Field School China: Class @ SFU Day 6

More on day 5 later, today on day 6 we had a lecture about the origins of Chinese civilization and then we watched the movie Hero and continued the civilization talk. The days are going by quick.

Here are some Chinatown pictures but there is not much I can say about them. We walked around the square to the Daoist temple and these are the pictures I took on the way. Pictures of the entrance, a bell down Guangzhou and Shanghai alley where Chinatown started a century ago. A street, yin-yang symbol and then inside the temple.

Field School China: Class @ SFU Day 5

On day five (yesterday) we went on a trip to Chinatown to tour the traditional Chinese gardens. Here are my pictures resized to 800×600 to reduce loading times but I might (or still can) increase future pictures to 1280×1024 or bigger if anyone likes larger sized pictures for wallpapers.

This be the entrance, where we…uh our instructor (Dongya) pays for tickets.

We are introduced to the garden in a typical Ming living room (not picture here) but outside of the room this is what you would see.

The very small hundred year old tree can be seen in the left picture and on the right is the view of the other park.

What doesn’t fit? The tall buildings or this park?

The tour guide attempts to show us how they wrote calligraphy back in the day and a turtle seeks food.

No trip is complete without rocks! Yes good ol’ Washington and Daoist chemistry have churned out magic!

Some moongates and a statue of Sun Yat Sen leads the way to the free park which we did not plan or have time for.

Field School China: Class @ SFU Day 2-4

The surprise was there were no Chinese lessons for day 2! They were moved to day 4 and the quiz was also moved to day 4 because the provinces were difficult to remember in only 2 days. Therefore, we went over the history of China since the Yuan period and after lunch we studied outside. We discussed the single chapter we read, especially on sensitive issues such as f-gong and the corrupt official who fled China.

On day 3 we all got Chinese lessons and we went over the geography of China especially the provinces and why they are named what they are. This was quite helpful and afterwords we read another chapter but this time we read wherever we wanted to because some of the girls got sunburned last day and then we came back to discuss.

On day 4 we had our quiz after a speaker came to give us a lecture on Chinese paleoanthropology and the rest of the time after lunch we discussed precautions for our trips and some surprises such as toilet squatting.

Field School China: Class @ SFU Day 1

The beginning of the day started at the end of the Archaeology departments in a large room filled with voices. We are to meet several more times throughout the month before taking off on the 26th of May, but unfortunately this room we were given has no access to the campus’ wireless Internet. Some windows are opened in this skeleton filled room with several skulls displayed for any visitor who happened to stumble upon this room. The tables and cabinets are dusty from the construction of the new building next door, but it is fitting for a old looking room filled with old looking furniture and displays. One could only wonder how different the atmopshere of this room must feel if one happened to accidently stumble in at night especially after the chilling walk down the long, and quiet hallway.

The class begins with the handing out of the class outlines, and severals hours of questions and explanations about the trip to China and the projects we will accomplish beforehand and after. We broke for lunch and I picked up a book that was required as well as my passport after finishing my meal. When we returned we went over various topics about laundry and clothing and then Class introductions commensed before our one hour lecture on China’s geography. The laptop constantly went in hibernation mode and class was let off early with myself and one other student staying behind to ask questions. We were to make our way back to that room tommorow for another 7 hour class expecting to go over several commonly used Chinese phrases but…

notes: No U-Pass these 3 weeks I have class! I must remember to validate my fairs. Classes are 3 days a week. 7 Hours long with 1 hour break. The usual 3 hours of daily transit commuting.

Things to buy for people in China!

Making a list for what to get people before I forget!

Small easy to carry umbrella (not plastic) – Lisa

Rei figure and, optimus prime reissue of the original – Khanh

Mild Seven (light / super light) or Marlboro (Light / Menthol) one carton(ten packs) around $20-25, under $35 – Harry

Manga in mandarin, toys, pins, flags, dried snacks, hori ds sticks, clothes, etc.