China Summer 2009

Written by Alise Zirilli

June 1^st.  So today was our last day in China.  We started off the morning with going to the Paralympics Training Center.  It was an amazing facility with everything handicap accessible.  After walking about the training center we headed back to campus to see if we could catch a glimpse at the Chinese National rhythmic gymnastics team.  Unfortunately we went there right when their practice had finished.  We did get to see the like Junior Olympic rhythmic team. 

After we had lunch and went to our calligraphy class.  Each of use got a different character that we had to practice.  After we mastered our characters we all wrote them out on a large piece of calligraphy paper, which was for our class to bring back to the States.  Writing the characters out was fun but a bit frustrating because we were all trying to make them look perfect. 

After calligraphy class we all went back to get ready for our final banquet.  Before the banquet though us girls wanted to do something special for Hongwei and Nick. So Shona and I went over to the stationary store and bought notebooks.  We went back to the dorm and we wrote one big group note to Hongwei and Nick to give to them during the banquet. 

At the Banquet we did many toasts to each other and all the people at Beijing Sports University that made our trip there possible.  We each received a neat wooden toy and t-shirt from the president of BSU.  After the banquet we heading back to the dorm and invited some people from the building up to our floor to hang out for the night.  It was great getting to meet new people and getting to hang out with our group one last time in China. 

Written by Allison Cianci

May 31, 2009. Today was our first day as students and not just tourists at Beijing Sport University.  The day started off with a meeting with the BSU Vice President and a tour around campus.  We got to see some of the state of the art facilities that this campus has to offer.  We looked around buildings that had rooms with the capability to simulate environments of different altitudes, perform fitness and strength testing on athletes with top of the line equipment, and an anatomy lab with very well preserved body parts of cadavers.  We also were able to look around the gigantic national training facility on campus, which contained an indoor track and the rhythmic gymnastics training room.

The first part of our stay here in Beijing was largely learning about the culture and historical sites that this city has to offer, but today we headed back into the classroom.  Our first lecture was on Chinese massage.  We learned many different techniques such as rubbing, kneading, kneading and pinching, and patting.  We then had the opportunity to practice them on each other.  After our massage lecture our professor, Nick Querraier gave a lecture on rehabilitation and prevention of injuries to musicians.  The room filled with many BSU students all eager to here Nick speak.  This was not the first time we had heard this lecture, he also gave it to the students at the Changzhi Medical College, but it was very cool to see the students react to what he was saying.  This group of students knew much more English and very little translation was needed.  We spread ourselves through out the room as well, to help with any questions they may have had. 

After Nick had finished we got to hang around talk to the BSU students.  We asked them questions and they asked us some too.  It is interesting how much the already know about America.  They know a ton of our movies as well as our music.  One of the kids said he loved to listen to Eminemen, 50 cent and Dr. Dre.  He then proceeded to Beat Box for us and did very very well.  It was a lot of fun just to hang out with and learn about them.  We exchanged email addresses and everyone cleared out. 

Melanie and I went to the on campus grocery store where Hongwei found us and asked mel and I to come play tennis.  We said sure and after changing we all went to the outdoor tennis courts.  Mel and Hongwei ended up playing a doubles match against the coach of the National Table Tennis team and the coach of the National Judo team, both of which were very good at tennis.  Hongwei and Mel didn’t end up winning the match but it was a good time.  The tennis match lasted till around 7 so we had missed dinner.  Hongwei told us to shower and he would take us to dinner.  After we had gotten ready, we got picked up but the National Rhythmic Gymnastic team’s coach.  Her team had just one the silver medal in the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing.  Her and Hongwei had both attended BSU only one year apart and it was an opportunity for them to catch up.  Mel and I got to ask her a bunch of questions about the team and their training schedule.  The team practices 8 hours a day and they are currently preparing for the National Games that are coming up in 132 days.  The girls are between 19 and 25 and they are a very close-knit team.  It was a very fun dinner and the food was delicious.  We were very fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to sit down with her and it was a great experience. 

As with everyday here in China it was a packed day filled with once in a lifetime experiences.  I can’t believe our stay here is almost done!

Written by Kerry Willard

May 31^st, 2009. This morning we woke up for breakfast to which Natalie and I brought a special treat for all: peanut butter.  After breakfast we went to meet the Vice President of Beijing Sports University (BSU) who gave Ithaca College a very nice framed picture, and each of us a nice BSU pin.  As is custom, we returned the favors with New York maple syrup among other goodies. 

