My roommate gave me a panda teddy bear "to remind me of China" (its got on a nice Chinese shirt and everything), but then I felt bad because I didn't have anything to give to her... and well, what do you buy a Chinese person, in China, to remind them of America? or make them think about America? I only came up with McDonalds, but they have that already. So here's my conversation with her - all in English too... because, well... she's really great at English, and I'm rather bad at Chinese...
Me: would you like the beizi (or, a comforter. I like to throw in Chinese words just to prove I'm not completely retarded) that I bought here?
Jie: OH! yes! but you don't want to take it back?
Me: well it won't fit in my bags! And you can have my tub too! (I don't know what else to call them. They're plastic containers of various sizes that Chinese people are absolutely nuts over. Absolutely nuts, I'm not even kidding. I bought mine to do laundry in, because I got tired of the washer machine)
Jie: oh, could I!??!? (see, absolutely nuts about the tubs. She already has one but I knew she would want another one)
Me: Yes!!! And, maybe you would like some books in English? (I didn't know if she would or not... but I had so many I thought it was worth a shot ;) )
Jie: books!? I would like some!
Me: oh, well I have so many... (I really do have too many... I'm estimating I've read about 20 in the past four months... and thats my rather low-end guess)
So she picked out some books and was so excited to have them in English. And then in her nightly call with her mom she excitedly listed all the things I had given her (she thinks I don't understand her phone calls, but I usually do... I suppose I'm not too bad at Chinese after all...)
And everyone will be pleased to know that I survived the banquet and that it wasn't too bad. Except I said something wrong in Chinese but I guess no one else but me will remember that, right?
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
China = not a melting pot
Here's an interesting article about Han Chinese racism, the question of ethnicity/minorities in China, and Chinazi :
http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2008/12/whose-peoples-games.html
http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2008/12/whose-peoples-games.html
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
six days
Okay okay, as someone has pointed out (and as I realized not soon after..) peanut butter IS full or protein. Buuuut, what I meant was: a huge piece of meat
BECAUSE, in China you get tiny little chopped up pieces of meat, which is disconcerting for the following reasons: 1) you don't get alot of meat 2) you don't know what the meat actually looks like 3) or where it came from
Number 3 bothers me the most.
I have 2 exams and one paper to finish up. then home! :)
BECAUSE, in China you get tiny little chopped up pieces of meat, which is disconcerting for the following reasons: 1) you don't get alot of meat 2) you don't know what the meat actually looks like 3) or where it came from
Number 3 bothers me the most.
I have 2 exams and one paper to finish up. then home! :)
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
food, part 2
I've started to hallucinate when I eat, not even kidding. My Nature Valley granola bar (the last one, now what will I eat? :( ) tasted like milk - and thus, ice cream. And my peanut butter now reminds me of pretzels... if only it would remind me of steak or something as equally full of protein.
good thing its only 7 days left because I'm (perhaps) going a little crazy.
good thing its only 7 days left because I'm (perhaps) going a little crazy.
Friday, December 5, 2008
DONE
sort of.
DONE with written Chinese!!!
I just finished taking the final exam for Chinese and am incredibly happy!!!! We still have a Chinese oral exam left (next week), but thats not as scary as written Chinese exams - believe me.... Chinese characters make grown men cry. or something like that.
11 days.
DONE with written Chinese!!!
I just finished taking the final exam for Chinese and am incredibly happy!!!! We still have a Chinese oral exam left (next week), but thats not as scary as written Chinese exams - believe me.... Chinese characters make grown men cry. or something like that.
11 days.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
November Update
Only 34 days left.
Good News:
I went back to China Care to visit last week, and found out that one of the kids was adopted!!! Billy, the little boy with albinism was adopted by an American family who already adopted a girl from China with albinism.
Non-PC News:
1. Chinese people aren't PC so I why do I have to be PC?
2. With that being said... I'm tired of racism. Now, I'm not blaming any one person of any one thing, but I feel that on the whole, this country has a lot of problems with racism. I myself feel it just because I look slightly different. I get stared at all the time. Its always the same: the initital look, and then the "oh sh*t! Its a foreigner!" head spin and stare. Honestly, It grates on my nerves. I don't like being stared at in America for that matter either: after the accident when I had to wear my hard neck brace, people would stare. And while the staring in that instance was more akin to "if I stare maybe I will figure out whats wrong with her" (we all do it, you see a person in a wheelchair or with a physical deformity, and you don't stare out of meanness, but rather out of a sincere desire to understand what happened to them) rather than "d*mn, a white person!" it still wasn't fun.
To further my point, one of my friends in this program is African-American. And boy do the people stare at her. But thats not all. I was with her on Friday and one man ran down an aisle yelling "MONKEY!" as we walked by. It was HORRIBLE.
There's nothing "multicultural" or PC about that, now is there?
So if I want to say that I'm tired of Chinese people staring, then I will do so as I please.
3. This isn't PC at all, so if your heart constricts when people tell the truth, then stop reading.
I now understand why minority groups stick together. Yes, even though I'm in the white American majority.
I used to question it, just like alot of white people in America do. You think, "don't they know they can better themselves by accepting the wider culture they are in?" etc etc etc. There's even books about this, such as "Why are all the Black Kids stting together in the Cafeteria"?
But now I understand why they do it. Because when you are the one minority you stand out like a sore thumb, and you FEEL it too. The constant bombardment of "you're different". I can't even imagine how African-Americans must feel when there's one of them in a room to a vast number of white people.
Even so, at least people in America (in polite and civilized society), don't mock or stare or yell at people who are different.
So in China, the FEEL of it is immense. I'm sick of it. It makes me love political-correctness in America. Honestly, before now I wasn't such a fan of PC-ness, for the most part anyways. But now I understand it. It's a sign of a more accepting and - dare I say it? - civilized community that allows multiculturalism and internationalism.
