Things that I always wondered about

You know how Americans always get tattoos of Chinese characters that are often written wrong, upside down or don't have an appropriate or logical meaning? Well in case anybody was wondering, Chinese people wear shirts and have other paraphernalia that has bad English on it. Women's dress shirts and club/going out shirts are the most common. A common pattern is big block letters arranged vertically on the shirt saying, for example, "ORANGE PEARL BRIDGE MUSIC." Also my pencil case says, "Keep a good mood!" which does indeed keep me smiling during Chinese class!

Yes, Chinese babies do poop and pee on the street, even in Shanghai.

No, Chinese people do not eat dog meat. At least not that I know of... Dogs are pretty common household pets.

Chinese women want white skin so much that they walk around with umbrellas on sunny days. I thought that they did this to keep cool, but apparently not according to the Chinese roommates on campus... And even L'Oreal and Clinique have numerous advertisements for skin whitening cream.

If there is a holiday during the week, everyone goes to school and to work on Sunday. National Day (think 4th of July) is on this Thursday and so my whole family went to school and work yesterday (Sunday). One of my Chinese teachers even went to campus because she thought we had class and no one told her otherwise. We probably should have had class, but CIEE probably figures that if they ever made Americans go to school on Sunday, we'd be up in arms.

Tai chi is a wrong transliteration from Chinese. It's actually called Tai Ji Quan, which literally means shadow boxing. I'm currently taking a Tai Ji class every Monday and Wednesday for an hour and I have to give props to my parents who have been doing Tai Chi/Tai Ji for years now. It's fun but challenging!! at least for me, the world's most uncoordinated person. I've included a picture of my friend Kira during class last week.

Thanks for reading!! Since I can't see the blog anymore (sad face), email me if you are wondering if any other stereotypes about Chinese people are true or false. my email is stynen@gwmail.gwu.edu.

DISCLAIMER: yes, China is an extremely diverse country and saying a generalization about China is like trying to generalize Americans: it's impossible and can never be true all the time. these claims are from my observations around Nanjing.

中文太难了！（Chinese is too hard!)

I take back all my sympathy for people learning English. Chinese is officially the hardest language in the world.

Ok, I am exaggerating and there are aspects of English that definitely make is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. However, I am experiencing major frustrations with Chinese. I've been in China for over 4 weeks now, and I'm dissappointed that I'm not more conversant. I'm struggling to make the jump from everyday conversation to more meaningful things.

Also there was a major setback on the Internet proxy front. It turns out that that the proxy that all my friends and I have been using has somehow been shut down by the government. I'll let you know when I can view my blog and Facebook again. We really thought we had outsmarted them this time but apparently not.

This afternoon, my ayi told me that we were eating 螃蟹 for dinner. I didn't know what that was, so she offered to show me. She took me into the kitchen and lifted up a cutting board on the sink to reveal 8 crabs running around. It was then that I realized that I am officially afraid of crabs. Later, my didi brought me into the kitchen and pointed to one of the big pots they have. I could hear the crabs running around inside the pot, and I could look through its glass lid and watch them being steamed to death! I know this is common in the US, but I'd never seen it before and it was so crazy/scary/strange/I don't even know what. Then we ate the crabs, which I've never done before, and I semi-succeeded, but my ayi still had to give me the crab leg meat like a 2 year old. haha. It was a new experience for me.

上海 (Shanghai)

This weekend 3 of my friends and I took a trip to Shanghai, the largest city in China, which is a 2.5 hour train ride away from Nanjing. Our train left on Friday morning at 10:30 am (we don't have class on Fridays). As soon as we arrived, we knew we were in a (almost) completely different world. It was interesting to see such a seemingly different side of China—Shanghai was very commercialized and with lots of foreigners and English speakers. We agreed during the trip that at times it didn't even feel like we were in China anymore. We also decided we were extremely thankful that we had chosen to study abroad in Nanjing instead of in Shanghai. In Shanghai, everyone would just speak English to us—which was very different from Nanjing where English speakers are few and far between.

