Sunday, March 31, 2013
What China Has Truly Taught Me
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
The New Campus and St. Patty's Day
I just wanted to stop in and talk about really how different going to school at a university in China is verse one in the states like Purdue. I also will share of my St. Patty day journey back into the heart of Shanghai to celebrate the Green holiday. It was quite the experience being in an area where the knowledge of this holiday is almost non existent.
On Monday and Tuesday I have class at 8:00 in the morning which really is not too bad. The main difference is that on this campus, all of the classrooms have windows on at least two sides. This is because the academic building are set up in such a way that all the classroom doors lead straight outside. The stairwells and everything are outside with big almost courtyard areas incorporated into their design. It actually causes a great airflow through each classroom which allows them to save money on not installing any air system. It also makes for paying attention much harder than at Purdue. You would not notice the nice sunny day in most classrooms at Purdue, but on this campus, its just tempting you to give it a chance to wonder about. I will make sure to get some pictures of this so you guys understand more of what I am talking about.
Because I do not have classes on Wednesday, a group of guys I hang out with usually go to play some pick up games of basketball on one of the many courts on campus. Whether on either campus, the love of this game is extremely evident. The courts will be full from sun up until sun down with teams usually lining up to play the next game. We usually only have to wait one or two games, and then the games begin. Our overall record is I think 18-3. To clear some things up, most of the guys we play are the same height if not taller. They also have perfected the turn-around-no-look-throw-shot-over-shoulder shot, which happens to go in more times than not it seems. The games are actually much closer than I originally thought they would be. It definitely feels good to get out there and brush up on some skills that may or may not have been lost in the past couple years haha.
There is also a soccer field, track, vball court, and ping pong within a 5 minute walk of our dorm which is really nice. Below is a picture of my dorm room. It is actually much bigger than most of us thought they would be. Each room has its own bathroom and fridge which is extremely convenient.
This campus also had six pretty large cafeterias. Each has its own specialty but most serve the same stuff. My favorite dish so far is fried noodles with beef or chicken. They make it in front of you and only costs about a dollar for the entire meal. I also have been a ton of rice and chicken which has helped me perfect the use of chopsticks even more! This pretty much covers the extent of what the campus has to offer which other than sports, is really not a whole lot. There is not much to do outside the campus either because its on the outskirts of Shanghai. The trip in by metro is about a hour and half ride, but its totally worth it when you know green beer is being served on the other side.
On St. Patty's weekend, we had signed up for a Bar Crawl to celebrate all that is green and lucky. It was a pretty eventful and fun filled night. We got to the first bar to register where we got a free t-shirt, free beer, free shots, and best of all free fries! The bar was packed full of people, maybe 5 or 6 of them were Asian haha. After a couple of beers and shots, the buses came to pick up the masses to head to the next place. We pulled up to a club and started the party. It was at this club I must mention, that Elliot decided to get up on the bar and dance on the stripper pole. It was quite the view...haha leave it to Elliot to be awesome like that. I did get video of it, but for some reason it won't load to Facebook =/ We then made it to the next club where it was even crazier. The picture below was taken by the event staff and shows most of the people who were in our group. It calmed down after that as we ended at a local Irish pub in downtown Shanghai. More green beer was served and our night ended at about 3 AM as we fell asleep in the hostel.
It was a pretty awesome weekend! If you are ever in China, you must come visit Shanghai. Its a pretty great city. I am not sure what else to talk about because there really has not been much happening at this new campus.
If you guys have any questions that I have not covered answers, I would love to attempt in answering them. Just email me or Facebook message me =]
I also cannot believe that I have been here for about 3 months. Time flies when you are on an adventure thats for sure! =]
Hope everyone is well!
Corbin
P.S.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Xi'an - The Final Few Days
JUST A SIDENOTE, MAKE SURE YOU ACTUALLY READ WHERE IT SAYS READ BELOW! IT IS A PRETTY AWESOME STORY!
I left off saying that I would talk about the bike ride around the wall. I want to preface a little bit by saying that we knew that there was a wall that surrounded some of the city, but we were not expecting it to be such a major part of the city. It still stands after hundreds of years, has been renovated a couple of times, and still brings people from all over China and the world to see it. Like most walls, it was used to keep the inner city safe during wars with other nations and actually was never penetrated from my understanding which is pretty cool. We woke up at about 10 AM with the ambition to bike around the inner city on top of the wall. Although the ride was about 9 miles long, it was well worth it just for the sight seeing.
