香港·我的寒假旅游

So, I arrived safely back home in Chicago. Hong Kong was a nice short vacation before the chilly weather that is the Midwest. I’m happy to be home, though, and spending Christmas and New Year’s with my loved ones. Here will be a (short?) post about my three and a half days in Hong Kong; I plan on doing one or two concluding posts to summarize my time abroad sometime next week.

For a more complete collection of pictures, visit my Facebook album.

香港初见

Hong Kong is spectacular! Whether you like the busy city life and modern architecture or the serenity of forest, mountain or sea nature, Hong Kong has it all. And if you like both, luckily these two are smushed into such a tiny area that you can appreciate them both within a matter of minutes.

After landing in the airport, a boarded a city bus to my hostel, which was located right in the middle of Fashion Walk. As it implies, Fashion Walk is filled with a lot of the Western name brands that are a bit out of my price range, such as Armani Exchange, Calvin Klein, or Vivienne Westwood. It made the area fun to just walk around at night, though it’s extreme crowdedness made rolling my luggage through a bit of a nuisance.

The first night I wandered around the area, partially to try to orient myself to the area and partially to find a cheaper place to eat. Unfortunately, I got myself rather lost and could not take you back to where I ate, which was a small, cheap noodle and soup place. However, on the way, I managed to run into some other interesting, high traffic areas. 

Christmas decorations outside a mall in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

View from the mall steps at the surrounding area

I was fairly tired from my day of travelling-- I woke up around 5:30am to finish packing and ensure I could leave my room in Xian on time and didn't get into my hostel until around 5:00pm -- and was planning on attending 9:30am Mass the next day, so I called it a night after my wanderings.  

星期日·大屿山

Waking up can be hard to do without an alarm clock. I had used my cellphone all semester to make sure I woke up to prepare for class every day; however, I had already returned my cellphone when I left Xian. Not bringing my alarm clock from the United States and not owning a watch, I had to rely on sunlight and my own biological clock to wake up on time. Luckily, it all worked out and I left for Mass with plenty of time. I didn't know how complicated getting to the subway station or the walk from the station to the church would be, so I left with ample time. Ironically enough, the walk from the subway station to the church took me through Lan Kwai Fong, a night life hot spot; so as I walked to morning Mass, I saw (and smelled) all of the workers cleaning up from the Saturday night revelry.

Some impressive graffiti in LKF



The church, which is both beautiful and massive, is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (聖母無原罪主教座堂). I had found out through my Hong Kong contact, Astrid, that the English Mass was at 9:30am. After Mass, I had planned to meet Astrid at the nearest subway station. Since I had no way of contacting her other than email and Facebook, we decided to meet at noon and then have lunch together. Well, Mass ended around 10:45 am, so I had a good hour by myself to wander Hong Kong. Not wanting to get too lost, I stayed on the route from the church to the subway station --- and luckily found a walking park and free zoo: the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Atop the small hill was the zoo. There were a few couples and new families and a small class enjoying the zoo that Sunday morning; I visted the primate and bird areas. I probably should've taken pictures of the signs so I could recall now what animals I saw, as some of the primates I had not only never seen before but also never heard of. However, I did see some orangutans, lemurs, macaques, and flamingos, which was a nice trip back into my childhood. I've always loved animals (especially the strange and tropical animals) and often spent time watching or reading animal documentaries, films, and magazines. 

Main entrance to the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Entrance sign to the zoo

After my short but much appreciated detour, I headed off to the subway station to meet Astrid. I had sent her a picture of myself to help her find me; unfortunately she had been unable to send me a picture and told me look for a short Asian girl with long hair and a pink bag. Needless to say, I focused on the pink bag. I think I may have waited an extra ten or fifteen minutes before she appeared, but it's rather hard as time seems to move at an interesting pace when you're waiting. We ate at a nearby restaurant that served some very tasty Hong Kong food --- I think I got "Squid Ball Soup." It was tasty.

There was only one thing I had decided I needed to visit while in Hong Kong --- the Big Buddha. A good friend of mine from Hong Kong, who unfortunately was unable to meet up with me as she is currently living in the United States, had passed along a short "guide" of different things to do in Hong Kong. Here I first read about the Buddha statue. Having visited a number of religious sites during the Silk Road trip, I wanted to see the Buddhism in Hong Kong; I've also always have been fascinated with religion. Astrid, despite having lived in Hong Kong for a few years now, had never been to the Buddha and so it was a first for the both of us. Astrid knows both Cantonese and speaks English fluently and naturally, so she was invaluable in making my Hong Kong trip enjoyable and run more smoothly.

  

We took the ferry from Central, Hong Kong Island, to Mui Wo, Lantau Island; after the short ferry ride, we rode a bus up to Ngong Ping, where the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery are located. Astrid, knowing that I was a somewhat religious Catholic since I asked about Mass times, was a little confused why I wanted to visit a Buddhist site so much, so we had a very interesting discussion about various aspects of religion, which I enjoyed very much.

