Quick post from Nanjing

Heyyyy sorry it's been so long but I just wanted to let everyone know that I am currently safe in my hotel in Nanjing. Safe because I am not outside breathing the terrible terrible polluted air, which turns out is worse than Beijing's. Who knew?

What we've done so far since being here:

Sunday: arrived in Nanjing and had an afternoon tour of a couple city neighborhoods, including where the Nationalist party lived in the 1920's, the presidential palace, and the 1912 expat bar district. Then we found a cute Mexican place for dinner and sat outside eating burritos.

Monday: In the morning we had a field trip to the Nanjing National Seminary. Aren't you proud, mum and dad? I got a Christian religious experience in China! Who would've thunk. After that we headed up the hill in the middle of the city to Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum. This was really cool but also hard work... from a distance it doesn't look like a big climb to the top, but as you go higher the stairs get steeper. Definitely a must-see for any tourist to Nanjing though.

Tuesday: Went to Suzhou! We figured it was close enough for a day trip but actually it was a three hour ride both ways. However, totally worth it. Suzhou is a much smaller city with lots of cute canals and famous gardens. I liked actually be able to walk everywhere. And we went shopping. But I didn't buy anything. If anyone wants a scarf though, they should let me know. You can pretend it's from Suzhou...

Today: In the morning we had a nice exchange with some volunteer students from Nanjing University. We were supposed to have one on one conversations, but somehow I ended up with three students and myself, haha. They were really nice. We were supposed to talk about Nanjing and its history, and how that ties to Chinese nationalism, but mostly we just asked each other random questions. Then they showed me around their campus. Good times, except it's all rainy today. We thought it an appropriate atmosphere to spend the afternoon at the Nanjing Massacre Museum, which is where I just returned from. Overall I thought the memorial was very well done, if a bit overbearing at times. But another must-see for any tourist with knowledge of Nanjing history.

Tonight IES is treating us to dinner at the Confucius Temple, which is pretty awesome. Tomorrow we take a day trip to Zhenjiang, which may or may not be too interesting (my professor's never actually been there, so who knows what we're getting ourselves into). Then Friday, Halloween, we'll be on a train to Xi'an so no trick or treating for us. Bummer. But overall the trip is going well so far. Only two kids have gotten food poisoning already (although one at a hotdog from a street cart so really, he was asking for it). I'm trying to be thrifty with my money but seriously if anyone wants me to get a souvenir from any of these places, let me know! I'll check my messages on Friday before we leave but after that I can't promise much correspondence. Happy Halloween in advance!

Long Overdue but it's Midterm Week So Yeah

Yesterday night whilst I was doing my homework/watching House/studying Chinese/watching Gossip Girl I heard a strange loud noise outside. No, it was not the ubiquitous drone of construction, turns out it was just some really really crazy wind. Thankfully that dafeng blew all the gross pollution away that had been plaguing our air all week. So I woke up and was overjoyed to see blue sky and mountains! But then not so much when I discovered that it is now about 50 degrees outside, plus still windy.

It's crazy to think that just this Sunday I was chilling outside in my bathing suit at the hotsprings. And the day before that, I was rowing a boat in a tank top across the man-made lake at the Summer Palace. Now I'm breaking out my boots and coat and wondering if I'll need to buy another down coat while I'm here. We leave for Nanjing Saturday night and it should be a bit warmer there, but as our two-week trip for history class progresses, we're going to move farther north and it'll be pretty darn cold by the end of it. Oh, then also we're thinking about going to Harbin for our second long weekend in November, and that'll be the coldest of all. Think ice sculptures and... practically Russia.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. First I would like to complain that planning trips in China is HARD. Like, it should be easy and relatively cheap, but I've mostly given up because the resources just aren't there. You'd think if I can plan a 10 day 3 city multiple one-way plane ticket trip in Europe (including booking hostels and researching things to do in those cities) I could figure out some decent plans for travel, and follow through. But no. The planning is there, the execution is excruciating. So that's why last weekend we had four days and yet pretty much everyone on our program ended up staying in Beijing (except the boys who went to Qingdao to drink beer). Which was fine, but for the next weekend we all really want to go somewhere cool (China, actually, has many of these places) and I really really hope it works out.

