Essay~

After haowanr-ing (playing) and xiuxi-ing (resting) [EAT>PLAY>SLEEP>REPEAT], Sunday finally arrived. It was a day when some people washed their clothes, some people exercised, went to church, etc. I wanted to do all these things, but for me, Sunday was a day for procrastination. Therefore, I procrastinated as much as I can before I had to write my essay due first thing on Monday and study the next lesson. I knew as I did my homework into the late hours of the night, that I was going to regret it tomorrow.

On another note: Dartmouth people arrived at our school. I think they're also using the same dormitory as us. Hm....

Zhoumo!!

Saturday, June 28. A very eventful day.

Woke up early to see the Great Wall of China. After 3 hours on the bus, we finally arrived in a whole new different China. It was from modern buildings and smog, to trees, mountains and farms and small rural villages. How cute. The white haze that enveloped the low skies made the landscape picture perfect. After we parked, it was still a climb up to the foot of the mountain, and from their it was stairs and rocks and bugs up the mountain. Changcheng then was finally before our eyes. One of the Great Wonders of the World. Who would've thunk it. I was soooo excited in the beginning, but the actual trek along the path of the Great Wall was a bit anti-climatic. It was actually quite exhausting, dangerous, and more exhausting. After 2 hours of walking and climbing and panting, I truly understood the meaning of "my legs just gave way out from under me." But the scenery was gorgeous. The actual Wonder was also impressive, the Chinese were very smart. Imagining the labor of the Chinese thousands of years ago......wow, I can't really imagine it. Anyways, it was difficult but also good exercise and a great experience. A chance to truly appreciate history and be in awe of the world's greatest treasures. 

On the trip home, I mostly slept most of the way. I think the majority of people were the same.

After the Great Wall, it was time to enjoy our first weekend in Beijing. And where better else to go than Sanlitunr? So we went and had fun. I didn't like the first part of the trip where we got tripped up in mostly a touristy, way too expensive foreigner's area where one person had to pay 30 kuai for a small bottle of Chinese beer, but otherwise, we had fun. Went to Bar Blu (another foreigner's area, but didn't stay too long) then to Club Mix. Though the cover fee was a bit expensive, it was still fun. The atmosphere, the structure, and the hot sweaty overcrowdedness of the place kinda reminded me of Korea's NB (yet another club). Actually, they were extremely similar except that Mix was a lot bigger with two (maybe more) floors and four rooms. The music was pretty good but I didn't like the fact that many 40-something year old men were there...Otherwise, my friends and I had fun. We ended up coming back around 3 in the morning. People are already making plans to go next weekend. Aiya~~~!!

My first real weekend~

Friday: the test. Not too bad, and it could've been a lot worse. I think I should've studied some more though.

Later: Me and friends went to the Silk Market where it told us in huge letters at the front entrance to SHOP WITH CONFIDENCE. But the vendors were very unfriendly and aggressive. Quite scary, actually. I didn't buy anything though some of my friends ended up buying 700 kuai's worth of stuff. After some scary shopping, (it was still fun though) we went to go eat at a Chinese restaurant, where the food was pretty good. Just your pretty standard Chinese restaurant. Not too expensive which was good as well.

Came back around 10 and decided to sleep early instead of going out late because we had to wake up early the next morning for our trip to ChangCheng, aka the Great Wall of China. I'm soooo excited!!

Korean FOOOOODDD =)

Yay~! I finally ate Korean food! It's been a week since I've not eaten any Korean food and the food I ate was particularly yummy. Hee.... We went to Pengyou Fanguanr (Friendship Restaurant) and ate cheap but delicious Korean food. Though it was nowhere near as good as my mom's cooking, it was enough to temporarily satisfy me. 

Today was especially boring and dry since the weekly quiz is tomorrow and everybody needed to study the 200 something vocab words...

Well, off to study some more~!!

Pao bu!

For the first time this whole year, I ran a mile. My roommate and I went to the campus' track field and jogged a whole mile and then some to lose some of the weight we gained here. I thought I would drastically lose weight here but it seems to be just the opposite....=(

Ever since I came to Beijing, my hunger never seems to be satisfied. I wonder if it has something to do with living in China... Anyways, yesterday's homework was especially long as we had to do two lessons. It took 4 hours plus cup noodles and some pastries to complete studying.

