July

One major objective of this PSU-PKU Biology summer class is to facilitate communication and mutual understanding for students from Penn State and Peking University. To that end, things have been worked out nicely. PSU and PKU students are mixed into four study groups to work on their projects for final presentations with topics ranging from cancer stem cell, p53 function as a tumor suppressor, cancer genes, and Hippo signaling for growth control. From their presentations over the past two days, I am totally impressed with students' ability and willingness to work as a team. They have worked hard in searching literature, discussing how to put information together in a meaningful way and generating a Powerpoint file so that all group members can participate in their presentation to the entire class.  I am sure students have a lot to report based on their personal impressions and experience from this class and Beijing trip. As one of the students from Peking University, Jack, said, "this summer.. so meaningful and unforgettable. This is the end of our class. But I hope that this is not the end of our friendship".

On Saturday morning, we went to Penn’s Cave and had a trip in the wildlife park there. Several Chinese students who are studying for doctor degrees here drove us there and they were also very enthusiastic about this trip.

As we drove along the main road, we saw many small houses that must be very comfortable and cozy. As we passed a magnificent building with a huge field behind it, someone told us that it was the prison of this city, which surprised us a lot because it did not coincide with our common impression about a prison (maybe the darkness and eeriness was driven away by the dazzling sunshine of that day).

After some detours, we finally arrived at the Penn’s Cave Park. Though some of us had been here before, somehow they failed to inform all of the new comers of the coldness in the cave. We felt clearly that the temperature was dropping as we made each step down to the cave. 

A tour guide unfastened a boat and helped all of us get on it one by one. This was a trip to a world millions of years ago. Stagmalite and stalactite were everywhere, and some of them might have had witnessed how dinosaurs dominated this world. The voice of the tour guide echoed in the cave and it never ended. In a cave of a history of millions of years, everyone had the illusion that time was frozen. We left the cave without saying goodbye to it, as if we were afraid of disturbing its serenity accumulated in millions of years.

The reunion with the sunshine drove the coldness away, yet it was not long before we began to miss it. A bus took us around and we were excited to see many cute animals along the road. However, it seemed that we were not welcomed here. They lay under the trees to escape the sunshine and never bothered to take a look at these black-eyed strangers. The most interesting animal we saw might be a white wolf. Our tour guide seemed to be very familiar with that guy and after several whistles he loomed out of the trees and shrubs. Again, he was a lazy one and after finding out there were some strangers other than his intimate, he turned around and walked back to his residence.

Having finished our trip, we were invited by Prof. Li to eat lunch at the best local Chinese restaurant. For the first time since we arrived here, there was no cheese served.

A great day has passed, and we’ve begun to imagine how wonderful tomorrow will be. 

Every morning at 10 we have class just a short 10 minute walk away in 311 Life Sciences; however, our journey there has proven to be quite difficult at times.  Just like Penn State PKU does extensive campus construction over the summer.  So our relaxing morning stroll to class has turned into quite the adventure.  Every morning we weave through a new obstacle course of rubble, bricks, and broken glass.  Occasionally we have to dodge the swooping arm of a backhoe or a crane.  Then after we've made it through this mess, many days we have to argue with the gatekeeper because he finds it very amusing to not let us pass through.

These past 3 weeks in Beijing have been incredible!! The Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Great Wall are images that I'll always remember. Just being a part of and observing a society so different than what I'm used to has been an experience of it's own. The food here can be a little wild but nothing I can't get used to. Not being able to understand anyone can make doing the simplest tasks difficult. I can't even remember how many times it took us 20-30 minutes just to order food at a restaurant. We would point to something on the menu; the waitress would say something quickly in Chinese; we'd all look at each other confused, and do it all over again. Even with the frustration of the language barrier, being a "foreigner" still has its perks. I was shocked the first day we got here we had several people coming up asking to take pictures with us. On one occasion a man had me write a letter in English to his little sister saying to study hard so she could go to PKU someday. I like being a celebrity (haha). The attention from the local woman isn't bad either.

 All the things in the above paragraph are things that anyone on this trip could have relayed to this blog. When I came to China I knew I would find a unique experience that would stay with me forever. I found that experience in my Judo training that I have been taking part in these last few weeks. I've been heavily involved in competitive martial arts for the last 16 years and I knew that coming to China would be an excellent opportunity to further explore the world of martial arts.

One the first day of class, Dr. Lai explained to the class that I was a martial artist looking to train while in Beijing. After class a local student, John, came to me and said he'd take me to a gym to find some training. We went to a local gym on campus where he found a trainer who would discuss training me. When I was told he could teach me Judo I was skeptical because Judo is a Japanese martial art, not Chinese. However, when I found out he was the former national champion of China, I was sold. Running into someone of that caliber in the martial arts world is like finding a needle in a haystack the size of the PSU campus.

Only one thing stood in the way of my training. The instructor couldn't speak English. And I couldn't speak Chinese, which was a problem. Luckily I persuaded John to take Judo with me. Having a partner to train with made it so much more fun! Also, having a translator made it easier than learning just by sign language. However, John doesn't translate everything our coach says, which I feel has actually been helping me pick up Chinese faster.

