I'm going to start chronologically with this entry, beginning with Tuesday, and I will try and be concise, although a lot has happened the past few days. I promise, there is a great ending and you won't be disappointed. On Tuesday, we began the day by getting up early. The previous night we had sat around talking and drinking Turkish coffee and Jenny had to break the news to the girls that with one more leader arriving the next day (Tuesday), her apartment (although spacious) would be unable to accommodate all the people. So, Tuesday, Brasilian Ana and Chinese Lin had to pack their bags and move to a new apartment. The train and subway to their apartment was an unpleasant one, solely in the fact that it was depressing knowing that these people I had just met and got to know are now living on the opposite side of town from the rest of us. It was almost like burning a newly built bridge. Although it's clearly not the end of the world, I really enjoyed their company because Ana and I can make the best of any situation and Lin and I talk about China and speak in Chinese.
When we arrived at the apartment I felt even worse. It looked like a shabby, dingy place, with plaster crumbling from the sides and laundry hanging and fluttering like rags from the balconies of the upper level apartments. The apartment wasn't too terrible on the inside, but it was definitely not as plush as our country house. We left from there back to Prague to get Ayesgül her monthly bus pass and to exchange money. Since Jenny had previous engagements, I was once again leading the girls around the city. Running errands was pretty easy and we finished in the early afternoon and headed to Prague Castle.
Prague Castle was amazing. The ancient complex is huge. The main dining hall was used for multiple royal events. The inauguration of the king was celebrated by a huge feast where high officials and prominent city members were invite to pay homage to their new ruler. Afterwards they would move to the cathedral to finish the coronation. The huge main hall, called Vladislav Hall, was also used as a jousting arena, where horses were brought in and the performers jousted for royal entertainment. I thought that was awesome. It was also used as a marketplace where vendors from all over the world would sell luxury items like spices, jewels, fur, and gold.
The royal hapel inside holds bones of many saints and as our audio tour guide told us. You'd be surprised to find that one of the patron saints of Czech Republic is buried in the royal chapel, All Saints Chapel. After a fire in which most of its Romanesque details were destroyed in 1541, the church was rebuilt in Baroque style. Prague Castle has much history of law, politics and religion and is a fascinating place. After touring the royal quarters, we made our way to Saint George's Basilica which was old and plain but held tombs of the royal family and the remains of St. Agnes, the Benedictine abess who started the first nunnery in Prague. She was actually a daughter of royalty and gave it up for a life of God. From St. George's we went to St. Vitus Cathedral, which was just as beautiful the second time around.The audio tour was an excellent choice while touring the many chapels within the cathedral. Come to find out they have a chapel for St. John Baptiste, the Virgin Mary, and the remains of St. Wenceslas are held here. The cathedral dates back to the 1300s.
By this time, we were all history and castle'd out so we made our way down to the Charles Bridge to cross and find something to eat. We were in a rush by now because we were supposed to meet Jenny and our newest trainee, Olessya from Kazakhstan, for the start of our official training as program leaders. We made it barely on time and continued to go over the agenda for the week and our upcoming plans. Rather then heading home after a long day of sightseeing and working, we decided to head to Old Town Square to watch the Brazil v North Korea soccer game.
Last time I was in Europe, it was FIFA World Cup 2006 in Munich, Germany. What an experience that was! I'm so glad to be back for another world cup where the people are so involved and so enthusiastic about the sport. We enjoyed a few beers and sat right next to a group of Brazilians (with Ana of course sporting her Brazilian shirt). Throughout the game, Portuguese cheers and curses were flowing from Ana and another Brazilian, Gil. During the commercial breaks, the other Brazilian group next to us got their drums out and played music to energize the crowd and get some dancing. I have a video to upload that is just fantastic. The Brazilian girls are dancing, their drums are shaking my legs with each beat, and the crowd is going wild. When Brazil scored (twice in fact), the uproar got even more uncontrollable. The best part was the fact that we were standing in one of the oldest and most historic parts of Prague.
The next day, Wednesday, we had a full day of education. We began with a Cultural Preparation session, which gave an overview of Czech culture and helped us understand cultural differences. We also prepared ourselves as ambassadors of our country and how to be conscience of the fact that some of the students have never met foreigners like ourselves and we must do our best to represent our countries. It is kind of funny to think that people that meet me will draw the conclusion that all Americans are just like me, but they will and they do.
For lunch, I actually met up with one of my really good friends from Fordham, Alexandra. Alexandra and I have been friends since freshman year, when she lived in the dorm building right across from mine. She is very good friends with Devon, one of the students I went to China with. She and her mother are doing a European tour, where they began in Budapest, Hungary, stopped in Prague from Tuesday night--Friday morning, and they'll continue on to Paris for a week or so before going back to the states (I think?). It was so nice to meet up with her and we enjoyed a relaxing lunch in Old Town Square, overlooking the Astronomical Clock and Tyn Church. Although I was a half-hour late for the next meeting, it was worth it to see my college friend (and fellow graduate)!
The second half of the day was spent on giving and receiving feedback and we ended the night early to arrive home at 10 PM. The rest of the night was spent working. We had to prepare for the next morning when we had to do a workshop with high school students on "How to give a presentation." Not to mention I had to stay up even later doing things for the camp agenda. We're still missing two group leaders who will both arrive on Sunday. This means that every session they miss, I need to update them on what they missed. Work work work...
Waking up this morning, I was completely unprepared for the Presentation Skills Workshop that we had to deliver. Luckily, there were only 5 students in each group, and Ana and I gave a great presentation. It was really a lot of fun and since this is a long post, I'll go into detail later on about Czech youth and culture. After the workshop, we had a meeting with our first university partner for My Better Myself. We met with the University of Northern Virginia and discussed what they expect from the student presentations and what the project will be like. They're thinking of making the students design a website called "iSanta.com", with restrictions on budgeting, planning, and design. It was informative, especially for me since I have to plan the projects and how they will be structured.
After that meeting, we moved to another session where we learned how to facilitate groups and debrief. The facilitating and debriefing session was really good. I got put in the hot seat without even knowing it and had to facilitate our group leaders through a task, but little did I know they had been told beforehand to act a certain way (i.e. one person asks tons of questions, one is very quiet, one is very talkative/enthusiastic, etc). I didn't even realize why everyone was acting so weird until after the exercise was over, but I learned a lot about how I reacted to the situation and it will definitely help me with the students during the camp.
After the session, it was already 9:20 PM and we were exhausted. We'd been thinking all day, with no time to relax, and only eating while we moved from one session to the next. The good news is that between sessions we had the chance to stop at a grocery store and pick up 30 eggs and some breakfast foods for the next few days. We've been scraping for food in the mornings and only had one bag of cornflakes left. After the last session, when it was finally time to go, we were all pretty excited that we were going to catch a 9:41 train home and have a few hours to relax before bed. When we had finished cleaning up, I locked the inner office door and we made our way into the hallway, where I locked the hallway door as well. We made our way down the stairs and out of the building. When the door closed behind me and the fresh evening air was finally refreshing my face, Aysegul (from Turkey) asked where was our Indian leader, Ekta...well, that was a good question. She didn't leave with us...and we just left the building...
It took me about half a second to realize that I had probably locked her in the office upstairs. When we left the inner office room, I locked the door. In the mini-lobby area of the AIESEC offices, there is a break room and restrooms. She must has snuck away to the bathroom without anyone noticing because we left the lobby, where I then locked the second office door. OK, so she's in the office. Bad, but not too bad.
It then took me about another half second to realize that we were outside the building. I only had keys to the offices, which are inside the building. Now, we were standing on the street, with no key card to enter the building. Etka is still in the office. Our train leaves in 10 minutes. Great. Luckily, we had Jaro (the person who led the facilitating and debriefing session), who speaks Czech. He tried buzzing security, but no one answered. He calls Jenny, she has the key card to the building. No answer...by now we're in shock because poor Etka is probably up in the office, wondering why the hell we left without her. She can't even get into the offices to yell out the window or sit on the couches. She's trapped in the mini-lobby, with the bathroom and break room. Poor Etka. By now we've pretty much decided we're going to miss our train home, but I figured we'd ring security one more time. He picked up, Jaro told him the situation, and he let us in. I immediately gave my backpack to Aysegul and sprinted up the 4 flights of stairs. I unlocked the door to Etka, patiently waiting on the other side. All I could say was--"LET'S GO! We're going to miss our train!" We sprinted down the stairs as fast as we could. She was wearing high heels because of our presentation this morning, so it wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world.
