oh china

well i'm back from Beijing, sitting jetlagged and wide awake on my moms couch at 545am. i have a lot to wrap up, especially since blogspot got blocked in China and I couldn't update for the past couple weeks. so lets see...

ratatat concert: awesome. =] same venue as battles.

saying goodbye to my CIEE friends: not so awesome, but i'm sure i'll see a lot of them again

a week spent doing the touristy things with mom and julie: a blast

getting to the airport and seeing my wonderful boyfriend: incredible.

today my plans include mexican food and heading back to CS to start school on monday.

more details and pictures to come from the last 3 weeks. 

hope everything is going well for everyone else, talk to you soon =]

青岛(Qingdao) and the Nongcun

Wed, April 29th my Hanyu class went to see a farm and a middle school. We talked to some middle schoolers, sat in on a class, discovered how terrible my Chinese really is. Then we went to the Nongcun and ate with a family there. After lunch we rode some golf carts around to a greenhouse, a vegetable market, and then some museum thing. It was a long day. Topped it off with some old ladies dancing for us. I probably should have paid more attention to the tour guide but it was a really long day and honestly I don't really know what the point of that was, or what we were supposed to get out of it. We left at 730am and didnt get back til dinner.

Then we had no school Thursday or Friday so Lara and I flew to Qingdao. That was a little bit more interesting.

Thurday we got off the plane, jumped in a Taxi, and as we were heading to our hotel Jack Johnson came on the radio. Banana Pancakes. I think that's when we knew it was going to be a great weekend. It was bizarre, I haven't heard any American music since I've been here (other than in American bars and restaurants) and especially not on local radio.

We got to the hotel and discovered that the brochures hadnt advertized it was an ex- German prison. It was so neat. A little creepy. But a pretty nice location, walking distance from the city center, train station and a couple beaches.

Day 1: check-in, some exploration, walked around the beach and looked at the city. Tha night we went to a bar, hung out with some friendly Chinese people, went to KTV (karaoke) and had a balst with them. Note about Chinese wine: it's so bad the locals drink it mixed with sprite or coke. Then back to the hotel for some fabulous (read: ridiculous) Chinese TV. Ping pong was on.

Day 2 (Friday): slept in, got the vacation really started. Went to 啤酒街 (pijiujie, or Beer Street), and the Qingdao brewery museum. Got a tour of the place, had some fresh, free, Qingdao (Tsingtao) beer. Here's a link to the wikipedia about Tsingtao beer: click me. The brewery is China's oldest and the beer is the countries most well known and popular. You won't go anywhere in China without seeing Qingdao. We had some great seafood on Beer Street for lunch and then went back to the hotel for a nap. After the nap we got the information from a few other CIEE students in Qingdao for the break that Sunday train tickets may have been sold out, and we should look into that ASAP. So we walked to the train station to secure our ride back to Beijing. Everything was in Chinese, not a soul spoke English, but somehow we managed to not only discover there still was a train back on Sunday, but we could be on it. So we got tickets, kudos to us! Then we headed out to an interesting club. May or may not have been a gay club, judging from the large amount of guy on guy action. A little odd. There were also some Chinese dancers dressed as school girls dancing on the cat walk that ran through the club and on the stripper poles. We didn't end up staying long, drinks were expensive and we really just wanted to check it out. There was a bouncy dancefloor, that was neat, it was like a giant trampoline. And the way most Chinese men dance is so bizarre I couldn't begin to describe it, I just wish everyone could have the opportunity to see it for themself.

Day 3 (Saturday): Slept in again, me and Lara seem to have moivational issues when it comes to getting out of bed. We figure the long weekend is our only spring break, so we're allowed to slack off and be lazy. Then we walked to Bathing Beach #1, the biggest and most popular beach in the area. It was so nice we walked back to the hotel, put on our swimsuits and went and lay on the beach. Chinese beach goers aren't so into the whole bikini thing. Beach attire here is sun umbrellas, long sleeves, and not uncommonly panty hose and heels. Yeah. I have no explanation. So we caused quite a scene, being the only foreign females, and being mostly undressed in public. But I needed the sun so badly after being in Beijing so long, and it felt fabulous. We drew a crowd at one point, but they were all so friendly they just wanted pictures with us. Then we rented out some little paddle bike things, and paddled around the bay for a while. It was a gorgeous day, we had so much fun. We finished the day with another nap and a drink at a nearby pub.

