I love you, my dear. Will you marry me? [55-59]

My last day working at CIIC was also the first day that I wore a tie in China. The interns gave a presentation in front of our department directors, Celine and the scholars that would be visiting UNC and ASU next year. Here are some pictures from during and after the presentation:








So here’s the deal about this internship: it’s the reason I am in China, so I am very grateful for the opportunity. I am so thankful to have met Celine, Pang Li, Catherine, Ada and everyone else who welcomed me at CIIC and helped me accomplish more than I thought I would. However, I feel like I have gotten more out of just being in China and experiencing life outside of the office. That leads me to a tough decision I had to make this weekend.

Pang Li invited me to his best friend’s wedding in Hebei Province, and I accepted without question. It came to my attention Thursday night that the party that Celine had been planning for the interns was also Saturday. I felt really bad missing her party because I love Celine, but I knew that going to a Chinese wedding was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think I made the right choice: the weekend was amazing.

Pang Li, Annie, and I left after work on Friday. We took a train (my first in China!) to Pang Li’s hometown – Gaobeidian, Hebei Province. My first impressions of this place were all good – cheap cab rides, 100% more trees than in Beijing, and the warmest welcome I’ve ever experienced from Pang Li’s family. His family (mother, grandmother, aunts, cousins, etc.) lives on a ranch, for lack of a better word. We got a short tour and then ate dinner which Pang Li’s mom made with the vegetables from the family garden. It was delicious, and the noodles were the best I’ve ever had. I was fully prepared to stay the night in one of Pang Li’s family’s rooms, but he surprised us by telling us that his “rich cousin” had booked us a hotel room at the best hotel (and the tallest building) in the town. When we got to the hotel, we found out that his cousin had actually booked us each a hotel room – so I had a huge bed and a shower (with a curtain!!!) all to myself.



On Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel (sadly, all Chinese food – not the Western-style breakfast I was hoping for) and walked to the restaurant (yes, restaurant) where the wedding was being held. There was a huge, tacky blow-up archway, fireworks and confetti when the bride and groom pulled up. The whole wedding was a spectacle, complete with pink and red fake flowers, a red carpet, and other (pink and red) decorations. We sat at a table with Pang Li’s friends and watched the show unfold. Chinese weddings are very different for many reasons, but the most being the fact that the couple is already legally married by the time of the ceremony. In fact, there are sometimes two or more ceremonies – one in the groom’s hometown and one in the bride’s hometown. Also, most couples hire a wedding company to perform the ceremony. The host of this wedding stole the show, in my opinion. He had everyone laughing, clapping and even shouting (still not sure what this was about). There were some rituals that I have never seen before – pouring wine in a cascading tower of glasses, bowing to the parents, almost kissing the bride… more than I can post in a blog.




The ceremony was followed by lunch – which was convenient since we were already seated at tables with lazy susans in a restaurant and all… The men at the table wanted the meg [uas] to drink some baijiu, but I could barely let it touch my lips. I seriously don’t know how they drink that stuff. Pang Li probably had a little too much because, as he explained it, guests at the party prove their friendship to the bride and groom by staying longer and drinking more.

The bride was beautiful and she had two wardrobe changes. The groom spoke some English and even incorporated it into the wedding (see blog title). He had his Ph.D. and even published a book in English.

I took the best nap ever at the hotel then met up with Pang Li and his friends for [chaun’r] (barbecue) and pijiu. It’s amazing how much you can enjoy someone’s company without speaking the same language. We had a lot of fun, ate everyerything imaginable barbequed (the fish tasted like candy!) and supposedly finished 100 beers before leaving for KTV (!!!). It’s the Chinese version of karaoke, but so much better. The best part is you get a personal room instead of embarrassing yourself in front of everyone in a bar. Pang Li’s friends rocked out to some Chinese music and picked out Lady Gaga (surprise, surprise) for Annie and me to perform. Unforgettable.

[ktv pics to come]

We slept late on Sunday, and we ate at a dumpling restaurant before Pang Li took us back to his family’s ranch. This time we took a proper tour of the place (with sunlight). Besides the garden, his ranch had a fishing pond, chickens, rabbits and Tibetan dogs (AKA monsters). His grandmother was the sweetest person I have ever met. She kept inviting us (through Pang Li’s translation) to “stay for a few days.” His little five-year-old cousin was the cutest kid ever. He was making forts out of his aunt’s traditional Chinese wooden furniture and silk pillows. The whole family was adorable and made me hope that sometime in the future I will take Pang Li’s grandmother up on her offer.

Pang Li’s friend who also works in Beijing gave us a ride home. The rest of Sunday was spent resting and planning our first official day off of work.

