Hello!
I'm writing from a hard seat on a 14 hour long train ride from Hohhot to Xian – it is mid-Autumn break and several classmates and I (along with the rest of China), am boarding trains and traveling. Officially one month and some change into our program, I decided it was the perfect time to write a bit of an update. Though you may see the highlights from my facebook or instagram, life has been up and down, and I'm savoring every minute as best I can. The program I'm in has many talented and brilliant students, but there is no replacement for anyone in this world. I miss my family and friends in Honduras, Texas, and scattered across the globe, but of course, I'm no stranger to this feeling. I'll start with an account of my day to day life, give some highlights, and share what's ahead in the near future for me. I hope you enjoy!
Since school started, I am enrolled in Chinese class from 9 to 11, not counting the weekly Chinese lunch with our professors and the twice weekly one on one Chinese class. I also moved up from the class I was placed in early on, being somewhat between the classes. Due to this, I am working very hard to keep up with my class. My three classmates (all boys – reminds me of all my brothers!) an I start off class with a dictation test, then we turn in about three pages of homework, after which we each deliver a 2-5 minute speech on a specific topic that was prescribed to us the day before. Some topics I have covered are: a graph on AIDS, how to protect your environment, the various types of pollution, and the impact of single parenting on society. These issues have taught me a lot of vocabulary useful for reading the paper, though I still can not read the paper without help. After our report, it is time to dive into about 8-15 different grammar structures as well as correlating vocabulary. We get a five minute break halfway through, and as soon as our talented teacher's alarm goes off we breathe a sigh of relief, and either gather around the map of China, or walk out to visit with the other students on break – but we can not speak English on the floor of our classroom – so the conversations are usually entertainingly punctuated with gestures and knowing glances. Near the end of the class, we glance apprehensively at the remaining structures to cover – will we go into over-time today? It is not uncommon to do so, since even after class is over we have to discuss what must be done before the next day's class. As soon as we are out, we bounce down the stairs, some headed to nap or work out – others (like myself and my classmate May) must rush to their rooms and pack their bags for the commute to work.
At 11:15 on three days a week, May and I rush to eat before getting the 11:40 subway to work. We either push some dumplings or little steamed buns into our mouth, bought from a friendly couple who kindly make sure we have enough to eat as we sit out on a fold out table on the road, hot bamboo steamers of the goods laid out in front of us, and with plenty of chili oil, vinegar, and soy sauce to dip the nuggets of goodness into. If you think this is a flowery description, you are correct, it is. I just really enjoy them! If we have more time, we'll eat together with classmates at the school cafeteria, where I will usually choose rice, a vegetable (my favorite is Szechuan green beans), and one of many types of chicken stir fry. This will usually put me out about 1.30 to 2 dollars.
After lunch we stretch our legs as far as our pencil skirts will allow us to rush to the subway station. We make one transfer and use one busline during our commute, the regular time is about an hour and twenty minutes to get to our destination – the 798 Art District. Not only is our internship at a wonderful company (The Starfish Project – look up their jewelry – it is gorgeous), but 798 is the epicenter of all things artistic, as well as home to a few sweet coffee shops. Suffice it to say that the atmosphere in Beijing, despite all the pollution, is magnetic and intoxicating for someone who loves to always be learning.
When work is done, it is time to head back to the campus in time to get to class. I use the time on the subway to read class material or write in my journal. When we get out of the subway on the way home I stop at the lady who has a truck full of oranges and apples parked on a bustling sidewalk. I'll buy an apple from her, and maybe some juice from the convenience store. Afterwords my colleague and classmate, May, and I will finish the long march back to the campus. We affectionately nick-named May The Chairman, because though she may be the shortest of our group, her personality organically organizes people around her.
