A Moment of Reflection
09 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in China
I would like to dedicate this entry of my blog to remembering my year in China and everything I did… It was a great year and I just don’t ever want to forget it
Things I did this year in China
- Arrived in Chengdu, China on August 31st
- Made my first friend in China… Mieko from Japan
- Ate my first fish with the head still on it
- Bought a Chinese cell phone… and a bike that came free with the cell phone… weird BOGO deal…
- Met my family in my first week (Philipp from Germany, Spencer from the US, Nastya from Ukraine, Michelle from the US, Martjin from Belgium/Holland, Tori from the US, Bidur from Nepal, and Weiland from Germany)
- Found Chunxi Lu (Shopping District) for the first time… fell in love
- Went shopping at woman’s market for the first time… bargained in Chinese
- Celebrated my 20th birthday at the Bookworm
- Went to the Sichuan Opera
- Discovered Jin Li Ancient street… <3 Chinese Architecture
- Went to the Chengdu Zoo… discovered how depressing zoos are in China
- Rode the brand new metro line in Chengdu for the first time
- Went to Huanglongxi with my school
- Went to the Panda reserve for the first time… fell in love with the pandas…
- Went to the world’s largest buddha
- Went to Emei Mountain
- Caved and finally got a QQ… instantly became addicted
- Began to volunteer at the Sichuan University Kindergarten… I had 40 students… all 4 years old
- Did horse therapy with Autistic kids
- Threw a surprise going away party for spencer… was a success…
- Danced in the snow (well… flurries that is… that only lasted for an hour)
- Performed for the Sichuan Province Government in their New Year Afternoon Tea Celebration
- Met Luna, my Chinese sister, for the first time at Philipp’s going away breakfast… Best day ever…
- Went on a date… ate silkworms… fail… was quickly followed by a Chocolate binge…
- Went to the Philippines for Christmas and winter vacation
- Celebrated Chinese New Year with Robert and Jennifer and Robert’s family
- Fell in love with eating Shao Kao…
- Got in a new shipment of Americans… along with some really amazing sisters
- Went to Pingle Ancient Town with my Chinese sister, Luna, and American sister, May
- Got hit by a taxi while riding my bike… and lived to tell the tale…
- Met my sweet Lydia… she became my partner in crime…
- Rode a Chinese train for the first time… all 27 hours… all by myself
- Spent 5 days in Anyang city in Henan Province visiting my Chinese brother, David
- Went to the panda reserve for the second time… they looked pretty much the same…
- Biked entirely around the 2nd ring road twice
- Starred in a TV show… to be specific a Jerry springer-esque TV show… spoke mostly in Chinese
- Biked entirely around the 1st ring road
- Experienced the worst weather ever in Chengdu of 8 consecutive hours of rain which forced me to walk bare foot in Chunxi Lu (shopping district)… on my last day of course
- Had a going away dinner with my amazing friends
- Got recognized in the airport by a random guy as Chris from the TV–> last memory in Chengdu
Life Does Not Get Better
30 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in China
Want to see my tv show?
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/qVEfm-EXAkk/
It made the internet… Definitely have a love-hate relationship with technology right now
But, it’s all part of the experience
Overture… Curtain… Lights… This is IT!
30 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in China Tags: Chengdu, China, TV show
So yesterday was the big day… my big TV show premiere…
And of course, I was running around like a mad woman the entire day (like you would expect any less from me)
For lunch, I went to all you can eat sushi… Always a good decision… and then afterwards walked it off at Chunxi Lu, helping Devin do some last minute shopping and what have you…
We ended the shopping adventure at my favorite place… starbucks… the same one I’ve been going to basically all year… they’ve gotten to know me from my ridiculous hours spent studying… They’ve also helped me numerous times when I haven’t understood grammar structures, had no idea what character was in front of me, and when I’ve wanted nothing more than to pull out all of my hair attempting to understand Sichuan Dialect… Thank for your help guys… probably would have thrown a couple textbooks across the starbucks establishment otherwise…
After shopping, I met up with my 朋友 Ben for some Bear-paw tofu and Green beans… ate as quick as possible (although I was still a little full from all that sushi)… and then ran back to my room to change for the TV Premiere…
Arriving at Lindsey’s apartment, I helped her prepare some stuff, put on some make up, and began to answer 100 phone calls as people we finally arriving for the party…
I definitely had over 20 guests in total (Thank you Lindsey for hosting!)… I also had asked everyone to bring a snack to share… Lesson learned, you actually can have too many snacks… I don’t know how, but the coffee table was literally covered with food… A lot of left overs…
But anyhow… 8pm came… it was time for the big moment… but like most Chinese TV shows… the suspense was only heightened by 100 commercials… but suddenly I saw it… There I was… a preview for the TV show that we were about to watch… with my face plastered across the screen… the entire room started to applaud… There was no turning back at that point…
