Wo ai xiao gou OR Chinese men need antiperspirant too

What does "wo ai xiao gou" mean you might ask? As my good friend *atherine with a K would respond, it means "i love small dogs" (actually, she loves all dogs, but that's beside the point). To be more specific, I'm loving that Beijing has an unhealthy obsession with small dogs that are sooooo ugly that they're actually cute. I know at least two of you, *coughKatherineandLisacough* are also fans of these ridiculously amazing animals, so I know that I'm not entirely crazy in my desire to take pictures of these strange little creatures that people seem to love putting in bow ties and dresses. Yes, that's right, bow ties and dresses. It's incredible.

To emphasize my love of these creatures, today when walking home from the subway to buy a replacement phone and a new photo card, I decided to walk a new route which ultimately took me 40 minutes to get back to my dorm and not the usual 10 minutes but that's beside the point. I saw this great little alley with a bunch of people coming out and walked down it only to be barraged by the wonderful smell of these flowers trees that I have in my backyard at home, which was fantastic. Anyway, I get towards the end of the actually one way street and run into this woman with a small dog on a leash that looks utterly ridiculous. I tried out my very best chinese language skills and told her "wo ai ni de xiao gou" or "i love your small dog" to which she responded by laughing awkwardly and walking her dog in the opposite direction. I think I may have accidentally actually said "wo ai ni xiao gou" or "i love you small dog" which has not quite the same meaning and probably freaked her out a little. Ooops. I also ran into a grandmother and grandson stomping/dancing/tapdancing? at the end of this road on the other side of the padlocked gate or I would have joined in.

On my other topic though, since I should really be studying/reading for tomorrow's midterms, SUBWAY LINE RUSH HOUR IS NOT FOR SHORT PEOPLE WITH SENSITIVE NOSES.
If this ever occurs to you, be prepared not to breathe and to look away if possible because there are unfortunate consequences to being short in a packed subway. These unfortunate consequences are: 1) looking at sweaty smelly armpits of Chinese men who are holding onto the bar of the subway to avoid falling down*
2)smelling the sweaty smelly armpits of Chinese men who are holding onto the bar of the subway to avoid falling down
Both of these are completely avoidable if they use antiperspirant. Or if I grow another 4 inches. Of the two, I think the first is more reasonable.

*It's actually ridiculous that they need to hold this bar because I can't even reach the bar and usually there are people standing in the middle so I can't hold the vertical bar and I don't even ride the subway on a normal basis and I have yet to fall down, so this whole deal could also be avoidable if they just take some ballet lessons and quit sticking their arms in the air. (my third solution).

Okay, time to catch up on reading/study for midterm/get some sleep before class.

Late Updates -> non-sensical ramblings

hey everyone. so it's been a really really really long time since i've updated this and i apologize (i hope it's not too late? hahaha). anyway, the following possibly ridiculously long entry will be filled with my random observations and adventures. i hope you're ready.

*this will also be filled with no capitalization. sorry english majors.

1)maybe i was really adopted from china
so it's been really hard for me to convey to people here that i'm not really chinese because they all have this idea that i look really chinese? even after explaining in chinese language that i'm korean ("wo shi han guo ren" for all those interested parties, mainly my little brother because i think that's the only person that phrase would apply towards), the most common response is: but you look so chinese! whatever, we'll see when i get to korea if i still am mistaken for chinese. if that's the case, holt int'l has some explaining to do...

1.5)it's really difficult to explain the term adoption to non-english speakers/non-american peoples
we went to a senior middle school in fenyang, a province of shanxi, where we met a lot of young people. after unsuccessfully explaining that i am korean and not chinese, i tried to explain that i was adopted. the conversation went a little like this:

(Me)"so i was born in korea and grew up in america since i was 3 months old, a baby. my parents are white american, but i am korean."
(Chinese Student)"so your parents are chinese?"
(Me)"no, i am korean and my parents are american."
(Chinese Student)"oh, so your parents are korean and you live in america..."
(Me)"no...my parents look like paul (i point to paul, a white male on my program."
(Paul) "WAIT...your parents both look like me?"
(Me)"are you serious?"

eventually i gave up the whole process of explaining and then had to deal with why i was 'chinese' and didn't speak chinese. overall, it was a losing battle.

