Week 13: Xishuangbanna

Ever since our week-long excursion “way back when” I had been wanting to go to Xishuangbanna. I didn’t have a particularly compelling reason why, other than I love pineapple rice and wanted to see the elephants. However, instead of going to Xishuangbanna, I went to Yuanyang and Bamei. No regrets about that, but I still wanted to go see this more “South-east Asian” and tropical area of Yunnan. The poor other SIT-ers that had to listen to me go on about this, but finally, “push-came-to shove” and I decided last Thursday that I was going to leave for Jinghong (the capital of Xishuangbanna the next day.
I had many reasons for justifying this trip to myself (I’ve been wanting to go; birthday present to myself, an exercise in self-reliance, etc.). And ultimately, I’m SO glad I went. It ended up being not exactly what I expected-but what I needed and better because it ended up being a really good chance for me to practice Chinese.

The hostel from the entrance; the "jungle oasis" in the middle of the city

I arrived in Jinghong Saturday morning after boarding a 10 PM bus from Kunming. We got in JUST before 7 and I ended up making friends with the three other foreigners that had been on my bus (all French) as we set off, copies of Lonely Planet in hand, to find a trekking place and/or a hostel. The thing about Lonely Planet is that its great in helping you find cool places, but once you get there- its not so helpful. We spent a good part of the morning wandering around, but fortunately we found Banna café, a place that had been recommended to the French as having really good treks.

Dai Village as seen on the bike ride

Initially, I almost got talked into do this awesome-sounding trek that included seeing lots of jungle, spending one night in a Hanyi minority village and another night in a Dai village on the way to essentially the border China/Myanmar, but I really had it in my mind that I wanted to go for a bike ride Saturday afternoon, trek Sunday and come back Monday in time to get a sleeper bus back to Kunming, to be back in time for my birthday. I ended up being able to get a guide all to myself for my “two-day, one-night” trek, and even though she could speak a little English, we spoke only Chinese. (Not that we spoke that much; we were limited to my Chinese vocabulary). The first part of the trek was pretty easy, just walking along roads through a Dai couple villages and the ‘Banna countryside. We made it to “THE lake” (I have the name of the lake in characters, but I forget the exact meaning) in time for a late lunch. Then, apparently, the real trek started.

THE Lake and me on the touristy side of the lake

Our goal was a Bulong village some distance past the other side of the lake, so we trekked through the trees along the bank of the lake, then through some rice fields, then through some sugar can fields, more rice fields, then finally made it to a road. We walked along the road for another hour, and then, tired, sweaty, dusty, and covered in spider webs (I kept walking into them when I wasn’t physically capable of watching my step AND looking slightly above eye-level at all the spider webs) arrived at the Bulong village. I also somehow managed to collect a ridiculous amount of burrs at the hem of my pants and on my shoelaces.

My second favorite picture from Yunnan

My guide, Xiao Yu, was also “Bulongzhuren,” knew our host family and could speak our host family dialect. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason this was the second day electricity had been out in this village. It was an interesting picture, because although they couldn’t use the electric rice cooker, they still cooked everything in a fire pit in the kitchen, and throughout dinner-prep and dinner I saw numerous cell phones in the hands of all the people going and coming. I don’t know if this was a normal thing or a result of the electricity, but 11 (!) of us ate together by candlelight.
Though they did (usually) have electricity, apparently, they didn’t have toilets. Not even the squat kind. That’s always awkward and you ask for the bathroom, are told where to go, and then look around stupidly before realizing . . . OH. . . OHHHHHHH, yes, umm, okay.
The next morning we hired a motorcycle to take us back to the main town. The view going along the road of THE lake as the mist was rising, with palm trees, rice field, pu’er tea plants and mountains in the background was BEAUTIFUL. From the main town we caught a ride back to Jinghong in time for lunch.

Xiao Yu and I at 'Banna cafe

My “plan” ended up working out really well (if I do say so myself), and I made it back to Kunming early morning on my 21st birthday. I had another mini-adventure finding the correct city bus back to Min Da, but still managed to make it back to my dorm by 8:15.

Artwork, cheese, crackers, and chocolate compliments of Kara

Thanks to many, many people (special “shout-outs” go to James and Kara) I had a GREAT 21st birthday. It was DEFINITELY memorable (or well, at least most of it. . .)

