From Qingdao to Dallas - Without Sleep

When I just arrived in Dallas, the last 47 consecutive hours of my life had been travel, starting with the 12-hour bus from Qingdao back to Beijing, then directly to the airport for my hours of travel back to the U.S., finally ending with a comparatively short leg back to Dallas. As I blankly stared out of the airplane window on my last leg of this hellacious two-day travel ordeal, I was struck with a strange feeling, being back in the United States. Before I went to China, I thought that only having two months there wasn't going to do anything. Now I’ve realized just how long two months can be. Don't get me wrong, I loved every moment of it (okay, some parts were less good than others). All of a sudden I don't have to actively listen just to understand things, I don't have to spend a full minute reading a sign, and I don't even get to hear Chinese being spoken anymore. It's all over, so quickly. 

That's how I felt about a few of my fellow CET classmates, the ones I became close friends with. For two months, you spend five hours everyday in a classroom together, and then even more time doing stuff on weekends, and then one day, you realize you'll probably never see each other again. It's just a humbling feeling, to realize how quickly and easily a friendship you cherish can be ended. And I know that some of you will say that's why Facebook and Skype exist. True, but no amount of online chatting could ever amount to aimlessly wandering the streets of China together. 

Anyway, my experiences in China will be impossible to forget, which is stating the obvious. What's less obvious is the effect that observing Chinese culture and daily life has had on my views of foreigners and all other human beings in general. I never expected to fully and truly understand why people so badly thirst for the opportunity to come to America. Sure, everyone realizes that the American standard of living is comparatively higher, but until I saw some things that literally made me stop and feel guilty for having even the clothes on my back, I didn't fully understand the perils of these people's lifestyles. I'm going to refrain from specific examples, because it's just one of those things that any amount of complex phrasing I could use will never, ever do it justice. 

I’m also not going to attempt to describe my overall opinion of China, or do any kind of wrap-up. I’m far too lazy, plus I believe that sort of thing is unnecessary. What I will do is publish my final essay that I must write for CET about how the trip affected me, so I think that will do just fine. Now, for my last week. 

After arriving in Qingdao at 5:30 am last Wednesday morning, I headed to my hostel to try and sleep for a few hours before meeting my class. Unfortunately, at 6 am every single old person and middle-aged person woke up, started jogging, and resumed a construction project next door. Also, the room lacked air-conditioning. So I just headed out to the beach, where I met up with my classmates for breakfast. We spent most of the day on the beaches, which are absolutely beautiful with decently clear water, so we went swimming too. Being the only foreigners on the beach, we attracted plenty of attention. Then in the mid-afternoon we went for a fresh seafood lunch, which gave us a little surprise the next weekend. But the seafood for dinner was amazing, just delicious and not too expensive. Then we headed out to “Beer Street” to find the beer festival, since Qingdao is the city where Tsingtao beer is produced (the pronunciation is the same, just the westernized spelling differs). After failing to find more than restaurants that served beer, we ended up searching for clubs with live music. The one we ended up at had a highly-talented band of 6 asians that covered everything from Queen to Chinese pop -- and did so pretty well. 

The next morning, after waking up at 6 am yet again, I promptly threw up most of the seafood we had the previous day for lunch. So instead of heading back to beach, I spent four hours of my morning half-conscious on the floor of my friends’ hostel. Thankfully, I felt better by noon, so my friend that wasn’t throwing up and I headed to the Qingdao beer museum, and got some souvenirs before I had to head to the bus station for my 12-hour trip back to Beijing. After saying our tearful goodbyes, I boarded the bus and began my 50 hours of travel experience. Despite all the travel and food poisoning, being in Qingdao was one of the most fun times I’ve had in China, and I can’t wait to go back there, or really anywhere else in a country with 5000+ years of history.

A Chinese Lifestyle: Pros and Cons

As my last week here in China comes to a close, I think the time has come to publish a list of likes and dislikes that I've been compiling for quite some time. At least from here on out, I won't have school work to worry about. Last week was our final written test and oral test. No problem at all. I'm heading up to Qingdao via an 8-hour bus to see the sights with some friends, and then back to the States on Friday. Enjoy!

