China: A Place I Can't Buy Pants

Last Day in Beijing in 2006

2006-12-17T21:23:00.000+08:00

Well today was my last full day in Beijing for this semester. Tomorrow morning I'll begin 27 hours of travel and I'll eventually end up back in Minnesota.

I learned a lot this semester. A lot about Chinese and a lot about life in general. I wish I could sum it all up nice and easy, but I just can't. For anyone reading this who is thinking about studying abroad, I would definitely say do it. I enjoyed just about every aspect of my experience so far.

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been very busy lately. I don't have to much to report though because just about everything I've done since the last update has involved going to the markets and buying stuff. Bargaining can be really fun at times, but it does really wear you out.

This will probably also be my last post on the blog until next semester starts. I've changed my original plan to stay in China from September to June/July. I'm now coming home for winter break and not doing January Term in Beijing. I'll be returning for the Spring Term, but that's not until February 20. I'll be home until then, so I probably won't be posting.

Until then, thanks to those who have been reading. I hope you have enjoyed it so far.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

-Mike

China is kewl

2006-12-12T11:59:00.000+08:00

today i got stared at by people aaaand i ate chinese foood. it was awesome!!!!!! lol!!! i luv blogz!!!1

edit: Well I guess I left my computer on and door open. I'm leaving this up though.

Just Beards...

2006-12-05T12:36:00.000+08:00

Now that it’s December, it’s time for pictures of beards!

Back in the beginning of November, I posted about how a few of my friends and I decided to participate in No Shave November. Originally, I was participating involuntarily, but then I began to go along with it. For my Halloween costume I had a mohawk, so I decided to keep that to.

As time went on our teachers started asking why we weren’t shaving, so we explained the whole concept to them. I think some of them think this is a real custom in America.

I was taking pictures about every week, so I’m just going to post some.

Here is another Donkey Kong picture.

Here is one from November 6th.

Here I am on November 15th.

Here is one from the 20th.

Here I am after the second creation of the mohawk on the 24th.

After all that time, we took some pictures together on November 31st. Ben went into this with a beard already, so he had the bushiest one after the whole ordeal. He ended up playing around with some different styles before shaving it all the way down to some stubble. Ken had muttonchops before and he also played around before shaving it all off. Alex didn’t have anything before hand and he shaved it all off after making one attempt at some big handlebars. Stewart has yet to shave his off. I have also yet to shave. I think I’m going to keep my beard and the mohawk until I get home so I can gross out my sister. Anyway, here are some more pictures.

Group shot: (left to right): Alex, Ben, Me, Stewart, Ken.

My profile.

The hawk.

Bushy Ben.

One of the grossest pictures ever.

Ken and beard.

Alex and his beard.

Stewart’s roommate being jealous of Ben’s beard. Ironically, Wang Zhan shaved for the first time in his life earlier that day.

And finally here is Ben looking super trashy. He had this for less than a day.

Well that's all we have for this post. I hope you keep reading after this atrocity. Thanks.

Bowling in the Countryside

2006-12-03T12:01:00.000+08:00

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t really partake in it. There were a few places in Beijing that had a real Thanksgiving dinner, such as the Sheraton hotel, but we didn’t really feel like going somewhere far away. CET was also giving us 100 kuai to go eat anywhere we wanted. We decided to eat Beijing Duck at a place that specializes in it very close to campus. I’ve had Beijing duck three times now and I really don’t like it very much. Anyway we went with 11 people total, 8 CET students and 3 roommates, so we had 890 kuai to spend (each roommate allowed for 30 more). Usually this would allow you to eat forever, but this duck place was expensive because it was next to a hotel, so we ended up going over a little without knowing.

On Saturday the 25th, we had our Language Immersion Weekend Trip. That morning we took a bus about two hours north to the Beijing countryside/a suburb. We got to stay in a nice hotel, but the plan was to go out and see how many people live in China. After arriving at the hotel, they gave us some time to relax and eat lunch. Afterwards, we had to start preparing for the performance we would be putting on that night. Our class already had an idea do some improv like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” but people started going their own ways. I wanted to go with that so I got two other people who wanted to do the Stand, Sit, Kneel skit from the show. We changed it to Stand, Sit, Lay because we had a basic idea of what we wanted to do anyway. Pure improv in Chinese was going to be too hard, so we planned out a basic idea that we were going to be at a hospital and one of us was going to be injured.

After planning for a little while, we all went to a local high school to speak Chinese with some students. When we got there almost all of them started talking to us in English, which our teachers quickly squashed. We asked them questions about how they liked living in the country (which it really wasn’t at all), what they liked to do (if they even had any free time at all), what they thought about their education, etc. The guy I was talking with told me that my mohawk was cool and that if someone had that in his school, the teacher would personally cut it off. After talking to them for about an hour and a half we were went on our way.

Back at the hotel we had an awesome time because they had a big activity center. They had a swimming pool (which you needed a swim cap for), ping pong, pool tables, shuffleboard, KTV (karaoke), and freaking bowling. We played some pool first and then hit the lanes. It was hard to draw ourselves away to go eat dinner, but after eating we had another three hours before the performances started, so we went straight back to bowling. We started bowling 4 on 4 matches using two lanes and my team dominated each time. I think most of us ended up bowling about 6 games, which was the most any of us had ever played at one time. Our hands and arms were pretty sore afterwards.

The performances that night were all pretty funny. Some were very long and had a lot of planning go into them and then there were others like ours, which relied more on physical humor. A great part about the shows were that some kids played completely different roles than their actual lives and some played the exact same. We’ll be getting a DVD of these, so when I’m home I can show them to whoever wants to see them (which will require my translation). After the shows we just hung out for a little while before going to bed.

The next morning we got up to go the countryside. This little village was up in the hills and was centered around the road that went through it. Our groups were each assigned a family to go visit and we went on our way. The house we went to kind of strange. It had four walls with an open courtyard like most, but the rooms were only on three of the walls like a big U. In the middle was a plot of land where they grew crops. The house had about 7 rooms, but most of them only had one thing in it. For example, one room was a very normal looking room with electrical outlets, tiled floors, windows, etc., but the only thing in it was a huge mound of lettuce. Also, only a man, his wife, and their son lived there. While they were making us lunch we had time to ask them questions about their lives. Some of their neighbors also came over and they were interesting to talk to. One thing that I thought was funny was that they had a TV with a satellite dish and the guy said sometimes he would stay up until 4am watching TV. Their lunch was pretty good and they showed their Chinese customs by bringing new dishes throughout the whole meal. After eating we headed back to the bus and ended our trip.

Oh and to stay on topic. Whenever I have conversations with Chinese people, Yao Ming always comes up, you know, because I’m tall and stuff.

Train Tales

2006-11-20T14:42:00.000+08:00

In China, trains are a very popular way to travel because China is such a big, solid land mass and they are very cheap. I’ve ridden on trains in the US and in China, but it was only for an hour or two. I can tell you now that I do not like riding on trains overnight and it all calls back to be being too tall (it’s been pretty easy to stick to this theme without even trying).