Week 12: Parades and Prague Cafe

So I'm UBER excited to be back in Kunming. Kara and I had to fight to get our old dorm back. (It was prime dorm real estate; one of the few that always could receive wireless signals to pirate). But as often happens in China, you have to be careful. Things change fast here. We weren't even gone three weeks, but when we came back our special bubble was burst - there were so many more westerners on Ming Da's campus (Its a weird part of the westerner studying abroad in China syndrome- you get irrationally possessive of the "territory"). Then on the nearby "Culture Street" with a lot of international restaurants, they started doing construction on the street and completely renovating one of the shops. And then! I went to use my laptop after spending the morning on the internet and I found that the internet wasn't working anymore. (This means even more time and money spent in cafes with wireless).
But the weather is great - its November and I could have worn just a T-shirt and jeans yesterday and have been comfortable.
I'm officially in the Independent Study project phase of the program, which is challenging, yet, at this point not too stressful yet. (despite the fact that I only have one contact. . . so okay, maybe its a little stressful) Its really going to be a challenge for me, in self-discipline, self-motivation- all that type of thing. I don't see so much writing the paper to be the problem . . . just motivating myself and getting my self focused and out there to get the information to write it.
My topic is something along the lines of just examining how environmentally friendly Kunming and rural households are, and trying to figure out why they conserve water/energy/etc or why not?
(when i put it like this it doesn't sound overly exciting, but, perhaps because I'm not familiar with a lot of the methods that the Chinese are using, its at least interesting to me, especially in a time where its rumored that China has finally surpassed the United States in greenhouse gas emissions. . .)

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Basically, at this point I'm doing exactly what everyone tells you not to do. I've been holing myself up in Prague Cafe because it has good wireless, an AMAZING breakfast attempting to get research done and failing miserably.
Fortunately, Aly and I have been running in the mornings on a fairly regular basis, so my life isn't completely without structure. I don't have much to do, but I've been getting up at 7:50 to run (and I don't even have class at 8 AM!!). Crazy. I know. Sometimes I don't recognize my China-self. But then I spend the rest of the day just bumming around Kunming, to balance it out.

Our first Saturday back, Min Da invited us to participate in the "Opening Ceremony" of the Min Da Games, apparently sporting competitions between the different university departments. We had to march, and wave in matching polo shirts. It was very "China."



As part of my research, I need to interview your average Kunming citizen. What better place to talk to some Chinese people I thought than this famous "English corner" I'd been hearing about. I was picturing a cafe somewhere, where Westerners and Chinese people met at a designated time; I could pull out my laptop and type up their answers to my carefully planned questions (written up in both English and Chinese). I should have known better- I am still in China. English Corner ended up being on an actual street corner of Green Lake Park. It was MOBBED. And as soon as people saw me approach I was like descended upon. I was lucky I had a pad of paper with me and I just started scribbling down some answers, to questions somewhat resembling my initial ones. It was definitely an experience, and fortunately, I got a Chinese friend out of it.

Week 11 – Election in Lijiang!

"To all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright, tonight we have proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms, or the scale of our wealth but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope!"
Obama’s first speech as President-elect

Our small group of thirteen has, fortunately, been quite politically aware. Despite the fact that we are in China, we were NOT going to let that keep us TOO out of the loop. We knew we were going to be in Lijiang during the elections; we had it calculated (even with the time change) and gotten a discussion section moved back so we could sit at an internet café and obsessively refresh our browsers as the results came in. It was compulsive. Even after we knew Obama had won (lots of hugs and excited yelling) we still kept watching to see how the unconfirmed states, like North Carolina, were doing.

Obama Victory!
(Mom I think I'm still skyping with you as this picture was taken)

So that’s probably how I’ll always remember Lijiang, as the place that I was for the 2008 election.

