I’m leaving China on Wednesday morning, 6:55 am.  It’s a bit unreal.  I have been here for two months, but it feels like a few weeks, but also ages.  I remember thinking at the beginning of the program, “Two months?  It’s going to be forever!”  I should have known better.  These last couple of months have been unforgettable.  I’ve made 29 new friends, all who have had more or less the same experience as me.  My Chinese ability has improved.  A lot.  I’ve been put in situations where I end up having deep conversations about religion, politics, medical systems, the popularity of Chinese abroad, and more, all in Chinese.  I’ve grown as a person.  

Am I excited to go back home?  Yes, of course.  However, I can’t deny that more than a little bit of me is reluctant to return to the US.  The relationships I built here had just begun, and now my classmates and I are returning to being scattered around the US.  We’ll go back to our schools, to our friends.  Yesterday we were talking about reverse culture shock.  The resident director brought up the fact that this summer only happened for us.  For everyone else back home, we just went to China.  I’ve never thought about going abroad like that, but it is true.  

On the other hand, I now have 29 new friends scattered around the US that I can share stories with.  We have our own little “CLS language.”  We all have our stories.  We all understand each other (at least to a certain extent).  It’s amazing to think that 2 months ago, I was meeting a bunch of strangers, and now I consider them as some of my best friends.  I now have friends everywhere in the States.  There is a word in Chinese: 缘分。It roughly translates to “destiny,” but it’s meaning is much deeper than that.  It was originally a Buddhist word, meaning the good things in life were destined to happen.  Beijing, and the people I met on this program, it is 缘分。

We “graduate” CLS today.  It’s when our language pledge ends.  Strangely enough, I’m not sure I’m ready to go back to English.  In fact, I think I’ll want to speak Chinese even more when it’s not required of me.  I’m excited to go home and see my family and friends.  But I’ll be sad to leave my new friends, and Beijing.  I always joke with my friends that Shanghai is better than Beijing, but now Beijing also has a special place in my heart.  If anything, it’s the place I spend two months stressing out about Chinese tests, standing in the rain trying to hail taxis for hours, getting lost and running into the same person over and over again, and everything in between.  So I leave Beijing with these three words.  They are words my classmate says a lot.  I think they capture my time here perfectly.  

小心！开玩笑！干杯！

Since all my posts have been more or less about my life recently, I thought I would talk about some of the things I’ve learned in China.  After all, I’m leaving on Wednesday, and what have I learned in China?  Besides actual language skills, I have also learned some fun colloquialisms.  For me, one of the most important parts of learning a language is learning “street talk.”  There is a idiom in Chinese: 入乡随俗。A rough translation is: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.  So in an attempt to do as the Chinese do, I have tried to learn a few colloquialisms.  At least it makes you sound like you know the modern culture, and aren’t a walking textbook (although that is also rather impressive).  So I present the language of Chinese young adults:

3k: Thank you (san1 q) (Internet speak)

88: Bye bye (ba1 ba1) (Internet speak)

显摆：show-off (xian3 bai)

干嘛：What’s up/ what are you doing? (gan4 ma2)  Actually, everyone says this, but it seems to be especially popular in Beijing.  It’s relatively slang-y.

推二：”Push er” （tui1 er2) This is actually a hand gesture.  There is a lot of these in China.  To “push er” is to call someone silly, or a similar equivalent.  You make a peace sign and push it toward the person. I’m not so sure how to actually translate this into English.

超二：”Super er”

叶！：Another hand gesture. Used when winning, or something along those lines. Another peace sign, but this one is up in the air.  

落叶：Embarrassing.  This is also a hand gesture.  The peace sign falls down.

天啊：OMG (tian1 a)

米su: Miss you (mi3 s u) Also internet speak

These are the ones I’ve learned over these two months.  If anything, they are fun, and now I know if anyone is making fun of me.  

I recently discovered that I am leaving China next week, and have not been so good about keeping up with my Tumblr.  For those of who follow my blog religiously (I know you’re out there), I am very sorry.  

In any case, here is a quick recap of my time in China after Inner Mongolia to now.  The weekend after Inner Mongolia was our first “free weekend.”  We were finally allowed to go whatever during our weekend, instead of having to go out for a mandatory trip.  A few friends and I decided it would be fun to go to Qingdao.  So we headed out to the lovely sea town of Qingdao.  Qingdao used to be occupied by the Germans, so there is quite a heavy German influence, at least in terms of architecture.  Our hostel was in the German section of town.  The hostel we stayed at used to be the Danish consulate (or so it said on the sign out in front).  All the street names are in Chinese, and pinyin with straße added on the end.  Most of the stores had Chinese and German names.  Sadly, we didn’t have a lot of time to kill in QIngdao, since we just had the weekend.  We climbed Laoshan (崂山） which is apparently close to the place where Daoism was founded.

