maniacskatergrl

As December 1st came around, I was once again shocked how close I am to the end of the semester. I always, ALWAYS forget how time just passes in what seems like an instant after Thanksgiving ends. I can't believe that in a week I will be flying home on a jet plane! I do say that I do miss the festivities that go along with Thanksgiving and Christmas. I got so excited the other day when I saw a huge Christmas tree outside of a Chinese mall. There are little to no decorations around, and although I dislike how the holiday has gone so commercial, I do miss the feeling it gives me.

I am so relieved that I am staying another semester in Beijing so that I can explore more. There are so many adventures that I'm missing! For example, going to Qianmen again, Temple of Heaven, Peking Opera, and acrobatics, just to name a few. I'm getting a little tired of Northern Chinese food (though I'd do almost anything for some good Cantonese food), so I'll get my fill of purely American food (and probably some Indian, Italian, and Mexican to mix it up) and then when I come back to Beijing I'll be ready for another 4 months of Beijing food.

Next semester I can also look forward to an excursion to the Yunnan province in the South, and Sichuan later for spring break to see PANDAS!! These are just somethings to look forward to. Unfortunately, my senior year at Wellesley is going to be very difficult, maybe even impossible, but I think it's worth it. Now, I just need to get through a few more finals, and I'll be finito.

As for the many other college students out there struggling through the quagmire of papers and tests, power to you! Winter break is just around the corner!

Today I participated in a Tai Chi competition! In the competition, students from many colleges around Beijing gather to compete for Tai Chi glory. Basically, I have been in this "Wushu" class all semester and we were learning the most basic tai chi form which include forms such as "parting the wild horse's mane", "pulling peacock's tail", "jade lady sits at her shuttle", "golden cock stands on one leg", and my personal favorite, "waving hands like clouds". Really, to begin with, the competition was not fair. It was a bunch of 外国 学生 (foreign students) competing against a bunch of Chinese students who have been practicing together for years. Nevertheless, we tried.

Our team (nicknamed 老外 or "old foreign") consisted of 8 people, four boys and four girls with four alternates. We also had a great cheering squad of 3. It is funny because the four girls who made the team all had some Asian blood in them, two being halfies, one is Korean, and me, the ABC of course. The boys were all foreigners and American, save for the token Portuguese. We also got to wear snow white uniforms with white shoes, which everyone knows that I am a disaster with because I'm so clumsy with white. Luckily, I tried to take super good care of the costume and only my shoes got a little scuffed. Also, the sizes ran a little big so I looked like a little 6 year old who decided to play dress up with daddy's white silk pajamas.

So we had to meet at the ungodly hour of 7:30 on a Sunday morning to depart for the competition at another University's sports center. With the team plus 3 cheerleaders and our coach (Howard) made 16, so we took 4 cabs to the competition. It was a little hairy because we weren't sure really where to go and we got a little separated, but we eventually met up and made it into the building.

It was a little intimidating with all kinds of Chinese kids in their silk outfits ranging from pink, to blue, to fuchsia, to yellow and some wielding swords or strange rackets tossing balls into the air. We found a quiet corner to warm up a bit and practice our militant march onto the performing space. That's when Howard informed us that we didn't have music, and we may (/probably) have to do the form without music. A little alarming to us. He also informed us that his ex-girlfriend was on the panel of the judges. We thought we were doomed. So Howard gave us the order to practice the tai chi form, and he wandered off to try and wrangle our music. But we had just finished warming up and practicing walking on stage when Howard returned and ushered the team to the side of the court while the alternates and cheerleaders went to sit in the stands.

When we made it to the court, we realized that this was much different from our hardwood gym that we were used to practicing in, and instead there was a rubbery sticky floor. How were we going to get into crouching stance? Team 老外 decided then that we were just going to try and have fun. It was awesome that we got the opportunity to do this at all, so might as well enjoy it. At this time, Howard actually got our CD, but the old CD player was not reading the disk properly, so he told us that we were just going to use some random other team's music. But the team that preformed right before us had a computer and we were able to play our music on that.

On the court, it was a little bit shaky. It was a mixture of nerves and also the inability to hear the music well. We were a little off center relative to the judges, but there were no major hiccups and we were generally together. Overall, we did quite well, and ended with a little bit of extra time. I have it all on film on another person's camera. It was pretty cool to see all of the Chinese teams preforming and I almost felt like an expert and saw other teams' strengths and weaknesses. But after such an early morning of excitement, all I could do was return to the dorms and crash for part of the afternoon.

So November has plodded along with nothing too special. It's been filled mostly with preparations for the end of the semester which is in 15 days (eek!!).

Since I'm staying for the year, I had to extend my visa. I decided to get an X-visa because 1) it gives me more flexibility on when to stay and 2) it's cheaper and for a college student's budget, that's wonderful. What's weird is that China requires the applicant to get a physical. There is a clinic that exclusively does physicals but it's out literally in the middle of nowhere. Also the timing isn't too convenient--the clinic is only open from 8:30-11 am. Two of my other classmates who are staying the year and I had to make the trek, and since Wednesday I only had my wushu class from 8-8:50 am, I thought this would be the best opportunity to go. For this, we had to ride the subway from line 5 and switch to line 13, then take a taxi to the clinic.

At the clinic, it was basically an assembly line. We filled out forms, payed our fees, then went along to little rooms for different tests. There were standard ones like height, weight, eye sight, and blood pressure. But they also had us do some weird stuff. For example, there was one room where they attached clamps to your ankle and wrist, and little suction cups all over your chest. I have no idea what this accomplished, but it tickled like no other! I started giggling, and the technician asked, "一点冷吗？“(A little cold, huh?) but all I could do was giggle, and unfortunately I don't know the world for ticklish in Chinese. Also, they took an x-ray and a blood test which I thought was a little extreme. Also, the way they drew blood was super old school. They had a rubber rope around my upper arm like how the addicts do it. They tried my left arm, but they couldn't get a vein, so they had to switch. Even then, the nurse still had trouble, and she proceeded to slap my arm a bit, and at that point I really felt like an addict. She left a little bit of bruising on my elbow, but it couldn't be helped.

That whole process took about an hour, which is pretty impressive. But going back to school, I suddenly got very cold, but luckily on the subway, it was heated. When I finally made it back to the dorm, I felt really weak and achy all over. I texted my friend that I wasn't going to my 1:30 class, and I collapsed into bed. Later that day, I had a fever, and I had trouble sleeping. In the evening, I felt better, and even went out to get dinner, but again in the night, my fever came back, worse than before, and I woke up every hour. At around 2 a.m. my fever broke and I finally got sleep.

Since the night was not very restful, I again skipped my Chinese class in the morning. I basically laid in bed all day sleeping, and trying to do some homework. By 4 pm, I felt much much better, and I was able to attend the Thanksgiving banquet that TBC arranged for us.