Friday November 10th, we had a program trip to historical Xi’an. When I was in China last summer, this was another city we came to because this is where the Terracotta Warriors are. Friday night at around 5:30pm our train departed. We had one whole car to ourselves and then some other kids were in the car over. It was fun having all of us jammed into one car, but it was especially hard for me to get around. I think there were 10 sections of the car and each section had six bunks. I got the top bunk of our section and I was fine with that because I heard that it was a little longer. Well that person was wrong because it was the same as every other one and my feet were off the end by about five inches. I didn’t care about that though. What I found the worst to be was the bar that was installed to ensure I didn’t roll off the bed. When I laid flat on my stomach, my right arm was directly up against the bar and my left was against the wall. Anyway at 6:30am we arrived in Xi’an and started our Amazing Race (like the TV show).

Our first objective was to find out how to get to our hotel. This was easy and everyone even got there at the same time. We were all broken up into 19 groups of four and during the day we would go to different places around town and find answers to tell our teachers, so they would give us the next hint. I thought it was interesting way to get us out and about, but many other people really thought it was stupid because they didn’t want to be forced to go to certain places. We were able to go at a leisurely pace if we wanted and my group just went with the flow of the game. We finished 8th overall, so we won nothing.

During the game I got some of my best stares. My group members would watch people after we passed by them to see their reactions because in front of us they would just say something and stare, but after they passed they would start hitting each other in excitement. One little kid walked by and yelled out, “Mom! His shoes are so big!” Another funny one was when a girl started turning her head to the left as we passed by and then her boyfriend tilted her head back forward.

That night we went to the big pagoda where every night they have a big fountain show.

On Sunday, we went to see the Terracotta Warriors, which is kind of hard to talk about and nothing really spectacular happened anyway.

Afterwards, we went to the Hot Springs where the Emperor bathed. My friends and I walked around for a little bit and then decided to get foot massages. While we were getting them, my friend next to me had a nice, gentle girl and I had some middle-aged guy that was killing my feet with his knuckles. When I get massages I laugh a lot of the time from the energy coming out or something, so I was in a lot of pain, but I could only laugh. This got my friends laughing too, which got the masseuses laughing at us.

That night we had another fun 12-hour train ride, but this time I got the bottom bunk, which was relatively better. Luckily after we got to Beijing at 6am, we didn’t have to go to class.

Last Friday, we went to go see Beijing Acrobats and they blew our minds. Our group got there pretty early and we got front row seats. There were unicycles, bowl balancing, hoop jumping, pole-jumping, tight rope walking, etc. After the show ended we went outside and all the kids that were in the show were already in there bus to leave. We have no idea how they got all their stuff, got changed, and managed to beat us out the door and it will forever be a mystery.

Not Much to Report

2006-11-08T16:32:00.000+08:00

I already posted a picture of my Halloween costume, but didn’t really talk about Halloween. Well there isn’t really too much to report because that night I was the only one with a real costume. Towards the end of the night some girls just put on some clothes that they bought in Indonesia or something over break. I definitely won the costume contest that we didn’t actually have though. While waiting to see if anyone would get their act together and get in costume I walked around trying to give away some of the bananas I bought. Eventually I just ended up teaching a bunch of people how to play Bang!, which is an awesome card game (thanks Nate).

Part of my costume was a Mohawk and I still have it because everyone tells me it actually looks cool. I still need to fix it though because it was made really quickly on Halloween. Also, that day my friends stole my electric razor, so I wouldn’t be able to shave this month because according to them it is No Shave November. I tried to give it back, but they begged me not to because we are always with each other and it would look cool to have a tall dude with a Mohawk and a (crappy) beard. Well I decided to agree because I don’t think the number of stares I get could possibly increase. I have to get a copy of contract I have to sign, so I can put it up here.

I’m glad to say I didn’t do anything this week except rest and play more Bang! now that everyone loves it. I’m finally caught up with everything now, so I’ll talk to everyone later.

Shanghai and Suzhou Part 2

2006-11-08T15:14:00.000+08:00

Oh crap! I forgot to tell the chicken story. It can be found now as an addendum to the Yangshuo and Guilin Part 2 post.

Well the next day we were in Shanghai was Friday, October 27th. We took the morning easy and had to take care of some things until lunch. After that we went back to Pudong so we could go up the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The Pearl has three different viewing platforms (the pearls) with the top one being 350m high. First we went to the second one, which has more information on what you are looking at. For example, it has a panoramic picture of all the buildings on the Bund and it names what each one is. There is also an outside viewing platform at this height. Afterwards, we went all the way to the top-viewing platform. This was the first time I had been able to get a good view of the city during the day, but it still went on and on forever. The lowest pearl is at 90m and is also outside. From the lowest pearl, you can take a glass elevator down to the entrance, so we decided to do that and apparently so did everyone else. They crammed at least twice as many people in this round elevator as they should have. I couldn’t move an inch and I felt bad for the little kid that was standing right next to me because I was definitely crushing him. Here are some pictures:

Here is a good picture of the Jin Mao Tower along with the Shanghai World Financial Center being built behind it (which will be taller than it).

Here is a nice smoggy view of Puxi.

The traffic is really bad in Shanghai also. Maybe it’s because they are hiring people who want to turn 6 lanes into 2, with the 2 being the only way to get your car to Puxi from the center of Pudong.

I just have a feeling that this driving range directly next to Jin Mao will soon have a gigantic building on top of it.

“Most expensive building in China and they can’t even get the trash cans right!” – My dad

After the Pearl, we went to the Yuyuan Gardens, which has a large bazaar area as well as the gardens themselves. Well when we got there we were disappointed to find out that they were just about to close. We then spent a little time walking around the bazaar before heading to dinner.

For dinner we decided to go to a Brazilian steakhouse that we always saw packed when we got off the subway. This place only had a buffet, but the waiters kept walking around slicing tons of meat off of giant skewers right on to your plate. They were bringing it so fast that I had to turn them away. To make this place even better they had the World Series on, which was the first American sporting event I had watched in China. There were tons of people waiting for our table when we were done eating so we left to go watch the end of the game at a sports bar. After the game we went back to the hotel for the night.

That Saturday we decided to make a trip to Suzhou to see the gardens there. Suzhou is called the Venice of China, but this was my second time there and I haven’t really noticed tons of canals. It took us a while to get there because the first train we wanted to get on only had standing room available, so we bought a ticket for the next one. After arriving in Suzhou, a man followed us from the train and just gave us a quick pointer on where to go to get out of the station. Before we knew it he was our personal driver. He told us he was a driver and that he had a taxi, but some other dude drove us in a regular taxi with the meter off while our guy sat in the front. The first place we went was the tallest pagoda in Suzhou. There were Buddhist monks performing rituals in the temple while we were there and lots of gigantic incense sticks.

When we were done there we went out to find our guy sitting in a van. He was so excited to have a van to take us around in, but he still wasn’t driving it. He wanted to take us somewhere, but we told him we wanted to go to The Humble Administrator’s Garden. I don’t know too much about it and gardens aren’t really my thing, so I’ve included the Wikipedia link along with some of our pictures.

After that we had to get back to the station for the last one back to Shanghai. When we got back to Shanghai we went to the same “Good Morning!” restaurant and they were most definitely saying it. We walked around on our hotel’s street for a while before heading back and going to sleep.

