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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Uncle Sam Wants ... Me?

Last weekend, I visited one of my high school friends stationed in Yokosuka. Living near a base back home, I’ve developed a sort of affinity for military communities, but this was my first time on a naval base. The ships are simply amazing, and her explanations of being out on sea made me want to join the navy too – her carrier ship houses FOUR THOUSAND other sailors on it, and after Japan, she might go as far as Morocco or France (but then she told me I’d have to take physics, so that was the end of that). Nonetheless, I’m jealous of all the opportunities the U.S. military gives – a hefty salary, yes, but more than that, a chance to travel doing something that truly honors one’s country.

Couldn't get a closeup because it is the military, after all. But isn't it grand??

Going on base was also like going back to a piece of America. (As such, I stocked up on hard to come by bathroom products like shaving gel and stick deodorant hehe). But it made me wonder, what do the Japanese think about the U.S. bases that are still here? There was that whole fiasco with the Okinawa base and Hatoyama, but from my experiences, the communities surrounding a base heavily depend on it and usually don’t want it closed down. But Japan has never really been one to embrace the West…

As for class, it’s picking up, but I still don’t feel like it’s as intense as I thought it was going to be. Don’t get me wrong, the teachers are excellent and I appreciate the fact they’re being picky on really subtle things like intonation (although it can be a drag to repeat one sentence over and over again sometimes), but I’ve still been able to sleep 7-8 hours a day – this feels absolutely amazing for someone who sleeps 4-6 at Yale. Then again, we only had three days of class this week because of two national holidays, so I could be gauging the pace too fast. Nonetheless, I’ve already noticed a considerable improvement in my writing/speechmaking (after you do a speech everyday for the last two weeks, I guess there had better be some sort of improvement). On top of that, I’ve had a strange motivation to do more than what’s taught in class, especially when it comes to expanding vocabulary. I realize that once you have the basic grammar down, nothing is as important as memorizing as many new words as you can. So I’ve been taking my Ipod Touch everywhere, storing unfamiliar words that I hear, and most importantly of all, REVIEWING them on the train – which doesn’t just mean the definition, but how they’re used in sentences. Now if only I could be as motivated about kanji…

I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by the number of outside activities the center has. Well, I guess they’re not always exactly organized by the center, but I’ve been able to sign up for a hiking trip, an excursion to Kamakura, and Noh/Bunraku performances in the last week. As such, I think my decision to go to IUC still stands … the program is excellent, I’ve still been able to meet a lot of Japanese people, and I can’t get over the fact that I live 30 minutes away from central Tokyo and 10 from central Yokohama by train.

Scramble crossing at Shibuya - only 30 min away by train! 

People ask me, is it strange to be in Japan when you should have been at Yale this year? I don’t know why, but everything just feels NATURAL about me being here. Yes, I’m become familiarized, but more than that, I get the strange sense that I was always meant to be at this place at this time at this point in my life. (I know, I’m a little crazy…) This also sounds vague, but after a summer in China, I just don’t think I could have gone back to Yale after going through a whirwind two months of seeing new places that made me think about things I never thought about before.

[I realize that my blog posts are becoming less and less thematic in lieu of just being a bunch of updates strung together – sorry about that!]

Landmark Tower (Japan's tallest building) in the morning fog on the way to school

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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Weekend Shenanigans

I think last week might have felt a little isolating, since I was starting over from scratch – new place, new people, new lifestyle (well, besides the obvious “new country”). But thankfully, the weekend came, and I’m starting to really enjoy my life here.

Friday evening, I met up with a friend to eat Chinese food, and our conversation kind of set off the tone for the weekend. Since he’s also studying Chinese, I was also trying to practice a bit (and found how out horribly American my Chinese accent has become), which brought up the topic of my Chinese experience. I was saying something along the lines of “Well, I think it might be easier to make friends in China because people are more real with you there. In Japan, people are nice, but …” He gave a simply reply, “If you make more Japanese friends, you’ll probably think differently…” Something I’m still thinking about and that I hope to come to agree with this year. If anything, the rest of the weekend was a step toward that.

Afterwards, me and my roommate were looking around for things to do on a Friday night (in our words, “We’re too young to stay in and study!!”), but we didn’t feel like staying out until 4 when the trains start running again, so we scoped out the neighborhood 居酒屋.The ones we passed were chock full of salarymen, but we ended up choosing one that only had one other customer, a guy in T-shirt and jeans – before a slew of other salarymen came in. Our fellow customers weren’t much up for conversation, but it was still interesting to check out the scene as probably the only two females in our neighborhood who found themselves in a 居酒屋 that night. Eh, with all the dreariness of Japanese corporate world, I can see why these places exist as a sort of relaxation. The cherry on top was when we made our way to the door, only to have everyone in the room look our way to say a hearty good-bye, and me smiling back as the door closed, WAVING good-bye as the biggest social faux pas of the night (completely forgot I was in Japan, where you bow like every five seconds). We cracked up on the way back to the apartment – who knows what stuff they were talking about us after we left – but an experience in Japan nonetheless. In a year, we should be able to knock out the rest in our neighborhood. ;)

Next morning, I met up with a language partner I found online. We ended up hanging out the entire day, talking a lot about differences between Korea/Japan, since she’s also studying Korean on the side and has been to Korea multiples times. And I MIGHT have a chance to see TVXQ in concert on their Japan tour next year because my language partner, who’s also a huge fan, has graciously offered to apply for tickets *fingers crossed*. Either way, it was an awesome day, and I finally got a chance to practice some タメ語 after the ていねい語 overload in class all week. More and more, I realize that I’m not going to be able to learn “real” Japanese in class, no matter how hard I pour through the textbook. I feel like I’m leading a double life sometimes, drilling the 敬語 and 尊敬語 in class (which, admittedly, is an area I seriously need to work on, but we avoid けど and から like the plague), and trying to pick up as much colloquial talk outside of class.

