I'M BACK!!!

Hey guys just checking in to let everybody know that I made it back from Dongbei alive :) literally just got off a train (30 hr return ride) so I will post a more detailed update tomorrow when I am a bit more coherent.

Update on the China Front

A couple days ago (Wednesday) Jayson and I explored the Temple of Heaven and the Hong Qiao Shi Chang (Pearl Market). I will have pictures us as soon as possible. The Pearl Market was a blast!!! I came to China with a list of things I really wanted to buy, and I found most of them! I had my chop made for $60 kuai, about $10 USD. It is really pretty carved ox bone and has my Chinese name carved into the bottom. I really bargained with the guy for a long time. He initially wanted to charge me $350 kuai and I eventually I got him down but told him that $60 was my final offer and when he asked for $70 I walked away. So naturally he yelled after me and agreed that he could make it work for $60 hahaha. I think this was the highlight of the day. I also bought two scarves, $25 kuai each. I asked my roommate if I got a good price and she was really impressed that I was able to get them for so cheap!! Maybe this was my proudest moment so far in Beijing (or maybe my proudest moment was today when I bought more minutes for my sim card and I managed to communicate with the newspaper stand guy only in Chinese without any help from Jayson). Back at the Pearl Market I also bought some porcelain chopsticks with pandas painted on them. And of course the two things you can’t leave Beijing without buying—a little red book (it has Mao’s writings both in Chinese and English), and a Mao hat with the red star embroidered on the front. Success! (Don’t worry Nana, I’m not a communist ☺ these are just souvenirs haha)

Mission Accomplished!

Yay! Test one, mission: accomplished! The test went really well, pretty easy actually… but I did put in a lot of man hours preparing for that kaoshi (test). So now my Friday beings at 10:00am! I think some friends and I are going to go to the zoo market today, maybe I will even stop by the zoo and check out the pandas. I have to finish packing because Saturday morning we leave for NORTH KOREA…well close to it anyways. The first stop on our mobile learning trip is the Chinese primeval forest bordering North Korea. Supposedly we might even be able to visit the free trade zone. That would be so cool, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up. But seriously, who can say that have been in North Korea (and lived/escaped to tell the tale)? Tonight I think we are going to hit up some KTV (karaoke), it is really popular here. In less than 24 hours I will be off to explore Mongolia and Dongbei (Manchuria). I still can’t believe I will be camping in the homeland of Genghis Khan!! I feel like I'm going to be traveling in a fictional land of wonderment and awesomeness! Wish me luck :)

Field Trip Fun Time!

I love field trips!!! A couple days ago my Chinese class went to a grocery store thingy on campus to practice buying food, and then we got to have mini banquet in a park! Yummy ☺ Also, today we took a bus to a really awesome market to practice bargaining. My skills are not yet perfected, but I can’t wait to go back to that shi chang (market). It was a little epic, like goodies as far as the eye can see. And the bonus? It isn’t a touristy place so they don’t cheat you QUITE as bad as at the Silk Market or Pearl Market.

Brown Bag Lunches

Once a week IES hosts brown bag lunches where you bring your food to the activity room and either watch a documentary or listen to a speaker. Today I ate some delicious pork dumplings while listening to an economics lecture. The lunch talks are optional and economics is not my absolute favorite subject on the planet, but I am determined to learn as much about China as possible while I am living in the capital city. Things I learned in today’s lecture: 1) although China is considered a developing country, the east coast is very much developed and now the biggest market for luxury goods in the world 2) the Chinese buy a lot of BMWs and Mercedes Benz 3) I dozed off a bit and forgot to take notes so that’s all I got. Oops, haha. Well the lecture was more interesting than that, but as I’m writing this my brain is fried and that is all I can remember. The first brown bag lunch was infinitely more interesting—it was a documentary about introducing concepts of democracy to Chinese primary school students by having them run campaigns to be elected for class monitor. It mostly involved a lot of crying and back stabbing, no wonder the CCP is still in charge.

Disney in Chinaland

Today during our class powerpoint the professor used a picture of Cinderella’s glass slipper to explain the different measure words used to refer to a pair of shoes as opposed to one shoe. I was a little distracted by the Disney reference, and by that I mean I don’t remember the grammar concept with which it was associated. Darn you, Disney and your magical hypnosis powers!

