Been a long time

It has admittedly been a while since my last update. Time seems to get away from me here. I got back from Chengdu last week and haven't had much time since then.

Chengdu was a lot of fun, got to see visit Sanxiandui (something like that) which is the sight where evidence of an a civilization as old as the Indus, Yellow , Tigris and Euphrates, and Nile river valley civilizations. The bronze masks, huge bronze "trees" and jade swords looked wholly different from those found in the ancient yellow river valley civilizations.

Also saw giant pandas at a breeding center outside of the city. They were without a doubt the most adorable things I have ever seen. They're a lot smaller than I expected, and I'd compare them to Burmese Mountain dogs in size, if that means anything to you. Certainly nothing giant about them.

I also donated 50 kuai to hold a red panda, which looks nothing like a giant panda even though they're related. It was more like a raccoon, their common relation. I'm going to publish this now and then write another post, to see if the panda video works.

Parents, midterms, sick, Sichuan Province

For some reason none of the formatting is available with Safari on my friends computer, so no headings.

My parents came last weekend, so I did touristy things with them. That was good, since I'd done surprisingly little of it before by myself. First day, I took my parents and about 10 friends out to KTV (I'll get the pictures up once back in Nanjing). Spent all day 4 at the purple mountain, which is only 430 some meters tall, but is practically in Nanjing. I'd never really seen it though because of the smog. In between, ate a lot of good food.

Parents left monday night, so I pretty much spent all my time after that studying for midterms and being sick. Wednesday morning, I overslept and was awoken by a call from one of my classmates saying the midterm had started two minutes ago. Ran down 9 flights of stairs and took the test. I did fine, but over the course of the day I started feeling sick. I had a fever, so I got out of the next day's midterm which was this 10 minute dialogue that my partner and I hadn't written. In good enough shape the next morning to pack and make it on the plane to Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Spent the first night in Chengdu, although we only really had time to eat dinner and crash because the next day we were going to Leshan. It was a two hour drive southwest of Chengdu. It's home of the largest sitting buddha which was carved into a cliff facing a river. It took 90 years to build and was completed in 803 A.D. It's supposedly like 24 stories tall, and it was pretty aweinspiring. We couldn't look up from the foot since there was a 3 hour wait. so we went right by it on the river.

Went to Mt. Emei city for the night, and today went up the mountain. The scenery was probably the best I've seen yet in China, practically a jungle. Back in Chengdu tonight and ate a hamburger at an excellent american-style restaurant. It's been so long since I've been american-style full, I practically can't move.

No Way to Update about Golden Week

I actually have some time to study, but I have a good internet connection so I'll update first. With my parents visiting, midterms coming up, followed by a 10 day trip to Chengdu in Sichuan, there is no way to go through every day of my trip during Golden Week. That said, I'll put up the best of my photos and outline what I did real quick.


Xian:
-Went to this awesome tomb where they have glass floors installed over the excavated trenches
-Went to the Great Mosque (largest mosque complex in China), and haggled for a small Mao Zedong messenger bag ($9) and a counterfeit NorthFace ($20) in the bazaar outside.
-Looked at and "mounted" the 9-story Big Goose Pagoda




The Bazaar outside the Great Mosque











Beijing:
-Went to Tiananmen and the Forbidden city, took like all the first day.
-First night, saw my friend Jon Kent and went to a Talib Kweli and Ozamatli (sp?) concert, which was amazing, but ridiculously tiring after walking all over.
-Second day, slept late, went to the Temple of Heaven, and found a marginally dirty hostel to replace my really dirty (cockroaches) hostel.
-Third day, Great Wall at Mutianyu, awesome as expected. Long distance bus to Huairou, no clear way from there, so got ripped off slightly by a guy with some car. He gave me a ride for 40 kuai, and I said I'd give him the same to pick me up. Didn't come, so I talked to a cop (in chinese) and he crammed me into a cheaper 10 kuai van with like 7 other people.
-Fourth day, went to Dongyue Temple. it's Taoist and dedicated to hell. There are shrines to all 8o some departments of hell. I love stuff like that, so it was great.
-Caught the 4 p.m. train back to Nanjing. Everything but the hard seats was sold out. I think I already said how uncomfortable that was.




Great Wall

Epic China Adventure Day 2: Terracotta Warriors

Woke up at 7 a.m. on Saturday to get breakfast, and everybody was off to the train station by 9 to catch a bus to see the Terracotta Warriors.

When we boarded the bus, the bus employees were playing incredibly loud techno music videos which were pretty much women pole dancing. It was probably the most abrasive thing ever at that hour of the morning. Definitely the kind of thing that wouldn't fly with a bus company in the U.S., but funny.