Back in my room, I clean up a little, cut my apple, place it in a container with peanut butter, and then head upstairs to my class. Monday and Wednesday night class is only an hour an a half, and I do Chinese homework while I listen, as I am just auditing this one. On Tuesday nights, however, our Chinese Politics class lasts 3 hours. A few, like me, arrive from their internship, and we listen to our renowned and talented professor, Dr. Moser, educate us. It is an honor to be his students, but when 9:30 hits, I and a few members of my class that I've become closest with go down the stairs and out to the street to get a “Hand-grabbed Pancake” or a sort of tortilla cooked with an egg on top, coated with a dark sauce, and rolled around a piece of lettuce. It is the perfect dinner to end a long day, and after the street vendor cooks them up we head up to our dorm to work on homework for a few hours. There is a lot to prepare, and I usually decided to get up at 5 to get some work done before I go running and then head to class. The nice thing is that our classrooms are in the same building as our dorm, so commute time is 5 minutes (a huge improvement on my standard 1 hour from condo to UT campus in Austin).
Concluding my long-winded account of a day at Capital Normal University as a CET student in Beijing, I'd like to share what special things have been going on. I'm getting settled in Beijing life, from study places to Mexican restaurants, to places of worship. Our program here has planned activities, while leaving time for us to have our own independent travel. The second week in our program I got the opportunity one weekend to take the fast train 5 hours to Qingdao – yes of the German beer fame. Qingdao lies on the coast of China, and during the gunboat diplomacy days it was under German rule. The sea port has a rich history as well as the interesting influence of German architecture and customs. We got to see a German manor, an old Church (where dozens of couples who were about to be married took their wedding pictures. It is a custom in China to take the pictures in the dress and suit well before the wedding), as well as the famous Qingdao Beer factory. All in all, it was a great bonding experience with four of my now closest friends in the program. Though we faced many obstacles, everyone made the best of it and had an amazing time in spite of sparse trials (such as walking to three different hostels across town before arriving at the right one near 9pm). Due to this trip, the self-titled Kill Squad was born, since we had to call ourselves something, and if you let two guys from the U.S. Naval Academy come up with the name, you know it is going to be good. We made the most of our two days there, walking from one park to the next monument and running into new friends along the way. Getting a feel for a different city in China was a valuable experience for me.
This week, also, I am traveling about China as this week is our fall break during the national holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The rest of China, as I mentioned, will be traveling to go home – bearing moon cakes and gifts for their families. We have taken this opportunity to travel to Inner Mongolia (a place I've wanted to see for quite a while), and Xi'an (of the Terracotta Warrior fame). Halfway through our break, I can share our Inner Mongolia experience with you all! We boarded the 10 hour hard seat train near 12 am on Friday evening/ Saturday morning and arrived in Hohhot mid-day Saturday. The train was packed and the seats were, indeed, hard to sit on. The next day we enjoyed the National Inner Mongolia Museum, which took us half a day, as well as busing around the city to go to markets and parks. After that we left the next morning for the really exiting part – a trip out to the rural grasslands of Inner Mongolia.
Not only did I feel a little constricted by the intense city of Beijing, but I naturally yearn for romantic landscapes, something I attribute not only to my personality but also to the fact that I grew up part of my life on a rural mountain amidst pine trees and low-lying clouds. Getting to spend the night in a yurt, eating delicious home-cooked food, wandering and running over the rolling hills of the grasslands scattered with lambs and cows, I felt my spirit and heart swell even as the land expanded before me, revealing more sky than I have ever seen in my life. I loved every minute of it, and was able to feel a sort of recharge wandering off with my thoughts, uninhibited by obstacles. The sheer beauty of the blue sky, and later the clouded sky stretching so far in every direction drew me closer to my convictions.
One night we spent in the Grasslands, and now we are off to Xi'an, which I am very excited about as there will be much to explore. For now, though, I'll stop here and move onto homework. There is a lot to get ready before the next week. I wish you all well and I hope you enjoyed my long account of life. I hope to impart a bit of the similarities and differences between day to day life in China versus wherever you may be, so if your picture of life in China is only a little more colored in, I have accomplished my goal. That's it for now!
Sincerely,
