I have at least a couple more posts and pictures to put up, but they will have to wait. I think I'll do them on the plane ride (in less than 24hrs!) back when I'm not asleep.
See you all soon!
Blog Archive
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Countdown
I have about two weeks left in Shanghai - one left for classes, one for finals. I can't decide how time has moved, no matter the length, quickly or slowly it passed all the same and we have now reached December. On my way home today I was thinking about all of the things I'll miss here...old men flying kites all day, being surprised that there is a Westerner on the subway (forgetting that I'm one too), and deliciously questionable street food.
That being said, I still have some things to do before I leave: Moganshan Lu art galleries, the Shanghai Museum of Modern Art and Yuan Gardens being the more important ones. I should probably also head back to the fake market at the Science and Technology Museum to buy another suitcase. I'm not overly confident that all of my books, clothes, and things will fit into the one that I have.
Either way, as soon as I get the pictures I have a post about the weekend before Thanksgiving that needs to go up (I went with friends to Suzhou - a water town about half an hour away from Shanghai by fast train), plus last Friday was awesome and on Saturday I went to a much needed rock concert.
The lay out for the next few weeks is as follows: paper to be done this Wednesday, presentation next Monday, final the following Tuesday, final the following Thursday, fly home Sunday the 14th, which as fate would have it is also when I land home, only six some odd hours after I took off. Posts will be done in between those important sounding dates. Until then, stay warm!
-deb
That being said, I still have some things to do before I leave: Moganshan Lu art galleries, the Shanghai Museum of Modern Art and Yuan Gardens being the more important ones. I should probably also head back to the fake market at the Science and Technology Museum to buy another suitcase. I'm not overly confident that all of my books, clothes, and things will fit into the one that I have.
Either way, as soon as I get the pictures I have a post about the weekend before Thanksgiving that needs to go up (I went with friends to Suzhou - a water town about half an hour away from Shanghai by fast train), plus last Friday was awesome and on Saturday I went to a much needed rock concert.
The lay out for the next few weeks is as follows: paper to be done this Wednesday, presentation next Monday, final the following Tuesday, final the following Thursday, fly home Sunday the 14th, which as fate would have it is also when I land home, only six some odd hours after I took off. Posts will be done in between those important sounding dates. Until then, stay warm!
-deb
Friday, November 28, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Beijing
This past weekend I got a chance to see a Chinese couple play Chinese red light, so while I feel like that is a perfect stopping point, time to come home, something is stopping me. And yes, I am talking about something other than class and my ticket home (which, incidentally, is in almost exactly a month). I blame Beijing.
We started out the trip by train. The fast train to Beijing has no stops (unlike the one I took to Lhasa) and takes almost exactly 12 hours so leaving Friday we arrived in Beijing bright and early Saturday morning with a full day ahead of us. Without stopping first at our hotel that day took us straight to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Mutanyu, a small tourist section of open wall a little over an hour outside of Beijing. To get to the Wall itself we took a ski lift up the mountain and for the first time I stepped onto the Great Wall of China. It is awesome. My next goal is to go to Egypt to see the pyramids.
View from below the wall.
That really steep section in the distance is what we climbed, turned around at and came back.
Mutanyu has been renovated and re-renovated for safety sake of the thousands of tourists that visit. Once arriving we turned left and walked down and up, and up and down until we reached the end of the reconstructed wall. To reach that end you have to climb a bazillion stairs. My motivation was my friend Sardeep who, while I was content to sit at the bottom of the stairs in the sun to avoid expending the energy to go up only to come back down, made it her personal mission to conquer those stairs. Climbing them was not easy, the wall is often a windy place, but at the time we visited the sun had baked it warming everyone and creating a sickly simultaneous hot and cold feeling on the way up. Combine that with a fear of falling and small French children running up and down the stairs under your feet and I would definitely say the hike was challenging, but well worth it. I know that if I hadn't gone up, I would have regretted it, and missed the fabulous view that resulted.
View from the top.
After our group made it to the top of the left (west?) section of wall we about faced, retracing our steps and then doubling them to the toboggan slides down the mountain and back to the bus. On our way back the wind decided to pick up and standing exposed on that wall is one of the coldest and windiest places you could ever hope to be. To get down the mountain we sat on these small plastic sleds and sped down a metal chute. Our group ended up being stuck behind a family with a small child who was determined to crawl down at the absolute slowest pace, while our goal was to not use the breaks. Needless to say while we did get yelled at a fair amount by the guards on the side, and though there was also a decent amount of crashing into each other, no injuries were sustained in departing from the wall.
On our way back to Beijing proper we stopped at a small village not far from the wall for a fish dinner. We even got to go fishing for said fish, but sadly these were in a pool and looking very bored with the process which I should hence forward going to refer to as teasing the humans. The fishing humans got to use a bamboo rod with a piece of fishing line attached and to the bottom of that, a sad looking hook with some even sadder looking bate. The humans were then teased by lowering their line into the middle of the school of fish, and watching as the fish ignored it. Even though we clearly didn't catch anything, the fish dinner was really good, but as usual, contained way more food than we were able to finish. After our late lunch we traveled back to Beijing and I practiced sleeping on the bus. I think I did this every time we got on the bus, because god knows I didn't sleep at night.
Fishing (photo stolen from my professor).
Case in point: that night I met up with Devin. For those of you who don't know, I went to school with Devin's sister Alanna from elementary school until we left for college, and Devin is about two years younger than us and just so happened to be spending the year in Beijing. We met up at his metro stop and from there grabbed dinner at a noodle house. Quick anecdote break:
So we walk into the noodle house and quickly say what we want, basically what we want in our noodle/soup. (In Chinese) I say, "I don't eat meat, vegetables please." The man taking our order takes one look at me and says, "You're from Shanghai." It was awesome, but kind of scary being called out like that (especially because people from Shanghai and Beijing don't generally like each other). The main difference between the southern accents from the Beijing accent is that people from Beijing sound like pirates. The put the "Rrrrrrr" sound on everything.
