Three days ago, one of the three other guys who live at my apartment showed up. He had taken an extra week off for the Dragon Boat Festival. He explained to me how to work the air conditioner (it was unplugged) and the hot water. The hot water required I turn on a lever for the gas, three levers that led to the water heater, and another valve to make the water go through the heater. I took my first hot shower in the past 10 days, it was great.
The apartment has actually grown on me. I cleaned up and consolidated my stuff so I could fit my stuff in the half of a cupboard available to me. Now I have plenty of space. I have hot water. And, it's only 15 minute bus and 15 minute walk to work. I'll have to move out in like a week and a half and pay for the place I'm living in.
Work is going well. I'm doing research for the planned revamp of the lifestyle page. I also wrote the online headlines for today. Hopefully within a week or two I'll be writing actual stuff for the magazine.
I'm now looking at a four day weekend. By the end, I will hopefully have finished my final paper for spring semester, have written my first bar review, and have confirmed where I will live for the remainder of the summer.
Right now, I'm hanging out at my friend Kevin's apartment, who I know from fall semester in Nanjing. Might go out and watch the Euro Cup game late tonight.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Beijing
I will try to keep this brief.
As of tomorrow, I'll have been in Beijing for a week. I worked three days at my internship last week. It's a very casual environment, certainly nothing like what I'm used to from past summers. So far I've only worked on revising the magazine's source list which they monitor in their capacity as a news digest. I'll go in to work tomorrow to discuss what I'll be doing on a more regular basis.
I've looked at four apartments, two of which are good prospects. Hopefully will have something nailed down by the end of the week.
Went out Friday and Saturday night with a complex amalgamation of friends and friends of friends. Example: three students in CIEE were from Soka University in the OC. Their German friend from the same university visited them for the last couple days of our program in Nanjing. He happened to be on the same train going to Beijing as me and another girl from my program. I went out with him and met his Chinese friends. They're all very cool and I hope to hang out with them in the future, although he has already left China for Japan. Two friends passing through independently of each other also came along bringing their friends. Anyway, this is a good change of pace from the built-in friends of the program I just completed.
One other anecdote. I was on my way to check out this interesting apartment in a hutong (traditional maze like alleyways that used to be where most Beijingers lived), and it began to downpour. Some alleyways flooded to like a foot. In the end, I purchased sandles and waded through it all. The apartment has 6 rooms around a courtyard. Half belong to a Chinese family, one room belonging to a Chinese-Canadian dude, and the other one I could possibly rent. Could possibly be an interesting cultural experience.
Right now, this dude on the computer next to me in this huge internet cafe is watching a childrens fashion/talent show thing, and it's really creeping me out. Why couldn't I have sat next to one of the hundred other dudes playing World of Warcraft?
Lastly, I'm writing bar reviews for an english entertainment publication called City Weekend. Pays OK but will pay for my night life. First one's due friday, I already visited it in the same hutong in the apartment.
As of tomorrow, I'll have been in Beijing for a week. I worked three days at my internship last week. It's a very casual environment, certainly nothing like what I'm used to from past summers. So far I've only worked on revising the magazine's source list which they monitor in their capacity as a news digest. I'll go in to work tomorrow to discuss what I'll be doing on a more regular basis.
I've looked at four apartments, two of which are good prospects. Hopefully will have something nailed down by the end of the week.
Went out Friday and Saturday night with a complex amalgamation of friends and friends of friends. Example: three students in CIEE were from Soka University in the OC. Their German friend from the same university visited them for the last couple days of our program in Nanjing. He happened to be on the same train going to Beijing as me and another girl from my program. I went out with him and met his Chinese friends. They're all very cool and I hope to hang out with them in the future, although he has already left China for Japan. Two friends passing through independently of each other also came along bringing their friends. Anyway, this is a good change of pace from the built-in friends of the program I just completed.
One other anecdote. I was on my way to check out this interesting apartment in a hutong (traditional maze like alleyways that used to be where most Beijingers lived), and it began to downpour. Some alleyways flooded to like a foot. In the end, I purchased sandles and waded through it all. The apartment has 6 rooms around a courtyard. Half belong to a Chinese family, one room belonging to a Chinese-Canadian dude, and the other one I could possibly rent. Could possibly be an interesting cultural experience.