After we arrived, we took the subway to none other but Nanjing Road and wandered around for a bit looking for our hostel, which we eventually found down a side alley. It was an extremely nice hostel and we were very pleased with the accommodations. Afterward, we had a delicious lunch of fried dumplings and headed downtown, to the business district. I was speechless as we walked around, staring up at the skyscrapers looming above us. It's hard to explain, but let me just say that the pictures of Shanghai's skyline doesn't give it justice. I've in

cluded two pictures of Shanghai's most famous buildings—the Shanghai World Financial Center on the left and behind and the Jin Mao Tower on the right in the front. The running joke in China

right now is that the Shanghai World Financial Center is a bottle opener and the Jin Mao Tower is a bottle of beer. Our entire trip we kept referring to the two buildings as "the bottle opener" or the "bottle of beer" because we couldn't remember the names and that was a much more convenient method. We went up to the observation deck of the Jin Mao Tower, which is on the 88th floor, and were all astounded by how Shanghai's buildings stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Afterward, we walked to The Bund, which has remnants of colonial style buildings from the era of the French Concession (when Shanghai was essentially a French colony). W

e finally found a Chinese restaurant and had a delicious dinner. The next day, we walked around another area of town looking for a mosque that we found in our guidebook, but when we got there it turned out that it was under construction, like so many buildings in China are. We caught a

train back at 2:30 pm on Saturday. By the time we got back to Nanjing we were exhausted but happy.

P.s. I can view my blog now since I recently started using an Internet proxy that reassigns my IP address so the government can't block any websites on my computer. No, I don't actually know what that means. So comment if you wish!

英文太难了！ (English is too hard!)

  I am now officially an English tutor, which has made me realize how incredibly difficult the English language is. From what I can see so far, the hardest part about English for Chinese speakers is the "s" at the end of words, whether for possession, plurality or verb conjunction, and prepositions and articles. Chinese, though difficult to pronounce, has relatively easy grammar, so these things seem very unnecessary to them. I tutor two 10-year old girls, one named "Happy" and one named "Vivian" (those are not their real names btw). Their parents want them to find English fun so last Sunday we went shopping and ate at Pizza Hut together. WHOO I ATE CHEESE for the first time since I got here. So delicious. My host dad frequently tries to convince me that English is harder than Chinese, but he has yet to persuade me on that one.

 

The first picture is of a typical Chinese dinner in our house. I don't know what everything is called, but the pink drink is a delicious smoothie of blended apple, tomato and peach, and we drink it everyday. Although you may have heard that in China they serve the rice at the end of the meal, I've only experienced that in the restaurants; at home we eat the rice with our food. Also, the Chinese eat their meat with all the bones still inside so you have to do a little dance in your mouth, swallow the meat, then you spit out the bones. The second picture is a picture of my host family, from left to right, my host mom, dad and grandma.

 

My brother isn't pictured because he doesn't eat dinner with us. He is in the equivalent of 8^th grade this year and has to pass a huge examination in order to get into high school. Everyday he goes to test-prep school after regular school is over. He doesn't get home until 7:30 everyday! And in case you were wondering if it was true, yes, Chinese children do go to school on Saturday. My brother even went to school all day last Sunday too! It is not typical to go to class on Sunday, but for some reason I didn't understand he had class at his teacher's home. 

 

The third picture was taken on a bridge I cross during my morning commute to school. Notice the fence that separates the bike lane from the rest of the street; this bike lane is on every major road in Nanjing and helps keep the bikers relatively safe. All bikes, including motorcycles and mopeds, have to drive in this lane. But if you really want to be a jackass, drive your car in this lane in order to get by the traffic! This also happens a lot because people sometimes have to drive in the bike lane to get to their driveways. I have yet to see someone wearing a helmet, by the way.

 

Two short stories for your enjoyment: We have an intercom system where you can buzz people in to your apartment if they don't have a key. So the other day when my host parents were trying to get back in after a walk, I unknowingly pressed the button to call the police. So a couple minutes after I got them in, the police knocked on the door and my jaw dropped when I answered it. Luckily, my host dad explained that I was just a silly waiguoren (foreigner) and everything was quickly forgiven. I was uber embarrassed.

