Central College Abroad

Many Chinese students at Zhejiang University celebrated “Singles Day” this past Wednesday. Being the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the date was marked by four sets of the number one.

Before I came to China, the closest thing that I’ve seen to this was a movement to rename Valentine’s Day into Singles Awareness Day, because the romantic outings of couples would remind all singles of their dating status. Now, I was never a big proponent of Singles Awareness Day in America, but I think that the Chinese Singles’ Day is a much better idea. Instead of trying to steal the thunder of Valentine’s day, it works to build up a new day for those who can’t find a date, or choose not to date.

I didn’t celebrate Singles Day, but I did talk to a number of Chinese students who did. A student who lives on Zhejiang University’s Zijingang campus told me that someone yelled “Happy Singles Day!!” when the clock hit midnight. Another told me that many friends enjoy going out to dinner as a group, and splitting the bill evenly as a way to reinforce their single status.

The most interesting was in the clothes marketed for this day. I didn’t see any myself, but one student told me that special clothes are designed specifically for Singles Day. These clothes have the Chinese word for “single” across both the front and the back, as well as many other words relating to single life. The reason given for these clothes? Well, many people wear matching clothes specifically Valentine’s Day, so why shouldn’t Singles’ Day have its own wardrobe?

Much like America celebrates the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, China celebrates the CCP’s liberation in October. But unlike the USA, China is given a full eight days to celebrate. Wouldn’t that be nice to have every year? The first day of holiday is October 1, and it ends on October 8. (The universities hold classes on the Saturday-before and the Sunday-after the holiday to help make up for the lost class time, but the holiday is definitely worth it.)

In addition to the national holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival took place on October 3rd. Since it is based on the Lunar Calendar, the date shifts each year. Chinese people often return to their homes and exchange Yue Bing, or Moon-Cakes. The variety of flavors is amazing from red-bean paste to egg-yolk, but my favorite is coconut.

For my vacation, I rode an overnight train to Wuhan, and then a bus from Wuhan to Hanchuan and stayed with a family there. Don’t worry if you can’t find Hanchuan on a map: even many Chinese people don’t know where it is, because it is a tiny city of only 1 million.

I was welcomed very hospitably and had a great time. We walked by the river and watched a few lanterns float into the sky. We watched the Beijing parade on TV, followed by musical performances from around the country. After the main holiday events, we went to a KTV (Karaoke) and sang the rest of the night.

Hello again,

Classes started last week without too much of a hitch. I have “intensive reading” five days a week, speaking twice a week, listening twice a week,  and regular reading once a week. The difference between intensive and non-intensive reading seems to be that non-intensive focuses on the ability to glean the meaning of a passage of text, whereas intensive focuses on the grammar and usage of particular characters and phrases. Each class lasts an hour and a half.

Over the weekend, I took a train to Wuhan; about 8 hours each way. I went alone, while the rest of the group stayed in Hangzhou. I left on Friday night, with my train departing at 11:17pm, and arrived back on campus at about 7:10 this morning–just in time for class at 8am. Class was rough after sleeping on the train, but I’d easily say the trip was worth it. Since I promised pictures from Shanghai last week, I’ll leave you with some pictures.

Alex at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

Jacob and Alex at Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai

Looking toward the Yangtze River from Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan

Yours truly (Robert Grimm) by scenery near Yellow Crane Tower

An East Lake (Wuhan) promenade in the rain

I hope you enjoyed viewing the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. See you again soon!

Hello again! I just returned from a weekend trip to Shanghai with my fellow Central College Abroad classmates. With Li-laoshi, there were a total of 8 of us, which made taxis very convenient when the subways/buses didn’t go directly to our destinations: four of us in each taxi. I haven’t downloaded any pictures from my camera yet, so instead I will talk about some of the activities of the week prior to Shanghai.

