Living China

Of Goals and Pick Pockets

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:02:00 GMT

I finally got to play soccer on Wednesday! A bunch of us went out to the field right down the road from us (we can actually look directly down into it from our classrooms). It was a lot of fun, we played World Cup for a while, an I realized that my fitness level is totally gone. Then we merged with a bunch of Chinese guys and started a full game. It was little awkward, since I was the only girl playing, but just what I needed.

The field was that weird astro-turf, not very comfortable and really easy to slide around on. My roommate tells me that their soccer players aren't aloud to play on their real-grass field.

On the field!

I also had my first pick pocket expereince today. Whoever it was, they got my brand new electronic dictionary, as in, I had just left the store that I bough it at. I'm pretty sure it happened while I was waiting for the bus or on the bus itself. It's unbelievably frustrating, because I really have been trying to keep myself safe when I go out, and now I'm just going to be even more paranoid. Of course, I'm still going to go back and buy another one, it really was ideal, but I am so angry at myself for letting it happen.

风和龙

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:46:09 GMT

Flickr finally started working again! Yay relatively fast internet! So I added the pictures from the Great Wall. This entry is really long this time, with a lot of pictures.

I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated, the last week and a half has been a whirl wind of trips, work and friends.

The title of this entry is "feng he long", Phoenix and Dragon, referring to women and men respectively. When getting married the bride is often referred to as feng and the groom as long. Of course, I was born in the year of the dragon, so I think I'll keep that designation despite the gender roles.

We had our midterm test last Thursday the 17th, and I did rather well I think, an 82.5%. I wasn’t expecting it, because I really felt like the test was pretty hard. But in the end I was so excited about the Dalian trip that I went and had a massage to relax for the train ride and the travel. I really don’t know what it will be like to go back to the US and realize there is such a difference in prices for things like that.

It turns out that my roommate, Yu, couldn’t go to Dalian, because she was actually going to be on television here. She is going to school at Beijing Ti Yu Da Xue, a physical education school. She’s majoring in Martial Arts and was presented with the opportunity to be featured on an entertainment show that’s really very popular. She was upset about not being able to go to Dalian since she is from the mountains and rarely gets to see the ocean, but it really was an awesome opportunity for her and could definitely open a lot of doors for her and job opportunities. I can’t wait until it airs, I’ll make sure to post a link to a video everyone can see.

My roommate kicking ass on a TV show. Her major is martial arts at her university, she wants to teach it eventually.

Dalian was an absolutely wonderful experience. Despite some bad weather, which to be honest I really actually enjoyed, I love the city and the ocean, and being in a city on the ocean. I really do believe that having an ocean or a large body of water within an hours drive makes me a better person.

We took an overnight train from the Beijing Train Station to the Dalian Train Station that left around 8 on Thursday July 16th. The trip really was an interesting experience, not too different from the US Amtrak experience. Every 10 feet or so there are a set of bunks, three on each side, bottom, middle and top. They’re actually relatively comfortable, and every bed comes with a pillow and a comforter, and the train is constantly filled with the sound of music and talk radio from the speakers in the ceiling. At ten o’clock PM the lights and music go off, somewhat suddenly, and everyone falls asleep. That is, except for the foreign college students on a trip to Dalian. It was nice though, quiet, and I had no trouble falling and staying asleep. I was on the top bunk so I had the benefit of the air-conditioning when it was on. I woke up a few times when the AC shut off, just to throw off the blankets.

Bunk mates!

It was an interesting experience to be surrounded by all Chinese people, going about something I’m so used to doing at home with Americans. The train has been an amazing part of my life since I was a child, something I’ve taken for granted and loved doing every chance I got, and to be able to experience the same thing here really does bring this trip home for me. I really loved it. I didn’t spend a lot of time wandering the train or hanging out with people from my program, I sort of just laid in the bunk and listened to everything. The music was nice, classical Chinese, and talk radio that I couldn’t understand, but I enjoyed being surrounded by the language and the people. There were even some kids in the bunk below me and they didn’t really bother me at all.

The next morning, the 17th, I was awoken by the sound of people completing their daily morning routines and the music and talk radio had started up on the overhead speakers. We were in the train station by 8:30 AM and out of the station shortly thereafter. One thing about China is that if there is one thing you can count on it’s the transportation system. I’ve never experienced a late train or subway or bus, it’s insanely scheduled, and even during rush hour the buses still manage to make every stop on time. It was, sadly—or not so sadly?—raining pretty consistently. I really do love the rain, so on one level I really loved it but there was also a plan for the beach both days—a conundrum indeed.

Our hotel (Bo Hai Ming Zhu 渤海明珠酒店) was directly outside the train station, literally a few steps and we were there. We checked in and went immediately to their restaurant, which is on the 30th floor and apparently is revolving—although it was completely stationary while we were in the city. It was a really beautiful view and while I wasn’t a fan of the faux-foreign food, the hot tea and coffee was certainly welcome.

We all then followed the token rules of group travel, and hopped on a tour bus. I have to say I really don’t enjoy traveling in large groups and I can’t really say this experience was much better. In general I feel like half of the activities you are taken on half (generally more, this time around) of the group has no interest in and the other half are too busy sleeping to care. But thankfully we did manage to go to two different beaches, and while I am not a fan of group trips, this one was free and the y were going to the beach.

Bangchuidao Island and resort. This was by far my favorite place we went to, I wish I could have gone swimming here, but it was too cold.

