I can't believe that tomorrow we've been here a full month! There are some days that feel so long, but all in all time for me is flying by. I'm sure this will only speed up once the games begin. The last few days there's not much to report. Saturday my friend Eric and I went to the Bamboo park. I never ceases to amaze me that there are some places in Beijing where you can be in the middle of the city and not hear a thing. They had very relaxing music playing on a P.A. system and I joked that we should have brought yoga mats and done yoga in the park. We also found our way to the "amusement park" part of the park. This consisted of bumper cars, a merry go round, and a few other little rides. It was very fun, but not what we expected to find at all. After the park we met up with 4 of our friends at a local pizza place. The pizza shop has beer pong every thursday which Allie and I were going to sign up for, but unfortunately the have stopped it for the olympics.
Sunday I woke up and felt like I was dying, so my day consisted of friends bring me dvd's to watch and mcdonalds to eat. I will just say I am one lucky girl. I fortunately brought along some antibiotics and sinus medicine and Allie also brought some cold meds- so I loaded up on that yesterday and feeling better today. I made myself get up and out of he hotel this afternoon (I go back to training tomorrow, today was an off day). Eric and I ventured down to tea street. I will never understand how these people stay in business. Tea street is a mile of road with the exact same store in every building. I thought Eric was going to shoot me when I sat down at a table to sample tea, of course we were there for 30 minutes and tried about 50 kinds of tea. We both magically walked away empty handed, although the people in the store were not too happy. I just got back from dinner and am going to head to bed so this cold/sinus infection goes away by tomorrow or wednesday. Hopefully the next few days will be more eventful and I'll have more to blog about!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Learning Chinese
I apologize for the kind of negative post, but thanks to everyone who left encouraging comments and emails. My favorite may have been my brothers about all the places I could be that would be worse. Lets just say it was very entertaining to read! The second day of training went a lot better. First, I was smart enough to get up early and go with another girl to get breakfast at mcdonalds- I know I know, McDonalds- but it was the only place open before 8am. Anyways the breakfast put me in a great mood, I love breakfast and it's crucial that I have it in the morning. We got dropped off at the wrong entrance, but it ended up better because we were way early (imagine that!) and we got to walk through the whole green. Right up next to the birds nest and water cube! AMAZING. Don't worry I have pictures I'll update shortly. At training it was better, I got to watch the chinese team practice the trampoline. I also started learning chinese. Ok, not much but it's a start. My group of 15 kids taught me:
I love you
I'm sorry
I'm hungry
I'm thirsty
sprite
It was awesome because every time I said a word right I got a round of applause. A girl in my group also changed her hairstyle to look like mine and a guy told me I was beautiful. Then he proceeded to ask me if that was too forward and the girls in my group asked how I know when boys in America like me. It was very interesting to try to explain that! It was fun to say the least. For my 2 hour nap time I took a book and got 1/2 way through it and took a pb and j for lunch. It ended up a lot better than the first day and I really like my boss and my group.
That night, Allie heard that tickets were going to go onsale at the main box office- we thought it would be a great idea to camp out for tickets in China. So after a trip to wal-mart to buy snacks, yoga mats, and beer (you know the essentials) we went down to the main ticket office.
WOW, lets just say we thought we'd be a few thousand back. We were a few 10 thousand back at least. There were so many people and we quickly realized we wouldn't get tickets. So what better to do than sit down on a curb and people watch. There were 6 of us and we were on a random curb when our friend Eric got the idea to make a sign that said "line starts here" we quickly got a crowd and got it translated to chinese on the back. Long story short we had about 100 people around us for an hour, we got every media person there around us it seemed, we got interviewed by the Guardian, and got the cops called because in China they don't like large groups.
LInks:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2008/jul/24/olympics2008.china.beijing?picture=335958099
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jul/24/olympicgames2008.china1
and the Hong Kong paper:
http://www.mingpaonews.com/20080725/spb1.htm
translated: The captions says: A group of American volunteer came to buy ticket, but after seeing the scene they opt out (or maybe something like chickened out?) They also made a "the line starts here" sign to entertain themselves.
It says in the article: A few American volunteers hoped to get baseball tickets, they brought yoga mats, beer and food hoping to be first in line, but when they arrive at 6pm, they realized they were too late.
Eric was quoted: This is too scary! We came too late! Even if we start lining up now, we still won't get ticket, so we're just having a picnic here and have a look at the scene of lines."
Anyways, it was a very eventful night. Yesterday Eric Allie and I went to get wrestling tickets so we could see Ben Askren (former Missouri wrestler). Allie left to go to work and Eric and I sat there for 2 hours and got 4 tickets. (Don't worry dad, they were 15 dollars each) ALlie also somehow pull off getting us swimming tickets for august 17th! SO I am very very excited.
I have to get running because we're going to the bamboo park now, but I wanted to thank everyone and let them know that things have gotten better and will continue to do so.
Safe travels for my little brother who comes back from Africa in the next few days!!!! I will try to update again later today or tomorrow!
I love you
I'm sorry
I'm hungry
I'm thirsty
sprite
It was awesome because every time I said a word right I got a round of applause. A girl in my group also changed her hairstyle to look like mine and a guy told me I was beautiful. Then he proceeded to ask me if that was too forward and the girls in my group asked how I know when boys in America like me. It was very interesting to try to explain that! It was fun to say the least. For my 2 hour nap time I took a book and got 1/2 way through it and took a pb and j for lunch. It ended up a lot better than the first day and I really like my boss and my group.
That night, Allie heard that tickets were going to go onsale at the main box office- we thought it would be a great idea to camp out for tickets in China. So after a trip to wal-mart to buy snacks, yoga mats, and beer (you know the essentials) we went down to the main ticket office.
WOW, lets just say we thought we'd be a few thousand back. We were a few 10 thousand back at least. There were so many people and we quickly realized we wouldn't get tickets. So what better to do than sit down on a curb and people watch. There were 6 of us and we were on a random curb when our friend Eric got the idea to make a sign that said "line starts here" we quickly got a crowd and got it translated to chinese on the back. Long story short we had about 100 people around us for an hour, we got every media person there around us it seemed, we got interviewed by the Guardian, and got the cops called because in China they don't like large groups.
LInks:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2008/jul/24/olympics2008.china.beijing?picture=335958099
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jul/24/olympicgames2008.china1
and the Hong Kong paper:
http://www.mingpaonews.com/20080725/spb1.htm
translated: The captions says: A group of American volunteer came to buy ticket, but after seeing the scene they opt out (or maybe something like chickened out?) They also made a "the line starts here" sign to entertain themselves.
It says in the article: A few American volunteers hoped to get baseball tickets, they brought yoga mats, beer and food hoping to be first in line, but when they arrive at 6pm, they realized they were too late.
Eric was quoted: This is too scary! We came too late! Even if we start lining up now, we still won't get ticket, so we're just having a picnic here and have a look at the scene of lines."
Anyways, it was a very eventful night. Yesterday Eric Allie and I went to get wrestling tickets so we could see Ben Askren (former Missouri wrestler). Allie left to go to work and Eric and I sat there for 2 hours and got 4 tickets. (Don't worry dad, they were 15 dollars each) ALlie also somehow pull off getting us swimming tickets for august 17th! SO I am very very excited.
I have to get running because we're going to the bamboo park now, but I wanted to thank everyone and let them know that things have gotten better and will continue to do so.
