Thursday September 30th: Vics

Last day of classes before the week-long National Holiday!

Katie and I went to find the Computer Center so we could pay for our October internet. The day before Rachel, Katie, and I had spent forever trying to find the right place. We had no clue where it was. We had to stop and ask all the locals, who looked at us like we were crazy. We then headed to our Hanyu class. Of course first we had a test. It was not easy. Grabbed a jianbing for lunch and went back to the dorm to skype with Marco.

Went to Tingli class, it took great motivation. Last class! It was soooo nice when we finished. A sudden wave of relaxation and laziness hit me. We celebrated with a Bacardi breezer and a trip to the dining hall for dinner.

That night a bunch of people on our program headed to Vic's, a club near the SanLiTun district. It was very cool. You know those clubs you see in music videos? That's where we were. It was supposed to be 60kuai for all you can drink, but they were like "not tonight!" since it was the holiday. We stubbornly stood outside and refused to go in until the hostess came up to us and gave in. Girls got in for 60 kuai, guys 100 kuai- all you can drink.

It was a very fun night. There were tons of foreigners at the bar. I spent most of the night just getting drinks for other people. I didn't need anymore and wanted my money's worth! Made some more Asian friends. They had a humongous bottle of whiskey on their table- probably like 3 handles worth! Additionally they had six or seven normal-sized bottles of whiskey. I was like 'how are the three of you going to drink all of that?' They turned out not to be very fun (they obviously did need all that whiskey for something after all) so I left. Anyway fun night, we headed home and skyped to Eliza briefly before hitting the sack.

Some internet pictures of Vics:

Pictures of Campus

A street on the way to class:

 Park where all the local students stand and memorize their work in the morning:

Russian Building where we have classes:

Weiming Lake on campus:

One of the 'Red Mansions'- the male dorms campus.

Another lake:

The pavilion thingy:

A pretty bridge:

Our tutor in an entrance to some of the northern classrooms:

Some of the Northern classrooms:

Pagoda thing:

Tuesday September 28th: 60th Anniversary Show

List of things I did today:

-Had Hanyu and Kouyu classes. Fun, fun.

-Grabbed a jianbing for lunch.

-Did some lazing around.

-Went to the gym, woooo.

-Met with our tutor and did our homework.

-Went to the 60th Anniversary Show- it's the 60th anniversary of international students at Peking University. We were told today in class to meet at 6:15pm at our classroom. Then at 7:30pm we were still waiting for the show to start. And we hadn't eaten dinner, it was awful. But, eventually the show started. It was pretty cool.

There were a bunch of dances with local students and foreign students, kind of celebrating each others cultures. This one guy sang a Chinese song and it was amazing! It literally sounded like he was singing opera. Of course the whole song basically went like "我爱你中国！我爱你中国！" (I love you China! I love you China!).

The theater with super crazy lights:

Liz, Rachel, Alec, Katie, and Patrick (hiding):

60 years!

Opening number (the guys in the white cracked me up like no other):

"I throw my hands up in the air sometimes..."

Wooo! We're all different!

Chinese opera, so beautiful to the ears:

Dragons!

More opera:

Wow! Look at us all!

Opera singing man:

After several dances, and a couple of skits that I couldn't understand at all (they were all in very fast Chinese)- the Koreans sitting in front of us thought they were hilarious, I'll take their word? Actions? Reactions?- we left at 8:30 due to a deathly hunger brewing in my stomach. Katie and I power walked over to the baozi place to grab dinner. We were so hungry we ate them on the way back home.

Proceeded to spend the night doing homework, skyping with Marco. Our textbooks came with CD's which I imported into my iTunes library, so now I can be super nerdy and listen to the texts!

Monday September 27th: Katie Gets Her Laptop!

Today was a pretty 标准 (standard) day:
Peanut butter and banana for breakfast, four hours of class in the morning, a jianbing for lunch, then a two hour nap. I watched some True Blood and made some flashcards while Katie voyaged to customs once again. It was a success!!!!!!! After a month and a half of no laptop she has hers once again! We celebrated by sitting in the room and doing nothing. Always the best. Dining hall food for dinner - orange 鸡肉 (chicken) and 米饭 (rice (5.5 kuai), then some skyping with Marco and an early night to bed.

