And it's just about that time. Actually, it IS that time. I'm
sitting in the airport now preparing to head home, and I still can't
comprehend that my time in China has ended. What amazes me further is
that I spent almost two months here. Sorry about not updating this
past week, I just had a pretty low key time. The most eventful thing
that happened was last Sunday when the lab went out to try to climb a
mountain. Unbeknownst to us, there was a triathalon taking place at
our mountain of choice. Oh well, we just drove to the top and kind of
walked around a little. After that, we all went out to lunch and had
a good time. In China, when someone proposes a toast, it's fairly
common to finish the entire drink. Well, there were about 5
professors and a few graduating students that kept proposing toasts.
Also, they wouldn't let you sit down if you didn't finish your drink.
Also also, a few of the guys wanted to have a couple of extra drinks
with me since I was an exchange student. Also also also, we were
drinking beer. Funsies.
For the last week, basically I just saw a few final sights and tried
some new eats since I had the time. I don't know when the next time
I'll be back in China will be, but I'm certain that I'll come back.
If only I didn't have to study, work, and make a career for myself...
Man, I was definitely planning on spending the rest of my RMB here at
the airport, but in a moment of what can only be thought of as sheer
stupidity, I forgot that most stores would not be open at 5:30am.
Furthermore, they charge like 10USD as commission for any currency
exchange. Well, I guess I'll definitely be back in the future if not
just to spend this extra 25 bucks worth of RMB that I've got
now.Anyways, I just realized that the clock on this computer is slow
by over 20 minutes, so I have a plane to catch.
As with any stay away from home, it seems weird that my time in China
is coming to an end. Tomorrow is my last day in the lab, but I do
have another week before I get the boot from my dorm. I would really
like to come back in the future, if for no other reason, to improve my
Chinese. I think the absence of other English speakers in my daily
life here has paid huge dividends towards that end. Sometimes I see
other Americans in my dorm and I am tempted to approach them, but I
always remind myself that there are plenty of them back in the US.
I've come to feel somewhat comfortable with China, at least living
within a university. I still can't really tell if I belong here, or
if I could settle down in a place like China. Likely, I've just
forgotten about some of the things that I've been missing from home.
That being said, who knows what China will look like in another 20
years. Most of the reports of China's rapid development are true, and
they certainly have every intention of catching up with the west in
most areas. Although, until they have cleaner bathrooms, I still give
the US a slight edge.
The whole lab is pretty tight here. They like to climb stuff
together. On Sunday, we are climbing some undisclosed mountain.
Actually, they told me what it is, I just can't remember the name in
Chinese for the life of me. Also, it rained today. I still suck at
riding a bike and holding an umbrella at the same time. It didn't
help that when class let out, the streets were flooded with water and
people. Finally, the spent the day fixing the air condition in the
lab. One day before I leave. Nice.
So this weekend was pretty relaxing minus the US not really showing up
to play against Ghana. Oh well, I'm still proud of 'em. Movie on
Saturday and museum plus a walk around a lake on Sunday. Today, I
actually made progress on my project. After three or so weeks of
work, I think I finally realize that one of the papers that I was
reading had their equation published wrong.
Yeah... one thing I've decided I can't get used to is how a lot of
Chinese people do business. Everything has to be bargained for, and
if you don't do it, you get ripped off. Big time. Also, some people
are just downright dishonest. I hate having to always be on the
lookout for that stuff. Oh well, I guess if you're good doing
business this way, you can usually come out ahead.
My professor came back from the US last weekend, and he had some
pretty insightful things to say. None of which I'll really discuss
here. Ok, I lied, maybe you'll get a brief rundown. I think he
values the ability to speak English very much especially since he is
in a technical field, and I actually noticed this a while ago. He
loves to send his students overseas in order to expose them to
different cultures. He often asks me to speak to others in English
just so they can get used to a native English speaker. He's also a
little intimidating to talk to because he's the tallest in the lab,
has the deepest voice, and speaks very softly but damn fast. I rarely
understand when he speaks Chinese. That said, I always find it deeply
interesting to get the perspectives of intellectuals outside the US.
As Americans, we often consider the problems the rest of the world
faces, and where they are worse off than we are. The other side of
that coin is that so many others see the US through the exact same
paradigm. We certainly have problems other countries don't have
because of our values, government, and possibly our history.
Sometimes it's hard to objectively describe certain facets of US life
to others. Living for any period of time outside the US, any one can
tell you where we excel, and where we fall short. As long as we don't
forget that we do fall short in some regards, we should be ok. I will
admit, I was not expecting to have this conversation with my professor
when I woke up this morning. Weird.