HeiLong Lake (Black Dragon Lake)

Statue of Mao right next to our hotel

Though the other stuff that will remain as well. We did have a discussion we had with the Chinese millionaire. He’s a 79 year old Naxi (the local minority nationality) who spent 21 years in jail and is one of the strangest, most self-absorbed individuals I have ever met. He was put in jail because he’s a musical “genius” (by his own humble assessment) and had conducted numerous Western orchestras, including one of the best in Beijing (maybe Shanghai, idk). However, after jail he timed the tourism development of Lijiang correctly, sold his house and bought a huge piece of property and opened up two theaters, one in Lijiang to contribute to his millions and one on his property. He REPEATEDLY reminded us that he was the “only man in all of China to have a theater on his property,” in which he gave free concerts.

Xuan Ke's Personal Theater

Lijiang is essentially like the epitome of Yunnan province Chinese tourist culture. It has made many people (like Xuan Ke, the odd Chinese millionaire) very wealthy, however, it has also had a huge impact on the local culture. Much of the Naxi minority culture has become commodified, and many Naxis have moved out of the old town because it was more financially lucrative to rent out their houses. Others have had to leave because of the noise and crowds. Most of the “Naxi” people in Lijiang’s Old Town are now actually just Han Chinese dressed up as Naxi ren for the tourists.

Lijiang Old Town at Night

Oh yeah, and apparently we started my birthday celebration month, because before the group split up to go on their separate ISP adventures I got a Chinese cake! Complete with an icing rabbit (because I'm the year of the rabbit).

Week 10: Yes, I am getting college credit to do this.

I have to stop and think about that sometimes, especially when I get to go to places like Zhongdian, aka Shangri-la. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of Zhongdian. The Chinese government changed the name to Shangri-la, in hopes of convincing people it was the paradise talked about in Journey to the West. It’s the capital of the Tibetan Automous Prefecture, the majority of the population is Tibetan and was reputed to be the lost paradise on earth. This general area of Yunnan (the way northwest) and northern Sichuan province are the closest you can get to Tibet without needing all the permits and such to go in. In the past, when there’s been “Tibetan uprisings” its been hard for Westerner to get permission to go into these areas. Yet its also a Chinese city, and most Chinese cities often have this similar look and feel to them. To reiterate, I wasn’t sure if I would be awed or disappointed.
IT WAS AWESOME!!! I think the only thing I have against it is that it’s really cold (again, the high altitude).

Group with Living Buddha of Songzanlisi

Songzanlisi- Tibetan Buddhist Temple

Our first day in Zhongdian was Halloween and Sam’s birthday. I think we were the only people in Zhongdian that dressed up for Halloween. Our resources were rather limited, but somehow we managed to pull together excellent gypsy costumes, which we wore to dinner and got looks not only from the Chinese people, but also all the Europeans.
Before dinner we stopped by the Zhongdian culture center and had a lecture from the director and the master tangka painter-in-residence. He was almost finished this absolutely STUNNING red tangka depicting a compassion Buddha and four nationalities coming to the Buddha for compassion and wisdom. It was commissioned for a temple in Sichuan province, to help them rebuild after the earthquake. (*tangka’s are ancient Tibetan Buddhist art pieces, depicting various elements or stories in Tibetan Buddhism, it takes a lot of training, because the masters must learn the philosophy as well as the craft.)
The night’s celebrations were definitely memorable, despite the fact that we started off the night at a bar to celebrate Sam’s 21st birthday. We ended up getting invited by the Zhongdian center director to the Tibetan performance hall of one of his friends. And HERE, one of the other guests (who is apparently an angry drunk) ended up storming the stage, stealing the microphone from the performer, going on an angry rant in Chinese before throwing the microphone on the floor and then tossing a beer at the Zhongdian culture center director! We left soon after, but it made one memorable capstone to the evening.
The next day we went to the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in this part of the Tibetan region, Songzanlisi, and met with the living Buddha there. Then we went to a Tibetan orphanage. The orphanage was tons of fun. True to form, they put on a performance, but some of the kids were REALLY talented performers. It’s a unique place. None of the children are adopted; the entire orphanage is their family with a “mom” and an “uncle.” The kids seemed really happy, and really took care of each other. We played duck, duck, goose! with them and they were great at making sure no one was left out.

