Chinese People: Observations

1 - Chinese people are gay

Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Ok no seriously, I'm not actually sure if those individuals are actually gay or not, but they frequently physically express themselves in such a manner. The girls like to hold hands just walking around campus, and I'm not sure how representative it is, but these three guys on my floor schedule their showers so they can all shower together. Last night I was brushing, then they just all rolled in with their towels and stuff, proceeded to take the showers in an oderly fashion, then they continued their conversation. In the shower.

It's honestly not that big of a deal (especially coming from a liberal arts college/living around SF), but it has confused many an exchange student.

2 - Chinese people don't want to sit next to you on the bus

In no way shape or form, does anyone want to sit next to ANYONE on the bus. I'm not sure how it is other places, but on the BART people tend to sit in an orientation that allows the maximum amount of people to sit. Chinese people want the maximum amount of peope to be able to sit too, if "maximum" amount means "by myself without anyone near me." Let's take a look (we'll use the middle aisle for this demostration):


This is a classic setup, where a Chinese person has occupied the outermost seat in a three seat row. This seat leaves the window seat open, but the person sitting down hopes that the awkwardness of having to pass by will prevent anyone else from sitting. Really a basic technique as often the window seat will be occupied. The user of this method is still satisfied though with a one seat buffer

This seating arrangement works much like the first, but it much more effective as there is no buffer between Chinese people should the window seat of the two seat row be occupied. A more advanced technique, this often leaves the unoccupied seat unoccupied, unless a particularly bold (or tired) Chinese person wishes to sit. In which case both will sit uncomfortably until one gets off.

The most confounding situation for those who want to sit, this situation often leaves people standing. Chinese people are too polite to want to impose, and that is the basis of these techniques

Because while Chinese people don't want you (or anyone) to sit down next to them, they sure as hell aren't going to sit down next to anyone else either.

These of course, are the three most common seating arrangements on any given bus.

3 - Chinese people have jammies

All the guys on my floor have jammies - either boxer shorts looking like things or athletic shorts. And a worn in shirt. And once they get back to their room BAM it's jammies time. You never seen anyone hanging out in their room in jeans...just...you know, jammies

4 - Chinese people like to sing

In the car, in the shower. Falsettoes or rapping. They'll do everything everywhere, with varying degrees of skill

5 - Chinese people love to chant

Chinese societies (like clubs on campus) mainly seem to express themselves by going to public areas (the quad or canteens) and chanting. It's like stomp the yard but with less rhythm, more Chinese people, and in a language I can't understand. Plus these idiots on my floor love to go around the halls shouting what sounds like "EH-LIC! EH-LIC! EH-LIC!" Eric is apparently a "famous" person who lives in Shaw, so everyone clearly has to yell his name as tribute.

Which brings me to my last point...

6 - God dammit Chinese people actually do substitute "L" for "R" sounds. A lot.

anyways....

EH-LIC! EH-LIC! EH-LIC!

This...is...STUDY ABROAD

Another cool non-academic night in Hong Kong...

Getting to the restaurant (Italian place in Hong Kong with a really New York name - Fat Alberto or something):

-Talking politics with Italians (the three guys preferred Obama)
-Getting confused in the MTR station (you'd think we'd be good at this by now...)
-Going down into the restaurant the stairwell is lined with "old" looking "Italian" things - pictures, posters, etc

At the restaurant:

-Italian food in Hong Kong. Interesting; not bad, not great
-All the employees spoke really good English, by Hong Kong standards
-Our side of the table orders some sangria (which was apparently not that good), and me not drinking, everyone just says "Ok Sam you get dessert." Ordered a tiramisu for the table, and when it comes, everyone starts singing Happy Birthday. It's not my birthday. But as I'm cutting up the tiramisu into parts for everyone, the manager comes over and says something to the effect of "Oh it's your birthday? We'll give you another tiramisu, one won't be enough for your table" - we had 9 people. So they bring out another tiramisu, this one with a candle on it, and everyone sings Happy Birthday again! Too much desert tonight, oy.

Getting back:

-Talking train strategy with the group (hint: when the doors open, RUN to the nearest open seat)
-Learning (then presently forgetting) random Italian phrases
-Walking up from the bottom of the hill to the top, but still enjoying it the whole way

And no, this sort of thing does not show up in your GPA

Multimedia

Pictures from today...

Halloween! Bonus points for reading the character

The full entry reads "mysterious korean girl" - that's right, someone in my cell phone is listed as "mysterious korean girl." I think her name is Serena...

Please notice that my fruit punch contains "fish product"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a Thursday in the life. It's also what happens when I have my camera on me.

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/shuie888

Enjoy?

Picture

This is roughly about how hard academics have been here at CUHK. This also probably explains why I will be receiving lousy grades. That and the fact that the local students 1) audit the class before they take it for a grade and 2) cheat to an absurd degree. Curve wreckers.

