Darfur Radio Project

If anyone still looks at this from time to time--

...please check out the Darfur Radio Project at http://www.darfurradioproject.org. DRP is one of the many reasons I don't have time to blog here during the school. I won't give too many hints about what it is- I want you to go see- but I will say that our new February show is up and I'm hosting, so definitely go see what it's all about.

this may be the last for a while...

Well I am writing this from Minneapolis, where I make my permanent residence. After a nightmare travel day (ugh) I finally arrived at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on Saturday night, where I was surprised at how dingy and downtrodden the airport looked in comparison to the airport I had left behind in Shanghai. Usually the Minneapolis airport seems familiar and homey; I am not used to feeling that it is quaint and antiquated. At any rate, adjusting to the time change has been a lot harder than it was the first time around. I don't think I'm completely over my jet-lag seeing as I napped for about 5 hours yesterday and still managed to get about 10 hours of sleep in the night. That said, it's hard to say what's jet lag and what's just generally being tired and needing a lot of sleep to recover from the semester, not to mention the fact that being home is tiring just in the sense that it's a massive change. The landscape here seems very spread out and quaint. The snow is abominable and yesterday was the first day the temperature spent any significant amount of time above 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Today it was warmer but also poured freezing rain, so I have had my pick of unpleasant Minnesota winter weather since I've been home, I guess.

At the moment I am waiting for Han to arrive. His plane should be on the ground in about 20 minutes, at which point I will leave and go to the airport to fetch him. I am so happy and also a bit amazed that we managed to not break up and not even get in a fight through all this time. He is such a wonderful constant to have in my life, and besides being an incredible boyfriend, is also a really good friend. I am lucky to have him and I can't wait to see him.

I think this marks the end of the "friendliest girl in town" blog, at least for now. I'm going to miss keeping a blog, I guess, but the sad truth is that there's less variety in my day-to-day life at home/Swarthmore, so I have less to report on. I'm not one of those David Sedaris types who can make magical essays out of monotony and tedium, much as I wish I were. I wasn't even going to write again after that "what i learned" post but since my dad asked me to post these last pictures, I thought I'd give it one last go.

For those not in the know, my dad came to Shanghai for my last week of CET, and after the program ended we took a tour to Xi'an and Beijing. Of the 800+ photos we took, here is a selection of some of the best.



With some friends in Shanghai



Near People's Square










Hai Bao, the mascot for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai



Art Deco



On the Bund, in front of Pudong Financial District



At the Yu Gardens






Yes they have FedEx in China...



View from above...




Xintiandi



Site of the first communist party congress



hot pot



jing an temple





Graduation



Top of the Shanghai World Financial Center



House/garden in Suzhou





Silk factory in Suzhou




Pulling the stuffing for a silk blanket



Zhou Zhuang water town












Xi'an ancient city wall




Market below the wall



A man trying to catch a bird



Father enjoying the old weapons



Feng Shui museum



A very lucky pixiu



Dumpling banquet



Tang Dynasty Show





With our guide in front of a Pixiu at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, which had some of the oldest artifacts either of us had ever seen



Shaanxi Provincial Museum boasting Tang Dynasty style fishtail roof



At the Big Wild Goose Pagoda



Qin Dynasty (third century BC) terracotta warriors



Each has an individual face and uniform






Ideological training



Tiananmen Square, Beijing



it was very cold





First gate to Forbidden City



Inside Forbidden City











Temple of Heaven











Olympic Birdsnest



Cloisonne Factory - working with the copper



Adding enamel color at the cloisonne factory



Ancient section of the great wall



Great Wall (badaling section)




The 8th Watchtower (we're heroes)






At the Sacred way some of the statues don't smile...



...and some do! ;)








Rickshaw ride through the Hu Tong district






Part of the tour was eating a homecooked meal in this lady's house :)



Her 30+ year old turtle and talking bird



With a Qilin at the summer palace



Phoenix (sign of the empress)



Dragon (sign of the emperor)



Manmade lake at the summer palace





Bat, the symbol of happiness because its name is pronounced "bian fu" and "fu" is also the pronunciation of the word for happiness




Crane, symbol of longevity, atop a turtle, also a symbol of longevity, so basically a massive longevity symbol



The long corridor (a really long walkway)








Making some new friends :P





Empress Cixi's marble boat



and an infamous Chinese squat toilet.



