Life As I Know It

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

senior year is off and running, and it's frankly quite mortifying that it is coming to an end...what to do without all the amazing friends that I have grown accustomed to speaking with every day?

i hate certain people who make life difficult i.e. pulling out on a house and leaving the rest of your "friends" with 9000 debt

senior portraits! eek! what to wear?

what to do after graduation?

Monday, July 03, 2006

I have had an interesting weekend, probably the best so far in China. Firstly, I went to the Great Wall on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, I went to the New Summer Palace, which was gorgeous even with all the renovations going on. I walked around the Kunming Lake there (took 2 hours), got a sunburn, got pictures taken as an empress, and had a great workout (about 7 miles walking). There are no words that can express how lovely the Summer Palace is, granted it is not my favorite palace, but it is undoubtedly gorgeous. It has a very Oriental style (duh!) and very majestic...though I find it difficult to understand (except perhaps for aesthetic reasons) why the bridges had to be so steep. Being there made me wonder just how women managed to walk around the palatial grounds in the olden days in full garbs and small bounded feet. Furthermore, there were parts where rocks were the only means of getting somewhere, or very steep and narrow steps, both of which would be difficult to carry an emperor down in those things (of which I forgot the name).

Last night, I went to the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing, which was a gorgeous hotel (especially given the very lacking hotel we are staying in as an off-campus housing option). One of my friend's father was in town, who invited a group of us (6 including my friend) to the Astor Grill for steak. We ate and drank sooo much it was ridiculous, especially given that prices were NOT cheap, especially given the 2-5 RMB meals we've been eating. Firstly, we had sparkling wine (Murdoch?), which was great as a pre-dinner cocktail. Then, we ordered salads/appetizers, of which I had a caesar salad. For the main course, I had lamb, which was a bit fatty but still delicious. There was also wine (from California too), though the guys had something different. Afterwards, all of them got chocolate souffle with green tea ice cream; however, I got passion fruit cheesecake with raspberry coulis...which was absolutely divine. I would say that the cheesecake last night was better than any cheesecake I have had at the Cheesecake factory, which is definitely saying something.

The conversation during dinner was hilarious, as we went from discussing death (which we decided was too morbid), to rebirth, to what our majors were in, which led to a long and protracted discussion on business given that 4 are business majors and my friend's father is a businessman. We also talked about potential plans for our 4 day weekend, and we are pondering going to Chengdu and then taking a train to Tibet. We have not yet decided for certain, but as he said, "You will always have the opportunity to go to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, but it is not often that you will get the chance to go to Tibet." Of course, given the closeness between Keith and me, my friend's father asked whether or not we were together. We denied as we are not, but it was funny because he then proceeded to discuss how we were not a match--He's a 1950s guy and I am a beautiful woman from the Tang Dynasty...of course we don't go together...it's not yin and yang. I guess I should explain that recent conversations with Chinese people have concluded that I look like I am either Korean or from the Tang Dynasty (I guess I satisfy all the requirements for a "mei3nu3" from that time period). After dinner, we retired to the cigar lounge, where the guys proceeded to smoke cigars. Then we went back to the hotel and then I went to bed.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Today I saw the only man-made structure that can be seen from space--The Great Wall or Chang Cheng in Chinese. After the hour and a half bus ride, we arrived at the Great Wall...more precisely, a bottom of a hill that was only one portion of the Great Wall. We got out of the bus to feel the mist of sprinkling rain, but as we walked out of the parking lot and headed towards the "entrance" the rain stopped. We then waited as someone paid for our entrance fee, and then we began to walk towards the cable car entrance. Little did we know, we were not going to be lazy Americans (unless we felt the urge to pay 50 RMB for roundtrip up and down to the Great Wall). Instead, we were going to walk up this large hill towards the Great Wall. So we did...and about 1/5 of the way there, people were already heaving and sweating like crazy. By the time we reached the top, sweat poured down on our faces and drenched our clothes.

The entire walk up to the Great Wall made us realize just how much work it must have taken the thousands of people to make the trek to build the fortress and to protect it. Granted, some may have been lucky and had horses, but it is not an easy climb--steep. Having reached the Great Wall, we felt accomplished and though breathing heavily, the journey had been worth it. We stood in the fortress, hoping for a breeze to reprieve us from our constant sweat. It did come and we began to split up as we ventured across the Great Wall. Though we could have gone further, there came a point in which sitting on the Great Wall and enjoying the scenery and taking in the fact that we were on the Great Wall seemed more important that climbing. After 2 hours, it was time to turn back. We heard that there were a few options to go back down: walk, ride a cable car, ride the "ropeway" (think ski-lift), or ride a toboggan. We chose to ride a toboggan--BEST 40 kuai spent in China so far. Not only was it a rush to go curving down this metal chute in a plastic seat (with a brake), but an incredible experience. By the time we reached the bottom, we had the intense desire to pay to ride a cable car just to go down the chute again. Of course, time was running out as we were threatened with "If you do not return by 1:30, the bus will leave without you and you will be forced to find your way back to Beijing." We all got to the bottom and were buying popsicles and various foods--completely overpriced, but we just didn't care anymore.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

A newly painted portion of the Forbidden City: Beijing, China, June 2006.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

My laptop is officially retarded, so I am now using my roommate's computer to type this. She has a Macbook, and I am seriously pondering switching to a Mac as I am quite fed up with PCs at this moment in time. For whatever reason, my laptop keeps losing (unable to find) the network adapter that provides the network connection, thus I am unable to connect to the internet.

