Winter has Arrived

Woke up this morning to a temperature of 15 degrees F and an expected high temperature of 36 today and 31 tomorrow. Wow! Winter is here! I don't think we were ready for the temperature to dip so low so fast. Just this week, we were walking around in light jackets enjoying the nice 50s and getting hot just walking around outside. Those days are gone for at least 6 months now.

The winter coats were in storage, but we got the suitcase down and wore the coats for the first time this winter. I had hoped to greet winter slowly, wearing light jackets and layers as long as I could, but instead opted for warmth and the huge coat.

And I promised students I would play basketball this morning! Maybe I should have checked the weather first!

China’s ‘Ivy League’

In a recent issue of the ZG Briefs, I learned something cool about another school in Harbin that make me proud to be from this city.

Nine universities set up China's 'Ivy League'¹ (October 13, 2009, Shanghai Daily)
Students from China's nine top universities will have a chance to take courses on other campuses after the schools set up their own "Ivy League" group. The Chinese league, named C9, includes Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Haerbin Institute of Techonology (HIT), Nanjing University, Xi'an Jiaotong University and China Science & Technology University. Students of the schools can transfer between the nine institutes and their grades and credits will be recognized by league members.

While we don’t teach at the school, we know teachers who do and some of their students. There were rumors that HIT was trying to purchase the flagship college of our university, ship building engineering. I don’t think this would ever happen because Harbin Engineering University is most well known as a former naval school. It is cool to be in the same city as a Chinese Ivy league school but with the honors aside, HEU has the better looking campus!
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¹ From ZG Briefs for October 15, 2009

Tuesday Morning Image

Photo: Inside the Students' Center on our campus where students go to study (or relax if they have time)

These weeks are filled with students taking all kinds of tests. Every time I talked with a student and ask what they are doing, they respond, "Studying for an exam." or more recently they say, "I just completed an exam for _____." Fill in the blank with any of these possible answers: exams for placement, graduation, graduate school, driving tests, midterm exams, or some others I wouldn't even know. Please remember these students as they are under constant and unrelenting pressure to succeed on every one of their exams.

Mei Guo Ren 美国人

Mei 美 means beautiful
Guo 国 means country
Ren 人 means people or person

The most commonly asked question we received while out and about is, “Where are you from?” Sometimes the question is phrased differently, “Are you American?” or here in Harbin, “Are you Russian?”

We politely respond, “Meigou ren (American)” with the usual response from the questioner, “Awe!”

The Chinese characters for Meiguo were the first characters we learned to write. In order to mail an envelope home to the states, we must write the county in Chinese. The rest of the envelope can be in English, but to get the envelope started in the right direction, we include the Chinese.

We’ve grown so accustom to using these words that they again have slipped into our English vocabulary. Since we use the word to describe where we are from in China, Harbin ren, we also use it to refer to our American hometown, GC-ren.

We look forward to seeing all our hometown “ren” this summer.

Kanyon Speaks Out

We finally left our campus for a little bit to meet some friends for dinner. (Originally, I had posted that we would meet the friends for lunch, but plans did change and it was really dinner.) On the way home, we decided to hop in a taxi to make it home in time for Kanyon’s bedtime. The little guy love riding in a taxi. As soon as we walk toward the street, he is already waving his hand trying to flag down the first available ride.

Throughout the ride, he talks with the driver saying, “drive, car.” The driver seems to enjoy having Kanyon interaction so he passes some candy back to him. As we approach our campus, we give the directions to the driver to drive through the north gate 北门 “bei men.” Kanyon must have been listening because the whole drive through campus he repeated in the correct Harbin accent, “bei mer, bei mer” much to the driver’s delight. Next step, he’ll be translating all the Chinese conversations for us. We need to get to language school so we teach him Chinese not the other way around.

Chinese Haricut

Finally, a good haircut in China. They are so cheap here 8 RMB ($1.25) that I can get one every week and still save money over the cheapest haircuts in the states. There has always been one problem though, I don't have the Chinese vocabulary to describe how to cut my hair.

The solution the first year in China was to not get a haircut. At the end of the year, my hair was outrageous! So now I bumble my way through the haircut using gestures and the few words I know at the mercy of the barber hoping he'll somehow understand and get it right.

This time was different. I took a picture on my MP3 player and showed him a good haircut from the past. Without any words and limited gestures, this haircut is the closest one yet!

