Sayonara Tokyo, Ni Hao China

I just realized I completely forgot to tell everyone what I actually did in Tokyo...so here is the low down. The day we arrived, we flew into Narita, which is about an hour from Tokyo. We took a really expensive cab to the hostel, not reading all the tour books nor taking any advice specifically saying, "Avoid taking cabs from Narita to Tokyo, they are very expensive." When we got to the hostel, some 20,000+ yen later, we unpacked and settled down. It took us longer than we had expected to arrive and our flight was delayed a little bit, so we were lucky enough to have good enough weather to walk around the neighborhood. Our hostel was located in Asakusa, one of the neighborhoods of Tokyo. Right down the block was Sensoji Temple, the largest temple in Tokyo. We looked around there for a while, but everything was closed, so instead we headed into a small restaurant and ate some food. We enjoyed a light snack of miso soup, delicious peanut broth noodles, and other Japanese food.

The next day, we woke up early and were out of the hostel around 9 am. That was one of the smartest things we did, because by noon we had already done tons of stuff. We began by walking through the Sensoji Temple Market, which was right by our hostel. We took a subway to Shinjuku where we went to the Sony building and saw all of the latest technology being created by Sony. It was really cool to check it out and to see what's out there. I'm pretty sure that the coolest thing there was a decent sized flat screen that was 9.9 mm thick. Thats about a 1 cm thick TV that plays crystal clear images without losing the quality of the picture. We walked around the area more and stumbled upon some pretty busy parts of the city. We stopped and ate some deliciously fresh sushi that was taken from the Tsukijishijo fish market. That market, besides being a mouthful to pronounce (no pun), is where the locals go to action off fish. Unfortunately, we never got to make it, but they have hundred kilogram tunas for sale that cost thousands of USD. The restaurants around the area are known for having the freshest sushi in the world. Anyway, our sushi was delicious and we got our first taste of the slurping habits of the Japanese. If you're really enjoying your meal, slurp your noodles up, the louder the better.

After lunch, we headed for Shibuya, the largest pedestrian crosswalk in the world. During the day, the amount of people didn't look that much different than a busy New York day, but when we went back that night, it was a swarm of people. There were so many, it was like being lost in a sea of people, when you looked up, all you saw were the black hair of Japanese for blocks. The Sibuya area has a lot to do, so we walked around and explored things to do. We eventually made it over to Harajuku where we browsed some of the punk rock shops and people watched. The girls in the Shibuya area were well dressed, fashionable and the such, but in Harajuku...they dress like little Bo Peep, gothic, punk rock, and all sorts of craziness. We didn't run into too many people that were really crazy, until we went back to Shibuya. One girl looked like she had cotton candy hair that was half white and half pink. It was pretty cool to see. After Harajuku, we went back to Shibuya, ate at a sushi bar where the track is constantly running and you pull sushi plates off as you wish. I've seen them in the US, but it was fun to eat at one in Japan.

The next day we woke up early once again and walked through the Sensoji Temple Market to buy some things. We headed to the electronics market in Akihabara afterwards and ate a quick meal. Tokyo is also home to the Mega Mac, which is an exclusive, four patty McDonalds burger that we only saw at one McDonalds in Tokyo. In Japan, the McDonalds salt and pepper their burgers. Overall, I think I like Chinese McDonalds better, but Hong Kong had the Big 'n' Tasty, which has been discontinued for years in the US. We didn't eat at the McDonald's for lunch, but John did eat the Mega Mac for dessert (it was delicious). Back to the electronics market, this is 6 floors of every possible electronic device you could ever wish. Toilets in Japan are an experience by itself. In the Sony building, we were first exposed to the Japanese toilet. They plug into the wall, first of all, which should give you a good head start in the direction I'm going. I'm talking about heated seats, high power deodorizers (that turn on or off), temperature adjustments, flush levels and power controls, and of course, a water cleaner and blow dryer. Kind of like a bidet, there are different sprayers that have different water pressures, but the best part was the blow dryer. The whole point of telling you this, was at the electronics market, they sold the same crazy toilets for your personal home. And you can even get one that detects you coming and lifts the lid for you. Most Japanese already have these toilets in their homes, but I think it is something that America seriously needs to take into consideration.

After Akihabara electronics we headed to Roppongi for dinner. We made reservations at a Teppanyaki restaurant and reserved the cook's table. We walked down to the Tokyo tower, which is like the Asian version of the Eiffle tower. I love architecture like that and skyscrapers, so I was pretty bummed when I saw the line to the observation deck winding around and around the lobby. I remembered waiting in line to get to the top of the Eiffle tower, and I knew we wouldn't have time to make it to the top. We took our pictures and headed back to the restaurant. Near our restaurant, there was a free observation deck, but that line was also too long, so we gave up looking for a view of the Tokyo night lights. Tokyo really doesn't have a skyline anyway, so I figure we didn't really miss out on much. The Teppanyaki dinner was delicious. I had a red snapper fillet drizzled in a tomato oil and pesto sauce, with roasted vegetables, miso soup, and a delicious drink. The cook prepared our food in front of us and we toasted to our last night in Tokyo.

After dinner, we walked down to one of my favorite experiences in Tokyo. The Absolut Ice Bar Tokyo. This bar was ridiculous. Chilled to a sub-freezing temperature of 23° F, you are only allowed to stay in for 45 minutes. The bar can only occupy 50 people at a time and later in the night you are only allowed in by reservation. The pricy entrance fee was worth it, plus it included a complementary drink. The glasses weren't really glasses, but actually ice cubes with cylindrical holes cut into them to pour the drink. They are imported from Sweden, where the original Ice Bar was founded. We drank among the ice sculptures and sat on reindeer skins to keep our bottoms from freezing on the ice chairs. There were two groups of Americans already in the bar when we arrived, so it was nice to have contact with the outside world. It really made me excited to head back to the USA.

