Frustrated, Busy, and Excited!

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted on here! I don't really bother much with blogging any more, because of my shift towards video blogging.

So.......what's going on?

Well, tomorrow is the first day of my second year of teaching at Lanzhou Jiaotong University. I'm excited - things will be a little different this year! I am teaching a writing class this semester, and I have complete freedom to do whatever I want in that class. My co-teacher and I are the first ones to teach writing to non-English majors at Lanzhou Jiaotong University, so we are both excited and nervous about it. We've chatted a lot and shared our ideas, and I believe that it will be a good thing for me. I have no experience in creating any kind of real curriculum, so I am excited about what this could do for me in the future.

 There's only a few other things going on worth mentioning. One is my video blogging, which most of you are familiar with, and that is simultaneously the most frustrating and difficult and satisfying thing that I have been doing in these past few months. I have a whole queue of videos already finished and queued at the moment, but the one that I've been working on at the moment is about the One Child Policy.


The One Child Policy video is driving me crazy at the moment - it's such a charged topic, emotionally and politically, and there are a lot of ugly things that have arisen out its implementation. The hard part is presenting it objectively, without too much bias, talking about the major points of it, and also trying to do it under 10 minutes. That's pretty tough. I filmed one, edited it, thought it was good......but after I slept on it, I researched further and found out that a few things I said were just totally wrong and naive. Oh, well, at least I didn't put it up.

Well, what else? Not much, really.......just Ultimate Frisbee games on Sundays, which is always a great part of my week! There's been a lot of fun had, and a lot of great friends and memories have been made because of Ultimate Frisbee. It's surprisingly popular here - once students get started on it, they seem to just latch on!

It's a shame that I don't utilize this site more. I suppose I could use it to promote videos or something. I logged back on today and said, "Wow, this is a great page! How did I do that?" Haha

Well, I suppose that's about it. I think I WILL start posting on here more. Writing this was fun and it felt good to be doing it again. I don't need to put in as much time as I do for a video!

Anyway, I'll talk to you guys later - much love!

Austin

Click here to go to my YouTube Channel!

The Unfamiliarity of it All

Finally, a new video is here! Yeah, I've been pretty much keeping to a once-a-week update unconsciously, so I guess I'll be sticking to that schedule!

I just got my teaching schedule and textbook/curriculum and everything, so I'll be putting up a post about that soon.

First, the videos! Watch, and then I'll get into more detail below. As always, YouTube and Youku:

 



As I said in my previous post and in this video, everything you do here is different. Everything. And to a certain extent, it is really wonderful, but sometimes it can be really tough.

I'm not really sure how to explain it, but there's a great amount of satisfaction to be had in daily life in China, especially in a place like Lanzhou, where there are few foreigners.

You find yourself in these seemingly normal circumstances here - buying food, going to a restaurant, talking to people in Chinese, seeing the neon lights at night, and all of these other things......to you they are normal life, and to be able to function in these ways without really thinking about it is really satisfying.

You have to use your Chinese to do all of these things, you have to always be aware of the fact that people may be staring at you literally all the time, you have to use your patience to deal with crowds or lines or noise or whatever, and at the end of the day, when (or if) you think about what happened that day or what you did that day, you kind of say,

"Oh, yeah, I totally just did ______ in China/Chinese, who knew I would/could ever do that?"

Just doing simple things requires a little work in another language or requires a little more thought, and it's these little daily/hourly challenges that make life here so interesting. Some people relish how awesome new and unfamiliar things are, and some people just don't.

You think and live with a different part of your mind here than you do back home. Because you're utilizing this other language, it changes how you think and how you deal with the circumstances around you, and that's something you just can't fully explain to people. It's one of the biggest reasons that people who come here stay here. 

That's about all I've got for you now - I guess I'll talk to you later!

Austin

"Don't Lose Your Sense of Wonder..." and Upcoming Projects

Well, I have run out of things to do today, so I guess I will put up a blog post! It's funny, blogging was so important a few days ago, and I have totally neglected documenting this "just arrived and still adjusting" time.

