Still Playing Catch Up

Hello all,

So unfortunately I'm still about a week behind on this whole blogging thing. I'm going to try to catch up within the next week or so, if for no other reason than to make sure I'm meeting the 2 post per week average that I'm supposed to be following. For that reason, these next few posts will likely be on the shorter side, but I'll still try to hit on the coolest things going on here in China.

Last weekend we took a trip to the 798 Art Festival in Beijing. Those of you familiar with my tastes in art know that I'm have somewhat of an obsession with graffiti/street-style art, which explains the feeling of being overwhelmed I felt while walking around 798. I have a hard time explained what this "art festival" actually entailed. I guess the best way to describe it is what appears to be a former industrial area that is now covered in graffiti, and features emptied out factory rooms which now hold every type of modern-ish art imaginable.

[interpretation of my thoughts] : THIS PLACE IS TOO COOL.

I don't really know what it is about graff that really gets me going. Too be honest the only reason that comes to mind is that it looks "cool". But I don't really know what that means...

Some people appreciate art for it's historical value. Others appreciate art because it challenges the viewer to make his or her own interpretation. Others still appreciate art because it's just a "sophisticated" thing to do. I've always been a very visual person in terms of learning and understanding concepts, and for whatever reason the shapes that graffiti artists use just really strike me.

I feel like right now I should say something like "So forum, what is your favorite style of art, and why? Leave your interesting or creative responses in the comment section below." Sort of a strange post, I know. That's what happens when you have been listening to dubstep and have about a million things going on in your mind besides blogging. This week is going to be a busy one for me. I'm planning on taking the HSK Test this coming Friday, which is a standardized test that anyone who wants to work in China has to take. To friends and family, don't worry I'm not planning on doing any work in China anytime soon, it's just that HBA offers the HSK free of charge while signing up on my own could run upwards of $100. Besides the HSK, I'll be participating in the annual Beijing Speech Competition, which features students from all the various American summer programs in Beijing and Tianjin. The topic of my speech is my week at the Shaolin Temple and my experience learning gongfu (and here I was thinking high school graduation was the last time I'd have to give a speech in front of a bunch of people).

Anyway hope all of you are making the most of the last few weeks of the summer. I still can't believe two weeks from now I'll be sitting at home in Palatine. I think I'll do another post regarding the whole "time flying" aspect of this trip, so check back for that next time. Until then have a great Sunday.

Cheers,

Jamey

P.S. Check out Facebook for my 798 Art Festival photo album. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

Longest Staircase on Earth (Shaolin Temple Part 2)

A little rock n' roll history for your troubles, the picture to the left was taken at the exact location from which the phrase "Stairway to Heaven" originated. In 1968, Jimmy Page spent a summer in China's Henan province and at the foot Song Mountain's longest set of stairs composed the piece that would later become Led Zeppelin's most celebrated, well-know song.................. just kidding.

On to Part 2 of our (# yet to be determined) part revisitation of my week at the Shaolin Temple. While I absolutely loved learned gongfu, I would have to say the most memorable experience I had was climbing Song Mountain. This mountain range, on which the Shoalin Temple sits, is the central of China's Five Great Mountains. These five, Tai Shan, Hua Shan, Nan Heng Shan, Bei Heng Shan, and Song Shan, are said to be sacred under the Taoist religion, and in the past have served as destinations for pilgrimage. I'm not entirely certain of the role these mountains play in today's Taoism, but the views from the peak and the general scenery certainly seem deserving of the label "sacred".

As evidenced by the picture, I say that we climbed Song Shan in the climbing stairs sense, not the whole rope and carabiner routine. But walking up what I imagine must have been thousands of stairs was no small task, especially having practiced gongfu for six hours the day before. There was a distinct humbling aspect about this experience, as I watched 60+ year-old Chinese women keeping pace with me and the rest of our group, not to mention the absense of sweat on their faces and clothes (I looked like I had jumped in a pool fully-clothed by the end of it). From what one old gentleman told us, it isn't uncommon for him and his friends/family to make weekly trips up and down the mountain. As I spend more time here, it's becoming more and more clear how China has managed to kept obesity in check, despite the efforts of American fast food joints.

As exhausting as the whole process might have been, the landscapes I witnessed on Song Shan made it all worth it. I have no significant complaints about growing up in the Midwest, but that part of the United States doesn't really offer up any great opportunities for witnessing the true power and beauty of nature. To say the least, the views at the peak of Song Shan rendered me speechless. It's still difficult now to put into words my feelings as I stood thousands of feet above sea level, looking out over the mist-shrouded landscape. Contrary to my initial reaction (one of dismay), the foggy atmosphere just added to the almost surreal nature of the surroundings. For those of you who have climbed mountains, I'm sure you understand what I am trying to convey, and for those of you who have not had that opportunity I encourage you to check out the rest of the photo album on my Facebook. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, or as I say, a picture is a good way to distract people from my inability to use words as an effective was of describing my experience...

Anyway that's all for right now. It's actually Sunday afternoon right now, and I'm about to start my third to last week here in Beijing. At this point, as the Light Fellowship people promised, time is really starting to fly by, and I'm going to try my best to really take advantage of the time I have left. Hope you guys enjoyed Part 2 (which may or may not be the last part of the Shaolin trip posts), and I'll see you next time.

明天见！

Jamey

Way Too Much to Talk About (Shaolin Temple Part 1)

So it's already been more than two weeks since my last post (which probably won't go over well with the Light Fellowship people), but you can't blame me because all of last week was spent at the Shaolin Temple, without any internet access. Even so, I have a feeling that had there been an opportunity to get on the internet I still wouldn't have had time to write anything given the nature of my week. I don't really know how to go about chronicling everything that went on, because I think I could literally go on for hours and no one wants to read a timeline anyway. So here are some of the highlights.

