post jinan updates

god freaking damn it i really miss jinan. i don't even know what ABOUT it i miss the most; maybe it's the friends... maybe it's the freedom and independence. anyways, whatever it is, I DON'T HAVE IT HERE IN HONG KONG. what i have instead is a family of about 8 constantly bickering, throwing insults and making subversive snide comments under wasted breath. SO STUPID. i am at my wits end; i can't even imagine how my aunt feels, having to live with an amnesiac grandfather and an extremely grouchy grandma who HATES said grandpa. hong kong itself is brilliant, food EVERYWHERE... i uh, found some philly cream cheese in the grocery store (which they didn't have in jinan) and promptly bought some wheat buns (which is also nonexistent in jinan) and ATE THE ENTIRE BLOCK OF CREAM CHEESE IN TWO DAYS. nomnomnom.

that's right. that's what deprivation will do to you, man, it'll drive you insane and make you binge like bloody hell on what you've been missing.

that being said, i wish i could binge on my friends.
alison, hofit, ana, kim, everybody who is reading this- please please please leave me some love on the facebook, because internet is fucking limited and aside from ladyboy massages and a constant flow of heavily liquored drinks in the philippines, it's the only and best kind of relief i can get: the mental kind.

i didn't realize that my family was so irritating. it didn't used to be this way. grandpa has gotten SO foggy. it's really upsetting. and my grandma is still sharp as a tack and she is incredibly irritated with him. she refuses to sit near him. she refuses to look at him or talk to him. i don't even want to get into it. long story short, tensions are running super high. this is my once in a life time chance to have the entire family together, going on a vacation together... and it's already bordering on HELL... and the said vacation hasn't even really started.

i really can't wait to get home. i have been dreaming of pizza, speaking english with familiar faces, and wireless internet.

i'm a simple girl.

happy holidays, everybody. talk to you soon.
and see you in 2009.
<3

gone going gone

Hey, it's 4:42am and I'm leaving Jinan in a few minutes.
I had a great semester and I'm going to miss everybody so so so so so much!
I'll be back online when I arrive in Hong Kong (around 11am).
<3!

GREAT SUCCESS

What I did today:

1) Finished writing 52 page final at 12:34am. Single spaced.
2) Fell asleep and woke up at 7am. Showered.
3) Studied until 12pm.
4) Ate lunch from 12-1pm. Complained.
5) Studied from 1-2pm. Freaked out.
6) Took the Intensive Reading Final from 2-4pm.
7) Took the Speaking Skills Final from 4-5pm. KICKED ASS.
8) Edited/Proofread/Completely Redid a friend's 10 page paper from 5-10:30pm.
9) Ate ice cream from until 11pm. Got hugged from previous friend. And rained on by tears of joy from said friend.
10) Blogged.

Yep.


I am now OFFICIALLY COMPLETELY FINISHED with my semester in China!

HUZZAH!
Now to packing. :]

PS: This is really cute: yogurt box kitty

5 DAYS! and updates

OMGOMGOMG! 5 DAYS!
so insane! i still have tons to do.
this update will be short- basically i have all of my finals on thursday. that gives me friday to pack! and i leave saturday morning at 5am. OMGOMGOMG so crazy!

UPDATES!
Guess what I am doing for X-Mas!?

I'M GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES!!! CEBU, to be exact! At this resort: www.plantationbay.com. I can't wait!!! :] Thanks, Aunt Amy! What a great surprise. It's going to awesome. My whole family will be there!!! What a reunion, eh?

Time has really flown by. It's time to hunker down and get through these next few days!
Talk to you guys later!
<3

rant/crunch time.

Insane. 10 more days in Jinan and that's all I have left until my vacation/family reunion in Hong Kong. It's CRRRRUNCH TIME, BABY! 

I'm so excited to see everybody again. It's kind of unreal how fast the time flies. I've been meaning to blog but I've been absolutely swamped with work. I spent this past weekend in the study room on the 5th floor, basically holed up for 9 hours a day on my laptop just TYPING and reading. And you know what sucks? That NONE of it was for my Chinese classes! Ugh. Insert rant here... Basically I am so concentrated on the "Cities In Transition" course study that I haven't got time to review the new Chinese vocab and grammar structures that I'm learning every week . I'm studying the Baotu Springs for my site, and it's really intricate, extensive, and time-consuming. It's fascinating and I like what I'm doing, but I guess I didn't expect it to take this much time out of my life here in Jinan. It's gonna be worth it, though, because my final project is frickin' sweet and my fieldnotes are awesome. (brag brag brag). These next 10 days are going to be riotous hell, though. There are the things I need to do before I leave Jinan:

- Get Mary and Sage to figure out their pet shipping/travel plans because they need to ship Link to California! Therefore I need to basically hold onto him until they figure out what they're doing with... this whole thing.

- Packing! Oh shit! Packing! This shouldn't be that bad seeing as I think I'll still be able to pack everything up (aka) I didn't buy that much shit here in Jinan.

- Study for THREE CHINESE FINALS! Since I'm leaving on December 20th, before the actual Shandong semester ends, I have to take my finals earlier. This sucks because: a) I have so much other shit to do and b) I have so much other shit to do and c) I have SOOOO much shit to do.

- Buy gifts for friends! I guess I can do this in Hong Kong, too. (This is not important, but it's self explanatory, and also something I want to do. But on my list of priorities, this is kind of next to remembering to put on makeup. So it's not high on my list AT ALL.)