So not much has happened since last time we met, but in order to
fulfil my obligatory blogging duties, let's just take a look at where
we are now. A week left to go in the lab, and hopefully I can extend
my dorm room reservation until the 10th so I have a place to live
until I leave. I was supposed to go to eat at this interesting
restaurant yesterday where the waiters and waitresses are all
students. However, after a bike ride, half an hour on the subway, and
a trek through a funky neighborhood later, we found out that we needed
a reservation. Right. Not to be discouraged, we just went to a mall
and had dinner there. The real unfortunate thing happened when we
came back to get our bikes. Apparently, the parking area closes and
locks before 10pm. Luckily, someone from the lab lived right by the
station, so we borrowed her bike (I rode it with the other person
sitting on the back. Super Asian style.). And somehow we all
exchanged bikes later today. Ta da.
So, I've been asking a lot of the Chinese students if they are excited
to come to the US. They all seem to reply by telling me the visa
application an arrangements are a pain in the pi gu (that means butt
btw). Also, for some reason I like to ask them what they are most
worried about during their stay in the states. And for this, every
single one tells me that they are afraid it won't be as safe. Now,
I've been in China for a month and change now, and I can safely say
(pun intended) that I feel more secure back home. Not that I feel
unsafe here, I just have a greater sense of security when I'm in the
US. Likely, it's just a consequence of familiarity in addition to the
fact that I feel like I have a greater chance of not dying were
something to happen in the US. (I don't even know if this is true.)
But I think it comes down to this: Since we can all buy guns in the US
if we wanted to, I think Chinese people believe we spend half our time
eating McDonald's and the other half of our time shooting each other.
Ok, the lab has actually worked themselves into a frenzy of
productivity. I should do something.
Went into a clean room yesterday. Took four sets of doors and two
extra layers of clothes to get in, but I made it eventually. It was a
pretty cool experience, and I wish I could have taken some pictures,
but my camera was probably too dirty to take out. The building was
where they made and packaged part of the leads for the deep brain
stimulator DBS. But you guys probably don't find that very
interesting.
On the other hand, I went out to eat pizza last night. Mostly because
the beer was free from 8-10. No matter how good of an idea that
sounds, it's not. Trust me. I mean, that isn't to say we didn't have
a good time. It's just that some people might have had too good of a
time.
Finally, I've come to realize that there are a lot of things integral
to Chinese culture that differ from American norms. (Duh. See
chopsticks.) However, some of these ideas remain a bit nebulous. For
those of you who are Chinese or Asian and/or have been to China, you
know what I mean. The point I'm trying to make here is that most
Americans have no idea what China is about. They might think they do,
or they might even know anecdotal facts, but really, they are still
pretty clueless. To quote someone I met in the gym the other day,
"Back home, China kinda gets a bad rap," and mostly because people
just don't know what's up. But to be fair, how could people stateside
really get to understand Asian cultures or any other ones for that
matter. We're not exactly close to other countries, so foreign
cultures aren't as pervasive in the US as they are elsewhere. We also
don't really make an effort to change that. Perhaps getting better
all the time, but If nothing else, I've definitely picked up some
perspective from this trip, along with a tan, and hopefully only an
ever so slight Beijing accent.
I wish I had more meaningful and insightful things to say, but I
don't. So I'll just tell you about some things that have happened in
the past few days. Friday was pretty fun because we got to go out and
watch the US play. The bar we went to seemed to be a bit dilapidated
though. Maybe that was part of the ambiance, I don't really know.
Also, they had some local bands performing some variation of music;
whatever, I didn't really pay attention. All I saw was a guy dressed
in a panda suit. Draft beer was about $0.75 for around 500ml for a
couple of hours, so at least they had that going for them. Saturday
and Sunday were sweltering, so I avoided them by staying in my room.
Yesterday, I was asked to give a short presentation about some work
related topics. Since I couldn't explain a mathematical model for an
action potential in Chinese, I did it in English. This was good
because it severely limited the amount and difficulty of questions
that I received. Also, it gave me freedom to pretty much say whatever
I wanted.
Recently, I realized that one of the things that I've taken for
granted is how friendly everyone has been to me. It took them all of
a day or two to welcome me into the family that is their lab. Maybe
it's because I entertain their, often ridiculous, questions about the
US, or perhaps, I'm just a novelty to them. For example, with regards
to the former, one of the guys in the lab seems to think that all high
school students ever do in the US is get into fights. Period. Either
way, things probably couldn't have worked out better. Plus, I think
my Chinese is starting to show noticeable improvement as are my
chopstick and bicycle riding skills. Still haven't done any useful
work here, though.
Today crawled by. I have so little to do, but then again one could
say I haven't exactly been proactive in looking for new tasks. There
doesn't seem to much I can do to help people. Also, I am fed up with
this text input program. Every time I hit shift it changes to Chinese
input, and every time I hit shift+space, it changes the spacing so it
looks ｌｉｋｅ ｔｈｉｓ．Which means everytime I type the word 'I' everything
takes a crap.
