Thursday, December 8, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Dinner with 兆凯 and Luke
Monday, December 5, 2011
2 things
1.) I got third place in a speech competition last Thursday. Wooo. I competed in the Beginnner/Intermediate level and performed 逗你玩儿 with my friend Yoshi. Here is a link to the performance (not mine)
2.) Today has been a kind of frustrating day. It's just one of those days where it seems like I'm never going to learn this language and be able to communicate well, which is one of the most frustrating things ever. It's when you think things are going well and then you can't communicate with anyone. For example: Today I found a new dumpling place by the subway station and I wanted to order some jiaozi. I asked him for what I thought meant 4 kuai's worth. Then he was like 4 fenr which is like 4 parts/portions (which is ambigious). Then he was like for 4 people?! and I was like no no no, for one person. I ended up getting spinach/veggie ones when I originally said pork dumplings T_T. And in the end I got it da bao (take out). They were so delicious and only 10 kuai. Definitely going back. However my day was kind of full of fail within class and without and I just wasn't getting anything right today. GAH. I ended up going to BLCU after class and buying a book on grammar that I'm going to work through everyday to get better at grammar. Especially because I suck. Boo.
peace out girl scouts.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The art of getting your deposit back.
Here is the catch. I can't move into my new apartment until tomorrow. Tonight I am crashing at my good friend John's apartment (he was born in the same hospital as me in Princeton!) with him and his fab German roommates Antonia and Marlena. We are having a great chinese study party in which Antonia and Marlena are doing their homework which is about difficulties in life. The difficulties in life are being paralyzed. Woo so applicable. I'm watching while eating celebratory noodles. I'm performingnext week. ahhh. John is muttering to himself about 饺子(dumplings).
So what happened with my apartment was that the agency stops owning it on the 30th. Which is tomorrow. Therefore me and my flatmates had to move out by today. This was problematic because to have an even 6 weeks and not get charged a ridiculous amount for my new apartment, I had to move in on the 30th. I was able to move my stuff there, but I can move in officially tomorrow morning. Because the original price of my apartment was "supposed" to be 4000 kuai the official quote for every night was over 150 kuai (which is ridiculous). I got it down to 3000 plus an extra 500 for internet, all utilities, fresh drinking water, cleaning service twice a week, and for other random things. It's a much nicer apartment and I'll post pictures tomorrow when I move in!
Today I had to get my deposit back, turn in my key, and get my room inspected (in the exact opposite order as I typed it). The guy kept calling me and trying to get it earlier, but I had class and my teacher yelled at him and told him to give me my deposit back and to come at 6 pm. I had everything packed up, ready, and cleaned by 6 pm and he came, early of course. He then took us to the office where we were supposed to turn in our keys and get our deposits back. However his boss tried cheating us on what we were supposed to say. My contract (the second one to be signed for our apartment) was substantially cheaper for utilities than Michiel's and Jose's. However they were trying to make each of us pay for the utilities. So that got straightened out. The thing was though, I already paid for our gas and water previously so we shouldn't have been charged for gas and water. I argued for awhile and then they also wanted to charge a 100 kuai cleaning fee, but I argued with them more and then went cleaned more while Jose argued with them. Me and Jose both got our fees taken away. The lady boss left, but didn't give the workers enough money to pay for my deposit, so I got really annoyed. I showed the lady the math two times and she was just like math doesn't work like that. And I was literally just like what. in. the. So I went over with the main man and my landlord and they were both like your math is right. But then they only had 2900. They still owed me 45 kuai and were just like come back tomorrow, come back tomorrow. In China, that is never a good idea. I argued with them for awhile, and then he was just like 操你吗 which means fuck your mother. I was just like 你说什么？！ (You just said what?!). Then I called my teacher, Li Mei, who is pretty boss and a little bit older than me and explained what was going on and she yelled at them for a little bit. Then to finally make all the arguing end the chill boss guy ended up giving me another 100 kuai and I gave him 55 kuai. In the end I got 2945 kuai out of my 3000 deposit, so pretty good.
TL;DR = Spent 3 hours arguing trying to get my full 3000 kuai deposit back (plus pay the correct amount for utilities) and ended up getting 2945 kuai. Woo!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Thanksgiving (Part 1)
I just said y'all - what is Beijing doing to me?!
Anyways on with the show...
Today was my first Thanksgiving away from family. HOWEVER, I have a Beijing family and we had a small Small group Thanksgiving dinner at my friend Christy's apartment. There were about 15 of us there and we all made something. I helped Christy make a bunch of casseroles (who knew these were so important for Thanksgiving - sup south) and I made some cranberry lovin, because I loveeee cranberries. It was a great time and just I really felt connected to all of these people and America lovin'! My brit friend brought a huge American flag to dinner! (and a smaller British flag haha).
Also today I tried teaching my students about Thanksgiving to mixed results. My first class understood, but didn't understand hand turkeys. My second class was the opposite. Le sigh.
I'm thankful for the friends and family I have here in Beijing, and my family and friends back home and abroad. I love all of you :)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
丁丁历险记 - The Adventures of TinTin!
I rode there on the back of Tom's bike :o. Tom is a brit studying at the tv university? It's the film and television university or something like that, but he's studying language. He's a super fast biker and I was just sitting on the back metal part hoping I wasn't going to die, haha. But we got there really fast and just in time to meet up with a huge group of people.
