June 26, 2008- Thursday
Again today we went for our morning run, got ready for class, and listened to the many wonders of Mrs. Mao. She showed us a picture of the American’s who helped the Chinese fight the Japanese invaders. She explained that when they crashed a plane, the farmers were rescued by some farmers. They walked the countryside and someone who knew what they needed wrote in Chinese on their backs where they needed to go so that people along the way could direct them. It said, “Help us fight the Japanese.” She also talked to us about western religion influence in China. She said that now there are more than 10 million believers who believe Jesus Christ died for them. She said that the churches are open to the public and they have communication with other countries-whatever that means. I am guessing it has to do with missions. She said that government people at all levels are believers and that Christians help the country by offering money and taking care of kids whose parents are incarcerated. She said that the believers go help these children and persuade them to believe. She said although she doesn’t believe, she has three bibles in her home that she has received as gifts and there are two teachers that she knows of at the school that do. She said some young couples get married at the church and that people go to church to sing and praise. She said she knows of at least seven churches in Beijing. She informed us that those who live in the countryside mostly believe in Buddhism. Although Mrs. Mao is not a believer, she did an excellent job telling us of the presence of what she called, “Western Religion” in China. I hope though that she doesn’t think that all people from the Western Hemisphere and specifically America are Christians. If so, there are plenty of poor images being broadcasted.
I think that the beauty of study abroad is that not only do you get to see a country with a tour guide, but you get people to actually explain to you in academic terms what is happening there. You live there. You operate there. You learn there. It is a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week learning experience. Even when you are sitting in class you are having knowledge poured into you! Mrs. Mao talked to us about pandas and how they are such a huge part of China’s character. She didn’t pronounce panda right saying, “pander,” but it added to the effect of her talk. (She has also said a few other things in pretty funny ways, for example she says, “Jimmy Cart” when speaking of Jimmy Carter.) As you may have heard on the news, many of the “panders” are from the Sichuan providence, where the earthquake occurred. For this reason, may have been rescued and taken to Beijing Zoo. We will be going there this weekend to see the “panders” for ourselves. She said that it is common for pandas to drink too much water and then not be able to walk and that usually they are quite calm, but every April they fight to win the love of the female pandas. Currently, the panda is the first rate of China’s precious things. Her quote was, “Last year 30 panders were created by human being,” as she referred to artificial insemination of pandas. She said that it is very difficult for panders to give birth and that if they have twins they usually only take care of one and disregard the other. For this reason, scientists try to find the other panda and take care of it with frozen panda milk and milk from other animals. She told us of times when hundreds of pandas were found dead from disease and that Nancy Regan sent money to help.
She talked to us about the earthquake that occurred in Sichuan in May. We heard that 79,000 were killed. She said that they will have to rebuild democracy in that area. They will have to decide who will get what house as they are being built and allocate food, goods, and materials that have been sent. She said much money has been sent from other countries including 23 million from America. She said that it has strengthened the spirit of the Chinese, bringing people together for ones own salvation and helping people treasure all human life. From now on they will educate children on disaster relief. Many of the schools and universities collapsed while the government buildings stood tall. The people are up in arms about this. They have learned their lesson from this earthquake and the experience of other nations. They will put more money into structures and research on forecasting earthquakes.
She gave a solid explanation of the impact the Olympics will have on the city of Beijing and the country of China. Many people from all over the world will have the opportunity to see the country with their own eyes. She said that not only will 70 world leaders be here, but a lot of ordinary people will come as well. She said the success is not simply built on how many gold metals China will win or how many political leaders will come. She said that China will deem themselves successful if they are able to spread the Olympic Spirit and improve the human race. As a harmonious society, China would like to be a responsible player in this world. They want to have a responsible and active role in building a peaceful and better world.
Later in the class, one of her students came in to report on significant happenings in China since 2000. He said that on July 13, 2001 the Olympic Committee announced Beijing as the Olympic City for 2008. He told us about this year’s Olympic seal which is a Chinese character that looks like a person who is exhibiting energy and charm. He said that they have built 11 new facilities and there are 37 venues in total. The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube is the most famous. One World. One Dream.
She told us about the importance of martial arts and tia chi to the Chinese people. She went on to talk about the highly regarded, older generation, of Chinese culture. They are very well respected. Confucius said, “If a person forgets his parents his is not a real mature man.” She said that old couples spend their time in the parks together. I have seen this first hand when I visit the nearby park in the mornings after we run. I don’t see couples but there are plenty of 70+ people over there utilizing the exercise machines, doing dances, saying chants, twirling ribbons, walking around, and doing all sorts of stuff. This is a way to start their day for so many! It is great to see! The older generation also joins clubs and plays games and learns things. She said no matter where you go in China, you will find the old people in the parks. They all gather together just to participate and be with each other. She said that for the granddaughter or grandson (remember, there is only one) the weekends are very busy because they go to see the grandparents on both sides. She said her son gets annoyed by this and she promised him that when she gets old and he has a child he does not have to come so often. We laughed. She went on to explain that it is respectful to hall the older generation of a family by, “Old (insert last name here).” Sometimes in class she will say, “Old Bush” or “Young Bush.”
The end of her lecture brought us to discuss Chinese mass media. She said that she can read articles on the internet and that some American and British articles about China are one sided and that is not fair.
Today was our turn to host three hours of introducing ourselves, American culture, and games to the Chinese similar to what they did for us the day before. Each of us agreed to prepare a power point on ourselves and some aspect of American life. We still weren’t finished with these after class and so instead of going somewhere for lunch, we headed to our rooms to eat our snacks from the store and crank out the power points. This turned out to be really beneficial not only for the Chinese students, but for us OSU students as well. We learned a lot about each other. Although, Ashley, Jessica, and I had similar power points we all hit on different topics. Ashley talked about what people in rural America do for fun. I talked about the availability and content of agricultural education to high school and junior high students in America. Jessica explained the concept of 4-H. We all talked about our families, church, friends, and all of the things we like to do for fun. We showed pictures of football games and various travel. They were fascinated by our pictures of our large families since they have only one child per generation. They enjoyed looking at the things we do for fun such as football games, weddings, and spending time with family and friends. I showed pictures of the blizzard we had last winter at OSU and of our Dominican tour group in front of the waterfall. I showed pictures from class and school and living on a farm. I also talked about how in America it is important for college students to have internships and career experience. They liked hearing about this as they are in a never ending fight to prepare themselves to get the best job. I had a few more slides on American Agriculture, but I knew I was going over my time limit so I stopped there and thanked them for hosting us!
Jessica taught them the song “Singing In the Rain” and we played Simon says. We asked if a Chinese student would like to lead Simon says. A couple of girls tried, but they couldn’t talk fast enough to get us. Paige, who is so sensitive to other people’s needs, jumped up and said, “How about we do this together?” So, they took turns giving a command every other one. We asked them to play speaking only in Chinese and we would watch. They talked so fast. We quickly caught on that they were not playing Simon says, but they were playing a game where you do the opposite of what the leader says. SO for open your mouth you’d close your mouth and so on. It was tons of fun to watch. We played another game where everyone sits in a chair in a big circle and one person stands in the middle. We pushed the tables back to make plenty of room for our group of thirty-some people. The person standing in the middle was to give a description saying something like, “Anyone wearing glasses.” At that point, anyone wearing glasses had to get up from their seat and run to another empty seat. The person in the middle went after an open chair too. The person left without a chair would be the next one to call the description. The Chinese loved this. They said some pretty funny things and so did we. One girl said, “Anyone wearing long trousers.” That made us laugh. One of our people said, “Anyone with blue eyes.” The person in the middle and Jessica switched spots as no one else in the whole room had blue eyes. When we said, “Anyone with brown eyes,” not all of the Chinese moved. They said, “We have black eyes!” We have never heard of anyone with black eyes. Sometimes they weren’t so easy to understand. For example, one said, “Anyone who wear glasses,” and I thought she said, “Anyone who wear dresses.” Some of us really laughed when boys got up and moved around on that one.
After the fun and games with the Chinese students some girls invited me to play ping pong in the recreational area with them. The students here are only allowed to play on the basketball courts, soccer and volleyball areas, badminton courts, and ping pong tables after 4:30 in the afternoon. This is because it might be too loud and distract others from their studying. Studying is for sure important here. All of the students were asking me about the fun in America that we explained in our individual powerpoints. They said that they didn’t have any time for fun because they had to study so they could pass the examination and get into a good college so they would have potential to get a job. They asked if it was easy in America to get a job. In a round about way, I explained that of course you have to have credentials, but it is much easier than how it is in China. With 1.3 billion people living here, there is tons of competition for jobs. The girls talked to me about hteir boyfriends and how they would be furthering their education beyond the master’s degree they are working on now. They are fascinated to hear that I am getting married next year and were really a fun group to talk to. I hope I get to spend more time with them on our Saturday student led tours.
For supper, we just ate at the Blackwell and then went to our rooms where we worked on burning CD’s of American music to give to the Chinese students at the party tomorrow night. Before coming we collected a song title and artist from each of the students and Melissa to put on a music CD. Ashe, Jess, and I made CD cases complete with a thank you note and a list of the songs in order. We brought the CD’s from home to burn. Everyone worked together to crank out the CD’s from 12 different computers. We made about 45 and it worked out great!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Mrs. Mao's house for Lunch, Chinese Games, and Wal-Mart!
June 25, 2008- Wednesday
After getting up early enough for our morning run/workout and showers, we headed to Mrs. Mao’s class. She discussed Tibetan culture with us pretty extensively. Tibet is an area with low air pressure, and therefore not a pleasant place for people to live because they get arthritis. It is so severe that pregnant women have to go to the inner areas to give birth, because of the climate. It is in South West China- 4000 km high. She said that there is heavy snow in the winter, one should only go in the summer. Local people in Tibet made sacrifices to heaven of animals, and the alters are found near many of the lakes now. This was before they believed in Buddhism.
In Tibet, people think that people’s spirits exist forever. They think that after a period of time a person’s spirit will be reborn in an other person. When someone dies, they cut up the dead family member and take to a certain place in the mountains for the eagles to take to heaven. If the eagles do not come, that means his spirit will go down the hill. Another way to is to put it on a float down the river and someday it will sink in to the river which they think is sacred. They say hello by putting their tongue on each other’s nose or touching their ears because it is too cold to open their mouths. In Ancient times, they would only take a bath when they are born, married, and after death because a bath will wash away good luck. Mrs. Mao told us about Lamaism which is a branch of Buddhism- it is known as Tibetan Buddhism. She also mentioned two familiar words “dalai” means vast sea in Mongolian and “lama” means teacher. She informed us of many Tibetan customs such as their costumes of color of ornaments and jewelries. Tibet women have a head gear decoration and they dress kind of like Eskimos.
Mrs. Mao has been taking students to her home for lunch everyday this week. Today it was my group’s turn to go. Juan, Deryck, Johanna, Greg and I walked with her home from class and up the stairs to the fifth floor of her apartment building. Mrs. Mao did a fine job making it up those stairs. She told us that she has lived there for twenty years (so she’s been in good shape for quite some time) and that her complex was really nice when she started living there. Now, her actual apartment is really nice, but the outside and the stairs to it look pretty worn. Her apartment consisted of a small, small encased by glass balcony area, a small living room/office, a small dining room, a small kitchen, a small storage/pantry area, a small bathroom, a bedroom for her and her husband, and a bedroom for her son. We sat and talked with her son in the living room while Mrs. Mao made lunch. Her house was neat and tidy; she had no room for clutter. She made us some delicious sandwich type things made out of a pita type bread with your choice of beef, tofu, or sausage inside. She served sides of cucumber salad, red sweet corn (it didn’t taste too good), cucumber salad and pepper and onion salad, and chicken. It was all really good and really hit the spot. She also cut up a “Thousand Year Egg” for us to try. Thousand year eggs are the eggs placed in some sort of chemical for two weeks that last in a greenish black “hard boiled” state for up to a year. After eating, we thanked her for everything and headed back to class.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week we are spending the afternoon class time conducting activities with the Chinese students. On Wednesday the Chinese students are in charge of the events and on Thursday we are in charge. Upon arrival to class, the Chinese students gave us a few presentations on China. They talked to us about how China is one of the oldest nations in the world and there were nearly 600 emperors in China’s history. They reminded us that China has the largest population it he world at 1.3 billion in 2007. Chairman Mao once said, “More people. More power.” I guess they took that to heart. They talked to us about the famous basketball player, “Yao Ming.” They hit on the fact that each woman is only allowed to have one child and that the children have 9 years compulsory education. They told us about many famous places in Beijing that we will be visiting and the history of the school we are staying at.
After their presentations we played a game somewhat like, “Hot Potato.” One of the students had a water bottle with rocks inside that she would turn around from the group and shake. We passed a stuffed bunny around until she stopped. Whoever had the bunny was required to do something like tell a joke, sing a song, show a dance move, or anything you can imagine. As you might have guessed, passing the bunny got pretty violent as people tried to quickly get it out of their hands. Many of ours students showed different types of sports actions while others sang songs or told jokes. Some of their students showed Tia Chi moves, sang songs, and just acted down right shy. We have noticed here that many of their students are very young acting. They giggle a lot act really dependent of each other. I have asked a few how old they are and they are anywhere from 23-25 years old. They are in graduate school, but for some reason their culture acts differently at this age. It could be that we are just reading them differently because they are speaking their second language and they might sound childlike, but they definitely have some youngster actions.
