A e-mail and a bike ride...
Staying busy studying Chinese like a good little girl, but I thought I'd take the time to update y'all on my exciting past week in China.
Last weekend I went home with Fei Fei (my Chinese roomate--more to come on this later). We spent the weekend doing all the kinds of things you would imagine doing if you had a foreign exchange student come visit your home for a couple days. Well, before I left I decided it would be a good idea to e-mail Josh--seeing as it had been two weeks since I had last e-mailed the poor boy (hey, in my defense, he hadn't e-mailed either! He was busy being a beach bum in Cali while I was busy being a badass in Beijing). So, I sent him a nice long e-mail (think probably a little shorter than the size of my last blog). Details of Erin's escapades ensued intermingled with slighly inappropriate suggestive comments. Told him that I hoped he was having a good time and to e-mail all the details of Cali and his 21st (which happened when he was in Cali).
So, upon arriving back in my room Saturday night, I eagerly booted up the computer and checked the inbox. There was what I had been waiting for: a reply e-mail to my short novel. Quickly clicking the link and scanning the contents, I was appalled (there's really no other word). His e-mail read something like this: Wow, that's a lot of catching up. California was good. The wedding was fine. See you in August. Josh.
My mind began racing at about a bazillion miles per hour. Had all the time apart effected our relationship? Why was his e-mail so rude? Did he want to break up with me? My state was not helped by the fact that I had spent the weekend watching Fei Fei and her boyfriend be oh so adorable. Had missed Josh like hell, and the e-mail greatly upset me. Was even more unsure of myself since the previous week one of my Chinese lessons was about relationships, and a guy in my class with a girlfriend back home firmly insisted (in Chinese of course) that long distance was too difficult and could never work. Naturally, being the girl that I am, I freaked out. I talked to anyone who happened to be online (that would be Lori) and tried to garner suggestions. In the end, I sent him an e-mail that basically went like this, Why do you have to be so rude? Why aren't you invested in our relationship? And various other snarky comments from a girl who thought she was being broken up with.
Now, this is where the story gets interesting. I decided to stop moping around my room and try to be social. I ended up watching Hostel (whoever bought that movie is deranged, as well as the people who made it) with a bunch of the Chinese roomates. When I got back to the room past 2 a.m. here, I found a reply from Josh in my inbox. Nervously clicked the link. His reply read something like this: I am now very, very sorry for my joke. Maybe there was something wrong with your browser or you were just too mad to notice the rest of the e-mail... So, Josh had actually written me a very long, sweet e-mail detailing his Cali adventures--it had just been hidden under a bunch of white space as an attempt to make a joke about his sometimes poor communication skills. So, as he was trying to make a joke about communicating, we miscommunicated. I adore irony. However, all is well now, and I no longer feel like a horrible person.
As for the weekend...Fei Fei's dad and her boyfriend picked us up Friday morning. Her home is really close to the airport--or about an hour away. We stopped at a restaurant and got lunch. This was my first introduction to Fei Fei's mom, dad and boyfriend. The food was sooo good. We had Beijing duck, which is famous around here as you could imagine. After stuffing ourselves silly, we returned to her home.
Some description now for you literary types:
Fei Fei's dad is really nice in a I-can-so-easily-caricature you kind of way. He's probably average male Chinese height (think a little bit taller than me) and maybe a little stocky. He smokes cigerettes and speaks in this kind of gruff tone with a baritone voice. He works in the government, but I'm not sure exactly what he does. Their family isn't rich, but they probably are middle to upper middle class in China. I could definitely see her dad being the politician type though--smoking cigerettes, talking to people--seemed like it would fit him to a tea.
Fei Fei's mom is also about my height. She's a little plump with a round face and wears her darky, messy hair up most of the time. She's really good natured and is a little more quiet than her husband. She works at a bank.