I spent yesterday and today at Lanzhou University of Technology, my old school, to see old friends and help one of them do a crazy difficult and heavily technical translation for a recruiting presentation. It was so difficult and seemed impossible at times, but together, we did it! I feel pretty accomplished because I was able to translate pretty well in my own right except for some really, really technical things (like different kinds of engineering projects and statistics kind of technical).

Basically, that made me realize that I DON'T want to be written translator. Ever. That's just too tedious, and because of the nature of written vs. spoken language (not just Chinese, any language), it's much harder and it takes the human element out of the equation. No fun.

Besides that, I hung out, had a few meals with, and joked around with my friends who are still left at L.U.T. - they kind of became my family during that time there, and it brings back memories of great times to see them.

Anyway, you didn't come here to read about me waxing nostalgic - you came here to read about me and Lanzhou (or just Lanzhou.). 

I met a couple of American teachers who live next door to me at Lanzhou Jiaotong University, and they are really cool - they're in their early 40s and the wife has spent some time in Kunming and Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. They can't speak much Chinese, so I gave them some advice and said I would help them out anytime they needed. I like them a lot, and I hope we can hang out more.

Campus is still kind of crazy with all the new students - I see people giving tours to groups of 30-50 people at a time and people are clogging the shops to stock their rooms with snacks, water containers, etc.

Living in China is a constant exercise of your patience, your sense of adventure, and your capacity to deal with unfamiliarity. Pretty much how you do everything in China is different from how it's done in America. The public transportation system is the best way to get around, which is new to most Americans, water must be boiled before drinking, walking is just part of life, not an exercise regime, people drink tea instead of coffee and soda, eat rice, noodles and dumplings instead of pot roast, steak, hot dogs, and burgers, and live in apartments instead of suburban houses. It's a whole different way of life.

My dad told me,

"Hey, while you're over there, don't lose your sense of wonder and appreciation at where you are. You have a really unique opportunity, and you need to not lose sight of where you are and where you come from."

That's been rolling around in my head a lot these past few days, and while the wonder is still fresh in my head being sort of "fresh off the plane" for this time, it's my third time to come to China and to Lanzhou. It's more or less daily life, and it's hard to shake your head out of the daily routine and remember where you are. Most days last year, I totally forgot I was living in China - it was just life. Anyway, I'll try to stay conscious of that.

Anyway, I will make a video about all of that soon - I've been a bit busy and distracted to film much stuff. I've got about 2 minutes of raw footage I could spin into a video, but I want to wait until I've got enough for a good video. I want to make good stuff, you know?

I met an American couple online who are in Lanzhou now who said they saw my videos and read my blog about Lanzhou, and they said it gave them a lot of really good information, so I'm very happy about that, and the American couple who live next door to me said they read my blog and watched my videos as well, so it appears that what I'm doing is at least reaching a few people.

I know  that Lanzhou seems like a relatively unimportant place in a world with cities like New York City, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, London, Sydney, and Chicago, but that doesn't mean that it's not a place worth visiting. It's a whole different kind of city, with great people, great food, unique culture, and a long history.

I will be putting together a series of pages/posts about a "Guide to Lanzhou" project, and I'm hoping to get some feedback from my readers and the people I know here as to what they want to see in it. In the future, I'm kind of hoping that my blog will become a significant stopping place for people who want to visit northwest China, and hopefully Lanzhou in particular. It's got it's faults, sure, but I like it just the way it is.

Until next time,

Austin Guidry

My Daily Life in a Chinese City

I've been really surprised at the number of views on my posts concerning what Chinese cities are like, so I thought I'd post a little something about the subject, since it seems to be a topic of interest.

[by the way, the blog hit 10,000 total hits a few days ago! Great milestone for me!]

Although I'm not in China now, I can remember very well the daily routine of the life of a foreign student in mid-sized Lanzhou (3.3 million people) when school was not in session. Some of the stuff is not exactly pretty, but it's part of what's really in China. I love China just as much (or more) than America, but there's no such thing as a perfect country.

