Today is our first day in China. My host family took me to a two story restaurant in Beijing for dinner. We went up to the seconds floor and found a table. The family ordered white fish, beef and fried green peppers. The meal was really good.
Afterwards, Steven and I went for a walk to see the school. HIs building is to the left of the school and very close by. I stood in front of the school and Steven took a picture of me. The characters on the school were lit up. I posted it on WeChat for the other students to see.
The next day I went to the police department so I could get ID, because I'm a foreigner. After that the whole group met for a big Hot Pot dinner. It was a very good and busy first day in China.
-posted on Friday, April 15, 2016 at 12:47 AM
As my 6 week exchange experience is coming to an end, I can safely say that I have observed many differences in the 2 places I've lived. I know what Beijing is like and I know what America is like; so I'm going to explain the differences between the two
1. The most dangerous things are the drivers. In America, drivers and traffic can be kind of bad at certain times in the day, but in China it is constant. In, China a twenty minute drive can turn into a two hour drive and this is not an exaggeration. This literally happened to me one time. When I was going to a museum one day, my host mother showed me the distance on the map. It should have taken 20 minutes, but because of traffic, it took us two full hours. Driving in a car at anytime is Beijing means traffic.
2. When crossing streets it's very important to remember to look and stop for cars even if the cross walk light is green. Turning cars don't stop for pedestrians, which has ended us up in some, not so fun situations.. For example, I've almost gotten hit by a car several time. Just be careful if you cross the street in Beijing.
3. The difference between American kids and Chinese kids at least in regard to respect is Confucianism. In China, kids observe Confucian values in respecting their parents and other superiors and in return their parents support their kids in almost every aspect of life. They are very much more nurturing than average American parents and the kids are more respectful
4. Another difference between American students and Chinese students is the absurd amount of studying that they do. The students also get a ton of homework and spend almost all day after class doing homework. My host sibling spends a lot of time on homework, every day after school and every weekend.
5. The schools in China do exercises every morning. It is nothing extreme mostly just stretches and small movements. They find it a good way to start each day. Even on hot day, students do exercises in their school uniforms. They wear uniforms everyday. During the hot weather, there are shorter pants and short sleeved shirts.
6. The next difference is the food, specifically the lack of cold things. People don’t drink cold drinks or eat cold foods. That’s not to say its not sold but its just no one eats or drinks it. The reasoning behind this is that if its hot or warm, its fresh and its good. This
philosophy can be carried to extremes so much so that people who eat too many cold things getting burning rocks put on them to draw out the cold.
7. But what you'll be happy to know is that soda and drinks are still available to Americans and others. I've recently formed a minor addiction to green apple soda. So that’s going to be the first thing I find when I get back to America. Which is a problem because I've never seen this in any American market. But to be fair I haven't tried to look in a Chinese market.
8. A difference is pollution. It isn't even visible all the time. There are just days you have to watch out for. This is why it's common for people to wear masks. Some of said masks are super heavy and have respirators on it. So far I've seen some pretty bad days, but I haven't used a mask this whole trip and I'm still fine, so it's not bad enough to really affect me.
9. In American restaurants you order meals individually and the waitress brings everyone their own meal. Sometimes there can be sharing, at certain restaurants and homes, but in general everyone gets their own meal. In China, on the other hand, every meal has shared food. Whether at a home or a restaurant, all the meals are shared and people just take what they want.
10. I've noticed that no one really drinks the tap water. In the school, we have cooled or hot boiled water. The boiling is to get the water clean. In my host home we all drink bottled water. In America, the tap water is clean and drinkable, for the most part. The only thing I use China's tap water is for is to brush my teeth, but I don't swallow it.
-posted on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 4:47 PM