Back in California

Do you see the ocean in the background? Oh yes, on Sunday I went for a hike with nice views and lots of fresh air. It was wonderful!

Beijing was an adventure alright. I had an incredible time and enjoyed the four weeks tremendously. Now it's back to work. And while the air is fresh and the sky is blue, I miss the carefree feeling of being on vacation, exploring my new surroundings, and spending hours on end in a coffee shop trying to pound more and more Chinese characters into my head. I want to continue to xuexi hanyu and plan to return to China in due time.

Let me breathe

Never in my life have I longed for fresh air as much as I have this week. I already day dream about going for a walk along the beach or on a hike this weekend when I am back in California. My lungs ache for oxygyn and I am so tired of breathing in dirt.

Karaoke aka KTV

For a true Beijing experience, we went out for Karaoke on Monday night. It's REALLY popular here.
Different from what I knew before, you do not sing in public in a bar here, though. You book your own separate room in a Karaoke place just with your group of friends. We were 20+ people from our language school and had a lot more fun than I ever thought we would. In a glitzy state of the art Karaoke establishment called Melody, we had three screens, a large selection of English and Chinese songs, two microphones, a small stage, room to dance, and couches. We even had Schellenkraenze and Rasseln. No idea what those are called in English. My pictures don't show it, but I sang a lot.... ;-) No worries, I didn't embarrass myself. It was all good fun. We stayed for over three hours and ended the evening with some multi-lingual acapella performances.

Mai donxi

Shopping was not that bad. Turns out I am pretty good at bargaining. It's intense though - I had to take a break after an hour and a half and just go outside the buiding for a little while. You pass the different vendors and they all shout at you "looka looka" or "lady, you want watch?" Once you show the slightest interest, they want to push all kinds of things on you. Some even start pulling your sleeve when you try to leave. Sigh. Well, I tried to always talk to them in Chinese and say that I only want to look around a little. One guy wanted to lure me into his store and I asked him in Chinese if it was okay that I just want to have a look. He said dangran - of course and laughed. I think he saw on my face that I was tired of being pressured. What's great, though, is that once people realize you are not just a regular tourist but studying Chinese, they go easier on you. After we were done bargaining over some chop sticks, one vendor even said to me bu cuo - not bad. ;-) The end of the story is that I will probably go back to shop some more this week, now that I know what's available and for what prices.

3 weeks

It's Friday and I have finished my third week of classes. People around me are already talking about arranging the airport transfer for next Saturday. Time has surely flown by fast.
This afternoon, I will spend a couple of hours at SPR, a cafe close to my school that I have adopted as my usual study and work spot. I like it because it is NOT Starbuck's (always supporting the underdog), the staff is nice and they have comfortable chairs, and play nice music. It's kind of funny, they have two CDs which they play over and over and over again, and when I have listened to the same Norah Jones song for the third time, I know it's time to leave...
Another reason I like the place is that they have free wireless internet access, which is convenient for blogging and working on the days I have my laptop with me. To be honest, my desire to work from here is very limited, though. I guess that's good. ;-)

This weekend I want to do some more sight seeing - I still have not walked around Tianamen Square and checked out Mao's mausoleum, for example, - and I finally have to go shopping. I am not really excited about the latter, but I kind of feel that I have to take advantage of the bargains that I can get here. Of course, I also want to find some things to bring back home, maybe even some Christmas gifts. Still, the prospect of having to bargain for every item I want to buy, to have to be careful that I am not buying inferior quality or being totally ripped off makes me tired just thinking about it. Even in Germany or the U.S., I don't like it when sales people want to talk me into buying something. There I can tell them to leave me alone and browse on my own. Here that's not really possible, because the shopping "malls" consist of rows of many small booths that each belong to one person who keeps talking to you non-stop. Oh well, I will get over it. ;-)

Olaf, herzlichen Glueckwunsch zum Geburtstag!
Eine Mitschuelerin hier hat heute auch Geburtstag und deshalb gab's schon Kuchen. Ich hab den dann insgeheim auch auf dein Wohl gegessen und werde auch bei einem Bier heute abend an dich denken. Feiere schoen!

Mein letztes Wochenende in Beijing hat angebrochen und morgen frueh mache ich nochmal eine von der Schule organisierte Tour mit. Diesmal geht's durch ein paar alte traditionelle Stadtteile Beijings, die sogenannten Hutongs. Ich glaube wir fahren Rikscha und bekommen erzaehlt wie man "frueher" in Beijing lebte. Mal sehen.
Weil ich jetzt schon weiss, dass ich unter der Woche wieder genug zu tun habe, will ich ausserdem versuchen, meine Mitbringsel (schoenes deutsches Wort) dieses Wochenende zu kaufen. Ich find's zwar etwas anstrengend, dass man hier immer feilschen muss, aber eigentlich sollte ich mich natuerlich darueber freuen, dass dadurch vieles sehr billig sein kann. Und feilschen habe ich gelernt. Auf chinesisch, meine ich.

