Beijing Week 1 (北京周一）

Classes:
I've heard the first week of HBA is the worst... that better be true or else there's no way I'm going to get through another 7 weeks o_O I already talked about the daily workload last post, but basically it culminates in a two hour test on Friday followed by an hour of debate, an hour of essay reading, and an hour or so of Chinese table before we're finally set free. By then you're exhausted and very sick of Chinese, so a nap is in order. But the relief of surviving is blissful indeed!

Language Partner:
After my nap I had my first meeting with my language partner. Everyone is assigned a language partner who's a Beijing student and who's supposed to meet with you two hours every week to practice conversational Chinese and help you with homework or questions about Beijing. Mine is a sophomore at Bei Yu (short for Beijing Yuyan Daxue) and is studying Chinese language instruction (she wants to be a teacher one day). She's only two years older and really adorable. She's also really patient... I guess everyone who deals with us have to be patient because we're all more or less at a stage where language barriers can be really frustrating. In regular conversation I have a relatively easier time compared to many other foreign students because I grew up with the language, but I've lived in America all my life and never really had a need for Chinese, so I also never really used it much before now. I can say basic things without thinking, but once conversation starts getting into more difficult subjects that requires more specialized vocab or more complicated sentence structures I get stuck really frequently or have to think much harder about what I'm saying. I still don't know that much personally about my language partner, but we talked a lot about a lot of societal issues and cultural differences from a similar age group perspective, which makes time go a lot faster than you would think.

Great Wall Simatai:
HBA organizes excursions on Saturdays, and the first one was to the Simatai portion of the Great Wall, which is pretty far from Beijing (3 hr bus ride) but less crowded and touristy than others. The climb was uber steep/scary and uber painful for sleep-deprived, out-of-shape people like yours truly, but very worth it. Like everything else in life, it was important to keep driving yourself to make it to the end, but the end itself wasn't such a big deal, it was just the process of getting there - the sights you see, the effort you make, and the people you suffer with. In other words, I kept thinking about two things: Camus' essay about the Myth of Sisyphus and Mama's lessons about persistence (greater suffering now leads to greater rewards later).

(At the start with Shengli Feng, the funniest and cutest program director ever)

(I love Engrish... you can find more at www.engrish.com)

(Me and Gabe, my climbing partner, at the end... we were the last lol)

Peking Duck:
For dinner we decided to go to the famous Peking Duck place in Wangfujing Dajie. We got baozi from the Goubuli Baozi place opposite the street while waiting for a place, which was a good idea because the Duck place was pretty expensive and besides the primary attraction Kaoya the food wasn't very good... but by expensive I mean $5 a person, which was definitely worth it for some quality duck ;9


Host Family:
HBA gives you the option of having a host family whom you don't live with, but act as relatives of sorts that you can turn to for help and give you more insight into native Beijing life. I chose to have one since I have relatives around China but not in Beijing and it'd be nice to have that opportunity. You dictate how much time you spend with them so it's not too bad in terms of hassle. My family consists of two parents and a son who's a sophomore in college. They're all really nice and typically Chinese (or at least fit my impression of typical) in terms of mannerisms, attitudes, etc. Today they took me to lunch at a surprisingly westernized mall and I feel like they're more interested in me than vice versa... possibly because they want to set me up with their son (eck) but also probably because I understand more about Chinese culture in advance than they do about American. I feel like I'm on language partner overdrive since I have to talk to so many people one-on-one (private tutor sessions, language partner, and now family), and it's tough finding time now for friends in Beijing or relatives in other parts of China who want to see me too, but I'd still rather meet new people while I have the chance and learn things from different perspectives and improve my language skills (as always).

