Japan!

Alright this post is a recap of the wonderful week in Japan and an attempt to compare China and Japan.

First for what we did in Japan:

We stayed in Tokyo the entire time, and while in Tokyo we stayed in Asakusa district. Asakusa is a more traditional part of Tokyo with a temple and old market of sorts. We stayed in a cheap youth hostel. The first couple of days we went to many different districts. We visited Shinjuku, Harajuku (where the girls all dress up strangely), Shibuya (love-hotel hill, etc.), Rippongi (lots of clubs for us foreigners), Ueno, Akihabara (electronics and Anime and a nice Maid Cafe)... And I also took a half day trip to Kamakura and saw a Big Buddha! We went out a lot and saw everything there was to see... even penguins in Tokyo.

China and Japan are very different. The people and cultures might have similarities, and particularities that relate and share a common history, but if you go back far enough we all do to an extent (we both have two eyes... etc.).

But China was much dirtier than Japan because of lower emission standards and their industry and everything in Japan looked new and so clean! I felt that Japanese people were not nearly as expressive as Chinese people, but the Confucian values (which I will write about in my paper) were present in both countries...

Here are some photos from the trip:


Newly found Tokyo residents!

Lovely Penguins... I think they eat 'em!

Me and a big buddhar

Shanghai!

Well this last weekend we were in Shanghai and went to Hangzhou one of the days. It was the last weekend trip for us and it was very interesting toward the end.

To get to Shanghai we took another train, which for me was interesting as the beds were again too short and we had too much luggage, so I had to sleep with two bags under me. The first night I don't even remember what happened, but I ended up getting a massage on the second floor of our hotel with some classmates. The next day we went to Hang Zhou, the capital of the same named province (I believe). We visited an adhesive factory that makes all the crazy glue you can buy in the dollar stores in America. It was a very pleasant experience to meet Dr. Liu's older brother and I was grateful for how well and nicely he treated us, showing us his factory and taking us to the best meal ever. Later we went somewhere... and then returned to Shanghai. The last night we were in the city - I suddenly remember where it was, the 1 RMB bill has a picture of some lake and we went to that lake - we went to a pretty famous part of Shanghai where the boats are almost on fire with light and street vendors are everywhere.

The next day we said goodbye and took our leave. It was a sad experience to leave and come back to America for most of us - for myself and four others we were heading to Japan.

Here is a nice drawing of Justin and his ideal wife that he drew the last week of classes.

Some nice people we met in Shanghai at the riverside.


And here I am grabbing the tower in Shanghai.

That's it for China...

I will definitely miss:
My classmates, cheap food, cheap everything, speaking Chinese (though I will continue this at the Language House), and the interesting culture...

I will be relieved to go back home:
Because of the dirty air, for the unblocked internet, my family and friends, and food that won't give me cramps.

Xian!

This weekend was a long one! We had our last class of the week on Thursday dressing up in Jingju (Beijing Opera) costumes - I was dressed up as an Emperor at first and then a drummer boy - and later that night we went to KTV. It was a blast, we played some crucial oldies and modern hits, including Thriller, Toxic, Bye Bye Bye, and a bunch of Maroon 5 songs. After the party a bunch of us continued to Coco for an after party where some man bit me....

The next morning we were all on time for our ride to the local airport. We flew high and far to Xian, a flight that felt like an hour or two. Once we got there we went to through the Muslim quarter and learned about the local tension between the Muslims - 6% of the Xian population - and the non-Muslims - the rest. In fact, in Xian the language changed to reflect this tension I believe. Apparently Pork is called Da roe in Xian, instead of Zhu ro, da meaning big and zhu meaning pig. We saw the Mosque on the Sunday, and it was quite the site, built in 725 AD, it has quite a history.

After the Muslim quarter we happened upon the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. Justin and I both split some drum and bell action. We banged on the big drum and big bell quite hard. Apparently we will both now be the recipients of great health, peace, and happiness.

After the Bells and Drums, we wandered on our own and came upon a nice Koaya (peking duck) place. We ate there, and then later in the night went to a club entitled, "Make Friends at Half Past 8". It was a ripoff and very expensive, but you could put your name and details into a rotating electronic billboard that looked a bit like the NYSE.

The next day we went to see the Terracotta warrior factory (where they try to sell you outrageously priced mini warriors), and then the excavation site. They were pretty cool, and I made sure to pick up a couple of tiny ones and haggle hard!

After the Terracotta warrior excavation area - by the way it's a blue sky in Xian!!!! - we walked back through a beautiful garden-like area and went to the hot spring bath for concubines of the Emperor where one of China's four beauties bathed.

We then watched an excellent Tai Chi performance and met with an 83 year old international Grand Master who performed for us that day! We also all received t-shirts and were asked to come back and learn Tai Chi! I am pretty sure I am going to go to the Tai Chi club at the Language House this coming year!

That night we had a variety of dumplings and my favorite was a duck flavored dumpling... mhmmm. Wo ugh ce le.

Fast forward to the next day. We went on top of the old Xian city wall and were able to rent bikes and bicycle around the entire wall. It was 13.67 Km and it was 13.67 km of of fun! Who knew that soon the fun would end (relatively speaking, it was still a great experience to ride a train..... but not much fun).

We left at 2:30 pm and arrived at Nankai 10:30 am and were supposed to be in class at 10:45. The ride was dirty, and I had to sleep on the top bunk on a bed that was too small... :-(. But in all it was quite the weekend. And a fun weekend it was.

Yes, yes, sure... no problem.

Signing out,

卜山俊
(zhe shi wo de zhonguo mingtze)

The weekend!

Here we all are in Tianamen square...
Dear Chairman Mao,
Hi from America.
Me in the Forbidden City.
Me on the great wall!

A secret little park area right off of the great wall.. I found a great tree to sit and think about many things. I love this photo because it looks a bit fantasy-like.


pre.s. I wrote this before Katie. (Just decided to post it later)

What I and the majority of my group did/where we went this past weekend:

- Karaoke
- Tianemen Square
- Mao's Mausoleum
- Imperial Palace - aka The Forbidden City
- Summer Garden
- Beijing Opera - Jinju
- Great Wall of China

*SIDE COMMENT*
(Katie is right now trying to copyright the list. Unfortunately she has no proof as one can change the log times of this post. She actually copied this list because she couldn't think of anything better to write about, and as I am super kind I will not ask her for any money and will give her rights to publish on the Internet in her blog as well.)
*SIDE COMMENT OFF*

This list is quite insane! And I mean that in the best of ways. Unfortunately given the time span it really left us exhausted. I would have liked to see the Beijing trip stretch out, but no more complaints, just wonderful descriptions now!

Karaoke.

Alright, well our funny volunteer decided to hang out with us today after Katie called him up begging for a local tour and a local to help with bank issues. Almost everyone in the group and my language partner go to this restaurant that my language partner describes as an exhibition of stones. Well it was like that, and I have no idea of how to describe the place better. Afterwards as we walked back towards Nankai we saw a place called Harbor Club. We all became excited. We rushed back. We showered, we dressed, we went outside and we were soaked to the core. It was pouring, it was not looking good, and it was hard to find a taxi. After running around I find a cab and we take off, half complaining and wondering if we should turn around. When we arrive tons of people bow and welcome us. They take us to this shady elevator, stop at the wrong floor - stare at us and say, "wrong floor. please wait." We are perplexed, but we continue and get off at the proper floor and then are shown a Karaoke room!?!
Well it was expensive, but it was a lot of fun. We all got free fruit and free drinks and sang till the early morning when we forced ourselves to return and were off to Beijing at 6 AM!

- Tianamen Square

The first place we went. Didn't feel that special, but it was interesting to hear the story behind the square and when I knew a little bit of the background about the people that led protests there and all... Other than that, we saw a lot of Americans and foreigners. First time in a long time.

