I Made Soup

I decided a few days ago that I needed to go out and buy a few things to make dinner with here in the dorm.

Going out to eat every night, while super cheap here, can still add up pretty quickly.  I wasn't looking to stock a kitchen, just get a few frozen dumplings or something.  Now, as frequent readers will know, I have not met with a great deal of success when I have struck out on my own (as seen in the previous  Chicken Knuckles post).  Thankfully, my neighbor's roommate was kind enough to agree to accompany me to the store.  This has its advantages, like the fact that she knows what the hell we're looking at, and its disadvantages, like that fact that when it comes to Chinese I'm akin to a very formal toddler.  This stunts conversation a bit, and leads to a great deal of nodding and smiling on my part.  On the way there, we had a quite prophetic moment when she tried to explain something, and finally had to express her frustration in English, "I want to explain this to you because it's really funny, but I can't!"  Welcome to my life, sister, welcome to my life.  Anyway, we successfully navigated the store, with her basically pulling me around like a toddler, my fault, not hers.  In the end, I bought some dumplings, noodles, rice, and other basic foodstuffs.  I really wanted to splurge on some vanilla milkshake Oreos, but my frugal, and healthy side won out.  Oh, if you're intrigued by that flavor of Oreos, feast your eyes on the attached image.  We're talkin' birthday cake, green tea, chocolate, mango/orange, blueberry/strawberry, and the list goes on and on.  After returning to the dorm, I set about making some soup with the frozen dumplings, instant chicken stock, and mushrooms that I'd bought.  A note on the mushrooms, I bought these without really knowing what they were, or how to cook them.  It turns out, you don't cook them in soup.  This was laughably simple, but my new found friend proceeded to stand behind me the whole time.  I can't blame here, after the store experience, she probably thought I'd burn the dorm down.  The result of all this labor was a pale broth with dumplings, and some mushrooms that tasted a great deal like wet paper towel.  This did nothing to diminish my sense of accomplishment.  I am left with a sense of anticipation for my next culinary adventure, in which I will attempt to cook the dumplings in oil.  Wish me luck....

OREOS!

It's Snowing in Beijing

As the title would lead you to believe, it is indeed snowing here in Beijing.  This is a mixed blessing, as I cannot keep from thinking that most of the "snow" is actually dangerous environmental pollutants.  I don't have the science to back that up, but, regardless, I will not be eating any.  It has also lead to the cancellation of our first Wushu martial arts class, which was to be held outside.

In addition, as requested by some readers, I've included some pictures of food.  Truly a feast for the eyes.

Seen above right is a goat meat dish served over a small fire, a common practice hear, and very cool.  The goat meat was not my favorite, it smelled pretty bad.  To the left is a fantastic egg and tomato concoction.

This was my favorite dish for the night,  鱿鱼, also know as octopus.  Breaded and served with peanuts, peppers, and  vegetables, it is better than any calamari I've ever had in the states. 

EJR

Chicken Knuckles

So I decided to strike out on my own so to speak.  For me, that means walking about a block away to find a new restaurant.  This would seem to be a good idea, except for the fact that I haven't gone out to eat during the day, let alone by myself.  The result was me walking around for a few minutes before I found what appeared to be a new restaurant.  At that point I realized that I forget my vocab cards, so I returned to my dorm to get them.  I even stopped to tell someone, "Hey, I found a new place I'm going to try," not without some sense of pride.  It wasn't till I walked in that I realized, oh, this is the same restaurant I've eaten at three times before, but in the dark.  I covered up my embarrassment by quickly finding a table and giving my order to the same waiter who has seen me four times now.  Maybe it was my rush to buy something that lead me to order what appeared to be a delicious chicken dish, and nothing to drink.  Now if my roommate was with me, it was have informed me that it was indeed chicken....chicken joints, ligaments, and what seemed to be beaks.  If Chickens had knuckles, this is what they would look like.  Needless to say, my first bite was a bit of a surprise.  This was compounded by the fact that what I took to be a variety of vegetables, was actually just peppers, lots of very spicy peppers.  If you recall, I did not order drink.  The result was me swallowing whole what chicken I could manage to stomach, while simultaneously sweating, getting the hiccups, and having my nose run.  Oh, and my table was out of napkins.  I finally had to admit defeat and buy a Sprite.  Thankfully, I ordered rice, so I didn't go completely hungry.  In summary, I'm going to take a little more time ordering next time, and tonight, I'm eating with my roommate.