So while we were here in Beijing we made the best of it and took a river cruise up the canal to the Summer Palace. We were slightly disappointed because 1) we had to change boats 3 times in like one hour 2) the boat didn't actually take us into the Summer Palace lake, like we imagined, but dropped us off right at the South Gate. Took away some of our dreams. And as it was our second time going there, it was cool but not thrilling. I'm glad Cheng made us rent a rowboat though, because that made the experience worth it and was quite fun.

I had wanted to go to the hot springs before we got here, but wasn't sure how I was going to make that happen. Luckily my friend Rosa really wanted to go too, and together we figured out how to get there and made it happen. Rosa, Vanessa, Cheng, and Cheng's friend from Qinghua Laura went out to the crazy outskirts of Beijing. We took the 5 Subway line all the way to the end, got off, then searched for a taxi for awhile (all that we could see were black cabs and we weren't chancing our luck). The taxi was 27 kuai and about 15-20 minutes farther north to the resort. When we got there we were told there were indoor and outdoor hot springs, and that the indoor ones had more things to do.

Problem was, the indoor hotsprings was basically just an indoor water amusement park, complete with a rapid river with intertubes, slides, and fountains. Not exactly what we were looking for. So we went outside to check out the outdoor ones and found them much more to our liking (and cheaper!). Of course the water in most of the pools (there were several small ones with different water types: salt, Chinese medicine, rose, tea etc) was waaaay too hot. 40-42 celcius! I couldn't even stick my foot in! But some were actually really nice and it was good just to get in the hot water and relax. Then we discovered our entrance ticket included a massage and that made things all the better!

Unfortunately Monday had to come and this week has been really busy in terms of work. We just finished out Chinese midterm and now, since we're going on this trip for history, we won't have Chinese class for two weeks! Crazy. But it sounds like we're going to be very busy with history stuff. Oh! And I am most excited that while we're in Nanjing we're going to take a day to visit Suzhou. My tutor went to school there and she told me it's really cool. We're also taking a day to visit Zhengjiang (I think is the name) and then moving on to Xi'an and Yan'an. I'm definitely looking forward to it but I don't know how good the Internet access will be while I'm there. I'll try to update whenever possible. In the meantime, have fun celebrating Halloween and the election results... I'll be on a train somewhere in the Chinese countryside.

Live from Tsinghua University

That's right, I'm posting from Cheng's dorm at Qinghua while he makes himself pretty before we go out to eat. Yesterday we discovered that this restaurant/cafeteria place right next to his dorm serves individual style hotpots and they are delicious! For 5 kuai you get the boiling soup thing, and 5 more kuai gets you a plate of raw meat to cook. Vegetables, noodles, and beer are all 3 kuai each, so basically, it's an afforable affair and all around good time.

The past two days I've had off from classes, which has been wonderful. I could have gone somewhere far away but I was too lazy to plan a trip and get train tickets and all that. Besides, Beijing has so much to offer that it's nice to kick it around here, especially when I don't have to worry about having a tingxie in Chinese class the next day.

So we've been chilling like villians, except the real villian today is the air pollution. It's one of those days where "fresh air" outside simply does not exist. Hopefully it'll clear up soon because it sure puts a damper on sight-seeing when you can't actually see anything.

In other news, Wednesday our program got to meet a bunch of Chinese BFSU students from the English department, and we had a grand old networking and chatting session. The girls I talked to were all really nice and seem very chill. They all seemed to enjoy watching movies and most of us had the same taste in films, which is to say, we all like Johnny Depp. Haha. But seriously, we exchanged info and I'm hoping to get together with some of them in the future and a) eat some food b) watch some movies c) go shopping d) see some sights e) all of the above plus chatting.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera once again but maybe I will talk Cheng into using his fancy camera phone to take some shots of our dinner tonight, since we're going to hotpot it up again. P.S. I might need to change my Chinese name. More to come on that later...

I got a package!

Hurray my name was on the board today and I got a wonderful gift in the mail from the parents :) It was like Halloween come early. Chocolate is actually really expensive here, since it's all imported, so I'm glad I have a mianfei stash now. Though I should really be laying off the sweets... you would think since being here I've been eating more healthy, but I actually have been snacking more since it's just so darn cheap! I should really be better to my body but it's funny how I can rationalize things since I'm in a different country.

This weekend there was a trip to the Great Wall but more people signed up than could actually go, so I gave up my spot to a friend in order to spend the weekend chilling in Beijing with Cheng. So while my friends were hiking 10km up and down that darn wall, Cheng and I were getting our feet massaged at Sanlitun :) We both bought fake Adidas shoes on Friday and then wore them all around on Saturday, so I think the massage was well deserved. Fake shoes just aren't as comfy as the real thing, although they still look cool.

