Ni Hao, Katy

Friends! cartespostalesfromfaraway: Welcome back to...

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:39:21 -0400

Friends!

cartespostalesfromfaraway:

Welcome back to Kunming

Green Lake Park

26 May 2012

Finally done with the ISP paper! 43 pages! :D My brain is mush,...

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:32:17 -0400

Finally done with the ISP paper! 43 pages! :D

My brain is mush, but my heart is happy. Now I can finally enjoy my last week in Kunming with my lovely classmates.

Back in Kunming

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:28:45 -0400

It has been almost 2 days since I have gotten back to Kunming and it has been absolutely wonderful. Although I miss the fresh air, the cafes, and the people of Dali, the familiarity of Kunming just fills me with happiness. I have tried my best to do some laundry, work on my ISP, and catch up on sleep, but a lot of my time has been spent doing some much needed catch up with my friends here in Kunming. I was the first one to arrive back from my ISP. More and more people are starting to trickle in, and it is starting to feel like I never left. I cannot believe that we have less than 2 weeks left in the program. I can clearly remember the first day here - sleep deprived, cranky, and nervous. It’s such a shift to feel so comfortable now, to have solidified my friendships with the people in the group.

The stress of completing my ISP paper is definitely kicking in, but I need to remember the precious time I have left in Kunming and to take advantage of the little time I have here.

And today makes 3

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:30:00 -0400

3 weeks that is. 3 weeks since I’ve started this ISP period. And, of course, I had to celebrate by going to Sweet Tooth and eating a delicious slice of dark chocolate cheesecake. So what if it keeps me up half the night because it has so much chocolate and I’ll be super cranky in the morning because I’ll get woken up at an ungodly hour because one of my 11 hostel mates has to go use to toilet?

That’s right, I’m staying at a hostel dorm room that fits 12 people. I was originally staying at a hostel right outside the city walls, but after the 5th day of having no water (which meant no showers and having to brush my teeth with bottled water everyday) I decided that it was time to switch hostels. I found one that was just inside the city walls. Although I do have to pay an extra 5 yuan than my previous hostel and I have to share a dorm room with 11 other people, the location is much better (i.e. I don’t have to cross a highway every time I want to get to my hostel, therefore decreasing my chances of getting hit by a car while in Dali) and having running water is pretty spectacular. The water shuts off from time to time because of the bad drought Dali is going through at the moment, but it only lasts a couple of hours rather than the couples of DAYS like at my other hostel.

(My current hostel - top bunk, anyone?)

Besides having this stress of trying to find another hostel with running water, my last week has been busy. Since the last time I updated, I have conducted many interviews with shopkeepers, street vendors, and custom officers. It still amazes me that people are willing to spend their precious time answering my questions. In fact, just 2 hours ago, I was talking with a local antique shop owner for 1.5 hours, even though I had no intention of buying any antiques; he wanted to talk with me just because I was interested.

This past weekend I also taught at the English school again. I taught one class on Friday night, one class on Saturday morning, and two classes on Sunday afternoon. The kids ages ranged from 8-14 years old. In each class, they were allowed to ask me questions about America before the lesson started. the 8 year olds asked questions like “What is the weather like?” But the 14 year olds asked questions like “Do you have a boyfriend?” The younger kids did not speak as great English as the older ones, so I spent a lot of time speaking incredibly slow and doing a lot of acting (side note: I am EXCELLENT at charades now). Unlike last time where the teacher stayed in the class with me, this past weekend they left me completely alone, which meant no translator for the kids and no help for me. In the beginning I was completely nervous and totally not confident in myself, but over the course of the weekend my teaching got better and better. It warmed my heart when one of the English teachers told me that the kids had said to her that they wanted me to come back and teach again.

(A group of boys from one of my classes. The one in front was particularly sassy.)

Yesterday another one of the English teachers invited me to Dali University so that she could show me around her campus. Her campus is absolutely beautiful. Depending where you stand, the backdrop of Dali University’s campus is either the mountains or the lake, both of which are famous for their insane beauty. We ate at her cafeteria, and then she and her friend took me to the art building, the gymnasium, and her campus lake. It was strange to be on a college campus again; it made me really miss not only my college, but also my Kunming campus. It was nice to be surrounded by college kids again. It’s kind of upsetting that she and I became friends with only 4 days left of my ISP.

