China, Hello

OR WHY CHINA AND I ARE AND ARE NOT ON SPEAKING TERMS

Welcome to Taigu, the city that no Chinese person I have ever met (excluding Shansi-affiliated ones) has heard of. Do you exist Taigu? Well, I can say personally, as someone sitting on their bed in Taigu, that Taigu does exist, in major ways.

Taigu is nothing like I expected. All that anxiety and worry about not measuring up to living in one of the biggest, most repressed countries in the world, and Taigu is easy.

"WHAT?!?!" says you, my dear reader. "Easy?" Yes. Yes, really. Yes, so far.

For one Taigu is a Chinese Oberlin:

1. WEATHER -- Taigu and Oberlin's weather are quite similar. Both contain extremes: snow in the winter, heat and humidity in the summer. Luckily, Taigu is even more extreme than Oberlin. The heating coming on does not coincide with when the weather gets cold (instead it takes it's precious time, and leaves too soon). And Shanxi province is one of the most polluted areas in the world, especially in winter, because of the coal burning.


2. LOCATION -- China and the USA are similar locations? Yes. SAU (Shanxi Agricultural University) is an out of the way university. Its adjacent town, Taigu, is a half an hour walk away. SAU has a similar relationship to Taiyuan (the capital of Shanxi province) as Oberlin does to Cleveland. Both Taiyuan and Clevekand are an hour away, both have resources and services that cannot be found in Taigu/Oberlin (WAL-MART in Taiyuan!), and both have pretty terrible reputations as cities. No one wants to go to Taiyuan to tour the place (not even our Lonely Planet travel guide to China) and, like Cleveland, is a pretty disgusting area. Taiyuan is the most polluted city in the province. A Chinese friend of mine said that back in the day, when things were a bit worse, wearing a white shirt in Taiyuan in the morning meant wearing a gray shirt by the afternoon. Sigh. Oh, coal pollution.


3. FREE TIME -- Neither SAU/Taigu or Oberlin has much going on. So to make up for it, students and teachers have to make their own fun. In Oberlin, for me, it was living in the Cat in the Cream coffee house because of Concert Sound, working for the SIC, patronizing the Apollo or Oberlin restaurants, etc, etc, etc. Here, it's cat loving, guitar playing, and dance parties! We have two cats to deal with a potential rat problem. A problem our senior fellows prove to us is not just a "potential problem" in their house (because they have no cats).
   
   I just bought a guitar in Taigu. I now have two instruments in Taigu, including my doumbek. (I exclude my harmonica and shakers because they're so small.) As anyone who has watched me pack for college or seen my room in Oberlin or DC can tell you, this is an impressively small number of instruments to have by my side. But I'm really pleased with them. My new guitar (unnamed) is blue with a repeating patter of bull heads around the sound hole. Total class, all the way. I love it!
   
   Last night, we had the first of the infamous Taigu dance parties at out senior fellows' house (Daniel and James). It was really splendid. With some loud speakers with a strong, pumping bass, we danced the night away, Chinese students and American students, until the late hour of 10:30 pm, when our students turned in. (The dorms have an 11 pm curfew.) After the students left, us teachers created a cozy circle of chairs and chilled to music and played...believe it or not...Never Have I Ever.
   Finally we wore each other out, and we returned home, Alexandra and I. At home, we had some heart-to-heart bonding moments, telling stories and secrets late into the night. I did not go to bed until 4 am. It was a great night.
   


4. POPULATION -- Both places have a bunch of Obies! Normally there are 4 Obie grads here. This year, there will be 5. Obies are Obies are Obies, and as niche people, coming from a niche school, we tend to (culturally appropriately) recreate our particular politics, lifestyles, and passions wherever we go. It is so nice being in that niche again.