I spent the entire show laughing… it was just too much… Tim told me numerous times that I was officially his heroine… Cyrus and Medeline threatened to share it with the entire UAlbany campus (including all professors that I had once had)… My Chinese friends commended me on my Chinese (although in my opinion my Chinese was awful!)… Needless to say… it’s a moment I will never forget…
Although, I must say… my favorite part… it was not a soap opera… it was played up like “real life”… Jerry Springer style… complete with a hotline in the corner of the screen that people could call if they were having family issues…
Gotta love it
明年我的同屋
28 Jun 2011 2 Comments
in China
Today I had to say goodbye to my roommate
It was not an easy day
An entire group of friends gathered to say goodbye… Right before she got into the taxi she turned to say her last goodbyes… I was doing good at that point… No tears… I was fighting them back… She gave me a hug and says “明年” (next year)… at that point I lost it… I tried to be strong… but when it’s all said and done, I’m awful at saying goodbye…
Thankfully Boem was prepared with the tissues… even though I was crying… I was still holding a lot of it back…
Getting back to my half empty room was when it really hit… she’s really gone… this ends our season as roommates… At that point, there was no holding back…
I’m really going to miss her… and even though I know I will see her again… it’s still so hard…
The Beginning of the Last
27 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
So yesterday started the beginning of my last week in China for this season.
I started the morning out talking to my mama. I can’t believe I’ll get to see her in a week! I feel it has been so long… but I guess 10 months is a pretty long time…
After talking with my mama, I met up with some Chinese friends (Vivian and Kiki) who wanted to hang out with me and have a “goodbye” lunch. So together we went to Qin Tai Road to have hot pot. So much fun… although a strange thing occurred there… As I was sitting there, I suddenly heard someone say my Chinese name. Shocked, I turned to find the tv director 小张 standing next to our table… so weird… half way across the city and in a hot pot place (chengdu has a million of them might I add)… She told me that the TV show had changed dates, so instead of watching it Tuesday, I will be watching it Wednesday.
But anyways, back to the lunch, hot pot was absolutely delicious. However, once again, it’s like living on the TV show Fear Factor. Yesterday’s menu was complete with pig brain.
My friends tried to tell me… “oh it’s like tofu”… but that was definitely a “tofu” I will probably never eat again… definitely way too squishy for my liking… 不是我的胃口… -_-
Well, besides the pig brain… lunch was great <3 I love hanging out with Vivian and Kiki
After eating, we went to 宽窄巷子 to walk around and do a little shopping. I bought a couple last minute souvenirs and we then said our goodbyes… Kiki is off to Guangzhou for work, Vivian is off to England for studies, so I may not see them for a little while 
After our goodbyes, I took off to meet up with some more friends. We were going to the tailor together to pick up some clothes that we had made. I had one dress created; I even designed it… All of our clothes came out amazing… love my tailor <3 she’s seriously amazing…
After getting our clothes, May and I decided last minute that we were going to go see Kungfu Panda 2 at Wanda Plaza at the international theater… What’s better than seeing an American made movie about China in China…. Nothing, clearly… It was soooo good… I laughed the entire time… and especially living in the city where the pandas come from… it just made it that more special
After Kungfu Panda, we opted to go for Japanese… so sushi, bento box… it was an over flow of Japanese food… all under $10… I seriously was having food triples by the end of the meal… So much so that when I got home, I passed out…
10 hours of sleep later, I woke to a beautiful sunny sky… <3 My favorite type of days… I decided to make it a productive one, so I put together some clothes that I wanted to ship via post (clearly have way too much stuff to put it all in my suitcase) and took of for the bus stop. As I was wait for my bus to come, my Thai friends appeared and we ended up chatting a little bit, in our mutual language of course… that being Chinese… When I got on the bus, a boy that I had seen at the bus stop sat next to me… He did not hesitate to start a conversation… He told me that he had wanted to talk to me before the Thai girls came, but he didn’t know that I could speak Chinese. I just laughed and explained that I studied there… It was a little hard to understand him because he was definitely speaking a dialect language, but I don’t think it was sichuan dialect being that I had to ask him to repeat numerous times. At Chunxi Road, I said goodbye and made my way to the post office.
I got everything squared away there and was quite relieved. However, I realized later on in the day, I made a mistake with address… you would think after having lived in the same location for over 15 years, I could remember my own address… It occurred to me that instead of writing Avon, NY… I definitely wrote Rochester, NY… fortunately I put the right zip code… so I’m sure it will make it… I hope….
