Back in the Big Apple!

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since I last posted and so much has happened. It was definitely sad to say farewell to IUP, but at the same time I'm extremely glad to be home.
So my last two weeks in Beijing were filled with so many amazing highlights:
-going to 十渡and climbing the mountain, the view was amazing on the top
-eating at the IUP farewell dinner at Kro's Nest (supposedly the BEST pizza in Beijing) and wearing 旗袍's (Chinese traditional attire) with teachers and classmates
-attending an underground Beijing rap concert!
-spending my last night eating on the 后海 lakeside
Going overseas really gave me a chance to explore a city in a way that I wouldn't do with NY. Even though NY is probably surrounded with just as much tourist attractions/events to go to.

Overall, though I wouldn't say I loved IUP and loved Beijing, but it was a good experience. Being away from home, exploring a new city on my own and become friends with IUP classmates and teachers have all become valuable experiences. Coincidentally, one of my teachers was actually on my flight back to NY!

After having had completed Level 5 Chinese at Yale, I entered IUP taking one of the highest level they offered during the summer. While I would say that my Chinese improved a lot, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as learning a lot. IUP was more of consolidating a lot of what I have learned already, helping me master vocabulary usage, solidifying grammar rules that I kind of have picked up instinctively, and become more fluent and smooth when speaking. It was a great way to bring together things that I already kind of understood but was never formally taught. The two year minimum that IUP requires definitely makes sense to me now because IUP isn't about bombarding and exposing students to more vocabulary (which is what HBA and PIB do) its about mastering usage and verbal skills. I also got to learn a lot more about Chinese society and culture through the small class discussions that we engaged in. Because of the small class sizes each of us had adequate speaking time and were actually able to launch into discussion if we so wished (as opposed to regular language classes of 8-10 people where the teacher is doing most of the talking).
Here are some pictures!

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Almost done!!!!

Only two more weeks left! By this time I think I'm basically ready to go home, I miss my parents, my friends (at Yale and NY) and I miss food at home. While we're on the subject of food, I just went to Pizza Hut with a bunch of friends and now I think that I've gotten so used to the food here that I can't eat fatty American food anymore, the roof of my mouth feels swollen, something Chinese people would say is 热气太多了　also know as "too much hot air". I'm going to drink some Chrysanthemum tea since that's suppose to be "cold air"and reduces hot air (all stuff my aunt told me).

So back to this week. Well, its been crazy hot for the last two days because of the humidity, 78% humidity, can you believe it? Usually when humidity is over 50% that means rain but I guess not in China. Therefore a good idea is to stay indoors during this humidity, but of course I don't stay in. Instead I head to Forbidden Palace, which is mostly outdoors and takes hours to get through. Was not a good idea. But at least now I've knocked it off of my bucket list of things to do in Beijing. The Forbidden Palace was nice, but eventually it all started to look the same and there was still way too many people there in the disgusting heat.

Aside from going to Forbidden Palace, I did get to see a movie this week called Aftershock or 唐山大地震, with some classmates and teachers. And it redefined the term tearjerker. I went in not expecting to cry at all, but ended up crying a total of 7 times throughout the movie. It would have been so embarrassing if the rest of the audience hadn't been crying. My teacher emerged with her face all puffy and red. During the first day it was playing in theaters, they handed out packets of tissues to each person! Though this movie definitely made me cry, I don't know if I can objectively say it was a great movie; there were many loopholes in the story line. But as the first IMAX movie in China and as such a tearjerker, it is definitely worth seeing! I can't wait till I get back to the States to see Inception and Toy Story 3, heard they were amazing also.
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Week in Review

Despite it being almost 9pm on a Sunday night and I haven't done a single bit of homework, I feel pretty good about myself right now. Why? Well, as most people know Beijing is full of beggars, many who are crippled and missing limbs. I've heard lots of bad stories about how they could have been intentionally crippled and forced to do this by certain underground organizations so I tend to have a policy of not giving them money. I usually say to others that I wouldn't give a beggar money but would give them food and that there have been times in the US when I've offered food to beggars and been refused. Today after eating dinner with my friend, we had a lot of leftovers and I contemplated just leaving it there and having them throw it out, but my friend suggested that I take it home and eat it for dinner tomorrow. I agreed and wrapped up the leftovers. On my way home I passed by a beggar and he motioned for me to give him the bag of leftovers. This made me realize the many times that I've wasted food at restaurants when I could have easily just packed it up and given it to someone who would really appreciate it. I just hope that I can remember this the next time I have leftovers.

