ISU SSP 2: Low Voltage Culture Shock

Note: I am completely blocked from viewing this web log, but not blocked from editing it. Go figure. Don’t leave a comment because I won’t read it. Send me an email instead. Also, Yahoo Photos closes within the next 85 days or so, so I will have to find an alternate solution for uploading and linking photos. That means if you want to NASA update from last July to make sense, view it before then.

Since it will be impossible to chronicle all events during the SSP, I will now only write my thoughts on specific instances rather than a complete list of activities.

At the Welcoming Reception, I got to talk to many of the ISU heads, lecturers, and students. The most surprising talk I had was with the director of the SSP, Gary Martin. I asked him about getting the 8 hours of graduate credit from the Cincinnati State University that was mentioned in the program handbook. He said to remind him after the exam since some people spent the $100 for the credit then failed, and he was tired of taking people’s money for nothing. I mentioned that I might have trouble getting the credit because I’m still an undergrad and the CSU graduate program never got back to me about what to do. That’s when it got interesting. Here’s something close to how it went:

Gary: Wait… you’re still an undergrad??
Me: Well, yes.
Gary: What’s your name again?
Me: Ben, Benjamin Corbin
Gary: (stare of shock and slight fear)… How did you get in?
Me: Well, I made it perfectly clear in my application that I was still an undergrad, it’s not like I lied…
Gary: Because my boss specifically told me that we couldn’t accept you. I fought for you, just like I fought for a Polish undergrad last year, but they wouldn’t let him in.
Me: Oh… crap… uh, should I not have told you that?
Gary: No, no, you’re here now and we can’t kick you out. I guess your parents finance you then?
Me: No, you guys gave me a scholarship. An ISU sponsored half-tuition scholarship.
Gary: Well… uh, don’t tell anyone else you’re an undergrad.

So yeah… I’m absolutely not even supposed to be here. I guess it was just a very, very, extremely lucky mistake that I’m here. It does feel odd being 20 when the average age of the 118 participants is 30.

I also talked with one of the lecturers, Dr. Jeff Hoffman, who is an MIT professor and, more importantly, is a veteran astronaut of FIVE space flights. That’s right, only one astronaut has flown more than him, and he just happens to be my electromagnetic spectrum and cosmology instructor. Not only that… he… LITERALLY… FIXED… the HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE. He actually fixed the most expensive telescope ever built (at the time) while in orbit. He had to improvise a way to close the door so it wouldn’t be dead in space. Without him, cosmology would be stuck in the 1980s. I talked to him about what I would need to get into MIT.

Jeff: Oh sure, send me an email so that when your application comes in I know to look for it.
Me: Ok, great! By the way, what’s the minimum GRE score for getting into MIT? I took the GRE the day before I came out here.
Jeff: Well, the aero department mainly focuses more on the math score, so if you have around a 700 on the math you should be good.
Me: I got an 800.
Jeff: Excellent, so as long as you didn’t get a 200 on the verbal, you’re fine.
Me: I got a 540.
Jeff: Yeah, you should be fine.
Me: BYAH!!
Jeff: What?
Me: Huh? Nothing.

(Insert non-awkward topic transition here)

If you judge Beihang University on size or looks alone like I can only do at the moment, it must be better than Harvard. This place takes up quite a bit of real estate in the northern section of Beijing (the word Beihang literally means “north wind”) and almost every building is over 4 stories whereas the tallest building at UCF is only 5 stories. They are building a brand new campus even further north, and what exists now will be only for undergrads. Considering the number of new buildings they have built just recently, I’m surprised they would let it all go when they split the program. It must mean the new campus is even better than the old one.

From what I’ve seen so far, it is not as crowded here as I had expected. Sure, the population density is a lot higher than it is at UCF, but it’s not as bad as some of the pictures I had seen from Brian’s trip. There are, however, people walking around all over the university at all hours of the day. Beihang University is not a commuter campus like UCF, so its population lives primarily on-campus, so it acts like an independent city in the northern section of Beijing. I don’t know where the population age differences come from though. At any time when we’re walking near the central park area, there might be a group of elderly doing tai chi or wielding a sword around. That was pretty bizarre.

The Chinese traffic patterns are definitely interesting to observe. Pedestrians almost have no regard for moving cars, and drivers often blare their horns at walkers in their path to get them to move. Crosswalk green lights only mean that it’s definitely safe to cross; red crosswalk lights mean you might get stuck between lanes for a minute. This lack of regard for the laws of the road is possibly a consequence of few of those pedestrians having a license; the worst pedestrians in the states are the ones who have never driven a car (it’s my personal opinion that whichever has more power has the right of way, so unless a pedestrian weighs around 700 pounds, the car should go first). Bicycles also make the sidewalk and road situation more complicated, and no one wears head protection. Despite the madness, I have not seen a single accident on a road or sidewalk.

