Mei You Bu Ke Neng (Impossible is Nothing)

I felt so guilty about not writing for such a long time that I decided to give a full update and suffer the consequences tomorrow morning.

So, Friday afternoon, we went into the city to see this old Hu Tong (lit: alley. Refers to neighborhoods of Old Beijing style houses that are quickly disappearing as the city develops) called Nan Luogu Xiang. I didn't know we were going here at the time because we had a big group and a lot of us were just in sheep mode after a hard week. Unfortunately, when we got there, it started raining, so we just went to a restaurant right away for cover and good food. It was a great dinner. We had a good balance of Yale and Harvard students. The most interesting person at the table, by far, was a Korean diplomat who is in our class! The Korean government is practically paying his tuition at Harvard while he does some kind of graduate program. Part of his program involves not only studying Chinese, but also studying it somewhere besides Harvard and Korea. So, that's why, despite having a wife and a 5-month old daughter at home in Cambridge, he is at HBA with a bunch of college kids. He is such a great, fun, kind, and interesting person. We really enjoyed having him come along.

After dinner, a lot of us went back to the dorm to rest. Some stayed behind to explore the Hu Tong. I sort of wish I had done that too, but I think I am going to go on my own walking tour of the Hu Tongs later on. That night, I just went back to BeiYu, hung out a little bit, and rested.

The next day was pretty uneventful until the evening. At 5:00, we all piled into two buses to go in Beijing and see Jing Ju (Beijing opera). The place we went to is called Liyuan Theater. It's pretty well known for catering to tourists, but it was excellent.

Beijing opera has been around for hundreds of years and is famous for its elaborate makeup ensembles, ornate costumes, and portrayals of classical tales through acrobatics and dance. The kind of opera that we saw originated in the Qing Dynasty (so, starting in the mid 1600s). The actual singing was very interesting. From a musical perspective, Asian music uses a pentatonic scale, which is very different to the heptatonic scale that we are used to. So, I was very intrigued by the mere way the music took shape for each act. Usually, though, the performers were signing to the accompaniment of a percussive ensemble. Their voices, more often than not, were shrill and penetrating. My teacher summarized the evening as "nan ting, dan shi hao kan" (difficult to listen to, but good to look at). He was mostly right -- about both.

The costumes were so beautiful. They were unbelievably colorful and were decorated with lots of little beads. They also tended to be very long so that the performers could hide their feet as they gave the impression of gliding from one end of the stage to another. The make up was also a sight to see. It was very heavy -- almost like a mask. We actually got to see the performs putting it on before the show got started.

The whole show was so enjoyable. It was a great introduction to Chinese folklore (with the help of English subtitles) and had us all rapt. I'm really glad we went, because I don't think that we would have gone if left to our own devices. Here are some pictures from Saturday:

Getting started: sunrise from my window. I know, you can hardly see the sun.

Our driver on the way to the opera. Well, before we were on our way. He was a little more tired than we were.

My teacher, Wang lao shi, teaching us an old Chinese song and having us sing along on the bus ride in. She had such a great voice!

Beijing traffic.

We were provided with snacks and tea at the opera. This man had a teapot with the longest spout I have ever seen. To give us a preview of the acrobatics to come, he did an elaborate pouring ritual as he gave us water for our tea.

The stage.

One of the performers applying his makeup.

More makeup.

Me and Fu lao shi, one of my favorites.

Me and Vidya, a rising sophomore at Harvard.

This performer was supposed to be a woman in search of her beloved scholar fiancee...

She had to pay an old fisherman to help her get to her downriver destination. These two got creative with the choreography, bouncing up and down with opposite timing so as to give the effect of being in a boat, dipping up and down with their shifting weights.

I'm glad they had the English subtitles, because I do not know how to say "auspicious clouds" in Chinese.

The most acrobatic act of all. These men entered the stage doing flips and front handsprings.

My friend from Yale, Jared, staring in disbelief at the performers' abilities.

The last act was, by far, the best. It was about a woman (in white) who had to retrieve a special plant from a mountain and had to fight off the mountains guards in the process. At first, she was using swords against one guard ...

But then, she moved on to spears against three guards. They were all juggling these spears in the air, throwing and catching with both their feet and their hands -- in the air and on the ground.

Spears in the air!

So, that was Jing Ju. Today, I woke up to the fuwuyuan (service lady) knocking on my door to clean my room. I really appreciate that we have cleaning service in a dorm, but I was still sleeping and not enthused about being woken up. So, I told her I was still sleeping. She persisted, though, and said "Oh, mei shir!" (No problem!) She then came in with another fuwuyuan and proceeded to clean my entire room and bathroom as I lay there, unconscious, on what is gradually becoming my beloved rock-hard bed.

Anyway, I slept through all that until 11. I had planned to go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square with Eli and some other people around then, but Eli was still not back from spending time with his host family. So, I had a nice lunch and then gathered up the other Harvard students for a trip into the city.

