Monday, September 14, 2009

Limbo, pt 2: Before the Leap

My adventures have been small this last week.  New restaurants, random bike rides, meandering walks, and the like.  It's been slow, but that allowed me to spend more time with my host family and my godfather's family, which were my real goals.

I definitely feel like I got a lot closer with my brother.  We ate lunches together often, would hang out and talk at home, and would walk or bike for a bit together at night (often to an internet café to play videogames haha).  It was fun and he opened up quite a bit, which was great.  All the while, however, my host parents were a bit distant—probably worried about their son going off to college, and all the while I was an obstacle to spending time with him.  I tried to get out of the way, and it was interesting to see how they opened up after he left.  They really are my Chinese parents, which is absolutely wonderful.  I had a lovely final dinner with my host mom on my final night in Beijing.

I also feel like I got to know my godfather and his family much better, and also, strangely, by extension my own father as well.  I spent a lot of time in the house, catching up on reading, looking for apartments in Taiwan, etc.  While that may have been a bit of a waste of my final days in Beijing, it also meant that I was able to see my godfather and his family much more than I would have otherwise, so I'm thankful for my ability to waste time online haha.  I did get out a bit everyday, however, and got to spend some time with some Yale friends and SYA friends in my final hours as well.  Good times were had, and I felt at peace leaving Beijing.

I've now been in Taiwan for 36 hours, and it's been interesting so far.  It's been slow and meandering, owing to my continued apartment search, trying to familiarize myself with the NTU campus, wandering around Taipei's streets, and, most importantly, the heat—the stifling humidity, against which my one defense is simply walking slowly.  It's been a losing battle.  The heat will take some getting used to, along with the grand-prix-like barrage of motor scooters at every green light, mixing of international and local, new accents, traditional characters, and just about everything.  My first impression reminds me a bit of Tokyo and Hong Kong, but who knows.  It's exciting though, and I'm loving it so far.  More later.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Limbo pt. 1

The other day when I was at my godfather's home, after we'd spent the better part of the afternoon looking at warehouses full of every kind of Chinese antique imaginable—and then some—he said that was the thing he liked about China: every day is an adventure, whether you mean it or not.  Granted, mid-Qing housewares aren't exactly my idea of an adventure, but he's right.  It's not often that a random British guy you just met over lunch drives you out past the 6th ring road in the surprisingly cramped backseat of his Jeep Cherokee, windows gaping and wind blasting through the car, a hungover Brit in a dazed half-slumber in the front passenger seat, in search of a pair of metal-clad doors with peeling red paint to be fashioned into a dining room table for your godfather's home back in the US.  Or maybe I'm just uncultured or something.

 

That adventure was something that was missing from my time in Harbin.  With classes came routine, cafeterias and homework, and that sense of everyday adventure was lost.  Of course, that's good for focusing on work, doing well in class, and improving your Chinese—that was my goal, and I did that well, and the lack of distractions was one of the reasons I chose Harbin.  Adventure doesn't mean base-jumping with horse-riding Finnish nomads in the Andes; when you're abroad and learning a new language it can be as simple as venturing down a new alleyway and finding a small park where you can talk to some old people doing calisthenics.  That's something that I need to change when I'm in Taiwan.  I think living in an apartment off campus will be immensely helpful in that respect, but I've got to stick to it regardless.  Plus, who knows when the opportunity to base-jump off of Taipei 101 will come up.

 

Anyways, I think I've started to make up for my lack of adventure in Harbin and started to build up momentum for Taiwan these last couple weeks.  The time I spent in Beijing has been great.  I had a chance meeting over dinner with my high school friend's parents the day we got into Beijing from Harbin, which turned out to be helpful in more ways than they can imagine.  I've reconnected with a bunch of classmates from my year abroad in 11th grade, one of whom I just happened to run into randomly biking home one day (and without Facebook he may have been lost in Beijing indefinitely).  I got to see my teachers from 11th grade for the first time since then, which was brief but great, as they prepared to pick up the new set of students for this year (hard to believe it's been 4 years now since I was on that group flight).  And among all that I've had time to explore new places with those friends, meeting new people, try and go swimming in the water cube (and failing because they were preparing for the national swimming competition, which it turns out foreigners can't sign up for), and just having fun.

 

I've also spent time with my godfather, who's currently working here, and it's been fantastic getting to know him and his family, including two adopted Chinese girls, better and in a new light, as well as having those antiques-roadshowesque experiences (and who I also spent a wonderful low-key evening with on my birthday).  I've been staying with my host family again, spending a lot more time with my host brother, who, now in college and past the gaokao, has significantly more time to just chill and talk.  My relationship with my host family has changed, and yet stayed the same in many ways.  My brother and I are closer, but my parents, who have always been nice, patient, and friendly, but distant, seem more distant, and I'm not sure why.  I feel like I may have lost that feeling of family with them, and gained a friendship with my brother.  I'm not quite sure how to feel about that, or even what that means or why, for our relationship, but also my conception of family; maybe I'm just reading too much into it too.  Throw my godfather and his family in there and I'm even more lost.