Ended with a beautiful sunset from 大桟橋:
The sail-looking building is where I go to school!

Sunday was lunch with a friend I met at church who’s studying to be a Japanese teacher. I also finally went to Shibuya after the service to check out another church that someone recommended in the Harajuku area (when I also found out that the Toyoko-sen is actually that amazing). Still looking around for churches, but both of the ones I’ve been to are bilingual, which I’ve always appreciated from growing up in one. The afternoon church also invited me to a bilingual Bible study group, so we’ll see how that goes next week…

I know the weekend ends on Sunday, but … since one of my friends who’s studying in Korea came to Japan for a short visit, I found the perfect excuse to procrastinate and go to Tokyo again. She introduced me to a couple of her friends who are all in this international group from different universities and we went for snacks/drinks in Shibuya. I didn’t try talking as much as I should have, but it was still kind of a humbling experience to see how much my listening skills still have yet to go. The theme of the night was also Korea vs. Japan. I guess, since there’s more cultural exchange now between the two countries than ever, people think about it a lot. Or maybe I just come across a lot of people who think about that topic specifically, but it seems to be a recurring theme wherever I go. Either way, fun times … Yes, I didn’t start homework until 1:30 a.m. that night, and yes, I felt like a little like crap the next morning … but I’m already living out my philosophy the fullest – do everything in Japan that you can’t do in the U.S. (which does not count being cooped up in your room doing homework).

Also, I take back what I said about not being able to hang out as much with people from IUC – they’re all actually pretty chill people (quite a few that just finished undergrad) and the fact that they’re learning Japanese for a specific purpose gives them a kind of edge. It’s still a little hard to meet up since we all live in different places around Tokyo/Yokohama, but I’m looking forward to getting to know more of my classmates.

(Apologies for the lack of photos. Would have loved to take pictures at the 居酒屋 but of course, that would have been another major faux pas…)

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Thursday, September 8, 2011

First Impressions

First week of classes are almost over! And with the reputation that IUC has, I’m thinking this will probably be one of the easiest since all we’ve done is placement tests/orientation stuff. The atmosphere here is pretty much what it presents itself as – an advanced language program for professionals, academics, and people who have pretty specific plans for the Japanese they’re learning. The facilities are also all in an office setting, set in the Pacifico Yokohama building in the ultramodern Minato Mirai district. For our first lunch after class, me and my roommate checked out a cheap cafeteria at a nearby shopping mall – and found ourselves eating with a bunch of salarymen. Even the surroundings are all about business  …

I seem a little out of place here as the only undergraduate, but I definitely expected that. I know most Yalies choose Nanzan for the campus environment, and it was definitely a tough decision between the two. When I go through it in my head, I guess I chose IUC for the following reasons:

1. Quality of instruction – After all, there’s a reason why IUC has its own Wikipedia page. Not to downplay Nanzan or anything, but IUC is supposedly one of the best Japanese language programs in the world. It also follows that it’s one of the most intense, but in the end, it’s still up to you how much time you’re willing to put toward class versus other aspects of living abroad. (A summer in HBA has taught me this – for better or for worse, I still don’t know…)  I also think, personally speaking, I end up learning more at an intense program where I might have to cut back on the pace, versus a mediocre program where I have to motivate myself to learn extra stuff on top of class. I’ll look back on this point more as class actually starts … hoping that I can keep up!

2. More independence – One thing that bothered me a little at some language programs I’ve been to. I was going to talk about this in a separate blog post about Chinese attitudes, but alas, seeing as I’m already in Japan … basically, there was a talent show at the end of HBA – which would have completely fine and enjoyable – if not for the fact everyone was forced to participate. Being our last weekend in China, I had to forget about my plans to visit some places I had yet to knock off of my list. Other issues at HBA were warning students not to visit other cities on the weekends after a student got injured on one such occasion (yes, there are liability issues, but still…) I admit I’m still a youngun’ in college, but I don’t like the feeling of constant supervision. At IUC, you're an adult, you're on your own, and that's that.

My living situation is also “domesticating” me a bit … For the first time in my twenty years, I’ve started learning how to COOK without a microwave (even if I burn things the first time!). I probably go the grocery everyday, but this is supposedly the norm in Japan. Among other things, I’m also maneuvering through Yokohama’s ridiculously complicated garbage system (I currently have six trash bags in my kitchen for garbage separation), paying and saving on bills, etc. Life is definitely tougher on your own, but the sooner I learn, the better, right?

3. Escaping the “hang out with other Yalies/students from your language program” phenomenon – Granted, I don’t have a bajillion other college students to hang out with here. But I hope that it’ll actually force me to find more Japanese friends versus people from my program. I still want to get to know the other students at IUC, since I’m considering graduate school/research after Yale – but I’m not too sure how many of them want to go out on the weekends with someone who’s 5-10 years younger them. I know it's tough making Japanese friends (not to mention the language barrier), but I'm actually not sure if it's easier on campus - surrounded by Japanese students, yes, but also surrounded by tons of foreign students. If anything, the isolated atmosphere at IUC is driving me to seek friendship elsewhere. 

4. Proximity to Tokyo – my apartment lies on the Tokyu Toyoko line, which is a 30-minute train ride to Shibuya for 260 yen – not shabby for one of the world’s most expensive transportation systems. Oh, and did I mention that Tokyo is pretty much my favorite city in the world?