Sunday we left pretty early (ok like 9ish) and I'm once again proud of us for successfully navigating the train station, and getting on the train before its intended departure. A few hours later, we were back in Beijing, pretty disappointed to roll into the smog and noise and traffic.

Since then we had exams, classes and more classes. Now we have 1 week of classes left and I'm done for the semester.

The rockets beat the lakers! they're tied 3-3 now woop woop. People here love Kobe Bryant for some reason. His Chinese name is ke bi. Ask anyone on the street about NBA and they will say they love kobe and yaoming. I had a conversation with the middle schoolers about it, but they couldn't tell me why exactly. I don't understand it, and I don't like it. Damn Lakers!

上有天堂，下有苏杭

April 21st. Aggie Muster. This is one tradition I was incredibly excited to discover does indeed live even in Beijing. While it was a great deal more informal than many other places, it was nice just to meet and chat with some Aggie Alumni in the area. We met at Tim's Texas BBQ (I place I had searched for and failed to find on multiple previous occasions) and as soon as Bailey and I walked in we looked at eachother and grinned. Texas NFL and NBA team jerseys, A&M and UT football helmets, and Big 12 paraphernelia adorned every wall, the waitstaff was dressed in Texas flag shirts, and there were 4 kinds of margaritas on the menu. We were right at home, and knew immediately it was going to be a good evening. And it was.

This week I also happily discovered there are places in China far more beautiful than Beijing. This came as no surprise, but it was a lovely reprieve from my usual loud, dirty, smog-filled life in Beijing.

Friday we went to Hangzhou. The overnight train was less of a party than on the way to Xi'an (thank god) and involved a lot more sleep. We nonetheless arrived exhausted at 8am, and immediately set off to find breakfast at our hotel. We ate, dropped our bags in the hotel and were herded back onto our buses to go to West Lake (西湖). We took a boat ride around the lake, enjoying the beautiful day and the fabulous scenery. Then it was on to family style typical Chinese lunch which was punctuated by a little girl's incessant use of a little plastic bird whistle every street vendor was selling for 1元. There were more than a few of us a little displeased with her parents, but lunch was very nice.

Back onto the buses, and this time we were off to a temple. The 灵隐寺 (Lingyin Temple) is the largest and wealthiest Buddhist temples in China, and the area was gorgeous. We had a great afternoon exploring the place, and looking at the massive Buddhas, rock carvings and grottos.
We also lit some incense outside the temple (or just played with the fire).

Dragging our tails a little by this time we stumbled back onto the buses for one of the quietest bus rides yet. Although it may have just seemed quiet because i was passed out and drooling.

Back at the hotel I passed up an opportunity for a nap in favor of a foot massage. =] Wonderful. Then I showered and went to a popular Chinese restaurant for some great local cuisine. We then walked to the West Lake, the boys stopping at every street vendor to buy and shotgun beer. It was a beautiful night, and the water looked fabulous, so I jumped in. Probably not wise, at least judging from the crowd I gathered, but I couldn't help it, I'd been wanting to since i saw the lake! and the water felt great.

The next day we explored the touristy stuff and the snack street on He Fang Jie. It was a really cool street, and there were some really interesting looking snacks. Lara decided to test out the crabs fried on sticks, where the entire shell is supposed to be eaten.
A little too crunchy for me, but the seasoning was so good. We walked around and shopped until we were supposed to meet back to catch the train back to Beijing. The train back was equally uneventful, we arrived in Beijing (to the groans and dismayed looks of just about everyone) at 630am, bused back across town and were told to go to class. I tried, honest, but as soon as I hit my bed at 9am I was out like a light.

(note: 上有天堂，下有苏杭 loosely translates to "Above there is Heaven, below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou" This saying refers to the beauty of Suzhou and Hangzhou, and their place as 'heaven on earth' in China. I haven't seen Suzhou, but judging from how incredible I thought Hangzhou was, its pretty high on my list of places to go.)

what a work out!

