Tuesday, February 10, 2009

first day

I'm not quite sure what day this counts as...my body is still definitely on Central time.


The plane ride was interesting--the movie selection was pretty terrible. The first movie I watched was A Body of Lies with Leonardo DiCaprio. I have to say, I wasn't that impressed. After that, I watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was a really bad choice. It was a movie about a child who befriends another child...only the child is in a NAZI DEATH CAMP in WWII Europe. Baaad decision for a 13.5 hour flight. So I didn't watch any other movies. However, we flew over the North Pole and down through Siberia, so that provided some good window-watching. It was incredibly beautiful. I got a little concerned when I could start seeing the pollution in the air...once we started flying over the Beijing area, there was a distinct line in the sky between the blue and the more brownish air. Not exactly environmentally friendly.
When we got to the airport, we had to get our passports checked before we could really go anywhere. I loved the sign--FOREIGNERS. Not Non-Chinese citizens. Very blunt. Very welcoming. But the airport is beautiful--and brand new for the Olympics!








When our shuttle bus pulled up to where we are staying, it was to this WICKED nice lobby area with marble and chandeliers and everything and all of us were just in a state of disbelief...we were soo excited. And then the guide showed us around the back and out to another building...no marble this time.
This is the hallway to my room...

So it was a little less than inviting. But once we figured out how the lights worked (I seem to have a problem doing that in Asia...), everything was fine. My mattress is as hard as a rock, and I'm too tall for the showerhead, but other than that the room is pretty nice. My roommate (Evelyn) is really nice, so that's always a good bonus.

So today we had to wake up really early for orientation (boo). Then we sat there for 3 hours and talked about life in Beijing and adjusting to culture shock and all that jazz. The good news was that they provided breakfast (dim sum) and "grape juice"(which was actually grape, asparagus, red pepper, bok choy, apple, carrot and various other produce items' juice).

After that was over we all went to a pizza/buffet restaurant, decorated with American cultural relics (including Audrey Hepburn, Jason X and Pearl Harbor...all on the same wall). It was also still decorated for Christmas...?


After that we had to return for one more lecture on capitalizing on our experience in China. The lecture was given by the professor of Intercultural Communication here, so it was mainly focused on understanding ourselves, our culture, and Chinese culture. Overall, I was just extremely tired and didn't want to pay attention to just about anything, but I thought he said something really interesting. He had a thing for using food analogies (cultures are onions), so he decided to use food to describe American and Chinese cultures. Apparently, as Americans, we are peaches. We have a soft exterior, but a very hard center. He used the example of talking for hours with someone at the airport, someone whose name he didn't know. However, he said, our private lives are kept very secret. If someone digs too deep into family, relationships or into our core values, we are generally more tough and unwilling. On the other hand, the Chinese are apparently like a coconut--a very tough exterior, but soft on the inside. The Chinese take a while to get to know you, but once you're allowed into their world, they are much more open.
I thought that was interesting.

Also, here is a short list of things I should not do (as far as adjusting to Chinese culture is concerned)

1) make eye contact with people
2) smile at a man (they get the wrong idea)
3) initiate physical contact with a man--even a handshake (they REALLY get the wrong idea)
4) mention the three T's: Tian'anmen, Taiwan and Tibet
5) freely express my beliefs about gender relations or sexuality (the Chinese very recently removed homosexuality from their list of mental illnesses...woo boy I wonder what the Gender Studies departments would look like over here if they existed...)

After that whole session was over, we went walking around town. We joined the local Bally's and exchanged money which takes surprisingly long when you just don't have that vocablary set...
Then we were supposed to go to a certain area of town and fill out a questionnaire about it (for a special surprise...a carabiner!)


Well we decided to go on the hunt for things we actually needed--like cell phones. Two hours and 4 very frustrated people (including a poor salesman who spoke WAY too fast for any non-native to even endeavor to understand him) later, we had successfully bought phones, Sim cards and minutes. It was intense...but at least now we have phones. On our way back, we saw the venue for the Olympic ping-pong events--it was a such a mega stadium for an event like ping-pong...apparently they take that very seriously.




After that, I went to dinner and had my first epic dinner fail. I asked for whatever on the menu didn't have meat or fish. Then they brought this small plate of veggies and little shrimp. Everyone thought it was just like a snack thing before we got our food, so they dug in. I didn't have any because of the shrimp...turns out, that was my meal. Sprite for dinner!
We stopped at a baker after that... "Delicious Cake"...shaped like a skull. This is Ace of Cakes gone horribly wrong...
Last, we went to the campus mini-mart, Wumei, where I found my life's desire: a life size stuffed Fuwa (the Beijing 2008 Olympic mascots) HUANHUAN! (they also had Yingying, but he's not quite as cute)
Fortunately for my bank account, that particular stand was closed. But I cannot tell you how much I want that thing. If they had the panda Jingjing, that thing would be SOLD.
And that was Day 1 in China...More to come!!

7 comments:

  1. I LOVE YOUR BLOG!! This was hilarious! I had to stifle my laughter in class when I read about the Holy Trinity of Audrey Hepburn, Jason X, and Pearl Harbor...next to Christmas.

    It's good to know that we're known abroad by movie stars, violence, national war tragedies, and Christmas.

    :)
    LOVE YOU! Keep updating!
    Sophie

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  2. exciting! LOVED the pics. beautiful. keep doing what you do.

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  3. Loved your dinner Andrea....not! Great for weight control! When I was in Japan I existed on popcorn and Coke.

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  4. Love being able to see you are safe!!!! Mom

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  5. you've got mad blogging skills, mans, LOVE IT!

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  6. Andrea,

    How much would the painting of the cranes and blossoms cost in American dollars? That was gorgeous. I also loved the other painting with the blues and reds up on the table. Ballpark cost?

    Glad you are having a wonderful time.

    Madeleine

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  7. I'm noy sure if the lotus flower paintings were for sale, but the crane paintings were each 330 RMB, which I think is about 45 dollars. That particular one was purchased by someone else in my group before I got to it, but there were many more.

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