At the Tibetan Orphanage

In Zhongdian, I had one of my many “Alison” moments. I knew that my debit card was going to expire, however, I’ve used it ONCE in the past two plus months and had pretty much forgotten about it. It expired the end of October, I tried for the first time to withdrawal money on November 2nd. . . sigh.
The next morning we went out into the Tibetan countryside to a much smaller temple- Dabaoshan. The countryside outside of Zhongdian is stunning; you have to get outside the city, but you immediately understand why so many people could argue this area is Shangri-la. The temple was a small one, but the scenic drive out made the trip worthwhile. Also, this temple was cool to see just for the fact that it was one of the first that I saw that had a picture of the Dalai Lama on the alter!! Our teacher told us they were able to get away with this because it wasn’t a tourist spot. So cool. . .

Dabaosi
(yes that is a mountain goat)

I also don’t feel like a complete poser, because I bought my set of Tibetan prayer flags at this temple, so I can tell myself mine are kinda-sorta actually from Tibet. ☺

After Dabaoshan we went to bathe in hot springs and just relaxed and steamed for an hour. Like I said. . . indirectly, I’m getting credit for all this.

Week 9: 今天下雨。 。 。

今天下雨。 。 。 每天下雨。
Jintian xiayu. . .meitian xiayu. (Rain today, rain everyday).

We left Dali early on Saturday and headed to Jianchuan county to visit Shibaoshan (Rock Treasure Mountain) to stay at the temple there before heading to Shaxi for our rural home-stays. It was drizzling when we arrived and this temple was much more rustic. The bathroom was actually a bit nicer/cleaner. . . however it was a three minute walk, out of the temple hotel and down a path. (Scary/NOT fun in the middle of the night!) We went for a walk in the drizzle after we arrived, to see what else was on the mountain and/or see the monkeys which we had been told lived on Shibaoshan. We made it all the way up and then almost back to the hotel and then we saw them. The monkeys. I’ve decided that I don’t like monkeys. Especially when at some point the Chinese decided that it would be okay to feed them peanuts and Styrofoam looking chips and they have no fear of humans. It ended up being fine. Some people fed them. I preferred to put my zoom lens to use and viewed them from afar.

Monkeys from afar

The next day we went to the other side of the mountain and visited the famous grottos of Shibaoshan, it’s a pretty historical site as it is proof of the spread of Buddhism from India into China, was heroically saved from destruction by one of the local leaders during the Cultural Revolution, is potentially the spot where some Nanzhao kings are buried, AND has the oddest grotto- a stone carving of a mysterious “female reproductive organ” that could either be part of Buddhism or the influence of the local Bai culture.

The picture that I wasn't supposed to take, but took before I saw the no photographs sign. I'm kinda worried that I'm going to get some bad karma for putting this up, but I figure the art should be shared.

From there we walked down the other side of the mountain into Shaxi. It was raining/drizzling the whole time and was made an mini-adventure by the fact that at a couple points the path had been washed away and we had to hop across the rocks to get to the next part. When we got to the village of Shaxi I was met by the home-stay mom and she lead me to our house. I unpacked and went out to awkwardly “hang out” with the group of women shucking corn on our porch. I tried to help but they kept feeding me the smaller nobs that they had been cooking on the little coal fire at their feet.
Eventually, the time came when I needed to use the bathroom – it ended up being the outhouse outside of the courtyard, around the side of the house and on the far corner of the garden, next to the pigs. Seeing how it rained everyday, this got to be a pain because at night I’d have to lug my flashlight and an umbrella to the outhouse.
Despite the fact it was raining, or perhaps because of it, I had an awesome first day in Shaxi. Because it was raining, everyone essentially had a day of rest. Thus, I spent a good part of the afternoon watching women make giant yue bing. (Mooncakes, like for Moon Festival, except these ones actually tasted good). It was a really interesting process to watch! Americans or Europeans have the motto – “too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup” or something like that. But there were four women in that kitchen, three of them working together to make these ENOURMOUS yuebing cakes in a Chinese style dutch oven (the Chinese don’t use ovens often). When it was finished baking one woman would cover the flat-bottomed cast iron basin with a piece of wood and then flip the whole, cast-iron mold, moon-cake and board- ON TO HER HEAD! And then a second woman would take the cast iron thing off woman #1’s head and woman number one had a right-side turned up moon-cake on a board.

The part of the kitchen where mama zuofan he women chifan.