When we got to the bottom, it was a whirlwind of bags flying and feet running. We said bye to Jaro as we sprinted to the train station, which is only one block away from the offices. Of course, I would be running to a train station in a foreign country because this is what I do best. I missed my train in Paris because we went to the wrong train station, I've sprinted to the airport terminal because the bus passed my stop, I've sprinted to Grand Central to catch the last train to Fordham...the list goes on, and now I have Prague.
The four of us sprinted to the train station and ran to the lobby, just to see the red lights of the train pulling away from us. Heaving, panting, and completely out of breath, we gave it our best, but it wasn't enough. And then we laughed. "How did you guys forget me!?"--Etka asked. We were cracking up. She's the one that went to the bathroom without telling anyone! Etka said when she got out of the restroom, her stuff was by the door where she had left it. She could hear us in the hallway and she banged and yelled at the door, just to hear our voices fade away as we descended. She called Ana, who was already on her way to the subway, and Ana assured her that we were on our way back to get her. What Ekta didn't know was that we were locked out of the building...so she was ready for the worst--a long night. When we finally got Ekta, running to the train station, we must have looked like the oddest bunch of people. An Indian, an American, a Turk and a Kazakh, all with bags and backpacks, and one of them carrying a package of 30 eggs. I joked that now we don't have to scramble our eggs tomorrow for breakfast because the sprint was just enough.
So now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is another day full of stuff, but then we get to enjoy a weekend break. I have absolutely nothing to do on Saturday except for sleeping in and partying all night--yea! I'll be up to date as much as possible. I have tons more to tell everyone but no time to write it. Also, my pictures are still on my computer--ready to go, but I need to figure out a new way to upload them since my Picasa web albums are not working properly. Until next time...
Showing posts with label Meeting People. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meeting People. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Hello. My Name Is...
My Name is Regis. What's yours?
Salad? Rain? Echo? No, try again...
Dreamer? China? Krithy? No, not quite...
Dong Dong? Yo Yo? Maybe not...
Alta Vista? Definitely Not.
Those are just a few of the many interesting and (How do I say this?) unique, names our Chinese friends have introduced themselves as. There isn't much we can do to help them. In a country where people are named anything from Snow White (雪百）, Fog Between the Mountains (岚), Striding Over Mountains (迈岭), and other honorable names, it would probably be too much to expect regular English names from all 1.3 billion people. Ironically, in America, Native Americans often associate names with honorable characteristics. Swift Wolf, White Lily, Brown Bear, Shining Star, and other names are given to children for many reasons. A child's name could also hold with it the weight of parental aspirations. For example, in China, a female receiving a male name, (such as Brittany's name- Su Hai -苏海), the daughter is expected to be very successful in whatever she wishes to do, especially business or politics. A parent may name a child and, coincidentially, their personalities may match their given name. There are so many meanings that are associated with a person's name, that you can learn so much from a person having just heard their name. Jimmy, my roommate, is James L. III. His name has been passed on for generations. Other people, such as my friend Skippy, have names stemming from friendly nicknames. Skippy, who's real name is John, doesn't even go by John at home. In fact, Skippy goes by Charlie (Charles), which is his middle name.
A person's namesake is an integral part of a person. Not only does it identify and distinguish one person from the other, but your character and personality can influence the way a person thinks about a name. Everyone can always remember the name of their arch enemy and often times people tend to associate that name with a negative connotation. There are some names we love, some names we hate, some names that are just too weird, but the fact of the matter is, we all need one. The Chinese names, although unique, have a special meaning in my opinion. For many of these people, this is their first time giving themselves English names. This is a huge step forward in terms of cross-cultural integration and in terms of cultural discovery. I was lucky enough to be given my name from my Chinese professor in college, taking the burden of decision off my shoulders, but what would you do if you were suddenly asked to give yourself a name in another language? Where do you begin? And how would you describe yourself? When it comes to Chinese names, we can't sit back and just laugh at their naïvity. We can and we do, but really. What are they trying to say about themselves? Rain, Echo, Dreamer...and even Salad too, chose their name for a reason. Whatever reason that may be deserves our respect and reverence. I mean, for most of us, picking our name wasn't even our decision, so we're stuck with what we've got, but if worse comes to worse, they can always change their poorly choosen name to whatever they want. As for me, Zeng Li (曾力) will always be my name, what's yours?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Postcard in Words
Ok, so my last entry was long, but rushed. This is probably going to be another long one, just to throw that out there. Where did I leave off? After the fun river rafting down the Yulong (Green Dragon) River and the water show we went to bed to prepare for the mud cave diving. The next morning we woke up and ate another great breakfast. Our group walked down to the bike rental shop and got our bikes. They weren't the best quality, but a bike is a bike. We started off out of town and soon were biking our way through rice fields and beautiful mountains. The mountains, I've learned, are karst topography, or karst mountains. These weathered limestone formations are formed from fossilized prehistoric sea floor sediments, brought to the surface by geological upheavals. The exposed limestone is then eroded by rain causing the mountains to form. Underground water flows and subterranean rivers carve out long, interlinked caverns which have beautiful and interesting rock formations. The bike ride through the karst was amazing. The villages we passed through were small and isolated. The old people worked in the fields, the water buffalo grazed alongside the road and the fog began to fade away as the sun emerged. The bike ride was a decent length but we made it to the cave. This is where the fun began.
Having been to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, I knew what it's like to be in a cave. Being the US, touching formations is strictly prohibited. But in China...rules do not apply. Actually, the rule should be touch, explore, and climb! We began our decent to the mud cave by climbing in and out of stalagmites. We turned around corners, into smaller chambers, crouching through tunnels and emerging into larger rooms. Sometimes we descended by steep metal stairs into a lower chamber and other times we would use ropes to climb up steep inclines. The trail was dimly lit and the upper regions of the larger rooms disappeared in the darkness. We explored some rooms and walked around the caves before going the mud cave. There were two ways to enter the trail to the mud cave, we could turn back and retrace our steps, or we could get on our stomachs and army crawl through a crevice no taller than a half meter. Everyone joked about the crevice. It was a really tight squeeze for some, but mostly it was a mental obstacle. Most people freaked out when they got their body in and had to army crawl out. It wasn't longer then 8 feet but to some I'm sure it felt like a mile. When we arrived at the mud cave the water was cold, but before we knew it we were knee deep in murky mud. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much. Picking up oozing globs of mud and slathering it on my shoulders and head was something I haven't done since the preschool playground. I had a blast. Once the relaxation got boring we of course had to make things interesting. People were falling into the mud, pushing each other around, and slinging mud across the cave. At one point it was a free for all and everyone was defending their vision. Mud was flying in front of your face, blobs were hitting me in the ears and I could barely open my eyes. It was too much fun. On the way out, our mud began to dry and a huge drop of mud fell from my forehead and landed right in my eye. Lucky for me, someone forgot their water bottle at the mud cave so my friend poured it in my eye to wash out the mud. At the cave entrance there were a few ice cold showers to wash ourselves off in and everyone who wore white into the cave came out with camel colored swim suits.
The night of the mud caves was a night to remember. The other group was in town so everyone had a huge feast and went out to a local bar for pool, drinks, and some much needed catching up. It was a little too much fun for most of us because the next morning's 7 AM wake up call woke all of us up on the wrong side of the bed. We began the next day with hours and hours of driving. Not any driving. Mountain driving. The scenery was beautiful, but the rain began to pour and made the bus humid. The mountain driving was curvy and winding, up long narrow dirt roads. The potholes and giant rocks made me think that within no time we were going to be pushing the bus out of a muddy mess. This didn't help for people's hang overs and reluctant to say there were quite a few students wishing that they hadn't stayed out so late and drank so much. I wasn't in too bad of shape and I'm not just saying that to say that, I was just tired. When we finally got to our village, Xiaozhai, the rain had lulled to a drizzle. Because of the rain, the hike to the village school was optional. As much as I wanted to sleep, I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I headed off for the hike.
This was a great scenic hike. Two hours up and over the rice terraces. The clouds covered the peaks of the lush green mountain peaks and the terraces were full of water that reflected the grey overcast sky. The Yao people are an ethnic group in Southwest China. They are mostly an agricultural community relying on hunting, fishing, and rice cultivation. They are especially skilled in embroidery, weaving, and dying. The women traditionally keep their hair long as a sign of beauty, and by long I mean to the floor. Besides the hair on their head, they also keep every strand that falls out. They comb their hair every morning to keep tidy. The rice terraces took the local Zhuang and Yao people over 650 years to complete and they were awesome. I wish the weather had been better but I can take what I get.
