Guilin

Well, I am in Guilin. It is much more beautiful than any other place I have been to in China. Let me start from the beginning. We all started our weekend with a bang, going out and having a great celebration to begin our week long vacation. Without any worries of school work or errands, everyone had a blast. Waking up Sunday morning to pack wasn't the most logical thing to do, but I made sure that I was not forgetting anything. Except for my phone charger. So now, I have no phone and some pretty scarce internet in Guilin but I'm managing to get by. The 22 hour train ride was a great time. My friends and I successfully entertained ourselves for the entire ride and I would even go as far as to say that it went by quickly. When we arrived in Guilin, we had this weird notion that things were going to be warm and sunny, but that didn't start until yesterday. It was kind of cold, a little overcast, maybe foggy or misty, but in any case it was still beautiful. The mountains here are spectacular and we began our trip going straight from the train station to Lao Hill. We ascended the tallest peak, Lao Hill, on a "gondola" aka ski-lift. With shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops and backpack, I pretty much froze to death the entire ride up, the 45 minute summit rest, and on the way down. The view from on top of Lao Hill was awesome. The mist and the fog swallowed up the hilly mountains one by one until they faded into whiteness. The mountains were larger and more prominent the closer they were to Lao Hill, but beneath us we could see the farm lands and small buildings of the town beneath the looming giant mountains.



When we were done looking from on top, we took the toboggan ride down and headed back to the hotel. We were all starving. Taking a 22 hour train, there isn't much to eat besides instant noodles and fruit. No one had eaten lunch, we were all a little confused by the cold weather, and the hotel was on the opposite side of the river away from the bar street and restaurants. When we got to the hotel, I had to register for classes, shower and then meet everyone for dinner. Not having a phone, a few of us were separated from the group that had left for dinner. The cab driver dropped us off at a main avenue, but we couldn't find out where our friend had gone to dinner. It felt like hours searching for our friend's restaurant and I was fuming with frustration being lost and hungry. Trying to find people in China is a very difficult task. All of the restaurants have flashing colored neon lights, the signs are in Chinese (obviously) and every street looks very familiar. When we finally found the restaurant, it felt like an hour had gone by. We arrived to empty plates and not so good food. I have to say, I was pretty irritated. I knew that the food was going to be eaten and generally speaking no one likes being lost and hungry. We ordered a few more dishes and I scrounged off the remaining plates. Once I had a little food in me, the night went on and we had a great time exploring Guilin. This town was equally beautiful at night as it was during the day. The rocky mountain hills were lit up and lush. There were a few streams running through the city that reflected the mountains and street lights and the ambiance was just right. We had a pretty late night out meeting locals and bar hopping but we all made it home safe, sound and ready to start another day.



Yesterday, we woke up early to take a bus ride to Yangshuo. Yanghuo is a smaller town just outside of Guilin. It is spectacular. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel and ate lunch. This town has some major pros and cons. First off, it is a tourist town. Tons of westerners, western food, beautiful scenery, warm weather, accommodations close to the main part of town, and so much more. But the same things that make me love this town, make me strongly dislike it. First and foremost, there are too many westerners. This means that everything is touristy and unauthentic. The food is slow, service is mediocre, and the people just aren't as nice. Besides these things Yangshuo is a great town. We left lunch and headed off for an hour and a half Li River cruise. This was amazing. In groups of four, we headed down the Li River weaving along and around the majestic mountains. The mountains are shaped exactly how the pictures look. They are even more lush and green than the pictures and look like melted wax dried after years of dripping and running. The river is fairly rapid but you can still see the reflection of the mountains in the waves. The sun had begun to set and the light streaked through the rolling hills filling the river valley with rays of light. Passing in and out, in between and around the mountains was overwhelming. This was the rawest and most purely Chinese thing I have seen. I wish I could have taken everyone on this cruise. It is here, in the south of China, that I have seen the typical Chinese farmer, bent over in the fields, rice hat to shield the blinding sun and water buffalo grazing in the background. The people rely on nature for everything and you can tell by their culture they are still awed by the surrounding landscape. The people fish with large nets and it is here that they have specially trained river birds to catch for them. By tying string around the birds throat, they release the birds to catch fish from the river and being unable to swallow, the birds return to the boat to give the fisherman their meal. It is a spectacular relationship between bird and fisherman.

The river cruise ended and we headed back to the hotel for dinner. We ate at a noodle bar and got ready for the "Impression Liu Sanjie" night show. This show was 100% not what we expected and for a hefty Y200 price tag, I can't help but say I was a little disappointed. But, before I give you the wrong impression let me explain what I expected and what it turned out to be. Directed by Zhang Yimou, the famous director of the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (the one I accidentally fell asleep to in the sweltering heat), the show depicts the life of the Guangxi people. Guangxi is the province that Guilin and Yangshuo are located in. The production has a natural mountain background and has over 600 local fishermen and women working together with ethnic minority people. Even though I was expecting shooting fountains, flashy light shows and yea, a few fireworks, I wasn't shocked that the entire production was in Chinese making it hard to understand. Lucky for me, I was sitting next to John, our TBC leader and he translated a few key parts for me. There was a love story, a depiction of a typical day as a fisherman, a night scene depicting the stars and moon, and a few other things I can't recall. It was a good show, not what I was expecting but that was OK.

