As of this morning, we have one three credit course, 3/4 free day, and a ridiculously long flight back to the United States. Since spring break, I haven't been able to really write anything on this blog though because it has been blocked at the internet centers I had been going to in Beijing. Not sure if that's a restriction/not really working/etc, but the point is, I have a lot to say and haven't been able to do so. Even though it won't be happening as I write, I plan to go back through and fill in some adventures that occurred on my trip. In addition, this slightly "goofy" writing will continue throughout the summer as I schlep across Korea, finding my roots and trying to figure just exactly what I want to do with my life (a bit dramatic, but true).
Look out for more. You'll see me soon.
Last Love from the Asian Location,
Catie
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
An SPF 50 Kind of Spring Break
Spring Break 2009: 5 days in Sunny Sanya, Hainan Province with 3 wonderful friends
Day 1: We left at 615 am to go to the airport, but ended up discussing where we needed to be with the taxi driver lady for quite some time before hopping in and praying for the best. Finally, we called Judy to double check that we were going to the right place and terminal and were on our way. After a 4 hour plane next to a ridiculous couple where the girl almost put her head on my lap, and I became pretty angry, we finally arrived where a driver from the hotel met us to take us to the hotel. We got there, unpacked, and headed off to the beach where we relaxed, burnt, and enjoyed crystal clear water and sand. That night, we walked back (about a 40 min walk) and stopped at Rainbow, an American bar/grill (it was tasty and don't hate on me too much for doing non-Chinese) where we met our waitress and soon to be friend Katie. That night, we went back and fell asleep I think.
Day 2: Sleeping in, then walking to the beach. We stopped at a coffee shop on the way to have overpriced food with mystery meat. Really though, another day of fun and sun and naps where I rediscovered music on my ipod and read more of my new book: microtrends (it's really really good). That night we ate a Chinese restaurant where I didn't have to use Chinese language since the woman spoke English. Walked around and found ice cream and a night market where I finally used Chinese to bargain for sparkly jewelry and befriending of the dress lady and her amazing wares. Lots of dvd watching and burn admiring followed.
Day 3: Sleeping in, bakery breakfast, and finding of an atm (not for me) and a taxi to Yalong Bay. Told driver Yalong and not Yalong Bay and ended up with expensive taxi ride. Yalong was 33 quai, so we used LonelyPlanet's advice to sneak onto a hotel's private beach. Much quieter than Dadonghai and more beautiful, but obviously less lively. Back to Rainbow where there was a Chinese movie being filmed that they wouldn't let us be in. Yummy food, tried to scare off the 30yr old Chinese men. More night market.
Day 4: Sleeping in and bakery breakfast. Walked around the city and found a bookstore with great cheap English classics. No beach day because of too much sun in the past, but lots of ac and movies. Got a hold of Katie and had dinner together before walking around the city and taking photos again. DVDs again at night.
Day 5: Last day with bakery breakfast, day at the beach after trying to convey that we wanted to leave our bags at the hotel. Wonderful last beach bathing, buying of an amazing jellyfish kite, trying to tell the 5 Chinese people who offerred me cigarretes that I don't smoke, and an awkward 5 kuai "shower" with a hose on the beach. Back to the hotel before the airport ride home with another annoying couple who played some kind of hitting/clapping game. Successful taxi home and lots of sleep.
Later updates with my Beijing portion of break.
Day
Day 1: We left at 615 am to go to the airport, but ended up discussing where we needed to be with the taxi driver lady for quite some time before hopping in and praying for the best. Finally, we called Judy to double check that we were going to the right place and terminal and were on our way. After a 4 hour plane next to a ridiculous couple where the girl almost put her head on my lap, and I became pretty angry, we finally arrived where a driver from the hotel met us to take us to the hotel. We got there, unpacked, and headed off to the beach where we relaxed, burnt, and enjoyed crystal clear water and sand. That night, we walked back (about a 40 min walk) and stopped at Rainbow, an American bar/grill (it was tasty and don't hate on me too much for doing non-Chinese) where we met our waitress and soon to be friend Katie. That night, we went back and fell asleep I think.
Day 2: Sleeping in, then walking to the beach. We stopped at a coffee shop on the way to have overpriced food with mystery meat. Really though, another day of fun and sun and naps where I rediscovered music on my ipod and read more of my new book: microtrends (it's really really good). That night we ate a Chinese restaurant where I didn't have to use Chinese language since the woman spoke English. Walked around and found ice cream and a night market where I finally used Chinese to bargain for sparkly jewelry and befriending of the dress lady and her amazing wares. Lots of dvd watching and burn admiring followed.
