So I have been in China about two weeks now and I can say with quite some certainty that it is the creepiest place I have ever been. Maybe it's coming from India where everyone seems to care about everything, but the lack of interest in what the government has done and is doing to this country is really astonishing. My host mother doesn't know about the voting process or how the government is elected, she doesn't know what happens to people who don't have health insurance, she openly told Shannon that she doesn't care about those people because those people aren't her. No one seems to question Mao and the rise of communism, even though his policies killed thousands of people. Even our host grandmother, who lived through the rise of Mao and the cultural revolution, thinks he is a great man because he united China into the People's Republic. To me and Shannon it's like not knowing about the Holocaust, but when you consider that these people have never left China and that everything is censored by the government, its almost understandable how they could be so completely unaware of all of the bad shit that went down in the last fifty years of China's history. Also I know that there are people who are anti-government, and who do have ideas about Mao that haven't just been fed to them, but we aren't being exposed to them on IHP and that's pretty frustrating. But still, coming from the US where everyone questions everything and having spent six weeks in India where everything the government does is scrutinized, it feels really creepy to be in a place where people just accept the way things are unquestionably. The government's one-child policy is going to have serious future health implications but no one seems to want to talk about it. No one on my trip has been able to get a straight answer from any of our guest lectures about a health issue or group of people who may be being left behind. You can't email a US senator from China, and you can't do internet research on things that reflect negatively on the government.
It's also kind of creepy that I now realize how much China could and probably will take over the world at any moment.
Despite all of this, I am really enjoying being in China if for no other reason than it is so completely different than any place I've ever been. Our host family is really nice but really overbearing and paranoid about everything-like me walking across the street by myself at 8pm. Their daughter is ten, does math olympics and is an amazing pianist. All of their energy goes into raising the one kid they're allowed to have. Like she has a schedule for each half hour of each one of her days and it's taped to the dining table. Only our host mother speaks English, but she speaks it pretty well, so its been pretty easy to communicate. They live in this giant housing area called Sunshine 100 where all together 30,000 people live, and its like an assisted living community without the assisted part. Every apartment as far as we can tell is the exact same, and in the middle of this complex there is a swimming pool and a basketball court and an entire building dedicated to selling units in the complex. We live about ten minutes from the campus of CSU (where we have our classes) but Changsha is not a walkable city at all so every morning we drive to school with our family. I feel like I have so much less freedom here than I did in India, which is weird because I expected China to feel much more western and comfortable, but it's exactly the opposite. Where in India I felt like after a couple days I was on my own to get adjusted to the city and learn my way around, I am barely let out of my host family's sight here. Which reflects that they care, obviously, but is also frustrating because I've been living on my own for quite some time now and have learned adequately how to dress myself and at what temperature I like my showers, but my host family still feels the need to tell me these things each morning.
Changsha itself is not what I'd call a remarkable city, though I don't mind because the point of this trip is not to be tourists. Last night we did go karaoke-ing as a group which was really fun, except the room was tiny and all the songs were put to these bizarre videos of this one woman walking by a river with sailboats as the backdrop. We also attempted to BYOB but the only alcohol in this country-besides Bud Light-appears to be sake, which is rice wine that smells and tastes strangely like a traditional Chinese dish appropriately called "stinky tofu." So..that's kind of a disappointment, as I have yet to reap the benefits of my non-US legality (except at the India farewell dinner, but that's a story for another post, maybe one that my parents aren't reading). Barbara and I did pick up some pretty sweet trucker hats, though, which plus a big bottle of budweiser really made me feel like I was representing America.
This past week we've been visiting hospitals and schools and had various guest lectures who have more often than not read off powerpoints full of statistics about American health problems. The language barrier is turning out to be much more significant here than in India, as was expected, but it really kind of impedes our ability to get information. Plus of course no one wants to say anything bad about the government, which is maybe why instead they just say bad things about America. Which is fine, we deserve it. Last Thursday we did visit a middle school (which in the US is high school) attached to CSU, and they're really into ping pong here, and we saw what I think was the makings of the Chinese Olympic ping pong team in action. I kind of thought ping pong was a joke, but these kids were serious-they were like the most athletic people I've ever seen. And they made me play against one of them, and needless to say the dusty ping pong table in my basement did not prepare me for the experience.
This week we also all got treated to traditional Chinese foot massages, which were sort of like full body massages except the point was not to make you feel good, rather to beat all of your muscles into submission. It actually felt really good, despite the fact that some of us couldn't walk very well for a few days after and that the two Chinese women who worked on me and my friend Victoria were definitely making fun of my hair in Chinese. In China my shaved head definitely does not fit in, I've already had two women tell me on separate occasions that I look like a little boy. Great.