As the journey continued around the wall, you could start to get the feeling of what it might have been like all those years ago. The seemingly impossible feat of winning this city just seemed completely unfathomable, having walls that stood 30+ feet the whole way around the city. You could definitely get the feeling that living inside the walls brought not only the feeling of safety, but that also of being important to what was happening inside the walls. Again, I keep saying that its nothing like I have ever seen, but it truly is exactly that! There really is nothing to compare it to back in the States where hundreds of years seems like a forever ago, but these walls have been here 5 times that! Anyways, after countless amazing views, the trip around the wall finally ended, and we made our way back to the hostel. It was definitely another day well spent on our trip! Below are just a few of the many pictures taken while on the journey around the wall with some brief explanations.
The story I am about to tell, I still can't believe that it happened, especially in the middle of China of all places! We walk into this woman's shop just casually looking at all of her work. The paintings and calligraphy were awe-inspiring, done with such detail, such a steady hand, and with such love. That may sound corny, but here is why I said that. After a few of us decided to go ahead and buy some of her work that included common phrases and some with Bible verses, the lady, appalled that Americans were interested in her work, just decided to open up to us, complete strangers, about her life story and struggles she had gone through. She first warmly thanked us that she was so grateful that we were buying from her shop, and secondly blew me away with what she said next.
She started showing a picture of her and her father, saying that he opened this show many years ago, and had taught her everything she knew about the arts. She then told us that about seven years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. She was heart stricken and really didn't understand why this was happening to him or their family. She found out that many people were actively praying for him and their family, which gave her hope. After seeing that her dad was at peace with the illness, not letting it get the best of him and never deterring him from being the happy person she always knew him to be, she came to the realization that prayer was an extremely powerful thing! She began to actual read out of the book that so many verses came out of that her father had written onto scrolls. She began to understand God's grace and the eternal Love He has for all people! Although two years after her Dad was diagnosed with cancer he passed away, she said that she was happy to have those couple years with him in complete happiness. She also mentioned that she was never able to do calligraphy before he passed away, but seemingly mastered it which she attests to God's love for her.
As she was telling us this, I could not help but tear up a little bit knowing the struggles she went through. I then started to realize how powerful God truly is! I did not expect to experience anything like this being in China where Christianity is not really looked highly upon. This woman is a testament to God's love for all people no matter where in the World! Through all the adversity and struggles, you could definitely tell that she loved her life and knew that God had a plan for her! Elliot and I talked to each other after this experience, and we both agreed that we could feel God's presence while standing in a simple shop in the middle of China! WHO KNEW!!
If this doesn't give you hope and strength in Christ, then I am not sure what will. I know it definitely reassured me that Christ is everywhere, working in those you would least expect. He is such an amazing blessing to all of us, that I think often times we forget that He helps us in times when we least expect it. So I guess what I am try to say through this amazing woman's story is that don't just assume that someone is different from you religiously just because culturally there are no connections. God has an amazing plan for all of us and chooses us as His own! I think to this point in my adventures here in China, nothing has really stuck with me as much as this one! If you are ever interested in visiting Xi'an, Helen has quite the story for you!
After ending our journey in the Muslim corner, we headed off to a club called Salsa. For some reason in China, I have been letting go of my timid "I can't dance" mentality and trying new things, this club being another prime example. Us five white people were the only foreigners it seemed in the entire club of what seemed like hundreds of people. That being said, there was one platform on the dance floor, not only did we take this platform and dance, but I took the platform and did the best I could haha. We were quite the spectacle for all of the Asians that were also on the dance floor. The attention was on the crazy white foreigners who decided to get up there and dance! I am sure this is hard for you guys to picture, Corbin in front of a crowd of Asians dancing, but it really did happen, just ask Elliot! haha, regardless it was a great time! I have quite a few videos I took on my phone, but this blogging site doesn't really do well with videos, so I will just have to show them to you when I get back. Just ask!!
We got up extremely early on Saturday around 4 AM to take a van to the airport. We got there about 6 AM and made our flight at 8. Taking the flight actually was pretty fast, and there wasn't a delay of any sort. We got into Shanghai at about 10:30 AM and made it back to the campus by noon.
The journey was an amazing one, mostly because we were able to get to a random place in China on our own, and then make it back in one piece! These are the kind of things that I will always remember and use in the future when traveling.
