Last days at HBA, and beyond

Ok, so I would like to start with an apology for not posting for these last few weeks. Not many new things occurred during these weeks, with the exception of the last week. As my last post, I will try to summarize my experiences during the last weeks at HBA, which were much more intense at the end of the program, and also the trip I took with my mother around China after the end of HBA.

So, I guess I should start with how classes were going since I last stopped posting. There wasn't any real differences in classes, but as the days passed by, everyone seemed to get more and more tired. I found that I was not able to concentrate on class as well as a could when I first started, and as a result I found it hard to keep on learning Chinese. I wasn't the only one tired, though. I could tell the rest of my classmates, and even our teachers were very, very tired. Maybe due to this, there were more cases of language pledge problems. During the last few days, our teachers informed us that various students received warnings due to violations of the pledge. I could also hear a lot of English spoken in the halls among my classmates. This didn't discourage me, though. There were always a lot of people that were still willing to speak Chinese, and after all, there were only a few days left of HBA so I found no point in starting to break the pledge after keeping up with it for so long.

Well, as classes continued the second round of the most feared and most exhausting exam came one week before the end of HBA: 汉语水平考试, better known as HSK. The timing of the exam was the worst one possible. The HSK was on a Friday, and as everyone knows, on Fridays we also have our weekly exams. You can imagine how tired everyone was. There was only one week left of HBA, and here you have two long exams on the same day. Well, about the test: I found that many of the sections of the test were much easier. This was especially the case for the grammar section (my score went up 32 points on this section!) and the last section (22 points up!). The listening section and the reading were only very slightly easier in which I only went up 5 and 7 points respectively :( . So the final result of test is that I got a nice certificate saying I entered the elementary C level, which is really proof that all of the experience at HBA was really worth it.

After taking the HSK I had to rush back to my dorm and start practising: calligraphy. So, this is basically the story: The next day (Saturday) was the night in which HBA students would perform skits, sing, act etc. I was not planning on doing anything, but my teachers (less than 24 hours before the event) decided I should do some calligraphy with some other classmates, while another student was playing erhu. The idea was great, but I wished they had told me with more time. So I practiced all night, and my teachers even called the calligraphy teacher to help me practice. As much as this situation made me nervous and frustrated (I don't think my calligraphy is at all nice), this is more proof that our teachers are always taking care of us, which is great. So the big night came, and everything turned out alright. My classmates presentations, by the way, were really excellent, and I greatly enjoyed the night.

The following is a picture of what I wrote during the show:

The Sunday after that was a bit sad, since it marked the beginning of the end. That Sunday was the last time I met with my 中国朋友, the BLCU student assigned to me at the beginning of the program. As our last meeting, we decided to walk around Qinghua University. I hadn't realized that this famous university was so close, and yet I had not gone to visit. The campus was really very nice, and it's a pity I did not bring my camera. Well, we walked around for some time and then decided to go to a tea house in which we drank a lot of tea, all of different types. It really is amazing how you can get full by just drinking a lot of tea! I didn't even need to eat dinner after that. Finally, we got back to the campus, and said goodbye.

The last week then finally arrived. It was definitely one of the most stressful and intense weeks in my life. No one basically had energy for anything else. All the vocab and grammar got mixed in with so many other thoughts that I doubt I really learned a lot during that week. For the first time in the program, I was falling asleep during lecture class. This was REALLY weird, since I actually slept earlier than normal the day before. I just guess the pressure and the excitement of the end being so near affected all of us. The other big stressful thing was the final exam. I really don't know why I stressed so much about it, now that I think of it. But, anyway, at the time I felt for some reason that that test was going to be impossible. We were told that 90% of the test would be from the second semester material, and I felt that I was not comfortable with what we had studied as much as I should have. The test came on Friday (the last day of HBA) and it probably was the hardest of all the exams, but was really far from impossible. As I finished writing my last Chinese characters I really started to realize that everything was coming to an end.

After the final exams began the graduation ceremony. The graduation ceremony was really good, especially all of the speeches by the students. The speeches were really funny and interesting. To end the ceremony, Feng laoshi finally said what everyone was waiting to hear: the language pledge was over. I have no idea how to describe how I felt when he said that. I started to hear everyone speak English around me very freely, but I felt that not a single word could come out of my mouth. I wanted to speak English, but it didn't come out. It just didn't. I felt something was impeding me from speaking in English. It might sound that I'm exaggerating, but I swear that was the case. I guess the problem is that I had not spoken any English during the entire program, since I speak Spanish with my parents and had to speak Chinese with my classmates. It was a really weird experience, and only about an hour later (this is real!) was I able to start producing basic sentences in English. There's no doubt that the language pledge really has a great effect on a person.

