Nanjing excursion

When it rains China becomes a sea of umbrellas. Not just your normal boring gray and striped variety either. Like most accessories in China, people tend to lean towards the taste of an American 6 year old girl. Hello Kitty, Peekachoo, Winnie the Pooh and flowers of all shapes and sizes bob down the sidewalk protecting the 3 or 4 Chinese students huddled underneath them. I have yet to see a Chinese person wearing a raincoat, and although fewer people use raincoats in the cities in the US as well, there are usually a couple. Apparently the spring is rather rainy in Hangzhou so I might actually have to buy some rainboots, as I have been meaning to for the past two years to help with the mud season in Vermont. It is supposed to rain all week starting on Sunday, hopefully after we get back from our weekend camping trip.

Last weekend I took a trip with some friends to Nanjing, a place unlike any other I’ve been to in China due to the coffee shops on just about every corner, not the same as the US where it is usually just a competition between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, but each one seems to be individually owned, and of course all also serve tea. I wasn’t expecting Nanjing to be as international as it was, more like Shanghai, and so we took advantage of the opportunity to eat some western food. We went to two Mexican restaurants, the first one was ok, nothing special, but the second was great. We originally trying to go there for a western breakfast, and walked around in the rain talking to them on the phone for about 45 minutes trying to find the place. We were carrying all our stuff since we checked out of our hotel and hadn’t found a new one yet, which granted wasn’t that much since we were only there for two nights, but was still a hassle, especially since we couldn’t find a cab because it was raining and they were all already full. But worth it. Very worth it. One of the people who worked at the restaurant came to the intersection where we were lost after we called for the fifth time and led us back, which was a promising start. When started looking at the menu we realized that our wandering around caused us to miss the 12:30pm breakfast deadline. French toast, pancakes, eggs, bacon, all no longer available. After a brief mourning period we started looking over our other options. I ordered nachos. Unfortunately they were out of churros, which was upsetting, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We all ordered and settled down to wait, essentially starving because this was our first meal of the day. We waited. And waited. Possibly half an hour passed before the first 3 burritos arrived. We realized during our wait that the slow service was due to the fact that they made everything from scratch, including the tortillas. And it was slow. Another half hour or so went by before the next orders came out. I was a little confused by how long my nachos were taking, since they are basically the simplest things in the world to make. Put some salsa and cheese and beans on some chips and you’re a successful chef, however when they came, a beautiful mountain of fresh salsa, lettuce, cheese, bean dip piled on top of amazing looking chips, I realized that the sound of the deep fryer I had heard earlier was part of my meal. They made the chips from scratch. Made the dough, cut them up, stuck them in the fryer and it was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. Great quality even for the US, spectacularly amazing quality for Mexican in China. I got extremely full about ¾ of the way through but couldn’t stand letting it go to waste. After finishing it I didn’t even want to think about food for hours.

After the restaurant we went to the Nanjing Rape museum, which sounds horrible and depressing, and it is. I had never heard of it before and did not know what to expect. We arrived in a laughing and contented mood leftover from our wonderful lunch, but sobered immediately even before entering. The first statue we passed on the way to the entrance was a woman holding the body of her dead child in her arms, with a poem engraved underneath about the devils who had come. The statues continued, each with its own phrase underneath about the brutal massacre, called the Rape of Nanjing, done by the Japanese military back in the 1930’s. The atmosphere reminded me of the Holocaust section of the Newseum in D.C, either that or the Holocaust museum itself, I can’t remember. Seeing as I didn’t even know the even occurred it was extremely informative, I’m glad I at least know something about it now. There were pictures and video clips as well as military gear and even an actual excavation site of bodies hidden after they were shot to death. There was also a group of cameramen walking around who interviewed two of the people I was with who were both obviously American. They worked for the museum and were trying to get people’s feedback about what they thought of the set up and the content and if the museum was needed. It was nice to see people really caring about what they were doing. Also the English translations were really good, which shows that they really cared about letting people know what happened. I don’t want to be too depressing, so I will just say that the Japanese army invaded Nanjing and massacred hundreds of thousands of people, rounding up civilians and gunning them down. Their officers also told them they could pillage and rape at will, and so there were over 20,000 cases of rape and gang rape in the first month of their occupation. People were brought to pits and shot then buried so no one would find the bodies, as well as being thrown in the river. They also refused to honor the established safety zone set up for civilians. By the end I had seen more than enough pictures of the dead and stories of survivors, but the ending also explained the tribunal for the military leaders and they had a clear message at the end that people need to learn from this tragedy and the value of peace.

After that we went looking for a hostel, since we didn’t book anything before we left school, which meant we couldn’t find a hostel for the night before and ended up at a more expensive hotel. We wasted a lot of time going around trying to find a place, but it eventually ended up ok. We went out for some really good Chinese food that night, supposedly Nanjing food, but I can’t really tell the difference.

Right now I am off for a weekend camping trip with everyone and our roommates. I wanted to have s’mores but apparently two main ingredients, graham crackers and marshmallows, are no where to be found in Hangzhou. It just doesn’t seem like proper camping without them. If anything exciting happens on the trip I will let you know when I get back.