On Sunday, we flew back to Beijing, but not before having the worst cab driver yet. This guy was laying on his horn even when we were at a dead stop in traffic caused by an accident. We just couldn’t understand what was going on in his head. He would never let anyone in front of him, but when he would switch lanes, he would hesitate forever and then choose a terrible time to do it. I do think the sheer amount of cars causes the traffic problems in Beijing and Shanghai, but it wouldn’t be nearly as bad if everyone just calmed down a little bit. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, our Beijing cab driver drove slowly in the right lane and didn’t pass anyone at all.

Back in Beijing, my dad and I got unpacked and him repacked for his flight home on Monday. The next afternoon he was on his way, leaving me behind for the next part of my journey in China. Thanks again for coming dad even though it looks like I will be coming home for at least winter break now anyway. I hope the rest of my experience in China will be as great as the first quarter of it. Looks like I only have one smaller post to make to catch up to the present day!

Here's one last pic for you dad:

Shanghai Part 1

2006-11-06T21:14:00.000+08:00

Well we knew when we were in Shanghai, the biggest city in China, when we took this picture of the taxi line at the airport on Wednesday, October 25th. After getting to our hotel we didn’t have much time before we went to dinner. We went to a nicer Chinese restaurant after walking around for a while. It was pretty nice, but it was funny when we walked in because all the waiters and other staff kept saying “Good Morning!” to us even though it wasn’t. We had to walk a little bit to get to our table so we heard a large number of them. On the way out of the place, they kept saying it, which got us laughing. I decided to teach them what they should say using Chinese, but it turns out the joke was on me. They were actually saying “huan ying guan ni” which is a polite way to welcome someone. I still think they were actually saying “good morning” as a joke because all the other restaurants we went to were clearly not saying “good morning.”

The only other thing we did on Wednesday was go to the 88th floor observatory area of the Jin Mao Tower, which is at the center of the rapidly growing Pudong economic district. Last summer when I was in Shanghai we went up there too, so I knew it was a cool place to go. The 88th floor gives a really good view at all the buildings going up in Pudong and Puxi (the east bank and west bank of the river).

Here’s a good picture of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower from Jin Mao.

Here’s the view down to the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which is the highest hotel in the world. It starts on the 53rd floor of the building.

Here are the two buildings used towards the end of Mission Impossible 3.

This picture of the tower from the ground is a little blurry, but I think it makes it look cooler.

On Thursday we went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, which is a really interesting look at the past and future of Shanghai. The center documents the history of the city and all of the different European concessions that ushered in its future development. The centerpiece of the center is a huge model that shows what the city is going to look like in 2015. The other areas of the center explained the plans to expand the airport, build a deep-see port off the coast, create suburbs, solve the traffic problems, etc. The whole building is really like a big piece of propaganda, but I think all of what they propose is feasible, unlike promises that are made in North Korea (see Ryuguong Hotel).

The Center was right near Nanjing Road, one of the biggest shopping districts in the world, so we decided to walk around for a while. We immediately started getting hounded by vendors trying to take us to their secret stashes of purses, wallets, watches, and DVDs. They were really easy to pick out, so we found that a good method to keep them away from you is to point directly at them before they start talking. My dad did want to find a purse for my sister, so we decided to walk down a back alley. Two people saw us and brought us into their store, which had a hidden door to a room with purses. They were too expensive, so we went to another store deeper in the alley. This next store had two other white people bargaining for purses. We ended up finding out that they were also from Minneapolis and were here buying up lots of purses and then shipping them back to the US to sell.

We followed Nanjing Road all the way east to the river, which brought us to the historic Bund. I don’t think there is like the Bund anywhere else in the world. The buildings are all from the concessions granted to western countries during the early 20th century. Almost all were banks and most still are today, but the owners are Chinese. When you turn around you get THE image of Shanghai, the always-changing skyline of the Pudong economic district. After taking some pictures we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Yangshuo and Guilin Part 2

2006-11-05T16:15:00.000+08:00

Here’s the next installment of our trip covering Monday and Tuesday, the 23rd and 24th. Monday we decided to rent bikes to ride south of Yangshuo into the countryside. There are tons of shops renting out bikes in town, so you just have to find the ones that are the least beat up for the best price. We also needed to find bikes that we could fit on, which was troublesome because every place had the same bikes to choose from. After finding two suitable bikes we went on our way. We weren’t even outside of town before it felt like my pedal was going to fall off at any moment. We decided to pull into a little guy’s motorcycle shop to see if he could fix it. He was asleep when we got there, but his daughter woke him up for us. He didn’t really do much except bang on the nuts with his hammer and screwdriver. It was a little better, but you can only expect so much out of China.

Our first stop on our bike trip was at the Big Banyan Tree. The Tree is a huge twisted tree that is 1500 years old. Near the tree there was a cool rock structure and a small minority town. Around the town there were lots of old ladies selling stuff. Almost all of them were selling these hand made sandals that were obviously too small for either of us. The ladies didn’t believe us when we said they were too big even though we showed us our feet. It was almost as if they were in denial that feet this big even existed. They got my dad to try them on and when they actually saw they weren’t even close to fitting, they all started cracking up. They didn’t let us leave peacefully though. My dad showed interest in some coins and all of a sudden all the ladies whipped some out and surrounded him. He bought some and we got out of there.

Next stop was Moon Hill. When we were almost to the park entrance, two ladies with coolers hanging over their shoulders started chasing after us. We tried to ignore them, but they started following us up the hill, which has about 1250 steps to the top. They kept following us and pushing us along. My dad said he probably wouldn’t have kept going up if it weren’t for the ladies telling him to because he was tired. The ladies told us that at the top they could sell us cold water and when we were sweaty they started fanning us off. While walking up we also noticed that everyone climbing the hill had a Chinese lady following them too. I started talking to them in Chinese and found out that one of them was 47 and the other was SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD! After hearing that we knew we had to finish. We reached the rock formation that looks like the moon, but the ladies told us to go up on top of it while they waited back there. The top of the hill really did have a good view. After coming back down they sold us ridiculously expensive water at 20 RMB per bottle, but it was worth it. When we got back down to our bikes, the ladies went turned into every other vendor in China and tried to sell us postcards and little trinkets. After riding back to town we ate dinner and spent the rest of the night walking around buying stuff.

Tuesday morning we had to take a taxi back to Guilin because we were going on a tour. We had another crazy taxi ride, but it was different than the rest I’ve had because this one wasn’t in traffic. From Yangshuo to Guilin there is a two-lane road that every tour bus and transport truck uses, so they get in the way of the cars. Our taxi driver spent almost as much time in the wrong lane as he did in the correct one because he passed so often. He once even passed on the shoulder because another car was also passing in the left lane at the same time. The worst part was that he was playing crappy Mando-pop (Mandarin Chinese pop music) the whole time and the speakers were right behind our heads. Anyway, he got us to Guilin on time.

After getting to our hotel we met our tour guide and driver, so we planned out the day. The first place we went was Yao Mountain, which is the tallest point in Guilin. Unfortunately it was pretty hazy out and we couldn’t see too far in the distance. We walked around there for a little while and then took the chairlift back down.

Next place we went was the tea research center where we got to wear funny hats, learn about tea, drink tea, and buy tea. I never like the tea we get at restaurants, but I really like some of the ones we tried and I burnt my tongue on one of them. After that, we went to the Peaceful Solitary Beauty Peak (or something), which is where the prince would come and meditate. China really likes things that go up, so there were more stairs and more views to take pictures of.

