I'm back...

Hey Everyone! So I haven't been posting because this blog is blocked and I only have sporadic access to it now :( I'm thinking of moving to another blogging site and hoping that won't be blocked as well...

I have lots more to say about the trip, and not enough time to say it but in the next few days I'm going to try and post the rest of my pictures with descriptions!

I'm setting in to life here in Beijing. It's really really hard to do things here because of the language barrier but I'm making a bunch of new Chinese friends and I absolutely love my roommate Nikki!

I have to get to class but I promise I will post more soon!

Love you all!!!

Silk road-Day 3

We checked out of the hotel and went to this amazing castle fort turned hotel for breakfast. By this point we were definitely missing western breakfast food and this place did not disappoint. I took a picture of my first round of food at breakfast. They even had real coffee! I also took some pictures of the view from the outdoor roof seating of the restaurant.

After breakfast we had a 5 hour bus ride through the Gobi desert to Jiayuguan. The Gobi desert is actually not a sandy desert. Instead it’s quite rocky:

Actually, the road/highway we took through the desert actually hugs the edge of it. So there we drove past TONS of fields of corn and fields of something that really surprised me: SUNFLOWERS! Hundreds of thousands of sunflowers. Just when I thought that there couldn’t be any more fields of sunflowers there would be another stretch of them. Sometimes there would even be little groups of sunflowers growing in corn fields. I swear that besides corn, sunflowers must be the national crop of northern China. So far I haven’t seen a single field of bamboo. I think they must be in the south. So…I guess it really is true that everything has a place in this world. And you know what? Sunflowers ARE beautiful, ESPECIALLY if they’re in China. 

Silk road-Day 2

The next morning we woke up at 4am to pack up camp and take the bus to go ride camels to the singing sand dunes to watch the sun rise. We got to the camel rising place to catch our camel tour and there were so many camels sleeping in this yard. About 600 sleepy camels. It’s not true what they say about camels being mean. They’re incredibly sweet creatures. Well, at least these ones were. I’m sure they were VERY used to tourists. Also, when you think about it from the point of view of a camel, carting tourists around for a few hours every morning before it gets too hot is probably preferable to the year round, all day, every day, thousands of miles long, caravan trips where they are weighted down by all of the products traded on the silk road and aren’t given very much water or rest…but I’m getting off topic.

I didn’t take any pictures of the camels because I was terrified of getting sand in my lens and breaking my camera like a few of my friends had. I decided that a very sleepy me was not responsible enough to avoid this, so I left it safely in its little ziplock baggie. Also, the picture of the view from the top of where ever I am is never as good as the real thing. But I can say that the sunrise over the sand dunes was incredible, even if I kept nodding off. After the sun rose we went down this slide on inner tubes, the kind that you would use for snow tubing. It was awesomely fast, but I had to close my eyes because the sand was flying up into my face.

After going back to Dunhuang, food at the hotel (I still don’t understand the appeal of HOT orange juice), and trying to get the sand out of our clothes and hair, we went to the Mogao caves. First started in 366 AD, these Buddhist caves were carved out of the rock and contain incredible paintings and statues of Buddhas. The tour was a bit excuiating as we were exhausted and the tour guide kept saying “oh and this next cave is even more beautiful because of this and this…” It got old. Fast. Yay for falling asleep on my feet! Cameras weren’t allowed inside, but here’s a picture of the outside:

Later that night back in Dunhuang, we walked around the market again. It’s even more alive at night. We got these super delicious (hen hao chi!) 9 kuai (about $1.50) noodles that they made in front of us. They were fried with beef in this awesome soy sauce. The rest of the evening we just wandered around the market taking in the sights and sounds as vendors called out into the night. Even if it was a little touristy, some parts of the market kind of gave me a sense of stepping back in time when this market used to be the last stop of caravans before they left China. 

The Silk Road-Day 1

I’m finally back in Beijing after 15 days and 2500 miles across China. We saw so much on this trip that it felt like we were gone for over a month! I have over 700 pictures and so much to blog about so over the next few days I'm going to be posting about each day of the trip. So...here is Day 1 :)

Day 1

My alarm went off at 4am after only a few hours of sleep (I'm still getting the hang of China time). I only had time for a quick shower before meeting in the lobby of my dorm to go to the airport. We flew Air China from Beijing to Dunhuang in the Gansu province in Northwest/Central China. Getting checked into the airport was insane because there were so many of us and other groups kept trying to cut us in line. In my travel group (Group B) there were 40 students and 5 staff. The other group from my program TBC (the Beijing Center) started in Beijing and did our route in reverse, working their way West and flying back from Dunhuang.

