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August 30, 2006
Adventures in GZ, Take 2!
After a fun night of dinner, dessert, drinks, and dancing (the Four "D"s) with the new PiA fellows in Beijing, I headed home, napped for a few hours, and got up to begin the long trek home. Now moving has never been one of my favorite things to do, and in this case I was a little bit concerned about my first domestic flight in China. Add it all up and you've got one heckuva an annoying day.
Luckily my language program organized a driver to take me to the airport so I didn't have to worry about that. I had had a few exams at the end of the last week to assess my progress but as it was, this ride seemed like the ultimate final exam. I had a forty minute car ride to chat with a Beijinger who spoke no English. I could have sat there silently counting away the kilometers, but I decided that it was time to step it up. I won't lie and say that we conversed deeply about literature, politics, and the meaning of life, but I did manage to have a meaningful conversation with the guy about his job, his family, traveling, studying Chinese, and being an expat in China. It was nice.
Once at the airport, the stress of traveling hit home when I remembered that I had two ginormous bags to check and one slightly oversized carry-on. My ticket clearly stated that I was only allowed to check one bag under 20 kg so as I waited in line I tried to work out the Chinese in my head for how to convince them the excess was okay. The excuses I came up with ranged from "but I'm a famous American singer!" to "but these bags are filled with teaching materials--don't you want the Chinese youth to improve their international stature with English?"
I got even more nervous when a foreigner in front of me had the same problem and was told that she couldn't check two bags. She started throwing a fit in English and just like the guidebooks say, everyone simply stared. For her the end result was simply "bu xing," or basically, "can't do it." I figured I was going to have to finesse this one big time but as I stepped up, the guy behind the counter barely even looked up. After he tagged the first bag I simply threw the second one up and he tagged that one too without a word. I grabbed my boarding pass and walked away, not having said a single word in English or Chinese. Sometimes you just never know in China.
Next step was the security check. I was curious as to how the recent events in England would affect the Chinese and I got my answer. As I stepped up to the conveyer belt, I informed the lady (in Chinese) that I had a laptop in my bag. Did she want me to take it out and turn it on? No, sir. How about the iPod in my pocket. Is that a problem? Nope. Okay then... My bag went through the x-ray and I passed through the metal detector without a sound. As I went to pick up my carry-on once again, one of the workers asked, is this yours? I said yes. She then proceeded to tell me that she needed to open up my gatorade to make sure it was safe. I took this opportunity to make my first wise crack in Chinese and responded, "Why, are you thirsty? You should drink more when it's this hot out." She was amused.
The flight itself was fine. I had a seat in the front row of the economy section and managed to finagle my way into getting some service from the business class flight attendants. I think I actually slept for most of the flight so in that respect, I guess I give China Southern Air two thumbs up. Unfortunately I think my friend Seiji said it though when he noted that once you fly domestically it's tough to go back to the train. It's tough to argue with a 3 hour journey as opposed to a 25 hour journey. Hmmm.
Touching down in the GZ airport felt a bit weird. I had a slight sense of deja vous but at the same time, it was something totally different. It was almost exactly a year ago that I arrived here after a marathon 24+ hour trip. That time I was with my roommate, who has now left China to begin grad school. That time my school picked me up and took me to my new home. That time I didn't speak a word of Chinese. That time it was all a mystery as to what the next year would hold for me. This time I arrived myself and found the public bus back into the city by asking one of the employees in Chinese. This time I got back to my school and waved a hello to the guards at the front gate who know me quite well.
It's feelings like this that are strange, hard to explain, and surreal. I am now the veteran PiAer for southern China. I'm the guy that's supposed to know how things work, where to go, how to get there, and what to do once there. My new roommate is arriving tonight with little to no China experience and will likely look to me to show him the ropes. The problem is, I'm not sure I know how. Last year I had two or three different people that I would call anytime I didn't know where to go, what to do, etc. This year there are going to be people calling me. I guess I just hope that I can help out.