Safe travels for my little brother who comes back from Africa in the next few days!!!! I will try to update again later today or tomorrow!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
All the things I can't describe
Ok, sorry for the delay. I've been at a loss of how to describe what is going on with my life in China. (I know my family is laughing right now because I don't think I've ever been at a loss for words) I would like to preface this post with the fact I would not take back coming to China and I'm glad I came here. I have met some of the coolest people, and this is even before athletes and reporters have gotten here. This trip has been amazing and I have learned a lot about China, how things work, and myself. Over the past week I have learned a lot about China, the government here, the way the olympics is being run in China (I don't know if this is how past olympics have been run), and the Missouri School of Journalism. I have had a week of ups and downs and have remained positive until about today- and I'm still positive, I'm in China at the Olympics, but I feel like I at least have a very realistic mindset about how things are going. I apologize that most of my blogs have been super long and I have written them at the end of the day when I'm exhausted and it's just me venting. I just don't know how to even begin to wrap my head around or describe to you what is going on- it's taken me a few hours and phone calls to my mom and little brother in Africa (who is doing great by way for anyone that knows him- since this is mostly my family reading this) We joked that we both had great stories that we could only tell each other after we left our respected countries- So Will, I'm very excited to see you in 5 and 1/2 weeks. So I'll begin to try to explain our lives right now:
Sunday I went back to training and was told I didn't really need to be there until today, because all the training would be in chinese. Basically I am the only completely english speaking person working in the press workroom. I am with three other girls, who are in different rooms (press conference room, mixed zone-where athletes get interviewed, etc.) Anyways we were picked by whoever we are ultimately working for showing our advisors (the people in charge of the room) everyone from Missouri's pictures. My advisor chose my picture out of the bunch and now I'm in the press workroom- Thank you Missouri for allowing me to go through 2 days of what turned out to be worthless testing. So, I will be working with about 15 chinese students from different universities. These students and my boss, Wendy, have been so great and helpful. One girl sat there with me today and tried to translate everything for me. Through all the frustrating stuff, China has so many great people and things to offer- it's just hard to remember that when you're constantly dealing with people that aren't so great. (I'm sure it's that way in ANY country)
Monday I went on an adventure with my friend Eric to a little shopping area with a lake. We met a few friends down there and took out a boat and then had dinner and drinks in the area. Props to Eric for eating Chicken Foot- don't worry at some point there will be great pictures. Anyways it was a great change of pace and really good to enjoy China and the people I'm with- there are some people I'm so glad I've gotten the opportunity to meet.
Tuesday I ran some errands while Allie was at training. See Allie got switched to synchronized swimming from being an assistant at field hockey. She had to go to field hockey on tuesday to get her uniform and after arriving at 8 am the person she was suppose to work for put her in a room where she had to sit until 4pm- Long story short Allie's job description included cleaning this ladies office and she never got her uniform. The lady told her that she was going to block Allie from getting transfered and I will just say Allie was so happy when she got home. You can feel free to check out her blog at: http://www.bennettinbeijing.blogspot.com/
Anyways when she got home we ventured to a beautiful park and enjoyed a few drinks with Eric- who got stuck with us because he is quite good at finding his way around the subway.
That leaves us to today- where in the morning we got handouts and training books- all in Chinese. Then lunch- which is a chinese tv dinner- I enjoyed a nice banana and pb &j sandwitch I snuck in. THe lunch was 3 hours long and it took us 20 min to eat. What do you do with the other 2 hours or so? Nap of course, and for all of you that know me well would think that this would be great- but I'm in China, lets get this stuff done and let me go explore elsewhere. In the afternoon we had a 3 hour lecture.....in Chinese
Now I know I"m not really suppose to blog about what I'm doing, but I'm having a harder time caring exactly who hears me say what. This might not come as a surprise and I need to be better with it, but it's just how I grew up and I have a hard time not sayint things that I feel strongly on. So I know this post might be a little more negative, but throughout training today all I could do was laugh. It's just so different and honestly I'm excited when the journalist get here, but today? I got a whole paper on how I need to water plants. Now that will get me a job, my ability to not kill plants. How can you not laugh at that? seriously. And if this is a negative rant, please remember I am so happy to be here- I just have to laugh about it. I'm not upset I sat through a 3 hour lecture that I didn't even know one word. It's my fault- I came to China and I didn't know Chinese! WHo does that? I could go on with stories from other people- It could be a lot worse. But right now I need to get to bed- although Allies theory is "It doesn't matter how late I stay up because I can take a 3 hour nap tomorrow"..... It is funny I deal with frustrations with sarcasm (wonder who I got that from) but the Chinese don't really joke around, so I'll make it and Wendy will just get confused then laugh at me. My parents will be proud- I got to explain what a locker is and why one would use it today to over 50 chinese people. If nothing else I'll have some great stories!
I won't let this long go between posts again- its just be a crazy few days. Hope all is well and to the Wrights- sorry I'm missing out on the Pirates game this weekend.... have a blast
Sunday I went back to training and was told I didn't really need to be there until today, because all the training would be in chinese. Basically I am the only completely english speaking person working in the press workroom. I am with three other girls, who are in different rooms (press conference room, mixed zone-where athletes get interviewed, etc.) Anyways we were picked by whoever we are ultimately working for showing our advisors (the people in charge of the room) everyone from Missouri's pictures. My advisor chose my picture out of the bunch and now I'm in the press workroom- Thank you Missouri for allowing me to go through 2 days of what turned out to be worthless testing. So, I will be working with about 15 chinese students from different universities. These students and my boss, Wendy, have been so great and helpful. One girl sat there with me today and tried to translate everything for me. Through all the frustrating stuff, China has so many great people and things to offer- it's just hard to remember that when you're constantly dealing with people that aren't so great. (I'm sure it's that way in ANY country)
Monday I went on an adventure with my friend Eric to a little shopping area with a lake. We met a few friends down there and took out a boat and then had dinner and drinks in the area. Props to Eric for eating Chicken Foot- don't worry at some point there will be great pictures. Anyways it was a great change of pace and really good to enjoy China and the people I'm with- there are some people I'm so glad I've gotten the opportunity to meet.
Tuesday I ran some errands while Allie was at training. See Allie got switched to synchronized swimming from being an assistant at field hockey. She had to go to field hockey on tuesday to get her uniform and after arriving at 8 am the person she was suppose to work for put her in a room where she had to sit until 4pm- Long story short Allie's job description included cleaning this ladies office and she never got her uniform. The lady told her that she was going to block Allie from getting transfered and I will just say Allie was so happy when she got home. You can feel free to check out her blog at: http://www.bennettinbeijing.blogspot.com/
Anyways when she got home we ventured to a beautiful park and enjoyed a few drinks with Eric- who got stuck with us because he is quite good at finding his way around the subway.
That leaves us to today- where in the morning we got handouts and training books- all in Chinese. Then lunch- which is a chinese tv dinner- I enjoyed a nice banana and pb &j sandwitch I snuck in. THe lunch was 3 hours long and it took us 20 min to eat. What do you do with the other 2 hours or so? Nap of course, and for all of you that know me well would think that this would be great- but I'm in China, lets get this stuff done and let me go explore elsewhere. In the afternoon we had a 3 hour lecture.....in Chinese
Now I know I"m not really suppose to blog about what I'm doing, but I'm having a harder time caring exactly who hears me say what. This might not come as a surprise and I need to be better with it, but it's just how I grew up and I have a hard time not sayint things that I feel strongly on. So I know this post might be a little more negative, but throughout training today all I could do was laugh. It's just so different and honestly I'm excited when the journalist get here, but today? I got a whole paper on how I need to water plants. Now that will get me a job, my ability to not kill plants. How can you not laugh at that? seriously. And if this is a negative rant, please remember I am so happy to be here- I just have to laugh about it. I'm not upset I sat through a 3 hour lecture that I didn't even know one word. It's my fault- I came to China and I didn't know Chinese! WHo does that? I could go on with stories from other people- It could be a lot worse. But right now I need to get to bed- although Allies theory is "It doesn't matter how late I stay up because I can take a 3 hour nap tomorrow"..... It is funny I deal with frustrations with sarcasm (wonder who I got that from) but the Chinese don't really joke around, so I'll make it and Wendy will just get confused then laugh at me. My parents will be proud- I got to explain what a locker is and why one would use it today to over 50 chinese people. If nothing else I'll have some great stories!
I won't let this long go between posts again- its just be a crazy few days. Hope all is well and to the Wrights- sorry I'm missing out on the Pirates game this weekend.... have a blast
Thursday, July 17, 2008
It's not if you get sick in China, it's when you get sick in China....
I'm still not feeling too hot, I went to training this morning then came back and slept for a few hours. Hopefully I can get this all out of my system and be golden for the rest of my trip! I've heard a million times people say its not if you get sick here, it's when. I am very happy to get it out of the way when I have a little free time before the games start.
I just talked to my mom and she said that the Dairy Depot is celebrating 10 years of ice cream service by the Wardens. I really wish I could have a huge twist cone right now and have to say it is still at the top of my list for paying jobs I've had so far. I hope they have a great celebration!
So as far as training goes, we've basically been given a gag order- we have to ask permission if we want to be interviewed or talk to any media outlets. I am also not suppose to blog about anything I do while working or anything that happens. So I will probably be vague with my details at least for the start of my work- but I can send emails and call people to dish if anything super exciting happens. I will be at the Indoor National Stadium which will hold: Gymnastics, Trampoline, and the Handball finals! it is right on the olympic green besides the water cube and the birds nest. So I will be right in the middle of all the action, and although I can only get into the Indoor national stadium, I will try my hardest to find ways into the rest.