The next day was an early wake up call. We had planned on going to the fish market, which opens at 5 am and closes at 8 am. We had a 10:30 am flight out of Narita, so we knew we had to hurry to the fish market. While we were planning our trip the the market, Devon stumbled across something that sounded like tons of fun. Every morning, the Japanese sumo wrestlers practice from 6 am until 9 am. Well, if we're getting up for the fish market, we might as well squeeze in the sumo practice too. We were already in Japan, so why not make the most of our last morning? The fish market was closed on Sunday so those plans fell through and we ended up getting to go to watch the sumo wrestlers practice. Big men in little clothing, what more can I say? It was really fun to watch, and I wish I would have known a little more about the technique and rules of sumo wrestling, but I think I got the jist of it.


Heading to the airport was a fiasco. As you can see by the subway map, trying to navigate the Tokyo subways isn't the easiest thing in the world (and you thought New York was confusing). We were constantly buying the wrong train tickets to begin with but with limited time we really didn't know what to do. We caught a local when we should have been on an express and then we transferred to another train and did whatever else we did...but somehow we ended up at the airport 30 minutes before take-off. Well, of course, running through the airport is my favorite thing to do. Just like missing my flight to Hawaii and going to the wrong train station in Paris, I have gotten quite well at missing transportation. Luckily, the Japanese check-in was very helpful and got us booked, through security, and on the flight back within the 30 minutes. We made it back OK and now I'm done with school. My last final was yesterday, I just have to write another paper by Thursday and prepare for my Chinese oral examination on Friday. I started packing my stuff and I said goodbye to the people who cut my hair. I gave Kefeng, the young guy who works at my favorite dumpling place, a Fordham banner that Devon had brought but never gave away. Well, that was a long post but I'll put up pictures sometime before I leave.

The Fragrant Harbor of Hong Kong

There has been a lot going on over here on this side of the world. The final countdown has begun. I believe I have about 11 days left and I can already smell the Christmas dinner. Hong Kong was amazing. Our hostel was right downtown. Hong Kong is like New York, divided into neighborhoods, each with their own distinct vibe and feel. Causeway Bay, where our hostel was located, has the Times Square, bright lights, throngs of people, bright lights, restaurants and shopping. Although not one of the main bar streets, the night life in our area is still around. We began our first day in a small with with two double beds. Apparently, even though Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region ruled by the British for 99 years, the Chinese stuff still leaks through at times. Our room had been booked, but they promised a new room for the last three nights. Jim, John, and I walked around the city exploring what it had to offer. Victoria Park was not too far away and the streets were crowded with foreigners. There were families and business people, Indians and Chinese, Americans and Europeans. We all nearly got killed corssing the streets (remember 99 years of British rule), but we managad to survive after a few brushes with double decker buses. A walk along the waterfront aveneue took us by the car dealerships: Ferrari, Mazerati, Lambourgini, Lotus, Lexus, BMW, Aston Martin, Mercedes, and the rest. The wealth here is incredible. It's amazing what 99 years of Western influence can do to China. Hong Kong has no hacking, no spitting, no haze, and get this: no squatters! Walking down the roads, we felt like we were once again flung into a futuristic city. Some of the intersections downtown were raised roads with flyover exits and lightrail trains running down the center. The cars whizzed around us as the people weaved through the sidewalks. It was like being in a blender of Chinese and Western cultures, literally.

We went out to Wan Chai the first night and although expensive, we had a good time out. It was really night to see Christmas lights and the fact that everyone spoke English was a real convenience. In Hong Kong, the local Chinese speak Cantonese, not Mandarin, which means that even if I wanted to speak Chinese, I probably couldn't get around on my own. I couldn't even read the characters because they used traditional and not simplified characters.

The second day we got up, ate, moved rooms and headed to Victoria Peak. As an island, Hong Kong is built a lot like Honolulu, Hawaii. There isn't much room, and the mountains give little level ground to build on. The only solution to this is to build up. One of the best ways to view the city skyscrapers is to go to the top of Victoria's Peak, directly behind Central (the district). The tram takes you up and up and the scene was beautiful. Victoria Harbor (everything is Victoria, it's British), which separates Hong Kong island from Kowloon (on the mainland China, but still part of the Hong Kong territory). The water was beautiful, the weather was great and all was good. After the peak, we went down to the Mid-Levels to see the residential area. The Mid-Levels are comparible to the Upper "Sides" of Manhattan. The richest of the rich live here in Hong Kong. We rode the Mid-Level Central Escalators, which are the longest series of outdoor escalators in the world. Along the way, we saw some great places to live and a fantastic neighborhood to eat, drink, and relax.

We walked around Central for a bit before going back home to change for the night. We ate a decent dinner and went out to Lan Kuai Fong bar street. This district was great. Besides the fact that I felt young amid the late 20s/early 30s crowd; and felt a bit plain without a jacket (many of the patrons had probably headed out for some after work cocktails and were dressed in business clothes); I enjoyed myself throughly.

The next day, we headed across the Harbor to Kowloon to explore what the other side had to offer. This was the first time I saw a line outside of Gucci and there were more high-end stores than 7-11s (and Hong Kong has 7-11s like Manhattan has Starbucks). We ate a quick lunch and hopped on a river tour. The river tour took us around the Harbor. I was amazed by the skyline. Just like most of Asia, 10 years ago this skyline barely existed. When the boat returned, we went out for a nice dinner before heading to the waterfront to watch the nightly light show. The light show was one of my favorite things about Hong Kong. Unique to Hong Kong, this is the longest running permanent light show in the world. Laser beams, spotlights, and some 60 skyscrapers involved, the light show was mesmerizing and impressive. We headed back to Lan Kuai Fong to top the night off and call it a great day.

The final day was a day that we all got separated. Jim and John went to Macau to gamble, but John forgot his passport in the room. By the time he came to the room, I had already left to see the giant sitting buddha on a nearby island. John ended up spending the day exploring more of the city, Jim won $300 USD gambling in Macau, and I enjoyed the bronze Buddha. All the activities took all day, but we all had a great time none-the-less.

To top the night off, we went out to a fantastic Mexican restaurant. It was pretty much a fiesta in my stomach because not only have I not seen Mexican food since I came to China, but this was actually decently good Mexican too! We walked around Wan Chai after dinner and spent out last night at a low key bar nearby.

