China

It’s the same deal as always. The posts are copied out of my journal with pieces deleted. I apologize for the poor grammar and the misspellings, but I was exhausted when I wrote this. I think it really shows by the last entry, which is incredibly short. I may post what I rewrite for myself, but don’t count on it.

For those who want the short version: China was amazing. I went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Terra Cotta Warriors among other things. I had my pocket picked (don’t worry mom and dad, they didn’t take money or ATM/credit cards. It’s kind of funny what they got, but you’ll have to read on to find out what it was). I ate duck flavored jello. I haggled A LOT and loved every minute of it.

The long version:

Sept. 17, 2007 A7
“My dad listens to Avril Lavigne. I don’t even know who she is.”
En route to Qingdao, China

It was back to classes today. I did the usual: took advantage of the internet when no one was using it early in the morning, got breakfast (which was not good today, though it did see the return of strawberry yogurt), and did some reading before Global. Dean Glatfelter taught today in Global Studies, which was fairly interesting. The second presentation was not very interesting, but it was quick and we got let out early, which is always a plus. I should have used this time for work, but I instead opted for a nap, which was amazing. By this point the rocking had eased a little bit, and when I got up to go to Oceanography, it wasn’t too bad at all. Dr. Elliott talked about our midterm today. It’s going to be A11, which seems like it should be close, because today was A7, but it’s not for almost another month, after China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Thailand.

I had dinner with my shipboard family tonight. We added a new member, the woman who works the registrar. It was so much fun, but we were only there for half an hour, because of the mandatory meeting for everyone who was going to Beijing. The meeting wasn’t really too informative, if you had the ability to think for yourself. It covered the size your carry on bag is allowed to be, which some people had ridiculous questions about. The stuff people were asking was just ridiculous… A professor sat behind me, and even she couldn’t restrain herself from making snide remarks about how stupid people were being. The preport was after that. Dr. Croizier spoke, and he is just the most adorable old man. I have him for class, and he was so much more interesting tonight than he usually is. I suppose it has something to do with the atmosphere. In class he has such a hard time getting people to be quiet so he can talk, and a lot of it has to do with his nature. I think he would be a great professor if he was teaching people who were actually interested in what he had to say, rather than people who showed up because they had to have 12 credit hours. I would really like to have a class with him in that sort of setting. Then one of the Chinese students on board gave a presentation called “Scary China,” which was completely hilarious. He was debunking myths portrayed by the American media. Then the Chinese interport student (who is actually from Hong Kong) gave a presentation.

Sept. 18, 2007 B7
“I think I see something! Oh, it’s just an empty water bottle.”
En route to China
*You’ll probably think this post is unusually short. I cut out a lot. Most of it wouldn’t have meant much to you anyway.*

This morning I did the usual: took advantage of the internet when there were less people on it and ate a massive breakfast.

Natural History was interesting; art history was not. I had lunch with Nicole and Bo today out on the deck. The ocean isn’t nearly as pretty now as it was before. It used to be a beautiful bright blue, but it has now turned to a murky gray. We had an observation on Deck 7 for Natural History today, which was mostly to teach us how to use binoculars. Most people didn’t even have a set with them, so it didn’t really do anyone much good. We saw no animal life, but instead 1 ship and a great deal of garbage. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. My idea of sea life isn’t really an empty water bottle and a floating crate.


Sept. 19th 2007 (Wednesday?)
“It’s jell-o with hunks of duck in it.”
Qingdao and Beijing, China

I got up at 5:30 to watch us pull into Qingdao with Ashley. I was up a little bit early, so I took advantage of the lack of people on the internet. I went to the faculty/staff lounge (it’s one of the rare occasions when we’re allowed in), and saw that it was pouring down rain outside. There were the few people that wanted to watch out in the rain, but I stayed inside. When Ashley got up there, we went out in the rain for a few minutes, but not very long. We got breakfast, and then I went back to bed, figuring that we weren’t going to be cleared for a while. Even if we were cleared early, it wasn’t really worth it to me to get off of the ship and then get right back on to meet in the Union for my Beijing/Xian trip.