It is becoming harder and harder to make plans to do something here. Someone comes up with an idea and people fiddle around before deciding if they are going to go or not. It is difficult to make sure everyone is included and happy. Tonight we just decided to split up for our outing. Paige, Ashley, Jessica, Juan, and I had asked a Chinese student to write down, “Wal-Mart” on a piece of paper in Chinese so that we could show it to the taxi driver. We all walked out of the hotel and there was already a taxi there. We showed him the paper and all piled in, but he wouldn’t leave because he motioned that we had five passengers and we could only have four. After trying for a while to get him to take us anyway and no avail, Paige and I jumped out and told the others we would meet them there. We were skeptical to do this because the last time we split up to go somewhere we ended up in different places and we had heard that there was more than one Wal-Mart, but there was nothing we could do. After walking about ½ mile to the main street to get a taxi, we found one. He looked at the paper and pointed in a direction to ask I think if that was the Wal-Mart we wanted. The other girls had already been by there, but Paige and I had no idea where we were going so we just guessed that he was right and agreed. He drove us a short distance, clearly a distance we could have walked, and we saw Jessica and Juan waiting out in front of the building before we saw the big, “Wal-Mart” sign. Ashley was waiting on the other side incase the taxi driver took us that way. After reconvening all together, we took a picture in front of the big “Super Wal-Mart” sign and headed in.
I know you are probably thinking, “You can go to Wal-Mart right there or here in Mercer County.” The reason we wanted to go was to see the main differences and similarities with the store. Let me tell you, you could definitely tell it was a Wal-Mart, but there were things there I have never seen before. On the way in the store there was a display of some pictures of Sam Walton and some history for one’s reading pleasure. In the electronics section they were playing, “Backstreet Boys,” a 90’s American pop group rather loudly. The place had three floors with big sidewalk-style sloped escalators leading customers from one level to the next. They had the big white signs with changeable black numbers that had the man with the smiley face on top. I assume that in Chinese it said, “Always Low Prices, Always Wal-Mart.” Wal mart- and supper there. They had books, but they were all written in Chinese. They had a bakery section where they were displaying a big cake with Olympic characters and other Olympic stuff on. They sold weird stuff like “1000 year old eggs.” They had normal snacks like crackers and chips, but weird stuff like dried eel meat. They had whole chickens hanging from a rope and they were chopping up red meat out from behind a counter with a big cleaver. They had live turtles, crabs, and fish for sale near big elaborate displays of frozen fish. They were selling all kinds of clothes, including Beijing Olympic items as well as all of the normal American toiletries. The girls looked through a big pile of tee shirts that would have cost $1.00 that had English words on it. Most of the sayings did not make any sense, but they were real funny to read.
There was a Nike store within the Wal-Mart also, but the prices were just like they would be in the United States. Most everything we bought was similar in price or lower to how it would be in the United States. I bought several items for about five dollars. We bought gummie bears, iced coffee drinks since they do not sell coffee at the restaurants on campus and we do not take the time to go get it outside before, potato chips, cookies, dried fruit, nuts, almonds and juice drinks. Of course, nothing too healthy was in our carts. When we finished milling around, we got in line to pay. You know, everywhere we go there are TONS of people working with little responsibility. For example, at the grocery store one time we saw about six people working on a small display of cereal. Nevertheless, at Wal-Mart, they seemingly have not adopted the practice of hiring way to many people. There was a big line for people to check out, but maybe that was a result of not enough computers.
We ate at the restaurant that was right there in Wal-Mart, which was a type of Chinese fast food. We looked at a picture menu on the wall and then told the manager, who spoke good English what we wanted. She then conveyed that to the cashier, who rung us up. We sat down and when the food was finished they brought it to our table. I had some garlic rice that was yellow and a pork chop. It was pretty good, but the pork chop was pretty small and had a lot of bone to it. The others got a spaghetti type stuff that they really didn’t like.
Right when we walked out of Wal Mart, there were plenty of taxis waiting to take people home. We got in the taxi and showed the driver our business cards that had in Chinese where we were to go. She drove us right home and it cost about $1.50 total for the while ride for all of us to split. It shouldn’t have, but that whole excursion really wore us out, so we worked on our journals for a while and worked on our power point presentations we are to show about ourselves tomorrow and then went to bed.
After getting up early enough for our morning run/workout and showers, we headed to Mrs. Mao’s class. She discussed Tibetan culture with us pretty extensively. Tibet is an area with low air pressure, and therefore not a pleasant place for people to live because they get arthritis. It is so severe that pregnant women have to go to the inner areas to give birth, because of the climate. It is in South West China- 4000 km high. She said that there is heavy snow in the winter, one should only go in the summer. Local people in Tibet made sacrifices to heaven of animals, and the alters are found near many of the lakes now. This was before they believed in Buddhism.
In Tibet, people think that people’s spirits exist forever. They think that after a period of time a person’s spirit will be reborn in an other person. When someone dies, they cut up the dead family member and take to a certain place in the mountains for the eagles to take to heaven. If the eagles do not come, that means his spirit will go down the hill. Another way to is to put it on a float down the river and someday it will sink in to the river which they think is sacred. They say hello by putting their tongue on each other’s nose or touching their ears because it is too cold to open their mouths. In Ancient times, they would only take a bath when they are born, married, and after death because a bath will wash away good luck. Mrs. Mao told us about Lamaism which is a branch of Buddhism- it is known as Tibetan Buddhism. She also mentioned two familiar words “dalai” means vast sea in Mongolian and “lama” means teacher. She informed us of many Tibetan customs such as their costumes of color of ornaments and jewelries. Tibet women have a head gear decoration and they dress kind of like Eskimos.
Mrs. Mao has been taking students to her home for lunch everyday this week. Today it was my group’s turn to go. Juan, Deryck, Johanna, Greg and I walked with her home from class and up the stairs to the fifth floor of her apartment building. Mrs. Mao did a fine job making it up those stairs. She told us that she has lived there for twenty years (so she’s been in good shape for quite some time) and that her complex was really nice when she started living there. Now, her actual apartment is really nice, but the outside and the stairs to it look pretty worn. Her apartment consisted of a small, small encased by glass balcony area, a small living room/office, a small dining room, a small kitchen, a small storage/pantry area, a small bathroom, a bedroom for her and her husband, and a bedroom for her son. We sat and talked with her son in the living room while Mrs. Mao made lunch. Her house was neat and tidy; she had no room for clutter. She made us some delicious sandwich type things made out of a pita type bread with your choice of beef, tofu, or sausage inside. She served sides of cucumber salad, red sweet corn (it didn’t taste too good), cucumber salad and pepper and onion salad, and chicken. It was all really good and really hit the spot. She also cut up a “Thousand Year Egg” for us to try. Thousand year eggs are the eggs placed in some sort of chemical for two weeks that last in a greenish black “hard boiled” state for up to a year. After eating, we thanked her for everything and headed back to class.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week we are spending the afternoon class time conducting activities with the Chinese students. On Wednesday the Chinese students are in charge of the events and on Thursday we are in charge. Upon arrival to class, the Chinese students gave us a few presentations on China. They talked to us about how China is one of the oldest nations in the world and there were nearly 600 emperors in China’s history. They reminded us that China has the largest population it he world at 1.3 billion in 2007. Chairman Mao once said, “More people. More power.” I guess they took that to heart. They talked to us about the famous basketball player, “Yao Ming.” They hit on the fact that each woman is only allowed to have one child and that the children have 9 years compulsory education. They told us about many famous places in Beijing that we will be visiting and the history of the school we are staying at.
After their presentations we played a game somewhat like, “Hot Potato.” One of the students had a water bottle with rocks inside that she would turn around from the group and shake. We passed a stuffed bunny around until she stopped. Whoever had the bunny was required to do something like tell a joke, sing a song, show a dance move, or anything you can imagine. As you might have guessed, passing the bunny got pretty violent as people tried to quickly get it out of their hands. Many of ours students showed different types of sports actions while others sang songs or told jokes. Some of their students showed Tia Chi moves, sang songs, and just acted down right shy. We have noticed here that many of their students are very young acting. They giggle a lot act really dependent of each other. I have asked a few how old they are and they are anywhere from 23-25 years old. They are in graduate school, but for some reason their culture acts differently at this age. It could be that we are just reading them differently because they are speaking their second language and they might sound childlike, but they definitely have some youngster actions.
It is becoming harder and harder to make plans to do something here. Someone comes up with an idea and people fiddle around before deciding if they are going to go or not. It is difficult to make sure everyone is included and happy. Tonight we just decided to split up for our outing. Paige, Ashley, Jessica, Juan, and I had asked a Chinese student to write down, “Wal-Mart” on a piece of paper in Chinese so that we could show it to the taxi driver. We all walked out of the hotel and there was already a taxi there. We showed him the paper and all piled in, but he wouldn’t leave because he motioned that we had five passengers and we could only have four. After trying for a while to get him to take us anyway and no avail, Paige and I jumped out and told the others we would meet them there. We were skeptical to do this because the last time we split up to go somewhere we ended up in different places and we had heard that there was more than one Wal-Mart, but there was nothing we could do. After walking about ½ mile to the main street to get a taxi, we found one. He looked at the paper and pointed in a direction to ask I think if that was the Wal-Mart we wanted. The other girls had already been by there, but Paige and I had no idea where we were going so we just guessed that he was right and agreed. He drove us a short distance, clearly a distance we could have walked, and we saw Jessica and Juan waiting out in front of the building before we saw the big, “Wal-Mart” sign. Ashley was waiting on the other side incase the taxi driver took us that way. After reconvening all together, we took a picture in front of the big “Super Wal-Mart” sign and headed in.
I know you are probably thinking, “You can go to Wal-Mart right there or here in Mercer County.” The reason we wanted to go was to see the main differences and similarities with the store. Let me tell you, you could definitely tell it was a Wal-Mart, but there were things there I have never seen before. On the way in the store there was a display of some pictures of Sam Walton and some history for one’s reading pleasure. In the electronics section they were playing, “Backstreet Boys,” a 90’s American pop group rather loudly. The place had three floors with big sidewalk-style sloped escalators leading customers from one level to the next. They had the big white signs with changeable black numbers that had the man with the smiley face on top. I assume that in Chinese it said, “Always Low Prices, Always Wal-Mart.” Wal mart- and supper there. They had books, but they were all written in Chinese. They had a bakery section where they were displaying a big cake with Olympic characters and other Olympic stuff on. They sold weird stuff like “1000 year old eggs.” They had normal snacks like crackers and chips, but weird stuff like dried eel meat. They had whole chickens hanging from a rope and they were chopping up red meat out from behind a counter with a big cleaver. They had live turtles, crabs, and fish for sale near big elaborate displays of frozen fish. They were selling all kinds of clothes, including Beijing Olympic items as well as all of the normal American toiletries. The girls looked through a big pile of tee shirts that would have cost $1.00 that had English words on it. Most of the sayings did not make any sense, but they were real funny to read.
There was a Nike store within the Wal-Mart also, but the prices were just like they would be in the United States. Most everything we bought was similar in price or lower to how it would be in the United States. I bought several items for about five dollars. We bought gummie bears, iced coffee drinks since they do not sell coffee at the restaurants on campus and we do not take the time to go get it outside before, potato chips, cookies, dried fruit, nuts, almonds and juice drinks. Of course, nothing too healthy was in our carts. When we finished milling around, we got in line to pay. You know, everywhere we go there are TONS of people working with little responsibility. For example, at the grocery store one time we saw about six people working on a small display of cereal. Nevertheless, at Wal-Mart, they seemingly have not adopted the practice of hiring way to many people. There was a big line for people to check out, but maybe that was a result of not enough computers.
We ate at the restaurant that was right there in Wal-Mart, which was a type of Chinese fast food. We looked at a picture menu on the wall and then told the manager, who spoke good English what we wanted. She then conveyed that to the cashier, who rung us up. We sat down and when the food was finished they brought it to our table. I had some garlic rice that was yellow and a pork chop. It was pretty good, but the pork chop was pretty small and had a lot of bone to it. The others got a spaghetti type stuff that they really didn’t like.
Right when we walked out of Wal Mart, there were plenty of taxis waiting to take people home. We got in the taxi and showed the driver our business cards that had in Chinese where we were to go. She drove us right home and it cost about $1.50 total for the while ride for all of us to split. It shouldn’t have, but that whole excursion really wore us out, so we worked on our journals for a while and worked on our power point presentations we are to show about ourselves tomorrow and then went to bed.
Chinese Basketball and Suman Relatives in CHINA!
June 24, 2008- Tuesday
We woke up early enough this morning to go out for a jog. Ashley lead us past where Mrs. Mao lives and we went and did our normal “around the block” route. It is so interesting to be outside in the early morning like that. People are all over the place as always, but they are greeting the day in full force. Some are ridding their bikes to work, others are walking. Many of the elderly are out exercising. From what I’ve read, crowds of elderly people gather in Beijing’s parks and indulge in tai chi. Although the discipline has its origin in martial arts, for most people it is about making sure your joints don’t seize up. Some people are practicing aerobics. Others are merely walking around. Some are using wands, swords, and flags to practice movements. I think the whole point is that they are just getting out and doing something. Staying limber, so to speak. And, from what I have heard, after they do their morning exercise, they stay in the parks and hang out. It seems like a neat way to embrace life if you ask me.
