Kunming Part 3

So considering the actual date I wrote the last post was a couple weeks earlier than the date it was actually posted, this will actually have been quite a while since last I posted. The reason for the delay was that first of all I had a few circumstances that were keeping me from actually posting, and second of all I wanted to step away from the blog for a bit to give myself some time to figure things out here. I will get into the basics of what’s been going on, and then talk about the people I’ve met.

So…not long after I wrote that last post I got really REALLY sick with the stomach flu. They say that in Kunming it’s very easy to get sick. At the time, that was not what I needed to hear. I couldn’t leave my room for three days because I was dizzy and nauseous the entire time. Ugh. Thank God for antibiotics. If you’re going to a foreign country…BRING THEM. I really don’t know what I would’ve done without them…well, I know what I would have done (go to a hospital)…but that would have just made things ridiculously complicated and no one wants that, especially in a country whose main language you are not fluent in. So I got better…then kept on getting sick on and off for the next couple weeks (but I didn’t need medicine those times). Blah.

CLASSES. The placement test that I took required me to use new vocabulary and grammar that I hadn’t been acquainted with in the past…maybe one or two of them I knew, and maybe one or two I was able to reasonably guess…but ultimately I didn’t do too well on it. So I got put in a lower level class. Mmmmm. -__- (for those who don’t know, -__- is the facial expression of a person that’s frustrated) I thought…well, maybe it’s not that bad because the class levels in China, especially at a university like this one (who has a main focus on teaching Mandarin to international students), will certainly be different from those in America…and the lower levels will probably harder than the lower levels in America. WELL…I went to those classes and though it could be possible that those lower levels are harder, they were still not my level of Chinese. I knew pretty much every answer the teacher asked, and followed about 95% of everything going on in the class. I am absolutely certain that my most recent Chinese class in America (Studies in Chinese Traditions), as well as watching lots of Chinese movies and studying their dialogue, prepared me extremely well for these classes which were done entirely in Chinese.

So anyway, this class was too easy and it would have been wrong to stay in that class. Not to mention the fact that the workload was so simple that I was ACTUALLY GETTING RESTLESS and ready to die of boredom. Can you believe it? The workload was no easier than the homework I’d get in Intermediate Chinese, but considering my current level, it’s just not enough anymore. I was ACTUALLY getting bored. Ha! The reason I’m saying this right now is because I’m actually really surprised at how far I’ve come with Chinese…and I’m happy about it…there was a time when I really didn’t think I was going to get this far. So YAY for me! Win.

So ultimately, I ended up switching classes to the next level up and I must say, this was definitely the perfect fit…very much like the level of classes I’ve been currently taking at CMU. I was with other kids that were dedicated to learning the language and that would certainly challenge me to step up my game, and that’s actually what I wanted. NOT TO MENTION THE WORK LOAD WAS SUPER INTENSE. I just switched into the classes this week, and I have been given three essays to do for next Monday. Not to mention we had a 听写 (vocabulary test where we have to memorize the Chinese characters) pretty much every day. Yikes. But the good thing about it is that it gives me something to do each day because otherwise I would be bored out of my mind (on school days, there’s not much time to do anything else but work…just like it is in America). And it’s not like I have Facebook or Youtube to pass the time away. J HAHAHA. So the main things I have to look forward to after classes is homework and eating dinner (which I’ve come to realize that being away from home has made me appreciate good food WAY MORE). Then of course, when my friends have time, we’ll hang out a bit. (I’ll get into this a little later.) Maybe I’ll try and look for some kung-fu classes. That would be a lot of fun.