I have learned a minimal amount of Chinese since I’ve been here. Apparently, all the Chinese I learned from the book I was reading was wrong because I had the wrong tones for most of the words I knew (“No, no, you got it all wrong, you’re using the wrong tone. Do it again, I’ll stab ya t’rough da face wid a soldiering iron.” – Christopher Walken in “Joe Dirt”). The Chinese language is all about tones. The same spelling for a word could mean 5 different things, depending on how you change or hold the pitch. In the pinyin system (Chinese-Roman alphabet), they generally show the tone using an accent. For instance, I thought “to be” and “10” were the same word, but actually “to be” is “shì,” with a lowering tone, while “10 is “shí” with a rising tone. The word “ba” has four different meanings for the four different tones; “bā” with a held high tone means “8”, “bá” means “pull,” “bà” means “father,” and “bă” (with a fall and rise in tone in one vowel) means “target.” The fall and rise tones are especially hard.

If you can get the tones down, the rest of the language isn’t so bad; there are no verb conjugations (that I know of), the sound for he/she/it is the same (although the written symbols are different), and even though some of the letters in the pinyin system are different (“q” is a “ch” sound, “z” is a “ds” sound, “x” is a “sh” sound, etc.), reading pinyin isn’t too difficult, as long as the accents are in place. However, do NOT think it’s easy to read standard or even simplified Chinese. Reading it is as much of an art as writing it. I’ve only learned to recognize the words “China,” “Beijing,” “Beihang University,” and the number 1.

It’s weird seeing Chinese writing everywhere, but even weirder to see English written on t-shirts on the Chinese. It makes me wonder whether or not they can read their own shirts. I saw some that said “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” Another had “Friends with Privileges,” obviously a bad translation of a common college phrase. The Engrish I’ve seen so far isn’t as bad as some of the gems I’ve seen online, and I know the Chinese government is cracking down on it because of the upcoming Olympics, but I sure hope to find some very funny signs and t-shirts.

There are two bad things I have experienced in China: bad pollution and bad food. According to a rumor that was probably made up by one of the participants, breathing in Beijing for a day is equivalent to smoking 17 cigarettes. You cannot see buildings that are far away, so there’s no point in going to the top of a building to get a better view of the skyline; I’m sure it would be very impressive from the tallest building in Beijing, but unfortunately all you would see would be the closest buildings and smog. I got a sinus reaction after walking strenuously with one of the participants (who had studied at Beihang a few years before and knew his way around) instead of taking the metro back to the stop we came from, but I’ve found that as long as I breathe through my nose, I’m all right.

The food isn’t that great simply because we eat at the same place every meal. We have the option of going out and finding our own food at our own expense, but it’s just easier to meet at the Hello Café (yes, that’s its name) and socialize with all the other participants. It also puts you in front of the faculty and staff more, and they are always available for mealtime chats. The real problem with the food is that they try to westernize it so it doesn’t scare people off, and the result is something that westerners don’t like and the Chinese people in the program think is pretty disgusting too. The sign next to a tray reading “Pork with Black Fungus” is a real sensory turn-off. Once in a while they have a great meal though, but I need to ask one of the locals where I can find an Ass Sandwich like Brian was telling me I had to try.

The one thing that does feel strange is listening to music. My iPod is definitely my most used possession when I’m at home, whether I’m walking, driving, or studying, and because I’m in a foreign country and am trying to absorb as much as possible from the people from here and people who came here along with me, I generally don’t listen to music. However, when I do listen to music, it feels pretty damn good, especially when walking past the military guards at the gates on campus for some reason.

During individual introductions I did learn that one of the Brazilian students is a bass guitar player. I would love to have a jam session with him sometime, and since he’s probably a lot more experienced than I am, he can teach me some techniques. He did however break the stereotype that all Brazilians are huge Iron Maiden fans. When I asked him if he liked the band, he only said “Yeah, sure, why not?”

I am quite impressed with the general knowledge of the NBA here in the China. I was talking with a guy from Shanghai, and when I told him I was from Orlando, he said “Oh yes, Orlando Magic! I know that!” He says he was disappointed that most Chinese kids know more about NBA team cities than the states themselves. I told him not to feel bad because I couldn’t name more than three cities in China. There’s a ton of NBA signs with Shaq all over one fence surrounding the Beihang basketball courts, and on the other side there’s a huge “It Takes Five” mural.

