Moshi Moshi? Zachary Speaking.

Something you may not have thought about

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:14:33 GMT

Did you know in the figurative sense one-dimensional and two-dimensional are synonyms?

one-dimensional: lacking depth; superficial : the supporting roles are alarmingly one-dimensional creations.
two-dimensional: lacking depth or substance; superficial : a nether world of two-dimensional heroes and villains.

Possibly, even weirder, bi-monthly and bi-weekly can be synonymous as well, depending on which definition you're following:

biweekly: appearing or taking place every two weeks or twice a week
bimonthly: occurring or produced twice a month or every two months

Oh, English.

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:49:02 GMT

Long time no see, kids. Maybe we should talk about X-rays.

So, the X-ray was discovered by Willhelm Conrad Röntgen, a Dutch-German physicist who was experimenting with electricity and a cathode ray tube. He called them "X-rays" because he had discovered an unknown ray. The "X-ray" has been called "the first invisible substance generated by scientists to profoundly affect human perception" and when it was eventually discovered to be dangerous, people had to adjust to a brand new idea: that something they couldn't perceive or trace could hurt them months or years later.

Before people knew of its effects, they would receive X-rays for about an hour when being examined. The first person to open up an X-ray lab in Californian, Elizabeth Fleischmann, predictably died from cancer induced by X-rays.

Even more interesting are the metaphysical ideas people started thinking about because of X-rays. A popular term for the rays was "The New Sight". If X-rays were powerful, but invisible what other rays might exist? Could people soon revive the dead, make ghosts visible, reveal human thoughts, turn invisible, or even locate a fourth dimension? These were all on people's minds at the turn of the century.

It's no wonder that H.G. Well's wrote "The Invislble Man" around this time. The cause for his invisibility was "roentgen rays" named after "Röntgen" the discoverer of the X-ray.

With all that we know today, I'm not sure things still dazzle us as much as the X-ray did over a century ago. Still, there are some world view-altering ideas floating around, like always. Maybe the most exciting idea of our time is string theory which has been called "the best candidate for the theory of everything" (basically it will explain and link all known physical phenomena) and also sometimes proposes the existence of eleven dimensions. Still, I'm not seeing anyone's thoughts just yet!

Gang Warfare

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:02:36 GMT

Tip I learned from an Aurora east sider: If a gang's symbol is graffitied upside down then it was written by someone who is against them.

While riding my bike through Aurora today, I encountered an upside down crown spray painted on a fence. Sorry Latin Kings!

Calvin

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:56:42 GMT

Ok, I swear this blog will once again be about interesting trivia. But for now, this is why I love Calvin Harris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8Orjkm864

Enola Gay

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:22:01 GMT

I was listening to the kooky, early eighties song "Enola Gay" today and was struck by these two lines. ("Little Boy" was the name of the bomb and the plane was named after one of the pilot's mothers).

Enola gay, is mother proud of little boy today
Aha this kiss you give, its never ever gonna fade away

Super Relevant

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:31:05 GMT

This song should be re-released. It should at least be featured on BET, Vh1, and MTV.

viridescent, olive, jade, emerald, lime

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:55:19 GMT

In light of the current green movement, I have to ask, do you feel like you're part of it? If so, what do you do to be green?

Recently I've started taking marine style showers (only using the water to wet your body and rinse off), though I can't say I enjoy them too much.

I hope this movement holds out and becomes a long lasting concern of our culture. It would be so depressing if one day people stopped caring.

So, my Muslim priest friend became a vegetarian, but he still eats fish.

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:22:17 GMT

Do you ever think up words that most people don't know, but they probably should? ...maybe you don't, but I have.

I've compiled three such words:

Pescetarian: A vegetarian who eats seafood. This is such a good word to know because there are so many people who fall into this category and it helps differentiate vegetarians who don't eat meat at all from those that do.

Imam: We're familiar with the words rabbi, priest, minister and shaman, so why not imam, the word for the head of a mosque? It's the world's second largest religion, and "Muslim priest" just sounds awkward.

Sinecure: A job requiring little work. I've always liked this word because it has no synonyms, and North Central has a ton of these. How many desk jobs are there on campus, where a student is simply paid to do their homework and can't even help you if you have a question? Total sinecures, all of them!

So, those are my three words. Can you think of any more?

History

Sat, 02 May 2009 05:09:34 GMT

When you read about history before 1900 do you find yourself connecting to any other countries? All of us have relatives that were living in other nations before a certain point in time. Do you relate to any other histories besides American history?