The farther I get from India the more I want to go back. I definitely felt this way when I left too, but the longer I think about India and the more comparison I have with China the more I feel like there's just so much of India I didn't experience, and six weeks was way too short. Besides really missing my host family and really missing the city, I am just fascinated by the whole country and am feeling very envious of people who are spending their whole semester there, or even their whole semester anywhere, because I feel increasingly like I gave up something pretty significant by choosing a program that moves around as much as IHP does. And I love all of the new experiences I am getting and I am so excited to be in South Africa for a few months, but I just really loved India and really felt at home there, and it makes me really sad to think I might not get to go back for a long time.
Anyway, I'll stop complaining now as I really have no right to. China has been an amazing experience so far and I know it will only get better as we get deeper into the country. I also know that I will go back to India and that I'm lucky to have had such an incredible experience in a really incredible country. So I'm off to go embrace communism and Mandarin, which we have been learning every morning and which I am still pathetically inept at. But hey, wo shi ge mei guo ren! (I am only an American!)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
CHINA!
Ni Hao!
Okay so Chinese keyboards tend to switch randomly back and forth between English and Chinese..so we'll see how this goes.
So. I am in China. But before I was in China, I was in rural India and then on "spring break" in India, both of which were pretty amazing. In rural India we stayed at a weird commune place called Kanavu, where none of us really knew what was going on. We slept on straw mats on the floor and it was freezing, and probably the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done. Kanavu is kinda like a boarding school but it's run by young people, in their 20s, and there are only like 20 people in the whole place. Basically they do nothing but sustain themselves, and we had classes and collected firewood and helped gather rice and were kinda weirded out by the whole experience. But it was a pretty beautiful setting and a big change from Bangalore. For the second two nights of our rural trip we stayed in Kalpetta, which is a tiny town a few hours from Kanavu. There we stayed in what was probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, but maybe it was just because we had just been using squat toilets and sleeping on concrete. We stayed at Green Gates resort, which not only had western showers and air conditioning, but actually had a POOL, which really isn't that cool in the US but after sleeping among cockroaches seems amazing. At Green Gates we had amazing food and wrapped up the India program before departing for vacation. We had a day of academic synthesis around a really beautiful lake and then a day of evaluation of the entire India program, and then we set off on spring break 09!
There were seven of us traveling together for the vacation, and we stayed the first night in Green Gates again so that we could get up at 5am and travel to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary..where I was promised a tiger but did not see one. In fact, in our three hour safari we saw exactly one elephant, three types of deer, and some monkeys that I could have seen outside my window in Bangalore. But it's ok, I am determined to see some exciting animals in South Africa. Then that day we drove to Alleppey in a private van, which was an eight hour drive. Once we got to Alleppey--which was by far the single hottest place I have ever been in my entire life--we checked into a little guest house run by these adorable people who made us banana pancakes for breakfast every morning. Besides the excruciating heat, Alleppey was a cute little town and we stayed there for the next day. On Saturday we walked around and went to the beach, where I dipped my feet in the Indian Ocean! So now I can cross that one off the life list, just have to find a way to the Artic and then I'm all set. On Sunday morning we got on a 24-hour houseboat, which we took through the backwaters of Kerala. It was the definitely the most relaxed I've ever been. Monday morning after docking the boat we got on a bus to Cochin, a town about an hour and a half south of Alleppey. Being on the Southern coast, Cochin was also among the hottest places I've ever been in my life, and was super touristy. We stayed in a cute guest house and ate Italian food and sought out every Western restaurant we could find. It was nice to have a break from Indian food but it was really weird to be in a town where there were clearly more white people than actual Indians, and it just made me realize how different my traveling life has been before this trip. As we sat poolside at a friend's hotel I couldn't believe that the people sitting around me had bothered to come to India just to sit by a pool in a resort town; for the first time in my life I feel like I've actually experienced real life in a place different from my home, and I really can't imagine doing anything different.
Tuesday night was the end of our break as we boarded an overnight train back to Bangalore. They say you haven't experienced India until you've ridden the overnight train-and if that's true I guess I really had not experienced India up until that night. We slept eight to a "compartment" which really weren't compartments at all, competed for the bed with the fewest cockroaches, and dealt with our fair share of drunk Indian men. All in all though I think traveling in India by train was a really valuable experience, just in case life in Bangalore was getting too cushy.
Wednesday night we had our farewell dinner where we all gathered with our homestay families and said goodbye. It was a really sad night because I realized that I may never see my homestay family again, and though I do hope they stay in touch, it's weird to leave a family that you are a part of and think you will never be back again. Nikhil wanted to take us dancing, but alas the Indian nightlife shuts down far too early. Thursday Barbara and I ran around the city trying to get everything together, including writing our country papers (whoops) and trying in vain to send packages home. Then Thursday night we boarded a midnight plane to Thailand and then to Beijing, and after a looooong day of travel arrived in China!