Right now, this dude on the computer next to me in this huge internet cafe is watching a childrens fashion/talent show thing, and it's really creeping me out. Why couldn't I have sat next to one of the hundred other dudes playing World of Warcraft?
Lastly, I'm writing bar reviews for an english entertainment publication called City Weekend. Pays OK but will pay for my night life. First one's due friday, I already visited it in the same hutong in the apartment.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Last Week
My second to last weekend of the semester ended up completely wasted. Classes were done as was my culture class presenation on the Chinese media, so I just wanted to relax. I pretty much just hung out and didn't do any work until Sunday.
That Monday, I had my speaking class final which was moved up because my teacher was leaving town. With only the Sunday night preparation, I did well. I only screwed up once when I thought he was saying minorities (minzhu) in China when really he was saying democracy (minzu) in China. The format of that portion was pick one of two surprise topics and give your opinion. My other choice was Sharon Stone, which made me think of Fatal Attraction as I hadn't seen the inflammatory comments she made yet.
Tuesday, I went with my girlfriend, Chang Xiu, to Danyang, a.k.a. Glasses City, which is a huge center of Chinese glasses manufacturing. I bought two pairs (one of which has already broken) for like US$19. Chang Xiu bought these colored contacts for her and her roommate. I decided since I didn't have another final until Thursday that we mineaswell go from Danyang to Suzhou, spend the night and sight see in the morning.
We got to Suzhou by bus at about 4 p.m., checked into a hostel and went to the Master of Nets garden. After checking that out, we walked around the city for a bit and went to this place that had traditional Suzhou food.
Wednesday, I went to see the silk museum. It was pretty small and only 7 kuai, but in addition to various silk displays and weaving, there was this silk worm breeding room. I had silk worms in cocoon, worm stage, and nasty-looking full development stage. It was completely disgusting seeing hundreds of these things, but interesting and I took some pictures.
Next was this part of the historic city wall, with a garden next to several canals and bridges. The ticket included a kind of amateur Kunqu opera (I think that's what it was) and a ten minute bought ride. Nice scenery. I was about gardened out already. After that, tried to take a real boat ride, but timing didn't work out. We ended up eating bizarre Chinese fruit next to a river and then heading back on a 4 p.m. train. I got back and studied like crazy.
Thursday morning, my reading class test went OK. There were several questions from chapters he said wouldn't be on the test, which I ended up mostly guessing on. I had only half written my essay that was due with the test, and hurriedly finished it in 50 minutes before our 12 p.m. luncheon banquet. I doubt I got an A, but I think it was a good B performance.
I feasted on CIEE's dime at the luncheon at Swede & Kraut, a German restaurant that also serves other western food. I was so full after chicken parmesan, croquettes, salad, and a brownie with ice cream that I pretty much did nothing the rest of the day except go to the gym later that day.
Friday, I wrote five of eight pages of my culture class paper, which still is unfinished, despite yesterday's deadline. With the banquet that night and KTV after, plus goodbyes the rest of the weekend, there just wasn't time. Not too worried as the professor said, "Just make sure you hand it in before you leave China." I guess he didn't consider my staying the whole summer when he said that, but I think it still gives me a little time. The banquet included our teachers this time, and me and classmates toasted our teachers with baijiu and gave them gifts. Afterwards was a picture frenzy followed by several people singing Chinese songs (2 classmates, 2 Chinese roommates). KTV was the standard fair (sp?) but very fun nonetheless. I went home at 3 a.m., a group stayed out till 7 a.m. though since we had the room rented until 5:30 a.m.
Saturday, I got up around 11 a.m. to say goodbye to a classmate. I spent the vast majority of my day packing. Chang Xiu and I went to see a movie at night. We ended up seeing the Chronicles of Narnia dubbed into Chinese, as of the selection of 6 movies, it was the only one with tickets available at the time. Hung out with people until 5:30 in the morning after as many of them were leaving the next day.
Sunday, I went out with more people who leaving for lunch, finished packing, went to the gym one last time, went to dinner with my roommate this semester, my roommate from last semester and another roommate who's a good friend of mine. After that I puttered around on my paper adding a page. At 10:45, I left on a train with my classmate, who happened to be going to Beijing as well. We had hard seats, which I was kind of dreading, but were OK. It just meant I would wake up every 30 minutes to one hour to readjust myself.
