Go Long

So I'm sitting in Korea because my flight has been delayed for 3 hours :-( I'm surrounded by white Americans, and freaking out a little because I haven't been around this many unfamiliar non-asians for 7 months. I didn't realize it would be this weird...
Also, I keep using Chinese to speak to the KOREAN staff at the airport, and I look like a racist asshole. All Asians are Chinese, right?

Anyway, I started to write this entry while I was on my plane to Korea, so here you go:

So my flight just left for Korea, and from there I'll transfer to the USA. I'm so excited to see my family and friends, bike and run without worrying about crowds (or pollution decaying my lungs), eat any kind of food I want, and have the assurance that any toilet I run up against will be Western style. I can't wait for the annual Christmas Eve get-together with my dad's side of the family - I didn't realize before how important it was to me to have our traditional holidays together. I want to hang out at a coffee shop surrounded by English speakers drinking real coffee, and I want to go to the bars with my friends on the weekends :-)
I look forward to grocery shopping and cooking my own food, and not having to figure out what I'm going to eat, or skipping meals because I don't want to bother. I'm going to spend as much time as I can outside in the parks, aroudn the lakes, and through the streets of Madison - just enjoying the simplicity and comfort of it all - It's beautiful - something I knew before but appreciate much more now. I can't wait to see my brother and give him and Alissa the gifts I got for them. I miss my grandparents. I want to go to the movies with my dad.
But China - I'll be back. I already miss the parts of China I can't find in America (which is quite a lot). I'll miss the food, for one. Sichuan style Chinese has quickly become my favorite, alongside the record holding Indian food. A meal in China is beautiful, with so many options and using so many ingredients. There are so many tofu and vegetable dishes. I'll miss the street food - Jianbao and Taiwan pancake and baozi (how I'll miss baozi!) and once it gets colder out, the smell of roasted yams and chesnuts (as well as the taste of them!) everywhere. The atmosphere in the cold is incredibly comfortable. I'll miss the people - people who no matter who they were or in what situation managed to make my day every day. The consideration and extreme helpfulness of some, and the fun-loving laughing attitude of others. The extremely intelligent and insightful thoughts offered up in conversation by Chinese students, and the patience and humor of Chinese teachers. It was incredible, how welcoming everyone is to the random foreign girl who is most likely confused at any given moment due to lack of sufficient Chinese skills. Many times I had whole families engage me in conversation - one of them texted me the whole semester urging me to come visit them in Xi'An. Another family treated me to an expensive dinner, making an effort to introduce me to Chinese foods I've never had before.
There's something in China that I have noticed over time as being very different from America - the people living their lives out in public rather than hidden in their homes like in America. I mean I'm sure tons goes on behind walls here, but with all the people everywhere allll the time, I have seen so much of Chinese people's lives - just by walking down the street. I think this is one of the things I'll miss the most - Feeling a part of this huge community. It feels to me like I could talk to any of these people, become a part of their family. In America it feels different, as if peoples' privacy has extended to take over public spaces.
the It's not like everyone here is talking to strangers and inviting random people over, I'm not sure how to explain it. It just seems more open, like I said, one huge community.
I really enjoyed sharing my classes with other foreign students - this semester I became friends with people from Korea, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Norway, Finland, Germany, Thailand, Indonesia, and more. I should also mention the amazing people I met in my program. They helped me make many a good memory, including but not limited to an amazing birthday thanks to their efforts.
I'll most definitely miss the Peking University campus - or 'Cat Safari' as I like to call it. I'll mist the convenience and personal feeling that comes from buying fruit from the outdoor fruit stands, and the familiarity and friendly relations that have grown between myself and the workers at the stands I frequent. I'll miss the cafeteria food better than any other cafeteria I've experienced in America, and the two dogs and one cat that hung outside my dorm with whom I've bonded. I'll miss my tutor who I met every week, a very intelligent, friendly, and strong person. I'll miss Beijing's fashion - more diverse that a lot of what I've seen in America. The shoes here! I want them all. I'll miss and think back on my amazing travels to Sichuan, Hainan, Henan, Qing Dao, and Beidaihe.
I loved the process of learning China's culture, both traditional and pop culture. I learned just by experiencing. From my time here, I feel even more sure of my goal to teach Chinese in the future. The world doesn't known nearly enough about this amazing place. Unfortunately, my Chinese is nowhere near fluent still (it's a hard language!), so China - I will be back!
Meanwhile I will be attempting to eat as many meals possible with my new carved wooden chopsticks.