Today, we woke up early to get American breakfast and with the slow service, I didn't have enough time to eat at the restaurant. It wasn't an issue because today was my cooking and river rafting excursion. We arrived at the cooking lessons shortly after 9 am and I was surprised to walk into our tour guide's house. And what do you know? Our tour guide, Richard, was also the master chef who would teach us how to make dumplings, kung pao chicken, spicy sauce (lajiu), fried noodles, and beer battered fish (a local delicacy). Free food. Master Chef Teacher. What more needs to be said? We were stuffed. After making dumplings, steaming them, frying some and eating all of them I was ready to start my day. It got better. The spicy sauce, no joke, is definitely going to be made for everyone at home to try. I'll do whatever I have to do to get the ingredients, but something this good can't be left here in China. The fried noodles were fried noodles, but the over all experience of cutting the peppers, bamboo, ginger, garlic, and everything else was a blast. Not to mention, this guy had a penthouse on the sixth floor overlooking fields and more mountains. The kung pao chicken was my favorite to cook. Adding in spices and throwing in vegetables, it was not only a lot of fun to make, but especially delicious to devour. When we finished eating and cooking we made our way to the Dragon River rafting.

For this experience, everyone came prepared for fun in the sun with our swimsuits and all. It was a blast. The best part about the whole trip was that on the way down to the boats they were selling water guns. Two people. One raft. It was war before we got on board. Jim and I got on a boat together and we were off. Within five minutes, my water hose cracked and leaked and within the first half hour Jim's was broken in half. It was hilarious to ride down the river shooting the other boats, avoiding getting hit in the face and just having a great time. Balancing on the boats was hard, but we coordinated with our drivers to sneak attack people from behind. The Dragon River has about 8 or 9 small waterfalls that added a little excitement to the trip while we were not squirting water at eachother. The waterfalls were more like mini plunges but no one's boat flipped over. At one point along the trip, it was full fledged pirating and pillaging. Boris, my friend from Fairfield University, is a member of the swim team. He started the piracy by jumping off his boat and pushing people off their boat. When this happend, it was all of themselves. Jim got in and took over a neighboring boat. While he was gone, I was attacked from three sides and had to abandon ship, jumping off and heading toward a third boat. On Jim's conquered vessel, he took their weapons and tried to reclaim our original boat, but somehow everyone ended up on eachother's boats. By this time, we had given our raft drivers quite a show and they told us to sit down for one of the waterfalls. We were soaked and the water was pretty murky but we were living the good life. A few of us got mouthfuls of river water, but hopefully none of us get sick. No one really knows what things live in those waters but our boats got this mysterious foam on them and there were some dead fish floating along with us.

The boat ride was great. The Dragon River was so still that the reflection of the mountains was perfect. Like I said, I can't even explain how beautiful this scenery is and my pictures can't even do it justice. Hopefully I'll be able to write soon and tell you about the mud diving we're going to do tomorrow.

Southward Bound: Another Chinese Adventure

I'm about to go on another Chinese adventure. This one is to the southern province of Guangxi. After our 22 hour train ride, we'll arrive in Guilin Monday afternoon. From then on it's all fun and games. This time our school didn't even bother trying to put any museums or educational façades on the itinerary. Which is a great thing. This means it's a vacation, a break, and a time to relax from our kind of stressful lives at school. From Day 1, we're going to be visiting Yao Hill, decending by toboggan (like the time we went to the Great Wall at Mutanyu). The next night, we're staying with a local village school, where we will not only get to visit the Xiaozhai village school but we will be seeing the infamous Rice Terraced Fields. This is besides the fact that when we return from the village stay, we'll be returning to a five-star western hot-springs hotel. We then take a bus to Yangshuo, where we have two days to really have a blast. There are three options, of which we choose two activities. The first is a hiking/kayaking excursion, the second is a biking/cave mud diving experience, and the last is a cooking/rafting activity. I think I am leaning towards the biking/cave mud diving (we hear it is amazing) and the cooking/rafting. I honestly can't wait to go. There is supposedly an awesome water show that we have to see. If you thought the Silk Road trips are beautiful, check out what is in store for me when I go to Guilin.

