An Introduction

My freshman year has gone by so quickly! Each week when we get to Tuesday I tell my suitemates, "it's almost the weekend!" Thanks to the generosity of the Light Fellowship at Yale I'll be spending 8 weeks this summer improving my Chinese in Beijing. I'm also doing a little side traveling while I'm in the neighborhood. I'll be in Tokyo May 31st-June 6th because Japan airlines gave me an amazing deal. :) I get into Beijing on the 6th and will meet up with seven friends from Chinese class to do some more exploring before the program starts. I forget how I got signed up to go with seven boys to Chongqing, a place in China renown for its beautiful women... After the program I'll head to Hainan (where my friend's family lives) with Morgan and Dahlia for a few days before flying to Shanghai exploring some more then Tokyo again and finally back home to Fort Calhoun, Nebraska for a week before Yale starts again. Wow. This is going to be an amazing summer! To explain the title of my blog, "Haowanr de difang" means "fun and exciting places" in Chinese. I'll probably write in both characters and pinyin (romanization of Chinese characters, it means phonetic or literally "spelling sound"). I am so excited to experience life on the other side of the world... I won't be speaking English all summer (we take a strict language pledge). I know from my adventures as a Muscuvite that gesticulation can be very helpful though not extremely precise or reliable for communication. I expect many humorous situations. My Chinese roommate here in New Haven already makes fun of me for saying "nali nali nin guojiang le" or "no no you flatter me" when she compliments my 中文。The younger generation is rebelling against the old custom of deflecting compliments in favor of a western "thank you." My few experiences with Chinese hospitality thus far lead me to believe there will be many "bu keqi's" (don't be polite) and "wo chi bao le's" (literally, I am stuffed) in my future. I can't wait to use my Chinese!