Internet Frustrations

So I really hate it when I get on YouTube.com and watch two videos and then China is like “This website doesn’t exist. You should watch videos on YouKu.com.cn because it is Chinese and so much better. Thank you and have a terrible day.”

Hutongs Part 2

One thing I can say for sure about the hutongs is that they offer relief from the beating sun, I guess because the streets are so narrow and there are usually overhanging trees the temperatures in these side neighborhoods is drastically different from the temperatures you experience walking along the highway down the main sidewalks.

Just FYI

Funny thing I have noticed about China, they don’t use the little cardboard thingys for their coffee cups so be warned you may get burnt if you ever order from a coffee shop in China. And two, they never have a little trash bin next to the straws for the straw wrappers, which usually means I just end up with a bunch of straw wrappers tumbling around in the bottom of my purse.

Perfect Study Music

So when I am studying I often listen to Disney instrumental music and it makes me a little homesick but mostly happy ☺ I have a whole playlist on my iPhone that is just music they play in the parks over the intercom. It is currently my favorite because it sounds like I am walking through Magic Kingdom when I’m really reading about the Manchu conquest of China.

Zoo Market

I was at the zoo market the other day to pick up some winter clothes. The temperatures are dropping drastically, and there is a good possibility will we run into snow during our mobile learning trip. I recently realized I am not prepared for camping/hiking in winter weather so naturally it was time to go SHOPPING. I bought four warm flannels at the market. But here is the funny part, I had to buy men sizes….XL men sizes. The women’s flannel would not even fit around my arms, not to mention my chest.

Mani-Pedi

Also on Saturday Caroline, Ashley, and I went to a nail salon just beyond the Chaoshifa (grocery store near campus). It was a tiny little hole in the wall place that seemed to be constructed in an alleyway between two real buildings. All three of us got French manicures and pedicures for $100 RMB per person, so less than twenty bucks!! I’ve never gotten French tips before in the States because it always costs more on top of the price of just a mani-pedi, so this was kind of a big deal for me. My nails have never looked so amazing!! The girls did a great job, at one point I had three girls working on my nails at once! What an experience haha, next I have to try a massage.

Decathalon

So the big trip is coming up!! On Saturday we leave for our mobile learning field trip, I will be out of Beijing for 14 days without access to Internet so just be expecting that. I will post more about the trip in the next couple days as we prepare to leave. On Saturday afternoon a bunch of us went to Decathalon, an outdoors and camping store, to buy what we need for the trip. Decathalon is apparently a French store that carries imported French brands, but sells them at Chinese prices!!! Essentially, the quality and the prices are unbelievable!! I picked up a real nice backpacking pack that straps on 14 different ways and carries 40lbs of gear, a smaller back pack for day trips, a sturdy water bottle, and a winter coat that is water resistant on the outside and fleece on the inside for a grand total of $450 RMB which comes out to be around $75 USD. That would be impossible in the States, my winter coat alone would have cost $75. Im super excited about all my gear, my backpacks are lime green, my coat is hot pink, and my water bottle is bright blue! I am going to be the most color camper on the Mongolian grasslands!!

Roomies!

Roommates arrived on Friday! We met them outside the IES building at 2:00 and then at 7:30 Friday night we all participated in roommate “speed dating.” My roommate is a sophomore named Shuyue; her English name is Sherry. She is VERY sweet and speaks amazing English! So far she has been extremely patient with my Chinese, and we went out to dinner together last night. I think we are going to get along just fine! ☺ From 8am-4pm she helps me with Chinese and from 4pm-8am I help her with English!