We arrived and hired a guide for 150 yuan, which we probably could have haggled down. We got a 2 hour tour though, so for 25 yuan a piece, I can't really complain. We proceeded to walk around and get the standard run down. I'll spare the history except that the first emperor to unite china built a crazy burial site that included 50,000 detailed, life-size warriors comprised of all the ranks of a real army at the time.

For more go to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army (link may or may not work)




Building 1 of 3 housing the most terracotta warriors. These guys were found in up to about 300 pieces and have been reassembled. This is only a fraction, and it may take 50 years or more to put the rest together.




















Got back at about 3:30, and found a dingy restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. Picked up my train ticket that a friend of Jerry's had bought for me, surfed the internet, started to feel really sick, and went to Pizza Hut since Kyle and Tom hadn't eaten with us. Pizza Hut was bizarrely upscale and expensive, so I'm glad I wasn't very hungry.

Epic China Advenure Day 1: Xi'an

Got back from my trip at 6 a.m. on Saturday, but have been too lazy to update the blog. I took a hard seat back from Beijing, which is the least comfortable of the four classes (soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, hard seat). So I didn't get much sleep. My sleep schedule's been pretty erratic since, with a two or three hour nap punctuating every day.

That said, here are some pictures:

Xi'an
Left for the first leg of the trip on Thursday at 4 p.m on a hard sleeper train. I went with five other people from my program (Mei-Chun, Kari, Ben, Tom, and Kyle), so we took up a whole compartment to ourselves. So we spent the first seven or eight hours chilling on the bottom bunks and eating from a tremendous pile of snacks. Talked to this Chinese guy who's an engineer in Shanghai on the train for a bit. He was on his way to Lanzhou I think. Lights out at 10 (I think) probably got five hours of sleep, up at 5:30 a.m. to get off the train. I was immediately surprised by how much colder it was getting off the train, Xi'an being far north of Nanjing, in Shaanxi province (not to be confused with Shanxi province) in north central China.

Went to our hostel, which at 100 yuan a night was very nice. Stayed in three double rooms f of open courtyards. There were four computers with free Internet up front, a bar in the basement and a cafe in the back. Dropped our stuff off, had a "American breakfast," and then went on to see the city's bell and drum towers.



The cafe at the back of Shuyuan Youth Hostel in Xian. I wouldn't know how good I had it until I traveled on to Beijing.









The south gate of the Xian city wall. Our hostel was located about 100 yards to the west. The old city walls are completely intact, albeit with some restoration and rebuilding (although it seems everything in China has at one point or another been damaged and rebuilt or restored). The wall is 12 m high and 18 m thick at the base, and comes with a moat running along the outside. You could walk around the entire 14 km of wall and arrive back at the south gate. I did not.


Every city that has been a former dynastic capital of China has a bell and drum tower in order to inform people of the accurate time. The bell tower sounded at sunrise, and the drum tower sounded at sunset. These were built under the Ming (14th century) and rebuilt under the Qing dynasty (18th century). In all, Xi'an has been the capital of 11 dynasties, some back when the ancient city was called Chang'an.

The bell tower had an exhibit dedicated to Chinese shadow puppets from several different provinces which was kind of cool. Bell tower had a traditional music show involving a large set of bells and the drum tower had the same with drums.


In front of a replica bell at the bell tower. Pictured, left to right: Tom from NU, me, Kari from Lehigh, Mei Chun from University of Washington, and Kyle from OSU. Not pictured: Ben from Grinell taking the picture.








The drum tower










The large Muslim Quarter was adjacent to the drum tower, so we found a restaurant there for lunch. None of us could really decipher the menu, so we got a bunch of chuanr (meat on a stick, in this case lamb), some sort of circular flat bread, and a vinegary tasting cucumber dish. In addition, Ben and I got some excellent and incredibly spicy chicken wings.

Then went back to the hostel, where our hour long naps quickly turned into three hours. For dinner, we went to a massive jiaozi (dumpling) restaurant that had like 5 floors. The more floors you went up the more expensive the restaurant gets. We stayed on the bottom floor, which meant nobody spoke English. Service was pretty awful, as jiaozi only trickled to the table. We would point to things we wanted only vaguely knowing some ingredients in it with no way of knowing whether it actually made it to the table. We got desert later at KFC (kenduji).

Later that night, we just went down to the bar for live music. It was one girl covering English songs, but it was relaxed enough.

Other stuff
This is going to take a long time to update on, with all the pictures I took. I'll try to do one or more a day about my travels during golden week. This weekend, my parents will be visiting from Thursday through Monday, then going on to see the rest of the country. The following week I have midterm exams and my research project proposal is due. That Thursday we leave for the 10-day long "Chengdu Module" in Chengdu, Sichuan province. The module is organized by the program and we'll be attending classes and lectures in addition to sight seeing. The next three weeks will fly by.

