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. . . .)

Week 5: The Golden Holiday

Just arrived back to Kunming after a thirteen hour ride on a sleeper bus from Guangnan, in Southwest Yunnan. My hard dorm bed with mismatching sheets and a mattress that has "good wishes to you" written all over it has never been so appealing. It could have been worse though. It was a pleasant surprise to find that there was a direct bus from Guangnan to Kunming. However, in retrospect, I use the term "direct" loosely. We never got on a highway until we were about an hour outside of Kunming and just took winding, winding roads through village after village between Guangnan and Kunming. And we stopped. A lot. It was rather . . . trying . . . to be sitting (or well "lying") on a bunk two feet too short for me and then the bus stops a HALF AN HOUR after the bus departs to let on some late passengers. Then another 20 minutes later an SUV pulls in front of the van. SUV stops. And an individual exits the SUV and climbs aboard our bus. Then there was the incident where we just stopped, indefinitely, because the road in the middle of this town was blocked because of a wedding where too many people had parked their cars too close to the wedding. And when the long, LONG awaited moment finally arrived at 3:45 in the morning when we made it back to the Kunming bus station - we thought it was just another of many stops because only a handful of people got off the bus. So we ended up spending an extra half an hour on the darn bus before we realized that we definitely were in the place we wanted to be. (Not one of my proudest moments, but it was 4 in the morning. . . ). Point being: we survived the final leg of our excursion back to Kunming.

How I ended up in Guangnan, in one of the poorest parts of Yunnan Province, and quite the remote city is another story. . .

Like I mentioned in my last post, during the "Golden Week" our SIT program has a special excursion and a fellow SIT program participant, Justin, and I were on a mission to see the rice fields at Yuanyang and the remote city of Bamei. We got tickets for a bus that was leaving from the main bus station at 10:40 am, and were scheduled to arrive in Yuanyang after about 6 hours. Driving through Yunnan Province usually isn't too bad though. The countryside is beautiful, even along most parts of the highway. Yet, as most things in China end up being -- it was an experience. Apparently, China has "rest stops" with a bathroom and food options - but the bathrooms are more like indoor latrines and the food options are of the street vendor variety. And also, they always seem to provide car/bus washing services. (We noticed an obsession in China with washing cars, no matter how short-lived the results would be). OH, and the "entertainment." Two Chinese movies in a row, and then the STRANGEST mix of Chinese pop music, and English music. There was some horrible Chinese love songs, to an Bollywood sounding track, to techno, to recognizable pop- it was strange, all playing loudly on the bus speakers.

We finally arrived in Yuanyang (the second of the area which is an hour more through winding roads, yet still also called Yuanyang) just as it was getting dark. I have not mentioned where we were planning to stay because we did not know for sure. We had a copy of Lonely Planet with us, but it proved to be rather useless. As soon as we got off the bus (looking especially conspicuous and apparently touristy enough) we were met by a Chinese man and his assistant armed with flyers advertising their "Photographer's Hotel." We decided, what the hell, and hopped into his car with two Japanese tourists stopping to see Yuanyang before heading over the Chinese/Vietnamese border. (I say this all calmly now, but in my head on the car from the bus stop to the hotel, I was running through all the things that could possibly go wrong in this impulsive decision). Fortunately, it turned out to be an instrumental decision that was definitely for the better. The hotel turned out to be very nice actually. Hot water for showers (no water pressure- but the trickle that came out was hot?), western toilets, and tv that had some English channels, though not many. I now have a new obsession with Al Jazzera International (partly because it was one of three English speaking channels) And the rice we had on the first night at the hotel restaurant was delicious (as, I guess could be expected from a restaurant surrounded by rice fields).

We wanted to see the rice fields at sunrise, so we agreed to split the hotel "taxi" costs to go to Duo Yi Shu rice fields, supposedly one of the best ones to see the sunrise. Believe it or not, I was up and ready to leave for the rice fields at 6am so we could make it there in time to see the sunrise at 7am. Even though it was only about 18km from where our hotel was to DuoYiShu, the roads are so bad, and it was so foggy, that it took us an hour to get there. Once there, we ended up having to wait almost an hour before we could see the rice fields, it was so misty/foggy. But once the mist lifted for a little bit- it was impressive. Rice fields finally appeared, mountains to the left, cornfields blending into a valley of rice fields with a little village to the right of our look-out perch. We then went down into the village and walked through the harvested cornfields until the very edge of the rice fields. Unfortunately, the clouds had rolled back in – and we weren’t really able to get great pictures.

During the afternoon, after we returned from the rice fields, we tried to plot our next step. We wanted to see a sunset at the rice terraces, but after that, we were ready to move on to Phase Two - Bamei. (I mean, after a while, one impressive rice terrace looks the same as any other). However, getting to one remote part of Yunnan to another via the Chinese bus system was proving quite complicated. At this time, the Japanese girls had left, so we were the only tourists in the hotel and the hotel proprietor is looking on, helping us try to plan which buses are available, when, where, and what time. Then suddenly he offers, “why don’t I take you?” (Justin and I were quite taken aback by this- it took a while for it to sink in that this man was willing to drive us across the province on a 10 hour trek.) But the idea of not having to be a the mercy of the Chinese bus system and to essentially have our own private taxi AND to make it to Bamei by TUESDAY night, was totally worth the 500 rmb asked in exchange.