Anyways this is a drawing of a guest lecturer that came to speak to my China, Hong Kong, and the World Economy class, I hope you enjoy it.

Ok the grades won't be SO lousy (don't worry parents), but it'll be a rougher semester than I'd prefer. I just find myself distracted by:

1 - Living in Hong Kong
2 - Traveling to various other places in the world
3 - Meeting new people from various places in the world

I hope that Oxy has the same priorities that I do, otherwise one of us is wasting their time.

Note of #3 - ran into a Japanese guy I know at the MTR station today, asked him what he was going to do with Friday off, he replied "Oh we're going to chang karaoke." This, somehow, made perfect sense to me (chang = sing). I value this sort of thing more than my English professor calling Hamlet a man of action. I hope Oxy does too...

That was a test

Of the emergency readership system

Audrey quoted some of "The Zoo" - I can't tell if she passes if she fails

Off Topic

Ok this has nothing to do with HK/China/being abroad/whatever, but here goes

I believe that R Kelly is my generation's version of Michael Jackson.

No, really. Stay with me here.

When Kels is trying, he makes some great stuff - I Believe I Can Fly, World's Greatest, The Zoo (OK I'm kidding about The Zoo). Now I'm not the biggest follower of Kels, but I know he also puts out some real clunkers, Real Talk anyone? We all know the hits Michael has put out, but what about everything else?

So, when R Kelly is on his game, he's actually pretty good.

Michael Jackson has some good stuff too - if you disagree you hate music. That's right. I said it.

Now the similiarity that I find the most striking here, is that they're both completely freaking bat sh*t insane. R Kelly has his underage girls, and oh wait so does Michael. Kels did 24, that's right, 24 chapters of Trapped in the Closet, Michael operates the world's creepiest amusement park - his house.

Not a very well drawn out argument, but I summarize it thusly: both artists have some incredible work in related fields/genres, and both are absolutely insane.

It just had to be said

Yangshuo Bike Ride

I think I figured out why I enjoyed the bike ride through Yangshuo so much; I felt like everything about that experience was so absolutely real

It was riding a bike through the countryside. That's all it was, and that's all it will ever have to be.

On our end, there was no greater motive than "Hey let's rent bikes and ride through Yangshuo." We weren't trying to get anywhere in particular, we weren't riding the bikes to get in shape, it was simply to get out into the world

On the part of Yangshuo, there was no sort of pretense. It was not some dressed up and hollowed out exhibit for tourists showing how far China has come. Sure the tourists are there, and in droves, but something about the Yangshuo countryside defies being cheapened by this. I felt like there was no hint of "Just think of what Yangshuo can become" or "Look at Yangshuo's historic past." All I felt was a sense of "This is Yangshuo now."

Pictures Up!

Videos soon - if you want an explanation for any pictures posted (at any point), feel free to ask

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shuie/

Backlog of youtube videos coming soon

Guilin

Guilin trip was this last weekend, and it was fairly spectacular:

Left on Thursday (skipping some class - something which I'm getting more and more used to) to take the sleeper train into Guilin. It's a 13 hour train ride, so our group (4 guys, 4 girls, 3 Mandarin speakers) opted to get the sleeper car tickets. There are six beds per compartment, so it was good times bonding with random Chinese people. Quarters were very cramped (I slammed my head into a few things), but comfortable enough to sleep in I suppose.

We arrived in Guilin, and proceded via taxi to our hostel (Back Street Youth Hostel - that's right, a free plug), shoved our stuff into a storage room, then set about exploring Guilin. We saw the Solitary Peak (a governor's palace), the Elephant Cave (a big ol' rock that has a hole in it), and the Reed Flute Cave (which yielded some spectacular pictures - take that dust mote). Then we had a cheap (15 RMB) dinner at a place that in the States would not have been cheap at all, walked around a night market, and went to sleep.

The next day we were up early and on our way (via private boat) up the Li River to the town of Yangshuo. Spectacular scenery the whole way up - between the granite/limestone/whatever cliffs that simply just dominate the landscape and the people of Yangshuo going about their business it's just a shock to someone used to cities. Plus, our boat driver was friendly. That was good.

Upon arriving in Yangshuo, we put down our luggage in the hostel, got lunch, then proceeded to embark on what I truly believe will amount to be one of the most incredible experiences in my life:

We rented bikes (real cheap like too), found a bike trail, and just biked through the countryside. That's it. That's all it had to be too - just the whole experience of doing that seems at this point at least, to be truly once in a lifetime. There was spectacular scenery, good company, and just being able to be so close to what China is mostly like (rural/agricultural/poor) made for a unique experience. At the same time you clearly feel like an outside observer; I really have absolutely zero in common with these people, but then it's not a large stretch of the imagination to think that just a few short generations ago that my family might be living in that exact same way. I know I could never survive a week living the way those people do, but it's easy to romanticize the pastoral - the (alleged) simplicity of life is very tempting.