Yesterday I took a spinning class at the local Bally's. Mom, holy crap. I am continually reminded of how incredible you are. How do you do that?

Exercise classes in Chinese are interesting, I'm just excited I know "stand up" "sit down" and “加油加油！” (Keep trying/ good work) She was very encouraging.

one big party

Thinking back, thinking back.

Ok, last weekend was a blast. An absolute blast. Friday I discovered spur of the moment and completely randomly that Battles, an American experimental math rock band I love, was playing in Beijing that night. Ten minutes later I was in a cab with Kara, Lara and Bailey. They were
completely awesome. It was a relatively small venue, called Mao's Live House. The best part of the night was possibly the drunk Spanish guy who grabbed my friend's ass, started cussing us out in Spanish and then almost got maced in the face by Bailey (thank god she didnt, it was way too small and crowded of an area for that to have ended well). Lara bitched him out pretty bad too, and i was pretty convinced she was gonna punch him in the face. Very entertaining.

Saturday was the Yen White Party hosted by the club White Rabbit. I'll get pics up when Lara posts them. Another great night, everyone wore white and danced all night. Me and Lara matched outfits (again, ill wait for pics rather than describe it, but it was pretty awesome).

Then the week went by pretty uneventfully. Monday (i think?) we went to Chaoyang and found a place to go tanning. First time i've used a tanning bed, and it was great. I felt like it was the first time i've actually been really warm since i got here. Wednesday was pub quiz, this week lacking in strange conversations with bizarre Chinese men. Still fun though. Lara and I are trying to spend less money by not going to Wudaokou (Lush, La Bamba, Propoganda, Pyro) and Sanlitun (super bar street; cheers, mix, etc) all the time.

Yesterday after classes we went to the zoo! And the aquarium. 120 kuai for both, including the panda house wasn't too bad. The zoo wasn't great, but wasn't bad either. Some of the enclosures were small compared to zoos in the US, but nothing crazy. Jenna, Lara, and I bought blow up animal toys in order to draw even more attention. Nothing new there, being white draws enough attention. By the time we got to the aquarium we had already missed all the marine mammal shows, so we didn't get to see a lot of the main attractions. There was still some really neat stuff. I was surprised to see that in the gift shops and snack stalls all around the zoo and aquarium, there was nothing saying Beijing Zoo or Aquarium. No tshirts, magnets, hats, snowglobes, keychains, nothing! Poor marketing move as far as tourism I think, but they had plenty of other irrelevent and strange crap. Last night we stayed in and watched the Thief and the Cobbler, and Across the Universe with Taryn. It was a nice night.

Today I have got to mail some postcards, drop off my laundry and clean my mess of a room. Also work on a philosophy paper. Arg. If anyone wants a postcard leave me your address in a comment.

Only in China (hopefully)

I had an interesting conversation last night outside of a bar in Wudaokou. I was there for pub quiz with a couple friends, and stepped outside to make a phonecall when a Chinese man approached me and asked where I was from. I told him I was American, and he asked what part of the US. His English was very good so I told him that I lived in Texas. I was a bit taken aback by the immediate turn in conversation.

Man: "Are you in the KKK?"
me (torn between disbelief and laghter): "NO. Not at all."
Man: "Yes you are, you're from Texas."
me: "No, I'm definitely not in the KKK"
Man: "If i was from Texas I would be in the KKK."
me (curiosity getting the best of me): "Why is that??"
Man: "Because I hate Negroes"

I was regretting the conversation and more than intrigued at the same time. Not sure whether to walk back inside or make my phonecall a "Why??" slipped out.

Man: "In China, all the negroes have sex with many beautiful women but don't know what love is"

I didn't know how to respond. My wide eyes didn't faze him, and he continued.

Man: "But I love Jews. The KKK supports Jews. I think they work hard."

Stunned and laughing at this point, I tried to walk away. Instead the conversation took another turn.

Man: " Do you drink beer?"
me (glancing at the Qingdao in my hand) "..."

He didn't need encouragement.