It was a pretty swanky affair. We had dinner in a banquet hall of a 5 star Radisson hotel. TBC must have some powerful friends out there because there were 5 ambassadors in attendance from countries including Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Luxembourg, and Austria. Also, all of our professors were invited, and I was able to see my Chinese professor and her adorable little boy (who was a little naughty, but what small child isn't?), and my Women studies professor. The food was buffet style, and the mashed potatoes and turkey were excellent. I was quite pleased to have an amazing meal as my first one in 2 days. It was awesome to see everyone all dolled up for the occasion too.

It was a really nice way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Although I did miss my family, the food and fancy atmosphere was able to distract me a little bit. And I'm super thankful that I'm not sick anymore.

Supposedly, there are said to be about 9 million bicycles in Beijing. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) that number is quickly dwindling as public transportation is getting more advanced. We had a pretty amazing bike trip around Beijing. There were about 12 of us including American and Chinese students. The sites included: the Lama temple, the Confucius temple, Drum Lane, Hou Hai, and Tiananmen Square.

We started around 1:30, and riding along the streets of Beijing is pretty terrifying with all of the cars driving around and other bikers swerving to get out of your way. A lot of the bikes are not well oiled, and as a pedestrian this really irritated me with the incessant squeaking. But now I realize their use--when you break it squeaks so others know that you're coming. Brilliant, who needs a bell? Anyway, I have a new found respect for those older folks who placidly navigate their way around obstacles.

The Lama and Confucius temples are both very beautiful. Perfect examples of traditional Chinese temples with beautiful trims and bright colors of green, red, and a little gold. We didn't enter though because we had other places to go.

Our next stop was Drum lane which is a little hutong outside of Hou Hai. Hutongs are basically the traditional streets which gray brick buildings and very narrow alleyways. This one is a little commercialized, but still fun to walk around. There, Garrett and I found churros and ice cream drizzled in chocolate (!!). Still not as good as Spain, but it was still pretty good. Basically now there are a lot of cute little shops around selling random trinkets.

After Drum lane, we proceeded on to Hou Hai which is part of the Summer Palace's collection of lakes. Hou Hai is basically the rear lake (Hou 后 means in back) and there are more shops and restaurants. At night there is a pretty hopping bar scene, but during the day it's fun to stroll along the lake. Here, we had our first bike mishap. Kevin, one of the TBC students, managed to somehow pull his handle bars straight off the bike. He and Lulu (the Chinese student who arranged this outing) had to go find a bike repair shop, and we had a few minutes to wander around a bit. I found this cool Tibetan store and I found some beautiful singing bowls that I want to go back and buy. Anyway, another cool Wellesley reference, Chairman Mao's wife was a Wellesley alum, and she built one of her getaways right by Hou Hai, and we biked past it. Yay for cool alums!

Our next stop was quite a ways away. It took us about an hour and a half to bike from Hou Hai to Tiananmen. On the way, we had our second mishap. One three wheeled bike cart almost took one of our guides out. Somehow, the cart's wheel hooked onto the front of her bike, and she went tumbling into the street. Luckily, the cars stopped for her and she and the bike we unscathed but it gave us a scare. By the time we made it to Tiananmen, it was already dark. But the buildings were beautifully lit up by lights outlining the shape of the buildings. We took many triumphant pictures documenting our trek from UIBE to Tiananmen.

It was a long ride back to campus, and again, we had another bike mishap. Kevin (again) broke the pedal off of his bike about 20 minutes from campus. He had to basically walk it back. Unlucky with bikes I guess. By the time we got back to campus, it was 7:30, almost 8. It was so tiring, but totally worth it. I like riding on bikes around China. It's a good feeling, because it's faster than walking (obviously) but slower than cars so you can really enjoy the sights. Also, cars respect bikes a lot more. If I had the chance, I'd definitely explore Beijing by bike some more.

So it's about 28 degrees Fahrenheit in Beijing.

The bad news-- IT'S SO COLD!! I totally was not expecting it to be this cold in Beijing, let alone snow! And I had forgotten (or chosen to forget) how cold it is the day after it snows. So although it dawned a beautiful crisp day in Beijing, I did not want to roll out of my warm cocoon to see it. Unfortunately, I have an 8 a.m class every day of the week so this ritual may last a while. Also, to conserve on heat the building has not turned on the heat for our individual rooms yet. Ahh!! so cold then.

The good news-- IT'S SO COLD!! It's so cold that the sky is clear. The smog is probably frozen in a block somewhere behind Mao's mausoleum or something.

Oh, I long for Wellesley's super heated dorms, my winter boots, and my pea coat.

So even though I've been in China for about 3 months, I feel that I haven't really explored yet! Sure, I've been down the Silk Road and around Guilin, but my city of residence still remains unexplored.

To kick off my new found thirst for adventure and exploring, my friend Garrett and I headed off to 798 on Friday, which is an artsy neighborhood about 25 minutes from our campus. It's a pretty cool area with little art shops selling all kinds of art, from the art you hang on walls to matches in Harry Potter DVDs (in fact it took us a while to figure out what this lady was selling! We kept asking if it was a 电影（dian ying) or a movie and she was quite confused). We took some cool pictures outside of sculptures and bought some cool stuff. One of my favorite exhibits was a photography gallery by a British man. The photos were really thoughtful and hilarious. He took pictures of ordinary things but they made you look twice like what good art does. Another cool gallery was one that took traditional communist images and used action figures. For example, they had a cool poster commemorating the 60th anniversary which had a parade of action figures. It's a pretty cool neighborhood, but we got there a little late. By the time it hit 5:30, it was getting pretty dark and it was rainy and cold. So when we realized that many of the galleries had closed, we decided to pack it in and return back to campus.

Saturday was Halloween. What I definitely miss from the states is all the free candy that they give out. It was odd being in China when everyone else in America was dressing up in costumes. But a bunch of my friends and I decided to go out to San Li Tun (三里屯）which is the area where a lot of foreigners hang out. It was fun seeing a lot more people in costume. When we returned at about 12:30 am, it was freezing cold. I was only in a skirt and a borrowed collared shirt. It was raining when we left San Li Tun, but when we got to campus, it was beginning to snow! It was pretty shocking, but I guess it was November at that point so barely acceptable. It snowed all night, and this morning when I looked out my window, the trees were covered with snow. It made me really miss Christmas. Anyway, it snowed until about 3 p.m., and right now it's sadly melting.

Winter has officially begun in Beijing. Good thing I have my wool communist had to keep me warm.

So I have just returned from my week long trip to Guilin, in the Southern province. Although Beijing is getting cold (since it is near the end of October), Guilin is still balmy and warm around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

To get there, we took a train which took a little more than 22 hours. It was pretty fun I guess, but all of the group was spread out on many different cars of the train. Now this was my third overnight train ride, and I'd like to think that now I'm a pro. The bed are relatively comfortable for a train-- a little hard and narrow, but the swaying of the train is a good way to be lulled to sleep. Unfortunately, good food is hard to come by on the train so we survived on instant noodles, Ritz crackers, and Chips Ahoy cookies.