Words fail me and I think pictures will fail the viewer. It's hard to explain, and I'll definitely take another shot at it, but there was something profound in there.

After biking, it was more dinner/night markets/sleep. Man, anti-climactic there, but hey, it's what happened

Next day we woke up late, got a bizarro western breakfast (a not-quite-omlette), and took a tour to this place called Shangrila park. It was very interesting - they were like...showing off some ethnic Chinese minority group for the tourists. While it provided entertainment and some good pictures, the same recurrng thought that kept running through my head was "Sorry for raping your culture." It just feels like it's been hollowed out, put on display, and repeated for tourist money until it's no longer real. I feel this was about some of the temples in tourist locations as well.

There's an exciting story about dinner/the way back to Guilin/Hong Kong, but my roomie is going to sleep, and I think I also need to go to bed. Plus the story really deserves an entry of it's own.

To do:
-Properly explain the spectacularity of the Yangshuo bike excursion
-Tell the dinner story

Admit it, you're all excited

Traveling Plans

I'm off to Guilin until Monday!

If I'm not back by then, send a search party

Summary

Best investment: Bass guitar and headphone amp (~1500 HKD)

Fills free time, get to practice a lot (nothing to distract me from playing bass), lots and lots of fun. Last night spent like 45 minutes working out a David Byrne's "Strange Overtones" that combines the bass line and rhythm guitar part in a slap line. So satisfying once I got it.

Best technology: Skype (100 HKD for minutes, ~150 HKD for webcam)

I get to talk to my family, and videochat with friends. There is no downside to that. Other than I have to worry about my appearance when videochatting.

Best discovery: Shortcuts

When I first got here it took me about 30 minutes to get from the top of campus down to the bottom, and that also took a lot of effort as well. Now it's a series of not-that-bad stairwells and lifts. Takes about 15 minutes, which is great considering...

Worst Inconvenience: The campus bus system

It's designed to be convenient, but to be polite: fail. During class hours busses come to each stop at 20 after the hour (classes are scheduled until 15 past the hour), but if you miss that bus right after class, you're either walking, going to a different stop, or waiting 20 minutes until another bus shows up. Then you factor in the fact that professors struggle with letting you out on time. Case in point: I've never been on time to my English class. Not once. Thanks, Mandarin class.

Best food: Roughly, "Cha siu fan"

Pork, rice, veggies, sauce. Easy to order, cheap, and pretty tasty. I can say it without embarassing myself too badly. You always feel bad when you make the lady taking your order get off her stool so you can both walk over to the menu so you can point at what you want.

Biggest non-issue issue: Chinese guy who can't speak Chinese (me)

Went into Shatin mall Monday to go and try to find someplace that changes money (going traveling this weekend). Needed help, asked two older ladies at an information booth. In English. Much muttering, embarassed smiles, and wondering aloud "He's Chinese, why doesn't he speak Chinese?" I understood that, and tried in Mandarin. Much muttering, embarassed smiles, but no more wondering aloud. Maybe it's not me?

Thing I should fix: Tie - camera and sunglasses

Camera has a dust mote stuck inside the lens ruining some of my shots. As for my sunglasses, a few days ago I went to go take them out of the case my dad gave me, and I grab one end, pull it out, and pull out one earpiece and one lens. I think a screw fell out, but long story short it's in two pieces.

Most convenient: Octopus card

Thank goodness for the Octopus. If you ever stay in HK for any period of time, you'll know the power of the eight armed card.

Most friendly:

Canadians. No idea why, but it's true!

Least friendly: Chinese people

So. Much. Glaring.

Hardest class: Mandarin

Gahhhhhh....should study more

Easiest class: English

Gahhhhhh...should apply myself more

Biggest waste of time class: Meanings of Life

Gahhhhhh....should do the readings/I don't think the professor would make it in the US academy

Most confusing class: Microeconomics

Sam in class: "Um...what?"

Biggest detractor of the USA: Professor for my HK/China/World economy class

This man just hates on the US banking system. Every punch line is "Lehman Bros and Freddie Mac." With good reason too.

Biggest undoing: Heat

Way too hot to workout => (relatively) out of shape Sam. Weather has been cooling down, so I'm back at it though...

I have too much: Spare change.

Seriously, knock it off. Stop giving me two 50 cent pieces instead of a one dollar piece. C'mon.

Back at it

Oh hello there

Was up until 2 am last night working on memorizing Mandarin words, which yielded mixed results today. Remembered some random words, blanked out on words I should have known, but I'd say it was probably more successful than my strategy of "Oh I have a test today I should review for a couple of minutes"

Busy week this week randomly: Mandarin quiz today, economics quiz/test on Wednesday, English paper needs to be done by Thursday. It's all happening at once!

Going to Guilin this Friday through Monday, will take lots of pictures!

A good warm up post if I do say so myself...