After that we went around town walking past the Forbidden City and Tiananmen square, walking to the pedestrian street (where I later went back to for the Night Market, and a much needed book store) before heading on to more interesting parts of the city. Heading home that night was the first time I realized that the card from the hotel/the hotel's street name would be absolutely useless. Keep this in mind when in Beijing: there are several ring roads that literally ring the city. The Forbidden City is the first, the second is around that, and so on and so forth, so know which ring road you're near. Our hotel was fabulous (though they had clearly finished it too quickly and it had some issues, like the toilet and other drainage, which thankfully they were quick to correct) and on the north section of the second ring road near the Drum and Bell Tower (where the American was stabbed to death during the Olympics. I think the assailant jumped off the Drum Tower, and believe me, it's quite a fall). When getting home by taxi, it was much easier for me to give directions to the subway stop (GuLouDaJie de ditie...basically Drum and Bell Tower street metro stop, no more than 50 feet away from the hotel).
The next day was Sunday and we met up with one of our guides (he also came with us to the Ming Tombs, the Forbidden City, and the Drum and Bell Towers), a friend of our professor's named Ed Lanfranco. First with a short lecture and afterwards headed to a dumpling house, and then the Imperial College, which I felt was a pretty good historical introduction to what we would see for the next week (it also had an interesting exhibit up called "Re-visiting the Wall" from Luo Zhewen and William Lindesay, the first photographed the wall many years ago, and the second revisited those places on the Wall and recreated the photographs). After that we went for a walk around a nearby hutong neighborhood, and then headed home.
Imperial College.
Wandering around the Imperial College.
Stone tablets at the Imperial College (Confucian I believe).
The hutong neighborhood we walked around.
Monday: The Ming Tombs. We started with the Spirit Path (see previous post of the picture with me and the stone elephant), which was lined with first animals in pairs, at rest and then at attention - they're supposed to switch positions at night - and then stone officials.
The beginning of the Spirit Path.
Spirit animals as jungle gym.
Of the tombs, only three are open to the public. At Chang Ling (Emperor Yong Le) we saw items that had be excavated and saved from the third tomb. At Jhao Ling (Emperor Yong Qing) the main temple/building above ground was filled with thrones, food and such, as how they would have been placed during and after the Ming Dynasty. The last tomb, Ding Ling (Emperor Wan Le) had been excavated and consequently destroyed. The Chinese had decided to practice on one of the lesser emperor's tombs, and it's a good thing they did. Once the tomb was opened all of the tapestries and paintings upon being exposed to air, rotted off the walls. If that wasn't enough to destroy the tomb, during the Cultural Revolution the Red Guard took Wan Le's, and the other bodies in the tomb, threw them over the wall surrounding the tomb, and then burned them. We were able to into the tomb itself (way underground) but as you can imagine, there wasn't much to see.
View from the top of Yong Le's spirit tower.
Same view, but looking over the mountains.
Ming tomb/temple #2
Possibly #3?
The wall encircling the tomb that the Red Guards threw the Emperor's body off.
Inside the tomb. It was really small and kind of creepy, just like a proper tomb should be.
Escaping the tomb.
On Tuesday we headed to Tiananmen Square, which was packed with people, the Forbidden City, which was packed with people, and Jing Shan Park, which was nice because everyone else stayed in the previous two locations. Tiananmen was, huge, and square. The Forbidden City was also huge, with too many buildings to visit. It was all a little overwhelming and too touristy. Apparently the best days to go are when it's slightly rainy. I think I would like to go back on one of those days instead. Jing Shan Park was built behind the Forbidden City, and is a huge hill (man made) on which sits a temple, and is a lovely place to go take pictures, and generally be at peace from the crowds. The Ming tombs, the Forbidden City, and Jing Shan Park (as well as the other historical places we visited) all have the same basic architectural and color scheme so if you want to try to do too many things in one day and visit all of these places at once, just keep in mind that if not for the immense historical value, it all starts to run together.
Tiananmen with the Memorial to the People.
On Tiananmen square looking at the Forbidden City with our Chinese guide, Jane, in the foreground.
Looking down at Tiananmen from the wall of the Forbidden City.
Inside.
Overlooking the Forbidden City.
Wednesday, for me, was Election Day. We headed to a party sponsored by the US Embassy at a very swanky hotel (our bus driver took us to the wrong one first, and at any point during the day until evening rush hour ends it takes at least a hour to get anywhere in Beijing). I had told Devin about the party and asked my professor if we could get him in with us. He told me no, that it costs 250RMB (or maybe 200, I don't remember) to get in, and we only had tickets for CIEE students. Needless to say the only identifying characteristic of someone who was able to get into this event was a wristband, so after someone handed me about ten, Devin and I walked in together.
The room was set up with several tables around the perimeter, some TVs, a voting booth (fake with California ballots) and two large projectors, one showing a map of the US with the states in either red, or blue, and on the other was CNN. We ended up sitting in front of the CNN until the election was called as the west coast states came in. It was mostly an Obama crowd, and we were all on our feet. For the record, I did try to call home somewhere in the midst of this, but it didn't work, so instead I celebrated with a whole bunch of ex-pats.
With post-election euphoria we went to the 798 Art District, which used to be an old factory district that became artist studios, prime real-estate and now is mostly galleries with, of course, very few artists being able to live there. We had a couple of hours to ourselves so I wandered around there alone and stumbled upon an industrial district (751) with a photo shoot going on. Without enough time to explore on Wednesday I was going to head back there on our day off, Saturday day, but it was a bit far from our hotel. I'll have to go back some other time.
798 (pronounced qi jiu ba).
The beginning of the industrial sector.
That night we had a group dinner (our class of CGC - China in a Global Context is further split into smaller groups for projects, mine is Global Noise and focuses on the globalization of club culture) at a delicious Korean barbeque restaurant and afterwards headed out for some field work at a bar called Propaganda (for all of you who are interested, those of you related to me can stop reading here and pick up on the next paragraph, Wednesday is the night to go - all you can drink 30RMB which translates to about $4.50).
The next day was Thursday and we were quite busy with a morning lecture from Great Wall expert David Spindler (he has been written up in the New Yorker and the LA Times is currently writing an article about him). It was interesting to hear about the Wall from someone who had walked and studied it to the extent that he had, I just wish that the lecture had been closer to when we had actually walked the Wall. After the lecture we headed to the Olympic Stadiums walking around the Bird's Nest, and inside the Water Cube (the inside of which was set up for a concert). And after that to the Summer Palace just barely before it was closed for the day. The Summer Palace was beautiful (same architecture), and though our visit was a little rushed (another place I will have to go back to) we got to walk along the lake and up to the temple before heading out of the (north?) exit. For dinner that night all of the students in CGC went out for an all you can eat pizza dinner. It was delicious and right off of an alley on the bar street of Beijing - Sanlitun (also known as Sanlituarrrrrrr), so I'm sure you can guess where we went after dinner. Some recommendations are Kai Club (where I got to dance with one guy named Jesus and another named Moses!), Nanjing Bar, and a lot of the CGCers also went to a club called Banana (not on Sanlitun) which had apparently had a dance floor on springs and fun things that came out of the ceiling.
