Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 4:11 PM
China Fun Facts:
1. jellyfish salad > chicken neck > pig hairs > worms
2. two story hotel room > one story hotel room
3. the smell of chitlins
4. rain + canals + ancient gardens = romantic!
5. man on the phone, please close the door to your squatty potty in the rest-stop restroom
6. man with baby, please keep holding your boy over the trash can so he can finish peeing
7. sweet and sour chicken > sweet and sour bone chunks
8. rain + mountains + tea plantations = romantic!
9. high voltage powerline bundles of 6 cables (Guthrie, I got pictures! The insulators are longer than apartment buildings.)
10. A "cheeseburger" is two buns, cheese, lettuce, and ketchup. What is missing? Order the "steakburger" to find out.
11. We saw the sky yesterday! We haven't really seen it yet with the pollution and some rainy days.
12. There is some great food here too. We are getting our share of green tea, rice, and leeks. But I still dream of sandwiches.
13. One of our teachers says, "just know it!" and breaks the chalk a lot. Words like "forbid," "punish," and "order" are frequently used in the classroom. (we told our teachers that, along with "cock" (rooster,) these words are not good to use in English.
14. Get people with small, distinct fingers to point to menus for you. The "popcorn" (onion rings) wasn't very good.
15. When the man says that the hotel has cards, he means they don't have cards.
16. When the man says that you are forbidden in the restaurant in travel clothes, it means that you can come into the restaurant in travel clothes.
17. When the man says that they have free coffee, he means that they don't have free coffee.
18. If you do not feel well, you must be like the Chinese people and either a) drink more cold water, b) drink more hot water, c) get more sleep, d) don't get as much sleep, e) don't drink cold water, f) drink green tea every day but not all the time, g) wear heavier clothes when it is hot but lighter clothes when it is cool, h) get more fresh air, i) wear a mask when breathing outdoors, j) get excercise, k) don't excercise too much, and l) don't slip in the squatty potty.
19. trivia: when you are playing cards in the 4 star hotel lounge at night and someone starts banging on the kitchen door from the inside, do you let them out?
20. trivia: 150 pedestrians, 75 families on mopeds, 60 families on bicycles, 30 volkswagens, and 5 public busses enter an intersection at the same time.
Much love,
Riley and Diane
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Ni jiao shenme mingzi
Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 4:10 PM
Hey everyone!
It feels like its been a while since last entry but a lot has happened since then. Riley is a lot better. We are both very well.
1. Ming Gate: Last weekend we went to the Nanjing wall around the old city. We ddin't walk the whole wall (too long!) but we did walk thru some of the tunnels and walked up top to enjoy the view. We meet a student, not part of our group, who majors in industrial design. That was pretty cool.
2. Confucius Temple: It's actually once a temple now a mall strip. We walked from the confucius to the Mandarin Garden Hotel were we had dinner. I tried to try jelly fish but it was almost impossible to chew.
Saturday, we had a three-day weekend were we traveled/stayed in Suzhou and then in Hangzhou. From Nanjing is about three and a half hours to get there and it rained all weekend.
3. Small farm village: I don't remember if there was a specific name for where we went but we walked over the canals and toured former houses of businessmen. Some of the areas (now turned into museums) held the dress wear the chinese wore for weddings. We also saw scupltures made entirely of tree roots. Lions, landscapes, people, etc. We saw a papercuttings shop where the craftsman was so good he freestyle cut without a template. We previously had a culture lecture/workshop where we learned the art of paper cutting to make different chinese designs that we find in the windows of many restuarants here. It was not easy especially without an X-acto knife. So we now respect the skill of the craft.
4. Our tour guide, Anna, must love tofu we figured. A lot of our meals have been 3-5 dishes of tofu cooked slightly different ways. After a point people were begging for some new dishes. I do love the time we get to all eat together and talk around the round table with the lazy susan and people spinning it to find a good dish.
5. Suzhou hotel: the name is somewhere in my possession as I took a hotel toothbrush with me. We were told that the hotel was five-star and two-story rooms. They don't use the star system much in China but the newer the hotel the better. I thought I misheard when she said two-story but it was true. It was very nice. Lux, many student had used to describe the rooms. We had only one night there before moving on to our next place so we enjoyed it while we had it. We had to leave at 9:00am next day. I set my alarm but I don't need it here cause I wake up at 5 or 6am because it gets bright so early in the morning. They had cake and watermelon for breakfast and that made me very happy.
6. Lingering Gardens, Suzhou: It was very beautiful and quite large. We saw more bonzai trees and more rock formations. Some food halls and beautiful pavillions. There were large goldfish and blooming waterlillies. There were musicians dressed in chinese attire. One playing the pipa--famous instrument played only by a woman.
Sunday, it was still raining.