Sunday September 26th: Heaven in Beijing

-MOST AMAZING DAY EVER!

-Woke up and went to the gym. Oh yeahhh. So proud of myself. Honestly I wouldn't have gone if Katie wasn't going.

-We got grabbed some lunch, showered, then just did some homework.

- At 4:15pm we left to go and meet one of my Dad's old business colleagues for dinner. Katie and I stopped by WuMei to buy him a gift. In China it is custom to bring some form of gift when meeting others for dinner. I wasn't sure what to get so I walked over to the fruit section and spoke some minimal chinese to the lady working there, "你好， 我去看看我爸爸公司的朋友， 我得给他什么？" (Hello, I'm going to see my Dad's company's friend, what should I give him?) She proceeded to grab a giant pink basket with sparkly tinsel around the handle, and filled it with every single fruit imaginable. Don't even know what some of them were. I kept thinking she was done, but then more and more fruit kept going in, kiwis, peaches, dragonfruits, melons, grapes, apples, etc. So the basket weighed 15-20lbs. Katie and I had to walk with it between us, each holding the basket. It looked quite funny. Oh, and additionally she gave us these two baskets of the grossest looking nut/dried fruits and fruit flavoured something. I just didn't ask questions. She seemed to understand exactly what I was asking for.

-We took to the subway over to the East 3rd ring, which is the business center of Beijing. It was definitely different from the BeiDa area. Tons of modern buildings, including the amazing CCTV tower.  Unfortunately I stupidly forgot my camera so didn't get any pictures. Katie and I waited in Starbucks while, let's say his name is Wu, Wu finished work. Since Wednesday was a holiday here Sunday was a working day. So holidays don't really exist at all, the days of the week are just shuffled around! Harsh.

CCTV Tower:

-Wu came downstairs to meet us. I hope he was impressed by our basket! We went upstairs to see his office, it wasn't too big but had a great view.

-Then we walked to the tallest building in Beijing, China World Trade Center Tower 3, and went to the top floor where they had the most amazing view. This bar was incredible. A 360 degree view of Beijing at night, incredible decor, a live band, waiters and waitresses that spoke English! We each had a glass of wine and talked to Wu. It was very interesting talking to him about the changes he's seen in Beijing within such a short time. He walked us around the bar pointing out the different parts of Beijing, the main roads, the rings, the center of Beijing etc. It was so nice to here about the city from someone who lives here. We were listening to the singer's version of Telephone- it was really good! Then Wu just says "Oh I know the singer, I'll go talk to her." Sure enough they're old friends and she comes over and sits with us for a bit. Just casually you know. She gives us her card and tells us to drop her an email so we can meet up with some of her friends in Beijing.

China World Trade Center Tower 3, tallest building in Beijing:

 Atmosphere Bar, top floor of the building:

-So we then decide on going to a Western restaurant for dinner. We're waiting for the elevator, three chinese women, an oldish looking man, and this huge man walk out. I though this large man was really odd, first of all he was huge and tall, he was wearing all black, and he walked all soldier like. Anyway we get in the lift and Wu just says "oh, that was Bill Gates." Of course Katie and I are like "WHAT!??? WE JUST PASSED BILL GATES! WE WENT TO THE SAME BAR AS BILL GATES!" Of course we don't actually scream this and tried to contain our excitement. Wu's comment "He's quite short." Turns out he's here as part of his mission for the world's richest people to donate 99% of their earnings. Casual business.

Oh right, Bill Gates:

-So after that exciting adventure Wu drives us to a close by restaurant named NineteenFortyNine, named after the year Mao came to power. It was so funky and cute. You walked through this art gallery to get to this area with four different restaurants; Japanese, Chinese (specializing in Roast Duck), Noodles, and Italian. It's named 'the hidden city,' since it's nestled among the business buildings of Beijing.