Man: "American girls have a problem."
me: "What problem is that?"
Man: "They drink too much beer. You have a pretty face, and nice breasts"

-- it gets better. At this point he reaches over and grabs my stomach --

"but your belly is too round. American girls have too big bellies."

I turned around and walked inside in hysterics, wondering if I should be awed, offended or amused. I settled for a cocktail of the three.

Great Wall, Silk Street, and St Patty's. What a week.

I found it! The one and only place to buy tampons in China. And honestly I don't think that's much of an exaggeration, its the first I've seen. But let me back up.






After another stressful week of classes the weekend arrived to our great relief. We had been looking forward to it because we had planned to visit the Great Wall now that the weather had warmed up a bit. Saturday morning bright and early (7am) we piled onto the bus, the polar opposite of bright eyes and bushy tails, but excited nonetheless. Around an hour and a half later we started getting excited as we stepped off the bus. A decision awaited us; pay for a cable car or take the hike up. Easiest decision of my life, and 35 kuai well spent. Lara and her roommate Taryn were my wall buddies, and altho i forgot my camera I made sure the two of them took enough to cover me. Taryn with her short purple hair attracted a lot of attention, and we all enjoyed watching flocks of Asians ask for pictures with her. The wall was incredible, and the fact that it was a beautiful day, finally warming up only compounded that. We had a great walk although some of it was a bit of a hike. Lara was a trooper, after having just been released from a week in the hospital you would think she'd be trailing, but not even close. I practiced my Chinese bartering for a beer once we got to the end of our short travels on the wall, and let me tell you: not much has ever tasted better. Then we got to tobogan down. What a blast!

Souvenir stalls abounded at the bottom, and we spend the remaining time until we had to meet back at the buses bargaining for touristy stuff. I got a great ultra-touristy "I climbed the Great Wall" sweatshirt (so comfortable, had to have it), and some beautiful, incredibly cheap artwork. I can't wait to go back with mom when she visits in May and take pictures with A&M gear. A-A-A Whoop!

Saturday night we had a girls night. Incredible Indian food for dinner in Wudaokou (district that caters to foreigners), then a couple drinks at Pyro and then on to a dance club in Sanlitun (another foreigner district with "super bar street"). Pretty fun night all in all.

Sunday we took the subway to the Silk Street Market about an hour away. Near Tiananmen square, the Silk Street has touristy stuff and all the fake rolexes, ralph lauren, gucci, prada, LV, coach, lacoste, clothing, bags, and shoes you could ever imagine. I admit, i went a little nuts. I'm not a big shopper so when I find something I like, I know I'll wear, and I can bargain for -- I'm in. Got a couple great pairs of shoes and a dress. And they ran some hard bargains, but knocked down the price since it was my birthday, since i know how much to pay for fake stuff, and because they are always impressed by stupid foreigners attempting to learn Chinese (especially if you tell them you study at Bei Da -- Beijing University). It was a little (ok a lot) exhausting being yelled at from every direction. "Hey sexy girl, Coach wallets!" " Pretty girl, you want bags?" "Shoes, shoes, good price!" I was more than ready to leave a few hours later, but I know I'll be returning.

Then it was St. Patricks day! Finished class around 12 then accompanied Lara to Sanlitun to her follow up appointment at the American hospital. In and out, but we didnt want to waste the trip since its quite a distance, and one pretty expensive cab fare (by China standards). Hung out in a starbucks, wandered around and WHAM! stumbled across the most incredible hole in the wall grocery store I've ever seen. We were drawn in at first by the cheese, nowhere had we seen such a selection! Everything from colby, cheddar jack, feta to cream cheese. There was a fridge of butter! We were hooked. We ventured upstairs: american cereal, fresh fruit and vegetables, dr pepper, tampons, mac and cheese! it was unreal. We were most excited about bagels and cream cheese, but truth be told I'm paying for that one now. But more on that later.