I arrived at 9 a.m. and some of Jerry's (my roommate from fall semester) friends met me at the train station. They took me to the place I'm crashing (another friend of Jerry's apartment) for free until I find a more permanent place. I can live there up to a month until the guy comes back. As of now, it's empty until the other roommates get back in a couple days. It's pretty dirty and thread worn, but for free I can't complain. I went in to my internship at Asia Weekly for a quick meeting. I will be working from 9 to 5 Tuesday through Thursday, starting tomorrow. I got back to my place and walked around for about two hours. Beijing is so huge! It took forever to go such a tiny distance on my map, and I discovered almost nothing interesting, besides a grocery store which sells decent looking cheese.
Right now, I'm in an Internet cafe since where I'm staying doesn't have Internet access. It's one of the seedy World of Warcraft one's you read about in magazine stories about China. It's 11:15 p.m. and really crowded. I have all my pictures on a thumb drive, which doesn't work on the computer I got. Hopefully I'll post some pictures from Suzhou and the farewell banquet soon.
That Monday, I had my speaking class final which was moved up because my teacher was leaving town. With only the Sunday night preparation, I did well. I only screwed up once when I thought he was saying minorities (minzhu) in China when really he was saying democracy (minzu) in China. The format of that portion was pick one of two surprise topics and give your opinion. My other choice was Sharon Stone, which made me think of Fatal Attraction as I hadn't seen the inflammatory comments she made yet.
Tuesday, I went with my girlfriend, Chang Xiu, to Danyang, a.k.a. Glasses City, which is a huge center of Chinese glasses manufacturing. I bought two pairs (one of which has already broken) for like US$19. Chang Xiu bought these colored contacts for her and her roommate. I decided since I didn't have another final until Thursday that we mineaswell go from Danyang to Suzhou, spend the night and sight see in the morning.
We got to Suzhou by bus at about 4 p.m., checked into a hostel and went to the Master of Nets garden. After checking that out, we walked around the city for a bit and went to this place that had traditional Suzhou food.
Wednesday, I went to see the silk museum. It was pretty small and only 7 kuai, but in addition to various silk displays and weaving, there was this silk worm breeding room. I had silk worms in cocoon, worm stage, and nasty-looking full development stage. It was completely disgusting seeing hundreds of these things, but interesting and I took some pictures.
Next was this part of the historic city wall, with a garden next to several canals and bridges. The ticket included a kind of amateur Kunqu opera (I think that's what it was) and a ten minute bought ride. Nice scenery. I was about gardened out already. After that, tried to take a real boat ride, but timing didn't work out. We ended up eating bizarre Chinese fruit next to a river and then heading back on a 4 p.m. train. I got back and studied like crazy.
Thursday morning, my reading class test went OK. There were several questions from chapters he said wouldn't be on the test, which I ended up mostly guessing on. I had only half written my essay that was due with the test, and hurriedly finished it in 50 minutes before our 12 p.m. luncheon banquet. I doubt I got an A, but I think it was a good B performance.
I feasted on CIEE's dime at the luncheon at Swede & Kraut, a German restaurant that also serves other western food. I was so full after chicken parmesan, croquettes, salad, and a brownie with ice cream that I pretty much did nothing the rest of the day except go to the gym later that day.
Friday, I wrote five of eight pages of my culture class paper, which still is unfinished, despite yesterday's deadline. With the banquet that night and KTV after, plus goodbyes the rest of the weekend, there just wasn't time. Not too worried as the professor said, "Just make sure you hand it in before you leave China." I guess he didn't consider my staying the whole summer when he said that, but I think it still gives me a little time. The banquet included our teachers this time, and me and classmates toasted our teachers with baijiu and gave them gifts. Afterwards was a picture frenzy followed by several people singing Chinese songs (2 classmates, 2 Chinese roommates). KTV was the standard fair (sp?) but very fun nonetheless. I went home at 3 a.m., a group stayed out till 7 a.m. though since we had the room rented until 5:30 a.m.