The first was Bangchuidao Island and Resort, which is a rock beach about 45 minutes outside of Dalian it really reminded me of Seattle, minus the large boulders. Big and small pebbles everywhere, lots of beach glass and clear clean water. It was fantastic, even with the constant rain and drizzles. I ended up only being able to walk the beach once because so many people had gotten back on the bus and the group decided to leave. Yet another reason I don’t enjoy group trips. I would have loved to explore the beach more and find more beach glass. In the end though I really loved that beach, it was small and secluded and actually private to some degree.

It reminded me of the Pacific North-west. Probably why I loved it so much.

After the beach we went back into the city to a place they described as a “5-Star Hotel” to eat lunch. I never saw a hotel and the food definitely wasn’t five-star. I think everyone was pretty disappointed with that bait and switch, but at that point I think everyone was just glad to get a break and some food.

This is the giant history book monument, half-pipe, this was the second time that day I got soaked to the skin, but as you can see it was so much fun that it was totally worth it.

Then we went to this place on the ocean, it was a monument of some sort shaped like a “history book”. It ended up looking like a very big half-pipe, and they actually told us that most of the time kids in the area do use it for skate boarding. Of course it was still pouring, but we all really enjoyed it, we all climbed up to the top of one side, slipping and sliding all the way. It was a lot of fun and there are a crazy bunch of pictures and videos…and once I get Facebook back I’ll post them all. Though, I must admit, it doesn’t look like the government is gearing up to open that part of the internet again anytime soon.In that same area was the most expensive apartment buildings in Dalian--$2,000 USD per square foot.

Yes, the wind was just that intense. I love this picture.

I don't think there's anything else I can say about this one...

It was probably around this point that our tour guide and our RDs figured out that most of the students were tired of periodically getting soaked through our clothes and then dried off by the bus’s neurotic air conditioner. So we headed back to the hotel to warm up and clean up and if we so chose, some free time in the city on our own. So a group of us went out for some fresh seafood, since we were finally close to the ocean. I wasn’t crazy impressed with the food, maybe because I seriously miss the Cajun spices I’m so used to on seafood. I also tried sea cucumber for the first time, which was to say the least and interesting experience. There was nothing wrong with it flavor-wise, almost like calamari or octopus—but the texture was just a little too rubbery, not because it was cooked too long or badly, I think it is just the general texture of sea cucumber.

At the highest point of the monument/half pipe. See all those other people that thought ahead? Yeah, I wasn't one of them. Though the umbrellas kept getting blown out, the poncho would have been good.

We ended up wandering around the city looking for a bar or a club to sit in for a while. We ended up at Starbucks. How predictable for a group of college students. But we did eventually find a small US style bar (complete with Harley Davidson themed posters all over the walls and a cover band playing “Hotel California” and some Kelley Clarkson song) it was really fun. To be honest it was pretty funny, since I never actually going into bars in the US, but my first experience in a “biker bar” was in Beijing, where Harley’s are generally too large to drive on the roads here (motorcycles and bicycles ride in separate lanes from the cars and Harleys are just too big for those lanes).

The next day, Saturday the 18th, my roommate and I (I forgot to mention that while I thought I wouldn’t have a roommate at the hotel it turns out they made a mistake with the names and had a girl listed to room with a guy, her Chinese name is apparently a male one) woke up to not one, but two wake up calls from the front desk, just to be extra careful, I’m sure. We had to go to a 2 hour lecture on the history of Dalian, which might have been really interesting if it weren’t entirely in Chinese. I think the lecture was primarily for the benefit of the people giving it, an opportunity to show off their knowledge of their city’s history and architecture, but for most of us, even if we hadn’t been exhausted wouldn’t have understood the majority of what was said.

We had lunch at the Golden Pebble resort, this was the view we were treated to: a Dutch Windmill, a tribal totem pole and a military maneuver. Actually the resort just had a paintball course...

The weather that day wasn’t bad at all, nice and warm, and no more rain—though there is always the perpetual smog. We first went to the old television tower which gave a 360 degree view of the city.

They're not shy at all to ask you for a picture. I think I took one with this woman's entire family. I think it was the bathing suit.

We finally headed to the Golden Pebble Beach, which is a resort and private beach on a different part of Dalian. I have to say, it really isn’t a pleasant beach to look at, and realistically not very safe for most people without a good basis in swimming. Most of the Chinese roommates didn’t even get into the water. It was all pebbles and rocks, a long beach without anything but tents and umbrellas and little tourist kiosks...and people. The water was freezing! Like jumping into Blue Springs, but with really strong surf. Within 10 feet from the shore there were major drop offs, and within 15 feet I could neither touch the bottom with my feet nor swim down to it. I certainly think its smart that a lot of our roommates didn’t get in, particularly since most of them have little to no experience in the water.

Freezing, but totally worth it.

I was unbelievably happy just being in the water, I loved every second of it, we were only there for about 2 hours and they made us sign a waiver if we wanted to get in, but I really, really loved it. I miss the ocean and large bodies of water so much living here. And I really do think that Beijing would be such an amazing city for me if I had an ocean to jump into a few times a week. I’m going to have to make my next trip to Shang Hai or Hong Kong, everyone I talk to says that the water there is gorgeous. I also couldn’t find any opportunities to dive in Dalian—they don’t have it at all in the northern part of the country yet—though I have been reading that the south is really opening up to water tourism. I had another jaunt in stardom while I was at the beach, I was consistently asked to take a picture with people, probably because I had so much visible white skin showing in my bathing suit, though honestly it’s the most conservative bathing suit I’ve owned in years just due to the fact that it’s not a two piece.