Yaxiu Shopping:
After lunch I went with Stanley and a friend of his from home to go shopping at Yaxiu, which is one of those famously huge shopping plazas filled with several floors of deliciously fake/cheap stuff of everything imaginable - a haggler's paradise. Thankfully I only brought a limited amount of cash so I couldn't waste all my money before the program ends, but there are definitely trips to Xiushui and Xidan (other similar shopping centers) in order. Besides the amazing buys, perfecting the art of haggling requires a lot of training in rudeness, persuasion, and selfishness - an experience in and of itself. Plus, it makes you feel extra good about learning Chinese when people think you're a local student (albeit probably from the South) and go easier on you with prices ;)

Catch-up Post 2

First things first, the easiest way to contact me here for the next eight weeks is by phone: 1-591-099-3404, or email: mingmin.hui@yale.edu.

Anyway, here's an account of what I've been up to since I left off with the blogging...

Hong Kong Day 4 (香港第四天）:
I spent my last full day in Hong Kong with my cousin Ted, who is the closest to me in age and in interests (he's a Chinese Literature major and I'm an English Literature major). Ted took me around his university, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and we discussed everything from family to literary theory to Zhang Yimou to the differences between American and Chinese education. As a single child, it was nice to interact with someone in my family who can relate to me in ways that only siblings can and who can give some insight into the lives of people my age in other cultures. Plus, CUHK is an interesting school with some pretty terrific scenery:


Hong Kong --> Beijing:
The next morning I left bright and early for Beijing. At the time, there were several things that I decided I wouldn't miss about Hong Kong:
- Language barriers. People kept speaking to me in Cantonese and I'd have to pull the deer-in-headlights look before remembering to say sorry, Mandarin or English please. Also, unless people spoke to me directly I was completely in the dark during dinner conversation, which made it easier to concentrate on my food but also gave me plenty of time to regret not learning Cantonese from my dad when I had the chance.
- The Filipino maids. Apparently it's not uncommon for families to hire live-in maids from the Philippines, but it was disconcerting for me to see people who can be identified by race and practically become part of the family they serve being treated like second-class citizens. I think we have a bit of an analogous situation in America with illegal immigrants, but then again that situation bothers me as well.
- The no napkin thing. Actually it's the same in Beijing - you're expected to carry your own pocket tissues for restaurant and toilet use. And to find ways to eat messy saucy things without getting it all over your face (much easier said than done).
- The cultural desert (a term from my textbook, I'm not that cruel). I'd probably have a nice time living in HK since eating and shopping and living conditions are really amazing, but in terms of cultural tourism I was definitely getting bored by the end.

By the time I got to Beijing though, I realized what I would miss about HK (and the US):
- How clean and efficient everything was. Capitalism has its perks, end of story.
- Not having to figure out complicated ways of getting around Chinese site blocks. I can't see my own blogger page, only the dashboard from which I can still update. Xanga doesn't work either so it's not like I can use a different method.
- Fresh air. People aren't kidding about Beijing's pollution. I had to hunt down rewetting drops because it's impossible for me to spend more than half an hour outside without my vision being blinded by dust and dried contacts.
- English. Everything in HK was labeled in English and people could speak English for the most part, which is definitely not the case in the mainland. I can still survive with my rapidly increasing vocabulary, but I wonder how they plan on making the city more tourist friendly in one year for the Olympics.

When I leave here I'll discuss what I'm going to miss about Beijing, which I know will probably be a surprisingly long list (in advance, everything is SO cheap =D).

Beijing Day 1 (北京第一天）:
I was greeted at the airport by HBA teachers, whom struck me right off the bat as really nice and adorable. The only other person I knew on the shuttle to Beijing Language and Culture University was Lulu. We didn't know who else had arrived and didn't have anything planned, so we decided to go on an adventure and explore Beijing in search of SIM cards and dinner. We somehow managed to navigate the subway system to get to Wangfujing Dajie, a famous pedestrian street in Beijing with a small alleyway of eateries where we had dinner:


(Note: Those are live scorpions... and Lulu also saw seahorses. Apparently they don't just skewer lamb meat.)