Breakfast

Breakfast usually consisted of 饼子 of some kind (sort of like if a pancake and a crepe had a baby. A wonderful, tasty, baby), and then a short walk to the bus stop to either the West Campus of 兰州理工大学 (Lanzhou University of Technology) or to 西关, a downtown region of Lanzhou. It could be any other place, but for this post it'll be 西关 (pronounced "She-Gwan") and Zhongshan Bridge.

The Bus

In Chinese cities, the bus is what most people take to get places. Depending on where you're at, they can be air conditioned and clean with a few people in them or hot, dirty, musty, smoky, and crowded with all of the migrant workers of the entire city.

It's different from place to place, and you never really know what it's gonna be like when you step on - you just hope to God that it's not so bad.

On an average day in Lanzhou, you'll be standing up in the bus. Only one bus line in the city has air conditioning, and I think it's bus line 1. How appropriate, right? The #1 bus is the only one with air conditioning.

Most buses have windows you can slide open if it gets too hot, but it's generally not too unbearable unless it's the weekend and everybody's going downtown to shop. God forbid. I really didn't enjoy the weekend crowds.

The Streets

Just like every section in this post - it depends on where you are. If you're in Guangzhou or Beijing or any other city that sees a lot of tourist and/or foreign business activity, it's pretty clean and organized with a decent amount of English speakers.

However, if you're in Lanzhou, Huan Xian, parts of northern Beijing, or any other place where not many tourists go and no foreigners "dare to venture", it's a little different. Many streets are dirty or under construction, there's a lot of trash in places, and you can see a lot more of China's poverty. It's in these moments that you are forced to confront the fact that you're in another country. Not many streets in America will have kids wearing only dirty t-shirts run through the street and playing in trash piles and peeing on the street. Seen it.

The People

When walking the streets of Lanzhou, I was usually left alone except for the occasional "Hello," but it was whenever I was idling about by myself or just standing alone looking at the Yellow River that people usually came up and talked to me.

(Okay, this photo is cheating...it's actually on a train, but he DID just start talking to me)

It's true - it's not just some funny story we tell people for fun. People really do come up to foreigners and try to practice their English! If they don't speak English, you'll get to practice your Chinese. This is especially true in certain situations:

1.) The person who comes up to you is alone.
2.) You are alone or are only with other foreigners.
3.) You are just idling about and not really doing anything.
4.) You say you can speak a little bit of Chinese and are friendly.

If you're with another Chinese person, it's rare that a strange Chinese person will approach you if they speak sub-standard English. They'll assume your Chinese buddy will be fluent and that they'll be inferior. Best advice - go alone to a place where you know you can just hang out and chill.

For me, that was the area around Zhongshan Bridge.

The area on the far side of this picture is green, shaded, and dotted with small beaches and areas where you can sit and buy a drink and just chill.

Along that street, you can see a lot of older people in the morning doing Tai Chi, and in the afternoon you can see some doing different types of martial arts or playing the Erhu or any number of activities.

It's a great little area that reminds you of why you wanted to come to China in the first place.

After hanging out and talking to a few people, it's always cool to go to 西关 (pronounced "she-gwan"), which is the most cosmopolitan area of the city. It's mostly pedestrian roads and has a lot of shopping centers and restaurants and tea houses. It's the perfect place to go for a snack. I don't really have any pictures of 西关 itself, which is something I'll have to rectify, but I've got some video of it here and here if you want to check it out.

