Bugs, and Other Slightly Relevant Stories

Sunday was my last day with my big brother, Matt. He’s moving to Europe for a few years. He’s going to Bulgaria. I’m going to Italy. I win.

He dragged me to his church, which is not my church, and then took me out for coffee with his girlfriend. And then, before I knew it, he was gone. And as I walked away with my girlfriend, it suddenly dawned on me that that was it. I said goodbye. I might not see him for a very long time.

He went to Northwestern before I did. So by the time I got to university, he was teaching in Chicago and I had someone in this big, bad world to back me up, at least a little. And now we’ve grown up and our family is not all together anymore. Poop.

Moving on. The other night I thought I saw a huge cockroach in the kitchen, rivaling the size of the Egyptian lovelies with which I cohabitated. That was a contorted sentence. Anyway, I smashed it, and it turned out to be a cricket, but my roommate scraped it off my shoe for me while I held it and said, “Ew.” Then I cleaned the legs and guts off the floor.

And the moral of the story is that Steve is a nice guy.

I’m not quite sure why I’m going to Italy. I suppose I’ve always wanted to see the place of my ancestors, and find some justification for two years of an elective that has no association with my major.

Actually, before I went to Egypt, I had this idea that I would rediscover my cultural identity. But then I found myself in the Middle East and realized that I’m American, so problem solved, right?

Then I came back and realized that, as American as Egypt made me feel, I started seeing things I don’t like about the USA. So then I don’t feel as American as I thought, although I definitely am not Egyptian. So darned if that happens again in Italy.

In some way, I think traveling like this makes “home” feel more familiar and at the same time more hostile. It means I come home to a roommate I would never have known before who scrapes a cricket off my shoe, but it also means saying goodbye to my brother. So at once I gain something beautiful but lose something I love.

It’s independence.

It’s growing up.

Somebody kill the Toys "R" Us giraffe.

In and Out

And again I am posting while still in the States - I have no shame. But as it will certainly come up later, I want to explain the Japanese concept of uchi-soto, which is deeply ingrained in the society and something I still struggle to grasp.

Japanese culture is stereotyped for being incredibly formal and hierarchical, but that is only partially true. Instead of assessing a person's position on a ladder, you determine the relationship of their group to yours. One shows deference to the out-group (soto) and expresses humility when referring to one's in-group (uchi). If I am representing my uchi dorm when speaking to the soto Henry Bienen, I would adjust my actions, language, and a body language, sometimes drastically.

The "fun" part about this is that uchi and soto changes depending on the context. If I am talking to the President of Nanzan University before I enroll, Henry Bienen would be a part of my in-group, and I would speak as to humble his name and myself. Sometimes the changes required are easy to figure out, sometimes not. Even Japanese people make mistakes in adjusting their language.

A concrete example: my first Japanese instructor at NU, Shiojima-sensei, is a fellow at my dorm and would often come to our social events. In class, the instructors are very patient with us, but are clear that we are to use keigo, the polite level of Japanese which (annoyingly) has its own sets of verbs. This is because - for us - teachers are soto and students are uchi. However, at dorm events, Shiojima-sensei would speak informally and joke with me. When other students talked with us, she would sometimes make me translate what she said from Japanese to English, while she was perfectly fluent in English.

I know part of her motivation was to keep me practicing, but I think a deeper reason is that she is allowing me to join her in an in-group, with other students as an out-group. As a Westerner who doesn't think in these terms, this is very tiring to follow, but I see the strengths in having a group-orientated mentality, as opposed to a individual-oriented one.

It makes me wonder if there are such deep differences between my American culture and all the others I interact with at Northwestern. It's both exhausting and exhilarating.

And now a word from IES

"6. Do not draw attention to yourself as a foreign visitor. College sweatshirts, baseball caps, and iPods identify you as being American."

I think their safety advice needs to be bit more country specific.

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EDIT: I've tweaked the code so each of us posts in a different, easy-to-identify color. For the record, this is 'orchid', not 'pink.'

You know, I think I could actually get used to the cricket. I'll have to get one for each of my friends when I come home.

Also, I've had eggs and tomato several times now, and ye American cookers of food, take heed: it will grow on you. As for exactly what they're doing when they cook them together... I haven't quite figured that out yet. But I may investigate.

