Welcome to China
I brush my teeth with Evion.
I also throw up on theGreat Wall of China, but come on, you win some you lose some.
---Disclosure: I wrote this post around 4 am (my time) Sunday morning and saved it in a word document because I haven't been able to get to the internet until now---
I’m not really sure what I expected of China, somehow I feel as though I had no expectations at all. Which is probably a good way to go into something like this because then there can be no disappointments and only surprises. SuRprises.
Everyone is amazingly nice so far, there are under 5 people that I can’t see myself being good friends with. And besides them there are tons of people that I already adore and can’t wait to be closer to.
Bobby is probably the sweetest guy here. He hung out with me all day yesterday while I was a complete mess, he carried my backpack and rubbed my back while I was sick. I couldn’t believe that after knowing each other for all of 4 days he was so willing to just take care of me when he could have been off galavanting along the Great Wall of China.
Also, he goes to SLU, as do a total of 12 students, none of whom I knew before this week.
Liz I think is my closest girlfriend, she and I are so much alike. She is from Appleton (Yeah Spage I KNOW!) but goes to Loyola Chicago. Also she loves coffee, Metropolis especially, which the Buzz used to sell. I told her that she should come to St. Louis because Kaldi’s is better.
My roommate’s name is Lisa (Ma Elisa) she is from Manilla. There are 8 students from her school in the Phillipeans and they are all really nice and speak perfect English. Also she has an iBook, the 11 inch. So we match. She does come up to around my chest though, but it’s not as if I wasn’t expecting to be tall here.
Brian is another SLU student and is, no joke, 6 ft 8” Plus he’s blonde. So naturally he gets stared at all the time. Brian I think is maybe my favorite on the trip. Except Bobby of course.
Using the internet here is really rough, and I probably won’t be able to put this post up for a few days. We have ethernet connection in our rooms but they cannot access international, or US websites without a proxy code. And I don’t know what a proxy code is. Our host students were supposed to be able to help us, but he didn’t really have any idea.
Allen is my host student. He is a really cool kid, very nice, but from a small town in some southern province. To get to school here he takes a 22 hour train ride. His small-town-ness is probably why he isn’t very knowledgeable about our internet problems and things like that. We asked him what movies he liked and he said, Titanic and Pearl Harbor.
Also when he said that this girl next to me, Morganne, who goes to Georgetown, said, sincerely, “Pearl Harbor is my absolute favorite movie.”
She wasn’t just being nice either.
Anyways…
The first thing you notice about Beijing, about China in general, is the pollution. There is a thick smog over everything and it is almost impossible to even see the sun. And when you do find it, it is like looking at the moon because you can stare directly at it with out any difficulty.
It’s kind of hard to adjust to the air, and Peg, the director said that if you plan to go running or anything like that, make sure you cut it down a few miles. I’m too scared to go out running yet though. I think I would get lost. Even though the campus is just a square, with N S E W gates, it’s in a very crowded area and I am just too much of a chicken. (Insert chicken dance here)
Even on the Great Wall it was only a little better than the air in the city, and I don’t understand how postcards of the wall have such blue skies because I can’t even imagine it being anything but grey.
Despite the fact that I couldn’t even keep down water I had a good time at the wall. There was a market strip on the way to the entrance to the wall and I was able to try my hand at bargaining and I picked up a few things including a jade Buddah for Susan. Chances are it isn’t actually Jade though. I also got a messenger type bag with Mao on it, and I love it. It’s the best thing. Bargaining is really fun though and I expect to get much better at it as time goes on. It was rough because I instantly wanted everything I saw. But apparently they have the same things everywhere, and the Wall has much higher prices then everywhere else. I kind of wish I had gotten an “I climbed the wall shirt,” but I’m sure I’ll find it somewhere. After a while I just didn’t even feel up to arguing with these people and paid 10 quai for a bottle of water. Which is only like $1.25 but it should have only been like 2 quai. I was exhausted though, and just didn’t care.
Also it’s difficult to know what we’re allowed to eat and not. For example we’re not supposed to eat ice ever, and at a bar we went to I asked for no ice very diligently, BUT, then some kid told us that the bar boils their water before they freeze it, so that in restaurants it’s generally okay to take ice. So how do I know whom to believe?
I think for now I’m just going to play everything on the safe side.
I’m really going to miss salad though. We can’t eat lettuce or celery or tomatoes, anything without a major peel like watermelons or oranges. For those reasons watermelons are really popular here. So it’s a good thing I love it.
The food we have besides that is good though, and I’m using chopsticks just fine. I do expect to be tired of it reasonably quickly though. 3 meals in and I had already been ordered the same cooked spinach mess every time. And I haven’t found anything I really love yet. Also using chopsticks so much cramps up my hand after a while, but I should get used to it soon enough.
I haven’t yet had to use any non-western style bathrooms. Because we’re in the international students dorm we have regular toilets and everything like that, the embassy bar had western toilets also. Besides that all the buildings on campus just have holes in the ground, and I am not very excited about that. And we do need to carry toilet paper with us. Especially next week when we leave for the silk road trip. Fortunately it’s not like you can’t buy toilet paper here and Lisa and I both came home with a package of like 12 each the first day we went out. So we’re set.
When I got back from the Great Wall at around 3pm I passed out until like 1 am. Now as it is almost 2am I think I’m going to take a year long shower- which don’t worry is not a big deal because we have a water limit per month and we’re only going to be here a few more days, so August is really up for grabs. Anyways I’m going to clean myself up and then clean or something, I don’t know.
At least I feel better.