We didn’t do too much the rest of the night, so we made sure we were ready to head to Shanghai the next day.

Addendum: I forgot to tell a funny story about our cab ride from our hotel in Guilin to the airport on Wednesday morning. We went out of the hotel and there was a cab waiting in the parking lot already. When he saw our bags he said, “Airport – 100!” This seemed pretty steep because usually they just use the meter instead of a flat rate and we knew it wasn’t extremely far to the airport. Anyway, he opened the trunk and the first thing he did was pull out a LIVING CHICKEN and hand it to his buddy, so there would be room for our luggage. We didn’t even know what to say and it didn’t help matters when we saw all the chicken crap. He got all embarrassed and laid a bunch of newspaper over it. At this point my dad said he wanted to go ask inside how much this should cost. He went in and found out that it should cost 100 kuai and for some reason he decided to tell them there was a chicken in the trunk. When he said chicken, the lady said, “You want to… check-in?” This cracked my dad up, so he tried to explain it better and this time he started doing a chicken strut and flapping his wings. I’m glad us Americans can leave good impressions on these people.

The Beginning: Guilin and Yangshuo Part 1

2006-11-05T15:39:00.000+08:00

My dad and I began our trip on Saturday, October 21st by flying south to Guilin, which is in Guangxi province (that money was for our plane tickets, which you have to use cash for). Our original plans were to land in Guilin and then take a taxi about an hour and a half south to Yangshuo and get a hotel there. From there we would travel back and forth to sightsee. Our plans changed after we talked to the tourist bureau in the airport. Our new plans were: stay in Guilin Saturday night, take the river cruise down to Yangshuo on Sunday, stay there Sunday and Monday night, head back to Guilin and stay there Tuesday night before finally leaving for Shanghai on Wednesday.

Saturday we spent some time resting and walked around Guilin. Guilin may be much, much smaller than Beijing, but it’s just as busy in the main districts. We walked down a walking only street that was full of stores selling all kinds of things and little stands selling local snacks. The food in the south is pretty different when compared to the food we usually eat in Beijing. They eat a lot more fish, especially in Guilin and Yangshuo because the Li River that runs through both cities has provided them with food for centuries. The snacks were really different though. Here is a picture and explanation going clockwise from the top left to bottom left: pig tail, pig foot, duck head, pig stomach (partially obscured), duck something (I think), duck feet, and giant pig ears. I found some cookies instead.

On Sunday we took the Li River cruise down to Yangshuo. The cruise is essentially why everyone comes to Guilin and is essentially why Yangshuo is even on a map (hmm, not the one up top). A scene from the river is featured on the back of the Chinese 20 RMB currency. The cruise is about four hours of looking at really unique landscapes and it’s hard to show in pictures. There were some interesting things too though. I found out that even on the water you can’t escape the vendors. As we were chugging along, vendors on bamboo rafts would line themselves up with the boat and when they got close they would hook on and board the boat. After a few minutes they would give up and try to hit the next boat. Near the end of the cruise there were also a bunch of kids waiting in the river with goggles on yelling something at us. It turns out they wanted us to throw stuff/money over the sides for them. I thought this was ridiculous because coins are rarely used in China and I can’t imagine what a tourist would have that they would want to throw over the side of a boat.

Well after arriving in Yangshuo we had to walk through the giant gauntlet of vendors while dragging our suitcases behind us. We also picked up a tourist guide, named Connie, who wanted to show us around. We just ignored her, but she stuck with us all the way to our hotel. After almost two hours of resting in our room we went out to look around the town and find dinner, but first we ran into Connie again. She was just waiting for us outside the whole time. We told her no thanks and went on our way.

The touristy part of Yangshuo is really interesting. There is a main street that is lined with shops selling stuff for tourists and lots of restaurants. All of the restaurants had essentially the same menus. All of them had western breakfast and coffee in the morning, western or Chinese food for lunch and dinner, and then turned into a bar/club at night. While my dad and I were walking along the street looking for a place to eat, we randomly found two of the girls from my CET program. They knew I was going to Guilin, but didn’t know I was going to be in Yangshuo. We ate dinner with them and talked for a while before heading our own ways. For the rest of the night my dad and I walked around and looked at some of the other stores along the street, before heading back to our room.

I’ll update everyone on the next two days in the next post.

Oh God! There are two of them now!

2006-11-05T14:35:00.000+08:00

Time to travel back in time once again. This time our destination is Tuesday, October 17. I actually made a post this day, but it didn’t have anything to do with what I’m about to say.

Well today my dad came to see me because we were going to be traveling during my fall break the following week. I was kind of worried about his arrival after I remembered that he can’t speak Chinese and even if he has Chinese directions to his hotel, the cab driver might not know where it is. After he hadn’t called me for a while I decided to walk over to his hotel and ask if he had checked in. When I got there I found out he had just checked in, so I went up to see him. The reason he was late was because of the terrible traffic, which is unavoidable in Beijing. He had a good quote something along the lines of “You know all those people who think China is going to take over the world? Well their wrong because they’re going to be stuck in traffic!”

Anyway, the first day he was here I showed him around my neighborhood and brought him to a really dirty restaurant with really good food. After eating I brought him to this big square near my school that is crowded with people every single night of the week. The main attraction there is tons of people doing these weird lines dances to different songs. I’m not sure exactly how it works because each song has a different dance, but some people do their own dance to each song. There are also lots of people selling random stuff. We were watching a group of guys playing Jianzi, which is like hackie sack, but it’s made out of feathers and little metal washers. Soon we were playing with them, which of course drew a crowd, probably because we were bad at it.

That Wednesday, I decided not to go to class, so we could go do something. That morning we went over to the big foreigner district of Beijing called Chaoyang. All the embassies and lots of businesses are over there, so there are also lots of western restaurants. We headed straight to Grandma’s Kitchen, which my friends told me was very good. It was very enjoyable having my first real American breakfast since being here along with a milkshake and a Dr. Pepper after words. Afterwards, we went to the Silk Market, which is full of silk, fake clothes, and foreigners. My dad really hated being yelled at and grabbed by people trying to get him to buy stuff. He really did enjoy messing around with them though when he was actually trying to buy stuff. I was able to help him out using my Chinese too, which was fun.

For the rest of the afternoon we went to the Forbidden City, which I had already done last summer when I was China. It’s one of those must see things that I don’t really find too exciting. That was really the end of the day as I had work to do. I thought this picture was funny because they were doing construction on the main temple, so they painted a picture of it onto the scaffolding.

Thursday was another uneventful day for me because that Friday I had a midterm that I really hadn’t started studying for. My dad went to the Great Wall while I was in class (Thursday is my heaviest load), so he had some stories. My dad though the funniest thing was the guy who he paid to drive him to and from the Wall named Mr. Duo. This guy had a car that looked normal on the outside, but my dad said he couldn’t even count the number of times he thought this thing was going to completely die on the road. My dad really enjoyed the Wall, but was really disappointed to see all of the vendors that were allowed to solicit right on it. After he came back we went to dinner again, but I had to spend the rest of the night studying.

After my test on Friday, we went to a big market a couple blocks away from my school and spent most of the day getting ready for our trip the next day. I have a feeling these next posts are going to be plentiful, so I’ll end this one here.

