back to classes

so classes started again. and i really have no time. i usually have a media studies class right now at the main campus, but luckily we don't have class today... yay! so i'm here at the internet cafe.

so apparently my host family is the only host family that doesn't have a western toilet. my host family's apartment is the only one without an elevator. and i think we're the only ones without a washing machine too. i feel special. chris says i'm going to have strong thigh muscles from squatting and strong calves going up and down the stairs (we're on the very top floor, the 6th). all our host families know each other and it's funny because there are things like "my host mom doesn't like your host mom" or "does your host family have a car? mine does. we went for a ride yesterday." i was the only one who came back a week early to live with them, so all the families knew about that... when i meet them, they're like "oh, you're the one who came back early." and i have to explain how i'm saving money to go to shanghai for tennis. one host dad thought i was going to BE IN A TENNIS MATCH and i was like "no..."

oh yeah, and my host dad knows stuff about sports too. and we'd talk about sports sometimes and he'll tell me the chinese version of certain sports players name and stuff like that. awesome.

so yeah, i really miss having a normal american shower. i need to post pictures up so people know what i'm talking about. like imagine taking a shower just on the bathroom floor... no bathtub or anything. in my bathroom, the water drains into the squatting toilet because the shower head is right over that. i also miss using a nice washing machine... we used some of the crappy washing machines and dryer at school and they suck... like majorly suck.

dude, my first meal back in the u.s. is going to be at ihop or denny's. i get back around 11 am so it'll be awesome. i miss pancakes, scrambled eggs, omletes, hashbrowns, sausages, etc. dude, the sausages in china are so nasty... i can't describe it, but just thinking about them wants to make me gag and throw up. ugh.

THE ANGELS BEAT THE YANKEES!!!!! that is all.

Collage and Limpy!

I made this collage because I was homesick. I noticed I'm like usually on the right side of the picture, excepted for the lunch picture and the picture with Ylissa. Yes, that's me on the right in the orange... playing basketball.
I saw this picture while looking through pictures on my laptop to make my collage and it made me chuckle... because I'm a big, fat jolly man like Santa Claus.

This week's pictures

Me, Evan, and Chris at Wangfujing, like at 3 AM before the flag-raising.
Poor Chris. He fell asleep before the flag-raising.
Amanda's boyfriend Aaron came to visit... they went all out for the 80's thing.
Us before going to 80's night at Barblu and before some awkward British guy tried selling us some hash... interesting.

Study Trip Pictures

The Friday before our study trip, I went to the China Open. This is Maria Sharapova serving. *I can't wait for November 19-20, 2005: Shanghai*
I got to ride a camel in Dunhuang. He/she was really, really tall. It was kind of scary when he/she (I'm not sure what gender mine was) would stand up or sit down because I'd be scared of falling off. It was fun though.
Shadows...
The sand dunes in Dunhuang.
The children of the family in Xiehe we visited. We were going to drop them off at school, which started at 2:30. It seemed a bit late to me, but I guess that's how they do it.

The rowdy kids at the Xiehe school. Some of them were a bit naughty. Like, some boys would slap me on the butt and run away or did it to get my attention so they could see my camera. Looking at the picture now makes me laugh, but seriously, at the time, I felt really uncomfortable and went to the bus early to join Chris. He was chased by a group of kids too and I think he hurt himself while he was climbing a wall to get away from them. The kid with the stick wanted to see the picture and all the kids wanted to see the picture and they were all surrounding me so it wasn't like I could show them all at the same time.
One of the many train rides on our study trip. This one was from Lanzhou to Xiahe. This was the 19.5 hour train ride. I can tell because we were in the soft sleepers as opposed to the hard sleepers. I think on the the 9-day study trip, I showered the most out of everyone: 4 times. One memorable shower was in Xiehe... I woke up at 7 AM to take a cold shower while it was cold and sort of raining outside. Everyone thought I was crazy. Americans apparently use up most of the world's water and I think it's because most of us shower at least once a day while other people in the world only shower maybe twice a year.
In Xi'an. These are the famous Terracota soldiers. It's a shame that their colors faded within two minutes of being exposed to the air. I like how they're keeping some of them buried until better technology is invented to unearth them better. It's a smart archeology technique to only go through one section, keeping other sections for the future generation.

A restaurant in Xi'an... I forgot the name of it... it was like 3 letters, RVP or RTB or something.

