The Food Is Starting To Taste Better

Today was our placement exam, and thankfully I placed in the first intermediate class, i.e. I'm exactly where I should be. We had SURPRISE class today, which was simple review and introductions. I feel like the next 5 weeks in class will be just fine. Monday, I start classes, which include Hanyu Kouyu (Chinese language), Chinese civiilzation, calligraphy, and Tai Chi. Already I'm starting to feel much more comfortable speaking with people in the street and in restaurants. Yesterday, I met my language partner, who was very sweet and had much in common with me. I forgot to mention earlier that while in Chengde, we visited another Summer Palace that had a family of deer living there. I fed them, of course, and the male would bow for food when you told it, "Xie Xie!". It was the cutest thing. We also climbed Sledge Hammer Peak and Frog Crag, and on the top of the former, I was incising my Chinese name into the rock (I assumed it was okay, since there were tons there) when a man pushed his ID into my face and kind of threatened me. Many people were trying to get us thrown off. Amongst the cool things I have seen have been really ugly dogs and kids wearing badass jersey suits as school uniforms. I kind of want both of these things. Tianjin's market place near Nankai University has some pretty good food and cheap shops. Last night was wonderful, because as I was reviewing for my exam, everyone from the group came into my room with a piaoliang de danggao (pretty cake) and sang "Zhu ni shengri kuaile!" ("Happy Birthday!") to me. It was such a surprise. Richard then had the audacity to shove cake icing into my face. Whatever. Tonight we are planning to celebrate in style, though I'm not really sure what that entails. I'm glad that the group, overall, contains people I actually like a lot. Today is raining, so hopefully the air will be cleaned out a little bit. I've been told twice already by two different Chinese ladies that I look like two different characters from Gossip Girl. Trey says it's because I am a pretty white girl. I think it's the blue eyes- there aren't a lot of those around here. Weekend news coming on Monday. Zaijian! Maybe I'll figure out how to type in characters on these computers soon. LOVE

Transitions

WOW a lot has happened in the past week. I spent my last night in Chengde hiking up the mountain outside our hotel to see the huge Buddhist stone carvings. The temples we visited were absolutely beautiful, with remarkable architectural features and atmospheres. We saw one of the biggest Buddha statues- it was charmingly overwhelming. More and more, I see myself gravitating towards the religion. I couldn't take a picture of it, obviously, but it's not the kind of sight you can easily forget. Before reaching Inner Mongolia, we stayed at a really bad hotel, that was very cold at night and smelled awful. It smelled like something had died in our bathroom, the toilet was leaking, and things about the room were broken. However, the hotel runners were doing their best, and I just couldn't complain. It was certainly an experience. Plus, it was only for one night, so who cares? We also got to meet an amazing artist whose silk embroideries are marvelous. I might buy one, which sell for about 500 kuai for a large. Still, that's less than 100 meiyuan (US dollars)! However, I CAN complain about the weishengjian (bathroom) I used before we passed the border into Inner Mongolia. It was so disgusting. No doors, just concrete slabs with holes cut in them, trash and waste surrounding me. The woods would be more sanitary! At this stop, though, I did buy an interesting necklace. Inner Mongolia was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, we were only there for two days. The first day, I went horseback riding for only 110 kuai, and got to see the beautiful, extended landscape. I had a little confrontation with the horse's owner, however. It was really shocking. I paid 120 kuai, but was not given the 10 kuai back in change, so I inquired around about it. Given, 10 kuai is nothing to me (a little over one meiyuan), so I didn't want to make a big deal about it, but I thought the principle of taking advantage of a foreigner was not right. I eventually said, "Mei guanxi", to just let it go, but the owner appeared near our yurts and really raised hell. She yelled at me for minutes about some hidden service fee, that no one else apparently had to pay. Thankfully, with some help, she just gave me the change and left, pissed off. I felt awful because it was over so little money, which is a lot to them. Also, I just don't know enough Chinese to communicate with someone about such issues. She was aggravated with me, and the whole thing almost made me cry. However, I honestly think it was a good experience to have. We hiked a lot in Inner Mongolia and chatted for hours with the local shop manager, who was so sweet. I gave him two American books for his children, one about cool Camaro cars and another about dinosaurs. What Chinese kid wouldn't love those? He was different from other people we met, because he really cared about welcoming us to China and demonstrating how good the people here can be. The local people did allow us to throw a bonfire, karaoke, dance, baijiu, and roast party, though! The yurts were much nicer than I expected (still a "po-ho", as we have termed most toilets here) and very cool to live in, but it was so cold at night! I'm glad snuggling exists. So, yesterday we endured an 8-9 hour bis ride to finally end up here, in Tianjin. We said goodbye to our fantastic tour guide and bus driver, and today we toured Nankai University. It is a great place, with a 1 kuai per hour computer lab and huge gym. It is going to be nice to settle in a little bit after all the traveling we did this past week. Unfortunately, we have a placement exam tomorrow morning, which had I known about, I would have prepared for earlier than yesterday and this afternoon. Oh well. Tianjin has some smog which will take some getting used to, but I really like it here and will certainly dive into the culture. There are a lot of great little shops around. It will make posting a lot more convenient and also frequent. The biggest culture shock other than the aforementioned ones is that Chinese men walk (or sit) around with their shirts rolled up; these are not all attractive men, either. In fact, it's the more unattractive ones that do this. Thankfully, I have a real, Western toilet in my dorm room, so I am done for now with dealing with anymore po-hos. So, my 21st birthday is today, and I celebrated today with getting a big Tsingtao beer around noon, when it was official in the US (12am). I had looked forward to spending it in Inner Mongolia, but here is pretty neat, too. Zhao laoshi grew up here, and it is interesting to see where he is from. I think the next five weeks or so will be really exciting and fun. We meet our language partners in three hours, and I still need to review and maybe go for a quick jog. So far, I really miss cereal, milk, blueberries, bananas, crunchy peanut butter, wireless internet, free toilet paper, real orange juice, and Coke Zero. Unfortunately, to get my soft drink fix, I'll have to settle with Pepsi products (YUCK), Smart Apple (too much green apple flavour), or regular Coke. Disgusting. It's a stinky situation, but there could definitely be worst things. I'll just have to stick with lots of tea. I'll post some pictures once I can either get my computer hooked up to the internet, or I can get the pictures onto a computer that has access. It's all just a transition.

