Things will get better

Okay, so last week I forgot to post a blog post, but I’ll give you a short summary of what I did.

I went to class, studied, met up with some friends to chat about life, studied some more, and went to bed. I also met with my language partner, taught the three kids on Sunday, which was okay but a bit hectic since the two youngest kids have trouble paying attention.

This week, I have a lot more information for you all.

On Sunday I went to teach the three kids English, and was told that a fourth student would be joining our little session. I thought “Okay, this should be alright,” but boy was I wrong. The newest child was very hard to teach, seeing as he only wanted to scream at the top of his lungs every other minute, and only when his mom agreed to sit with him to ensure that he paid attention (since he wouldn't listen to me), he would scream every other five minutes. After I finally got the kids moderately focused again, the new student hit Tom, the other four year old boy in the class, which led to them starting a fight where Tom’s older brother, Jerry, started hitting the new kid and yelling that he should pay attention to the teacher. I had to break up the fight and tell them all that they aren't allowed to hit each other because hitting is bad, etc., but then the mom of the new kid said “Don’t tell my son he can’t hit other people.”

…you read that correctly, she said “Don’t tell my son he can’t hit other people.” This was the last straw. Teaching had been tolerable up to this point (it’s always difficult to teach little kids since they don’t always understand the need to follow instructions and all that), but being told that I can’t keep a student from hitting another student was unacceptable. How is a teacher supposed to keep order in a classroom if they aren't allowed to tell their students to not hit other students? How is that fair to everyone else in the class?

Anyhow, since that really was unacceptable, I decided to quit my teaching job.  I also had less time to study because of this job too. I was under a lot of stress, and my goal is to study Chinese while I’m here, and since my job was interfering with that, it was best to quit.

So this week, other than quitting my job, I also had to study a lot for what is essentially midterms here at PKU. I was also doing a lot of that last week, which is why I forgot to write a post last week (sorry about that).

Also, I had to deal with some major hassle from the front desk workers at building 4 in the Global Village. My mom sent me a package of smart wool clothes, because it gets very cold here during the winter. On Wednesday I got a phone call at 9 pm from building 4 saying that my package had arrived (this was after two and a half weeks of waiting).  I asked if I could go to the building the next day since it was so late and I had to study for a test, so it would be more convenient to pick it up tomorrow. The woman on the phone said that would be fine and I would just have to bring my student card with me. So Thursday afternoon I went to building 4 to get my package, and the people working there said that it wasn't there, and fervently denied that anyone had called me last night, saying that I was wrong. I showed them my student card and asked if they could check, and they said it wouldn't help to have it and wouldn't look for my package.

This made me very angry, so that night I asked my roommate to come with me to help me get this figured out, because the last time I received a package from home, I got the same harassment from these employees. After I persistently told them that I had received a phone call from them and that the package most certainly was there, they looked at a package that was hidden in a drawer under the counter. Sure enough, it was my package. It was only after I told them that my room number, along with my cell phone number, and my dad’s name on the return address, that they finally believed me. They didn't even apologize for accusing me of being wrong.

So Thursday was extremely frustrating. Dealing with those people whenever I receive packages is always irritating, especially when you are told that you are wrong when you know you are right. But that’s not the weirdest thing that that happened. No, the weird thing that happened was what happened Friday morning.

On Friday morning one of the cleaning ladies knocked on my door, asking if a package was mine. It was, and it had more smart wool clothes in it. This was bizarre though, since students are supposed to go to building 4 to identify their packages before they can pick them up, so I really don’t understand how the cleaning lady got my package and knew it was supposed to come to me. I’m very grateful to her, since this is the first time I've received a package without any hassle, but it worries me about how it was delivered, since this isn't how it’s supposed to be done.

Well, besides package woes and test stress, I've been doing pretty well. I went out for lunch with my language partner Kim Yong Bum the other day, and we ate at a hot pot restaurant, which had a lot of really tasty food (no pictures I’m afraid, since I forgot to bring my camera). It was a lot of fun, and we talked for a long time about politics in the US, since he was curious about the shutdown.