Cicadas in China! He was following one of our teachers around trying to make her touch it, but she really doesn't like bugs--even if it is just skin

When we left the beach they told us that due to a couple of the larger guys being uncomfortable trying to sleep in the bunks on the train, we would be flying back instead of taking the overnight train. I was kind of torn on this because I thought that the train was such an awesome experience and I really did love it (plus I had planned on taking a video of the entire train car for mom on the ride back) and wanting to get back to Beijing faster. And then they told us that our flight didn’t leave until 12am. It was 5:30pm. Bummer.

We were rock-stars

So we went back to the hotel and were given 2 hours of free time to grab dinner and souvenir shop. A bunch of us wanted to grab sushi since we were still so close to the water, so we went off with Julie’s roommate Li Ying leading the way. We ended up at a mall food court, which was insanely loud and not at all what we wanted. So Julie and I went off to find a sushi place that was easy and quiet, Cameron ended up joining us eventually. We wandered around the more touristy area of Dalian and then headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and meet the group.

We ended up waiting in the Dalian airport for about 3 hours, everyone scrambling to pull liquids and sharp objects out of their carry on’s and then sitting in one of the only little cafes left open by the gates inside. At this point I think everyone was just exhausted and ready to get back to campus. The flight itself was fine, a quick one hour deal and I was totally surprised by the landing, I didn’t think we were even close to the ground when we touched down. It was already 1:30 am and by the time we factored in the bus ride (which oddly enough I actually fell asleep on) we weren’t at the school until 2:30am.

All in all I really enjoyed the trip, Dalian was a wonderful experience and I absolutely loved being in the water again.

On the Great Wall. There are so many steps, but it was totally worth every strained muscle.

The next day, Sunday, Julie, Laura and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I was really very impressed, though I know a lot of people weren’t. But I really like the movie and I felt like this was the first time we’ve seen really good acting from the younger group of actors and there was little bit more humor to the film, bringing in a lot of the little things that Rowlings adds to her books. I talked to mom about it later and she made some good points about the lack of depth, we really didn’t get much of the back story on Snape that we might have expected, and I was a bit disappointed with the Weasley house being destroyed a book too early (does this mean we wont be seeing the wedding scene with Mr. Lovegood being crazy and Harry looking like a Weasley?). It was really entertaining for me though.

Me and Xue Yu

Monday night we had a local tailor come to the school to do consultations and measurements for suits and qipaos (the traditional women’s dresses that you see with the high collars and frog clasps at the shoulder). I am so excited because I’m gettinga three-piece suit. Its going to be beautiful and classic: pants, jacket and skirt, in black. I can’t wait to get it and post pictures. At the next fitting I’ll see if I can take pictures of the half way there product. I sort of wish I had gone all out and gotten the white linen suit, but really I can only where that to so many things, and the black will be much more versatile.

TongXue 同学 meaning "classmate" this is Oliver.

A friend of mine from school (Rebecca Stork) got into town last week, and we were going to try to get together Sunday night, but it turned out that I have over 70 Chinese vocabulary words to memorize before Monday, so that definitely didn’t happen. But also, my friend Kate Boeyen, who is in student government with me (we were going to run together in the Presidential election last year) was in Beijing for a few days too. She’s doing the 30/30 program, which commemorates the 30 year anniversary of normalized relations between the US and the PRC—each country exchanged 30 students and is giving them tours across the opposite country. If I hadn’t decided to do a language program this summer I definitely would have loved to go on that one. I ended up not getting to see Kate while she was here, sadly, we just couldn’t coordinate, but I did get to see Rebecca on Tuesday night. We met in Wudaokou for drinks and pizza at this place called Pyro. It was a lot of fun, I got to talk to someone from home, who understood how weird it is to actually have grades and graded homework, when all were thinking about is if we’ve improved ourselves. Its so awesome that she’s so close and we can get together and go out any time we want (when my homework isn’t killing me).

I love the views from the stations and towers, the Wall always ends up looking like a dragon.
This week was pretty intense class wise, we had three chapters with over 70 characters each and a test on them on Friday. Our professors finally decided to just have a review day on Thursday because it seems that so many different people mentioned that that was an insane number of words to be tested on without a little more time to study. Realistically I think everyone understands that there is no way we’re going to remember all of the two thousand or so words we’re learning here, but I don’t really think that’s the point. It takes time for words to be cemented into everyday speech. Though I really have to say that I think our book and our teachers do a really good job of using words from previous chapters in current lessons. That really helps me remember them. And really I think my grammar is turning out to be the best improvement here, which was the goal. I also am really proud of my listening skills since coming here, so insanely better than they used to be. I really think going back to school is going to be wonderful, because I will have so much more time to study the characters in our lessons there, and now I really feel like I’ve improved my study methods by leaps and bounds.

It was such a beautiful day when we went. I look like I'm in the sky.

Off on a little side area. Great views.