When we got off the train at around 3 pm, we all felt a little gross, but we still had some sight seeing to do. We went to Yao Hill in Guilin and we rode a cable car to the top. It wasn't exactly like a cable car-- it was more like a ski lift except with no snow. I know Guilin is famous for its beautiful views of green rolling hills, but we were a little disappointed by the smoggy haziness we encountered when we reached the top. It was still a pretty view. But the fun part was that we got to ride a toboggan down. It was a pretty long track because it was about a 25 minute cable car ride to the top. But if you went fast, it was about a 3 minute ride down. Some people got a little crazy, and fell off the track there were many bruised and scraped knees and elbows. That evening, we got a free night, and we went wandering around the town. In the middle of our wanderings, a man who claimed to be an art teacher approached us. He showed us an art gallery, and we agreed to come back after dinner. We had an eclectic mix of western and Chinese food, including Guilin rice noodles, pasta cabonara, pizza, and fried rice. After our meal, we returned to the art gallery. Some of the paintings were absolutely beautiful. The "teacher" gave us free calligraphy, and some of my friends went to town buying some paintings. The "teacher" claimed to give us discounts because we were students, but I think it was a bit of a scam. I didn't buy anything, but my friends were happy with their paintings so I guess that's worth it. We returned with large boxes and our wallets a little lighter.

The next day, our group was split into two, and we went our separate ways. Our group proceeded to Yangshuo. It is a pretty touristy town, and our first lunch was on the expensive side. But when you have a bunch of college students in a new town, there has to be a bit of a learning curve. After lunch, we went on a Li River cruise. The cruise consisted of bamboo boats that could seat about 4 people not including the driver and the driver steered us up the river with his motorized propeller. The landscape is breathtaking here with limestone curved mountains covered in green trees and foliage. On our way, we got caught up in a water fight with a pair of fierce Chinese girls and many got drenched. I managed to escape, although I did get splashed a lot. About an hour and a half later, we reached a small embankment on the side of the river where people sold trinkets and deep fried food such as shrimp, fish, and crabs from the river. There also were men selling pictures with Cormorants, the fishing birds, and I forked over 5 kuai to get some cool pictures. After this excursion, we were quite tired, and we returned to the hotel to sleep.

For our two days in Yangshuo, we were to sign up for 2 out of 3 activities, and I chose a cooking class/rafting trip and a biking/mud cave trip. So on that Tuesday, I went to a cooking class. It was very intimate and nice because there were only 4 of us. We made really yummy food including steamed dumplings, fried dumplings, fried noodles, kung pao chicken, and steamed fish. Also, we went to the cook's house and we cooked on his porch. Behind us, there was a breathtaking view of the famous limestone mountains. After a relaxing and filling cooking class, we took a raft down the Li river again. The difference was that the raft was smaller and only held 2 people. It was about a 2 hour ride down the river and it was so peaceful and serene because our driver used a pole, a la Venice, to push us down the river. There were some little waterfalls we had to go over, but generally we stayed dry. That evening after dinner, I wandered the streets. It is a very touristy town, but there are a lot of things to see including shops with thousands of things to sell. Also, the town is quite pretty with bridges and a small stream running through its center.

The next day was the bike day, and only 9 girls signed up for that day. In the morning, we biked for two hours. It was a little terrifying in the town because it required us to be on the street with large buses and huge trucks toting rocks and other construction material. But once we got to the more rural part of the town, it was a lot easier to navigate. We biked past rice fields, water buffalo in their stalls, dogs, and women. We made it to Moon hill where there is a mountain with an arch in the center. It looks a lot like the Utah arches, only it was made out of limestone. We decided to trek up there and had a pretty impressive view of the area. After the climb, we had a quick lunch, and then we continued on to the mud caves. To get there, we had to bike to a small house, take a bus, walk through a town, and then go on an even smaller car. The small car was in between a minivan and a sedan car, and we were able to squeeze 12 of us in there. It was quite a bumpy ride. After we got to the mud cave, we had to take a small boat into the cave where there were low ceilings and a beautiful crystal structure just half way through the cave. The interior of it was humongous, about 50 meters high just randomly in the mountain. We made our way to the mud bath and then began to play. The mud was freezing, but it was fun to float around and smear ourselves with mud. We took some fantastic pictures. After our mud bath, we were allow to go and soak in these hot springs, but really it was a lukewarm spring. I couldn't stand sitting in the cold water so long, so I got out. Even though afterward we were really tired, we still had to bike back to the town. When I got back to my hotel room, I took one of the best feeling showers in my life since I was still covered a bit in mud. For dinner that night, we met up with the other half of our group and it was so great being reunited with some of our friends.

After a 6:30 am wake-up call, we were off to the small county called Longsheng. It was about a 3.5 hour ride and we had to switch buses once to a smaller one to climb the mountains to the Dazhai village. It was beautiful and remote, although we didn't have our limestone mountains anymore. Instead, there were rolling mountains and terraced rice fields. We got to hike around the town and its fields a bit. It's so impressive to see the large steps formed. The town is very quaint with beautiful wooden buildings and no electricity until after the sun goes down. The buildings are quite unique-- the bottom floors are always smaller than the upper floors. After dinner, we had a bonfire with the Dazhai village school children. They preformed some songs and dances for us, and in turn we sang a bit and preformed a little tai chi for them. Also, the Dai minority women are known for their extremely long hair. The actually cut off their old hair when it's a couple of feet long, and keep it to make intricate hair styles and knots on their head. During the show, a few women showed us how they comb and style their hair. Next, the kids showed us a cool bamboo stick game which is almost like jumping rope and the large bamboo poles make a rhythm and you have to jump between the sticks. A lot of us brought gifts for the children, and we went to the school to distribute them. They were so excited to play with us and we played a lot of tag, London bridge, and duck duck goose. One of the presents was Ghiradelli chocolate, and I tried to teach a little boy how to say it. It was so adorable, and by the end of the evening, he was able to say it properly. At 10, it was time to sleep for the kids, but they enthusiastically waved out of their window screaming "goodbye!" and "zai jian!". I even taught a little boy how to say "adios!".

That Friday was a very chill day-- we didn't do too much. We had a free morning, and I took advantage of it by sleeping in and drawing some of their beautiful buildings. It was a small town, so there wasn't a lot to do, so it seemed timely that we left pretty early. Our next stop was a hot spring resort. That evening, all I did was read my book and soak in the springs.

This morning, Saturday, was basically a travel day. We had a wake-up call at 6:15 am, and left the hotel at 7:30 to get to the Guilin airport. Our flight left at 1 pm and we arrived in Beijing around 5. It was such a great trip, but I'm glad to be in Beijing, but not ready to start classes yet. Luckily, I have one more day to relax before it's back to the old grind.

So today we are leaving for Guilin, which is located in an autonomous province called Gaungxi which is right next to Guanzhou. It's supposed to be filled with spectacular sights including lots of rivers, rice patties, and huge gorges. To kick off our trip, about 100 of us will be taking a 22 hour train ride to the province. Now we just finished our midterms this past week, so this R&R is greatly appreciated and pretty well planned. I'm not sure about internet access, but I'll try and keep note in order to write about my adventures later.