What else? People still stare at me. (DISCLAIMER: Now for this next part, I mean absolutely no disrespect, but I want the audience I’m writing to to hear this because I think it’s important that I don’t just write things that are “safe” all the time. I really do want to express my full experience here in the best way I can, not just the nice stuff. And I certainly don’t want to lie about things.) So anyway: I’m not the only black person in Kunming (though those are still few), but it’s possible that I may be the only black female in Kunming…hehe. At first I was a little scared, then I thought it was funny, then I got frustrated. But ultimately something I had to understand is that I really am a rarity. So now when people stare, I’m thinking in my mind, “Congratulations! You’ve found the only black woman in Kunming!” I feel like people could do a scavenger hunt and put me on the list (Find: a hot pink motorcycle, a picture of Jay Chou, one black woman, haha). That’s my way of putting a bold face on things. What can I say? I think the best thing that I’ve done to deal with it is to keep a few particular things in mind:

1.      I look different from the typical people that live in Kunming. Not just a little different, VERY different. My hair is different, my skin is darker, and my eyes are bigger (in fact, my eyes are considered fairly big even in America).

2.      Kunming is a modern city, but it most certainly isn’t catering to the Western world in the ways that Shanghai, Beijing, and other big commercial cities in China do. That’s why I chose this place, I wanted a different world experience and boy I got it. I’m still adjusting even now. Some things that are important to American culture aren’t the same in other cultures, and you better believe it’s true here in Kunming. Because it isn’t catering to Westerners, the culture of the residents is very strong…which means staring at people who are different is just what’s going to happen. No avoiding it. And it will happen until the day I leave. But the good thing about it is I really can gain a perspective of Chinese people in a far clearer way than in Shanghai or Beijing. I can really see how history and tradition have had their effect on the lifestyle and habits of Chinese people…you know, all that stuff they try to teach you in school, haha.

3.      This one they tell you at the study abroad pre-departure program all the time, haha. But it’s true. YOU ARE PRETTY MUCH LIKE AN AMBASSADOR TO WHATEVER COMMUNITY YOU REPRESENT. That could be country, race, heritage, etc. Whatever community you identify yourself with, you are representing them. And if you’re around people that are unacquainted with the community you represent, YOU HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE OR BREAK A PERSON’S OPINION OF THAT COMMUNITY. Now it’s up to each individual to use this information to their discretion, but just be aware that smiling back at a person who stares at you will give them a different impression of you than if you snap at them and say, “What are you looking at?!” So that’s what I keep in mind. I don’t always smile with everyone I see (because there’s a lot and it looks weird if you’re just smiling smiling smiling all the time), but I just try to keep a pleasant-ish look on my face and just not make eye contact…unless they talk to me, and then I smile and try to be as polite as I can.

But yeah…so anyway, I’ve met a few friends here at the school now. But though I know there are Americans somewhere around the campus, I’ve not actually personally met any of them. Hmmm. I’m slightly curious to see what type of people they are and why they chose to come to Kunming. I mean, cuz Kunming is not exactly on the beaten path. There’s always some interesting reason as to why a person ended up in Kunming or how they’re adjusting to the city. Some of the people I met chose Kunming for the same reason as me- they wanted a different experience from a big commercial city. Others kind of got placed here as a result of their scholarship program. Some people (like my Korean roommate, Youya) have really embraced the culture of Kunming and try to make an effort to stay away from things that remind them of home. (The mentality is this: after all, I didn’t leave my country only to find it here in Kunming. I came to understand Kunming/Chinese culture.) Others have a different mentality…they spend a good amount of time around the foreigner districts and talk to foreigners (in their native language) and blah blah blah. Actually, in their case I don’t think it as bad as if it were done in Shanghai, because as I said before, Kunming is not a city that focuses on catering to foreigners. Even if you try, it’s pretty difficult to escape being affected by its culture. You’d have to try ridiculously hard (or just have a whole lot of money) if you wanted to live how you were accustomed to living in your own country (in this case I’m referring to if you’re from a western country).

But all the friends I’ve met are all different from each other, but all pretty awesome. I’ve met people from Russia, Spain, Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland, Holland, Korea, and of course China. There are a ridiculous amount of Thai people here too, but I haven’t exactly talked to them…they tend to keep to their own community from what I’ve seen so far. A lot of them chose Kunming to study because there already was a big community of Thai students there. More about them I can’t really say.