Friday night Julie, Sabrina, Marlies, Precious and I went out to Sanlitun. We went to dinner at this awesome little sandwich place, where I scarfed down a mushroom and goat cheese Panini type sandwich and we all had a drink or two. It was a nice calm dinner where we got to talk and eat without the boys pushing everyone to go, go, go. Then we went out to Kokomo, the club we went to the night we hung out with Eric and Andrew and lost Marlies for the night. It was a lot of fun we picked up a pitcher of Red Bull and Vodka, which I will never get again, yuck. We ended up meeting these English guys who were living in Beijing. Rupert, George and Charlie, the token British names for boys—we all kept commenting that they all managed to have some connection to the Weasleys in Harry Potter, though obviously we didn’t say it to them. Charlie was gearing up for a bike ride to Mongolia, we was sort of the one of the group that was just traveling around trying to enjoy the country, we said he wanted to be a travel writer. He apparently was recently hit by a car, and damaged his arm somehow. Eek, I need to make a post just about the perils of traffic in Beijing. George was making a documentary on the water shortage in Beijing right now, as I understand it he’s not currently having his films shown on anything, but that’s a goal. Rupert is working in Beijing, maybe an internship, and learning the language. Julie hit it off really well with Rupert and I’m sure they’ll be keeping in touch. Sadly all of them seem to be leaving the city this week, Rupert and Charlie are traveling for a few weeks, and George is returning to the UK. So we might not see too much of them, since we’re leaving mid August. But we’ll see. They were all pretty neat guys.

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Going up the mountain to the Great Wall in a ski-lift was the best idea ever. Though we did walk down...the blue writing on the window behind me says "President William J Clinton took this car down the Great Wall on June 28th 1998"

We took some really great pictures that day. I really wish I had Facebook working so that I could put more of them up for everyone. Xue Yu took this.

This is about the time that my camera batteries died.

Yesterday, Saturday July 25th, we went to the Great Wall. I really wasn’t expecting too much, you know, thinking abstractly about a giant wall in the northern part of the country is really just, blah. But actually being there, and standing on it was awe inspiring, truly. That part of the country is gorgeous and has so much history, and then there is this giant beautifully constructed wall spanning thousands of miles across mountainous terrain. It is constantly rising and falling following the path of the mountains, all dark bricks and green covered mountains. I finally went ahead and did the touristy thing and bought a tee-shirt and a panda hat. I am currently sitting at my desk with said Panda Hat on my head. I think it now my new favorite hat (panda hat in Chinese is Xiong Mao Mao Zi 熊猫帽子 it’s pretty fun to say).

Yeah, that's a panda hat. What about it? It the patented Sabrina-panda-face. I love this hat so much. I bought this at the Great Wall in a great moment of Sarah-bargaining-awesomeness for 20 kuai ($3). It's my new favorite hat, and you bet I'll be wearing it this fall.

My roommate, being awesome. She has so much poise.

But I am so glad that Yu went with me on this trip. I did a really good job bargaining, but I went into one of the kiosks and was talking to this woman who kept saying “Shirts 1 dollar!” which was of course an outright lie used to trap tourists in the booth while the seller badgers them until the tourist just gives them 50 kuai. Not that I would have put up with that anyway, but finally Yu says “No we should leave, she’s lying” and we turn to leave. The woman grabbed my arm over Yu’s shoulder and held on with a death grip. I ended up screaming and flailing at her, just leaning backwards away from her and essentially falling out of the tent when I wrenched my arm away from her. The little group of French tourists and CET students behind us were a little shocked, but I ended up with red marks around my wrist from this woman. Yu tells me that the people there are “Xinku” 辛苦 or hard, I imagine their lives are pretty hard, but I have absolutely never had that happen to me before and all I wnted to do was get away from that woman.

Seriously. So many steps.

The steps here are worn away from use over the centuries.

Last night we went out for sushi in Sanlitun at our favorite place. I got an assorted pickles plate and tempura shrimp with mango sushi. I am so surprised at how good fruit with sushi can be, I’m guess I’ll have to be more open minded at home, I just can’t imagine it being better anywhere but here in Asia. The pickles were weird, mostly sweet, but I always love new ways to use vinegar. We had some eggplant that was absolutely wonderful. In the US I really feel like eggplant in generally only made grilled or fried. Here, every time I eat it I love it, seriously. I am going to figure out how to recreate these dishes when I get home. Also, wasabi, I am bringing the real stuff home.

It really does look like a spiny dragon spread across the mountains.

Xue Yu, me, and Wang Ya Xiu.

I went home after dinner. I was just too tired and I know I’m getting sick. I have had a sore throat for four days and have just started to get the congestion. And I know that I can’t do the “out ‘til all hours” ever weekend night. It ended up being a good call for me, since they ended up staying out until 4 in the morning last night. Apparently they ended up finding the guys we met Friday night and spent the night hanging out with them in Sanlitun. I probably would have fallen asleep on the table, so I’m glad I didn’t stay and hold everyone back. But I did get to sleep straight through 'til I woke up in the morning! That's a luxury we don't have here very often. Although I will say that it's nice that my body has adjusted to waking up at 8 rather than six in the morning.

Beautiful, beautiful, Mountain with a Wall.

One of my favorite pictures from the bunch.

Back in Beijing

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:51:57 GMT

Just a quick one, I'm back in Beijing, we ended up flying back because apparently some of the beds on the sleeper train were too small for some of the people on our trip to sleep comfortably. The ocean was fantastic and I am so glad I went.

Julie, Laura and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince today. I have to say I really do think it is the best movie so far. Very, very well done.

More details, and pictures to come, but I just found out I have to memorize 70+ new words before tomorrow morning.

人老珠黄, Women Grow Old and Pearls Turn Yellow

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:09:34 GMT

The title of this entry is a phrase we learned last week that essentially means "not as beautiful as before". It's always interesting to learn these sorts of phrases, even though I know there's no way I'll be able to use it in actual conversation for quite some time. It'll take a while before I can be sure when something like that is actually appropriate!