Bu yao! 不要

The first phrase in Chinese we learn when we stepped off the bus to face China 4 years ago was 不要 bu yao! (Translated: don’t want) We wondered why this phrase was important enough to be the phrase taught by our team leader as we walked toward Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We soon learned.

Approaching the square, we were bombarded by vendors selling anything from kites, postcards, gloves, photos, to roses. Armed with our new phrase, we toured the sites in peace if you can call repeating bu yao over and over peaceful.

Bu yao works for most but occasionally you’ll meet your match. We met our match in an old lady selling roses on the square in downtown Nanchang. After a couple of bu yao’s, we continued walking on our way. Not to be deterred, she followed us and put the rose in my coat pocket insisting I buy one from her. Another bu yao and some more walking finally convinced her I didn’t wait a rose.

The true version of the story is that she remained unconvinced still. We had to ignore her and let the rose fall out of my pocket onto the ground while walking away faster. Good thing we can walk so fast with our long legs!

Tuesday Morning Image

On campus is covered with construction. These guys are busy making brick sidewalks near our apartment and they work incredibly fast. With all the workers available, it takes on a day or two to get a half mile sidewalk completed. Please remember these workers and their families. Many migrant workers leave their families in their hometown in a small rural village to come find work in the city.

While Waiting for Lunch

We often get food to go from a street vendor (he cooks outside under a tent during the warm season before moving inside during the winter) and bring it home to eat. And we always get the same thing from him. As I was waiting for the order, a nice elderly lady decided to strike up a conversation to pass the time. (All in Chinese of course)

Lady: Where are you from? (As she approaches closer and closer to my face)

Cook: Russia? (As he tastes to sauce to make sure it's good and tasty)

Me: America (backing away to reestablish my personal space bubble)

Lady: Are you a teacher here? (pointing to our university and stepping into the bubble space again)

Me: (unable to think straight with my personal space violated and struggling to understand her Chinese) Yes.

Lady: What do you teach? (slowly repeating the question to help me understand)

Me: I'm an English teacher.

One-legged Bystander: You're Chinese is very good.

Me: No, it's not. It's terrible.

Lady: (gesturing a large pregnant belly) Will your wife come her today?

Me: No.

Lady: (again gesturing the large pregnant belly) Her Chinese is very good, and yours is terrible. (she says terrible as she swats her hand gesturing)

Me: Agreed.

Chinese does come hard at times, especially those time when you're just not ready to speak Chinese and you're hungry. And this time my personal space kept being invaded making my Chinese a bumbling mess. It was good to get some practice and she spoke slow enough to understand most of what she said. Now time to go home and learn some more vocabulary, but first let's eat!

BTW: The same two dishes were great as always.

Please Remove Your Shoes Before Entering

This semester we finally purchased a shoe rack to hold all our shoes. And why did we need the shoe rack? One, we just had too many shoes piled up by the door that it became a hazard to walk into our bedroom. And two, it's what's done in China. Everyone when entering a home, removes their shoes before walking into the house. As proper hosts, we hand out shoe covers or sandals for our guests to wear inside our apartment.

Right now, we don't have enough sandals for all our guests, so we break this cultural rule and allow students to enter our apartment with their shoes on. Students always give a funny look like they are saying, "Are you serious? You want me to walk on your clean floor with my dirty shoes from outside."

To explain the differences of cultural rules, I suppose Americans view the floor as dirty, so we leave our shoes on. Chinese view the floor as clean and want it to remain that way, so they take their shoes off. If you've ever walked around for a day through the street of Harbin, you'd want to take your shoes off too. It reminds me of a American farmer or rancher coming home from a long day's work with boots covered in mud or manure. Please remove your shoes before entering or at least get the water hose and spray them off (and then leave them outside)!

Brand New Look!

The blog look is brand new! And with the new look comes some new content about life in China. Some weekly updates will include cultural encounters, what's "normal" in Harbin, Chinese words and phrases, and the continuation of the Tuesday morning image and think tank. Additional posts include China explained (not that we know anything about China, but as we learn something, we'll pass it along to you) and the monthly Twelve Two Times update.

We hope you enjoy the current rendition as more friendly, less busy, and all together better in looks, feel, and it's clean and simple style.

Tuesday Morning Image

I was outside today with Kanyon walking around our campus and neighborhood and I noticed how difficult it is at times to push his stroller around the streets and sidewalks. Often the sidewalks bricks have shifted leaving uneven surfaces or potholes. The streets of the neighborhood have been worn through and through. I am reminded how difficult it must be for handicapped to get around. Please remember these Chinese as they struggle with mobility around their own neighborhood.

