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.

Gorgeous

One of the best things about living in a big city is finding a place where you can go to get away from it all. It seems hard to imagine such a thing in Beijing, but thanks to a helpful tip from our teacher, we found an amazing street tucked away in the central area of Beijing that is absolutely ideal. It's called Nanluo Guxiang and it's close to the Bell Tower but removed from all the touristy things. The small street is lined with boutiques, coffee shops, cute bars, and a range of restaurants. It's a little pricey on the Chinese side, but for us Americans it was paradise. We did a little shopping, sipped some tea and did some reading, then grabbed hot pot for dinner. Since it was raining and we didn't want to head back to campus just yet, we stopped in to get pedicures and chatted with two French guys who were there getting massages. The street is also really cool because it's a good mix of trendy Beijing locals and foreigners... overall the most chill scene I have found here yet. I will definitely be returning (especially since I didn't take many pictures).

This morning we had a field trip for class. We met up with our professor at Jingshan Park, which we had previously whizzed through on the infamous Mystery Beijing exersize. Since the day was amazingly clear, we decided we had to take the opportunity and climb to the top of the hill to appreciate the view.

Trees! And a lake! And haphazardly placed buildings in the background! You probably can't tell bc the pic is so small, but there are even the faint outlines of mountains in the distance.

Anyway, then we went to the Forbidden City through the back door, which confused the people who worked there, but I explained, "We're going from hou to xian." Obviously. Um, let's see if I can find a good picture...
I wasn't in the mood to take the standard posing-by-the-gates/throne room/palace photos so I let everyone else take those and I will steal them once they are up on FB. After we concluded our tour we headed over to Grandma's Kitchen for some good old western diner type food. At the last second I decided on a cheeseburger instead of pancakes, but now I know where to go when the pancake craving really hits. Good food, not quite American but close enough, and too pricey but hey, it hit the spot.

Gotta run to the supermarket now for some orange drAnk, water bottles, random snacks, and pears. The pears here are so good! I am addicted.