Inside the Water Cube.
The lake inside the Summer Palace.
Inside the grounds of the Summer Palace.
Looking up at the temple inside the Summer Palace. Of course we climbed up to it.
The view from about half way up.
Friday was our last full day in the city. We had the morning off (to sleep, or what have you), and in the afternoon walked to the Drum and Bell Towers and then around the nearby hutongs neighborhoods. At the Drum Tower we saw a Drum performance, which was all well and good because we weren't about to brave the stairs a second time (incredibly steep with lots of fun tunnel vision - you'll have to go to see what I'm talking about) to come back to see it. At the Bell Tower (across the square) we were told the myth of the bell, how one of the largest ones in existence was created. It is said that the bell maker had a deadline within which he had to create this bell (or he would be executed), and every one he made cracked. So with time dwindling, as he prepared to pour the final bell his daughter ran past and jumped into the vat of molten metal (myth: human blood helps), she died/disappeared instantly and all her father was able to grab was her shoe. And of course, this bell came out whole. It used to be rung every day, but now I believe it is only rung during Chinese New Year. Supposedly when the bell is hit it sounds like "xie" the word for shoe.
On Saturday, our day off, I walked through the hutong neighborhoods a second time. The day before we had hurried through and I wanted a better look. The hutongs are small courtyard houses that are fast disappearing from the face of Beijing. The hutongs used to be one family house, but now have several, and the courtyards are quickly falling into disarray in the shadow of taller more modern buildings. The alley I wandered down has most of its hutongs converted into shops and cafes, and it is a beautiful little neighborhood. I ended up staying in one of the cafes for lunch, small and dark with wonderful coffee, and looking out onto the alley. I was only able to stay and wander for a little while before I had to head back, but thankfully it was quite close to the hotel so I didn't have far to go.
We flew out of Beijing that night and two hours later we were back in Shanghai. I think if given a choice, I would like to go back to Beijing. Shanghai, even though it's home now, feels very much more like someplace to come back and visit, not to live. Either way, while I'm just about ready to come home now (and yes, I realized that as soon as I am home I'll want to be back in China), I have to come back to China. I guess that means it's time to work on my Chinese.
PS: I am so very sorry, this post is really freaking long! I just put this into Word to check the word count...I just wrote an essay for class of this length! By the way, it's the two essays I've had to do since coming back from Beijing that I'm blaming the lateness on, just so all ya'll know.
As always, should you want more stories, pictures etc. that were not included here, I'll be home in less than a month (ahhh!).
We started out the trip by train. The fast train to Beijing has no stops (unlike the one I took to Lhasa) and takes almost exactly 12 hours so leaving Friday we arrived in Beijing bright and early Saturday morning with a full day ahead of us. Without stopping first at our hotel that day took us straight to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Mutanyu, a small tourist section of open wall a little over an hour outside of Beijing. To get to the Wall itself we took a ski lift up the mountain and for the first time I stepped onto the Great Wall of China. It is awesome. My next goal is to go to Egypt to see the pyramids.
View from below the wall.
That really steep section in the distance is what we climbed, turned around at and came back.
Mutanyu has been renovated and re-renovated for safety sake of the thousands of tourists that visit. Once arriving we turned left and walked down and up, and up and down until we reached the end of the reconstructed wall. To reach that end you have to climb a bazillion stairs. My motivation was my friend Sardeep who, while I was content to sit at the bottom of the stairs in the sun to avoid expending the energy to go up only to come back down, made it her personal mission to conquer those stairs. Climbing them was not easy, the wall is often a windy place, but at the time we visited the sun had baked it warming everyone and creating a sickly simultaneous hot and cold feeling on the way up. Combine that with a fear of falling and small French children running up and down the stairs under your feet and I would definitely say the hike was challenging, but well worth it. I know that if I hadn't gone up, I would have regretted it, and missed the fabulous view that resulted.
View from the top.
After our group made it to the top of the left (west?) section of wall we about faced, retracing our steps and then doubling them to the toboggan slides down the mountain and back to the bus. On our way back the wind decided to pick up and standing exposed on that wall is one of the coldest and windiest places you could ever hope to be. To get down the mountain we sat on these small plastic sleds and sped down a metal chute. Our group ended up being stuck behind a family with a small child who was determined to crawl down at the absolute slowest pace, while our goal was to not use the breaks. Needless to say while we did get yelled at a fair amount by the guards on the side, and though there was also a decent amount of crashing into each other, no injuries were sustained in departing from the wall.
On our way back to Beijing proper we stopped at a small village not far from the wall for a fish dinner. We even got to go fishing for said fish, but sadly these were in a pool and looking very bored with the process which I should hence forward going to refer to as teasing the humans. The fishing humans got to use a bamboo rod with a piece of fishing line attached and to the bottom of that, a sad looking hook with some even sadder looking bate. The humans were then teased by lowering their line into the middle of the school of fish, and watching as the fish ignored it. Even though we clearly didn't catch anything, the fish dinner was really good, but as usual, contained way more food than we were able to finish. After our late lunch we traveled back to Beijing and I practiced sleeping on the bus. I think I did this every time we got on the bus, because god knows I didn't sleep at night.
Fishing (photo stolen from my professor).
Case in point: that night I met up with Devin. For those of you who don't know, I went to school with Devin's sister Alanna from elementary school until we left for college, and Devin is about two years younger than us and just so happened to be spending the year in Beijing. We met up at his metro stop and from there grabbed dinner at a noodle house. Quick anecdote break:
So we walk into the noodle house and quickly say what we want, basically what we want in our noodle/soup. (In Chinese) I say, "I don't eat meat, vegetables please." The man taking our order takes one look at me and says, "You're from Shanghai." It was awesome, but kind of scary being called out like that (especially because people from Shanghai and Beijing don't generally like each other). The main difference between the southern accents from the Beijing accent is that people from Beijing sound like pirates. The put the "Rrrrrrr" sound on everything.
