IUP Begins

My schedule:
8 am - Danbanke (one-on-one): Reading Course (Thought and Society)
9 am - Hebanke (three-on-one): Listening Course part 1 (Frankly Speaking)
10 am - Hebanke (three-on-one): Reading Course (Thought and Society)
1 pm - Hebanke (three-on-one): Listening Course part 2 (Frankly Speaking)

So far, not too much work. About 100 words per day, plus some homework. Most of the time is spent on learning new material for the next day, since one-on-one and three-on-one classes are pretty intense. Chinese 133 definitely prepared me well - I'd estimate about 1/3 of the words in the first lesson are familiar.

In other news, life outside classes is great! I caved and bought a bike, and am now trying to learn how to mount and dismount the Chinese way. (explanatory pictures to come) I've also tried a new restaurant in Wudaokou almost every meal. Let me just take a moment to say that I love living with native Chinese people!! Especially since both my roommates went to college in Beijing, they know the ins and outs of the city: where to eat, where to visit, where to play. I also lucked out a little, since my roommates love to chat and take me around the city, and don't mind me pestering them with questions about Beijing, China or Chinese (at least not yet...)

Strange but True

I needed 6 passport sized photos for IUP, so I went to a photo place on campus. Very simple and straightforward, right? So I thought, too, until they started photoshopping my face. Not only did they go in at high mag and erase some blemishes, they also lightened my skin tone considerably (I'm pretty tan for an Asian)! I understand the "white is pretty" mentality, and I wouldn't have such a response if it were normal pictures (say a family portrait), but somehow, the idea of altering pictures for IDs and official documents just doesn't seem right.

In other news, I am getting devoured by mosquitoes, and developing some sort of allergic response. The area around the bites (roughly 2 inches in diameter) is swollen, red, hard and extremely itchy. Being the pre-med student that I am, I looked it up. It's called Skeeter Syndrome, a local allergic reaction to bug bites. It happens most often when traveling to new locations. Taking my pre-med expertise one step further, I decided to try allergy medicine instead of normal itch relief cream and in two days, voila! The bites have stopped itching, the swelling has gone down and all that remains are sad-looking red spots. Henceforth, I am bathing myself in bug spray whenever I go out. And stocking up on allergy medication.

First Day at IUP

IUP is located in the center of Qinghua University, on the 5th, 6th and 7th floors of the North Humanities Building. When they say Qinghua is the biggest campus in China, they're not kidding. It's about the distance from Yale med school to the top of science hill, and just as wide. So far, I've just been walking (I walk to the med school and up science hill quite frequently, so I'm a pro), but if it gets too hot in the summer, I just might buy a bike. I'm not a great biker. I tried biking at Yale last semester (Chinese 133 was next to the Af-Am house and I had 10 minutes to get to the very top of science hill), but on day 2, in trying to dodge a pedestrian, I managed to become buddy-buddy with a very large tree. After that, I decided the shuttle was a better option. I'm also quite petrified of the cars in China...The good news is part of Qinghua campus is closed to motorized traffic. In any case, I will be getting my exercise this summer since, like my apartment, IUP doesn't have an elevator.

We had two placement tests: one 15-minute oral interview with 3 teachers (although one asked most of the questions), and one 2-hour written test. My Chinese experience is typical of many Chinese-Americans. I speak a dialect at home, so my Mandarin pronunciation isn't exactly standard, but it means my speaking and listening skills are such that I can get by conversationally in China and most people probably wouldn't suspect anything. But speaking Chinese at home also means my reading and writing abilities are way behind my conversational abilities. Formally (and fortunately), I've taken 4 years of Chinese school in high school and Chinese 133 at Yale, so I'm no longer illiterate.

The oral interview started out very casually, with the teachers asking about your Chinese background, what you think your strengths and weaknesses are, etc. They did ask some advanced questions to probe your vocabulary, though (eg. what do you think is unique of the Chinese-American situation?). There was also a part where you read a list of vocab words (in increasing level of difficulty), and then they ask you to 造句, or use them in sentences. They correct you immediately if you're wrong.

After the oral, the teachers tell you what your weaknesses are. I knew exactly what my problems are (my vocabulary isn't advanced enough to carry out sophisticated conversations and I don't distinguish s/sh, z/zh or c/ch when speaking). Nonetheless, hearing them flat-out say "You use very simple words to get around difficult questions" and "your pronuncation isn't accurate" still struck me as harsh. Of course, it's all in my best interest. The vocabulary is a definite thing to work on this summer. Surprisingly, though, they asked me if I wanted to correct my pronunciation. Since many native Chinese from southern provinces have the same problem, they said I would be just fine in China as is. I told them I wanted to correct it, to which they immediately replied, "we're going to ask your teachers to be very very strict about it." Eeks.

The written test was okay. 30 minutes of listening: identify the tones (spoken very quickly!), identify the words that are the same (3 very similar-sounding phrases, differing only by one tone or one consonant, 2 of which are the same - unfortunately, the audio system wasn't very clear, so some of the consonants were very hard to tell apart), listening comprehension (sentences/passages with accompanying questions). 90 minutes of grammar, vocab and reading comprehension: grammar basically tested sentence structure in a variety of ways - inserting specific words and phrases into sentences, correcting sentences, fill-in-the-blank, etc. vocab tested 成语 (Chinese proverbs) and vocab. quite literally, they give you the proverb/phrase and you choose the synonym. reading comprehension is as you would expect.

Everything was in increasing level of difficulty (for instance, the last reading comprehension was in Old Chinese). We were asked to leave questions blank if we didn't know them, otherwise we might get in over our heads. At the end of the summer, we'll take the same exam again and see how much we've improved.

