A New Routine

Not surprisingly, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I didn’t really know what to expect as I continued to get settled, and I’ve been both pleasantly surprised and surprisingly challenged. This post will be longer than the last since I’ve waited so long to give an update! Where to start?!

We have a man and a woman who live at the bottom of our two foreign student dorm buildings who help us with the various (and bountiful) problems we have as foreign students. Generally people who are hired to help in this way are called 叔叔(shu1shu1 - uncle) and 阿姨(a1yi2 - aunt) respectively. A little over three weeks ago, 叔叔 came and told everyone on my floor we had to move to another building. Everyone on each floor is the same gender, and they wanted to convert our floor into a floor for women. This wasn’t too big of a deal for me because I didn’t have that much stuff, and I had just arrived. The new dorm also turned out to be better in several small ways that made moving worth it to me. However, several of my floormates found the prospect of moving a bit more troublesome than I did. I’m up and running now (I’m very happy to say), but the move was not without its hitches. When we first arrived, there was no electricity, water, or internet. The electricity problem was fixed by the end of the first day, and they were able to get the water flowing as well. Unfortunately, it took a little longer to get the hot water working. On the bright side, the tenth cold shower is infinitely more easy to handle than the first cold shower, and the weather had been hot enough that I was almost thankful for the temporarily relief from the heat. It also took a couple weeks to get the internet hooked up, but my cell phone kept me sufficiently connected to the world for me to survive. I don’t know how you older folks did it. The day I moved, I also had to go to the police station to apply for my residence permit, which I’ll finally be able to pick up tomorrow.

Drew and Rachel’s son Titus had his 5^th birthday party a couple weeks back. Drew and Rachel put together almost 20 mini rockets for Titus’s friends to paint and then we helped the kids launch them in the field next to our university’s stadium. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and it was cool to watch the kids run after each of the rockets as we launched them.

Our classes officially started on Monday, September 16^th. I’m enrolled in three courses— Macroeconomics, Organizational Behavior, and Operations and Supply Chain—and have two classes per week for each course. Each class runs from 8:20am – 12pm or from 2 – 5:30pm, depending on whether it’s scheduled for the morning or for the afternoon. I had anticipated that I wouldn’t understand anything going on in class, and I can’t say I was too far off. Fortunately, I’ve had experience in two of the three classes I’m currently taking, so the content isn’t too foreign (no pun intended). This means that I can actually keep up better than I thought, and it’s easier for me to absorb the new Chinese vocabulary because I already know most of the English equivalents (marginal propensity to consume, currency markets, fundamental attribution error, emotional intelligence, etc.). My teachers also take very different approaches to teaching. One teacher sits and lectures in Chinese for the full three and a half hours, one uses quite a bit of English and is more interactive, and the last one uses very little English and requires more participation from us students. All of them have their merits.

We had a break at the end of our first week of classes to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. I spent the day hanging out with one of my classmates. It felt like a normal day to me because it’s not a holiday I’m used to celebrating, but it was kind of fun to experience the buzz it generated in everyone else. As luck would have it, I ate something during the day that I was allergic to, but armed with a 600 tablet bottle of Benadryl, I was much more prepared than when the same thing happened in Beijing (thanks dad).

The MBA program organized a development activity for the MBA students right after Mid-Autumn Festival. Four (out of seven) international students participated along with almost 70 of our Chinese classmates. Even though my class section only has ~25 people in it, there are three class sections, and all of them participated in the development activity. I don’t think I really realized what I was getting myself into until we arrived at the hotel where we were going to stay. We unloaded from the bus and immediately began receiving instructions in Chinese. I hadn’t a clue what I was supposed to be doing, so I had to follow my classmates’ lead. This “deer in the headlights” feeling would turn out to characterize the entire day. We each had to pick up a set up clothes that resembled military fatigues and then put our stuff away in our rooms. For those of you who have picked up on the fact that I have a little more girth than the average Chinese person, you would be right. I had a very hard time finding clothes in the pile that fit me. We broke up into teams, and over the course of the first day, we did all sorts of different team-building games and activities. I’ll spare you the details of the specific activities/games we played and will just say that they’re exactly what you would expect to find in any other team-building or leadership program. At the beginning, our classmates tried to help us foreigners understand what was going on to varying degrees of success. As the day went on, save a few classmates, most realized it would just be easier to have the foreign students only participate when the games required it. I have to admit that I was very worn down and frustrated by the end of the day because of all of the communication difficulties. A little sleep renewed my resolve, and the second day turned out to be much better. I found myself understanding more of what was going on as we continued to complete our challenges. I also found that my teammates made more of an effort to include us in their banter. In the end, I found the two days very much worth attending, not so much because of the lessons the activities taught but because it was absolutely the best way for me to get to know the names and faces of my classmates and give them an opportunity to learn who I am since, after all, I stick out a little bit.

