Hi mom and dad and dj and phoebe and snakey,

My internet is down so i can’t use my computer in my room to skype or ichat you guys before I go to Shangai(three hours).

We are taking a sleeper train there, and should arrive manyana morning, early. We are visiting the CCTV(China Communist Television) station there. CCTV is the largest tv broadcasting and has over 10 stations on tv. we are also going to the workers daily headquarters-which is one of the largest newspapers distributed in China. I believe one of these bulidings is on the top ten tallest buildings in the world. We are visiting the largest though.

This is all for my media class, which is improving. Today we flipped through 33 of the China television stations to record who owned the station and what was being shown. There was not one station with international news, and only about three were news related channels. And even then they were covering two stories: China in Space, Baby milk crisis! The rest of the channels were mainly soap operas and period drama’s ( set at least 50 years ago). It’s funny how the sitcoms work. They are allowed to have modern drama’s, and drama’s that take place during the safe time periods (the time periods that the tone has already been set for). Any time between 1966-1976 is not allowed-too controversial. In fact I’ve been asking people about the cultural revolution, they either don’t know or don’t want to talk about it.

I knew life and media was closly monitored here-but it’s to such a large extent! Even if people here want to know about the rest of the world, it’s close to impossible to find news on it. And even within China there are three stories covered on every news source- Olympics, Olympics, baby milk, space launch, olympics, olympics. TV is so boring here. It’s better than it was 30 years ago-then there were two newspapers and one magazine for the entire nation. Other news sources had to copy word for word what the “example” news would say. I just want some weeds or nip tuck or something that’s not a Tang dynasy soap  opera! Oh and there was one more thing on TV-smoking monkeys. Apparantly monkeys at zoos here have been given cigarettes to calm their nerves and are now addicted-oh China, classy.

One more story. As I mentioned before they have very little access to outside news, therefore no close to nothing about the elections in the US. We asked many many people if they knew who McCain and Obama were and we got blank faces. But when we said black man, and white man they knew exactly who we were talking about.

So Shanghai should be good times. I miss you all so much and want to talk to you (especially DJ). Dana don’t throw too much of a rager…the plants might die.I don’t think I’ll be able to email you from there, so I ‘ll talk to you all in five days.
Love you sooo so much!

Hello everyone!

I finally have a free day (Saturday) so thought I would send an update.

So much is happening! This morning I had breakfast with mom’s friend Karen who is a professor at UCSB and head of the China division of Kodak. She was here on business and planted so many good ideas in my head. Part of the curriculum here is you choose a research topic and spend all four months working on it. You have to use first hand sources-meaning interviews, translating Chinese articles, emailing Chinese companies etc. Basically they really want you to figure out the Chinese perspective of your topic. She suggested that I investigate a company called Solar Tech. It’s a Chinese started and run business that makes solar energy products. I haven’t done any research, but it’s a huge company and I’m really excited about it! She knows all the big cheeses there, so I’m getting the hook ups.

My Modern history class just ended and I’m about to start Chinese Media in transition. I absolutely loved my history professor, and I’m hoping my next teacher measures up. So far I’m really happy with the faculty here. I’d say they are Cate quality if not better.

I’m also competing in a badminton tournament. I haven’t played that much, but I picked it up pretty fast and I think we have a chance for victory! The game is scored in Chinese, and if you speak English on the court people look down on you. All of the language professors are competing in the tournament as well.

The first day I moved into my room Katherine, my good friend, and I were lost trying to find a bus. A man came up to us and asked, in English, if we needed help. He ended up being a very nice anthropologist who is trying to open his own museum. He travels all over the country collecting artifacts. Anyways, he took us to the Capital museum (John, have you been there?) because it was the last day of a “5,000 years of Chinese history” display. The museum itself was one of the largest buildings I’ve ever been in. In fact all of the buildings here are incredibly large! The exhibit was really nice, and he was very knowledgeable about most of the artifacts. A lot of the pieces we were looking at were in his secondary school history books! The only bad thing about the museum was the number of people. In order to look at an old calligraphy parchment, you had to literally push and shove to get close enough to read it. I get reminded everyday that there are actually a billion-plus people here!

