Relaxation Tour, Day 3

Woke up Monday morning, grabbed some breakfast and headed to Ritan Park. Walking through the park reminded me of the parks in Sevilla...right in the middle of the city are these beautifully landscaped parks with little ponds, snack kiosks, benches, pavillions and shady spots to read or play cards.

My friend Jennie and I headed to Ritan to play some rummy (she recently taught me how to play and now I am consistently kicking her butt!). We sat in a nice little pagoda (pic above) and played a couple rounds. We got up and wandered through the park--found a little temple, a place to race toy speedboats, even a North Face sponsored rock climbing wall.

All the walking made our feet pretty tired and we'd been wanting to get foot massages pretty much since we got here, so we headed to the Dragonfly spa...a 15 minute walk from the park. We both got the Oriental Foot Massage and it was glorious. I just felt bad for the lady! Walking around for the past 3 weeks in flip-flops had definitely taken it's toll.

After the massage we headed to the Sanlitun area. There was cafe we wanted to check out: The Bookworm. It was a very 'chill' place, we sat on big comfy chairs, ordered some coffee and continued our rummy game (I won, again!). We lingered for almost 2 hours, alternately reading and playing cards.

That night we ate Persian food, something else I've never tried, and it was DELICIOUS. There are so many different ethnic groups in Beijing and we've been sampling lots of exotic and sometimes unusual food.

Lazy Sunday...

After returning from Simatai and recharging our batteries with a big dinner and shower, we headed out to sing some karaoke.



This was the first time on the trip where I distinctly felt the language barrier. The people there did not speak a bit of English...which is fine--we've obviously been spoiled by the fact that so many Chinese know English. Which makes me wonder, how many Americans know Mandarin? Not many. It was difficult to order, because the woman waiting on us kept writing down the Mandarin characters, and we REALLY don't know those. But after with the help of three phrasebooks, some creative sign language and pointing, we ordered a round of beers for the room. (That's how karaoke bars work here--you come in a big group and you get a private room with your own TV and some pretty hilarious songs).



We laughed and sang and danced our way through some pretty big hits, but the highlight, BY FAR, was our friend Bruce (all 250+ pounds) singing "Oops I Did It Again."



We woke up late Sunday morning and Jennie and I decided it was time to cave and go in search of a Western Breakfast, capital W capital B. We found it at a delightful restaurant "Grandma's Kitchen." They had waffles, French toast, pancakes, omelettes, bacon, home fries...and the BEST- bottomless coffee! Unless you want to pay big RMB it's hard to find a good cup in the city. So we sat and lingered over breakfast and coffee and it was glorious. We read some expat magazines and made a massive to-do list of EVERYTHING we want to do before we leave.

All in all, it was just the kind of lazy Sunday we needed.

Link to my roommate Susy's blog

Okay, I'd been holding off on linking to Susy's blog because it's all professional-looking and polished...and I have a bit of blog envy.

Here is her post on our trip to Bob's for the Tea Ceremony
http://www.susan-jackson.com/tea-party/

Link to Simatai photo album

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024512&l=50a29&id=43500156

Simataiiiiiiii!

Friday night 3 of my friends here and I decided we needed to get OUT of the city and away from the drama of dorm life. Yep, even when you are in your early to mid-20s, there can be drama in the dorm. Nothing crazy, but we needed to get away. We had been wanting to go to Simatai pretty much since our first weekend here and our less than perfect cattle-herding like visit to Badaling, a crazy-popular Great Wall tourist spot complete with a Starbucks. Buyao! (I don't want)

Simatai is a 2 1/2 hour bus ride out of Beijing. Helen, Jennie, Laura and I woke up bright and early (5:45!) to head to the tourist bus station. Jennie's tour book said we could only buy tickets between 6:50 and 7:30 so we wanted to make sure we were early enough to get tickets on the 'luxury bus' that would take us to Simatai. (NOTE: everytime I said Simatai I would do it in a semi-annoying high-pitched voice and hold the last "I" for a good 30 seconds. I will re-enact it for you when I get home). Anyways, we got to the ticket window and asked for Simatai, the nice lady gestured to a part of the parking lot where people were sitting and said, "Wait a moment." Well, a moment turned into abour 45 minutes and we were getting confused. Two more times Jenne and I went up and asked again, "Simatai?" and she gave us the same, now curt, reply. Then, the third time she gestured to a bus, so we all got on. Maybe we pay once we're on the bus? Nope, we had to get off the bus to get the tickets.

After a slight miscommunication on ticket prices, we got back on the bus, tickets in hand, ready for the driver to crank the AC. (I don't think I will EVER get used to the heat here, it is literally suffocatingly hot...every day.) We grabbed seats, and I took out the "Oracle Bones" to read on the almost 3-hour drive. Then, the driver came in, said a bunch of things in Mandarin, and everyone groaned. Apparently we were moving to a smaller bus. As we boarded the smaller one, we realized all the seats were full and there was no place to sit. A family travelling with 2 boys moved them out of seats so we could sit, but then 5 German guys came on and there was NO way we were all fitting on that bus. BACK to the bigger one. And that's where we stayed. I've adopted the mantra "Welcome to China!" and I say it whenever things don't really make sense to us or it appears that things are being done in a less-than-efficient way.

The bus ride was uneventful, except for the fact that our bus driver was driving extremely fast, so we made it to Simatai in less than 2 1/2 hours. As soon as we got off, we were hit with a wave of heat, but we were SO pumped to be there. Already we could tell it would be much different from Badaling. Badaling was swarming with tourists and Chinese there making a day of it. Simatai was practically deserted, and it was a Saturday!