Upon returning to Beijing, we were greeted with the Siberian winds from the Arctic and a haze so bad you couldn't see across the street. Typical Beijing. Other than that, my head is exploding with all the homework I have to do. I leave once again on Thursday for Tokyo, and I'll still be counting down the days until Grandma's home cooking. I can't wait to show everyone the cool things I've picked up along my travels. Remember those days when I was blogging about the Olympics? Seems like another lifetime ago! Anyway, here are the pictures. See you soon.

Hong Kong by John

Hong Kong by Regis

感恩节快乐--Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, today has been a great Thanksgiving Day. Kind of. It definitely does not feel like the holiday season in China. I'm actually really excited to eat a great Thanksgiving meal at the Radisson Hotel in Beijing. However, I wasn't excited to wake up this morning at 7:30am to go to Chinese class. They couldn't even cut us any slack when it comes to the holidays. I told my teacher I was going to be missing next Thursday's class, and she told me I was going to fail. I think she was kidding? Actually, I couldn't have asked for a better Chinese teacher this semester. There are only four students in my class, two of them already know Chinese very well and can't take the intensive class because of credit restrictions, and the third person is about my level of Chinese. This means we can set the pace of the class, which is crucial when studying another language. I am very lucky to have her too, because from what it sounds like, some of the other teachers are very strict and not very flexibile. There have been a few times when I've gone a little less than prepared for class, but our teacher understands the fact that we are here to explore China, and not to stick our noses in our Chinese books. When you can walk outside and live your life in the language, the class should be used as a suppliment, not as a base. All in all, she's a great teacher, with a great sense of humor and a bubbly energetic enthusiasm that keeps me awake in the mornings. She isn't like my old Laoshi (老师-teacher) from Fordham, who I thank for giving me the foundations of my Chinese lanugage skills, but she is a new Laoshi who has taught me how to use what I've learned in everyday situations.

After Chinese, I was in the mood to be productive, so Brittany and I went to the gym. Then, I spent a good three hours with my Chinese tutor going over the past few lessons. It's about time to get ready for my feast, and of course, I have a great substitute family here with me in China. I can surely add myself in to John, Jim, or Devon's families for the time being.

In honor of the Thanksgiving spirit, I think I have a lot to be thankful for. I can't belive my semester abroad is already coming to a close. This time last year, coming to China was still a vague plan. Now that it has come to fruition, I must say, it's a lot better than I ever thought it would be. I've had a safe trip on top of that and I can't wait to get home and be with everyone again. Have a great day with your families. Stuff yourself like the turkey, and don't forget about those American's who don't have the chance to be home for the holidays.

Beijing: Scene 11, Acts 21-23

What a weekend! It was beyond busy and once again it's Sunday and I'm left with a pile of Chinese homework and not much time to do it. Further, I need to prepare myself for my upcoming weeks of travel. I'm organizing what needs to be shipped home, what I'm bringing with me on the plane, and what I'm leaving behind. Devon left Thursday for Hong Kong and she arrives back to Beijing shortly. Friday night was a blast.  The whole crew went out to eat and to see the acrobat show. We dressed up a little nicer than usual to give the night out a more mature ambiance. Lauren knew of a Japanese restaurant not too far from the theater and we all had a delicious meal for just under $10. It was a pretty fancy restaurant actually.

The show was amazing. Among the many acts, these were some of the noteworthy scenes. Three women wereso flexible she could twist into any shape and pretzel herself into a ball.  Jumping men flung themselves off a spring board, landing on top of tall platforms, raised chairs, and on the shoulders of 3 men standing on top of each other. There were girls riding bikes, but they didn't just ride them. They stood on the handle bars, had people stand on their shoulders, and they even finished with 12 girls on one bike! There was a hanging contraption that was lowered from the ceiling, it was horizontal with two circles on the ends. Inside the circles, they were not spheres, was a man. They began the act by spinning the contraption with them inside the circles. Then, they exited their circles and walked along the outside as the contraption was spinning. It was really crazy and I don't know if I can expain it any better but I thought they were going to fall off. Especially when they tried to do it blindfolded. There was also three guys who did gymnastic type things. They would hold each other in mid air using just their hands. They were incredibly strong and it was really cool. There was also a spinning plates act that was really spectacular and I think one or two more that I can't recall. I have a few pictures to post and I'll try and find more. Overall, the show was great, the dinner was fantastic, and our after party moved to Houhai bar district to finish the fun evening.

Saturday morning, I went to Temple of Heaven on a TBC sponsored trip. It was great. The temple was beautiful and here are some pictures. 

Temple of Heaven

After the Temple of Heaven, I returned home and relaxed. John's mother and brother arrivedin Beijing on Saturday. Jim's sisters come in today, as does Matt's girlfriend and Devon's family. I should be able to get a lot of work done with everyone busy showing their family around town. But, I have that wonderful procrastination problem, so I'm sure I'll end up eating dinner with everyone every night and not be doing what I'm supposed to. I had another tutoring session today with Doug. The lessons are going well but he really doesn't like to speak English. I'm going to have to call my aunt who teaches kindergarten to give me some pointers. Hope everyone is doing well. Can't wait to talk to everyone on Thursday (well, Friday for me).

My Life's a Soundtrack, I'm Just Playing DJ

What a great week. I got all of the pictures up from Guilin, I've turned in a paper, passed a Chinese test and had a great weekend. First, Friday night DJ Armin van Buuren, ranked #1 by DJ Mag top 100 DJs, was at GT Banana here in Beijing. All of us at TBC prebought tickets and went all out for this. Personally, I had no idea what to expect from something like this and techno music really isn't my thing but everyone had the time of their life. After a stressful week, this was what all of us needed. Besides the fact that everyone dressed in neon-colors, multiple layers, hats, ridiculous sunglasses and even wigs (Devon & Brittany), the best part of the night was the fact that we didn't return home until nearly 4:30 am. Saturday was spent mostly sleeping and my ears are still ringing from the hours of loud music. (Really, they are.)

Saturday, after sleeping until 1 pm, I woke up, ate and went to get paid. Tutoring really does pay off! Then, I came back to the dorms, we went out to eat and went back to Wangfujing Street to the night market. This time, we made sure it wasn't closed and that we could eat some creepy crawlers. Just wait for some of the pictures. There were kidneys, hearts, livers, testicles, penis, crickets, cicadas, grubs, silk worms, and scorpions. I ate something from that list and to be frank, it wasn't all that bad. I actually had another just to try it again. When the night market was about to close we all got some fresh fruit on a stick and called it a night. I was exhausted from the night before and when I got home, I watched some Entourage and slept.

