First Week Back in Beijing

Lots of things have made me feel unintelligent living in Beijing. Embarrassing miscommunications, paying the wrong amount, and so on. I think today tops everything.

As I've written about before, I have host family here. They have been incredibly generous in making sure we get to see as much of Beijing as possible. So today I decided to give them a little present. Because I didn't realize how useful it might have been to bring gifts from New York, I decided the most meaningful gift I could give was a cd of a few of my recordings of me playing piano. I had the cd in my bag, all ready, very excited. At one point, our host father dropped us off at the subway station to go park his car. When he realized he couldn't find a spot, he pulled back up in front of us and told us to get back in. As I quickly sat back down, I heard a loud "crrrckkk." Two half cd's is probably one of the most useless gifts in the world. After an explanation and an apology, I told him I would make the cd again for next time. Oops.

Anyway, other than me being a klutz, the day was very interesting. Though I am still not exactly sure what my host father's job is (the Chinese is too technical), it is something related to subway development. He told us he was going to take us to his office building. We weren't exactly sure why. Once we entered, everything suddenly became top secret. His son wasn't allowed to enter (too young). Swine flu screening. Metal detector. No pictures (so no pictures...). Then we suddenly found ourselves in Beijing's Subway System Control Center. You know in space movies, where something goes wrong, and they have to communicate with the control center? The room looked something like that. Hundreds of massive tv screens. Tons of computers. a screen showing where all of Beijing's subways were at all times. Pretty neat.

Afterwards, we went to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall, a museum focusing on both the history and current development taking place in Beijing. The most amazing part of the museum was a giant 3D model of all of Beijing. Here it is:

More pictures of the museum in the album.

The first half of the pictures in the album are from Saturday's trip to Longqing Xia, considered one of Beijing's most beautiful sites. The main attraction there was bungee jumping. After convincing myself that I was going to jump... I decided just to watch. Some pretty neat pictures and videos in the album though.

Meanwhile, the work continues to build up. Our schedule has changed slightly. Rather than have two small drill classes in the morning, we have one long one, followed by a short "debate" class - two students one teacher. In the afternoon, we are now expected to prepare a five minute summary of a news story every day. Speaking Chinese is difficult enough on its own. Similarly, discussing Obama's health care policy, or China's Tibet and Taiwan problems, or the U.S.'s role in world affairs, in ENGLISH isn't easy. Combining the two... not fun.

But somewhat exciting. Before coming here I could hardly complete a full sentence. Now I can kind of debate current events. "Kind of" meaning I probably sound like a third grader doing it. I guess that's not too bad.

Unbelievably, there are only three more weeks. Still, lots to go - including a badminton match with my host father and some of his friends scheduled for sometime next week. And two more regular tests and a final. Nothing else new for now. Here's this week's photo album (HBA Week 6):

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15

内蒙古 (Inner Mongolia)

I just sat at my computer for about 10 minutes thinking about how to start describing the past week. Nothing - until I realized our trip to Inner Mongolia could best be summarized with a picture:

Day 2 of our trip. Out in the Inner Mongolian grasslands at some sort of retreat. Living in 蒙古包 (Mongolian tents - seen in the background of the picture). After dinner, one of our teachers decided to teach us a Chinese game that turned out to be fairly similar duck duck goose. The minute we started playing, nearly all of the other guests (locals) hurried over to watch. Curious. What the hell were 20 外国人 (waiguoren - foreigners) doing sitting in a circle, running around each other? What the hell were we doing here in the first place?

Growing up in New York, it would be an oddity to see a mass of people all of the same ethnicity. In Beijing, it is normal. It is odd to see foreigners. Nevertheless, our program is at a University which specializes in teaching Chinese, so there are many foreigners on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood. Throughout my week in Inner Mongolia, I saw 7 (exactly) foreigners. I remember each one, and I remember where and when I saw them. Everywhere we went, we were an attraction. Several times people would almost jump back when they saw us. A lot of the time they would say "hello" with a big grin on their face - only to be shocked when we answered 你好 (ni hao) and occassionally started conversations in Chinese. In a store, a child saw three of us and started cracking up. A factory worker I interviewed said it was the first time he had ever had a conversation with a foreigner. So while we still get the occasional 外国人！in Beijing (today at KFC actually), it almost feels like home to be back.

