Snow in Hangzhou!

 

 

My long Chinese break included a week in Nanjing, celebrating the spring festival in my host father's village, some free time in Shanghai, and a week in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a city not too far from Shanghai. We took a train to get there, and we met up with our NSLI-Y Beijing friends. We explored cultural and modern aspects of the city. For the first three days we stayed in dorms at 浙江大学 (Zhejiang University), but for the last three days we stayed with separate host families. My host family was very nice and friendly and had a son my age.

While in Hangzhou we toured West Lake, Leifeng Pagoda, a local high school and a few temples. Pretty much the whole time we were in Hangzhou it was snowing, so whenever we weren’t doing something, all of us could be found at the local coffee shop drinking coffee or hot chocolate.

With our host families we got to celebrate 元宵节 (lantern festival). My host family and I went to their second house way out in the countryside and had a nice dinner with the host family’s grandparents. We also went to a big lantern display.

I really enjoyed our group's time in Hangzhou and the long break, but sadly, all great things must come to an end. We packed up and headed back to Shanghai on the train. And now its time to get back to studying and working out in the school gym to burn off some of the weight we gained over the break.

 

Part Two of a Long Chinese Break

Spring festival this year was spent at my host dad’s hometown in Zhejiang province and was filled with food, fireworks and family.

Fireworks at the ready.
 

 When we arrived in the little farming village of 竺州 (Zhuzhou) we were greeted by the family's tradition of cooking a large animal and distributing it to family and friends over a period of about three days. The animal was a dog, and it was a big one. Most places in China don’t do this, mainly just poorer agricultural areas where other kinds of meat are scarce or more expensive. It's just the way it is. Try not to judge.

 

Butchering the meat to share.

My host brother, my host dad’s nephew 大好 (Dahao) and I lit a couple boxes of fireworks to scare away demons for the new year. After that, we went inside to watch the Chinese equivalent to the Times Square new year party on TV. However, this televised event is different from the American one in that there is no ball dropped, but there are music groups, dance routines and other performances. Some of these performances consisted of exuberant magic shows and enthralling acts of physical talents. The show is broadcast nationwide across China.

At exactly midnight the real party started. Outside we heard the explosions of dozens of flowery multi colored fireworks. This display of fireworks was by far the most awe-inspiring and extraordinary firework event I’ve ever seen. The experience in this small farming village dwarfed any firework show put on during a U.S. New Year's celebration or on the 4^th of July. It was by far the most beautiful fireworks show I have ever seen.

The sound was pounding. It seemed like we were in a war zone or an air-raid. Every fraction of a second blasts were going off and they didn’t stop… not until 10 a.m.   -- the next day -- and this was the only downside. I only got about three hours of sleep that night. The sound was so intense that even with my ear buds in and iPod blaring at full volume, I still couldn’t sleep. In the morning I restlessly got out of bed and trotted into the kitchen where I hand-picked a couple steamed buns to eat for breakfast.

 

Steamed buns.

After breakfast we visited the tomb of my host father’s grandparents. We set out some food, including seaweed, apples, oranges and candy; we also put out some cups of whisky. This was all just in case their deceased relatives got hungry in heaven and wanted a snack. After putting out the food we burned some fake money and prayed.

My host brother,大好, at the tomb of his great grandparents.

 

Burnt offerings.

After returning to the house, we were invited over to a friend’s house for lunch. Like most social gatherings in China, the foreigner is the main attraction. I got lots of attention, asked many questions and was encouraged to eat a couple strange foods.

 

Me.

 

Chinese style lunch.

 

Mahjong.

Couple of older guys.

After lunch my host brother and I watched some TV. We watched a popular Chinese TV series, 爱情公寓 (aiqinggongyuan). It's a lot like the Big Bang Theory on American TV.

At dinner we were once again served a 竺州 delicacy, dog. Later that night 大好 and I set off fireworks on the roof of the house. We set off a couple of fountains, big flying fireworks and a firework-gun (possibly one of the most dangerous fireworks I’ve ever used).

Because my host brother had so much homework, we had to go back to Shanghai after only two days in the village. We said all our goodbyes and received some 红包 or little red bags with money inside.

Like I said, the spring festival, from my point of view, was about food, fireworks and family.

 

Part One of a Long Chinese Break

This past month was filled with tests, travel and fun! Finally all the big tests are over and we are nearly three weeks into a five-week break. The first two weeks of our winter break my host brother still had “extra school,” and spent many hours studying while on his break. So while my host brother was cooped up inside a classroom, I was either in my room working on my 161-page winter break homework workbook or out discovering new things about the city.