  

The Big Buddha, or Tian Tan Buddha, is relatively new and therefore the area is fairly nice and clean. The monastery is also relatively new, being founded at the beginning of the 20th century, is actually a Zen Buddhist monastery and so very different from the Tibetan Buddhist monastery we visited in Xiahe during our Silk Road trip. After walking up the stairs to see the Buddha statue, we walked around the grounds and walked on some hiking paths to enjoy the natural scenery of the island more. There are much more rigorous paths and a few different camping grounds, so apparently Lantau Island has an active outdoors recreation crowd.

Main entrance to the variety of tourist activities at Ngong Ping

Tian Tan Buddha 天坛佛像, which is named after the Temple of Heaven in Beijing because of similar designs in the base

Astrid, my new friend who made Hong Kong very enjoyable, and I in front of the Big Buddha

Po Lin Monastery, the main temple hall

The Wisdom Path, a collection of verses from the Heart Sutra engraved in large wooden trunks

After Lantau Island, we headed to Kowloon for dinner. Astrid brought me to perhaps the largest and busiest mall I have ever seen (it's technically a complex of malls that houses at least one hotel!) We also had to wait around 45 minutes to get into the restaurant; however, the food was delicious and fairly reasonably priced, so I suppose the wait was worth it.

Perhaps the most crowded exit out of a mall

Afterwards, we walked along the southern end of Kowloon and saw the Hong Kong Cultural Center, Space Museum and Art Museum and ended up on the Avenue of Stars, where we found the stars for Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan (because I don't know any other Hong Kong stars... oops). Astrid bid me goodnight and safe travels, as she had to return to school on Monday and Tuesday.

我一个人散步

Because I was on my own Monday and Tuesday, I didn't have to worry about waking up at any particular time and enjoyed relaxing mornings in my hostel room planning the day's activity. Monday became my "typical" tourist day, as I explored Victoria Park and visited The Peak. As I was looking for a cheap place to eat lunch, I exited out the southeast corner of Victoria Park and eventually found a school. The students must've been on lunch break, since they were all coming and going, those coming back often with bags of food. I knew that if I figured the students, I would find a cheap and authentic place, and they didn't let me down. I actually ordered Singaporean-style noodles, but it's still not Western or Japanese food, which there is an overabudance of in Hong Kong. It was here in this small restaurant that I found out Kim Jong Il had died; because the place was noisy, I could only watch the TV and read the Chinese subtitles (which were in traditional form and thus less understandable for me). I was rather proud of myself to still understand the gist of the news broadcast though.

After me lunch adventure, I took the subway back to Central and walked to The Peak Tram station. The Peak is located on the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island and therefore provides a spectacular view of much of Hong Kong (you can see over into Kowloon as well). Around The Peak are multiple walking and hiking trails to provide a more immersive natural experience, though these paths are also roads and had a few cars and houses.



View of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island through the trees

I spent the whole afternoon atop The Peak exploring and stayed until nightfall. The Peak also houses a Madame Tussauds wax museum. I personally find wax figures, especially as lifelike as these, to be extremely creepy, and I spared myself the ticket. I wandered a little bit to see the nightlife before heading back to my room. 

Tuesday was also a relaxed day. As Tuesday was more overcast and foggier, I luckily had done of all my outdoor sightseeing on Monday. Tuesday I had planned to visit the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Chungking Mansions, a fascinating place recommended by Astrid. The Mansions have been dubbed a prime spot of "low end globalization" and house a large number of South Asian and African immigrants. I visited the Art Museum first, which only costs HKD10, and spent a few hours exploring the galleries. They had a range of exhibits, from calligraphy and pottery throughout the dynasties of China to Chinese export paintings and the works of modern painter Wu GuanZhong.

After my museum trip, I headed to explore the Chungking Mansions. Despite my general curiosity, I only walked around the first floor as I had no intention of purchasing anything as my luggage was already overweight and I was running low on money. After this short visit, I continued to walk around Kowloon and eventually found myself at the History and Food Science Musuems. However, it was already around 5:00pm, so I didn't think I could squeeze in any more museum visits. I returned to Causeway Bay, the area where my hostel was located, and did some final street exploration before I settled on an authentic looking enough restaurant for dinner. Afterwards, I strolled back "home" and did my final packing in preparation for my flight on Wednesday morning.