Cynthia with Umbrella

Last Saturday, I hiked with one of my Chinese classmates, and one of my American classmates. It also happened to be one of the hottest days since I’ve been here. Cynthia, the Chinese girl, brought an umbrella on the hike. I’d been trying to get used to seeing umbrellas on hot days, but bringing one onto a hike seemed a little too strange. As the day went on, I realized that having an umbrella wasn’t such a bad idea: that Saturday was one of the hottest days I’ve experienced so far. Cynthia further explained that her umbrella blocked both UV-A and UV-B rays from the sun, so it was also healthier to carry it. The picture on the left shows Cynthia posing for the camera, as well as other people carrying umbrellas even into the shade. I’ve begun to detach the idea of an umbrella from rain, but I still don’t think I’ll start carrying one.

Aside from Cynthia, Sarah Yang, and Wang Zhe, our group has been meeting many other international students. Jarrad and Joel from Australia, George and Natalie from Russia, about 25 Swedes, Ash from New Zealand (though born in Hong Kong). I know there is also a Spanish-speaking group here, but I don’t know if they’re from Spain, Central America, or elsewhere. Most of the Chinese students moved in while we were in Shanghai, and I am excited to start befriending native Chinese students. The day before we left for Shanghai, I met many of the “Zhe Da” (Zhejiang Daxue) English-language professors. They were all Chinese women and all of them had–at one time or another–taught at Central College. Every one of them spoke English very well. Unfortunately, the day that I met these professors was the same day that the Central Abroad group went boating on West Lake, and the same day that I forgot to wear sunscreen; my face, neck, and arms were extremely red due to the sunburn I had.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes at Zhejiang University. I do not know which Chinese-language class I am in, but I am excited nonetheless. I took both the oral and the written placement tests; however, my name was not listed under any of the language levels here. There were two other students from Central Abroad whose names were also missing, so Li-laoshi will be calling the office tomorrow morning to get things straightened out. I hate to miss the first day of class, but there’s not much to be done about it now.

See you next week!

Hello all,

My name is Rob, and I’ll be the Hangzhou blogger for Central this coming semester. I’m an Asian Studies major at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. My biggest goal abroad is to become conversational or fluent in Mandarin. I would also like to learn more about the country’s culture, both historical and contemporary. Beyond learning, I feel that this study abroad opportunity is a great way for me to teach others about American culture, so I’ve applied to intern in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL).

Tonight is the closing of my second day on Zhejiang University Yu Quan campus, the site of Zhe Da’s international college. After checking in and unloading my bags in the dorm, I spent the rest of yesterday evening meeting classmates. We were greeted with a welcome dinner, and courtesy of Carlos Carrillo, I have a picture of the food.

A traditional Chinese welcome dinner

One interesting note about this dinner was that it featured noodles. I asked Li-laoshi (the Central College program director in Hangzhou) and she told us that noodles are standard for a welcome-dinner, as a way of wishing a long stay. She said that when we leave, it is customary to serve rice since rice is much shorter and signifies the hope for a quick return.

Later that evening, I was invited by a few Chinese students to bike around Hangzhou’s West Lake. We biked for about an hour, and Cynthia (Li-laoshi’s assistant) told me about a few student groups that I may be interested in joining. One is an online group that discusses and arranges bicycling outings, and another is an organization of students to play table tennis. Time allowing, I hope that I can meet many Chinese friends through both groups.

I still have a lot of unpacking and adjusting to do, so I’ll sign off for now. Until next week,

Rob

I can’t believe it’s already been a month since I came back to the US!  Time has flown by while I’ve been catching up with friends and family and “relearning” how things work in America.  When I left to study abroad, I was really excited to be in China for a semester, but I thought for sure that I would be ready to return home when the five months were up.  I was definitely not expecting to feel so completely attached to Hangzhou, and so hesitant to come back to the US.  I can say with complete honesty that my last month in Hangzhou was the most amazing time of my life.  Since my class obligations finished up early, I spent the last few weeks of the program enjoying China to the fullest.  I went to the West Lake at least once a day, gorged on all of my favorite foods, and spent as much time as possible with friends.  I traveled across the country to see a completely new side of China, learned how to weave a bike through Hangzhou traffic, bargained like a local to get the best deals on souvenirs, and checked off most of the things I had been adding to my “to do” list for the past four months.  My relationships reached a whole new level of closeness, and my absolute love for the city of Hangzhou grew more than I thought was possible.  Needless to say, it was incredibly difficult for me to say goodbye to my city and my best friends.