Day 3: Sleeping in, bakery breakfast, and finding of an atm (not for me) and a taxi to Yalong Bay. Told driver Yalong and not Yalong Bay and ended up with expensive taxi ride. Yalong was 33 quai, so we used LonelyPlanet's advice to sneak onto a hotel's private beach. Much quieter than Dadonghai and more beautiful, but obviously less lively. Back to Rainbow where there was a Chinese movie being filmed that they wouldn't let us be in. Yummy food, tried to scare off the 30yr old Chinese men. More night market.
Day 4: Sleeping in and bakery breakfast. Walked around the city and found a bookstore with great cheap English classics. No beach day because of too much sun in the past, but lots of ac and movies. Got a hold of Katie and had dinner together before walking around the city and taking photos again. DVDs again at night.
Day 5: Last day with bakery breakfast, day at the beach after trying to convey that we wanted to leave our bags at the hotel. Wonderful last beach bathing, buying of an amazing jellyfish kite, trying to tell the 5 Chinese people who offerred me cigarretes that I don't smoke, and an awkward 5 kuai "shower" with a hose on the beach. Back to the hotel before the airport ride home with another annoying couple who played some kind of hitting/clapping game. Successful taxi home and lots of sleep.
Later updates with my Beijing portion of break.
Day
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
I'd write something witty and clever here, but frankly my dear, I'm way too sunburnt to care
This past weekend/week/coming weekend ushered in our spring break (at long last since we left right after finals to begin our seminar in Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam, just in case I've been rambling for so long that you forgot). For spring break, after finishing a couple of handwritten midterms that took way too long since I've fogotten how to use the English language, I was ready to relax, get some sun, and be happy again.
My spring break plans were to go to Sanya, Hainan province, an island off the coast of Southern China, with Kelsey I, Alex B, and Whittney. As we said many times over during lounging on the beach and through the markets, best idea ever and best vacation ever.
But anyway, my break really began on Friday morning, so I'll start there instead of the Saturday flight to Sanya.
Actually, I'll start Thursday instead after we got our midterm per diem and handed in midterms, k? Even though I might have said this already the post before. Sorry if I repeat myself. I'm burnt.
So Thursday, after leaving class, I went to the National Art Museum with Orion and Wes. Unfortunately, I forgot my student id, so it ended up being 40 kuai instead of 10, but oh well. Let me preface with the fact that I know very little about art. Sure, I threw pots (in the making sense, not the making mess sense) in middle school and high school, but viewing paintings and most sculpture is purely done for my personal enjoyment since I know nothing about technique. What I do know is that I absolutely loved the 5th floor exhibition of a Chinese print maker named Chao Mei, as well as the Turner exhibition from the Tate gallery. You can check out both here: http://www.namoc.org/en/Exhibitions/Current_Exhibitions/index.html Quite excellent and a great way to unwind on approximately 3 hours of sleep.
Thursday evening, I went to dinner with 9 people to a restaurant out the West Gate (there are 2 gates we use at UIBE, the East Gate has been dubbed "Eat Street" with cheap food and the West Gate is more expensive but nicer). Zach, our program assistant who graduated last year from Carleton, decided that he wasn't speaking any Chinese since we all were heading off for break and needed to learn how to get food ourselves. Unfortunately, this meant that I was crowned menu queen and not only had to order food for 9 people, but also request 2 more chairs since 2 people were coming later (we went as a group of 7) and didn't now the word for chair. There was a lot of miming going on, but it got the job done. At the very least, I know I won't starve or not know where the bathroom is as long as people around me know Mandarin.