We wandered around the shopping mall across from the Sanlitun bar street and it was pretty much like Easton x10. Bigger, more stores, awesome architecture... of course we didn't want to buy anything since you get get stuff at the Silk Market for cheaper, but it was still cool to walk around. It's still under construction so give it five years (assuming China's economy continues to improve) and it'll be a huge attraction. Oh, not to mention it has some of China's best Western food restaurants, including two burger places and Element Fresh, where I'm going to have to go in a few weeks when I'm really craving a salad. And we had Coldstone! Guess how much.

Go on, guess how much. Consider that your average icecream cone from the supermarket costs 4 kuai at most... but that most Western food places have prices comparable to their actual American prices...

Ok I'll admit it: I spent 27 kuai on a small scoop of banana ice cream with cake and chocolate fudge and whipped creap inside. It had to be done! I could not resist! And now, never again!

Next week is midterms already and I'm pretty depressed. That means the semester is already half over?? I feel like there just isn't enough time here. China is just so... big. Huge. Enormous. And there's so much to see. But I know that I have to go back to NYC is January and face the real world, or at least graduate and then face the real world. The more days that pass the more I'm dreading it! I want to stay in this crazy Chinese world of not working, eating lots, learning Chinese, having random conversations with people wanting to practice English (except for the weirdo on the bus, he was not cool), and basically not facing reality. Don't make me go back to American dollars, pleeeeease!

Calligraphy club is awesome

Our campus was crazy crawling with people today. That's right, today the 8th of October all the Chinese students finally moved in to start classes. I thought Tsinghua started late, but seriously what have these Bei Wai kids been doing for the past month?? The Olympics are long over, and yeah there was that whole week-long national holiday last week but still. It's practically Christmas already and you're just starting?

Well at least it was a beautiful day out. Definitely the perfect fall weather, not too cold, sunny with blue skies, nice breeze... and us foreigners hiding out in our rooms so as not to be bombarded with friend requests. Ok I exaggerate BUT my friend tried to go outside to sit and read, but had to come back in after the 5th student asked for her number to practice speaking English. Oh the price of being exotically English-speaking.

Calligraphy club started tonight and even though we didn't paint a single stroke, I think it's pretty awesome already. The teacher is this 60 year old Beijinger who not only does wonderful calligraphy but is also a capable artist. Today he just gave us an intro into Chinese calligraphy, such as the names of the tools we're going to use and the different scripts that exist. That's right, as if Chinese characters weren't hard enough to learn already, there are 3 different ways to write them, provided you have to patience to study all that. Most people don't and can't, but those calligraphy scrolls sure look cool hanging on your walls. I'm pretty sure mine are going to be atrocious looking but at least this should help my stroke order awareness so that I can write faster/more accurately.

Work is piling up as next week is the end of our first block of classes. For our media class we had a photojournalist come in the other day and talk to us about his perspective on Chinese media. It was so so refreshing (and relieving) that he was really frank with us and acknowledged all the problems we had been discussing in class (government control, corruption etc). Actually it was really cool that I could mostly understand his Chinese even before our teacher translated (and I understood even more at calligraphy club today where there was no translation whatsoever). Go me! I don't need no Chinese roommate to improve my Chinese skills (though it wouldn't hurt, I know). ANYWAY back to media... well the sad truth is that freedom of speech here is a theory only, and unless the government personnel suddenly decide they need to kaifang China a little more, more and more Chinese are just going to turn to the Internet when they need real information. And yet journalist is still a desired profession because of it's benefits soooo again, a seemingly un-fixable paradox.

I'm about to admit something sad and true right here right now: I've become addicted to Desperate Housewives. I blame it on Chinese television, and its lack of interesting programming. This forces me to watch the one America program channel and one Sunday there was a DH marathon and well, the rest is history. So now I'm going to study my Chinese while getting my fill of terrible American suburban satire. Awesome.

Also, pics from Shanghai that I stole from other people:

And the rest

Thursday: Cynthia's mom and aunt and uncle picked me up from the West Gate and we drove down south of Tiananmen to Qianmen Dajie. It's a recently renovated street that makes up the southern axis from the center of the city that used to have cool buildings along its sides and a tram car that went up and down the street. Now the buildings have been re-done to look ancient and soon the shops that will open there will be feichang feichang expensive. There were already a couple open, including a bookstore and pharmacy, and only about two restaurants but they all had lines out the door.

