Heading Home

So I started writing this one at the airport in China waiting to fly home, and wasn't able to finish.  Then life back in America hit and I am just now getting to finish it off.  Here it goes

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Ok, I’m finally heading home.  It’s been six incredibly months, and it is all finally coming to a close.  I really feel so blessed that I got the opportunity to make it to China for a semester, and I’m even more grateful that I was able to stay an extra few months on top of that.

I haven’t written really anything about what I’ve been doing in the last almost three months I’ve been here in China, but as I sit here in the Hong Kong Airport waiting for my flight to LA, I figure it’s better late than never. 

The last few months have been so much different than when I was taking classes on Campus at Xiamen University.  Even though I stayed in the same international student housing building on campus through my entire stay, the last few months was so much different, I really became part of an international community.  However, I didn’t feel like it was one of those Expat Communities that you hear about in CSP classes that turn your entire view of your host country sour.  It was so much richer than that.  To make one point, essentially everyday I ate lunch, or even dinner as well, with friends from The Netherlands and Japan.  I only half jokingly say now that if I knew two months ago that I would hear as much Japanese on a daily basis as I did, I would have started learning it and probably be doing pretty well with it.  Alas, I only know some of the most essentially words and phrases like, “Cute, Nasty, and ‘You gotta be kidding me!’  The first Japanese word I learned however, was the word for Cockroach… you can take a guess at why.  Don’t know any Dutch at all though… Sorry Bouke and Stephan.

My main focus and intent of remaining in Xiamen was really to dig into learning Chinese.  Now, while I did not completely immerse myself into it (Not speak any English at all), I did feel like I made a lot of progress.  I want to be cautious as to not sound boastful in talking about this, but I actually am surprised with myself about how much I was able to learn in such a short time.  Really, I feel like I could start an entire new blog to document the journey of learning a foreign language; it is just fascinating to me.  For this reason, I spent countless hours discussing this topic with my great friend Bouke, who is a fantastic linguist and a great teacher.

This opened the doors for me to make friends with so many great people that I wouldn't have otherwise and to see and do things I never really thought I would be a part of, at least in such a short time being in China.  I would love to tell you about each one of these people, but I know that would be super boring, so I'll just show you some pictures instead!

My Family from the International Student Dorm 蔡清洁楼

HaiLing and LiYing from the Coffee Shop that I spent most of my free-time at.

My Coworkers from my Internship

My musical friends 

My time overseas would have been drastically different without these people and I'm so blessed to have met them and to have learned so much from them. I hope to see them all again soon.

The Trek Pt. III - Shanghai 上海

I knew this would happen.  I knew I would get lazy and not post anything for way too long.  Truth is, I find blogs/journaling to really be a hassle most of the time.  However, once I manage to sit myself down and start writing, I always enjoy it, but actually getting around to starting is the killer.  It's hard for it to not feel like homework.

OK, enough of the disclaimers.  Finally I can wrap up writing about the Trek that ended about 3 months ago now.

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So, after a good 4 days in Beijing we took a nice little, 16 hour train ride to Shanghai 上海 (Most of this was during the night, while we were sleeping, which was quite convenient).  Right after we arrived in the morning, we hit the streets. This city was impressive!  More massive buildings than you could shake a stick at, and an atmosphere completely different from all the other cities we had previously visited.  We only spent a weekend in Shanghai, but we certainly made the most of it. 

One of the "high"lights would have to be going up on top of the Sky 100, the world's highest observation deck.  Saying it was pretty high would be an understatement.  Although, I still can't decide whether or not I prefer that view over the view from "The Bund", the river-side walkway that showcases the incredible city skyline.  I had been dying to see that view even before I ever left for China.  It was even better than I thought it would be.

Sky 100

View From the Top

Famous view from "The Bund"

Also I got to go to the Shanghai History museum, which was very well designed.  Each area of history flowed through its evolution during China's 6,000+ years of culture.  From currency, pottery and art, to even the formation of their earliest weapons, it was all very well presented.  

Exhibition showing the different types of clothing from the different minority groups in China

With that, the Trek had to come to an end and the next three weeks would be solely dedicated towards my business internship at NewSound Hearing Aid Corporation 新声助听器公司.