In other news I have spend the last 2 days being sick and learning about synchronized swimming.....why you ask? My lovely roommate, who was suppose to do "Crowd control" at the field hockey arena has been moved to synchronized swimming. For those of you who don't know Allie, she is on Missouri's swim team and has been dying for a way into the water cube since we found out we were going. She is now a synchronized swimming expert after stretching the truth a bit on her knowledge about synchronized swimming. My theory is that anyone can be an expert at about anything when they are given 2 days to prepare. I think most of life is just pretending to know what you're doing, or at least that is what has gotten me this far. Anyways after doing research, I am very very excited for her. There is a mixer for her venue at a bar tomorrow- everyone else at the water cube is either british or australian- so yes I will be attending her mixer tomorrow night to meet people with cool accents.
As for my job, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing- but I have some clue. I will be in the main workroom in the national stadium. So basically I won't be around that many athletes, but I will be where every reporter is to watch the events and write their stories. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm almost more excited to be around the journalist than I am to be around the athletes. It'll be interesting to see how everything works. I already met my supervisor (her american name is Wendy) and got my own locker at the stadium- so I'm ready to move in! My supervisor is amazing from what I gathered in the 20 min. I got to meet her today- and I think she liked me considering I was so excited she kept laughing at me.
As for everyone else at the stadium, there are 3 other girls doing similar jobs to me and then about 20 other Missouri students doing flash quotes and interviewing the athletes. I did realize today how lucky I have been to have the opportunities I have had in the past 4 years. Mostly through Larry Larson, but even just being in the newsroom, seeing how the media works, being around the media relation guys at the Blue Jackets, just every single thing I've gotten to do in the past 4 years has prepared me for this moment. I feel very confident in my abilities and after some of the comments today from other students fell very prepared to be at this level of sporting event. Being around athletes after events, media people under tight deadlines, I am just so excited to observe it if anything else. I know a lot of people on this trip are kind of negative right now because we don't exactly know what we're doing or they're in jobs they didn't think they would be in- I could care less. I'm at the olympics- tell me where to go and I'll be there and if there's nothing to do, I'll make something for myself to do. I am just really excited for the next 6 weeks to jump in and just witness what I think is the greatest sporting event of all time.
I guess that's my rant for the day- haha I've had a little too much free time since I've not felt too hot the last few days. I will write more when I can- and sorry if the details in the coming weeks are not as specific, but I'll be home soon with lots of stories and feel free to email or call anytime!
I just talked to my mom and she said that the Dairy Depot is celebrating 10 years of ice cream service by the Wardens. I really wish I could have a huge twist cone right now and have to say it is still at the top of my list for paying jobs I've had so far. I hope they have a great celebration!
So as far as training goes, we've basically been given a gag order- we have to ask permission if we want to be interviewed or talk to any media outlets. I am also not suppose to blog about anything I do while working or anything that happens. So I will probably be vague with my details at least for the start of my work- but I can send emails and call people to dish if anything super exciting happens. I will be at the Indoor National Stadium which will hold: Gymnastics, Trampoline, and the Handball finals! it is right on the olympic green besides the water cube and the birds nest. So I will be right in the middle of all the action, and although I can only get into the Indoor national stadium, I will try my hardest to find ways into the rest.
In other news I have spend the last 2 days being sick and learning about synchronized swimming.....why you ask? My lovely roommate, who was suppose to do "Crowd control" at the field hockey arena has been moved to synchronized swimming. For those of you who don't know Allie, she is on Missouri's swim team and has been dying for a way into the water cube since we found out we were going. She is now a synchronized swimming expert after stretching the truth a bit on her knowledge about synchronized swimming. My theory is that anyone can be an expert at about anything when they are given 2 days to prepare. I think most of life is just pretending to know what you're doing, or at least that is what has gotten me this far. Anyways after doing research, I am very very excited for her. There is a mixer for her venue at a bar tomorrow- everyone else at the water cube is either british or australian- so yes I will be attending her mixer tomorrow night to meet people with cool accents.
As for my job, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing- but I have some clue. I will be in the main workroom in the national stadium. So basically I won't be around that many athletes, but I will be where every reporter is to watch the events and write their stories. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm almost more excited to be around the journalist than I am to be around the athletes. It'll be interesting to see how everything works. I already met my supervisor (her american name is Wendy) and got my own locker at the stadium- so I'm ready to move in! My supervisor is amazing from what I gathered in the 20 min. I got to meet her today- and I think she liked me considering I was so excited she kept laughing at me.
As for everyone else at the stadium, there are 3 other girls doing similar jobs to me and then about 20 other Missouri students doing flash quotes and interviewing the athletes. I did realize today how lucky I have been to have the opportunities I have had in the past 4 years. Mostly through Larry Larson, but even just being in the newsroom, seeing how the media works, being around the media relation guys at the Blue Jackets, just every single thing I've gotten to do in the past 4 years has prepared me for this moment. I feel very confident in my abilities and after some of the comments today from other students fell very prepared to be at this level of sporting event. Being around athletes after events, media people under tight deadlines, I am just so excited to observe it if anything else. I know a lot of people on this trip are kind of negative right now because we don't exactly know what we're doing or they're in jobs they didn't think they would be in- I could care less. I'm at the olympics- tell me where to go and I'll be there and if there's nothing to do, I'll make something for myself to do. I am just really excited for the next 6 weeks to jump in and just witness what I think is the greatest sporting event of all time.
I guess that's my rant for the day- haha I've had a little too much free time since I've not felt too hot the last few days. I will write more when I can- and sorry if the details in the coming weeks are not as specific, but I'll be home soon with lots of stories and feel free to email or call anytime!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
My last off day
This is going to be a very uneventful blog, considering the last 24 hours are the first time I've gotten sick on this trip. So, my last day off for a little while was spent hanging out and not doing to much or going to far. Not the most fun, but my body needed to rest for a little while.
Yesterday was also a pretty relaxing day, Allie and I went shopping at a place you can barter for prices. Very fun, and since my parents regularly read this blog I will not discuss any purchases I made. (for both my dad and my's safety)
We went out to dinner last night with a few of our friends and sat outside until about 11 talking about different things. Overall just a really relaxing few days. Hopefully my little bug will be gone tomorrow because I wake up and go to my first day of training at 7:45! I will have a longer post tomorrow once I figure out what I will be doing! That's it for now!
Yesterday was also a pretty relaxing day, Allie and I went shopping at a place you can barter for prices. Very fun, and since my parents regularly read this blog I will not discuss any purchases I made. (for both my dad and my's safety)
We went out to dinner last night with a few of our friends and sat outside until about 11 talking about different things. Overall just a really relaxing few days. Hopefully my little bug will be gone tomorrow because I wake up and go to my first day of training at 7:45! I will have a longer post tomorrow once I figure out what I will be doing! That's it for now!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Starbucks
After talking with my mom tonight, she told me I forgot one important detail.....I had my first trip to starbucks......at the bottom of the Great Wall!!!!! I'm embarrassed to admit I caved in and had it.....but really, the bottom of the Great Wall??? With things like that it's almost impossible to get homesick!
I don't even know how to begin to describe my life right now!
Sorry, I've been bad at posting again! But we have been non-stop for the past 4 days- hence today I slept in, called home, got a massage, ordered in papa johns, downloaded the new Jason Marz cd, and am hanging out and blogging......great lazy Monday (although I am surprised I can tell you want day of the week it is!
Thursday: Lama and Confucius Temples and Night Market
We (Allie, Eric and I) started the day off at the Lama temple, which is the big Buddhist Temple in Beijing. It was really interesting, however I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see Buddhist in their robes all around the temple. The statues and the customs that were followed here were very neat to experience and pictures can be found in my album (I'm going to try to add captions tonight).
After that temple we walked a few blocks to the Confucius Temple. This was amazing because within the temple there were museums that told about Confucius and his teachings etc. We got here about an hour before in closed so it would have been nice to have a little more time. The thing that I was amazed with the most is the fact that both these temples are in the middle of a city right next to high ways- and we couldn't hear anything. Both were very zen places.
We ended the night going to the night market- which is famous in Beijing. This is booths set up on the side of the street. We met Matt, Mark and Leslie there and began trying food. This is just the most strange combination of foods that you feel like you on fear factor. I ate: snake, scorpion (a whole one- although I spit it out after eating the head because I could feel its little feet in claws in my mouth) cow heart, pork, and grapes. Matt and Allie were more adventurous (Matt made a video that can be found on KOMU's website) They ate starfish, silk worm, and I forget what else- more bugs. This was definitely an experience.
