HOME!!!
and a merry christmas to all ^_^

December 10
OK, this time I抳e just been being lazy.
For those of you who have not mailed me since I抳e been here, the time is now expired for you to do so, 慶aus it takes about 2 weeks for mail to get here. Procrastinators, you have all failed.
Sepuku is now your only answer?or email
Finally did some KTV (karaoke) with my Japanese friends, apparently, only one room in the KTV next to Big Pizza is worth a damn, and they knew which one it was, whoot!
Oh yeah, I抦 totally convinced that people originally from Beijing are crazy (the exception being my Wushu instructor, I think all his good Ki has killed the crazy bug). The reason for this theory is long and complicated and one I would like to reserve for special 搒tory time?when I get back home.
Got a care package from the best grandma in the world!! I LOVE YOU BEVERLY!!!!
So now I抳e got pictures of my little sister on my desk keeping me happy, and on the 6th I went to my tutor Doriene抯 house to make pancakes with some yummy recipes she sent me, and lossa other great food stuff was in there too! I was so happy when I go the thing (it takes 6 weeks for sea mail stuff to get here) that I was jumping up and down with it and my friend Andrew totally guessed that Mac and Cheese was in there, you know, that stuff really does have a distinct sound.
And something cool happened, that I totally did not realize the weight of till it had been done. Lillian asked me if I knew anything I could do as a performance. I didn抰 think much of this because her job right now is as a kind of activity coordinator for her company, so I figured she just wanted to show them something cool from overseas. I told her that I knew how to belly dance OK. Later I get this email saying that she went to the TV station to sign me up for a big contest and that since they wanted me doing something Chinese that I was going to be doing WUSHU. My jaw dropped. There is no possible way that after only 2 months of studying am I ready to put my form up on TV for all kinds of people to look at. The next time I saw my Shifu, he already knew about the contest and told me that he thought that I would have no problem if I used my meteor hammer. He says that I抦 really good at it and it should be no problem for me to do it since I learnt it so fast and so well. We抣l see, and so will you guys actually. I get recorded on the 16th and the contest is both aired on air and online. I have no idea when it will get put online because it抯 not going to be live or anything. AAANNNNDDDD you guys can vote for me when the contest starts.
I will give you more info when it becomes available.
The eighth I decided to have an adventure and went to Liulicheng (the culture street) and then to Wangfujin all via subway system. It抯 funny how when I first got here I was terrified at the thought of riding the subway alone, and now it抯 almost an adventure.
This coming week is gonna be hella busy because its my last full week in China. 16th I抦 doing the filming, 18th-20th and the 21st I fly home!!!!!!

November 20
Finally something worth updating about!
I just got back from Xi뭓n this morning. I left Friday night and got back with about 15 minuets to get ready for my 8 am class. Yeah, I was about 30 min. late for class easy. You spend all night on a train and tell me that you don뭪 give a damn about anything till you뭭e had something to eat, a cup of coffee, and a hot shower. And somehow, I think I did well on my dictation test that I didn뭪 have a chance to study for this weekend.
So as I said, left Beijing Friday night, arrived in Xi뭓n Saturday morning. Went to some terra cotta warrior store that made the figurines themselves. This of course was an attempt to get us to buy overpriced tourist crap, and again they were disappointed and slightly pissed off when we didn뭪. And I somehow continue not to care. Actually, it was just the store itself that was mad that we didn뭪 buy anything. Our tour guide this trip was awesome. Her English name is Mary and she뭩 a senior at some language school so she understood us not wanting to buy their over priced crap. She was fun to hang out with on top of it. More on how we got her drunk later.
So after that we went to see the real terra-cotta warriors. YAY!!! OK, basic break down of this for those interested. The warriors were discovered when this farmer went to go dig a well. They are basically broken up into 3 pits and for the most part are either still buried or broken. The reason for the broken is that it takes them about a year to sift through all the rubbish and put together a complete warrior. The reason for so many of them being still broken is that they are actually painted. However, there was so much moisture in the ground that something happened to the paint and after 2 hours of exposure to air, the paint disappears. They think it뭩 going to take about 50 years to create the technology to be able to extract them without harm. In Chinese that means they have no clue, but they aren뭪 going to admit that ;-)
Now, the actual Mausoleum of Emperor QinShihuang is inaccessible for a very good reason. The dude was crazy and decided to have rivers of Mercury going around his tomb. Place is poison. To not lose the tourist money they made a replica tomb for you to go through. The place is amazingly set up like an Egyptian Tomb. They left things for the soul to use after it died, all the concubines had to drink mercury to kill themselves when the emperor died, and they made it so that there when it was light outside, it was light inside as well. There were some other similarities, but anyone interested in more can Wikkipedia the thing.
We saw some bathhouse thing for the emperor뭩 favorite concubine and some other temples (basically, after you뭭e seen the Mausoleum and the warriors you뭨e pretty much out of stuff to do in Xi뭓n). Then it was the Night Drum and the Morning Bell towers. And hella dim sum for dinner! We tried about 18 or so different kinds of dim sum. Most of it was only so-so, and some were shaped like what was inside, the duck shaped ones were full of duck, the chicken shaped ones were full of chicken, the snozberry shaped ones were full of snozberries! Accompanying dinner was 뱈i jio?a type of rice wine that was all nice and cloudy and sweet. Remember how I said we got Marry toasted? The mi jio was to blame. I bought 3 bottles since they don뭪 sell the stuff in Beijing and I love the taste.
We attempted to enjoy Xi뭓n nightlife, but it didn뭪 work out so well with the area we were in. Mary didn뭪 know much about where to disco, and the teacher that was with us, Lillian, had never gone out before and didn뭪 like the loud music. Oh yeah, we got her buzzed too, but she wasn뭪 as buzzed as Mary. Those two were a trip!
The next morning we went to the place where?this is hard to explain to anyone that hasn뭪 read the story 밠onkey?yet. But here is the synopsis; a monk went from China to India a long ass time ago to bring the scriptures of Buddhism to China. This was a long ass trip back then. The place we went was built as both a monument to one of the emperor뭩 mothers, and to this monk. Inside was this huge tower, and the complete original translation from Indian to Chinese of the Buddhist scriptures. That was pretty much it. We had lunch and hit up a couple other places of little/no interest and then it was a train back home.
And if you are all lucky, the internet in the building is working again and I can post this and the last two updates as well!

