School is out and lazy days have arrived. First though, a bit about my weekend.
Friday: Went to see House of Dancing Water at the City of Dreams. The show is one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen. Most of the action takes place in a 300gal tank of water with a stage that can be raised and lowered. Performers did high dives, danced, tumbled, swang from what looked like a chandelier and there was even a motocross part of the show.One of the best parts was that our seats were in the first row and the performers got so close to us that they actually splashed us! It was awesome even when they did it on purpose. Anyone who comes to Macao should go see this show!
Saturday: Woke up went to my final Travel Agency Operations review and then headed out to the IFT Karting Event. Jatana's sports and event class was in charge of the event so I wanted to support her. Had a pretty good time and even got to watch my friend race. That was really cool. There were a fair number of ppl there but the day was incredibly hot so not quite as many as they were hoping for.
After that event I went home. Then grabbed dinner with friends and went to see Momentum up at the Cultural Center. Momentum is a work done by a troupe from Israel. The whole idea behind the show is basically about time and rhythm and the goal is to spread love through the performance. They were truly amazing and it was so obvious how much each member loved what they were doing and truly was trying to give love to the audience. They used some of the best audience participation techniques I've ever seen. Before the show, I guess, someone had rigged up pulleys that would drop over an audience member. This audience member then became part of the show and was told where in the beat to pull their pulley. This went on till four audience members were helping one performer create a rhythm. It was AWESOME! Another way the audience was involved was in video that a performer took before the show and then projected on a large screen at the end of the shows. The technology they used was just amazing. Even after the show was over the performers danced through the audience and did two more pieces outside.
If all my Fridays and Saturdays were like this I'd be in heaven. : )
Sunday: Spent most of Sunday working on my Marketing project with my group. Then spent another couple of hours editing both my marketing project and my human resources project. I have a new found respect for editors, and now I know I never ever would want to be one.
Monday: Happy Memorial Day to the States! Woke up and headed over the Zhuhai with Sidsel. Bought a pair of flip flops because then we got manicures, pedicures and leg massages. How much? you ask. $15 oh yes. woot woot! Grabbed some lunch and then I got my hair trimmed and an awesome head and neck massage. Only $9. Ahhhhh. Living the good life. I will definitely be going back at least one more time before I leave.
Tuesday (Today!): Another wonderful day, but this time I spent it by the pool with my friend Johanna. She found out that there was a pool out in Coloane that is right on the beach and only costs 7MOP ($1) for students. We got off at the wrong bus stop, but once we found the pool, we were ridiculously excited. Very clean, great facility, very big and just the right temperature. For three hours we just lazed around in the pool and on our lounge chairs. She tanned A LOT. I...well I love my pale skin. : ) After we had had enough of the pool we decided that ice cream from DQ was needed. I got a mango almond blizzard with chocolate chips that was out of this world good! Then it was back to our apartments to shower and then some dinner.
Now I'm sitting in my apartment contemplating what I should do tomorrow. Right now studying, getting things in order for going home, a few necessary emails, followed by my last *sniff sniff* ladies' night.
School is great, but I love holiday.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
On a Roll
With a little more time to spare here is Guilin Day 2:
We woke up at 11am, grabbed some breakfast. We both got the American breakfast (I think that was the name) which consisted of eggs, toast, tomatoes, sausage and a strip of bacon. I opted for some much needed coffee while Sidsel went with orange juice. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and walked down to the busstop to try and grab a bus to Yangshuo. This was.....exciting. Since barely anything was in English we tried to go ask at the customer service counter. Haha joke on us thinking they would speak English. She did point in the direction of a set of busses though and we went over there and found that YES those busses were indeed going to Yangshuo. We hopped aboard and payed our fare of 18RMB a piece, about $3.
Now in retrospect we both agreed that we should have gone ahead and done the cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo. What happened though is we weren't aware we could do the whole route and we had already planned on the bus and felt more comfortable sticking with that route. It would have been nice to go ahead and go the cruise the first day and have time to do other things our last day but c'est la vie. Anyways...
The bus was fine. It was a bus. Got into Yangshuo and our adventure really began. We took this "taxi" to our hostel, but it was the funniest/strangest ride ever. It's hard to explain in words so here is a video. Yes I know the video is sideways, but my stupid butt forgot you can't turn a camera sideways. ahhhhh well.
We woke up at 11am, grabbed some breakfast. We both got the American breakfast (I think that was the name) which consisted of eggs, toast, tomatoes, sausage and a strip of bacon. I opted for some much needed coffee while Sidsel went with orange juice. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and walked down to the busstop to try and grab a bus to Yangshuo. This was.....exciting. Since barely anything was in English we tried to go ask at the customer service counter. Haha joke on us thinking they would speak English. She did point in the direction of a set of busses though and we went over there and found that YES those busses were indeed going to Yangshuo. We hopped aboard and payed our fare of 18RMB a piece, about $3.
Now in retrospect we both agreed that we should have gone ahead and done the cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo. What happened though is we weren't aware we could do the whole route and we had already planned on the bus and felt more comfortable sticking with that route. It would have been nice to go ahead and go the cruise the first day and have time to do other things our last day but c'est la vie. Anyways...
The bus was fine. It was a bus. Got into Yangshuo and our adventure really began. We took this "taxi" to our hostel, but it was the funniest/strangest ride ever. It's hard to explain in words so here is a video. Yes I know the video is sideways, but my stupid butt forgot you can't turn a camera sideways. ahhhhh well.