Our first class for the day was Mrs. Mao’s. She talked to us about different types of Chinese art and tools used for it such as silk paper that is supposed to be able to last for up to 1000 years. She told us what different types of paintings are meant to embody and lots of art history. She also told us about the infamous Beijing Opera and tried to prepare us for what we will be seeing when we visit there later in the trip. One of Mrs. Mao’s students joined our class at the end and talked to us about what happened in China in the 1980’s like when Proctor and Gamble came to China in 1988. She said this brought many jobs to China and that many students want to work there after college.
For lunch, Ashley, Juan, Lauren, Johanna and I went to the sushi place on one of the big streets nearby. This is about the third time in my whole life that I have had sushi, but I love it. Oh the little wonders of study abroad! This particular place has a bar of seats and a conveyer belt of sushi choices that pass while you are eating. Ashley and I tried a few different types. We tried shrimp, salmon, and California rolls as well as some other sea food balls. It was really good and very inexpensive. I think we paid about $4.00 each, and for what we got, that is a sweet deal compared to American prices. We learned in class that the Chinese like to make their food really elaborate looking. A beautiful fruit dish passed by on the conveyor belt and we tried that also.
We had agricultural class that afternoon. Nia talked to us about how most farmers only graduate form middle school and only a few graduate from universities. She eluded that government investment in agriculture is not enough. She told us the Agriculture is the foundation of manufacturing and commerce. Her statement was, “Food is the God of people.” Agriculture supplies people with food and industry with raw materials. It is also a source of foreign exchange which she said is very important. Since December 2007, China has imported a lot of pork from the United States as well as other agricultural products. Ag is the employment and income of 60% of China. We learned about some history of the country like how in 1969 professors were sent to the countryside to have some “political education.” This was because in 1968 urban youth were sent to the countryside to “learn from the farmers” and therefore, there were no students to teach. They were allowed to return in 1977. In 1978-79 the rural reform began, transforming central planning to household decision making. This stimulated farmer incentives. In 1982-1983, the commune system was abolished. The commune system was where farmers worked for a union or a commune rather than their own operation. They were paid the same no matter how productive the land was so they had no incentive to work hard or any ownership in the process. This class went on for 3.5 hours before it was finally over.
After class we were to play a scheduled basketball game with some Chinese students. They provided us with five jerseys to share amongst our group and when we showed up on the outdoor court they had a score board set up with a scorers table and refs. They also brought out a office type water system. We played two twenty minute halves rotating in most of us, but Mark stayed in the whole time. We stayed right with them, but ended up losing by two points. Mark told us to play zone defense and once when we were on offense, Johanna wasn’t moving to the ball and when someone asked her about it she said, “I am playing zone defense!” We all laughed. The Chinese were really impressed when a girl would make a shot and they would basically move out of the way when a girl went up for a shot, like they were afraid to block her. They didn’t have any girls on their team until half time when Helen came out. They really cheered for her when she did well too. I guess it is not common for girls to play sports here.
When we finished basketball, DongFang told us that we had a message from our relatives, Mick and Nora Suman, who are missionaries here and we had contacted about meeting up with them. Ashley had been emailing them, and ironically they are heading to the states on Wednesday for seven weeks. They are working in a province far enough away from here (yet still in China) that they had a connecting flight in Beijing. Ashley had given them DongFang’s number and they said they would call when they got in their hotel. Since we were in basketball, DongFang told them that we wouldn’t be available for an hour or so. When she told us they had called after the basketball game was over, we rushed around and took showers. DongFang had given them our hotel room number to call, but they didn’t so we took turns waiting with her by the front desk phone as she tried to reach their hotel. Ashe was with her when they finally got a hold of them. They said we could come to their hotel and DongFang wrote down in Chinese the name of it so that we could show the taxi driver. Mick was really impressed with DongFang’s English and asked how long it would take for us to get there. DongFang said it would probably take an hour by taxi to get to the hotel they were staying at by taxi. Mick acted concerned about us coming because the area was somewhat bad and it was already 8:00 p.m., but we hurried and finished getting ready and left.
It did take about 45 minutes to get there and the taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of a street and pointed to a hotel. We thanked him even though he didn’t understand us and we didn’t’ understand him. The street reminded me of many roads, streets, and adventures we went on in the Dominican Republic. Beijing is a modern city and we have seen so much business, commerce, and modernization that I had almost forgotten what it must be like in the slums. I think that our trip to Inner Mongolia during the fifth week will expose us to more of the third world life. We walked in to the hotel he had pointed at and showed the lady at the front desk our slip of paper that said the name of the hotel in Chinese. She made a motion to go out the door and around the back of the hotel. We did just that and did the same thing at the next hotel. At first they thought we wanted a room, but luckily someone spoke some slight English and we were able to explain that we only wanted to visit some friends. As they did at the hotel where we stay, they checked our passports and eventually showed us to their room. We knocked on the door, and there they were.
We sat and talked to them for about an hour and a half which was really nice. They talked to us about their sons who are both in New York and that they were going to go visit them for a long while when they got to the United States. They also asked about our parents, grandpa, and other family members who are in the Willshire area. They told us about their experiences teaching English at a school in their providence. We asked them how they cooked/found American food in China and Nora said she has been able to do some pretty creative things. She said she makes everything from roasts to pizzas. The told us about some of the work they have been able to do, like teaching their students about Christmas and Easter in conjunction with teaching them English. They said that right now they live on the fourth floor of a high rise apartment building so they are in good shape, but next year they will move and have an elevator. They explained that in the different Chinese provinces they cook different things and that they were excited to get some Beijing Chinese food. They asked us about our program here in China and the different types of things we were doing and seeing. We even talked to them about how they met and the fact that they have been married for 37 years. They wanted us to go out on the road and get a pop, but we said that we should probably head back to campus since it was pretty late. They walked us out to the street and after waiting a while we were able to flag down a taxi driver who was willing to take us to the address we showed him on the card. We said good bye and hugged and they encouraged us to meet up with them in August when they are in Indiana
We are starting to recognize the surrounding area really well. As the taxi driver got within a short distance of campus we were able to tell him where that we needed dropped off soon. He pulled up right next McDonalds and since we hadn’t had dinner yet, we decided to have our McDonalds adventure then. We went in and I just wanted to get some French Fries and a drink. The cashier pulled out a sign that allows you to just point to what you want. I pointed to a picture of French Fries and a drink at the medium level. What I got was a pop, a smaller drink, and French fries and it cost me more than what Ashe and Jess got with their cheeseburger value meals. Mine was 19.50 yuan which is about $3.50. Oh well.
On our way back to our hotel we passed many people out and about as we always do. One particular group of people was clearly Chinese but we heard them speaking impeccable English. Before we could comment about it to each other, they had already said, “Hey guys,” and came over to us. We talked to them for quite a while. They asked us what we thought of China and we said that everyone is so nice and they said they wished the outside media depicted it that way. Two of them had studied in Canada and one in Australia so they were totally up on the language. They gave us their phone numbers and told us to call them if we had any questions. I think these people could teach us a lot and show us more of the country more easily than us listening to any teacher could.
We woke up early enough this morning to go out for a jog. Ashley lead us past where Mrs. Mao lives and we went and did our normal “around the block” route. It is so interesting to be outside in the early morning like that. People are all over the place as always, but they are greeting the day in full force. Some are ridding their bikes to work, others are walking. Many of the elderly are out exercising. From what I’ve read, crowds of elderly people gather in Beijing’s parks and indulge in tai chi. Although the discipline has its origin in martial arts, for most people it is about making sure your joints don’t seize up. Some people are practicing aerobics. Others are merely walking around. Some are using wands, swords, and flags to practice movements. I think the whole point is that they are just getting out and doing something. Staying limber, so to speak. And, from what I have heard, after they do their morning exercise, they stay in the parks and hang out. It seems like a neat way to embrace life if you ask me.
Our first class for the day was Mrs. Mao’s. She talked to us about different types of Chinese art and tools used for it such as silk paper that is supposed to be able to last for up to 1000 years. She told us what different types of paintings are meant to embody and lots of art history. She also told us about the infamous Beijing Opera and tried to prepare us for what we will be seeing when we visit there later in the trip. One of Mrs. Mao’s students joined our class at the end and talked to us about what happened in China in the 1980’s like when Proctor and Gamble came to China in 1988. She said this brought many jobs to China and that many students want to work there after college.
For lunch, Ashley, Juan, Lauren, Johanna and I went to the sushi place on one of the big streets nearby. This is about the third time in my whole life that I have had sushi, but I love it. Oh the little wonders of study abroad! This particular place has a bar of seats and a conveyer belt of sushi choices that pass while you are eating. Ashley and I tried a few different types. We tried shrimp, salmon, and California rolls as well as some other sea food balls. It was really good and very inexpensive. I think we paid about $4.00 each, and for what we got, that is a sweet deal compared to American prices. We learned in class that the Chinese like to make their food really elaborate looking. A beautiful fruit dish passed by on the conveyor belt and we tried that also.
We had agricultural class that afternoon. Nia talked to us about how most farmers only graduate form middle school and only a few graduate from universities. She eluded that government investment in agriculture is not enough. She told us the Agriculture is the foundation of manufacturing and commerce. Her statement was, “Food is the God of people.” Agriculture supplies people with food and industry with raw materials. It is also a source of foreign exchange which she said is very important. Since December 2007, China has imported a lot of pork from the United States as well as other agricultural products. Ag is the employment and income of 60% of China. We learned about some history of the country like how in 1969 professors were sent to the countryside to have some “political education.” This was because in 1968 urban youth were sent to the countryside to “learn from the farmers” and therefore, there were no students to teach. They were allowed to return in 1977. In 1978-79 the rural reform began, transforming central planning to household decision making. This stimulated farmer incentives. In 1982-1983, the commune system was abolished. The commune system was where farmers worked for a union or a commune rather than their own operation. They were paid the same no matter how productive the land was so they had no incentive to work hard or any ownership in the process. This class went on for 3.5 hours before it was finally over.
After class we were to play a scheduled basketball game with some Chinese students. They provided us with five jerseys to share amongst our group and when we showed up on the outdoor court they had a score board set up with a scorers table and refs. They also brought out a office type water system. We played two twenty minute halves rotating in most of us, but Mark stayed in the whole time. We stayed right with them, but ended up losing by two points. Mark told us to play zone defense and once when we were on offense, Johanna wasn’t moving to the ball and when someone asked her about it she said, “I am playing zone defense!” We all laughed. The Chinese were really impressed when a girl would make a shot and they would basically move out of the way when a girl went up for a shot, like they were afraid to block her. They didn’t have any girls on their team until half time when Helen came out. They really cheered for her when she did well too. I guess it is not common for girls to play sports here.
When we finished basketball, DongFang told us that we had a message from our relatives, Mick and Nora Suman, who are missionaries here and we had contacted about meeting up with them. Ashley had been emailing them, and ironically they are heading to the states on Wednesday for seven weeks. They are working in a province far enough away from here (yet still in China) that they had a connecting flight in Beijing. Ashley had given them DongFang’s number and they said they would call when they got in their hotel. Since we were in basketball, DongFang told them that we wouldn’t be available for an hour or so. When she told us they had called after the basketball game was over, we rushed around and took showers. DongFang had given them our hotel room number to call, but they didn’t so we took turns waiting with her by the front desk phone as she tried to reach their hotel. Ashe was with her when they finally got a hold of them. They said we could come to their hotel and DongFang wrote down in Chinese the name of it so that we could show the taxi driver. Mick was really impressed with DongFang’s English and asked how long it would take for us to get there. DongFang said it would probably take an hour by taxi to get to the hotel they were staying at by taxi. Mick acted concerned about us coming because the area was somewhat bad and it was already 8:00 p.m., but we hurried and finished getting ready and left.
It did take about 45 minutes to get there and the taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of a street and pointed to a hotel. We thanked him even though he didn’t understand us and we didn’t’ understand him. The street reminded me of many roads, streets, and adventures we went on in the Dominican Republic. Beijing is a modern city and we have seen so much business, commerce, and modernization that I had almost forgotten what it must be like in the slums. I think that our trip to Inner Mongolia during the fifth week will expose us to more of the third world life. We walked in to the hotel he had pointed at and showed the lady at the front desk our slip of paper that said the name of the hotel in Chinese. She made a motion to go out the door and around the back of the hotel. We did just that and did the same thing at the next hotel. At first they thought we wanted a room, but luckily someone spoke some slight English and we were able to explain that we only wanted to visit some friends. As they did at the hotel where we stay, they checked our passports and eventually showed us to their room. We knocked on the door, and there they were.
We sat and talked to them for about an hour and a half which was really nice. They talked to us about their sons who are both in New York and that they were going to go visit them for a long while when they got to the United States. They also asked about our parents, grandpa, and other family members who are in the Willshire area. They told us about their experiences teaching English at a school in their providence. We asked them how they cooked/found American food in China and Nora said she has been able to do some pretty creative things. She said she makes everything from roasts to pizzas. The told us about some of the work they have been able to do, like teaching their students about Christmas and Easter in conjunction with teaching them English. They said that right now they live on the fourth floor of a high rise apartment building so they are in good shape, but next year they will move and have an elevator. They explained that in the different Chinese provinces they cook different things and that they were excited to get some Beijing Chinese food. They asked us about our program here in China and the different types of things we were doing and seeing. We even talked to them about how they met and the fact that they have been married for 37 years. They wanted us to go out on the road and get a pop, but we said that we should probably head back to campus since it was pretty late. They walked us out to the street and after waiting a while we were able to flag down a taxi driver who was willing to take us to the address we showed him on the card. We said good bye and hugged and they encouraged us to meet up with them in August when they are in Indiana
We are starting to recognize the surrounding area really well. As the taxi driver got within a short distance of campus we were able to tell him where that we needed dropped off soon. He pulled up right next McDonalds and since we hadn’t had dinner yet, we decided to have our McDonalds adventure then. We went in and I just wanted to get some French Fries and a drink. The cashier pulled out a sign that allows you to just point to what you want. I pointed to a picture of French Fries and a drink at the medium level. What I got was a pop, a smaller drink, and French fries and it cost me more than what Ashe and Jess got with their cheeseburger value meals. Mine was 19.50 yuan which is about $3.50. Oh well.