 

At the same time though, Beijing has a feeling of home for me, along with Los Angeles and New Haven, all for different reasons.  A big part of that is the sense of belonging that comes from familiarity with the city—antagonistic to adventure—but that sense of family, both with people and the city, is key.  The one place that I feel the excitement and uncertainty of adventure though, is Beijing, which is something I need to change when I get back to the US as well.

 

Anyways, enough of my silly ramblings, here's the fun part: I've gone on a couple of relatively impromptu trips the last couple weeks with classmates from CET.

 

The first was to Mount Tai/Taishan and Qufu, Confucius' hometown and resting place, in Shandong province.  Huiying, Baxi (Brazil in Chinese, so called because we'd all forgotten his Chinese name the first couple days of the program, but remembered he was from Brazil, and so it stuck) and I set out the day the program officially ended and found ourselves with the only train tickets to Taishan that day—no seat, meaning we would stand for the 4 hours my Lonely Planet said the ride would take.  Turns out my Lonely Planet is outdated, and the train ride actually took 7 hours.  I asked the same attendant 3 times, just to make sure.  He was sure.  That's a long time to stand, and the other passengers couldn't stand still, one guy passing back and forth about 7 times in what seemed like an hour.  But it was an adventure.  We had fun talking, awkwardly fumbling our "dinner" of bread, peanut butter, dried fruit, and anything else we could scrounge out of our bags, and taking in the scenery. 

 

Once there, I found myself in a bit of a leadership position, having the best Chinese, which was a good experience.  We also had to all learn to just roll with the punches.  The hostel in my Lonely Planet didn't exist, so we found a different hotel and pushed the two twins together for our stay.  The first day we were there it was supposed to rain, so we postponed Taishan and went to Qufu first, which was a fun little day trip and really interesting.  I really liked the black-red-and gold of the Confucius' Mansion, and the "Confucius Forest" was really the site of Confucius' tomb and the tombs of all his ancestors… right down to the 67th generation I think.  Little burial mounds everywhere, all very low-key, even Confucius'.  The second day, when the weather was supposed to be better, by the time we got to the top of the mountain the fog was so thick that we couldn't see more than 10 meters in front of us.  Regardless, it was a fun trek up those 6,600+ steps to the top, dotted with temples that must've taken ridiculous calves to build.  Mine were sore for a couple days afterwards.

 

Second trip was to Qingdao, also in Shandong and renowned for its namesake brewery Tsingdao (Wade Giles romanization vs. modern pinyin), for a few days.  Another classmate, An Qiongen, joined me for a couple days before heading back to start his fall semester program in Beijing.  We wandered through the gently curving tree-lined streets of the old city, wrapping around the mountains lining the shore, stopping to marvel at the endless rows of European homes—large and small, restored and dilapidated, ornate and simple—that have effortlessly become a natural part of the city, almost oddly comfortable with the storied past of invasions and handovers.  I loved the city, its clean ocean air, temperate weather, wonderful seafood, and beaches.  Oh, beaches, gotta love 'em.  We also took part in the "Qingdao International Beer Festival," with brews from Germany, Belgium, Australia, America, and of course China all on tap, and Chinese locals more than willing to invite us to partake in the fun and games.  Sometimes almost too willing, if there is such a thing.  It was a fun time all around, we learned about Chinese drinking culture and customs, and we met some interesting characters.  For those of you in Australia: look out for Jack C from Qingdao in a few years.  He's coming, and it's going to be big.

 

The following two days on my own were interesting as well.  It was weird not having anyone to talk to, especially because there aren't many foreigners in Qingdao, so every conversation with a foreigner consisted of the same simple astonishment at my Chinese and basic introductory topics, like where you're from, why you're studying Chinese, and Kobe Bryant.  At the same time, it was also very peaceful.  I was able to take my time, spend my time however I wanted and act on any whim, and really take notice of what was going on around me and all the little details.  I drew for the first time outside of an architecture class in… I don't even know how long, but it was great.  I climbed down to a secluded little rock cave by the shore and sat there for an hour, writing in my journal and just enjoying the seclusion.  Climbed to the top of a mountain with a park on it, where I watched the sunset and city light up.  Met new people at the hostel, who were also travelling alone, who I maybe wouldn't have opened up to had I been with a travel partner.  It was nice, and I'm more confident that if I end up living along in Taiwan that I not only could do it, but I could do quite well.

 

Aiight, that's more than enough for now.  If you made it through, thanks for bearing with me.  For those of you that didn't, check out the pictures with descriptions below, separated by the two trips—they're probably a bit more digestible and fun.

