Graduation

Graduation and a Break

Yesterday I graduated from the four week intensive language program at the Beijing institute of Education.  After 600 new characters, 150 grammar structures, and 12 lessons I now have a two week break for the Spring Festival.  After break I will be attending my 6 month semester at Capital Normal University studying Chinese language, politics, and history, but for now I will enjoy the break.

I have never experienced Chinese New Year, but from what I have read I look forward to seeing some of the customs.  The first experience I had with the New Year was today when I walked through the subway and literally saw NO ONE!  This has never happened to me before in Beijing.  The subway (or even the city in general) is usually bustling at every time of day, but today at 8 pm there was no one out.  That is because everyone has returned home for the Spring Festival celebrating the new year of the Lunar Calendar from February 1 until February 15.  I also cannot wait to try some of the traditional dishes served during the New Year festivities such as roast fish (kao yu), dumplings (jiao zi), and rice cakes (yue bing).  These dishes all have significance such as the pronunciation of fish rhyming with Chinese the word for luck (fu), and the dumpling and rice cake dishes symbolizing both prosperity (symbolized by circular shape of dumplings) and success (symbolized by fullness of rice cakes).  The Chinese also like to hang the character for luck ( 福 ) upside down (dao) on their doors.  This is because upside down (dao) sounds like the Chinese word to progress (dao (with a different tone)), so hanging luck upside down means to extend good luck through the new year.  These are just a few examples of Chinese customs and I am sure I will see many more next week.

My plans for the next two weeks are: February 1 through the 7 visit Shanghai and stay with my Mum’s friend Billy Xu and his family for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.  Then I will explore Shanghai on my own for a bit before I leave to go to Kunming, a city in China’s southern province of Yunan.  There I will hike a popular trail that takes you through Tiger Leaping Gorge, the White Falls (calcium deposits in waterfalls that make the water look like milk), and the Old City (an ancient relic city dating back to the Ming Dynasty).  I will return to Beijing on the 15^th with some great stories and pictures.  Until then I will follow customs and take the next two weeks off…

 新年快乐 xin nian kuai le!  (Happy New Year!)    

Quotation Game

GAME:

Below are a list of quotes -- the game is to match each quote with a name from the name bank.  All names do not have to be used and some names can be used more than once.  The answers are at the bottom.

Name Bank:

George Washington

Thomas Paine

Mao Tse-Tung

George Patton

Chesty Puller

Sun Tzu

George W. Bush

John Paul Jones

1. When the obstacle is removed and our political aim attained the war will stop.  But if the obstacle is not completely swept away, the war will have to continue till the aim is fully accomplished…it can therefore be said that politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

2. The only way to settle questions of an ideological nature or controversial issues among the people is by the democratic method, the method of discussion, of criticism, of persuasion and education, and not by the method of coercion or repression.

3. All reactionaries are paper tigers.  In appearance the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful.

4. If they start fighting, we fight back, fight to win peace.

5. After the enemies with guns have been wiped out, there will still be enemies without guns; they are bared to struggle desperately against is, and we must never regard these enemies lightly, if we do not raise and understand the problem in this way, we shall commit the gravest mistakes.

6. Attack remains primary

7. People must adapt their thinking to the changed conditions

-----ANSWERS-----

All are quotes from Chairman Mao!

Surprised!? I was too.  I bought a little red book of Mao Tse-Tung quotes the other day and thought it would be interesting to see if anyone could properly identify each quote.  What is more interesting, I feel, is that if you incorrectly match the names with the quote, as I would have.  I feel like some of these sayings have been repeated or else Mao has adapted other people's words to his own…he was a student of history after all.  Either way, this was an interesting little game.

Deal or No Deal

I came to China with the illusion that EVERYTHING would be discounted and I could buy whatever I wanted at a fraction of the price for what it would cost in America.  After all, 90% of the goods I use are stamped “Made in China.”  However, now I see this idealization is not true.  Aside from not everything being a deal, I also have a hard time quantifying the Yuan against the U.S. Dollar.  My rule of thumb is to divide the price by 6 and it is about that in dollars.  For example, I went to dinner last night and it cost me 60 Yuan.  Initially seeing 60 on a bill is shocking at a restaurant when you are only paying for yourself, but following my rule of 6 it ends up being under 10 dollars when the actual conversion of 6.6 Yuan to 1 dollar is taken into consideration.  Not bad for a plate of lo mein, tea, and a beer. 

The KFC in China is a great deal as well.  Not only is it better tasting than the ones in America but they sell these little custard pies for roughly 50 cents each.  They are these pastries the size of your fist, filled with a vanilla crème like custard in a light filo dough crust, served warm.  Lunch at KFC will run you anywhere from 4 to 8 dollars for a bucket of chicken, pastries, fries, potatoes, and a drink…awesome deal!

Another great deal was my experience at the barber the other day.  I was in desperate need of a shave and a haircut, so I went down the street to the first barbershop I could find.  I do not have an extensive hair cut vocabulary, so when they asked me what I wanted I was able to say a shave and a haircut.  This barber shop seemed a bit more classy and I feared I would be paying far too much for something that could cost me a third of what it does in the states.  The hair stylist asked me what type of cut I wanted.  I could understand her, but I could not explain: “Take a little of the top, clean up the sides, and thin out my bangs.”  Instead I flipped through a magazine, found a picture of George Clooney and said, “This” in Chinese and pointed.  The hair cut and shave was a great experience!  They trimmed up my beard fist and shaved me with warm shaving cream and a hot wash cloth.  After the shave they washed my hair and I got a shoulder massage while sitting in my chair.  The hair cut was relatively quick and probably one of the best I have received in my life.  I am not saying I look like George Clooney right now but my hair cut sure does.  I went to the counter after I was all cleaned up to see what the damage was.  There were no prices anywhere so I thought in my head…“OK, 100 Yuan maybe 300 max”…I almost dropped dead when he said 30 Yuan!  That is 5 dollars!  So for a shave, hair cut, wash, and neck massage it was 5 dollars.  Take that Super Cuts!

