Fri, 24 Jun 2005

Hi, it's John Nguyen. I got here to Beijing about 9 hours ago. It's about 10:30am over here right now. The flight leaving L.A. was delayed for about two hours, but otherwise everything was fine. I couldn't hook my laptop up to get onto the internet when I got here, so this morning I went to the bank, exchanged some money and bought the ethernet cable I needed.

Zhang Xiaoyun and Zhang Yu picked me up at the airport. Ann gave me a SIM card and an IP card. My cellphone number over here while I'm in Beijing will be 13520156053. Ann Zhang said she's going to pick up Erica today at the airport, and on Monday, she and Gao Jie will come over to the school and talk about all the arrangements for my time here. I gave Zhang Xiaoyun her gift (an English/Chinese tourguide book she wanted), but I wasn't able to give Ann Zhang her's because it was still taped together in my luggage when she left, and it seemed better to give it to her and Ms. Gao on Monday when they come.

I'm staying with 4 other Americans in the athlete dorms right now. There's apparently a huge number of foreigners this summer so they've been moving a lot of people out of the hotel and into the dorms. They seem really cool, but it looks like I'm going to get a lot of opportunities to practice translating some English into Mandarin for my new roommates, haha. That's fine by me. I actually ran into some people I knew back at Berkeley over here, too.

Zhang Xiaoyun said to take a rest today so I'm going to unpack my things, try to meet some of the athetes and maybe check out the other sports teams over here. I'll call Ann Zhang to see if she wants me to go with her to pick up Erica today. I will keep you updated as I go along. Until then, take care everyone!

-John

Tue, 28 Jun 2005

Dear PSCC,

It's been two days since I got here. My host family is so hospitable that I feel like royalty. They apologized for their small quarters, but I had to apologize instead that the room they prepared for me takes up half the entire apartment. The son, Su Chen, works at Xicheng library and manages to library database, and he's thrilled that he gets rides in the car that takes me to and from the Xicheng library. Last night Mr. Su made a delicious dinner of many foods I've never had before, and they just wouldn't allow me to help with preparation or clean up. They found it really amusing that I wanted to drink water with my meal. I've been asked such questions as whether I consider myself American or Chinese, and we've already talked about issues such as TV censorship and issues between China and Taiwan.

The library here, including space for its offices, occupies six floors. It has extensive resources for the visually impaired: they have a bookshelf full of Braille books and can even browse the Internet with a special keyboard. I saw the National Geographic back issues that they say were donated by PSCC. They have a visiting exhibit of Martin Luther King and American jazz musicians, sponsored by the Library of America in New York. Yesterday I worked in the Purchasing and Editing Office, helping them catalog a whole series of books sent by the Library of America, mostly primary sources by Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, speeches and writings by Lincoln, etc., and sets on American poetry or American journalism covering the Vietnam War. I browsed through some of them, but I wish had the time to read them all! I had to explain to a lot of curious library staffers what all these books were about, so I learned a lot of vocabulary to describe written texts (the difference between speeches and sermons, prose and writings, etc.) and events in American history. I still haven't figured out how to say Founding Fathers, though. It makes an American very proud to see that all these donated books will be sitting in the library here. (I even learned the names of a few important American authors I didn't know about, like Dawn Powell and more.)

I have also been translating invitations, memos and documents to overseas Chinese people. It looks like there's a lot for me to do here, like holding my own "English lecture series" type of event (four of them) at the library, and I will also be working at the Foreign Affairs Office. I'm also getting to know a lot about the day-to-day life of someone living in Beijing. Today I went to lunch with some coworkers at the library and had Xinjiang food for the first time. It's a province north of Tibet, translated literally as New Frontier. The majority of their population there is Muslim, and they eat a lot of mountain lamb, so I've attached a picture of me and the host family's kid eating lamb shish-kabob. It was flavorful and quite good! I also unknowingly ate two bites of lamb kidney shish-kabob before I figured out what it was. It was...crunchy. I've also attached a picture of the periodical room in the library.

Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful southern California weather.