John and I signed up for 10 training sessions, which is a lot to fit into a 3 week period, considering all the activities the group had planned. We train for roughly 2 hours each session. Judo is a very brutal sport. The first day we learned how to fall. You don't learn how to fall unless you are going to fall hard. Some of the warm up exercises we do consist of doing hand springs from back somersaults or rolling out of a handstand. There is a surprisingly large gymnastic-like portion to learning how to move like a Judo fighter. Never having done gymnastics, I'm extremely challenged by these acrobatics. However, I'm picking it up quickly.

We learn the rules to Judo, the correct stances, how to grab and parry, and most importantly throws and trips. These maneuvers are very painful when on the receiving end. That's why we learned how to fall first. When John and I learn a technique we practice it on each other dozens of times until it's fluid. Each move, whether a trip or throw, requires precise coordination of the entire body as one movement. When our instructor (who's at least 40 pounds lighter than i am) throws me, it's like a professional football player throwing a girl scout. In Judo, power is important, but technique is what makes the difference between causing someone to fall down, or launching someone through the air.    

As John and I have progressed in our Judo training, we've incurred several injuries, which is evidence of the intensity and authenticity of our training. For example, the first day of class John broke four or five of his fingernails off. In the first week, I lost a chunk of skin on my arm the size of a half dollar that has yet to grow back. I've stoved 5 fingers, one of which is purple. I also now have blisters on the tips of my fingers. I constantly have bruises on my neck and face and most recently I have a nice purple scratch on my face that goes from my eye to my chin. It's about 3/4 of a centimeter wide and is by far my favorite Judo beauty mark. Our instructor explained after the first week that he uses the same training regiment for us that the national team uses. This makes our injuries, more or less, expected. 

This past week our instructor decided he'd taught us enough moves that we could spar. Sparring in Judo is like a match without keeping score. It's very important to spar in order to learn how to correctly move and apply/adapt the techniques the instructor has taught. When sparring John, I had had an advantage due to me being 5 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier. However, in Judo you can always beat the size advantage by using the right techniques. So our coach teaches John moves that require a low center of gravity, and he teaches me moves that our better suited for a taller person. After doing this for about a week and a half, John and me are now a better match than before. John and I also have to take turns sparring our coach, who we are no match for. I've been lucky to take him down the few times I have due to my size advantage and him letting up a little. However, due to my novice background in Brazilian Jujitsu and American Wrestling I'm able to pull out one or two surprises when we spar! 

One key aspect of serious Judo training is being conditioned and having speed. So coach has been putting us through intense conditioning drills such flying push-ups and bridging upside down on our foreheads, with only our neck to stabilize. Yesterday we conditioned all practice and I can hardly breath/move today. You have to remember that it's upper 90s here and the humidity is unbearable. We train in a basement with no AC in uniforms that are about 25lbs of canvas, which makes it twice as exhausting.

Aside from all my complaining (haha), this training has been an experience of a lifetime and i consider myself truly lucky to be presented with such an opportunity. The overall soreness i feel when i wake up in the morning is nothing more than a reminder of how hard I've been training and how well I've been taking advantage of my coach's knowledge. My two goals in life are to travel the world and to gain the most holistic view on martial arts i can. This experience has been a step in the right direction to reaching both of these goals. 

The first few days in state college is great. One week after our arrival, on July 22, we went to a local market set up by the Amish, together with Mr.Liu and several guides to admire the senery here in the countryside and taste their special culture as well.
It took almost an hour to get to the market, the trip is not so boring, however, for we all enjoyed the beautiful landscape along the way, which is so different from that in China. Here is a photogragh when we overlooked the whole town of state college on a hill at departure.
The local market is very interesting, most Amishs came here on their carriage, dressed in unique clothes and selling agriculture products or other commodities.  We found all kinds of small items there, many of which are from China. There are also exciting auctions in the houses next to the market. But to be honest, what impressed me the most is the special living style of the Amish, it is incredible that in U.S there are still someone living without electric equipments and farming by themselves.
We had our lunch near the market and visit a cloth shop then.

Anyway, this trip is a good start, I think we will surely have a great time learning and visiting here in the three weeks later.

After a boring 15-hour flight, we finally got to state college which I think is a really beautiful and peaceful town. Unlike Beijing, state college is less crowded and the life pace here seems a little slower which really makes us feel comfortable living and studying here. The kind of American-style campus scenery is so different from PKU. Both the Old Main and the huge Beaver Stadium are quite impressive and we are also surprised by the building named creamery and that here is a group of students majoring in ice-cream. I have to say that ice-cream here is about the most delicious one I've ever had.

In the Opening of the program, I'm so glad to meet students in Penn State and they are all so friendly, we had a great conversation with them which helped us to know so many funny stuffs here. After we organized the project groups, Ben and I formed a group with local students Timothy and Damon. Timothy told us his majors are math and music which surprised me a little because I didn't know anybody majoring in such two different things.