Things I Like About China: 

1. the weather. It hasn't been too hot yet, and it doesn't rain too much (in Beijing)
2. the food, of course.
3. the people. There are so few fat people here, and most people are reasonably attractive, so I don't have to worry about losing my lunch just by watching passersby. 
4. the lack of rules. no enforceable drinking age, no open container law, no frilly, stupid rules about drinking, smoking, clubbing, or anything fun. 
5. the prices. finally, the price is right. everywhere. 
6. the shopping. opportunities galore, buy this for under $1, but that for under $3. hell, i'll take it all
7. the beautiful landscapes and scenery
8. being white allows you to essentially do anything you want
9. being white, again. when I speak to Chinese people (in Chinese), they are immediately very interested in me, and also very polite about helping me converse.

Things I Don't Like About China

1. the lack of rules. yes, i realize this is in both categories. it's freakin' dangerous, no traffic laws are enforced.
2. the noise. CONSTANT @#$% horns. people use the horn so often, it's not even a warning anymore. it's just a notification, such as "Honk. I exist."
3. cash only. credit cards are rarely accepted, and I hate carrying around so much cash.
4. non-potable water. every time i just want a quick sip of water, I have to go find my special bottled water so I don't end up with some form of botulism. just a minor inconvenience….
5. the toilet paper situation. you usually can't flush it, you have to wipe and then stash it in an undoubtedly disgusting trash can right next to the toilet. Also, absolutely no one (save the fanciest hotels) stocks toilet paper in the bathroom; it's your responsibility to bring it with you everywhere you go. 
6. men, usually fat, sometimes practically anorexic, love to lift up their shirts like it's some kind of summer beach party. it's ubiquitous, and pretty gross if you pass some guy with a nice ol' beer belly (this somewhat refutes #3 in the top section)
7. the air quality. I play basketball for 10 minutes outside, and subsequently feel as if I just smoked a pack of cigarettes.
8. CAR HORNS AGAIN! OMFG SO OBNOXIOUS
9. transportation. sometimes, I'll get a taxi right away, sometimes they're non-existent. and sometimes I get stuck on a 17-hour train ride after already enduring a 13-hour delay. 
10. normal daytime hours. everyone starts everything at 6-7am, which I am no fan of. this means they close by 8 or 9, before I even get a chance to finish my work for the day. society works too early here.
11. KIWIS THAT MAKE ME VOMIT

If you have anything to add, or disagree with, post a comment and we can have a healthy one-sided discussion. 

Only Two Weeks Left

I am definitely sad to have less than two weeks left in China. I really cannot express how I would love to stay here much longer, but at the same time come back home to the American lifestyle. Thankfully, classes are about to end, so I'll finally have some free time to just wander around the city. Yesterday we had an in-class debate about whether or not preserving China's traditions and cultural relics slowed economic development. However, due my speech (described below), I was simply the debate's moderator. But it's better than our usual double tests on Fridays.  

The past week or so I focused a lot of time and effort on a speech that I must memorize for a Beijing city-wide foreign students speech competition. Unfortunately, since the competition is tomorrow morning at 7 am, I'm not able to go out tonight, I'm sitting here "memorizing my speech." My speech is 4-5 minutes long, the written version is approximately 700 characters, and is judged on tonal naturalness, grammar usage, and accuracy of pronunciation. While I personally don't care about it, since I'm representing my teachers and all of CET, I figure I'll try a bit harder than usual, even though I didn't get a say in choosing whether or not I wanted to compete. While it's "an honor" to be chosen, I don't like spending my limited time in China memorizing stuff in my dorm. 

Even though I was spending a lot of time on my speech, I did get a chance to make it to Tiantan (Temple of Heaven), and the Olympic Park, featuring the Bird's Nest and the Watercube, which you all probably saw on television in '08. We also stopped by Beijing University, the most prestigious university in China, to see the campus and library, but it wasn't too impressive.