This morning, I woke up all too early to tutor but in the end I just reminded myself I get paid way too much to talk with a 10 year old about nothing. Today, we went over action verbs to try and get him to form complete sentences, but he wasn't having it really. We eventually got him to say all the verbs with a simple subject (always "I"), verb, and object. We're making a bit of progress I think?

This week, I also dropped serious kuai when I went Christmas shopping. Sean and I headed to some of the largest markets around Beijing, including the Silk Market, and came back with nearly everyone checked off of our Christmas lists. But the homework still continues without end. I have two weekends in December when I'm going to be away from Beijing and out exploring Asia. This means that I have to write one art paper by December and another by the last class. Chinese class is relentless, always new characters to be memorized and learned. Further, my Buddhism class has a 15 page paper due at the end of the semester. School is school. It won't do much to complain but the only problem is that now everyone is scrambling to see Beijing. Many students have procrastinated and a majority of them haven't been to Tian**men Square yet, let alone the Summer Palace, Llama Temple, Olympic Green or Beihai. There are plans unfolding all around me to take a trip to this place or that place, to see this market this weekend or that district this day. As for me, I only have to see the Temple of Heaven, but I might not get around to that. I also planned on going to an acrobat show, which I think we're planning soon.

I'll post pictures of the party Friday and the Wangfujing eatings later on this week. Stay warm. Thanksgiving is in 11 days!

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.

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.

The Last of the Pictures

I have officially caught everyone up for the Silk Road. These last pictures are of our trip to the Mongolian Grasslands where we stayed overnight in the gers. Also, there are a few pictures of Hohhot the city, which is located in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia (still in China). It was a great trip as you can tell by the pictures we all had a great time and experienced so many different things. I wish you all could have been there.

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It might be easier for most people to simply click on the "View Album" link below the slideshow. This way you can see better quality pictures and comment on them as well. I'm sure when you see our feast at the Mongolian Grasslands you'll laugh and wonder how we ate that, but it was delicious, trust me.

Also, here are the pictures from the weekend. I hope we all don't look like a bunch of drunks but it was a beer festival, so don't blame us for holding beer in every picture. At least we were all safe.

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I have been at the internet cafe for more than 4 hours now and I need to do something productive. I have some reading to get done so I think I'm going to do that for a while. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing for the National Holiday coming up this weekend. We have classes on Saturday but everyone is planning something. Had they told us earlier, we could have gotten visas to leave the country, but they told us a day before we left for Qingdao so we had limited time to plan something. Our trip to Thailand is no longer going to happen and nobody can reach a consensus about where to go and for how long. The best deal we're seeing right now is a trip to Sanya, Hainan. This is the southern-most point in China. Hainan is the Hawaii of China and Sanya has amazing sand beaches and lots of stuff to do. If the plans go through, I'll be headed there from Wednesday to Sunday, October 5th. I'll let you know about that adventure as it unfolds. Until then, have a good one.

My Third Chinese Adventure

I returned back to Beijing this afternoon after a great weekend in Qingdao. What a trip! Let's start with the overnight train that we had to go on. At first, we didn't mind that fact that the lights didn't turn off or the fact that the seats were really uncomfortable and practically leaned forward. We also didn't mind the fact that we were getting in at 7:20 am. But the fact that they sold at least 100+ standing tickets made the trip a little uncomfortble. If you can't quite get a mental picture going let me try and paint one for you. When we got on the train everyone was putting their belongings in the overhead holders so the isles were pretty crowded. Because this is China, people were already sitting in our seats which is fine because they moved when we asked them too. But the problem was, there wasn't anywhere to go. The isles were so packed that we figured out pretty quickly that these people were going to stand for the 8 hours to Qingdao. They were sitting on the ground, laying under our seats, squishing onto people's laps. There were people sitting on the bathroom sinks, underneath the sinks and on the floor inbetween the cars. If I had to go to the bathroom, it would have been like trying to play a game of tip-toe over peoples bodies. The conductor who checked tickets could barely snake through the hoards of people. The beverage cart never came. Sleeping was another story. Since someone was leaning on my seat, I had a great view of their backside and there were too many people to stretch out my legs. I put my head face down on the table and spent most of the night switching between that position and seat-sleeping.

When we got to Qingdao we had to buy our return tickets back. In China, you can't buy roundtrip tickets for trains, you have to buy a ticket from one destination to another. Our returning overnight train was sold out, but I'm sure that we could have gotten standing tickets (yea right). The only available tickets were early morning tickets and we tried to get everyone on the same train but ended up having to split into two trains. The rest of the day we spent napping at the hotel and eating until our friends arrived from Beijing. It was only Jim, Devon and I on the overnight train because everyone else has classes on Fridays. We met up with our Chinese friend Serena and her friends. They took us out to a pagoda on the water and afterwards we went out and had a great dinner. Tons of delicious seafood including clams, mussles, shrimp and even crab. We had a few vegetables and lots of beer. We learned all of the traditional Chinese drinking games and enjoyed challenging our Chinese friends to their own games. Most of the games involve one on one challenges like who can finish a bottle of beer faster.

We met up with our other friends at the hotel. Being in China, the hotel booked one of our reserved hotel rooms so we ended up having two rooms for 15 people. Apparently in China they dont mind how many people sleep per room. The front desk asked if we had 8 people in one room and when we said yes, the clerk wasn't even surprised. That night we all went out to a bar as a group and had a great time. The next morning we ate and headed straight to the beer festival. It was a cool festival, but not what we had expected. It wasn't as cheap as we had planned, but there were so many fun things to do. They had Hofbrauhaus from Germany (I've been to the original), they had Heineken and other imported beers and of course a huge tent for Tsingtao Beer (the beer was first owned by Germans thus the different spelling). They had tons of food and some interesting music but we had a blast. We made our own international feel by playing American drinking games. Of course, the Chinese crowded around us taking pictures, cheering us on and even joining in. The tripods and videocameras were out in full force and a Chinese newspaper took our picture for the front page. In the background of this picture, a guy is holding up his baby to get in the picture. Serena and her friends also met us there and they ended up having a great time. They really enjoyed us Americans. Around 5 o clock we headed toward the beach to continue our fun. We all took a dip in the sea and played soccer with a Chinese guy. The water wasn't the warmest but we had a great time.

