Certain things happen here...

that would not happen in NYC. For example:

--Saturday night we got kicked off the subway. At 11:20pm! Because the subways no longer run after that time of night! Unfortunately, we were on the equivalent of the circle line, so the departure was completely random and we were no where near our destination. Being the helpful city that it is, we then had to venture out into the street and find a cab to go the rest of the way home, because buses don't run after that time either. Wth! What happens to people who need to get somewhere at night and don't have enough money for a cab?? Definitely one of the sucky things about Beijing is this oversight in transportation needs, compounded with the fact that Beijing is a HUGE SPRAWLING METROPOLIS.

--The cab Cheng and I ended up taking was actually a funny thing in itself. We finally managed to hail it and there was already a guy sitting in the front seat next to the driver. The driver then explained that the guy was his old friend, and if we didn't mind, he could give us a ride while he and his old friend continued talking. I was like, aw cuties, and then I thought: can you imagine a taxi driver in NYC pulling up and being like, I'll take you if it's all right that my friend is sitting up here and we're having a random conversation. Oh but then it was funny because the friend dude was apparently listening to Cheng and I talk in the back and he told Cheng he liked the sound of Cheng's voice. Not that Cheng spoke well or anything, just that his voice sounded good. Hilarious.

--The coat check at the dance club/bar was free! What?? Insanity.

--Also the best part was right next to the club (called Propaganda with a big pink star on the front, which is pretty great by itself) is a 7/11 and if you want, you can simply waltz into the 7/11, buy a beer, drink it on the curb, and then head back into the club for some more dancing. China is sweet like that.

--Speaking of waltzing, when we went to Houhai earlier that day there was a random waltz dancing street show going on. It looked like people had just set up a boombox with some waltz music and were having at it. Impromptu street waltzing in NYC? Not very likely... except maybe somewhere in Brooklyn.

So maybe I should back up an explain how Saturday went: rode bus to Qinghua, rode bike to Cheng's dorm, had lunch with Cheng's friend, took taxi to meet Cathy at Nanluoguxiang, went back to Cathy's hotel near Houhai, had dinner with a bunch of people at a restaurant overlooking the lake, took a cab to Silk Market, took subway to Wangfujin but the night market was already closed so we took the subway back to Wudaokou and met up with people at Propaganda.

Needless to say that was an exhausting day in which we managed to take all forms of transportation around the city except rickshaw or electric bike (the boats at Houhai don't count cuz you just row them in circles). Sunday was rainy so I practiced some Daoist wuwei philosophy (aka sat on my butt all day) and now it's back to the school grind. But: Shanghai this coming weekend!

Weekend Update

The thing about me and blogs is that once I get behind on updates, I find it really annoying to have to go back and recap everything that I've done. Alas, I don't want to leave you loyal readers in the dark (esp since I'm too lazy to add more pics to FB at this time) so here's a brief recap for you. (Actually, what this really means is that I have hw I should be doing and therefore find now to be a perfect time for some blogging).

So Cheng got back to Beijing last Thursday, hurray! I still haven't been to his campus though, because he came here for the weekend. On Friday after class we met up at a shopping center... and when I say "met up" think lots of phone calls like "Um our bus just got hit by a car, we'll be there soon" and "You're standing on a bridge that says Beijing Welcomes You? Wow, that's helpful" and "Zhongguancun gouwu zhongxin! It says that in big red characters at the top!" and "I don't see a big screen TV... keep walking" etc etc. Needless to say, it is not easy to meet up in Beijing (especially when a certain someone can't really read Chinese signs... coughcough).

Anyway later that night some friends had met this music guy and we all went out to Wudaokou to catch a live music show. At first we were told the music was going to be heavy metal, but then no, it was supposed to be indie rock, and when we got there it was somewhere in between the two. Luckily the band (don't remember the name, but they were from Norway... think long blonde hair and everything) was basically done by the time we arrived. Afterwards we chilled at the bar, Cheng and I played some foosball and a Chinese drinking game with a German guy and a Chinese saxophone player. Good times, good conversation.

The next day I definitely didn't get motivated till two, and then the plan was to meet up with Cheng at the Summer Palace. Again, the whole "meet up" definitely backfired when our bus took us to the North Gate and he was stuck down at the East Gate (with no money because he forgot his wallet. Nice.). So Pre (from my program) and I rushed through the beautiful palace on the hill and went to the gate to rescue Cheng, and then the three of us chilled by the lake and decided we had to come back on a day that wasn't so smoggy and when we had enough time to rent a boat.The next morning we got up early and went on a "hutong tour" provided by our school. See, the flier told us we'd be guided by an expert into the hutong neighborhoods to chat with the people who lived there. Only, we got on the bus and were first dropped off at the Lu Xun museum. Well, this is cool, I thought, I mean I wanted to come here anyway. We had an impromptu lesson from our tour guide about Beijing's development and cities in China in general. What did this have to do with the writer Lu Xun? I'm still not sure. Then we wandered around the museum and saw Lu Xun's old home (which was a hutong, so I guess we were sort of on the right track).