Yours, Erica

Fri, 01 Jul 2005

Dear Sister Cities Commitee,

It's been quite an eventful week for me here. I've been put into the foreign training group that's training together with the teenage youth squad here at the school. Beijing is known as one of the premier wushu teams, so the training is pretty intense. That's actually one reason I've got a good oppurtunity to write today. I've got shin splints in both legs, my left knee is acting up, and my right wrist is pretty swollen, so I kind of had to lay off of training a bit today. I'm still holding up better than some of the other Americans though, so it's not as bad as it sounds. It also helps that it's just great being here. I'm getting a great amount of practice with my Mandarin talking to the Chinese team members, and I've made friends with a good deal amount of them. Some of them hang out in my dorm now and they speak minimal English, so like I said, it's great practice. One of them is actually a Hong Konger who's spent so much time training here in Beijing that his Mandarin is now better than his Cantonese, so he's great at explaining some of the Mandarin that confuses me sometimes.

Today, Erica, Zhang Yu, Yu Zongcai and I visited a private school for the hearing impaired. It's called the Cochlear Implant Users Training school (there's actually two campuses). The director, Cui Weilan, is actually a former staff member of a public school who's now retired. She discovered this special surgery and implant-type equipment in Australia, and is devoting her time into the school she founded. The Cochlear implant itself is this piece of equipment that attaches itself to the person's ear and head after they've gotten a surgery that drills a hole into the ear canal and puts some kind of second piece into the eardrum. My Mandarin wasn't nearly good enough to follow along with the kind of technical language she was using. In any case, it lets children who became deaf from causes such as a severe infection to hear again. It's not the same as normal hearing, but something like a newborn, as Erica and Ms. Ann Zhang explained to me.

We were brought around the classrooms to meet the students, ranging anywhere from 3 to 17 (mostly young children). There were two students, Cui Dian and Guo Mingming, 14 and 17, respectively, who met us and demonstrated to us how the Cochlear implant worked. They also gave us water paintings they made for us as gifts. Afterwards we went to see the classes. The teachers were incredibly talented and it was obvious they had a lot of patience and affection for the children. The children were wonderful and it was a great feeling to see them in kindergarten classes that were almost the same as any other kindergarten class. After nearly a week in what I've jokingly dubbed, "The Wild Wild East," it was quite a unique feeling to see something so innocent.

After the tour we sat down and Ms. Cui Weilan and her staff had a talk with Yu Zongcai. I couldn't understand a lot of what was being said, despite Ms. Ann Zhang's best attempts translate for me. Most of what I could make out and what Ms. Zhang translated for me was in regards to funding. A lot of parents couldn't even afford to continue paying tuition, but their children were still allowed to attend. It was an emotional talk for some of the people there.

After we left the school, Mr. Yu and Ms. Zhang took Erica and I out to lunch at a Hong Kong-type resteraunt. Mr. Yu's English was very good, but he would constantly encourage me to practice my Mandarin as much as possible, which was fine by me. He's an incredibly interesting person. He told me that he got most of his English from studying by himself and learning from Ms. Hallinger, with no formal education in it. We chatted about lots of things over lunch, from the status of the Vietnamese in America to the structure of the Beijing police force. He's obviously a very knowledgable and capable man, and his demeanor really impressed me.

After lunch Erica came over to the Shichahai sports school to look around and get some air. Her friend is here in Beijing for vacation, so we decided to meet up with her in Xidan and ended up getting some boba tea. Her friend brought along her cousin who's from Liaoning province and she turned out being another great practice partner for my Mandarin. We stopped by a bookstore, ran into her cousin, and all went to get some hot pot for dinner. Erica's never been to Wangfujing, and so we took took the bus over there. The cousin we ran into pointed out some of the landmarks along the way, such as the new theatre center being constructed, the equivalent of our capitol building, and the place where Hu Jintao lives. We didn't spend much time actually shopping as much as we did just taking in the sights and sounds on the main road and side streets where we saw some pretty interesting things being sold at the food stalls. I offered 10 US dollars to try out the centipede-on-a-stick, but Erica didn't really take. After that, the library driver picked us up and dropped me off at the sports school before taking Erica home.

