we climbed the great wall, y'all!

Even though we got back from our Beijing trip a little over a week ago, I am still pretty excited about it (as you can probably tell from the title of this post). It was such a great trip! I finally got to climb the Great Wall of China! I was so disappointed that I didn't get to see it the last time I was here, so it was something I really wanted to do this time. We ate Subway on the wall, & then my friends and I did a lovely rendition of "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan. Instead of walking down, we took the bobsleds down which was really fun. Anyway, we saw lots of historical things (the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven), ate lots of food I've missed (Italian, Mexican, Pizza Hut), and did some awesome market shopping (" Hey girl, what do you need? I'll give you a good price!"). We took a 12 1/2 hour train ride back home, which was a little less fun. See, we had planned to get one of the seats with a bed because the train left at 11 pm and got to our city around 11:30 am, so we wanted to sleep on the way. Well, by the time we got our tickets they were sold out so we had to go on the hard seats. I'm pretty sure it was at least 80 degrees, there were 3 (or more) people per seat, the aisle was full of people standing, and the guy in the seat across from us was so drunk he actually fell out of his seat at one point. It was quite the experience. I'll leave it at that. =)
Since we've been back I have done a lot of random things. We got to teach some of the university students about American holidays. We went to a talent show-type thing where we watched some Kung Fu, and one of my new friends perform a beautiful dance. I decided while in Beijing that I want to start being more adventurous with my eating, so I've tried several new things since we got back including mutton, lotus root, duck blood, and pig intestine. I didn't find any new favorites among those, but none of it was terrible. Honestly, I probably could have eaten more if I hadn't known what it was. I was walking around another campus the other day and I came upon a group of students doing some sort of strange dance with green onions in their hands. They said hello to me, so I stopped to talk to them. Pretty soon they invited me to join them in their dance. Now, if you know me at all you know that I do not dance. Ever. But, I thought why not. So, there I was, green onions in hand, dancing away in the middle of this college campus. One of my favorite things about being here is how much I've been brought out of my comfort zone. I've ended up doing things here that I would never have done at home. It is so freeing to let go and become willing to look like a complete fool for the sake of experiencing another culture! :) I kinda love this place.

when the sound of justin bieber brings you comfort......

Wow, I didn't realize that it had been so long since I posted! Lots of things have happened in this past month. We began language classes about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Because our level of Chinese was so low (um..like level zero) they don't have a class that is low enough for us, so Allison and I are learning from 2 tutors. We still meet in the classroom at the school, but it's just us. We study Chinese for 3 hours a day, 3 days a week, and 2 hours on Friday. I know it doesn't sound like much, but 3 straight hours of Chinese will really hurt a person's brain. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing really horrible with language, but then I'll understand something when I'm out in the city during the day and I get so excited. Like last night when we were in a taxi going home from class and the taxi driver rattled off a nice little sentence in Chinese, and at first I didn't catch it. But he repeated it and I heard "liu xue sheng",( "foreign students") and I got really excited that I knew he was asking! Granted, I didn't understand anything else during the ride home, but it's still really fun to understand something that's being said to you.
I was trying to think of a way to describe what life is like here. I think the best way is to describe situations that have become daily life. For example, I'm standing on the sidewalk waiting for the bus to come and to my left are several people having a conversation which I can't understand, in front of me is a row of stores whose names are in characters which I can't read, and all of a sudden I hear "..and I was like, baby, baby, baby, ohh!". Yep, the Bieb was blaring from the speakers in  a store behind me. It's those random things that make me so happy. =) Today I was standing outside the north gate of our school waiting on a friend at around noon. And I am here to report that that particular place, at that particular time, is no place for a lone foreigner. Hundreds of students came pouring out of that gate and I think it's safe to say that about 95% of them spent at least some part of their walk with their heads turned looking back at me. Thankfully they were nearly all smiling, some even said hello, but mostly its stare, smile, giggle. One poor girl lost herself when she saw me and accidentally shouted "mei guo!" and then put her hand over her mouth. My friend ended up being late so I stood there awkardly trying to look friendly and unfazed by the staring.
Something that strikes me as so different here is that it is totally normal to see children riding the bus by themselves. Now maybe it's because I'm from a small town and have semi-overprotective parents (sorry m & d, y'all know it's true), but I can't believe that parents don't worry about their kids riding the public bus alone. It is just their way of life. One of my favorite differences here is how convenient it is to buy delicious, fresh fruit. Our favorite fruit guy sells right outside our apartment gate. The pineapple is divine! On the topic of food, we bought cheese. Real, legit, Land-O-Lake's cheese. I am a happy girl. Oh how I've missed it! We went to an open market recently and among the various meats available there was one option which was both highly unusual and slightly disturbing: dog. Piled up on a table were these dogs, skinned, with mouths open. My two friends (also foreigners) couldn't take it so they went ahead, but I couldn't quite pass up the opportunity so I took some pictures. But they are the kind of pictures you look at later and think, "Did I really have to zoom in so much?" Still, its very much a culture thing so I wanted to document it. I'm still debating whether or not I want to try eating dog (in a restaurant that is). Maybe I'll try just a bite.