First, we went to Tiananmen. I will be honest: I was not expecting a lot. I thought we were going to see the square, take some pictures of the square, marvel at how big it was, and then go to the Forbidden City to spend most of the day there. I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as we set foot in the Square, we realized that we were some of the only non-Chinese people there. Everyone was staring at us, scrutinizing us, and snapping pictures of us with their cell phone cameras. We tried to ignore what felt like a combination of hostility and curiosity. Zane, my friend, tried to articulate the nature of the atmosphere when she said that there was a "tension" there. I agreed, but I think that most of the "tension" came from the more fundamental sense of extreme pride everywhere around us. We were in a place where history has been made and one of the most important symbols of this country. We couldn't help but stand out as individuals who did not have a firm grasp over what it meant to belong to China and to have China. I hope that a shred of our afternoon's backdrop comes through this haphazard description. It was so sobering, unsettling, and powerful. We stayed for a while, trying to soak in the size of the Square and take our pictures without being delayed too long by strangers who wanted to take pictures with us.

Next, we went to the Forbidden City, but we had just missed business hours for ticket sales. So, we looked around at the outside of the city, a courtyard that is apparently open all the time. It was still an impressive sight. The architecture was exquisite: gold, green, blue, and yellow against the commanding red walls. A couple of times, people tried to come up to us and pass themselves off as art students who wanted to show us their work at a "nearby place." Vidya, a girl in my group, had heard of this popular scam, though. Apparently, they take you to a room with some mediocre art and calligraphy that they try to sell to you, and in some cases, try to take your belongings as well. So, we avoided that trap and continued to look around for a little bit.

Afterwards, we left the Forbidden City and went to Wangfujing Street, a popular shopping area that, to us, looked like the Times Square of Beijing. It is home to the biggest McDonald's in the world, some of the glitziest malls and stores around, and the biggest Olympics Flagship store. We looked around in the Olympics store for a while, which was an experience. EVERYTHING you could ever imagine buying was there and it had either the Beijing 2008 logo or one/all of the Olympic mascots on it.

When we were done shopping there, we just went back to the dorm to get started on dinner and studying. And that's pretty much everything that has happened. So, you are all up to date. I am sorry again for taking so long. I hope to be less busy this week. Luckily nothing too exciting happens during the week, so if you don't see a post soon, it's just because I'm working hard.

Before I sign off, here are some of the photos from today:

The Monument to the People's Heroes, in the center of Tiananmen Square.

Realist statues outside of the Mausoleum (where Mao is interred!) depicting students and workers protesting against the government.

Us in front of the Mausoleum. The first person who asked to take a picture with us is in the middle.

I tried to capture how expansive the Square is, but my iPhone lense is definitely not wide enough.

So big!

Keeping Tiananmen clean...

Tiananmen is more or less a park-type of place now. Lots of families come to fly kites or just to hang out. So, there are lots of adorable little Chinese babies running around. This one was particularly cute.

So was this father-son duo.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace, at the North of the Square, with Mao looking down over me and the rest of the people in the Square.

Person No. 2, with Alec. There were two other girls who took a pictures one after another with me after this, but I didn't ask for them to take one with my camera.

Person No. 5 with Vidya.

Mao.

The Chairman and Me.

Squatters! It really is comfortable. I don't know why people in America don't do this.

Inside the Gate. Looking at the edge of the Forbidden City. The structure before is is called Wu Men (Meridian Gate).

Detail on Wu Men.

Really big doors. And really small people, but the doors are still very very tall.

At the beginning of Wangfujing Street.

Vidya, Me, and Alec in front of the biggest McDonald's in the entire world! We didn't go in and eat anything ...

The Olympic Mascots. Their names are "Bei," "Jing," "Huan," "Ying," and "Ni." All together, Beijing Huanying Ni. In English, Beijing welcomes you!

Another shot of Wangfujing. It was really felt like a New York type of spot, but you don't really get that feeling here because of the pollution.

Me and my favorite mascot, Huanhuan.

Olympics mugs.

OLYMPICS EVERYTHING.

...even Olympics vases...

These ads are so amazing. They are Addidas sponsored ads promoting excitement for the arrival of the Olympics. The slogan is Mei You Bu Ke Neng. Or, impossible is nothing. At Wangfujing, there were several painted onto the entire sides of buildings.

Well, that's it! I hope you enjoyed everything. I'll write more soon. Be sure you look at the post right below, which I just posted too. Miss everyone!

Sijiyingbei (Rote Memorization)

First of all, I'm sorry for not writing a lot this week. Unfortunately, nothing much exciting has really happened since I last wrote. I've mostly been busy with class, which has given me more than enough to do every day. I was hoping to be able to continue going to the calligraphy class, but we had about 90 words to learn in addition to homework the same afternoon, so I did not end up going. We learned that the keystone of Chinese education is Sijiyingbei, aka "rote memorization." This was actually an assigned vocabulary nugget for this week and so happens to capture in a few syllables everything that we are doing with our 18 or so waking hours per day. I do not mind so much memorization, doing so much work or going to so much classes, but, now that the dust is settling and we are starting to get into a routine, there are a couple of things that have been frustrating me.

