Intro!
On June 27 I meet my group at DIA bright and early, 6am. From there we catch a plane to Seattle, and then to China. I've never been to China before.
Due to lack of Facebook (oh no, what will we do!?) I decided I would attempt to keep a rough blog here, if you will.
So sit tight--hopefully China allows Webs.com so I can update this.
From Seattle, we fly to Beijing. I'm not too sure what to expect there, really. A lot of Chinese people speaking Chinese with a growly accent? Probably. We'll see if I can understand anything.
The duration of my trip will be in
At the end, we will spend a few days in Shanghai before flying back. Transportation from city to city will be by a train to Chengdu and then a plane to Shanghai... I think.
Excitement will follow!
Day 1/2? 06/28/11
Hi all. I made it to Beijing. 2:40ish am Denver time, 4:40ish pm Beijing time. You could see really nothing when landing. So much smog! You could feel it, too, once you got off the plane. I kept coughing in customs and feared being taken in for quarantine. But luckily I didn't. I'm here!
The plane ride was 11 hours and 40 minutes. Or so they said. I'm not actually sure. Off and on sleep. We all had TVs in the seats infront of us for playing games and watching movies on demand and watching TV and listening to music and watching the map. My TV decided not to work. I really wanted to watch Black Swan, too! TT__TT My neighbor's didn't work, either. We were both disappointed. I kept myself sane with off and on Pokemon and naps. I caught a really cute Pokemon. It's pink and yellow. :3
We sat in row 32 of 33. Close enough to the bathroom for convenience but far enough away to avoid the smell. There was a crying baby up in the front, but it didn't bother us too much. Airplane food was actually decent. We ate noodles and beef for dinner (not Chinese noodles). For breakfast we had fried rice. They ran out of rolls at the seat right before us. I only had to go to the bathroom once. Whoo! Also, because Sarah spilled water in my tennishoes... so that kept me seat-bound, hahah.
I sat with Sarah, who's pretty much an awesome person. We wanted to sit with our new friend Dan Buddy, but he was placed somewhere near the way front.
Upon landing, they sprayed the plane with pesticide stuff. We then de-planed and found ourselves waiting in customs. I wish they would smile more. Or look like they were having a better time. It makes me so bored to watch them because they look so bored themselves.
We got our bags and proceeded to the bus. We got a quick tour of Beijing on the way to our hotel by our tourguide Song Yan, English name Sonya. Rush hour in Beijing is just wonderful. But everyone drives so crazy! I felt safe on the bus but it was certainly a sight to see. How do they all drive without hitting each other! Song Yan told us about how on certain days, cars with certain plate numbers could not drive on the road. So crazy!
We're staying at the Rainbow Hotel. It looks cheap from the outside, but it's very pretty inside! The rooms are comfortable and have western toilets and showers (yay!). Sarah and I are rooming together up on the top, 13th floor. Not too much can be seen out our window.
We went across the street for dinner at some restaurant. Rice and noodles and pork and beef and sugared bananas and eggs, etc... I liked the fish tank in the entrance.
There are several people I dislike in America and that dislike has unfortunately found its way to China, too. Many of the kids on the trip with us are the exact type of people I would not hang out with in America, and unfortunately, I'm finding that to be the same here. The obnoxious people who make comments where unwanted. Needless to say I didn't enjoy the company of dinner because I could not use chopsticks very well... and did not want to in front of them. It's not nice to make fun of people. ):
After dinner, Sarah, Dan Buddy and I walked around the block a few times. It got dark [very] early due to the smog. The sun was just about gone at 7:45pm, compared to 9pm. All the signs are so pretty! Flashing and in Chinese. several of them also have the English or the Pinyin (without tones) under them. I have not had anyone try to practice their English on me yet.
After walking, we came back in at about 9pm and did our character practice homework. Trying not to collapse asleep. 1st grade character practice book. It's so cute. And makes me feel so stupid. Hahahah.
I've learned several new words already (from the book and not). Chu Kou is exit, Ren Kou is entrance, etc. I think I've seen those the most.
But anyways. Then I fell asleep and was out until 6am (4pm) the next day. Hope everyone had/is having a good day at work there!
Chinese Internet Makes Me Want to Explode 07/03/2011
SO SLOW. I tried to update about the Great Wall and everywhere the other day. But wasn't able to. Oh well. I'm with my family now.
So my mom speaks pretty much no English. My dad is a Chinese teacher. In China. And speaks very little English. The little sister that was listed on the paper who came to meet me at the airport, Deng Lejia, she's 13 years old. She has another sister who is 14 years old named Zhong Dan. She's not participating in the summer program. Deng Lejia speaks a little more English than Zhong Dan, but still very little. My mom's older brother has a son who came to visit today. I'm unsure of his name. He speaks... no English. But he's nice. He went to the store and bought us all Coke. (Kekoukele; Cocacola) Another uncle related to someone has a son who is 17. I forget his name too. But he is very nice and speaks quite a bit of English. 2009, I think he said, he stayed with a kid from Chap in America.