That's all for now! Off to my last presentation. Wish me luck!
Finally!
With only one presentation left I've finally found some time to start blogging about my trip to Guilin. So here you go:
Guilin Day 1:
We didn't leave Macao until 7:30pm as Sidsel and I both had classes in the afternoon. It was a mad dash to catch the ferry due to some bus issues, but we did make it and were cruising towards Shezhen at 7:30 sharp. Once in Shenzhen we took the free shuttle to the airport, checked-in, went through security and started what would be a three hour wait for our flight. Due to bad weather (where we really weren't sure since we saw no bad weather while we were on the shuttle) we boarded 40 minutes late and then sat on the ground for another 2 hours or so. Luckily our plane wasn't full so we each took a row to ourselves and grab some blankets from the nice stewardess. We flew with China Southern and I have to say that I would fly with them again in a heartbeat. Instead of making us sit in silence, they immediately switched on the TV and passed out water and peanuts. They played some Chinese news for a bit and then switched to Yogi Bear The Movie!!!!! ENGLISH! WooooooHooooo! I cuddled up with my blanket and drifted off to sleep listening to Yogi Bear and BooBoo being "smarter than the average bears." Once we took off the flight was fine and we landed in Guilin an hour later. It was around 2am at this point so we grabbed a taxi and took the 40min. ride into town to our hostel.
We stayed at HOW Hostel and I highly reccommend it to anybody going to Guilin. They were great and breakfast was especially yummy. That night we just crashed and decided it would be better to sleep till 11am instead of trying to kill our selves by getting up at 8am, which is what we were originally planning. We fell fast asleep dreaming of the adventures awaiting us in Yangshuo.
Up next: One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen....and A LOT OF RAIN.
Guilin Day 1:
We didn't leave Macao until 7:30pm as Sidsel and I both had classes in the afternoon. It was a mad dash to catch the ferry due to some bus issues, but we did make it and were cruising towards Shezhen at 7:30 sharp. Once in Shenzhen we took the free shuttle to the airport, checked-in, went through security and started what would be a three hour wait for our flight. Due to bad weather (where we really weren't sure since we saw no bad weather while we were on the shuttle) we boarded 40 minutes late and then sat on the ground for another 2 hours or so. Luckily our plane wasn't full so we each took a row to ourselves and grab some blankets from the nice stewardess. We flew with China Southern and I have to say that I would fly with them again in a heartbeat. Instead of making us sit in silence, they immediately switched on the TV and passed out water and peanuts. They played some Chinese news for a bit and then switched to Yogi Bear The Movie!!!!! ENGLISH! WooooooHooooo! I cuddled up with my blanket and drifted off to sleep listening to Yogi Bear and BooBoo being "smarter than the average bears." Once we took off the flight was fine and we landed in Guilin an hour later. It was around 2am at this point so we grabbed a taxi and took the 40min. ride into town to our hostel.
We stayed at HOW Hostel and I highly reccommend it to anybody going to Guilin. They were great and breakfast was especially yummy. That night we just crashed and decided it would be better to sleep till 11am instead of trying to kill our selves by getting up at 8am, which is what we were originally planning. We fell fast asleep dreaming of the adventures awaiting us in Yangshuo.
Up next: One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen....and A LOT OF RAIN.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Last Week of Classes - Yes Please!
No matter where I am in the world I believe I will always love and hate the last week of classes. It's probably obvious why since most college students can't wait for break and hate how everything somehow seems to be due at once. So with three days down (including 2 presentations and 1 project <--which all went extremely well) and two days to go (1 presentation and 2 projects) the end is almost here. Luckily the two projects left aren't actually due until next Monday so there is plenty of time to finish them.
I have had some down time and have made use of it by going to see a show for the Macao Arts Festival. The show was called "Diva" and was created and performed by a woman from Denmark. It is a one woman puppet show. Ok, so yes I know that puppet show doesn't sound exciting, but this was. The stage was round and the woman sat inside and spun it around to reveal different stages. The whole process was amazing and after the show she did a Q&A and showed us the inside of the whole contraption. Awesome!
Also have been watching Chuck, a lot actually because this past weekend we were stuck inside because of the crazy amount of rain! It really rained from Friday night until Sunday night only stopping for about 3 hours on Saturday. The only nice thing is the sound the rain makes on all the tin roofs.
Soooooo, for now this post is done, but I promise an update about my trip to Guilin and Yangshuo is coming soon! For now here is a link to my pictures from the trip - https://picasaweb.google.com/117127870899841439519/AWeekendInTheCountryside?authkey=Gv1sRgCLvG5Jzs6Mr8Qw&feat=directlink
I have had some down time and have made use of it by going to see a show for the Macao Arts Festival. The show was called "Diva" and was created and performed by a woman from Denmark. It is a one woman puppet show. Ok, so yes I know that puppet show doesn't sound exciting, but this was. The stage was round and the woman sat inside and spun it around to reveal different stages. The whole process was amazing and after the show she did a Q&A and showed us the inside of the whole contraption. Awesome!
Also have been watching Chuck, a lot actually because this past weekend we were stuck inside because of the crazy amount of rain! It really rained from Friday night until Sunday night only stopping for about 3 hours on Saturday. The only nice thing is the sound the rain makes on all the tin roofs.
