Friday, October 31, 2008

The bizarre things are always the most fun

After several boring hours of Chinese class (okay, come on, talking about statistics on old people is boring in any language), I had my first real chance to "hang out": in Chinese.  And it was awesome!  I'm tutoring a girl who is moving to Canada at the end of December but who speaks very little English.  It's been a bit of a challenge on the one hand, but quite an opportunity for me since I have to use a lot of Chinese to be understood.  One of her favorite activities, like any high school girl, is shopping, so when I mentioned that I will need to buy some warm things for winter, she was eager to help.  So this afternoon, she took me to a famous shopping area in Shenyang.  But since it's significantly easier for us to communicate in Chinese than in English, I got to spend the entire time practicing my language skills! 

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

I'm a terribly irresponsible student.  I skipped my Chinese classes yesterday.  What's worse, though, is how I find ways to have fun.  I skipped class yesterday in order to attend my friend's History of Political Theory class in Chinese.  Whoa, I'm cool.
 
Actually, though, I had a great time in his class.  There are only two foreign students in the class, my friend who is African and a Russian girl.  They've told me that they probably understand less than 10% of what goes on, so I knew I wouldn't do much better.  But it was actually really interesting.  Seven students gave presentations, each on a specific theorist or movement in Western Europe from Thomas Aquinas through the Reformation.  Although it was fun to learn words like theocracy, the Rennaisance, feudal system, and dualism, I have to say that I was most excited for the presentation on John Calvin.  How awesome is that?!  (For those of you who don't know, the college I went to is named after him.)  Unfortunately, I really didn't understand much of what was said, except to know that the speaker really only talked about his political thinking and not his theological works.  But still, how often do I have the chance to hear about John Calvin from a Chinese perspective?! 
 
But like I said, skipping class to go to a political theory class that's entirely in a language I hardly understand probably does not strike most people as fun or exciting.  Eh.  What can I say?
 
In other news, I have made a new friend.  I had some free time the other day, so I decided to walk up to Carrefour, a French multi-purpose store (groceries, clothes, etc).  There are Carrefours all over China in the big cities, but it is definitely only a middle- or upper-class store.  I don't go often because the prices aren't the best and it's a 35 minute walk down there.  Occasionally, though, I like to go stock up on the few international products they sell that interest me (i.e. chocolate) and see what else might strike my fancy.  So I went there Tuesday afternoon.  As I was leaving, a Chinese lady holding a young child was walking next to me and looking at me, so I graciously acknowledged her with a "ni hao!" ("Hello!")  Unlike most times when I greet the people staring at the strange foreigner, this one actually turned into a full conversation.  Turns out, she doesn't speak any English but wants her son (who's probably about 4) to grow up learning it well.  She also lives near my school and wants to make a foreign friend, but can only use Chinese to do so.  So we exchanged phone numbers, and now I send and receive long text messages entirely in Chinese with her.  Hopefully soon we will be able to get together as well.  Although most Chinese people who talk to me want to be friends, this is the first who actually wants to make friends with me entirely using the Chinese language.  What a great opportunity to practice and learn!  So I'm excited about my new "jie jie" ("big sister").  And her son is adorable, too.
 
My involvement in the various fellowships around the city is getting quite extensive.  I never imagined coming to China that I would have so many opportunities of this kind, although none of them are entirely comfortable or familiar to me.  The latest example is that I have been asked to be the speaker at a different university's fellowship next week.  What an honor and a privilege, but what a responsibility!  Thankfully no one has officially asked me to speak on Sunday... yet...
 
Finally, a few random comments: Jasmine tea mints are better than they sound, personification is a word I will probably never use in Chinese again after learning it in class today, and this whole "Chinese milk is bad for you" thing is really annoying.  I'm ready for powdered milk to be available in the stores again.
 
 

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Senile dementia, motorbikes, and choirs

Where do I even begin? 
 
Since I moved into the dorms at LiaoDa, I've been frustrated by not having internet connection in my room.  But, oh, should I have been counting my blessings.  One of my friends had internet, so I could daily go use his computer to check my email and such.  This week the internet went out all across the dorm.  Darn.  That's annoying.  So that's my excuse for why no one has heard from me in a week. 
 
With that said, I'll just start rambling about all the things that have happened in the last week or two.  Believe me, it's been a lot.  And a lot of really entertaining things that would have made great blog posts, if only I had internet...
 
