Today has been a very long day, but we don't really have homework besides studying for the final so I finally have time to write. Today was the dreaded final speech. Everyone on the NSLI-Y scholarship needs to give a 5-7 minute. You can easily go over. Mine was only short enough because I cut my favorite two paragraphs, but they would have needed a lot of editing anyway.
How did I know they needed editing? Because last night my host mother and I sat down and went bit by bit through my speech. I definitely had a lot of grammar errors that I hadn't even thought about. I'm so happy we did it. My two favorite paragraphs comparing the Gao Kao (my topic, the college entrance exam) with the Tang dynasty Civil Service Exams (Oh Mr. Bolin wouldn't you be proud?) didn't translate right. Instead of spending the extra time trying to fix them, I just cut them, and it was a good thing I did, because I was well within the time limit.
Despite being a bundle of nerves all day, I think the speech went well. Well, definitely better than I hoped and my classmates seemed to like it. This final speech was a big deal. Throughout our stay here, we've had to interview locals and write it. Sometimes the speeches are even recorded and placed in our State Department file. Yes I have a State Department file. I'm officially a civilian Ambassador and represent the United States abroad. (That's almost a word for word quote from Pre-Departure Orientation).
So with all the pressure on the speech, I was beyond nervous. I was ready to throw up all over my carefully written notecards. I was seriously considering skipping lunch and just practicing continuously. I didn't because a) I don't have that much of the gourmet Chinese cafeteria food left and b) Wei Lao Shi would probably drag me to the cafeteria to eat anyway. I was also running on less sleep than normal. During break, I almost fell asleep curled up on the spare desks in the back of the room.
I basically walked up to the podium hoping to not completely disgrace myself. I can't even quite remember in those six and a half minutes. I know I messed up a quite a few times. I know I got through most of the first two paragraphs with only a glance at my notes. I know that I had to stopped a few times and take a deep breath before continuing. I also know that when it was over, I was unbelievably happy and just done.
The others students liked it. Or at least they were more then willing to offer me complements. Although I'm not sure if that was because my speech was actually decent or because I was a complete nervous wreck. They seemed most shocked that my speech was "memorized". It wasn't, not for lack of trying, but it still wasn't memorized at least not all the way. During my last paragraph I was clinging to my notecards like a drowning man. I guess I have to thank my years of theatre training. I most not have looked as nervous as I felt.
In other news, I owe everyone a very long post over not one, but two weekends. I'll start with my favorite place in Xi'an. And by favorite place I mean favorite places, because I still can't decide.
On Friday the 25th, my class went to Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan on our afternoon excursion. Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan (or it's weird English name Tang Paradise, which has nothing to do with it's Chinese name) used to be the summer palace of the Emperor but now it's this huge garden surrounding a massive lake. It also has different buildings that were built to look like they're from the Tang dynasty. Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan is incredibly breathtaking.
You might be wondering why I keep writing the fairly long Chinese name. It's actually a funny story. A long time ago on our scavenger hunt around the Da Yan Ta (Wild Goose Pagoda, I think the post is a week of firsts), Noah ran into this old man and asked for directions. Instead of answering normally (or even properly answering), the man yelled back "Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan". A strange man yelling an unrelated place name wouldn't have landed the Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan so deeply in the hearts of the NSLI students. What made the place so everlasting to us was the fact, Noah yelled back and effectively got into a shouting match where only the words "Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan" were said. From that day forward we always spoke "Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan" in a very aggressive manor with a slight Chinese accent. Aaron's really the best at it. Our Chinese teachers laugh whenever we do it, so I don't really think they disapprove.
Once we finally got to the fabled place, we were stuck just inside the doors. There always seems to be an issue whenever we want student tickets. We of course took the time to take photos. Mainly of Aaron as he did this fan dance thing in the middle of the courtyard.