Soooooo, for now this post is done, but I promise an update about my trip to Guilin and Yangshuo is coming soon! For now here is a link to my pictures from the trip - https://picasaweb.google.com/117127870899841439519/AWeekendInTheCountryside?authkey=Gv1sRgCLvG5Jzs6Mr8Qw&feat=directlink
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
One Pot. One Pan. Surviving in China
The past week has been amazing at points, devestating at others, bittersweet and so much fun.
Spent the weekend in Guilin and Yangshuo. Yangshuo is one the the most beautiful places I've ever been. The people were so nice, our hostel was amazing, the landscape was incredible and just I LOVED IT! Pictures will be posted soon, but I need to go through them first.
On Monday I found out that my high school, Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts & Technology, may be shut down due to a ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court. They decided that the legislation approved in 2008 allowing the state to approve charter schools was "unconstitutional" so unless Charter Conservatory can go back to the old charter they won't be able to open in the fall. This is the same for 15 other schools around Georgia. It makes me so angry to think that people thought we were taking money from them when really we were finally just getting the money that we were suppose to get all along. There are also some saying that the reason that some local school boards won't approve charter schools is because they see them as competition. Competition? Since when was education about one school beating another? Yes, students should be encouraged to push their minds and a little healthy competition between students is great, but between schools all it does is bring down the overall education quality. Other schools are simply focused on getting the highest scores on standardized tests. This is just stupid.
Anyways, I'm working to create a facebook page and will be continuing to post updates here on what is going on. Students should be able to have a say in their education. That is what we are trying to save.
Today we had the farewell lunch for all the exchange students. The student union sang some really sweet songs and gave us a souvenir photo of all of us at the Ruins of St. Paul. The whole lunch was so much fun, and tonight we will continue the fun at Ladie's Night! Oh how I'll miss Wednesday nights in Macao.
Jatana and I made dinner tonight and were discussing the fact that for almost four months we have survived with one pan and one pot. We cook together most of the time and have found that we don't need to have a microwave or "instant" meals. It's great.
Spent the weekend in Guilin and Yangshuo. Yangshuo is one the the most beautiful places I've ever been. The people were so nice, our hostel was amazing, the landscape was incredible and just I LOVED IT! Pictures will be posted soon, but I need to go through them first.
On Monday I found out that my high school, Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts & Technology, may be shut down due to a ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court. They decided that the legislation approved in 2008 allowing the state to approve charter schools was "unconstitutional" so unless Charter Conservatory can go back to the old charter they won't be able to open in the fall. This is the same for 15 other schools around Georgia. It makes me so angry to think that people thought we were taking money from them when really we were finally just getting the money that we were suppose to get all along. There are also some saying that the reason that some local school boards won't approve charter schools is because they see them as competition. Competition? Since when was education about one school beating another? Yes, students should be encouraged to push their minds and a little healthy competition between students is great, but between schools all it does is bring down the overall education quality. Other schools are simply focused on getting the highest scores on standardized tests. This is just stupid.
Anyways, I'm working to create a facebook page and will be continuing to post updates here on what is going on. Students should be able to have a say in their education. That is what we are trying to save.
Today we had the farewell lunch for all the exchange students. The student union sang some really sweet songs and gave us a souvenir photo of all of us at the Ruins of St. Paul. The whole lunch was so much fun, and tonight we will continue the fun at Ladie's Night! Oh how I'll miss Wednesday nights in Macao.
Jatana and I made dinner tonight and were discussing the fact that for almost four months we have survived with one pan and one pot. We cook together most of the time and have found that we don't need to have a microwave or "instant" meals. It's great.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Weekend Trip!
This weekend, actually 12 May -16 May, my friend Sidsel and I are going to Guilin and Yangshuo in Mainland. This area is out in the countryside and suppose to beautiful. We found some ok priced plane tickets and a really cheap hostel, and we both have the time and funds, sooooo we decided to go! Who knows it may be my only chance to see Yangshuo.
We leave tonight from Shenzhen at10:10pm. We'll take a ferry from Macao to Shezhen at 7:30pm. I'm not taking my computer with me so I will be flying fun and fancy free with no technology until Monday afternoon!
It's adventure time.
We leave tonight from Shenzhen at10:10pm. We'll take a ferry from Macao to Shezhen at 7:30pm. I'm not taking my computer with me so I will be flying fun and fancy free with no technology until Monday afternoon!
It's adventure time.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Why didn't we bring water???
Had tay off from school fo Buddah's birthday and decided to celebrate by going to a festival! Well Jatana had to for a project and I felt like tagging along.
We went to the Tam Kung Festival out in Coloane. The whole festival is celebrating god Tam Kung. He is known to help the sick and poor. We watched the parade as it made its wa through the city and to the temple. Loved it. Had a great time except for melting in the heat. To see some pictures check out my album on Picasa. https://picasaweb.google.com/117127870899841439519/TamKungFestival?authkey=Gv1sRgCOOG4LO8-rultAE&feat=directlink
Going to try using Picasa for photos and just posting links here to save some time.
This past Sunday we went an explored Guia Hill and vited the lighthouse. The views from th hilltop were gorgeous. We just sat and stared out over the ocean for a while watching the ferrys head to Hong Kong and all the construction going on (not sure for what though). It's kind of crazy to think that in 40 days I'll be on a ferry headed to Hong Kong and headed home.