The lotuses at the lake were in full bloom by the time we left Hangzhou.

When I flew back in to Cedar Rapids on July 1^st, we came in for a landing right as the sun was setting, and I teared up a little as I looked out over the fields below me.  Of course it’s always comforting to return home after a long trip, and I remembered how much I love Iowa and all of the people here.  At the same time, though, I felt uneasy because I knew how much I had changed over the past semester.  I’m trying not to sound too overdramatic here, but I really feel like living in China for five months has given me the confidence to handle anything that’s thrown my way in the future.  Studying abroad really does force you to grow as a person and do some soul-searching.  I am so glad that I decided to take this opportunity during my last semester of college.

The first few weeks in Iowa were pretty rough.  Even though I had made a huge list of American food I had been craving for the past five months, once it was all actually available to me, I discovered that my stomach no longer accepted American food.  I just wanted to eat my favorite Chinese dishes instead!  I also spent the first few weeks waking up at 5 am for no reason while I tried to return to a somewhat normal sleep schedule.  The first time I went to the grocery store, I was shocked by how huge and clean it was, and how all of the employees tried to make conversation with me while I was shopping.  I missed the crowded, messy markets where I had done all of my shopping in China.  Things are slowly starting to return to normal, and I’m starting to appreciate certain parts of “the American way” again.  However, I know that I will always have a little bit of China in my heart, and I will continue to long for the culture that I grew so attached to.  I can only hope that my path will lead me back to Hangzhou in the near future.

What I wouldn't give to have some Western Chinese food again! These were our favorite dishes at the upstairs Muslim restaurant on campus.

Anyway, this blog is way too sentimental, so I’ll leave you with some practical advice that I learned while living in China.

1)      DON’T LOSE YOUR PASSPORT!  They’re not kidding when they tell you how important this is!  I learned the hard way that it will take you at least a few weeks and several hundred dollars to replace it if it’s lost.  If at all possible, leave your original passport in a safe place and keep copies of it with you while you travel.

2)      Even if you’re a naturally shy person, let out your “real you” as soon as possible.  When you only have five months to make friends and become adjusted to a new culture, it really does pay to be completely open and honest from the start.  You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to form bonds with people in your new environment.

3)      Chinese vendors will try to rip you off as much as possible!  I didn’t realize until several months in how much I was being cheated whenever I bought clothes, shoes, souvenirs, etc.  At a touristy market, never agree to pay more than half of what they originally ask for.

4)      You really can find almost all of the personal hygiene products you need in China.  90% of the things I packed were completely unnecessary.  A few things that you SHOULD bring with you from home: deodorant, moisturizer, and, for you lovely ladies out there, feminine hygiene products.

5)      If you have the time for it, take advantage of Central’s internship opportunities.  Although finding an internship in China takes a little more work than some other areas, it’s well worth the effort.  I interned in a company that facilitates international exchange programs for Chinese high school students  One of my favorite experiences was working with these students to prepare them for their visa interview, and ease their curiosity about American college life.  Overall, internships are a great way to get more involved with the local culture.

6)      Travel as much as possible!  China is a huge place, and the lifestyle differs dramatically between different areas.  If possible, head west to get away from the modern city life that’s concentrated on the east coast.

Whether you are planning on heading to Hangzhou in the future, or are just a casual reader, I hope you have enjoyed hearing about my time in China.  Studying abroad has truly been a life-changing experience for me, and I hope everyone gets the opportunity to experience it for themselves some day.