We met up with Melissa and Maggie who were in the area and then went for dinner. Amazing gourmet burgers and chili con carne fries. Only downside was that the price very much reflected how gourmet they were. Then we attempted to find the only Irish bar in beijing -- Paddy O'Sheas. After calling numerous people for directions and pronunciation help, Melissa caught a glimpse of it as we drove by. A few cries of "Zai zher! Zai zher!!" and some intense gesturing and the cab driver pulled over, we had made it. A couple pints of Guinness and a free shirt (which i gave away to a chinese girl who needed it more than i did) later we called it a night. And made it to our 8ams in the morning.

(cream cheese side story -- apparently carrying around cream cheese in a purse all day and still eating it the next day wreaks havoc on your digestive system. Yikes!)

And now im waiting for the NCAA tournament to start so I can watch A&M beat BYU in the opening round! T-minus 1 hour 45 min. I hope my brackets hold up.

Return to Beijing: the Hospital Saga

After getting off the train, going to class and crashing hard I got a phone call from Lara. She was in intense pain, the same kind that had her hospitalized for a week last month. I got out of bed (5pm) and met her at her dorm where her roommate Taryn and our friend Melissa helped her into a taxi and off we went to Beijing United Family Hospital.

She's been hospitalized since Monday night, and now she's feeling a little better. The hospital is really nice, great doctors and nursing staff, personal room with a dvd player, and the food doesnt look half bad. Me and Melissa have been sleeping on the pullout couch. We haven't slept in our beds since Thurs before Xian. She's on antibiotics and is improving and will hopefully be able to return to campus tomorrow or Friday.

Now I've got to finish studying for my tingxies (quizzes) in Hanyu (writing class) and Kouyu (speaking).

Xian

Day 1

Overnight train ride Friday night. Mad dash for beds in cabins with friends, and then an organizational nightmare as the program directors attempted to collect everyones tickets and figure out what beds we were actually supposed to be in and who was actually in them. Then we broke out the baijiu (chinese clear liquor) and the pijiu (beer). We were woken up around 7am as we pulled into the train station. We walked 20 minutes to our hotel where we had breakfast and grabbed a couple quick showers. Then we got on buses to head to the Great Mosque.

The Great Mosque was neat, there really wasn't anyone else there at the time. Nothing spectacular, we didn't really listen to our tour guide. Then we got back on the buses a bit later, and had lunch. Meals are a great experience here. They usually consist of round tables with large lazy susans in the middle. The servers bring out dishes one by one and we dig in, with varying degrees of chopstick competence. Mine is low. Tea accompanies every meal, coke is usually present and water is a little less common. Ice is non existant. Fantasies of a glass of ice water have not yet been fulfilled. But the meals are still great. There is always rice, a couple dishes with chicken, a couple soups with and without noodles, something with pork, and lots of vegetables. I've never left a meal hungry, although I have left craving dessert.

After lunch we went to see the terracotta soldiers. Very cool, very much what we expected. I need to upload some pictures, I don't have anything spectacular, but you can get the gist of the place. Walked around for a couple hours, met back up, did the whole dinner thing (same as lunch) and headed back to the hotel. Most CIEE students hit the bars, me and my roommate weren't feeling it so we watched Moulin Rouge in Chinese in our room. A couple comments on he Xian bar scene: way less foreigners than the Wudaokou and SanLiTun districts of Beijing. But no surprise there, there are way less foreigners in Xian period.

Xian is a city I could get used to. There is a huge Muslim quarter, and an entire area called the Muslim Snack Street. As awesome as the name is, it doesn't even come close to conveying how incredible this street is. Everyone may not love food as much as I do, but wow. Wow. Snacks everywhere, from delicious quesadilla like fried things with spicy chicken or lettuce and veggies, to chopped meat sandwiches on these tough buns. All amazing. We were fooled once by a scoop of something that looked exactly like roasted potatoes, only to find out it was a strange gelatinous substance with spices. A little odd.

After the snacks and a little stall bargaining for trinkets we rode bikes on the Xian city wall. That was awesome. First time I've ridden a tandem bike, also the first time I've wiped out on one. The Chinese people walking by staring without offering to help bothered us more than our spill, but we were fine. Saw a lot of variety in the city, from the westernization evident in the McDonalds and KFCs on every developed corner, to dilapidated, garbage filled low end housing buildings.

