I'm a lazy girl
Just a heads up that I apologize for the delay but there's nothing new or exciting for me here. I guess it's because a lot of what's "new and exciting" is getting much more normal for me. Strange (but don't worry mom, I don't spit or anyting - at least not very well ...). I also realize how bizarre I am to some of the people here. I get my lunch to go quite often so I can eat and do some work in my room. I'm very often by myself because everyone has other things to do and while that is fine, it's just not something people here do. There is always a group or a community. Each person I meet has a "buddy" or best friend who goes everywhere with them. I guess I don't really have that. I mean, I'm friends with everyone, just not super connected. It feels a little lonely sometimes. I kinda miss not having people around all the time. I know I can easily go downstairs and make friends, but it's also hard knowing that I'm leaving in 2 months, and I know I'll never e-mail or keep in touch with them, because I do a crappy job with the friends I have, and I've loved them for years. Ahh, I guess I'm just a little homesick.
PS - if you want a postcard, send me your address, especially if you just moved to a new house which I hope is cleaner and getting to feel more like a home...
Putuo Shan - another freakin' mountain!
It was a dull a week as I expected, but still kinda nice to be somewhere with a rountine. But they shipped us off on Friday night to an island called Putuo. I'm on the fast boat back now to Shanghai, but I'll recount the last couple of days. It was definitely an incredible weekend. It's a popular spiritual spot for Buddhists, filled with monestaries and holy sites. I've never seen so many buddhas or smelled so much incense in my entire life. It was really neat to take part in and observe people worshiping in the temples because it is something I know so little about and the rituals that I perform as part of my own religion just don't have the beauty or the colour that this did. This isolated island is kind of wierd, though. It's holy and spiritual, but you have to pay admission to get on the island, kind of like Disney for Buddhists. It's very tiny, and reminded me of the carribean islands that we stopped at when I went on cruises with my parents for its size and the fact that its covered with tourists. We went as a class (28 of us including our Fudan partners) with the Norweigan class from Bergen University (19 including their partners) but some of the Fudan student's couldn't go (including my partner) so it was closer to 40 people altogether. Anyways, we took the overnight 11 hour ferry (yeah, it was as bad as it sounds - we were 3rd class, so most of the rooms had 4 bunks - luckily all the people in my room were Queen's people that I liked). I barely slept because it rocked like nobody's business. I didn't feel sick, I think I THOUGHT I might be sick, so I kept myself up. At least I didn't have to get out of bed like the two girls on the top bunks, I don't think they slept more than an hour at a time. We arrived at 8am, went to the hotel (where we couldn't check in yet, so we had breakfast and threw our stuff into a couple of rooms that were ready). and then went to see the largest central monestary PujiFayu, then went through a nearby trail that lasted us until lunchtime. We had an English speaking tour guide who gave us loads of
information on the structures and temples, so I'll leave it up to your internets to give you what I learned. After lunch everyone took a nap (except Trista and & because our room, while we had the key, had not been cleaned and I was not about to nap on dirty bedsheets - this is not how they do it at home). After being cranky for a bit, I got over it as we boarded the bus to see more of the island. We had a great rest of the day and a few of us went to the night market, where I tried to bargain and while I thought I did a good job, I failed horribly (I know this because my first offer on some trinkets for Tina was immediately accepted by the store clerk - so I know she would have taken much less - gosh!). After another early morning, we were told that we wouldn't be climbing the mountain because there would be too many people so we saw the temple of the "Reluctant to Go" Guanyin, a beautiful temple with incredible wood and jade tableaus of the different stories and legends of the Buddhas. It was gorgeous, by far the most incredible sight so far on the island (other than the scenery itself which was breathaking). Well, I'm a little tired, so maybe it's time for that nap...
The long way home
(The following I'm posting on the 18th along with a string of other stuff, but this is from my written journal - as I had no internet access for the road home - but for the delay, I apologize, I guess I've just gotten a little lazy...)