When we arrived at the school, I was a little bummed to find out that most of the children were sent home because of the rain. There were a few kids left to play with us and all of us had a blast playing basketball and soccer and giving them gifts. Jimmy had a great time and he really did well with the kids. They loved him the most because he picked them up and twirled them around. He even let the kids shoot hoops from his shoulders. We walked back to the village and relaxed. We were all really tired. I ate dinner and waited for the night time village party. Around 8 pm, the entire village gathered in the center of town and lit a bonfire. The kids were out in full force and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity to let my inner child run free. These kids were monkeys. Before I knew it, we were in a vicious tickle fight and I was being attacked on all sides. The laughing children were climbing up my side, hanging on my arms and jumping on my back. At one point in time I had at least five children on me. One on my right arm, two on my back, one hanging on my left leg and another in front of me. I wasn't about to lose this war though. I called in reinforcements and with some help (my other friends were being attacked too at the same time) we managed to turn the tables. It was easy to pick one up and tickle them so much that they were nearly squirming out of my hands. I had a blast. I gave one boy a red hat I had bought in town and he wore it all night long. When it came time to watch the talent show, he climbed on my back and together we watched the show. After the show, the children showed us their school room. I picked up my kid's Chinese textbook and couldn't even read it. He was only 10 years old, but he for sure knew a whole lot more Chinese than I did. I thought it was amazing.
When it was time to go to bed, we departed from the village center and retired to our guest house. Everyone was exhausted and the night was dead silent by 11 pm. The next morning I woke up early to the sound of rain pattering on the rooftops of nearby houses. The cool morning breeze had made its way into our non-heated guest house and the air was chilly. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it up for the day hike, so I went back to bed in the comfort of the warm blankets. I was happy to hear that the day hike was cancelled and we were leaving early to go to the hot springs hotel. We spent the rest of the morning, and almost all afternoon weaseling out of the village. The roads were even more treacherous than the day before but we finally made it.
The hot springs were amazing. It was a perfect way to end our trip. After the past couple days of partying, hiking, and physical activity we were ready to relax. The hot springs were natural and beautiful. Tucked away in between to mountain slopes, the hot springs ranged in temperature from 30°C to 50°C. 50°C is over 100°F and I could barely dip my feet in the 45°C pool without feeling a burning sensation on the bottom of my feet. The 45°C pool was incredibly hot and made your skin red after you pulled it out, I couldn't imagine what a dip in the 50°C pool would do to you. We all hung out for a few hours in the 42°C pool and took a dip in the medicine bath, which had large natural tea bags floating in the water. After dinner, everyone lined up for massages. They had a large array of massages ranging from Traditional Chinese Massage, Thai Massages, Korean Massages, and even an special Ovary Massage for the ladies.
The next day was the same old same old. We got the airport, took a plane back to Beijing, and here I am. I finally got internet in my room, so I should be able to post more often and get things done faster, but no promises. I have to go to class now but I'll post more later and the pictures are coming up.
Having been to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, I knew what it's like to be in a cave. Being the US, touching formations is strictly prohibited. But in China...rules do not apply. Actually, the rule should be touch, explore, and climb! We began our decent to the mud cave by climbing in and out of stalagmites. We turned around corners, into smaller chambers, crouching through tunnels and emerging into larger rooms. Sometimes we descended by steep metal stairs into a lower chamber and other times we would use ropes to climb up steep inclines. The trail was dimly lit and the upper regions of the larger rooms disappeared in the darkness. We explored some rooms and walked around the caves before going the mud cave. There were two ways to enter the trail to the mud cave, we could turn back and retrace our steps, or we could get on our stomachs and army crawl through a crevice no taller than a half meter. Everyone joked about the crevice. It was a really tight squeeze for some, but mostly it was a mental obstacle. Most people freaked out when they got their body in and had to army crawl out. It wasn't longer then 8 feet but to some I'm sure it felt like a mile. When we arrived at the mud cave the water was cold, but before we knew it we were knee deep in murky mud. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much. Picking up oozing globs of mud and slathering it on my shoulders and head was something I haven't done since the preschool playground. I had a blast. Once the relaxation got boring we of course had to make things interesting. People were falling into the mud, pushing each other around, and slinging mud across the cave. At one point it was a free for all and everyone was defending their vision. Mud was flying in front of your face, blobs were hitting me in the ears and I could barely open my eyes. It was too much fun. On the way out, our mud began to dry and a huge drop of mud fell from my forehead and landed right in my eye. Lucky for me, someone forgot their water bottle at the mud cave so my friend poured it in my eye to wash out the mud. At the cave entrance there were a few ice cold showers to wash ourselves off in and everyone who wore white into the cave came out with camel colored swim suits.
The night of the mud caves was a night to remember. The other group was in town so everyone had a huge feast and went out to a local bar for pool, drinks, and some much needed catching up. It was a little too much fun for most of us because the next morning's 7 AM wake up call woke all of us up on the wrong side of the bed. We began the next day with hours and hours of driving. Not any driving. Mountain driving. The scenery was beautiful, but the rain began to pour and made the bus humid. The mountain driving was curvy and winding, up long narrow dirt roads. The potholes and giant rocks made me think that within no time we were going to be pushing the bus out of a muddy mess. This didn't help for people's hang overs and reluctant to say there were quite a few students wishing that they hadn't stayed out so late and drank so much. I wasn't in too bad of shape and I'm not just saying that to say that, I was just tired. When we finally got to our village, Xiaozhai, the rain had lulled to a drizzle. Because of the rain, the hike to the village school was optional. As much as I wanted to sleep, I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I headed off for the hike.
This was a great scenic hike. Two hours up and over the rice terraces. The clouds covered the peaks of the lush green mountain peaks and the terraces were full of water that reflected the grey overcast sky. The Yao people are an ethnic group in Southwest China. They are mostly an agricultural community relying on hunting, fishing, and rice cultivation. They are especially skilled in embroidery, weaving, and dying. The women traditionally keep their hair long as a sign of beauty, and by long I mean to the floor. Besides the hair on their head, they also keep every strand that falls out. They comb their hair every morning to keep tidy. The rice terraces took the local Zhuang and Yao people over 650 years to complete and they were awesome. I wish the weather had been better but I can take what I get.
When we arrived at the school, I was a little bummed to find out that most of the children were sent home because of the rain. There were a few kids left to play with us and all of us had a blast playing basketball and soccer and giving them gifts. Jimmy had a great time and he really did well with the kids. They loved him the most because he picked them up and twirled them around. He even let the kids shoot hoops from his shoulders. We walked back to the village and relaxed. We were all really tired. I ate dinner and waited for the night time village party. Around 8 pm, the entire village gathered in the center of town and lit a bonfire. The kids were out in full force and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity to let my inner child run free. These kids were monkeys. Before I knew it, we were in a vicious tickle fight and I was being attacked on all sides. The laughing children were climbing up my side, hanging on my arms and jumping on my back. At one point in time I had at least five children on me. One on my right arm, two on my back, one hanging on my left leg and another in front of me. I wasn't about to lose this war though. I called in reinforcements and with some help (my other friends were being attacked too at the same time) we managed to turn the tables. It was easy to pick one up and tickle them so much that they were nearly squirming out of my hands. I had a blast. I gave one boy a red hat I had bought in town and he wore it all night long. When it came time to watch the talent show, he climbed on my back and together we watched the show. After the show, the children showed us their school room. I picked up my kid's Chinese textbook and couldn't even read it. He was only 10 years old, but he for sure knew a whole lot more Chinese than I did. I thought it was amazing.
When it was time to go to bed, we departed from the village center and retired to our guest house. Everyone was exhausted and the night was dead silent by 11 pm. The next morning I woke up early to the sound of rain pattering on the rooftops of nearby houses. The cool morning breeze had made its way into our non-heated guest house and the air was chilly. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it up for the day hike, so I went back to bed in the comfort of the warm blankets. I was happy to hear that the day hike was cancelled and we were leaving early to go to the hot springs hotel. We spent the rest of the morning, and almost all afternoon weaseling out of the village. The roads were even more treacherous than the day before but we finally made it.
