Sunday, July 22, 2012

Hello! 


We went to the Forbidden City yesterday. It was awesome, but some of its spectacular size was drowned out by the never ending hoards of tourists. I took lots of pictures of pretty things. The Hall of Clocks was awesome. They were enormous and elaborate! So much gold. My favorite was a huge water powered one. I think that there are pictures, which I'll try to get up soon. After the Forbidden City, I think everyone crashed from exhaustion. Much to much walking. Coming back we walked past where our bus was parked and just kept walking. 

Friday we went and played badminton at the gym, which was great. I think we are going back next Friday too.

Today, I will be trying to find the silk market. I'm a little nervous that it's an over priced tourist trap, but it's supposed to be cool. If that doesn't work, I will go back to Tiananmen Square. 

Yesterday, after having cloud weather, and by that I mean being in a cloud much thicker than normal fog, it finally rained. That's probably why my sneakers are damp, now that I think of it. 

Okay, I'm off to see if the cafeteria is open yet, bye!

Ve

Friday, July 20, 2012

Ah, every time I type something really long it gets deleted! So, shorter this time. 


I just finished taking my midterm and am waiting to present a skit. We finally have it memorized. Today I am going to go play badminton with my language partner and some of my classmates! Yay! 


Tomorrow we are going to the Forbidden City!  Sunday everyone wants to go back to the flea market to shop. I might go find the history museum at Tiananmen Square. I wanted to go to the Ming tombs, but the subway line my map told me to take directly there apparently hasn't been built yet. They only sell 2015 versions of the subway maps! I should go study! 


This marks the halfway point of my stay in Beijing! 


 Ve

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Hello! Sorry I haven’t posted much recently. I have been very busy and have a persistent cold. Also, most times I try to email the internet fails and I lose everything.

Because of this nasty cold, I had to visit the infirmary. Now I’ve have had the experience of being prescribed traditional Chinese medicine, which tasted awful, by the way. Hopefully, this thing will pass soon so that I will be healthy for testing this week.

On Friday, went to the ruins of the Summer Palace, lots if lotus.

Saturday, we went to the Great Wall! It was fantastic! Check out the photos.

Sunday, a bunch of us took a cab to the National Zoo to see pandas, and there were pandas! We thought we had seen the panda exhibit, then there was another, and another, and another. There were different kinds of them. It was pretty cool to see.

I accompanied a few of my MoHo classmates to McDonalds, where I had pineapple juice. This McDonalds actually offers delivery.

I’ve had a couple of funny cultural experiences. When we went to the museum, I had my water bottle in my bag. The guards made me drink it to prove that it was just water. I’ve had my photo taken by random Chinese people. Every time our group stops for a photo, all of the people nearby step up and take a photo of us too. I’ve also been stopped on the street and asked to pose for photos. I guess photos of American’s are desirable. On the subway once, a man told another man to get out of his seat so that I could sit there. People are very friendly. American logos are everywhere; American flag emblems, NYC hats, NBA t-shirts, and Mickey Mouse on everything.

Living in the dorms is fairly comfortable. We have more amenities than the people in the other BLCU dorms seem to have. One of those amenities is TV. I’ve been watching a cartoon called Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. I’ve also found a game show that has people from various countries dressed in costume who go into a bullring and challenge a bull. It’s rather violent and quite strange.

I went to the market and managed to haggle in Chinese. The result is that I bought a very nice skirt at a good price.

Off to bed now. Hoping my head clears. I’ll share more when I can.

Ve

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

I have finally found a reasonably priced place whose food is pretty good. The guy who runs it is very loud, but in a good, understandable way. No extra words, "vegetables, don't put meat." 

Everyone seems beat today, maybe it's because it was so hot yesterday when our language partners took us out into Beijing. We went to see the Olympic Stadium yesterday. The Bird's Nest was pretty nice. I liked the courtyard in front. It has a really cool view of all the freaky new buildings that have been built recently in Beijing. The IBM building is weird. I dont know why they built it that way. 