Some certain people (who shall remain nameless) have brought to my attention that I'm failing to keep my blog updated adequately. So, here is my effort to fix that :)
Since I posted last quite a few things have happened. My roomie and I sat beside a university student on the bus one day, and we decided to talk to her. She was able to speak English pretty well, although she said she was bad at it. It seems that so many of the students think that their English isn't very good, when it actually is. I try to make them understand that I find them really impressive. I mean, I only have one language. Even if they can't communicate in English flawlessly, they can still communicate! Anyway, she told us that she had never spoken to a foreigner before and that we had made her really happy by talking to her. If she only knew how happy we were to talk to her! She gave us her phone number and told us to call her if we needed any help. So, the next week we got in touch with her and planned to spend an afternoon with her and a friend. We met up with her and two friends and spent a few hours walking around in this big park with carnival rides, inflatables, and games. After eating some street food (some sort of chicken sandwich-esque thing) and some zip-lining, we decided to check out the zoo at the back of the park. Since I had been to a Chinese zoo before I was pretty prepared for what was there. With the exception of a lion, a panther, a bear, and some monkeys, most of the exhibits were what would be in a petting zoo in America: ducks, chickens, goats....plus a dog. Ha. By the time our zoo fun was over we were freezing, so we sought shelter from good ole KFC. Our friends ordered hot orange juice. We got ice cream which disturbed them greatly because just a few minutes earlier we were talking about how cold we were. We spent a while there talking about Chinese and American culture, asking each other questions, and practicing some Chinese. Finally, we decided to go have some dinner, and because our friends wanted to eat Chinese we walked a good distance and found a little restaurant. Allison and I had already mentioned that she likes dumplings and I like tang cu li ji (sweet and sour pork) so our friends ordered those along with some other things unknown to us. When the dumplings were brought in Allison asked what kind they were. "Beef and garbage", was the matter-of-fact reply. "Beef and what?" "Beef and garbage." "Garbage?" "Yes, garbage." "Garbage?!" I was sitting there listening to this conversation, trying with everything in me not to laugh. Finally our friend realized her mistake and said laughing, "Oh no! No, I mean to say 'cabbage'!"
Well, after that a plate was brought in on which was a pile of bones and meat, from which animal I would've just had to guess. Our friend informed us it was chicken (chainsaw chicken I believe it's called), so Allison, brave soul that she is, dug in. After two successful bites, she went for another piece and realized about the time it made it to her plate that it was the chicken's head. She stared at it for a bit, then finally said, "Um..is this a chicken head?" "Yes it is." More staring at the offensive head. "Do you want it? I don't think I can eat a chicken head." Thankfully they said that they don't eat it either so it was left on the plate :)
We went out to the open market today, and since it's Valentine's Day, there were flowers for sell on the streets. Two young girls were carrying a bucket of single roses to sell. They walked up to us, said hello, and tried to sell us a flower. We told them we didn't speak Chinese, so they just said "bye!" and left. In a few minutes they came back and asked to take a picture with us. We took the picture, and as they were turning to go, they handed each of us a rose and said "thank you." They were so happy and smiling and just so sweet. It made my day. After that, we went to McDonald's for supper and I ordered a happy meal, feeling pretty excited that the toys were Hello Kitty. I got my meal and looked in my bag and in it was, not a Hello Kitty toy, but a monkey! Do you know how disappointing it is to expect an awesome Hello Kitty toy and get a stinkin monkey? But, later I realized that the monkey talks. In Chinese. So, I decided it was a pretty okay toy after all. :)
Here's some random things I wanted to tell y'all about too. The fireworks are still going sporatically. In the past week or so I've also learned how to say some important things like "no spicy" and "toilet". I paid for the bus with a five and had to jump up and get my change from people getting on the bus after me, which is intimidating. I went to a nearby city and ate Pizza Hut which was SO good! We took a 3 1/2 hour bus ride which didn't involve the highway, but did involve an older gentelman who thought it was okay to rid his body of mucus by spitting it on the floor of the bus. I watched a guy make some awesomely huge cotton candy & ate a ton of it. And I was able to give a new friend a copy of my favorite book, which she was really excited about. The lantern festival is coming up later this week, so we'll see what that's all about! Well, I guess that's all for now. Zai-jian! :)

happy new year!! (again)