Hutongs

I don't know how many of you are familiar with hutongs, but they are the old streets of Beijing that are very narrow and windy. Some hutongs are more popular with tourists and others aren't, but walking through the hutongs it is common to see little shops and homes packed into as little space as possible. Many of the old neighborhoods in Beijing are gone now because the city is flattening them to make room for new, modern buildings and store fronts. Visiting some of the less popular hutongs can give you an idea of what life used to be like in Beijing. Jayson and I saw many women and children sitting on their front steps chatting while the men squatted around tables playing cards. These areas seem to have more stray dogs and they can be a bit dirty, sometimes even feel claustrophobic, but it is really interesting to compare the lifestyle seen in these traditional neighborhoods with the lifestyle demonstrated by the shiny new apartments three blocks down the road. More and more hutongs disappear every year and families are displaced. Some people are in favor of modernization by clearing away the hutongs to make room for new construction, but other Chinese feel it is a destruction of tradition and heritage. There is an interesting debate surrounding the subject.

Temple Door

Just an artsy fartsy picture taken at the Lama Temple.

Lama Temple

Ok, I am back tracking a little bit while trying to catch up with my photo posts. This is another picture from the Lama Temple.

Oh Beautiful, Oh Smoggy Skies....

This is one of the last pictures I took on our Tiananmen Trifecta field trip. I might have taken a dozen photos that day and then I just gave up. I will have to go back to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City on a better day so I can really enjoy what they have to offer. I would also like to see Mao, but it is at least a two hour wait early in the morning so we will see.... still I think it would be breath-taking to witness someone who has had such a monumental affect on contemporary Chinese culture and politics. I guess one person really can make a difference.

Baby Beijing

This is a close up shot of what was on the floor at the Urban Planning Center. See all the little lights? And the detail was amazing!! This particular grouping of buildings is part of the financial center I believe.

Urban Planning Center

This picture was taken at the Beijing Urban Planning Center, it is a museum that we visited during our "Tiananmen Trifecta" tour of Beijing. What you are looking at is a HUGE model of the city laid out on the floor. Beijing is a massive urban sprawl city, and the sixth ring road is currently under construction on the outskirts (BFSU, my school, is located on the West 3rd ring road). Most of what is within the 3rd and 4th ring roads was mapped out on the flour in 3D models and then beyond the 3D buildings the city plan continued under your feet in aerial pictures, so it felt like you were Godzilla stepping on the streets of Beijing. So cool!!! And every 30 minutes or so there was a "laser lights" show where the over head lighting dimmed and the streets and buildings of Beijing lit up different colors timed to music.

Don't Forget

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them :) be looking for new posts in the next couple of days!

CHINALAND

Chinaland make me so happy! (read with a Chinese accent for authenticity) haha :)

Lama Temple

After searching for about 45 minutes we found the Lama Temple!! Success :) This picture was taken just before the entrance under a canopy of trees, it was probably the most beautiful place I have seen in Beijing so far. It is amazing how one minute you can be walking along the busiest street in the world dodging 800 million bicycles that all seemingly have a grudge against you and then you step off into a side street and find yourself surrounded by the chirping of birds and enveloped by the rustling of leaves.

Canal!

So Jayson and I have discovered that we find the best stuff when we are lost! Actually, as we crossed this bridge heading in the wrong direction Jayson and I congratulated ourselves (a little prematurely) on our excellent navigation skills. But every time I have gotten lost in Beijing something great has come of it, so I'm not complaining :)

Earth Temple

Flat Stitch outside the Earth Temple. Jayson and I didn't actually go in here because we were looking for a different temple with a giant Buddha.

Park Kites

Walking through Di Tan park on a windy day was quite a treat, but not only because the park is an oasis in a concrete city. On days when the wind is strong enough EVERYBODY comes out with their kites. We must have seen three or four just in one small section of the park. It was really cool when the wind would carry the kites up above the park and over the neighboring highway. It literally looked like dragons swimming through the clouds.

Di Tan Park

Stumbled upon this beautiful park (which happened to be on my Beijing bucket list) when Jayson and I got lost looking for the Buddhist Lama Temple. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the breeze made the willow trees look surreal.

Beijing Biker Gang

Sad Day

Well I brought an ancient converter with me to China assuming it would still work…I’m now in mourning. Today at 5:00pm my camera charger passed on to a better place. I can’t say he really went peacefully because there was a lot of smoking involved, but at least him and his friend converter passed together. I guess I will need to make a trip to the technology district soon to find myself a new charger and a new converter, but I will never be able to replace the originals in my heart.

