2 Day Trip

I won't write much because I'm exhausted but I'll let you know what I did for the past days and then I'll write about it later in more detail. Yesterday we rode on a bus for 6 hours to northern Shaanxi province. We saw the sacred tomb of the first emperor in China, and the Communist center of the revolution in the 1940s.
The area was so beautiful although the city was like Xian. But all around were mountains and the way people lived was interesting. They were all so poor and in the mountains their houses were caves carved into the mountains, like little hobbits.
We stayed at a hotel that's pretty much like American hotels. There were 2 single beds that were harder than American hotels, and the shower had the worst case of mildew that I've ever seen. But the room was very comfy to sleep in and it was a good experience.
Today we drove through many mountains and then we saw the yellow river!!! And a waterfall on the yellow river. It was sooo cool cause I've always heard of the yellow river in history class but actually getting to see it was awesome. I'll put up pictures later when I'm not about to fall asleep. Then we drove for i think 8 hours to end up back in xian at 8 30. Overall the trip was fun but the driving time was miserable.
And I forgot to mention how we stopped in the middle of nowhere near as village cause our bus drivewr was carsick and it was so cool to see a real village filled with poverty where the people depended on selling apples and pears to survive. And the pears were really good too, they're crunchy over here where in America they're soft.
Alright I'm gonna go fall asleep now. Tomorrow I'm going to Lisa's hometown which I think is an hour away.

Our Sunday fieldtrip.

I used to LOVE rainy days. But ever since its been raining for the past 4 days here I'm not so sure anymore. There's puddles everywhere, and we're usually out in the cold rain.
Today we went to Moslem street again to do some more shopping. We had an hour to find whatever we wanted (Kurt I found some knockoff Ipods just for you)
After that we went to McDonalds for lunch, which is pretty similar to the McDonalds we have in America. The french fries tasted really good since i havent had any in a month.
After lunch we were all tires and cold but some wanted to do more shopping. Some stayed in a nearby starbucks while some of us went to another street which mainly had jade, art, and paintbrushes. It was pretty cool because there were som many winding streets and allies that it was so easy to get lost. I met a tea shopkeeper telling me how she and her family were just talking about foreigners, and then Cass and I walked in. She said that Xian is a magical city and she found it ironic.
After we spent time shopping there we went back to starbucks to find everyone else. I've never loved a starbucks so much as i did today. It was warm, dry, and it smelled delicious. I got a cinnamon roll which cost 12 yuan, or 2 bucks. I guess today was western restaurant day or something. We should have wrapped it all up by going to the haagen daaz store.
After that some of us went back to the school while others went to a bookstore. I chose to go back to the school since I can't read chinese anyway, although I guess having one book in Chinese would be fun to have to look at while learning Chinese.
We spent 2 hours doing hw/playing solitaire on the computer and then our host students came to take us home.
So now here I am all dry and warm and happy. Tomorrow we're embarking on a 2 day trip to Northern Shanxii province. Apparently the ride is 6 hours so I'm not looking forward to it.

School on Friday and Today's Fieldtrip

Yesterday we had another normal day at school. We went to Art class where we learned about paper cutting which is a traditional chinese folk art. When you see a finished paper cutting it looks so perfect and easy but in reality when I tried to do it mine looked horrible. I attempted a rooster with many designs cut out in the middle but it didn't go very well. But it was a fun experience. Other people tried other things like hearts, birds, and the teachers did roosters also.

After that we went to Cicily's English class. Cecily was one of the teachers who came to America this year with the Chinese students. It was fun we learned about Chinese holidays and answered questions about America. An interesting comment I heard Toni get was "You should tell the American Government that Tibet belongs to China". I learned that the CHinese National Holiday is October 1, like our 4th of July. It's a big deal here though, students get 5 days vacation although Lisa only gets 3 days off because her school doesn't like giving vacation.

Then we had lunch and went to a DVD store where they had movies for 6 yuan. I got to give some of my gifts away to some friends. Also we cheered on Mr. Nelson while he had 7 ice cream cones. It was quite a feat. We got them from the school cafeteria and somebody else would get them for him but by the 4th purchase of an Ice Cream cone the cafeteria people had caught on and word spread so we would look up at them and they would be staring back at Mr.Nelson cheering him on. It was really amusing and he'd probabally kill me if he knew I put this on here.