In the end we didn't have any scorpions or seahorses. But I had my first idea of how cheap China was going really going to be (10 yuan noodles ~ $1.30, 35 yuan Mao hat+bag combo ~ $4.60) and how tricky navigating the city can be before you figure everything out (the latest subway line closes around 11:40 and we spent almost an hour trying to flag down taxis because it was a Friday night).

Beijing Day 2 (北京第二天）:
By evening of the next day basically everyone had arrived and we were able to go out in a larger group in search of adventures before selling our souls to HBA. Somehow we ended up in Hou Hai, which is a touristy bar/restaurant/lounge-on-the-lake district.

(Note the blaring Starbucks sign in the back... yay commercial hegemony)

(2010 Yalies @HBA represent!)

(I figured out how to use the night photography setting on my camera ;D)

After exploring some hutongs (small alleyways that are rapidly disappearing from Beijing) and having dinner at a Sichuan restaurant, we rented a boat to ride across Hou Hai Lake:

(The guys paddling)

The highlight of the night though was definitely getting stuck in the worst traffic jam ever - tons of boats trying to go both directions through a narrow little arch that separates one portion of the lake from the other and is only wide enough for one boat to pass through at a time. Chinese don't understand the concept of waiting your turn or making concessions for the common good (which is ironic given the mass propaganda of civil duty they're pushing for the Olympics), so it took a good hour of shoving and yelling and rowing to get through. I don't think they'll ever consider creating another opening to let traffic go in both directions, but maybe it's better that way because it's these kind of quirks that make for the best recollections ;)

Beijing Day 3 --> Now:
After getting the adventures out of our system for the weekend, we cracked down for placement tests and orientation on Sunday. Like I mentioned, I placed into 4th year, which is primarily focused on introducing us to formal written Chinese. Since then it's been class, study, sleep, repeat. The class schedule is:

8-10am - Lecture
10am-noon - Drill
1:30-3:20pm - Individual talks
7:30-9:30pm - Office hours

Every day we have from 50-100 new words/phrases to memorize for daily quizes, long and complicated lessons to read and understand for preview, homework exercises to review, and sentences to memorize for moxie. Every week there's an essay to write, an oral presentation, and a unit test. Somehow we're also supposed to find time for guest lectures, extracurricular activities, language partner talks, host family meetings, weekend excursions, and minor things like sleeping and eating.

In short it's rough. But it's rough for everyone and the learning environment is cozy because class sizes are so small (8 people in my lecture class, 4 people in my drill class) and you get to know your teachers on a personal level. More importantly, as frustrating as the process can be, the progress we make can be equally remarkable and fulfilling.

Catch-up Post

So I finally got internet access on my computer after days of waiting for the office to open and then for a moment of free time when I could go to get it set up.

I think that speaks to two aspects of my current situation:
1) Beijing is remarkably ghetto in many regards considering it is the capital of the most populous nation on earth. Convenience is not the rule of thumb at all - a huge difference among many from Hong Kong. In fact, my first impressions of Beijing were not that great, especially in comparison to the glitz of Hong Kong. Beijing struck me as dirty, chaotic, bizarre, sketchy, and generally hampered by communist remnants. This is partially because my first experience of the city was hopping on the subway with Lulu during our very first evening and wandering around Wangfujing Dajie until pretty late at night and then wandering the streets of Beijing until we could find a taxi - all of which in retrospect was not a great idea for two young girls in a foreign city. I think this is also the time to say, however, that on the flip side I'm also really taken with Beijing for all the same reasons. There's a constant sense of adventure, from simply braving the public transportation system to better understanding why Chinese people act and think the way they do nowadays. In a way, I find Beijing in all its cheapness and mystery to be remarkably quaint and eye-opening... and it's only the first week.