I can't tell if my Chinese is getting better or not. I suspect that
it is, since everyone only speaks to me in Chinese here, but I don't
really think I've learned that much. Though I'm sure if I were here
for another month or so, things would be different. I feel like I
learn a new word everyday, but I forget at least that many, too. Oh
well, I guess I'll just have to come back some time in the future.
Well, the holiday is over and I'm back at work. Just a quick update
on the past three days. We went to a bar called Lush on Sunday since
they were having open mic night. Fun stuff (No, I didn't attempt to
embarrass myself either). Since we are in the University area of
Beijing there are tons of foreigners there, and so the local bars are
always packed with them. I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel at
least a little weird to see them all there. So, yup. Pretty much
took Monday off, walked around the Summer Palace again on Tuesday, and
then went to Hou Hai yesterday. Last night, Huiwen also took us out
to dinner. We went to a Sichuan restaurant, so naturally everything I
offered was spicy. I may or may not have paid for that later... but
anyways. We ordered a bunch of small dishes, and then Huiwen and I
decided to split a big pot of super spicy vegetables, hopefully the
picture is attached. However, after we started eating it, Huiwen
decided she was full, so I was stuck eating this thing all by myself.
Spicy foods and I are quite well acquainted, but a lot of Chinese
spices are different. For those of you who haven't experienced full
on Chinese spicy-style food, some of the ingredients they use makes
your mouth go numb. Yeah, I know. Weird (or awesome?). Anyways, it
was fun, if not also miserable.
Today, a handful of guys from the lab were planning to go to Chengdu
for a seminar. However, one of the guys lost his cell phone sometime
earlier today, so in the midst of sorting all of that out, he decided
he couldn't go. Since they had already made arrangements for three
guys to go, after the third guy backed out, apparently they were
looking for me to take his place. Unfortunately I wasn't around at
2pm when they were looking, so they just had to go themselves.
Bummah.
Also, I can't get a handle on this weather. It's downright cold
today. Why is it so cold? It was like 38C yesterday. That's like
100F for those of you across the pond. Today it feels like less than
25C. It's like Indiana, but worse. World cup anyone? South Africa's
chances are not looking good. They just might make history for the
wrong reasons.
As I was writing this, the lady behind me was eating an apple, and she
would not close her mouth as she chewed. Now, I know that's a pretty
common thing here, but it is arguably one of my biggest pet peeves if
not the biggest. I mean it was like a friggin mastication exposition.
Ok, I just had to get that out there.
First of all, sorry about the double post. At first, it didn't look
like the post uploaded correctly, so I waited a bit and tried again.
Oh well. So I watched the US tie England last night. I was pretty
determined to watch so I went to bed at 11 and got up at 2:30 to catch
the action. Anyways, I'm sure you've heard all of the news about the
game by now, so no need to beat a dead equine. And if you don't know
what happened, for shame. Supposedly, they are shutting down the
water for 12 hours in my dorm tonight to repair some pipes. I hope
the toilet still works. Also, my door does not isolate any sound
whatsoever. Oh well, I have three days off now, so hopefully
something fun and exciting will happen.
The World Cup started yesterday. So we went into town to watch it at
a local pub. I didn't realize there were so many South Africans and
Mexicans in Beijing. Unsurprisingly the place was packed.
Surprisingly, they actually ran out of glasses. At one point, Robert
asked the waitress if the bottles of beer, Coors light nonetheless,
were still 10 kuai a bottle. She said yes, so Robert told her that we
would take three of them. Her reply was, "Sorry, we are all out of
those." Unbelievable. But it was good to catch up with him and talk
about living in China from the perspective of an ABC. And for those
of you who know Robert, you know that he alwasy finds himself in the
most ridiculous of situations. And, based on some of his stories,
that clearly has not changed. As it turns out, I am supposed to work
today and tomorrow, and then take three days off. Definitely would
not have stayed out that late last night if I had realized that.
Also, my alarm clock is set for weekdays only, so it didn't go off
this morning. Luckily, the miserable 5am sunrise woke me up so I
wasn't too late today.
So one of the guys in the lab defended today. Though, he didn't
really end up doing much defending. After his presentation, hardly
anyone asked questions. His presentation was a bit long, and perhaps
no one understood it. I surely didn't.
Also, as you know, internet, on the whole, is pretty awful here.
Super slow, and super censored. Worst yet, it just cuts out
sometimes. Fast, reliable, usable internet is probably the thing I
miss most.
The World Cup started yesterday. So we went into town to watch it at
a local pub. I didn't realize there were so many South Africans and
Mexicans in Beijing. Unsurprisingly the place was packed.