Well, now that I'm leaving in a few hours, I need to pack. I should be packing light since the weather down there is about 80°F and the sun is shining every day. I also have some random pictures from my trip to Tian--men when Sean broke his arm and the Forbidden City when I went to some different parts. Also, last night we had a great night out. I got my eight custom tailored shirts back from the tailor and I'm pleased with all of them. We all went out to an Italian restaurant, had some wine, and then went down to Wangfujing. Unfortunately, Wangfujing closes around 10:30pm so we weren't able to try some weird things, but we're going to go sometime soon after we get back to try scorpions, bugs, and other critters.

Oh, and to completely change the subject. I had a field trip for Buddhism class on Saturday morning. It was about an hour and a half away, in the mountains just outside of Beijing. This retreat is a privately owned mountain resort for Buddhists. They can rent out the cabins and practice meditation in the quite natural environment. It was a great experience. Our class meditates for about 20 minutes every time class meets, but this time we learned different techniques and we were able to sit on actual Buddhist meditation cushions. It was really great. We practiced walking meditation and simple breathing focused meditation. It was a relaxing start to a very busy day.

After my Buddhism class, the bus was late coming back to school. I had a Marketing midterm test to take at 1:30pm and we didn't even arrive at school until nearly 2pm. Not to worry, my professor is extremely understanding for these kind of situations and I had a legitimate excuse. Since many of the students in my Buddhism class are also in my Marketing class, about half of us were late for the midterm. We had to grab a quick bite to eat too, which further delayed our arrival. The midterm went just fine, not too difficult. But I had to rush through it in order to make my 4 o'clock appointment.

I have begun tutoring with the English program Learn First as many of you know. I met with another student for the initial interview and I'm in for a treat. This family has lived in the US (Minneapolis, MN) for over 20 years. They just recently moved back to China with their two children, American by birth, and are looking for a tutor to speak with their 6 year old son. I've worked with my aunt as a kindergarten teacher aid before and I worked at PS/MS 20 in a first grade ESL classroom last year. It's a great experience and I can't wait to start when I get back from my trip.

Also, since I'm always wondering about news over in the US, here's a bit of news that is going on over here. Apparently, there was a police beating in southern China where one person was killed. The story goes that some policemen were off duty in plain clothes at a bar having a few drinks. While they were driving home, they hit a car full of college students. I am pretty sure that they hit the college students because the driver got out and began to yell at the policemen. He too had been out that night. Pretty soon, the angry college student became confrontational with the policemen and a fight ensued. The policemen had a video tape recording in their car, but somehow after the fight begins the tape is cut short. You never see the student being beaten to death because a policeman had turned the camera off. This is where the controversy comes in. First of all, the policemen. Although they were off duty and have the privilege to go out drinking, the fact that they hit another car and then severely beat the student to death and injured his friends is completely inappropriate for an authoritative figure. Also, there are some questioning the students and whether or not they were using illegal substances that may have caused the deceased one to die because of a heart attack. From the tape, it seems as though the student started the quarrel, but it is not sure what happened after since the tape was cut off. This is a huge deal right now and all the policemen are in jail. Whoever is convicted of the assault will definitely receive capital punishment. I need to go pack now, so wish me luck and I'll try and post while I'm away but don't expect much. Happy Halloween!

Made in China

I've been in China for two months now, but I haven't been doing much shopping for Chinese goods so far. It's getting down to crunch time and I have 7 weeks to get a ton of stuff before I head home. So far, I've gotten a few cool things for myself, nothing big. I've got a big Christmas gift for someone, and a few small gifts for a few of you too. The longer I'm out here however, I find my list of things to buy growing ever larger. I still have a lot to get myself, such as a suit, a business trench, some custom tailored shirts, and other stuff. Today, I finally purchased my first big item. A custom tailored, cashmere, peacoat. It fits like a glove and I'm pretty sure I've never been this excited about a piece of clothing. What can I say? It looks sharp. I guess that means not all things made in China are that bad after all. In between all the classes and having fun, I'm getting a little stressed out. My number one goal is to not leave China without a suitcase full of awesome stuff and the way it’s looking that suitcase is empty.

Recently, I put an ad on TheBeijinger.com advertising myself to tutor English. Well, what do you know, English tutors are in huge demand out here. I got instant replies from multiple people but the one that caught my interest was one specific program. I went in for an interview last Friday and I began tutoring on Sunday. So far I've tutored twice and I love it. Besides the fact that I have to say I'm 27 years old, pretend I've already graduated, conceal the fact that I'm currently in school here, and avoid talking about my personal life, the job is well-paying, close to school, and very entertaining. I get paid phenomenally well and get to speak my native tongue. The people I'm tutoring are extraordinary business people too.

The first woman I tutored was crazy. She wanted help with her confidential PowerPoint presentation that she had to present this Thursday. First of all, she is presenting to some retired board of directors from Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Second, her company is being audited by Ernst & Young. Last, I was talking to her, helping her speak, and learning about their transition to comply with Sox 404 tax regulations. Absolutely absurd, if you ask me. I'm 20 years old. I'm green and inexperienced in the world of business, teaching English and pronunciation to this well experienced business woman.