Signing off for the last time,

Jenna

Last week, we traveled to Xinjiang, which is in the far northwest of China and home to a large minority group (Uighurs).  This post is written by Jessie Larson, one of my fellow Central students.  She grew up in Xinjiang between the ages of 5 and 12, and I thought it’d be nice to share her perspective on returning to her old home.  Plus, I’m sure you’re tired of hearing my same old stories in every blog!  Anyway, here’s what Jessie had to say about our trip:

On our last day of classes, we boarded a plane early in the morning to Urumqi.  I knew returning to the place I grew up would be an experience.  When we first arrived, we were shocked by the dry, cool air which was a totally different feeling than Hangzhou’s humidity.  Driving back from the airport, we noticed that all of the road signs were in Uighur and Chinese, instead of just Chinese.

Our next full day in Urumqi began with visiting the local police station and getting registered to stay at my mom’s.  Although the police man wasn’t too friendly at first, he gave us a few laughs.  After waiting a few hours while the police meticulously wrote our names, passport, and visa numbers hundreds of times, we finally headed to Erdaoqiao.  Erdaoqiao is a big Uighur market filled with dried fruits, knives, instruments, jade, and other tourist items.  We were excited to do some much needed souvenir shopping and found many interesting and unique items.

Some of the cool architecture in the Erdaoqiao area.

After visiting with some friends from my childhood, we all followed my mom to a Uighur restaurant.  As we ate some amazing food, we were entertained with live Uighur music and dancing.  One of the most interesting traditional dances the Uighurs do is a dance with tea bowls.  The dancers balance a stack of about five tea bowls on their heads for the entire dance, and then take them down one by one as they spin around at the very end.  Ginger also got a chance to experience Uighur dancing first-hand when one of the men asked her to come out and dance on the floor.  She spent the rest of the time there avoiding eye contact with the dancers!

The Uighur dancers balancing tea cups on top of their heads. So talented!

Nanshan was our destination the following day.  Nanshan is about a two-hour drive from Urumqi.  Since many Kazaks live in the Tianshan mountains, there are many yurts up there (the traditional tent-like homes of the Kazak people).  When we arrived, it was much more touristy than I remembered.  Instead of there being just a few yurts up in the mountains, there were about a hundred yurts clustered around the entrance.  The yurts have turned more into business ventures, so we were mobbed right away with women giving us address cards to the yurts.  We decided to hike up the road a little before checking out a yurt.  We walked up a ways and sat down on some rocks by the river with some of our new cow friends.  After exploring for a couple more hours, we went back down to the entrance and to a yurt off to one side.  We got the whole yurt to ourselves and got to sample some yak milk tea and yak cheese, which some of us liked more than others!

The scenery at Nanshan was so gorgeous - pictures don't do it justice!

Our yurt from the outside.

The inside of the yurt was completely covered with colorful rugs. It was so comfortable for lounging on a hot afternoon!

A camel at the Flaming Mountain, chilling in the sun while he waits for an over-excited tourist to come ride him!

The ruins at Jiaohe, smoldering in the 100+ degree weather.

Last week, I was lucky enough to have a visitor from home (Iowa) come to visit my home away from home (Hangzhou).  My boyfriend, Jason, arrived at the Shanghai airport on Saturday afternoon, and since he doesn’t know a single word of Chinese, my most important job was to be waiting at the gate when he arrived.  Although some of my friends traveled with me to Shanghai, I was on my own in terms of getting to the airport and arranging our transportation back to Hangzhou.  I was a little nervous about navigating the subway system, bullet train, international airport, and shuttle buses by myself, but it turned out to be a fun adventure.  As I become more and more familiar with the way China “works” and the basic language skills I need to get things accomplished, events that used to be incredibly scary turn into fun little challenges.  Luckily, everything went smoothly, and Jason and I arrived back in Hangzhou on time and in one piece.

Mallory, Ginger, and I on the train to Shanghai.

We spent most of the week revisiting some of my favorite tourist spots in Hangzhou and, of course, spending plenty of time at the West Lake.  Jason quickly got introduced to the joys of being a foreigner in China, and all of the staring, pointing, and picture-taking that entails.  On top of the regular amount of curiosity that foreigners usually inspire, Jason happens to be 6′6″ and therefore, got twice the usual amount of attention.  Some teenage boys even walked right next to him and jumped up to see if they could reach his height.  Although these antics have just become an amusing sideshow for me over the past few months, I could tell that Jason was a little overwhelmed by it for the first few days.  Luckily, by the end of the week, he could just chalk it up to being “part of the experience”, and I think he enjoyed all of the great things that Hangzhou has to offer.

