The P.R.C. is the Place To Be

2006-10-23T03:06:00.000-05:00

One of the first things someone asked when we I got to China was, “Can you feel the communism?”

I thought it over for a second and decided that no, I really couldn’t. It’s true that Chinese people use a lot of red in their decorating, but for the casual visitor Beijing seems like a capitalist’s paradise. Coke and Oreos exist in near perfect harmony with Honey Tea and Bamboo Rice Cakes, bargaining in the market places is always at a fever pitch, and someone will stab you with a chopstick to grab that 5 yuan bill on the ground.

After having been here for nearly 3 months I feel equally comfortable saying, yes, you can feel the communism. Two weeks ago I was informed that my computer had been placed on a “Forbidden” list, effectively cutting me off from the Internet. At first I was sure it was because I am single handedly responsible for the propagation of the term Crasian (we also have Invasian now, an Asian who gets all up in your personal space), but later I found out the school cracked down on our Proxy connections. In typical Chinese fashion, we can still illegally access international websites, but only if we pay to use their proxy number.

In Chinese class our teacher asked “Did anyone go to a foreign country over break”. Not thinking, one of my classmates said Hong Kong. After a beat Professor Wang gently corrected him saying, “Hong Kong is a part of China”. Don’t even touch the topic of Taiwan, if you accidentally refer to it as a Country and not a Province of China you are going to get some nasty or confused looks.

(Editorial: If China wants Hong Kong to be a real part of China, it should lift it’s re-entry visa requirements. I had to shell out a sweet US $50 to get back into China).

The most amazing thing is how Chinese people view their own history. Foreigners understand (recent) Chinese history as something rather inhumane and coercive, but mention these events here and you will be told that “Your American government is wrong, you have your facts all wrong”. Of course this is not true of all Chinese people, and a lot of information leaks in from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, but it is a very different political / historical consciousness that has developed here. They haven’t just blocked things from Google, they are blocked from conversation and memory.

In lighter news, I finished midterms. This dorm turned into a pressure cooker of stress and gossip during exam week, I’m just glad to have made it out alive. We leave for Guilin in two weeks. I have been promised beautiful scenery, mud baths, cheap pizza, coffee and rafting. The only downside is the fact that Guilin is famous for gigantic spiders. Gigantic spiders that like to cuddle. Overall I’m glad China has incredibly strict gun-control laws, but I’m gonna be packing a bazooka during this trip because if I wake up spooning a new eight-legged friend I’ll probably just die. If God is truly merciful, he will choose that moment to take me home.

Halloween is coming up, and I need a costume. To continue my semester long theme of being an insensitive asshole, I was considering going as a Korean person (Korean people are so hot I can’t stand it, I am thinking of asking a group of Korean girls to buy all my winter cloths for me), but now I am trying to convince Jack that we should go as each other. I’ll wear his t-shirts with mistranslated English and give myself the Asian Poof (poofy, Aqua Net hair), and he’ll wear my button-down and make his laugh sound fake and like a foghorn. I think it has potential.

I feel the need to reciprocate some digital love by pointing out the excellence of JR's Peace Corps Blog. I am incredibly flattered that he imagines me as a Discovery Channel travel guide, I have always dreamed of having a little globe rotate in the lower-right-hand corner of my field of vision. I doubt JR realizes what a talented writer he is, or how much we all admire him for what he is doing. It blows my mind that our favorite knee-sock wearing, Narwhal loving friend is busy doing what most of us can hardly dream of. Bien hecho!

“And like a boner in scrub pants, I’m out!”

2006-09-29T06:17:00.000-05:00

The post in which I admit to being kind-of-sort-of homesick.

Two days ago I was sitting in Chinese class, reviewing characters and using half an ear to keep track of the class conversation. The professor was discussing the multiple uses of the verb “xiang” (to want, desire, miss). Noting my dreamy demeanor she immediately asked me:

“Yao Yue Han! Ni xiang jia ma?
Yao Yue Han (my name) are you homesick?

The rest of the class had answered the question with a firm “Bu xiang jia!” (No I am not!), but I couldn’t help but say “you yi diar” (just a little).

Part of this stems from listening to the Sufjan Stevens album, “Come on! Feel the Illinois!” The bland scenery, and occasionally bland people, of my home state do not often serve as the inspiration for lyrical poetry or as the cause of heart-rending yearning, but they do have an appeal when viewed from this side of the ocean. The grass is greener, and the cornfields more romantic, on the other side.

