Stuff White People Like

Salutations, friends. Today was a very white day in red China. After a little bit of trouble, my classmate Clare and I were finally able to meet up with each other. We decided to meet at the Beijing Language and Culture University since it is the only place we have both been to and the only place we knew how to get to. From there we went to a nearby shopping mall and traded stories while browsing the various shops. We also bought school supplies, which for China standards was quite expensive. I bought a notebook, mechanical pencil, lead, and an eraser which combined was about 6 American dollars. But considering that my dinner last night was about 2 American dollars, I feel cheated out of a deal. Oh well, sometimes China doesn't make sense. Regardless, after we walked the entire mall, Clare and I set out on a quest to find other "bai ren" (white people). We headed over to Tsing Hua University, China's most prestigious institution of higher learning, and gave some of our UF friends a visit. We got to see their dorms, which compared to what I lived in last year, were pretty nice. Each room has it's own bathroom and air conditioning. The only catch is that there are regulated hot water hours and the air conditioning was not yet working. Like I said, sometimes China doesn't make sense. After a few hours at Tsing Hua, it was time for us to go back to our homes. Well, we chose quite possibly the worst time to return home. It was 6 o'clock. Turns out Beijing has a rush hour too. After getting closer than I ever wanter to my comrades, I finally got home. There I was greeted by a Ah Yi, our housekeeper. These past few days I think I've grown on her, because we ate dinner together. And I was able to tell her that although I can't always express my feelings, I understand a lot of what she says. She then asked if I enjoyed her cooking, and I responded saying that her cooking is always delicious. She responded with a smile and then forced me to eat more. In Chinese society, a way to show affection for someone is to give them food. Even as I write this, Ah Yi is making me eat large slices of watermelon. And to think, I was worried I would lose weight in China.

Shopping Carts and Chicken Hearts

Good evening from Beijing! It was another beautiful day in nation's capital, and although I would have liked to have just layed outside all day, things had to get done - most importantly grocery shopping. Doctor Tseng, Zhu Xi (Juicy), and I first started at the Merry Food Mart. Don't be fooled by it's name. The Merry Food Mart is a colossal conglomerate of clothing, kitchen ware, and grocery store spanning five floors. The store is equipped with moving walkways that run on a horizonal incline to make travelling between the floors with shopping carts much easier. And from the moment you get your trolley, you are bombarded with advertisements. Each cart has a TV screen attached to it that shows which items are on sale, and every few minutes a commercial will blare from the screen telling you to buy anything from cat food to vinegar. That, however, is just a small preview of what awaits inside the store. Standing at nearly every display in the grocery store is an employee equipped with a Madonna-esque microphone connected to a hand held speaker. It is their job to attract customers to certain items by, quite litterally, screaming prices and buy one get one deals at the shoppers going past. It is so noisy that you have to almost shout to talk to someone. For someone like me, who doesn't care much for noisy places, Merry Food Mary is my personal Hell. After leaving Merry Hell Mary, we went to a much smaller store specializing in baked items. There wasn't any place to park on the street, so naturally we turned the corner, jumped the curve, and drove up the side walk until we were right outside the store's door. Convenience is like rice, it's very important to the Chinese way of life. Finally we went to the last store of the day, an open air flea market where we bought fresh Chinese fruit. When we returned home, it was time for the Tseng family to once again play teach the foreigner. Now I'm all about trying new foods, but I was a bit weary to eat the fruit, because (and once again I must stress how adament I am about this) I really didn't want to have painful diarrhoea. But, I let polietness and the thrill of expanding my culinary knowledge get the better of me, and I ate the fruit. Never before have I eaten such delicious and refreshing fruit. If I expell my innards later because of it, it will totally be worth it. After returning from food heaven, it was time for dinner. We went out to a local place run by Muslims from the Shanjiang province in Northwest China. They specialize in a kabab-like style eatting, and the selection was quite tasty. My favorite dish was a very thin and tender meat that was just about the most flavorful thing I have ever tasted. My host mom asked if I knew what kind of meat it was. I told her I didn't, but that I thought it was chicken. She smiled, took a kabab herself, and said, "You're right. It's chicken hearts. Very delicious." Bite. There went my appetite.

