Last weekend was pretty fun but the only eventful thing that really happened was I pulled a typical Lauren move and lost my wallet. Of course, the first problem that came with this was my debit card. I quickly got in touch with my mom and took care of that and luckily have a spare one with me at the hotel! The real problem came though the next day. At every enterance to campus there are guards who are suppose to ask to see your student ID. Until Sunday I had only been asked once to show my ID. We have this joke that as long as you show your hair color to the guards they let you through. Well this time that wasn’t the case. I tried to explain to the guard I lost my wallet but he wasn’t having it. Finally, after about 5 minutes I think he gave up on me since I couldn’t understand anything he was saying nor properly explain myself ( I realized the next day I had been saying the totally wrong word for wallet).
In my Intercultural Communications class we had to rank “intensity factors,” or the things that affect stress levels the most among study abroad students. Of course, I rated “language” as my most intense factor. After reading the description, “the less linguistically capable you are, the greater the intensity”, I knew there was no point in reading any other factors. Some days I feel more frustrated than others and yesterday was one of those days. It just feels like a never ending battle that I’m not sure I’ll ever win. But it does help when you are studying in a café near a window and Chinese people come up to see what you’re doing (I’m pretty sure they think I can’t see out the window) and give you a thumbs up. It’s actually pretty funny cause all you have to do is say “Ni hao” (or hello) and they all say, “Oh my god you’re Chinese is so good!”. So maybe I’ll just stick to saying that and forget the rest!
Another thing we learned in my Communications class that I thought was interesting is the teacher had done a values and beliefs survey using people from all over the world and then compared the values of different countries. Most were not too shocking but one really stuck out to me. From his findings, gender and sexuality in China was rated a 66 while in America it was rated a 62 with 100 being the most manly and non-sexually open society and 0 being very a feminist and sexually liberal society (Norway got an 8). This shocked me that China and America were so close because I have noticed there is absolutely nothing promiscuous on TV or in ads (think the government might have something to do with that one…) Also, my tutor was telling me (we’ve gotten a lot closer) that most women only date one man in their life and end up marrying him. Thank goodness this isn’t the case in America! She also said that girls NEVER talk about anything sexual with their girlfriends. From being here for a few months I would have guessed China was more like an 80 and America like a 30. I wanted to bring this up to my teacher but decided I’d keep my findings to myself.
On a less interesting and dreary note, the weather here might drive me crazy. For every nice day (and by nice I mean 50 degrees) we have 10 days of cold grey weather. If I ever live in China I hope its somewhere down south cause you know how I am about being cold…
My dad is convinced I am not actually enrolled in school so I am including some pictures of campus. Better start learning a few more key phrases than “hello” so he knows I actually did something these past few months when he comes to visit!
Love you all!
Pretty building on campus..I realize it actually looks like a nice day but its very deceitful
The building where I have all my painful 8 am's
1000 year old preserved eggs with ginger sauce..not as good as they look
Angie requested a picture of me with my panda hat so here ya go!
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