Being in China is changing a lot of my conceptions about the States. Living in Chile was a series of apologies for our government’s less than philanthropic actions in the region. What is so fascinating about being in China is that you encounter a country that can match or exceed the States in terms of fiery nationalism. Chinese people (again I engage in generalizations) are fucking crazy about their country. This can be attributed to many things; having the world's longest continuous culture, ethnic identity, a difficult and exclusive language, Communist Party propaganda, racism, a strong anti-outsider mentality, to name a few. This is best illustrated in Chinese views of Japanese. The Japanese royally fucked China in the early 20th century, but the level of animosity that exists between Chinese people and Japanese is staggering. Take the “average American’s” feelings toward the French and multiply it by a 100 and you will begin to approach the Chinese hatred of the Japanese. At this point the emotions are based on and tied to the Chinese concept of national identity. A similar intensity exists with regard to Taiwan. Taiwan just isn’t that important (or cool) but Chinese people will fight to the death to “reunite” the mainland and the island.

Seeing foreign policy from a Chinese perspective has made me a teeny-tiny bit more moderate in my view of American policy. When living in America it’s very easy to demand the US act in a purely philanthropic and utopian way, but seeing Chinese thought patterns emerge and their understanding of hegemonic power, I can see more justification for the US having a policy that says “Fuck you, we gotta watch out for number one!” Please, do not think I am abandoning my (relatively) liberal views, but I do have a greater appreciation for the decidedly American form of pragmatism that tends to govern our foreign policy (I repeat, I understand the justification for it, I still believe the implementation to be short sighted and incredibly damaging internationally).

Politics aside, I find myself missing cheese-fries with ranch, grain silos, K-Mart, and the way my dog smells after being groomed. Sitting at my computer it’s easy to pretend I’m at Loyola, which is a comfort when feeling a little blue, but I’m fundamentally happy that leaving my room will entail pushing past a group of (inevitably) noisy Koreans, over a pile of people playing Mahjong and to a restaurant where I will eat with chopsticks. The rolling plains of the Midwest have a strong appeal, but not nearly as strong as “jiaozi” (pot-sticker or pork dumpling).

(side note: I have a problem with jiaozi, I could eat 1000 of them a day. I dream of being put in a prison made of jiaozi and being forced to eat my way out)

I expect my newfound (re-discovered?) love affair with all things American to fade upon my return, but for now I sure am glad I can get NPR on iTunes and own every Joni Mitchell CD in existence.

2006-09-26T09:32:00.000-05:00

Jack: Do you know how to say “pea”
Me: Pee or Pea
Jack: P-e-a
Me: That is a vegetable, I think you mean p-e-e
Jack: Oh yea. Ok… Oh my God, I think pee is a very cute word!

Jack: What can you say, in English, besides Oh My God.
Me: You can say Holy Shit.
Jack: Holy shit? Why?
Me: I dunno, we just say it.

pause

Jack: Like, if a God goes to bathroom?

2006-09-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

I preface this post by saying that I love China and the Chinese people. All humorous generalizations and nick-names for Chinese people are made out of love, so don’t be offended, or I’ll sick a Crasian on you.

Typical day in China.

8:00 – Wake up. Make some Nescafe and review vocab before class, check email, read illegally downloaded foreign press.

9:20-12:30 – Chinese class with one of the sweetest Chinese teachers on the planet. Most of my time is spent thinking of funny phrases I can make with my limited vocabulary, or memorizing whatever Chinese cuss-word my roommate taught me the night before. We have tests everyday, which sucks, but I can express my dislike for tests with an increasingly colorful range of Chinese slang.

12:30-1:30 – Lunch in the cafeteria. After complaining “wo e si le!” (I am hungry to the point of death) we will drop the $1.50 for a meal of either, pot stickers and tea, Muslim noodles with tomatoes, or the Chinese specialty, Something with Some Kind of Salty Sauce and Some Vegetable over Rice – Served Room Temperature. Today, while I was standing in the poultry line I noticed the newest menu item, Entire-Baked-Duck, it was literally staring me in the face.

1:30-5 – More class. Classes are hard but incredibly interesting. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy studying about China, especially my foreign policy class. Oh, and we always spend the first 30 minutes of my Buddhism class meditating, which is pretty badass.

5/6ish – Dinner. usually off campus. This is where you have the best chance of running into some of China’s archetypes. We have ID'd five so far.

