Hello everybody,
Well, its been another rather uneventful week here. There are a couple things that deserve mentioning, but the exciting update will come again next week, after our big trip to Xi'an. That leaves this Friday the 15th, and we'll get back on Sunday. Hopefully, I'll get a post up either Monday or Tuesday so that you all don't have to wait too long before finding out what happened there. Anyways, with that short update out of the way, lets move on to the couple of things that happened this week.
Firstly, one of the girls in our dorm from Nepal had a birthday on Friday, and we celebrated that with traditional, homemade food from India and Nepal. It wasn't exactly the same because they couldn't get all of the same ingredients here. But if it was anywhere near the same, they eat very good food in those countries, and I definitely wouldn't mind eating it more often. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone from Nepal when I return to the states... :/ I think I may have to go to more of the UNK cultural events and try out many new foods, as well as meet new foreign students on our own campus.
The second thing I did this week that was slightly less important, but still very fun, was that I went to see the new Thor movie in the 3D IMAX theater at one of our local malls. It was even in English, which made things that much better. And I must say, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. I don't know if it was the fact that I was watching a movie in English, or if it was just a good movie, but I definitely enjoyed it more than the first.
I know, that doesn't really explain much of the culture here, but I think this next part might a little: there were actually a lot of Chinese people in the English theater watching Thor, even though there was a Chinese showing in the same theater. I don't know the reason for that, but it could be that they like watching the movies in English to practice their language skills, or maybe they like watching it in its original format, without the dubbing. I know that when I watch movies like Ip Man or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, I prefer to listen to the original actors and just use subtitles. Maybe that's what they were doing as well.
Anyways, with my pondering aside, that has really been the extent of my week. Again, there has been the usual studying, sleeping, going to class and all those other wonderful things that don't really liven a post up. We had a quiz over section two of our language book this week, and I only missed five points on that, so my language skills are still staying up there. Hopefully they just keep improving the rest of the time, and I don't lose them as soon as I leave. :P As the title of my post says, this week also marked the point in the trip where we only have one month left. Looking back, the time has really gone by quickly. There have been some struggles, but there have also been some really cool parts. Its going to be a bittersweet moment leaving Hebei Normal. Thanks again to everyone that's reading these, and I'll update you as soon as I can with the details from Xi'an.
Adam
Showing posts with label Chinese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Monday, September 9, 2013
Another Week, Plus Trip #1
Hello everyone,
Jeez, it seems like forever since I've posted on here. And the reason why is a mixture of my being busy, and my being lazy. :P So, as the title says, another week is down in our four month trip to China. The time seems to be both going very slow when I'm in any given moment, but also very fast when I look back and realize I've almost been here a month already.
Things have started to get a bit better with both of my major struggles from last time. Our internet connection has mostly stabilized. There are still some moments where the internet doesn't want to work at all, but for the most part I can log in whenever I have time to. The language issue is still a struggle, but we are learning more of the language every day. We can now understand prices, and when people ask "What do you want?" Any questions beyond that are still mysteries, but at least we're getting the basics down.
We have also started to meet more people here. The professor with us from Kearney is living in an apartment off campus, and has introduced us to some of the people living in her building. She is also Indian, and invited us over for a homemade Indian meal one night. That was entertaining, and really did give us the chance to talk to and connect with our professor.
As far as actual schooling goes, we have started both of our other classes: literature and history. Both classes are taught in English by Chinese professors. Both professors speak relatively good English, and have created very comprehensive PowerPoint presentations to help with anything they may not be able to say accurately. I am very interested to get more in depth in those classes, as so far we've only had introductions in both. I will keep you all updated with interesting facts I learn in these classes. For example, in literature class, I have learned that one of the most famous Chinese literature pieces, when translated into English, is over 2300 pages long. Even as an avid reader, that is a massive book that will take a long time to get completely read.
