Academics

Chinese university students are so incredibly nice. It is also insane how polite they are to their teachers and how attentive they are in class. It is the complete opposite of American students, who are either asleep or trying to argue with their teacher.

If a student gets called on in class, they must stand and they must respond, even if they don't know the answer. They also remain standing as the teacher corrects them (if the answer is wrong), and must remain standing until the teacher tells them to sit down. Sometimes this means standing for more than 5 minutes. This is in my graduate level courses...

The students would never dare to leave class early or tell the teacher the class went over time. One of my classes last week was supposed to be done at 8:30 pm. The students sat attentively until 9:15 pm, when the teacher looked at his watch, said "Oh, sorry I'm over time," and then continued teaching for another 10 minutes.

Here is a picture of my view from one of the classrooms:

If you look closely you can see the Golden Arches of McDonald's glowing in the middle. I live in one of the apartments with a red roof in the middle.

Yesterday I was banqueted for the first time this semester. I went to the banquet hosted by my adviser, Chen Yunqian. It was super awkward. Zach (the other Fulbrighter in Nanjing, a history PhD student) and I walked in 10 minutes early and everyone had already arrived. Luckily my adviser is female so it didn't turn into an alcohol drinking contest. Although the respectful toasts were involved, but with red wine instead of chinese alcohol 白酒. I was embarrassed, because I realized afterward I probably stood have stood up when I toasted my adviser, but I got this silly thought in my head that my adviser probably didn't want to be bothered with standing, but then I realized I should have stood anyway. Anyway, I tried.

She brought her daughter, who is a junior in high school and wants to be a fashion designer in the US. She was really cute, and refused to speak English with me even after her mother told her at least ten times, "Speak English with Big Sister!" We discussed the SATs and where she should go to school in the US. I told her she should go to New York if she wants to study fashion, but should go to GW if she wants to study interior design. 

Here is our banquet table... after we were finished eating.

 Here is my adviser, her graduate students, Zach, and me.

I started listening to Chinese music and Chinese podcasts again. This has improved my quality of life immeasurably. I'm listening to A Sang right now, and the music is beautiful. My roommate came in my room to give me a bottle of Coke while I was writing this post, but I had my headphones in, and screamed when he tapped me on the shoulder. "I scared you a jump! (吓一跳！)" he said.

Chinese word of the day:

汽水 - qishui - literally "gassy water" aka soda pop