Last one of summer session!
大家好!!
Today is the last day of the last week of summer session. I have one more exam (pronunciation) in two hours, but for all intents and purposes, I'm through! The countdown is almost up...two more days and I'm in Beijing, four and I'm in Xian with the host family that's going to provide my home away from home away from home until school starts again in September. It's like waiting for Christmas when you're eight....
I've had a lot of interesting experiences this summer, from Russian chocolate (it has bubbles!!!) to presenting a paper in Chinese as one of my finals. Yeah, that didn't go remarkably well, but I'm cutting myself some slack- it's rough to talk about the impact of energy security on international relations with a vocabulary only a kindergartner would envy!!!
I've also mastered crossing the street. Sounds mundane, but if I die in China, it won't be from some exotic illness or in a political demonstration-it'll be in an ordinary, everyday thouroughfare. By far the best method is to mix in with a group of Chinese people about to cross-not only do they know best when to move, cars also are more likely to swerve for five people than for one. Makes a bigger dent. But even so, sometimes the locals are braver than me, and I chicken out in the middle and get left all alone. I paid for my cowardice once by being sandwiched in between two giant city buses, with only two feet of breathing room. After that I learned to stick with the group at all costs...sometimes I feel like a lemur, but as long as we stay away from cliffs I guess we're OK!
Last weekend our study abroad program organized a night out at the city's Cultural Revolution dinner theatre. It was really an extremely fascinating opportunity to eat good food and experience the propaganda-laden music and dances from the Cultural Revolution. I can't pretend to have understood a thing, but it's pretty hard to miss the meaning when four young people dressed as Red Guards parade around the room blandishing Little Red Books and a Mao Zedong portrait. My favorite part, though, was the duo comedy act at the end. There was a man and a woman going back and forth on what seemed to be political and cultural issues-they did a great job, hit every cue just right! The grand finale was...something I never expect to witness again in this life. So this tall, bald Chinese guy with pitch black eyebrows, wearing nothing more from the waste up except a red triangular handkerchief held on with strings, starts to sing. But that's not it. His eyebrows are also doing this ridiculous dance to the techno music, and he's singing and tearing a metal bowl into pieces at the same time. I have no idea what it was about, but it had me in stitches.
It was a very unusual experience, especially after studying the Cultural Revolution in class and coming out of it with the impression that it was one of China's most traumatic experiences, and one that everyone wanted to forget. The festive atmosphere in the restaurant belied the horror of thirty years ago; everyone was singing along and clapping to the music that a lot of the restaurant-goers remembered perfectly.
I'm hoping that my program will arrange the same activity again in the fall; hopefully by then I might understand more of what's being said! It's such a relief to have all my hard exams over with; this has definitely been one of the hardest semesters to survive that I've ever experienced. I'd definitely recommend CET to anyone who's serious about learning Chinese, but be prepared to have your brain hurt for a month! I'm looking forward to fall, the challenges of just getting used to China will have already been hurdled, and (hopefully!) school will be easier because of it. I'm taking composition, modern literature, and two one on one classes-should be exciting!
With that, I think I'll go track down some breakfast and maybe study for my test...best wishes from the land of the dragon!
Tamber "箫丹"
Today is the last day of the last week of summer session. I have one more exam (pronunciation) in two hours, but for all intents and purposes, I'm through! The countdown is almost up...two more days and I'm in Beijing, four and I'm in Xian with the host family that's going to provide my home away from home away from home until school starts again in September. It's like waiting for Christmas when you're eight....
I've had a lot of interesting experiences this summer, from Russian chocolate (it has bubbles!!!) to presenting a paper in Chinese as one of my finals. Yeah, that didn't go remarkably well, but I'm cutting myself some slack- it's rough to talk about the impact of energy security on international relations with a vocabulary only a kindergartner would envy!!!
I've also mastered crossing the street. Sounds mundane, but if I die in China, it won't be from some exotic illness or in a political demonstration-it'll be in an ordinary, everyday thouroughfare. By far the best method is to mix in with a group of Chinese people about to cross-not only do they know best when to move, cars also are more likely to swerve for five people than for one. Makes a bigger dent. But even so, sometimes the locals are braver than me, and I chicken out in the middle and get left all alone. I paid for my cowardice once by being sandwiched in between two giant city buses, with only two feet of breathing room. After that I learned to stick with the group at all costs...sometimes I feel like a lemur, but as long as we stay away from cliffs I guess we're OK!
Last weekend our study abroad program organized a night out at the city's Cultural Revolution dinner theatre. It was really an extremely fascinating opportunity to eat good food and experience the propaganda-laden music and dances from the Cultural Revolution. I can't pretend to have understood a thing, but it's pretty hard to miss the meaning when four young people dressed as Red Guards parade around the room blandishing Little Red Books and a Mao Zedong portrait. My favorite part, though, was the duo comedy act at the end. There was a man and a woman going back and forth on what seemed to be political and cultural issues-they did a great job, hit every cue just right! The grand finale was...something I never expect to witness again in this life. So this tall, bald Chinese guy with pitch black eyebrows, wearing nothing more from the waste up except a red triangular handkerchief held on with strings, starts to sing. But that's not it. His eyebrows are also doing this ridiculous dance to the techno music, and he's singing and tearing a metal bowl into pieces at the same time. I have no idea what it was about, but it had me in stitches.
It was a very unusual experience, especially after studying the Cultural Revolution in class and coming out of it with the impression that it was one of China's most traumatic experiences, and one that everyone wanted to forget. The festive atmosphere in the restaurant belied the horror of thirty years ago; everyone was singing along and clapping to the music that a lot of the restaurant-goers remembered perfectly.
I'm hoping that my program will arrange the same activity again in the fall; hopefully by then I might understand more of what's being said! It's such a relief to have all my hard exams over with; this has definitely been one of the hardest semesters to survive that I've ever experienced. I'd definitely recommend CET to anyone who's serious about learning Chinese, but be prepared to have your brain hurt for a month! I'm looking forward to fall, the challenges of just getting used to China will have already been hurdled, and (hopefully!) school will be easier because of it. I'm taking composition, modern literature, and two one on one classes-should be exciting!
With that, I think I'll go track down some breakfast and maybe study for my test...best wishes from the land of the dragon!
Tamber "箫丹"
posted by Timbre | 8:10 PM
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