Well, here I am in China! It's now 8:48 pm on monday and i have successfully survived my first full day In China! We flew on a 14 hour plane from Newark to Beijing which was very long and boring, although we did get personal screens so i got to watch Made of Honor, Dead Poets society, and Chronicles of Narnia. For the record my favorite one was Dead Poet's Society, it was really great. Once we arrived In Beijing we had a 4 hour layover. My first impression of China was that it was very clean and orderly, and the architecture of the Beijing capitol airport is amazing! The first thing i wanted to do was analyze if the shopping here really was better for Americans. So i looked in a cafe and saw that a cup of coffee was 28 yuan, which transates to about $4.25, so i thought maybe i wouldn't get such a great deal here after all. I later talked to Lisa and she told me that the stores in the airport are overpriced and that i can get a bottle of water for 1 yuan, which is 14 cents. Not bad!
When we arrived in Xian at 8 pm we were greeted by Jenny and another woman whose name i don't know, both teachers at the school we're going to. They had a small bus waiting for us and we drove for about 45 minutes to 1 hour to the school. At first the area had bridges and ramps with bright lights on them forming lines, which was really impressive. I've never seen anything like that in America. Then it seemed we went through a more rural part of China, with Willow trees lining the road and shacks for peoples houses. Ok maybe not shacks but they didn't look very clean. There were also dingy looking restaurants that didnt seem to have a door, and lots of people walking around. Then we arrived in downtown Xian. Let me just say this city is huge and we kept driving and driving through streets with high rise buildings and colorful bright signs. i saw lots of KTVs, which lisa says is where you can do karaoke. She says she likes it very much and that hopefully this weeekend we can go there with some friends. When we finally arrived at the school i saw Lisa and everyone. I stepped off the bus into a crowd of happy people and was embraced by lisa and her mother and father. They all seemed very excited to see me, and i tried to say its nice to meet you in chinese but it didnt go so well. He rmother held on to my arm and walked around to help me find my suitcase. Then we hopped into a car and drove to Lisa's great aunt and uncle's apartment (lao yi and lao yi fu they say is the word for great aunt and great uncle, repectively). Well, we drove up to a high rise apartment building that goes 20 stories up, and their apartment is on the 13th floor. When i walked in i was greeted by lao yi and lao yi fu was in the kitchen cooking. They all seemed exciting and showed me to my room.
My room is spectacular, I can see the tops of other high rise apartment buildings from miles around and when i look down i see a garden and a road. The beds are very different, they're low and hard, and yes what they say is true- the chinese really do sleep on top of the sheets. Lisa's mother gave me a blanket to keep me comfy. My first night i went to bed at 12:30 am and woke up at 6 am. I thought i would be tired but i wasn't, as hard as i tried to fall back asleep i couldn't.
For dinner we had dumplings and a selection of ther things. They were all yummy, but trying to eat dumplings with chopsticks was quite a challenge, but I'm getting better I promise. Lisa explained to me that the chinese custom is to eat dumplings when two friends meet, which i thought was pretty special. We had other things like green beans with beef, which was my favorite because the seasoning was very yummy. And the green beans are alot thinner here than in America. Here in China they have a bunch of dishes and they give you a bowl and they tell you to go for it. Well, my family is really hospitable, they kept telling me to eat more and when my pace slowed down they would put food on my plate for me. It became almost comical, once i was almost finished and ready to say that i was full and didn't want anymore, they would put more food on my plate! Same thing goes with drinks, too.
Here everyone lives in apartments, because there just wouldn't be enough space for everyone if they all had houses. My family's apartment has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (only one with a shower), a living room with a ping pong table(pingpang qiu), a eating room connected to the family room, and a small kitchen the size of maybe two closets togehter, It's very narrow.
When I woke up today, Lisa went to school, and i got to stay at home to rest and study, which mainly consisted of looking in my chinese phrasebooks. Lisa's mom made scrambled eggs and gave me this crossaint like bread and told me to put the eggs inside of the bread. All i can say is it was really yummy. The milk here is different too, it tastes better i think...then again I'm not one to talk since i don't like American milk.