Aside from this little incident, my weekend full of with meeting up with random but actually not that random people. For example, meeting a girl who is going to Harvard this coming fall because she is my uncle's friend's daughter's coworker's niece, having dinner/meeting some Yalies that are doing the Harvard in Beijing Program, bumping into other Yalies in/outside of clubs (ie. Propaganda) and more.

Though seeing all these people was great, I would say the highlight of my weekend was on a field trip I took with my classmates. We went to visit temples that were about an hour outside of Beijing, but to get to these temples we had to go up extremely narrow mountain roads. These were two way lanes that barely fit two cars and along the way down, a car accident had occurred so we were stuck in traffic. All the drivers who were stuck in traffic got out of their car and went to see what had happened. The truck involved in the car accident was leaking something but all the drivers decided that it would be an opportune time to smoke. Thankfully nothing happened but many of my classmates were worried. Soon the drivers decided that they didn't want to wait for the police to come so a bunch of them manually pushed the car aside so that there was room on the road for cars to pass. Once the car was moved to the side, all the smaller cars decided to swerve in front of us even though we were originally the closest vehicle to the scene of the accident (we were a big fat bus so we weren't as able to manuveur). The Chinese mentality of rushing and not waiting in line was strongly working against us. After 10 minutes of sitting there and having cars rush past us on both sides we decided we had to do something. So everyone got off the bus and worked to open up a pathway for the bus. Some physically blocked cars from passing and another group worked to push the car closer to the side. Though the trip was to visit temples, I think most people would say this ordeal was the most fun part. (But on a side note, when visiting temples in China, make sure to go visit the vegetarian restaurants there, they're really good at making vegetables taste like meat)

Here's some visual evidence of our good work:


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Halfway Point!

It's officially the halfway point of IUP and I don't know whether I should be sad, happy, excited, etc. But I guess its a good time to start reflecting on my experience so far and thinking about the rest of the summer.
When first coming to IUP, the age difference was definitely the first thing that startled me, especially as a college freshman. The strong sense of community that college students receive was non existent at IUP and made me feel lost for a period of time. But now as I've become more accustomed to this community, I think that I have come to appreciate it more. Meeting so many graduate students who are almost 10 years older than me has definitely matured me. Even though I'm already accustomed to being around older people (since I'm the youngest in my family and have siblings that are already in their 30's), in the past it's always been older people who are relatives/mentors. But to approach older people as peers is a completely different concept. And what surprises me also is that many of my IUP classmates don't treat the younger students with the usual condescension that I have experience in the past. This may stem from how we are classmates but may also just be a sign of growing up and maturity (of the younger crowd). Because as we get older, age differences matter less. Though there is definitely some separation of the older crowd and the younger crowd the intermingling of groups has given me a great experience! And I've come to realize that older people can be just as immature as little kids, one time over dinner we spent over an hour talking about poop.

As for the rest of the summer, I'm really looking forward to attending more events of this "Hand in Hand" program that I decided to participate in. Basically this program organizes events for IUP students and Chinese students (who range from college sophomores to already graduated PhD students) with the purpose of cultural exchange. Just yesterday we spent the whole day playing Mah Jong and making dumplings. The organizer says he's thinking about organizing an overnight trip to somewhere outside the city maybe to a 农家乐(kind of a vacation area in the countryside)! I'm super excited!
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Silk Market!!!!!

Those who decide to visit Beijing must take a trip to the Silk Market! (Sorry that this sounds like an advertisement) There are a ridiculous amount of stores selling things from jewelry, clothes, shoes, bags and Chinese handicrafts. Seven floors filled with hundred and hundreds of stores. But bargaining skills is an necessity, so if you don't know how to bargain, make sure you go with someone who CAN! It was ridiculous the amount that you could lower the prices to. I was looking at a pea coat and the lady told me "I usually give it to foreigners for 2,000 but for you, I give it to you for 1,600 RMB" (this was in Chinese of course). That's ridiculous because just 5 minutes ago some man offered the coat to me for 300 RMB as a starting price. After 15 minutes of haggling with her, she gave it to me for 180 RMB (even though she wasn't very happy)! In another instance, when I was looking at some Chinese mud dolls, the lady offered it to me for 35 RMB each, but eventually sold me 3 dolls for 15 RMB total. To think of how easily people can be jipped at these places, that just amazing.
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Exploring the Artsy Side of Beijing