The entrance to the house

After a meeting at the cultural center, I walked back with a flashlight in hand, to my host family’s house to watch TV with my host mom and little sister (meimei), then went to bed, and woke up the next morning to more rain. This was to be the pattern of my life in Shaxi. If it hadn’t been raining we were supposed to help out our families the fields, however, it rained every day, more or less constantly. (Besides, our academic director essentially told us we’d only last an hour maximum in the field). It just gave us more time with our homestay families, more wireless internet time and no excuse not work on our Shaxi Study projects. My project ended up being on the development of eco-tourism in Shaxi. (Shaxi is at an interesting place where they want more tourism, to increase Shaxiren’s standards of living, but they don’t want to turn into a Dali or a Lijiang, places in which tourism overcommercialized the respective minority cultures –it’s a delicate balance.)

Restored ancient theater

I didn’t know who my homestay dad was until 3 days after I arrived. In case it was a sensitive subject I didn’t want to attempt such a conversation, especially between my broken Chinese and my host mom’s Bai accent. (I had difficulty understanding when she asked me if I wanted to watch TV, (it sounded like kan di si. .. . rather than kan dian shir. . .) much less complicated topics. But apparently I did have a Shaxi dad, but he’s a migrant worker in Kunming, in a place I’d actually heard of, an amusement park near our university.
Leaving Shaxi was sad. Despite the rain we had a really good set-up. The rural setting, washing your face in the morning in a basin of water heated on the stove, etc. was novel and the restored architecture of Shaxi is absolutely charming. We had the best of both words because we had this AND we could go to the cultural center and get a hot shower and use wireless internet. And my homestay family was just adorable and really, really welcoming to me. I felt much more like a part of the family in my Shaxi homestay, than I did in my Kunming family. And as much as it limited conversation, I enjoyed not being able to fall back on English, and the challenge of explaining things/holding conversation with my host mom and her friends. We were able to communicate the important stuff and that was all that mattered. It was also really sweet that the day we left, everyone’s homestay families sent us off with a bag of goodies. Mine included some apples and pears, freshly boiled eggs, and of course, slices of the homemade yuebing, made on my first day.

Mama, meimei, he wo

We got back on the bus for the ride to Zhongdian. . and before we even made it half-way there the skies had cleared.

Me in the rain with my trusty (albeit slightly bent) umbrella; the ancient restored bridge in the background

Week 8: The NW Yunnan Adventure Begins. . .

I know. I know. I’m way behind on the blogging. I don’t even know where to start. So I’m going to pretend like it’s the end of week 8 and see how it goes from there.
Tuesday morning we left Kunming for Jizu Shan, the first destination on our two and a half week "excursion." (Excursion is proving to be a fancy word for "vacation" where we go to cool places and see the sights.) Our program directors hadn’t taken students to this mountain (the 5th Holiest in China) in nearly 10 years, so we didn’t quite know what to expect.
Fun fact: Jizu Shan translates into English as Chicken foot mountain. Not a very attractive name for the place that honestly stands out in my memory as one of the most picturesque places that we went to on this trip (and Yunnan is a picturesque place in general). The sunrise and sunsets were absolutely stunning. Our first day we drove to a temple that was about a third of the way up the mountain and stayed in temple rooms. We had been warned that they would be “simple” conditions, and so we began the pattern of “roughing it” the first night (no showers/warm water, bathrooms outside) and then staying at hotels with hot water the next. However, there were electric heaters, which now have a VERY fond place in my heart. We spent the night there, and after breakfast saw a demonstration on Daoist taiji before we began the trek up the mountains. From the temple we could either walk all the way up (supposedly a 3 hour trek, which actually, according to those that did it was more like 2 hours) or take mules part of the way up and then either take a cable car or walk the rest of the way up (still reputed to be quite the hike). I opted for the mule and then the hike. (I wanted the exercise). Riding mules is one of those things that seems like it would be a great idea, but then after 20 minutes, you’re ready to be at the destination as its not the most comfy ride.

Almost at the top of the moutain- typical Asian Victory pose

The hike up was really good exercise, we kept climbing up and around, until suddenly we were at the temple!

The set of stairs that went STRAIGHT up- fortunately it evened out a bit after this.