Other

Usually, after that, I'd go back home to the apartment and just chill until dinner, which was at one of the local restaurants, but I'd also do laundry every couple of weeks or so. Very involved process you can see here at my YouTube page. If YouTube's blocked in your country, sorry....I'll put them up on Youku eventually

You'll get a few (or a lot) of strange calls. I've gotten calls from:

1.) The International Office of L.U.T. asking if I would hang out with a high school kid who wanted to practice his English

2.) From a local TV producer asking me do participate in a segment about my culture shock in Lanzhou

3.) From a primary school asking me to come down to participate in "English Adventure Day"

4.) From a VERY wealthy businessman who wanted me to help him in some very lucrative (and possibly illegal) business ventures

5.) From many random people that I never met or talked to before.....just to chat! "You're a foreigner in Lanzhou? Oh, what's your name?......etc."

6.) Calls from anyone and everyone inviting me to dinners, parties, just to hang out, help with schoolwork

7.) To travel to Tibet......wait, what? Yeah, I got a series of texts/calls from some random guy who wanted to take me to Tibet. My friend Elizabeth would've jumped on it in a heartbeat haha. Yeah, I don't think I told you about that one, did I? Maybe I should've called you, yeah? haha

I'm a pretty friendly guy, and once I got over there, I made it a policy of mine to never refuse an offer for a new experience unless it was: physically dangerous, illegal, or if I was really ill. I never once did, and I don't regret any of it - I had a lot of interesting experiences, and you've got to be open.

When people find out how open you are to try new stuff, you'll get more and more friends, more and more calls, and you'll be a popular dude! (or chick).

So, if I had to sum up my Lanzhou life in a nutshell, that'd be about it!

See you guys next time,

Austin.

Beautiful China, Part 2

(this is Part 2 of a series - for Part 1, click here)

 Again, we are going to start with mountains! There's just something majestic about them. Seeing mountains reminds me of [insert a profound realization about the nature of life that I cannot really express here] and I'll always keep that with me.

(Left) The flat mountain here is Maiji Mountain in Gansu Province. (Below) Taken from Maiji Mtn itself.

Although you can click on these pictures to make them bigger, something is lost when you take a picture of mountains which are surrounded by the early morning's fog. 

Although you can look at the picture and say, "wow...", it is a truly awesome thing to actually experience. Awesome as in the original sense of being full of awe. 

For me personally, there is nothing better than a combination of three things which I love most of all - mountains, cultural history, and China.

And Maiji Mountain gave me all three at once! Buddhist carvings dating back over 1000 years on a mountain in China! How about that?

As I walked along the side of this mountain, I was once again reminded that I was in China - sometimes I forgot that I was on the other side of the world in a country that I technically didn't belong in, but felt like I belonged in.

Sometimes it takes something truly foreign and unique to remind us of where we came from and how we got to where we are today.

When I think of something beautiful, normally I think of the mountains or somewhere far away from the city. But beauty isn't just about mountains and nature. It's about something that is stirred deep within you and reminds you of your humanity and your fleeting time on earth.


(Lanzhou University of Technology campus)

It's not limited to Tianshui, Lanzhou, Beijing, New York, Colorado, or any place.

Beauty is everywhere - you just have to be aware of it, I guess.

To me, the beauty of these places is that all of these places are special to me because I got to Rest. 


That seems to be something that's largely been lost on humanity. The ability to just rest and reflect on yourself. Now life is all about doing and planning, but rest and reflection have been all but forgotten.

(Lanzhou from Bai Ta Shan)

Sometimes you can find the most peaceful and beautiful spots in the unlikeliest of locations....would you care to guess where this is?




Downtown Beijing.

Yep - this is at the Old Summer Palace! It's not exactly downtown - it's north of downtown, but still.....it's in the smack middle of one of the biggest cities on the planet.


Who would've thought it?

Despite its location, it was a great place for introspection and soul-searching.

This was the point in time when I was nearing the end of my stay in China - I had maybe 1 week to go. It was the perfect time and place for me to rest and reflect in the disastrous humidity.

The world is a beautiful and wonderful place, and I've done my utmost to never foret it.

Just try and tell me otherwise.

What do you think? Feel free to leave comments and responses! No sign-up, just leave your name and your comment! I love hearing from you :)

Seeing the Elephant

If you've ever spent significant time abroad, there's just something about it that is uncommunicable about your experience - that's what I'm talking about today. If you've been abroad, tell me where, when, and if you agree - I'd love to hear about it!