2) Life became insanely busy and stressful once classes started. The language pledge is not affecting me as deeply as it probably is for other students, but I am definitely suffering from the effects of developing lousy study habits at Yale. Also, 4th year Chinese (the level I placed into) involves a lot of "formal" language that you don't use in daily vernacular, so it's especially difficult for me to fall back on my ABC (American Born Chinese) instinct capabilities to make up for my relative lack of formal training. Add in poor memory skills and someone who prefers to get 8 hours of sleep (note: "prefers") and you get an exhausted mess. People weren't kidding when they said HBA is worse than Yale. Language classes inherently take the most time and energy, so when you try to consolidate a week's worth into a day, you get an unbearably high demand for our limited capabilities. I'm sure things will pan out as I get used to it, but for now it definitely feels like a sprinter running miles. I'm currently staying sane by enjoying the quality of the education we're getting (the teachers are truly good) and knowing that the satisfaction I'll get out of improving is proportional to the amount of effort I put in.

Anyway, on that note I really should go back to studying my incredibly long list of vocab words. Another catch-up post with pictures and contact info will have to wait until tomorrow.

Internet Issues

I arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon and I'm having a hard time tracking down internet so regular blogging and pictures will have to wait until I get internet in my room.

Hong Kong Days 2 and 3 (香港第二和三天）

Day 2:
I spent almost all of yesterday just eating and shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is the touristy district of Kowloon. In a way, all there really is to do in HK is eating and shopping since it's first and foremost a food and commercial paradise. Anyway, after a Japanese lunch with my aunt and uncle and 大嫂 (wife of my dad's oldest brother), we wandered around Harbor City, which is easily the biggest mall I'd ever been to. I didn't get anything though because as international as the shops are, they're still more or less like what I could find in America without being that much cheaper. Later though I went to Temple St. Nightmarket, which is basically knockoff paradise. I can't bargain in Cantonese so I had to let my aunt have the fun of bargaining, but it was an excellent prelude for Beijing (who wants to check out Wangfujing Dajie with me?).

Day 3:
Today we went to the New Territories and took a look at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. It's a pretty modern looking campus, definitely not as visually appealing as Yale Sweet Yale but kind of interesting nonetheless. I was more taken with the seaside scenery - an ocean and mountain combination that the flatness that is Long Island definitely lacks.

p.s. The puppy is my aunt and uncle's - her name is 豆豆 (DouDou or "Little Bean").


Isn't she cute? ^-^

Anyway, it started randomly raining for the third time that day (the weather is super erratic and the only thing that seems to remain constant is the humidity and threat of rain). On the way home my aunt stopped to get some fruit and I couldn't help but notice that the market is much cleaner and quainter than the ones in Chinatown. Fruit is more expensive though =/

Later in the evening we went swimming at The Arch, which is one of the grand apartment buildings in Kowloon next to Sorrento.

(The Arch)

(Sorrento 1, 2, 3, *5, and 6) *Note: There's no 4 because Chinese hate the number 4 since it's a homophone for death. All the floor numbers also skip 4, 14, 24, 40, etc.

Anyway, The Arch has a Sky Club, which is literally three floors of gyms, cafes, and pools stacked on top of each other suspended over air. It's the greenish glass part of the picture above. I forgot to take pictures of the interior, but living in The Arch is definitely like living in a five-star hotel all the time... envy... -_-

(View from the Sky Club)

After swimming we went to my dad's sister's place in The Arch for dinner. Here's the same view as above except a little higher and at night (my camera's not really equipped for night photos so sorry about the quality):

Hong Kong Day 1 (香港 第一天)

So after sixteen hours of airplane movies (yes, I literally started watching Bourne Identity after take-off and didn't stop until Friends turned off at landing), I arrived safely and with relatively few mishaps in Hong Kong. I'm staying with my dad's brother's family in Kowloon, which is the peninsula right across from Hong Kong Island. Almost all of my dad's family live in the same area of Hong Kong, which makes for very convenient family gathering. Below is a compilation of my first impressions.