Friday: Got up earlyish and went with James and Orion to what I've dubbed "The Temple of Hell." In actuality, it's the Dongyue Daoist Temple: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Dongyue_Temple
and it has a ridiculously large number of rooms that you walk by with these really great statues inside that describe the different departments and beliefs in daoism. We were a little bored, and I was a little dissapointed because everything looked so plain the first four or five rooms when all of a sudden, we go to the next room and there's a demon staring at us! From there on out, there were more demons in the rooms and some of the rooms got a little gruesome. It was so intriguing. Afterwards, we headed to the electronics market so the boys could play with their electronic game things. We found an arcade in the basement where they played Tekken, which I commented was like street fighter and got promptly criticized and lectured. Looked the same to me. Oh well. We also watched Orion draw a crowd playing DDR outside. James commented that if the white guy could do it, anyone could, which is probably why there was a line for people buying the game after we left. For lunch, we went to "explodes the stomach" where I pitched in my 10 kuai to watch them eat the most disgusting food I've ever seen before going to an actual restaurant and ordering the most delicious potatoes and beef I've ever eaten. For real. After packing for my trip, I went to dinner with another big group of people to a Japanese place where there was delicious delicious sushi and tempura and other stuff that I would have to point to since I can't pronounce the name. Went to bed after that to get up to catch a taxi at 615 for our flight.
Actually, that was pretty gosh darn long, so I'll write tomorrow or so about the rest of my break since I'll have time, and we're the only ones back anyway.
love love love and aloe vera :D
My spring break plans were to go to Sanya, Hainan province, an island off the coast of Southern China, with Kelsey I, Alex B, and Whittney. As we said many times over during lounging on the beach and through the markets, best idea ever and best vacation ever.
But anyway, my break really began on Friday morning, so I'll start there instead of the Saturday flight to Sanya.
Actually, I'll start Thursday instead after we got our midterm per diem and handed in midterms, k? Even though I might have said this already the post before. Sorry if I repeat myself. I'm burnt.
So Thursday, after leaving class, I went to the National Art Museum with Orion and Wes. Unfortunately, I forgot my student id, so it ended up being 40 kuai instead of 10, but oh well. Let me preface with the fact that I know very little about art. Sure, I threw pots (in the making sense, not the making mess sense) in middle school and high school, but viewing paintings and most sculpture is purely done for my personal enjoyment since I know nothing about technique. What I do know is that I absolutely loved the 5th floor exhibition of a Chinese print maker named Chao Mei, as well as the Turner exhibition from the Tate gallery. You can check out both here: http://www.namoc.org/en/Exhibitions/Current_Exhibitions/index.html Quite excellent and a great way to unwind on approximately 3 hours of sleep.
Thursday evening, I went to dinner with 9 people to a restaurant out the West Gate (there are 2 gates we use at UIBE, the East Gate has been dubbed "Eat Street" with cheap food and the West Gate is more expensive but nicer). Zach, our program assistant who graduated last year from Carleton, decided that he wasn't speaking any Chinese since we all were heading off for break and needed to learn how to get food ourselves. Unfortunately, this meant that I was crowned menu queen and not only had to order food for 9 people, but also request 2 more chairs since 2 people were coming later (we went as a group of 7) and didn't now the word for chair. There was a lot of miming going on, but it got the job done. At the very least, I know I won't starve or not know where the bathroom is as long as people around me know Mandarin.
Friday: Got up earlyish and went with James and Orion to what I've dubbed "The Temple of Hell." In actuality, it's the Dongyue Daoist Temple: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Dongyue_Temple
and it has a ridiculously large number of rooms that you walk by with these really great statues inside that describe the different departments and beliefs in daoism. We were a little bored, and I was a little dissapointed because everything looked so plain the first four or five rooms when all of a sudden, we go to the next room and there's a demon staring at us! From there on out, there were more demons in the rooms and some of the rooms got a little gruesome. It was so intriguing. Afterwards, we headed to the electronics market so the boys could play with their electronic game things. We found an arcade in the basement where they played Tekken, which I commented was like street fighter and got promptly criticized and lectured. Looked the same to me. Oh well. We also watched Orion draw a crowd playing DDR outside. James commented that if the white guy could do it, anyone could, which is probably why there was a line for people buying the game after we left. For lunch, we went to "explodes the stomach" where I pitched in my 10 kuai to watch them eat the most disgusting food I've ever seen before going to an actual restaurant and ordering the most delicious potatoes and beef I've ever eaten. For real. After packing for my trip, I went to dinner with another big group of people to a Japanese place where there was delicious delicious sushi and tempura and other stuff that I would have to point to since I can't pronounce the name. Went to bed after that to get up to catch a taxi at 615 for our flight.
Actually, that was pretty gosh darn long, so I'll write tomorrow or so about the rest of my break since I'll have time, and we're the only ones back anyway.
love love love and aloe vera :D
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