My primary concern has been about HBA's effect on my Chinese. Coming into this program, I thought that I would leave in August as an almost fluent speaker. Maybe that was too presumptuous, but, at the same time, I don't feel like HBA is as much of an immersion experience as it is advertised to be. Yes, we are living in China, and so there are lots of cultural interactions that we would have if this program were instead held in the U.S. However, we have so much work every day that we do not get to go out, explore, and try our Chinese out in as many places and with as many people as possible. We are mostly in classrooms, interacting with each other and our teachers, whose patience and exaggerated enunciation make conversation a lot easier than with the average Beijing resident.

Speaking of "each other," I have found that some of the students push back on the language pledge more than others. The first time I was around people who started speaking English, I was fine with it, understanding, even. My friends really are markedly different when speaking English versus Chinese. We cannot be sarcastic, make little jokes, tell as many stories, have the same conversational timing, and be as playful in Chinese as in English. We don't know how to say "win," "lose," or even "team," so all sports conversations involve a lot of flailing hands gestures and sounds of either love or hatred for a team (there are a lot of angry New Yorkers on this program). Anyway, when people first switched, I felt as though I was having the opportunity to really get to know them and I relished this opportunity as a weekends-only bonus. However, some people have started just dissolving into English as soon as we are off campus, or in someone else's room. This bothers me. At first, I questioned how useful the language pledge was, but because it felt so awkward and uncomfortable to switch to English the first time, speaking only Chinese must be helpful to our improvement. So, when others to switch to English during the week, a time we're supposed to be in Chinese mode, they make it not only impossible for us to answer their questions in Chinese (for fear of indirectly, but self-righteously chiding them), but also impede the progress of people who actually think that speaking Chinese is constructive. I hope that, this next week especially, that I can figure out a way to balance spending time with those people and Chinese improvement.

Returning to my more general fears of not becoming as good of a Chinese speaker as I had hoped, I at least made a big decision that will hopefully help me get to where I want to be. Initially, I was going to stop taking Chinese after this year because I have limited room in my schedule for the next two years to fulfill Economics, Pre-med, and Core requirements as well as to take Farsi. However, as I started to become anxious about not achieving proficiency in Chinese, I realized that I wanted to continue taking it. So, I decided to move some things around in my course plan and to take one last year of Chinese starting in the fall. Hopefully, I will be able to return to Beijing next summer to get more of an immersion experience before jetting off to Iran to do a research program there (this is the current plan).

That's pretty much all that has happened since last post. I thought, though, that I would post some pictures from this week:

Most endearing display of friendship I've seen yet.

My friend, Zane, tried to order a Coke. She asked, "Ni you ke le ma?" (Do you have Coke?) But, the waiter mistakenly thought that she said "Ni you Ke le na?" (Do you have Corona?) So, that's what he brought her as we were doing our homework together on a Monday afternoon.

Our beautiful cafeteria.

That broccoli with chicken dish is my favorite dinner at the cafeteria. With a bowl of rice, it's less than 10 RMB, which is just over $1.

Another shot that I thought would give you a sense of how clean and lovely this place is.

A typical cafeteria table. Before we sit down to eat.

In the cafeteria: a really cute baby reaching for BEER!

I love these chalk boxes. Note the spelling of "white."

This is the track I run on every day. This little girl was getting a good work out in with her backpack on wheels.

From what I've seen so far, China does a great job with providing recycling bins alongside waste bins. Here, there has also been an effort to spread awareness of the adverse effects of smoking. However, let me just interject and say that the number of smokers here is through the roof. Everyone smokes. Everyone. It is so awful -- I hope that anti-smoking educational campaigns become more successful soon...

This is what we look like during our 15 minute recesses between classes.

Our host university recently brought in some enlarged photograph boards of the Sichaun earthquake wreckage. This is one of them.

This one had me really choked up.

Same with this one. He is so young.

Zhongwen zhuozi (Chinese Table). Every Tuesday and Friday, our teachers take us out to lunch. Here, we are at a Vietnamese restaurant.

I haven't had great experiences with Vietnamese food, but this was delicious. A lot of noodles in a delicious broth with a bunch of other additions that can be seen in the little bowls in the above picture.

Beijing subway! Fast, convenient, and very modern. However, the inside of the trains are competing for the worst odor in the world. It definitely makes splitting cabs seem worth the extra couple of RMB.

Other con of the subway: for some reason, the way out is subject to traffic jams. This is the one we ran into.

Mid-afternoon in Beijing, right outside of our subway stop. You should still be able to see the sky at 4 PM, right? With the pollution, though, seeing a nearby building was a little difficult.

Funny looking spikey ball structure in the middle of the highway!

A lot of people squat here when they want to rest.

Some water lilies in Houhai, a popular hangout for young people.

Next time: more on the Beijing opera, Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, and Wangfujing!

Miss you all so so much. Thanks for reading, for those of you who aren't in my family -- I'm counting down to when I get to see you again ...