Movie Theater Discovered!

I love the statement on the ticket stub: "The most exciting conception China since cinema began." Not really sure what they are trying to say, but something's not quite right!

Since there are no yellow pages, discovering new things here are often either a matter of chance, a lot of hard work, or a combination of the two. I woke up this morning and felt like watching Prince Caspian in a theater. In the States, this would be no problem - I just look up where and when it's playing, fork over the $8, or whatever it is now (how much is it?), and watch the movie. It's not quite that simple here. There was once that I discovered a theater here, but there weren't any movies in English. I was feeling like an adventure, though, so I decided to give it another shot.

After using baidu, China's version of google, to look up the name and number of a theater (their website didn't have a list of movies playing, times, or their location!). During lunch with some friends, I told them about my quest, and one of them thought she knew where the theater was. She used the phone number I had looked up to make sure of the location and ask about times. There was a showing of Prince Caspian at 3:00, they said, so we hopped in a taxi and headed there.

After arriving at the theater, which was on the 4th floor of a mall, there were quite a few Chinese movies, but ONE movie not written in Chinese characters: Narnia! One of these entries had a capital VIP flashing before it, meaning that it was in English. The other showings of the movie were dubbed over in Chinese. After purchasing tickets with assigned seats for 40¥ each (about $6), we had to wait until 5 minutes before the movie started to enter the theater area. The uncommon experiences of the smell of buttery popcorn (popcorn here is normally sweet) and the carpeted floor (carpet is really rare here) completed the feel of a theater. We found a place to sit and settled in the nice big comfortable chairs to watch the movie. I enjoyed the movie, only distracted once by my friend sitting next to me answered her phone and had about a 5 minute conversation in the middle of the movie!

After talking with my sister yesterday, I learned that in this week only, we have been in the following places: Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Minnesota, Hawaii, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida and China. Craziness. It's summer traveling time, I guess!

Reminders of Home

Last week, while I was at a friend's place, I witnessed my first actual thunderstorm in China. It has rained here for extended periods of time, but it's not the same as a Midwest thunderstorm. The temperature here cools down, and it rains, sometimes even hard for a while, but it's definitely not pouring down rain, and the storm lacks thunder and lightning.

So last week, when I was talking with my friend, I thought I heard thunder, but dismissed it, thinking it was probably a truck rumbling by, or some other city noise. A few seconds later, though, the darkish sky lit up with lightening. We both broke into a smile and ran to the window, like little kids. Then came the rain. A refreshing downpour...big drops of rain...thunder and lightening mixed in. As quickly as it came, it stopped. The smallest things that remind me of home, though, bring such joy! If only I could have seen it rolling in over the corn fields - I think that might have to wait until I actually am back home.

Last night I went to Starbucks to study Chinese. I ordered a Dulce de Leche frappuccino and settled in for a few solid hours of studying. I remember Finals Week of so many semesters, when my friend Cathi and I went to Starbucks and spent the entire day studying there, outlasting every single person in the store, including employees! I didn't go to Starbucks often in the States, because it's expensive and I prefer little hole-in-the-wall places, like Coffeehouse, The Mill, and MoJava, and I don't go to Starbucks very often here because it's more expensive than it is in the States. But every once in a while, it's nice to go there and feel like I'm closer to home.

On Sunday afternoon, 5 really good friends are coming to visit. I'm so excited to connect my world back home with this world that I'm in here, to introduce them to my friends, to show them and let them experience life here for a week. It's humbling that they would take time off work and spend money and time to come all the way to China. I feel sad that I am missing their life back in the States, because I really can't fully understand what it's like for them since we all jumped into completely new circumstances after college. It won't feel at all like I'm at home in the States when they come, but it will be good to be with them, a huge reason why home was home.

Although I have always loved it here, and continue to enjoy it more and more as time goes on, there is the reality that I do miss home. If I was anywhere besides there, I would miss it. But if I really think about it, I have to admit that even if I went home, or never left, I would still miss that chapter of my life, because life continues and people and their circumstances change, so it will never be the same (which is a good thing). Thunderstorms and Starbucks and friends coming to visit are good reminders that I do have great memories from before I came to China, and everyday adventures here help me remember that this is home for me right now...I am experiencing today what will become great memories in the future!

Earthquake

5/19
It seems like everybody, whether living in China or not, has covered the earthquake in detail, and I don't want to be repetitive. I'm sad for all the families who lost their only child, or the one person who lived while every family member they knew died from the 7.9 magnitude earthquake, or the strong aftershocks, which are still going on. I have no idea what it is like.

Things have mostly returned to normal here, as far as everyday life goes... people went back to work, For a few days after the quake, conversations started by asking where the other person was during the fact, teachers left the doors open during class, and red donation boxes were set up for people to contribute money to help the rescue efforts. Rumors spread about bad aftershocks with an epicenter closer to here, and people who were still afraid to return to their tall apartment slept outside at local parks or in friends' homes who lived on a lower floor than them for several days.Today a 3 day mourning period began for the victims, and at 2:28 p.m, exactly one week after the earthquake, sirens sounded and horns honked for 3 minutes during a time of remembrance. I tried to go to one Chinese website today and got this message:There seemed to be a crack underneath the surface here before, but during the earthquake, I heard a crack and looked over to see this surfacing and spreading.This is a building across the courtyard from mine...there are 4 just like it in this complex, just to give you a picture of where I was.