It's been fun guys. Merry Christmas to those who celebrated it, and to all a happy new year. Here's hoping for more excitement in 2009. . .

2 posts in 1 day omg

I realized I had never posted about Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving we went to a famous restaurant, Quan Ju De, and ate Peking Duck. Peking duck, or Beijing kaoya is delicious, delicious duck, cooked specially so that the skin is fried and crispy and magical, and the meat is tender and full of flavor. You eat it wrapped in a small tortilla-type thing, with onion and special sauce. Basically it's a symphony of flavor in the mouth and should be eaten at all times by everyone who doesn't care about their figure because it's not very healthy. Before we ate, we rented costumes from a costume shop, and after dinner, we took photos, trying to get a group photo for the semester, and also a bunch of "for fun" ones. Here are some:

Reflections

Yeah, yeah, I know, nobody wants to read the "What I Learned On My Trip Abroad" essay, but it has to be done. I mean, I'm finally nearing the end of my program: tomorrow my dad arrives, marking the end of the time i am here alone, and then in a week the program ends, and a week later I'll be on a plane headed home. A few months ago it seemed like I was going to be in China for so long...it would be ages before my dad even got her, much less before I got to see my other family members and friends and Han. But here we are, a mere two weeks away from America.

I feel really ambivalent, as I've hinted in my previous writings. At this point, I'm really homesick for Swarthmore and the rhythm of life there, with Sharples and my friends and McCabe. But it's still not like I fully want to say goodbye to China, because it might be a permanent goodbye. In a way, I wish that I could just go home for a few weeks, see everyone I love and miss, and then come back. Even better, come back bringing Han because a long distance relationship is neither fun nor easy, but that's another can of worms entirely... and not the point. The point is that I don't feel my "work" in China is done. I haven't seen enough. I haven't met enough people. My grasp of the language is better than it was but not good enough. I haven't visited enough sites, I haven't sampled enough foods, I haven't snuck into Tibet and I haven't figured out how I can permanently relocate to Sanya. I'm not trying to be Negative Nancy bringing all that up. The issue at hand isn't that I'm disappointed with what I have done. The issue at hand is that there is still so much more to do.

I came to China almost expecting that I would fall immediately in love with the country and probably want to move here eventually. Well, it didn't really happen exactly like that but I eventually shaped my love-hate relationship with this place (love: the food, friendly people, temples, the exchange rate, the language. hate: the slow service, the crowdedness, having a hard time learning the language) into something that resembles love with a few snaggles. I have a really hard time envisioning myself moving here for the long haul, doing the Shanghai expat thing for the rest of my life. I have an absurdly easy time envisioning myself moving here for a short period of time either teaching English, or with a job that somehow would put me in China only temporarily. I don't know if I would choose to live in Shanghai. Sometimes Shanghai is too overwhelming, too big, too crowded, almost too colorful and shiny. I liked Nanjing a lot. I loved Chengdu. It could happen.

I also came abroad, as many foreign students do, expecting to "learn a lot about the culture." I suppose that happened but as someone on Swat's Daily Gazette recently quipped, the plural of anecdote is not data- and although I've visited a lot of places and seen a lot of things, I don't feel equipped with enough information to make many generalizations about Chinese culture. I would say I learned about Chinese culture but, unexpectedly, the culture about which I truly deepened my understanding is my own. I took so many things, from a certain awareness of personal space/positioning when standing in a narrow hallway to giving pedestrians the right of way to asking personal questions to willingness to criticize our own country/culture to apologizing when I knock into someone to the requirements of friendship, for granted. I mean, obviously I knew these things are different in different places- the summers I spent in Costa Rica and Spain weren't entirely for nothing- but being here for so long and constantly observing such sharp contrasts between my American friends and the sea of Chinese people surrounding us put things into perspective for me every day. Yeah, I've learned some things about Chinese culture that I didn't know before, but honestly, being in a place for 3 months just can't help me... 了解 (understand? comprehend?) adequately at all. Instead, being here has made me seriously re-evaluate which parts of my own culture are highly important to me, and which ones I've found I may not like so much.

