Thursday, April 29, 2010

It's hard!



I don't usually write about very personal things on this blog; it's been more of a travelogue than anything. However, I'm sure people are curious what it's like to live in another country, to live in China. Like most things, it's complicated. There's good and bad. I love some things, I hate others. So, here is my attempt to convey some of my thoughts about my experiences so far. Today's post will be negative, and the next will be positive. They're going to be long, so prepare yourself.

It's hard!

In my post-graduate speaking and listening class, we listened to a radio piece by James Fallows. He was talking about his time living in Japan, and at one point, he described it as living "in exile." I had to explain to my students what exile meant, and that it implied that in some ways, his time living in Japan felt like a punishment.

I don't want to say that living in China is like being punished, because it's not. But sometimes, I do feel like I'm "doing time." Putting in time in China so that my Chinese will improve, and I can move back West and pursue my career goals. I am normally a pretty happy, content person, and that hasn't changed in China. I'm content with my life here. Sometimes though, it does feel like something I just need to "get over with" so that I can do other things.



Why does it feel that way? Lots of reasons. Small things, like fireworks going off at all hours, streets where everyone constantly honks their horns, or horrible pollution and litter everywhere (the rumors are true.) Blue sky days are a real rarity and treat, as most of the time everything is gray and monotone. Similarly, I get so tired of everything, everywhere being dirty and grimy! The air, the streets, the buses, the restaurants, my white clothes after I hang them to dry...

And, bigger things. Things usually termed "culture shock." It's really different here. I often catch myself thinking, 'Chinese people are weird,' and then I realize that no, Chinese people aren't weird. I'm weird. I'm out of place.

One of the biggest difficulties is also one that I have trouble talking about. It's a cultural difference, so it's hard to discuss without coming off as judgmental. People my age are often not mature in the ways that I am, having grown up in a very different manner. Chinese children and young adults don't have the same amount of choice that Americans do, so it tends to result in a different mindset and personality. Children usually don't have extracurricular activities they can choose among, nor do they usually choose their own classes, and they tend to have very little free time to spend as they choose. They don't usually choose their university, and surprisingly often, they don't even choose their major. Even at university, they don't choose most of their classes, and life is still pretty prescribed.

All this means that most Chinese people seem much younger than their years to me. If you were to meet most of my students, despite their being about 20, you'd probably guess them to be around 16, by American norms.

The biggest problem this creates is that sometimes I have trouble identifying with some of the other young people. I'm not really interested in watching Hanna Montana or shopping for Hello Kitty. This means it's been much easier to make friends with foreigners, even disregarding the language gap. I just have more in common with them - not surprisingly. It feels like a cop out sometimes, but it's just the way things are for me right now.

This is not to say all Chinese people are like this, but it is a definite trend that contributes to my "culture shock." There are, of course, cultural differences that I really like, but that's for the next post.

Another negative aspect to living in China, for me, is an obvious one. I am different. I am foreign. And I look different and foreign. No matter what I do, it's immediately obvious. Living in China as a foreigner is different from living in say, Australia, as a foreigner for one major reason: I am white, and blond, and tall, and I stick out everywhere I go.




This means that everywhere I go, on campus, to the supermarket, taking the bus, etc. I get stared at. Everywhere. Sometimes people even (quasi-surreptitiously) take pictures of me with their cell phones. Strangers often approach me with such conversation starters as: "Hello. Can I have your MSN?" (screen name.) "Hello. Can I have your cell phone number?" "Hello. Can you help me with my English?"

I shouldn't complain about this, because the inquiries are all friendly. But it's hard sometimes to have people look at me and think, not, "normal person," but "different" or "English tutor" or "walking, talking English dictionary." I am constantly approached by complete strangers who, often without any introduction, ask me for my cell phone number or internet screen name so that I can help them with their English, or just ask me to help them with their English right then and there. Don't get me wrong - I love my students. And I love helping them with their English, even in my spare time. But I have about 350 students, and when I'm just walking around, trying to buy lunch or go to the post office, I don't really want to help random people with their pronunciation while I walk. And I definitely can't be a private, free English tutor to every person who sees me and my blond hair walking by.