On our way back to our hotel we passed many people out and about as we always do. One particular group of people was clearly Chinese but we heard them speaking impeccable English. Before we could comment about it to each other, they had already said, “Hey guys,” and came over to us. We talked to them for quite a while. They asked us what we thought of China and we said that everyone is so nice and they said they wished the outside media depicted it that way. Two of them had studied in Canada and one in Australia so they were totally up on the language. They gave us their phone numbers and told us to call them if we had any questions. I think these people could teach us a lot and show us more of the country more easily than us listening to any teacher could.
Bargaining at the Market and a Long Taxi Ride
June 23, 2008- Monday
There is something to be said about the pollution levels in this city. Beijing is huge, 13 million people, and there is so much pollution as a result. Most days, we do not see the sun because there is too much pollution filling the air. On a real humid day, walking outside makes one feel like a layer of grunge is resting on them. There are often odd smells coming from buildings. We think this is either trash or food, not pollution, but it just adds to the effect. Jess, Ashley, and I have been trying to exercise, even just for a little while, in the mornings. We noticed on Sunday that our chests were starting to hurt and we felt short of breath while doing just normal breathing. We thought that it may be from the heavy breathing we do while jogging- sucking in that dirty air, but we asked the rest of the group and they are experiencing the same thing without the running. We did go for a bus ride that day, where we all rode in the top part of a double-decker bus with all the windows open. I do not know if the air moving quickly through that bus contributed to the breathing issues we were feeling, but it definitely could be. I look forward to going into the countryside in a couple of weeks when we head to Inner Mongolia, a province of its own, but still part of China. Someone equated it to what Puerto Rico is to us.
Our only class for the day was with Mrs. Mao and she taught us about the historical great man, Chairman Mao and what he did for China when on October 1, 1949 when he declared the People’s Republic of China. She also explained to us a reform that occurred for farmers in 1978. From 1958 until 1976 the land was owned by the People’s Commune, a union that the farmers worked for. They got the same pay no matter how hard they worked. Many read the newspaper all day and didn’t care about the production. Since the production was so minimal, the union could only afford to pay the people a small wage. In 78’ the land was divided for rent amount the farmer’s and it is owned by the state. Farmers are only allowed to have a certain amount and they are all equal. The size depends on the number determined by the state. Of course, since they do not own the land, the cannot sell it to others, but they are able to sell whatever they produce off the land. For this reason, they have more interest in production efficiency and earning as much money as possible. They are far better off than they were before, working for the union.
She also explained how young farmer’s do not work in the countryside anymore, they come to the city to find construction work. She also explained that city kids are required by their school to go to the farm for 1 week and see what it is like to work on the farm. She mentioned that they have agro tourism here too. People can go and pick vegetables and fruits from a farm and it is fun for them.
After our three hour class with Mrs. Mao was over, some of us headed to the restaurant in the hotel that we call the Blackwell to eat. It is one of the three places where we can use our meal plan so we wanted to try to use some of it. We ordered sweet and sour pork to share, snow peas, a potato and sweet potato dish we had had before, and sweet rice. The sweet rice was way too sweet. It tasted and looked like it had a thick layer of sticky liquid sugar on top of white rice.
We had the rest of the afternoon off so we decided to take advantage of our time. One thing Beijing is famous for is the Silk Market. It is a place where you can buy all kids of inexpensive (fake) designer purses, silk, and other souvenirs. We wanted to go there. We asked DongFang to write down in Chinese the silk market and mark it on our maps so that we could show the taxi driver. Finally, after everyone decided if they were going and how many cars we would need to take, we headed downstairs to split up. A taxi came, and in the pouring down rain, Mark, Ashe, Jess, and I climbed in. I showed the taxi driver the slip of paper and the map, and without either of us saying anything since we couldn’t speak each other’s languages, we were off. We rode for about forty minutes or longer until he dropped us off. Our plan was to meet up with the rest of the group at the entrance at a designated time. Well, that didn’t work out. We walked around the building that he dropped us off at and all of the above ground floors had clothes, fur coats, and shoes in very small rooms with curtains as doors that you had to open to see what was inside. It was extremely odd. We walked into one shoe shop and tried to tell the guy that we wanted the other shoe since only one was on display and we think he told us that he only sells one shoe. It was crazy. There had to have been some miscommunication. In the basement they sold a modge-podge of stuff.- all kinds of jewelry, purses, electronics, and other stuff. You are supposed to bargain with the people on the price you want to pay. I found a purse that I wanted to buy so I asked the saleslady how much and she said “180 yaun” which is about $25.00. Ashley was whispering in my ear, “say $20.00.” So I said 20. The lady EXPLODED! She said “20 is no good price.” Ashley, Jessica, and I started laughing. Then she really got mad. She said, “it is no joke,” and ripped it out of my hands. We scurried out of there.
We walked into another building which was full of shoes. At this point we were pretty much frustrated because we were clearly in the wrong place. We never found the rest of the group. We walked down a couple of side streets, looking for where we were supposed to be but all we found were shop after shop of fur coats and some small sport shops mixed in. We milled around for a while and finally decided to get a taxi and go home. We road through horrendous traffic clear back to campus, and were pretty proud of ourselves for making out and back without any Chinese. It cost 100 yuan for the trip there and back which is about four dollars each.
Back at the hotel, we decided to eat at the Blackwell again and got almost the same meal that we had for lunch except we had some completely vegetable spring roll type things dipped in balsamic vinegar instead of snow peas and some chicken that tasted like KFC dipped in some sort of sauce. Before going to bed, I made use of my phone card on Melissa’s cell phone to call Seth and played cards.
There is something to be said about the pollution levels in this city. Beijing is huge, 13 million people, and there is so much pollution as a result. Most days, we do not see the sun because there is too much pollution filling the air. On a real humid day, walking outside makes one feel like a layer of grunge is resting on them. There are often odd smells coming from buildings. We think this is either trash or food, not pollution, but it just adds to the effect. Jess, Ashley, and I have been trying to exercise, even just for a little while, in the mornings. We noticed on Sunday that our chests were starting to hurt and we felt short of breath while doing just normal breathing. We thought that it may be from the heavy breathing we do while jogging- sucking in that dirty air, but we asked the rest of the group and they are experiencing the same thing without the running. We did go for a bus ride that day, where we all rode in the top part of a double-decker bus with all the windows open. I do not know if the air moving quickly through that bus contributed to the breathing issues we were feeling, but it definitely could be. I look forward to going into the countryside in a couple of weeks when we head to Inner Mongolia, a province of its own, but still part of China. Someone equated it to what Puerto Rico is to us.
Our only class for the day was with Mrs. Mao and she taught us about the historical great man, Chairman Mao and what he did for China when on October 1, 1949 when he declared the People’s Republic of China. She also explained to us a reform that occurred for farmers in 1978. From 1958 until 1976 the land was owned by the People’s Commune, a union that the farmers worked for. They got the same pay no matter how hard they worked. Many read the newspaper all day and didn’t care about the production. Since the production was so minimal, the union could only afford to pay the people a small wage. In 78’ the land was divided for rent amount the farmer’s and it is owned by the state. Farmers are only allowed to have a certain amount and they are all equal. The size depends on the number determined by the state. Of course, since they do not own the land, the cannot sell it to others, but they are able to sell whatever they produce off the land. For this reason, they have more interest in production efficiency and earning as much money as possible. They are far better off than they were before, working for the union.
She also explained how young farmer’s do not work in the countryside anymore, they come to the city to find construction work. She also explained that city kids are required by their school to go to the farm for 1 week and see what it is like to work on the farm. She mentioned that they have agro tourism here too. People can go and pick vegetables and fruits from a farm and it is fun for them.
After our three hour class with Mrs. Mao was over, some of us headed to the restaurant in the hotel that we call the Blackwell to eat. It is one of the three places where we can use our meal plan so we wanted to try to use some of it. We ordered sweet and sour pork to share, snow peas, a potato and sweet potato dish we had had before, and sweet rice. The sweet rice was way too sweet. It tasted and looked like it had a thick layer of sticky liquid sugar on top of white rice.
We had the rest of the afternoon off so we decided to take advantage of our time. One thing Beijing is famous for is the Silk Market. It is a place where you can buy all kids of inexpensive (fake) designer purses, silk, and other souvenirs. We wanted to go there. We asked DongFang to write down in Chinese the silk market and mark it on our maps so that we could show the taxi driver. Finally, after everyone decided if they were going and how many cars we would need to take, we headed downstairs to split up. A taxi came, and in the pouring down rain, Mark, Ashe, Jess, and I climbed in. I showed the taxi driver the slip of paper and the map, and without either of us saying anything since we couldn’t speak each other’s languages, we were off. We rode for about forty minutes or longer until he dropped us off. Our plan was to meet up with the rest of the group at the entrance at a designated time. Well, that didn’t work out. We walked around the building that he dropped us off at and all of the above ground floors had clothes, fur coats, and shoes in very small rooms with curtains as doors that you had to open to see what was inside. It was extremely odd. We walked into one shoe shop and tried to tell the guy that we wanted the other shoe since only one was on display and we think he told us that he only sells one shoe. It was crazy. There had to have been some miscommunication. In the basement they sold a modge-podge of stuff.- all kinds of jewelry, purses, electronics, and other stuff. You are supposed to bargain with the people on the price you want to pay. I found a purse that I wanted to buy so I asked the saleslady how much and she said “180 yaun” which is about $25.00. Ashley was whispering in my ear, “say $20.00.” So I said 20. The lady EXPLODED! She said “20 is no good price.” Ashley, Jessica, and I started laughing. Then she really got mad. She said, “it is no joke,” and ripped it out of my hands. We scurried out of there.
We walked into another building which was full of shoes. At this point we were pretty much frustrated because we were clearly in the wrong place. We never found the rest of the group. We walked down a couple of side streets, looking for where we were supposed to be but all we found were shop after shop of fur coats and some small sport shops mixed in. We milled around for a while and finally decided to get a taxi and go home. We road through horrendous traffic clear back to campus, and were pretty proud of ourselves for making out and back without any Chinese. It cost 100 yuan for the trip there and back which is about four dollars each.
Back at the hotel, we decided to eat at the Blackwell again and got almost the same meal that we had for lunch except we had some completely vegetable spring roll type things dipped in balsamic vinegar instead of snow peas and some chicken that tasted like KFC dipped in some sort of sauce. Before going to bed, I made use of my phone card on Melissa’s cell phone to call Seth and played cards.
The Places You'd See on the Travel Channel
June 22, 2008- Sunday
Today we had a field trip to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, two major icons of China and Beijing. This is basically the historical and governmental focal point of the country; much like Washington D.C. is to America. We traveled with the Chinese grad students to the area. First we walked over to the busy street nearby, used the walking overpass, and waited for a bus. We could tell then that it was going to be quite the adventure and that it was going to be one of the hottest days we’d ever experienced. It was partly smoggy, but the sun was still beating through the smog. After several other buses pulled up to the stop and pulled away, the correct one came and the Chinese grad students told us to get on. This was a double-decker bus so we climbed the stairs to the top floor. I sat with a Chinese grad student in the front pair of seats. The windows were open on the bus so the air was moving through, but it was thick, hot, and muggy air.
After about a half an hour or more of driving through the city, we arrived at Tiananmen Square and hopped off the bus. Although there were still people piling off the bus, the bus driver must not have noticed because he started to drive away. We got him stopped, got off, and the grad students led us to an underground tunnel to cross the street. We arrived to the other side of the street and started to look at the magnificent buildings. There were people all over the place. It was so crowded. Lots of Chinese women walked around with umbrellas, shielding themselves from the sun. We had split up into small groups so the Chinese students only had to keep track of a few of us. Paige and I were matched with two guide who we quickly figured out were boyfriend and girlfriend. The girl had an umbrella and started to use it and wanted me to stand under it and I said that I didn’t need it and that I liked the sun. Looking back, I feel bad because her boyfriend told her to put it away and I feel like she really wanted to use it. I think that as Americans we should try to do what they do as they work so diligently to welcome us to their city.
We walked and looked at several buildings. People from all over the world were there. The Chinese students kept offering to take our picture in front of building after building, they did this all day. We saw a big electronic countdown to the Olympics. We saw their Chinese national museum, the building where Mao was preserved and on display, their equivalency of the capitol building, and much more. We walked through a tunnel under another street to see the Forbidden City. According to my travel book, Tian’an Men Guangchang (the Square of the Gate of Heavenly Peace) is the place of Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum and the bloody climax of 1989’s pro-democracy demonstrations. Chairman Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 from the massive Ming-dynasty gate, where his portrait still hangs. Mao is encased in a crystal casket and raised from his refrigerator for twice-daily public viewings. There is a flag there that is raised each day at dawn and lowers again at sunset. There is a monument to fallen soldiers also. Our guides told us that it was like a “Tomb of the Unknown,” but the guide book doesn’t mention that.