Over the course of last week, we visited the Shaolin Temple, Zhongyue Temple, Songyang Private School, White Horse Temple, Tagou Martial Arts Academy, Longmen Caves, and Song Mountain. The picture up above was taken in the monk cemetery that sits next to the Shaolin Temple, and you can check out my Facebook for more pictures of the other destinations. Every morning, we would wake up around 5:30 AM to prepare for our 6 AM morning workout, which was essentially little more than a warmup. Then, after 7:30 breakfast, we would either head off on a trip or begin the real gongfu.

Out of the six full days at Shaolin, we had two full days of gongfu, while the rest were spent visiting the temples, caves, and mountains. The gongfu days were surprisingly difficult. Since I haven't exactly been working out as often as I would like to here in China, my legs were in rough shape after five or six hours of squatting down into the various gongfu "positions". However, I quickly realized that it wasn't brute strength that I lacked, but flexibility. Like many Asian martial arts, gongfu is more about mastering grace, control, and finesse than it is about raw power. To that end, many of the students and teachers at the Martial Arts School were smaller in build than me, but I still wouldn't want to come face-to-face with any of them in a fight. Due to the fact that most of the sports I've played don't place a high price on flexibility, my legs are a little more stiff than I'd like, and at times when practicing gongfu I struggled to imitate the motions and fluidity of our teacher. That being said, I'd like to think I'm always up for a good challenge, and studying gongfu ended up being a truly phenomenal experience.

Right now it's 9:15 PM here in Beijing, and I have yet to start studying tomorrow's new vocabulary. That being the case, I think I'm going to stop here, and save the rest of the Shaolin trip for tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed this little snippet, and I'll get going on Part 2 tomorrow.

Best,

Jamey

The Summer Palace and Lunch with Ducks

Dear Blog,

Can't believe it's already Saturday! It feels like just yesterday that I was uploading all my Forbidden City pictures. Time is really starting to fly here in Beijing... haven't quite decided whether that's is a good or bad thing. This past week we learned an old Chinese saying “时间好像流水一样”, which basically translates to "time passes like running water". The older I get the more that seems to be the case, but I'll save discussing my perception of time for another post.

Today my "brother" and I spent the morning and midday hours with our Chinese family (my brother being Andrew Kang, another Yale kid here in Beijing). As part of the program, Chinese families volunteer to "adopt" two HBA kids for the summer. Andrew and I were lucky enough to have been adopted by the nicest, most giving family in all of China. I feel like I meant to

write about this in another post but I think I ended up just telling my parents when I Skyped with them. Two weekends ago I had dinner at our family's house, and in the process learned how to make Chinese dumplings and experience white liquor for the first time. There were only three of us eating but my "mom" made about nine different dishes, and by the time I had eaten my fill there was more than enough food to feed three or four more people. From what I've heard here and even back at Yale that's pretty much standard procedure when guests come for dinner.

But anyway, this morning we took a trip to the Summer Palace, which is about 15 minutes away from my dorm at Beiyu. The Summer Palace is the place where the Chinese emperors and royalty would come to hang out during the summer, both to relax and to get away from the crowds of central Beijing. It's really more park than palace, and it's set right next to a huge lake (as shown in the picture to the left).

We spent about three hours walking around but, as is the case with most of the places I've visited so far, I feel like we could have explored for an entire day without seeing everything. The scenery there was gorgeous, and we were lucky enough to be graced with blue skies. For all of you who are unfamiliar, Beijing has notoriously smoggy air, so most of the time during the summer the sky takes on a murky blue-tinged grey hue. However, rain is moderately successful in pulling smog out of the air, and since we had some pretty heavy rain a few days ago the air is still relatively clean.

After the Summer Palace, we met up with my Chinese "older brother" and his wife at a local restaurant to experience somewhat of a specialty here in Beijing: roast duck. Before coming to China, I had plenty of people tell me that the fact that I liked American Chinese food did not guarantee I would like real Chinese food. Luckily, I've yet to find a dish here that I did not like (I haven't tried dog meat yet so that's still on the to-do list). But honestly, the food here is phenomenal, I'm a huge fan of the cafeteria at Beiyu, which offers great food at a ridiculously low price - a plate of scrambled eggs and roast chicken with a bowl of rice runs you 10.50 RMB, or about $1.55 (quite a steal).

Today's lunch was phenomenal. The roast duck was very good, as were the various other pork, chicken, and vegetable dishes that we had. Here in China, the people have developed a wonderful system for eating a meal. At most restaurants, there's a huge revolving plate-type thing in the middle of each table. When you order food, everyone at the table picks a dish or two that they would like, but unlike eating in America, everyone shares with everyone else. All the dishes are placed all the revolving plate on the table and then everyone can try a little of all the different foods. This method is incredibly useful for people like me who either a) enjoy incorporating as many different flavors into one meal as possible or b) are familiar with/don't know the names of many Chinese dishes. I suppose we can thank mysophobia for keeping this procedure out of America...

Overall it was another very exciting Saturday for me. Still haven't wrapped my head around the fact that a week from now I'll be learning kung-fu at the Shaolin Temple. But before then I have to make it through another week of classes, which happens to include a midterm exam and a 10-15 minute oral presentation :-/.

Hope you guys are still enjoying this blog. Right now I'm actually working on a few videos and slideshows that I'd like to post up here, so hopefully I make some progress on that front pretty soon. I'm all out of stories for right now, so I'll sign off for now.

Until next time,

Jamey