7. Silk Museum, Suzhou: I was really excited that we were going here. We got to see the silk works and the coccoons. They had specimens of each stage of the silk worm. Some kids keep silk worms as pets. They are pretty cute. We got to see the inspection belt, spinning machines, weaving looms, and the webs of silk. The workers were ok with us touching some of the things but I'm sure they were wanting to get back to doing their work. Then onto the silk shop were most of the stuff here was made of 100% silk or mostly silk not like 100% silky. (ex. the different between 100% cashmere and cashmere 100% made in china)
We left Suzhou for Hangzhou. I don't remember how far apart they are but it is a lovely scenic route, changing from city to farm and mountains. It still rains. Anna Lamm joined us for this part of the trip.
8. Hangzhou hotel: I might have the toothbrush from here, too. The hotel was nice and even nicer than the Suzhou one in my opinion cause it had a bathtub. The view of the canal was nice and at night you could see the lights on the building on the other side of the canal. It was lit up like something out of Tron meets Christmas home lights. We boarded the bus at 9:00am when the hotel said they are missing a fork from one of the rooms the guys stayed in. It was funny cause it took 15-30min for the issue to be resolved when the guys said they didn't take it. It turns out they were right. Who would want to take a fork? And why did they make such a big deal about it? haha
9. West Lake: This small city surrounds this one lake and the city is best known for it. Because it is raining all the sales people bombard us as we get off the bus selling umbrellas and plastic panchos. It's funny cause they notice Riley has neither pancho nor umbrella and they target him. It was the most rainy day of all the days of this trip. Our group stayed close because West lake is so big and there are so many people it is very easy to get lost. Also, bus drop-off location was different than the pick-up location. I kinda don't want to get lost in China. We took a boat around the lake and took many pictures there. There is an island in the middle-- Xiaying Island and near it in the water are the "Three Pools Reflecting the Moon" which you can see also on a 5yuan bill. On the other side we saw a large pagoda.
10. Green Tea: The second tea place we went was the place were the actual tea trees were. Driving thru Hangzhou we suddenly started to see high mountains on each side of us with many rows of tea plants from top to bottom. After lunch we stop there and took better pictures. In the tea house the tea lady explained how green tea makes iodine turn pure cause of the antioxidants and it will make your body pure inside too. The tea smelled and tasted like asparagus with water.
Back in Nanjing. Not raining here. I know Riley is happy for his shoes not to be wet and I'm happy for my knees. Aside from that we had a great trip in Suzhou and Hangzhou!
11. I felt bad cause I didn't study for class much this weekend. We had Chen today not Cheng laoshi. Cheng works really fast and its hard to digest all the information. Before the end of class the idea was generated for the whole class to go to lunch together then go to Fashion Lady mall. Chen talked about Fashion Lady and some of the students told her about their favorite restaurant where they point at the menu without knowing what it says and get good food. So it was set we were going to lunch together then to the mall in Nanjing.
12. The Restaurant: I got to write down the name of these places! It's funny cause the Chen and Cheng laoshi were not sure about the restaurant cause it looks sketchy from the outside and the inside but the food actually was pretty good. It's nice that we had lunch with our teacher and also nice that they ordered for us cause they could read the menu. We had rice & green tea (staples), sweet and sour pork, fish with soup, sweet fried corn, chicken and chips and chicken with peanuts.
13. We took the public bus to Fashion Lady then to the metro to the Nanjing train station with a great view of the lake. We took the bus then back to the school. Man, it's crowded.
Well, gotta goooooo! Love,
Diane & Riley
Hey everyone!
It feels like its been a while since last entry but a lot has happened since then. Riley is a lot better. We are both very well.
1. Ming Gate: Last weekend we went to the Nanjing wall around the old city. We ddin't walk the whole wall (too long!) but we did walk thru some of the tunnels and walked up top to enjoy the view. We meet a student, not part of our group, who majors in industrial design. That was pretty cool.
2. Confucius Temple: It's actually once a temple now a mall strip. We walked from the confucius to the Mandarin Garden Hotel were we had dinner. I tried to try jelly fish but it was almost impossible to chew.
Saturday, we had a three-day weekend were we traveled/stayed in Suzhou and then in Hangzhou. From Nanjing is about three and a half hours to get there and it rained all weekend.
3. Small farm village: I don't remember if there was a specific name for where we went but we walked over the canals and toured former houses of businessmen. Some of the areas (now turned into museums) held the dress wear the chinese wore for weddings. We also saw scupltures made entirely of tree roots. Lions, landscapes, people, etc. We saw a papercuttings shop where the craftsman was so good he freestyle cut without a template. We previously had a culture lecture/workshop where we learned the art of paper cutting to make different chinese designs that we find in the windows of many restuarants here. It was not easy especially without an X-acto knife. So we now respect the skill of the craft.