To end HBA we had a final banquet at the 会议中心 restaurant. There, to my surprise, I finally met my Chinese mother again, after many weeks of not meeting with her. We spent lunch talking about a lot of things and our reflections about HBA. I also spent time talking with other classmates and teachers. After we finished, it was time to say goodbye to my teachers and classmates. Everyone got pretty emotional, and it was evident that the end had come. Everyone took the final pictures, and we had our last conversations. I really felt a bit sad that the whole experience ended so quickly. I hope I have the opportunity to go back to HBA next year and relive the experience all over again.

My Chinese mother, a Harvard student and I:

Second year students and teachers:

To end my last post, and to end my blog, I want to talk about my trip with my mom. Although that Friday was the end of HBA, I still had about ten days before I said goodbye to China. My mother arrived on Saturday. We spent a few days in Beijing in which we went to the most important parts in Beijing, such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. After that, we took a plane to Xi'an. I really liked Xi'an a lot. I loved seeing the great historical aspects but also the modern aspects of this small city. I also had the opportunity to see the famous Terracotta Warriors. To end the trip, we went to Shanghai. Shanghai was a different experience. At first, I'll be honest, I felt it really wasn't as great as Beijing and Xi'an. I felt it was just a copy of the West. However as time passed I actually grew to like Shanghai a lot. I discovered that Shanghai still had ancient Chinese aspects, and the modernization is not exactly the same as that of the west. While in Shanghai, we also had the opportunity to go to Suzhou and Zhouzhuang in Jiangsu province.

I end my blog with pictures from my trip (from Xi'an and Shanghai since I've posted many pictures from Beijing already). It was a pleasure writing what I experienced, although I failed to post as much as I would have hoped for. I really loved all the experience in China, and would really like to thank again the Light Fellowship for giving me this great opportunity, all of my teachers at HBA that made the program one of the best experiences I have ever had (while helping improve my Chinese!), and to my parents and friends who supported me throughout my stay in China. As we were told during the pre-departure meeting for the Light Fellowship, a summer is not enough to understand a country such as China, and I hope that in the future I'll be able to write another blog of my second time in that wonderful country!

Pictures from Xi'an:

Pictures from Shanghai:

6th Week at HBA

The 6th Week! I really cannot believe that time is going so fast, I feel as if I just got here, and now there are only a few weeks left. Anyway, this week is not as interesting as the other weeks, and is mostly full of stress and lack of sleep.

So Monday marked the start of the second semester, and with it came the creation of a new class: 对话课. This new class replaced the second 小班课 we usually had last semester. I will be very honest and say it: I DO NOT LIKE IT. This new class is very fun, really enjoyable. However, by taking away one of our 小班课 we are not getting enough practice with all of the new vocabulary and grammar. Now we only have lecture class and one 小班课 to practice, which amounts to about 2 hours to practice the vocabulary and grammar we would usually learn in a week! In this new class, we basically speak with another student while a teacher listens to us to correct us. This new class is supposed to help us use language in a more realistic manner, which is good, but the practice with the new material is very minimal. We mostly use structures and vocabulary we had previously learned.

Well, besides this new class, the other thing that made this week the hardest so far, according to most of us, was the writing of our Social Study Reports. During Social Study week everything was much more relaxing since we were able to travel and speak with Chinese people. This week the fun ended when we had to sit down and write it all on paper. I actually think that writing the paper was not that bad. The only thing is that it took a really long time to write, taking away any free time we had during the week.

I still managed to go to the Yale Dinner on Wednesday, though, which was a very interesting experience. According to what other Yale classmates told me, our teachers spent around 7000 元 for this restaurant! It was ridiculous expensive by both Chinese and American standards. Thank you! Well, that was not the interesting part. What was interesting is watching how this expensive restaurant's waitresses were always chatting instead of serving us food or drinks, and how they took an eternity to bring the food. Oh, there was also the interesting moment when they brought live lobsters and set them walking around on the floor before they died. Really awkward but fun experience. The food really was only slightly better than the average Chinese restaurant, but it would be great to go back to this one only to live these weird moments again. The gardens in the restaurant, by the way, were spectacularly beautiful.

