week three

Hello everyone!

We're a third of the way through, and life is as busy as ever. Some people feel think time is flying but for me days feel incredibly long. This isn't necessarily a bad thing- I'm just always on the go. Time not spent studying is spent exploring. I have yet to spend an afternoon inside, watching Netflix, though the thought of air conditioning and relaxation is tempting. I also really lucked out with my host mom, she works on campus and constantly invites me to participate in different activities. Most recently we made traditional bracelets, surprisingly similar to the gimp I played with in summer camps growing up.

In class this week we learned about the SARS epidemic, characteristics of famous Chinese cities, and familial relationships. The lesson about cities was very literature-heavy, and was focus on more figurative language. It was a bit frustrating for a lot us because the vocab and grammar structures we were learning didn't seem super useful in terms of everyday life. I feel like my basic speaking ability isn't strong enough to start learning this style of language and I don't think right now I can fully appreciate it's beauty. It's growing on me, though.

Last weekend I visited my high school friends who go to TsingHua (basically China's Yale) and the campus was beautiful. It was like a little city, parks included. Students have to take 10 classes a semester, though, compared to our 4 or 5, and it seems exhausting. I don't know how they do it.

As a group, HBA also visited the Forbidden City. Shout out to our teachers who spent a ton of time researching its history to also act as our tour guides. Emperors' lives were extremely lavish. I've noticed that at these tourist attractions, lots of locals like to take pictures with (or of us) non-Chinese people. In America, given how diverse we are as a population and the sensitivity of the topic of race, I feel like this would be a lot less acceptable. But this isn't America, social norms and the social make-up is different. Some of their notions about foreigners definitely are problematic, but I believe most of the time there are no ill-intentions when they stare and ask for pictures, and that they are genuinely just curious and excited to see people who don't look like them. Maybe I'm being naive. Will revisit later.

Another thing I've noticed: those big restaurants with round tables that can sit ten people each are super wasteful!! I think each time we've gone we've been served at least 20 different dishes, but maybe 30% of the food gets eaten. Eating here is more about the creating the image of bountifulness; seeing a table stacked with dishes of a hundred colors truly is spectacular. But it is also extremely sad that because of this there is so much waste.

Going to start my essay now-- it's a letter I'm writing to my 30 year-old self. Hopefully future Sofia still knows how to read Chinese.

Until next time,

Sofia