'I Want Putin'

I've been working on a research paper about Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for a few weeks now, and it's kind of changing my life. While my paper is about his celebrity status, I've watched some videos of translated interviews with Putin, and I really agree with his ethics in regard to international relations.

And, back to the celebrity status of Putin, I have an extreme desire to join his fan girls and get a "I Want Putin / я хочу Путин" t-shirt (doesn't that just look cooler in Russian?).

Here's a music video for your enjoyment.

And if you're more into the politics, here's a really long but wonderful interview with TIME magazine.

H1N1

Everyone in China is freaked out about the swine flu, and rightly so. China is crowded and dirty. Several people live together in apartments the size of some U.S. families’ living rooms. Many apartment buildings have shared bathrooms that are, needless to say, filthy. And friends share food and drinks all the time.

Universities are especially concerned. Students are housed six or eight people per tiny dorm room. Libraries, dining halls, and classrooms are all crowded and thousands of people use them every day.

The number one in Chinese is “yi” so everyone says H-yi-N-yi, which I find very funny. If they say “H” and “N” (not Chinese) can’t they also say “one”? Actually, I’m wondering what other countries say in their languages… for example in Russian, what looks like an “H” says “N” and they don’t go around translating the name of the swine flu into н-один-N-один. No, no one does that. H-uno-N-uno, H-eins-N-eins, H-un-N-un? Anyone?

But back on topic, last week I entered Zhuan Jia Lou - where I live - and the desk workers stopped me and checked my temperature. Beside my name and room number they carefully recorded my temperature to the thousandths decimal place.

And just today, all the international students met in an auditorium, and the police talked to us about safely and sanitation. (I’m not sure why it was the police who came… that doesn’t really make sense, does it?) Then they gave everyone a fairly large bottle of disinfecting solution. As soon as I had hot water tonight, I cleaned everything in my room. I’m not so worried about getting the swine flu; I just like to clean things, especially in China.

I would also like to mention that the cleaning solution they gave us was produced and bottled in Lanzhou, by the Lanzhou Numerous Sterilization Products Company. It’s “galloping horse” brand, and is called 84. Impressive.

My Uzbek Friends

I met my first real friends here while in the kitchen. Rustam and his sister Shokhina are from Uzbekistan and prefer their country’s food to Chinese food. Rustam and I speak Chinese to each other, and Shokhina and I speak English. To each other, Rustam and Shokhina speak Russian or Uzbek. Each of us acts as translators at some point during every conversation. It’s a pretty good system.

The night we met, Shokhina was cooking soup with lamb, carrots, and rice. We talked for a long time since it took a while for it to cook. They invited me to eat with them, so in Rustam’s room we talked for an hour more.

Since then, we often hang out and go places together. I really enjoy being with them even though the cultural differences are significant. Many American girls would be offended by the way Rustam treats me; He doesn’t want me to walk anywhere alone, I’m not allowed to pay for anything when we’re together, and he often suggests things I should or shouldn’t do based on how life in Uzbekistan is. I remind him that things are different in America, that I am very independent, and that I have been living my life my own way for over 20 years. It’s just too hard for him to accept sometimes, and it’s never a big deal to me, so he usually gets his way.

For example, one time our taxi driver wouldn’t accept a large bill from Rustam. I had smaller change and paid before Rustam could object. Later, Rustam insisted on repaying me in 1 and 0.5 denominations. We argued about it for several minutes, and there was nothing I could do but take it. Another time, I hung out with Rustam and Shokhina after I had taken a shower, and my hair was still damp. Rustam handed me a hairdryer and made me blow dry my hair because he thought I would get sick otherwise.

I’m learning so much about Islam, Central Asia, and Uzbek culture from Shokhina and Rustam. I’ve watched Rustam perform his ritual hand and head cleansing, get out his prayer rug, face west, and spend five minutes praying out loud, standing, kneeling, and bowing. I’ve learned how sacred bread is to them. “You can stand on the Koran to reach bread, but you can’t stand on bread to reach the Koran.” Shokhina is getting married soon, so I’ve also learned about their wedding traditions and family life in Uzbekistan.

In addition, Rutam has started teaching me Russian. Last time I was in Lanzhou, I wish I would have taken more advantage of all the things I can learn from my classmates. So, I’m going to first learn to read Russian, and then learn to speak it. I don’t expect to learn very much since Chinese is difficult enough, but I hope to get a good background in the language.