In talking with the two Yale-China fellows who are also starting their second years, we all agreed that we didn't know the city nearly as well as we'd like to and that we wanted to explore more, find new awesome restaurants, and make more local friends. A lot of these things were almost impossible last year without language skills but hopefully that has all changed. As I begin this second year abroad in China, I have no idea where it will take me, but I do know that I'm as excited as ever to be here and I can't wait to see where it goes.
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August 24, 2006
Weak Sauce
With only a half a day of classes and 36 hours left in Beijing, I guess it's time to reflect back on my summer a bit. Unfortunately my grand plans of site seeing and photo-taking were put on hold earlier this week when I caught the cold that my entire school is now suffering from. It seems that the Chinese Mother Nature awoke with a start this week and realized that it was no longer appropriate to be providing hot summer weather. Thus, without warning, we have been subject to some alarmingly pleasant days--a cool breeze accompanied by mildly clear skies. The downside is that the change of seasons has given everyone one of those annoying colds that's just bad enough to make you feel unpleasant.
Regardless, I plugged on with my studies. In truth I procrastinated a bit by being immersed in a good book (anybody read Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore?" Good stuff.) but I found some time to review as well. As I've said, after being subject to so much classtime over the past two months, it's really hard for me to say how much I've learned. I keep crossing my fingers that it's more than I think and today I had a moment that suggests I might be right.
In between classes I was checking the Yankees score online when one of the teachers I'm friends with asked me for some help. She had gotten an email from a former student (written in English) and didn't understand it. Before I knew it, I was translating various phrases and sentences for her, elaborating with my own ideas... and she understood me! I have no doubt that I butchered the grammatical constructions (and if asked to write the translation in characters I would certainly be at a loss), but she got the point. And when it's all said and done, isn't that what it's all about?
I think the true test still lies back in Guangzhou with my coworkers, though. My biggest fear is that I'll get back and they'll ask how my summer went, I'll tell them, and then I'll have no idea what they're saying to me in response. I'll give them the same blank stare that I gave them last September and they'll chuckle to themselves about how foreigners never master Chinese. The worst part is that they're not too far off. Though I'm not exactly in the most distinguished of language programs, there are students here who have been studying for over five years that not only lack true communication skills, but also have major flaws in their basic pronunciation and tones. Five years. If I have issues like that in five years I think I'm going to start learning Italian instead. No matter how you slice it, Chinese is tough. I know I've made at least *some* progress though and I guess that'll have to be good enough for the time being.
The school offers everyone a "transcript" and certificate at the end of their study and today I got mine. I opened it up and almost laughed out loud. Lets just say that I'm glad that I've long graduated and that I don't actually need it to try and get credit with it. I can picture the quizzical look of the lady in the Wesleyan Registrar's Office who would scrutinize the form for about 7 seconds before handing it back to me and saying, "Sorry honey but I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this." My official transcript consists of a handwritten half page with exam scores and attendance hours, mostly in Chinese. At least I took my exams though. I have two friends who never got around to taking three of their four tests and received scores ranging from 85-92 on them. Not bad! Naturally this is going directly up on to my fridge back in Guangzhou.
The highlight of the day though was actually in my afternoon reading class. Back at the beginning of July I got placed into a reading class for students who could speak decently well but had never studied characters before. There were only two of us and the other girl was far and away more advanced than me. I decided to stick it out though and I'm sure glad I did. While I couldn't understand a lot of what was going on in the first few weeks, eventually I "caught up" and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my teacher. A native of northern Hebei Province, she has been in Beijing for a few years now working on a PhD in classical Chinese literature. The bonus here is that she knows the etymology and breakdown of almost every character which is a HUGE help for me when trying to memorize those squiggles.