Taishan/Qufu

1.      The old city wall, surrounded by a small moat, leading straight to the Confucius Temple

2.      One of the side gates in the park leading up to the Confucius temple

3.      The main hall of Confucius' temple.  The man under the umbrella would yell at you to help you through the prayers as you placed your incense and paid your respects.  Beautifully carved stone pillars too.

4.      Side view of the roof of the main hall during a break in the clouds through the trees at a secondary altar.

5.      Meandering through the temple grounds after a short downpour.

6.      "Sage's Home" The entrance to Confucius' mansion, built posthumously.  I loved the black and red with the gold accents.

7.      Love all around haha.

8.      A stone guard on the path to Confucius' tomb, which turned out to be surprisingly simple—a dirt mound overgrown by generations of vegetation with a simple stone tablet in front of it.

9.      The salon where Baxi and I got our hair cut.  That's right, there's a motorcycle and a motortricycle right in the middle.

10.  Our trek of Taishan begins!

11.  "Three Officials Temple"  One of many temples lining the path up the mountain.  I can't imagine the blood and sweat it took to build all of this.  It's staggering.

12.  Calligraphy was inscribed on many of the rocks lining the path up in many styles and covering many subjects.

13.  Traditional calligraphy: "Toilet à that way"

14.  The final stretch.  They wrote the rise in elevation on the steps every 100 meters, just to tease you all the way to the top.  Every new marker would be accompanied by thoughts of: "are you kidding me?"

15.  Oops, not going to climb all that again if you forgot your brush.

16.  Triumph.

Qingdao

1.      China Construction Bank.  What?
2.      Glorious, glorious seafood.  I'd forgotten how much I love it.
3.      Intrepid travelers in front of the St. Michael's Catholic Cathedral.  Again, what?  Definitely not China.
4.      Yup, it's a cathedral all right.  The crosses were buried in a mountainside by local Christians during the Cultural Revolution, and replaced after during restoration.
5.      We spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how the clock worked at the Protestant Church.  Mad props to whoever figured out how to do that in the first place.  Stuff is complicated.
6.      Fisherman by the sea at dusk.  The sea was remarkably calm.
7.      "TsingTao Beer can give you peace and happiness"  The Chinese: "TsingTao Beer, the world's drunkenness!"
8.      Oh snap, watch out, the god of wine is Coming!
9.      Wort separator.  Learning about making beer was surprisingly fascinating.  The history of Tsingtao Beer is closely linked with the history of Qingdao itself and all of China—established by Germans, who developed the city and the company, later taken over by the Japanese during World War I, who nominally returned it to the KMT and China after the war, but actually kept operating it as part of Sapporo, after World War II it was actually returned to the KMT, but ran into troubles and mismanagement, after Liberation in 1949, it became a nationalized industry, which lead to fabulous increases in production, but eventually after Reform and Opening in 1979 it privatized and issued stocks, and has become a world-renowned brand.  I'm sure the same is true for many companies in China, but it was fascinating to go through it step by step with photos, advertisements, etc.
10.  Beach!
11.  More beach!
12.  One of those random German homes, which has now been divided into a number of small businesses and homes, including train ticket sales, recycling, and auto repair.
13.  Mao with a first tone instead of second means cat, so I was pleased to find that Mao had returned to one of his former abodes (below). The prodigal son returns!
14.  This used to be the German governor's mansion, and has been a museum since Mao spent a month here in the summer of 1957, and held a meeting with all the CCP leaders at the time.  Beautiful interior, all wonderfully preserved.
15.  OMG MAO SLEPT HERE
16.  Card drinking game that An Qiongen and I learned how to play at "Beer Street"  Oh the intensity.
17.  Cross-table toast.  Look at that impeccable form, he makes it look so easy.
18.  Ganbei!  Down it!
19.  Are those…no…wait…those are shark fins?!  Yup, and they're enormous.  They also had full dried sharks for sale too, although they weren't the ones that made those fins thankfully
20.  I don't know, I like doors.
21.  Kid collecting sea shells by the sea shore.
22.  MUSCLE BEACH GET BIG!  Doesn't really compare to Venice Beach haha
23.  Self-timer success!
24.  Qingdao doesn't have sea lions, they have pairs of brides and grooms that bask in the sun on the rocks instead.
25.  The area called Badaguan, Eight passes, consists of eight streets lined with different trees named after the eight main passes of the Great Wall and enormous villas, and is a favorite spot for taking wedding photos.
26.  I couldn't get enough, I thought it was hilarious.
27.  Father and son
28.  Sunset across the bay of Bathing Beach No. 1
29.  Local fisherman discuss repairs.
30.  Enjoying the sunset.
31.  Nice.