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.

Useful Tip- Doctor's visit

So my roommate told me that he's getting tired of hearing the sound of me coughing so today I asked my teacher if she could tell me where I could go for a doctor's visit. She was so nice that she actually accompanied me along through the entire process. The location of the BLCU hospital is right outside the West Gate, you cross the street and its the building on the right side.

I walked in and went up to a counter down the hall and they asked for 2.5 kuai, gave me a sort of white booklet and told me to find a doctor. There was an empty seat in one of the offices so I sat down and was somewhat put off at their lack of organization. Books and note books and tools were kind of everywhere and the "doctor" i guess, asked me what was wrong and grabbed a flashlight and told me to open my mouth. The thing that worried me was that the flashlight was super dim, she shook it and banged on it with her fist to make it work and it sort of sputtered out a little bit more light and she's like "ahh i see that your throat is somewhat irritated"...newsflash for me...

She perscribed 3 kinds of medicines all without doing anything other than look at my throat. One was a spray that had to be taken 3 times a day and whenever my throat hurt? One was a bottle, 20 ml, morning, noon, and night. And then this box of what looked like batteries, take one bottle 3 times a day.
I can assure you that I've taken this stuff and it tastes really really nasty. I did feel somewhat relieved but I'd rather cough than try to choke that stuff down again.
All together the medicine cost me 67 kuai. The most surprising thing about the entire visit was that seeing the doctor only cost me probably around 40 cents US

Tofu and Cheese

Ok so if you've been looking at my pictures on my Flick lately you might have noticed some really random (and hilarious) comics that I drew and posted. I was sitting in class last week and started drawing random shapes and ended up drawing a bunch of cubes. I then added eyes and stick arms and legs and voila I created two characters who would now be friends for life. I thought about what to name them and I thought to myself "hey these guys look like a block of tofu and cheese" and thus Tofu and Cheese were born.
I kind of doodle these every once in a while, have had bad ideas that ended up as eraser shavings, so far most of them have been good ideas that have made people smile, chuckle, or say wtf is wrong with you?
This is the album on my Flickr where I've been posting my creations
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24737890@N07/sets/72157605192180664/

I miss my 10,000 lakes

So I think like a week later, and I'm still coughing up a storm?
I finally managed to find a medicine store on Friday that sold Pei Pa Gao, a black syrupy Chinese herbal cough medicine I recognize from the cupboard from home. Unlike my childhood memories, this stuff actually tasted better than Vicks or Robutessin cuz it has honey and ginger and a lot of other stuff I've never heard of...Indian bread, Milkwort Root, Snakegourd seed? Anyways, once I take it my cough and sore throat are instantly relieved for a few hours and then I have to take it again because I get close to haking up a lung. I've been getting a lot of bloody noses too the past 3 days so I definitely know that I don't have a cold and that its just the hot dry un-humid weather which I guess....(aghhhrrrggg I got another mosquito bite!) I'm not completely used to yet. I need the hot humid sticky air that Minnesota summer is all about. I'm not going to be here long enough to justify getting a humidifier, so I guess I'll have to tough out the dust. I just checked the weather report for the rest of the week and it doesn't seem that there will be any rain this week, darn.

To Zhong Guan Cun and Back

I seem to only be attracted to activities that will completely drain my energy and leave me completely dead by the time I get back to my room.
I kind of ran out of space on my laptop since all the pictures I've been taking have been in full quality and I just have a tendency to be a packrat for documents and pictures. I needed to finish a project for work and so the place to go for cheap electronics at a bargain is at Zhong Guan Cun. About 45 minute walk from BLCU or 45 min bus ride during rush hour.
Sanghoon and I went there planning on only getting a flashdrive for each of us, but since prices are so ridiculously high and people expect you to bargain, I needed to walk around and check on flashdrives and prices. I ended up going with a 4 gb Kingston brand flashdrive.


I hate dealing with those annoying caps because they tend to force you to keep track of them and if you lose it you kind of freak out. This one had a slider on it, and I spent 2 hours walking around looking for the best deal and I finally settled for this one for 17 bucks.
Afterwards, we went to grab something to eat and I needed to look for DVD players and speakers. Passable speakers get as low as 8 bucks for 2 speakers and a sub, and I'm looking for a specific type of dvd player that has a usb port so you can watch .Avi files on it.
Not saying that I'm going to download more movies off the internet and watch them on my dvd player, but it's crossed my mind ^_-

Well I have about 3 weeks left until I have to go back home and I have barely scratched Beijing's surface. I've had a scratchy throat for the past 3 days and now I started coughing today, like a lot, its not because of the pollution but because they're doing major 24/7 construction on the road right outside of our dorm. They started about 2 weeks ago and if I leave the balcony window open during the day, dust accumulates everywhere in the room so I'm assuming that the source of my sore throat is because of that.
Sorry I haven't written anything about my trips to the Temple of Heaven here in Beijing, or my weekend in Shanghai, I'll try to get to it maybe once the weekend rolls around *cough cough*

HSK= Horribly Stinky...Koala

Sorry that was the first thing that started with the letter K
Anyways, so yesterday I took the HSK, Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi. Its the Chinese equivalent of the TOEFL and honestly after taking it, I feel like I know nothing and my almost 3 years of studying Chinese have all been for nothing.