We went back to the hotel to change and clean up. We went to dinner and celebrated Jeff's birthday. It was last Monday, but no one had time to celebrate because we had just returned from our Silk Road trip. We had a lot of toasts and some more seafood and finished the night by going out to a local club with our Chinese friends. Leaving Qingdao was a bummer. We all had such a great time and the weekend flew by. We were all loving the Northern California of China. I'll post some pictures when I can.

Here are some of the Jiayuguan Fort and the Hanging Wall.

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Here are some pictures of Xi'an and Muslim street.

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Here are some pictures of the Terracotta Warriors.

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I Feel Trapped in a 99c Store...

My new dorm is amazing. I have everything I could want. But of course, being in China, they're going to nickle and dime me for everything I've got. Where do I start? Well, when I turn on the lights, I need to make sure the ones I'm not using are off because we only have 400 "units" of electricity a month. This means that if we leave our air condition on for 12 days straight we'll run out of electricity. When I wash my hands in the sink, I better make sure to do it fast because we have 4 tons of hot water and 4 of cold water. We have to pay for any extra that we use. The laundry room is in a different building and there are no dryers. Since it's been pretty hot lately, my laundry only took about a day and half to dry but when winter comes, that's going to be a lot of fun picking my frozen socks off of our balcony. There is no internet in my room. Well, of the two jacks one works (mine), but I can only get on Google. And since Blogger.com is part of Google, I can post. My Skype doesn't work nor do any other sites outside of Google. This isn't terrible right now, especially because we leave Sunday morning for 2 weeks and I'm not bringing my computer. Later on this year, I'll probably be writing about the situation again when I slip on ice and break all of my electronics at once. Our kitchen doesn't have any gas to light the stove, so we have to pay extra for that as well. No pots or pans provided. Jimmy and I were laughing this morning about how frustrating it is to live here sometimes. Everything is so cheap, but I've always said you get what you pay for. Things don't work properly, like the power strip I took from our old apartment. Sure we bought it at the supermarket, but there are 6 outlets on it and only 3 work. The handles on our plastic/cloth environmentally friendly grocery bags have broken already. The internet is a fiasco. Even in the other building (where we have to go to access wireless), it works sporadically. We laugh that we get things so cheap, but when you have to buy 10 of them to finally get one that works, you kind of come out short. It's kind of like being trapped in a 99c store. But, who doesn't like things from the 99c store. You can get pretty cool stuff there sometimes...

Most of the TBC students went to the Great Wall today. Mutianyu. The same exact place that we had gone a few days ago. Devon, Jimmy and I decided to opt out of this one. Good thing we did, the smog is horrible today and the weather is not the best. Plus they all had to leave at 8 o'clock or some ridiculous time. No way. Instead, we decided to go the Happy Valley Amusement Park. I love theme parks. Roller coasters are my thing. This theme park wasn't huge but they had some pretty great rides. We went on a flying coaster, which we got front seats for. Then they had one just like Elitch Gardens in Denver. The Mind Eraser. Almost an exact replica of that one. We went on another spinning one that moved like a pendulum. We had a great time. Admission was $24 and all worth it. It was really expensive though. A bottle of water was Y5. Ridiculous. We usually pay Y2 ($0.30). I took a lot of pictures. The park was divided into 5 different worlds. Atlantis, Greece, Mayan Ruins, Shangri-la, and Ant Kingdom (Kiddie land). We rode a few rides in each part and just enjoyed the day. Camera #2 is still doing alright too.
We're all still getting used to our new surroundings. We're meeting some cool people and a few of us went out last night. We're all pretty stoked for the two week Silk Road trip we're about to go on. Here's the deal, what I know so far at least. There are 120 students at TBC this semester. We're split into two groups. I'm in Group B, which travels from West to East. This means I start in the Gobi Desert. We go to the very end of the Great Wall, and leave the very last gate. It was here that people were exiled. Once they exited the gate, which was underground, they looked ahead of them at the Gobi. There was, and still is, no life on this desert. They looked behind them and the gate would just be a stone wall. Most of the exiled chose to die at the gate, and it is said their bodies still haunt this gate. We are starting our trip here. We are going to go on camels at 4am to watch the sunrise over the sand dunes. Then we begin our journey to Xi'an. It is here that the famous terracotta warriors are. We are unable to go to Tibet on this trip so instead we are going to the Shaolin Monastery also known as the Shaolin Temple. Many of the major martial arts have evolved from this very temple. Here we will watch the monks practice their arts. They recruit boys as young as 8 years old to begin training. On our Silk Road trip we'll be travelling to inner Mongolia and staying in traditional huts with locals. This will not be our only time camping out. In Mongolia, we will watch them race horses and participate in local Mongolian wrestling. I have never ridden a horse and really hope I get to ride one here. That would be an experience. Besides seeing the local Mongolian's customs and rituals, we will be living in their round tents (forget the name) and living with them for a few nights. Our other home stays will be indoors but we will be completely submerged in the real China. If this trip doesn't get me to the belly of the dragon, I don't know what I'll have to do.

Along this trip, I will try and update here, but if I can't I'll be posting pictures up when I return. I probably won't have the time (or the will) to write about every day, so I'll take extra pictures. I will have my Chinese mobile phone, so you can call me on that. To call me from the US you must first dial 011-86-10 Which is the international code for Chinese phone numbers. After dialing that code, you can then dial my cell phone number, which is 13671373273. Make sure you get a calling card if anyone wants to call me. (Probably not but hey, I want to think I have some fans)

Here are some pictures for you to catch up on.

