This last week has been exhausting, but still great! Highlights:
-On Tuesday afternoon, I met up with a Tibetan guy from couchsurfing, who took me to the Wild Goose Pagoda, a landmark in Xi'an, and dinner. It was nice to get to practice my chinese with him, although kinda hard because his first language is Tibetan, not Chinese, so his Chinese was actually not very good. He doesn't really use tones, for example. Also I think he thought it was a date because he called me today just "to chat". Yikes, haha. He said there are lots of cool Tibetan cultural events that he's going to this spring so I think that will be interesting. Most of the time we were together, he talked about his home town in Qinghai (a really poor province on the Tibetan Plateau mostly inhabited by Tibetans and other minorities) and Tibetan Culture, and how the Chinese government/Chinese people "other" him and his people. VERY interesting...
-Had the extremely unpleasant experience of having my bank card number stolen somehow so I had to deal with that and cancel my card. SO annoying when you live in CHINA! And my Gmail got hacked and a bunch of my messages got deleted, but fortunately Google retrieved them. All my labels are gone though so my years of organization are gone! :(
-I got my official residence permit! yay! So now I have my passport back, and am free to travel to Beijing next weekend, and then on to the USA for 2 weeks!! :)
-On Thursday night, I went out with my professor, her husband, and her grad students. It was a very casual dinner, which was nice and delicious. Normally at these kinds of dinners, I can't understand what people are saying because they're talking so fast and I can't jump into the conversation because it takes me like 2 minutes to formulate a sentence in my head first and then it's too late, haha. But at this dinner, they all made an effort to speak a bit slower for me and not use really big words. Plus they actually just wanted to get to know me more so the whole night they were asking me questions and talking with me. It was great, but also really exhausting because Chinese is taxing on the brain. Also somehow got into a discussion about whether democracy is good for China/is it going to happen w/ my professor's husband who works for the government. That was awesome. Overall they're so nice and friendly and really want to help me with my research so I'm really excited about that! :)
-Saturday I moved into my apt! I spent the first few hours cleaning and throwing out stuff from the last tenant (a fellow Fulbrighter from last year!). Then today I went furniture shopping, and ended up getting a shoe rack, a coat rack, a closet, AND a mattress for less than 1000rmb (about 150USD)!!! China is so cheap!!! I got all the stuff on this street with a bunch of hole-in-the-wall cheap furniture stores. They assembled everything and delivered via a guy with a bike who tied my stuff to the back, very funny. Now I'm almost totally set up! :) I'll do a special post on my apt once I do all the final touches. But so far I love it! They're so much organization space too, which obviously I LOVE. And today I received my 4 GIANT bags that I had left with Wayne in Beijing, and it only cost 430rmb (about 70USD)!!!! AMAZING! I highly recommend sf express to anyone out there who needs to ship domestically in China. They were super fast too- only 3 days from Beijing to Xi'an!
Oh, and I know you're all dying to write me letters and send me packages full of delicious America-ness so here's my new address:
西安市新城区民乐园万达广场（解放路110号）二号公寓9单元504室
Also discovered a great new IKEA-like store that has awesome organizational things AND there's one in Xi'an! It's called MUJI- organization freaks, feast your eyes on this website.
That's it! Have a good week everyone!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
先入为主(First Impressions are the Strongest)
Well if the title of the post is true (check that out IUP! vocab word, yaaa), Xi'an and I are going to get along just fine. Despite a disasterous weekend of losing my iPhone (for the 2nd time this month- China is seriously out to get me) and being locked out of my couch surfer's apartment for 2 nights, I am writing today to reflect on the otherwise GREAT first week I've had in Xi'an!
I arrived one week ago yesterday in this smoggy city (I've yet to see blue skies) and lugged my 2 enormous suitcases to my 1st couch surfers apartment near the Bell Tower in the center of Xi'an. Joan and Giulia kindly hosted me for the first 4 days here in Xi'an, and have been great friends already! My first night, I went out to dinner with Emily, Allie, and Mei- 3 Fulbrighters who have been in Xi'an for a few weeks already after doing CLEA (the language portion of Fulbright) in Harbin.
Monday morning, I went bright and early to the local health examination office in Xi'an. In China, all foreigners wishing to apply for the residence permit or other long-term stay visas have to go through a health exam "to ensure visitors are not bringing in infectious diseases"- so that's why I have to have an EKG? to make sure I don't have a heart attack in China? Obviously the real reason is it's a money maker for government offices. Another reason my friend who teaches economics through out here (which is probably true, but simply terrifying) is that the government tries to set up as much useless bureaucracy as possible to employ people, because inefficient systems employ more people. Great. So I walk into the health exam, look around bewildered and confused and then walk up to a random desk where a nice older man gave me some forms to fill out. Another thing about Chinese bureaucracy- they're obsessed with "chomps" (fancy stamps that usually indent your paper/form) and passport size photos. So after I used a glue stick (haven't seen one of those since the 2nd grade) to attach my passport photo onto a flimsy Chinese form, I moved down the line to the next station where I paid 400rmb for the exam (that's about $64USD), and then onto the blood test. I was pleased to see them open a fresh, clean needle to take my blood and they quickly found my vein so I didn't end up with a huge bruise like my poor classmates did who did their exams in Beijing. Then I went upstairs where I was shuffled between rooms for an EKG, an X-ray, a hearing and eye test (the ladies in this room loved me and fawned over my pale skin and big eyes until the next patient came in), an "internal organ" exam, a sonogram, and more. So strange.
After the surreal health exam, I headed to my school's foreign student office, where I filled out more forms and pasted my passport photos onto at least 5 different forms. Overall, the foreign students office has been pretty nice and helpful. That afternoon I went and looked at an apartment currently inhabited by a Fulbrighter from last year who had a late start, and is just finishing up now. Due to several days last week of calling agents and repeatedly being told there's nothing that will fit my standards, within my price range, in the location I want, and refusing to even show me places, I have given up and decided to take this first apartment. And don't get me wrong, it's not a sacrifice in anyway, I just felt silly taking the very first place I saw. So here are the details on my new place! It's located on the East side of Xi'an within the city walls, about a 20 min bus ride from my University (Xi'an Jiaotong University), and a 10 min or less bus ride from the Bell Tower, which marks the center of Xi'an. Compared to Beijing where everything takes an hr, Xi'an has been a dream. At most, I've travelled 30 minutes to get somewhere, so 30 minutes="far" in Xi'an speak. The apartment is about 1 yr old and was built in conjunction with a new development that has a movie theater, tons of restaurants and shops, a large supermarket, and a Hilton Hotel- perfect for when mommy and daddy come! :) The architecture of this whole complex is designed to look like old Xi'an or old China (think winged roofs and courtyards), but is new so you get the old world charm w/ new amenities. The apartment itself is on the 5th floor, 1 bedroom, 1 bath, a kitchen, and a living room. Highlights: the shower (the showerhead is mounted on the wall!!! and is enclosed by a glass walls so the bathroom doesn't flood everytime you shower) and a toaster oven (this means I can heat up food, and bake like 6 cookies at a time)!!!!!!! The fact that these 2 features are as exciting as they are clearly shows I've been in China too long, but regardless I'm psyched. Another thing that I think most people would hate, but...the couch is pink velvet floral. I love it. I know it's tacky, but "When in Rome..." The only problem? I can't move in until Jan 20/22 because the current Fulbrighter is still there for another week. So in the meantime I stayed with another couch surfer and tomorrow am either moving to another friend's place or moving to a hostel/hotel.
The other highlight of last week= I met my professor! Her name is Professor Yang, and she's all that I hoped for and more! I met this woman through a mutual friend of hers and one of my Vassar mentors, Fubing Su. Prof Yang helped me gain my affiliation at the university to complete my Fulbright application, and we've been emailing for over a year without ever meeting (all in Chinese!). The 2 problems most Fulbrighters have with their professors are 1) the professor is totally unresponsive/unhelpful and/or focuses on a different area of expertise and knows nothing about their project; 2) is totally overbearing and tries to direct the Fulbrighter's project themselves. So far, Prof Yang is totally interested in my work, but also seems to understand this is my own project. And she's really responsive. I emailed her on Monday morning saying I'd arrived, and by 11am she called and invited me to her office that afternoon. So I went back to school Monday afternoon and met her. She immediately greeted me with a hug- NOT your typical Chinese greeting (they're not that into touching like us Americans). Then she asked me about my research interests and told me about her work. She's currently working on studying the affects of the gender ratio imbalance in China (118:100 men:women)- so cool! I told her right now I just want to read up on my topic because it's relatively new to me, and she didn't seem troubled by the fact that I have NO IDEA what I'm talking about/how to DO "research" (jk Fulbright, I totally know what I'm doing...) so she gave me 3 awesome books that have super relevant articles about women and politics and said I could have the books! And of course they're in Chinese, oye. IUP reading skills- GO! Then she called up one of her 2 grad students, Yang Ting, who came and walked me around campus. She's super sweet and said she would help me read the articles if I had questions. Love her already.
My good friend Jake who studied at IUP with me and is also a Fulbright passed through Xi'an last week with a friend so that was fun too. We explored the muslim quarter and had delicious street food. We also stumbled upon the coolest old Chinese mansion called the Gao Mansion. I think you normally have to pay, but the gate was open so we just wandered in. They had the most beautiful furniture and art, all laid out like a traditional Chinese home. It was amazing. And such a hidden gem! Xi'an seems to be full of these amazing little gems all over the city- I can't wait to explore more! I've now walked around most of southern inner Xi'an (inside the city walls), and parts of Gaoxin, the new industrial district. And so far I love it!