(My friend and me at Dali University)

Although I am SO excited to return back to Kunming this Saturday, I can’t help but be a little sad. Even though I was basically alone for most of it, I really did make some great connections with people here. Today I had to say goodbye to one of my translators, who was also one of the English teachers. It wasn’t until it was time to say goodbye when I realized that I was going to miss her a lot. Tomorrow I will have to say goodbye to my Dali University friend. And then on Friday I will have to say goodbye to my adviser, the one who has had my back this entire time. I’m even at that point where I’m starting to recognize the Dali locals: the waiters at my favorite breakfast place, that guy who first eats at the vegetarian buffet and then goes to play his guitar down the street, the European woman who owns one of the bakeries in town. And they’re even starting to recognize me; yesterday the girl at the bubble tea place just took one look at me and already knew my drink order. You have no idea how excited I was when that happened. I was also slightly embarrassed, but mostly pretty thrilled. I’m starting to think in “last’s.” “This is my last time taking the #4 bus to the English school.” “This is my last time being with my translator.” “This is the last time eating cake at Sweet Tooth.”

(The magical Sweet Tooth)

I cannot believe that my time in Dali is almost over. Tomorrow I’m planning to do some shopping and then hanging out with my Dali University friend. Friday I will be attempting to outline my ISP paper and having dinner with my adviser. And then Saturday morning I will be going back to Kunming, where my one week essay writing period starts. This ISP paper has to be 25-40 pages long, which is absolutely terrifying, but I am ready to get started on it.

Once my paper is done and we have our ISP presentations, everyone and I will have less than 1 week together to do some last minute group bonding and traveling. On June 3, when the program ends, I know that there will be tears. SO MANY TEARS.

But I’m trying not to think about that now. Hopefully there will be plenty of tumblr updates until then. Look for one when I return back to Kunming!

Our wonderful program director! blessing-love-lucky: Beautiful...

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:08:00 -0400

Our wonderful program director!

blessing-love-lucky:

Beautiful Mama Lu Yuan: kind hearted, loyal, trustworthy, humble, grateful, graceful, beautiful, respectful, patient, uplifting, and all around great person! I am truly inspired by who she is and look up to her a lot!

Gao laoshi (second) and Charles (fourth) were my language...

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:07:00 -0400

Gao laoshi (second) and Charles (fourth) were my language professors before ISP!

blessing-love-lucky:

intensive language professors, minus my other language teacher Lu Chun laoshi.

I cannot believe...

Wed, 09 May 2012 07:13:57 -0400

…it has been 2 weeks since I’ve started my ISP, and I haven’t gone insane (yet)!

To commemorate my 2 week anniversary here, I thought it was appropriate to celebrate it at the same place I celebrated my one week anniversary here - at Sweet Tooth.

So at the moment, I’m eating a delicious banana chocolate muffin (with whipped cream on the side, of course) as I’m writing this post. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s strange how I’m starting to plan my trip back to Kunming (T-minus 10 days!) when only 2 weeks ago I was dreading how long I was going to be here. The first week seemed to go on forever because I wasn’t doing much, except eating, walking around, and having way too many self-reflections. But the last week has been packed with work. I’ve had several interviews with curators, archaeologists, tourism bureau officials, shopkeepers, and street vendors. I am still surprised that so many (important) people are willing to talk to me when I’m just this awkward Chinese-American college student who can barely speak any Mandarin. This weekend I’ll be continuing my (sad attempt of) a job as an English teacher. Then next week, my last week here, I’ll be going to a shopping market outside of Dali Old Town, packing in some last minute interviews, doing a little touristy sight-seeing (since I haven’t really had time or motivation to do that yet), and some necessary souvenir shopping. I already have my eyes on this beautiful pair of handmade earrings that I saw on my first day in Dali. Even though it’s 80 kuai. And I probably won’t be able to bargain it down. Which makes me sad.

I’ll try to update frequently during these last 10 days, but if not, I guarantee a post next Wednesday at Sweet Tooth yet again~

Laoshi Katy

Sun, 06 May 2012 09:09:58 -0400

I admit, I was lying to you when I said that I was COMPLETELY alone in Dali. In fact, I don’t know what I would be doing if it weren’t for my translator. He comes with me and helps me translate when I go talk to local shopkeepers and museum curators. If he can’t come with me, he sends over one of his teachers from his English school. Because he’s been helping me so much, I offered to help out at his school, so today I hopped on the public bus to New Dali and spent the morning teaching four 10-year old kids English. Today I became their new teacher, “laoshi.”