We began by taking a cable car (pic above) up the hill and then a mini train so we could get on the Wall. We wanted to spend as much time as possible ON the Wall, so we payed a little extra (about $7) to get up there a little faster. The Wall in Simatai is the original wall, not like the reconstructed one in Badaling, so that makes it a little more dangerous--more steep, no steel handrails to hold on to, much more sloping. It was so beautiful. Unfortunately it was not a clear day, so our pictures will not have a clear blue sky. We hiked up to one of the watch towers and began our descent down. We took our time, savoring the sights and the silence! There were parts where we had an entire section of the Wall to ourselves, and it was great.

Pic below: the four of us after our lunch break.

About 2 hours in, we made it to the zipline. Helen and Jennie were all about it, but Laura and I were a little more apprehensive. We were VERY high up. HUNDREDS of feet...zipping over a river. Helen and Jennie paid and got in line, Laura and I stayed behind. But after ten minutes of standing there, we decided to JUST DO IT. When would we ever have the opportunity to zipline off the freaking Great Wall?! We could even zip down together. We were buckled into safety harnesses (similar to mountain climbing ones) and then snapped into a carribeaner on the line. So Laura and I screamed our way down, and it was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Pic above: Laura and I coming in on the zipline!

Once we got down, we had to take a boat across the river back to the Wall. We had a celebratory Tsingtao (beer) and got back on the bus. It was my favorite day here, by far.

The Enlightenment Tour of China Continues...Day 2: Temple of Heaven

After the DHL fiasco, Mike and I met our professor Janet at the Temple of Heaven. It is a huge compound of Temples and monuments--with names like Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, Imperial Vault of Heaven, Hall of Abstinence (which is the place where fasting would take place--slight mistranslation there) special echo stones, and a Round Altar.

We wandered around there for a few hours, taking in the temples and also the people. Many Chinese come to the Temple of Heaven to relax, play cards, dance, and sing opera. Pics below

ome parts were more busy than others, it was not quiet like the Lama Temple, but there were some quieter spots around the grounds as we walked from temple to temple. It's the kind of place I hope to go back to with a good book and just sit and read.

Desperately Seeking DHL

I woke up Friday morning with a mission: find a DHL to ship some items home that I a)did not need (Yes Kathy, you were right, I DID overpack!) and b)a couple of gifts that I wanted to get home before I did.

My friend Mike and I set out for the China World Trade Center--2 mammoth business towers with an inter-connected mall in the lower floors. His Lonely Planet assured us we would find a DHL there. (DHL was recommended because the company has been doing business in China for the longest time and therefore the most reliable). Well, we searched the mall- up and down, back and forth, between the Towers 3 times. We did find an indoor skating rink, 2 Starbucks, and, my personal favorite--much to Mike's shock and chagrin--a HUGE Sanrio store. (see pic below...also, notice my Spain jersey? I got it at the Silk Market for 60 RMB, less than 6 bucks...this picture made me realize why. The sleeves are two different lengths! Oh well).

After almost 2 hours we found the DHL--which was actually a hotel's Business Center. AND the Business Center was being renovated so it was in a different location. While filling out the paperwork, I found out that I could NOT ship home any official Olympic merchandise without my receipt. So, sorry fam, you are not getting Olympic stuff to wear DURING the Olympics.

Moral of the story: never ship stuff home from China, it's just not worth it. Lesson learned. But don't tell Mike, I'm psyched we found the Hello Kitty store!

Links to Facebook photo albums...

Even if you aren't on the 'social networking' site, you can check out my Facebook photo albums:

Forbidden City, First Day at Bird's Nest, Tea Ceremony, Taco Tuesday
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024413&l=783d9&id=43500156

3-Day Tour
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024204&l=ee194&id=43500156

Beijing...the First 48:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024022&l=23346&id=43500156

Ohmmmm.....Relaxing Day in the Lama Temple

Meditating in the Lama Temple




So the morning began a bit stressfully--my friend Jennie and I headed over to the Bird's Nest to put some last-minute contraband snack items in our lockers before the stadium goes on lockdown tomorrow. Well, we got to the subway stop just fine, but we could not GET to the stadium! It was like a mirage in the desert, we could see it,
but it was unattainable--we had to cross 16 lanes of traffic and we couldn't find any place to cross over. It was a bit frustrating...AND it was the hottest weather we've seen since we've been here! In fact, the past 3 days have been unbearably hot.

Once we got in to the Nest, after circling for over an hour, we filled our lockers, filled up our empty water bottles and began our next adventure: heading to the Lama Temple.

By the time we arrived, we were pretty hungry. So before we went in we stopped for some lunch at a Tibetan restaurant that promised an English menu. We walked right in...I remember thinking "I don't care WHAT they serve, I'm just thrilled about the air conditioning in here!" Well, it turns out I DID care what they served--YAK, and lots of it! Yak milk, yak tongue, yakkity yak yak. As Jennie and I thumbed through the menu I started to panic...what would we do? Could we politely leave? What is the mandarin word for vegetarian?! And then, at the last pages of the mammoth menu, we found: Tibetan stir-fry veggies, Tibetan style potatoes and some spicy fried chicken. Everything was delicious, and better yet, the yak milk was complementary! (Pics below: yak milk and Tibetan potatoes...wanted to take a picture of the chicken, but we ate it too fast!)
























After our delicious meal, we headed to the temple for some enlightenment. We walked in through a tree-lined entrance and it was the quietest, most peaceful place I've been since we got here. I kept thinking of the Great Wall and how we pushed and prodded our way through, and the temple was so relaxing and quite. We wandered through the different smaller temples, making our way to final temple, the Guinness Book of World Records' 2nd-largest Buddha statue in the world. It was HUGE...and it was made out of ONE trunk of sandalwood--unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures. It definitely was a sight to behold.

