One, Two, Three Eggplant!!
Hello again from Harbin!
It's been one month and two days now since I stepped off the plane, and I feel like I'm beginning to catch on to the flow of things here now. Harbin is really beginning to grow on me. I'm finding it's not all dirt, mud, construction and bad smells; there really are some beautiful places to go and relax! I'm addicted to a particular pedestrian-only street near the SongHuaJiang river called Zhong Yang Da Jie. It's paved with cobblestones, and lined with shops purveying everything from clothes to Chinese and Russian commodities of all sorts. Curiously enough, there's even a Wal-Mart...see now, if they couldn't stop Wal-Mart from invading this last outpost of civilization that is Harbin, how could we possibly think we could keep them out of Pullman?!
I just got back yesterday from a weekend in Changbaishan. Apparently it's one of China's ten most famous mountains (see pictures on Facebook once I get them loaded) and though it was steep as hell and at 2700 meters (yes, that's high!) it was worth it when we got to the top and saw...gasp...North Korea on the other side of the lake!!! Yes, we were no more than a mile or so from the homeland of the Dear Leader who presently has missiles pointed (if at present rather impotently) at the United States. That's probably as close as I ever get to North Korea in this life... an eery feeling. Also this weekend, I ate stir-fried tree fungus (delicious), suffered my first attack of Mao's Revenge (unfortunate; perhaps related to the tree fungus?), and purchased a zip-up top with Esprit de Carp emblazoned on the upper left hand side. 'Nuff said. ;)
Scholastically, things are progressing as normal...not a whole lot of variety there! Study Chinese, study some more Chinese, learn how to discuss the implications and obstacles of intercultural marriage (but I still can't say "purple", and it took me until this morning to learn "peanut butter"...), and make another fifty flashcards.
Some things we do in class here are really fun, though. The highlight of my week this week was a field trip to a tea house, where the fuwuyuan gave us a demonstration and explanation of the tea ceremony. After she had finished the ritual of pouring and re-pouring, she left us to sample at our leisure delicious green tea, brewed to perfection. I think if I have the chance, I might like to learn how to do that... I did purchase some Korean barley tea (da mai cha) this weekend (I wonder if Korea's diminutive despot is also fond of it? I could be drinking the the Autocrat's Choice...) which, if it's half as good as the tea we tried at one of our restaurants this weekend, will be my new beverage of choice for a long time to come...since it only came in the super-size box. ;) But for a dollar fifty, who's complaining?
This week, my one-on-one topic is Australia. My teacher told me on Thursday that most Chinese people, despite the fact that Australia is swiftly becoming a key trading partner of theirs, believe that Australia is populated by kangaroos, wombats, and large red rocks. I laughed when I heard that; they think it's a mysterious place with curious animals, and probably not a good place to go as an exchange student or anything else, because its inhabitants are undoubtedly backwards. That is what happens when you let Discovery Channel serve as your public relations representative.
Also for those of you who might be wondering, it is TRUE that if you compliment a Chinese person on something that they have, they just might give it to you. So far I have acquired a cellphone charm, a hairthing, and a pair of earrings, and I have learned to compliment my friends on things they can't give me, like clothes and hair. ;) But it is not true that it is rude to say Xie Xie (thank you) when they compliment you; I've conducted rigorous scientific research to uncover the truth (incidentally, that's how I acquired above-mentioned accessories), and the proportion of "nali's" to simple "xie xie's" has been very small. So thank away!
With that, I'm going to dive back into my bottomless ocean of Chinese homework!!!
Lots of love to all,
Tamber
Oh, two more things! I have a phone number, it is 206-734-4308. The one note I have is that China is 15 hours ahead of pacific time, so do keep that in mind! My other phone number is actually 011-86-451-8640-1199. I typed it wrong last time around... On the eggplant subject...ok, so you know how we say "Cheese!" when we take a picture? Well, the Chinese word that just so happens to sound the most like cheese is "qiezi"...or eggplant. If that doesn't make you smile for the picture, what will?!