I woke up with plenty of time to leisurely do a final check, check out, and walk to the bus station to take me to the airport. I had no problems checking my luggage in Hong Kong and had a nice, short flight to Shanghai. I had a two-hour layover, but it was complicated because I not only had to pick up my luggage and recheck it, but I was also a little worried because I didn't have a visa to re-enter China, which slightly delayed me at the immigration counter. Further stress was added when the United representative told me I only have one free luggage and would have to pay for my second piece, even though it was an international flight and I had brought two pieces free of charge in August. Well, luckily I still had some money left over for this, though I had to go to a separate counter to pay. Needless to say, I was frustrated and becoming more anxious that at the final leg of my trip something awful was going to happen. Luckily nothing did, as I arrived at my gate about twenty minutes before they started queuing. The plane ride was enjoyable, as I had a window seat and have no problems sleeping on planes. Oddly enough, my personal TV asked me which language setting I preferred; I selected English, but the screen somehow thought I had chosen 繁体中文 (Traditional Chinese). I could navigate it easily enough, so I didn't bother changing it. So, to the final minute, I was still practicing Chinese.



I arrived safely in Chicago O'Hare, passed easily through customs and happily reunited with my family. I was brought home to a warm, homemade meal of chicken parmesan and ate cheese and drank milk basically for the first time since I left for China. Hong Kong was a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to any opportunities to return, though I would like to bring at least someone along me to make the trip more exciting as there is only so much you can do by yourself on vacation.

再见西安！

This will probably be my last post about my day-to-day activities here in Xian. I’ll more than likely make only one post about my short stay in Hong Kong and then wrap up with an overall reflection about study abroad and being in China. So, without further ado, my sometimes not-so-boring life :P 

老师，我们爱你！

Almost every Saturday morning since returning from the Silk Road trip, I’ve been able to volunteer teaching English. The school is rather far away— around 60 km according to Google Maps— but the nephew of the Literature professor, He Laoshi 何老师 who was looking for volunteers works there, so that’s the connection. Besides merely helping out the family, He Laoshi wanted to bring volunteers here because the school is located in a rather poor village. Most of the students’ parents all work in the same factory and receive relatively low wages as compensation for being provided housing. He also wanted to bring us because, according to him, this would be the first times many of these children would see a foreigner (aka white person) in person. How could you say no?

Throughout all of the trips, four of us went at least once: Andras, Cora, Karen, and I. Andras has teaching experience, so he went most often after I; Cora and Karen each came only once or twice. I genuinely liked the experience and would feel somewhat bad if I couldn’t effectively fill my time with the students because I decided to wing every class. Andras would’ve come more often, but he found some part time jobs teaching English, so his schedule became a lot busier. I think the girls didn’t get as much out of it and getting there and back was a bit of a hassle, even with He Laoshi bringing a taxi.

The drive is long (usually an hour and a half) and there isn’t much nice scenery to look at, though I rather enjoyed seeing rural China, all of the construction and, unfortunately, horrible living conditions; furthermore, once the taxi gets off the highway, the roads are in horrible condition and the vehicles often times are a little too close for comfort. Because we were volunteers, we weren’t getting paid obviously, but we also felt somewhat obligated to help pay the cab fare, which made the experience even less desirable. He Laoshi, however, only accepted our money twice. We were volunteering for him, so he gladly could pay the cab fare of around ￥120.

Google Maps from our university to the city of Xingping

We drove a bit further than the desination marker, but I'm not sure on which roads/ for how long

Back to the students. After our first few times, two changes occurred which made the experience even better— we taught two classes instead of one per visit and we taught the same classes each time. Not that I took advantage of this to actually learn any of the students’ names, which would have 1) been more considerate of me and 2) helped when I needed to tell some boys to quit horsing around a few times. If I remember correctly, my students ranged between seven and ten, with about an even number of boys and girls. Occasionally my second class, the younger students, would include some even younger students. One time I had two five-year-olds! 

Modeling after Andras, I tried to take the topic of the week (we were given copies of their workbooks) and have them answer a few questions using that vocabulary and then tried to come up with a game/ have me act or draw as a way to it more fun for the kids. This works fairly well except for the chapters on fruits and vegetables. I don’t know any fun games that use that vocabulary… However, this last visit (December 3), I was given “free reign” to go over anything. Well, this type of freedom is nice when you’re preparing, not so much once class has started. So I figured I’d teach them something relevant to the season and relatively easy for me to explain – Christmas. 

I knew it would be easier and safer to stick with secular Christmas, so I drew a picture of Santa Claus on the chalkboard and started from there. The children all knew what Christmas was, though a few of them said they don’t celebrate. They, once again, liked my drawings of Santa, the world (to show them where the North Pole is) and my Christmas tree; however, they had become very comfortable with me and a few of them had decided they didn’t need to pay much attention any more. I asked who celebrated Christmas, and maybe half of the children raised their hands. Then I went around to each student individually and asked them a little more about Christmas, about what they wanted as a gift or what they did to celebrate Christmas. When I did this exercise, every child except one apparently celebrates Christmas (or didn’t really understand what I was asking and gave answers anyway). At the end of class, as they were all rushing out, I asked if they wanted to take a picture with me, since this was my last class with them, and they all immediately rushed back into the classroom.

