FRIDAY

Friday was a great day. Friday is always a great day, and as far as I'm concerned everyday should be a Friday. Now that that is out of the way, yesterday (Friday) I went SHOPPING. We got out of class at noon and then headed out to lunch at a really nice, mildly expensive, westerny-Chinesey restaurant. I ordered baked rice with chicken and vegetables and it was SOOOOO delicious. Another reason to love Friday: free beer at Stairway to Love Cafe. About twelve of us went out to eat and then we split up for afternoon activities. A couple other girls and I took the subway two stops to the Beijing Zoo station where there is a giant four story market place. I ended up buying two adorable rings (one looks like a panda and the other a fox), a mickey mouse watch (that promptly broke after purchase), and a phone case! All in all it was a great afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't see any clothes that I couldn't live without. After shopping it was almost time for dinner. We went to a place named Pyros Pizza which is a restaurant/bar that caters mostly to foreigners. Pyros was pretty awesome, it is designed to look like the inside of a frat house but all the frat stuff says "Wudaokou University." Wudaoku is the bar district in Beijing. I was amazed to see so many different types of people there!! China is ridiculously homogenous when it comes to ethnicity, but Pyros looked just like the American melting pot except it also had people from Europe and Africa and God knows where else. I almost forgot I was in China. The food was also amazing, I ordered chicken quesodillas and even by my picky Texas standards they were super good! Caroline got a deep dish cookie pizza topped with ice cream, and needless to say that was the table's favorite dish. After Pyros we went to check out a club called Propaganda and by 11:00pm just about every IES student showed up! It was really cool hanging out with everyone off campus for once. Bonus: Propaganda plays American music :)

Swanky Pizza Hut Part 2

Part 2... there you have it.

Swanky Pizza Hut

This is a Pizza Hut. No joke guys, Pizza Hut along with other American fast food joints are high-class establishments in this country. This isn't the best picture, but there was a guard out front and I didn't want to upset him so I tried to discreetly take pictures as I walked by.

Subway Master

Just chilling on the subway, not like I'm a subway master or anything (but actually I am).

Breakfast of Champions

This is the Chinese taco I was referring to in an earlier post!! Yummmmmy. If you didn't read about it then go find it!! :) But only if you ever cared for me.

Ouch.

Behold!! The beauty of leaving Texas and traveling half-way around the world only to be greeted by my old friends (arch nemesis?).

The Illusive Marble Boat

Last picture of the Summer Palace that I didn't get to uploading earlier. I am way behind on uploading current photos that actually go with my blog post but it takes FOREVER here. My apologies and I will slowly get around to updating. There will be more adventures of flat stitch soon!!

Classes Day Two!

Chinese started at 8:00 and let me tell you, after the third hour it can be brutal. Especially when you are in a class with four people and there is nowhere to hide. The first day of class was trivial, now I am starting to peek over the rose colored glasses. But on the bright side I LOVE LOVE LOVE my history class. It is a history of late imperial China and the professor is an absolute hoot! Like, really. You may think you know funny people. You may think you have heard snarky comments that would bust anyone's gut from fits of uncontrolable laughter that is bound to end in a pants-wetting. You may think you know these things, but you don't. That is all. Life is good, I'm already learning a lot, made some new friends today, successfully composed a short Chinese conversation with Li laoshi (teacher Li). Carry on with your lives until I have more to say, and in that case come back and visit me here on the internet :)

On the Food Front

One of the most interesting parts of visiting a foreign country is the incredible array of strange (and often disgusting but sometimes heavenly) food you get to try...or chose to ignore. Beijing Goal #1: go ahead, try it. So far I have not been toooo adventurous in this department mostly because there is always something delicious to try and I don't like wasting meals on food that could be a hit or miss...but I'm working on it. Last night for dinner I had some bai cai, chicken, spicy bean sprouts, fried banana and pineapple rice at a minority restaurant. The chicken was 90% bone, 5% fat, and 5% meat? I wouldn't recommend the specific dish we had, but they might have served us the scraps since we are waiguorens, or foreigners. Everybody knows foreigners love scraps! Or maybe they just don't know how to reject them. The spicy sprouts were a complimentary dish and absolutely to die for! Recently I have developed a taste for spice that I have decided to further explore in Chinaland. Lets just say these sprouts were more red than white. As far as the fried banana was concerned, there is nothing more tasty than warm and gooey snuggled in a layer of deep fried sweetness! We ordered this dish for the table after everyone realized they hadn't eaten fruit in three or four days...Finally the pineapple rice. Imagine the angels taking everybody's favorite carb, rice (right?), and bestowing upon it the taste of the Caribbean then serving this dessert-like wonder as an entree. And to top it off-- you had to scoop the rice out of the carved out pineapple itself. It was a pulpy mixture only suitable for the emperor himself (and five waiguorens). Finally, probably my most exciting moment today was lunch. I ate a sandwich. But this was not just any sandwich folks, this was a donkey meat sandwich. Yes, that is not a typo. Not weird enough you say? Fine. But you should all know that red donkey meat is super good, and I would have finished the sandwich except I couldn't get past all the fat and tendons. So now I am supplementing lunch by chowing down on some grapes I froze in the communal fridge.

