we felt deserved an appearance: Jay Chou, S.H.E., Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, DBSK. I know, we're precious. I lipsynched to New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" as an encore.

definitely worth 5 USD for 3 hours, yeah?

our private karaoke suite

ate our weight in complimentary sushi

there's something about China that turns me superasian
She took me to the sports center last Saturday night where a lot of people like to go play basketball once the temperature drops. We shortcutted through a long alleyway on the way there, and a car sped past us going at least 150 km/hour, lights dim, backfiring every few seconds. Streetracing. :o I feel like it's kind of a waste in Xi'an, though, since that kind of sport probably doesn't have a large market or fanbase.

Sunday morning Xiao Ke took me to her weekly hip hop class. Firstly, I. . . simply don't have the beat, laughing. Secondly, never did I think I'd ever get to witness the glorious sight of a roomful of Chinese boys attempting to breakdance.

Sunday morning breakfast

not quite So You Think You Can Dance, but definitely entertaining

My life as. . . a Chinese girl?

2008-06-02T08:50:00.003+08:00

Within the past 5 days, I have: sung karaoke, bought 2 dresses, gotten sick, been to the hospital (nothing serious), moved into my apartment, witnessed a street racecar, attended a Chinese hip-hop dance class, picked apricots, eaten out more times than I've eaten in, STILL NO STABLE INTERNET. I can't figure out if my entire building doesn't get signal or if my IP number isn't connected. This is quite frustrating, as I've accrued a huge backlog of pictures and posts now. I wish I had Skype at least. :(

Last Sunday one of my dad's classmates & his family insisted on taking me out for the day. We had beef hot pot for lunch, where I (reluctantly) consumed twice the amount of meat I normally would for an entire week. I also tried raw beef dipped in wasabi; suprisingly, my stomach didn't rebel. They took me shopping afterwards and, gosh, upscale department stores in Xi'an are now even more expensive than the States. Simple cotton shirts go for 500 RMB (~75 USD), dresses are often 1000 RMB (~150 USD) and up. China's growing middle class is becoming more and more apparent.

beef hot pot

This dress could fund a plane ticket to Hong Kong
They took me to the Big Goose Pagoda, and I apparently used to live very nearby before I moved to the States. They kept telling me how my life would've been so different had my dad stayed in China; not necessarily worse, but different. But this kind of speculation is always hard to imagine.

My dad's classmate does a lot of traveling for his work; he's been to the United States and Canada, and France, Spain, and Italy, but he still thinks China and Xi'an are unparalleled. He spent most of the afternoon telling me how I should move back to China after graduating university. That kind of decision is obviously very complicated and requires a lot of consideration, and definitely not a question that I can answer right now. China makes me happy, but I miss the United States. I miss clean public toilets, restaurant sanitation laws, English, and kids who don't study 6 days out of 7.

Let's shake things up

2008-05-28T13:24:00.002+08:00

Have a feeling that China will soon pop my earthquake cherry
Xi'an experienced earthquake aftershocks on Sunday and Tuesday and both times I was outside and felt nothing. As ridiculous as it sounds, I'm a little disappointed, because everyone around me is terrified, but because we're not near the earthquake center, I feel like it shouldn't be too dangerous. Am I thinking ignorantly or sensibly? I need to experience one to find out!

I saw my apartment yesterday, but the family friend doesn't want me to move in yet due to the earthquake scare. My internet access has been limited and irregular, so updates have also been sparse. :( I have such a backlog of posts, I don't even know where to begin! I promise a long explanatory update later today.

Today I only have one class! Monday I taught three, and I had two yesterday; each class is two hours long. Students here are so different from in the United States! Firstly, students of one major usually take all their classes together, with the same times, same teachers, and same classrooms. And they all live together in the same dormitory, so you see the exact same people for basically. . . your entire time at university. Secondly, class times and rooms often change, so there's a direct teacher-->student texting service. Each class will have one student representative, and that person is responsible for rounding up all the students in time for class. Even in university! Yesterday I had class scheduled for 8:10 AM, but the Department told the students 10:20 AM. At 8:00 AM, when no students were coming in, I called the English Office, and they fired off a round of texts to students to tell them to come to the classroom immediately. About half of the students hurried in within 15 minutes. The rest of the students were either at the library or elsewhere and couldn't be reached in time. Even if students here have class at 10:00 AM or later, they still wake up at 7:00 AM every day to go to the library and study. What a novel concept, right? Seriously, I was amazed as I stared at the group of girls who arrived, furiously texting and calling their classmates to tell them to hurry to class.

Life existed before communism!