Random thoughts about HK:
- It's like an Asian NYC. Except more colorful, commercial, modern, and clean. And of course everyone's Chinese and all the signs are in Chinese (traditional form so my limited literacy is even more limited).
- They drive on the wrong side of the road! That's not new info but it definitely weirds me out... I hyperventilate every time my uncle turns left because we don't go into the right lane.
- It's REALLY humid. Probably not much hotter than NY temperature-wise but it feels worse because of all the moisture.
- Cantonese is really hard to understand, let alone speak. I figured if I was exposed enough I would start to get the gist of things since I know Mandarin, but it's been 24 hours and I'm still clueless 99% of the time during conversation =(
- Service is pretty awesome, or at least all at all the restaurants/cafes/shops I've been to. You don't have to clean up after yourself at all and someone's always changing your plate at the right time.

Anyway, here's brief recap of my first full day:

After dim sum lunch with my aunts and uncles, we went to Victoria's Peak for a bird's eye view of Hong Kong Island. Unfortunately between pollution and fog, the visibility was pretty lousy so all we could see were some of the skyscrapers in Central, but still a pretty nice view.


After walking around the Peak, we went to IFC (International Finance Center) for some shopping before I went to the UBS office to visit two of my cousins who work in Equities. Then we went to a reunion dinner with all my cousins who live in Hong Kong (eight in total) and their spouses/fiances.

This dinner was a big deal for the family because it was the first time all the “Hui Ming 许明" cousins - the nine children of my dad and his brothers - had all been together for the first time. Since I'm the only one who lives in America and I had never been to Hong Kong before, I'm usually the one who's MIA lol. It was also a good time to share happy news with everyone - one of my cousins just found out he's expecting twin boys and another one just got engaged.

So all-in-all it's been a really interesting trip so far just for the sake of connecting with roots. I've never met some of my family or hadn't seen them for so long I couldn't remember what they look like. I still feel kind of removed from the rest because I'm the youngest and thus always a step behind the rest in terms of stages of life, and I don't know Cantonese so it's hard to understand conversation unless they speak directly to me in English. But everyone's been extraordinarily kind and generous and supportive, so even though I'm such an outsider I have no trouble feeling at home.

Preparations (准备）

A few lessons that I've learned in the last couple of months (and other random thoughts):

Passport/Visa
I didn't realize the passport needed to be valid for six months after your departure date until sometime in May, and mine expires in November. So I got myself an appointment at the post office and arranged for it to be expedited just in case. Thank god because when I got it three weeks before my departure date it turned out they had spelled my name wrong, so I sent it back to them demanding that they fix that within two weeks or else I couldn't get my visa. American bureaucracy isn't horrible though I suppose because they got it back to me in that time frame despite the super busy time of the year and I was able to go to the Chinese embassy in New York and get my visa a week before I had to leave.

Moral of the story: check your passports and visa procedures way in advance to save yourself time and worry. I suppose this applies to life in general, but it's a lesson never learned for the perpetual procrastinator.


Gifts
I have a ton of family in Hong Kong (five sets of uncles/aunts, eight cousins and their spouses/fiances) to think about gifting. The worst part is that most of them are pretty wealthy (three of the cousins are ibankers)... so what on earth can a poor American freshman English-major college student possibly get for them that would be meaningful at all? HK basically has everything America has except cheaper.

In the end I went to the Met with my mom while we were in NYC getting my visa. All the stuff on Fifth Ave wouldn't mean anything to HKers, but Met-designed jewelry is unique to NY :D Plus, I got to see the new Spanish Modernista exhibit (which you should definitely check out if you're in the city anytime soon).

Moral of the story: "It's the thought that counts" (or at least I hope so). Not to mention time and energy and sweat, it took me forever to pick this stuff -_-


...anyway, more to come later as things arise. I have yet to pack and attempting to stay under 50lbs will probably yield more heart wrenching tales... so it goes ;)