The second woman I taught was leaving to Singapore the very next day. During the middle of our tutoring session she has a very important phone call. She apologized for having to take it. Turns out, she said it was her distributor. Her company is working on a huge deal with Airbus because they provide the painters air filtration masks. The distributer called her and told her that they needed a price quote for their air filters. I understood the need for the interruption and we continued our lesson. Then, again, the phone rang and this time we absolutely had to take a break. She was asking me if I knew the exchange rate from Germany to RMB and of course I didn't know! Turns out, her company has multiple divisions around the world. They supply masks to distributors and her division just built a factory in Tianjin, not too far from Beijing. (Remember, Jimmy and I went to the soccer game there) From what she told me, her distributor told her that Airbus wanted to purchase the masks from the German side. The only problem is, that the masks are produced in China. Therefore, they should be a Chinese export. If Airbus purchases the masks from the German office, they avoid paying the 17% tax on the masks but in doing so, they are giving Germany millions of dollars in exports to count toward the German GDP. My student was very upset, saying to me, "I don't care about the money or the commission. I just want what is right for my company and for everyone. Those products belong to us [China] and that is why I don't want them to buy them from Germany." It was so crazy. She doesn't care about losing the commission on this deal, but she wants the money to contribute to the Chinese GDP, as it should. It was a very very nat-onalist-c ideology. I think it is amazing. I don't know what to make of it, but it is very interesting. I can't wait until the next time I tutor. Who do you think I'll run into next? Other than the "would-be-legal-if-I-was-in-the-US" issues, I have high expectations for this program.

This week is a big week for travel too. Devon, Jim and I received our visas and now we’re working on booking a trip to Tokyo. I don't think I'll be able to go to both Hong Kong and Tokyo, but we are for sure going to Tokyo. I also went back to the Forbidden City with my art class today. The second time around was great. My art teacher explained a lot of things and took us to some quieter parts of the Forbidden City. We saw some foreign diplomats being escorted by a ring of plain-clothes police. Also, I must have been looking very American today because believe it or not, I was asked to take a picture with someone and this time I didn't have an American flag on my back to give myself away. I felt pretty cool.

In other news, Jimmy was talking with a ex-TBC student at Fordham who was in China last semester. He's continuing his Chinese language studies in New York and Fordham is paying for his classes since they don’t offer any more than the four semesters I've already taken. Jim and I are jumping on that deal as soon as possible. Both of us really want to continue to learn Chinese, so wish us luck when we approach our dean about it.

I think that is all folks. Check back later.

Step on a Crack, Break Your Mother's Back

Well, the past few days haven't been too exciting. Wednesday this week was wonderful weather so Sean, Jim, Ryan, Jeff, and John and I decided to take a bike ride around the city. We rode through some hutongs, passed by the Llama Temple and made our way down to Tian--men Square. It was good to get off campus for once. We all feel like we haven't explored Beijing enough. I'm one of the lucky students to have seen a lot of tourist attractions already. Most students don't have time between classes and socializing to wander around Beijing. While at Tian--men Square, Sean was trying to get into the bike lane after accidentally biking on the pedestrian walkway. I don't know the full story because I didn't see it, but one small fall turned into a pretty bad situation. He fell trying to jump the fence between the lanes and somehow landed wrong on the ground. He was in a lot of pain and he knew immediately that he had broken his arm. Well, being at Tian--men, on bikes, not at school, with no idea what to do, we spent the next 20 minutes contacting our friends at school to try and get the numbers of administrators who could then direct us what to do. After getting in touch with the right people, we spent a lot of phone tag trying to get the cab driver to know where to go. Sean was pretty much out of it and as you can imagine, waiting another 20 minutes to translate to the driver where to go wasn't the most comfortable of times. When we finally found out where to go and how to get Sean there, we also had to brainstorm what to do with two extra bikes. Jim decided to go with Sean to the hospital, Jim's phone had no minutes, my phone had no minutes, Sean's phone ended up with us after the cab left to the hospital because we were calling people still, and basically all was in chaos. The good thing is, we're all quick-minded individuals and we decided to just leave the bikes on a bike rack instead of trying to wheel them home somehow. But of course, Tian--men district is all government buildings and high profile living areas. Finding a bike rack here is like trying to find a place to sit on that overcrowded night train to Qingdao.