Meeting Mao

Yesterday, I came face to face with Chairman Mao. It was a really creepy experience. He was in a quiet, dimly lit room, surrounded by tall, glass walls, while his glass coffin occupied the middle of the room. He looked a little waxy, but the sight still shook me in my boots. The Forbidden Palace is HUGE. I knew this before, but my god, I mean it's big. We walked up the the concubine's rooms, which was near the man-made hill. The architecture there is absolutely stupefying, although I prefer the undone nature of the old paintwork. It represents the neglect of the Palace throughout the years. Speaking of concubines, I found it interesting that the Emperor had about 30,000 beauties (aged between 14-40), which he selected from official families or others (if they were beautiful enough). Again, Cixi is an amazing character in Chinese history; the lady was a hard core bitch. To avoid another disappointing dinner, Trey, Fred, and I went to a Beijing supermarket and stocked up on American-like snacks (e.g. PB&J, Oreo's) for dinner. Altogether, the stuff cost only 150 yuan, or about 20-25 US dollars! I still can't get over how generally cheap goods are. The only meal so far I have really enjoyed was the arranged one we had tonight in Chengde. It's just...greasy, oily, and fatty. So, I was famished by tonight. Today we left early for the Great Wall (Chang Cheng) and hiked for about 2.5 hours. The steps vary in height and intensity. The scene was absolutely beautiful. A very pushy woman kept following me, trying to sell me a book on the Wall. While I enjoyed getting to practice what little Chinese I know, it was both sad and aggravating. Eventually, I had to pull, "Bu yao!". Another woman followed us to our bus and kept trying to get our attention through the bus window. It was pitiful. I am such an easy target for local people, for I am about as far from Chinese as someone can get. We were all so tired today (with the heat and the climbing and the past two days of non-stop walking), but we went to a minority college in Chengde after the Great Wall to meet some students there. We spent a little time conversing in both Chinese and English, which was fun. I've just forgotten so many vocabulary words, that I makes real communication a little rough. The aforementioned dinner was delicious (the sweet corn and cucumber dish, oddly enough), but there are still "po-ho" (the toilets I described earlier) all around. I am so blessed to have a western toilet in my hotel room. Right now, we're staying in a four star Chengde hotel, which has it's own karaoke room, bar, and an elevator! (I have rightfully treated myself to all three of these features.) Still, however, wireless internet is really hard to come by, which leaves me at the mercy of rare ethernet cables and others' computers. I guess I just assumed that China would have better and more convenient internet access. On a lighter note, I saw two cute cats today (one, a long-haired black cat, the other, a tabby) and a strange creature that looked like a tiny hummingbird, but had antennae. Also, big sunflowers. I mean big. I have so many beautiful photos to share, but again, I'll have to wait until we get to Tianjin in about a week or so. Chengde is so beautiful; tomorrow, I think we tour the mountainside and the pagodas and Buddha temples around. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get to experience the city of Chengde, for the hotel is atop a hill and a good motorbike drive away from the liveliness and colorful building night lights. The motorbikes are so bad ass, and I wish I could at least rent one for a day! It's late now, so it's bedtime since we have yet another 7:30-8:30am morning. Here's a fun Chinese language fact of the day: wong(3)ba(3) means "internet bar", while wong(3)ba(4) means "son-of-a-bitch". You see- pronunciation is SO SO VERY OMG important!