It's just been the two of us these past few weeks (the other girl left) and we've developed an amusing mother/son sort of relationship in which she asks if I've had my vegetables and I complain about having to get up early everyday. She is very interested in learning English so after class a few times a week I've helped her decipher various essays and answered questions for her. Like most Chinese, her reading comprehension is pretty solid while her speaking lags really far behind.
Today in class she was attempting to explain a phrase that seems to be the Chinese designation for something akin to "that sucks." It took a lot of elaborate explication (in Chinese) but after a while I felt I had a good handle on the nuances. As I paused to write down the definition in my notebook, she says in almost perfect English, "It's like saying that something is 'weak sauce'." I figured I must have misheard her so I asked her to repeat it at which point I almost fell out of my chair laughing. In the course of one calendar year here, I have never ever heard a Chinese person utter teenage/young-adult American slang like that. We both had a serious laugh about it and I decided to use it as a teaching moment and explain (to the best of my ability) the derivation of a phrase like that. It was hilarious.
Other than that, my football team hit an obstacle in our last tournament game as we dominated the first half against the Italians but decided to let them score 6 unanswered in the second half to lose by two. Ugh. My last match is tonight against a team of Argentinians. I fear they will go Diego Maradona on us and send us home packing. Of course in my case that sort of works out okay because I do need to pack up tomorrow before flying back to GZ on Saturday...
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August 20, 2006
Forbidden
I have officially reached one week and counting until I will be back in Guangzhou. Where did summer go? It occurred to me the other day that while I am not here in Beijing as a tourist, there are still a handful of places that I haven't seen yet and I have no idea when I'll be back here. Thus, with only 6 days left (and 6 days worth of homework) I resolved to cross at least a couple of those destinations off my list. First and foremost, I headed off to the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City, named for the fact that it was off-limits to citizens for over five hundred years, is the compound centered in the exact middle of Beijing. It was here that the Ming and Qing Dynastic regimes ruled over their empires and made decisions affecting millions of commoners. I had heard mixed reviews for this particular destination so I really didn't know what to expect. After taking the subway to Tian'anmen Square, I followed the throngs of people heading under the (in)famous portrait of Mao and through the massive gate.
The first thing that struck me, after I managed to finagle my way into a student-priced ticket, was the sheer size of the place. When you look at it on a map it looks relatively big, but this place is ginormous. Upon walking through the Meridian Gate into the main section of the compound, you are met with a wide open space that supposedly held an imperial audience of 100,000 back when the Emperor addressed his royal subjects. Unfortunately, much like a ton of the city, some of the premier buildings were under renovation prepping for the olympics so I didn't get to see a few of the more famous buildings. For instance, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest structure in the Forbidden City was completely covered by scaffolding.
That aside, the architecture was what I consider stereotypically "Chinese" and very homogeneous. The sheer magnitude of everything was stunning, though I wasn't all that impressed with the basic aesthetics of it. I guess I've already seen quite a few buildings built in this style. What was interesting is that most of the Forbidden City follows the strict regulations of "feng shui," thus, buildings are framed by gates, steps are all counted and synchronized with the surrounding buildings and balconies, and in general their is a point-counterpoint layout sense to everything. Unfortunately you aren't allowed into virtually any of the buildings so you're stuck admiring from afar.
One thing about walking around the grounds is that you sweat like there's no tomorrow. Since you are out in these wide open spaces, you are at the mercy of the humidity and sun (shining through incredible pollution, of course). I think I drank about two and a half liters of water in the three hours I was there. Overall though, I'd say the experience was mediocre. The coolest parts for me were the little things that weren't important enough to warrant a plaque, e.g. the ceilings of the smaller gates, the smaller gardens, and the small marble bridges spanning streams and ponds. Unfortunately with so many people there, it was hard to stand there and admire it all without getting stampeded by the herd. If you like architecture and Chinese history though, you may be more entranced than I was.