Since I used to work in education and since many of you still do, I figure I’ll take a few minutes to outline some of the differences I've discovered between the way Chinese universities work and the way U.S. universities work. In the United States, college students take an average of four classes per semester. In China, students take nine to ten classes per semester. The classes Chinese students take do not have as much classroom time and are, thus, not worth as many credits. That means that the three courses in which I’m currently enrolled will not be the same three I’m taking in two or three weeks. It’s a nice change of pace because it gives a bit more variety and introduces us to more topics. School holidays in China are also very different. We don’t find out until about three weeks beforehand what days we get off for upcoming holidays. Additionally, in the United States, if you get a Friday or Monday off, you simply lose a day of classes. In China, they move some of your missed classes to a Saturday or Sunday either before or after your time off. At first, I found the seemingly whimsical way of doing things a net negative. It gets in the way of my planning, and it means that I sometimes get surprised by my class schedule/requirements. However, as time has gone on, I’ve come to appreciate the cultural difference I think this difference reflects. In the United States, I think we (i.e. me and many, many other people) like rigidity because rigidity enables predictability and predictability allows us to maintain our fast-paced lives. In China, people don’t treat everything like an emergency and take things as they come. For example, when I went to pick up my books for class, they didn’t have my name listed as an enrolled student taking classes. At home, that would have been a very, very big problem, but here, the administrators just made a call, added my name to the list, and I was all set! Yet another example of this is our daily 休息 (xiu1xi). I don’t know very much about Spain, but I would nonetheless liken it to a Spanish siesta. From 12 – 2pm every day we get time to eat lunch, go home, and rest. School offices are even closed for that time period to give workers a break as well. In the United States, I would guess that that the people who choose not to take a lunch break at work outnumber those who do take time to eat. The same, more relaxed way of doing things plays out in other ways unrelated to education, too. Chinese people often choose to walk instead of using other modes of transportation. In Berkeley, I used to drive five minutes up the road to the store, and, at least thus far, I can’t picture a Chinese person making that same kind of decision! I’m learning to appreciate the value of slowing down a little bit and not treating every situation I come across as an emergency, even if it doesn’t feel very natural.

This past Friday was our first class (as opposed to program) activity. About 16 or 17 of us went to dinner together, and my classmates were very eager to show me the role alcohol plays in Chinese culture. In short, drinking is considered a bonding activity, especially among guys. From my own observation, beer is produced in such a way as to encourage consumption of vast quantities. It comes in 500-600mL bottles, it is only 3.5% ABV, and it is really cheap—less than a $1 per bottle. Apparently, each person is expected to toast and drink to every other person at the table at least once during dinner. I first watched for a little while to make sure no one was giving me these instructions to toy with me, and when I was satisfied, I decided it was best strategy was 入境随俗 (when in Rome…). Drinking definitely does not fall in the category of “favorite pastime” for me, so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out how to be respectful of the cultural elements at play while still setting a boundary with which I was comfortable. After all of the toasting, I decided it was best to “lose” my cup so they couldn’t keep pouring me drinks. Hopefully none of my classmates discover my blog or I’m going to have to find a new strategy next time we go to dinner… We then went to KTV (karaoke)! Karaoke is China and the rest of Asia is much different than karaoke in the United States. In China, you rent a private room large enough to fit your group, choose songs from a monitor, and sing with your friends. Since you’re in a room with people you know (or, in my case, are getting to know), you can sing and act like a complete idiot without having to feel self-conscious. It’s great. The emphasis is really on spending time with people and having fun. You also get to continue eating (fruit, nuts, seeds, water, tea, etc.). Dinner and KTV marked the beginning of my National Holiday break.