One-on-one Fun Time

One-on-one classes have started. I think maybe after the language pledge this is what I was most nervous about. Four times a week we are required to meet with a private tutor for one hour to go over that day’s vocabulary and grammar patterns while practicing pronunciation and speaking skills. These tutoring sessions bring us to about 16 hours of formal Chinese instruction each week, and that doesn’t include our language pledge hours, which are from 8:00am to 4:00pm on campus. Well, the good news is I really like the one-on-on! The tutor is different from any of the other Chinese teachers I have throughout the day and she explains the grammar in a different way that makes it easier for me to understand (albeit still in Chinese). Anyway, she is very sweet and rather than dreading 7:00pm-8:00pm (yes, it is that late) I look forward to it a little. Its still class after all.

The Grass is Always Greener

The last couple of days we have had beautiful weather and minimal smog, so everyone is in a great mood for the most part. The other day I sat out on one of the IES balconies and looked over vocab words. In the sun it feels like the perfect level of warmth, enough to make you skin tingle like you are experiencing a beach breeze. And in the shade it is just cool enough for a light fall sweater. This is the life! That is, until it drops below freezing. But then we get snow!!!

Discovery

Discovery: Friday in the middle of the week is the best invention ever to grace this planet. I don’t have ANYTHING on Wednesdays so I have two days of class, a break, and two days of class, and then WEEKEND ☺

Fang Laoshi

How can I describe Fang laoshi? For starters, he covered a thousand years of calligraphy history in 40 minutes and then suggested we take a 15 minute break. He is a direct descendant of Manchu royalty. He has four graduate degrees, one in pre-Soviet Russian literature. And did I mention he is a 64 year old Chinese man that has been studying calligraphy since he was four, doesn’t speak a word of English but is fluent in Russian? No big deal or anything. He has been requested to work as a professor by SEVEN U.S. universities including Harvard and Princeton. Oh, and he is Catholic haha ☺

Water Bottles

So you know that frustrating feeling in the United States when you open a puffy bag of chips only to find that it immediately deflates and reveals three lonely potato slices sitting at the bottom looking up at you as you stare longingly at them? Well the good news is that feeling doesn’t exist in China!! I can’t tell you how many times I have poured water down my shirt opening a new water bottle because it is LITERALLY filled to the brim! The brim, people. I’m talking about the top rim, the plastic part we put our lips on. I know this might be a hard concept for Americans to grasp because we seem to have a cultural (or economic) stigma attached to filling containers correctly, but this is in fact a possibility and you only have to travel to China to witness it! That is all.

I'M FINALLY MOVED IN!

Yes, I know what you are thinking. You have been there for over a week and you just moved in?! Well, yes. Up until yesterday I was living out of my suitcases, but I just got confirmation that the room I am in currently will be my room for the semester once our Chinese roommates move in....so yeah. I'm unpacked :) The room still looks oddly empty though compared to my dorm rooms back at AC. I guess I just couldn't fill it will all the useless stuff I bring to school every year and don't use. Honesty time, last year I brought like four novelty hats to Austin College and had them in a costume box. I had a firefighter hat, a witch hat, a fascinator, and a panda hat with little black ears. Guess how many I wore and how many times...you probably guessed zero. Well you would be wrong!! HA! I wore the firefighter hat once for a funny picture. So there. Also, Chinese roommates move in FRIDAYYYYYY!! WHOO HOOOO :)

梅瑰

So some of you may know my Chinese name is 梅瑰, pronounced mei(rising tone)gui(flat tone). If comes from a combined effort involving my dad and high school Chinese teacher. When my family lived in Singapore my dad decided to give us all Chinese names and mine was huang meigui meaning yellow rose. The name was fitting because I'm a Texas girl through and through (hence the yellow rose of Texas), and my middle name on my birth certificate is Rose. I've always loved my middle name and how it mirrors my Chinese name and Spanish name, Rosa. I guess I just find the continuity very poetic. Well when I started taking Chinese classes in high school I wanted to keep the name huang meigui, but my teacher said it was not fitting for a name because it was just an adjective stuck onto a common noun. Well she worked with the characters and my request to change the name as little as possible, and she came up with my current Chinese name which uses traditional Chinese name characters but fits them together in a way that you pronounce my name like the Chinese word for rose even though it is "spelled" differently. So looking at my name on paper no one would read it as "rose" in their head, but when read aloud you hear the true meaning blossom. I absolutely love it, and to my amazement every single one of my professors here in China has said that my name is very 好听, or very nice sounding. I must admit, I'm proud of both my name and its origin.

