The rest of my week

Hello everyone just thought I would finish telling you what happened with the rest of my week. First of all this week has been really long we have had class everyday for 7 days so that we would get off for a week durig the Chinese national holiday next week. Wich should be interesting because from what I understand most of China shuts down and people use the time to travel all over China. I am going to go and visit one of my chinese teachers I had when I was a K-state she was just visiting last year at KSU and now she is back in China so I want to go and pay her a visit. She is one of the reasons I got into Chinese so much because she was so nice and helpful to me last year while I was trying to learn it. So I am really looking forward to seeing her. Anyway finally about the rest of my week. The only exciting thing that I did was attend a concert at my school. Everyone from my group got to go. It was really interesting it was like a pop music concert that was being broadcast throughout China on CCTV. There where probably 12,000 people in this soccer stadium. From what they tell us all of the people that performed where very famous in China. There where 3 acts that really stuck out in my mind. One of them was a 10 year old Chinese boy singing a song that was part Chinese, English and Spanish. If that sounds confusing that is becasue it was. Then there was an African American guy who sang and he also spoke perfect Chinese. The act that stuck out the most in my mind was when a "women" came out and started singing a traditional Chinese song. Then when they interviewed her on stage find out it was really a man dressed like a woman. Then to make that even stranger he went on to sing a duet with himself half the time singing like a women and half the time singing like a man. It was quite impressive the guy was very talented. Well that was the rest of my week. I may not post anything for a while since I am going on that trip to see my teacher but after that trip I should have plenty more to write about.

This week

Well I am sitting here kind of bored tonight already got my homework done and I have nothing else to do so I thought I would share what has been going this week so far. Well first off on Monday we discovered that in our apartment building there is a western food restaurant. It is the craziest thing there is no sign on the door or anything you just have to know about. One of my roomates accidentally rang the bell on the door or else we would not have any idea it was a restaurant. We went there and they have pizza, spaghetti and steak. In the background they played American Music it was really bizarre. Tuesday was the Chinese Mid Autumn day it is a festivel celebrating an ancient Chinese mythical hero I would try and explain it but I do not know the story that well. One of the traditions of the festival is that if you are away from you are supposed to look at the moon and think about your loved ones who you are missing. So we ended up having a little get together on the roof and a Chinese friend of ours told the story of the moon festival. Then we went around the circle and everyone talked abou who they missed the most and why. It was really quite moving. I said my parents. Then this morning the most random thing happened my roomate and I walked outside to go to school and around the corner we see a chicken running at us with two people chasing it. It looked like something that belongs in a movie. Very Very funny way to start the day. All that and it is only Wedensday. Tomorrow should be interesting we are all supposed to go to a special celebration with people from the Chinese Central Government and we are at a special table and 12,000 people will be there. The details are kind of sketchy but I should be giving you an update on it in the next few days. We never know what we are doing until the last minute anyway.

Mt. Emei

After our mostly sleepless night. We needed to get up early to see the sunrise so at 4 A.M. We went outside to meet our new Chinese friend who helped us get the hotel room. They wanted to help us find our way since they knew more or less where they where going and we had not clue. Just a little note to everyone I love Chinese people they are mostly very kind to foreigners especially ones who are interested in there culture. Anyway so there we where at 4 A.M. climbing a holy buddhist mountain in picth dark using our cell phones and cameras as the only light we had. I like to stop at these moments to put things in perspective. One of the girls I was traveling with began to have some trouble and we could not keep up with the first group of Chinese guys so we fell behind and quickly joined another group of Chinese students who where going our speed and helped us the rest of the way. It was really cool because they where trying to talk to us in English and we were trying to talk to the in Chinese very fun. So we finally made it to the top and it is still dark and we are just walkig climbing some stairs and then we see out of the mist a giant statue that is gold plated with four giant elephants facing in four different directions with a giant buddha on it INCREDIBLE. Since it was not sunrise yet we ended up eating a monks breakfast in one of the monastaries. We where the only foreigners or lao wai in chinese we took several pictures with our new friends. Then we went to go see the sunrise but it was too cloudy but I can see I was there at sunrise and made the effort. By the time we were done not seeing the sunrsie the Giant gold buddha and temple at the top of the mountain where open. It could have been because it was so hard to get to the top or something else but it was the most amazing temple I have seen in China or which I have seen over 10. It was similar in one way to the other ones and that is because there where people outside and in lighting candles and incense and praying. This is the time when you truly do feel like foreigner like you should not be there at all. You are a voyeur watching these people pray at this site on one hand you feel honored for them letting you be there but on the other you feel bad because I know that I do not know what it means to them. A very eary experience but one I am glad to have. I am sorry if these last couple of post where a little long winded and broken up but i wanted to say so much because it was a really special experience and I hope you read this and get a feeling for what it was like for me. I still left a lot of stuff out and someday i hope I can talk to everyone and fill in the holes. Thanks for reading this rambling mess it was really good for me to write it out here and tell you all about it. thanks.