Everyone made it to the gate just as they started boarding and it was an uneventful 4 hour flight. I was so happy I slept through most of it. The turbulence over the various mountains in China was a little rough. The breakfast they served on the plain was rather...interesting. It was some sort of fried egg and hot dog. I definitely didn't eat the hot dog. 

When we got to Dunhuang we were met by our tour guide Adam. He was the sweetest man ever who smiles every other word. He gave us some background info about Dunhuang as the last stop on the silk road heading west before it splits into two routes around the Taklamakan Desert. 

We were pleasantly surprised at how nice our hotel was. Although the beds as a general rule in China are pretty hard. I suspect that they throw a thin pad over a board and call it a mattress. But the hotel rooms had western toilets so I really can't complain. We got to check in and had a few hours to nap and walk around the city. My roommate on the trip is named Eva. She's from Pennsylvania but goes to school at Fordam University in the Bronx. Her Chinese is soooo much better than mine. She's really awesome and I think we're definitely going to get along. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and exploring the famous Shazhou Market. Apparently its even more famous as a night market but there was still plenty of things open during the day. We got lunch at this outdoor restaurant in the market and ordered to much and paid to much. We learned the hard way not to get sucked into tourist traps and always ask to see the menu after they've calculated the bill. We still only paid a little over $6 each but that's still way too much for the quality and quantity of food and service. 

Later when we were walking around the town it was soooo hot as we were in the desert. So I decided to be adventurous and try and order some strawberry milk tea from a local vendor. Fail. I ended up with strawberry shaved ice with jello on top. At least I think it was jello. It was good but I was frustrated that I hadn't been understood. 

I was walking around with about 5 other people and we got totally lost in the city, found the mosque, and then eventually found our way back to the hotel because there was a map on the back of the hotel business card I had grabbed before we left. The map was in characters but we were able to match it to the street names so it all worked out. 

Eva and I went to this tiny little restaurant by the hotel and ordered some jiaozi (dumplings). They were soooo good but we got way too many. the restaurant was owned by a couple and while were were eating the grandmother brought around their baby girl. She was adorable but it was interesting to see how babies don't wear diapers here in China as a general rule. They have pants with slits in the back so their butts are always hanging out. They just hold the babies over a plastic bag or something when they need to go. It's so weird. 

After dinner we packed overnight bags in our backpacks and took the bus to the desert! I never really imagined that sand dunes could be so big! They were absolutely incredible and my pictures don't do them justice. Six of us decided to be adventurous and hiked over another sand dune farther than the rest of the group to pitch our tent, so we made a little camp of three tents. It was super windy and Kevin and Tyler's tent almost blew over before they put their bags in it to hold it down. Stakes are pretty useless in the sand. 

It's so hard to climb sand dunes! The sand just gives out from underneath you and it's so hot and dry in the desert. It got a lot easier once I took off my shoes. The view from the top is so worth it though. I love the perfect ridges formed by the wind at the top. It felt so amazing just to lie there in the sand. 

After a little bonfire down near the other tents, we hiked back to our little camp and played poker with Oreos under the stars :)

The restaurant stalls of the market.

The Market.

Me and the weird strawberry ice thing.

The Dunhuang Mosque.

I'd never get tired of this view.

Everyone else's tents.

Our little camp among the dunes.

My favorite picture of the sunset over the dunes and Kevin.

Tyler, Me, and Eva jumping off a sand dune.

Food and the Future!

Okay, even though I'm completely illiterate and can't speak very well, I have to say that the food here is motivating me to learn. I've discovered my love of strawberry milk tea, baozi (steamed buns with meat or vegetables inside), these crunchy egg/meat pancake thing that I don't know the name of, jiaozi (dumplings), and kebabs :) So much good food and it's all so cheap! I can now successfully order all of the above and even joke around with the street vendors a little bit. For example, tonight I was helping my friend order 5 baozi and the vendor said it was yi bai kuai (100 RMB) instead of 5 (less than $1) just to mess with us and we were so proud of ourselves to be able to understand and respond "tai gui le!" (too expensive!). It can actually be much safer to eat something from a vendor that is cooked in front of you than eating things from a restaurant where you can't see what's going down in the kitchen. So far the food from the vendors has been excellent and hasn't made me sick. 

