The Great Firewall of China

大家好！

It was quite a struggle to get past China's firewall to be able to write this, and unfortunately I can't post pictures yet. Hopefully I'll figure out how to get around that soon. I hope everyone is enjoying September in their respective locales! Classes have started here and I'm "super busy". Everything is huge and full of people here. It is crazy.

I'm at the Capital University of Business and Economics (首都经济贸易大学 -- shǒudū jīngjì màoyì dàxué）, which is in the business district of Beijing, on the east side of downtown. We're about two blocks from the CCTV Headquarters, which is a crazy skyscraper that goes up like a normal building, then makes two 90 degree turns hundreds of feet of the ground, then comes back down to the ground. Locals call it 大裤衩 (dà kùchǎ), or "big shorts", because of its unusual shape. There are a lot of good restaurants around the school and a nice supermarket right across the street (crossing the street is an adventure that I'll describe in a future post).

The language pledge, which all the students have to sign, requires that we speak only Chinese all the time. We are allowed to talk to family and friends over the phone/internet in other languages if we're in our rooms, though. I have four hours of class each weekday. At 8am, I go to Lecture class, which has about 5 or 6 students. We go over the new grammar structures and characters in a quasi-lecture style with the professor calling on everyone about once per minute. Next is Drill class, which has a similar set up, but with about 4 students and more questions to each student. The third class is Dialogue class, which has 2 students and 1 teacher. The students converse for the hour based on the day's discussion topic while the teacher listens and corrects any mistakes. The last class is the One-on-one class, where one student and one teacher go over the day's materials and talk about other assigned topics. We cover about 80-100 new characters per day as well as new structures-- about what Lawrence Chinese classes cover in a week. Each Friday, after an 8am test, we have a Language Practicum, where we venture out into the city to talk to 北京人 (běijīngrén-- people of Beijing). Then we eat lunch with our teachers.

There's too much to say! We live in the Foreign Students' Dormitory, but we also have host families. I'm starting Calligraphy class tomorrow. Last weekend we went to see 景山公园 (jǐngshān gōngyuán-- Jingshan Park), 天安门 (tiānānmén), and 王府井 (wángfǔjǐng-- a famous shopping district). There are several other excursions planned in Beijing and two trips to other cities later on.

For now, I need to continue the never-ending onslaught of homework. I will hopefully upload pictures soon. I miss everyone!