Chinese Life and Culture

So here a few of my thoughts on Chinese culture so far. Most of it I do not understand at all. I'll start with the clothing. It seems that camoflauge is very popular amongst the late teen-20 year old range. Walking around campus, you will several people wearing camoflauge, some head to toe. Also, t shirts with english phrases are popular, even if they do not really make any sense. I cannot think of any right now but some of the shirts have been very bizarre. But Chinese people probably think the same thing when they see Americans with random Chinese character written on their arms. Also, a lot of the guys grow their pinky nails out really long which I thought was odd at first. But I actually read in a book that they do this as a status symbol. Since they have a long nail, you know that they do not do any manual labor which makes them more important I guess. That may be how it started and now it is just a cool thing to do, I do not know.

Daily life is pretty much the same. My dorm room is about the same size as the one I lived in Washington. Granted, the average Chinese dorm is a small room that houses at least six people, us waiguoren (foreigners) get a little spoiled. The bathroom, however is far from desirable. Our dorm toilets cannot handle toilet paper so when you do your business you have to throw it away in the trash can next to the toilet. Actually, I thought this was pretty gross at first but Im getting used to it...the smell is not all too bad, haha.

Hanging out with my roommate has been interesting. His name is Su Yadan and from what I have gathered he is a PHD student in electrical engineering. Harbin Institute of technology is one of the top universities in China and one of the leading technical schools. So Im assuming he is a pretty smart guy. He spends all of his time at the lab and does not come home until 10 at night. It is interesting having conversations with him because there is a lot of guessing and charades between us to try and understand what we are talking about. But he has helped me with a few things and teaches me new words and phrases a lot. Most of the other Americans roommates are home more often and I wish mine was as well so that I could have more Chinese practice.

Speaking of Chinese, the first days of class have been exceptionally challenging. Its like having a class where a teacher is talking but someone can mute half of her words. So while you are listening you only pick up a few words here and there and are left guessing about what is going on. And then she hands you some hw where half of the words are whited out and you have to figure out what it is you are supposed to do for the next class period. I bet it is even more frustrating for the teachers because Im sure they are using very plain language and assigning extremely easy assignments and these stupid americans do not understand what they are saying. Im hoping I will improve in the future so we can all laugh about what I am going through now.

Lastly, the best thing about China is how affordable everything is. I go to the student cafeteria, order some random food, pay less than a dollar! And more often than not, it is pretty good. And when Im in the mood for a treat, I will go to the dozens of restaraunts around campus, pay maybe 2 or 3 dollars, and have more delicious food than I could possibly. Another example is that Im paying about 2o cents an hour to use this computer at a local computer bar.

So, my chinese is slowly improving day by day. I keep learning new words and try desperately to remember them. Even though 90% of the time I am completely lost in class, every now and then I will understand a concept the teacher is explaining and it is a great feeling. Hopefully, the amount of understanding versus being completely lost will increase as time goes on.