Clarissa
12 april: so different, yet still similar...
School in China is very different from school in America, even though they do have a few things in common. For one thing, classes are 40 minutes long, and there are 8 classes per day. Also, the students stay in the same classroom for most or all of their general academics, while the teachers move during passing time (which is 10 minutes).
During unstructured periods of time (I.e. during the 90 minute lunch block), there is little or no teacher supervision, and running in the hallways is common. However, in spite of all this, all the students are capable of being serious when necessary.
On Monday, we went to see a drama on a field trip with a large group of young students (about 2nd graders). The theater was more than 15 minutes away from the school by foot, but the students managed to stay together and aware of their surroundings with only a few teachers present.
In general, the school is an interesting mix of freedom and discipline. The students are capable of displaying extremes in both directions, however, overall they manage themselves independently and respectfully.
-posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 3:30 PM
20 april: friends in unexpected places
At first, I was worried that I wouldn't make any friends at this school and just follow Cici or the other exchange students around everywhere. However, one day during PE class, some of Cici's classmates and I got onto the topic of music, and someone mentioned Korea. That's how Lucy (Mrs. Fong's host student) and I found out that we both like Super Junior. She was ecstatic to find another fan.
That day after lunch, she came back to the exchange room to trade WeChat information with Julia and me. Since then, it's becoming a habit for me to head out to the back field after lunch and sit on the grass with Lucy and her friends, just chatting and laughing together. Of course, they speak almost completely in Chinese, and they have jokes that I don’t pick up on, but I can usually manage to follow the conversation – and if I can't they sometimes explain what's happening in English. All of them are very friendly. Lucy sent my contact card to Nancy, another girl, on WeChat, so now I can talk to her too.
Even though I left a lot of close friends in the United States, thanks to the warm friendliness of the JSYY students, I don't feel lonely here far from home.
-posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 4:00 PM
26 april: High-speed train travel
On Sunday afternoon, we boarded a high speed train at the Xi’an North Station. That night, we arrived safely back at the Beijing west station. The journey took five and a half hours, but even a first-class high speed train ticket is much cheaper than an airplane ticket for that distance. According to Wikipedia, "China has the world's longest high-speed rail network, with over 19,000 kilometers of track in service as of January 2016, which is more than the rest of the world's high-speed rail tracks combined". In addition, the network is the most heavily-used network in the world, with 2.49 million daily riders in 2014.
For my second time on a Chinese high speed train (the first being the journey to Xi’an from Beijing), it was a remarkably relaxed and comfortable trip. I spent the whole ride listening to music, writing in my journal notebook, and eating snacks. The train was very nice: large, comfy seats that recline backwards; a tilting footrest built into the seat in front of me; and a free snack bag and juice box that I was given after my ticket was checked. In addition, the train has TV screens mounted from the ceilings showing various programs, and a dining car selling various snacks and meals. I was almost sad when we arrived back in Beijing, because I enjoyed the comfort of my train seat, but I was happy to be back with Cici and her family.
-posted on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 at 4:00 PM
4 may: chinese architecture: ancient and modern
Chinese architecture has a long and detailed history. Some of the earliest Chinese buildings are build of timber frames on earthen or stone foundations. This "timber-frame" style of architecture is one of China's most important contributions to the field. The timber-frame style is useful because of its stability: the flexibility of the timber pillars and their slight –taper- helps them withstand unsteady conditions during earthquakes. Another benefit of the timber frame is its adaptability. Timber-frame buildings often have traditional Chinese roofs with overhanging eaves and upturned corners, decorated with heavy ceramic tiles. Multiple strong wooden brackets can be added on top of the pillars of a timber-frame building to help distribute the weight of the roof. In fact, since the number of brackets correlates to the extravagance of the roof, which itself represents the importance of the building, the number of brackets a building has is also indicative of its importance. Some examples of traditional architecture in Beijing include the Forbidden City, the Qianmen Gate, and the Hutong. The large, sprawling buildings of the Forbidden City are all roofed with yellow tiles, painted in bright colors of red, yellow, green, black, and white. The large gate in front of Qianmen Shopping District is equally exquisite, colored bright red and blue with imposing gray tile roofs. Meanwhile, the traditional buildings in the old Hutong area exhibit both sides of the spectrum: some have been repainted with bright, traditional colors to attract customers, while others are worn gray stone, left in their original conditions.