I told them I like to play dance video games and they took me to a local arcade and we played some dance game. Nothing I had ever played before, but very fun. Deng Lejia had never played it, either. She really enjoyed it and wants to go again later tonight, but I don't think we'll have time.
I feel like I'm absorbing Chinese through my skin. Like a frog. I feel like it's better to say that you understand, though, often, or else they will keep trying. And no one gets anything, haha. This weather is so humid. They leave the windows open all the time and they have no screens, so mosquittos come in. (Or as Deng Lejia and I like to call them for simplicity's sake "bzzzzzzz" (wenzi?) )
So apparently, one of the uncles owns a big hotel. (The lobby is very nice.) We live in an appartment building type thing back beside the hotel. Up 5 flights of stairs. So we're right in the city. It's really nice.
Somewhere between Beijing and Chengdu, my shampoo went missing. |:< Deng Lejia and Zhong Dan and I went out shopping today to get some more. We went to the departmentstore mall place thing. Everyone stares at me because I'm blond and white. In the store, all the employee people followed us around, or formed little groups behind us. When walking home, a group of people playing Mahjong across the street, one shouted "Hello! Hello! Beautiful! Hey Beautiful! I want to invite you to play a game!" (in English) Hahah. Apparently, despite us learning Mahjong in America, it's more of an adult game, like poker, since people bet lots of money on it. My sisters don't know how to play it.
I don't like how they eat hot food all the time. I wake up in the morning and its way hot. And mom already has the water boiling. She made us hot dumpling soysauce soup type stuff for breakfast.
Otherwise, it rained all day. ALLL day. That cooled off but it's heating up again just in time for bed... gee. It's dangerous to walk in town in the rain because my flipflops lack traction and they don't have normal sidewalks--all their ground is tiled with smooth stuff. When going out, Deng Lejia got tired of walking in the downpour and hailed a biker taxi. He drove us around to the mall place. On the way home we walked part way until the rain started to dump again, so we flagged down a normal cab.
"Today we will go out to play" 07/09/11
Today we went to a giant garden. Unfortunately, since it's not spring, all the flowers were done blooming so there was a lot of big areas of dirt. But the fields were pretty and the trees were really pretty.
However, the GIANT field of sunflowers were all in bloom. Also a field of roses. So pretty! But very hot! My mom told me to go stand infront of some sunflowers off the main path to take a photo, and who should be crawling up the gutter but a giant qingwa! They told me not to touch it. ): They also told me it was a toad because it wasn't green. But I'm pretty sure it was just a brown frog.
Also in the big park garden place was this big manmade river water way thing. We bought soda and icecream and walked down a bunch of steps through this big forest to the big water thing where we got to take a fun boat down the river to some place where they sold fish and stuff. Before coming to the garden park, mom stopped and bought a big bag full of duck legs/feet (maybe they were just large chicken legs/feet?) And so we ate them on the boat... Coming to China, I threw just about everything I knew about the world out the window. So I ate duck legs with them--and pulled some of that knowledge I threw out the window back in. Because those duck legs/feet tasted nasty. They then had me eat...deepfried-dried sardines or some type of little fish. I dislike fish. But I ate it anyways. I thought they told me to eat the whole thing... so I ate the whole thing head and eyes and whatever bones it had and all. Bleeeuhh. (I later found out you hold it by the head and eat the rest of it. All but the head.)
The place was called Shi Xiang Hu (I think) or Stone Elephant Lake. My dad made super sure that I knew it was a Hu(lake) and not a He(river). He spent like, 5minutes explaining the difference.
We later drove to Chengdu. I'm pretty sure that Chengdu directly translate into "Extremely Awesome" in English. So we went to the movie theater. And we couldn't decide what to watch. I wanted to see Gongfu Xiongmao 2 (Kungfu Panda 2) but it wasn't on until 6:30 and everyone had already seen it. But I didn't want to watch the scary movie they had playing. But because mom wanted to see it and it was earlier, we got tickets to that.
English name was Mysterious Island. I don't know the Chinese name. It was in Chinese though. It was about a game show kinda like one of those survivor shows, and it had 8 contestants and 2TV people who went to go on this island and they had to get to the other side or whatever for 1mill USD. But the boat was attacked by haunted bags or something on the way there and crashed and the island was haunted and they all got angry over someone who had a map and they didn't and they had no phones and it was creepy because there was this old religious church/hospital that was there... In the end. Everyone gets killed except one girl who finds this guy who has been living on the island since he was a child because his mom was killed by the ghosts and he goes crazy or something and they get in a big fight and the girl ends up killing him. The end.