Gestern hat mir meine Gastmama wieder vier Schuesseln zum Abendessen aufgetischt. Gekochte Tomaten mit Ei, geduensteten Chinakohl, Knoedel mit Fleischfuellung (baozi) und Reis. Irgendwann bemerkte sie dann, ich aesse immer nur so wenig. Ha! Keine Spur. Nur halt nicht vier Schuesseln. Ich habe ihr dann in meinem besten Chinesisch erstmal erklaert, dass es einfach zuviel ist. Dass das Essen fuer zwei Personen ist und ich nunmal nur eine Person bin. Da musste sie schon auch lachen.

Ich find's ueberhaupt klasse, wenn Chinesen ueber meine Sprachversuche lachen. Das heisst wenigstens, dass sie mich verstanden haben. Ich habe neulich abends auch meinen Taxifahrer sehr amuesiert mit meinen Versuchen, Konversation zu treiben. Ich sage dann so spannende Saetze wie "diese Strasse kenne ich" und "Ich finde ihr Auto gut." Als der Taxifahrer auf halbem Weg verkuendetet "es ist 22 Uhr", da wurde mit klar, dass er sich auf mein Niveau eingestellt hatte. Die Aussage war voellig unwichtig, aber den Satz konnte ich verstehen. Ich habe dann nur erwiedert: "Das stimmt" und wir haben herzlich gelacht. So geht das mit dem Chinesisch lernen.

Yóuyông

Swimming is my 'back to the roots' sport. While I go to the gym these days, lift weights, kick box, and lately even got into a running routine, I still feel most "at home" when I dive into a pool. The smell of chlorine is so familiar. I love the cold water against my skin. The feeling of pulling through it with steady strokes, realizing that all surrounding sounds are muffled. Swimming relaxes my mind. In fact, it almost has a soothing effect on me, even though it's a workout.

Here in Beijing, I joined a gym with a nice 25m pool (see picture) two days after I arrived. It's across the street from my language school, so it's really convenient. I swim at least twice a week and also run on the treadmill and lift a couple of times a week. Before I leave, I really should take a Yoga, Pilates or Spinning class in Chinese, just for the experience, but there is only so much time in the day.

During yesterday's swim workout, I tried to think back to all pools in which I have swum through the years, well, decades now. It's impossible, of course, but it brought back a lot of good memories. It also made me think of many good friends and fellow Kachelzaehler from different times (Kachelzaehler is German for someone who counts tiles - most German pools are tiled). For many years, I never left home for a weekend trip or vacation without my swim suit, cap and goggles. You can always find a pool. Even if it's a rainy March in Mississippi and Gudrun, Edith and I are staying in this random motel in the middle of nowhere. Swim in the unheated outdoor pool in the rain at 7:30 in the morning and everybody knows who you are when you enter the breakfast room at 9.

Swimming is also really easy to explain in foreign languages. I remember wanting to swim in Florence, in Paris, somewhere in Greece, in Prague, and now here in Beijing. All it takes is to tell people the word for "swimming pool" and there are no more questions. If I ask for a gym, it gets complicated. Do I want to lift weights, play basketball, do an aerobics class, run on the indoor track? Okay, you probably have no idea why I am writing about this, but the bottom line is that swimming is great and simple and universal. And I love it. And this is my blog, so I can write whatever I want. Actually, I only meant to show you the below sign that is posted at my pool, but then I got a little off track. After all, traveling abroad is also about reflecting on one's own life, values and passions, right?


So, here it is for those of you who are concerned about my health. Rest assured! As you can see from this sign, my gym does not allow any patients with epidemic diseases to use the pool. Thus, I am safe. :-)

The Great Wall

On Saturday, I hiked on the Great Wall! It was amazing. Can you see it on the top of the mountain range in the first picture? Luckily, our guide took us far away from any touristy spot. We hiked up to the wall in less than half an hour, covering a few hundreds feet in elevation change. Not too bad. Once on the wall, we hiked from tower to tower for a good couple of hours, stopping frequently for the views and for others to catch up - we had some not so fast hikers in our group of ten, but it did not matter much, I was so in awe of my surroundings that I didn't mind covering only a short distance. It was actually kind of difficult terrain at times, not your wide cobblestone path, but lots of loose rubble and parts where we had to climb up or down to get around a tower structure. I really wanted to stay and hike some more when the guide told us it was time to descend at 3pm. I would like to go back some day and do a real hike. A recent edition of National Geographic Adventure Magazine had a story of two guys who backpacked on the wall for several days - that sounded like fun!



