The Final Leg

This has been one hectic week. Because I am leaving a day before the program officially ends, I took all of my exams and had all of my deadlines today. This included writing a paper for Business Chinese for Success and completing written tests for my other two classes. Cramming everything into these last four days has been pretty rough, but I'm glad to be done with it now! 

I haven't really been doing anything too exciting recently, but my roommate and I went to Zoo Coffee to celebrate (sort of); thus, I leave you with one final food picture:

Cake waffles

I'm in a bit of a rush to finish packing and get my room sorted out, so I won't be able to reflect too much right now, but this has been an extraordinary experience. Being in Beijing this summer has really helped me grow, not just as a student but as a citizen of society. I feel as if I can't adequately put in words how much this summer has changed me - from allowing me to get a better sense of mature "independent" (even though I had roommates) living to giving me the tools to improve my Chinese ability to opening my eyes to the various fascinating characteristics of Chinese society. To have this amazing opportunity to understand and appreciate Chinese culture is extraordinary, and I am so extremely grateful to the Light Fellowship for making this possible. 

The Beijing Color Run

This past week (the 7th week of class - jeez! so fast!) was like any other; nothing super eventful happened at IUP. I'm definitely starting to miss home, though. This week, I realized that I've been making a mental calendar and ticking down the days one by one as they passed. 

I wouldn't really call it homesickness though, but sometimes you just need a little taste of home. And what luck! Today was the first Beijing Color Run! It was awesome!!!

Let me paint the picture for you. It is a hot August day in one of the most polluted cities in the world. AQI is -- I forget what it is number-wise, but definitely in the hazardous zone. It is also 3:30 PM, probably the hottest hour of this hot August day (in one of the most polluted cities in the world, mind you). Everywhere around you, you see hoards and hoards of people proudly wearing "Color Run" t-shirts and other theme-related garb. 

For those that are unfamiliar with the concept, the premise of the Color Run is fairly straightforward. You run a 5k and at the end of every k, you get color thrown on you (either in the form of paint or corn starch powder or other whatnots). Beijing's Color Run is pretty historic because it is the first Color Run in all of Asia! 

Color warriors!

I have always wanted freckles...

The ride back on the subway was hilarious. The run was held at the Beijing Garden Expo, which is about an hour and a half away from the Wudaokou subway station (the stop closest to my apartment). The first couple of stops leaving from the garden expo were alright -- there were hoards of us together on the subway, and people had a pretty good idea what we were doing. However, as we got closer and closer to inner Beijing, as the crowds of color-ridden people dispersed to their various destinations, the horrified and interested stares became more and more commonplace.

Anyhow, this was definitely a fun thing to do! The rest of this weekend will be spent studying for finals, which are (gasp!) in a week! Ahhh! 

The Beijing Vertical Run and Tianjin Part II

What a great weekend this was! Hope everyone's weekend was as good, if not better, than mine was!

Early June, I signed up for the Beijing Vertical Run, which is a race up 86 flights of stairs in Beijing's new World Trade Center Hotel. Friday evening, I went to the hotel to pick up my registration packet and to check out the course. The hotel is absolutely beautiful! And really really tall! The race was on Saturday, and because it was a stair race, they broke us up into different groups, which staggered every 5 minutes. I ran in the 11:10 group. 

Bring it on, stairs. 

Right before starting the race.

Right after finishing the race!

After the stair run, I went home, showered, packed an overnight bag, and took the train to Tianjin! Whoohoo! When I got there, we had dinner and then went to ride the Tianjin ferris wheel, the largest ferris wheel in Asia (and, as my friends snickered, the only thing worth going to Tianjin for).

Before getting in line to see ride the ferris wheel, my cousin and I lit a couple of lanterns by the river. It was really a beautiful sight, as many couples, tourists, and other passersby held their lanterns, made a wish, and sent the paper light off into the sky. 

A nice man helping me light the lantern.

How romantic! 

Holding up the ferris wheel. I work out.