The Great Wall

Track & Field

I forgot to talk about a dinner I went to a few days ago. It the was our orientation day and we had a few host students take me and my neighbor Ryan on a tour around campus. We met up with Jimmy and his host student and we all went out to get some stuff for the room. We got pots and pans and a few packages of instant noodles. Since we're leaving on the Silk Road trip we can't really stock up on bacon and eggs and stuff because it will all spoil. We went out to dinner to a really cool restaurant where we ate like kings. They even had a free show of multiple traditional dances and performances. It started with some girls doing a traditional dance, followed by a mask dance, and ending with a small portion of the Beijing Opera performed by a young lady. The mask dance was awesome. The guy would change his mask within the half second it took for his hand and sleeve to pass over his face. Literally instantaneously. It was amazing. The opera singer was good? I had to ask my host student if the woman was performing well and she said yes. I probably just don't have the ear for opera. Well, I'm already hard of hearing as it is so I know I don't have the ear for it. We had some of the best Beijing Roast Duck I've had out here. They had some cool stuff on the menu that sounded really good. There was this eel pasta dish that looked really delicious but we didn't order it. This bone marrow drink that had bones with straws in the middle looked interesting to try but we didn't. I took a picture. Also, we did order some shrimp rolls dipped in pink cream cheese type sauce. That was delicious. Ryan wanted to try the duck head but we didn't get that so we got some dumplings, broccoli and a fish that was really meaty and tasted awesome.

I have more pictures from dinner, the amusement park, and my new dorm are going to be posted sometime soon.

My Second Chinese Adventure

Well, the Silk Market was good. I got some new shoes for Y100 which is about $15. I didn't want to buy anything else but I somehow managed to get some t-shirts for Y30-40. I also got a hat. You will see pictures. After the Silk Market, we went to Wangfujing to get some stuff too. I never found a cheap place for shorts so I ended up going to the mall. The malls here have American prices and I went to Nike and picked up some overpriced shorts. Now I have them so I'm happy. We ended up eating at the Duck Dinner again. Did I mention that at the last dinner we ate turtle? And the girls ordered a special "woman's soup" that had frog ovaries in it. It is supposed to make girls more beautiful. I took pictures, but this time at dinner we stuck to more traditional dishes. After eating we headed out to one of the bar districts. While we were out at Sanlitun, we ran into some people from West Africa. They spoke spanish (surprisingly) and one of the guys was an ambassador's son. They invited us to another club, China Doll, with them and we headed over. I think we got in VIP or something because we took a different entrance into the club. This club also has 6 floors. It was a ton of fun but we were missing a few people from our group so we decided to leave.

Meeting all of these people from around the world is pretty cool. You can meet them anywhere, just ask. That night was probably the beginning of my second adventure. Yesterday I woke up and knew that I had to send my dad my broken laptop keyboard. I didn't have a clue where a UPS store was and I tried to look it up on UPS.com. Well, they have 5-6 locations in the Beijing area, I just didn't know which one was closest to me. Looking up a map of Beijing is another thing. If you can even find a decent one, its either going to be in Chinese or it will be incomplete. Most of the smaller areas with small streets are unlabeled. It took me about 45 minutes to find the first location, and I didn't really feel like trying to look up all of the locations so this was going to be the one I'd use. I took the subway there, and when I got out of the subway I was a little disoriented. I had a general idea where to go, but back to the map thing, I wasn't quite sure exactly where to go. I knew I had to walk west of the subway line, which I did, but after walking for a while I knew I should have passed it by now. I turned around to look at the buildlings. Everyone who doesn't know, I like looking at buildings and taking pictures of skyscrapers. A majority of my time in NYC, I orient myself based on skyscrapers and can get my friends and I around the city pretty well. Even in a part of town we've never been too. I turned around and saw the building I was supposed to be at. When I arrived at the UPS store, they spoke enough English to understand what I wanted to do. The only problem was this was a UPS Express store. I didn't want to burn a huge hole in my wallet, but I guess I really didn't have a choice.

The lady working at UPS didn't know how to package my keyboard. I told her it was already broken, it just couldn't break in half. They didn't believe me when I told them a few wraps of bubble wrap would make it sturdy enough, so they tried to put it in a box. It didn't fit in any smaller boxes, so they had to bubble wrap it like I said. Once the package was ready, I started to fill out the paperwork. Apparently, everyone in China needs to have a passport in order to ship things overseas. Well, I don't carry my passport in my pocket so I had to go get it. I caught a cab back to the apartment, got my wallet and took a cab back. I get back to UPS and fill out more paperwork and got it paid. But of course they don't take credit card at UPS China, and I didn't have Y288 in cash. Back out again to try and find an ATM. I took out more Yuan and walked back to the store. Paid and left. Finally. It was a short first part of my adventure but overall really a fiasco. Total time to ship a package in China: 2 hours and 45 minutes. Normally, I wouldn't even bother with this process, but I had to get the shipping done. And now I know where at least one UPS store is.

I was taking some phenonmenal pictures of downtown Beijing and the central business district, until my camera battery died. The cab driver even slowed down when we passed the twisted doughnut building and pointed to it and did camera motions, but I had to point to mine and try and use my 3 yr old vocabulary to explain that the battery died. He got the message I think, and I got a few good ones in before it died. I'll have more time to take others too.

When I got back to the apartment it was already 3:30 in the afternoon. I made some instant noodles for the apartment and took a break. Jimmy and I had basketball semi-finals that night so I had to rest up for the big game. We went all out. When I woke up from my snooze, I was all ready to take a shower and get my face painted. Thats right, stars and stripes on my face, bright red t-shirt, white Nike basketball shorts, and an American flag cape. It was glorious. I looked like Captain American. The only thing was, I didn't want a bunch of white dots on my face for the stars, so I asked Rachel to just do one big star and people would get the point. Yea yea, all of you may know that the flag of Liberia only has one big star, but I didn't know. Although the Liberian flag was on my face, I was decked out in other American apparel. I'm pretty sure people knew I was rooting for America and not Liberia.