Crasians – Crazy Asians – A term that applies to almost everyone you meet in China. I have yet to meet a truly crazy person, but chances are absolutely anyone will at one point do something that will weird you out. We (foreigners) weird Chinese people out all the time, it’s the fun of cross-cultural exchange. It’s never the person that is crazy, it’s always the situation, and the fact that life in China is just fundamentally different than in the States.

Rasians -- Raisin Asians i.e. really old Chinese people. So cute, so nice. A big reason I love China.

Gaysians – Gay Asians, more common at the discos, occasionally spotted in the wild. Credit goes to Courtney for first introducing me to this beautiful word.

Sensatians -- Sensational Asians, or sensationally attractive Chinese people.

Ragins – Rage-filled Asian – usually a middle aged woman serving some kind of food, occasionally a taxi driver.

Dinner is usually followed by browsing the new DVDs for sale on the street (DVDs range from 50 cents to 2 dollars), going out for beer and kabobs or a trip to Wu-Mart (the Chinese answer to Wal-Mart, soooo much better than its American rival).

The rest of the evening is spent doing homework or something that will probably be confusing (have I mentioned that living in China is really confusing? Like, all the time?). Yesterday my friend Matt and I were asked to “Come to a party and sing a Chinese song or two, like a game”. Turns out it’s a cultivation event for an on-campus student union. We had enough warning to prepare our songs, thank God. When we arrived we found out there were around 250 students in attendance. We ended up singing Chinese pop songs to them (listening to the music on headphones) to see if they can recognize the songs despite our accents and terrible Mandarin, correct guesses were rewarded with stuffed animals. In short, Laugh at the Foreigner Hour. It was actually a blast, my rendition of Xiao Miao got a couple of screams, I think a girl might have fainted.

(the above is a perfect example of why we use the word Crasian. Normal kids + desire to place you in situations that resemble a movie more than real life = Crasians)

That’s about it. I come home from whatever activity and hang out with Jack while we do homework, and turn in about 1AM. Overall it’s a pretty sweet existence.

The best part is when something that was crazy starts to seem totally normal. Today, as I spit a chicken bone out onto the table, I didn’t think twice about what anyone would say, because it’s just what you do. I can’t imagine having a conversation without using or intentionally misusing Chinese and Chinese slang. It’s a strange thing to be permanently apart from the culture you are surrounded by, but yet assuming many of its more superficial quirks. I saw someone stick their chopsticks into their rice rather than lay them across the bowl when they finished (a big no-no) and I was a little shocked (then I told myself to chill-out).

I realize re-reading this just how much it sounds like my life is Us versus Them, which isn’t the vibe here at all. It is true in-so-far as it is used as a humorous defense mechanism, and the Chinese nationalism and pride does lend itself into those kinds of divisions, but I do have and love a bunch of Chinese friends. Life here is more hilarious and fun than anything else, and if it wasn’t for graduating and missing my Meiguo pengyou (American Friends) I would try to stay the year.

But don’t worry, I’m still coming home in December.

Probably with a bottle of snake wine.

2006-09-20T12:14:00.000-05:00

I promise this blog will eventually contain information regarding my daily life, but today it’s devoted to Jack-isms.

Me: So the doctor said you have low blood pressure?
Jack: Uhh, yea.
Me: So what can you do to raise it?
Jack: To make it better?
Me: Yea
Jack: … I don’t know… I think maybe eat something delicious.

Jack: It’s a cock, you know?
Me and Amy: A what!?
Jack: A cock…. Cock, cock! ::flaps arms::
Me: Rooster! You should say rooster, cock means feiji*
Jack: Oh no! So terrible!

* feiji literally means 'airplane', but it’s the Chinese equilivant of cock. "Hit the airplane" is the Chinese expression for "to jack-off"

::I have my glasses off, my cell phone beeps. I pick up the phone and hold it 2 inches away from my face to read the message::

Jack: ::gasp!::
Me: What!?
Jack: Your eyesight! So terrible!

Living with this person is wonderful. The other day he cleaned the room, and put my spoon in the refrigerator, no explanation given. It wasn't until I decided to try to eat my breakfast with chopsticks that I found it next to the milk. I had been worried about finding a roommate when I get back to Chicago, now I am only worried about how I can convince Jack to come back with me. I think he would be a great addition to a Loyola Chicago danceparty.

2006-09-14T19:57:00.000-05:00

I’ve been to busy to really sit down and spill my guts, trust that I love it here more than I imagined I could. This story deserves telling.