Expect an entry or two later on how I'm adapting to America again. I can't tell if I'm just freaking myself out and it will be easy, or if it will be as weird as I imagine it will be - I mean, I get weirded out just thinking about being back home again.
But I'm still so excited!

So updating daily didn't happen...

sorry! But I will tell you all about everything now :-)

My second day here I ended up hanging out with Justin, a guy staying in the same dorm room as me, for the day. He's 39, here visiting a friend, and since his friend works during the day he has got a lot of free time alone. So let's see, what did we do...
First we got baozi for breakfast across the street (yummmm) and after that, I was determined to fly my kite! So I brought my kite and we walked to a nearby park...or what used to be a nearby park, on the map I have from 2008... :-(
Now it' some kind of military base or something. So we decided to take the subway to Ritan Park, a beautiful free park, to fly my kite because I heard there was a great place to fly it there.
We walked around the park for a while and weren't able to find a place to fly my kite that didn't have a bunch of trees, so eventually I asked an old man who explained to me that the usual spot was under construction! So we walked around and took pictures instead. Here are pictures!

We walked until look up! There were kites! lots of them! So we followed the strings to a pavilion on top of a hill, with a bunch of old men flying their kites (kite flying seems to be an old man activity in China)
I took my kite out, but it is torn where the braces are so I couldn't fly it that day :-(
The old men appraised my kite and told me my string spindle was "bu hao" (not good), and that I should get one like them. They also told me they are there every day at noon, so I can go fly my kite with them :-)

After that I took Justin to the Silk Market to witness the ridiculousness of the experience. Luckily for him he walked behind me, so that I was the one they targeted with "LADY do you want to buy a purse? watch? we have silk robes! come look come look! laddddyyy!" bah.

We then went back to where our hostel is and got dinner at this place I had really wanted to go, because they had really good looking tomato and egg noodles. And it really was delicious, for only 6 kuai!

After dinner we walked through the hip area, settling on a bar to get a beer until his friend John called. It was John's birthday, so John, Justin, their friend Jeremy and I went to get drinks at a local bar whose owner they know, called Siif. The bar is really awesome, with glass floors, three levels, as well as blue lights shining out of little holes in the walls. It was a really relaxed atmosphere, and the group of guys, although they are older than me, were very funny and nice. We got back to the hostel not too late, and went to bed.

So I've successfully completed my first day in Beijing!

I arrived today at around 11AM on the bus with everyone else, and with sadness and anxiety threatening to overwhelm me I said goodbye.
I wheeled my large amount of luggage away, hopped a shuttle bus that I hoped was the correct one (turned out it was), took a short taxi ride, and was at my destination (1 Hai Hostel).

I immediately got myself sorted out and went to get some lunch since I hadn't eaten yet today.
I was determined to find vegetable baoazi - and guess what? Right across the street from the hutong in which my hostel is situated, was a baozi place! With a HUGE selection of vegetable baozi!! and for cheap! I believe it was a good omen. So I got a couple baozi and began to explore.

My hostel is in Dong Cheng district, where Tiananman square and the forbidden city are. I've already been to those places though, so I don't plan on visiting again any time soon.
I used my Beijing Lonely Planet book, and I'm so thankful I brought it - I don't know what I would have done today without it.
Anyway, I decided to go to the Lama Temple, a Buddhist temple quoted to be the "most spectacular places of worship" in Beijing.

However, I ran into the Confucius Temple and Imperial College first, so I spent the morning exploring there. The Confucius Temple is China's second largest Confucian Temple - it was nice. I'm not too much into Confucianism, and I think it's kind of weird that they built Confucius temples at all since he wasn't very religious - I'm pretty sure he was all about people, not too much into God...Anyway, I really don't know anything.

I met a couple nice guys from Spain in the temple/college. They took a picture with me, but I was being too socially inept to remember to take one too.

After the temple I walked to DiTan Park which is about half a mile away from the Temple, but it's 40 kuai (~7USD) to get in so I thought that was lame and decided to explore elsewhere. I know 7 bucks doesn't sound like a lot, but money goes quickly when you travel!