Another story: I went to the Paralympics! I found tickets online for 30 kuai ($5) so all of us decided to go! It took about three hours and three different banks to locate the tickets, but it was all worth it. It’s funny when you are asking for directions here, not just one person answers-there is a committee meeting about where the bank is. Even if no one knows where it is they say, “nai biar” (over there) in order to save “face”. The same phenomena happen at banks. If the teller you are with doesn’t know how to do your particular transaction, they will say that the bank can’t do it. Not that they can’t do it. Also to save “face”. This made getting the tickets a bit of a rat race. But we saw the end of the men’s marathon, which they do in three-wheeled speed machines. Their upper bodies were huge and they came racing in at very high speeds! Also, the shows in between events involved handicapped entertainers. There would be 60 wheelchairs making formations of lotus flowers in the Olympic stadium-it was great! The audience, as opposed to the water polo match I went to, was almost all Chinese-so the atmosphere was very different. It seemed less chaotic; I think a big part of it is that Chinese don’t usually attend spectator sports like this, so they didn’t really know what to do. They also didn’t drink at the Paralympics, but the Russian, Australian, German and British spectators did at the water polo game.

Things are exciting and rewarding here. I feel very comfortable with the people and the culture. I’m looking forward to learning and experiencing what this magical place has to offer. I never thought I’d say that about polluted Beijing, but it really is beautiful. I feel pleasantly energized!

I’m going to Shanghai next weekend, which I’m looking forward to! I’ll let you know all about it….
Bye for now
Lots of Love,
rachael

So this is very cool. The last two or three mornings Caren turns on her Apple laptop, gets a program called iChat going, and voila! Rachael appears on her screen. They can see and talk to each other (each laptop has a little camera facing its user), and it is all free. The time zones are good, too: Caren is still in bed, just about to get up, and Rachael is in bed, about to go to sleep. Sure beats the telephone!

Rachael uploaded a bunch of pictures, the first of which is here (to see them all, go to Shutterfly).

It fired its first beam around the track this morning. This is a very big deal. This may be the key to understanding the deepest mysterious of the universe. For a fuller report, click here.

And, hardly less significant: the 21-month occupation of an oak grove at UCSB has ended, with the remaining four protesters (none of whom was a UC student) descending from their perches in redwood trees, and getting immediately arrested. Rachael, you will be happy to know that the UCSC protesters are still in their perch (now 10 months and counting).

And I added a page of Phoebe’s pictures.

Hi mom and dad,

Happy early birthday!! I got the book in the mail-thank you pops. It looks really good!! I leave tonight on a sleeper train to the grasslands of inner mongolia! I hope your birthday is really nice and I’ll be thinking about you ( I do all the time anyways). Many pictures are being taken, but the internet is retarded. Also, if it’s not too much money can you send me the lonely planet on china-i’ve decided i really do need it. Thanks guys! I love you mucho. Keep dana out of trouble.
love rach
P.S. how are the new weeds episodes? the only tv we get here is junk.
PPS I’ll try to call you guys but I’m not sure if there will be a phone in our yurt.
ppps My school is NW of the forbidden city,resting on the inside of the third ring-I just put a map up in my room and I mark everywhere I go!

Ni Hao Fam,

Yes, life if truly amazing right now. Classes started yesterday, but this week is Chinese boot camp. Four hours a day of Chinese classes. Next week we start are usual class schedule which is area studies in the morning and two hours of Chinese in the afternoon. My area studies are as follows: Chinese Media, Modern Chinese History and Civilization, and China’s environmental challenges. I’m very excited about them all(taught one at a time-block schedule)! My Chinese teacher is very good and we have the head of IES sitting in this entire week to assist. There are only six people in my class.

Sunday we went to a village about two hours outside of Beijing called Cuandixia. It was founded by three emperors of the Ming Dynasty. After the Ming dynasty fell, these three men decided to start there own place. Everyone there has the same last name, Han, because the women are sent out of the village to marry and women marry into Cuandixia. The youngest generation there is 17th generation (and we thought gold lake statistics were impressive).

Other than that I’ve been to a karaoke bar where we rented our own karaoke room (very nice), ordered Tsing Tao (the local beer), and sung our hearts out. I’ve also been to many of the local markets, palaces, and restaurants. I’m getting more used to the food but it’s still too greasy and meat heavy for me. I also bought a bike yesterday which will make getting around a lot easier. However, I’m too scared to cross the streets so I’ve been walking my bike in the underground pedestrian walkways. The drivers here are absolutely rediculous. They won’t stop (even if it’s a red light) and will honk their horns constantly. Aaaa China!

The last few days the pollution has completely cleared away, so the air is a lot more crisp and the sky is blue! I have so many beautiful pictures, but the internet doesn’t work in my room yet. They are on their way. This weekend four of us are planning a trip to inner Mongolia. We are going to take a sleeper train there Friday after our test and come back Sunday. Off to class…
Lots of love,
Rachael