Second Week (Social Study, HSK results, Beijing Opera)

This second week, like the first, has still been a week of transition into the program. Now that I'm about to enter the third week (wow, time does go by fast) I think I'm better prepared and used to the routine. Besides the regular classes and memorizing characters, there were some highlights this week worth writing about:

Social Study Week:

On the fifth week, HBA students have to do a Social Study Project, which means that we get to go to another part of China, or stay in Beijing, and conduct some type of research on a specific subject of Chinese society. This week we signed up for the group we wanted to go to. There were various options. In Beijing there were groups researching about the Olympics, Economy, Art & Arquitecture, education, and the countryside. Then there were the groups for outside of Beijing: Shaolin Temple, Shanxi Province, Shanghai, and Inner Mongolia. Every year, without exception, lots of people want to go to Inner Mongolia, but there are only 20 spots. So, on Monday they told us they would put up a sign up sheet for all the projects Tuesday morning, and that the first to sign up were the ones to go on the groups. Therefore, a lot of my classmates and I got up pretty early on Tuesday to sign up. I think I got to our classroom around 6:45 when classes start at 8:00. Well, we got there and the building was closed, then we had to wait for the teachers to come with the sign up sheet, etc. At the end I got to sign up for : Inner Mongolia! Getting there early was definitely an advantage. At first I wasn't really sure for what group to sign up. I didn't want to stay in Beijing, and last year I went to Shanxi so I wasn't going to go there again(although I really loved Shanxi). I'm already going to Shanghai after the program, and Shaolin Temple involves waking up at 4:00 in the morning every day to start running and practice Gongfu. So by process of elimination, and by getting up early to sign up, I get to go to Inner Mongolia! I'm very excited for the fifth week!

HSK results:

After the process of signing up for the Social Study groups, our teachers gave us our results of the HSK. The HSK we took was the Beginner/Intermediate exam which can place you into 6 levels which start from 3级 (lowest) up to 8级 (highest). I was placed into 6级 which is the lower intermediate level. I think I'm pretty satisfied, since the last time I took the HSK (at the end of HBA last year) I was placed into 3级, the lower-beginner level. Therefore my Chinese has improved a lot over the last year. I did best on the reading comprehension and grammar sections, while my listening and cloze-passage sections need a little more work. I'm always talking Chinese and watching Chinese television, so the next time I take the HSK I should have improved. According to our teachers, by the time we finish HBA we should be able to place into 8级, the higher-intermediate level.

Chinese tutor/friend:

Yesterday (Saturday) I met with my Chinese tutor for our first session. Oficially every student has a 辅导老师 (Chinese tutor), but their function is really more that of a Chinese friend, since they never actually study with us unless we explicitly ask them to. So yesterday I just basically had a two-hour long conversation with my Chinese friend. At first we mostly talked about our interests. I talked about my interests in languages and Chinese dialects, and then she talked about how she is studying Japanese and the similarities/differences between Japanese and Chinese. Then I started to ask about some of the controversial questions (Tibet & Taiwan). I of course asked the questions in a delicate manner, and I was genuinely interested understanding the Chinese point of view on these topics, not arguing from a western point of view. The conversation was pretty rewarding, and I could tell that she was really open to talking about these things. Some people who have never been to China might think that the Chinese are not comfortable talking about these topics, but in reality it's something really common to talk about. We ended our session with a debate on perhaps my favorite topic: Simplified vs. Traditional Characters. I defending Traditional and she obviously defending Simplified. Like the Tibet and Taiwan questions, it was not an argument but rather a discussion, and both of us were really interested in understanding each other's point of view.

Beijing opera:

Finally, last night HBA took us to see Beijing Opera. I think Beijing Opera is one of the most interesting parts of Chinese culture, so I was really excited to see it again. If you've never seen Beijing Opera, here's a short video of one of the best parts:

These are basically the most exciting parts of my second week at HBA. I leave you with more photos from last night's Beijing Opera performance. Until next week, then!

First Week (From Classes to Karaoke)

My first week at HBA is now over, :(. So the following are the highlights of my first week:

First day of classes:
Fourth year at HBA is pretty difficult, and classes work a bit differently from second year. Basically, fourth year is supposed to teach us how to use very formal language, the type of language you see in newspapers or hear in the news. As Wang laoshi put it, with our third year Chinese we can survive pretty well in China, so the goal of fourth year is to make us use Chinese in a way that makes us sound more educated. To achieve this goal, the teachers have given us a pretty heavy workload. Like last year, we have to read the lessons, study characters, etc. However, as a fourth year student we have many more assignments, such as: DAILY essays, preparing discussions, interviewing people in the city, etc. I'll be honest and say that the first few days I was doubting if I could take it. I felt that the workload would be pretty tough. But as the first few days went by, and with the help of teachers and classmates, I got into the rhythm again. Now I feel very comfortable, even if the workload is still pretty tough.