Friday: Begin the tours
We started the day off with at a water treatment facility- one of the most complex in the world. Not the most exciting morning ever, but we didn't have to pay for anything for 3 days and got food and to see great sites in Beijing. In the afternoon we went to a suburb of Beijing. We got to see the golf course, condos (that no one is currently living in), a temple which was "500 years old" (it was still being constructed) and an old persons home. They gave us a brochure and the afternoon can be summed up with this quote from the brochure: "Without the forward looking policy of the Communist party of China, there wouldn't be any prosperity as seen in Xiangtang." I felt like i was in the movie the Truman Show or Plesantville. It was just very different and I will end on that. We ended the night going to a peking duck restaurant. It was very good- and interesting to watch them bring the whole duck out and carve it.
Saturday:
This was the best day we've had in Beijing- blue skies and clear- I could actually see the stars in the city that night!-one thing I have missed a lot. The Great Wall was one of- if not the- coolest thing I have seen my whole life. The day started out rough, the Mexican President was in China and decided he wanted to visit- so we got stuck at the bottom of the wall for about an hour while people from Purdue got stuck at the top so the president could see. Once we got up though it was just amazing. Mountains just make me a happier person and climbing the wall was one of the most surreal/amazing experiences of my life. I could have spent the whole day ( or a week) there but we had to go to the emperor's tombs in the afternoon, which wasn't as cool but it's neat to see the history. We then had dinner and went home. I don't know if I am starting to really love the food or just really hungry by the time I get to eat- but I think I'll get home in 6 weeks and crave Chinese food on a daily basis!
Sunday:
We started with the New Summer Palace- paid 10 rmbs to go to the temple on the grounds. We had to walk up a lot of steps but the views were worth it and this was my highlight for the day. In the afternoon we went to the old summer palace- which was just a bunch of ruins. Then dinner and then we went to the opera last night. It was very interesting and I'm glad I saw it, but I wouldn't say I would ever go back in my life. It was not what we would consider an opera it was more of a musical and not a very good one. One of the Chinese grad students said she has to read the english subtitles on the side to understand it still and she's seen it like 3 times. When we got home I went out to a local bar on a campus to have a beer. This was fun because it was all international students. We met and made friends with people from Ethiopia, China, Leigh High, and Belgium. It was very relaxing to sit outside and talk with students from all over the world.
So after those days you can see why I slept in, hung out and indulged in American food this afternoon. The next few days I have off- training is different for everyone and we're still trying to figure that out. My life will slow down a little for the next few days and I will be able to blog more. Sorry for the long update- Hope all is well!
Thursday: Lama and Confucius Temples and Night Market
We (Allie, Eric and I) started the day off at the Lama temple, which is the big Buddhist Temple in Beijing. It was really interesting, however I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see Buddhist in their robes all around the temple. The statues and the customs that were followed here were very neat to experience and pictures can be found in my album (I'm going to try to add captions tonight).
After that temple we walked a few blocks to the Confucius Temple. This was amazing because within the temple there were museums that told about Confucius and his teachings etc. We got here about an hour before in closed so it would have been nice to have a little more time. The thing that I was amazed with the most is the fact that both these temples are in the middle of a city right next to high ways- and we couldn't hear anything. Both were very zen places.
We ended the night going to the night market- which is famous in Beijing. This is booths set up on the side of the street. We met Matt, Mark and Leslie there and began trying food. This is just the most strange combination of foods that you feel like you on fear factor. I ate: snake, scorpion (a whole one- although I spit it out after eating the head because I could feel its little feet in claws in my mouth) cow heart, pork, and grapes. Matt and Allie were more adventurous (Matt made a video that can be found on KOMU's website) They ate starfish, silk worm, and I forget what else- more bugs. This was definitely an experience.
Friday: Begin the tours
We started the day off with at a water treatment facility- one of the most complex in the world. Not the most exciting morning ever, but we didn't have to pay for anything for 3 days and got food and to see great sites in Beijing. In the afternoon we went to a suburb of Beijing. We got to see the golf course, condos (that no one is currently living in), a temple which was "500 years old" (it was still being constructed) and an old persons home. They gave us a brochure and the afternoon can be summed up with this quote from the brochure: "Without the forward looking policy of the Communist party of China, there wouldn't be any prosperity as seen in Xiangtang." I felt like i was in the movie the Truman Show or Plesantville. It was just very different and I will end on that. We ended the night going to a peking duck restaurant. It was very good- and interesting to watch them bring the whole duck out and carve it.
Saturday:
This was the best day we've had in Beijing- blue skies and clear- I could actually see the stars in the city that night!-one thing I have missed a lot. The Great Wall was one of- if not the- coolest thing I have seen my whole life. The day started out rough, the Mexican President was in China and decided he wanted to visit- so we got stuck at the bottom of the wall for about an hour while people from Purdue got stuck at the top so the president could see. Once we got up though it was just amazing. Mountains just make me a happier person and climbing the wall was one of the most surreal/amazing experiences of my life. I could have spent the whole day ( or a week) there but we had to go to the emperor's tombs in the afternoon, which wasn't as cool but it's neat to see the history. We then had dinner and went home. I don't know if I am starting to really love the food or just really hungry by the time I get to eat- but I think I'll get home in 6 weeks and crave Chinese food on a daily basis!
Sunday:
We started with the New Summer Palace- paid 10 rmbs to go to the temple on the grounds. We had to walk up a lot of steps but the views were worth it and this was my highlight for the day. In the afternoon we went to the old summer palace- which was just a bunch of ruins. Then dinner and then we went to the opera last night. It was very interesting and I'm glad I saw it, but I wouldn't say I would ever go back in my life. It was not what we would consider an opera it was more of a musical and not a very good one. One of the Chinese grad students said she has to read the english subtitles on the side to understand it still and she's seen it like 3 times. When we got home I went out to a local bar on a campus to have a beer. This was fun because it was all international students. We met and made friends with people from Ethiopia, China, Leigh High, and Belgium. It was very relaxing to sit outside and talk with students from all over the world.
So after those days you can see why I slept in, hung out and indulged in American food this afternoon. The next few days I have off- training is different for everyone and we're still trying to figure that out. My life will slow down a little for the next few days and I will be able to blog more. Sorry for the long update- Hope all is well!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Pictures!!!!
Ok, the website for ALL my pictures (over 800 so far) are at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneycwright
Enjoy and you will be able to find all my pictures from now until the end of my trip on here!
Now off to bed!
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneycwright
Enjoy and you will be able to find all my pictures from now until the end of my trip on here!
Now off to bed!
Pictures!!!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneycwright/China1?authkey=AnXag4eSOPw
Here is my first album of about 500 pictures! I will write more tomorrow or sunday about what I've been doing. I just figured everyone would like to see pictures! I'm so exhausted, but it was a great day and the Great Wall is tomorrow! enjoy!
Here is my first album of about 500 pictures! I will write more tomorrow or sunday about what I've been doing. I just figured everyone would like to see pictures! I'm so exhausted, but it was a great day and the Great Wall is tomorrow! enjoy!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Free days!
First I would like to start off by giving you a link to Allie's pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/acb4hf
Facebook will work here for like 10 min. then stop, so it's been hard to load pictures. I will start a website like this though so it's easier and you can see them. Probably later today. Yesterday morning we went to the zoo. It was not the best zoo I've been too- we didn't see many animals out or looking extremely healthy, but it was interesting. They have a bunch of panda's there (the main reason we went) they use to be at a panda reserve, but that was ruined with the earthquakes in May so they have moved them to Beijing for the time being. There were sings up everywhere for donations because they are going to try to move them back to the wild reserve as quick as they can.
In the afternoon we went with Bowen (the grad student with us who is from Beijing) He took us to all these shops that tourists don't go to. Allie and I would go in and see what we wanted go outside and tell Bowen and he would get it for us very cheaply. We got some good finds. During the time we were there Bowen some how lost his cell phone. Now anyone that knows me knows I am the queen of losing cell phones. I tried to cheer Bowen up by telling him that I lost mine in a cab in NYC and at a store on Hollywood BLVD and each time got it back. We called it, someone picked up then hung up and turned the phone off. He explained that phones here you can sell for a lot of money and we weren't at the nicest and friendliest of places when we were shopping. So Allie and I felt so bad Bowen currently has my phone and we took him out to his favorite restaurant to cheer him up. We went to a Korean BBQ place and I have to say it was the most amazing meal I have had so far. A little spicy, and I surprisingly tried everything on the table (which was a lot of food) they cooked it right on the table and it was amazing.