Surprisingly, they actually ran out of glasses. At one point, Robert
asked the waitress if the bottles of beer, Coors light nonetheless,
were still 10 kuai a bottle. She said yes, so Robert told her that we
would take three of them. Her reply was, "Sorry, we are all out of
those." Unbelievable. But it was good to catch up with him and talk
about living in China from the perspective of an ABC. And for those
of you who know Robert, you know that he alwasy finds himself in the
most ridiculous of situations. And, based on some of his stories,
that clearly has not changed. As it turns out, I am supposed to work
today and tomorrow, and then take three days off. Definitely would
not have stayed out that late last night if I had realized that.
Also, my alarm clock is set for weekdays only, so it didn't go off
this morning. Luckily, the miserable 5am sunrise woke me up so I
wasn't too late today.
So one of the guys in the lab defended today. Though, he didn't
really end up doing much defending. After his presentation, hardly
anyone asked questions. His presentation was a bit long, and perhaps
no one understood it. I surely didn't.
Called up a friend from Purdue who is also in Beijing at the moment.
We were supposed to do lunch on Tuesday, but there was a
miscommunication of sorts. Then we were set for lunch today, but he
forgot he had badminton at 1. So, finally, we should be heading out
tonight. Hopefully, we'll catch some of the World Cup as well. I
think I made some actual headway on my project today for the first
time probably since I've been here. I'll struggle through it some
more next week I guess. Speaking of next week, apparently Monday
through Wednesday are holidays, but that means they we are supposed to
come back and work next Saturday and Sunday? This, to me, doesn't
really seem like much of a holiday. In fact, it just seems like
prolonging the inevitable since we're really just using our weekend
days before the weekend. Oh well, I'll take it. With regards to the
World Cup, I'd like to know if you guys are going to watch it. If I
could put a poll up there I would. Maybe you guys can just leave a
comment.
Holy crap it's foggy today. Also, I need a spotter.
Since my hair was getting intolerably long, I decided to cut it last
night. I borrowed a pair of clippers from Mike, and got down to
business. So today, when people in the lab asked me where I got my
haircut, naturally I told them that I cut it myself. At this point,
they were surprised, astonished even. I guess people don't do that
around here. But, then again, why should they? A haircut here is
like 1USD. And since you're wondering, 10mm on top, and 6mm on the
sides. Apart from that, the most interesting thing that I did today
was eat a banana at about 3:45. And tomorrow, I might eat a piece of
watermelon...
It rained last night which means today was cooler, high of only about
80F. But more importantly, the air was a lot cleaner today which
means I actually got to see the sky. As I suspected, it's still blue
here. Another thing, all the mattresses are really stiff here. So I
wasn't surprised when my dorm bed was pretty hard. But then when I
looked at it more closely, I haven't even been sleeping on a mattress.
The bed is only a flat metal plank with about a two inch cushion on
it. Oh, and for those of you who have been keeping up with my
riveting adventures, my air conditioning works now. However, the
complimentary phone in my room is on the fritz. It wasn't working
last night when I had to make a call, which forced me to go down to
the front desk and inform them, so naturally when I came back to my
room it was fine. Exciting, no?
So I was just thinking maybe I should spend less time doing nothing,
and more time convincing myself I'm not doing nothing. That being
said, not much of note has transpired in the past day or so. I do
believe, however, that I have finally been to all the dining halls on
campus. There may still be some floors in some of the halls which
elude me, but I'll make it there eventually. Speaking of the food,
it's Chinese, it's cheap, and it's pretty damn good. And, since it's
subsidized by the government, 20USD goes a long ways. It's so bloody
hot here though, so I always work up a sweat eating which is actually
kind of annoying. Also, I think laundry is calling, again. Now I
know why people have a propensity to wear their clothes for more than
one day at a time. But since I am a spoiled American, I rarely engage
in clothing recycling. However, I must confess, laziness + college
life have begun to change that. My floor also doesn't have a dryer,
so o'natural it is (that means air drying, btw). I also couldn't find
an iron/ironing board, not that the latter would be of much use
without the former. So I decided to just hang my wrinkly clothes in
the bathroom, turn off the fan, and take a long hot shower. Many
thanks to whoever first shared that useful morsel with me. Next, my
closet's clothes hanging bar thing doesn't go side to side. It goes
front to back, so I can only see the shirt that's hanging right in
front. I'm not sure why this makes me so mad, especially since I have
yet to wear a single one of those shirts, but it does. It really
does.
I've decided I like going to the gym here because I see all sorts of
people. I've seen Frenchmen, Germans, and I think, recently, some
Australians. Those whom I presumed to be from down under were at a
loss because they were doing bicep curls where 10kg was too light, but
15 was way too heavy. (The smallest increment they could add too each
side was 2.5kg.) So I proceeded to go ahead and tell them this is why
everything should be in pounds. I don't think they found that as
funny as I did.