The neighborhood I’m living in is pretty residential – a stark contrast to the hubbub of Wudaokou in Beijing, but on the other hand, it’s better for running – I’ve found a park a little over a mile away for some nice scenery. Biking is also an amazing way to get around - my landlady gave both me and my roommate bikes that some former students had left over (score!!). I biked to Pacifico Yokohama today and figured it would take about a half-hour one way (could be a major way to save on commute - we'll see when the weather gets colder...) We also biked to the ward library, got our library cards, and checked out some children's novels (hey, you gotta start somewhere!). And of course, if I ever get tired of the neighborhood, central Yokohama and Tokyo are pretty accessible whenever I get that big city urge. I think what I enjoy the most is just knowing that I can go somewhere at anytime, anywhere, even in a foreign country.

This is actually my third time in Japan after a summer in Hokkaido and a mission trip last winter break.  Each time, I know I get more comfortable ... but I also don't find as many surprises. I'll have to try  harder this year to learn new things,  but hopefully, it'll only make me dig past surface level. 

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Speaking in Korean (when you don't know how to speak Korean)

[Written while still in Seoul]

Trying to communicate in Korea is ironic – I can either dig up Korean I haven’t used for over 13 years or try to practice all the Japanese I’ve forgotten this summer with my roommate from Yale (whom I’m staying with at her 학수집 in Sinchon) – when all I want to do is speak CHINESE DARNIT. (Nonetheless, I’ll know a couple months later, I’ll be horrified at how much Chinese I’m gonna forget… my goal is to find language partners soon!) Though I’m somehow getting by with very raw Korean. My tongue will suddenly roll off random phrases I must have absorbed when I was five but just haven’t used since. Grammar is thrown out the window, but at least I can get my point across, and understanding other people talk is, of course, much less of a problem. Yeah, my Korean still sucks, but it makes me wonder how much I’ll pick up if I crashed in Korea for a couple months…

As for the country itself, people are often like, “Wow, it’s your first time in Korea (that counts), it must be like, some surreal return to the land of your forefathers…” (well, not exactly those words, but something on the lines of that). Actually, I’ve been sort of neutral about it – nothing has really surprised me or given me life revelations so far. My roommate was once asked, “Why go to Korea? It’s the worst of three worlds – everything is bigger in China and cleaner in Japan.” I might agree with the latter statement, at least. The mountains and temples in Korea are just smaller versions of the ones in China, and it’s a little on the dirty side (especially in the university district of Sinchon), though an improvement from China. I didn’t really have any preconceptions about Korea (aside from plastic surgery, which is of course, extremely true), so Korea has definitely not been a disappointment for me – just not a surprise either.

Along the lines of plastic surgery, I do agree that people just overall look better here – and no, I swear I’m not being biased because I’m Korean myself. Maybe it’s just plastic surgery, but on top of physique, there’s also the clothes people wear – I could care less about fashion, but after China, it was a relief to see that shoes actually matched outfits in Korea. And no wonder everyone says a Light summer in Korea is just FUN. Nightlife is pretty alive in Sinchon/Hongdae. There’s also a huge café culture with delicious 팥빙수 and various other Asian treats – although China still tops all when it comes to cheap street food. But overall, Seoul is pretty fun if you’re a young person. I’m also a little jealous of the setup for Light Fellows in Korea – sure, you land in Incheon without housing and feeling kind of helpless, but I feel like you have a lot more independence and leeway to decide what you want to do with your time in Korea. The 아줌마 at the 하숙집 that I’m staying at has also been nothing but wonderful – she cooks awesome breakfast and dinner everyday and gave me free bedding for my weeklong stay. There also seems to be a lot more free time to hang out with language partners, make friends, etc. Well, in the end, I really can’t speak for the Light experience in Korea unless I’ve actually gone through one myself, but I am enjoying my time here.

And maybe the fact that nothing surprises me is simply the fact that I’ve grown up in a Korean household. When I go back to the 하숙집 for dinner, it just feels like the dinner table at home again...

[most likely a blog post that I never finished... but I've long forgotten what else was on my mind at that time.] 

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What I've been up to in the past two weeks...

Seoul
I actually didn’t do too much roaming around in Seoul in lieu of just meeting up with friends from school. (The amount of stuff I wrote about Seoul probably reflects that - apologies in advance!) Nonetheless, it was a good time to relax after a whirlwind week of travel in China, and I still got to check out some cool places:

Biking around the World Cup Stadium

As crazy as cafe culture gets...

창덕궁 

Jeonju
Birthplace of 비빔밥Although the quality isn’t the same at all the restaurants, so choose them wisely (preferably those away from bus terminal). It’s a smaller city than Seoul/Busan though, so we only stayed for a couple days. There’s the 한옥마을, Korean traditional village, which is definitely bigger and a lot more touristy than the one near 남산 I went to in Seoul. And you can spend your time hiking around the nearby parks, which we did one afternoon at 마이산which also had a couple interesting of temples.

Jeonju is also where my friend introduced me to the art of Korean saunas, or 찜질방which are a cheap alternative to hostels (~7000 for a night). I’d already been through the whole naked thing with onsens in Japan, but 찜질방s are definitely a different experience. Most shocking thing is that AFTER you soak, you get in these hot/cold igloos, usually one or two that are extremely hot (think 50-90 degrees CELSIUS) and a cold room (the one we went to was -5 C). In the heated rooms, you get some woodblocks for pillows, lay down on the heated floor, and basically just SWEAT. (This was the shocking part for someone who hates sweating after showering, but I went along for the heck of it.) Supposedly, your body soaks in the minerals from the heat or something … but the best part is finally going into the cold room and drying all that sweat off!