So that brings me to the new campus which although isn't in downtown Shanghai, it still has its own flavor of things to talk about. My next blog will hopefully be sooner than later talking about the different things discovered at this new campus!!
Again hope all is well at home! Hopefully you were able to take something away from this post, especially the story of the woman finding God.
Corbin
P.S. Because we are at a new campus, my address has changed! It is:
CHINA
Shanghai CITY
Min Hang JiaoTong University
Dong Chuan Rd #800
Foreigner Student building #9
Room Number 107
P.O. BOX 200240
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Update on My Spring Break Posting
Hope all is well in the states! It is going quite well here in China =]
Corbin
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tuesday of Our Trip - Part 3
At this point I am dying laughing in the top bunk, not really understanding what was going on but frankly not really trying to understand. The funny part was that neither of them even realized what was going on until they fully woke up, and they gave that double take at each other, like...what the heck....haha it was so so funny, I honestly laughed harder than the night before with the crazy asian guy. Hopefully you didn't forget about the 6th guy in the room, our new roommate. It was 8 in the morning and only getting a couple hours of sleep, we were all dying laughing while this poor guy just wanted a place to sleep. After the laughter settled down, we were all able to head back to bed until about noon. When we woke up, our roommate was nowhere to be found =/...so two roommates lost in consecutive nights, maybe we are the weird ones everyone is afraid to get stuck with while staying at a hostel. It was sad that he was no longer there, but it was also a good thing that we no longer had a roommate the rest of the trip to be annoyed by us.
Alright so after all the morning shenanigans, we decided that we wanted to hit up the Muslim quarter of the inner city. This part is extremely well known for its food and cheap prices. It wasn't till I got here and took my culture class that I found out how big of a Muslim population there is here in China. After the traditional and ancient beliefs, this religion has the most followers in China. It kind of blew me away thinking that a religion that I thought was primarily in the Middle East, plays an extremely large role here in China. It was definitely an interesting experience walking through the countless roads, side roads, and alleyways where this population lived and did business. Below are just a couple pictures of what we saw in this area of the town.
After the stop to the marketplace, we wanted to check out one of the most famous pagodas in China. It is called the Big (Wild) Goose Pagoda (yes there is a small one that we didn't check out). We went later in the night because every night there is a big fountain show right in front of it. Although the pagoda was closed, we were still able to get some good pictures of it and see the fountain show. Again, below are just some of the pictures we took while we were there.
After the show was over, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed home. The rest of the night consisted of playing cards and drinking while going over our game plan for the next day. We all agreed that we would ride bikes around the inner city wall, about 9 miles from start to finish! I will be posting more pictures and stuff about it in my entry tomorrow!
Corbin
Monday, February 25, 2013
Xi'an (Monday)
Speaking decent enough English, he explained to us that he was quite inebriated and that he was sorry. He told us atleast a hundred times that he was sorry. He continued to ramble on in the middle of the room essentially naked when God knows why he decided to jump into Elliot's bunk trying to 'cuddle'. As if cuddling was not enough, he attempted to kiss every single one of us minus Carlin...not saying that he was successful with some of us may or may not be a lie. I will say that being on the top bunk saved me from much of this awkward asian man, and I was not touched haha. While Elliot continues to fend off this man telling him to just go to his bed and go to sleep, all of us were just dying laughing. My stomach hurt afterwards from laughing so hard...all the time this man was trying to get in our beds, he kept saying how he was not a handsome man, and that we were all very good looking...
Needless to say, he finally was convinced that his bed was actually the empty one in the corner of the room. He finally laid down, but DID NOT go to bed...ugh! He decided that it would be a good idea to talk to someone on his phone for a good 2-3 hours till the wee morning light...
Although I had quite the morning laughing while also fearing to close my eyes, I was glad to learn that he moved out the next morning to a different room...which was quite a good thing haha
So you guys get somewhat of an idea of what craziness I am talking about, I present you this picture I was able to capture of this crazy night.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Xi'an Recap Part 1
I thought about how I wanted to post of my experiences while being gone for a week with limited access to the internet and this blog. I was able to update you guys briefly on some of my experiences from my phone, but I also wanted to go a bit more in depth on some of the experiences had on each day. If I were to sit down and write about everything from Sunday to Friday in this one post, well I would be writing till the early morning, and you would be reading for quite some time haha. So, I decided to go ahead and write about my events in parts. I will post each night on what I did exactly a week ago. So tonight, being Sunday, I will be writing about my experiences last Sunday when we arrived in Xi'an by train.