This is the part of China that is a great deal, but the other side is, from my experience, more common.  After the 1 dollar breakfasts of spicy egg wraps, awesome KFCs, and 5 dollar haircuts, there are the places that get the best of you.  For example, my most recent experience of a potential rip off was at a hot pot restaurant with my four friends.  The story goes as such:

So we are sitting down to a traditional hot pot dinner at a restaurant near Tiananmen.  If you are not familiar with hot pot style serving let me briefly explain that hot pot or “huo guo” is a Chinese style fondue where you are given a boiling broth of various flavors (mushroom, sweet and sour, hot and spicy, pork and tea, or even citrus).  Once your broth comes to a boil you are given raw meat, veggies, and noodles that you throw into the pot and let them cook.  The menu consists of pages of raw food items and you can choose as many as you would like.  My friends and I chose beef, lamb, and pork initially, but as we finished the meat at a rate 5 times as quickly as the vegetables we decided to ask for more.  I ordered the seafood platter with crab, shrimp, and scallops for the table.  The platter that came out seemed too big for only 300 Yuan.  There were king crab claws, giant shell fish, and two lobsters.  I immediately knew something was up, so I stopped the waiter and said this was not what I ordered.  He assured me that this was the only platter they had and that I definitely ordered it.  I complained and told him that we wanted the crab, shrimp, and scallops but to take everything else back because it was too expensive.  He agreed and everything was fine.  After drinks, our bill came…3,000 Yuan for four people!  I immediately knew they charged us for the deluxe platter and went straight to the manager.  Because everyone refuses to speak English when money is involved and it benefits them I was restricted to the few words I learned from the restaurant dialogue.  I said that we were over charged, and we would only be paying 2,000 Yuan.  The extra 1,000 was for the platter we did not order.  They insisted that we ordered the platter, but we stood our ground.  We put 2,000 Yuan on the table and walked out.  We were stopped by two waiters who told us that we were not allowed to leave until we paid.  At this time I had had enough of being ripped off.  I think my voice elevated and a patron stepped in to the conversation.  He was Chinese, but spoke great English.  I explained to him what happened and he said something to the waiter and things were resolved like that…no problem.  I thanked him and he said it was his pleasure.  He said this place always tries to rip off foreigners and he has a lot of business dinners here so they respect him.  I thanked him again and got out of there before they tried to charge us for something else. 

That is the side of China that blatantly tries to rip you off, but there actually is another rip off tactic.  I call it the “Get what you pay for” rip off.  My friend recently bought headphones so he could talk to his parents on Skype for 60 Yuan.  A great deal for these type of head phones.  When he opened the box and tried them out they did not work at all!  This is why I say when you are paying 20 dollars for a purse that is exactly what it is going to be…a 20 dollar purse.  It may look like Chanel, smell like Chanel, and feel like Chanel, but when the strap breaks after two weeks; I will say I told you so!  Cheap goods are exactly that…cheap! 

In short, there ARE deals in China, but not everything is a deal.  You will find some things like cheap food and haircuts, but these savings are balanced out by the amount of times you get ripped off.  I would say as of right now, China is not the great deal I thought it was.   

Beijing is Steel Country

Here we go Steelers, here we go!

There is nothing like watching the Steelers advance to the Super Bowl and a chance at their 7^th ring while having a Guinness, hot dog with sauerkraut and ketchup, and a piece of coconut cream pie at your favorite American Diner in Beijing.  It is good to be an American: beer, hot dogs, pie, and football.  The Han Dynasty was as defining to China as a country as football is as defining to my life.  Forget wearing red for the Chinese New Year next week, I am wearing black and gold!  The only problem will be watching the game at 8 in the morning on a Monday.

The best part is I will be in Shanghai for the Super Bowl and I heard there is a Steelers Bar.  Now the trick will be finding it.

Countryside Living

Green Acres is the place to be...

The trip to the countryside today was eye opening.  Since I arrived in Beijing I have seen the airport and then a 45 minute cab ride took me into the jungle of a city that is Beijing.  At times it feels like a concrete and steel Amazon from which there is no escape.  My first escape from the city was last week to the Great Wall, but that still had a tourist feel.  This time I truly left civilization and any traces of Western culture and entered the country side.

After arriving to the outskirts of Beijing, about two hours northwest of the city, I was invited into the house of a host family.  The neighborhood in which they lived contained some new brick structures, but most of the one story houses had that traditional Chinese roofing reminiscent of the pre-Mao era and dating back to the last Chinese dynasty of the 20^th Century.  The houses were all modest and the one I was in was no exception.  I entered through a door which was a blanket hung in a doorway and the kitchen was the first room in the house.  Through another blanket doorway was their family/bed room.  Only the husband and wife lived there now so there was one bed propped against the wall and me and my two classmates sat on stools around a small table.