November 8
The conflict of updating my site when there is nothing interesting to write about but to tell of what뭩 going on anyways is a strong one.
I threw some photos from Halloween up there but for those of you who want a better idea of what was going on let me explain,?
We did a typical dorm style Halloween, going from room to room and getting different alcohol at each door, starting on my floor and ending in the basement where it was all decked out to party in. So we now have a large group of drunken college kids in a dark basement꿅UN!!
Eventually I was invited to go with another friend to 24 noodle (this is like the waffle house of china, only not a chain, and about a block from the west gate of our campus) he and the other boys were not in costume, and I was kinda depressed to find out that I got the same amount of gawks and stares as I usually get when out of my costume as I did in it.
During the week it뭩 been pretty much school as usual, last weekend I finally went to shooters and cargo. Shooters is a bar, Cargo is a club that plays good house music. The only eventful things about that night was getting respect from an Irish guy named Sam for my shot skills; and getting glowing ice cubes in my long island ice tea at cargo, which I promptly raved with.
Future plans are more exciting. I뭢 supposed to be going to a wushu demonstration tomorrow (gonna skip class for the first time since I뭭e been here) with about 40 Japanese watching my shi fu. Getting some 밾ot cups?on my back Friday (wait for the pictures, it should be funny). And since the Xi뭓n trip got pushed back to next weekend club Zub on Saturday.

November 8
The conflict of updating my site when there is nothing interesting to write about but to tell of what뭩 going on anyways is a strong one.
I threw some photos from Halloween up there but for those of you who want a better idea of what was going on let me explain,?
We did a typical dorm style Halloween, going from room to room and getting different alcohol at each door, starting on my floor and ending in the basement where it was all decked out to party in. So we now have a large group of drunken college kids in a dark basement꿅UN!!
Eventually I was invited to go with another friend to 24 noodle (this is like the waffle house of china, only not a chain, and about a block from the west gate of our campus) he and the other boys were not in costume, and I was kinda depressed to find out that I got the same amount of gawks and stares as I usually get when out of my costume as I did in it.
During the week it뭩 been pretty much school as usual, last weekend I finally went to shooters and cargo. Shooters is a bar, Cargo is a club that plays good house music. The only eventful things about that night was getting respect from an Irish guy named Sam for my shot skills; and getting glowing ice cubes in my long island ice tea at cargo, which I promptly raved with.
Future plans are more exciting. I뭢 supposed to be going to a wushu demonstration tomorrow (gonna skip class for the first time since I뭭e been here) with about 40 Japanese watching my shi fu. Getting some 밾ot cups?on my back Friday (wait for the pictures, it should be funny). And since the Xi뭓n trip got pushed back to next weekend club Zub on Saturday.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