4. Our tour guide, Anna, must love tofu we figured. A lot of our meals have been 3-5 dishes of tofu cooked slightly different ways. After a point people were begging for some new dishes. I do love the time we get to all eat together and talk around the round table with the lazy susan and people spinning it to find a good dish.
5. Suzhou hotel: the name is somewhere in my possession as I took a hotel toothbrush with me. We were told that the hotel was five-star and two-story rooms. They don't use the star system much in China but the newer the hotel the better. I thought I misheard when she said two-story but it was true. It was very nice. Lux, many student had used to describe the rooms. We had only one night there before moving on to our next place so we enjoyed it while we had it. We had to leave at 9:00am next day. I set my alarm but I don't need it here cause I wake up at 5 or 6am because it gets bright so early in the morning. They had cake and watermelon for breakfast and that made me very happy.
6. Lingering Gardens, Suzhou: It was very beautiful and quite large. We saw more bonzai trees and more rock formations. Some food halls and beautiful pavillions. There were large goldfish and blooming waterlillies. There were musicians dressed in chinese attire. One playing the pipa--famous instrument played only by a woman.
Sunday, it was still raining.
7. Silk Museum, Suzhou: I was really excited that we were going here. We got to see the silk works and the coccoons. They had specimens of each stage of the silk worm. Some kids keep silk worms as pets. They are pretty cute. We got to see the inspection belt, spinning machines, weaving looms, and the webs of silk. The workers were ok with us touching some of the things but I'm sure they were wanting to get back to doing their work. Then onto the silk shop were most of the stuff here was made of 100% silk or mostly silk not like 100% silky. (ex. the different between 100% cashmere and cashmere 100% made in china)
We left Suzhou for Hangzhou. I don't remember how far apart they are but it is a lovely scenic route, changing from city to farm and mountains. It still rains. Anna Lamm joined us for this part of the trip.
8. Hangzhou hotel: I might have the toothbrush from here, too. The hotel was nice and even nicer than the Suzhou one in my opinion cause it had a bathtub. The view of the canal was nice and at night you could see the lights on the building on the other side of the canal. It was lit up like something out of Tron meets Christmas home lights. We boarded the bus at 9:00am when the hotel said they are missing a fork from one of the rooms the guys stayed in. It was funny cause it took 15-30min for the issue to be resolved when the guys said they didn't take it. It turns out they were right. Who would want to take a fork? And why did they make such a big deal about it? haha
9. West Lake: This small city surrounds this one lake and the city is best known for it. Because it is raining all the sales people bombard us as we get off the bus selling umbrellas and plastic panchos. It's funny cause they notice Riley has neither pancho nor umbrella and they target him. It was the most rainy day of all the days of this trip. Our group stayed close because West lake is so big and there are so many people it is very easy to get lost. Also, bus drop-off location was different than the pick-up location. I kinda don't want to get lost in China. We took a boat around the lake and took many pictures there. There is an island in the middle-- Xiaying Island and near it in the water are the "Three Pools Reflecting the Moon" which you can see also on a 5yuan bill. On the other side we saw a large pagoda.
10. Green Tea: The second tea place we went was the place were the actual tea trees were. Driving thru Hangzhou we suddenly started to see high mountains on each side of us with many rows of tea plants from top to bottom. After lunch we stop there and took better pictures. In the tea house the tea lady explained how green tea makes iodine turn pure cause of the antioxidants and it will make your body pure inside too. The tea smelled and tasted like asparagus with water.
Back in Nanjing. Not raining here. I know Riley is happy for his shoes not to be wet and I'm happy for my knees. Aside from that we had a great trip in Suzhou and Hangzhou!
11. I felt bad cause I didn't study for class much this weekend. We had Chen today not Cheng laoshi. Cheng works really fast and its hard to digest all the information. Before the end of class the idea was generated for the whole class to go to lunch together then go to Fashion Lady mall. Chen talked about Fashion Lady and some of the students told her about their favorite restaurant where they point at the menu without knowing what it says and get good food. So it was set we were going to lunch together then to the mall in Nanjing.
12. The Restaurant: I got to write down the name of these places! It's funny cause the Chen and Cheng laoshi were not sure about the restaurant cause it looks sketchy from the outside and the inside but the food actually was pretty good. It's nice that we had lunch with our teacher and also nice that they ordered for us cause they could read the menu. We had rice & green tea (staples), sweet and sour pork, fish with soup, sweet fried corn, chicken and chips and chicken with peanuts.
13. We took the public bus to Fashion Lady then to the metro to the Nanjing train station with a great view of the lake. We took the bus then back to the school. Man, it's crowded.
Well, gotta goooooo! Love,
Diane & Riley
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Funny Facts II: Special Medicine
Hello!
I have been sick for quite a few days so the fun facts in this email might as well consist of facts I have dreamed or types of medicine I wish existed on my bedside or pollution that shouldn't be in the air. But we are really enjoying ourselves and we hope you all have too.