Update 5/20: Last night at 11:30 I received a call from a friend whose friend wanted to be sure and tell me that there was supposedly going to be an another quake with the epicenter really close to here. I assumed it was nothing, like most of the other rumors, and went to bed as normal. Apparently, though, people took to the streets, slept outside again, and moved their cars from underground parking lots into the streets. I woke up this morning, after experiencing nothing. So although life on the outside is going on as usual, rumors are still going around like crazy, and fear of another quake has not left people's minds.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

It's been a long time since I've flown a kite, but one day as some friends and I were on a bike ride, we saw quite a few kites flying, and decided to join in on the fun!

buying the kite and string

This was one of the first spring-feeling days, so it was fun to see people out and about after being stuck inside for the cold winter.And it's up!

This little guy had such a hard time...he couldn't figure out that he need to let out more than a foot of string for it to go up! The highest he ever got it was as high as his arm could hold it up:(

a serious discussion going on here

Stories

Last Tuesday my assigned homework was to write a story. This is a fairly common assignment, because it allows us to practice using the vocabulary and grammar structures that we are learning in class. Our teacher usually gives us the topic, and then we write the story and read it the next day in class. Tuesday's topic was the Olympics, which didn't have anything to do with the lesson's new vocabulary, but since China's gearing up for 08-08-08, I didn't think much of it.

So Tuesday night, I wrote a story, and trying to be a little creative, I wrote about the Mini-Olympics that my extended family had one summer in Miami. I didn't put much time into it, but used it to review my characters, writing as many as I could remember in the story.

Wednesday when I went to class, instead of reading the story, our teacher wanted us to give it to her to read and correct on her own. Strange, I thought, but dismissed the thought and gave it to her to check over.

On Thursday, I received my little story back with some corrections on it. As I was looking back over it, my teacher explained that there was a writing contest, and she was wondering if she could enter our stories in the contest! I couldn't help but laugh, picturing Chinese judges reading through other university student's stories about the Olympics, and then reading my story, confused as to how a 2nd grader's story got mixed in with the rest of the stories! Well, actually, a 2nd grader's level... that might still be giving myself too much credit. Here's a translation of what I wrote:

"When I was a child, I went to Miami with my family to visit my grandparents. My uncle lives in South Korea, but he and his wife and daughter were also there. Including me, all together there were 13 or 14 people. My grandparents live near the ocean, which we think is very fun. We thought of having our own Olympics. The first competition was the long jump. When it was my turn, I thought: If I run a little farther, and if I run a little faster, I will be able to jump a greater distance. So I continued to back up towards the ocean. Finally, I entered (fell) into the ocean because I couldn't see it, since it was behind me! My uncle decided I lost the long jump."

Wow. To think of that story being read along with other stories in a writing contest about the Olympics! When I told my brother that story, he told me not to cross my fingers in hopes for a victory. No kidding!

Surprisingly Unsurprised

This week I realized there are quite a few things that surprised me when I moved to China 8 months ago, that don't come as a shock anymore. Certainly many of these things still are different and noticed by me, but I'm not stunned by their happenings as much as I was when I first came.

• putting on a jacket to go inside. Seriously, when the heat is turned off, and there are chilly days, it's warmer outside that inside, so I spend most of the day outside, staying warm
• going to 3+ grocery stores to buy all needed ingredients. My basic groceries come from one store, imported groceries from another, fruit from a third, and vegetables from a completely different store as well. Grocery shopping days are long days!
• seeing personal beds in the backs of little shops. There are lots of little shops whose owners live in the actual shop where they sell whatever they sell, so it's not uncommon to see a bed and blankets in the back corner.
• mannequins. The bigger clothes shops, like the ones in malls or outdoors gear shops, etc, have so many mannequins. They used to really scare me when I was shopping, because there are always so many to avoid. Usually they have clothes on, but sometimes, near the store's closing time, that's not even guaranteed!
• friends holding my hand or arm to help me cross the street. A way of showing that you care here is to "help" your friends in "dangerous situations," like crossing the street. I'm quite confident that I could cross the street without holding a friend's hand, and have done so numerous times, but it's not uncommon for a friend to help me cross. Now that I've gotten used to it, I kind of enjoy returning the favor!
  
• guys carrying large feminine bags. One of the expectations that girlfriends have of their boyfriends is to carry their purses for them, so often the girl has nothing in her hands, while her boyfriend/husband is toting a big shiny bag for her.
• fireworks every weekend morning. A funeral, wedding, or a store opening or closing are all causes for firecrackers. Often on Saturday mornings I am awaken by the chain of gunpowder going off, setting off car alarms in the process. The remains of the fireworks are also commonly seen, little red shreds of paper in a pile on the sidewalk. After all, China invented gunpowder, why wouldn't they use it?

firecracker remnants...picture taken from my apartment looking down

I'm sure this process will continue, as I keep living here. It's fun to look back and see how the adjustment into a new culture has taken place, and to look forward and wonder how it will continue!