October 30
Happy Halloween Eve!
This weekend was more hectic that I thought it was going to be!
There were motorcycle crashes, showgirls, lots of fire, dancing, mountain climbing, waking up with a bed that wasn뭪 mine, good food, amazing booze, and some temples too.
So, Friday was the end of exams, translation ?bottle of Absolute Vodka at my friend Aikea뭩 house. I know I drank about that much because I had a little under ?in the bottle and everyone else was drinking Red Label and coke. Then it was off to Vicks. I have managed to avoid Vicks because it뭩 pretty expensive and only a so-so club on the inside, which was true. I got bored at about 2:30 AM and caught a cab to the uni with another friend. Other stuff went on that night, but this is the net and that is classified information :-P
Had to wake up bright and early on Saturday because the bus left for Tanzhe Temple at 8 AM, oh god I loathe that hour now (you뭠l see when I get to Sunday뭩 events). This temple is older than the city of Beijing. Those more curious please enjoy the use of Wikipedia. We also went to a place called Jie Tai Temple, which was pretty much the Summer Palace before there was a Summer Palace, for some reason it had a tennis court, I have no idea when that was put in or why. The whole place looked weird, but it was nice to be in the countryside for the morning. Clean air is a luxury.
Then we got home with enough time for a late lunch and preparations to go out for the night. We didn뭪 go to absinth the night before because it was going to be much cheaper for us to go Saturday night, so it was time for me to have some fun with the green fairy in a Russian bar, appropriately named 밃bsinthe?I had about 4 and was planning on stopping (its expensive stuff) when some Albanians showed up and I decided that when in Russia, the boys like to pay with no strings attached. So, 2 more glasses later and it was time to pick up one of my friends from another club because she just found out some bad news, the strippers and show girls had stopped anyways. Somehow there was a stretch limo involved between the here and the there, how do I meet these people? And again other stuff happened that night, but again, the net is not trustworthy.
Next morning I had to rush home shower and change because I was supposed to meet another girl to go climb a mountain at 8 AM. And then we climbed Xiangshan Hongye Wenhuajie. BUT BEFORE WE GOT THERE I GOT THE MOST TERRIFYING RIDE OF MY LIFE. So, she had an electric bike thing that we rode to the subway, which wasn뭪 that bad, I was on the back, people in Beijing drive like they뭨e on crack, at the time I was scared as all hell, but this is not the ride I뭢 talking about. The ride I뭢 talking about happened after a 1-hour subway ride to the far west edge of the city. Let me put this in a tier system of legality and safety, the most is a certified taxi, then a 밷lack taxi?which is like people using their cars like taxis but not registered at taxis (black market, get it?), and the third is what I뭢 getting to, we negotiated with some, I guess I would call them 밷lack motorcycles?I don뭪 know, but these 2 guys were going to take us to the base of the mountain. HOLY FUCKING HELL. I was praying in Latin and swearing in Spanish I was so scared. Not at first, at first I was only a little scared (you get in China traffic on the back of a rice burner and ignore all traffic laws and see how you feel), it was only after the bike with my friend got cut off so bad that they ran off the road and slid into a tree that I got꿻ense about the situation. This yellow shuttle bus just pulled over, they turned so fast that the bike fell over, which was a good thing because if not the momentum of hitting the tree would have been much more devastating. The bus driver got out and we made him give us a big bribe for the bike and all, and then my friend made him give her a bribe because she was banged up and cut from the fall. The dude뭩 bike was fucked and so they called a friend who did this and he took her the rest of the way and I stayed on the same bike. The thought at that time was 밢h God, China is finally going to succeed in killing me today!?
The mountain was crowed as all hell, and I뭭e never thought that a Mountain could be so full of people. The thing is that this was not an easy mountain to climb; I would put it about on par with the Great Wall thing. But there were just SO MANY PEOPLE. I should have taken some photos, but I was tired and only thinking of the top. We got back at about 8 PM.
I뭢 still exhausted from this weekend that was followed by midterms, and tonight I will go to my friend뭩 house and tomorrow is Halloween. Wednesday should be an only semi hectic day.

October 17
OK, for those who don뭪 know, fantastic news has happened. I get to be home in time for Christmas! There is no reason in the world for me to be here after final exams are over and so I뭢 going home! I arrive on December 21 in the evening. I still need to make some calls about my apartment to find out how soon it is until I go back to Charleston. They say I can move in the first, but 1. I뭢 superstitious about New Years Day and I don뭪 want moving to be a trend AGAIN this year for me. 2. There is a nice possibility that a certain someone in Indiana will come to see me, and the days around new years look prime for coming down.
OK, I don뭪 have much time to write this because I have my mid terms over the next 3 days so I뭭e gotta hit the books something fierce.
Here I have some more crazy china fruit,
밚ook at the size of dem apples!?

October 19
Time for another update!
Girls team has had an undefeated season in basketball!!!! WAY TO GO!!!
Boys team lost tonight抯 game due to bias ref! BOOOO FAVORITISM!!!
The 揵oxing?that I was so looking forward to turned out to be cardio (O)_(O) china, why do you toy with my emotions so?
But my Wushu classes are back in swing and I am doing really well 匢 hope
Oh for those who are interested the full name of my instructor is Cao Manliang. http://www.wuhunbbs.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=46&ID=218&page=1 I don抰 know if this link will work or not, but I think you can see me doing some wushu in there. (My Chinese name is 揕i Ling?for those who did not know)
Other than that, I finally mailed some Christmas presents home a few days ago, and if I抦 lucky, they抣l get there by Christmas. -_-()
And I know a lot of you have asked me to bring back cool stuff for you if I find it, no offense, but unless you will pay the postage for your things don抰 expect too much.
I抳e got Jiao zi and textbooks calling me and not much else to write
Expect a much better update after next weekend and hopefully some new pictures if I ever remember to bring my camera with me!

