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...