Da war sie also, die chinesische Mauer. Alles Quatsch, dass man sie angeblich vom Mond aus sehen kann, aber trotzdem sehr beeindruckend. Ich hatte am Samstag mit neun anderen Leuten von meiner Sprachschule eine kleine Tour gebucht und unser Fahrer kannte einen Abschnitt der Mauer fernab aller Touristen, was klasse war. Es war ein bisschen diesig, aber die Blicke waren trotzdem toll. Wir mussten so etwa eine halbe Stunde von der Strasse zur Mauer heraufwandern und dann sind wir gut zwei Stunden auf der Mauer selbst gegangen. Es was mitunter gar nicht so einfach, weil sie nicht etwa ein breiter gepflasterter Weg ist. Dort wo wir waren mussten wir richtig ein bisschen um die Tuerme herumklettern, wenn's nicht weiter ging. Oft war der Weg voller Geroell und man musste aufpassen, dass man nicht abrutscht. Es hat aber - oder gerade deshalb - sehr viel Spass gemacht und ich moechte unbedingt nochmal zurueck kommen, um eine laengere Wanderung zu machen.

Job and Zen

In China hat jeder 'nen Job - siehe Bilder (das war ja in der DDR auch so). Die Menschen scheinen auch sehr zufrieden zu sein und selten in Eile. Das strahlt zwar eine gewisse angenehme Ruhe aus, ist aber auch gewoehnungsbeduerftig. Besonders in den Ubahngaengen oder beim Strasse ueberqueren faellt es mir auf, wie langsam sich die Menschen bewegen. Vielleicht kommt das daher, dass ich es gewohnt bin, grosse Menschenmassen mit Eiligkeit zu assoziieren.

In China, everybody has a job - see pictures. Overall, people seem very content and not very stressed. It's especially apparant to me in the speed - or slowness, respectively - of pedestrians, be it in the subway or crossing the street. It's not bad, just different from what I would expect from large crowds, I guess. Food for thought.

Haircut for $3.60

My adventure last night was to go to a get a haircut in my neighborhood. I wrote down a cheat sheet with the key vocabulary - haircut, wash hair, do you have time now, how much does it cost all together - and went off. Not brave enough for the hole in the wall places, I chose the nicest looking salon on the block and ended up staying there for over an hour: apart from washing my hair, the young woman then also gave me a 20 minute massage, which is apparently pretty standard with haircuts here - how nice. Afterwards, a guy named Sam cut my hair. All this cost me a total of 30 RMB, which is only about $3.60! My host mother was still unhappy with me, because she thought I should not have paid more than 10 RMB.

While he cut my hair, Sam and I chatted a little. He knew less English than I Chinese, so it was entertaining. He told me that Germans are great and that the Chinese love Germany. I told him I live in the U.S. and he asked me why, which made me laugh. Such a simple question, and so impossible for me to answer - especially in Chinese! Because I work there, I guess, and because I like it? Wanting to expand my vocabulary, I asked for the Chinese word for blonde. For this purpose, I asked him what color my hair is. Sam promptly got out his hair color chart with samples of 10 or so different shades of blonde and was quick to point out that the chart was made by Wella, a German company. Well, so now the problem was that the Chinese word for each different shade consited of six or seven characters. I asked him to read them to me and I tried to repeat, but I failed miserably. It is so sad, but it shows you how difficult Chinese is for me. ;-) I just laughed after a while and said, I would just have to call it huangde - yellow.

On the way out, I had to ask for my coat, which somebody had put into a closet and forgotten to get back out for me when I paid. So I got out my little dictionary and looked up the word for coat - dayi - and asked where it was. I had to repeat dayi a couple of times, until I got the tones right and they understood. Then everybody was just laughing - by that time, there were at least four people around who took an interest in my attempts of saying something in Chinese. Granted, they were super friendly and the whole haircut experience was fun and certainly successful, but it is still weird to have to communicate on such a simplified level and constantly struggle to be understood and to understand.

Lama Temple

You never know who of your friends may show up in Beijing! Lisa spent a few days in town and we visited the Lama Temple together yesterday afternoon. I have never seen so many Buddha statues in one place.
After eating a tasty dinner in a no-picture, no-English restaurant, we practiced our bargaining skills in a couple of stores and Lisa ended up with some very nice paintings and I with some compliments on my Chinese. We celebrated with a couple of beers at the Den and called it a night shortly after the second picture was taken.