Fei Fei's boyfriend is just how I would imagine a Chinese computer geek. Fei Fei and I have bonded during various point this summer/amused ourselves with the similarities between our two guys. Uncannily, they are both computer science majors who date girls interested in law/politics, like to play computer games far too much, and were born only one day apart (same year too). He's a couple inches taller than me and fairly thin with glasses. Fei Fei's nickname for him is Mouse because his Chinese name, Hao, is close to the Chinese word for mouse. He likes to kid around that Fei Fei (for a Chinese person) is a little fat (though if she is fat I am obese). He can't fool me though. After watching the two of them I am convinced of one thing: He adores her.
Her home was located in a huuuge apartment building on the fifth floor (the hallway and the elevator were so sketchy, but it's in a nice area. The building locks after dark--it reminded me of NYC). I loved her living room because there was this huge wall of windows that let in amazing light. They also had these huge green and orange couches (the color sounds dubious, but it looked really good combined with the lighting and plants all around) with big matching pillows. They had three bedrooms and a bathroom and kitchen as well.
So, after resting for a little bit, Fei Fei, me and the boyfriend decided to go swimming at a nearby swimming center. First, we had to go buy a swim cap for me since it was pool rules. Fei Fei and her boyfriend both had bikes, so we decided to travel this way. Now, here's the important thing to know about Chinese bikes: Most of them are built so that a second person can ride on the back. But it isn't like a tandem bike. It's like a metal, mesh seat with no back that you sit sideways on. Fei Fei's first idea was for me to ride on the back of her bike, but that quickly proved unpromising. Since I've never done it before, I didn't have the requisite balance and was far too scared. In the end, I rode Fei Fei's bike, and she rode on the back of her boyfriends. Beijing traffic was still scary, but I managed not to get hit, so I will label the venture successful.
The pool was fun. Me and the boyfriend tried to teach Fei Fei how to properly free style, but she just doesn't kick hard enough. The weirdest part about the pool was the dressing room. Now, in America, some women feel perfectly free to undress in front of other women, while others don't feel so comfortable and will opt for a stall. However, in China, all women feel quite comfortable undressing in front of each other. Let's just say I saw a lot of naked Chinese women (aren't you jealous boys?), felt very uncomfortable and managed to undress/dress discreetly. We were wore out after swimming and went home to eat/chill. The night passed pretty quietly. We watched a Zhang Ziyi film in Chinese and some Chinese TV and had dinner.
Saturday we slept in til 10 a.m. (can you believe 10 a.m. is late for me here?), and then headed to Fei Fei's grandaparent's house. There I met her nai nai and ye ye (her dad's parents). Her grandparents were awesome. Her grandpa looked as though he always had this huge smile on his face. He liked calligraphy (书法）a lot, so he wrote some Chinese characters and had me try to guess what they were. Her grandma was a little plump, but very cute. Her and Fei Fei's mom cooked us lunch, which was fabulous. I think Fei Fei's family was very amused by me the entire weekend. My speaking skills are definitely improving, but I still have a hard time understanding a lot of people besides my teachers because everyone has a very strong accent. Basically, Fei Fei served as my translator using a mix of English and Chinese (she's very good about speaking Chinese on my level of learning). My chopstick skills also are kind of funny. I can eat food quite easily, but I don't think I hold them quite right. I took pictures with the family, which they were happy to oblige to, and I will post them to Facebook at some point.
After lunch, we went shopping with the boyfriend. In China, boys go shopping with their girlfriends all the time and hold all their bags for them. It's just the way things are done. Seeing as how I am morally opposed to girls in America dragging their boyfriends with them to the mall, I felt bad for him. We went to real stores, so we didn't bargain or anything. I got a bright yellow top with gold sparkles. Kind of a going out shirt, it's OK--was one of the few things that didn't make me feel hideously fat (damn those skinny Chinese girls!). Saturday night we ate some fast food at a Japanese joint and my fun e-mail adventure ensued.
The rest of this week has been spent studying about Chinese and stressing over my flight sitution/trying to plan everything for the DTH. Good times.
