Week Twelve Recap

Sometimes I delay posting my recaps because I’m afraid that my life is too boring to write a blog post about. This is one of those weeks! But in case you’re curious, this what I’ve been up to lately:

Sunday

Like I said, life hasn’t been too exciting lately. This past Sunday, I spent the entire day holed up in the library, working on homework. I powered through a few essays, new texts, and character memorizations, finally completing all of my work around 8 pm. I was relieved to finish all of my required work and start the week in a good position academically, though.

Monday

My school week started off in the most fun way: with a birthday video call for one of my best friends from college. I was able to see the faces of so many people I care about, even if just through teeny-tiny boxes on zoom, which left me in high spirits for the rest of the day. Everyone talking over each other excitedly put the biggest smile on my face.

Still buzzing from the video call, I headed to my first class, where we started discussing the topic of “dinks”. Apparently that’s an English word, but I’ve never heard of it. A “dink” is someone who wants or chooses to be childless, and that decision is becoming increasingly popular among young people in China. We also discussed the decreasing popularity of marriage, which partially stems from a “betrothal payment” tradition that still exists and makes some women feel like they are being bought. (However, the tradition is that the groom’s family pays the bride and her family a certain amount, and then the bride’s family pays the groom’s family double that first amount… So I’m not clear on whether the objection is to being bought by the groom’s family or to paying the groom’s family to take the bride.) Which is more offensive?

In my second class, we continued last week’s discussion of hutongs, then watched another short film created by former Middlebury in Beijing students. This one featured a former Yale student that I actually know, so that was fun. I emailed her about it later that week and she never responded – maybe she didn’t want to be reminded of her acting debut.

After that second class, I started feeling a little bit sick (probably from the pollution) so I took a nap, which was glorious. I then worked on homework for the rest of the night and gossiped with my roommate for a bit. Her brother and her best friend just started dating, so there’s a lot to unpack there.

Tuesday

For some reason, I didn’t write down any notes about Tuesday. According to my planner, I spent the morning giving a presentation in my Modern Chinese Politics class, reviewing key characters for a mini exam later in the week, and then writing a reflection for that politics class. In my one-on-one class, I also reviewed more information about the complicated identities of interracial families that began to grow in Taiwan after Japanese occupation and the return of masses from mainland China. I’m preparing to write my program thesis soon, which will be on the topic of identity in Taiwan, so I’m trying to absorb as much of these texts as possible. The rest of this Tuesday remains a mystery.

Wednesday

I had a pretty standard Wednesday morning with my Hot Topics class, but the most interesting part of my day was traveling to a hutong to film our 73 Questions-style video inspired by Vogue. I ended up playing a shop owner (pretty fitting, since my Chinese and English last names both mean “to sell”), and since the weather was slightly rainy, we decided to make a last minute change to the script and say my store sold umbrellas, which worked out nicely. I love rainy weather and couldn’t have been happier about filming on this overcast day. We ended up filming everything in less than two hours and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the hutong and buying snacks from all of the nearby food stands. Wednesday was a day I woke up feeling nervous about, but after successfully memorizing my lines for the video and recording so quickly that we had time to relax and causally walk around, I felt much better.

Thursday

Thursday was a bit of a rough day. I woke after an insomnia-plagued night to the weight of all that I would need to accomplish. I wasted a lot of time doing my hair in the morning since I was feeling stressed, but that didn’t help, so I did unfortunately end up doom scrolling for a bit. However, I eventually kicked myself into high gear and start working on my assignments.

For my first class, I gave a presentation on China’s basic foreign policy agenda, which has five fundamental pillars: (1) respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, (2) non-aggression, (3) non-intervention, (4) pursuit of mutually beneficial endeavors, and (5) peaceful coexistence. After that, I listened to a classmate’s presentation on a Chinese foreign policy initiative called the Community of Common Destiny, which pledges to expand international cooperation and promote policies that support “all of humankind”. When presentations had concluded, we finished reviewing our text about the pathways to a job in the CCP and discussed the strict rules faced by CCP members working in government positions.

Then it was time for lunch, and I was so nervous about the rest of my day that I just ate a few dumplings. On the bright side, they were delicious.

Between lunch and my next class, I called my Mom for a pep talk, then prepped for my one-on-one session. This day, we talked about the development of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan as an opponent of the KMT. One KMT leader in the late 1990s revolutionized the Taiwanese election system to better reflect the wishes of the people and directly led to the election of the first DPP leader (and there has only been one KMT leader since… that guy’s idea sort of back-fired for his party). During this class, my professor also had me guess news article titles based on only traditional characters, and I did not do as well as last time, but it was still fun. I think I should try studying Taiwanese news every morning so that next time I can blow her away with my traditional character guessing skills.

My final task of the day was presenting to my Very Scary™ and Very Official™ Program Director. I think this is my least favorite part of my program – every few weeks, I report to the director about the content and learning from my one-on-one class, and then I respond to her questions. She also records the 20-minute report, which is very nerve-wracking. I think I blacked-out during the actual presentation, but I do know I made it out alive. My reward was a yummy dinner in the dining hall, and then a couple hours of reading for fun.

Friday

This Friday was my Dad’s birthday, so I started off the day with a phone call with my mom to coordinate his present. It took us over an hour to accomplish, but he liked in the end, so it was totally worth it. Plus, I’m never complaining about an hour-long phone call with my Mom. 😊

After the birthday call, I went to another Chinese Language Table with some of my friends and their roommates. We all had a nice time, but the food wasn’t my favorite. We went to a dumpling restaurant, which was my choice, but about half of the table didn’t want to order dumplings, so we mostly ate other dishes that weren’t this restaurant’s specialty. I wonder if I’ll have time to go back and eat all the dumplings my heart desires before I return to the U.S. Either way, it was nice to hang out with my classmates in a more casual setting.

As usual, I was totally dead after a long week, so once we got back from Chinese Language Table, I fell asleep almost immediately. I did a bit of homework as well, but I spent most of the afternoon resting.

Friday evening, my program had a joint activity with another study abroad program at our school. Together, we all boarded a charter bus to go watch a variety show with a bunch of different traditional Chinese art forms including bottle juggling, puppeteering, some kind of extreme yo-yo dancing, other types of dancing, Beijing opera, stand-up comedy, storytelling, and traditional music. During the performance, we were served a floral tea Beijing is known for as well as some different treats and a gigantic bucket of sunflower seeds. One of the most interesting things about this experience was that it was unlike performances in the United States in which the audience is expected to be quiet, turn off cellphones, etc. The audience was actively participating in this show, shouting out commentary, and nearly everyone was filming. I enjoyed the experience and would totally go again.

Saturday

My notes read, and I quote, “Boring, boring, boring – just homework! Nothing exciting at all.” I guess my Saturday didn’t live up to expectations! I did go on a long bike ride to clear my head, but I mostly studied.