My Month in China

instead of doing homework like the good student I should be, here are some pictures. hoorah.

2007-01-31T15:49:00.000-08:00

the people who stayed up to see the sun rise while freezing up on tai shan

dj and a little girl at the antique market...probably one of the cutest pictures taken the entire month.

the group at Tian'anmen Square. Some guy kept pointing his video camera at us and standing there blatantly taping us. It was disconcerting. Behind those smiles are grimaces of...uncomfortableness as the guy kept recording us. Then, when asked to go away, he walked away a few paces so he was a bit behind us and started taping again.

a stone thing holding up a tree in the Confucius Temple

Forbidden City

Along a walkway in the house of a famous female poet who lived in Jinan

Emperor's Dinner we had in Beijing

A throne room of some high ranking official in the Forbidden City. In Tai He Palace, which was under renovation, there are nine rows of nine pillars with red ones directly surrounding teh throne, dragons all over the ceiling, and the throne of the Emperor was directly under a huge ball or something, and it was said that the dragons would make it fall on the throne if someone besides the Emperor sat on the throne. When the last dynasty was overthrown, the military general who took over at first ordered the throne moved back before he would dare sit on it.

more of the Forbidden City

etc

the shiny walkway was just for the Emperor

that's probably a really gross picture of me in the Forbidden City, but it's small enough that I can't tell at the moment.

The lions...everyone from merchants to the Emperor could decorate the front of their houses with the lions to guard. The curls in the mane signified your place in society. The Emperor could have nine, seven for the really rich people, and five for the people rich enough to have them but not really all that rich. The male has a ball under his paw and the female a cub.

Tian'anmen Square (The Gates of Heavenly Peace) and the outside of the Forbidden City and the portrait of Chairman Mao

A carving on the walls surrounding the Big Goose Pagoda....I think I posted this already, but it's here now.

a table. I really wanted to get one. But I couldn't send it home and they cost like, the equivalent of $10,000 in RMB. >_>

the Big Goose Pagoda, the last major attraction we went to see...still functioning as a Buddhist Temple and holds the first translations of the Buddhist texts into Chinese...which are pretty damn old...

oh look. me on a mountain, freezing my ass off.

loolooloo

2006-11-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

boredom. must write paper. must complete accounting project. must work on accounting reading and nonfiction reading and fiction reading...critiques.....aaaaaiiiiiiiii the schoolwork. I should have gotten so much more done over the break, but I was too distracted with tv and starving since my parents make dinner at midnight and don't keep any other food in the house. must work. I need this semester to end. I STAB MY HEAD!!!!!!

yay, pictures

2006-11-25T20:52:00.000-08:00

stairs in the drum tower, and DP and Phil, who always loved running up stairs in no time at all

One of the sons of the dragon

Da Ming lake

Really fancy waitresses at a fancy place - ancient style, Emperor's Dinner

On the mountain, above the clouds

Locations of the incident of 19....21? Can't remember right now.

The animals are nails in the Forbidden City

Tea ceremony

Garden in the Forbidden City

Altar at the Temple of Heaven

Xi'an, terracotta warriors...surrounding area....rather clean shot of the sky, actually

drum tower, drums every half hour

more than five!

2006-07-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

Tai Mountain

Really picturesque shot I somehow got while on campus
Our little "graduation" ceremony from Beida...that's the head of the Philosophy department
Holes are where Buddhas from the grottos were stolen and taken to the States
I probably posted this one, damn it. Oh well. The Divine Path.

At the Temple of Heaven. The walls were built really low so that it seemed like everything and everyone else was taller and closer to heaven. The walkway leading up to the temple itself is flat, but on either side, the ground slopes down, so it feels like you're going uphill and ascending toward heaven...it's all pretty nifty. Then, at the Temple of Harvest, there's an echo wall...you stand at the east or west point and say something toward the wall, and a person on the opposite side will hear you. I didn't get to try that out; all the other tourists were busy yelling at random points on the wall.

I remember the old computer we called Poke-y...slow thing. Completely random and unrelated, I know, but I was trying to think up a title

2006-07-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

At Prince Gong's mansion
Yungang Grottos
Pavilion at Prince Gong's mansion...a drinking game was played using the floor of this pavilion, and looking at the lines in three different directions, it makes three different chinese characters. There's longevity, water, and something else...I think it's flowing.
Trashcan.
In a Buddhist Temple...these are the Bodhidharma (two of them) if I'm remembering correctly.

once again, next ones didn't load...grrr

2006-07-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

A natural rock sculpture thing in the gardens of the Forbidden City.
Beijing 2008 by Tian'anmen Square
Ride up Tai Mountain