Yet, after arriving there isn’t much to do until dinner, it’s just the mountain top and the temple. So I wandered around the ridge. Good and bad idea – there were LOTS more steps involved (and my legs were not used to so much “StairMaster” action. However, the Tibetan prayer flags waving in the wind/answering prayers were an impressive sight due to the sheer volume and come sunset time this area I had explored behind the temple was the BEST place to see the sunset.


That night, because our program is so small, all thirteen of us were able to crowd into one of our hotel rooms and watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi together. It was quite adorable. The next day I dragged myself out of my electric heater warmed bed (it was really cold- we were at like 11-12,000 ft elevation) because I was determined to see the sunrise and I’m SO glad I did. A group of us joined some Buddhist faithful praying/chanting at the rail. The Daoist priest who we had met the day before played his flute as the sun came up. . . and finally the sun rose. And I got my “Chinese tourist” picture.

My Chinese tourist picture

After sunrise and breakfast, we took the cable cars as far as we could down the mountain then walked the rest of the way down, to get on the bus and head to Dali. Dali was the capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom way back when in the Tang Dynasty (or was it Song? I still don’t know. . . I think it was Tang). Anyway, the city is now quite modern, but the Old City is a big tourist site because everything within the old city gates has been restored and looks pretty. Dali was just a place for us to relax for a little bit, see an historic city, and our last chance to find places with Western food, etc. before going into our rural homestays in Shaxi. The big story of Dali was that we NEEDED to vote, only one person’s absentee ballot had arrived before we left, so we had to resort to the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot. It ended up being just a really positive chain reaction. Joe (from North Carolina, the surprising swing state) asked me about this write-ballot that I had been talking about and reminded me that I needed to mail mine. Then Courtney’s like, oh yeah! And so we head off to find a print shop, and Aly comes along to help us out. It was quite the ordeal to get everything printed out and sorted. Then we went back to the hotel to sign everything and we picked up Claire (the one who’s ballot had already come, but she still needed to mail it). And we had run told Tal what we were doing so she went back to the print shop to print a ballot out. Finally, a whole group of us descended on the China Post office, asking for two envelopes, and shipping huge envelopes back to various parts of the US.
Printing out ballot: 11 kuai; Mailing ballot: 18 kuai, Voting in the 2008 election: priceless. And knowing that your story could be used in some “get out the vote” campaign- also priceless.


So to celebrate, we went to this Western bar/restaurant called the “Bad Monkey” and had absolutely delicious burgers. In China.

Week 7: Homestay, Hospitals, Homework

So I think I might have jinxed myself with my last post when I was talking about traditional chinese medicine. . . and hoping that I don't have to go to a hospital in China.
As I mentioned, I was attempting to ride my bike from my host family's apartment to school. I failed to mention some other important details, i.e. that the bike seat was to short for me and after several attempts to raise it, I merely succeeded in almost breaking it and apparently, almost breaking my tailbone. (I'm feeling dramatic, sorry, feel free to roll your eyes. . . I just bruised it or something. . )
It was very inconvenient to have class for 4 + hours a day, staying in hard Chinese desks when it is extremely uncomfortable to sit. . .
So apparently, I took too much motrin . . . and in addition to hurting, I didn't feel/look well. So during lecture on Monday one of the SIT aides took me to one of the Kunming hospitals and I had an interesting experience. As with any hospital, it involved waiting, but in China most of the waiting is due to the pre-payment system of medicine. You have to pay for the service/ the medicine/ whatever, before they'll do anything . . . or at least that was my experience. But because I was a Westerner, I was put in a special "operating room" by myself to wait. That is until someone who was rushed in looking half dead and I was kicked out of the room. Then I just waited in the hall.
All-in-all, my trip to the chinese hospital wasn't bad (looking back, I have to just laugh, especially given the location of my pain; I kept having flashbacks to the part of Forest Gump where he gets shot in the buttocks and is in the hospital)
However, when I got home and realized that ALL they gave me was antibiotics!!! it was probably one of the most frustrating Chinese experiences yet. I was hurting and I wanted it to stop and they gave me three different types of antibiotics!! No pain meds. THREE types of antibiotics. . . sigh.
But I'm better now. (And it could have been worse, I could have gotten malaria, dysentery, and then the flu. . . Glad you're feeling better Becca! Stay healthy! )
We're about right in the middle of our seminar of "Minority Culture" and field study prep so our recent afternoon lectures have been focusing on that. Thursday afternoon we thought we were just going to see a demonstration of a minority dance at some place close to home. However, we ended up driving an hour, to an edge of Kunming to an international school, where we ended up basically being the demonstration. We arrived to an auditorium with a stage and sat down it our seats of honor (the ones in the first row with the water bottles on the desks) and then one of my classmates was called to the stage to help demonstrate. Then we were ALL called to go to the stage and given a Wa (the minority group, they live on the boarder between Yunnan and Burma) gong. We were then taught a "dance" using the gongs, then a song, then a wild dance that required that we shake our heads and hair. It reminded me of Kukuwa class on the Vern freshman year. Except I was one of 13 westerners on a stage, with half an auditorium full of elementary Chinese students watching and laughing at us as we danced and attempted to sing songs in the Wa language. It was definitely different, but much more fun!, than I was expecting.

