Travels

Whew, I've been lazy. I apologize.

Since the lantern festival... A couple friends and I have been trying to travel every other weekend which has mostly worked...

Tianjin: February 13-14
the port city of Beijing about a 2 hour train ride east of Beijing on the slow, stuffy, crowed train. People alson really don't obey no smoking rules... if there's anything to convince me not to smoke it's probably these enclosed vehicles in which people light up one after another. That train ride was 6yuan though, about 95 cents. What a bargain. We really wanted to try the super fast train on the way back though so we splurged - I think it was about 50 yuan - 8 ish dollars. Whoa, that one was super comfortable but only 30 minutes. It could have lasted longer.
So when we got to Tianjin we hoped on a bus we thought would take us to our hostel. Two hours three buses later we arrived at the hostel (I believe we drove around it maybe 3 or 4 times). Unfortunatley nothing was open though as the bus rides took so long so we just hit the sack.
On Saturday we got up bright and early and went to the drum tower in the middle of the older part of the city. Nothing was open so it wasn't super interesting but I kind of liked it... it was really peaceful. After that we headed over to a little monestary which was also realy nice, although not my favorite monestary we've been to. In the afternoon we went to walk around a part of the city with a lot of European architecture (banks) from when China was semi-colonized (early 20th century). That was really interesting though. I felt like we could have been anywhere but China. The last thing we really did that day was to go to an outdoor market. I was skeptical but it actually turned out to be really fun. We had some pudding like snack made from flavored powder, hot water and driend fruits and watched 糖化 (tang hua) sugar painting. It's incredible. These men (generally men) sit at a piece of steel or something and use melted sugar or some sort to make incredible pictures. Then they stick a astick in it and voila! It's a lollipop. Although probably the prettiest lolipop I've ever seen. It was valentines day too so They also made roses out of red sugar.
After that we caught our super luxery train home.

Chinese Lantern Festival

So Monday night was the Chinese Lantern Festival and the official end of the New Year. We went downtown near Tienanmen Square to a Lantern festival. Didn't really know what to expect so we just followed the crowds to a pedestrian only street on which most of the stores were closed but Red Lanterns were hung everywhere. It was really pretty but I couldn't really figure out what the draw was... at least I thought there would be food because so much of China is food. We walked down to o end of the street and it was just that, the end of a street. We somehow ran into some of our friends who told us where the food and shops and excitement was - a street that turned off of the pedestrian street we were on.

We went back to this street so some of the most intense crowds I've ever been in. There's ab expression here - ren hai ren shan - which literally translates to people sea people mountain... basically people EVERYWHERE. We pulled off into a tiny alley to find jiao zi (Chinese dumplings traditionally eaten at the new year). We ate steamed pork and cabbage dumplings which were delicious - I think steamed are the best - better than boiled or fried. Towards the end of our meal a little white cat came into the restaurant-y place we were eating and just wandered around for a while. It didn't occur to me until now that in most restaurants in the US or the west in general the entrance of an alley cat into a restaurant would not be acceptable. Instead, here, the patrons of the restaurant were mewing at it and playing with it - no problemo.

When we got out of the restaurant and back onto the street the crowds lightened up considerably - I could see my feet! We were four at the beginning but at this point two went back and my friend and I continued down the street. So much street food and people and excitement. We stopped at this one guy and bought the closest thing to fortune cookies I've found in China! They were flat and thinner than US fortune cookies but tasted similar except that there were maybe ten different flavors! I got strawbetty and my friend got orange. They had just a hint of flavor (mine tasted like strawberry...) (I tend to buy things with awful english because I think it's funny... it might get me in trouble some day...) I was going to buy this other cake-like thing but the woman told the Chinese girl before me 3 yuan for two little squares and told me 5 yuan for one smaller square. I should have argued with her but I was pretty insulted and just scoffed and walked away. When we go back, I'll have a bone to pick with her.

Anyways, we were just heading back when some guys started lighting fireworks in the street right in front of us! They were SO cool and really big. I was a little concerned about the buildings maybe ten feet away from the fireworks but it all seemed fine. I've never been so close to their lighting. Chinese New Year puts the 4th of July to shame. These were incredible. At one point one did hit an air conditioner on the side of a building right next to it but it seemed okay... When we got back to the subway station it was closed for some reason so we walked to the other side of Tienanmen to catch that one. Turns out it was closed because one of the new CCTV towers burned down because of fireworks - yaoza. At midnight on Monday night the fireworks restrictions cracked down again so no more morning, mid day and evening, and nightly booms...

People are staring to return to Beijing and cafeterias are starting to open on campus again which is most excellent as we have been having to go out for nearly every meal instead of eating cheap, on campus food.

As for my apartment, There is still only the three of us here and apparently there is a leak in one of the other rooms so we have to water today. What a bummer... I don't have any class today

China - Semester 2

I got back to China a little over a week ago - on a turbulence free flight - thank goodness. There was no sleep to be had so I watched probably 4 movies. Once in Beijing it was apparent that the Spring festival was in full swing. Fireworks were going off EVERYWHERE which then would set off car alarms ... KAPOW! beep beep beep... it was a pretty noisy welcoming.

This semester I'm living off campus in one of Beijing's huge apartment complexes with five other Chinese girls. Three are still home for the New Year so I've only met two of them. One is really sweet and the other seems scared of me. Understandable. I have the only single room. There's a room with three beds and another room with two beds. This makes me a little self-conscious... I also only get Chinese internet in the apartment which means any site not created in China is pretty much off limits with the exception of google (and gmail). Aside from that, internet surfing will consist of watching movies on tudou.com... Another major difference is the shower. It's not really a big deal but the bathroom is a wet bathroom so you just kind of stand there - in the middle of the bathroom and take your shower. It makes everything wet but it's fine. Oh, you also have to turn on the hot water and wait for it to warm up - although these differences are quickly becoming habit.

We spent a couple of days in Chengde a small, dirty city outside Beijing and went to to Great Wall; which never fails to impress, and a couple of temples. It was all really cool except the city itself which was super dirty and sad. The river was frozen though so a lot of folks were out ice skating or doing this ice sledding thing where they propel themselves on little tiny chair/toboggans using ski poles - or something similar. It's pretty funny looking. We couldn't find where to rent them so we didn't try it but it looked fun.

Just started classes on Friday which will probably be difficult. My Chinese class is using a new book that has about 60 english words a chapter - the definitions for the 60 new words in the chapter.

Yesterday I went to Tiananmen Square because my friend and I realized that we've never just walked around the square. It's big. There's a pretty gigantic mausoleum for Mao right in the middle which distracts from its size but you can still see that it is big. I took pictures and will put them up on picasa tomorrow when I have internet.

Happy Niu Year! (The Chinese can be a little corny... niu is how you say cow in Chinese - so it's everywhere)