Personally, I enjoy feeling that ancient Greece and parts of the Roman and Byzantine empire were part of my history. I know that people move around and mix in, so it's up in the air where anyone's ancestors were so long ago. Still, it's nice to feel connected to something back then. I like to think of my ancestors in ancient warring Denmark as well, ha.

Get-up

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:36:35 GMT

Look at what you're wearing right now and date all of it. Underwear not included.

Shoes- 2006
Pants - 2009
Belt - 2008
Sweater - 2005
Pin - 2007

Out of the way pasty Europeans!

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:00:50 GMT

What do you do when your music video is filled with pasty Englishmen or Danes? You add in a beautiful black woman of course! It happened in the eighties and it happened last year. Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njh6paP3eyk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD4bXOf7AiI

Vitriolage

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:19:49 GMT

Confused by the title of this blog? It's another term for acid throwing, a rarely occurring crime of passion that nevertheless is at an all time high in Pakistan. It's most common in Southern Asia, and its victims are predominately women (80% according to some sources). In 2002 there were 750 female victims of vitriolage, according to Human Rights Watch. The Bangladesh Acid Survivors Foundation reports that since 1999 there have been an average of 228 cases per year of acid throwing. It occurs for a number of reasons, but it is most often inspired by passion. In Bangladesh it occurs most often in cases of domestic violence. It is mainly used in Cambodia by wives who want to disfigure the faces of their husbands' mistresses.

This is scary stuff. Oddly enough, it was a common enough crime in 19th century France that Eugene Grasset painted this painting entitled "The Acid Thrower":

It's currently hanging in the Edvard Munch show as the Art Institute as an example of one of his possible influences.

Music Video #2

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:47:20 GMT

Though I'm not a big fan of country music, I ocassionaly find songs that I really like. This is one of them, and their music video is outstanding. The Dixie Chick's wrote this song in response to all the hate mail and bad press they received after criticizing President Bush.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwc5YSAc-7g

Video Hits 1, Music Television

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:42:16 GMT

I love music videos; I find it horribly disappointing as I feel that music videos today are much more creative than in their heyday (80's and 90's) but people watch them less and less. I blame MTV and Vh1 for selling out. In Japan there are three music video channels that show them all day (one is MTV Japan). I really don't understand MTV and Vh1's shift. Music Videos are an opportunity for animators, musicians, and directors to team up and create something totally entertaining. TRL, MTV's last music video-focused program is now off the air, and the VMA's only award popular videos, while there are very exciting ones by less popular bands. So, I'm going to dedicate my next few posts here (at least) to music videos that I find really interesting. Let's start with "Space and Woods" by the Nottingham band Late of Pier.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:16:36 GMT

Sam and I skipped two days of classes in late November and spent 9 days traveling. We had decided to only go places where we could stay with friends, and it was definitely a strategy that paid off. The trip was full of old friends and great food.

We started off our trip in Niigata. The bullet train ride there sent us past breathtaking Mt. Fuji and countless autumn colored and snow dusted mountains. It was beautiful.

It was nice to be back in Niigata, but also kind of melancholy for me. I'd forgotten how pretty the city was until Sam mentioned it. There wasn't much for us to do, as I didn't know how to do any tourist things there besides shop. We'd planned on seeing an old Japanese mansion, but it was a bit out of our price range. I was filled with the feeling while there that I'd come back one too many times, and that my teenage days of fun in Niigata were truly long gone. Furamachi wasn't the Shijo I'd remembered it as, and the With building was oddly empty and quiet. Still, we found where the animé store had moved to (I remember when it opened in 2004). Seeing a bustling, familiar place cheered me up a bit. We wandered back to the station through an interesting side street and made our way to Sanjo.

We walked 30 minutes from Tsubame/Sanjo station to the Mos Burger past my host parents home/animal hospital. I haven't talked to them in over two years, so I was afraid they'd spot me from outside the hospital window and come talk to me. Fortunately, they didn't. My first モスバーガー (Mos Burger) experience was a good one, though I can't believe we had to pay for ketchup.

A few hours later, after walking back to the station, waiting for a local train, and walking from a different Sanjo station, we made it to where we were staying, the house of Mrs. Ikarashi (五十嵐先生) my former Japanese teacher. She lives in a pretty, traditional house next to the shrine her husband is the priest of. Sam and I were totally taken aback at what a good hostess she was. She offered us all sorts of snacks, as we watched television with her husband and 20-something daughter. The best part of all was the beds she'd made up for us. We slept in the room next to Mr. Ikarashi's shrine preparation room (the same room where Kelsey used to stay four years ago when Ikarashi-sensei was her host mother). We were provided with ample blankets, super comfortable futons, and a warm heater. Compared to the hard mattresses in China and the thin futons in our apartments, it was the best nights sleep we'd gotten since the WYMCA hotel in Hong Kong.