Finally, I'll end talking about this weekend's HBA trip to Marco Polo Bridge. I found the bridge only a bit interesting, but the museum we went to afterward was very interesting. The Museum was basically all about the war with Japan during WWII, and although I'm not into history, I found it very interesting.

This week I sadly do not have any pictures to post, but I promise I'll take pictures during next week. 再见！

4th and 5th Weeks at HBA

I want to start by apologizing for not being able to post for the 4th and 5th weeks until today. Below is what I had written for those weeks. I hope you find it interesting.

4th Week at HBA:

This week has been the most difficult week for me so far, but these last two days have also been very enjoyable. On Monday I caught a cold, so all of this week I felt very bad. I couldn't concentrate very much during class, so I feel that this week I really have not learned as much as I could have were I not sick. This makes me upset, since this week was a very important week: on Friday we had our Midterm. I found the Midterm pretty difficult, mainly because most of the material (80%) came from the four lessons we studied this week. I think I will get a good grade on the test, but maybe not as good as the other exams I have had.

This Friday we set off for Shanxi, and thankfully by Friday I didn't have a cold anymore. This by the way is really a miracle, since when I get a cold I usually get it for a week or more. This time only for four days. Anyway, Friday was the first time I actually went on a Chinese train, and it was really an experience. On the train I was able to talk with other Chinese people, who found it very interesting that we were all speaking Chinese. The train was actually very safe, and nothing that I know of was stolen.

Yesterday we arrived at Taiyuan. The most important part of the day was visiting an experimental High School at Taiyuan. When we first got here, all of the High School students were very excited to see us. They gave us a tour of their school and gave us a show in which they danced and sung songs. After that, every HBA student was paired up with a few students from the High School and spent the rest of the day with them.

I spent the day with a 15 year old girl named 孙艺玮 (Sun Yiwei) and two of her friends. Sun Yiwei took me to her house where I met her parents and ate lunch. They were really nice people, and were very interested in knowing about my life, my studies and the West in general. Then they took me to travel around Shanxi to very interesting places. I also ate dinner with them, which is when I was most able to talk with them about China, Shanxi and other interesting aspects. It was really a fun experience. Below are some photos. Today we will be visiting a coal mine, and finally going to 平遥古城 (The old city of Pingyao) where I will be doing my Social Study Project. Until next week, 再见！







5th Week at HBA:

This has really been the best week so far at HBA, but also one of the most difficult. I'm already back at Beijing, but these past few days I had a wonderful experience at Shanxi. The beginning of the week was spent at Pingyao, were I decided to do my Social Study project.

Pingyao is really a beautiful city. It is surrounded by a massive city wall, and all of the construction is in the ancient style. Therefore, when you enter it feels like if you were travelling back in time, until you start to see people with cellphones and computers, of course. My social study topic was “平遥人眼中的家乡”which basically means I interviewed the people at Pingyao to understand their everyday lives, their opinion about Pingyao, and other aspects of their culture. I interviewed several people and the responses I obtained were very interesting. The responses varied a lot with the age of the person（s) I interviewed. I think I should be able to write a very good report.

After Pingyao we headed to 五台山 (Wutai shan), where we were able to explore many temples and interview Buddhist monks. Although my topic had no relation to Buddhism, I still found the experience very rewarding. Also, one night at Wutaishan all of us, students and teachers, had a private party at a hotel where we sang karaoke and danced. I discovered different aspects from my teachers I didn't know about. They all sang very well, and watching Feng laoshi (second year teacher) dance is an interesting experience. This was all a good bonding experience.

We finally returned to Taiyuan, where all of us had the most nervous experience: we were filmed for a TV program that will be aired on Chinese television! The TV program was about Shanxi culture, so they interviewed all of us students asking our impressions about Shanxi and our respective Social Study projects. It was a very intense experience, although it was not live television, so thankfully they can edit all our errors before airing the program. After they edit the program, all of us will receive a copy on a CD so we can watch ourselves!

Going to Shanxi was an excellent decision, since I was able to understand parts of Chinese culture not easy to grasp while in Beijing. I will have to say though, that when it comes to language, I had a frustrating time. I was the only 2nd year student in the group, so I felt that my Chinese was really bad. The phrase most commonly came out of my mouth when speaking with other people was “我听不懂” (I don't understand). At the time I actually felt my Chinese level was declining. Now that I'm back at Beijing, though, I realize I was totally wrong. When I started to speak again to my 2nd year classmates I realized that I had become accustomed to listening to much more complex sentences beyond 2nd year, and that is when I realized my level did improve. At the time, I was not able to realize that was the case.