On the way to the game, we met other Americans from Texas who had moved to China and were now working there. The guys were 27 years old and one was a lawyer in Hong Kong and the other worked in Beijing. One guy said his parents worked for Haier (a Chinese GE), and he had lived in Tokyo for most of his life. They only spent a few years in the states but they spoke perfect English. It was good to meet up with them and hear their stories and we exchanged contact info. So now when we go to Hong Kong we have someone to show us around. Arriving at the stadium was insanity. We were swarmed with people wanting to take pictures of our American group. Me and Jimmy had our faces painted, three of us had American flags on our shouders and all the girls were in either red or white. Everyone wanted tickets. Our tickets, in the 3rd tier, were fetching for about Y4000. That would be a nice chunk of change to have, but I'm pretty sure the memories are worth far more. When we got to our seats, naturally someone was already sitting in them, so we moved down a bit. Well, the only place to move was down because we were in the very last row in the highest section. It was so high up I thought I was going to hit my head on the air ducts or something. (Not really). We watched the Spain and Lithuania game first. It was a good game. I didn't think that Spain was going to win. They have Paul and Mark Gasol, but Lithuania has a huge team. Lithuania had better offense and although their defense was decent, Spain had a hard time breaking through. It was a close game, but every time Spain would score, Lithuania would come back with a matching point. Eventually, Spain worked their magic and pulled ahead. Lithuania couldn't catch up so they play for the bronze on Sunday. Then the real fun began.

When the first game was over, we all went down to the first section to try and bum tickets off of people leaving early. Jim was lucky enough to have a Lithuanian hand him his ticket...which was a behind the basket floor seat. Incredible. Of course, we passed the ticket back and got everyone through to the floor section, but security was too tight to get us any further. We spent the rest of the game standing on the railing watching the US and Argentina game. It was awesome. Not only did I get to see Kobe, LeBron, Carmelo, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade, and all the other all stars, I could actually see them from a great spot. We were standing next to some big shot guys. They wouldn't tell us what they did, but one lived in Miami and the other in Milwaukee. Of course the US team beat Argentina, 101 to 81 and the whole stadium erupted for America. Within 10 minutes we had a crowd of people lined up to take pictures with us. People were bringing their kids with us, we got a USA chant going and a Meiguo Jiayou chant too. We were interviewed by a German radio station and I got to speak for about 3 minutes about my opinion of this years national team. It was awesome.

Of course, no Chinese adventure would end probably without something typical happening to me. With all of the hub bub and excitement going on, I would love to snap a few pictures of the moments. I was handing my camera to a Chinese lady and somehow it slipped through both of our fingers and fell on the floor. Naturally, the camera was on and now there is a lens error. The camera turns on but the focus is off and it doesn't retract into the camera fully. I'm getting pretty sick of all my broken electronics and I didn't feel like going out to celebrate the US victory. When we left the stadium, it took my friend and I about 40 minutes to try and catch a cab, but eventually we did. We got back to the apartment, and I washed off my face paint. I woke up early this morning to write about my adventure but now I have to go to the same electronics store I bought my keyboard from and ask for a camera. Who knows, maybe they can fix the broken one (which my parents bought for me just about a week before I came over here). Who knows. Hope all is well in America. I'm going to Track & Field finals tonight at the Bird's Nest.

Orphanage and Downtown

US Basketball Game

A Chinese Orphanage

Alright, I haven't written in a while but the past few days have been pretty relaxing. We're taking it easy. We've had about half of the volunteers go home. They were all signed up for the 14 day program and so now these next six days we're consolidating apartments (we are getting two people). During the day I can't really remember what we did, but I know that we went to the dumpling dinner that we missed before. This was delicious. I tried jellyfish, which was actually like hard gelatin. It had a little sour bite but it was kind of bland and bitter. At least I tried it. Other than that we had tons of dumplings and other dishes. It was Andrew's last night, so he came with Jimmy and I to dumpling dinner. Afterwards we talked about travelling aroudn China back at the apartment. Andrew has been a lot of places while he was in China this summer. He had a lot of information and we're definately going to use him as a resource when we need to find out what to do in certain places. Not to mention, a lot of CYCAN students (our Chinese leaders) live in various cities around China. One leader, Serena, lives in Shanghai, another lives in Shenzhen (her English name is Rain), and another leader Sophia, lives in Wulan? It is somewhere in southern China, but she studies in Beijing. We hung out at the house and I'm pretty sure I was out by 11:30. Rachel and Kelly had a track and field event at the Bird's Nest and they got back around midnight. They had really good seats and had a great time. It was fun to listen to them tell their stories about getting paparazzied by Chinese and other foreign tourists.

I went to the orphanage yesterday. It really exists. It was about an hour away from Beijing by bus. It is out in a rural part of China, but not too rural. The facility is actually really nice and modern. The program is called Philip Hayden Foundation and the director's name is Leah. After showing us around the grounds a bit, me and the 3 other people I was with got to meet some of the orphans. All of the orphans at PHF have some kind of special need. Most have cleft pallett, severe heart conditions that require surgery, or brain issues. The children we worked with were all under the age of three. This was a little bit out of my comfort zone because I am not used to working with such young kids. Also, it is a lot different when you are working with special kids. One of the girls had her stomach born in a pouch on her stomach. The skin of the pouch was very very thin, almost transluescent. You could see her heart beating inside of the pouch, moving the skin up and down with each beat. Another girl had a brain condition that filled her with head with water. She had an enlarged head. The one thing that made me uncomfortable at the ophanage was how tempremental the children were. They were easily upset and there was one girl, Ruby, who we were told isn't fond of others. One of the children loved to be tossed up and down, and Leah encouraged us to do so, but somehow it didn't seem right for me to toss them up in the air. Had it been any of my younger cousins, I would have loved to, but considering these children were special and not related to me, I didn't want to take the risk of something happening.

There was one kid, Tristan, who had cleft pallet and a underdeveloped hand who was awesome. He was probably one of the most happy babies I've ever seen. All you had to do was bounce him up and down and he would giggle and smile. I enjoyed my time with the kids and could see myself becoming attached to these kids had I actually come to the orphanage more often. When the children went to take a nap, we ate lunch and began painting a few classrooms for the orphanage. Painting was fun. I'm not a professional but I can say that my walls looked decent enough. I got a lot of paint on the ceiling though. But she said that didn't matter. We headed back around 3:30 PM. Before we left, we were walking around outside and we saw two puppies that had been abandoned at the orphanage. They were the only things I took pictures of and they reminded me of home. They were really cool puppies that were small. One of them literally fell inside a small hole while they were following me to the other building.