1949:

-Dinner was incredible of course. Bread with butter, pita bread and curry chicken, excellent wine, creme brulee for dessert. Wu was just such an interesting and intelligent person. He knew about everything and had great stories that he just pulled out left and right. It was honestly just such an amazing night. I couldn't believe how kind he was to take out his ex-co-workers daughter and friend! That would so rarely happen in the U.S. And not only did he take us out, he took us to this amazing places! I fell in love with Beijing so much more just from seeing a glimpse of this lifestyle.

-After dinner we insisted that Wu drop us off at the subway station. He lived so close by and was going to drive to the complete opposite side of the city to drop us off! We finally managed to persuade him. I really couldn't thank him enough for the night, I would literally buy him a million fruit baskets. The whole way back on the train Katie and I were grinning and laughing like crazy people. We couldn't believe our night. We both had been very nervous about it, I was expecting the worse- an awkward dinner with some strange Chinese dishes- instead I can't even imagine a more amazing night! We hadn't studied for our quizzes tomorrow, but for once I didn't care at all!

Saturday September 25th: Lazy Day

-Woke up at 10am today and did nothing alllllllll day. It was wonderful. I left my room twice. Once to go and see Rachel, and the other time to go and grab dinner. I spent the day catching up on this, my other blog, editing photos, just everything I needed to do.
So since I did nothing and spent the whole day in my room basically, here is a picture of our room:

Katie at her desk:

My bed:

Friday September 24th: Karaoke

-After our two morning classes I came back to the room and took a nap. I was feeling super out of it. Ate some peanut butter which probably helped. I've had 2 jars since I've been here.

-Around 2pm Heather, Rachel, Katie, and I (I'm just going to refer to us as us-four from now on). So us-four took a cab to Wudaokou to book our trip for fall break. Not this upcoming week but the week after we have no classes. A lot of people are traveling to far away places in China, but we decided to do a four-day trip to Inner Mongolia. I'm super excited, we get to ride camels and horses, and sleep in a yurt on the Mongolian plains! Also, we used Chinese to book the tour, I was proud of us.

-We then went to do a big shop at Carrefour. We stocked up on everything- shampoo, conditioner, cereal, snacks, peanut butter, waters, instant noodles etc. Hopefully we won't have to go back for a month or two. We took a cab back to the dorms because of all our heavy stuff. Fun fact: in China they don't give you bags at stores, you have to bring your own with you or buy one.

-Relaxed for a little bit, then got ready to go out to Karaoke!

-Karaoke was awesome. There was about 20 of us from our program. The machine was in Chinese so it was difficult to find the song you wanted to sing, but we did it. Sang some Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, Lady Gaga, Backstreet Boys, all the good classics. Some people sang Chinese songs, I did not. Of course Katie was karaoke superstar- Heather and I couldn't tell if they were playing music or if Katie was singing.

-Went to Wudaokou for a little bit afterwards. Headed back home and had McDonalds, again. It was sooooooo awfully good. I figured out they rip you off on the meals! If you just don't get a drink it's cheaper and you get more fries! I also learnt how to say BBQ Sauce in Chinese from the cashier, but I don't remember. I was too excited about my fries and nuggets.

Thursday September 23rd: 北京京剧 (Beijing Opera)

-Slept in, picked up a card from Marco, and then went to Hanyu class. The past few days have been absolutely gorgeous. Blue skies, that cool, crisp air letting you know that fall is on it's way, a slight breeze. My favourite type of day.

- After class we went to get some yummy jianbings. They really are the best. At 1pm we went to meet our tutor at the 咖啡馆, but instead of doing work we went on a walk since it was such beautiful weather. We walked around the lake on campus and all the little parks. It was really interesting. There are two lakes on campus, lots of bridges, statues, and weeping willows and Gingko biloba - a tree with fan shaped leaves that I studied in France. I was so excited when I recognized it. So we strolled and talked, then went to rest before our class.

-Tingli class was the same old tingli, listening to super fast Chinese and guessing the answer. After class we ran to the dining hall and got food to go. We had to meet at 5:45pm to go to the Opera. I was antisocial on the bus ride there and read my book, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I finished it though which was super exciting!