The hot springs were amazing. It was a perfect way to end our trip. After the past couple days of partying, hiking, and physical activity we were ready to relax. The hot springs were natural and beautiful. Tucked away in between to mountain slopes, the hot springs ranged in temperature from 30°C to 50°C. 50°C is over 100°F and I could barely dip my feet in the 45°C pool without feeling a burning sensation on the bottom of my feet. The 45°C pool was incredibly hot and made your skin red after you pulled it out, I couldn't imagine what a dip in the 50°C pool would do to you. We all hung out for a few hours in the 42°C pool and took a dip in the medicine bath, which had large natural tea bags floating in the water. After dinner, everyone lined up for massages. They had a large array of massages ranging from Traditional Chinese Massage, Thai Massages, Korean Massages, and even an special Ovary Massage for the ladies.
The next day was the same old same old. We got the airport, took a plane back to Beijing, and here I am. I finally got internet in my room, so I should be able to post more often and get things done faster, but no promises. I have to go to class now but I'll post more later and the pictures are coming up.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
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:
- The colors are too dull.
- The Bird's Nest is not represented appropriately.
- 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.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Heart of China
I haven't posted the past few days because I've been crazy busy trying to figure out our National Holiday vacation. We've booked tickets for Shanghai and I leave tomorrow morning. We'll spend two nights in Shanghai, then Monday morning, we depart for Hangzhou. Hangzhou is one of the most beautiful cities in China. In the center of town is West Lake, a beautiful and clam lake. Also, Hangzhou is nestled inbetween small mountains and has an eclectic feel (as eclectic as you can get with 3+ million residents). We spend two nights in Hangzhou and Wednesday we head to Suzhou. Suzhou is one of many local watertowns. The watertowns of China are much like Venice. Small canals run through them and the most popular towns Zhouzhuang and Tongli have no roads at all. We aren't staying the night in Suzhou but instead we head back to Shanghai for Wednesday and Thursday nights. We leave early Friday morning back to Beijing. This trip has crept up on all of us. With school and still recovering from our Qingdao trip (not literally) we haven't had much time to plan for this trip. We have places to stay and a loose itenerary but we're basically going to wing it most of the time there.
Since I have nothing interesting to write about concerning my life here (same old, same old: school work, gym, hanging out, etc.), I think I'll give everyone a glimpse of some things I have forgot to mention. These things are so distinct to China, and occur so regularly that I have completely forgot to tell everyone about them. Most of them you might have heard rumors of or inferred them from my stories but now I'll go into a few details.
First, and most recent, my marketing teacher. The Chinese people are extremely welcoming (most of the time) to foreigners. So much so that during my first marketing class, my teacher welcomed us to China and profusely apologized on behalf of his country about the milk problem going on. He said something along the lines of this:
In addition to this sincerity, I probably haven't mentioned another gesture that shows the Chinese character. Many times, if you go to a restaurant, expecially a small family-style restaurant, and they do not have a Sprite or Iced Tea, the waitress will personally run down the street to the nearest convenience store and buy your drinks. This often happens when they serve us hot tea on a sweltering day and it makes you feel terrible. They will never tell us that they don't have our beverages, they simply reappear carrying a bag of 6 bottled waters and 2 iced teas. It makes all of us at the table feel terrible. We wouldn't have ordered those drinks if we knew they would have to go through all that trouble. Something like this would never happen in the United States.
Another example is when we were in Xi'an. We were famished after a full day of sightseeing and all of us were irritable with hunger. After walking around our hotel for 15 minutes, we were getting angry wandering around. I asked a gentleman where we could go to eat and he asked us what we wanted to eat. I told him something quick and cheap and the next thing we knew he was escorting us down a side street. I tried to tell him that he could just point us in the direction but he simply wouldn't have it. He took us to a street full of restaurants. At this point, we easily could have found a restaurant on our own, but no way, he took us to a place and we sat down. It was a kabob place with very cheap food, but some of us had had stomach problems for a few days and weren't about to try something interesting. I told the gentleman that we would like to eat elsewhere and right away he said OK! We walked to another restaurant which was much better and not only did he help us find it, but he stayed and helped us order food. We invited him to eat with us but he kindly refused stating he was on his way home from work and had to go home. I also doubt this kind of thing happens in the US.
Additionally, last one for today, was the woman at the China Mobile store in Xi'an. I had run out of minutes on the Silk Road Trip and I wanted to fill my sim card again. I asked the woman if she had Beijing minutes to sell and she did. I didn't have my wallet or my phone with me so I returned the next day. This woman was so helpful and so kind we spent well over an hour talking. She complimented me on my Chinese (which is about a 3 yr old vocabulary) and we were able to communicate on my limited vocabulary. She has a son, who is 19 who is learning English. He goes to a local university in Xi'an and she was so proud of him. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she saw her son in me. She asked if I had eaten some of the local Xi'an foods and recommended me to order certain dishes explaining what they were and how they tasted. I forgot the name of the one thing she liked the most, which was a breaded something or other and it sounded spectacular. Before I knew it, I was almost late for dinner and thanked her for her conversation. She wished me good travels and safe studies when all I wanted was a few minutes for my cellphone. It was a great experience.
Thats all for today. I have a whole list of more stories, so whenever I have nothing to say about travelling, I'll share some more.
Since I have nothing interesting to write about concerning my life here (same old, same old: school work, gym, hanging out, etc.), I think I'll give everyone a glimpse of some things I have forgot to mention. These things are so distinct to China, and occur so regularly that I have completely forgot to tell everyone about them. Most of them you might have heard rumors of or inferred them from my stories but now I'll go into a few details.
First, and most recent, my marketing teacher. The Chinese people are extremely welcoming (most of the time) to foreigners. So much so that during my first marketing class, my teacher welcomed us to China and profusely apologized on behalf of his country about the milk problem going on. He said something along the lines of this:
I am so sorry that you have to come to China at this wonderful time in China's histor and are unable to drink our milk or eat our dairy. For many of you, this is your first time to China and I am ashamed that are here while this is happening. Don't worry. The managers and owners of the companies are being severely disciplined and soon I hope it will be safe to drink our milk again.He was extremely sincere and I was personally touched by his apology. He had no need to apologize for that company or for the problem in general. It was quite a moving experience.
In addition to this sincerity, I probably haven't mentioned another gesture that shows the Chinese character. Many times, if you go to a restaurant, expecially a small family-style restaurant, and they do not have a Sprite or Iced Tea, the waitress will personally run down the street to the nearest convenience store and buy your drinks. This often happens when they serve us hot tea on a sweltering day and it makes you feel terrible. They will never tell us that they don't have our beverages, they simply reappear carrying a bag of 6 bottled waters and 2 iced teas. It makes all of us at the table feel terrible. We wouldn't have ordered those drinks if we knew they would have to go through all that trouble. Something like this would never happen in the United States.
Another example is when we were in Xi'an. We were famished after a full day of sightseeing and all of us were irritable with hunger. After walking around our hotel for 15 minutes, we were getting angry wandering around. I asked a gentleman where we could go to eat and he asked us what we wanted to eat. I told him something quick and cheap and the next thing we knew he was escorting us down a side street. I tried to tell him that he could just point us in the direction but he simply wouldn't have it. He took us to a street full of restaurants. At this point, we easily could have found a restaurant on our own, but no way, he took us to a place and we sat down. It was a kabob place with very cheap food, but some of us had had stomach problems for a few days and weren't about to try something interesting. I told the gentleman that we would like to eat elsewhere and right away he said OK! We walked to another restaurant which was much better and not only did he help us find it, but he stayed and helped us order food. We invited him to eat with us but he kindly refused stating he was on his way home from work and had to go home. I also doubt this kind of thing happens in the US.
Additionally, last one for today, was the woman at the China Mobile store in Xi'an. I had run out of minutes on the Silk Road Trip and I wanted to fill my sim card again. I asked the woman if she had Beijing minutes to sell and she did. I didn't have my wallet or my phone with me so I returned the next day. This woman was so helpful and so kind we spent well over an hour talking. She complimented me on my Chinese (which is about a 3 yr old vocabulary) and we were able to communicate on my limited vocabulary. She has a son, who is 19 who is learning English. He goes to a local university in Xi'an and she was so proud of him. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she saw her son in me. She asked if I had eaten some of the local Xi'an foods and recommended me to order certain dishes explaining what they were and how they tasted. I forgot the name of the one thing she liked the most, which was a breaded something or other and it sounded spectacular. Before I knew it, I was almost late for dinner and thanked her for her conversation. She wished me good travels and safe studies when all I wanted was a few minutes for my cellphone. It was a great experience.
Thats all for today. I have a whole list of more stories, so whenever I have nothing to say about travelling, I'll share some more.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
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.
Here are some pictures of Xi'an and Muslim street.
Here are some pictures of the Terracotta Warriors.
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.
Here are some pictures of Xi'an and Muslim street.