EJR

A Day at the Museum

Today's post will be more of a photo essay.  I would like to apologize in advance for my terrible photography skills.  I took a very enjoyable, if tiring, trip to the National Museum of China, the world's largest museum at two-million-square-feet.  Most of the pictures you're going to see are from a permanent exhibition on ancient China.  It spanned thousands of years, and included everything from fossils to cannons.  It definitely toed the party line, not alluding to the thousands of years of conflict between the China's government and its minorities (this article offers a better summation than I can provide).  Enjoy!

The entry way, 850ft long, 100ft high

A very cool model of an irrigation device

A lamb

A little man

Not sure what this is, but its beautiful  

Probably my favorite thing, this is a scroll that features the names and likenesses of foreign envoys, along with a small blurb about their countries relationship with China

This is a great example of glossing over history, in this case, the relationship between China and its minorities. 

Books!

The headdress of an empress

This is actually a thermometer

This is just weird

The man himself (Mao)

I take that back, THIS is weird

My favorite picture, its the profile of boat

Me and the fellas

Tienanmen Square 

The Tienanmen side of the museum

Me.  I had to prove I had been there.

Stress Test

This is not a drill.  It's a test.  A real test.  In Chinese.  And it's tomorrow morning.

Before you think I've already begun my slip into stress induced madness, I'll assure you that I haven't, yet.  I'm sure that'll come later on.  For now I just have to accept that I have to prepare the same amount of work I would normally have two weeks to do, in just a day.  Actually, I've already prepared it.  Now I just have to sleep, hoping that it's good enough.  I anticipate some interesting dreams...

In happier news, my roommate gave me a Chinese car magazine.  I imagine I will learn a lot more Chinese from it than I will from my text book, partially because I will probably read it more than the latter.  Yesterday, I had the pleasure of trying to buy a lock at Jialefu, the local super market (which is actually a French based company called Carrefour).  There is a phenomenon is the United States of cramming everything we possibly can into one store (I'm looking at you, Costco).  Apparently this idea has been rejected by the Chinese, because they did not have small locks at this supermarket.  In fact, when I asked one of the Chinese roommates if he knew where I could get one, he had to sit and think for a minute or two.  Then he replied with something I didn't understand, and I nodded and smiled.  This happens on a daily basis.  A similar thing happened when I tried to buy allergy medicine at the same store, a five minute operation in the states.  In China, however, you apparently have to go to a pharmacy to buy such things.  See, separation, instead of conglomeration.  I'm pretty sure that in the process of trying to explain that I wanted allergy medicine, I probably cursed the super market attendees children, or something, so poor is my Chinese.  Oh well, that's why I'm here (to learn, not to insult old ladies, that is).

EJR

How Do You Say Water Wings in Chinese?

Day two without English saw me trying to explain the following things: water wings (those little arm floats that kids wear), depositing money in an ATM, and puns.  How do you explain what a pun is, let alone why it is funny, when you only know a few hundred words?  I failed miserably, so my roommate will have to live without knowing that particular English word.  I think he'll be fine.  His name is Lu Yao, and so far he's been awesome.  He and I spent an hour and a half flipping through my car magazines last night.  He taught me how to say pretty much every car manufacturer's name in Chinese, from Chevrolet to Rolls Royce, and everything in between.  He even taught me how to say turbocharger, classic car, and convertible.  I was ecstatic.    We even went to dinner tonight.  Needless to say, I let him order.  This was a mixed blessing, as we ended up with three delicious dishes, but one of them (the one on the right in the above picture) was pig kidneys.  Frankly, it was fantastic.

