Trip to Beijing

It seems too early in my China adventure to be taking a trip already. And after skipping a day over the international date line, running around jet-lagged, and having no idea what day it was for almost a week, some of my plans weren't as smooth as I would have liked them to be. But now I have a month until my next trip, and I will be a bit more organized this time around.

But anywhoo... I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Beijing.

I LOVE Beijing! I had kind of built it up in my mind as being everything I love about China, and I was ready to be disappointed. But this morning was a beautiful spring morning with a clear blue sky. I actually walked outside and blissfully breathed the fresh air. Ahhhh.... Beijing. (?) Weird, I know. But it was actually very clear and fresh today.

The last time we were in Beijing was in 2006. Since it was 2 years before the Olympics, everything was under construction, everything was dug up, and everything was slated to be finished by 8-8-08. That was 3 years ago, and it was awesome to see how spit-and-polished everything looks. Some people might not think it's so, but there's a lot of polish-- especially compared to Shenyang, where it's mostly just spit.

This morning Penny and I walked around a local neighborhood to find breakfast, and we stopped to sit in a courtyard and play. I try to point out all the gou gou (doggies) for Penny, but she hardly shows any interest. Then this morning we found a dirty old mother dog lying in the dirt, and Penny wants to do nothing but go pet the thing. The dog eventually ran off, and when a nice, clean, old-lady-led dog stops by, Penny shows very little interest again.

But she did eventually play with the doggie, a little bit.

Penny's pretty shy and doesn't really say anything when strangers come and talk to her. I'm happy with that, and I'm also happy that Penny now says xie xie (thank you) to people. We've been here almost a week, and she already says one word in Chinese!

For lunch (yesterday), we ate at a Xinjiang Muslim restaurant. I taught English out in Xinjiang in 2002, and I still absolutely LOVE their food. We ordered shou zhua fan (hand-grab rice/polo/plov/pilaf) and a few yang rou chuar (lamb kebabs). The kebabs were for me, since they're seasoned with hot chili powder that Penny wouldn't like.

She wanted to try some anyway, so I gave her some without much spice on it. She devoured that and then commandeered the rest of my kebabs.

So much for my chuar. I'll have to order twice as many next time.... and there WILL be a next time. I love those things!

Note on learning Chinese:

Not only do I love lamb kebabs, but I love the character for kebab. Is it weird to have a favorite character? Because mine is chuan: 串 (kebab).

Dancing with the Chinese

I wasn't exactly looking forward to this season of Dancing with the Stars. I mean, everyone's heard of Kirstie Alley, but the rest of the cast hasn't made US Weekly in years-- if ever!

But I was surprised to find I really liked the show. There are several front-runners, but unlike the last couple seasons, there isn't an especially experienced dancer among them. They're all just learning, and I think it will make for a great competition!

Oh, how I hope Hulu will work in China!

Anyway, the part that makes me laugh every time is when the star is learning a brand-new dance step, and while they're just stumbling through the basic steps, their coach is shouting, "Okay now, look up! Smile! Exude confidence! Don't look down!"

How crazy is that?! I mean, on the one hand, if you learn the steps while frowning at your feet, you'll be more likely to perform that way-- but on the other hand, give them a break! They're just beginning!

It reminds me of my piano lessons in high school. I'd show up to my lesson just learning the notes to a new song. As I'd sit there and struggle to hit all the sharps and flats, my teacher would tell me, "Hey, that's a staccato! This section is forte! Now, lift your hand at the end of the phrase!"

How crazy is that?! I mean, I'm missing notes so much that it hardly sounds like music, and you're worried about dynamics? Phrasing?! Aaaaah! (pulls out hair)

Now I'm teaching one of my friends Chinese. I'll teach her to say some difficult Chinese word, requiring vowels we don't really use in English, such as 橘子 (ju2 zi, tangerine). She repeats it after me several times, eventually with the right sounds coming out of her mouth. I should congratulate her: "Good job! You've mastered this ridiculously difficult sound of this crazy foreign language!"

But no, I'm not satisfied-- we need the right TONES! Sure, the sound you made said "ju zi," but you didn't say the right tone, so I'm sorry, it just doesn't mean anything close to what you meant. It needs to go up, like you're saying a question. Yes, kind of like that, but now we need the same vowel sound, same consonants, different tones.

They should make a new reality-TV show about learning Chinese. The ratings would go through the roof!

Reading

When I was tiny, I LOVED to read. We had millions of children's books growing up, and after I'd read all of them, I tackled our elementary school library. I felt like I'd read practically everything in there

My 5th grade teacher (okay, so I wasn't tiny by then, but work with me here) once told me that after the principal came to observe her teaching math or social studies, he talked to her afterward. "Did you know that while you're teaching, one of your students is just reading under her desk the whole time?"

"Oh, you mean Chelsea? Yes, I know. But she somehow picks up all the material and passes the tests, so I just let her read."

I know I couldn't do it now, but somehow that's how it worked back then.

Anyway... I love children's books. They've written a lot since I was tiny, but I still love finding and buying the ones I loved as a child. There is one book that I've been looking for forever. It's a picture book about a mouse. One page has butterflies all over it, and my mom would always stop there and let me choose which one was the most beautiful. And another page has the mouse standing under a toadstool while it rains. And that's all I remember!

