Scuba was kind enough to give me access to add to his blog. Becoming an honorary Scuba Steve was always one of my goals. As Scuba has talked about in his entries, the past few days have included multiple culture shocks that have imprinted life-long memories into our brains. I want to add to these experiences by touching on our interactions with natives and other foreigners we have run into.
As previously mentioned, our first dinner was with a couple of administrators from BSU, but only one of them spoke broken English well enough to interact with. He informed us on some of the preparations for the Olympics and what has changed around campus along with some of the specific areas of study amongst most of the students. However, being that we had just arrived earlier that day, all I really wanted to do was stuff my face with delicious, authentic Chinese food.
A couple of days later(Wednesday), we had the day off and were desperate to immerse ourselves into the culture. A few of us walked over to the basketball courts in the center of campus in search of a basketball to join in on. Luckily there were a couple of students shooting around and they were happy to welcome us, but one was quick to say one of the few English phrases he knew, "I sorry, my English is no good." Because of the language barrier there was not much verbal interaction, but throwing a non-English speaker into a team of Americans made no difference in how we played the game. So not only was it fun to be playing basketball, it was a cool to have such an extensive interaction with these 2 students without having a full conversation. In addition, there were multiple Chinese spectators who, by watching us play, made me feel like we were the US national basketball team. They never stop staring at us like we are celebrities!
Later on that day, a group of us took a walk to to the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan Garden) and stopped for lunch on the way. This was the first time we had to order food ourselves, aside from the dining hall in which we just point to what we want. Absolutely no one in the restaurant spoke a word of English which made the ordering process extremely awkward. We had virtually no idea what we had ordered, but the food turned out to be pretty tasty. Walking over to the garden was the first time we spent a significant amount of time outside of campus, and the same trend, celebrity treatment, applied. This also continued throughout our time at the Old Summer Palace.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Chinese Lesson 1: Economics
Everything is so cheap!
My breakfast this morning was noodles, a large dumpling filled with beef and onions, and some chicken and peppers piled a few inches tall on a plate the size of a frisbee (actually looks eerily similar to a disk) and it all cost me 5 yuan. The exchange rate here is roughly 6.8 yuan to the dollar... if I master the art of the chopsticks (there's more to it than you might think), I'm coming back as a sumo wrestler. Our meal at the 5 star restaurant Din Tai Fung ended up at 1002 yuan, this sounds like a lot of money. Split between six people is 167 yuan per person, divided by 6.8 makes it less than $25 per person. Did I mention this was possibly a Top Ten restaurant in the world with fantastic dumplings. The amount we pay in yuan, we would probably pay in dollars in the States; this may sound obvious, but with other items I get even better deals. Our 24 pack of water cost 21 yuan. I don't know if you can get a bottle of water for under a dollar back home, but here I don't even drop a yuan for one (our pack was roughly 13 cents per bottle). I have yet to be to the silk or soap market, to get incredible deals on stuff, but its on my list of things I will do soon.
My breakfast this morning was noodles, a large dumpling filled with beef and onions, and some chicken and peppers piled a few inches tall on a plate the size of a frisbee (actually looks eerily similar to a disk) and it all cost me 5 yuan. The exchange rate here is roughly 6.8 yuan to the dollar... if I master the art of the chopsticks (there's more to it than you might think), I'm coming back as a sumo wrestler. Our meal at the 5 star restaurant Din Tai Fung ended up at 1002 yuan, this sounds like a lot of money. Split between six people is 167 yuan per person, divided by 6.8 makes it less than $25 per person. Did I mention this was possibly a Top Ten restaurant in the world with fantastic dumplings. The amount we pay in yuan, we would probably pay in dollars in the States; this may sound obvious, but with other items I get even better deals. Our 24 pack of water cost 21 yuan. I don't know if you can get a bottle of water for under a dollar back home, but here I don't even drop a yuan for one (our pack was roughly 13 cents per bottle). I have yet to be to the silk or soap market, to get incredible deals on stuff, but its on my list of things I will do soon.
First Full Day
Despite thinking that I had completely avoided jet lag, I still woke up at 5AM on Tuesday. Steve and I decided to burn off some energy and explore the rest of the campus with a morning run - something you probably couldn't pay me to do back home. Even so early in the morning, there were plenty of people out exercising. We get total celebrity/rock star treatment here. As we went by people would stare at us and if we look back after we pass them they're still looking at us. People stand right in front of us as we run and take our pictures - I'm kind of a big deal here. During our run, we saw some members of the Chinese Olympic team training. Apparently Beijing Sport University has produced many medalists through the years and are hosting several Chinese and Italian Olympic teams this year.