Yungang Grottos, over 51000 figures of Buddha Sakymuni...all those tiny crevaces are Buddhas

next five didn't load again

2006-07-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

One of the pictures I took from the little ski cart that took those of us who didn't climb the mountain up to the top except for the last half hour worth of climbing.
The tomb of Confucius. The last symbol is the symbol for wang, which means "king." There is one more horizontal line along the bottom. When an Emperor went to pay respect to Confucius' tomb, though, he refused to bow because he was king, so the wall was raised so that no one could see that it actually said "king" at the bottom.
Ride up Tai Mountain
Did I post this already? Can't remember. Anyway, me and warriors
Sunrise on the mountain...usually the sky turns blood red or something, but there were too many clouds. We did get sunrise, though, last group didn't see it at all.

random pam pictures 2

2006-06-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

okay, worked this time. the walls of xi'an
A warrior and a few horses. Or, according to the bookmarks I got, a warrior and hoses
train ride back to beijing...damn DJ's skinny...O_o (left to right, Taylor, Phil, DJ, Brandon)
Outside the Tsingtao beer factory Lao Shi decided it would be fun for us to see.
Some more of the walls of xi'an....I was too busy riding a bike to take pictures...if I had stopped, I doubt that I could have kept going.
Good shot of the warriors
WU MEI MART!!! This is where we did all our shopping on campus...food, water, clothes, pictures, bakery, ice cream, cds, purses for cheap purse shoppers like DJ, bootleg dvds...all found at the wu-mei mart. There was an entrance (and many entrances were covered in plastic hanging things that were truly disgusting), then stairs down, and there you had a large store. There was even an olympic store down there.

random pam pictures 1

2006-06-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Stupid thing....I can't get another five to load this time. Oh well. The beach.....see the air? Yeah. Yeah, you do. It's gross like that. Lindsey lives on the beach, and was excited when we got to see one. She wanted to run on the beach. Didn't happen. But some random person came up to speak to me in English, DJ, Zac, and Danielle tried flying kites, and we all avoided the tour guide, James Bond, like one would avoid the plague.
One of the many random fake flower constructs we saw while in Jinan
One of the boats at the Summer Palace. I tried to get a picture, but never caught it in time.
Outside Mao ZeDong's tomb in Tian'anmen square...they wanted us to go inside, but the line was like, three freakin' miles long.
We all loved this sign. We yelled "Safty First!" at each other sometimes. This sign is found at the Hanging Temple

pam's great wall pictures

2006-06-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the first ten loaded, but when I went back to do the last two, they didn't show up. So they get their own post or something. Anyway. Got Pam's pictures today, and decided to start posting those since my computer is weird and I don't want to attempt putting the pictures on this computer....it would, quite probably, kill it. And it's like, gig of space that remains. Anyway, so yeah, decided to start with great wall since my camera battery died there and I didn't get many pictures.

Purty
Look at the glorious hazy air
umm...near the bottom, by the river. but still at the great wall, though it might not look like it
That's Pam. And you can see the parking lot.
Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs.
whimper.
eek....it was so hard. O_o
Pam's friend wanted her to take a pic where she was pushing over the great wall...and that's her attempt at it...
And then she tried to make me do it, too. so, tired and sweaty and miserable though I was, I tried it. But I think, seeing the picture now, that I just succeeded in looking tired and sweaty and miserable. ....Damn, that is a really gross picture of me.
Pam and some mountains. The Great Wall was awesome, but it would have been better if the air had been clean.

I tried adding another five, but they didn't show up...:(

2006-06-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

Some building on campus.
That's me. And some jade.
Entrance to the Ming Tomb.
The Son of a Dragon carrying the deeds of the previous Ming Emperor tablet.
A silk rug in the making. Depending on size and quality, could take 6 months to 2 years to finish a single carpet.

here are some more...I'm getting better at posting these

2006-06-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, it won't let me type where I want to type. Nevermind about the title, this thing is weird. Anyway! First picture is the Sleeping Buddha on 1000 Buddha Mountain.

This is what is on the Sleeping Buddha's chest. We all flipped out. >_>Then Lao Shi told us that no, it wasn't a swastika, it was actually facing a different direction. Then we read the little sign they had next to it discussing the Sleeping Buddha's origins and stuff, and we discovered that the swastika-like symbol meant good luck.

Now I can type below the pictures, apparently. So, that's me trying on a dress...XXL. Barely closed around my chest, wouldn't close around my hips and ass. O_o
Beijing Opera...was....interesting. I wish I had taken a video of it so I could share it's interesting-ness....it's the sort of thing that is difficult to describe without sounding odd.
Nine Dragon Wall in Da Tong. Pam is tall. And....there used to be a palace behind the wall, but that's gone now. And when they were renovating the wall, they made a mistake and two of the tiles were switched, but they don't know which the second one is...only one is painfully obvious.
More evidence of Pam's height. Though even Taylor and I were extremely tall in the Hanging Temple. Doors were low, railings by the nice approx. 70 meter drop were low, and the stairs weren't designed for 5'3" and up. Pam's 5'9", I think.

bbbbbllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

2006-06-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

I almost died, but I was one of the ones to make it to the top of the great wall. This is my proof. Ha. I only caught up once they had all reached the top. And I only caught up then because they stopped to explore a building further down. Bastards.
...They decided it would be neat to make a star out of our feet. There is also one of our fingers that I neglected to save from Taylor's pics.
All the girls in our group except for Danielle (left to right, skipping the important person #4 - Carolyn, Taylor, Lindsey, Pam, and me). The last person is Patty or Panyan. She rules. She was the only guide we liked. (For me, Michelle and Liu were tied for second, and freakin' James Bond was like......hated by all. Michelle and Liu were talkative about stuff we didn't care about/wasn't relevant to what we were there for. Michelle told us that she had like, fifty names or something (actually three, but whatever) and explained the meaning and reason behind each one, and that took like, an hour. Then Liu just kept talking to me. She would come up to me on the bus, move my bag, sit down, and say "Let's talk about something!" And so I would have to talk to her. Otherwise, they were okay. But Patty beat them). Probably because Patty wasn't a tour guide, she was an English student. She was sweet, joked around with us, and was really cool about stuff.
In the Hanging Temple...one of the Hanging Temple's functions was a rest stop for people pilgrimming or moving around or whatever. You can't see it, but we were sitting on a bed. It was really short (I'm practically sitting in Taylor's lap while hanging off the edge), but really deep. I'm pretty sure it was made of stone or wood with a woven matt of like...thick grass...on it. Lao Shi said they would put blankets on it to make it more comfortable, but I sincerely doubt that thing could ever have been considered comfortable.
Right before I became a man and climbed the Great Wall.
Up on 1000 Buddha Mountain in Shandong Province, near Jinan.
A picture that happens to have me in it where I actually don't look bad, unlike all the other pictures I didn't mean to be in. Damn are those great pictures of me...in the middle of talking...yawning...eating ice cream...in one, I almost look like a fat, hypteractive chipmunk who had undergone a lobotomy. Oh, this is entering the Confucius Temple in Qufu.
On the Great Wall before I fell behind the others and had to pull myself up the steps on my hands and knees. And you wanna know what's really depressing? As I was dragging myself up the wall, young children freakin' ran by me, on their way up. Bastards.

more pictures

2006-05-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

Mmmm....if I'm remembering correctly, it's a poem or description about Da Min lake. Which is where it is.
I love acrobats.
Big Goose Pagoda - a monk traveled along the Silk Road to India, and learned about Buddhism. He brought back Buddhist scripture and translated it to Chinese. The scriptures are still in that building, and it is still a functioning Buddhist temple, complete with monks. Last place we toured while in China and Xi'an. We didn't get to see the scriptures...that would have been cool. It's, according to Lao Shi, rare for anyone to see them...just people studying them and stuff.
Yep.......I didn't have any. Part of the Forbidden City...I think this section is after Tai He palace.

more pictures, hoorah

2006-05-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

I don't use real purses. DJ was buying a purse for his friend and made me hold it because, unlike the other girls, I hadn't bought 10+ purses. So, yeah. There it is. I tried to make him do it, too, but he wouldn't. Damn him.
In Xi'an...a mansion that housed the loved concubine of an Emperor who had to order the woman to death because he sucked as Emperor, so people blamed her. Then...also the place where the Xi'an incident took place. Nationalist and Communist parties worked together - after Communists captured the Nationalist dude after he wouldn't agree - to get the Japanese out of China in the '40's.
Yin yang
The marble boat in the Summer Palace. A pavilion designed to resemble a boat. Not a real boat, as some people in our group discovered...

bored, and feeling bad for not sharing pictures sooner

2006-05-29T03:14:00.000-07:00

One of the pavilions at Prince Gong's mansion in Beijing. Very corrupt person back during the...Qing? Dynasty. Qing being the last Dynasty. I don't think it was earlier than that...it would have to be Ming if it isn't Qing, but I'm pretty sure it's Qing. Now I need to check.
All the boys in the group pretending to be a boy band power ranger mix at one of the Buddhist Temples in Da Tong...left to right, Phil, Zac, DJ, DP or Daniel, and Brandon
I don't know why it came up twice. I tried to delete it, but it won't go away.
Acrobats. I have videos, but I need to figure out how to post those
One of the many amusing signs we encountered
What would have been Tai He palace if it hadn't been under renovation for 2008
On the Divine Path with Lindsey, Taylor, and Pam

Some jade

hmm

2006-05-29T03:07:00.000-07:00

The Hanging Temple
Another shot of Peking University campus
Me on karaoke night. Stolen from DJ's pics on facebook.
That's me on uno night with our class. In China, they pose for pictures like that...without covering their faces...and it means victory. DJ, Brandon (who combined with our class since only two of his students showed up regularly), and I kept doing it with our students that night. This is another picture stolen from DJ.