Seriously, Beijing can not be, and never will be, an "international city" until their own people stop staring and yelling at foreigners. Really, thats all there is to it.
Political News:
1. In a recent interview, President Bush was asked what he regretted about this presidency. For those of you lucky enough to be in the greatest place on earth you probably saw it on the news, but I read it on CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/bush.post.presidency/index.html
I think Bush has made mistakes. But all in all, I think he's a good person - and yes, I'll buy his book when it comes out ;)
I think that the general spite and hatred of President Bush is pretty horrendous on America's part. It has shown the international community a side of America that is downright terrible, and allowed other countries to say horrible things about our president. Its the same idea of, if you disparge your family in front of others then the listener will have no problem doing it as well. But if you maintain your decency and your respect, then others won't feel the right to say things about your family.
This is all a rant to say that I think an American president should be respected no matter what.
2. That includes President-Elect Obama.
Even though I didn't vote for him.
3. My Chinese roommate asked if Obama would get a dog now, because everyone in China knows that American president's always have dogs.
In conclusion, I am looking forward to gaining between 10-20 pounds eating the following: pizza, cheese, MILK (that isn't tainted with chemicals), yogurt, pork, steak, beef, chicken, eggs, tomatoes - and tomato sauce!, potatoes, apples, bananas, grapes, peas, corn, carrots (I have a mad-craving for carrots today...), cereal with milk!, bagels, apple pie, cheesecake, any kind of cake - recently I've been wanting that funfetti cake that Megan and I used to eat when we were kids, brownies, anything Mexican - with lots of cheese.
The list goes on, but I thought I'd give everyone a head start on cooking ;)
And I may never eat Chinese food again.
maybe.
Good News:
I went back to China Care to visit last week, and found out that one of the kids was adopted!!! Billy, the little boy with albinism was adopted by an American family who already adopted a girl from China with albinism.
Non-PC News:
1. Chinese people aren't PC so I why do I have to be PC?
2. With that being said... I'm tired of racism. Now, I'm not blaming any one person of any one thing, but I feel that on the whole, this country has a lot of problems with racism. I myself feel it just because I look slightly different. I get stared at all the time. Its always the same: the initital look, and then the "oh sh*t! Its a foreigner!" head spin and stare. Honestly, It grates on my nerves. I don't like being stared at in America for that matter either: after the accident when I had to wear my hard neck brace, people would stare. And while the staring in that instance was more akin to "if I stare maybe I will figure out whats wrong with her" (we all do it, you see a person in a wheelchair or with a physical deformity, and you don't stare out of meanness, but rather out of a sincere desire to understand what happened to them) rather than "d*mn, a white person!" it still wasn't fun.
To further my point, one of my friends in this program is African-American. And boy do the people stare at her. But thats not all. I was with her on Friday and one man ran down an aisle yelling "MONKEY!" as we walked by. It was HORRIBLE.
There's nothing "multicultural" or PC about that, now is there?
So if I want to say that I'm tired of Chinese people staring, then I will do so as I please.
3. This isn't PC at all, so if your heart constricts when people tell the truth, then stop reading.
I now understand why minority groups stick together. Yes, even though I'm in the white American majority.
I used to question it, just like alot of white people in America do. You think, "don't they know they can better themselves by accepting the wider culture they are in?" etc etc etc. There's even books about this, such as "Why are all the Black Kids stting together in the Cafeteria"?
But now I understand why they do it. Because when you are the one minority you stand out like a sore thumb, and you FEEL it too. The constant bombardment of "you're different". I can't even imagine how African-Americans must feel when there's one of them in a room to a vast number of white people.
Even so, at least people in America (in polite and civilized society), don't mock or stare or yell at people who are different.
So in China, the FEEL of it is immense. I'm sick of it. It makes me love political-correctness in America. Honestly, before now I wasn't such a fan of PC-ness, for the most part anyways. But now I understand it. It's a sign of a more accepting and - dare I say it? - civilized community that allows multiculturalism and internationalism.
Seriously, Beijing can not be, and never will be, an "international city" until their own people stop staring and yelling at foreigners. Really, thats all there is to it.
Political News:
1. In a recent interview, President Bush was asked what he regretted about this presidency. For those of you lucky enough to be in the greatest place on earth you probably saw it on the news, but I read it on CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/bush.post.presidency/index.html
I think Bush has made mistakes. But all in all, I think he's a good person - and yes, I'll buy his book when it comes out ;)
I think that the general spite and hatred of President Bush is pretty horrendous on America's part. It has shown the international community a side of America that is downright terrible, and allowed other countries to say horrible things about our president. Its the same idea of, if you disparge your family in front of others then the listener will have no problem doing it as well. But if you maintain your decency and your respect, then others won't feel the right to say things about your family.
This is all a rant to say that I think an American president should be respected no matter what.
2. That includes President-Elect Obama.
Even though I didn't vote for him.
3. My Chinese roommate asked if Obama would get a dog now, because everyone in China knows that American president's always have dogs.
In conclusion, I am looking forward to gaining between 10-20 pounds eating the following: pizza, cheese, MILK (that isn't tainted with chemicals), yogurt, pork, steak, beef, chicken, eggs, tomatoes - and tomato sauce!, potatoes, apples, bananas, grapes, peas, corn, carrots (I have a mad-craving for carrots today...), cereal with milk!, bagels, apple pie, cheesecake, any kind of cake - recently I've been wanting that funfetti cake that Megan and I used to eat when we were kids, brownies, anything Mexican - with lots of cheese.
The list goes on, but I thought I'd give everyone a head start on cooking ;)
And I may never eat Chinese food again.
maybe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
