The Train, Mimis, and Massages

My brain is fried and I am so exhausted. This afternoon while grocery shopping I accidentally put two jars of jam in my purse instead of my basket (realized my mistake a split second later, though only after noticing a fellow shopper glare at me). Later, at Starbucks, I tore open my packet of Equal and proceeded to pour its contents into the rubbish. I'm sure it's also pretty blatantly obvious from my redundancy and horrible grammar in my earlier post that this guy needs to sleep. But there's still so much to tell, so I figure photojournalism is the way to go.

This was our train cabin...yes, those are beds. Really hard "beds" that came with sheets. I was thoroughly grossed out. Who the hell knows whether or not those sheets had been washed???
We had a photo shoot in the smelly, disgusting train toilet. We were also completely sober. I don't have an answer, so don't ask:


Once back in Hangzhou (another 5.30am arrival) and after a much-needed nap, lunch at the Hyatt, and Starbucks, we treated ourselves to massages. All of us, in one room. They gave us jammies.

It was our little mimi:
Pardon the Geisha hair. Sunday was a great escape from China.
Doesn't polyester look great on me?

The weekend

As much as it pains me to say it, this past weekend was amazing. Even the slumber party on the train, albeit slightly traumatic in the moment, has left me with fond memories. Mostly of being the only girl with enough courage to participate in the booze fest that was happening in the next car. It's always hilarious to watch Bi Nike and Jin Biao, his roommate, and a bunch of other boys get absolutely plastered off baijiu (a rice liquor that is China's stomach-burning, single-distilled answer to vodka). I, personally, could not bring myself to have more than a few sips of the treacherous liquid.

So, we got to Wenzhou at 5.30am on Friday, hopped on a bus that drove us through town, past an airplane that now serves as a restaurant on the side of the road, to our ferry to Nanji Island. This was the first time that my roomie had a) seen a plane, and b) been on a boat. She had enough Dramamine to immunize all of China.

The beach was rather beautiful, shockingly...

Me and Alex (Liwei):

Beach:
The Chinese asshole who screamed and yelled at us for daring to put our stuff under the "canopies." It was probably 110 degrees that day. Heartless.
Lunch was really interesting. Lots and lots of fresh seafood - I indulged in freshly shucked oysters (and live to tell the tale). Here is Caili teaching us the snail sucking technique.
Here is Alex trying. And failing.

That night we headed back to Rui'an, another city, and stayed in a pretty comfy hotel - probably the only hotel in the city that caters to foreigners (who, btw, are not allowed to stay in anything below 3 stars). The Rui'an International Hotel of course had a revolving restaurant on the very top floor, obliging the Golden Rule of Chinese 4 star hotels, and yes, we ate there. Wasn't half bad. Our midterm "skits" were next... I'll spare you the details, but there were a lot of laughs, and I won the CET equivalent of an Oscar - a box of cookies, some of which were chocolate, all of which melted by the time I got back to Hangzhou. The night ended with a terrifying stint at a local disco/KTV (karaoke) club where some of our group seemed to get the impression that we were herded into a private room because they wouldn't serve foreigners at the bar. I am more inclined to believe that they just wanted to capitalize on this golden opportunity to rip us off. Which they nearly did, until I put my foot down (aka threw a fit) and we ended up having a better time drinking 40s of Tsingtao (and some shotgunning) on the sidewalk.

Saturday's creek swimming was awesome. We hiked up about a billion stairs to reach the highest (ok, the second highest) of the 9 pools, then gradually made our way down. Ok, we also took a break for lunch - see photos below of our lunch; "to go" has a pretty interesting interpretation in China) - and swam around in one of the lower pools. I was one with nature and - waaaait for it - kind of liked it. Except when the teeny tiny little fish started nibbling at my ankles. I did not like that.


Liwei and lunch:Us (Liwei (Alex), Tongtong (Antony), Baini (Jamie), Nike (Nick), and myself) at the beginning of the hike...
This was at the Pipa pool. Number 6, was it? That waterfall in the back was supposed to be a "massage" feature. We had a lot of fun saying, would you like to play with my pipa?
More Pipa...
Sports Illustrated photo shoot: Chinglish. The first line reads: "All the pools in this scenic spot have no bottoms with very cold water in it. Never enter them to swim." Oops.

Besides all of this outdoorsy stuff, the weekend was brimming with laughter, adventure, misadventure, mimi's (secrets), learning new Chinese slang, and butchering the language to make our own. Did you know that, in Chinese, to eat somebody's tofu means to flirt with them? Yeah, we got a HUUUUGE kick out of that one. Did you know that when you abbreviate Chinese words, like saying duibooch instead of duibuqi, you can speak Chinese without any local actually understanding you? Ni buzhid? Meiguansh.

So. Much. Fun.

Another Escapade

In just over an hour, all 32 of us vibrant CET-ers and our roommates are leaving for our midterm/long-weekend trip to Nanji Island, where we will frolic in the East China Sea (and, apparently, (others will) burn under the East China "Caribbean" sun) and explore creeks and crystal clear fresh spring water swimming holes.

Only after, of course, the 8 hour overnight train, the 1.5 hour ferry ride, and the 1 hour coach ride to our destination.

I showed my roommate my bathing suit and she was in such shock that I would wear such little clothing in public. This weekend is going to be fun.

I am pretty proud of myself for packing so lightly - my carry-on roll-y bag is barely full. Caili's luggage? A plastic bag.

See you guys on Sunday.
x

Alex's Amazing Adventures

I have writer's block. So here is a long ass snipet from an email Alex (Liwei), rising senior at Tufts, wrote to her friends (and cc-ed me an Antony on. No I'm not a creep who hacks into and pilfers from others' outboxes...). It's fun and definitely offers a slightly different perspective about being a 老外 (foreigner) in 中国...