The first few days in China we spent in Beijing, in a guest house near downtown. I didn't have high hopes for China but Beijing turned out to be an incredible city and I wish we had had more time to explore. On Saturday we climbed the Great Wall, which was amazing. Apparently the Chinese believe that "you are not a great man if you have not climbed the Great Wall" (or something like that) so thank god I am a great man in their eyes. After we climbed up it there was a toboggan slide down, which is both the creepiest thing I've ever seen and also the most fun I think I've had on this trip.After that we had our first Chinese dinner which was surprisingly really good. On Sunday we visited an urban planning museum, Tiananmen Square and walked around the city. Sunday night a few of us went to the Olympic Village, which was all lit up and even though its probably the most touristy thing you can possibly do in Beijing, it was really cool! Beijing has been totally transformed by the Olympics, like its such a clean city now and everything is really neat and everyone has apparently been trained to smile and say hi to visitors. Of course almost no one speaks English, so we didn't exactly talk to people, but that's ok. On our last day we visited the Forbidden City and had a final lunch of delicious dumplings, as dumplings are unforunately not served in Chansgha.
Monday night we boarded another overnight train to Changsha, this time slightly nicer and lacking cockroaches. We arrived in Changsha early on Tuesday morning to rain and cold. Basically we were told that Changsha is known for its "not-so-nice climate," and we have since confirmed that to be true. The whole time we have been here it has been rainy and cold, and I really really miss India and the warmth. In Changsha we are staying for another few days on the campus of Central South University, in a guest house that is essentially a hotel. It is sooo weird to be back on a college campus but really great too, it feels like home. The campus is really pretty, minus the rain. This is where we will be having our classes for the next two weeks, but we move into our homestays on Friday. I am living in this homestay with another girl from Brown named Shannon who I like a lot and who enjoys cuddling almost as much as I do, so I'm pretty excited about that. Changsha was described by the Lonely Planet guidebook as "just another drab Chinese city," and so far it is definitely not as cool as Beijing, though it is pretty populated (6 million people) and a real city which is not what I expected. So far its been kind of gray and damp, but I actually don't really mind, because at least for now its something different. And we only have three weeks in China, so I'm sure by the time I get tired of the rain we will be heading to South Africa. We seem to be the campus celebrities here, yesterday we had an opening ceremony where all these reporters came and we all had to stand up in front of them and introduce ourselves. And there is not just one but two gigantic banners hanging around campus that say "Welcome US IHP Students," soo..that's kinda weird but cool. So far everyone is really friendly, though most people speak absolutely no English so that will be pretty interesting. We eat all of our meals in this banquet hall where they serve us ten times the amount of food we could ever eat, which is nice of them except that I really really miss Indian food.
This has officially been the longest blog of my life so I'm going to end it here, but I will try to update again soon. Keep sending me letters! (And by "keep" I mean "start" because I've gotten no mail since I've been here)
Okay so Chinese keyboards tend to switch randomly back and forth between English and Chinese..so we'll see how this goes.
So. I am in China. But before I was in China, I was in rural India and then on "spring break" in India, both of which were pretty amazing. In rural India we stayed at a weird commune place called Kanavu, where none of us really knew what was going on. We slept on straw mats on the floor and it was freezing, and probably the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done. Kanavu is kinda like a boarding school but it's run by young people, in their 20s, and there are only like 20 people in the whole place. Basically they do nothing but sustain themselves, and we had classes and collected firewood and helped gather rice and were kinda weirded out by the whole experience. But it was a pretty beautiful setting and a big change from Bangalore. For the second two nights of our rural trip we stayed in Kalpetta, which is a tiny town a few hours from Kanavu. There we stayed in what was probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, but maybe it was just because we had just been using squat toilets and sleeping on concrete. We stayed at Green Gates resort, which not only had western showers and air conditioning, but actually had a POOL, which really isn't that cool in the US but after sleeping among cockroaches seems amazing. At Green Gates we had amazing food and wrapped up the India program before departing for vacation. We had a day of academic synthesis around a really beautiful lake and then a day of evaluation of the entire India program, and then we set off on spring break 09!