Dongxi 东西

Chinese word of the day is 东西 (dongxi).

The phrase dongxi (literally east west) is the term used in Chinese to describe stuff or things. Ex. Let me get my things (dongxi) together. Those are my things (dongxi). However, the term should never be used to describe people.

Our former language teacher would say, "Never call people dongxi" repeatedly throughout our language classes. Since we are beginners in language, one day the mistake was waiting to happen. A simple misspoken pronoun changed a sentence from "What is that dongxi?" to "What are you, dongxi?" We heard the entire lecture again for the next hour that we are to never call people dongxi.

The phrase has since become so common that we often use the Chinese "dongxi" intermixed with our everyday English. If you ever hear us use "dongxi", we don't even notice when we are using the phrase instead of English. And we promise not to call you dongxi.

Volume 3, Issue 10

The semester has just flown by. We give midterm exams this week. Where has the time gone? Relationships with students are beginning to deepen to heart issues and other relationships are at the foundational stages. Please remember all these students as our time here this semester is limited.

Even with limited time this semester, we are encouraged to know the seeds planted, even in this abbreviated semester, are there being watered by teammates and by the Father himself.

Normal, What’s Normal?

If living in China has only taught us one thing, it’s that normal really isn’t that normal. Huh, are you trying to confuse me? No, but really, what is normal?

As we follow the Father, we are constantly asked, or sometimes required and commanded, to do things that we don’t exactly consider normal when viewed from the world’s eyes. Take for example, moving our young family to China or being prompted by the Father to give away $100 to a lady needing help in a 7-11 parking lot. Neither of those I would consider normal along with numerous other things.

Add living in China to the “non-normalness” of normal and then you really have an adventure. China throws curve balls almost daily. In 2008, the curveball was the lead up to the Olympic games in Beijing delaying our arrival in China by a month. Now this year, 2009, we have the lead up to the 60th anniversary of China increasing the security and posing some increased hassle for travelers and the H1N1 flu spreading around the world causing changes in procedures. To provide safety for teachers and students, our campus requires temperatures to be reported daily, travel outside of campus to be reduced, and visitors to our apartments limited to 1-2. Additionally, we are expecting the arrival of Baby #2 in December which further makes normal less normal.

While these changes to normal could cause frustration, we have come to adapt quickly to the changes and continue pressing forward. We will not let the changes to normal affect the work we are doing here in Harbin. We are assured knowing the Father’s thought are higher than our thoughts, his ways higher than our ways.

So the question becomes, when does non-normal and unexpected become the norm?

National Day Parade

For those who missed the 2 hour plus National Day Parade in Beijing to celebrate the 60th birthday of China, check out the video below that capture the entire parade in 3 minutes 42 seconds.

Tuesday Morning Image

Now we have officially entered fall in Harbin. The weather has become a little cooler and the heaters are not yet turned on in apartments or other buildings. Long johns that had been in storage are brought out, cleaned, and maybe even worn depending on the weather. Please remember all those with so little as they prepare for the harsh cold winter brings to Harbin.

Mid-Autumn Day

Giant pandas are served mooncakes in Guangzhou on October 3, 2009, to celebrate the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of lunar calendar. The mooncakes were specially made out of bamboo powder for the pandas. [Xinhua]

We celebrated Mid-Autumn Day (or Moon Festival) along with all the other Chinese this year by giving and receiving mooncakes. While the name is similar, these are nothing like moon pies. Moon cakes are like an extra dense "hockey pucks" of bread/dough filled with red been paste, eggs, or if you are really lucky and find the rarest of all, filled with fruit (and them taste like a fig newton).

After talking with a student, we learned the moon cakes were traditional home made by families for the festival. Each family would purchase an expensive press that would mold the cakes into their puck shape before baking. The cakes are shared to family and friends to celebrate this day.

It often seems as if the tradition and ritual has won out of the actually taste of the mooncakes. Most families, students, business, and friends participate in a great mooncake exchange giving and receiving the cakes without really enjoying eating them. This same student said his class participate in the great mooncake exchange with each student receiving mooncakes from their hometowns that they would in turn share with the rest of the class, a sort of taste test. And of course, in my student's opinion, the mooncakes from his hometown were the best!