A Trip Down (and back up, down, up, down) Longqing Gorge

2006-11-03T12:50:00.000+08:00

Ok it's time to get caught up with everything that has happened lately. This post takes us back to Sunday, October 15.

First, here is the conversation that took place late Saturday night.

A: “Hey guys, you want to go bungee jumping tomorrow!?!”
Everyone: “YEAH!”

So we designated one person to get up at 9am and start waking up everyone else so we could get to the bus station early. Amazingly the plan worked very well and of the 8 people who said they wanted to go, 7 actually did.

We almost went to the wrong bus station, but we found the right bus and the ride took about two hours. I was very happy we had seats because the bus was packed with people who were going to the Great Wall. We stopped a ton of times along the way and every time there was a net gain in people on the bus.

After reaching our destination we got off the bus and this lady immediately started telling us she could take all of us to the Gorge in her little minivan. She even agreed to wait for us while we ate lunch. After lunch, she brought us to the van and we saw how tight of a fit it was going to be. Stewart didn’t even have a seat so she whipped out a little stool for him to sit on. When we got to the gorge she agreed to wait for us there too, so she could take us back.

We bought our tickets and started making our way through the beginning of the park when we saw the “world’s longest chain of elevators.” This giant dragon is full of escalators that take you to the top of the dam. At the top we got in a little tour boat that went down the reservoir in the gorge allowing everyone to see the cool rock formations. After the boat turns around at the end of the reservoir, it stops at a dock in the middle to let people get out and walk along the trails in the hills. We got out and went straight to the bungee jump area (after going to the bathroom of course).

At the bungee jump station we started checking in and they started weighing us. When I saw that I started to worry (hmm, all of my stories seem to be related to me being big). I got on the scale and I was 94kg. The guy there started shaking his head and waving his arms around and he told us that 90kg was the heaviest anyone could be. I immediately started taking off my shoes, jacket, and taking out everything in my pockets. None of that worked though and they wouldn’t budge. Well we went up the stairs to the big platform and started getting scared.

After the first person jumped, the guy came over to me and said I could jump if I didn’t mind getting wet, so then I went and bought my ticket. Of course I was thinking things like what if I hit the bottom, but the platform was sticking out pretty far. We decided I should go last since it was going to be the most spectacular jump. I took off my shirt and was ready to go.

After the guy strapped my legs to the rope he didn’t give me much time to stand around. I jumped off, saw the water, didn’t think I was going to hit it, and ended up going in down to my chest. Right as I went in another tour was passing by so as I was dangling there after the big bounces I heard lots of cheering. They way they unhinged us was by lowering us down to a boat, so while I was upside down waiting for them I could feel all the blood running to my head which made my eyes feel pretty weird. All in all it was extremely fun. Unfortunately I don’t think there were any pictures taken of my jump, but fortunately one of my friends brought along his video camera, so my entire jump is on film. We just need to figure out how to convert it and compress it, so I can get it on here.

Well that about wraps up that weekend. I still have a lot more posts to make, so I’ll get to work.

Blog Troubles

2006-11-02T20:18:00.000+08:00

It seems that China has once again disabled access to Blogspot. What this means is I can still write my blog because I do that at www.blogger.com but now I can't read my blog at the site everyone else uses. This means I can't view any comments, which is funny because I just now realized why I couldn't view any of them before. I had a setting turned on that made it so I had to read the comments and decide if I wanted to Publish them or Reject them. Now I still have to leave it on though because otherwise I wouldn't be able read them at all. This weekend I'm going to try really hard to make some posts about the last three weeks. One of those weeks will require multiple posts for all the things my dad and I did on our trip. I don't think you will be dissapointed. So long.

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-31T21:23:00.000+08:00

This is just a small post to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. I have a lot of posts to make about the last two weeks when my dad came to see me in Beijing and then we went to Guilin, Yangshuo, and Shanghai during my fall break.

For now here is me eating my 3rd banana in 20 minutes as DONKEY KONG! SMASH!

Radiance, Rock, and Recess

2006-10-17T12:41:00.000+08:00

Well hello there again. I need to backtrack to Friday October 6th for this post. This day was the Moon Cake Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival. A group of us went to Longtan Park to see the biggest light show in the city. Stewart’s roommate Wang Zhan told us that the park would only sell 30,000 tickets and he made it sound like this was the only park with a light show. We didn’t understand how it could be possible that there would be only one park that all 15 million people in Beijing would want to go to.

We got to the park when it was still light out, so the lights weren’t turned on yet. After eating dinner we went over to the park and saw that this was like a huge carnival that wrapped around the lake with lots of light displays reflecting off the water. There were lots of weird displays too, like this statue of a little boy pissing on everyone. Most of the little shops were selling snacks, but we saw a couple of them selling unconventional things. One of them was selling toys, food, hammers, screwdrivers, baseball bats, and shovels. I can’t even begin to understand why someone would decide to sell tools at a carnival or why someone would see a hammer and feel the sudden urge to buy one.

Anyway as we were walking around the lake, we saw a huge fountain show going on, but unfortunately it was on the other side. We watched for a little while as we walked around, but when we got close it ended. At this point everyone in the park started leaving and the pathways were just seas of people with a few white guys towering over them. We just made our way through the crowds while holding our arms in the air so we could keep our eyes on each other.

That Saturday CET didn’t have any events planned, but they were giving out bigger reimbursements than usual because there were a lot of things to do in Beijing that weekend. That night a bunch of people decided to go to the Beijing Rock and Beer Feast. Yes, all the advertisements said Feast, but I think they meant to say Fest because there definitely wasn’t a lot of food to feast on.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so I’m going to have to try and get some other people’s photos. The stage these bands were playing on was immense. The first band that was playing had a singer, two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer and I don’t think anyone of them were standing within 30 feet of each other. None of us had any idea how popular any of these bands were, but it was pretty easy to pick out the crappy ones. The first band had a girl singer and was playing some bad pop rock songs, so they were kind of like Evanescence. While they were playing we watched the mosh pit in front of us get bigger as all the guys on the outside of the circle would hold hands and run as fast as they could to widen it.

The next band was more of a death metal band, but their first song was really bad and unusual. They just laid down a heavy beat with an occasional guitar riff while the singer essentially talked to us in growling Chinese. Eventually they would reach the chorus and actually play something. This probably went on for 8-9 minutes, so we got bored and decided to join the mosh pit. The Chinese guys loved this and soon after one of us got hoisted into the air and began to crowd surf. We were standing pretty close the front guardrail, so it wasn’t long before this kid was dumped over into the arms of all the security guards. Once I saw this I knew that any minute we were all going to be in the air. I think I was picked up fourth and there were still a couple of us to go. I knew my friends could hold me up, but the people in front of us were facing the stage and didn’t look ready to catch someone larger than usual. The guards did a good job of catching me though, so everything was cool. In a matter of minutes 8 or 9 of us were picked up and put over the railing, so I guess the guards told the last kid that went over that because we are Americans we would be arrested if we did it anymore. That pretty much ended the moshing for the night.

There were two more bands before the last band came on and they had their moments. It was easy to tell that the last band was more popular because I think people were yelling out song titles. They were definitely better than the other bands and even played a cool instrumental section. It was a really cool trip.