October 14
Update time! Pretty damn good week this week. I got a package from Dad that had precious precious coffee. No more Campus Burnt Beans Caf?for me! The only strange thing is that the coffee pot will not work on the hot plates. I have NO CLUE how to use a hot plate, or how they work, the most I can figure out is that the coffee pot has to be something other than aluminum (I think it could be nickel) and that doesn抰 work on those tops. I even tried putting it inside the aluminum pan, but that didn抰 work either. Oh China, why must you toy with my emotions?
But, Dad抯 coffee pot also had perfect timing. On Thursday, I went to the 30th anniversary of the Papua New Guinea relations with the Peoples Republic of China luncheon. Where I made out like a bandit with red wine and coffee! It was a wonderful luncheon with live song and dance from Papua New Guinea and lots of food and drinks. It was really something, and from everything I have seen and what TK has told me about the place it sounds so fantastic. The only downside is that the flight there is murderously expensive. But I want to go! Then there was this little after party with about 30 people just sitting around a hotel table drinking wine and chatting. It was neat, and one of the guys gave me a rose because he went around asking all the girls what they liked to do in their free time, my answer of 揻ight?was apparently the best answer. And one bottle of wine and a taxi ride home later and I was passed the hell out. Good party.
Friday we all went out shopping to a place I had never heard of, it抯 underground and they start off at a nice low price so after 200 quai I had two huge bags of new clothes. I抦 so glad I did, I got mostly nice looking sweaters and I don抰 think the weather will be getting above 75 until spring. I split with the girls and I was SUPPOSED to have my coat ready at the Silk Market, but what was their was so wrong that I don抰 get it until Sunday because they have to alter it so much grumblegrumblegrumble. There抯 going to be a photo posted when it抯 ready. I had fun designing it, executing its construction is something else though.
Tomorrow (Sunday) I抦 supposed to start my boxing class, and I抦 still curious if it抯 western or eastern boxing.
Until then, enjoy these pictures of a Chinese fruit I like to call a 搇orange?tasty little buggers!

October 7 95 days to go
This is going to be a few days worth of updates, I've been unable to access the internet for the past week because of traveling around and all, so here is what I have, and I'll fill in some blanks at the end
enjoy
Oct. 1
OK, I think I just realized that I left a lot of people in the dark as to when my holiday week begins and what that means.
It means I do not have the internet or anyway to contact the people I hold near and dear across the seas.
I just hope that nobody panics.
Day 1&2 as I count them have been so-so.
We are in Nanjing right now (I think, if I뭢 wrong I hope I remember to correct myself) but the trip has been pretty much what I expected. Just dropping us off at various places to shop. Nothing really exciting happens at the places we go, they just have lots of sales people ready to get your money. I always depress them so because I look like such an easy mark I think. I just carry myself better than I should as a poor college kid overseas. And then I make them give me better prices than the Chinese if they try that stuff. People coming to china, be prepared to negotiate like you never have before. Its fun at times, it depends on how much time you have to spare.
Now this train ride that we took was sorry at best. Originally, we were supposed to have beds in the sleeping car and leave at 4 PM Saturday, and arrive around 10 AM Sunday. Then the entire shebang got changed and we left at 9 PM to arrive at 6 AM. Only now it was not in beds, it was in 뱒oft seats?aka chairs. Then while on the train, the arrival time got pushed back to about 10:30 AM.
Damnit china, why you gotta do a thing?
So we meet the rest of the tour group, some of which are TBC kids from our college, I swear they are EVERYWHERE! But since they뭨e fun kids, who뭩 to say that뭩 a bad thing necessarily?
Other than a crappy lunch where artwork was being sold all around us, the first place they took us to was a kind of monument to the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty뭩 conquest in some battle. The king뭩 name is Zhu Yuan Zhang, and the place was called the Lion뭩 gate or something to do with a lion. They actually used pictures of Simba from the Lion King for their signs. This place was just kinda cheesy for somewhere that such a great battle was won. Carnival games and sales clerks inside the palace once again made the point of the tour clear as a bell.
Then we went to a park that previously was the site of a palace that had now fallen, and they got us in a room and tried to sell us jade good luck pieces. (people seeing the pattern now right?)
Then it was to a temple of Confucius, where they just dropped us off in the shopping district, and didn뭪 even get us tickets to go into the Confucius thing itself. I뭭e got to get the name of that place tomorrow though, even though I know they put us there with the intent for us to kill time and drop some cash into their city, it was still a nice shopping area that had lots of fun little streets and corners to go exploring around. I found all kinds of cool stuff for good prices that I passed up just because I didn뭪 feel like carrying them all around with me as we travel this week, I ended up bringing a kind of small bag with me to discourage lots of spending, but now I have some good base prices to go to the silk market with which means saving a lot of time.
And then another adventure as the key to our room broke off in the lock. I didn뭪 break this one! It was my roommate! But the lock was broken anyways. It was funny, as he was leaving for the night (I뭢 staying in to try and squash this cold from my system) I passed him the key and said, 뱊ow just don뭪 lock me in here?
Well, I went to the shower and soon after I heard a knock, sure enough, the door that took them like an hour to fix, wasn뭪 fixed. The lock would move just fine, but it wasn뭪 connected with the bolt. It wouldn뭪 work on my side either, aka, I was locked in at which point I just said 뱊o what did I tell you about getting me stuck in this room??it was funny. I told them to go crazy with the door and that I would be in the shower if they needed me. It SHOULD work now, but really, ever since I began to go to college the word 뱒hould?never has mean the same thing to me.