After that we went around town walking past the Forbidden City and Tiananmen square, walking to the pedestrian street (where I later went back to for the Night Market, and a much needed book store) before heading on to more interesting parts of the city. Heading home that night was the first time I realized that the card from the hotel/the hotel's street name would be absolutely useless. Keep this in mind when in Beijing: there are several ring roads that literally ring the city. The Forbidden City is the first, the second is around that, and so on and so forth, so know which ring road you're near. Our hotel was fabulous (though they had clearly finished it too quickly and it had some issues, like the toilet and other drainage, which thankfully they were quick to correct) and on the north section of the second ring road near the Drum and Bell Tower (where the American was stabbed to death during the Olympics. I think the assailant jumped off the Drum Tower, and believe me, it's quite a fall). When getting home by taxi, it was much easier for me to give directions to the subway stop (GuLouDaJie de ditie...basically Drum and Bell Tower street metro stop, no more than 50 feet away from the hotel).
The next day was Sunday and we met up with one of our guides (he also came with us to the Ming Tombs, the Forbidden City, and the Drum and Bell Towers), a friend of our professor's named Ed Lanfranco. First with a short lecture and afterwards headed to a dumpling house, and then the Imperial College, which I felt was a pretty good historical introduction to what we would see for the next week (it also had an interesting exhibit up called "Re-visiting the Wall" from Luo Zhewen and William Lindesay, the first photographed the wall many years ago, and the second revisited those places on the Wall and recreated the photographs). After that we went for a walk around a nearby hutong neighborhood, and then headed home.
Imperial College.
Wandering around the Imperial College.
Stone tablets at the Imperial College (Confucian I believe).
The hutong neighborhood we walked around.
Monday: The Ming Tombs. We started with the Spirit Path (see previous post of the picture with me and the stone elephant), which was lined with first animals in pairs, at rest and then at attention - they're supposed to switch positions at night - and then stone officials.
The beginning of the Spirit Path.
Spirit animals as jungle gym.
Of the tombs, only three are open to the public. At Chang Ling (Emperor Yong Le) we saw items that had be excavated and saved from the third tomb. At Jhao Ling (Emperor Yong Qing) the main temple/building above ground was filled with thrones, food and such, as how they would have been placed during and after the Ming Dynasty. The last tomb, Ding Ling (Emperor Wan Le) had been excavated and consequently destroyed. The Chinese had decided to practice on one of the lesser emperor's tombs, and it's a good thing they did. Once the tomb was opened all of the tapestries and paintings upon being exposed to air, rotted off the walls. If that wasn't enough to destroy the tomb, during the Cultural Revolution the Red Guard took Wan Le's, and the other bodies in the tomb, threw them over the wall surrounding the tomb, and then burned them. We were able to into the tomb itself (way underground) but as you can imagine, there wasn't much to see.
View from the top of Yong Le's spirit tower.
Same view, but looking over the mountains.
Ming tomb/temple #2
Possibly #3?
The wall encircling the tomb that the Red Guards threw the Emperor's body off.
Inside the tomb. It was really small and kind of creepy, just like a proper tomb should be.
Escaping the tomb.
On Tuesday we headed to Tiananmen Square, which was packed with people, the Forbidden City, which was packed with people, and Jing Shan Park, which was nice because everyone else stayed in the previous two locations. Tiananmen was, huge, and square. The Forbidden City was also huge, with too many buildings to visit. It was all a little overwhelming and too touristy. Apparently the best days to go are when it's slightly rainy. I think I would like to go back on one of those days instead. Jing Shan Park was built behind the Forbidden City, and is a huge hill (man made) on which sits a temple, and is a lovely place to go take pictures, and generally be at peace from the crowds. The Ming tombs, the Forbidden City, and Jing Shan Park (as well as the other historical places we visited) all have the same basic architectural and color scheme so if you want to try to do too many things in one day and visit all of these places at once, just keep in mind that if not for the immense historical value, it all starts to run together.
Tiananmen with the Memorial to the People.
On Tiananmen square looking at the Forbidden City with our Chinese guide, Jane, in the foreground.
Looking down at Tiananmen from the wall of the Forbidden City.
Inside.
Overlooking the Forbidden City.
Wednesday, for me, was Election Day. We headed to a party sponsored by the US Embassy at a very swanky hotel (our bus driver took us to the wrong one first, and at any point during the day until evening rush hour ends it takes at least a hour to get anywhere in Beijing). I had told Devin about the party and asked my professor if we could get him in with us. He told me no, that it costs 250RMB (or maybe 200, I don't remember) to get in, and we only had tickets for CIEE students. Needless to say the only identifying characteristic of someone who was able to get into this event was a wristband, so after someone handed me about ten, Devin and I walked in together.
The room was set up with several tables around the perimeter, some TVs, a voting booth (fake with California ballots) and two large projectors, one showing a map of the US with the states in either red, or blue, and on the other was CNN. We ended up sitting in front of the CNN until the election was called as the west coast states came in. It was mostly an Obama crowd, and we were all on our feet. For the record, I did try to call home somewhere in the midst of this, but it didn't work, so instead I celebrated with a whole bunch of ex-pats.
With post-election euphoria we went to the 798 Art District, which used to be an old factory district that became artist studios, prime real-estate and now is mostly galleries with, of course, very few artists being able to live there. We had a couple of hours to ourselves so I wandered around there alone and stumbled upon an industrial district (751) with a photo shoot going on. Without enough time to explore on Wednesday I was going to head back there on our day off, Saturday day, but it was a bit far from our hotel. I'll have to go back some other time.
798 (pronounced qi jiu ba).
The beginning of the industrial sector.
That night we had a group dinner (our class of CGC - China in a Global Context is further split into smaller groups for projects, mine is Global Noise and focuses on the globalization of club culture) at a delicious Korean barbeque restaurant and afterwards headed out for some field work at a bar called Propaganda (for all of you who are interested, those of you related to me can stop reading here and pick up on the next paragraph, Wednesday is the night to go - all you can drink 30RMB which translates to about $4.50).