Course assignments come out Friday. In the meantime, it's meet-and-greet, campus tours, and hammering out living details. So far, it's been very easy to introduce myself and strike up conversations with other IUPers, but since this week is all administrative stuff and people are in and out, I haven't met very many other students. Classes start on Monday - I'll be sure to meet them then!

My Apartment

I finally moved into my apartment on Monday. It's a three-bedroom apartment just across the street from Qinghua University South Gate, exactly a 20-minute walk from IUP and one bus stop from Wudaokou subway station (5 minute walk). Part of the Qinghua Yuan apartment complex, the place is a little old and dusty (6th floor, no elevator), but there's AC and DSL internet, and given that it's also extremely cheap ($135 per month), I can't really complain.

The only thing I have yet to figure out is the shower. If you turn the handle towards hot, the water gets scaldingly hot, but at any other position, the water is cold. I will continue to tinker with the settings. Luckily, the weather these past few days hasn't been too bad, so short showers are a-okay.

I have two roommates, both of whom are Chinese. One just graduated college and is now working at Google. She works insane hours - last night, she got home at midnight, and this is only her second week! The other is a Beida graduate currently studying in France, but working in Beijing this summer. I'm really excited that they're native speakers so I can practice my Chinese with them all the time. Hopefully, they can also help me with my homework!!

Tibet: A Picture Story (Part 6)

Days Five, Six and Seven in Tibet (to and from Namuchuo Lake):
car issues:

filling up on gas (see the canister on the roof?) mid-way

we devised a handy contraption to block out the sun

flat tire, in the middle of a 140 km dirt road
did I mention that it was also raining?

spotted on the road:

sometime the snow really does come down in June

Namuchuo, finally:

we lived in a large one-room tent
obviously, it was nicer than the ones the Tibetans lived in, but it was a sort-of taste of their life.
the tent is made of two layers of fabric, both woven extremely tightly, so at night, even as you hear the wind howling, you don't really feel anything.

Namuchuo Lake at sunset

baaaa
the majority of Tibetans raise buffalo, sheep and goats

is that a baby sheep, a baby goat or a baby buffalo?
it's lying next to a buffalo, but it doesn't really look like a buffalo
we couldn't figure it out for the longest time, but then our guide told us it's a goat

Namuchuo Lake

Tibet: A Picture Story (Part 5)

Day Four in Tibet (off to Mt. Everest!):

the little kids are obscuring the elevation, but it says 5248 m

the stove runs on dried manure (no kidding! Tibetans are very efficient in they're use of resources)
in case you're wondering, it really doesn't smell

buffalo manure drying on the side of the wall

getting to base camp, one hairpin loop at a time for 100 km

the last stretch, by horse-drawn carriage

Views of Mt. Everest:

base camp: 5200 m

China Mobile has service at base camp!!

the view from our room

over the course of the morning:

where'd it go?

Tibet: A Picture Story (Part 4)

Day Three in Tibet (Zashilunbu Monastery and Lazi):

Zashilunbu Monastery: home of the Panchen Lama

the Panchen Lama is a more scholarly leader than the Dalai Lama and is the second-highest lama after the Dalai Lama. traditionally, the Dalai Lama chooses the next Panchen Lama and vice versa.
the red buildings contain Panchen Lama tombs (the same is true for the Potola Palace and Dalai Lamas), while the white buildings are for meditation, scriptural study and worship

around Zashilunbu Monastery:

Lazi:

Tibetan market

some really tiny women carry bags this big too
(not sure what's inside...)
in the mornings, some women carry giant containers of water since some places don't have running water

a solar-powered teapot heater
(the sun is really intense in Tibet - we used spf45 everyday)

Tibet: A Picture Story (Part 3)

Day Two in Tibet (to and from Yangzhuoyong Lake):

Lhasa River

site of Tibetan water burial (don't look too closely if you get queasy easily)
traditionally, Tibetans also undergo "sky burial" and "tree burial," depending on one's social status

Yangzhuoyong Lake
the water in Tibet changes color with the sunlight!
emerald green in the morning, sapphire blue at noon, aquamarine in the evening

Tibetan woman in traditional dress, selling jewelry...

...and where she lives
(Yangzhuoyong Lake is very far from all villages and towns)

herding sheep on the road
the marks on the back of the sheep help distinguish which ones belong to which family

using the energy of flowing water...

...to make barley powder, a staple of Tibetan cuisine
(this millstone is connected to the waterwheel seen above)

old and new villas

looking from one monastery onto another (on the hill)
you turn the row of gold barrels as you walk along them for luck. they're also carved with Buddhist scriptures.

a rainbow after a rare rainfall
Tibet is in the middle of a drought and rain season doesn't start until August

a Tibetan-style hotel room

Tibet: A Picture Story (Part 2)

Day One in Tibet (Lhasa):

elevation sickness, anyone? (Lhasa is 3900 m)
my cousin using an oxygen pillow!

breakfast on the go

Potola Palace: former residence of the Dalai Lama
everything inside (pictures not allowed) is gold-leafed and resplendent
the Potola palace is one of the few places preserved during the Cultural Revolution (many of the other monasteries we visited were destroyed and rebuilt in the past two decades, but of significantly inferior detail and quality)

a door in the Potola Palace

these flags are everywhere, on the side of the road, on rooftops, on hills, representing luck and longevity
blue = sky, white = clouds, red = fire, green = water, yellow = earth

along the walls of the Potola Palace: Buddhist scriptures carved in Tibetan

a Tibetan window