If you'll indulge me for a moment, my experience at dinner and KTV sparked a little bit of self-reflection. Over the last several years, I've found it easier and easier to be myself around other people, and I've accepted that my many quirks make me unique. However, as I try to find my place here, I've found it more difficult than I thought to adapt to the cultural differences without feeling like I'm changing parts of who I am. Interests are different, topics of conversation are different, social values are different, individual values are different, and the list goes on. So how do I remain myself and still successfully learn how to connect with the people around me? Simply put, I've come to the conclusion that it will require patience. At least at the beginning of my time here (yes, I still classify this as the beginning of my time here), I think I need to do more listening and less speaking. I honestly don't remember where I read this, but, to me, there is a lot truth in the saying "seek first to understand, and then to be understood." As eager as I am to jump in and find my place among the people here, I think the result will be much better if I take the necessary time to let the process play out. 

That's about it for my adventures thus far! If you have any questions, feel free to email and ask! I also love to hear news from home, even if it takes me a while to respond.

Below are some pictures from my class development activity, some pictures of my dorm room, and some other pictures of Changsha.  Enjoy!

Development Activity:

Central South University and Dorm Room:

Changsha:

In the beginning...

I’ve already been in Changsha for more than a week and a half. For those of you who have claimed you’ll come visit me at some point, my trip took about 17 hours. It didn't feel as long as I remember, but I was very drained by the time I arrived in Changsha. I just don’t want you to be caught off guard J.

As I found my way to the Changsha terminal in the Beijing airport, it was pretty obvious that I was leaving the internationalized atmosphere of Beijing and heading to a city with a very different feel. On the most basic level, I was the only non-Chinese person at the gate. In addition, there was definitely less English in this domestic flight area than there had been elsewhere in the airport. This was all predictable, I suppose, and was exactly what I had been hoping for in my new experience, but it was pretty interesting to actually see and feel the change happen.

When I arrived, I hopped into a cab and gave the driver the directions to Drew and Rachel’s house (friends who have lived in Changsha for the last four years). I had quite a bit of difficulty understanding the cab driver (his accent was pretty thick), but I didn't have too much difficulty communicating what I needed from him. Drew met us at the front gate of Central South University (CSU) and helped us find their apartment. By the time I arrived, I fully understood why the girl sitting next to me on the plane called Changsha one of China's four "ovens." It’s not much an exaggeration to say that I've never been so happy in my life to enter a room with air conditioning. We said a quick hello, then I took a shower and went to bed.

The next day, Drew went to work, and Rachel and I went to the open-air market with the little Addingtons [Titus, Jonathon (called 初初Chu1chu1), and Michael (called迈迈 Mai4mai4)]. We also went to the Foreign Student Office so I could register with the police. I ended up having to come back later with some more paperwork, and they were able to assign me to my dorm room a little earlier than I had expected. One of the other foreign students (from Vietnam) took me to the dorm buildings, helped me check in, and showed me my room.

With Drew and Rachel’s advice and guidance, I've spent most of my time here thus far trying to get myself organized moving my stuff into my dorm room (aided by 杨聪, one of Drew and Rachel’s friends), buying stuff from the market, opening bank accounts (one for the Foreign Student Office to use to deposit my living allowance and one that actually has good service), getting a Chinese cell phone number, getting internet hooked up in my room, buying a hot water card and a laundry card, etc. Drew and Rachel have been kind enough to feed me quite frequently since I arrived. Thankfully, Rachel can cook well, and I even got some tastes of home I hadn't expected to find in Changsha.