Yesterday was really hot and we walked a lot. Hopefully, since it's supposed to rain a lot, it will just get better. 

Speaking class lasts for an hour and is just that, an hour of speaking. We are having culture class today. We are carving traditional Chinese seals. It should be good. 

On Monday, we painted, which was great because now I know how to draw pandas. Expect to see them on everything!

Tomorrow, I am going to go scout out the zoo. Everyone seems to want to go see the pandas with me, so there are going to be a lot of crazed MoHos at the zoo on Sunday.

Oh, and this weekend we are going to the Great Wall! Yay!

Ve

Monday, July 9, 2012

Hi! I am having a break and there is internet, so here's a quick update. I went to the National Museum of China yesterday, and I went with everyone to the 798 Art District on Saturday. The art district was kind of disturbing. Weird statues... More later!

Ve

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Two days ago we had our first culture class, mask making. Somehow they thought that an hour would be enough. Three hours later the hoard of MoHo perfectionists finished our masks. They were all very beautiful, but the professors weren’t so happy.

Afterwards, we all went out to what is probably the only pizza buffet in China to celebrate a birthday. None of the regular restaurant goers knew what to think about us loudly singing Happy Birthday. It was pretty good though, my body needed some wheat, I think. 

Yesterday, our language partners took us out into the city. We wanted to go to an old street with only tea shops, but our professor said it was too far. So we went in good Beijing fashion to the mall. Most people went to the flea market though. Maybe next week, I’ll try my hand at bargaining there. Who wants to bet that I fail dismally?
Yesterday, at lunch, I accidentally bought just about the most expensive dish in the cafeteria, spicy hot pot. But looking back it was only about $3.50. A word of caution though, just because it looks like tofu, that doesn’t mean it is tofu. 


We started the new textbook today. My brain is going to explode, but in 20 minutes I am off to calligraphy class!  I should probably get a move on.

Bye! Ve

Sunday, July 1, 2012

So this weekend has been very busy. Friday, I learned how the subway worked after acquiring a map of Beijing. I took it to an enormous temple in the center of Beijing, Yonghegong Temple. There was a lot of incense, I took photos, unfortunately I can’t send them.

Saturday, I took the subway to a museum labeled on my map. It was free for students! Only two exhibits were open though, out of seven. The first floor was calligraphy, and the second was a huge exhibit of handmade traditional Chinese toys from the 80s. Lots of two headed tigers :-)

Taking the subway back was just fine, but I exited on the wrong side and ended up physically blocked from the street that I needed in order to walk back to my dorm. I could see it, but I couldn’t get there. I ended up taking a taxi out of frustration. Taxis are very cheap here, so it didn’t matter very much, but I’m still confused about why they didn't build a connection across the bridge.

Saturday night we went as a group to the Beijing Opera. It was a lot funnier than I expected. I will explain more about it another time. On the tables (we had front row table seats, very classy) were tons of Chinese snacks, which were all great. There was also a martial art tea server who did a crazy trick with the tea pot while he poured our tea  :-)

So now it is Sunday and I need to do all of my homework.

~Ve

Yay! Apparently the internet works today, which is good :-) I'm in the library again. I need to make corrections to my essay. We have two mid-terms tomorrow,  the best.... But, yesterday I went on an adventure to the mall down the street. It's a huge building and I walked all around. Very confusing, like a building full of Forever Twenty One clothes, except they are all designer. On the top floor, I found some very bored-looking manicurists, so I got my nails painted purple. It was great. They thought I was funny though. After that, I tried to do homework, but only got through 2 hours, so his morning I had to wake up at 4 to finish. This is going to be a long couple of months. Off to study more!

June 25th

Awesome, I finally managed to post something. I have been desperately searching for internet. There is a very nice (but always packed) cafe on the main floor of my ginourmous dorm which has wifi, but I couldn't get it to work.  I have been to a bunch of other places as well, but I finally had to find the library and gain access to a student's login to access this very shaky service.