- Cities In Transition Work: I still have approximately 2 major assignments (meaning pages upon pages of fieldnotes, questions, and analysis ... each.) to polish up and send in to Natalie (because my fieldwork has taken so long to condense and organize), wait for her comments and suggestions, and then start on the final project progress report. (Which is a whole 'nother huge bucket of worms.)

- The Final Project Progress Report: Basically what this entire semester abroad boils down to. It's a 1,500 word minimum essay, another 1,000 word minimum essay, and entire compilation of ALL the fieldnotes (I have like... journals full) I've done on the Baotu Springs, several appendices, bibliographies, and I also have to remember to bring home hard copies/ evidence (like tickets, reciepts, pamphlets, news articles that I should've amassed in my time studying the Springs)....THIS THING IS GOING TO BE HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL! I am pretty optimistic about the direction I'm going with this project (I'm actually kind of proud of myself at the moment... we'll see how I feel in about a week when it's REALLY CRUNCH TIME.) so the only thing I'm scared about is the time that I have to do this, and all of the ABOVE things I've mentioned.

- I was thinking of applying for a Kappa Delta Appointed Position of SET Leader, but I'm pretty sure I missed the deadline. I'm also trying to consider everything next semester with classes and shit... it may be a bad idea.

- I also have to do buttloads of surveys and course evaluations for this past semester. Eep! More paperwork! Fuck!

----------------------

I haven't completely lost my sanity, though. Things are okay. My friends are all battling their own demons alongside me so we're all in this shit together. I'm going to be so sad to leave them!! :( Jinan has really grown on me! I'll post later and keep you guys updated on this crazy crazy crazy crazy next week and a half!!!

<3

thoughts!

Hi everybody! I just realized that I am leaving Jinan in exactly 16 days! Crazy shit, right? And I still don't know what I'm doing for finals... seeing as the chinese semester ends sometime in January. We'll see what happens with that. Anyways, I just wanted to blog about some thoughts I've been having. They're slightly related to this study abroad; I'm not too sure what spurred these thoughts, but lately I haven't been able to stop thinking about the fuuuuutureee. It's not that I'm antsy to get there, but I'm really really really curious. I'm well aware of the "immediate plans" at the moment, like... cleaning my room... classes tomorrow... classes the day after that... the weekend... fast forward two weeks and I'll be in Hong Kong... then X-Mas... then the New Year... then back to Kansas... and then school. Okay, so that takes me to about.. mid-January. How's that for looking ahead? No, but in all seriousness- I've been thinking about summer plans and maybe even NEXT summer's plans. I'm definitely looking to get out of Kansas and get started with jobs/internships that have to do with improving my Chinese skill, building a resume, etc etc. This summer, I'm still not too sure what exactly I want to do- I can always come home to Bo Lings and work at the restaurant again, makin' the good money like I always do... it's a safe bet. However, the summer after that will hopefully be different. Summer after I graduate means NO MORE KANSAS. This is my tentative plan! I'd like to live somewhere in a big city- or somewhere near a big city. I'm looking at Chicago, Minneapolis, Madison, or even so out to Green Bay or Milwaukee. I'm really leaning towards the first two because I have family in both cities. :] It's more convenient, in my opinion, to have at least ONE person you know. Anyways, in regards to Chicago/MPLS, I know a ton of people there. And there are a ton more reasons that I'd like to get myself movin' up and out. I'll spare the details. On another note, I've been feeling really happy lately; like I'm finally stepping up and taking the reigns when it comes to "growing up," I guess. I don't know how to word it... I guess, I'm just trying to say, I'm ready. And for once in a really long time, I feel way more secure with myself than I have been. I'm going to roll with it and hopefully take the leap. I'm used to making plans and then making excuses for not following through, but god damn it , I am putting my foot down and I am going to make an executive decision to stay firm and DO SOMETHING WITH LIFE! Blarg. Thanks for listening. Just had to get that outttt! :]

PS: HEY GUYS!- I know I'm really shitty with uploading photos and crap; I haven't quite figured out how to make thumbnails of photos all pretty-like, so instead, I'm going to link you to some recent photos of my adventures in Shandong! (So click, Mom. CLICK ON THE LINK) Haha, okay. Love you guys!

Pagoda on Mountain (I ended up climbing the mountain in the background)

Intense King-Protector of Buddha

Gorgeous Trees by the Pagoda

My kitten, Link

He is so cute; I think he deserves two pictures.

Okay I lied, maybe one more. He is REALLY cute.

The view outside of my room... on the 6th floor... of the dorm that does NOT have an elevator.

Thanks! Enjoy :]

i'm lacking something

Fun Fact: There are no turkeys in Jinan.

Another Fun Fact: Today is Thanksgiving, and I've only had two major feelings: homesickness and hunger. 