Still no Facebook. I’m sorry for those of you who have sent me messages recently, I’ve figured out a way to at least be able to look at facebook, but I can’t reply to anyone, upload pictures, or add friends. So that’ll have to wait until the government decides no protests are going to be planned using the site.
I’ve been having a lot more fun recently. This past weekend Julie, Laura, Sabrina and I had a girl’s day out on Friday. We went to Sanlitun (pronounced sanlituar in the Beijing accent) to find a clothing shop, called Willow Willow, that we had seen in the Beijinger; they do a lot of custom clothes and feature artists regularly. I ended up finding a really cute tank top, with a girl on the front reading a newspaper that says “Girls and Bugs” and lady bugs on the back. I managed to turn all of my white clothes a nice shade of yellow the first time I did laundry, so I bought it in white. We went to a really fantastic Japanese restaurant in Sanlitun, and honestly had some of the best sushi I’ve had in my life. It had mango on it, which in general, I am opposed to since in the States I feel like so few people can make it correctly. But I was surprised at how good it was. I also had sea urchin sushi, but was seriously disappointed in that, I think I’m just not a sea urchin kind of girl, sadly. I’ll stick to the cuttlefish and eel, thanks.

This is the shirt I bought at Willow Willow. Love it!

At some point we met this guy from Holland. He was lost and trying to find a silk market neat Wudaokou, we had never been there but we told him we could put him in a cab and tell the driver where to take him. He said he had been working in Shanghai for an advertising firm and was now travelling around the country, he didn’t speak a nit of Chinese though, so I don’t know what he thought he would be able to accomplish. Unlike Europe you don’t find an insane amount of people who speak good English here, not just walking around on the streets. But I suppose that is just part of the experience, and I imagine he will remember it for the rest of his life as a crazy but fun moment in time.

When we returned to BIE, the school where we’re living, we got a bunch of people together and went out. A few of Laura’s friends from the states came along too, and we ended up going to the University where Columbia holds their language immersion program. Julie has a few friends (Andrew and Eric) in the program so we went to spend some time in their dorm. I like them quite a bit, they seem to be a lot of fun and know the city pretty well. I really enjoyed being out with new people, it’s a nice change. We went to a club in Wudaokou, never actually going in, we sat outside with some of the guys from CET and oddly enough bought subway sandwiches and a few beers.

Then we up and left for Sanlitun again. Here’s where the drama starts, we somehow managed to leave someone behind, my friend Marlies apparently gave her cell phone to Sabrina and went into the club to find other people, and when we got into the cabs (there were 12 of us in 3 cabs) everyone assumed she was in one of them. She wasn’t. At some point laura mentions that she doesn’t think Marlies is in any of the cabs because she had counted off the people in them and came up with an even number. Long story short we end up calling everyone we can think of that might be in the area, we have our friends from Carlton (Alex, Jake, and Cameron) wander down there from another club in the area to look for her. Finally, I call another friend Lisa, and find out that Marlies found them in the club. Merriment ensues.

I really loved the club we ended up at, it seems so many of the bars and clubs in this city have roof top patios and bars. It’s fantastic and absolutely beautiful, especially since most of the time all people can see of Beijing is from the street looking at tall buildings and heavy pollution. Being on top of the buildings doesn’t get you away from the pollution, but definitely shows you a totally different side of the city altogether. We danced a lot and I was hit on consistently throughout the evening, every second I stepped away from other people. I met a nice guy named Santiago, from Columbia (the country), who was pretty keen on dancing with me. We left shortly after I met him though, when I told him we were leaving he apparently didn’t believe me though. He saw us walking down the stairs and said “Oh! You really are leaving!” as if instead I had been lying so I wouldn’t have to dance with him. It was pretty neat, and I love meeting other foreigners here, it makes for such a different kind of conversation than I’m used to here.

We finally went ahead and left the club around 3:30am or so. A lot of people decided to go to the changing of the guard and flag raising at Tiananmen, which happens at 4:30 (a little after sunrise). I honestly just had no energy left. But I think the best part of the evening was me, Julie, Sabrina and Precious climbing in though Mike’s window on the first floor, because we didn’t want to wake up the shifu (师傅sort of like our male house mother). A clarification I guess: we do technically have a curfew of 1am, but that’s just the time when the shifu locks the doors. Our RD actually told us its more of a soft curfew. However, the shifu does try and sleep during that time, so he gets a bit cranky if we wake him up to let in a few tipsy college kids—thus we climb in Mike’s window. It’s a lot of fun, unless his roommate is there—we risk waking him up too, but apparently he’s pretty cool about everything anyway.

One day it rained, our dorm became a safe haven for umbrellas. Nearly every rom had one outside the door.

Saturday Precious, Sabrina, Julie and I went to the Zoo! Mainly we went for the pandas, which were fantastic and Sabrina took an insane amount of pictures. All of which she’s going to give me so I have them and can put them up here. There’s also a video of me squeeing over the red pandas. I love those animals. We had the lapse in judgment and sat in an area that had hundreds of people walking by us constantly. Precious and Sabrina happen to be black, Julie has blonde hair and green eyes and I am very obviously white with red-ish brown hair. It was like we were part of the zoo exhibits. After one person asked us to take pictures with their child, everyone wanted one. And it was generally parents shoving their children at us and snapping away. I don’t mind it at all, it’s rather amusing actually. However, after living here for a month it becomes a little creepy when hundreds of people turn their heads as they walk by you so that they can continue to stare at you as they walk and then one after another people come up with their children. And one family absolutely could not accept that not only did their daughter not want to take a picture with us, she was terrified of us. The child went limp when her father tried to bring her up to sit with us.