My friends from the NewSound Marketing Team

Trek Pt. II - Beijing 北京

While our Trek has been over for over a month now, I have to go ahead and fill you all in about what we did for the last week of it, because it was quite busy.

After being in Xi'An 西安 for almost two weeks, we took an overnight train to Beijing 北京.  There we finished off the rest of our History "lectures", which included Dr. Jay leading us through tourist sites such as The Temple of Heaven 天坛, The Summer Palace 颐和园, The Forbidden City 紫禁城, and the Great Wall 长城.

Temple of Heaven

The Summer Palace

The Forbidden City

The Wonderful View from the Great Wall

Their Hospitality was Questionable

A trip to Beijing would not be complete without a trip to the Zoo, the Chinese National Museum, and the 2008 Olympic Stadium.

熊猫 - "Bear Cat" (Panda)

One of dozens of small, Jade Carvings at the National Museum

The "Bird's Nest"

I felt this was an opportune time for some product placement.

Later, we even made it to the flag raising at Tian'anmen Square 天安门场. We had to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning to catch the subway there in time, but it was worth it.  It was even snowing that morning, which made the whole city incredibly beautiful.

Some Light Traffic

Some Delectable Street Food

Some Getting Lost Down Back Allies

I did enjoy my time in Beijing, but I have to say that no city was quite as impressive as Shanghai was...

Trek This Out

Our History Module, aka "The Trek" has been going for well over a week now.  We already completed our service project, up in the highest mountains of the GuiZhou Province 贵州, which I'll probably include in a later post.  Since then we have been spending our time in the city of Xi'An 西安。This city is   crawling with history. Considering that it was the capital of China when it was first united over 2,000 years ago, and that it was debatable the most prosperous city in the world for hundreds of years, there is much to talk about here.

We have history class every morning here from 8 til about noon, but after that we are free to explore the city at our leisure.  Here are a few pictures from on top of the ancient city wall.  The wall centers around the old bell tower 钟楼 and I believe squares it off for about 8 miles.  Some of us rented bikes and circled the entire wall, which took over an hour, but was it was beautiful.

Here is a snapshot of what can be referred to as the Muslim District.  Inside the city wall, this place is packed with great places to buy things, and even better places to eat.

Last Wednesday we took a field trip to the Terracotta Soldier Army, over an hour outside the city.  On the way there it was my turn to talk on my history presentation that I had been preparing for about a month.  It was supposed to be a 25min presentation, but after Q&A it ended up being about 45min.  (I just really enjoy talking about China's First Emperor I guess). 

Here is the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi HuangDi 秦始皇帝。 It consists of over 1,800 uniquely made soldiers and over 500 chariots, just to name a few characteristics.  

I cheated with this one.  These soldiers are from the gift shop...

 This tower runs due south of the city bell tower and conveniently enough, where we are staying, at Xi'An International Studies University, is right between.  Therefore, we use this tower as a compass of sorts to navigate the city.  Sometimes we like to call it a "Smog-o-meter" because you can tell how polluted the air is any given day by how visible the tower is.  Apparently it can be so bad that from a mile away all you might be able to make out is a huge sphere hovering in the air.

At the base of the tower is a series of small museums that we visited yesterday.  We took a look inside the Nature museum and saw everything from massive bugs, to Dinosaur skeletons.

In a few days we will be heading to Beijing, and then Shanghai after that, before returning to Xiamen for the rest of the journey.

Life at Xiamen University 生活在厦门大学

Ok, I realize that I’ve been slacking a lot on the updates here, but it certainly is not easy to keep up with, primarily because of the faulty Internet.  It’s just not reliable.  However, I still am glad to be able to try to keep you all up to date a little bit. 

I’ve been in Xiamen for about 5 or 6 weeks now, I actually lost track, but I’ve really loved it.  I have already made some really great friendships with the people that I’ve met here.  Some are Chinese students here at the university.  Some are people that I have made connections with in the community, by luck really.  And some are fellow foreigners.  Particularly, I have made some great friends with three guys from Holland, of all places.