Jack arrived 5 days ago (he’s my Chinese roommate) and he is fantastic. Yesterday we were talking about different fruits and vegetables, and I was explaining the many uses of the words “peach fuzz”.

He pauses for a moment, thinking of how to express himself in English, and then carefully states: “I do not like peaches… The 'fuzz' makes me feel uncomfortable”

Not nearly as funny without the accent, call me and I will be thrilled to repeat it in Chinglish (if you thought my fake accent was good before, you've gotta hear it after 1 month surrounded by Chinese)

2006-09-04T11:46:00.000-05:00

Back in Beijing!

The rest of the trip was spectacular. We camped in the Gobi desert, danced with Uighur villagers (and slept in their backyards). We hiked around the mountains in northwest China, and partied in Kazak yurts (after eating a dinner of, you guessed it, yak).

It is amazing how much coming back to Beijing feels like returning home. We went to our “favorite restaurant” (honestly it’s only our favorite because ordering from their English menu makes getting food a pleasant experience rather than a 30 minute, frustrating and hilarious series of pantomimes aided only by shitty Mandarin. Matt clucked like a chicken and ended up with a bowl full of chicken feet instead of meat. Oh China!). Campus is in full swing. China is a very crowded country (believe it or not). I cannot look out my window without seeing at least 45 people milling around. It’s exciting and comforting to be back on campus, and the staggering number of students makes this place seem very dynamic.

I had my first Chinese class today. It’s going to be intense, and I am glad I went down a level rather then pushing myself into the intermediate class. We met our faculty members at a banquet on Sunday. I give the Beijing Center a lot of credit, this is a wonderful program, and the quality of the instructors is out of this world. I’m going to be taking classes with some monumental people. I remember being afraid that being on a program would put too much of a buffer between me and China, but it’s impossible to do anything here without having all of China’s quirks and traits come rushing at you (probably on a bicycle).

I was expecting a wave of homesickness about this time, but the most intense feeling I’ve been having is one of displaced deja-vu. I’ve really missed specific people, but I have yet to crave the physical scenery and feeling of Chicago. I’ve become great friends with a lot of people here, and I feel comfortable (as comfortable as a 6’1 blonde guy can feel in China), but I’m still struck by how ridiculous and movie like my life is. Am I really sitting here practicing Mandarin tones in a university in Beijing? Did that little girl really just pee on my foot? Why aren’t I in Chicago? It’s not an unhappy feeling, it actually makes me smile, but it is disorientating.

For example, I haven’t touched a fork in a month, and until right now I hadn’t thought twice about it, is that weird? Today I pulled an American dollar out of my pant pocket and didn’t immediately recognize it. I put it on the table at lunch and everyone got really excited, as if I had pulled out a gruesome bug or something. The culture shock coming here is 1000x times stronger than when I went to Chile, maybe that’s making home feel that much more dreamlike. I still feel extremely connected to the people at home, but the feeling-of-home is totally on my mental back-burner.

I know my love of all things American (meaning, my life/lifestyle in America) will come back in full force before too much longer, but for now pass me some chopsticks and hand a diaper to the little girl peeing on my foot.

2006-09-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

Jia'he, near Turpan

Snake wine! It was pretty damn good.

2006-09-01T12:09:00.000-05:00

A little of Tibet

Xi'an, pen (not cigarette) behind ear

Sweet street scene in Xi'an

2006-08-28T04:02:00.000-05:00

Blogging from a computer locked in Mandarin is not an easy experience, I'm actually kind of shocked how much techno-navigation happens by muscle memory, I can even turn off pop-up blocker without reading a single warning screen, just hitting the Yes button over and over.

Anyway, this is coming from Turpan, one of the hottest cities in the world (not too bad today). The past week or so has been quite an adventure, but as usual I don't have enough time to really sit down and write about it. I've seen some hair-raising things (10 year old smoke a cig, a dead baby at a Tibetan sky burial site) and incredible things (Tibet was amazing, the Gobi is beautiful) but all those stories will have to wait. I'm also getting along really well with all the people in my group, which is nice. We are all starting to get anxious to get back to Beijing and start school, but we still have another 5 days in the Xinjian area, a part of China much closer culturally and ethnically to the middle East than to China.

For now I need to note, and expand upon later, some of the mannerisms and differences between everyone else in the world and the Chinese.