I'll add more pics later. Just wanted to try. Here are a couple more before I go to bed.

trying to figure out pics...not too many for now, I'm tired

2006-05-29T02:55:00.000-07:00

A shot, unzoomed, from the Hanging Temple once we got to the top. Three dots down there are group members, toward the far left on the path surrounded by hedges. The Hanging Temple was awesome.
At the Divine Path before the Ming Tombs. New Emperors were supposed to fill out tablets to be carried by a son of the dragon (who resembles a turtle...that's his butt...), that describe the achievements of the previous Emperor. Only the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did it - it became tradition not to - and this is the only filled tablet. The other girls (left to right: me, then Pam, Taylor, Lindsey, and Carolyn) wanted to pose with his ass...I suck at posing, if you can't tell...but here's the pic.
A shot of the Beida campus. The lake is called the Nameless Lake.

My room for two weeks in Beijing. Those mattresses felt as if they were made of stone, and I brought my own pillow, but according to my roommate, the pillows were made of pebbles.

coming home tomorrow

2006-05-24T22:28:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to see you all! I've had a lot of fun, but I can't wait to get home. I have a glorious fifteen hour plane ride, then customs adventures, then I'm free. I'm so glad I came to China, though. I've learned a lot, and I had a really good time. Can't wait to share my pictures with everyone.

Also can't wait to leave because, apparently, China has declared war on Taiwan because they declared independence, and US is gonna back Taiwan. Probably a good reason to go home. This is according to someone in the group who checked CNN.com. Sooooooo...yeah. Don't want to be caught in the beautiful mess that will most likely make.

Anyway, I don't have lots of time. Just saying hi, wish me luck on the plane tomorrow. It's currently raining, so unless it stops, we're gonna have some really really nice airport adventures. Gah. But apparently our layover in Shanghai isn't as long as the first time. Only about an hour stuck there. I wish it was a direct flight, though. Seems like we're making an unnecessary, gas consuming detour to Shanghai this way. But whatever. As long as I get home in one piece, I'll be okay.

Love and hugs to all! I'll post pictures and videos here once I get home and have access to my computer once again. And constant internet. Wooo!

Madison

I really, really hate trains

2006-05-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

12 hours. Hard sleeper. Though for the first half it was amusing. We were all hanging out in one of our sections, playing cards, talking, and Phil made a bed in the section aisle out of suitcases, and then DJ and Phil ended up stripping to their underwear and confusing the hell out of other passengers. Then we made a stop at a train station and DJ stood by the window, looking rather naked. I stood on the other side of the window watching the people, and they were certainly surprised to see an apparently nude foreigner in the train window. So. That helped the first five hours pass by. The other seven were spent with me trying to sleep, and only dozing for fifteen-twenty minute increments, then waking up for another fifteen minutes. I don't sleep very well in trains.

Then....geez, Erin, in Jordan, do people try to rip your luggage away from you to carry it for you and then yell at you in Arabic, then demand money? It's a battle to keep our luggage to ourselves here. I am so sick of people yelling at me in Chinese and shouting "Five! Five! *insert long speech in Chinese here*" and motioning at my suitcase.

So far, I have managed to not have to use a hole in the ground to go to the bathroom. But Lindsey, Pam, and Taylor are trying to force me to do it once before we leave. *Shudder* Maybe I can fake it.

Hmmm...final later today. Then tomorrow I get to repack everything so that it all fits, then the next day, I get to fly home.

I got a good score on my quiz...9.5 out of 10. And the final should be easy, too.

So. Now that I've complained about trains some more, I reply to comments on the previous post, then go get something to eat. Hoorah.

Love and hugs! I can't wait to get home!

Madison

xi'an

2006-05-22T04:15:00.000-07:00

screw this stupid shift button, it isn't working. okay, so, the terracotta warriors are awesome. the tang royal dance was awesome. everything i've seen in xi'an has been awesome. i'm in a hurry, so i'll post a detailed account later. just want to say hi, love you all, only a few more days. i've been having a really good time and i've learned a lot, but i am definitely ready to go home.

also, we taught in a high school...did i talk about that? i don't think so. it was overwhelming and amazing. they loved us...there was a sign welcoming us, none of them had seen foreigners before, and I helped over 300 students maybe, over four classes. it was crazy. one class talked about my hair color for a good ten minutes, they all asked me to sing, which i kinda did a couple times, one class wanted to see american money and one student asked to keep the 1 I passed around, and i said sure, but then he insisted on giving me 10 yuan for it. then...one class sang for me, and the fourth class.,..half the time was spent giving autographs. it was a wild experiencing, and rewarding because they were so happy to see us.

anyway, i need to go. we've officially finished touring, and we just have the final and a journal to submit. tomorrow is a ten hour train ride (at night, on a hard sleeper), then two days in beijing, then flying home. i can't wait to get there. this has been a really great experience for me. but i really miss home. i can't wait to go a day without seeing at least ten people spit on the ground everywhere, walk through constant clouds of cigarette smoke, and not have merchandise shoved in my face while being pulled into shops while they shout their broken, memorized english. and no horns, or very minimal horn use, on the freeway. and a freeway. as far as i can tell, it's pretty much all toll here.