The next day was Thursday and we were quite busy with a morning lecture from Great Wall expert David Spindler (he has been written up in the New Yorker and the LA Times is currently writing an article about him). It was interesting to hear about the Wall from someone who had walked and studied it to the extent that he had, I just wish that the lecture had been closer to when we had actually walked the Wall. After the lecture we headed to the Olympic Stadiums walking around the Bird's Nest, and inside the Water Cube (the inside of which was set up for a concert). And after that to the Summer Palace just barely before it was closed for the day. The Summer Palace was beautiful (same architecture), and though our visit was a little rushed (another place I will have to go back to) we got to walk along the lake and up to the temple before heading out of the (north?) exit. For dinner that night all of the students in CGC went out for an all you can eat pizza dinner. It was delicious and right off of an alley on the bar street of Beijing - Sanlitun (also known as Sanlituarrrrrrr), so I'm sure you can guess where we went after dinner. Some recommendations are Kai Club (where I got to dance with one guy named Jesus and another named Moses!), Nanjing Bar, and a lot of the CGCers also went to a club called Banana (not on Sanlitun) which had apparently had a dance floor on springs and fun things that came out of the ceiling.
Inside the Water Cube.
The lake inside the Summer Palace.
Inside the grounds of the Summer Palace.
Looking up at the temple inside the Summer Palace. Of course we climbed up to it.
The view from about half way up.
Friday was our last full day in the city. We had the morning off (to sleep, or what have you), and in the afternoon walked to the Drum and Bell Towers and then around the nearby hutongs neighborhoods. At the Drum Tower we saw a Drum performance, which was all well and good because we weren't about to brave the stairs a second time (incredibly steep with lots of fun tunnel vision - you'll have to go to see what I'm talking about) to come back to see it. At the Bell Tower (across the square) we were told the myth of the bell, how one of the largest ones in existence was created. It is said that the bell maker had a deadline within which he had to create this bell (or he would be executed), and every one he made cracked. So with time dwindling, as he prepared to pour the final bell his daughter ran past and jumped into the vat of molten metal (myth: human blood helps), she died/disappeared instantly and all her father was able to grab was her shoe. And of course, this bell came out whole. It used to be rung every day, but now I believe it is only rung during Chinese New Year. Supposedly when the bell is hit it sounds like "xie" the word for shoe.
On Saturday, our day off, I walked through the hutong neighborhoods a second time. The day before we had hurried through and I wanted a better look. The hutongs are small courtyard houses that are fast disappearing from the face of Beijing. The hutongs used to be one family house, but now have several, and the courtyards are quickly falling into disarray in the shadow of taller more modern buildings. The alley I wandered down has most of its hutongs converted into shops and cafes, and it is a beautiful little neighborhood. I ended up staying in one of the cafes for lunch, small and dark with wonderful coffee, and looking out onto the alley. I was only able to stay and wander for a little while before I had to head back, but thankfully it was quite close to the hotel so I didn't have far to go.
We flew out of Beijing that night and two hours later we were back in Shanghai. I think if given a choice, I would like to go back to Beijing. Shanghai, even though it's home now, feels very much more like someplace to come back and visit, not to live. Either way, while I'm just about ready to come home now (and yes, I realized that as soon as I am home I'll want to be back in China), I have to come back to China. I guess that means it's time to work on my Chinese.
PS: I am so very sorry, this post is really freaking long! I just put this into Word to check the word count...I just wrote an essay for class of this length! By the way, it's the two essays I've had to do since coming back from Beijing that I'm blaming the lateness on, just so all ya'll know.
As always, should you want more stories, pictures etc. that were not included here, I'll be home in less than a month (ahhh!).
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Back home again
We landed in Shanghai last night around 8:30. It was an amazing holiday, but it's time to go back to reality. I have a paper due Tuesday so you can expect an update around the middle to the end of the week, until then...
The elephant I am hugging is on the Spirit Path on the way to the Ming Tombs.
The elephant I am hugging is on the Spirit Path on the way to the Ming Tombs.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Weekend update #1
As difficult as it is to come to terms with the fact that I’m almost done with this time in Shanghai (don’t worry...I’ll be back) I’ve been looking up classes for next semester. My date to choose classes is the 28th at 1pm east coast time, the 29th at 1am my time. I’m sure most of you are currently thinking, “It’s October, what is she talking about that her time is almost up?” Well think of it this way. I have three more days of classes this week and Friday I leave for Beijing (12hr train ride). We arrive in Beijing on Saturday, do some stuff during the day, like, oh I don’t know, go see the Great Wall. The rest of the week is filled with fun activities like that (I also get to meet up with friends from Albany...hi Devin!), minus election morning and the following Saturday when we leave by plane, we get off. I arrive back firmly in November and then I have about a month left, a week of finals, and I’m home.
One of my goals was to try to switch around my plane ticket so that I could go see my sister for the first time in about two years, in Hawaii, for Christmas (there are worse ways to spend the holidays). Instead Delta sucks, and I can’t switch my plane ticket unless I want to pay about double what it will cost me to get to Hawaii anyways. Unless anyone has high connections in Delta and is feeling particularly charitable, I’ll be home for the holidays. As a side note: anyone who has a particular inkling for something special from China (and by special I mean uncommonly expensive that would then require you to transfer money into my bank account) let me know now, or forever hold your piece.
Currently, however, I am preparing for a field trip tomorrow to Xintiandi and Tianzifan with my Modern Chinese History class. I absolutely love both of those sections of Shanghai. They’re like small villages within the city. They’re renovated sections of old houses in the French Concession, but very different. Xintiandi was designed by the same people who built and designed Quincy Market in Boston and has a very Boston and European feel to it, it was completely knocked to the ground and rebuilt in a style that tried to keep the feel of older Shanghai housing. Tianzifan used to be run down housing and has now been fixed up (never demolished, just re-done) mainly with the help of the artists community that thrives there. I’ve been to both places once before, actually the Friday after I returned from Tibet, and failed to bring my camera, so I’ll make an update at some point that hopefully includes pictures.
Two weekends after I returned from Tibet that would be the weekend of October 18th I went with my Philosophy and Religion class to two Daoist Temples. Sticking with tradition, the field trip was on Friday the 17th. We left at the buttcrack of dawn from the dorms and drove to Pudong district to see the first temple. This temple was located in the midst of broken walls and rubble. What used to be an old Pudong neighborhood had been razed and in its place stood shells of houses, garbage, and shrubbery. At this point in China’s history it’s not uncommon to see old neighborhoods completely demolished (more so in Beijing than Shanghai), what was special about this one is that the community temple has been allowed to remain.
You can’t even see the temple until you’re about twenty feet away from it. There were about ten of us in the group and we were all so absorbed by the buildings around us that none of us expected to see a three-story temple rise out of nowhere. It looks so out of place among all of the wreckage that it makes me wonder how everything in that area fit together before the government decided to uproot thousands for the new business buildings that will make their homes around the temple.
Outside the small temple in Pudong with one of our guides.
Just inside the door.
We stayed in the temple for a couple of hours. We got a tour of the resident deities – city gods from all over China, regular Daoist deities, and some Buddhist deities. The day we went it was Guanyin’s birthday (or the equivalent to when she became a god, go wiki her). She has a thousand arms and eyes and was originally a Buddhist deity. Maybe about twenty people, mostly older women, were there to pray to her on that day. We tried to stay out of their way while getting our tour. Same with the other, larger temple we went to.
The ceremony to Guanyin at the larger Daoist temple.
In the larger temple, which seems to be a house of perpetual construction, we saw and were invited to participate in ceremony to Guanyin. Participation in this case means singing along and bowing your head at the appropriate time. We did this for a while and we were then invited to explore and see a special stature of Laozi. It was made out of a very dark wood (I guessed mahogany, they said yew) and was quite beautiful, the room (on the top floor of the main temple where the ceremony was held) also had the same wood inlays around it. Our professor said it was made for the World Fair coming up in 2010. Either way it was an interesting day, and we spent about the same amount of time in the larger temple before heading back to school.
The best picture ever.
The other noteworthy thing that occurred that weekend was my trip to the fabric market. The fabric market is a three-floor maze of shops (picture a cross between a mall and a bazaar). I went with my host mother and two friends, Joe and Paul. My host mother helped me bargain, it was wonderful not having to do it myself, though I really wish they talked slow enough so I could understand exactly what she was saying. I think she insulted the fabric a couple of times, and then the price, which is pretty much what I do, except they give her a better deal because she is Chinese. That weekend I bought a handkerchief dress, a black and red silk traditional Chinese dress, and a suit. The way it works is that you put down a deposit, tell them what you want, they measure you, and then you arrange a time to pick it up, or come back for fittings.
My set day to return was this past Saturday. Paul, Joe and I went back but only after having a fabulous adventure in my host family’s kitchen. We introduced them to an American breakfast. It took us about an hour to make, and in doing so Joe had to physically block the kitchen door to stop my host mother from helping, but we managed it, and it hardly sucked at all. Paul was in charge of pancakes, and he mostly made the french toast. Joe did home fries with help from Paul, and also made omelettes with help from me. I cooked some apples and was general kitchen wench in terms of chopping and peeling.
We kicked my Chinese parents out of their kitchen, they don't look to sad about it though.
Paul pours some orange juice, clearly a key ingredient.
Thumbs up from Joe.
The best part about breakfast was the condiments, and the chopsticks. I am proud to say that I can now cook with chopsticks, and eat pancakes with them. We also had knives and forks on the table, and spoons for serving in the bowls, which you never see on a Chinese table (everyone just takes what they want out of the communal food bowl). In terms of condiments, the three of us chefs went to the international market on Friday after eating at Element Fresh (I had pasta for the first time since coming here!). We bought everything we would need to cook with, except for eggs, which my host family had in excess. The two most important things that we got at the international market were maple syrup, and Nutella. Rest assured, the Nutella is almost gone and was delicious. The boys also brought over ketchup. My host parents didn’t quite understand the distinction between ketchup and maple syrup. We explained, perhaps a bit too late, but they put both on their pancakes, though only once. Overall the breakfast was kind of a success. My host family discovered that they like cheese, and that no, most Americans do not eat this much for breakfast every day.
After breakfast the boys and I met up with another friend en route to the fabric market. Joe had a leather jacket to pick up, Paul a dress shirt, and me my dresses and suit. Well after getting there it turned out that the people who were making my suit seemed to have lost the pants, so I’m going back there on Thursday morning to get the pants fitted, and to pick up some other items (three dress shirts and a jacket) that I may have bought, but thats it, I swear. All together, everything I bought there came to the price of either the jacket, or the suit, in dollars, so I would say it was time and money well spent. After the fabric market I headed to the pearl market with Joe to get a bracelet fixed. So all in all, this Saturday was quite busy, but I’m done spending money and buying things, mostly, until I go to Beijing.
-Deb
One of my goals was to try to switch around my plane ticket so that I could go see my sister for the first time in about two years, in Hawaii, for Christmas (there are worse ways to spend the holidays). Instead Delta sucks, and I can’t switch my plane ticket unless I want to pay about double what it will cost me to get to Hawaii anyways. Unless anyone has high connections in Delta and is feeling particularly charitable, I’ll be home for the holidays. As a side note: anyone who has a particular inkling for something special from China (and by special I mean uncommonly expensive that would then require you to transfer money into my bank account) let me know now, or forever hold your piece.
Currently, however, I am preparing for a field trip tomorrow to Xintiandi and Tianzifan with my Modern Chinese History class. I absolutely love both of those sections of Shanghai. They’re like small villages within the city. They’re renovated sections of old houses in the French Concession, but very different. Xintiandi was designed by the same people who built and designed Quincy Market in Boston and has a very Boston and European feel to it, it was completely knocked to the ground and rebuilt in a style that tried to keep the feel of older Shanghai housing. Tianzifan used to be run down housing and has now been fixed up (never demolished, just re-done) mainly with the help of the artists community that thrives there. I’ve been to both places once before, actually the Friday after I returned from Tibet, and failed to bring my camera, so I’ll make an update at some point that hopefully includes pictures.
Two weekends after I returned from Tibet that would be the weekend of October 18th I went with my Philosophy and Religion class to two Daoist Temples. Sticking with tradition, the field trip was on Friday the 17th. We left at the buttcrack of dawn from the dorms and drove to Pudong district to see the first temple. This temple was located in the midst of broken walls and rubble. What used to be an old Pudong neighborhood had been razed and in its place stood shells of houses, garbage, and shrubbery. At this point in China’s history it’s not uncommon to see old neighborhoods completely demolished (more so in Beijing than Shanghai), what was special about this one is that the community temple has been allowed to remain.
You can’t even see the temple until you’re about twenty feet away from it. There were about ten of us in the group and we were all so absorbed by the buildings around us that none of us expected to see a three-story temple rise out of nowhere. It looks so out of place among all of the wreckage that it makes me wonder how everything in that area fit together before the government decided to uproot thousands for the new business buildings that will make their homes around the temple.
Outside the small temple in Pudong with one of our guides.
Just inside the door.
