Much Awaited Friends Inventory

Lisa:
Lisa is my roommate and is from Manilla, and goes to Ateno Manilla. She is very clean and I feel bad that I am not as so, but she is too amazing and nice to care. She is a business major and has a fancy internship doing marketing for a hospital so twice a week she leaves all dressed up while I like roll out of bed into class.

Sienara:

Sienara is from Indonesia but goes to Loyola New Orleans. She is no doubt my closest girlfriend here. Also we joke that her father is the Sultan of Indonesia, making her princess and heir to the throne. She lives on my floor.





Michael:
Michael is from Cali near San Fransisco and goes to Santa Clara University. He and I are very good friends, he likes martial arts and to piss me off. Very frequently I want to kill him. He lives directly under me so sometimes Lisa and I jump up and down just to bug him, no just kidding.





Danny:
Danny lives down the hall, and loves plants. He is from West Virginia and goes to school in West Virginia. He plays the guitar, and sometimes comes in and sings Lisa and I to sleep.






JT:
JT and Danny are roommates. Like I said they love plants, and are really good together. Which is interesting because they are nothing a like. JT is from Massechusets, and goes to Fairfield Conneticut. He wears polo shirts and plaid shorts and likes all the same music and movies as me. At first our similar interests were almost creepy, but we’ve gotten used to it. Also he loves Arrested, and wakes me up every morning, just about. Lisa and I don’t lock our door at night.


Jon:
Jon lives on the 4th floor. He and Danny were roommates on the silk road. He is from Boston and goes to school in California. He does a wicked Boston accent. He wants to be a sports journalist and talks sports and plays basketball almost as frequently as he breathes.





Jerome:
Jerome lives next door to Mike, and is like a cuddly bear. He is from Cincinnati and goes to BC. His room always smells like inscence and he watches a lot of Seinfeld and Aqua Teen.







Jamel:
Jamel and Mike were inseperable on the Silk Road, but now Jerome and Jamel have become a twosome we like to call, Jarrel. Jamel is from DC and goes to BC also. He has a twin sister and is a pretty good cartoonist. He also is really good and practiced in Kapewara, the African Dance fighting, and it is awesome.


Kev:
Kev was a late addition to my friends list because he spent the first few weeks in China after the silk road (he was on group A) in a hospital in Hong Kong because is ear drum exploded. We like to call him Grizzles, well, we tried but it didn’t really catch on. He is from Washington (the state) and goes to school there. He really likes the movie Captain Ron, it makes him feel how Love Actually makes me feel.


Carlos:
Carlos is also a Group A kid. He is from Maryland, and goes to school in Pennsylvania. He likes to draw with me and plays the Bass. He taught me how to play Only in Dreams on it. He’s on the third floor.



Jody:
Jody was group A also, and is also on the third floor. She is from St Louis, and goes to SLU. Technically she is a senior but because she’s staying here for a year she won’t graduate til next year. She is always energetic and happy (it scares me sometimes) and is just one of the most positive people I’ve met. We’re most likely going to be roomies next semester!

National Holiday/ First Week Off

Because Last Sunday was China’s National Holiday, (their 4th of July essentially) and last night was Mid Autumn Festival, aka Moon cake Festival, we had this past week off, and were able to do some traveling. And thanks to the beautiful amazing Donna Schwarz I had a brand spanking new camera just in time to set off and explore China. Therefore this post will have an especially large number of photos. That only adds to the story though, I think.

After a few days of confusing and unreliable planning we set off on Saturday Morning, the 31st, to Tian, with the intention of climbing Mt. Taishan.
“We” being, myself, Jon, JT, Danny and Kev. Me and the boys, I liked to call it.


We started out Saturday morning on a 7-hour train ride from Beijing to Tian with standing room only tickets (they were cheaper and our goal of this trip was to see a lot but not spend a lot.) Because we were fairly sure that standing for that long was not something we really wanted to do we opted to sit in the dining car for the entire time. This meant we had to cram 5 people into a 4-person table, with all our bags, and also that we had to order a certain amount of food. So the boys had some beers at 11 am, and we had mi fan (rice) and other things that I essentially just chose not to eat. At least we were sitting though.
We had gotten out tickets last minute through JT’s host student Nadia, and had come along with her and her boyfriend Dean, only for the first few days though.