We went to the Tam Kung Festival out in Coloane. The whole festival is celebrating god Tam Kung. He is known to help the sick and poor. We watched the parade as it made its wa through the city and to the temple. Loved it. Had a great time except for melting in the heat. To see some pictures check out my album on Picasa. https://picasaweb.google.com/117127870899841439519/TamKungFestival?authkey=Gv1sRgCOOG4LO8-rultAE&feat=directlink
Going to try using Picasa for photos and just posting links here to save some time.
This past Sunday we went an explored Guia Hill and vited the lighthouse. The views from th hilltop were gorgeous. We just sat and stared out over the ocean for a while watching the ferrys head to Hong Kong and all the construction going on (not sure for what though). It's kind of crazy to think that in 40 days I'll be on a ferry headed to Hong Kong and headed home.
"Hello World!"
Signing off. An episode of Chuck, some sleep and a crazy day tomorrow!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Stupid Lock
Story: About a month ago an IFT student's apartment was broken into. So now IFT has gone into security overload. Two weeks ago they came by and checked every apartment's locks. This past Friday they came by and changed ours. Why? Well they said one was broke, but in mine and Jatana's opinion it wasn't.
Fast forward to today and Jatana and I are stuck LOCKED IN our apartment thanks to this new lock. I put the deadbolt on last night, and when we tried to leave to go grocery shopping this morning the lock wouldn't unlock.
<-- The stupid lock
EUREKA! Andrew the hostel trainee in our building just went and got the master key and unlocked our door for us!!! So only an hour of knowing we were locked in. Not too bad. This did make us wonder though what would happen if there was a fire? Guess we'll just keep our fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
Signing off and venutring out into the world now that I can.
Fast forward to today and Jatana and I are stuck LOCKED IN our apartment thanks to this new lock. I put the deadbolt on last night, and when we tried to leave to go grocery shopping this morning the lock wouldn't unlock.
<-- The stupid lock EUREKA! Andrew the hostel trainee in our building just went and got the master key and unlocked our door for us!!! So only an hour of knowing we were locked in. Not too bad. This did make us wonder though what would happen if there was a fire? Guess we'll just keep our fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
Signing off and venutring out into the world now that I can.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Day 5: Beijing Zoo & Day 6: Going Home
So after trekking on the Great Wall, we decided to take it easy today and just head to the zoo. Our original plan was to go to the Summer Palace, but the weather wasn't all that great either so it got nixed.
We ended up having a lot of fun. We went to the aquarium and saw the dolphin show and then wandered around to see all the creatures. It was interesting seeing animals like deer and bears. Bears maybe, but deers I've never thought about them being in a zoo. The girls were all amazed when I told them we had deer in our backyard at home.
We also went to the Giant Panda exhibit. The panda were amazing as always, but I was a little dissapointed at the state of the facility. For a facility that was built for the Olympics it really didn't seem all that impressive. Another issue we had during the day was that a lot of construction was going on. They are preparing for the summer season, when the zoo is PACKED everyday. Atleast that's what my friends were telling me.
After the zoo we went and found dinner. The restaurant we chose had bone as their specialty. We order the bone and actually did the whole using a straw to suck out the bone marrow. I have to say that it was delicious.
Day 6:
Had to wake up very early, 5:30am, in order to leave by six and be at the airport at 6:30 for my 8am flight. I was soooo glad we did though because it was a challenge checking-in. First I followed the signs that said Hong Kong/ Macao flights. Stood in line and when I finally got to the desk learned that this area is only for direct flights and since I was transferring in Shanghai I had to go somewhere else. I walked over to domestic saw a great big sign for flights transferring at a Shanghai airport and tried there. No luck. Walked some more and finally saw the main China Eastern Check in desk. Woohoo! But again I couldn't check-in! Finally though the man directed me straight across the hall to the "TransChina Service" desk. For some reason if you are transferring from Beijing then to another city within China and then going outside of China you have to come to this special desk. I found it to be stupid.
I checked in, went and stood in the very long security lines, got wanded (everyone does) going through security and made it to my gate at 7:30am. Really glad I arrived so early.
The rest of the trip went smoothly. The Shanghai airport was boring, but fine other than that. The flights were awesome! They even served ice cream on my last flight. Yum Yum.
I've got to run and get to class now. They came and changed the locks are our apartment door this morning. Why, I don't know. I do know I'm officially an hour late for class because of them. Grrrrrrrrrr
We ended up having a lot of fun. We went to the aquarium and saw the dolphin show and then wandered around to see all the creatures. It was interesting seeing animals like deer and bears. Bears maybe, but deers I've never thought about them being in a zoo. The girls were all amazed when I told them we had deer in our backyard at home.
We also went to the Giant Panda exhibit. The panda were amazing as always, but I was a little dissapointed at the state of the facility. For a facility that was built for the Olympics it really didn't seem all that impressive. Another issue we had during the day was that a lot of construction was going on. They are preparing for the summer season, when the zoo is PACKED everyday. Atleast that's what my friends were telling me.
After the zoo we went and found dinner. The restaurant we chose had bone as their specialty. We order the bone and actually did the whole using a straw to suck out the bone marrow. I have to say that it was delicious.