First of all, suddenly it has become winter.  Literally, I went out Wednesday afternoon in flip-flops and a T-shirt, and Thursday I was wearing a winter coat.  How bizarre is that?  But the chill seems to be here to stay, and I'm not really too excited about that.  I'm amazed how cold it is.  Not that the temperature is actually that low yet (I believe it's been lows just below freezing), but there's no heat in any of the buildings and most places actually just leave doors and windows open. So there's no place to go warm up.  My hot chocolate intake has definitely increased since Thursday, which is probably not a good thing since hot chocolate is expensive in China.  But I have to have a vice of some sort, and one that helps me warm up is convenient.
 
Speaking of vices, I now have my first American friend in Shenyang.  He is an English teacher here at LiaoDa, so we met once I started giving classes here as well.  He's fun, but he always makes fun of me because he doesn't think I have any vices.  I keep saying it's hot chocolate, but he doesn't think that counts. Whatever.
 
My classes this week were quite entertaining.  In the English classes, I had my first conversations about sex and homosexuality in a Chinese classroom.  Interesting to hear the Chinese students' comments, especially after watching the culture for some time.  Let me tell you, my perceptions and their comments were definitely not in complete agreement.  In my Chinese classes, I learned some very important words this week, like cerebral cortex and senile dementia.  Yeah, I'll go practice those ones right away.  At least the Poker terms might actually come in handy!
 
So now for the really entertaining stuff: I got to ride on a motorbike last Sunday!  How cool is that?!  For those of you who have never had the privilege of seeing the driving habits of a place like China, or seeing how the countless motorbikes have their own approach to dealing with traffic, just believe me: it was exciting.  Thrilling, you could say.  I probably should have been scared for my life, but surprisingly I wasn't.  
 
Here's the story.  One of the guys from my Sunday afternoon fellowship asked me to go out for dinner with him after the service.  Yeah, okay, so I suppose that means I had a date with him.  But a date that involves a motorbike is worth having! :) No, seriously though.  Of course I agreed to grab something to eat with him, and then he told me we'd take his bike.  Woot!  So I rode on the back, initially riding side-saddle like all the Chinese women do.  That was convenient, since I was wearing a skirt.  But when he drove me home after dinner, I sat the other way to be more stable and comfortable, since it was a fairly long ride.  I was certainly less than lady-like getting on and off that way (in my skirt), but it worked.  And we had fun.    
 
So is it bad to say that my favorite part of the "date" was riding on the bike? 
 
In other news, I'm going to be published in a Belgium newspaper!  In Dutch!  This also excites me.  My friend G from Flanders (the northern region of Belgium) is the editor of a newspaper for his student organization.  Okay, okay, I never said it was a major newspaper.  But he's very curious about the Dutch traditions that have lived on in the U.S. and Canada, particularly as related to the CRC, so he asked me to write an article about that.  It was a lot of fun to write, and it's even cooler to think that he's going to translate the article into Dutch and a whole bunch of Dutch-speaking people are going to be reading it! 
 
Speaking of G, though, I love spending time with him and his girlfriend, WT.  One night this past week they invited me over to their apartment to make pannekoeken or Dutch pancakes.  Turns out Dutch pancakes are more like French crepes than the pancakes we eat with syrup in the U.S.  But they sure are tasty!  And they even had a version of Nutella to put on them!
 
This morning (Sunday), I met up with G to go try the Catholic service.  Belgium is obviously a Catholic country, so that's how G grew up.  He went to this service last week and told me he really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd give it a try myself.  Turns out that service is a whole lot more like my own tradition and like the DCCRC than the afternoon fellowship I've been going to!  But I've already made friends and gotten involved in the afternoon group, so I think I'm going to be very CRC this year and attend two services each Sunday.  That might be the only thing CRC about my experience here, but it's something, anyway! 
 
And I might be joining a choir.  The morning group already asked me to, even though it was my first time there, and that would give me something to do between the two meeting times.  But we'll see.  I should at least sleep on it before I go joining the choir of a place I only somewhat agree with.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Adjustments

Most of you know that I have plenty of experience moving to new places.  It's taken me this long to recognize it, but I am realizing there is a pattern to how I adjust myself to my new situations in life.  Upon first arrival, I am incredibly eager to meet everyone, see everything, and make as many friends as possible.  Healthy attitude, I think.  At this stage, I intentionally try to accept every social invitation offered to me.  But at some point, all the new people I am meeting start competing for my limited time, and I find myself with more social obligations than any sane person can handle.  That's when the real challenge of moving comes in: I have to make decisions about where to invest my time and what social circles are worth pursuing.  The problem is rarely that there are no worthwhile social circles or activities to join.  Rather, I usually end up having to say "no" to a lot of good opportunities. 
 