Now, with all of the basic living things out of the way, we took our first trip this Saturday! The trip was to Baiyangdian, or the largest man-made lake in China. It took almost three hours to drive there by bus, and the place we were going was on an island in the lake, which took another half hour by boat to get to. The lake is so large that they have had to put "street" signs up to tell boats where to go:
Now, as you can see from this picture, the smog in China is thick. And yes, that's smog, not just fog. I've gotten a little more used to it since I've been here, but looking out my window on sixth floor and not being able to even see all of campus is a little scary still...
When we arrived at the island, we found out that it was just a small center where they put on shows. If any of you have been to Branson, Missouri, its a lot like that, except all in Chinese. We watched two shows there, one performed all by midgets and the other performed on a stage that was a foot under water.
After the garden, we had another boat ride and bus ride back to the dorm. Overall, the trip was interesting. I wish the tour guide had spoken English, however. I wish I could tell you more about the history of the lake, or about some of the site history at the lake, but you know as much as I still do. Hopefully, as we go on other trips, we will get guides that speak English.
That's about it for this post. I hope I didn't bore you all too much with the wall of text here. It's been a week since my last post, though, and I wanted to get everyone caught up to where things are. Thanks again to anyone who reads this, and I'll be updating again when I have more to share.
Adam
Jeez, it seems like forever since I've posted on here. And the reason why is a mixture of my being busy, and my being lazy. :P So, as the title says, another week is down in our four month trip to China. The time seems to be both going very slow when I'm in any given moment, but also very fast when I look back and realize I've almost been here a month already.
Things have started to get a bit better with both of my major struggles from last time. Our internet connection has mostly stabilized. There are still some moments where the internet doesn't want to work at all, but for the most part I can log in whenever I have time to. The language issue is still a struggle, but we are learning more of the language every day. We can now understand prices, and when people ask "What do you want?" Any questions beyond that are still mysteries, but at least we're getting the basics down.
We have also started to meet more people here. The professor with us from Kearney is living in an apartment off campus, and has introduced us to some of the people living in her building. She is also Indian, and invited us over for a homemade Indian meal one night. That was entertaining, and really did give us the chance to talk to and connect with our professor.
As far as actual schooling goes, we have started both of our other classes: literature and history. Both classes are taught in English by Chinese professors. Both professors speak relatively good English, and have created very comprehensive PowerPoint presentations to help with anything they may not be able to say accurately. I am very interested to get more in depth in those classes, as so far we've only had introductions in both. I will keep you all updated with interesting facts I learn in these classes. For example, in literature class, I have learned that one of the most famous Chinese literature pieces, when translated into English, is over 2300 pages long. Even as an avid reader, that is a massive book that will take a long time to get completely read.
Now, with all of the basic living things out of the way, we took our first trip this Saturday! The trip was to Baiyangdian, or the largest man-made lake in China. It took almost three hours to drive there by bus, and the place we were going was on an island in the lake, which took another half hour by boat to get to. The lake is so large that they have had to put "street" signs up to tell boats where to go:
When we arrived at the island, we found out that it was just a small center where they put on shows. If any of you have been to Branson, Missouri, its a lot like that, except all in Chinese. We watched two shows there, one performed all by midgets and the other performed on a stage that was a foot under water.
After the shows, we went to the Lotus Garden, which was about ten minutes away by boat again. This was a very nice place, and had many cool things to look at. Below are pictures of lotus flowers, and one of me with a giant Buddha statue that was in the center of the garden.
That's about it for this post. I hope I didn't bore you all too much with the wall of text here. It's been a week since my last post, though, and I wanted to get everyone caught up to where things are. Thanks again to anyone who reads this, and I'll be updating again when I have more to share.
Adam
Monday, September 2, 2013
Fun, and Many Struggles
Hello again, anyone who may be reading this.
Well, its been almost two weeks since I landed in China. And I've had mixed feelings about it ever since. Some parts are very cool, and I have enjoyed them. Many parts have been very frustrating as I have been making the transition to living in China. I am going to start with the positive, because its always best to begin with that, in my opinion.
