Smorgasbord

There must be a Chinese idiom-equivalent for "smorgasbord,"* but I haven't found one yet. For now, I suppose I'll have to stick with Swedish. However, if anyone knows, please fill me in!

I've been pretty busy since, well... October. And haven't managed to record much about it yet. It's a bit daunting to take on, so I'll just write about a few highlights:

1) World Expo in Shanghai
About a 5 weeks ago, I went to a conference on Sino-American relations in Shanghai with a bunch of other Fulbrighters. While the meeting had its strengths and weaknesses, the highlight was absolutely getting the chance to meet/reconnect with current and past Fulbrighters. After it ended, they took us to see the World Expo. Although I don't think I would have paid to attend, I'm glad that I had the chance to go. It was, of course, packed. To visit the bigger/more popular pavilions, you had to wait several hours. Which, of course, we didn't do. Instead we popped into some of the smaller pavilions, and checked the rest out from the outside (which was oftentimes more interesting). Here's an example:

人山人海 (People EVERYWHERE) 

It was interesting to consider the Expo from the Chinese perspective. They sold "passports" that you could get stamped at various pavilions; as you can imagine, it induced complete chaos. But when you think about a country where only a very small percentage of people can make it abroad, it carries a whole new meaning. China brought its people the world: streamlined, bite-sized, and bright and shiny. People loved it. I met a 75 year-old man on the train from Shanghai to Suzhou who visited 5 times. It's hard to imagine--I was exhausted after just one day.

2) Un pezzetino d'Italia in Cina (A little slice of Italy in China)
As I mentioned a while ago, back in October I reconnected with my friend Martina from Bologna. We met through our Chinese class, and once again, Chinese brought us back together. As if that weren't enough, it turns out another mutual classmate named Victor has been in China for the past year--first in Hangzhou studying at Zhejiang University, and now in Shanghai doing an internship. We all met up in Shanghai, and Victor had us over to his apartment, where he cooked us a lovely meal of pasta.

Reunited in Wenzhou

La Cena Italiana (complete with chopsticks!)

It must be said, the entire week was a bit of a language-whirlwind. According to Ms. Wei Ningqi's Law of Limited Language Capacity, "一个语言的进步就是另外一个语言的退步“，or "one language‘s progress is the other language's regression." Martina's spoken Chinese is still at a pretty basic level, so I was speaking English and Italian with her, and Chinese with everyone else. In the end, I started accidentally saying "grazie" to Chinese people and “所以” (therefore) to Martina. Madonna, che schifo. However, the good news is that while I am not able to readily generate Italian, I can still understand it. In the end, everything came full circle: I spoke Chinese in Italy, and Italian in China. How's that for cultural exchange, eh?

3) One and a half Thanksgiving Celebrations
As all of you probably know, I am a bit of a "Thanksgiving-enthusiast." You might say that it's our Jewish-equivalent/compensation for Christmas, but I would just say that we're a family of foodies. As a result, I have been mourning The Lost Thanksgiving of 2010 since November of 2009. "Cool it, Ningqi," I know.

That being said, Thanksgiving this year far exceeded my expectations. The program graciously treated us to a Thanksgiving buffet at an American hotel, and it was 很不错 (not bad at all). While we were lacking the full-blown American menu, they *did* fly in turkeys all the way from Canada. The preparation was quite authentic and very tasty--nice and juicy. Aside from just having gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and apple pie, and stuffing-inspired corn bread-ish things (not great), they ALSO had Indian food, Chinese food, a grilled meat station, AND a raw sushi bar. Everything was really good, too. Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves silly. Afterwards, a few of us tried to walk it off, pausing every now and then to moan and groan about how full we were, and warning curious bystanders "真不好意思。今天是感恩节－我们吃了很多，是特别痛苦。我推荐你们不吃太多呀！" (How embarrassing. Today's Thanksgiving--we ate too much, it's really painful. I advise you not to overeat!).

One of our many Canadian Dinner Guests

But wait, there's more! About a week ago, an acquaintance of mine named Hong Ying asked if I'd be willing to act as a 主持人 zhŭchírén (host; MC) for a Thanksgiving Shindig that they were putting on at a book bar. Never missing an opportunity to eat free food and/or embarrass myself in Chinese, I graciously accepted.

The objective was to use Thanksgiving as a reason to bring Chinese and foreign people together for cross-cultural exchange. In the end, there were 35 Chinese+2 foreigners, so it was rather unbalanced. In any case, it was a group of very warm and friendly people. My co-host Tony (Chinese) spoke in English, whereas I spoke in Chinese. We directed people through some loosely-organized activities, like apple-"bobbing," blind-folded turkey-drawing, dumpling-making, etc. 

"Apple-bobbing" from strings

Tony with Team A's Turkey Drawing

For me, the highlight was meeting a lot of new Chinese people. I had some interesting conversations with a guy named Virgil. For example:

Virgil: 你像中国人一样 (You seem like a Chinese person)
Me: 什么呀？那，我大大的眼睛，我白白的皮肤呢? (What?? Then, how about my big big eyes, my white white skin?)
Virgil: 嗯，对，但是你有一种“中国人的感觉”。 (Mm, true, but have the "feeling" of a Chinese person)

I was incredibly flattered, if not extremely skeptical. However, his following statement slightly diminished his credibility:

Virgil: 你知道，会说中文很好的外国人像熊猫一样。(You know, foreigners that can speak Chinese really well are like pandas)
Me: 哈哈，是的？是因为他们比较难找吗？(Haha, yeah? Because they're pretty hard to find?)
Virgil: 是的，但是也是因为他们很瑰奇。(Yeah, but it's also because they're very precious)

People say the darndest things, eh? In any case, the evening ended with everyone standing up and saying what they were grateful for this year. While a bit cheesy and drawn-out, it was really quite touching. Regardless of the language or culture, some things really are universal. Everyone expressed gratitude for their families, their friends, their opportunities, or their ability to simply breathe (however polluted the air might be). This year, I'm really grateful for this opportunity to live in China: to be here for a year pursuing my interests, learning new things, and meeting new people. So thank you, Fulbright!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers for me, and sending you much love from the Middle Kingdom!

With Hong Ying and our Thanksgiving Decorations

* "Smorgasbord" means "po-po platter" or "random assortment"