Now for the trip. Last Friday afternoon, we took an 11 hour train to Huhhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. I think the following picture gives a good idea of what the train ride was like:

Small room. 6 beds. Often other people hanging out in our room (like our teacher Guan Laoshi). Crowded, claustrophobic, not that comfortable, but still fun.

11 hours later we arrived in Huhhot, got on a bus, and drove out to Siziwangqi grassland. I have tons of pictures which I'll post a link to at the end. Once there, we broke up into groups of 5 students and 2 teachers and went out to interview local shepherd families. For those of you who don't know, the purpose of the trip was a "social investigation," or to better understand life in Inner Mongolia. At the end of the week, each student had to write a 1200 character report on his or her discoveries (something I just finished).

Later that night, we watched and then participated in a Mongolian Wrestling match. Mongolia (and Inner Mongolia - which is a province in China) has three national sports: wrestling, horseracing, and archery. Wrestling is simple: first one to the ground loses. Here's me about to get crushed:

Next day, Sunday, was similar. Drive to different grassland (site of the first picture), horseriding there, "traditional" Mongolian party at night (not really traditional, very touristy). Monday was more interviews, then drive to Dongsheng city where we checked into a hotel. First shower in three days. A real bed. Internet. Breakfast that didn't involve unfamilar animal parts. Living in the grasslands was a unique experience, but it was nice to be back in a city. The album Inner Mongolia Days 3 and 4 are pictures of Dongsheng, Inner Mongolia's wealthiest city.

Tuesday morning we drove to Erdos Cashmere factory, one of the largest cashmere companies in the world. After touring the factories exhibition center, we got to see parts of the factory itself and talk to the workers. Lots of neat pictures. Later in the day, we visited Genghis Khan's (renovated) tomb. Pretty interesting except for the fact that I had no idea what our tour guide was saying the entire time. After the tour, we got to interview some of the guards of the tomb. Amazingly, the guards are direct decendents of Genghis Khan's closest cirlce of advisors. Not that most of Inner Mongolia isn't somehow related to Genghis Khan (supposedly 8% of Asia), but his advisors passed on the job of guarding the tomb from generation to generation - all the way to the 21 year old man we interviewed. If you ever think work is difficult, think of this: he works from 7:00 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening 365 days a year. He expected to work until he is 50. That is 10585 days, or 111,142.5 hours left to go. Luckily, he says he likes his job and feels his work is important.

Day 5 started with a visit to the desert. What we thought was going to be a "cultural experience" turned out to be kind of like Disneyland in the desert. Rides, food, and an overpriced gift shop. Fun, but very touristy and expensive. Night, bus back to Huhhot.

Day 6 began with a visit to Mengniu Dairy factory, the largest dairy factory in China. I forgot my camera battery, so unfortunately no pictures. At night we took a trip to Ruyi square to visit a giant "music fountain" (really just a fountain with music playing outdoors). It's becoming incredibly slow to upload pictures into my blog, but there are many of Huhhot (a really, really cool city - especially at night) and the fountain.

Day 7 included a visit to a local high school (which involved me, alone, having to talk to 4 high school girls completely in Chinese for 45 minutes - one of the most intimidating experiences of my life) followed by a visit to 内蒙古大学 (Inner Mongolia University). There my friend Dominic and I got paired with two college girls who showed us around the school, took us to lunch, and, of course, took us to a bubble tea store (we're addicted, and milk tea is one of Inner Mongolia's specialties). 10 hours after meeting the college students (I am still not sure why they decided to leave 10 hours with nothing planned - we met up with some of our teachers, went to an arcade, went to McDonald's, went to dinner, went back to the bubble tea store for seconds, and somehow managed to fill the day) we got on the bus back to the train station. After another claustrophobic 11 hours, we were back in Beijing.

This past week was one of the most interesting weeks of my life. For the past 18 years, I would have never guessed I would ever set foot in Inner Mongolia. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't really realize how developed an area it is. Giant cities. If move to the U.S. Huhhot would be our 10th largest city by population. And it is growing quickly. GDP growth averaged about 20% from 2003 to 2007. Massive factories. Beautiful buildings. Yet only a bus ride away life carries on in the grasslands as it has for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

It's Sunday evening. I haven't started my homework for tomorrow, when classes start up again. A familiar feeling.