So, the fun. Since arriving, I have met quite a few people from quite a few different countries. Russians, Peruvians, Chinese, Indonesians, and many others. I have gotten to study with some, play ping pong with others, and attend musical shows with still others. These parts of the trip have been incredibly fun, and I do look forward to getting to hang out with these new friends more as the semester continues.
Also, the trips we have scheduled begin this Saturday. Our first trip is to "The Biggest Lake in China." That is its tourist definition from what the other abroad students and I could find online. The other trips are to interesting locations as well, spread out through the semester. I am still looking forward to those trips, and I think they are going to be very interesting.
Now, with that said, this trip has had struggles almost daily since I landed. The language barrier was, and still is, a much bigger problem than we were told before we left America. Yes, most of the Chinese students I have met know how to say "hello" and "goodbye" in English. Just like I learned how to say "ni hao" and "zaijian" before I left America. But, just like I still can't speak Chinese, they still can't speak English, and communication has been one of the hardest things since arriving here in China. To anyone looking to go on this trip in the future, I would suggest learning some Chinese before hand, and not just hello and goodbye.
Not only has communication in the country been a problem, but communication outside the country has been a major problem as well. I didn't find out until after I arrived that the Foreign Student dorm we are in does not provide wifi to dorm rooms. We had been told that the new campus would have that free wifi. Instead, the wifi is only located on floors one and four, and even then only at certain times in the day. This doesn't mean that we can't get internet in our rooms for our stay, though. In order to get a wired connection, we all shelled out almost 300 yuan. The connection didn't start until September 1. And even when it did, it has been down more often than it has been available. To make matters worse, the technicians responsible for setting it up fall in the group of Chinese people that don't know English. Meaning asking questions and getting things fixed is a nightmare in itself.
There have been other little glitches along the way, but those are the biggest things that I wish I had been told before I left the United States. I hope that I can save some other students this hassle should they decide to take this trip as well. That's really all I have time for now. I'm down in the first floor lobby again, as my wired connection hasn't worked for the past four hours or so, and people are starting to fill in and want more time before the wifi is turned off. I'll update again as soon as more happens, which will probably be after our first trip.
Thanks again for reading,
Adam
Well, its been almost two weeks since I landed in China. And I've had mixed feelings about it ever since. Some parts are very cool, and I have enjoyed them. Many parts have been very frustrating as I have been making the transition to living in China. I am going to start with the positive, because its always best to begin with that, in my opinion.
So, the fun. Since arriving, I have met quite a few people from quite a few different countries. Russians, Peruvians, Chinese, Indonesians, and many others. I have gotten to study with some, play ping pong with others, and attend musical shows with still others. These parts of the trip have been incredibly fun, and I do look forward to getting to hang out with these new friends more as the semester continues.
Also, the trips we have scheduled begin this Saturday. Our first trip is to "The Biggest Lake in China." That is its tourist definition from what the other abroad students and I could find online. The other trips are to interesting locations as well, spread out through the semester. I am still looking forward to those trips, and I think they are going to be very interesting.
Now, with that said, this trip has had struggles almost daily since I landed. The language barrier was, and still is, a much bigger problem than we were told before we left America. Yes, most of the Chinese students I have met know how to say "hello" and "goodbye" in English. Just like I learned how to say "ni hao" and "zaijian" before I left America. But, just like I still can't speak Chinese, they still can't speak English, and communication has been one of the hardest things since arriving here in China. To anyone looking to go on this trip in the future, I would suggest learning some Chinese before hand, and not just hello and goodbye.
Not only has communication in the country been a problem, but communication outside the country has been a major problem as well. I didn't find out until after I arrived that the Foreign Student dorm we are in does not provide wifi to dorm rooms. We had been told that the new campus would have that free wifi. Instead, the wifi is only located on floors one and four, and even then only at certain times in the day. This doesn't mean that we can't get internet in our rooms for our stay, though. In order to get a wired connection, we all shelled out almost 300 yuan. The connection didn't start until September 1. And even when it did, it has been down more often than it has been available. To make matters worse, the technicians responsible for setting it up fall in the group of Chinese people that don't know English. Meaning asking questions and getting things fixed is a nightmare in itself.