After Chinese class, I got to go to Chemistry class with a girl. She didn't seem to concerned about learning, instead she spent the entire class talking to me. On one piece of paper we had fun translating a paragraph into 4 different languages- french, english, chinese, and spanish. She ended up learning how to introduce herself in french and spanish!

After school we all went to the 7th floor to watch some students practice their music. We saw the orchestra which consisted of girls playing a harplike instrument. It's a traditional Chinese instrument and it was beautiful it made me want to learn. Then we saw the band which was similar to an American band only it was smaller- maybe 20 people.

Today we went on a field trip to do some shopping and see an Art Museum. I had already been to the place where we went shopping before with Lisa but it was still fun. The stores are tiny and cheap and there's lots of them. I ended up buying some new shoes for the winter.

An observation I have to make is that people smoke everywhere- in the taxi, in a restaurant, on the streets, in homes, and in stores sometimes. Don't think you can escape, cause you can't.

We ate lunch at a chinese restaurant and had the chinese version of a pizza it was pretty much the same and delicious since I was so hungry. And we had these egg quiche things too that were good too.

After lunch we went to the Art Museum. It was pretty much a cylinder and you went around a circle to see the art, and there were exhibition halls too. The art was pretty, and different from Western art in that it's more ink and prints and less bulky paint. Also, not all the paintings are framed, and the style is different. Overall the art was pretty.

Then we came home. It was raining all day so the traffic was pretty bad. But then Lisa and I went to Starbucks and the Grocery Store. I got a chinese CD that I'm listening to. It's a mix of popular Chinese artists. It's pretty good I like it.

Tomorrow we're going to Moslem street again and the city wall.

FieldTrip to A VIllage

Today we went to a village about an hour away from Xian. It was a new experience. First we saw the old village, which is what you see in pictures of rural China. The houses were made out of mud and corn shucks, and everyhouse had corn bundled up to dry so they could make cornmeal. Everyone was poor. We met the poorest family which was a grandfather and his daughter. They told us how the daughter just lost her husband leaving her with their child who loves to study but since they are so poor it's hard to get her a good education. We gave them some money hoping it would help. Their house had two rooms, one was the bedroom and one was the kitchen. The inside was very dark and the walls were mud and corn shucks. The bed raised on cement and wood.

Afterward we went to the new village which is right across the street and is basically townhouses. It was a very sharp contrast to the old village. We visited a paper cutting shop where the shop keeper did a quick demonstration for us and then she helped us make a very basic design which we found difficult to follow. Then we went to her house which was a restaurant/home. It had two restaurant style tables and then there was a living room and an upstairs with beds and a mahzong table which they were happy to let us use. We had a delicious lunch there and then sat on a couch for an hour and a half. Some played Mahzong or talked.

Afterwards we went to a famous artists home/gallery where we saw all her work. I must say it was beautiful I've found a new favorite style of art. It's called bright colors depicting Chinese life. This woman had some serious painting skill, she did a painting demonstration for us where she painted a rooster and she made it look so easy. That was my favorite part of the day, getting to view all the beautiful paintings.

After that we went back to school. Lisa picked me up, and it was raining today, so it took an hour to find a taxi since all of them were taken, and then another 45 minutes to get home. Let's just say the ride home took longer than the ride to the village. But now here I am in the warmth munching on a pomegranate, which if I haven't noted already they're so cheap here - 50 cents for one!