oh, and today, i rode a bike around the walls of xi'an. about 8 or 9 miles. my knees hate me and would love to kill me, and i was late to meet the group because i took longer, but i'm proud i did it. when i found out how far it was...after...i was amazed that i survived. though i'm sunburnt. i missed a spot when i was sunblocking, and completely forgot the front of my shirt and my neck. bleh.

anyway, i need to go and figure out stupid acct 210 stuff...apparently redlands cancelled them all and i need to register for it again or something dumb. if it gets messed up, i pitch a royal fit. mum, if you read this before i get back...i'll email you, too...call pamela swantek and demand to know if this is going to be messed up somehow. i tried to reregister on webreg, and i think it worked, but i'm not sure, and i want to be sure. arrg. anyway.

love and hugs to all! i miss you! only a few more days!

madison

jinan

2006-05-18T00:44:00.000-07:00

Sooooo....our tour guide here is extremely annoying. And we're all pretty sure that he has a crush on all the guys in our group. He is constantly touching them...shoulders, arm squeezes, and so on. He doesn't touch the girls, though. And his English name is James Bond, and he never freakin' shuts up. And he treats us like we're annoying little kids...unless he's busy molesting the boys, calling DJ "Harry Potter," Zac "George W. Bush," and me "Medicine." Geh.

Hmmm...train to Jinan wasn't too bad. We were in soft seat, so my personal bubble wasn't under a constant state of rape, and no kids spat chunks on the floor. Then we escaped the train, the bus broke down for an hour, and then we had dinner. Then we checked into our hotel and slept.

Next day...what the hell did we do...uhh....we....toured....oh! Da Ming Lake, then the springs where a famous poet-ess lived, had lunch, and...what was the last thing...the lake was beautiful, by the way...and there were seals at the spring...then we went to a shopping place, that I left soon. The next day, yesterday, we checked out of the hotel, when to Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, and saw where he lived, a temple, and the Confucious cemetary. 20% of the Qufu population are related to him. Then we had lunch in a scary place, then made our way to Tai Mountain. I didn't climb it; Lao Shi said the climb was harder than the Great Wall, and after the Great Wall, my knees hurt so much I was ready to cry in pain at times. So I took the little ski car up. The hotel was nice. Then we went to see the sunrise that morning...we saw it, but there were too many clouds for it to be as beautiful as normal. Still really pretty, though. But it was freezing. Then we left the mountain and came back here, checked into our hotel again, and soon we're leaving to teach at Shandong University.

I'm having a good time...some of the people in my group are really freakin' annoying, but we're all getting used to each other. Tomorrow we go to a different city, then from there, we fly to Xi'an a couple days later. Then we see the warriors and go back to Beijing. Almost there...Right now, I really miss my music...I've heard enough Chinese emo music to last a lifetime, and when I do hear music, it's usually Taylor's, and that means shit like Spice Girls. Bleh.

Anyway, I need to go. It's really freakin' hot in here. I also miss mass air conditioning measures.

Love and hugs to all. I hope Erin and Thor made it back to NJ safely. I'll try to get online again soon. Love, hugs, and headpats, forgive my redundancy.

-Madison

eating up time

2006-05-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Had a quiz this morning. It was easy. Then got something to eat, finished packing up, and got some more water...almost bought a dvd for 8 rmb, or, approx., $1. But I decided I didn't really need it. It was Peony Pavilion...read the play for Chinese Lit. Crazy play. But yeah, they have a bunch of dvds, in English, and some aren't even on video yet, I think. Almost bough Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake, too. Lemme know if there are any dvds any of you desperately need, and when we get back to Beijing, I'll see if I can find them.

Hmmm...I hate trains. Gotta get on a train soon. Garg. And it's hot. There have been three sunny days since we got here, two of which were freezing because of wind. Today it's just hot. Yesterday wasn't actually freezing, but pleasant kinda cold at points...

OH! ACROBATS ARE FREAKIN' AMAZING!!! I really liked it. I took some videos on my camera and a bunch of pics, so I get to share. But it was so awesome. I wanna see them again. It was so great. And we had really good seats. It was so great. I can't express the supreme awesome-ness of it all.

So. Next we have Jinan, with the hometown of Confucius in there somewhere, and Tai Mountain. I'm going to die climbing it, but I swear I'm not going to be one of the students taking the tram up. I want to climb it. Then...Xi'an and the terracotta warriors. Probably already said this, but this last week went by really fast. Already over halfway done.