October 3
Well today definitely kicked yesterdays butt! We went to some gardens and then we went on a little boat ride afterwards. Then we went to a freshwater pearl farm that was as I expected to be, a giant sales pitch. And then to some lotus garden or something and then off to dinner. The lunch and dinner today weren뭪 as bad as we have sadly become accustomed to, seasonings were present. Im wiped out. People are out of memory all around me. And I still cant find deodorant.

*ok, some things that I passed out before I typed...*
The names of the gardens were Yan Jia, and Hong Yin Shan Fang. And the name of the Lotus Garden we went to after was called Xiao Lian Zhuang Garden.
Also what I didn't include was that the second day we went to the Chinese equivilant of Universal Studios, called the 3 Kingdoms. Again, tourist trap kind of place, because there were NO RIDES. Just people selling crap. I won a bracelet with my archery that has little wodden balls and pictures of budah on it, it's pretty cute. Everything there was a fake old china and they use it for a filming background primarily. When we got in there was a live show going on that kinda reminded me of those Arabian Night's restaurants that we have in the states with the knights on horseback.
That night we went to a bridge called Suzh Zou, which was just somplace cheap for them to take us. It was made famous in some poem or another. The town's name was Wu Xi I think, I could be wrong on that.
Then we took the boat to a hotel and somepeople went to go on this expensive boat ride, and i went as far as the landing with them because it was pretty close to the downtown area and I wanted to get out of that craptacular hotel we were in. With the help of the bus driver I found a street, the name of which I have forgotten. But it was really nice and lit up and pretty and it was the fist of many realizations I had of our tour, "why didn't the guide take us here?" was pretty much the theme for the rest of the trip. The street was the most famous street in the city and it was blocked of to traffic. The boat ride was just something she made herself a nice profit off of. grrr

back to the story


Friday October 6 8:38 Am
On the sleeper train still. At least it뭩 a sleeper train this time, last time we had those hard seats was a bitch. This has been much nicer. Maybe because I got myself the bottom bunk and everyone else has top or middle, but they gave me first choice on tickets without realizing that I can read them better than they could and I got the opinion of one of the Georgian chicks about which was best before I made my decision, she was totally right. This is much better.
The past couple of days have definitely been the best, mostly because we were in shanghai itself and that was totally bitchin. I wish I had chosen to live in shanghai, it뭩 more modern and so it뭩 quite cleaner and the buildings and skyscrapers are really impressive. I mean Beijing is nice when you go places like the summer palace and all, but other than that, the actual city of Beijing is a pain in the ass and the people are much ruder than they are in shanghai.
Peoples attitudes directly being affected by their location in the world is something I have realized for a long time now, something about warmer weather most of the time seems to give people a warmer disposition. Even in Aomori compared to Okinawa. As much as I love Aomori, it took people there a little while to warm up to me, as opposed to the general gayity of the people in the south.
Our tour guide was a total extorting bitch this whole trip, I FULLY express my complete and total dissatisfaction of the whole experience. The tour group didn뭪 give a damn about customer satisfaction because of the sheer number of people in china and how much they like to travel during the holidays they know that they can go for the rest of their lives selling out tickets to never the same person twice. They would take us to places, but then to get in WE would have to pay, it was such a fucking rip off.
The limit was yesterday, when they took us to shanghai and told us that we were so far from everything that if we wanted to see the TV tower here we would have to pay like 70 for the ticket and then an additional 30 for the use of the bus. FOR THE USE OF OUR BUS THAT WE HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR꿞TF?! And she also wanted us to go on some stupid boat ride for an additional 50, she was trying to rip off every person on the trip for an additional 150 quai, and there were 40 of us total, do the math, it doesn뭪 add up. All this tour has been is them dropping us off at places for hours to shop and then we pass pagodas and palaces in the bus as she tells us that they are very famous and yadda yadda yadda but we chant see them because they cost money and they aren뭪 on the schedule and we don뭪 have time, basically pick one. But back to the shanghai night; we weren뭪 far from a goddamn thing! We took a 12-quai cab ride (4 people in the cab equals 3 quai each) to the tower and were able to WALK back to the restaurant to meet with them. On the way walking back we also managed to see two really famous streets that were so beautifully lit up. We were supposed to see them in the morning, but not lit up you miss so much! It was completely different when we went there in the morning, not nearly as beautiful; it looked like Christmas Eve in china with the lights and lanterns all strung up over the street.
That bitch, I can뭪 believe how much she made others miss just to make her own wallet fat. She fully admitted that she was going to give a nice hunk of that 150 per person overcharge to herself and the driver as their own little bonus, which makes me believe that this has happened to almost every tour. I was just happy that I had some friends on the trip who knew what the hell they were talking about when we were in Shanghai. Grrr, people trying to scam other people that don뭪 know the difference really piss me off.
When I get home, I need to get my Christmas shopping done so things have a shot in hell of getting home before Christmas.