Speaking of the shutdown, I’m glad it’s over, and I really hope that nothing like this happens again in February.

On another note, I went with my friend Eric to explore PKU’s campus since he hasn't been there yet. Eric is a friend of my from the University of Minnesota who is also spending time in China this year. We were both in the same Chinese class for a semester, and we soon became friends. We also agreed that we would meet up at some point in China, and finally found time to get together.

He told me he’s never been to PKU's campus, so I gave him a tour, showed him Weiming Lake, some of the places where I have class, and also gave him some blueberry ice-cream flavored pocky. Then he invited me to go to his friend’s birthday party, which was in Wudaokou. Since we had a few hours before the party started, I took him to a bakery called Tous le Jours, the one that I went to with my German friends which serves pastry Totoros. He seems really happy to have some western style bread and coffee (and of course, any time you get a Totoro related item, you always feel good).

This is Eric:

and this is a fat magpie we saw (these are common in Beijing the way pigeons are common in large cities in the US):

Before we went to Tous Le Jours, we also explored one of the malls in Wudaokou (since it got rather cold outside), and saw these things hanging from the ceiling:

A short video of Wudaokou:

Us with our Totoros (yum):

Later in the evening we went to meet up with his friends, went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, and then went to a KTV lounge. KTV is a karaoke bar, only this one was the most intense one I've ever been in. you get sealed into these soundproof rooms which have a huge TV screen, several other TV screens, and lots of blinking lights, and VERY loud speakers. If I ever go to another one, I think I might bring ear-plugs because it was so loud. I did have fun though.

Here’s some pictures (and a short video) of the Korean restaurant and the food we ate there:

And here are some pictures of the KTV lounge (you can't make out all the blinking lights because I needed to use a flash in order to see anything, but it was still a very fancy place...with lots of blinking lights):

 The birthday girl:

 The lounge:

 The Ceiling (made of mirrors)

It was really great to see Eric again, since he’s a great friend. He’s also writing a blog about his experiences in China, and if you are following mine, I highly recommend you take a look at his, because he’s got some great posts about what his experiences have been like.

Check it out:

http://beijingodyssey.blogspot.com/2013/10/fall-break-happenings.html

Today I had a lot of fun. I skyped with my parents, and then went to the Beijing University Culture Festival. This is an event on PKU's campus where lots of stalls are set up, representing countries from around the world, which share their culture with other people.

I took a couple of pictures, but since there were a lot of people, it was difficult to get good shots, so I’m sorry in advance about the quality of some of these:

So this guy from the last three photos was a performer with several other dancers. There was large stage set up in the courtyard of PKU's theater, where groups would perform traditional dances, play music, or do other performances displaying their country's culture. I couldn't find out where these guys were, but I saw that their flag had black, white, and red in it. I've been trying to look it up, but I'm afraid of saying they are from one place when they're actually from somewhere else. There were also a lot of people watching the performance, so I couldn't get a very good shot.

Here's a short video of him dancing, so you get an idea of what it was like:

And here are some more countries:

There was a guy in a kangaroo suit for the Australian booth:

And then my camera battery died, and I couldn't take anymore pictures. Oh the sorrow!

Other than those things, I don’t have much to report this week. Sorry if this week sounded like a bratty rant, but the point of this blog is to tell everyone about my experiences in china, the good, and the bad. I learned a lot from these experiences, and hopefully in the future I will be more prepared to deal with problems like these. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, I did something fun last week. Last Friday I went out with some friends for dinner, and afterwards I ate this really awesome ice-cream! It was so delicious! I’m not sure which brand this is, but it’s like an ice-cream sandwich, only the ice-cream is surrounded all around by a waffle shaped like a fish. On the inside of the fish shaped waffle is vanilla ice-cream, and red bean paste. It really did taste great!

Here’s a picture of the wrapper:

See you all next time (and as the title says, things will get better).

Opportunities, Goals, and Disappointments

So this week was Golden Week,which is a national holiday in China. I like to think of this week as similar to the US spring break; a week long period of time to travel to other places, or to stay at home and rest/do homework for the next week when your teachers have planned multiple exams and presentations. And sometimes go out to have some fun.