Man at Tiantan playing a type of mouth organ, 

sounded like a flawless synthesizer

Bird's Nest

Water Cube

Giant Olympic Tower

Tonight CET held a "China Night" performance, where each class performed a short skit to demonstrate our new Chinese skills. Our class's skit was about the bad habits that Beijingers have, and was actually quite amusing. We showed how Beijing people don't like to line up, be polite, and in general show consideration for others. And of course, me and my newly-befriended taxi driver singing a rousing chorus of the cheesiest Chinese pop song I know.

Instead of describing our actual skit, I'll simply leave you with my thoughts of China, the pros and cons of Beijing life in my next post.

Terra Cotta Soldiers - 兵马俑

While in Xi'an, one must venture to the legendary Terra Cotta Soldiers (兵马俑). Discovered in 1974, this incredible archaeological site boasts three massive "pits" filled with ornately sculpted clay warriors. The most impressive fact is that Emperor Qin demanded each warrior be individually sculpted, so that no two were alike. Therefore, they started building this "mausoleum" for him when he was only 13 years of age. I'll spare you the other historical details, since you probably already know a bit about it. If not, read more about it here.

Pit 1, the most impressive collection of all.

Housed in a massive airplane hangar, it takes

nearly 30 minutes just to walk around it. 

The width of Pit 1

Close-up in Pit 1

"Famous" row of horses. If you look close,

the left-most horse is missing his tail. 

While visiting this site, President Clinton "patted" 

the horse's tail, and knocked it clean off.

Pit 2. The remains of another army, but 

this one was ransacked by thieves centuries ago.

One of the better-preserved soldiers.

The world's two largest fully-functional marionettes

.... why not? ....

In addition to the Terra Cotta Soldiers, we visited several other places within Xi'an, essentially a bunch of museums. One of my favorite non-museum places in Xi'an was the China-Muslim Mosque, which combined with the early dawn dew and the misty weather produced a surprisingly peaceful getaway. 

Not the best weather for walking, 

but very zen-like. 

The courtyard of the Mosque

But the fun didn't end with the sights and weather of Xi'an. (oh, I forgot to mention that it rained nonstop for the 70 or so hours we were there.) Story time! At 6:30pm on Saturday night, we arrived at the Xi'an train station for our 7:30 pm train to Beijing. We soon discovered that our train had been delayed for 6 hours, destined to leave at 1:30 am because of severe flooding along the tracks. So, what exactly are 90 students supposed to do for 6 hours? Sit at the train station? To pass the time, I busted out my Xun (a small pot-shaped ocarina), and started playing right in the middle of the train station. Thankfully, CET spent only 15 minutes conceiving a great plan, where we went to another super luxurious hotel and hung out, 5 people to a room, until the train was supposed to leave. 


So by 1 am, we had expected to leave the hotel, but my group still hadn't heard anything from CET. Starting to get a little worried, we went to go find the teachers, who told us the train had been further delayed, and that we could get some sleep. Finally feeling like something was going our way, we brushed our teeth and headed to sleep. BAM. Literally 4 minutes after I laid down, a teacher slams on our door and tells us to haul ass to the train station, because our train is leaving in 30 minutes! 


Five minutes later, we're all bookin' it to the train station, and after we arrive at 2:30 am, we get some more unpleasant news. The departure time is now 3:30 am. Groaning, tired and frustrated, we sat down stood in the train station waiting for another hour. And then at 3:30 am, we hear an announcement in fuzzy Chinese come across the PA system. Guess what? 4:30 am departure. Super. 

At 4:55 am we FINALLY boarded the damn train, and everyone passed out in their beds. Surprisingly, I slept pretty decently, for about 7 hours. At about half-past noon on Sunday, I wake up, sit up, and promptly smack the @#$% out of my head on the train ceiling, bringing me sharply back to reality. I then was informed that we had only traveled 1/5 of the "11-hour" train ride. In 7 hours. 

In the end, we made it back to Beijing 16 hours later than expected, and still had to wake up for 8 am class the next day. I almost always love being here in China, but sometimes, I just want to beat trains with a golf club.