Then we went on a tour of the park. It's so much larger than it appears on a map. It has interesting things though. We stood on a map of China and the Silk Road with our feet on Chang'an, the ancient name for Xi'an. We watched a lion dance in China. We watched Chinese acrobats and played Chinese drums. We climbed on a famous sculpture that had poetry carved into it. All of things were amazing to witness, but they still weren't my favorite part.
After the group left, I stayed in the park. I was going to walk to the Grandparents house from there. I wasn't sure if there was electricity and I wanted to explore more of the park. It was really luck that I found it. I had spent a long time sitting between a misting waterfall and a snack cart. I actually bought some Sui Man Tang (sweet fruit drink that's incredibly common and I think really helps with the heat) and just sat there. Well sat there and took a few Wai Guo Ren pictures. Eventually though I left, I just walked down a path I knew I hadn't been down yet and hoped for the best. I definitely got it. There was a bridge and a little footpath that led to a beautiful little hideaway area. With hardly anyone there and the soft bubbling of the creek and waterfall, it was so peaceful. I sat there and I just wrote in my notebook. I was disappointed when I finally had to leave.
I really got lucky that I even have pictures of this little hideaway. My camera died halfway through the tour (since I charge it once a week, the Thursday before excursions and I couldn't for obvious reasons). I decided that I might be able to get more photos if I took out the battery for a few seconds. I was able to trick my camera into taking just a few more pictures.
Thankfully that night we had electricity.
My other favorite place I discovered this Sunday (the 3rd). As it was our second to last weekend in Xi'an (but really basically the last because this upcoming weekend will mostly be spent packing), we all decided we wanted to do something big.
I ignored what the group was doing on Saturday in favor of making Jiao zi with my family and playing Ping-Pong. Making Jiao zi was a lot of fun. It was also amusing because while mine weren't that bad, Katie's managed to be almost double the size of everyone else's. A remarkable feat when you realize we all used the same amount of dough and she often put less stuffing in then everyone else. In the pictures that go along with this I can attach the game "Guess which Jiao zi was made by an American?"
I'm also surprisingly good at Ping-Pong. We played it a few times in Middle School, but I hardly ever got to actually play. There weren't quite enough spots for everyone to play at once so I just watched most of the time. Because I couldn't explain this, I told my family I had never played it before. I'll do that occasionally. They won't completely understand the point I'm trying to make but they understand enough of it. I do the same thing with Chinese so I think it's a pretty even trade off. (They also think I share a room with Melissa. I tried to say when I was little, but they think I still share a room. Now that I do know how to explain the idea, I don't want to go back and correct myself. It's easier sometimes to just let things slide.)
The special Chinese way to hold a paddle is really weird. I had the hardest time getting it at first. Candy would literally have to position my hand on the paddle. The other people playing with us (my host mother's friends from college and their son) were all using the western grip (that actually made sense). I'm probably better using the traditional or "right" grip, as Candy would say. I'm actually better at Ping-Pong than Candy is, which I find really funny. I mean there are Ping-Pong tables everywhere in China. Aaron did his presentation on the elderly of Xi'an and he has so many pictures of eighty something year old people playing Ping-Pong, because it's good for their bodies ("shen ti hen hào").
Okay, I know I set the framework for this post by talking about my favorite places and then took my sweet time getting to the point. My other favorite place was a little calligraphy store in Hui Ming Jie (Muslim quarter). The Muslim Quarter is amazing in its own right but this one little shop took the cake. The Muslim Quarter has the best food and all of the best bargaining in Xi'an. It's basically a really good place to spend all your money. I spent more in one morning there than I did on the first four weeks of the program, which really wasn't that hard and it was totally worth it. (It was a good thing that basically all I did on Sunday the 27th was exchange money).
I went with a group of my friends. I'm sure the only reason my host family let me go was because we would have adult supervision. Makea's grandmother lives in Beijing and her mother was a Chinese immigrant. They both decided to come visit her in Xi'an. She wanted to show them the highlights of the city. It really worked out nicely.
