The First Few Days

So, as promised, I'm posting a blog post. I apologize in advance that these will likely be somewhat few and far between. My workload is extremely heavy this semester and I'm already exhausted. I've spent two days in classes and this will be my third consecutive night spent studying. Classes are extremely difficult and frustrating as my language skills are not up to scratch. I'm having a very difficult time expressing myself and understanding what my professors and classmates are saying, which makes every day, every class and every conversation very exhausting. I know it will get better and that I will slowly get used to it and improve, but right now it feels positively awful and I'm sick of it. I've been under the language pledge for a whole two and a half days and I'm already sick of it. Great.

So on the topic of classes, I take four: pronunciation drill, conversation, business Chinese and a 1-on-1 self-designed tutorial. My 1-on-1 is about the history and progression of sourcing and manufacturing in China for the United States and I've met my professor but not yet had my first class, which is tomorrow. We will meet twice a week for an hour and 45 minutes each time. As for the others, my drill course is just me and my professor going over vocabulary and dialogs for 45minutes four times a week. Conversation is an elective of four other students learning conversational vocabulary and grammar structures, meeting three times a week for an hour and 45 minutes. Both of these courses are relatively enjoyable and I feel like I'm doing decently in each of these. However, business Chinese is extremely difficult. The vocabulary is fine, but the pace is very quick and I'm lost half the time. I'm worried that I will need to switch classes (take a class like newspaper reading instead), as this course was one of the biggest reasons I chose this program. For you praying folks, please send up a prayer about this.

Otherwise, I got into Harbin on Friday morning (we took an overnight train from Beijing on Thursday night) and moved into my dorm. The dorms are nice and decently large, but sparsely furnished. It's a good thing I don't have much stuff!

 


We live in suites similar to ours at Trinity, but not as nice. Our bathrooms are pretty darn rustic, although western. When I get a chance, I'll try to get a picture of a squat toilet so you can compare. We have our own water heater, which means you have to start the water heating before you can shower and the toilet can't handle toilet paper or anything like that, so you have to chuck it in the bin. Awkward? Yes. Also, the shower hasn't got a stall, so you can't leave anything on the counter top without it getting wet and the floor perpetually has a puddle (and the room smells like mildew).

My roommate arrived last night (she had to arrive late; the other roommates arrived on Saturday) and she seems really nice, although I haven't had a chance to really get to know her yet. Mostly, what I know so far (there's a major language barrier right now) is that she's from Shandong (southern China) and she studies sociology. So far there has been a whole lot of pantomime and me pointing at entries in my dictionary.

On a more interesting note, Sunday we went to the Snow and Ice Festival! While I paid a small fortune (even in US dollars: 280 kuai = $40), I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I've been looking forward to that for quite some time and it was really legit. Basically, it's a giant festival of giant ice sculptures: life-size buildings lit up from inside the ice in bright, neon colours. Here are a few pictures, but there will be more on my flickr (efriedme).

I know at least Katie has been curious about the food here, so I figure I’ll say a little about that. In the north, there isn’t a whole lot of rice because it’s much drier here. Instead, most things are wheat products, but because my university has plenty of students from all over the country, they bring in plenty of rice to feed them. Local fare, however, is generally lots of jiaozi (dumplings) and baozi (steamed buns filled with bean curd, meat and/or vegetables).  Also, there are basically potatoes in everything and I’m getting kinda sick of them, to be honest. I had some for lunch and accidently also got them during dinner. Mistake. However, I could easily get used to how much I pay for meals! Everything here is exceptionally cheap. Between lunch and dinner, I spent 8 kuai. In US dollars? A whole $1.20. Oh heck yes.  When it comes to drink, they don’t drink a whole lot of tea here (at least, not as much as elsewhere in China), but the water isn’t safe to drink, so mostly people drink beer or boiled water. I’m starting to get used to drinking hot water and I think I like it, actually.

I'll add a picture of my dinner, which is composed of two large baozi filled with pork and cabbage (Good thing I like cabbage! There’s lots of it!), a sausage and a potato pancake. I paid a whole 30 cents. Win. Oh, and I couldn’t finish it either.

I’m actually paying four times as much for the cup of black coffee I’m drinking right now.

So I’d better go do some studying. I really, really don’t want to. The last thing I want to do right now is think about Chinese. Instead, I’d like to think in English as much as possible. Sadly, this does not facilitate excelling in/performing satisfactorily/passing my classes. Darn it.

Oh, I’d really appreciate prayers for my sanity and peace of mind. This whole experience is extremely overwhelming and difficult so I’m really depending on the power of prayer. Also, I hope to find a church here (I originally thought I had a great contact from home, but that seems to have fallen through which is pretty upsetting), so prayers for that (and that I can understand what is going on once I find one) would also be appreciated.

Until next time, peace, love and jiaozi.