Last night I went rock climbing. It only costs Y10 ($1.33) for unlimited climbing a day. At least that’s how I think it works, and I might have gotten ripped, but even after two climbs my arms and fingers were sore. I’ll probably keep going pretty often considering it’s so cheap.

I’m REALLY not looking forward to the day where I can’t take a dump in my dorm toilet with my Charmin toilet paper. From what I hear, the stalls only have a porcelain standing area around a hole in the middle of it. If I miss, I'm not moving into the hole. I'll just call it the Shalimar Suprise

Next update: Core lectures, Departments, and Team Projects.

ISU SSP 1: Play by Play of First Few Days

Note: Since Blogspot may be blocked by Chinese Internet, updates will be sporadic and lengthy. The number preceding the entry is simply an ordering device rather than a specific time period for an entry. The first week will probably see the most detailed updates simply because everything is so fresh and new. Also, I will be too busy to update continuously or even do a lot of grammatical editing.

SATURDAY:

I have safely arrived in Beijing and have already gotten over jet lag thanks to the few naps I got on the flights over, self-induced sleep deprivation until an appropriate bed time, and, of course, legal alcohol courtesy of the little restaurant up the road from the residence I’m staying in. Arriving in a place like this is quite a sensory overload – I thought American commercialism was bad, but in China, you are bombarded with advertisements constantly.

I met two other SSP participants on the plane and several more on the bus ride from the airport to the Beihang University. Simply driving through most of the city was truly amazing. There were so many interesting things just to look at that it is very hard to describe in words. Construction workers operated without safety equipment on tall bamboo supporting structures (just like when Jackie Chan climbed up that bamboo structure in Rush Hour 2. I mentioned that and everyone on the bus laughed). China has some of the strangest marketing campaigns.

Just my luck, I’m sharing my living area with the one person I actually knew before the program. I met Virgiliu Pop, a Romania that specializes in Space Policy and works for the European Space Agency, at the Space Generation Congress in Spain last year. We are supposedly 2 out of 4 or 5 people who went to that conference, but I remember him well because we had a long discussion on American politics and how the rest of the world views Americans. According to him, we aren’t viewed as badly as I thought we were. He loved the movie Borat and quotes it constantly, even though with his Romanian accent he does not need to exaggerate to sound like Borat. He also watches South Park just as much as I do, so we’re always talking it.

After dinner, a few of us went to a nearby Wal-Mart to do some shopping. That’s right… the first store I went to in China was a Wal-Mart. I am an American. This Supercenter is four stories of pure commercialism. I only stayed on one floor, but apparently all four floors were just as hectic and crammed with merchandise. I bought a watch since my cell phone doesn’t work and I don’t feel like buying a SIM card for my phone just to tell time. My nice watch was around $12.

Later, a few of us went to a little bar and shared some beers. I think we got ripped on the price, but it was still way cheaper than the equivalent amount of beer in the United States. One of the guys had lived in Taiwan for a little while and was able to decipher some of the Chinese characters on a sign on the wall. When we were finished, the goal of staying up late enough to go to bed on time had been accomplished, so even though it was only 9:30 pm, it felt very late.

SUNDAY:

Sunday is the only day of the week where we don’t have to be up at 6:30 in the morning. Breakfast is normally served from 7:00-8:30, but on Sundays we have brunch (the least manliest meal ever created, of course) from 10:00-12:00. Unfortunately, I woke up at 6:00am, so I decided to get my room situated the way I want it and take care of a few reading tasks that came in our welcome package. Virgiliu also woke up early, so we decided to try to find Internet access.

Unfortunately, the closest and easiest access was the coffee shop around the corner. It was unfortunate for two reasons: 1) they didn’t open until 9:00am, so we had around 45 minutes to kill, and 2)…. IT’S A FREAKIN’ STARBUCKS!! (for reasons why I hate Starbucks, listen to stand-up comedian Lewis Black and his rant on the two Starbucks across the street from each other in Houston, Texas). I felt like a cultural sellout just setting foot in that store.

We took a stroll around the Athlete’s Village (our home for the duration of the program) and saw some pretty interesting stores. We went into one and Virgil bought a Red Bull. The can is way different, and the liquid is not fizzy at all here. It still gave him a boost though. At the Starbucks, I made a phone call to my bank to find out why I couldn’t get money from an ATM the night before, and it turns out someone tried to make a $1181 charge on my card (approximately 9000 Yuen). My theory is that Wal-Mart tried to gyp me by charging me 100 times the price of the watch, but either way my debit card was cancelled, so the only money I have now is in Euros. Not a total disaster since everything in the program is already paid for, but whatever. It’s just a stinging inconvenience for my first day in a foreign country.