I'm hitting that stage here in Shenyang.  That stage that I really don't like.  That stage where I have to say "no."
 
Take this past week, for example.  Every morning, Monday to Friday, I'm supposed to have Chinese class from 8:30 to 12:00.  Before the week even started, I had plans for every afternoon from 1:30 to 3:00 (give or take).  Tuesday through Friday I also had evening plans (5:30-9:00, more or less), which left me with only Monday evening as a free chunk of time all week.  That didn't last long, though; Monday morning, my Chinese teacher asked me to help him with English, so I spent 5 hours with him that afternoon/evening.  (I enjoyed that, though; we went out for possibly the best Chinese food I've ever had, which is definitely saying something.)  So Monday through Friday were completely booked.
 
At least I have the weekeneds, though, right?  Yeah, good try.  Saturday I had back-to-back appointments from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., after which I enjoyed a nice little break before my evening engagements starting at 7:00.  And Sunday?  I've made it my "day off," but it's amazing how short the day is when you have commitments to the fellowship from 3:00-8:00 in the afternoon.  And this week I'm going out for dinner with someone after that. 
 
So if you've been wondering why I haven't kept up very well on this blog since writing about my trip to Inner Mongolia, maybe this helps you understand.  I've been far too busy. 
 
My goal for this coming week is to maintain a better balance in my schedule.  It's difficult, though, to know where to start cutting my activities.  I have enjoyed everything I have done in the past week, and basically in my entire time in China.  So if you have any ideas on helping me decide which good things to cut, let me know.
 
 

Friday, October 17, 2008

The things you learn

I've learned some interesting things recently. 
 
1.) The word "sarcastic" is difficult to explain in Chinese.  Seriously.  Try it.  It's hard to do.
 
2.) The Manchu people do not eat dog.  This surprises me to some extent because I've been impressed with the number of restaurants around here that have dog meat on the menu.  A lot more than I remember seeing in Beijing.  But historically Shenyang is a Manchurian city, so obviously there are a lot of Manchus.  Why do Manchus not eat dog, you ask?  Good question.  The story goes that Nurhaci, the founding father of the Manchu state (reigning from 1616-1626), was once saved by a dog from drowning in a river.  Don't ask me why Nurhaci was drowning in the river in the first place, or why the dog was there.  I'm just sharing the story I've heard.  But Manchus don't eat dog.  So don't ever serve dog meat if you invite a Manchurian over for dinner.
 
3.) Chinese men are not legally allowed to marry until the age of 22; women can marry at 20.
 
4.) You don't actually have to be a good singer or be a model to be treated like a celebrity.  You just have to be a white native-English speaker in a place like China.  No joke: I had an educated, grown Chinese man ask me the other day for my signature. 
 
5.) Guanxi (relationship) is really convenient in China.  Okay, I didn't just learn this recently, but it's been confirmed once again.  My new favorite restaurant is one just outside our school gate where the family knows me.  They know I don't like meat all that much, so whatever I order they make without meat for me. 

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Inner Mongolia: Part III

After leaving the manufactured desert, the tour group headed back to Hohhot on the bus. However, we asked them to drop the three of us off in Baotou, the little city at the end of the train line from Shenyang. Since we had already toured Hohhot, we really didn’t need to go back there, especially since we could just take the train from Baotou when we were ready to head home. Somehow the willingness of the group to drop us off at the train station in Baotou turned into them dropping us off – in the rain – at a random gas station on the far outskirts of the city. We were reassured that we could definitely find a taxi there, but standing there as the bus left was a bit disconcerting. There were no taxis, and we were on a random stretch of road that didn’t look like it had much traffic besides buses and long-distance travelers. But eventually we were successful at hailing a taxi, and in to Baotou we went.

Turns out, Baotou is not a city you need to bother adding to your list of places to visit in China. In fact, I don’t really recommend going. Unless, of course, you are interested in the Steam Locomotive Museum, the sole highlight of Baotou. Yeah. G and I had great fun laughing about the Steam Locomotive Museum, which did not find its way onto our itinerary. Guess we have to go back sometime. Hehe.

