UPDATE! HOORAY!
I just spent the weekend in bed with a nubile young virus. Fortunately she's leaving me this week, but she's taking her time about it.
Q: Now where was I?
A: Many places, starting with Hong Kong
Q's R to A: That was a rhetorical question
We flew into Chongqing after busing back to Guilin. The flight was fairly uneventful, although there was a fairly epic movie about competitive tea ceremonies.
TEA FIGHT! TEA FIGHT!
I want to find that movie and watch it in full.
Chongqing late at night and going into Beibei is really mostly just a skyline, though it's extremely impressive when viewed from downtown. More on that later.
We were informed a couple days before coming to Beibei [the city where Southwest University (the school I'm attending this semester) is located] that the foreign student's dormitory was (and thus is) full, and therefore would couldn't be housed there. Therefore we're living in the Foreign office hotel just across the block from the dorm. I'd prefer to live in said dorm and get to know a lot of other international students, but the facilities in which I get to live are so spacious that the consolation prize is definitely worth having.
We started the program with an "opening ceremony". This ceremony consisted of us, and three officials from the school. Each official gave a speech, Gladys White (the CSB/SJU prof who is accompanying us) gave a one minute speech, and I gave one as well. I think it might have meant more if there had been more than three Chinese people there. Oh cultural differences how you amuse me, but not really in this case because the ceremony was boring.
The city of Beibei on the other hand is definitely not. It's hilly enough that it reminds me of Crestline, the mountain town where my grandparents used to live. There are many, many stairs, and there's this one underground market where you walk through it and you find yourself on this very above ground bridge between two buildings before you continue and then on the other side you walk up some stairs in order to get back above ground. I think all of the third dimension that seems to be lacking in Shandong got shifted to the Chongqing area.
Speaking of Chongqing, we went to the actual city a few days ago, and it is quite impressive. The buildings are much taller than those of Beijing, it reminds me of a somewhat more relaxed Hong Kong. The main area of interest is Jiefangbei, the downtown district where most foreigners go. Obviously a lot of shopping, but it also has that big city feel without being so huge that it's inaccessible. Also the hilly geography leads to some interesting architecture, such as a shopping mall that instead of sprawling horizontally, has about 11 floors and is built into the side of a steep slope.
We were wandering around Beibei, and we wandered into a music store where I was able to find an electric guitar for about 800 yuan. 1/3rd the cost of a similar quality guitar in the US, but then my camera stopped working. A Chinese friend of mine helped me find a shop to get it repaired, but unfortunately that took a while, so I'm going to have to mooch of other people for pictures of one of the major excursions.
One thing I've noticed about Chinese cities (with the notable exception of Beijing) is that there don't seem to be many residential districts. Occasionally you'll find a cluster of mid to high rent apartments, but for the rest of Chinese city dwellers live in apartment complexes located above commercial buildings. Thus a typical building would have shops on the first two or three floors, and then apartments the rest of the way up. This is part of why there's so much space in China despite the 1.5 billion people. They just build up instead of out.
Classes
They last two and a half hours, Chinese can sometimes get long, and Lit always does.
Common Ethics Seminar: Like First Year Seminar but for juniors and seniors, completely unnecessary but still a part of my graduation requirements. This class is fairly interesting, and is taught by Gladys.
Intermediate Chinese: A review since I've already taken this class in the US, but I'm still learning new things since this teacher goes into more detail of the whys behind Chinese phrases.
History/Ethnography: Easily the most interesting class. Obviously a lot of history, but the professor will go on to tangents about various aspects of Chinese culture with very little provocation. He also knows about the bad aspects of the Chinese government, unlike the other teachers, so he's willing to talk about things a lot more clearly than most Chinese people.
Literature: I've improved my drawing skills since taking this class. The professor is a nice guy, but there's not much information in any given period.
And there's Wushu, which is a martial arts class, a good workout, and quite fun.
Q: Now where was I?
A: Many places, starting with Hong Kong
Q's R to A: That was a rhetorical question
We flew into Chongqing after busing back to Guilin. The flight was fairly uneventful, although there was a fairly epic movie about competitive tea ceremonies.
TEA FIGHT! TEA FIGHT!
I want to find that movie and watch it in full.
Chongqing late at night and going into Beibei is really mostly just a skyline, though it's extremely impressive when viewed from downtown. More on that later.
We were informed a couple days before coming to Beibei [the city where Southwest University (the school I'm attending this semester) is located] that the foreign student's dormitory was (and thus is) full, and therefore would couldn't be housed there. Therefore we're living in the Foreign office hotel just across the block from the dorm. I'd prefer to live in said dorm and get to know a lot of other international students, but the facilities in which I get to live are so spacious that the consolation prize is definitely worth having.
We started the program with an "opening ceremony". This ceremony consisted of us, and three officials from the school. Each official gave a speech, Gladys White (the CSB/SJU prof who is accompanying us) gave a one minute speech, and I gave one as well. I think it might have meant more if there had been more than three Chinese people there. Oh cultural differences how you amuse me, but not really in this case because the ceremony was boring.
The city of Beibei on the other hand is definitely not. It's hilly enough that it reminds me of Crestline, the mountain town where my grandparents used to live. There are many, many stairs, and there's this one underground market where you walk through it and you find yourself on this very above ground bridge between two buildings before you continue and then on the other side you walk up some stairs in order to get back above ground. I think all of the third dimension that seems to be lacking in Shandong got shifted to the Chongqing area.
Speaking of Chongqing, we went to the actual city a few days ago, and it is quite impressive. The buildings are much taller than those of Beijing, it reminds me of a somewhat more relaxed Hong Kong. The main area of interest is Jiefangbei, the downtown district where most foreigners go. Obviously a lot of shopping, but it also has that big city feel without being so huge that it's inaccessible. Also the hilly geography leads to some interesting architecture, such as a shopping mall that instead of sprawling horizontally, has about 11 floors and is built into the side of a steep slope.
We were wandering around Beibei, and we wandered into a music store where I was able to find an electric guitar for about 800 yuan. 1/3rd the cost of a similar quality guitar in the US, but then my camera stopped working. A Chinese friend of mine helped me find a shop to get it repaired, but unfortunately that took a while, so I'm going to have to mooch of other people for pictures of one of the major excursions.
One thing I've noticed about Chinese cities (with the notable exception of Beijing) is that there don't seem to be many residential districts. Occasionally you'll find a cluster of mid to high rent apartments, but for the rest of Chinese city dwellers live in apartment complexes located above commercial buildings. Thus a typical building would have shops on the first two or three floors, and then apartments the rest of the way up. This is part of why there's so much space in China despite the 1.5 billion people. They just build up instead of out.
Classes
They last two and a half hours, Chinese can sometimes get long, and Lit always does.
Common Ethics Seminar: Like First Year Seminar but for juniors and seniors, completely unnecessary but still a part of my graduation requirements. This class is fairly interesting, and is taught by Gladys.
Intermediate Chinese: A review since I've already taken this class in the US, but I'm still learning new things since this teacher goes into more detail of the whys behind Chinese phrases.
History/Ethnography: Easily the most interesting class. Obviously a lot of history, but the professor will go on to tangents about various aspects of Chinese culture with very little provocation. He also knows about the bad aspects of the Chinese government, unlike the other teachers, so he's willing to talk about things a lot more clearly than most Chinese people.
Literature: I've improved my drawing skills since taking this class. The professor is a nice guy, but there's not much information in any given period.
And there's Wushu, which is a martial arts class, a good workout, and quite fun.