So we went back to the Temple of Heaven this Sunday, as I said we
would, but this time we were much more thorough in touring the
grounds. Huiwen was gracious enough to spend the day with us and show
us around. She was a little bashful when it came to practicing her
English with us, but I suppose that's to be expected. Yesterday the
lab went to a seminar about how to go about getting a research paper
published. At first I was wondering why the heck I even bothered
going, but it turned out the speaker was British. I did feel a bit
bad though when no one laughed at his jokes. I mean, they weren't
great jokes, but still. Cultural differences, or more accurately
linguistic difficulties, I guess. At the end he left some time for
questions, and unsurprisingly no one spoke up. So finally, I decided
to ask him something, I mean, it was English after all. Apparently
people who ask questions are highly regarded here because once I got
done, someone came and presented me with a gift. It was a fancy
bookmark souvenir thingy. Weird. Also, while on the subject, I am
receiving increasing requests to review papers written in English.
Not that I'm complaining, it's about the only thing I can really
contribute. However, I did have to try and translate some really
poorly written English today. That was dumb.
Yesterday was also Linchang's birthday. On top of that he is
defending on Saturday. Cakes and celebrations abounded last night.
Also, we are probably going out to celebrate on Sunday. And by we I
mean him and Purdue students. Well, I haven't asked them yet, but at
the very least I'm celebrating.
Stop callin', stop callin', I don't want to talk anymore... But
seriously, since I don't have a local sim card here, all my phone
calls are uber expensive. I'm still waiting on T-Mo to send me my
unlock information which they won't seem to do. With regards to cell
phones in the U.S., we pay more, we get less, and good phones rarely
ever come here. However, I must say, the latter has begun to improve
in the past year or two. But, I always forget about the "US-world
phone discrepancy," if you will, until I go to another country and
visit. People's cell phones are basically much nicer everywhere else,
and they have more choices since they aren't locked to a particular
carrier. Without sounding to elitist, I hope you guys understand what
I'm getting at. I'll just leave you with this last bit to chew on:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Consumers-In-US-Canada-Pay-More-For-Wireless-103905Now more about what I've been up to. I went to visit a hospital
yesterday where they were doing a rat surgery. The were basically
implanting electrodes in a rat with epilepsy to monitor it's
brainwaves. This is almost exactly what one of my professors at
Purdue does, so I had seen this procedure once before. Though, I must
admit, if I were a rat, I would much rather have this surgery done in
the US, and that's all I'll say about that. After the surgery, we
decided to do a little sight seeing, so we walked into the Temple of
Heaven which is right in the neighborhood of the hospital.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_heaven Cool stuff. Then, when
I got back, my fellow Purdue students were trying to think of
something to do this weekend, and they finally decided to go see, you
guessed, the Temple of Heaven. So I guess I'm going back there
tomorrow.
I think a hobby of the Chinese grad students here is trying to teach
me weird and obscure slang words. Half the time I have no idea what
they are saying, er, come to think of it, probably a lot more than
half the time. Finally, as I'm writing this, I'm sampling a pineapple
juice beer. Not my cup of tea, or even my cup of beer.
Up until now I haven't really had much to do, so I've just been
sitting around at my desk (hence, blogging). However, it looks like
that might change in the near future. Honestly, I have to thank a few
of my professors for teaching me some pretty useful things in the past
year. First, all of the things I learned in bioelectricity from Dr.
Irazoqui have become abundantly useful. Especially, since I'll be
working on modeling neurons undergonig deep brain stimulation.
Second, the force feeding from Dr. Ivanesavic which "allowed" me to
become proficient at locating research papers has been nice since
that's all I've been doing up until now. After all, the first day was
pretty much, "Here's a computer. Now, go learn about DBS research."
Third, and ironically enough, the ME/ChemE students that are working
in the thermal engineering group have not taken heat and mass transfer
yet. Apparently, only the BME and NucE students (actually, I don't
know about Aero, CivE, or any other ones for that matter) take H&M
transfer during their junior year at Purdue. Oh well, have fun guys.
Speaking of my compatriots, I haven't seen most of them since the
weekend. I have no idea what they've been up to.
Stream of Consciousness:
Air quality extremely bad today. Visibility is about half of what it
normally is. Also, I hope to make some plans for the weekend. I even
did my laundry yesterday so I wouldn't have to worry about it later.
Plus, I was running out of socks. (That might have some semblance of
a pun. I'm not sure.) Soy milk comes in pouches here. I've seen
people just poke straws into them, but all the straws I got aren't
pointy at either end. Don't worry though, I'm an engineer. I'll
figure it out. When I woke up this morning, all the sheets on my bed
were sideways... weird. People in the dining courts here eat faster
than I've ever seen before. I usually have no problem eating fast,
and I'm only about par for the course. Finding a place to park your
bike here is surprisingly difficult. There are just so many people
everywhere. Oh, and before I forget, I actually did something useful
yesterday. I revised a lab member's paper that he wrote. Apparently
my only utility around here is that I can speak mediocre English.
