Orientation Weekend

Originally written on September 1, 10:35pm

The past two days have been somewhat of a blur, which isn't helped by the problem that my ethernet cable in my room has decided not to work on me (I'm not alone though; other students have said the same thing about their cables, though luckily my room is going to get a router). In the two days of orientation, I have been in some situations that are decidedly unique to China, and some that are definitely not unique to it.

Orientation wasn't as scheduled (or efficient) as I'd expected. Yesterday started with a tour around campus (some of it, anyway), and it was so fast that I barely remembered anything the first time around. We then went to a small (commonly non-air conditioned) room for the general information session, which was led by our program director, Dr. Sun. His credentials are pretty impressive, and his English is practically perfect. He definitely reminds me of a professor; he's thoughtful, sometimes joking, and slightly eccentric (later during the general information session for internships, he went on random tangents that were completely off-topic but interesting).

Then we had the reading, writing, and listening placement tests, which was followed by lunch. Some friends and I bought small bags of jiaozi (dumplings) for 5 yuan (less than a dollar!), which we ate with our hands. The general information session for internships was next (not very informative, but somewhat interesting), then the oral placement tests. I must have done decently on them, because I was assigned to class 301 (just as a reference, the other classes are 101, 102, 201, 202, 301, 302, 401, 402, 501, and 502). The classes are mostly broken up by the books they use, which a lot of other schools (Boston College, American University) use. I've only taken a year of Chinese (Chinese 1 and Chinese 2 at George Washington University) so I assume 301 is a good place to be.

After the tests, I waited with other students in a line to get my internship assignment. I was near the end because my oral test went long, and I ended up waiting an hour to get my assignment. Luckily, I met some interesting people and had some interesting conversations about Northern California vs Southern California, Beijing spiders, Texas, LA, and accents.

Since the other half of the groups went to the mixer at Pyro Pizza, my group was left to do whatever we wanted. And that meant going to the Beijing Walmart. I didn't bring my camera, but I wish I had - that 4 story supercenter has everything you will ever need in your life. It has groceries, bedding, appliances, electronics, you name it (their massage chairs were also a relief to use). We spent a lot of time there, and I ended up buying stuff that in the states would cost at least $30, but which cost about $18 instead. They also had these flat escalators between the floors, so that you could just push your cart onto the slope (it magnetically stuck to the surface) and just stand there until you got to the top (apparently some Ikea locations have this, but mine doesn't, so it was a novelty to me). Getting a taxi was frustrating though; many were full and in China, they're allowed to refuse to drive you. Dinner was a nice place (they had tablecloths, which was a plus) with 4 dishes split between 4 people, and which cost about $6 dollars for each of us.

Did I mention how much I love the conversion rate?

Today was a trip to Wudaokou for lunch at a nice place (we had so many dishes, I lost count), then wandering around a little at a huge mall, all the while maneuvering the subway system. Counter to my prior expectations, the subway system is clean, easy to use, and dirt cheap. Each one-way ride is 2 yuan (around 30 cents), no matter how many transfers you take or how far you go. The ads along the side are amusing. But one thing was what I had expected: the pushing people. I've taken the Chicago, Boston, and DC metros, and none of them have been as crowded. I was pressed body-to-body with people on a couple rides (not all, thankfully). And we didn't even go during rush hour (not looking forward to that next week).

We found out our language placements, I had to drop some classes and get new ones because of my schedule, I got a new roommate because my third one failed to show up, and then it was the mixer at Pyro Pizza. The pizza place was below ground, decorated like a combination between a pizza parlor and an American frat house. It was owned by Americans, which would explain the vibe. The pizza was pretty good (New York style), and somehow the program paid for everyone's free beer and Tequila shots. The evening turned into a typical college party (except the alcohol was free), with the most American songs you could think of playing in the background; I also witnessed what was possibly the longest beer pong game I have ever heard of.

Eventually some friends and I got tired of it, so we made our way back to campus. We had been walking all day, so by the time I got back to my dorm, my feet and legs were dying. The earlier walk had been enough, but the worst part of it was that the walk to Pyro Pizza was a half hour (one way). Of course, it was raining, so my feet were wet, but at least I didn't get lost in the city at night.

Everything is so...Chinese. The rain helped the humidity a lot (but made big puddles). Still no blue skies, though. It's permanently foggy/smoggy. The streets and sidewalks and buildings are like what I saw in the pictures, but it's more real now. It doesn't bother me that much, though; it reminds me of pictures of Vietnam, and that reminds me of home. Some people have complained that it's so tiring to hear Chinese and try to understand it all the time, but I'm used to that; whenever I go to the grocery store, it happens. Actually, whenever my relatives visit, it happens. I just learn to tune it out. If I want to try to understand what they're saying, I listen. If not, I don't try.

It's hard to sum up my experiences, and I'm leaving out a lot of details that add to the very Chinese-ness, but there's just so much to take in. I hope I don't get culture shock. I don't like depression very much. I heard that culture shock comes after someone is extremely excited and elated about everything; apparently their emotions plummet until they hit rock bottom. I'm kind of taking everything in stride right now, being pretty careful and being open to everything, so I'm not at the high point. Hopefully that means I won't hit rock bottom.