After being treated to an amazing weekend by Pang Li, I didn’t feel guilty going shopping the next day. I felt guilty afterwards. Annie and I went to Panjaiyuan Antique Market, where I bought a bunch of really cool but pretty useless souvenirs. However, I’m pretty happy with a red Buddha bracelet and a framed dragon shadow puppet that I bought. I also picked up a pair of prescription sunglasses from Glasses City.

Since Annie and I missed the dinner party with Celine, we took her out to eat Monday night. Well actually, SHE took us out. She took us to a fancy Chinese restaurant, where the food was amazing. It was great to catch up with Celine – I will surely miss her.

On Tuesday, I spent most of the day with my Chinese friend, Jesse, or Jessie, I should say. She was an economics major in college and idolized a stock trader named Jesse Livermore, so she decided her English name would be Jesse! I told her that J-E-S-S-E is how a man spells the name, but a woman can also have the name if she spells it with an "ie" or a "y." She was happy to change her name to be more feminine. Anyway, she took me to a really good Chinese place for lunch. It had lots of pastries, but we got noodles, peanuts, Korean vegetables, pumpkin porridge and sweet pea pudding. It was all delicious. Next, she took me to a tailor to get sized for a suit. This is one thing that I have been told I should buy in China. I hate dressing up, and a large part of me hopes that I don't have a job that entails wearing a suit often, but at least now I will have one if I need it. And it will only cost me 420 yuan (US$62).

The American Jesse came into Beijing Tuesday, so Pang Li took us out to a place that served Sijuan (sp? Also, not to be confused with Sichuan) food, a cuisine indigenous to a region of northwest China. It was one of the best meals I've had in China, and the black beer was great. What would I do without Pang Li??

Next up – vacation!

Safety is heavier than Mount Taishan [23-25]

My frustration phase has come and gone… for now. Mainly because I’m super excited for this weekend – I won’t give too much away, but it involves excellent landmarks, fireworks, and PANDAS!

Dr. Charlie Tuggle is visiting from UNC for a few weeks. He is a broadcast journalism professor and seems like a cool guy. He is giving a few lectures, one of which I went to on Monday, on video journalism. China.org.cn is a good news website but could use some improvement. Video is one thing that is becoming more prevalent in online journalism, so it will be good for them (and me!) to learn about how to effectively capture a story through film.

On Monday, the UNC interns had our last swim practice. I think this is where my frustration set in. After a week of training, I still wasn’t feeling confident at all.

I took it easy on Tuesday and finished a book that my mom gave me, Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It was an emotional read, and I definitely recommend it.

Wednesday was the big day, and I have to say, it went much better than I expected. We arrived at the indoor pool at about 8:15a.m., but our first event, the individual 100-m race, wasn’t until 10a.m. We were the ONLY white people there, and I felt extra white, standing there in my skimpy bathing suit with everyone staring.

The men’s 100-m was split into two heats. Brian was in the first one, and he got third place! I was in the second heat, racing against ONE other person. I had a great start, but got extremely tired about 60 meters in, and slowed down, but still beat the guy in the lane next to me. When times were posted, it turned out that I beat Brian by a HAIR, and got third place overall!

There were barely 15 minutes between the individual race and the relay race. My Chinese teammates offered me Red Bull and Dove bars between the races, which I declined for obvious reasons. Brian was the first leg of the relay, I was second, and our Chinese co-workers and teammates were third and fourth. We only had to swim 50 meters this time, which was much more my style. We were already in the lead with Brian’s start, but according to Courtney, I helped separate us from the others even more with my 50-meter swim, and we eventually won our heat! We ended up in second place, and the girl’s relay got first. Go CIIC! I was so happy to have that over with.



We celebrated with hot pot for lunch, and it was delicious. We all had our individual pot of boiling water with things like lemon, mushroom, and cilantro flavoring the water. The Lazy Susan was full of meats and veggies, some to be cooked in the pots and some to be eaten raw. My favorite was actually a salad with pig ears. Another highlight was rice-covered sausage dipped in garlic sauce (Chinese pork-rinds, if you will). After a few toasts and way too much food, we headed back to the office for work.

In the afternoon, I attended Dr. Tuggle’s second lecture. I enjoy being able to learn things that I cannot fit into my schedule at UNC. Just trying to make the most of my experience here in more ways than one!

After work, Annie’s Chinese colleague, Swatch, took us to the bus stop by work where we rode the bus to the subway station so that I could buy a transportation pass that works for the subway and the busses. It felt great to finally conquer the bus route, even if it was only once. It only costs 0.4 kuai to ride, which will save us LOTS of money in the long run!

We took the subway to Beihai Park, where we met Chris, my conversation exchange partner. He showed us around the lake, which had pretty scenery and was bustling with activity. We had some great conversations about national identity, learning languages, and personal tales. Chris took us to a Chinese restaurant that he really liked, and once again, we had great food. Sweet and sour pork, beef stir-fry, rice and Cokes. He finally let me pay for something, so I felt better about things. Such a nice guy!