Another highlight of the week, was, yet another surprise, a life history assignment that I had to do. On Sunday, I asked Popo (my Chinese grandmother) if I could interview her. So Sunday night after dinner we sat down in the living room and my host mom helped translate my questions and Popo's answers. It turned out that Popo was the daughter of a landlord before the Cultural Revolution (which meant that after Mao took power she essentially lived in a hell-on-earth of sorts). Being part of a landlord family was enough to make you one of the lowest people in society from the founding of the PRC until Deng Xiao Ping took power. When she was just in elementary school, she was dismissed from further study soley because she was a former landlord's child. And even today, despite China being the land of the iron rice bowel and still "technically" some form of Communism, Popo has no pension or government support, despite paying taxes for many years on her tailoring business. It was not so much what she told me that happened, its the stories that I've heard of the fates of other landlords, the humiliation and shocking treatment they were subject too, and its just hard to imagine all that she must have lived through.
All last week Chinese class was winding down- it was our last week of classes and the big tests - Da kaoshi, were today. It's crazy to think I'm done with Chinese class until January and its not even Thanksgiving break yet!
Now that Chinese is done, we're going to set off (tomorrow) on our "Northwest Yunnan Adventure," the one where we almost go into Tibet :-)! This trip was definitely one of the things that when I was looking at study abroad programs, made this particular program sound awesome.
However, after we get back from the trip its ISP (Independent Study Project) time. I'm still (of course) waffling between ideas.
My latest idea is a result of my homestay. I have been shocked to notice that the average Chinese person is really "green." They conserve water, electricity, and since June its been illegal for stores to give free bags with purchases. Pretty much EVERY apartment building has solar heaters on the roof and the electric heater is just back up. I'm living with a very comfortably middle class family in a very nice apartment and everyone still uses a little plastic bucket with like the leftover water from cleaning or washing dishes, etc. to flush the toilet! If I didn't see it- I wouldn't believe it. Especially seeing as this country is probably one that I think of as a giant polluted mess. I've seen the Beijing smog and its ridiculous. Granted. . . the Kunmingren aren't doing this because its environmentally friendly, but rather because its friendly on their pocketbooks. But its still, and perhaps, because of that, fascinating to me.

Week 6: Homestay Happenings

This homestay thing is going quite fast! It has already been a week! But i suppose that's a good sign that I'm happy with my homestay family. I do not quite know what I expected going into the homestay part, but so far its been a mix of the anticipated and the unexpected.

I moved out of the dorm Monday morning (and of course, even though i had the most time to pack, I was the one who waited until the very last minute and I was struggling to zip up my enormous suitcase when I should have been walking over to our lecture room). Monday was just meet the family and move-in day. My "zhong guo [China]" mama could not make it to pick me up, so it was just my "zhong guo baba" and I in the car ride to their apartment. Mildly awkward, but he actually speaks quite good English and has been to the US before. (However, while it made the car ride less awkward, my plan of being forced to speak more Chinese kinda went out the door as everyone - baba, mama, mimi the meimei- except popo [grandma on mom's side] speaks better English than I speak Chinese.

But they've all been very nice. They had been told I was a vegetarian (I'm not, but I basically am in China- their veggies are better than their meat) and while some other SIT students families still tried to offer them meat mine has been really good about it (probably because I said i really like fish and so they just give me exorbitant amounts of that, which is fine with me :-).

