Harry Potter and a Chicken

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Sorry for the excessive amount of time that has elapsed since my last post. Applications, Chinese National Holiday, and the world's most fickle internet connection conspired to keep me from doing anything more complicated than reading the home page of the New York Times.

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The evening started off normally enough. I was restless (as usual) and tired of shuffling back and forth between the coffee house and my room every day. In trying to figure out what to do cure my restlessness at least for a while, I realized that I had never finished an old goal of reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Chinese. I had intended to bring the book with me to Nanjing to read in my spare time, but somehow it didn't make its way into my suitcase. And suddenly, I really very much needed to have it.

I obviously wasn't going to buy the book again when I had a copy at home, but I couldn't shake the need to read some form of juvenile Western literature in Chinese. The Hunger Games wasn't going to work because it had a bunch of strange words that I didn't want to deal with translating. I know, I know, wingardium leviosa and expecto patronum aren't exactly ordinary either, but to be totally honest I really really want to be able to discuss Harry Potter in Chinese, and what better way to do that than to read the books?

America for Toddlers

Today in our 口语 kǒu yǔ (spoken/colloquial language) class, the teacher asked for student volunteers from Italy, Korea, and the United States to go to a special preschool attached to Nanjing University and give a twenty-minute presentation on our respective countries.

I'll give you three guesses as to who was among the first to volunteer. 

Our assignment is to prepare a power point presentation that will give the young students a gentle introduction to our respective countries. The teacher suggested that we include as many scenic pictures as possible. After we present, the students will ask us questions about our countries that they prepared at home with their parents. I'm so excited. 

The only problem is... I don't know how cautious I need to be when describing America or American culture. For example, would it be acceptable to show a picture of the Statue of Liberty? Or Mount Rushmore, which celebrates our elected leaders? They're both somewhat important to America's image, and easily searchable on Baidu and Weibo, so it shouldn't be a problem to show them. But there's always that uncertainty. 

I wonder what else I should show them. New York, obviously. Washington, D.C. The Florida Wetlands? The Nebraska prairie? The Rockies, of course. The Bay Area. Navy Pier. The pueblos of New Mexico? Do I dare show them pictures of any of our Chinatowns? Maybe some pictures of cowboys... As one might surmise, I'm still in the brainstorming stages. Suggestions from my ever-loyal audience are always welcome. :)

长白山: Part 4

The Changbai Chronicles, as continued from part three.

After finally arriving at our hostel the night before, Barney and I made plans with the hostel staff to take a shuttle to Changbai Mountain's 北坡 běi pò (north slope) the morning of the 31st. Luckily, our day on the mountain, the reason for the entire arduous trip, progressed without incident and ended up being very enjoyable. Since this was very much a visual trip, I'm just going to let loose with pictures and the occasional caption. Enjoy!

大连: Fun at the Pier

Dalian, being a coastal city, has a lot of fun places to hang out along the water. One such place was Sun Asia Ocean World, a sea park that ran along what seemed to be some kind of carnival dock.

I'll be honest, compared to its American equivalent, the park was a bit grimy and lackluster, even in a city as shiny and clean as Dalian. But as one could easily guess, and one has definitely read in my blog, there is a large difference between Chinese and American standards of quality.

大连: Jiaozi Making!

Dinner on Sunday evening was a sumptuous feast of 饺子 (jiǎozi), more commonly known in the United States as dumplings. My friend's mother was patient enough to teach me how to shape the very famous little dumplings and seal them for steaming. She prepared the filling, of course, as I am not yet ready to advance to that stage of jiaozi preparation. The filling was a mix of chopped-up pork and some unidentified greens, which you can see in the bowl below (ignore the odd face):

The next step of jiaozi-making involves preparing the small doughy pancakes that will eventually become the pouches for the pork filling. If you look at the cutting board, you can see the small sections of dough waiting to be rolled out into flat pancakes:

And now... for my attempts at making the little shapes you see on the round tray above:

Then, after some steaming and waiting, we see the final result in the bowls at the far edges of the table:

Yes, I am now a jiaozi-wrapping pro... kind of. I can say, though, that my jiaozi were particularly good (as were all the other jiaozi in the bowls). While consuming my jiaozi, I learned that jiaozi actually has a lot of fortuitous meaning in Chinese culture. They're eaten specifically on the Chinese New Year, known as the Spring Festival, as part of the celebration of a fortuitous year. So my host parents explained to me, eating jiaozi together had particularly good meaning. I was so thankful for their willingness to offer me the experience of making traditional jiaozi with such a warm and open family. Someday, maybe, I'll learn how to make my own jiaozi and serve it up to my family. We'll see what they think about that.

P.S. See the cake in the middle? It will be my friend's birthday in a few weeks, but she'll be at college, so her parents wanted to celebrate. They literally just put the cake on the table, told her to cut it, and we started eating it along with dinner. No song or anything. For all the ceremony surrounding other aspects of Chinese life, it seems that birthdays do not get the same spotlight treatment they get in the States. Bad when you're young, good when you're old.

The Beijing Bookworm...

...is my heaven in Beijing. Seriously. I'd call it one of Beijing's best kept secrets, but I think the secret has been out for a while. So what is The Bookworm? Well, it's a lending library. A giant, glorious lending library, tucked away on one of the side streets of Sanlitun. It's also a bookstore. And a café. And a hotspot for Beijing literary culture. Here it is in all its glory:

Early Morning at Tiantan Park

After watching the Chinese do their flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, Nicole and I grabbed more food and got on the subway for 潘家园, otherwise known as Pānjiāyuán, Beijing's famous flea market. By this point, it's about 6:45 AM. We finally get off the subway and take a 15 minute walk to the gate of the flea market, only to find out that it doesn't open for another hour.

So what do we do? We consult this bus schedule below...

...and choose the one that says 天坛北门. Can you spot it?

A Plug for Miles Grimshaw

Also: my friend Miles, who is also doing the Yale-PKU program here in Beijing, has his own incredible blog going at milesawayinchina.blogspot.com. You can also see if he's posted something new by glancing at the column on the right of my blog.

Miles also claims that he's going to get back to blogging every day. He currently has three more blog posts than me. Now, as a prolific summer blogger who was glad to keep people back home so updated, I can't let this challenge go unanswered. Miles Grimshaw, I will blog more than you by semester's end. You've been forewarned.

But anyway, check out the awesome video he made (I helped!) of him working out on the Beijing subway. Pay particular attention to the reactions of people around him. It's hilarious.

This is Miles (and Liz):

hehehe

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."

内蒙古: Playing

Wednesday, 2:50 PM, on the bus

I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube!! I’ve wanted to learn since I was little, but I never got around to it. I’m having issues with the final side of the cube, but I’ll get there!

I’m a hot, sandy mess. We’re on our way to Huhhot right now from the desert playground thing.