About Me

Greeting strangers! If you are reading this right now you most likely fall into one of these categories: family, friends, teachers, or fellow Juniata College students. If you are not one of the above by whatever misfortune or luck you have stumbled upon a college's student study abroad experience in China. Please stay and enjoy. My name is Jasun. Now to interject two disclaimers. One, this is my blog and I will speak my mind and sometimes, unfortunately, this may cross your comfort's threshold - and for that I apologize. Two, as much as this blog belongs to me, I am writing for you. As such, if there are any questions (I mean any) that pop into your head that you want answered just send me an email at Moyjf08@juniata.edu and I'll answer it on this blog. One more thing. I can't seem to upload pictures here. So I will most likely be uploading pictures on my facebook account. If you are interested in seeing these pictures and are not a facebook friend by all means add me - just leave message saying something of the sort that you follow this blog if I do not know you. Best wishes throughout the year, and I hope together we make it a fun, educational, and safe year.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Day 4 - The Day the Earth Stood Still

So today probably felt like the worst day ever. I came to the realization that my camera was missing. Sometime in between the end of the foundation festival and my return to the hostel my camera either fell out of my pocket or someone took the liberty to take it from my pocket, my thoughts points to the latter.

After beating myself up, I resolved to put in time and effort to try and find it. I decided to go to the Public Security Bureau (PSB) to report the theft and file a claim in the rare offshoot that they find it. I got an interesting perspective of how the PSB works now. For better or worse, I an unfamiliar with our own US police force procedures; but I think that it is safe to say that the PSB is more bloated and bureaucratic that our own system. It took about 2-3 hours to complete the entire process. First I went to one police station, where I luckily found someone who spoke English. After a few phone calls, she escorted me to another police station where I filled out one form. After that was done and a few more phone calls I was shuttled to another, even larger, police station – about 25 floors of pig country. There I filled out basically the same form and was finally on merry way.

Instead of being emo and depressed in my room, I decided to continue with my plans and decided to check out the Muslim Quarter – even though I wasn’t really in the mood. I got a few snacks, Muslim bread and lamb is super delicious, and then left. I just couldn’t really get into the right mindset thus diminishing the magic of the Muslim Quarter, guess I’ll substitute it for visiting a Muslim country in the future. For dinner I decided to treat myself to some American food and went to the Hostel’s restaurant and received a fairly delicious BBQ chicken sandwich. Oh how I miss the starch-based foods.

After dinner, I was able to skype with my parents and let them know what happened. I’m going to take a moment to embarrass them. Because true be told, I felt quite miserable after losing my camera, unsure of what I should do, thinking about returning to Dalian. But from comforting and encouraging words from my folks I was able, and decided, to persevere and continue with my trip. It was a pleasant, and welcoming, surprise that instead of anger, disappointment, and/or the “teasing jests” I was received with anxiety and worry. It is quite difficult to express in words without teasing my folks, but it was one of the few times I appreciated everything my parents said – not that I don’t appreciated the constant nagging and whatnot, though I know you mean well…

In better spirits after comforting words from my parents I just chilled in my room and watched some of the Australian Open. The Chinese star Li Na is making waves and history, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Tomorrow to Kunming we go.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Day 3 - Baked earth and a glass of water

It was an early morning, the tour group planned to leave at 8:30am. The terracotta soldiers were amazing, the detail was incredible. What was quite interesting that I didn’t know was that the site is actually an ongoing archeological dig site. The workers apparently come in around 6:30pm when everything closes to the public and continue to dig up a never-ending supply of soldiers from the ground. The tour was nice and I’m glad I decided to take it. It gave me a chance to converse with other people in more substantive material, something I haven’t been able to do in a while it seems. Our tour guide was also able to give us some interesting facts about the soldiers which I probably would never have learned on my own.