My Trip

I left yesterday on a 10-day trip around China. We have the week off from class and were allowed to go anywhere we wanted. Five friends and I have already arrived in Xi'an today, after a comfortable 13-hour train ride. The weather is bad, cold and rainy. I've done limited sightseeing so far, eating in the muslim quarter and seeing the drum and bell tower. Tomorrow I will go to see the Army of Terracotta Warriors. I'm pretty excited.

From there, on to Beijing by myself, where I'll stay not far from the Forbidden City. The rest of the group is going to Dunhuang and the Gobi Desert, so I thought I would take the opportunity to visit my frat brother in a Beijing study abroad program. I'll also see the great wall and all that touristy stuff. I'll finish up coming down with said friend to Shanghai for the weekend, where several other people I know will have already been staying for a few days.

Probably won't update the blog much, and there will be no pictures until my return.

Turtles!

Meant to post this a while ago:

Mr. and Mrs. Turtle chilling in their tub under the sink in my bathroom. Don't let their supposed adorableness get to you, they smell awful.

The exclamation point indicates surprise, not excitement
On Sunday or Monday, I came back to my room to find two turtles on my bathroom floor in a mesh bag. For some reason it didn't seem that odd, the turtles weren't moving, so maybe Jerry was going to eat them or something.

Jerry informed me that he and LuBen down the hall had each purchased a turtle and planned to keep them as a pet. He also said something about keeping a turtle giving you long life. Or maybe that's people who eat turtles.

I wasn't too concerned because he said that LuBen had bought a tub to keep them in, and they'd be kept in his room.

About a day later, after the turtles had been moved to their tub, one crawled over the edge and neither LuBen or his roommate saw it. It was at large for about 3 hours before it was discovered hiding in the corner of their room. Either way, LuBen's roommate told him the turtle must go, so for now it is in my bathroom.

The biggest problem is the food they're giving the turtles. Their pretty much feeding them raw chuar. I don't actually know how that's spelled, but it's the meet on a stick sold by street vendors. They just put it in the tub, and it reeks until the turtles eat it all. Since they're slow turtles, this can take days.

They should be gone to people in my roommate's old dorm by the end of my weeklong independent trip, which ends October 7.

Shanghai

Me on the Bund. The area along the Huangpu River in Puxi, the west side of Shanghai, that looks onto the buildings in Pudong, the east side of Shanghai. Driving in by taxi the first night, it was a pretty awe inspiring sight. Less so with the bad weather. The Oriental Pearl Tower is the famous building in the background.

Two days, barely any sightseeing
Left for Shanghai Thursday after our cooking class (I'll update about that some other time), and got there at like 10:45 p.m. We dropped our stuff off at a hostel, and then went on to this bar called C's to meet up with some people. I was traveling with Alex, who had done a year study abroad in Shanghai when he was a junior in college. He's since recently graduated, but is still doing CIEE Nanjing to study Chinese. So he had a bunch of friends in Shanghai with an apartment who were just working and living the good life. We met those four guys (One NU '07 alum) at the bar and chilled for a little bit before heading back to there place.

Their apartment was amazing. For 10,000 yuan a month (Like $300 US per person split up), they had a two story apartment with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen with an oven, a large living room and dining area, an awesome staircase leading to the second floor, and two balconies. Not to mention it came furnished very nicely. Upon seeing this, we made the decision to just crash in their living room rather than back at the smell hostel. The hostel was nice by hostel-standards, and we had already spent 70 kuai on it. But we didn't want to sleep in a room with 10 other people and possible have bed bugs if we didn't have to. Cabbed there and back to pick up our stuff and turn in our keys. Crashed late at like 2:30 a.m.

The next day we were supposed to all wake up to go with Tom, the other guy from NU/CIEE Nanjing, to the consulate so he could see about replacing his stolen passport. Alex and I needless to say, just slept through while he went and did that. He came back around noon, and we all went out for dim sum at some world famous place with other locations in New York and San Francisco. That was hen haochi and lasted like 2 hours as we sat around and Alex caught up with 2 of his friends from the apartment.

Duck jaw, just prior to my eating it at dim sum. I don't know if you can make it out but the big thing next the the foil is the tongue. It actually tasted pretty good, but didn't have much meat on it.

We then commenced on what would become a 4+ km trek from the restaurant to the Bund. It was raining, so we stopped into this store called Hotwind, which gives out free umbrellas. It operates on the honor system that you will return them to some other location in the city. We walked first to Tomorrow's Square (I think) which is a lounge on the 38th floor of the hotel overlooking people's park. People's Park used to be a race track in like the 1920's for rich white men.