Finding a hotel in Baotou, a city not accustomed to foreign visitors (apparently we aren’t the only foreigners who didn’t find the Steam Locomotive Museum terribly appealing), was quite an experience. At the first one, we were completely turned down. “We don’t take foreigners.” Well, then. Thankfully, we found a reasonably-priced one eventually, and it was a nice hotel. We spent that evening trying to find the excitement of Baotou, but it turns out there is none. Except a really tasty hot pot restaurant, which seemed like heaven after the mediocre meals with the tour group. And a bakery, which had delicious chocolate muffins. I think they sold more chocolate muffins in the 24 hours we spent near Baotou than the entire month before or after. So after discovering those two places, we went back to the hotel and had fun playing Dutch Blitz (a card game) in our room. While eating chocolate muffins.

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 Inner Mongolia is another entertaining experience. I’m pretty sure our three Chinese roommates were quite confused by the repeated awkward sounds coming out of my mouth. Especially since they didn’t know that G and WT actually speak Dutch, not English, as their native language.

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 Steam Locomotive Museum was not so strong on the three of us, we decided to spend our last morning of vacation going to another desert. The Gobi Desert supposedly starts just 60 km or so outside Baotou, so we hired a taxi for the day and headed there. (Whether it was really the Gobi Desert or not is questionable, but I’m going to say it is. Because it’s cooler to say I’ve been to the Gobi Desert than to say I’ve been to a Chinese man-made desert.) As expected, we had a blast! We spent four hours climbing the desert hills, playing in the sand, taking pictures, and enjoying the quietness and solitude of the desert. (Note: the desert we went to the second day was significantly larger than the first one, and although commercialized, the number of visitors was minimal that day. The holiday ended Sunday, so most people were already heading back to their homes to start work on Monday.)

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. Sure, there’s plenty I haven’t mentioned. For example, the donkey pulling a cart on the highway in Baotou. Or the way horses trotting together strangely resemble Chinese driving. Or why my new nickname from G is “stinky failure.” (Actually, where did that come from?) Or G and I each getting ripped off buying bananas in Baotou since we were white, but WT (who is ethnically Chinese) getting a completely normal and fair price when she went. Or being offered a teaching job in some random little city (town?) I’ve never heard of, from a lady in the tour group who liked me far too well. Or having the security guards push all the Chinese back to let the two white people through the wickets at the train station to get on the train coming home (leaving WT to fend for herself getting through). Or intentionally keeping our trash on the train neatly put together until the sweeper came through, instead of throwing the trash out the window like our Chinese seatmates were doing, just to discover that the sweeper sweeps all the trash straight out the window anyway. Or running into our couple friend from the train ride to Hohhot on the train back to Shenyang. But I have to stop somewhere, and this is already far longer than it should be. So I hope you’ve enjoyed my stories and my adventures. All in all, I recommend a trip to Inner Mongolia if you get a chance, but perhaps don’t bother adding Baotou to the itinerary (unless, of course, you’re into steam locomotives).

Inner Mongolia: Part II

Upon arriving in Hohhot, we realized we hadn’t really discussed a whole lot about what we were planning to do in Inner Mongolia. Oops. Actually, we hardly planned anything for the trip. But we knew we wanted to go to the grasslands and to the desert, since those are the things people travel to Inner Mongolia for. So a taxi driver stopped us just outside the station and asked if we wanted to go to the grasslands, and we discussed the idea with him for a bit. Since that really is a little bit sketchy and difficult to make sure we won’t get ripped off once we get in his car, we settled on going with a travel agency instead.

CITS is the only foreigner-oriented travel agency in China, so it is incredibly expensive. Therefore, we eagerly joined up with a Chinese tour group instead of the CITS English-speaking version, to save at least 50% off the cost. I’m sure we didn’t get as much information out of the trip, since the tour guide talked a lot and we only understood a bit, but it was totally worth it. We got the same experiences, and we had fun being the only foreigners in the tour group, too. And we got to practice our Chinese. A lot.