2008-05-25T10:48:00.009+08:00

So yesterday, the English Department director took me with her to Changning Palace Villa for the day; I'd never been there before and didn't quite understand the concept until after we arrived. Apparently the CPV is a historical resort where people often go to either relax for a weekend or hold business conferences. We met up with a lot of other English directors and teachers from surrounding universities in Xi'an. When I asked the director about the purpose of the visit, she said that a business that specializes in headphones (?) or audiobooks (often when conversing I will just nod along even if I don't catch every word) hosts an annual English convention in the name of "fostering the English education community" and "improving teaching techniques at university". And probably for networking, too, because the business produces a lot of products that require English. They set us up with a hotel room, and we toured the grounds in the morning. There were historical articles and monuments everywhere and, lucky for me because it was an English convention, I had one of the teachers translate for me on our tour. At first they kept repeating the name "Jiang Jie Shi" but it wasn't until the teacher said, "He fought in the Sino-Japanese War. . . the country leader before China's liberation" that the lightbulb clicked on. "Ahhhh, you mean Chiang Kai Shek." The Changning Palace Villa was his personal home and fortress during the Sino-Japanese War, where he retreated to hide from his enemies.

As my history lesson progressed, the director casually asked me how American schools teach Mao Ze Dong. A little embarrassed, I told her that history classes tend to portray him as a dictator. The stunned silence that followed by all the teachers and directors was horrifying. "Well, millions died during the Cultural Revolution," I hesitantly explained. "Not millions," they quickly interjected. "Thousands, maybe, but not millions." They asked me what my parents believed - I answered my parents said my American teachers were wrong (they nodded approvingly) - and then asked me what I personally believed. I told them I haven't learned enough about China's history to make an accurate assessment, which is true and also stopped the line of questioning. How nerve-wracking. I get extremely uncomfortable discussing Chinese affairs with Americans in America, and I'm still extremely uncomfortable discussing Chinese affairs with the Chinese in China. I don't even like talking about this topic with my own parents, okay, much less with strangers.

Later, as the director snapped a picture of me in Chiang Kai Shek's dinining room, she told me, "When you go back to America, you must tell everyone that Mao Ze Dong was not a dictator!!!" I nodded weakly and threw up a peace sign.

Me with the Shaanxi countryside

Traditional red lanterns

Changing Palace garden & pond

a Xi'an feast *_*
Lunch was a classic Chinese banquet; I ate until I could eat no more, and then I ate some more. =_= I'll never understand Chinese formal dinners, either; the social etiquette requires you to be so aware! You shouldn't start eating until the person with the highest status starts, and you should make sure those people are seated at strategic positions and their drinking classes are always full, and when a new dish arrives, you should figure out which direction to start turning the table so that they get the food first in the right order. I felt a little lost, because I was (obviously) the youngest person in the room, and so I felt I should wait after everyone else, but the director held a high status and if I was ever hesitant in eating anything, she just piled a ridiculous amount of the food on my plate. Nobody could figure out if I was a special guest or her daughter, seriously why am I so awkward.

The way of treating waitresses and servers here is also reminiscent of Germany; you use direct orders with very little niceties ("Pour me some tea" rather than "Can I get a refill?"). I'm used to American restaurant etiquette and kept saying "Thank you" after every time one of the waitresses would refill my class that the director turned to me and said, "They are just doing their job! No need to be so polite!" Habits die hard, yeah? Whenever I ask for water, I also have to specify that I want it cold, because they'll automatically pour me hot water. Everyone gives me strange looks whenever I ask if they have ice water and the answer is usually no, so I've begun accepting that room-temperature is the best I can do here unless I freeze my own ice. :( No one buckles their seat belt here, either, at least not in the back seat. But driving here is loads more dangerous than in America; I feel like it should be even more important.

After lunch, everyone went into a conference room for a presentation, ostensibly the main purpose of the day. The business presented a new digital interactive language learning platform for university students; the program has been under research & development for the past 5 years and is just now ready to go live. I stayed for 30 minutes of the presentation before growing bored (the speaker spoke so fast and used so much specialized terminology that I couldn't keep up) so I excused myself and walked around the garden grounds some more and took a ridiculous amount of pictures, because. . . it's me. The heat became unbearable around 3 PM, so I returned to the hotel room, cranked up the aircon, and watched a Mandarin-dubbed episode of Naruto (Chuunin exam arc) and then an episode of this show called. . . "King of Warrior" (?) that sounded like a version of Chinese power rangers. . . I love trashy Chinese TV. Incomparable.

