Last
Tuesday I went to part of the final Presidential Debate watch party at Kro's
Nest Pizza, but actually ended up not really watching the debate because my
Fulbright friend, Allie who will be living in Xi'an with me next year, was
there. Instead, we took the opportunity to catch up and talk about Xi'an. Yay
future friends! And then I went to an IUP Alumni Happy Hour at Q Mex, and met some
nice people. Afterwards, we went to hooters to celebrate
my friend Rebecca's birthday. As this was my first trip to Hooters, I was
totally horrified by the tiny outfits and the whole scene. But the wings were
pretty good I guess.
Wednesday
after class, I met up with a woman from the Beijing Anti-Domestic Violence Network
for an informational interview. She explained to me the DV situation in China,
what their organization is doing to alleviate the issue, and the main
challenges they face. She has explained a little bit about being an
"NGO" in China and their relationship with the government, which she
described as a "partnership". This was probably my first real-live,
on-the-ground Fulbright research activity so it was really exciting! Even
though my topic isn't about DV, it's still important to understand the issue
because many of the women's rights issues in China (and most places) effect
each other. We spoke mostly in English, but also a little bit of Chinese, which
I felt pretty good about! I even used a lot of my vocab from my IUP classes! :)
Then I headed to a cute cafe to do some homework before my evening event, a
lecture totally in Chinese about gender-based discrimination in China. It was
hosted by FSYE, an organization that
promotes and mentors young social entrepreneurs in China (SO COOL). When we
arrived, the organizers frantically asked my two Fulbright friends and I if we
could understand Chinese and we reassured them that we'd manage through it. In
fact, I think I understood about 70-80% of the actual presentation with the
help of the picture-filled PPT (the discussion and Q&A was a bit harder to
follow). I was even able to laugh at the jokes they made! The two lecturers
were activists/scholars from Taiwan so they used traditional characters (I use
simplified) in their PPT, and had Taiwanese accents. They lectured about a few
major examples of gender-based discrimination and some of the activist
movements that have come out of them: "Occupy" men's bathrooms
movement (in order to achieve a more appropriate male-to-female bathroom stall
ratio & gender neutral bathrooms) that has actually led to many Chinese
cities enacting new legislation to meet those demands; Sexual Harrassement on
Subways (a global issue); the gendering of children through color, names, toys,
bedroom furniture, etc; school uniforms for girls vs. boys; and breast-feeding
spaces in public places. Overall I came away from the day totally excited to
begin my research in earnest in January, and feeling pretty confident about my
Chinese (and I still have 8 more weeks of IUP!). NERD FREAK OUT DAY!!!!!!
Friday
was my roomie and bestie, Zan's, 23rd birthday! To celebrate, we went to lunch
at Grandma's
Kitchen (more on this later, but DO NOT EVER GO THERE) and had a delicious
lunch of pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Then we went to a Korean
Spa, which was a very unique experience. I've been to several of these
types of Spas before but it was new to Zan and Sophie. Basically, you go into
the single sex locker rooms, get totally naked, and then go soak in a hot tub
with lots of other naked women (or men if you're a guy). From there, we got a
hard core body scrub- no of that lightly exfoliating your skin with "sea
salts" or anything, this was scrub-as-much-skin-off-as-you-can style. Zan
freaked out from all the scrubbing cuz it was tickling her and it was pretty
hilarious. Afterwards, our skin felt amazingly soft. Once we had soaked our
skin to recover a bit, we put on our pink silk PJs and weird oversized
disposable underwear and ventured out into the unisex area of the Spa. Zan and
I got 1 hr full body massages, which were actually pretty good and not like the
normal painful Chinese kind. Next we visited the "ecological" saunas,
which were different rooms made out of various minerals and stones that all
supposedly had different benefits for your health, and were very hot or cold.
After covering ourselves with some hot rocks in a random rock pit, we moved
onto the all-you-can-eat buffet that was included in our spa entrance fee. I
wasn't feeling too well so I skipped out on the food. It looked pretty weird in
my opinion. Then we headed home. For Zan's birthday night, we decided to go out
for drinks and dessert in Sanlitun. Unfortunately on the way, my food poisoning
from lunch at Grandma's Kitchen hit me and I had to hastily exit the subway car
halfway through our journey to vomit all over the floor of the subway station,
very pleasant. I felt much better so we got back on the subway, but had
to get off again to throw up two more times. Eventually I made it home and was
sick a few more times that night. Blah. Gross. Nobody likes eggs, sausage, and
bread coming out of your nose. Ewww.
By
Saturday morning, I wasn't sick anymore, but still didn't feel great. After I
spent the day recovering, we started getting dressed to go out for Halloween
night and Zan & Rebecca's birthdays!!! I was dressed as a Zombie Bride (I'm
terribly sorry, but I don't have any of my own photos from the night. Check
Facebook now or in the near future once some people load them), and Zan was a
flamingo (EPIC). We started the night with a Photo Shoot at Wayne's apartment,
where he had prepared adorable rummy gummies, and jack-o-lantern jell-o shots.
Then we moved on to my friends Gordon and Thomas's house party, and then ended
the night at Element Club, which had some crazy Halloween performances going
on.
Yesterday
and today were work days spent catching up. This friday is our 1st module final
(not commulative from the whole 8 weeks, thank god), and then I'm off to the US
for a week for vacation!!! :) That's right, I'll be back in the old 404 so you
can text/call me whenever you want!!! My plan: EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, Shop, Yoga,
EAT, EAT, EAT, hang out with a few friends, EAT, EAT, EAT, EAT, and eat.
Also
exciting, just got my classes for next module, and they're exactly what I
wanted! Monday, Wednesday, and Friday my first class isn't until 10am, which is
luxurious compared to my 5 days-a-week 8am current schedule. Tuesdays and
Thursdays I have an 8am individual class in which I will be reading articles
I've found in Chinese relevant to my Fulbright research so I can start working
on my vocab for my project! Because I'm doing the this independent material
class, I am not able to take two of the other classes that I'm supposed to take
at my level so instead I'm condensing it into 1 and doing it alone with a
teacher. It's actually great because then I get to only study things that are
most interesting to my from that class and I get more personal attention from
the teacher. So excited to sleep in (or maybe even go to the gym!) 3 days a
week!
That's
about it for now! My next post will probably be from the US! Woah!
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