Here are some pictures of the Terracotta Warriors.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Hello Goodbye
RIP Camera #1. I got a call from the service center telling me that my camera would take 1-3 weeks (more expensive to get it done in 1 week) and would cost at least Y1000. I was pretty disappointed to hear the news. I actually had to give my phone to another person to translate for me, so I was mad when they told me the news. I had to go pick up my old camera at the service center and I put the wounded camera to rest. Since this was many people in my group's last night in Beijing, we were all planning a dinner and going out party for them. Before I went back to our new apartment, I decided to browse around for a camera. I went to one camera store and found my exact same camera. This time it was Y2980. That is about $435. No way was I about to pay that much for Camera #2. Especially because I feel really bad that my old one already broke. I talked with the camera man and I told him that a store by my apartment has the camera for Y2300. He immediately told me OK OK, I give you cheap price. Y2300. I knew right away that I was going to be able to bargain my camera down to the price I wanted to pay. So then I began to pull the guilt card and I explained to him that I'm a student and that someone broke my camera and I don't have a lot of money and that my parents told me I can't spend more than this amount of money and the whole works. I wasn't about to get teary eyed over this, but I have to say my skills worked pretty well and I got him down to Y1600. That is almost half the original price. But I was still feeling greedy so I pulled the "walk away" card, where you begin to walk away and they usually lower it a little bit more. Well, I shouldn't push my luck because he let me go. I went into another camera store and did basically the same thing and got it down to Y1600. They wouldn't go any lower though. I tried the walk away and they didn't buy it. I knew that that was probably the lowest any of them would go. I tried a third place and after much haggling, I still couldn't get it below Y1600. I figured I've reached the lowest I could have gone. Camera #2 is now being safely hauled around in my camera bag that I wear like a tourist around my neck. It's pretty sweet and the ladies love it. I think I look like my dad.
I had to jet back to my apartment and shower before dinner and we headed out. We went to a noodle place that made the noodles in front of you. It was pretty good dinnertime TV watching the chefs in the back toss yards and yards of noodles across the kitchen into the pans. They were slicing balls of dough with sharp knives and chopping thin strips of dough into wide noodles. Pretty cool and great tasting food. We went out to Sanlitun Bar District afterwards where we had a great going away party for the girls. They had to catch an early flight out so they left a little bit earlier. The night ended with me, Jim and Adam sometime in the early hours of the morning.
Having such a late night, moving in the next morning was glorious. I had about 4 hours of sleep and hadn't even finished packing. Kirt, a CYCAN leader, helped move me out. Jim and Devon had arranged to move in in the afternoon, but I knew how long moving in can take, so I figured I'd rather get moved in early. I'm pretty lucky I opted for the early move in because Kirt was a fearless warrior. Had it not been for him, I'm pretty sure moving in would have been hell. First things first, my luggage. I already have hoards of junk to squeeze into to suitcases, not to mention all of the stuff I took from our apartment. These items include: toilet paper, shampoo, body wash, laundry basket, tupperware, iced tea, water, instant noodles, powerstrips, converters and other random stuff. Kirt and I were able to get it down in one trip. When we got to my university, it was pretty hard to find building 5 because none of the buildings have numbers on the sides. But Kirt speaks Chinese, so he figured it out after asking a few people. Then, when I was registering, they couldn't find my name in the computer, but Kirt figured that problem out too. I'm also on the 6th floor of my elevator-less building. See first item. (luggage).
All in all, moving in wasn't tough, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without the CYCAN leader. Also, our apartments are awesome. Imagine hotel room with kitchen. The bathroom is a little bit tight. It is very small, a sink and a toilet. The shower nozzle sticks out from the wall right in the middle of the two, so the water pretty much drains through the sink and gets all over the toilet seat. It isn't as bad as it looks or sounds. The beds are extremely comfortable and we have our own patio outside that we can dry our clothes on. I'm really glad I moved in early because when Jimmy and Devon moved in, I was able to get them moved in fairly quick. We had a TBC dinner that night, and it poured on the way over. We got to meet a lot of people and right now we're just trying to remember names. There are a lot of kids from St. Louis Univ., Loyola Chicago, Loyola Maryland, Loyola Marymount (LA), Fordham, Gonzaga, and a few from Marquette and other schools. The Beijing Center is a great program and we keep finding out more and more details about what we're doing for our Silk Road trip. I'll probably write more about that in the next post. After dinner, Jim, Devon, Devon's roommate Brittany, and I went out to get to know a few more people. A lot of our classmates arrived yesterday so they are all jetlagged and tired. I'm really glad I've been here for 22 days because I couldn't imagine getting here and having to leave soon. Our Silk Road trip leaves at 5AM on Sunday, which is 3PM MST on Saturday. I had orientation today too but I dont have time to write about it now. I'll let you know tomorrow what I've learned.
I had to jet back to my apartment and shower before dinner and we headed out. We went to a noodle place that made the noodles in front of you. It was pretty good dinnertime TV watching the chefs in the back toss yards and yards of noodles across the kitchen into the pans. They were slicing balls of dough with sharp knives and chopping thin strips of dough into wide noodles. Pretty cool and great tasting food. We went out to Sanlitun Bar District afterwards where we had a great going away party for the girls. They had to catch an early flight out so they left a little bit earlier. The night ended with me, Jim and Adam sometime in the early hours of the morning.
Having such a late night, moving in the next morning was glorious. I had about 4 hours of sleep and hadn't even finished packing. Kirt, a CYCAN leader, helped move me out. Jim and Devon had arranged to move in in the afternoon, but I knew how long moving in can take, so I figured I'd rather get moved in early. I'm pretty lucky I opted for the early move in because Kirt was a fearless warrior. Had it not been for him, I'm pretty sure moving in would have been hell. First things first, my luggage. I already have hoards of junk to squeeze into to suitcases, not to mention all of the stuff I took from our apartment. These items include: toilet paper, shampoo, body wash, laundry basket, tupperware, iced tea, water, instant noodles, powerstrips, converters and other random stuff. Kirt and I were able to get it down in one trip. When we got to my university, it was pretty hard to find building 5 because none of the buildings have numbers on the sides. But Kirt speaks Chinese, so he figured it out after asking a few people. Then, when I was registering, they couldn't find my name in the computer, but Kirt figured that problem out too. I'm also on the 6th floor of my elevator-less building. See first item. (luggage).
All in all, moving in wasn't tough, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without the CYCAN leader. Also, our apartments are awesome. Imagine hotel room with kitchen. The bathroom is a little bit tight. It is very small, a sink and a toilet. The shower nozzle sticks out from the wall right in the middle of the two, so the water pretty much drains through the sink and gets all over the toilet seat. It isn't as bad as it looks or sounds. The beds are extremely comfortable and we have our own patio outside that we can dry our clothes on. I'm really glad I moved in early because when Jimmy and Devon moved in, I was able to get them moved in fairly quick. We had a TBC dinner that night, and it poured on the way over. We got to meet a lot of people and right now we're just trying to remember names. There are a lot of kids from St. Louis Univ., Loyola Chicago, Loyola Maryland, Loyola Marymount (LA), Fordham, Gonzaga, and a few from Marquette and other schools. The Beijing Center is a great program and we keep finding out more and more details about what we're doing for our Silk Road trip. I'll probably write more about that in the next post. After dinner, Jim, Devon, Devon's roommate Brittany, and I went out to get to know a few more people. A lot of our classmates arrived yesterday so they are all jetlagged and tired. I'm really glad I've been here for 22 days because I couldn't imagine getting here and having to leave soon. Our Silk Road trip leaves at 5AM on Sunday, which is 3PM MST on Saturday. I had orientation today too but I dont have time to write about it now. I'll let you know tomorrow what I've learned.