The next day we woke up and were made breakfast by Mrs. Ikarashi. She asked if I'd eaten, to which I replied "シリアルを食べました”. She then said ”それは朝ご飯じゃ有りませんよ" -- I had cereal" , That's not breakfast. So, she made us delicious sandwich melts and offered us tasty leftover noodle salad. Afterward w got a tour of the shrine by Mr. Ikarashi. He was a priest on the weekends and an elementary schoolteacher on the weekdays. His father had been a high school teacher and Shinto priest. Sunday was a Japanese holiday, though not many other Japanese people talked much about it. It was a day when the emperor of Japan would offer food to the gods. Mr. Ikarashi had had one visitor to the shrine that morning possibly because of the holiday.

The shrine was 80 years old, though one of the rooms was from the early eighties. Mr. Ikarashi said the gods has been there for 600 hundred years (I wonder how he knows). He let us in to the two rooms of the shrine where only the priest is allowed to go, so we were pretty fortunate to have the opportunity. The gods of that shrine were related to the two gods that are said to have birthed Japan, but with my limited Japanese, I couldn't understand exactly who they were. Like most shrines, there were two large doors at the head of the it, where the Gods dwelt. I longed to see what was inside.

At 11:30, Sam and I met up with my old friends, the Sasage family, who I'd met two years prior in Sanjo. They (Mrs. Sasage and her daughter Hitomi) spoiled us rotten all day taking us bowling, to the arcade, to a ramen restaurant, out for ice cream, and finally over to their house to play Wii and eat sushi and pizza. We ate so much all day! Mrs. Sasage explained that the Japanese enjoy being hospitable, and one shouldn't refuse what's offered. Still, I can't believe we had ice cream after snacks at the bowling alley and big bowls of ramen for lunch. The Sasage's were fun to talk to, but, as always, hard to understand. Their Japanese was much faster than Ikarashi-sensei's. Still, their energy and kooky personalities only created more hilarious situations. We shouted "Ja you" (Chinese for "good luck/がんばって") when one of us went up to bowl, and Hitomi declared "It was a miracle!" when she bowled a strike.

The arcade was a lot of fun. We played a giant arcade game where one would throw plastic balls at the screen to break virtual bottles and things. The most depressing level was the one where our little character was underneath a giant descending press. If we didn't smash the glass in front of them, the press would crush them to death. We all lost. twice.

Upon arriving at their house, we found out they had moved into Mr. Sasage's parent's house, which was huge and beautiful. It had a wide, hard wood hallway; two gardens; spacious, Japanese style rooms;and a beautiful kitchen, and Hitomi's room even had a couch (very rare for Japanese houses). After some "Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games" with Hitomi, we ate dinner . Mr. Sasage joined us, and we talked about all sorts of topics. Afterward, the Sasage's offered to drive us to the station the next morning.

We were running late in the morning and didn't have much time to say goodbye to the Ikarashi's. Still, we made it to the meeting point only a little late, and Mrs. Sasage and Hitomi drove us to the station. They gave us the leftover snacks from the night before, bought us convenience store breakfast, said goodbye, and we were off for Tokyo.

Japanese Oddities

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:14:34 GMT

There are many Japanese things which might surprise people not familiar with Japan. I started making a mental list of them while I was there, and I definitely think people wouldn't expect so many barber poles and clear umbrellas from the Japanese.

Vending Machines/Convenience Stores- In Japan there is supposedly one vending machine for ever four people. Whether that's true or not, I did pass ten vending machines on my 12 minute walk to the train station. They nearly always include drinks, though there are also cigarette ones. I only ever saw one snack vending machine while in Japan. The drink ones include generally at least 15 different drinks and can even dispense cans of coffee or tea hot. Convenience stores are also everywhere and are not affiliated with gas stations. In my apartment, I was a five minute walk from a Lawson, 12 minutes from Heart In, 15 minutes from Circle K, and 20 minutes from Family Mart. They all have an excellent selection of quick meals (sushi, sandwiches, rice balls, noodle dishes, lunch sets, etc.) and a variety of pastries. My theory on all of this availability was that long ago the Japanese were really thirsty so they put in convenience stores everywhere so people could have something to drink. Then, while walking to the konbini (as they're called in Japanese) they were still SO thirsty, so they had to put in vending machines so that they could drink something to keep from collapsing on the way to the convenience store.