So here are the lessons I have learned this week:
*Don't try to ride on the back of Chinese bikes--I'm not a skinny Chinese girl
*Don't forget to scan down an entire e-mail
*Apologize
*Planning makes all the difference in the world
*Trust that everything will work out
*Have faith in other people
Last weekend I went home with Fei Fei (my Chinese roomate--more to come on this later). We spent the weekend doing all the kinds of things you would imagine doing if you had a foreign exchange student come visit your home for a couple days. Well, before I left I decided it would be a good idea to e-mail Josh--seeing as it had been two weeks since I had last e-mailed the poor boy (hey, in my defense, he hadn't e-mailed either! He was busy being a beach bum in Cali while I was busy being a badass in Beijing). So, I sent him a nice long e-mail (think probably a little shorter than the size of my last blog). Details of Erin's escapades ensued intermingled with slighly inappropriate suggestive comments. Told him that I hoped he was having a good time and to e-mail all the details of Cali and his 21st (which happened when he was in Cali).
So, upon arriving back in my room Saturday night, I eagerly booted up the computer and checked the inbox. There was what I had been waiting for: a reply e-mail to my short novel. Quickly clicking the link and scanning the contents, I was appalled (there's really no other word). His e-mail read something like this: Wow, that's a lot of catching up. California was good. The wedding was fine. See you in August. Josh.
My mind began racing at about a bazillion miles per hour. Had all the time apart effected our relationship? Why was his e-mail so rude? Did he want to break up with me? My state was not helped by the fact that I had spent the weekend watching Fei Fei and her boyfriend be oh so adorable. Had missed Josh like hell, and the e-mail greatly upset me. Was even more unsure of myself since the previous week one of my Chinese lessons was about relationships, and a guy in my class with a girlfriend back home firmly insisted (in Chinese of course) that long distance was too difficult and could never work. Naturally, being the girl that I am, I freaked out. I talked to anyone who happened to be online (that would be Lori) and tried to garner suggestions. In the end, I sent him an e-mail that basically went like this, Why do you have to be so rude? Why aren't you invested in our relationship? And various other snarky comments from a girl who thought she was being broken up with.
Now, this is where the story gets interesting. I decided to stop moping around my room and try to be social. I ended up watching Hostel (whoever bought that movie is deranged, as well as the people who made it) with a bunch of the Chinese roomates. When I got back to the room past 2 a.m. here, I found a reply from Josh in my inbox. Nervously clicked the link. His reply read something like this: I am now very, very sorry for my joke. Maybe there was something wrong with your browser or you were just too mad to notice the rest of the e-mail... So, Josh had actually written me a very long, sweet e-mail detailing his Cali adventures--it had just been hidden under a bunch of white space as an attempt to make a joke about his sometimes poor communication skills. So, as he was trying to make a joke about communicating, we miscommunicated. I adore irony. However, all is well now, and I no longer feel like a horrible person.
As for the weekend...Fei Fei's dad and her boyfriend picked us up Friday morning. Her home is really close to the airport--or about an hour away. We stopped at a restaurant and got lunch. This was my first introduction to Fei Fei's mom, dad and boyfriend. The food was sooo good. We had Beijing duck, which is famous around here as you could imagine. After stuffing ourselves silly, we returned to her home.
Some description now for you literary types:
Fei Fei's dad is really nice in a I-can-so-easily-caricature you kind of way. He's probably average male Chinese height (think a little bit taller than me) and maybe a little stocky. He smokes cigerettes and speaks in this kind of gruff tone with a baritone voice. He works in the government, but I'm not sure exactly what he does. Their family isn't rich, but they probably are middle to upper middle class in China. I could definitely see her dad being the politician type though--smoking cigerettes, talking to people--seemed like it would fit him to a tea.
Fei Fei's mom is also about my height. She's a little plump with a round face and wears her darky, messy hair up most of the time. She's really good natured and is a little more quiet than her husband. She works at a bank.