TCM Pharmacy

Tuesday we visited a traditional medicine clinic, watched people get acupuncture and "cupping." (Accupunture I'd consider, however, the "cupping" process leaves these HUGE welts as it uses natural suction to "draw out the toxins" so I'm just really hoping I don't get sick in China.

Then we went to see a "jingju" performance at a teahouse near the Bird and Flower market. "Jingju"/Beijing opera I believe must be another acquired taste. All the singing is very high pitched and the instruments. . . well lets just say they are not going for any soothing or quiet sounds. . . The makeup and costuming is quite intense, and its rather androgynous - from my limited jingju experience men will sometimes play women, women will sometimes play big important generals- they use the costumes and special gestures to indicate their sex and station in society.

PoPo makes me lunch and dinner everyday. I have my usual class schedule except now I live about a 20 minute walk from the university. (I walk by the train tracks, its a popular short cut.) Two chinese classes (which i can't believe I only have one more week of language classes left!) taijichuan in between, home for lunch, rest time, lecture back at school, internet time at the library and then I'm back for dinner at 6:30 )then homework. . . My little sister [Meimei] has to wake up before me and is usually in bed after me. Especially for the first two-three days I think i saw her a grand total of 5 minutes. Both my homestay parents are professors at ShiDa, one of the like 5 universities just on Yieryi Street. I think they're both lawyers, because at least the Dad teaches law classes. The mom does some teaching and consulting, but I think her focus is somehow related to the economy, she does a lot with watching the Chinese and foreign markets. Actually, we often talk about the economy and even the upcoming US election. I love it. The FIRST night I was here, one of the first questions my zhongguo baba asked me was what I thought of the elections. Then he asked if I was a Republican or Democrat, then who I was voting for. Then at lunch the next day we talked about how horribly the US economy is doing and how the Chinese stock market is also suffering greatly.

Its quite the quiet atmosphere. (Except for all the asian children reinforcing stereotypes as any time of day, you can always hear someone practicing piano or violin, etc from the surrounding apartment buildings). They have a very nice apartment, quite fancy for the area. I have my own room, complete with balcony. There's pretty much an unspoken schedule and other than dinner and lunch they pretty much leave me alone to do my own thing. (I think they assume I have absurd amounts of homework to do too).

However, then, sometimes, they surprise me. Yesterday (Friday), I came home expecting that I'd probably just end up watching a pirated DVD as I didn't have homework and everybody else would be doing their own thing, especially as Mimi still had a normal class schedule on Saturday. But when i got home, the Dad asked me if I wanted to accompany him and zhongguo Mama to a Chinese wedding of a family friend. (Of course I did!). It was quite different though from an American wedding reception. For one thing, i wore jeans and was not out of place in the slightest. Secondly, there was an ABSURD amount of people there. There was like a main room for like the closer family, complete with a stage and throughout the dinner there was entertainment, a singer, dancers and kids running around the whole thing playing with confetti and sticking their hands in the pieces of cake. However, apparently drinking at weddings is universal. Its especially customary for the bride and groom to go around to every table and toast with them. (Often with baijiu [the hard liquor of choice in China]).

Wo gen Mama, Baba

Xinlang, xinliang, he wo (Groom, bride and me)

Today I just relaxed and finally went for a run in Kunming. Its interesting to see how everyone adjusts to this homestay business, a stranger staying in your house, being a stranger in a stranger's house. But I think we're all finally getting used to it. After the wedding last night, my homestay mom kept updating me on how the price of oil was dropping, then today the two of us played badminton together and jumped rope. Tonight at dinner, some of the family gossip was translated for me. My homestay mom's little brother and PoPo's son lives nearby and PoPo actually spends about half the time there and apparently this brother/son lives with his girlfriend but they have separate rooms. She's "lazy," and at 28 (quite old on the acceptable Chinese marriage age spectrum) refuses to marry the brother/son because his monthly salary isn't high enough yet. It was one of the strangest situations I've ever heard. (Unfortunately, I only grasped all this because it was translated to me. . . maybe next week will be that moment when I miraculously understand everything? I'm not holding my breath. . . .)