I am starting the 20 hour trek to Nanjing (because I couldn't get a direct train to Shanghai). I've been here for 4 hours already (it kind of flew by). It was beautiful to watch the sun set behind the mountains. There's a little boy in my bunk who is so cute, but I'm pretty sure his teeth are rotting. He speaks no English and I no Chinese, but we seem to get along well. He's fun (in smaller doses - we make faces at eachother and he rambles on at me in Chinese thinking that I understand, and sometimes I do, but it's not his words). This train is a little different. No TV's, quieter music and partial walls that extend along the foot of the beds. There are also bed lights, key if I get up in the middle of the night (which I always do - especially when the train stops and they lock the bathrooms, which totally sucks when you have to go!). We've jolted a couple of times, makes me thing we hit something, but people seem less than concerned about it, so who knows? The train is great. I've been approached by a few people who speak a little English and I met Trista and Adam who are by chance on a connecting car (Adam was getting hot water when I was just going to brush my teeth. Wierd!). They gave me chocolate, so I was happy. I realize that I haven't written much since the warriors. I did very little on Friday, went for lunch in the Muslim area with Steve and Clive (two Auzzies who were travelling seperately but both leaving on the same day to different destinations). I've been having a beer with them in the evenings for the past few nights, so it was kind of fun to have a bit of a send-off. We traded e-mails and hopefully I'll hear from them (Clive was epsecially interested in my trip to Huashan - it's coming up, don't worry I'll fill you in). He's a little older and just had surgury on his ankle, so he couldn't do the whole trip). We had lunch at a restaurant where I ordered skewers of beef in Chinese! (shu wu niurou) and we picked a couple of veggies at random, which was fantastic. We wandered and tried to help Clive, a hopeless bargainer (he starts at the price he wants to pay, not low enough to work up to a good price), to find a chess set for his son and a Northface jacket (well, it says made in China on it, but the fleece is much poorer quality than my MEC fleece, so I feel a little spoiled). That night was another wander down the muslim quarter with Silvia for fruit on a stick (like mini-Candy apples) and back to the hostel for a dumpling party - we maked (and ate) tons of dumplings. Even those who didn't make any got their fill. It was great! I got to bed early after saying goodbye to Kay and Silvia (Kay for Luoyand and Silvia for Chendun) to leave early to hike the mountain, called Huashan (shan means mountain). I
I climbed the mountain and when i got to the first peak (after abut 5 hours) I was exhausted, and also it got really cloudy so the scenery kinda sucked when I reached the top. I figure i could stay the night and see the sunrise, if it wasn't crappy out - but there was no guarantee that it was not going to be crappy. Also, I had to catch an afternoon train, so i didnt want to push it. So, I hiked straight up for 1500 metres, and man, It worked a number on my legs!! Oh well, at least i got to spend the worst hours on a train. I met this really nice girl from isreal at the top and we went down on the cable cars and back to Xi'an together, which was nice, because it was kind of sketchy for a while, especially when the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, telling us we were in the city, when we were really outside of it. It was nice to be with someone then, but it was also nice to be alone for most of it. I actually had 2 buddies on the trip. The first guy was on the bus and spoke some English, and when he got off , he invited me to go with him & his friends, we stoppe for lunch first and bought some supplies, and then started up. I let them go ahead after about an hour (I wanted to take my time, I didn't have a schedule), and met up with another guy for about half an hour (about 2 hours after leaving the first group), then i met the israili girl at the top. it was a friend-meeting kind of day. It was incredible and not I'm exhausted, so I hope to sleep lots on the train. Next week won't be nearly as exciting, I'm sure.
