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