Diane will be writing more realistic thoughts and narratives so I'll offer my special insights from the last bit of our trip:
1. When bananas go bad inside a plastic bag they sweat and then smell like vinegar.
2. (riddle) if you wash a pesticide-covered kiwi in unpotable tap water, does it help?
3. There is a nursery-sized area in one of the gardens near our city completely full of banzai trees that look older than the United States. I've never seen a single banzai as incredible as any one of the thousands in this garden.
4. Weirdly small amounts of Chinese food can make you dream hungrily of American food, like sandwiches.
5. There are poodles on the street here. They sit with their back legs out behind them.
6. My theory is that Japanese culture borrowed and never returned Chinese manners, so now people kind of slip in front of you in line without any words to express that they are cutting you. Japan is way different, I think, to the point where you can use to much silibance when calling an honored guest "sir" and have to never show them your back or fall on your sword or something. Anyway, there are more manners in Japan.
7. I miss biscuits.
8. And sandwiches.
9. Despite the water here being called "hard" by our tourguides (read: polluted and poisonous,) Diane's hair looks great!
10. The Chinese Internet is like a hairless sled dog puppy. In theory, it is a sled dog, but practically, it can't do anything except ween.
11. If you build a pure white building downtown anywhere in China it will turn brown like a snowdrift.
12. Just because the car alarms are cuter sounding doesn't mean they still don't go off in front of the hotel at 4 in the morning when somebody drives a scooter somewhere nearby (which happens litterally all the time)
13. Just because I have five finger shoes doesn't mean I can magically understand Chinese when people ask me about them
14. If you go to the Ei Sen Club, try not to get pulled up onto the speaker by a very happy Chinese man just in time to dance to Ke$ha and a 9 minute Happy Birthday remix.
15. Be careful when purchasing playing cards that they are not cigarettes.
16. Signing autographs for Chinese students feels like sinning, but I'm not sure?
17. (riddle) Yesterday, we decorated masks (?) with Chinese students from the university, and I wrote YOUTUBE down the bridge of the nose. Is that okay?
18. Pork buns are delicious if you know the symbol for pork and can point to it on a menu.
19. The difference between "yes" and "poop" is whether or not you raise your voice a little at the end. Don't raise your voice at the end.
20. I finished Anathem.
21. I have a nice video of our friend singing along and dancing to The Kings Garden.
22. As I write this, a cute car alarm is going off.
23. Wild kittens sort of bark.
Love,
R+D
I have been sick for quite a few days so the fun facts in this email might as well consist of facts I have dreamed or types of medicine I wish existed on my bedside or pollution that shouldn't be in the air. But we are really enjoying ourselves and we hope you all have too.
Diane will be writing more realistic thoughts and narratives so I'll offer my special insights from the last bit of our trip:
1. When bananas go bad inside a plastic bag they sweat and then smell like vinegar.
2. (riddle) if you wash a pesticide-covered kiwi in unpotable tap water, does it help?
3. There is a nursery-sized area in one of the gardens near our city completely full of banzai trees that look older than the United States. I've never seen a single banzai as incredible as any one of the thousands in this garden.
4. Weirdly small amounts of Chinese food can make you dream hungrily of American food, like sandwiches.
5. There are poodles on the street here. They sit with their back legs out behind them.
6. My theory is that Japanese culture borrowed and never returned Chinese manners, so now people kind of slip in front of you in line without any words to express that they are cutting you. Japan is way different, I think, to the point where you can use to much silibance when calling an honored guest "sir" and have to never show them your back or fall on your sword or something. Anyway, there are more manners in Japan.
7. I miss biscuits.
8. And sandwiches.
9. Despite the water here being called "hard" by our tourguides (read: polluted and poisonous,) Diane's hair looks great!
10. The Chinese Internet is like a hairless sled dog puppy. In theory, it is a sled dog, but practically, it can't do anything except ween.
11. If you build a pure white building downtown anywhere in China it will turn brown like a snowdrift.
12. Just because the car alarms are cuter sounding doesn't mean they still don't go off in front of the hotel at 4 in the morning when somebody drives a scooter somewhere nearby (which happens litterally all the time)
13. Just because I have five finger shoes doesn't mean I can magically understand Chinese when people ask me about them
14. If you go to the Ei Sen Club, try not to get pulled up onto the speaker by a very happy Chinese man just in time to dance to Ke$ha and a 9 minute Happy Birthday remix.
15. Be careful when purchasing playing cards that they are not cigarettes.
16. Signing autographs for Chinese students feels like sinning, but I'm not sure?
17. (riddle) Yesterday, we decorated masks (?) with Chinese students from the university, and I wrote YOUTUBE down the bridge of the nose. Is that okay?