So, we think that we know all about celebrating with firecrackers because we've got the Fourth of July, New Year's, and Christmas, right? Well, I am here to report that our intensity pales in comparison to that of our Chinese friends. I just experienced my first Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year holiday. Now, I'm not sure about in bigger cities, but in this city there was no parade (which I must admit was really disappointing because I really wanted to see one of those awesome dragon floats). There was, however, plenty of fireworks. The day we moved into our apartment we noticed the leftovers of where someone had shot some in the stairwell!! So, a couple days before the actual holiday we began hearing them go off randomly. Then, on new year's eve, they brought out the big guns. These were the most intense firecrackers I've ever heard in my life. Apparantly, here it's not about how pretty they are, it's about how loud they are. And how constant. For hours, all you could hear was this booming. At about midnight Allison & I decided that we should take our opportunity to celebrate, because we may never be here for this again! So, we bundled up & ran outside. The air was full of smoke & that firecracker smell. An apartment building was in our way of seeing the few pretty ones that were actually shot, but the sky behind the building was lighting up like crazy. It felt like we were under some sort of attack, and that planes were heading our way to bomb us or something! We watched and listened for a while and finally went back inside. I layed down in my bed with my mp3 player on to try and sleep. But then, I took my headphones off and just listened. And as I listened, I thought about the people here, and their customs and culture and beliefs. The lack of knowledge about a certain subject which is of the utmost importance to me is unreal. How privileged we are to have grown up knowing. How privileged we are to have the opportunity to pass it on.
Some funny things have happened to Allison and me since I wrote last. One is that while we were exploring some market areas downtown, a young couple approached us and asked if we would take a picture with them. We said ok, so the girl got in the picture with us and put up her peace sign. Then the guy, who was the only one that could speak English, thanked us, and as he turned to leave he said, "Happy Birthday!". We just smiled and said thanks. I'm impressed by the courage of so many of these people to try their English on us. I'm still too embarassed to try much of my limited Chinese! Another day, when we were in line at McDonald's, a little boy turned around and noticed us standing there. His face broke out into this huge smile and he began tugging on his mom's arm saying, "Mei guo rens! Mei guo rens!" which means, "Americans! Americans!" It was so cute. Most of the people here are very curious about us, but it's a sweet curiosity. And I am quite curious in return. I'm excited to make friends with some of these beautiful people!

what a girl will do for some KFC around here...

So, if you're reading this then you probably know me, which means that you know that I'm pretty much a small town kinda girl. I've always lived in one. Even when I moved away for college I moved to another tiny town with nothing much to speak of. Now, I find myself living in a city. By China standards, this city is small. But by my standards, it's big. One of things that is so different for me here is transportation. I get everywhere I go one of three ways: bus, taxi, or walking. My preferred method is the bus because it only costs 1 yuen to ride, there are plenty of people on it, and its easy to get most anywhere without knowing a word of Chinese if you know which one to take. Up until yesterday I didn't have any particularly strong feelings either way about taxis. But after yesterday's experience I changed my mind.
My roomie, Allison, and I decided to go grab some KFC for lunch. In this city there are several KFCs, and we knew the particular one we wanted to go to. Its close and very convenient because its right next to the grocery store, and we wanted to pick up a few things. So, we left our apartment just in time to see good ole Bus 7 pulling away from the curb. Since we missed our bus, we stood at the bus stop for a couple minutes debating what we should do. Allison was really anxious to go and get back so that she could skype someone back home, so we decided to take a taxi. We finally hailed one and climbed in. We gave the driver our handy little "taxi guide" which has the Chinese characters for different locations throughout our city. Allison showed him the characters for KFC. He nodded as if he understood, so we settled in for a short drive. Soon after the driver took out his phone and began calling someone. Throughout the whole conversation he kept looking back at us in his rearview mirror as if he was talking about us. He finally handed the phone to Allison and she talked to the driver's friend who can speak English. She told him where we wanted to go and he said he would tell the driver. Well, the driver still kept going further and further away from where we wanted to go. As we got into a part of the city that we didn't recognize, we both began to feel a little uneasy. Being inside a taxi with a strange man that you are unable to communicate with, in an area you don't recognize is not a good feeling. I began trying to let him know that we wanted to get out of the taxi. Of course, he had no idea what I was saying so he called his friend again. This time I took the phone and tried to explain to his friend that we decided we just wanted to get out where we were and look around. The man on the phone wouldn't listen to me and he just kept saying things like, "Oh no, its ok. Don't worry about how much it will cost." Finally, when I realized that he wasn't getting the picture, I knew that if we wanted out I was going to have to be explicitly clear and much more firm than is my nature. So, basically fear took hold and I told the guy on the phone how it was going to be. He got it that time. :) We got out, paid the driver (way more than if he had taken us where we wanted to go, which could've been his plan all along, who knows), and crossed the street to pay a visit to dear old Colonel Sanders. I wouldn't quite say that some chicken nuggets was worth all that, but I'm so thankful we were protected, and a lesson was learned!
P.S. And since we are on the topic of transportation, I just need to add that many of the buses here have TVs in them, and that every single one of them is playing a Selena Gomez music video. :)
That is all. K bye.

