Singing and Laughing

Thoughts so far:
So far, everything has been wonderful. Of course there are minor frustrating things, but nothing too terrible to throw me into the "culture shock" that everyone warns me (and other study abroad students) about.

I like the idea of trust here in China. It just seems like people trust each other a lot more. i.e. anyone buys fireworks and lights them off themselves on the day of the Lantern Festival. Also walking back at 1:30 in the morning, we passed a police officer that didn't seem the least bit suspicious of us even though we were in the Teacher Housing area and we certainly don't look like teachers -- (more details on how we got there on Feb 25).

I like how lots of things are cheap here or at least bargainable. Getting enough food for breakfast, lunch, or even dinner could cost maybe 3 kuai each = less than 50cents USD.


Feb 23 (Wednesday) - Had a "one-on-one" session with my teacher Zhang Laoshi. Margaux introduced me to the underground market underneath the convenient store where I could get some noodles for 3 kuai. I love it because it's cheap and convenient with a large variety of foods. They also have a bakery, fruit stands, meat stands, etc.
Attempted to study today, but constantly got distracted from sleep and an undying need to do laundry. To complete the laundry task, I first needed to retrieve detergent. To complete the task of retrieving detergent, I first needed to get some moolah. To get some moolah, I needed to first go to the ATM and use my newly acquired bank card (got it like last week) and take out some cash. It wasn't too bad, I went to the wrong ATM by accident, but they still gave me what I needed for probably a very small service fee (I'm thinking 3 kuai). After folding my receipt into my wallet, I reached for my ATM card, but as I touched it, the card was absorbed back into the ATM. It then flashed a number to call for 2 seconds and went back to the welcome screen. Essentially, in the time it took for me to put away my receipt, the card safety timer timed out and ate my card. I would have to go to the bank the next day to retrieve it.
It was alright though, because I was able to withdraw money and pay for detergent and some snacks.
As I went to do the laundry back at the hotel, I got extremely confused by the Chinese washers. In the end, I overloaded one of them, and the other one never drained the water. Fortunately, a guy who also happened to be doing his laundry knew English and Chinese really well and assisted me. It was still annoying to not have a dryer. The room was then filled with hanging clothes all over the place as they raced to dry.
For dinner, I got a bowl of wonton soup for 3 kuai with Margaux and Patrick and sat it the mini tables out on the street. Food was excellent, and once again, very inexpensive. It was kind of funny sitting at the seats though because I felt like we were grown ups playing tea party with a young girl since everything seemed miniature, but it was great all the same. I really enjoyed being outside, having the wontons fresh from the stand, and just relaxing and eating as the local people passed by with their busy selves.


Feb 24 (Thursday) - It's the day before the big exam (exam on Friday on sections 15 and 16). But before studying, Joe, Crystal, Malcolm, Darren, and myself all went out to a local Xi'an place with a Xianese noodle specialty for cheap. These noodles were fat and flat and very tasty. It was a great precursor to intense studying for the rest of the night.


Feb 25 (Friday)- Test time! Don't really know how well I did -- either really good, or really bad, hopefully the former.    At 2:00 we met our Chinese roommates! They all seem pretty cool, each seeming to match flawlessly with their American counterpart. We all went to KTV (karaoke) and sang some songs (yeah, it's kind of an awkward way to meet people at first... but there were many instant connections). I hopped in on some Maroon 5 (This Love) and a couple others. It was a success, and we ended up playing a couple games of Mafia/Werewolf/Drug dealer/Assassin followed by, once again, delicious food.
Gao is my roommate and like his name suggests, he is certainly a tall guy. I didn't speak to him all too much in the beginning when we were still unsure of our roommates, but when we did find out, we instantly connected and I'm sure living with him will be great! It's also helpful that his knowledge on English is pretty good (since I'm still a noob at Chinese) though I try to speak in Chinese to him when I think I could compose a sentence correctly.
We ended up going out tonight -- well all of the American students plus Gao and Mi (Crystal's roommate). We went to a local bar, and played some Kings and Mafia/Assassin/Drug dealer/Werewolf which is becoming a very popular game here because of how super fun it is.
On the way back though, the gate was closed. This meant having to walk all the way around the perimeter of the campus to get into the other entrance. Half of us wouldn't take it. Sean, Joe, Malcolm, and I, climbed through a hole in the wall finding ourselves standing on a whole lot of debris (all I could think of was, "I really hope we don't step on any land mines out here..." [though it is highly implausible that they would have any]). There was then another wall that we climbed with the help of an adjacent tree. After climbing the second wall we were home free and back in the hotel long before the other half of the group. All I could say is night well spent.