2)my chinese language skills make no sense
after 10 weeks/1 trimester of chinese language at carleton, i thought maybe it would start coming back. for the most part, it's true, and i'm going to a chinese intro language class in 10 minutes. however, i can say my numbers, hello, goodbye, that's too expensive, how much, 1 bottle sprite, 10 trays of dumplings, and mommy. i'm pretty sure that i need to take this class and have even repurchased my chinese language textbook.
*fyi, carls in chinese, the bookstore is ripping you off. the book here is 8 bucks, not 26. ridiculous, right? on the upside, lu yuping is still as amazing as ever.

3)being asian still allows me to make some observations that others cannot
so even though i don't really speak the language, i'm getting a kick out of following 10 feet behind my white friends and watching everyone point/comment/giggle. it's actually kind of fun until the chinese people try to collude with me on their comments, and i end up looking like a fool with my 'huh?' face.

4)china has not changed my ability to lose things. here is a sample:
-cell phone and card ($50, ouch! i'm going to buy a new one this week for spring break)
-phone number list
-room list
-packs of gum (though most of the time by 'lose' i mean i get suckered into giving it to small children and unprepared carls. i guess that's not really losing)

5)chinese food is not chinese food
so i realize how americanized my tastes are and i hope this real chinese food is preparing me for my summer in korea. instead, i keep sneaking off to get pizza/chicken/western food. it doesn't help that my roommate can't really eat a lot of food, so i use her as an excuse to keep getting mashed potatoes from kfc. oops.

6)i'm going to chinese hawaii for spring break
that's right everyone. be jealous. be very jealous*
*except for the fact that i know the most chinese language of my group of four which really means that we don't speak chinese and we're going to sanya, hainan province off the coast of china. it will be fine mother, please don't worry. i'm overexaggerating. it's supposed to be touristy, so i'm happy as long as we don't get ripped off too much. we're also spending part of break exploring beijing, so hopefully i'll get to see melissa again, which would be super fun.

7)it's chinese language class time so i'm out for now! the next post will hopefully be sooner and shorter.

love and hugs :D

Wanted: 1 Large Box of Grape Juice...followed by 3 ounces of Cheddar Cheese

So I've been having these really weird cravings lately for food and drinks that are definitely not Chinese, especially grape juice. Seeing as it's something that I don't normally drink, I thought it was really weird and I'm kind of hating that I miss things and am searching for them when there are so many other types of wonderful consumables that I should be exploring. Anyway, this search for grape juice has occurred in 3 different grocery stores and I've come to the conclusion that Chinese people just don't like grape juice. Nor do they like grape jelly/jam/preserves as one of my fellow classmates has discovered in her search for grape jelly. I've finally found my grape juice though at a western grocery store in the embassy district of Beijing and did a little happy dance at it's discovery. I've decided that was also my low point as it was when I thought eating three ounces of cheddar cheese out of the plastic wrapper was a great idea for an afternoon snack...not so much in retrospect. Just really, really sad.

Anyway, the embassy area is near Sanlitun, another area of of Beijing which seems to be a "hip spot" according to Lonely Planet. By hip, I think they mean an area with lots of bars and Western clothing/accessory brands, but to each their own. Surprisingly, this was also the area where I think that I most noticed the supposed desert that is encroaching on Beijing. There was a mini wind/dust storm that really sucked and hurt my eyes here. I ended up at an expat bookstore, which was kind of great because I could order my glass of pear juice without having to point to the menu and use hand gestures.