My older students who enjoyed my class perhaps too much :P

After a short walk and lunch with He Laoshi, I returned back to the school to teach my second hour of English. Upon my arrival, one of the full-time teachers apologetically came up to me and said, “Since this is your class, we want as many of the students to see you as possible. Unfortunately, their English levels aren’t going to be the same. Is that okay?” Luckily, I had had decided just to teach about Christmas again, and I figured it was new enough vocabulary that all of them would benefit, and as long as they could read English, they would be fine, since I often write my questions/ answers on the board to help them match what I say to what is written. The teacher also sits in on my class, since their English level is lower than the first, and translates into Chinese often to help them understand. The class was large, but they too seemed very excited about Christmas. I also had them differentiate between what good and bad children do; it was interesting what they came up with. Also, they were much more eager to tell me what bad children do. I suppose to easier to say what is wrong than what is good. Some of my favorites (good deeds) were: help blind people cross the street and obeying your mother and teacher.

Before class, however, they had written me some messages on the chalkboard. I guess they had looked to see what I was wearing that day, because they even included a tie in the picture they drew me. I unfortunately didn’t take pictures until after class, so I had to erase their drawing of me. Luckily I saved the corner where they wrote this adorable message:

They even provided the translation themselves -- how considerate

After class, I again asked to take a picture with them. Since I had help this time taking the picture (I didn’t need to set a timer and set the camera on a window sill) we took the picture outside. I convinced He Laoshi to come in (he’s the Chinese man to my right) since it was all because of him that I was able to come and help them out. I wished now I had gotten a picture with my “assistant” teacher during my second hour and the “director” of the program, He Laoshi’s nephew.

Outside the school in Xingping 兴平

I had written a thank you note from all four of us volunteers and included some money to try and compensate a little for cab fare. He Laoshi was wary to accept what I was giving him, but after I assured him it was a letter, he took it. Alas, he felt the money and quickly gave it back to me, refusing to accept it. I still felt like I needed to pay him back somehow, so I figured if he wouldn’t directly accept the money, I could give it as a donation to the school since the building itself is rather small and dirty and they can always utilize more resources. Especially since these students come mostly from poorer families, all the more helpful a small donation would be. So, I set out to write another letter, this one addressed to the students, and included my donation and the above picture, with my signature on the back.  

Here’s the letter I wrote (after I considered the suggestions of my roommate):
亲爱的学生们，

        圣诞快乐！既然圣诞节就快来了，我就要给你们礼物。这封信里有两个礼物。

        第一个是一张照片，即使照片里面没有所有的学生，我也要给你们。我也有这张照片，所以我不能忘了这个很棒的经历。

        第二个是一个小的善款。你们都是非常好的学生，我希望你们都继续学英语，可是现在你们的学校环境不太好。请把给你的善款用于学习，可以买资料或者美化一下学校什么的。

         下面是我的家庭地址和我的电邮地址。我想要跟你们保持联系！ 

         好好学习。加油！

English translation:

Dear Students,

            Merry Christmas! Since Christmas is coming soon, I want to give you all a present. This letter contains two presents.

            The first is a picture. Although the picture doesn’t have all of the students, I still want to give it to you. I also have this picture, so I will never be able to forget this awesome experience.

            The second is a small donation. You all are very good students, and I want you all to continue studying English; however, right now your school environment is not too good. Please use the donation towards studying; you can buy materials, decorate the school a bit, etc.

            Below are my home address and my email address. I really want to keep in touch! 

            Study well, you can do it! 

Since I was their English teacher, perhaps I should’ve written it in English, but being in China, I tried to find any excuse to practice Chinese.

人一己百

The second to last week of classes, we worked on our final calligraphy pieces. We were supposed to have practiced on our own throughout the semester; however, we always left our supplies in the classroom. Since we didn’t have class the week before (see previous post about our field trip) and were actually working on the characters would be writing for our “masterpieces,” we decided it would be a good idea to take the supplies home and actually practice. I, for a variety of reasons but none of them too good, didn’t. I walked into class not having actually written any of the characters I was going to attempt to write for my final. Luckily, our calligraphy teacher had done an excellent job throughout the semester teaching us not only proper stroke order and brush techniques, as writing with ink and a brush is obviously more artful and difficult than a pen, but also how to “get into the rhythm” of calligraphy. He, and Orion as translator/ instigator, often would compare them to the feelings from Tai Chi, as all of us were in both classes.

Our calligraphy class lasts for an hour and a half, so after about an hour of practicing, I bought the “fancy white paper” and wrote my first piece. (Right now it’s buried somewhere in a suitcase; after I return to America, I’ll take a picture.) It turned out well, except when I hit the last character. The last character in my 成语 chéng yǔ was my simplest: 山. However, my ink was a little less ample than when I wrote my other characters, and I, accidentally, created what our teacher refers to as “meat and bones.” Now, our professor actually finds this style highly aesthetically appealing. I agree that it gives the characters an amount of artistic imperfection that highlights the inexactness of the art of calligraphy—for as much as it is about proper order and form, there is also the artistic element and feeling that is more important (though the form is a necessary base). However, this character means “mountain,” and so I found it humorously ironic that it was the only character that “faded away” a bit. Mountains about supposed to be big, impressive, impossible to miss. I also was nervous about the signature, as it involves more than just my name, which is complicated enough, especially when written in traditional characters (from 郝捷飞 to郝捷飛 ). This end part is the worst written and least aesthetically appealing, though passable.  