Xi'an again, oh crap I'm running out of titles
Yet another completely surreal day. I wanted to go for a tour of the terracotta warriors today, so I talked to the front desk who can only organize it if more than one person goes, so I posted a note asking for people to join me. Two people were sort of interested but thought it was too expensive and suggested that we go without a tour, which we did via public busses. One lady is from Italy (Silvia) and a guy from Singapore (Kaw pronounced like "Tie" with a "k"). We left at about quarter to 9 and arrived at the hot springs shortly after, wandered around (in the rain, no less) until about 11:30. The hot springs are really net because they are a palace getaway for many of the later dynasties in the winter time, up in the mountains. It was beautiful, and they had a little museum going with it, with girls standing in costume on the third floor, posing as the concubines and servants would. The girl playing the concubine figure (a very famous, exquisitely beautiful concubine - there's a big statue devoted to her) was stunning. I got a picture of her, but wondered how comfortable she must be sitting there on the stone "bathtub" type backdrop they had set up. The rest of the compound was beautiful despite the rain, and we got to see the ruins of the old pools, as well as have the chance to pay for a touch of the water(which we didn't). Acutally we stumbled upon a small tea-house that had a hot spring fountain outside of it, so we put our hands in that instead (for free - yay for being cheap!! Let me just gloat that I got half price everywhere except the terracotta warriors, which was 90 kuai, so expensive, but so worth it!!). It didn't smell like sulphur, and I don't think they treated the water, so I kind of wonder how they did it. Well, I was exhausted and hungry, but we pressed on. The next stop of the bus was the Mosaleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor). It's basically this well tended hill that has been turned into a tourist place. There are 283 steps leading up to the top of the mound to singify the donation by the government of Singapore to the preservation of this site, and also has one of the first carvings in the standardized Chinese language created by Emperor Qin. It's really neat because the emperor is still somewhere down in that hill because they don't really have the technology to excavate it without it potentially collapsing and they don't know if the soil will release any metals or other elements that would possibly affect the surrounding ecosystem. They are still excavating around the mound, and the thing is freaking huge! And for this huge space, it's less than half, maybe a quarter of the entire burial ground which included residences, the terracotta army, it was like a city for some dead dude. Wierd!!!
Lastly (and I was exhausted by now!) was the Terracotta Warrior museum. It was by far the hightlight of my day. We started at the museum part - with jade pieces and such. It was nice and I liked looking at everything, but it was when we hit the second pit that it really hit me. there are 3 pits that were excavated in the surrounding area and they've built the museum up surrounding these sites so that tourists can walk around and see it. We went pit #2, #3 then #1 (the coolest!). The second pit didn't have too much, mostly it was still being excavated, and was there as a tool to show people how much work there was left to do. They had uncovered most of the roof covering the warriors (it was purposely all sealed up by the makers of the tomb, which is kind of wierd - these warriors were all buried and purposely hidden). The third pit was almost completely destroyed from weathering and such. Actually in the second pit, there were indents where people had placed other tombs ontop of this one (not knowing what was underneath it). It's funny that only in 1974 did they even know that these things existed. Bill Clinton called it the "Eighth wonder of the world" and they use that phrase constantly. It is pretty incredible though. The big pit, and the first to be discovered (also the most well preserved) is the first one, with row up on row (eleven in total) of standing terracotta warriors. Each one is different in facial features, dress, hair, shape, size, you name it, they're unique! They've found about 2000 but estimate that there are about 6000 total (that haven't yet been unearthed or have been destroyed). The pictures are incredible, if I do say so so myself!
After a ridiculously long day (and a fantastic one at that), I headed home and had dinner at one of the Moselm restaurants. Spicy beef, mutton, soup, bread, beer, for about 13 bucks for 3 people. It was great!! We (Sylvia and Kew were still with me!) then wandered and tasted all there was to taste, and see all there was to see on this street. it was great.
PS I did run into a couple of people who came to Xi'an with me, who ended up just at the terracotta warriors (where I ran into them) and while it was the highlight, I'm so glad that I did it all. They paid so much for an organized tour, and I got entry and food for less than 30 bucks (for the whole day), and that includes a little trinket for my dad (mom, I already got you something, and Jaclyn won't tell me what she'd like, so I'm at a loss!!) Well, my fingers are now exhausted and it's time for a beer.
Holy cow, I feel so lucky. I still can't believe that I'm out here. I've had so many strange experiences, most of which I can't even write about because It would take up about 6 blogs (this is just one day and I've been writing for almsot an hour!!) But Ill write again soon, don't you worry.