There have been other little glitches along the way, but those are the biggest things that I wish I had been told before I left the United States. I hope that I can save some other students this hassle should they decide to take this trip as well. That's really all I have time for now. I'm down in the first floor lobby again, as my wired connection hasn't worked for the past four hours or so, and people are starting to fill in and want more time before the wifi is turned off. I'll update again as soon as more happens, which will probably be after our first trip.
Thanks again for reading,
Adam
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
A Necessary Update
Hello everyone,
Sorry it has taken me this long to update things. I've had quite the week so far, and it hasn't even been a full week yet. :P So, lets get everything all caught up, shall we?
To begin, was the plane ride. I knew 11.5 hours was a long time to be in the air, and to be quite honest, I still didn't think I was quite ready for it. However, once we took off and I realized they provided free movies for passengers... I had a much better time. Four movies and an hour long nap later, I was landing in Beijing, China, halfway around the world from everything I was used to. We stayed that night in a hotel, which had really spotty internet, meaning no blogging there. End day one.
Day two started out with a five hour long bus ride to our "town," Shi Jiazhuang, and the Hebei Normal University. Now, this wasn't a bad bus ride. We were the only people on the bus. The university had hired the bus just for us, which made the ride more relaxing than anything else. After we arrived, we got a quick tour of the important buildings around campus, but none were more important than the Cultural Exchange Building, which is where our dorms and classrooms are as foreign exchange students.
As a quick aside, when I talk about "dorm rooms" I really mean something more akin to a hotel room.
Sorry it has taken me this long to update things. I've had quite the week so far, and it hasn't even been a full week yet. :P So, lets get everything all caught up, shall we?
To begin, was the plane ride. I knew 11.5 hours was a long time to be in the air, and to be quite honest, I still didn't think I was quite ready for it. However, once we took off and I realized they provided free movies for passengers... I had a much better time. Four movies and an hour long nap later, I was landing in Beijing, China, halfway around the world from everything I was used to. We stayed that night in a hotel, which had really spotty internet, meaning no blogging there. End day one.
Day two started out with a five hour long bus ride to our "town," Shi Jiazhuang, and the Hebei Normal University. Now, this wasn't a bad bus ride. We were the only people on the bus. The university had hired the bus just for us, which made the ride more relaxing than anything else. After we arrived, we got a quick tour of the important buildings around campus, but none were more important than the Cultural Exchange Building, which is where our dorms and classrooms are as foreign exchange students.
As a quick aside, when I talk about "dorm rooms" I really mean something more akin to a hotel room.
These three pictures show the fact that I have a little entrance hallway, two beds, two dressers, two desks, and a bathroom, all to myself. No roommates. Which is insanely impressive, and far more room than I figured I would have. Also, the Cultural Exchange Building stands at twelve stories tall, almost twice as tall as the tallest dorm/building at Kearney. My room is located on the sixth floor of the building.
The weekend after we got all moved in, I struggled a little. We didn't know any of the language, and we didn't have any way to get that information. Our rooms, as nice as they are, don't have internet unless you pay for it, and even once you do, the internet doesn't start until September first. Fourth floor has internet, but only at certain times during the day, so getting on to check translations and things like that was very difficult. I remember thinking that if the rest of the trip was like that weekend, it may end up being a very long four months.
But, as they usually do, things got better. Monday and Tuesday brought the start of Mandarin Chinese class. I can't even begin to express how good it is to know even just a few words in the local language. For example, I cannow say hello, goodbye, how much is this?, I would like to buy this, and a few other extremely useful phrases in Chinese. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will bring more of that class, and next week we start our other classes as well, which include Chinese History and Chinese Literature. I am just as excited for both of these classes as I am to continue learning more Mandarin.
Hopefully it won't be as long to my next post as it was getting to this one. I will do my best to get things updated as things happen. Thanks again for reading this blog, to anyone who does. I hope I can entertain at least a little with the experiences I'm having half a world away.
Adam
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