 

When my host mom and I were at the bank the other day, the number being before us in the queue was "1111" and we were "1112". At Bank of China, they also have English announcements, so when the electronic announcement came on to call number "1111" came on in English, my host mom started laughing hysterically. Finally I figured out that the Chinese equivalent for "Woof! Woof!" (as in the sound that a dog makes) sounds like "one." So when the announcer was saying "One One One One" it sounded like a dog barking to her. She still now will randomly start saying "1111" and start laughing. It was pretty hilarious.

孫中山 (Sun Yat-sen)

On Thursday we went to Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum (first picture) and climbed the 392 steps up to his tomb. Sun Yat-sen is sometimes referred to as the Father of the Nation and founded the Republic of China. Nanjing was the capital of China during Sun Yat-sen's presidency (and after his death under the rule of the Kuomintang) from 1912-1949. When we got to the top we had a beautiful view of Nanjing and took pictures (that's where the second picture is from; notice the "haze" aka pollution). Later we also went to Confucius's temple, which used to be the economic center of Nanjing since there were a lot of prostitutes and this generated a lot of economic activity. We took a boat ride down a famous river in Nanjing where men used to go to look at the prostitutes.

 

Yesterday I watched the Terminator with my little brother, which brought up lots of interesting conversation. For example, they asked if Americans were really allowed to purchase guns at "gun stores" and then keep them in their possession, since in China that is illegal. I said yes, but couldn't explain the reasoning behind "the right to bear arms." My ayi told me she thought that was terrible and dangerous, and there are many in the US that would agree with her. We also talked about how common the name Sarah is and once I pointed out that she had my name, they understand the name better now because they could read the characters for her name. But they still call me TianRan, which is my Chinese name that reflects my family name, Tynen. We also talked about how Arnold Swarzenegger is the "chairman" of California. I told them that he immigrated to America from Austria when he was about 20 years old and that he has an accent, which they were extremely surprised about.

 

When I first arrived in my homestay last Sunday, they immediately told me to take off my shoes and put on sandals. I understood that they didn't want me to wear shoes in the house, as this is common in many cultures and also it keeps the floors clean. But I didn't understand why they insisted why I wear sandals so I asked my ayi yesterday. She told me that traditional Chinese medicine teaches that during the Fall, Winter and Spring, it is very bad for the body if you don't wear shoes. I know the practice of reflexology teaches that massaging the feet in certain places helps heal certain parts of the body so I think maybe it is derived from this theory.

 

I tried doing my laundry today and was kind of embarrassed. I hadn't done my laundry in a week, and I had a relatively small pile. Still, my laundry had to be separated into 3 loads before I could do it since the washing machine was so small. Then my ayi told me that it was unhygienic to let my dirty laundry sit for so long and that now it would take much longer since I had to do 3 loads and hang everything up to let dry. Whoops.

My Chinese Family

 I moved into my homestay on Sunday and they welcomed me with open arms into their family. The family lives in a 4-bedroom apartment and I bike to school every morning. My campus is about a 25-minute bike ride away and it is quite an interesting experience riding a bike during rush hour but I'm adjusting quickly. The driving here is out of control, but riding a bike is not as hard as it looks since you can just kind of follow the crowd. Lots of people stare at me, but I am also getting accustomed to that as well. I really like bike riding; it's good exercise and clears my mind. The first day I got lost and it took me an hour to get to school, but my shushu (literally "uncle") drew me a map yesterday so it is ok now. This morning a guy from Africa rode up beside me on his bike and said Hello! He could tell that I also was a foreigner. Yesterday a little boy about 3 years old was yelling out "Foreigner! Foreigner! Foreigner!" to his grandma and I just laughed to myself. You have to brush that kind of stuff off here.

 

The picture is of my didi (little brother). He's fourteen years old and a very sweet boy. He helps me with my Chinese homework and I help him with his English. The family also includes a mother, father and grandma. The other picture is of my bed; I'm being well taken care of and extremely well fed. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day because they serve dumplings, buns with meat stuffing or bean soup. It's so delicious. Also my ayi (literally "aunt") is a vegetarian so I am also getting my vegetables for anyone who is concerned! I am having an extremely hard time communicating because I am realizing more and more everyday how bad my Chinese is. But I am slowly improving and I really can't wait until I can fully articulate my feelings. Yesterday my host family was so worried because apparently Washington State University had an outbreak in H1N1 and they thought that it was at my school. I could tell them that there is a Washington state in the West of the country and a Washington "city" in the East, but I couldn't fully articulate my feelings about swine flu. But we can hold simple conversations about how tanked the American economy is, which is good enough. They also speak some English and help me with my Chinese all the time.