I'm looking forward of the group study with them very much because I think it must be very interesting and helpful learning math with different persons and BTW maybe I could learn something about music from Timothy.

We just finished our first week, and things have been great.  Although the culture is quite different, we have managed to become very familiar with how to travel and make purchases.  The subway system here is so convenient that we can get anywhere in Beijing quickly, and we probably use this on a daily basis.  The Peking students speak both English and Mandarin fluently so they can help us talk to other locals, but more importantly we have been able to bond with them.   They have accompanied us on most of our trips which has made things even easier.  So far we went to the Summer Palace, Olympic Stadium, and all around Beijing and Peking University.  Every place so far has been awesome, and we are having a lot of fun and learning some interesting biology, too.

Pfew, it has been one busy weekend. Friday we had a unique opportunity to meet Professor Zhang and to learn about the research being done with developmental biology using zebrafish as a model organism. After a brief presentation we got to tour the laboratory facilities. There were rooms upon rooms of different shapes and colors of zebra fish. The PKU facility is one of the largest in the world for housing zebrafish and they currently house around 100,000 fish! After we saw all the different tanks we went to see how they manipulate the fish. One graduate student was surrounded by all thirty of us while trying to insert genetic material into a 1 mm egg using a fine tip needle. 

Friday afternoon we all traveled to the Olympic stadium. I couldn’t believe I was stepping on the same ground that Micheal Phelps had walked two years prior. The best part of the tour was when it began to get dark and the pool facilities lit up in different patterns and colors. 

Saturday was our first full day of touring around Beijing. We took the short metro ride over to the summer palace to walk around for the better part of the afternoon. The summer palace was very extensive and very crowded. My favorite part ended up being the walk around the lake. The high concentrations of people tended to die down when we were on the waterfront¸ making for a peaceful and reflective walk. After walking around for a couple of hours we decided to break up the day by going to a Korean barbeque restaurant. The food was amazing, it seemed as though every five minutes another dish would come out. By the end no one knew what we were eating because they couldn’t remember what was ordered and what had come.

Sunday was definitely my favorite day so far. The day had a rough start with the high temperature and high humidity. On this day we all traveled to the Forbidden City and ended up walking around for a good couple miles to see all the sites in the emperors palace. After surpassing all of the obstacles we all headed to a mall to have some lunch. After lunch we went to Bei Hai park which is filled with loads of hidden paths and small Buddhist monasteries to visit. The whole park was a fantastic site to see and by this time the weather had become temperate and everyone’s moods had heightened. After our hike through the hills we decided to relax and rent a peddle boat. The two boats of students raced around the water. That evening we all decided to get dinner on the lakeside. We ended up by a strip of restaurants and had live music playing while we ate. This was definitely the cherry on top to a great day in China.

On Sunday, July 11, nine Biology 497I students arrived in Beijing safely. One student missed his flight and came one day later. Over the next three weeks, we will all stay in the Peking University Global Village, which is an apartment community for international students and experts. PKU's College of Life Science is within a walking distance. This is convenient as all our classes will be in the Life Science Building.

In our first class, each student had a self-introduction. We were all impressed by local students' excellent English skills as some of them are still freshman. There are 12 PKU students enrolled in this class and another 10 just would like to sit in. Another thing we did was to organize study groups with two Penn State students mixed with 2-3 local students for each group.  This turned out to be a good approach as students get to know each other quickly. They go out eat lunch/dinner and shop together. While all Penn State students are excited about this educational and cultural experience in China, local students are equally enthusiastic to be involved as much as possible. 

Moreover, weather over the past few days here in Beijing has been unusually nice as the temperature was around 95 F a week ago.  I thought this is a great start.

China is a pretty exciting place. Upon arriving you find the bustle of the crowds and the speaking in foreign tongues a bit overwhelming. Once the jet lag has left you begin to think of it all as more of a puzzle which you are excited to solve. Within the first two days the class decided to venture together to the 798 Arts District. Just getting there became quite the adventure. The experience of having the group go from point a to b really helps bring our group of ten Penn State students closer and we all felt a sense of accomplishment working out the transit systems without the assistance of a translator.

The class so far has been very exciting. My favorite part is definitely the group discussions which occur later in the afternoon. Two of us from Penn State (Mike and I) were paired with four other local students who attend either PKU or Beijing Medical School. The local students have been really excited to work with us not only to learn about the topics but also to get a sense of American culture. One girl even asked me, “if  life in the United States was just like the reality television shows?” I responded by saying “I hope we are not that dramatic, but you can judge for yourself!”

The feel to the university is very similar to Penn State. They both have the large campus appeal with the home-like atmosphere. The beautiful traditional Chinese architecture alongside the pond front area creates a serene and almost mystical place to just review the day’s happenings.  Some evenings I find myself just walking around campus to have a nice chat with a classmate.
Overall, I would say the first week has been a great success and I’m looking forward to what the next few days will hold.