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.

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!