Mt. Emei continued

My favorite part of the trip happened after the rest of the group went home and some of us who decided we wanted to see the top of the mountain stayed for an extra day to see the sunrise and buddhist temple at the top of Emei shan. First of all it ended up just being myself and two girls who are in my group but that I had not been particularly good friends with but we where the ones who wanted to go to the top. We took the bus to the top some others chose to hike up the whole mountain which too me seemed insane but I was impressed by them nonetheless. Anyway we ended up on a bus that we thought was going to take 40 minutes but it ended up taking us 2 hours. The bus only took us to within a 2 hour a hike of the top so even after we got there we needed to go farther we did know this before we took off but still was a problem. Since we thought we where going to get to this area in time to take the tram the rest of the way to the top. So when we got there we had to decidd whether we wanted to hike in the dark or stay at this old monastary looking place. We decided to stay and fortunately made friends with a Chinese college student who helped translate for us and helped us get a room. This room had three beds and the bathroom was about 100 yards away outside and the temperature at the top of this mountain stays at a constang 40 degrees. No heating but we did have a heating pad underneath our sheets. I did get some pictures that do a decent job of capturing the feel of this place. Oh and we had a mouse in our room that led to the girls I was with not being able to sleep but it did not bother me much because I was too tired. This place was really awesome but i am glad that i only had to stay there one night. There was water available so you could wash your face and brush your teeth but other than that it was not much. You can not be too picky when you are stuck on a mountain and you only pay 60 Yuan ($8) for a night. The best part was when we got to the top.

Mt. Emei

Mt. Emei is a truly amazing place I just left today and I already know that I want to go back. It is considered holy buddhist ground. It is covered with monastaries and breathtaking scenery in any direction you could possibly look. It was named a world cultural treasure in 1996. Right now though I am having trouble finding the words to describe the beauty of the mountain. It is in the middle of what I would call a rainforest it was cloudy and trees where everywhere slightly overwhelming for someone from Southwest Kansas. It was truly amazing you could go around a bend or climb a set of stairs and see a waterfall or a 1000 year old tree. I took a lot of pictures but I know they will not be able to do justice to the entire picture of everything that I saw. Incredible is the only word that I can use to describe it. There where amazing monastaries and temples which we got a chance to visit. One of the funnest things we did was visit the monkey sanctuary. This was oddly enough the most crowded place on the mountain. There was an area that was between to rock walls probably the size of a football field where there were wild monkeys running around loose and you could feed them and take pictures of them and with them. It was funny when we first got in the area we where upset because we could only see a few monkeys and they where far away then all of a sudden we walked past one on the suspension bridge. It was really cool but not the coolest thing that I did on the moutain. You must keep reading for that story because it deserves post all to itself. continued.......