PS, sorry about all the spelling, the keyboard sticks and I'm kinda on a roll (also the spell check function usually erases my post, so I've given up on that)
Jenn
Xi'an part deux
Well, another whirlwind day today. It started at the crack of 10 (ok, 9:30 I finally got up, had some breakfast and was out the door at 10). I headed down the street to the Moslem area, wandered the market and got the closest thing to a Christmas ornament that i could find for my mom (you need to attatch a hook, but it's miniature and unique - trust me, i've been to 3 touristy cities and I haven't yet seen these!), it was still too soon after breakfast so I wasn't hungry, although there were all sorts of slabs of animals and delicious nut cakes and such (no pork!). I then entered the "Great Mosque". It was beautiful. Not really a place of worship anymore, but definitely spiritual and very pretty. It's more like a scenic garden with a different cultural connection to China. I saw a great big white guy in one of those brimless caps that the men tend to wear. He may have been wearing it for religious reasons, or he may have just been a dopey guy (i vote for dopey tourist). Anyways, after coming out of more markets (possibly with a burburry purse in tow) I hopped on a bus (with my fingers crossed) and tried to find my way to the History Museum. Now, it took me until Shanghai to discover the joy of student discounts, and pretty much anywhere that offers a discount here in Xi'an, I got, except for the museum, which only grants it to Chinese students. Even thought I'm a Fudan student, I don't "qualify". Oh well, at least i got most of my stops at half price (I saved almost 3 canadian dollars on admissions today, and spent about 10 - but i went a lot of places today). So the stupid museum didn't give me a discount, but i went in anyways. It was great, lots of old pots and bells, but once you've been to one Chinese museum, it all kind of looks the same. I especially like the gravy boat section. They, of course, call them water jugs, but come on! I know a gravy boat when I see one! Anyways, the really big standout feature of this museum was a skull from a homo erectus from 1.5 million years ago with this huge backward-extending skull and these large gaps between the cheekbone and the eye socket. Coooooool. The other thing that was neat with the Qin dynasty secion that actually had 4 of the terracotta warriors removed from the first Emperor's tomb. It's neat because none of them were the same size, their faces were completely different, and it's a popular belief that this is because the hundreds of warriors are modeled after actual people. They also had some beautiful pottery and jade figurines. I lurked behind a French guy and his tour guide (private tour guide - fancy!) to hear a little bit about the Tang Dynasty, but he went shopping and i got bored, so it ended there.
Then, armed with only my map, I decided to go to the Big Goose Pagoda. En route I found this cool garden and park/square area littered with people. It was part carnival, part shopping, part just milling around. It was about 2, and I was a little famished, so I headed to a restaurant. It was a Moslem restaurant, and only one guy spoke english (poorly) so I did a lot of pointing and got mutton dumplings (really good!) and some veggies for $12 kuai, about $2 bucks. These three girls next to me were filming me eating - wierd.... I mean, I did look kind of stupid, but was i really worth the film? I know i've been asked to be in a number of photos, but I know there are tons more that I don't even know that I'm in. Well, I left the noise of the square for a little tea hut in the garden area, and after about 30 minutes, there was a great blast of music. Apparently the square isn't a square, but a big-ass fountain, about the size of a football field. Well, I rushed over (with everyone else) and this football field of fountain began to pulse to the music (it had been dry an hour ago, just the spouts are in the square - so it's not like I missed a football-field sized pool or anything). Anyways, it was awesome, the little kids loved it, I LOVED it, I'm such a dweeb! Well, I then finally got around to the pagoda, a beautiful Daoist sanctuary with this huge tower (the pagoda, I think it refers to the physical structure) which I climbed for a reduced price of 10 Kuai, and I'm not regretting not getting a gym membership now. Holy crap. But what amazed me more was that people my grandmothers age or older were climbing all the way to the top. Jeeze! I took a bunch of pictures, and they had the same set up with incence that the small temple in Shanghai had, so I didn't participate this time, only because it was waaay too touristy and i don't know enough about the religion (PS, if you are Uncle Greg or Aunt Sheila, Christmas wish list: A book on Daoism. I have lots of photos to upload still, but I'd love it if you could help me find out what a lot of the statues mean. Today there were these huge murals that i'm sure were telling a story, i just wish I knew the story). Anyways, enogh of that, I walked for 30 minutes to find the bus home (saw the bus, just didn't know where it stopped) and finally gave up and took a cab. $2 bucks later, I was home. Woo hoo!! So now i'm blogging, looking for somewhere to eat, and planning a trip out of the city tomorrow to the tomb of Emperor Qin (terracotta warriors, and around there is a hot spring and another museum!! Go Gravy boats!). Now, i'm exhausted, so another day!!