Before I came to China, I planned to go to an Irish music session here in Beijing at a place called James Joyce. For those of you who don’t know, Irish music sessions are when a bunch of musicians who play Irish music go to a pub and spend several hours playing Irish music together, playing instruments such as the violin, accordion, flute, and other instruments associated with Irish music. My dad and I had searched where this place was, and even found a subway route to get there. Unfortunately, when I tried searching for the place, I couldn't find it. I asked ten different people for help, and none of them had even heard of the road I was looking for. So, after an hour of being lost, I gave up and headed home. I asked my roommate for help, and she said that the directions I had were wrong, and gave me some new ones. I also called the James Joyce phone number provided online, but a recording said the line was out of service. In short, this place might no longer exist, and I have no Irish session to go to while in Beijing. Oh woe is me!

At least I have a violin I can play while I’m here.

Even though that didn't work out, I did have some fun this week. I went to Wangfujing, the largest shopping district in Beijing, with my friends Teresa and Kim Yong bum. Kim is from South Korea, but he’s not studying in the same department as we are. He’s here to take regular classes instead of language classes like the ones I take. We went to Wangfujing to buy some books because there are two bookstores there, one foreign bookstore, and one gigantic Chinese bookstore. I bought several children’s’ books to help me review some basic Chinese characters, and a Chinese version of Shakespeare’s plays for kids. I thought it was pretty cool to see how Shakespeare would be translated, especially for children, and I can’t wait to start reading it! After shopping we ate at a Cold Stone shop, and it was nice to have ice cream for the first time in a month..

Here’s a picture of Teresa and Kim in front of a toy store in Wangfujing:

Moving on, I also have an interesting opportunity this week. I met a woman named Leilei, who wanted me to teach Chinese children how to speak English. I’m even being paid! So every week, I am going to teach three little kids for two hours. It’s actually pretty fun, but I’m not sure if I want to have a career teaching little kids (it can wear you out sometimes). Basically what I do is I teach them a dialogue (today we studied how to say “Hello, my name is _____. What is your name?”), then we take a short break, and then I read them a story, and help them read it out loud (we read The Fat Cat on the Mat today). It’s a good opportunity for me to get better at teaching people, particularly children, which is a useful skill even if I don’t become a full time teacher.

There was something disappointing that happened though. The US government decided to shut down, which is really going to hurt a lot of people. My mom was very worried because with the value of the US dollar going down, the exchange rate between China and the US is getting worse for Americans.

Also, I was planning on visiting some places in Beijing, but the pollution was just so bad on some days (once it went to about 350), it seemed like staying inside would be better for my health. Also, when the pollution gets really bad, you can’t see the tops of buildings, let alone out your own window at times! That was a bit of a disappointment.

Speaking of pollution, here are some pictures to illustrate just how bad it is right now (and it’s going to get much worse during winter, trust me). Also, sorry in advance about my reflection showing up in these pictures, but our window is just so squeaky clean.

These are from my dorm window, at 12pm each day:

Last Tuesday (26) 

Last Wednesday (171) 

And this is today, Sunday (202)

(Although last night at 1am it was 411!) 

For a real time update of what pollution is like in Beijing (and other cities in China), I recommend the following websites:

http://bjair.info/

http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/

One really great thing happened this week though; I rode a bike all by myself for the first time! YIPPEE! But seriously, this was a goal I set for myself the first week I came to Beijing. My friend Jule helped me learn a lot, and for the first time I rode around my dorm building in a circle twice! But then I started having trouble keeping balance and used the break to stop because I was worried I’d fall over. But I still rode around my building in a circle twice all by myself, it’s a good start!