Renmin Gongyuan, or People's Park. Note the oval shape indicative of it's race track past. The building with the tower at the bottom is the old club house.

We meandered through the park to the beginning of Nanjing Road East. This part of Nanjing Road is famous for all it's retail stores. In my 20th-century Chinese history class, we read about the huge silk emporiums on this street, the jingles they wrote, and how it was all related to the New Life movement in the 1930's and 40's under Chiang Kai-shek.

Nanjing Road

We walked down that to the Bund which is where the picture of me at the top is from. As I was waiting to buy an overpriced bottle of water to quench my extreme thirst, this girl came up and asked if she could have her picture taken with me. I proceeded to have my picture taken 3 different times as each of the 3 girls individually posed with me. I figured I'd humor them, I mostly thought it was funny. It's the first time I've gotten what people call the "rockstar treatment" that westerner's sometimes get.

We went to the nearest subway station, which was during rush hour around 6 p.m. It was chaos. People were packed like sardines into cars. We watched the first train come, and people just pushing onto these trains. One women couldn't fit but kept ramming into the people trying to make room. As the doors started to close, it got stuck on her back. A subway worker came over, and started trying to push her so that the doors could close. They did this three times before finally she squeezed in. It was ridiculous because in the U.S., any reasonable person would say to wait for the next train. I wish I had taken a picture.

The four of us, Alex, Tom, NU alum guy, and I, had to split up to cram onto two different trains. It was like being at the most packed concert ever as everybody was pressed up against everybody with no personal space. Alex and I made our way to a Brazilian steak house, as the other guys were going to Hot Pots (we found out later they went and got massages instead). The steak house was 88 kuai for all you can eat, as they come around with various barbequed meat on spits and cut you off pieces. It was quite the shock to my stomach after usually skimpy meat portioning in Chinese food, but it was a welcome shock. I ate beef, lamb, duck, chicken, chicken wrapped in bacon, garlic bread, pork, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. Totally worth the price tag.

We then went back to the apartment, finding out that nobody else had gone to dinner. We slept while they did so, and then people came over for a house warming party. I played mahjong and got my ass kicked by this Chinese girl. She actually is one of PingPing, the program assistant's friends. Small world, I know.

We then almost went to KTV, but when it was discovered that only one person wanted to sing karaoke, we just decided to go to C's again. Fun was had by all, we came back and went to sleep around 4:30 a.m.

Woke up Saturday at 11:15, to rush off to pick up Alex's laptop that he had lost in LAX, had been mailed to him, but then waylaid in Shanghai because of some import tax. We had to pick it up from his uncle at the end of some subway line. So we took a cab to the subway, 40 minute subway ride there, and then just went to the train station to buy train tickets, and came back. Pretty quick trip in all. I'll be back in 2 weeks for another couple day stint, and I'm sure with only a 2 hour train ride, I'll be back many times.

Weekends

Two Weekends
There have only been two weekends since Lianyungong, but it seems like I've has been here a lot longer. For those of you wondering what I do on the weekends, I thought I'd write about it. I've mostly been going out to bars/clubs with people in the program. A couple times at least, PingPing, our amazing assistant director (assistant to the director?) has suggested places to go.

Babyface, located in the 1912 district, which is the largest club district in Nanjing. We just went there and went to one of the first places we saw, so I didn't think it was that great.

Nothing much more exciting than in the US. Lots of dancing. Thank god, the average dancing ability in China is low, so I don't stand out very much. Our dorm's little side street always has a lot of people hanging out around the drink shop on weekend nights, so sometimes we'll hang out with other international students or locals there before or after going out.

This weekend, I may be going to Shanghai, a 2 hour train ride away. I may have more to report after that.

Tomorrow I have 8 hours of class because I had to shift around the time I meet with my one-on-one professor. So I'm going to do homework and go to sleep.

Nanjing University

Meant to post this Saturday, but got distracted:

I've been in Nanjing for just over three weeks and already am having trouble coming up with what to write about.

So here's some basic information about Nanjing University courtesy of Wikipedia.

Nanjing Daxue
Nanjing University has existed in some form since the third century A.D. It became China's first modern university in the 1920's and was given it's current name in 1949.

It's a public university with 12,200 undergraduates, 9,900 post graduates, and 3,000 faculty. There is a suburban campus for underclassmen and an urban campus mostly for seniors and graduate students. I'm on the urban campus, and it's like 30 minutes to an hour on a bus to get to the other campus.