PS, I still read the Globe and Mail, and a message to my folks:
The only Disney I'm going to is in California (or Hong Kong)! The one in France was pretty cool, but it was France ...
Xi'an
Well, I survived a 16 hour train ride with some kind of food-problem (ie, had to keep visiting the hole in the ground they called a toilet - by golly it was an experience I hope never to re-live - although it could have been much worse, ie. dirtier). Bowels aside, it was a smooth ride, smoother than from beijing to shanghai, and we met a couple of English speaking people on the train who were really nice (we being the two other people from Queen's who happened to be on the same train - we're not travelling together - I'm a much better loner). I arrived this morning at the train station at about 9am. By 11:30 I was out of my hostel and on the street ready to party! I went across the street (via underground - there's lots of these things here, so you need to do very little street crossing. That's a good thing because the crazy driving in Shanghai is NOTHING compared to this! This is worse than Beijing even - that's bad) to the bell tower. There is a fantastic view of the bell tower from the lounge of the hostel. The hostel itself is on the third floor of this post-office building. It looks really cruddy and gross, but it's really nice once you get past the hallway. Anyways, I checked out the bell tower today - beautiful, caught a traditional musical performance (3 songs) and went on my way. I went to see the Stone Tablet Museum, collections of Chinese Calligraphy engraved into stone. It might have been more interesting if I could read it, but I still recognized Confucius and mencius (by their name-plates). Lastly I decided to climb the city wall (about 40 steps, but then it circles the entire old city, in which the Bell Tower is smack in the middle). I walked for about an hour and a half and covered about a quarter of the wall - South Gate to West Gate). It was wonderful, and oh so tiring. I still promise I'm working on the website, it's just not going to happen when I'm in Xi'an or wherever else I decide to go!! Well, I'll elaborate later, my internet time is up, and I'm hungry for dinneR!
Bye
One Wild & Crazy Night!
I unfortunately have to forego reporting the last few days’ activities. I have had the most unbelievable day (of which the night alone will take up this entire post – I swear, when I get a few minutes tomorrow, I’ll post some more, this was just too damn crazy!).
So I was out all day today in the older section of town (quite beautiful, have lots of pictures), and told Kate that I would meet her by her gym for dinner and maybe to go out for a bit (possibly shopping down Nanjing, who knew …). Her gym is about an hour and a half walk away from where I was, so I left around 5 and reached People’s Square, where I took the subway one stop to her exit (I was already runny a little later than the 45 minutes I said I’d be there in). I almost took the bus from where I was to People’s Square (it would have required me to walk a block in the opposite direction of where I was going, so I didn’t do that. Well, I arrive at People’s Square, normally a popular area, around 6pm. People’s square is not just one intersection; it’s about two intersections, north & south on Tibet Rd. Nanjing, the big shopping streets is the northern intersection and extends East/West with the pedestrian part extending only east. I don’t know what the other street is, but it has the museum, art gallery and urban planning museum all in the same complex. There is also a large park at the centre garden of the square. Anyways, I walk from south to north up Tibet Rd. and notice hundred (if not thousands) of young people just congregating on the sidewalk and the travel is just getting a little on the difficult side, so I go to the mall to catch the train, which you are unable to access until October 7. So I walked a block north to Nanjing Rd where the pedestrian mall is, so see if I could access the metro there (because People’s Square is a transfer point for the two lines, there are two entrances that are a bit farther apart. However, if you go down the entrance closer to line 1, you can still walk to line 2, just underground). Thankfully I could, the street looked a little busy, but not more than a hoard of tourists would make it (the street takes about an hour or so to stroll down – it’s pretty long), so I headed into the subway, met up with Kate and had the most AMAZING vegetarian meal I’ve ever head. We had this “crab” dish that tasted like rice vinegar & ginger (all of the meat is “simulated”, there is no meat, no egg, no preservatives, no