Looking up at the Pearl.

Looking down.

Recently I explored the Oriental Pearl (indoor rollercoaster, arcade, museum, revolving restaurant, skyscraper and radio tower – all in one) with a couple American friends on my scholarship program. Even though I’d already been to the Pearl once, it was still great to go back and look at the city with a “birds-eye-view.”

Me.

An interesting pedestrian walkway.

The construction is ongoing.

Last week my NSLI-Y scholarship group from Shanghai travelled to Nanjing, the ex-capital of China and a city that boasts thousands of years of history. Along with the other Americans from the Beijing NSLI-Y group, we went to popular tourists sites such as the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum, the Nanjing massacre memorial, and KTV (karaoke). We volunteered at several local YMCAs and elementary schools and taught young children and disabled students English.

School girls in Nanjing.

On our first night in Nanjing we ate hotpot, performed KTV (karaoke) and got to know our fellow NSLI-Y students based in Beijing.

Hotpot.

At the first YMCA we visited, we performed songs and dances for elderly people and engaged in conversations with them to learn about their lives as Nanjingians. The elderly Chinese also put on quite a show for us with their sword dances, Tai qi routines and exuberant style of singing.

Dancing grandmothers.

During the next two days we volunteered at a different YMCA, one for people ranging in ages from 16 to 60 with mental illnesses. We were able to interact with them by playing with Playdough, performing charades and sharing songs. We ended up learning their school song and we taught them “If you’re Happy and You Know It.” We were each assigned partners; my partner happened to really like basketball and had a lot of knowledge about the NBA.

Volunteering in Nanjing.

Later in the week we volunteered at a rural elementary school just outside of Nanjing. We taught them a little bit of English, read them “The Cat in the Hat,” played bingo and made picture frames to commemorate our visit. They also performed a quick Kung-fu routine for us. For lunch we got to eat at one of the children’s homes. At yet another YMCA, we taught kids English and choreographed performances with the kids, including some funny dances and English and Chinese songs.

In the classroom.

Lunch with one of the Nanjing student's family.

For cultural and historical enhancement of the trip, we went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. This memorial was built as a reminder of the Japanese attack on Nanjing in 1937, where over 300,000 Chinese were killed. The exhibits in the memorial were quite graphic showing the actual remains of slaughtered Chinese citizens and described in detail their deaths. It was a somber place to visit, but also had a message of peace. We also climbed the many stairs of Sun Yat-sen’s tomb and explored his mausoleum.

Inside the Nanjing Massacre Memorial.

Nanjing Massacre Memorial.

Sun Yat-sen’s tomb.

Sadly we had to leave this new city and our new Beijing friends. We didn’t get to explore on our own very much, but that’s okay because all-in-all it was a pretty good trip. Luckily we’ll get to reunite with our new Beijing friends in a couple weeks in Hangzhou, another city in China that we get to explore during the end of our long break.

Beijing and Shanghai NSLI-Y groups in Nanjing.

Tomorrow I leave for Zhejiang province with my host father and brother (host mother has to stay home and work). We will visit with my host family’s family and friends and celebrate the Chinese New Year! According to my host dad the main activity is eating; I already like the sound of it. My last trip to Zhejiang in the fall was pretty fun. Maybe if all of the people I met last time in Zhejiang still remember me, it’ll be even more exciting this time!

Happy 2014!

For the New Year we got a day off!

Brady and I decided to stay at the school for New Year's Eve instead of going back to our host families. We wandered the subway, found a sushi bar, ate some sushi -- and then we found a Hardee's! So, after sushi, we had hamburgers and shakes.

Brady wanted to start off the New Year right, with a haircut (a Mohawk).

After dinner we drifted back to the dorms to watch some movies until 2014.

At midnight we lit some lanterns with our new year’s resolutions. (Good thing we had a fire safety lesson earlier this month.)

 

The next morning we were longing for some more American food and heard that there was a pancake restaurant nearby. We picked up Sara and Megan (the only other Americans who stayed at the dorms) and went on a search for pancakes. For the past four months we have been slurping up noodles for breakfast, so despite the unreasonable price for the flapjacks it was worth it. Mission accomplished.

Sara, inspired by Brady's haircut, decided she wanted to die her hair red for 2014. After looking around for hair dye, she decided to go to the same barber where Brady went. Her hair didn't really turn out red. It's more purplish-pink.

Sadly we still had night study on New Year's Day.

Tests are coming soon. Very soon.