There's a long list of scholars that have graduated from here, but if you're not Chinese, you probably haven't heard of any of them. Most notably, Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Guomindang and the president of the People's Republic of China (the ones who fled to Taiwan), served as president of the university for 2 years when it relocated to Chongqing during the Japanese invasion.

Going to the Canting
Near the center of campus there is the huge student cafeteria, that's at least 4 stories tall and has at least 3 dining halls in it. I went to the lower level canting, because I know how it works. I'd never been there during the lunch rush though. It was completely packed with students, and with all the other people I saw converging on the place, there had to be thousands of students making use of the building at that time.





People during the lunch rush. This line was stretched out for a long ways.








I got a plate of noodles with a fried egg, some greens and very sparse beef for 5 kuai ($0.75). It's probably one of the least expensive things there, but it is more than enough to fill me up.

Right outside the cafeteria there were all these thermoses (plural?) lined up because the dorms don't have hot water so they have to come get a thermos and fill up. I actually have to give a 5 minute speech in Chinese about the difference between our international student dorms and the Chinese student dorms. It's due in about 12 hours, and I haven't started. The lack of hot water is just one of the differences. The largest difference is that many of the dorm rooms have 7 people in them. Maybe after I write my speech I'll write more about the differences (one being how

I'll update again tomorrow about my weekend exploits.




Thermoses. It was impossible to get enough in a shot to give you an idea of how many of these things there were.

Well, I guess I haven't written lately.

I thought it was odd that only as I'm starting to write this I looked at the date and realized it was Sept. 11. Nobody even mentioned it today; no memorial stuff here obviously either. Just weird considering how there's no way to avoid all the memorial stuff in the U.S.

All us laowai look alike
So, as suggested by my parents, I thought I'd talk about being a tall, skinny, white guy in a place where tall, skinny, white guys are less common.

• Foreign looking people (ie of European descent) are politely referred to as waiguoren (literally foreign people), but more often referred to by the impolite/rude term laowai (literally, it doesn't make much sense). My roommate explained it as calling Russians ruskies, or British people limeys, but I'm unsure of the exact level of offensiveness.
  

• Lots of people don't seem to really look at me or care, but a good chunk will stare as I walk by. It's way more common to get stares if there is a large group of us are walking somewhere.

• Coming back from Lianyungang, our bus was in heavy traffic and came up alongside a bus filled with Chinese. Lots of them stared, and when I looked back at them, some of them would look away all embarrassed. It's apparently especially embarrassing if you look back and smile, but in a situation like that, I couldn't help but smiling because it just seemed funny to me.

• As for clothes, people here dress very similarly, and I was surprised by how many fashionable people there actually are.

Food and studying
I seem to spend most of my time on school nights either eating, study, or watching the sopranos. I guess I talk to people too. But still, nothing exciting.

I've been increasingly eating baozi and guotie, which are different kinds of dumplings. I don't know the specific name of the baozi I was eating today, or even if it really was that or something else. Whatever it was has meat of some type and soup (probably mostly grease) inside of it. I ate some today and the soup squirted all over the place. Since most restaurants don't seem to believe in napkins, I got my hands and arms covered in grease.

Tonight, I had Indian food at a Punjabi restaurant. It was really good although really expensive. 80 kuai, in all, but it would have been more like 60 without a drink. I was thankful to just have a little variety in my diet. I ate lots of nan, and some things I also don't know the names of. One of these days, I'll order things myself and know what things are called.

I eat a lot at a place called Laodifang, roughly translates as old place. Stuff is relatively cheap, tastes good, and nobody from the program has gotten sick off of it yet. That restaurant is pretty much our dining hall--on any given day, at least a few people will eat there.

Birthday Party

The Party
Last night I went to a friend of a friend's Grandfather's 70th birthday party (another one of Dongxu from Madison's friends). It was in Tai Zhou City which is a 2 hour drive to the northwest, about half way to Lianyungang.

The guys extended family is originally from Tai Zhou and his father had moved to Nanjing. There were about 22 people who went to some fancy restaurant for a big dinner. His grampa, grandma, aunts, uncles (by far the most were uncles which constituted both his dad's cousins and brothers), and some others who I had no idea how they were related.

The meal was huge and started with this delicious cake which I proceeded to eat with chopsticks. Then on to the other dishes with new ones coming out pretty much continuously. I ate fish stomach in tomato sauce which was surprisingly good. Cow stomach was OK I only had a strand. A lot of fish and other seafood. The meal ended with the traditional birthday noodles that you eat for longevity or something like that.