There is a phrase that combat veterans sometimes use when referring to the experiences of war and why they are so often reluctant to talk about it. It's called "seeing the elephant." It's an odd phrase that has some interesting origins, but I don't really want to get into that, but here's Wikipedia if you really want to know:

"Seeing the Elephant" Wiki

What I really want to talk about is the meaning the phrase. 

Currently, the phrase seems to pop up a lot among military combat veterans, particularly the enlisted. When someone has "seen the elephant," it means they have seen combat. 

It sounds simple, but there are a lot of dimensions to seeing combat - I was reading "Shooter" by Jack Coughlin and he talks about seeing the elephant. He says that if you've never felt the sting of smoke in your eyes, never heard a bullet zing by you, never killed a man, never smelled the stench of death, then you can never really talk about war with veterans. 

He says that in order for you to truly understand what war is, you have to be there and experience it yourself. Otherwise, war is just something sterilized you've seen on TV or read about in books.

This may seem like a clumsy parallel, but I believe that living abroad is the same way - you just have to be there to understand what kind of experience living in China is. When you've walked through the Hutongs of Beijing,

                         When you've hung out with people that don't speak your language,

When you smell the garbage dump you pass by every day to get to class (or go to a restaurant),

When you go across the world and meet wonderful friends who become your adopted family,

When you meet a girl you like and she likes you, but her dialect is so heavy you can't communicate well,

When you've been disturbed in the middle of the night by 'women of the night' coming into your hotel room.

When you've tried and failed to understand so much dialect from random cities that you feel like your language study has been worthless,

When you go down to a place as old, majestic, and historic as the Yellow River with your buddies just to skip rocks and kill time,

there's just something that is beyond communication to others. You tell them and they say, "that's cool," but that's all. There's just an added dimension there which is impossible to really convey. You had to be there.

You had to see the elephant. 