Now that I've started the actual program, most things are going pretty
smoothly. I don't work with any of the other Purdue students so I
have no idea what they are up to. Also, my Chinese is definitely not
good enough to conduct research with. Luckily research papers are
just about all published in English so I can still do something while
I'm in the lab. Speaking of which, I was clearly unprepared for the
amount of time I would have to be here on the first day. 8:30 to 6 is
their average day with a lunch break, but yesterday was their weekly
meeting at 7pm as well. On top of that it poured right after the
meeting, so I couldn't ride my bike back until around 9:30. All the
people here are extremely friendly, in fact, one of them is taking me
to the gym today. I get all sorts of questions about the US, so
hopefully I don't misrepresent you guys.
Other observations. The air quality in Beijing is what I would
consider to be poor at best. During the day, when the sun is out, if
you were to look out your window, the smog is so bad that nothing in
the distance is visible. When I first arrived, I just thought that it
was always really foggy here. Via my typical ineptitude, it took a
few days for it to dawn on me that the air pollution is worse than any
other place I've ever been.
More notes. Hot water in the dorms only runs for three intervals
throughout the day: 7-9am, 3-5pm, and 8pm-12am. I'll probably forget
about that at least once while I'm here. Finally, air conditioning
still does not work. Currently looking for alternative solutions.
Took the overnight train back to Beijing on Friday. When I arrived at
Tsinghua again on Saturday morning, I was told to take the shuttle bus
to the registration area. Since the driver had a bit of an accent, I
couldn't make out everything he was saying. Thus, I was petrified
that he was going to drop me off in some sort of place where the take
all the people who don't speak Chinese. Though, I guess that would
have been the international students' dorm so maybe it would have been
okay either way. Anyways, I did get to the right spot and I was met
by my exchange student partner. I also met up with some of the other
Purdue students who had arrived. Now, let me tell you about some of
the places where I had to register. I already registered at the
school on my previous trip to Tsinghua, this time I registered for my
dorm (which is a single with a bathroom, chaching!), my laundry card,
my dining card, and a bicycle. Now, at each of the places I had to
present my letter of acceptance as well as my passport. But, here
comes the good part. Even though my given name is in English, as it
appears on all legal documents, they exclusively use my Chinese name
here. In fact, they pretty much have a strict, no non-Chinese names
policy when registering. Therefore, when one of the students (who is
Indian) went to get his dining card, the man at the desk asked him if
he had a Chinese name. When the student said no and asked if he could
use his English name, the employee said what would translate roughly
to, "absolutely not." So, the Chinese students in a pinch, thought
him up a Chinese name on the spot, and that was what he used. What's
even better is the name he was given had the same surname as the one
that was given to another student so we inadvertently made them
brothers. Also, my air conditioning does not get activated until June
first. It's extremely hot here.
Finally. I've been meaning to write about this for a few days now,
but all of my posts seem to devolve into something entirely unrelated.
The 2010 Shanghai World Expo, like all the other constructions in
China is gigantic. The complex itself has several bus routes within
it (though I think only one was operational). Knowing that the event
would be polluted with other tourists like ourselves, we decided to
wake at 5:30 in order to be at the gate slightly before 8. In order
to put this in perspective, they don't even allow people to enter the
park through any of the gates (there are quite a few, but I don't
recall exactly how many) before 9. However, by 9 o'clock the sea of
people behind stretched farther than you could see. I believe Linda
captured this image in one of her photos, and I'll try to link that up
in the future. Now here's where things got a bit hairy. At 9, when
they opened the security checkpoint, all of the people at the front of
the line ran through the gates/security point and into the park.
Despite the wishes of the police officers, they literally ran into
Expo. Being in public in China still catches me a little off guard
sometimes because there's really no such thing as personal space. In
the States, when I'm walking around people tend to keep their distance
with a crowded bus or train being a possible exception. Heck, I don't
want to touch anybody if I can help it. On this side of the Pacific,
however, no one cares. As a matter of fact, if you're in a busy place
and don't do a little pushing and shoving yourself, you'll people will
walk right over you, or you'll never make it on the subway. That last
one's from experience, by the way. In the end this is all somewhat
understandable. I suppose if there were four times as many people in
the U.S., I might be inclined to do the same thing.