Throughout the meal people kept moving around the room making toasts and having me raise my glass and cheers with them. The impressive thing is how much baijiu they were drinking. Baijiu is a "white wine" distilled from sorghum, rice, or pretty much anything you feel like. It's over 100 proof I know and tastes pretty awful. I did one toast with it and was like I'm done. But some people drank entire wineglasses full of this stuff. I was impressed.


Baijiu. Note how much the bottle looks like it could contain motor oil.

Photo Credit: Mark Bussinger (Wikipedia says I can use it if I credit it)













It lasted probably two and a half hours in all. I really didn't know much of what was going on because people had accents and would periodically speak in some local dialect. It was very interesting and I'm glad I went. I shared the guy's hotel room and got back the next morning just before noon.

Unfortunately, I had left my camera in the car so I didn't get any pictures. The guy, William might send me some that I can post.

Posting comments is now alright
So apparently tuition at Northwestern pays for something because NU IT has a section on there website about making a computer portal to get around blocked stuff. The other guy from NU showed it to me and I can now view this blog along with Wikipedia. So feel free to respond to these posts however you feel like.

Wierd Food

Sea Cucumber
I forgot to mention the meal I had immediately after arriving in Lianyungang. It consisted of all the local sea food "delicacies," plus a few other weird things. The main attraction definitely had to be the sea cucumber, also known as the sea slug.






I ate part of one of these. Yeah, I know, I'm BA. I'm probably also violating some sort of copyright law by posting this picture from a random web site.





Sea cucumbers come with the optional spikes and are pretty much gross looking floppy logs that somehow eat and breath. What I ate was a slice of a sea slug that had been prepared somehow, although it was served cold. It was really slimy and didn't taste very good, so I really don't know why people eat it.

Other than that I ate a couple kinds of squid, fish that came with heads and an awfully dangerous number of bones, dried shrimp (crispy/salty), and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. I also tried duck stomach, which I actually really enjoyed. I've had it once since then, but the second time wasn't as good.

Thank God the Internet is Back

Homework
I can't remember getting so much homework since high school. It took me like 2 hours to do my homework for my speaking, and I'm probably looking at 2 or more for my reading class. I was up until 1:30 and woke up at 6 to work some more. It's kind of refreshing to have work like this after just biding my time this summer.

I went to my B section reading class today and could understand most of what my professor was saying. It was pretty awesome. Except when she tried to ask me one question. Still, it's progress.

Street Food
I had my first street food today, at a whole in the wall place, one that's really more of a nook with no door. It was plenty busy though which was a good sign. I got 12 fried dumplings stuffed with some sort of meat (everyone was under the impression it was a mix). It's the first time the food here has stuck with me. Usually I'm hungry like 2 hours after eating. We'll see if my gastrointestinal system can stand the test.

Taijichuan
I had my first Taiji class today for about an hour. Very relaxing. We just went over the opening exercises, mostly stretches. Only 2 squatting ones were challenging. I'll probably keep doing it in the future.

So Wet

Lianyungang
Got back from our weekend trip to Lianyungang yesterday around dinner time. I thought for some reason in went until Sunday, so I was pleasantly surprised.

I spent about half the weekend completely drenched. About as soon as we got there Thursday , the weather started to get bad. For some reason every time we got on the bus to go somewhere, it would start to rain.

It started the first night when we were walking back from another KTV for yet another birthday. This particular KTV was in a hotel that our program assistant led us to. It was pretty much the shabbiest place ever, and we quickly discovered it was primarily a front for a brothel. Still fun though.

The next day we went to Hua Guo Shan, the highest mountain in the Yuntai Range. We took vans up to the top of it, and I was pretty terrified about rolling down the side of the mountain. I don't think I've been so terrified about the roads since I went to Irealand. As soon as we got out, it started to rain. We all bought chinsey ponchos. Mine had a whole in the butt, which was admittedly pretty hilarious.

We stood around at the top, but we couldn't see much because visibility was maybe 50 yards. It still was pretty cool and felt like we were floating in the middle of nowhere. After about 10 minutes at the top, the program director informed us that we had to walk to the bottom. Probably two hours later we got to the bottom, pretty drenched. And for being the home of the monkey king, I only saw 2 monkeys, and one was on a leash at the base of the mountain.



Some of the many stairs on the way down the mountain. My roommate, Jerry, is in the foreground.















We then went on a boat tour which pretty much meant riding down a river toward the Pacific. With the rain and everything, the whole environment seemed pretty post apocalyptic.

After that we walked up the road to the Pacific. It was really pouring, so we couldn't actually go swimming. The water was really warm, so I waded in anyway. It was actually a lot of fun.



Me in the Pacific. Despite the poncho, I was completely wet.









We retired to the 5-star hotel we were staying in. The fact that we had instant hot water was probably the best part; the nice beds being a close second.