Here are (lots of) photos from the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15

Off To Inner Mongolia

One semester down, one to go. After a total of about twelve hours of sleep in the past three days (not too bad), the first semester of HBA is finally over. Four of the longest weeks of my life. On top of preparing for today's midterm and memorizing lines for a group skit, I've been busy packing for Inner Mongolia. We leave in less than two hours, get on the train at around 6:30, and eleven hours later arrive in Huhhot, only to begin a three-hour bus ride to Siziwangqi grassland, where we will spend the first two days.

Everyone's excited. Everyone's ready for a break from classes. Everyone just loaded up on food in case lamb intestines don't work out. I'm not sure when I'll next have internet access, so I don't know when I'll be able to write again. No new pictures yet, but many coming soon.

Week 3 - Shisanling, 4th of July, Gugong, and Beihai Gongyuan

So we've finished what the director of the program told us was the hardest week. I don't buy it. On top of a midterm next week covering well over a thousand new vocabulary words, we have to begin outlining our social study reports and the questions we plan to ask for the interviews we will be conducting. Week 5 is what HBA calls the "Social Study Week." Every student chooses one of several trips and spends a week somewhere interviewing locals and writing about their experiences. So next Friday night, I'll be on an 11-hour train ride to Inner Mongolia for what should be an exciting break from classes. I had initially planned on going to Shanghai, but in the end I decided that if I am ever back in this country, travelling to Shanghai would be far easier than going to Inner Mongolia. Who knows. Our first breakfast there is lamb intestine. I think I'm in for a fun week.

Anyway, this past week was busy enough. On Monday, we had our first guest speaker, Gregory Gilligan, Head of Government Relations for McDonald's in China. He is an old friend of the director of HBA. Coontinuing something I mentioned last week, I thought one of his comments about conducting business in China was very interesting. A student asked him what the major differences were between business in America and business in China. He said in America, people generally start business relationships with a full level of trust. Only once someone else does something to break that trust does the relationship begin to deteriorate. In China, on the other hand, business partners begin with absolutely no trust in each other. They have to work their way up from the bottom. To me, this made sense. Down to the most basic street haggling transactions, it seems like most people here assume others are trying to rip them off. I don't get that feeling back home.

A busy week was followed by an even busier weekend. We boarded a bus at 8:00 Saturday morning to head to Shisanling (literally 13 tombs), the burial site of 13 of the Ming Dynasty emperors. Though not as fun as the Great Wall, the pictures I'm posting hopefully paint a picture of how impressive the site was. Shisanling is massive. We needed a bus to travel from tomb to tomb.

When we returned, we realized it was July 4th (none of our teachers were excited). We decided we needed a break from Chinese food and were going to try to find an American restaurant for dinner. We ended up at TGIFriday's. Can't really get more American than that.

After dinner, a bunch of students had the idea to go to a Karaoke bar. Karaoke is wildly popular here. You rent a private room, choose a bunch of songs, and compete against one other person. Only the scores never made any sense. No one cared. Probably the best song of the night was some song from SNL about putting something in a box. As many of you would expect, I didn't sing at all. I hate singing.

Sunday morning, my host father volunteered to take us to Gugong, the Forbidden City, where the Ming and Qing Dynasty Emperors lived. We met him at 9:30 and spent the day walking through Gugong and Beihai Gongyuan, a beautiful park nearby. After a late lunch (in which I felt obligated to try the strangest looking food I've ever eaten and am glad I still don't know what it was), we got back at 3:30, exhausted from hours of walking in humid weather approaching 100 degrees. Also mentally exhausted from six hours of trying to piece together our host father's rapid Chinese. Not much is more awkward then listening to a whole lot of Chinese, then trying to figure out whether you are supposed to laugh, act surprised, answer a question, or just agree. Most of the time we just said, "O, dui" - a polite way of agreeing. To be fair, I'm exaggerating a little. We are able to communicate and carry out conversations with him. It's just very challenging.