I am also sad about leaving our Chinese roommates and the people I have met and formed small relationships with. In all honesty the chance that I will see many of these people ever again is just so slim. I hope to keep in touch with Rose but the other roommates... unlikely... and everyone else who has become a part of my life here? It's just unrealistic. I know I'm being sentimental because I will fade from their lives just as they will eventually fade from mine. But it breaks my heart to have to say goodbye.


I don't know. I can't believe my "semester abroad" is almost over. It seems cliche but I feel old.

I FEEL GREAT

...and why shouldn't I? It's not like every day I finish all of my final papers a week early.

And then when I was going to the gym I got squeezed into the elevator up to the gym with six of my favorite gym rat meatheads (the baldest and meatiest of whom, I might add, was wearing a knitted sweater) and they all shouted at me in heavily Shanghai-accented Chinese that I have lost a lot of weight and I am really very cool for coming to the gym so often.

Ya, i'd say it's been a pretty solid day.

I haven't really been updating a lot, I know... the good news is that those papers were the reason, and now they're done. The bad news is that I don't know if that means I'm going to be getting any better. I mean, my dad arrives this weekend and after that it's him and finals and traveling and then i'm home. So... we'll see.

Anyway, I asked Rose if it's normal for dudes who I would see at the gym but never talk to (except for one, who I talked to once) to comment on my weight- because I'm pretty sure that would NEVER happen in America. And she was really surprised I asked and explained that in Shanghai the girls are very conscious of their weight, so when people want to make conversation with a girl, if she has lost weight, they will tell her. I guess it is friendly and shows a certain level of affection? Well, glad to know all the meatheads over at the gym care about me ^_^

The Communist Party

(We're walking through the Jing An Temple area and pass by a certain Hong Kong bank)

Chinese Person: Oh, it would be very good for me if I could get a job at that bank.

Me: Yeah? (thinking it's just about the money)

CP: Yeah...because you know, if I want to get a job at Bank of China, or something like that, I have to be a Communist and you know... I really don't want to be a Communist.

Me: *blink* Really? Why is that?

CP: Yeah, you know, the people who join the Party are the people like [name redacted], they just try to please the teachers all day and only think about making money. To get a job at the Bank of China or even any of the state run companies, you really have to be a Communist, but people who join the party don't care anything about Communism or know anything about it, they just want to be able to get a good job. The other thing is that foreign owned companies, we say that you have to work very hard and the work is very challenging. But at a state owned company, you just have to show up for work at 9, go home at 5:30 or 5, and in between, you don't have to do anything, you can just sit there. So a lot of people don't know anything about Communism or Communist theory, they just want to become a Communist so that they can lead a relatively easy life.

Me: Oh..interesting...

CP: Also, don't you think it seems a little bit weird? You have to be a Communist to work in a bank?



I had heard about this before, needing to be in the party to get certain jobs or move up in certain industries (banks, state owned companies etc) but I had certainly never had it spelled out so clearly by a regular Chinese person, and CERTAINLY not someone who wasn't a cynical academic. Hmmm.

street food

As I write I am very full of food items purchased from the various vendors that sell near the school gate. First I bought some crabapples on a stick, cooked and dipped in fresh caramel made from boiling the sugar straight. Next I went to go buy a sweet potato. I pointed at a normal sized potato but he selected a freakishly large one, and I didn't have it in me to say no because this guy stands out in the cold every day selling potatoes. now the sweet potato sits before me half-eaten, GLARING at me with its potato-self, accusatory, because it was too much sweet potato to finish. While I was buying the sweet potato the potato guy's friend came up and said, "HELLO!" I said, hello, and he asked if I wanted some walnuts. He was so young looking and elfish and had puppy eyes and again I didn't have it in me to say no so I ended up buying a huge bag of walnuts. I wasn't able to finish those either so now I sit, full of sweet potato and walnut, and the worst part is that Jamie's roommate Maverick has been planning to take us out to dinner all week, and I'm already full. We can't go till he gets off work after 9 so I thought I would just buy a snack but then the food sellers sold me too many items!!! man!