On Saturday we went to another scenic spot, the weather once again rainy. They let us wander in the valley for a couple hours. Once again rainy, but overall the waterfalls and everything made by the river in the valley were very cool. The rain probably made it even better, only fueling the river more.




At the head of the waterfall. I had to climb hundreds of steep, wet, uneven stairs to get here. I decided not to cross since it would have meant being even more wet for the bus ride back.





The trip was worthwhile and fun as a whole. I can only imagine how great it would be in good weather.

The Prices
Right now, I'm probably overstaying my welcome in a cafe using their internet. It is so heinously overpriced. I had to pay 25 yuan for a sprite. But the internet is out in the dorm, so I guess I had to make due.

For less than the cost of this sprite, I bought the first season of the Sopranos on DVD. While I know the DVD store probably does something illegal, it can't be any worse than illegally downloading shows and movies.

Class
I switched my reading class from the C section (easiest) to the B section. I'm in one of those tough situations where I have to choose between a class that's too easy and one that is very difficult. The teacher is pretty much brutal. She purposely talks fast, and just says to deal with it. I couldn't understand much of what was going on. She also does this thing where she goes around the room, and criticizes something about everyone. In my case, it was the way I was saying my "x." I have another week to switch around classes, so I'll give this one another day or two. I may go with the harder class and not worry about my grades. I only need a C to get credit, and it doesn't influence my GPA.

KTV, but first

Roommate
So it turns out my roommate is a guy named Jerry who I'd met previously at a welcome luncheon. When I first got here, he was very helpful with getting a cell phone, sim card, phone card, etc. His English is almost too good, hopefully it isn't a problem with my "immersion." I'm sure he'll be a good roommate though.

KTV
On Sunday night, it was someone's birthday, so a dozen of us went out for hotpot and then KTV. Hotpot was pretty great, I don't think I've ever seen so much goat meat in one place at one time. It was pretty much like fondue except their was a spicy side and a non-spicy side to cook stuff in. We dumped in potatoes, squid, fishballs, lotus root, lettuce (or cabbage maybe), crab, mushrooms, tofu, and some other stuff that I'm forgetting.

Then it was on to KTV. It's kind of hard to describe. I kind of want to use the word Japanese to describe it although I don't know if that gives the same mental picture for most people. Anyway, it's designed to seem very futuristic, with lots of glowing things and shiny surfaces. I unfortunately forgot to bring my camera, but I'll upload a picture of another KTV (not nearly as upscale as the one we went to though).


Karaoke in China (and I'm lead to believe in the rest of East Asia) is nothing like the U.S. It's not like you get up at a bar and embarrass yourself in front of people you don't know. Instead, you embarrass yourself in front of people in private. All karaoke is done in private rooms rented out to suit the size of the party from 3 people to 50 (presumably there are really huge room in some places). The KTV we went to probably had dozens of rooms.

It's called KTV because of the music videos with the lyrics on the bottom that play while you sing karoake along with it. We got a room that was far too large for us. The main room had a coach along the wall that was large enough to seat all of us, tables and a few touch screens for selecting the songs. Then off of that there was a room with a table and four chairs. Off of that, it's two steps up to another room with a TV in it and a table a few inches off the ground to sit around. Pretty much a hotel suite minus the bed. Complete with room service as well. If you pressed a button, someone came in to serve you.

The singing itself could be done through 2 wireless microphones or one wired mic. People sang everything from Van Morrison to Back Street Boys and even one Chinese song. I sang a few parts to songs as the night wore on, but in general, me singing is to be avoided.

All of this fancy stuff came with presumably a very large price tag, although I didn't ask. A round of drinks, however, cost 250 kuai (250/7.5=$33.33), which is enormously expensive compared to most things in China. Our dinner only cost 16 kuai a person, I believe. I can only guess what the room cost.

The night ended around midnight, when we got kicked out. After getting back, another guy and I decided to chill with three locals outside of the shop next to our dorm. I guess they all live and work in the area and know the shopkeeper. They were very friendly, offering things to drink and eat, and joking around. The other guy understood most of what was being said, whereas I did not. While this may sound sketchy (looking at you, Mom and Dad), trust me, these guys weren't going to do us any harm. They hang out there regularly, and one of them works in the building next door to us. The program assistant said there always very friendly with people in the program.

So that was the KTV adventure. You really have to see it for yourself.

I feel like every blog post should be titled "Random Thoughts"

Today
Class as usual, although I understood the entirety of what my professor said in reading class today. Speaking class is entirely the opposite though. I grabbed a quick lunch at a Western-style deli (a little over $2 U.S.), and then worked on homework.