Once again, it's Sunday night and I have lots of homework to do. Nevertheless, Andy Roddick vs. Roger Federer will be on my tv in the background. Can't miss it. Plus, it's in Chinese, so it's good listening practice anyway. Until next post, check out my new pictures (HBA Week 3):

http://picasaweb.google.com/LouisGilbert15

Yale VPN

I finally managed to install Yale's VPN (thanks to a very helpful e-mail). No more Great (fire)Wall of China. I have full access to Google Blogger, so hopefully no more difficulties in posting.

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

Nimen Hao

Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay. China is currently blocking Google
Blogger, so I haven't been able to access my blog. Apparently my test
post worked, so here we go for real.

Since many of you reading this are either friends or family, I'll give a
summary of how things have gone so far. If you aren't a friend or
family member, you're probably considering the Light Fellowship or have
already won a Light Fellowship and are trying to decide which program to
attend. After the summary, I'll give some recommendations for HBA and
advice I might have found useful in starting the program.

Today is Sunday June 21, so I have been in Beijing for 9 days already.
Amazing how time flies.

My flight landed at around 2:00pm on Friday June 12th. After slowly
moving through the slightly intimidating swine flu screening process, we
finally met our teachers (waving a giant HBA flag) about an hour and a
half later. Since we were picking up other students from other flights
as well, we had to wait at the beautiful Beijing airport for about two
hours. Despite the fact that we all wanted to get our rooms and go to
sleep, it was a good opportunity to meet people while we were still
allowed to speak English.

After about an hour bus ride, we finally made it to Beijing Language and
Culture University (BLCU). The campus is beautiful - trees everywhere,
ponds, modern-looking buildings. And fun - tennis courts, basketball
courts, a huge soccer field. We received our room keys and finally got
to see our rooms. Amazingly, my single room here is nicer (my own
bathroom, my own tv, who needs anything else?) than the single I'll have
at Yale next year.

Though we were all exhausted, a group of us who met at the airport (two
Yale students, seven Harvard students - pretty much a good
representation of the whole program) decided to explore the surrounding
area, Wudaokou. For our first meal, we couldn't bring ourselves to give
up food from home, so we ended up at a restaurant called Grandma's
Kitchen - overpriced American food. Our first mistake. Chinese food
here is much cheaper, and usually better. We checked out a few stores
and restaurants then decided to call it a night.

The next morning, the same group of us got on a bus and head to the
famou Wangfujing street market. While struggling to find it, we walked
by Tiananmen Square, checked out a giant mall, and took a Beijing subway
(much nicer than in New York). Eventually the jet lag hit us again, and
we decided to head back.

On these excursions, we had our first (of many) extremely challenging
conversations in Chinese. Here's the problem: once you indicate to a
local that you speak a little Chinese (such as by saying "ni hao") they
assume you are fluent and rapidly fire back an answer to your simple
question. This resulted in many blank stares and long awkward moments
of confusion. Somehow though, we managed to buy cell phones (extremely
useful and not too expensive), order food (mostly by pointing to
pictures and saying "zhei ge" - "this one"), and get directions (mostly
by following hand signals).

Then Sunday was orientation and the dreaded language pledge. We signed
the pledge at about 5:00pm, then left for dinner. A terrible
experience. At that point, our Chinese wasn't very good, so we were
mostly silent, occasionally muttering things like "I want to speak
English" or "This food is very good" or "That placement test was really
hard" or "I am very tired." Not exactly thrilling conversations, but we
all stuck to the pledge. And struggled.

Classes began Monday morning. Here is my schedule:

8:00-9:15: Da Ban Ke (Big lecture class)
9:25-9:50: A small reading practice class that I still don't know how to
say in Chinese
10:10-11:00: Xiao Ban Ke (Small drill class)
11:11-12:00: Another Xiao Ban Ke (Another small drill class)
Lunch break/homework
1:30-2:20 or 2:20 to 3:10: Dan Ban Ke (One on one conversation class)
3:30-5:00: Extracurricular Activity (Music, calligraphy, tai chi)
Dinner
7:30-9:30: Office hours and homework (very useful)
9:30-12:00: Homework

Then I got up at 5:30 every morning to review character and grammar
before the next grueling day of classes. Honestly, being here makes me
miss about 2-3 hours of class a day at Yale. Life here is exciting, but
the work and memorization is nonstop. For example: at Yale, we had to
memorize about 6 characters every night. First night here: about 100.