On another note, I wanted to let you all know that I will be staying for another semester in China. There are a few reasons for my choice. First and foremost, my Chinese has been improving so much from just one semester, and I fear that if I don't stay and continue being immersed in Chinese, I will forget it all and go back to square one. Secondly, I want to travel around China more. It's more than half way through the semester here and I feel that I barely know Beijing, let alone the areas of China. Next semester, we will be able to travel to Yunnan and Sichuan and I feel that after these trips, I can say that I really saw China. Thirdly, I don't believe I'll ever get the chance again to just pick up my life and live in another country. Further along the road, I know that other things will get in the way, such as education, work, family, etc. I want to take this opportunity while I'm still able to and live here for a little longer. I hope that you can understand my decision.

Anyway, I hope to update again soon because I'm sure this vacation is going to be a great one.

Unfortunately, our National Holiday week of fun has ended. It's been a nice relaxing week, and I'm really glad that I made the choice to remain in Beijing rather than try and fight the crowds to see other parts of China. Since I last wrote, I've done a lot of lazing around and relaxing. On Monday, I went to a tea tasting house. It was really cool to see the lady pour us all kinds of teas and such. It was fun, but I was so jittery after, but I had a great time playing soccer with all that extra energy. On the downside, I rolled my ankle a little and it hurt to even walk, but then I got promoted (or demoted, however you want to look at it) to goalie and made some pretty good saves, although I will admit my height did not help me out too much.

On the Tuesday, TBC arranged a scavenger hunt around Beijing. We were split into, at most, groups of four to explore and find the places we were sent to. Our destinations included: the hutong near HouHai, a temple that had displays of 79 halls of hell, Ritan Park (or the park of the sun), and the old watchtower near the reassembled old wall. It was really fun, but I felt that some of the other teams were a little too intense (they were sprinting, and our team was unable to because of my ankle and another of my teammates just had surgery on her ACL, so no running for our team). Also, since it was a race to have the best time, we couldn't really take a look at where we were. But in the end, it was really fun and it allowed me to piece the map of Beijing together in my head.

After that adventure, the next day I thought I'd take it a little more mellow. So I went with two other friends to the silk market. This is one of the biggest places in Beijing where you can bargain and they have everything from clothing, to electronics, to sunglasses, to golf clubs. It is also great for practicing your Chinese with numbers and a lot of "this is too expensive!" or "can you go a little lower?" I thought it was hilarious when I'd wander away from my other American friends and they'd call out to me in Chinese. And the minute I was walking with them, they'd flip into English. Although you can get great deals here, some of the quality of the clothing is low and a lot of the items are very very small. Also, some of the vendors get really aggressive and have been known to grab on to people.

On Thursday, we had another TBC hosted event when we went to Yanoi (not sure if that's the spelling) Lake which is about an hour by bus outside of the city. It was an interesting experience. It was a mix between nature and an amusement park. The lake was pretty, but there wasn't much of a beach to sit because there was a lot of concrete around. But they had all sorts of rides, such as bumper cars and zip lines. It was really chilly and overcast out there, but it didn't put a damper on our fun which included paddle boating (including almost a pirate reenactment between some TBCers), and bumper cars which are always fun.

The rest of the days of the holiday consisted of a lot of work on homework and studying for Chinese because we have midterms in this coming week. We actually had class this weekend-- Saturday were Thursday classes and Sunday were Friday classes. That meant that I had to wake up for an 8 am class on a Saturday morning-- not terribly fun. But I guess it's good because that was the only class I had and it's getting me prepared for the upcoming week. But the poor TBCers who are in intensive have 7 days straight of classes, brutal. Anyway, after an intense week of classes, we'll embark on our trip to Guilin starting next Saturday. I'm sure it'll be super exciting, and I will try to update when I can.

October 1st is China's anniversary of the China People's Republic, and 2009 marks the 60th anniversary. I was reading an article about this year, and it seems incredible that CPR has been in existence for 60 years and this is the 20th anniversary for the fall of the Berlin Wall. This year, China has been very conscious of what has been going on in the country. For example, they have disallowed entry to several sites including Facebook and youtube. Also, there has been an increase of plain clothes police and according to some of my friends, there have been a lot more guards set up around Tienanmen square. Unfortunately, on National Day, no foreigner was even allowed near the parade unless they were one of the 200,000 invitees. Even so, at 9:30 a bunch of friends and I gathered together to cook an "American" breakfast (pancakes, eggs, and potatoes) and gathered around a TV to watch the festivities. In the beginning of the ceremonies, there was a lot of pomp and circumstance about the leaders of the communist party proceeding an impressive military display including tanks, fighter jets, and soldiers in perfect marching formation. We actually were able to see some of the planes from the dorm we were sitting in. Although it was incredible military precision, after an hour of watching this, it got a little boring. Luckily, at 11:30 the parade really started. Now this consisted of a lot of volunteers from Beijing dancing and marching. It was pretty incredible to see how perfect and coordinated everyone was including beautiful floats and bright colors. We got really excited when we were able to see our university (University of Business and Economics aka UIBE, Chinese Dui Wai Jing Mao Da Xue)marching waving green fans in honor of environmental sustainability. It was a pretty impressive parade.

That evening, we left the comfort of our dorms to try and go see the fireworks in honor of the 60th anniversary. At this time, the crack down on foreigners was still strong, so we were not able to make it to Tienanmen. Instead, we got as close as we could, and had to watch the fireworks from a distance. It was pretty nice, but I frankly expected more, especially after seeing last year's Olympic fireworks. But it was still a cool experience to be with the masses watching their nation's celebrations.

Yesterday, I went on a walking tour to Qianmen, or the old part of Beijing. It was quite confusing trek to get there. We had to take two buses (almost three, but we decided to walk). And instead of getting to Qianmen, we ended up near Tienanmen with huge crowds of Chinese people. Not that it was so bad, we were able to see all of the parade floats up close! They are so beautiful, and we took some great pictures. Then we wandered around trying to find it. Finally we found it, and it was very cool. It was a lot of old style buildings-- some were gray and old looking but plain, and some were painted and shaped like traditional Chinese buildings with gold, green and red. Getting back to campus was also an experience. Walking around, we realized that the lines for the buses stretched around corners, and we didn't want to try and fight the crowd. Instead, we tried to find a subway station, but the Qianmen station was closed due to the national holiday. We tried to ask some of the soldiers walking around where the station was, but a lot of the official Communist soldiers were sent in from different parts of the country to keep the peace for the National Holiday, and they didn't know where anything was. It was also a task to try and keep all 8 of us together moving through a sea of people. We had to walk about 20 minutes away to reach the next station. But once on the subway, it was smooth sailing back to UIBE.

Fortunately, I still have 6 days left of the holiday. We have a lot of other cool activities, and I'll be sure to update!