Before the flight, Doc Nancy got some Oreos and shared with me while we were waiting to board. It’s weird, but kind of cool all at the same time to share Oreos with a professor while you both wait for your first trip to Beijing. To board the plane, we had to get on buses outside of the gate. The bus took us all of 10 feet to the nearest plane, where we boarded. On the flight I sat next to Creeper and one of the Life Long Learners (LLL). The LLL picked up on my dislike of flying when we hit some turbulence and was really nice about it. He talked about whatever he could get me to talk about in order to distract me from it, and before I knew it, we had landed in Beijing. It turns out that he is from Ohio and his daughter is an AXD, which is pretty cool.

From the airport we went to dinner, which was at a 5 story Peking Duck Restaurant. I wasn’t very hungry, but I did eat. Duck was in pretty much everything. The meal even started with this weird jell-o with chucks of duck in it. It wasn’t very good. I figured we were going to get some sort of weird dessert with duck in it, but we actually just got watermelon. My table went through beer pretty quickly, and eventually got cut off from the free stuff we were getting. From here we went to the hotel and checked in. I got my roommate, but my roommate went out pretty much immediately. She was hardly ever in the room. The hotel was actually the headquarters for the Peking Opera, and the whole hotel was ‘opera themed.’ It was very late when we checked in, and I just went to bed.

Sept. 20th 2007 (Thursday?)
“The only thing the French should host is an invasion.”
Beijing, China

The morning started for me with a trip to the ATM. I tried my card a couple of times with a few different options, but the Bank of China didn’t seem to like it and wouldn’t give me money. I converted what little money I had at the hotel, but figured that the converted money would be all I would have. I just assumed since my ATM card wouldn’t work that it had been cancelled by my bank, even though I told them I was going abroad, and wouldn’t be able to use it as a credit card.

On the bus ride, we were given the option of signing up for an optional acrobatic show or for the Opera in our hotel. The opera was nearly sold-out. The only thing that was left were the best seats in the house. They were only $60 in U.S. dollars, but I didn’t have that much, and I couldn’t use the ATM or my credit card to get tickets. It was yuan only. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t afford a ticket for the opera; it seemed like such a reasonable price compared to what you would get in the U.S. I signed up for the acrobatic show instead, and even then I knew that I was really going to have to carefully budget what little yuan I did have.

We got to the Great Wall fairly early. We were taken to the steepest section. This particular section was circular, and pretty much our whole group headed up the steep way, rather than going around the less steep route. It seemed silly to me, but I didn’t want to climb by myself, so I went with them. I got up to the top, but didn’t go the full circle. I got my pictures, and then I climbed down. I joined Audrey, an LLL, and we went around the less steep path. When I say it was less steep, I mean it was basically flat rather than nearly straight up. There were a few shops that we stopped in on the way. One of them was an official 2008 Olympic store. I considered buying a few things, but only got a shot glass for my sister because everything was so expensive. You could also climb down, and there were a few temples you could go in, so we went. In one of the temples you were not supposed to take pictures, but we didn’t see anyone enforcing this rule, so Audrey started snapping pictures. As soon as she did, a little man wandered out of the darkest corner. We pretended not to speak English and vacated the temple. We got back on the wall, and I was stopped by 2 Chinese women to have my photo taken with them. They didn’t speak any English so I interpreted their nonverbal communication to mean that they wanted me to take their photo for them, but we finally got it all figured out. I think I was stopped because of my blonde hair. Anyway, Audrey took a picture for me, and they each took pictures for each other. It was pretty entertaining for all of us, and it made me feel a little like a celebrity for just a few minutes. After all of that we still had a little time to kill before we needed to be back on the bus, so we had some ice cream and waited.

After the Great Wall, we went to lunch. The restaurant was connected with a Cloisonné ‘factory’ and we got a tour of it before we actually ate in an attempt to lure us to shop after we finished lunch. Lunch was fairly decent, minus the fish head (which I tried). Afterwards I did go into the shop, and I looked at a jade tiger, and thought about buying it, but I knew I didn’t have enough yuan. I saw that they took Mastercard, but I still thought that my card had been cancelled. Since I really wanted the tiger, I thought I would try using my card and that the worst that would happen is that it would be rejected. I honestly thought that this was the most likely thing to happen, but I really hoped that luck would be on my side. It turned out that my card worked, which amazed me. I was excited to know that I would actually have a little money to spend (more than the ~ $20 I had left after I paid for the acrobat show).