In any case, this weekend I went to the Lama Temple, the Guozi Jian, and the Silk Alley Market. The Lama Temple was interesting, especially since I have never been to a Buddhist temple. I also saw some monks, and got a great picture of one too when he was walking by the "doorway" to one of the temples. The largest (acc. to Guiness Book of World Records) Buddha made out of one piece of wood stands in the last temple, and it is huge. If it was made out of wood, the question is where they found the tree and then how they transported it. Guozi Jian was uninteresting and rundown, and everyone was much more excited to go "bargain shopping." The Silk Alley used to be an alley, but in 2005, the city "tore" the alley down and in its place stands a building that does the same purpose. It was really interesting to go there, and I almost felt bad when shopping because some of the prices we got were really low. For example, we got these ladies to sell one of the girls a North Face summit series coat for 100 RMB, with a starting price of 1680 RMB (dropped to 950 when they found out we spoke English). Therefore bargaining is a must, and being able to speak Chinese is great because then they'll be more likely to cut the price too.

Sunday was pretty uninteresting as it stormed for the latter part of the day, as it is doing currently. I almost feel like I am back in the Midwest where rainstorms and tornadoes are expected. Not that I expect a tornado to come blazing through Beijing, though if one does, that is a sure sign of global warming. But, the rain here is much like that in the midwest, lightning and thunder (once simultaneously which scared the crap out of me) and torrential downpour...I guess it's one of those things where if you lived in the Midwest you'd understand as rainstorms are often scary because the thunder is so loud.

I am watching the Brazil vs. Ghana World Cup Game, and it has been interesting so far...Brazil has already scored once and almost scored another. Ghana should not have gone through, then again, I guess I would be partial to the US team. Anyways, I should study more for my test tomorrow, while watching the game. Back when I have something else to tell (probably after seeing a Chinese acrobatics show tomorrow).

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

First day of class and I already have a crap load of homework, but I'm in China, what are you to expect? My class is literally full of people who are really good at Chinese, which will be interesting in the upcoming weeks. Tomorrow, I have 2 "tingxie" aka a listening test where the teacher will say something in Chinese and we will have to write it down. For homework, there is a 200 character essay as well as copying down vocab, pinyin, and Chinese definition 5 times. Granted, it's not THAT much, but it's everyday and it will be annoying because it's summer and it's hot outside. So 4 hours of class a day from 8-12 AM, then 2-3 hours with a private tutor, and excursions...should make for an interesting trip.

Some minor aggravations:
1. Shower--door doesn't close so there's a semi-pool in my bathroom whenever me or my roommate take a shower
2. Distance--it's a 12 minute walk to class everyday, which granted gets in exercise but then compared to students living on-campus, who literally can roll out of bed and walk upstairs to class...not so much fun
3. HEAT--it's not that different from DC but there you can at least see the sky, here it's a cloud of pollution and only if you're lucky you can see some blue sky

I really should not be complaining because I actually am getting the experience/chance to explore China and come here to study. It's just a different lifestyle, especially when you hear from the WHO or CDC in the US telling people not to drink the water (which is not potable, even for native Chinese) and not eat the skin off fruits--wariness of cleanliness. Then, when going to a public market, I saw this baby boy who was wearing NO pants or underwear, and was just squatting on the floor playing...I realized how much the lack of awareness (knowledge may be a bit harsh) affects people's cleanliness. Perhaps awareness is the best word, because I feel like if people were aware of the potential disease and other problems of poor hygiene, they are more likely to take care of themselves. It's only when you truly understand how germs can get passed on that one becomes uber-aware of cleanliness.

However, if I have learned anything from the past semester, it is always difficult to persuade people to change their habits (which may contribute to global warming, etc.) when they lack necessities.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

This is my first post while in Beijing, China. It's been an interesting trip so far (granted, I've only been here for 1 full day). Last week I went to San Diego to visit my friend who is also here with me in China. The first day we just went to Hotel Del and the beach there and got some pretty awesome pictures. There was a flighter jet that was landing at the military base on Coronado and given that I have no idea what the policy is on taking pictures of those, I diecided not to take one. However, I took another picture of the beach that ended up having the sun in it, but the way the sun turned out...it looks like the mushroom clouds that follow an atomic bomb explosion.