When we found a bike rack we dropped the bikes off and made for home. John and I had class at 7:30 so we definitely needed to get back soon. And of course the map was with Jimmy and Sean on the way to the hospital. We eventually mazed our way back to school and I made it to class on time. Sean on the other hand, made it to the hospital to find out he fractured his forearm. He's in a cast indefinitely but he's doing all right. No worries. Speaking of bad circumstances, my roommate Jimmy had a rough night the other evening. After watching a movie, we all went to bed. Jimmy had to make a quick call to his sister, so I had fallen asleep by the time things got interesting. Apparently, Jim got a serious case of the 24 hour bug, it wasn't shigella (haha)but it was enough to keep him up vomiting and sick all night long. If anyone knows me and my phobia, I'm really glad I was asleep. I do vaguely remember waking up in the middle of the night and mumbling, "What's going on over there?" before falling back to sleep after realizing what was going on. He's doing a lot better now, just taking it easy and not eating anything adventurous. I'm sad to say however, the cause of this sudden illness was some Mexican food. (Although, in defense of the Mexican food, one of our amigos ate the same thing and he somehow ended up OK.) I think the true lesson to learn is you'll never know when Montezuma will take his revenge, even as far east as China.

Today, I went to check out my coat that I was getting made. It was a little big (the same with Devon's) but it's really nice. Warmer than I expected and softer too, this coat is well worth the kuai. Other than that, I've spent my day trying to find outside sources for my art history research paper. It's about the development of ancient Chinese city walls. Fascinating stuff, really... Enjoy your weekend everyone. Oh, and if you didn't infer, I bought a bike for Y180.

Put on Your Painter's Smock

The other day I went down to Beijing's 798 Art District. This area is a very famous art district which has photography, sculptures, paintings, modern art, Maoist art, Cultural R-volution art, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Devon, Ryan, Jeff, some other friends and I went and I have to go back sometime soon. It was so cool. We only walked through a small part but the sun began to set as we wandered around through the various galleries. There were too many pieces I really liked but here are some of my favorites.

«Catcher»

This gallery has a distinct art symbolizing the last few pages of Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. One of my favorite classics, the artist has taken a photograph of a cornfield and transposed it to symbolize the ending scene of Catcher in the Rye. In his first picture, I think it's extraordinary how he placed innocent children - all laughing, smiling and quintessentially Chinese - in a cornfield. Looking at the expression on their faces, the ones near the front are peering over the edge of the cliff and the other children are playing blissfully unaware. To complete the set, in the second picture, the artist has placed another picture of a cornfield opposite to this one, but instead of children, there are scarecrows in the field. Catcher in the Rye has a dominate theme dealing with the loss of childhood innocence, so looking at the first photograph made me feel a bit of sadness knowing what it represented. The second photo seeded many thoughts. I am still wondering why he chose to put scarecrows in the field instead of children. Maybe the scarecrows are supposed to frighten the children away from the edge of the cliff?

Anyway, besides the numerous Mao paraphernalia at 798, I often see Mao art on the streets or in markets. I have picked up a few pr-paganda posters in my travels throughout China. Prop-ganda posters, real or knocked-off, are typical in Chinese art. They were used during the period of Mao's rule to promote the ideology of Com-unism and propagate social-sm to the people. I have five of them, and all five are hanging on my wall. Each are different and have different sayings. My favorite is shown below:

In this poster, you can see the people holding their red books, Mao's book of sayings, all with smiles and happiness in their eyes. The phrase above them says something along the lines of: With book in hand we will defeat...something...and resist...something else... to go out and ... something. It's pretty interesting to analyze the posters from both an art perspective and from a social perspective. First and foremost, the people in the pictures are most likely laborers, commoners, or poorer peasants. The fact that they are holding their books in hand is ironic considering the fact that they possibly do not know how to read. The posters are fun to look at and provide good material to ponder how the Chinese read them and took them to heart. In the end, all I know is that these posters are deeply rooted in Chinese culture and are small memoirs of a critical time in Chinese history.

Back at 798, there were some interesting sculptures of animal-human things. My art history teacher calls them zoomorphic figures, but I don't really like using the technical terms. The sculptures were pretty cool and Devon got a picture of me with one. In other galleries, there were oil paintings with so much paint smeared on the canvas that it literally added another dimension to the painting. When 798 became too dark and cold, Devon and I headed over to Sanlitun bar district (bar district by night, awesome ex-pat district by day) to meet Brittany's father for dinner. Dinner was amazing. I really liked talking with Brittany's dad too. This guy is amazing. Working for a Korean technology company, he has spent most of his life working in Seoul, Korea and other Asian cities. Typically, he visits Asia for 6-8 months out of the year and has done so for the past 20 years. I'm not sure I love the idea of travelling that much, but it was a great conversation to have over some delicious (and much needed) Italian food.

Hope everyone is doing great. Word on the street says that it is getting pretty cold in Denver and I'm sure everyone is getting bombarded with Halloween candy at every store and in every office. I miss having a super-sized bowl of candy to snack on while I watch TV, do homework, or bum around the house. Someone needs to carve a pumpkin for me and let me know what costumes everyone is wearing this year.

