Week 2 - Great Wall and Host Family

Nimen Hao!

Sorry for the delay in posting. I wrote my post on Sunday afternoon,
but for some reason, it didn't show up on my blog. Hopefully this time
should work. Here is what I wrote on Sunday:

Another week finished. It's Sunday afternoon, and I am beginning to
recover from another draining week of classes. Unfortunately they begin
again bright and early tomorrow morning with another quiz.

Our schedules became even more crowded this week with the addition of
two pretty serious commitments - our Chinese tutors, and our Chinese
families. Fortunately, both seem to present excellent opportunities for
practicing Chinese and learning a little bit more about life in Beijing.

I met my "tutor" for the first time on Tuesday. We bought ice cream,
sat down at an outdoors cafe, and talked for two straight hours. Not
easy. She is a sophomore at BLCU majoring in accounting. She has
finals all of next week (BLCU's summer vacation is only two months
long). Our conversation spanned a broad range of topics: differences in
the Chinese and American college application process, differences in
Chinese and American sleeping patterns, how similar our economics
courses were, and our mutual interest in badminton. For some reason,
Feng Laoshi, the director of our program, didn't give the tutors any
specific instructions on how to teach us - just make sure we learn a lot
of Chinese. She asked me what I wanted to do next week. At first I had
no idea, then Iremembered how lost I was trying to buy groceries at the
supermarket last weekend. Next Friday afternoon, were making a trip to
the choushi (supermarket), then heading to a music store to check out
some Chinese music. Not too bad for a tutorial.

Yesterday, we climbed the Great Wall. Climbed, not walked. The section
we visited, Simatai, was far steeper than any of us imagined. Despite
the intense climb, the views were worth it. I'm going to post a link to
all of my photos from the summer to this point. Check out HBA Week 2
for Great Wall pictures.

Finally, this morning my Zhongguo Meimei (Chinese sister - a Harvard
student who is actually half-Chinese, half-Greek) and I met our Chinese
family, a family who volunteered to host students on the program and
introduce them to normal Beijing life. Our Baba (father) and Didi
(little brother) picked us up in their car and drove us to their home.
There we met our Mama and Grandparents. Despite the awkwardness of the
situation, often due to our inability to understand what they were
telling us, we managed to have a really nice time. After asking us all
kinds of questions about our homes and schools, they began preparing
lunch and showed us how to make /jiaozi/, Chinese dumplings. Our little
brother and his friend then showed us a small pond outside their
apartment building as the adults finished preparing the meal. Even with
a few not so minor chopsticks accidents, lunch went pretty smoothly.
Four hours after we got picked up in the car, our father drove us home,
taking us on a tour of the Olympic buildings on the way back. I forgot
my camera so pictures are going to have to wait until our next visit.

And that brings me to today. Though I finally think I am settling in to
a daily/weekly routine, there are constant reminders of the differences
(neither bad nor good, just different) in culture here. A few
examples. On the Great Wall, I got pretty intensely accosted by a woman
trying to sell shirts. She told me she was a farmer, out of work, and
forced to climb the Wall every day to make a living. She told me a
shirt was 40 kuai, about $6. One of my teachers was standing right
there and said "that's too expensive - 30 kuai." They argued a little,
he told me to argue, so I bargained it down to 30 kuai. While I still
probably "overpaid" for the shirt (relatively), the whole concept of
"shajia" (bargaining) still bothers me. It is normal and expected here,
but what did I really gain from it? $1.50? That's half of a cup of
coffee in America. For her, 10 kuai could buy a whole day's worth of food.

Restaurants are sometimes a similarly unnerving experience. Unlike in
America, you order your food, pay immediately, eat, and leave without
leaving a tip. If you ever need anything, you are expected to yell out
"Fuwuyuan!" (waiter), even if they aren't near you. Efficient, but
there is something very impersonal about the experience. As if it is
completely business. Again, I am not critical of these aspects of life
here - it is just going to take a while to adjust. To be continued in
future posts. For now, check out my first three photo albums.

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15