I would say that day has been one of the most satisfying days I've had in Beijing so far (it's already been 3 weeks and 2 days!). As I was sitting in a dark movie theater, waiting for the screening of Ondine to start, I began to reflect on the day and realized why. Sure meeting random Chinese people and joking around with them was fun but at the same time it's still part of the whole going out with kids and partying scene. But today was different because I wasn't wasting my day away sleeping in, waiting for the night to come. Yes I went to the Great Wall last weekend but that was planned by IUP and barely took any initiative on my part. For the past three weeks that I've been here most of my days have felt pretty slow because at IUP, the schedule and environment makes me feel like I'm in high school. I get to school at 8am, go to class until 2pm and I get home at around 3ish (or I stay at school to finish my homework and then go home). Once I get home I either do my homework or surf the web, the routine is so close to what I had in high school. People live far from each other so there isn't that sense of community that college provides. As a result, I've felt very uninspired to explore. Don't be mistaken, it's not like I just stay in my room; I do call up friends from Yale or from high school to meet up with them but I haven't been successful with doing Beijing specific things aside from eating or partying.

So what did my day consist of that has made me feel so productive? My first stop was the 798 art district, which was unexpectedly fun (mostly because I'm not really an art person).
When first entering the district it seems sort of abandoned and empty but the real treasures are the art galleries and small shops that line the road on either side. These mini-art galleries each had very unique themes and styles. While some were conventional oil on canvas paintings (though the medium might have been conventional the subjects were mostly not) others were sculptures or just arrangements.


I think the most disturbing one was a room filled with hanging skulls. Though there were obviously fake skulls, they were all identically hung from the ceiling in a very orderly fashion and the music that filled the room was a women's voice tell the visitor to meditate. Here's a picture of entrance sign to the exhibit.
I think a highlight of my day at 798 was going into the small souvenir shops. Especially when I randomly bumped into two other Yalies. I found the most amusing things in those stores but resisted the urge to buy them (things were super expensive because it's geared towards foreign tourists).

After about two hours of walking around in the 798 district my friends and I headed off to a movie screening of an Irish movie. It was free and sounded interesting so I thought Why not?
Supposedly it was about a fisherman who falls in love with a mermaid and the main male lead was Colin Farrell. The name of the movie was Ondine and won a lot of awards apparently? Before the movie began they spent 30 minutes talking about the movie and the amusing part was listening to someone translate the organizer's English into Chinese and being able to pick out the parts that were completely wrong. But in the end, the movie was actually pretty good, especially since it was an independent film. Usually those movies give off a really artsy vibe and don't have a direct plot line but Ondine was artsy in its style and scenic landscapes. For those of you who plan to watch it (and you should) I won't give any spoilers but I will give props to how the story is able to mix/blur the lines between fantasy and reality (when I first heard the organizer say that I didn't get it, but it makes so much more sense after watching the movie).

Yeah, so to sum it up: I had a really fulfilling day.
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Ｓｔａｙｅｄ ｕｐ ａｌｌ ｎｉｇｈt watching the World Cup

So as I'm writing this blog I'm surviving on basically 1.5 hours of sleep (with 4 hours the night before that and climbing the Great Wall) but I'm surprised as to how un-sleepy I am.

