龙井茶 Longjing/Dragon Well Tea

If you haven't noticed, many of my experiences here in China greatly revolve around the language...and TEA. God I love tea. It's taste, it's smell, the look of it, the feel of it, the art of it. EVERYTHING. Call me obsessed, but there are worse things to be obsessed with. Anyways, on Saturday I had the most spiritual experience with tea I've yet to fathom. Again with the cultural club, we went to the National Tea Museum and then up into the mountains to an actual tea field. In these places we got to sip the perfection that is Dragon Well tea and practice making it ourselves!

First off at the museum we got to watch several men hand roasting the tea in a hot metal pan(about 189 degrees C). We also got some exciting news. Two people from the group could have the chance to train in tea roasting with a tea master(师傅) the rest of our stay in China. And guess who volunteered? Jack and I! We got to try our hand (rather our bare hands) at roasting and bowed to our 师傅(shi fu). Apparently I have good hands for tea roasting because my hands can curve to the pan, but Jack...not so much :p. Neither of us had a very good technique though.

After that we went inside and a man brewed some Longjing green tea for us. This is the most famous and expensive Green Tea in China. Needless to say it was delicious. I got to try my hand at brewing and pouring the tea for everyone, which was fun. My technique could still use a little work there too though. ZHOU!咒 Then we were off to have a big Chinese lunch :D, but the best part of the day was yet to come!

We then got back on the bus and drove into a little mountain village with one narrow road where our giant bus competed for space and drove precariously close to the ledge. People there wash their belonging in the stream running through the center of the town, though they live in rather modern looking houses. This is probably due to the wealth of the tea industry. Still it was quite different from city life which has many more modern conveniences. A lot of other buildings were pretty run down and probably lacking plumbing and electricity. We managed to squeeze through to a clearing where the tea fields began, and it was gorgeous. Most people were handed a basket and we climbed stairs up into the misty mountains to pick some longjing for ourselves! It was such a gorgeous day and the breeze swept through as we meticulously hunted and gently plucked the mature tea leaves. It was hard work, but I enjoyed the simplicity of it and the beauty of my surroundings. I probably wouldn't last long on an actual tea farm though because I'd probably get fired for being too slow! The whole group managed to pick enough in 20 minutes for only seven cups of tea.

After descending we got to roast our own tea and drink it, as well as bring some home with us. It was like seeing the whole process of tea making from A to Z! This was quite the exclusive opportunity since not many people actually get to go into the fields. Now I can really appreciate what goes into each cup of tea and savor the flavor even more. Hopefully I will become a well practiced tea selector, roaster, server, and connoisseur.

汉字,tai qi, 和 Shanghai

So I really enjoy learning Chinese characters. I've always been more inclined towards writing than speaking no matter what language. Hence I excel in writing and struggle in speaking class. So I'm only half as incompetent as I formerly thought. Yay! I did really well on the first test (top 6 in the class)so I felt pretty good about myself. Still I struggle every day with the class format. AKA teachers speaking in Chinese constantly. How am I supposed to learn much if I don't know what you are saying? I understand the importance of comprehending an actual person's speech, but I'm not quite there yet. Only for the most part the things we have learned.

I think I focus a little too much on individual characters as opposed to making them into a cohesive sentence. It's just cool to know what each one stands for because that is at least somewhat concrete, but when you mix words together they can be completely different in context. In Chinese everything is basically an expression of some sort. Words are used more for their symbolic meaning than something literal. Also the language is lacking a lot of connecting words that we use in English making it awkward to translate. I kind of wish classes would slow down a bit to break things down for us. If I understand each part of a word's character, I will be able to better understand it in context. I don't just want to memorize how to say things, but their true meaning.

I'm starting other classes this week as well. Today I had tai qi class in the common area of the 留学生一号楼宿舍。Or the overseas student building number 1 dormitory. I just learned those words today so I though I'd use them :P. It was pretty fun and I was able to follow pretty well even though the teacher ONLY spoke Chinese. The moves are really cool and make you really focus. For those of you who know what the show Avatar is, Jack, Talbot and I like to say that we are learning water bending. There is something powerful in the movements. They are almost like a dance, but you feel more than just your body moving. I also have a Chinese business class Monday nights, tai qi again on Thursday, and then I start Chinese painting on Friday. Hopefully I will be able to bring home some decent self made souvenirs as well as cool skills and knowledge!

This past weekend the Central College group went to Shanghai for some sight seeing. It was a good trip with its fair share of troubles. Five of us didn't bring our passport so we weren't able to check into the hotel we booked without paying a 500 yuan fine each at the police station! ya we had to go there; we are officially criminals. Fortunately one member of our group is married to a wonderful former travel agent and Chinese woman who managed to get us rooms in an even nicer hotel! OH PROVIDENCE! Thank you Wei Ling! We went to a beautiful Chinese garden, an aquarium, science museum, and of course shopping. There are soooo many people and so much stuff in that city it is insane. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end and slept most the drive home (2 hours). Fortunately nobody died or got arrested. I call that a success.

Other notes:

-again saw a matching recycling bin for each garbage can in Shanghai

-Got foot rubs and Pizza Hut(which is much nicer in China btw)

-Tutoring May again tomorrow. :)

-Went to a cultural club party about Chinese weddings and won a 1000 yuan photo shoot!

-Did a skit with Will there about blind dates. awkward! haha

-Went hiking on the mountain next to campus on Thursday. Sooo cool

-Walked around West Lake on Friday. Then nearly passed out on a hot bus that was packed like a can of sardines and stuck in rush hour. Luckily I was saved by Korean barbecue!