MLB

It feels so weird not knowing what's going on in the world. Seriously, I used to read online news like 5-10 times a day because I'm always refreshing to see if something new has happened. I also like to read the newspaper while I'm at home. Plus, I also watch news on TV when I have the chance and sometimes I listen to KFWB on the radio. I feel a bit deprived. Like, I just recently found out William Renquist died. Like, Matt said something about it a few weeks ago, something like “supposedly William Renquist died,” but it didn't sound certain, but I was online a few days ago and read something about the late William Renquist and was really, really shocked. Even though I sort of knew about it, actually seeing it in print surprised me even more. It made me realize that I have no idea what's going on the world. I don't really have time to read news online everyday and I can't read Chinese well enough to read the newspaper and they talk way too fast for me on TV for me to even comprehend what's go ing on. * sigh *

I read that Jim Tracy is now no longer the Dodger’s manager. * cries * It's a shame. I really liked that guy, but do they really have to “part ways” with him just because Dodgers have been a disappointment? This is like déjà vu again, back when Steve Lavin was fired from UCLA basketball. He’s such a nice guy and I met him right after he got fired too while I was working during the Stanley Cup playoffs. Funny story… So I was working at the box seat level selling freshly carved roast beef sandwiches, and I see this guy who looks just like Steve Lavin and I kept looking at him to make sure if it was really him. He was right in front of me and I served him and wanted to ask him, but wasn't sure if I should because I didn't want to be rude, but I just couldn't hold it inside me anymore so I blurted out: “Are you Steve Lavin?” And he said, “Yes, I am.” And I was thinking in my head, “OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! IT’S STEVE LAVIN!!!” For a minute, I forgot he got fired so I was blabbing about how much I loved UCLA athletics and then it hit me and I was like, “I should shut up now.” He went to Chapman University, so he definitely had heard of Pitzer. This was the summer before I started college so wished me luck in college. It felt like we talked for forever because we talked about college and anthropology and how he went to Chapman and how Pitzer and Chapman are in the same sports division. * sigh * I really like that guy. And for those of you who actually know who Steve Lavin is and/or what he looks like… YES, his hair was slicked back as usual.

But anyway, back to the Dodgers… What happened to the team that had heart? Seriously, the team hasn’t been the same since 2000 and 2001. It’s no longer the team I feel in love with back then. They keep trading players and it’s not the same team anymore. I know they’re concerned with winning and blah blah blah, but I don’t like it. I mean, why did they trade such good players such as Sheffield, Lo Duca, and Green??? Well, whatever. Although the Dodgers broke my heart when they traded Shawn Green, I'll still support them somewhat. At least the Angels are in the playoffs…against the Yankees. I remember when they were playing the Yankees in the playoffs the season they won the World Series… nobody thought they could beat them, but they did. Maybe they'll be able to do it again. * sigh * I miss my old workplace. I'd be working during the World Series playoffs… although I remind myself how much pouring beer sucked (even though the tips were good) and how the customers were always in a hurry and I feel much better again.

I am excited about the Padres though. They're a great team and definitely deserve to be in the playoffs. Let’s hope they can hold off the St. Louis.

And again, what's up going on with Michigan? Last time I checked, they were like 2-2... wait, I think they’re 3-2 now. * sigh *

I will post new pictures up soon!

Flag raising

So it's like past 7 AM right now in Beijing and I've been up since like 9 AM yesterday. We all went to Sanlitun, which is like a bar area of Beijing. Most people sort of left by 1 AM or so... and all that was left was me, Chris, and Evan because we wanted to see the flag-raising. Dude, Pitzer people know who Evan is... you know Geoff's roommate my freshman year and Jason's suitemate??? He was a grade ahead of us, but graduated a year early. He was teaching English in Shanghai, but decided it wasn't his thing so he's visiting Beijing for a few days before he heads back home on Friday.