A few of the facts include:

- Upward curled shoes indicate your ranking – the higher the better; if they didn’t curl at all it meant you were nothing, just an ordinary foot soldier

- Big bellies and mustaches were in at the time representing how handsome you are

- A nail in the sole of your shoe was a sign that you were married

- The ribbons on the archers indicated if you were left or right handed

After we got back I took the rest of the afternoon off to recuperate. Around dinnertime, I headed out to the Big Goose Pagoda – one of Xian’s most pictured landmarks. The area was gorgeous, at night was even better with all the lights. It was already too late to climb up the Pagoda when I arrived, but the real reason I came was because every night they do what is considered the biggest water foundation show in the world. From my comprehensive background in watching water foundation shows, I can guarantee you that this was by far the largest I’ve ever seen. It started at 8:30pm and was still shooting away when I decided to call it a night at 9. All things aside, it was actually really amazing; I think I managed to get a few good pictures and video clips. It’s on every night and free –something quite rare and unusual for China – so this is a must if you’re ever traveling in Xian.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Day 2 - N-n-now that that don't kill me; can only make me stronger

Breakfast wasn’t horrible. They had the three staple foods: eggs, bacon, and potatoes. Drinks were still served Chinese-style. Meaning that they were served hot – so a delicious glass of hot apple juice to start off the day yum yum. I guess I might think differently once I get outside, but my thirst is not thanking me right now.

After a quick trip to the St. Sophia Cathedral and a stroll down Zhongyang Dajie (the main street in the downtown area) it was back to the airport I go. It seems that Chinese New Year is beginning to take effect on transportation. All day at every airport I was at the loudspeaker kept going nonstop announcing delayed flights. Luckily it seemed that my flight wasn’t affected this time around.

So to be very blunt, Chinese travel culture has been frustrating and annoying to no end; and I kinda want to punch someone (Chinese) in the face. I’ve talked about Guanxi briefly before about how Chinese people only help out people they know and are in their circle of trust. But lately, through traveling, I’ve felt that it has moved further and that the Chinese are just plain rude to anyone who they don’t know. Traveling in China will definitely throw away any notions you have of Chinese culture being extremely polite. For instance, when I was attempting to get my carry-on from the overhead compartment, no one could wait 10 seconds and kept pushing me aside so they could move forward into a line that wasn’t even moving yet.

On top of that Chinese people don’t seem to listen. Like is it that difficult to turn off your phone, put your seatbelt on – after the flight attendant has told you 5 times already – wait for the plane to come to a completely stop before getting out of your seat and retrieving your carry-on from the overhead compartment, and not put your carry-on in the overhead compartments in the front of the place. All of this information is said multiple times in CHINESE, so there is without any doubt that they understand. To the Chinese, traveling is like a race – who can be the first one on the plane and the first one off – everyone trying to get ahead of the next person, pushing people down to get on top, etc. I shudder to imagine what would happen if there was ever a crisis like the landing in the Hudson River – I feel like everyone would die because no one would be listening and everyone would be fending for themselves.

Anyways, I arrived in Xian safe and sound at least. I’m staying at the Shuyuan International Youth Hostel. It’s literally right next on one of the Southern gates of the city wall. The building is an authentic ancient Chinese housing complex. There’s a courtyard and everything. In the morning I’ll take pictures.

After settling in I decided to do a little exploring. Inside the city wall is like the downtown shopping area. I was hoping to find a cheap small local flavor restaurant but no luck. Everywhere around me there were McDonalds, KFC, Dairy Queen, Western clothing stores, and the list goes on. I felt like I was back in America.

The only thing of interest that happened was that I got to witness my first Chinese fight. I didn’t even realize it at first. There was a minor car incident in the parking lot; they were still touching together and making a really awful noise. I was curious as to why they hadn’t moved their vehicles at least and decided to walk closer. It took me a moment, but then I noticed something strange. Driver A was in Car B punching Driver B in the face…They were starting to garner a small audience, yet no one in the crowd was doing anything about it. I thought it best to continue on my way. Ironically, at the end of the road there was a cop, but he didn’t have a clue in the world what was going on a few minutes away from him.

I returned back to the hostel and am calling it a night. Apparently, the hostel is offering a tour to the Terracotta soldiers. I think for convenience I’m going to do that tomorrow.

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Quick update of the happenings of Dalian. All the new students have arrived. For official BCA students we got 3 new male students, bringing our total to 6 – 5 guys, 1 girl. None of the new students are from my school. It is a much older group this semester. Two of our new members are 27 years of age. One is actually ex-green berets (Special Forces for those who don’t know) who decidedly got married to a Chinese women – making our final total 7. The other is from Colombia but who decided to do his higher learning study in America. The third is my age and goes to Manchester College. Our semester is finally starting – on Monday to be exact. I’m actually quite excited to get this show on the road. I think that’s it for now. I hope you’re enjoying the travelogues.