One last thing. Here is some more food for thought as well. We discussed this picture in art class and it was confiscated by authorities for three reasons:

1. The colors are too dull.
2. The Bird's Nest is not represented appropriately.
3. The language is sensitive.

Currently, this picture, titled "Bird's Nest in the style of cubism," is being detained by the customs and security authorities of China and will be sent back to New York City soon. The artist, Zhang Hongtu, is furious that his art was not allowed to be entered into the Beijing exhibit and as you can imagine he has spoken out against this injustice. You should read the Wall Street Journal article online here. In class we discussed why the government listed only these three reasons and why the third reason is last (wouldn't you think that would be the first reason). Also, the 8s on top represent the 8/8/08 opening ceremony and the number is auspicious anyway. The characters on the bottom are the Olympic slogan "One World, One Dream" and the characters on top just say "Olympic Torch." I'm looking for pictures of the Catcher exhibit and I'll put them online when I can find them.

Making Plans

Well, this morning I woke up a little bit sick. I don't really know if I'm sick yet, but the head is pretty congested and I'm pretty sore. The gym that we all signed up for is phenomenal. Brand new equipment, tons of top of the line treadmills and machines, and a good amount of free weights. I especially love it because, not being a very big guy myself, the Chinese are typically smaller than I am. So this basically means that I can walk around the gym feeling a little confident that I'm not curling 5 lbs or benching the bar alone. I have been going to the gym nearly every day and I had to take yesterday easy. I'm still pretty sore today so it makes me think I might be getting sick.

How is life in the US? From what I'm hearing, the stocks are in shambles, the financial crises has taken a turn for the worst, the presidential debates are heating up and people are running around like Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling! I can't help but say that I feel totally disconnected from my country right now. The slowing economy never really showed while I was in the States, but now I feel like everyone is feeling it. Jimmy is pretty up to date on things but I personally haven't had time to really sit down and get the big picture. I'm pretty sure that my plans are definitely going to have to change in response to what is happening. I am currently a Finance major, about to graduate in a year and a half and when all is said and done, I'm most likely not going to have an easy time finding a career. I do have a possible lead with an accounting firm, but if that falls through I'll be swimming up a terrible stream. I've been considering my options and right now, China isn't looking too bad in terms of business opportunities. I've already been thinking about coming out here next summer with said accounting firm but now I'm seriously weighing my options. I can either stay in New York City this summer, try and find a financial job, try and make money in one of the most expensive cities, and try and make do. Or...I can try and come out here with my accounting firm, if that doesn't work, come to China working for another financial or accounting firm, or come to China to tutor English. Either way, it seems more logical to spend a summer abroad than stay in the US. Especially because I'm an international business major. We'll see what happens.

I've already started my weekend because I don't have classes on Friday so I plan on taking it easy this weekend. Catching up on sleep, enjoying the decently warm days of Autumn and doing homework are in the forecast. I've bought a badminton racket and I have gotten to play with some of my friends. We can't really play as well as the Chinese but it's at least time outdoors.

Of course, I can't keep everyone waiting forever for the pictures of my National Holiday trip, so here they are:

Shanghai

Hangzhou

Suzhou

The Inside Dirt About Dirty China

I hope everyone is enjoying some of the great stories I have to tell about China. If it wasn't for modern technology, I don't know how I would keep in touch with everyone. I'm really lucky to be able to log on whenever and tell you about my adventures. But, China isn't all fun and games right now. Actually, we've all been discussing some of the things we could really do without while we're here in China. First, the public bathrooms. Often referred to as squatters, these bathrooms are just holes in the ground. Porcelain holes, but still holes none-the-less. Mostly a problem for girls, the squatters usually don't have toilet paper and are sure to have waste all around the floor near the hole. It's really not that awesome to use, especially to someone who doesn't have the coordination and balance to use them properly. Some of the squatters are so rancid that the smell literally feels like it burns the inside of your nose. Sometimes, you'll be surprised to enter into a bathroom and find no walls between squatters. But this is of no concern for the Chinese, simply life.

Speaking of toilets, the potty training is quite interesting here in China. If you haven't noticed in some of my pictures, some of the children are wearing pants that do not have a crotch area. This is so that they can be potty trained easier. Simply lift the child over a trash can and let them go. Or, if you don’t want to lift them, you can certainly just have them squat and relief themselves. Usually it doesn't matter where they go and places include but are not limited to the train (in between the lower bunk beds while the parents just watched and mopped it up with a towel before it ran into the luggage), the train station (right next to the seats where we were sitting), or even randomly on the street. Most of the time, honestly, I think the pants are amusing. I mean, I can't help but laugh when I see a little kid run by and the next thing you see are little butt cheeks peeking out of the bottom. Or when someone is holding their kid and they turn around and you just see the crack of their behind resting on their parents arm. It is a little weird, a little unsanitary, and definitely different than the United States, but it is one of the most common sights among Chinese children.