I arrived one week ago yesterday in this smoggy city (I've yet to see blue skies) and lugged my 2 enormous suitcases to my 1st couch surfers apartment near the Bell Tower in the center of Xi'an. Joan and Giulia kindly hosted me for the first 4 days here in Xi'an, and have been great friends already! My first night, I went out to dinner with Emily, Allie, and Mei- 3 Fulbrighters who have been in Xi'an for a few weeks already after doing CLEA (the language portion of Fulbright) in Harbin.
Monday morning, I went bright and early to the local health examination office in Xi'an. In China, all foreigners wishing to apply for the residence permit or other long-term stay visas have to go through a health exam "to ensure visitors are not bringing in infectious diseases"- so that's why I have to have an EKG? to make sure I don't have a heart attack in China? Obviously the real reason is it's a money maker for government offices. Another reason my friend who teaches economics through out here (which is probably true, but simply terrifying) is that the government tries to set up as much useless bureaucracy as possible to employ people, because inefficient systems employ more people. Great. So I walk into the health exam, look around bewildered and confused and then walk up to a random desk where a nice older man gave me some forms to fill out. Another thing about Chinese bureaucracy- they're obsessed with "chomps" (fancy stamps that usually indent your paper/form) and passport size photos. So after I used a glue stick (haven't seen one of those since the 2nd grade) to attach my passport photo onto a flimsy Chinese form, I moved down the line to the next station where I paid 400rmb for the exam (that's about $64USD), and then onto the blood test. I was pleased to see them open a fresh, clean needle to take my blood and they quickly found my vein so I didn't end up with a huge bruise like my poor classmates did who did their exams in Beijing. Then I went upstairs where I was shuffled between rooms for an EKG, an X-ray, a hearing and eye test (the ladies in this room loved me and fawned over my pale skin and big eyes until the next patient came in), an "internal organ" exam, a sonogram, and more. So strange.
After the surreal health exam, I headed to my school's foreign student office, where I filled out more forms and pasted my passport photos onto at least 5 different forms. Overall, the foreign students office has been pretty nice and helpful. That afternoon I went and looked at an apartment currently inhabited by a Fulbrighter from last year who had a late start, and is just finishing up now. Due to several days last week of calling agents and repeatedly being told there's nothing that will fit my standards, within my price range, in the location I want, and refusing to even show me places, I have given up and decided to take this first apartment. And don't get me wrong, it's not a sacrifice in anyway, I just felt silly taking the very first place I saw. So here are the details on my new place! It's located on the East side of Xi'an within the city walls, about a 20 min bus ride from my University (Xi'an Jiaotong University), and a 10 min or less bus ride from the Bell Tower, which marks the center of Xi'an. Compared to Beijing where everything takes an hr, Xi'an has been a dream. At most, I've travelled 30 minutes to get somewhere, so 30 minutes="far" in Xi'an speak. The apartment is about 1 yr old and was built in conjunction with a new development that has a movie theater, tons of restaurants and shops, a large supermarket, and a Hilton Hotel- perfect for when mommy and daddy come! :) The architecture of this whole complex is designed to look like old Xi'an or old China (think winged roofs and courtyards), but is new so you get the old world charm w/ new amenities. The apartment itself is on the 5th floor, 1 bedroom, 1 bath, a kitchen, and a living room. Highlights: the shower (the showerhead is mounted on the wall!!! and is enclosed by a glass walls so the bathroom doesn't flood everytime you shower) and a toaster oven (this means I can heat up food, and bake like 6 cookies at a time)!!!!!!! The fact that these 2 features are as exciting as they are clearly shows I've been in China too long, but regardless I'm psyched. Another thing that I think most people would hate, but...the couch is pink velvet floral. I love it. I know it's tacky, but "When in Rome..." The only problem? I can't move in until Jan 20/22 because the current Fulbrighter is still there for another week. So in the meantime I stayed with another couch surfer and tomorrow am either moving to another friend's place or moving to a hostel/hotel.
The other highlight of last week= I met my professor! Her name is Professor Yang, and she's all that I hoped for and more! I met this woman through a mutual friend of hers and one of my Vassar mentors, Fubing Su. Prof Yang helped me gain my affiliation at the university to complete my Fulbright application, and we've been emailing for over a year without ever meeting (all in Chinese!). The 2 problems most Fulbrighters have with their professors are 1) the professor is totally unresponsive/unhelpful and/or focuses on a different area of expertise and knows nothing about their project; 2) is totally overbearing and tries to direct the Fulbrighter's project themselves. So far, Prof Yang is totally interested in my work, but also seems to understand this is my own project. And she's really responsive. I emailed her on Monday morning saying I'd arrived, and by 11am she called and invited me to her office that afternoon. So I went back to school Monday afternoon and met her. She immediately greeted me with a hug- NOT your typical Chinese greeting (they're not that into touching like us Americans). Then she asked me about my research interests and told me about her work. She's currently working on studying the affects of the gender ratio imbalance in China (118:100 men:women)- so cool! I told her right now I just want to read up on my topic because it's relatively new to me, and she didn't seem troubled by the fact that I have NO IDEA what I'm talking about/how to DO "research" (jk Fulbright, I totally know what I'm doing...) so she gave me 3 awesome books that have super relevant articles about women and politics and said I could have the books! And of course they're in Chinese, oye. IUP reading skills- GO! Then she called up one of her 2 grad students, Yang Ting, who came and walked me around campus. She's super sweet and said she would help me read the articles if I had questions. Love her already.
My good friend Jake who studied at IUP with me and is also a Fulbright passed through Xi'an last week with a friend so that was fun too. We explored the muslim quarter and had delicious street food. We also stumbled upon the coolest old Chinese mansion called the Gao Mansion. I think you normally have to pay, but the gate was open so we just wandered in. They had the most beautiful furniture and art, all laid out like a traditional Chinese home. It was amazing. And such a hidden gem! Xi'an seems to be full of these amazing little gems all over the city- I can't wait to explore more! I've now walked around most of southern inner Xi'an (inside the city walls), and parts of Gaoxin, the new industrial district. And so far I love it!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Goodbye 2012, Goodbye Beijing
Ok, so I tried to update sooner, but my VPN wasn't working so unfortunately you're in for another epic post...
-Went to all you can eat & drink Teppanyaki a few Fridays ago with over 20 friends at Tairyo, and had a great time! Then after getting in a fight with my cab driver because he tried to double our pre-negotiated fare, I left my small going-out purse in his car, which resulted in the loss of an iPhone, my house keys, new Laura Mercier lipstick, and most tragically the purse itself (jk, obviously the iPhone was a devastating loss)-however last night I just got my new iPhone (actually my sister's old phone) so YAY! Old phone number back and running too! :)
-Wayne and I went to a cooking class at Black Sesame Kitchen, and learned to cook Kungpao Chicken, Mapo Dofu, and Wok-friend String Beans, delicious! The best part of the class was learning the basics about cooking with Chinese ingredients. Also we got to meet cool people!
-I went to a hot flow yoga class at Fine Yoga in Chaoyang, which was a bit expensive but lovely to be in a hot room (the highs have been below 32F most days, REALLY cold. I now wear long underwear on a daily basis). Then I checked out a place in WuDaoKou (where I live(d) in Beijing), which was actually the best class I've been to, but still not great. Towards the end of the class, the teacher said, "ok we're going to do the hardest pose ever now, but just give it a try- the headstand". I've been doing yoga for about 4 years now so I can do a headstand- so I went right into it and they all freaked out and then thought I was really good at yoga. It was very strange... Overall though, most Chinese yoga classes are just too slow for me. They prefer to just do a few poses and hold them a long time or repeat them so you never get to the fun poses that I really enjoy. Still fun to check out new places though.
-I went to a great restaurant specializing in Beijing Imperial Cuisine called 那家小官, which was delicious! I highly recommend it to Beijing visitors.
Christmas Eve:
After class that day, I went to the gym and ran a 5K, which is totally unheard of for me! But it was awesome. I think it was because I was also watching a great soccer game on the treadmill TV so I felt like I was in the game (and I was entertained by all the hot soccer players who kept taking off their shirts in fits of victory/defeat). Then a bunch of us went to Bridge Cafe for a special pre-set Christmas Eve dinner, which consisted of: wine; walnut & goat cheese salad; pumpkin soup; an entree of turkey, ham, mash potato cube (it was weird), and green beans with bacon; apple pie; coffee; and mulled wine. Overall pretty good for China standards, but obviously not great compared to my usual homecooked meal that my family does. After dinner, we went to my friend Katie's Christmas Eve party where we had more mulled wine and lots of delicious baked goods! To end the night, I had a wonderful skype session with my family, who had made up tons of Christmas games to play with me over Skype! And they gave me various "monetary" gifts, including an offer to cover extra costs of a nice apartment in Xi'an, yoga classes, and a trip with my friends to anywhere in China! BEST GIFTS EVER! After the skype call, my friends and I had a slumber party at Wayne's house (I know, we're like 13 year old girls, but who wants to wake up alone at their Beijing apartment on Christmas?!). We watched Elf, and made it through the first part of White Christmas before we all fell asleep in a pile of blankets in Wayne's living room.