-The opera was interesting. We got fed nuts, watermelon, and jasmine tea. It was about the monkey king causing havoc in the dragon king's palace, and then in hell. Can't say I understood too much, luckily they had translations on the side. My favourite was "Little monkeys, bring me wine, lets enjoy it together!" I did understand that the monkey got very drunk. There wasn't much singing, but from what I've heard that's a good thing. It tends to be on the screechy side. The costumes were awesome, and the makeup was insane, it looked like everyone had really bad botox.

Wednesday September 22nd: Moon Festival

-Slept in since we have no classes on the Moon Festival! Heather, Rachel, Katie and I went back to Grandma's Kitchen for a big American breakfast. It's just so good!

At Grandma's Kitchen:

Trains outside of Grandma's kitchen:

 -We then took the train over to the Pearl Market. It's in the south part of Beijing, and is known for it's pearls (although you probably could have guessed that). It was about a 45 minute train ride but was definitely worth it. They had all these amazing, super cheap fake bags. I bought a couple and a Xmas present for Imogen. They have fake Uggs, North Face, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Chloe, MiuMiu, everything! So insane. It is super draining though because you need to bargain like crazy. We all bought a bag for 45 kuai, and they tried to sell the same one to our friend for 880 kuai! Some of them would even grab onto you and not let go, it was insane. Rachel was definitely top bargainer. She would go up and be like "my sister bought this same bag for 35 kuai."Even though she herself had bought the same bag in January for 60 kuai.

The Pearl Market:

Very cool kite:

-We took the long train ride back home and spent the evening resting and doing our homework like good students.

Tuesday September 21st: Ho Hai

-Had a morning of classes. The test didn't go too badly luckily.

-Skyped with Mum and Marco and spent the afternoon journaling and doing homework.

-We took a cab to HoHai and went to a place called the Pass By Bar for dinner. It had delicious Italian food. I had mushroom risotto, it was so yummy.

-After dinner we strolled along the lane. It was so beautiful. It had all these cute little stores. We popped in and out of them, saw a billion things I wanted to buy, but didn't! We even got mojitos to go at this Mojito Stand. After our leisurely, sophisticated night we took a taxi back home and had an early night.

Monday September 20th: Sleep, Class, and Study

-Woke up, or actually got up since I wasn't actually asleep. After waiting for the bus I got back to the room and just passed out asleep.

-Tried a Jianbing for the first time at lunch It's pretty much delicious.

-Did homework until heading to the dining hall for dinner and then to our Intercultural Communications class (the one that's once a week for 3 hours and is in English). I really enjoyed the class, we watched this video about doing business with people from different cultures.

-Spent the evening studying for our test tomorrow!

Sunday September 19th: One Day in Luoyang

-After finally getting a cab we went over to Li Jing Men. It's a big traditional gate that is typical in China. The gate is the entrance to the Laocheng area. It's literal meaning is 'the gate to beautiful scenery.' The area is a long street with lots of small and local businesses on it.

 I really felt like I was in China. In Beijing you often see other foreigners, but here there were no other tourists. We were it. The street had old pavements, lanterns all over, traditional Chinese food being cooked everywhere, roosters in cages on the back of bikes, stray dogs just walking around, bikes and cars honking their horns and ringing their bells.

We found a little shop that sold these beautiful Chinese boxes, Rachel and I each got one. We also discovered a market street, of course. It was this big, wide road, surrounded by lampposts with tons and tons of red little lanterns on them. Very chinese. I bought a few prezzies for people back home.

In China everyone with a cell phone (which is pretty much everyone- they love their cellphones here. And they have the best ringtones ever. Everyone, even the men, have these girly pop songs. A popular one is the Titanic song, I've never heard so much Titanic. Ok sorry about that side note), anyway, everyone with cellphones buys these little trinkets on strings that they attach to a little loop on the phone. To be truly Chinese we each bought one. I now have a fat, red, polk-a-dot cow on my cell phone. I love it.

We wandered some more and discovered this area that sold animals: turtles, chipmunks, hamsters, gerbils, hens, roosters, fish, dogs, cats, birds, rabbits. It was crazy. A lot of the time here they pump a bunch of hormones into the animals so that they stay small. So these rabbits are tiny! Like the size of your palm, it's so sad. And the dogs, oh the dogs. I literally was about to buy one that looked like a miniature polar bear. It was the cutest thing ever and I just felt so bad for it! It was very sad.