Barber Poles- Remember when barber poles were awesome? Cause Japan does. Outside of nearly every barber shop or salon there is a spinning, red and blue barber pole. I even saw a pink and purple one for a salon once. I don't know why there aren't more in America. They grab your attention when you're walking down the street and look quite pretty.

Trains- JR (Japanese Rail) trains are so convenient in Japan that if they're late (which only happened on three different occasions while we were in Japan), they will display how many minutes late they're running next to when the train was normally supposed to arrive. Because JR owns most (though not all) of the trains in Japan, traveling between Kyoto and Osaka or traveling within Tokyo can feel rather similar, unlike Chicago where riding the El and the Metra definitely feel very different. Train conductors usually offer the warnings of "お忘れ物なさいようにご注意下さい" (In order not to forget anything please be careful). Everything they say, whether they're male or female, is nearly always done in a bizarrely nasalized voice.

Playboy Bunny Logos- Someone didn't tell Japan that the Playboy bunny symbol stands for a company that makes a porn magazine, so young girls can sometimes be seen wearing black socks with small, pink Playboy bunny logo on it. Their mothers clearly have no idea what they bought their daughters.

Shrines- Are everywhere in Japan, especially Kyoto, and can take up acres of land or be only two feet wide and sort of mounted on a wall. I really enjoyed them, even the shabby ones. On my short walk to the train station I would pass three. Shrines are supposedly only built where a god is believed to be, so I wonder if anyone prays to the gods at the more forgotten looking ones. Every shrine contains a main room or box with shut doors. Inside there is believed to be the god of the shrine.

Kleenex- In both Japan and China bums asking for money aren't very common. We saw a few in China, but I figure since much of China is poor, most people living in poverty comes up with other means to provide for themselves (like street vending). It is said, though, that most bums who ask for money give most of it to some sort of crime syndicate that looks out for them. So, that was always frightening.

Anyway, bums in Japan live in cardboard boxes sometimes in parks or train stations (in Niigata anyway). They're quite out of the way and dont disturb people. In fact, I barely ever saw them outside of their box houses. So, the closest thing Japan has to people asking you for money, is people who want to give you kleenex. They slip in advertisements or coupons to whatever restaurant or event their promoting. I find them quite pleasant, and wound up never buying kleenex in Japan. I was once even giving a bike lock with a kleenex with safety advice.

Gambling- Though gambling is illegal in Japan, money laundering apparently isn't. Everywhere in Japan there are pachinko (an early form of pinball, but completely chance based) parlors. They're just like gambling, except one doesn't win money. Instead one wins tokens... which can be "bought" at a nearby location for a set price. The parlors are loud and flamboyant. I've heard multiple stories of people getting terribly addicted and ruining their lives there and even saw a few "Ghost" (that early 90's Swayze movie) themed Pachinko machines.

Bakeries- Bakeries are much more common in Japan than in the US, but don't feature any bread. Instead they sell delicious pastries and little cakes. Chinese and Japanese pastries are similar in the fact that they aren't very heavy and don't feature a lot of frosting (...or any). Japanese pastries were light to the point of being ridiculous. We would go through a bakery picking them up with the tongs just to feel how heavy they were. Seriously, chiffon cakes could have blown away on a windy day.

Umbrellas- They say umbrellas are the only cheap thing in Japan. Small ones go for 300円 ($3.00), large ones for 515円. The most popular type is clear plastic (maybe 30-40% of them). Japan goes to greater lengths to make umbrellas convenient than in the US. Some stores (and our campus library) offer thin plastic bags to put one's umbrella in when indoor on rainy days, but most places have umbrella racks. They're made of plastic or metal and include narrow circles to put one's umbrella through. At museums in Tokyo on a rainy day there were over a hundred slots and one could lock their umbrella inside with a key.

Central Heating- This is unheard of in Japanese houses, it seems. They have ストブ (Sutobu, from the word "stove"). They aren't stoves at all, but fearsome, gas burning, heaters that contain a live flame. Often they are placed under a low Japanese table which is then surrounded with a blanket to keep the heat in. One then sits with their legs under the table. When we went to the middle school, to heat their large gym, they had giant heaters blowing life-threatening looking flames.

Has anyone noticed anything bizarre and interesting when traveling in other countries? I'm sure there's a lot out there.

ただいま　（I'm home!)

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:13:19 GMT

So, remember when I barely posted about Japan, so no one really had an idea about what went on there? Yeah...let's fix this.

