222 Days Later

Two-thousand eight will go down in the history books as one of those turning point years. It includes a monumental U.S. election and 222 days spent abroad by yours truly, events that will certainly change the course of history.

Television and the Internet can bring us insanely close to foreign lands, but they can’t physically put you there. This lesson even corresponds to journalism. If you can physically be somewhere to experience something, you have to go. That experience will most certainly be invaluable.

Invaluable. I think that is a good word for my time abroad this year. Whether it is Arhus, Denmark or Beijing, China (and these two places are just slightly different) or anywhere in between, the experiences are invaluable.

I grew so fond of Denmark that it truly felt like a home to me there. I can really only say that about three places in my life so that’s pretty significant. Invaluable were the people I met, the cultures I encountered, the life lessons I learned and the things I learned about myself. It’s very easy to be yourself in front of your life long friends, but the challenge to be yourself in front of dozens of people you’ve never met and who’ll your spend six months with is difficult. I’m proud of the short time it took for me be comfortable with those people and be myself. This is something that extends to hostel living as well. I made cool friends in several locations just by striking up conversations. In a couple instances I spent significant time with those new random people, something I never would have seen myself doing last year. 222 days can sure change a few things.

I’m thankful for getting to explore copious amounts of Europe in my adventures abroad. And yes, I did just use ‘copious’ because I haven’t used that word in forever, even if it may not fit in this context. Whether it was currywurst in Berlin, gelato in Rome, baguettes in Paris, crockets in the Netherlands, frites in Belgium or horse in Iceland, each destination presented new opportunities and learning points.

China, on the other hand, is a whole different beast to tackle. Although it seems almost impossible to sum up Beijing in one word, I’ll give it a try: invaluable. Not a day went by in Beijing where I did not experience something indescribable. As I’ve said in previous posts, China can be a frustrating place. But that should be no reason not to go to a particular place. If I just looked at it for face value, then I would have missed all the amazing things in between: the beauty and magnificence of the Great Wall, the Communist nationalism of Tiananmen Square, the compassion of the Chinese people and the Olympic spirit.

On a side note, it’s interesting that I would visit Communist China in the same year as such an important Democratic election in the U.S. I heard from many Chinese about how great Communism is and how they couldn’t imagine another government running their country. From my nationalistic U.S. standpoint, I could not disagree more. Communism sucks, that’s all there is too it. I take that statement down to a more personal level and that would be journalism. My job as a journalist working for the Chinese media would be so vastly different. Particularly in U.S. sports journalism, columnists will often write about how bad Joe Blow is doing or what a terrible move Joe Blow made. In our Beijing media tour, we were told straight from the horses’ mouth that they were funded largely by the Chinese government. You don’t have to be smart to figure out that you don’t piss off your boss. We all know the problems currently facing the U.S., but I can’t imagine the problems that would arise if the population were stripped of all their First Amendment rights. It’s so cliché, but we all take that for granted. To walk around all day in fear that someone may overhear my grumblings about the government is no way to live.

I think the most important thing for me to take out of the last 222 days is that I can’t let the lessons fade away. Who I became in that time is the person I want to take into the future, and I can’t forget that. I have to develop the close relationships I made abroad because I owe that to myself and to those I met. The world is so small, so it never hurts to have a friend around ever corner. It’s invaluable.

Please Stay Off the Newly Planted Sod

It's absolutely amazing how things can change and remain the same all at the same time. I'm sitting on the historic Columns in the middle of the beautifully revamped Francis Quadrangle, you can call it the quad if you want. I didn't have class today, but since I haven't been on campus in almost 9 months I wanted to check out the changes. The memories of the quad being a construction zone have almost completely faded. I look in that direction and everything seems normal, like back in sophomore year when we frolicked here in the autumn mist. The new journalism building is impressive and came out of nowhere the first time I saw it.

I was all afraid that I wouldn't recognize a lot of campus and that time was going to pass me by, but I have no idea what I was worried about (well maybe I did miss a lot of friend stuff) because I feel absolutely at home right now. Campus looks great and I have to start working hard again tomorrow when classes start...life's good.

Running the Gauntlet

I remembered a funny story yesterday when I was reminiscing about China with my roommates. I've already told you about the amount of volunteers at the Olympics, but I haven't talked a lot about their enthusiasm.