Last week when we were in class we found out that because lots of people were getting sick, the administrators decided that we would have a mandatory 20 minute recess between our second and third classes. I can safely tell you that recess is still awesome. We’ve been getting some good basketball games going. Then on Friday, instead of having our usual weekly test, we went to the park and had a picnic. After eating we played a Chinese game that was essentially a harder version of Duck, Duck, Grey Duck. I also found out that only people from Minnesota say Duck, Duck, Grey Duck instead of Duck, Duck, Goose. I really have no explanation for this and my friend Stewart from Iowa said there are lots of things in Minnesota that he doesn’t understand. After playing this, we rode bumper cars, jump-roped and hula-hooped. It was really great to do a bunch of stupid fun stuff with the whole class.

This will have to end this entry, but I have another one coming with last weekend’s events. So long for now!

Where's Team America?

2006-10-09T13:22:00.000+08:00

So I just saw on CNN that there is a strong possibility that North Korea tested their nuclear weapon in North Hamkyung province. This is already big news, but over here we get to look at it a bit differently. From Beijing to the test site it is about 615 miles. That’s about the same distance from San Francisco to Portland, Minneapolis to St. Louis, or Atlanta to Miami. North Korea firing a nuclear missile anywhere would probably result in the extinction of North Koreans all together, so we aren’t too worried. Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister, is already in Beijing right now, so I’m sure him and Hu Jintao are having an interesting conversation.

Well I was planning on making a bigger post to talk about what we did this weekend, but that will have to wait for now. I can tell you that at one point though I was crowd surfing on a bunch of Chinese rock fans. *RAWK*!

Happy Holidays!

2006-10-06T14:25:00.000+08:00

Well maybe not for those of you not in China, but this last week is a big holiday here. I can’t really remember if I did anything notable the week after getting back from the Great Wall. What I do remember is that throughout the week only six of the twelve people in my class managed to make it to every class. Two of our teachers were on the Wall also so they were really sore. On Wednesday, we also had a cool language practicum where our class went and interviewed American diplomats in China. These diplomats were also CET students that would take class in the afternoons at another school in Beijing. It was interesting to hear their viewpoints on politics and the Chinese economy.

Last Saturday, we had a group trip to Beijing’s art district. I don’t normally like art galleries, but I’m here and heard there were lots of different types of art. A lot of the art was political and some of it I was surprised to see at all because of censorship laws. One gallery consisted almost entirely of big photos of a woman standing in front of Mao’s picture in Tiananmen Square holding a pistol to her head. While there I got exhausted all of a sudden, so I went back with some other people instead of going to Tiananmen Square.

Sunday was October 1st, which is the Chinese National Holiday. This was the day in 1949 when Mao Zedong declared the People’s Republic of China. Millions of people flock to Beijing because it’s a week long vacation from work. The traffic has been terrible all week and I guess every hotel is booked up. Stewart, Ben, Ken, and I decided to go to Stewart’s roommate, Wang Zhan’s, school. We got to see his high-rise dorm, which made me appreciate every place I have ever lived. I’ve seen high-rise dorms before. Penn has three dorms with around 25 floors each (I think) and they each have around 800 people living in them. Wang Zhan’s dorm was 14 floors and had FIVE THOUSAND… GUYS living in it. Each room has six people living in it with a bunk bed above every desk. I’m very glad we are in the international student dorms.

Anyway, the reason we went to his school in the first place was because he said his friends were having a party and wanted us to come. He said the party would have tea, coffee, and cookies. Well first he took us to a building next to his campus that looked like a hotel (and may have been), but I only saw listings for companies and restaurants. When we got to the “party room” there was a circle of about 16 Chinese people with five chairs waiting for us. They started asking questions in English and we responded with Chinese. Then the student in charge came over and said we had 10 minutes before the activities started. A few minutes later, about 25 more Chinese students came. It turned out that this was no party. This was their weekly, maybe daily, meeting where they all practice English. We broke up into groups so they could practice with us. One guy in my group spoke pretty well and said his roommate who was there wanted a language partner so he asked me. Another girl also asked if the four of us could come to their meetings every Sunday. We were essentially Wang Zhan’s show-and-tell. We played some games where we had to describe people in the room and tell stories to see if people could guess whether they were true or not. Stewart guessed my story was true, when it was false so he got punished. His punishment was to stand in front of everyone and act out a scene from the Lion King while the leader recited the lines. It was a very weird experience, but similar to many of the others we’ve had.
Well tonight is the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Cake Festival. Tonight everyone will go look at the moon and eat moon cakes, which I can’t really describe to you. All I know is that all the supermarkets have thousands of them so the thousands of people in the store at the time can buy them. The whole week is really about buying lots of crap at discount prices, while blocking all forms of transportation.

I’m still insanely busy, but hopefully I’ll find a place to put all my pictures online. So again Happy Holidays! Post questions if you have them, bye bye.

I Laid on the Great Wall for a Long Time!

2006-09-25T15:26:00.000+08:00

This week I got to pretend I was a Chinese warrior from the Ming Dynasty except instead of having weapons I had a sleeping bag. Here’s how the journey began:

On Saturday morning we took a three-hour bus ride northeast to Simatai, a small town where the Great Wall was very secure due to this spot being attacked many times during the Ming Dynasty. We were planning on climbing the wall to Jinshanling, which we were told was harder because we would be going up instead of down.
When we got to the parking lot we looked up and to the right and saw this very steep and jagged ridge, which made us very excited. While walking on the path to the wall we saw the longest zip line any of us had ever seen, but we couldn’t go on it since we just came from where it ends. When we finally got to the wall we found out that we weren’t going up the scary cliff to the right. Jinshanling was six miles to the left and at about 1pm we started our hike.

It’s hard to remember the order everything happened in on the wall because of how tiring it was. We spent a lot of time walking on undeveloped sections of the wall so there were tons of loose rocks and huge steps. At times we had to get completely off and walk around the wall. The wall is built on some very unforgiving terrain, so it makes you wonder why the Chinese would have even needed a wall to keep the Mongols out at these spots.

At about every tower there would be Chinese people selling water, coke, beer, postcards, calendars, and shirts. Like everywhere in China, they were also there to collect your empty water bottles. It was funny too when we would walk by them because they would read the stickers we were all wearing that said, “I only speak Chinese” in a very confused voice. One lady decided to follow my friend Nick and I for about 45 minutes. She asked us questions about ourselves, but she wasn’t trying to sell us anything. Eventually, Nick wanted a picture with her, so I took one and he gave her 20 kuai (which is a lot). She decided to give him a shirt in exchange, but then about five minutes later she surprised us when she asked him for the other 10. Nick decided to give the shirt back, but she didn’t give the 20 back. I guess she reached the spot she was trying to get to on the wall because after that exchange she stopped following us.

The second half was definitely easier than the first half and was more of a downhill hike, but it’s very hard to get your footing on the steep slopes with narrow stairs. An interesting thing I saw was a herd of goats grazing on the cliff side. Just before the end it was pretty smooth and it was fun to run down and then up the gradual slopes. I reached Jinshanling pretty early at around 4:45pm, so I had some time to rest before the entire group got back. Each group of seven had a hotel room to keep our stuff and shower in, which was nice because it was pretty hot during the day. Once everyone was back we ate dinner and had a massive bonfire for a couple hours. Then at about 9:30pm we started getting our warm clothes and sleeping bags because it was time to go find our spots on the wall.