Day 6:
Had to wake up very early, 5:30am, in order to leave by six and be at the airport at 6:30 for my 8am flight. I was soooo glad we did though because it was a challenge checking-in. First I followed the signs that said Hong Kong/ Macao flights. Stood in line and when I finally got to the desk learned that this area is only for direct flights and since I was transferring in Shanghai I had to go somewhere else. I walked over to domestic saw a great big sign for flights transferring at a Shanghai airport and tried there. No luck. Walked some more and finally saw the main China Eastern Check in desk. Woohoo! But again I couldn't check-in! Finally though the man directed me straight across the hall to the "TransChina Service" desk. For some reason if you are transferring from Beijing then to another city within China and then going outside of China you have to come to this special desk. I found it to be stupid.
I checked in, went and stood in the very long security lines, got wanded (everyone does) going through security and made it to my gate at 7:30am. Really glad I arrived so early.
The rest of the trip went smoothly. The Shanghai airport was boring, but fine other than that. The flights were awesome! They even served ice cream on my last flight. Yum Yum.
I've got to run and get to class now. They came and changed the locks are our apartment door this morning. Why, I don't know. I do know I'm officially an hour late for class because of them. Grrrrrrrrrr
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Day 4 Photos
Here are some of my favorite photos from my adventure to the Great Wall. Enjoy!
To see in full screen you may need to go to click the link and go to Youtube.
To see in full screen you may need to go to click the link and go to Youtube.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Day 4: THE GREAT WALL
This was by far my favorite day. It felt like one of those moments where you're indisbelief about what's going on, stretched out into an entire day. Let's begin.
We got up at 6am and caught a taxi to the subway station at 6:30. Met the group, Rita, Shirley, Min and Young at 7:30am.
SIDENOTE: I just so happens that every person in our group completed the International College Program at Disney World, except for Shirley. We all worked in different locations, but it was really cool to have that one common thread connecting us.
Young was the leader for the day, so we followed him to the tour bus station and he handled all the dealings about which bus and how much.Thanks to a student discount we each ended up paying 75CNY. This included roundtrip transportation and entrance to the Great Wall.
SIDENOTE: Yes, you have to pay to climb the wall. Seems odd, but they got to make money for repairs somehow.
The bus ride was uneventful. It took about an hour and a half to get out to the Beijing countryside (who knew it existed?!) and just a little while longer to get to the bottom of the Great Wall. We visited the Mutianyu section which is a slightly less touristy section of the wall. The day was absolutely beautiful: sun shining and blue skies. The tour guide let us know we had three hours to explore, and then we were off!
The walk up to the wall took about 20 minutes and was pretty darn tiring. I kept asking, "Does this count? Am I a hero yet?" My friends of course said, "No."
SIDENOTE: According to my friends, Chinese tradition says that when you visit the Great Wall for the first time, you become a hero.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs going up to the actual wall my first thought was "Wow! This really is just a wall!" Then of course, once I went up the stairs that thought changed into, "Wow! People built this by hand?! Centuries ago!?" The whole experience of walking along the wall and knowing that so many people, tourists and soldiers alike, had walked there before me was just awesome. The landscape was absolutely breathtaking and being able to see the Great Wall snaking off into the distance made me feel like I had stepped into a postcard.
We climbed for the greater part of the three hours and it was exhausting. My legs even hurt a day later. Some of the stairs were so steep that they almost reachd my knees, and I had to use my hands when climbing up and down. I can't even imagine having to walk them daily. We went into all of the watch towers we passed and you really could see forever at the top of them.
Sara and Rita chose to take a break and watched all of our stuff for us while the rest of us went and climbed to the END! (Well, the end of the Mutianyu section). It felt so cool to be standing at the end, seeing the sign the said, "No admittance. Non-tourist Section." I so wanted to go exploring beyond that sign. We could see another part of the wall that was all over grown, and it looked amazing. I'd definitely like to go back and go to an even less touristy part.
Our three hours seemed to fly by, but at the end of them we were back on the bus for a 2 1/2 hour ride home. The delay was due to Beijing traffic. I slept most of the way.
SIDENOTE: There was only one embarrasing moment. Min asked, very loudly, "Why do White people where shorts in this weather?" right when three English guys were walking by. Of course they heard, and the first disgustdly said "White people?!" I tried to just calmly explain that they were probably from somewhere up north and thought the weather felt nice. The third guy walking by let us know that they were in fact English and that this was nice weather. Ahhhhh fun times.
The day was one big dream come true and now I can say,
We got up at 6am and caught a taxi to the subway station at 6:30. Met the group, Rita, Shirley, Min and Young at 7:30am.
SIDENOTE: I just so happens that every person in our group completed the International College Program at Disney World, except for Shirley. We all worked in different locations, but it was really cool to have that one common thread connecting us.
Young was the leader for the day, so we followed him to the tour bus station and he handled all the dealings about which bus and how much.Thanks to a student discount we each ended up paying 75CNY. This included roundtrip transportation and entrance to the Great Wall.
SIDENOTE: Yes, you have to pay to climb the wall. Seems odd, but they got to make money for repairs somehow.
The bus ride was uneventful. It took about an hour and a half to get out to the Beijing countryside (who knew it existed?!) and just a little while longer to get to the bottom of the Great Wall. We visited the Mutianyu section which is a slightly less touristy section of the wall. The day was absolutely beautiful: sun shining and blue skies. The tour guide let us know we had three hours to explore, and then we were off!
