What do I know about China? Honestly, not a whole lot. I don't consistently read or watch the news, so my knowledge of this country is pretty lax. I would guess any knowledge I have about this place is from movies, history channel specials, a few episodes of Bizarre Foods on the travel channel, the very occasional news article, and maybe a little from some video games (Fallout 3 is a reliable source of information right?).

Pictured above: Reliable source of information

(Image from thewebtechreviews.com)

As I've said already, what knowledge I have of China is pretty basic, I can find it on a map, I know Mandarin is the official language there, but there are a bunch of others, Kung Fu originated there, Budhissim is a major religion, and their money looks really weird .

Way too colorful and flowery for my tastes, but the scenery on the backs are really cool

(Image from: me)

I've also heard that Chinese food in china, is much different than Chinese food in America, which is good for when I visit, because while I will eat or drink almost anything once, I can't quite stomach Most Chinese food here.

The one thing that makes all Chinese food tolerable

(Picture from: asianfoodgrocer.com)

Some of my other impressions of China come from conversations. During the Summer I work at Boston University, and many of the Professors and graduate students that I work for are Chinese. They are all really nice people, and talking to them doesn't do anything to disprove the stereotype that Asian people are extremely smart in my opinion.

I really would like to know more about china, their weird mix of being strict, totalitarian communist government while also being a capitalist industrial labor hub baffles me somewhat, and I'd like to know more about how that works (it was cool to read over the summer about Chinese factory workers attempting, and having some small success at unionizing, I don't remember where I read it unfortunately) and I'd also like to know more about their ancient, and modern architecture, I've heard that there are a lot of really cool building projects going on in China now and I would love to learn about that.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

So This is my blog for Champlain College's 2011 China Mojo course. Here I'll be posting things I learn in class about China, and I'll also be documenting my trip to China in March. This is my take on the course, but the course has it's own blog located here, if you wanted to check that out.
Anyway, for our first assignment we were asked to answer some questions about ourselves:
1. Where are you from? State or province, and town?
2. Describe a fun media experience you had during your holiday vacation.
3. Describe one thing you LIKE about our 21st century media culture, and one thing you DON'T LIKE about our 21st century media culture.
4. What vision do you have for your future, professionally?
5. What is one QUestion you have about China?
And my answers were:
1. Dedham, MA
2. I confused my parents by talking to my friends while playing Xbox.
3. I like the availability of information, but I don't like needing to feel available to everyone all the time.
4. I want to work basically any video game studio.

5. How often, if at all do people in China eat animals we consider pets, like dogs.

Here is a picture of my dog, who I don't plan on eating

As a special treat, here's a video of my favorite band playing at a concert in China: