Well, I'm alive if anyone was wondering. I returned back to Beijing about 7:30 am yesterday and I've been doing a lot of work settling back into school. I begin classes tomorrow, but Chinese is my only class. Since tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn festival, our Chinese classes will be cancelled. That means a day off to start making a gigantic photo-fest for everyone. I think the last time I wrote was sometime in Xi'an, the day before we saw the Terracotta Warriors. The Warriors were amazing. The 8th Wonder of the World. I'll try and tell as much as I can in the captions when I post pictures. Xi'an also has a great Muslim street that was a lot of fun to go down. It had plenty of places to eat and tons of vendors selling stuff. We saw a Taoist temple near Xi'an that was absolutely 100% the picture of China. It was located in the mountains and there was fog that surrounded the lower parts of the mountains. The peaks slowly faded into the fog the further away they became and the temple was on top of a mountain side. Straight out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I'd say. We walked through a local village to Big Goose Pagoda and on the way back to Xi'an we went to Old Qin Palace (replica). The day we went to Luoyang we went to see the Small Goose Pagoda in the city of Xi'an.
In Luoyang, we spent most of our time exploring the town. Playing Xiangxi (Chinese Chess) with the locals, finding new restaurants, and of course going out and having a good time at night. One night, Jeff, Dan, Ryan and I spent nearly 2 hours with this Muslim family in Luoyang. They had two children (probably cousins) and we ate cheap noodles and played with them. They even had a "Panda" bunny that was no bigger than my hand. That's the abbreviated version but it was a very memorable experience. In Luoyang, we went to the Shaolin Temple, where Kongfu began. We saw students break metal sticks on their heads, throw nails through glass, do Mushu animal interpretations, sword fighting and other awesome stuff. Also, we saw the nearby Pagoda Forest made up of several dozen stone pagodas. The Shaolin Temple is also a Zen Buddhist temple, and we walked through the temple looking at monks and seeing the Buddhas. On the way home, we went to the Longmen Grottoes. These are very famous caves, similar to Mogao Caves that have thousands of Buddha statues and paintings. The Longmen Grottoes have over 2300 caves and over 100,000 Buddhas ranging from centimeters high to about 30m.
From Luoyang we took a flight to Hohhot, our final destination. Of course, because of my last name and my general luck, I was one of 12 people that didn't make it on the direct flight in Hohhot. I was lucky enough to wake up a half-hour earlier (6:30 am), have a 3 hour layover in Beijing, then arrive 3 hours later than everyone an hour before dinnertime. The flight from Beijing was delayed 40 minutes, but I didn't notice because I had already fallen asleep while we were waiting on the runway. The hotel in Hohhot was amazing. It had mineral springs and massages in the hotel. Everyone got a massage and about 6 or 7 of us guys got a massage. Naturally, not being massage connoisseurs, we didn't know NOT to have the women take glasses, light a cotton ball underneath them to remove the air, and put them on our backs. The result is 10 huge circles that are red from the suction. I have pictures that will help explain.
From Hohhot, which is located in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, we went to the Mongolian Grasslands to finish our trip by staying with the Mongols in their traditional nomadic homes called gers. Gers are round huts and our gers were a bit modernized. They had beds, bath, and even a TV. Not saying it was much, there was no heat and the water was almost a trickle. In the grasslands, you'll see in the pictures, there isn't much to do. Within 250 miles. Of the things to do, there are two that would be considered fun to 20 year olds and that was horseback riding and ATVing. The horses were "strictly forbidden" and there were about 8 ATVs. The ATVs were Y150 for an hour and a half. The hour and a half was following a Mongol on a "Grasslands Tour." Whatever that meant it sounded restrictive and boring so we decided to break the rules and ride the horses instead. We asked our leader what would happen (before we rode horses) if "hypothetically" a group of us went horseback riding. She frankly said, "Nothing." So we told her to turn around and pretend we had never talked and next thing I knew I was riding my first horse in the Mongolian Grasslands. We went for two hours to the "lake," aka big puddle with cows. Great time. Really sore after. Really really sore. We had a roast lamb dinner (you'll see pictures) and finished the night with a Mongolian dance party. Not what you would think though, they listen to techno music so it was pretty much like a high school dance party. Except outside in the cold under the stars. The sunrise wasn't as great as the Gobi and when we left the grasslands we went back to Hohhot for the day. TBC wouldn't let us rest there though, we had a museum trip and 8 hours of free time to do whatever. We took an overnight train and here I am.
That was the brief version of my past 5 days. It was a trip of a lifetime but now I'm getting ready to start classes and get into a routine. We all joined a nearby gym for Y500 for 3-months. Not bad and I feel great already after working out for two days. Expect a whole lot of pictures and some really great posts in the coming days. I have a list of stories to tell and about 1000 pictures to share. (Not all of them mine)
Showing posts with label Silk Road Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silk Road Trip. Show all posts
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
As the Sun Rises Over the Gobi
Last night we headed out for the Gobi Desert. We arrived at the camp site around 7-8pm and set up tents. We had to get some pictures in before the sun set so we climbed to a nearby sand dune and watched it set. Everyone was enjoying the sand. It reminded me a lot of the Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. Just imagine that (Uncle Bob, Aunt Sandy, Aunt Ana, Uncle Rob & Cousins) but a whole lot bigger. The Gobi has really big dunes, not small ones. I've seen sand dunes before, but these were just monsters. Of course, I had to keep camera #2 on tight control. Didn't want anything to happen again. So when I rolled down the dune to the bottom, I gave my camera and belongings to Devon. Rolling down a sand dune definitely beats running, walking, or sliding down. I was going so fast, I could barely stop myself at the bottom. When I stood up, I couldn't even walk because I was so dizzy. It was great.
Our whole group had set up camp near the edge of the sand, and most of our tents were near one another. A few kids had far away camps, but we were the only people around. As the sun set, the stars began to come out and it reminded me of backpacking in the mountains with my Dad and Uncles. But once again, the Gobi had to have the upper hand over Colorado. I don't think I've seen so many stars in my life. The Milky Way was a distinct cloud of clustered stars and it was crazy. I found 5 satellites, which for some people was their first satellite. As the night went on, the stars continued to come out and before midnight, there were too many for me to try and find satellites. The Beijing Center prepared a bonfire for us and we ate watermelon and another Chinese melon. It really cooled off when the sun set and we all just kinda layed around in the sand lookin up at the crazy amount of stars. It was awesome. We knew we had to get up pretty early, so most of us crashed around 11:30pm. The alarms went off at 4:15am and when I opened up my tent I was in awe to see that the stars were just as bright and plentiful as when I had fallen asleep. The crazy part was the fact that they had actually shifted significantly during the night. Orion, which wasn't visible earlier in the night, had risen over the horizon and Betelgeuse was bright red. It was awesome. And cold. And sandy.
Speaking of the sand, let me just give a heads up that rolling down the sand dune probably wasn't a great idea. I'm pretty sure I got sand in every place imaginable. Every place.
We packed up our tent, and headed back to the bus. The bus dropped us off at the camel place where we had to wait until 5:45am to get on. All the camel caravans were 5 camels, all led by a Chinese leader. A guy Jeremy led our group, followed by Jessica, Devon, Jim and myself. Gerald, my camel, was a pretty good camel. I'm pretty sure he was in the back of the bus for some reason because he tended to not follow in line and usually crowded up next to Jim. Sometimes, when we stopped, Gerald would put his head by Jimmy and just look at him. It was great. We begin our ride to the dune while the glow of the sunrise was barely lighting up the eastern sky. It was still to dark to get clear pictures and cold enough to wear a long sleeved t-shirt and hoodie.
When we got to the top camp, we had to climb further to the top of the dune. We got to the top and waited. By now, the eminent glow of the rising sun had lit the entire sky. The stars had given way to clear blue sky and we waited. Finally, the orange ball began to peek above the mountains and we watched it rise. I'm pretty sure this is something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I'll show you pictures. Of course, nothing would be fun without a little excitement, so we decided to airtube down the dune on the way back to the camels. We got on innertubes and went down a track, sand blowing in my eyes and face like no tomorrow. As if I didn't have enough sand in my teeth as it was. As always, living in the 99c store, we had to pay Y10 to usethe innertubes. It was worth it. It even came with a free sandwich.