After walking around for so long I went back out through the south gate and crossed "Chang'an Jie" (the "Long Peace Street") into Tian'an Square itself to have lunch. This, too, is simply massive and I enjoyed the sheer size of it all. I strolled around for a bit and then sat down near the "Monument to the People's Heroes" to eat my noodle lunch. Not surprisingly, the police presence in Tian'anmen is enormous. There is a huge force of clothed police and an uncertain number of plain-clothes cops patrolling the entire area, not to mention the surveillance cameras mounted on the light fixtures. As I slowly slurped up my lunch, I tried to imagine the protest in '89. Supposedly there were upwards of close to a million students that filled the square and while it is almost 440,000 square meters, that is still a ridiculous number of people. What's also amazing to me is that they marched all the way down from the universities-- which is not close. I tried to imagine their reactions when they saw tanks and soldiers rolling in and eventually opening fire. It must have been horrific. Before I left the square I tried to see Mao's frozen, formaldehyde-ed body but sadly it is not open for viewing during summer afternoons. Oh well. I'm pretty convinced it's a fake, anyway.
My final anecdote from the experience relates to my cab ride home. At this point I've gotten used to the thick Beijing accent amongst drivers (everything ends with a "rrrr" sound) and have grown accustomed to basic chit-chat, but this cabbie threw me for a bit of loop. I told the guy my destination and was daydreaming out the window when all of a sudden I felt a hand on my leg. Stopped at a red light, my eyes shot back to the driver who had a goofy smile on his face. Without a word he started running his hand up and down my lower leg! I asked him what he was doing and, to my relief, he said that he had never seen body hair like that before. I started awkwardly chuckling which he took as a green light to go on with his tactile exploration and before I knew it he was feeling my arm as well. I told him I was special (hey, my mom always said so). What's funny is that if I understood him correctly, he told me he really wished he had my type of body hair. Now if only I was sporting my Jew-fro as well... Other than that, I am unsure how my brain is going to survive another week of class but I see the light at the end of the tunnel so I will do my best to push through.
Oh, and go Yanks.
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August 13, 2006
The Beat Goes On
... and on. I'm now starting the 7th week of my language study program and I must say that my brain is officially running on fumes. I think when I get back to Guangzhou I will have a much deeper sense of appreciation for the amount of work and classtime my kids have everyday. 6-7 hours of classtime as well as an hour or more of homework every night is killer. Just in case it was in doubt, I can now say with full confidence that Chinese is a really hard language. Have I learned a lot? I certainly hope so but at this point I have NO idea.
I guess the end is in sight though and that means my summer tenure here in the nation's capital is winding down. I think my experience has been affected by a few different factors but overall I have to say that I continue to be unimpressed. I am extremely curious to see how much more progress they can make before the olympics in 2008. I have no doubt that the olympic facilities will be done in time and that the games will run smoothly, but what about the rest of the city?
Right now the streets are a complete mess and that's no exaggeration. It must be in part due to the massive construction and large number of cars, but it's dirty everywhere. I thought Guangzhou was dirty but I hadn't seen anything. We had another day of sun today, which was awesome, but that still only makes three days of something resembling a blue sky (in over six weeks). I read once in a magazine an author jokingly asserting that China's penchant for smoking cigarettes will do more for their population control than the One Child Policy ever will. I think you can change this now to say that simply breathing the air in China will do more for the population control than the One Child Policy. Sad, but true. The building I have class in went up about a year and a half ago and started off white. After only this short time period, they are being forced to repaint because the exterior is now grey, bordering on a muted black.
All that being said, Beijing isn't the capital for no reason. I went with my friends Kelly and Dan to a remote section of the Great Wall and did a 10k hike last weekend which was incredible. The sky wasn't all that clear but it was still breathtaking. Both times now that I've trekked out to the wall I've had similar thoughts: first, I wonder if everyone laughed at the first emperor who told his royal subjects that he was going to order the construction of a 6000+ mile wall. It seems like a ridiculous concept but it certainly puts in perspective the sheer man power that China (still) has at its fingertips. Second, I wonder what the guard in the watch tower thought when he saw Khan leading a massive army down from Mongolia. Sure, the kingdom might survive but the guard sure is in trouble.