Monday, August 25, 2008
A Wonder of the World & the End of the Beginning
We woke up at 8:00AM yesterday to go to the Great Wall. I was really stoked to head out of Beijing and finally see the Great Wall. The last time we tried to go to the Wall, the weather was rainy and none of us felt like risking a 2 hour bus ride to be stuck in the rain. Late the night before, we had to search for the best way to get to the Wall. We didn't want to go to a tourist part with tons of people, so we decided to go to Mutianyu. This was probably the best place to go for our first time to the Wall. I looked up directions online and wrote down the Chinese for the names of the cities and bus stations. We left at 9:05 AM, which is way better than any family trip I've been on. I was expecting to leave at 10 or 10:30 because everyone knows the Zamudio's need miracles to leave on-time for a roadtrip. We got cabs to the bus station, where we were the only tourists around. Many tourists have pre-made arrangements when they head to the Wall, so we were definately adventuring when we decided to go on our own. Anytime you do something on your own out here, you can never know what to expect. When we arrived at the bus station, this cab driver wanted to arrange a deal to take us to the Wall. We had heard about taking a taxi to the wall, but we wanted to save money and take public transportation. It is much much cheaper for not too much of an inconvenience. The only problem with saying, "No!" to this guy was he didn't get it. We were trying to find our bus, the 916 to Huairou, but the cab driver wouldn't leave us alone. When I went to ask a volunteer where the bus left from, he even went as far as to tell the volunteer not to tell us and then told us there was no bus to the Wall and we had to take a cab. All that did was make me mad and soon after he got the point that we didn't need a cab. I asked another nearby person where we could catch our bus, and they pointed us in the right direction. Although they pointed us to the non-express bus, we quickly found the express bus and were on our way. Air-conditioning and seats. What more could you ask for? I snoozed a little bit on the bus ride and woke up in Huairou. I didn't know that there were multiple stops in Huairou, but a guy came on the bus (seeing we were tourists) and told us that this was the stop for the Wall. Well, we didn't know that this guy was also a cab driver and not just a helping friend. Either way, I knew we had to take a cab from Huairou to the Mutianyu so it didn't bother me. We bartered him down for a good price, where he took us to the Wall, waited for us, and then took us back to the 916 station to Beijing. Good deal, right? We crammed five of us, me, Jim, Devon, Kelly and Monica, into the cab and took off.
Wow. The Wall is awesome. We took a gondola from the parking lot to the Wall (otherwise we would have to walk 30-40 minutes up to it). Remember the catapult I took on Wangfujing? That was a safety standard 7 or 8. This thing. Not so much. Probably about a 4. Imagine a rickity ski lift, when every time you moved, the boards your sitting on teeterd on their nails. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every moment of eminent danger. All the way to the top. We walked up the wall, through the gaurd houses and up the stairs. Overlooking the beautiful mountains, you could look at the wall snaking along the moutain sides. It was just like the pictures. Awesome. The best part was we weren't pushing through people to walk up it. We went on a perfect day too. It was a bit hot, but it was clear blue skys all around us. The walking is more like doing a 2 hour stair stepper and it was hot enough to be drenched with sweat in the first 20 minutes. We got some awesome pictures. When we made it to one of the top most gaurd houses (I don't know if that is the correct term), we could look back at the part we had just climbed and enjoy what we have conquered. Some of the Wall is really steep and although it looks like we didn't travel that far, we probably walked about a mile or so down the Wall. One of the best days I've had. It was good to be out of the city, looking at mountains (that I miss very much), and being with some of my best friends to enjoy it all with. We had a good time laughing when people almost fell up and down the steps because they are all uneven. Someone in our group (not naming names) had a few too many scares and ended up falling down a step not on the Wall, but after we had gotten down. Haha. It wasn't me this time. On the Great Wall, you could see many people from around the world too. We passed by two Tai boxers each wearing their Gold and Silver medals. Jimmy got to hold the Gold medal and he got some pretty cool pictures with them. The medals are exremely shiny and looked amazing.
The Wall was great, but possibly the best part of the whole trip was taking the luge down. Jimmy and I were trying to go really fast. You turned with the curves and banked on the sides of the luge track. It was a blast. Unfortunately, there were older people in front of our group, and we had to stop a few times to give them space so we didn't run them over. Monica went first for our whole group and at one point near the end, I kept yelling "Go Mon, Go!" Kind of in a Jamaican accent but mostly because I was catching up to her too quickly. They have a few workers along select parts of the track that yell at you when you're going to fast and of course, being American, I couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me...haha. When we got to the bottom, we were starving. We ate, got ripped off because it was a tourist restaurant, and then poked around a few of the shops. Didn't see anything interesting. A few Chinese style t-shirts and some wooden stuff, but nothing I couldn't find at the Silk Market.
We all crashed on the bus ride back to Beijing. When we got home, we had to all get ready to go to Casas Americas for the Closing Ceremony. Free food and drinks. We're there. I'm sure everyone caught clips of the closing ceremonies. Great great great finish to the Olympics. It actually kind of bummed me out watching the Olympics. Now I'm not going to be able to just go see all of the world's athletes compete and break records. And, most of the people I've been meeting have been from all over the world. Many are going back to their home countries and the worldwide party is going to start coming to an end. In a way, it is kind of a good thing. Soon, I'll be starting a new part of my life in China. I'll actually have a set schedule every week and I'll be living in an apartment permanently. I was talking with a lady at Casas Americas during the Closing Ceremony and she turned out to be a tour leader. She worked for a company that plans 10-30 day excursions throughout China. Devon and I got to talk with her for hours about all the cool places in China to visit. She was a living book of knowledge. We got some valuable advice. Such as, when flying to Hong Kong, fly to Shenzhen and take a bus into Hong Kong. You'll save money that way. Also, Shenzhen's market isn't as good as Beijing's Silk Market. The Yangze River cruise I wanted to do. Not a great idea. Boring and you're stuck on a boat for 3 days with nothing to do except for play cards. Plus the food is terrible she said. Also, she gave us tons of advice about Vietnam. We're taking a 10 day trip the first week of October to visit Thailand and Vietnam. She gave us plenty to do in Vietnam. It was great to meet her and it was finally a turn of luck.
This morning I went to take my camera to the Nikon store to get it fixed. I handed the cab driver the paper the camera guys had given me and he took me to Wangfujing. The Nikon shop was actually in an office building on the third floor and when I entered there was crazy guy who was extremely pissed about his camera. Thank God I don't speak Chinese fluently because I wasn't about to listen to this guy go off forever about whatever was wrong with his camera. Some part must have been loose because he kept telling everyone in the room to listen as he shook his camera. He would go up to everyone, asking them questions and yelling about things. When I got there there were 3 people in front of me, but I got there just in time because shortly after I arrived the small room was full of people. A guy tried to cut everyone in line and someone yelled at him. I stood in line and waited my turn. Luckily the girl at the counter was pretty understanding. Of course she went off speaking Chinese, so I just smiled and nodded and they said they'd call me when it was done. Total price: Y280 plus labor. So hopefully it's around Y500. Much cheaper then buying a new one. I'm still waiting for a phone call.
We also had to consolidate apartments today, so Jimmy and I moved to the 11th floor of our buildilng. This room is way nicer than our old room but unfortunately we leave to move into the school dorms tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what happens when I get pictures.
Wow. The Wall is awesome. We took a gondola from the parking lot to the Wall (otherwise we would have to walk 30-40 minutes up to it). Remember the catapult I took on Wangfujing? That was a safety standard 7 or 8. This thing. Not so much. Probably about a 4. Imagine a rickity ski lift, when every time you moved, the boards your sitting on teeterd on their nails. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every moment of eminent danger. All the way to the top. We walked up the wall, through the gaurd houses and up the stairs. Overlooking the beautiful mountains, you could look at the wall snaking along the moutain sides. It was just like the pictures. Awesome. The best part was we weren't pushing through people to walk up it. We went on a perfect day too. It was a bit hot, but it was clear blue skys all around us. The walking is more like doing a 2 hour stair stepper and it was hot enough to be drenched with sweat in the first 20 minutes. We got some awesome pictures. When we made it to one of the top most gaurd houses (I don't know if that is the correct term), we could look back at the part we had just climbed and enjoy what we have conquered. Some of the Wall is really steep and although it looks like we didn't travel that far, we probably walked about a mile or so down the Wall. One of the best days I've had. It was good to be out of the city, looking at mountains (that I miss very much), and being with some of my best friends to enjoy it all with. We had a good time laughing when people almost fell up and down the steps because they are all uneven. Someone in our group (not naming names) had a few too many scares and ended up falling down a step not on the Wall, but after we had gotten down. Haha. It wasn't me this time. On the Great Wall, you could see many people from around the world too. We passed by two Tai boxers each wearing their Gold and Silver medals. Jimmy got to hold the Gold medal and he got some pretty cool pictures with them. The medals are exremely shiny and looked amazing.
The Wall was great, but possibly the best part of the whole trip was taking the luge down. Jimmy and I were trying to go really fast. You turned with the curves and banked on the sides of the luge track. It was a blast. Unfortunately, there were older people in front of our group, and we had to stop a few times to give them space so we didn't run them over. Monica went first for our whole group and at one point near the end, I kept yelling "Go Mon, Go!" Kind of in a Jamaican accent but mostly because I was catching up to her too quickly. They have a few workers along select parts of the track that yell at you when you're going to fast and of course, being American, I couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me...haha. When we got to the bottom, we were starving. We ate, got ripped off because it was a tourist restaurant, and then poked around a few of the shops. Didn't see anything interesting. A few Chinese style t-shirts and some wooden stuff, but nothing I couldn't find at the Silk Market.