View at the top of 한옥마을 

비빔밥!

탑사 in between the "ears" of 마이산 

Busan
They say everything in Korea is in Seoul … but I was quite charmed by Busan. Along with having these awesome singsong accents (even the college kids have them!), people here are definitely more laid-back. And we pretty much went to the beach EVERYDAY – never got tired of it.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but Busan feels a bit more spread out than Seoul, separated into little “districts” on our tourist map with a lot of places only reachable by bus (so save a lot of 100-won coins 1000-won bills). There are beaches on every corner, mountains to the north, and some awesome temples.  

Amazing sunset at pebble beach in 태종대

 More beach...


Known as the “Machu Picchu” of Busan. I don’t know why this isn’t in Lonely Planet – awesome neighborhood with a path marked by colorful fish arrows


용궁사: Building a temple on a cliff overlooking the sea must have been hard, but it was also the greatest idea ever... 

It’s also mind-blowing how close everything in Korea is – the bus from Seoul to Busan is only 5 hours. (Granted, there are much smaller countries than South Korea, but I haven’t been to them yet…) I suspect the super nice rest stops are due to are highway buses that run to every major city. No wonder my mom’s friends ask her to take them to New York if they go to the U.S. for a visit – you can’t really imagine a 14-hour car ride around here. Thus, my opinion still stands that China is probably a better place for cross-country traveling, but Korea is a must-see place too. Also, Korean food reigns supreme, as seen in below pic:

Bring on the 삼겹살

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Friday, August 19, 2011

Final Thoughts on China

Well, safely settled in Seoul, which gives me some time to write down my final say on China. When I first walked around Beijing, all I could think about was the ugly monotony of apartment buildings and the stench of trash bins by my friend’s apartment. Leaving that same place to take the airport train though, I knew I would come back, not as something I’d grudgingly do but something I truly wanted to do. There are lots of things I can mull over about my time in China, but for now (and lack of better transition), I can give you three completely unrelated points that hit me the most:

1. Back to the question of "is Confucianism a religion"? And if not, can you be both a Confucianist and a Buddhist? Or dare I say, a Confucianist Christian? It would probably be best to define religion first – if you (like me) consider religion to be a set of beliefs that influence your views on the afterlife, the existence (or nonexistence of) divine entities, and morality, then Confucianism falls a little short. The focus of Confucianism is how to better yourself in the present life, still acknowledging the existence of an afterlife and spiritual entities, but leaving those questions to be things considered only after you die. In that sense, I can see how a person can call himself both a Buddhist and Confucianist. (Maybe I just don’t understand Buddhism as well as I should, but anyways, this is what I think now.) On the other hand, I don’t see how someone can claim to be both a Confucianist and a Christian – perhaps a Christian who holds Confucianist principles in his heart, but not one who blatantly calls himself both. Christianity has a forward-looking attitude, linking the choices in our present lives with our future conditions in the afterlife. Thus, even if Confucianism is just a philosophy, a set of principles to live by, and not a religion, I still think it contrasts Christianity in a way that can’t be easily reconciled.

2. Whew, well that was a mouthful. My other reflections are not quite so weighty – one simply being a newfound appreciation for how lucky we are in America. Food that doesn’t make you sick every week, clean air and tidy streets, and most of all, fast and reliable Internet. Which leads me to think about the (overanalyzed, oversaid) gap between the rich and the poor in China. I can get on a two-hour domestic flight with in-flight movie, free meal, and an endless supply of complementary drinks and wonder why American airlines can’t keep up. I stroll around the shopping areas and am amazed at how clean and modern everything is – until I turn the next corner into at an alleyway with beggars playing their instruments and people trying to sell the most trivial of trinkets just to scrape by. It’s been said that the Chinese system is sustainable because the poor don’t think as much about the state of their own lives, but how far China’s status has come in the last thirty years. Nonetheless, there are some incidents that cause people to question corruption in the government – the recent train accidents, for example – that may lead to more dissent in the future. I still don’t know if it’s enough, however – a Beida student once told me that people are generally satisfied with the government’s handling of the law and know that dissent won’t get really far – as long as the people have food to eat and a place to live.

3. As one person in a billion, you really have to fight for what you want – your seat, your place in line, your food, etc. Last summer, I asked whether understanding a culture was actually conforming to it. In Japan, breaking social boundaries might give you a couple of questionable stares, but in China, it seems that being the one to wait in line instead of stampeding with the crowd will only have you being run over. Actually, there’s no such thing as a line – except buying train tickets at the station, but maybe only because everyone else would pounce on you if you tried to cut. But I still find myself aghast sometimes when I push and shove other people without thinking twice. You can reassure yourself that’s just an aspect of Chinese culture, but as some of my friends have discussed, it’s not something that fits within our own morals. It’ll take a lot more than just a few minds though, to change China’s “survival of the fittest” attitude.

And some things I will definitely miss about China:
-       (After you get over multiples waves of stomach upset) The cheap food (ESPECIALLY the breakfast stands, my day is always set off right with some freshly fried ) and delicious 珍珠奶茶!
-       The amazing, huge temples – and I haven’t even hit up the grandest ones yet!
-       The swagger when you speak Chinese and as such, being able to start up conversations with random strangers (especially 老人)
-       Being complimented for my Chinese after they learn I’m not an ABC (American-born Chinese) – hopefully, since Chinese people tend to be more straightforward, they’re telling somewhat of the truth this time…

All in all, it’s been a straight line up with some small dips on the Light Fellowship study abroad curve. China has grown on me – the endless opportunities to travel and see some of the world’s grandest sites and most important of all, the relationships that I’ve formed here, which are some of my strongest outside of America. Many thanks to the Light Fellowship for giving me the opportunity to explore such a vast country and culture. 

