My Final Light Fellowship Post-Top Tens

It's been about a week since CET Hangzhou ended and while I'm slowly adjusting back to reality (relatively speaking since I'm still in Europe and on summer vacation so not quite reality) and life away from China and all of the wonderful people I met there. I realize that my blog has been overwhelmingly positive (because my experience was incredible), but for fairness sake, my last post will attempt to be a little more balanced.

With that said, I've painstakingly created two top ten lists about my experience. The first list is things I missed while in China and the second, things I will miss about China. The order doesn't reflect importance. I can't include everything here, but hopefully it'll give you an idea of some of the lifestyle differences.

Enjoy!

Things I Missed While in China

1.) Salads (I definitely started to eat cucumbers mixed with vinegar everyday when I got sick of stir fry.)

2.) The ease of lining up (or rather, the existence of lines)

3.) Fair and consistent pricing by shop vendors

4.) Clean air and less-congested roads

5.) Not having to use VPN to get on Facebook and other sites

6.) Not going overboard with blunt honesty (at times, Chinese honesty can be too much)

7.) Having 9 AM classes at Yale (8 AM everyday and then 6 AM gongfu?)

8.) Not having to worry about food sanitation (not that I really worried, but you know that food is much cleaner in the US)

9.) Napkins (such a small thing, but the cafeteria rarely had them and at cheaper restaurants they just give tissues)

10.) Finding places to recycle (granted when you throw your bottle in the trashcan, it's going to be picked out a few minutes later by someone who will sell it for money, but still)

Things I Will Miss about China

1.) Cheap food prices (and yummy food!)

2.) Night markets, day markets, and stores where bargaining is routine

3.) Majiang

4.) The nightlife (Chinese clubs are definitely more fun, less sketchy, and open longer)

5.) Milk tea (so I'm still not a tapioca person, but you don't have to be in China!)

6.) The ease of public transportation

7.) Tip does not exist (not even for takeout) and food comes out extra fast

8.) The ease of paying for bills (family style makes for extremely easy bill-splitting)

9.) All of the fun places to explore!

10.) Using Chinese all the time and fitting in

Playing majiang!

Culture meets city. It's definitely an experience living in such a rapidly developing city with so many scenic and historical sites.

Without Freedom, But Free

As the Light Fellowship has dearly reminded me, I have completed my program, but have yet to fulfill my blogging requirements! I’m blaming it on the fact that I was so busy studying and immersing myself in Chinese culture, and attempting to rectify my mistake with a few last minute entries. Hopefully this will do.

Because of my parents’ Chinese background and my limited exposure to my Chinese relatives, I always had a conception of Chinese students: hardworking and no fun. Oh how little I knew then, and probably how little I know now.

Upon arriving in China, I realized that my roommate and I weren’t from completely opposite worlds. We went to bed around the same time, had an unhealthy addiction to Facebook (or renrenwang in my roommate’s case), liked the same music, enjoyed shopping, and had generally similar personalities. Perhaps the only glaring difference is that I can run around for days on end and never tire while she needs lots of sleep (including midday naps) and easily tires in the heat. And with this epiphany, all of my preconceptions vanished.

The first week in China, my roommate showed me her old dorm room. At Zhejiang University of Technology, all of the students live four to a room (two bunkbeds), with boys and girls separated into different buildings. Boys aren’t allowed in girls’ rooms, and all students must be back by 11:30 PM before the ayi locks the door. If the ayi locks the door, you can pound really loudly and scream and hopes she wakes up and lets you in, or wait until 6 AM when she wakes up. Luckily for us international students, our building was never locked. When I first heard this, I assumed Chinese students just never went out, but as one of my friends informed me, Chinese high school is all struggle, but Chinese college is mostly play. While it differs by student, my friend said that whenever he and his friends go out, they often rent cheap motel rooms together and just all pile in, or just return at 6 AM and wait for ayi to wake up (unlike Toads, most of the clubs are open until 5 AM).

Chinese people love karaoke and other random games!

We made a bonfire with one of the roommate's parents! And then danced around it!

When it comes to using the internet, websites like Facebook, Blogspot, and Youtube are blocked, but students use proxies, VPN-like software, and other means to access these websites. Every so often these sites are blocked, but there are always more proxies than the government can control. Sensitive words like Tibet are often censored and replaced by symbols, but web-users always find a way around the censors.

And the Communist Party and Mao Zedong’s philosophies? Not very influential. Mao’s old policies have become a laughing point, and the Communist Party is more of a network. Several of the roommates are members of the Communist Party (an arduous process filled with years of essay writing, interviews, and events), but none of these believe the party’s principles. For them, it’s more of a box they can check off when applying for jobs.