The wife bought out snacks of sunflower seeds and small tangerines.  The husband and I began talking and he was quite interesting.  He was 71 years old and in very good health.  He has worked on his farm his entire life and sustained his family by selling his produce to markets.  Because he lived in the countryside he was exempt from the one child policy and had three children, all of which moved to Beijing to find work.  We discussed the generational gap in the countryside.  As he mentioned before, many older children move to the city for work instead of staying in the countryside, and because of this there is a generation missing from the countryside.  One will only see older couples and maybe some younger children.  There are few between the ages of 18 and 40 living in the countryside anymore, and because of this there are not any schools for children above the age of 10.  He said the reason more older children are leaving was due to the ease of getting to the city now and the desire for work other than farming.  He said there are very few families living in the country side with children and if they are they are extremely poor.  The majority of people I saw were older than 50 by my guess, but it did not strike me until he mentioned it.

The conversation went on for a bit and then the mother called me into the kitchen to help her make some dishes (as you can see in one of the pictures).  Every dish was prepared the same way.  They had a giant wok over the stove and they would pour a little oil into the wok and threw whatever vegetables in and fried them up.  I helped make the egg and tomato dish (in the picture of all the dishes it is the top left on the table).  It was basically just chopped tomatoes, salt, and egg fried together…simple yet delicious.  The best part about watching the meal being made was how they would literally go outside grab the freshest vegetables they could find, chop them up, and throw them in the wok.  It is winter time here, so not many vegetables were pulled from their stockpile, but the bought vegetables were still delicious.  The mother would go outside and grab dried chili peppers from the windowsill and just throw them in the wok.  These peppers were quite possibly the tastiest and hottest peppers I ever had.

After we finished cooking the meal we all sat around the table as the mother served us.  As you can see from the picture the dinner started off with at least seven different dishes, but as each one was finished by the five of us the plate was replaced with another dish.  It seemed like a never ending meal and it was!  They most important point here is that they do not eat like this all the time and they very rarely have excess.  A Chinese custom for having guests is to provide much more food than can be consumed to show your prosperity and it also symbolizes being a good host.  On e downside to the delicious food was there was very little meat in each dish and most of them were all vegetables.  Although there was not a lot of meat the dishes were still out of this world, these were the freshest and tastiest veggies you could imagine.  All of them were served sizzling and hot, right from the wok.  Every bite I took of the mushroom and green peppers in brown mushroom gravy I kept thinking, “My God, this would be fantastic over a thick cut of veal,” or the crushed chili pepper and potato dish that would have been a great compliment next to a medium rare t-bone.  I guess that is just my American way of thinking….more meat!  But the dishes were great nonetheless and we had fun talking and eating family style.

The dinner ended with these delicious corn bread rolls that were so warm and tasty, but like every dish I had they could have used just a little extra touch(honey & butter).  These corn bread rolls were so hot and moist I really wish I had some butter and honey to go along with them, but in the countryside the butter is not coming from anywhere unless you are using your goat to make it and the honey is not happening unless you have a hive in your backyard.

After dinner we talked for another hour or so and I asked the older man about his health.  He said he exercises every day, does not eat too much, eats only vegetables, and works in his garden.  I commented on how straight and white his teeth were and he laughed and said thank you as he put his hand to his mouth he used his tongue and clacked out a top and bottom set of dentures!  He held his teeth in his hand and let out a big deep laugh through his gums.  That was definitely the most surprising part of the day and I wish I would have videotaped it.

After a few hours of eating, talking, and drinking rice wine our teacher came to gather us and return back to campus.  I have not talked about Miss Li yet, but let me tell you that she is probably one of the most oblivious people on the planet (and I mean that in a nice way, she just has no concept of what is taboo to talk about)…either that or she just likes causing trouble.  Often times she asks me if I believe China and America will be at war in the future and asks me really touchy questions about Chinese policy and President Obama.   My friend in class is also Japanese, and if you know about Chinese-Japanese relations the Chinese do not look too fondly on the Japanese for many reasons, namely and most recently the Sino-Japanese War.  This will come into play later…back to the story…Miss Li comes into the house and strikes up another touchy topic conversation with the old man and asks the old man if I told him I was in the navy.  Being the traditional fellow he was I knew he did not look too kindly on foreign military personnel in his house.  He looked at me and said, “The American navy?” and I responded in jest, “No, the PLA navy” (PLA = People’s Liberation Army = China’s military) there was a moment of awkward silence and then everyone laughed.  We talked a bit more about the military…good thing my military vocabulary is as extensive as my normal vocabulary or else I would have been lost.  He asked me questions about jets and missiles and I was able to answer to the best of my ability, but the reason he was so interested was because his father was in the Chinese army.  The conversation turned out to be harmless, until that is, Miss Li asked if my buddy told the old man he was from Japan.  Keep in mind my friend is only half Japanese and his father is Mexican.  He is the product of a Hispanic Marine stationed in Japan and a local Okinawa woman.  He looks more Pilipino than Japanese.  Anyway, when Miss Li asked the question my friend and I looked at each other and had the expression, “Zhen da ma?” (Are you serious!?).  This was when the conversation turned sour and there were nothing but awkward silences and a much colder good bye than expected.  Who would have known an older Chinese man whose father was in the army would dislike a Japanese person…go figure!?  I mean I am not even Chinese and I knew not to say that…way to go Miss Li, chalk up another oblivious point to the scoreboard (I am kidding, she is great, she just does not know when to NOT say things). 

I returned home from the trip finally feeling my Chinese has improved and I have actually seen the real China.  In the next few months I plan to participate on more trips like this where I get out of the city and interact with Chinese people who are much less Westernized.  Overall, the trip was a great experience and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

PS

Thank you to those who comment on the stories, I would comment back but Google does not allow me to do so.  I apologize if it looks like I am ignoring the comments, because I am not.  I appreciate them a great deal.