It's kind of worsened given what today is. Earlier in class, we had an assignment to talk about "party preparations" and my teacher saved me for last because I had mentioned earlier that today was Thanksgiving, and he was like "Oh! I am going to make you TALK ABOUT IT TO THE CLASS!" So when my turn came up, I stood there for 10 minutes blathering on and on about preparing for a Thanksgiving feast, some shit about giving thanks and being with family, and some other shit about turkeys. At this point, my teacher interrupts me with an abrupt, "我有一個問題！" (I have a question!) He asks, "What are turkeys?" I said, "火雞," literally "fire bird." He gives me this look, and I start describing a large plump birdie with big feathers, ugly wattle, complete with noises and everything. He still doesn't get it. Oh well. Regardless, the purpose of including this small anecdote was to make myself feel a little better with being in China and not home for the holidays... it was supposed to make me laugh, but it didn't. Anyways, Tanner had also just called me and invited me to this "American Thanksgiving Buffet" at 7:30pm that the Silver Crowne Plaza was throwing. It's apparently 160元 per person (like 23 USD) which is a wee bit expensive by chinese standards, especially for a buffet. Plus, it's cold outside, and I just threw in all my laundry, so I'm not gonna go out in the sweats that I'm wearing at the moment. 

I'm starving. Haven't eaten at all today. Normally if I were at home, I'd be pigging out in the middle of the night on whatever pre-thanksgiving preparations my mom put in the fridge, then waking up around 2pm to find a huge Thanksgiving spread (I'm talking colonial style, all kinds of gut-busting  stuffingcranberrysaucepieturkeygravymashedpotatoesbutterycorncobsgreenbeancasserolefreshmuffins deliciousness on the table with a beer for me to gorge myself on, and then I'd look forward to a nice nap until perhaps 7pm, and around that time, I'd awaken slowly from my tryptophan-induced nappage only to pig out on LEFTOVERS. And then more passing out. Thanksgiving is awesome.

And that, my friends, is what I'm missing most out of today.

Gobble gobble, everybody. 

<3

thanksgiving...ish

Looks like Thanksgiving is right around the corner for me here in Jinan. It's weird, because I almost forgot about this holiday. Things here have been slow, it's the same-old same-old going to classes, and eating routine. Lately, I've been focusing on hitting the gym, and tonight I'm actually going to try yoga with Allison. We'll see how that goes. Today was relatively warm (which is weird) and I'm happier, for some odd reason. I can't believe that I leave this place in a relatively short amount of time, like 3.5 weeks. I'm just now feeling like I'm settling in here in Jinan. Currently at the moment, I'm sitting here in my room, blogging, with the delicious smells of this Mongolian group (maybe like 13 people) cooking dinner in the mini kitchen next to me. My friend Jak'a was making dumplings and she stopped by to give me a sample. Let me just say, it was fucking delicious, and like the rest of the crazy international foods that I've tried, I'm really going to miss it! By the way, Mongolian is such a beautiful language. I'm like obsessed. Anyways, today in class, it was really interesting because our assignment was to bring in a photo and talk about it for a few minutes, and Jak'a brought in this little album with pics of her family, and of Mongolia... and it is literally like, yurts and yaks with horses and green fields everywhere. Insane. Anyways- sorry for that little anecdote, but I wanted to blog about Thanksgiving over here. Basically, it's not going to be Turkey Day for anybody other than us 4 Americans, but I was thinking of getting a nice dinner together with some BEIJING ROASTED DUCK. Mmm. I also was feeling nostalgic because I'm sort of missing home at the moment- for class today I brought in a picture of my mom holding the cat, Tyler, and I've been thinking about home- I'm also missing THE HOLIDAYS! Anywho, I just wanted to take a moment and reflect what I'm thankful for. It's actually several things. I'm thankful for busting my butt this summer like I had for the past 4 summers at Bo Lings and just gritting my teeth even with work just got so hard... to make money to come to China. And I'm glad that I decided to study abroad this semester; it's really been a lifechanging experience. I'm also thankful for my family and friends that have been good to me. <3 Can't wait to go home and see everybody!! :]

updates

Wow. I have really been slacking off with the updating. There really hasn't been anything new. Jinan is still Jinan, albeit getting a little bit colder. The homework is still the same. It's not too exciting, but it's nice to have some routine again (with classes and such.) I've been working on my Cities In Transition project involving the Baotu Springs, so I've been going there to take down fieldnotes and photos. However, its 40元 to go in, and therefore today I decided to stop blowing 40元 everytime I needed to enter. I ended up buying a 年票 (nian piao: yearly pass) for 100元. Now I get to enter whenever I want! Convenient, right? Anyways, that's about it. Just been studying and taking care of Link. I've also started eating MUCH healthier; buying cucumbers, tomatoes, and other varied fresh foods mixes up my diet. Eating in China kind of made me gain and lose weight. It's really weird. My day normally consists of a breakfast of instant oatmeal with brown sugar (yum! right, mom?) before classes, then lunch at the cafeteria- usually a bowl of rice with two vegetable dishes (i may be going vegetarian ... again), and then usually a late-night greasy dinner at the night market vendors. I always go to this sweet old couple that make a sort of burrito with big, flat crispy wonton strips and pickled vegetables and lettuce all wrapped up in a purple soft bread-y tortilla that has egg on it. The vendors only come out around 9pm, and there's always so much to eat that sometimes I go out of boredom and come back absolutely stuffed with delicious (albeit oily) snacks! Can't help it... haha. I'm going to miss the food when I go back to America. Hard to believe it's almost half over. I leave for Hong Kong on December 20th... which is basically in a month. Crazy. China's grown on me... I feel like my Mandarin has improved alot since being immersed. Now, I'm not so nervous talking to complete Chinese strangers. I used to basically shit my pants (not literally, mom! haha) with being so nervous and self-conscious of my terrible mandarin speaking skills, but now I'm really much more confident. My classes are still going well, and I like speaking to people all around the world in Mandarin. There are people from Russia, England, Korea, Australia, Holland, Germany, Israel, Canada, and Slovenia... it's pretty ridiculous. I find myself speaking a lot of English to basically all of the above I had listed minus the Koreans. They think it's pretty funny whenever I say "Hi (Annyong Hasaio)" or "Thank you (Gamsamida)" I'm sure my Korean spelling is heinous. But regardless, that's all I know in Korean, haha. Anyways, I went to the bookstore today and bought some new fine-felt tip pens and a book with tiny squares to practice my handwriting in, so I think I'm going to do that until I fall asleep. Class at 8am tomorrow! Goodnight :]

Oh PS: Another update: I've chosen my classes for next semester and they look really good. I'm taking Race Theory (philosophy), The Art of Translation (it's a chinese class), Writing and Embodiment in Ming-Qing China (also chinese), and Culture, Power, and Place in SE Asia (anthropology + chinese), and then of course, Piano! My schedule is also sweet, I have lunch breaks during the entire week (not like last semester when I didn't have lunch on Tuesdays or Thursdays). Silly me, always thinking with my stomach.  :]

busy.bee

Hey all. Sorry I haven't updated in a thousand years. I've been really busy lately! Let's see. The last thing I really mentioned was my trip to Qingdao, which was really fun. I stayed at a slew of hotels and hostels with about 25 of the California kids. Our main goal was to hit up Beerfest, which ended up being really boring, and the beer was way too expensive to even enjoy a few. So we all left and ended up hanging out at the Old Church Youth Hostel, which was absolutely amazingly well decorated and very chill. Here's a picture of Kevin and I in front of the large gate to Beerfest. Yes, that is a mermaid sitting on the globe. And yes, she's toasting a pint of beer. Awesome.

Post-Qingdao: There haven't been any other really huge events other than my professor Natalie, coming from Beloit for the Jinan seminar, which involved us basically having an entire week off of our regular chinese classes, but basically spending the entire day out with the Beloit group, exploring Jinan and updating Natalie on the things we've done and how far we've progressed on our individual semester-long projects. Mine is on Jinan's Baotu Springs; moreover, my project concerns the cross-section of the population of Jinan's perception of Baotu Spring's historical worth and the current-day water issues concerning the springs. So... it's a pretty hefty project. It

 probably doesn't make much sense now, but it'll come together really well, I think. I'm working on getting a "yearly" pass to the Baotu Springs (I guess I just need a small 1" photo and pay for a laminated card or something like that) which will make doing my research alot easier... rather than forking over 40yuan everytime I need to enter! 

Besides all that and the other Chinese schoolwork, things are going well. I'm pretty sad today because the California kids left this morning and I had to say goodbye to Kevin. The past few hours have been pretty rough, but I'll deal with it slowly. Midterms are coming up sometime next month so I've got to get around to making up some study guides. Outside of school, Jinan is still fun- the weather has just now started to get "cold" (aka SWEATSHIRT WEATHER). Yeah, it's pretty great. The sun is shining, and today has been exceptionally clear. I've got my window open and I'm listening to the sound of the wind rustling through the trees... I'm blogging... and eventually I'll get around to my Beloit translation homework. Haha. Bye guys. 

>:[

shit. i just dropped my fucking keys down the squatting toilet. 

fuck. 

sorry for the lack of update. been busy. will do later.

weekend plans

Hey everybody! Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've had a ton of homework!!! So, today is Thursday, and it's 8am over here. This past week has been the Chinese National Holiday, so I haven't had classes, which has been sweeeeeeeet. I've been catching up on some work and other stuff, exploring Jinan some more, killing mosquitos in my room because I keep getting eaten alive! I am honestly covered from head to toe in painfully itchy bites. Ugh. Also, the weather has been doing something freaky; it's been relatively warmish/hot ever since I've arrived in China, and last Sunday and Monday was absolutely FREEZING- I'm talking two straight days of rain, and nights so cold that I could see my breath. So strange! But then it warmed right back up, and it's been really hot. I wonder when it'll start actually getting cold and staying cold. Anyways, this weekend should be looking good: I'm going to Qingdao! AND FOR WHAT? 

Beerfest. Of course.

Just kidding. No, but really. I had this trip planned since it was the last weekend of the National Holiday- and then we find out that the annual International Beer Festival that they normally hold in the middle of August was pushed back to September- October because of the Olympics. So this is going to be the last weekend. It's called "Qingdao: GANBEI WITH THE WORLD!" (Ganbei: means "to toast drinks.") 

I'm really excited. I'll be going with a group of 25 friends- we're leaving today around noon and coming back Sunday morning! It'll be my first excursion outside of Jinan, and my last weekend bigger trip until late December (when my classes end.) Kind of sucks that I don't get anymore legitimate "breaks"- at Beloit I would've had a 10 day Fall Break, Thanksgiving Breaks, and a few more random "no-classes-day-off" kind of dealios. Meh. I'm excited to see Qingdao!! I can't wait! :)

weathered

geez. it got really cold really fast. :(

uneventfulness

Sorry I haven't posted lately. Frankly, there's not really much new. I can't believe it's the last week of September (basically). Classes are really good, though. It's nice to have some routine to my day. Haven't done much outside of classes. I spend a lot of time wandering around Jinan... I'm excited because I think Carey might be coming to visit me in October! Also, I think Professor Rob LaFleur (my minor advisor) is coming sometime in October as well to climb Mount Tai. So, it'll be nice to see some more familiar faces! I'm going to keep this one short; I have some reading to do. Later, gators. 