Feb 26 (Saturday) - This morning Sean showed me this street vendor selling something like a breakfast burrito/omelet/egg roll thing. It had some vegetables, protein, and crunchy in it and it did not disappoint for cost or taste. It was 3 kai, tasty, and hit the spot.
Went to the Muslim area of Xi'an -- kind of forget the name of it, but it was very cool. To get there we went through a Chinese Bazaar like place which reminded me a lot of the Turkish Bazaar that I visited a couple years ago (except here it was a lot colder and smaller). But we finally got to the gate where we were welcomed by Bai Laoshi. He taught us a lot about the history of Islam and how it reached China. The architecture there was very cool and Bai Laoshi was very kind, welcoming and informative in his lecture on the Muslim areas and populations here in China.

Unfortunately, it was pretty cold and we all had to retreat a little earlier than we wanted to to find a quaint restaurant with delicious soup-like lamb/beef, noodles, and soft bread pieces. We'll definitely be going back to that area when it gets a little warmer. We ended up trying to hail a taxi for quite a while until a bread van/taxi came and took us back. It was a bit cramped and not everyone had a seat, and most people got car sick, and it took a while, but it was an interesting ride nonetheless.

All in all, there were still quite a few pleasant surprises and exciting events this week. There were also a few hurdles, but we're taking each hurdle one stride at a time and I'm pretty psyched for more fun to come!

China - A First Dose of Awesomeness

I'm pretty new to this whole blog thing, and I guess I may have started a little later than I should have because there's so much that has happened over the past 11 days that I've been in China that explaining it all in one single blog post will do any of them justice... however I'm going to do my best to try.

Day 1 (Feb 8/Feb9) - Connected to Chicago from BWI Airport and met up with the rest of the students flying in the suggested group flight by Alliance (you can check out this program at: http://www.allianceglobaled.org/) Just if you happen to find yourself interested at any point along the way.
Here our quickly bonded small group got on the flight from Chicago to Beijing. The trip took about 12/13 hours and it was kind of neat because we flew over the North Pole which I thought was pretty interesting. I believe the temperature over that spot was around -60/70 something degrees Fahrenheit.
On the trip over, for dinner, we got Ramen Noodles or some equivalent to it which I thought was kind of funny, but I definitely was not upset.

We landed in Beijing in the late afternoon with the forecast saying: smoky

We got through immigration easy enough and made our way to the baggage claim. After a long while of waiting and retrieving bags, we headed to the "white dragon wall" which we were all baffled about... until we got there. Here we met up with others who had arrived earlier/on independent flights as well as Han Bing who is the director of the Beijing Program. The plan is for Xian students to chill in Beijing with the BLCU students for a few days for orientation before actually heading out to Beijing.

When we finally got the BLCU, we quickly dropped our bags off in our rooms.

I roomed with Patrick who is in the Xian Program as well (by the way, this semester there are 7 Xian students and something like 23 or 24 Beijing students). Here we also met the Xian Director, Darren Wright. But we quickly made our way back for the first dinner in China. It was pretty good to say the least, but the main attraction was the Peking Duck -- that was pretty delicious.

At BLCU, there isn't any internet in the dorms -- or wireless at least so we had to go to Han Bing's office to use it. Unfortunately, if you don't know, China censors some sites such as Facebook, Youtube, and even my school's (UMBC's) gmail account. So pretty much all I was able to do was email my family and head back where I quickly fell asleep.


Day 2 (Feb 10) - Went to breakfast where I, along with many others got Jiu (I believe? I'm used to calling it Jook from a Cantonese American standpoint, but it's essentially rice porridge) and it was the best I've had before. I also got a Baozi (? which are steamed buns with meat or vegetables in the middle) which was delicious.

The rest of this day mostly consisted of orientation stuff and important information.

For dinner, we had the same food as the night before with the Language teachers for the Beijing students. It was definitely awkward for me not knowing much Chinese -- especially not enough to communicate with the teachers.

This night I tried going out to Lush (an internet bar like place) but my computer died 5 minutes after turning it on and the internet was REALLY slow. So after a while I gave up and headed back where I once again, quickly fell asleep.

