A Meter! That's Three Feet!

So... I really wanted to put that as the title of a post, and I actually did manage to come up with some justification for it. I found it's kind of interesting how they do the pricing of fruit at the local supermarket place we go to (a post about that place will come sometime). I figured that since China works off of kilograms I'd have to do some sort of crazy price multiplying to come determine what the price would be in pounds. However, it turns out the pricing is actually per half kilogram, which is really close to a pound. So you don't really have to do any mental converting other than between the dollar and the kuai/yuan/renminbi.

Now on to the actual purpose of this post. I literally just got out of our culture class, which today was Chinese calligraphy. The guy teaching the class is a really really good calligraphist, and along with teaching us some of the fundamentals of calligraphy he drew characters for two of us and even signed and sealed them. I got really lucky and was one of the two people who drew the slips of paper that said "You" (have) instead of "Meiyou" (don't have).

The character drawn here is "Rabbit" for my year in the Chinese zodiac. Because Rabbits are awesome.

After I received the drawing we got a chance to practice doing some calligraphy of our own. I discovered my main problem is just thinking of something to write. I'll let you judge how it came out.

The right side of this sheet is practice for various strokes. The other strokes are my name (second column from the right), the words "computer student" (first column on the right), the characters for "Coke", and three characters that make no sense in Chinese but when you say them out loud they sound like "Chewbacca".

This is my haiku I wrote in Chinese characters. In English it would read "Brett Holbert. I am American. I went to China to study Chinese."

One other interesting thing to think about is that there is absolutely no similar style of art in Western culture. I suppose there are pictures that some people make with really fancy versions of words, but it is by no means it's own entire area of art like calligraphy is.

Oh, and we had an excellent example of something lost in translation the other day. We went to this restaurant called "Seaside Coffee". That is possibly the most misleading restaurant name I have ever heard. It is no means by the sea, although they do serve coffee. However, beyond that the only resemblance it bears to any conventional coffee house is that you sit on couches.

And then there's the menu. Definitely the most entertaining menu I've seen in my two weeks here. Some things are just plain hilarious and don't belong on a menu in any restaurant. Two of the appetizers you can get are popcorn (which is literally served to you in the microwave bag) and "Chutty" (a package of Doublemint gum). Then there's the things which make absolutely no sense. Probably half the menu is devoted to drinks, from various types of coffee and tea to sodas and milkshakes. As for the coffee, you can order "Mandarin Duck Coffee." We declined to find out what it was like. Then there's our favorite, the "Glaucoma Milkshake." We don't know what they meant to say, but like the coffee, we don't think we want to know. Oh, and then there was one of the ice cream sundaes, which came with pears, banana, and "Hawaii". I feel I should have gotten it just because I don't think there's any other tropical island I could buy for 35 yuan.

Then there's the actual food itself. The "Texas Wings" meal appears to be more what the chefs believe that Americans eat rather than things that mix well together for a meal. Fortunately there were wings with the meal, but the other things that came with it were a fried egg and spagetti (complete with tomato sauce). All I can really say is that I'm thankful that wasn't my meal, so I was able to have a laugh without feeling like it was at my own expense.

Anyway, I still have tons more to say on Beijing, I just felt more in the mood to write about other things. Perhaps tomorrow I'll finally get around to talking about the Olympics.