View from the Eternal Peace Temple

View from hotel room

Farmland and "old China"

Xi'an hidden somewhere under all the smog
We had a dinner banquet, too, which was unfortunate because I was still full from lunch. So many foods to eat, so little time. :( The business representative came over to introduce himself, asked me a few questions, and then asked for a toast. So, uh, we toasted and he took his shot of 52% alcohol and me with my cup of green tea. I think the business representative is from Taiwan? Because everyone around the table immediately protested, "You cannot toast a beautiful Shaanxi girl only once! That's how you start a civil war!" My seriously horrified face. They made him take 2 more shots.

Most of the English teachers were very young, probably around 25 or so. They must've graduated university only a few years ago, and they're teaching university level already. After dinner, the only people left were 3 male teachers, the director, and me. Most of the teachers were staying at CPV for the night, since the business had set us up with hotel rooms. I wasn't planning on staying, because I hadn't brought anything, and I thought we would leave immediately after dinner. Um, no, they made me go bowling. . . despite my insists that I'm terrible at it (and I am) and got irreversibly sweaty after only a few rounds. But all was forgiven, because then we went and got full-body massages (65 RMB ~10 USD); I love spas in China, because the prices are always a tiny fraction of what I'd find in the States. 65 RMB is probably even on the steep side, since it was in a resort.

One of the male teachers ended up asking me for my phone number at the end of the night; I know, I'm a little ridiculous, but if I'm going to meet people in China, I might as well stick with people who study English, right? Overall, a fantastically satisfying day.

The business sent us home each with a leather bag
The hospitaltity in China is definitely incredible; I feel as if I've been spoiled with attention this entire week, and I never know how to handle it. A couple days ago I accidentally called one of my dad's former classmates in my attempt to call my cousin (hey, they have the same last name!) and now that he knows I'm in Xi'An, I must have lunch with him. =_= It's hard to sneak into a foreign country, but it's even harder to sneak back into your own, trust me.

Yellow --> White, no bleach needed!

2008-05-22T20:39:00.007+08:00

Today was my first day of teaching English class! And the sky was actually blue rather than an ubiquitous gray! What exciting firsts, right? /:)

I can't pass up a chance to use natural lighting and backgrounds
I started off the day by going to the hospital to get a vaccine shot for a type of mosquito virus normally given to children under the age of 6. The doctor was quite puzzled why a 20-year-old girl needed the vaccine; to be honest, I don't know the answer, either, but my father insisted in case my ~delicate~ Western constitution fails me. Everyone here at the university has been extremely kind to me so far, but they all treat me the same way, as if I will fall apart any minute. "Are you tired?" "Are you too hot?" "Is it hard to breathe?" "Can you eat the food?" "Can you drink the water?" They keep apologizing that the living conditions are worse than in the U.S. and that it must be difficult for me to adjust. Honestly, the apartment I'm currently staying in is no different from any of the apartments in the States, and I adore the food in Xi'An and can't wait to stuff my face full of all the regional specialities. One of the language directors told me how my parents probably sent me back to China for the summer to learn hardship and build up tolerance. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I plan on playing all summer long.

Girls here carry umbrellas everywhere to block the sun (I'll explain this in more detail in a later post) and I happened to mention that I don't have an umbrella yet in China, and one of the teachers in the English department offered to buy me one. Someone is also arranging a cell phone card for me, and I was told today that I can't move into my apartment until next week because they haven't installed the curtains yet. And they've set up a second room with new sheets and blankets for me at the university, in case I ever want to spend the night there. And everyone is surprised that I can speak Chinese fluently. Gosh! I can buy my own umbrella! And I can live without curtains! And a second room! And I was born in China! Everyone keeps giving me their phone numbers and telling me to call them if I need anything. I feel a little embarrassed, basically forcing one of the teachers to take me shopping and touristing around Xi'An.

Plus, everyone has invited me to eat dinner at their houses and speak English to their children. Possible ulterior motives?

Willing to bet money that new high-risers will replace those farming homes within 10 years

Central classroom buildings
The main campus of the university is very recently built, and the facilities are quite new. The campus is on the outskirts of Xi'An, though, and each side of the university is bordered by farmland and farming houses - truly a contrast of the past with the future. The English department is small, only 100 or so students, but I have 16 hours of class scheduled per week; apparently everyone is excited to have a native speaker on campus. Today I taught a sophomore class, and I asked them why they were English majors. The answers were very entertaining, spanning from "I didn't choose English; English chose me" to "I don't like English but you are so beautiful maybe I will start liking it now?" to "English is hard but still easier to study than Chemistry". My students are adorable. I overheard one of the girls say how I'm the same age as them but so completely different. It's true; even when I'm on campus and surrounded by college students, I still feel like I stick out horribly. Maybe it'd be different if I were in a more cosmopolitan city or in the more fashionable / international parts of Xi'An, but I've accepted by now that I'll never quite fit in in general Chinese society. The thought is a little depressing, because I often feel like even though I can pass for American in the United States and can talk the talk and walk the walk, I'm still just a poser. Maybe that's the trade-off of attempting to assimilate to two contrasting cultures?