OH DUDE, back up to maybe like 11 PM... we were like walking down the street, and every bar has these husslers who are trying to get you to go to their bar. And Chris wants to find one with a good deal on hookah prices. And as we walk past this one place, this guy was like "Hey, do you go to Pitzer College?" to Chris... because Chris was wearing his Pitzer College sweatshirt. And Chris was like, "yeah." And he was like, "Do you know Blake?" I was like, "Does he have a girlfriend named Saiba?" And he was like, "yeah!" And I was like, "Oh yeah, I've seen him around." Turns out this guy, Joe, lives where Blake lives in Ojai. And Christine if you are reading this, tell Blake. Anyway, he and his friend Chris (yes, another Chris... *hehe... thinking about Christine and guys named Chris*) were just drinking and hanging outside of this bar. So we decide to hang with them and get a hookah. We talk to them and Joe says he's been to Pitzer and thinks it's such a laidback and cool school. The two guys are on a different program, also with Beijing University, but they're living on the main campus (while we're on the medical campus). So they got tired after an hour or so and left and we exchanged cell numbers. Evan, Chris, and I were talking about how Pitzer people are just everywhere, either alumni or current student. Evan said there were 4 Pitzer people in Spain while he was vacationing in Europe this summer. I've bumped into 3 people during spring break in San Francisco. We only have like 900 at our school... and in our 40 year history, we've only generated 5,000 alumni. But it is a small, small world.

The three of us tried to keep busy until 5 because that was when we thought the flag-raising would be... it's at sunrise and we weren't sure when sunrise was. We went to this restaurant called The Den for coffee... then we went to this Asian fastfood place for xiaolongbao. Then we just walked around and finally it was like 5. So we head there and at first there weren't many people, but as time passed the crowd grew larger and larger. People were sort of pushing their way through to the front. I stood my ground and Chris and Evan sort of faded away. Dude, I waited for like an hour. I was sooo cold, so tired, so sleepy, and so achey for being on my feet for so long. The little kids who were around me were starting to bug me. FINALLY, the sun came out, but still nothing happened... then FINALLY, some guards people came out and marched and put the flag on the pole... then the Chinese national anthem played... and the flag went up. I found Evan and he said Chris was passed out near a lamp post. We went and he was sleeping soundly. We pretended to steal his backpack and startled him. His eyes were so red and he looked like a zombie. I felt so bad seeing him that tired. He asked if they had music because if they did, it did not wake him up. He and Evan headed straight to their rooms after getting out of the taxi and I came to the internet cafe because I don't want to wake up my host family this early.

I finally have pictures

So yeah, it was hard for me to upload pictures when I didn't have my own computer and I never had time to save my pics onto a flash drive and carry the flash drive with me to the internet cafe. Now that my host family has the internet, I was able to upload some pictures... I don't have most of my pics because most of my pictures were uploaded onto my friend's laptop and not mine. I'm going to have to get the pics from her laptop sometime and show you guys because I have some awesome pictures of stuff.

Anyway, I've been super, super homesick. I miss my family and all my friends soooooooooooo much. I can't describe it in words, but all I will say is that I cried this morning after I talked to my mom on the phone. First time I cried because of homesickness on my trip. I cried another time while on the trip, but it was because I was frustrated because I couldn't knit (my friends were teaching me how to knit and I was having a hard time and felt stupid). Like, I actually took time yesterday to see how many days left I have in China. I have about 80 something days left. China is great and all... and I do want to improve my Chinese, but I really wouldn't mind if I were to leave it all and go home tomorrow. My mom told me that my sister was already asleep... it was like 8 PM their time. My 15-year-old sister sleeps way to early. My mom said my dad left for Cambodia the day before. I missed him by a day! I felt so mad that I didn't get to talk to him before he left... although the trip to Cambodia was a bit impromptu. She said he might visit me too in China, which would make me really, really happy!!! Maybe he'll go to the Tennis Master's with me in Shanghai in November!!! Dude, like seriously... those are the only two things I really think about at the moment: home and tennis. If my dad comes, it'll be like a dream come true... not just for me, but probably for him too because tennis is like his favorite sport ever. Well, it used to be his favorite FAVORITE FAVORITE sport, but now it's probably tied with football.

But yeah, I got cut off from my mom while she was trying to describe to me how to write my dad's name in Chinese. Describing Chinese characters is like a thing with my family. Sometimes while I'm away at college, I'll call my dad at night when I see a Chinese word I don't know and describe to him and ask him what it is, "It has 'hand' on the left side and then *** at the top and then *** on the bottom" and then he'll know what it is. Or sometimes I'll ask him how to write a word in Chinese and he'll describe it over the phone, "It has a 'mouth' at the top and then the two lines and curve down at the bottom." I forgot which jing and which zhong my dad's name was. There are a lot of homonyms in Chinese. I wanted to get him a stamp with his name on it. So my mom was describing the word to me. She said jing, was the jing in jingzhi, which means mirror. And then she said zhong had 'gold' on the left side... and that was when we got cut off. Although, I think I know what it is now.