I cannot stress enough how different this place is from anywhere I've been to before. The language, the food, the culture, and overall, how the Chinese go about doing things. I know this sounds vague, I'll explain later. The city I'm living in ( Hangzhou) is quite big, like most Chinese cities. It has a downtown area, the rich areas, the poor areas, etc. The city itself isn't anything that different from maybe an industrial American city or a polluted Latin American one. It's not like I live near rice paddies or anything. There is also this beautiful lake that sits in the middle of the city called West Lake. There are some really nice cafés nestled around the lake, and at night its beautiful. We spend so much time studying during the week (and traveling on the weekends) that I don't think I've spent more than 20 min there total. One of my goals is definitely to go back and just sit and take some pictures (which I am notoriously bad at doing, I promise I will work on that and post them online….) Whenever I do venture out into the city, its with a purpose, and only from the window of my cab do I see Hangzhouren (the citizens) floating by. I don't really feel like I live here because I haven't yet had time to just explore.

I mentioned earlier about "how the Chinese go about doing things." I apologize for my language being sub-par, but you must remember that I haven't written an English essay in about 9 months. Two funny things that stick out:

1. KTV night- One night, I tagged along as some Americans and some Chinese kids went to a KTV bar. The last time I sang karaoke was in Germany in a loud, boisterous, beer-splattering atmosphere. I figured it would be more or less the same thing, with no one really knowing who was singing and who was just slurring. Wrong wrong wrong. We walked into the KTV place, which was a MASSIVE hotel like building with a front lobby. Like a hotel, you had to reserve a room. At this point, I realized that my hopes of a returning octoberfest were dashed. Our party was led into a private, very modern room. We had a long, black, wrap around sofa, a karoke machine, and a plasma TV. Did I mention that I can't sing (too embarrassed to do it in the shower), quickly read Chinese characters on a screen, and o, wait, speak enough Chinese? Yes. One by one, my "friends" (I use the term loosely) picked up the microphone and started belting away at the newest Chinese hits. I did't know any of them. I had no idea how many Chinese pop sensations there were. I had no idea how much people LIKED this crap. Finally, there was a knock at the door and the waitress came in to get our drink order. Whew! Now was the time to really get going. I ordered a beer, and expected everyone to follow suit. I AMERICA and GERMANY people are a few beers in before they even step up to the stage. Wrong, again. Everyone else ordered hot tea. HOT TEA???? Hot tea really gets them going on a Saturday night. Woooohooo. So much fun. Lets sip some hot green tea and sing along. Everyone, please join in. Anyone bring mahjong? Needless to say, I was relieved when the night ended. Chinese college students, unlike American students, don't really go out much. Going to bars is seen as a trashy, lower class thing to do. Especially the girls, like my roommate for example. On a Friday night, it would never cross their minds to get dressed up and go to a bar. Nope. KTV and hot tea all the way. When we (the Americans) go out as a group, we try to drag the Chinese guys along. For the most part, their first drinking experience has been with us. There you go: building international bridges between once tense countries. Good old fashioned ambassadors.

The second slightly amusing you-had-to-be-there situation was when I went to the doctor's for a mild cold. Let me just add that the facilities were really great because I went into the foreigners VIP section. They are really into the whole foreigner thing. I also mentioned that I am lactose intolerant and whenever I eat dairy, I feel really sick. There is no dairy in Chinese cooking, so I had to explain that I only eat dairy when I eat western food, and I eat as much of it as possible because I really don't like Chinese food (I kinda rushed through that part). I showed him my pack of Lactaid-pills (which I don't find work) and he just laughed.

He: when do you take this?

Me: before I eat pizza, for example.

He but if your stomach doesn't hurt yet, why do you take it?

Me: it's a preventative

He: why are you taking extra medicines

Me: to prevent. In America, its over the counter

He: if you cant tolerate it even when you take the medicine, why eat the pizza?

I was stumped.

He prescribed me some western and Chinese medicine for my cold.

I also realized how ridiculous the pack of lactaid pills looked in the room. It's big and blue and has big red letters "Lactaid" splayed across the front and a picture of a huge ice cream cone and some weird psychedelic pattern in the background. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, I realized how much time and money is spent on designing medicine boxes to make them more attractive, where in the rest of the world, its just a small white box with the general and scientific name and ya esta. In India, there wasn't even a box. Just some pills in the shrink wrap thingy in a make-shift stapled-together magazine envelope. The box was as loud and obnoxious as me saying: I want to eat pizza because I hate the food here, can you please give me some pills?

Then, I went to Carrefour (the French chain supermarket) and stood in the imported foods aisle for a bit. That was fun. There are so many people pushing and shoving that I normally just put in my ipod headphones and shop away. I like the juxtaposition of laid-back Spanish music while the following scene takes place: eight people all grabbing at the same box of knock-off brand Tide detergent. When I went to go buy a mattress pad (because in the dorms, I might as well be sleeping on a wooden plank), I had to ask the assisting lady some questions in Chinese. She rattled on about size, shape, depth, etc of the mattress pad. Another worker overheard and came to help (this is very typical, you can't just browse alone) and they started talking to me as if I understood. I meekly smiled as I placed the mattress pad into my cart. As I walked away I heard "For a foreigner, she understands very well." I wanted to turn around and yell "No I don't. I have no idea what youre saying. I have no idea how to say featherweight, down, quilted or twin size." They speak too fast for me! And from some people (like in the hospital) I still get this jaw-dropping look. What is this white girl doing here? Although we are only about 3 hours from Shanghai by train, there aren't many expats in Hangzhou. Around the university though, we (more or less) fit in a bit more. What makes it more obvious is that it is perfectly acceptable to stare and comment when we walk by. A few weeks ago, for instance, I was at a fruit stand, about to pay, when the cashier and her friend started to loudly discuss the length of my foreign eyelashes. A second later, a male friend of theirs stuck his face about 1 cm from mine to get a closer look. Perfectly acceptable.