The weather was fabulous, the food was incredible, and the company was good. We got back on the train Sunday night after one hectic weekend, and we were all pretty much worn out. We had a couple beers, cooked up some Fangbian Mian (convenient noodles, same as Cup Noodles/Ramen), watched a movie on someones laptop and called it a night. I was dead to the world until we pulled into Beijing 8am Monday morning. Just in time to make it back for our 10am classes. Lucky us =P

And now I'm ready for one long nap.

Beijing Beginnings

I'm trying to follow in my mom's footsteps and keep some sort of record (like her fabulous journals) of my journeys. So here's a recount of my first 3 weeks in Beijing:

Got off the plane and was immediately stunned by the size and activity of the Beijing airport. Defying description, this airport is comparable to a small city, and finding our way around it would have been near impossible without our program guides. Thankfully, after de-planeing and collecting bags, we were immediately joined by people who knew where we were going.

I moved into my hotel (FX hotel) in the ZhongGuanCun area of Beijing, and immediately discovered my friend from language classes at A&M is my roommate. We knew we were participating in the same program, but were unaware of being paired together at the hotel, and I was pretty stoked. FX is a nice place, the beds are fabulously comfortable (at least in comparison to the beds in the Shao Yuan on campus dorms many of the CIEE participants have to sleep on), and Peking University is only a few short blocks away.

I'm still adjusting to the cold, and daily hope the weather will be a little warmer when i walk to class in the mornings. It's getting there. Last week it snowed. Sounds normal enough until you realize the snow was government induced, and probably as toxic and diseased as the smog filled air. Made the campus beautiful nonetheless, but crunched in an altogether unfamiliar way under our feet. We were told it was the first time it had snowed, and actually stayed on the ground for a year.

I should probably mention the food. I was warned it would be nothing like American Chinese food, and was told repeatedly how bland and unappealing it is. I think the people who gave me that info were unaware of how much I love food. Jianbing is a crepelike snack cooked on a large flat table like thing with an egg, some assorted vegetables and sauces, and goes for about 3 kuai (3 RMB/ yuan, = less than 50 cents). Amazing, takes 2 seconds for them to make, and is great to chow down on on the way to or from class. Baozi = large steamed bread dumplings with assorted meat or vegetables in the middle. Less than 1 kuai. In the building complex the FX hotel is attached to we have a few assorted "fast food" Chinese restaurants. A delicious and hearty meal usually consists of rice and various vegetable and chicken, beef or pork, or a bowl of noodles and meat. All for usually less then 10 or 15 kuai. Our favorite of these restaurants we call Gong Bao Ji Ding (Kung Pow Chicken) for their signature dish. The all Chinese menu can be a pretty massive ordeal, although I've mastered ordering the Gong Bao Ji Ding, Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodles), and a few other great dishes. Taking a risk and trying something new can really be one hell of a risk. Ending up with duck brains and something's liver to me isn't the greatest, but to each his own.

Beer abounds. Qingdao (or Tsingtao) is the most prevalent and popular Chinese beer around here, and it isn't half bad. We frequently encounter cheers of "Ganbei!" at meal times, followed by everyone involved chugging their glass. Luckily glasses are customarily small, and bottles are twice the size of in the US, meant for sharing.(tiananmen square, me and Mao)
So far we've seen Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, CIEE has taken participants to the Temple of Heaven and the Lama Temple, we saw the pretty insane Beijing Flying Acrobatics Show, and tonight we're off to the Jingju (Beijing Opera). This weekend I'm hella excited about taking a weekend trip to see the Bingmayong (Terracotta warriors) in Xi'an. We're taking the train, and it should make for a great weekend. Once the weather improves we have many more trips planned, such as the Great Wall.



(acrobatics show)










I still need to talk about my classes (Hanyu = written, Kouyu = spoken, Tingli = listening, and my one english elective = Chinese Philosophy). Right now though, I've got to jump in the shower and get ready to go to Jingju!


edit 3/9: jingju was interesting. Kind of like dinner theater, with bad subtitles. Very interesting. Jenna has a pretty good sum up on her blog:
Jenna's blog