18. Pork buns are delicious if you know the symbol for pork and can point to it on a menu.
19. The difference between "yes" and "poop" is whether or not you raise your voice a little at the end. Don't raise your voice at the end.
20. I finished Anathem.
21. I have a nice video of our friend singing along and dancing to The Kings Garden.
22. As I write this, a cute car alarm is going off.
23. Wild kittens sort of bark.
Love,
R+D
Zao shang hao!
Wed, Jun 1, 2011
Zao shang hao! (good morning)! It is almost noon but as I write it will be "xia wu" (good afternoon).
We have learned so much while in class. About 9 total hours of class and already we can greet, say or ask what day it is, say family names (older brother, younger sister, mom, dad, etc) and have you eaten. We are using what we've learned to help us get around the city and knowing numbers is especially helpful. It's exciting when a local says something and we can respond back well or vice versa! Class is soo funny! The classmates are hilarious and we cheer for each other when someone finally gets a pronounciation right.
The last week we've been free to wander around the city once class ends. A few days ago Riley and I ran into some other classmates and decided to have a study session in McDonald's cafe. Two of the locals overheard us reciting and were kind enough to help us pronounce words. It's nice making friends with the people in our group. Last night (5/26), we were invited by some in the group to go downtown together and find a good restaurant. One of the girls knows Chinese decently and was able to help us order something. It's helpful because very few restaurants have menus in English and some don't even have pictures so it's a gamble to order something without knowing what you'll get. The restaurant we went to serves fried (real!) scorpion but none of us were brave enough to order it. I was too hungry. They have real ice cream here AND real chocolate and Riley and I found a milk bar & bakery yesterday. Milk seemed to be hard to find. .
Xia wu, it is 6/1. Picking up were I left off. Riley and I are making friends well here, mostly from our American group. We go out to find good/cheap restaurants. Some with dumplings, pork/vegetable buns, noodles with egg, or fried rice with egg. There was one restaurant that served fried scorpion but none of us were brave enough to try it.
Last weekend we went to Yangzhou. It's about 2 hours from Nanjing. Our sights:
1. Thin West Lake: It looks more like a river than a lake. It is long and thin. It is very beautiful and breezy. There were many willow tries and we noticed trees with rope wrapped around the trunk. Riley and I guessed that it's either to shape the trees a certain way. It is a very open area. And the architecture of these ancient temples is beautiful. We hung out under the Five Pavillion Bridge for a while but the tour went by really fast because we were short for time.
2. He Garden (pronounced Huh! like a punch in the stomach): It is my favorite place I've seen so far. It's hard to explain but it was very botanical. With lots of rock cave paths, ivy covered walls, stone patterned walkways, etc. They gave us 45 minutes of free time to wander around the place and it was awesome. I took pictures before my camera battery exhausted. I have to put up pictures tomorrow. I have pictures some of last weeks pictures up by the way. Czech them out si'l vous plait.
3. I made a Chinese friend last week while we were at a restaurant. She was a new waitress who wants to be a pharmacist and is going to England. She wanted to practice her english with Riley and me. It was really good.
4. One of our chaperones (kinda) had her last day with us on Friday. She works at NCState and speaks Chinese very well. For her last night there we went out for dinner, drinks, and to 1912. This was my first time taking a taxi. 1912 is a strip of clubs and we went to one that had many many red chandeliers. I felt like I was in the scene of Moulin rouge minus the dancers. It was sooo crowded in there. We thought we saw some people playing Liar's Dice but we weren't sure.
5. Three of us from the group, went to church Sunday. It was a pretty big church and the entrance to the church says "Jesus Loves You". They had hymn books and we sung some songs (sorta) but the tune we did recognize "Ode to Joy" and "Jesus Loves Me" and sung along. The sermon we understood 10% a little was in english and we knew that the sermon was about love. That's about it. But we plan to go next Sunday.
6. Yesterday 5/30, we had a meet and greet with the Chinese students of Nanjing University (the new campus). We played funny games that involved the loser being punished=sitting on a balloon to pop it. It's funny cause chinese people are so happy to meet Americans and they would grab us to take a picture with us.
7. Our group is hilarious and we definitely want to keep in touch once we get back to America. There are a number of people who are pretty cool.
8. I'm taking care of Riley cause he's sick. He's really cute when he's sleeping though. A lot of people weren't feeling well today. It might be the pollution.
9. Chinese is hard to learn. Somedays we feel like failures and some days we feel very good about our progress. It would be hard to learn if tone-deaf or spoke in monotone cause different tones could be the difference from saying joke to digest. Some days we are really silly and thank goodness our teachers are patient with us. Laoshi (lao-sure) means teacher. Pengyou (paeng yo) means friend. Xuesheng (juway-sheng) means student. One of the students sang "you are my sunshine" to the teacher cause to us her chinese name sounds like Sunshine (her name is Chen Xia). It made her blush.