**and back to the parts I skipped **
The day after the gardens we went to an area of China known as the West Lake. It is supposedly the most beautiful place in all of China and the flora is renowned for its beauty. Of course we didn't see it. The guide took us to a place called the "Su Causeway" that was overcrowded and had almost nothing in it except a view of Lei Feng Da, a nice pagoda that was set over the lake. She took us there of course because it was free to the public and they can claim that they toured us around the area. We wasted most of the day there just dicking around because there was nothing to see or do, and I nearly killed this guy who would not stop trying to sell me a slide whistle by demonstrating his inability to produce anything but a range of high pitched tones at WAAAAYY too early in the morning. Then it was off to the Silk factory, again, they showed us how they make silk and the trip was 5% demonstration, 40% sales, and 55% of me and some of the others waiting outside the building to get the hell out of there. What really tops it off is that on the way out we passed a pagoda that she claimed had lots of history and stories, but we wouldnt get to see it because time didnt allow it. I'm calling bullshit on that one.
Something nice they did take us to was the Wansong Academy. It was an old college like place in China that was set up in the mountains. The place was nice, and they wern't charging me extra or trying to sell me junk at every turn. It was fantastic. I took a nice senic rout through the side hills of the college that was pretty deserted because of the number of steps you had to climb to get up there. The little hike was well worth it to be able to breathe and not hear and see so many people around all the time. On the way out Amy told me the story of the place and it was really sweet...
In old China women were not allowed to go to school, so this one girl disguised herself as a boy and entered that college. While she was there she met and fell in love with another student. They both were in love with each other and after they had completed their education together they wanted to get married. The famlies forbid it. And so the two in desperation turned themselves into butterflies and traveled off together.
It's apparently a kind of famous fairy tale in China.
THEN FINALLY IT WAS OFF TO SHANGHAI!!!

So, that's the trip. If you just skimmed through it I understand, just know that you aren't allowed to ask me how it was if you do so ^_-*

Sept 28
The internet is getting more and more tricky to use here from my room. Lately even Gmail hasn뭪 been working properly. Ugh.
The Great Wall was in fact great!
Maybe after the approximated 950 stairs and long hike uphill just to get TO the wall (where more steps awaited) no matter what was at the top of that mountain would have been great. We were at the Mutianyu section of the wall, and they actually had business cards for the area.
On the back of the card it has a website http://www.mutianyugreatwall.com I have no idea what뭩 there, again, pissy internet here so I don뭪 use it as often as I would like.
Oh yeah, I know about how many stairs led to the top because I counted on the way down. I stopped counting when I got to where the vendors began so there was actually a nice distance from the bus parking lot to where I stopped counting. I뭭e got a nice photo from when I just reached the top that looks like I just ran the 4min mile.
Another cool thing to happen was that on Tuesday the editor in chief of WuHun Magazine came to my Shaolin class and took some photos to put in his magazine, I뭠l keep you guys posted on that one.
OH! And great news! The girls won their game Tuesday night! Since I뭢 friends with ?of the team I was really excited watching them play. I wanted to go to the boys game last night, but I was told that it was the same time as the girls was the night before and it actually started an hour before so I got there just as it was finishing U_U()?but they still won!
In other news, the holiday week will be coming up and this Saturday I begin a long ass trip to go to Shanghai. We only spend a day in Shanghai itself and most of the time we spend going to the outer areas of it. The whole thing seems like a marketing ploy to me. As we were going over the schedule Xinxin kept saying, 뱋k, and after the tour you will try a tea?which after being in a tourist town for most of my live is instantly translated in my mind as I asked, 뱒o let me guess, and after that there will be the option to BUY the tea right??밳es, of course?밲inxin, they PAY you to go on trips like this.?
Pearl factory with a souvenir shop at the end kind of thing. I fully intend on fucking over the system (sorry to all those not used to me swearing). Same game, grab a couple of friends, a business card of that nights hotel, a little travel book, and hit the city. The company only gets paid per person that attends the tour. But hey, I뭢 paying bto have a good time not shop for tea and pearls.

Sept 23,
All right, I뭢 doing this one in under a weak, that뭩 an improvement right?
As usual, there is not much to report for the school weak, EXCEPT:
My Shaolin classes have begun! I have a private instructor who is awesome and can stretch farther than anyone I뭭e ever seen (with the exception of some of the people on Ripley뭩 Believe it or Not) and knows a ton about Wushu. If only he spoke a little English or Japanese.
So I뭢 learning Shaolin fighting as well as how to use a shooting star hammer. In all the time he has been teaching, he has only taught 2 people how to use that thing because everyone else is afraid of being hit in the head with it. He started me out with a hard ball on the end of it; I think to make sure I wasn뭪 going to wuss out on him. I did really well and only got hit in the arm with it once. At the end of the day he was trying to show me some very complicated moves with it involving the thing coming very close with they head and shins so I asked him if he had something softer for me to practice with, Thursday he had made me a thing out of rubber hose and metal sand to practice with. I뭢 glad he did because this thing hurts enough when you catch it in your shin or calf. I have to switch back to the heavier one Tuesday so I뭢 practicing the moves every day.
I got my camera fixed yesterday (the lens was sticking) and so the next time I get a chance to I뭠l try to post pictures of the rugby game and great wall.
I뭢 off to try to find some bootleg videos!