Saturday, I got up around 11 a.m. to say goodbye to a classmate. I spent the vast majority of my day packing. Chang Xiu and I went to see a movie at night. We ended up seeing the Chronicles of Narnia dubbed into Chinese, as of the selection of 6 movies, it was the only one with tickets available at the time. Hung out with people until 5:30 in the morning after as many of them were leaving the next day.
Sunday, I went out with more people who leaving for lunch, finished packing, went to the gym one last time, went to dinner with my roommate this semester, my roommate from last semester and another roommate who's a good friend of mine. After that I puttered around on my paper adding a page. At 10:45, I left on a train with my classmate, who happened to be going to Beijing as well. We had hard seats, which I was kind of dreading, but were OK. It just meant I would wake up every 30 minutes to one hour to readjust myself.
I arrived at 9 a.m. and some of Jerry's (my roommate from fall semester) friends met me at the train station. They took me to the place I'm crashing (another friend of Jerry's apartment) for free until I find a more permanent place. I can live there up to a month until the guy comes back. As of now, it's empty until the other roommates get back in a couple days. It's pretty dirty and thread worn, but for free I can't complain. I went in to my internship at Asia Weekly for a quick meeting. I will be working from 9 to 5 Tuesday through Thursday, starting tomorrow. I got back to my place and walked around for about two hours. Beijing is so huge! It took forever to go such a tiny distance on my map, and I discovered almost nothing interesting, besides a grocery store which sells decent looking cheese.
Right now, I'm in an Internet cafe since where I'm staying doesn't have Internet access. It's one of the seedy World of Warcraft one's you read about in magazine stories about China. It's 11:15 p.m. and really crowded. I have all my pictures on a thumb drive, which doesn't work on the computer I got. Hopefully I'll post some pictures from Suzhou and the farewell banquet soon.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Torch relay comes to Nanjing
Yesterday, the Olympic torch relay came through Nanjing. The Chinese roommates began prepping the day before, spreading hats and small flags between them. The morning of my roommate went with the Chinese department to stake out a spot on the route at 7 a.m. The relay was set to start in south Nanjing at the aptly named Olympic Stadium and go to the Drum tower, which is only about 15 minutes down the road. My impression was it started at 8 and was supposed to arrive at the end at 10:30.
My preparations involved deciding to skip class. I woke up at 8:06, just after my classes were supposed to start. I texted my classmate Kelly, and she said after only two of six students came class was canceled. The same happened with all the other classes as well. I woke up, threw on the clothes from the day before, and got some noodles for breakfast on the street as the wontons I normally get were sold out because of the crowds.
I found my roommate and classmates on the street. Despite a million people probably being along the torch route, it was long enough that I didn't have a problem fitting in, especially since my height enabled me to see over most everyone's head. As we waited, people yelled the chant 中国(Zhongguo, China)，and the crowd would reply 加油 (Jiayou, Hurray!). Popular variations included 奥运 （Olympics)，加油！，南京 (Nanjing), 加油！，北京，加油！The Chinese department students sang a couple national songs. Pictures were taken with all kinds of China and Beijing accouterments. This is when I photojournalist must have taken my picture, above, which appeared on QQ.com along with pictures of a couple of my classmates.
At about 10:15, the torch got to us. We were right at a hand off point in the relay. A huge media and police entourage came, then the torch runner. Anything that came by got big cheers from the crowd. The middle age woman lit the bald middle age man's torch, and he ran off. Everyone involved is thrilled.
We milled about after, went and ate baozi/jiaozi, and I went to 40 minutes of my second class, which most people went to from 11 to 12. Everyone was still decked out in Zhongguo gear, my professor just talked about the torch and went off on tangents like he usually does. The whole day gave me the vibe of a festival or the excitement associated with anticipating Northwestern's Dillo Day.
Last day of class tomorrow, finals next week! Maybe an internship confirmed too!
My preparations involved deciding to skip class. I woke up at 8:06, just after my classes were supposed to start. I texted my classmate Kelly, and she said after only two of six students came class was canceled. The same happened with all the other classes as well. I woke up, threw on the clothes from the day before, and got some noodles for breakfast on the street as the wontons I normally get were sold out because of the crowds.
