Some pictures

Once upon a time last summer, there were three friends who liked pie. Like so.
Another time this spring, a friend shoved me in a suitcase. Observe.
More to follow.

Look what I can do!

I thought it might take a little work to figure out how to put pictures into this blog. There is, in fact, a little button on the blog-dashboard thinger which allows me to do so quite painlessly. This picture is me being cool (as I really can't help, right? Right?) in front of a Pyramid at Giza.

I'm feeling rather drunk with this power and am going to look through what pictures I have on this computer and figure out what kind of a post I can inflict on you, dear readers.

And I'll miss it very much

Scenic Iowa has a lot to offer.

"gain-seeking and corrupt men will for profit and sensuality defeat my wishes, but nothing will induce me to derive revenue from the vice and misery of my people."
-Chinese Emperor to British plenipotentiaries (my new English vocab word for today!), again refusing to legalize opium in 1842.

plenipotentiary: "a person, esp. a diplomat, invested with the full power of independent action on behalf of their government, typically in a foreign country."

Chinese is, unsurprisingly, rather difficult

I have plans to reinvigorate my Chinese skills this summer. They involve ChinesePod lessons via the magic of the internet, old textbooks, a couple of books my old language partner gave me (including a book of children's rhymes and Chinese for Leisure Life, which will teach me vocab for small talk and tourism), and watching Chinese-language movies.

I was planning on making myself only watch Chinese movies without subtitles (and then with them to understand more, and then again without to cement new words), but that didn't work at the first go. I can understand a bit and kind of stumble along with the plot, but I was getting quite bored missing all the jokes and subtleties of the dialogue, so I think my plan is now to watch movies first with subtitles and then again just once without them. Hopefully I'll be able to return to Plan A and maybe even be able to just understand movies by watching them in Chinese by the time I fly. Probably not, but I'll aim for it.

Um, also? August 16th is not very far off. And keeps getting closer. I've said this a lot of times to anyone who's been willing to listen to me think out loud about China recently, but I'm freaking out a bit. Part of me has been so ready to go live abroad, actually live abroad and not know when I'm coming home so I can really let myself get used to it, that watching friends graduate and move away (even just move on with their lives in IC) has been torture. But, as my departure keeps marching closer, another part of me has been gaining volume. "Iowa's really not so bad, yeah? Let's not- let's not do anything rash here, ok? China is pretty freaking far away," It says.

I keep realizing a little bit at a time just how far I'll be going and just how many people I won't see again for at least a year, even if I don't get a job in China after I finish my certificate. China is really far. I am going to miss you very much.

The Opium Wars

After taking my physics final last friday, I went to the IC Public Library to get myself some not-required reading to celebrate. I came away with four Chinese movies (all of which I have yet to watch) and four books, three of which focus on China.

I immediately began reading The Opium Wars (and I'd like you to all to take a moment to appreciate how well I know how to relax and enjoy myself. Opium Wars). Personally, before going to China the first time I had heard of the Opium Wars but could not really say anything about them. This is not too surprising and should not, perhaps, cause despair for American educational institutions; my grasp on history has never been terribly strong. However, I have since realized that these are Wars which had and continue to have a huge impact on the way that China interacts with the (especially Western) world, and I would probably do well to have some kind of understanding of them.

I am about halfway through the three-hundred page tome and my overall learning so far can be summed up thus: "Foreign relations misadventure today can't hold a candle to the shit that went down two centuries ago." British merchants starting selling India-grown opium in China in the late eighteenth century because, basically, Great Britain had recently fallen in love with Chinese tea, and their government was losing vast sums of silver (the only form of payment China would accept) each year to keep their people in tea. They needed some way to lessen the debt, but were in possession of precisely nothing for which China was interested in trading. So, Parliament stifled its moral objectors and allowed the opium trade to explode.

To keep from writing my own three-hundred page retelling of what happened, here is a brief summary in dialogue-form:

A few people in England: Opium is addictive and does awful things to people! Selling it is very wrong!
The Majority of British merchants: If we don't sell it, someone else will.
Chinese bureaucrats to foreign merchants: Stop selling opium or we will confiscate it and kill you.
Chinese bureaucrats to Chinese: Stop using opium. We'll help you for 18 months and if you're still using, we'll kill you.
Chinese Emporer to Queen Victoria: Please stop this immoral trade. I hope you can appreciate, with your small barbarian mind, the horror you are wreaking on my country.
Queen Victoria: *never got the letter, as one copy was lost in the mail and the sailor who delivered the second was told by a member of Parliament the the Queen wouldn't be interested*
Chinese Bureaucracy/Army: *confiscates and destroys twenty thousand chests of British opium*
British Army: *begins invading China with vastly superior military and equipment, suffers almost no losses and massacres Chinese civilians as well as soldiers*
Chinese Bureaucracy to Chinese Emperor: You're the best! The British are running away!
Everyone: Why won't you all acknowledge my innate superiority and do what I say?!

I don't mean to belittle the events or people involved by saying I completely understand their motives or the way these wars affected lives, but that's what I've got so far. Diplomats and military leaders on both sides were repeatedly fired for not having produced the results their governments wanted, and were replaced by people with even less understanding of the foreign culture they were interacting with. Eventually China was forced to cede major ports and allow opium to be pumped into the country ad nauseum. The country broke down in a lot of ways, as millions and millions of people became addicted to opium. When Chinese thinkers/officials asked British government or merchants to please stop bringing in this devastating drug, the reply they received was to tell their people not to use it anymore. I am so glad we don't live in that world anymore, friends.

(The next book I get to read is called What Does China Think? (中国怎么想）and appears ready to give me much hope for the future...)

Needles and Nurses

I just had a great experience at student health with the travel nurse who was patient, informative, and all-around incredibly helpful. I know nurses are often seriously overworked, and at student health in particular I've had a few visits with nurses and PAs who were just not really paying attention at all. But, should any of you be in IC and in need of information or vaccinations for traveling abroad, definitely head to student health and talk tot Gayle. She's great.

I had a number of vaccinations I needed boosters for or just needed for the first time, so my arms are gonna be sore for a while (especially my left arm with the tetanus shot. agh.) but I am feeling confident about my ability to live in China for a year and at least not be any sicker than I usually am in Iowa. It'll do.

Plus, I get to talk about all of the intimidating illnesses which I have already stopped in their tracks. Next week I'll take pills for a typhoid vaccine and when I depart I'll take malaria treatment with me. Surely that means I'll be having an adventure, no? Typhoid and malaria aren't risks if there ain't adventure involved, I'm reasonably confident. :)