At 9AM, we went down to the Training Center where I saw the athletes earlier. Dr. Guan got us access into the building with the condition that we take no photos. It was a state-of-the-art complex complete with track, spas, gym, and tae-kwon-do dojo. We saw the Chinese Rhythmic Dance as well as the prodigies for the future. Six-year-old girls were putting their legs so far behind their heads that I pulled my hamstring. I've never watched the rhythmic dancing competition before, but I might this year; they were doing crazy team and individual routines that warped my brain. I'm positive that these girls can probably touch any part of their body with any other part of their body - I bet they can even lick their elbows.
We came back, chilled, then went to a classroom to meet with our sport supervisors. After receiving phone cards (my number is 139-101-76007), we got fitted for our uniforms. The sizes there represent their petite physical status - I'll be wearing size extra large shirt and pants for my events. I gave an interview with a television station about why I'm excited and what a great opportunity this is for China (we were told the next day that this was shown on nationally broadcast tv later that night - taking us less than 24 hours to get on tv after touchdown [we're totally celebrities!]). We learned that we're going to be touring the Forbidden City and the Great Wall this weekend and we start work immediately afterwards.
That night, we headed into Beijing to meet with my friend Katherine's aunt to eat dinner. The cab ride in was absolutely incredible! During the half-hour trip, we passed so much ridiculous architecture: the Bird's Nest is a new Olympic venue that looks like woven steel, there's a building that looks like a dragon all curved, and there's many many massive buildings all around. With 25 million people living in the city, one could drive an hour and still be in densely populated urban sprawl, totally blew me away. I brought my camera, but really couldn't get any good shots from the back seat, I'll be sure to get some later on and put them into my photo album (you can look at it by the link on the right).
We got out of the cab next to a massive mall. We met Katherine's aunt and proceeded to ascend six or seven escalators up to (what I assume) is the top floor for the restaurant. Shortly after being seated, the manager came and informed us that we were going to a private table. It turns out that Din Tai Fung was ranked one of the Top Ten Restaurants World Wide by the New York Times! AND WE GOT A PRIVATE TABLE THERE! Out of control!!! We regularly had two waitresses by the table serving us more dumplings (possibly the best in the world!) that I would kill for, if it came to that extreme. They were loaded with soup, spinach, chicken, shrimp, or any combination of those - lets just say its tough to go back to Chinese diner food after eating there. On the way out, I picked up the card so that I can get back there later (while its tough to communicate with cab drivers, having business cards helps get around the city).
What a great day, I fully wish to remember this for the rest of my life.
At 9AM, we went down to the Training Center where I saw the athletes earlier. Dr. Guan got us access into the building with the condition that we take no photos. It was a state-of-the-art complex complete with track, spas, gym, and tae-kwon-do dojo. We saw the Chinese Rhythmic Dance as well as the prodigies for the future. Six-year-old girls were putting their legs so far behind their heads that I pulled my hamstring. I've never watched the rhythmic dancing competition before, but I might this year; they were doing crazy team and individual routines that warped my brain. I'm positive that these girls can probably touch any part of their body with any other part of their body - I bet they can even lick their elbows.
We came back, chilled, then went to a classroom to meet with our sport supervisors. After receiving phone cards (my number is 139-101-76007), we got fitted for our uniforms. The sizes there represent their petite physical status - I'll be wearing size extra large shirt and pants for my events. I gave an interview with a television station about why I'm excited and what a great opportunity this is for China (we were told the next day that this was shown on nationally broadcast tv later that night - taking us less than 24 hours to get on tv after touchdown [we're totally celebrities!]). We learned that we're going to be touring the Forbidden City and the Great Wall this weekend and we start work immediately afterwards.
That night, we headed into Beijing to meet with my friend Katherine's aunt to eat dinner. The cab ride in was absolutely incredible! During the half-hour trip, we passed so much ridiculous architecture: the Bird's Nest is a new Olympic venue that looks like woven steel, there's a building that looks like a dragon all curved, and there's many many massive buildings all around. With 25 million people living in the city, one could drive an hour and still be in densely populated urban sprawl, totally blew me away. I brought my camera, but really couldn't get any good shots from the back seat, I'll be sure to get some later on and put them into my photo album (you can look at it by the link on the right).
We got out of the cab next to a massive mall. We met Katherine's aunt and proceeded to ascend six or seven escalators up to (what I assume) is the top floor for the restaurant. Shortly after being seated, the manager came and informed us that we were going to a private table. It turns out that Din Tai Fung was ranked one of the Top Ten Restaurants World Wide by the New York Times! AND WE GOT A PRIVATE TABLE THERE! Out of control!!! We regularly had two waitresses by the table serving us more dumplings (possibly the best in the world!) that I would kill for, if it came to that extreme. They were loaded with soup, spinach, chicken, shrimp, or any combination of those - lets just say its tough to go back to Chinese diner food after eating there. On the way out, I picked up the card so that I can get back there later (while its tough to communicate with cab drivers, having business cards helps get around the city).