 

My friends and I finally planned our trip for Fall Break.  We're going to DunHuang, in the Gobi Desert, and we're going to ride camels and go sledding in the sand. Then we're going to LanZhou and Xi'an (read: Terracotta army). Somewhere in there we can go to the Great Wall too. We're going to take a 33+ hour train ride to DunHuang, then on the way back we'll take shorter train rides to LanZhou and Xi'an. There are 7 of my friends coming with me and we're so excited. We went to the travel agent today to buy the tickets but he told us the tickets don't go on sale until September 21^st. The holiday is for National Day, and this year is the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the PRChina and our break also coincides with the Moon Festival (which is kind of like Thanksgiving). We get 10 days total for our trip.

 

p.s. Ms. McNulty emailed me to tell me that Pepto Bismol can turn your tongue black. That was definitely it since I had taken some the evening before. I also feel like maybe they should mention that under "side effects" but they definitely don't. I will call and complain. Not really though.  

My Tongue!

I woke up this morning with a funny taste in my mouth and so I started brushing my teeth right away. When I was finished, I spit into the sink and the toothpaste was completely black. I was quite startled and looked in the mirror as I opened my mouth. My tongue was completely black all the way from the back of my throat to the tip of my tongue! I was incredibly freaked out and I started spitting and vigorously brushing my tongue. I got most of it washed out, but I took a picture of it about 5 hours later and my tongue is still stained black. I included the lovely picture for your amusement. This didn't happen to anyone else and I can't figure out what it was, I think it might have been the pollution.

This weekend we visited Yixing, a town famous for making teapots out of red clay. We visited a teapot factory, which employed about 5 to 8 women who hand-made the teapots and then sell them down below in a gift shop. They even let one person in our group help out making a teapot. We also visited a cave, which was decked out in colorful lights and other artificial additions, such as stairs and paintings on the walls of the cave. The highlight of the trip was riding cable cars up to the top of a mountain and riding a slide that was 1/4 mile long. They gave us pants to tie on to our legs so that our skin wouldn't slow us down and I've included a picture of Kira and I wearing these ridiculous pants. Our Chinese roommates (aka student helpers and Chinese tutors) came along and it was fun to talk with them, even though my Chinese can be an embarrassing train wreck. I move into my home stay tomorrow afternoon!

Dumplings

Pictures of our dumpling feast

饺子 （Dumplings)

I just found out that I have been using skin whitening cream as face wash for the past week. I bought it because I really needed face wash and the only thing I could read on the bottle said "Nice Face."（You can see the picture below)  I was perusing through the drug store today and I saw the green bottle of Nice Face on the shelf. Next to it was a bottle that looked similar but it said "face whitening milk" in English. Then I started thinking about how the stuff that I was putting on my face didn't really seem very much like soap. When I got back to the dorm, I pulled out my dictionary and started looking up the characters on the Nice Face bottle. At the top it said, "Blooming flower facial cleansing milk" but a little lower down on the bottle, sure enough, it clearly read "Silky nutritional white skin treatment and protection." Now I know why my skin was looking so white recently. No wait, my skin is always this pale.

 

Today a few of us decided that we wanted to go get dumplings after class for lunch. We didn't know how much to order, so we based our order on how much the dumplings cost. When the fuwuyuan asked how much I wanted, I said "4, please" because that cost me 12 yuan (less than $2 USD) and that seemed about right for lunch. Most of us ordered 4 or 5. We thought we would be getting 4 or 5 dumplings. Turns out that you order them in sets of 4 so we each got 4 times the amount that we thought. I ended up getting 16 dumplings! When the fuwuyuan brought them out to us, everyone in the place was staring at us. We must have looked ridiculous—each of us had enough dumplings for 2 or 3 people. It's 8 hours later and I'm still completely stuffed. I don't even want to think about eating another dumpling again. Ever.