We all boarded the buses and went to the Summer Palace where we got a very brief tour of a small portion of the grounds. We were running late, so we barely got to see anything, which was disappointing, because what we did see of the grounds was very gorgeous. We were in such a rush that when 3 girls didn’t show up to the buses on time they got left behind. We didn’t even wait more than a minute after time to meet. We just left. It was a little scary to know that you would get left behind that easily. We went straight to the Acrobat Show, which was amazing. I’ve seen “performances” before, but it was nothing like this. I was very pleased with my decision to use a significant portion of my cash to see it. I also bought some popcorn from the snack bar to eat during the show. It claimed it had an American taste, which I suppose it did if you eat kettle corn.

After the show it was getting pretty late, so I gave some thought to getting dinner, but in the end decided I would just assume go to the grocery store and get a snack rather than go out and hunt for a place that would take my credit card. A couple of the LLLs on the trip decided the same thing, so once we got back to the hotel we walked over to the grocery store together. I was having some difficulty with crossing the street since traffic in China doesn’t stop for pedestrians, so I when this Chinese guy crossed, I followed right behind him. The store was a little confusing. It was an electronics store/grocery store all in one, and it was a fairly large, so it took some time to navigate it. I found what I wanted, paid for it, and crossed the street the same way I did the first time, by tailing someone who knew how to get across. I got back to my room and watched some TV. There was a channel showing American movies, so I caught Mr. Deeds before getting to sleep.

Sept. 21st 2007 (Friday?)
“It’s okay. We’re on the runway; it’s just a little rough.”
Beijing and Xian, China
I got up and found breakfast, then headed out to the buses. Our first stop of the day was the Temple of Heaven, which was pretty cool for several reasons. The first is that a bunch of senior citizens were exercising in the park, which was interesting to see. They were practicing ballroom dancing, tai chi, ribbon dancing, badminton, and others. There was also this little old man that I think just liked attention, so whenever we passed he would start jumping up and down or counting in English really loudly. The temple itself was very beautiful. We weren’t given enough time here, but it was very cool to see. The next stop of the day was Tiananmen Square, which I was really looking forward to. It turned out that it wasn’t so much a stop on our itinerary as it was a path to rush across on the way to the Forbidden City. I was disappointed that we were barely even there, but I did get to haggle with street vendors on my way across. If you know me very well, you know that I absolutely LOVE to haggle, so this was a lot of fun. It’s a bit of an art form, and you really have to learn how to do it appropriately to not get ripped off. I have a knack for it, and I’m usually able to get things cheaper than other people, maybe just because I’d rather rip someone off than be ripped off. I got a Mao watch, but the vendor wouldn’t agree to my price. I wasn’t willing to pay anymore than my price, so I just handed him the wad of yuan (slightly less than $1.00, but all in 1 yuan bills) that I was willing to give him. He didn’t even count it and started hassling the next person in the group that looked remotely interested in the watches. I did this with a few of the vendors, and I made out pretty well. I spent around $4.00, but got presents for 4 people and the Mao watch for myself.

We went to the Forbidden City after this, and I was very excited for it, but once we got in it seemed like the whole thing was under construction. The main building was completely blocked off. I wandered through the parts that were open and found a place where I got an ice cream, then went to the back gate to meet everyone to board the buses. When we left, we were again hassled by street vendors, and I was ready for it. There was a man selling carved wooden dragons, and I really wanted one. I was willing to pay a lot more than my original offer for it, but I really wanted to see just how low I could get his offer. I actually finally got him to agree to my original offer, which I thought was a little ridiculous because of how low it actually was. I handed him my money and then he started demanding more money before he would give me the item. This pissed me off a lot; it was crossing the line to me. I ripped my money out of his hand and then walked away. He followed me, and kept saying he would give it to me for my original quote, because I was the only one interested out of 83 people, but I was so angry with him that I was completely unwilling to deal with him. The Beijing police were right there, and saw him hassling me, and made him stop. I’m not sure what happened to him after that, but he was nowhere to be seen.