After an entire day of forcing myself to speak English slowly, long conversations in Chinese, and attempts to read simple Chinese articles, my brain is finished. I better get accustomed to the stress soon, because I have two long months ahead of me.

BING: 1; JETLAG: 0

2008-05-21T15:49:00.003+08:00

I'm safely in Xi'An! The city is as polluted and muggy as I remember it, but never will I love a city more than Xi'An's smoggy skyline.

Looking toward city center
The transoceanic flight wasn't too bad; I had a side aisle seat next to a couple students from Wisconsin. I flew into Beijing last summer, too, but the airport seems so much bigger & newer this time around. I think it was recently renovated for the Olympics; it's like all of Beijing got a face-lift for the anticipated foreign rush. I actually had to ride a tram from one terminal to another just to pick up my luggage.

The new roof stretches endlessly into the distance
My plane from Beijing didn't land until 11 PM, and by the time we reached the city, it was already past midnight. Still, there were so many people and cars out on the streets, still so many lights. I know I should expect it by now, but I'm still always so surprised to realize the incredible volume of people in China.

Ever since the earthquake in Sichuan, people in the surrounding provinces (including Shaanxi) have been in a panic. Now, even 2 weeks later, there are thousands of people in Xi'An who sleep on the streets every night in fear of aftershocks or another earthquake. The family friend who picked me up from the airport actually slept in her car the night before; she lives on the upper floors of a high-riser, though, so the thought of an earthquake is even scarier. On the drive back from the airport, nearly all of the city streets were lined with people, young & old, often in groups for protection.

It's like the great China slumber party! Everyone is invited, just bring your own blanket.

Over a hundred people in Shaanxi have died from the earthquake, but very little of the deaths were by collapsing buildings or rubble. A lot of the people jumped to their deaths in blind panic, which is perhaps even sadder. My family friend cautioned me before I went to sleep that should anything occur, I should stay calm and crouch down by the piano, instead of jumping out the window. Even in a state of frenzy, I think I'd still know I wouldn't survive a 23-story fall. . .

My apartment for the summer is just down the street from where I am currently; the building is part of a large residence complex in the South part of Xi'An, so there are plenty of convenience stores and markets nearby. I tagged along on a grocery trip today to scope out the surrounding area. I'm excited to live in the city, even though I'll have to catch a 7:10 AM shuttle bus to the university every day. =_=

nearby food market

The curious thing about the standard of living here is that the (upper) middle class lives very well, in expensive apartments with professional cleaning and decorations, but the discrepancy between social classes is rather severe, and because the lower classes mainly work in services, such as cleaning and food, for the middle class, you'll find luxury apartments next door to run-down cement bulidings, and reasonably well-off people buying their groceries from markets in the above picture.

Ready Get Set. . .

2008-05-18T23:44:00.001+08:00

Tomorrow's the big day! My bags are packed, my flights are confirmed, and my alarm is set for 5 AM. Today was a whirlwind of seeing friends one last time until July, running the final errands, and zipping up my suitcases. I've taken enough domestic & international flights within the past year that I should know what I'm doing, but I'm still a little nervous. The weight requirements are apparently much more strict now. . . 22.5 kilos for check-in and only 5 kilos for carry-on! My laptop alone is 2.7 kilos, yikes. Cross your fingers! The next time I write I better be across the Pacific!

Heading East by Going West

2008-05-12T10:46:00.006+08:00

Depart: Chicago O'Hare Int'l Arpt 12:43 PM
Chicago, IL USA Monday, May 19, 2008
Terminal 1

Arrive: Beijing Capital Arpt 03:00 PM
Beijing China Tuesday, May 20, 2008

In precisely one week from today, I will board a plane to China! The details of my stay are still pretty vague for me; supposedly I am teaching English at a university just outside Xi'An. I applied for the position several months ago and have heard nothing else other than the original confirmation. Whether I'm staying on campus in a dormitory or in an apartment in the city where many of the other teachers live is uncertain. Normally this type of ambiguity would make me uneasy, but I'm so excited to spend the summer in China that I'm willing to overlook these (possibly major?) hiccups.

I go back to China about every 2-3 years, but this year will be the first time going back and living by myself. My Chinese is very elementary, though I speak much better than I write. Either this will make for some hilarious stories or possibly humiliating ones. Or maybe both. I'd like to chronicle my experiences and observations for future posterity, and hopefully this blog will see daily use while abroad.