- Mao's Mausoleum
We saw a dead guy named Mao Zedong. He looked pretty well preserved, a little bit like plastic though. None of the guards smiled at me when I tried to give them a big grin. Eh, it was interesting though to see the first "President" of China and some people kowtowing to him.

- Imperial Palace - aka The Forbidden City
MASSIVE. The place was humongous. I was simply shocked at how big the palace / jail as Katie might put it was. However, it looks just like every other place... So I am glad I went, but it makes me wonder if anything is really different here or if tradition/standard convention just takes precedence.

- Summer Garden
There was a big lake there. It was pretty, reminded me of DC a bit. We learned how one of the rulers was supposed to use money to build a fleet, but instead built the palace, as such they lost a big battle.

- Beijing Opera - Jinju
Before going to the Opera I was able to see my friend Q, I will post pictures when the computer works better... But it was a short visit unfortunately, but nice nonetheless. I then went in to see the Jinju, which was fabulous, I wished I could have dressed up in a fancy tux though and treated it like a typical opera in America!

- Great Wall of China
MASSIVE wall. We joked around a lot about the Mongolians coming, and I tried to scare some children on the wall... didn't work too well...
Some guy tried to sucker me into buying a plaque for 200 Kuai saying that I climed 888 m of the great wall. I bought it though for 20. I never imagined the great wall would be so steep in some areas. In the end I also happened to find this resting place that was pretty neat.


Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my language partner's name, Tao Xiao Yue. It's hard for me to pronounce. :-( My name is just a little easier for her...

Classes at Nankai

Lots of classes at Nankai take place. As we speak though the classes for the regular student body are finishing and people are graduating left and right. For me though on this summer study abroad though things are beginning to get difficult. I didn't realize how much of a drain traveling to a foreign country would be, but it is a wonderful experience and I am glad I am on this program!

I have two Hanyu language teachers and four Hanyu classes Monday through Friday. On Tuesday, Wednesdsay and Thursday I have a culture class after lunch and then of course Tai Chi Monday-Friday at 7:00.

I will in one of my upcoming blogs make sure to take photos of each of my teachers! My Tai Chi laoshi is pretty cool. Zhang laoshi - my recitation class teacher - goes wayyy to quick and never likes any of my tones and complains that I don't know enough characters - those are hard to learn, especially with our schedule - for me at least. Wen Laoshi - our main Hanyu or Chinese teacher - is really awesome! She is very understanding and always likes my tones :-D. Our culture class teachers have taught us only once each so I can't really comment on them.

I like the structure of the Tai Chi class, waking up though sometimes is really a struggle and inner battle - that so far I have won everyday! The Hanyu class is starting to get really hard and I just don't have the time to learn over 24 characters in less than a day. Luckily half of the class has had some, if not, 2 years of Chinese at UMD and so they don't make us all look that bad as a class.

If you take a close look at my pictures you will notice exactly what we are learning in classes. And I must add that whenever we learn how to easily get around China I pick those things up most quickly!

In the beginning of the course we were asked if we would like to partner up with a language partner to practice our Chinese and them their English. Well I wanted one, in fact I asked for a girl... and they gave me a wonderful language partner who has shown me all around Tianjin! And she has helped me practice my Chinese without laughing too much, and I her English - which is much better than my Chinese.

To recap as Xiao Ma - or little horse would say - to remind you of today. We saw a picture of the classes at Nankai, a turtle at Confucius' temple to remind us of UMD, a little girl in the city of Tianjin who wanted a picture with me and my language partner.

Zaijin till next time,
Signing off,
Joe

p.s. I asked her what she thought of Mao and what she did if anything for the victims of the earthquake. Apparently her highly educated parents wake up every morning and wish Chairman Mao a long life. She doesn't like him that much though and thought he made many mistakes. And she sent money for earthquake victims.
Sounds like any other girl.