ting bu dong

Well, my first 10 days in Asia have been pretty interesting. The first week I spent in Taipei, which is a very pretty city. It is very Westernized; Subway, Starbucks, pizza, & burgers are easy to find. So I didn't feel very far removed from my normal life there. But, on Monday I arrived in China and the real cultural experience began :)
My roommate and I are here to study language in a local university, so we expected to be living in school housing. However, we were offered an apartment on campus and we accepted it. It's a really nice place and we each have our own room, so we're excited about it! Our first night here, it was 40 degrees inside. The heating wasn't turned on until a few hours before we arrived, so we froze the first night. But gradually it has been heating up and it's now about 64 degrees, so it's great! We live on the 5th floor of the building, which has no elevator, so I'm getting a lot of exercise!
One thing that I've really noticed is how much we are getting stared at here. The city is fairly small and foreigners aren't that common. So, everywhere we go we get a ton of stares. As we were waiting at the bus stop yesterday, a bus pulled up and stopped at the curb. Other people were getting on and we were just standing there waiting for ours when I noticed a young guy staring really intently at us. I looked away and continued talking to my friends. The next time I looked up, I saw that he was taking our picture! I started thinking about how different it is here and at home. At home, staring is considered rude. Here, it is perfectly ok. As I thought about it, something we used to say as a kid when someone was staring at us popped into my head: "Take a picture, it'll last longer." Well, he did. :)
Another thing I've really noticed the past couple days is how easy we have it back home. It is unbelievable how much trouble it can be to accomplish the simplest thing here. We waited an hour at the bank and still didn't accomplish our purpose; in order to have usable water it has to be boiled in a kettle or pot; clothes must be hung out to dry; and getting a taxi can mean waiting forever in the bitter cold. In just a few days I have realized how blessed we really are. I think that this experience is going to teach me that there are so many things that I think I can't live without that really aren't so important, and just how blessed I really am.
The people here are nice, and for the most part their curiosity is well meant. Many speak English so that's helpful, but many more don't. Today a friend insisted that I ask where the bathroom was in Chinese. I fought her, but it was no use. She is very persistent. So, I walked up to a sales woman in the mall, and very nervously and unclearly, asked for the bathroom. She gave me a strange look, so I tried again. Finally, she said "Do you speak English?" HAHA. That's the first time the question has been reversed on me. So after that fail, we went up a floor and my friend made me ask again. This lady understood me! Success! I'm excited to start classes so that hopefully I can learn some Chinese soon. As for now, "ting bu dong" (I don't understand what I'm hearing) will just have to be my catchphrase. :)

9 days, 5 flights, & a 44 lb luggage limit

So, in a little over a week I'm headed out! I'm really excited, but also a little nervous. The details of this trip are still pretty sketchy, so I have a lot of questions that won't be answered until I get there. Of course, in true human fashion, I want to know every detail of everything so that I know what to expect. But, it doesn't work that way so my option is to trust! So, now all that stands between me & this new adventure is 9 days, 5 flights, & a 44 lb luggage limit :)