When we got back we ventured to Matt and Marks room - they are kind of our adventure buddies. We ended up walking 45 min. to WalMart- I was so surprised to see it actually said Wal-Mart outside. It was 4 floors and out of all for floors they had NO pretzels.....the only thing I have been craving since I've been here. We got chocolate cake instead and took a taxi back to the room and ate it. We then passed out after such a long few days.
Today is another free day and Allie and I decided to sleep in and take it easy. She's working out and I cleaned the room a bit- We're going to go to the temples when she gets back and then maybe meet the boys at the night market. WE shall see how that goes. The next few days are super busy, heres the emailed schedule we got:
BOCOG TOURS (Reserve entire day)
Friday, July 11
• Beijing Water Purification Plant
• Lunch (Included)
• Beijing Suburbs
• Dinner at Quan Ju De (Included)
Saturday, July 12
• The Great Wall
• Lunch (Included)
• Ming Dynasty Tomb
----- Dinner on you own --------
Sunday, July 13
• Yuan Ming Yuan Park
• Lunch (Included)
• Summer Palace
---- Rest/Break ------
----- Dinner on you own ------
• Chang An Opera Theatre
Monday we have another free day and I start work Tuesday. I will try to update a little each night. I am most excited for the Great Wall!!!! But the Opera is suppose to be amazing!
Ok I'm going to go shower and get ready for the day- only 7 weeks left. I think I'll really miss China surprisingly....maybe even the food! haha. As my dad said this morning "enjoy the adventure".....I will surely do that and it is truly a huge adventure
Facebook will work here for like 10 min. then stop, so it's been hard to load pictures. I will start a website like this though so it's easier and you can see them. Probably later today. Yesterday morning we went to the zoo. It was not the best zoo I've been too- we didn't see many animals out or looking extremely healthy, but it was interesting. They have a bunch of panda's there (the main reason we went) they use to be at a panda reserve, but that was ruined with the earthquakes in May so they have moved them to Beijing for the time being. There were sings up everywhere for donations because they are going to try to move them back to the wild reserve as quick as they can.
In the afternoon we went with Bowen (the grad student with us who is from Beijing) He took us to all these shops that tourists don't go to. Allie and I would go in and see what we wanted go outside and tell Bowen and he would get it for us very cheaply. We got some good finds. During the time we were there Bowen some how lost his cell phone. Now anyone that knows me knows I am the queen of losing cell phones. I tried to cheer Bowen up by telling him that I lost mine in a cab in NYC and at a store on Hollywood BLVD and each time got it back. We called it, someone picked up then hung up and turned the phone off. He explained that phones here you can sell for a lot of money and we weren't at the nicest and friendliest of places when we were shopping. So Allie and I felt so bad Bowen currently has my phone and we took him out to his favorite restaurant to cheer him up. We went to a Korean BBQ place and I have to say it was the most amazing meal I have had so far. A little spicy, and I surprisingly tried everything on the table (which was a lot of food) they cooked it right on the table and it was amazing.
When we got back we ventured to Matt and Marks room - they are kind of our adventure buddies. We ended up walking 45 min. to WalMart- I was so surprised to see it actually said Wal-Mart outside. It was 4 floors and out of all for floors they had NO pretzels.....the only thing I have been craving since I've been here. We got chocolate cake instead and took a taxi back to the room and ate it. We then passed out after such a long few days.
Today is another free day and Allie and I decided to sleep in and take it easy. She's working out and I cleaned the room a bit- We're going to go to the temples when she gets back and then maybe meet the boys at the night market. WE shall see how that goes. The next few days are super busy, heres the emailed schedule we got:
BOCOG TOURS (Reserve entire day)
Friday, July 11
• Beijing Water Purification Plant
• Lunch (Included)
• Beijing Suburbs
• Dinner at Quan Ju De (Included)
Saturday, July 12
• The Great Wall
• Lunch (Included)
• Ming Dynasty Tomb
----- Dinner on you own --------
Sunday, July 13
• Yuan Ming Yuan Park
• Lunch (Included)
• Summer Palace
---- Rest/Break ------
----- Dinner on you own ------
• Chang An Opera Theatre
Monday we have another free day and I start work Tuesday. I will try to update a little each night. I am most excited for the Great Wall!!!! But the Opera is suppose to be amazing!
Ok I'm going to go shower and get ready for the day- only 7 weeks left. I think I'll really miss China surprisingly....maybe even the food! haha. As my dad said this morning "enjoy the adventure".....I will surely do that and it is truly a huge adventure
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A little break
The last couple days have been far less hectic than the last week. Each morning we've had a lecture given to us on Chinese culture and media. It's been interesting, but it's hard to pay attention for 3 hours when someone is translating the whole lecture.
Monday night we had a reception with our group and the group of UNC students (20) that are staying in our same complex. It was really fun, we got to try a lot of food- Duck! I know my parents would be very surprised at how many things I've tried! After the reception we went with the 2 grad students who are kind of our "babysitters" to a bar. I found my first jager bomb, but surprisingly that wasn't the highlight of my night! Outside the bar this kid has a shirt on and it said buffalo wild wings and under that it said Strongsville. I freak out and it turns out they were a group of students from OU that are studying over here for the summer. It was really cool and just insane how small a world it is. The bar ended up being a dance club and it felt like Wes's wedding all over again. One of the guys joke that the bar should have paid me because when we got there we were the only ones on the dance floor- after about 2 hours I had gotten about 25 chinese people to dance with us. I, of course, was there the latest with 2 of the other guys in my group.
This morning after class we just hung out in the room for a while to relax then had an adventure on the subway. Matt, a guy on the trip, had been exploring for a while yesterday with his roommate and Allie and I took him with us so he could teach us how to use it. We ended up at an area that looked like a small time square and then walked to the "night market". The night market is a road of street venders of the most insane foods ever. We (Matt got it and we all tried it) got Squid and Beef and who knows what else I ate tonight. They were closing up about 20 min. after we got there and so we will definitely have to go back. We ended the night walking to Tiananmen Square, partly because we wanted to see it at night and partly because we were trying to find a taxi that wasn't trying to rip off tourists. Because where we were was such a tourist trap there were a lot of fake taxis, one tried to make us pay a flat fare of 150 when our total cost to get back was 41. So we made it back and everything ended up ok.
The next two days we have free days. Tomorrow morning we are going to go to the zoo to see all the panda's. So now I'm off to bed and will write again soon! Hope all is well!
Monday night we had a reception with our group and the group of UNC students (20) that are staying in our same complex. It was really fun, we got to try a lot of food- Duck! I know my parents would be very surprised at how many things I've tried! After the reception we went with the 2 grad students who are kind of our "babysitters" to a bar. I found my first jager bomb, but surprisingly that wasn't the highlight of my night! Outside the bar this kid has a shirt on and it said buffalo wild wings and under that it said Strongsville. I freak out and it turns out they were a group of students from OU that are studying over here for the summer. It was really cool and just insane how small a world it is. The bar ended up being a dance club and it felt like Wes's wedding all over again. One of the guys joke that the bar should have paid me because when we got there we were the only ones on the dance floor- after about 2 hours I had gotten about 25 chinese people to dance with us. I, of course, was there the latest with 2 of the other guys in my group.
This morning after class we just hung out in the room for a while to relax then had an adventure on the subway. Matt, a guy on the trip, had been exploring for a while yesterday with his roommate and Allie and I took him with us so he could teach us how to use it. We ended up at an area that looked like a small time square and then walked to the "night market". The night market is a road of street venders of the most insane foods ever. We (Matt got it and we all tried it) got Squid and Beef and who knows what else I ate tonight. They were closing up about 20 min. after we got there and so we will definitely have to go back. We ended the night walking to Tiananmen Square, partly because we wanted to see it at night and partly because we were trying to find a taxi that wasn't trying to rip off tourists. Because where we were was such a tourist trap there were a lot of fake taxis, one tried to make us pay a flat fare of 150 when our total cost to get back was 41. So we made it back and everything ended up ok.
The next two days we have free days. Tomorrow morning we are going to go to the zoo to see all the panda's. So now I'm off to bed and will write again soon! Hope all is well!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
It feels like I did more in the last 3 days than the last 3 years of my life!
Where to begin? The past 3 days has just been insane. This is going to be a fairly long post, just to warn you!