Upon arrival in Tian we explored a little and bought some provisions for our nighttime adventure and then boarded a public bus. We would have been better off walking because of all the traffic, but eventually we made it to the base of Mt. Taishan.

We started climbing the 1550-meter tall mountain at around 8 pm. Before picture:

The climb wasn’t too bad to start out with, but only got worse as we went a long. Every time I thought we were getting to the top it turned out that wasn’t it, it was that teeny dot in the distance, or it was a point I couldn’t even see yet. It didn’t help that everyone climbing around us were carrying little day bags or purses and we had huge ass backpacking backpacks. For the last however long distance I broke out the ipod and some Mike Doughty to encourage me to get up there. When we finally did make it I still didn’t believe that it was true.

We finished the 6660 stairs around 4 hours later. At the top!:


I was dead tired, and whiny, and just ready to pass out. It was a group consensus though, so we set up our tents on a cement platform and headed off to bed, though not before donning warmer clothes.

We woke up about 4 hours later and trekked up some more stairs to a few ridges and platforms to watch the infamous sunrise. Legend has it that by making it up this mountain you are guaranteed to live for 100 year. We’ll see how that works out. I ‘ll let you know.

It’s also lucky to see the sunrise because it only really shows about 50 days of the year, and seeing how ours was pretty spectacular, I’m hoping this means my luck has changed. Although armed with my brand new camera that my loving mother got to me just in time, I would say it has. Here's Kev, Jon, and myself, bundled up for the chilly morning. We rented these coats to sleep in the night before.


The next three hours basically didn’t allow my camera to leave my hand. Because we had climbed up in the dark cover of night, there hadn’t been many scenery pictures taken, and it proved to be more breath-taking than even expected.




Also, as there was a monestary on top of this mountain, although Buddhist not Taoist like I had originally suspected, there were quite a few shrines on the way up. The red ribbons, and the locks both supposedly meaning good fortune, and the locks more specifically to ensure the longevity of a couple.

Now without Dean and Nadia we began our trip to Qing Dao all by our lonesomes, although I think Danny maybe had some of my luck because he got his wallet stolen on our bus ride back to the train station.

A 5 hour train ride later, this time in much more comfortable sitting tickets we arrive in Qing Dao. We search out a reasonably cheap hotel, especially for being so last minute, and find dinner. Like Taishan, it was hard to see the city’s glory that night and only after the darkness lifted the next morning did I really appreciate this city.

I love Qing Dao. A seaport city it is one of the cleanest in China, and because of that and it’s location compared to Beijing it is the sight of the sailing portion of the 2008 summer Olympics. It was founded by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and because of its European occupation boasts a large amount of very beautiful, and very western architecture. Many times I had to remind myself we were even in China.

We essentially just wandered the city for the next 4 days. After that first night in a hotel (we were desperate for a good nights sleep and a shower after the strenuous day/night we had had) we spent 2 nights camping on the shorefront. In Lushon Park. Lushon Park you have to pay 5 RMB to get into during the day, but at night you can just walk in. They’ve pretty much managed to make you pay for everything in China, including going to the bathroom. (1 RMB)


On the first day we split up (unintentionally, but it worked out) and JT, Kev and I visited the Tsing Tao Brewery, located on Beer Street. We had our first bout of seafood (though first of many) and then made our way back to the shore front near our beloved park to have another meal of mussels, clams, and beef noodle. Then another tented night.


The next day we woke up around 6 am and made our way to the other side of the peninsula to take us to Huan Dao, the island just a 30 minute ferry ride away that has the best beaches of the area. We did finally make it to the beach around noon (it proved very difficult to find the ferry, especially with Chinese people pointing us in many opposing directions) and spent the rest of the afternoon, into the evening there. We had to stop a few times to check the book and the map.