MSG – rare in this city – and all of the produce is organic), some dumplings with spinach, garlic, tofu & mushrooms in it, and this spicy dish of buckwheat noodles (kind of looked like oma’s noodle-like dumplings. You know, the white ones that are thinner, not the big ones she puts in soup) and carrots. Kate & I also had a glass of Cucumber, Kiwi and Pear juice. Wow, it was delicious!! So we leisurely enjoy our meal, eat much more than we should (and still spend less than any western restaurant. We paid less than 8 dollars Canadian each for the entire meal) and decide to check out People’s Square to see if there are still tons of people there. Well, we’re about a fifteen to twenty minute walk from People’s Square (I took the metro to get here, but it’s only one stop – but I was EXHAUSTED from a full day of walking – I swear, I’ll post it later!) and we knew we were going in the right direction because hoards of people were walking with us. Along the way were vendors of all kinds, lots of food vendors (smelled so yummy, but we were so full!), musicians, jewelry, and the popular items of the night – blow up things. It definitely sounds weird, but everyone wanted a blow up toy – they were mostly mallet-shaped (I got a “My Melody” one. It’s about 3 feet long and has My Melody’s face on either side of the mallet), Kate got a hammerhead shark of the same size that says “Get Hammered” (which works on so many levels). There were bigger ones, some smaller ones; blow up crowns, the blow up mace was cool, baseball bats, rods, hats/masks – all inflatable. Kate & I resisted at first because they look kind of stupid and we really didn’t know what they were for, so we kept walking. We finally get to Tibet Rd, the big intersection where the pedestrian mall starts, and there are people EVERYWHERE! Standing at the mouth of the subway, we took a few pictures, but it was a steady sea of people for the entire strip, plus all of the people continually streaming in, and it went right down to the bund, which is an extra half hour of walking. I’d tell you the distance in kilometer but I can’t find a map with a scale. We wandered down the entire rest of Nanjing road, witnessing the Chinese (or Shanghaiese) version of jacket slamming (at Queen’s. It’s the closest thing I can compare it to). Every once in a while huge groups of (usually boys) would just break out in a mosh pit of whacking with inflatable bats and hammers. The police were plentiful and were quick to break up these riots, in which not a single person was ever hurt. The police presence was kind of funny, as if inflatable tools would lead to some larger violence. And yes, it was mainly young people causing the “riots” but people of all ages were there: babies, grandparents, high school kids, university kids, professionals, couples, groups, etc. It was really an event for everyone. Well, after getting whacked by a few randoms, witnessing the courting dance of many young girls & boys as they whacked each other (it’s like mom said, they tease you because they like you!), we finally hit the bund and decided to drop into a café for a drink and a break. We had this delicious mint-chocolate blended drink (soooo fabulous!) sat for about 45 minutes then decided that it was almost 11, and probably time for us to head home because we were so pooped. Well, that proved to be more difficult than we anticipated. We wandered along the bund, hoping that a block or so over there would be a street that allowed car travel, but after 20 minutes of wandering down along the bund, we decided to turn up the next street. It was dark, dirty, smelly and we were exhausted but we pressed on, sing only one or two cabs with their lights on, but they were too far away to get (and by this time the subway was closed, so we were a little stuck). Finally after 45 minutes (since leaving the coffee shop) we finally ran up Renmin Rd. (about 5 minutes from where I was in Old Town earlier that day) and hailed a cab. We were so exhausted and so excited and couldn’t believe the night we just had. Earlier that night I made the comment that the only thing we really needed was fireworks or something spectacular, and on our way home on the highway – Fireworks! The whole night seemed surreal, and I still can’t believe what happened. If it was Canada, there would be so many drunk (and alternatively intoxicated) people, but here it was just people having a “wholesome” good time, it’s strange. Well, we finally got home (in 20 minutes – that cab must have been doing something illegal), and just collapsed, watched the season premiere of Veronica Mars (again) and went to bed. It was an incredible day!