Jason at the Lingyin Temple

Park by the West Lake

Bamboo forest by the Botanical Gardens

Having Jason here made me realize just how familiar I’ve become with this city over the past few months and how much I’ve adapted to Chinese life.  I had to remind myself to be understanding when he was freaked out about not being able to comprehend a single word, the dangers of crossing the road, the crazy taxi drivers, the groups of people who stop to stare, and the sometimes less than appealing bathroom conditions.  It’s hard to think back to the first few weeks of the semester when these same issues were daily concerns for me.  Now I can understand enough Chinese to get by, and can easily block out the rest of the commotion that I can’t understand.  I’m used to weaving in between cars that pass by two inches away from me, I no longer cringe in taxis, and I simply don’t notice when people are staring.  Hangzhou just feels like home, and it’s sad to think that now that I’ve finally gotten to this point, I only have a month left in “my city”.  I guess all I can do is try to make the most out of every day I have left in China, and promise myself that someday I will find a way to return to my home away from home.  Until next time, zaijian!

On Tuesday morning, we woke up bright and early and filled ourselves with a nutritious McDonald’s breakfast in preparation for our long day of climbing.  The original plan was to go to one of the typical tourist spots on the Great Wall, which are usually overcrowded with vendors hawking cheap t-shirts and hordes of climbers.  When I came to China three years ago, this was the kind of Great Wall experience I had.  Although it was awesome to see the wall for the first time, it got a little tiring shuffling along behind a trail of tourists and not being able to stop and take in the scenery.  Luckily, our driver for the day, Mr. Li (a.k.a. “Best Friend Mr. Li”) had heard of a less developed part of the wall for us to visit.  When he said “less developed”, he really meant it, seeing as the first thing we encountered before we started climbing was a huge sign saying that this portion of the wall was not open to the public!  That didn’t stop us from buying 2 kuai “tickets” from the lone man sitting on a stool by the sign.

We realized that we might be in for more than we bargained for when we immediately had to walk across a huge dam, with water gushing in between the stepping stones.  After we had crossed the dam with no casualties, we proceeded to climb up the side of a mountain on a crumbling dirt path.  Once again, I didn’t have much time to look at the scenery on the way up – not because I was trapped in by tourists, but because I was afraid that if I stopped looking at my feet for one second I would misstep and slide back down to the dam!  The perfect culmination of our climb was when we arrived at the rusty ladder that was propped up against the wall.  David was kind enough to test it out first, and after making sure that it was somewhat sturdy, we all took our turn climbing up onto the wall (some of us more bravely than others!)

Crossing the dam. It was a loooong way down!

Don't look down!

Once I climbed through the hole and set foot on the wall, I finally had a moment to catch my breath and take in the scenery around me.  It…was…amazing!!  The wall stretched out ahead and behind me as far as I could see, and I could see forever because it was a perfectly clear day (highly unusual in Beijing!)  The best part was, there was not a single other human to be seen.  We literally had the whole wall to ourselves and it was such an amazing feeling after the claustrophobia of my last Great Wall visit.  We took our time strolling along the wall, and laying down on the sun-warmed stones whenever we got too battered by the wind.  It was really cool to see the “unrestored” version of the wall, and know that the stones we were sitting on had been hand-laid hundreds of years ago.

Enjoying the view while I waited for the others to climb up the ladder.

The Great Wall winding through the mountains into the distance.

After we had had our fill of picture taking, we started to think about our options for getting back down the mountain.  Some of us were hesitant to go back down the rusty ladder and across the dam, so we decided to look for another trail that led down in the general direction of our parked van.  Eventually we spotted a trail that looked like nothing more than a donkey path, and decided we would take our chances and see where it led.  Although it looked pretty tame from above, once we began climbing down we realized that it was deceivingly steep.  Every single one of us slipped and fell multiple times, and it became amusing to hear a little scream from behind me every few minutes.  After about 45 minutes of climbing, the path split in two and we were debating which way to go.  I earned my brownie points for the day by noticing that there was donkey poop on the trail to the right, and since donkeys always know best, we chose that one.  A full hour and a half later, we skidded to a stop at the bottom of the mountain and found a small restaurant where we could grab a late lunch.