We took the camels back to the base of the dunes and went to the desert oasis that Dunhuang is famous for. By this time, it was 8:30am and we had been sandblasted, sun scorched and pretty much Gobi-ed out. I was hungry and thirsty and couldn't wait to spend a solid hour finding out where half the Gobi Desert had sneaked into. We got back to the hotel before 10 and ate a Chinese breakfast (which made me crave American breakfast even more), and cleaned up. Many q-tips later, I was ready to take a nap.
We slept, ate lunch, and headed out to Mogao Grottoes. These are 1000 caves that are carved into thelimestone wall. Each has a representation of Buddha but due to earthquakes and mankind, over 500 of them have been destroyed. We viewed a few of them. One of them was the 2nd largest Buddha in the world. Because the Taliban has destroyed two of the largest ones in the world, the Buddha at the Mogao Grottoes is now 2nd largest. This was even larger than the wooden one I saw at the Llama Temple. No pictures were allowed, so here's a link to some pictures. Mogao Caves. It was pretty cool.
Other than that it was a great day. We went out for the night and enjoyed Dunhaung. This morning, we took a bus to Jiayuguan to see the last section of the Great Wall, it was pretty cool but the wall is the wall. Actually, you'll see pictures.
Our whole group had set up camp near the edge of the sand, and most of our tents were near one another. A few kids had far away camps, but we were the only people around. As the sun set, the stars began to come out and it reminded me of backpacking in the mountains with my Dad and Uncles. But once again, the Gobi had to have the upper hand over Colorado. I don't think I've seen so many stars in my life. The Milky Way was a distinct cloud of clustered stars and it was crazy. I found 5 satellites, which for some people was their first satellite. As the night went on, the stars continued to come out and before midnight, there were too many for me to try and find satellites. The Beijing Center prepared a bonfire for us and we ate watermelon and another Chinese melon. It really cooled off when the sun set and we all just kinda layed around in the sand lookin up at the crazy amount of stars. It was awesome. We knew we had to get up pretty early, so most of us crashed around 11:30pm. The alarms went off at 4:15am and when I opened up my tent I was in awe to see that the stars were just as bright and plentiful as when I had fallen asleep. The crazy part was the fact that they had actually shifted significantly during the night. Orion, which wasn't visible earlier in the night, had risen over the horizon and Betelgeuse was bright red. It was awesome. And cold. And sandy.
Speaking of the sand, let me just give a heads up that rolling down the sand dune probably wasn't a great idea. I'm pretty sure I got sand in every place imaginable. Every place.
We packed up our tent, and headed back to the bus. The bus dropped us off at the camel place where we had to wait until 5:45am to get on. All the camel caravans were 5 camels, all led by a Chinese leader. A guy Jeremy led our group, followed by Jessica, Devon, Jim and myself. Gerald, my camel, was a pretty good camel. I'm pretty sure he was in the back of the bus for some reason because he tended to not follow in line and usually crowded up next to Jim. Sometimes, when we stopped, Gerald would put his head by Jimmy and just look at him. It was great. We begin our ride to the dune while the glow of the sunrise was barely lighting up the eastern sky. It was still to dark to get clear pictures and cold enough to wear a long sleeved t-shirt and hoodie.
When we got to the top camp, we had to climb further to the top of the dune. We got to the top and waited. By now, the eminent glow of the rising sun had lit the entire sky. The stars had given way to clear blue sky and we waited. Finally, the orange ball began to peek above the mountains and we watched it rise. I'm pretty sure this is something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I'll show you pictures. Of course, nothing would be fun without a little excitement, so we decided to airtube down the dune on the way back to the camels. We got on innertubes and went down a track, sand blowing in my eyes and face like no tomorrow. As if I didn't have enough sand in my teeth as it was. As always, living in the 99c store, we had to pay Y10 to usethe innertubes. It was worth it. It even came with a free sandwich.
We took the camels back to the base of the dunes and went to the desert oasis that Dunhuang is famous for. By this time, it was 8:30am and we had been sandblasted, sun scorched and pretty much Gobi-ed out. I was hungry and thirsty and couldn't wait to spend a solid hour finding out where half the Gobi Desert had sneaked into. We got back to the hotel before 10 and ate a Chinese breakfast (which made me crave American breakfast even more), and cleaned up. Many q-tips later, I was ready to take a nap.