And I was going to say here that Americans should try eating family style more often too because it's pretty fun, but then I realized it's a bit better suited to Chinese dishes. I mean, eating a burger or a steak or something family style would be really messy.

Tomorrow classes start.

I am very tired, so I am a bit hesitant to write here for fear of being boring or offensive. But I feel like sharing some about my stay in Nanjing so far, even though it's only been about 48 hours since I arrived. I think the most difficult thing about being here is that I could write a book about each day that I've been here so far; everything is different for me, I understand Mandarin in bits and pieces, and I seem to feel completely miserable half the time and completely exuberant the other half of the time.

And wow that was some strong green tea. Mmm.

So tonight, of the many things I would like to write about, I will at least write a little about my host family, who picked me up today. Well, it was actually just my shushu, or host dad, who picked me up in his silver Citroen blasting French and Chinese pop music. It was at this point that I discovered just how bad my Chinese is: I really can't understand full sentences - it just takes me too long to process them, and my vocabulary is extremely limited. The one thing I consistently understood that he said was "Ni ting bu dong" [you don't understand]. I think he got kind of frustrated with trying to speak with me after a while, although he stuck around long enough to watch me unpack my stuff and continually tried giving tips. It was a little disconcerting that he chose to do so in his underwear, though with the heat here lately, I can hardly blame him.

Speaking of the heat, maybe sometime I'll put up a picture of the... "fashion" that Chinese men here seem to take to in the heat. That'll sort out you dedicated blog-readers from the noncommittal ones. ;)

Also, Mr. Michael Brown is right - I think I discovered how many people are in China on the first day here.

Other things of note:

I have broadband dsl and a/c here. That's better than Evanston, where I just had cable. And I don't have to cook my own meals here. Furthermore, the couple I'm staying with has a son who does computer programming and knows a bit more English than I know Chinese, which is really handy for me surviving here. Well, okay... he just came in and told me that I am free to use the bathroom to shower anytime I would like. I think I might have worked that one out alright.... So far our Chinglish conversations have been thoroughly entertaining for me.

I am planning on taking kung fu (gong fu) at the university here with ex-Roommate Tim.

I'm not sure what the family would do if I killed the giant cricket they keep in the cage in the dining room, but I am sorely tempted to. Maybe if the chocolates I gave them are good enough, they will forgive me.

One last bit of joyousness for you: the view from my window. I'll probably put up some pictures of the inside of the apartment here some other time; it's really nice on the inside.

Japan, Take Two

We dropped Tom off at the airport last night and it was somewhat surreal. I think he's right, he has no clue what he's getting into. :-)

I leave in roughly a week, so I'm starting to pack and review grammar for the entrance exams. Quite a few people have asked me: Why Japanese? Why Japan? In hindsight, it was somewhat of a random choice. I can remember going to the assembly in middle school about the languages the high school offered. I hated French by that point, and Japanese sounded more interesting than German. (Sorry, Dave.)

It's hard to believe, but after this year, I will have studied the language for one-third of my life. I really liked the classes in high school and even got the chance to spend the summer after my sophomore year in Toyama, on the Sea of Japan. College Japanese has been tough and tedious, but I've kind of been brain-washed to enjoy it. Hm, maybe that's how Classics majors feel ...

My initial motivation in studying abroad in Japan was to learn to speak the language better, but now it's more similar to Tom's. I'd really to get to know the Japanese people and culture as best as I can. I will be attending Nanzan University in Nagoya (名古屋の南山大学), a Catholic school in a major city between Tokyo and Kyoto. I look forward to hearing from Tom, Dave (!), and Luke, and to share some of my experiences.

To help offset the costs of going to China, I am going to open a drugstore using all the medicine I'm bringing with me.

As per James's request, my goals for study abroad:

1. To see how many people are in China
2. To find out what they all do

To accomplish these, I have chosen to study Mandarin at Nanjing University, conveniently located in Nanjing, China. I don't have a clue what I'm getting into, so I look forward to being able to share with you all how well or poorly my survival instincts serve me.

I hear the food is good in China, once you adjust.

For anyone who actually reads this already, I am leaving in 49 hours. That's 1 AM Central Time on Thursday, August 23rd.