Video finally uploaded!

Click the link below to see the video footage of the 'minor' traffic altercation the bus in front of us got in, on our descent from the Great Wall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAO6oDpNDmQ

Look, Mom, I'm famous! (In China)

So, our trip to Bob's tea house was covered by some local media outlets...check out the pics (and story--in Mandarin, of course!) below.

If I had any idea photos would be taken I probably wouldn't have worn my Ellsbury shirt...pshaw, who are we kidding?! I would have worn it.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2008-07/20/content_8610379_3.htm

http://news.xinhuanet.com/olympics/2008-07/20/content_8705914.htm

FIRST DAY AT THE BIRD'S NEST

Yes, all caps were needed.

On Tuesday morning we met one of our fellow ONS-ers, a guy whose American name is Walter at the main gate of the campus. (Because of a slight communication snafu, we thought his name was Water...and we were all excited to have a guy named Water after the tour guide named Rock! So we were kinda disappointed when he spelled his name as we put his # in our cell phones.)

Anyways, Walter gave us our media credentials (pic above), which give us free subway and bus rides through the Games AND access to the Bird's Nest/National Stadium! We got on the subway, and it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the Bird's Nest...two changes of subway lines and one bus connection.

Once we got inside, we headed to the Press Conference room where we had an informal meeting with one of the principal designers of the stadium and he showed us all the plans and layouts. We had a chance to ask him questions at the end and I asked what he hoped it would be used for after the Games, he said probably a supermarket, mall, and stadium too. I know there has been some disagreement among the principal architect (a Swiss guy I think?) and the Chinese government over how the stadium will be used after the game...the architect really wants it to be open to the public.

After our meeting, some of the ONS staff organized a little scavenger hunt for us around the stadium. It was crazy! Nothing like the Olympic spirit of competition to get us all fired up for a 'special prize'. Naturally, my group won (hahaha) in record time! We were sprinting all around the Bird's Nest finding locations, and I snapped a couple pictures--even though picture taking is forbidden.

After our impromptu medal ceremony, we headed to lunch. If I am eating this lunch every day I may actually lose some weight here! It was pretty bad, even the Chinese volunteers agreed.

Then we had a quick tour of the media venues and a group went off to the supermarket to stock up on food for our lockers--the stadium goes into lockdown on Friday and no outside food is allowed.

Four of us stayed back, because we figured we'd never get the opportunity to just hang around the Bird's Nest ever again. So we wandered up in to the stands and took a seat. We tried to conspicuously take some pics and then we noticed all these people congregating around the field. They were doing all these preparations for the opening ceremony! AND they started a dress rehearsal! It was SO awesome. It is going to blow your mind.

After everyone returned from the grocery store, we headed out with Emily, our ONS manager and a bunch of other people who work for Infostrada, the company BOCOG hired to be ONS. We went to this excellent Mexican place for Taco Tuesdays! We had a blast and it was great to get to know the Infostrada guys and girls better and also see a fun side of Emily, too!

Now I am off to Bruce's room down the hall because he's got the Sox game on!

Backtracking last few days...

Okay, so it's Monday morning back home, many of you are bored at work, so I've put it off long enough, here are some stories from the past few days.

Still on a high from the Silk Market a bunch of us went out Thursday night. We hit up the bars in Sanlitun, a haven for expats in Beijing. My friend Mike bartered for beers before we went into any bars (10 RMB was all we'd pay...about 1.50) so we never paid more than 10 for beers. We found a bar called Boys and Girls playing some great dance music...which, if you're a girl or know a girl, once a girl starts drinking she USUALLY wants to dance. After dancing to a couple songs, the music gets all weird...oh, did I forget to mention that there were two POLES on the stage?! So some girl comes out and does her thing. She was alright, not that I'm a pole-dancing expert or anything....um. Anyways, we think it will be time to dance again and a GUY comes out. I will not even try to describe what he was wearing but we'll just saw some kind of black shiny vinyl thing. But it did not matter what he was wearing because this guy was GOOD! Again, I'm no expert, but when the straight guys in our group are watching the stage, mesmerized, it was pretty crazy. We were all impressed...flabbergasted...etc.

The next day a group of us attempted the Forbidden City. Note to self: after being herded around like cattle for 3 days on our propaganda tour, do not, I repeat, do NOT travel in large groups! i.e., groups larger than 5. We did not leave the CUC campus til around 1, and we had been trying to get people together since 11:30. Plus, the Forbidden City is a marathon, not a sprint. We did not even navigate all of it. The Forbidden City was amazingly huge (including Chairman Mao's portrait greeting us upon our entrance--pic above), and wonderful, but you can only walk through so many "Gates of Heavenly Splendor" before they all start to look the same in the pictures. After walking through, we had a delicious duck dinner. We then wandered over to the Wangfujing night market, where tons of vendors set up carts and sell dumplings, chicken, beef, fruit on a stick, coconut with a straw, even more exotic/interesting offerings like scorpion, bugs, seahorse and snake. I stuck with the dumplings...although some of my friends tried the scorpion, bugs, and snake. We ended the night at the official headquarters store of the Olympics. It was overwhelming. Do you want an Olympic duvet cover? a tie? kimono? his and hers towels? Plus the typical gifts: t-shirts, hats, etc.

For the subway ride back to campus I treated myself to a vanilla soft-serve ice cream cone...ice cream here is definitely more ice than cream.