On Friday morning we got up and went to some media outlets. The first was people.com.cn. This is an online edition of a paper that as I understood it bloomed out and is now a lot bigger than the printed edition. The were talking a lot about convergence and how they were on top of new technology. It was very interesting and this paper is actually owned by the government. They had a whole room of reporters that are going to cover the Olympics and we quickly realized that their news is not the same as our news. On ever television I have see they are replaying the 2000 and 2004 Olympic games, especially events the Chinese won those years. It’s very interesting and they also have tv on the public buses that just play these in a loop. I am quickly realizing that their government is more like their religion and it’s very interesting. We went to a very fancy hotel for a buffet lunch that day and it was amazing. It was the first time I had had really good bread and butter and , I know this will sound stupid, but it’s the first time I’ve had salad on this trip. They have told us not to order fruit of veggies that aren’t cooked, and I didn’t realize how much I would miss a plain old salad. At all the really nice places we have also been offered watermelon for dessert, something we are only allowed to eat when served to us in a proper place. I eat a lot of junk food, but when all the healthy stuff you’re used to eating is taken away from you it kind of sucks! Mom aren’t you proud right now? We had a conversation about what I would miss most, and trust me salads did not come up in my guessing! I have realized what I miss most, but that is to come.
So after lunch we get back on the bus and go to Beijing Youth Daily. We had a tour guide named Tony that spoke really good English. We have a game on this trip to see who can find the Chinese person with the best American name. They pick their names by having an English teacher give it to them, or just by a name of a celebrity or character in a book they like. So far we’ve had Tony, Steve, Clever, and Sponge. We are guessing Sponge came from Spngebob Square pants, but who really knows! So after Tony gave us a tour (the building was over 20 stories and he took our group of about 10 to the 4th floor bar) we all got back in our group of 60 (it is really hard to travel with 60 Americans in a group and am very excited to have lots of free time to explore in smaller groups!) We had a presentation and instead of them talking about their newspaper they basically asked us to work for them for the next 2 months. Gave us their business cards and told us to call them with stories. This is not allowed at all by the Olympic committee, even my blog is pushing it! It was just funny to have that speech. We got back around 5 and I fell asleep to be woken up at 6 by Allie because we wanted to go see acrobats. We get all ready and run outside to grab a cab, but when we get outside it was a little dark to one side, I say, “we’ll be safe to walk to a cab at least”- NOPE starts pouring in about 2 seconds. I HATE wet jeans more than anything in the world and we realize we won’t make it in time, especially because we have to still by tickets and we don’t speak Chinese. We go back up to the room, lay down for a nap at 6pm and I’m woken up by Allie at 1:30 am and realize there is no way we weren’t jet lagged or no way we were going out that night.
Saturday morning we get up to go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. First we realized we hadn’t eaten since lunch, and I was super grumpy so we go explore. What we find is a 24 hours McDonalds and for the first time on the trip I found breakfast food- pancakes sausage and hash browns! This is what I miss most about the US- of course I miss all of you too! But really I am such a breakfast person and they don’t have different foods for breakfast! McDonalds might become a weekly thing, especially because I got all that for under 3 US dollars! The things I realized here are:
1) these 2 places are a lot like D.C..- I thought that we would see a lot of foreign tourists (or anyone else that is white). Not to sound bad, but there are so many people here and I knew I’d be a minority, but I figured at tourist attractions there would be other people from Europe or the states. But there were just tons of Chinese people and we quickly realized that they came from many other providences to see this. I know, you’re probably thinking this is a really stupid Whitney comment, but the more I thought about it- there are a lot of foreign tourists in DC, but a majority are Americans coming to their country’s capital. Its just funny that sometimes I still don’t feel like I’m in China- this was a moment I realized it.
2) it is not like D.C. in the fact that instead of monuments to many different people and presidents- everything is for Mau. EVERYTHING. It’s funny to hear the history and stories our tour guide tells us and the stories students and people we get to know tell us about the history of China. But this can be similar to how they teach the civil war differently in the north and the south back home. It’s funny that as different as China and America are, I find myself drawing parallels to things in our past. I really knew nothing about China before I got here.
3) Their history is OLD. This is another, Whitney that’s the dumbest comment ever! But seriously, we were at the forbidden city and they’re like this all was build in 1420.........and I’m tthinking of Amy Grand singing “in the year of 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” (I know, huge dork) It’s just insane to think about the history that I took in yesterday.
So that feels like it should be a full day, but it was only one-third of it!
Next we went to lunch then on a Hutong tour. This started at the bell and drum tower (two huge tours that were used to tell time for all the people of Beijing years ago.) We went up the drum tower and I will try to post pics very soon. Then we rode a rickshaw (no clue if I’m spelling that right at all). We went to a Hutong and went into a lady’s section.
Ok, not what is a Hutong (and mom and dad, no I didn’t celebrate the 4th, some people went to pizza hut- but if you remember I was in bed by 6) A Hutong is translated into narrow allies. Basically how I will describe it (probably not well, but I have pictures) is a neighborhood- or a block (smaller than a block in the US- but I don’t know what else to call it.) Anyways it’s surrounded by walls and has many different rooms or “houses connected”, and they’re all connected by allies- but it’s all out in the open. The Hutong we were in yesterday had 28 rooms and there were 5 grown brothers that lived in it with their families. So we sat in one room- which was like a studio apartment but the size of a dorm room, which was one of the brothers, Next door there was a kitchen on one side and their sons room on the other (he was 28- mom and dad aren’t you glad Wes just bought his own house?) across the “street” was the eating area. They all share bathrooms and kitchens (we found out today some don’t have bathrooms).
Crazy- then we moved on to some guys garden- I believe his name was Gong and he is known as the most corrupt politician in China. We found out today that he was friends with one of the emperors- really strange story, but he was a man with very girly features and I guess he looked like one of the emperors wives (well not a “wife”, because they only had one but they had many other wives so to say that just didn’t live in the main palace) Anyways she died and he became the emperors lover. Somehow I don’t see this being a story that would be talked about in America, if it was an American politician. Anyways he took a bunch of money because he could and when the emperor died he was 3 times more wealthy, so the emperor’s son had him killed and all his money went back to the government. – more on this in a second.
So after that trip we came back and went to dinner, then we decided it was time we tested out the night life. We (Allie and I) went with 2 of our guy friends, Matt and Mark to the bar district. We walked around and found that workers and what would be like our bouncers on the outside of bars would come up to us because we’re American and try to get us in their bar. We went to a few- all with live music which was fun. We had a fan club at one because Allie got up and did the Solider Boy dance (mom and dad I’m not going to explain this one because it would take too long- just ask will). We also went to a Reggie bar- interesting (Wes I got woowoo shots in honor of you) We mostly stuck to bottled beer- because 60% of alcohol in Beijing is counterfeit and could have really bad stuff in it- thank you Allie’s travel book! We cap off our night with what else- 24 hour McDonalds! Amazing the give us our own picture menu so we can point.
Sorry this is super long I’ll try to blog more frequently and shorter!
Today we had our first off day, so Allie and I wake up at 7 and go on another Hutong tour, which ends up being just about the same as yesterdays and we get nervous when we start off again at the Drum Tower. Anyways we have a guide who is a girl about 27 I would guess, went to college and was an English teacher before moving to Beijing 2 years ago to start giving tours. I think she will move back to her original city and do something else soon- she didn’t seem very happy. She rents a room in a Hutong with a friend- very small and she has to walk 3 min to a public restroom to use it day or night because he Hutong doesn’t have one. She was so interesting and although we had taken a similar tour- it was so much better to go as 2 people than 30 and we got a lot more stories and could ask a lot of questions. We talked about where historical artifacts could be found and she said the government gets them and sells them for money and I explained to her that most of ours are kept in museums in DC or around the country so the people could visit them. We talked about how many young people in China celebrate Christmas- when she was in college they have a big party with her friends on the night of the 24 and give each other apples. But basically it’s a party.
We visited 2 Hutongs, the first being a very wealthy family- I can’t describe I’ll post pictures later. The seconds a working class family, who we got to have lunch with. The guy was an artist and I bought an original painting- for a whopping 200 rmbs, which is like 25 dollars (dad I’m sure you’ll do the official math)- its beautiful I’ll post it in a picture too. Other than that I just am hanging out in the room relaxing after a few busy days. I’m going to go get a snack with a girl pretty soon- Allie’s working out and I eat- then we’re going to try to figure out how to do laundry tonight! Should be a great time.