There are 2 tests, a lower and a higher one. I took the lower one with Brent and Sanghoon and none of us prepared for it. My reason behind it was that if I wanted to take the HSK back home, I'd have to fly to San Fransisco, Houston, or New York to take it not to mention the higher exam fee. Here I can walk down the street and give it a shot.

On the lower test, the lowest you can score is a 4 and highest is an 8. People who want to study at a Chinese university have to score at least a 7. On the higher test you can score from 9-11. To work in China you need to score a 9...which is...optimistic...
There were 4 parts, listening, reading comprehension was broken in 2 parts, and grammar.
All parts were super difficult and there were so many characters that I didn't know. The characters I DID recognize, I couldn't put together to make coherent sentences so basically I guess on 95% of the test.

I won't know what I really got on the test for another month and a half, but I'll be back home by then so someone will have to pick it up for me. But honestly If I really want to find out how "well" I did on that test, I should just ask a magic 8 ball.

All in all, I think it was a good opportunity to test my reading and writing out in the real world. I asked some other people who have taken it before, and they said that after studying prep books for the HSK they felt that they had learned a lot more. When I get back home, I'm not planning on taking any more Chinese classes at school, but to do some self tutoring, I might just study for the HSK in case I get a chance to work out here.

Beijing = Home?

Geeze its been almost 3 weeks since I've written something on this blog. Its been on my mind seriously like every day but I just haven't gotten around to writing something interesting or I've been held up with homework or other activities.
I think one of the main things is that since i've been here for about 2 months already, things are starting to seem normal and not so out of the ordinary for me as it was when I got here. Its normal for me to cross the street without looking if the light is red or green, its normal for me to see people walking down the street picking their nose or ears or hawking up loogies (still super gross though), and its normal for me to stand in the subway or bus with absolutely no room to turn and have to shove back when being shoved.
Its definitely a nice feeling to know I'm used to living here and its even more awesome when I run into someone from class or someone I've met before on the street or somewhere off campus just because I know people now! haha

Another probably minute detail on why I haven't been updating is because my neighbors on my floor all pitched in and got a wireless lan going and they forced me to learn how to play Enfos on Warcraft - -''

I'm really excited for the next oncoming weeks because I have a bunch of friends that are coming from Minneapolis to visit Beijing, so right now I'm trying to see everything and learn about all the cool places to go to show them a good time. I think the price of food and stuff is enough to make them love Beijing haha

School is periodically getting more difficult. Everyone is running out of steam seeing that we have to endure 6 hours of class with the temperature now rising to 80's every day, its nice to be outside but the teachers don't like my idea of having class in the park haha...
6 hours a day of chinese is seriously grueling though. I try to wake up at 7, breakfast at 7:45 and then class at 8. Lunch at 12, and back to class from 2-4. When we get out of class, the afternoon is basically over and all the teachers expect us to review for the next lesson which is completely unreasonable.
I have dinner and chat with my neighbors and before I know it, its already 9 and I have to do homework and bed is usually around 12 or 1 because I eventually give up and know that if I don't go to bed I'll fall asleep in class the next day.

So I mean this is life. And I honestly didn't know how close to college dorm life it was going to be, I wish I brought my wii though. Rockband would have been awesome because everyone that's from the states have been here since rockband came out so they're all dying to try it haha...

I'm OK

Hey everybody
I've gotten a few emails and calls from people asking if we are all right from that terrible earthquake that happened in the Sichuan Province. Apparently Beijing felt aftershocks from the 7.9 magnitude quake but nobody noticed here at school.
Thank you so much for your concern, I really appreciate it!

Seeing the Real Beijing

One of Aaron's friends had a fantastic idea of renting bikes for 20 rmb and biking around Beijing sight seeing and creating our own route. I wish I kept the map that we used but because we were in a rush and were rough with it, it kind of died...
But some of the major places we visited was Hou Hai, Tian an Men square, and the Olympic Stadium.
What an experience it was to bike through the endless traffic jams, old antique neighborhoods, and random alleyways and shopping districts. I highly recommend grabbing a few friends and biking around Beijing instead of following a tour group because its cheaper, all the sights are based on what you want to do, and Beijing is very safe so you don't have to worry about anything, just not getting hit by traffic.
Today was a labor day which is why we got the day off, but Tian An Men was so packed with people on the sidewalks so we had to ride our bikes to the opposite side of the street so we could freely move.
Somehow we ended up in a really tight alley way with broken down brick houses and people doing random road repairs but we got back on a main street and found ourselves in a busy shopping district. The question "Do chinese people do anything but shop" comes to mind just because of how busy and crowded it was.
We finally arrived at the Bird's nest and the water cube thing but since its still under construction, nobody can get near it so we had to settle for this picture.
Overall, this bike ride was a fantastic chance to get to know the city i'll be living in for another month and a half and I would so recommend everyone to do it instead of taking some lame tour group with a bunch of old people haha