On Sunday, my cousin and I went on another very interesting adventure: escape the room. I don't know if you're familiar with these "escape from the room" games, but I first heard of them as being an online game. Usually with some kind of sinister or horror backdrop, you're stuck inside a room and you have to click around and find various objects and clues to put together in order to you guessed it! escape from the room. Well, what we played in Tianjin was like the live version of that. It was AWESOME. You are stuck in a series of rooms with a number of other people (or by yourself, if that's your preference; in our case, it was just my cousin and me), and you have to look for objects and clues scattered around the room in order to unlock the door leading to the next room. Continue doing this for all of the rooms in the set, and voila! The place we went to was called "Mr. X". 

Victory is ours! (After 2 hours of crawling around red-light lit rooms and screaming far too many times than was necessary)

I love weekends in China. I'm really going to miss this! 

The 6th Week Milestone

Today was extremely productive and fun (don't ya love it when that happens)! The Friday of the 6th week at IUP is, by tradition, oral presentation day. All of the IUP students are required to make an oral presentation (from memory, but the teachers are really understanding if you get too nervous and need to look at a script) that lasts between 4-10 minutes. You get to choose your own topic, you're allowed to use a powerpoint, and you can present with a partner (although you will then have to do a longer presentation). The presentations were all really interesting (oh, and you're required to attend at least 3 other people's presentations) - some were extremely personal and charismatic while others discussed topics pertinent to modern China.

If there's one thing I learned about myself through this program, it's that I really need to start procrastinating less. I didn't start memorizing my presentation until last night, and this morning, when I got up to speak, I could feel myself stumbling around what should have been familiar idioms and expressions and unclear trains of thought. Note to self -- memorizing a speech is difficult; memorizing a speech in an entirely foreign language is very very very difficult. 

After the speeches, a few friends and I went to the Beijing zoo! I hadn't been to the Beijing zoo since I was about 5 or 6 years old, and I was so excited to see the different exhibits. The zoo, like all of Beijing, was packed with people (of course), and since we got there rather late in the afternoon, we didn't get a chance to see all of the exhibits before they closed. However, we did manage to see monkeys and gorillas and giraffes and many many other animals (missed the pandas though, which was disappointing). 

Storks and friends! My favorite combination! 

Representing everywhere we go. Can you guess what we're spelling?

Later that evening, my roommates and I went out for dinner to send off one of our roommates who is leaving tomorrow morning. Nothing like great food and greater company to end your evening!

Adventures in Xi'an!

Xi'an was awesome! Lots and lots of food, which means lots and lots of fun! Oh, and I guess other things were pretty cool too.

We flew from Beijing to Xi'an Friday afternoon, which meant we had roughly two and a half days of exploring. And they were jammed pack with adventure! And humidity! Xi'an makes Beijing look like an ice cooler. The first night, we walked around a historic district located in the heart of Xi'an and got a lot of yummy street foods! Apparently, Xi'an is famous for its street food (I mean, isn't all of China?), and I made it my personal goal to try anything and everything I could find. Unfortunately, oily fingers means no pictures from that night, but rest assured, the Xi'an street food experience was not wasted on me.

On Saturday, we climbed Huashan! It's the tallest mountain in Xi'an and is considered one of China's five great mountains (for more information, click on this link!). IT WAS TIRING. IT WAS HOT. IT WAS AWESOME. It took me about 3 hours or so, and I climbed the four peaks (the north, south, east, and west peaks). Huashan is absolutely beautiful - I wish I had brought a better camera with me, but all I had at the top was my Nokia phone. 

Beautiful

Beautiful! 

Clouds

Bam! Success!

After climbing Huashan, we drove back to the center of Xi'an and had a delicious meal. We also walked around a nice square and people watched for a while. Lots of people were square dancing and rollerblading and having a nice time. 

Holding up the pagoda. I am so strong. 

We then watched a huge fountain display (the largest in Asia, or so I'm told)! 

Choreographed to various classical pieces. If only I could get my water fountains to do that...

Thus we ended the first full day of our trip. The second day was just as packed as the first! Our first stop was Wu Zetian's tomb. 