School was much different than China: small, organized, and with homework and quizzes. Kyoto Gakuen/KGU/京都学園 is about the same size as NCC and also like NCC has a low number of exchange students. Atsuko, the young, pretty woman who worked at the international office was always of a great help to us. She once drew me a map explaining how to get to Flower Arrangement club, and then made sure to find me again when the room had slightly changed. All I had done was ask her the meeting time!

Our school was a 45 minute bus ride from the station next to mine. It wasn't actually in Kyoto but in the rural town of Kameoka. It was set into a hill and surrounded by beautiful mountains and farm fields. On our bus ride to school we'd pass bamboo forests and drive through tunnels to emerge into breathtaking river valleys and autumn colored mountains. Often after a certain tunnel, we pop out into a thick blanket of fog. It looked like we were driving through nothing. I loved it.

I had Japanese class with two other students on our trip three days a week for 90 minutes each day. We went through a strange, though challenging text book which included chapters on sleep patterns, dolphins, and Japanese bathrooms. Our teachers didn't speak English, so we had to converse with them and each other in Japanese, which I found to be really good practice. Our class was a bit of a mix of levels. Bradley was a 300 level student, I was 400, and Stephanie 500. So, maybe things worked out the best for me. Shorter classes with homework worked so much better for everyone than 4 hours classes w/o it (China).

We also had our weekly globalization class with our NCC professor. While the one in China was discussion based and focused on international pressures affecting Chinese government and policy, our class in Japan was still discussion based but focused on Japanese culture in the realm of globalization. Our Japanese text book turned out to be just as academically written and mind-numbingly boring (for the most part) as our Chinese text book had.

Besides those courses we had weekly lectures and trips. We visited famous shrines and temples in and around Kyoto, went to a tea factory, had a tea ceremony, tried on traditional Japanese clothing, visited a Japanese middle school, and had lectures on various topics. The kids at the middle school were so much fun! Though they were shy when we tried to talk with them in small groups, they would run around and touch the belly fat of some of our heavier male students when we played games. Maybe they regarded David, Bryant, and Sam Inman as some sort of Buddha figures?

Living in Japan definitely felt very different from China, and much of that was because of the cost. While much of China was about going out to eat and taking trips to different sites, that all proved too expensive in Japan. We would go sight seeing at times, but couldn't afford to do it as much. Instead, our lives (or mine anyway) became more about hanging out at school and with friends. Between us Americans and some Japanese and international friends we made, there were a good amount of parties and get-togethers. It was good, though, I was really looking forward to hanging out and talking with friends in Japanese.

Kyoto is a very a-typical Japanese city. Because of all the temples, shrines, and traditional sites throughout the city, the city is quite strict on building height. So, though there are 1.5 million people in Kyoto, it doesn't feel that big. Besides traditional sites, a lot of people enjoyed going to 四条 (Shijou), a shopping district downtown. I found their covered shopping streets and Japanese clothing stores exciting and very different from the US, but also too expensive for me to have too much fun. Still, many of the people on our trip managed to acquire quite a bit of new clothes between the cheap options in China and the fashionable ones in Japan. I'd come to school and see new shoes, leather jackets, purses, and t-shirts. It was quite unexpected. I'd wanted to buy a new shirt in Japan, but my stinginess got the better of me.

Food was frustrating. I really missed some of the things I couldn't find at the grocery stores near my place (Macaroni and Cheese, perogies, feta cheese, non-white bread, brussels sprouts). I mostly subsisted off of white rice (I ate SO much), kimchi, carrots, and sandwiches. My diet was uncharastically lacking in important food groups (fruit, dairy). After all, a quart or half gallon amount of milk was usually 250円 ($2.50). Bread was overpriced as well. I did enjoy the more unhealthy side of Japanese food at times. Japanese curry and fried chicken cutlets were always so good!

So, I hope that gives a clearer picture of what everyday life was like for me in Japan. I'll be sure to post more about actual events that occurred.

Japots Japans

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:31:36 GMT

Sorry for the delay. I've now been in Japan for a month! Before I go into what I've been specifically doing, I think it's best to lay out how life is here.

Rather than the 18 of us living on campus on the same floor of a dorm like we did in China, we now live in 9 separate apartments. I live with Chris in an area of Kyoto one stop away from Kyoto station. Besides us there are 4 girls who live about 6 minutes from our apartment. The rest of our group lives in two other areas of Kyoto. Some of them live next door to each other and some, like us, don't.