Okay, this place is expensive and we have to get our bags. Love you all, and talk to you soon!

end of beijing

2006-05-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

Teaching was really great. We hung out with our students on Thursday - they took DJ (my teaching partner) and me to dinner, where DJ discovered that I'm Erin's Sister - thought he knew that...he found out because I mentioned Thor and he asked how I knew Thor, and after saying that I met him shortly after Erin did, he asked how I knew Erin, then I pointed out that our last name's the same thing...and he was enlightened - and the students refused to let us help pay. Then we played uno and talked, and then we went to a karaoke bar, which was fun. I sang a bit, but I didn't know most of the English songs they had, and they were all remixes anyway, so they were difficult to follow. I completely butchered the only song they convinced me to sing by myself, but I joined in for two or three more. Anyway...then the last teaching day was sad because we had to say goodbye, but we all exchanged email, so that was cool. And our students gave DJ and me Chinese names. I'm Wang Mei Li, Wang being my new surname and Mei Li being my name, which means "beautiful." DJ's is Wei Xiao Jie, Wei the family name, and Xiao Jie (I think that's spelled right) means "small excellent." I also know the characters for my name, which is cool.

Hmm...we went to a market and I got a bunch of stuff...I suck at bargaining, but I am getting better...I cave more than, say, Lindsey does. She says a number, yells a bit, then goes away, and the people yell at her in Chinese, then cave and sell at her price most of the time. She normally gets the best deals.

The Summer Palace was really pretty...shitty thing is, a bunch of really cool stuff is under renovation right now...prep for 2008 Olympics. So...Summer Palace wasn't too bad, but Forbidden City...the Tai He palace was under renovation, and that's the main focus of the Forbidden City...so that wasn't nice.

Tomorrow we have a quiz and leave for Jinan, which means hometown of Confucius and Tai Mountain. Then we got to Xi'an. Then back to Beijing for two free days of shopping joy if any of us have any money left, then fly back home. This week went by really fast.

I need to go get dinner...we have to feed ourselve before acrobats tonight. Got my Peking University certificate earlier today.

Love and hugs to all!

-Madison

teaching

2006-05-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

Lots better than I expected. Tonight, DJ and I are having dinner with our group before class time, and going to a karaoke bar with them afterwards. Then last night, I hung out with one of Taylor and Brandon's students for a couple of hours because we combined classes (originally, only two of Taylor and Brandons had shown up, so they came up to be with us) and so that was cool. We both like to read and write, so it was interesting, and she taught me a lot about Chinese characters. So far DJ and I have started with a bunch of games that make them practice speaking a lot (played a round of "I'm going shopping and I'm getting..." no one is this group knew that game expect me...but yeah), then we answer any questions they have about US culture or whatever, and we've lectured about popular culture and music, and last night I did a big thing on idioms. We divided into teams, put an idiom on the board, and made them guess the meanings. It's been really cool. I feel kinda bad about one of my students; she wants to go shopping with me, but every time one of us is free, the other isn't. So that sucks, and we leave Beijing on Monday. But the teaching has been great. I'm really liking it.

This week has flown by compared to last week. Already Friday. We saw the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square yesterday, which was awesome. Though one guy was recording us while we were taking a group pic in Tian'anmen Square, which was weird, and there were creepy people asking for money. And we saw guards chase down a child who ran off under a roped off area, and the parents didn't do a damn thing about it. It was...interesting.

Ehhh...lectures are boring, mainly because you'll get a clip in chinese, then in English, and so you fade out during the Chinese portion, then miss part of the English portion if your fading was really bad...if it was all in English or if I knew Chinese, the lectures would be a lot easier. I'm making it by, though. They're interesting, you just have to stay focused and try not to be tired anymore.

Hmm...that's about it for now, I guess. And this internet cafe is expensive. Uhh...I bought a new book. I couldn't resist. It was expensive by US standards...marked $7.99 usd, but I bought it for 80 rmb, which is approx. $10. Nothing is usually that expensive, but I got it in our hotel. Margaret Atwood "The Blind Assassin." I love reading. I saw the books in the post office and pretty much stood there staring dumbly, then bought one and was rather happy. It was fun.

Sooooo...love to all! Only a few days until I go to Xi'an and Jinan. Then back to Beijing for two days, then home. Already halfway there...after the first week, it goes by too fast. Hugs, headpats, and love!

-Madison

back in beijing

2006-05-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

I never want to ride a train again. But I have to. Enough complaining now.

Okay, so, lectures have started now that the holiday is over, as well as the teaching English bit. The teaching is going better than I anticipated. The students are nice, and one invited me to dinner, so that goes toward my five hours over for 2 points. Lame extra credit, but I still want to do it, just because...sounds like it could be fun, and she's the one with the best English, so. yeah. Hopefully she won't kidnap me and force me to experience a horrible horrible death.

So far we've had lectures on chinese calligraphy and the history of beijing...how it developed and so on. The first was pretty cool, the second rather boring. We're going on some tours later...I can't remember, butI think it might be Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City today. That might be Thursday, though...can't remember. I'll let you know later. Also went to Beijing museum, which was really awesome.

Geh..the girls I came with are ready to go and I still have stuff to do for teaching. So I should get that done really quick, and get some lunch before tours start at 1:00.