After walking all around the square, we headed to the Forbidden City. We got pictures under Mao’s head milled around outside for a while and then walked in. There was building after building full of intricate detail. This complex is a grand monument o the 24 emperors who rule from its halls over a period of almost 500 years. The symbolic center of the Chinese universe, the place was the exclusive domain of the imperial court from its completion in 1420 until the last of the emperors was force to abdicate at the beginning of the 20th century. The modern world intruded in 1949, when the public were finally admitted through the palace gates. Just inside the first part, we had to get in line to buy entry tickets. They cost us 60 yuan which is about $10.00. I felt bad for the Chinese grad students who had to pay to get in also, and before we came we were informed that they make about $30.00 per month. It worked out a little better though because they had student ID’s so they were able to get in at a discounted rate. Still, this was even a big deal to our guides to come there as one of them had never been there before.
We walked through building after building and courtyard after courtyard taking in this empire. It is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. We have been told many times that the Forbidden City should be at the top of ones to do list for Beijing. This walled compound in the was once the impenetrable heart of the empire. It was once so separated from mortals that those who worked there were rarely permitted to leave. Within the Forbidden City there are 980 buildings and over 9000 rooms. It was huge. It seemed like a person could spend several days there. It was extremely hot that day, so after a few hours we were worn out and sweaty. We wanted to go home. The guides could have stayed all day. He even told me that he plays basketball for two hours a day and so he is in healthy shape. There are many museums within the building such as clocks, ceramics, copper, and other items that were in the city when it was in use. We looked at rooms and houses of the many wives of the emperor. There was a gigantic courtyard said to hold 100,000 people in imperial times.
Eventually we decided to “have a rest” as the Chinese say it. We ran into Rob, Mark, and Deryck nearby and sat with them and their leaders. Their leaders brought them some crackers with lemon filling; the boys must not have got the memo to bring your own snacks. I had brought a six pack of peanut butter crackers and I ate that, but it was so hot, I hardly felt like eating. My leaders brought green tea to drink and got out a famous Chinese food called, “Thousand Year Old Eggs.” These are raw duck eggs that have been put into mud, chalk, and ammonia and left, not for a thousand years, but for more like two weeks. When retrieved the egg is hard boil and the white has turned to greenish black. Mind you, they were carrying this around in a plastic grocery bag in 95 degree heat. When they offered it to me, I politely declined. I felt bad for not trying it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it in that kind of heat. We walked over to a small shop and we Americans bought bottles of water to drink. Later when we were walking, with sweat pouring down our backs, the girl leader got in their bag and got out a bag of liquid that had a screw top opening. She opening it and started drinking it. There was a picture of a cow on the side of it and I asked if it was milk and she confirmed that it was. Not only did she eat those oddly hard boiled eggs in the heat, but she drank milk that had been in that grocery bag and outside for over six hours. Later, we sat down again and they offered Paige and I a slice of bread. I did not want any just because it was almost too hot to eat outside, but looking back I feel bad for not taking one. I didn’t want to act like their food was not good enough for me, I just didn’t want any.
After a while more of milling around the Forbidden City, we headed out of the area and walked a short distance to the subway. We paid two yuan for a subway ticket which is about 30 cents. I had been warned that the subway would be crowded and that it would be important to watch your stuff while in there. We watched as one subway pulled up and just like you may have seen on the news, people pushed others into the car to get more in. Luckily, that was not the line we wanted. We got on the correct car, and although it was crowded, it wasn’t wall to wall people. I held my bag tightly over my shoulder and under my arm. After changing cars, we finally arrived at where we were to exit and find a bus. When we got above ground, we walked for a while before we found the bus stop we were supposed to be at. We were walking toward to bus stop when the bus we needed passed by. Our leader told us we needed to run so we ran to catch the bus, paid our 15 cent fare, and after a couple of stops, found a seat. We rode the bus for about five minutes before it dropped us off right near our campus.
While walking into the campus, Paige spotted a man wearing a Franklin Graham Crusade shirt. She asked him about it and asked him if there are any churches around here. He told her of a couple, so maybe we will go there sometimes. Walking away, our Chinese leaders asked us if church was free. Whoa! What an open door to tell about our religion. I asked the girl if she had any religious beliefs and she laughed and said no. I said that we believed in Jesus and that he died for us. She still kind of giggled. I wonder how people who are missionaries really reach out to these people. I can completely understand why they have English tutor schools to develop a relationship with them before a person could witness to them. Upon arrival at our hotel, we thanked them graciously for everything they did for us and headed up to our rooms.
We found that some people were already back and others were still out and about. People took showers and then we headed on a quest to find some pizza. We were going to go to Pizza Hut, but Dominos came first, so we ate there. They only served coke so we got that and four pepperoni pizzas. It tasted just like home, if not better. After dinner, I came back and took a shower. Our water heater, which is right in our room with us, wasn’t working, but it is back in action now. I then did a load of laundry. I’ll tell about the laundry system later, but it is something for you to look forward to. After a couple hours, we went back out and got ice cream at Dairy Queen. Yep, they have DQ here. Everyone was looking forward to a blizzard, but it turned out they only had a couple of kinds so some people got sundaes.
Today we had a field trip to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, two major icons of China and Beijing. This is basically the historical and governmental focal point of the country; much like Washington D.C. is to America. We traveled with the Chinese grad students to the area. First we walked over to the busy street nearby, used the walking overpass, and waited for a bus. We could tell then that it was going to be quite the adventure and that it was going to be one of the hottest days we’d ever experienced. It was partly smoggy, but the sun was still beating through the smog. After several other buses pulled up to the stop and pulled away, the correct one came and the Chinese grad students told us to get on. This was a double-decker bus so we climbed the stairs to the top floor. I sat with a Chinese grad student in the front pair of seats. The windows were open on the bus so the air was moving through, but it was thick, hot, and muggy air.
After about a half an hour or more of driving through the city, we arrived at Tiananmen Square and hopped off the bus. Although there were still people piling off the bus, the bus driver must not have noticed because he started to drive away. We got him stopped, got off, and the grad students led us to an underground tunnel to cross the street. We arrived to the other side of the street and started to look at the magnificent buildings. There were people all over the place. It was so crowded. Lots of Chinese women walked around with umbrellas, shielding themselves from the sun. We had split up into small groups so the Chinese students only had to keep track of a few of us. Paige and I were matched with two guide who we quickly figured out were boyfriend and girlfriend. The girl had an umbrella and started to use it and wanted me to stand under it and I said that I didn’t need it and that I liked the sun. Looking back, I feel bad because her boyfriend told her to put it away and I feel like she really wanted to use it. I think that as Americans we should try to do what they do as they work so diligently to welcome us to their city.
We walked and looked at several buildings. People from all over the world were there. The Chinese students kept offering to take our picture in front of building after building, they did this all day. We saw a big electronic countdown to the Olympics. We saw their Chinese national museum, the building where Mao was preserved and on display, their equivalency of the capitol building, and much more. We walked through a tunnel under another street to see the Forbidden City. According to my travel book, Tian’an Men Guangchang (the Square of the Gate of Heavenly Peace) is the place of Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum and the bloody climax of 1989’s pro-democracy demonstrations. Chairman Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 from the massive Ming-dynasty gate, where his portrait still hangs. Mao is encased in a crystal casket and raised from his refrigerator for twice-daily public viewings. There is a flag there that is raised each day at dawn and lowers again at sunset. There is a monument to fallen soldiers also. Our guides told us that it was like a “Tomb of the Unknown,” but the guide book doesn’t mention that.
After walking all around the square, we headed to the Forbidden City. We got pictures under Mao’s head milled around outside for a while and then walked in. There was building after building full of intricate detail. This complex is a grand monument o the 24 emperors who rule from its halls over a period of almost 500 years. The symbolic center of the Chinese universe, the place was the exclusive domain of the imperial court from its completion in 1420 until the last of the emperors was force to abdicate at the beginning of the 20th century. The modern world intruded in 1949, when the public were finally admitted through the palace gates. Just inside the first part, we had to get in line to buy entry tickets. They cost us 60 yuan which is about $10.00. I felt bad for the Chinese grad students who had to pay to get in also, and before we came we were informed that they make about $30.00 per month. It worked out a little better though because they had student ID’s so they were able to get in at a discounted rate. Still, this was even a big deal to our guides to come there as one of them had never been there before.
We walked through building after building and courtyard after courtyard taking in this empire. It is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. We have been told many times that the Forbidden City should be at the top of ones to do list for Beijing. This walled compound in the was once the impenetrable heart of the empire. It was once so separated from mortals that those who worked there were rarely permitted to leave. Within the Forbidden City there are 980 buildings and over 9000 rooms. It was huge. It seemed like a person could spend several days there. It was extremely hot that day, so after a few hours we were worn out and sweaty. We wanted to go home. The guides could have stayed all day. He even told me that he plays basketball for two hours a day and so he is in healthy shape. There are many museums within the building such as clocks, ceramics, copper, and other items that were in the city when it was in use. We looked at rooms and houses of the many wives of the emperor. There was a gigantic courtyard said to hold 100,000 people in imperial times.
Eventually we decided to “have a rest” as the Chinese say it. We ran into Rob, Mark, and Deryck nearby and sat with them and their leaders. Their leaders brought them some crackers with lemon filling; the boys must not have got the memo to bring your own snacks. I had brought a six pack of peanut butter crackers and I ate that, but it was so hot, I hardly felt like eating. My leaders brought green tea to drink and got out a famous Chinese food called, “Thousand Year Old Eggs.” These are raw duck eggs that have been put into mud, chalk, and ammonia and left, not for a thousand years, but for more like two weeks. When retrieved the egg is hard boil and the white has turned to greenish black. Mind you, they were carrying this around in a plastic grocery bag in 95 degree heat. When they offered it to me, I politely declined. I felt bad for not trying it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it in that kind of heat. We walked over to a small shop and we Americans bought bottles of water to drink. Later when we were walking, with sweat pouring down our backs, the girl leader got in their bag and got out a bag of liquid that had a screw top opening. She opening it and started drinking it. There was a picture of a cow on the side of it and I asked if it was milk and she confirmed that it was. Not only did she eat those oddly hard boiled eggs in the heat, but she drank milk that had been in that grocery bag and outside for over six hours. Later, we sat down again and they offered Paige and I a slice of bread. I did not want any just because it was almost too hot to eat outside, but looking back I feel bad for not taking one. I didn’t want to act like their food was not good enough for me, I just didn’t want any.
After a while more of milling around the Forbidden City, we headed out of the area and walked a short distance to the subway. We paid two yuan for a subway ticket which is about 30 cents. I had been warned that the subway would be crowded and that it would be important to watch your stuff while in there. We watched as one subway pulled up and just like you may have seen on the news, people pushed others into the car to get more in. Luckily, that was not the line we wanted. We got on the correct car, and although it was crowded, it wasn’t wall to wall people. I held my bag tightly over my shoulder and under my arm. After changing cars, we finally arrived at where we were to exit and find a bus. When we got above ground, we walked for a while before we found the bus stop we were supposed to be at. We were walking toward to bus stop when the bus we needed passed by. Our leader told us we needed to run so we ran to catch the bus, paid our 15 cent fare, and after a couple of stops, found a seat. We rode the bus for about five minutes before it dropped us off right near our campus.
While walking into the campus, Paige spotted a man wearing a Franklin Graham Crusade shirt. She asked him about it and asked him if there are any churches around here. He told her of a couple, so maybe we will go there sometimes. Walking away, our Chinese leaders asked us if church was free. Whoa! What an open door to tell about our religion. I asked the girl if she had any religious beliefs and she laughed and said no. I said that we believed in Jesus and that he died for us. She still kind of giggled. I wonder how people who are missionaries really reach out to these people. I can completely understand why they have English tutor schools to develop a relationship with them before a person could witness to them. Upon arrival at our hotel, we thanked them graciously for everything they did for us and headed up to our rooms.
We found that some people were already back and others were still out and about. People took showers and then we headed on a quest to find some pizza. We were going to go to Pizza Hut, but Dominos came first, so we ate there. They only served coke so we got that and four pepperoni pizzas. It tasted just like home, if not better. After dinner, I came back and took a shower. Our water heater, which is right in our room with us, wasn’t working, but it is back in action now. I then did a load of laundry. I’ll tell about the laundry system later, but it is something for you to look forward to. After a couple hours, we went back out and got ice cream at Dairy Queen. Yep, they have DQ here. Everyone was looking forward to a blizzard, but it turned out they only had a couple of kinds so some people got sundaes.
"One World. One Dream." Beijing Olympic Theme 2008
June 21, 2008 – Saturday
We didn’t have to be ready to go on our fieldtrip until 10:00 a.m., so at 8:00 a.m. Jessica and I went for a short jog. The first thing we noticed when we came outside was that it was sunny!!!! This is something we have not seen since we arrived here. There is so much smog. Sometimes it is down to the level of our seven story building. It almost always completely blocks the sun. Since today is a Saturday, most of the manufacturing places are not operating and of course not near as many of the cars are on the road creating the dirty smog. I would say maybe we ran two miles. It felt so good to be in the sunshine.
Our water heater, which is right inside our room, seems to be broken. Dang nab it. We are operating with really cold showers. I can’t complain though, as I have mentioned before the place where we are staying is more accommodating than the Dominican. I will forever love the dorms at ISA in the Dominican and would enjoy staying there again if ever given the chance.