-m.

life so far

Sorry I haven't posted lately. Been busy. Classes have started; they are AWESOME. :) I finally have a cell phone and an address for mailing post, too! 

Send your love to:

Mandy Lee

International Dorm Rm. # 2625

Shandong University

27 Shanda Nanlu, Jinan 250100

P.R. China

Will post more later! I actually have to go study :(

more.badassery

Another slow Saturday. Classes start in a few days and I'm pretty excited! Today I decided to be ballsy and wander around town by myself, ended up having lunch at a wonton joint, it was absolutely delish and soooo cheap. And it's almost dinnertime and I'm still good from my late lunch! Therefore I've decided to eat a small dinner at the night market tonight that opens up in front of Shandong University's North Gate around 9pm. I am a badass. Today, I've eaten the equivalent of $1 USD: The wonton soup I had was 6yuan, and tonight when I get this chopped pork sandwich, it's 2yuan. SO CHEAP & deliciously filling. 

Also, I have been doing all of my laundry BY HAND.

I'm talkin' several denim jeans, bath towel, delicates, t-shirts, socks, the whole she-bang.

I'm a badass :)

schoooooooool

Lots of stuff to do today. Gotta buy my books for class! I have a schedule now- (finally). I'm actually quite pleased with how I placed. :)

Monday: Class from 8am-12am

Tuesday: Class from 10am-12pm, Class from 2pm-4pm.

Wednesday: Class from 8am-12pm

Thursday: Class from 8am-12pm

Friday: Class from 8am-12pm, Class from 2pm-4pm.

Not too shabby. Fridays are going to be long but they're not killer. I'll make do.

In other news, last night was the Great Britain's last night here in Jinan. Everybody got together and gelled, talking, laughing, reminiscing. I had a really good time with them- they leave tonight at 11pm. Today at 4pm they're putting on a performance, singing songs (in chinese- since they came here not knowing a word of it) and performing skits. Should be hilarious. I'm going to miss them.

Hard to believe I've been in China for a month. I feel a wee bit different, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is. I'm starting to feel more like a student at Shandong U, though. Even though I'm constantly surrounded with international students, I like exploring Jinan by myself when I can, visiting my sites and such. It's absolutely wondrous. More later. Much love.

<3

money.making

Sometime in the middle of last week, somebody knocked on my door. It  happened to be one of the dorm's "fuwuyuan" (which is "serviceperson") and she very politely asked me something about a phone call, some company, a record, and a bunch of other confusing things. I tried to understand her, but I eventually ran down to Andrew's room to get some translation help. After a million awkward questions, we finally reached an understanding:

There is a teaching company who is looking for English-speaking students to record reading their teaching dialogues for Chinese students to listen and study from.

The serviceperson was trying to ask me if I would meet with them. I was like, "Me? Why me?" Slightly nervous, I grabbed Andrew and we agreed to meet them. The service person told us to meet him downstairs in the cafe in about 45 minutes. So we waited, and made our way downstairs.

We meet this middle-aged Chinese man. He introduces himself and his partner, grabs coffee for us, and sits us down. Basically, they wanted to know if we could go to a recording studio and read their dialogues. He pulled out a bunch of textbook scripts and we read through them slowly, alternating the male and female parts. He was delighted. Andrew and I were getting kind of sketched out because it just seemed so random. It wasn't fishy or anything though, my gut said things would be fine. So we made plans to meet again.

Andrew and I were naturally blowing things out of proportion in speculation. OH NO WHAT IF THEY ARE RAPISTS AUGHHHH and the such-like. However, I figured, if anything, they were more worried that we weren't going to show. They wouldn't be able to "hurt" us or anything, seeing as we're Shandong students and there are other students that know where we are at all times, etc. 

Anywho, fast forward a few days, and here I am right now at Wednsday at 3:40pm. I just got back from the last recording session. I also now have 600 yuan in my pocket. SCORE.

Let me tell you, those dialogues were hilarious. To spice things up, we read some of them in silly accents. I don't think they minded too much. Two days of about 5 hours of reading = 600 yuan (roughly 100 USD): 600 yuan goes a LONG WAY. 

Hopefully I'm going to get a proper recording of the polished product to take home. Haha. 

recent.developments

Okay, so some updates:

Registration is finally over! There was a big confusing shit storm over my visa, which apparently is stamped with an "L," which means translates to a "travel visa"- where I needed either an "X" or "F" for a "study visa." When I walked into the registration room and gave the guy my passport, he took a look at it, merely shook his head and said, "No, we cannot accept the travel visa, you have to go back to America."

I almost crapped myself.