It was really nice to see stars again after being in the terrible Beijing sky and there were lots of them. We setup our pads and sleeping bags with our groups and went to sleep at around 11pm. My sleeping bag was another example of things that I’m too big for. My legs were so tight in the bottom that I just slept in shorts and a t-shirt due to how hot I was. My arms didn’t have any room either once I got cold and zipped up the sleeping bag. I kept trying to readjust myself, so I really barely slept at all. I was awake when the huge group of professional Chinese photographers came and started pointing their lights in my face. I heard them comment on how big I was too, so I don’t think I’ll ever escape that.

Anyway, at 5:30am we woke up to go see the sunrise from the highest nearby point. It was pretty cloudy, but once the sun came out it was very cool looking. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures:

After eating breakfast, some people slept, a large number went and did yoga on the wall, but some of my friends and I played Frisbee and hacky sack for a couple of hours. A group of four little kids came and played Frisbee with us right before the buses left to head back to school, so we got a good picture with them.

Now it’s Monday and tons of people are extremely sore from the hike. I’m not really sore at all except my ankle feels like I rolled it a little. My martial arts class only had seven of the 30 people that are usually there. Anyway I hope to setup a picture site somewhere soon for all my pictures. Again, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Talk to you later!

Rock Pillows

2006-09-22T21:29:00.000+08:00

Well here I am again. I put up some pictures from my last post earlier today, so take a look at those if you haven’t. I still need to upload all my pictures to a different site so everyone can see the galleries, but that will have to wait until next week.

Not too much happened this week. On Tuesday there was a schedule power outage for our entire neighborhood from 8am to 5pm. I don’t know what the restaurants and shops on our block did about their frozen or refrigerated stuff. Speaking of frozen things, Chinese people are obsessed with popsicles. You can’t go anywhere without seeing people eating them or selling them. They are also a lot better than popsicles in the US. I hade a pineapple one that had pieces of pineapple in it and it only cost 12 cents.

Last night right when I was in bed about to go to sleep I had my first serious conversation in Chinese with my roommate. He was mainly the only one speaking, but I did my best to defend my position. He told me that I shouldn’t go to the gym so much because I should be going to other pretty places in Beijing. I told him that I like to do it and it makes me feel good, but he said I have a good figure and that there is no reason to. He also said that it makes you feel very tired and your muscles sore. This is somewhat true because this is the first week I started going since getting here, so I still haven’t worked my way back to my normal routine.

The big news this week is that tomorrow night we will be camping on the Great Wall after hiking on it for 5 hours. Then on Sunday we are waking up at 5:30am to see the sunrise. I’ve been to the wall before and the part we were on got pretty steep towards the end, but this time we will be going on un-restored sections, so we will have to get off the wall and walk along the hill sides. I’ll probably be taking a lot of pictures, so hopefully I can setup a gallery somewhere after we get back. Again, leave any questions if you have any about China and I can answer them in my posts. See you next week.

First two weeks and some Admin

2006-09-17T22:04:00.000+08:00

Well just as I thought, I wasn’t able to post the other day. Our Internet on Friday was totally out again because of “unforeseen problems.” I waited until today to make another entry so I could include yesterday’s activities. I’ll try to get better at regularly updating so people know to check back more frequently.

I have some administrative things to handle first. You may have noticed that ad above this post. I found out from a friend here that I can get paid for every click and the ad isn’t very intrusive. He had his blog during the summer and this week he just got a check for over $100. Right now I have the ad up there, but it’s not linked to an account yet because I don’t know how to submit my mailing address to Google because they need the pinyin (Chinese Romanization if you weren’t aware) and Chinese characters for it. Once I get that setup I would appreciate it if anyone would click it and then close it if they want to. Next thing is that I setup an account on Webshots so I can host my pictures for anyone to see. I’m trying to use some software to upload them all at once, but I can’t seem to connect. I’ll get it setup eventually and add the link to the Links section on the right. Right now I have a link to my Threadless account. If you want to buy some really cool t-shirts you can use that and for every purchase I get $3 off the next one I buy.

OK now back to China. Every Friday everyone has a written and oral test in their respective classes. I didn’t think the last one was too bad and it sure was nice to be done with the week. Everyone is saying how this is the most work they’ve ever done in school and for the most part it is true because we have work to do everyday instead of papers/reading scattered throughout a semester. We do a lesson a day so we need to study the new words for our daily quiz. We also have a daily assignment and usually have to prepare something for the next day’s discussion class. This frequently involves asking random Chinese people questions about different topics, but since I can’t really understand their gritty Beijing accents I usually just ask the roommates. We also have an essay to write every week, which takes up a good chunk of time. I think that almost everyone here signed up knowing that it was going to be a lot of work with the language pledge and everything, so we are fighting through it. We also are all living here and know it’s frustrating when we can’t speak, so that is a big motivator to learn.

Anyway, last Friday some of my friends and I went to the Beijing Zoo and it was really wild. I had heard that the zoo was somewhat depressing because the conditions weren’t as good as US zoos, but its inadequacies are what made it fun. The first thing we did was go straight to the panda house because that’s why the zoo is there. The first two pandas were just sleeping like most bear exhibits, but the next one put on the greatest show I have ever seen at a zoo. When we walked over the panda was playing with a seesaw. He was biting it, picking it up, kicking it and would usually end up in a funny looking position. We even got a video of it which you can watch right here. It’s about 50MB so it might take a bit to load. Every couple of minutes he would get up and run over and play with something else. He stood up against a tree, he went and ripped some roots out of the ground, he tried to climb up the wall to eat some of the tourists, he climbed on top of his playground and rolled down the stairs at the end of it, but eventually he got tired so he went and sat in his pond. The way he carried himself made it look like it was a person in a bear suit.

Later we found ourselves watching the monkeys being fed and while we were there two Chinese girls came up to us and asked in English if we were Americans. After we told them we were they asked us if we wanted to be in a commercial. The friends that I was with were Ben, who is 6’3” with blonde hair and a beard, Stewart, who is pretty tall and has long dark hair, and Ken, who has big mutton chops, so I can see why. At first I was thinking yes, but then they told us that they would pay for our transportation out of Beijing. Apparently they wanted to take us on an all expenses paid tour of China and shoot commercials. Unfortunately we had to decline, but now we know that option is out there somewhere.

The next best thing we saw was the ostriches and the total lack of safety precautions. If these big angry birds wanted to peck you in the face, they very easily could. We saw one make a good attempt at a girl’s hand. There was something wrong with these birds though because most of their tail feathers were missing and many of them were broken, bleeding stumps. Another really funny thing we saw was one exhibit that contained a gigantic two-humped camel, one St. Bernard, and a blind in one eye Huskie. I think we were the only people in the world to be seeing such a sight at that moment in time.

On Saturday we had a CET group trip to the Lao She Teahouse to watch different performances such as music, comedy, magic, and kung fu. It was fun, but some of the performances were pretty average. Afterwards a group of us went along with some roommates to eat and see Tiananmen Square at night because it’s suppose to be really cool. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed off for some reason.