I got to the bus station to go back to school and wouldn’t you know it… the same boy from before was there… so in the end we talked a little longer and exchanged QQ numbers… funny how life works…
Tonight was my last dinner with my roommate… she leaves for Korea tomorrow… … I threatened to steal her passport but in the end, I think I will lose this battle… So as a fair well dinner, Ji Yea, Eun Jin, and I went for Korean by south gate… I wish we didn’t have such a hard language barrier… but it was really nice nevertheless…
Thanks for being my roommate this year Ji Yea!!! I’m going to miss you soo much!!!!
A Helpful Guide to Understanding Me
24 Jun 2011 2 Comments
in China Tags: Chinese, Simple Chinese Phrases
So having lived in China for 10 months, it only makes sense that in that amount of time my Chinese has improved. However, the downside with this… Although my Chinese is much better than it originally was, my English has gotten much worse… And as a result, for some of the most standard of phrases I naturally say them in Chinese instead of English… which could be a problem in the US… So in preparation for my return, here are the phrase you should know:
1. 谢谢 (pinyin: xie xie… phonetically: sh-eh sh-eh) “Thank you”
2. 都可以 （pinyin: dou keyi… phonetically: dough k-eh ee) This phrase could have different means depending on the situation. If I’m given a question where I have to decide between multiple things, and respond with this phrase, it in essence means “either/anything is fine.”
For example, someone asks “What do you want to eat?” or “Which do you like better?”… with either type of question I could respond with 都可以。
3. 没问题 （pinyin: mei wenti… phonetically: may-when-tee) ”No problem”
4. 没得事 （pinyin: mo dei si…. phonetically: moe day s-eh) this basically means “it was nothing, don’t worry about it”… However, this phrase is actually not Mandarin, instead it’s the Sichuanhua (Sichuan Dialect)…I guess that’s what happens when you live in Chengdu, you start to pick up the dialect.
5. 什么时候 (pinyin: shunme shihou… phonetically: sh-en-m-eh sh-eh hoe) “When?”
6. 不用 （pinyin: bu yong… phonetically: boo yo-ng) This literally translates to “don’t use”… in context, it’s one of the many things you could say in response to someone thanking you… So it’s untone meaning is actually “No need to say thank you”
7. 好的 (pinyin: hao de… phonetically: how d-eh) “ok”
8. 为什么？（pinyin: wei shenme… phonetically: way shun-m-eh) ”why?”
9. 几点？（pinyin: ji dian… phonetically: gee dee-en) “what time?”
10. 请进 （pinyin: qing jin… phonetically: ch-ing gin) “come in!,” usually said welcoming someone into the room.
11. 吃饭了吗？(pinyin: chi fan le ma?… phonetically: ch-eh f-on l-eh ma) “have you eaten?” In Chinese, this is also a question of respect. When you see someone after an entire day of not seeing them, it is respectful to make sure they have eaten or are taking care of themselves, so to speak.
12. 还可以 (pinyin: hai keyi… phonetically: high k-eh ee) Literally means “still can/able,” however, it can be used in numerous circumstances. For example, I have an extremely hard exam that I just took and my teacher asks me how I think I did. In this case, I could respond with this phrase, telling the teacher that I thought her exam was extremely hard and I probably just barely passed it.
13. 我有一个问题。(pinyin: wo you yi ge wenti… phonetically: whoa yo ee ge when-tee) This could have two means, either “I have a question” or “I have a problem.” Majority of the time when I use it, I’m using it in the question aspect; although if talking about coffee, there’s a good chance if I use this phrase, I’m referring to the fact that I have a problem (admitting it is the first step to recovery, right?)
14. 什么呢？(pinyin: shenme ne… phonetically: sh-en m-eh n-eh) “What?”
15. 怎么办？ (pinyin: zen me ban… phonetically: z-eh-un- m-eh b-on) Literally means “How to handle (the situation)?”… In context, it’s used when there is literally nothing you can do about a situation. It kind of says ”What’s one to do?” I personally like this phrase because when you frustrated about a situation you simply can’t control, it’s a nice reminder that there is nothing you can do and you just gotta leave it up to the Big Man.
Well, I think those are the most basic Chinese phrases you will hear me possibly say upon my return. So you now have a week to learn them… ready… set… GOOOO!!!!
Forever 4 Years Old
24 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in China
Today I had to say goodbye to my kindergarten class. They are just so adorable. I wish I could just pack them all up in my suitcase and bring them home. But they have good parents, and I’m sure customs would not approve…
The main teacher, Zhou Laoshi, had me sit in front of the class and let the kids raise their hands and one by one say something to me, or ask me a question. After teaching them for about half a year, one kid still asked what country I came from. I couldn’t help but laugh.