There were seven of us traveling together for the vacation, and we stayed the first night in Green Gates again so that we could get up at 5am and travel to the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary..where I was promised a tiger but did not see one. In fact, in our three hour safari we saw exactly one elephant, three types of deer, and some monkeys that I could have seen outside my window in Bangalore. But it's ok, I am determined to see some exciting animals in South Africa. Then that day we drove to Alleppey in a private van, which was an eight hour drive. Once we got to Alleppey--which was by far the single hottest place I have ever been in my entire life--we checked into a little guest house run by these adorable people who made us banana pancakes for breakfast every morning. Besides the excruciating heat, Alleppey was a cute little town and we stayed there for the next day. On Saturday we walked around and went to the beach, where I dipped my feet in the Indian Ocean! So now I can cross that one off the life list, just have to find a way to the Artic and then I'm all set. On Sunday morning we got on a 24-hour houseboat, which we took through the backwaters of Kerala. It was the definitely the most relaxed I've ever been. Monday morning after docking the boat we got on a bus to Cochin, a town about an hour and a half south of Alleppey. Being on the Southern coast, Cochin was also among the hottest places I've ever been in my life, and was super touristy. We stayed in a cute guest house and ate Italian food and sought out every Western restaurant we could find. It was nice to have a break from Indian food but it was really weird to be in a town where there were clearly more white people than actual Indians, and it just made me realize how different my traveling life has been before this trip. As we sat poolside at a friend's hotel I couldn't believe that the people sitting around me had bothered to come to India just to sit by a pool in a resort town; for the first time in my life I feel like I've actually experienced real life in a place different from my home, and I really can't imagine doing anything different.
Tuesday night was the end of our break as we boarded an overnight train back to Bangalore. They say you haven't experienced India until you've ridden the overnight train-and if that's true I guess I really had not experienced India up until that night. We slept eight to a "compartment" which really weren't compartments at all, competed for the bed with the fewest cockroaches, and dealt with our fair share of drunk Indian men. All in all though I think traveling in India by train was a really valuable experience, just in case life in Bangalore was getting too cushy.
Wednesday night we had our farewell dinner where we all gathered with our homestay families and said goodbye. It was a really sad night because I realized that I may never see my homestay family again, and though I do hope they stay in touch, it's weird to leave a family that you are a part of and think you will never be back again. Nikhil wanted to take us dancing, but alas the Indian nightlife shuts down far too early. Thursday Barbara and I ran around the city trying to get everything together, including writing our country papers (whoops) and trying in vain to send packages home. Then Thursday night we boarded a midnight plane to Thailand and then to Beijing, and after a looooong day of travel arrived in China!
The first few days in China we spent in Beijing, in a guest house near downtown. I didn't have high hopes for China but Beijing turned out to be an incredible city and I wish we had had more time to explore. On Saturday we climbed the Great Wall, which was amazing. Apparently the Chinese believe that "you are not a great man if you have not climbed the Great Wall" (or something like that) so thank god I am a great man in their eyes. After we climbed up it there was a toboggan slide down, which is both the creepiest thing I've ever seen and also the most fun I think I've had on this trip.After that we had our first Chinese dinner which was surprisingly really good. On Sunday we visited an urban planning museum, Tiananmen Square and walked around the city. Sunday night a few of us went to the Olympic Village, which was all lit up and even though its probably the most touristy thing you can possibly do in Beijing, it was really cool! Beijing has been totally transformed by the Olympics, like its such a clean city now and everything is really neat and everyone has apparently been trained to smile and say hi to visitors. Of course almost no one speaks English, so we didn't exactly talk to people, but that's ok. On our last day we visited the Forbidden City and had a final lunch of delicious dumplings, as dumplings are unforunately not served in Chansgha.
Monday night we boarded another overnight train to Changsha, this time slightly nicer and lacking cockroaches. We arrived in Changsha early on Tuesday morning to rain and cold. Basically we were told that Changsha is known for its "not-so-nice climate," and we have since confirmed that to be true. The whole time we have been here it has been rainy and cold, and I really really miss India and the warmth. In Changsha we are staying for another few days on the campus of Central South University, in a guest house that is essentially a hotel. It is sooo weird to be back on a college campus but really great too, it feels like home. The campus is really pretty, minus the rain. This is where we will be having our classes for the next two weeks, but we move into our homestays on Friday. I am living in this homestay with another girl from Brown named Shannon who I like a lot and who enjoys cuddling almost as much as I do, so I'm pretty excited about that. Changsha was described by the Lonely Planet guidebook as "just another drab Chinese city," and so far it is definitely not as cool as Beijing, though it is pretty populated (6 million people) and a real city which is not what I expected. So far its been kind of gray and damp, but I actually don't really mind, because at least for now its something different. And we only have three weeks in China, so I'm sure by the time I get tired of the rain we will be heading to South Africa. We seem to be the campus celebrities here, yesterday we had an opening ceremony where all these reporters came and we all had to stand up in front of them and introduce ourselves. And there is not just one but two gigantic banners hanging around campus that say "Welcome US IHP Students," soo..that's kinda weird but cool. So far everyone is really friendly, though most people speak absolutely no English so that will be pretty interesting. We eat all of our meals in this banquet hall where they serve us ten times the amount of food we could ever eat, which is nice of them except that I really really miss Indian food.
This has officially been the longest blog of my life so I'm going to end it here, but I will try to update again soon. Keep sending me letters! (And by "keep" I mean "start" because I've gotten no mail since I've been here)
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