The five other students and I took a bus and the subway to the Muslim Quarter. It was kind of hard for Makea's grandmother to walk so they took a taxi. I absolutely love the subway. It's actually so easy. All the machines are self-service and they also have an English setting, which I'm proud to say I didn't have to use. The metro lines also have the bus stops written in pinyin below the characters so you always know where you are. It's just incredibly easy to use when the ticket machine doesn't break down on you (but that's a story for later).
We met Makea's family at the McDonalds by the Drum Tower. The Mai Dong Lao was interesting. We must have looked so incredibly American but it was still good to see. I didn't buy anything. Everything was pretty similar to their US prices, which of course made everything look outrageously expensive. The place did smell good though. I've decided that one of the first things I want to eat when I'm back home is a hot fudge malt and onion rings from Annie's.
I had been to the Muslim quarter before although I hadn't realized it. We had eaten there once for dinner. We just hadn't ventured down the bargaining street. Street is a generous term. It's more of an alley. An alley crowded with merchants that pesky motorcycles will occasionally drive down.
I'm not all that great at bargaining. Especially at the beginning of the day. I'll be honest I was pretty awful. I bought a silk scarf for 80 Yuan. I thought I did decently. I mean I did lower the price almost 50 Yuan. To prove a point, Alex then found another merchant selling scarfs and the starting price was 20 kuai lower than the other scarf's final. We bargained it down to 30.
You have to make some mistakes to get better though. The first time Alex bargained he bought a fancy chopstick set for 100 kuai. (Kuai and Yuan are the same thing. It's just you say kuai and you write Yuan. I may alternate between the two because with each item I had to bargain the price down using the word kuai, but I'm writing this so I should probably use Yuan.) I've seen more Wai Guo Ren here than anywhere else, well except Bing ma yong (the Terracotta Warriors) but that doesn't really count. Most of them have no idea how to bargain. They just point at something. The merchant types the price on a calculator. The wai guo ren gapes at the price and sets the thing down. They then turn to walk away and the merchant shouts in odd English then, absolutely determined to make a sale. It's no wonder why one of the first discounts they always give is because "you speak good Chinese".
Part of the problem I have with bargaining is that you have to be mean about it. You can't hesitate for a second. You have to continue to push your absolutely outrageous price until they crack. If you stop to consider their price, you might as well just walk away, because then you're done you can't get it any lower. The merchants try to give you sob stories about how they're never going to be able to survive on this money and that you're breaking your heart. You can't let any of this deter you though. You just have to continue to push.
Because of this relationship with the vendor, you don't really get to really communicate with them about anything besides prices. That is except for at my favorite place. It's a little shop closer to the end of the alley. It's run by a woman named Helen. Helen is a phenomenal woman. She does all the calligraphy and painting in the shop herself. She also wants her art to be affordable to as many people as possible so she offers good prices without the need to bargain. That's an incredibly good thing, because I wouldn't be able to bargain for these masterpieces. I wouldn't be able to degrade her work at all.
Also, Helen is such an incredible person. Alex, Katie and I talked to her for almost two hours. Helen can speak pretty good English, but we mainly spoke in Chinese. She would just clarify trickier things in English after we gave her blank stares. She would then teach us how to say the word that gave us trouble. Helen has been running her little calligraphy shop for almost ten years, since her father died of cancer. He was her inspiration although he didn't finish teaching her. She is also a strong Christian. One side of her shop is calligraphy bible phrases. She also gave us all "Pray for China" calligraphy sheets because she had enjoyed talking to us so much.
I'm sorry if this section sounded a little odd. I literally fell asleep on my computer midway through. Tuesday was definitely a long day. But I did love Helen and her shop. It was especially interesting to watch her write right in front of us. Alex wanted one that said, "Knowledge is Power." We all walked out of their with our wallets considerably lighter and our bags full of calligraphy.