Christmas morning, we woke up with coffee, egg nog, opium dumplings, and delicious banana muffins baked by Rachel. Then we watched Love Actually, another great Christmas movie, which made us all cry (but in a good way). For the afternoon, I headed to my friend Mitch's amazing apartment in Andingmen for a Christmas potluck/hangout. I made Kraft Mac & Cheese, which was of course a HUGE hit. Haters gunna hate, but Kraft makes some good stuff, particularly MAC. I loved it, even though it wasn't quite as good as my mommy's homemade mac & cheese. After many hours of shmoozing, Sophie, Rebecca, and I left for some more substantial dumplings. And then I returned home and went to bed!
Overall I felt pretty detached from the holiday season this year, which sounds sad, but actually prevented me from being really sad about missing home. I really do feel like I live here in Beijing and that I really belong here, as much as mean cabi drivers try to remind me that I'm a foreigner. Most of all, I am soooo grateful to have such amazing and loving friends who made my Beijing Christmas just as special, of course in a very different way, as my US Christmas. Merry Christmas USA!
For New Years, we first went out to dinner at a great Yunnan restaurant, then headed to our friend Connie's birthday party at a bar she rented out in SanLiTun. After doing a countdown on someone's iPhone that was projected on a screen, we headed to Punk, a bar/club open for 1 night only! Very fun night overall. But something crazy that happened on the way to Connies- we were walking along the street in a pretty well populated area, and suddenly this Chinese girl in front of us just collapses. We didn't actually see her fall, but when we walked up she was having a seizure! None of us are doctors so we didn't really know what to do, but Adam and Jake put their gloves under her head so she wouldn't hit her head (even more than she probably already had) on the cement. After she stopped seizing, we finally found a doctor to help out. Passersby kept coming up and asking what was happening, and people in the crowd who didn't really know what was going on replied "Oh, just some drunk foreigner" because there was our whole crowd of foreigners there trying to help out. Meanwhile, most of the Chinese people in the crowd were staring and taking photos/video of the poor girl on the street! Apparently a few years ago, a young man stopped to help an old woman who had fallen on the street. When the woman recovered, she blamed the young man for pushing her over, and made him pay the medical bills. When they went to court, the judge deemed the young man had no reason to help the old woman other than his guilt for pushing her over (supposedly). This has come to be none as the Nanjing Precedent (check here for more detail). Back to our story- After about 15 minutes, an ambulance finally showed up and took the girl to the hospital. We got a call later saying she was going to be ok. Our New Years Eve experience demonstrates just how terrible this situation has become in China. Truly sad...
On Friday, I finished IUP (my language program) and am now DONE with classes (expect for 1 I have to audit in Xi'an) forever!!!! (or until I got to grad school...) Friday night we had a Fulbright dinner out to celebrate, hosted by the Embassy (thank you US tax payers). Yesterday I packed up my whole apartment, which was awful. Then today I flew out to Xi'an! I am here now staying at my lovely couch-surfing hosts' apartment. Turns out my hosts even know two of the Fulbrighters who have been here for awhile already! And they've got great connections for apartment hunting! And I met up with Allie, Emily, and Mei (3 Fulbrighters from this year) who are here too, which was really nice. So far, life in Xi'an is pretty great!
So goodbye IUP, goodbye 2012, and goodbye Beijing! Hello 2013 and Xi'an!
Merry Christmas/Happy New Year from China!!! Highlights from the last few weeks:
Christmas morning, we woke up with coffee, egg nog, opium dumplings, and delicious banana muffins baked by Rachel. Then we watched Love Actually, another great Christmas movie, which made us all cry (but in a good way). For the afternoon, I headed to my friend Mitch's amazing apartment in Andingmen for a Christmas potluck/hangout. I made Kraft Mac & Cheese, which was of course a HUGE hit. Haters gunna hate, but Kraft makes some good stuff, particularly MAC. I loved it, even though it wasn't quite as good as my mommy's homemade mac & cheese. After many hours of shmoozing, Sophie, Rebecca, and I left for some more substantial dumplings. And then I returned home and went to bed!
Overall I felt pretty detached from the holiday season this year, which sounds sad, but actually prevented me from being really sad about missing home. I really do feel like I live here in Beijing and that I really belong here, as much as mean cabi drivers try to remind me that I'm a foreigner. Most of all, I am soooo grateful to have such amazing and loving friends who made my Beijing Christmas just as special, of course in a very different way, as my US Christmas. Merry Christmas USA!
For New Years, we first went out to dinner at a great Yunnan restaurant, then headed to our friend Connie's birthday party at a bar she rented out in SanLiTun. After doing a countdown on someone's iPhone that was projected on a screen, we headed to Punk, a bar/club open for 1 night only! Very fun night overall. But something crazy that happened on the way to Connies- we were walking along the street in a pretty well populated area, and suddenly this Chinese girl in front of us just collapses. We didn't actually see her fall, but when we walked up she was having a seizure! None of us are doctors so we didn't really know what to do, but Adam and Jake put their gloves under her head so she wouldn't hit her head (even more than she probably already had) on the cement. After she stopped seizing, we finally found a doctor to help out. Passersby kept coming up and asking what was happening, and people in the crowd who didn't really know what was going on replied "Oh, just some drunk foreigner" because there was our whole crowd of foreigners there trying to help out. Meanwhile, most of the Chinese people in the crowd were staring and taking photos/video of the poor girl on the street! Apparently a few years ago, a young man stopped to help an old woman who had fallen on the street. When the woman recovered, she blamed the young man for pushing her over, and made him pay the medical bills. When they went to court, the judge deemed the young man had no reason to help the old woman other than his guilt for pushing her over (supposedly). This has come to be none as the Nanjing Precedent (check here for more detail). Back to our story- After about 15 minutes, an ambulance finally showed up and took the girl to the hospital. We got a call later saying she was going to be ok. Our New Years Eve experience demonstrates just how terrible this situation has become in China. Truly sad...
On Friday, I finished IUP (my language program) and am now DONE with classes (expect for 1 I have to audit in Xi'an) forever!!!! (or until I got to grad school...) Friday night we had a Fulbright dinner out to celebrate, hosted by the Embassy (thank you US tax payers). Yesterday I packed up my whole apartment, which was awful. Then today I flew out to Xi'an! I am here now staying at my lovely couch-surfing hosts' apartment. Turns out my hosts even know two of the Fulbrighters who have been here for awhile already! And they've got great connections for apartment hunting! And I met up with Allie, Emily, and Mei (3 Fulbrighters from this year) who are here too, which was really nice. So far, life in Xi'an is pretty great!
So goodbye IUP, goodbye 2012, and goodbye Beijing! Hello 2013 and Xi'an!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Life of Luxury in Beijing with Mom & Dad!
Wow, so sorry it's been almost a month since I last posted! Ahhh I'm awful! Here it goes...
So my parents arrived around Thanksgiving in Beijing. After my parents late night arrival on Friday, I sped out to their hotel (the Aman, it's fabulous, if a bit quiet and far removed from Beijing) on Saturday morning, where we had a lovely breakfast of pancakes (MY FAV!). Then we relaxed for a big and planned out our 2.5 weeks together! In the afternoon, we did a freezing cold tour of the Summer Palace, which was beautiful. My parents enjoyed their first trip outside their hotel and were of course, immediately stared at by all the Chinese tourists at the Summer Palace.
Afterwards, I worked out at the
amazingly nice gym there and soaked in the sauna w/ my momma. For dinner
we had hot pot at the hotel. Obviously it did not compare with
Haidilao, my fav, but my parents enjoyed it.
Sunday we took a tour of a rural village about 2 hours outside of Beijing. It was really amazing to see this "preserved tourist" village, and see people who were still living in it. We had lunch at the village leader's house, who spoke to us about his family's history in the village and their experiences living there. They seemed grateful to have us, as I think tourism is their main income now since all the farmland has been destroyed by over-farming. The village still has lots of communist slogans on the walls from the Cultural Revolution so I of course loved that.
That afternoon, Zan came out to the Aman
resort and participated in a brief dumpling making class. I now finally
have a recipe for dumplings!
That night
we had a yummy French-Japanese fusion dinner, and then watched Miracle
on 34th Street in the Aman movie theater, complete with popcorn! It was
very cute. AND the popcorn wasn't that stupid kettle corn you get most
places in China so I was very content.
Monday morning my parents and I hiked part of the Great Wall. I had only done this once, on my very first trip to China so I enjoyed doing this again. Plus we went to a different part of the wall so the scenery was different. And at the end, you get to slide down this huge slide to the bottom- so fun! My mom was terrified though...
Then I unfortunately had to return to school. My parents moved hotels on Tuesday to the Raffles at WangFuJing so they'd be more central to the heart of Beijing. That night we went to DinTaiFeng, the best dumplings in China (in my opinion), and my parents got to meet a bunch of my friends!
Wednesday, my parents went to 798 and I did work.
Thursday afternoon my parents came to WuDaoKou and saw my horrendous apartment. They even said, "This is worse we thought!". Great. After as brief a visit at the apt as they could bear, we walked over to Tsinghua to so they could see the campus. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore because we were going to a lecture at the Brookings Institute at Tsinghua on US-Sino relations under Obama-Xi. It was a great lecture with two speakers, an American and a Chinese, who presented very different opinions. Afterwards, we went to dinner with some of my friends at 麻辣诱惑, a delicious Sichuan style restaurant in the neighborhood. That night I went to see Nova Heart, a great Chinese electro pop group (I think I've written about them before)- similar to Class Actress if anybody knows her. Very fun.