Also I figured you all would like to know I’ve mastered the taxi’s we go to the front desk and show a picture or map and they write it for us in Chinese we give that paper to the driver. To get back we have a business card with a mini map and the address in Chinese and we just hand that to the driver. I actually know my way around pretty good now after buses and taxis and walking. I feel pretty good. Also no traffic laws really- sometimes there aren’t even lines on the road. For anyone who has seen elf- “the yellow ones don’t stop”- well none of them stop here. Bikers don’t follow traffic signals- everyone honks (even though we found out today in the city that’s illegal) and nothing yields to pedestrians.
It’s great! The athletes won’t be happy in a month when they get here with the smog! But it will sure be interesting to watch it all take place! I’ll write again soon- and don’t worry not so long! Send me a message or email- I’d love to hear from you all!
On Friday morning we got up and went to some media outlets. The first was people.com.cn. This is an online edition of a paper that as I understood it bloomed out and is now a lot bigger than the printed edition. The were talking a lot about convergence and how they were on top of new technology. It was very interesting and this paper is actually owned by the government. They had a whole room of reporters that are going to cover the Olympics and we quickly realized that their news is not the same as our news. On ever television I have see they are replaying the 2000 and 2004 Olympic games, especially events the Chinese won those years. It’s very interesting and they also have tv on the public buses that just play these in a loop. I am quickly realizing that their government is more like their religion and it’s very interesting. We went to a very fancy hotel for a buffet lunch that day and it was amazing. It was the first time I had had really good bread and butter and , I know this will sound stupid, but it’s the first time I’ve had salad on this trip. They have told us not to order fruit of veggies that aren’t cooked, and I didn’t realize how much I would miss a plain old salad. At all the really nice places we have also been offered watermelon for dessert, something we are only allowed to eat when served to us in a proper place. I eat a lot of junk food, but when all the healthy stuff you’re used to eating is taken away from you it kind of sucks! Mom aren’t you proud right now? We had a conversation about what I would miss most, and trust me salads did not come up in my guessing! I have realized what I miss most, but that is to come.
So after lunch we get back on the bus and go to Beijing Youth Daily. We had a tour guide named Tony that spoke really good English. We have a game on this trip to see who can find the Chinese person with the best American name. They pick their names by having an English teacher give it to them, or just by a name of a celebrity or character in a book they like. So far we’ve had Tony, Steve, Clever, and Sponge. We are guessing Sponge came from Spngebob Square pants, but who really knows! So after Tony gave us a tour (the building was over 20 stories and he took our group of about 10 to the 4th floor bar) we all got back in our group of 60 (it is really hard to travel with 60 Americans in a group and am very excited to have lots of free time to explore in smaller groups!) We had a presentation and instead of them talking about their newspaper they basically asked us to work for them for the next 2 months. Gave us their business cards and told us to call them with stories. This is not allowed at all by the Olympic committee, even my blog is pushing it! It was just funny to have that speech. We got back around 5 and I fell asleep to be woken up at 6 by Allie because we wanted to go see acrobats. We get all ready and run outside to grab a cab, but when we get outside it was a little dark to one side, I say, “we’ll be safe to walk to a cab at least”- NOPE starts pouring in about 2 seconds. I HATE wet jeans more than anything in the world and we realize we won’t make it in time, especially because we have to still by tickets and we don’t speak Chinese. We go back up to the room, lay down for a nap at 6pm and I’m woken up by Allie at 1:30 am and realize there is no way we weren’t jet lagged or no way we were going out that night.
Saturday morning we get up to go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. First we realized we hadn’t eaten since lunch, and I was super grumpy so we go explore. What we find is a 24 hours McDonalds and for the first time on the trip I found breakfast food- pancakes sausage and hash browns! This is what I miss most about the US- of course I miss all of you too! But really I am such a breakfast person and they don’t have different foods for breakfast! McDonalds might become a weekly thing, especially because I got all that for under 3 US dollars! The things I realized here are:
1) these 2 places are a lot like D.C..- I thought that we would see a lot of foreign tourists (or anyone else that is white). Not to sound bad, but there are so many people here and I knew I’d be a minority, but I figured at tourist attractions there would be other people from Europe or the states. But there were just tons of Chinese people and we quickly realized that they came from many other providences to see this. I know, you’re probably thinking this is a really stupid Whitney comment, but the more I thought about it- there are a lot of foreign tourists in DC, but a majority are Americans coming to their country’s capital. Its just funny that sometimes I still don’t feel like I’m in China- this was a moment I realized it.
2) it is not like D.C. in the fact that instead of monuments to many different people and presidents- everything is for Mau. EVERYTHING. It’s funny to hear the history and stories our tour guide tells us and the stories students and people we get to know tell us about the history of China. But this can be similar to how they teach the civil war differently in the north and the south back home. It’s funny that as different as China and America are, I find myself drawing parallels to things in our past. I really knew nothing about China before I got here.
3) Their history is OLD. This is another, Whitney that’s the dumbest comment ever! But seriously, we were at the forbidden city and they’re like this all was build in 1420.........and I’m tthinking of Amy Grand singing “in the year of 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” (I know, huge dork) It’s just insane to think about the history that I took in yesterday.
So that feels like it should be a full day, but it was only one-third of it!
Next we went to lunch then on a Hutong tour. This started at the bell and drum tower (two huge tours that were used to tell time for all the people of Beijing years ago.) We went up the drum tower and I will try to post pics very soon. Then we rode a rickshaw (no clue if I’m spelling that right at all). We went to a Hutong and went into a lady’s section.
Ok, not what is a Hutong (and mom and dad, no I didn’t celebrate the 4th, some people went to pizza hut- but if you remember I was in bed by 6) A Hutong is translated into narrow allies. Basically how I will describe it (probably not well, but I have pictures) is a neighborhood- or a block (smaller than a block in the US- but I don’t know what else to call it.) Anyways it’s surrounded by walls and has many different rooms or “houses connected”, and they’re all connected by allies- but it’s all out in the open. The Hutong we were in yesterday had 28 rooms and there were 5 grown brothers that lived in it with their families. So we sat in one room- which was like a studio apartment but the size of a dorm room, which was one of the brothers, Next door there was a kitchen on one side and their sons room on the other (he was 28- mom and dad aren’t you glad Wes just bought his own house?) across the “street” was the eating area. They all share bathrooms and kitchens (we found out today some don’t have bathrooms).
Crazy- then we moved on to some guys garden- I believe his name was Gong and he is known as the most corrupt politician in China. We found out today that he was friends with one of the emperors- really strange story, but he was a man with very girly features and I guess he looked like one of the emperors wives (well not a “wife”, because they only had one but they had many other wives so to say that just didn’t live in the main palace) Anyways she died and he became the emperors lover. Somehow I don’t see this being a story that would be talked about in America, if it was an American politician. Anyways he took a bunch of money because he could and when the emperor died he was 3 times more wealthy, so the emperor’s son had him killed and all his money went back to the government. – more on this in a second.
So after that trip we came back and went to dinner, then we decided it was time we tested out the night life. We (Allie and I) went with 2 of our guy friends, Matt and Mark to the bar district. We walked around and found that workers and what would be like our bouncers on the outside of bars would come up to us because we’re American and try to get us in their bar. We went to a few- all with live music which was fun. We had a fan club at one because Allie got up and did the Solider Boy dance (mom and dad I’m not going to explain this one because it would take too long- just ask will). We also went to a Reggie bar- interesting (Wes I got woowoo shots in honor of you) We mostly stuck to bottled beer- because 60% of alcohol in Beijing is counterfeit and could have really bad stuff in it- thank you Allie’s travel book! We cap off our night with what else- 24 hour McDonalds! Amazing the give us our own picture menu so we can point.
Sorry this is super long I’ll try to blog more frequently and shorter!
Today we had our first off day, so Allie and I wake up at 7 and go on another Hutong tour, which ends up being just about the same as yesterdays and we get nervous when we start off again at the Drum Tower. Anyways we have a guide who is a girl about 27 I would guess, went to college and was an English teacher before moving to Beijing 2 years ago to start giving tours. I think she will move back to her original city and do something else soon- she didn’t seem very happy. She rents a room in a Hutong with a friend- very small and she has to walk 3 min to a public restroom to use it day or night because he Hutong doesn’t have one. She was so interesting and although we had taken a similar tour- it was so much better to go as 2 people than 30 and we got a lot more stories and could ask a lot of questions. We talked about where historical artifacts could be found and she said the government gets them and sells them for money and I explained to her that most of ours are kept in museums in DC or around the country so the people could visit them. We talked about how many young people in China celebrate Christmas- when she was in college they have a big party with her friends on the night of the 24 and give each other apples. But basically it’s a party.