Erin, you're probably in the air unless your thing meant a different wednesday. I hope it's going well!! Ahhh, I miss you. I went over to Lindsey and Taylor's room with Pam to watch movies, and I kept thinking about all the fun I had hanging out in holt with you and Thor (miss you, too...and the volcano gods. ha.) while feeling my mind die to a hillary duff film. *vomits* I miss music, too. I'm sick of hearing their rap and having them stare at me incredulously when I say i don't like nirvana or jack johnson or some shit.

I miss everyone so much. Mom, I can't remember what date mother's day is, but know that I wish you a happy mother's day. Love you much.

Okay, I should get going. Love and miss you all. Hugs. Soon I'm going to Jinan and Xi'an! Really excited. The mountain will kill me, but I'll make it! I swear!

Hugs and love! Bye!

-madison

da tong

2006-05-07T03:21:00.000-07:00

hey everyone.

okay, apparently it's the orange button. i think. this keyboard sucks. I'm in Da Tong right now, leaving on a night train in a few hours back to beijing. saw the yungang grottos (over 51000 statues of buddha), a couple buddhist temples, the hanging temple (which was really awesome and over 71 meters from the ground. originally 100, but it's over 1000 years old, so..yeah), and the wooden pagoda. that last one wasn't too exciting. great architecture, but there was a sand storm and we could only go up three levels. in most places here we weren't allowed to take pics, but we snuck and took some. so yeah. not many. and they probably aren't great. if the flash is on, the guards attack you.

trains suck. i feel so filthy right now. stupid dust windy storm things. and we checked out of the hotel this morning, so I can't bathe before the 8 hour train ride on "hard sleeper" train back to beijing. the day we get back to beijing, the teaching begins. i hope that goes well. i'm really nervous about it.

this internet cafe is freakin' disgusting. it only cost 2 yuan for an hour, but when carolyn gave them a 20 and wanted change, they stared at her like she was insane. and people are smoking. bleh.

anyway...what else to talk about right now? we're getting better at this haggling thing. pretty much say a price that's much cheaper than what they want, then go to walk away and they'll cave.

arg, we went to a cave village, where people live in severe poverty and shove trinkets in your face and knock on the windows of the bus and follow you and practically climb on to the bus trying to get you to buy something. i felt really uncomfortable and depressed. seeing people in those conditions is horrible, and honestly, i just wanted to hide on the bus. i took it as long as i could. it was really sad, seeing those houses, and our guide was talking about how healthy living in those caves is, but there was shit everywhere. ehh, i don't know.

the shift button doesn't work. i keep trying because my fingers do that, but it isn't working and i don't care if things are capitalized.

there's a kfc right across from the campus in beijing. I hate kfc, ha, it worked that time, but it is really beautiful when you've taken all the chinese food you can handle. i'm getting a lot better, though. more willing to try stuff and so on. but i am really sick of bones being hidden in food.

our hotel here was awesome.

oh, I saw beijing opera. the outfits were crazy awesome. though all the singing was high pitched...not sure why. then instead of one story line, it turned out to be segments from three entirely different stories. the last was best. i took pics. should have taken a video, but yeah. sorry about that.

umm...that's about it for now i think. I'm homesick. we keep talking about food. i've learned a few more chinese phrases. bu yao, xie xie...basically no, thank you. then...lao shi is professor.

i don't want to take the train. on the train ride here, there was a kid spitting chunks on the floor, and we were surrounded by drinking germans. there was a cute little girl yelling at us in chinese, but that was the only up to the entire ride. and we were told it would be four hours, but it lasted seven. gah.

so, after this, one more week in beijing, then ten days touring other stuff, then back to beijing for like, one or two days, then home. i want tacos. and a mountain dew. I demand that you guys greet me with a cold mountain dew ready after the hugs. most sodas here, which are coke, sprite, or pepsi, are warm. bleh.

so, bye for now. i'll try to get on again before I leave beijing, and I'll do my best elsewhere. love you all. hugs and head pats.

-madison

halloo everyone

2006-05-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

wow. okay, no idea if this will work. Most of the website is in Chinese, and since I don't speak or read it, I'm guessing at links. SO!

Sorry, it's taken me so long to update. Four days or something. Guess that's not too long, but feels like forever. The plane ride was miserable. Okay flight, I guess, but after 13 hours on one flight, waiting a few hours for connecting flight to Beijing, and being squeezed between two old Chinese people who spoke broken English to me while attempting to hack up their lungs made me never ever ever want to fly again. But we made it to Beijing alive. Hoorah hoorah.