The pollution in Beijing is far worse than any other city we've been to. Shanghai was mostly clear, Hangzhou and Suzhou were too small to have pollution problems, and Qingdao had the sea breeze to keep the air clear. Although Beijing really isn't that bad, the hazy days are few and far between here. Especially now that the weather has cooled off the haze has mostly disappeared. But that still doesn't stop the Chinese from developing some wicked coughs. Now, imagine that you are peacefully enjoying a walk down the street and from somewhere near behind you--from deep within the bowels of whoever--a long powerful hhhhhhaaaacccccckkkkkk disrupts your peace. You wonder what is that noise, just to quickly hear the spit land on the blacktop some distance away. Yeah. It's that bad. The worst is when you turn around and it is a woman. That really grosses me out. It seems that every man, woman and even child has developed this unbreakable habit to hoc a luggie wherever they go, whenever they need to. The cab drivers do it while driving, the chefs do it while they cook for you, and of course the strangers on the sidewalks all spit their hearts out, every day, all day. There isn't any escaping it and now I really don't bother to turn around to see what's going on. Sometimes, they noises are so loud, that I'll be sitting in my room, doing homework (naturally), and from outside my window, I hear a pedestrian spitting. I wouldn't quite compare it to birds and chirping crickets, but sometimes I fall asleep to the relaxing hacking noises from my Chinese neighborhood.

Deodorant is impossible to find. Ask Jimmy, he forgot it on the Silk Road trip and on our trip to Qingdao. It was pretty funny when we went on a massive scavenger hunt to find it in Jiayuguan. Walking into random shops, applying invisible deodorant and having the locals laugh at us and hand us a travel size of roll on with a mystery odor for Y50. Jim was forced to buy it and we're still not sure if it worked or not but at least it kept him from smelling. (Just kidding).

There is another slightly interesting cultural difference in China. This has to do with the younger social interaction. Walking around campus, down the street, or in the subways you'll see a lot of girls walking hand in hand, leaning on each other or holding each other around the waste. In China, this is perfectly normal. Girls often have these types of relationships with their best friends, it's not big deal and perfectly acceptable. Even so much that it isn't completely limited to girls. Guys can also walk around with their hands on each other’s shoulders or holding the forearm. It's a little weird at first, but it's apparent that they are just platonic. The sense of personal space is very small in China. Yet again, we have nothing to do but laugh when a Chinese friend invades our American "personal space" bubble. The Chinese just have their ways.

One last cultural difference before I head off to bed. American college students live in heaven compared to our Chinese counterparts. In China, the Chinese students have the same size room with not one roommate, or two, but 4 other roommates. If you do the math, that's 5 people living in the same room. I couldn't imagine the frustrations I would have not being able to have a single moment of privacy. It gets better. They have to be in by 11:00 PM. Weekends included. If they aren't inside, they might as well book a hotel room for the night because they'll be locked out. And the power goes off at 11:30 or something. Oh, and their bathrooms. They don't have showers in any of their buildings so the students at UIBE have to walk to the next building over to take a shower. I think they have squatters on every floor, but our friend Li lives across from them and says he can't leave his door open because they smell so terrible. If any of these things happened in the US, I'm sure college admissions would dramatically drop and there would be a student riot.

That's all I've got for now. I'll keep you guys up to date this week with what's going on. Tomorrow, I think we're going to go get some custom made coats from the Wool Market in Beijing. After that, we have to work on getting our visa changed so we can leave the country. We're trying to get to Tokyo and Hong Kong by the end of the semester but the visas are once again confusing all of us and giving us a headache so we won't know for sure what's going on until we actually get the visa.

A National Lampoon Chinese Vacation

I'm back from yet another adventure. This time my travels have taken me to Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. All of these cities are located along the central part of China's east coast. We arrived in Shanghai Saturday morning and I was absolutely ready to go exploring around town. Shanghai has over 15 million residents living in this sprawled out, skyscraper ridden maze of streets. The buildings are tall, spaced out and everywhere. The people crowd the sidewalks and the cars make crossing the street a headache, constantly turning left to right watching for turning cars, swerving vehicles and other pedestrians. It reminded me so much of New York City and that is probably my favorite part of Shanghai. Our hostel was located near the Bund. The Bund is a European district across the river from the Pudong Financial District. From the Bund, I enjoyed looking at the European style architecture while at the same time looking across the river at the Jin Mao tower, Pearl of the Orient TV Tower, and Shanghai International Finance Centre. These buildings are well over 70 stories tall. It was a beautiful skyline. After hanging out in the Bund, we walked down Nanjing Road, famous for market shopping and other stores. We ate dinner at the French Concession, which is an expat neighborhood in Shanghai that was originally a French colonization. The area was pretty cool but very expensive. We enjoyed some Thai food and headed to an Irish pub afterwards.