The Hotel

The next part of the trip that I want to tell everyone about has nothing to do with the beauty of the mountain or the history that was there but it does give you an idea of how much fun I am having. The fun started at dinner where it just happened to be two people from our groups birthday. So we made a big deal out of it and had birthday cake while we where in the midde of this huge dinning room at 5 star restaraunt. It was something to see the Chinese people that where there where loving it but the group of French tourists I do not think enjoyed it as much as we did. It was funny because we ended up singing happy birthday to them in chinese while the Chinese people sang happy birthday in English which is strange but true. After that we all went to the hotsprings near by and almost drank the place out of beer. What are we supposed to do we are American college kids and it was Friday night. Anyway after that is when it got real crazy. We all wore our robes to the hot springs so after that we decided to go to "disco bar" at the hotel which looked like it was close but wasn't there just wasn't any one there. So there we where 10 Americans half of us in bath robes trying to convince them to open the bar. Finally we got enought people for them to open it up and we ended up dancing and drinking in our bath robes until they kicked us out at midnight. I do not think they like to encourage drinking here because of the mountains buddhist history. Anyway after the bar closed 3 other friends of mine 1 in his bath robe just like me went to go eat a late dinner with one of our Chaperone. Who we found out was a former child TV star in China. We then ended up doing one of my favorite things after late night of drinking which is talk politics till 1 in the morning. Oh and at the restaraunt i saved a fishes life after it jumped out of the tank. It was a night I will not soon forget.

Leshan

This weekend I took a trip and I will try and write about it and tell you all everything that I remember but I am sure that will forget something but I will do my best. The first place we went was to Leshan it is a town that is located about 150 Kilometers from Chengdu. We got there about noon and we got a on a boat and we knew that we where going to see a big budda but we where not for sure where it was at. The river was really strong and we noticed it was fighting the current the whole way. There were some large rocks on either side of the river but we did not think that much of it. Then as oddly as it sounds out of nowhere carved out of the rock is the worlds largest sitting buddha. Just like mount rushmore only I think it was probably bigger. It is 234 feet tall they say that you can feet over 100 people on a single foot. It really was quite impressive. After we saw the worlds largest Buddha we went to the base of Emei shan which of the past 2000 years because has become holy ground for the buddhist religion because of the many temples and monastaries scattered throughout the mountain. At the base we went to a beautiful temple called Fuhu. It was another amazing site that I took pictures of but they will probably not be able to do it justice. One interesting place we went to was a hall that had over 500 statues of famous students of the buddha. They all look different have different shaped heads and colors and are doing different things. While you are there you are supposed to pick you favorite one and count to the right the number of your age. After you do this you can go find that student and buy a card that tells you about him and that is supposed to predict your luck for the next year. It was a pretty interestng place and I enjoyed it. weekend trip continued....

I ate dinner with a cat today.

This post may not be very interesting to everyone but it is a major part of my life and I feel I should share it with everyone. Eating can be an adventure all by itself sometimes it is good and sometime is not. Sometimes you do not know what you are ordering all the time. Most of the time you just have to point. The menus are confusing even to Chinese people at least that is what our teacher told us. At first i did not like the food that much here I only liked a few things and I always felt hungry. Today though I realized I love this food it is awesome. For example at lunch today I went with a friend to a little shop with four tables in it and we ordered for orders of bao zi. It cost 2 yuan($0.25) for 6 of them and it is now one of my favorite things to eat. It is not my absolute favorite. My absolute favorite thing is Jiao zi from the little noodle shop or pork spicy dumplings 6 yuan ($0.80) they are amazing. My absolute favorite. I wish I could take this little noodle shop with everyone in it and all the food back home and open it up in Manhattan. The people do not speak any english but they do have an english menu so all you have to do is point to get what you want. That comes back to the title of this posting tonight at dinner me and a friend of mine ate with a cat at the table. It was sitting in a chair but none the less we ate dinner with it. It lives about 4 feet from the kitchen and it is tied to the table like you would tie a dog up. I think it adds to the atmosphere of the whole place. I may think it is disgusting in a month but right now I like it. Anyway that is a big part of my day.

