Have a safe trip!

WeiRan should be landing in Shanghai right about now being greeted by all of his best friends! I'm sure he's going to have a great day.

Final Presentations Reflections

I have got to say, I thought that the diversity and creativity of our presentations was astounding. I have very much enjoyed this past week. Hearing what everyone learned this semester was pretty inspiring, and there were some pretty thoughtful presentations. I definitely did not expect to be blown away, but, who am I kidding? It’s an honor’s class. I should have known.

We had a jeopardy game, a creative “when humor goes wrong” presentation, a nerdy honors kids video, a LITCIV sandwich, a heartwarming video of what laughter and humor is, and so many more great presentations.

There were so many differing topics and viewpoints that people remembered from the year. We got to hear what people liked, what they hated but still appreciated (ahem, Morreal), and what people are most likely to take with them during this course.

There has been candy, wipeout videos, vocab contests, facedesking, faulty microphones, and a large absence of “very’s”. All of that together has been a pretty rockin’ year.

Honestly, I feel as though I’ve learned a lot in this class that I will be taking with me. I’ve learned a lot about other cultures, about different types and theories of humor, but what I have most enjoyed is getting to know more about myself and my fellow classmates.

I am definitely going to miss this class.

Last meeting with WeiRan

Weiran seems very excited about going back to China. He will have many friends waiting at the airport for him in Shanghai, where he will stay for a few days before going back to Beijing with his Father. He told me he really misses his mother deeply, which I found very sweet. When I asked him about if she was excited, he laughed, telling me she had joked with him that the second he was back she’d have to “be bailing him out of trouble all the time!”

From all of our conversations until now, WeiRan and I have many things in common, two of which is that our favorite things to do are eat and nap. We spend a good chunk of our time talking about food. Just call us a couple of foodies.

When I asked him what things he found fun back in China, he told me that one of his favorite things was magic shows. He told me he likes simple magic best, such as card tricks and stuff. He told me that his American friends have showed him many tricks, and he can’t wait to go back to Beijing and impress all of his friends.

It’s funny, WeiRan and I have only had a few conversations, but from the beginning until now there has been a huge change. In the beginning, we were two random people who knew nothing about each other, and it was incredibly awkward. I had no clue what questions to ask or what to talk about. But by this last meeting with him I realized how quickly we became friends.

WeiRan is only waiting on his Speaking Test results, and then if he did well he will have completed his Intensive English program here. He won’t find out until he returns to China.

Even though WeiRan is leaving for China early Friday, we agreed to keep in touch. He introduced me to this phone app, since Facebook isn’t the same in China as it is here. (I never had thought about that before, but I guess it makes perfect sense.) I’ve very happy I got to have this experience with interacting with someone from such a completely different culture, and am happy to have gotten a friend out of it.

Not that it will be long before I see him again. In fact, he says that his very first choice is to come back to TCU for university! That means he will be my classmate in the engineering program! I am very excited that he will be coming back, and also very happy that he has enjoyed it here so much.

This has been quite an experience over the past few months, and I’m very glad that I was placed with the conversation partner that I was. I’ve not only gained some great experience, but a new friend and classmate as well.

WeiRan and the Holidays

Today for my meeting with WeiRan I was met with a huge toothy grin.  “In five days, I’m going back to China,” He stated. Now, WeiRan tends to be a happy guy in general, but today was different. He told me about how he was five days from a twenty hour flight (goodness, how terrible), and how he just couldn’t contain his excitement. In the past meetings he had said he was close to his family and he missed them, but knowing he was going home soon just made him realize it all the more.

These feelings I am familiar with. I mean, all of us are when it begins to get close to finals. Everyone knows there’s just two weeks of hell, and then they get to go home. Alright, so maybe the two weeks of hell is just my double-science major talking. (Why do I do this to myself again?)

WeiRan said he had attended the TCU Tree Lighting ceremony, and he loved all the beautiful lights. He said it’s very similar to the Spring Festival in China, which takes place in late January or early February, where all the cities drape the streets in lights and everyone gathers to see them. WeiRan follows the usual Chinese tradition and visits his father’s father’s family on the first day of the festival, and his mother’s father’s family on the second.

WeiRan’s paternal grandparents live in a small village not too far from home. He says that they have sheep and other animals, as well as cats and dogs. He says he especially likes the dogs, because even though they are working guard dogs, they crave attention and just love being around people. He says that the tradition is for his family to gather around and talk about the past year and their hopes for the New Year, and to interact and bond in general.

WeiRan says that although a few families participate in Christmas, for the most part, this holiday is as close to Christmas as most of China gets. He says that relatives such as grandparents, aunts, and uncles will give money to the children, and this is mostly the only gift-giving that happens during the year. He says though, that although the money is nice, he prefers being able to spend time with his family together, in what he calls “harmony.” I enjoyed him putting it this way, because that’s how I tend to feel when it comes to Christmas with my family.

These traditions remind me of my own. On Christmas Eve or on January 6, my father’s family, the Kozura’s, practice the traditional Ukrainian twelve-dish Christmas dinner, known as Sviata Vechera or “Wigilia.”

We sit around a table and eat and talk for five to six hours, and during this time we eat by candlelight and have our phones turned off and placed in another room. The idea is that we are supposed to mimic the suppers that our farmer relatives had (my last name means “potato farmer” for a reason), and it is supposed to be an intimate and spiritual affair. A small amount of hay is placed under the dinner cloths to remind us of Christ’s birth in the manger, and candles are lit to symbolize the lifting of our family’s prayer to God. Traditionally, a place is set for every person, plus one extra seat, in case an unexpected guest arrives. Dinner takes place at sunset, with the arrival of the first evening star.

The Lord’s Prayer is read, and then we all repeat together"Khrystos Rodyvsia!" (or, “Christ is born!”), and then we begin to eat. Our twelve foods consist of typical farm-class plain meat-less foods, which are rice, barley, potatoes, bread, herring (eww!), prunes, mushrooms, pirogues, kapusta (lentil stew),  and the finally the holy wafer and holy water (which is blessed by a nearby priest. The twelve dishes represent the twelve Apostles. We take this time to interact with our family and ring in the New Year.

Throughout this semester, I have seen many similarities between the culture’s we have talked about and my own. Perhaps since Ukraine is in the center of the world, lying between the Eastern and Western worlds, time has allowed it to borrow and lend with many other cultures.

For instance, many Ukrainians celebrate the traditional Western Christmas with Santa Claus and presents under lit trees, on January 7, the day after Wigilia. 

We learned in class that the Qur’an says that if a guest arrives at your door you must welcome them as much as you possibly can. Ukrainian culture has the same values this way, as we set the additional place at our Christmas dinner in case someone were to show up unexpectedly.

These were the things I was thinking about today as WeiRan and I talked about our holiday plans. In some ways, despite being from such different parts of the world and growing up in such different environments, we seem to value the same things.

UPDATE: THE ONION

UPDATE: The Onion Names Kim Jong Un the “Sexiest Man Alive 2012”

And guess what? The satire didn’t translate well, and now many Korean and Chinese newspapers are really excited about it!