Friday, October 31, 2008
The bizarre things are always the most fun
The shopping itself was fun. Basically, we went to Shenyang's version of a mall. But if you are thinking in terms of a mall in the U.S. or Canada, scratch that and try again. It's more like a market than a mall, but it's more like a mall than the actual markets around here. Yeah, maybe that made sense. I managed to avoid spending too much money, but I did buy some good mittens and a hat made from rabbit hair.
After the shopping, we decided to go get my hair cut. For any of you who have been in an Asian country before, you might have some idea of what it might be like to be a blond and get your hair cut in an Asian salon. My hair doesn't function like most Chinese girls' hair. But it turned out fine, considering how terrible it could have been. Actually, I don't know yet how I feel about it. The only people who have seen me so far have all been Chinese, so they all liked it. It's definitely a Chinese style. We'll see what my African, Flemish, and sole American friend say about it.
So today is Halloween. It's been interesting answering curiosity-driven questions today about this strange American holiday. But I'm most entertained by the fact that the two Americans and the one Canadian are all not doing anything for Halloween tonight, but all the Belgians are dressing up and going out. They don't even celebrate Halloween in their country! But whatever. I decided the money to buy a costume and the 200 kuai (about $35) entrance fee to the nightclub having the party was not worth it to just go see a lot of drunk people in strange outfits.
Instead of the party? Yes, this is entertaining. I am sitting alone outside on a dark and cold Halloween night at a random cement table at a random location on campus. Why? Because surprisingly enough, at this random cement table at a random location on campus I can actually get wireless internet! So I decided to bundle up and sit outside to use my own computer tonight than go pay to use a public computer inside somewhere. It may or may not have been a good choice, but it's entertaining nonetheless.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Fun comes in all varieties
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Senile dementia, motorbikes, and choirs
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Adjustments
Friday, October 17, 2008
The things you learn
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Inner Mongolia: Part III
After leaving the manufactured desert, the tour group headed back to
Turns out,
Finding a hotel in
As a side comment, it’s really entertaining to teach Dutch Blitz to Dutch people. Apparently its only the American Dutch who know the game. Who knew?! Also, trying to learn Dutch in a ger in the grasslands of
Since we realized quickly that Baotou was not going to be a place we needed to spend too much time, we bought our train tickets back to Shenyang for the train leaving Sunday afternoon (after arriving in Baotou on Saturday). And since the draw of the
Running around in the desert right before getting on a train for 23 hours might not have been the most brilliant thing I’ve ever decided to do, because I ended up being sandy for far longer than I would have liked. But actually it was probably a really good thing to do, to use up some energy before sitting for so long. The train ride home included a lot of reading, primarily to avoid talking to curious Chinese people around us. Particularly the drunk farmer sitting across from us. Let me tell you, Chinese is a hard language. It’s hard to have a conversation in Chinese. Especially with a farmer, whose education is not as advanced as most people I usually talk with. But it’s exceptionally difficult to understand a drunk Chinese farmer, whose words are slurred beyond all recognition. Thankfully he seemed content to do all the talking and just have us nod and throw in a “dui” or “shi ma?” every once in a while. But reading was more pleasant, so we tried to stick to that. The sleep was difficult again (did I mention we were on the hard seats again?), but I think I got one reasonable hour of sleep. And the 23 hours actually went by fairly quickly.
So that’s it. That was my trip to
Inner Mongolia: Part II
Upon arriving in
CITS is the only foreigner-oriented travel agency in
Having settled on a two-day tour with the group, we first had a day to see
Friday morning we got on the tour bus and headed to the grasslands. The most awkward part of the trip was when the tour guide was trying to coax everyone into doing a “performance” on the bus to pass the time. Of course, he couldn’t pick on the adult Chinese, because their sense of losing face is too great. So the only two people who ended up “performing” were a young Chinese girl and me. I’ve never been so glad to know a Chinese kids’ song before. So I dutifully sang “Liang zhi laohu” (“Two tigers”) and everyone laughed.
The grasslands were beautiful. It’s difficult in
The meals in the grasslands were not thrilling. In fact, I’m pretty sure the four meals we ate with the tour group were the four blandest meals I’ve eaten in
After a mediocre performance around a small coal fire Friday night, the three of us decided to get away from the group and enjoy the solitude of the grasslands as much as possible. Unfortunately, the cloud cover prevented us from seeing as many stars as we had hoped to see. But we still enjoyed being out, away from the people, away from the oft-repeated questions about where we come from and why we’re in
Someone had told us the sun would rise about 5:00 a.m., so we set our alarm for 4:30. We slept in a ger with three other Chinese people, whom we really never spoke to. Oops. So we quietly came in after 11 p.m., after they were all asleep, and we quietly got up at 4:30 a.m. to go see the sun rise. Ha. Bad idea. Turns out the sun doesn’t rise in the grasslands of
After breakfast, we all got back on the bus to head to the desert. This is a good example of the manufactured environment in
Inner Mongolia: Part I
A week of travel in
For the short version, just read the next paragraph. For the long version, keep reading. For a visual version, see the pictures of my trip.
I went with two friends to
In a much larger nutshell, I’ll start at the beginning. Tuesday afternoon I met up with a couple from Flanders, who I will refer to as G and WT, to catch a train to
Impressively enough, we had a reasonably good time on the train ride out. We shared a three-person bench, which faced another bench for three and had a small table between. A young Chinese couple across from us were some of the most normal Chinese people we met on the entire trip. We taught them some card games and had fun talking with them a bit. Since they started in
Sleeping on the train was entertaining, to put it positively. G, WT, and I laid on each other as much as we could to get comfortable, but it still didn’t work out all that well. And even more entertaining was waking up every half hour or so to find Chinese people gathered around our bench, watching the foreigners sleep. Yeah, awkward. (The three of us were the only foreigners on the train, at least in the seats.)