Working Out Working Out

For the past three weeks I have been limited to a beaten down basement gym consisting of a bench press, one dumbbell, a broken treadmill, and a bike.  Thank goodness for the pull up and monkey bars outside or else I would not know what to do with myself.  I have been trying hard to adapt my exercise routine to fit my life in Beijing.  Yes, I spend 60 yuan every time I want to use the pool and I will run outside for about fifteen minutes and feel like I just smoked a pack of cigarettes, but I feel like I have been adapting quite nicely. 

If I learned one thing from spending weeks on ships and subs it is that you need to use your resources wisely and make due.  What I am working with in Beijing is a far cry from the facilities I had at my fingertips for a month at USMC Base Quantico, VA or at USNA.  In both places I had state of the art lifting equipment, daily fitness classes, and an outdoor pool all for free or as I like to say “mien fei!”  Thank you tax payers. 

Back to my Beijing dungeon weight room – I have been getting into what is called cross-fitness workouts and luckily most of the exercises require little to no weight, just pull up bars, a floor, and occasionally a place to hold your feet.  This is enough for the basic maintenance of fitness, but I knew I needed other exercises to stay in shape for football.  Because of this I made up some lifts utilizing my resources and also came up with a new type of lifting style that combines Tai Chi (which I am currently learning) and weights.  My innovations are:

-I use the pull up bars outside to practice for the Obstacle course at school by shimmying down them until they reach the monkey bars.  At that point, I jump off and get on the monkey bars and swing to the end and finish with a 20 yard sprint.  3 reps, 1 min break in between.

-The treadmill is broken and cannot go over a 9 minute mile pace so…I incline it to the max and put the 20 kg weight over my head and run for intervals.  400 m intervals, 4 X, total 1 mile.

-Outside the gym is a basketball court with a broken rim.  I jump and touch the rim ten times and sprint 20 yards.  3 reps, 30 second rest.

-Pushups and sit ups 2 minute maxes followed by pyramids: (1-10, 10-1 pushups x2, sit ups x3)

-Jump rope for one song on my iPod straight, rest, choose new song repeat

-Tai Chi with weighted bar.  Go through all of the movements of Tai Chi while holding the weighted bar and marinating balance.  Repeat for a full sequence, rest and do it again.

-Finish with stretching and hanging from the pull up bars (best way to crack a back).

I am not really boasting about anything, but more writing to those who know how much I enjoy taking the time to exercise after a busy day.  Beijing can make a person really lazy.  It has, what I call, perfect napping weather all day…dark, cloudy, and cold.

I am still developing my work out, but I am hoping that things change in three weeks when I move into my room at Capital Normal and my campus has a pool, gym, and track.  For now I am making due and trying to stay in somewhat good shape, but as you can see it is pretty hard and I have to be pretty inventive. 

And I am not joking about the Tai Chi exercises, they actually work really well and I think I could market it if I had some celebrity back it…but I guess you could say that for just about anything

Family Dining

My Chinese roommate invited me to his house for last week for dinner.  I am not sure how often they have get-togethers like this but the crowd included his mother, uncle, two friends, and a neighbor.  At home we have gatherings of this size, but our house is able to fit this amount of people comfortably.  My roommate’s house, however, is in a section of public housing referred to as a Hu Tong.  Hu Tongs are narrow alley ways that curve back and forth.  The walls have doors with numbers about every ten feet and behind the doors are small houses built into the walls.  It seems very easy to get lost in this maze, especially since it was pitch black and we were using our cell phones to guide the way.  My roommate could navigate his Hu Tong with his eyes closed so the darkness did not affect him, but it was playing tricks on my eyes.  Multiple times I stepped on rubble or what I thought was rubble and ended up being a cat’s tail.  That scared the Hell out of me.  We finally reached Hu Tong 24, my roommate’s house, and entered through the rickety steel door.  Inside were the people I mentioned surrounding the television, and they were watching some weird Chinese dating show.  The mother was cooking dumplings in the kitchen, which was five feet from the TV and the uncle was just exiting the bathroom, three feet from the TV.  If I did not paint a good enough mental picture let me just say it straight up, the house was one room.  Now that that is out of the way we can get to the dining aspect of the night.

The spread was laid out on the coffee table, which served as the dining table as well.  There were plates of cold dishes like cucumber, Chinese beef jerky, sheep’s stomach in spicy sauce, and breaded fish.  The main dish was the dumplings which were made right next to the table and served hot.  The dumplings were delicious, but I did not care for the sheep’s stomach.  The strangest part about Chinese dining, other than everyone trying to put as much food on your plate as possible even though you insist you do not want it, is the fact that they never drink anything with their meal.  I am used to drinking about four to five glasses of water when eating, but the Chinese only have a small glass of alcohol with their meal.

The night went on with some jokes and discussions about politics and the United States.  I was having a good time and started putting food on other peoples’ plates as well.  I did this more as a revenge tactic than being polite, because I discovered that as long as they are eating they will not put anymore food on my plate.  The night ended late and my roommate said that the uncle liked me so much that he invited us to his restaurant next week.  I thought that sounded great, and by “his” restaurant I thought he meant his favorite spot…not actually HIS restaurant. 