Fish for sale at the market, there were hundreds of these trays:

A giant lantern in the middle of the street?

Being Asian outside of McDonalds:

-We grabbed some lunch at the first restaurant we saw. I ordered something, had no clue what it was. They were yummy though, kind of like sesame buns with pumpkin/milk/sugar filling. We proceeded to take the bus back to the hotel, but unfortunately got off a little early so had to walk the rest of the way. A group of us then went to McDonalds, duh, for dinner before we left for the train. The McDonalds here is soooo good, but so bad because I eat way too much of it!

The intense hotel lobby light:

-Played Big Blue Moon on the bus ride to the train station. It is the most frustrating game ever, if you don't know it, we're playing it when I get back from China.

-On the way back we had hard sleepers. The difference is in hard sleepers there are 6 beds in a cabin, each bunk bed has 3 levels. There are no doors also. We were mixed in with locals and were all in different places. Only Rachel and I were in the same room, and I was mean and forced her to take the top bunk with me, I didn't want people sitting on my bed! Katie and Heather weren't together but luckily they managed to switch. The whole night they got to listen to a man constantly hocking in the toilet next to them. Hocking is disgusting, revolting, repulsive, nauseating, awful, rude, and should be banned from society. Who wants to hear each other spit up all that gross flemmy stuff? Not me.

Saturday September 18th: Shaolin Temple and Longmen Grottoes

-Woke up early when the train arrived. Took a bus to a hotel for breakfast. It was chinese food for breakfast. Not exactly the best.

Train Station:

-Drove to Shaolin Temple. It's a temple where kungfu is taught and mastered, and has been so for many, many dynasties. It has been burnt down twice, and only within the past 20-30 years has become a popular tourist destination. This is because of the film Shaolin Temple, starring Jet Li. Before the movie the temple and Jet Li were virtually unknown.

The bins at the temple:

Practicing their Kungfu

-Kungfu show = crazy. The guys broke metal rods with their heads, bent wood with their necks, pierced glass with a needle and popped a balloon on the other side. It was insane! Just seeing the amount of discipline that they put into everything. When we were walking to the temple we passed fields of young Chinese students practicing kung fu. They were all so focused and coordinated. We then spent a while walking around the temple area itself.

With the Kungfu people from the show:

One of the many temples:

- Pagoda Forest: A little further on from the temple. Under each pagoda monks are buried. Sometimes one monk has a whole pagoda to himself, other times multiple monks share one. It depends on their importance and discipline in their life. It really was quite amazing seeing all these giant pagodas.

-Lunch: Asian food, again. Enough said. The noodles were good though. And my peanut butter I brought with me.

-Longmen Grottoes: The grottoes were so cool. On both sides of the Yi river, Buddhist statues are sculpted into the side of the mountains. There are over 100,000 Buddhist images there. There was a lot of stairs that took you all the way to the top of the mountain. The whole time you just discover more and more caves and niches. The time it must have taken to sculpt these figures boggles me. Each one has so much detail. There were the huge main statues, and then on the walls there will be an area just covered in mini Buddhas, almost like a wallpaper print. I also find it interesting how their function has so dramatically changed, from religious practices to a tourist location. We spent a lot of the time watching this little kid sprint up all the stairs.
The Grottoes:

- Roasted Goose: Yep, that was the name of our restaurant for dinner. Family stlye chinese food. It wasn't too bad. It's not that I don't like all this food, I do! It's just I can't eat it for every meal, that is hard work! My stomach through a fit the first two weeks. The teachers came and sat at our table which immediately took the dinner from fun to super awkward. Yay. 

-Hotel and Night out: So Katie was my roomie at the hotel. I'm really surprised we haven't gotten sick of each other yet, or at least mad at each other. All the people on the trip hung out in Rachel's room then we went to this bar in town. It was quite funny, there were only local Asians in there, and then all us foreigners walked in. I made some Asian friends though!