Fei Fei's boyfriend is just how I would imagine a Chinese computer geek. Fei Fei and I have bonded during various point this summer/amused ourselves with the similarities between our two guys. Uncannily, they are both computer science majors who date girls interested in law/politics, like to play computer games far too much, and were born only one day apart (same year too). He's a couple inches taller than me and fairly thin with glasses. Fei Fei's nickname for him is Mouse because his Chinese name, Hao, is close to the Chinese word for mouse. He likes to kid around that Fei Fei (for a Chinese person) is a little fat (though if she is fat I am obese). He can't fool me though. After watching the two of them I am convinced of one thing: He adores her.
Her home was located in a huuuge apartment building on the fifth floor (the hallway and the elevator were so sketchy, but it's in a nice area. The building locks after dark--it reminded me of NYC). I loved her living room because there was this huge wall of windows that let in amazing light. They also had these huge green and orange couches (the color sounds dubious, but it looked really good combined with the lighting and plants all around) with big matching pillows. They had three bedrooms and a bathroom and kitchen as well.
So, after resting for a little bit, Fei Fei, me and the boyfriend decided to go swimming at a nearby swimming center. First, we had to go buy a swim cap for me since it was pool rules. Fei Fei and her boyfriend both had bikes, so we decided to travel this way. Now, here's the important thing to know about Chinese bikes: Most of them are built so that a second person can ride on the back. But it isn't like a tandem bike. It's like a metal, mesh seat with no back that you sit sideways on. Fei Fei's first idea was for me to ride on the back of her bike, but that quickly proved unpromising. Since I've never done it before, I didn't have the requisite balance and was far too scared. In the end, I rode Fei Fei's bike, and she rode on the back of her boyfriends. Beijing traffic was still scary, but I managed not to get hit, so I will label the venture successful.
The pool was fun. Me and the boyfriend tried to teach Fei Fei how to properly free style, but she just doesn't kick hard enough. The weirdest part about the pool was the dressing room. Now, in America, some women feel perfectly free to undress in front of other women, while others don't feel so comfortable and will opt for a stall. However, in China, all women feel quite comfortable undressing in front of each other. Let's just say I saw a lot of naked Chinese women (aren't you jealous boys?), felt very uncomfortable and managed to undress/dress discreetly. We were wore out after swimming and went home to eat/chill. The night passed pretty quietly. We watched a Zhang Ziyi film in Chinese and some Chinese TV and had dinner.
Saturday we slept in til 10 a.m. (can you believe 10 a.m. is late for me here?), and then headed to Fei Fei's grandaparent's house. There I met her nai nai and ye ye (her dad's parents). Her grandparents were awesome. Her grandpa looked as though he always had this huge smile on his face. He liked calligraphy (书法）a lot, so he wrote some Chinese characters and had me try to guess what they were. Her grandma was a little plump, but very cute. Her and Fei Fei's mom cooked us lunch, which was fabulous. I think Fei Fei's family was very amused by me the entire weekend. My speaking skills are definitely improving, but I still have a hard time understanding a lot of people besides my teachers because everyone has a very strong accent. Basically, Fei Fei served as my translator using a mix of English and Chinese (she's very good about speaking Chinese on my level of learning). My chopstick skills also are kind of funny. I can eat food quite easily, but I don't think I hold them quite right. I took pictures with the family, which they were happy to oblige to, and I will post them to Facebook at some point.
After lunch, we went shopping with the boyfriend. In China, boys go shopping with their girlfriends all the time and hold all their bags for them. It's just the way things are done. Seeing as how I am morally opposed to girls in America dragging their boyfriends with them to the mall, I felt bad for him. We went to real stores, so we didn't bargain or anything. I got a bright yellow top with gold sparkles. Kind of a going out shirt, it's OK--was one of the few things that didn't make me feel hideously fat (damn those skinny Chinese girls!). Saturday night we ate some fast food at a Japanese joint and my fun e-mail adventure ensued.
The rest of this week has been spent studying about Chinese and stressing over my flight sitution/trying to plan everything for the DTH. Good times.
So here are the lessons I have learned this week:
*Don't try to ride on the back of Chinese bikes--I'm not a skinny Chinese girl
*Don't forget to scan down an entire e-mail
*Apologize
*Planning makes all the difference in the world
*Trust that everything will work out
*Have faith in other people