Two Posts Today

5/16 Chinese Planning and the Roundabout Weird dream last night…..dreamed I got really really tan…..I look weird with a tan. I think it's because there's this one spot on my arm that's either a recently acquired a birthmark (ha...a birthmark at 22) or just is mysteriously more susceptible to tanning. Dunno. I dunno if it's something I should worry about or not, but whatever. Lately, I've been having a lot of experience with Chinese planning…..or lack thereof. Chinese people don't really like to plan ahead - this isn't just a couple of people, this is a cultural thing. My teachers lately have been canceling classes like crazy because they've either been asked to do guest lectures, been sick, or been grading papers. Ask me when I found out. I found out after I was sitting in class and either one of teachers came running in to tell me we didn't have class or I got a call one hour before from 'Wilson' in the international office. I'm not gonna lie, it's been nice to have easy days and unscheduled vacations, but still….I wish I had known about it ahead of time, you know? Being blunt and direct is not part of Chinese culture. Chinese culture is all about being roundabout and dancing around the point. This is apparent in papers - the introduction has nothing to do with the subject of the paper until maybe the last sentence of the introduction, architecture - in classical architecture, the person who enters a building must go around a corner before entering the main part of the house, dating - most dating couple are not together a lot because they prefer to 'love from a distance and savor the feeling of longing and missing each other' (that's what Benjamin Xi told me), inquiries to anyone in a position of authority - it's better to ask through a friend and not ask yourself.  My best friends here seem to be exception to this roundabout-ness - they seem to be much more American in the way they act. They swear, they always are mean and make fun of each other, they're blunt, casual and informal, and would rather play any kind of musical instruments rather than study. It's really refreshing to hang out with them because most of my friends here are so polite and….I don't know….innocent, that's sometimes hard to just be myself. I feel like I have to be America's representative around them.  It's not that I don't enjoy hanging out with them - it's just that something's missing. It seems that a lot of the Chinese students here are living, but are not alive. My best friends, Freddy (Boss), Janson, and Ethan - they are alive and they make me feel more alive and energetic whenever I hang out with them. It's nice to just be stupid and be myself and not having to worry about what they think about me. I can't wait to hang out with them when they come to America to study in the fall. 6/21 School is ending soon, and I'm pretty sad about it to be honest. This life in Lanzhou has really been something special.  I was talking to Benjamin last night about life here. I asked him a question which has generated some interesting thoughts within my mind. My question was:  "When you were in America, was there ever a time where you were just living your life and forgot that you were living in America when something happened that really reminded you of the fact that you were living on the other side of the world?" It's been interesting. For a lot of my time recently, especially the past month or two, I've just been living my life and forgot that I was living in China….even for days at a time. I know it sounds very strange, but even times when I have been speaking Chinese, I forget that I'm living in China - I'm LIVING IN CHINA. I don't know if it's possible for someone who hasn't done it to understand, but the idea that you're living in a different country is such a huge one, that it's hard to wrap your mind around.  Ben told me that I forget that I'm in China is a sign that I've become extremely comfortable and adjusted to the life here and that I have almost fully assimilated mentally. I do speak English a lot, but even when I speak Chinese, a foreign language, I just consider it part of my life - I don't even hesitate to speak Chinese when I'm talking with someone or stop to think about the fact that I'm speaking another language.  It's strange to think about how far I've really come - I went from understanding 20% of what my teachers say to 80-90% (except for Mr. Shang - his Hunan accent is so freaking thick), I can hold extended conversations (with occasional difficulties), I can understand more and more of the radio and generally have improved my listening, and I'm becoming less and less shy about speaking. I have finished 2 of my school textbooks and have moved up into the book my friend John is using - and he has lived in Lanzhou for more than a year and a half. He told me one time "Dude, your Chinese level is beyond ridiculous considering how long you've been here".  Although I absolutely love every minute of being here and I wish I could stay here and become fluent, which I don't think would take more than another year or year and a half, but I am really ready to come home. I want to see my family and friends, eat Mexican food, drive, see East Texas' green trees, sleep in an air-conditioned building, not listen to people playing drinking games in the bar across the street every night, live in a city that's clean, and just have a brief holiday - you know what I mean? In the words of Charles Emerson Winchester III, China  has "taught me what the true meaning of going home is". China is a place that is beyond wonderful, but it is not home. Not yet.

Forgetting Spoons Plus Update

Before my actual post, I just wanted to update you guys on the situation. I know it's been a long time since my last post - I have been having some internet problems. The neighbors whose I've been stealing at my apartment locked their network, so I had to buy my own network. Good thing it's so cheap - it's 20 yuan for 100 hours. They just take it from my cell phone bill, which is convenient for me. Now I have to go to one of the school buildings on campus and use the internet. It's fairly reliable, but a little inconvenient. Oh, well....that's that. Happy reading! 5/15 I forgot how to hold a spoon today…..maybe I've been away for too long haha. I was eating what's called 砂锅 (sha guo), which is a small pot - maybe a little bigger than a softball - that's stuffed with vegetables and usually one or two types of meat. The pot is put over the fire, and then soup is added, cooking the raw vegetables and meat. Then you can choose to eat rice or bread with it (I say bread, but it's sort of like a mix between an English muffin and unleavened Jewish bread...interesting) and dive in. Since it's soup-based, you get a spoon and chopsticks with it. I used my chopsticks till the veggies ran low, and then picked up my spoon. It felt really strange - I couldn't decide between using 2, 3, or 4 fingers. It was really awkward, I wish I had been eating with someone or had my camera - I would have documented it. I ultimately decided on holding it between my thumb and index finger at the very end of the handle. Still didn't feel right.  It could make an interesting video...when I get back home, video my first attempt at using a knife and fork. It could either be a waste of film or really awkward and hilarious. By the way, here's a few things I like here that I didn't like or never tried back home: Mushrooms Eggplant Fish Eating mostly vegetables Napa (one 'p' or two?) Leeks Cabbage in mass quantities Donkey meat (highly suspected, but I can't confirm whether or not it WAS donkey). Oh, PS - I've been working on some videos, but because of my internet situation, I'm unsure on whether or not I can actually put them up.