We went to lunch and everything was really spicy (as in spicy hot) but it was very, very good. I think it was the second best meal of this trip. We rushed to the airport from here, but when we got there, our flight had been delayed 2 hours. I found these amazing chocolate and marshmallow cookies to snack on while we waited for our flight. While we were waiting I got to talk to our tour guide about some history of the Forbidden City and Chinese rulers. Some of the things she had to say were fascinating. Then we started talking about movies. I was excited that I had finally met someone who liked Hero as much as I did. Hero is a Chinese movie about the emperor trying to unify China and standardize the language. It is the possibly the most visually beautiful movie I’ve ever seen. She was telling me that she gives tours to the areas where it was filmed. I think it would be something spectacular to see. I hope the area retains its beauty until the time I am able to get to China again. The flight to Xian was pretty smooth compared to the one to Beijing, but I was still pretty happy when we were told we were going to land. We hit the runway, and it was a completely terrifying experience. It was the bumpiest, roughest runway imaginable. It was already 10 pm by the time we got out of the airport, so we were given the option of eating dinner or going straight to the hotel. I opted for going to the hotel. I was glad to get to sleep, but I was awoken several times during the night by the most annoying bird imaginable. My dad probably would have pulled out his binoculars and enjoyed it, but I was ready to break the stupid bird’s neck.

Sept. 22nd, 2007 (Saturday?)
“I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. I’m not going to watch some damn movie.”
Xian and Lintong County, China
I was hit with a severe case of buyer’s remorse here.

The day started with a trip to the Wild Goose Pagoda. We were given some free time to explore the area by ourselves, which I appreciated a lot. I paid extra to climb up to the top, and then went into the gift shop to look around a little bit. I was looking for something for my brother, so I asked for a price quote on something. I was given a price that was less than the listed price, and at 9 am my brain wasn’t functioning quite properly. I made a horrible long division mistake in my head, and thought that the price was cheaper than it actually was (though it was a fair price, because it was a friendship shop, so the items were guaranteed by the Chinese government). I figured since it was so cheap I’d just go ahead and get one for my sister as well. Once I got on the bus and did the math, I realized what a mistake I had made. All in all it wasn’t terrible; I just didn’t mean to spend that much money in one go. We proceeded to the Shanxi Provincial Museum, where I got to see some Chinese art and cultural relics. I enjoyed it, but it was very small. It was also under construction, so we weren’t allowed in the main hall here either. I was really ready for the main attraction of the day, so I was happy when we left.

We went to lunch at a restaurant connected to a silk making ‘factory.’ We got a tour that included a silk fashion show and conveniently let us out in a large silk shop, but proceeded to lunch with the instructions to come back after we ate. Lunch was amazing, but I ate quickly and went into the shop. I tried on a dress, and it was a little discouraging. I am a medium in the U.S. but in China I become a XXL. I didn’t get the dress for the sheer fact that I wasn’t willing to buy anything that said I was that large. I saw 2 gorgeous purses and decided I wanted them both, but then I remembered the horrible mistake I made during the morning. I debated about buying anything at all. I bought the cheaper of the two purses, but later wished that I had bought the other one. It was more expensive, but I think I liked it better. Rather it’s design was far more practical for use in the U.S. I talked to Audrey for a little while here, and found out that she’s an Alpha Xi! It was really cool to find a sister in the middle of a silk shop in Lintong County, China. After we left it was finally time for the Terra Cotta Warriors. When we got there, it seemed like the tour guides talked for ages giving information that I already knew. I wanted them to just tell us the time to meet at the bus and let me go. Doc Nancy was really feeling the same way. They tried to get us all to go see a movie that would likely have repeated the same information we had already received twice from the tour guides, so Doc Nancy and I skipped it and went straight to Pit 1. It was one of very few moments in my life that I have been completely filled with awe. It was just incredible. The warriors in front had been reconstructed from the shatter pieces that had been excavated. In the back you could see all the broken pieces in piles, and you could see a place where they were being reconstructed. We took our time strolling through this pit, and this is where I got my pocket picked. Earlier that day my camera batteries had died. I changed them, and put the dead ones in my pocket and just left them there without thinking about it. I felt the hand go into my pocket, and before I could think about it, 2 AA batteries had been taken. I found it very amusing. My credit card and money were all out of reach, so I shared a little laugh with Doc Nancy, and we went on our way to the gift shop.

The man who discovered the warriors actually has a job at the gift shop autographing books for all the tourists who come through. I bought a book and got it signed, and then looked at some of the figurines. They were all out of my price range, even the little tiny ones. I knew there were people wondering throughout the area selling figurines that were of horrible quality, but that I could get for $1.00 and that I could get myself a nice set at the hotel for much cheaper, so I didn’t buy any. I went into the other 2 pits, and passed a man selling boxes of cheaply made warriors. He hassled me to pay more than a $1.00, but there was absolutely no way I was going to pay more than that, so I started heading over to park security. It is completely illegal for them to be in the area selling those figurines, so he took my $1.00, gave me my set, and hid in the bushes very quickly. It was really kind of funny. I passed another one of these people later, and he had his shirt stuffed with boxes of figures and he yelled out at tourists as they passed the bushes where he was hiding.

