here and there

A friend from Tianjin invited me this weekend to a rock concert on campus held for the recent graduates. It was quite funny because she called it, rock music play. I had never heard rock in Chinese, I guess it sounds the same as in any other language but it’s still amusing. It’s odd in the beginning but then you get used to it; like hearing a Chinese version of Harry Potter. From hanging out with some native Chinese students I’ve been able to learn a bit on how they live. Things are so different in almost every aspect from school, to food, to family values. For example, the on-campus dorms: from what they told me there is no air conditioner and electricity is cut down at 11 pm every night so you are forced to sleep early; compare to GT where we even have buildings open 24/7 for studying. Undergraduate dorms are shared among 6 people, graduate dorms hold 4 and PHD ones hold 2. Community bathroom really are bathrooms for the whole community. There are only two bathrooms on campus and sometimes one of them closes from time to time, so everyone shares one big bathroom and when you take a shower you have to pay for the water you’re going to use. Hearing all this makes my complaints from this past year living in GT' dorms, seem completely inane.

One of my friends was also telling me about the admission exam for universities and it makes the SAT sound like a joke. For most universities in China, high school students have to take an exam called the gaokao.  When applying for admission, the score you get on the exam is the one and only factor considered nothing else comes into play. Everyone is under huge pressure, students, parents and teachers. I read that on examination days streets are closed, trains, constructions suspended all to avoid noise near testing centers. I even read there was one place where frogs were poisoned so their croaking wouldn’t interrupt students. My friend told me they were forced to study at least 12 hours each day, classes go from 6 to 10. Throughout all of their senior year and even years before that, everything is about preparing for the gaokao. The exam is administered only once a year and if you fail to get the score you need, you have to repeat your senior year. Furthermore, before the exam you have to list your top three university choices, each university has a certain score threshold and if you don’t meet the required score for your number 1 choice then you are considered for your second choice but your score is deducted a number of points. The gaokao this year, was this past week and I read an article in the news that schools administer amino acids through IV so students have more energy for studying! The immense pressure of the gaokao is the reason behind so many Chinese students going abroad to study. I cannot imagine how intense the competition must be. It really makes the SAT look like a stroll in the park. Here’s an article I read recently about it.

Something else I noticed that is really different from US values is how highly they regard family. Usually when I ask what they plan to do after graduation, their response is always centered around their parents. What I mean is that, whatever they do, they will do it with their parents in mind. For example, one of my friends told me she wants to be a teacher at a university. I asked her if she was planning to stay in Tianjin and she said she was even though she didn’t like it at all. I wondered why she would stay if she hated it so much, so I asked her. She looked at me as if it were obvious, "because I have to take care of my parents and Tianjin is the closest to my hometown.” All these little or huge differences make you look reflect on your own way of life..

On a completely different note….

rock salt cheese green tea, milk tea with red beans and mango, jasmine biscuit and a delicious bread I could not understand its description and roasted chestnuts

I tried two different green tea and red bean drinks. The first one on the left is from Happy Lemon. They had a large selection of drinks that it took forever to decide what I wanted to try. However, odd as it may sound, the word cheese drew my attention to this particular drink called Rock Salt Cheese Green Tea (岩盐芝士绿茶). It was an odd combination but after a few sips you start to love it. I have no idea what kind of cheese it had a creamy texture with a tiny hint of salt that made a good contrast with the more bitter tea. The other drink on the right is a regular 奶茶 (milk tea) with red beans and mango (I know, another weird combination but you can probably tell I like to try odd things, not as exotic as scorpions, but reasonably odd things are okay).

I also found a very nice cathedral not too far from campus. It’s called Xikai Cathedral (西开教堂) ^^