We were to meet the guy who was going to take us to the Olympic baseball field at 10:00 a.m. There must have been some miscommunication, because our guide, Jeff, who was an American did not think he was going to be talking us to see and have a tour of a baseball field. The miscommunication turned out to be EXTREAMLY positive, because he took us all over the city and showed us most of the Olympic venues! We didn’t get to go inside any of them but we saw the outside of LOTS of them. We were gone from the university for two and a half hours while on the tour.
Let me give you the play by play. First, he told us some history about himself and how he got in this position. He is on the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad within the Beijing Olympic Media Center. He is the only native English speaking person in his office. He has been living in China for the past nine years and has been a sportscaster for several Olympiads. He is a writer and worked for two presidential campaigns right out of college. He explained that 7000 writers will be coming to cover the Olympics and he is in charge of them. His perception of everything that is happening here and knowledge of the Olympics was impeccable. We are SO lucky to have had him give us a tour. He was pretty rude to DongFong when she didn’t give good enough direction to the bus driver in appropriate times on the pretty busy roads and he was pretty arrogant about his credentials, but he knew so many interesting details about the Olympics.
He explained to us their process for controlling the pollution before the whole world converges on this city. The Olympics start on August 8 and he said that all of the construction must be done by July 20. He repeated several times that it will be completed by July 20. He said it will be finished or covered. Starting on July 20th and until the Olympics are over, half the cars will be removed from the roads as they can only be driven the days of the last digit of their license plate, either odd or even. Also, heavy trucks will not be allowed to be driven at night. Also, there will be an Olympic driving lane on the freeways and if you do not have a pass and drive in those lanes your car will be impounded. The pollution here is outrageous, and it has to be minimized a great deal before all of those people come. He said that 13 million people live here and the city is growing by 11% a year. With all those people, they are making a huge ecological foot print. He answered a question that I have had for quite some time, telling us that wherever there is a big crane in the middle of the road, that is a where is a subway is being built. He told us about how the city of Beijing has matured since they lost the Olympic Bid to Sydney, Australia by 2 votes in 2000. Somewhere in his very informative rambling, he told us that there is a subway that was built to go all they way to the mountains so that people could escape a nuclear bomb from the Russians. Now the city is so built up that the subway comes in to good use. Although he is an American, he is a strong advocate for China and Beijing. He said that Beijing will not stop becoming better after the Olympics. The Chinese believe that this is their century. He told us that they are having double-decker buses come in on freight cars to handle the multitudes of people that will be all over the city.
Jeff explained to us since most of the local Chinese people are too poor to pay for a ticket to an Olympic game, they are building “Cultural Corners.” These festival areas of sort will be areas filled with fun stuff for the local people to do and widescreen TVs showing the Olympics with Chinese subtitles. Ever since we saw the world of China outside of the airport, we have noticed tons of trees, supported by enormous teepee braces. I asked him about this and he said they have planted trees all over, including a forest the size of central park to make the place cleaner and greener.
The first venue we went to was the baseball diamond which was built right next to the basketball arena. This was the only venue we thought we were going to see. Boy, were we wrong. He said that it is just a temporary field and it as well as the softball diamond will be demolished and have an entertainment, shopping, and hotel complex built on it to support basketball. Next year, China will have it’s own NBA. Also, this is the last year the softball and baseball will be part of the Olympics as it has been voted out. We parked the bus and Jeff told us to just act like we knew what we were doing despite the fact that we did not have Olympic badges. I thought to myself, “This is what study abroad is all about.” We walked down a dirt road path through all kinds of construction to an open field area where they were driving bulldozers and construction equipment around without hard hats or safety glasses. From this area we could see the baseball and softball diamonds and the basketball arena in the background.
Jeff explained that the people working to build the fields and the surrounding areas were migrant workers who worked for a company hired by the Olympic Committee. He said there are 100,000 migrant workers working in preparation for the Olympics right now. We have seen them all over. They are planting flowers in the medians and cutting grass in the what little side ditches there are as well as building venues all over the city. The company provides temporary housing for these people and they get paid the equivalency of $20.00 per day. They have people working around the clock and as with everything else in this city, business does not stop on Saturday and Sunday. The people come from all over the country and when they are not preparing for the Olympics they are building dams and stuff like that. The baseball stadium will seat 12,000 people. The outside of basketball arena has been sprayed with a chemical to cool it form the outside in. He said it is also currently on lock down and no one will be allowed in until it is checked by dogs. That was when we were walking back down the path to the bus. He said, “We are here illegally because we look official.” Melissa, our advisor from Ohio State, corresponded with a man named Murray who I think is an alumni of our turf department to make this day happen. In fact, we thought that it was going to be Murray that was giving us this tour and were going to see only the baseball stadium that he worked on. We were definitely pleasantly surprised.
Not all of the Olympic venues are in Beijing although it is the major host city and everything says, “Beijing 2008” on it. There are many co-host cities for specific events. For example, a lot of the water events are in cities near to the water. I am not exactly sure of Jeff’s explanation, but he said that a Chinese person actually owns the Olympic buildings and they are only the property of the Olympics during the games. Afterward, they will be in the hands of the Chinese. Tiananmen Square is a major focal point of the city and country much like our Washington D.C. and there were originally thoughts of having the sand volleyball tournament in this area. The decided against it, but it would have made one heck of a location for TV viewers to admire. We looked at the “Water Cube” which is where many of the swimming and diving events will occur. It is a rectangular building that looks like a bunch of big bubbles. The bubbles are made of plastic and the cube has a moat around it so that no one can just walk up to it and bust the plastic. It is going to be made into an indoor water park at the completion of the trip. The glass (plastic) looks like a sky blue most of the time, but can be turned into any color and is a deep blue at night. He said that at night they can play movies on it. There is going to be a piece of the walls at certain locations throughout the city so people can walk up and touch it and see what it feels like.
Along our tour there were several shack type buildings that Jeff said was temporary housing for the migrant workers. He also showed us temples from the Tang Dynasty that will be remolded in time for Olympic visitors to tour. He pointed out to us the media building, the electronics for computers and various other electronics storage and repair, the new science and technology museum that is right nearby, and the Olympic green. Also, every Olympiad city has to produce a book about that year’s Olympics. He will be the editor of the book. He showed us some Olympic practice fields and a sponsor pavilion for companies like McDonalds to hang out. He pointed out some new and impressive street lights that look pretty neat.
One of the venues is in the shape of a bird’s nest and is call just that, “Bird’s Nest.” This stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies, all of the track events, and the soccer finals. He pointed out to us some things sticking out from it that will suspend people during the opening ceremonies on August 8th, 2008. He also showed us the spot where the torch will emerge from. I guess it is a rule that the torch has to emerge from the north side of the stadium and it must be visible for 30 feet. The building is covered with two sections of plastic and the rain water that it catches is recycled. This is not your grandma’s Olympics. At the opening ceremonies they are going to shoot off fireworks. These will be a special kind of “cold fireworks” so that they do not come back down and burn the plastic venue. I cannot wait to watch. There is underground parking for 1000 cars at this location. There will be a red zone area during the game where there will be no driving. We were driving in that area at the time. The birds nest has read and white seats that change slowly in color from the inside out. They broke ground for this on Christmas 2003.
Throughout our whole trip we have noticed tons of workers working all the time. They were planting flowers on the side of the road on a Sunday morning at 1:00 and any other time of the day or night. There are thousands of them preparing for this event in full force. Jeff told us that they will be done by July 20. No exceptions. He reminded us that every major head of state will be there and the Chinese will watch to see if “Young Bush” will greet the leader of China.
He showed us the main press center and the Olympic Village which is 68 hectares (170 acres) of 42 buildings complete with a jogging track, pools, and hot water made by solar heat for the coaches and athletes. The condos are already sold for after the games. It has an international center with 33,000 different types of food available (it will seat 5000) and a courtyard where locals will be leading Tia Chi (a famous Chinese exercise system) in the mornings and inviting participants and their families to participate. There will be all sorts of security for this including dressed and plain clothed officials. He reminded us that the security cannot be compromised and referred to Eric Rudolf who planted a bomb that injured 100 and killed 1 at Atlanta. There will be a temples and churches for athletes to practice their religions. This area will also have a general store selling things like shampoo and DVD’s. They built and Olympic forest park of 600 hectares as a legacy by the Olympic Committee for China.
As you can tell, the details coming out of this man were endless. Hold tight, just a little more. He showed us a permanent bowl-shaped building that holds 10,000 people for tennis. He pointed out lots and lots of brand new landscaping and told us that there will be English and Chinese drivers from various bus stops in the area. There will be approximate 500,000 foreigners and 2-3 million Chinese people converging on the city and they are ready. After the Olympics, there will be a Paralympics in the same locations for people with disabilities. They will call that event “Dream World.” The Olympic theme is “One World. One Dream.” He told us that July 13, 2001 at 11:00 p.m. is when the Chinese knew that they would be having the 2008 Olympics.
When we returned from our amazing Olympic tour, we were hungry so we went to the Sichuan (Sichuan is the Chinese providence where the earthquake occurred) restaurant which is right on campus. The food from Sichuan is known to be spicy, but we found some things that were pretty tasty. We almost always eat white rice. We also had sweet and sour pork, a beef and tomato soup that is somewhat like chili and they serve in a pot with a lighted candle type thing underneath, soybean type things, soup, and French fry type food. Most of the dishes have peppers in them, but we worked around them.
Eventually, we decided to go to an electronics market that we had seen from the bus. On our walk we saw many things including Chinese women using umbrellas to shield themselves from the weekend sun. The sun shines more on the weekend because of less smog. We live on an agricultural campus that is in the middle of a big city so we saw the very few test plot fields that our school has. People were working in the fields which consisted of mostly wheat and soybeans with a little corn. There was a man out flying a kite in this area since it is the only local area with a big open space. We walked about a mile or so to a big warehouse type building full of electronic supplies. It seemed like the products were divided by type and then by company. The rows went on and on. They had everything there from big screen tvs to washing machines to digital voice recorders. Mark was in the market for a camera since he unfortunately dropped his and Ashe wanted to buy a hair dyer. Despite the communication gap, they were both able to buy these items for similar prices to the United States. After the electronics market we walked farther down the road to another big mall-type store. It consisted of several floors of small 8’ x 8’ shop selling all sorts of stuff. One guy had Ethernet chords on display as well as the connectors and jacks. We wanted to got a splitter so that we could have two computers on the internet at once in our rooms so we had him make us two chords and bought a splitter. He did the whole deal-used the wire cutters to cut the chords and connected there wires where they need to be. We should have known then that it was a little sketchy cause when we got home and plugged it in, it didn’t work and made my computer go crazy.
We didn’t have to be ready to go on our fieldtrip until 10:00 a.m., so at 8:00 a.m. Jessica and I went for a short jog. The first thing we noticed when we came outside was that it was sunny!!!! This is something we have not seen since we arrived here. There is so much smog. Sometimes it is down to the level of our seven story building. It almost always completely blocks the sun. Since today is a Saturday, most of the manufacturing places are not operating and of course not near as many of the cars are on the road creating the dirty smog. I would say maybe we ran two miles. It felt so good to be in the sunshine.
Our water heater, which is right inside our room, seems to be broken. Dang nab it. We are operating with really cold showers. I can’t complain though, as I have mentioned before the place where we are staying is more accommodating than the Dominican. I will forever love the dorms at ISA in the Dominican and would enjoy staying there again if ever given the chance.
We were to meet the guy who was going to take us to the Olympic baseball field at 10:00 a.m. There must have been some miscommunication, because our guide, Jeff, who was an American did not think he was going to be talking us to see and have a tour of a baseball field. The miscommunication turned out to be EXTREAMLY positive, because he took us all over the city and showed us most of the Olympic venues! We didn’t get to go inside any of them but we saw the outside of LOTS of them. We were gone from the university for two and a half hours while on the tour.
Let me give you the play by play. First, he told us some history about himself and how he got in this position. He is on the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad within the Beijing Olympic Media Center. He is the only native English speaking person in his office. He has been living in China for the past nine years and has been a sportscaster for several Olympiads. He is a writer and worked for two presidential campaigns right out of college. He explained that 7000 writers will be coming to cover the Olympics and he is in charge of them. His perception of everything that is happening here and knowledge of the Olympics was impeccable. We are SO lucky to have had him give us a tour. He was pretty rude to DongFong when she didn’t give good enough direction to the bus driver in appropriate times on the pretty busy roads and he was pretty arrogant about his credentials, but he knew so many interesting details about the Olympics.
He explained to us their process for controlling the pollution before the whole world converges on this city. The Olympics start on August 8 and he said that all of the construction must be done by July 20. He repeated several times that it will be completed by July 20. He said it will be finished or covered. Starting on July 20th and until the Olympics are over, half the cars will be removed from the roads as they can only be driven the days of the last digit of their license plate, either odd or even. Also, heavy trucks will not be allowed to be driven at night. Also, there will be an Olympic driving lane on the freeways and if you do not have a pass and drive in those lanes your car will be impounded. The pollution here is outrageous, and it has to be minimized a great deal before all of those people come. He said that 13 million people live here and the city is growing by 11% a year. With all those people, they are making a huge ecological foot print. He answered a question that I have had for quite some time, telling us that wherever there is a big crane in the middle of the road, that is a where is a subway is being built. He told us about how the city of Beijing has matured since they lost the Olympic Bid to Sydney, Australia by 2 votes in 2000. Somewhere in his very informative rambling, he told us that there is a subway that was built to go all they way to the mountains so that people could escape a nuclear bomb from the Russians. Now the city is so built up that the subway comes in to good use. Although he is an American, he is a strong advocate for China and Beijing. He said that Beijing will not stop becoming better after the Olympics. The Chinese believe that this is their century. He told us that they are having double-decker buses come in on freight cars to handle the multitudes of people that will be all over the city.