I have also treated myself to another Beijing specialty-- kao ya (Bejing roast duck). A solid crew of us went this past Friday and it lived up the hype and then some. Kelly had been to a place somewhere amongst the "hutong" (the older neighborhood with the narrow winding lanes of homes and shops) so a crew of us went in search of this famed eatery. It really was lost amongst the historical hutong so it took us a while but was well worth it. What's sad is that the government is trying to tear down these areas as quickly as possible in order to make way for sparkling new high rises. As far as I understand it, foreigners find this much more objectionable than the natives, but still.
Another thing that Beijing has (that Guangzhou is lacking) is a very lively, self-sustaining ex pat community. I can't decide if this a good thing or a bad thing, but for the moment it's okay. Not only can you get almost kind of food in the world, you generally don't have to go looking too far for it. In GZ you can get almost everything but you definitely need to know where to look. I have also discovered that Beijing has quite a few alums from my alma mater and I have been very happy to attend barbeques and happy hours with old friends and acquaintances. Again, this is nice for the here and now, but I don't think I'd like to live in that sort of environment. Might as well stay in the U.S., right?
Another benefit of the strong expat community is the presence of various athletic opportunities. I've been playing football (read--soccer) twice a week here and am actually iin decent shape for the summer which is nice. Last week the owner of the pitch we play on informed us of an upcoming tournament. Hmmm, tournament? Count me in! I was pleased to discover that I was not the only one around with an insatiable appetite for competition. Of course it wasn't until after we signed up that I stopped to think about who we'd be playing. We really had no idea but I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be easy.
I was right. We had the first round of play on Saturday and faced two really solid teams. We had the luxury of playing the first team after they had already had one match and, without any subs, they were pretty exhausted. The five guys they did put on the field were five pretty big and highly skilled guys from some Arabic-speaking country. They weren't too pleased that we had four subs to run them down but that's the way it goes. We dominated most of the game but ended up escaping with a 5-4 victory.
The second game was, well, not quite as successful. We were feeling relatively good about ourselves heading into the match but our hopes were dashed by an even better opponent. This time it was a group of Chinese that barely seemed to exert any effort in running us around the field. Despite their advantage, we went into halftime only down 4-6. Then it fell apart. I'm not quite sure what the final score was, but lets just say that it wasn't close.
We were hanging our heads as we walked off the field but we were somewhat encouraged to find out from a spectator that the team includes at least three former national team players. I'm pretty sure my intramural team from college could NOT compete with these guys. As we sat down to take stock of our chances, we looked around and discovered that this was Beijing's own little World Cup. We defeated the Middle East, lost to China, and still have Africa (whose team includes a former national team guy from Nigeria), Hungaria (a bunch of older businessmen), Italy, and perhaps one more. As for us, we span the globe so we settled on a team name of "Lao Wai," or "Old Foreigner," which is how Chinese tend to refer to white people when they see them in the streets. Wish us luck this weekend.
I'm glad that with my busy schedule of Chinese class, football, and food that I don't have too much time to think about what's going on in the rest of the world. It looks like China might just be the safest place around. I just hope everyone has peace on their minds and that the people in this world can start to put some of their differences aside. That shouldn't be so hard now, should it?
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August 1, 2006
Hard Times
I feel compelled to write a short blog regarding the current events in the Middle East. These days it's beginning to feel more difficult than ever to be a Jew and there's no visible light at the end of the tunnel. Though I am very far away from the current conflict in northern Israel and Lebanon, no Jew is ever truly far removed from the situation and even I am feeling the strain. How can we even begin to construct a viable peace agreement, given the awful transgressions on both sides?