Anyways, we figured out all of it. My travel visa is A-OK. Mr. Ren was really helpful in getting me situated and getting my papers in order (since Mom faxed them in.) After registration was over, we had to take the placement test the day afterwards, so I basically sat in my room and talked to myself in Chinese while poring over my old textbook. The test went relatively well, let's face it, there are going to be some parts that you just don't know. It was two parts- written and oral. The written part was fine, some of the vocab they used I didn't know, but that was to be expected. Also, somebody's cell phone alarm was going off quietly the entire time. I thought it was just me that could hear it because it was so faint, but it kept going off for the 2 hours and eventually the professor asked, "Who's phone is going off?" Nobody answered! It was ridiculous. Anyways, after the test, Matt came up to me and said, "Man, that was MY PHONE." I just gave him this blank look- I was kind of ticked. I mean, couldn't you even CHECK? Whatever. It's all over with. The oral part of the exam was alright, I just had to talk to these two women who were really curious about me being an asian-american, speaking a different dialect at home but learning Mandarin in an American college. It was pretty fun. Hopefully I get put in the appropriate level! The worst thing would be to be placed in a class level that would be too easy, or maybe even wayyyy too hard. But I don't think the latter is going to happen, haha. 

I've just been chilling lately. Still exploring the city. Yesterday, the four of us took a taxi to Jinan's HUGE city square, it was absolutely fabulous. It beat Kaifeng's city square. I wish I would've brought my camera. I'll be going back for sure, though. It was so full of all these little events and people just milling about enjoying the wonderful weather. There was live music performances by groups of old people singing songs in the old-style, and even young teenagers with their guitars. There were small children learning how to skate, kite flying, wu-shu rehearsals, old people doing their nightly tai-shi type exercises, shops selling little random things, etc etc. It was bustling and refreshing. I was particularly enamored with the free-running group and the tap dancers! 

Okay, I have to jet- meeting up with a soccer group. Post later!

LATER POST

So, what a soccery day today turned out to be. I didn't know this, but apparently Shandong University has a kind of impromptu intramural soccer (read: futbol- I can't really get used to calling it "FOOTBALL" but it is everywhere else in the world) team, and today, they met up at 2:30pm to go play the Shandong Normal University's team. I hop in the cab because I want to be a spectator, probably throw a frisbee around, and watch a bunch of fit people from Uganda, the French Congo, and Morocco play FUTBOL. The game was so much fun even though we lost. I thought the view around the field was absolutely breath-taking and I am kicking myself in the butt for not bringing my camera. Anywho, after the soccer match was over, word spread that there was actually a professional game going on later that night (Qingdao vs. Shandong). We ended up going, but I forgot to bring my wallet since I thought we were just going to the match and coming back to the dorm. :( It's all good though, we always end up spotting each other so it's not a big deal. We grabbed a quick dinner on-the-go and ran to find a taxi. None of us really knew how to say "stadium" so we had to circum-locute our point. "Soccer... field? Big? Um, place-where-people-play-soccer-under-lights?" He understood. Smart man.

I've never been to a professional match before, but it was awesome! The boys bought jerseys afterwards, it was that good. There was the obvious heckling and jeering from both sides, but the funny thing was- that the cheering coming from the Qingdao side included insults to people's mothers, name-calling, and a lot of very very crude cuss words. Basically, awesome. Sunday Fun-day. :)

blank.faces

I saw somebody die yesterday. 

There was an accident on the street; a huge group had gathered outside the bakery where I was getting dessert with Emily. We had split up from the boys so we decided to wait for them. We actually saw them in the huge group so we went outside to see what happened. There was a police car and an ambulance. Weaving through the group to get to the guys, I saw horrified stares and grim faces. Part of me didn't want to peer over the person in front of me, but I did anyways. And what I saw made my stomach fall. 

Poor woman. Nobody saw what happened; it looked like she had either fallen off of her bike, or maybe she had gotten hit in a hit-an-run. Neither of those make sense though- there was traffic, the car wouldn't have been able to "get away," but it so much too gruesome for just a fallen motorist. When I was approaching, I heard Matt whisper, "No... don't look. She's... gone."

Right after, I left. 

I've never seen death like that before.

connections&failures

Hey everybody. Sorry I haven't posted- I've been busy with a lot of random stuff :). Things have been going well lately, my days are still basically free from any obligation, which means I get to preoccupy myself with whatever I want! Today, my post is titled, "Connections and Failures."- here's the "failure" part, first.

So, get this. Yesterday morning, I wake up tangled in my comforter in like, SWELTERING heat. This is quite unusual since I like to sleep with my AC blasted at like 16 degrees celsius. Getting up to look at my AC, I find that the vents are still open but the power is off. Hm. I guess it might've died sometime in the night. So, I hop out of bed to do my morning ritual (showering, brushing of the teeths, hopping on the internet, the usual). When I turn on the bathroom light, I find... that it doesn't turn on. And neither do ALL OF MY LIGHTS. 

I have ZERO power in my room. No way to charge my cell phone that I use as an alarm clock (which is completely dead now), no way to charge my laptop (which says I will have like a measly two hours), no way to turn on the lights at night (I only remedy this by not going into my room until I absolutely have to sleep... in the pitch blackness), and best of all, no air conditioning in the humid heat. 

Delicious.

Turns out that I should've paid for my accommodations at this other building on Monday, which would've given me 120kw/h for free, and then I could've paid for more electricity if I needed it. (Can you imagine the hotel person's face when I said, "Um, hi, I've been here for 3 days and I'm already out of power.") I actually only used up like 20 kw/h these past few days, and the whole situation with paying for electricity, getting free electricity, paying for accommodations, etc etc is really confusing. I thought Beloit was supposed to be paying for the room and board???? Hm.

But I guess all clouds have their silver lining. Yesterday, I woke up groggy and pissy that I had absolutely no power, so taking a freezing cold shower in my dark bathroom really kind of woke me up. And also, since I (thought) I had no internet, I actually opened up my chinese textbook and studied. Woooow.