Looking Back at December

Days have turned to weeks and weeks have turned to months, and the first semester has flown by. December brought cold, wind and smog. Like I said earlier this month the smog has hit record highs and has not gotten much better. Aside from all the major health risks and dangers from the smog, there is one benefit, no morning exercises!

To kick off December we had a fire drill at school. Unlike the American “stay calm” approach, our teacher told us to run like crazy as fast as we could out of the classroom. No calm there. Our teacher also told us to put a towel around our mouth and nose, which in my mind kind of increases our chances of catching flames, but we followed directions. The only towel I could quickly find was a pink one with flowers on it. To add to the chaos, someone “in” on the drill lit a flare on the 5^th floor of the boys’ dorm. It just got more fun from there. Everyone was running around campus like crazy, some with towels on their faces, and some with their pollution face masks. The drill ended with a fire extinguisher demonstration and everyone got a chance to put out a fire with a fire extinguisher. That’s was actually fun. And so, ended the annual fire drill at the High School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, or JDFZ, as we know it.

 

A few weekends ago, before Christmas, we went to 新天地 and 田子坊 (Xintiandi and Tianzifiang), two very popular tourist attractions in Shanghai. We were supposed to go a week earlier, but the field trip was postponed due to hazardous air pollution. These two landmarks are devoted to the traditional Shanghai 石库门 architecture, are also popular for shopping. After exploring the architecture and design, Keiondre, Brady and I found a DVD store that sold almost any CD and DVD known to man for less than 2 dollars. We bought a few.

 

During the days leading up to Christmas, we spent time in our history classes eating and making dumplings and other traditional Chinese foods. I should be pretty good at making dumplings by the time I get home.

 

To try to lively up the Christmas spirit my group of American kids all pitched in some money to buy a few Christmas decorations. We bought a stuffed Santa Claus, some Christmas stickers, and even a Christmas tree with decorations.

On Christmas Eve we had a gift exchange and everyone received some fun gifts. A box my mom sent FedEx with my iPod in it finally arrived, after a long hold up in customs. I think it took more than a month for that FedEx box to reach me. Regular mail seems to reach me faster than FedEx.

On Christmas Eve, we also had an assembly where some of the Chinese kids performed some songs and short plays. The choir also performed a few Christmas songs. That night we watched one of my favorite movies, a Bollywood hit called The Three Idiots.

 

On Christmas Day we had a day off of school and went to an amusement park called Happy Fun Land. We rode some precarious rollercoasters and walked through a couple outdated haunted houses. After we went to Happy Fun Land, all the international kids went to a KTV or karaoke bar type thing.

 

In China, Christmas is more of romantic holiday than the religious holiday in America. All over Shanghai there were signs that said "Merry Kissmas."

 

 

When we weren’t making merry for Kissmas, we have been studying very hard for midterms and other big tests. January is our big test month.
 

Smog

No running today.

You may have heard that Shanghai is experiencing some massive air pollution. It's true. Visibility is minimal, face masks are typical, and everyone is supposed to stay inside. We can see the smog particles actually coming in the windows like mist. Inside our school this week there was a bit of haze.

We were supposed to have a field trip this weekend with my scholarship team, but it's been postponed due to the smog. Basically when the smog gets like this, the rule is everyone stays inside. School was not cancelled this week for us, but I've heard that schools in Nanjing are cancelled.

I do wonder how it gets so bad and where it all comes from. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the air quality should be 20 ppm. In Shanghai at the moment it is 506 ppm.

It's like a ghost town outside my school.

  

 

Quick Trip to Beijing

 

北京是一个非 常有意思的城市， 历史很多文化也不少。很多人觉得北京只有什么长城，是中国的首都，但是北京有很多其他有意思的东西。除了长城，北京的景点还有故宫，天安门广场，天坛，王府井，鸟巢，水立方，和香山。因为北京历史悠久，所以北京的文化也很丰富，比上海的多。北京的菜跟上海的菜不一样，比如说在上海很多人非常喜欢吃鸡爪，而北京人喜欢吃小虫子（蝎子，蜘蛛和蜈）。我听过了一首歌叫：“北京欢迎您”。在这首歌里，他们说：“不管远近都是客人用不客气。”这句话的意思是：不管你来自哪里，来到北京，你都是北京人的客人，他们都很热心，他们欢迎我们。去北京以前，我认为北京有点儿无聊，可是去北京旅行以后我觉得很精彩。我爱北京！

浦发立

Things stay busy here. A couple weeks ago the international students at my school were treated to a quick trip to Beijing. Our increasingly tight group of Americans, Russians, Italians, Germans, Japanese, Indonesians, North and South Koreans, Estonians and Kazakhstanis, boarded an overnight train to Beijing. Like most things in China, the train was crowded. We slept six people to a cabin on bunks that were too small for many of us. We talked, watched movies on a laptop, and fell asleep to the rocking lull of the train.