Last night the US vs. Ghana game was on at 2:30 a.m. so a couple of friends and I met up to watch the game. We ended up at one of those small restaurant with a TV and tables outside. The tables were split between the US fans and Ghana fans. Our US table consisted of some IUPers and two　ｏｌｄｅｒ　ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ　ｍｅｎ (one of which bet on the game for USA　ｔｏ　ｗｉｎ．Ｔｈｅｓｅ　ｔｗｏ　ｍｅｎ　ｄｉｄｎ＇ｔ　ｋｎｏｗ　ｅａｃｈ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｂｕｔ　ｒｅｆｅｒｒｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｅａｃｈ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ａｓ　大哥（ｏｌｄｅｒ　ｂｒｏｔｈｅｒ）　ａｎｄ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｔａｌｋａｔｉｖｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｕｓ，　ｗｅ　ｗｅｒｅ　ａｌｓｏ　ｔｏｌｄ　ｔｏ　ｒｅｆｅｒ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｅｍ　ａｓ　大哥．　Ｎａｔｕｒａｌｌｙ　ｃｏｎｖｅｒｓａｔｉｏｎ　ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ　ｓｏｃｃｅｒ　ｆａｎｓ　ｓｔｒｕｃｋ　ｕｐ。　Ｔｈｅｙ　ｔｏｌｄ　ｕｓ： No need to go to class, just come here every night, we'll teach you, and said to 一边喝一边学 (to learn and drink at the same time).

By the end of the night we learned two new 成语 （Chinese idioms), had many many empty bottles of beer and promised to come back the next night to watch the England vs. Germany game. One of them was especially adamant about us coming back and asked one of us for our phone numbers and address!

When we were heading home it was already bright out and people were already waking up for the day.
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First Week of Classes!

After arriving in Beijing for a week, classes have finally started and I would say it's been easier than expected. For the past week, all that has been required of us it attending an orientation dinner and taking the placement test, the rest has been free time. I would say this is mostly due to the fact that most IUP　ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ　ａｒｅ　ｇｒａｄｕａｔｅ　ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ　ａｎｄ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ａｐｐｒｅｃｉａｔｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｒｅｅｄｏｍ，　ｗｈｅｒｅａｓ　ｍｏｓｔ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｐｒｏｇｒａｍｓ　ｈａｖｅ　ｍｏｓｔｌｙ　ｃｏｌｌｅｇｅ　ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅｒｅｆｏｒｅ　ｔｒｙ　ｔｏ　ｆｏｓｔｅｒ　ａ　ｓｅｎｓｅ　ｏｆ　ｃｏｍｍｕｎｉｔｙ．Ａｆｔｅｒ　ｃｌａｓｓｅｓ　ｅｎｄ，　ｍｏｓｔ　ｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ　ｓｅｅｍ　ｔｏ　ｇｏ　ｈｏｍｅ　ｒａｔｈｅｒ　ｔｈａｎ　＂ｈａｎｇｏｕｔ＂which is what I would have expected to have happen. Though the graduate students and college students do talk and mix, the large age differences dampens the sense of community that we can build, we're in different stages of life (some are married, some even have kids).

Academically, although we're not allowed to look at the textbook during class, I would say that the workload is pretty light. The lack of tingxie (small listening quizzes) makes things a lot easier and the textbook material doesn't seem to be very difficult (many other IUPers also feel like their textbooks are pretty easy). Other than that, classes have been pretty fun because most of the teachers are young so they like to joke around with us.

I'm looking forward to going to the GREAT WALL this weekend! (except for the fact that I'll have get to school by 9am)
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Settling In!

Hi everyone!
So I've finally found an apartment and started settling in. Tomorrow is the first day of classes and I'll probably be busy doing homework so I've uploaded some long overdue pictures! (The fourth one is the train that I rode on for 24 hours straight!)
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Warning: Do not stop for those people selling you things on the street

Chinese people are soooo good at selling you things that you don't even need. I thought I've been warned enough times to be immune to them, but guess what, I'm NOT. I was happily walking back to my hotel when someone stops me. They tell me they're not trying to sell me anything but just doing a promotion and giving people advice but after two hours I paid 200 yuan for a haircut that I didn't even need, my hair was already short in the first place and I got a hair cut a month and a half ago -_-

Ughhh, so watch out for those of you coming to China. They were super nice and say all the right things, but unless you need it, say NO!
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14 days, 7 cities

It's been a crazy two weeks, traveling to so many cities in such a short period of time is actually pretty tiring. Especially when you end the trip with a 24 hour train ride. (I'll upload pictures later of the train, it didn't turn out as bad as I expected since you get some sort of a bed to sleep on when you're tired)
So a few things I've learned on this trip:

-Chinese tour guide groups try to suck all the money out of you, they bring you to tourist attractions and make you buy the tickets to enter, and try to sell you the "local specialties." And of course I fell for the trick and bought a silk blanket and some chrysanthemum tea :( But they weren't expensive, I guess I don't really regret buying them. A good thing that came out of this tour was meeting two college girls from Guangzhou that kept me sane (the rest of the tour members were 50+ in age, lol)

-Chinese people love to push and run to be the first ones. Even if there is nothing to gain by being first everyone rushes to the front, especially old men and old women!