EJR

说中文

Day one of only speaking Chinese.  At 8:30 this morning I signed away my right to speak English, or even listen to English.  What followed was probably some of the worst Chinese I've ever heard, but it was fun!  I would describe this as the honeymoon phase.  We are all running on adrenaline, using all the Chinese we possibly can.  I imagine we will run out sometime around lunchtime tomorrow, and things will get pretty quiet around here.  The title of this post, shuo zhong wen (speak Chinese), is exactly what I wrote on my hand to remind myself that English was off limits.  It occurred to me that it might be a good tattoo...but I will sit on that idea for a while.  I only had a few mess ups, like when someone came to my door and I said "come in."  Oops... Hopefully that's the last one.  Fingers crossed.

EJR

This is Why I Came Here

Alright, it's finally clicking.  At long last I have an experience worth commenting on.  Well, going to a Chinese grocery store was pretty interesting, but this is really good.  For the past few days I've done a great deal of worrying and not much else.  Sure, I've met some people, but the conversation inevitably turns to our fear of the language pledge.  This pledge, which I will sign tomorrow morning, says that I will speak no language but Chinese, and gives me only 4 chances to break that pledge before I am kicked out of the program.    In addition, I cannot listen to English music, nor watch English speaking movie or television.  Needless to say, I needed a way to relax.  Thankfully, today myself and several others, were escorted by two Chinese roommates to Huo Hai, a lake that has been around since the Ming Dynasty.  Point is, it's really old. Since that time, people have been using the lake to hua bing (ice skate).  One of the more interesting activities that's developed is the use of hua bing che, which means ice skating car, and are basically metal frames with two seats.  Renting one also includes a pair of metal rods to push oneself along the ice.   The rods are actually two screw drivers welded to a piece of metal.  Crude, but highly affected. the result is absolutely awesome.  For the first time, I forgot about the language pledge I had tomorrow, and the mountains of homework I would soon face.  I just skated along, completely enjoying myself.  This is why I came to China.

A quick side note, when I mentioned to our Chinese roommates that this would never fly in America because we don't trust our children with sharpened screw drivers, he replied " But you have so many guns?"  So true, my friend, so true.  The good times on Huo Hai were followed by a cold walk, as we headed to our next stop, Gulou.  On the way, I spotted this beauty, an Mercedes Benz SLS AMG.  She stickers for about $200,000, and that's before the 17% Chinese luxury tax.  Having seen the way some people drive here, I would probably keep it in the garage.

Gulou, as mentioned above, is a major tourist attraction in Beijing.  Originally built as a watch tower, it was later used to announce the time.  I know this because Wikipedia tells me so.

The actual time keeping was accomplished using the giant drums you see pictured below.  And they are indeed giant, some as large as 6 or 7 feet.  It was fascinating to see the only surviving original drum, now a massive carcass of its former glory. To get to all this wonderful history, you have to climb the steepest stairs I've ever seen.  Several older people were coming down as we went up, and it looked like they were clinging on for dear life.  Better avoid this if you're over thirty, it's that bad.  I would describe my own descent as a controlled fall.  

Having scared several years of my life expectancy on the way down, we were faced with the prospect of finding somewhere to eat.  This is where our Chinese friend, Meiyi, really shined.  After trying out a place that was about the size of a broom closet, we settled on a much larger, but still small, restaurant about a block from the tower.  There, we enjoyed a wonderful meal of things I can neither pronounce nor identify.  It was quite delicious, and it represented exactly what I wanted to do while I was in China, eat.  

So today was a success.  Despite my nervousness at the language pledge, I was able to have a seriously great.  Hopefully, I'll have many more.  Oh, and I'll learn a little Chinese along the way.

Travel Weary

As I sit in my new home, a simple dorm room near the center of Beijing, I have a chance to sit back and consider my trip so far.