It's been one month and two days now since I stepped off the plane, and I feel like I'm beginning to catch on to the flow of things here now. Harbin is really beginning to grow on me. I'm finding it's not all dirt, mud, construction and bad smells; there really are some beautiful places to go and relax! I'm addicted to a particular pedestrian-only street near the SongHuaJiang river called Zhong Yang Da Jie. It's paved with cobblestones, and lined with shops purveying everything from clothes to Chinese and Russian commodities of all sorts. Curiously enough, there's even a Wal-Mart...see now, if they couldn't stop Wal-Mart from invading this last outpost of civilization that is Harbin, how could we possibly think we could keep them out of Pullman?!
I just got back yesterday from a weekend in Changbaishan. Apparently it's one of China's ten most famous mountains (see pictures on Facebook once I get them loaded) and though it was steep as hell and at 2700 meters (yes, that's high!) it was worth it when we got to the top and saw...gasp...North Korea on the other side of the lake!!! Yes, we were no more than a mile or so from the homeland of the Dear Leader who presently has missiles pointed (if at present rather impotently) at the United States. That's probably as close as I ever get to North Korea in this life... an eery feeling. Also this weekend, I ate stir-fried tree fungus (delicious), suffered my first attack of Mao's Revenge (unfortunate; perhaps related to the tree fungus?), and purchased a zip-up top with Esprit de Carp emblazoned on the upper left hand side. 'Nuff said. ;)
Scholastically, things are progressing as normal...not a whole lot of variety there! Study Chinese, study some more Chinese, learn how to discuss the implications and obstacles of intercultural marriage (but I still can't say "purple", and it took me until this morning to learn "peanut butter"...), and make another fifty flashcards.
Some things we do in class here are really fun, though. The highlight of my week this week was a field trip to a tea house, where the fuwuyuan gave us a demonstration and explanation of the tea ceremony. After she had finished the ritual of pouring and re-pouring, she left us to sample at our leisure delicious green tea, brewed to perfection. I think if I have the chance, I might like to learn how to do that... I did purchase some Korean barley tea (da mai cha) this weekend (I wonder if Korea's diminutive despot is also fond of it? I could be drinking the the Autocrat's Choice...) which, if it's half as good as the tea we tried at one of our restaurants this weekend, will be my new beverage of choice for a long time to come...since it only came in the super-size box. ;) But for a dollar fifty, who's complaining?
This week, my one-on-one topic is Australia. My teacher told me on Thursday that most Chinese people, despite the fact that Australia is swiftly becoming a key trading partner of theirs, believe that Australia is populated by kangaroos, wombats, and large red rocks. I laughed when I heard that; they think it's a mysterious place with curious animals, and probably not a good place to go as an exchange student or anything else, because its inhabitants are undoubtedly backwards. That is what happens when you let Discovery Channel serve as your public relations representative.
Also for those of you who might be wondering, it is TRUE that if you compliment a Chinese person on something that they have, they just might give it to you. So far I have acquired a cellphone charm, a hairthing, and a pair of earrings, and I have learned to compliment my friends on things they can't give me, like clothes and hair. ;) But it is not true that it is rude to say Xie Xie (thank you) when they compliment you; I've conducted rigorous scientific research to uncover the truth (incidentally, that's how I acquired above-mentioned accessories), and the proportion of "nali's" to simple "xie xie's" has been very small. So thank away!
With that, I'm going to dive back into my bottomless ocean of Chinese homework!!!
Lots of love to all,
Tamber
Oh, two more things! I have a phone number, it is 206-734-4308. The one note I have is that China is 15 hours ahead of pacific time, so do keep that in mind! My other phone number is actually 011-86-451-8640-1199. I typed it wrong last time around... On the eggplant subject...ok, so you know how we say "Cheese!" when we take a picture? Well, the Chinese word that just so happens to sound the most like cheese is "qiezi"...or eggplant. If that doesn't make you smile for the picture, what will?!
posted by Timbre | 8:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home