Communicating with my family without Lisa there was interesting, the only one who knows a little english is Lisa's mom. It was better than my chinese, but sometimes i didn't understand what she was saying, so we just communicated in broken chinglish. It's really amusing as well when any of the family members start speaking to me in chinese and expect me to understand what they're saying. i just nod my head and smile.
At about 11 we went out shopping. First Lisa's mom, lao yi and I went to a park which was very pretty, and then we went to the supermarket. Well it really was super. It reminded me of a walmart superstore because it had everything. Lisa's mom insitsted on buying me flip flops, idk why because i already have some, but i didn't argue. I chose the pair with chinese symbols on them that say beautiful feet. I thought it was funny. Then we went upstairs to the grocery section. Lisa's mom kept insisting that if i saw something i liked to tell her, and so when we went to the bakery section and she asked "you like?" it was hard to say no, so we wound up with a whole selection of bakery goods like almond cookies , brown cake, almond muffins, puff pastries, bright cakes that have cake at the bottom and then this white stuff which i guess is yogurt, and then this bright jelly stuff at the top with fruit. I couldn't resist when i got asked if "i like". We got these litle jelly cups too, and a bunch of juice, since the tap water isn't meant to be drunk.
The city here is bustling with people and everyone's friendly. The pollution isn't as bad as i thought. In beijing it was hard to breathe, but here in xian it's not too bad, although i think the air blocks sunlight from coming in, but i'm not sure since it might have just been a cloudy day.
For dinner we had fish (a whole fish head and all) , this oatmeal tasting soup, the green bean leftovers from the night before, and chicken with this green vegetable. Oh and you can't forget the rice with eggs. It was all really yummy.
So now here I am, while Lisa's studying I'm at the computer in her room. Tommorrow is my first day at school, so I can write all about that tommorrow, although I don't think my blogs will be as long since I won't have as much time on my hands as i did today.
Well i better go do some other stuff. Zai Jian! (Bye)
p.s.- i forget to say that bread is 3 yuan-50 cents and that my sandals were 19 yuan- around 2.85 they were made in china too! not bad
When we arrived in Xian at 8 pm we were greeted by Jenny and another woman whose name i don't know, both teachers at the school we're going to. They had a small bus waiting for us and we drove for about 45 minutes to 1 hour to the school. At first the area had bridges and ramps with bright lights on them forming lines, which was really impressive. I've never seen anything like that in America. Then it seemed we went through a more rural part of China, with Willow trees lining the road and shacks for peoples houses. Ok maybe not shacks but they didn't look very clean. There were also dingy looking restaurants that didnt seem to have a door, and lots of people walking around. Then we arrived in downtown Xian. Let me just say this city is huge and we kept driving and driving through streets with high rise buildings and colorful bright signs. i saw lots of KTVs, which lisa says is where you can do karaoke. She says she likes it very much and that hopefully this weeekend we can go there with some friends. When we finally arrived at the school i saw Lisa and everyone. I stepped off the bus into a crowd of happy people and was embraced by lisa and her mother and father. They all seemed very excited to see me, and i tried to say its nice to meet you in chinese but it didnt go so well. He rmother held on to my arm and walked around to help me find my suitcase. Then we hopped into a car and drove to Lisa's great aunt and uncle's apartment (lao yi and lao yi fu they say is the word for great aunt and great uncle, repectively). Well, we drove up to a high rise apartment building that goes 20 stories up, and their apartment is on the 13th floor. When i walked in i was greeted by lao yi and lao yi fu was in the kitchen cooking. They all seemed exciting and showed me to my room.
My room is spectacular, I can see the tops of other high rise apartment buildings from miles around and when i look down i see a garden and a road. The beds are very different, they're low and hard, and yes what they say is true- the chinese really do sleep on top of the sheets. Lisa's mother gave me a blanket to keep me comfy. My first night i went to bed at 12:30 am and woke up at 6 am. I thought i would be tired but i wasn't, as hard as i tried to fall back asleep i couldn't.