Chris and my apartment is small, but comfortable. It's definitely not anything one would see in the US. The kitchenette (a sink and two burners) is located next to the washing machine and a few feet away from the microwave which sits on top of the fridge. All of these things are in the short hallway between the front door and the living room. None of us have on oven, which has been a bit of a let down. Japanese people normally don't have ovens, but they do have super oven-like microwaves. Our microwave definitely doesn't have baking capabilities. The living room is maybe 7ft by 12ft. It contains a small table, two chairs, and a table with a TV on it. We also have a nice loft, that is about 3 ft. high, but contains a good amount of space for sleeping.

I'd forgotten how compact Japan felt. Residential areas feel like Japan's trying to squeeze as much as it can into whatever space available. Yards don't exist, there's often no space between house, and sidewalks are often nonexistent. It can feel a bit claustrophobic at times. Still, if there's any space between the street and a house, there will be a stone wall there. Even if there's only a foot of space between the wall and house, they homeowners will have put a wall there. Then, in that foot of space they'll have crammed some sort of zen trees or plants. Also, within this lack of space, are tiny shrines every once in a while. They may be only about 2.5 square feet, but they exist. I seriously wonder who prays at them, though.

Japanese cities so far aren't very attractive, but in a different way from China. China's specialty was ugly, oddly colored apartment high-rises with too much sticking out of them. Japan's issue that they just put whatever buildings they can next to each other. One could be two stories shorter than the other one and a totally different color and shape, but it seemingly doesn't matter. Also, for a first world nation, we've all commented on how Japan has sort of a poor, gritty, industrial look to it at times. Still, that's not to say that nice-looking portions don't exist.

Kyoto definitely doesn't feel like a city in the traditional sense. Buildings can't be over 50 feet in nearly all areas of the city, so though it has 1.5 million people or so, the low buildings give it a different feel from a regular city that size.

Our school isn't actually in Kyoto, but instead is set into the mountains in a rural area near Kameoka. To get to school we take the bus from 桂川駅 (katsuragawa station) that takes about an hour to get to school. It winds through tunnels and between mountains. The ride to and from school is really beautiful, but I usually wind up falling asleep on the bus.

I'd love to post more, but I have to wake up in 4 1/2 hours to catch a bullet train to Niigata. Hope everyone's doing well in the US. I'll try to post in about a week when I get back from traveling!

ビデオ Blog

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:48:12 GMT

So, I decided to catapult into the 21st century and attempt a video blog.

In case that didn't work you can find the video here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1257518438515087206&hl=en

Pure Indulge in an Era of High-Price Gasoline

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:08:34 GMT

As of tonight I'll have been in China for three weeks. I should probably start off by saying that I never thought this trip would be so enjoyable.

Dorm Life, My Schedule, Chinese

I live on the 17th floor of the Foreign Exchange Student Dormitory at 北京外国語大学 (Beijing Foreign Studies University, BFSU or 北外 for short). Everyone else on the floor except for one older man is from our group of 18 from NCC. The rest of the floors are filled with Japanese, Austrian, Korean, French, and other foreign students, some of whom I've been fortunate enough to meet. There are other large dorms on campus filled with Chinese students. Over all BFSU is a sizeable University. I'm not sure the number of students, but I think I heard 10,000.

We have a lot more class than any of us expected, but I'm dealing with it. We have twenty hours of Chinese a week, 8-12 AM Mon-Fri, Tai Chi next week for two hours a day Mon,Wed, Friday (Brush Painting and Calligraphy replace Tai Chi in October), and Professor Moussaitis' lecture on Thursdays from 2-5. We're currently negotiating for one day less of Chinese a week. Personally, I don't mind having so much class for the most part, I'm just bothered that it doesn't leave me much time to explore 北京 (Beijing).

Chinese is definitely an interesting language. The grammar so far is much more similar to English than Japanese grammar was. They have Subject Verb Object sentences and don't conjugate verbs and adjectives constantly like in Japanese. At least at this basic level their grammar seems even more basic than English in some ways. Instead of saying "What are you going to eat" you can just say "你吃什么" which translates to "You eat what?"

The pronunciation's a bit tricky. I feel like I have the vowel and consonant sounds down (except for the initial Chinese 'r), but the tones are what gets me. They're just one extra thing to remember when learning words, and I find it tough to have a good sentence flow because of them. Still, I'm trying my best to use them.

Writing is nice. A lot of characters we have to learn are things I've had to use before in Japanese. The meanings are usually different and I have to learn new pronunciations, but the fact that I've seen them before helps a lot.