The next day we just watched the World Cup in the morning (starting at 5:55 AM PT), and then we went to Soledad Mountain, then went swimming in his pool. Nothing too major, we just relaxed. Then, his parents took us out to a really nice place for dinner (Jake's at Del Mar), which had amazing food. We had these Ahi Poke Rolls and Spicy Calamari, both of which were divine. The Poke Rolls were rolls of pastry dough with fish inside, seeped in a soy-vinegar sauce with tons of garlic and green onions. The Spicy Calamari looked like mozzarella sticks, but they were in a duck sauce, which were also really good. His parents got an apple, cranberry, and walnut salad with a balsamic vinegar dressing. Then for an entree, I had the lamb, which was so tender and just delicious, with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. I also tried some of the filet mignon and steak that was ordered. By then, I was completely full, but we did not stop there. We ordered the Hula Pie, which was ice cream with a fudge top and oreo cookie crust, which was just so mmmmmmmm. Afterwards, I felt sick because I was soo full, but it was really great food. Of course, the thing that also helped was the fact that our waiter was just soooo cute. Sadly, there was no further contact, SIGH. Some funny moments included my attempt to eat the lamb with 2 knives (a butter knife and a steak knife).

We left the next day for Los Angeles to go to the airport. When we arrived at LAX, we found out that our flight was delayed 3 hours, which meant that we would miss our connecting flight at Tokyo. Therefore, after much deliberation and trying to find other hotels, we ended up taking that same flight, and then stopping over at Tokyo for a night, and then leaving Monday morning for Beijing. During the 3 hour wait, we went to the Hilton Hotel near the airport and watched the US vs. Italy World Cup game at the bar and got some pizza and quesadillas. The game was great to watch, of course, my heart was pounding the whole time. Then his parents dropped us off at the airport and then we headed to the gate and did all that fun stuff. At the airport, we walked by KERI RUSSELL, it was soo funny because I was walking and I was like, "Is that Felicity Huffman?" and my friend replied, "no, she's the girl who was in MI3." And I replied, I know, she played Felicity! She is soo petite in real life both in stature and waistline (no better way to put it). Really cute and seemingly nice, I think she was on our flight to Tokyo but we were not 100% sure as we walked in the opposite direction (away from our gate) to go to the bathroom. Anyways, then we got onto the flight and we finally took up at 4:30, just 4 hours after our scheduled take-off time. Then, we just bummed around for 11.5 hours on the plane--we watched The Pink Panther, Firewall, CSI: New York, parts of Aquamarine, Cartoon Network, and Two and a Half Men.

When we got to Tokyo, we talked to the AA agents and got assigned to a hotel in Tokyo, they also gave us free dinner and breakfast vouchers at the hotel. We got separate rooms and it was an amazing experience, especially when my friend came to my room in a traditional Japanese robe (provided by the hotel), and I just laughed my head off. The hotel was nice and we got some needed sleep, but woke up at 6 to catch the 7 o'clock bus to the airport. On the way to the airport, this girl sitting in front of us did not travel with her uncle, who had her passport, which led to some delay at the security checkpoint (which required some form of identification). She did not have any form of ID and the Japanese security guard did not speak English, and finally a fellow passenger spoke Japanese and helped explain the situation, but we thought it was retarded that someone would leave their passport off their own person (or at least would be separated from the person with their passport). We then got into the check-in area, at which point, they put your luggage through the x-ray machine, and then asked for our check-in passes. Normally, in the US, they check your luggage after you check in, so I was all confused, saying "but we do not have our ticket!" Of course, I had the check-in pass from the airline, which was what they needed. We got checked-in, even had to wait for the security area to open (at 7:30 AM), at which point we went through customs and security. We then got to our terminal and got to hang out at the Sakura lounge. The lounge was great as it was just a lounge with food (Japanese breakfast items and various cookies) and ALCOHOL. I was so astonished that they were serving alcohol, and then for people to drink it at 8 AM, but I guess it's nice to be slightly intoxicated while flying.

We flew JAL to Beijing (4 hours), and the flight was amazing. We got On Demand video and we sat in the exit row so there was plenty of room for our legs (granted my legs are not that long). We watched Match Point, got a meal (hashed beef and noodles, rice, muscat jelly, salad, and seafood), and had a pleasant/relaxing flight. The flight attendants were all so cute and courteous, bowing before they strapped in and saying thank you for letting them serve us. It was just a great experience and I am definitely looking forward to flying JAL back to Tokyo.

In Beijing, we got to the airport, went through customs (all very business-like, no nonsense Chinese people) all without a hitch. Of course, there was a woman standing there that I thought was a mannequin, until she smiled, at which point I think I kind of freaked. We got our luggage and I was so glad I was with someone because had I been by myself, I think I would have been slightly intimidated only because I had no idea where to go. Granted, there are signs in both English and Chinese, so it is not impossible, but still, I was glad to have someone. We then got a taxi to go to the dorm and the taxi driver did not really know where we were going, but he called the hotel and found out. He made some comment (under his breath) about how I was "made" now that I had found myself a white guy, at which point I laughed to myself. We got to the hotel and checked into the program, and got into our rooms, which are decent but no 4/5 star hotel in the US (of which, sadly I have grown accustomed to). It is livable, but there are no dressers, which means I will be living out of a suitcase for 2 months, which will not be fun. The shower door does not close, so the water leaks all over the bathroom. But everything else, it is alright. But, Beijing is definitely not as "cool" as I expected it to be i.e. still very much "developing country" than one would expect.

Alright, a long entry, but I am sure there will be more later!