it's picnic time . . . sort of

It hasn't all been work and study around here. In fact, we've had some enjoyable times around here lately. We spent last weekend in Beijing with some friends from Lawrence who have been living in Japan this year. (more on that later) And yesterday afternoon, we got together with some friends for a Let's Welcome Summer picnic.

Well sort of.

The weather has been completely summery all week long, sunny and humid, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 80's. But then, around 1:00 yesterday afternoon, just a couple hours before we planned to start our picnic, the temperatures just suddenly started dropping, the wind started blowing, and the rain clouds started gathering.

On the one hand, it was a real relief that the temperatures dropped. Ben and I have been putting off turning on the A/C because it uses so much electricity, and we don't want to have to go buy more electricity units before we leave in less than two months, but our apartment has just been sweltering for the past couple of days. That kind of muggy heat makes it hard to study, hard to eat, hard to sleep--basically hard to do anything. On the other hand, our picnicking plans were threatened by the stormy skies.

Threatened, but not ruined entirely. Instead of going out to picnic, we decided to have an indoor picnic, at our friends Miguel and Xiaoyin's house. Everyone brought a little something to contribute (we brought my new favorite cookies--peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip--yum!), and Miguel cooked up some hot chicken and cheese sandwiches to share. We munched, chatted, looked at photos, and watched Miguel teach our Chinese teacher to dance.

The great feast

Miguel teaches our teacher to dance like a Colombian



Ben and Lawrence eating the last cookie




Good times!




Who's the man? Inhye's the man.

you know you've been in China awhile when . . .

1.) You're walking down the street, and you see a guy with a giant serrated knife tied to a long pole, which he is using to trim tree branches, and while it may be kind of weird, it's not the strangest thing you've seen this week. Not by far.

2.) You think to yourself that Mr. Pizza (Pizza for Women)'s strange Harvest Gold Pizza isn't bad. Not bad at all. Kind of tasty, in fact. Pumpkin-stuffed crust and all. In fact, it may be even better than their regular potato pizza (yes, there are two kinds of potato pizza. The regular one has potato, ham, onion, corn, mushrooms, and cheese in the crust--kind of boring, don't you think?).

3.) You are so used to reading "Chinglish" translations, it takes you a minute to realize that "Naked Shrimp" pizza is a pretty funny thing.

please electricize

That's the message that comes up on my (purchased in Tianjin) electronic dictionary when the battery runs low: "Power Low: Please Electricize." Every time it happens, I get these images of Olivia Newton John in her little 1980's leotard, singing "Let's Get Physical." I guess in my mind, electricizing is something like aerobicizing. Ben, on the other hand, always starts humming the Electric Slide when I mention that it's time to "electricize" my dictionary.

Anyway, electricizing and exercising seem to be kind of a big deal around these parts. Especially exercise competitions. You may remember that last semester I participated in a "Sports Day" for foreign students. Well, we had another one of those just a couple weeks ago--the Spring semester version of the event. My camera was broken, so I didn't get any pictures, unfortunately, but let me assure you: much running, jumping, ball-bouncing, three-legged racing, and tug-of-warring fun was had by all.



Ben has recently been informed that he, too, will be participating in a teacher/student Sports Day for his school. He has been assigned to a team, and today he was given his official Meijiang School Sports Day T-shirt. He was so proud of it, when I came in the door this afternoon he just stood and pointed to it. Not that I could have missed it, even without his finger guiding my eyes to the appropriate place. It is bright, BRIGHT caution-orange. You might say it is electric. I guess we can be sure that Ben won't get lost while he's wearing it. Not that he can really get lost in a crowd around here, anyway. We both kind of tend to stand out in these parts.

oh, and also . . .

just 80 days till we return to the States. Not that I'm counting or anything . . . .

bitter medicine

I don't think I even realized how long it had been since I last posted here until I got a little message from my mom-in-law (Hi, Nancy!) saying she missed my blog. I haven't been avoiding it on purpose. I think I've just been a little distracted lately, studying diligently for my class, and working my way through some issues in my head. Sometimes when you're in the midst of churning through such things, it's a little hard to write about them, or the other things going on around you.

I've definitely had some highs and lows over the past several weeks. It was a great achievement to test so well and get into a higher level class. I started the semester elated over that news. But I soon discovered that actually being in a class that is three levels higher than the class I started in last semester can be a really stressful, difficult, and time-consuming enterprise. I started the semester at the bottom of the class, and have been clamoring to move up ever since.

I am (I reluctantly admit) not very good at not being the best student in the class. I like being the one who gets it. I enjoy excelling. And unfortunately, in the past, when I haven't excelled at one thing or another, my impulse has been to cry, and then to quit. The truth is, I simply don't excel in this class, and I have spent a few afternoons crying over it. But I've also been working really hard at not allowing myself to quit. All of this is to say that the semester so far has been a big lesson in humility, and commitment, and personal improvement in general, and those kinds of lessons are like drinking Chinese medicine--they may be good for you in the long run, but they sure are bitter going down. And you have to take a lot of doses before it really starts to work.

That being said, I'm working on not allowing this class (and my position in it) to take up such a prominent place in my thoughts. That's good, because there are a lot of other things to appreciate around here, all of which have nothing to do with studying Chinese, or excelling at it. Like the beautiful warm weather (mid-70's!) we've had over the past two weeks. Or the fact that the entire city is full of blossoming trees right now, all of them spilling their little pink petals like snowflakes over the city streets. Or the cool, new cafe Ben and I have been frequenting, which is only a few blocks away from our home. Or the fact that the streets are beginning to fill up with people in the evenings again, thanks to the rise in temperature, and having people on the streets makes every day feel like a party, even when there's no occasion for it. There's a lot to enjoy around here. I'll try to keep you in the loop.