Okay, I think that is where I will leave things for now. This weekend, my class is taking a trip to the beach and then some mountains for some swimming in the creeks. I'm really excited. I'm also excited to get out of the heat of Hangzhou and of the overly-helpful Carrefour ladies.

Until next time,

Love

Liwei

ALSO

IF THERE IS ANYBODY OUT THERE READING THIS BLOG

LET ME KNOW

A LITTLE POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT NEVER HURT

THERE ARE COMMENT BOXES FOR A REASON

A few other thoughts

1. I've linked Antony's blog to mine for those of you craving more funny anecdotes about China. I can't guarantee that he is anywhere near as insightful or witty as I am (har har) but I can guarantee that you'll like it.
2. I bought so many great DVDs in Shanghai - I will not say where I bought them or for how much, for the sake of my safety - but I will say that I am beyond bummed that my Order of the Phoenix is such shit quality. Hopefully Transformers will be a little better.
3. Speaking of HP, I am riddled with anxiety that my book, being express mailed to me from Hong Kong, will either get lost in the mail, or stopped in customs. Please please please please please ensure dear Harry's safe arrival to room 304 of the foreign students' building.
   

A breath of Shanghai

The best way I can describe my past weekend in Shanghai is not with an actual description but with the proclamation that I just can't bloody wait to live there.

Rewind to last Thursday, when Caili and I were braving the 100+degree heat to make the trek alongside half a mile of road, construction, and rubble to the local train ticketing office. Blinking away sweat, and thanking higher powers to still have my head on straight after a 15-foot-long pole toted on a worker's shoulder unexpectedly swung my way, I silently cursed China for their lack of an answer to amtrak.com. Hey, at least I was getting exercise. And purging all the toxins out of my body (read: sweating, a lot). The ticket office was an exposed store-front lined with indecipherable train schedules and a service window. The young Chinese woman behind it met me with scorn when she realized she'd have to put down her cell phone and have to do her job. 2 tickets to Shanghai, please. 30RMB each, including 5RMB service charge; great.

Spencer, a new pal here at CET, and I got on the train and realized simultaneously that Chapter 3's vocabulary about public transport in China was going to be really useful. We hassled, pushed, and elbowed people to get to our reserved seats, from which we obviously had to vacate other hopeful occupants, and all hell did NOT break lose. This is the Chinese way, and feeling rather proud of our Sinification (another vocab word from Chapter 3), we eased ourself into our hard seats (i.e. "second class," as opposed to the "soft seat" class, which is about 10RMB more) in what can only be described as a human cattle-car. Poor Spencer had some standing man's unmentionables grazing his shoulder for the entirety of the ride.

So I laugh and I joke and I poke fun at Hangzhou a lot. I notice here the things about China that will "never change": the bad teeth, the omnipresent smell of sulfur, and the true belief that flesh-colored, ankle-length-stockings are, especially when worn with sandles, invisible and thus OK to wear. Shanghai transcends these stereotypes. As my taxi driver drove away from the very modern Shanghai South Station, the city that Shanghai has become took my breath away. The lights, the buildings, the highways, most of which were constructed in the past five years, and the energy were a comforting reminder of Hong Kong. I screamed in delight when I got to Christina's - my great friend and former boss from last summer's internship at mcgarrybowen - and saw that I'd be able to shower in a real shower.

My weekend in Shanghai was everything I expected it to be and more - sadly I opted to not participate in too much cultural exposure and rather spent time catching up with old friends and meeting a plethora of new ones. I feel no guilt as my belief, however, is that Shanghai in fact offers little in terms of real Chinese history, culture, etc, and rather more broadly offers a fascinating tangibility to the pace of China's development and the social, cultural, and economic compromises the country is making to keep the grindstone grinding. Shanghai is one of the most fascinating cities in this respect. Fascinating, but sobering if you are thoughtful enough to absorb the dichotomy of lives that exists there. Seeing a mother wrapped around her child and sleeping on the street and having many beggar children follow me and my friend Julian as we bar-hopped along the Bund - one of the most affluent areas in Shanghai - was... well.. I think you can figure it out.

Food for thought, eh?

Indeed

My recent lack of blog entries is not attributable to disabled access to the internet. Instead, I believe it is indicative that I have simply adjusted to life here. I can buy freshly made scallion pancakes that probably has just been dropped on the ground (kidding... but maybe not) and not start composing my next blog entry. I can shamelessly murder two baby cockroaches found in my bathroom without feeling the itch to have to document it.

While I am moderately happy with this arrangement, I can be sure that the readers of my blog - if there are any more of you left - likely are not.

I will try my best to throw myself into some funny and hopefully awkward situations so as to provide more humorous content for all of our enjoyment.

Starbucks and an early night

A big group of decided that tonight was the night to venture to the farthest - but most beautiful - Starbucks for some quality study time. The lack of developing-country incidents has me at a loss for words...

....................psyche!

I must at least mention the kind Starbucks patron whom I caught coming out of the bathroom with a cigarette, complete with about an inch and a half of ash, delicately dangling from his lip. Upon meeting my obviously spiteful glare, he nonchalantly butted out it out in the fake potted plant next to the bathroom door. Starbucks, as are more and more public establishments in China, is smoke-free, and there is even a balcony not 10 feet away from the bathroom for smokers to take advantage of. Clearly, this patron felt the need to relieve himself in more than one way. Clearly, I needed to blog about it.

But the good, more normal news is that I got all my work done by 10pm. Now my happy little iced-grande-skim-latte (which I can't help but break pledge and order in English) buzz and I are going to crawl into bed and watch Mean Girls. I couldn't be more excited.

So ready for the weekend

I. AM. SO. EXCITED. to go to Shanghai this weekend...

Just got off the phone with Christina, my boss from last summer who now lives in SH. I have since decided that leaving early on Friday to get there in time to hit the Calvin Klein party is absolutely necessary. I am so excited to get out of Hangzhou. As always, in the short time span of our conversation we managed to cram in an incredible amount of information ... to make a long story short, it sounds like she's been having a ton of fun. With Julian, my good friend from Choate. Hahahahahahahah the world is too small.