So it’s been more than a week since I’ve written, and I apologize for the lack of updates. Mostly, I have been going to classes and getting used the routine of going to class and such. So far, I have really enjoyed my classes. One of them is my women in contemporary China. This class is amazing because there are only 4 girls in this class. Last Monday, we decided to go outside because our classroom is quite depressing with no windows. So right outside of the building, there is a Chinese style pagoda/gazebo structure. There are 5 stone stools so it was perfect for our class and we had an engaging three hour conversation as our class. It was incredible, and although it puts a lot of pressure on the students to be on top of the material and speak up, it’s great and so stimulating.
Another one of my favorite classes is the Wushu class. It’s actually not a Wushu class per say, but instead we’re learning Tai Chi. So far we have learned “Parting Wild Horse’s Mane”, “Brush knee Push Palm”, “Windmill Arms”, “Pulling Peacock’s Tail”, and “Single Whip”. Some people in the class don’t like it because they were expecting to learn how to kick and punch. But I love it because it’s so relaxing! It’s a little unfortunate because I have the class on Wednesdays and Fridays so I have to wake up every day at 8 am, but at least it’s very calming and it brings me back to my center.
I’m still continuing in my drawing class trying to master basic skills. We had this cool tool where we had a piece of clear plastic, and we’d look through it and try and trace what we saw with water-washable ink. It had pretty successful results. When I have more time I will try and scan some of my drawings to somewhere… Anyway our next assignment is to draw bicycles. It’s so hard! Getting the circles and triangles down is really difficult and it’s hard to keep the proportions. At least I know that I’m learning a lot in this class! And I love doing it too because it’s very calming.
On a more exciting note, we went to the Summer Palace today. It was pretty overwhelming because there was a lot going on and we didn’t really know where to go. But we went on a paddle boat ride around the lake which was super fun and was a cool way to see the area that the emperor owned. After we finished paddling, we saw an old man who was writing on the side walk in water with a giant brush. He had the most beautiful calligraphy and it was old traditional style writing. He wrote down many characters for us, including our names, Beijing, our university’s name (Dui Wai Jing Mao Da Xue). It was interesting how he talked to me because I couldn’t speak fluent Chinese. He was “angry” at me because I lost my “true” roots in China. He kept insisting that I practice more calligraphy so I could get better. It was funny because if any of the other foreigners tried to write anything, even if their handwriting was just as good as mine, the Chinese would praise them for having such great handwriting. It didn’t bother me too much because I thought at least I was making the effort, but it was interesting to note.
On Thursday October 1st, it’s China’s 60th anniversary for the China’s People Republic so there are a lot of activity. Many stores are hanging Chinese flags and there are beautiful pots of flowers being displayed. There are a lot more police patrolling the area to keep the peace. Unfortunately, foreigners are not allowed to see the parade at Tiananmen Square, but we’re planning on making breakfast and watching it all on TV. It should be really exciting time, and I will post more later when it all happens!

So I just finished my first week of school at the Beijing Center! I am now officially enrolled in Women in Contemporary China, Development and Reform in China, Drawing China, Wushu, and Regular Intermediate Chinese. The Chinese level is a good fit for me because it doesn't go as fast as intensive as we only cover one semester of Chinese versus two. But it's still funny because I haven't taken Chinese in two years, and the last time I studied I was in Taiwan learning traditional characters. So when we're reading through the textbook, it has both traditional and simplified, so I take peeks at the simplified. I know a lot of vocab, but I don't know the characters for it, so I've been studying really hard to catch up. But since I wasn't taking two semesters of Chinese, I needed another class, so I picked up Drawing China. I really enjoy this class and so far we've only done pencil drawing. It takes a lot of patience, but I'm discovering that sometimes I just get lost in drawing, and it's good for me to gain some more patience. Development and Reform in China seems really complicated, and he cites a lot of econometric material which is a bit intimidating. But it seems like no one else in the class has taken econometrics back at their home universities, so I'm sure that we'll get together and study if things get too complicated. Wushu has been fun, and although we're not doing the martial arts that I'm used to, we've been working on Tai Chi and it has been very relaxing. I haven't gone to my Women's Studies class yet, but I'll be going to on Monday. The only weird thing here is that we usually have 3 hours straight of classes which is such a change from Wellesley's hour and ten minute classes. All of the classes (except for Wushu and Chinese) meet only once a week for three hours. I need to get back into my study mode really soon!

Sorry that I haven’t updated my livejournal in a while. It’s been a crazy few days. Currently, I am in my dorm room in Beijing and trying to recover from the Silk Road trip.

When I last wrote, I was in a town called Jiayuguan. The next day, I presented on my research topic. Before we got to Beijing, TBC created a bunch of topics that we were to research and present on to the group. My topic was on Women in China (surprise surprise). It went relatively well considering I condensed a lot of my notes on the 4 hour bus ride from two days earlier on a really bumpy rural road. After presenting, I was relieved that it was over especially because I was presenting at 7 am to a bunch of sleepy college students who went partying the night before. Right after I presented, we took a 5 hour bus ride to Dunhuang which is a small town right outside of the Gobi desert which is also very famous for its melons. When we arrived, we were all tired, but we checked into a hotel room, and decided to explore a bit. We ended up going to a Korean restaurant and we were sorely disappointed. During the trip, I started hanging out a lot with two Korean girls from Boston College, and they attempted to speak Korean to the owners but they just stared blankly back. I tried to order my greatly missed soft tofu dish, but it was pretty gross. It was super spicy and they put in Chinese hard tofu instead. After the disappointing lunch, we walked around the market place. This is where the night market is located, and at 4 in the afternoon there weren’t too many shops open.

After much wandering and a strange dinner of tasteless fried bread, we boarded the bus. I was a little apprehensive because it started raining. We were informed that if the rain got worse, we wouldn’t be able to camp outside. But luckily, it didn’t get any worse, so we headed into the desert. When we arrived, it was pretty impressive. We passed a lot of fields and trees, and suddenly the dunes just loomed ahead of us. We then picked up a sleeping back and a tent between two of us, and we climbed the small dune. Let me be the first to admit that climbing hills of sand is so difficult! When you try to push to get up, the sand just slips from under your feet. It really worked my hamstrings. After we reached a relatively flat area, we struggled with propping our tent. It went fairly smoothly with my roommate Kelly and I, and we took a celebratory picture. After setting up our tent, I went to the top of a small ridge in front of our camp and saw people climbing a large dune. Seeing people on the top of the next closest dune was humbling. People looked like tiny ants up there. Later, my friends and I ventured to the top. By the time we were climbing up, many of the previous people were heading down. The hardest section was at the very end, by the top. It was very steep, and when you climbed up on all fours you created an avalanche of sand cascading down. Also, the sand was very fine and soft, and your hands and feet were inches deep in sand. It was quite a feat to make it to the top. When we arrived, it was basically dark with no beautiful sunset (it was drizzling). We sat up at the top, and crowed victoriously a few times, sang songs and flashlight Morse coded to neighboring dunes. It was quite a trip also to go back down. It was steep so it required running, and the flashlight bounced so it was quite difficult to see. When we returned to camp, we found a dying bonfire, and we grabbed pieces of melon and enjoyed the warmth of the fire and each other’s company. It was getting exhausted, so I left the fire and curled up in my tent on the soft sand and fell asleep around 11:30 pm.