Chris accompanied us to Salud, a bar near Keith’s apartment, where he left us and we met up with Keith and Ithzel. The bar was cool, with two floors, a live band (French, maybe?), and strong margaritas. We will definitely be returning with our bus passes for tapas.

We successfully took the last bus home and got in just in time before the gate closed. I needed a good day like this one to put me in a better mood. I have a month and a half left here, and I don’t want it to go any faster than it is!

Just dance, gonna be okay [Random]

People from home keep asking me how things are going over in China. I wish I could say that everything is great and I love my life here, but right now, that is not the case. Everything seems to be frustrating me. I know that lots of people go through this when they go abroad, so I'm not too concerned, and I think it will pass. And I know that there are lots of less fortunate people going through really tough things right now... but when I think of the opportunities I turned down for this internship... grr. For now, I'm going to get my frustrations out via blogger.

I work for a news website. You would think that a company whose main business element comes from computers would have a good server, internet connections, and equipment. This company does not. Most of today's relevant content comes through the internet, you don't need to be a journalism major to figure that out. Why, then, does CIIC not have proxies installed on every computer to get around censorship? Yes, we are a government-run company, but I'm sure the government has ways around the blocked sites. Otherwise, how would they know what to block? I sometimes have no access to most of my friends at home, no way to upload pictures, and no way to update this blog. Frustrating. I've had IT fix my computer more times than I can count on one hand by now for various reasons. The printer won't work, or the internet won't connect; it's always something. I still haven't found a fast way to upload pictures. So frustrating.

I'm in BEIJING, CHINA, and I'm stuck inside for eight hours a day. Today at work, I had NOTHING to work on. I could be making BANK just being a white person who speaks English in China, but I'm stuck surfing the net aimlessly for hours instead. I could be experiencing things that I might never have another chance to experience. Honestly, the only thing that is keeping me here is that they are paying for my apartment, and I will get to THAT later. Yes, they are letting me report on events around Beijing, but those are mostly on the weekends, which are my only times to travel and sightsee. And they're making me do this stupid swim competition tomorrow morning. I have to get to work almost an hour early. Am I getting paid overtime for this? Nope. Frustrating.

If I could contact only one person from home, it would be a no-brainer. I'd want to talk to my mom. She has yet to figure out Skype, and our schedules put us at a further disadvantage. It has been almost a month, and I have yet to have a conversation with my mom that lasted more than five minutes. Frustrating.

My largest purchase in China has been a gym membership. Come to find out, this gym is a miserable place. No air conditioning, no place to fill a water bottle, no toilet paper in the bathroom, no sense of sanitation, and they play the same five songs all the time. They don't even bother to fix machines that are broken for a couple of days. Frustrating AND a waste of money.

My apartment. OOOOH, my apartment. We started off by finding out that there was no gas in the apartment. Then we figured out that we can get locked IN our apartment. Then we lost all hot water. Now we have a huge puddle of water in our kitchen because the hot water heater, which was JUST fixed, has a leak. The doorbell doesn't work half the time, so I have to scream up in hopes that a roommate is home and left a window open. All of these repairs are coming out of our utilities budget, which is apparently almost depleted. I don't own a key. We share two keys between five people. The gate is locked at midnight, so we have to climb a fence to get in or risk being yelled at by our landlord for waking him up to let us in. Just damn frustrating.

There's so much more that I could rant about, but I can't even post here because of people who might be reading this. Hoping I feel better about all of this soon.

Prologue

I guess I should explain what I'm doing in Beijing.

I have an internship with the English Department of the China Internet Information Center (China.org.cn), a news and travel website. Myself and four other interns from North Carolina will be editing articles that have been translated from Chinese to English and pitching ideas and hopefully writing and publishing some of our own stories.

How did I get here? UNC hooked me up. I heard about the internship through the JOMC (UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication) News listserv, so I applied. It was supposed to only be open to reporting majors, but I e-mailed Dean Cole and asked him if I could apply because I was very interested. Needless to say, he let me apply and I had an interview with him, Dean Straughn, and Dr. Cloud. I didn't get selected.

Until I e-mailed Dean Cole and told him that I don’t like giving up so easily. I asked him if there was any way that the Center could take one more intern for the summer. Well, persistence paid off, and here I am. They allowed me to have a position if I agreed to go without a monthly stipend. Still worth it (I hope).

Brian, Courtney, and I are the third batch of interns from UNC to do this exchange. Every spring, the Center sends two staff members to Chapel Hill to learn from J-School professors and report back in the summer. They, in turn, pay to house UNC students (and I guess App State students also) for a summer internship.

It's my first time to Beijing… China… Asia. It's the longest I will have been away from North Carolina. I don’t know any Mandarin, and all I have is a Lonely Planet guide book. I'll be here until August 17. Let the adventures begin.