When I got home from the orphanage, I hung out at the apartment and relaxed. My shorts had paint on them and my shoes had drips on them so I'm heading to the silk market today to pick up some shoes and shorts. Also, my gym shorts mysteriously disappeared so I need to get a pair of those too. We had duck dinner last night too. We weren't signed up to go, but since people left early there are a lot of open slots. This is a chance for us to get free food and have fun with our CYCAN leaders. Jimmy, Rachel and I had turtle and some delicious Beijing roast duck. Also, we had this catfish that they brought out for us to see before it was cooked. The waiter held it up for us to inspect and it was huge. The whole meal was delicious.

Last night we hung low because we were supposed to go to the Great Wall this morning. Unfortunately, we woke up to rain and I had an upset stomach. We decided to nix the trip and reschedule for another day when the weather is better. Probably on the 24th or 25th. I'm going to the market now. Have a good one everyone.

A Weekend Around

The past few days have been a whole lot of fun. Saturday we decided to go out to lunch after our meeting. Of course we think it is a great idea to take the subway to a random stop, get off and find a restaurant. Well that may sound like a great idea, we should have remembered the some stops are in business areas and some are in shopping districts. Well, naturally, we choose one of the stations that is in the middle of an industrial park. We get out of the subway to look aroudn and see nothing. A small landfill dump and a nearby factory were pretty much the only things besides some office buildings. I asked a girl if she knew of any good places to eat nearby and she was able to point us to a street that she said "had a lot of restaurants." When you are hot, sweaty, and hungry, the last thing you want to do is walk aimlessly trying to find a place to eat. Especially a place that doesn't have some weird food. After walking for a while we found a restaurant. They took us to the basement where we had a private room. We sat a huge round table, ordered 5 dishes and feasted. It was one of those delicious authentic Chinese meals. We had bak choi and musrooms in delicious sauce, bak choi and meat stuff w/ another delicious sauce, a peanut-something spicey dish (not my favorite), some sweet red bean squishy things, and some cooked bamboo w/ delicious sauce (again). All that may sound good but the best part was the fish we got. I took pictures of it. I think a few people were apprehensive about being served a whole fish w/ the head and tail and everything, but I assured them. 1. We aren't going to find a place that doesn't serve the head and tail. 2. It will be delicious. And it was. After we were fat and happy for $4 a person we walked back to the subway stop. On the way, Jimmy bought a sweet bike that folds in half for storage. I think it was around $30-40 USD.

Saturday night we went out again to the bar district. I was pretty tired from the whole week so we didn't have too much fun. It was good to just have a low key night. When we woke up on Sunday we had to have a meet at 11 am to go to our assignment. I was paired up with Jim and Bill, two of my roommates, and we thought we were going to the orphanage. Apparently the orphanage doesn't take volunteers on Sunday's so instead we were doing a survey for the International Olympic Committed (IOC). We had to go out to a tourist attraction, (ie Silk Market, T--nanmen Square, etc.) and find English speaking people to see if they knew anything about the IOC. The way it was presented to us was very laid back. If you get hungry, eat, if you want to shop around, shop around. We got the jist and headed over to the Silk Market. Jimmy hadn't been yet. After this trip, I'm pretty sure I'm putting myself on Silk Market intervention. I'm not going to let myself go there because you can't leave without buying stuff. I magically ended up with a button down for Y100 and a wallet for Y40. Total purchase: $20. Also, walking back to the subway I went into a Chinese CD/DVD store. Picked up a few Chinese hip hop CDs. Tracy, a Chinese roommate of mine, said that she doesn't think they are authentic but it doesn't really matter because it comes in a pretty official looking case and everything. Overall, I'm glad I got to go back to the area and get some stuff. This doesn't even count the stuff that I decided I had to purchase before the end of the trip. I'm glad I didn't bring any winter clothes because there are really nice sweaters and coats for really cheap.



Like usual, walking down the isles was intense. People love bargaining and I like practicing my Chinese so I got prices down easily. It is funny to see their reactions when I speak a little Mandarin. Most likely they ask if I'm part Chinese. They must not think American's are cool because if they have to guess a western country they choose Canada or England. I had a lady argue with me that "surely you must have some Chinese!" to which I responded and then she pointed to her eyes, touched her index to her thumb, and pointed at my eyes. ha-ha. I had forgotten the Chinese word for Mexico until now. I always say my dad is "Mo xi ge" which means Mexican and my mom is "Fa guo" or French. I don't even think my mom is French but its one of the only countries I know how to say and I don't want to spend another 10 minutes explaining I don't know my countries.



After coming back from the market, everyone took a much needed nap. Our roommates Kelly and Rachel went to go see gymnastics. The orphans get to attend the games with us, so they had a little girl and boy. Everyone enjoyed it. When we woke up, we got a quick bite to eat and realized it was our roommate's birthday. We decided to go out. Somehow a huge plastic bottle of "bai jiu" ended up in our freezer...which is a Chinese liquor. I don't know what it is, but I'll just say a little goes a long way.

Today, which is Monday, I had volunteer duty again. Jimmy, Giro, Bill, Devon, Andrew, and myself met at 11 am to get our assignment. Since I had survey duty before, I didn't have to do that again. Instead, I got to go to Wang Fu Jing Shopping district to work at an internet cafe for something. Well, when we got to the district we all wanted to go to the official Olympic flagship store. It is the biggest in Beijing. I got some refridgerator magnets and a t-shirt for myself and my dad. The line was so long that the group must have moved on while I was in there and there is no way I could find them. So I decided to give myself the day off and take a look around. I went to the Adidas store and got another shirt (Y180) and I found a local type store that had nice shirts with Chinese writing. I got a really cool one with "xiong" on it. I think it has something to do with gymnastics maybe because there is an upside person kinda drawn on it. Well, it wasn't that exciting. I got bored really fast and went to find a place to eat. I found this back alley with tons of food and got a dish that was called "nu mian" nu is beef and mian is noodle. It was kind of like Vietnamese pho. Hopefully I don't get sick from it, but it kinda looked safe enough. Sorta. I really want to try these Chinese candied fruits. They are dunked in a sugar glaze or something. Once I'm more established I'll have plenty of time.

I just got back to the apartment and no one is home. That's probably why this post is so long and it actually makes sense. I'm waiting to go to a "Traditional Chinese Dinner" tonight with CCI. That will be a story for next time.