Day 3 (Feb 11) - We (the Xian students) packed our luggage to be shipped to Xian early.
Got some breakfast at a pastry place. I got a flaky hotdog pastry thing which was pretty delicious. We then raced back to take our placement tests.
This test was extremely difficult and I probably completed about 20% of it. If that paper exam wasn't discouraging enough, the oral exam had to rub it in some more. Here, probably more English was spoken than Chinese. Once it was over and I walked out of the room, I heard chuckles and snickers of amusement from my ignorance of the language.
I made my way back and sulked as I watched some ping pong on TV.
Later on though I realized that many people felt like the exam was crazy, insane, and demoralizing which made me feel a bit better.
We (Xian students+Darren) then grabbed lunch at Pyro's Pizza which was tasty and amusing because they had TV's showing a game show that was pretty hilarious. Nothing I've ever seen in the US.

From there we grabbed the metro and made our way to the Tiananmen Square/Forbidden City which was really neat! The architecture and history behind it was really interesting.

We then made our way to the Night Market or Market Street where they sold a variety of random foods ranging from your basic dumplings and baozi to starfish and seahorse to scorpions and silkworms. I personally ate 1.75 snakes (the spices on it were pretty good, but the spine bone took some working at), 2 scorpians (tasty, crunchy, highly advised), 1 seahorse (crunchy, much harder than the scorpion, bathed in a lot of garlic which made it spicy and strong... it was alright I guess), and a silkworm (The worst of them all. Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside, tastes horrid, somehow I downed it, but no one else really did)

After that, we saw an acrobat show with the following performances:

• A clown that walked/unicycled on a loose tightrope,
• Skeletons that tossed these ropes with weights on the end,
• A juggler who juggled probably about 12 balls at one time,
• 2 ladies that held glass things on their head's/feet/hands/etc. while doing flexible stuff,
• Ladies that juggled these cylindrical drum-like objects with their feet,
• Guys that climbed up vertical posts flawlessly,
• A side act where the clown and the woman MCs pulled out a guest from the audience which happened to be Sean to do a hilarious demonstration.
• A flexible lady who did a lot of balancing on one hand,
• Girls with Chinese yoyos,
• and girls with fans that rode on bicycles who ended up balancing 12-20 girls on one bike

After this, we headed back and I went out to The Propaganda (a club) with a whole bunch of others since that night was the last night we (Xian students) would be in Beijing with the BLCU students.


Day 4 (Feb 12) Dayplan: Great Wall!
We (Xian students + Darren) headed out early on a 2 hour ride accompanied by Omar Ali, a former director in the Alliance Program. When we got to our drop off point, I took a look around in this town/farm and it looked just like a setting in a movie. Down to to the wandering mules and dogs, to the high stack of sticks neatly placed upon each other next to the walls of the houses. The scenery around it was beautiful. The mountains stretched all around us, overgrown with trees and blanketed by freshly fallen snow.

We were greeted here by a farmer who managed the village. He was very kind and accommodating. But we didn't stick around for too long since we had a long hike ahead of us. 
We started ascending from his backyard and continued from there on a path that Omar knew all too well (he'd hiked this path probably 20 times before this day). There were some very very steep parts and some areas where the drop was pretty intimidating. We hiked up for maybe 45 minutes to an hour until we finally came upon The Wall. We were able to get in and stand on it and admire the depth of the surrounding mountains along with the trees and plains that colored them. The contrast from the freshly fallen snow only added to the breathlessness that had befallen us (from awe – not hiking).

The wall was covered in overgrowth and was well worn by the elements, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I haven't been to the more touristy areas of the Great Wall, but I think seeing this spot was perfect because it seemed very natural, like uncharted territory, off the beaten path, or the road less traveled. It was like discovering something new and untouched by industry and profiteers. 


The day was perfect, it was cold, but not too cold. It was sunny and the rays of light warmed us as we hiked. The sky was clear and blue, and the mountain air had the freshest smell yet in China. And when you stopped and listened, you can hear the wind blowing over the mountains and through the trees in harmony.


We hiked up to 3 or so towers and then turned around and headed back. Hiking back was much faster but a little more dangerous. There was lots of falling, slipping, and sliding, but fortunately no casualties and no serious injuries.


When we got back to the farmer's house, his wife, had dinner prepared for us. It was the best meal yet. The dishes included eggplant, mushrooms, bok choy, donkey, beef, pork, pork ribs, string beans, and more. They also had a lot of almonds that they let us eat that were indigenous from the area. Everything was delightful, but we had to be on our way back to the university. Here we would pick up our bags and head to the train station so that we can catch a sleeper train to Xi'an.


When we got to the station with our remaining luggage we had to wait in line for a bit. Here we received a lot of stares from the others waiting in the station. I was approached by an older Chinese man with a long green coat who was having a one way conversation with me. All I could do is sit there awkwardly as he began criticizing me for not knowing Chinese (as I later found out). The stares did not stop.