I sure will miss Oberlin and I cannot believe I will not be moving in with the rest of you in a few days. But Taigu is not such a bad place. Like, take my house. It is so swanky. I have my own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and study, plus a shared common room, friendly cats, an awesome housemate, and fun neighbors. And I have a double bed! I've never had this much space and cool stuff in the US. Granted it is China, so my bathroom has stopped working twice, once because I clogged it with toilet paper (oh so that's what that covered trash can right next to the toilet is for....PAPER) and once because a pipe burst (my bathroom looked like a water park -- spray was everywhere, on the ceiling, toilet, wall, floor, for 2 days straight). And the water is turned off from 11 pm to 6 am every day. But I have an indoor hot shower, which rocks (though the shower head just free-hangs on the bathroom wall...no separate shower stall for us laoshi). And my place is swanky for China too: the dorms don't have toilets, showers, or kitchens in them at all.

And the food here is great! Yummy hot pot, hot coke, dumplings, steamed buns, daily bubble tea...

I could go on for awhile (which I'll do in a later post). So this is why Taigu and I are on speaking terms.

But we're not on speaking terms! Because I don't have survival Chinese yet. I am either an illiterate baby, with no sense of what is on a Chinese menu, and few words to order, buy, or survive on. Or I'm a talking monkey puppet, repeating blindly Chinese sentences my co-fellows feed me, faking independence. Or I'm a deaf-mute, watching the lips move around me, sensing the sound waves that have no linguistic meaning to me, trapped in a opinion-less state, with a squashed, hidden voice.

Yet, I am so grateful to my co-fellows that they let me rest on their backs while they do much of the cultural lifting. And even though I fiercely love my independent spirit, I'm not as grumpy as I expected about this situation. I expected major bitterness and angst, as a rather talkative person. But it's been manageable. But we're only on day 5.

SO I'm here, I'm dealing, I'm speaking, I'm not speaking, and I plan on snatching up as much independence as my arms can carry, one baby step at a time.



p.s. I just my first work meeting, which was conducted all in Chinese. During that meeting, I nearly lost it from feeling so incompetent. But today I had my first class, which wasn't bad. More later...

Off to China!

...OR CHINATOWN, DC

Farewell Berkeley

TOOTLES FOLKS! PEACE OUT CALIFORNIA!

So, I'm a little late. I left the West Coast 3 days ago. But nevertheless, let's have three cheers for Berkeley. HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY!

To all the good times, good friends, horrid times, and strong shoulders I was given to cry on (and hey I'm counting those virtual phone, email, and skype shoulders too)...I won't forget ya.







Next stop...CHINA (or San Clemente and LA pictures...depending on how detailed this entry becomes. :) )


p.s. A final thought...

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.



Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

Living Like A Local (Pictures)

OR HOW ONE BEGINS TO SEE BERKELEY BETTER, SHINY-ER, AND MORE WONDERFULLY WORN

I knew I was in luck when I began to be able to give directions. Tourists looking for the UC Berkeley campus (my usual direction: "you're already on it."), looking for the BART station, trying to find major roads to go to some some major or minor places. Basically I have gone from a lost, confused, ill-fitting person ("What do you mean you're not a graduate student? You graduated right?" or my favorite "Why did you come to California to study Chinese? Don't they have Chinese classes on the East coast?") to a local! For about 3 weeks, that is. Take a look at the locals-only hangout spots I hit in my last few weeks in Berkeley.

Cheeseboard Collective Pizza and Cheese Shops

My favorite memory here was getting pizza with some Obies during my last week. We sat on the median eating our 2 1/2 slices a piece -- the half slice goes on top of course. The day's pizza? Mushroom, onions, goat cheese, and mozzarella.

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Indian Rock Park

I found this place by becoming horribly lost. (I was trying to find another park to see an outdoor, gorilla-theatre style rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream.) This is a famous park on a huge boulder with a magnificent view of the Bay and San Francisco. Families and couples bring food and alcohol up to the top of this boulder and watch the sun set. Luckily sunset was exactly when I showed up.

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Berkeley Bulb

I was taken here after announcing at a Thai Temple meal that I wanted to see the "real Berkeley" (because I didn't much like living on Frat Row and hoped that other areas of Berkeley had more to offer me). This place is the literal intersection of art, trash, and nature. Throw in some pebble beaches, homeless hippies (with their own library in a shack), huge found-object statues, a tree house, rolling hills, and wild blackberries and you've got Berkeley Bulb.