So yeah, it's been quite an eventful week. I also got in contact with Ms. Gao Jian and Madame Yu and gave them the gifts I brought for them. Madame Yu requested that I create an English version of the Xicheng district sports webpage for her before I leave. Tomorrow I'm going to the Xicheng library to help out Erica with her project. The tournament that the teenage youth team has been training so hard for is also tomorrow, and if I have time afterwards I might take a taxi and stop by and support them. Zhang Xiaoyun also requested that I go along with her as she takes out the foreigners for the weekly trip to the Great Wall on Sunday. Ms. Ann Zhang said that sometime next week she might schedule a tour through some of the surrounding areas around the lakes near the school and maybe attend a cultural performance of some sort, like a Beijing opera show.

It's been almost a week, but it feels like I've just gotten here hours ago. I've attached some pictures we took today at the Cochlear implant training school. Unfortunetly, I didn't take my camera along when Erica and I went out and her camera ran out of batteries, so we didn't get any pictures of our outing. I do have videos of the wushu team practicing for the tournament, and I've checked out some of the other sports team, such as the pingpong team and the sanda team. I'll report again soon, and until then, enjoy the pictures!

-John

Sun, 3 Jul 2005

Dear PSCC,

It's been a busy (and hot!) week. On Thursday, I went to visit the Beijing Foreign Language School to discuss a possible exchange with my high school, Pasadena Poly. Although I didn't get to meet any students because students were busy taking finals, I learned a lot about the school and had a wonderful tour of the campus. I've attached a picture of middle school band practice.

John wrote you about our Friday visit to the School for Cochlear Implant Users. It was a marvelous day for both of us. It was an incredible, inspirational look into a part of Beijing that most tourists don't get to see. It is sometimes sad to think that these kids are considered to be quite lucky since they hardly get to see their parents (although the school does require a one-week visit by parents every four months), but it is also wonderful that they have primary hearing abilities and are taught by the most patient and loving teachers.

On Saturday, John helped out with my English Corner at the Xicheng library. I showed them some pictures of L.A. from my computer (Gamble House, Rose Parade, Getty Museum, my high school, etc.) to start off the discussion, and we were soon engaged in a lively chat with about 25 people circled around us. There were many elderly gentlemen with excellent English skills (mostly businessmen), as well as high school and college students. They were very interested to hear about American sports, music, and college admissions. (To my dismay, they all know and asked about the Chinese-American singer William Hung from American Idol, infamous and strangely popular for his singing inability.) We even discussed insurance, the American health care system, and drugs. After two and a half hours of chatting, we made some great friends, and we look forward to seeing them for two more English Corner gatherings.

Today I took a break from the city to visit the Beijing Arts and Construction University, on the outskirts of Beijing in a district called Ping Gu. This district is 2200 years old and is part of Beijing County, but it's about 1.5 hours east of the city center. (Beijing is huge!) It was a change of pace from the city -- less traffic, fewer people, much more greenery, and cleaner air. We even had to stop on the road for a herd of goats to cross (picture attached). The Arts and Construction school is the only arts school at the university level, and they specialize in the art and design of Chinese cultural artwork, such as the construction of temple gates, wooden carvings, and intricate cut-paper designs. I saw an exhibition hall of graduation projects, and it was extremely impressive. Attached is a picture of a student with her almost-complete woodwork. Afterwards, with a family friend, I visited a stalactite and stalagmite cavern, in which it was quite chilly. Our hour-long group tour was a wonderful break from the near-100-degree heat. Afterward, we went to a beautiful lake called Jing Dong Hu (East Beijing Lake). We took a motorboat o the middle of the lake, and then I went parasailing for the first time! Although the attached picture is taken from land and makes the lake seem quite small, the view I got from up above was breathtaking, and the lake is really quite expansive.

As July 4th is one of my favorite holidays, I am eagerly anticipating the celebration of it tomorrow with my Columbia friends who are visiting their family in Beijing for the summer. It won't be the usual kind of holiday, but a Beijing-style celebration will definitely be most unique, especially if we find some other Americans. From the other side of the globe, happy Fourth of July to you all!

-- Erica Yen