We got on the bus again and this time it dropped us off at a Buddhist temple. Ummm ok this is definitely not relating to hutongs, but still interesting, I thought. Maybe there are hutongs located near this temple and we will be seeing them soon. But no, we were led into the temple for another impromptu lesson, this time with a monk. He seemed to be deeply respected and wanted us to ask him a lot of questions, but didn't seem so inclined to directly answer them. For example, as he was talking to us about his recent visit to Taiwan, he was fiddling with a very nice looking cell phone. And at one point our guide was translating and the monk actually took a phone call while he was sitting there. Um, what?

So I ask, trying not to pointedly stare at his phone, How do you balance the strict rule and regulations [of religion and monastary life] with modern technology and advances? Seems like a fair question, right? Worthy of an in-depth response... but no. He said, Well I make sure I find myself a good teacher. When I have a good teacher to guide me, I'm ok. Or something to that effect. Very vague.

The monastary people were nice enough to guide us around the temple and show us some things that the normal people don't get to see. For example, around the back of one of the altars was the huge huuuuuuge painting done entirely with the artist's right hand pinky finger. That's right, a wall-sized finger painting. It was actually very beautiful, and during the Cultural Revolution someone built a wall in front of it so it wouldn't be destroyed. No pictures allowed though.

It was slightly odd walking through the temples, yesterday being the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is one of those days where EVERYONE goes to the temple and offers food and incense to the ancestors. So we were like walking in front of the lines of people as they bowed and made their devotions. And after that, guess where we went. Home, of course! The end of the Hutong tour, in which nary a hutong was seen. False advertising, I tell ya. I would have been more satisfied with the tour if they had told us what were we actually going to see. As it is, I still want to see the hutongs! When is that tour leaving??

Dalian, China's "green" city

Don't worry, I made it back alive and almost in one piece! Traveling via train in China on my own was definitely an experience, and I'd feel pretty confident having to do it again, but I definitely learned some things along the way. Like, don't ever ever travel overnight by hard seat (which was all they had left by Friday for my return trip on Sunday). And hard sleeper is not the epitome of luxury, but it's definitely doable and preferable to the other options.

My journey started at the train station, where I waited in this line:

Yup, this is a line in China. It didn't make sense to me because we all had assigned beds/seats, but there was a wild crush to get on first. (Of course on the way back I learned not everyone had a seat and storage space was limited. Oh how blissfully naive I was with my hard sleeper ticket). We left at 10pm and arrived the next morning at 8, when Cheng and his aunt met me at the station.

Then Cheng and I went off to the seaside for some grand Dalian canguan. Which, coincidentally, does not mean there is a giant shopping mall, it means we did some touristy things.
Suffice it to say, but 2pm we had had lunch and we a little bored of walking around and taking pictures. So we went and sang karaoke for a couple hours, then headed back to Cheng's aunt's apartment for some home cooked foods. My favorite. But first! There was a Walmart across the street from the apartment, and I had to go.

Look, Cheng's head is bigger than a watermelon! Haha :) Wo ai ni!

But back to the story. We had a wonderful meal with his aunt and her 15 year old daughter Yanhua. Yanhua was cool to talk to because for the most part, I could understand her Chinese. And at dinner they asked me what I thought of China, so I got to break out my newly learned sentence patterns: Wo di yige yingxiang shi... etc etc. And they wanted to know what the West was commonly saying about China, and all that. I've noticed that I can have good conversations in Chinese as long as there is someone else around to help translate/do most of the talking. I like to listen to people talk in Chinese and try and figure out what they are saying. But more and more I'm trying to figure out how to express my own ideas, though this usually takes too much time and by the time I have a thought formed in Chinese in my mind, the conversation has already shifted. Oh well, I try.

We watched the opening ceremony for the Para-Olympics on TV and then I passed out. I still have that annoying song stuck in my head though: Women yiqi qi fei!!!!!! Well, at least Andy Lau was there, that was pretty cool. Couldn't compare to the regular Olympics though, but it was pretty cool to watch. I wished so badly to be back in Beijing then, watching the fireworks from Tiananmen or something. Hmmm maybe the closing ceremony...