Upon hearing my description of my Hangzhou program, Christina casually replied, "Sounds like you're in rehab."

She might not be too far off.

Keeping me sane

Sara Bareilles' debut album is keeping me sane. It's on itunes' "next big thing" list and is a bargain at $6.99....despite the fact that this is more than I spend a week on food.

You heard it here first.

This is too funny not to post

Not actually written by me, but by dear Alex from the 2nd floor - Dandan (who spends more time in my room than in her own)'s roommate:

so my roomie told me the mtg was canceled and to go to jiubes office for another meeting, so I took antony along. he was lke “I bet she just said that to have another 10 min in the room. turns out there was no real mtg.

jealous?
yes.

just kidding!
not jealous of the girl, just of the situation

I mean, to get sexiled by a Chinese roommate, I mean, things must be realllly bad.

Nevermind the lint brush

Antony on the second floor was clever enough to bring one from the States!

Apologies for the silence - as if by clockwork, my internet timed out once again on Friday night, leaving me with nothing but fiction to read and homework to do. Gah.

There is so much to tell, including the stomach ailment that I am fervently battling. Clearly not enough people knocked wood after my last post about not being affected by the food. But perhaps it is my own fault, as my reaction to the tasty Korean bbq dinner on Friday night is identical, albeit slightly less mind-numbingly painful, to that which occurred, also after Korean food, two weeks ago in Hong Kong.

For now, however, dinner. But I'm excited to be back.

Achoo

It's weird when somebody sneezes in class and nobody says anything for fear of breaking the language pledge.

In fact, I'm pretty certain there isn't even a way to say "bless you" in Chinese.

Instead, they say the following:

Sneeze once, somebody is saying nice things about you;
Sneeze twice, somebody is scolding you;
Sneeze three times, somebody is thinking about you;
Sneeze four times, you've caught a cold.

Send me mail!

I could really go for a lint brush and an Us Weekly, or two.

Stephanie Chevalier
c/o Middlebury College School in China
Zhejiang University of Technology
Number 6, Zhaohui District
Box #1026 CET
Hangzhou, P.R.C. 310032

Ye Caili and me!

This is us.

There are puzzle pieces all over my floor

Caili bought the most impossible 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle yesterday and we, along with Dandan, who has the patience of a saint, have been working at it all day. We've probably completed about 10% of the puzzle. Have to call it quits so I can start preparing for tomorrow's class and debate (on China's economic history and post-1978 "opening and reform" policy...ugh). For the time being I'll have to deal with the millions of little puzzle pieces scattered all over my floor.

Duck head stew!

It seems that every time I have something thoughtful to say about being here, it happens when I leave the immediate campus. Living here is like living in a bubble - like all universities I suppose - I wake up at 7am, grab breakfast in the cafeteria (breakfast! can you believe it?) head over to my classroom, come back for lunch at noon, have my afternoon one-on-one tutorial, then spend the rest of the afternoon and evening preparing for the next day. All meals are mostly in the cafeteria and I probably spend $5 on food a day, max.

Tonight, however, my roommate and I ventured once again outside the back gate of the campus to the street stalls, and I'll have to admit that as brave as I sound, the stalls are still scary as shit. We ate at an actual "restaurant" tonight, whose kitchen was smushed into an alleyway and spilled out somewhat onto the sidewalk. We all turn our noses up at Spice (a Thai restaurant in Harvard Square, for those of you from other parts of my life), etc, for their bad hygiene ratings... this is so, so much worse. It's still also a shock that people do not discretely try to hide chewed up chicken bones, fish eyeballs, etc, on their plates but rather blatantly spit them out onto the table, often creating a neat little pile for you to stare at for the rest of the meal, and then some. Even in the cafeteria the other day I was eating this fish dish with a lot of bones and my roommate was like, you are supposed to spit your bones onto the table. The tables then get wiped clean with a dirty rag and no soap. Oh well. But the food's still good and I still haven't gotten - and don't expect to get - sick PLEASE KNOCK WOOD RIGHT NOW.

My dinner tonight was RMB6. That's about 85 cents.

I'm not kidding that my creativity only comes to life once I'm beyond the school gates; my mind is abuzz with prose as I wait patiently, gazing out at the street as young children in crotchless shorts run to and fro, as my noodle soup is being prepared in the adjacent alleyway. I try not to stare at the bucket of stewed duck heads or the proud display of dried duck necks, both local delicacies. Once I get back to my room I just have so much to say and no idea where to start.

Languages and Taijiquan

We all know that China is a massive country, but I don't think we ever truly pay enough attention to how complex it is. These figures may be a little exaggerated, but there are a gajillion provinces and even more dialects. My roommate - whose name is Ye Caili - and her friends, who fyi are all great, chat away with each other in mandarin - putonghua - but they each also speak a mother tongue dialect from their respective "villages"(towns?) - all of which, mind you, are in the Hangzhou vicinity. Can you imagine uniting hundreds of millions people with tens of thousands of different mother tongues under a common language? Good on ya, Mao. Seriously, well done.

Today was my first day of taijiquan (read: Tai chi) class. There are 5 of us in the class. Speaking of dialects, my teacher speaks an incomprehensible combination of mandarin and his native tongue. He explained that he doesn't speak mandarin that well, and proceeded to speak with what almost sounded like Chinese with a Borat-esque twang. He's the cutest old man, 72，incredibly patient, loves teaching taijiquan, and practices every morning at 5.30am. We learned today that there are many, many variations of taijiquan moves, of which I am pretty sure we are learning the most simple. 24 moves, 3 moves per class, 2 classes a week. I'm pretty stoked. Caili and her friend Dandan think I'm a bit silly for taking taijiquan as an extracurricular because, in China, it really is just for the old folks.

Surprisingly enough, so is drinking tea. And spitting. Nobody under 40 spits anymore, hooray!