We slept, ate lunch, and headed out to Mogao Grottoes. These are 1000 caves that are carved into thelimestone wall. Each has a representation of Buddha but due to earthquakes and mankind, over 500 of them have been destroyed. We viewed a few of them. One of them was the 2nd largest Buddha in the world. Because the Taliban has destroyed two of the largest ones in the world, the Buddha at the Mogao Grottoes is now 2nd largest. This was even larger than the wooden one I saw at the Llama Temple. No pictures were allowed, so here's a link to some pictures. Mogao Caves. It was pretty cool.
Other than that it was a great day. We went out for the night and enjoyed Dunhaung. This morning, we took a bus to Jiayuguan to see the last section of the Great Wall, it was pretty cool but the wall is the wall. Actually, you'll see pictures.
Monday, September 1, 2008
The Wild Wild West
I'm in Dunhuang, China. It was a three hour flight over here but we made it safely. I'm at an internet cafe, where I am the only westerner and the only person not playing video games. It is a great town here. With a population of 180,000 this town can't be put on the map. It actually didn't exist 20 years ago. They call it the oasis in the desert because we are right in the middle of the Gobi. I've had the chance to explore around a bit and it is awesome. The people are great, the markets remind me of Mexico. Raw spices in heaps in baskets, meats with flies swarming around, trinkets and junk out for sale, dirt everywhere. The people are so nice and for once I'm getting the curiosity stares that I don't really have in Beijing. We are truely off the map here. Our meals are almost half the price in Beijing, but on the busy streets we still get ripped off for bottled water and iced tea. I can't wait to wake up at 4 am tomorrow and watch the sunrise on a camel in the Gobi. I'll be writing again soon. Hope all is well in the states. Apparently, cell phone service is weak here so you might not be able to reach me, but keep trying...but not too hard.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
I Feel Trapped in a 99c Store...
My new dorm is amazing. I have everything I could want. But of course, being in China, they're going to nickle and dime me for everything I've got. Where do I start? Well, when I turn on the lights, I need to make sure the ones I'm not using are off because we only have 400 "units" of electricity a month. This means that if we leave our air condition on for 12 days straight we'll run out of electricity. When I wash my hands in the sink, I better make sure to do it fast because we have 4 tons of hot water and 4 of cold water. We have to pay for any extra that we use. The laundry room is in a different building and there are no dryers. Since it's been pretty hot lately, my laundry only took about a day and half to dry but when winter comes, that's going to be a lot of fun picking my frozen socks off of our balcony. There is no internet in my room. Well, of the two jacks one works (mine), but I can only get on Google. And since Blogger.com is part of Google, I can post. My Skype doesn't work nor do any other sites outside of Google. This isn't terrible right now, especially because we leave Sunday morning for 2 weeks and I'm not bringing my computer. Later on this year, I'll probably be writing about the situation again when I slip on ice and break all of my electronics at once. Our kitchen doesn't have any gas to light the stove, so we have to pay extra for that as well. No pots or pans provided. Jimmy and I were laughing this morning about how frustrating it is to live here sometimes. Everything is so cheap, but I've always said you get what you pay for. Things don't work properly, like the power strip I took from our old apartment. Sure we bought it at the supermarket, but there are 6 outlets on it and only 3 work. The handles on our plastic/cloth environmentally friendly grocery bags have broken already. The internet is a fiasco. Even in the other building (where we have to go to access wireless), it works sporadically. We laugh that we get things so cheap, but when you have to buy 10 of them to finally get one that works, you kind of come out short. It's kind of like being trapped in a 99c store. But, who doesn't like things from the 99c store. You can get pretty cool stuff there sometimes...
Most of the TBC students went to the Great Wall today. Mutianyu. The same exact place that we had gone a few days ago. Devon, Jimmy and I decided to opt out of this one. Good thing we did, the smog is horrible today and the weather is not the best. Plus they all had to leave at 8 o'clock or some ridiculous time. No way. Instead, we decided to go the Happy Valley Amusement Park. I love theme parks. Roller coasters are my thing. This theme park wasn't huge but they had some pretty great rides. We went on a flying coaster, which we got front seats for. Then they had one just like Elitch Gardens in Denver. The Mind Eraser. Almost an exact replica of that one. We went on another spinning one that moved like a pendulum. We had a great time. Admission was $24 and all worth it. It was really expensive though. A bottle of water was Y5. Ridiculous. We usually pay Y2 ($0.30). I took a lot of pictures. The park was divided into 5 different worlds. Atlantis, Greece, Mayan Ruins, Shangri-la, and Ant Kingdom (Kiddie land). We rode a few rides in each part and just enjoyed the day. Camera #2 is still doing alright too.