Friday afternoon I caught up on some work while my parents toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City with Zan and a tour guide. That evening, I met up with my parents for drinks with a business friend and dinner, or so I thought! Actually, they led me to a surprise party Zan and my amazing Beijing friends had organized! They rented out an adorable venue from Hias Gourmet (a great group, totally recommend them!) complete with a huge table, and a well-stocked kitchen with ovens! woah! They made fried chicken, mac & cheese (another Julia favorite), pizza, carrot cake, cookies w/ hershey kisses in the middle, cole slaw, tomato & mozzarella salad, pumpkin bread, and more! It was soooo delicious! And Jake made his special Ginger Whiskey cocktails, which were great. In keeping with my birthday traditions, the party was Christmas themed, complete with a Santa (Wayne, I love you) and a tree! And best of all, all my new amazing friends I've made this fall were there to celebrate with me. It all astonishes me how many amazing new friends I meet all over the world on my adventures- love you guys!
Saturday, I went shopping at the Silk Market with my parents, and got a business suit custom made. What a disaster. You really have to bring in a style that you want. DO NOT let them propose or "design" things for you. It shouldn't be that hard, but I've been to the place 4 times now trying to get them to tailor it right, because they just ignored my warnings to them about different issues I have with buying suits. I JUST 20 minutes ago received a final delivery of the last two items that hopefully fit. I don't have a full length mirror so I have to wait until my roommate or someone comes home to take a pic of me in my clothes to see what they look like. (I know, ghetto). Anyways, we also that day saw Life of Pi. AMAZING!!!!! OMG the cinematopgraphy was soooo good. I read the book, which I enjoyed a moderate amount, but did not expect much from the movie. I was so suprised and wowed. a MUST SEE of the year for sure. That night we went to "Made In China" for Beijing Duck, which my parents loved! It was the best duck I've had in Beijing yet. Afterwards, I met up with some friends for a Paul Van Dyk concert at Tango. It was AMAZING!
Sunday, I headed back to the Silk Market with my parents and Zan to get my suit fitted (the 1st time), buy prescription glasses (my dad got some awesome ones as always!), fake handbags, etc. Very fun. Then we all went to Lost Heaven, one of my favorite restaurants in Beijing.
Monday, I caught up on HW while my parents went out with a business friend, Vivien.
Tuesday (the 4th= MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!), I met up with my parents in the afternoon for some shopping in Nanluoguxiang, a great (and most touristy) Hutong. I bought a new puffy coat to deal with this crazy freezing Beijing winter! (Seriously, my teachers even said this is uncharacteristically cold. They're wearing their "Chinese New Year" time-of-the-year clothes right now! It's often less than 20F when I bike to school, crazy!) I also got an awesome modern Chinese paper cutting landscape piece, and some great postcards. That evening we went to Haidilao for dinner with some friends. It was delicious as always. For my birthday, they carved little animals into a fruit plate and put a candle in it. They also gave me one of those scented sachés that you put into your lingerie or sock drawer to make it smell nice. Random, but I'll take it! Then Kate, Zan, and I watched the first part of Holiday Inn, and it was great.
Wednesday, my parents went out to a Cosmetic Brush Factory that
their friend in Atlanta owns, and I caught up on hw. Thursday afternoon I
took my midterm early while my parents were at day 1 of the Chinese Association of Women Entrepenuers (CAWE)
Conference on Innovation and Corporate Culture. That evening I relaxed
at home with Zanipoo and planned out our weekend with friends as it was
Zan's last weekend! :(
Friday, I went to the CAWE Conference too, and met a lot of awesome people. And most importantly, my mommy spoke too! Her speech was really awesome and interesting, AND stayed on topic & w/n the time limits! A first at a Chinese conference! Everyone wanted to meet her afterwards and she was a total celebrity and it was great.
Then we left in the afternoon when the conference ended, and relaxed a bit at their hotel. For dinner, we went to another Beijing Duck restaurant, Duck de Chine, because my parents loved Made in China so much. However Duck de Chine was a total disappoint to me. It was a beautiful restaurant that I'm sure is lovely in the summer. It's an old-style courtyard house that's big and drafty so it was freezing when we were there. Plus the duck just wasn't as good! Afterwards I met up with some friends for Zan's last KTV of the year (she's actually coming back to Beijing next January so it's not here last time EVER in Beijing, just for now).
Saturday, My parents and I went back to the Silk Market AGAIN because my clothes weren't right. I picked up a few more things I needed there, and then we just chilled. In the evening, we went to another of my favorite restaurants in Beijing, called DaGui. It's Guizhou style food, which means they have this awesome rub/topping they put on everything that's simply delicious! My parents at first were like, "Why are we at this tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant? Is this really that special?" And of course it was and they loved it. After dinner, I met up with Zan, Annie, and Zan's friend, Chantal, for massages and a classy night out. The massages were so nice, and not even that expensive (238rmb for 60 min at a really nice place). It's called Oriental Taipan. I'd highly recommend it. After that, we went to Apothecary, some of the best (and maybe most expensive) cocktails in all of Beijing! They even had winter/Christmas drink specials that were delicious.
Sunday, Zan left to go back to the US. :(((( so sad! But I got a new roomie named John, a friend of Jon Kaiman's (a vassar friend who lives in Beijing). John is a reported for the LA Times. This was also my parents last day in Beijing, and of course we AGAIN had to go to the Silk Market to get my suit fixed. Then we got massages at the Park Hyatt Spa (Tian Spa). After that, we had a truly AMAZING dinner at The China Grill, on the 68th floor of the Park Hyatt building. We started with a fresh mozzarella & tomato salad, which was to die for. The mozzarella was sooo fresh. Then I had a steak for my entree and it was maybe the best steak I've had in a whole yr (of course, it was like 300rmb, but still...I'd pay that in the US too actually for this quality). And then we had a delicious chocolate fondant for dessert, yum!!! And to top it all, the views at this restaurant were great. And mean, Beijing doesn't have a skyline like Shanghai, but it was pretty to see the whole city at night with all the light up traffic-filled avenues, etc. Then I went back to my parents hotel and gathered up all my stuff and said goodbye. My poor mom was sad because we haven't figured out exactly when I'll see them again (could be as soon as February or as late as July). I was of course sad to see them go as well. They left Monday (the 10th).
Last week I spent basically every day working out, sleeping, and catching up on hw. I tried to go to a lecture on Women's leadership held by the Tsinghua Women's Empowerment club, but when I arrived there was barely even standing room! It also snowed last week like 3 times! It brought a nice hush over Beijing, ya know, like snow does. It was really pretty while it was snowing too.
Of course afterwards it got kinda gross. Friday I got a massage at a local place (I know, I'm really into massages right now), which was awful, not relaxing, and they talked about us the whole time! Awkward! Afterwards, I got a great manicure in the WuDaoKou basement (the fancy one with glass windows), they even did gel, all for 120rmb! I'm def going back there. That night, we went to Cafe de la Poste for dinner, and had a great time! I would not recommend the steak, however my steak tartare was delicious, as were all the drinks, and the chocolate fondant (I know, I'm really into Chocolate Fondant these days). And they gifted us a bunch of drinks so that's always fun too!
Saturday, we went to The Hutong Christmas Fayre, which was so cute! I guess this is a thing in Europe. In December, they have tons of Christmas Fayres (yes, it's really spelled like that, I'm not that dumb) where people come and drink mulled wine, and hot toddies, and hot chocolate. Lots of vendors come and sell arts and crafts, handmade items, and lots of the proceeds go to charity! so nice! I bought a tshirt from my fav beer brewery called Great Leap, and they were selling growlers of one of their seasonal beers (they constantly have new beers coming out for limited time only, it's so fun!) called Hava Nagila. Naturally I had to buy some. I also got a lotion bar, some vinegar & soy sauce, and a cupcake! That afternoon I did some yoga at home, and it was really nice. I shut all the doors in my front entry way (this is the only place big enough in my apt for mat, so sad) and turned off the lights and lit candles and it was sooo nice. Then that night, my friends had a chanukah party! They made a menorah themselves out of beer bottles and candles, very creative.
Well, that's all I got for now! Moving to Xi'an in 17 days! Crazy!!!!
So my parents arrived around Thanksgiving in Beijing. After my parents late night arrival on Friday, I sped out to their hotel (the Aman, it's fabulous, if a bit quiet and far removed from Beijing) on Saturday morning, where we had a lovely breakfast of pancakes (MY FAV!). Then we relaxed for a big and planned out our 2.5 weeks together! In the afternoon, we did a freezing cold tour of the Summer Palace, which was beautiful. My parents enjoyed their first trip outside their hotel and were of course, immediately stared at by all the Chinese tourists at the Summer Palace.
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| The Marble Boat |
Sunday we took a tour of a rural village about 2 hours outside of Beijing. It was really amazing to see this "preserved tourist" village, and see people who were still living in it. We had lunch at the village leader's house, who spoke to us about his family's history in the village and their experiences living there. They seemed grateful to have us, as I think tourism is their main income now since all the farmland has been destroyed by over-farming. The village still has lots of communist slogans on the walls from the Cultural Revolution so I of course loved that.