Speaking of odd adventures with food, which seems to be the trend of this post, I had a cultural/linguistic food mishap the other day. One of the wonderful foods here is called baozi, and it's a steamed filled bun that you can get 10 for 4 rmb, a little over 50 cents. I tried to order 10 for lunch the other day by asking for 10 baozi. Little did I know that I accidentally ordered 10 TRAYS of baozi, or 100 little delicious buns. The lady wasn't too happy when I freaked out and told her I only wanted 1. Moral of this story was 2-fold: 1) Baozi (and jiaozi, the little dumplings) come 10 in a tray and you order by the tray, not the individual pieces. 2) Even though I'm not Chinese, at least I'm Asian so I can probably go back to the little stand and hopefully they won't recognize me.

The Eastern Gate has more Eastern Things while the Western Gate has more Western Things

I'm finally in the city of Beijing at a semi-home base for the last 8 weeks of this program. Albeit, we actually are only here a week or so at a time with trips scheduled across China, but it's been good to unpack and get used to living in a non-hotel room for once. I'm really enjoying it here, despite the pollution and people hacking/coughing up a lung and spitting on the streets. I did have an interesting incident yesterday while in line at a street stall for food where an older man walked up behind me, hacked over my shoulder, and walked away again. The guy running the stall had a good laugh at me for probably 3 or 4 minutes though, which was a bit excessive.
We're living at the University of Business and Economics (UIBE) which is between 3rd and 4th ring road and close to a subway line. Everything here is either really cheap (eg a bottle of coke is 3 yuan or about 42 cents) or seemingly overpriced in comparison to stuff we've been paying in SE Asia. The University itself has 2 gates, one of which is near more western stores and one of which is more eastern oriented in food and stores and they are out the western and eastern gates, which I thought was funny.
Anyway, the night we got here, a bunch of us walked to a Japanese department store which was actually more expensive than at home and then we walked to the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. Unfortunately, we got there at 9:25 and the lights are shut off at 9:30, so that was dissapointing, but I'm hoping to go back later and see it.
Our first full day here, we went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and Jing Shan Park, which where enormous and beautiful. A few of us went to Wangfujing Street, which is the high end shopping street in Beijing where I finally got a card reader to upload photos and then realized I didn't bring my mini sd adaptor. Sorry all, I'm working on it.
On Sunday (it's Monday night here), I went to an Easter service for foreign passport holders that was behind the Capital Building near the embassy district (where I also went today). It was pretty interesting going from hearing nothing but Chinese from the non-Carl students to having an entire service in English. I loved it, even though it was more traditional/structured than services I am used to attending. I actually sat by a guy who said he was from Cedar Rapids and then we met a woman who had a daughter that went to Carleton and was a SOAN major, which just proves what a small world this really is.
Today was our first full day of classes and by classes, I mean a 2 hour morning lecture on Politics and a 2 hour afternoon lecture on Economics with a break in between for lunch. It was so weird being back in the classroom though. I wasn't sure what to make of it and forgot how long 2 hours is when you have to take notes and pay attention to something. I think this will be really interesting though and am excited to put into academic context all of the things we are seeing in terms of economic and political history and policy.
I also opened a skype account and my name is: catherinek87
Add me!
More updates later, I promise.

From Mingalaba to something I have yet to figure out how to say

So our week in Myanmar is over and we only have 3 more days in Vietnam and I am sooo behind on this post, but bear with me.