Saturday morning, still recovering from the big-group mentality, my friend Mike (who is engaged to a girl from Newmarket, NH!! See, we're all connected.) and I headed to the Art District, 798 (pic above). It was a lot of fun...the galleries and museums were fabulous. I bought a couple prints, and we had a delicious lunch. I splurged and ordered a smoothie, it was worth the 30 RMB. We aren't supposed to eat any fresh fruit with a skin (strawberries, apples, etc.) But bananas, kiwis, and oranges are okay. So the fresh smoothie was like heaven.

After the art district, Helen and I ventured back to Sanlitun, where she had lost her camera the night before. After not finding her camera, we wandered into a restaurant called Cappucinno--I had been craving pizza, so Cappucinno seemed like a safe bet. Well, it ended up being all Middle East inspired. We sat in a huge booth, we each had practically a couch to ourselves...and it was happy hour! Over a plate of delicious homemade hummus and some Tsingtao beer, we lounged comfortably.

Sunday morning Suzy (my roommate) woke me up and invited me to her ONS manger, Bob's tea house. He and his wife were going to make us dumplings for lunch, too. It sounded like fun. So we headed out to Bob's tea house. It was a bit of a hike, similar to riding the Red Line from one end to the other. But it was well worth the trip! We had a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, and even had a turn at the end to pour for our host, too (pic above). We practiced Chinese calligraphy, too. The dumplings were delicious, too! I bought a travel-size tea set so when I come home I can make tea for all of you!

Sunday night's dinner was delightfully delicious. We headed to the hutong (local Chinese neighborhood) for dinner at a Uighir (pronounced Weeger) restaurant. Uighir food is from the region of China that borders Pakhistan and Afghanistan. We ate delicious flat bread, lamb kebabs, rice, noodles, even thinly sliced potatoes that were like potato chips, but better.

Monday morning we headed to the Silk Market for another day of haggling and bargain shopping...I could totally get used to this. Good news is my souvenir shopping is pretty much done!

Now it's Monday night and I am ready for bed. Tomorrow we head to the Bird's Nest! I am giddy with anticipation.

I've found a (place almost as good as) DiCamillo's in China!

For those of you not in the know, DiCamillo's is the family bakery in Niagara Falls that always has the best pastries, pizza, bread, biscotti, etc. So what if I'm biased? It's all delicious :)

Anyways, on a suburban adventure today, we stopped in at a local bakery for some treats to bring to our host. And something about this bakery just reminded me of DiCamillo's. Our CUC friends told us the bakery was very famous and was over 100 years old. And while it wasn't the same goodies that Laurina and Tommy DiCamillo made decades ago, it was all still pretty tasty!

Some cultural musings....

Just a couple different/unusual/mind-blowing things I've noticed in the past 12 days....

• You know the expression, "the world is your oyster"? Well, when you're a Chinese kid being potty-trained, the WORLD is your TOILET. Forbidden City? Sure, no problem...almost walked into a little girl's, um. pee stream (???sorry, that's kinda graphic) when I was traipsing through the monumentally historic palace. You know, it's the place that was FORBIDDEN to the Chinese for centuries. I just don't think the Ming and Qing emperors would be too thrilled with that. Same goes for Tian an Men Square. And any sidewalk/street corner in the city. Certainly takes some getting used to...and also a little more wary of puddles
• Chivalry is NOT dead in China. We constantly see husbands and boyfriends carrying their wives/girlfriends purses. And we're not talking a neutral man purse that Joey liked to carry on friends...we're talking sparkly, shiny, flowers, bows....some of the girliest purses I've seen. And in another show of chivalry, we saw a girl stop walking, kick off her shoes and demand her boyfriend pick them up...which he did!
• These people are PUMPED about the Olympics. Everywhere there are signs for the Olympics...I even saw some guy at ONS training wearing a shirt that said "The world gives us 16 days, we give the world 5,000 years." On the CCTV station (state-owned and operated) they ALWAYS have the countdown (19 today) running on the right side of the screen. Everyday, throughout the day CCTV has programs on ALL the Olympic sports--today was equestrian; and even a segment on "Olympic English." Today's word was tour guide.
• They are pretty mesmerized by us. Everywhere we go, whether we are in a pair or a large group, people are staring...and I'm pretty sure I've made some babies cry. Basically, we are just taking it in stride and trying not to let it bother us. I was talking to my friend Crysty about how funny it is when we see another Western-looking person, it's almost like Bingo! We have an unspoken nod or acknowledgement of some kind. Even last night, my friend Helen and I were wandering through the Sanlitun district and there was an American family (mother, father, pushing baby carriage) and I just wanted to walk behind them to hear someone else speaking English!

Shopping in China...I could get used to this

Woke up bright and early this morning (after getting in around 4:30 am) to head to the Silk Market, one of the biggest tourist attractions (althhough the locals certainly frequent it) in Beijing. The Silk Market is eight floors of clothing, shoes, toys, bags, suitcases, jewelry, home furnishings, Chinese souvenirs and SO much more.

There were three of us on the bargain hunt: Jennie, Laura and myself. We had heard from some of our classmates who had already been that the Silk Market was crazy and the vendors would grab your arm and pull you to see their wares and there was a lot of yelling. The classmates came back haggard and frazzled, exhausted from the experience. Naturally, I was bracing myself for those crazy morning-after Christmas sales (like I experienced firsthand at the Paper Store) where people go NUTS for Hallmark ornaments or anything that is 50% off.

We figured arriving early, and on a weekday would be the best way to avoid the crowds and chaos. After stopping at the dining hall for the CUC version of an Egg McMuffin we headed to the subway. We are pretty good navigators now. Just a few stops away, we got out and looked up. There it was: SILK MARKET....8 glorious stories.

Walking in the doors I was expecting to be bombarded. Instead we were all pleasantly surprised! Sure, the vendors were trying to get our attention, but mostly it was "pretty lady, want a t-shirt?" or "beautiful lady, tie for your boyfriend." To which I replied, "bu boyfriend." bu=no.