What a great day, I fully wish to remember this for the rest of my life.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
First Day in China
While I've been in Beijing for about two full days, we only just got internet access last night, so I'll start from the beginning...
The flight over to China went fairly smoothly, 13 hours go by pretty quickly when you sleep for nine or ten of them. The airplane was a double decker and we flew in the economy plus class, giving me plenty of legroom to get comfortable in. We flew over the North Pole and the Verkhoyanskiy Mountains in Siberia en route to our final destination of Beijing.
At the luggage pickup, I helped a worker grab a plastic tray off the belt and exchanged nee-hous. While looking for my bag, I see him in my periphery sidestepping closer and closer to me. When he was right next to me I turned to him and he put his hand on his head comparing his height to mine (about a full foot shorter than me) we laughed and he charaded welcome to Beijing to us. Another airport observation: the drug sniffing dogs were beagles! The least intimidating police presence ever when the policemen took out the chew toy and played with it.
On the busride over, we saw a lot of the poor areas in Beijing as we approached the city limits. Beijing Sport University is at the outskirts of the city, not many large buildings in the immediate vicinity. When unpacked, settled in and went to a banquet on the top floor of our dining hall. Steve, a few other students, and I ate at a table with our trip adviser Dr. Guan and two high ranking university officials Chao and Yu. There were a solid nine or ten courses on a lazy Susan on our table staggered throughout the meal; the food had really crazy textures, but I made sure to try everything and it was all delicious.
Afterwards, we were restless and walked around the campus. I tried to walk into every building that had curtains and a light on, so we checked out some shops and I walked into the doorway for the women's dressing room for the pool (the people in the street behind us screamed "NOOO!!!" when I took a step in - oops). We got some tape and put up our Red Sox and Celtics posters around the room. Stayed up til midnightish watching Euro highlights with an enthusiastic Chinese announcer.
Big Props of the Day
to Melissa Horowitz and Ian Moskowitz for helping me stay up til 4AM to minimize jet lag. It was a good last night to go out on, full of Beerfest, Flight of the Conchords, Mallrats, Bacardi O, and Celtics Game 6 4th Quarter.
I'm a few days behind right now, there's so much to do and so little time to write, but I'll try and rip out a few more posts later on today.
The flight over to China went fairly smoothly, 13 hours go by pretty quickly when you sleep for nine or ten of them. The airplane was a double decker and we flew in the economy plus class, giving me plenty of legroom to get comfortable in. We flew over the North Pole and the Verkhoyanskiy Mountains in Siberia en route to our final destination of Beijing.
At the luggage pickup, I helped a worker grab a plastic tray off the belt and exchanged nee-hous. While looking for my bag, I see him in my periphery sidestepping closer and closer to me. When he was right next to me I turned to him and he put his hand on his head comparing his height to mine (about a full foot shorter than me) we laughed and he charaded welcome to Beijing to us. Another airport observation: the drug sniffing dogs were beagles! The least intimidating police presence ever when the policemen took out the chew toy and played with it.
On the busride over, we saw a lot of the poor areas in Beijing as we approached the city limits. Beijing Sport University is at the outskirts of the city, not many large buildings in the immediate vicinity. When unpacked, settled in and went to a banquet on the top floor of our dining hall. Steve, a few other students, and I ate at a table with our trip adviser Dr. Guan and two high ranking university officials Chao and Yu. There were a solid nine or ten courses on a lazy Susan on our table staggered throughout the meal; the food had really crazy textures, but I made sure to try everything and it was all delicious.
Afterwards, we were restless and walked around the campus. I tried to walk into every building that had curtains and a light on, so we checked out some shops and I walked into the doorway for the women's dressing room for the pool (the people in the street behind us screamed "NOOO!!!" when I took a step in - oops). We got some tape and put up our Red Sox and Celtics posters around the room. Stayed up til midnightish watching Euro highlights with an enthusiastic Chinese announcer.
Big Props of the Day
to Melissa Horowitz and Ian Moskowitz for helping me stay up til 4AM to minimize jet lag. It was a good last night to go out on, full of Beerfest, Flight of the Conchords, Mallrats, Bacardi O, and Celtics Game 6 4th Quarter.
I'm a few days behind right now, there's so much to do and so little time to write, but I'll try and rip out a few more posts later on today.
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