And then back to back we went and saw Kungfu Panda 2... lol. It was in English with Chinese subtitles. It was cute. We then went out to dinner at like, 8pm to some ridiculously nice restaurant. Like holy explicetives. Live music and fancy service and fancy food and just hardcore fancy atmosphere.
Afterwards Deng Lejia stayed in the car because she was tired and me and mom and dad and cousin/sister Zhong Dan went and walked around the really pretty area. ALLL the buildings lit up so pretty!! And there was a pretty fountain with dancing water and lights and it'd shoot water that would look like hearts... mom dad and I got one of those tourist photos in front of it. Also a giant statue of Chairman Mao. Pretty beast.
Oh. The night before, we went to KTV. I think the K stands for Karaoke. I can only compare it to what I think Japanese karaoke places are like (that I've seen in anime.) Me and 6 other (Chinese) girls age 13 to 17. It was pretty awesome. We sang Chinese songs and Japanese songs and Korean songs (Gee!) and English songs. Nothing like being asked to sing English songs you've never heard before, hahah. All of the Americans on the trip told me that I HAD to go to KTV. And now I know why. It's ridiculously awesome.
Everything is also really cool because my uncle owns the ridiculously nice hotel which has a super intense fancy restaurant and the KTV, etc. So we kinda just run around and do whatever because Deng Lejia knows all the employees.
I'm having a really great time. Despite the copius amounts of homework.
Food is alright but they stuff me like holycrap. I'm afraid I'mma come home 20pounds heavier, haha. They eat a TON. Like we went to a restaurant. And they had me eat like, an appetizer, 2 entres, and 2 deserts. Needless to say, I couldn't do it. Before leaving I was nervous about the amount of food that needs to be left on your plate to show that you're full. Now I'm nervous about eating ENOUGH food to keep them from thinking that I'm sick. Because I'm not. I just seriously can't eat a ton of food.
We ate Huoguo (hot pot) on Friday. It's the big local Sichuan thing to do. I told them on the car ride from the airport a week ago to home that I like spicy food, but I physically cannot eat very much of it. They've really kept that in mind well. They'll give me mildly spicy food but nothing ridiculous.
Shengri 07/09/11
My sister is turning 14 on Thursday and she keeps asking people for birthday presents.I'mma go shopping tomorrow during lunch to get something for her and stuff for my friends. Whenever I ask my sisters if they want to go out they're either too busy or something. So I haven't gotten to go shopping really.
One of the Americans is turning 16 on Monday and so she's having a party (that I'm invited to!) We're gonna go to KTV Monday after school and rock out to some Lady Gaga probably since we're not fluent enough to sing Chinese music well.
It rained ALL day. Holy crap. I didn't even know this much water existed in the world.
Also, thanks Dad for the update on my AP scores. But I don't want them. Please send them back and tell Collegeboard I'd like different ones. I'm rejecting those.
Big Feet (大足) and Stuff 7/19/2011
So this past weekend we shuffled onto the bus at 730am and drove off to Chengdu to go see the pandas. THEY WERE SO CUTE I NEED TO TYPE IN CAPSLOCK. The Sichuan Panda Reserve or whatever. But my camera was stupid and didn't charge so I got all of 4 photos maybe and stole Dan's camera for the rest. I'll steal it again sometime when I get back to get the photos off. We also saw the red pandas WHICH WERE SO CUTE CAPSLOCKKK. However, /someone/ showed up an hour late to the bus while in Xinjin so we got there late and because of that we think we weren't allowed to hold the red pandas. Needless to say, I was really disappointed.
One of the English teachers got the boot off the trip (or something to that extent) for being stupid and childish beyond belief. Oh well.
I bought something at the gift shop for a friend back in America but someone stole it when I was on the bus, and I didn't want to tell Channel Laoshi because she'd lecture me about how coming on this trip I was taking on responsibility to take care of myself. They said the bus would be safe to leave stuff on... That was like, $2 right there. That was expensive! I am angry still.
After the pandas we went to a museum in Sichuan (once again, no photos.) It had a bunch of stuff to look at in Chinese and English. Channel Laoshi gave us a big huge question thing we had to go look at and take notes on in a short amount of time. She said we were going to have a big discussion on it during the 4hr ride to Dazu. We didn't. So many notes for nothing... I wanted to look at the Earthquake stuff for more than 5 minutes but didn't get to because we were busy trying to find things in the Buddhism section...
Bus ride to Dazu, which I think literally translates into Big Feet, was 4hrs long. We drove through a big farm land area so we got to see the rural part of China. It was really pretty. And pretty rural. Yup. I would have taken photos had my camera not have been stupid.