Anyway, after my grocery store adventure we had orientation where I had my first taste of authentic Chinese food, some kind of eggy birthday cake with loads of strange fruit on top. Food here is interesting, to say the least. Nothing tastes the way you expect. Hot things are cold, sweet things turn out bitter, and things that look solid enough are not chopstick friendly. So far, I like hot cucumber salad and pijiu. Though tomorrow I'm having black beans, because who would have thought that the store would have enormous fill-your-own-bags of cheap cheap black beans.

Today was the first day of classes. I think that class will be fine, the same as at MHC but faster. The best part of it though is that our language partners. Today they took us around campus (enormous) to find things such as the bank, post office, convenience store, and internet. Most of my clsssmate's bought a cable to connect to an internet service in their rooms, so far not too great for them either.
We all have been eating at the cafeteria, mostly, which is arranged by price; cheap stuff on the first floor and then fancy Japanese, Korean, etc. food on the top floor. Yesterday I got some tofu to go with my cauliflower and rice. Not happening again. At the cafeteria there are millions of options. You point at stuff and they load it onto your plate. It's great. All the noodles seem to have meat though :-(
Beijing is 12 hours different from EST, so when its 8pm here, its 8 am in Maine. Right now I'm in the library, on what looks like an abandoned floor.... actually most of them look abandoned... but no ones kicked me out so far :-) I did get a good scare when a cat wandered around the corner :-) CATS CAN ROAM THE LIBRARY!

I am going to go now before its to dark to find my way back, zaijian!!!!!

2nd day in china-June 24th

Ni hao, ma! Sorry that it has taken me so long to post anything, it's nearly impossible to find internet here. Phones don't seem to work normally either, which makes any form of contact difficult.
So, the plane trip was exceptionally uneventful. Los Angeles was  gross though and the people decidedly unfriendly, but it was over in a mere 30 hours. When we arrived in Beijing we took some teeny train to get our luggage, and got picked up by a BLCU graduate student and very disgrunteled cab driver.

Then we got to the dorm, driving through crazy amounts of bikes and pedestrians, we met our professor, and were seen to our rooms. Zero happened in the day and a half that I spent in my room besides a lot of Chinese game shows and reality tv :-)

That morning, after being up all night, I went on a quest to find a grocery store. Several miles and mistaken attempts later, I found a gaggle of Chinese women with shopping bags after wandering aimlessly through some building for a while.

Happiness Mart, as it is called, had all the worldly possessions I could have asked for at roughly 1/5 the American price. Besides the shampoo and dinner plate I purchased, there were onions at 3 for 50c, a whole head of cabbage for the same price, and much more! So great! The one thing that really has surprised me is the distinct lack of tea sold. You can buy Lipgon or Lipton. Take you pick.

Posting  now, trusting the internet connection...

Ni hao

Off to China today! I am actually finished packing ahead of time for once... Weird. First on the bus to Boston, then the plane this evening to Los Angeles, 4 hour wait in the middle of the night, then the plane to Beijing! I get to Beijing 2 days from now early in the morning! Yay!

I don't think I will have direct access to Blogspot in China, let alone facebook. But hopefully I can post some pictures some times!!!

Zaijian :D

2 days

Off to China this Thursday! I have my first tablet to bring with me, very exciting :-) The packing has begun.

Hello world! Been a long time since I have posted on here, 4 years in fact. Last time I was abroad Obama had just come into office, the banking crisis was just beginning, and we were still in the 00's. The caption of this blog is in for some changes, Budapest is in my past and Beijing is in my future. I will embark on my next abroad experience on the 21st of this month, traveling 2 days with a friend until my arrival in China's capital. There I will spend 2 months learning Mandarin and exploring the blossoming nation of China. This country is on the precipice of global supremacy. China is destined to climb the global market and arrive at the top as a world superpower. It is already of huge importance, but for anyone wishing to learn a useful language, German and French are dying and Chinese is growing. I am recreating this blog to encourage others to become interested in the Chinese market and Chinese language. China has much to offer economically and culturally and any with an interest in the growing economic importance of the Asian continent may find my stay in Beijing of interest.