I didn't find this book when I went through the boxes of kids' books at my parents' house this summer. And honestly, this is not much to go on. I don't remember the title, the author, or any of the words. Just the rabbit, the butterflies, and the toadstool in the rain.

Any leads, people?

Well, at the thrift shop the other day, I ran across an AMAZING children's book: The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury. It contains 45 children's books, including some of my favorites:

Madeline

Goodnight Moon

The Snowy Day

Make Way for Ducklings

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Curious George

Miss Nelson is Missing!

Where the Wild Things Are

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

The Stinky Cheese Man

The Story of Babar

Stellaluna

The Story of Ferdinand

The Sneetches

The Story of Little Babaji (which is a name-changed-but-otherwise-true-to-the-original retelling of Little Black Sambo-- for obvious reasons-- which is a story I grew up with and loved)

Anyway... many of my favorite books. It has the original text and most or all of the original pictures. I love it!

As I flipped through the pages, I found some lovely pictures of flowers, butterflies, autumn leaves, and a toadstool. I think I gasped out loud when I flipped to the beginning of that story and found my beloved childhood book: I Am a Bunny, by Ole Risom, illustrated by Richard Scarry.

I love my new book, and it's worth every penny of the $.52 I paid for it at the thrift shop!

Chinese lesson of the day:

There are many books about China, and I don't claim to have read all of them. However, of the ones I've read, three stand out to me:

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang

This book tells the last 100 years of China's history through following the experiences of the author, her mother, and her grandmother. It's a very eye-opening account of what happened in China and how it affected the people of the nation.

Life and Death in Shanghai, by Cheng Nien

The author is a highly-educated woman put in prison during the Cultural Revolution. She recounts her experiences in vivid detail-- not only to show what happened to her, but also to intricately tie in how those experiences were directly related to the political whims and trends going on in Beijing. One of the best-written books I've read.

The Private Life of Chairman Mao, by Li Zhisui

When most Americans head to China, we think it's amusing to find all the kitschy Mao memorabilia sold everywhere, hearkening back to the days when Mao set himself up as the nation's political and cultural idol.

If that were all, it would be pretty amusing. But reading about what a horrendous person he was, what he did to his nation and people, first in the name of Communism and then in the name of Mao himself, how many lives were ended or otherwise ruined, it horrifies me that so many foreigners take him so lightly. It changed my view of Mao.

Joys of adoption

For the last few months, I've had a button on my blog linking to my good friend's adoption profile. They've been trying to adopt a baby for a while now, and after a few birth moms chose them and then changed their minds (because they'd also "chosen" a few other couples), I finally got news yesterday that Rachel and Ryan will be parents this August! Wahoo!!!

I wanted to be sure and announce the great news before I take down the button... eventually.

After my parents adopted my brother, Daniel, I remember them saying to each other, "Hey, this is great! Why didn't we do this with the other four?!?!"

(As one of those other four, I am certainly glad they did not.)

Although they were mostly giddy about the fact that Daniel was already potty-trained, verbal, and sleeping through the night (as most 7-year-olds are), we were also excited to find that he was a perfect match-- or even a missing piece-- of our family. I wonder sometimes why part of our family was born 12,000 miles away from the other parts, but I'm very thankful that we somehow all came together.

Chinese word of the day:

When we adopted Daniel, he was fluent in Chinese-- or so they say. I think I've only ever heard him say a tiny handful of Chinese words; he was pretty much silent until he learned how to say what he wanted in English. It didn't take him long.

But one time he taught us a very important Chinese word. It was while our family was gathered together for our evening prayer. Alex ever-so-reverently knelt on the carpet, rested his elbows on the floor, and stuck his butt straight up into the air. He called it kneeling, but we told him he looked like a stink bug.

Or as you might say it in Chinese:

放屁虫

fang4 pi4 chong2

(Literally "fart bug")

And if I never had a little brother teaching me Chinese, I may never have learned this important vocabulary.

I hope Rachel and Ryan have some amazing, life-changing experiences from their little fang pi chong when he/she comes in August!

Learning Chinese

Today Kevin starts studying Chinese as the last part of his training before we go to China. Also, I have a friend that heads to China in a year, and I've been teaching her a little Chinese here and there. With all this Chineseyness going on, I decided to join in with a few language tips on my blog.

Today's tip for learning Chinese (and probably any other language out there, too):

When you learn something completely confusing, bizarre, and contrary to anything you've ever learned before, it's not the language's fault. That's just how it is, and it makes sense to over a billion people. So instead of blaming the language for being bizarre, and WRONG, just accept that it is actually RIGHT, and figure out how to fit it into your comfort zone.

When I took Chinese in college, I was overwhelmed by all the different ways to answer in the affirmative. After learning hao, keyi, and shi, I figured I had enough. When the next chapter tried to add another one (xing), I refused. I would not learn it, using instead the ones I knew. I went for 3 more semesters without ever using xing. It may have been a Chinese word, but to me it didn't exist.

This worked great until I actually went to China, where the answer to every question seemed to be xing.

My refusing to learn it didn't change the fact that it's part of the Chinese language-- and it's actually really useful!

This isn't the only time I tried to skip or omit something because it didn't fit into my brain's definition of how Chinese "should" be. But once I switched my position to instead fit my brain into China's definition of how Chinese should be, I was able to learn a lot more a lot faster.

I highly recommend it.