You can never: stick your chopsticks in your rice, it reminds people of funerals. Spend too much time talking about the number 4, it sounds like the word for death. Spit in a napkin, its much better to just spit it on the floor. Put toilet paper in the toilet. Ask for a Happy Ending when getting a haircut, hair salons are oftentimes brothels. Refer to a young woman as "Miss", she will think you think she works in a hair salon, making sure customers leave happy.

You should: Spit anywhere you want. Laugh when you feel awkard. Say "Hello" really really loudly whenever you see a white person. Stare, touch, spit upon, steal from, embrace or sexually proposition any white person you happen to see. When selling a t-shirt worth $2, start by asking for $20 and when offered less than $15 scream "You are crazy! Crazy white man, a-leave-a-my-store".

There are so, so many more, but I need to get these out there so as not to forget. I leave you with some Chinglish (the fantastic version of English spoken by the Chinese) seen in a local park.

"Please to remember, this here park is tip-top, meant for enjoyment of all. Please, keep clean, be ready to defend the purity. If you see soiling of park-area, remove your cudgel and fight for the cleanleeness of this here park"

2006-08-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

I'm in Xi'an, one of the old capitals of China. This place is beautiful, a glorious combo of neon lights and old buildings. I only have a moment, but one story is worth telling...

There is a large Muslim population here famous for it's kabobs. Danny, Matt, Jack (an American, I still havn't met my roommate Jack) and I were eating in a divy restaurant. A man approached us with some meat and we hesitated. He then grabbed Jack's crotch, as we all watched dumbfounded. After not getting a reaction he reached over and touched Dannys. Several tense seconds ensued until we realized he was telling us the meat we had was beef testicle. Gross! Hilarious! The two perfect words to describe Chinese food.

We are seeing the Terra Cotta warriors tomorrow, and then eating even more strange and interesting food. My tastebuds have never been busier.

2006-08-13T21:06:00.000-05:00

This country just doesn’t quit!

They tell us that each student goes through a “Honeymoon Phase” with China, and mine is so strong you’d think Mao and I just pulled out of a Vegas chapel.

We went to the Great Wall two days ago. That place is absolutely out of this world. You have to drive about 2 hours to get to one of the prettier sections of the wall. Once you arrive you have to climb up and up and up to get there. The wall snakes around the tops of these enormous hills (almost mountain size, think Cerro de San Cristobal). The wall itself is beautiful with ramparts placed ever 500 meters or so. The stairs vary in size from teeny tiny all the way up to about 3 feet high. The end of one section shoots straight up into the air for almost 100 meters. This summer has been especially wet for Beijing, and the wall was literally in a cloud. I have never been sweatier in my life (Todd, I thought of you!) but the combination of being so overwhelmed and physically exhausted was fantastic, as Dan (and Ayn) says, everything emotional state has a kinesthetic counterpart, that day left me totally exhausted. This place really deserves the title Wonder of the World, but as Leslie pointed out, “The real wonder is how people actually lived up here”

Yesterday we went to Tian’anmen Square and downtown Beijing. Everyone complains that Beijing is dirty (smog like you can’t believe, shit spit and food in the gutters, grime, yelling, crowds, cars and bikes everywhere) and its true, even downtown, but I find it enthralling. The areas around Tian’anmen Square and Hohao Lake are pretty touristy and classed up (they have a McDonalds, and it has an Aloe flavor milkshake, three cheers for cultural differences!) but it’s still Beijing. This place is also humongous. Take the strip of high-rises on Sheridan near Hollywood and multiply it by 100 and you can start to imagine the size of this place, then take that area and cram in 13 million yelling Chinese people. I hope by the end of my stay I will be able to express why I love it so much, but all I can say is that I’ve never really had such a strong and positive reaction to a city before.

I want to write so much about Chinese manners and the pace of life and the food (the food! I could write thousands of pages about the food. I plan on returning to Chicago an obese man), but it will have to wait.

Today we are getting information on our 3 week tour. Thankfully (and very serendipitously) everyone I like is in tour group A and all the people that annoy me are in B (I’m an A-er). I’m hoping to get pictures online soon, but it could take a while. The trip will be from Wednesday (the 16th) until the first of September, and I’ll hopefully be able to update during that time. If not, just think camels, deserts, turpans, yakbutter and me wearing my Grandpa’s old fishing hat!

2006-08-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ni Hao Bitches!

Holy mother is this place incredible. I spent the entire plane ride wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, and now that I have a taste of it, I can't wait to really jump right in.