The first item I got was a pair of Victoria Beckham for Rock & Republic jeans. The salesgirl wanted them for 1250 yuan (about $180). Almost every salesperson has a calculator, so we just punched in numbers back and forth. I offered 125 yuan (a good haggling tip I read in one of my tour books--offer 10% of what they are asking). She asked "Dollars?"
I said "No! Yuan!"
Her reply, "You crazy."
She asked for my best price, I stood firm at 125. At that point I started to walk away...and she said "okay, okay. special price. 125." (and in case you're concerned, I was able to try on the jeans before I purchased them).

And that was how it went for the next 2 1/2 hours! We haggled, we were pretty ruthless...they called us tough ladies. Plus, our professor Shujen taught us the word for too much=tai guay, so we said that a lot--which impressed AND infuriated (I think) the vendors.

Walking out of the Silk Market with our purchases, Jennie, Laura and I felt pretty good. I don't think I stopped smiling the whole subway ride back! There is something so satisfying (but also oddly unsettling?) about setting your own price and sticking to it...is this what it's like booking a hotel on Priceline?

Emerson Students' Blog

As part of our participation here in Beijing, Emerson students are required to post (at least once a week) to an official blog...

click here to take a peek!

ALL pics have been uploaded to Picasa!

Here's the link to the Picasa web album...there are no captions, but they are in chronological order.

http://picasaweb.google.com/anna.sabella/ChinaWeek1

Food for thought...

Here are a couple of articles I've read in the past 24 hours about Beijing, Olympics, etc.

An International Herald Tribune article on Beijing's new, modern architecture:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/asia/beijing.php?page=1

An ESPN article about Olympic athletes and protests:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3487980&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab4pos1

The somber side of the Olympics in China--homes destroyed for the sake of the Games
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/07/16/as_olympics_near_many_chinese_homes_face_wrecking_ball/

On another note, I'm incredibly thrilled the AL won the All-Star Game! J.D. Drew is on fire!!!

ONS Training--the reality sets in!

We had our two days of ONS training yesterday and today...and the reality has set in! We are in China, working at the Olympics...and working at, arguably, the most sought-after venue: National Stadium. (see pic above just in case you forgot how stunning it is).

We are the only students who will be there...the pressure is on! We know we have to step it up and kick ass and I think we are all anxious to get to the venue and get situated. For now, we have 5 days off until Tuesday, when training begins at the venue. Athletes will begin to arrive, and we will start doing interviews and preparing entries for INFO2008, the massive database created by ONS and Infostrada Sports containing thousands of athlete bios and statistics.

Tonight, we are playing ping pong again and then it's all you can drink at the Propaganda Bar (70 yuan...roughly 10 bucks). Tomorrow, we attack the Silk Market!

Rock and Pebble: A Love Story

This is the story of Rock and Pebble. Rock and Pebble, like many Chinese, picked an American name--perhaps to sound more Western, or they were given the name by a Western friend or acquaintance. Other 'American' names we've come across so far: Cookie, Bob, Cindy and Kiki.

Rock was our tour guide on our 3-day expedition of Beijing. He told us when we went home we could tell our parents we found a rock that talked in China. He really was our rock for the three days and always had our best interests at heart.

On the first day of the tour (Friday) we were eating lunch and a Chinese journalist asked to sit with us, she worked for one of the local papers and was following around the group of students from Iowa. She introduced herself as Pebble..."like the Flintsones!" she said. Almost instantly, we knew we HAD to introduce Rock and Pebble...it was just too perfect!

It proved futile on the first two days--the Iowa students were sometimes on a different schedule, or Pebble wasn't there--but finally, the opporunity presented itself at dinner Sunday night before we were heading to the Peking Opera. Some of us were trying to figure out the best way to introduce them--obviously, we didn't want to break any Chinese traditions/rules about dating or even introducing people, and we certainly did not want to make Rock or Pebble feel uncomfortable.

But serendipitously, they were standing a few feet away, with their backs to each other. Helen and I went over and tapped Pebble on the shoulder and got Rock's attention.
"Pebble, this is our tour guide, Rock. His name is Rock--like your name is Pebble!"They both looked at each other and smiled. then Pebble said "Is this common to have a stone name?"
We laughed and smiled, and said no.

We took the picture above, and after the opera, Helen saw them chatting. Maybe we have careers as Chinese matchmakers? Possible Rock/Pebble baby names: Sandy, Marble, Granite. Can you think of a better one??

another Manic Monday...

Okay, so the rest of the weekend was great. Ming Tombs were interesting, I'm glad I saw them. Same goes for Peking Opera. (Pics from Ming Tombs and Peking Opera are above)

The Summer Palace was absolutely breathtaking...it was just enormous! The grounds were expansive, and the lake was beautiful. A bunch of us rented pedal boats and cruised around the lake for a bit.

Sunday was bittersweet, too, because we had to say goodbye to our kickass tour guide, Rock. He was pretty great, he knew so much about China and really wanted us to know more about his country. He even sang us an original ballad that he wrote about his home country! Just adorable (Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the Rock/Pebble love story matchmaking...it's coming soon.)

But today, Monday, was great. We got to sleep in, do laundry, run errands around the city, and we had to get all dressed up for a meeting. And since we were all dressed up, our professors suggested we stop by a super swanky hotel and go to the bar for a nice drink.

Well, the St. Regis happened to be the place. Check it out online...it was SO nice and we got the royal treatment. Our professor, Paul, is one smooth operator. The general manager of the St. Regis opened a private room for us and we were waited on hand and foot. It was surreal. My friend Lloyd kept telling me to "act like you know Anna" because I was so excited to be there and I was trying to keep it cool.