So what’s the point of all this control? In a country fueled by economic growth and Westernization, how much longer can the government control the people? How many more websites must the government shut down? How can outdated politics move a country? The government can no longer brainwash: the people are already free.

Goodbye Hangzhou!

After six arduous, yet delightful weeks of intensive Chinese language study, it is finally time to say goodbye to Hangzhou. Upon reflecting on my time here, I can honestly say that I've loved every second of my time in China. At times there was miscommunication and culture shock, but never was there a moment where I wanted to leave...looks like I managed to avoid that stage of my international experience, cheers!

I came to China to learn a language, but more importantly, to learn and be a part of a culture that's subtly pervaded every aspect of my life. After 50 days, I can proudly say that I've accomplished this goal. I may not have improved my Chinese as much as I would have liked, but I've traveled every inch of Hangzhou and built long-lasting friendships.

Because of the language pledge, I found myself spending most of my free time with the Chinese roommates, and really absorbing Chinese culture as a result of it. I've mastered the art of bargaining (to the point where the Chinese roommates want me to bargain for them), played tons of Hangzhou majiang (yes, like an old lady), learned shaolin gongfu (at 6 AM twice a week), dabbled with Chinese calligraphy, went to a Chinese movie theater to watch Tangshan's Big Earthquake (where I bawled like a baby and the Chinese roommates have yet to let me forget), explored explored explored (I've been dubbed the crazy girl who never tires and always wants to play by CET), learned a lot of not so kosher language, read Chinese newspapers, sang Chinese songs in KTV (most of which was my mom's 90's music to everyone's amusement), went to a Chinese hospital (an experience on it's own...it's only about 3 RMB to see the doctor so people go for colds and all ailments...no need for prior appointments, just jump in line and wait a few minutes), and so much more.

It's hard to say goodbye to everyone, but like that cheesy saying goes (popularized by Facebook bumper sticker?): "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." I've grown a lot from my Chinese experience and am so grateful to everyone who made it possible and incredible.

And now it's that time again...one hour to go until I leave campus. Who knows when and if I'll return? I hope I will, but now is not the time to think about it...magical packing must happen.

At Yuhuang Mountain: One of the many caves that can be found in Hangzhou

Lotus flower and leaves at West Lake (incidentally, my Chinese name means lotus leaf)

Hangzhou, I will miss you!

On Palm Reading and Seeing into the Future

Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived in Beijing. One day, she went to a well-respected palm reader. He looked at her palm, thought for a while, and then told her in Chinese: "You're very close to your father, but you're going to marry someone who will take you far far away from him." A few years later, after this girl became a woman, she fell in love with a man who shortly after went to the US. After a couple more years of letters and expensive long-distance phone calls, they got married and the prophecy was fulfilled.

This is the story of my mother and father, and the mysteriousness of palm reading. In the US, seeing into the future is a cheap show: crystal balls on the beach, fortune dispensing machines, and poker cards, but in China, it's a science, a tradition, and often times, scarily accurate.

Ever since my mother told me about this palm reader, I've always been curious about how palm reading works. Luckily for me, I spent Sunday in the ancient town of Anchang, a small place that most people (including Chinese people) have never heard of. Resting next to a heavily polluted stream, where the water is this mysterious mutant green color and small boats slowly row across, Anchang has managed to preserve its culture and old town feeling. Aside from small shops and restaurants, there's not too much there. But to my delight, there were many palm readers.

Upon crossing the first bridge into Anchang, there was an old man looking at another's palm, making periodic declarations like "Your daughter will get a small illness in 2 years." At first, the old man seemed to be pretty legitimate so I'd figured I'd give it a try...and then I discovered that quacks aren't unique to the US. According to him, I'm going to get married at 28, become a government official at 31, have a husband who is also a government official, have two sons and two daughters, retire at 79, and die at 91. Unconvincing, only to be exacerbated by the fact that he then said I should go to school in the States as a foreign exchange student. Case closed.

My friend and I then undertook the mission of finding a legitimate palm reader. After asking around, we ended up in a small room with a younger-looking man who palm reads only on weekends. Upon my expressing trepidation and skepticism, he offered to read my palm and tell me about myself for free...it was legitimate. And so, I then let him do ba zi (8 words), which delves into your life via date and time of birth. He spent a lot of time so I'll neglect the little details but some highlights: The most lucky times of my life are 12-22 and post-32, I'll marry around 32, my first child will be a son, my brother has more potential to be successful than me, my health will always be good, the more I pick the worse the situation will become so I should stop being a perfectionist, and so on. I can't say I really believe all of these predictions, but we'll just have to wait and see...

The front gate of An Chang.

I don't know how many tourists come here, but there's English!

Please note the heavily polluted green water. This old man followed us around and continuously asked us if we wanted to ride in his boat.