That night we met up with Mike, Jody, Jamel, and Jerome, they had done the same trip, Taishan to Qing Dao, but left two days later in order to spend the National Holiday in Beijing. We had a really good meal with them, a seemingly endless amount of food for so little of a price. Then we went back to our comfy tents and they to their hotel.

The next morning, our last full day we dropped off our bags in the inn we were staying that night and then went off to explore the city.

The inn. First let me tell you about our inn. JT, Kev and I discovered it in our wanderings the first day. It looked like a little antique shop, but turned out to be that and oh, so much more. This is Peter: he is the owner, and also lives there with his wife Helen. He took an endless number of pictures of us to add to the slideshow of foreigners he had going to show all who had graced his humble abode with their presence.
We were definitely lucky to find him.

For 40 RMB for the night we lived in these quaint little rooms, in which the boys couldn’t really even stand up in.

We really just explored the city for the rest of the day, went to a few more beaches, saw both a protestant and catholic church, Danny and I explored a castle, and on the beach found a bride festival or something… but that night Helen took us out to dinner. Peter had offered to cook us a dinner of endless seafood but we got back kind of late and opted to go out on the town. It proved to be a good decision as we suddenly came upon a nightlife we didn’t know existed. (I’m hoping there are hidden places like this in Beijing that we just need to find.)


Between the 5 of us, Helen, and another tenant, and their good friend Rose, we ate over 250 kabobs. There were liver kabobs, tendons, kidneys, full shrimps, chicken hearts, cloves of garlic, basically anything you could imagine. (Except pork, Jon can't eat pork.)

Then we cabbed it back to our favorite Qing Dao accommodations and had some guitar before we hit the hay, to wake up early that morning and board our final train back to Beijing. It was a sitter also, and besides JT being sick for about 6 of the 10 hours, it wasn’t too bad at all.

The Silk Road: the final installation

Day 8 continued. 8/23

After eating, and packing up our bags we hop back onto the busses and take them out to a random spot in the middle of the Goby Desert. There are already tents set up for us, so we merely grab sleeping bags and blankets and toss our stuff down before gallivanting off to play. There is much picture taking, wandering, ultimate Frisbee playing, and watermelon eating before we all gather around an enormous campfire. We sing for quite a while and then head off to bed dressed in our warmest to protect us against the frigid cold. Rumored frigid cold I should say, because by morning I was sweating.

Day 9. 8/24

This morning we woke up to an endless number of stars, we took a bus to the singing sand dunes and then boarded our camels to set off into the desert to find an appropriate spot to watch the sunrise. The camels were quite possibly the best thing that had happened so far. My camels name was Genevieve, and she was magnificent.
When we got to our sunrise spot the people tried to charge us 10 RMB each to use the stairs to get up the sand dune. Justin (one of our chaperone types) was furious. “This is not your sand!!!” Then in a fit of defiance he charged up the dune with all of us behind him.
The sunrise from the top was beautiful, though not as spectacular as I feel it would have been if there were a few less clouds in the sky. Still though, the sunrise over the Goby desert.
Then we took the camels to Crescent Moon Lake, which was kind of pointless, but I did play with the macro on Mike’s camera for a while and take some interesting pictures while I wandered about. A lot of the boys did ATV-ing, but I wasn’t about to spend 100 RMB for that.
Our faithful busses then took us to a restaurant back in town for another TBC provided lunch, which this time, surprise surprise included al the rest of the TBC-ers! Because there are so many in TBC this year we had split up into group A and group B each with 50 kids, and here we met up with our other half. This is Group A Brian and I. We hung out with them for a while that afternoon and then we put back on the bus and back to the train station for one of our longest train rides yet.
Fortunately this time we had soft sleepers- cars with individual rooms with 4 beds each in them, instead of stacked openly in the cars, which are called “hard sleepers.” Don’t know why, the bed quality is about the same.