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| Mom and I eating lunch at the Village Elder's home |
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| Village Elder's Home |
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| The Village, nestled in the valley of the mountains! |
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| I know, cool hats. |
Monday morning my parents and I hiked part of the Great Wall. I had only done this once, on my very first trip to China so I enjoyed doing this again. Plus we went to a different part of the wall so the scenery was different. And at the end, you get to slide down this huge slide to the bottom- so fun! My mom was terrified though...
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| the slide! |
Then I unfortunately had to return to school. My parents moved hotels on Tuesday to the Raffles at WangFuJing so they'd be more central to the heart of Beijing. That night we went to DinTaiFeng, the best dumplings in China (in my opinion), and my parents got to meet a bunch of my friends!
Wednesday, my parents went to 798 and I did work.
Thursday afternoon my parents came to WuDaoKou and saw my horrendous apartment. They even said, "This is worse we thought!". Great. After as brief a visit at the apt as they could bear, we walked over to Tsinghua to so they could see the campus. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore because we were going to a lecture at the Brookings Institute at Tsinghua on US-Sino relations under Obama-Xi. It was a great lecture with two speakers, an American and a Chinese, who presented very different opinions. Afterwards, we went to dinner with some of my friends at 麻辣诱惑, a delicious Sichuan style restaurant in the neighborhood. That night I went to see Nova Heart, a great Chinese electro pop group (I think I've written about them before)- similar to Class Actress if anybody knows her. Very fun.
Friday afternoon I caught up on some work while my parents toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City with Zan and a tour guide. That evening, I met up with my parents for drinks with a business friend and dinner, or so I thought! Actually, they led me to a surprise party Zan and my amazing Beijing friends had organized! They rented out an adorable venue from Hias Gourmet (a great group, totally recommend them!) complete with a huge table, and a well-stocked kitchen with ovens! woah! They made fried chicken, mac & cheese (another Julia favorite), pizza, carrot cake, cookies w/ hershey kisses in the middle, cole slaw, tomato & mozzarella salad, pumpkin bread, and more! It was soooo delicious! And Jake made his special Ginger Whiskey cocktails, which were great. In keeping with my birthday traditions, the party was Christmas themed, complete with a Santa (Wayne, I love you) and a tree! And best of all, all my new amazing friends I've made this fall were there to celebrate with me. It all astonishes me how many amazing new friends I meet all over the world on my adventures- love you guys!
 | |
| Besties!!! |
Saturday, I went shopping at the Silk Market with my parents, and got a business suit custom made. What a disaster. You really have to bring in a style that you want. DO NOT let them propose or "design" things for you. It shouldn't be that hard, but I've been to the place 4 times now trying to get them to tailor it right, because they just ignored my warnings to them about different issues I have with buying suits. I JUST 20 minutes ago received a final delivery of the last two items that hopefully fit. I don't have a full length mirror so I have to wait until my roommate or someone comes home to take a pic of me in my clothes to see what they look like. (I know, ghetto). Anyways, we also that day saw Life of Pi. AMAZING!!!!! OMG the cinematopgraphy was soooo good. I read the book, which I enjoyed a moderate amount, but did not expect much from the movie. I was so suprised and wowed. a MUST SEE of the year for sure. That night we went to "Made In China" for Beijing Duck, which my parents loved! It was the best duck I've had in Beijing yet. Afterwards, I met up with some friends for a Paul Van Dyk concert at Tango. It was AMAZING!
Sunday, I headed back to the Silk Market with my parents and Zan to get my suit fitted (the 1st time), buy prescription glasses (my dad got some awesome ones as always!), fake handbags, etc. Very fun. Then we all went to Lost Heaven, one of my favorite restaurants in Beijing.
Monday, I caught up on HW while my parents went out with a business friend, Vivien.
Tuesday (the 4th= MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!), I met up with my parents in the afternoon for some shopping in Nanluoguxiang, a great (and most touristy) Hutong. I bought a new puffy coat to deal with this crazy freezing Beijing winter! (Seriously, my teachers even said this is uncharacteristically cold. They're wearing their "Chinese New Year" time-of-the-year clothes right now! It's often less than 20F when I bike to school, crazy!) I also got an awesome modern Chinese paper cutting landscape piece, and some great postcards. That evening we went to Haidilao for dinner with some friends. It was delicious as always. For my birthday, they carved little animals into a fruit plate and put a candle in it. They also gave me one of those scented sachés that you put into your lingerie or sock drawer to make it smell nice. Random, but I'll take it! Then Kate, Zan, and I watched the first part of Holiday Inn, and it was great.
 |
| Dinner at HaiDiLao! |
Friday, I went to the CAWE Conference too, and met a lot of awesome people. And most importantly, my mommy spoke too! Her speech was really awesome and interesting, AND stayed on topic & w/n the time limits! A first at a Chinese conference! Everyone wanted to meet her afterwards and she was a total celebrity and it was great.
Then we left in the afternoon when the conference ended, and relaxed a bit at their hotel. For dinner, we went to another Beijing Duck restaurant, Duck de Chine, because my parents loved Made in China so much. However Duck de Chine was a total disappoint to me. It was a beautiful restaurant that I'm sure is lovely in the summer. It's an old-style courtyard house that's big and drafty so it was freezing when we were there. Plus the duck just wasn't as good! Afterwards I met up with some friends for Zan's last KTV of the year (she's actually coming back to Beijing next January so it's not here last time EVER in Beijing, just for now).
Saturday, My parents and I went back to the Silk Market AGAIN because my clothes weren't right. I picked up a few more things I needed there, and then we just chilled. In the evening, we went to another of my favorite restaurants in Beijing, called DaGui. It's Guizhou style food, which means they have this awesome rub/topping they put on everything that's simply delicious! My parents at first were like, "Why are we at this tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant? Is this really that special?" And of course it was and they loved it. After dinner, I met up with Zan, Annie, and Zan's friend, Chantal, for massages and a classy night out. The massages were so nice, and not even that expensive (238rmb for 60 min at a really nice place). It's called Oriental Taipan. I'd highly recommend it. After that, we went to Apothecary, some of the best (and maybe most expensive) cocktails in all of Beijing! They even had winter/Christmas drink specials that were delicious.
Sunday, Zan left to go back to the US. :(((( so sad! But I got a new roomie named John, a friend of Jon Kaiman's (a vassar friend who lives in Beijing). John is a reported for the LA Times. This was also my parents last day in Beijing, and of course we AGAIN had to go to the Silk Market to get my suit fixed. Then we got massages at the Park Hyatt Spa (Tian Spa). After that, we had a truly AMAZING dinner at The China Grill, on the 68th floor of the Park Hyatt building. We started with a fresh mozzarella & tomato salad, which was to die for. The mozzarella was sooo fresh. Then I had a steak for my entree and it was maybe the best steak I've had in a whole yr (of course, it was like 300rmb, but still...I'd pay that in the US too actually for this quality). And then we had a delicious chocolate fondant for dessert, yum!!! And to top it all, the views at this restaurant were great. And mean, Beijing doesn't have a skyline like Shanghai, but it was pretty to see the whole city at night with all the light up traffic-filled avenues, etc. Then I went back to my parents hotel and gathered up all my stuff and said goodbye. My poor mom was sad because we haven't figured out exactly when I'll see them again (could be as soon as February or as late as July). I was of course sad to see them go as well. They left Monday (the 10th).
Last week I spent basically every day working out, sleeping, and catching up on hw. I tried to go to a lecture on Women's leadership held by the Tsinghua Women's Empowerment club, but when I arrived there was barely even standing room! It also snowed last week like 3 times! It brought a nice hush over Beijing, ya know, like snow does. It was really pretty while it was snowing too.
Of course afterwards it got kinda gross. Friday I got a massage at a local place (I know, I'm really into massages right now), which was awful, not relaxing, and they talked about us the whole time! Awkward! Afterwards, I got a great manicure in the WuDaoKou basement (the fancy one with glass windows), they even did gel, all for 120rmb! I'm def going back there. That night, we went to Cafe de la Poste for dinner, and had a great time! I would not recommend the steak, however my steak tartare was delicious, as were all the drinks, and the chocolate fondant (I know, I'm really into Chocolate Fondant these days). And they gifted us a bunch of drinks so that's always fun too!
Saturday, we went to The Hutong Christmas Fayre, which was so cute! I guess this is a thing in Europe. In December, they have tons of Christmas Fayres (yes, it's really spelled like that, I'm not that dumb) where people come and drink mulled wine, and hot toddies, and hot chocolate. Lots of vendors come and sell arts and crafts, handmade items, and lots of the proceeds go to charity! so nice! I bought a tshirt from my fav beer brewery called Great Leap, and they were selling growlers of one of their seasonal beers (they constantly have new beers coming out for limited time only, it's so fun!) called Hava Nagila. Naturally I had to buy some. I also got a lotion bar, some vinegar & soy sauce, and a cupcake! That afternoon I did some yoga at home, and it was really nice. I shut all the doors in my front entry way (this is the only place big enough in my apt for mat, so sad) and turned off the lights and lit candles and it was sooo nice. Then that night, my friends had a chanukah party! They made a menorah themselves out of beer bottles and candles, very creative.
