A week in review

I'm not exactly sure where I left off from in my last post. I'll start with a week ago today. It was my friend Christina's birthday. So a group of us went to Houhai to celebrate. We found a small bar called Huxley's. Their slogan was "Shut up Just drink", which we all found amusing. While out, I met some of the other foreign students that other TBC people have been making friends with. I ended up talking to a kid named David for most of my time out. He's been to China a few times before and is pretty excited to be back. Before midnight, I left with Kathleen, Lorie and one other girl because we all had things to do in the morning.

Wednesday morning I met with my tutor and then had lunch with her. I really enjoy our tutor sessions and I feel that they're really helping. The rest of Wednesday was uneventful. Then Thursday rolled around and nearly all of TBC went out to Cinco de Drinko at Saddle Cantina. Adriene, Michaela and I were buddies for the night and after one margerita at Saddle, we decided to bounce because it was too crowded. We stopped in at Smugglers to chill out for a bit then went over to Butterfly to dance and get french fries. Butterfly was nearly deserted so we had a lot of fun. There were a few locals in there too and about two or three of the boys were good dancers and we had a lot of fun watching them. One came over to dance with us, but he wasn't one of the talented ones and I'm pretty sure it's because he was just drunk.

Up until this point it had been a pretty fantastic night, but then we climbed into a cab and our driver turned around to tell us all that we were very pretty. At first it was funny, but we then became very concerned that he kept staring with this goofy, eerie grin on his face at whoever happened to be talking. We became even more alarmed when we no longer were able to recognize where we were and he began to have a conversation with someone on his cell phone (this was after he tried to sneak taking a picture on his phone). Luckily, Michaela eventually saw something familiar and we pulled over nearly immediately. We all got out of the car (cabbie included) and bid an awkward farewell. As he pulled away I had to resist every fiber in my body to avoid breaking out into a run. After venting and comparing notes, we figured out that we had his license number and we all wanted to do whatever possible to report him.

Friday was a relaxed night in for me: I watched two Chinese movies and then went to bed. Saturday Michaela, Adriene and I went shopping near Tien'anmen Square. I ended up getting two Pashmina scarves and some smaller bags plus a couple other knic-knacs. We then explored the area for a while longer then headed back to campus. After dropping off our new treasures, we went to dinner and then I spent another quiet night in. Sunday was spent completely on chores. I did Chinese for about five hours, occasionally interupted by breaks to hand-wash some laundry. I then met my tutor around 7:30 to practice speaking and dictations. After doing some more homework, I got to bed at the early hour of 11:30 pm.

Monday was pretty uneventful and now it's Tuesday again and a bunch of people are planning to go out tonight for Kerri's birthday. As of right now, I'm seriously considering joining them. First I have to finish posting and do some Chinese before making that a definite commitment. The rest of the week is looking pretty exciting too. Tomorrow we're going on a fieldtrip for religion and then on Friday I'm meeting my host student for lunch before going to volunteer with a Chinese student named Jackie at a local community center to teach English. And then Saturday marks two months being in China. It seems impossible that I've been here that long, or that I have so little time left. I hope I'm able to look back on this experience when it's all over and can say that I took full advantage of it. I suppose, if nothing else, I've become very good with a pair of chopsticks and my Chinese is maybe at the level of survival.

All quiet in the eastern hemisphere

So, my appologies on it being more than a week since I last wrote. The week itself was pretty uneventful. I went to class, I did homework and that was pretty much it. Friday night though I finally went out, which was much overdue. I actually happened to just fall into plans. I had spent most of the night talking to Adrianne and Michaela and had just gotten back to the room when my roommate, Lara, invited me to go out with her and some other TBCers since I had just been saying earlier that I haven't been out in a while. We went to meet up with people who had already been out for a while so I grabbed my bottle of baijiu (the stuff that's 65% alcohol) which had about a quarter of it left and had a little bit on the way there.

Our first stop was Paddy O'Shea's, an extremely overpriced Irish pub. A few people bought drinks, but inevitably we decided to head over to Smugglers which is more bang for your buck. We ran into people outside finishing their 3 kuai beer, bought at the street vendor, so I finished off the baijiu before heading into the bar. I mingled for a while since there were quite a few TBCers and I wanted to make sure to say hi to everyone. I eventually ended up at a table with Lara, her boyfriend and his russian friends, Z (who's actual name is Zehar minus any spelling error I may have just made), Anastasia and two others whose names I didn't catch. Lara wandered away to talk to Lara and I ended up leaving with her boyfriend and the russians to find an atm and somewhere else to hang out. We drove around for a while in search of an atm (the russians had cars!!! :) yay for not having to pay for a cab) then went to a bar long enough to figure out it was too pricey and about to close in 30 minutes anyway. We stopped off at a convenience store for some snacks and a bottle of tequila then came back to TBC to hang out in Lara's boyfriend's room. It was nice. We just chilled and talked and Z made me drink more...apparently he didn't think I was drunk enough. I also tried anchovies for the first time. Not my favorite thing, but not as bad as they smell.