Sunset

The clouds turned black this morning and poured and poured and poured and thundered and thundered, cooling the air considerably to a comfy 75ish degrees. The clouds have since completely cleared and from my balcony I can see the most beautiful pink sunset. Magnificent. Lovely.

Wow

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/10/china.execution.reut/index.html

Guns, laundry, and schedule

1. Just saw small children playing with the biggest b.b. guns I've ever seen! Funny, but not?

2. I just begun my premier attempt at laundry. There are free washers and dryers (and fridges) on most floors (including mine) in the foreign students' building... I hope to god my stuff doesn't get ruined. But I'm very excited about clean clothes... even though I obviously brought enough to last me a month, at least.

3. My class schedule, for posterity's sake:

8-8.50am: Chinese
9-9.50am: Drill (new vocab and grammar from earlier class)
10-10.50am: Elective: reading Chinese newspaper
11-11.50-am: Elective: Business in China
1.10-4pm: 1 hour of teacher 1-on-1

Happier

After much deliberation and consultation with both mother and Liu laoshi, the Academic director, I decided to give B-ban, the intermediate class, a shot. What a difference it made. Granted I am still spending up to four or five hours a night studying for my dictations and reviewing the lessons, today's class was much more enjoyable and easier to follow along. I'm also learning all kinds of useful words that seem so obvious in english but obviously aren't quite so when you don't actually know how to say them in Chinese. Hooray.

Mother and father are enjoying my blog perhaps the most as for the first time in the past nine years they can actually keep track of what I'm doing on a day to day basis. Mother likes my new photo... yes mom, that's the new man in my life. Ummmmmmm.

Every day the language becomes more accessible, and I am slowly but surely making better friendships. I still love my roommate, she's so cute, super chatty, eats a lot and is ok about being teased by her close friends for being chubby, which in my eyes she isn't, really. When she's not chatty it's just because she's sitting in front of her computer, which happens to be most of the day. Most nights she spends her time watching videos of her favorite Korean and Japanese pop stars on the Chinese version of youtube. She's obsessed - she has a collection of tiny photos that dangle from her cell phone of her two favorites of some Korean boy band. She likes them because the boys (most Korean boys, she says) - Hatty, please note - have very feminine features, or at least this is what I got out of our many conversations. Last night, however, she played about 2 hours of DDR, but sadly without a DDR mat for the floor she had no choice to tap tap tap at her keyboard, which invariably annoyed me. Now she's back to watching youtube videos. I like that her habits are reliable.

Lunch today was a pleasant surprise - cold noodles (which were served hot) but using the kind of noodles that are made fresh right in front of you by a cook who is busy twirling, pulling, banging, throwing, and more pulling a single chunk of dough into many long, skinny strands of noodle. I also eat a square of Dove chocolate probably once every hour or too. It's likely the MSG that's giving me this craving.

I feel like I'm pretty adjusted, which is obviously a good thing.

Fun's over

Today was the first day of class. I feel like I've just been through battle. I also feel, after reciting sentences to my teacher a million times during my terrifying one-on-one session and STILL not remembering them completely, that I might have early onset Alzheimer's, or something equally tragic.

I'm still freaking out. Learning a lot, no doubt, but I'm worried that I'm building a pretty hefty skill set on a pretty weak foundation. Never a good idea...

Naptime.

Brave New World

The street stalls that once terrified me have quickly become one of my favorite parts of China. Sure, the squid skewers look pretty gross when they’re being grilled on a make-shift cart – to be honest I haven’t become THAT adventurous yet – but the dumplings and scallion pancakes and chow fan, all made FRESH, is amazing. Hot pot is a special favorite. So many choices! And who cares if the basket that you pile all your different veggies, tofu skewers, fish/beef/chicken balls, etc, into might not be sanitized after every single order, the boiling hot water that it’s all thrown into is sure to kill all the bacteria, right?

Aren’t you guys impressed?

Wait till I tell you that today while riding the bus I HELD ONTO THE BAR. I won’t even do that in Boston or Hong Kong!!!!

I’m coming a long way…

9.30am

Every morning at 9.30am there are several rounds of what sounds like gunfire shot by the academic buildings. We heard it during our placement exam, and again now this morning from my bedroom.

I slept in today. Until 8.30.

I would write more but I’m getting pretty pissed and bitter that everyone else seems to be able to get online except for me.

I’m right going through my C-班 syllabus, which I happily found stuck to the door of my old room as I beginning to move the rest of my shit to my new, lovely, fragrance-free, real-sink-y, parquet-flooring-less room. Yay, by the way. Anyway, I’ve only gotten through half a page of this thing. Not only am I so incredibly rusty with my reading (it’s all in Chinese obviously,) but it’s all written in simplified characters, which might as well be Russian or something. My palm-based Plecodict is obviously getting a lot of use.

This is all seriously annoying me.

p.s.

I tested into the advanced level class. I’m sort of freaking out.

I learned a new word today!

Well, many, in fact, but one in particular stands out:

酒鬼 － drunkard. Or literally, an alcohol ghost.

It’s only our third night and already the boys on the program thought it was time to play – and teach their roommates – the rousing game of 啤酒乒乓球 … beer pong. I walked upstairs to find a group of people huddle around two tiny 10-cup racks set up on the floor, shooting orange ping pong balls in the dark. As the night progressed, stools were piled to raise the racks, and then said stools eventually got closer and closer together to the point that you could basically reach over and drop your ball into your opponents’ cups. Needless to say, it made for a good time. My own roommate opted to stay in and read a book online; the girls here don’t really drink much, if at all.

Still no internet. The guy came by to set it up so now technically I’m connected, but my login information doesn’t work. I’ve resorted to piggybacking off others’ online access, but not being able to get online myself is getting a little frustrating. Not to say that I’m expecting too many emails from you guys – the few times I have checked my gmail it’s been full of horoscope emails, NY Times updates, and notes from my mom. If you can’t read between the lines, this is a guilt trip to get you guys to write me more. Mom, I know you’re reading this blog religiously… feel free to keep your email frequency at status quo.

