60th Anniversary/Midd-Autumn Festival!

Hello, hello. Just another quick reminder that we still don't have any access to facebook or my blog - so you can keep in touch with me either through skype or e-mail (see addresses below in previous posts). And to those of you who I have yet to properly answer or send an e-mail to letting you know how I"m doing - it's coming. And I think about you all all the time - even if I haven't gotten around to sitting down and writing you an e-mail. Please know that! Oh and if you also want to read my "overseas briefing" on my time in Hangzhou so far that I wrote for the school newspaper you can check it out at: http://www.middleburycampus.com/story/oct-1-2009-%E2%80%94-overseas-briefing.

All right - so back to the actual blogging! We are right now in the middle of China's version of fall break. We Americans even got Thursday and Friday off -- which was great. My roommate left last Wednesday and won't be back until next Wednesday - so it's an actual break. Thursday the 1st was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and today is the actual Midd-Autumn Festival.

Thursday's 60th anniversary was actually really exciting - there were some college students passing out flags and stickers of the Chinese flags - so we now have two Chinese flags on the outside of our door. All down the streets are flag upon flag - it's a very fun atmosphere. Thursday morning around 10am the television festivities started and lasted until late into the night. You all saw the opening ceremonies for the Olympics last summer - this Thursday parade was very, very similar in terms of grandeur and amazingly choreographed movements of more than 100 people at a time. We had some interesting discussions between us Americans about the Washington Post article that was claiming the "showing of military strength" was a "threat"-like move from the Chinese government. Maybe I've just been in China for a while - but to me it really didn't seem that way. The first hour and a half or so was a procession of military tanks and military jets - I swear they never ended. To me, the parade was more about showing respect for the 60 years of PRC history. It seems like participating in the parade was truly an honor - it just seemed more about respect than about sending a message to the rest of the world. But I'm not sure. It's been interesting to hear people's thoughts.

Midd-Autumn Festival has been a little less exciting than I had hoped it might be - probably because we aren't able to go home and celebrate with our families. :( Midd-Autumn festival is all about eating moon cakes and watching the moon -- which I actually do plan to do tonight. Some stores are closed - which makes it feel a little more like an actual holiday. And it's true - every big super market has box upon box of mooncakes ready to sell. My secret plan (well maybe it's not so secret... or original...) is go to to the supermarkets - maybe tomorrow - and buy cheap mooncakes. I've found about 5 flavors I like - so if they're all ridiculously cheap I can just buy a lot and try them out. We'll see though.

I guess the other way to really know that this is a holiday (aka most people are completely off work for the week) is the massive crowds at West Lake (although the area around campus is pretty calm). Some just graduated Midd seniors who are working in all parts of China all came to Hangzhou to visit for the weekend (including a girl who is volunteering at an autistic group home outside of Beijing!!!! Connections are amazing!!!!) and they wanted to go to West Lake, so we trudged over. There were people EVERYWHERE. I also came across some people who were VERY interested in my white skin. I was walking along with three or four other people - and these two girls were kind of following behind. After a few minutes she ran in front of us and started taking cell phone pictures of me. Than the other girl put up her Asian peace sign right next to me and her friend took the picture - WHILE I WAS WALKING NOT LOOKING. I eventually just decided to give in and take the picture with her. But it was just surprising that they didn't ask - they just assumed that they could take sketchy pictures while I was looking the completely other way. Again maybe it was the overcrowded West Lake and the heat of the day that made it so frustrating - but I just wish people would ask. I'd be more than willing to appease whatever they wanted - just as long as it's not behind my back.

Other than that this weekend's been pretty great. I and some others organized an "American BBQ" which was interesting. We wound up making a kick ass fruit salad, spaghetti, and beef and pork burgers with cheese. It took a while to find all the different types of food - but it was well worth it. It's also pretty fun to just hang out together and introduce some of the roommates to the more "American" way of doing barbecues. They were shocked, for example, that we didn't fill the patties with all sorts of spices and stuff. It was great fun though - even though it was raining throughout the day as we walked to all kinds of supermarkets due to the lack of available cabs. (another result of the holiday).

And now for some musing and "thinking-out-loud" on some parts of Chinese culture. One of the just graduated Midd seniors is teaching English in a far away village - and she was telling us about the amount of school they have to go to (luckily not the amount of school they have to teach). The kids in this village go to school every day (including all of Saturday and half of Sunday) from 7am - 9pm. Fourteen hours - EVERY DAY! They get a two hour break every day - which Mairead said is when they just completely crash. Sunday afternoon is the only time they don't have class - which also doubles as their only weekend. It's ridiculous! And this is all to prepare for their college entrance test - which basically decides their whole lives. It not only decides what college they're allowed to get into, but also what they can study. Most of our roommates don't enjoy their majors - but they have no choice. For example, at Zhejiang Univ. of Tech., only students with absolute top marks can even consider taking economics. It's a very different system.

What's even more different - however - is what happens after they get into college. College, at least compared to an American college, is largely a joke. Joke might be a bit harsh and not correct - but it's no where NEAR what they go through during high school. Mairead and others say it's because they're too conked out to be able to keep studying at the same time. The roommates largely never have homework and they also regularly skip classes. When we pass by classrooms during our breaks, you can see lots and lots of kids sleeping in the middle of class. At times we all complain about how little they work, but at the same time, what we had to go through was nowhere NEAR what they did in terms of high school or in terms of what majors we choose and where our lives take us. Which is worse? Is that even a question? Don't quite know yet.

Nothing else much going on today - probably just hanging out and watching the moon tonight. We're heading into the home stretch before midterms then it looks like I might be heading to Beijing for the break - although I'm not sure yet. So much to figure out!

Love and miss you all, so much!