Depending how much I am willing to write, I may be combining more than one day of my trip on any given night, so just watch out for that =]
Alrighty then, I want to talk about my experience of getting to the great city of Xi'an (pronounced Shee-an) by sleeper train and also what we did on the first day.
I really had no idea what to expect when riding on this train, as I have had no previous experiences on trains that went such distances. My furthest train ride was about 3 hours where we sat on hard seats the whole way there. The group of 5 guys that I decided to go with wanted to see what it was like to get a soft bed sleeper for our 14 hour train ride. I had numerous ideas of what this might be running through my head, but really had no inclinations of what this trip might be like. As we arrived to the train station in Shanghai, masses and masses of people like I have never seen flooded the station attempting to buy tickets, waiting to board, and all with the same purpose; getting back to their families for the Chinese New Year. Because of this, I was quite nervous that we would miss our train, but luckily we found our terminal, boarded our train, and found our sleeper cabin!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
The Epicness Continues in Xi'an!
After an interesting start here at the hostel, the otherwise quiet city of Xian was anything but with the presence of a few Americans.
Again more details and pictures will come, but the fun continued as we were able to travel through the markets without much trouble, find our own way to some amazing mountains, and then most recently were the center of attention at the biggest club in Xian! The experiences just keep growing, and I can't wait what is to come!
More to come :)
Corbin
Monday, February 18, 2013
Xi'an - quite an interesting start
So our spring break is happening right now in Xian China, and what an interesting few days! A little overview here and then ill post more when I get a computer.
The train ride was awesome! We met these old Chinese guys who couldn't speak barely any English but wanted to drink with us! We were able to communicate quite a few conversations with each other with the Chinese that we knew and the English they knew! They liked us enough to invite us to karaoke haha.
The first night, our Asian roommate came in completely drunk with no clothes on trying to cuddle and kiss everyone haha...very weird...more on this to come!
We then went and saw the terracotta army...mind blown, can't wait to talk about this. Here is a picture :) and its only the third day we have been here!
Corbin
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Goodbye Xujiahui, Hello Minhang
First things first, I want to go back to last week. SUPER BOWL MONDAY was a great experience in itself haha. Because the game was so late, we actually had to get up early on Monday to watch the big game. There is really nothing like eating eggs, bacon, and BEER on a Monday morning. (Don't worry, we were able to persuade our teachers to reschedule classes so that we could make the whole day into a good time =]). The game itself was amazing as I am sure most of you know, but a good friend of ours, Josh, is a huge Baltimore Ravens fan. It was almost as much fun just watching him bite his nails and do his superstitious routines to help his Ravens hold off the 49ers. As the time ticked to nothing, the cheering in the bar was pretty awesome, mostly because it was just Josh and Carlin doing the cheering. Carlin, really isn't a Ravens fan, but that morning, you would have thought he rooted for them since he was a little kid haha.
Thursday night, our entire group was to preform at the main campus in Minhang in front of 600+ people affiliated with the school. They in return fed us an amazing free meal, which included 15 different foods, and unlimited beer and pop. Our group is really making a decent impact and making a little bit of noise around the Shanghai area. This is the first year that the school has asked our group to do something, and we have successfully awed them into loving us haha. We were even written about in one of the largest newspapers in Shanghai -----> http://xmwb.xinmin.cn/html/2013-02/06/content_6_3.htm.
----I am actually in the picture! I am sitting in the very back on a table looking away in black sweatshirt!----
Also I know its in Chinese, so here is what the article says in English =]
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Purdue's Exchange Students Preparing for Chinese New Year
-Yi Rong
(caption for photo: Purdue exchange students showing off their paper-cutting art work)
Snowflakes, Zodiac Signs, City Views, these are the paper-cutting art works the students are talking about for a competition, the winning student will receive a professional art piece done by Shanghai's local artist Xi xiao qing.
During this Chinese Culture class, a group of 40 exchange students from Purdue University studying in Shanghai Jiao Tong University's mechanical engineering department discusses about their lives in China.
"(we are) used to living here" in China and Chinese culture is "very interesting", they are awaiting the coming Chinese New Year with excitement.
-They love "Meat buns (bao zi)" and eat it as snacks-
SJTU and Purdue University have been collaborating for years and many rotations have gone by over the years. This time, the 40 students that arrived have lived in Shanghai for about 2 months, taking intercultural study, Chinese culture & history, and Chinese classes. After the new semester begin, they will be taking heat and mass transfer and engineering thermodynamics and other classes. Some of the students will be staying in Shanghai for internships.