The walk up to the wall took about 20 minutes and was pretty darn tiring. I kept asking, "Does this count? Am I a hero yet?" My friends of course said, "No."
SIDENOTE: According to my friends, Chinese tradition says that when you visit the Great Wall for the first time, you become a hero.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs going up to the actual wall my first thought was "Wow! This really is just a wall!" Then of course, once I went up the stairs that thought changed into, "Wow! People built this by hand?! Centuries ago!?" The whole experience of walking along the wall and knowing that so many people, tourists and soldiers alike, had walked there before me was just awesome. The landscape was absolutely breathtaking and being able to see the Great Wall snaking off into the distance made me feel like I had stepped into a postcard.
We climbed for the greater part of the three hours and it was exhausting. My legs even hurt a day later. Some of the stairs were so steep that they almost reachd my knees, and I had to use my hands when climbing up and down. I can't even imagine having to walk them daily. We went into all of the watch towers we passed and you really could see forever at the top of them.
Sara and Rita chose to take a break and watched all of our stuff for us while the rest of us went and climbed to the END! (Well, the end of the Mutianyu section). It felt so cool to be standing at the end, seeing the sign the said, "No admittance. Non-tourist Section." I so wanted to go exploring beyond that sign. We could see another part of the wall that was all over grown, and it looked amazing. I'd definitely like to go back and go to an even less touristy part.
Our three hours seemed to fly by, but at the end of them we were back on the bus for a 2 1/2 hour ride home. The delay was due to Beijing traffic. I slept most of the way.
SIDENOTE: There was only one embarrasing moment. Min asked, very loudly, "Why do White people where shorts in this weather?" right when three English guys were walking by. Of course they heard, and the first disgustdly said "White people?!" I tried to just calmly explain that they were probably from somewhere up north and thought the weather felt nice. The third guy walking by let us know that they were in fact English and that this was nice weather. Ahhhhh fun times.
The day was one big dream come true and now I can say,
"I AM A HERO."
Monday, May 2, 2011
Day 2 Photos
I've been trying to put my videos straight onto blogspot, but using a link seems to work better right now.
Hope you enjoy! Day 2: To the Palace Museum We Go!
Hope you enjoy! Day 2: To the Palace Museum We Go!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Day 3: Hutong and Silk Market
Lay ho!
We started today by.......SLEEPING IN! Ahhhhhhh so nice!
After dragging ourselves out of bed we went to a Hutong, forget the name (sorry!). Now basically a hutong simply refers to a lane or alley in the older district of Beijing with many being near the Forbidden City. The day was bright and sunny and I loved just strolling along looking into all the small shops. We went into many many stores and I even bought myself an adorable dress and some presents for folks back home. We stopped and ate lunch at a restaurant called Zomo's. Don't know where the name comes from, but the food was really good. We had ge da soup, fish head with noodles and lettuce with fish. The fish head was fairly spicy, but I did try gill and even ate the fish eye! Sara just put it on my plate and said, "Here! For you!" What did I think of it? Well, it wasn't bad. The texture was grainy and it didn't have much of a taste. Do I need to eat another? Nah. Now the ge da soup on the other hand, was AMAZING. Ge da is this powder thing they take and make into a little dumpling type thing. ard to explain but oh so good. I could eat this soup for days on end.
The hutong was so nice because it is made up of all these one story, gray stoned buildings. I loved the vibe the whole place had.
After lunch we shopped some more, and then headed over to the silk market. We made the mistake of getting off one subway stop to early, so had a bit of a walk, but we stopped at McDonalds for a snack. I know it sounds like we eat constantly but really it had been a good two hours between lunch and now. It was odd because none of the menu was in English. Sara admitted she had never even notices this fact.
We spent an hour and a half at the silk market. My biggest purchase was three silk scrolls. One had a drawing of the great wall on it. I knew that I'd want something with the Great Wall on it. One had golden fish on it. I got this one because Sara loves fish and we talked about fish a lot. The last one I bought was a very pretty one with Mu dan flowers on it. Not sure why I like these so much, but something about them just seem cool. They are traditional, and yes while mine aren't hand done I like them. I was very proud of myself. The seller wanted CNY600 and I paid CNY195.
After the hour and a half we both were sooooooo ready to get out of there. The silk market is very cool, and I reccomend it to anybody who wants to buy cheap anything, but there are so many people it's overwhelming.
We took a subway and then a taxi back and had Chinese snacks for dinner. They were really just like a fast meal. The portions were definitely not snack size.
It was off to Ariny's after that for some TV watching and showers. This night we watched a game show called Single Man. The show had 24 single girls and one single guy. The guy comes out and gets to show three videos introducing himself to the girls. If any of the girls aren't interested than she can switch her light off. The process goes on until after the third video. If some of the girls still have their lights on the guy gets to choose his three favorite. They talk some more and then he chooses his favorite. They when a trip to Hawaii and then skip off into the sunset. It was entertaining.
Back home and to bed! Next up: The Great Wall!!!!!!
Signing off! Promise pictures will come soon.
We started today by.......SLEEPING IN! Ahhhhhhh so nice!