Having settled on a two-day tour with the group, we first had a day to see Hohhot by ourselves. We enjoyed wandering around the Muslim Quarter; discreetly (or not so discreetly) taking pictures of Chinese Muslims; finding the Great Mosque, which turns out to be the only non-Muslim looking building in the Muslim Quarter; eating real Muslim chuanr, which is really tasty lamb-on-a-stick; wandering through a Buddhist monastery; seeking out the best chocolate in the entire city, which ended up being Russian (yeah, it’s fun to travel with Europeans who actually know good chocolate, which is not the same thing as Chinese chocolate); and eating some more lamb, this time done in a hot pot style. Hohhot does not have much of a nightlife, which meant that Wednesday night after arriving and Thursday night after wandering the city all day, we went to the same place: the horse-racing yard, which has a strange little section with Mongolian gers (or yurts, which is the type of building that is apparently traditional Mongolian… to see what one looks like, go to the pictures of my trip). There were supposedly some performances in the evenings, but the first night we were too late, so we decided to go back the second night. Turns out we would have been better off not going back. The performance was lousy. When we left there around 8:30 p.m., we decided to take a bus back to our hotel. Strangely, a girl we met at the bus stop decided to get on our bus and make sure we got where we were going. But then she got off the bus with us and wouldn’t leave. So we ended up wandering around the central square of our area of town for more than an hour, awkwardly trying to get rid of the random girl who had attached herself to us. It was random and awkward, but at least it was in Chinese. At least we were practicing.

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 China to get away from people, buildings, construction, and the ever-present ambition to “develop.” The grasslands of Inner Mongolia is where you almost can. Of course, going with a tour group meant that we were not actually alone and there was still a lot of manufactured fun, in the typical Chinese style, but we managed to enjoy it anyway. The whole group of us (which was about 30 people) rode horses around the grasslands for 3 hours, stopping at various sights appropriate for taking pictures and such. Of course, even riding horses through the grasslands was guided, but I was okay with that. Having never ridden a horse before, I relied heavily upon the guides telling my horse where to go. Turns out my horse knew more Chinese than I did, which was not really encouraging. Eh.

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 China. That’s not to say anything about traditional Mongolian food. That’s not what we ate. We ate whatever was the cheapest thing the agency could buy and get away with, since that meant more money in their pockets. So I’ll just say that we enjoyed our first meal on our own after the end of the tour, when we got to eat real Mongolian food.

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 China, away from the development, away from the manufactured fun and manufactured beauty. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to get up the next morning in time to see the sun rise.

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 Inner Mongolia in October until after 6:00 a.m., and on the morning of October 4 this year, the sun didn’t rise at all. Oh, it got light out (eventually), but there was no sun. How disappointing! Thankfully, though, the rain didn’t start until we were back at the ger village and inside eating breakfast.

After breakfast, we all got back on the bus to head to the desert. This is a good example of the manufactured environment in China. The desert we went to wasn’t really the desert. It was just a few square kilometers of land a bit outside the city that had been filled with desert sand. But whoever had made this desert had at least thought to bring camels, too, and we got to ride the camels. Really! How cool is that!? We had fun riding the camels, although to be honest, the thought of riding a camel is about the coolest part of it. At least the day after riding a horse for three hours it was. We were still in pain from the horses, and the horses at least went faster than a slow stroll. But the awesomeness of the thought of riding a camel made the experience fun anyway. Actually, the three of us had a blast in the desert. We had sand fights, pushed each other down onto the sand, and more or less ran around like a bunch of kids. The Chinese people in our group looked on a little bit jealously, but would in no way consider joining in on our fun. The tour guide actually told us later that he liked the three of us, because we were bold and had fun yet followed instructions and returned to the group when told.

Inner Mongolia: Part I

A week of travel in China is always exciting, especially when that travel takes you beyond the limits of the China you already know. And when the travel is done with people who are becoming good friends, it becomes even better. So where do I start about my week of travel to Inner Mongolia, the northern-most province in China?

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 Inner Mongolia, where we hung out, rode horses in the grasslands, played in the sand of the “desert,” and practiced our Chinese with all-too-willing natives who rarely see white people. That was the trip in a very, very small nutshell.

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 Hohhot (Huhehaote in Chinese… it took me all week to remember that), the capital of Inner Mongolia. Unfortunately, the train from Shenyang to Hohhot is a slow train… making the trip a thrilling 22 hours long. On hard seats. (No, I’m not just complaining about the seats by saying they were hard. Chinese trains have five types of tickets. From most expensive to cheapest, they are: soft bed, hard bed, soft seat, hard seat, and no seat. I’ve never taken a soft bed, which has more privacy than the hard beds, but the hard beds make an overnight train ride quite comfortable. Soft seats are hardly better than the hard seats. But when we bought our tickets, the only options were hard seat or no seat. Clearly, we chose the former. Especially since I think those two tickets are actually the same price.)

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 Shenyang and were going to Baotou, which is the end of the line, they were there the entire time we were. The third person on that bench changed several times.

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.)