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Buena Vista Park (in San Francisco)

I also found this park while getting lost. I was looking for Golden Gate Park -- in order to play in a drum circle -- and instead, I ended up here. I played doumbek in the hills of this park. It was super fun, a bit meditative, and I even got complimented on my playing!

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Chinatown (in San Francisco)

I know what you're thinking. How could Chinatown possibly be a locals-only hangout? Well let me tell you, I made it one. My personal mission in Chinatown was to find a great Chinese bakery, where I bought delicious, steamed, stuffed buns (custard and meat ones). I also found some quieter alleyways with murals and interesting locals-only spots.

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UC Berkeley Botanical Garden

I was brought to this beautiful garden in the hills behind I-House by a fellow Obie. When I visited I found the tallest cactus to take a picture with, hung out in the tropical greenhouse to remind me of DC humidity, and explored the Chinese medicinal garden, jokingly diagnosing my friend and I.

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Sutro Baths (in San Francisco)

From Berkeley you take BART all the way into San Francisco. You then take a bus until it hits the end of the line. You've reached the Pacific Ocean and, quite possibly the Sutro Baths. It's this beautiful place by the ocean, ruins of former bathhouses and lots of crashing waves. On the top of the hill we found a dinner which served warm muffins and hot chocolate. It was an awesome visit.

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Other Awesome Things I Did

(L) see Carol Queen speak & (R) get to see an awesome sunset from out of a plane window going across the country

Family Time

OR WHY I MISS MY FAMILY AND YET HAVE KIN ALL ABOUT...IF I WAIT LONG ENOUGH

Hi Folks,

I am very jetlagged right now, so this update will have to be short. I have just had so many precious moments in the recent days that I wanted to share them with y'all.

Being in a new city without many local contacts is challenging. I forgot how hard London was before London became the hip, happening, creative mecca I found it to be in the end. London is also wet, dreary, cold in so many ways, lonely, isolating. In turn, Berkeley started as a hard place. Now, being back from holiday, having friends to call, having too much to do and see, this is just all so new.

Fourth of July was the first important holiday I've ever had without family or friends, which made me homesick indeed. In the past few days, I have been surrounded by 3 families (none of my blood kin though) and it has been so nice to be cared for and taken care of so lovingly.

This past long weekend I visited two lovely friends of mine from Oberlin in Massachusetts at their beach house. I got to eat vegetarian food every meal! I woke up late. I didn't have any homework! More surprisingly, I had free time. I found myself sitting on the deck, peacefully staring at the ocean or catching up on Eddie Izzard comedy shows I hadn't yet seen. These two wonderful folks took grumpy me in, gave me a huge bed to sleep in, free laundry, and a personal bathroom within 8 steps of my bed (all luxuries when you live in a big dorm) and let me detox from language class and life jitters. I even received an adorable bear to make sure I had enough cuddles in room back at Berkeley. Though the holiday was too short, I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to visit.

Back in Berkeley again, trying to get over jet lag and get into studying daily, I receive a lovely email from Anya, former Shansi fellow to Himachal Pradesh, India (Jagori site) asking if I would like to meet up and chat about Shansi. This turned into sharing a meal with her family in tucked-away Ethiopian restaurant, saving me from another dining hall, anti-vegetarian meal. It was so nice to be taken in as simply another child who needed to be fed and who had some interesting stories to tell in return.

I also have had the chance to contra dance this week. I have contra-ed once before in Berkeley. Going this second time I actually recognized a bunch of people, and made friends with some friendly folks. We even had some friends in common, whom I had met in my wanderings of San Francisco. (That made me feel so cool.)

Anyway, I hope you all have some nice family around to nurture and be nurtured back. If not, never fear! Maybe some will be waiting on the end of your next email or plane flight.


I can't wait for the Chinese family to come!

Character Sketch

OR THE PEOPLE I FIND IN MY WANDERINGS OF THE BAY AREA

I have run into some noteworthy characters so far, people with interesting stories and unexpected pasts. I keep meaning to write this post, and then I meet another one. Darn, more characters! I grumble. How will I fit them all into one post? Well folks, I'll give you the best of the best according to people expert extraordinaire, Ray Gergen. (I feel like this is something I can safety yet pompously claim because of my major, Anthropology, and my passion, creating characters to act out on stage.)