Trains

I spend an excessive amount of time on trains. It’s getting ridiculous. I’ve tried to break up my traveling, going from nearby city to nearby city so that I’m not on a train for more than 24 hours at a time.

When I have a long distance to cover overnight, I try to get a sleeper car, but sometimes there aren’t any. Surprisingly, spending the night on a hard seat surrounded by the 134 other people in the car isn’t quite as bad as expected. Maybe I’m just an optimist.

Ok, it’s pretty bad, but not unbearable. For some unknown reason (er… check out one of my previous posts called “Coal”) Chinese people won’t open the windows on the trains. So not only does it get a little toasty, the smell is overwhelming. And the bathroom on the train doesn’t make things smell any better, either.

The worst part about trains, other than grime and foul odors, is getting bored. I try to alternate between reading, listening to music, writing, talking to children, and avoiding talking to creepy old men. Chinese children are great to talk to. And they’re so cute. The creepy old men are just creepy and old and have never seen a foreigner before so they ask me strange questions. Real examples:

“What language is spoken in America?” I just thought everyone knew.
“Are there fields in America?” How do you think the population gets fed?
“At what age do girls get married in America?” Everyone gets married at exactly the same age… not.

But trains are part of what I love so much about China. The Chinese rail system really brings out the true nature and character of the people.

On the train, strangers talk and laugh together. They share their food and trade seats so families can sit together.

But trains definitely bring out the bad side as well. Many Chinese people don’t understand the concept of waiting in line. I always get pushed and shoved and stepped on. I’ve been knocked over on several occasions. And no one apologizes. This is all just waiting for the train to arrive. Actually getting on the train can be worse.

On my way from Hohhot to Baotou, the aisles were filled with people who didn’t have seats. At every stop, more people would get on than would get off. Upon arriving at Baotou, I grabbed my bag and tried to get off the train. But twenty or more people were trying to get on. And it was like a mosh pit.

I just started pushing people and asking them to let me off. Then the train attendants tried to help me get off by pushing other people and then by pulling me. Nothing worked. Finally, I just started yelling, “Let me get off the train! You’re all crazy!” I’m not sure if the people getting on were alarmed simply by a foreign girl calling them insane, or if they were shocked that I was speaking Chinese. There was a lot of exclaiming going on.

And they thought I was Russian. Do Russians yell a lot?

Chinglish

I am fluent in Chinglish. So are most of the international students here at Lanzhou University. We are all studying Chinese at various levels, so our vocabularies are quite different. Almost everyone knows some English, so if there is ever confusion during a conversation in Chinese, English words are substituted.

It's actually a great system. If someone doesn't know English, someone else is able to translate from Chinese to English to Russian for example. Everyone is at least bilingual, but many of the students know three, four, five, or more languages. The students from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan especially impress me.

Chinglish also comes in handy with the Korean students. The Korean language has hundreds of cognates and near-cognates from English.

I am at the bottom of the totem pole as I only speak English and am just beginning to learn Chinese. As I mentioned in my last post, everyone likes me since I'm an American. Otherwise, I don't think I'd have many friends; it takes a lot of effort from both sides when I talk to some of my close friends here.

On the other hand, I surprise myself with how quickly I am learning Chinese. At first, I would study words for hours but not remember them the next day. Now I am often able to hear a new word once and be able to use it in conversation later.

As for the Chinese characters, it's awesome to walk down the street and recognize some characters and have an idea of what signs say. Before I came to China, the characters were just illegible scribbles to me. My first few weeks here I continued to think of them the same way. Now even characters I don't know or have never seen hold some sort of meaning because I can break the character down and recognize different strokes and their meanings.

While my Chinese is improving rapidly, my English is going down the drain. I am not speaking English regularly, and when I do speak it, I use hardly any of my vocabulary. I know I am forgetting many words and I often forget how to spell words. For example, I was studying with a Korean friend; he teaches me Chinese and I teach him English. He was saying that Korea's economy is "12" in the world. To correct him, I wrote "12th" but also wanted to spell it out... Only, I couldn't remember how it was spelled.

It's a joke now, so whenever I forget something in English someone says, "t-w-e-l-f-t-h."