Fast forwarding to last night, my roommate and I arrived at the uncle’s restaurant.  My best translation for the title is the Great/Vast Land Restaurant.  We entered through the back and were escorted to the vacant second floor where a side dining room was reserved.  As I walked by other tables I started to get excited looking at the huge lo mein plates and smelling the delicious fried smell that only comes from Chinese restaurants.  We entered the side room, and it was beautiful.  The room had red velvet couches and the walls were painted in gold with Victorian style borders.  The spread looked like a Thanksgiving Day buffet, except with weird Chinese dishes.  The whole crew was there again, siblings and all.  I saw some of the same things like the cucumber and stomach, but there were additional cold plates like a ham and tuna salad.  Surely the lo mein was coming later, so I saved my appetite.  At dinner we had Chinese rice wine and again no water.  This rice wine was probably the most awful tasting alcohol I have ever had.  Imagine dipping a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol, setting it on fire, and then swallowing it.  That is what Chinese rice wine tastes and feels like.  To combat the spicy flavor of the rice wine they also had small glasses of this sickening sweet fermented rice drink, which tasted like liquid cotton candy.  That might sound good, but believe me it was equally terrible.  The main dishes finally came and the whole family looked excited.  My roommate told me all of these plates were delicacies in China, so right away I became skeptical.  The plates were set on the table by workers trying to impress the uncle aka their boss (I have never had such great service.)  On plate was a beef stew that one would see at any American establishment, fried chicken in no sauce, fish with a mustard flavor over bread, steak over bread, and by far the grossest thing I tasted in China…cold pork fat jello cubes.  Of course the jello cubes were the most expensive and everyone had the guest i.e. ME try some.  Imagine biting into a jello cube that tastes like meat and getting hard fatty pieces in every bite…oh, and by the way, it was COLD!

I am sure that most of these dishes were meant to impress me so I kept saying how delicious everything was and how great it tasted.  The night ended in the upstairs bar here the family passed around microphones and sang karaoke.  They taught me a Chinese Navy song called “Shui Shou" (Mariner) which is a song about how the Chinese Navy is never afraid.

The hospitality and warm reception was a nice feeling and I was glad to have a dining experience like this one.  I was finally able to practice all of the customs and courtesies that I study in class, such as phrases to say and what to bring (I brought Pittsburgh Steeler T-shirts as my housewarming gift).

The night did not end until late and for a Tuesday I am pretty sure that this is uncommon for most Chinese families, but I could tell they liked entertaining a Westerner.  They invited me back to the restaurant next week to celebrate the mother’s birthday…I can only hope they have better food, but I am preparing myself for more fire wine and meat jello.     

The Best Burger in the World

Who would have imagined that I would have had the best burger of my life in China!?

Yes, you heard right.  The best burger I ever had was not from Five Guys, Z Burger, or an American establishment.  It was from a little place in China’s San Li Tun district called Blue Frog or Lan Wa.  Every Monday is a “Mai yi song yi” aka Buy One Get One Free.  My friends and I took the trip to San Li Tun today and I was initially impressed with their menu:

The Montana – two onion rings, cheddar cheese, bacon, and egg on a juicy burger cooked to perfection.

The Blue Cheese – melted blue cheese, tomato, lettuce, bacon, and a hint of hot sauce

The Mushroom Swiss – Large Chinese mushrooms meet Swiss cheese, both accompanied by thick brown gravy

The Reuben – sauerkraut, 1000 Island, and lettuce on a burger

The Mexican – salsa, sour cream, and hot chili drenching a burger

And…

The Brie Boy – a burger topped with a thick slice of brie, egg, bacon, and hollandaise sauce.

I know Mum picked up on it right away…but guess which one I ordered…the Brie Boy of course!

The weird combination of everything I like on a burger was too much to pass up so I thought I would give it a try…and what a great decision!  Not only was the burger thick and juicy but the brie, egg, bacon, and hollandaise provided extra flavor uncommon to burgers.  Maybe it is the fact that I have not had a good cut of beef in about two weeks, but this burger was sensational. 

I really wish I had my camera, but if my description made your mouth water and you are craving a burger you will need to go to Beijing or Shanghai and look for a Lan Wa sign.  There you will find the Brie Boy.  

Great Wall

The Great Wall

Today I stood sentry in a 700 year-old watch tower with my back to China and my eyes to Inner Mongolia.  The intact yet dilapidated walls of Watch Tower 10 were the only protection I had against Mongol hordes.  I placed both hands against the wall and gazed out the window at the Badaling Mountains.  I imagined what it would look like to see a wave of Mongolians on horseback charging the Chinese border.  Next to me was a signal beacon, in which, the sentries would light a fire if there was an attack.  Each tower was equipped to house four to ten sentries for months at a time, and the wall lined with cannons spaced out about every 200 feet.  The Great Wall is a tactical masterpiece and it is hard to appreciate its grandeur just from my photos.  The wall extends further than the eye can see and every spot on the wall is the highest vantage point along the mountains.  It was constructed this way, of course, to serve as a defense strategy for maximum enemy detection range.  I admit great strides in strategic defense have been made since the Ming Dynasty.  We can now minimize pulse repetition frequency and increase antennae aperture to increase detection range for RADAR, which sounds impressive for our generation, but you have to understand that the Great Wall was equally impressive and regarded as a technological supremacy at the time of the Ming.