We left Chiang Mai Thailand to fly through Bangkok on our way to Yangon, Myanmar (or Rangoon, Burma, take your choice). Our hotel was in a fairly busy area and our trip is premised on going out, exploring, and not getting arrested unless absolutely necessary. After arriving in the late evening and getting supper though, I went to bed to rest up for the rest of the time there. The next day,we met the students of PCP or Pre Collegiate Prep (I think?) which is a "school" for students who want to go abroad for higher education and return to Burma to contribute back to their country. These are probably some of the most driven young people that I've met and they definitely will be a force to reckon with in the future. In the morning, we went to a Yum Yum Factory, which produces Ramen Noodles. I don't really remember at the moment all the places that we went in the chronological order, but I do remember going on a small outing to a glass blowing factory, walking around Rangon with the students, going to a department store, going to another department store, going to a market, and other amazing stuff. The exchange rate in Yangon is approximately 1040 kyat to 1 US dollar and the program provided a lot of the money here since there is no place to officially exchange currency. We did a couple of side trips too throughout the country, a 2 dayer in Inle Lake, a gorgeous wildlife/bird preserve on a lake with every building on stilts where we traveled by long boats to a blacksmith and silk weaving place, and to Bagan, another beautiful place where there was more of a village type feel where we went to tons of pagodas, a cruise on the river which had been suffering from drought for the past 3 years, a laquerware place, and something I am forgetting, probably more temples. One of the prettiest sights in Yangon was the Shwedagon Pagoda. Absolutely breathtaking, though one of the guys (Ben B) got his wallet stolen by a fake monk. That kind of sucked. We also ate at the place in Yangon that was essentially a huge boat thing that didn't move with people dressed up in traditional clothing from centuries ago and performances and an elephant thing? It was kind of weird, but that's okay. It was really sad saying goodbye to our friends here, but I'm sure I will see them again someday soon.

We had a one night/day in Bangkok where we went to a restaurant ran by an NGO and the restaurant was called Cabbages and Condoms. It was really...interesting? but tasteful and tasty (the food that is). We also went to Khao San Road in search of fisherman's pants that we had somehow missed earlier in the trip. We left in the afternoon to go to Hanoi.

So in Hanoi, we had some time to go meet people at Foreign Trade University, where we had our first real classroom type lecture. Our hotel in Hanoi is an early 20th century French hotel near the major lake in the middle of the city. We have also been to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum/house/etc, the War Museum, and a hub cap factory that I skipped out on since I wasn't feeling the greatest at the time. There's a little club/bar here called the Loop that a bunch of us went to and that was an...interesting experience again, haha. One of the things that really strikes me here is the Romanization of the language, which keeps tripping me up because I feel like I should know the signs, but I actually can't read them. Yeah. We also went on cyclo rides here which is a bike with a seat on the front of the bike.

Two days ago, we left for our loop around vietnam. We stayed in a village the first night and went tromping through the fields of mud with the rice paddies on either side. For the first time, the dogs looked healthy here, but they are all tied up everywhere too, which is kind of sad. Even sleeping in the village isn't that bad though; we have a pillow, bedding, and a 1 inch thick bumpy mattress pad, though it's still a mattress, and mosquito netting. It may possibly be more comfortable than all those nights my family made me sleep on the floor at reunions and cousin's houses, haha.

Yesterday, we stayed in a hotel in the Halong Bay inlet area for the night after driving a ridiculous amount of hours and consuming a ridiculous amount of snackfoods. Today, we are now in Catba, another part of Halong Bay and we got here by this big boat that was 2 layers. Lunch was full of faux meat since I can't take the sea creatures with the eyes staring at me and have temporarily become a vegetarian in this country. It's so incredible how many faux meat things that they can make here, but to each his own I guess. I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe after walking around a little through the city. It's little, a port city, and very beautiful. Anh, you were right, or at least your mom was right, when you told me Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I wasn't feeling up to it, but there was a small mountain/stair climb today as well as jumping off the boat into the middle of the bay where they docked our boat. It was a bit much for me.

We have one more day in Halong Bay before going back to Hanoi and one more day in Hanoi before going to Beijing where the "vacation" section of our program ends and the real work begins. It's a hard life trekking through SE Asia staying at 4 star hotels, but some program at Carleton has to do it, and I might as well be part of it, right?

I miss you all and am taking copious amounts of photos that will eventually be put up somewhere as soon as I find a computer and buy a card reader to get them off my camera since I didn't think to bring my cord. Also parents, I did buy electrical adapters at the airport in MSP that have been a lifesaver, so no worries there. I should probably post this before my time runs out though because that would suck. Have fun at Carleton and Iowa and Alaska and wherever else you are! I'll do the same here :D