Rose tasted licorice for the first time because the Dutch gave her some today. She thought the flavor was very weird. Her friend tried it too and also thought the flavor was strange. Apparently to her it tasted like stinky tofu. To me that's ridiculous because stinky tofu is in a league of nastiness all on its own. However, I guess if you haven't been raised eating it, licorice is pretty bizarre tasting huh? Not really sweet...

I forgot to mention this but on Tuesday I went out to lunch with my professor from SASS. He said he wanted to invite me to a lunch so I assumed it was with some Korea expert he wanted me to meet....actually it was his friend's daughter, who is a couple years older than me and hoping to go tothe US to get a master's. it was actually quite a fun meal and I liked her a lot. She gave me a ride home and offered to help me go pick up my dad from the airport when he comes. Actually, Dr. Liu offered for her, haha. But I wouldn't doubt for a second that I could turn to this girl if I ran into some issue in Shanghai in the next few weeks- she was so sweet and told me multiple times that if I needed anything I must call her. I am constantly amazed by the easiness and openness of the Chinese attitude towards friendship. Meet someone and they are your friend, is what it seems like. Take Jeremy- the farmer he knows who we went camping with, the guy who owns the bike factory we visited- those are people he just happened to meet, who he probably sees once a year at most, who still took the time to lead us around and be more than gracious hosts just for the sake of their friendship with Jeremy. Or my Chinese tutor's sister, who had never met me but has taken me out for dinner a couple times and wants to bring me and my dad out when he comes. I have to watch myself because I think we Americans are less loyal in that way, more forgetful, more casual, and maybe even more mindless. I don't want to thoughtlessly hurt one of my Chinese friends just by acting the way I normally do...

The lunchtime conversation was also full of gems. First there was Dr. Liu informing me that most of his female Ph.D. students are unable to find husbands, because in the prime of their youth they are too busy studying, and after they get their degree no man wants them because they are too educated and too old. Then the friend's daughter jumping in to say, "In China we say there are 3 kinds of people- men, women, and female Ph.D. students!" Or talking about Obama, when he asked me if I voted for Obama, and when I said yes, he said, "But you don't care about his race?!" And then telling me he doesn't like Hillary Clinton because she is too powerful for a woman. Hmmmm. When those kinds of comments are made I tend to just raise my eyebrows and probe for more information- there's no arguing to be done, because it would go nowhere, but I am interested in the motive behind that kind of perspective. Unfortunately in this case I got no further details. Anyway, it was interesting.

winter is coming

Winter is coming to Shanghai...

...Cold has set in... The temperature has dipped to ~55 degrees by day, ~45 by night. Even to me this feels cold (after the ridiculously hot and humid summer and- it's still humid, just not hot) and the Chinese are beginning to break out overcoats, hats, scarves, mittens, boots and everything wintery. I, donning my GAP hoody which has served me well since freshman year, am often met with "美国人不怕冷!" (Americans are not afraid of the cold!), or if I choose to wear my new hat and red scarf, "Christmas!"

...People smoke their cigarettes indoors, instead of braving the outside- oh wait, they do that anyway, no matter the time of year. :P Today in a Kedi (local convenience store, like a 7-11) a whole hoard of smoking Chinese youth were in line behind me. And in restaurants? Forget it- they're pretty strict in Starbucks but I've even seen people light up in there. I am pretty spoiled from American, especially Minnesotan, rules... smoking ban states, you don't know what you got til it's gone.

...The number of street food sellers outside the university has exponentially increased with the cold, adding on various roasted nut sellers, sellers of fruit dipped in caramel, small fried dough items, and other yummies. Clad in huge overcoats and pushing carts, they are picturesque, especially appearing out of the nighttime mists, illuminated by streetlamps.

...The nighttime is accompanied by the sweet serenade of the wenzi-- wait, that's not right, you're saying, but oh, dear reader, you have underestimated the strength and virility and perseverance of the Shanghai mosquito. Even now, as Shanghai residents bemoan the onslaught of winter and huddle in frigid pairs as they limp down the sidewalk in heeled boots, the wenzi continue to terrorize my nights. They lie in wait during the day, hiding somewhere, perhaps in the vents, then arise in the nighttime like phoenixes of doom to sing songs of bloodsucking viciousness beside my ears and alight upon my cheeks legs and feet and sample the taste of me. So what I'm trying to say is that winter may be coming but it still hasn't resolved the wenzi problem, damn insects.