After brunch, we had orientation. My group started off with a computer lab orientation, and then a walk around the campus to see the buildings we would be working in. One of the buildings we will be in is probably larger than any building in Washington D.C. I have a few pictures of it, but it is absolutely gigantic. The building is brand new – we are literally the first people to use the auditoriums in the center of the complex. Next we had two cultural sensitivity training classes, one about what to do and not to do in China, and the other about how all of us differ from each other and how to cope with those differences. I personally think “cultural sensitivity training” is a load of bull, but this was more of an orientation than a “you need to be more tolerant of other people – or ELSE!” class from what I’ve seen before. We learned some basic Chinese, although what we learned I already knew from the studying I had done beforehand.

MONDAY:

I didn’t sleep so well last night. I woke up at 3:00am and didn’t go back to sleep until 5, but then it was a struggle to get up again when my alarm went off. Maybe I’m not quite over jet-lag yet.

Today was our first day of actual lectures, but the morning was filled with the Team Project overview. We have four TP’s to choose from: A Lunar Archive project that stores a backup of essential technologies and histories in the event of a global disaster; a project that aims to use space technology to forecast earthquakes and be more instrumental in the response and recovery phases; a space traffic project for all orbital space, not just for geosynchronous orbits; and an On-Orbit Servicing project that aims to design satellites that will go around and maintain other satellites. Since I really can’t decide which project I want to do, I’ll just turn in my form and be pleasantly surprised.

Following lunch, all the students dressed in formal or national attire for the opening ceremonies of SSP’07. Most people wore regular suits, but others wore traditional clothing. There was a guy in a kilt, the Indians were in their traditional garb, and the Chinese women wore Chinese-traditional clothing.

Before the ceremony, Bob Richards spoke about the history and goals of the ISU. In case you don’t know who Bob is, co-founded SEDS, SGC, and ISU, all of which I have been a part of and have written about in this journal. After his talked, we were all given the highly coveted ISU pins and unofficially sworn into the Space Mafia. Bob calls the ISU an open conspiracy because we don’t hide the fact that we want to take over space.

Then we were all herded into the next room for the Opening Ceremonies. Now, I was not expecting this to be such a grandiose ceremony, but the Chinese went all out on us for this one. In attendance were the CEOs of China’s biggest aerospace companies, leaders of their national space program, a few ambassadors to China, several high-ups at the Beihang University, and some serious press coverage. The speeches given weren’t too exciting, and I definitely heard the phrase “Great Honor” uses three times with terrible pronunciation of both words from Chinese dignitaries. Three of the speakers spoke in Chinese and we had to use the same devices that the UN uses when foreign dignitaries speak.

The real surprise was the entertainment the Chinese had scheduled. There were four acts that were supposed to give us a taste of Chinese culture, but instead of being awed and amazed, I was awed and amused. The first act was a dance piece from a scene in a Chinese folk story about a man and a woman who were in love, but the man had to go off to battle. The dance depicts their last night together. It looked like a weird ballroom dance, but it was pleasant to watch.

The second act, however, baffled me completely. Several people performed part of a Chinese opera in the WEIRDEST costumes and the strangest makeup I have ever seen. The woman singing was terribly high-pitched, but that was more of an audio problem than a singing problem. However, it was the eyes of all the actors that weirded me out the most. The contrast between the skin around the eyes, the whites of the eyes, and the pitch black irises and pupils made every single eye movement bizarre and almost frightening. The most surprising part of the opera were the costumes though; I had only seen this kind of costume in a South Park episode, and could barely hold in my laughter when the people performing the percussion made the exact same sounds as the man in the South Park episode. It really was a “you had to have been there” experience.

The third performance was actually very interesting. I managed to get a video of the performance and will upload it if possible. It was a man dancing to some weird Asian techno and changing his facemask. His headgear was completely bizarre, but the act was pretty entertaining. The fourth act was some relatively famous Chinese singer that I had never heard of, although when they began announcing her, I half expected them to bring out the singer Wing (a reference to another South Park episode, and if they had, I would have died laughing). Once again, the singing was far too high-pitched for my tastes, but she was quite talented.

The reception was where I really realized the Chinese were honored to have us in their country. We were taken to the Plaza Hotel, which is right next to our residence, for more festivities. I don’t want to say that they spared no expense, but it was definitely the nicest reception I had ever been to. Women in traditional Chinese clothing posed for pictures, the room was very ornately decorated, a band of women performed on the side of the room, there was a rocket carved out of ice with several logos frozen inside of it, fingers foods were everywhere, and beer and wine were served throughout the entire time. Virgil and I managed to try on one of the costumes that were on display on the wall. I also got a chance to talk one on one with a lot of the important people at the university and get some pictures with important people.

More to come soon...