We then went to Wudaokou to another shop Julie had read about in the Beijinger called Lara. I wasn’t very impressed with the store itself, the clothing was fine and cute, but I really wasn’t a fan of most of it. I found a wallet there that I loved, but the leather was such a light color that it was already showing wear. The style is fantastic and I almost bought it, but their credit card machine wouldn’t accept my debit card and I had no cash on me (a good way to stop myself from spending too much I think, don’t take any cash!). But I did go into a leather and bag shop next door and they had a very similar wallet in a darker color, the only problem is that it doesn’t have snaps that stop it from opening and flopping around. So, now that I’ve seen that style of wallet and I know it’s popular here I can start looking for it elsewhere and if I don’t find it, I’ll go back to the leather store and buy that one.
We walked around the sidewalk markets a little, and went into a few more stores, but really, I think choosing the weekend to go to these places is a bad idea. Entirely too many people are in the streets on a Saturday afternoon. I really just have such a problem trying to shop, or do anything but walk quickly, surrounded by people. And Beijing certainly has a lot of people.

Sunday was a work day. Whoohoo!

Today in my small class we talked about people choosing not to have children. It was interesting to realize that so many Chinese women and men don't want children and suffer the same, if not higher, levels of pressure from their family and peers, to reproduce. Talking with one of my professors in my one on one session this afternoon she said that most people will just give in and have a child because their parents put so much pressure on them to get married and immediately procreate. I'm just unbelievably glad that I don't face this problem with my family or friends. Everyone I know is supportive or at least keeps their mouth shut about it.

Julie also came by my room last night and mentioned that her roommate had never heard of let alone seen a tampon before. We asked my roommate and she didn't have a clue either. I had a relatively awkward conversation with her later about whether or not a virgin could use tampons, which it seems is the main reason that they are so uncommon here. There is such a premium placed upon a woman's purity that using products like tampons is just never considered. She seemed prettying interested, but again, culturally I think it's just not an option for her.

This week is midterms week, Thursday we have a huge written and oral exam that will take up most of the morning, then we leave for Dalian! Dalian is the coastal city to the east of us. I don’t know what they have planned for us, but I am definitely taking my bathing suit, I will be swimming in the ocean while I’m there. I won’t be taking my computer with me, for certain, but I will have my cell phone if anyone needs to contact me. We’ll be on a train for 8 hours I think (maybe more) on a sleeper train. Very exciting! It’s going to be an interesting experience, that’s for sure.

I will however, be missing the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince premiere, which I am very sad about. This will be the first one I wont have seen the first night it opens. However, I’m certain there will be a lot of people who will want to see it in Dalian while we’re there this weekend. I will find a way!
I got a message from Ilene on Facebook, she’s sending me a letter! I’m so excited! I can’t wait to get it, and I can’t wait to send out my post cards to everyone. I really want to find some nice stationary too, so I can write letters—but until I do it’s post cards for everyone!

Next week there is a tailor coming to the school to do fittings for those of us who want to have suits or dresses made for ourselves. I definitely will be going to that and having one made. I understand that he can replicate nearly any style and design and it will only cost around $100 for a good quality suit. I'm very excited, since there's no way you could buy a three piece suit, even off the rack, for that in the States.

Censored

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:05:42 GMT

At the moment I can't access Facebook. It's been blocked by the government due to the riots and protests in the West. We've been warned that it's a bad idea to try to travel there, well, yes, particularly since the government probably won't allow foreigners into the province, let alone in the center of the region. They're also assuming any of us have the spare time to travel at this point. Which we don't.

But for all practical purposes I won't be able to post too many pictures. I can still get on Flickr, but the connection recently has been so poor that uploaded a lot of pictures is just not a possibility.

Beijing Heat

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:53:21 GMT

July 3, 2009

I promise I am trying to keep up with writing all of this but I have so much work that I don’t really have time to sit down and write except on Fridays it seems. Nothing really happens during the weeks so much, mainly classes and normal school fun and frustrations.
Last weekend was a lot of fun though. I was actually able to stay out relatively late (in by 2am) and not feel like I was falling asleep.

First though myself and Julie and Laura went out to have our hair styled, I just had mine straightened, but it took almost an hour because the guys in the salon really like seeing Americans and playing with our weird hair. I very nearly found myself a Chinese boyfriend too. My stylist seemed to really like me and at one point said “You’re hot!” and I thought, Oh well, translation problem, he’s using a straightener on my hair and wanted to make sure I wasn’t uncomfortable. But no, Julie and Laura and I ended up in a conversation about how you say “hot” meaning attractive in Chinese, our stylists insisted it wasn’t piaoliang 漂亮 (pretty), but they couldn’t tell us what actually was. At one point though I told my stylist that I really liked it (Wo hen xihuan我很喜欢), meaning my hair, and he took it as “I really like you”. And promptly asked me for my phone number. I told him I didn’t have one, a lie, but really we’ve been warned that dating locals could be really bad for the locals both in terms of reputation and hurt feelings and misunderstandings about what the relationship could mean. Plus, at this point we wouldn’t really be able to understand what the other person was saying.

We went to dinner at a really authentic Japanese Restaurant near the American ex-pat part of Beijing (Sanlitun). It was an amazing amount of fun. We sat in one of the screened rooms they reserve for large parties, there were a lot of us, in those low running tables with space for your legs and feet actually built into the ground. I had cuttlefish sushi, sea weed salad and a glass of plum wine. The sea weed salad was different from what I’m used to in the states—sweeter, but still good. The plum wine on the other hand was less sweet than what I’m used to, I can’t really describe the taste. Instead of a wine glass it came in a tumbler with ice, it was a really interesting flavor and I would absolutely have it again. The cuttlefish—oh the cuttlefish—was absolutely wonderful, if fish can be buttery this fish was buttery. The texture was amazing and everything was so fresh and neat. I was extremely impressed.