Jeff explained to us since most of the local Chinese people are too poor to pay for a ticket to an Olympic game, they are building “Cultural Corners.” These festival areas of sort will be areas filled with fun stuff for the local people to do and widescreen TVs showing the Olympics with Chinese subtitles. Ever since we saw the world of China outside of the airport, we have noticed tons of trees, supported by enormous teepee braces. I asked him about this and he said they have planted trees all over, including a forest the size of central park to make the place cleaner and greener.
The first venue we went to was the baseball diamond which was built right next to the basketball arena. This was the only venue we thought we were going to see. Boy, were we wrong. He said that it is just a temporary field and it as well as the softball diamond will be demolished and have an entertainment, shopping, and hotel complex built on it to support basketball. Next year, China will have it’s own NBA. Also, this is the last year the softball and baseball will be part of the Olympics as it has been voted out. We parked the bus and Jeff told us to just act like we knew what we were doing despite the fact that we did not have Olympic badges. I thought to myself, “This is what study abroad is all about.” We walked down a dirt road path through all kinds of construction to an open field area where they were driving bulldozers and construction equipment around without hard hats or safety glasses. From this area we could see the baseball and softball diamonds and the basketball arena in the background.
Jeff explained that the people working to build the fields and the surrounding areas were migrant workers who worked for a company hired by the Olympic Committee. He said there are 100,000 migrant workers working in preparation for the Olympics right now. We have seen them all over. They are planting flowers in the medians and cutting grass in the what little side ditches there are as well as building venues all over the city. The company provides temporary housing for these people and they get paid the equivalency of $20.00 per day. They have people working around the clock and as with everything else in this city, business does not stop on Saturday and Sunday. The people come from all over the country and when they are not preparing for the Olympics they are building dams and stuff like that. The baseball stadium will seat 12,000 people. The outside of basketball arena has been sprayed with a chemical to cool it form the outside in. He said it is also currently on lock down and no one will be allowed in until it is checked by dogs. That was when we were walking back down the path to the bus. He said, “We are here illegally because we look official.” Melissa, our advisor from Ohio State, corresponded with a man named Murray who I think is an alumni of our turf department to make this day happen. In fact, we thought that it was going to be Murray that was giving us this tour and were going to see only the baseball stadium that he worked on. We were definitely pleasantly surprised.
Not all of the Olympic venues are in Beijing although it is the major host city and everything says, “Beijing 2008” on it. There are many co-host cities for specific events. For example, a lot of the water events are in cities near to the water. I am not exactly sure of Jeff’s explanation, but he said that a Chinese person actually owns the Olympic buildings and they are only the property of the Olympics during the games. Afterward, they will be in the hands of the Chinese. Tiananmen Square is a major focal point of the city and country much like our Washington D.C. and there were originally thoughts of having the sand volleyball tournament in this area. The decided against it, but it would have made one heck of a location for TV viewers to admire. We looked at the “Water Cube” which is where many of the swimming and diving events will occur. It is a rectangular building that looks like a bunch of big bubbles. The bubbles are made of plastic and the cube has a moat around it so that no one can just walk up to it and bust the plastic. It is going to be made into an indoor water park at the completion of the trip. The glass (plastic) looks like a sky blue most of the time, but can be turned into any color and is a deep blue at night. He said that at night they can play movies on it. There is going to be a piece of the walls at certain locations throughout the city so people can walk up and touch it and see what it feels like.
Along our tour there were several shack type buildings that Jeff said was temporary housing for the migrant workers. He also showed us temples from the Tang Dynasty that will be remolded in time for Olympic visitors to tour. He pointed out to us the media building, the electronics for computers and various other electronics storage and repair, the new science and technology museum that is right nearby, and the Olympic green. Also, every Olympiad city has to produce a book about that year’s Olympics. He will be the editor of the book. He showed us some Olympic practice fields and a sponsor pavilion for companies like McDonalds to hang out. He pointed out some new and impressive street lights that look pretty neat.
One of the venues is in the shape of a bird’s nest and is call just that, “Bird’s Nest.” This stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies, all of the track events, and the soccer finals. He pointed out to us some things sticking out from it that will suspend people during the opening ceremonies on August 8th, 2008. He also showed us the spot where the torch will emerge from. I guess it is a rule that the torch has to emerge from the north side of the stadium and it must be visible for 30 feet. The building is covered with two sections of plastic and the rain water that it catches is recycled. This is not your grandma’s Olympics. At the opening ceremonies they are going to shoot off fireworks. These will be a special kind of “cold fireworks” so that they do not come back down and burn the plastic venue. I cannot wait to watch. There is underground parking for 1000 cars at this location. There will be a red zone area during the game where there will be no driving. We were driving in that area at the time. The birds nest has read and white seats that change slowly in color from the inside out. They broke ground for this on Christmas 2003.
Throughout our whole trip we have noticed tons of workers working all the time. They were planting flowers on the side of the road on a Sunday morning at 1:00 and any other time of the day or night. There are thousands of them preparing for this event in full force. Jeff told us that they will be done by July 20. No exceptions. He reminded us that every major head of state will be there and the Chinese will watch to see if “Young Bush” will greet the leader of China.
He showed us the main press center and the Olympic Village which is 68 hectares (170 acres) of 42 buildings complete with a jogging track, pools, and hot water made by solar heat for the coaches and athletes. The condos are already sold for after the games. It has an international center with 33,000 different types of food available (it will seat 5000) and a courtyard where locals will be leading Tia Chi (a famous Chinese exercise system) in the mornings and inviting participants and their families to participate. There will be all sorts of security for this including dressed and plain clothed officials. He reminded us that the security cannot be compromised and referred to Eric Rudolf who planted a bomb that injured 100 and killed 1 at Atlanta. There will be a temples and churches for athletes to practice their religions. This area will also have a general store selling things like shampoo and DVD’s. They built and Olympic forest park of 600 hectares as a legacy by the Olympic Committee for China.
As you can tell, the details coming out of this man were endless. Hold tight, just a little more. He showed us a permanent bowl-shaped building that holds 10,000 people for tennis. He pointed out lots and lots of brand new landscaping and told us that there will be English and Chinese drivers from various bus stops in the area. There will be approximate 500,000 foreigners and 2-3 million Chinese people converging on the city and they are ready. After the Olympics, there will be a Paralympics in the same locations for people with disabilities. They will call that event “Dream World.” The Olympic theme is “One World. One Dream.” He told us that July 13, 2001 at 11:00 p.m. is when the Chinese knew that they would be having the 2008 Olympics.
When we returned from our amazing Olympic tour, we were hungry so we went to the Sichuan (Sichuan is the Chinese providence where the earthquake occurred) restaurant which is right on campus. The food from Sichuan is known to be spicy, but we found some things that were pretty tasty. We almost always eat white rice. We also had sweet and sour pork, a beef and tomato soup that is somewhat like chili and they serve in a pot with a lighted candle type thing underneath, soybean type things, soup, and French fry type food. Most of the dishes have peppers in them, but we worked around them.
Eventually, we decided to go to an electronics market that we had seen from the bus. On our walk we saw many things including Chinese women using umbrellas to shield themselves from the weekend sun. The sun shines more on the weekend because of less smog. We live on an agricultural campus that is in the middle of a big city so we saw the very few test plot fields that our school has. People were working in the fields which consisted of mostly wheat and soybeans with a little corn. There was a man out flying a kite in this area since it is the only local area with a big open space. We walked about a mile or so to a big warehouse type building full of electronic supplies. It seemed like the products were divided by type and then by company. The rows went on and on. They had everything there from big screen tvs to washing machines to digital voice recorders. Mark was in the market for a camera since he unfortunately dropped his and Ashe wanted to buy a hair dyer. Despite the communication gap, they were both able to buy these items for similar prices to the United States. After the electronics market we walked farther down the road to another big mall-type store. It consisted of several floors of small 8’ x 8’ shop selling all sorts of stuff. One guy had Ethernet chords on display as well as the connectors and jacks. We wanted to got a splitter so that we could have two computers on the internet at once in our rooms so we had him make us two chords and bought a splitter. He did the whole deal-used the wire cutters to cut the chords and connected there wires where they need to be. We should have known then that it was a little sketchy cause when we got home and plugged it in, it didn’t work and made my computer go crazy.
Visiting a Local High School, Eating Sushi, and Seeing a Roehm in CHINA!
June 20, 2008
I woke up in the middle of the night and got on the internet. At about 7 o clock we went for a short run. We then came back to the room and got ready quickly, so that we could go and get Starbucks. It is probably a half a mile away. We were able to get some iced coffee and head back to class, which was to start at 10 a.m. During our morning runs we have noticed many people out and about. Today when we came back out around 9:30 a.m. it seemed like EVERYONE was out and heading to work. The other day when we saw employees standing in lines outside and the boss giving directions I thought it was really strange. This morning we saw about 50 employees of a department store doing the same thing. I asked the teacher about it and she said that it is an idea they got from Japan and South Korea and they really think it is good. They started doing it in 1995. She said it is somewhat of a pep rally, determining if everyone is on the same page and getting people to realize we can do this and we’re in this together. The way she talked indicated that she thought it was a good idea.
One thing I have noticed about the men here is that rather than sitting on the ground or on some steps to talk to someone, they squat like a monkey with their butt almost to the ground and their knees toward the sky and there chest resting on and between their legs. It is quite the sight. I have yet to take a picture, but I want one BAD!
We thought that we were exactly on time to class, coming right at 10 oclock, but Mrs. Mau had already started. Yesterday, she had us each write down things we wanted to learn about from her as she is our history, customs, and culture teacher. What a great teaching tactic!!! We learned about this in my Agricultural Education courses and during my student teaching last fall. Give the students an opportunity to express what they want to know and not only will they get to learn the things they are interested in, but you can frame the lessons so that they feel like they have ownership in what they are learning- like they developed the curriculum, not you. She touched on each of our questions and said she would discuss them further throughout the time here.
She talked to us a lot about famous landmarks as well as back alleys and the set up of homes. It was rather fascinating. She went over by about a half hour, so we had class for three hours straight, but that is why we are here, to learn. She explained to us that women in the past in China were expected to stay home, similar to the United States. Also, in the fugal society, the parents would select a man for the women to marry. Furthermore, the husbands could marry many different women. Confucius thought that women should stay home and look after the children. She explained that for many reasons it is good when a family has a son. The Chinese are only allowed to have one child and it is common for married couples to move in with the man’s family, so a family with a daughter would basically not see her but once or twice a year after she got married. She said that in the rural areas, if you have a daughter you can have another child in five years. She said in the cities, the married daughter works to visit her parents at least every other week. Her quote was, “A daughter is like clothes in winter to keep parents always warm.” Hmmm.
She explained to us many more things including that in 1966-1969 all people in China were to have chairman Mao’s book and read it everyday. For some reason at that time, all students were free to stay home. High school students were able to travel free of charge from train rides and dinners. Starting in the 1970’s all students after graduation went to the countryside to learn and get experience from the farmers. Those who were recommended by the farmers could go to the university. I think that this no longer happens after graduation, but is part of high school and the farmers do not make recommendations it is just to visit the countryside and see how hard they have to work. Mrs. Mao also told us that she will have us to her home in small groups for a meal to introduce us to some different types of Chinese food. She explained that China is changing everyday in more ways than one. From viewpoints to construction, they want to be responsible members of globalization. She told us about many famous streets and buildings in Beijing.
She also talked to us about a famous characteristic of Beijing-the set up of the alleys. We have been walking on many alleys as we go back and forth from campus to the outside world so we have witnessed some of this stuff first hand. She said that sometimes four houses are arranged together so that there is a courtyard in the center. The houses just keep getting passed down from generation to generation so the family shares the courtyard. She said usually the elders live in the one with the most sunshine. I don’t know if they rotate when the generations shift or how they make it work like that. She said the advantages of this concept are total privacy except from your relatives, protection from the dust and noise, and that it is harmonious, calming, and sensitive. We don’t live near to anything of this concept since we are in a pretty developed area, but I think we are going to see some of this stuff later.
As soon as class was over we headed to the basement cafeteria restaurant. As with many things in China, you have to push your way to the front of a small crowd of people and then communicate to the workers what you want. I pointed to two vegetable type dishes and some rice. Here in China, they give you way too much to eat every time you get something. I went to the cooler and picked out an iced tea then paid for it with my meal card they have provided for us.
After lunch, we prepared to go on a field trip to a local high school! This experience was awesome! The drive there was quite the adventure itself. We had to drive on multiple lane roads and cross all kinds of traffic to get where we were going. The bus is nice and has excellent air conditioning and even though the driver cut a few other cars off and we seemingly had some close calls, we made it there just fine. The principal of the school gave us an excellent tour. At the campus, there is both a junior high and senior high. It has a cafeteria, dorms, and auditorium as well as an amazing display of stuff animals (taxidermy) such as a garaff, lion, and fox. There are 3400 students total, 200 of which live on campus. At lunch time they get 1000 students through every half hour. He told us that lunch time is very noisy and there are two floors of space to eat. The gymnasium was big, but didn’t have much seating room for spectators. Students in China have 9 years of compulsory education and then they go to high school or vocational school. To go to high school they have to pass a big examination. The students all were wearing sweatsuit like uniforms. It was pretty hot that day and I asked if they could wear shorts and they said they could but they wouldn’t want to. The students go to school from 7:20 until 4:00 p.m. We have heard that they are lucky to have this schedule because some schools go from 8:00 a.m.- 8:00 p.m. because they allow the students to go home for lunch and sometimes that takes a while.