Women's world cup

Hello everyone I just wanted to write a little bit about what I did last night. It was definately another experience that I will not soon forget. It just so happens that this year the womens world cup is being played in China and the United States ended playing in chengdu. It was really cool last night we went to watch the US play Sweden. Some of my freinds painted USA on there chest and we just stood there and yelled at the soccer match even though for most of us it was the first one we had been too. Anyway the Chinese people that where there thought we where pretty funny and they could not stop taking pictures of all of us yelling and sceaming it was quite entertaining for everyone involved. We entertained them and they entertained us. Some of us ended up staying for the second between North Korea and Nigeria. This match was very interesting it was between two teams that I never ever thought I would ever watch play soccer. There where a ton of North Korean fans there and they where cheering throughout the game. They had 4 full sized N Korean flags and i never saw them stop waving them the entire game. I was really surprised that there were so many of them there because I thought North Korea was a completly closed society. It seemed like the Chinese where cheering for the North Koreans more but they also cheered for the Nigerians quite a bit I think they just wanted to see someone score. Oh one more thing they love doing the wave here they did it almost constantly throughout the entire game. One side would start it and then the other side. It was quite entertaining on top of the game.

Inernet

I wanted to share my experience with the internet here and I hope it does not get my blog shutdown it shouldn't but who knows. Something that I have found interesting since I have been here are the restrictions on the internet sites. For example I cannot go on any .gov sites which make sense. On the other hand I cannot check my online banking from here either. The most interesting thing about internet sensors is this website. I am able to write on this blog but I cannot read it. They have blocked me from reading my own blog but I guess they just have to stop everyone from reading any blog. I hope by writing this they do not shut my blog down but it is a risk I am willing to take. There is another thing about sensoring that I have found interesting since I have been here. I am currently taking a Tibetan Culture and Society class and the first day we had asked about Tibets independence in class. They are an autonomous region within China. So we asked about it and the teacher never really answered us she just changed the subject. Then the other day our program director reminded us that Tibet is still a part of China and that we should kind of be careful about what we ask because she had found out about it. That was a strange experience to me and it is one that i am going to have to get used. I hope by writing this it does not shutdow my blog but i guess we will see.

Respect for immigrants

Hello everyone sorry I have not been able to write in a while I have been pretty busy with school and everything and I still have to go to my neighbors apartment to use the internet. Anyway my topic for this post is something that I have been thinking about since I got here. This experience has made me really appreciate how people can move anywhere and create a life for themselves. Especially if they do not know the language because I am sure moving from say America to England could be difficult but just knowing the language would make such a difference. Here I have taken some Chinese but not know enough to be able to ask for and get anything I want or need from a restaurant or store. Even eating lunch here can be a huge challenge. So for anyone who has moved from anywhere to a different place without fully knowing the language they have my deepest respect. I know there are a lot of immigrants in the United States but I never realized how hard of a time they had until I lived in a foreign country. It truly is amazing to me.

The Club in Chengdu

Hello all I just got back from a club in Chengdu. I have to tell you it was an experience in a half. I had never been to any place like it before. They definately do not have any bars like it in Aggieville. All they played was Techno music and the beer cost 30 yuan a piece. They did however give us some free beer because we where American. The strangest thing though was that after we where there for a while they brought over some fresh fruit on a plate. This seemed very odd to me. The other thing that I thought was strange was that at all of the tables that I saw the Chinese people sitting at there was bottle of Chivas Regal Scotch. I know that is my grandma's favorite drink but I had no idea that it was such a big deal in China. It was however a lot of fun because it seemed to me that the Chinese people did not like to dance but us Americans where out there dancing. Eventually though my group of 8 was not the only mei guo rens there "Mei guo Ren" is Chinese for American it translates directly as beautiful country I like to think of this translation as a wonderful compliment to America but I think it has as much to do with mei guo sounding like America . Anyway while we where in this club about 40 peace corps volunteers showed up. So oddly enough I ended up meeting my 2nd girl from Virginia this week. The other day I met another girl from Virginia at a local supermarket while i was tryinig to find out how to say to umbrella.