That's basically what I did all of yesterday afternoon. I also made my regular breakfast outing with Emily off of campus, through the south gate of Shandong U, making a straight shot down the street into this amazing bakery bun-shop, where I can stuff my face silly with delectable chocolate covered crossaints, wee breakfast tarts, and other assorted goodness. Hahaha. However, things kind of took a turn for the worse. Naturally we decide that the only thing we want after breakfast is nai cha, which is like bubbly milk tea. Yummy? Yes? So we approach the counter of this tiny place and ask for a coffee-flavored milk tea. She asks if we want it cold; obviously, we said, "sure!" As we're chatting about what else the day holds for us, I suddenly hear ice grinding. I freeze up, and I said, "Emily. She's putting ICE in it."

What's so bad about ice, you say?

Long story short, when we had first arrived in Kaifeng, the boys split off one day to get lunch at McDonalds (ugh) and came back sicker than dogs. The girls (Emily and I) got lunch at a food vendor, some steamed buns and stuff. We were fine. The boys spent the whole day on the toilet. The ENTIRE DAY on the toilet. Oh yes. So after a little detective work, we realized what had made them sick. Their cokes had ice in them, and when the ice melts, all the dirty unclean water used to make the ice infiltrates into their drink, making them have severe, uh.. yeah, you get the picture.

Emily says, "ohhh no." And we apologize to the stand person profusely and ask for it without ice. "Sorry! Sorry! OH GOD I DON'T WANT TO GET SICK!" (didn't actually say the last part but that's basically what was on our minds). The stand person shrugs and says, "mei shi" (which means, "No problem") and turns around. Being sneaky-sneaky, eh? Because HE SPOONED THE ICE OUT INTO THE TRASH AND PROMPTLY GAVE THE DRINK BACK TO US.

By now, I'm mortified at the thought of sipping a coffee-flavored laxative. Emily is holding the drink with a cautious (read: disgusted) look on her face. She hasn't gotten sick this entire trip (yet, haha) whereas the rest of us have had bouts of something bad. After some deliberation, we decide, "What the hell, we paid for it, the ice didn't sit in the drink for more than 3 seconds, if we get sick, whatever, it won't be that bad." We drink it.

Fast forward 2 hours.

My tummy hurts. Emily's tummy hurts. We do the business, CURSING the stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid ice. Awesome, I know. No more "cold" bubble tea for me.

---------

As for the latter half of this post, "Connections", all I want to say is that on top of all the other little crappy things that kind of bum me out everyday (missing friends, missing home, not having electricity, drinking cold teas that may or may not make me stay in the bathroom for long periods of time), I'm having a blast meeting some more the international students. In my last post, I mentioned the "American plan" to win over our international mates. Well, it worked. There are so many awesome people here from London, Scotland, Ireland, England, oh, it's ridiculous. They're all here for only about two more weeks. They've been doing this summer intensive Chinese program, and none of them knew Chinese beforehand. It's been awesome going out with them and talking to them about life across the pond. Haha. We all actually went to this Karaoke place (I've never been karaoke-ing before) and it was hilariously incredible. The place looked like a Vegas strip packed into this tiny building with freakin' Call Girls everywhere! It was kind of creepy but it made for a fun night. We were all singing songs in English, eating watermelon, hanging out and talking! Such good fun. I'm going to be sad when they leave :( 

But yeah. Today is a brand new day (sans electricity in my room)- I've got a bunch of things to do today, including registering for classes (yaaaay.), buy more electricity, and study some more chinese!

Cool. I'll catch you guys later! <3

shell.breakage

I like Jinan much better than Kaifeng. It's overwhelming in the best possible way. The food is simpry dericious; I see blue skies and a billion young faces. After arriving via sleeper train, I basically spent the whole day exploring. I didn't get much rest on the train, so I was pretty pooped by dinnertime. I went out and bought some necessities for my room. It's hard to control spending since everything is cheap, but I'm well aware that these little expenses rack up really fast. I'm in love with my room, even though it smells like rancid sewage. (I bought some Glade air freshener, it was MUCH NEEDED.) Last night, the four of us (Matt, Andrew, Emily and I) wandered downstairs to see if we could meet some other international students. Everybody was huddled in their groups; I overheard loud German coming from one corner and some heavily accented English from another corner (must've been either British or Irish, I couldn't really tell.) Strange how everybody sticks to their groups, even though I can't blame them- as fun as meeting strangers is, it's really awkward the first few days. Classes start up on the 7th. I need to register some time in the next few days, but lately my days have been filled with random outings, exploring campus, and gathering food and other necessities. 

I'm really tempted to say hello to some of the other students, but most of the looks I get are stand-offish, "not going to talk to you if you come say hi" kind of faces. I guess I just kind of feel like a recluse, which is a pity. For once in a long time, I feel super-insecure and awkward from being stared at. Luckily, I haven't quite hit the "homesickness" state... yet. 

It's all good, though. 

Tonight, we Americans have plotted the ultimate way to win over our foreign friends.

We'll see how things go. I hope we have enough ping pong balls.

Currently Listening To: Mairead: The Von Bondies

new.connection

Hey. I'm leaving Kaifeng tonight to take a train to Jinan, where I'll be posted for the rest of the semester. I can't wait. Gotta keep this short, but just wanted to say, I'll be getting a cell phone in Jinan so hopefully you guys will be receiving a short call from me sometime in the next week. Love!

