Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

Well, it hasn't been snowing (yet) in Beijing, but ski season at Nanshan doesn't need to wait until then to begin!  Ionel, Kristen and I couldn't wait any longer, so we decided to try out the slopes last weekend!
 

It was definitely all smiles before I hit/wiped-out on the bunny slopes multiple times for the remainder of the first half of the day.  Kristen was my makeshift instructor and I paid her by entertaining her with my falls.  I definitely have a wicked bruise on my knee to prove my glory.  There were also a few moments when I thought...keep it together tailbone, keep it together, but all in all,

aside from the soreness in my neck the next day (that probably resulted from the whiplash I endured over and over again from falling), I LOVE snowboarding!!


Below are some pictures from snowboarding.  Ionel did take a video of me going down the bunny slope without falling, but, I'm sure he wasn't holding the camera at the right angle, because it makes it look as if I were going down a flat plane as opposed to the super steep slope it felt like I was going down.  It doesn't do it justice, so you will all just have to imagine it in your heads ;)

Watch out Indonesians (sea of blue and green), I'm coming through!

Kristen in her giant man sized gloves--it was either 30 RMB for giant ones or 100 something for ones that fit.

Decoration??  Never seen this kind of ad for Mini Cooper before.  I don't really get why seeing one hanging off the side of a slope would make me want to purchase one.

Ionel and Kristen looking too cool for school in their rented shades

Looking down from the top--definitely fake snow as you can tell.  I am pretty sure there are crops growing all around us. 

Sunset at 5 PM--definitely a rare sight in Beijing--what a great day!

A promise from one overpopulated country to another

Well that's a bit of an exaggeration, but truly if I had written "A promise from one Fogarty in an overpopulated country to another Fogarty in an overpopulated country" it would've been a bit wordy--don't you think?

To get to the point, I was the luckiest girl today!  I got Roze's postcard from the Netherlands this morning, and then I got a package from Natasha who is in India this afternoon.

Roze, let's plan out our trip!!
Natasha:  be expecting some trinkets and goodies from China :)
Here's a pic of your spectacular package soon.  It was kind of hilarious because it didn't quite make it in one piece.  It was taped together with China Post stickers that read something along the lines of "This package arrived broken, China Post stuck it back together."  But anyway, send me your address Natasha, so I can be a good Asian and send you something back ;)

PS Natasha:  Are there faux pas places to stick/wear a bindi on one's face?

PPS your characters looked amazing :D  You got my Chinese name right, but you forgot the "h" in my English name :(

From Imperial Examinations to modern day Civil Servant Examinations

Starting from a few thousand years back until about the 1800s, China had a system of picking out government officials:  the Imperial examinations.  Here is an excerpt from everyone's favorite, Wikipedia:

"In late imperial China, the examination system and associated methods of recruitment to the central bureaucracy were major mechanisms by which the central government captured and held the loyalty of local-level elites. Their loyalty, in turn, ensured the integration of the Chinese state, and countered tendencies toward regional autonomy and the breakup of the centralized system.

Men waiting to take the exam back in Imperial China

The examination system also served to maintain cultural unity and consensus on basic values. The uniformity of the content of the examinations meant that the local elites and ambitious would-be members of those elites across the whole of China were taught with the same values. Even though only a small fraction (about 5 percent) of those who attempted the examinations passed them and received titles, the studying and the hope of eventual success on a subsequent examination served to sustain the interest of those who took them.

In late traditional China, education was valued in part because of its possible pay-off in the examination system. The overall result of the examination system and its associated study was cultural uniformity—identification of the educated with national rather than regional goals and values. This self-conscious national identity still underlies the nationalism that has been so important in China's politics in the 20th and 21st centuries, though it is based on different criteria."

And a little about the conditions:

Examination hall with 7500 cells, Guangdong, 1873.

"By 1370, the examinations lasted between 24 and 72 hours, and were conducted in spare, isolated examination rooms; sometimes, however, it was held within cubicles. The small rooms featured two boards which could be placed together to form a bed or placed on different levels to serve as a desk and chair. In order to obtain objectivity in evaluation, candidates were identified by number rather than name, and examination answers were recopied by a third person before being evaluated to prevent the candidate's handwriting from being recognized." (And might I add, they weren't allowed to leave to go to the bathroom--done in the room in a bedpan of sorts or even to go home between the days of examinations.) 
 
If you actually read the above excerpt, I think it actually explains more than meets the eye about the Chinese way of thinking, Chinese diaspora, and all the way down to why the "Asians are smart" stereotype still holds true today.  (As I've always said, it's not so much smart as it is/and has been about being dedicated and hard working.) 