I found my roommate and classmates on the street. Despite a million people probably being along the torch route, it was long enough that I didn't have a problem fitting in, especially since my height enabled me to see over most everyone's head. As we waited, people yelled the chant 中国(Zhongguo, China)，and the crowd would reply 加油 (Jiayou, Hurray!). Popular variations included 奥运 （Olympics)，加油！，南京 (Nanjing), 加油！，北京，加油！The Chinese department students sang a couple national songs. Pictures were taken with all kinds of China and Beijing accouterments. This is when I photojournalist must have taken my picture, above, which appeared on QQ.com along with pictures of a couple of my classmates.
At about 10:15, the torch got to us. We were right at a hand off point in the relay. A huge media and police entourage came, then the torch runner. Anything that came by got big cheers from the crowd. The middle age woman lit the bald middle age man's torch, and he ran off. Everyone involved is thrilled.
We milled about after, went and ate baozi/jiaozi, and I went to 40 minutes of my second class, which most people went to from 11 to 12. Everyone was still decked out in Zhongguo gear, my professor just talked about the torch and went off on tangents like he usually does. The whole day gave me the vibe of a festival or the excitement associated with anticipating Northwestern's Dillo Day.
Last day of class tomorrow, finals next week! Maybe an internship confirmed too!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Earthquake
The earthquake hit Sichuan province last Monday, May 12. It hit near the city of Wenchuan between Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou, where I traveled last semester. I didn't feel anything in Nanjing; a few people claimed they did. Several of my friends received texts forewarning them. News reports said people were evacuated from buildings in Beijing and Shanghai, I don't know what that was about.
Chinese people are really pulling together in the relief effort. I've been inundated with facebook messages, got a text message asking me to donate, and people are collecting clothes to donate. The Chinese government announced a three day period of morning beginning Monday. Businesses like bars and movie theaters were instructed to close. At 2:28 p.m, a siren sounded for three minutes marking the exact time the earthquake struck a week ago. I went to a candlelight vigil on Monday. The pictures are from near the end, when I finally figured out the nighttime settings on my camera.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Shanghai Weekend
On Friday morning, I went to Shanghai. I had two job interviews that afternoon, so I wore my suit from about 1 p.m. onward. Both went well, I think. I'll probably know whether I have a job offer in about 2 weeks.
After the last interview ended at about 6 p.m., I met up with Trenton, Yayoi, and Marcus at their hostel. I was staying at Nick and James' apartment, two Shanghai residents who I know through a friend last quarter. I didn't go back, so I was, once again, still wearing my suit. Tommy, Yuki, Ryan, and Hannah got in to town a few hours later and we all went out to dinner together, Nick accompanying.
Afterwards, we followed Nick to this "CD release party" for a friend's band, although I didn't see any CD's around. We watched the two opening acts, the second being Angry Jerks, a punk band from Nanjing. I checked my suitcoat and moshed for a while, which was both tiring and refreshing since I hadn't done it in a while. The main event, Nick's friend's band, had technical difficulties that lasted a long time, so we left before they went on. We went to a club called Bon Bon, the same one I went to last time I was in Shanghai because the new group of people wanted to go. Same fake booze, didn't close until 4 a.m. Finally changed out of my suit in the morning, which is luckily undamaged. We went to City Diner for a late lunch, and had a hamburger. We went to a ticket vendor at Zhongshan Park, then relaxed in the park. Left on a 7 p.m. train, making it a whirlwind trip.
I relaxed until class started today, just sending more e-mails following up on jobs and my honors application.
Here's more pictures of Xinjiang
A supermarket and hotel at night in Kashgar
A traditional house in Kashgar's old town. The two seated women are 88 and 90 years old and are the last of four wives who were married to a man who has been long dead.
Sheep tied up in a row at the livestock market.
After the last interview ended at about 6 p.m., I met up with Trenton, Yayoi, and Marcus at their hostel. I was staying at Nick and James' apartment, two Shanghai residents who I know through a friend last quarter. I didn't go back, so I was, once again, still wearing my suit. Tommy, Yuki, Ryan, and Hannah got in to town a few hours later and we all went out to dinner together, Nick accompanying.