Let’s begin with the drive to RDU, simultaneously the longest and shortest drive of my life.  This was no fault of its occupants.  We engaged in reassuring chit chat, mostly consisting of me downplaying the all too real difficulty of the trip ahead.  This is a tactic at which I have become quite proficient.  I must admit that I have been riding on the razors edge between mania and madness for the past several days.  The prospect of this huge commitment, however fun and educational it will be, is still daunting.  As such, I have been quite unable to focus on any one thing for more than a few minutes.  I couldn’t even set the dinner table, having to do it in several stages as my mind would race to find something else I should be doing to prepare.  This is entirely unsurprising to me.  I expected a rollercoaster of emotion, and that’s what I got on this drive.  One second I was flying high, the next second I was ready to wrench the wheel and throw the truck into a U-turn.  This would continue for some time.

The first hitch in the plan came and went rather quickly.  Turns out Air China doesn’t allow any bags over 50lbs.  Solution: buy another bag and split it up.  Job done, I said my goodbyes (which was difficult, I can tell you that much), and proceeded to my plane to JFK.

This flight was barely a taste of the flight to Beijing, being only an hour, it was over quickly.  I soon found myself walking through the labyrinth of John F. Kennedy International Airport. My first goal was to make my way from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1.  I never knew that arrows could be so confusing!  I felt like a country bumbkin, even having to stop and ask for directions.  I eventually found my way to the AirTrain platform, where I met three people who were also studying abroad with CET.  Departing the train, we approached the Air China desk and I remarked to one of them, “Yeah, I have a whole bunch of vocab cars to study on the plane.  There in my…Oh no…I have to go!”  I said, jogging back to the Air train that still held my carryon bag.  What followed were the some of the tensest moments of my life, as I paced back forth, throwing myself into any train that came through, regardless of whether it could logically hold my bag.  After a full twenty minutes, and probably 500 calories burned pacing a rut in the floor, I found my bag exactly where I had left it.  This phase of terror was followed by almost an hour of abject boredom as I waited in line for my boarding pass.  During this time, I got a lesson in the Chinese version of personal space, as the man behind me repeatedly rammed me with his luggage cart, ambivalent to my own repeated looks of outrage.  Boarding pass in hand, I cruised through security with enough time to scarf down a turkey and swiss sandwich.

To understand what it’s like to fly for 13 hours on a plane packed with 500 people, you must understand that everything is relative.  The food, for example, probably wouldn’t pass for dog food if it were served on earth bound transportation.  At 38,000ft, however, it was great (One note: meal number one featured your choice of fish or beef with rice.  Meal two?  Why you could have chicken or pork…with rice.  The Chinese are nothing if not consistent).  This brings me to the thought that inevitably occurs to anyone flying for so long; I am in a giant sky tube that is actively defying gravity.  Traveling at 584mph, it’s hard not to consider the ridiculousness of this endeavor, a fact that is reinforced by the real-time data that was fed to the large cabin screen.  Did you know that it’s -68 degree F at 38,000ft?  Not a reassuring thought. 

Having arrived in Beijing, I was faced with the possibility of having to take a taxi to my destination, Beijing Institute of Education.  After competing with nearly 500 people at the baggage claim, I was relieved to find that the shuttle to campus provided by CET was still operating.  Reaching BIE, I was exhausted, but unable to sleep.  Hence, I wrote this.  Not sure what else there is ahead of me, but if the journey here is any indication, it’s going to be interesting.

EJR

Here We Go...

Nobody ever said it would be easy to say goodbye to everyone you've ever known, and fly to the other side of the world.  Then again, nobody ever said it would be this hard either.  It's impossible to cram 6 months of interaction into a single day, or even a single month, but that is exactly what you end up trying to accomplish. Sure, it's misguided, but you can't help it.  It's human nature to cling to the connections that we have with family and loved ones.  I have to think of this connection like the tissue of a muscle; to build it up, you must first strain it, even tear it, only so that it can come back stronger than ever.  I can only hope that my time in China offers just such an opportunity.  To all those I'm leaving behind, just know that it's as hard for me as it is for you.

EJR