Great Wall, Take 2

I think from the video you all can gather that I just spent the start of the weekend visiting the Great Wall with some of my classmates :) This was my second attempt at taking a video - during the first attempt, I forgot some things I wanted to mention, and also was awful at remembering to zoom in or out. This resulted in a close-up of the trees below the wall, and a close-up of my nose at the end :-P. I'm very glad I made the second attempt, because this time some of the people I was with realized I was taking a video. If they hadn't you probably wouldn't have been able to see them, which would have been sad!! The guy with the camera on top of the station is from Indonesia, and if you couldn't hear him, he was saying hi to y'all. The girl sitting right above me (with the camera and the AWESOME shoes) is from Japan, and she is in my class :)

A little backgroun, my 口语 (speaking class) teacher took two of his classes (I'm in class 5, and then he also teaches class 10) two hours away to this original section of the wall that has a small village close by. It was WONDERFUL to breath fresh country/mountain air instead of city smog!! We stayed Friday night at a hostel/home-type place (I hope that makes sense?) that was very clean, and the food was AMAZING!! I'm going to say right now that I don't know what all I ate, I just know it wasn't anything strange but it all tasted good!

Random note: I was talking with one of my Japanese friends about tomatoes (西红柿), and in both America and Japan if they are eaten plain, both countries put a little salt on them. But here, we just found out that they put sugar on them!! I know it sounds strange, but I think you all should try it. Cut up a few tomatoes (I suggest home-grown ones, but if you don't have any on hand, I guess ones from the grocery store would be ok...), and put some sugar on them, and see if you don't like them.

A few observations from this trip:

Observation 1: The mountains were gorgeous!!! I love mountains :) Like I said in the video, I cannot imagine dragging all those bricks up those mountains without the aid of machinery. I have a lot of respect for the people who worked on the wall, even if it wasn't what they would have chosen to do (most people who worked on the wall were conscripted). And the fact that it's lasted so long is even more amazing. It's hard to say the same for a lot of our modern creations...

Observation 2: This one is more cultural, and really is an application of some of the things I studied in my Intercultural Communication class last semester. I was the only American on the trip, and the only person whose first language is English. I was not the only caucasian person (there were two French girls as well), but this was definitely a situation I had never been in before. I loved every single minute! It was so much fun trying to communicate in Chinese with people from France, Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand! Those who weren't as certain of what they were saying in Chinese would sometimes revert to English, and sometimes I'd be asked if they had said it correctly. I feel so privileged, and I don't think I like it. Everyone else who comes to study here has to study much harder than I do, because in class if we cannot understand the explanation, the meaning is usually given in English. This results in people having to learn both English and Chinese at the same time, sometimes translating Chinese to English to their native language and back to Chinese. I can tell you right now, I don't have to work nearly as hard and I would be so much more frustrated if I spoke English as a second language, no matter how fluent I was in it. In fact, talking to the French girls, they did point out to me that it is very hard for them here because of this. It makes me realize that I have been born into a huge advantage, because I can go almost anywhere in the world and expect that most people will be able to understand at least a little bit of what I'm saying. No other language has that advantage. I really admire those people who can go somewhere knowing that they will not be understood unless they speak a second language.

Observation 3: Karaoke is fun!!!! After dinner Friday night, we got out this HUGE book of songs that we could choose from, and I think almost everyone sang at least once. I sang "Money Money Money" by Abba with the French and Japanese girls, and "I Have A Dream" by Abba and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" with Justine (one of the French girls). It was a lot of fun, and I would totally do it again! Listening to people sing in Chinese was great too - because the characters were displayed on the screen, I could pick up on the meaning a little faster. It was a fun way to study a little bit ;-) For those of you studying Chinese, I have found that listening to Chinese music is a good way to pick up on pronunciation without having to worry about the tones.

I think that concludes my observations for now! If I think of any others I'll include them in my next blog, which should contain some pictures that I took of the area :)

Side note for those at my college (especially the goons): As I was looking at the beautiful scenery, my lovely thoughts were suddenly and rudely interrupted (in my head, of course - no one else here would know this) by lyrics from a YouTube video: "Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain; why is he climbing a mountain?" etc. I think I am going to have to p'wn some goons when I return (you know who you are...better start running...).