It's been too long... (Read this before Qingmingjie post)

Note: This was supposed to be posted two weeks ago, but because I am technologically inept, I saved it instead of publishing it. Please forgive me T.T

Hello everyone.

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted anything new on my blog for a while. It's a mix of reasons.

First, I've been really busy with schoolwork. This semester has been really insane with one of my classes, while the others are okay. I enjoy having a challenge in my classes, but this isn't a challenge; this is a teacher with no experience not taking into account the concerns her students have about the pace and her teaching methods. The homework I receive in this class is double the homework I receive in all my other classes, and we are also moving through the lessons at a very fast pace.

At first I thought maybe it was just me. After all, I went to a school for dyslexic students when I was younger, and I tend to learn much more slowly compared to other students. But when I talked to my classmates, most said that they were having trouble in the class too, and one even said that when she asked the teacher if she could slow down the pace and review the lessons more before moving on to new ones, the teacher said that there was no need to worry and that everyone would be fine. Except we're not. I enjoy learning and going to school, but I really dislike this class.

I want to make myself very clear. I am not trying to disrespect my teacher. I am simple explaining that our class has been having trouble and that we have concerns about doing well in this class after being told we shouldn't worry, yet we still have problems.

Second, I've been a little depressed. This is my first year living in another country, and at first, I thought everything would be fine. And it has been, don't get me wrong. I am happy to have had this opportunity to study here and experience new things. However, since this is my first time living abroad, and since I haven't returned home since August (not even for a short visit), I've started feeling more homesick than usual. I'm not sure if it's because of my recent problems with this one class, or because in approximately two months I actually will be home so I feel a stronger desire to get home than before, I don't know. All I do know is that I have felt rather down, busy, and stressed. As such I haven't done any blog posts.

I'm very sorry that this first half sounds really depressing. I will now tell you some positive things about this semester.

I love my kouyu class. My teacher is very experienced, and we all think that we want to move faster in the class, which has made our teacher happy. Everyday I have kouyu class I feel like the world has gotten five times brighter, even when we have a small quiz (I never feel this way about the other class I previously mentioned). I am very lucky to be in such a wonderful class with such a fantastic teacher!

The weather is getting warmer, but the pollution still varies from time to time. For example, yesterday the sky was very blue, but today the pollution is over 200 (gray, gray, and more gray...).

I met with my language partner (we've been meeting every Friday since the semester began), and I introduced him to Taiwan pancakes. Taiwan pancakes are delicious meals that are essentially a super oily blintz which has meat and some sauce inside (I order mine with egg, chicken, salad dressing, and lettuce). My language partner said he never had them before, which surprised me because he's been studying in China for a long time now. He really liked them, so I'm glad he now has a new dish to enjoy.

We talked about a movie that he recently saw and enjoyed. The movie is called The Man from Earth. I haven't seen it yet, so I can't say whether or not it actually is a good film, but if you are curious here's a link to the Wikipedia page about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_From_Earth

On Friday I took a break from studying, and went out with my friend Janie and her roommates to eat Indian food. And MY GOD IT WAS DELICIOUS! Seriously though, this food was fantastic. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead so I don't have any pictures to give you, but I'll describe it. We had two different kinds of curry, one with chicken and cashew sauce, and one with cheese. We also had a lamb dish which was a little spicy, but not so much that we couldn't eat it. We also had two different kinds of naan, a type of Indian flat bread which comes in many different styles. We had garlic and what I believe was kashmiri naan (it has fruits and other things inside it, yum!). We also had a potato dish, but I forget the name of it. Overall, it was DELICIOUS! I was very happy to have such a wonderful meal with my friends. Also, the restaurant we went to is fairly famous in Beijing.

Here's a link to the restaurant's webpage:
http://www.ganges-restaurant.com/en/find-us-ganges-indian-haidian.php

After eating such wonderful food, we went out to buy some bubble tea at a place called Happy Lemon. I really enjoyed it.

I've also recently started going to a theater class at Beiyu University. This is a university which specializes in linguistics and has a lot of foreign students. My friend Helen, who lives on the same floor as me, told me about it when I told her I was interested in learning more about Chinese theater (I'm double majoring theater and Chinese after all). The first half of the class is focused on music, singing specifically. I learned how to sing a song in Chinese, which was quite fun. The second half of the class is about acting. The kind of acting is not like acting for plays/musicals, but more like a stand up comedy. Except this isn't improved, it's a sketch which often has jokes about Chinese language, history, and differences between provinces. I think this kind of humor is a bit innocent compared to a lot of humor that comes from the US and parts of Europe, but it's interesting to learn about.

This week I'm going to prepare for exams on Thursday and Friday, so I probably won't have anything interesting to write about. I'm going to try not to stress too much, but I want to do well.