It's getting late and I need to wrap this post up. We are leaving on a 2 week trip across China tomorrow! I won't have my computer or internet access but I will be keeping a journal and taking pics so you shall hear about it when I get back! If you need to contact me you can call my new cell phone via skype. You can contact my parents for the number and directions. 

So until I'm back in Beijing...Zai Jian!

The Great Wall

Today we spent the afternoon at a section of the Great Wall just outside of Beijing. My pictures can't even begin to accurately portray how beautiful it was. It was also a really intense hike!

Sense of Direction

I've only been here for 2 days now, but it feels more like a week! Today I woke up at 5am (again) and couldn't go back to sleep. But I woke up just in time to watch the clouds clear and for the sun to appear. It was like the campus was a completely different place bathed in sunlight instead of drizzle and fog. It stayed completely clear and hot for the entire day. But enough about the weather, although I will say that the humidity is making my hair realize it's ability to curl and poof. I look a little like I stepped out of the 80s. 

I have a Chinese roommate named Nikki who I haven't met yet. She is finishing up an internship in Shanghai. She feels really bad that she wasn't here to help me adjust so she's told all of her friends among the other host students and roommates to come introduce themselves and check on me. It was crazy, within 5 minutes of getting my new cell phone and new number my host student, Tiffany, had texted Nikki my number and 10 minutes later Nikki called. Her English is perfect but she says she is going to speak Chinese with me as much as possible. It's a little lonely without her and I'm looking forward to when she moves in.

Since I've been waking up so early and I have no roommate yet, I've had some time to walk around our campus and explore it a bit on my own. This is making me pretty popular with other people in my program who get completely turned around the moment they leave our building. Our campus is really straight forward because it's a rectangle with only 4 gates in/out: north, east, south, and west. My program's host university is the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). It has about 13,000 students, of which about 3,000 are international students, mostly from Korea, Europe, and Africa. Besides the 80 of us, there are only about 20 other American students on campus. We are living in the 2 international student dorms so we'll get to meet international students from other countries. However, they haven't moved in yet so my hall is strangely quiet. 

UIBE is located in the Chaoyang district in North Eastern Beijing between the 3rd and 4th ring roads. We are      East of the Olympic Stadium. The campus is actually very pretty with a lot of trees and it's about the same size as SCU's campus. I'm glad it's not too big! There is a grassy knoll type area right near the main cafeteria and yesterday one of the host students was telling us in a very scandalized tone about some "foreign women students" who sunbathed on it last year in nothing but bikinis! Oh if they could only see SCU when it get's above 75 degrees :)

The Chinese students we've met have been incredibly eager to help us and answer questions, but they are very curious about American culture. Yesterday our program held a Q & A panel of Chinese students to answer questions about the differences between American and Chinese cultures. They kept asking us if American High School and College is like Glee and Gossip Girl! That's where they get their info about American culture hahaha.

My first morning I was so proud of myself lol. Armed with a campus map and a sense of adventure, I first found the ATM and then a little coffee shop. Turns out they have Frappuccinos here and it was great because there was an English Menu. I managed to remember how to order and say thank you "xie xie." I got stared at a little walking around campus but I'm sure I'll get used to it. 

Everything is so cheap here! $1=6.2ish RMB and a typical dish is $2-3! I went to the local campus market/grocery store and got a bunch of food and supplies and it only came out to 31 kuai (RMB) which is less than $5! I am definitely excited to go shopping.

This week we are having orientation and preparing for our 2 week trip across China along the ancient Silk Road. It's incredible the complexities of the relationships between different ethnic groups within China. In fact, we now cannot go into the western most province because of recent rioting and unrest, which is a bit disappointing. The sessions this week are a lot of information but are proving to be really helpful and fun. We've been exploring a lot of the local restaurants. My favorite so far is the 24 hour noodle place right outside West gate. They have the most entertaining wall mural and I posted a picture below :) No you don't need to get your eyes checked. That's definitely Avatar milking a cow. 

I've been spending a lot of time trying to memorize the names and faces of the other people in my program. It's interesting to watch groups and friendships start to form. I met a guy named Kevin in my program who goes to San Jose State! We actually had the same Chinese Prof. who teaches at both SJSU and SCU! It's a small world :)

Tomorrow we are going to the Great Wall in the afternoon! Hopefully I'll have time to post more in the next few days. I have so many observations about Chinese culture that I just don't have the energy to delve into now. So until my next post, Zai Jian!