The hotel was just amazing...fresh orchids everywhere, an attentive staff--if you ever happen to stay there, EVERY room has its own butler-- and they have a special sunset ceremony every night at 6 with champagne. I couldn't tell you exactly what went on at the ceremony but I can tell you the champagne was delicious and they passed around hors d'ouevres trays complete with crackers and BRIE! I wasn't expecting to see or even taste brie until I came back home. So a slice of brie and a glass of champagne was glorious.

And on that note I am off to bed to dream of brie and champagne...first day of Olympic News Service training tomorrow! Bright and early...7 am.

Pictures from the rest of the weekend will be posted asap...I am working on an album on Picasa.

the GREAT Wall

me on the wall!
Can you see the Olympic slogan behind me?

"This is a great wall and only a great people with a great past could have a great wall and such a great people with such a great wall will surely have a great future." -Richard Nixon

Okay, so I think I have to agree with Nixon. Although not quite so eloquently. (ha) The wall was stunning, everything I expected, just an amazing thing to be standing on/walking around. Unfortunately, getting there was a bit of a trial.

We arrived at Badaling around 10:30. (NOTE: on the way to Badaling, because it was so clear out, we saw the Bird's Nest/National Stadium for the first time! It was awesome, and in the true sense of the word--full of awe--it gave me goosebumps. I am posting one of those pics too, see below.)

Badaling is one of the most touristy places on the Great Wall, complete with a Starbucks, a tourist trap where Sprites cost (gasp!) full price (what we'd pay back home) and everything else is incredibly overpriced.

We got off the bus, popped to the loo (one of my new British friends has got that stuck in my head now) and headed up to the wall. The only problem was there was someone MORE IMPORTANT than us already on the wall--the President of Mexico! Security was crazy and we had to wait in this bizarre holding area for approximately 45 minutes. Oh, and it was 97 degrees. And there were Chinese women all around holding their umbrellas for shade and poking us repeatedly. Plus, it was a Saturday and the sky was crystal clear, so all the odds were against us.

At that point, I was standing there thinking "Holy crap I am at the freaking Great Wall and I just want to run up, take my picture, and be done. This is horrible!" Luckily my 'tude changed as soon as we got up on the wall and away from the mass of people.

We climbed up pretty far and took some great pictures. And, as usual, people took pictures of us, and in my friend Adrienne's case, with us! We also saw Felipe Calderon as he exited the wall. At one point I just stopped and leaned into one of the little crevices where thousands of years ago warriors shot arrows down at invaders, and just really took it all in...I'm IN CHINA. I'm ON THE GREAT WALL. WHOA.

Parts of the wall are pretty treacherous...it's a pretty steep climb at some points, and at others it's just a steady slope. On the way down I 'took a digger' but caught onto a pole. We saw a woman being carried down on a stretcher, not sure what happened to her.

After piling back on the bus, our tour guide Rock (yes his name is Rock--his American name anyway--lots of the Chinese that we meet tell us their name is Cookie or Pebble...we are trying to play matchmaker with Rock and Pebble but more on my Chinese grandmother matchmaking later.)

We began our descent out of Badaling only to be stopped by a minor traffic altercation. The bus in front of us (carrying students from Purdue and Queensland University in Australia) sideswiped a car and the car was stuck. Luckily, I pulled out my little flip camera and started shooting. It was hilarious. People who were not directly affected by the accident (and were sick of waiting in traffic I think) just got up and out of their cars and LEFT! There was one guy whose car wasn't even hit by the bus, but clearly the emotional stress of it all took it's toll and he got right in, gesturing and, I'm guessing, cursing. A few minutes later I saw another guy hand him a wad of cash and he got back in his car.

THEN, the car that had been hit was still sort of stuck on the bus. So 6 or 7 Chinese guys just PICKED IT UP!!! and moved it out of the way. Believe me, the video is priceless, I will post it soon.

After the eventful prelude to lunch it was time for lunch--we ate at a Friendship shop, which is shops the government sets up for foreign travelers in China. We saw how they make cloisenne vases and other items, it is very popular over here. And the work and attention to detail was pretty crazy. We ate another huge lunch and we were off to the Ming Tombs... more to come later!

Okay I got ready really fast so I can post a few pics before we leave

Pic #1: Our lovely sign notifying us of our official Olympic tour of the country...



NOTE: I forgot to mention that major Chinese media outlets followed us around all day yesterday--CCTV and the China Daily...capturing our every move on camera and video. Only added to the surrealness of it all!

Pic #2: Blue sky when we woke up this morning!

Tour, Day 1: SURREAL

It's Saturday morning--I've only got a few minutes to post before we head off to the Great Wall, so I will post pictures later. AND when we woke up this morning there was a BLUE SKY outside our window! It's glorious! Anyways, on to the tour.

Well the morning began with a state-of-the-art tour of a sewage treatment plant. We were outside, it was hot and sticky, and most of the tour took place outside. Clearly the Chinese are very proud of this, and it WAS impressive. They built it in the last fwe years and it supplies water for all the Olympic venues. There were the ubiquitious jokes about "this place is the shit," "all my pictures look like shit," etc. But it was pretty interesting to see.

Also, there are 8 buses on the tour--it's all the colleges and universities working for ONS, so it's a bit crazy to be travelling with so many others.

After the sewage treatment plant, they took us to lunch. Surprisingly, I had an appetite. The food was delicious, as usual. We had fish, veggies, lots of other dishes. For dessert we had fresh fruit--dessert is not a big deal in China. And after the huge meals we've been having, you really don't need it!