We visited 2 Hutongs, the first being a very wealthy family- I can’t describe I’ll post pictures later. The seconds a working class family, who we got to have lunch with. The guy was an artist and I bought an original painting- for a whopping 200 rmbs, which is like 25 dollars (dad I’m sure you’ll do the official math)- its beautiful I’ll post it in a picture too. Other than that I just am hanging out in the room relaxing after a few busy days. I’m going to go get a snack with a girl pretty soon- Allie’s working out and I eat- then we’re going to try to figure out how to do laundry tonight! Should be a great time.
Also I figured you all would like to know I’ve mastered the taxi’s we go to the front desk and show a picture or map and they write it for us in Chinese we give that paper to the driver. To get back we have a business card with a mini map and the address in Chinese and we just hand that to the driver. I actually know my way around pretty good now after buses and taxis and walking. I feel pretty good. Also no traffic laws really- sometimes there aren’t even lines on the road. For anyone who has seen elf- “the yellow ones don’t stop”- well none of them stop here. Bikers don’t follow traffic signals- everyone honks (even though we found out today in the city that’s illegal) and nothing yields to pedestrians.
It’s great! The athletes won’t be happy in a month when they get here with the smog! But it will sure be interesting to watch it all take place! I’ll write again soon- and don’t worry not so long! Send me a message or email- I’d love to hear from you all!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
I'm alive
Just wanted to write a quick note to say I'm alive! It's been a really busy and adventurous few days! I don't have much time now because Allie and I are about to go out on another one, but I should be back this afternoon with plenty of free time to write. Friday we toured a bunch of media outlets in China then Allie and I laid down for a nap at 6:30 and didn't really wake up until Saturday.....a little jet lagged. Yesterday we went on a site-seeing tour where you follow your tour guide with a flag.....really fun and I took over 200 pictures. We saw the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square and then went to a Hutong and other palace and got to test out 4 different types of tea. Today Allie and I are going to go on a more detailed Hutong tour and then go from there. I will write again soon!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
adventure in a Hutong
Here are pictures from yesterday's adventures
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274225&l=bd540&id=15900202
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274225&l=bd540&id=15900202
My first snickers!
We have an hour off until our first lecture and Allie went to the pool, so I figured I would update this real fast.
First of all, congrats to Wes and Em.....closing on their new house today! And I would like to welcome Lenny into the fam (their new dog) It's about time that we have a dog in the family again. (Hint mom: great graduation present to buy me a dog).
Secondly I was given a Chinese cell phone today, so if anyone has the great urge of going and buying a phone card and calling me here it is: 13910046887 .....you can also text, but I have no clue the cost of that.
That out of the way, Allie and I woke up this morning and walked to a local coffee shot. It was really good and the menu had pictures so we did a lot of pointing and smiling- which I'm sure my life will consist a lot of in the next 2 months. We honestly make a really good team. We got to try on our uniforms so we could see Chinese sizes, my shoe size is a 3.5- pretty awesome! We meet with our venue leaders. I got switched from the track venue to the gymnastics venue- kind of disappointing but I'm working for the head of the venue so that could be good. Allie was disappointed because she got moved to field hockey, but its the olympics and it will be amazing I'm sure. We start training July 15. the 11th-13th the Olympic Committee is going to give us tours of Beijing, its good to finally have some information.
I went to a bank to exchange some money and that was a huge mess, but I now have chinese money and feel really weathly when it costs me 2 dollars to eat dinner! I went with a few guys over to a little connivence store and we had fun trying to find stuff. I bought my first snickers bar and am enjoying that right now! Thats been our day so far, pretty eventful. We have a lecture in about an hour then a break for dinner and a banquet tonight. I'll write more when I can!
First of all, congrats to Wes and Em.....closing on their new house today! And I would like to welcome Lenny into the fam (their new dog) It's about time that we have a dog in the family again. (Hint mom: great graduation present to buy me a dog).
Secondly I was given a Chinese cell phone today, so if anyone has the great urge of going and buying a phone card and calling me here it is: 13910046887 .....you can also text, but I have no clue the cost of that.
That out of the way, Allie and I woke up this morning and walked to a local coffee shot. It was really good and the menu had pictures so we did a lot of pointing and smiling- which I'm sure my life will consist a lot of in the next 2 months. We honestly make a really good team. We got to try on our uniforms so we could see Chinese sizes, my shoe size is a 3.5- pretty awesome! We meet with our venue leaders. I got switched from the track venue to the gymnastics venue- kind of disappointing but I'm working for the head of the venue so that could be good. Allie was disappointed because she got moved to field hockey, but its the olympics and it will be amazing I'm sure. We start training July 15. the 11th-13th the Olympic Committee is going to give us tours of Beijing, its good to finally have some information.
I went to a bank to exchange some money and that was a huge mess, but I now have chinese money and feel really weathly when it costs me 2 dollars to eat dinner! I went with a few guys over to a little connivence store and we had fun trying to find stuff. I bought my first snickers bar and am enjoying that right now! Thats been our day so far, pretty eventful. We have a lecture in about an hour then a break for dinner and a banquet tonight. I'll write more when I can!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The starting line
Ok, this might have to be semi-short because I'm EXHAUSTED and we only have one hook up to the internet so Allie and I must take turns with the computers. Our flight was an hour late taking off from Chi-town- not too huge a deal. We sat on the runway because there was a plane stuck behind us. I sat next to my summer welcome roommate, crazy that we met 4 years ago beginning our college experience and now this. It was really not a bad flight- except that my mom told me that the plane would be so big I wouldn't be able to tell I was on a plane.......NOT true. There were 61 rows with about 10 to a row, except first class. It was really a rough start to the flight, especially anytime we tried to eat. It was amazing flying over Canada (on Canada Day) and the Arctic Circle (it was amazing, but really is actually melting). The best part is that after we got to China (we could see we were flying over it by the screen on the plane) there was the most amazing mountain ranges. I didn't realize that there were mountains so close to Beijing. The worst part of the trip was that when we got about 10 min from landing we could see nothing but grey clouds. AWFUL, the smog here is SO bad. I can't even compare it to L.A. last year when I was on spring break. We were walking to dinner tonight and you could feel it, anytime you go outside you feel like you need to take a shower. Hopefully as the olympics draw near, it will get a little better, but I don't know how it can do that in such a short period of time. When we got here we went through customs, they just waived my group through, didn't look at anything. We were meet by some students from Renmin and bused back to the university. The best part of this may have been the other bus missed the exit, so just reversed backwards on the highway to correct itself. I'm glad that I was on the other bus. Overall this city is extremely neat, not that different from any large city. We drove past where I'll be working and it is AMAZING! We also saw the swimming arena and hopefully I can get close enough and inside to take pictures. Dinner was an adventure, we all walked around and went to a Chinese place on campus where the students asked if we wanted dumplings, rice, or noodles. I got chicken and rice, which was very good but right now I just feel like a piece of pizza! I'm sure this will get a lot better in the next few days, right now it's just really unorganized. We meet with the olympic people tomorrow and then have a lecture and reception. I will try to write more at that point.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2273879&l=16ac1&id=15900202
That is a link to photos from my journey from Missouri to here. I took too many pictures out the plane window and my battery died at the airport (which I guess is the largest building per square feet in the world- don't know if that's true). And no mom, I didn't really sleep on the plane. Maybe 2 or 3 hours total, I was too busy exploring the arctic out the window! I'm off to finally sleep after being awake since yesterday at 7 am.......it will take me a few days to get this day thing down. Hopefully I'll have more info tomorrow!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2273879&l=16ac1&id=15900202
That is a link to photos from my journey from Missouri to here. I took too many pictures out the plane window and my battery died at the airport (which I guess is the largest building per square feet in the world- don't know if that's true). And no mom, I didn't really sleep on the plane. Maybe 2 or 3 hours total, I was too busy exploring the arctic out the window! I'm off to finally sleep after being awake since yesterday at 7 am.......it will take me a few days to get this day thing down. Hopefully I'll have more info tomorrow!
Mom and Dad...I made it to China......could totally live here because there is a giant IKEA, Allie already flooded our bathroom and we flew over the north pole.....TOOK AMAZING pics. Have to go to dinner, will write more after we get settled and post pics. Get a cell phone tomorrow and a bike......this could be interesting
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