Example A
With the help of my accreditation I attended two days of the Track Cycling events. Following the event I decided to join the minions and leave the same way as the hard-working, paying fans. As I approached the exit I could hear singing and screaming and first thought it might be some roudy fans celebrating their country's success. Instead, I found two huge rows of Chinese volunteers lining the exit. They were clapping, singing, and dancing quite enthusiastically. Naturally I wanted to join the fun so I too started to clap and get excited. Not wanting to waste my excitement, I got loud, grunting high-fives from every volunteer as I walked the row. Every single one of them made sure to slap my hand and give me some form of goodbye. To my surprise, I even got a "hasta manana" from one volunteer.

Example B
Following the USA victory over Chinese Taipai (Taiwan) in baseball we exited the stands. I became excited with the knowledge that an enthusiastic goodbye may await me. Sure enough a huge row of Chinese volunteers snaked along the path to the exit. Wanting to change things up I hit the line running. Just as if I was running onto the field for a big game I got low and sped through the line getting low fives. They were no less excited than those at Cycling. It was a gauntlet of volunteers and I had successfully navigated it.

You Haven't Seen the Last of Beijing

In the midst of a very long flight home, fresh over Fairbanks, Alaska, I wanted to take a little time and look back at my last two months in Beijing, China. First and foremost, a lot of what people hear about China back home is true and a lot is false. The pollution is terrible, Communism is alive and thriving (and a lot of the people like that, one youth told me Communism is the only way to go, and he was younger than me), poverty is huge and there really is an insane amount of people. The people for the most part are incredibly nice, Communism works well in a lot of areas of society and if you look at the percentages not that many people speak English.

A lot of these things have made the last two months one of the best times of my life and also one of the most frustrating. The Olympic Games in general are a fantastic, amazing event. It is clearly the pinnacle of sport for any serious or casual sports fan. No knock on October, my favorite month of the year, or March, but when the Olympics come around it blows both those events out of the water. Well, that is assuming the Braves aren’t in the World Series.

Mark my word, there will not be another Olympic Games that involve so many nice people. It’s long been documented, and maybe I’ve written about it too, but there were an insane amount of young Chinese volunteers, too many in fact. As I’m writing I’ve begun to wonder if there really exist an amount of people that nice or since we were in China they were trained/forced to be nice. Or maybe I’ve just become more cynical in the last two months. Almost everyday I had someone tell me “Welcome to Beijing,” and it even happened a couple times after the Games were over. These kids really had a desire to make things work well and make people feel welcome and happy. And you can’t help but applaud that. I can walk away from China knowing that these people care about other people. How many times are you going to have a cab driver pull over to ask for directions in New York? It happened to me at least a half dozen times in Beijing. We couldn’t communicate beyond a map, but they wanted to get it right so they stopped.

If you are easily frustrated, which a lot of people on this trip were, you either have to snapped out of it real quick or just go home. It is guaranteed that at least once a day some cultural difference will frustrate and annoy you to no end. I’ll vent a couple of my frustrations just because it may seem worthwhile. In China, personal space in non-existent and many typical rules just don’t apply. I’ll relay a story to demonstrate a point. To get out of a subway car one must have some space in which to step off the train, or at least one would think. That’s not really the way it works here and to be honest it really pisses me off. People instead will all stand directly in front of the door and charge in right away without the slightest attempt to let anyone off. So one day, like Custer, I took a stand. After realizing at my stop that the man boarding the train was just going to walk straight in I decided to stand there. I wasn’t going to exit, just not let him in. After attempted to juke me a few times I think he understood my point and stepped aside to let me off. And you quickly have to realize that if you don’t push in a crowd, someone is going to push you. I feel like a terrible person doing it, but there really isn’t a choice. And I would get the biggest laugh when a Chinese person would become appalled that I would push my way around. It’s dog eat dog for a lot of things there.

China is a young country, internationally speaking, and it becomes apparent in regular dealings with people. A lot of people here have a thirst for knowledge about other places. They want to know what I think, they want to know what happens in the US and they want to know why it happens. And they will go to great lengths to continue conversations and friendships. A five minute conversation can easily turn into a lifelong friendship.

I really feel like I have a ton to write about from China and I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't relay those feelings and tidbits earlier on this blog, but I would really like to now so please continue to check back.