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Long time no post! I still haven't gotten the chance to upload all my posts from this past summer (slow computer, slow internet, and too many stories I'd like to tell). I came back from China, found a new job, found a place to move into, and before I knew it, school was back in full swing. In addition to continuing to do AIESEC Seattle (a few NSLI-Y and CLS alums were present at our winter conference in Texas---who knew?) I've also joined the CISB international business program at the University of Washington, which requires us to study abroad for at least ten weeks... ...which means I'll be studying abroad at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management (in Beijing, China) from February-June 2018! I'll most likely be spending some time with family in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year doing some traveling in Taiwan before I start the term as well, so I can't wait! Will be swapping Rainier Vista and Mount Rainier for this view in less than exactly one year
After getting a regretful four hours of sleep last night, I woke up at six to head to neighboring Jilin city with Collin and Sydney. The tickets were surprisingly cheap, about $10 roundtrip on the high-speed rail. And even though the weather report predicted thunderstorms all day, luckily, it stayed pretty dry (albeit humid) for most of the day. The first place we went to was Beishan Park which is much like your typical park in China-- a West Lake-like lake with tacky plastic boats, loud pop music blaring, and old people exercising. Along the way to the top of the mountain were various snack and ice cream stands, historical monuments, old-style buildings, tourist gimmicks, and a temple-- an interesting combination that seems to represent China really well. Our initial goal was to reach the temple at the top for better views of the city, but a couple of wrong side paths led us to a Communist memorial. Only, we ended up being the tourist attraction. As you can see, we were surrounded by locals who quite aggressively insisted we take photos with their children, one of which, we discovered, was about to start school in Changchun. After lunch in a random sketchy alley community, we headed off to Longtan Mountain for more hiking. There was this village a way's out where one could see traditional Manchu villages and falconry, but because of time constraints, we stayed in the city. If you ever end up in Jilin City though, you should take a look there! When we think of China modernizing too quickly, we often think of it losing physical relics, and less often remember that there are many intangible aspects that will eventually fade as well and that we should remember. Longtan (龙潭 = "Dragon Pool") Mountain was much larger than Beishan-- an eight hour-long hike to the top, according to our taxi driver. There were a few foreigners there, and we took a quick spin on the playground exercise equipment. Then we hiked our way up the paved mountainside to a quiet nunnery. I feel like a lot of temples/religious sites in China are overrun with tourists, locals and foreigners alike, and I'm certainly guilty of that. This one was more isolated, tranquil, and allowed for one to think and reflect-- and perhaps ponder our role in intruding upon these kinds of environments. I was absolutely exhausted and sleep-deprived, so we just headed off to a nearby shopping mall and hung out at Zoo Coffee (this really cute cafe with giant stuffed animals) and talked about life. One of the things I really love about CLS is how different everyone is, and the new perspectives and ideas everyone contributes to conversations. We talked about the upcoming election, life in the Midwest, growing up in immigrant families, and so on. What struck me the most was when Sydney said that "immigrants are the most American of Americans because they had to work so hard to be American". Just some food for thought.
We then had dinner at the food court-- chuar (skewers) and unusual desserts galore. I was a little disappointed that what was supposed to be my durian cake turned out to be a mango cake, but whatever. I think I've developed more of a taste for durian since being here, and I'm grateful to be able to say these study abroad opportunities to China has made me take pride in my Asian food and happily indulge in "unusual" Asian foods without giving a thought about what others perceive. After a long day, we headed back home on the train and returned to Changchun, our home away from home. After some nerve-wracking midterm exams, we ate lunch, packed our bags, and headed to Harbin! It's crazy to think that within a span of a day, we prepared for, sat our exams, and whisked ourselves off to another city in another province. Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang (“Black Dragon River”) Province, and is cool as it sounds. The city, which is farther north than Changchun, has significant Russian influence and is known for its winter scenes and ice sculpture festivals. Though we didn’t get to see these winter sites, our first day in Harbin was still eye-opening and amazing. Lunch in Harbin: lots of very salty dishes and an insanely large bread thing. I asked the name of it and they said "dingbalai" but I have been unsuccessful in finding out more about it...if you know what it is (I assume it's a local food) let me know! Also, for the true Seattleite...
Friday wasn’t exactly a party because of our weekly test. After dozing off for a little too long, I spent the rest of Thursday night frantically reviewing. Our tests have two portions—a written portion (笔试) and an oral portion (口试). The written portion is a two hour-long written exam testing vocabulary, grammar structures, sentence creation, reading comprehension, and so forth, and the oral portion consists of reciting the text and explaining to the teacher the contents of the essay that we submitted previously. I was a little nervous for the oral portion, but I think it went fine overall, as did the written portion of the test. However, after the end of the exam, we all started discussing how unusual the reading comprehension portion was, for example: Text: “The Chinese economy grew five percent in the previous year, but this growth did not create any drastic impacts on young Chinese consumers’ spending habits.” Question on USA Chinese class exam: “Has economic growth impacted young Chinese consumers’ spending habits?” Question on Chinese Chinese class exam: “How do young Chinese people feel about the economy?” Basically, the questions are very indirectly related to the text, which will take some getting used to. In the long run, I think it’ll be useful to get these types of questions since I’ve heard it’s just as indirectly related on the HSK exam (the Chinese government’s official test for Chinese language ability). Let’s hope I did well!
After the test, we visited the Northwest Ethnic and Folk Customs Museum as a group. The museum was even emptier than the ones in Hong Kong, but contained some interesting exhibits on the minority groups in Northeastern China. To be honest, I couldn’t understand a good third of the guided tour because of all the anthropology-specific words, but it was still fascinating to see history represented by the minority ethnic groups of China, when most provincial museums and the national museum I’ve been to explain history through the majority Han Chinese perspective. Of course, this is filtered to an extent, but interesting nevertheless. When I got back to the dorm, my roommate took me to get my nails done—at the school’s spa, surprisingly. It’s so cool how the school has a spa—it has saunas, baths, and offers various types of traditional Chinese medicine and beauty services. It cost me 48 RMB (about $7 USD) to get gel nails and experience an interesting conversation about beauty standards and perspectives with the Chinese girls who were there. In China, people are very blunt and straightforward when it comes to discussing physical appearances and standards of beauty. It’s not uncommon to hear things such as “you’re fat and need to lose weight” or “your complexion could use some improvement”. I spent quite a while listening to conversations on how one should be thinner, fatter, their skin less yellow, and how my eyes were large and my skin was an interesting “non-American” tan shade. Somehow, unlike conversations in the USA, they weren’t criticisms, but more so observations. |
AUTHORUniversity of Washington student, language learner, Potterhead, bubble tea addict, and Instagram enthusiast. Enter your email in the box below to subscribe to updates from this blog!
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