Coming to China, the Chinese food have captured these exchange student's heart. Bao Zi became their favorite snack, even the street food stand selling noodle is often visited. The Bao Zi and noodle shop keepers are quickly becoming friend with these students, "My chow-mien friends went home over the New Year and I am quite sad and miss them" -Jessica said.
-Learning about the Chinese culture and to speak Chinese language-
"ni hao" is the first phrase they learn. "mamahuhu (horse horse tiger tiger meaning "so so") is the funniest phrase the students find. Chinese traditional medicine leaves them facinated. Through Sa Weiqi's culture class and Dianne's intercultural studies, the exchange students gradually understand the Chinese culture. Nitesh have learned Chinese for 3 semester before he arrive, "learning in China" is always his dream, although he only knows "yi diandian (a little bit)" of chinese, it was enough to get him and his friend through a difficult situation in Tongli and got his friends back to Shanghai.
Outside of class, students take group trips to explore the city's attractions and to understand the local's lives. Public transportation is very convenient and left everyone a good impression. The rush hour traffic left everyone in shock. "It seems chaotic but there seems to be a natural order" said John Roberts.
During the banquet hosted by the school of mechanical engineering, the Purdue students performed a dance that combined popular songs from the East and West. When the melody of the "Most dazzling folk song" came on, the whole crowd clapped for them. In the past two days, the class leader Kat and Joe have been practicing with class mates to sing "pengyou" in the coming up SJTU new year banquet. This song also reflect a bit of their feeling of making friends, learning about culture, and gain some knowledge whilst here in Shanghai.
reported by Yi Rong
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So if any of you were wondering, we are actually getting stuff accomplished; and we are being recognized which is a first for our group!! It is kind of exciting.
As far as the banquet we had on Thursday night, the performance went so well. It started out with the same dance with the select group that has done it before. (I posted this dance earlier as a youtube link, the one I did the music for). Then the entire group got on stage and we faded into the Purdue fight song, and then ended with a local favorite song called The Friend Song. (Pengyou - Friend in Chinese). We sang it in Chinese, and the whole crowed loved it and sang with us. It was definitely a crowd pleaser =] and I will try to see if I can find someone who recorded it, so I can post it. All in all, we are making ourselves at home here in China; and although at times it still is really difficult to fit in, things are going well =]
So then this brings us to Friday, my first Exam for my online class. It was pretty hard like I expected, but I think I did okay on it. That is really all that Friday entailed. Saturday rolled around, which also ended up being the Chinese New Year Eve. After a very nice sit down dinner with the group, we went out on the town to experience the Chinese New Year in full.
The atmosphere is like nothing you would be able to experience in the states. Fireworks aren't just for pretty colors and fun, but they serve an important role in Chinese culture. As the legend goes, lighting fireworks and putting red on your door scares off the Great Nien that would come and eat the people. Lighting fireworks scares away this creature. This being said, there aren't just a couple of people setting off fireworks throughout the night. Anywhere you look, in alleys, on main roads, in yards, people are setting off traditional fireworks that light up the night sky. You can literally just stand there and lose your understanding of a peaceful night. The usual sounds of a few horns and otherwise silence are filled with bangs and pops of fireworks in the night sky. I walked a good mile home from a bar that I was at, and not once was there a time where I just heard silence. This may have taken away from some needed sleep, but was completely worth it for the experience!
This image pretty much captures what it was like all around the city. Empty red boxes and remains of Chinese firecrackers could be seen everywhere. The amazing thing was that fireworks could literally be set off anywhere! The image above was taken on a pretty busy street where cars were backed up a good couple of blocks until the show was done. These were also set off close to a building where many of the rapport would hit the 10-15th floor windows which in America is just unheard of. Another start different in safety measures between the two countries. This was a good night, and I am so glad I was here to experience it.
Alright now to our class field trip. Sorry if this is long, but I really have done so much that I want to make sure I incorporate the important stuff!
Our field trip consisted of heading out to Suzhou on Sunday, visit some important sites, stay the night till Monday, then head to Hangzhou on Monday, stay the night, visit some sites on Tuesday, then head back here to Shanghai. The days were pretty long it seemed, and there was many amazing sites that we saw. I think what will be easiest, is for me to just post a few pictures of some of the things I did, and explain about them.