Then we went to the beach.  A Chinese beach you ask?  Yes.  I too was a bit skeptical at first, but Qingdao had quite a nice beach.  The beach we went to was called 石老人 （Old Rock Man).  There is a large rock out in the sea, that looks like an old fisherman waiting for his daughter to return from the depths of the sea.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures.  Later, we ate seafood dumplings.  One of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted.  

The next weekend was equally as busy.  I participated in a speech competition.  It’s a annual speech competition.  The programs that participate are: Harvard in Beijing, Princeton in Beijing, Columbia in Beijing, CLS, and some other ones.  CLS had eight students compete.  We were allowed to pick three topics at random, and then choose one to speak on for 5 minutes.  Listening to everyone give their speeches, I discovered how much my Chinese can still improve.  I didn’t win a prize, although the experience has undoubtably improved my Chinese level and my public speaking.  

I have less than 7 days left in China.  It’s hard to believe.  I’m ready to go back, but I’m not.  For one, I have so much left to see of Beijing.  I spent most of my time here on campus, or in the area around school.  I’ve made so many friends here too.  We are just getting to really know each other, and now it is time to leave.  We’re from all different states, so I will be sad to leave them at the end of this program.  Anyway, I’ll leave my more reflective prose to a late time.  Now, off to study some more!

Last Tuesday, I boarded a train to Inner Mongolia.  On the CLS trip, we have one week long trip to a different city (or province) than the city we study in.  I was really excited about going to Inner Mongolia.  It’s somewhere I would never have expected to end up in.  

We took the train to Hohhot (呼和浩特), which is the capital. Interesting fact: Hohhot means green city in Mongolian.  Inner Mongolia is a Autonomous Region.  As a result, everything is written in both Chinese characters and Inner Mongolia Mongolian.  Yes, there is a difference between the script in Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia.  Nothing is written in pinyin.  

This is a picture of the train station in Hohhot.  The Chinese says “exit.”  My best guess is that the Mongolian also says “exit.”  

The first day in Inner Mongolia, we drove out to a portion of the grasslands.  The grasslands are a huge part of Inner Mongolian culture.  I’m positive that all Mongolian folk music is about the grasslands.  Originally the Mongols were nomads on the grasslands.  Anyway, this particular grassland is called 希拉穆仁草原。 The first night, we stayed at a “resort.”  When I say this, I am talking about a small gathering of yurts that are built specifically to cater to tourists.  Each yurt has two twin size beds, and a bathroom.  Real yurts do not have either of these amenities.  While at this resort, we learned a few Mongolian folk dances.  Mongolian folk dancing is very difficult.  We also learned a folk song.  The Mongols have an interesting traditional instrument, called 马头琴 (or horse head instrument).  It looks like a two stringed guitar, but it is played with a bow.  The top of the instrument has a carved horse head, hence the name.  

After dinner, we went out to explore the grasslands.  Every time I end up in the real Chinese countryside, I am blown away by the stars.  Living in the city, it is easy to forget that the sun, the moon, and stars exist.  In Beijing, I will go days without seeing any blue sky.  In Inner Mongolia, I could see the Milky Way in all of its beauty.  The next morning, I woke up early to watch the sunrise.  I hear watching the sunrise on the grasslands is one of those things you need to do before you die.  I would have to agree.  It’s like standing in an ocean of grass, watching the sun ever so slowly make its way up to the sky.  

The next day, we headed another area on the grasslands.  This time, via horse.  We rode for an hour across the grasslands.  We showed up at our next day’s accommodations.  These were slightly more realistic yurts, although they were still slightly changed to suit tourists’ fancy.   On the other hand, there were no bathrooms.  We all became fans of the so-called “nature bathrooms.” 

On our arrival, we were invited to watch the slaughtering of our dinner.  It was two sheep. I was only able to watch the first kill. As humane as it was, it’s still difficult to watch something die.  On the other hand, this may just be a female sentiment.  The guys of the group seemed pretty into the whole thing.  The meat was delicious though.  Each table was given half a sheep.  Saying it was a lot of meat is a serious understatement.  After dinner, we had a bonfire.  We all sang songs, from Mongolian folk songs to Disney.  Since the stars were so beautiful, we stayed out again to watch them.  Because I’m possibly slightly crazy, I woke up again to watch the sunrise.  This second area was much more isolated than the first place, and the sunrise was certainly more beautiful.  

On day three, we headed to the desert.  To get to the desert, we had to cross the Yellow River by cable car.  This is the only cable car over the Yellow River.  On one side, there is trees and lots of greenery.  The other side is desert.  Arguably, this part of the desert was a bit touristy.  We rode camels and explored the sand dunes.  Sadly, I have no pictures from this part of the trip.  