Early the next morning, I awoke to our trip leader yelling at us to get up. It was probably around 5 am, and the camp was a flurry of activity (well, at least as much as there can be by sleepy college students in the wee hours of the morning). We had to pack up our tents and sleeping bags and trek down to the buses. We then proceeded to the singing dunes, and rode camels up a dune. These beasts are so beautiful with their long eyelashes and double humps. The humps feel funny because they look soft and floppy, but they are actually quite firm, but nice to pet. I named my camel Yosef. Yosef was a great camel, and carried me pretty smoothly to the dune. Then, we paid 15 kuai to use the stairs to climb the dune. We were scheduled to see the sunrise, but it was still cloudy, and after 15 minutes, we realized that it was light out and we had missed the sunrise. But it was still pretty incredible to see miles and miles of sand, because even though the dunes look normal sized, we have no judge of size so they could be humongous. Because we paid the 15 kuai, we were allowed to take a sled like contraption down the dune. It actually wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be because it was too slow, but it’s cool to be able to say that I slid down a dune. After our slide down, we took the camels again to the Crescent Lake. It was a little disappointing, but it’s a natural freshwater lake that was formed in the shape of a crescent. It was pretty, but not as impressive as the dunes. After our adventure, we returned to the hotel where I had a nap and took a shower. In the afternoon, we went to visit the Mogao Grottoes. This is an incredible place where there are giant Buddhas like the Lomen grottoes, but the caves are exquisitely painted. After the caves, we went back to the hotel, and had our final group dinner. When we finished, we walked more around the Shazhou night market. It’s nothing compared to the Shilin night market in Taipei, but it was still fun with many trinkets and souvenirs. That night, after such a grueling day, I collapsed in bed.

The following day was the last day of our trip and we flew back to Beijing. I was able to move into our dorm room. It’s so nice to have a place to call home now. Right now, I’m stealing wireless from the lounge so I can get internet in my room. I have met my roommate now. Her name is Aileen and she’s from Shanghai. She seems very chill, and her English is excellent. I need to practice more Chinese with her. Over the trip, my Chinese has gotten so much better just because when people see me, they expect me to be able to speak. Today, we took a placement test to make sure our levels are appropriate. I originally was signed up for Intensive Elementary, but my teacher strongly suggests that I take Intensive Intermediate, and I think that being challenged is better than having too easy of a class. Tomorrow, I officially start classes with my first Chinese class. I have a lot of photos on Picasa on google, but unfortunately I can’t access the public URL. If you want to see my pictures, let me know and I’ll personally send you the invitation email to see the album. I hope that everyone is doing well, and I will updated more frequently now that I have internet!

I can't believe that it took me 6 days to find another internet cafe! But these 6 days totally flew by. Now I wish that it would slow down a bit so I could take more in.

When I last wrote, we had gone to the Shaolin temple. It was incredible to see these monks breaking metal bars over their heads and throwing needles through glass. They are expertly skilled, and I hope that my wushu will improve too. After the show, we went to see the actual temple. There, it's hard to see any connection between martial arts and the temple, but it was beautiful all the same. I was a little disappointed because it is super touristy and there are many people milling around so the atmosphere is hectic. But to make up for the busy-ness of the temple, we went to a Pagoda forest where there are 145 pagodas, most of them over 10 feet high. These pagodas are tombs for monks in the area. The oldest is 1300 years old from the Tang dynasty, to one that was just created last year. Many of them are crumbling, and the oldest one is tilted, but it is still very impressive that they are all still standing. Later in the day, we went to the Longmen grottoes. These are amazing statues that were carved into the cliff faces. There is one buddha that is 17 meters high! But what impressed me more was the small details-- there was one room with 10,000 tiny buddhas, and there are many intricate scenes around the larger buddhas. It was quite impressive though the weather was miserably hot and humid.

The next day, we made our way towards Xian. It was a 5 hour bus ride, and it also included a huge truck wreck on the highway. We thought it was quite amusing that the Chinese can get buildings up in a single day, while it takes them almost an hour to remove a crash from the highway. Once in Xi'an, we wandered around a bit by the Drum and Bell towers and played some video games. That's where I updated last.

After our first night in Xi'an, we got to visit the famed Terracotta warriors. Actually, I have been there twice before, and the movie that they showed us hasn't changed in the 9 years that I have been away. To tell you the truth, I was a little disappointed. I've seen them so many times before, it loses it's impressiveness. But it was fun to see my friends in awe of this amazing "8th wonder of the world". In the afternoon, we continued our way to the big mosque in Xi'an. It's pretty incredible beause there are a lot of Muslims who live in Xi'an. When we went, we were being eaten alive by mosquitos, but we managed to arrive during the call to prayer. Last year, I was in Morocco, and since then I've loved the songs they sing. I think it's a fantastic way to shift into a spiritual place. Even though I am not Muslim, I was transfixed by their singing. The mosque itself is very unique-- it is arranged like a Buddhist temple including a pagoda as its minaret. In the evening, we attended a dance and song performance from the Tang dynasty. The dancing wasn't anything spectacular(it was still good) but the music was excellent. At one point, they performed the dance that I did during the 2009 CSA cultural show! It was kinda cool to see that again.

The next day, we made our way over to the Small Goose pagoda. This is not to say that the pagoda is small, it means that the pagoda is for the small goose. This pagoda was huge, with about 17 stories. It was a hectic climb because some of the ceilings were only 1 meter high when we got to the top. But it was a bit disappointing of a view-- it was mostly industrial building that we could see. Later that morning, we were matched with a host student from Xi'an. They showed us some good food in the Muslim district. When we left the restaurant, it started pouring. Anyway, we went to the Steele museum which are stone tablets with calligraphy and inscriptions on them. We wandered a bit around the city for the rest of the afternoon. That night, we travelled to the train station. First we had to walk 10 blocks in the pouring rain from the bus to the station. Once we entered, it was absolute chaos. The waiting room was packed, and I almost couldn't make my way to the bathroom. It was body to body, and some people in the group almost got in fights with the locals because some Chinese people were pushing people over. After a grueling 2 hour wait/push, we made it to the train and had a smooth 13 hour ride to Xining.

Xining is at a higher altitude, and we went to our first Buddhist monastary called the Ta'er monastary. It was absolutely beautiful with its bright colors and beautiful shrines. I loved it. After our visit, we got together with the other half of the group (group B who were travelling from West to East) for lunch. It was very cool to meet up with my other friends again, and I thought that the meeting was too short. But I will get to see them soon. That afternoon, we went on another 3 hour ride to Tongren. This is more like a traditional Tibetan village. There, it was mercifully a lot cooler than the big cities like Xi'an and Beijing.

The next day, we visited another monastary which had golden roofs. Also, there was an incredible shrine that depicted a buddha with 1000 arms. They actually counted and made sure that they were all there. After lunch, we went to see a Tangka making village. The paintings are all beautifully and intricately done. They also gave us some beautiful wooden prayer beads that we got as gifts. That evening, we went to the village leader's house, and they gave us fruit, and put on a dance and singing show for us. In return, we sang and acted for them, and I was called up to preform part of "Don't break my heart" with a Mexican priest who knew the words in Spanish. It was very fun. Later, a few of us got to stay at the house overnight. We went up on their roof to see the stars, and my friend started singing "build me up buttercup" and I joined in. Before I knew it, all the kids on the roof started singing. Then, the Tibetans sang a song back at us, and we had a sing off for almost an hour. It was one of the best experiences I've had on the trip.