Speaking of whom, during tonight’s phone call with my mom it hit me that the Chinese immersion is actually sinking in – there were several moments when I almost launched into Chinese instead of English.

I’m changing rooms tomorrow! My bathroom still stinks, and while I’m adjusting more and more to it, I am not going to turn down the opportunity for a real sink. Maybe a shower curtain, if I’m lucky.

Tomorrow we are hiking in the tea fields. One of the things Hangzhou is best known for is its tea – longjing tea, which I blogged about a few days ago. Year after year it is voted the best tea in China, the very best quality of which is sent to the Queen of England and other foreign dignitaries. Apparently the best Empress tea is plucked in early March – the tea bush’s first bloom – and is only sold in Hangzhou. The leaves plucked in the summer are among the worst in quality (this is all relative, of course) and are commonly chopped up and put in tea bags. This is the kind of tea you’ll find in a Tazo tea box at Starbucks. Us 外國人 (foreigners) are not supposed to be able to taste the difference.

After our hike we all, roommates included, will go for foot massages in town. Clearly this is the part that I most anticipate.

Tomorrow night we’re going to try to find somewhere to party. Will let you know how that goes. Our director has informally warned us against a few of the best clubs here because apparently one program participant got drugged at one last year (after making some poor decisions), and another is said to be where all the Russian gangsters hang out. According to Jeremy, one guy was swiped by the Russians last year and was blindfolded, etc (I think, but this could be a total exaggeration) and thankfully realized once they dropped him off just outside town that they had snatched the wrong person. I guess the warning in my program packet wasn’t too far off.

Thoughts

My roommate purposely woke up 15 minutes before I did to go out and buy us breakfast. The powers that be unfortunately removed the suitably large television that had been in our room when we arrived, but conveniently left the TV stand, which this morning served as our breakfast table. Congee and accompaniments.

58 minutes until the computer guy comes to set up my computer for broadband access. My username is “catherinelee”… ??????

Just got back from my placement test – not a terrible experience, but after twenty minutes of staring blankly at a question that was entirely put together by words that I once upon a time learned and knew, it took a lot more energy to keep my drooping eyelids from obstructing too much of the rest of the page.

The oral test that followed was equally reasonable, but how exactly was I supposed to answer, “In your opinion, how are China, Hong Kong, the US, and France different,” with my current (limited) speaking ability? …seriously!!???

Explored campus on the way back and found the school store.

Just walked back into my room (welcomed again by a whiff of sewer stink) and caught my roommate washing her hair in the sink.

?

Zhejiang Uni students seem to be obsessed with basketball. There are magazine tear-outs of NBA stars posted all over the place. There’s a huge poster of Kobe Bryant on my own bathroom door that has been there for god knows how long.

Adorable

The past two nights at around 11pm, my roommate has cheerfully asked me if I mind if she showers and gets ready for bed. I never object, clearly.

Her routine is adorable though I suspect representative of most university students. She disappears into the bathroom and after perhaps twenty minutes of bottles opening, their contents being used, and caps being shut, intermittent sprays of water, and the grand finale sounds of soap bubbles being rung out of clothing – I clearly can hear everything from my bedside – she re-emerges totally clean and dry – hair included. I noticed this last night and wondered how peculiar it was that she could look so… untouched… after a shower. So I paid extra attention tonight, and noticed that only the two inches hair from her roots were wet! What a smart girl to only shampoo her roots, saving herself the trouble of wetting her entire head and having to deal with wet hair before bed – a huge no-no as far as the Chinese are concerned. Not only that, but her industrious self had also hand-washed every item of clothing that she wore that day, as illustrated by the wash basin full of wet clothing ready to be hung up to dry (the drying rack on our balcony disappeared, alas). I was wondering how she would able to survive on the clothes that she brought along in her small red duffel back. What also became clear was the purpose of said wash basins that she had proudly brought back from the school store and presented to me – one for her, one for me. Mine clearly still sits on my shelf, untouched.

As efficient as she is, I still don’t understand, especially after I myself had a successful premier attempt at showering this morning, how she manages to coat every single surface in the bathroom with water. But, somehow, my precious role of toilet paper stolen from the Hyatt Regency always manages to stay dry.

?

At least I’m not THIS bad..

“Heidi did not indulge in the roadside picnic [in rural Western China]. She had eaten the protein-rich soy bar she carried in her daypack, where she also stored a bottle of water, along with the heating coil she had used that morning to disinfect the water. In the same pouch she had two mini-bottles of antibacterial disinfectant, a half-dozen alcohol wipes, a doctor-prescribed needle and syringe in case she was in a head-on collision and needed an operation, her own nonporous eating utensils, a pack of moistened towelettes, chewable antacid tablets for coating the stomach before and after eating (this, she had read, could ward off as many as ninety-eight percent of the common nasties that cause travelers’ diarrhea), a plastic funnel with a six-inch retractable tube for urinating while standing, nonlatex gloves for handling the funnel, an epinephrine injection pen in case she went into anaphylactic shock from an exotic insect bite, extra nine-volt batteries for the portable air sanitizer she wore around her neck, lithium batteries for the anti-nausea device worn on her wrist, as well as Malarone tablets for preventing malaria, anti-inflammatories, and a prescription bottle of antibiotic for bacterial gastrointestinal diseases. More preventatives and remedies, including a bag of intravenous fluid, were in her suitcase back at the hotel.”

- from Amy Tan’s, “Saving Fish from Drowning”

The Simplified Life

I had a realization today while subtly fanning myself on the already “air-conditioned” bus into town that life here, while perhaps not necessarily “simple,” is definitely simplified. And I don’t mean that in a bad way.