Well, that was my week. Yesterday we went to see Chinese acrobatics, which was a really great show（Below are some pictures). Until next week.

3rd Week at HBA

The third week in general has been a very good week. As usual, during the week we had intense language learning, with travel left for the weekend. So here is a summary of the most important aspects of this week:

Last Sunday I went to my Chinese family's home to eat dinner. My Chinese mom cooked a lot of very good dishes amongst which were dumplings, various vegetables, and meats. I spent a very good time with them, since we were able to converse about a lot of topics, such as life at Yale/Harvard, how we're adjusting to China, and even the simplified/traditional Chinese characters topic. My Chinese mother told us that she would be going to Inner Mongolia, so I probably won't meet with my family for two weeks (since next week I'll be going to Shanxi).

Classes are the same: intense, difficult, but extremely helpful. This week, for some reason, I really felt my Chinese level is improving rapidly. I felt that at times I could speak at a pretty fast pace without having to think exactly how to say something in Chinese. Of course, my Chinese is far from perfect, but it is hard to believe how far I have gone in only three weeks. This makes me very excited, and I can't wait to see my Chinese level at the end of the 9 weeks.

On Friday I went with two other HBA students to the Forbidden City, and this time we actually had time to enter and see everything. I really liked the Forbidden City, but as other people have noted, all of the construction makes the experience a little less enjoyable. A lot of the things that seemed interesting were not open to public, and the scenery was not as beautiful with so much construction. None the less, I still enjoyed the Forbidden City a lot and hope to go back to see all of the parts I could not see due to time constraints.

After going to the Forbidden City, we decided to go to Houhai. There, after bargaining for about an hour, we were able to ride two 三轮车 for￥120. We were able to see the 胡同 and buy things on the street. Overall it we had a very good time.

Saturday, we went with our teachers to the Ming Tombs. Overall, I think the tombs were slightly disappointing. There wasn't that many things to see, all of the tombs were very similar, and the structures greatly resembled the Forbidden City. I think the history behind the tombs is very interesting, but visiting the tombs is a bit 马马虎虎. There were many people that liked the tombs, though. This is only my opinion.

Finally, it is worth writing a bit about what is to come next week. So, for my social study week I decided to go to 山西 Shanxi. I chose Shanxi because we will be visiting many interesting sites, such as the old city of Pingyao and Buddhist sites. Very interesting. We will be leaving this Friday on train and arriving Saturday morning. There is a possibility that I won't have internet access readily available in Shanxi, so I might have to post two posts (weeks 4 and 5) at the same time when I return to Beijing.

I leave you with the very few photographs I took at the Forbidden City (my camera ran out of battery power, so I was not able to take many photographs). Hopefully I will be able to post in Shanxi. If not, I'll write down what I want to post and post it when I get back. 再见！

2nd Week at HBA

This second week overall has been a very good experience, since classes have been better, and I got to travel more around Beijing.

Last Sunday I spent some time playing Badminton, a sport which the Chinese seem to love, with my host family and another Harvard student which was also assigned to the same family with me. My Chinese family consists of my mother, 江新 Jiang xin, who is a psychology professor at Beiyu, her husband, and their nine year old daughter (who loves to speak a lot at a pace which renders a lot of what she says incomprehensible to a second year Chinese student like me). I like my Chinese family a lot, because they are always welcoming, and unlike other students' host families, they don't constantly call to set up meetings. They completely understand our workload is huge, and the time I spend with them is very good.

Well, from the good experience with my host family I move to the bad experience with the 汉语水平考试 better known as the HSK. So our teachers told us that we should take the HSK, which is the equivalent of the TOEFL for Chinese, in order to see our level. I definitely saw what level I was at from the beginning of the test! I couldn't understand absolutely anything! It was all in a Chinese way beyond the second year level, and I doubt that when I take the test again in August will it be any better.
I stayed through the end of the test, however. I thought to myself that if I was going to take the test again in August, I should have an idea of how all the sections worked. At the same time, I was laughing at myself since I knew there was absolutely no way I could pass the test.