Afternoon Musings

So here are some things I have come across in China that I thought were interesting. Nothing is open at 6:30 am for breakfast, and when you are jet lagged and up at 4:00 am this is a problem. An IES speaker mentioned the other day that most Beijingers will agree to the stereotype that they are lazy, but I never realized this bit of academic trivia would ever affect my daily life. Wow, that was silly. Bakeries, fruit stands, restaurants, and COFFEE shops, and cafeterias don't open until 7:00 and sometimes 7:30. Guess that just means I have an excuse to sleep in? So funny because this would be absurd in the States!

Summer Palace

Another pic at the Summer Palace, I want to return one weekend and maybe spend a full day or half day here. We had to pay for admission because of the scavenger hunt, but we didn't get to enjoy the vast majority of what this site has to offer. Also, I'm thinking this might be a good fall/winter destination since it was super hot and humid the day Sofia and I walked up and down dozens of hills and stairs. That emperor either had calves of steel or the people that carried him did. Just sayin.

Power Surge

We lost power again tonight while everyone was in the midst of studying for tomorrow's quiz, but it was restored quickly thank God...and thank the fuwuyuans (attendants).

Summer Palace

Me and Stitch outside the Summer Palace on our scavenger hunt for the marble boat! We made it after being lost and wandering the streets of Beijing for four hours.

Closet

My beautiful closet!!! Not exactly a walk-in wonder, but I suppose it will do the job once I unpack my suitcases.

Not too messy yet...

My side is on the right. I haven't moved out of my suitcases yet because I'm not sure if I will have to move once our Chinese roommates arrive. Right now my roommate is another IES student, but she will be leaving for Shanghai in a week I believe.

Dorm Room

So remember how I was talking (lovingly?) about our dorms? Well here are some pictures haha. I think I am growing quite fond of them actually. They have...character! Get it? Cause Chinese is all about characters???? Haha...yeah.

IES Building

Right outside the IES building. We are completely contained within this structure. First floor is a hotel I think, so we don't go there really. Second floor is boy dorms and the lecture room and seminar room, third floor is girl dorms and the activity room, fourth floor has all the classrooms, library, faculty and teacher offices. Each floor also has its own kitchen and laundry facilities along with showers and toilets and small study rooms.

Day One: Success

I am smelly and sweaty and totally pumped!! For one, today was the first day I have worn my hair "down" since I shaved it all off. Technically it was half up and half down, but I haven't know the feeling of hair on my neck in over a year. So despite the heat and the fact that my hair did more sticking to my neck than flowing in the breeze, I'm excited :) Also (and maybe more importantly) today was the first day of the LANGUAGE PLEDGE. So turns out it is a lot more fun and a lot less terrifying than I imagined (in countless nightmares). Today has genuinely been the best day so far in Beijing, and no one realizes how happy that makes me. I have been so nervous about this adventure from the very beginning (as in from the time I started applying for my programs), and today classes started and I just had so much fun. That is such a relief to me (and my family, especially my mama). We read the pledge together at 7:45 am and it went into effect at 8:00 am. For the first three weeks the pledge only applies from 8am-4pm ON CAMPUS. My Chinese classes went well. We spent two hours going over pronunciation (yes, that is necessary for Chinese believe it or not), and we spent two hours talking about the taking the bus, greetings, taxis, and ordering food. Then we split up into groups and prepared skits. So two surprises: class was ENTIRELY taught in Chinese, but I was somehow able to follow, and I understood the skits!! Those are two things that I have never experienced before. My classes back home have such a wide range of language skill levels that the only class skits I can understand are my own, but here classes are only 4-5 people and everyone is of the same skill level-- perfect for language study. Next my friends and I left campus of course for lunch so we could escape the restraints of the pledge midday (believe me, after four hours of in-class Chinese drills you would do the same). I had niurou chaomian or fried noodles with beef. It was delicious and even an AMERICAN portion...meaning I couldn't finish it hahaha. However I did share a lot of my noodles with friends and that is the Chinese way of eating, it is all about bonding and developing relationships so Madison-adapting-to-Chinese-culture: 1 China: 0?? Hahaha :) After Lunch a friend and I went to the chaoshifa (grocery store)to pick up cutesy stationary. Naturally I came home with paper, pens, disney princess stickers, hopelessly adorable stamps etc...you know, the usual. I even talked to a fuwuyuan at a clothes store today while my friend was trying on jeans. I asked her a lot of questions that I didn't understand her answers to and made silly comments like "I like listening to music." I didn't learn much about her because I generally couldn't understand what she was saying, but at least she learned that American students are really good at stringing together useless Chinese sentences when under the pressure of talking to a local....so I guess Madison:1 China:1