HSK (yes, it's back):
If you read my blog entries from last year, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know, HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试). Its basically the equivalent of TOEFL but for Chinese. It's an SAT-like standarized test that determines your level of Chinese. This time, like last year, HBA students got the opportunity to take the HSK at the beginning of the program. We had the three-hour test on Friday, the same day we had the weekly test for our regular classes, which equals a total of 5 hours of tests on one day. I found the HSK pretty difficult, though not as difficult as last year, which is a good sign. I found that most of the time I understood what was going on, but when it came to answering the questions I wasn't very good at picking the best possible answer. Anyway, I think I definitely did OK on the test, and the results should probably come in a week or two. All HBA students will also have the opportunity to take the test one more time towards the end of the program.

Chinese "family":
Until now I'm not sure exactly what happened the night we were supposed to meet our Chinese family. On Friday night, after HSK, we all met in the auditorium where we held the first orientation activities. Basically there's supposed to be one family for every two/three students. Therefore, they started to call out the name of one family and of two/three students. When they called my name, they also called the name of a woman (which I assumed would be my Chinese mother) and another student. So I greet the woman and she greets me back as we well. However, as we were walking the woman told me to sit down with a Chinese university student and basically left me there, without ever coming back. Then this university student started to talk to me and we exchanged phone numbers, etc. So apparently, instead of having a Chinese family, I got a Chinese friend. I'm totally fine with it, it's just that I was prepared to meet a family, and not a university student. HBA also gave each of us another Chinese friend which is supposed to tutor us every week for two hours, thus now I have two Chinese friends.
Does this mean I'll have no Chinese family? Not to worry! That same night, my Chinese mother from last year (see last year's posts) saw I had returned and greeted me. She said she was very happy to see that I had returned and said we would remain in contact!

Great Wall and Karaoke:
On Saturday, like last year, we went to the Simatai section of the Great Wall. I honestly didn't want to go, since from last year's experience I knew I would be very tired. However, I forced myself to go. I realized that it would be a shame that being in China I would not go to the Great Wall. After all, I don't know if in the future I'll get to go back to the Great Wall, so I might as well take the opportunity. As expected, I was really tired after going up the wall. At first I really thought I would quit, but with the moral support of two teachers I went all the way up. Here are some pictures:







I thought I would just go to sleep after coming back from the Great Wall. However, Wang laoshi invited some fourth year students to Karaoke. We left around 9:00 p.m. and met up with some fifth-year students and teachers at the Karaoke place. We really had a good time singing Chinese songs and listening to classmates and teachers sing. Around midnight we then took a taxi back to our dorms, although some people stayed back and went to go dancing.

Well, this was the first week for me. At first it was a bit difficult, but now I'm very excited to see what happens in the upcoming weeks!

The arrival

So many things have happened in the past few hours that I don't know where to start from. My flight in general was pretty good, although the plane left JFK about an hour late. Therefore, I got to Beijing around 7:00. The new Beijing airport terminal is really amazing. At first I got a bit lost, since I had to walk a lot more than last year. Then I realized now there's a small train you have to take to get your baggage and get through customs (customs, by the way, is much simpler now, since there are no forms to fill out and nothing else to do if you have nothing to declare). But anyway, I liked the airport, and it really is proof of how Beijing is changing so rapidly.

After getting my stuff, I went through the exit where there already was a group of HBA students and teachers. We waited at the airport for about an hour or two and then together took a bus to our dorms at Beijing Language and Culture University（北京语言大学）. This year, housing apparently has been sort of an issue for HBA. All fourth year students (me included) were put in a separate building from the rest of the HBA students, due to lack of rooms at the Conference Center （会议中心）. I don't know yet how I feel about that. There are a few advantages of living in this new building. Our rooms are much bigger than those at the conference center, and we're closer to the subway. Here are some pictures of my room:

On the other hand, there are a handful of disadvantages, the most important one being that we're isolated from the rest of the HBA students and that we have to take a long walk to get to our classrooms. We're not the only ones having problems, though. Apparently there are some students at the Conference Center who have to share a room with another student for the first few days.