I remember learning about this back in the days of obtaining my degree in East Asian Studies (please don't take my degree away Dr. Huss for citing Wikipedia!), and the reason I bring it up is, this past weekend served as a very important weekend for Chinese citizens who were hoping to obtain a job as a civil servant.  I remember the graduate students in my office talking about it starting a few weeks ago.  Mostly they made comments like, "Well, we know we're going to fail it, but what the hey, let's give it a shot."  The exam doesn't cost very much money to take (somewhere around 50-60 RMB or less than $10) and it's only a few hours long (compared to the 24-72 hour imperial examinations), but it can cover pretty much anything you've ever learned in life--sort of like stuff they ask on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" to college level questions.  How are you supposed to study for something like that?  Anyway, when I asked Ben in my office, why someone would go and take this test, he replied, "For stability."  Once you get a governmental position, you pretty much have a job for life, and I guess if you're competing with literally one billion other people, that goes a long way.  An estimated 1,030,000 people took the exam over the weekend.  (I'd hate to be a grader!)  Below are some photos from a Chinese newspaper. 

A crowd waiting to take the test at one of many testing sites

flooding the lobby

cram cram cram

pooped.

Yikes!  The odds of getting a position really depend on which one you are applying for, but generally according to Ben, it's about 1:1000.  I think a celebration is in order for the lucky few.  Perhaps us (MCATers, LSATers GREers, GMATers, USMLEers, COMLEXers, etc. don't have that much to complain about?)

Thanksgiving in Beijing!

Ever since college, thanksgiving has always been a holiday away from home for me, and this year was no exception.  Thanks to the enthusiasm of expats in Beijing, I was lucky enough to participate in a Thanksgiving feast marathon!  4 true Thanksgiving style meals in 3 days--phew!  I am on a diet until Christmas ;)  

I will make a note though that Thanksgiving has come a long way in China.  I remember my first Thanksgiving in China was in 2006 when I was on the Fulbright in Shanghai.  With ovens being a rare item to come across in a Chinese kitchen (who needs one when you've got the wok?), I believe I ended up making stuffing in a rice cooker--and we had to substitute duck for a turkey.  Remember those days Nay and Marie?  haha.  Now you can order a half a turkey for 200 RMB ($30) from one of the American diners and buy yourself a decent sized toaster oven for about $30-40 to make the rest :) 

Below is a picture of me, Allison, Adam, Sarah, and Ben celebrating Thanksgiving at Lily's American Diner in Beijing.  (Thanksgiving meal #1)

Below are some pictures from Sarah's get-together at her apt (Thanksgiving meal #3):

Adam (our first time, yet very talented turkey carver) and Sarah our gracious hostess who put together a scrumptious feast!

A look at our Thanksgiving table

Adam baked a deeelicious pumpkin pie

Ben and Allison waiting for their second/third wind while snacking on candied walnuts

A mix of Europeans and Americans--and Ben our Chinese national representative

Playing a German boardgame

Now, onto Christmas dinner celebrations!  I do have to say, Christmas has become much commercialized and malls here have nearly reached the level of excessive decorations as malls in the States since the making of this song: An American's Christmas in Beijing, but this song still makes me laugh so I'm sharing it with you guys.  That being said, nowadays, if you want to get that "Christmassy feeling" just head over to your nearest high end shopping mall/area and you'll hear the Christmas tunes on repeat doing what they do best--subliminally sending you messages to spend your money :)

"Crazy Bad"

So it has been brought to my attention recently that the US Embassy has a twitter page to follow entitled BeijingAir.  It's a Twitter page dedicated to informing you on the air quality in Beijing hourly.  After checking it today, it makes a lot more sense why I had to use my inhaler twice last week.  I mean I normally have trouble breathing after coming back from the gym (since the only other patrons there are a bunch of unemployed men who smoke leisurely next to my treadmill as they enjoy a game of pool), but last week was particularly bad.  I remember making a joke to one of my colleagues that my eyeballs were rejecting the pollution because I could not stop my eyes from tearing.  Now I know that I probably wasn't too far from the "Crazy Bad" truth. 

Makes you wonder...do you think that at the end of my 10 months here in Beijing, I'll have developed super-human lungs so when I go back to the states and immerse myself in oxygen, I'll be like those people who train at higher altitudes for marathons?

*Shush to all you fellow medical students out there who are already denying me of my dreams of gold medaling.  yeah yeah I know, CO binds with a higher affinity to Hgb than O2, and it'll be more likely for me to end up in the hospital rather than on a podium in the near future, but can't a girl dream?  ;)

I'm assuming "Beyond Index" was where "Crazy Bad" may have been! 