It's becoming increasingly clear that Israel is pushing too hard and overusing their military strength in order to cull as much of Hezbollah as possible. However, I'm not entirely sure I see the alternative right now. I will be the first to admit that it is slightly problematic to keep an unbiased perspective on the situation as an American Jew, yet doing so is almost more important than an outsider being impartial. Israel tends to be under a microscope for all matters of international relations, and for good reason. With the Middle East as volatile as any area on Earth, there's a great deal of pressure on Israel to make thoughtful, responsible decisions.
But how do you make rational decisions in the face of government sponsored terrorism?
It pains me to think that Israel is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Lebanese and that the efficacy of the killings is questionable at best. Hezbollah will simply retreat for a short time after a cease-fire is achieved and return in the future. Meanwhile, with every day and every death, Israel alienates and angers the Arab world to the point where I can picture lines around the block to sign up for Hezbollah and Hamas. This, in turn, creates a lose-lose situation in which Israel feels it necessary to overlook the general international consensus. It seems that they are often held to a higher standard than other countries but that's not the issue--all countries should adhere to higher ethical standards. Rather, the issue seems to be finding the right balance between the classical realism of protecting state interests and the more optimistic approach of adhering to international aspirations for peace in the region.
But would the benefits of stepping back and standing on the moral high ground outweigh the fear and harassment of constant terrorist attacks?
It seems that much of the world inadvertantly neglects to remember why there is a State of Israel in the first place, yet it has only been a little over a half-century since the nefarious horror of the Holocaust. A lot has changed since then but it will always stand as a stark reminder that Jews are different. As Elie Wiesel reminds us, people of the world must never forget. I am not trying to suggest that the rockets landing in Haifa and the Golan are akin to the slaughters from Nazi Germany. On the contrary, I feel that it's important to keep in mind that there is a great deal of irrational hatred for Jews around the world. Unfortunately, Israel seems to be fed up with this malevolence to the point where they too are contributing to an unnecessary loss of life.
But is it possible for both sides to agree that violence simply begets more violence?
Once again I find myself in an awkward position as an American Jew living abroad. My friends here from other European and South American countries seem to be looking to me to explain or somehow expound at least a modicum of America's response to the conflict. While I think Condoleeza Rice comes across as both ignorant and pompous when discussing the birth of a new Middle East, I think it's clear that there need to be some changes in the region. Israel has been in some sort of war or battle at least once a decade since its inception. And that's not even mentioning the thousands of years of previous strife in the area. America, as reigning superpower in the world, is responsible for attempting to broker some sort of peace resolution.
But will they ever look beyond their own self interests and focus on the root of the issue?
I have a few Chinese teachers and friends here who know I'm Jewish and ask me to explain what's going on. This is, sadly, a very telling reflection of the events, as I'm forced to use my elementary vocabulary to explain one of the most heated and complex problems in history. My explanations tend to center around the basic idea of both sides killing people. Not surprisingly, they don't get it. In what is truly a sino-centric society, most Chinese can't explain even the most primitive differences between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It's hard for me to render these age-old differentiations comprehensible in any sort of way. They, in turn, process the current events in only the most elementary sense- Israel's killed way more than the other side.
But is there any reason for them to think differently?
The bottom line for me right now is that I want the whole thing to stop as soon as possible. Much as I oppose everything about the war in Iraq, I hate the fact that young Israeli men have to go and die in the battles up north. I hate the fact that there are innocent people getting killed in Lebanon and innocent civilians under fire in Israel. I hate the fact that the gorgeous countryside up north is being ravaged by soldiers on both sides. I hate the fact that I have friends living in Tel Aviv who are actually within missile range. I hate the fact that I've been to the border with Lebanon and can picture Israeli tanks rolling over the hills, getting fired upon by Hezbollah fighters. I hate the fact that there are no answers for the questions I've raised. I hate the fact that my sister is only a short bus ride away in Jerusalem. And I hate the fact that I can't even foresee any sort of realistic solution for the near future.
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