One street over to the west, normal Chinese stores and small restuarants remain, and it has a much more authentic contemporary Beijing feel. BUT one more street beyond that used to be a huge maze of hutongs that have all been torn down. It was quite eerie to cross the overpass on the nearby highway, look back at the neighborhood we just walked near, and see a raized area with only a single crumbling house still standing. What will become of that hutong area? Judging from expectations from Qianmen Dajie, some pretty expensive housing will go in... but what became of the people who used to live there is a more interesting question.

Cynthia's mom had never been to Sanlitun, so we went there next (note this is pretty much on the opposite side of town). Had dinner at a classy and delicious restuarant (I think called 1949?) located behind a shopping center. Since it was removed from the main roads it was very quite and peaceful. And best yet, they specialized in roast duck! I don't know how I've gone a month living here and still hadn't eaten that, but I was soooo soo glad to shove all that delicious duck goodness in my face. Plus other wonderful morsels that I am drooling about while I remember them.

K. After dinner we walked around the Sanlitun shopping area and then found a bar playing some acceptable live music. Only... once the musicians took a break, some random scantily clad dancers came on the stage. One did a belly dance and looked extremely unhappy the entire time, and the other did a weird repetative techno thing in a shiny silver mini skirt and white gogo boots. Awkward. We drank our apple juice in various states of amusement and horror.

Unfortunately I had tons of homework to catch up on, and had to call it a night kinda early. But we definitely had some good conversation about Beijing (better than Shanghai! Best city in the world!) and journalism and I tried to use my Chinese but towards the end of the night, as the topics got deeper, abandoned that. But at least I answered preliminary questions to the best of my ability (except when Cynthia's uncle tried to ask me how long I was in Beijing for... I blame the Beijing accent but still feel like a failure).

Fast foward to Friday: Girls night out at Nanluoguxiang. Can't get enough of this place. Love it every time. Must go back. Shopped, ate Indian food, got our nails done, and then went back and watched Gossip Girl. Good times.

The rest of the weekend was spent at Carrefour and then Wudaokou. Saturday was Cheng's friend's bday so we ate Indian food again and it made me feel drunk it was so good. Wish there was an Indian restuarant around my campus but I digress... then we went to La Bamba and had a couple drinks (their happy hour lasts till 11pm, how amazing is that?). But it was cold and rainy so I headed back early after breathing in too much second hand smoke.

Sunday I went back to Wudaokou to meet Cheng for some serious shopping. I haven't bought anything since being here except food, entrance tickets to tourist things, and transporation! So I got myself a yellow cardigan and a silver scarf, both from this little place with a bunch of even littler shops selling cute clothes, jewelry, and accessories. Next shopping destination: the Silk Market.

Ok so now I'm caught up! Tonight I've been catching up on other things, reading the news, doing some research for my project, watching the Daily Show. You know how it goes. This week is starting to look busy already, so this might be my only night to just chill. And speaking of chill, it's freakin cold here already! Too bad the Chinese socialist state doesn't turn on the heaters until October 20th. Until then I guess I'll be sleeping in my sweatshirt and taking extra hot showers so as to steam up the freezing-tile bathroom. But I shouldn't complain because after all the rain this weekend today was a true blue sky day, and nothing beats a fall blue sky day.

And now, as promised...

I'll try to keep this recap of Shanghai as brief and enjoyable as possible.

On Saturday we arrived bright and early via the hard sleeper train. Note to Chinese smokers: smoking in-between cars still makes the entire car smell! Also, if the train does not arrive at the station until 8am, why does everyone still get up at 6am? Not necessary.

Our first item on the agenda was to go on field trips for our classes, so our media class went to the Youth News Group (which publishes several youth newspapers and a magazine) and then jetted over to Shanghai TV where we wandered around their news set. Both were pretty predictable: the newspaper offices were poorly decorated and employees dressed casually, though this being China and the newspaper having once been founded/supported by Mao himself, the journalists were all pretty conservative in their viewpoints. We didn't get to talk to any people at the TV station so I'm not sure on their views, but it was clear that working in TV is much more glamorous and higher paid (obviously). There was nothing exciting to report except that STV recently launched a new channel called SC1 that basically only shows foreign TV shows because they are much more exciting than any Chinese programs. (This is sadly true. Chinese TV consists of "news", period dramas, bad variety shows, and music concerts).

