End of the adventure of a lifetime

Sorry I didn’t make a blog post last night while I was packing, kind of really wanted to but with packing, making sure I didn’t leave my most important possessions (dvd player), and having my final meal with my friends. I just couldn’t make it to writing about “the end”.
Mom called this morning at 9am and said, “Wake up you’re coming home today!” and “You start work on Monday!” I think you can assume my reaction to waking up with those two phrases thrown my way? Haha
Its not that I don’t want to come home, I just want to stay in China more than coming home. I have learned so much Chinese in the past 3 months than the 2 ½ years that I’ve spent at the U. But I would still stress to have a good basis of Chinese before going to China to study abroad otherwise you’re kind of caught in the middle of the city with your pants down, so-to-speak. From what I’ve seen through the people that start from scratch at BLCU, you tend to progress more if you already have some hold on Mandarin than if you don’t.
Ugh but wow, 3 months really flew by, even my mom said that, but I’m more than glad to stick around Beijing until time doesn’t seem to pass so quickly. I am glad though that I didn’t do everything humanly possible in Beijing. The places I went I know well, and there still is the Summer Palace, Silk road, and the many many massage parlors I haven’t visited (ones without happy endings).
Sanghoon and I were exchanging first day in Beijing stories, and its funny with the whole foresight thing that neither of us expected to meet so many great people and create such strong friendships in such a short period of time.
I laughed when I thought about walking into my dorm for the first time, taking a deep breath, and saying “Well this is my home for the next 3 months”
I can honestly say that I’ve grown mentally, physically, and spiritually due to all the new experiences I had in Beijing.
You know that really annoyingly catchy Olympics song “Beijing welcomes you”? Its true, Beijing truly is a welcoming city with exciting activities and completely astounding sights and people. I’m not just talking about the Chinese people but the international experiences through all the people from Belgium, Australia, South Africa, and the many MANY people from Seoul ahha…
Its just a pity that nobody back home will know the inside jokes we all made about our old teacher, or reminisce about the times I had with my class at the Great Wall, Car Show, or just hanging around eating cheap food.
I know I want to come back to China, especially back to Beijing and BLCU. It won’t be the same as this time but maybe it’ll be better. Its cool to know that now I’m welcome to visit so many countries around the world, I just need to pay for the airfare.
Where should my next adventure be? Chile? Germany? Alabama? Haha
I have to say though, right now I hate the Beijing Olympics because I’ve spent so much on getting presents back home to people. Total, I’ve probably spent a good $600 on presents to bring back home. I am so grateful that I only had to pay 200 kuai for one of my overweight bags, I kind of regret not trying to pack my extra fold out table and not buying another awesome dvd player, or maybe a psp? Of course money is always a restriction to having stuff no matter how cheap they come.
It was a challenge trying to write my most interesting experiences down on this blog and keeping up with it. It was pretty easy doing it at the beginning just because everything was so new and different but as time went on, things became more normal along with all the homework I had to do. I’ll do my Shanghai trip post sometime.
I’m planning to come back in 2 years after I graduate and before I jump into the full time mandatory work part of my life that is careening towards me. I feel bad for sort of deserting the people that are staying for another few months or the whole year. I would definitely want to live in the dorms again with a roommate because compared with the people who lived off campus, my friend making opportunities were increased ten-fold. Maybe I’m just that likeable? Anyways, Brent got into the architecture school that he applied to in Savanna, and Aaron is going home in July and will be sticking around for a bit. I’m planning on going to the NSHMBA Atlanta expo, so there could be a possible meeting of the minds which I look forward to. I’m also trying to convince Sanghoon to work on learning Spanish and getting sent to the states with some company so we can still hang out.
I really do need to start reviewing Chinese back at home so I don’t lose it all. But the only things I’d change is taking less hours of class so I can get a tutor and take some HSK prep classes. I’ll post up later on how terrible I did on it once the results are out.

So for now, I guess this is me signing off and closing my chapter in Beijing. Thanks for keeping up with me and reading about what I’ve been doing in China. For those who are thinking about going to BLCU or just studying in China, I’m always welcome for questions and I highly encourage the idea of going because it is completely well worth the trip. My first meal once I get home will be Taco Bell. Mmm nachos ^_^

Food Glorious Food

I think this is a better time than any to write my long over due blog post.
This has been an interesting week. I've basically been filling my tummy with amazing delicious food with lots of friends and new people.

Last week my friend Chris arrived in Beijing with his girlfriend Lulu and Mike. We went to 2 restaurants, one next to the Lama temple which I guess is famous for being really big and also a place famous for making Peking Duck big in Beijing.


Both were pretty good places to eat but the duck place is catered for tourists since they're well known so one peking duck was 300 kuai so very much on the pricey side. I'll admit that its the best that I've had while in Beijing but for the price, i could go for a slightly not so crunchy duck.

Another amazing must have food while in China is hot pot, I didn't take any pictures because I was busy devouring boiled meat and vegetables, but the idea is that you sit down at a table with a hole cut in the middle and there's a gas or electric burner there in the hole, they bring you a pot of broth, you can have half plain and half spicy. Then they just bring you raw ingredients: pork, beef, lettuce, mushrooms, whatever. And then you cook it yourself and dip the delicious items in whatever sauce you choose. My favorite is a bowl of sesamie oil with shredded raw garlic, cilantro, and green onion. Kind of different sauce than i'm used to back at home but still delicious. Its really nice to get hot pot with a bunch of people because sometimes everybody is indecisive about which restaurant to go to, but if you go to hotpot everybody can order what they want and its really cheap. I've gone twice this week and its averaged about 35 kuai, 5 bucks a person.

The restaurant I want to stress and make a huge deal about is the all you can eat all you can drink sushi place. Aaron proposed the idea of going last Sunday and we went as a group of 8. The cost was 58 kuai per person and we could order almost anything off their normal menu, salmon sashimi, fried pork cutlet, california rolls, and grilled eel to name a few. You can also drink as much beer, pepsi, or 7 up.

This deal is just so awesome because what place in the US can you eat all the sushi you want for 8 bucks? So we ate till we were full and wanted to do this again, I asked a few people, Aaron asked a few people and soon the word spread and we showed up at the Sushi place once again but this time with 28 people.

We got there at around 8pm and didn't leave till 12. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet more people and to eat good food too. I swear it was like a an informal UN meeting, we had people from the US, Mexico, Canada, Hong Kong, England, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Korea, and I think one person from China.

Total bottles of beer drunk were about 80 bottles. And the total bill for that night was around $230. Where back home can you feed 30 people for $230 bucks?

It is the dragon boat festival today and I'm meeting up with my mom's relatives for dinner. I kind of got to the destination 45 minutes early so I found an internet cafe to go to. Kind of feel like I need to disinfect myself once I leave just because its dark and dirty and everything I touch is sticky *shudders*

I won't reflect on my trip just yet because I don't want to start missing Beijing when I haven't even left yet but I'm planning on starting to pack tonight so I can get a good idea of how much crap I've spend my money on. I might have to either buy a new suitcase and deal with the $150 surcharge for having a 3rd suitcase or I might check into DHL's rates and mail back my clothes and other heavy not so important items.