(Also: sorry there are no photos. My camera broke shortly after we returned from our big trip, and I haven't had it fixed, or bought a new one yet. Working on that . . . . )

taste test: "natural & cool" potato chips

Remember how I said in my last post (yesterday) that I would try to post once a week? Here I am, going above and beyond already :)

I first had the idea for this post the other day. Ben and I were in the little open market near our apartment, picking up some potatoes and Coke zero (which is becoming surprisingly common here), when we saw that the guy at the dry snacks stand in the market was carrying Lay's potato chips. Lay's are pretty common in supermarkets around here, but this was the first time we had seen them in our local neighborhood open market, so we decided to get some.

There was only one bag out on display. When we asked the snack guy for a second bag (they come mainly in little snack-sized bags--or at least what we consider snack-sized in the U.S.), he gave us one bag of regular Lay's, and one bag of . . . get this . . . blueberry flavored Lay's.

We quickly rejected the blueberry flavored bag in favor of something a bit more . . . um . . . familiar, but after we left the market, I got to thinking: Could those blueberry potato chips possibly be tasty? Maybe it could be a blog-worthy experience to test it out.

Turns out the blueberry flavored chips are part of Lay's "Natural & Cool" line of potato chips, although I can assure you there is very little that is "natural" about them. After surveying the available flavors in this line at the supermarket last night, I decided it was time for a taste test, so here goes:

Blueberry: These chips are, as I'm sure you can imagine, really terrible. Or at least to my very American potato chip palate they are. As soon as I opened the bag, I got a full, hearty whiff of blueberry, an aroma I associate with muffins, pancakes, smoothies, or pie--dense, hearty, calorie-rich sweet treats. I definitely do not associate that aroma with potato chips. The chips definitely taste of blueberry--or at least artificial blueberry flavoring. In fact, the flavor is so overpowering, it's kind of like eating a chunk of blueberry flavoring, if that kind if thing even exists. I usually like sweet and salty tastes together, but apparently that preference does not extend to salty potato and sweet bluebery. I'd give these a big double thumbs down.

Cucumber: I had really high hopes for these chips. I can see how cucumber flavor and salty potato chip could go together really well, the cool, freshness of the cucumber balancing the crispy chip. Maybe someone else might enjoy these, but I, unfortunately, did not. They just tasted so . . . um . . . well . . . cucumber-y. I mean, like really strong cucumber. Is cucumber a strong flavor? I don't think of it that way, but in these chips, it really, really is. If I want to eat something "natural and cool" that tastes so strongly of cucumber, I'll probably opt for a natural, cool cucumber. I couldn't stomach more than a couple of these.

Last, but not least, Cherry Tomato: These chips taste like ketchup, which might sound like a bad thing, but after the blueberry and cucumber experience, it was really a welcome flavor. I know that some of you out there (ahem, Jen K) really love ketchup, so this might be the chip for you. It was definitely the most palatable of the three, but I have to say, I'd pick BBQ flavor, or Sour Cream & Onion, or just plain Lay's any day of the week over ketchup-flavor. On the other hand, maybe I just haven't grown fully accustomed to it yet. As I've been typing this entry, I find myself going back to those cherry tomato chips. Like they are calling my name. Like...mmm...like I really could grow to like them. I'll have to finish the rest of the bag to find out.

I wish I could post a couple pictures of the chips, so you could see as well as read about them. I wish even more that I could post the pictures of Ben trying the blueberry and cucumber flavors (he was not pleased). Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz right now--a situation I hope will soon be remedied.

Anyway, that's it for the "natural & cool" line. My advice: stick with the original. But don't give up hope on a new Lay's flavor sensation. Turns out Lay's has a line of international flavors here, too, including French Chicken and Italian Red Meat. I'll let you know when I round up the guts to give those a go.

apology

Sorry for my long absence from this blog. We are back to school in the Billing-Cartwright household, in the middle of our second week of classes for the semester. The whole back-to-the-grind thing has been keeping us hopping. I'm firmly entrenched in coursework, and Ben is keeping very busy between the classes he's teaching, and the progress he's making toward preparing for his comps. Unfortunately, all of this busy-ness hasn't left a lot of time for either blogging, or doing things worth blogging about.

In my last post, I wrote about my spring semester placement exam score. I was really happy to have done so well on the test, but my high score left me with a dilemma: what level of class should I actually enroll in? After much thought, perusal of textbooks, and discussion with my teacher from last semester, I finally decided to enroll in the Intermediate 2 class. That's three levels higher than the class I was in last semester, but two levels lower than the class I tested into. Right in the middle sounded just about right.

However, I'm finding that this level is more than challenging. In fact, I'm struggling to keep up on the work right now. We have one or two quizzes almost daily, and I have to work pretty hard to learn the new material for those quizzes and simultaneously make sense of the vocabulary I should have learned before entering this level. This all adds up to me spending 5 or more hours outside of class every day, just trying to study sufficiently and get my homework done. Between 4 hours of class every day and 5+ hours of study, there isn't a whole lot of time for doing much of anything else. Unfortunately, it also doesn't leave me with a lot of brain power to think of anything to write or say when a few moments of free time arise.

So, all of this is to say I may not be such a frequent poster on my blog this semester. I'll try to put something up once a week, but if I miss a week, don't worry. It doesn't necessarily mean any catastrophe has occurred--well, no catastrophe other than me being buried up to my neck in Chinese textbooks, anyway.