Sep 18
Oh wow, over a week since an update, sorry about that, not much has gone on though in my defense. They weren’t kidding when they said that things were gonna calm down once classes started up. The weekdays are pretty mundane, you have class, and then you do whatever and homework. I went to the silk market last Monday with a bunch of the Dominicans and got some nice stuff that wasn’t for me (mostly). The rest of the week was pretty ho-hum. Found some AMAZING Jiao-zi and bao-zi (AKA dim sum) and checked out this pretty good Korean restaurant with the Aussie friends of Edwina that had joined us at 1001 nights that weekend. We made enough noise laughing and all to attract a concerned waitress at one point. I take that with a bit of pride.

There was a huge quest for a bottle of vodka that was unsuccessful after 1 and ½ hours revealed that the only booze in the surrounding booze shops of our campus was this paint thinner version of Chinese booze that tastes worse than Everclear, and maybe some Whisky or Cognac. I did come across some at the silk market while I was with the Dominicans, the contents of which will be explained soon.

Friday the 15 was a kind of welcome party for international students that was like something out of middle school. It was a good thing we had 1/3ed that bottle of vodka. Even that didn’t make the party suck less. So, after the vodka was gone, B and I went drinking at Nan Jie where you can get 30 quai shots of Absinth. I stocked up on red bull mixer before we went because they charged 3x what it’s worth there and I figured I could get another shot on what I spent for 2 cans of chaser. For those of you who don’t know, I’m using college math where the price of one thing is directly proportional to the value of something you are sacrificing the purchase of. Therefore the money I saved by bringing 3 cans of mixers allowed me to have an extra shot of absinth at the same cost.

I would like everyone to know that I thought this up after I had over ¼ a bottle of vodka in me.
So, ¼ bottle of vodka + 3 shots of the Green Fairy = my buzz died before midnight.
It actually died around 11. I was so disappointed. I’m starting to think that alcohol doesn’t work here. I was careful not to get drunk but I should have had a buzz for at least another couple of hours because Nan Jie is one of the only bars around that doesn’t water down its shots. And I refuse to convert to amber beer.

**there is more to this update

Just giving your eyes a break

On Saturday the 16th, it was like a holy quest to find Beijing CD Jazz Club. The #2 Jazz Club in all of China (#1 is in Shanghai). It took us over an hour, we ended up almost at the beginning of our destination, and we met many cool people along the way. The Jazz was live and fantastic. And it was there that I received the “Worst Vodka Martini in the World.” It was NOTHING like a martini. It was like some kind of punch crap that Barbie would serve at a Tupperware party. The second attempt was monitored very closely by me as I pointed to bottles and drew pictures of olives, somehow lemon juice was added, but since I couldn’t explain a “dirty” martini very well (the words “at all” fit better actually) I was glad he tossed in something to take the edge off all the vermouth I saw him pour in.

The guys and I were glad to see the nice couple that helped us get there walk through the doors and we quickly asked them to join us. I’m starting to think that Singapore would be a nice place to study as a graduate, but that’s going to be well after I graduate college and get some mega firm to foot the bill. (PS that wasn’t a random line of thought the couple was from Singapore and they confirmed much of my previous hearings about Singapore.

OOOOHHHH YEAH! I CANT BELIEVE I NEARLY FORGOT THIS!!!
New Item on the list of oddities eaten:
pig brains
...the weirdes part was that after about 1/2 an hour after eating them, I got the same feeling in my brain as when I take an Adderol

And in recent news, I finished the Da Vinci Code in less than 2 days and spent most of the book yelling the answers to the riddles at it. “APPLE DAMNIT APPLE!!!! How are they not getting it yet?!”

OH and a correction, the Chinese students are allowed on our campus, but the foreign library is off limits, since the library was previously located in this building there was some confusion as to the policy.
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Sept 10
This is going to make an interesting update and most likely get me yelled at by almost everyone for some or all of the following incidents:
The night of the 9th
The night started out with us all going to 1001 Nights, a nice Turkish restaurant. This place had some very nice highlights including; belly dancers, my coffee that came with a flaming shot to pour into it, and a big ass hookah filled with apple-flavored tobacco.
Everyone laughed because I wasn’t hungry when I went there so I opted to just get a hookah instead of dinner, then I decided I may as well have a drink with everyone else and decided that I wanted a hot coffee and some kind of liqueur. I was going to try something new for dinner that night, but I really wasn’t hungry so it just seemed like it would have ended up being a waste of money to eat it (I know I’m going back there so I will not disclose the item at this time) to keep with the idea of trying something new, I had not tried brandy before this point. After that coffee I think my drink of choice for the winter will have to be brandy. Now I must resist the urge to set it on fire every time I go to drink it.
Then we went out clubbing and yadda yadda.
This evening (AKA the one I think I will get harassed the most for):
Let’s see how many people get this before I say it outright, I was feeling adventurous in a Korean restaurant. Think about it, think about it, got it? Because your time is up, I had this big bowl of what tasted like liquid magma chili soup with some veggies and some meat, some dog meat to be precise. The stuff was so god damn spicy I can’t tell you EXACTLY what it tastes like, but the texture was that of very tender and well cooked mutton.
And now for the bad jokes I made at the table (keep in mind this stuff tasted like fire and I was physically sweating by the end of it)
*Hey Tiger, consider this your warning of bad jokes ahead*

*Damn, this is hotdog!
*It has a real bite to it
*I hope it’s not rancid, I’ll be sick as a dog
*Hey look the soup is fire engine red!
*This could be good for your hangover, hair of the dog and all….