Regarding HBA classes, I think I am now used to the rhythm of class and studying. The teachers are still as supportive as last week, and overall I am enjoying the academic aspect of my stay in China. I also feel that everyday I am getting more and more used to speaking in Chinese, and I actually feel that what I know already I can use it very efficiently. Unfortunately, towards the end of this week something I didn't expect this early to happen occurred: people started to break the language pledge. I want to be specific that the people I heard breaking the pledge were Harvard students, not Yale students. Overall it seems that a lot of the Harvard students don't care much about the program (It should also be stated, though, that there are also some Harvard students that are very dedicated, and these are the Harvard students that actually like to interact with the Yale students.). The first time I heard these students speaking English was in the restaurant in our dorm, when no teachers were around. However, that same night I also heard the same people speaking English in the hall where all of the second-year students' rooms are. Breaking the pledge in the halls I really cannot tolerate.

Well, I'll end talking about much better experiences: travelling a bit around Beijing and watching Beijing Opera. Friday afternoon I went with some other Yale students to the Tian'anmen/Forbidden City area to travel. We wanted to go into the Forbidden City, but we arrived a bit late, so we decided to postpone the Forbidden city until next week. However, we got to walk around Tian'anmen square and bargain with the vendors. After that we decided to go to 景山公园 (Jingshan park) where we got to see a great view of the Forbidden City. There we found an older Chinese woman who gave us a (long!!!) tour of Jingshan and Beihai parks, although it was late, so a lot of things were closed. Below are some pictures:

All of us HBA students also went to see a Beijing Opera performance. I think the performance was great, but I would have wished it lasted a bit longer. Below are some pictures:

Well, that is all I can say about my second week. I'll post again next weekend and write about what happens during the week. 再见！

1st Week at HBA

I would first like to start apologizing for not posting in such a long time, but I just recently got internet this Monday (June 18) and work at HBA is intense. But anyway, the following is a summary of what my first 9 days in China have been like so far:

So I arrived at Beijing on June 15. From the day I first arrived I was able to see many interesting aspects of the Chinese people. Everyone here in China seems very friendly, but in a way different from the people in other countries I've visited. For example, yesterday when I rode the bus with my Language partner (a student from BLCU), the person who sold the bus tickets would start laughing (not in a mean way, though) when she heard me speak Chinese. According to my language partner, this is the way she was being friendly, which I find interesting.

Talking about my Language Partner, I think this is a very good aspect of HBA because it lets me know more about how the Chinese my age think. With my language partner I could see that the Chinese are extremely interested in American culture. For example, while eating dinner, my language partner suddenly asked me how one eats in America. Thus we got into a whole discussion of the do's and dont's in America while eating at a table. A lot of the things I told her surprised her, due to the great differences in Chinese and American culture.

Well, my main reason for coming to China was to study Chinese, so I guess I should describe my academic experience at HBA. I guess a lot of people know how the schedule at HBA is, but it doesn't hurt to write it down anyway, so here it is:

8:00 - 9:15 大班课 (Big lecture class)
9:25 - 9:50 朗读课 (This I think is actually new: we basically read texts aloud to improve pronunciation and intonation)
10:10 -11:00
11:10 -12:00 小班课 (INTENSIVE drill class)
1:30 - 2:20 单班课 （My favorite part of the day: one on one conversation with a teacher who corrects your errors and helps you improve your spoken chinese)

The first day at HBA was REALLY intensive. The teachers, which are all really nice people by the way, would just keep shooting Chinese at us and ask us to make up sentences at a speed I was not used to at all. Not only was class intense, but the homework that came after that was even worse. Not only do we have to do written homework, but we also have to memorize all of the vocabulary (and how to write these words in Chinese characters, a lot of which are new) which basically takes away any free time we could have.

However, I do feel my Chinese is improving, even though we have been here only for a week. The language pledge has definitely helped a lot, since I think after 1 week I am accustomed to speaking only in Chinese, even though it is not perfect. So far there haven't been any major violations in the pledge at HBA that I know of ( there have been instances when students truly unconciously speak English, but as soon as they realize they're not speaking Chinese, they say sorry and start speaking Chinese again). Thus the atmosphere of speaking only Chinese is really helpful.

I'll finish this week's post talking about today: our trip to the Great Wall at Simatai. The experience was really fun, but extremely tiring. This section of the Great Wall is extemely steep, and there are parts where it is difficult to go up due to the small steps. Overall, however, it was a pretty good experience. Below are a few of the pictures I took. I'll post again next week.