We woke up to the beautiful Beijing haze. Some were well prepared with face masks to greet the day. As we got off the train we were immediately corralled onto a tour bus. I'm not a fan of organized group tours, but going with a group of classmates made the trip fun. The German kids brought a Chinese version of a hackeysack to keep break up any boredom as the group moved from temple to temple.

First stop: the Temple of Heaven  天坛. The Temple of Heaven is where the emperor used to pray. The Temple of Heaven has a beatiful ceiling.

Next stop: Tian'an men Square 天安门广场. We ate lunch famly style with a lazy-Susan in the middle of the table, then headed to the famous Tian'an men Square. We saw the big picture of Mao and walked past his tomb, where every Tuesday and Thursday you  can see his body on display. Too bad for us, it was Wednesday. Gotta' leave some things for next time.

Tian’an men Square led us to our next stop,  故宫, or the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the emperor’s palace during the 明 (Ming) and 晴 (Qing) dynasties. It really is a city; when I told my host brother that we were there for two hours, he looked at me funny. I asked him if that was a long time and he said, "No, that’s way too short, you should spend days there!” Like I said, this was a "quick" trip to Beijing. I'll have to go back.

After we toured the Forbidden City, we went to a popular pedestrian mall in Beijing where some ate at McDonald’s and some had the famous Beijing roast duck. Some of us, myself included, feasted on cow stomach dumplings, scorpion and tarantula. It wasn’t the best dinner I’ve had, but it was worth giving it all a tasting. The dumplings weren’t the best dumplings I've had; the scorpion tasted like a burnt French-fry; and the tarantula just tasted like dirt. Been there. Done that. Next time I might go for the roast duck, but I'm glad I tried the market food.

Cooked tarantulas.

After ‘dinner’ we finally arrived at the hotel. Showered, rested, and planned ahead for our next adventure: the Great Wall. The bus ride to the Wall was filled with the sound of our tour guide screaming into her microphone trying to tell us about the history of Beijing. Before goint to "the wall," I really wasn't that interested in it. But once I actually climbed to the top of the highest guard tower and looked out and around I saw why it’s called great. We scuttled up almost 90 degree angle stairs and had our pictures taken with many curious Chinese people. When we stood at the top of the highest part we could see for miles around, and if it weren’t for the pollution we probably could’ve seen for more miles around. We could see the wall snaking around mountains and ridge lines for miles. Amazing! Really.

 

A clear day at the Great Wall.

After our excursion to the Great Wall we went to the Olympic park where we saw the bird’s nest and the water cube. We walked around there for a while and waited for the lights to turn on. The lights were really cool. At the head off the Olympic park there was a weird futuristic Jetsons looking building. The sky was growing pretty dark and we were getting hungry so we headed off to dinner. We were all tired so after dinner we quickly went to sleep.

Bird's Nest at night.

On the last day we woke up early to pack. The continental breakfast was especially good this morning, serving up cakes, toast, eggs, cereal and orange juice. Once again the tour guide started her screaming into the microphone, she went rambling on about Chairman Mao as we tried to nap. Our next destination was Mao’s home in Beijing. Contrary to Mao’s ideals, his house was a very traditional Chinese type of architecture one of the types you may see in a kungfu movie. After Mao’s house we went to a communist-themed restaurant where the employees would dance in praise of Chairman Mao and communism. The walls were painted with Mao quotes and old PRC propaganda. This was the first place I’ve seen so far in China that boastfully professed its love and praise for Mao.

After lunch we drove a couple hours into downtown Beijing to walk around a street market that had small shops, little cafes and vendors selling western foods. Some of the shops sold souvenirs, some sold Mao memorabilia and some just sold random things. My roommate Brady and I found a CD store and bought some Chinese reggae CDs -- an interesting twist on the genre. It was growing close to our departure time so we headed off to the train station. The train back was the same style as the train to Beijing, small, cramped but fun and exciting. This time we did not watch any movies, just stayed up and talked. The next morning we split and headed off to our host families in Shanghai.

Me and my host family earlier this fall.

Like I said, things are busy here. I'm trying to catch up on my blog and organizing photos.