I do not think anyone realizes the distance you must walk to get to the wall.  I would say I climbed at least 1,000 steps just to get to the fork that allowed me to go to Tower 8 or 10.  After my decision to see 10, I climbed another 1,000 stairs and finally I was on the wall.  This was the first time I have been able to breathe air that did not smell like it came from the exhaust of a car.  The air was so thin and pure in the Badalings.  I appreciate Beijing, but if I could choose to live anywhere in China I would pick a nice rural area like the Mutianyu area I visited.  I have never been more impressed with engineering than I was today.  The fact that this part of the wall was built in 1300 epitomizes the strength of Chinese ingenuity and labor.  (On a side note, however, what is not shown on the History Channel and printed in books about China are the current engineering feats happening every day.  There is a giant construction crane on every block erecting some type of high rise that would rival the Melon Building in Pittsburgh.  These cranes are so abundant that I joke that they are the “National Bird” of China.)…back to the wall… 

I hope these pictures are able to capture some of awe inspiring sights of the Great Wall.  Driving back on the bus I tried to think of the words to describe what I just saw and I think I can sum today up in a short paragraph…

Words and pictures only do this masterpiece injustice, so I will not patronize it and pretend that I can recapture the opulence I saw today.  Never in the history of mankind has something so impressive, so magnificent been formed by human hands.  One cannot truly respect the show of man power until walking the Great Wall.  The wall not only represents the slog of millions, but embodies the truth that we all too often forget…nothing is impossible because with direction man can do any task, and we are only constrained by our own fears.    

Parenting

I know a lot of my stories recently have been about Li Jiang, but besides class and dinner with my Chinese roommate she is about the most interesting thing that happens to me on the weekdays. 

…And because of her I realized that I have horrible parenting skills…

During my one hour lunch break I went over to my favorite street corner store and bought some tea and egg pancakes for a quick snack.  Li Jiang was working the cash register with her uncle and squealed when she saw me.  She jumped down from his lap, almost tumbling to the floor.  She gave me a big hug and asked me to play.  I agreed seeing that I had an hour.  The family has started to warm up to me as well and does not allow me to pay for anything over 10 yuan, so basically I get all the snacks I can eat for free.

Outside Li Jiang and I were playing our running game and she tripped and landed hard on the concrete.   She did that little kid thing where she looked up at me and then looked for her Mum and did not know if she should cry or not.  Once I reacted and came to her side she immediately began to cry.  Her crying was so loud that it overpowered the roar of the noon time street traffic.  People were looking at me like I just slapped this little girl, and it does not help that I am a foreigner, so I could have been getting looks for either the little girl bawling at my feet or the fact that I have tan skin and a beard.  To solve the problem I tried to hush her by asking if she wanted me to take her to go buy a toy.  She said yes and I told her that we will get a toy if she stopped crying.  She immediately stopped. 

Now I was bound to my promise, so we walked down the street and I bought her a stuffed animal.  It was a little rip off Mickey Mouse doll, definitely not a Disney product.  I could tell because on Mickey’s tags Disney does not write “Happy Fun Mouse Man.”   Either way she could not have been happier swinging the doll at her side singing, “Lao shu, tiao wu, lao shu tiao wu!” which means, “Mouse dance, Mouse dance!” as we walked home.

Moral to the story, if I have a little girl I will probably spoil her with gifts and resolve crying by buying more gifts…I do not think I will be writing any books on parenting in the future. 

Today's Lunch--duck tongue served cold

Listening

Take a second and think about how much you actually listen and respond to someone in a given day.  I mean actually take in what they say, process it, and deliver a valid response.

Now think about how much of your day is filled up with people aimlessly talking at you and you talking to disinterested people.

Lastly, think about how many times you can respond with a yes, no, or just repeat the back end of some one’s question in answer form.

I realized that maybe about 5% of my day requires me to intently listen and respond with an intelligent answer in Chinese.  The rest I have been able to get by with minimal understanding and some simple head nods and smiles.

What I am discovering is that, outside of class, my degree of understanding conversations with native Chinese speakers ranges from 10 to 50%.  That means that out of any given subway meeting, street vendor discussion, or friendly passerby I can understand at most half of what he is saying.

I have, however, been able to appear more fluent than I seem.  The trick is to know the words that you have learned really well and listen for key words in another person’s speech.  Casual meetings usually contain the same topics like the weather, school, the city, etc.  This makes it easy to expect what is coming, but I encounter trouble when the conversations range outside of my expectations.  This is when my weakness as a Chinese speaker comes into play and I have to resort to my crutch sayings like, “I’m sorry I do not understand, could you please say again more slowly?” or “I cannot understand you can you use different words?”   It is not a bad thing though, I do not claim to be fluent, and I would go crazy if I tried to understand everything.  Also, allowing people to think you are better at Chinese than you really are makes it less likely for them to rip you off, e.g. at the markets, street corner tables, and stores.

On a side note, my lice situation is cleared up thanks to the shampoo given to me by the dorm keepers.  I now know where they keep it so I stole a bunch of bottles and gave them to Li Jiang’s family.  I gave them directions on how to use it, but they really do not have a lot of water to use so I am not sure what they are going to do.  I could not believe how damn itchy my head was from those little bugs, but it made me feel bad for Li Jiang, I am sure she was miserable.  I hope the shampoo helps her out.

This is Li Jiang

Weak Stomachs BEWARE

DISCLAIMER: If you have a weak stomach or get grossed out easily then maybe you should not read this post.

I have been in China two weeks now and I have been saving all of the strange/gross things to tell you.  I will, however, have to get used to these things if I want to live her for six months.  For right now, I have a coping mechanism, and it is to swear quietly to myself.  The fact that I have not been able to speak English means that I cannot use my favorite words in the language (curse words).  Therefore I am resorting to Chinese forms of cursing, such as Zhen de a? meaning Are you f***ing serious? And Cao for F***.  Occasionally I will slip these into speech when I cannot find a way to express myself.  Believe me, I know it is bad but it has been a great way for me to relieve stress.  Anyway, here is my list thus far:

1. Everyone here spits all the time.  They will spit in the street, on the sidewalk, and even in restaurants!  By far the grossest thing I saw was a guy “snot rocketing” i.e. blowing this nose with his hand at the table next to me in a dumpling restaurant…zhen de a?  Also, I hate the frozen “loogies” on the side walk. 