Since I haven't taken any pictures in a while, I leave you with two internet pictures to brighten your day:

This is the Bulldog when he loves you~


Images courtesy of:
http://www.sunnyskyz.com/uploads/2013/06/f4f5c-cute-bulldog.jpg
http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2013/07/Mike/SK/Happy-bulldog.jpg

Qiming Jie and Exams

Hello everyone,

On April 5-7, I had an enjoyable three day weekend because it was a holiday called Qingming Jie, or Tomb Sweeping day. Originally I had planned on traveling to Xian during this week, but due to complications, I had to scrap those plans for a later date. Instead, I went to the Beijing botanical gardens, which were quite beautiful.

The three day weekend was from Saturday to Monday, and like many holidays in China, had lots of people traveling. I had planned to visit the gardens on Saturday around 10 am, but when I went to the subway station, there were so many people that I decided it would be better to leave around 6 am the next day to avoid being so closely packed together with a crowd. It felt like I was in a can of sardines people were so squashed together. As such, I decided to go to Carrefour instead to buy some groceries and return home for a relaxing, crowd-free rest of the day.

The next day I went to the botanical gardens around 6 am, and arrived at about 8 am. I still had to deal with a crowd, but not nearly as large as the other day.

The gardens were beautiful. The site itself sorts many different species of plants, but one of the more common ones was a tree called “mei hua,” which literally means “pretty flower.” This kind of tree comes with a variety of different colored blossoms, many being light pink, but also white and dark pink.

Here's some pictures of the gardens:

There is also a conifer garden with lots of different kinds of conifer trees, close to Liang Qichao cemetery. This area was far less crowded than the rest of the gardens, and was quite pleasant to walk through.

Here are some picture of a restaurant near the conifer gardens (and some more plants):

After walking for a while I went to the Wofo Temple, which has several magnolia trees surrounding the sides of the walkway up to the temple. The temple itself is situated on a hill, and was very impressive. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the insides of the buildings, but I was allowed to take pictures of the outsides, as well as of the fish and turtles in the fish pond near the entrance.

The gardens also have a very large lake in the center. Some areas of the lake were quite beautiful, but others seemed to be either polluted or just trashed, as I saw trash in a few areas near the edges of the lake. That was unfortunate.

Here's some more pictures, and some people dancing:

This is the conservatory (and the surrounding area):

While I was walking around, quite a few people were staring at me, particularly children. I should be used to people staring at me because I’m a foreigner, but sometimes it’s still unnerving, or at the very least annoying.

I stayed at the gardens till 1pm, when I decided to go home after taking in all the beauty the place had to offer. However, I had to spend about an hour waiting for a bus back to the summer palace (where I could get to the subway), due to all the people surrounding me. When I did get onto my bus, I started feeling claustrophobic due to so many people pushing me, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get off the bus when we arrived at my stop. I had to push multiple people out of my way, and while I hate having to be so aggressive, it is a common occurrence here in China on buses. When I got back from the subways station, I bought myself some ice cream, returned to my dorm, and slept for four hours straight. I was physically exhausted from walking around all day, and emotionally exhausted from having to deal with crowds.

Over all, it was a very fun weekend, and I spent the next day doing homework and relaxing.

The past two weeks have been rather busy because in addition to my elective class midterm and a group presentation for my kouyu class, I have also been preparing for a competition. All of the hanyu classes have to prepare either a skit or song to perform for everyone, and the best classes will win a prize. My class will be singing a song called “Let it Go,” performed by Idina Menzel in the movie Frozen.

For those of you who want to hear it, here’s the English original, and the Chinese version in the links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjhr8qwPgfc

Our class will first perform it in Chinese, and then each of us will sing a verse or two in either our native languages, or a different language. For example, since I studied Spanish in high school, I will be singing my part in Spanish, while two other American students will sing a different part in English. We’ll have seven languages for the second part: Swedish, French, Spanish, English, Japanese, German, and Korean.

Speaking as an actor, violinist, and someone who simply loves music, I enjoy singing, and think singing this song for the competition would be fun. However, most of my classmates are not particularly good singers, and do not want to compete to begin with. Since this competition is mandatory for all the hanyu classes, there’s nothing else to do except our best, but many of the students have spent most of our class time complaining. As such, practicing with them has been less than enjoyable.

Also, I am supposed to be a judge for the day that our class competes, and provide a short introduction to the rest of the classes about the song we’re performing because no one else from our class wanted the responsibility. Sometimes I regret feeling the need to pick up the slack of others.

The one nice thing about this competition is that we don’t have any afternoon classes, meaning Thursday, my busiest day of the week, will be a great opportunity to relax, and prepare for my exams during May 5^th – May 9^th.

Another fun bit of info for everyone. I will be traveling in Xian from May 1^st to May 3^rd, so after my next set of exams I will write a post about my travels there.

Also, since I will have extra time this week, I will finally make a post about my travels in Shanghai. I promise.

Until next time, take care and enjoy life!