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Go south, young man

Shanghai

Truly a modern city, life is much more comfortable here than the crowds and cluttered streets of Beijing. I was shocked when me and Ning were the only two people standing by our entry to open in the subway on one of the major lines in Shanghai – in Beijing, it’s rush hour and rubbing up against other people’s sweat, no matter what time it is. You can also cross the streets in Shanghai without having to worry about a car accident every other second. Nonetheless, I’m glad I got to stay in Beijing for two months instead of Shanghai – you can probably cover all the major sites in Shanghai in two days, but in Beijing, there’s always something new everyday. Shanghai is still worth a look though:

French Concession – former residence of Western expats, lots of European style architecture.

Yuyuan (Old Gardens) – This used to be a temple complex, but nowadays a tourist hotspot. 

小笼包 – we waited over half an hour for these famed Shanghai specialties, but they were so worth it. 


 Shanghai’s awesome skyline ... On our side, the old part of town.

Hangzhou


“Paradise on earth”, known for 西湖 (West Lake). Definitely lived up to its reputation, although expect tons of tourists. Hangzhou is SWELTERING during the summer, but first day, it rained quite a bit, which helped us cool off a little, and the second day, we stayed close to the shade. I also highly recommend renting a bike, especially if the places you want to go to are close by – the buses are expensive (well, expensive by Chinese standards), crowded, and not all have air conditioning. The highlight of the first day was probably Lingyin temple, which has giant Buddhas, arhats, and the like. Probably the most breathtaking is the collage of arhats behind the big Buddha in the first hall:

Pic cannot capture how huge this was. Absolutely breathtaking.

Next stop was Leifeng Pagoda, which is a new pagoda housing the remains of the old one inside. It has amazing views of 西湖 at the top and lights up at night.

Um escalators to the base of the pagoda? I’ll take it.

Second day went by smoother, as we rented bikes from our hostel and from the owner of the nearby noodle restaurant. Hangzhou also has its own bikes for rent, but hostel rates are definitely cheaper. My bike, however, lost its chain halfway through the day, but we found a bike shop that fixed it for 3 kuai (<50 cents!?!?) – I still have to get used to how cheap China is sometimes.

Biking around Hangzhou

We hit up the Six Harmonies Pagoda first, which is deceiving with its 11 tiers – you can actually only climb up to around the fifth floor. The view is still great, although if you’re pressed for time, Leifeng Pagoda tops all. After that, took a scenic route to Longjing Tea Village, one my favorite parts while we were in Hangzhou. Longjing tea, as all first-year Chinese students at Yale will know, is one of Hangzhou’s 特色 and we happened to run into an owner of a restaurant, who lured us in with promises of amazing scenery, air conditioning, and most enticing of all, food. He was pretty cool – even though I understood only 10% of what he is saying, it turns out he’s the youngest person in the village with a license to fry tea (um, I don’t know if that translated well, but his exact words were 炒茶). He also cooked amazing food and was right about the scenery:

You can see the tea fields at the very top of the hill. Apparently, the village runs under a communal system where everyone can enter a lottery to win a field after the owner of that field passes away.

After that, we strolled around Guo’s Villa and some nearby parks before taking a boat to the cultural site that’s on China’s 1 kuai bill: the island of the “Three Pools Mirroring the Moon” in the middle of 西湖. At night, it’s said you can view the moon’s reflection off all three ponds that make up the island.

 Three Pools Mirroring the Moon

Afterwards, we headed back to our hostel by way of the Su Crossway, one of three paths running across 西湖. The sun was setting then, making for excellent pictures of pink horizons mirrored by the lake’s clear waters. I also made a vow to buy a bike in Japan as soon as I can – there’s just something about zipping by on a bike that makes you feel like a kid again.

View of Su Crossway from Baochusu - soon to be conquered!

Xihu at sunset 

Our last dinner in Hangzhou was at the same noodle restaurant, recommended by our hostel owner who swore a new chef came every night who cooked excellent fried corn and fish head. Turned out he wasn’t lying – this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant served one of the best meals I had in China so far. Ning had told me earlier in the day that she would make me order for dinner, since I pretty much have no skills when it comes to deciphering the menu, but thankfully she forgot just in time for her to do ordering :).

Xiamen

Xiamen is an island city off the coast of southern China, and if we thought Hangzhou was sweltering, well, Xiamen was SCORCHING. Nonetheless, I really liked this port city and the palm trees were legit (unlike the imported ones in Shanghai). We stayed in a hostel on Gulangyu Island, which is another popular tourist destination reachable by ferry from Xiamen. Gulangyu is famous for its old architecture, remnants of the time when European foreigners inhabited the island. It was really easy to get lost with its nonsense layout of roads and wasn’t as clean as Xiamen, but it had breathtaking views of the island and the Xiamen skyline:  



Next day, we explored the island a little more before returning to Xiamen to meet up with Ning’s friend. Dying from the heat, but still beautiful. We walked around Nanputousi and Xiamen University, which kind of reminds of Stanford with its European architecture and endless palm trees.

Xiamen University - so you can find blue skies in China after all...