After lunch we had a POLICE ESCORT to a 'typical rural Chinese' village. This was the most surreal part of the day...it was like we were right in the middle of the Chinese propaganda machine. We weren't sure if we were on the set of the Stepford Wives: China, or Epcot at Disney World, but it just did not feel authentic. The village was beautiful, and the people were so nice and thrilled to see us, but I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

On the tour we saw a temple, a senior citizens' home, a golf course resort, a tai chi demonstration, a typical home, and some amazing calligraphy.

After the tour we piled on the bus for the 2 hour ride back to the city for the Beijing specialty, Peking Duck. We ate at a world-famous restaurant where Henry Kissinger actually came in the early 70s to broker the Open-Door policy...in the same room too! The duck was delicious, the way they eat it is almost like assembling fajitas at Chilis. I took a picture tutorial of my friend Helen making her little duck fajita so those will be fun to see!

And after a marathon day when we left at 8 and did not return til after 10:30 we returned to campus fried and exhausted. Today we are going to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. I promise to post ALL the pics tonight when we get back!

Atmosphere! Update!

Okay so my friend Marc told me that someone told him that walking around Beijing is the equivalent to smoking 500 cigarettes a day!!!! I sincerely hope this is not true...Uncle John can you check any EPA files?? But I will say after long walks, I feel a little tightness in my chest, I get light-headed...it's definitely alarming.

My classmate Crysty told us tonight at dinner about a friend whose friend from Beijing came to visit in Europe and he ran up and down the streets just taking pictures of the blue sky! Because he had never seen a sky so blue before.

You know how some people kiss the ground after a long time away from home?? I think I would like to kiss the sky when I get home. It's weird not seeing the sun--just seeing a blurry bright thing in the sky, and it's weird not seeing the stars.

3-day tour of Beijing begins tomorrow!

We just got back from another awesome dinner of rice, veggies, chicken with walnuts, mutton onion explosion (there was cilantro in it! yum!) and a delicious beer. Again we stumbled into a local restaurant, ordered from a menu full of pictures, pointed and hoped for the best. The menu was pretty entertaining--there were some pretty lost in translation moments: salivating chicken, Grandma's hands, delicious golden mushroom spicy...

(Above pics: the mutton onion explosion and remains from the bucket of rice--next time I will take the pictures BEFORE we ravenously dig in!)

Tomorrow we begin our 3-day of Beijing...it has all been arranged by BOGOC. All the international ONS volunteers will be touring Beijing and the outskirts. Our professors tell us it's a pretty expensive and exciting tour. Some of the highlights: a tour of a state-of-the-art sewage facility (sounds interesting, and it must be pretty cool if they are taking hundreds of us to see it), Peking duck dinner, visit to a rural farm, GREAT WALL!, Winter Palace, Summer Palace and Peking Opera!

We are all excited to get to know the city and the surroundings better...hopefully the tour will improve our overall knowledge of where we are in/around the city. We will be out of here everyday by 8 and not back until 8 or 9 at night....definitely bringing Yahtzee and a deck of cards for the bus!

The atmosphere in Beijing

The atmosphere here, both literally and figuratively is not bad. In a briefing we received from the college, we were told to expect to be treated as outsiders, and outsiders are frowned upon in China. Surprisingly, everyone has been very friendly except for our cab driver on the return trip from Wal-Mart, and that was our fault, not his! (he brought us to a university entrance that we hadn't been to before, and we did not think we were in the right place.)

Everyone at the University has been helpful and accomodating. The students speak excellent English, and we've been learning some Mandarin words and phrases from them. We played ping pong last night and it was a lot of fun. Just smiling and laughing and learning the words for hot, tired, one more...etc.

We are learning that things are sometimes backward here- the BOGOC people, the taxi drivers, it's just a cultural thing. They take their time--maybe it's because we are foreigners/'from the Frontier' (their less than affectionate word for foreigners) and they know we are kinda screwed either way.

It's also been hard to get used to the spitting and hocking loogies that goes on! It could definitely been an Olympic sport and China would DOMINATE. All over the place--old, young, rich, poor--everyone does it. As my friend Helen put it, "It's not so much the spitting that bothers me, it's that they appear to be hocking up their internal organs everytime they do it."

The smog that envelops the city is a bit surreal. It's crazy that we probably won't see blue skies until we're back home. Paul, one of our professors, that it's not just industrial...it's been this way for decades...it's just the weather system plus the influx of factories. I'm just trying to drink lots of water and take a couple deep breaths of my POD everyday.

Wal-Mart, always low prices, ALWAYS

Just got back from an adventurous trip to Wal-Mart. What an experience...it was the biggest Wal-Mart I have EVER seen...and I've been to my fair share.

We took the subway, which was good, because we will be using it a lot as a major mode of transportation.

We walked in, got baskets and carriages and headed to the produce department. They have tons of breads, cakes, and rolls. Lots of fruits and veggies, too. I did not even venture over to the meat/fish aisle because I could hear the slamming of the cleavers, and I just don't think I'm quite ready to see all that stuff yet. They also had TURTLES! Just swimming around in a tank, waiting for someone to take them home and cook em up for dinner. I really wanted to rescue one...

On the produce side, I got a loaf of bread and some bananas. I really wanted some cheese but it was about 38-47 yuan (6-8 bucks)...I will probably cave and buy some eventually.

We made our way to the snack/condiments aisle where I got some Skippy crunchy peanut butter and some weird Hello Kitty marshmallow-like snacks.

Next on my list was a bowl and some utensils so we can eat/snack in our rooms. My roommate Susy made some oatmeal yesterday but did not have any utensils, so she ate it with her toothbrush handle! I got a nice noodle bowl, soup spoon, and some bamboo chopsticks--gotta practice my technique.