I thought we were going to Chongqing. But no. Aww. Sarah and I roomed together again. We had a western toilet AND shower! But not western beds. They still felt like cardboard. Our hotel was across the street from a big... area. Where people would all do group dances and stuff, out by the river that had pretty rainbow lights all along it. The Chinese people got a kick out of us Americans when we attempted to join their dancing. It was cute, little kids came up behind us and said in Chinese, "Foreigners! Look, foreigners!" because foreigners can't understand Chinese. And we turned around said Nihao and Hello and they squealed and ran off.
The next day we drove up a mountain to see some Buddha cave carvings. I don't know the name of the actual place, but it's famous. I wanted to go to Dalvshan I think it is... 大绿山？ The giant Buddha carved into the rock on the water. But we went here instead... disappointment. But this was still pretty cool. A gabillion buddhas and religious stuff carved into rocks. And poorly hidden "no photos" signs. I beat some sense into my camera and it charged the night before, so dispite the signs (which I didn't see until afterwards, I promise,) I have a ton of photos of it.
Some lunch and bargaining in the tourist market and then
Sam's birthday party was on Monday. It was alright until my sister jokingly took some of the cake frosting and rubbed it on Matt's brother, who takes everything to the extreme and it went from a party to a cake battle... frosting went everywhere, cake went everywhere... We eventually got it all cleaned up. This was all at KTV, too, hahah... it was a wild time.
Today was school and stuff. Photos of the sun today look like a UFO over the school. We went out at lunch today and got Andrew's haircut. He speaks very little Chinese, so it was pretty funny trying to describe how he wanted it. We drew a picture for the lady. He wanted a... fohawk? What do you call it? Tall hair in the middle with really short hair on the sides, and then he wanted lines on the side of his head in his hair... yeahhhh. But then he bought us all lemonade for helping him. Also during lunch, I bought a pingpong set to share with Ethan. Since yknow, 乒乓球是中国的国球。He should like it. I'll teach him to be Chinese.
After school I went to the book store and bought some more Zitie or whatever. Deng Lejia was busy so Zhongdan went with me. I had to tell her 写汉字书because she didn't know what zitie was, hahah. I also got a gift for my 美国中文老师, but I can't post it because she might be reading this. Then we went and got icecream but I told her not to tell Deng Lejia because she would be angry. It was too hot to bring her home any.
I found out that Zhongdean (if I didn't post it) is NOT Deng Lejia's sister but is actually her older cousin. but they call everyone brother and sister and she's always around, so I call her sister, too. Apparently she and her aunt (who I only know as nie-nie) are always around the house because their real house is somewhere far away in a place that is apparently not on the map (because I asked her to show me on the map but she said she couldn't). She stays in the dorms at her school in Xinjin, which she showed me, during school time. Keep in mind she is 14. Wowow.
Also. In China, icecream is not icecream. Icecream is popsicles. But I still enjoy it lots. Especially the transformers kind.
This coming weekend we go to
Photodump 07/22/2011
Because I don't have much else to say. My sister wanted to take all the photos off my camera that have Paul in them, because Paul looks like Justin Beiber. She skipped over a couple hundred she took but downloaded 100 others, plus a few that I took on my own.
07/28/2011 Bye Xinjin
I've had an awesome time here in Xinjin with my Chinese family. Everything has been really great. Except for the humidity. That's not very great. But otherwise, really great.Tomorrow is the closing ceremonies, where we'll sing Nanzi Han, Pengyou, and do our Wushu routine for a bunch of people, and then some Chinese kids will perform.And then I dunno what.We've gone bike riding every night this week except today. Just because I told them I liked biking when we were out doing it (because they asked if I liked it or didn't) doesn't mean I want to do it every night... But it's pretty. And fun.
Saturday morning we ship out to Shanghai. I might be meeting up with an old coworker of my mom's in Shanghai Saturday as well. Maybe. She has to return my email first.
I'm very sad that I can't host my sister in America because I don't go to Chap or Legend.Nor could I get her to Chap or Legend every day. If she does come out this year though, hopefully she'll come visit me and we can go do things. Like talk about how Denver has no trees or water. I hope she comes this year, since I'll be gone in college next year. I want to come back and visit my family here in China but I won't be able to do it on this same trip again since I'm graduating this year.
Oh, the other day we all skipped school to go up to Sichuan University to speak with the students studying English there. These people are all PhDs etc and are learning to speak English in their field. They were very smart and spoke English very well for just learning it. Some of them were studying and majoring in topics that I didn't even know of. Epidemiology and Geodesy? Oh! They also knew what an Immunologist was. (It's not immune-scholar) but I didn't get the time to ask them to write it down. Bah! They wanted to talk about my car and cars in America. Which I know nothing about, America or anywhere else in the world. Hahah. They were also very confused because I look very young. They had a hard time understanding that I'm going to college next year. But it was really great.
Also, an interesting fact, Chinese people have a hard time rhyming [English] words.
I come back to Denver on Wednesday. I have to check the schedule, I think I get in at 7:30ish mountain time.Jumping the date line hurts my head.