Everyone at dinner at the Japanese Restaurant before we went out. The food was absolutely amazing. I had cuttle fish sushi. Julie is the blonde on the left.

I also had real wasabi for the first time. Generally in the United States what we have in Asian restaurants is not actually wasabi but a mixture of different horseradishes made to taste like wasabi. It’s interesting the different kinds of spice and heat you get with different kinds of peppers and spices here. I love the spiciness of Chinese food. I hate the spiciness of Mexican food. With the food here in Asia its builds and builds, its actually really pleasant, I never feel like the cooks are shoving spice into the food just to shock you. It’s all part of the cuisine. But this wasabi, as good as it was, it made my brain hurt. Literally. The top of my skull was burning, beneath the skin, in my skull and brain. I swear. It was the most interesting spicy flavor I’ve ever tasted. How odd that eating something would make the other side of my head hurt.

July 5, 2009

Continuing on… I had to do homework this weekend so I had to take a break from the journaling.
About spiciness—I still have yet to try the Sichuan pepper here. This pepper, actually makes your mouth numb, it’s one of the key ingredients in “ma la” 麻辣 meaning “numb and spicy”. Yeah. I’m actually really excited about it, but I want to find a really good Sichuan place to get it so I can have the full effect. I don’t know whether or not I’ll like it as much as like the other spiciness I’ve encountered here. And I still have to find a good Thai restaurant to compare US Thai food.
Last weekend was really a fantastic experience. After we finished eating and merrymaking at the fantastic Japanese restaurant we all headed over to a club/bar called Juicy Spot, which was surprisingly a lot of fun. I really am not the clubbing/bar type. I like big, nice dinners and drinks with friends and then parties back at home. So it was nice to have a really good experience at this club. It was actually a white party, where most people wore white tee-shirts and at the door when they stamped your hand they gave everyone highlighters so that, if you choose to you can write all over other people’s shirts. I opted for a dress instead, so I don’t have that little souvenir, but it was intensely fun to see everyone else's tee-shirts and write on a bunch of strangers.

This was at a neat little club in the American ex-pat part of Beijing, it was three stories with an open air patio on the roof. I really enjoyed the night.

The club had 3 floors with music playing on two of them. The 2nd floor was top 40 and was where the majority of the white shirted people congregated since there were black lights all over the place, the 3rd was meringue/Spanish influenced (I know Sarah would really have loved this place). The best part for me though was the outdoor patio on the roof. They had a bunch of picnic tables set up and we all spent a lot of time out there.

I ended up coming back to campus around 1:30AM with a friend. We just grabbed a cab since the subway and the buses had stopped running at 11:30PM. The roads here are crazy, because despite the fact that there are probably some technical laws and restrictions, people drive any way they want to. People are constantly walking out into the road, painted lines mean very little to drivers, and every really loves using their horns. Generally the horns are just to let people know you’re coming, but coming from the US where honking your horn means anger it’s definitely something to get used to.

Monday was my first martial arts class. I don’t quite know what to think, since it really was just a huge survey of different disciplines. Tai chi, staves, knife dancing, and kung fu. I didn’t really enjoy it all that much because I really feel like I lack to coordination to remember a series of moves (which is why I was never very good at dancing with certain moves—though I do think that if there was music involved I would do much better). I just could seem to remember to sequence of movement and placements for my arms and legs. I definitely want to keep doing it since I think it can only help me with my coordination problem…maybe by the end of the summer I’ll feel like I can go to the Pilates class at New College.

Classes this week were really good, I actually really enjoyed them and didn’t get frustrated nearly as much. I think it just has to do with the fact that sometimes the classes seem so long. I’m used to having one or two classes in the morning, having a break and then maybe going to more classes later in the day, whereas here it’s just four straight hours of class lunch and then another class in the afternoon. Fridays, on which days we just have a written and an oral test in the morning, lasting totally maybe 2 hours, are pretty enjoyable. I don’t think this week’s test went quite so well for me, but I know it’s because I didn’t study as hard as I should have on Wednesday or Thursday’s chapters. Better this coming week, I think.

Calligraphy with Julie

Thursday afternoon I had my first calligraphy class. I definitely think it will be one of those cathartic things I do while I’m here. Basically we all sit in a lecture hall in silence and draw out characters with a brush listening to the teacher explain exactly what we’re supposed to do in Chinese—not that we understand the majority of what he’s saying. It’s calming and despite the amount of time it takes up I really think I should keep up with it. Even if I do feel like all my artistic ability has dripped out of my ears of the past 3 years.

Mom and I have been having a lot of trouble with Skype recently and I can’t figure out why. But we can’t keep a call on for longer than 20 seconds before it goes silent and eventually drops out. And I don’t think it’s just Skype, because I talked to Hannah (who is in Germany right now) for two and a half hours Thursday night. That was really fun, and really good for me, to talk to one of my friends and remember that I am going back to New College after I leave here, and things will still be as awesome as they have ever been.