...And I realize how much I miss the holiday season at home. Only Starbucks is decked out in Christmas spirit, with red walls and tinsel and holly and specialty drinks. I go there to think about Christmas. Actually, I go there to study, but it is nice to feel cozy and festive while I am writing papers and learning vocabulary. But only when I play the songs myself do I hear the Christmas carols I'd be hearing left and right in the states, and only when some curious Chinese person asks about it do I realize how much a part of winter the secular side of Christmas becomes in America. It's something I really miss.


---------

Momentary pause for non-Shanghai related blather that is really only relevant to Swarthmore readers:

The onslaught of winter also means the approaching onslaught of Next Semester. I registered for classes yesterday and am set to take:

CHIN 012 Advanced Chinese - Huang (M 1:15-2:30)
CHIN 012A Advanced Chinese Conversation - Jiang Laoshi YAY!!! (TTh 2:40-3:55)
POLS 003 International Politics - Hererra (TTh 1:15-2:30)
POLS 107 Comparative Politics of Greater Europe - Murphy (W 1-5 double credit seminar)

Anyone going to be in class with me? :-D

mei guo

As far as Shanghai blogs go I'm late in the game at getting this up but most of you still probably won't have heard this. Why the rest of the world hates us. Ugh, ugh. This latest example of American douchebaggery is so infuriating. We are so often already seen as stupid, rude, piggish and self-important but why, why must expats and tourists alike continue to live up to the name "ugly american"?! I just honestly cannot believe that anyone would talk to another person that way, and so utterly unprovoked! I am embarrassed that this man hails from my motherland.

Sometimes people act so ridiculous just because they think that since they are in China, it is okay. I can't tell you how many times I have heard some ass foreigner scream "FUWUYUAN!!!" to get a waitress to come over, or talk rudely to servers and retail workers, and just generally act crude and foolish. I have never seen this happen but apparently it is even commonplace for foreign men to approach strange women in clubs and bars and ask them if they want to go home and have sex. I would like to see them try that in an American establishment! It is so disgusting! Why do people think that being in China gives them permission to forget all levels of civility and manners and treat everyone else as if they are somehow inferior beings. Yes, Chinese people are loud. Sometimes they yell fuwuyuan! and often they hock up loogies on the street and the litter is terrible and you already know how I feel about the driving here but-- I am sorry, when a Chinese person does it it is culturally appropriate. When an expat, particularly an AMERICAN expat (which I can say because I know our culture and how most of us were taught to behave) acts that way it does not make them "fit in", it just makes him or her look ridiculous and is just plain rude and disrespectful. And frankly the foreigners do it to a much fouler degree than anyone else I've seen, and that horrid recording is CASE IN POINT. Sometimes I just get so angry at my countrymen! I know your mama taught you better than that!!!

For those not in the know, Sherpas is the company whose representative that idiot is talking to/bellowing at/etc. You call them and place an order and they go get you takeout from any of some ~50 restaurants in Shanghai. I have never ordered a Sherpa myself because they are a little outside my price range for food items but I have heard nothing but good things about them from others.

Hooters China

There is a Hooters a few blocks away, so we thought it would be funny on Friday to bring our teachers there for our Chinese lunch table rather than a Chinese restaurant. I don't think I have ever eaten in a Hooters in the US but Hooters here is just ridiculous. First of all those poor girls looked frozen in their tiny outfits, but I guess that's neither here nor there. Anyway the girls sang and danced and it was all very campy. In US Hooters establishments do the waitresses perform choreographed dances to pop songs and sing ridiculous children's ditties like "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Row Row Row Your Boat" to celebrate someone's birthday? I felt like I was caught in a freakish netherworld of song and dance, decked out as a man cave and featuring scantily-clad waifs. :P Also, people don't tip in China so there's really not any incentive for the waitresses to be friendly/coquettish with customers. All the things like saying "hello!" to all the customers when they entered, and the dancing, and the small outfits seemed very... "learned" in a way, rather than the kind of natural flirtation I'd expect in a Hooters at home.