Feel free to write us! Pictures are on picasa (this email account). Gotta go!
Love,
Diane
Zao shang hao! (good morning)! It is almost noon but as I write it will be "xia wu" (good afternoon).
We have learned so much while in class. About 9 total hours of class and already we can greet, say or ask what day it is, say family names (older brother, younger sister, mom, dad, etc) and have you eaten. We are using what we've learned to help us get around the city and knowing numbers is especially helpful. It's exciting when a local says something and we can respond back well or vice versa! Class is soo funny! The classmates are hilarious and we cheer for each other when someone finally gets a pronounciation right.
The last week we've been free to wander around the city once class ends. A few days ago Riley and I ran into some other classmates and decided to have a study session in McDonald's cafe. Two of the locals overheard us reciting and were kind enough to help us pronounce words. It's nice making friends with the people in our group. Last night (5/26), we were invited by some in the group to go downtown together and find a good restaurant. One of the girls knows Chinese decently and was able to help us order something. It's helpful because very few restaurants have menus in English and some don't even have pictures so it's a gamble to order something without knowing what you'll get. The restaurant we went to serves fried (real!) scorpion but none of us were brave enough to order it. I was too hungry. They have real ice cream here AND real chocolate and Riley and I found a milk bar & bakery yesterday. Milk seemed to be hard to find. .
Xia wu, it is 6/1. Picking up were I left off. Riley and I are making friends well here, mostly from our American group. We go out to find good/cheap restaurants. Some with dumplings, pork/vegetable buns, noodles with egg, or fried rice with egg. There was one restaurant that served fried scorpion but none of us were brave enough to try it.
Last weekend we went to Yangzhou. It's about 2 hours from Nanjing. Our sights:
1. Thin West Lake: It looks more like a river than a lake. It is long and thin. It is very beautiful and breezy. There were many willow tries and we noticed trees with rope wrapped around the trunk. Riley and I guessed that it's either to shape the trees a certain way. It is a very open area. And the architecture of these ancient temples is beautiful. We hung out under the Five Pavillion Bridge for a while but the tour went by really fast because we were short for time.
2. He Garden (pronounced Huh! like a punch in the stomach): It is my favorite place I've seen so far. It's hard to explain but it was very botanical. With lots of rock cave paths, ivy covered walls, stone patterned walkways, etc. They gave us 45 minutes of free time to wander around the place and it was awesome. I took pictures before my camera battery exhausted. I have to put up pictures tomorrow. I have pictures some of last weeks pictures up by the way. Czech them out si'l vous plait.
3. I made a Chinese friend last week while we were at a restaurant. She was a new waitress who wants to be a pharmacist and is going to England. She wanted to practice her english with Riley and me. It was really good.
4. One of our chaperones (kinda) had her last day with us on Friday. She works at NCState and speaks Chinese very well. For her last night there we went out for dinner, drinks, and to 1912. This was my first time taking a taxi. 1912 is a strip of clubs and we went to one that had many many red chandeliers. I felt like I was in the scene of Moulin rouge minus the dancers. It was sooo crowded in there. We thought we saw some people playing Liar's Dice but we weren't sure.
5. Three of us from the group, went to church Sunday. It was a pretty big church and the entrance to the church says "Jesus Loves You". They had hymn books and we sung some songs (sorta) but the tune we did recognize "Ode to Joy" and "Jesus Loves Me" and sung along. The sermon we understood 10% a little was in english and we knew that the sermon was about love. That's about it. But we plan to go next Sunday.
6. Yesterday 5/30, we had a meet and greet with the Chinese students of Nanjing University (the new campus). We played funny games that involved the loser being punished=sitting on a balloon to pop it. It's funny cause chinese people are so happy to meet Americans and they would grab us to take a picture with us.
7. Our group is hilarious and we definitely want to keep in touch once we get back to America. There are a number of people who are pretty cool.
8. I'm taking care of Riley cause he's sick. He's really cute when he's sleeping though. A lot of people weren't feeling well today. It might be the pollution.
9. Chinese is hard to learn. Somedays we feel like failures and some days we feel very good about our progress. It would be hard to learn if tone-deaf or spoke in monotone cause different tones could be the difference from saying joke to digest. Some days we are really silly and thank goodness our teachers are patient with us. Laoshi (lao-sure) means teacher. Pengyou (paeng yo) means friend. Xuesheng (juway-sheng) means student. One of the students sang "you are my sunshine" to the teacher cause to us her chinese name sounds like Sunshine (her name is Chen Xia). It made her blush.
Feel free to write us! Pictures are on picasa (this email account). Gotta go!
Love,
Diane
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Goodbye America. Hello China
Hi friends and family,
It is May 24th, 3:46pm.
We finally were able to get a place with internet in the Nanjing Normal University computer lab. We are doing well. Thank you for your prayers.
It is May 24th, 3:46pm.
