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Published: January 31st 2010
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Impressive Mountains
I saw these from my airplane window when we were close to Beijing. We actually flew above the North Pole and then down through Russia to get to Beijing. 大家好!
I hope everyone's had a great week! I'm enjoying a lazy Sunday after a busy week of lots of 中文 (Chinese). Monday through Thursday I spent most of my time in class learning about globalization and a Chinese metaphor about persevering through hardships. In case you were wondering, "Mai dong lao" is McDonalds, "kun duh jee" is KFC, and "seen bah kuh" is Starbucks (spelled out phonetically for easy pronunciation) =).KFC is pretty popular here, and instead of the apple pies that U.S. McDonalds sell, China McDonalds sell pies with "red bean paste" inside. Although I'm sure that red bean paste is delicious, I haven't bought one yet. The "who are you when the going gets tough" metaphor involved putting a carrot, egg and coffee creamer powder in boiling water. The carrot gets mushy, the egg gets solid, or maybe its shell gets easy to peel off, and the coffee creamer powder diffuses throughout the water. I think. Coffee creamer powder was somehow the most resilient, but don't ask me why. I didn't quite get that part. =)
The title of this blog refers to a common phrase we hear from our Chinese 老师 (laoshi= teacher). Daily, we
Pretty Flowers
These gigantic flowers were arching over the entryway of a store.. somewhere in Beijing. I don't really know where it was (my sense of direction is astounding...) but you can see how big they are because I look really small underneath them! (Look for the colorful scarf and red purse). hear that we should preview, review, and study more. As far as I can tell, the only way that any of us can yuxi, fuxi, or xuexi any more is if we procured time turners like Hermione had in Harry Potter. (For those of you that aren't familiar with time turners, they're very useful hourglasses that give you more time. Unfortunately, they don't exist.) Thankfully, W&M has prepared me for lots of quality study time =).
This weekend was fantastic!! On Friday, I bought a violin! I decided against bringing mine to China, but I really missed it, so I found one to buy! I'm excited =). My roommate plays guitar so we'll have some fun jam sessions. On Saturday, the program organized a trip to the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. Thankfully, the weather was great yesterday (hardly "cloudy" at all) and it wasn't that cold! Tian'anmen was big and encircled on three sides by a road. The famous picture of Mao in the middle of a red banner is actually on the other side of the road. Based on my excellent sense of geography and spatial relations, I think that the Forbidden City is directly north of
Roommates! Minus Han Jing
These are my apartment mates! Han Jing is taking the picture, and from left to right is Orit, our teacher Li Laoshi, and Lauren. This was taken in our apartment before we went to Lauren's open mike night, which she rocked! Tian'anmen Square. But I could be wrong. =). The Forbidden City is huge!!! It was built in the 15th or 16th century, and I think the Qing dyansty appropriated it for their uses when they made Beijing the capital (previously, Nanjing was the capital). The colors on the underside of the roofs and beams, etc, are so vibrant!! As you can see by the pictures that I'll hopefully be able to post, lots of "doors" or "gates" run down the center of the Forbidden City, and then there are the emperor's bedroom, and other important places. We didn't really have a tour guide, so I might read up on the Forbidden City so I actually know what I saw. It was pretty impressive though. Then after finding a restaurant, we went to Beihai Park, which is beautiful! Wikipedia tells me that it was initially built in the 10th century, and it was part of the imperial gardens. I did a lot of climbing in Beihai Park, and I went to the top of the Bai Ta, also called the White Dagoba. Then we went to Jingshan Hill, which has three beautiful pavilions on nearby hills. From the top of Jingshan
Juicy Strawberries!
Always a nice way to round off lunch, the strawberries dipped in some sort of sweet substance are only 2 kuai (less than 40 cents) and are delicious! They also sell hawthorne berries! Hill we could see all of the Forbidden City, which was gorgeous.
Then, I went to an Andrew Bird concert!!! I hadn't really heard his music before, but he was SO TALENTED!!!! If you haven't heard him, I highly encourage you to youtube his music. He plays violin (be still, my heart!), whistles, sings beautifully, and plays guitar! He was so amazing. The opening act was a group of throat singers. I'd never heard of throat singing, but apparently it involves a lot of vocal cord control to sing multiple notes at the same time. The four men, who were from Mongolia or western China, or some western region, had a guitar, two two-stringed boxy instruments, and drums. They would sing in a normal register, then all the sudden you would hear this deeeep note below the first note.. it was really cool! It was a fantastic experience =)
It's time for me to start my studying, but I hope you all are doing well!! Mucho amor!!!
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bill hannah
non-member comment
great pic and well written
Hi Jessica, hOw thrilled we are for you Jessica. So glad your not afraid to go out and travel. Glad your class transfer worked out okay. Keep on having an excellent time. we love you and are proud of you. love uncle bill and tutu.