China Surprise

There are many things that have shocked me about China but here are some of the biggest. I know I said it before but I do not think that the amount of people can be overstated. It is people upon people upon people. It truly is mind blowing for a kid from southwest Kansas to handle. Another thing that has suprised me the most is how clean the streets and sidewalks are. I would say they are cleaner than most sidewalks in the states. There is always someone out there sweeping and cleaning the street or the sidewalk. This also could be related to how the amount of people they have. Because everyone needs a job. It is a very labor intensive society there are a lot of people working everywhere. The other thing is the health of the people and by that I mean the amount of pullution and there diet. First off the amount of pollution in Bejing is ridiculous. Someone told me that living one day in Beijing is the equivlent to smoking 70 cigarettes. You really can feel it after you have been there a while your chest actually does start to burn a little bit. The other thing that is shocking is what they eat sure they eat a lot of rice and vegatables but they also fry almost everything they eat in oil. Everything is oily. Another thing is they do not drink water at meals if they give you anything it is green tea. I have no idea how they stay hydrated at all because you have to ask for water at the resaurants and pay extra for it. It seems very strange to me. Anyway I am sure there will also be more of these so I wil pass them one when they strike me.

Only in China

I just wanted to share some of the many strange experiences that I and some of my friends have had while we have been here. Although I cannot even begin to tell you all of the experiences I have had I thought I would give you some of the things that have stood out in my mind. For example in Beijing at the major markets where you can literally buy anything you could possibly imagine ranging anywhere from a clay model of your face that was molded by and artist in 15 minutes or a full set of golf clubs. That is not even the most interesting part of the market the best thing is that they expect you to haggle for the price nothing has a price marked on it. So you have you have to ask how much something is and then they give a price wich you then say is too expensive that you have to cut in half. For example I asked them about a full set of golf clubs there intial offerwas 1100 yuan ($146) I haggle with them for a while and by the time I walked away they women said I could by them for 300 ($40). Another example of how well you can haggle is two of my friends where at he same shop standing almost right next to each other buying the same thing. One ended up buying it for 40 yuan while the other bought theres for 25 yuan. It is just to see how much they can get out of you. Another very strange thing I have noticed is how free they are too go to the bathroom where ever and whenever they need to. For example when we where in Beijing I saw a cab driver who had pulled over to the median of the road and was peeing in Beijing. Another time where at the summer palace where the emperor used to go on vacation. It is a very popular tourist attraction for Chinese and foreigners. While I was there I saw some parents that led thre kids on to the grass to do #2 right out in front of everyone. These are just a few of the many things that I have see I will share more when I can.

Chengdu

I have decided to quit tryinig to explain my experience in Beijing because it was too much to remember everything and it really has nothing to do with my life as it is now. So with that said I would like to explain a little bit about Chengdu firsts of all it has over 10 million people living in the city. It is so many people that even saying 10 million does not seem to do it justice. Every where you look there is just more and more people. I learned the other day that there have been people living here since 316 BC. So it is as ancient as it is large. Just like Beijing it has huge amounts of construction if you go down town you will see huge cranes working over the buildings although there are not as many here as Beijing it is still 10 times more than you would see in most large cities in America. Chengdu has a much different attitude than Beijing did though. It is much more laid back it is not uncommon to see people here sitting on park benches napping at noon. There are also more Tea houses here per capita than any other city in China. Another example is last night some friends and I had to grab a late dinner around 930PM. We ended up in a plaza area where there where several restaurants, tea houses and plenty of outdoor seating. So we ended up just sitting there hanging out and then I realized that it ws 1000 PM on a Monday night and there where people just sitting out there drinking and relaxing friends. It was really pretty cool.

Continued

Sorry about that I am having trouble running this blog it is in Chinese so I am not for sure what I am doing sometimes. Anyway the forbidden city is was amazing everything everything was over 400 years old. Some parts of it have been burned down and rebuilt up to four times. I have some pictures that when i get a chance I will upload on this site. I can not really write about all of this stuff and do it justice because I do not have the vocabulary. I am going to try to explain it the best I can but it will be difficult. Anyway I have to got I am writing this a couple of days after we went there because I just got the chance to get on the internet for longer than five minutes at a time. I will be writing more later.