Tuesday's Field Trip to the Shaanxi Museum and The Wild Goose Pagoda

Yesterday was a fun fieldtrip. First we went to a museum where we learned about the history of the province of Shaanxi. It was really interesting I learned many things and got to learn about the differences between all the different dynasties. For example, in the earlier civilizations used bronze the most. But then in the golden age of China(Tang dynasty) gold and silver were the popular metal.
After the museum we went to lunch at a restaurant. It was a very westernized restaurant- it was a buffet and all the food seemed to be americanized chinese food but it was still amazing food. I heard some people speaking french!
When we finished eating at the restaurant we went to the wild goose pagoda which is pretty much a monastary for Buddhist monks. The main building is the wild goose pagoda which was pretty much a tower that the monks prayed in. I'm not sure where they lived but it might be in the pagoda. I learned that many of the monks who lived there were very rich because of the payments they earned from the government and then they get all the money from the tickets that tourists pay for to visit the pagoda. Also we saw a lovers tree that had two trees intertwined. It was there that we learned the Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet.
According to the story, there was a woman who went to a mens school pretending to be a man because it was in the olden days when women weren't considered as smart as men. But this woman was awfully smart so she wanted to learn. Anyway, I don't know why that part is in the story but then she graduated from the school and one day she is at a lake thinking and she sees a man from her old school and they instantly fall in love. They try to get married but the girl's father won't let her because he wants a richer man to marry his daughter. So then he kills this man and the woman is very sad. She visits his grave and says if you can here me please open your grave up so I can die with you. And then all of a sudden his grave opens up and she jumps in and then the ground closes back up. About ten minutes after, two butterflies were seen flying around the grave together, and the people thought it was the boy and girl flying around together, since they couldn't be together as humans. So nowadays when two butterflies are seen flying together it's the girl and boy flying around together.
Oh and another thing I learned at the monastary is that the Nazis took their symbol from the Buddhist symbol.
After the fieldtrip we came back to the school and Lisa and I slept over at Little Kelly and Kiernan's apartment. It was great fun we went out to eat and had chinese tacos and then we watched a movie.
Today has been so far a normal schoolday. We did P.E where we did Tai Chi and a drum dance. Then we went to another English class. Oh and today there's a American song contest and Bethany, Jack, Ben, and Anna are gonna sing songs.

South Shanxi Province

Today we went to the south of Shanxi province. It was very beautiful, there were mountains everywhere. We were told we were going to a cave, so when we first got out of the bus we saw a bunch of steps and so we thought that this would lead to the cave. Well we climbed the steps, and by steps i don't jsut mean a few easy steps, I mean a wall of steps-200 at the least. So we finished climbing the steps and were like where's the cave? Then we saw a path leading up a hill so we followed that whcih was hard cause it was very tiring. So we reach the end of the trail and look up, and there's like a huge line of steps all along the mountain ridges. And everybody was starting to walk and I'm like oh is this the way to the cave? Ok but I thought cave's were underground or on floor level but definetely not on the top of a mountain. But I decided not to question anything and jsut followed everyone else. And I don't want to just complain so I will admit that it was an excellent workout- at least 20 minutes of full out stair climbing. And all this while looking at the beautiful mountain ridges what more could you ask for? Well I can't even explain these steps with words so I hope a picture will suffice, although this picture doesn't even capture all the steps. Let's just say by the time I got to the top I was proud of it. And the view was amazing! We were at the peak of a mountain and we could look down and see the town and this military training camp in the valley. And so I look around the top of the mountain and start to wonder where the cave is- until the news reaches me that we had only climbed the mountain for the view. I was pretty upset. Although I really did enjoy the workout. Well we came down a different way than we went up somehow and we went past a river and mini lake that we waded in which felt really refreshing. And the trail that we came out on winded around a river until we came into the town. At the town we hopped back into the bus and went to a Chinese medicine factory, but we only saw the museum. I can't say I understod alot but I did catch that there were many influential Chinese scientist who found new herbs that served as medicine. And then along the wall there were many real herbs plastered against the wall with their name next to it. It was pretty nifty.
After this we went to lunch. Lunch was interesting. I guess South Shanxi province likes spicy food, and the majority of the dishes were spicy. I guess I should have known since there was a hot pepper garden growing right in front of the restaurant. But I'm getting used to spicy food and I thought some of the dishes were very tasty. Yet again they gave us lots of coke, and we were in a seperate private eating room than everyone else so it was just the American students in one room. Well this one guy kept coming in with a teapot that he said had wine in it. There were tiny teaspoon size glasses on our tables that he poured the wine in and he encouraged us to drink it. Well the smell alone persuaded me to decide against it, but I can't even explain how hilarious this guy's exspression was when he was trying to get us to try it. They don't have a drinking age CHina so it seems like drinking is a more casual thing that they don't make a big deal about.
After lunch we went to the cave finally! We had to climb a whole bunch of steps that I thought would never end again but it was worth it. The cave was pretty much naturally air conditioned so it felt really nice. The view was stunning this cave was really awesome. It took about 30 minutes to go through and it was really fun. There was this one part called the labyrinth which had a bunch of steps and I'm guessing this meant it was a maze. Well it was interesting finding our way through it because we never knew if we were going the right way. But then we finally found the way out. I was sad to leave because I really liked the cave but then there were these Buddhist monks giving us incence and thenI turn around and see a huge golden Buddha against the wall. Well they told us to make a wish and then put our incence in this sand pit. It was interesting. Then we waited another 30 minutes for the CHinese students who had stayed with the tour guide and were still somehow in the cave listening to the guide tell them interesting things in Chinese. I really need to learn Chinese I'm missing out on alot.
Then we made the 2 hour ride back to Xian where we all went out to dinner. They call it hotpots what we did. We all got our own little pot full of boiling water and there were heat pads on the table for every seat. So the water poiled on the heat pad and then they came out with a bunch of stuff to put in our pots like raw meat, noodles, and different chinese vegetables. It was really fun and a new experience. I forgot to take a picture though I'm pretty upset.
Tomorrow I have school and then on tuesday night i found out that me and Lisa are sleeping over at little Kelly and Kiernan's home which I'm excited about since they never seem to have sleepovers

