Dear Blag

Yes, I called it a blag. It's an XKCD reference for you nerds out there.

For what it's worth, I'm no blogger. I find the whole thing to be an annoyance. Nevertheless, I expected to keep to it as a way to chronicle my (mis)adventures in Beijing. Of course, it turned out that I merely became a chemistry zombie, working long hours in a disgustingly hot laboratory all in the name of science. Without a doubt, I'd do it again in the name of science. That's what I'm here for, is it not?

Being in China has been pretty fun. My work day was typically between 8am-10pm, M-F and Sunday. Saturday was our day of rest, as they liked to call it. Regardless, a fair amount of people showed up on Saturday and some Saturdays I too had to come in to finish hammering out a purification or a presentation, maybe sift through some publications.

The issue with blogging all of these interesting occurrences is that I rarely bother to turn on my personal computer. With such long work hours, I attempted to speak to random Chinese people in various settings on my time off. My experience with the language, however, has been a bit of a mixed blessing. I've studied it for about an academic year with very little practical use, but somehow I managed to get the pronunciation down pretty well. The end result is that rapid-fire Chinese usually comes at me in a very excited manner when Chinese people see that this blue-eyed, curly-haired student from France (Most people here assume I'm from France for some reason or another) is speaking Mandarin. As a result of my smiling and attempts at speaking Mandarin, I've often received free food and occasionally gifts.

Nonetheless, I've found that it can be quite hard to understand some people. People have all different sorts of accents on their Chinese, and this is further complicated when Mandarin isn't even their first language; people from my lab often tell me that their hometown has its own native tongue and that Mandarin is simply their common language for communicating with other Chinese. As far as accents go, I find thick Beijing accents to be harsh sounding and they ruin whatever clarity or beauty the language might have had; to imitate, try to curl your tongue and then attempt to swallow it or gargle while adding 'er' to everything.

At any rate, that's all the blogging I can handle. I only have a few notes left. None of my email accounts have been working so I haven't received any email for several days. Also, private information doesn't belong on blogs, especially not on ones regarding a research experience in a foreign country. I do not appreciate private matters being extended to the vast openness of the internet. It is, at best, inappropriate.

北京到了

We have been in Beijing for about a week now, but it really feels like I have been here for much longer than that. It's been a whirlwind of events since the day after the plane landed. Just this past weekend we were touring temples and the Great wall, and pretty soon we'll all be working in our respective labs.

The average day for me has been a busy one; usually, during the week, we have a language lesson in the morning and a culture lesson in the afternoon. In between we typically have lunch, and after we're busy exploring or getting something else necessary for survival done.

For all the fun so far, there have been a couple of walls in our path. Our apartment lacked internet access for several days and we don't really have any sort of meal cards for on campus eating or even eating in the cafeteria in our apartment. Compounded with a lack of a kitchen, this means scrounging around the locale for restaurants. I tend to load up on foodstuffs from the supermarket to combat this problem, but the food selection there is a story in and of itself (for another time).

The city also has its ups and downs. Beijing is definitely a polluted city. At some times it's unreal; on a bad day I can barely see down the road, and the city perpetually seems to be covered in unsightly smog. I need to wear my sunglasses to shield my eyes from the particles in the air. Unfortunately, unless I purchase some sort of mask as some natives seem to do, there's no way to shield my mouth and nose. Aside from that, it has what most major big cities have: lots of activity. Relatively cheap goods too, if haggling is your game. Food is also cheap, but restaurants are of very questionable sanitation...

Ready To Go

Although I'm pumped for the voyage to the East, I'm still in a state of disbelief. It has yet to sink in that I'm flying to China tomorrow afternoon. It will probably hit me when I'm en route to Tokyo (the stopover before Beijing).

All in all, I'm looking forward to being in a completely different setting and getting the chance to meet people across the globe and work in the labs there.

For quite some time, however, I was worried about our visas. It took until the very last minute, and after a lot of work by many dedicated people, to obtain them. I haven't had time to think about what my worries will be in China because for a while I was very unsure of if I would end up getting there. At the end of the day, I'm afraid I'm going to insult the natives while butchering their language.

Nevertheless, I found it puzzling that the international REU programs aren't as popular as their domestic counterparts. Perhaps a certain type of candidate opt for these international programs. For me, the kicker was killing two birds with one stone. On one hand, I wanted to do chemistry research, and on the other I wanted to continue my Chinese studies.

When I arrived in Michigan I was pleased to meet my fellow students of chemistry. Everyone seemed to get along well from the get-go. I'm glad the pre-program period lasted about 5 days. Some of the group discussion activities to facilitate group work were drawn out and continually beat a dead horse, but otherwise all was well. Simply having time to get to know one another was probably the most effective aspect of this period.

At any rate, see you in Beijing!