It's too hard to think of a title for this one...

I can’t believe I’ve already been in Beijing for two weeks! Time is really flying, but even so, my first few days here seem like forever ago. Each day I tell myself that I’m going to be better about writing in my blog, but the prospect of attempting to condense all that I wish to write about into one entry is simply daunting and tends to keep me away from my computer. But don’t worry, I promise I’m going to start writing more entries, now that the internet is working (albeit extremely slowly!).

A lot has been going on since the last time I posted. We visited the Summer Palace, which dates back to the 12^th century and has a series of man-made lakes. It’s absolutely gorgeous, even in the winter. I can’t even imagine how amazing it must look in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom. At some point I'll post some pictures, but right now the internet is so slow that I'm only able to post text.

We recently started classes. In addition to my super intense Chinese language class, I’m taking classes about China in the global economy and Chinese political reforms. After a placement test and a couple of interviews, I somehow managed to place into the Intermediate 2 Chinese class, which is the class just below the advanced class, where everyone is pretty much fluent. Needless to say, Chinese is by far my hardest class. I’m pretty sure I made it into Intermediate 2 because despite the fact that I’m not the greatest Chinese speaker, the interviewers simply asked us to tell them about ourselves, among other things, and I’m actually pretty good at Chinese when I’m using it to talk about myself. Other than that, there’s a lot working against me in Chinese. First and foremost, I arrived in Beijing only knowing traditional Chinese characters. For those of you who don’t know, there are traditional and simplified Chinese characters. Traditional characters are much more complex than simplified characters, as they involve more strokes. They were used in China until Mao’s time, when they were simplified in an effort to increase literacy in China. Traditional characters are now only used in Taiwan, although you still see them sometimes in China as well. At Maryland (as with many other universities), traditional characters are taught first, with the switch to simplified happening upon entrance to the third-year Chinese class. I have only had three semesters of Chinese (albeit three 6-credit semesters, whereas Chinese is only 4 credits at other schools), so I only know traditional. The rationale behind learning traditional first is that students learn the different parts of each character better when learning traditional characters, and that switching from traditional to simplified is easier than vice-versa, which I guess is true, but it’s hard to appreciate that when everyone else in your class knows simplified! Also pretty much everyone else in my class has either spent a lot of time in either China or Taiwan or has taken at least two-and-a-half to three years of Chinese. I guess that just serves as more motivation for me to work on my mad Chinese skills!

This past weekend we went shopping at a couple of different places. Unfortunately I wasn’t paying attention to where the first market was because I was with a Chinese friend who knows Beijing way better than I ever will, but it was pretty neat. I love bargaining for everything. That’s another area in which my Chinese skills are actually quite good. I was a little slow with my bargaining at first, but by the end of the weekend I had become a pro. Anyway, I bought a coat at the first market, and it was kind of funny because my American friends and I ended up having to get coats that were extra larges because all of the sizes were super small! We also went to the Silk Market, which is HUGE and has tons of fake (and some real) designer goods for exceptionally low prices. I was so overwhelmed by everything that I only bought a small bag and some jeans. I’m definitely going back, though.

I’ve come to enjoy what I eat here and how I eat it. For breakfast I usually eat whatever snack food we bought at the store down the street from us (it’s called Wu Mei and is now without a doubt one of my favorite stores ever – I’ll post more on Wu Mei later). Lunch is often at the campus noodle place, where you pay about 50 cents for a giant bowl of noodles with some kind of meat and vegetables, or at the jiaozi (fried dumpling) place next door. Jiaozi (and the closely related baozi) have become some of my new favorite foods. I usually eat too many and end up feeling sick! Dinner is either on campus or off, as Beijing definitely has no shortage of good restaurants. I like going out to dinner with a group of friends because we usually pick a variety of different dishes from the menu and share them. At most Chinese restaurants, each person gets a small plate with a pair of chopsticks (called kuazi in Chinese), and the main dishes are brought out for everyone to share. I’ve become accustomed to eating with chopsticks, and I’m beginning to think I prefer them to regular utensils, at least for the food we eat here. It’s been a while since I’ve had food that would require a fork and/or knife. I’ve been exploring different kinds of food since my arrival in China, and have so far eaten chicken covered in ants, bull testicles (guess what – it tastes like chicken!), and chicken stomachs, among other things. I’ve also acquired a taste for tea. Jasmine is my favorite, but so far I also like chrysanthemum. My Chinese friends and I are planning a trip to a teahouse at some point, which should be fun.

Thus far I’ve made a variety of friends who are students at Beida. They’re all really nice, and have helped me immensely with my Chinese. My roommates and I have been meeting with two of them, Phoebe and Crystal, fairly regularly now. Their English is about as good as our Chinese, which is fun because it means our conversations involve a lot of hand motions and picture-drawing. Surprisingly enough, we’ve managed to learn quite a lot from each other. I have a Chinese tutor, and as it turns out, she also speaks some French! She spoke French to me if I didn’t understand the Chinese, which I really didn’t mind, seeing as I spent a good six years of my life learning French. It’s weird to use it in China with someone who barely speaks English!

Many of the students on campus right now are here taking a GRE class that is everyday (even on Saturdays and Sundays!) from 8:30-2:30. They have to take the GREs in English, which must be incredibly difficult. In exchange for helping us with our Chinese, my roommates and I help Phoebe and Crystal with their GRE vocabulary and writing. I can’t even imagine taking the GREs in English as a Chinese student.

Almost all of the Chinese students I’ve met so far have been exceptionally friendly and helpful, and we American students have enjoyed getting to know them! I’ve also had very few problems when off-campus; people here are generally very kind, or they just mind their own business. We do get a lot of stares, which I don’t really mind (cue Carly Simon’s song, “You’re So Vain”). It’s fun to stand apart from the rest of the crowd. At Maryland, I really enjoy being one of the few Mainers on campus, and in China, I like being an American amongst millions of Chinese.

I’ve been keeping a couple of other journals in addition to this blog, one of which is simply a small notebook that I keep with me at all times and in which I jot down random thoughts or observations that I don’t want to forget later. The other is kind of like a diary where I write down more extensive observations and analysis that I probably won’t post until I get back to the US. One of things I’ve done is make a list of some goals I’d like to accomplish while in China. In the same way that going to school in Maryland has allowed me to look at my life in Maine more objectively, one of my goals is to learn to look at my life in the United States more objectively during my time in China. I think that’s one of the most valuable experiences one can have. Another one of my goals is to learn to not fear the rise of China. There are so many times when I tell people in the US that I’m studying Chinese and their response is, “That’s a great idea because they’re going to take over the world someday!” What a gloomy outlook! Yes, it is true that the rise of China is going to be like nothing the world has ever seen before, and I’ll be the first to say that China has a long way to go in terms of human rights, environmental practices, economic liberalization, etc, but I also don’t want to constantly have the impression that the Chinese are just looking to “take over the world.” I hope that when I leave China I can take comfort in the fact that China possesses a great deal of wonderful young people who are extremely bright and who will one day be able change China (and the world!) for the better. I also hope to learn as much about China as I can so that in the future I can help to make sure that the US and China can accommodate each other and resist clashing. This all probably sounds a little idealistic, but young people are supposed to be idealistic and forward-thinking, right?