On the bus back to the city we were given the option of going to the Forest of Stele the following morning or sleeping in an extra hour. The tour guide said that if a single person wanted to go we couldn’t cut it out because we had all paid for it. I was really looking forward to going and seeing the Analects of Confucius and the Canon of Filial Piety, but I was the only one. I was the lone student that wanted to go and deprived everyone of the extra hour of sleep the next day. We proceeded to a dinner theater, where the show was excellent but the food was not. We returned to the hotel after this and I bought a nice set of Terra Cotta Warriors for less than 1/5 of the asking price of the museum, then I head to bed, where I was again annoyed by the noises of the stupid bird outside all night long.

Sept 23, 2007 (Sunday?)
“It’s dirty. It’s filthy. It’s completely un-American. I love it.”
Xian, China and Hong Kong

The morning started off with the trip to the Forest of Stele. I am so happy that I spoke up, and got myself there. I got to see these ancient Confucian writings on giant stone tablets. It would be like seeing the tablets the Ten Commandments were written on. These tablets are a big deal in Confucianism. Then we went to a calligraphy lesson. I discovered that I am no good at calligraphy, but I had a wonderful time discovering this. We went to lunch after the lesson at a restaurant that was supposed to be revolving at the top of a hotel, but it wasn’t moving. The meal was mostly western food (French Fries, Spaghetti, ‘Fried Chicken’). It was an improvement over fish heads.

We proceeded to the Bell Tower. It wasn’t very interesting. It seemed like a waste of time to me, but maybe some people liked it. We were then given free time to shop at an outdoor market, which meant more haggling, but I only had 40 yuan left (roughly $5.00), so I had to bargain pretty hard if I wanted anything. I ended up getting 4 bracelets and still having 10 yuan left over. The bracelets are fakes, but they are gorgeous. I left the market and waited for the buses because I didn’t have much left to buy anything with. I enjoyed the people watching a lot. I got to talk to another SASer for a while about a lot of different things. It seemed like we talked about everything while we waited there. He was very down to earth and very unlike a lot of students on this voyage.

We headed to the airport, caught our flight to Hong Kong and got to the ship at about 1:00 am. I wanted to go out to a friend’s birthday party, but they had long since left, so I just went to bed, which was just as well, because I had to be up early for a trip to Lantau Island.

Sept 24, 2007 (Monday?)
“Pizza, brownies, Buddhist monks. It’s been a good day.”
Hong Kong and Lantau Island

I got up and got breakfast before going to the Union to report for my trip. The trip took us to Lantau Island where we went to a beach for all of 10 minutes. It’s good we didn’t stay long. The weather was really bad, and we couldn’t even walk on the beach. I got some really cool video of the waves though. Then we walked through Tai O, which is a little fishing village. I got to see houses on stilts in the river and a dried shark and a really neat Dao temple, before we headed to Po Lin Monastery, home of the largest bronze seated Buddha statue in the world. Because it was so windy and rainy, the monastery let us drive buses up to it, rather than climbing the 256 stairs up to it. After visiting the Buddha, we went to lunch at the monastery. They had this fried bread that was amazing. Then we had some free time to explore on our own, but no one really wanted to go outside because of the rain. I just zipped up my raincoat and went out and had a great time exploring and getting soaked. After we left I slept the whole way back to the terminal. When we got back Lindsey, Laura, and I found a California Pizza Kitchen and split a pizza. Then Lindsey and I decided to each order a dessert and then share them. We had an apple crisp and a hot fudge brownie sundae that definitely hit the spot after 4 days of fish heads and jellyfish and not enough of the good food to go around. Then I found a bookstore. This was a mistake. My parents would definitely tell you that it is a mistake for me to be left alone in a bookstore. I got a few (10) books that I’m really excited about. By this time, it was about time to board the ship, so we just went ahead and got on. We watched the light show from the 6th deck, and then listened to the former administrator of Hong Kong give a speech in the Union with Nicole (which was a pretty cool thing to see).

Now it’s back to 2 days of class and then Vietnam and Cambodia!
Also, I changed my email because luminis is never working. If you want it and you know my parents, ask them because they have it. If you are one of my friends I will email you with it tomorrow morning when I have a little more time (hopefully).