No internet in the room (yet) meant that this morning I could get out of bed at 7am, shower, unpack and get to my first of three orientation meetings by 8am. Said meeting lasted three hours, and to most of our questions Jeremy, the program director, bluntly replied, “just work it out.” Though rather undisciplined, the orientation was otherwise surprisingly informative. Turn off the air conditioner when leaving the room. Room phones won’t accept phone cards to call internationally. Air-conditioned buses are RMB2 and are run incredibly efficiently. Hike through tea fields on Saturday, followed by reflexology (foot massages) for everyone. The language pledge.

The language pledge. My brain hurts. Basically, no English can be spoken at any time within the vicinity of program participants – this includes roommates, teachers, fellow foreign students, etc. Since Chinglish is far too tempting, and in fact tends to be my preferred method of communication, we are only allowed to s-p-e-l-l the English words whose translation we don’t know. I h-a-v-e t-o-t-a-l-l-y g-o-t-t-e-n o-v-e-r t-h-e e-m-b-a-r-a-s-s-m-e-n-t of spelling in front of basically everyone. Everyone’s doing it. Whatever. The pledge works on a three strike system.. apparently there are spies everywhere – including our roommates – making sure we don’t break the pledge. Listening, reading, and writing English, however, is totally fine. As long as the listening involves earphones. When people call (from home, presumably), we are allowed to speak English (or whatever), but our roommates can be around to hear us speak. Apparently, we are supposed to kindly “ask them to leave” so that we can carry on most likely chatting about them, the program, the ridiculous way you tried to describe “lucky” this afternoon because you didn’t actually know the word in Chinese.

All of our roommates are really great. Incredibly patient.. or at least most of them. I think that mine definitely wins the prize. She talks SO slowly but every extra second she takes to get her point across in a way that I might understand is wholeheartedly appreciated. I can’t wait to actually be able to chat normally with her instead of taking every 5 seconds to rack my brain for that stupid word that I totally took for granted when I learned it 10 years ago.

The roommates are all around 21. We were talking about the nightlife here and one of the girls said that she had never been to a 酒吧 (literally, an alcohol bar) because her parents wouldn’t let her. Another one – the cutest and hippest of the lot – and knows it – piped in that her parents are the opposite and encourage her to take advantage of her youth. She very proudly said that she had been to a 酒吧 last year with a group of foreigners. It took every ounce of discipline to restrain from high-five-ing her.

……
I think I might be getting used to the toilet. This is good news. My roommate always walks in with her dirty shoes, and since there is a permanent film of water on the floor, she inevitably ends of tracking mud all over the place. She did it again this evening, but since she was in there taking care, at my desperate request, of the flies and larvae that attacked whenever I got within half a foot of the sink, I found it in my heart to forgive her.

Now: exhausted after a day of trekking about town in my arch-support-less purple Steve Madden ballet flats. Definitely not a wise choice for this afternoon’s “bus activity,” which required us to take the bus to and from the University into town four times, but we ended up just taking the bus to the lake, walking around, window shopping. I snuck off to Starbucks; smart move, I know. Rush hour rolled around and the bus option was totally non-existent seeing as every air-conditioned #36 bus that rolled around was practically bursting with people and every taxi was taken, so the other American girls and I somehow managed to finagle the group, which included all of our roommates, into a Papa Gino’s dinner. I’ve not been here a week and by six ‘o’clock today already couldn’t imagine putting another spoonful of [insert Chinese food] in my mouth. I think that three overpriced slices of pizza cured that, thankfully. Not to say that those slices were bad. They weren’t. In fact, they were amazing, delectable, electrifying even.

Tomorrow morning is our placement test. Another 7am wakeup call. I came here pretty worried about my level of Chinese relative to other program students, but I soon came to realize that fourteen years of language study has indeed given me a suitable leg-up.

We’ll see how it turns out.

This is going to take some getting used to

As mother and I rolled into the Zhejiang University of Technology (工業大學 campus) in our chauffeured car full to the brim with my stuff (without fail I always move in with more shit than anyone.. ask anyone I went to Choate/Harvard with) we exchanged half-hearted proclamations of “well this is…nice” and “at least the foreign student dorm has air-conditioning!” Today was an especially soupy 36’C day, and the moment we left the chilled confines of our rather ruddy VW sedan, our clothes were soaked with sweat for what might have been the gajillionth time so far in Hangzhou. The driver boldly offered to carry my body bag of a suitcase (a red L. L. Bean duffel with wheels – the largest they offer – that everybody in China insists on carrying) up the four flights of stairs to my room.

In my room, there are wood parquet floors. The bed frames are wooden, simple, though luxurious compared to the wiry bunk beds that I have since noticed while peering into the local students’ dorm rooms. Desks are standard college-issued, wooden, creaky drawers.

The bathroom is en-suite. The smell of bathroom greets you the moment you enter the room.

My bathroom gives me anxiety.

So much, in fact, that I’m not sure how much I can write about it despite how badly I wish to share the experience.

Ok. Slowly. The room is a decent size, maybe 6x6. There is a raised platform in one corner.. an old squat toilet that has since been renovated and filled, now playing stage to a yellowish Western toilet. In another corner, a “sink.” Which means a square, tiled hole at sink-height with a levered tap above. The shower consists of a showerhead and the bathroom floor. Water goes everywhere. I haven’t showered yet, obviously, but my roommate (who, by the way, is the sweetest thing ever and I can’t believe I’m introducing her in a paragraph about that which I most disdain), just took a shower and now there are puddles and water droplets everywhere. The flies seem to have dissipated, but the eerie smell of sewer water remains. Now only with hair and dirty shower shoe prints all over with floor.

I’ve met a few people already (some cool, many dorky) and visited their rooms… their bathrooms are new! Not smelly! They have real sinks! I’m going to try and see if I can at least do something about the smell in my orientation meeting bright and early tomorrow morning.

I know I must sound like a princess, but those who know me – and my bathroom habits – well know that this is likely going to be the most challenging part of the next six weeks.

The Chinese language pledge is going to be a piece of cake compared to this.