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| Making Latkas! |
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| We even sang songs! |
Well, that's all I got for now! Moving to Xi'an in 17 days! Crazy!!!!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Paparazzi and Turkey (or Duck)
Hello everyone,
So sorry I haven't updated in awhile. As soon as I got back from the US, classes got super hard so I've had no time to do anything! Last week, we started new classes for our 2nd module (mini-semester). I was supposed to just move up a level into a new comprehensive class, and a new listening/speaking class, but since I'm only here one semester, I really wanted to do a “材料课”, which is what IUP calls their independent self-designed courses. So instead of the regular classes, I condescended two sessions of one class into one, and added my independent class. In my independent class, I read articles (in Chinese of course) about my Fulbright research topic- women and NGOs and politics in China. It's been really interesting so far, although the content itself of the articles is nothing exciting. It's hard to briefly scan articles written in Chinese to see if they're worth reading so you just have to dive in. I've definitely learned a lot of great vocab already though. So I am now in 3 classes and have the coursework of a regular semester, PLUS my independent class= BUSY BUSY BUSY BUSY BUSY. Other than classes, some other highlights form my last two weeks:
-The first Sunday night I was home, my friend Thomas invited me to Spark, the coolest club in Beijing at the moment, for an Olay "Winter Sunscreen" product launch party. (One of his friends works for Olay so that was our "in"). It was pretty awesome. It also happened to be "Singles Day" in China because it was 11/11 (all "1"s, which is like a single person, just "1"). It's mostly a shopping day (a bit like our black Friday, which is currently happening as I write!). It's also a day for various singles parties and mixers, and this was one of them...When we arrived, we showed them a random 6 digit number Thoma's friend had given us, and apparently that was enough for the entrance. Then we got the first set of party favors: a sparkly pink mask, a pink feather hair clip, or a blue sequin mini top-hat hair clip. I chose the pink mask. The whole night, drinks were free as long as you ordered from their pre-set list, which consisted of "fun", "fearless", and "female" cocktails (those were the drink names). As the party was sponsored by Cosmopolitan Magazine and Olay, they had cakes with their names on them:
So sorry I haven't updated in awhile. As soon as I got back from the US, classes got super hard so I've had no time to do anything! Last week, we started new classes for our 2nd module (mini-semester). I was supposed to just move up a level into a new comprehensive class, and a new listening/speaking class, but since I'm only here one semester, I really wanted to do a “材料课”, which is what IUP calls their independent self-designed courses. So instead of the regular classes, I condescended two sessions of one class into one, and added my independent class. In my independent class, I read articles (in Chinese of course) about my Fulbright research topic- women and NGOs and politics in China. It's been really interesting so far, although the content itself of the articles is nothing exciting. It's hard to briefly scan articles written in Chinese to see if they're worth reading so you just have to dive in. I've definitely learned a lot of great vocab already though. So I am now in 3 classes and have the coursework of a regular semester, PLUS my independent class= BUSY BUSY BUSY BUSY BUSY. Other than classes, some other highlights form my last two weeks:
-The first Sunday night I was home, my friend Thomas invited me to Spark, the coolest club in Beijing at the moment, for an Olay "Winter Sunscreen" product launch party. (One of his friends works for Olay so that was our "in"). It was pretty awesome. It also happened to be "Singles Day" in China because it was 11/11 (all "1"s, which is like a single person, just "1"). It's mostly a shopping day (a bit like our black Friday, which is currently happening as I write!). It's also a day for various singles parties and mixers, and this was one of them...When we arrived, we showed them a random 6 digit number Thoma's friend had given us, and apparently that was enough for the entrance. Then we got the first set of party favors: a sparkly pink mask, a pink feather hair clip, or a blue sequin mini top-hat hair clip. I chose the pink mask. The whole night, drinks were free as long as you ordered from their pre-set list, which consisted of "fun", "fearless", and "female" cocktails (those were the drink names). As the party was sponsored by Cosmopolitan Magazine and Olay, they had cakes with their names on them:
People kept accidentally bumping them and breaking the icing, oops! I don't think they ever actually ate the cakes, at least not while I was there. Once everyone had a few drinks, the singles games started. There was a dance instructor who kept taking people up onto the stage (the stage was surrounded with small plastic strings that guided water down from the top of the stage to the bottom of the stage, creating a wall of water around the stage. Kinda cool...) to dance. Most of the poor chosen ones were awful dancers, but it was fun to watch:
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| the dance instructor |
After the dance lessons, the dating games started. I don't really know what was going on, but I think there was a host, a single lady, and a single man, all chosen in advance to participate. The dance instructor would teach them a dance, and then they're ask them a few questions. Dancing shows like this in China are huge. One of the most famous incidents occured when a female contestant said she's "rather be crying in the back of a mercedes, than laughing on the back of bike", indicating her preference for money over happiness. This incident set off a huge controversy over the values of young people in China today, which lit up the Chinese blogosphere for weeks. Anyways, nothing that exciting happened at our party...
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| The host is in the middle. Notice the big hair piece on the female contestant- these were all the rage that night. |
After the dating show part ended, they took down the water barriers, and opened up the stage for dancing. As some point in the end, my friend Sophie and I ended up dancing gangnam style on the stage with a chinese guy, while the entire rest of the club watched us. It was pretty embarrassing, given that I don't really know the dance. But we were literally the ONLY foreigners at the party so the paparazzi were all over us. There were a lot of photographers there because of the sponsors, Olay and Cosmo. My friend Thomas and I decided to be extremely animated everytime the paparazzi came over so they loveddddd us. It was pretty hilarious. Who knows, maybe I'll be in the next chinese Cosmo?
Last Friday we went to our favorite beer brewery, which just put up their winter heat lamps and such for the winter. It was pretty nice, and I got to hear inside scoop from my reporter friends about covering the 18th Party Congress last week. Summary (also a real summary here): No one knows ANYTHING about ANYTHING or ANYONE in the Chinese government, despite these politicians being over 50 years old. The government closely hides most information about their leaders, and only tells the press what they want so they have to be skeptical of everything. No surprises came out of the party congress. The reduced the Standing Committee from 9 to 7 people, presumably to be more efficient since they work on a consensus basis. 5 of the 7 people chosen were picks of Jiang Zemin (China's president in the 90s), indicating he still maintains a great deal of power in the party. Xi Jinping is the new president, starting March I believe. No women on the standing committee, duh. :( And Hu Jintao stepped down as chair of the Central Military Commission, which his predecessor Jiang did not do for 2 years in Hu's presidency. This means Xi Jinping can take up that post immediately, thus controlling all 3 of the most important aspects of Chinese governance: Party, Military, and State.
Also this week, I had 3 great "culture sharing" discussions with some Chinese people (fulfulling my Fulbright mission of "sharing mutual respect and understanding"):
1. This week I had a great discussion with some Chinese 20-something women. Our conversation that started out as part of a homework assignment to interview 3 Chinese people about “早恋” (puppy love, or young love) turned into a 2 hr discussion on religion, abortion, Planned Parenthood, US Politics, and more! It was super interesting. For example, I said that abortions are very controversial in the US, and they were flabbergasted! "But the US is so open and progressive," they said. I then explained the influence of Christianity on many Americans, and the socially conservative nature of the Church. They thought it was all very strange.
2. As a sign of my appreciation for all the hard work my teachers from last semester put in (generally above and beyond the standard), I brought my 4 teachers special gifts from the US. The first item, Ghiradelli Peppermint Bark, was well received. My second gift sparked more controversy: a hanky panky thong from my parent's lingerie store, Intimacy. Giving lingerie to anyone might seem pretty weird, but I've been doing it since I was a little girl (I usually gave PJs back then since I refused to admit to anyone until high school that my parents owned lingerie, not PJ & swimwear, stores for fear of harassment and severe embarrassment). As hanky pankys are extremely popular in the US and are usually received as a great gift, I didn't think anything of it when my mom suggested in. It wasn't until I got back to Beijing that I realized that many people, and almost all Chinese people, don't wear thongs. Maybe I've been desensitized to them over the years as almost all of my friends and I exclusively wear thongs. And from my perspective, they're a fairly normal clothing item that don't need to be reserved solely for special occasions or anything. But again, maybe I just like in my own little pro-lingerie bubble and have no idea what's going on in the rest of America. (I was surprised when one of my best Australian girlfriends here in Beijing said that most young Australians girls don't wear them because they're uncomfortable. Thongs aren't popular there...) So anyways, I give my teachers these thongs and chocolate bars. Two of the teachers wrote me emails thanking me for the gifts and mentioned they'd already tried and loved the chocolate (NO mention of the thongs). My other two younger and generally more progressive teachers came up to me in the hallway after class, giggling and whispering like 12 year old girls. They thanked me for the gifts, and sheepishly asked "Are they really comfortable?" I explained to them that they may take some getting used to, but are really comfortable and especially useful if you're wearing tight clothes. They giggled and said they were really sexy- another thought I've never had about hanky pankys (I guess lace thongs are fairly sexy, but I've been spoiled to the point that hanky pankys are a basic to me). Then my teacher confided in me that "One time, I bought a g-string [a thong with literally just a string in the back]" but she hated it (naturally, those actually do suck). The idea that "this one time I bought a thong" was so funny to me. The next day, my teacher came up to me in the hall, looks around to check no one is nearby, and goes "I tried them!" She thought they weren't too comfortable but assured me she's going to work at it until she can wear them because they're so pretty. I loved this whole interaction so much because going into the situation, it hadn't even occurred to me that there was this big cultural divide about lingerie. I thought I was just giving a normal "American made" gift that had a personal touch since they'd all heard about my parents' store already. But even better, my gift came with a cultural lesson!
