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! :)