We finally were able to get a place with internet in the Nanjing Normal University computer lab. We are doing well. Thank you for your prayers.
So much has happened since our last email.
We have traveled much from flying Raleigh->Chicago->Beijing. Then in Beijing taking car, buses, boat, and walking to many different destinations. Since arriving two days after our group, we missed some sights but there were still many sights we saw before taking the sleeper train to Nanjing.
Beijing Sunday:
1. Summer Palace: one of the ancient temples were the Dragon Lady lived and ate about 100-course meals a day that can feed about 10,000 people one meal a day. And you may be thinking she must have been fat. No. It's interesting trivia for the day. The place was very crowded as it's only open in the summer (thus called Summer Palace). I had to be pushy with an old lady just to get into a bathroom stall just to give you an idea.She tried to squeeze her way into the stall the same time I did. Summer palace is very beautiful palace nonetheless. We took the boat to cross the Kunming river.
2. Beijing Olympic Stadium and Aquatic Center and IBM building: We hope to send pictures of them. We got to a quick stop by there but we got pretty close to it with our own eyes and they are very grand. Chinese architecture is very unique. Everywhere someone is trying to sell us something.
3. New City Jewerly: China main source of freshwater pearls and they say that's why the water is not good for drinking (even worse than Mexico we learned!) Riley and I drink a lot of water in America but when you want to drink water here you have to get bottled water. I've never seen real pearls and none that weren't white. Here they all the 4 colors: white, pink, lavender, and dark purple. The lavender is my favorite. Trivia: Five year old oysters contain 15-20 pearls in many different colors! Five-yrs is young. Older oysters=more pearls.
4. Dr. Tea: The art of tea. We tried Lycee, Golden, jasmine, black, and white teas. They taught us how to sip and taste them. Black and Lycee are very good and good for you. Trivia: it seems there are more KFCs here than McDonalds.
5. Temple of Heaven: similar style to Summer Palace. Roofs, painting, greenery. The main temple round and very high up with a great view of the city. It's hard to believe its made of wood build without a single nail. It's hot here but windy. Not nearly as hot as it usually is.
6. Silk Market: One of the largest markets in China. We learned how to haggle and it was hilarious. The place was indeed large but well organized. The vendors (many clothing vendors) are mildly to very aggressive when it comes to getting you to buy from them no matter what cost. It's safe to assume that the clothes are knock off brands so it was ok to haggle for a cheaper cost and there were many vendors selling the exact same thing. Turns out I was a decent haggler and Riley was pretty impressive. He even managed to get one lady to match the price he asked, then when he walked away she grabbed his arm with an even lower price then lower. Same thing happed at the denim corner and they followed him around the store. Our group gave us a tip that the sellers tend to do that as they did their first day trying to sell knock off Rolexs. Turns out the best way to refuse something is to ignore and walk away. They notice when people take interest. It was a very fun and knowlegable experience. Trivia: 1 dollar=about 6.4 yuan, 100dollars=64 yuan. 100 yuan= about $15.89
7. Restaurant to try Peking Duck: It's the favorite food in China. The room was tight to fit 22 people but its fun to have community. In China it is customary to have many plates of different dishes whereas in America it is large plates of a fewer dishes. So the variety is wider but smaller in size.The peking duck eaten with thin tortillas and duck sauce. It tastes like fried turkey to me but no one know what that is.
That's all for now. gotta goooo!
Love,
Diane
Funny Facts I: Great Firewall of China
Hey everyone,
This is the first chance Diane and I have had to get internet access. There is not so much wifi here so emailing from my phone probably won't happen as planned. Diane and I are writing simultaneously so you can get both sides of the story. Blogspot and facebook and much else is censored here but we may be able to post pictures via picasa. We are in the computer lab right now and will have minimal to no internet access once we finish here at the university in June. We are getting a local phone and number soon and will be able to recieve tastefully infrequent calls from the US.
We are having fun and are glad that we finally got a plane flight. Our hotel/dorm here at Nanjing University is clean, comfortable, and pleasant and we are sleeping well even on the night train. I was worried the train bunk wouldn't be long enough but I slept great. We are still tired early and waking up around 4:30 - 6:30ish but our meal times are pretty normal. The food so far has been really good. Our first morning I tried pigs ear. The 17 other students are really friendly. Most are from St. Augustines and NC State.
The time zone difference is 12 hours from Eastern time. We are a calendar day ahead of you. Diane and I are working on written letters to send home, too.
Fun facts:
1. Nikon camera manual is censored online. Is it that much more insidious than facebook?
2. Babies here walk around with split pants so their bottoms show.
3. Chinese tourists in Beijing like jumping into our photos and ask to take pictures with some of us, especially the black people in our group.