Modern-day architecture, especially in large metropolises like Beijing, by necessity includes a lot of apartment buildings. However, examples of classic timber architecture can still be found in museums and as temples, palaces, gates, towers, and other structures throughout China. Some modern buildings attempt to incorporate ancient architectural techniques, especially the signature eaves and upturned corners of traditional roofs. For example, the Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture in Beijing mimics the traditional eaves with modern building materials. Also, a group of apartment buildings that we saw in Xi'an all had traditional-style two-level roofs. Overall, while architecture in China has changed a lot over the centuries, modern-day construction remains aware of traditional building techniques, and seeks to reuse old styles in new ways.
-posted on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 at 4:00 PM
10 may: visit to the pearl market
On Sunday, six of the exchange students (Julia, Andrew, Nathan, Edmond, John, and I) and Ms. Rossi went to the Beijing Pearl Market (红桥市场 hongqiao shichang) with two of the exchange students from the Newton program – Ying Ying, Ms. Rossi's daughter, and her friend Michael. The Wayland kids met at 八宝山 babaoshan subway station at ten Sunday morning. I rode bus 979 by myself from my house to the subway, where I found three of the other students waiting with Ms. Rossi. It was exciting to ride the bus myself, since I've never done that before. Andrew, the fourth student, was waiting inside the station with his host mom, since he'd ridden the subway from his house. Nathan arrived soon after, and we joined Andrew in the station.
From there, we rode the subway on Line 1 to 东单 dongdan station, where we changed to Line 5. Line 5 took us three stops south to 天坛东门tiantan dongmen, the station near Beijing's Temple of Heaven. At the station we met up with Ying Ying and Michael, who showed us how to get to the Pearl Market and gave us an overview of the things on sale on each floor.
We spent a good two hours on the third floor, browsing the area of small shops that were selling various trinkets and Chinese souvenirs. The amount of stuff we could choose from was overwhelming. There were tables of jade and red-lacquer statues, walls hung with silk paintings, and huge racks hung with Chinese knots. It took me a while just to figure out what to buy first. We had many opportunities to practice our bargaining skills: despite its original given price of 700 yuan, Nathan purchased a large silk scroll with a painting of a tiger for 50 yuan. Among all the things I saw, I finally found a utensil set like the ones Nathan and Julia had, although theirs are solid colors while the one I bought is white with green bamboo stalks. I've been looking for a set, because we bring our own utensils to school for lunch. We also bought bunches of presents to bring back for friends and family in the States.I had so many presents that I had to ask Julia and Andrew to carry them back in their backpacks. In a moment of foresight, Ms. Rossi had brought several extra bags for purchases, and all of them ended up packed full.
At one in the afternoon, we regrouped in the building's basement level for lunch. There were many food stores, including a Subway and a McDonalds. I got a large plate of delicious fried rice with carrots, egg, chicken, and some green sweet peppers, and Nathan and I pooled our money to get a cup of cherry cranberry fruit juice. Edmond, sitting next to me, kept commenting on how good my fried rice smelled. Nostalgic for American food, Andrew and Julia got sandwiches from Subway, and John, Ying Ying, and Michael all got food from McDonalds.
After lunch we bought our last few gifts and then walked back to the subway station. Ying Ying and Michael said goodbye at the stop for theWangfujing market, but we rode back to babaoshan. Lydia's mom, John's host mother, drove me a few blocks over to a bus stop for bus 979, and I rode the bus back home. After a long, fun day of shopping, I showed Cici and my host mom my purchases and then spent the rest of the day relaxing and doing work. We all enjoyed our time at the Pearl Market, and some of the students are going back for more shopping this weekend.
-posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at 8:00 PM
17 may: my final entry: chinese culture from an american perspective
During our time in China, we've had the opportunity to experience many different aspects of Chinese life. We've learned about Chinese family, city, school, and social culture, and noticed differences between Chinese and American lifestyles. However, our cultures do have some things in common.