Discovery

So, I'm in Beijing, currently posting from an internet bar within the city. Tsinghua University's hotel does not have internet access, which is troubling but gives me the opportunity to experience this smoky, "Adults Only" niche. The hotel, where we'll be for the next few nights, is an interesting place. There's no air conditioner or elevator (and I'm on the fourth floor), but it does have a fantastic shower. The provided hair dryer looks like a vacuum cleaner appendage, but at least the room has a real toilet and complimentary toilet paper. That's right- average bathrooms here contain sink-in-the-floor toilets and a waste basket, which means you have to carry around your own tissue. Was I supposed to know about this? It definitely makes not-so-fun activities interesting. The flight to Seoul was long, but very nice. Korean Air is a hip airline, employing attractive, nurturing, and young people to take care of you. They know exactly when you will be hungry or thirsty, and take such good care of you. Their processed food is actually pretty tasty, too. However, getting here took a long time, and I arrived cranky and sleep deprived to a dark, rainy Beijing. Thus, I didn't appreciate much last night. Today, however, the group went to lovely places and learned fascinating facts. We started out with a tour of Tsinghua University, which is the most prestigious in all of China. We strolled the campus and walked along its outskirts to see the life that the campus has. Today was also Teacher Appreciation Day. Cute. Next was lunch, which for me consisted of greens, mifan (steamed rice), cha (tea), and bread. I'm not yet at the hunger stage where I'll eat tons of grease and some meat. Everyone ordered a dish, and we shared everything on a rotating table top. There was a basket of pumpkin fries at lunch, which were delicious but so greasy that by the end of lunch, a grease puddle had collected on the table under the basket. Disgusting. (And it was getting bigger). Normally they don't give you napkins, either, so once again, I'm glad I brought portable, multi-usage tissue. We endured a long, but informative lecture about Confucius in front of his statue near Tsinhua's campus. Zhao laoshi is so deeply intrigued by his influence on ancient and modern-day China; it is very sweet to see him sharing this all with us. He is trying to convince us that we need to pay attention because we will be having a test later on, that this trip is not solely for travel, but I don't buy it. We went to the Summer Palace and saw some marvelous architecture! It was astounding, and the story of Cixi was also new and interesting. I took so many pictures that'll be available once I can get my computer hooked up to an internet source. Anyway, during our tour, a creepy local man kept following our group and taking pictures of me and other female peers. To escape, I stuck close to big, tall Richard. I browsed an antique shop within the Palace and then rode a bus through the crowded streets of Beijing to this very internet bar. Next, I'm going to get dinner and shop around the city. To me, the biggest safety threat right now is not being mugged, rather being struck by a car and possibly being really injured. Here, drivers- not pedestrians- have the right of way, so if you're in the road, you're basically just a speed bump. People won't slow down for you most of the time. There are lots of people on bikes that just share the road, which is so damn crowded in the early evening it's ridiculous. Yes- there are a lot of people here. And there is so much culture to see and experience. Time for dinner!