The day dawned exceptionally dreary, with heavy low clouds, so I slept in until eight and then read about Qi and Essence still in bed, chatting with my roommate, until nine. (Yes, I know, 8am is SLEEPING IN now. My roommate is impressed with how early of a riser I am. Perhaps I've turned over a new leaf? I kind of like the fact that 7am actually exists in my world.)
When I ventured outside it felt like England - chilly, damp, heavily overcast, depressing. But then I got a jian bing, and my day got better, at least for the 10 or so minutes it took to consume the warm, squishy thingy-in-a-bag.
First, it's a pancake. Then the lady cracks an egg over it and attacks it with the crepe-turner, and flips the pancake over onto the griddle. Then she brushes three different sauces over it, the combination of which tastes vaguely like spicy seaweed, and adds cilantro, green onions, and a crispy deep-fried sheet that softens from the pancake's warm heat and becomes pleasantly chewy.
Do not be confused by the sign, it's for something else; the jian bing actually only costs 3 kuai.
The Chinese class that followed was intense - at least the second hour - because both our program director and one of the other Chinese professors sat in on our class! Because our classroom is tiny - meant for three students and the professor - the addition of two extra, important people felt uncomfortable, especially since they were taking notes.
The program director took a look at my notebook, informed me that I had lots of mistakes and should speak to the tutor, and then made fun of my (translated) sentences! Not of my translation, but of the CONTENT, which is from the freaking text.
So that was that.
In the afternoon we had a two-hour class about Chinese history through the lens of Peking University. It was actually fascinating - the lecturer was a Beida professor that helped start the International Studies and Journalism departments, and he was brilliant - and I learned a lot about the early 1900s, which I'd never really studied.
I didn't realize that the Paris treaty after WWI tried to screw China by giving the German holdings to Japan... or that the May 4 protests were about that, and so very strongly anti-Japanese... or that they were successful!
I guess the later fiasco makes a lot more sense in light of the May 4 protest, since they were successful the first time and had hopes of success the second time. But of course, the government was so much more paranoid and suppressive by then...
We also talked a lot about Confucius, and about the Chinese mode of learning through imitation (of classics) versus the Western mode of learning through invention and creativity. It's so true... and it's so woven into the culture, down to the writing system and art and music and everything.
Since it was raining, our Tai Ji class was indoors. Today I realized I'd be dead scared of our professor if I met him in a dark alley. He could be a total badass thug in a kung-fu movie; he has the face, the physique, the skillz dat killz... but he's very nice.
I was right in front of the windows of our building, and I saw a lot of people stop (in the rain) and point and laugh at us whiteys trying to Grasp the Sparrow's Tail...
The Chinese class that followed was intense - at least the second hour - because both our program director and one of the other Chinese professors sat in on our class! Because our classroom is tiny - meant for three students and the professor - the addition of two extra, important people felt uncomfortable, especially since they were taking notes.
The program director took a look at my notebook, informed me that I had lots of mistakes and should speak to the tutor, and then made fun of my (translated) sentences! Not of my translation, but of the CONTENT, which is from the freaking text.
So that was that.
In the afternoon we had a two-hour class about Chinese history through the lens of Peking University. It was actually fascinating - the lecturer was a Beida professor that helped start the International Studies and Journalism departments, and he was brilliant - and I learned a lot about the early 1900s, which I'd never really studied.
I didn't realize that the Paris treaty after WWI tried to screw China by giving the German holdings to Japan... or that the May 4 protests were about that, and so very strongly anti-Japanese... or that they were successful!
I guess the later fiasco makes a lot more sense in light of the May 4 protest, since they were successful the first time and had hopes of success the second time. But of course, the government was so much more paranoid and suppressive by then...
We also talked a lot about Confucius, and about the Chinese mode of learning through imitation (of classics) versus the Western mode of learning through invention and creativity. It's so true... and it's so woven into the culture, down to the writing system and art and music and everything.
Since it was raining, our Tai Ji class was indoors. Today I realized I'd be dead scared of our professor if I met him in a dark alley. He could be a total badass thug in a kung-fu movie; he has the face, the physique, the skillz dat killz... but he's very nice.
I was right in front of the windows of our building, and I saw a lot of people stop (in the rain) and point and laugh at us whiteys trying to Grasp the Sparrow's Tail...
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