3. In my independent research materials class, I read a passage about "a controversial" investment an NGO made for public welfare. I asked my teacher, "why is this controversial? It's an investment in public welfare by an NGO." She explained: From a young age in school, Chinese students are taught about the greatness of their nation and their government. Then they get out into the real world and realize it was all lies. Their trust in so-called "fact" is totally shattered. In China, "facts", "statistics", and "evidence" are all easily fabricated or manipulated (Take China's unemployement rate for example). This then led to the most honest discussion I've ever had with a Chinese person about the true power of the Chinese people to change their government or to influence politics. Needless to say, she was very pessimistic and said she's thought about leaving China and moving to the US for a long time. I won't put the details of our discussion here just in case I'm being watched (haha, but seriously...), but it was basically a live, engaged discussion about my college thesis- SO COOL. OMG NERD FREAK OUT.
Also this week was Thanksgiving of course! This year, I've been lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving 4 times! The first occured when I was at home in the US. My darling, sweet mtoher cooked a 20 lb Turkey ("go big or go home" as they say...) for 7 people, along with all the typical American Thanksgiving dishes. My second dinner was Wednesday night, hosted by the US Embassy for China Fulbrighters at the Renaissance Hotel in Beijing. They had a buffet complete with Turkey, Beijing Duck, Sushi, Indian curries, Hamburgers, congee, fried rice, steamed buns, and more! My favorite dish was definitely the AMAZING chocolate cake. I also got to meet a current Fulbright who's living in Xi'an right now so he gave me some info about life there and now I have a friend in Xi'an! That makes 2 friends so far. haha. Last night on actual Thanksgiving, my friends and I went to a 北京烤鸭 (Peking Duck) restaurant. As my friend Nick described it, "What did the Pilgrims do when they went to the US? They ate the local food. What should we do on Thanksgiving in China? Eat Peking Duck!" Excellent reasoning. It was delicious as always. Tonight we're having our final celebration, an IUP Thanksgiving Potluck party. I don't think anyone is making turkey, but I brought Stove Top Stuffing all the way from the US so I'm bringing that. I'm also DJing the party with my outstanding Christmas music playlist! Let the holiday season begin!
Tonight, my parents arrive in Beijing! WOO! They will be here for the next 2.5 weeks so expect my next post to be full of stories from the luxury life in Beijing! (and hopefully nice quality photos if my parents bring my finally fixed-camera!)
Saturday, November 10, 2012
A week in the land of uncensored internet, cheese, and dryers
Hello everyone!
I have just spent the last week in the wonderful US of A. The week prior to that I had my final exam, which I personally felt went very well, but only received a measly "不错“ or "not bad" from my teachers. Oh well. You can't please everyone...So that week did not warrant a blog update since my days consisted of hard core studying and coffee drinking, with a small exception of some Halloween night festivities.
After our exams ended on Friday, the 2nd, a large (35+) group of IUPers gathered at a delicious GuiZhou restaurant organized by the wonderful Chris. Post-stuffing our faces on enormous amounts of delectable food, we headed to our friend Peter's house for a house-warming party. I was delighted by his choice to served hot mulled wine, a traditional European Christmas beverage. Anyone who knows me obviously understands my excitement about the introduction of a Christmas tradition in early November. :) The party was rudely ended by some neighbors literally throwing bricks onto the thick glass rooftop patio of Peter's apartment, and then followed by a brief police visit. Fortunately the glass did not break, no one was hit with a flying brick, and the police let us all go without incident.
Instead of returning home and going straight to bed, I got ready to go to the airport for by 6:45am flight. I got to the airport very early since I left over 3 hours before my flight due to a fear of not getting a taxi or some kind of crazy China thing getting in my way and delaying me. Once I got on the plane, I was dismayed by the treatment of the Chinese passengers by the airline stewardesses. It appeared that only 1 stewardess spoke Chinese, and several other Asian-American stewardesses did not. However of course the poor Chinese passengers could not figure out who they could communicate with, and the non-Chinese speaking stewardesses preferred to yell at and chastise all the Chinese passengers who could not understand them. As a "cultural ambassador" in China, I was appalled by the terrible disregard on the part of Delta for the obvious communication barrier. Of course most of the Chinese passengers don't speak English. Talking to them like they're idiots won't help. Instead, I tried to help translate for the poor old Beijing man sitting next to me, who had serious hand tremors going on for the whole flight. We briefly chatted about American politics (more on this issue here) and I explained to him how to play Sudoku, but mostly I couldn't understand him through his thick Beijing accent. The rest of my flight was uneventful, didn't sleep much but oh well. Even got upgraded on my flight from Detroit to Atlanta, woo Gold Medallion status!
Saturday afternoon I caught up with the family, took my camera over to be fixed, and then got a mani/pedi with my sister! That night I enjoyed a lovely home cooked meal courtesy of my darling mother. Sunday I went shopping with my mom and sister, which counted as my birthday presents! Among my favorite purchases: a gold sequined small square going- out purse with a tortoise-shell clasp; a navy and white polka dot robe lined in fleece; and black matte rubber rain boots with a bow on the side that double as snow boots when lined with Hunter fleece socks. Very excited about my gifts!! :) Also went spinning Sunday morning with my sister and dad- a big step up from spinning in Beijing, where I basically just make up my own routine because I can't understand what they're saying.
Monday morning, I yoga-ed with my sis, and then spent the day doing emails and blogging and such. That night the family and I went to Restaurant Eugene, a very fancy southern gourmet restaurant, to celebrate Emily and I's upcoming birthdays. It was delicious!
Tuesday, I went and voted with my family. I was so lucky to be able to actually vote in person because many of my friends in Beijing never even received their absentee ballots, and had to vote via Emergency Ballot. Upon arriving at the polling station, there were several races and constitutional amendments that I didn't even know about. As someone who desperately tries to understand and research all the locals races, I was frustrated that I hadn't researched those votes. It's amazing that no matter how hard you try, it's almost impossible to be an educated voter for every thing you're voting on...Tuesday afternoon I went rock climbing with my dad at our favorite gym, and were unpleansantly surprised at how bad we were! I guess we've forgotten a lot of our technique as we haven't climbed in awhile. For dinner I went to my sister's house so that I could watch the votes roll in in a friendly environment
Wednesday I had a number of dr appts, and a hair appt at which I dyed my hair chocolate brown! Unfortunately my usual blonde highlights will not last a year in China without touch ups and I don't trust a Chinese hair salon with that, so Shawn (my lovely and trusted hair specialist) and I decided that brown would be easier to maintain as it's somewhat closer to (but definitely darker than) my natural hair color. Wednesday night we had an early Thanksgiving at my house with my Aunt and Uncle. It was so yummy! I have seriously the best mom EVER.
Thursday I had a few more appts, got a makeover with my mom, and had a delicious french lunch. Thursday night I went out with some girl friends from high school and had a great time catching up! :)
Friday I did some gentle yoga with my mom in the morning, and then got ready to come back to Beijing! Flew out that afternoon, and arrived here Saturday night.
Today I'm just getting unpacked and used to being back in Beijing. So good to be home!
I have just spent the last week in the wonderful US of A. The week prior to that I had my final exam, which I personally felt went very well, but only received a measly "不错“ or "not bad" from my teachers. Oh well. You can't please everyone...So that week did not warrant a blog update since my days consisted of hard core studying and coffee drinking, with a small exception of some Halloween night festivities.
After our exams ended on Friday, the 2nd, a large (35+) group of IUPers gathered at a delicious GuiZhou restaurant organized by the wonderful Chris. Post-stuffing our faces on enormous amounts of delectable food, we headed to our friend Peter's house for a house-warming party. I was delighted by his choice to served hot mulled wine, a traditional European Christmas beverage. Anyone who knows me obviously understands my excitement about the introduction of a Christmas tradition in early November. :) The party was rudely ended by some neighbors literally throwing bricks onto the thick glass rooftop patio of Peter's apartment, and then followed by a brief police visit. Fortunately the glass did not break, no one was hit with a flying brick, and the police let us all go without incident.
Instead of returning home and going straight to bed, I got ready to go to the airport for by 6:45am flight. I got to the airport very early since I left over 3 hours before my flight due to a fear of not getting a taxi or some kind of crazy China thing getting in my way and delaying me. Once I got on the plane, I was dismayed by the treatment of the Chinese passengers by the airline stewardesses. It appeared that only 1 stewardess spoke Chinese, and several other Asian-American stewardesses did not. However of course the poor Chinese passengers could not figure out who they could communicate with, and the non-Chinese speaking stewardesses preferred to yell at and chastise all the Chinese passengers who could not understand them. As a "cultural ambassador" in China, I was appalled by the terrible disregard on the part of Delta for the obvious communication barrier. Of course most of the Chinese passengers don't speak English. Talking to them like they're idiots won't help. Instead, I tried to help translate for the poor old Beijing man sitting next to me, who had serious hand tremors going on for the whole flight. We briefly chatted about American politics (more on this issue here) and I explained to him how to play Sudoku, but mostly I couldn't understand him through his thick Beijing accent. The rest of my flight was uneventful, didn't sleep much but oh well. Even got upgraded on my flight from Detroit to Atlanta, woo Gold Medallion status!