On a tour through campus we saw the martial arts, tennis, ping pong and basketball facilities.  We also saw the buildings in which exercise and sport research and training takes place.  Inside they had many machines for testing and studying an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses so they can help them enhance their performance.  We were introduced to a new machine called a Power Plate which vibrates and will enhance your core workout.  Another floor had rooms that can be controlled for training with varied amounts of oxygen for athletes who need to compete in higher elevations.  This was equipped with hotel-like rooms so athletes can be adapted while sleeping and still be comfortable.

One of the most special areas of campus was called Champion Road on which student athletes of BSU who won medals in the Olympics or Paralympics have their footprints and signatures in cement.  It was really neat to see how many students had been successful in the Olympics and how they were being honored by their school.  The last thing we saw was the facilities made specifically for the elite athletes, complete with a banked track and a rhythmic gymnastic gym.  It was amazing.

After lunch we had a massage class with Professor Wang.  We learned about ten different techniques of giving massages and where to use each method.  It was really interesting for all of us to learn new techniques, but also names to go with the techniques we were already using.  It proved to be an entertaining class during which many of us requested that the teacher demonstrate again just to receive the professional massage, even if just for a minute.

Following that class Nick was welcomed to the podium once again with a new audience.  Since most of the students understood English, we were able to have the lecture without translation.  Everyone met a lot of Chinese students who were all excited to speak to us and learn about our school.  At the end of the class we were talking to the students and one guy ended up beat-boxing for us.  Alex even sang! It was a great time.

The Director of International Programs joined us for dinner and offered each of us a scholarship to study at the school if we are ever interested. It was so above and beyond what anyone could expect.  A few girls have now been thinking about the possibility of coming back to Beijing for school.

We had a free night so a group of us met up with Alise’s friend, Annie, who she went to high school with and headed out to the mall. We stopped at a pharmacy to pick up cups for cupping on the way. The pharmacy was closed but let us in to buy the cups and they turned out to be much cheaper than we thought they would be.  We were also on a mission to go to a spa recommended by past year’s students but this attempt didn’t work out.  The story with the spa was that when we went to check prices we were told they needed to see our passports but we weren’t clear on the reasoning (Annie and Alise were doing their best to translate, but it is not easy to translate on the spot).  When we had Annie figure out why, it boiled down to their worry that we had the H1N1 flu.  Though we all knew that we were healthy, they wanted to see our passports to prove we had been in China for at least 4 days. We ended up just leaving without being pampered and continuing on to shop. 

At the mall we finished our gift shopping and made an attempt to spend the money we hadn’t yet so we didn’t need to exchange it back.  It was a successful shopping trip though we all still have money to spend. We treated ourselves to drinks at a knock-off of Starbucks where Shona had her first BubbleTea (if you haven’t heard of it, talk to an Ithaca College student, its delicious!) We walked back to campus and returned to the International Students building where we packed our new souvenirs and went to bed.

Written by Natalie Hernandez-Pachon

May 30, 2009.  Still no peanut butter for breakfast…  Maybe Kerry and I will bring some of our ‘Jif To Go’ to breakfast for everyone to share.  We were then told that make sure we had everything we needed for the day’s events because we would get back to campus at about 10pm.

Our first stop was to the Forbidden City, where all the architectural designs were very intricate.  Then we decided to take a group photo and as expected the “paparazzi” showed up.  We took a picture cute old lady, who was very sweet.  As we exited the Forbidden City, we saw Qianmen Square and saw General Mao’s tomb.  We met a man who used to live on the same street as Nick when he was doing his graduate studies at Cornell University – this world is a very small place indeed.  Next was lunch, which was highly Americanized (I’m starting to miss real Chinese food).

Since we finished lunch quickly, we started our shopping early: first stop was the pearl market where as a group we ordered over two hundred pearl necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings combined.  Then we all split up into smaller groups and went on bargaining ways.  Chopsticks, shoes, purses, mahjongs, shot glasses, and calligraphy were among the items that we all purchased.  Now to warn all the parents, we will all be bringing back an extra suitcase.

The next stop was the Silk Market – more shopping and bargaining!!!  Prior to going in, Hongwei and Tchwan told us to hold strong with our bargaining (to not buy above 1/3 of the original price) because since we are foreigners, the merchants would raise their price.  Here most of the students stayed with their shopping partners from the Pearl Market because they worked well together in bringing down prices for items.  At the Silk Market, scarves, ties, bathrobes, dresses, and rice hats were among the items that were bought. The bargaining and walking around went smoothly for the most part but one bit of advice is to stay away from the coat booth in front of the staircase on the second floor because they took their “pushy selling methods” a bit too far. 