Overlooking Cuan Dixia village is a temple, this is the view from the side of the temple into the little valley

Saturday was an interesting day. We took a day trip out to a little village in the mountains about 3 hours outside of Beijing. The village, Cuan Dixia, is built into the side of the mountain and is mostly intact and maintained. It’s a definitely tourist trap, run by the government of course, but it was really neat to see what mountain life in this part of the country could be like. I bought a package of loose tea to add to my meager collection, but it was locally grown and my roommate recommended I try it, so as soon as I get a tea cup (these are so neat, I never see them in the US, as soon as I buy one I’ll post a picture) I’ll start making my own tea, since the water here is good to use—though it does apparently have higher levels of iron and other metals, so I don’t know that that is necessarily a good decision. The water definitely doesn’t have bacteria or yucky organisms in it, but I do wonder about those “other metals”. I also bought some local honey, which has a really interesting flavor, almost smoky from the flowers the nectar comes from (Jing Hua Flowers 荆花). It’s definitely different from the clover and wild flower honey we get in the states, but I like it, and I can’t wait to start drinking tea sweetened with it.

This is out in front of the temple, there's a big bell under that canopy.

I think the coolest part about being in Cuan Dixia was the rock formations about a mile outside of the village. The mountains in that area have a high level of calcium and lime in the rock, so it erodes pretty quickly in some areas. In this particular area it looks like those formations out in the Western US that are all curvy and water- and sand-blasted. It reminds me a little of all the springs Tom and I dive in Florida, except with fewer and less extreme ledges.

The rock formations outside of the village.

It gave me a good preview for what one of our options for the weekend trip will look like. And it made me even more adamant that I go on the one to Dalian (coastal city) and not Yuxian (Western village). As interesting as all of the small traditional villages and cultural throwbacks are, I really just want to see China’s oceans, and see what coastal life here is like. I miss the ocean, and lakes, and rivers. I talked to mom about it and she even said, “I know how you are about water”. I love it, and to some degree I really think I need it. Maybe it’s being a Pisces, or you know, living in Florida all my life with a pool on either side, but I really can’t see myself living this far from a good body of water that I can just jump into whenever I fancy a dip. It helps that my roommate is from the mountains in the South and really wants to go to the ocean too—I gave her a necklace with a dolphin charm and she told me she had never seen one, so I definitely want to take her there. She also can’t swim.

The Village is rounded and built into the side of the mountain so there are theses walk way son some levels with one house or shop after the other

My Favorite picture from the trip. They grow and sell a lot of corn in Cuan Dixia, so there is corn hanging up to dry in just about every house. This is an alleyway that lead out to a house.

Also, the bus ride out there and back was not too bad, but I swear the bus drivers here honk their horns every time they see another car, or person. It’s insanely annoying when you were naive enough to sit at the front of the bus.

Last night I went out to dinner with some friends and afterward we went to a bubble tea place (I think you're going to have to Google that one if you don't know what it is, I can't explain it). I got red Bean Milk Tea with Caramel, it had red beans in the bottom of it! But coolest thing yet? They had swings for seats as some of the tables.

Bubble tea cafe, the name had something to do with a rabbit, I think. Swings!

Today was pretty intense. I woke up around 9:30AM (after waking up at 6, 7, 8 am—I don’t think I’ll ever get used to 4AM sunrises) wrote an essay and then went with some friends to Tiananmen Square. What struck me about the square wasn’t actually anything about the square, I’m used to all of the propaganda by now—the pictures of Mao and the nationalism (on a side note, I actually had one of my professors ask me if I would talk about politics with her, which I totally thought would never happen here), but all the people covering the square. There were people everywhere, not just foreigners, but Chinese people too. I’m sure it’s just like when families in the US go on a vacation to Washington DC but for some strange reason I just did not think that it would be the same here. No reason why really, it was just some weird thing that occurred to me.

I also had no less than 3 Chinese people ask me if they could take a picture with me. First one of the guys walking around selling pictures to people came up to me and asked if I would take a picture with on of his clients. I said yes, of course, and I suppose other people saw me taking pictures with them, so as we walked across the square I was stopped by various other groups for a photo-op. It was really amusing, and everyone really got a kick out of it so I’m glad I did it.

Tiananmen Square. Giant Mao Face

What really stood out in my mind about the trip though is the way the hawkers, people in and around the square would try and force you to buy their products. I watched two different people give little Chinese flags to small children and then follow their parents around demanding 2 kuai. I’m sure that this tactic is used everywhere, but I had never seen it so widely used and so insistent.

We also stopped in a few shops before we went to the square. I had my first ever H&M experience in China. It’s like every other mass production trendy clothing shop in any mall in America. This one was 3 stories and stuffed fill with clothes. The prices we’re about on par with the US stores. I bought a little black dress anyway, because really, I can never have enough light weight dresses, either here in Beijing or at home in Florida. But I definitely will be going to the silk markets (general term for these huge flea market-like buildings with hundreds of stalls selling clothes by the bag for pretty cheap prices, generally knockoffs, but good quality) to buy any more clothing or shoes.

We also went into this little shop with a bunch of other, smaller booths inside it, where this guy was trying to convince us to buy one of those little personal massagers, about the size of a mini Maglight. Except the massager was obviously a vibrator. Like the kind you buy at an adult shop. He kept touching people with it, trying to get them to feel the massaging power. We all got a kick out of that one.

As for more pictures, I've realized that I can't put nearly as many pictures on Flickr, so most of the new pictures are going to go on my Facebook page, so just follow the link below to that if you want to see more. I've also made a Flickr account for just pictures of food, once I get that organized I'll post that too!

Also, Please feel free to comment here. You don't have to be a member, just click the comment link in the bottom left. I would love to hear from every one, tell me what you think of the pictures, give me recommendations of things I should do while I'm here, comment on any of the funny or weird things I encounter.

Love,
Sarah

More Pictures at: My Flickr Picture Account
and: A Facebook Album