But then there were the kids who wanted to tell me something. One of my girls, stood up and told me that she loved me and wants me to come back. My little boy, who had played peek-a-boo with me at the post office that one day, stood up and told me that he will miss me and welcomes me to come back and see them.
It’s really hard to move on from moments like this. Forty 4-year-old students all telling you that they love you and don’t want you to go home. It definitely breaks my heart a little bit…
Time to Wrap it Up
21 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in China Tags: Chengdu, China, Starbucks, Tests
So 13 more days… can’t believe that my 10 months abroad is so rapidly drawing to an end…
I basically spent this last week living in Starbucks… studying every day for somewhere between 6 and 11 hours. But with all the work I put in, I actually felt pretty good about my comprehensive chinese test and my sichuanese test… both that had been in the same day… Switching from Mandarin Chinese to Sichuan Dialect in only a matter of a few hours is definitely not super easy, but it was still manageable… I’m thinking B’s at least on these tests….
As for the listening/speaking exam, I was not quite as prepared. For one, studying for listening is nearly impossible. However, for the speaking half, the teacher the week before had put us into groups of 7 people and we were told to create a skit about any topic that had to last for 25 minutes… This would have been fine if we didn’t have other exams to prepare for so my group ended up hardly preparing… We met the night before the test and made a brief outline, where we decided we would do a skit about ourselves preparing for our speaking test, but in the end, failing to prepare… basically telling the teacher the true story…. Fortunately our teacher found it humorous… but at the same time, I think we’ll be lucky if she gave us a B…
But no matter what the results are, it’s all in the past. I am done with tests. So in celebration, I went shopping with Devin at Chunxi lu (the major shopping district here). I decided that I should try to redeem my relationship with Starbucks being that it had been a quite bitter relationship the week before, so I opted to get a specialty drink… their Extra Coffee Caramel Frap… However, the second I walked into the starbucks, the worker behind the cash register had already started reaching for the venti size cup, and instantaneously asked “Americano?” I laughed and said no… He seemed a little shocked… so I ordered my frap and went to the pick up area where another worker then inquired “No Americano today?”… Man, one changed order and it’s almost as if the entire establishment has been turned upside down… oh well… 怎么办…
Dear Finals
16 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in China
Dear Finals,
I have spent countless hours studying the last week, and would really appreciate it if you would take it easy. It truly saddens me to say that when someone says “let’s go to starbucks,” I cringe, dreading the fact that starbucks in china=study time. So please don’t eat me alive next Monday. I would like to make it back to America in one piece. It’s bad enough that you took away all enjoyment that I once had in Starbucks establishments. Please don’t destroy my soul too.
Sincerely,
Amanda
P.S. For those of you worried that I’d become less dramatic over the course of my year in china, don’t be alarmed… if anything I’ve gotten worse 
You Never Know What You’re Going To Get
14 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in China Tags: Biking, Chengdu, China, food
I feel like I learn a new lesson every day living here in China.
Yesterday’s lesson? You NEVER know what you’re going to get, so prepare yourself for literally anything.
During my massive study session at Starbucks yesterday, I was feeling a little hungry and didn’t want to pay the prices that starbucks was charging for food. So in my stubbornness, I went downstairs to a “french” bakery. They had what looked like a delicious crepe with “custard and fruit.” It sounded perfect, so I caved and bought it.
However, much to my dismay, it was not exactly what I had been expecting. Instead I opened the crepe to find a hot dog roll inside… inside the hot dog roll was a very very thin layer of what I assumed to be custard and three tiny slices of pineapple…. FAIL!
Well, I guess I should also catch you all up on my life recently.
In saying goodbye to my French 朋友, Josepha, I got to make a new Chinese friend, Venny! She’s a music major at the Music Conservatory near my university, and is looking for a good music school in the US to possibly attend. She told me that she was looking for something a little smaller; near NYC but not in NYC, with a nice music scene; complete with cafes. As she described what she wanted, I just laughed; in essence, she described Eastman. So I’m now helping her look into applying there. Yay for promoting my home city!
Also in recent, I’ve been trying to go for more bike rides around the city. The weather has been absolutely amazing, so I want to take advantage of it. On Sunday, I felt like I wanted some time to hang out with my Best Friend so we went on a bike ride together. About 1/4 of the way around the second ring, I thought to myself, Why not do the entire ring road? So I made it a goal. 20 miles (34ish km for my European friends)… but it was a great time. My friend Devin and I are taking on the third ring (approx 51km or 32 miles) after our exams are done.
As for other things, I have my finals next week; 3 of them. My Mandarin Chinese test and Sichuan Dialect test are both on Monday, and then I have a Listening/Speaking test on Tuesday. So as a result, I’ve basically been living in Starbucks, trying to study as hard as I can.
Well, I think that’s it for now… less than three weeks til I’m home