We returned to Hohhot that night.  It was a classmate’s birthday, so we celebrated with KTV (karaoke).  Hohhot is a nice capital city.  In certain aspects, it is like Beijing.  It has all the characteristics of a big city.  Perhaps because it is an Autonomous Region, there are some differences.  We were in the section of Hohhot that is relatively Muslim.  Near our hotel, there was a large Muslim area, where Muslim children went to school, and people prayed.  Another interesting fact: since Muslims do not eat pork, the word for pork is not allowed to be spoken.  In Chinese there are other words that are pronounced the exact same as the word for pig, such as my Chinese last name.  In this area, people with the last name 朱 switch their last name to 黑 (black).  

In addition to visiting the Muslim area, we also visited a couple Tibetan Buddhist lamasery, 大召and 席力图召. There are two kinds of Buddhism in China, one is Tibetan, and one is Han.  Tibetan Buddhism also ended up in Inner Mongolia.  All the temples had endless amounts of prayer flags and prayer wheels.  大召 has a very well preserved temple with intricate paper dragons and multiple huge Buddha statues.  

In the evening, we headed back to Beijing.  We got back the Beijing the next morning, and continued with our studying.  Tomorrow, I’m presenting with my group about our experience in Inner Mongolia.  

This coming weekend, I’m going to Qingdao.  It’ll be good to relax for a bit.  

I got back to Beijing from Inner Mongolia yesterday morning. I’ll post a longer post later, but here is a panorama of the sunrise over the grasslands.

Today is my midterm examination. Tonight, I am hopping on an overnight train to go to Inner Mongolia. We’ll first be going to Hohhot, then heading into the grasslands. We’ll be staying in a Mongolian yurt, and riding horses. If I am lucky enough to have Internet, I’ll post pictures.
内蒙古！呜！！

This week is the end of my fourth week in China.  I can’t believe my program is already half over.  Not to be cliché, but I truly feel like I haven’t been here all that long.  Regardless of how I feel, I do know I have been here long enough to gain a few stories.  If anything, these experiences have provided me with comic relief during times of stress.  Perhaps more importantly though, they have given me more reason to continue learning Chinese.  

Without further ado, I present to you: Reasons to Learn Chinese

1. People always laugh at your jokes.  I love using the new words we learn in class in my daily conversation, especially when I can attempt to make a joke using those words.  The best thing is they always get laughs.  As far as I know, people only laugh because I am using the word wrong, or in a strange manner.  Regardless, I like to pretend that I am actually that funny.  There is nothing quite as fulfilling as telling a joke in a different language.  I hope that by the time I leave Beijing, I’ll be able to successfully crack a joke, and not have to worry about if the laughter is because of my grammar mistakes.  

2. Using new words is insanely exciting.  The thing with learning a language is that your ability to communicate in that language is reduced to a grade school level.  There are only so many words you know to communicate your advanced, not-grade-school-level thoughts.  It’s tiring.  So learning a new word that makes your Chinese just that more advanced is like breathing air after being under water.  It is often that I am having a conversation with my host parents, and I realize that I am using words I just learned earlier that day to portray my ideas.  Even reading becomes great.  I am always hungrily searching for signs to read, in order to spot a newly learned word.  

3.  The development of Chinese characters is amazing.  I’m taking a Classical Chinese class here, and it has completely changed my perspective on reading and recognizing characters.  Here’s an example.  The character for language is 语 (yu).  It is made up of two parts: 言 (yan) and 吾 (wu)。 言 is a character for word. 吾 is the Classical Chinese character for I.  Put these two characters together, and you get 语: the words that “I” speak– language.  Each character has this much meaning in it, it just takes figuring out.  I’m also learning calligraphy, and our teacher is very knowledgable about the development of each character we write.  There is a story behind each and every character, and learning that story is just as important to learning Chinese, as is memorizing the characters.  

4.  Random people will come up to you to ask for help on Chinese to English to translations.  Okay, so this is not really a good reason to learn Chinese, but Chinese definitely helps.  Yesterday, as my friends and I were walking home, we were approached by a Chinese business woman.  She asked us if we could help look at a Chinese to English translation of a business report, and make it sound like actual English.  When we told her we could speak Chinese, she was ecstatic.  Since we could speak Chinese, we were able to communicate with her about the report, in terms of what she wanted to portray, and how we could make the English sound better.  Turns out, there are some Chinese word distinctions that we don’t have in English.  

I could give many more reasons to study Chinese, but for me, these are some pretty important ones.  A lot of people view studying a language as a chore, and I can’t deny that I have thought of Chinese as a chore at times.  But when I am able to truly get something out of it, the benefits drastically outweigh the annoyances.  I only have four weeks left, but 我一定会好好儿地努力学中文。

As with any trip to Beijing, a trip to the Great Wall is a must.  These are a few pictures from our trip to the Great Wall.  We went to a section called Jinshan Ling (金山岭）.  This part of the wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.  Most of it is not “refurbished.”