Though a different style, these characters exemplify the "meat and bones" concept
Taken from the Hong Kong Museum of Art

[Future picture of my first calligraphy piece. The 成语will be a surprise until then.] 

I stayed into the next class period to write some more, as I was proud of but unsatisfied with my first one. His second class is also for foreign students, though they are from around the world and this is a required class for them. This requirement was clearly shown, as not only was their final piece an actual graded final (ours are merely souvenirs to bring back to America) but also many of the students did not pay attention at all.  

During this second class, I wrote two more pieces. When writing my second piece, in an effort to make sure I didn’t make my mountain start to disappear, I deliberately used a lot of ink in each character, to make them consistently fattened and present. However, the teacher criticized me for using two much ink. So, I wrote a third one, and tried to intentionally create the “meat and bones” effect. My first two characters came out very good and excellently displayed the concept. However, I had too much ink on my third character, and I had yet to fully master how to balance it, so it horribly stands out as different. Despite this, I am most proud of my third piece. I’ll have to decide once I land in America which one to frame and hang (or if I should just write again for a fourth time). 

The 成语I wrote as the title for this section, 人一己百 rén yī jǐ bǎi, has the meaning “what someone can do in one try may take me one hundred.” The point of this adage is that everyone learns and grasps concepts at different speeds, and we should not be discouraged if other people are understanding more quickly. Clearly, certain aspects of calligraphy we’ve learned well and other elements, such as intentionally creating the “meat and bones,” still require a lot more practice.  

终于毕业了
Last but not least, we all finally “graduated.” I’m not sure what more appropriate term to use, but our Resident Director referred to it as “graduating” 毕业, so I trust him on it. We had an interesting finals week because we all only had three classes. However, in each class we almost had two finals. In our Anthropology class, the class revolving around the Silk Road, past and present, though by far focused on the past, we had a final and our Capstone Project. We had made presentations and written a rough draft two weeks before the final, so luckily that forced us all to do most of the work then. The final was not bad at all and afterward I felt that I had learned a lot in the class about China and Central Asia.

My Capstone was about the Hui people of China. The Hui are an ethnic minority, though their status as an ethnicity is somewhat contested as their commonality seems limited exclusively to Islam. While other minorities have distinguishing ethnic, cultural, linguistic and sometimes religious features, the Hui more or less are the same as the Han in most of these regards. The Hui also claim to be descended from Arab and Persian Muslim traders who entered China starting in the 7^th century. It was interesting to not only learn more about this minority group, as we had a decent amount of interaction with them living in Xian and going on our Silk Road adventure, but also learn about some regional differences that even exist among ethnic minorities within China. My project may be selected to be featured on the Alliance website, so I’m going to bother going into it much further. If it does, I’ll provide a link to whatever they post.  

In my Literature class, we also had a written final and a paper. Researching for the paper proved a little difficult as we were limited to whatever we could find on the Internet because we didn’t have access to our campus’ library. And even if we did, we’re pretty sure almost all of the books would’ve been in Chinese, and I don’t think anyone in the class felt confident enough to try and tackle Chinese sources. Furthermore, since we were all researching different literary figures from China, we had some difficulty finding sources in English online. Despite these challenges, we all managed to write something; I tried to provide as thorough an analysis as possible on the role of the rural landscape throughout the history of Chinese literature. A very daring undertaking, I know. I made it doable by only focusing on the literature we read in class, partially because I was unable to find any articles that would’ve provided me extra information. I did focus a little more on the Modern writers Shen Congwen and Wang Zengqi, as they had a distinct focus on representing the pastoral landscape and its folk traditions.  

For our Chinese class, we didn’t have a paper. We had written a total of nine weekend compositions, all of mine between 300 – 500 characters, but if we had a Chinese paper, I don’t know how that would’ve gone. It would have been good practice though… Our “second final” was retaking the placement test (without the oral component) we had taken at the beginning of the year while still in Beijing. This did not affect our grades and at all and was purely for the Alliance staff to see what progress their students made and hopefully make their teaching more effective in subsequent semesters. Our class “found” them after we had finished our written final and I was very pleased with the score I earned on my second placement test, so I can say with confidence that they did something right. :P 

Our Chinese class after our midterm skit

(L-R) Karen, Jeffrey, Kate, Elias, Laura

Friday evening we had a final dinner and “graduation ceremony.” Besides giving various thanks to our teachers and staff members, our Resident Director also awarded prizes to the winners of the photo contest (Xian had two!) and the winner(s) of our language pledge. We also bought a cake to share with everyone as a special thanks to our Resident Director, who effectively played the role of boss, disciplinarian, knowledgeable teacher and big brother/ uncle throughout the semester. Best wishes to you, Joe, and hopefully your next batch of students can live up to your new standards of punctuality! We also received our T-shirts, which turned out really well. They even feature some calligraphy done by our professor.