I've heard a lot of negative things about the chinese movie experience that people will just answer their phones, play with their iPads, just generally being loud and what not. I didn't really experience that, but then again I went to a foreign movie with a bunch of foreigners. There were some people talking for a little bit, but they got quiet pretty fast.
Favorite phrases:
Ten thousand typhoons!
Haddock: "Do you know how to fly this thing?"
Tintin: "Don't worry, I interviewed a pilot once."
Also I just checked out IMDB and it's not out in the states yet. go see it, it's great!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Out of sight, out of mind as a member of a sorority abroad.
Some of you may know I am in a sorority, others may not. I am, in fact, in one. It has been interesting to see the reactions of many people when they hear that I am in a sorority. You can generally either see the confusion written on their face or an “Oh I expected that” face. With some people I normally get the “sorority girls are sluts at my school,” which, you know, is always great to guess what they are insinuating. People join Greek life for a variety of reasons, which can range from wanting more friends or to do more activities or with some to have more people to drink with.
Before joining a sorority I was pretty anti-Greek life. The previous sentence structure “Before x happened” generally implies a change – however I’m not entirely sure what my change in thought is. I think for most people, sorority life is a crutch. You want new friends, you want to be more popular on campus, you want to be more involved, you want sisterhood, etc. The list goes on and on. I think sororities can be great things for some people and really benefit their lives and the community around them. Sororities and Greek life can do great things, but they also have a negative impact on others on campus as well. Social Greek life is based off of being exclusive – only so many people are allowed in. You have to be charming, and put together, academically successful, and involved on campus – the cream of the crop if you will. All of this, plus being compatible with the people in sororities. Do they like the same things you like? What’s different about you? What’s special about you? The results of this are twofold – on one hand it’s really positive because it gets together a similar group of girls with similar interests, that might not always meet. I know that I forged many connections and friendships with people that I might not otherwise talk to. On the other hand it can also cause some disharmonious relationships between people that shouldn’t exist. Oh she’s in that sorority, or oh he’s in that fraternity – they’re all whores or assholes or insert any other degrading word. Another aspect I think is negative is the rejection people receive from sororities. This can be from people who spend more time with those in their sorority and start to neglect older friendships, or from girls who are rejected from sororities they are in love with, or rejection of people based on their stereotype of Greek life or stereotypes Greek life has given them. Stereotypes have to start somewhere and there is a grain of truth in them.
I’ve had many conversations with people in and out of Greek life about Greek life and one thing that has continually resurfaced is friends within it. I have had times where I have been disgruntled with “friends” , but other times where I am completely happy with the friends I have made. The common thread is that obviously, not all of them are going to your good friends, or even friends when you are in it. That is just not possible. However the friendships that I had before joining my sorority and some that I forged after joining have become rock-hard friendships. I can depend on them for anything and I think that is something that is definitely an advantage of GL. It gives us another thing we can talk about, something we can do forever, tradition. I think that GL isn’t necessary for forming rock-hard friendships, but I can definitely see how it helped. Long after my days of college are over, these people will still be my friends and we will still be able to share this.
I can count on one hand the people in my sorority that have asked me about being in China and how I’m doing. Do people care? Some do, others don’t. The people that have contacted me have made my day when I saw it. For the most part though being in a sorority is out of sight, out of mind. I can’t even believe how frustrating it is to see that you’re basically useless to them now and are being replaced. That is life though and one must move on. It sucks when you send an email out, and maybe one or two people out of 80 respond. Or when you’re the only person abroad and you’re big is one of the four seniors (2 of which who have already taken littles) takes another little. Out of the four seniors one never had one, the other’s little is no longer in the sorority, one already had one, and one had one abroad. It’s not so much that I minded my big taking another little, it was more so that being the only person in my sorority abroad and with other people who have never taken littles, why is it my big took another? Just as a note: my big was begged because there was a shortage of potential bigs - she’s not terrible, I promise! Why couldn’t someone else step up that has never taken one? It definitely feels like being replaced, even though me and my big are tight. It is hard keeping up with what’s going on with my sorority from a different country for many reasons – what information is sent out, where I am, the time difference, etc. It’s frustrating to see how such a positive thing (me going to China) is limiting me back home because I am not physically there. It’s frustrating to get emails that you can’t do anything about because you’re abroad, and disheartening to get almost impersonal and cold emails – but how else would they be able to phrase it? Being abroad has magnified problems I had before I left and frankly, it sucks. There are many days while in China where I just don’t want to hear anything about my sorority. At all. My sorority has literally been the thing that has made me the unhappiest in China for a variety of reasons. It has also made me happy on other days, but not to the same extent on the spectrum as it has made me sad. It’s not the same when you can’t be there to defend yourself or even say anything when you don’t even get a chance, but why should I constantly have to do that? I also know on the other hand that people in my sorority love me and defend me as well – it is just hard to know about when you are abroad.
As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent,” is something I’ve really taken to heart recently. Being far removed from things at home has lead me to really take a step back and re-evaluate things. Is my big taking another little that important? No. Was I hurt at the time? Yes. Am I now? No, because it’s not really that important once I understood what was going on. Have the people who contacted me from my sorority impacted me? Yes. Most in a very positive way, and I’m so grateful I’m friends with them or that they reached out to me! It definitely changed my perspective. I think it’s just the smaller things when you’re abroad that you notice more. I still love my sorority and how it has positively impacted my life by solidifying friendships, forming new connections and for various other reasons, but wish that it would also stop negatively influencing my life as well. But that is like anything in life, really.