感恩节

感恩节是一个团聚传统的节日。在我的家里，我们一般吃很多感恩节传统的菜，然后每个人说他要感谢什么。

在衣食住行方面，我感到很满意。在世界上，有很多贫困的人，住在荒凉的地方。 有的人吃不饱，一碗米饭意味着一日三餐。我很担心他们，因为他们可怜的情况。好在，我丰衣足食。

我也很感谢我的健康状况.从我的角度，健康弥足珍贵。去年，我差点儿退出大学，因为我的健康问题。现在我放心我的健康没有很大的问题。

我也很感谢我受到的教育。有的时候我忙不过来所以我的功课落后. 可是我的老师别提多热心，总是帮助我学习。我也很感谢我有这个机会来中国。富布赖特的竞争很激烈，别的不说，就说如果没有别人的帮助，我根本不可能获得参与富布赖特项目的机会。

我当然很感谢我的家人。小的时候，我的父母给我换尿布，围着我转.他们又是给我请很好的家教，又是为我的成长发愁。

最后，我感谢我的朋友们。我现在住在离我的家人很远的国家，所以我的朋友是我新的家人。我的朋友很好，如果可以的话，对他们，我真想夸个没够。当生活困难的时候，我的朋友很有人情味儿，和他们相处可以帮助我减轻生活的负担。患难见真情！ 今天我满怀感激，因为我的生活如此美好！

Airpocalypse in Harbin

Last week, Harbin’s API reached levels forty times above the safe level recommended by the World Health Organization. What does this mean for students studying at CET Harbin? Luckily, last week many of us were traveling for our fall break, but our teachers, friends and a few unlucky students were trapped in the city during Harbin’s “airpocalypse”.  One Harbin resident said he hasn’t seen pollution like this in his thirty years of living here.

The “Airpolcalypse” in Harbin made international media headlines, and many of my friends and family sent me alarmed and concerned messages. I was grateful to be out of the country for the worst part of the smog crisis, but even though the worst pollution has subsided, Harbin’s pollution problems are far from over. I was shocked that when I stepped off the plane in Harbin I was welcomed by a hazy sky that dimmed the sun and thick, cough-inducing smog. After receiving messages from my friends that the pollution disaster in Harbin was over, this is not what I expected. Pollution here is a relative term. If you can see the person you are talking to, then it’s a good day.

But beyond the undeniable scientific evidence that the smog in Harbin is still a serious health hazard to its 10 million residents, the deteriorating health of some CET students is further proof of the severity of the situation. One CET student who was planning on studying here for two semesters is considering moving to a different city in China in order to avoid the breathing problems and chest pain he is experiencing. We have also stopped exercising outdoors, and being late is now not only a threat to your attendance grade, but to the long-term health of your lungs! I ran to the subway yesterday, only to spend the rest of the evening coughing like a smoker.

The most frustrating aspect of the situation is the lack of discussion or action regarding the incredible environmental and health consequences of such unprecedented levels of pollution. Most Harbin residents that I’ve talked to simply don’t feel like there is anything that can be done to resolve the problem and even the Harbin Institute of Technology Green Union mentioned nothing about the smog issues during their weekly meeting.

I think what Harbin needs right now is a heavy dose of sixties, hippie-style environmental activism. Hopefully, the heavy international media coverage will put pressure on Chinese lawmaker to take some serious actions against China’s growing pollution problems. And if you know anyone studying at CET-Harbin, you should definitely put an air filter in their next care package!

Black Bike Ring of China

Three days into the CET language program, I was ready for a bike. After asking numerous teachers, the dorm RA, and an elderly bike repair 师傅, fellow classmate Lydia马丽恬 and I were ready to explore the second-hand bike market of Harbin. A thirty minute walk to He Xing Road 和兴路 brought us upon two used bikes- they were beautiful. But a mandatory CET meeting that same afternoon forced us to make a hard decision; clutch onto our wallets and walk back to campus. If China has taught me anything, it is to never put time constraints on making a purchase. This is coming from someone who has made some pricey purchases in the past because their flight was the next morning and they were in a rush to finish gift shopping…

But we were back to bike shopping! The first weekend had past at Harbin Institute of Technology (哈尔滨工业大学) and we had made it to Guxiang (the red circled area on the map above). Bikes, bikes, glorious bikes!That day I dropped a hefty $15 dollars, an adventurous investment.

Biking back to campus, I realized the bike markets of China really need a double take. At first glance the set-up seems to be nothing more than an old man/woman selling eight crummy bikes on the side of the street, but there’s a humorous and bittersweet market cycle behind it. Often called the “Black Bike Ring,” some second-hand bike markets have sellers standing on bridges or overpasses daily, whispering “买车” (“selling bikes”) to passer-byers. The accepted fact among locals is that most, if not all second hand bike stock are obtained though questionable means- they’re stolen. One of the CET teachers relayed a story of a local who bought a second hand bike only to be stopped by a furious stranger who recognized the bike as their own. As a precaution to what I still feel is a very UNLIKELY situation, I chose a bike commonly seen being ridden throughout the streets of Harbin.

It’s a karma-like circle. These bikes are the cheapest to buy, selling around 100 to 200 RMB (17 to 25 U.S. dollars) but there worn exterior makes them great second-hand bike stock- who would recognize them? There is no doubt in my mind that the bike I own now had a wonderful owner in its earlier days, and I empathize with the heart-clenching feeling they felt finding only a broken chain where they had last left their bike. I will feel the same way when it comes time for my bike to return the second-hand street market; I just hope it happens during winter.

-Ma