The best part of visiting this school was the opportunity we had to speak with the students one on one. Each OSU student was matched with three or four students from the school. Excellent English just poured from their mouths as they asked us TONS of questions. They asked about American movies and American music. They asked about jobs in America and how often we have to study. This was one of the first glimpses I had at how diligently they have to study. They do not have time for much fun because they study so much. Everything is so competitive here because of the large population so they have to be sure to get good grades and learn enough so that they can get a good score on the examination for high school and the University. It is crazy. Since each family is only allowed to have one child in China, they do not have brothers and sisters. I asked them if they consider their classmates brothers and sisters and they said they do. I had my ipod along and so I played some American music for them. They knew more about American music than I do, they scrolled right through my artists and kept asking if I had this or that song. It was nuts. They told me that they like to watch Disney movies and it helps them with their English.
After leaving the school we headed back to campus. Most people were really hungry left right away to go to the sushi place near campus. I stayed behind with Paige and we went to pick up Sarah, world food prize student from Iowa, who is here researching for the summer. We arrived at the sushi place and as I had asked them to, they had ordered me shrimp and salmon rolls. They had most of us sitting in a small private room to eat. The sushi was so good! I hope we get to go back there soon. Even though some people are allergic or do not eat sea food they have other stuff, so it should be a place we can go to often. It only cost us about $3.50 and that is cheap for sushi!
Our next plans were to go to a movie at the IMAX theater near by. We had an hour to kill until then. Some people didn’t want to go to the movie and I was indifferent as long as we did something. We started walking on some busy side roads and found an establishment that looked like it had some Americans at it called Mystica. We walked inside and up to the balcony. There were about twenty law students from Indiana University who were celebrating the last night of their study tour. We told the guy nearest to us that Jessica, Ashley, and I were from the Ft. Wayne area, but in Ohio south of Van Wert. This guy said he was from Defiance. He said that is mom was from south of Van Wert, a town you’ve probably never heard of, Willshire, Ohio. We exploded. He said that is mom was a Roehm. She is Joyce Roehm, sister of Roland and Duane. We told him that we knew the Roehm kids and Betsy. Gamble. Small world, eh? Later, we got a picture with him. We sat around in there for a while, and then one of the law students who was sitting in an awkward position before came over to our table and asked if we had said earlier that we were majoring in Agirculture. She did her undergrad at Purdue in Ag Economics. She agreed with me that it is hard when you are with a group of people who are not interested in agriculture to ask questions, but that it is a priority to go ahead and do it anyway. There is so much to learn. We are sure our tour mates want to tell us to shut up when we ask tons of questions pertaining to agriculture and other stuff. She gave me her info and I am going to add her on facebook. Also, she told me about their program, which sounded very interesting. They go to IUIndy. I also talked to several of them who did there undergraduate degree at IU main campus in Bloomington, which is where I lived last summer while working for GM. One guy’s inlaws are from Bedford.
Eventually, we headed for our hotel. It was so odd, it was about 11:30 p.m. and we were heading home, but hardly anyone was out. In America, the nightlife is just getting started around this time. It does get daylight at about 4:30 a.m. here, but I have no idea why people were inside so early. It is possible that people there is a cerfew. What made us really suspicious of this was when we walked home and were by the gate that is literally 20 feet from our hotel entrance and it was locked. Everyone had to climb over or go through the fence over/gate/door. Ashley and I ended up being one of the last three to cross over along with Juan. Juan started to climb and got scared of the heights. She said she ain’t doin that. She said, “I walk ‘round.” We didn’t want her to walk at night by herself, so Ashe and I went with her. We thought we were going to have to walk clear to the North gate and then all the away around to the East gate. We ended up finding a little bit shorter route, but still were probably walking for twenty minutes before we got back to the side of the fence our hotel was on. DongFong said that only that gate closes at night and that we should be able to get in from the gate on the side near the Friendship Hotel. Everyone had waited for us outside the hotel to get back. I thought to myself, “If these people were going to wait or were so concern for that matter, why didn’t some of them crawl back through the opening of the fence and walk with us three girls? We were not in harms way at all but it was still dark outside and were in a big city. Oh well.
I woke up in the middle of the night and got on the internet. At about 7 o clock we went for a short run. We then came back to the room and got ready quickly, so that we could go and get Starbucks. It is probably a half a mile away. We were able to get some iced coffee and head back to class, which was to start at 10 a.m. During our morning runs we have noticed many people out and about. Today when we came back out around 9:30 a.m. it seemed like EVERYONE was out and heading to work. The other day when we saw employees standing in lines outside and the boss giving directions I thought it was really strange. This morning we saw about 50 employees of a department store doing the same thing. I asked the teacher about it and she said that it is an idea they got from Japan and South Korea and they really think it is good. They started doing it in 1995. She said it is somewhat of a pep rally, determining if everyone is on the same page and getting people to realize we can do this and we’re in this together. The way she talked indicated that she thought it was a good idea.
One thing I have noticed about the men here is that rather than sitting on the ground or on some steps to talk to someone, they squat like a monkey with their butt almost to the ground and their knees toward the sky and there chest resting on and between their legs. It is quite the sight. I have yet to take a picture, but I want one BAD!
We thought that we were exactly on time to class, coming right at 10 oclock, but Mrs. Mau had already started. Yesterday, she had us each write down things we wanted to learn about from her as she is our history, customs, and culture teacher. What a great teaching tactic!!! We learned about this in my Agricultural Education courses and during my student teaching last fall. Give the students an opportunity to express what they want to know and not only will they get to learn the things they are interested in, but you can frame the lessons so that they feel like they have ownership in what they are learning- like they developed the curriculum, not you. She touched on each of our questions and said she would discuss them further throughout the time here.
She talked to us a lot about famous landmarks as well as back alleys and the set up of homes. It was rather fascinating. She went over by about a half hour, so we had class for three hours straight, but that is why we are here, to learn. She explained to us that women in the past in China were expected to stay home, similar to the United States. Also, in the fugal society, the parents would select a man for the women to marry. Furthermore, the husbands could marry many different women. Confucius thought that women should stay home and look after the children. She explained that for many reasons it is good when a family has a son. The Chinese are only allowed to have one child and it is common for married couples to move in with the man’s family, so a family with a daughter would basically not see her but once or twice a year after she got married. She said that in the rural areas, if you have a daughter you can have another child in five years. She said in the cities, the married daughter works to visit her parents at least every other week. Her quote was, “A daughter is like clothes in winter to keep parents always warm.” Hmmm.
She explained to us many more things including that in 1966-1969 all people in China were to have chairman Mao’s book and read it everyday. For some reason at that time, all students were free to stay home. High school students were able to travel free of charge from train rides and dinners. Starting in the 1970’s all students after graduation went to the countryside to learn and get experience from the farmers. Those who were recommended by the farmers could go to the university. I think that this no longer happens after graduation, but is part of high school and the farmers do not make recommendations it is just to visit the countryside and see how hard they have to work. Mrs. Mao also told us that she will have us to her home in small groups for a meal to introduce us to some different types of Chinese food. She explained that China is changing everyday in more ways than one. From viewpoints to construction, they want to be responsible members of globalization. She told us about many famous streets and buildings in Beijing.
She also talked to us about a famous characteristic of Beijing-the set up of the alleys. We have been walking on many alleys as we go back and forth from campus to the outside world so we have witnessed some of this stuff first hand. She said that sometimes four houses are arranged together so that there is a courtyard in the center. The houses just keep getting passed down from generation to generation so the family shares the courtyard. She said usually the elders live in the one with the most sunshine. I don’t know if they rotate when the generations shift or how they make it work like that. She said the advantages of this concept are total privacy except from your relatives, protection from the dust and noise, and that it is harmonious, calming, and sensitive. We don’t live near to anything of this concept since we are in a pretty developed area, but I think we are going to see some of this stuff later.
As soon as class was over we headed to the basement cafeteria restaurant. As with many things in China, you have to push your way to the front of a small crowd of people and then communicate to the workers what you want. I pointed to two vegetable type dishes and some rice. Here in China, they give you way too much to eat every time you get something. I went to the cooler and picked out an iced tea then paid for it with my meal card they have provided for us.
After lunch, we prepared to go on a field trip to a local high school! This experience was awesome! The drive there was quite the adventure itself. We had to drive on multiple lane roads and cross all kinds of traffic to get where we were going. The bus is nice and has excellent air conditioning and even though the driver cut a few other cars off and we seemingly had some close calls, we made it there just fine. The principal of the school gave us an excellent tour. At the campus, there is both a junior high and senior high. It has a cafeteria, dorms, and auditorium as well as an amazing display of stuff animals (taxidermy) such as a garaff, lion, and fox. There are 3400 students total, 200 of which live on campus. At lunch time they get 1000 students through every half hour. He told us that lunch time is very noisy and there are two floors of space to eat. The gymnasium was big, but didn’t have much seating room for spectators. Students in China have 9 years of compulsory education and then they go to high school or vocational school. To go to high school they have to pass a big examination. The students all were wearing sweatsuit like uniforms. It was pretty hot that day and I asked if they could wear shorts and they said they could but they wouldn’t want to. The students go to school from 7:20 until 4:00 p.m. We have heard that they are lucky to have this schedule because some schools go from 8:00 a.m.- 8:00 p.m. because they allow the students to go home for lunch and sometimes that takes a while.
The best part of visiting this school was the opportunity we had to speak with the students one on one. Each OSU student was matched with three or four students from the school. Excellent English just poured from their mouths as they asked us TONS of questions. They asked about American movies and American music. They asked about jobs in America and how often we have to study. This was one of the first glimpses I had at how diligently they have to study. They do not have time for much fun because they study so much. Everything is so competitive here because of the large population so they have to be sure to get good grades and learn enough so that they can get a good score on the examination for high school and the University. It is crazy. Since each family is only allowed to have one child in China, they do not have brothers and sisters. I asked them if they consider their classmates brothers and sisters and they said they do. I had my ipod along and so I played some American music for them. They knew more about American music than I do, they scrolled right through my artists and kept asking if I had this or that song. It was nuts. They told me that they like to watch Disney movies and it helps them with their English.
After leaving the school we headed back to campus. Most people were really hungry left right away to go to the sushi place near campus. I stayed behind with Paige and we went to pick up Sarah, world food prize student from Iowa, who is here researching for the summer. We arrived at the sushi place and as I had asked them to, they had ordered me shrimp and salmon rolls. They had most of us sitting in a small private room to eat. The sushi was so good! I hope we get to go back there soon. Even though some people are allergic or do not eat sea food they have other stuff, so it should be a place we can go to often. It only cost us about $3.50 and that is cheap for sushi!
Our next plans were to go to a movie at the IMAX theater near by. We had an hour to kill until then. Some people didn’t want to go to the movie and I was indifferent as long as we did something. We started walking on some busy side roads and found an establishment that looked like it had some Americans at it called Mystica. We walked inside and up to the balcony. There were about twenty law students from Indiana University who were celebrating the last night of their study tour. We told the guy nearest to us that Jessica, Ashley, and I were from the Ft. Wayne area, but in Ohio south of Van Wert. This guy said he was from Defiance. He said that is mom was from south of Van Wert, a town you’ve probably never heard of, Willshire, Ohio. We exploded. He said that is mom was a Roehm. She is Joyce Roehm, sister of Roland and Duane. We told him that we knew the Roehm kids and Betsy. Gamble. Small world, eh? Later, we got a picture with him. We sat around in there for a while, and then one of the law students who was sitting in an awkward position before came over to our table and asked if we had said earlier that we were majoring in Agirculture. She did her undergrad at Purdue in Ag Economics. She agreed with me that it is hard when you are with a group of people who are not interested in agriculture to ask questions, but that it is a priority to go ahead and do it anyway. There is so much to learn. We are sure our tour mates want to tell us to shut up when we ask tons of questions pertaining to agriculture and other stuff. She gave me her info and I am going to add her on facebook. Also, she told me about their program, which sounded very interesting. They go to IUIndy. I also talked to several of them who did there undergraduate degree at IU main campus in Bloomington, which is where I lived last summer while working for GM. One guy’s inlaws are from Bedford.
Eventually, we headed for our hotel. It was so odd, it was about 11:30 p.m. and we were heading home, but hardly anyone was out. In America, the nightlife is just getting started around this time. It does get daylight at about 4:30 a.m. here, but I have no idea why people were inside so early. It is possible that people there is a cerfew. What made us really suspicious of this was when we walked home and were by the gate that is literally 20 feet from our hotel entrance and it was locked. Everyone had to climb over or go through the fence over/gate/door. Ashley and I ended up being one of the last three to cross over along with Juan. Juan started to climb and got scared of the heights. She said she ain’t doin that. She said, “I walk ‘round.” We didn’t want her to walk at night by herself, so Ashe and I went with her. We thought we were going to have to walk clear to the North gate and then all the away around to the East gate. We ended up finding a little bit shorter route, but still were probably walking for twenty minutes before we got back to the side of the fence our hotel was on. DongFong said that only that gate closes at night and that we should be able to get in from the gate on the side near the Friendship Hotel. Everyone had waited for us outside the hotel to get back. I thought to myself, “If these people were going to wait or were so concern for that matter, why didn’t some of them crawl back through the opening of the fence and walk with us three girls? We were not in harms way at all but it was still dark outside and were in a big city. Oh well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)