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Sept. 2 One Week Mark

OK, let me see,

*Went to a club on the 31st after doing horrible on the written placement test (which really made me sad because I reviewed and everything and I knew all the characters I抳e ever been taught, but the test was just so hard that none of that really mattered)

But the club was about 30 quai to get in and all you could drink inside.

And the power in my room went out that night! I just came in to get dressed for the club and had to do it all by the light of a cell phone, and because I was in a hurry to meet people I didn抰 have a chance to tell the girls at the front desk about it, and surprisingly enough they weren抰 there at 3AM, these people and their need of rest!

Got it all fixed up by the next morning and was able to use my computer and all after I had done my laundry and hung it up to dry (no dryers in Asia). But it did suck having to wait till morning to take a shower because of the light situation after being in a stinky club all night.

*On the first (after the laundry and power situations were resolved) I went for a little walk around town to explore and came back to help the Dominicans and Mexicans put together some dinner for everyone. Fantastic get together dinner! Then we all went out to a place called Latinos where they had a live salsa band that night. I had such a great time! The band was amazing and I met a bunch of really good dancers from Columbia.

*AND SO WE HAVE TODAY which was spent at Happy Valley Amusement Park. This place could give Disney a run for it抯 money. It was huge, had amazing scenery and the attention to detail was incredible. Plus it had that whole, not being able to see where the line actually ends thing going on. The lines were long for most of the rides, but more than bearable. Lots of good roller coasters!

There was a big debate on what to have for dinner, and since I was the only one not in the mood for a burger I decided to go to a noodle shop on my own. I just wasn抰 in the mood to spend like 50 quai between the taxi and fancy burger crap, plus I was tired from the park and just not in the mood for such a big meal.

This part is funny:

You know how when you order something 搕o go?you usually are equipped with the means to eat it when you arrive at your destination? Yeah, that didn抰 happen to me. I ordered some handmade noodles in a beefy broth to go. I got a plastic bag full of soup. I was slightly prepared for this because one of the orders in front of me was to go as well, so I was like, ah hell, I need to go buy a bowl on the way home now!

But it was fun, I walked home with my little bag of soup like you would if you had a new goldfish. AND IT WAS GOOOOD SOUP!

August 30
Finally went to the post office for the first time today to get some stamps. At first I was thinking they were expensive, then I realized that international has to pay the same rate and the postage converts about the same. You know you are in the land of cheap when you think 6 quai (remember, 7.9 quai =1 USD) is high.
We made a big trip to the Silk Market. You want to see someone amazing at bargaining, look at me. I paid about 10% of the asking price of the things I bought. This is not something that happens on average, most people can get about 50% knocked off no problem, that extra 40% requires some skills.
When we got back to the dorms, another group of us went out to play billiards. It was very strange here, the sticks were thinner, and the pockets had a large curve instead of the flat angles. It took a lot of getting used to. After one game I decided I had enough and played some ping pong.
The KFC抯 here have 揺gg tart?on the menu and instead of biscuits they have dinner rolls.
That was my day!

Tuesday Aug 29
Nothing to update really, I just took an oral placement test and did my registration. The written test comes later. And a bunch of us did some Tai Chi next to the running track with this old guy who was really bad ass. Went out to drink a little, but it was an expensive place for China standards and not relaxing at all.
It抯 going to be a pretty slow week till classes start.
Best translation of the day gone wrong, on a menu 揝quirrel Fish.?
Don抰 ask, because I just don抰 know.

Aug 23
Today I pack, that's right, during the day. All who know me know that I leave this part to the last minuet. However since I want to take only 1 small bag with me I needed a plan of attack 'caus it gets balls cold in Beijing.
Next time I access this site I should have some new photos for everyone to look at. Till then ambien is my friend, and I'm gonna miss you guys
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Allllllrightythen!
I finally put up as many photos as this thing would allow. The people who have me on thefacebook have the best advantage though, ALL the photos were posted there. Sorry guys, I'm working with what I've got ^_^
anywho, click the link below to get there

Photos from the birthday party (at least as many as I could fit)

I'll be on my way to China soon, cross your fingers that I dont get arrested.

Right now I'm just going to put this site up with alot of blank spaces into it so I can come back and fill them out as I go along. I just wanted everyone to be able to find out what I'm doing weather or not they have a myspace or facebook account, or whatever.

Since I havent left for there yet, Im still trying to figure out what all needs to go on this site. I figure its going to break down into things happening at my college, which will be the UIBE (University of Business and Economics), and stuff outside (like activities and excursions).