But the crazy propositions didn’t stop there. When we attempted walking nearest rice terrace to see the sunset, we ended up catching a ride with a Chinese man who ended up being a Chinese judge in the city of Gejiu (about 2 hours north of Yuanyang). And HE, when it turned out to be too hazy to take any good pictures of the sunset, invited us to “chi wanfan” (eat dinner) at his mother’s house in Gejiu! You have no idea HOW close Justin and I came to taking him up on this offer. However, we had spent the day agonizing over our new plan, had arranged for the hotel owner to drive us to Bamei, and Gejiu was two and a half hours away and it was already seven at night. We kind of regretted the decision not to go that night, and had to settle for the fact that just having the invitation was pretty cool.

So basically the next day I got up before sunrise again and we set off for Bamei. TEN hours in the car later (Including time a highway that seemed newly built but had next to no one driving on it) we made it through Guangnan and finally, the even more remote, Bamei.

Unfortunately, as we approached we had a rude awakening. Our idea of the remote and idyllic Bamei, as a place purposefully “off the beaten track” where we would avoid all the “Golden Week” tourists was blown to bits as before we even made it to the 1km path before the boats before the cave to Bamei, when we found cars lining the street and a filled parking lot. With the nearest other place to stay an hour back the way we came in Guangnan, we became really worried if we’d even have a place to stay for the night.

The poled boat ride was awesome. And the journey through the cave wasn’t a quick one, really making it much easier to comprehend how this Zhuang minority community managed to remain undiscovered until relatively recently. My first impressions of this Zhuang community were, this is nice, but at the same time coming 10 hours, finding Chinese tourists, being called “laowai” (a mainstream, but derogatory name for foreigners) every 5 minutes, and not finding an available room until the 4th place we tried was not what I had envisioned in my “lets see Bamei, its cool, it can only be through a cave” fantasies. (I was going to also complain about having to carry my backpack all this way, but I know that at least one of you, if not several, will not sympathize with me at all on this point).

Eventually, we did get a room, albeit one that had plank floors, a single light bulb that illuminated the stripped, multi-colored tarp “ceiling,” and particleboard walls. And there was no hot water and the squat toilet bathroom was down the hall. But at that point I was just glad to have a place to drop my backpack and be able to see the Bamei valley, without worrying I’d have another hour drive ahead of me.

Ultimately, Justin and I came to the following comparison of this Zhuang community. It is like going to visit the Amish, if they lived in Montana and could only be reached by traveling through a cave. Essentially, Bamei is really just an idyllic farming community, with a really cool entrance way. And this, like many of the Amish farms off of route 30, has become a tourist destination to see a more “simple” life.

Though, honestly, I have to there were really only two things that stood out in my Bamei experience (other than the cave entrance). One- Bamei cell phone service- was a shocker. It just boggled my mind – this village didn’t even have electricity until a couple years ago, yet now they have clearer cell phone service than I get in America’s capital! The second, more aligned with my original ideas of Bamei- was the amazing night sky. I cannot remember when I had seen a sky with so many stars. And to see this in China, the horribly polluted China, really made me pause.

The next morning we enjoyed Bamei for a little bit before all the Chinese tourists woke up and even more started pouring in and then we head out, taking the local bus back to Guangnan. During all our pre-departure research, we had never heard of direct buses from Guangnan to Kunming, so we were thinking that we were going to have to take a bus to Qiubei, then to Kunming. Miraculously, (though I panicked for a second when they said they didn’t have any buses to Qiubei, because I would have sworn that was the only way to get back to Kunming from Guangnan) they had something better- a direct sleeper bus from Guangnan to Kunming! Unfortunately, the bus didn’t leave for another 3 + hours. . . and there is a reason that Guangnan gets no other mention in Lonely Planet other than being the only way to get to Bamei. So after walking around seeing the “sites” of Guangnan – I decided to have another Chinese manicure, complete with glitter! The Chinese manicurist woman had great fun laughing at my pathetic attempts at Chinese.

Finally we made it on the bus, and you know how well that went.

Being back in Kunming was awesome. We just had a mini-holiday before everyone else made it back. We ended up spending most of Friday at a tea house, learning about Pu’er tea and tasting lu cha, hong cha, hei cha, huar cha (green, red, black, and flower teas). The weather was amazing, clear blue skies, even in Yunnan Province are a rare treat and I just felt really lucky to have had such a cool week.

This Monday afternoon we move in with our homestay families. This means we have to completely pack up all our stuff and essentially move out of the dorms. It is weird because I’ve gotten so comfortable here (during the excursion I was definitely thinking of it as home) and now we start another part of the adventure. It is going to be an adjustment again, but I’m excited. I am really hoping the homestay will be good for my language. I still feel like there’s SO much stuff that I cannot comprehend or even begin to communicate. Apparently, my homestay parents are teachers at a nearby university, Yun Da, and have one middle-school aged daughter.