Afterwards, we followed Nick to this "CD release party" for a friend's band, although I didn't see any CD's around. We watched the two opening acts, the second being Angry Jerks, a punk band from Nanjing. I checked my suitcoat and moshed for a while, which was both tiring and refreshing since I hadn't done it in a while. The main event, Nick's friend's band, had technical difficulties that lasted a long time, so we left before they went on. We went to a club called Bon Bon, the same one I went to last time I was in Shanghai because the new group of people wanted to go. Same fake booze, didn't close until 4 a.m. Finally changed out of my suit in the morning, which is luckily undamaged. We went to City Diner for a late lunch, and had a hamburger. We went to a ticket vendor at Zhongshan Park, then relaxed in the park. Left on a 7 p.m. train, making it a whirlwind trip.
I relaxed until class started today, just sending more e-mails following up on jobs and my honors application.
Here's more pictures of Xinjiang
A supermarket and hotel at night in Kashgar
A traditional house in Kashgar's old town. The two seated women are 88 and 90 years old and are the last of four wives who were married to a man who has been long dead.
Sheep tied up in a row at the livestock market.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Xinjiang
My travelmates, Trenton and Kelli.
Last month, I spent 10 days in Xinjiang. On April 17, I left Nanjing and flew to Urumqi with Kelli to meet Trenton, who had flown out that morning. We spent one night there, then flew to Kashgar. After two days, we hired a driver and spent three days on the highway that runs through the Pamir Mountain Range to connect to Pakistan. Along the way, we spent one night sleeping in a Yurt next to Karakul Lake and another night in a Tashkurgan. We backtracked to Kashgar and after a few hours hopped a sleeper bus to Hotan. We spent two days and one night in Hotan than took an 18 hour bus that crossed the Taklamakan desert, which takes up a huge part of the province. The bus ended up back in Urumqi, where we bought hard sleeper tickets back to Nanjing. The train took 40 hours, traversing most of the country.
As my time is limited, I will mostly represent my journey through the pictures I took.
Urumqi
My mother had informed me the weather was volatile here, but we felt the full extent. When Trenton got here the previous morning it was sunny and 70 degrees. We arrived at night to rain and woke up to snow. Urumqi is a rather unexciting city, we spent most of our time ate the only expat hang out in town, drinking coffee and eating western food. That said, it was a relaxing starting and ending point for our trip. We did have an amazing Xinjiang specialty, Da Pan Ji (chicken, potatoes, peppers) for lunch on Day 2.
Kashgar
A bakery specializing in the Uighur Naan on one of the large streets in the minority dominated old city. Bread would be our main staple on our journey along the highway to Pakistan.
A bowl goat head at the night market across from the mosque. The three of us ate half a head, and it wasn't that bad.
The livestock market, on the outskirts of town. We mostly saw sheep and cows with a few donkeys and goats too. Most people were chasing sheep around and tying them together by their necks with ropes tied to pickets in the ground.
Pamir Range (Karakul Lake and Tashkurgan)
This mountain is about 7500 meters tall, which isn't that much shorter than Everest. The reflection is in Karakul Lake, and the pictures all look like they are fake because it's so breathtaking. I was at 3800 meters and was feeling the altitude, which forced me to do everything really slowly.
The people renting us our yurt were giving us trouble about the food we were asking for. We ended up starting to walk around the lake and this Kyrg minority family offered to feed us for 10 kuai a head. Only the father, pictured here, knew Mandarin, and only a few words at that. The rice, veggies, and a couple bits of lamb meat were not that great, but it was well worth the experience of seeing how they live in this two room stone house.
The yurt we stayed in next to the lake. There was a wood stove that kept it warm. That went out at about midnight when all we had was about 30 blankets to keep us warm. They were so heavy they pinned us to the floor. Even so, I still woke up freezing.
Tashkurgan, the second to last city from the Pakistani border. The city has 50,000 residents, 30,000 of which are Tajik (remember, this is a really small city for China, Kashgar is 200,000). The generator at our hotel broke that night, so we subsisted on candles. We had some excellent Chinese food in this city, which we sought out because otherwise we had only been eating bread and lamb meat.
The "Ancient Stone City," basically abandoned ruins marked by a sign. I believe it's an old outpost. It's the highest vantage point in town from which I took the above picture. I was able to climb around on it freely. Definitely the highlight of Tashkurgan
Hotan
Hotan was a dusty city on the edge of the Taklamakan desert. The city of 100,000 had a very Chinese feel in most places and may well have been half-Chinese, half-minorities. Known for their jade, we spent most of our time jade shopping.
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