And by tomb, I meant mountain

Wu Zetian was China's sole female emperor. Rock on! Her 'tomb' is definitely fit for an empress, to say the least. Upon walking through the entrance, you are greeted by two lines of various statues of exotic animals and belligerent warriors. There are many watchtowers that stand guard atop smaller mounds along the path. The largest mountain in the area (of course) is where she is buried. They say it's bad luck to take a picture of the actual mountain (because the giant mountain will always appear to be squishing you), so we took some pictures of the other notable sights in the area. 

Intimidating 

Afterwards, we visited a popular ethnic minority village. Apparently, this is a very touristy village, as the streets are lined with stalls selling various Xi'an goods and (to my delight) foods! 

Mao, my main man, greeted us at the entrance.

A sugar-drawn tiger! Edible art is my favorite art.

After walking around and sampling the various delights that caught our eye, we got back in the car and drove to see the terra cotta warriors! 

I'd want to be an emperor too if it meant I get a bazillion of these.

Our tour guide told us a lot of really cool things about the place relating to the discovery of the warriors, the history of the area, and current projects pertaining to the warriors. It was hot and humid inside, where the tourists probably outnumbered the warriors, but I'm really glad we got to see this! Another thing to check off the list. 

The last place we visited was the Huaqing Hot Springs. A beautifully scenic area, it used to be a palace under Emperor Xuanzhong during the Tang dynasty. The area's main attractions are these ancient bath areas that were built on top of hot springs. We were also able to catch a really beautiful show depicting the love story between Emperor Xuanzhong and his concubine Yang Guifei. 

Just cooling off by the pond between learning about the hot springs and watching the show!

To be honest, I am exhausted from this trip. We were able to fit so much stuff into our less than 72 hours here. Wouldn't have it any other way! 

Another Weekly Update

Gonna start with the important stuff: food.

Hot pot, meet blog readers. 

Blog readers, meet hotpot. 

Hot pot, get into my mouth. 

This, my dear friends, is the hot pot I've been talking about. Deeeelicious. There's a chain hotpot restaurant right next to my gym, and every time I finish working out, I am tortured by the incredible smells of veggies and meats and all that jazz wafting out of Xiabu Xiabu (the restaurant). A few friends and I went on Monday and nom'ed it hardcore. Man, I wish I had some right now! 

The rest of the week went by pretty smoothly! It was a rough week in terms of the workload - we were warned ahead of time that week 5 of IUP would be the hardest one, due to the activities and requirements that would come in weeks 6, 7, and 8. I've gotten used to a comfortable pattern in terms of how to handle the work, which is really nice. I think my readings this week pretty much doubled in length, which wasn't too hard to handle since, ya know, I've got pretty much nothing else to do all day besides learn Chinese (and occasionally post pictures of food that I eat). 

This weekend, I will be going to Xi'an with my aunt and cousin! I'm super pumped because I've never traveled around China outside of Beijing and Tianjin! Brace yourselves, terra cotta warriors. 

Halfway There

(Oooh oh! Livin' on a prayer!)

We had midterms this morning - whoohoo! Love you, academia. The exam started at 8:10 and ended officially at 10:30. The test was not bad at all; you sit in a small room with a couple other people and quietly work on your own exams. Each of my three classes gave me a written exam, so I had an extra thick stack of papers to get through. Luckily, the material was not too difficult to comprehend, and the 2.5 hours we were given to finish the test proved to be more than enough. In the afternoon, we met with our teachers individually to go over our test scores (our teachers are speed demons when it comes to grading!) and to discuss areas of improvement; it was an excellent way to evaluate ourselves! 

After the exam, a few friends and I decided went to a pool bar and shot some pool. My friend and I were the only two girls at the pool bar, which was pretty interesting. I am really really really really really terrible at pool, but it was still a lot of fun to play nonetheless. Nothing like some friendly 'competition' in an activity that you suck at to relax you after a nice long week of studying. 

Look that that form. We should go to Vegas.

After pool, my roommates and I got dinner at this really awesome small Xinjiang restaurant. Wish I remembered to take pictures, but alas, I did not.