I ended up walking through a pretty beautiful (free!) park for while - there were these men all sitting in a line holding kite strings and i was way confused because I couldn't see their kites anywhere. I finally realized their kites were like 200 feet up in the air, also 200 feet away (as in if you were walking on the ground). I couldn't believe it!! I get nervous enough when my kite gets like 50 feet up.

I got dinner at a kabob stand and some fruit from a fruit stand, and continued walking, finally arriving back at the hostel to read for a little while and relax.
I just bought the book 'How to lose friends and alienate people'. I'm taking a break from 'Wuthering Heights'. But I don't know how I feel about the new book...We'll see.
So after cooling down and resting my feet, I went to explore an area that I had read was supposed to have a lot of coffee shops (Gulou Dongdajie), since I could have used some coffee. But I was so overwhelmed walking down it by how many people there were as well as how many foreigners, and all the awesome looking stores and restaurants, that I just ended up walking down the length of it. I went into a few guitar shops (there were a TON on this street) to see if I could find a cheap guitar, but they were all too expensive for me. I continued walking down a couple more streets, beginning to realize more and more what an awesome city I'm in, and then found my way into a park along the river where I watched ping pong!! for a while. The ping pong players came to talk to me since I think I'm one of the few foreigners that has come to watch them, and they were all very nice. I of course couldn't understand half of what they said, but they were very patient and nice about it.
I finally walked back, and made it back to the hostel around 10:00PM.

I decided that if I'm going to be exploring so much I had better update about what I discover daily, so that I can reference it all later. I mean, I am going to be here for a while - I want to become as familiar with the city as possible.

Anyway, remember that really nervous and scared, sad feeling I was having?? Gone. I've only walked around for a day and I absolutely love it. It's beautiful and much cleaner than Tianjin, everyone is so nice, and there's so much to see! If I walked around like this for the next 8 months that I'll be here, I still wouldn't see it all (or even half probably). What an amazing city!!! It feels like New York (I visited for a day last spring), but...better? Based on my day there, and my day here, that is my judgement.
Anyway, the only thing I get nervous about is finding Beijing friends - I'm not used to 'big city' life, and everyone intimidates me :-(

There are four other people sharing my dorm right now that I know of: two Italians (one girl one guy), a guy from Singapore, and a guy from Canada. They are all very nice, and the girl and her mom both design for Robert Cavallari back in Italy, which I think is pretty sweet. The girl is a painter, and the guy is a sculpter. Top that off with the fact that they are Italian with impressive fashion, and they are quite intimidating. The guy from Singapore and the guy from Canada are less scary.

Anyway, for now I'm perfectly happy exploring on my own. I will continue to take notes for when the other people in my program come :-)

See you!

So here are the streets I explored in the area today, for my own records:
YongHeGong DaJie: Full of Buddhist shops selling to tourists, and possibly not tourists. This is where the Confucius temple is (down a perpendicular road) as well as the Lama Temple. Continue down this road and hit DiTan Park after crossing the river.
HePingLi XiJie: curves around DiTan Park, pretty park area to walk through if you continue East on any cross street you'll hit: Hepingli Dongjie: basic busy street with shops etc. Didn't find it too interesting.
Walked along the HuCheng River (city moat) between Hepingli dongjie and yonghegong dajie: pretty river scene and walkway. No shops or anything, although it has a few tiny snack food/drink places if I remember correctly.
JiaoDaoKou DongdaJie (turns into Gulou Dongdajie): The magazine I just read is correct: Hipster area. Every fourth store was a guitar/instrument shop, the rest were coffee shops, small intimate restaurants or hip clothing stores. Mao, a night club I've read about, is located on this street. Very interesting, filled with foreigners (most of them seem to be locals) and people in general. Gulou Dongdajie runs into the Drum Tower, and curves around it, hitting:
Jiugulou Dajie: I really liked this street - it was sort of like Gulou Dongdajie, but less intimidating and less people. It has a lot of restaurants that I really want to try.
Deshengmen Dongdajie/Andingmen Xidajie: I didn't actually see this street, because the whole length has a long park with a walkway next to it. I really really liked this area - I was comfortable walking through it at night because so many couples and families were hanging out there and walking through. This is the place with ping pong!! It would be great to run through, and it has a lot of restaurants and some bars along it (but not in the way).