Day 10. 8/25
Once we got off the train we found that our hotel was merely across the street, so we crossed as one big horde of Americans (this got us quite a few stares) and dropped our stuff off. Then we took a bus, then a boat, to get too the Binglingsi caves, which interestingly enough are what my presentation had been on.
Carved over a period of 1500 years, the Binglingsi caves were an important center of Buddhism that flourished under the Song and Ming dynasties. Excavation work began only in 1952, and the caves are accessible only by boat and only during the summer.

Though Buddhism originated in India, thanks to the Silk Road by 3rd Century AD it was flourishing in China. Around 1st Century AD missionaries first began traveling to the Oasis Kingdoms in eastern Turkistan via the Silk Road to encourage the religion’s spread throughout Central Asia.

As the religion became more popular so did the tradition of excavating caves to serve as Buddhist Temples. Buddhist sanctuaries were carved into cliffs mainly in secluded valleys. The locations for the places of worship were frequently chosen for their beautiful landscapes, many Buddhists were said to have enlightening visions in the selected areas.

After viewing the main Buddha and grottos, a few of us dropped 10 RMB and hopped into a jeep to go farther onto into the wild of the area. We found a group of Buddhist monks who gladly showed us about their home, and with a mix of poor Chinese and poor English we ended up having a nice cup of tea with them.
This is a picture taken from the ferry that took us to Binglingsi.
That night after a really good dinner in a local restaurant where one of our dishes was set on fire, and I spilled JT’s beer all over myself, we went out to a club because it was one of our local guides, Summer’s, birthday, so we all celebrated with her and danced the night away.

Day 11. 8/26
We checked out of our hotel promptly this morning and took a bus to Yellow River Park. Then for a small fee (everything in China costs a small fee, though it’s not always small) I boarded a goatskin boat and made my way across the river. This was an interesting notion for a few reasons.One is they say if you go into the Yellow River you’ll never again be clean the rest of your life, another is that these boats were made of dead beheaded goats, whose bodies had been gutted and then blown up and tied together.
That was kind of a gruesome description, probably more so than necessary. It was kind of gross though.

The rest of the day was spend in route to Xiahe (“Sha-huh”) no doubt my favorite location of the whole trip. Xiahe is a “significant Tibetan monastery town that attracts many devout Buddhist pilgrims to its Labrang Monastery every year. As a result the town is a mix of Hui, Tibetan, and Han Chinese.”
Upon arrival we were presented with traditional “Hadas” long white cloths, like a scarf, that are a traditional practice of respect and hospitality in Tibet. Then we walked off for our group dinner down the street for our hotel. Unfortunately we (Danny, Jamel, JT, Mike, Jon, and I) got lost on the way to the restaurant- though it literally was straight down the street from our hotel no corners or anything, and arrived a bit behind schedule. I had to scarf down my food in order to leave in time to reach our evening event, which was an amazing traditional Chinese dance presentation. Not everyone went because it was 80 RMB, but I am so glad I did, I loved it.

Then back to our incredible, no exaggeration, hotel, it was so wonderful, only made more wonderful by the breakfast they served us the next morning.

Day 12. 8/27
For breakfast for today, and tomorrow, we had really good thick bread with jam, fried eggs, and coffee. It was amazing. Especially in comparison to the traditional Chinese breakfasts we were being served everywhere else, Chinese breakfasts consist of pickled vegetables, and rice porridge with vinegar, and just awful awful things. That I think is the worst part of China, the breakfasts, and maybe the driving.
We then walked down the road to the Labrang Monastery.We had a tour through the primary worship and ritual areas and then had a few minutes to meet with one of the monks and talk to him and ask questions, with translators present. We learned quite a bit about Buddhism, including the 3 basic evils, 1. Hatred, 2. Ignorance, 3. Desire.
After the morning spent at the monastery I spent the afternoon with Mike, shopping basically. He is an exceptional bargainer, and we did very well. Too well I think maybe.
We also had a really good lunch across the street from the hotel in this café with such. Good. Pizza. It was amazing. Unfortunately the secret got out and soon almost all of our 50 person group was there and the pizza’s started taking a really really long time. I had lots of time to wander the village though and didn’t mind.