All this studying and eating mostly pastries is finally making me a bit homesick.....I want my mom lol. 

My wish come true....

My wish from yesterday came true hehe. Today's Chinese language table with my two laoshi was at a pretty fancy Chinese restaurant considering each person could only eat about 30 kuai's worth of food. It was especially delicious since we didn't have to pay from our own pockets (though technically, we did spend our own money since it's included in the tuition...). I love how many Chinese restaurants have the round tables that can spin around so everybody can share a dish, that way, each person could eat many different kinds of dishes. Although I don't particularly like Chinese food in general, the authenticity and taste of the dishes told me that we were eating at a pretty good restaurant. Of the 6-7 dishes, my favorite was tang2cu4 zhurou (at least, I think that's what it's called). 

Today, the electricity's gonna turn off at 10 pm, so I have to go study now.......

Mingtian jian! (Until tomorrow~~~)

Let's Begin!

Finally, today was the first day of classes. 7:30 to 11:30 in the morning. Although the class size was a bit smaller than the Chinese classes at Yale, the structure of the class strongly reminded me of the days of Zhou, Liu, and Wang laoshi back home. The way the classes were taught were extremely similar. There was also a one-on-one session in the afternoon for 50 minutes which was slightly awkward but my teacher was very understanding... I found out he was only 5 years older than me!! 

Other than classes, I'm finding myself these days to be extremely lazy and falling asleep a lot. Naps have become quite frequent....not good. I must do something about this. 

I wanna eat good fooooood........... 

Day 1 of the Dreaded Language Pledge

Sunday 6/22

Today was the day we all signed the dreaded yet inevitable language pledge. But surprisingly, I think many people found it less frightening and awkward than they might have expected it to be. Although it is a bit frustrating to have to introduce ourselves yet again but this time with our Chinese names, overall, so far, I'm not finding it that bad. Today was also our first Chinese language table where we had a delicious lunch at a nice restaurant with the teachers. The food was all very good and the conversations with the laoshimen, enjoyable. Come night, however, it was time to study for our first class Monday morning. It felt as though the atmosphere quickly changed from that of a light-hearted and laid back mood, to that similar to the mood surrounding Yale's midterm period. Prison in Beijing........let it begin.

Kaoshi ranhou Haowanr~

6/21

After waking up early in the morning to take the placement test, and loitering around the BeiShiDa community, I went to Wangfujing with a group of people to celebrate the last night of English. It was filled with eventful happenings - conversing with the taxi drivers, bargaining and buying miscellaneous things, as well as walking down the streets in the center of Beijing. Particular moments that come to mind include a friend being pressured to eat a seahorse (crunchy and bitter, he said), a hot night at a nearby KTV (where we took quite a while to figure out how to work the machine), and several successful friends bargaining prices down to 70% of the original price. Getting back to our dorms around 1 in the morning, my very first weekend outing in Beijing turned out to be quite a trip! 

finally!!

Finally!! After months of waiting and an 18 hour total plane ride, I found myself in the midst of smog, humidity, mosquitoes (though I heard that China is now on a mosquito killing campaign), and of course, the splendor of Beijing. After a pleasant interaction with a great roommate (she's from Princeton like 80% of the other students) and a good night's sleep, my roommate and I woke up early on in the morning and ventured out to find some breakfast and other necessary supplies. Our first big adventure in China. The whole entire day accumulated to five trips to WuMei (the local supermarket) with other PiB-ers, shopping in some local shops, and one successful and one unsuccessful trip to Chinese restaurants. But I enjoyed myself, being able to put some of my Chinese skills to action, and all-in-all, I think I accomplished many great feats. I bought a new cellphone, struck a conversation with an employee at the market, managed to draw money from the bank, and help my roommate bargain with some of the vendors. Other things I managed to do (negative things this time) are make my feet sore, get dust in my eyes, and fill my lungs with pollution. But overall, I'm still happy, excited, and looking forward to what else Beijing has in store for me. =)