The next day Cheng's aunt took us shopping. OMG it was madness. It seemed like every single person in Dalian descended upon the mall that day. We braved the crowds for a little while, and I got an impulse manicure, but then I had had enough. Since there's nothing I really need to buy right now, meandering through the stalls and crowds wasn't very appealing. So we stopped by a friend's tea shop and drank some green tea. The way they brew the tea is really interesting, and we sat there for awhile, sipping from our tiny cups, eating pumpkin seeds, and shooting the breeze. The tea shop owners' 6 year old daughter was running around the mall and I absolutely loved her. I wanted to take pics of her but she wouldn't let me. However, she did point and every person and tell me to take pics of them, and then she would laugh and be like, "wo zhao le ni!" Adorable. Here's one that she made me take:
Cheng and his aunt. Now, don't even get me started on the train ride back. It was just awful. There was not much space for those of us sitting, and some people didn't even have seats and were just standing the whole time. For like 10 hours! Our train was also apparently a local (not express) because ever hour or so we'd stop somewhere and more people would get on. Crazy. Also, the air conditioning was blasting and I was wearing shorts and a tank top, so that just made it even less easy to fall asleep. Fortunately the man next to me took pity on my and offered to switch seats so I could sleep by the window (instead of the the middle of two people (and the other guy was really fat so he took up a lot of space)). He said this in Chines and when I got up and was like, Hao xie xie, some other guy was like, Oh it's like she understood! Yes, actually, I can understand some Chinese... but I didn't say that. I was too exhausted and had mentally given up on the situation to try and make any conversation, so I left everyone else assume I was a stupid foreigner with no Chinese skills. Oh well. I couldn't stop thinking about my hard sleeper bed on the way there and how much I missed it... even imagining scenarios where I stole into the hard sleeper cabin and paid someone 150 kuai to trade tickets with me. But alas, I stuck it out, and by 6.30 am the next day (today) was safely tucked into my own bed back in the dorm... only to wake up for class 2.5 hours later. Needless to say, I think I'll stay in Beijing and enjoy the sights around here next weekend (and Cheng will be back by then, anyway). But I'm glad I went, because of the cool people that I met in Dalian, even though Dalian itself seemed a little bland.

The first weekend

Even though I couldn’t go out to Sanlitun this weekend and get my drink on (this has yet to happen here) I definitely had an amazing two days before classes start. On Saturday I got to sleep in (hurray!) so I felt a little rejuvenated from the previous day’s jaunting around the city. Cheng came over to campus and even though it was slightly rainy out, we went on an excursion to the 798 art district. It turned out to be all the way on the other side of the city, but it was awesome and I would love to go back sometime, since we only got to explore about half of the area.

It’s kinda the same idea as Chelsea, with open galleries you can just wander into and look at contemporary art. But the cool thing is that the neighborhood is actually a bunch of old factories and low buildings, so the spaces where the artwork is hung makes the art even more intense. Now, the area used to be for the avante garde, but of course once people caught on to the fact that this neighborhood was quite hip, gentrification began. As a result, most artists can’t afford to live there anymore, but it still seemed like an impressive place to have work shown. The strange part was this random Nike building where you can go in, exchange you ID card for an iPod touch, and have a guided tour through the history of Nike shoes. It was actually really cool, and the second floor of the building had all the gear Nike made for the Chinese Olympic team, along with explanations as to why it was so special. Then at the end when Cheng returned the iPod, he got a free Nike propaganda book, complete with blank pages for him to sketch his own shoe designs. I think he was in love.

We quickly ate some noodles when we got back to campus, and then departed to see the Beijing acrobats at the Heaven and Earth Theater. Now, I’ve already seen Cirque du Soleil’s version of Chinese acrobatics, and was very very impressed. But this show was really cool too. There were cute little boys doing jump rope, cute girls throwing around Chinese yoyos, an androgynous man wearing hot pants juggling, and much more. Crazy fun times. I heard lots of “oh my god, no they’re not going to…” and “what, how is this happening” around me, so I’m guessing the other people on my program were suitably impressed. Awed, even.

Since I had to get up at 7.30 this morning I again opted out on any bar shenanigans for the night. I actually woke up feeling much better, though I still have a cough and sound like Janis Joplin (no karaoke-ing for me till my voice goes back to normal!). The I looked outside and WO DE TIAN LE! I could see the mountains in the distance! And… blue skies! The rain yesterday did the most wonderful thing and gave us the most beautiful day anyone could ask for. Zero humidity and cool breezes… could it get any better? Oh yes, because the reason I got up so early was that we were going on an excursion outside the city to a village in the mountains called Cuandixia, an outpost town to Xi’an that has been preserved since the Ming Dynasty.

The bus ride took like 2 hours but it was worth it. We got there and immediately climbed a mountain. I am not kidding. We pa’d a shan at 11 and I would have eaten a better breakfast had I know how rigorous it would be. Oh, and I also would have worn tennis shoes and shorts instead of flip flops and a skirt. But all they said was we were visiting a village! Anyway, footwear woes aside, climbing that mountain was worth it. We got a spectacular view of the entire village and surrounding countryside (read: mountains). It made me realize how terribly out of shape I am, but hey, at least I made it to the top. And down again! Going down was worse, since it was so steep.