We stayed in the temple for a couple of hours. We got a tour of the resident deities – city gods from all over China, regular Daoist deities, and some Buddhist deities. The day we went it was Guanyin’s birthday (or the equivalent to when she became a god, go wiki her). She has a thousand arms and eyes and was originally a Buddhist deity. Maybe about twenty people, mostly older women, were there to pray to her on that day. We tried to stay out of their way while getting our tour. Same with the other, larger temple we went to.
The ceremony to Guanyin at the larger Daoist temple.
In the larger temple, which seems to be a house of perpetual construction, we saw and were invited to participate in ceremony to Guanyin. Participation in this case means singing along and bowing your head at the appropriate time. We did this for a while and we were then invited to explore and see a special stature of Laozi. It was made out of a very dark wood (I guessed mahogany, they said yew) and was quite beautiful, the room (on the top floor of the main temple where the ceremony was held) also had the same wood inlays around it. Our professor said it was made for the World Fair coming up in 2010. Either way it was an interesting day, and we spent about the same amount of time in the larger temple before heading back to school.
The best picture ever.
The other noteworthy thing that occurred that weekend was my trip to the fabric market. The fabric market is a three-floor maze of shops (picture a cross between a mall and a bazaar). I went with my host mother and two friends, Joe and Paul. My host mother helped me bargain, it was wonderful not having to do it myself, though I really wish they talked slow enough so I could understand exactly what she was saying. I think she insulted the fabric a couple of times, and then the price, which is pretty much what I do, except they give her a better deal because she is Chinese. That weekend I bought a handkerchief dress, a black and red silk traditional Chinese dress, and a suit. The way it works is that you put down a deposit, tell them what you want, they measure you, and then you arrange a time to pick it up, or come back for fittings.
My set day to return was this past Saturday. Paul, Joe and I went back but only after having a fabulous adventure in my host family’s kitchen. We introduced them to an American breakfast. It took us about an hour to make, and in doing so Joe had to physically block the kitchen door to stop my host mother from helping, but we managed it, and it hardly sucked at all. Paul was in charge of pancakes, and he mostly made the french toast. Joe did home fries with help from Paul, and also made omelettes with help from me. I cooked some apples and was general kitchen wench in terms of chopping and peeling.
We kicked my Chinese parents out of their kitchen, they don't look to sad about it though.
Paul pours some orange juice, clearly a key ingredient.
Thumbs up from Joe.
The best part about breakfast was the condiments, and the chopsticks. I am proud to say that I can now cook with chopsticks, and eat pancakes with them. We also had knives and forks on the table, and spoons for serving in the bowls, which you never see on a Chinese table (everyone just takes what they want out of the communal food bowl). In terms of condiments, the three of us chefs went to the international market on Friday after eating at Element Fresh (I had pasta for the first time since coming here!). We bought everything we would need to cook with, except for eggs, which my host family had in excess. The two most important things that we got at the international market were maple syrup, and Nutella. Rest assured, the Nutella is almost gone and was delicious. The boys also brought over ketchup. My host parents didn’t quite understand the distinction between ketchup and maple syrup. We explained, perhaps a bit too late, but they put both on their pancakes, though only once. Overall the breakfast was kind of a success. My host family discovered that they like cheese, and that no, most Americans do not eat this much for breakfast every day.
After breakfast the boys and I met up with another friend en route to the fabric market. Joe had a leather jacket to pick up, Paul a dress shirt, and me my dresses and suit. Well after getting there it turned out that the people who were making my suit seemed to have lost the pants, so I’m going back there on Thursday morning to get the pants fitted, and to pick up some other items (three dress shirts and a jacket) that I may have bought, but thats it, I swear. All together, everything I bought there came to the price of either the jacket, or the suit, in dollars, so I would say it was time and money well spent. After the fabric market I headed to the pearl market with Joe to get a bracelet fixed. So all in all, this Saturday was quite busy, but I’m done spending money and buying things, mostly, until I go to Beijing.
-Deb
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Please disregard the cranky ex-pat
Since returning from Tibet about two, three weeks ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long!) I have clearly failed in my quest to update, so this update will be comprised of a couple of parts. Generally the most interesting things that happen, happen on the weekends. By weekends I include Fridays when I get a break from class to travel or go around Shanghai with my classes, which really doesn’t make it a break, we just don’t have to physically sit in class. Speaking of classes and my program, now that I’m around, or a bit over, halfway into my time here I’ve come to some realizations about CIEE and ECNU. Feel free to check the blog later otherwise...begin rant here:
CIEE’s main purpose seems to be to isolate the international students (it feels a bit funny to call myself that) from the rest of the student body. Sure, we are encouraged to interact with Chinese students, our parents, and anyone else we happen to meet, but it seems really forced. CIEE has no interaction with ECNU other than one floor where the offices are housed, the dorms, and our classrooms, the majority of which are in the international studies building. I believe that the only students who actually take classes at ECNU are the gap year students (they take a year off between high school and college, or finish high school a year early). I believe CIEE has five; I know them by face, not by name.
I really don’t like how isolated we are from ECNU. Yes, a lot of it has to do with the language barrier; the majority of Chinese students begin learning English at a very early age and are always looking to practice. For the rest of us (barring the heritage speakers and those in the advanced program), following classes in Chinese only would be quite difficult especially as the Chinese style of teaching is lecture, not discussion or Q and A.
Maybe it’s unfair for me to compare the two programs, but the way one of (I say this because I only know of one) UConn’s study abroad programs is run the students are assimilated into the school, and only separated into dorms (Global House) if they choose to be. I believe that UConn’s international students are free to move in and out of Global House if they choose, and non study abroad UConn students can apply to live in Global House – quite a few of my friends have. You can blame Amanda and Zheina, and everyone else that I’ve met there, for the reason I’ve spent so much time in Global House, they’re the reason I know a bit about it. All of the students who live in Global House have meetings with their two advisors (who are awesome, and very friendly...after all, they let me sit in on their meetings) and do projects with UConn and Global House together, they’re not stuck on a corner of the campus and ignored except to be gawked at.