Everyday life is not that exciting

So I guess I have been slacking on the posts, I apologize, but part of the reason is I haven’t really had time to do anything. There is a lot of work here, unfortunately, about the same as at Midd, except that since everything is Chinese which makes things a tad more difficult. And by “tad” I mean outrageously difficult. I don’t have a whole lot of time to explore, I have classes in the morning and then one or two in the afternoon. I am also taking two extra curricular classes, ping pong and wushu, which is some form of martial arts and is reminding me that I haven’t done any proper stretching since the 5^th grade. Ping pong is rather intense, the teacher is really good, apparently he was on the Chinese ping pong team that played the US team when China first opened up. If you have seen Forrest Gump it might make more sense, since I still have not I can’t explain any better. He spend an hour or so trying to correct my stance and the way I hit the ball, stopping every few minutes since apparently my muscle memory is less than desirable. I was actually tired after my class. Playing ping pong correctly is actually exercise. Also where ever there is a tv they are usually showing ping pong matches. It really is a big deal.

The first weekend we had we were required to go on trips with our roommates, bonding experiences they say. We went with Hana and her roommate to see a bunch of caves, which were actually really cool. You go into a mountain and everything is lit with multicolor lights. There was also a guide who explained some stuff and pointed out formations that look like animals, but seeing as it was in Chinese and spoken for Chinese people with no regard for foreign speakers, I understood just about, um, nothing. Also I used up my camera battery that afternoon and so have no pictures for the rest of the trip, I should buy a new one that lasts longer than 2 hours. However the signs they have in there are pretty hilarious. A lot of places in China have English translations on the signs to help out us foreign people, the problem is their translating is not always the best. In the caves we past a sign that said “do not clamber please crawling.” I’m not actually sure what that means, but there are others that are slightly more understandable, such as “Lonely lane, don’t be crowd please.” I would love to have a job that is just going around correcting English, but unfortunately they don’t seem to have any interest in paying people for that. Although I must admit it is a great form of entertainment. We all have a lot of pictures with English mistakes. After the caves we walked through a bamboo forest, then went to my roommates house for dinner. They don’t always speak Mandarin because they have their own dialect, but they can. The problem is I can’t really understand the Mandarin either. I’m also still not used to seeing chicken heads floating around in my food. We also went to a hot pot place the night before and there was a chicken head in there two, also all of the Chinese people were wearing plastic gloves like the really, really cheap ones you can use in kitchens, and sucking the marrow out of the bones using straws. Very strange. Anyways, we stayed overnight in a hotel place and walked around her town the next day. We also went to my roommates back yard and cut down a bamboo tree and then chopped it into pieces and got to take them back with us, so now I have a bamboo pencil holder and one other piece I don’t know what to do with.

There was one other time, I think during orientation, when we went for a hike up near West Lake, which is apparently one of the prettiest places in China. We couldn’t really see the lake on the hike so I want to go back and check it out, I just need to find some time for it. Also it was a lot of stair hiking. I really want to find a hike that is just a path, I hate walking up stairs for hours, that is not fun, and I don’t consider it real hiking anyway. But the view from the top was great and our director brought his kids along, ages 4 and 6, who are really cute and hiked faster than the rest of us, which is rather embarrassing but I will use the excuse that we were taking a lot of pictures.

The weather has been getting warmer, which is great because the buildings are all still really cold. Unfortunately it makes us want to go out and explore, which we have no time to do. Actually people just signed a petition to try and reduce the work load, but they said that because Middlebury sets the curriculum there is nothing they can do, and of course Middlebury Chinese standards are rather high. I’m in the easier section of the lit class and I’m still struggling to get things done. We did go to this western style restaurant place to do some work and eat last week that was pretty good. It is pretty expensive, as all western food is, but reasonable for what you get. 68RMB, about $10, and you get bread, choice of salads, soup, choice of pasta and then the best part is all you can drink coffee and tea, and even better, all you can eat DESSERT! Not the best stuff ever, and they are small sample size, but since it is unlimited it works. It also includes ice cream, strange flavors, but they have the basics so I’m not going to complain. I might go back again tonight to study, since they also have free wi-fi, and I have two tests tomorrow. Sam and Mairead and some other people are going to the Backstreet Boys concert tonight in Hangzhou, I was considering but ended up not. I went to an Olympic qualifying womens volleyball game the other night so I figured I would sit this one out. Sounds like it will be entertaining though. The volleyball game was fun though, China won, which was nice for me but not as fun for all the people I went with who were rooting for Cuba. Lame. The playing itself was a little disappointing, but the atmosphere was fun. Also there were these cheerleaders that came out between games, and the first time the danced to Avril’s Girlfriend, not even the version with the Chinese chorus, and the second time, oh, wait, again to the same song, only they changed their outfits, which apparently made it different.

oh, and i forgot, we were supposed to go on a solo trip, so i went to xitang, where part of MI3 was filmed. it was really pretty, rivers, bridges, a lot of people and some museums. It was a little weird traveling alone since you dont talk for an extended period time. also i forgot to put my camera battery in my camera before i left, so i bought a disposable. not quite the same but hopefully good enough. also i tried to eat this sugar candy stuff, it is liquidy and you have to keep it moving or else it falls off the chopsticks that you eat it off. it was extremely sticky and messy and got it all over the place, but was fun to try and was really amusing to watch other people try and eat it.

Seeing as I have no amusing anecdotes or more interesting experiences I am going to stop writing and go eat lunch. Hopefully the next post will be more interesting; we are going to Nanjing this weekend so maybe something fun will happen there.