Change of plans already...

Well, we booked our tickets finally! We decided to leave 4 June instead of 6 June, though, because it's cheaper to leave on a weekday.

I've been in this "culture assimilation" course for the past two nights (it's required). At first, I thought it would be a huge waste of time, but after finishing it, I realized that there's a lot of important stuff you should know before you go abroad for an extended period of time.

"Culture shock" is a term often used to describe a feeling of anxiety or helplessness when you're dropped in the middle of a foreign country. Last summer in Qingdao, I definitely experienced some culture shock, but not to the degree that Dr. Johnson thought we might. She talked a lot about the U-curve of assimilation: You're ecstatic for a little while, then you become disenchanted and then frustrated and then angry, and finally you start to rise back up to feeling content and/or comfortable. This definitely happened in Qingdao, but it was different. I was really excited about being in China for about two weeks and then I immediately started to hate it. It didn't take long, though, to start going back up. My U-curve was more like a curvy check mark - a rapid drop at the beginning and then a gradual climb back up to contentment. I think a lot of people feel this way.

It's important to experience other cultures and to experience a little bit of culture shock. Even places like New York or Chicago are vastly different from small-town Mississippi.

There's no excuse not to travel, so get out there and make yourself a more well-rounded person!

40 days

So, the countdown finally begins.

In just a few short weeks, I will be going back to China to study for 7 MONTHS.

I have to be honest, last year I got tired of Qingdao. I think it's because it was new and different; it was like a vacation that was too long. But I'm convinced that this year will be different. This year, I feel like I'm going back - like I'm in a routine. Also, I have SHANGHAI to look forward to!

So, here's the (tentative) schedule for China 2009:

6 June 2009 - Depart for Shanghai
7 June 2009 - Arrive in Shanghai
9 June 2009 - Hangzhou
10 June 2009 - Suzhou
12 June 2009 - Depart Shanghai for Qingdao on the overnight train
13 June 2009 - Arrive in Qingdao
15 June 2009 - Classes start at Qingdao University
15 August 2009 - Classes end
16 August 2009 - Depart Qingdao for Shanghai
17-25 August 2009 - (hopefully) visit Hong Kong and Shenzhen (maybe Guangzhou)
30 August 2009 - Classes start at East China Normal University with CIEE
16 December 2009 - Depart for AMERICA!

So you can see that I definitely have an exciting few months lined up. I'm hoping to go to Seoul between August 15 and 30, but the tickets are running around 700 USD, so that's not really feasible, to say the least. Maybe I'll be able to find cheaper tickets once I get into China, since Qingdao to Seoul is only an hour flight.

Also, I promise to do a better job updating this blog. Last summer was a huge fail on my part. Hold me to it!

My posts leading up to the trip will be pretty sporadic. We have exams next week, so I'll be super busy over the next few days preparing for that.

Thanks for stopping by!

Matthew
马舒凯

4th of July!

We definitely celebrated the 4th of July in style this year. We had planned to cook hamburgers on the beach, but thanks to the rain, we ended up renting out a restaurant close to our dorms and cooking "hotdogs" that were really just potted meat in a little tube. It's about as close to a real American hotdog as you'll get in China. After eating, we shot fireworks and went out. Here are some pictures (I'll put up dinner and firework pictures later):

A regular day in China

I thought it might be interesting to let everyone know what a regular day over here is like. I have class every morning from 8:30 to 12:00. After class, we normally eat at 黄河湾特色小吃 (Yellow River Bay Restaurant). Then I come back to the dorm and study/mess around on the internet. I meet my study partner 马雪芬 (Ma Xuefen) every afternoon at 5:30. Then I eat and go back to my dorm. Some afternoons, our class has an activity: if we are learning about hospitals we go to a hospital; if we're learning about education, we go to a school; etc. I've included some pictures of what a normal lesson looks like, what a page of my notebook looks like, and the huge mildew spot in our dorm room.

Scorpions in the fog

Qingdao's been pretty foggy the last few days. It's really nice outside today, though; it's cool and there's a nice breeze. We went to the world-famous Qingdao Brewery yesterday morning and toured, so that was pretty interesting. Afterward, we went to a culture square and looked at some paintings and stuff that we will probably go back and buy sooner or later. I'm spending too much money on random stuff, but I have to remind myself that there are seven Chinese yuan to every American dollar. That's changing fast though; in the two weeks that I've been here, the exchange rate has fallen from 6.93 yuan per dollar to 6.87 yuan per dollar. China is certainly growing.

It's not growing out of its old, sometime unsettling habits, though. We tried scorpions the other day. Here are some pictures from that:

More Pictures

I have some more pictures. Obvicopter. We went to Laoshan Mountain last Saturday and it was fun. It was a lot of walking, though. Here they are. We won't fool with captions this time; just use your imagination.

Captions for the pictures

I tried to do this yesterday, but I couldn't get the captions to go in the right place. This is to prove that the computer is not smarter than me.

Picture 1: Guanhai Mountain Park. It was nice.
Picture 2: A squid. Yes, we ate it (after it was cooked).
Picture 3: Me being introspective while looking out to see. That's some big Qingdao buildings in the background.
Picture 4: A group eating at Laduzi Fanguanr (Diarrhea Restaurant). I haven't gotten sick yet, but it's only a matter of time. Oh well, it's cheap.
Picture 5: Our class at the beach.
Picture 6: Qingdao buildings.
Picture 7: Beijing airport. It's the dragon terminal "rargest terminar in word"
Picture 8: Some ice we saw while we were flying over some sea near Canada.

As you can see, Qingdao is pretty. The people are nice, and they talk funny. Yay China.

It's Friday afternoon. I'm finished with my first week of class, and I'm still alive. Time for a fun night.

Matthew