School On Friday and My Saturday

Yesterday at school we had a fun filled day. First we had art class, where we learned how to paint in the chinese style. It basically consists of ink and thick paint brushes. It was really fun, and we got to paint a fan. I really enjoyed it.
After art class we went to another English class where they were all happy to see us. JAck played his guitar and all the students enjoyed that.
Then we had lunch, but instead of getting lunch we went to the bakery that we visited on wednesday to buy two beautiful cakes for the party we planned.
The first cake was our chinese zodiac animal cakes, where we had all of the students' zodiac animals on the cake, including a mouse, horse, goat, rooster, snake, and a monkey. It was amazing to watch it being made. Then the other cake had a bunch of fruit on it which was stunning too.
There were about thirty students at our party, and it was a bunch of fun. We thanked them for showing us around their school and got to see our old tour students.
After the party we had chinese class and then after that we went to cooking class where we learned how to make dumplings. That was really fun because I love to cook! After we made the dumplings they boiled them for us and we got to eat them. I m ust say the dumplings that the chef made were much better but they were all alright. WE had so many dumplings that I didn't have room for dinner that night!
Then today I got to study in the morning until about noon when Lisa's parents came home and Lisa's mom and lao yi took me to moslem street to pick up the kimono dress that they ordered for me last week. It turned out really nice! I love it. After we picked up the dress we went to the huge mall that has 8 floors and looked around. I was excited until reality hit me and I realized everything was out of my price range- one tshirt was 600 yuan- about 90 dollars. I go more for the 100 yuan($15) shirts or less. I also tried this egg flavored drink it was...different. Then we went out onto the street where things were less different and I saw this beef kabob stand and a bunch of middle eastern workers grilling the meat and dancing to their music it made me laugh. Lisa's mom bought me one and it was really really good although the meat was spicy but I'm getting used to spicy food now. Then I saw a walmart all the way in china and LIsa's mom wanted to go in. I learned that the first walmart in china was opened in 1996. I think it was just a grocery store or somthing cause LIsa's mom went to a restaurant in that building and it definetely didn't look like a Walmart restaurant it was better. They had grills at each table and the waitress would grill stuff for you it was really cool. WE ordered tyhis bacon looking stuff which we then wrapped in lettuce and added spicy sauce. It was pretty good. After that we took the bus jammed full of people home, and I got more homework done. Tomorrow I'm going to see "a hole filled with rocks" according to Lisa until she looked up the word and it turns out we're going to a cave! I'm pretty excited.