We also got to taste some of Xiamen’s specialties:

红豆豆化Taiwan style. Didn’t realize Xiamen was that close to Taiwan - I’d like to go someday…

And now for some wisdom (albeit by learning the hard way):

Travel tips in China

1. If you’re like me and mosquitoes absolutely love to feast on your blood, bring loads of DEET from the U.S. It’s pretty hard to find in China, and the Chinese mosquito repellents are a gamble. Beijing isn’t too bad, except for the occasional bite when you stop and chat with a friend under a tree, but if you travel after the program, the mosquitoes definitely get worse the more south you go. Also donning those long but comfortable pants, even during the heat of summer, would probably be more bearable than having to suffer 40+ bites at the same time (as I’ve come to experience the hard way).

2. Buy train tickets early, especially if you have a popular route or have few options to your final destination. I had a case of 倒霉, and had to buy a return flight from Beijing to Xiamen because there were no more tickets for the train from Fuzhou to Beijing (an added cost of ~$130). China’s way of selling tickets is a little frustrating, since you can only buy them 5-10 days in advance, depending on where you want to go. Don’t be surprised if they all run out within the first morning of going on sale. The sleepers from Beijing to Shanghai are also extremely popular. I think 10 days before is when they go on sale, so buy them as soon as possible if you want to save around $60 in lieu of the 高铁.Another thing, buying tickets at a local train office will probably be a much more pleasant experience than trying to wait in line for 30+ minutes at one of the major train stations. Also don’t forget to bring your passport! You need ID to buy tickets besides the sleepers.

3. Be wary of counterfeit money (mostly 100 kuai bills). I got one somewhere in Beijing, but somehow spent it along the way. Ning, however, got a fake 100 kuai bill from our hostel in Shanghai when they were giving back the deposit. The counterfeit 100 kuai is pretty similar to the real thing – it still has the watermark Mao image, but the difference is the yellow color (the real one is more brownish). If you end up getting a counterfeit bill, I heard you can try to spend it at a busy McDonald’s to get rid of it – but the price you pay is a dent on your conscience.  

4. Other random tips (a lot which, I guess, applies to living in China in general) – always take some toilet paper/hand sanitizer, write down the hostel phone number if you need to call for directions, and pack LIGHT (lugging heavy bags in the middle of summer in southern China is not fun). Also don’t be ashamed about using a parasol (or rain umbrella, people won’t stare) – aside from protecting your skin, it beats the heat. 

5. Traveling by yourself or with friends? Obviously, most people prefer a traveling buddy, especially with only two years’ worth of Chinese. Traveling by yourself does, however, force you to practice your Chinese more and will probably give you a greater sense of freedom/independence, as was the highlight of my trek across Japan last year (link). While I still think traveling alone is something I will always appreciate, I was immensely lucky to travel around China with Ning this time around. First, I feel like I gained one month’s worth speaking practice at HBA through only one week with Ning. I’m truly a learner outside of the classroom when it comes to learning how to speak another language – I imitate the way people speak around me, not just their choice of words, but their intonation and mannerisms. Picking up mangled sentences from your classmates, while still good opportunity to practice, definitely falls short of being with a native speaker. Also, Ning sometimes forces me to speak on our behalf anyway, like asking people to take our picture or ordering food (but as I’ve already mentioned, she hasn’t remembered that one yet!) Moreover, she answers all my questions – not just how to speak correct Chinese, but why we see Chinese people doing certain things. Okay, third point has basically turned into an excuse to thank Ning for all that she’s done on our travels together, to which I’m infinitely grateful.

All in all, China is an AWESOME place to travel. I kind of regret I only gave myself a week – China is huge, and you can go to places as wild as Tibet or as international as Hong Kong or Macau. Next time I come to China (because there will definitely be a next time, whether for research, study, or just travel), I really want to go as far as Tibet or Yunnan… til next time then. 

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Saturday, August 13, 2011

And it's the end ... or the beginning (very cliche, but very true)

[Written two days ago]

China's 高铁 !

Now on the 高铁 bound for Shanghai – the 5-hour ride has finally given me some downtime to (try to) catch up on blogging.

After the much anticipated language pledge was lifted on the last day, it was actually kind of weird to hear people speak English for the first time – it’s not really what I’d call an accent, but you never know how certain people pronounce English words in certain ways judging from their Chinese pronunciation. Even weirder was testing our 老师 on their English – naturally, a lot of them became a lot more timid but their accents were kind of cute. As payback, a couple of students also gave them an English 听写 using words like “existentialism” (but when I tried to correct someone’s sentence, I actually forgot how to spell “exhilarating” – guess I forgot quite a bit of English too!)

In short, my summer at HBA has been a pretty exhausting one, but I think I ended on a strong(er) note. Apartment hunting and visa issues for Japan took a lot out of me, and I really need to learn how to stop procrastinating so that I won’t find myself starting homework at midnight – hopefully a lesson learned by the time I’m in Japan. I did, however, tried to get the most out of Beijing by living out the age-old Light Fellowship adage – you can study all day at these intensive language programs, but heck, you can also do that in the U.S. So get out of your campus in China, explore the city, and meet random people. Even small talk with the cleaning ladies counts as something you can’t do back home.

Just a few pics of what you can see in Beijing if you don't shut yourself up in your room all day:

Yuanmingyuan


View of Forbidden City from Jingshan Park 
Finally, I can’t forget to stress that HBA’s core is purely the teachers. Even with the short time we had in Beijing, not to the mention the fact that we could only speak Chinese like kindergarteners, we came to know them not just as teachers but as friends. If not for anything else, choose HBA for the relationships you’ll form – the teachers really give their all to get to know you - even with all the mangled 声调 :).