Side Note:   This is my best explanation on how to pronounce the name of the city that I am living in, Xiàmén 厦门(Mansion Gate). You basically say “See-ah!Muhn?” Since Mandarin is a tonal language, you must say it just like this in order to be understood.  It is fun, but challenging.

It seems that all my free time outside of class and being with friends goes to studying Chinese.  I felt as if I enjoyed learning Chinese before coming to China, but since being here I just can’t stop.  On an average day I probably spend about two hours of self-study on the language.  I also have had plenty of people offer to help be study, which has been great.  I even got connected with my language partner, 张娟 (ZhāngJuān -I won’t even attempt to explain how to pronounce her name correctly).  We meet twice a week for roughly three hours at a time.  Essentially, we trade language lessons.  She helps me with my Chinese, and I help her with her English, more specifically English used in business settings.  Learning has been a blast, but it also seems to be a daunting task that I feel I won’t ever be able to become “proficient” in.  Regardless, I feel as if I am making good progress.  I can almost always get my point across when I speak to people, but comprehending their responses can often be a challenge.  

Anyway, here are some pictures that I’m sure I’m over due on.  

 This is Zhong Shan Lu 中山路。It is a very popular shopping street downtown.  It's off limits to vehicles because it is usually crammed with people, especially on the weekends.  This picture was obviously not taken during a weekend.

 

 Here is the view from the highest point in Xiamen.  The university is off to the left and downtown is over to the right.  This represents just the tiny corner of the massive island that Xiamen is.  (About 2 million people live in Xiamen).

 The above three pictures were taken at the Monastery directly outside of the university.  You can see it at the very bottom of the picture taken from the mountain.  It is one of the oldest Monasteries in China.

 Here are two pictures of the main sports arena.  The first one shows only half of the huge complex that showcases the Universities primary soccer field.

 This 10 story building is where I live.  It's a huge hotel where tourists, and a portion of the international population stay.  I find it to be pleasant.

The Center for Overseas Education

On Tuesday we are heading off on what is known as “The Trek.”  First we will have a service project, high up in the mountains of the Guizhou Province.  After being there for about a week we will be touring through Xi’An, Beijing, and Shanghai as part of our History Module.  This means that at each historical site, one of us will be giving a 25min presentation on a topic that we have already read a book about.  Mine will about the First Emperor of China, when we arrive to see the Terracotta Soldiers in Xi’An.  The entire trip is almost a whole month long, so we will not be getting back until March 23^rd.  And I probably won’t be having a chance to update this between now and then. 

So thanks again for reading, talk to you all soon!

Getting Acquainted with 厦门 － Xiamen‏

It's been a few weeks since I have arrived here in Xiamen now.   I haven't been able to access this blog since then, because of censorship, but I found a way around that (don't ask me how).  So now I can continue updating this. Yippee!

Since Xiamen University is just a school, and not really a tourist attraction (or so I thought -I'll explain in a moment), I have not taken any pictures of campus, but I will do that soon.

For now, here are some pictures of where I'm sitting as I write this.  This is 厦大西村。- Or, Xiamen University's West Gate Village.  It's a mall/market sort of area where many students come to shop, eat and hang out.  I have found myself coming here just about everyday for one of these things, if not just to check my emails.  Wifi is not to common around these parts.

I don't know if you are already aware, but we just had Chinese New Year!  By the Chinese Lunar Calendar, it is now the Year of the Dragon!  The thing to do to ring in the New Year is to watch the "Spring Festival Gala" on TV with your friends and family.  Therefore, just about our entire group of 15 people gathered in my room on New Years Eve and watched the festival on TV from 7:30pm all the way until it ended at 1:30am.  It was pretty spectacular with all the different performances, but not all of it made too much sense, considering that it the entire event was in Mandarin!  I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

The next day we went and watched the fire works that we being lit off by the beach!  We found a hillside to watch them from for the entire 40 minute presentation.  Did you know fireworks were invented in China?? That should give some clue to the quality of this show.  My camera did not do it justice.

Afterwards my friend Daniel and I walked back to the bus stop via the boardwalk lining the ocean.  From there I took these shots.