We all crashed on the bus ride back to Beijing. When we got home, we had to all get ready to go to Casas Americas for the Closing Ceremony. Free food and drinks. We're there. I'm sure everyone caught clips of the closing ceremonies. Great great great finish to the Olympics. It actually kind of bummed me out watching the Olympics. Now I'm not going to be able to just go see all of the world's athletes compete and break records. And, most of the people I've been meeting have been from all over the world. Many are going back to their home countries and the worldwide party is going to start coming to an end. In a way, it is kind of a good thing. Soon, I'll be starting a new part of my life in China. I'll actually have a set schedule every week and I'll be living in an apartment permanently. I was talking with a lady at Casas Americas during the Closing Ceremony and she turned out to be a tour leader. She worked for a company that plans 10-30 day excursions throughout China. Devon and I got to talk with her for hours about all the cool places in China to visit. She was a living book of knowledge. We got some valuable advice. Such as, when flying to Hong Kong, fly to Shenzhen and take a bus into Hong Kong. You'll save money that way. Also, Shenzhen's market isn't as good as Beijing's Silk Market. The Yangze River cruise I wanted to do. Not a great idea. Boring and you're stuck on a boat for 3 days with nothing to do except for play cards. Plus the food is terrible she said. Also, she gave us tons of advice about Vietnam. We're taking a 10 day trip the first week of October to visit Thailand and Vietnam. She gave us plenty to do in Vietnam. It was great to meet her and it was finally a turn of luck.
This morning I went to take my camera to the Nikon store to get it fixed. I handed the cab driver the paper the camera guys had given me and he took me to Wangfujing. The Nikon shop was actually in an office building on the third floor and when I entered there was crazy guy who was extremely pissed about his camera. Thank God I don't speak Chinese fluently because I wasn't about to listen to this guy go off forever about whatever was wrong with his camera. Some part must have been loose because he kept telling everyone in the room to listen as he shook his camera. He would go up to everyone, asking them questions and yelling about things. When I got there there were 3 people in front of me, but I got there just in time because shortly after I arrived the small room was full of people. A guy tried to cut everyone in line and someone yelled at him. I stood in line and waited my turn. Luckily the girl at the counter was pretty understanding. Of course she went off speaking Chinese, so I just smiled and nodded and they said they'd call me when it was done. Total price: Y280 plus labor. So hopefully it's around Y500. Much cheaper then buying a new one. I'm still waiting for a phone call.
We also had to consolidate apartments today, so Jimmy and I moved to the 11th floor of our buildilng. This room is way nicer than our old room but unfortunately we leave to move into the school dorms tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what happens when I get pictures.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
The Same Thing I Always Do
After my adventure with Jimmy it was pretty hard to go back to normal life in Beijing. I got to sleep in the next day because I had nothing planned for the day (again). Jimmy and Rachel had tickets to water polo, so Devon and I went down to the Olympic venues to see if we could scalp tickets for something good. There weren't any really awesome tickets, so we just settled for some more volleyball. Actually it's Olympic Volleyball, so it was really awesome. We saw Brazil and Russia and Serbia vs Poland. It was great to watch, but we were volleyballed out. The major plus is that not only do Chinese people not form lines, they also don't care where their official seat is at a venue. This means that during breaks, everyone moves around until they get moved. After the Brazil/Russia game (which Russia won), we moved really close to the court. So close that we got to see the Serbia/Poland teams come out of the locker room. The Serbia/Poland teams are HUGE. You can see by the pictures most of the guys are over 2m tall. Which I assume is around 6' or over. After the second game of Poland and Serbia, Devon and I called it quits. Too much volleyball.
We left the venue and it was pouring. It has rained a few days here and there is one thing we learned. If it rains, you'll see the sky tomorrow. But it's not that great when your in flip flops and a t-shirt. We ran around in the rain trying to find the subway station but the directions we were given we apparently didn't understand to the fullest. We asked someone else and took a bus to the subway stop. When we got off we saw a huge mall and decided to check it out. The malls here are nice but really expensive (for China). Although you'll pay American prices, you can find some pretty cool Chinese brands. I'm really into the whole Chinese brand. I'm probably one of the only people in our group that hasn't eaten KFC, McDonalds, or 7-11 food. I'm eating some American snacks, but I try to avoid the name brand American meals. I really like their fast food noodle places and I think they're really good.
At the mall, everyone loves foreigners. You can't go into a store without someone following you around asking you to try everything on. And since I'm a good lookin guy, OK really good looking guy, haha, all of the girls want me to talk to them for a little while. When I was checking out, one of the workers, who I wasn't even talking to, just said "Dong dong." I was kinda confused because she said it kind of loud and I thought I was doing something weird. I looked at Devon and she didn't know what was going on either. Our confusion must have shown on our faces because the girl I was talking to let me know what was going on. "Her name is Dongdong" I thought it was pretty funny.
When I got home, we ate and went out to the Houhai bar district. I really liked this place. It is a bit expensive but it overlooks a small lake. You can look out and see all the bar lights reflecting on the lake. It's a good vibe and the people are fun.
The next morning we all woke up and everyone had stuff to do except for me, Rachel, and Kelly. I made an American breakfast (eggs, toast, and ham) and we decided to go out and explore a different part of the city. We planned on going to see the Olympic gardens, but instead we ended up at Wangfujing street market. Kelly ended up having a pretty bad day and it all started when we got on the subway to go the Wangfujing. Getting on the subway, Kelly's flipflop hit the door step and it got kicked into the crack. It was lost forever and she had to walk barefoot through the subway station and through the street. She finally got another pair in one of the stores but no one really likes to walk barefoot. It was pretty funny and she got some stares. When we got there we met up with Andrew, Monica, and Devon. Some people bought things at the official flagship store and afterwards we ended up just poking around. The weather was the best it has ever been here. It actually looked like a normal city in the world. You could see clouds, the blue sky, and even airplanes. Further down on the Wangfujing street market there was a carnival ride. Y100 to go on one of those rides where you sit in a ball on the ground and it bungees up into the sky. I took pictures but it was amazing. Rachel was hilarious. Right before we were about to go she asks, "How safe do you think this ride is? 10 being American standards" I would say about 7 or 8. When Rachel asked to get her seatbelt tightened, they said no. It was a fun 10 minute ride and by the time we launched we had attracted quite a big crowd. So many people were watching us that people had to cross the street to walk on a sidewalk.
After our ride, I headed back. I had nothing to do so I slept for a bit and then we went out as an apartment to dinner. We of course had a good dinner. Ate some duck feet. Nothing special. Everyone let me order dinner and of course everything looks good when you're ordering off a picture menu. haha. Other than being really spicey, the duck feet had 3 toes and the small bone/cartlidge in the toes felt like undercooked rice. The ankles had a lot of bones and weren't good. The webbing was the best part. Look at the pictures.
When I got the apartment, I was reading some e-mail and I had just poured myself a nice glass of cold Coke. With my luck, I break cameras and cell phones and all of that so naturally my computer had to have something happen to it while I'm here. You can probably put the two together before I tell you, but someone bumped into the table and the Coke sloshed out of the cup and onto my keyboard. It short circuited the keyboard. After that happend, I went to bed. I knew I wasn't going to be in the mood for anything exciting. This morning, I went out with Kelly to the computer store and bought a keyboard. We also got more eggs and some bacon. We made breakfast and it was delicious.
Today, August 16, I was supposed to go to the Temple of Heaven, but Jimmy met some Chinese guys who are going to UIBE (The Beijing Center) with us this semester. They are volunteering for the Olympics and get tickets to events. From what Jim understood he had three tickets to basketball, but what he really had was three tickets to different events on different days. I wished I would have seen the Temple of Heaven, but Jim reminded me that we're here for a while. We have time. Plus, Devon said it was awesome, but she doesn't need to go again. Which is just like T--nanmen square.
Tonight is Hotpot dinner. We'll see what surprises come from that.