And finally, my itinerary for the next three weeks:

August 13 Arrive at Shanghai
August 15 Go down to Hangzhou and traditional village Wuzhen
August 16 Arrive at Xiamen
August 18 Get back to Beijing, fly to Seoul
August 20 Take a trip down to Jeonju
August 24 Back to Seoul for some more exploring
August 27 Arrive at Busan
August 30 Final destination – Japan for ten months

Future blog posts – HBA social study project (um 5-7 weeks late?), temples galore, how NOT to get a Japanese visa in China, and trekking across East Asia.
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Sunday, July 31, 2011

A Temple a Day

After seeing one of the most amazing temples in Beijing on a rare blue Sunday afternoon, I have decided that I haven't seen enough temples up to this point. And time is running out fast. My individual session class ends around 1:30 or 2:30 p.m. on weekdays, transit usually takes an hour, and most temples usually close by 5. Nonetheless, I have about 7-8 temples in mind I still want to hit up, which is definitely doable.

A temple a day. Let's go.

(This blog is a motivational blurb for the author, but alas, may be pointless to the reader - promise to post up a "guide to temples" entry after all is done.)
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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Getting my act together!

Ugh, okay, I really have no excuse this time. Once we got back from our social study project (which I will post about very soon, I promise!), I had a lot of – wait for it – goals in mind (yes finally!) to get the most out of the second half of HBA. Sadly, I’m only just posting them now, but hey, better late then never (?). I thought I learned a lot from doing a language program in Japan last year, and while I did learn cramming characters in a room all day was not the way to go, I feel like I still missed a lot of opportunities up to this point. Here goes:

1. Keep getting to know local Chinese people!
I think I’ve made the most progress on this one. It doesn’t have to be all awkward either - meeting people through mutual friends, Yale’s newly launched buddy program with PKU students this year, talking to HBA’s Chinese helpers in the afternoons (well, now, we’re kind of forced to because we have small “tasks” we have to do everyday to interact with locals – 太麻烦了!) Although I do find that it’s possible to walk up to random tables in Beiyu’s 餐厅 and ask to eat lunch together. I also met another college student just by way of asking directions and regularly working out at the gym (ha, so going through the dreadful treadmill run has benefits after all). While I realize that a summer is all too short to meet up more than a few times, I’ll hopefully spend my last two weeks getting to know the people whom I've just started getting to know.

2. Get my act in class together.
While I definitely prioritize exploring Beijing and meeting the people here, I still underprioritize one very important aspect of my life – SLEEP. You just can’t concentrate as well in a class if you’ve only had four or five hours of sleep. (You’d think I would’ve learned this from Yale already). As such, it’s taken a huge toll on my level in class – I feel like I’m just not digesting the grammar and vocabulary as well as I used to. And while I constantly stress that study, study, study isn’t why I came to Beijing, I also feel like crap when I go to class and give my 老师 the homework I’ve managed to scribble down a little more than an hour ago – also, my handwriting’s also already gained its infamous “chicken scratch” status, and I keep getting points off for illegibility (some things never change).

3. Places still to visit in Beijing!! (this list is more for myself as a reminder)
- Xiangshan Park (and Wofosi and Biyunsi – photos of these two temples look amazing!)
- Drum/Bell Towers nearby hutongs)
- Jingshan Park (supposedly there’s an awesome view of the Forbidden City from the top!)
- Yuanmingyuan
- Tiananmen Square – I didn’t end up going when I went to the Forbidden City for some reason. Even if it’s just a stroll, definitely need to go here before I leave Beijing!

- There are plenty others, but those are the must-see for now!

4. Start studying for my Japanese placement test.
Oh dear joy. I feel like I lost a year’s worth of Japanese through just two months of Chinese immersion.

5. Last, but not least, catch up on blog posts.
It feels like I’m cheating the system by blogging about stuff three weeks after they’ve happened, but as I’ve already said, better late than never.


As a sign that things can always get better, a pic of the clearest sky of Beijing I've ever seen - I almost thought I was dreaming when I looked out my window

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Monday, July 18, 2011

直率 says who?

[Written like ... two weeks ago? Hey, I have a legit excuse! (See previous post)]

Apologies for not writing in forever. My excuse isn’t that I’m hardcore studying everyday (work ethic is SLIPPING), but that I’ve been thoroughly exhausted from sightseeing, planning for traveling after HBA, and probably most stressful of all – finding somewhere to live in Japan (although my Japanese apartment lexicon now includes all the random landlord fees – do I really not get even half of my deposit back??).

Guess where this is? 北大!Now if only Yale had a massive park and a few lakes for its backyard. 

Nonetheless, I’ve made it through the first “semester” of HBA. And Beijing is definitely growing on me – the cement-like air, the wafting smell of garbage, and the oily food certainly hasn’t gone away, but at the same time, I feel like I don’t have as many restrictions as I do in "developed" American society. What I mean is (warning: this might sound really crude), the fact that people don’t give a second look to what might be considered "low class" behavior – if guys can go around half-naked drinking with friends in front of the 小摊儿 at 4 in the morning – then you don’t have to care as much about the way you carry yourself outside (although I admit tank tops and running shorts are still pretty rare among females here). Our specially made HBA textbook has a chapter on how the Chinese people, with their “refuse twice before accepting” rule, consider Americans too 直率 (straightforward), but I tend to think otherwise. At 秀水街(Silk Street Market), one of my friends got sucked into bargaining for a purse she didn’t want and got it down to a ridiculously cheap price. Alas, my friend didn’t want it (what she’d been telling the shopkeeper from the start), so as we were walking away, my friend took a pretty fair hit from the shopkeeper’s calculator. Not to say that the Chinese 直率 -ness is all rudeness – I find it a lot easier to strike up conversations with complete strangers, some who are just as curious as you are. On the sleeper train to Zhengzhou a couple days ago, one guy noticed the gaggle of foreigners we were and joined the conversation, playing around with one of our Iphones at one point. Simply put, I don’t feel as judged here, even as a foreigner.