Before we begin our tale, you my dear readers must be asking yourselves where do these characters come from? How do you meet people in the Bay area? I may have become braver. I have gotten over my fear of finding a free seat in cafeterias -- big spaces with lots of people but no friends and therefore no safe space to sit in. Now, I sit down willy nilly at any table I please, introduce myself and, actually, usually get a smile and a hello in return. And then, if I'm lucky, a story. The Indian girl who loves America because all her idols are from here: Jim Morrison (of The Doors), Pete Townshend (of The Who), Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin), people and groups I also love. The Chinese girl who ballroom dances competitively and shares a love of Blues dancing with me.

I may have become a better listener. (Thank you SIC roleplay training.) I find people just open up to me. And if I pause and listen, they tell me the longest stories on the train, on the street, anywhere. Like the women on the Bart train who was also an Anthropology major and who taught English in Eastern Africa for a few years. Or the lady who helped Judy and I pick wild plums off of a fraternity bush. She pushed and pulled the branches just right so that our harvest was quite big. She was so excited by the Shansi fellowship. "Sounds like life is good." she said, after hearing about my 2 year's worth of future plans.

[Of course, Judy is of Tamara and Judy, my Canadian friends whom I adventured with often, to places as diverse as Napa valley and the Cheeseboard Collective Pizza Shop. They have returned to Canada, leaving me to press on alone. They are certainly missed in Berkeley.]

San Francisco also seems to be a pretty friendly city, especially compared to London, which considering how reserved the Brits are with strangers, isn't saying much. But London is the only other city I've cut my teeth on.

How do I know SF is nice? Two complete strangers have complimented me, in seemingly asexual, genuine ways. Once on the Bart train, while I was doing Chinese homework, a manish boy upon exiting the train, for I was sitting next to the door, told me that "You are so awesome!" The passenger next to me smirks "He took his time saying that ." True, too true. Just today, someone else complimented me on the Led Zeppelin patch I have on my messenger bag. After these mystery people state their thoughts they simply walk away. Friendliness or blunt and pleasant honesty? Either way, it's nice.

And you cannot forget my daily run-ins with the residents of I-House in the halls, at the front desk, in the elevator, in the Great Hall, in the bathroom. I've met an RA who took the Japanese version of my summer, beginning Chinese class and quit. Whenever we run into each other, we commiserate about the seeming lack of pedagogy in summer intensive language classes and cheer each other on in our personal struggles to master an Asian language as native English speakers. (He continues his study in his free time.) The Cyprian, who studies in Lebanon, and fluent in Arabic, explains Arabic texting to me: "we don't use Arabic script, we use letters and numbers" Why numbers? "Each number represents a sound English doesn't have." He confessed that his handwritten Arabic was rusty. "I can't think in Arabic. ...I haven't taken a class in Arabic, other than Arabic literature classes, since 9th grade." It has all been in English. And my friend is a graduate student. [Basically all the graduate students here are doing research, and it's all in some kind of engineering or law.] And of course, my favorite are the linguistic conversations. People love knowing about Chinese grammar or just practicing their colloquial English. In exchange for me playing teacher, I get to hear free lessons in topics as interesting as Finnish grammar and Dutch law versus Dutch practice -- apparently two very different things, because "Even thought things are illegal, we just don't care that people do them". Very unAmerican indeed: we care even when there isn't a law against the behavior.

Oh the things you learn when you pause, listen, sit by a new face.

p.s. I found a great and truthful guide ready to shed light on my fellowship: Dr. Seuss.

My Weekends in San Francisco (Pictures)

Street car in Fishermens' Wharf.

Sandcastle I made on the beach near Ghirardelli.

Mint sundae I ate at Ghirardelli's.

Group at Fillmore Jazz Festival.

Chocolate covered strawberries at Ghirardelli's.

Ghirardelli Square.

Dungeness crab at Fishermens' Wharf.

Palace of Fine Arts.

Driving on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Beach near Ghirardelli Square.