We had a quick orientation for our culture class at 4. We went over stuff such as how to take it when people stare at you and say certain things to you. An interesting fact I picked up is that men with a long nail on their pinky use it for "routine hygiene." I can only imagine the possibilities.

Finally finished my homework at 6. My Chinese roommate should be showing up around 7, so I'm going to go wait in my room for him after this.

Going to the beach!
Tomorrow at 2 p.m. everyone in the program is getting on a bus to go to the port city of Lianyungang until Sunday.

Some information on Lianyungang:

• It's a 5 hour bus ride away in the northern part of Jiangsu province (the same as Nanjing)
• It is one of the four original ports opened up to foreign trade in the 1680's
• It's still a major port and is on the eastern end of the New Eurasia Continental Landbridge
• The population of the city proper is around 500,000 with 4.65 million in the metropolitan area

In addition to visiting the beach, we will visit the mountain which is described in the story of the Monkey King. The story is pretty much a myth based on the true story of the monk called Xuan Zang who brought back some of the first Buddhist scriptures from India. I read one version of the story in my Chinese Civilization class, which had pulled together the many different folk tales to try to create a narrative. The area near Liangxungang is described in the early parts of the narrative as the place where the monkey was born out of stone and chose to set up his kingdom.

The Blog
I managed to view my blog through a proxy with the help of a friend of a friend who I practiced Chinese with in Madison. I still can't view the comments, but at least I can see how it looks.

KTV
If I have time tonight, I'll write about my karaoke experience a few nights ago. For now I'm off to wait for my roommate.

Only the first day, and a lot of homework

I meant to spend some time writing something interesting for this blog, but I already have a bunch of homework. I guess I didn't know how laid back my Chinese classes at Northwestern were, but this is a lot more intense. Mostly I'm not used to 99% of class being conducted in Chinese. I'm pretty much confused all the time. But that's how this language intensive stuff is supposed to work I guess, and most of the people in my class seem to not understand much either.

Today started with 4 hours of language class up until noon. After that we're still obligated to speak Chinese until 4 p.m., which pretty much meant not speaking much. I spent that time eating in the student cafeteria for 5 kuai (like 75 cents) and then going to Carrefour (think Chinese Walmart). Then dinner, then homework, until now. I still have to review some stuff for tomorrow, but I'll try to make time to write something more interesting for the next post.

Oh, and my ATM card worked to get 100 kuai out, so everything about this trip seems to be going right.

Blogspot.com is probably not ever going to load

Which means that I can't view comments on the blog. So if you make a comment, you should also e-mail it to me at j-spring@northwestern.edu.

I suspect the Chinese government might block it, they can exercise pretty strict control over the internet if they feel like it.

Pictures

I have a lot of good pictures already, but I have to pick and choose since it takes 5 minutes to upload a picture. I uploaded them in the reverse order that I meant too, since it just puts each new picture at the top.


A walk way just through the south gate to Nanda's campus.




Zhonghua Gate, built under the Ming Dynasty, I think in the 1300s.














Me next to one of the three gate houses at Zhonghua Gate.














The view from my room. Smog wasn't too bad when I took this.












My room, already a little bit messy. My roommate still hasn't moved in. Normally I keep the blinds shut during the day to keep it from getting hotter than it already is. Also, note how much it looks like a hotel.

Wo zai Nanjing

I arrived last night in Nanjing, more than 24 hours after leaving my house. It was a very smooth trip with no delays on flights and my luggage got through just fine. Jet lag is surprisingly not bad. I went to sleep at midnight, woke up at 8, and feel fine.

My dorm in the Zeng Xianzi building is like a hotel. I think it's far too nice, but I guess I can't complain. I'm on the eleventh floor so there is a pretty good view.

Some oddities:

• We get like a million TV channels. I saw everything from cowboy cartoons to half a dozen game shows.
• You have to turn the hot water heater on 2 hours before you want to take a shower. It's a good thing it's so incredibly hot that I want to take cold showers anyway.
• Really hard beds.

Not much exciting happening today, just cashing traveler's checks, buying a cell phone, and phone card. I'm sweating just sitting still, so it was god awful walking around in this heat.

Placement testing tomorrow morning, so I'm going to get dinner and then cram a little.

Also, I can't actually see this blog because I can't access the blogspot.com address right now, but I can get to blogger.com. I'll try to work that out.

First Post

This blog will be my primary connection to most people I know while I'm in China. Hopefully I'll be able to access it, I'm still not entirely sure what the Chinese government censors on the internet.

Not much to say yet, I don't fly there for another 26 days. Right now I'm just going over a packing list, cramming for my Mandarin placement test, and reading up on China.