Not much else to talk about, just teaching, being disappointed in my US government, and otherwise taking time to enjoy the finer things in life. Here’s a picture of a pretty flower I saw which you can enjoy after seeing the pollution pictures:

Also, before Golden Week started I went out with my German friends to a bakery where I ate a Totoro pastry, which was quite tasty. Here’s a picture:

Elective Classes and the Mid Autumn Festival

Well, last week was my first week of having an elective class, and I think I’m going to like it better this week. The reason I say this is because last week was the Mid Autumn Moon Festival, which mean that we had off on Thursday. And since my elective class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, our teacher thought that she should cram in two days’ worth of class into one class period since we would have Thursday off. So it felt very rushed, but hopefully it will be less rushed next class since we’ll have a full week of classes this time. She seems like a very bright teacher with a no-nonsense attitude, yet still very approachable.

As for the class itself, it’s going to involve reading passages, answering questions about them, writing our own essays, and learning more about Chinese grammar and punctuation. I think it will be tougher than my other courses, but my goal is to learn, and this class is sure to teach me a lot.

On Thursday I went out with some friends in the evening to a place called Beihai (another lake/park in Beijing) and we saw a temple there. Apparently you have to pay to go to parks here in China, which I personally found odd because in the USA you don’t have to pay to go to parks, you just go to them (unless it’s something like a national treasure like Yellowstone park or something like that, but that’s not the same as a regular park). It cost us 10 Yuan, so it wasn’t particularly expensive, just strange. I also found it strange because the place we went to across the street was also a lake with areas you could walk around in, but for some reason that was free. Oh well, here's some pictures and a video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We also went inside a cave at the temple, which had lots of statues inside. Here’s a short video and some pictures of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this day in general to be rather strange too. You’d think that with all the hype people had about the Mid Autumn Moon Festival that you would have more people selling things like moon cakes, or setting off firecrackers or noise makers or something. Instead, it seemed very lack luster. The streets were crowded as usual, but it didn’t seem like any real celebrating was happening. And almost no where could we find a place that sold moon cakes. That was the really weird part. All our teachers were telling us to look at the moon and eat lots of moon cakes, but there weren’t any places selling them.

I remember in the USA when Washington DC would celebrate the blooming of the cherry blossoms. Lots of people would come to see, taking pictures, having picnics, playing music, lots of celebrating would happen. Here, it seemed like no one was interested in looking at the moon or eating moon cakes. I only got to eat a moon cake when my language partner gave me one the next day to share (and it tasted very good). Perhaps it’s like Thanksgiving is in the USA, where people spend time with their families instead of going out.

On Friday we had class again, and in the evening I went to see a movie with some of my German friends. It was a Chinese film called “Apart, Together” about an elderly woman in Shanghai who must deal with the return of her former lover from Taiwan because he was a soldier KMT who escaped to Taiwan during 1949 and wasn’t allowed to return back till years later, and the consequences this would have in regards to her current marriage and family. It was a great film, and I recommend it to everyone. Here’s two links with more information about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apart_Together

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587878/ 

 

Not much else to report this week other than doing homework and finally getting a moon cake, but I’m doing well all the same. Till next week!

First Week of Classes, and My Birthday

Wow, so much has happened this week. Where do I begin? Well, let’s start off with Monday. That was the 9^th of September, when I began classes. I have two compulsory classes, and one elective class. I am required to have 18-20 hours’ worth of class work per week; my hanyu class (writing), is 8 hours, and my kouyu class (speaking), is 6 hours. My elective that I got to choose on Friday the 13^th is an intermediate Chinese writing class. Judging by the textbook I had to buy for the class, it’s going to involve lots of reading and answering questions about passages.

For my schedule, I now call Mondays and Tuesdays “The Days of Doom and Despair.” On Monday I have two morning classes, one which is in a classroom close to my dorm near the southeast gate, but the other which is on the other side of campus at the west gate. And since there is only a short break (20 minutes if you are let out on time, but usually more like 15 or 10 if you need to talk to the teacher, have to deal with cars and bicycles trying to run you over on campus, people jostling this way and that EVERYWHERE, etc. I think you get the idea), you better run if you don’t have a bike (or in my case, can’t ride a bike very well). I have a similar problem for Tuesday, because even though my first class and second class are very far away, I have about a 2 ½ hour break between them. However, the 2^nd and 3^rd classes only have the 20 minute break, and the building I have to go to is almost as far away as my first class on Tuesday. In short, I will have very strong legs by the end of the semester (and if I learn how to ride a bike by myself, perhaps I’ll have even stronger legs).