As a general rule, Chinese people do not approach foreigners. They watch us as we pass, and occasionally say hello, or talk to their friends about us (which is getting more and more hilarious the more I understand what they’re saying), but they’re also very gracious and I’ve always gotten help that I need. They don’t seem to expect much from foreigners learning Chinese. If you don’t know the English language in America, people are often condescending or frustrated with your lack of language skills (personal experience: I don’t know enough Spanish or Russian to serve ice cream), if you know a couple of words of Chinese, and now I can officially claim to know enough to get directions as of Friday, they praise you unnecessarily. I find it very hard to make Chinese friends, especially with people who don’t live in the international dorm as Chinese roommates. What I would love to see more of is collaboration between CIEE and ECNU. What saddens me is that with the state of the Chinese government and their reactions towards foreigners, while greatly improved from past government incarnations, greater collaboration may not be possible. I’ll have to talk with some of my friends who are attending other universities in Shanghai and Beijing and see how their experiences are.
My last complaint (before I get on to the good parts of my weekends) is that I have absolutely no free time here. CIEE fills up our days with barley any room to breath. Not that I always mind that, I like being busy, but this is the first week that I have not had a fieldtrip or another engagement on Friday. I feel overwhelmingly busy, and that may just be part of the Shanghai atmosphere. This is one city that I will not have mastered after living in it for over three months. If you were to stick me in an unknown part of the city (a really easy task) and told me to find my way somewhere else without using a taxi, I could do it, but not if there were time constraints. Shanghai is huge, bigger than NYC, and I surrender to the thought that I will never learn this city. But it would be better to have some time to explore it. Granted I did come to study abroad to study, but even in terms of my studies, it seems like I spend so much more time studying and on work that I do at UConn. That might be because the Chinese language programs here are much more challenging than UConn’s. Here I have class every day (M-Th) for two hours. At UConn Chinese classes are three days a week, for an hour, to hour and a half apiece. At the same time, maybe the hours I keep here are just different, and things like scheduled meal times, and that I wake up at 8am-ish every weekday (even though Tuesday through Thursday I don’t have class until 1pm, surprising no?), are throwing me off. But since I’m more scheduled shouldn’t that mean I have more time, not less? Maybe it’s that I spend at most 45min (at least about twenty) each day getting to school, and then the same time getting back. Or my favorite culprit, the activities and field trips that, while I appreciate, take up my entire day. I wonder if people who live in the dorm have the same dilemma of vanishing time that I have? I could go on with the supposed situations and never get anywhere so I’ll have to discuss this with some friends here. Back to our regularly scheduled program....
-Deb
CIEE’s main purpose seems to be to isolate the international students (it feels a bit funny to call myself that) from the rest of the student body. Sure, we are encouraged to interact with Chinese students, our parents, and anyone else we happen to meet, but it seems really forced. CIEE has no interaction with ECNU other than one floor where the offices are housed, the dorms, and our classrooms, the majority of which are in the international studies building. I believe that the only students who actually take classes at ECNU are the gap year students (they take a year off between high school and college, or finish high school a year early). I believe CIEE has five; I know them by face, not by name.
I really don’t like how isolated we are from ECNU. Yes, a lot of it has to do with the language barrier; the majority of Chinese students begin learning English at a very early age and are always looking to practice. For the rest of us (barring the heritage speakers and those in the advanced program), following classes in Chinese only would be quite difficult especially as the Chinese style of teaching is lecture, not discussion or Q and A.
Maybe it’s unfair for me to compare the two programs, but the way one of (I say this because I only know of one) UConn’s study abroad programs is run the students are assimilated into the school, and only separated into dorms (Global House) if they choose to be. I believe that UConn’s international students are free to move in and out of Global House if they choose, and non study abroad UConn students can apply to live in Global House – quite a few of my friends have. You can blame Amanda and Zheina, and everyone else that I’ve met there, for the reason I’ve spent so much time in Global House, they’re the reason I know a bit about it. All of the students who live in Global House have meetings with their two advisors (who are awesome, and very friendly...after all, they let me sit in on their meetings) and do projects with UConn and Global House together, they’re not stuck on a corner of the campus and ignored except to be gawked at.
As a general rule, Chinese people do not approach foreigners. They watch us as we pass, and occasionally say hello, or talk to their friends about us (which is getting more and more hilarious the more I understand what they’re saying), but they’re also very gracious and I’ve always gotten help that I need. They don’t seem to expect much from foreigners learning Chinese. If you don’t know the English language in America, people are often condescending or frustrated with your lack of language skills (personal experience: I don’t know enough Spanish or Russian to serve ice cream), if you know a couple of words of Chinese, and now I can officially claim to know enough to get directions as of Friday, they praise you unnecessarily. I find it very hard to make Chinese friends, especially with people who don’t live in the international dorm as Chinese roommates. What I would love to see more of is collaboration between CIEE and ECNU. What saddens me is that with the state of the Chinese government and their reactions towards foreigners, while greatly improved from past government incarnations, greater collaboration may not be possible. I’ll have to talk with some of my friends who are attending other universities in Shanghai and Beijing and see how their experiences are.
My last complaint (before I get on to the good parts of my weekends) is that I have absolutely no free time here. CIEE fills up our days with barley any room to breath. Not that I always mind that, I like being busy, but this is the first week that I have not had a fieldtrip or another engagement on Friday. I feel overwhelmingly busy, and that may just be part of the Shanghai atmosphere. This is one city that I will not have mastered after living in it for over three months. If you were to stick me in an unknown part of the city (a really easy task) and told me to find my way somewhere else without using a taxi, I could do it, but not if there were time constraints. Shanghai is huge, bigger than NYC, and I surrender to the thought that I will never learn this city. But it would be better to have some time to explore it. Granted I did come to study abroad to study, but even in terms of my studies, it seems like I spend so much more time studying and on work that I do at UConn. That might be because the Chinese language programs here are much more challenging than UConn’s. Here I have class every day (M-Th) for two hours. At UConn Chinese classes are three days a week, for an hour, to hour and a half apiece. At the same time, maybe the hours I keep here are just different, and things like scheduled meal times, and that I wake up at 8am-ish every weekday (even though Tuesday through Thursday I don’t have class until 1pm, surprising no?), are throwing me off. But since I’m more scheduled shouldn’t that mean I have more time, not less? Maybe it’s that I spend at most 45min (at least about twenty) each day getting to school, and then the same time getting back. Or my favorite culprit, the activities and field trips that, while I appreciate, take up my entire day. I wonder if people who live in the dorm have the same dilemma of vanishing time that I have? I could go on with the supposed situations and never get anywhere so I’ll have to discuss this with some friends here. Back to our regularly scheduled program....
-Deb
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