Complaints

My two greatest concerns with the trip are the food and our lack of interaction with the Chinese. Though I assume Chinese people eat healthily at home, the same can't be said for at school. Our cafeteria enjoys adding too much butter, salt, sugar and/or grease to everything. They pickle celery and cauliflower, and make broccoli so salty I can't handle it without something to drink. So, I do the best I can. It really is a challenge. I've been eating sweet potato a lot. It's one of the only things they don't adulterate.

Our small school grocery store doesn't come with many options either. It has entirely too much space devoted to yogurt (they love it in this country, as do I), but no lunch meat, margarine, or vegetables. So, Carrefour (a French supermarket) has become the only way to get other sorts of foods. Our rooms not having fridges makes storing some foods impossible, though.

As I get used to food here, my second problem with our program is starting to bother me more. There is just no way to meet Chinese students. The North Central students from previous years had the same problem. As my exchanges in high school involved meeting a lot of Japanese people, I feel incomplete going to a foreign country and not knowing what the people are like. It's as if I'm constantly living in an NCC bubble. The language barrier is a big problem, but there's also just no social outlet. Despite all this, I'm not giving up; I've decided to investigate clubs at BFSU.

Meeting non Chinese students is difficult too, but more possible. North Central made the mistake (in my opinion) of putting all of us together on one floor. BFSU made the mistake of putting all of us who haven't taken Chinese before in one isolated Chinese class. So far the two NCC students from our trip who live on the 4th floor (and are thus mixed in with other foreign students) have had the best luck meeting new people.

I'm not a complete failure though. My friends Erik and Amanda visited and stayed in my room during the first week in Beijing and Amanda introduced Sam and I to Sachiko (幸子), a cool girl from Japan who studies Danish, English, and Chinese. She's embarrassed to speak English, and her Chinese is not bad, so I speak to her in Japanese, and Sam communicates in Chinese. It's good practice and very satisfying. My strategy for making new friends is to meet people through Sachiko, as she's the only friend I've made who I can communicate with (I've been getting to know a Korean girl, Chanhee, but she barely speaks English or Japanese, so she's hard to talk with).

Beijing and China

China's definitely very different from the States, but at the same time quite different from Japan. Beijing's not what I expected either. I thought I'd come to a dirty city with narrow streets, and while small, dingy streets definitely exist, for the most part Beijing is a city with wide streets, nice sidewalks, pedestrian underpasses, glowing skyscrapers, and clean, efficient public transportation. Though China is a poverty stricken country, in places like Beijing and Shanghai it's relatively hard to see. There are places like Hutongs (the old residential areas of the city) where poverty becomes visible, but they're always hidden behind walls and tucked away in less popular parts of the cities. Not that the walls were built to hide the Hutongs. Walls line sidewalks all over the city, in that respect Beijing reminds me a lot of Japan.

In my China and Globalization class (the one taught by the professor from NCC) we discussed how China can't really be called Communist anymore. It's definitely not a Democracy, but it's no longer the classless society that was the goal of Communism. The Chinese government is still very authoritarian (limiting the growth of businesses, the limited children policy, placing a lot of restrictions on emigration) and very socialist as well (state-owned health care, all or much of the land is state-owned, state owned industries), but people aren't assigned with the same job for their whole lives anymore. People also have the freedom to make profits and set up their own businesses. They really do have a market-economy (seriously, there are people selling things everywhere), even if they can't vote to affect it.

One can definitely feel the presence of the larger government when walking around the city. The buses have one or two attendants (depending on size) in addition to the driver. Then there are just guards sprinkles throughout the city.

Sightseeing
BFSU isn't near a subway stop, so we're constantly taking the 634 bus twenty minutes to Xizhimen, the closest subway. The Beijing subways are very nice and the trains are immaculate. The intervals between trains is no more than five minutes (usually 2), and they're always crowded. It's a great deal for .$30 each way. It's going to definitely be a wake up call coming back to the El in winter. Through the subway we've been able to see a lot of great sites in Beijing (and there are just so many things to see). So far we've been to:

The Temple of Heaven: The Chinese believe a circle symbolizes heaven and a square, Earth, so it's the only circular temple and a symbol of Beijing (though it's no longer in use and purely for tourism)

The Temple of Earth: It's much less popular than the former and is a square. It's also defunct and is now in the middle of a park you have to pay to enter.

Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City: Seeing the Forbidden City involved a lot of walking (it's very vast), but was worth it. All the throne rooms were really pretty, and I couldn't believe Chinese emperors used to live in a place that feels so removed from the people.

The Summer Palace: We actually went there the day after we got to China. It was the summer retreat of the emperors. It's built into a hill and surrounds a lake, so the scenery contributes greatly to its beauty.