I also throw up on theGreat Wall of China, but come on, you win some you lose some.
---Disclosure: I wrote this post around 4 am (my time) Sunday morning and saved it in a word document because I haven't been able to get to the internet until now---
I’m not really sure what I expected of China, somehow I feel as though I had no expectations at all. Which is probably a good way to go into something like this because then there can be no disappointments and only surprises. SuRprises.
Everyone is amazingly nice so far, there are under 5 people that I can’t see myself being good friends with. And besides them there are tons of people that I already adore and can’t wait to be closer to.
Bobby is probably the sweetest guy here. He hung out with me all day yesterday while I was a complete mess, he carried my backpack and rubbed my back while I was sick. I couldn’t believe that after knowing each other for all of 4 days he was so willing to just take care of me when he could have been off galavanting along the Great Wall of China.
Also, he goes to SLU, as do a total of 12 students, none of whom I knew before this week.
Liz I think is my closest girlfriend, she and I are so much alike. She is from Appleton (Yeah Spage I KNOW!) but goes to Loyola Chicago. Also she loves coffee, Metropolis especially, which the Buzz used to sell. I told her that she should come to St. Louis because Kaldi’s is better.
My roommate’s name is Lisa (Ma Elisa) she is from Manilla. There are 8 students from her school in the Phillipeans and they are all really nice and speak perfect English. Also she has an iBook, the 11 inch. So we match. She does come up to around my chest though, but it’s not as if I wasn’t expecting to be tall here.
Brian is another SLU student and is, no joke, 6 ft 8” Plus he’s blonde. So naturally he gets stared at all the time. Brian I think is maybe my favorite on the trip. Except Bobby of course.
Using the internet here is really rough, and I probably won’t be able to put this post up for a few days. We have ethernet connection in our rooms but they cannot access international, or US websites without a proxy code. And I don’t know what a proxy code is. Our host students were supposed to be able to help us, but he didn’t really have any idea.
Allen is my host student. He is a really cool kid, very nice, but from a small town in some southern province. To get to school here he takes a 22 hour train ride. His small-town-ness is probably why he isn’t very knowledgeable about our internet problems and things like that. We asked him what movies he liked and he said, Titanic and Pearl Harbor.
Also when he said that this girl next to me, Morganne, who goes to Georgetown, said, sincerely, “Pearl Harbor is my absolute favorite movie.”
She wasn’t just being nice either.
Anyways…
The first thing you notice about Beijing, about China in general, is the pollution. There is a thick smog over everything and it is almost impossible to even see the sun. And when you do find it, it is like looking at the moon because you can stare directly at it with out any difficulty.
It’s kind of hard to adjust to the air, and Peg, the director said that if you plan to go running or anything like that, make sure you cut it down a few miles. I’m too scared to go out running yet though. I think I would get lost. Even though the campus is just a square, with N S E W gates, it’s in a very crowded area and I am just too much of a chicken. (Insert chicken dance here)
Even on the Great Wall it was only a little better than the air in the city, and I don’t understand how postcards of the wall have such blue skies because I can’t even imagine it being anything but grey.
Despite the fact that I couldn’t even keep down water I had a good time at the wall. There was a market strip on the way to the entrance to the wall and I was able to try my hand at bargaining and I picked up a few things including a jade Buddah for Susan. Chances are it isn’t actually Jade though. I also got a messenger type bag with Mao on it, and I love it. It’s the best thing. Bargaining is really fun though and I expect to get much better at it as time goes on. It was rough because I instantly wanted everything I saw. But apparently they have the same things everywhere, and the Wall has much higher prices then everywhere else. I kind of wish I had gotten an “I climbed the wall shirt,” but I’m sure I’ll find it somewhere. After a while I just didn’t even feel up to arguing with these people and paid 10 quai for a bottle of water. Which is only like $1.25 but it should have only been like 2 quai. I was exhausted though, and just didn’t care.
Also it’s difficult to know what we’re allowed to eat and not. For example we’re not supposed to eat ice ever, and at a bar we went to I asked for no ice very diligently, BUT, then some kid told us that the bar boils their water before they freeze it, so that in restaurants it’s generally okay to take ice. So how do I know whom to believe?
I think for now I’m just going to play everything on the safe side.
I’m really going to miss salad though. We can’t eat lettuce or celery or tomatoes, anything without a major peel like watermelons or oranges. For those reasons watermelons are really popular here. So it’s a good thing I love it.
The food we have besides that is good though, and I’m using chopsticks just fine. I do expect to be tired of it reasonably quickly though. 3 meals in and I had already been ordered the same cooked spinach mess every time. And I haven’t found anything I really love yet. Also using chopsticks so much cramps up my hand after a while, but I should get used to it soon enough.
I haven’t yet had to use any non-western style bathrooms. Because we’re in the international students dorm we have regular toilets and everything like that, the embassy bar had western toilets also. Besides that all the buildings on campus just have holes in the ground, and I am not very excited about that. And we do need to carry toilet paper with us. Especially next week when we leave for the silk road trip. Fortunately it’s not like you can’t buy toilet paper here and Lisa and I both came home with a package of like 12 each the first day we went out. So we’re set.
When I got back from the Great Wall at around 3pm I passed out until like 1 am. Now as it is almost 2am I think I’m going to take a year long shower- which don’t worry is not a big deal because we have a water limit per month and we’re only going to be here a few more days, so August is really up for grabs. Anyways I’m going to clean myself up and then clean or something, I don’t know.
At least I feel better.
posted by mal at 5:37 AM
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