4. The tap water isn't safe to drink. Many toilets are holes in the floor (but not ours in the hotel/dorm, thankfully)
5. We saw a split pants baby today with a plastic bag hanging off of his private part.
6. Chinese tones are hard to say without sounding angry and our teacher tells us if we sound too angry.
7. McDonalds has no biscuits. English muffins < biscuits.
8. It has been 60s-70s here in Nanjing but last week was almost 100 and we expect the temperature to be equivalent to Raleigh.
9. There are mosquitos and ants but the mosquitos are smaller.
9.5. There was one of those hotel room lurker mosquitos just like Mexico City, bro! It woke us up so many times!
10. We found an exceptionally beautiful moth on the ground this morning, like two leaves and a tiny magnolia bud. We saved it by moving it to a tree where the little golden birds that sound like they are laughing can eat it.
11. The sky starts getting light before 5
12. The university gym on this campus has 4 options: outdoor track, outdoor basketball, indoor tennis, and indoor badminton.
13. I don't really want to play badminton.
14. Drivers, bikes, and pedestrians on Beijing highways treat all speeds and paved land like a big log flume. Horns > blinkers > headlights > helmets > seatbelts.
15. The music here isn't nearly as bad as Mexican Banda.
16. Modern cities are full of 3rd world-like shanties and apartment buildings. Countryside farms are smaller rectangular plots that look like they are tended by couples rather than machines.
17. Pigs ear is crunchier than it seems when you prod it.
This is only what we've seen so far but hopefully it starts to give a picture. I did get a picture of the baby pants but can't figure out how to send it yet.
Love,
Riley
This is the first chance Diane and I have had to get internet access. There is not so much wifi here so emailing from my phone probably won't happen as planned. Diane and I are writing simultaneously so you can get both sides of the story. Blogspot and facebook and much else is censored here but we may be able to post pictures via picasa. We are in the computer lab right now and will have minimal to no internet access once we finish here at the university in June. We are getting a local phone and number soon and will be able to recieve tastefully infrequent calls from the US.
We are having fun and are glad that we finally got a plane flight. Our hotel/dorm here at Nanjing University is clean, comfortable, and pleasant and we are sleeping well even on the night train. I was worried the train bunk wouldn't be long enough but I slept great. We are still tired early and waking up around 4:30 - 6:30ish but our meal times are pretty normal. The food so far has been really good. Our first morning I tried pigs ear. The 17 other students are really friendly. Most are from St. Augustines and NC State.
The time zone difference is 12 hours from Eastern time. We are a calendar day ahead of you. Diane and I are working on written letters to send home, too.
Fun facts:
1. Nikon camera manual is censored online. Is it that much more insidious than facebook?
2. Babies here walk around with split pants so their bottoms show.
3. Chinese tourists in Beijing like jumping into our photos and ask to take pictures with some of us, especially the black people in our group.
4. The tap water isn't safe to drink. Many toilets are holes in the floor (but not ours in the hotel/dorm, thankfully)
5. We saw a split pants baby today with a plastic bag hanging off of his private part.
6. Chinese tones are hard to say without sounding angry and our teacher tells us if we sound too angry.
7. McDonalds has no biscuits. English muffins < biscuits.
8. It has been 60s-70s here in Nanjing but last week was almost 100 and we expect the temperature to be equivalent to Raleigh.
9. There are mosquitos and ants but the mosquitos are smaller.
9.5. There was one of those hotel room lurker mosquitos just like Mexico City, bro! It woke us up so many times!
10. We found an exceptionally beautiful moth on the ground this morning, like two leaves and a tiny magnolia bud. We saved it by moving it to a tree where the little golden birds that sound like they are laughing can eat it.
11. The sky starts getting light before 5
12. The university gym on this campus has 4 options: outdoor track, outdoor basketball, indoor tennis, and indoor badminton.
13. I don't really want to play badminton.
14. Drivers, bikes, and pedestrians on Beijing highways treat all speeds and paved land like a big log flume. Horns > blinkers > headlights > helmets > seatbelts.
15. The music here isn't nearly as bad as Mexican Banda.
16. Modern cities are full of 3rd world-like shanties and apartment buildings. Countryside farms are smaller rectangular plots that look like they are tended by couples rather than machines.
17. Pigs ear is crunchier than it seems when you prod it.
This is only what we've seen so far but hopefully it starts to give a picture. I did get a picture of the baby pants but can't figure out how to send it yet.
Love,
Riley
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Our first adventure starts at the airport
Already we're on an adventure! Getting married means that the airline isn't happy with diane hagan vs diane hagan bunn so we're working on changing the name on the reservation which is being negotiated in Chinese. If you get this, we'd appreciate prayers that we get on our flight.
We were just asked if we brought our marriage certificate to the airport. No. We forgot that important travel document.
Love,
R+D
We were just asked if we brought our marriage certificate to the airport. No. We forgot that important travel document.
Love,
R+D
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