Late that afternoon we took a somewhat pointless bus ride out to see local peoples yak farm. It was freezing, and not that interesting, but the yaks were pretty cool; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a yak in real life before.

Day 13. 8/28
This morning I woke up at 5:30 am, and with a group of about 5 others, set out to walk and spin the prayer wheels. This is an important part of Tibetan (Theravada) Buddhism and most people of this town come out every morning, the monks also. The multitude of wheels circles the entire monastery and if you correctly follow the procedure it takes about 2 hours to complete. It only took us an hour and a half but that is primarily because we were not allowed inside many of the more sacred areas where the largest prayer wheels were held, still it was a really significant ordeal for me.
After yet another wonderful breakfast we checked out of our hotel and made our way back to the train station at Lanzhou.

Day 14. 8/29
Home stretch.
Only a few days left of the trip, unfortunately this day was probably my most unlucky yet, rivaling my hospital stay. Curse my parents for naming me Mallory (“unlucky one”)

I spent the night on the train throwing up again, so for this first day in Xi’an (She-an) I laid discontented in my hotel room instead of visiting some of the local sights, though I heard I didn’t miss out on too much. By the early evening I was feeling a lot better, better enough to go out to the Big Goose Pagoda water show.
We got completely ripped off on our cab ride on the way there, with the driver going in just straight circles to rack up our meter, and us scouring a dictionary trying to figure out how to say things like, “don’t trick us” It was ridiculous and we ended up paying twice what other groups going to the same place paid.
We get out of the cab, and walk 20 feet before I realize my camera is not in my bag.

Therefore it must be in the cab.

We try to run after the cab, I’m hitting myself because of course this is the one time I didn’t ask the driver for the receipt.
To forget my troubles we end up causing a huge spectacle by dancing in the water show. It really did astound me though that no one else did this. But a group of Americans certainly caused a stir, and after we were though we had quite a few pictures taken with random Chinese.



Day 15. 8/30
This morning I am very glad I was not sick, but very bummed I didn’t have a camera. (I had Justin call the cab company numerous times over the next few days but to no avail.)

I was happy to not be sick because this day was the trip to see the infamous Terracotta warriors. They were awesome; we even got to meet with the farmer who discovered them only 30 years ago. He doesn’t usually meet with groups, and he even took a picture with us, which he never does.
I bought a small terracotta warrior here, you can really get them at any tourist shop in China, but because there were in the actual museum they are certified to be more authentic, and actually made from the same clay as the actual ones. You may not believe that, but I do, and hopefully my little general will protect me from any further misfortune.
Then we had lunch at the museum which included optional snake wine, of course, we took that option. This is China, we don't want to miss out on anything.

We also visited a wax museum of what they suspect Qin Shi Huang’s tomb looks like, though it hasn’t been excavated. Supposedly there are rivers of mercury on which his coffin flows throughout the interior of his tomb, and he was buried with his concubines and warriors to protect him and keep him company. It was a pretty magnificent wax tomb I though.

We spent that afternoon at an herb market, primarily used for Chinese Medicine treatments, a lot of people complained but I really enjoyed wandering through the bins and bushels of snakes and centipedes (dead) and dried plants and such. I even ate a scorpion. It was salty.

Day 16. 8/31

After checking out of our hotel we stashed our bags in the lobby and walked to the city wall. There we got to spend the morning biking along it to view this ancient city from above. Xi’an was China’s capital for 11 dynasties over 4000 years. “Xi’an peaked during the Tang Dynasty, when its position at the eastern end of the Silk Road transformed it into a bustling metropolis, luring foreign merchants and faiths, including Nestorian Christians, Muslims, Zoroastrians, Manicheans, and Buddhists.”


After a few hours on the bikes we made our way down art and Antique Street where I was able to find a surprising number of appropriate gifts, and just fun souvenirs. Not that any of you are getting gifts or anything…

That night we had the best meal of the trip, including steak, and these incredible potato things, and just the best food, and then we packed onto our very last train back to Beijing.

The End. (Of the Silk Road at least)