Super Ghetto Dorms

Soooo somebody tried charging their laptop in the activity room and blew a fuse and now none of the dorm rooms on one side of the hall (my side...) have working lights. Its 10:45pm. Class starts tomorrow. Welcome to China!! hahaha :)

Mystery Beijing

So today was the second day of scavenger hunts through the city of Beijing. Jayson and I got to explore a very Western, very modern mall in search of stores that take foreign credit cards, avocado (a difficult fruit? vegetable? to find in China! and sadly one of my favorites), a massage parlor (a legitimate and hopefully legal establishment...), and a place that sells Peking duck or Beijing kaoya. We ended up finding a pseudo Apple store called DragonStar (it looked EXACTLY like an Apple store in the states but is technically a "premium retailer"), a McDonalds that looks like a Buca Di Beppo, and a Pizza Hut that looked like a Kirby's Steakhouse. We ate at McDonalds for lunch, who could pass up that spicy chicken fillet with a side of misunderstanding and a cool beverage of choice like Lost in Translation? I guess needless to say I messed up the order and ended up with two small Cokes. Later in the evening we attended convocation. The guest speaker was Chinese rocker with long hippie hair and an attitude that Dane Cook would be proud of, but the best part of his talk was the revelation that I have probably never heard more wise (and crude) advice in my life. You could tell by the way he talked about politics (both Chinese and American) and societal trends (both Chinese and American) and the environment (both Chinese and American) that he was just a truly intelligent human being. Really interesting, really informing. Glad I enjoyed it because the language pledge starts tomorrow and from here on out I don't expect to be understanding any meaningful conversations for a while. Peace out. Madi

Step 1: Air China

Flat Stitch rides Air China :)

Flat Stitch

First appearance of flat stitch!! My mom suggested I bring along a "flat stanley" to make sure I visit all the sites on my bucket list. Great idea :) Thanks mom!

Panda Nails!

Panda nails by Taylor!! Thanks for the going away present :) miss you baby sis!

Oops

Oops, sorry guys. The formatting of the last post got all messed up and now it is one giant paragraph...my bad. I'll try to fix that.