After dragging ourselves out of bed we went to a Hutong, forget the name (sorry!). Now basically a hutong simply refers to a lane or alley in the older district of Beijing with many being near the Forbidden City. The day was bright and sunny and I loved just strolling along looking into all the small shops. We went into many many stores and I even bought myself an adorable dress and some presents for folks back home. We stopped and ate lunch at a restaurant called Zomo's. Don't know where the name comes from, but the food was really good. We had ge da soup, fish head with noodles and lettuce with fish. The fish head was fairly spicy, but I did try gill and even ate the fish eye! Sara just put it on my plate and said, "Here! For you!" What did I think of it? Well, it wasn't bad. The texture was grainy and it didn't have much of a taste. Do I need to eat another? Nah. Now the ge da soup on the other hand, was AMAZING. Ge da is this powder thing they take and make into a little dumpling type thing. ard to explain but oh so good. I could eat this soup for days on end.
The hutong was so nice because it is made up of all these one story, gray stoned buildings. I loved the vibe the whole place had.
After lunch we shopped some more, and then headed over to the silk market. We made the mistake of getting off one subway stop to early, so had a bit of a walk, but we stopped at McDonalds for a snack. I know it sounds like we eat constantly but really it had been a good two hours between lunch and now. It was odd because none of the menu was in English. Sara admitted she had never even notices this fact.
We spent an hour and a half at the silk market. My biggest purchase was three silk scrolls. One had a drawing of the great wall on it. I knew that I'd want something with the Great Wall on it. One had golden fish on it. I got this one because Sara loves fish and we talked about fish a lot. The last one I bought was a very pretty one with Mu dan flowers on it. Not sure why I like these so much, but something about them just seem cool. They are traditional, and yes while mine aren't hand done I like them. I was very proud of myself. The seller wanted CNY600 and I paid CNY195.
After the hour and a half we both were sooooooo ready to get out of there. The silk market is very cool, and I reccomend it to anybody who wants to buy cheap anything, but there are so many people it's overwhelming.
We took a subway and then a taxi back and had Chinese snacks for dinner. They were really just like a fast meal. The portions were definitely not snack size.
It was off to Ariny's after that for some TV watching and showers. This night we watched a game show called Single Man. The show had 24 single girls and one single guy. The guy comes out and gets to show three videos introducing himself to the girls. If any of the girls aren't interested than she can switch her light off. The process goes on until after the third video. If some of the girls still have their lights on the guy gets to choose his three favorite. They talk some more and then he chooses his favorite. They when a trip to Hawaii and then skip off into the sunset. It was entertaining.
Back home and to bed! Next up: The Great Wall!!!!!!
Signing off! Promise pictures will come soon.
Day 2: Tiananmen Square and Palace Museum
Hello!
Woke up, ate some breakfast and out the door!
We went to Tiananmen Square today. Took a bus then a subway, and I realized I like traveling by bus better when in a new city because you get to see more of the city. The subway is nice just for speed though. Without Sara I wouldn't have been able to take the bus since the route is entirely in Manadarin. Yay for Sara!
Exiting the subway station and seeing Tiananmen Square was awesome! After seeing so many pictures of this giant structure it was crazy to see it in real life. Sara also informed me that the road we were looking at is the biggest road in Beijing. Once again reminded me of Miami a bit. lol
We made our way across the street and through the first gate. The amount of people standing in line for tickets into the Palace Museum(Forbidden City) was a little bit intimidating, but the lines moved pretty fast. They offer a student ticket price, so we only had to pay CNY20. woot woot!
Once inside the museum the amount of people just seemed to increase. It was fine when just standing around looking at the outside of the buildings, but when we tried toget a closer look at the inside of the different halls it wasn't a lot of fun. People push and shove and they don't see it as being rude. Something I don't think I'll ever get use to.
I picked up an audio guide for CNY40 + CNY100 deposit before entering the museum and when it wasn't cutting in and out, the information about each hall was pretty interesting. I definitely would recommend doing that unless you read up about the museum a lot before coming. There is a map on the auido guide which has lights on it showing each place to visit and when you visit one , that light will go out. We found this very helpful. So much looks the same it's easy to get lost.
My favorite parts were the side areas which were a lot less crowded and the gardens located at the back of the museum. That gardens had some beautiful flowers called Mu dan. This is the national flower of China. Sara loves flowers so we took a lot of photos. Also in the gardens was the awesome stone mountain. The story behind it is that during one festival each year the emperor and his concubines would scale the mountain to the platform on the top. I don't remember what this symbolized, but it definitely looked like it might be slightly difficult.
At this point it the sky was black and we were getting worried about rain. We ducked into a small cafe, I got a caramel latte and Sara got some spicy tofu on a stick (which was actually quite yummy), and by the time we had sat down at a table it was pouring outside. It poured for about 30 mins and then continued to rain for another 30min. We just sat and talked and had a great time.
After we went exploring more of the side paths. It was around 4:15 and many of the exhibits were beginning to close. Sara made the suggestion of heading to a tea house before going to dinner with her cousins.
One bus ride later we were in an awesome shopping center! We had tea at a little teahouse called Chamate. It's one of Sara's favorite and is a chain around Beijing. They had a really cool ordering system where you just pressed either order, waiter, bill or water on this device at your table and a little bell rang alerting the staff to your need. Loved it! We got some small snacks, black fungus and a pancake. The fungus was.........yeah
Stayed and chatted till round 6:30pm and then made our way to dinner. (I know a lot of food) We had barbecue, which was awesome. This is when I got to meet her cousin Ariny and her cousin's fiance Le. We sat outside at this very low table with very tiny stools. Now this is not like our barbecue back home. Instead it is different pieces of meat on wooden skewers done on a grill in different spices and sauces.