We're all still getting used to our new surroundings. We're meeting some cool people and a few of us went out last night. We're all pretty stoked for the two week Silk Road trip we're about to go on. Here's the deal, what I know so far at least. There are 120 students at TBC this semester. We're split into two groups. I'm in Group B, which travels from West to East. This means I start in the Gobi Desert. We go to the very end of the Great Wall, and leave the very last gate. It was here that people were exiled. Once they exited the gate, which was underground, they looked ahead of them at the Gobi. There was, and still is, no life on this desert. They looked behind them and the gate would just be a stone wall. Most of the exiled chose to die at the gate, and it is said their bodies still haunt this gate. We are starting our trip here. We are going to go on camels at 4am to watch the sunrise over the sand dunes. Then we begin our journey to Xi'an. It is here that the famous terracotta warriors are. We are unable to go to Tibet on this trip so instead we are going to the Shaolin Monastery also known as the Shaolin Temple. Many of the major martial arts have evolved from this very temple. Here we will watch the monks practice their arts. They recruit boys as young as 8 years old to begin training. On our Silk Road trip we'll be travelling to inner Mongolia and staying in traditional huts with locals. This will not be our only time camping out. In Mongolia, we will watch them race horses and participate in local Mongolian wrestling. I have never ridden a horse and really hope I get to ride one here. That would be an experience. Besides seeing the local Mongolian's customs and rituals, we will be living in their round tents (forget the name) and living with them for a few nights. Our other home stays will be indoors but we will be completely submerged in the real China. If this trip doesn't get me to the belly of the dragon, I don't know what I'll have to do.
Along this trip, I will try and update here, but if I can't I'll be posting pictures up when I return. I probably won't have the time (or the will) to write about every day, so I'll take extra pictures. I will have my Chinese mobile phone, so you can call me on that. To call me from the US you must first dial 011-86-10 Which is the international code for Chinese phone numbers. After dialing that code, you can then dial my cell phone number, which is 13671373273. Make sure you get a calling card if anyone wants to call me. (Probably not but hey, I want to think I have some fans)
Here are some pictures for you to catch up on.
I forgot to talk about a dinner I went to a few days ago. It the was our orientation day and we had a few host students take me and my neighbor Ryan on a tour around campus. We met up with Jimmy and his host student and we all went out to get some stuff for the room. We got pots and pans and a few packages of instant noodles. Since we're leaving on the Silk Road trip we can't really stock up on bacon and eggs and stuff because it will all spoil. We went out to dinner to a really cool restaurant where we ate like kings. They even had a free show of multiple traditional dances and performances. It started with some girls doing a traditional dance, followed by a mask dance, and ending with a small portion of the Beijing Opera performed by a young lady. The mask dance was awesome. The guy would change his mask within the half second it took for his hand and sleeve to pass over his face. Literally instantaneously. It was amazing. The opera singer was good? I had to ask my host student if the woman was performing well and she said yes. I probably just don't have the ear for opera. Well, I'm already hard of hearing as it is so I know I don't have the ear for it. We had some of the best Beijing Roast Duck I've had out here. They had some cool stuff on the menu that sounded really good. There was this eel pasta dish that looked really delicious but we didn't order it. This bone marrow drink that had bones with straws in the middle looked interesting to try but we didn't. I took a picture. Also, we did order some shrimp rolls dipped in pink cream cheese type sauce. That was delicious. Ryan wanted to try the duck head but we didn't get that so we got some dumplings, broccoli and a fish that was really meaty and tasted awesome.
I have more pictures from dinner, the amusement park, and my new dorm are going to be posted sometime soon.
