Language Tutor Session:
Last Friday I met again with the Chinese tutor HBA provided me. I would say it was a very interesting experience, since what happened was something completely unexpected. (始料未及）So I met my Chinese tutor at the library around 3:00 p.m., and I tried to start a conversation with her. Since one of our assignments for the weekend was to conduct interviews regarding marriage in China, I asked her about her opinion on marriage. She didn't really have much of an opinion, but she did describe Chinese marriage in detail. A few minutes after we finished talking about this topic, a young Chinese man approached us. My tutor then explained: this young man was a friend of hers. He was a High School student, and my tutor had told him I was from Yale, so she asked me if I could talk to him for a while since he liked speaking with foreigners. I said 'of course' and started to have a conversation with the student. About fifteen minutes later I realized my tutor was asleep! And she kept sleeping through the entire two hours she was supposed to tutor me, occasionally waking up and saying 不好意思 (~sorry).
Well, although my tutor was sleeping, I had a great time speaking to this High School student. Since I needed to conduct interviews on Chinese marriage, I started our conversation with that topic. He explained that he was a bit upset that marriage in China is now more westernized. However, he said, it's neither completely traditional nor completely western. Well, after the marriage question we just started to converse about more general topics. He told me that he was from Anhui province, but that his parents worked in Beijing. Since I'm interested in Chinese dialects I asked him about his own native dialect and its relationship with Mandarin. He also explained that he was very interested in economy, and that that's what he wants to study in college. What surprised me most about this High School student was his opinion on the Chinese government. While speaking about various political topics (Tibet, Taiwan, human rights ...) he told me very clearly that in many aspects the Chinese government is extremely bad, and that the Chinese have no way to express their complaints or to make the government listen. This was coming from a High School student, so it really surprised me. I asked him if he usually spoke about these topics in this manner, and he replied that he regularly speaks about these things with his classmates. In general, I found conversing with him very interesting, since he had very mature ideas and helped me understand Chinese people his age.
Spicy food and Karaoke:
After my meeting with the Chinese High School student and my sleepy Chinese tutor, I went with my classmates and teachers to a Sichuan style restaurant. Sichuan food is really spicy, and almost every platter was red (hot peppers). The teachers ordered a great variety of food, some as exotic as spicy frog (!!!). Although I didn't find the food overly spicy, others were not as fortunate. Wang laoshi, for example, apparently felt uncomfortable after eating such spicy food and had to take a short walk to feel better. Another student ate a hot pepper and started to cry, while others were complaining and asking the waiters for water. It was a very fun experience.
After the spicy dinner, we all went together to sing karaoke. I think this time was more fun, since more teachers came along. Some of our teachers get really excited with some songs, so it was fun listening to them sing.
Ming Tombs:
Well, on Saturday HBA took us to the Ming tombs. I had already gone last year (though I failed to take photographs, this year I'm redeeming myself), I decided to go again just in case I don't return to Beijing. In general I found the tombs somewhat interesting, so it was still worth going again. Here are some of the pictures I took:
Chinese Family/Friend:
Finally, on Sunday morning my Chinese friend took me to see his university and the "bird's nest". Apparently the bird's nest will not be open to the public until the Olympics are over, so unless I have tickets for the Olympic activities (which I don't), I'll only be able to see the stadium from outside. Here are some pictures:
(Statue of Mao Zedong in my Chinese friend's university)
(One of the many Olympic stadiums, located in Chinese friend's university)
(Bird's nest)
Next Week:
As I stated in my last post, I am going to Inner Mongolia to do my Social Study project. I will take the train to Inner Mongolia on Friday, and will be back in Beijing a week after. I might not be able to post while I'm away from Beijing. Therefore, I'll probably make two posts (Weeks 4 and 5) when I return. In the meantime, I have to return to memorizing characters and preparing for the exciting experiences I'll have in Inner Mongolia!
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