Saturday afternoon I caught up with the family, took my camera over to be fixed, and then got a mani/pedi with my sister! That night I enjoyed a lovely home cooked meal courtesy of my darling mother. Sunday I went shopping with my mom and sister, which counted as my birthday presents! Among my favorite purchases: a gold sequined small square going- out purse with a tortoise-shell clasp; a navy and white polka dot robe lined in fleece; and black matte rubber rain boots with a bow on the side that double as snow boots when lined with Hunter fleece socks. Very excited about my gifts!! :) Also went spinning Sunday morning with my sister and dad- a big step up from spinning in Beijing, where I basically just make up my own routine because I can't understand what they're saying.
Monday morning, I yoga-ed with my sis, and then spent the day doing emails and blogging and such. That night the family and I went to Restaurant Eugene, a very fancy southern gourmet restaurant, to celebrate Emily and I's upcoming birthdays. It was delicious!
Tuesday, I went and voted with my family. I was so lucky to be able to actually vote in person because many of my friends in Beijing never even received their absentee ballots, and had to vote via Emergency Ballot. Upon arriving at the polling station, there were several races and constitutional amendments that I didn't even know about. As someone who desperately tries to understand and research all the locals races, I was frustrated that I hadn't researched those votes. It's amazing that no matter how hard you try, it's almost impossible to be an educated voter for every thing you're voting on...Tuesday afternoon I went rock climbing with my dad at our favorite gym, and were unpleansantly surprised at how bad we were! I guess we've forgotten a lot of our technique as we haven't climbed in awhile. For dinner I went to my sister's house so that I could watch the votes roll in in a friendly environment
Wednesday I had a number of dr appts, and a hair appt at which I dyed my hair chocolate brown! Unfortunately my usual blonde highlights will not last a year in China without touch ups and I don't trust a Chinese hair salon with that, so Shawn (my lovely and trusted hair specialist) and I decided that brown would be easier to maintain as it's somewhat closer to (but definitely darker than) my natural hair color. Wednesday night we had an early Thanksgiving at my house with my Aunt and Uncle. It was so yummy! I have seriously the best mom EVER.
Thursday I had a few more appts, got a makeover with my mom, and had a delicious french lunch. Thursday night I went out with some girl friends from high school and had a great time catching up! :)
Friday I did some gentle yoga with my mom in the morning, and then got ready to come back to Beijing! Flew out that afternoon, and arrived here Saturday night.
Today I'm just getting unpacked and used to being back in Beijing. So good to be home!
Monday, November 5, 2012
"Do all Americans hate China?"
Over the last two weeks since the 2nd presidential debate, I have been asked by many skeptical Chinese people, "Do you like China? Really?". Due to the serious china-bashing that occurred during the debate, many Chinese people think that America's leaders want nothing but to see the demise of the Chinese economy and prevent them from continual growth because the US sees China as a threat. Of course, this is not exactly what Romney and Obama said during the debates, but this is how many Chinese people have interpreted it. The following article provides a great overview of the way many Chinese view the two candidates:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2012/09/china-on-romney-and-obama.html
For example, last week on a trip to a local convenience store, I was approached by an older Chinese man who wanted to know where I was from. As this happens quite often, I responded "America" without hesitation. Upon hearing this, the Chinese man asked "Why do your leaders hate us? Do you hate us?" Of course, I tried to reassure him that most Americans do not hate China. "Obviously I love China, that's why I'm here," I told him. I then tried to explain that a lot of the rhetoric in the debate about China is just that, rhetoric, and most likely will not be implemented into real policy (at least, I hope not). He defiantly responded, "Well, you don't know. You can't speak for them. You can only speak for yourself." After awhile, I gave up. This debate between the old Chinese man and I was also complicated by his heavy Beijing accent, which adds an R to the end of many words making them almost indistinguishable to me. Upon seeing my frustration at the seemingly endless discussion, the shop keeper reminded me, "He only wants to talk to you because you're pretty." "Oh good," I thought, "Of course a woman, especially a foreign woman, couldn't possibly have any real intelligence to share." I began backing out of the store and escaped the conversation by just smiling and laughing, usually a very effective method for communicating when you have no idea what the other person is saying.
Similar debates rose up again this week while waiting at the airport to fly back to the US for a short vacation (more updates on this later!), and on the airplane flying to Detroit. It's very disheartening to me to hear Chinese people voicing these kinds of opinions about Americans because of several reasons. Obviously personally, as I will be living in China for at least the next year, I don't want Chinese people to hate me. But more importantly, I wish the candidates, Romney and Obama, would remember that the world is watching their campaigns. Foreign governments are shaping their policies towards the US with this kind of rhetoric in mind.
Furthermore, I believe the root of the problem lies in the upsetting fact that this kind of China bashing is what a lot of Americans actually do want to hear. Many Americans are both angry and afraid of China because of their growing economy, when in reality they should feel neither of those emotions. Do we really want to bring by low-level manufacturing jobs that China has "stolen" from us? Is that what we want our American economy to be based on. No, American's economic growth lies in innovation and development of new ideas for the future. It does not need to be supported by factories and low-quality manufacturing that most Americans do not really want to do anyways (that's why many of our more low-paying, low-skill jobs- such as farm laborers- are filled by immigrants who come to the US). And secondly, Americans should realize that they do indeed benefit by China's low cost production. If the US were to label China as a "currency manipulator", which they may very well be but I won't go into this issue now, this would impose a tariff on all goods imported from China. This would NOT be good for anyone. Let's look at the recent tariff on Chinese tires that Obama tried out a few years ago- After imposing a tax on Chinese tires, US consumers paid an extra $1.2 billion, according to the Peterson Institute as cited by the NY Times. Then in retaliation, China taxed US imports on Chicken, which cost US poultry producers $1 billion in lost sales. All of this only saved 1,200 American tire jobs. Because of its obvious failure, the Obama administration let this tire tariff expire this September.
Ok, I've rambled on long enough. In conclusion, China is watching the US election closely, and its already had real impacts on the way Chinese view the US and Americans in general. But don't worry America, you've got me (and a bunch of other wonderful China-loving Americans) over here in China to remind the Chinese that Americans still love them! US Government, don't let us down.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2012/09/china-on-romney-and-obama.html
For example, last week on a trip to a local convenience store, I was approached by an older Chinese man who wanted to know where I was from. As this happens quite often, I responded "America" without hesitation. Upon hearing this, the Chinese man asked "Why do your leaders hate us? Do you hate us?" Of course, I tried to reassure him that most Americans do not hate China. "Obviously I love China, that's why I'm here," I told him. I then tried to explain that a lot of the rhetoric in the debate about China is just that, rhetoric, and most likely will not be implemented into real policy (at least, I hope not). He defiantly responded, "Well, you don't know. You can't speak for them. You can only speak for yourself." After awhile, I gave up. This debate between the old Chinese man and I was also complicated by his heavy Beijing accent, which adds an R to the end of many words making them almost indistinguishable to me. Upon seeing my frustration at the seemingly endless discussion, the shop keeper reminded me, "He only wants to talk to you because you're pretty." "Oh good," I thought, "Of course a woman, especially a foreign woman, couldn't possibly have any real intelligence to share." I began backing out of the store and escaped the conversation by just smiling and laughing, usually a very effective method for communicating when you have no idea what the other person is saying.
Similar debates rose up again this week while waiting at the airport to fly back to the US for a short vacation (more updates on this later!), and on the airplane flying to Detroit. It's very disheartening to me to hear Chinese people voicing these kinds of opinions about Americans because of several reasons. Obviously personally, as I will be living in China for at least the next year, I don't want Chinese people to hate me. But more importantly, I wish the candidates, Romney and Obama, would remember that the world is watching their campaigns. Foreign governments are shaping their policies towards the US with this kind of rhetoric in mind.
Furthermore, I believe the root of the problem lies in the upsetting fact that this kind of China bashing is what a lot of Americans actually do want to hear. Many Americans are both angry and afraid of China because of their growing economy, when in reality they should feel neither of those emotions. Do we really want to bring by low-level manufacturing jobs that China has "stolen" from us? Is that what we want our American economy to be based on. No, American's economic growth lies in innovation and development of new ideas for the future. It does not need to be supported by factories and low-quality manufacturing that most Americans do not really want to do anyways (that's why many of our more low-paying, low-skill jobs- such as farm laborers- are filled by immigrants who come to the US). And secondly, Americans should realize that they do indeed benefit by China's low cost production. If the US were to label China as a "currency manipulator", which they may very well be but I won't go into this issue now, this would impose a tariff on all goods imported from China. This would NOT be good for anyone. Let's look at the recent tariff on Chinese tires that Obama tried out a few years ago- After imposing a tax on Chinese tires, US consumers paid an extra $1.2 billion, according to the Peterson Institute as cited by the NY Times. Then in retaliation, China taxed US imports on Chicken, which cost US poultry producers $1 billion in lost sales. All of this only saved 1,200 American tire jobs. Because of its obvious failure, the Obama administration let this tire tariff expire this September.
Ok, I've rambled on long enough. In conclusion, China is watching the US election closely, and its already had real impacts on the way Chinese view the US and Americans in general. But don't worry America, you've got me (and a bunch of other wonderful China-loving Americans) over here in China to remind the Chinese that Americans still love them! US Government, don't let us down.
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