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.