Forgetting Spoons Plus Update

Before my actual post, I just wanted to update you guys on the situation. I know it's been a long time since my last post - I have been having some internet problems. The neighbors whose I've been stealing at my apartment locked their network, so I had to buy my own network. Good thing it's so cheap - it's 20 yuan for 100 hours. They just take it from my cell phone bill, which is convenient for me. Now I have to go to one of the school buildings on campus and use the internet. It's fairly reliable, but a little inconvenient. Oh, well....that's that. Happy reading! 5/15 I forgot how to hold a spoon today…..maybe I've been away for too long haha. I was eating what's called 砂锅 (sha guo), which is a small pot - maybe a little bigger than a softball - that's stuffed with vegetables and usually one or two types of meat. The pot is put over the fire, and then soup is added, cooking the raw vegetables and meat. Then you can choose to eat rice or bread with it (I say bread, but it's sort of like a mix between an English muffin and unleavened Jewish bread...interesting) and dive in. Since it's soup-based, you get a spoon and chopsticks with it. I used my chopsticks till the veggies ran low, and then picked up my spoon. It felt really strange - I couldn't decide between using 2, 3, or 4 fingers. It was really awkward, I wish I had been eating with someone or had my camera - I would have documented it. I ultimately decided on holding it between my thumb and index finger at the very end of the handle. Still didn't feel right.  It could make an interesting video...when I get back home, video my first attempt at using a knife and fork. It could either be a waste of film or really awkward and hilarious. By the way, here's a few things I like here that I didn't like or never tried back home: Mushrooms Eggplant Fish Eating mostly vegetables Napa (one 'p' or two?) Leeks Cabbage in mass quantities Donkey meat (highly suspected, but I can't confirm whether or not it WAS donkey). Oh, PS - I've been working on some videos, but because of my internet situation, I'm unsure on whether or not I can actually put them up.

Thoughts

So far, after living in Lanzhou for almost 2 weeks, I feel like I have pretty much fully adjusted. The weather here is still a little annoying because the temperature varies a lot during the day. I have learned to drink hot water instead of cold, I have learned how to really use chopsticks, I have learned to walk a mile-ish to class and the library every day, I have learned how it feels to be in a place where everything is new. It is difficult to explain the concept of everything being new. New language, new people, new university, new culture, new habits, new home, and a new family of sorts. 

I have come to appreciate so much here. I have come to really appreciate friends - it’s easy to forget how much better friends make life until you move to a place where you don’t know anybody. I have been invited to eat with my teachers and friends, and it literally is the highlight of the day when I see someone I know and experience that little bit of familiarity. 


I think I’ve just begun to reach the point where people are not freaked out by me and are asking me if I can hang out on the weekend - it’s Wednesday and my weekend just got booked! It is impossible to explain how much it means to me when I get invited to someone’s home for a simple meal - it really makes me feel like I’m important to somebody here and not just another student who doesn’t really matter. I can’t explain it, I really can’t. My value of friendship has exponentially grown and although I'm making friends here, that doesn't mean I don't miss people back home.

( My ETBU Roommates - great guys)



I have been given so much and I have been really humbled at times by people’s kindness. The first few days here were not very fun and they were lonely, to tell you the truth, but I believe I have found a good group of friends and support in a lot of good people. My teachers Ma Lin, Jodie (who, by the way both have awesome kids, they are really shy and hilarious), and Stacie have been especially kind to me because they have traveled abroad and know exactly how I feel here and they know the kind of advice to give and how to deal with the different issues that come up.

I have a completely new perspective on the international students of ETBU and anyone who is part of an exchange program now that I am a part of one as well. I have so much respect for those people who come to the U.S. to study for their entire college careers - that takes a lot of guts. One semester is not so much, but still not a weekend trip, but a year or 4 years is a long time to be away from family and familiarity.

