The Chinese and Election Day

The Chinese people, from what I heard on the Chinese news the other day, don't really care for the election. One of the reporters from CCTV went around Beijing, in particular, to ask people about what their insights were on the election and the win for Barack Obama. They didn't say much, aside from the fact that they didn't really care and that they don't really have an opinion. They also said, on occasion, how they didn't think that it had anything to do with them and it didn't effect them at all. Hmm...riiight...Some more involved Chinese people said they'd like to see what happens with President Obama and see what kind of things he can do with China and maybe "treat China better." This only makes me think of the policies that the Bush Administration had with the Chinese, maybe they weren't too good. The program didn't only represent that side of Chinese indifference to the election of the US President, but it also did a segment on the people from Kenya, calling Obama the "Son of Africa," expecting him to do some kind of intervention for the impoverished nations in Africa to bring them out of the current underdeveloped situation they are in...good luck. But aside from the known Chinese people indifference, there was a lot of celebration and gatherings from expats. A lot of people in China right now are actually Obama supporters, not a single McCain supporter, though I know he isn't the most popular in the US either. It was just kind of sad to hear that the Chinese didn't really care what the outcome was, in China either. It was something that one of the teachers in our class said, it's too bad that in a country full of overflowing capitalist potential that is demonstrated in the Chinese production of goods used around the world, one thing that they don't really work on is to have a voice of their own.

Either way, the Election 2008 hype died down shortly after the results came out and the speech, people don't really talk about it much now. Only the Koreans in my class talk about it with me because I'm the only American and Obama's name is funny in Chinese: Ba-La-Ke -- Ao-Ba-Ma: or 巴拉克 奥巴马.

I'm not going to lay in my opinions on Barack Obama, seeing as how a lot of people have their different views on whether he should or should not be. But all I will say is I hope he can prove to be as good a candidate as he's advertised and bring the US back to the status of stability and fix our financial crisis. I WANT A JOB WHEN I GET OUT OF COLLEGE! Either than that, it's actually quite cool to see how far America has come in the aspect that an African-American man can now become president by popular vote, something that was seen as ludacris not that long ago in the Civil War Era. Make us proud.

In other news, we are about to have our first set of midterms here at BeiShiDa. It's quite scary, considering all the overachieving Koreans are working much harder than they were when there wasn't a midterm next week, which was already A LOT. They make me nervous, I'm even starting to study a week early, something that was not even heard of from me when I was in the US at Berkeley, maybe these good habits will transfer upon returing back to the states. But regardless how much I want to study right now, I'm distracted by new things like games on www.addictinggames.com and nintendo8.com. I'm have nostalgia for retro Nintendo games. I swear it's that stupid electronic dictionary and the pre-installed Nintendo games.

The weather is also getting ridiculously cold, I'm confident in telling you guys that the temperature outside my room right now is about 4 degrees and the sun goes down at 5 pm. Even MY ROOM feels like its 13 degrees. I like how I do my explanations in metric now, I guess China really has changed my perception of the world after all. Haha. It feels like there is less pollution in the air because it's so crisp and cold, but it's just a facade that covers up the fact that the pollution and smog level is about the same as it was during the humid, sticky summer. It's maybe even worse in the winter, the small stores bust out the coal for their warmth, their energy consumption and dependency on coal turns to aobut 60%+ during the summer. I know... The weather also makes me really lazy and want to sleep all the time because I don't get very much sunlight, even during the day because of overcast. I'm so glad that I don't live on the East Coast in the states, then I'd really have this all over again, and ever year. 不行. It's also hard to imagine how I only have about 45 days left in China and the Olympics were soo long ago, about 3 months ago, to this very day. Wow. I better start wrapping things up, getting in the last friends so I can always mooch a stay at their houses around the world. Haha. Not kidding.

I got an invitation with Tammy the other day for an interview with a guy that was prior EAP class of 2005, he is friends with Tammy's sister and talked to us about a position with the US-China Forum/Symposium on Green Energy/Technology. That's not the official name but it's cool that we now might have a chance to participate in something that originated in the Bay Area, had a meeting in SF and now is in Beijing, China where we are and where Dianne Feinstein will be in a couple weeks. For those of you interested in what Tammy and I will be volunteering for, check this website out: www.uschinagreenenergycouncil.org. It'll be interesting to get involved in the states as well, knowing how Berkeley is such a big advocate for Green Technology and transformation to self-sustainance.

So I guess the countdown to 回国, going back home, begins.