Other things that happened today:
• Haven’t unpacked in hopes of a potential room switch
• Made my bed. I might be the only one here with sheets from home
• Went to Carrefour, a French department store and China’s answer to Target/Walmart. Bought everything I need and more. It all cost me RMB350; unbelievable.
• My roommate’s name is 彩麗 and is the sweetest thing ever. She talks so slowly and is so patient with me.. we went to dinner tonight with her two friends and their CET roommates, one of whom I had befriended (and excursioned to Carrefour with earlier) and was pleased to see how much personality they all had! Our program leader was hilarious today during our brief meeting, saying that the roommates they pick for us tend not to be A students, because the super smart (i.e. boring) ones have never made good roommates. Thank goodness for that. I’m very grateful to have been put with her
• My roommate and her friends are all studying like crazy for their last final tomorrow morning… on Marxism. Make of what you will. I think it’s hilarious.

Love!

OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD

I AM ONLINE!!!!!
ON MY OWN COMPUTER!!!
IN MY OWN ROOM!!!!

I have to review for my 1-on-1 session that starts in 20, but I will update the blog AS FAST AS I CAN!!!

Hi friends

Apologies for the silence. My computer is connected but for some reason refuses to let me log onto the network to actually use the internet. Hopefully this will be fixed tomorrow. I have been blogging, or I guess in layman's terms.. "journaling" .. offline so will have a lot to post once the Mac is up and running. My roommate's computer will have to do for the time being.

For now, a quick note: The language pledge has proven to be an incredible challenge - certainly one that I was anticipating but perhaps not emotionally prepared for. I'm naturally a very expressive person, and not being able to do so in Chinese has been frustrating, for obvious reasons. This morning the frustration sort of got the better of me and I felt very close to tears for a good portion of the day, blaming the emotion on homesickness. But I'm slowly feeling better, and am fei chang gan xie (very grateful - one of the trillion words I need to have memorized for our first day of class tomorrow) for my roommate's patience.

So much love to you all. Expect to hear from me much more frequently.

It's sunny this morning

8am.
Lake looks beautiful.
I'm starving.
Figured out that Blogger is actually BLOCKED in China and a handful of other countries.. which is why, curiously, I can post but not actually view the blog. Or post photos. I'll figure some way around that.

Funny

I wonder why I can't view my own blog?

Bye Bye Engrish

Hi. So. This is my blog. What a great start.

Tomorrow, I kiss goodbye my freedom to speak English as of 1pm. With this in mind, I figure what better way to relish my last words than to immortalize them electronically. That, and I already have a lot of funny stories to tell from my first 36 hours in Hangzhou, where I'll be spending the next six weeks. Speaking Chinese. Only Chinese. F.

Let's start with the city. Hangzhou is entirely underrated - it is GORGEOUS and CLEAN and LAID BACK. Granted my introduction to the city has been a little cushier than the next month and a half is sure to be: mother and I came two days early to check out the sights, get acquainted with the city, gobble to our hearts' content, test the 小吃 (snacks) that the Zhejiang region has to offer, etc. The view of the West Lake from our comfy sixth floor room at the lake-front Hyatt Regency isn't half bad either. I mean. It's pretty awesome.

The weather. It's only appropriate to start by mentioning the unrelenting June rain that held a constant state between drizzle and downpour during my seven days in Hong Kong. The sky only broke for a few hours on the evening of July 1 - long enough for us to take in 30 delightful minutes of in-your-face pyrotechnics over the harbor from our lovely patio seating at Isola...the only question was... what were we celebrating? Won't get into it here, now. ANYWAY. Back to Hangzhou. Basically, it's worse than Hong Kong. 36 degrees C, what's that in F? 500% humidity. Imagine an enormous city built in a giant sauna. No, steam room. That's not too far off.

My mom just said, "you don't want me to the kind of mom who takes a room near you during your summer in Hangzhou!"... she's never been that kind of mom, what kind of sick joke is this? Anyway, sorry, tangent..

My favorite part about China, and has always been, is the idiosyncrasy of the clothing here. More specifically: t-shirt slogans. I've decided to log all the interesting ones I've come across. Obviously I've forgotten all of the ones from our walk to XihuTiandi (Hangzhou's answer to XinTiandi in Shanghai), save one: "very ways penisedis break." A not-so-favorite, albeit equally amusing, part of China is the potty training that goes on here. But - here's the catch! - there is no potty! Infants basically have big slits up the crotches of their pants so whenever they feel the urge to go, they just squat and go. Yesterday saw a little kid who couldn't have been more than 2 take a poop on the sidewalk.. don't worry, the parents are right there with a newspaper to scoop it up...

ok. our superoverpriced internet access expires in just a few minutes, so, in short:
- There are 8 Starbucks in Hangzhou.
- The Starbucks by our hotel is opposite an Hermes and a Ferarri dealership. Proof that Hangzhou is NOT a small fishing village in the middle of nowhere, as many of you I'm sure are convinced.
- During our walk along the lake, my mom and I spotted five grown men chilling in their PJs. Striped, mostly.
- Our lunch today cost US$1. Total.
- I found a store that sells Marc Jacobs, DVF, Rebecca Taylor, and Anna Sui frocks for under US$100. Jealous?
- They sell stickers at Watson's to make double eyelids.
- People actually dress well here. It's actually pretty shopping.
- I only saw two people spit today. I might have heard another two more. That is a record low. China really is evolving.
- Squat toilets are still gross.
- I went to a tea plantation today and tasted tea that costs RMB5400 a kilo. That's a little over US$500. It's called "Empress Tea." It dances in the teacup. Fancy!
- I learned how to make a face mask out of 龍井 tea leaves.

Hopefully this was a good start to my blogging attempt. Probably too much information, I'll work on that. At the very least I'll be documenting my sure to be hilarious escapades over the next six weeks. As for tomorrow and how this whole "not speaking English" deal... we'll see.

Wish me luck.