Now, when I say “teaching,” what I really mean is “introducing myself, talking about American holidays, and then standing there awkwardly.” The students were really confused by me. They said that I didn’t look American, I looked just like them, yet I was American and spoke English fluently. Although I tried to explain my family history, which I’ve been getting used to explaining at this point, they still seemed pretty confused. But once they got past that initial confusion, they were really excited and wanted to forgo English lessons and teach me Chinese instead. But, of course, they had to go through their 1.5 hour class first.

It was really interesting to see how these young Chinese students are learning English. It’s based upon textbook alone, although their teacher (who is 21 and a third year university student like me) is trying to improve their speaking skills as well as their reading and writing skills. The words from the chapter for this class were words like “Portuguese,” “Australian,” and “language.” And although they are quite young, their English is definitely better than my Chinese.

I wrote my telephone number and email address on the board so that the teacher, who wants to show me around her campus sometime this week, could contact me. But this ended up in a frenzy of telephone and email exchanges between these adorable 10-year olds and me. I won’t be surprised if I receive a random text message from one of them within these next few days.

So even though I feel lonely from time to time during my stay in Dali, it’s comforting to know that I have these lovely people to return to on the weekends ^_^

I have discovered...

Wed, 02 May 2012 07:01:00 -0400

…many things about myself, recently.

It has officially been one week since I’ve been dropped off in Dali to do this independent study project. And it marks one week of being (basically) completely alone. Being alone forcefully makes you self-reflect. This is what I have learned about myself:

- Although I love alone time, I don’t love being alone. Let me explain. It has taken me, literally a week, to adjust being here. I have actually been in shock the last 7 days. I didn’t know what to do with myself; I could do anything I wanted to do, but being severely indecisive kinda sucks when you’re on your own. But honestly, I think I needed that adjustment period. It allowed me to get used to doing things on my own, to eat by myself, to wander around aimlessly. Now I know the fastest way to get to my hostel, where I can put more money on my phone, and where I can eat all the vegetarian food I want for only 5 kuai. And I was able to do this all on my own. (Except for the vegetarian food part. I would probably still be eating at expensive cafes every night if it weren’t for my adviser)

- I am better at directions than I thought I was. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m directionally challenged. But I’ve managed to not get too lost this past week…though it helps that Old Town, the part of Dali where I’m doing my research, is kind of confined within the city walls. Like, there are LITERALLY stone walls that surround most of Old Town.

- I don’t know what this says about my personality, but it takes an immense amount of pressure for me to finally be productive. I like to think of myself as a good student, but I don’t have much self-motivation. I didn’t know until this afternoon that I will be interviewing a curator at one of the local museums tomorrow - so it wasn’t until today that I began to really think about my project and to prepare for the interview. Although it took me a week to finally be productive, it feels damn good to get some work done.

- I really, really love Sweet Tooth, one of the local bakeries in town. I have been here 5 times in the last week. And I may be there right now. Writing this. Eating green tea cheesecake.

Self-reflection isn’t all cake and rainbows though (although there has been a lot of cake). I’ve had to fight through a lot of self-doubt and anxiety. But now that this period of self-absorption is done with, I can move on with this project! And hopefully the next time I update, I will have actually gotten a lot of things done.

Until then!

A picture from each place on our excursions!

Tue, 01 May 2012 02:49:48 -0400

Weishan Ancient City

Weibaoshan

Tie-Dye Factory

Bai School

Shibaoshan

Shaxi - Homestay mother + family fields

Lijiang - Ancient Naxi Music

Shangri-la - Tibetan Buddhist Temple

A picture from each place on our excursions!

Update! Update! Update!

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:39:21 -0400

Hello! It’s been so long!

When I had last posted, I was still in Kunming. The two weeks or so following that, my classmates and I have been traveling around Yunnan for our Ethnic Minority Excursions part of our program. We went to Weishan, Weibaoshan, Dali, Shibaoshan, Shaxi, Lijiang, Zhongdian (also known as Shangrila, in the Tibetan prefecture), and then back to Dali.

It would impossible to talk about ALL of these places right now, but there are certainly a few places that stuck with me. Shaxi was where we had our rural home stay. I was placed into a home where there were three generations living under the same roof. It was so different from my Kunming home stay in that I wasn’t used to living with so many people at the same time! And as embarrassing as it is, I still don’t know who each person was in relation to everyone else in the family. While the types of families differed from student to student, my family were farmers. Although I had tried to help them with daily chores or with farming, they would shoo me away and tell me to do homework instead. Eventually, my host mom took me to the family’s fields, and I got to do a little bit of farming! But that only consisted of pulling weeds for 15 minutes because I think she thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it. During our couple of days in Shaxi, we were assigned a community project that focused on one aspect of Shaxi life. I chose to do economics, and I was able to interview shopkeepers, craftsmen, and farmers. Of course, my Chinese is quite terrible, but I was lucky enough to meet an American tourist who spoke fluent Chinese and was more than willing to help me with my project.