During the week nothing really memorable happened, but we started our extracurricular classes. I signed up for the wushu (martial arts) class, which looks like it will be fun. We also started our 1:1 and 1:2 classes where we either meet by ourselves or with one other student and a teacher to work on pronunciation, ask questions, and practice speaking. I also finally went and found an adequate gym. It’s at the other campus that CET has a program, so at first I took a cab there and back, but I knew I had to get a bike. The gym is another example of China’s idea of “it’s good enough.” The free weights there are listed in kilograms as expected, but after doing the conversion to pounds they didn’t feel like they were suppose to. I asked one of the other CET kids that was there and he said the same thing. I think that they are somewhere in between pounds and kilograms, so I’m going to have to figure that out.

After my test on Friday I went with my neighbor, his roommate, and another student to buy bikes. Recently the government made it illegal to sell second hand bikes to try and deter theft, so now there is a secret bike black market. Some stores will be selling used bikes that are parked outside the store right next to the customers’ bikes, so they blend in. We found our first pair of used/stolen bikes by walking down the street and asking a random guy on a corner if he had any and sure enough he did. My friend and his roommate followed this guy through a couple of neighborhoods while the other student and I waited around. They ended up riding back with two bikes that they bought for 100 kuai total, which is around $12.50. We kept looking around for more used ones, but none of them really fit me or they were just really bad. Since I’m going to be here for the year and using everyday to go to the gym I decided I was willing to spend more and get a new bike. The other student bought a new bike from one store, but they were too much for me. The next store we went to had a good bike, but wouldn’t let us bargain. When we were asking for lock prices though I noticed that they didn’t have price tags, which could mean any price. One of them did though, but the employee didn’t notice so he asked his supervisor who said 120 when it actually said 80. We called them out on it and left. I ended up going by myself to Carrefour, the French version of Wal-mart and an absolute nuthouse in China, to buy a new bike for a decent price. This whole ordeal took six hours and left me dirty and tired.

On Saturday Stewart, Ben, Ken and I went to Jingshan Park and Beihai Park. We took the bus and got off at the stop right after Beihai to find a restaurant and unfortunately it was the exit of the Forbidden City, which is probably home to the most intrusive vendors in China. It took a while for us to find a restaurant, but we ended up going down a back road into a hutong (neighborhood) and found a good one. This place gave us a good story too when one table ordered a fish from the tank. The waiter went over and grabbed it, but it was fighting and splashing all over. He got it out of the tank and it flopped onto the windowsill and then onto the floor. He and another waitress got it into a plastic bag and then he proceeded to walk outside and crack the fish’s skull onto the front step of the restaurant. After the first crack it flopped onto the road, so he smacked it again.

The rest of the day we spent at the two parks taking pictures of the smog filled city in the distance. We also rented a paddleboat that was designed as a big swan. We were getting a lot of stares while we were out there and ended up getting into a little bumper boat match with two other boats that were following us around.

That about wraps it up for now. I’m going to post some pictures, but right now I have my homework to start, so check back if you read this and there weren’t any. If you want you can post specific questions in the comments of these posts if you have any. I think you can post without registering if you don’t want to and then just sign your name at the end. Talk to you later.

Very Busy

2006-09-13T22:06:00.000+08:00

Well I was told that I should update this more, but I've been really busy lately. I was going to write my next update today, but the internet was out for the whole street that campus is on. Now I'm writing an essay for class, but just wanted to make a mini-update in case I don't get around to it tomorrow because I'll be studying for our test. I also need to figure out how to configure this more.

Bye for now.

All Moved In

2006-09-08T08:00:00.000+08:00

Well here is my first post on this new blog in China. There have been a lot of new experiences already in this first week, so I’ll see what I can remember.

First thing is some general information about my study abroad program. I’m with the CET Beijing Language Program and we’re staying at the international student campus at the Beijing Institute of Education. There are 47 of us and most of us have a Chinese roommate that goes to a nearby school. We are all just taking Chinese language class, so our day is broken up into different hours of grammar, discussion, reading, one-on-one, etc.

After we arrived we started orientation bright and early at 8am last Thursday (That would be Wednesday night for those of you in the US. The time difference is 12 hours ahead of EST). The orientation lasted until Sunday which was nice because we all had time to get to know each other using English before our language pledge began with class on Monday.

Culture shock began to set in during the orientation with multiple occurrences. One of the first things I saw after getting off the bus from the airport was a Beijinger spit on the street, which is now one of the most common things I see and hear everyday. They spit really loud too. I’ve been in my third floor room that over looks a small street and have been able to hear it.

Another really funny and awkward moment was when the Public Security Bureau (the police) came to tell us about safety and security. When he was on the subject of pickpockets he mentioned that to exchange our money we shouldn’t get black money. He then showed us a picture of a black man sitting at a table. He said, “This is a black man… from Africa. Um... don’t trust them.” He said all of this with a big smile on his face. I think he meant to give a little more information about what this guy was selling, but it didn’t come across too well.

One of the hardest things to do is to go to the grocery store and try to buy food or other miscellaneous things. I needed shampoo, but I didn’t know how to say it and I couldn’t tell the difference between the shampoo and conditioner. I found a bottle with English on it and had to do some character matching to get what I wanted.

Another thing is interacting with Chinese people. I really do get stared at all the time, but that doesn’t really bother me at all. A couple of times an old man or someone has come up to me and drawn that invisible line from his head to my upper arm and gasp. There are different reactions when we speak Chinese to people also. If I’m just passing by and say something they are completely surprised. If I’m at a store sometimes they’ll laugh, but they’ll usually understand. What surprises me is when they speak back to me assuming that I understand everything they say.

Our dorms are pretty nice because we aren’t in Chinese dorms. We have normal US toilets instead of the squatters, but there is one for Chinese students to use. The plumbing is really bad so we can’t flush toilet paper and to reinforce how bad it is, today a sewage truck came and put a big hose in the ground to suck all our sewage out. My bed is in fact to short, so I might just have to deal with that. Our rooms are pretty clean, but the dirty Beijing air gets everything pretty dusty. My roommate is from Beijing, which is nice because he has been able to show me some restaurants. His English is pretty good and he’s usually able to tell me if I ask about how to say word. I’ve never had a roommate before so it’s something I’m not completely use to yet.

On Monday, we started class and our language pledge. There was a mistake with what books I had used in the US, so I was put into a harder class at first. I switched to the level below it on Wednesday so I have to make up the two lessons I missed, but I don’t have to take our test in class tomorrow. I do have to do it over the weekend though. Our classes go really fast and if the rest of the semester is anything like the last two days we are going to be really busy. Last night we had to do the following: study 66 new words for a quiz, a sheet of homework, and write a 400-character essay.

I’m also finding the language pledge to be quite difficult. Right now most of us can’t really carry interesting conversations. We mostly talk meaningless things (in my opinion) such as daily occurrences, schoolwork, etc. I like to talk about more interesting things and I think most people agree that we are all fairly boring right now. There are too many holes in my vocabulary to talk about things that I would normally talk about at home. I’m also friends with some of the level 100 students who have never taken Chinese before and it’s fun to teach them stuff, but it’s almost impossible to talk to them. They seem pretty frustrated at times too. Of course we’ve spoken English and from talking with the summer students the general consensus seems to be that we will speak a lot of English when we are away from campus.

Well I’m hoping to keep this updated because I think people are interested in knowing what it’s like here. Hopefully the next posts don’t take as long because this one sure did (not to mention the poor quality of the internet). For now I’m stressed, but having fun. Good luck to everyone with what they are up to.