Schnupfen

Leider habe ich mir einen bloeden Schnupfen zugezogen. Ist echt nervig, aber wohl kein Wunder. Draussen ist es abwechselnd kalt und warm, drinnen durch Heizungen ueberhitzt, dazu bin ich noch den Abgasen ausgesetzt und dem ewigen Zigarettenrauch - ach, das bin ich doch alles gar nicht mehr gewoehnt. Kalifornien hat mich schwach gemacht. ;-)
Heute morgen habe ich im Unterricht so alle zehn Minuten einmal geniesst. Ich habe vier Stunden. Ganz klasse. Vielleicht sollte ich heute nicht schwimmen gehen. Am Samstag will ich schliesslich fit sein, um ein paar Stunden auf der Mauer herumzuwandern. Jaja, auf der chinesischen Mauer!

Unfortunately, I caught a cold. I sneeze a lot and sniffle the rest of the time. It's really annoying. I guess I should not be surprised. I go through constant temperature changes between heated buidings and colder outside, cold mornings and evenings but warm afternoons. Add the air pollution and the constant cigarette smoke and I should almost be surprised I stayed healthy for ten days. Hehe, in reality it's propbably just that living in CA has made me weak. I will try and get some good sleep tonight and tomorrow, so that I feel strong on Saturday when I'll go for a hike on the great wall!

Baozi and more

To those of you unfamiliar with this Chinese delicacy, may I present: BAOZI.
Of course, baozi are not really a delicacy, but a rather cheap dish of steamed pork-filled dumplings, but I find them zhen hao chi - really delicious. They are usually eaten for breakfast, but I just had a bunch of them for dinner tonight. I also drink cappuccino after 11 in the morning, so who cares, right?

Anyway, the baozi in this picture are sold not far from our school, on a small street where a lot of local blue collar workers from the area eat. It's the place on the right in the second picture. You can see a group of my classmates enjoy lunch at the restaurant on the left. John, aren't you proud of us at what dodgy places we eat ? I have to be honest that I haven't eaten there a lot, yet, though the food is good and cheap - 5 RMB for Gung Pao chicken (less than a dollar) and 2.5 RMB for ten baozi. The "problem" is that they don't have menus with pictures nor understand any English. Thus, I have to know how to say what I want to eat or recognize Chinese characters on the menu on the wall, so that I can point to them, even if I may have forgotten how to say them. Once I have that better under control or am just a little braver, I will have a lot more restaurants to choose from! :-) Until then, I'll eat at restaurants with pictures on the menu, or stick to dishes whose names I can remember.

In the Forbidden City

Am Samstag habe ich also eine Tour durch die verbotene Stadt mitgemacht. Ein bisschen Sighseeing muss ja auch sein. Es ist ein beeindruckender Komplex. Nachmittags habe ich mir dann gleich die DVD des Films Der letzte Kaiser besorgt und selbige auf meinem Laptop geguckt - chinesisch synchronisiert mit englischen Untertiteln. Ich muss ja ueben!

On Saturday, my school offered a tour through the Forbidden City. Thus my first sighseeing adventure here in Beijing took me to this impressive structure that many people around the world these days know from the movie The Last Emporer. I promptly bought the DVD for the bargain price of 20 RMB or 2USD and watched the film on my laptop later on. Of course I watched it in Chinese with Englich subtitles. After all, I have to practice!

By the way, it's not haziness what you see, it's smog. Der Smog ist ganz schoen schlimm hier in Beijing, wie man auf den Fotos sieht - es nicht diesig, die Luft ist einfach so verschmutzt!

Hoffnungslos verwirrt?

Heute habe ich auf einen armen Amerikaner auf Deutsch eingeredet ohne zu merken, dass ich Deutsch rede anstatt Englisch. Ich wunderte mich sogar ein bisschen, dass er mich so unverstaendlich anguckte waehrend ich ihm erzaehlte, ich faende die architektonische Mischung der Stadt faszinierend. Irgendwann sagte er dann auf Englisch zu mir, dass sein Deutsch nicht so gut sei und grinste. Ich fragte ihn ob ich gerade tatsaechlich mit ihm auf Deutsch gesprochen haette, was er bejahte. Ich hab's echt nicht geglaubt, dass ich das nicht gemerkt habe. Fast ein bisschen erschreckend.
In my defense I can say that I had only slept for four hours because I went out last night. It was a bar with a dancefloor and the DJ played a mix of hip hop, house and Mallorca music. Well, not that I have ever been to Mallorca but that's what I imagine it to be like. Let's just say it was "happy" music and very fun to dance to. It's crazy how certain music really seems to be global.
This morning (Saturday!), I went on a school-organized tour though the Forbidden City. It's a very impressive structure and the tour guide made our exploration of the different buildings, walkways and gardens very intereesting. I will post some pictures later.