In the morning, our host family fed us a Tibetan breakfast including fried bread and yak's milk. It was super heavy, but very good. Soon, we had to say goodbye, and we were on the road yet again. In the middle of the drive, we stopped at a grassland where there were yaks. We got to climb the hills and see the view. I think that's when the beauty of China hit me, and I realized that I'm in China! It was another one of the best experiences of the trip. That night, we took another overnight train, but luckily, the Lanzhou station was not nearly as crazy as the Xi'an one. This was a short trip, only about 8 hours.

We arrived in Jiayuguan at about 6 in the morning today. After a breakfast at our hotel, we went to the Jiayuguan fort and got to see the furthest west outpost on the silk road. It was considered impregnable. It was very cool. Later this afternoon, we went to see the Weijin tomb which is about 1600 years old with beautiful stone paintings. It's located 10 meters underground, and it's quite chilly. Afterwards, we went to the Hanging Great Wall which is the farthest west part of the wall that is continuous. It's pretty steep, but gives you a great view of the town. It's called "hangning" because it's so steep it looks like it's hanging from the mountain!

So tomorrow is our third to last day on the road. It consists of camping in the Gobi desert, and riding a camel up a sand dune to see the sunrise. I'm sure that it'll be super fun, and I'll be sure to update when I get back to Beijing!

So I am currently located in a internet cafe in Xian, the beginning of the silk road. But so much stuff has happened in the past five days-- it seems like it has been more like 5 weeks.

On Saturday, August 21st, about when I last wrote, I said that I was leaving at 4:30 am. Miraculously, no one was left behind, and we took Beijing's high speed train to Anyang. When we arrive, we were all pooped, but there was still stuff to see. We had a pretty delicious lunch at a random hotel. Some of the dishes were a little weird though, one of which was pig skin boiled, then cooled quickly to form gray gelatin blobs. Later that day, we went to the museum of the oracle bones. It was pretty interesting because this is the first evidence of written language in China. It's facinating because they used more pictures than modern Chinese, but you can see where some of the words orginiated. For example, the word peace is actually a picture of a women under a roof. On the oracle bones, it literally looks like a woman under a roof. As you can imagine, I passed out quickly that night.

The next day was just as tiring. That day, we went to see the Red Flag Canal which was built between 1960-1969. There were terrible droughts in the Hunan province, so many banded together to build this giant canal to irrigate three provinces. It was a pretty impressive feat, much of it carving through cliff sides and mountains. We climbed all the way to the top, where there was a dizzying suspension bridge, but a breathtaking view at the top. It was definitely worth it, althogh it was almost unbareably hot. This trek and climb lasted us most of the day. That evening, we met two random Chinese girls on the street of Anyang. It was very cool to hang out with the locals, and I tried out my Chinese. Of course, when I say "speak Chinese", that also includes many hand signals and charades. Fun was had by all, and we were sad to say goodbye to our new friends.

On the third day, we travelled to Deng Feng which is very close to the Shaolin temple. There, we saw tons of Wushu schools and tons of people training. Right outside in the parking lot of our hotel, kids trained doing cartwheels, arials, and back flips.

The next day we went to the actual Shaolin temple and saw a kung fu show. it was so impressive and cool.

I can't finish this post now unfortunately, but i will update it more as soon as possible.

In these past 3 days, there has been a lot of orientation. Orientation at TBC wasn't as I expected it. I thought that it was going to be a lot of getting to know you games, more getting to know the school and its campus, and the surrounding areas. Instead, it's a lot of academic lectures about Buddhism, food, history of China, etc. Actually, we only had one "get to know you" game on the first day-- when every one got up and introduced yourself. Well, I don't know about you, but when a person only stands up and introduces themselves for a mere 10 seconds, I'm not going to remember their name. But it's ok, most of the lectures were pretty interesting, although it was difficult to keep engaged in a room where it's hard to see the presentation/presenter.

But I have to admit, they did take us to some great places and allowed a lot of opportunities to explore on our own. On Wednesday for example, TBC took us to see the Olympic park at night. If you ever get the chance to see Beijing, definitely make a stop here, and preferably at night. For the tourists, they light up the birds nest, the water cube, and the tower. Also, a lot of the locals hang around here too at night and it has become like a park. There are many people biking, rollerblading, riding skate boards/wave boards, doing line dancing, and playing badminton. The lights are beautiful and a lot more spectacular in person than on T.V. A definite recommendation if you have the opportunity.

Yesterday was Thursday, and although we had a lot of scheduled lectures that day, we were able to slip out to go see the silk market. Now I think this description may conjure up the images of an outdoor open air market with dirty ground and bad attempts at knock offs. Instead, the silk market is in a giant indoor mall complex complete with 6 floors. The small stall idea is still there, but the vendors are relentless. At one point, I was haggling for a jacket, and I didn't like their price, so I walked away. The vendor actually followed me around a corner to try to get me to go back. She was getting quite angry, and grabbed my arm once. But I used my trusty wushu tai chi skills to escape her grip. The whole place was pretty overwhelming. I walked away with a northface jacket that was originally 1200 kaui (about $180) for 130 kuai (about $19). It's a knock off, but it was done very very well, and it's warm so that's all that matters. It's a pretty strenuous experience and it's not for the weak of heart, but you can get some fantastic deals.

In the evening, TBC also planned a trip to Hou Hai. This is a small tourist attraction that has a pretty large man made lake in the center. It's beautiful and calming, except for the fact that there are hundreds of Chinese people walking around and many flashing lights from the bars, restaurants, and clubs. It was really fun just to walk around and look at everything people had to sell. At one point, we bought a shuttle-cock (it's kinda like a hacky-sack with washers and feathers so it makes a cool clanging noise when you hit it), and there was a group of about 10 of us Americans in the square attempting to play. It was hilarious because we drew a pretty large crowd of Chinese watching us in this square with tons of others playing badminton, shuttle cock, etc. I bet they were all jealous of me because I guess I look native or something. A lot of times, people come up to me to ask stuff for the whole group because they assume that I am a tour guide. I guess they are sorely disappointed when I simply look at them blankly and say "bu yao" which means I don't want.

So tomorrow, we are leaving the hotel at 4:30 am to catch a train and we will begin the silk road trip. I don't want to bring my computer and break it, so I will probably have to find internet bars and attempt to update from there.