So…now this has been interesting. I told Youya and Shujuan (Chinese pen-pal, in case you forgot) that I could play the guitar. About a couple weeks later, they both got guitars and asked me to teach them how to play! Hahaha. Now I’m teaching them how to play from time to time, and that’s been a lot of fun. Another friend also asked me just yesterday if I could teach her how to play as well. I guess I have my work cut out for me!

Shujuan has been really great with helping me with Chinese. We’ve made this kind of pact that if any of us says something wrong in the language we’re studying (Shujuan is studying English and I’m studying Chinese), we have to correct them. And not just correct them, but explain why it is wrong and break the sentence up so we can see the grammar structure properly. I definitely think we’ve become better friends because of it, because before a million things would get lost in translation.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Yikes I wrote a lot.

Kunming (Part II)

KUNMING (PART II):

So, second day and almost the third day have passed in Kunming now. Already I’m beginning to think in Chinese and wondering if the grammar on this blog is correct. I’m thinking that as time passes, you very well may find that my English grammar may get worse, or you may find that the voice in the posts will gradually change.

I took some pictures of my campus and I think you will find that they are quite similar to the one I posted in my first post. J The campus is relatively small, even smaller than the CMU campus…but there are a lot of students bustling around all the time.

In these past two days, I have gone through the long process of registering for school…in Chinese. Because I am not with a specific program (I’m all by myself), it looks like I have had to personally take care of a few more things than a program would have. (I’m comparing this to my registration experience in Shanghai- which was with a group program- and to accounts that other people who have studied abroad have told me.) It was a bit tedious and very tiring…but to perfectly honest, even though it wore me out like no other (especially after traveling and jetlag and all), I still am glad it happened. It’s like a contradiction, I guess, but whenever I’m in a situation like this where it feels horrible, it also feels really great because I know it’s going to make me better. When I was younger and I played soccer in those long all-day tournaments, I’d wake up the morning dead sore and unable to move…but I’d love it because I knew I’d worked hard and I was getting stronger, haha. So this is kind of a similar situation.

But anyway, the registration process consisted of (here’s a list now):

-          Filling out Registration Forms

-          Taking Placement Test

-          Getting a Bank Card (because I’m a Scholarship Student and get a stipend)

-          Setting up my permanent dorm room (not the one I stayed in the night before)

-          Buying a Chinese SIM card and phone

-          Buying a Cafeteria card and learning how the cafeteria works

-          Getting bed sheets (and a towel) for my room

-          Getting Internet

Then there’s the other stuff that was just for getting situated in my dorm and in Kunming:

-          Getting extra stuff just for living in a dorm (snacks, tissue- SO important because they don’t give it to you freely like in America, trash/trash bags, etc.)

-          Finding out which stores and restaurants were cheapest but also had decent quality products/food

And as I said before, all of this was done IN CHINESE. *overwhelmed sigh*

Now, I did have some help in doing all this…I mean, no one was entirely fluent but for the most part there was at least one person who knew enough English to tell me the words which I didn’t understand. So…basically if I didn’t know as much Chinese as I do right now (and though it’s a lot more than before, I’m still not satisfied), I wouldn’t have been able to work through this process. So that’s something I can be happy about. But on the other hand, there were students to help me with the complicated processes. A student went with me to the bank nearby and helped me set up my bank card…and there were complications because I was an international student, but after a bit of communicating back and forth with the student and the bank employees, everything was taken care of. I met up with my pen-pal Shujuan, and we went to get a phone card…and though there were complications because I had an international phone, after a bit of communicating back and forth between Shujuan, my dad, and the phone store employees, everything was taken care of. It really was these two long processes that wore me out…there was MUCH vocabulary I hadn’t yet learned, haha. Things like “megabyte” and “3G” and stuff  like that.