2. People do not wash their hands, but yet love to share food.  I get it, Chinese culture is all about sharing and Chinese people really want to make guests feel welcome, but I can barely stomach it when my roommate will use his hands to place food on my plate.  Also, everything is served family style sans serving utensils, so we all use of chopsticks…chopsticks that have just been in your mouth and now you are using them to serve other people…zhen de a?

3.  I know my Mum will read this and freak out, but seriously I’m fine…I have shampoo for it and it is taken care of…but my little friend Li Jiang who you all know apparently had lice.  I know this because she always wants to try on my hat.  Long story short, my head was really itchy the other day so I had one of the care takers of the dorm look at it and yep, it was lice!  My little buddy gave ME a gift this time…cao!

4.  The plumbing in China is so bad that you cannot flush toilet paper, so instead of flushing it you either A. do not use it or B. throw it in the trash can…and I thought having septic at home was bad!  Not only is seeing used toilet paper in the trash can gross, but it makes the bath room smell awful!

5.  Last for now is the fact that a lot of food is thrown out daily from restaurants.  This is not the gross part…the gross part is the maggots under the trash bags that you can see squirming on the street after the trash is removed…cao.

This is not meant to be a bash on China, I am sure we do a lot of things that disgust them.  I mean I sleep with rats in my ceiling at school…who am I to judge living conditions…

It is all about customs and what you are used to.  I am starting to be less zhen de a? and cao! about all of this, but if you plan on traveling abroad just remember the first few weeks will shock you.  It is important to not have a bad attitude and embrace everything about the culture…and a coping mechanism never hurts.  It keeps me smiling.

Minority Report

I realized today that no matter how different cultures, government, and religion can be kids are the same no matter where you are in the world.  I believe this is due in part to their pure and unadulterated minds.  The darker side to this universal truth is, however, that their innocence never remains. 

I say this because of an encounter I had today.  While playing with my little friend, Li Jiang, an older man passed by in a group of people during the normal lunch rush hour and shouted something towards both of us, but it was meant to be instructions for Li Jiang.  He spoke too fast for me but I caught a few choice words like “Watch out for…foreigner…stay away...go inside/home.”  A few people in the crowd looked back at me and laughed.  I looked down and Li Jiang as she was holding my hand, and she looked up at me and said, “Let’s keep playing.”  Because Li Jiang is the only person in China that I fully understand all the time we have become good friends…I guess my best friend over here is a six year old girl…

I cannot understand why my intentions would be so misread.  I give Li Jiang some type of toy or treat every day and play with her for at least an hour, because I know she is always hungry and does not have any other children to play with.  She lives in the store with her family and just runs errands for her mother all day; like picking up dumplings or giving 5 yuan to the post man for a delivery.  The old man’s words just show how backwards some people can be when it comes to differences.  I admit I have done the same thing, but I never realized how senseless it is to remain hostile to someone who is different.  It took me a trip to China where I am suddenly the minority to discover truly how ridiculous prejudice can be.

Hearts and Minds

Across the street from the school is my favorite store.  I am calling it a store because I cannot really explain it in one word other than “store,” but to give the whole picture it is basically a convince store the size of a toll booth attached to a street front grill where the best lo mien in all of Beijing is made.  The store is owned by one family consisting of the father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, two aunts, an uncle, and three boys.  The entire family lives in the store and sleeps behind the cash register and in between the isles.  This is the side of Beijing that most foreigners do not get to see.  The disparity of wealth is like nothing I could have imagined.  I will take a taxi ride 10 minutes from campus and pass ten high rises worth millions and then I can return to where I live and seen three generations of a family living in their store. 

This store really is not the cleanest place to buy my things, but I like giving them my business.  My daily routine is to grab a bottle of iced Oolong tea in aisle 2, which is also their kitchen apparently because they are always making food right next to the tea shelf, grab an egg custard y the uncle’s bedroom, which is a rolled blanket and makeshift pillow out of grocery bags, and then go to the cash register aka master bed room.  The family also has a little girl about five or six years old.  Every time I see her I try to give her a small treat or gift.  The other day I gave her a chocolate and today I gave her this small Beanie Baby key chain.  She seemed to really like it and thanked me.  I was sure she did not have a lot of toys, so I knew it was appreciated. 

In the afternoon I went to order lo mien for lunch and the little girl came up to be and said, “Hey I remember you, I like you!”  Then to my surprise she came out with a giant bag of stuffed animals and asked me to play.  I sat on a little folding stool on the side walk and ate my noodles as I played with her Mickey Mouse dolls.  We played for about an hour; games that five year olds enjoy like running to a random spot, touching it, and running back.  I taught her how to do a “high 5” and then we played hide and seek.  All of this was done under the watchful eyes of the grandmother, who looked like she was suspicious of westerners.  After countless giggles and laughter the grandmother warmed up to me as well and chuckled at the games the little girl and I were playing.  After about an hour of play I told the little girl that I had to return home, so she said “OK, I will see you later tonight then and we can play again?” I had to tell her that I was busy tonight but tomorrow afternoon we would play again.  She said OK and good bye. 

After playing with a little Chinese girl for an hour and understanding most of what she said I realized that my Chinese speaking ability is equivalent that of a six year old.  Even she had to dumb stuff down for me because she could see I did not understand.  Sadly eight years of studying Chinese puts me at a pre-school level in China.  It is, how the Chinese say “Mei guan xi” (no problem), because I have been in China over a week now and I realize that I am quite functional with my abilities and this program is really accelerating my progress.  Days like today remind me that it is more important to appreciate the whole experience rather than lock myself in my room and study the text. 