A bit pet peeve I have in mainland China... simplified characters. I pefer Taiwan in so many ways. One is that they use traditional characters and that their accent is more like the way I talk. When I learned Chinese when I was younger, we used Taiwanese books, so i learned traditional characters and Taiwanese pronunciations. My first day of Chinese classes in China was horrible. I couldn't read very well because there were so many simplified characters I didn't know and usually the simplified does not even look like the traditional in any way. It took me a few days to figure out which certain characters corresponded with which.

Accent is another pet peeve in China. Just like in the U.S. where there are many accents and pronunciation, it's the same in China. I don't really like the Beijing accent and the way they want you to pronounce things in class is like the "standard" way of speaking, but I like my way of speaking... everyone tells me I sound like I'm from the South (Southern China). It makes sense because my grandparents are from Southern China, which gave my parents the accent, which they gave me that accent when speaking Chinese. People say i have a Cantonese accent when I speak Mandarin, which I thought was weird because I don't even speak Cantonese that well... but then I realized that my dad speaks Cantonese and probably when he learned Mandarin he had a Cantonese accent when learning it and passed that onto me. It's like an American learning Spanish and then teaching their Spanish to their kids. If their kids had no other Spanish speaker to learn from besides their parents, then they will probably also get their parent's American accent in Spanish.

Things make so much sense to me now. Weili, one of the girl's on the program, is Cantonese and speaks it fluently. She was born in the Canton province, but moved to the U.S. when she was 7 and only started learning Mandarin in high school. She said Cantonese does not have any sh-sounds, which helps me understand why all the Mandarin words like s, sh, x are all pronounced the same by me. At home when speaking Chinese, I pronounce everything with the s-sound. I don't differentiate which is s or x or sh. Also, I learned that there are certain words that I use that are Cantonese. Like, fire is "huo," but I say "fuo" and marriage is "jie hun," but I say "jie fun." Weili said that the way I say it is Cantonese. I just found out the other day that the way I say throat "ho long," is Cantonese... not Mandarin. The Mandarin equivalent sounds nothing like it at all. EVERYTHING IS SO MUCH CLEARER NOW.

Pictures

This is Du Weiwei... he's the program student assistant. He's awesome and super funny. Everyone loves home.
This is the program direcitor, Wang Lao Shi... that means Teacher Wang. She's really nice.
Chris, Matt, Kay, and me... huddling in Inner Mongolia because it was soooooooooo cold.
This was like the very, very first week in China. Chris, Matt, Kay, Weili, Amanda, and me in front of one of Beijing University's main campus doors.

I'm at my host family's house

The rural stay was cancelled due to the rain and flooding. So we got a flight back to Beijing a day early. I just got back in Beijing around 6 PM today. I got dropped off at my host family's house. I met my host mom about a week ago when I dropped off my stuff before going on the study trip so this was the first time meeting my host dad and sister. They are all very, very nice and welcoming. They said that since my Chinese is pretty good that I should help my host sister with her English. I don't mind because she'll probably be helping me with my Chinese anyway.

I just realized today that I miss home a lot. I miss my family and my friends. I miss Southern California and everything. It makes me wonder whether I can really be away from home longer than 4 months. I don't think 4 months is that long, but I used to want to be in the Peace Corp and that's like 2 years away from home. Now I'm questioning whether I can do that now or whether I can be an anthropologist, living somewhere for like decades.

After being rained on in Xi'an, I realized that I really, really miss home. I know that it rains back home, but it rarely ever rains for days like it did in Xi'an. Although, I hear that the rain was rare for that time of year, but still... I was soaking wet... even in my new poofy snow jacket. I didn't have any waterproofy shoes so my shoes and socks got wet. I figured I would buy all those stuff when it starts to get cold in Beijing. In conclusion, rain sucks.

I regret that I may have spent a lot of money on buying souvenirs/gifts. It may be cheap in comparison to American prices, but a lot of money when you're looking at it from a Chinese person's point of view. *cries* Will I have enough to go to the Master's Cup? I know I will, but I still don't want to go overboard. I still want to save money... especially when it comes to paying for the hotel room. Garfield is going to stay at some fancy schmancy hotel... so I better save up. Even though he said he's willing to help pay more than half, I have a feeling it's still going to be way expensive for me.