Quick side note - Z was friggin' tall! I'm guessing 6'5" at the least. And Anastasia was really sweet. I found it funny when she asked if I had a boyfriend and I said no. She corrected me by saying not yet. I just had to laugh because I'm not really looking, but a lot of people seem to be preoccupied about the whole significant other thing, no matter what country they're from. All in all it was a fun night except for the fact that we ran out of power in our room so trying to get ready for bed was a mite bit tricky.

Saturday was uneventful. I did laundry, went to the bank to get some more money and payed for the power. I also even started on my homework. You may remember that this was the day that Kathleen and I were supposed to hang out with Lily, our new Chinese friend, but she called having to cancel because she was sick. I went to lunch with Adrianne and pretty much just lounged around. In the evening I borrowed my roommate's copy of Gossip Girl Season one and ended up watching it until nearly three in the morning.

Sunday brought an early morning. I was up at 7:30 a.m. to get ready for meeting at 8 to go to the great wall. We didn't actually leave until 8:30 a.m. because punctuality is not of high value to some people. The pièce de résistance, we got lost while being pursued by a man who was obviously trying to scam us. After much complaining, frustration and attempting to figure out a new plan of action, we gave up. I decided just to come back to campus because I had quite a bit of homework and a few of the others decided to go to the Forbidden City. I did homework, took a nap, met with my tutor, watched a documentary then finished Gossip Girl (I think I'm addicted now!), going to bed around 3:30 a.m.

Getting up today was rough for obvious reasons. I stopped off at the stadium store before class to grab some Coke, hoping for a caffenine boost. Class was good, as always, despite the quiz AND dictation that we had. I really really like my chinese class because A) I enjoy Chen laoshi B) the dynamic in our class is really good and C) I think I just like learning languages in general. I'll be sad if and when the classes get rearranged (technically both intensive classes are too big so they are making a third one and some of us will be moved to the other class) because whether or not I stay in the class, it'll be different. After class I had lunch with Tiffany, Matt and Martina. I hadn't actually gotten to really talk to Tiffany or Matt in a while so it made me happy. Then I went to the library to get some homework done, came back to the room to do more homework, checked e-mail, did more homework, napped, finished off most of my homework, went to eat then talked to mom. Now I'm here and after this, I'll be going upstairs to talk to Adrianne and finalize stuff for faxing about class selection. I don't have a whole lot planned for the week because school work is keeping me busy, but if that changes, naturally you'll get to read about it later. Until then!

Some mini-adventures and major slackerdom

It seems hard to believe that there's only one week left in February, but here we are. I had a good weekend, kicking of with a rather busy Friday. After class, I went and had lunch in the cafeteria with Martina, then ran to get lunch for Carissa because she was busy getting homework for her 1:30 class done. Once I had dropped off her Muslim burger and gone back to the room, I called the bank because they had called me Thursday night. We were able to establish that an error had occurred in a transaction all the way back in January and that they wanted me to come in as soon as possible to correct it (they had given me too much money in the way of $50 U.S.). I told them that I would start walking over as soon as I hung up the phone because I needed to change over some more money anyway. I had to wait about an hour before I was all done with the bank, at which point I called Kathleen and we agreed to meet to go to a place I can't remember the name of.

We left at 2:30 and got to the district about forty-five minutes later. The area has a lot of paintings, caligraphy and supplies for said artistry. We ended up going into a gallery and looking around, although I got the impression right off that it was going to be expensive. We happened to talk to one of the employees, whose English name is Lily, and she confided that we probably shouldn't spend money in the store. She said they would mark up things for foreigners. After talking for quite some time, she asked if we could be friends and we exchanged phone numbers. If all goes well, Kathleen and I should be meeting her for lunch next Saturday. I'm very excited because she's my age, originally from the Shandong province and very keen to help Kathleen and I learn Chinese better.