That Darn Wall

Sorry guys I feel like I haven't posted anything in a couple days, but that is because the Great Firewall of China has been interfering with my life. I'm having to find more creative ways of accessing my blog because if you visit a site too regularly China tends to make it more difficult to access. But I'm back! At least for now :)

Tea Eggs

Well tea eggs cost $.70 at the caf and I thought they were only $0.60 so that is what I have been paying. Just today one of the workers told Caroline my mistake because he noticed we are friends. I guess they figured it was better to just accept $1.20 for two eggs rather than deal with the white girl haha.

Every time is noodle time.

Me and my noodles :)

Noodles make the world go round.

Some new friends at the Chengdu noodle shop!

Chinese Cheerios!

Beef baozi (bun) and two tea eggs for $6 RMB or about $1 USD. Breakfast of champions!! And this is at a restaurant too!!! Breakfast is ridiculously cheap here, but ironically drinks aren't. A bottle of green tea would have doubled the cost of this breakfast. Often times I have found that bottled drinks cost more (sometimes significantly more) than the food does.

China's Knock-off Apple Store

DragonStar (apple store?) Hahaha. See the name of the store?

Saturday Field Trip

Not much to say about Saturday. I was suffering from some unknown illness. I had severe pain in my stomach, but thank God I wasn't nauseous. Well, I decided to be trooper and still went on the class field trip to Tiananmen Square, the Urban Planning Museum, and The Forbidden City. I don't have much to say because I was feeling terrible all morning and most of the afternoon. The weather was also abismal and the pollution at an all time high (at least it looked that way). It rained off and on, sometimes a drizzle and other times pelting down so hard that our red, yellow, and blue ponchos suctioned to our skin, acting like a wet suit and creating a steamy brew of rain and sweat. Yum. Most of the students seemed tired and frustrated with the weather, but I would take that any day over feeling like your stomach is being attacked by tiny pitchfork-wielding gnomes sadistically singing hai-ho.

Practicing Chinese

If you have ever been in a language class you know it involves a lot of back and forth conversation with the professor to practice speaking skills. Usually these sentences sound something like this: If Little Li wants to read a book, where should she go? (or in Chinese that would sound something like yaoshi xiao Li yao kan yi ben shu, ta yinggai qu nar?) Then the class responds (in whatever language, Chinese in my case)If Little Li wants to read a book she should go to the library. You get the point. Example sentences have a reputation for often involving libraries, objects that are red, clothing that you rarely wear, and public transportation. Well, Wei laoshi (Teacher Wei) likes to put a little twist in her example sentences. Yesterday we talked EXTENSIVELY about all the places Wei laoshi could find pijiu, otherwise known to Americans as beer. "If Wei laoshi wants to drink beer, where should she go? How much money should Wei laoshi bring when she goes to buy beer? If a taxi can hold four people and Wei laoshi wants to bring five friends to Wudaokou (the bar district) should they take two taxis or the subway?

Differences

On Friday one of my Chinese professors (probably one of the most adorable, sweetest ladies I have ever met) wore a jean skirt with a frilly hem to class. The skirt was embroidered with a flower design that matched the flowers embroidered on her peasant blouse. Very cutesy, with the exception of a painted fairy on the bottom left corner of the skirt. How should I describe this fairy? I guess imagine the biggest, baddest biker bar you have ever seen in a really dramatic movie about hoodlums. Now find the man with the most tattoos and you will inevitable find a very voluptuous mermaid with a sexy pout inked somewhere on his person. Next, add wings and paint it on the skirt of a very professional, very small Chinese woman! Ta da!!!! I almost didn't notice the fairy at first among the embroidered flowers, but when I did I just couldn't help but smile and compare her (almost) innocent attire to the clothing of an American professional.