Sunday morning was the official start of the National Holiday. The Bund was closed because there are too many people and the government takes precaution to make sure people don't fall over the wall into the river. We headed to Yu Garden, just south of the Bund. The Yu Garden was amazing. We found a lot better markets around there and found some cool gifts. After hanging around the gardens and eating lunch, we took a ferry over to the Pudong Financial District. From here, we walked down to the Pearl of the Orient TV Tower and went to the top. By the time we arrived, the sun was beginning to set and reflect off the glass skyscrapers. From the top, we couldn't even see the end of Shanghai, the horizon was dotted with far away apartment buildings and the rest faded away in the haze. It was amazing to see such a great city. We were surprised by how much the wealth gap effected Shanghai. The juxtaposition of old Hutongs and soaring skyscrapers was incredible. We wandered through a hutong and were awed when we looked up and could see 50 story office buildings just a few blocks away.
After the TV tower, we met up with our friend Serena, who studies at a university in Shanghai. She took us out to a great dinner for authentic Shanghainese cuisine. It was so delicious. Apparently, Shanghainese and other southern provinces do not serve as large of portions as Northern provinces, so we ended up having to order a few extra dishes to fill our American sized appetites. Afterwards, Serena showed us a Roman Catholic Church nearby. It was a beautiful church and unfortunately it was closed but it was the first I've seen in China.

Monday we left for Hangzhou, which is a great city. Located in a small mountain range, the main attraction here is the lake. Hangzhou is the number one tourist spot in China and I could definitely see why. You know how you are always looking for the perfect place to have a great family reunion, or to take your family for a relaxing weekend? This is definitely the place. The lake offers peaceful views and refreshing breezes perfect for flying a colorful kite or walking around. There are a couple pedestrian bridges crossing the lake that make it perfect to walk across or even ride your bike. We rented bikes for our two day stay and had a blast riding in traffic. We got to see tons of the city and the city reminded me so much of home. The mountains were really cool and the mixture of city life and outdoors was balanced just right. Getting to Hangzhou was a fiasco however. While in shanghai, we took a cab to the train station. Before we arrived at the train station the cab driver offered to take us to Hangzhou, to avoid all the crowded trains, slow busses, and long lines. After our experience with the Qingdao train, we were all loving the idea of taking a car to Hangzhou. We settled on a price and it was great. We loved the cab driver, the cab driver loved us, he even stopped to get some breakfast (we were starving)! It was clear we were on the same page and it was a lot more convenient to be dropped off right at our hostel in Hangzhou. Well, we were wrong. We arrived in Hangzhou and the driver tells us to get out and take another cab because he doesn't know the streets. Well, we weren't going to pay him in full for dropping us off on the outskirts of Hangzhou, so we gave him what we thought was a good price and walked away. Then, we have a crowd of Chinese around us, people spitting out Chinese at us and a whole scene going on. To cut it short, we ended up having some random guy take the front seat, we crammed in the back, and he told the driver how to get to our hostel and we paid him in full. Huge ordeal, not worth the hassle, we should have taken a bus.

Our hostel booked our room, so we ended up having to share a room with four random people. They woke us up at 6 am by talking loudly, smoking a cigarette, and banging all the doors multiple times. We did have a great restaurant across the street though and our other friends from Beijing had arrived in Hangzhou the same day. We met them that night for dinner and drinks and we enjoyed meeting up with our classmates in a different city. We left on Wednesday, October 1st to Suzhou. We only spent the day in this "Little Venice" which is quite an overstatement. Venice is far more beautiful and spectacular, but Suzhou had some great things about it. It was very small town feel, but because of the National Holiday, there were about 1.5 million tourists there that shouldn't have been there. Too crowded but great to visit. We took a boat ride down the canals with a couple of Chinese students that were travelling for the holiday. It was a lot of fun and we caught a bus back to Shanghai. The traffic to Shanghai was outrageous but we arrived in 2.5 hours (should have been 40 minutes). We missed the fireworks for National Holiday and again, our hostel booked our room so we had to stay at a different hostel. Sometimes, unfortunate things happen for a reason. Our new hostel was 100% nicer than any other hostel we stayed at. For $7 usd a night, we had our own room, great facilities, clean bathrooms and ping pong and pool. Not to mention a great location and a movie room with internet.

For our last day in Shanghai, we went to People's Square near our old hostel. We spent the day in and around the area, buying some souvenirs and enjoying the weather. We ended up staying in the Park for a long time. It reminded me of going to Central Park, looking at all the buildings around me, laying down and taking an afternoon nap in the warm weather. It was great. We ate at a Japanese restaurant and went down to the Bund to see the skyline at night. It was amazing and beautiful. We spent the night on a rooftop bar at our hostel and invited our other friends from Beijing over for drinks.

The trip went by incredibly fast and I had a great time. I hate giving these abbreviated stories but I'll post pictures soon. I'm back in Beijing trying to catch up on all the mountains of homework I've left for myself. Cheers.