Afterward, we naturally began taking some final, farewell pictures.

Our Chinese class with our teacher

Silly photo with our secondary Chinese teacher

Early the next morning, I left Xian for good and headed to the airport for my short stay in Hong Kong. I was planning on using the subway to the city center and then taking a bus that goes straight to the airport. The whole trip would be a little more of a hassle than having a taxi called for me, but significantly cheaper. However, I had forgot to factor in the exhaustion of lugging my luggage to the subway station and how exactly to maneuver stairs with such large, bulky items. Luckily two Chinese strangers saw me struggling and helped me on my way in and on my way out. Thank you both; I know my luggage was too heavy. After getting to the city center, I realized that I didn’t remember to check the actual name/ number of the bus I needed to take. I knew where it stopped (or at least I thought) and figured I could easily ask for the bus that goes to the airport. Well, I walked around the area, but I think I was too worried/ fatigued that I wasn’t really paying attention, and I’m pretty sure I walked past the bus stop.

Then a cab driver asked if I needed to go to the airport. I instinctively asked how much it was before I even answered his question, which I think threw him off a bit, because he paused a second before answering, “一百二” which is shorthand for ￥120. I remembered that was roughly what my classmates who had arranged for a taxi were paying, so I gladly accepted. I was getting a little panicked that I wouldn’t make it to the airport on time and I would miss my flight, which is much more complicated to remedy when my language skills are still limited, especially in a “crisis” situation and I don’t have a credit card on me to purchase replacement transportation. Luckily cabs go fast and there is an expressway directly to the airport, so I arrived right when I originally had wanted.  

Actually checking in had its own problems. First off, a flight to Hong Kong is in the international section, despite it having been returned to China already. That problem was easily solved as I was already in the correct terminal; I just needed to walk to a different counter. I had anticipated having to pay for my extra baggage, as I technically am only afforded a single bag, but not nearly as much as I did. According to the China Eastern Airlines protocol, a normal ticket gives me one 20kg checked bag. I tried bargaining with them, as I legitimately will be catching an international flight and should have a larger baggage allowance. Unfortunately, I’m not directly connecting to that flight. They did give me an extra 10kg free, but I was still 19kgs overweight. What was interesting is that they didn’t care how many bags I was checking, only that I had exceeded the 20kg limit. They also tried to tell me my carry on weighed too much, but at that point I gave up listening to them because I knew I could just put the backpack by my seat and it wouldn’t matter much. I’m going to have to repack my bags – which I am not looking forward to—to reduce the weight and hopefully have no fees on the way back home as I don’t even want to have to deal with that hassle again.

过感恩节

The next installment of my (notorious) catch-up posts

…which reminds me, I had a short conversation with my Literature professor during our Thanksgiving celebration about traditions in America. Speaking in English— he is Chinese, though he teaches us in English so his language skills are fairly good— I told him how relatives often “catch up,” because they live far apart. I don’t really know how to translate this into Chinese, so I stuck with 聊天 (to chat, make small talk). I thought he understood what I said, until he mentioned that “catch up” has multiple meanings. So then I tried explaining how catch up can also be if you literally catch up to somebody, as if they are ahead of you and you run up to them. I remember using 赶 to try to explain it, but I’m not quite sure if that’s accurate. Anyway, then he looked more confused and said something to the effect of, “And it’s what you can get when you go to KFC.” I was confused for a second and then it registered in my head that “catch up” and “ketchup” sound very similar. After laughing for a bit at this pun my teacher (I think unintentionally) made, I explained to him that these words have nothing in common despite sounding the same.

But returning to the correct order of events. Since I lasted posted, we’ve had two weekend activities and a Thanksgiving celebration. (This first weekend of December we don’t have a weekend activity because we had two small field trips; they will occupy their own post that I hopefully will add soon.)

陕西文化中心

Our weekend activity for the second week of November was the visit a rather interesting section of Xian. The entire square was dedicated to the folk customs of Xian and Shaanxi province and remembering former glory during bygone dynasties. There was even troupe of who appeared to be high schoolers practicing for a performance of some sort of drum dance.

The store/ museum/ workshop we toured was dedicated to the folk arts of Shaanxi province, and we especially toured the shadow puppet section. These are not the shadow puppets that we (Americans) often make in the shape of an eagle, a spider or a dog with our hands; rather, these are ornately carved and painted thin sheets of leather with movable joints to enhance the performance. Before the popularization of modern gadgets such as the TV, these shadow puppet troupes were rather popular and seemed to have a reputation similar to the travelling circus in the United States. Interestingly enough, as they’re carving the leather, they don’t move the blade across to cut, but rather turn and move the leather. I tried for a bit and made a very rough curve after a lot of effort.