After all that work we were duly rewarded with a tremendous meal cooked by a local townsman (a friend of our program director) and his wife. They made us so much food! Like, they would not stop bring out dishes. My favorites were: cucumber with apricot seeds, potatoes and green peppers with beef, and scallion pancakes. All the food was from the village, and apparently three chickens died that morning in our honor. Well, it was delicious. And then the host gave us a history of the village; he is the 15^th generation of the Han family who settled the village after the Ming dynasty fell. His grandson is 17^th generation. Can you even imagine?? And at one point, this village housed the dynasty’s gold treasure, in a hole underground in the guy’s house. What?? Crazy talk! But it’s true, and that’s why China is amazing.

After lunch we were free to explore on our own for a couple hours. The director took a group over some more mountains to view an abandoned town nearby, but my footwear forced me to stay in the village. Which was fine by me. A small group of us found our way to a terrace restaurant overlooking the town and sat there for a while, drinking pijiu and laotiar-ing with the owner. Between one other 300 level guy and myself, we had a cool conversation with him about Korean people riding scooters, his favorite movie Snakes on a plane (me: you mean… she zai feiji? Him: dui! (and he mimes a snake biting a guy’s head)) and the village itself. A Canadian woman joined us at one point and she was cool too. She had just published a book about Beijing and wanted to revise it later to add a description of this village. Later, one of the RA’s on our program came over and she really helped translate; she even translated the restaurant’s Chinese name into English so more tourists could find out about it. Go ahead, Google Cuandixia and see what you find. I was there! It was feichang piaoliang!

Whelp, tomorrow class officially starts. Although for this week we only have Chinese class, and it doesn’t start till 2. Nice. But it’s four hours long. Not so nice. I read over my 300 level hw and it seems pretty easy actually… so I might have to move up a level. We’ll see. My reading is good but speaking and listening not so much. I’m getting by though. I figured out Snakes on a Plane and Koreans riding motorbikes!

They love me so much,

these Beijing mosquitoes do. I have several bites on my body, including on smack in the middle of my forehead and one on my nose. Sound familiar, Cynthia? It's like mosquito deja vu. Except not cool in any way.

Anyway, today we had a presentation in the morning by our affiliate travel agent man. He was cool except he only spoke Chinese. And he showed us lots of slides of lots of places I want to go. Like, basically everywhere in China. And some cool places in Beijing too, of course. They definitely encourage us to take trips on the weekends here, since it's fairly easy to take an overnight train on Friday night to somewhere in within the northern half of China and still make it back to class on Monday after a fun filled weekend. Some places I'd like to visit if given the chance: Lhasa, Harbin, Guilin, and Fuzhou (as long as Cheng can come with me). Now I'm noticing that these are not the easiest places to get to, but oh well. I will make something happen.

This afternoon was the fun part. (Not really). Cheng joined us for a scavenger hunt around Beijing... only I somehow neglected to tell him the hunt was Amazing Race style. In a group of five we had to navigate our way to different landmarks around Beijing (7 in all) within 3 hours and make it back in time for dinner. The group to reach the most landmarks won. Well, we got to four, after taking a ridiculously long time to find out first spot at Houhai. I ended up retracing my trip from yesterday. From there we went to Beihai park, where I somehow got ripped off an paid 20 yuan for the entrance fee. But it was a pretty park. I'd go back if the fee was less.

Our next stop was the top of the hill at Jingshanyuan, the park behind the Forbidden City where an emperor hanged himself as his dynasty ended. From there we took a bus to Tiananmen Square to pick up our last clue that we had time for, outside of Mao's tomb. The clue was something about a Silk Road and a market to the east of the Square the sold lots of fake name brand items. We ended up at Wangfujin because the cab driver thought that was where we needed to be... oh well. So we only ended up getting 4 spots finished and another team beat us by one spot. At least now I know how to get to those places, and feel pretty confident navigating that central area of the city. I'd like to go back when I'm less rushed and take more pictures, but actually right now I'd rather visit some other neighborhoods in the city.

I had the option of going with my group to Sanlitun tonight for some jiuba fun, but declined since I'm still not feeling well. We have nothing planned for tomorrow morning (amazingly) so I'm going to get some rest and hope that whatever sickness I have no will leave me alone. I think not racing around the city during the day will also alleviate some of my ills. Oh, and as a side note, although Beijing is not being so nice to me right now, I think Cheng is doing very well. Beijing looks good on him! He speaks easily with the natives, has no fears about eating the street food, and has random moments of nostalgia and memories from his childhood come back. Zhen ke'ai. Ok, xianzai wo yao shuijiao! Ming tian jian!