Most of the TBC students went to the Great Wall today. Mutianyu. The same exact place that we had gone a few days ago. Devon, Jimmy and I decided to opt out of this one. Good thing we did, the smog is horrible today and the weather is not the best. Plus they all had to leave at 8 o'clock or some ridiculous time. No way. Instead, we decided to go the Happy Valley Amusement Park. I love theme parks. Roller coasters are my thing. This theme park wasn't huge but they had some pretty great rides. We went on a flying coaster, which we got front seats for. Then they had one just like Elitch Gardens in Denver. The Mind Eraser. Almost an exact replica of that one. We went on another spinning one that moved like a pendulum. We had a great time. Admission was $24 and all worth it. It was really expensive though. A bottle of water was Y5. Ridiculous. We usually pay Y2 ($0.30). I took a lot of pictures. The park was divided into 5 different worlds. Atlantis, Greece, Mayan Ruins, Shangri-la, and Ant Kingdom (Kiddie land). We rode a few rides in each part and just enjoyed the day. Camera #2 is still doing alright too.
We're all still getting used to our new surroundings. We're meeting some cool people and a few of us went out last night. We're all pretty stoked for the two week Silk Road trip we're about to go on. Here's the deal, what I know so far at least. There are 120 students at TBC this semester. We're split into two groups. I'm in Group B, which travels from West to East. This means I start in the Gobi Desert. We go to the very end of the Great Wall, and leave the very last gate. It was here that people were exiled. Once they exited the gate, which was underground, they looked ahead of them at the Gobi. There was, and still is, no life on this desert. They looked behind them and the gate would just be a stone wall. Most of the exiled chose to die at the gate, and it is said their bodies still haunt this gate. We are starting our trip here. We are going to go on camels at 4am to watch the sunrise over the sand dunes. Then we begin our journey to Xi'an. It is here that the famous terracotta warriors are. We are unable to go to Tibet on this trip so instead we are going to the Shaolin Monastery also known as the Shaolin Temple. Many of the major martial arts have evolved from this very temple. Here we will watch the monks practice their arts. They recruit boys as young as 8 years old to begin training. On our Silk Road trip we'll be travelling to inner Mongolia and staying in traditional huts with locals. This will not be our only time camping out. In Mongolia, we will watch them race horses and participate in local Mongolian wrestling. I have never ridden a horse and really hope I get to ride one here. That would be an experience. Besides seeing the local Mongolian's customs and rituals, we will be living in their round tents (forget the name) and living with them for a few nights. Our other home stays will be indoors but we will be completely submerged in the real China. If this trip doesn't get me to the belly of the dragon, I don't know what I'll have to do.
Along this trip, I will try and update here, but if I can't I'll be posting pictures up when I return. I probably won't have the time (or the will) to write about every day, so I'll take extra pictures. I will have my Chinese mobile phone, so you can call me on that. To call me from the US you must first dial 011-86-10 Which is the international code for Chinese phone numbers. After dialing that code, you can then dial my cell phone number, which is 13671373273. Make sure you get a calling card if anyone wants to call me. (Probably not but hey, I want to think I have some fans)
Here are some pictures for you to catch up on.
 |
| The Great Wall |
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| Track & Field |
I forgot to talk about a dinner I went to a few days ago. It the was our orientation day and we had a few host students take me and my neighbor Ryan on a tour around campus. We met up with Jimmy and his host student and we all went out to get some stuff for the room. We got pots and pans and a few packages of instant noodles. Since we're leaving on the Silk Road trip we can't really stock up on bacon and eggs and stuff because it will all spoil. We went out to dinner to a really cool restaurant where we ate like kings. They even had a free show of multiple traditional dances and performances. It started with some girls doing a traditional dance, followed by a mask dance, and ending with a small portion of the Beijing Opera performed by a young lady. The mask dance was awesome. The guy would change his mask within the half second it took for his hand and sleeve to pass over his face. Literally instantaneously. It was amazing. The opera singer was good? I had to ask my host student if the woman was performing well and she said yes. I probably just don't have the ear for opera. Well, I'm already hard of hearing as it is so I know I don't have the ear for it. We had some of the best Beijing Roast Duck I've had out here. They had some cool stuff on the menu that sounded really good. There was this eel pasta dish that looked really delicious but we didn't order it. This bone marrow drink that had bones with straws in the middle looked interesting to try but we didn't. I took a picture. Also, we did order some shrimp rolls dipped in pink cream cheese type sauce. That was delicious. Ryan wanted to try the duck head but we didn't get that so we got some dumplings, broccoli and a fish that was really meaty and tasted awesome.
I have more pictures from dinner, the amusement park, and my new dorm are going to be posted sometime soon.
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.
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