-Have I mentioned karaoke yet? KTV is pretty sweet! So glamorous. So ridiculous. So fun.

-Shopping here is a skill. Bargaining is exhausting, and sometimes insulting. I'd be a fool to think that people won't try to gouge me because I'm obviously foreign. To be fair though, I did fall for it once on a shirt that doesn't even look good on me.

汉语学习：Chinese Classes

So we finally started classes last week, and I realized just how much my brain missed school. I tested into level 1.5 Chinese just like I hoped. I was very happy about that but starting off, classes have been a little bit difficult for me to keep up in. The teachers speak in mostly Chinese and I usually get the gist of what they are saying, but having so many words thrown at me that I barely comprehend is disorienting. It seems a lot of the students know more than me and are much more comfortable speaking. I hate it! I'm not used to being the dumb one in class. Usually I'm the one answering questions and speaking up, but I am completely out of my element. Unfortunately I can't really lie low and hope nobody notices my ineptness since the classes are very interactive. On the positive side, everybody seems to understand the difficulty and we are all okay with laughing at each other and ourselves.

Classes are intense (four hours of language consecutively each day and then extracurriculars). It's kind of nice just having one subject to focus most of your energy on, though homework can become redundant. Luckily I really enjoy practicing Chinese characters. Also the classes are full of diverse kinds of people. Mine has people from Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Iran, Korea, Brazil, Australia, and more. Ages of people range from 17 to I'm guessing around mid 40's. I'm lucky because most of the people in my class also speak English, so we can communicate inside and out of class. People can ask the the teacher questions that I understand and can also learn from, which has probably been most helpful. The teachers are also great. All of them are very friendly and helpful even though sometimes confusing o_O.

Through the week classes have gotten easier to process. My brain is finally adjusting to having actual stimulus after two months of winter break. I find my mind gets dull with extended respite, but I'm too fond of leisure to do much about it :/. So classes are a good thing. They make me get up and out and go do something. I've also been doing a little work here on the campus. I have taken on a 30 year old PHD student, May, as an English student. It's an interesting situation considering she is probably much smarter than me and I have no formal teaching training. Apparently just being a native English speaker is qualification enough. She is very sweet and interesting. I'm being payed for being American in another way as well. I have been asked by a professor to record some dialogues for an intro English class. It's a pretty sweet deal! Overall it's been a good first week. And next weekend the Central College group is going to Shanghai! So excited!

Other notes

-Hangzhou is a very fun city. The other night we went to this really fancy karaoke bar called KTB and sang horribly, played tambourines, and just had fun. That is a very popular thing to do here in China and I can see why :D.

-I miss a lot of food from home. Especially breakfast cereal and dairy products. There is no Mac and Cheese to speak of and pizza is very expensive. Mc Donalds and Dairy Queen aren't even the same!

-A lot of comments I get from Chinese people either involve "piaoliang" (漂亮pretty) or "hen da!" (很大very big!). Both complimentary and off-putting.

-we pretty much depend on picture menus at restaurants so we can just point at stuff

-When you order chicken, it often means you will get chicken bits (such as feet and neck pieces)

-There is Dongporou flavored ramen and potato chips as well as many other strange flavors

-I'm currently watching a Japanese anime called Full Metal Alchemist and really enjoying it, which is odd. (Not sure how thats related, but eh)

-A lot of people dress very fashionably here (lots of black and grey stuff, making me stick out even more :p)

I don't know what else

An Explosive End to a New Beginning

So last night was Lanterns Day, which means the end of the Spring Festival and the New Year celebrations. There have been fireworks every morning and pretty much every night since we got here because of these celebrations. Last night was a great show and it was supposed to be the last of the fireworks, but I guess this morning somebody had some leftovers :/ haha. We had our own party here at the Central College office with some of the professors which was a bit overwhelming. Everyone was speaking Chinese with each other, though they pretty much all knew English. It takes a lot more patience and effort to try and communicate across cultures. Also, being shy I mostly kept to myself. Though I did partially learn how to play Mahjong from a couple professors (I still don't really know what I'm doing though I know some of the general rules). For those of you who don't know, Mahjong is a game with domino like tiles. You draw 14 in a very specific order and try and get three or more of a kind, 3 of a series, and wild cards. Thats about the best I can describe it at the moment. It's rather fun and I won the first game and Jack had to pay me double! haha. but then he won three consecutive games :/ lol. Oh! and there were also riddles posted all over the room for people to answer. I got to be the official prize giver for correct answers which was fun. That is another part of the celebration. Lastly, we made and ate soooo much jiao ze, or dumplings. yum
On a cultural note, something I keep having to remind myself of is to give and recieve things with both hands. That is considered the polite way to do things in Chinese culture, and I can understand that. Otherwise it's kind of like giving someone the brush off, which we tend to do in our culture. Also I've been informed that by trying to be polite by saying thank you to people, sometimes it may actually be considered rude. If it is somebody's job to do something, I guess it is not necessary to thank them. Doing so may mean you look down upon them. Also you do not tip people because it means the same thing. Now I know a lot of the struggles foreign people have in our country trying not to step on any toes. In some cases, for some reason being American means I'm forgiven easily. There have been many cases of people wanting to get pictures with members of our group because we are white. Or they just take pictures of us without our consent like we are just as much of an attraction as the scenery. It's like being somewhat of a celebrity when all I really want to do is blend in. I'm uncomfortable with the special attention .....and the fact that I tower over most people. I feel like some beast of a woman at times. The fact that there are no clothes here to fit me doesn't help either :/. Other than the akwardness, I'm having a lot of fun and enjoying the challenges I'm faced with. :D