Next was dinner – more hot pot.  This time we all ordered hot pots of varying spiciness levels.  As the food was coming out we realized that each of us would not be able to eat a whole entire dish, so we decided to split one portion (it was huge) with the person sitting next to us).  This was by far the best hot pot I have had so far, here in China.  There were lots of veggies, noodles, chicken, beef, and tofu to dip in the hot pot.

We realized what time it was and rushed out the door so we could make it to the Acrobat show. We arrived just in time!  We all sat down to watch the show, after about the second or third act, I quickly moved to a seat more forward and to the left of where I was seating because I could not see the center of the stage (where most of the acrobatics were occurring).  The show was absolutely amazing, I was blown away by the poise, balance, strength, talent, etc that the performers encompassed.  There were about ten different acts and it would be extremely hard to choose a favorite, however, among the favorites were as follows: 2 Vertical Poles, Bicycle Skills, Diabolos, Umbrella Twirling, and Crutch Balancing.  The stunts were absolutely amazing: for example during the 2 Vertical Poles act, a acrobat climbed up the pole with nothing but his hands and forearms touching the pole; in the Bicycle Skills performance, they managed to have 12 girls balance on a moving bicycle; during the Umbrella Twirling routine, one of the acrobats (while lying on her back) twirled one umbrella on her foot and one in each hand while balancing two umbrellas on top of one another on her other foot; and during the Crutch Balancing routine, one boy jumped on his one hand crutch while the other two balanced themselves and made the platform they were all doing their routine on tilt from horizontal to vertical.

This day was full of different experiences; we broaden our skills, learned how to approach different situations, and were able to relax and enjoy a spectacular show.

Written by Elissa Goldman

May 30. Today was yet another fun-filled day.  We woke up at the usual time to devour a delicious breakfast. Upon completion of breakfast, we headed to our first destination: the forbidden city and Tienamen square.  After about forty-five minutes of driving, we reached what appeared to be an ancient, man-made place where we found handfuls of people observing the beautiful architecture of the buildings.  Of course when the Chinese people saw us, they attacked us like we were celebrities. 

The buildings were colorful, and looked very similar to each other.  It seemed like there were at least ten of the same looking buildings that we continued to visit.  Once we finished walking through, we took an underground tunnel to reach Tienamen square.  Nick continued to promise us that when we reached the square we would know we had, since it is very distinguishable: with no closely surrounding buildings.  It was literally a flat piece of land. When we were waiting to head to the bus, Nick met a man who had lived in Ithaca and went to Cornell.  Even in China, you can see people you might have met in the states.

After visiting our first two destinations, we headed to lunch.  In close quarters to the Forbidden City and Tienamen square, the restaurant was waiting for our group to head to our private room.  We ate in a family style, private room where they brought many Americanized Chinese dishes for us to enjoy.  We have noticed that in Beijing, the food is a lot more Americanized than it had been in Chengdu and Chengzi. 

After lunch, we were finally able to see the “Pearl Market” which everyone had been raving about. It was four floors where we learned what true bargaining was.  We initially visited the pearl station where Ithaca college students had gone to in the past, those who gave us a good deal for pearls.  Our group basically “bought out” this place and everyone was quite exhausted after over two hours of doing so.  We were not finished yet with our bargaining extravaganza after shopping at the “Pearl Market”. 

Our final destination before dinner was the Silk Street Mall.  This was quite intense bargaining, some of us will never forget getting yelled at for asking for too low of a price, or getting trapped and not being able to escape a particular booth.  It became a joke after a while when the store vendors would be charging 600 RMB for a tie or telling us, “for everyone else I would charge a particular price, but for you, you sexy girl, I will charge 300 RMB.”  Little did they know, we were well aware this price was still not nearly cheap enough for the low quality of their knock-off products.  We all ended up making out with a bunch of bargains and ended up having to purchase extra suit cases, doubling our carry-on bag count for the plane ride back to Newark. 

After a tiring five hours in total of shopping, we headed to dinner at a fast-food-esque hot pot place.  We were all so wiped out, when Nick made the joke, “shop until you drop.”  After a satisfying dinner that could have served an army, we headed to an unbelievable acrobatics show.  These performers ranged in age from probably about ten to twenty-two. 

After the show, we were granted the chance to drive by the water cube at the infamous Beijing Olympic stadium.  The flashing blue, red, and even more colors were quite extreme.  Viewing this was definitely an opportunity that all of us seemed to appreciate.