Kimbap from a street vendor! Except I forgot the cooked vegetables only rule ... slight stomach upset followed.

Maybe, though, this is just because there are tons and TONS of people, and it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Despite the arrows and lines marked on the subway boarding area, it’s really just one big mob jostling for some breathing space, let alone a seat. Even the sidewalks and bike lanes (rather a hybrid of both as they seem to go either way) are a constant mass of people. Having an “Asian face” makes you blend in even more (I’m still pretty grateful about this, after seeing my blonde-haired friend Keren get asked for a picture every time we venture out of foreigner central 五道口). Either way, I feel more comfortable here in more ways than one.

Pics of 北海 - pollution sucked that day, but it was still amazingly beautiful.



Ah, something to add to my checklist of experiences overbroad – slept in a KFC overnight. The place we’re staying at in 北语 (our university) wouldn’t let one of my friends visiting Beijing crash for the night, so instead of letting her wander the streets at 3 in the morning, we decided to stick together at the all-too convenient 24-hour KFC. We were far from being the only overnighters there – at least 10-15 other college students were also crashing. The staff had no complaints - these definitely weren’t homeless people, but I still wonder if this is a common trend in Beijing. I’m pretty sure most American restaurants would kick you out after a while, especially if you didn’t buy anything (like we did after we realized the milk tea had run out – darn). Perhaps another example of the do-whatever-you-want lifestyle … or rather I-don’t-really-care-because-there-are-just-way-too-many-people.

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Friday, July 15, 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

China, Church, and Censorship

[Written ~4 days ago, losing track of the days]

Apparently, I was pretty clueless when it came to what you can and can’t do as a Christian in China. I went an entire semester taking a course on Christian Chinese literature completely oblivious to the current policy on religion. Nonetheless, I knew a couple friends who had regularly gone to international churches in Beijing, so I blew away my dad’s warnings about hiding my Bible and other overdone precautions. Although proselytization would be pushing it, most foreigners in China seem to have no trouble going to authorized churches and holding small groups elsewhere. The government also seems to accommodate foreign Christians, anything to increase China’s globalism.

There are, however, small signs of the government’s hostility to Christianity – for one, I had to show a foreign ID at the door, the services were held in a hotel since no one can “build” a church building, and a couple nights ago, my VPN-less Internet blocked off the Wiki entry on Chinese house churches. The church I’ve been going to, Beijing International Christian Fellowship, is also called a “fellowship” since technically, it can’t operate as a “church”. The congregation at BICF is also mostly made up of expats – only Chinese nationals who have foreign IDs from studying abroad can enter. As for Chinese Christians without one, their options are either government-registered churches or the infamous house churches (underground church). So basically, if you’re a foreigner, feel free to be a Christian in China.

Ugh, sorry I just gave you a drawn out lecture on the condition of Christianity here. Just began thinking a lot about religion in China after my individual session today with a teacher who was a Christian from Taiwan – we had a pretty interesting conversation about Christianity in East Asia and religion in general. Of course, with a year’s worth of vocab, I can’t say much past “Um, the meaning of ‘religion’ in America and ‘religion’ in China … uhhhh, are VERY different”, but along with the words we cram in class and use in everyday life, I get to pick up a new set of words dealing with religion the more I dive into it.

Below: Pics of Summer Palace - if I was the emperor, I would forget the Forbidden City. 


Um, which way?

Tower of Buddhist Incense

  Suizhou Street
 
As for other religions, I’ve seen a lot of sacred places overrun by tourism – but then again, this is everywhere. I’ve only been to the most famous temples, so I want to check out some of the smaller ones – don’t know if I’m not looking hard enough or if it’s just Beijing, but it seems like the “temple on every corner” phenomenon in Asia doesn’t apply here. At the ones I’ve been to, people still clasp their hands together and bow before the Buddha figure, but you wonder if they’re really Buddhists or doing it for luck (especially if they’re tourists too).

I wonder if the Chinese have strong feelings, if not for religion, for spirituality. Either way, I'm starting to accept Confucianism as a system of principles more so than a "religion". I've already had three individual sessions where the teacher would give me a puzzled look after I tried describing Confucianism as a religion. But what defines spirituality and religion, especially on the other side of the world? Are we too quick to label temple visits and prayers without adhering to a said religion as nonreligious? I think, a lot of times, I judge too quickly.


Haha too many rhetorical questions. To give you a break (and also because you can probably tell right now that I am super frustrated about my VPN-deprived state), here’s a list of other blocked sites I’ve found in China:
Central Tibet Administration and various other sites on Tibet (well, this is a given)
List of blocked websites – what, I can’t even check what sites I can’t enter?
The usual – social networking sites, Blogger, Google (only occasionally drops sometimes especially when I use controversial key words)

This isn’t blocked, but I thought it was cool – Chinese-English anagrams

 Peking opera - you can get here one day if you can sing, dance, juggle, sword-fight, you get the picture...

UPDATE: As a religious studies major, I could talk all day about - what else - religion. But I've realized that whether or not people are "religious", people are always curious when they say you're a religious studies major. I'm lucky to say I study a field at which people raise their eyebrows and start asking questions. This is after an exhausting (but awesome) 2-hour conversation with a HBA teacher about the differences between Christianity/Buddhism, Catholicism/Protestantism, etc. (which is hard enough as it is in English!)

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