I'm only going to go into detail about the piece I got for myself. I had searched the store top to bottom trying to figure out what I liked best (an incredibly difficult prospect). I finally did find one at the very back. The image is of two ibises playing in the snow. There are all these blue pine trees behind them. The verse is John 3:16. What's really special about the scroll was something after I bought it. Helen's father made the scroll right before he died. It was one of the last ones he finished. Helen actually kept it to herself for nine of those ten years. She eventually put it back out for sale but put it at the back so a special person could find it. I guess I'm that special person. The scroll was a thing of beauty by itself but with the story it's an absolute treasure.
After our adventure in the calligraphy store, Katie and I shared a bowl of Biang Biang Mian, the signature noodle of Xi'an. The noodle is famous because it is the most complex character in the entire Chinese language. I'm not sure why though; Biang essentially translates to wide. The bowl was absolutely huge and we comfortably ate our fill. We sat across from a Chinese teacher on vacation from a province by Sichuan (the extremely spicy food province). We had an interesting conversation about China. It was incredibly satisfying to be able to have a complete conversation in Chinese and really understand.
On the way back from the Muslim Quarter, we experienced some problems. It was very busy at the metro station (not nearly as busy as Wednesdays at 6:30 but that's a different story). The lines surrounding the self-service machines stretched on endlessly. When Katie and I finally got to the front of the line, the machine broke, keeping my 10-Yuan locked inside. Thankfully as if summoned by our distress, Olivia, Makea and Jonathon showed up. This was really a miracle because we had left them almost four hours earlier. They also speak much better Chinese than we do. Jonathon was able to help us get the help of an officer and the officer got us tickets back to Xiao Zhai. While this happened Olivia and Makea ended up just buying us tickets as well, so I have an extra ticket for a scrapbook or something.
We then walked for about two hours to get home. We couldn't find a taxi and we're still incapable of reading the bus signs. I easily navigated us home using the Da Yan Ta and the Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan as landmarks. It just took a really long time. We were disgustingly sweaty when we got home.
I know I haven't quite covered everything (I had so much to cover, I just started with an intriguing subject and worked from there) but I need to study. So here's a condensed version.
Friday 7/25: Da Tong Fu Rong Yuan
Saturday 7/26: My host Mom, Candy, Katie and I went to Da Ming Gong, an ancient palace, that has different activities like pottery and mock archeological digs to help you feel more connected. We had a really awesome tour guide for the first part. When she didn't know the word for something, she would make a pop culture reference. That's how I learned that phoenix was feng. We also watched this really weird video where two men competed for the heart of the princess. We came in halfway through. The weirdest part was after when Candy and my host mom were asking which man was handsome by western values. Neither. They both were very hairy and their faces were set in grimaces almost the entire movie. Neither also ever cared what the princess actually wanted.
Sunday 7/27: I literally relaxed around the house and worked on my speech. I also changed some US money. The exchange rate is so good that I could make it rain.
Friday 8/1: Tourists galore at Bing ma yong. Bing ma yong while cool isn't all it's cracked up to be. I might just have been when we went. The place was crowded and unbelievably hot (and I'm talking unbelievable after four straight days over 102.) You also are pretty far away from the statues. I've seen them better at the MIA (Minneapolis Institute of Art) or the Shaanxi History Museum (Shaanxi li wu bo wu guan). Amanda joked that it would be worth becoming president just to be able to walk among the soldiers. She was referencing First Lady Michelle Obama's recent visit. (There are so many better reasons to one for President) We did accomplish one of Michal's goals. We took selfies with the Terracotta warriors. Also as much as I'm complaining, they were still pretty cool, just because of the sheer size of the operation. They're still not done excavating.
I think I've covered Saturday and Sunday decently.
Friday night I'll try to post about this week. I've been busy. Monday, I went to a Buddhist Temple and back to the bookstore. Today, I went back to the Muslim Quarter and visited the Great Mosque. I was there when the alarm sounded for sunset prayers so I got to watch those too. Friday is the Final. So I'll be offline until Friday.
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