As stupid as this sounds, the two most arresting and overwhelming experiences thus far have been 1. Being totally surrounded by Chinese people speaking Chinese and 2. Having everything written in Chinese. Going to Europe or South America involves a kind of culture shock, but not something as visually stunning, literally stunning, as needing to rely entirely on pictures to beging to understand what is happening around you. Who knew Volve and Colgate could be transliterate into Mandarin characters, but I have the empty toothpaste box to prove it.

Speaking of Mandarin (pun INTENDED) I am thrilled with how much I can understand. I'm still just picking out words and some phrases, but it's much easier than I thought to differentiate between words, and the Beijing accent is pretty cool and easy to hear. This is really encouraging, and actually being here makes learning the language a lot more fun and interesting. I bravely led a group of students into the cafeteria this afternoon, taking the initiative with beautiful linguistic stylings such as...

Me: One plate of food, please.
Woman: No more food, last one.
Me: You no have more any plates food of?
Woman: No... Food...
Me: Ok... Lo Mien?

But we all got food in the end, and that is what I call success.

Beijing. Oh Beijing! Why are you so interesting!? By all external judgments this place is dirty, boring and crowded, but I can't get enough of it. Beijing (the part I have seen thus far, which excludes the downtown) is a sea of apartment buildings, taxi cabs, bikes and shops. The poverty is the same kind of poverty I saw in parts of Chile and especially in Ecuador. I can't quite describe what I mean, it's a kind of style and lifestyle, a very in-the-street way of life that is entirely lacking in North America. It's not necessarily poverty so much as letting your house/shop spill into the street. The Chinese have an amazing ability to sit/squat on little tiny things (bricks, rocks, fenders etc), they are not lazy, just amazingly adept at parking their little butts. More thoughts on this later.

Tomorrow is the Great Wall, and hopefully I'll get the pictures online. We leave for Xi'an and the Silk Road in a couple of days, but I should keep the updates flowing until then.

Zaijian!

2006-08-08T19:42:00.000-05:00

It’s down to the wire. In a little over 9 hours I’ll be on a bus headed for O’Hare. Then it’s off to San Fran, as all the Nor Cal TBCer’s (The Beijing Center-ers) call it, and on to Beijing (12 hour flight!). I don’t anticipate sleeping tonight, or for the next 40 hours. I can’t wait to arrive in my dorm, spaced out of my head, and wake up for the first time in China. Jack just emailed me to say that he’s in Australia for the week. It’ll be nice to have the room to myself while I recover from jet-lag, but I was hoping to be greeted by his open arms, a pogo-stick in one hand and a rubber chicken in the other. I suppose that responsibility now falls to me.

Orientation is really interesting. All of our materials keep hinting at the fact that China is an absolute mad-house. I imagine opening the plane door will be similar to opening the kitchen door on the Muppet Babies, crazy Beijing bikers throwing Peking duck at my face while someone wacks a gong.

The goodbyes, which are always difficult, have been aided by a certain amount of emotional adrenaline. The past several weeks have been inordinately stressful, and it’s a relief to slowly put the bookends on Chicago. It’s a comfort to remember that it’ll be here when I get back, and I’ll be gone for considerably less time than before.

I’m going to go fill these last few hours with some cheap beer and maybe Chipotle (someone is going to have to air-mail me a chicken burrito, I can’t last 4 months).

And Caitlin, for the record, this blog template is totally not gay. Just pretend it’s being written on Heathcliff’s letterhead, or a Louis Vuitton purse, either one.

2006-07-19T11:53:00.000-05:00

Welcome to what will be, eventually (22 days or so), a chronicle of my time in the People's Republic of China. Seeing as how shockingly difficult it is for me to keep in contact with my loved ones, this is the best way for you to keep tabs on what I'm doing.

I don't have my address yet, but my phone number will be

86-10-64492709
(Country-Beijing-Room)

Note-- Beijing is 13 hours ahead of Chicago. If it's Noon on Tuesday in Chicago, it's 1AM Wednesday in Beijing. Keep that in mind.

I recently received an email from my future Chinese roommate. His name is Zhao "Jack" De Yu, (I think it's interesting that all the Chinese host students are given American names) and holy-moley does he sound like a blast. Whenever I day-dream about our friendship the Laverne and Shirley theme plays in my head while we fly kites in downtown Beijing and do somersaults around the Forbidden Palace. Truly a match made in heaven, I can't wait to actually meet this guy.