-m.

alive&kicking

Hmph. Haven't been online alot (duh) but looking to change that. These past four days I've been on a giant road trip, I went to a bunch of places and took a bunch of pictures that I can't upload (which is so frustrating)- but if you're really interested in seeing where I was, you can google "the longmen grottos" and "shaolin temple" in china (duh) and see basically some pictures. I really do hate having internet. There has been so much happening that I just want to update everybody on, but you guys know how crappy my memory is, so I just have to do my best to carry all these stories in my brain until I can reach an internet cafe, spit out a few yuan, plop down between two World-of-Warcraft enthusiasts, and dump my stories onto the e-world.

So, big things lately.

Well, yesterday we were going to the Shaolin Temple (from Luoyang) and as we were merging onto a big highway, a motorist crashed into the back of our van. I was in the backseat facing the window and all of a sudden, out of my sleepy nap, i see this old woman on a Vespa-ish motorbike come merging into our lane going SO FAST and she slams into the side/back area of the van. My mouth dropped open in horror as I turned around and saw her limp body roll off the motor bike almost into oncoming traffic. Our van stops and literally everybody is frozen. Her body isn't moving. I seriously thought she was dead. I felt so sick to my stomach. She slowly got up after like 15 seconds, screaming and clutching her arm. Our driver rushes out an see what happened, and a small crowd starts building around us. This is pretty common in China (both the driving accidents and the nosy crowds). I wanted to jump out and help but it wouldn't have been the best idea. The last thing an accident needs is a van full of white (and two asian) foreigners to jump out and complicate the situation. Our van driver ended up dealing with the accident basically all day. As they say in China, "hen ma fan"- very bothersome. After getting most of the preliminary paperwork done (it took two hours!) we were back on the road to visit the shaolin temple, and after we were done, we called him and he picked us up, and we drove the 1.5 hours back to Kaifeng.

I'll be in Kaifeng for just a few more days, then it's off to Jinan and Shandong University. It's a city of about 2 million people, and needless to say, I am glad to get away from this place. I'm getting kind of sick of it. I feel kind of hopeless in this area. Not hopeless like my chinese can't get better, or whatever, but just like, walking around and seeing all the impoverished people, lots of beggars, unclean drinking water, shitty living conditions, getting sick a few times because of unclean food, it's... just a real trip.

I need to upload some photos... you'll have to wait a few days. Aside from all the little nitty gritties, China is truly beautiful. The countryside and the mountains, and Buddhist temples in Luoyang are really breathtaking. The stairs to climb the mountains are doing a number on my legs and bum, but it's good for me. Pollution is pretty prevalent and I've been careful to always carry tissue paper on me (since the bathrooms are made for squatting, not sitting- and they don't have TP) and hand sanitizer. I feel like a tourist. :(

People are very very very curious as to how an asian looking girl speaks English so well. I'm usually targeted in the group as a "chinese person" so whenever a curious native approaches our travelling group, they always ask "Are your friends foreigners?"

Imagine their face when I say, "Yes, but I'm a foreigner too. We're from America."

I gotta run. I swear up and down, I MISS EVERYBODY WHO READS THIS BLOG. ALOT.

Talk to you guys soon. <3

henan.university

Wow. I'm here. It's kind of unreal. Haven't had internet access these past two days, but I'm currently in an internet cafe with matt, travis, and emily. we've been chilling and enjoying this city. needless to say, the humidity and lack of understanding with the townsfolk has been really annoying. The dorms are tiny and very... "old fashioned".. (read: nasty). Anyways, sorry that I have to keep this relatively short. Just know that I love you all and am missing beloit (and family that are reading this) like crazy. I'll be in Henan for about another week or so and then we're off on a roadtrip, then to Jinan. Alright. Update later.

OH BTW
shit here is so freaking cheap. like dear god. i can be full for an entire day off of basically 2USD.
<3

hello.goodbye

K, it's like 1am. I'm finally all packed. *crosses fingers* I hope to baby jesus I don't forget anything crucial. I'm napping until 4:30, then it's up and at 'em. I can't believe it's actually happening. 

Herro, China.

the.plunge

Welp, it's finally here. My last full day in the States until 2009. Shit's crazy.

I worked a lunch shift, and got off around 3. I've spent an hour sitting here on the internets basically doing nothing. I have a packing list- which I guess is a start. It's still kind of surreal that I'm leaving... my mom is pretty sad/nervous (more scared out of her mind) but once I leave, it'll probably sink in that she's going to be absolutely helpless. Anywho. I'm pretty nervous about my chinese being roughly at the same level of a kindergarden child's, but there's not much I can do about that. Maybe try. Or fake it. Haaaa.

Got a lot of stuff to do today. Namely, packing and cleaning.

Flying out of Kansas around 7am, arriving in Chicago around 9ish, and meeting up with Emily- then it's off to Shanghai! I'll be arriving there around 2pm on Sunday. Time zones kind of fuck with me. I'm not looking forward to jet lag, either way. 

I'm trying to cram a semester's worth of toiletries and random shit into suitcases. Chances are, I'm going to overpack, then unpack, and try to re-pack more lightly. Wish me luck. <3

time.flies

q: where did my summer go?

a: the restaurant stole it.

i leave in 10 days. this is unreal.