Well, all of that happened last night. Today has been a productive day so far. I met with a two classmates to eat breakfast and go shopping. Among the things I bought was a Chinese cell phone! Buying a cell phone in China was a bit complicated, not only because of language difficulties but also the way phones work in China. For the first hour I bought my phone, it didn't work, so I had to go back to the place I bought it and somehow it got fixed. I was able to get the phone for 400 RMB, which is cheaper than I expected. (And my phone number doesn't have any unlucky 4's!!!)

That's how everything stands so far. I'm really excited to be back in Beijing, and I'll post again when anything new comes up.

Only a few more hours . . .

Today I had a very good time. I met with my friend Lucky (who's going to PIB this summer) to do our last minute studying for Chinese. We met around 11:00, reviewed for about an hour, and then went to her old High School to have lunch with two teachers. The teachers taught Mandarin, so we were able to converse quite a bit in Chinese with them, too. They are very interesting people, so it was a very fun experience having lunch with them. Well, after lunch Lucky and I went to the Manhattan Chinatown so I could buy a few gifts for people when I get to China. After about an hour or two, we had our last Chinese review session and said goodbye:(, until we meet again in Beijing of course:)!

So, my flight is tomorrow at 4:30 p.m., which is less than 24 hours away!!! I'll take a direct flight from JFK and get to Beijing around 6:00 p.m., which means I'll be stuck in an airplane for 13.5 hours. That's the only part I really don't like about my trip. I know they'll try to entertain us in the plane by feeding us and showing tons of movies, but I'll still end up very bored. Anyway, I just picked a few books to read during the flight, and I'll probably do some last minute reviewing on board.

As usual, every time there are only a few hours before a trip, I get really nervous. It's not that I'm scared of flights or anything, it's just that all of the waiting and anticipation is finally coming to its end and somehow my mind is still in disbelief. For this trip, though, I'm not only talking about this month I've been home since I came back from Yale. I'm taking about months of anticipation, from the first Light Fellowship meetings and the times I worked on applications all the way up to today. The time has finally come!

Although I've been to Beijing, my mind is still wondering how I'm going to adapt again to the Beijing environment, speaking only in Chinese, having tough classes, etc. I know it will all come back to me pretty well, though. I'm really excited to go back, and see how Beijing has changed since I last was there. Beijing is only a few more hours away!!! Next time I post, I will already be at the other side of the world.

Preparing for the Return

Wow! This is the first blog entry I write in almost a year! The last one being at HBA. So basically, I'm going back this summer to HBA, and I can't describe how excited/nervous/impatient I am about going again to China. I just finished re-reading all of the entries I wrote last year and it was really wonderful reliving all of those past experiences. Kelly is right, blog entries do capture the raw moments, and it was great how those entries transported me back to last summer to all of those days of language pledge, lack of sleep, 空气污染，and wonderful 老师们!

So why am I going back? Basically, I decided that I wanted to return to HBA on the last day banquet we had in Beijing (see previous post). I remember very clearly telling Wang laoshi (王苗苗) that day that I was going to do all I could to go back, and that I would see her again this summer. Thanks to the Light Fellowship, so far it seems that I will be able to keep my promise. I felt, and still do, that there were many things that I could have done differently, and many things that were still left for me to explore. So now I have a second chance to boost my Chinese and learn more about China.

In preparation for my return to HBA, I have been reviewing the lessons from HBA and my third year course at Yale. I'd say that I'm reviewing pretty intensively, but not killing myself either. I spend about 5-6 hours daily reviewing, but I try to review in a relaxed environment and at a slow pace. The worst thing I could do is tire myself out right before HBA, since as you can tell from my previous posts, HBA will definitely tire me out. However, I want to go into HBA with a solid mastery of what I've studied so far, so I can concentrate on new material and not have to do remedial work while I'm there.

I've also been practicing spoken Chinese with my friend Lucky here in New York (see her blog for more details on our adventures). We've met a few times and imposed our own Language pledge, just to feel the experience of speaking only in Chinese. Since we're in NY, we obviously couldn't respect the pledge 100% of the time, but in general, we've had very good practice for what's to come.

Well, I'll end my first post with my schedule for the summer:

June 12
Take plane from JFK to Beijing

June 13
Arrive at Beijing

June 15 - August 15
HBA!!!!

August 16 - August 18
Trip to Shanghai

August 19
Return to NY

As you can see, there are only 9 days left for my trip! I'm so excited!!!!! I'll post one more time before I leave. Until then, I'll just return to my daily reviewing and watch more TV.