What we got:
Squid - way too spicy for me. made my lips burn
Chicken Heart - my favorite! They were really really good
Chicken Liver- I think it was liver, don't quite remember. lol They were pretty good but a little chewy
Chicken Wing - A classic in the States and in China
There were some others but I can't remember them all. Really the only thing I didn't like was the squid. We also had cucumbers in soy sauce and lettuce in sesame sauce and washed it all down with beer. Sara told me that apparently it is considered rude to not get the guest (me) tipsy. They definitely weren't rude and I'm really glad that Le gave back the unopened third bottle (they were large bottles).
We went back to Ariny and Le's place to take showers, since we had no hot water at Sara's place. Now I thought that most Chinese couple don't live together before getting married, and I asked Sara about this. She said that what I thought was correct, but due to how expensive the cost of living is in Beijing couples are moving in together sooner now. Though she still said that her cousin and fiance are the "odd ones out."
Home around midnight and crashed in bed by 1:30am.
Signing off! Back to schoolwork I go!
Woke up, ate some breakfast and out the door!
We went to Tiananmen Square today. Took a bus then a subway, and I realized I like traveling by bus better when in a new city because you get to see more of the city. The subway is nice just for speed though. Without Sara I wouldn't have been able to take the bus since the route is entirely in Manadarin. Yay for Sara!
Exiting the subway station and seeing Tiananmen Square was awesome! After seeing so many pictures of this giant structure it was crazy to see it in real life. Sara also informed me that the road we were looking at is the biggest road in Beijing. Once again reminded me of Miami a bit. lol
We made our way across the street and through the first gate. The amount of people standing in line for tickets into the Palace Museum(Forbidden City) was a little bit intimidating, but the lines moved pretty fast. They offer a student ticket price, so we only had to pay CNY20. woot woot!
Once inside the museum the amount of people just seemed to increase. It was fine when just standing around looking at the outside of the buildings, but when we tried toget a closer look at the inside of the different halls it wasn't a lot of fun. People push and shove and they don't see it as being rude. Something I don't think I'll ever get use to.
I picked up an audio guide for CNY40 + CNY100 deposit before entering the museum and when it wasn't cutting in and out, the information about each hall was pretty interesting. I definitely would recommend doing that unless you read up about the museum a lot before coming. There is a map on the auido guide which has lights on it showing each place to visit and when you visit one , that light will go out. We found this very helpful. So much looks the same it's easy to get lost.
My favorite parts were the side areas which were a lot less crowded and the gardens located at the back of the museum. That gardens had some beautiful flowers called Mu dan. This is the national flower of China. Sara loves flowers so we took a lot of photos. Also in the gardens was the awesome stone mountain. The story behind it is that during one festival each year the emperor and his concubines would scale the mountain to the platform on the top. I don't remember what this symbolized, but it definitely looked like it might be slightly difficult.
At this point it the sky was black and we were getting worried about rain. We ducked into a small cafe, I got a caramel latte and Sara got some spicy tofu on a stick (which was actually quite yummy), and by the time we had sat down at a table it was pouring outside. It poured for about 30 mins and then continued to rain for another 30min. We just sat and talked and had a great time.
After we went exploring more of the side paths. It was around 4:15 and many of the exhibits were beginning to close. Sara made the suggestion of heading to a tea house before going to dinner with her cousins.
One bus ride later we were in an awesome shopping center! We had tea at a little teahouse called Chamate. It's one of Sara's favorite and is a chain around Beijing. They had a really cool ordering system where you just pressed either order, waiter, bill or water on this device at your table and a little bell rang alerting the staff to your need. Loved it! We got some small snacks, black fungus and a pancake. The fungus was.........yeah
Stayed and chatted till round 6:30pm and then made our way to dinner. (I know a lot of food) We had barbecue, which was awesome. This is when I got to meet her cousin Ariny and her cousin's fiance Le. We sat outside at this very low table with very tiny stools. Now this is not like our barbecue back home. Instead it is different pieces of meat on wooden skewers done on a grill in different spices and sauces.
What we got:
Squid - way too spicy for me. made my lips burn
Chicken Heart - my favorite! They were really really good
Chicken Liver- I think it was liver, don't quite remember. lol They were pretty good but a little chewy
Chicken Wing - A classic in the States and in China
There were some others but I can't remember them all. Really the only thing I didn't like was the squid. We also had cucumbers in soy sauce and lettuce in sesame sauce and washed it all down with beer. Sara told me that apparently it is considered rude to not get the guest (me) tipsy. They definitely weren't rude and I'm really glad that Le gave back the unopened third bottle (they were large bottles).
We went back to Ariny and Le's place to take showers, since we had no hot water at Sara's place. Now I thought that most Chinese couple don't live together before getting married, and I asked Sara about this. She said that what I thought was correct, but due to how expensive the cost of living is in Beijing couples are moving in together sooner now. Though she still said that her cousin and fiance are the "odd ones out."
Home around midnight and crashed in bed by 1:30am.
Signing off! Back to schoolwork I go!
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