The Great Wall: It took a strenuous climb to get up to it, but it was worth it. The wall was surprisingly steep at points and was in the middle of beautiful mountains that looked like they were hard enough to invade already. To get down from the wall we took alpine sleds down (sleds with wheels that follow a metal track). It was a lot of fun.

The Olympic Area: Sam and I got tickets to the Paralympics, and after the ridiculously time-consuming security checks got through to the Olympics area (it has its own train line). The Birds Nest looked smaller than on TV, but was really pretty at night. The Water Cube was very impressive as well. Glowing lights were everywhere at night (the ground, streetlights, water cube, nearby buildings) and they were constantly changing color.

The stadium felt very large on the inside. We bought Athletics ticket (track & field) and got to see blind racing, wheelchair racing, and 400M by men who only had >2 arms. Blind racing was maybe my favorite, though a bit confusing. The women would run in step with a male guide who was tethered to them. Some women, though (including the returning champ from Athens) ran alone. She even won. How did she know where she was going?? I have no idea. It was all very interesting.

There's plenty more to talk about, but this post is already horrendously long. I'll hopefully post in a week with more information about what's been going on. I hope everyone's doing well in their respective countries!

ps. My title was taken from a fashion magazine ad found in a taxi.

中国 Approaches

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:42:37 GMT

So, rather than starting a new blog completely, I've decided to make this my travel blog during the China/Japan trip.

Our plane leaves in less than six hours, and I definitely wish I'd planned less for myself during the time before the trip. Still, I wanted a chance to see everyone before I left, and that can take definitely involve a lot of social engagements.

I've packed everything I need, and hope I didn't include too much. It's definitely easy to get carried away when you know it's all you'll have from home for four months. The 13 hour plane flight looms as does the challenge of speaking Chinese, but I'm glad to have Sam to help me get through both challenges. Japan excites me, as it's familiar and I can deal with the language (as rusty as mine feels lately), but China...that's just a big enigma to me that this point. Nevertheless, I know I'm going to have a good time and learn a lot. Alright, let's do this.

一番好きな歌は何ですか？

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:18:14 GMT

I'm sure most people get asked at some point in their life what their favorite song is. Over time the song probably changes, but like the answers to some other common questions (who's your favorite band, your favorite food, etc.) I've found it's good to have a stock response one can use every time.

So, my stock answer would have to be "Kids in America" by Kim Wilde.

Which song would you pick?

Friday Upsidedown!

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:22:38 GMT

Miles, Melissa, Aimee, and I have officially started our new summer show on BATV! We filmed on Tuesday and I finished editing this morning. The show will air weekends (time tbd) on BATV! Here's our intro!

Alphonse Mucha

Tue, 20 May 2008 18:27:22 GMT

It's a hard decision, but I think I'd have to say my favorite artist is Alphonse Mucha. He was Czech and one of the greatest Art Nouveau artists. He become famous through his commercial works, but was always more interested in painting. Spritualism and Czech nationalism were themes in many of his paintings. His work was influential on 70's psychedelic art and on the current paintings of Stuckist artist Paul Harvey.

A poster

A simpler painting

One of Mucha's later paintings

A 70's Mucha-influenced poster.

A contemporary painting by Paul Harvey.

It's rare for me to find an artist that produces nothing I dislike, but Mucha is that kind of artist.

Reading - Its not the only thing you can do

Sat, 03 May 2008 19:38:29 GMT

It's weird how some things in our culture just start to seem so natural and even right that we don't question them. I starting thinking the other day about why reading is always stressed as so important. We all accept the fact that reading is good and that we should read more.

Ok, but why?

It really does make a lot of sense. Reading is intellectual. It gives people the opportunity to encounter new ideas and points of view. It spreads new information and can increase vocabulary.

What I don't get is why other arts aren't endorsed half as much as reading. Obviously books are cheaper and more accessible (not just in amount and variety but intellectually) than other art forms, but that doesn't mean other arts should be ignored. Visual arts, theater, dance, etc. are also intellectually stimulating and entertaining. Though they may not always spread information as directly as a book, they can give people new ways of looking at things and increase creativity.

Many people are turned off to visual arts because they see them as too complex or boring. Opera has the same stigma, and theater can seem expensive. Dance as entertaining as it is, is often seen as feminine or boring. People shouldn't just pass by these great art forms. They all have things to offer, it may just take some effort to afford or understand them.

Maybe if there were more money spent promoting the importance of other art forms, people would start to realize just what they're missing.