A Taste of Beijing

Ni hao, friend. It was an absolutely beautiful day here in China's capital. After yesterday's rain, the clouds and smog finally cleared blessing Beijing with a beautiful blue sky. And, for the first time since I arrived, I saw mountains in the distance - the same mountains that the Great Wall runs along. But, besides having lovely weather, it was a rather easy day here. The biggest thing that happened was that I finally finished eating my man-tou. Man-tou is similar to a steam bun but much thicker in consistency. It kind of feels like the bread is absorbing saliva while you eat it making it rather hard to swallow if you take too big of a bite. Imagine eating a flavorless, densely packed sponge and you've got yourself man-tou. I mention that I finally finished my man-tou because I've been consistently eating the same piece for the past few days. Here in China, with over 1.3 billion people, food does not get wasted. That means yesterday's dinner is today's breakfast and lunch, and if something has gone uneaten or is still salvageable it's likely to be served again. In addition, there is very little difference in variety of food served regardless of which mealtime it is. Breakfast consists of a meat dish (usually a whole fish), two or three cooked vegetable dishes, noodles, soup, and hot milk served in a soup bowl directly after boiling. Lunch is the leftovers of breakfast without the milk. Dinner is usually the same but with some other new dish that is destined to become the next day's breakfast. Beverages are usually not served at lunch or dinner. Now, living in an apartment where airconditioning is not used, where the outside temperature peaks into the 90s, and where drinking from the tap can cause a terrible case of diarrhoea, one starts to crave water relatively soon. The first day it took incredible will power to politely refuse the water that was given to me. I secretly bought a few bottles of water, but today my stock ran out. Fortunately, my Chinese father showed me where they get their water from in the kitchen. As it turns out, they boil their water before drinking it. In fact they boil everything before drinking it, hence why my morning milk is always hot. Since I joined the Tseng family, bread has also been present at every meal. I mentioned once that bread is an important ingredient in western cuisine, and that it shows up in almost every meal in varying ways whether it be toast, a sandwich, or a snack while waiting for dinner. Well, in order to make me miss home less, they bought a loaf of sandwich bread for me to have during my meals. So, even though it doesn't mix well with the rest of the Chinese cuisine, I show my appreciation by eating the bread anyway. And how do I eat my bread? Just like any normal Westerner would... With chopsticks of course.

A Juicy Story

Hello, friends. Turns out I was wrong about being able to access this webpage while in China. When I try to load it on a regular computer the screen remains blank. Luckily, the cell phone network goes by undetected. So from now on all my posts will be written from my cell phone. And don't worry I won't use text message abbreviations when I write... Most of the time lol. Jk :P. Anyway, today was the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duan Wu Jie. This also coincided with my Chinese little sister's school holiday, aptly named Happy Day. My family invited me along to join in the celebrations as well as to watch the various performances put on by the different grades. Well, perhaps this was wrong of me, but when I hear that the Chinese are putting on a show, I expect it to be spectacular. My expectations were a little high. I'm not saying that they should have had acrobats and contortionists, but that would have been cool. Regardless, I did enjoy myself and was fully entertained watching a bunch of Chinese kids clumsily dance or speak in front of an audience. Also, I think Juicy, my Chinese little sister appreciated the fact that I was there. She actually made an effort to talk to me today. She noticed my arm hair and was fascinated by it. We had a little discussion as to why white people have arm hair and Asian people don't. Who would have thought arm hair could bring people together? After Happy Day, we returned home and I began my four hour study session. Four hours is a hell of a long time, especially after spending the day with a bunch of hyper kids coming off the Happy Day high. But I got through it... I just haven't started my homework yet. After my session, my family and I went to a restaurant to eat Beijing duck. And it was there that I described the inner workings of Halloween to a very enthusiastic and interested audience. The Chinese are quite superstitious about ghosts and they don't quite grasp the concept of trick-or-treating or carving pumkins. And while I was explaining Halloween I couldn't help but think that if they were surprised about this holiday, just wait until I tell them about Easter! Now I'm off to learn the Chinese word for "resurrection."

Ni hao, China

Greetings from China! I'm currently on my cell phone writing this on a public bus. It is me and a bunch of Chinese people, all of whom are staring at me. I suppose i'm a bit of a rarity in this part of town. Anyway, last night I met my host family's daughter and housekeeper. It was awkward. I thought I had a good grasp of Mandarin. How very wrong I was. I ended up eating dinner alone because they didn't know what to do with me.However today was much better. My host mother is very kind and interested in anything I have to say. I have yet to meet my host father. Well i'm at my doorstep so I'll continue this later.

Zai Jian, America

Hello, friend. I begin this travel blog with feelings of both excitement and nervousness. After months of planning and weeks of anxious waiting I can finally breath easy... sort of. I've secured university placement, housing, and (after much frustration) the proper documents necessary to begin my summer in the People's Republic of China. For three months, I will live with a family in the nation's capital while attending the Beijing Language and Culture University. My goal - to reach a high level of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. After a bit of thought, I decided to create this blog as a travel diary of sorts. I hope to keep friends and family connected and maybe even teach you, my dear reader, a thing or two about Chinese culture. However, be warned. I am writing this first post in the U.S., and I do not yet know if this site will be blocked by the Chinese government. I do know that this site has been blocked before, but from what I can gather I should be able to access it while in the PRC. This could change at anytime though. I will try to regularly update this page. However, sometimes laziness gets a hold of me, so I can't promise much. Regardless, in a few hours I will be boarding a plane heading for Beijing, leaving my friends, family, and homeland behind. And today I had to say many goodbyes. Yet, as I said my farewells I thought of the word "goodbye" in the Chinese sense . In Mandarin, "goodbye" is a combination of the characters "Zai (again)" and "Jian (to see)," literally meaning "see again" or "Zai Jian." So to all of my friends and family reading this, Zai Jian! See you again!