I'm going to first apologize for not updating much sooner, however several factors have prevented me from updating my little blog. First, I have been incredibly busy lately. This week, after coming back from my fall break, my Chinese class began learning two chapters a week instead of just one like we had been. So, it goes without saying that Chinese now takes up the majority of my life. Also, this website has been down for almost the entire week. Apparently they were updating the site so that it worked with all web browsers? Anyway, I will try to catch you up as best as I can, but I will not give my vacation in Shanghai the attention it really deserves, because it has been over a week and I don't remember all the small details. Without further ado, here I go:
Fall Break:
My fall break began on a Friday afternoon. After a final dinner in Beijing, consisting of Jiaozi and fried rice, Muh and I quickly packed our things and headed out the bus. Ten steps before arriving at the bus station Muh stopped me and said, "I don't have my uncle's phone number. Do you think we should go back to get it?" My immediate response was in the negative, because we were already running late and I was carrying a really heavy bag. This decision would later come back to haunt us. So after a very rushed and absurdly cramped bus and subway ride, we arrived at the train station just in time to sit down in our seats as the train began to pull away from the station.
Surprisingly, I had very little trouble falling asleep on the train and got a decent nights rest in my seat, which was definitely a good thing. When we arrived in Shanghai, we were supposed to meet Muh's uncle (who lives in Shanghai and also in California) at the train station. Unfortunately, we were given a decision: to exit to the south or the north. I think I recommended the north. Obviously I chose incorrectly. Muh's uncle was no where in sight, and to add injury to insult, it was beginning to rain. After waiting for about an hour, Muh and I decided to walk to the south exit to see if we could find his uncle, but we had no luck. I soon discovered that we did not have Muh's uncle's name (real Chinese name), address, or PHONE NUMBER. Soooooo we were pretty much high and dry. Muh made phone calls to everyone in China that he could think of, and eventually got the phone number of an emergency contact that his uncle had given him in Beijing. We were so happy when he actually picked up and was able to give us Muh's uncle's phone number. He had been waiting for us for close to three hours at the other exit, and we had been wondering around for just as long. Long story short, it was a long day, but we finally made it back to Muh's uncle's apartment, where Muh's parents were also waiting for us.
Shanghai was a really beautiful city and the architecture was amazing! The Muh's took incredible care of me, and I had several family dinners that involved way too much food and way too much alcohol for the patriarchs of the family. I had tons of seafood, which was a great change of pace from all the food of Beijing. I even ate some live shrimp, which was interesting to say the least. They put the live shrimp into a bowl of wine, so that they are incredibly inebriated when they arrive at the table, so they never really moved around (though one did right before Muh was going to bite down). Most of our time in Shanghai was spent was spent celebrating with the Muh family, which was amazing, and the other portion of our time was spent shopping around Shanghai. The markets were really beautiful in Shanghai, and offered a huge selection of Chinese merchandise.
However, the entire week was not spent in Shanghai. We also made a few side trips to some cities near by. Our first trip was to Hangzhou, which is thought to be one of the most beautiful cities in China by some. It was a really fun tour, and the west lake was incredibly beautiful. However, our entire tour was in Chinese, so Muh had to translate for me quite often. Our other excursion was with Muh's parents on a two day trip to Nanjing. Nanjing was the capital of China until it was moved to Beijing, and so has a great deal of political history. Our first day of touring was around Nanjing, and only consisted of various political sites and a few tourist traps. The weather also wasn't very good, which put a damper on the day as well. The second day consisted of a trip to another city, which was about an hour from Nanjing by bus. The city had three very famous Buddhist temples, one of which was on an island. The weather was horrible again, but still incredibly interesting and beautiful! I'm sorry I didn't go into much detail about these trips, but swing by my picture site to check out all of my pictures!
This Weekend:
This weekend was particularly exciting. My Friday was very uneventful consisting of a huge Chinese test, and a very long nap. However, Saturday was amazing! Someone found an indoor skiing facility outside of Beijing and organized a day trip. If you know me, you probably know that I love skiing, but have not been for a really long time, so needless to say, I was very excited. My university's tennis coach and two Chinese roommates drove our group out the indoor facility, which was about an hour away from school. The whole day, including transportation, food, ski rentals (or snowboard), boots rentals, ski clothes rentals, and lift ticket for the entire day costs only $24 USD. The facility consisted of a bunny slope and also an advanced slope. I was really surprised at how nice the snow was, and even more surprised at how quickly I remembered how to ski. After only two runs on the bunny slope, I headed to the top of the advanced slope and was set for the rest of the day! I had a great time, and I would love to go back again sometime before I leave! It still is one of my favorite activities of all time!
Sunday was another really eventful day. Despite the fact that I was sick all day, and still am, with a mild cold, I managed to have a good time. Myself and a small group headed out to see the temple of heaven, which is relatively close to Tiananmen Square. Unfortunately, I was not aware of how cold it was outside, and the 30mph wind did not help to keep me warm either. The majority of the day was spent outdoors, and was freezing, but the sky was clearer than I have ever seen it in Beijing (I suppose all of the smog was blown out of the city). The temple of Heaven was incredible, but unfortunately, because of the freezing weather it was a rather quick run through the temple, so my knowledge is very limited on exactly what the contents of the temple are at this point. The one place that stood out in my mind was a spot called the echo wall. This area is enclosed in a nearly perfectly circular wall and a round pagoda stands in the middle. If someone speaks in a normal voice next to the wall on a certain section of the wall, and someone listens for them across the area, up to around 80 yards away, the first person’s speech can be heard perfectly. It was really amazing!
After freezing our tails off in the Temple of Heaven, we headed to get some MEXICAN FOOD! One of our classmates had told us that there was a Mexican restaurant close to a certain subway stop. So after another hour long walk to the subway, which left us all nearly frozen, we rode for two stops for a nice confusing 30 minute walk around the subway area looking for the restaurant. However, it was well worth the wait. The name of the restaurant was Pete's TexMex and was populated by lots of Americans looking for a break from Chinese cuisine. I had a delicious enchilada dish and a margarita. It really hit the spot.
Needless to say, I am completely exhausted and not very prepared for my next week of classes, so I will leave you here and recommend that you head over to my picture site to check everything out. The Shanghai pictures are listed under Shanghai, the Ski pictures are under Beijing at the very end, and the Temple of Heaven pictures are under Temple of Heaven. Sorry again for the lack of updates!