But more about the Expo. Since we were at the front of the line we
made it to the Chinese pavilion with ease. For those of you who may
not have known, the Chinese pavilion is the place to be at the expo,
and for good reason. More on that later. The Chinese pavilion is far
and away the largest of all countries present. Not that there aren't
other big ones, but China's size is unequaled at the Expo. So after
waiting in line at the Expo gate, we quickly got in line for the
Chinese pavilion, once we were let in, we rode the escalator/moving
walkway up to what we thought was going to be the inside of the
building. What we really did was get in line to ride the elevator up
to the third floor. Once we finally made it into the fairly artistic
reception area, we opted out of the line to watch the introductory
movie. This was all so we could stand in the other line to see some
original Chinese historical artifacts. After that, we seemed to move
through the floors at our own pace. If you couldn't tell, going to
the World Expo is pretty much an exercise in patience. Now, there are
some cool things to see, but overall, I felt like it just kind of sets
you up for disappointment. After waiting in line for a few hours, in
your mind your expectations start to climb no matter what you tell
yourself. So, by the time you walk into a country's exhibit, even if
it would normally be considered an engaging showcase, you can't help
but think, "Gee, I waited two hours just for this?" As I alluded to
before, the Chinese pavilion may have been one of the few that
deserved a long wait. Unfortunately I didn't make it to some of the
other bigger countries, so I'm really just assuming that since the
Chinese one was the biggest it was naturally the best. That's how
things work, right? Now, I'm not hating on the Expo, I thought it was
pretty entertaining that most of the world had a presence there. I
think we actually took advantage of that by going to visit a lot of
small countries where we didn't have to wait to get in. Albeit some
of those countries I probably couldn't find on a map. I will say that
not all hope is lost though, in fact, it rained the next day, and I
heard that the lines were only around 20 minutes for some of the
bigger countries. So, at the end of the day, if you can take one
thing away from my experience, it should be this: go visit the Expo
because it's a good experience, but only when it's raining.
At the end of my little day trip to Tsinghua, Linda and I took the
overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai. It was just a trip getting
to the train station since we decided to take the subway, so we had to
figure that whole deal as well. Anyways, we made it to the train
station and we made it Shanghai where we were fetched by her uncle.
Riding on a train overnight was kind of cool if not hard to sleep. As
always, we got weird looks when we spoke English. Shanghai is another
enormous city. I actually like it, perhaps more than Beijing, the
only major difficulty is that everyone here speaks Shanghainese. It's
hard enough for me to understand Mandarin, so I can barely catch a few
words when the locals speak. Luckily, most of them will speak
Mandarin if you ask.
Staying with people is always a bit taxing for both sides. Staying
with relatives of your girlfriends can also be awkward as well as
taxing. Staying with relatives of your girlfriends who don't speak
English can be awkward, taxing, and plain difficult. That being said,
their family is just like any other, and after a day, I got to be
pretty comfortable around most of them. The one thing that still
catches me a little off guard is how much beer they give me drink at
meals. Apparently Linda's uncle likes to drink beer (ok, who
doesn't?). However, before I came, characteristically well
intentioned Linda told them that I like to drink stouts, which is true
because I do enjoy a good stout every once in a while. What I didn't
know was that the stouts here have twice as much alcohol as the more
common lagers. Since Linda's uncle doesn't normally have anyone to
drink with, when I came, he pretty much went to town. He is clearly a
champion drinker because he drinks about three times as fast as I do.
So every dinner is at least three stouts, and by the end, let's just
say chopsticks get a little difficult to use. Not only that, but it
also gets harder and harder for me to make coherent Chinese sentences.
Oh well, life could be worse, I suppose.
So last Monday, my family left me to finally fend for myself in China.
Linda thought it was strange that they didn't seem all too worried
about leaving me in a foreign country for a few weeks when I barely
speak the language and am pretty helpless by myself. I figured it was
better than them clinging to me until the last second, and I suppose I
have to learn to be a big boy sometime. I guess I get my
nonchalantness from my parents, and I'm not sure whether that's a good
thing or not. After my folks and sis hopped a taxi to the airport,
Linda and I also took a taxi to Tsinghua University where I was picked
up by my exchange student partner. I'm still a bit astonished that we
made to the right place via my broken Chinese and poor sense of
direction. After all, he did tell me to meet him at the "east gate"
of campus, so imagine my surprise when the taxi driver told me there
where two different east gates. I just did the kind of "uhh...." -_-
face. Well, in the end all turned out ok, and Changqing along with
another exchange student in the program met me at the "real" east
gate. The first thing that we did was go to meet the professor who's
lab I would be working in for the first part of the summer. I wasn't
surprised that he spoke English well, but the encounter was still
closer to the awkward side of conversation than I would have liked. I
think I expected more of a structured plan for what I would be doing
this summer rather than a informal interview session. Looking back, I
don't know why I didn't see this coming, after all we had never spoken
nor did he know anything about me. At the end of the day, I'm not too
worried about it, but I just have one small, nagging reservation which
basically boils down to the notion that I don't want to embarrass my
self. To be blunt, I am a little nervous about presenting myself as a
representative from Purdue at this premier institution since I don't
really speak the language, this is my first formal research
experience, and I don't think I'm really qualified to be here. I
mean, I'm not really worried about it, but I'm a little worried about
it. You know what I mean? You know what I mean.