Informal Learning

I always felt bad not being able to distinguish Koreans from the Japanese from Chinese people in America.  I did not notice the subtle differences in their features and did not understand why a person would become so enraged by being called Korean when they are in fact from Japan.  I finally realized what they must have felt due to my ignorance when my teacher, who is a native Beijing-er and has never been out of China, told me that she thought I was from the Middle East and was surprised when I told her I was born and raised in America.  As you can imagine I was not thrilled with her assertion, but the more I thought about it I had to laugh.  Here I am with my comparatively dark skin, full beard, and unusually dark features and I am expecting a 25 year old Chinese girl to be able to recognize the fact that I am American.  We all associate ourselves proudly with our country and expect others to recognize it, however, being a foreigner my identity is an enigma.  In China, a stranger on the street could mistake me for a number of ethnicities.  In fact, I have started using this to my advantage.  Sometimes the Chinese like to use me to practice their English; however, I do not want to submit to my native language as a crutch.  To combat this problem I have begun to pretend I do not speak English, only Portuguese, and I tell them (in Chinese) that I am from Portugal.  When they ask how I know Chinese I tell them that I live in Macao (a Portuguese port in southern China).

This week has been a great mix of what I like to call my formal learning (class room exercise, homework, etc.) with my informal learning (going out in Beijing, eating at restaurants, etc.).  Recently my informal learning has trumped my formal learning as I am getting my Chinese roommate to teach me swear words.  In exchange I am teaching him English curse words.  As you can see America is getting the most out of its dollar sending me to China.  I believe that the informal knowledge I gain in the streets is something I cannot simulate in a class room and I like being able to use the new words and grammar I learn in class in Beijing at night.  Being abroad is essentially a 24/7 learning experience.  Tomorrow is the conclusion of the first week and I already feel like I accomplished 6 weeks of Chinese class back at home.   I guess I truly “don’t need no education.”  I know…it took a trip half way around the world for me to finally understand the Pink Floyd song “Another Brick in the Wall,” which is also funny because I believe China is the only place non-drug induced that is weird enough to actually get Pink Floyd’s lyrics.

A Beijing Breakast

There is an episode of The Office in which Michael Scott (Steve Carrel) takes a $300 bonus for being the most successful regional manager in the quarter for himself instead of using the $300 towards much needed office supplies.  After the employees find out he justifies himself by professing his love for the Burlington Coat Factory and says, as he is wearing a ridiculous fur coat, “If you walk into the Burlington Coat Factory with 300 dollars you are literally a god.”  This is exactly what it is like buying food and clothes in China.

                For breakfast I walk across the street and buy a spicy egg pancake, a bottle of water, and a yam for 5 RMB.  Not only is everything prepared fresh in front of you but it is less than a dollar, definitely beating the hell out of McDonald’s dollar breakfast menu.   However, I did realize that some restaurants look to rip off foreigners.  My friend and I recently paid a 600 RMB tab at a local establishment, which is around 100 dollars for the two of us.  Apparently when we ordered Sake they gave us an entire bottle instead of two glasses like we wanted.  They definitely played the system well…defeated, we paid and drank the rest of the Sake, not a total loss.

                After the first week and a few mishaps like this one I now have a better understanding of the consumer market system in China.  I went to a flea market the other day and was verbally beaten into buying a fake Dolce & Gabana trench coat.  I went strictly to practice my Chinese and bargaining abilities and somehow this little Chinese lady talked me into buying a coat for 130 RMB that I really did not want.  When it is all said and done it was about $20 and from previous gifts I have bought my girlfriend, this coat ranks amongst the cheapest.   No one needs to know it is not D&G, so I am pretty sure she will like it.  Some of the items are so great because they are so terribly fake!  Many of the items have names purposefully misspelled; for example, would anyone like me to pick them up a “Norf Face” jacket or a “Burberries” scarf…how about an “Adadias” gym bag?

                I would say the biggest adjustment so far is not being able to speak English.  For this January intensive semester we all took a pledge to speak Chinese 24/7.  Even when I am with my friends in town we have to use Chinese, and due to our limited vocabularies we often times get frustrated and use elaborate hand gestures.  For me, the hand gestures are not anything out of the ordinary.  Being raised in an Italian home, moving your hands like a maniac is conversational status quo.

                Getting past the mild inconvenience, I can see how beneficial this semester will be for my language ability.  In addition to the language itself, my cultural awareness and just overall street-smarts have already seen vast improvements.  I do not claim to be a master of transit in Beijing but I have discovered the subway system on my own and can just about get anywhere I need.  In addition to the subway I am able to direct taxi drivers and now I am starting to use the busses. 

                Everyday is an adventure; actually, yesterday I just decided to hop on the subway and go to the National Library and walk Zi Zhu Park.  I saw native Beijing-ers in the park riding rigged bicycles with ice skates on the lake and others were using poles and chairs with blades on them to traverse the ice.   I also ran into a large group of British students from Leeds University who study at Capital Normal University, the school I will be attending from February until June.  I guess I stuck out being a lone American, but they were very friendly and it looks like I have some people I will know at my new school when I leave the January intensive language program at the Beijing Institute of Education.

                Despite all the fun and adventures I have been enjoying I’m remaining cautious and protective.  In the subway I have a hand on my wallet at all times and I am constantly watching my back.  It is a great city, but there is not a 100% safe place on earth and I need to be extra careful being a foreigner.  I hope to have some more stories after the first week of class ends and I have another weekend to explore the city.