For dinner we had dumplings and a selection of ther things. They were all yummy, but trying to eat dumplings with chopsticks was quite a challenge, but I'm getting better I promise. Lisa explained to me that the chinese custom is to eat dumplings when two friends meet, which i thought was pretty special. We had other things like green beans with beef, which was my favorite because the seasoning was very yummy. And the green beans are alot thinner here than in America. Here in China they have a bunch of dishes and they give you a bowl and they tell you to go for it. Well, my family is really hospitable, they kept telling me to eat more and when my pace slowed down they would put food on my plate for me. It became almost comical, once i was almost finished and ready to say that i was full and didn't want anymore, they would put more food on my plate! Same thing goes with drinks, too.
Here everyone lives in apartments, because there just wouldn't be enough space for everyone if they all had houses. My family's apartment has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (only one with a shower), a living room with a ping pong table(pingpang qiu), a eating room connected to the family room, and a small kitchen the size of maybe two closets togehter, It's very narrow.
When I woke up today, Lisa went to school, and i got to stay at home to rest and study, which mainly consisted of looking in my chinese phrasebooks. Lisa's mom made scrambled eggs and gave me this crossaint like bread and told me to put the eggs inside of the bread. All i can say is it was really yummy. The milk here is different too, it tastes better i think...then again I'm not one to talk since i don't like American milk.
Communicating with my family without Lisa there was interesting, the only one who knows a little english is Lisa's mom. It was better than my chinese, but sometimes i didn't understand what she was saying, so we just communicated in broken chinglish. It's really amusing as well when any of the family members start speaking to me in chinese and expect me to understand what they're saying. i just nod my head and smile.
At about 11 we went out shopping. First Lisa's mom, lao yi and I went to a park which was very pretty, and then we went to the supermarket. Well it really was super. It reminded me of a walmart superstore because it had everything. Lisa's mom insitsted on buying me flip flops, idk why because i already have some, but i didn't argue. I chose the pair with chinese symbols on them that say beautiful feet. I thought it was funny. Then we went upstairs to the grocery section. Lisa's mom kept insisting that if i saw something i liked to tell her, and so when we went to the bakery section and she asked "you like?" it was hard to say no, so we wound up with a whole selection of bakery goods like almond cookies , brown cake, almond muffins, puff pastries, bright cakes that have cake at the bottom and then this white stuff which i guess is yogurt, and then this bright jelly stuff at the top with fruit. I couldn't resist when i got asked if "i like". We got these litle jelly cups too, and a bunch of juice, since the tap water isn't meant to be drunk.
The city here is bustling with people and everyone's friendly. The pollution isn't as bad as i thought. In beijing it was hard to breathe, but here in xian it's not too bad, although i think the air blocks sunlight from coming in, but i'm not sure since it might have just been a cloudy day.
For dinner we had fish (a whole fish head and all) , this oatmeal tasting soup, the green bean leftovers from the night before, and chicken with this green vegetable. Oh and you can't forget the rice with eggs. It was all really yummy.
So now here I am, while Lisa's studying I'm at the computer in her room. Tommorrow is my first day at school, so I can write all about that tommorrow, although I don't think my blogs will be as long since I won't have as much time on my hands as i did today.
Well i better go do some other stuff. Zai Jian! (Bye)
p.s.- i forget to say that bread is 3 yuan-50 cents and that my sandals were 19 yuan- around 2.85 they were made in china too! not bad
7 comments:
well i guess u are wright...u ddi mkae a wohle lot of tpyos....well i dont care cause i bet ur really tired.......so im going to say hi...and then bye cause i have to go play neopets...jk...keep facebooking me!!!!!!......davis
and p.s. get me a lot of presents!!!!!!!
love u lots...and have u eaten frog legs yet!!!!!?????????i cant wait till i hvae the chance to go.....ni hao wo jiao peng gang......zhou shung hao!!!!
im bored lol
We like!
Keep posting!
- Kurt (and Kasia)
awww Julia, you look so pretty in the photograph with the Li family. (This is Eric btw, not some dumb high schooler kid trying to ask you out)
anyway, I was wondering - what kinda music do they listen to in China? What's hot among your age group? Do they listen to any American/English bands? Do they listen to rock much? How do their parents generally feel about their music tastes?
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