Halloween in Beijing

Yes, I know, it's December. Yes, I know Halloween is in October. I'm... bad at months, I guess? Anyway...

So... Halloween in Beijing. What to say, what to say? The night was interesting enough, I suppose, but since the Chinese in general don't really subscribe to the holiday, the city was missing the usual excited energy that accompanies Halloween. Also, we weren't even celebrating on October 31st, but rather October 30th as it was a Saturday. A forgivable discrepancy considering the circumstances, I think.

Our little Yale contingent was out in full force, though. Thinking back, I realize I actually devoted the whole of Saturday to Halloween preparation and execution. First, woke up to go shopping for last-minute supplies, including a giant container of glitter. The night before, I had ventured to Yashou Clothing Market in the Sanlitun area to find inspiration. I found it in a black wig, a black pair of angel's wings, and some black shiny boots. Saturday was for last touches.

서울: Lantern Festival!

On our last night in Seoul, we magically learned that a lantern festival that had been erected in honor of the G-20 Summit the week before would continue to stay up until the end of that very night. So Liz and I, along with our newfound friend Amanda, hightailed it over to the area where it was supposedly located and began walking around in search of it. After navigating the crazy subway exits and really vague directions, we finally stumbled upon this:

Yes, that is me in an accidentally artsy picture. But the important thing here is not me (what?!), but rather the characters behind me. I'm going to go out on a limb and translate the Korean-Chinese character mix to mean something along the lines of "Lantern Festival," as the single character behind me in yellow is "燈" dēng which is the traditional Chinese character for "lantern." And from what I saw, these people take their lanterns very seriously.

Giving Thanks in Beijing

I wasn't sure what to expect for my first Thanksgiving in China, what with Thanksgiving being an American holiday. I know the ex-pat scene in Beijing is big enough to support at least a few efforts at Thanksgiving, but since one doesn't normally see turkeys go the way of Beijing Duck, I wasn't sure how much experience Chinese chefs had had with the giant bird. Did they know how to make it just right? Not too dry? Well-done all the way through? What about gravy??? After all, a crucial part of the Thanksgiving turkey is the gravy.

With all these concerns in my head (I obviously take my Thanksgiving meals very seriously), I hopped on a bus with the rest of my program affiliates to head to the Holiday Inn for our banquet. The program had arranged for a Thanksgiving buffet there in conjunction with the Stanford program. We didn't really mingle much with our Stanford colleagues as we were all a little busy stuffing our faces with the AMAZING (if a little crazy) food served at the buffet. Sushi, sashimi, fried rice, sweet and sour pork, pizza of all kinds, roast beef, various fruit, weird yams and..... turkey! Yes, that is right, somehow the Chinese chefs at the Holiday Inn knew just how to make the turkey so that it had that perfect Thanksgiving taste. And they even had gravy!!

Alright, so here's the food run-down:

me with my first round of food

(see how happy I am?!?)

天安门广场, Tiananmen Square

For any American who has heard of Tiananmen Square (天安门广场, Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng), one historical event will usually come to mind: the massacre on June 4th, 1989. You can read the original BBC news article here. In fact, there is a very iconic image associated with the event of one man standing in front of a line of military tanks.

Beijing Bumming/Blogging Blitzkrieg

Today, October 1st, 2010, marks the 61st anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Known as "National Day," or 国庆节 guóqìngjié, the celebration begins on this day every year and lasts for a full week... and there are Chinese flags literally EVERYWHERE.

The patriotic thing to do, I learned, is to wake up before dawn and go down to Tiananmen Square to watch them hoist the flag at daybreak. Yes, daybreak. I'll wait to see a flag-hoisting ceremony until the sun rises a little later, say 8 AM? Maybe I should check one of those astrological calendars.

Mooncakes and Drama Queens

Let's get down to business (to defeat the Huns - sorry, couldn't resist). I'm way behind on my blogging, but the life here at 北京大学 Běijīng Dàxué (Peking University) is so much more fast-paced than I anticipated. This might turn into a regressive blog for a while as I try to play catch-up, so here we go.

Today was the famous and much-celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival. That is to say, 中秋节 Zhōngqiūjié. Celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, the festival coincides with the autumnal equinox, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and brightest. The traditional way to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival is by hanging out with your family and eating mooncakes under the moon. However, since Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a Wednesday this year, and our roommates have American "guests," of sorts, they elected to stay on campus and be our stand-in "family."

Party in the PRC

So... Friday was my 21st birthday. Yep, the big 2-1. And ironically, I celebrated shedding the restraints of many American laws in China, where said laws don't matter at all. But my friends were not about to let that little detail stop them from giving me a night to remember in Beijing :)

First, of course, all the teachers somehow knew it was my birthday (I had told a couple, but I guess word spreads fast), so they kept wishing me happy birthday throughout the morning. Although, I have to say, waking up to a 考试 kaoshi (test) was not the greatest way to start my 21st birthday. But it definitely got better. At our bi-weekly 中文桌子 zhongwen zhuozi (Chinese table), everyone sang me "Happy Birthday" (in Chinese of course), and proceeded to hoist their glasses and 干杯! ganbei! which is the Chinese equivalent to "Cheers!" Given the number of birthdays that have occurred over 中文桌子 during HBA (mine was either the fourth or fifth), Friday lunch has almost become the unofficial birthday lunch.

Happy Birthday 美国！

One: I finally have internet in my room again, which is a serious cause for celebration. I spent the weekend at different cafés buying things like 5 kuai bread rolls then spending three hours eating them.

Two: After returning to Beijing from 内蒙古 Nei Menggu (Inner Mongolia) and updating my blog about all the craziness there, I realized I had completely neglected only one of my best days in Beijing!

The Sunday before midterm week and my subsequent trip to 内蒙古, some HBA friends and I endured an hour-long subway ride to find the miraculous Tim's Texas BBQ. Why, you may ask? While there never really needs to be a reason to eat Texas BBQ, we were actually celebrating the Fourth of July. It was a shot in the dark, as none of us had been to this restaurant, but it was better than nothing.

And as far as shots in the dark go, this one was amazingly on target.  When we got there and saw the wonderful things they had on their menu, some of us (myself included) actually teared up a little. I'm not even kidding. After our difficult weeks of trying to assimilate to Chinese culture, it was literally an incredible blessing to be able to order food that reminded us of home. Now, if someone had told me before I went to China that a menu would bring me to tears, I seriously wouldn't have believed them. But I really underestimated the hardship of spending weeks in a completely unfamiliar environment. I mean, just seeing the words "Tex-Mex" and "pulled pork sandwich" on a menu actually made me tear up!