A few things have taken a lot of getting used to. First, my mattress is a brick. I'm thankful I packed my own pillow, because the pillows are full of stones. I swear. Not literally, but that's what it freakin' feels like. Next, the shower head sticks out straight from the wall. That's really bad for my roommate, who's pretty tall. I just have to bend my knees and lean back slightly so that it hits me at a semi-normal place. Next, the chopsticks. I suck. And we have to eat food brought out on plates and put on a spinning table top and use the chopsticks to pick up little samples to take to our plates. That gets really messy, and because the legal drinking age here is 18, the waitresses keep offering me beer. Water is an important word to learn, and I finally have it down. Need to learn bottled, though, because I'm not allowed to drink water otherwise. I need to learn pepsi and coke. I wish they had mountain dew here. Then...traffic. No traffic laws, or very loose ones as far as I can tell. There are no speed limits posted, and when we get on our bus, it's pretty much close your eyes as the driver hits the gas, then hope for the best. Horns are constantly honked, no one merges but they swerve liberally, very few stop lights, and no one stops when you're crossing the street. You have to wait, then run for your life as they honk at you. It's frightening.

Anyway, on to what I've done since arriving. The campus of Peking University is gorgeous. It's like a wild park with a lake. I've taken a bunch of pictures, and plan to take more. We had an introduction from the head of the philosophy department (since the class is technically a philosophy course) and he doesn't speak English, so it was translated by our guide, Panyen (not sure if that's how she spells it. She gave us an English name, Patty, but I wanted to be able to use her real name, so I asked...it sounds like Pahnyen, but probably spelled something like I spelled it. Probably wrong, though). Then we had a banquet and tried Peking duck, which was AMAZING. Then we got Beida shirts (Beijing/Peking University...Beijing Da Xue = Beijing Great School or something like that, Beida) and slept on our rock hard mattresses. Damn, if our beds are like this and this is nice, what are the real dorms like...O_o). Next day. Jade factory, Divine Path, Ming Tombs, Great Wall, food, and a mall. Jade is beautiful and I got some stuff, the Divine Path was awesome with loads of pic opportunities. I wasn't impressed with the tombs, mainly because I doubt it was in the original condition, and there were so many people, and the personal bubble idea is quite different here, and we saw like, two kids peeing in corners. Ew. Then the Great Wall. That was awesome. If you climb to the top of the hard side, you become "a man" aka, hero, strong, brave, etc. I almost died, but I climbed to the top. I felt so freakin' proud. Then we had some Chinese people take pics of us on the top, and then they wanted pics for themselves of them with us. They were having a terrific time about that. Laughing and being all excited because they got pics with Americans with crummy Chinese skills. The mall wasn't that great. We were tired, filthy from the climb, and it was all too Americanized. In a Nike store, there was a shirt that said "Beavorton, Oregon, USA" on it. That hurt my tired little squeaky fizzy brain. Came back and managed to sleep like crazy on the stone tablet that is my bed. Today we had a lecture on Buddhism and some history of Peking University, then Pam (my roommate), Lindsey, Taylor, and I went to KFC and ate ice cream, went into a scary mini mart to get bottled water and snacks for our glorious 4-5 hour train ride to Da Tong tomorrow. That's going to be fun. Da Tong will be great. Train ride sucks. Later today, we're going to an antique shop and the Beijing Opera. So that should be cool.

Ahhh, anything else before I go...I miss everyone so much. I've taken loads of pictures, and Pam, Lindsey, Taylor, and I are going to exchange our pics so we get them all. I'll be sure to share them with everyone. Hmm...Mom, let Alex, Kyla, and Erin know about the blog. Well, Erin might already know because of Khuloud, soooo...Khuloud, let Erin know that I'm alive. Sam, you have to climb the Great Wall someday. You're athletic and won't be climbing up the steps on all fours panting like mad like I was. I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! And I need a taco and a mountain dew. And a mattress. And a shower. And food that I recognize. And music. And time to read stuff, including Sam and Khuloud stories. And time to write. I've been too tired to even consider writing. And a car ride that isn't quite possibly my last. And so much more. I could keep listing forever, and we've learned that it's not a good idea to discuss food. Garg....Erin's blog isn't loading for some reason. Okay, I need to go. Hugs, head pats, and love for all. I'm thinking about all of you. It's the fourth for me, but happy birthday again, mum. I'll get another phone card before I leave Beijing so I can call you before I leave for Xi'an and Jinan. That mountain is going to kill me. 7200 steps. Probably uneven like the Great Wall. GAH. I ramble. Ramble ramble ramble. I have so much to say. I'm having a lot of fun, and I'll try to brave Chinese computers again once I get some time. I hope everyone is doing okay. Love and hugs for all. Wish me luck for the rest of this. Hopefull I hit the correct link. Is the blue button submit, or orange? We find out now.

And now I steal from Thor. Important words to know in Chinese. Xie xie = thank you. Dui bu qi, quite possibly spelled wrong = sorry. Shui = water.

-Madison

...

2006-04-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

I'm taking off soon. I leave the house in 8 hours and 15 minutes. Ahhhhh....this is so weird. I'll post stuff whenever I can.

lalala

2006-04-21T02:49:00.000-07:00

A blog. Hoorah hoorah.