It is hard to believe I have only been in Lanzhou for less than 2 weeks - I feel as if I’ve been here for a month already. I have already begun to lose a bunch of weight from the healthy food and the sheer amount of walking - it’s crazy! I certainly have learned a new respect for the complexity of the Chinese written language - GOOD GOD….hard as freaking anything I’ve ever done. 


I spent 4 or 5 hours translating 1.5 pages of Chinese - it took forever…..but of course, it’s what I want to do and expected to do. I knew it would be hard, but knowing it will be hard and actually sitting down and working are two different things. I will learn so much, I can already tell. Till next time!

First Lanzhou Post and Video

Okay, so I know that I haven't posted anything on here in a while - I've been busy trying to solidify email connections, people addresses, all kinds of junk like that....so yeah. Not an excuse, really, but anyway, I'm back now. I've been told to blog everyday, but who REALLY wants to read a blog every day?? I don't. Or at least, I haven't ever found one I'd want to read every day.

I have a journal that I've been writing in and I guess that's been my 'daily blogging'. But really, there's not much going on this week. I arrived last Saturday (the 26th) at 11pm in Lanzhou and received quite a shock from my Beijing-ed up mind. I was thinking that it wouldn't be too different from Beijing, but man was I wrong! Lanzhou seems like a great city, don't get me wrong, but it is abundantly clear that it isn't a tourist city by any stretch of the imagination. It is polluted, dirty, and smells like industry (or at least it did for the first couple of days here - I don't really notice it now).

One of the first things I could really see was this bridge here - it has constantly changing colors - red, blue, green, yellow, and all kinds of crazy stuff. At the top of the left column in the picture, there are green spotlights that make random patterns that look like tentacles. Hopefully I'll be able to get some video of those lights, because I haven't ever seen any videos of the bridge lights. There are still tons of decorations up from the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) - the highway getting into Lanzhou was packed with lights for literally about 5 miles - I've never seen that many lights. I didn't take any video or pics because it was so crazy and I was crazy tired....I'll try to go there soon and get some of that as well. It really was beautiful.

I've been settling into the daily life here on campus. I usually eat at Cafeteria Number 3 here because it's familiar and decently good - their steamed stuffed buns (包子）are amazing as well as their breakfast food - which are kind of like crepes, but cooked with green onions and some other spices and things. Good stuff.....really good.

I don't know really what to say. I know that I'm really lucky to be here and I'm making history of sorts, because I'm the first international student at this school and from ETBU, but that's really a lot to think about and I don't like to think about it. I'm still really nervous about my Chinese, but I have to get over it sometime. The students here leave me alone and don't talk to me, which is nice, but lonely at the same time. I suppose we are mutually nervous to talk to the other person. I really do garner stares - I really didn't believe people when they said that to me. But.....yeah, I do get the stares. It's disconcerting...I know people are curious, but I still have this nagging suspicion that I'm about to be robbed or something. I don't like feeling like I'm about to be robbed. (Does anyone, really?).

I'm really glad that I brought a bunch of movies over here, they've been really comforting as well as the internet itself. It's strange how something as simple as being able to read the news and get on Facebook can really make me feel like I'm at home (or at least closer). Bob Marley's "One Love" has also really helped me, for whatever reason I just can't seem to get enough of it although back home I didn't really like the song that much. Also, some of Sam Tsui's YouTube music has been nice to listen to as well as Pomplamoose's YouTube Channel - great music, everyone should check it out!

Speaking of YouTube, everyone knows I have a YouTube account and I've made a few videos - 5 total. I'm going to do more with more details of the campus...but yeah

I've been hesitant to bust out the camera, because I don't want to stick out more than I already do...but yeah, I gotta take pictures sometime. No day like today, right? I keep trying to put pictures on here from my computer, but it doesn't seem to work. It only seems to work from URLs, and Blogger doesn't seem to like Facebook URLs/Pictures.