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Published: March 11th 2010
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I can't believe last week was already midterms! Sorry I haven't posted anything since the Hong Kong blogs. I wish I could say I have a lot to write, but I don't have too much. I've been super busy studying, so one difference from last semester is I could probably write this in Chinese, but then only a couple people would understand it. Because I'm constantly either in class or studying for Chinese, I am pretty close with my classmates this semester. It's an interesting dynamic when you put 5 people in a room together for 6 hours a day and don't let them speak English. For some reason we don't get enough of each other in class so we usually hang out on weekends, maybe it's because we don't have time to have other friends? It also may be because other people in the program are afraid of us. Since we can't speak English a lot of times when other students are around they are afraid to talk to us because they don't think their Chinese is good enough. I have made some friends by going to the pizza place on Tuesday, as is tradition since last semester. I also
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apartment hang out with some people on Fridays. And despite our scary lack of English, some brave souls try and talk to us during the week, so we appreciate those people.
My Chinese host family is really nice. There is a mom, dad, little brother who is 14, and the father's older sister lives with us. I'm not sure of the aunt's story but she has a daughter who is one year younger than me who goes to college in a different city. Most mornings the aunt makes breakfast and usually won't let me leave without eating something, so that is pretty convenient, and usually delicious. The dad is pretty quiet but very nice. He's not a big talker but he's always trying to give me food or teasing me about girls. He also makes some very good food. The mother is the one I talk to the most, but unfortunately the one I can understand the least. I can almost always understand the aunt and father, the little brother I usually understand but sometimes he mumbles so it's hard, but the mother is very hard for me. I think there are two reasons I have trouble, one is because
in Beijing people often at the RRR sound at the end of words, and since it changes the pronounciation it can be hard to pick out even words I know, the other reason, and the bigger problem, is she uses a lot of complicated words, whereas the aunt and father usually stick to pretty simple ones. The son might use more difficult words but most of the people I talk to are under 30 so I'm used to most of the things he has to say.
After talking to the other two people living with families, I definitely like mine the best. The only problem is that they live pretty far from school. I have to ride the bus in the morning, usually between 40 minutes and and hour and 15 minutes. It kind of sucks but it gives me an automatic 45 minutes or so that I can use to study new words because I don't have much other option. The bus costs .4 yuan, which is like 6 cents American, AKA free. The program gave me a pretty big travel stipend, which actually lasted me until right about now, so I will have money left over when
I leave China, which is a good thing. So overall my living situation isn't bad.
In addition to my family I have had a lot of fun with the teachers this semester. The program brought us to the Forbidden City, it was my first time there so that was pretty cool. I hung out with my one on one teacher and a teacher who was a tutor and kind of a friend of mine last semester. I also went to Wangfujing with that friend the weekend after that. Wangfujing is where they have the crazy food and it's a very nice part of the city, very popular with tourists. I have pictures of these things so check that out.
I forgot to mention that the Chinese family I'm staying with is very wealthy. They work at the olympic stadium, their office is like a press box in the stadium. Not the bird's nest but there is another stadium they used for the olympics, it's pretty awesome. Also, as if the sweet apartment we live in isn't enough, they have an apartment in southern Beijing. I've been there once and it's about the same size as this one, crazy.
They are also looking into sending the son to high school in the US, which I've been helping them apply for.
I have one random thing to say. Now that I ride the bus I have seen a lot more little things people do. I see some of the same people almost every week on the bus, because we must have similar schedules. It's weird seeing the same person more than once in a city this big. I also see the same street food vendors almost everyday. One day I saw one of them getting their cart taken away from them by the street food security people, or whatever they are called. It's interesting to watch the vendors because as they are cooking or serving food they always have one eye down the road for the big vans that threaten to take away their cart. The carts are all attached to bikes, like a rickshaw stove top. Usually a good 10 seconds before I see the vans, the vendors are pedaling off into the alleyway. They usually have a loop worked out so that just as the vans are passing their area they are about to pull right back
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my other view into the sidewalk and start selling again. It's pretty amazing how close they come to getting caught everytime, especially since I can't imagine that they can afford to buy a new set up if the city takes their bike slash stove. One of my favorite street foods is from the bus stop where I transfer, but sometimes walk to school from. It is potatoe and carrot strings cooked and wrapped up in a soft piece of bread, kind of like a tortilla, it's delicious.
The immersion kids have also gone over to some teachers' houses to eat food. Since we area around all day everyday in the program we get pretty close to the teachers. One time me and 4 students went to my teacher from last semester's house. Another time almost all the immersion students went to one of my teacher's house, which is also some of the students' house, and ate dinner. It was a lot of fun, check out the pictures. Another quick story and I'll be done with this blog, a friend and I played badminton in the same place they had the olympic badminton tournament during the Beijing Olympics. It was pretty crazy, and
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forbidden city a lot of fun, she's Chinese so we joked that it was China vs. US. She won 3 times...but then I was beating a Chinese guy that was there, on my way to victory, but our reserved time ran out. That's all folks. Look for another blog soon about my trip to Shantou for Chinese New Year.
Peace and God Bless!
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Mom
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Finally!
Ah... the long awaited blog. Even though we have talked, it is still fun to read your updated blog. You may not think you have much to say, but I for one enjoy every detail, especially about the cultural differences. Only 2 months left in China, so continue to take advantage of every opprotunity. Sounds like you are studying more than ever! Looking forward to your next blog. We all miss you. Love, Mom