Mallory and I on top of the world!

Thanks to this little guy, we were able to find our way back down the mountain.

After we had some well-deserved food in our bellies, we got into the warm van and conked out for the hour long drive back into Beijing.  All of us had aching legs the next day, but I definitely think that the pain was worth it.  As China becomes increasingly commercialized, it’s harder and harder to have an “authentic” travel experience.  It was such a treat to be able to climb the Great Wall a second time, and have it be such a vastly different experience than the first time.  By far, it was one of my favorite days in China so far.

Although there’s much more I could say about our week in Beijing, I’m going to skip over it in my next blog and move into the present since I’m so painfully behind now (woops!)  If you want to see more pictures from the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, etc, visit my Shutterfly page at http://jennainhangzhou.shutterfly.com.  Until next time, Zaijian!

Last Saturday, our group boarded a train and headed off to Beijing.  When David told us that the train ride was going to be 17 hours long, I groaned on the inside.  How are you supposed to occupy yourself for that long?!  The train ride ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip though!  I had never traveled by train before, and didn’t have any mental picture of what it would be like.  We had hard sleeper seats, which means that we were in a tiny compartment with 6 beds in it, stacked 3-high on each side.  The girls from my group took up 5 of the 6 beds, so we kept ourselves busy playing cards, watching movies on my little laptop, and playing silly road trip games like “20 Questions”.  The train turned out the lights at about 10:30, so I climbed up into the very top bunk and tried to get some sleep.

It was a very interesting experience trying to sleep on a rattly train that screeches to a halt every hour, and needless to say, it wasn’t the best night’s sleep of my life.  Even when I was lying awake up there, though, I still enjoyed it.  David always says that train passengers show you a true cross-section of the Chinese population.  Because the tickets are relatively cheap, you see a wide range of people from businessmen with their suits and laptops, to farmers carrying poles laden with produce.  It was a strange sensation to be lying awake on a train at two in the morning, knowing that I’m rolling through the Chinese countryside with the truest representation of Chinese people sleeping all around me.  In that moment, I felt further away from home than ever, but instead of feeling homesick, I felt excitement that I was finally fulfilling my dream of living in a country halfway across the world.

Our train compartment – it was toasty in there!

The next morning, we arrived in Beijing and settled in at our hotel.  I spent the day relaxing and napping to store up some energy for the busy days ahead!  On Monday, we did some sightseeing in the morning and ended up in a really cool area of town in the afternoon.  The area was near Houhai, one of Beijing’s lakes, and there were a lot of cool restaurants and bars lining the water.  Most touristy areas in Beijing have little stands where you can rent bicycles by the hour, and we saw a lot of people sailing by on three-seater bikes and looking like they were having a grand old time.  It was a beautiful day so we decided to get some bikes of our own.  We didn’t settle for any normal bikes though – we decided to get the three-seaters!  The only problem was that there were 6 of us and only one three-person bike.  Our only other option was a two-seater with a baby seat on the back.  Lucky for us, Jessie is very petite and decided she could cram herself into the baby seat.  If you’ve never ridden a three-person bike before, let me warn you that it’s harder than it looks!  While all of the bicycally-coordinated Chinese tourists glided by us effortlessly, we careened down the road, almost hitting parked cars and pedestrians every ten feet.  All of the onlookers laughed at us as we swerved and screamed our way down the street, but I didn’t mind at all because it was too hilarious to be embarrassing.

Trying to pick up some speed. Not an easy thing to do when you have a 5′3″ baby on the back of the bike.

Ginger, Jeff, and Mallory were a little more talented.

I’m going to write this blog in several “episodes”, since our Beijing trip was such an eventful week.  Stay tuned for next time, when we climb the Great Wall of China!