On October 1, China celebrates its 60th Birthday as the People's Republic. Beijing is in the midst of preparing a huge celebration for this momentous occasion. As a result, we are feeling the effects of it. For the last few weekends, Tiananmen Square has been closed off as performers practice for the parade and performance. I have seen a large tank filled with soldiers in a big intersection near my house on the weekends (a tank is so symbolic for China). Today traffic is closed off on major roads as the parade is practiced. For the next few weeks, old men who like to fly kites and let their pigeons out of cages to fly are forbidden to do so anywhere near the Square in the center of Beijing. Apparently all university students in Beijing are going to be required to attend the actual performance on October 1. It will be broadcast on Chinese TV. I actually don't have a TV so I might have to miss it.
If its anything like the Olympics, I am sure I will be able to buy a DVD of the performance the next day. I will just make a plan not to go anywhere too far from home those days.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
random rice fact
The other day, my roommate and quizzed each other using the trivia questions from the game Cranium. Cranium is a really fun game. We have the game in our possession at the moment and are itching to play, but we need 4 people to play the game. Sadly, I don't think many of the pop culture references translate to Chinese, so we would need to play with other westerners. Instead of playing we have resorted to reading through the trivia questions and feeling like we are learning something.
So here is a question she asked me:
True or False
Throwing rice at weddings is bad because the rice expands in birds' stomachs.
My response: that is so true!
The actual response: False. I did research online about this. Apparently Ann Landers propagated this rumor in the 1960s. Both bird and rice groups have proven this wrong.
On a game-related note: bi-lingual Pictionary is super-fun! We played with a group last week of mostly both English and Chinese speakers, though we had one English only and one Chinese only speaker. A lot of checking electronic dictionaries on iphones was necessary because there are a lot of specific vocabulary.
So here is a question she asked me:
True or False
Throwing rice at weddings is bad because the rice expands in birds' stomachs.
My response: that is so true!
The actual response: False. I did research online about this. Apparently Ann Landers propagated this rumor in the 1960s. Both bird and rice groups have proven this wrong.
On a game-related note: bi-lingual Pictionary is super-fun! We played with a group last week of mostly both English and Chinese speakers, though we had one English only and one Chinese only speaker. A lot of checking electronic dictionaries on iphones was necessary because there are a lot of specific vocabulary.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Summer Ends
Well, its technically Labor Day weekend in the US right now. I say technically because that does not really affect me here at all. However, it is symbolic in marking the ending of summer. The weather in Beijing is an indication that summer is over; its been cold and rainy all weekend. This is good for my marathon training (6 more weeks!) and its been an overall relief to the hot and humid August weather here. Thinking about summer makes me think about how I've spent the last 3 full summers in China, plus 2 weeks in China 4 summers ago.
This is kind of amazing to me, especially because I like to think of summers as time to go camping and spend time outdoors. China is not quite conducive to these activities. I have to admit when I think about it, I'm a little bitter at how long I have spent here, giving up the activities that I like to do this research project. But as I look at how I have spent the past several summers in China, I can see progress in my research and it is rewarding.
2006. I came to Beijing for 2 weeks to visit a friend who lives in the countryside outside of Beijing and to work with her family on their farm. It was a good way to introduce me to country life in China and to start to think about what types of projects I could do.
2007. I stayed in Beijing for 2 months doing preliminary research on rice production at China Agricultural University. I did get to take a few trips outside of Beijing to see the countryside, but I spent the entire summer thinking about future summers I could spend actually being in the countryside for an extended period of time.
2008. I was in Harbin taking language classes. I got to spend some time in the countryside, but not that much. I was feeling quite productive, however, because I was in a classroom learning about rice production and building the necessary vocabulary to do my project.
2009. This was the summer I finally got to spend in the countryside where some of the best rice in China is produced. I spent a lot of time traveling back and forth to Harbin (about 1n hour and a half away) so it wasn't quite the ideal living and working on the countryside that I had anticipated, but I got to learn a lot. And I learned this summer that summers in Harbin are very nice and might even balance out the cold winters.
This is kind of amazing to me, especially because I like to think of summers as time to go camping and spend time outdoors. China is not quite conducive to these activities. I have to admit when I think about it, I'm a little bitter at how long I have spent here, giving up the activities that I like to do this research project. But as I look at how I have spent the past several summers in China, I can see progress in my research and it is rewarding.
2006. I came to Beijing for 2 weeks to visit a friend who lives in the countryside outside of Beijing and to work with her family on their farm. It was a good way to introduce me to country life in China and to start to think about what types of projects I could do.
2007. I stayed in Beijing for 2 months doing preliminary research on rice production at China Agricultural University. I did get to take a few trips outside of Beijing to see the countryside, but I spent the entire summer thinking about future summers I could spend actually being in the countryside for an extended period of time.
2008. I was in Harbin taking language classes. I got to spend some time in the countryside, but not that much. I was feeling quite productive, however, because I was in a classroom learning about rice production and building the necessary vocabulary to do my project.
2009. This was the summer I finally got to spend in the countryside where some of the best rice in China is produced. I spent a lot of time traveling back and forth to Harbin (about 1n hour and a half away) so it wasn't quite the ideal living and working on the countryside that I had anticipated, but I got to learn a lot. And I learned this summer that summers in Harbin are very nice and might even balance out the cold winters.
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