One of the largest discrepancies I've noticed has been dinnertime with my host family. In my family in the US, dinner is group affair. Most of the time, my mom or dad will cook a main dish with a few side dishes, and my whole family will sit down together to eat (unless something like a school event means we have to eat early). One of my chores is setting the table – plates, napkins, utensils – and getting drinks for everyone. However, with my host family in China, dinner is much more informal. My host mom usually makes a few simple medium-sized dishes, which are cooked in succession and put out on the table whenever they're done. My host dad isn't home a lot, so it's often just me and my host mom eating. Cici often doesn't eat dinner with us, but she does bring her homework into the living room so she can talk with us while we eat. While the discrepancy between this kind of dinner and the kind I'm used to in America was unsettling at first, it's become almost habit now.
One similarity between Beijing and Boston is their morning traffic jams. One morning, Cici and I got off our morning bus a stop early, because the traffic was so slow that it was faster to walk. I don't live in the city in America, but even in Wayland the road to the high school gets almost completely backed up on school mornings. A five minute difference in when you leave can result in a ten minute difference in when you get to school. Also, crossing the street in the city is just as, if not more, treacherous in Beijing as it is in Boston. Jaywalking is fairly common, although it's less so on larger roads. Even when the crossing light is green, turning cars are unlikely to be very tolerant of pedestrians in their way.
School life at JSYY is very different from life at WHS. One of the most obvious differences is morning exercises. WHS doesn't have morning exercises: the first organized activity of the day is the first block class. In contrast, students at JSYY gather on the back field almost every morning to run through two recordings of exercises. I like the morning exercises: I think their basic movements are fun and fairly easy to pick up, and I consider them a good way to wake up a bit in the morning.
Besides morning exercises, another major discrepancy is lunchtime. At WHS, some students buy the school lunch, while others bring food from home. Still others, among those with senior privileges, leave campus to go buy food at nearby restaurants. Conversely, all the students at JSYY eat school-provided lunches. The school has two cafeterias – a larger one and a smaller one – but the procedure for getting food is basically the same at both. Students are usually given portions of four or five dishes, plus rice and optional bread, noodles, and yogurt. The school doesn't provide utensils. Instead, students bring a pair of chopsticks, a spoon, or a utensil set to school to eat lunch with. The larger cafeteria has two banks of sinks where students can wash their used utensils after eating. This system of lunch makes the school a little bit more home-like, in my opinion, which reflects the large amount of time the students spend at school.
I'm happy to say that I've made new friends here during my trip. Spending time with them has let me experience more of Chinese social culture. One of the most obvious differences between Chinese and American social culture is the abundance or lack of skinship. In China, Korea, and some other Asian countries, physical contact between people has different connotations from the ones it carries in most Western countries. For example, if two girls are really good friends, it's normal for them to hold hands while they walk. For guys, slinging an arm over your friend's shoulder or around his neck is the equivalent sign of friendship. This casual contact is called skinship.
It could even be said that Chinese people have less of a concept of personal space in general. Taking hold of someone's hand or arm to lead them somewhere is common, as is hugging friends for no reason, linking arms, and generally being more touchy-feely than Western cultures usually are. I'm a fairly tactile person, so this aspect of Chinese culture has both positive and negative consequences for me. On one hand, I'm perfectly comfortable with hugging friends and holding hands. On the other, it really bothers me when that kind of contact is initiated by people who I haven't reached that level of friendship with yet. Fortunately, this isn't a problem that I've come up against much.
I've really enjoyed all the opportunities I've had to learn more about Chinese culture. It's really fascinating to learn about how people live in a different country, especially since I'm learning the language at the same time. Some aspects of Chinese culture are confusing (I still do not understand Mahjong), but others seem natural once you get used to them (wearing your backpack over your front instead of your back may look stupid, but it's actually a really good idea). And despite the noticeable differences between Chinese culture and American culture, they still share numerous similarities, especially the characteristic of respecting all people regardless of who they are.
-posted on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at 4:00 PM