We left the venue and it was pouring. It has rained a few days here and there is one thing we learned. If it rains, you'll see the sky tomorrow. But it's not that great when your in flip flops and a t-shirt. We ran around in the rain trying to find the subway station but the directions we were given we apparently didn't understand to the fullest. We asked someone else and took a bus to the subway stop. When we got off we saw a huge mall and decided to check it out. The malls here are nice but really expensive (for China). Although you'll pay American prices, you can find some pretty cool Chinese brands. I'm really into the whole Chinese brand. I'm probably one of the only people in our group that hasn't eaten KFC, McDonalds, or 7-11 food. I'm eating some American snacks, but I try to avoid the name brand American meals. I really like their fast food noodle places and I think they're really good.
At the mall, everyone loves foreigners. You can't go into a store without someone following you around asking you to try everything on. And since I'm a good lookin guy, OK really good looking guy, haha, all of the girls want me to talk to them for a little while. When I was checking out, one of the workers, who I wasn't even talking to, just said "Dong dong." I was kinda confused because she said it kind of loud and I thought I was doing something weird. I looked at Devon and she didn't know what was going on either. Our confusion must have shown on our faces because the girl I was talking to let me know what was going on. "Her name is Dongdong" I thought it was pretty funny.
When I got home, we ate and went out to the Houhai bar district. I really liked this place. It is a bit expensive but it overlooks a small lake. You can look out and see all the bar lights reflecting on the lake. It's a good vibe and the people are fun.
The next morning we all woke up and everyone had stuff to do except for me, Rachel, and Kelly. I made an American breakfast (eggs, toast, and ham) and we decided to go out and explore a different part of the city. We planned on going to see the Olympic gardens, but instead we ended up at Wangfujing street market. Kelly ended up having a pretty bad day and it all started when we got on the subway to go the Wangfujing. Getting on the subway, Kelly's flipflop hit the door step and it got kicked into the crack. It was lost forever and she had to walk barefoot through the subway station and through the street. She finally got another pair in one of the stores but no one really likes to walk barefoot. It was pretty funny and she got some stares. When we got there we met up with Andrew, Monica, and Devon. Some people bought things at the official flagship store and afterwards we ended up just poking around. The weather was the best it has ever been here. It actually looked like a normal city in the world. You could see clouds, the blue sky, and even airplanes. Further down on the Wangfujing street market there was a carnival ride. Y100 to go on one of those rides where you sit in a ball on the ground and it bungees up into the sky. I took pictures but it was amazing. Rachel was hilarious. Right before we were about to go she asks, "How safe do you think this ride is? 10 being American standards" I would say about 7 or 8. When Rachel asked to get her seatbelt tightened, they said no. It was a fun 10 minute ride and by the time we launched we had attracted quite a big crowd. So many people were watching us that people had to cross the street to walk on a sidewalk.
After our ride, I headed back. I had nothing to do so I slept for a bit and then we went out as an apartment to dinner. We of course had a good dinner. Ate some duck feet. Nothing special. Everyone let me order dinner and of course everything looks good when you're ordering off a picture menu. haha. Other than being really spicey, the duck feet had 3 toes and the small bone/cartlidge in the toes felt like undercooked rice. The ankles had a lot of bones and weren't good. The webbing was the best part. Look at the pictures.
When I got the apartment, I was reading some e-mail and I had just poured myself a nice glass of cold Coke. With my luck, I break cameras and cell phones and all of that so naturally my computer had to have something happen to it while I'm here. You can probably put the two together before I tell you, but someone bumped into the table and the Coke sloshed out of the cup and onto my keyboard. It short circuited the keyboard. After that happend, I went to bed. I knew I wasn't going to be in the mood for anything exciting. This morning, I went out with Kelly to the computer store and bought a keyboard. We also got more eggs and some bacon. We made breakfast and it was delicious.
Today, August 16, I was supposed to go to the Temple of Heaven, but Jimmy met some Chinese guys who are going to UIBE (The Beijing Center) with us this semester. They are volunteering for the Olympics and get tickets to events. From what Jim understood he had three tickets to basketball, but what he really had was three tickets to different events on different days. I wished I would have seen the Temple of Heaven, but Jim reminded me that we're here for a while. We have time. Plus, Devon said it was awesome, but she doesn't need to go again. Which is just like T--nanmen square.
Tonight is Hotpot dinner. We'll see what surprises come from that.
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| Around Beijing |
Thursday, August 14, 2008
My First Chinese Adventure
Beach Volleyball was awesome today. Besides the fact that CCI makes us meet up two hours before the event starts, Devon and I had a great great time. I didn't know it at the time, but the events are really close to our apartment, so getting to them doesn't take two hours. Regardless, waking up at 4:45AM wasn't fun. When we got there, the gates hadn't even opened and we were stuck outside in the humid morning air. When we did get in, it was empty. I slept for a few hours before the games started and woke up just in time to see that the Chaoyang Beach Volleyball stadium had started to fill. We were pretty close to the court as well. The US men's team started the day off with a victory over Argentina, and that was only the beginning. We saw team Georgia beat Russia in the country's first Olympic Beach Volleyball Match ever. Georgia has never had an Olympic team for beach volleyball. After that game things really got good when China played against Norway. The China team won and the crowd was going wild. "Zhong guo jia you!" was all you could hear (Go China!). It was awesome. The next game we saw was Brazil and Australia. This was an intense game and Australia barely got a victory. Everyone moved on from these games as they were prelims. By the time the Australia/Brazil game finished the heat and humidity were making me irritable. We decided to leave early and enjoy the rest of the day. We headed back to the apartment where I took a nap and woke up just in time to get a few things done.
I was sitting at my laptop and just hanging out when Jimmy came home from his daily activities. First thing in the door, he asks me what I was doing. Well, I was thoroughly enjoying doing nothing online (the afternoons are killer because it is the middle of the night in the US). But, I wanted to entertain the thought of doing something so I asked whats up. Jimmy had gone looking for scalped tickets earlier in the day and got football tickets. I was kinda tired but after the World Cup in Germany (2006) I knew how much fun it could be. I said I would like to go but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Right away Jimmy tells me that the tickets are for a game in a nearby city Tianjin and we have to catch a bullet train there immediately. Well, you only live life once and the train isn't going to wait. We got a cab and headed over to the Beijing South Station.
Here, it was a mess. Tons of people everywhere. The Chinese don't queue
in lines and neither Jimmy nor I had any idea where to go or what to do. Luckily, there are tons of Chinese volunteers around the city that speak decent English. We asked one of them what to do and the girl was phenomenal. She told us that all of the trains are sold out until 6:00, and the game started at 5:00 PM. I figured it would be like this but she said don't worry I'll get you a ticket. She went up to the counter, squeezed to the front, spoke some Chinese, and there we go. Two standing tickets on the next train that leaves in 15 minutes. We'll get there are 5:00 PM which was in 30 minutes and by the time we get to the stadium we shouldn't have missed much. The fun part was getting on the train. They don't form lines, making it every man for himself to mob the train for a good spot. Jim and I got a place by the door and we sat down for the train ride. The bullet train is awesome. It's a wonder that they don't have it in America. 240 MPH Beijing to Tianjin in 30 minutes. While on the train we were talking...well trying to talk with the guy next to us. Turns out he is the Director of International Trade in China (or something like that). From what we could talk about, it sounds like he imports oil and "chemicals" from other countries. He said mostly from Africa and the Middle East but also from Canada, USA, and South America. I was awed while talking with him. What are the chances of meeting someone who does something along the lines of what I want my career to be. He gave us his card and invited us to visit him at his Beijing office. We got to Tianjin and thought we would kinda plan ahead and get return tickets before the insane crowds got out from the game. While waiting in line there was an Australian, Brian, who also was buying a return ticket to Beijing. We got to talking and found out we were both going to the soccer match. And we also found out that there were two games that night. Italy vs Camaroon and Ivory Coast vs Australia. We decided to adopt Australia as our home team for the night. On the cab ride over however, our little adventure received a fun little twist. We asked Brian the Aussie where he was seated. 1 seat away from us in fact. Small world or coincidence we all thought that was pretty hilarious. When Jim described the guy he purchased the tickets from they weren't even sure it was the same person. After getting to the stadium, we still had to walk around to get to our entrance gate. On the walk over we met fellow Australians and one of them claimed to be the father of #16 on the Australia National Team. I haven't had time to check who it is but we wished him the best of luck.
Alright, to wrap this one up, we had a great time watching the games. The Italy and Camaroon game ended up as a stalemate and the Ivory Coast beat Australia 1-0. We had a few beers, of course met tons of new people, including the little girl next to us, and wrapped ourselves in American flags that we had purchased earlier. We got back home around 12am and crashed. It was a great day.
What an adventure.
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