09 January 2010

Pork

I lived alongside dozens of Muslims for four months. My second day back home, my family had pulled pork for dinner.

I don't think I have ever felt so conflicted and guilty in my life.


*Update* My mom just read this and informed me that it was NOT pork, but rather beef. That does not take away the strange and unnatural concern I now have for foods I used to frequently eat.

**Another Update** My mom would also like me to add, for some reason, that it was City BBQ beef brisket.

I Hate English

Ok, it's not that I hate English, I am just having trouble speaking it, which makes me frustrated. It's the little things, like verb tenses (past perfect), irregular verbs (too embarrassing to give an example), and specific words people don't often use (orthopedic).

And then, expressing myself is really hard. I have about 50 things I want to say, and I can't get my thoughts in order to make an intelligent sentence. I'm not necessarily thinking in Chinese. I'm not really thinking in any language. I have ideas in my mind that I haven't put in English yet- I learned not to think in English because I'd have to translate it to Chinese. Instead, I would take my thoughts, ideas, and concepts, and just say them as best as I could in Chinese.

My family can put up with me, but I hope I don't sound like an idiot when I go back to school.

05 January 2010

Don't Ask "Why?"

Something I have noticed recently, and especially in Beijing and on my flight home, is that when announcements are made in Chinese, no good information is given. For the most part, Chinese people just do what they're told and don't ask why. It's so different in the U.S.

When my flight out of Beijing was delayed, the English-speaking announcer would say, "We have to remove some cargo from the aircraft because we are too heavy. First the crew will have to come from the other terminal, so the wait could be up to an hour." Another time he said, "We are being delayed because there are about 10 aircraft in front of us. Each one is taking about 2 minutes to take-off, so please be patient and expect another 20 to 25 minute delay." But, the Chinese announcer would just say something like, "In order to meet the airport's standards for take-off, we are being delayed an hour," and, "Thank you for being patient, we will take off in half an hour." Absolutely no explanation was given in Chinese. It's possible that the Chinese announcer didn't understand the English explanation, but I see this lack of explanation other places, too.

A final example that sticks out to me is a sign I saw in a restaurant in Beijing. The English said "Employees Only" but the Chinese said "Do Not Enter." Yes, we foreigners like our explanations and reasons, thank you very much.

Flying Home

In Beijing, my flight boarded on time, but then we sat on the runway for over two hours waiting to take off. I understand that there was a lot of snow on the ground and canceled flights from the day before were being made up, but honestly, the Chinese system of dealing with problems really sucks. Instead of coming up with an efficient plan when problems happen and telling the staff change things a bit, they just let things go and hope they're okay. They're not. I'm not mad about the flight, it's just an observation.

So, when I got to the U.S., I was late for my flight to Columbus. Obviously, a ton of other people were late, too. Also, the day before there had apparently been a 'security breach' at this airport, so all the flights were rescheduled for today and tomorrow. Basically, every single person at the airport was stressed and angry. I tried to be nice to the lady rescheduling my flight. It paid off. Because my flight was delayed due to weather conditions, I wasn't supposed to be given a free hotel room. Because I was being nice, the lady asked where I was coming from, how long my flight had been, how old I was, etc. She took pity on me and gave me a hotel voucher and meal coupons. Awesome.

So now I'm at a hotel. I ate a turkey sandwich, took a hot shower, and am looking forward to taking a nap in one of the two king-sized beds in the room. What a way to return to the states!

04 January 2010

Beijing

My friend Yuan and her parents met me at the Beijing airport on Saturday night, and I stayed with them for two days. The night I got there, my flight was delayed because of snow in Beijing, and all through the night it snowed and snowed and snowed. The next morning, Yuan and I took the subway to Tian'anmen. It was so cold I thought I was going to die. Really, I have never been so miserably cold in my life.

We stopped for coffee to warm ourselves up and then went to Beijing University. We went there because it was pretty in the snow, but mostly because I wanted to see the grave of Edgar Snow (his name was quite fitting). He was a journalist from the U.S. who first introduced the world to Communism in China. I would like to note that I was not permitted to do a Google search of his name... seriously, guys... what's up with that?

On Monday Yuan and I went shopping in the morning, and then I took a bus to the airport for my flight home.

Beijing was really beautiful in the snow. But it was wicked cold, which I did not enjoy. I think two days was plenty of time in the capital considering the weather.