After that we had dinner and then were free until Monday morning. Naturally we went down to the Bund and took many many photographs while we were harassed by many many salespeople. Then we walked up Nanjing Road, which is like the Wangfujin area of Shanghai so it has lots of fancy shops (but not too high end). We got to the endish, had a beer, and called it a night.

Sunday we had lots of plans. First stop: Shanghai Museum at the People's Square. It was very well done, kinda small, but free so it was worth it. All Chinese ancient artwork and basically I wanted to steal the entire ceramic exhibit. The hall of minorities was pretty cool too, especially the map that showed all 50 of the minorities and which part of China they live in. Yes, I am a nerd. Yes, I really want to go to Yunnan.

Anyway then we walked down Huaihai Road which is the 5th Ave of Shanghai. We found a little French deli in a nice mall and I had a tuna panini for lunch. Amazing! So we continued our pursuit of French things in Shanghai by heading south to the old French concession. On our way we stopped at Fuxing Park and ended up staying there for a couple hours because it was just so beautiful. The best/strangest part was when we sat on the grass playing spoons and all these Chinese people started gathering around us, just leaning over and staring at our game. I guess they were trying to figure out what we were doing bc when we started playing Egyptian ratscrew they left for more interesting sights, saying they already knew that game. Weirdddd!

The bestest bestest part of the day was stumbling upon a little area called Tianzifang in the French Concession. It's a slice of old Shanghai with all these cool boutiques, coffee shops, and bars. I bought a journal that I bargained down two whole kuai and got some extra cards thrown in. My skills are astounding, I know. Well unfortunately although this was undoutbedly the coolest place ever, we had plans to meet up with Cathy (my studying-in-Shanghai pengyou) for dinner near the Pearl Tower, so we had to get back to the subway.

May I just warn anyone needing to take the subway from People's Square at 5.30pm that this is probably going to be the most ridiculous too-many-people-in-one-underground-area experience of your life. But we made it, and we made it on time, and then we had a delicious lunch at the high class shopping mall opposite the Pearl Tower. After dinner we wanted to go up the tower but it turned out to be a 150 yuan fee, so that didn't happen. And we wanted to find another building to go up but they were all on the other side of the river, so alas we called it a night.

Monday we had class in the morning, wherein several Shanghai university journalism students stopped by and told us how great and propaganda-full the Chinese media is. And by tell us I mean they showed us with their blatant acknowledgement that journalists are the mouthpieces of the government... and no one cares. Awesome for the future of Chinese media, right?

Basically the entire class I was thinking: can we please leave so I can go shopping now? K thanks. So once we were let out we headed over to the most famous tourist area in Shanghai: the Yu Gardens. It's a really old maze of gardens surrounded by a huge bazaar full of people, overpriced shops, stinky tofu, and more people. Needless to say after all the hype I was not overly impressed, and though the gardens themselves were cool, the hoardes of tourist groups clogging up the paths kinda ruined the mood. Also I am sad to report that the American tourists were terribly easy to spot because they were both poorly dressed and overweight. Sigh.

We accidentally walked down Old Shanghai Road on our way out in search of a taxi, and it was pretty cool. The shops were much more Chinese and it seemed like normal (Shanghai?) people actually shopped there, instead of other Chinese people on holiday. Skipping forward in time... we headed back out later to meet Cathy for dinner near Nanjing East Rd and had some yummy Singaporean food. Then we had some drinks at a couple bars, went in search of a dance club and failed miserably, and went back home. After all the hype about Shanghai bars and the clubbing scene, either we really struck out or the scene actually isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Quickly, I will get to the end of this too-long recap: Next day took the D bullet train to Nanjing. Had 7ish hours to kill there so went into the city center and walked around the giant shopping area. Bought two Chinese books: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Harry Potter. Actually Charlie is a pretty easy read... good to know I have the Chinese reading level equivalent to an elementary school child. Then took the soft sleeper back to Beijing where we arrived Wednesday morning to witness the throngs of Chinese tour groups descending upon Tiananmen for the National Holiday. You can't get away from the tourists, you really can't.

Final note: Internet is down momentarily so further posting will commence once it has been fixed. Hopefully within a day but I can't make any promises.

posts pending

soon to come:
--Shanghai adventures
--even better adventures with Cynthia's mom

I will update once I get through this lot of homework that's suddenly piled up. Darn classes ruining all my China fun.... grumblegrumble...