We didn't stand in line for much longer though until we headed onto the sleeper trains which had these rooms that were probably 8-10 feet in length, maybe 6-8 feet in width, and about 14-18 feet in height. There was a doorway in the middle and two bunks on both sides when you enter. There's also an additional two bunks above each of the bottom bunks. Once we got settled in, I was out like a light.    


Day 5 (Feb 13) Arrival in Xian
We finally arrive in Xian around 7 or 8 and grabbed a van to Shaanxi Normal University where we will be residing at for the remainder of our study abroad in China. We arrived at our dorm/hotel (it really is a hotel on campus) and got our room key cards. When we checked out our rooms on the 10th floor (essentially the top floor) we were pleasantly surprised to see that we each had balconies overlooking the city, and a nice hotel set up inside the rooms (this includes room service and supply replacement). 


We went out to lunch with our area studies teachers at a local place just outside our university. The food was once again the best yet. There was tofu with the most delicious sauce, this mashed up cartilage in vinegar type dish, some eggplant that was tasty, nappa and peppers which was also great, sweet and sour chicken, deep fried mushrooms and a couple more dishes with rice, tea, and a popular Xi'an drink: bing feng – it’s similar to orange soda.

In the late afternoon we went to tour the city which was inspiring. Lights were everywhere, and stands were set up all over the place for the Lunar New Year. The buildings are metropolitan-like but traditional at the same time. After a while of walking around, we grabbed some hot pot which was arguable the best pot I've ever had.

Afterwards, we darted over to the daily fountain show which only added to Xian's awesomeness level. 

Props to Margaux and her super sweet camera for this wonderful pic!

Day 6 (Feb 14) - Had the hottest noodles yet here for lunch with the language teachers.
Ate some ro jia mo (like a pulled pork sandwich) and went onto the city wall with the New Year decorations still in full swing. They were cool to look at especially when it got dark and they all lit up!

Sean, Malcom, Margaux, and Crystal all looking out different gaps in the wall

Feb 15 - Hit up the playground early with Patrick and Sean. There was a middle aged gentleman there that was dressed up in a shirt and tie with a nice leather jacket, but he was there for the same reason as us -- to get in a good workout. He was good too - he some how swung back and forth on these parallel bars and ended up inverted as he started doing different exercises. 


Today was the first day of classes for us, and they were difficult -- well the language class was. But I feel optimistic that things will get better over time.


Went to the cafeteria to eat which is a great place if you're trying to save some money because, you could easily eat there for under a dollar. The food quality is alright, but not amazing, it's filling, but they don't have any drinks surprisingly.


We grabbed dinner with Darren which was great once again. I did one of the scratch off taxes things (they give you a sort of lotto scratcher thing where you can win money for free after eating at their place as a thing to make sure that they're paying their taxes or something like that) -- but I won 5 kuai, so it was a pleasant surprise -- I'm not used to winning anything that involves luck.


Later, Darren, Sean, Joe, and I all played some Mahjong out in the hallway before we headed off to sleep.


Feb 17 (Thursday) - Lantern Festival - Fireworks were going off nonstop from the early morning to the wee hours in the night. Some of us went to check out some of the fireworks being launched off on the main road close to the university (Changan Nan Lu) where we certainly saw the fireworks close up...

Later on, we all went out and checked out the fireworks from our dorm which was really cool because fireworks could be seen everywhere all over the city, some very near to us and some out in the distance. There were also some that were very close to buildings (in fact they were partially hitting the buildings) but no one seemed scared or panicked. It was merely part of the celebration.


Doing homework that night was not easy with the fireworks distracting us and everyone being sick and exhausted.

Feb 18 - Toured the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Ci'en Temple. Learned a little more about Buddhism and some of the Buddhas. 

We climbed up to the top of the Pagoda and got a nice view of Xi'an from up there. Unfortunately, it was foggy and our vision was cut a little short. But it was still cool being able to see around the area since they didn't build structures high in this particular area.


Feb 19 - Went to a potty place ans spun some clay on a wheel. It was a good time except for the part where my clay pot kept falling apart and having to restart.


Feb 21 - Played Ping Pong for the first time here in China with Joe, then went to a computer city like place? It was giant! Each floor had a different specialty whether it be cameras, external monitors, software and webcams with competing companies scattered about creating a labyrinth of market.


Feb 22 - Field trip! Went to the Banpo Museum - an excavation site of one of the earliest signs of civilization in China from the Neolithic Age. There were lots of pots, bones/skeletons, and other early tools of these ancient civilizations.


That's all for now (wow, that was a lot!). It's been a great first dose of awesomeness here in China!
Over and out.