But we can all tell that it is already beginning to pay off. The
initial one sentence conversations turned into fluent ones - basic, but
fairly fast-paced. Then the basic sentenced began to develop into
slightly more sophisticated ones. We have a long way to go, but we've
already gotten to the point where we can approach people in stores or on
the street and have meaningful conversations.
After our two-hour caoshi (test) and hour long oral
presentation/conversation on Friday, all of the teachers went out to
lunch (for free) for Zhongwen Zhuozi (Chinese table). One of the more
relaxing and fun times of the week. At 1:30, we were free.

A note about being a foreigner (waiguoren - literally foreign country
person) in China. On both Friday and Saturday afternoon, my friend from
Yale and I played tennis at BLCU. Each time we played, Chinese people
would constantly stop and stare at us. Living in America (especially
New York), you get used to diversity. Here in China, it is rare to see
foreigners. There have times when we have been walking around in a sea
of people - and we have been the only foreigners in site. I guess
seeing two foreigners play tennis (and struggle to say the score and
make calls in Chinese) is an odd site.

We were supposed to go to the Great Wall on Saturday, but there was
supposed to be a huge storm in the area, so we pushed it back to next
week. We went to a Beijing Opera performance instead. The music wasn't
my favorite, but it was entertaining.

And that brings me to today, sitting at Tous Les Jours, a nice coffee
shop with free wireless internet (I decided not to pay for internet in
my room - too much of a distraction). Tomorrow morning, the cycle
begins again. Now for some information about HBA for those of you
thinking about attending.
_
_Why You Should Go To HBA:__ (Obviously I can't say anything about the
other programs, so talk to other people too):

1. The teachers. All of them are extremely friendly and willing to
help. Classes aren't necessarily fun, but they manage not to let you
get bored. There are office hours for two hours every night, and all of
the teachers are always willing to help.

2. The rooms. The BLCU conference center is like a hotel. You get a
single. Daily room service. Very, very comfortable.

3. Weekend activities. Not sure about other programs, but HBA seems
very interested in making sure you get to experience Beijing on top of
learning Chinese. There is a trip organized for every weekend, so
you'll always have something to do.

4. The work. Yes, it sucks. But if your goal is to learn Chinese, and
you take it seriously, you will. I am not very good with foreign
languages, and even I feel like I have improved a lot already.
5. Food. All you can eat breakfast for 10 kuai (about $1.40) every
morning in the lobby. Good, cheap restaurants nearby.

6. The kids. Obviously this changes every year, and I am sure the kids
on the other programs are nice too, but everyone here is friendly.
Don't fear the Harvard kids. They are nice to the Yale students.

I'll post more as I think of them.

_Some Advice That I Might Have Found Useful: _

1. Get to know as many people as possible (really) before the language
pledge. As soon as you can't speak English, it becomes really really
hard to meet people and make new friends. Learn as many English names
as possible. Exchange cell phone numbers. Get to know them. I
guarantee that it will help once you begin the language pledge.

2. Get out early. Again, getting around becomes incredibly more
difficult when you can't speak English to your friends. Get to know the
area so you have reference points when you have to resort to charades to
indicate what you are talking about.

3. Go out in general. There are times when I have just wanted to sit in
my room and either do homework or watch tv. Do your homework, but go
out. You pick up a lot of vocabulary simply by having to deal with new
situations. Having conversations with your friends is very helpful too.

4. Get to know the guy who runs the coffee shop on the second floor of
the conference center. He is incredibly friendly and excited to help
students improve their Chinese. I have already had two long
conversations with him, and he is an excellent teacher.

5. Follow the language pledge. It's tempting to break it, but it really
helps. I have already started thinking in Chinese, because I am
constantly forced to try to express things in Chinese. It works. There
is a reason they have it.

6. Buy a pocket-sized dictionary. Useful to always be able to look up
an important word.

7. Don't be intimidated by Feng Laoshi. He comes across as a very
serious person (and he takes the program extremely seriously), but he is
a really nice guy. Get to know him. He is an excellent teacher too.

More advice to come.

A note about pictures. Since Google Blogger is blocked, I am sending
this post by e-mail. The picture files are too large to be sent by
e-mail, so I am going to have to find another way to share them.

Anyway, that's it for now. Another post coming soon.

- Louis