After our short tour of the shadow puppet workshop, we were given a performance of a “folk opera.” There are multiple forms of opera that are regionally popular in China—the most famous is the Peking Opera, which was created around Beijing as a combination of a few other forms. This was absolutely nothing like that. There were various musicians scattered on the stage with a variety of more traditional Chinese instruments, like the erhu, and some more “creative” instruments, the most memorable being the bench. Yep, a man was hitting a bench, sometimes with his hands and other times with smaller wooden blocks, to make music. A few of the musicians also “sang” as they played – though it sounded a lot more like screaming and making of random noises. One of our assistant directors, Li Shaohan, who is Chinese, commented that even she had no idea what they were saying or what was going on. She is from a different province, so there’s just a glimpse of some of the regional differences in China. 

A postcard that more or less portrays what the folk opera looked like

After the musical performance, we saw a shadow puppet performance. They were acting out a story of a turtle and a crane. The crane was being loud and obnoxious (and trying to eat the turtle); the turtle gets fed up with the crane is eventually able to sneak away, only to return and, at the very end of the play, grab the crane in his beak. It’s unclear if the turtle ate the crane, merely killed it or just caused it pain, but either way the crane had it coming.  

Afterward, they let some of us go behind the screen and try our hand at moving the shadow puppets. I didn’t play puppeteer because I wanted to watch, but I heard it was extremely difficult as each puppet had multiple sticks (one for each movable part), often times requiring multiple people to control a single puppet, which obviously makes moving fluidly much more difficult.

After the short presentation, we moved over to the workshop area and were each given a small shadow puppet to paint. We were able to choose among the twelve Chinese zodiac animals; although I am the Year of the Sheep, I wanted to choose a different animal and somewhat randomly chose the Ox. Since our shadow puppets were simple, they don’t have any joints. However, painting them was a little complicated as there are only five traditional colors in Chinese shadow puppets and we were only given four of them: yellow (or orange), red, black, and green. We were also supposed to paint both sides of the puppet in order to increase the saturation of the color, which is a little difficult as well. However, they all turned out rather well, though Shaohan’s was voted best by everyone present.

 My finished "puppet" who came with a nice display case

汉阳陵

Our next weekend trip brought us outside the hustle and bustle of Xian and into more of the outskirts. We visited the burial grounds of the fourth Han emperor, Emperor Jing. He, like the more famous Emperor Qin Shihuang with his Terracotta Army, had a rather complex burial tomb complete with an “army,” although his consisted mostly of miniature court officials and animals to serve as food in the afterlife. Each person was constructed with movable arms, which have now rotten since those were wooden, had identifiable genitalia (and thus males and eunuchs could be differentiated!), and were robed in silk, which has also unfortunately rotted away.

The tomb has been preserved because the mausoleum is a pyramidal mound of earth and all of the chambers were thus buried deep underground. Like the Terracotta Army, this mausoleum is an active excavation site and museum.

过感恩节

The week of Thanksgiving we did not have a weekend activity because we were all invited to our Resident Director’s apartment for dinner. We also had Thursday and Friday off from classes, so we had a lot of relaxation time before our final month of classes.

Needless to say, Thanksgiving in China is not quite the same as in America, if for nothing else than China doesn’t have turkeys. Also, Chinese people obviously don’t celebrate this American tradition, so we were often asked by our teachers to explain the origin of Thanksgiving and our modern ways of celebrating. Too many of us had fun making jokes in English – so hopefully our teachers didn’t completely understand – mixing the entire American history somehow relating to Native Americans, such as when Abraham Lincoln bought the Louisiana Purchase and Sacagawea helped the Pilgrims survive the winter by bringing turkey and smallpox… not accurate in any sense. After our meal, our Resident Director asked someone to explain the actual story of Thanksgiving, in Chinese no less. After some laughing and no volunteering, I was “asked” … I don’t really quite remember how it happened, but I know I didn’t volunteer. I actually had wanted to try, so I guess my Resident Director has psychic powers. with some help for unfamiliar terms such as "Indians" 印第安人 and "cranberries" 蔓越莓, I was able to provide a fairly accurate and understandable story (I also explained a little my own family's tradition as an explanation for my formal attire). We then shared why we were thankful in Chinese, a little bit of which was recorded, so hopefully I can upload the video to the blog…