Now…when I went (with a student who helped me get my permanent dorm room) to the cafeteria to set up my cafeteria card, so…many…people…stared at me. I got my food, but I could feel all the eyes on me. I totally even heard two guys referring to me as I walked right by them. I know it’s simply because they’re curious, but it was a long day and I was very tired. I felt like how someone feels when they’re on a stage and they all of a sudden get stage fright and run off the stage. I DIDN’T RUN. I kindly asked my friend if we could eat outside the cafeteria and enjoy the nice day. Well…not exactly…but I did suggest we go outside and so we did.

I got set up in my room…which is quite different from a dorm room one would find in America. For those who went to Shanghai with me, let’s just say I’m not living in the SISU Guesthouse. The room is probably about half the size of a typical American dorm room…and the bathroom is directly to the back. Here’s a picture:

Those are lofts at the top there, and the desk is underneath, and the closets are behind the ladders you see. (And the bathrooms use stoops rather than toilets.) ANYWAY. The dorm I’m staying in is for international students…I’m not sure how many of these international students are Western, I haven’t seen too many walking around in here (literally like one or two). I suppose many of them are staying in the International Student Hostel, which looks a lot more like the SISU Guesthouse…big room, two beds (on the ground), vast windows, AND TV. But you have to pay a lot more for that, and for myself I don’t find it necessary. Most of the international students found in this dorm are from surrounding Asian countries…Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, etc. (From what another student told me, the Thai students like dogs and so they brought dogs with them. I see the dogs chilling out on mats outside the dorm rooms because they’re not allowed inside the rooms. They’ll walk in and out of the dorm…and they’ll bark at night. Because the entire place is tile and the walls are bare, their barking echoes a lot…but I’ve gotten used to it.)

But anyway, my room is a room for two people. Some of the international student rooms are for four people. If you look at the lofts in the picture, the two other loft platforms are cut out of the picture. So there are four total- two for tossing our suitcases and stuff (I call it my attic), and two for our beds. In other rooms, those two spaces for we use for storage would be beds for two more students. And get this: my roommate told me that in the Chinese students dorm (native Chinese), there are eight people to a room.  So those places where you see desks and chairs would be beds for more students. Interesting…very interesting. But I like my current situation right now because it’s different than what I’m used to. It adds to the adventure. I always believed that a situation is never as bad as a person imagines it to be, because when it happens…you just deal with it…you somehow can and will find a way. People have been doing it since the dawn of time. But if you run away from something when you had the opportunity to face a fear, or face an inconvenience, you may never get that chance again…and you will never conquer that fear. And that’s no good, is it? Anyway…moving on.

Side Note: I would like to take this moment right now (before I forget) to inform certain persons (you know who you are) of something they might find interesting: as I was walking down the street at one time, I saw a lovely picture of Donnie Yen J posted on a nearby bulletin. I wanted to take a picture, but I was with others and we could not stop.

Soooooo…after all the registration process and getting most of the difficult stuff out of the way, I was dead tired and REALLY overwhelmed. More so than the first night. I had been throwing myself head first into all the tough situations, putting a brave face on and trying to learn from them. But it definitely drained me. Around 6 pm, I laid (lied? lay?) down on my bed just to get a breather. I was thinking about things…and I was REALLY upset. I kept on thinking…I can’t speak this language, just look how I did today! So…much…vocabulary I didn’t know. So much grammar I didn’t know. I kind of wanted to cry. But I didn’t, of course…because that’s…lame. Ok…maybe I shed one small tear. But only one. No more. Hehe. Ultimately, I feel asleep and I didn’t wake up until 7:00 the next morning. Ha! I guess I needed it.

The next day was much better. I mean, there was still a lot of Chinese, but it was okay. I think what happened was that I just needed time to get over the…culture shock? Yes I believe that’s what it was. I didn’t need much time…just a day or two. In fact, even the very next day I didn’t feel awkward when people stared at me. AND THERE WERE MANY. Now I just find it funny. HAHAHAHA. I’ve gotten over my nerves. They can stare all they want now. I just try to look friendly and not make eye contact with them.

This post is already quite long…so I’ll save talking about my adventures with Shujuan and Youya (my roommate) for next time. J