Zhongdian/Shangrila was also one of the most beautiful places I have been to. While we were there, we learned about Tibetan Buddhism, we got to meet the reincarnate Lama, and we were able to visit a Tibetan orphanage. It warmed my heart when I saw how happy the little girls were to receive the coloring books I had brought from America.

Many other things also happened while on our excursions! We stayed overnight at a Buddhist temple overrun my monkeys (who liked to steal your things; one of my classmates actually got smacked by a monkey!), we danced traditional Bai dances, we took 2-3 hour hikes up beautiful mountains (which, I think, is surprising to everyone, since I am NOT physically fit).

Our last night as a group was in Zhongdian/Shangrila. After eating delicious food at a local Indian restaurant, we pushed back all the tables and danced the night away. It was a lovely way to end our trip as a group. The next phase of this program is the Independent Study Project (ISP), or the Language Intensive for some students. Six students decided to stay in Zhongdian/Shangrila, so we left them behind when we headed to Dali again. I decided to stay in Dali to do my ISP, so they then left me behind when they went back to Kunming 2 days ago. Most of the students who returned back to Kunming are staying there to do their extra language lessons instead of an ISP.

I’ve been in Dali on my own for only 2 days now, so I can’t really explain in full the problems and issues I’ll be facing for these next 3 weeks doing my research. I have yet to really start my ISP, which is about the production and selling of street goods in Dali, but after meeting with my project adviser last night, I feel like I have a pretty good plan. So for these next 3 weeks, I’ll be conducting interviews, making observations, and exploring Dali on my own. It’s certainly a daunting task that I never even thought I would ever do in my life, but I feel (as cheesy as it sounds) that it will really make me grow as a person and make me more independent. After all, this project is about solving problems, making connections, and being creative.

So wish me luck! I will do my best to keep updating about my project and my time here in Dali.

cartespostalesfromfaraway: Shibaoshan

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:59:47 -0400

cartespostalesfromfaraway:

Shibaoshan

Top: My host mom and me <3 Bottom left: Host moms and host...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 06:34:01 -0400

Top: My host mom and me <3

Bottom left: Host moms and host daughters

Bottom right: Classmates!

Chengdu

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 05:23:00 -0400

I really should be studying for my GIANT Chinese exam on Monday. But instead, I am going to do a post about my trip to Chengdu.

Jane and I left Kunming (Yunnan province) around 9 am on a Saturday morning and arrived in Chengdu (Sichuan province) around 6 am the Sunday morning after. Even now I am really surprised that I survived that 20 hour train ride. Luckily, we shared our sleeping cabin with some very sweet people who weren’t as creepy/rude/crazy as we expected our cabin mates to be. I had gotten very little sleep because I spent the night using my hard suitcase as my pillow and hugging my purse all night in paranoia. Also, all day and all night I kept hearing people loudly spitting on the train floor or smelling my cabin mate’s cigarettes.

Needless to say, we were both sleep deprived and a little delirious when we arrived in Chengdu. After struggling to find the right bus, we finally found our hostel, appropriately named “Sim’s Cozy Garden Hostel.” The staff were unbelievably friendly (and spoke fantastic English!) and the hostel itself was adorable. We had chosen the cheapest room option and shared our dorm room with 6 other people. Although we had expected to be sharing the room with just girls, to our surprise we were sharing the same space with 5 other men and one woman. (Again, luckily) they were all really friendly. Despite hearing some horror stories about hostels (which were mostly from my dad because he saw the movie “Hostel”), our hostel experience was one of the best parts of our trip. We met some really wonderful people.

During the week we visited as many places as possible. This included a temple, Jinli Street, and the Panda Breeding Center. The hostel provided a tour of the Panda Breeding Center, so we were able to visit with a tour guide. I legitimately freaked out when I saw the adorable red pandas. The regular pandas were also incredibly cute, but most of them were just sitting around eating bamboo…which I guess is what they do most of their lives anyway.

The food in Chengdu was…interesting. Funny enough, the food that the Sichuan province is known for was the food we liked the least. Sichuan cooking really favors using the numbing pepper (huajiao), which, actually, numbs your palate. It was in both the hot pot and in ma po doufu, two of the most famous dishes in the Sichuan province. The combination of spiciness and numbness really didn’t appeal to me, but both dishes were something we HAD to try at least once. The best food we had there was actually the street food that we found at one of the local outdoor markets. This included “bag o’duck,” which was literally chopped up roasted duck put in a plastic bag, and baozi, which was bread stuffed with various meats and vegetables.