Thanksgiving dinner was, obviously, extremely different than I've ever had, but it was still really enjoyable. We had hotpot (火锅), and they thoughtfully made a "non-spicy" pot for us less-adventurous students. Beside the American students and our Resident Director, his girlfriend, our two Assistant Directors, Literature teacher, Anthropology/ History teacher and his girlfriend and our four Chinese teachers were all in attendance. It was odd to see them not in a classroom setting at first, but since we're all fairly similar in age (all the teachers except the Literature professor are under 30), we quickly all got into the "party" mood. After the explanations of Thanksgiving and everyone sharing what they were thankful for, we all ended up splitting up into smaller groups and had normal conversations which whomever we were sitting by. Some were in English; others, Chinese. I talked a bit with our Resident Director’s girlfriend, who is from Chongqing, and learned some more reasons why I should visit there the next time I come to China. A few of our classmates had bought a cake and as we were passing it out, somehow or another, a “cake fight” started in that everyone started smearing frosting on each other’s noses, somewhat similar to the messy cake sharing between the new bride and groom at a wedding reception. I think alcohol might’ve played a role in this starting. I had luckily already gotten my cake and avoided this sillyness, though it made my Chinese teacher question if I really had eaten any cake yet, as my face was clean!

It was odd to celebrate Thanksgiving without family (and without playing football!), but I have to say I very much enjoyed everyone’s company. I suppose now is about the time when children start hanging out much more with their friends than family for holidays, so I guess this is good preparation.

 

Video of the first three thankful students

 How to eat hot pot, as demonstrated by (L-R) Orion, Li Shaohan, Qin Laoshi, and Joe

 

 The cake fiasco begins :P

Almost all of the "non-student" guests

My teacher is in the very front

Miscellaneous

I attended another event put on the International Cultures Club (the people I did belated pumpkin carving with). This event was centered on Korean culture – mostly making kimbap (紫菜包饭 in Chinese, or “Korean sushi” in English). After a brief demonstration by two Korean foreign students, each table set out to make our own rolls. Karen has made sushi herself and has some experience working at a Chinese restaurant back in Minnesota, so she was very helpful in making our rolls. For whatever reason, all the girls at our table (I was the only guy) thought that Karen and I had experience making this dish. They were only 50% right.

After making and then eating our delicious creations, we played a game. I don’t remember what it was called, but an odd number of people walk around in a circle. After a call-and-response between the people in the circle and a caller, the caller names a body part. Everyone then must find only one partner and have both persons’ named body part touching. Whoever is left without a partner must undergo a “punishment,” which this time around was eating a wedge of carrot or cucumber with wasabi on it. As I have a particularly strong aversion to wasabi, I made sure I never lost. They were having difficulty getting volunteers for the game, so even though my knowledge of body parts in Chinese is limited, I figured I’d give it a try. I thought, “What’s the worse that can happen?” (We didn’t know the punishment at the time.) Well, I am happy to say I never had to taste any wasabi, except when Karen tricked me into eating some. We played four rounds. We first had to touch elbows, then hands, then ankles and finally butts. It was a pretty fun game.

Next they showed a short clip from a popular Korean show (I can’t remember if it is from a drama or a movie) about a girl dancing silly to a song about a panda family. They, naturally, then tried to solicit someone to come up and perform the dance and sing the song. No one volunteered. Then they decided the foreigners should try. After trying to get another American girl, they asked for any foreigner to sing a song from their country. Well, I apparently was in a volunteering mood, as I raised my hand. I convinced Karen to come up with me and sing Telephone by Lady Gaga… this song has proved itself extremely effective at getting me to act ridiculous in front of people in China. I would sing Gaga’s part, and Karen would do Beyonce’s. However, as soon as we got up, they wanted us to both sing a cappella and dance. I didn’t have much problem with that, but it threw Karen off a little bit. We did it anyway and they all seemed to enjoy it. Karen’s roommate recorded the beginning on her cell phone, so the quality isn’t the best but gives you a hint of what I do when I dance to Gaga. Afterward, I actually had someone compliment me on my dance moves, who was surprised to learn that they were my own moves I had choreographed and not Gaga’s that I memorized!

After our program ends in mid-December, I will be going to Hong Kong for a few days since I don’t know the next time I’ll be in the area (aka East Asia) and be able to see Hong Kong. I also have a very good friend from Hong Kong, who though currently is living in the United States, was maybe going to be able to meet up with me for these few days. However, she is unable to make the trip, so I’ll be exploring the city by myself / with accompaniment of some of her close friends.

During these past few weeks, I had some complications with booking airline tickets and hotel rooms. I had used www.ctrip.com to book my flight to Hong Kong, as the site is dedicated to flights to, from, and within the Chinese territories. However, there were some mix-ups with my credit cards which led to some odd phone calls with their representatives, the oddest of which revolved around if I were a student or not. I thought that since I am currently a college student, as even have a Chinese university ID, I qualified as a student. Apparently, for these tickets, it only counts if I’m a student at a Hong Kong university. So, I switched to a normal adult ticket. What seemed pointless about the whole thing was that both the student and normal adult tickets were the same price… The point being, I will be in Hong Kong and plan on making at least one blog post about my mini-adventures there, so stay tuned even after the semester ends!