-Though millions of people come to New York to see the lights of Times Square the lights of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong are just as amazing, especially when these cities have lights all over the city and along their riverside!

Visiting Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai has shown me how developed and advanced some of these cities have become. The subways are amazingly clean (especially when compared to the old New York subways). Hangzhou even has a bike share program that allows anybody to conveniently use bikes (free for the first hour and then they charge a really low hourly price).

As for the Expo, it was packed! Some places took 3 or 4 hours to get in (I avoided those places). While some countries were pretty amazing (ie the high technology ones) I would say the content of most of the countries were kind of plain. But the outward structure, shape and overall style of each country was unique and made me ooooh and ahhh a lot.

Now that the traveling has ended, I have to start getting serious about getting a place to live and going back to school. I went to a real estate agent today and he said he'll call me when he finds a place that is 4000-5000 rmb a month for a two bedroom apartment and several other IUPers who are also looking for a place to live will be arriving in the next two days, so I'm not too worried.

Too lazy to upload pictures now, will do later!
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Hi!!! I'm finally in China!

After a long flight of 18 hours I arrived safe and sound in Guangzhou. Getting off the plane at 11pm at night, taking a bus and taxi to the 小区 that my aunt lives in and then climbing up eight flights of stairs with my two suitcases was quite the experience. But alas, jetlag has allowed me to sleep for only a couple of hours (I woke up at 7am!!!).

So far, in the five hours that I've been in Guangzhou I've already learned quite a lot.

First, the people of Guangzhou love to "yumcha" meaning dim sum and can spend hours on end at the restaurant (my aunt told me that you can sit from 8am to 4pm if you wanted :O). The newly installed subway systems of China are so pretty AND nicely air conditioned, unlike the dirty New York subways.

The streets are really different from the streets of New York, some places don’t even have sidewalks, there are no lights for crossing the streets and most small shops don't have doors, it looks like a hole in a wall, kind of like the small shops in Chinatown on Canal Street.

Right now I'm already on a three hour bus ride traveling to Hong Kong! I can't wait to start eating all the 小吃 (snacks) that Hong Kong is famous for. I'll be in Hong Kong for the next several days and then on the 30th I'll already be off on a plane to 南京(Nanjing) to embark on my tour of the famous cities of China. Super excited to see the Shanghai Expo!

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Getting Ready for...Takeoff!!!

Hi everyone!

It's been awhile since my last post but I've just been mostly catching up with friends in NYC for the past two weeks.

I'm about to board the plane in about six hours and it feels pretty surreal. I never realized how stressful going on vacation can be, especially when I have to deal with all my relatives in China (I have one whole suitcase full of gifts for my relatives). This whole morning was spent with my parents talking about how to get money when I'm in Beijing, how to deal with taxi drivers, and...how to not piss off my relatives by saying the wrong things, lol.

I still haven't really figured out what I'm doing about housing yet, so I guess I'll be apartment hunting the first couple days. But the whole bringing money to China issue is a real pain, my dad said he'll be sending money via Western Union to Beijing so we'll see how that works out. Sorry for complaining so much :( I just tend to worry a lot, but on the brighter side I am excited to see my aunts and uncles after 6+ years of not going back, and obviously I'm looking forward to the FOOD, yummmmm. For those of you living vicariously through me, don't worry I'll be posting plenty of pictures of things I eat! :p

I'll be in China the next time I post!

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My First Post!

I'm still home in NY, but I decided to start blogging already because being away from the Yale bubble has already made me feel sad. Added on with the fact that I just learned I'm going to be an aunt really puts me in a weird mode. While I'm excited for this summer, its also scary to not have a confirmed place to stay (Tsinghua doesn't let us pre-book their dorms and renting an apartment before you arrive is nearly impossible). But I'm sure things will work out...right?

Well, for now I'll just be excited about visiting Hong Kong and Guangzhou relatives, which I'll be doing 5/24-6/10.

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