I got a value pack of a Ramen-like noodles which I am excited to eat with my new bowl and chopsticks. A water bottle (which will probably give me cancer, but it was less than a dollar!)

Other purchases: a reusable bag (they charge pretty much everywhere you go for plastic bags), a clothesline in a bag (we only have washing machines--no dryers!), and some 3M hooks.

One impulse buy: a cold Starbucks frappucino in a bottle.

Other sightings: lots of Olympic countdowns, my favorite was the Olympic rings display by Coca-cola...a special edition Budweiser Olympic beer...

At the checkout, my total came to 141 yuan...which is about 20 bucks!!! They don't call it bargain shopping for nothing!

Posting, pictures, etc.

Good morning! Just wanted to let you all know that I am working on a new post, and trying to upload some pics...should be happening in the next few hours.

I hope to post every day, but it just depends on our schedule, etc.

The first 48...

Arrived in Beijing around 2:30 in the afternoon, local time on Tuesday July 8.

First a couple tidbits about the travelling to Beijing...
-leaving for Emerson bright and early Monday morning was no big problem--I slept about 3 hours the night before, so I was ready to go! Plus, after my dry-run of carrying/toting luggage around the house I felt pretty confident in my travelling capabilities.
-After hitting a couple snags on the road to the airport terminal (bus went wrong direction, didn't fit in a tunnel; driver did not park in the 'bus only' parking and thoroughly irritated some drivers at Terminal C)
-Got through security smoothly, flight from Boston to DC was uneventful, but we had a very quick turnover in DC. In fact, by the time we got to our gate they were already boarding the plane
-Not much else to report about the flight, but what is it about airplane food?! It is so gross and yet you are compelled to eat it...every last bite usually. I don't know where it comes from, but I was starving and I knew my Kashi Crunch bars weren't going to hold me over forever. But nothing makes you say "Mmmm" like 'beef' in a gravy sauce with a warm salad on the side. And by salad I mean some lettuce, a few strips of cheese and some light ranch dressing.

ARRIVAL in Beijing-
After a bumpy descent, and then an extremely long taxi around the runway, we arrived at the gate. Looking around outside the airport, we wondered if it was a rainy/overcast day or if this was, in fact, a typical weather day in Beijing...it was.

After going through Immigration, we were greeted by 4 CUC students...all very friendly and excited to see us. We loaded up the motor coach and headed to the International Center at CUC.

We had about 30 minutes to get settled in our rooms. We are on the 9th floor of the International Student Center...we've got Internet (although facebook and cnn are not easily accessible!), air conditioning, a TV, and a western toilet! It feels just like a dorm with desks, twin beds, etc. Our shower is pretty teeny, and you could literally sit on the toilet and shower at the same time. For some reason I can imagine Homer Simpson really enjoying that.

After getting settled we had a quick tour of the CUC--the students giving us the tour told us it was a 'small campus' but to us it is HUGE. They have around 20,000 students here and lots of on campus housing, there are restaurants, dining halls and convenience stores/supermarkets throughout the campus. After the tour we found a fantastic restaurant right around the corner, literally. We ate some dumplings, fish, rice, and a couple of spicy chicken dishes that were SO tasty...and the whole meal cost about $2 after we divvied up the bill!

After that we came back to get some rest, since a few of us decided to wake up early (3:30 am) to go to Tian an Men Square to see the flag raising, a ceremony similar to what is done at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. We arrived at the Square around 4:30, after an eventful trek through the campus, trying to find an exit. There were hundreds of thousands of Chinese at the ceremony, our professor explained that many of them are peasants who have saved for years, maybe even a decade or more to come to Beijing and see the sites.

As the flag is raised, the national anthem is played and the cameras were out in full force…just hundreds of digital camera screens.

And as soon as the flag is raised, they all disperse. Obviously we got plenty of looks from the locals, and a couple just took pictures of us.

At this point it was a little after 5 am, so we wandered around the square, took some pictures, and ate breakfast around 7. When we arrived back at the CUC I was feeling a little uneasiness in my chest--I know this sounds weird, but I felt like I needed some fresh air. And luckily my friend Helen (who is a Marketing major at Emerson) hooked me up with a bunch of PODS: Personal Oxyen Devices. They are just a can of O2, and I took a couple deep breaths of that and felt much better. Don't worry Mom, it's not like a whip-it.

Anyways, after my breath of fresh air we met in the lobby to take our cheesy group photo, and then we had a lecture on the history/culture of China and Beijing. Our lecturer is a professor at CUC and he kept talking about Kung Fu Panda! He has seen it 3 times and he could not seem to get over the fact that an American studio made such a great movie with Chinese values in it.

After the lecture, we had some free time, I tried (unsuccessfully) to nap. And next thing we knew it was time for our first meeting our ONS (Olympic News Service) supervisors and the BOGOC (Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee). We received our SIM cards for our phones AND we got to try on uniforms! We will get 3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants (they are the kind that zip off into shorts), a pair of sneakers with “Beijing 2008” on them, 3 pairs of socks and a heap of other goodies…oh yes, and my favorite part, a fanny pack. The interesting thing is everything is Adidas, and we can only wear Adidas when we are working…right down to the socks apparently! I will be sure to post pictures when we get our uniforms.

Our ONS supervisor, Emily, is really nice and she gave us our schedule for the upcoming weeks. We are actually only working 2 days a week until August 1, when we start working full time. Also, the BOGOC has arranged a 3-day tour of Beijing for us this weekend—Peking duck at a famous restaurant, Great Wall, Summer Palace, and the Peking Opera! Definitely looking forward to doing the touristy stuff.

Tomorrow morning, we tackle Wal-Mart!