First Days in a Nutshell

FIRST POST!! YAYA :) Ok guys, lets get started! I'm glad to finally get this blog up and running-- it has been difficult trying to tunnel under the Great Firewall of China, but I have been successful so let the travel blogging begin! Here are the last couple emails I sent out to get everybody updated. From now on I will be posting periodically whenever something awesome happens or just when I have time to write down my thoughts. Madison August 24, 2012 Hey so I don't know if I have the right email address for everyone, but I hope this works :) I MADE IT! It has been quite an eventful day but in a nutshell here is what happened... 1. People who work at ticketing should be able to read (and COMPREHEND) visas. The woman who gave me my boarding pass this morning for my flight to LAX said my visa would expire while I was in China and asked if I had a second. Turns out my visa was fine, but I almost had a panic attack before even going through security. 2. I was stopped going through security because something in my purse (probably my giant metal key from the Magic Kingdom) looked like a knife in the baggage x-rays, go figure. My purse was torn apart and sent back through the x-ray machine for a second time, but at the least the security guard was very sweet. 3. Upon arriving in LAX at 10:00 am I promptly began to freak out because my flight from LA to Beijing started boarding at 11:00. When I was still on the plane at 10:30 the fear really set in. I sprinted off the plane and through baggage collection down to a bus stop where I waited ten minutes for a bus to take me to the international terminal. I picked up my Air China boarding pass and ran toward security, where I was sent through the first class line since I was late for my collecting flight. After arriving at my gate (sweating and distressed) I looked down at my boarding pass to see that the plane was scheduled to depart at 1:20 and not 11:20 as I had originally believed. Turns out the papers Mom gave me with my flight information listed everything in military time and I'm incapable of subtracting 12 from 13:20... This happened earlier too when I saw 17:00 and thought I would be arriving at midnight in Beijing. Apparently 17-12=5...who knew? 4. Both plane rides went smoothly, but I started feeling stressed when I had five hours until landing in China. I tried to watch a depressing movie about whales to distract me, but it didn't really work. Good news is all of my luggage arrived safe and sound, but the bad news was there were no IES representatives at the airport to meet me when I arrived. I found a couple more white girls wandering around aimlessly and we quickly formed a protective herd. Using a pay phone we discovered that the IES people were trapped in traffic, but they eventually made it to the airport with a gloriously air-conditioned bus that put me right to sleep. 5. The dorms are basic. VERY basic. I guess I expected that, but I didn't expect the whole IES building to have the appearance of a hostel from a cheesy horror movie. It will take an adjustment, but I think everything will be just fine. I'm so jet-lagged right now I don't even know how I feel about all this. This morning I was super excited, then on the plane I experienced the calm before the storm. When I landed I just felt dead tired. I've met more people today than names I can remember, but everybody seems generally cool. I'm a little worried, but that is normal for me. So glad to have Jayson and Caroline here, but I've also made new friends already and that is good. I'll update people as often as I can :) Lots of Love! Madi August 27, 12 Ok, this goes out to all those people who have been worrying about me. Yes, when I skyped yall I was upset and very homesick. I tend to do that. A lot. I am naturally more stressed than the average person on a daily basis, and being in this situation doesn't help that. I'm worried about my classes and if everything is going to work out in my favor, and adjusting to Beijing life will take time. HOWEVER, I want everyone to know that I feel much better now. We had a session tonight as part of orientation that was called The Scoop. We were served free ice cream and introduced to past IES students who have done the language intensive program. The difference between this session and all the others was that all the RAs and teachers were dismissed to give students the chance to ask any questions they wanted and receive honest answers that might not be exactly by the book according to IES. Well I had my doubts and the first couple questions were coerced out of students and pretty much involved cliches like "what was your biggest regret?" Well then we got into the nitty gritty concerning the language pledge and the work load for classes. The students didn't BS us, they said it was a lot and time management would be essential...BUT they said the language pledge was flexible and easy to escape from if needed. It only applies on campus and we typically eat lunch off campus so there is at least one break mid-day. Also, questions concerning learning Chinese or bettering your Chinese can be asked in English, and if you can't convey your idea in Chinese or you are really struggling professors will allow you to speak English. And apparently the library is rarely visited by RAs so it can be an English "friendly" zone (unofficially). So basically there are safety valves that I didn't know about and thats really comforting. Also the students just talked about how to get around rules and not to worry about learning all of the 50 characters per day because bad grades on the daily dictation quizes don't count for much. (level 420 students learn 120 characters a day...thank god I'm not in that class). So I will work my hardest, I'm not exactly a slacker, but knowing that its okay to cheat every once in a while and knowing that everybody will be cheating together (think of it as group bonding) actually gives me comfort even though cheating is not something I will ever condone. Anyways, tonight I got free ice cream which makes it a success. Other highlights of the day: visiting the Summer Palace and getting lost for FOUR hours, and thoroughly enjoying spicy lamb on a stick :) YAY. Lots of Love Madi August 28, 2012 Well I got out of the dorm for the first time yesterday and made it to the Summer Palace for a scavenger hunt. My partner, Sofia, and I got very lost on the subway and then when we made it to the Summer Palace we wandered in circles for at least an hour and a half! It was hot and exhausting, but we made it to our checkpoint and took a picture with the marble boat to bring back as proof. Perhaps the highlight of yesterday evening was the chuar (sp?). It is basically cooked meat on a stick, and I opted for spicy lamb after they ran out of chicken. Normally I would never voluntarily eat lamb (I seem to remember a bad experience with it, but that might just be my imagination), however this was one of the most delicious things I have EVER eaten. There is a little chuar stand about fifty feet from the IES building, so I hear students often make late-night chuar runs when the studying gets to them. This morning I experimented with more street food, which proved to be the best decision of my life! I had what amounts to a chinese taco. It is called a jian bing. It is a small pancake of fried bread with egg fried in the center. When they make the pancake they pour the bread mix with the egg together and somehow the egg ends up fried within a sleeping bag of bready goodness and the whole thing looks like it was made by Betty Crocker. THEN to make things better you add some mystery brown saucy, mystery veggies, lettuce, and suspicious looking chicken and VOILA!! Heaven in a plastic bag-to-go :) Yummy :) Madi