Communicating in Chinese

Two sucess stories, or should I say sucess moments?
Last night, my host parents asked me why I went to Beida (Peking University) the day before. - Mind you, this is all in Chinese. - So first of all, I understood the question. Then I thought about it, and said that it is difficult to say in Chinese. But then I thought about it some more and realized I could explain it after all: "In America, I work at a university. We have an office at Beida." - Easy! I even knew all those words and did not need to look them up. All a matter of simplifying your speech. That was a happy moment. :-)
This morning was the first time that I did not show the cab driver the address of where I wanted to go. I TOLD him. Oh yes. See, it's getting better every day.

Zai Beijing [in Beijing]

Wow, it's hard to believe that I have only been here for four days. So much has happened already and I don't know where to start. I have been busy soaking in new impressions, going to my classes, studying, trying to communicate with my host mother, chatting with fellow students, finding the best way to commute, joining a gym, working, and much more. I can already say that this is an intense experience but I enjoy it very much, even though it's tiring.

When I arrived on Sunday night, I was picked up at the airport by the language school's shuttle van. The drive into the city began on a much smaller road than I had anticipated. From what I could tell in the dark, it resembled what's called an Allee in German, a tree lined street with only two lanes of traffic. I thought Beijing was supposed to be this huge metropolis!? Here we were going only about 40 mph and sharing the road not only with other cars and trucks but also with rikschas and quite a few people on bicycles. Well, eventually we reached a bigger street - one of the ring roads, which are bascially city highways. And yes, the city is pretty big.

Traffic is amazing in this city. I was amazed on that first evening that we did not run over any bicycles or hit other cars when passing or turning. I am still amazed every day that traffic flows - slow at times, and certainly in a very chaotic fashion - but nevertheless in a functioning way. Cars, taxis, buses, bicycles, even pedestrians are part of the mix and can often be found in the streets. I have this feeling that people would not understand if I told them about the Californian traffic rules of no jaywalking and of stopping for pedestrians; even if I told them in perfect Chinese.

Which brings me to the language. Pooh, the spoken language is very fast and full of words I do not know, and the written language is all in characters. Both is not really surprising, but the lack of pinyin makes reading really difficult. ;-) My Chinese book always conveniently listed this phonetic transcription next to the characters. Not so much here, though. Billboards, signs, etc. sometimes have some English writing in addition to the Chinese characters, but of course that still does not tell me how to pronounce the Chinese writing.

My host mother, Mrs. Wang, only speaks Chinese. It's excellent (hear that said with a sigh). The daughter who "speaks some English" who was promised to me, is currently studying in London. So I am stuck with only Chinese. The amazing thing is that I am surviving. Mrs Wang actually almost always understands what I say to her. I just never understand what she says back to me. LOL. We point a lot. And my two most frequent sentences to her are: Wo bu dong (I don't understand), and Qing, nin shuo yibian (Say again please). Oh well, it will get better. The apartment is small, but my room is perfectly fine. Wir wohnen im zweiten Hinterhaus und das Badezimmer ist gleichzeitig die Dusche - fragt nicht.

People always ask about first impressions. I must say that besides the crazy traffic, mine was that the city feels much less foreign to me than I expected. Especially the area in which my school is located (CBD) shows clear signs of globalization and the familiar, now world wide brands, Starbuck's, Motorola, VW, to name just a few. As far as people go, I know, of course, that I do not "blend in." However, I do not feel weird or out of place. Luckily, people are not as small as I thought. ;-) And everybody is very friendly. It's probably exactly how one of my co-workers told me - I am used to looking into Asian faces. Therefore, most of the time I do not even realize that I am the only non-Asian person around - for example on the subway. It's only when I see that one other white person getting on the train that I realize I must stand out just as much as s/he does.

My classes are challenging for sheer volume but I enjoy studying Chinese very much. It almost makes me want to forget about working and sightseeing and just dedicating my time to diving deeper and deeper into hanyu. I have three different subjects (speaking, listening and comprehension). There are five of us in the class and we meet for four hours each morning, Monday through Friday. I cannot believe I have only had three days of classes (Monday was only orientation and placement). I feel I have already covered quite a bit.

I am writing from a computer at my language school, and while I could go on writing much more, I have to leave and go home now - hui jia. Mrs Wang said she'd make baozi for me tonight. I have not had any, yet, and hope they will be delicious! :)