Apart from that, Tsinghua has a beautiful campus. The food in the
cafeteria is cheap and awesome. I just hope I can find a gym
somewhere.
Beijing is massive. At the risk of sounding like some lowbrow country
pleb who's largest metropolitan experience is West Lafeyette, IN, I
must confess that I am utterly overwhelmed by the sheer size of
Beijing. I haven't looked up the "technical specs" on Beijing (i.e.
area, population, etc), but I can say that I have never been in a city
this large, or at least one that feels this large. I do know that the
layout of the roads is roughly the following: there are six concentric
rings that make up the major infrastructure of the city with many
connecting streets. After hours of wading through literally millions
of cars, people, bicycles, buses, mopeds, you name it, I noticed that
the majority of the streets are all four lanes in each direction.
Crossing the street is reminiscent of Frogger, and as such, it doesn't
really matter where you cross since it seems people just do whatever
they please and it's up to you to not die in the aftermath. No one
here seems to subscribe to the school of defensive driving. In fact,
if you're not an offensive, downright dangerous, driver, you'll never
make it out of the parking lot. Street signs, lanes, and lights are
more of guidelines than anything else, and as long as no one gets
hurt, no one seems to mind what you do.
Driving aside, there are a few interesting places that I have had a
chance to visit. Everyone's heard of famous Chinese landmarks such as
Tiananmen, the Forbidden Palace, the Great Wall, and as you can
probably guess, no description or picture could ever do these places
justice. As I was walking through the Forbidden Palace, I couldn't
help but think about what it must have been like to live here as the
emperor or any of his subjects. Life in total seclusion from the rest
of the world along with centuries of history and customs surrounding
you is just unfathomable to me. Today, it would be doubly strange
because as you look around the palace, the walls no longer block out
the rest of the world from entering. Above the palace looms the
characteristic Beijing skyline where skyscrapers can be seen in every
direction. So even as one stands in the centuries old forbidden
palace, constant reminders of the ever advancing Chinese society are
present. Speaking of which, all of the buildings in downtown Beijing
are enormous. Cities like New York and Chicago hardly compare to the
megastructures that seem to go on forever. An hour and a half of
driving later (albeit through horrendous traffic) there seemed to be
no end to the rows of skyscrapers that lined the streets. I know a
lot of this may sound pretty superficial, but I'll try to get some
pictures up later that may or may not be worth several thousand words.
First and foremost, I apologize for being gone for not publishing any
content over the past week. Even though I was relatively gung-ho
about regularly posting with updates from my trip, a certain country's
internet censorship had other plans. However, hopefully all has been
squared away by now, and the content should be flowing. It may still
be difficult to upload photos for the time being, though; however,
I'll eventually drop a link to my Picassa account.
Housekeeping aside, I'll give you a guys an abbreviated version on the
very first part of this excursion: the journey. Originally, when I
had booked his flight, I thought that I had been undeservingly lucky
with my flight. I was to leave on May 18 out of Chicago, and a
certain airline was to start offering direct flights from Chicago to
Beijing starting April 26. I have never had anything even close to a
direct flight to Asia before, and as those of you who have flown at
any length before understand, a direct flight is worth its weight in
gold (What? Well you know what I mean.). Unfortunately, all was
indeed too good to be true. Apparently, China had not granted
permission for this airline to land in Beijing, thus I was to be
rerouted first to New York, then to Frankfurt, then to somewhere else
in some distant land, etc, before landing in my destination. Since I
had no desire to spend the rest of my days on an airplane (in coach,
no less) with a little wheeling and dealing, as well as some generous
help from my father, I got an itinerary starting in Chicago, to LA, to
Tokyo, and finally to Beijing. Since my original airline had not
received the grace of Chinese authorities to land in China yet, my
final leg was flown on another partner airline from Japan. The one
thing that I immediately noticed which distinguished these two flights
was how much more pleasant the Asian leg was. Even after some
consideration, the reason remains nebulous to me, but suffice it to
say that I would fly an Asian airline over a domestic one any day.
The flight attendants were downright friendly in Asia, which I find
tends to be the exception rather than the rule stateside. It also
didn't hurt that they are much cuter in Asia (and thinner). I almost
took some pictures, solely for the purpose of thorough documentation
mind you, but I figured that might have been in bad taste.
Woot, first post. I'm about to leave in a few hours. I'll try to update this as I go. I promise things will get more interesting once I get to China. Stay tuned.