Upon leaving the gallery, we went across the street and looked into a few smaller shops. In one of them I spotted some old posters of Mao and other revolutionary things. Kathleen immediately questioned their authenticity but I don't know why. The wear-and-tear plus the dates printed on the paper all scream that they were actually printed in the late 1960's. I ended up getting two that I really liked for 5 kuai a piece. I'm really excited about them, but I have to figure out a way to hang them up without hurting them. Tape is out of the question, but maybe I could use tacks? I may just wait until I get back to the states to hang them up anywhere.

We finished up browsing and decided to head over to Wangfujing to have McDonalds because Kathleen was craving it and to look around for a jacket for me (after I mentioned I might want to get a new one, Kathleen wouldn't let it drop). We hopped on the subway and then accidently got off at the Tien'anmen Square stop. We took a few minutes debating whether or not to just stay there and explore or to go back on the subway and get off at the right stop. Ultimately, we decided to take the subway, because both of us know the Wangfujing area better.

Once at dinner, I realized that I had a really bad sense of time....it was about 7:45 and I was supposed to be back by then preparing to talk to mom. McDonald's was pretty yummy anyway and since it was clear that there was no way I could get back in time to talk on-line, we proceeded to take our time and relax at dinner and then explore a little bit. One note of sadness in the day, while we were eating, I noticed a man who wasn't dressed very well and was kind of dirty. When another group of diners left, he quickly moved over to their table and began eating what they had left behind. I suddenly wished I hadn't finished all of my food. When we got up to leave, I mentioned him to Kathleen and she asked if we should buy him a sandwich. We agreed to not do that because we weren't sure whether or not that would embarass him and from my understanding, it's possible that embarassment would be considered a million times worse than even the worst kind of starvation. I still felt uncomfortable not doing anything, but since I didn't know what to do, we just left.

We looked in a few stores, but since I really wasn't looking for anything and was pretty sure I didn't want to buy anything I really didn't pay much attention to the things. After poking around in a bookstore, we decided to come back to UIBE. While returning, Kathleen got a call from Gary and we went to hang out with him, which involved a trip to the dvd store to buy some things to watch. We then watched a Korean movie whose English title was Tell Me Something. It was a pretty good thriller and I look forward to watching some more foreign films. I finally turned in around 2 a.m., very tired but very happy.

Saturday was pretty relaxed. I went to lunch with Kathleen and Gary, then came back to the room and did laundry, then worked on some homework for a little bit. Then Kathleen called me and I went shopping with her for an outfit for her to wear to the rave. I had decided not to go to the rave because it was 150 kuai for a ticket, plus transportation, plus an outfit but a large contingency from TBC did go. We managed to find some really good pieces to make a fun outfit and a few stores that seem to be very inexpensive. We then had dinner and came back so that Kathleen could get ready for the night. I read for a little bit then went to the lounge and ended up messing around on the computer for a few hours, not going to bed until 3 a.m.

As for today, I really haven't done to much. I went to lunch with Father Gene and a few other TBCers to discuss the Yunnan trip and what changes we would suggest for next year. Then I came back and did some more reading for class, fell asleep and now I'm doing this. Actually, I should probably get back to doing homework or call my tutor, since I keep putting that off. Later!

gotta love field trips

So, I didn't end up going to the flag raising. We decided to delay a week because so many other people have to go for a class and we kind of just want to not run into TBCers. However, Kathleen and I did go with Martina and her host student to the capital museum, which is about an hour away from campus by way of subway. It costs nothing, but you have to reserve tickets online ahead of time, otherwise you can't get in. It was a lot of fun to walk around and look at all of the artifacts. Plus, you could take pictures of pretty much everything; you just couldn't use a flash. I hope to go back because it's huge and we could only spend a few hours there because of a mandatory meeting at two. Upon returning to campus, I found out that my class was not really cancelled and that I had to basically run to class. Luckily, no one knew until we were all already late for class.

Then today my film class had a field trip to the museum of chinese cinema history. I really enjoyed this museum as well, although I dont necessarily get a whole lot out of it because there is much more in Chinese than there is in English to explain exhibits. Still, the costumes they had were pretty awesome and we did get to see about fifteen minutes of an imax show for free (the show is supposed to cost 50rmb). From visiting these two museums and from my classes, I'm finally beginning to understand just how omnipresent the government is, or at least seems to be. I'm not sure yet how to best express what I'm experiencing and witnessing. All I can say right now is it's unlike anything I've ever known and I'm glad that I chose to come here because it really is eye-opening. I think deciding to study abroad in China is one of my best choices so far.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm planning to go to the art market with Kathleen. And then on Saturday I'm supposed to be going to the dirt market with Adriane. I'm not a hundred percent sure about what either of these markets have, but I'm excited to explore. Next weekend is our Great Wall trip too. :)

It snowed again today and I remembered to take a picture of it this time. I think it's kind of unusual for it to snow three days in a row. Granted, it's not much more than an inch but precipitation here isn't exactly a common occurance, especially snow. Although I've been enjoying it, I hope it starts to warm up soon because it's bitter outside and walking to and from class always leaves me pretty much numb. I guess spring will be here soon enough. I should probably try to go to bed early tonight because I've been so tired lately. Later!