One of my biggest takeaways so far in the short time I've been here came as a result of checking in to the Foreign Student Office. I found it strange that every time they referred to me, they used both my name and my nationality. In some respects, those are two of the easiest ways to identify the various foreign students who are here, but it felt like they were using my nationality more like a signal than simply as an identifying characteristic. Rachel suggested that they probably give me preference in things like dorm room assignment a) because I’m from a developed country and went to a university recognized by people in China and b) as a “saving face” mechanism. I've since met a guy from England and mentioned how weird it felt to receive special treatment. He told me he was used to it by now and has received many free drinks in the bars he’s visited over the last couple years because he's a foreigner. I’d consider this pure hospitality except not all nationalities are treated in the same way. I've definitely had a privileged life with not much more than what has popularly become known as “first world problems” (I apologize for the lack of political correctness). However, this is the first time in my life I can remember where I was conspicuously singled out and treated differently because of where I come from. Though I realize that many people have a much keener understanding of how an individual’s background impacts the way they are treated by others (usually in a negative way), this experience of mine has made me think a little bit deeper than I have before what that really means. It makes me feel like I’m an accomplice to injustice, and I can’t say it makes me feel very comfortable. Just something for remember in the coming years…

A couple days after I checked in, I waltzed out of my dorm room to find out that I was 10 minutes late for a foreigner physical that I hadn't been told was happening. The bus was running late, so I was still able to make it on, but I was definitely thrown off a bit. When we got to the physical examination facility (yes, there is a facility that exists wholly for this purpose), I was quickly educated on many differences between the way the medical system works in China and the way it works in the United States. First, as they took all of my information, they displayed it on a screen facing the people who were lined up quite closely behind me. So much for HIPAA. First was a blood test. I have to say that they were very efficient, but I was surprised when they handed me my empty blood tubes and told me to get in another line to have my blood drawn. I don’t know very much about how the medical field works, but it seems to me that letting the patient walk away with their blood test tubes is not the best way to insure the integrity of the test. I then had to do an eye test, have my weight taken, have an ultrasound, an EKG, and a chest x-ray. Privacy was definitely not the emphasis. People were brought into the rooms for these various tests five or so people at a time. Women had a curtain pulled for them while the tests were conducted but us guys did not. I could live with all of this since I’m not personally that sensitive about my medical information, but it was interesting to note the differences from what I would have expected in the United States. Oh, and I saved the best two observations for last! Right as I was getting over the fact that there was an open-air rack at an unstaffed window where people were supposed to place their non-lidded urine samples, the man in front of me lit a cigarette and started smoking. I found the whole experience pretty enlightening, and it made me chuckle a bit.

Last Saturday, I did a short hike with the Addington family and some of their friends. Changsha has a fireworks show every week, and we wanted to watch it from the mountain behind CSU. The hike was pretty nice, and the company was even better. The view from the mountain allowed me to get a slightly clearer picture of what the city looks like. The exteriors of Chinese buildings have a lot more lights than American buildings, so that added to the effect. On Sunday, I went with Drew and Rachel to one of Changsha’s three-self churches (the state-sanctioned ones). I really enjoyed it, but I understood VERY little of what they said. It’s now one of my many personal goals to be able to understand a service before I leave China.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t had much of an opportunity to meet and make friends with many foreign students. Since classes still haven’t started, people are left to their own devices to meet one another, and I've found that people have a very strong propensity to gravitate toward others who share their language, culture, etc. This being said, I have met someone from Ghana, two people from the UK, one person from Russia, someone from Laos, and a couple people from Vietnam. I’m very optimistic that it will be easier to break down walls once classes begin and we see one another on a more regular basis. One of Drew and Rachel’s Chinese friends has also been very helpful to me navigating pieces of my transition, and I've met a couple other Chinese students as well. They invited me to play basketball once it stops raining, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to hang out with them, even if playing costs me a fair bit of my ego when all is said and done.

I will meet with my classmates and adviser next Saturday, September 14^th. We will get our class schedules then and begin our classes the following week! 

I’ll post some pictures of CSU and my dorm room when I have the opportunity.

Cheers!