If nothing else, I have learned that I never, ever want to be a famous celebrity. I'm quite looking forward to a life of anonymity when I move back to the West.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Lantern Festival

Back to China! I've got lots of blog posts I'd like to share about China, so now that I've (finally) finished chronicling my trip, it's back to China! This post is very old - the festival happened on February 28.

元宵节快乐!

On the last day of the Chinese New Year Festival, Chinese people celebrate Lantern Festival. I got really lucky, because I was in Quanzhou for the Festival, and Quanzhou is famous for its celebrations. Everyone buys beautiful, intricate paper lanterns to put out. Some rich individuals and businesses spend a lot of money to have professional lanterns made.

In downtown Quanzhou, one of the main temples is decked out with lanterns and opened to the public for a fee. It was crazy how many people were there! It was the sort of situation that could have easily turned dangerous had anything gone awry. As we stood waiting to get into the temple, the crowd was pressed person to person. There was no moving on your own, and if you fell, getting up would be a serious undertaking. Nothing happened, of course, and after waiting in the packed crowd, we got into the temple and were treated to a beautiful display.








There is a pond in the middle of the temple grounds that was particularly beautiful.






I can't even imagine how these were put together, as I'm fairly sure most/all of them were made by hand.






The other part of the lantern festival, besides looking at the beautiful lanterns, is setting off a (usually much plainer) version yourself. First, you light a piece of fuel that is attached to a the bottom of the lantern.




Once the air inside the lantern has heated up enough, away it goes!



Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Cedars of Lebanon

"It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high, with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams. It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns—forty-five beams, fifteen to a row."

1 Kings 7:1-3




This is a perfect last post about my time in Lebanon and Syria, because the Cedars are incredibly iconic. The Lebanese flag has a cedar tree dead center, and the trees have been famous throughout history. Apparently in the past most of Lebanon was covered by these beautiful trees, but now deforestation has taken its toll, and you must go high into the mountains to see the remaining patches of forest.




We were either very lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. The day we chose to go, it was snowing heavily in the mountains. This meant we were freezing cold and didn't have the appropriate boots and clothing to go hiking around the forest. It also meant the trees looked gorgeous, and we got to play in the snow for a little while.






It also afforded us a great adventure (which was almost a great disaster.) Since it was snowing so heavily, and the roads were very slick, the buses stopped running earlier than normal. We didn't find this out until after the last bus had left, so for a while we thought we were stuck in the mountains for the night! Tyler and his friend Charles had things to do back in Beirut, so this was definitely going to be a problem. Our bad luck soon turned around though, when we met a group of Lebanese evangelical Christians who were in the mountains for a day retreat. They were heading back to a city near Beirut in their well-equipped SUVs, and so they offered us a ride!

Of course, being good Arabic hosts, they also insisted on sharing their food with us on the ride back. And then, not long into the ride, the people in the car Tyler and I were in began to sing along quite well to the music playing. Then we found out the music playing was.... theirs! They were also an amateur band. It turned out to be such a fun and interesting trip!



(Of course, being mature graduate students/professionals, we had a few snowball fights during the course of the day. This is Tyler and his friend Charles.)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Quneitra

"A day may sink or save a realm."
-Alfred Lord Tennyson






Tyler and I had a great opportunity while we were in Syria. We got special paperwork that allowed us to go visit Quneitra, a city in the Golan Heights that is still controlled by Syria. Israel took over much of the Golan Heights during the Six Day's War, and most of it still remains under Israeli control.




Quneitra was completely destroyed during the war, but Syria decided not to rebuild the city and to leave it as the Israelis left it. Everything save concrete and steel beams was looted, and then everything else was destroyed, so the city is ghostly and stark. Most of the buildings are completely collapsed, just flattened piles of concrete now.





The city has an eerie beauty though. It's quiet,and overgrown by greenery - grass, plants, and trees grow among the bullet-pocked ruins. We climbed to the top of a minaret and explored various abandoned homes, houses of worship, and the hospital. Everything still standing was, of course, covered in bullet holes though.