Speaking of bikes, a couple of my friends are helping me learn how to ride a bike! I still have to practice a lot, but I’m beginning to get the hang of riding without people standing right next to me in case I topple over (I haven’t had any accidents yet, YAY!).

Back to my schedule. I’ve got 8 am classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but on Thursday I have two afternoon classes, and only one class on Friday at 10:10 am. Tuesday is when I have the most classes, starting at 8am and ending at 5pm. Friday is my best day, but then Wednesday is the runner up because I only have one class on each day, but like I said before, Wednesday is one of my 8am days (8am is an evil time in the morning…).

 Here’s a map of our campus (If the quality isn’t very good, here’s a link to where I found it  http://kiaa.pku.edu.cn/~disk2010/live_in_pku_map_small.jpg)

My classrooms are in the Russian language building, Shao Yuan #3, and #4 classroom building (It’s between #3 and Natural Sciences Building #5 near the Southeast gate)

 

I really like my teachers for both my hanyu and kouyu classes, and since we just chose our elective classes this Friday, I won’t meet my teacher for that class until Tuesday.

Since then I’ve basically been sorting out where I need to go for classes, doing homework, all the responsible things good little students do.

The 10^th was teacher’s day (教师节快乐) there were lots of people selling bouquets, I think mostly carnations. Some were quite beautiful, and some were very large bouquets. I didn’t buy any for my teachers though because at that point I’d only had two days of classes, so I don’t know them well enough to give them flowers (and I didn’t realize it was this festival till I looked at the Google art for the day).

On the 12^th I celebrated my birthday. I went out with some of my friends to a restaurant (I forgot the name though), and we ate some very delicious food. There was chicken with peanuts, liver, two mushroom dishes (one was a mushroom soups with thin noodles while the other was cold mushrooms), fried eggplant, and a huge bowl of white rice. It was so good to eat. My friend also got me a small chocolate cake! They really are wonderful people.

 

 (Above: Kim, Anna, Wanda)

(Above: Jule, Me, Teresa) 

(Delicious Chocolaty Goodness!)

I also splurged and got myself some chocolate to eat, and I also opened the presents my mom and dad sent with me to China. One was a beautiful bracelet and the other was a pack of Uno cards! They made me really happy!

 

 I also finally got the package of books I left at home by accident. One was a pocket dictionary, and the other was a Chinese slang dictionary (because whenever you study a foreign language, you need to know the words that aren’t always taught in the classroom). They also packed my purple raincoat and a shirt I ordered but didn’t think I would get to wear till I got back from China. Getting this package though was a real ordeal though. My roommate told me that she got a phone call from the front desk of building 4, and that they said there was a package for me. This was weird because we had been told that someone would slip a notice under the door saying that there was a package, mail, etc. that arrived and that you would have to bring that with you to prove you had a package. Despite this we went to building four and said that someone had told us I had a package. The people there looked at us as though we were crazy and said that we had to go to a different building and that we were wrong. But my roommate Bam and I adamantly said that we were specifically told to go to building 4. Eventually they asked to see my passport, but since it is being processed along with several other documents because I’m a foreigner, we showed them my Beijing student ID. Then they showed us the package, which had my name and current address, looked at me very suspiciously, and when I read my name in English, they finally believed it was mine and let me have it. Good grief! Isn’t it irritating when one person or group tells you to do one thing, then tells you that you are wrong, and then tries to make you do something that obviously isn’t right? At least I got my package from home though.

Today I also went out to Carrefour, the large supermarket which comes from France, but is really popular here in China. I bought a lamp and a thermos that isn’t made of cheap, unsafe plastic (YAY)! I also got some small snacks to eat in the morning with me because I’ll need the energy to run to class.

Well, I hope I haven’t forgotten anything. Here’s a video of the bridge I cross to get to the campus,

 

 

and a video of some scorpions on sticks that I forgot to upload (it’s from when I went to buy a dictionary with Bam and her friend).