朋友

We had our first day of classes on Tuesday. They were frustrating in the very beginning. I had a very difficult time with the tones as I happen to be tone deaf. But towards the end I got them down - somewhat. And as classes have progressed I have learned more and more words and characters, including 你好吗？ 我很好！ 爸爸，妈妈，火， 我， and many others! It takes forever to write them out and to copy them over, my handwriting is about as good in Chinese as it is in English.

I have to say that I have been enjoying the culture classes during this trip as well. The Martial Arts and Tai Chi classes make my legs ACHE! But I am glad that I am getting a lot of practice and am able to work out.

The Beijing opera class was very interesting, he taught us that the three treasures of Chinese culture are the artwork and calligraphy, the medicine, and the Chinese opera. He went on to describe the many different roles for the actors and give little skits on them. It was hard to understand the translator, but I could tell the teacher was very good! Next time, after the opera class, I will be going to a certain shop and dress up as an actor in traditional clothing and make-up! During the class he also described the colors on the actors and masks for the characters in the opera. White = sly, black = upholding justice, green = a hero come from wild, yellow = REALLY WILD, red = integrity. Some more interesting differences from Chinese culture and back home. White and black have reversed roles in this culture!


Friends.朋友





I have found one of the five F's to be true through personal experience. The second night of Nankai University a good friend that I met at Maryland last semester came to visit me! We went out to dinner and it was a real pleasure to hang out with him. But the fact that he would fly down to visit me really meant a lot to me!
I met him in one part of the world, and we were good enough friends to meet on the opposite side. :-)

We went out to dinner with another friend of his and then the next day we spent the entire day (after classes) walking around and seeing the city! He helped me get my cell phone card! - ahh yes, to contact me here in China the quickest way will be to call me - I get free incoming calls - at +86 15922136057.



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777, oops, 888

Hi again!
This is my second blog post during my trip to China for my friends and family!
I hope all is well on the other side of the world. While being on the other side of the world I have noticed that it is a small world after all (I can't get the tune out of my head now) and there are many similarities, and thankfully differences that make us all unique, interesting, and able to learn from each other. I am thoroughly enjoying the trip so far and love the many cultural nuances in the language and society as a whole.

Other cultural interests of mine include - what are considered - lucky and unlucky numbers. I've heard that the number 4 is considered unlucky - si(4) - 四 - which sounds similar to death - si(3) - 死*. As well I know that 8 is a very lucky number. As 8 is ba(1) which sounds very similar to fa(1) which means to make a lot of money. In fact the Olympics are taking place on 8.8.08. - So in this communistic society they are going to celebrate one world, one dream on a day of large financial success for China. An interesting side note is that when we had orientation on the first day they discussed how Nankai University is within the top eight universities in Chinese learning. In America I would hear top 10, 5 or 3, and never 7,8,9 or so unless the university was exactly in the seventh position.. etc. :-)

Here are some pictures of the orientation/welcoming party:






On the first day we traveled to see a large mansion - the family Shi's mansion - and had dinner at the restaurant called 1928. After the delicious 10 course meal there was an auction and I ended up buying a scroll painting and a large fan. I enjoyed the auction a lot, but returning to the outside and seeing the dark gloomy city sky took away the sense of victory and made me- or bicycling - around the area. Tons and tons of people are planting trees wonder how the city could improve with emission standards (seeing all of the cars exhaust on the highway made me want to cover my nose and breath through my t-shirt). However, I must note that it seems like everyone in the city has been working , weeding, watering and taking care of the parks and the roadsides for the upcoming Olympics and general improvement. Everyone is excited and signs are hanging everywhere! Hopefully all the grime will be gone before we realize it and the area will bloom with the hard work that will surely lead to success, an idea rooted in Confucianism.



To end with a quote, indeed the first line of the Analects, "Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned?"

Hopefully, I will be able to learn more about the Confucian values on this trip, see them practiced, and the "Asian way" as Reid in his book, Confucius lives next door, describes and hopefully incorporate them into the my middle eastern, and western beliefs and culture.



*Wasn't sure how to represent pinyin on this blog. But the parentheses is the tone on the preceding letter and the number is the numbered tone.