When I first checked the twitter site, I was worried since the index has  been hovering around "Unhealthy" for a while, but then I guess it's all relative since just last week it was at "Very Unhealthy", "Hazardous", and "Beyond Index".  I guess I can't complain about "Unhealthy".

S.A.D and NYE

On another note, I was told by a colleague that today is Singles Awareness Day in China or SAD.  Why a country that is full of women who are considered 'old maids' if they don't get married before 30 wants to have a holiday to point out to people who have yet to get married that they are running out of time, is beyond me.  It is sort of symbolic though because November 11 is full of '1s'.  I can only imagine what next year's SAD will be like considering it will be 11/11/11. 

Also I just bought my plane tickets to Taiwan for the holidays!  I will be in Taiwan from 12/25/10-1/2/11 so let me know if you'll be around!! :D

No longer a bench warmer!

Hello again!  I realize it's been a while, but it's been a crazy month since my last post!

Without going into detail, let's just say I am no longer warming the bench for the CDC here.  I've actually got a project, and someone was gracious enough to volunteer his time and be my research mentor on the side. 

There's also a little more stability in my life since I've finally got a hold of that elusive temporary residence permit two days ago!  It was very anticlimactic and cost me 400 RMB but now I don't have to leave every month!

hmm what else has happened since I last posted?  Well Dr. Francis Collins (Director of the NIH) came to visit Peking Medical University.  He was very well spoken and it was certainly exciting to have been able to meet him--particularly since I had just finished reading one of his books :) 

 

What else is new?  The dollar is also plummeting, so I wish I was being paid in RMB now.  It was 6.8 RMB to $1 when I first arrived at the end of July and it's already 6.6!  *sigh* Maybe it's a good thing.  I will be less inclined to accumulate cheap/now not so cheap clothes/shoes/purses/etc.  :)

Oh!  My friend Marie from the good 'ol days of study abroad at CET just got married in Shanghai!  This was my first experience participating in a Chinese style wedding.  They did it all including setting off firecrackers as the men approached the apartment that drew the customary crowd of neighbors to look on and cheer for the groom as he made his way to retrieve his bride.  This was followed by the women not letting the guys and Joey (the groom) into the apartment to get his bride. It's customary for the women to hide the bride behind two sets of closed doors and pose challenges to the men to prove their worth.  Joey lied to us to get to through the first door--he told us the photographer had to get in.  What a liar!   So after that, we brought on the heat.  We made Joey do push-ups (which he ended up getting his best man to do because of a 'bum wrist', serenade her through two closed doors (so really just Aerosmith style), recite the alphabet backwards (he's not a native English speaker), give us money (about $30 for each girl there--I'm not complaining!), what else...tell us why he wanted to marry her, describe her to us, say why he felt he was worthy to marry her, show us his dance moves, oh and how could I forget--we ran out of ideas so we made him kiss all the guys who were with him--on the cheek of course!  

Joey 'kissing' his best man Jalal

 

Joey with Marie after he successfully got past the challenges.

All that was followed by the tea ceremony, the glutinous rice ball ceremony (sounds more appetizing in Chinese), and the traveling to the other side of town to do it all over again at his parents' house, and finally the ceremony at the hotel with hired emcee and all.  Marie looked gorgeous in all 4 dresses!  

Marie in Dress #1 with her mom and sister Seraim

Glutinous rice ball ceremony with Marie's mom and stepdad

  

The boys at Joey's parents' house.

The women at Joey's parents' house.

 

Me and Mrs. Fan (dress #4)

Oh and of course the finale: It is customary for friends and family to tour and decorate the honeymoon suite the night of the wedding.  Not only that, but we were told, it was our duty to embarrass them in their room.  Well, you didn't have to ask us twice!  Kitty, a native Chinese girl from Hunan started off the evening by making Joey kneel on teacups in front of Marie and wait while she thought of 10 things he was to never do/do during their lifetime of marriage.  I don't remember all of them, but the ones I remember were:  don't get fat, be a good father, always love me, and never leave me, but if you leave me, it better not be for another man.  I mean, that just about covers it don't you think? We ended the night by making the newlyweds get into bed and throw out all their clothes.  We were told that back in the day (perhaps when there were arranged marriages?) granny might hide under the bed to make sure she was going to get herself some grandchildren.  That was definitely too Chinese for us, so we sent our blessings and scurried out before it got too awkward.  

 

Poor Joey on teacups--ouch!

 The last bits of clothing were off--our job was done!  

(I really hope I don't have to make another couple strip off their clothes ever again!)

Anyway, that concludes the wedding.  It was a whole day affair, but well worth it!  I think the wedding ended by 10 PM but considering we started around 11 AM, we were all pretty ready to take the dress shoes off and change into some PJs!  What a day!