I'm watching 'Atonement' with Angie, and it's our last night here in Tianjin! Tomorrow everyone goes home, and I have a lot of mixed feelings. I know if the program had gone on an longer I would have hated it - the classes are too long and difficult to last any longer. Yet, there are two things I think keeping me from wanting to end this program and go on to the next.
1: There are people here who I feel I didn't even start to get to know until recently, and who I would have liked to know better.
2. Tianjin has started to feel like a home, and the thought of moving away to an unfamiliar place again make me very nervous as well as sad at losing what I've found here.

Mixed with the regret over leaving Tianjin is the excitement for Beijing - I really have no idea how I'm going to end up spending my time, who I'll be spending my time with, what restaurants I'll frequent etc, and I'm excited to see how it all plays out. I'm not too sure whether I've changed in any way with my experience thus far, but I'm interested to see, by the end of the 7 and 1/2 months that I will have been in China, who I am.

Anyway the nervous tension is building, and for some reason it's more unbearable than the night before coming to China in the first place. I think it must have something to do with the next 20 days being alone in China.

'Atonement' is a crazy movie. I'll update soon.

So now that I’ve updated all of you on my 10 day trip (finally), I figure I should let you know everything else I’ve been doing with my time.
First, I have some exciting news: I’M DONE WITH CLASSES!
10 weeks of hellish studying followed by two weeks of “I should be studying”, and I am done!
I finished my final exam today and immediately put on celebration heels and a dress, and am now at Helen’s with August and Melissa, drinking a wonderful yogurt smoothie while reading and… doing this.
I started reading ‘Wuthering Heights’ – I’m only a few pages in, but I’m hoping it will get more interesting.
Annoyingly enough, the hotel we’ve been staying in for the summer is shutting off the electricity and water for the next two days, so they are paying for us to go to a different hotel for the two nights. Very troublesome, since I would like to use these next few days to pack up etc.
Everyone leaves on Monday!!! I am going to take the bus with them to Beijing and just find a cheap hostel to stay in for the what, 20? days before my fall program starts.
I’m looking forward to an opportunity to explore the streets of Beijing. I fully expect to get lost, but I won’t do anything foolish to get into trouble so don’t worry!
So whattt else have I been doing?
When I go out I go to Helen’s, and then dancing! Which is very different than clubs in the US of A. We’ve had some fun nights, returning when it’s daylight, and having to climb over the wall to get back on campus. I am bruised. I don’t go out too often though – one night a weekend at most.
Here's Helen's for you:

We had the first annual Madison Tianjin Rat Race a few weekends ago, set up by Jake and Neil. They did a fantastic job setting everything up – it was an awesome day! Most of the people in the group participated, and we all started it off by gathering at Helen’s for a pancake breakfast, where we were divided into groups of 3 or 4. I was in a group with Rachel, Albert and Drew. I don’t know Albert or Drew very well, so it gave me an opportunity to get to know them and have some fun. The rat race brought us all over Tianjin, and included activities like taking a picture in front of the local statue of Zhou En Lai, getting Chinese people’s phone numbers, going on a fair ride and then taking shots (at least we didn’t have to take the shots before the ride), one member of the team proposing to a waitress, taking a picture at the zoo with a panda, eating chicken feet (a Chinese food I as exempt from since I’m a vegetarian, thankfully), and a lot more.
It was a great day – here are some pictures for you!:

So what else…
We went to guwenhuajie (Ancient culture street, a very popular local attraction – you can buy anything Chinese there (Swords, fans, qipaos, everything!) - last Saturday. We were there for something like 3 and a half hours, and I bought a few things for friends back home ☺ That’s you!
I also bought a kite, since recently while in Shanghai Rachel bought this awesome gigantic squid kite, and I wanted to fly one also! So we got back from ancient culture street and went to the Tianjin Tower park to fly our kites (August, Alex, and Angie also bought one each). It was beautiful! I haven’t flown a kite since I was around five, so I had completely forgotten how fun it is! We flew them or a couple hours, and my kite went so high! Until…Until it dive bombed into a group of children on rollerblades, from like 40 feet up…
It was awful! Thankfully, no one got hurt, but I felt terrible ☹ Watching in slow motion as my beautiful rainbow kite kamakazid into them…

So I’m not sure what I’m doing this weekend, but I’m sure it will involve celebrating the end of the program. I fully expect shenanigans.

Then everyone leaves and I’m…ALONE???

Miss you all, wish me luck in the coming days – I'll be staying in a hostel in Beijing, and I think I’m just going to explore and take pictures, which I will upload here so you will hear from me soon!