I can't believe that I have been in Beijing for only 2 whole days! Time has barely passed, and I feel like it's been eons already. Yesterday was the first full day in this new place. In the morning, we had introductions of all of The Beijing Center's (TBC's) staff. A bunch of necessary administrative stuff went down. But it was worth it, because we were sent on a tour of the area. We broke down into small groups of about 10 students and looked around the area. For lunch, we went to this little place down an alley with other small restaurants. There, we had noodles and dumplings. We probably finished less than half, and payed about 20 yuan each which amounts to less than 3 American dollars. I love the exchange rate here :) After lunch, we went to a "Wallmart" type mall and there I was able to buy a cell phone for less than 40 American dollars. So now, hopefully I can be more connected to Beijing. Afterward, we finally had our first look at UIBE's campus. It's pretty with lots of grass and trees. It turns out that we have goats on campus too. Random, but I guess it's our mascot for now. What freaks me out about goats is that they have rectangular pupils. It's really weird. But they're pretty cute. We also got a chance to look at the TBC library which is absolutely gorgeous! Inside, they made it look like the inside of a castle and they even have a replica of a terracotta soldier. It's pretty neat. But the library is very impressive. It's skillfully decorated with Chinese art and they even have themed sitting areas such as the "Tibetan" sitting area. It seems like a very comfortable and welcoming place to study, so I hope I'll be spending more time there in the future.

Although yesterday was fun, today was the super exciting day when we got to climb the great wall! It is about an hour to hour and a half drive from our hotel to the wall. When we arrived, it started raining. But now, I can say that I climbed the great wall in a thunder storm! There are a ridiculous amount of stairs! I better have a nice butt after this climb! All the while we were climbing up, we heard thunder and saw lightning almost five minutes. It was a little scary, but we hoped that the trees would shelter us. It took us about an hour to get up to the wall, but it was pretty spectacular. The clouds shrouded the wall and it made it look very mysterious, and I almost expected traditional Chinese music to start playing in the background. We went pretty far along the wall, and at one point I swear the stairs were at an 80 degree angle. Some of the time, I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get up. Luckily, it cleared up for a little bit so we could see the extent of the wall.

It's really funny traveling with foreigners here. I'm totally used to it because I blend in, but a tall Cuban kid and a blond girl from Connecticut really stand out. At one point, a random family came up to me, and asked me in Chinese if my Cuban friend could take a picture with his baby. I told Juan, and he was thoroughly confused when the father shoved his baby into his arms. Not to mention, the baby wasn't wearing proper pants. It was a sight to see. After a lot of climbing, huffing and puffing, and shaky legs, we finally made to the top of this huge hill. Totally worth it. To get down, instead of trekking our way through trees again, we decided to take the luge back down. It was super fun! Although it was a lot easier than getting up, I thought that it was worth the 40 yuan. Once down where the buses were, we thought it was time to shop. Although my Chinese isn't great, I'm working hard on my haggling skills. I'm getting pretty good, but sometimes, the sellers get really mad at me. I don't mind too much, because I can understand the basics, but once they start insulting me and cussing at me, I don't understand so it doesn't bother me. For some reason, people really like my friend Carolyn. They are always talking to her and trying to get her to buy. At one point, a guy grabbed on to her arm, and wouldn't let go. I had to grab her other arm and pull her away. I guess Chinese love foreigners.

It has been super fun so far, but I think tomorrow we'll get down to work a little. There is built in time to research for our oral presentations that we have to give when we're out on the silk road. But for now, I guess I will just relax a little bit after our strenuous trek up the great wall.

I finally made it to Beijing! After a long 12 hour plane ride, we arrived to the international airport. Once there, we had to wait in a long line as we passed through many checkpoints. China is so concerned about swine flu-- there were sensors all over the airport which monitored our temperature to make sure we didn't have a fever. It was a little intimidating as all of the officials had masks on and looked at us with steely eyes, asking some to step aside to take individual temperatures.

Outside, it was a stifling 95 degrees with humidity and, of course, lots and lots of smog. It was pretty incredible to see how dense it was-- it seemed like it was cloudy. From the airport, it took about 45 minutes to drive to the hotel. I'm super excited to be here, and I know my adventure is just beginning. Right now, I am super jet lagged though. For the next week, we'll have orientation and hopefully I'll get a phone and everything squared away.

It's been a crazy three months of summer vacation. This year has decidedly become the year of changes and moving on both literally and figuratively. I am leaving for Beijing on Thursday and I'll be gone for 4 months straight. I will return to the states on December 19th. Honestly, it hasn't really hit me that I will be gone for such a long time.

In Beijing, I will be studying at the University for International Business and Economics (UIBE). The program I'm going on is hosted by Loyola Chicago and there is a school set up within this large university called "The Beijing Center" which is set up just for foreign students. For those who know Beijing, the university is located on the 4th ring. When I'm there, I'll be taking a Chinese class, an Econ class about reform and development in China, contemporary women in China, and a wushu class (martial arts). Should be super exciting. Really, I don't know how much China has shut down the internet over there. But I'll try and post here to keep people updated on what I'm doing, so stay tuned!

5/22

Today has been quite frustrating for me. Technology has not been working well with me. But I am glad that I tried out my presentation on a Mac. But I had to be prodded to get going by Dr. Chandler who warned us that if our technology doesn’t work, we fail our senior project. I was quite happy about how my power point was going before then. At home on my desktop, the pictures were clear and cool. I am now putting two videos per slide. One video is of the jump full speed, and there is a second one that is in slow motion so that I can explain what’s going on. My biggest fear is that the audience will get bored. Anyways, when the media works, the presentation is quite awesome. But when I got to school, it didn’t work! At home, I had to convert all of my video into Window’s Media Player so the video could play on the power point. But there isn’t WMP on Mac’s, so the project just can’t play. So I went to Mr. Spross and freaked out. He converted the videos into movie files, but the problem is that he only converted some of them, and I have a lot more videos that I haven’t even edited yet. So instead, I have decided that I will bring my own PC laptop. I talked to Carolyn Phillips, and she has used her PC laptop before in presentations and plugged it into the projection systems in the school. I am grateful for her input, but I will be sure to try out the system in advance to make sure. This is a good thing, but I’m not sure how I will back this up. My dad suggested that we back it up onto several PC laptops, but I think that’s overkill. I’ll just back up the presentation on the laptop’s hard drive, a flash drive, and a DVD.
Right now, I am typing this reflection on the laptop that I will be using while editing videos on my desktop. I like this system because I was getting bored waiting around for the videos to load. And also it speeds up the process when I’m not doing my power point at the same time that I’m editing my videos. It’s quite nice doing something all the time instead of waiting around.
Here’s another good note. At the start of this project, when I was gathering videos, I had posted a bunch of fun videos from Dani and my escapades. I posted a funny video and a good video each. Of Dani, I posted her really good death drop spin, and a funny fall on a double axel. For me, I put up a video of me doing the worm and a video of my landing a double lutz. Yesterday, a random skater person commented on my video. He said, “That was very god. It looked clean and effortless. It was even overrotated a little bit. Looks like you could pull off a double axel at this point.” This comment made me really excited. I don’t think I’m going to get to my goal of the double axel by the end of this week, which is also the end of the project. But I am perfectly ok with that. My real goal was to skate, enjoy skating, and improve my skating. And if someone admires my skating in the meantime, that’s an extra bonus. 