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.