We left Chengdu that Thursday night and arrived back in Kunming that Friday afternoon. The Sunday after that was when we moved into our first home stay, which is where I am now! And this coming Tuesday is when we leave our home stay (*tears*) and start our two week excursions.

I posted 3 photosets of my trip to Chengdu if you want any visuals! Make sure to click on them to read my captions and to be able to see the whole picture.

Last Chengdu photoset!

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:54:05 -0400

Jinsha Site Museum - jade rings

Jinsha Site Museum - carriage

Jinsha Site Museum - Ebony forest

Me at the Jinsha Site Museum

Jinsha Site Museum

Uyghur restaurant - making noodles

20 hour train ride back to Kunming

Last Chengdu photoset!

More Chengdu photos

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:20:36 -0400

Street food

Tibetan monks on a boat

Sichuan hot pot

Jinli Street

Ma po doufu

Ancient city

More Chengdu photos

So…I don’t really have time to do a Chengdu post....

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:41:11 -0400

Outdoor market

Bag o'duck

Hostel

Hostel

Da pan ji

Panda Breeding Center - red panda

Panda Breeding Center - panda

Panda Breeding Center - mother and child

So…I don’t really have time to do a Chengdu post. Will these photos suffice?

Homestay pictures

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:04:00 -0400

My bedroom at my home stay

Homestay kitchen

Homestay living room

Homestay living room

Dumplings I made with my home stay mom

Homestay pictures

Home Stay

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 11:42:42 -0400

(Note: the Chengdu post will be posted another time!)

It has officially been one week since I started my home stay with the Zhai family.

To be perfectly honest, I was incredibly nervous last Sunday before I met my home stay family. We were told barely anything about our families, and I was worried that I would have a long commute between my house and the university.

However, all that worrying was just a waste of time since my home stay family is wonderful. My host dad is a kind, quiet man who works as a professor at one of the local universities. My host brother, who’s 25 years old, lives with his parents and sells medical equipment for a living. And then there’s my host mom, the one who I spend the most time with and the one who cooks such delicious food. In a lot of ways she reminds me of my own mother. I notice it when she tells me to put on a sweater because it’s too cold or when she tells me to give her my dirty laundry or even in her cooking. If anything, the food I’ve been eating here at my home stay makes me a little homesick because it reminds me so much of my mother’s own cooking.

As lovely as these people are, it’s been quite the challenge too. While many of my classmates’ home stay families are able to speak at least a little English, mine speak absolutely none. I find it funny that they placed the one person with the worst Chinese skills with the one family that only speaks Chinese. It took me literally a half hour to realize that my host mother was trying to tell me that I needed to leave the apartment at 7:30 am in order to get to school on time. As hard as it is sometimes, I do believe that living here has improved my Chinese.

Their apartment is modestly sized, but I have my own cute bedroom with my own desk. The commute is also not that bad; it takes 15-20 minutes to walk to class every morning. I’ve also noticed that if I tell my home stay family that I have a lot of homework, they will literally not talk to you for the rest of the night.

For the next three days we will be celebrating the Qingming Festival. Although we get these days off from school, we had to have class this past weekend in order to make up for the lost days. And it wasn’t just our program that had to do this, but every person had to go to school or work. So even though I’ve had 7 straight days of school, I’m quite excited to celebrate this very important festival with my Chinese host family.

Hello Tumblr!

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:03:39 -0400

It has been so long since I’ve last updated! I’m heading off to bed soon, but here’s a few things that has been happening/going to happen:

- I was in Chengdu this past week. It took a 20 hour train ride to get there and a 20 hour train ride to get back to Kunming. It was absolutely painful, but well worth it because the trip was wonderful! (Hopefully) a post about it will be coming soon. And photos too!

- I’m off to my first homestay tomorrow. I’m staying with a family that lives about 15 min (by walking) from the university. I’ll be staying there for 2 weeks and then we’ll all be heading off to our excursions. Apparently my homestay parent is a teacher at another university and is good friends with the host parent of one of my friends here. I’ll be eating meals with them, doing chores, trying to be a part of their family. I’m a little nervous, but I have a feeling that it will help me a lot with my Chinese. Again, (hopefully) a post about it soon!

Sorry for yet another lame post. Until next time!