Nonevents and a few more photos

So, I'm including some more pictures at the end of this post. My weekend was uneventful, largely because I chose to do nothing but eat, read, sleep and do a little laundry. Socialization was kept rather low, but I think I really needed to be a recluse. I felt much refreshed when Monday rolled around. Of course, now I'm tired again. Haha. I had my rough day today, three classes with just about an hour and half break. Chinese was fantastic, as per usual, although I'm really going to need to study to be able to keep up. Cultural Revolution was good again and International Business was better than expected because we ended up watching a movie. I'm not exactly sure how the movie, which is about the rise of communism and the cultural revolution, ties back into international business, but it's really interesting and I'm sure he'll explain later.

Okay, so I don't really know how to format very well and the pictures are just going where they want. This one is of shopping buildings at Wanfujing.

And back to what I was going to say...I was very surprised to walk out of my building this morning to find it snowing. I was shocked and excited and angry all at the same time. The only reason angry factors in is because I swear someone told me that it doesn't snow at all in Beijing. Whoever that was lied. Haha. Oh well, it was pretty, although kind of dingy. Apparently, it may snow tomorrow as well, which would be inconvenient. I'm tentatively planning to go to Tienanmen Square tomorrow morning for the flag raising at 7 a.m. with my friend Kathleen. Afterwards, we want to meet up with Martina and her host student to go to the Capital Museum. Snow would make it significantly colder. I hope we still go though, because my class has been cancelled tomorrow so I could actually go to bed early. It was cancelled because we have a meeting at two, so we'd still have a timeframe to adhere to but it would still work out pretty well. Here's hoping!! I think that's all for now, except photo explanations. Later!



The scorpions at the night market.....don't they look delicious? (In the upper left, you can also see the silk worms.)










Photo evidence that I actually ate scorpion. Taste's just like a french fry.










Next course: SILK WORMS!!!
(I really don't recommend these.)








And, last but not least, snake. I've secretly wanted to try it for a very long time now....ever since a trip to Texas and a post card about rattlesnake soup. :)

Some pictures for your enjoyment

Here are a couple of pics from my first few days in Beijing. They loaded backwards...but you get the idea.

This is at Tienamen Square. See Chairman Mao?

One of the pagodas near Tienamen.

My first meal in Beijing that wasn't provided by TBC. Beef noodles....it's one of my favorites. :-)

The resident goats and my first picture in Beijing. The reason these goats are on campus is because there are more females than males on campus and they help create balance. If there were more males than females, there would be rabbits, or so I've been told. I'll post more pictures soon, but right now they don't seem to want to load.

One week done...incredible

I've made it through my first week of classes. I can't believe it. And tomorrow will be the one month mark for my stay here in Beijing. I feel like I've been here for longer and at the same time not nearly as long. I'm looking forward to when classes resume for the main campus because right now the campus is pretty empty except for us TBCers. It's Friday night and I'm probably staying in because I'm so wiped out. It's only 9 p.m. and I feel like I could pass out now and sleep for days.

I finally had my last class yesterday, and I'm happy to say that I really really like four of my five classes. I'm very excited for this last one; it's discovering china through film and we started off by watching a film clip in class. The subtitles sucked, but it was very interesting. Plus we get to take a field trip to a history of film museum, hopefully next week. This might possibly be the best semester that I've ever had. :-)

I was such a little nerd today. After class and lunch, I went to the library and did homework for about two hours. Then I went on facebook using the library computer and was finally able to accept friend requests and easily navigate the pages. I was excited about that because that means I wont be suspending my account and that periodically, I'll actually be able to respond to people. The library closed at 5, so I got kicked out, came back to the dorm for a bit then went to dinner with Christina and Becky. We went to the green writing restaurant and I got an awesome dish of noodles. Then I came back and got my computer and came down here to talk to my mom. Now I'm typing this up, so I guess that about sums up my day. I think I'm going to try to figure out how to post some pics from China on here. Later.