长白山: Part 1

As explained in my previous post, my friend Barney* and I had planned an excursion to 长白山 cháng bái shān, or "Eternally White Mountain," to begin our year in China. Our itinerary was to be as follows:

8/29     Leave Beijing Train Station on the K215 bound for Tumen
8/30     Arrive at 延吉 Yánjí, take the long-distance bus to 二道白河 Èrdàobáihé, check in at the hostel
8/31     Visit Changbai Mountain
9/1       Check out from the hostel, take the bus from Erdaobaihe to Yanji, board the K216 to Beijing
9/2       Arrive in Beijing
9/3       Take the bullet train to Nanjing from Beijing (me alone)

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.

Shopping in Beijing

You thought this post was going to be about clothes, didn't you? Next post. Hope the suspense isn't too much. This post, though, is all about my shopping period experience at Peking University.

For those who aren't familiar with the phrase, shopping period is the first two weeks of a semester at Yale when students can freely attend any and all classes they are interested in. Based on the classes they have "shopped," they decide on a final schedule and hand in their decisions at the end of the period. Now if I were back at Yale, I'd be picking from hundreds of classes. But here at PKU, I was given the opportunity to choose from 10.

The Original Huhot Mongolian Grill... Seriously

One of my favorite aspects of HBA is the 社会调查 shehui diaocha, or "societal investigation." While HBA offers a variety of "research opportunities," such as experiencing the cosmopolitan life in Shanghai, the true Karate Kid's life at Shaolin Temple (kung fu teachings -by monks!- included), and the rural life of a small village, I chose to go to Inner Mongolia.

You might not believe it, but going to Inner Mongolia actually hits home a little bit for me. As certain friends and family members know, my favorite restaurant back in Kearney, Nebraska, is, strangely enough, the Mongolian Grill. So naturally, when this opportunity arose, I had to seize it. I really had no choice. After all, how many people can say they've actually been to a Mongolian grill in Huhot?

Alright, I suppose there was also a little bit of academic interest...

Yes Mr. Pavlov, You Rang?

Week 3 at Harvard Beijing Academy is almost complete.

It's amazing how quickly we've all settled into our routines...

6:00 AM: cell phone rings; wake up, shower, study new characters for today's lesson, finish last-minute homework issues, eat something.

7:30 AM: get ready to leave

7:40 AM: leave dorm for classroom building

7:45 AM: arrive at classroom, find a seat and review characters until...

8:00 AM: 听写 tingxie, or "hear-write;" our teacher dictates a sentence using about 3 of the day's 50-70 new terms, and we write out the characters --must hand in immediately along with last night's homework-- then class follows

中文，中文，西班牙语？

Well. I have officially completed the first week of classes. I can say, without equivocation, that I am exhausted. HBA has certainly been everything I expected, and so much more... more engaging, more demanding, and even more rewarding.

It's about 10 PM on Saturday night over here. I'll actually probably go to bed soon, even though this is the first night that won't find me waking up to an alarm. But first, I'm going to take this time to reflect on my program experience so far.

It all started with a pledge...