Earlier in the semester we went for a ride in a dragon boat; it did not look like this, unfortunately.
Oh look, a swan!
And a goose.
And a duck. How precious.
And a sheep!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
West Lake, Round Two
Earlier in the semester we went for a ride in a dragon boat; it did not look like this, unfortunately.
Oh look, a swan!
And a goose.
And a duck. How precious.
And a sheep!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Longmen
for grinding flour, back in the day
peanuts and something else
Happy year of the ox!
I didn't mean to get these guys in the frame, but I kind of like it that way.
Longmen
I've now officially been in China for over a month. Weird. In some ways, it feels like I just got here, but on the other hand, grandpa & grandma's wedding anniversary seems like eons ago.
Last weekend was "independent travel weekend", when we were strongly encouraged to try traveling somewhere outside of Hangzhou by ourselves. I was a little nervous about my navigation abilities at this point, so I picked a pretty straightforward destination, a little town about 30 miles southwest of Hangzhou.
Hangzhou has a pretty extensive bus system, and a great site for figuring out routes, so I worked out a plan and woke up early to test it out. This turned out to be a good decision, because the streets are a lot less crowded early in the morning, and it was easier to get oriented. Anyway, when I got off the first bus, downtown-ish, I had a potential plan for getting a bus to take me to the bus stop that would take me out of town, but I knew I was already on the right street, so I decided to take a chance and wander down it and see if I could find it myself. And it actually worked! It took a little bit of wandering around because of some construction, but I found it and caught a seat. (Note: I'm still enough of a country kid that whenever I get on a city bus I'm kind of like, wheeeee! I'm on a bus! The same goes for subways. I'm a dork, I know.)
It took about an hour to get to the city of Fuyang, and then I had to figure out how to get to Longmen. I didn't really have a plan for this part, so I stood around outside the bus station for a little while, looking totally awkward I'm sure, trying to figure out if there was a bus to Longmen. I eventually decided there wasn't, and found a minibus driver to take me to Longmen. This was a little inefficient, since those things fit about 7 people and I was paying for the whole thing myself, but the 20 minute ride was only 40 kuai ($5.87), so I guess that's reasonable. And more importantly, he was willing to come pick me up when I wanted to go back to Fuyang. He was pretty friendly, and we chatted a little on the way over. His southern accent wasn't too heavy, which made things a lot easier for me.
Longmen was a pretty tiny, very old town with several old houses and cute cobbled streets and buildings. It only took about an hour and a half to see everything, but that was okay because it all this independence was starting to wear me out anyway. So I got some lunch, had the restaurant owner call my driver, and went back to Hangzhou.
It wasn't the most exciting excursion ever, but I made it to Longmen, saw Longmen, and made it back to Hangzhou all by myself, so I decided to call it a success, and bought some baked deliciousness from Cafe 85 to celebrate. It was also a pretty educational dry run for going out to the countryside, so it should come in handy when I (hopefully) go visit some farms.
Tuesday we had our first cooking class with Chen Laoshi offered, and I enthusiastically participated. We made hongshao rou (pork braised in soy sauce) and noodles with greens. It was soooo delicious. Chen Laoshi talked a little fast and used some words I don't recognize, but she's really enthusiastic so it's a lot of fun. She's also apparently a bit of a local celebrity, with her own cooking show and everything, so she puts on a little bit of a performance and gives us a lot of tips on eating healthy.
Next Thursday is Chinese National Day, so we get Thursday and Friday off! I am so excited!! However, even though this gives us a four-day weekend, I probably won't be going out of town. The rest of China is also on holiday, and it kind of bogs down transportation. So I'll probably use this as an experiment to see how far I can get by walking/taking obscure bus routes.
Last weekend was "independent travel weekend", when we were strongly encouraged to try traveling somewhere outside of Hangzhou by ourselves. I was a little nervous about my navigation abilities at this point, so I picked a pretty straightforward destination, a little town about 30 miles southwest of Hangzhou.
Hangzhou has a pretty extensive bus system, and a great site for figuring out routes, so I worked out a plan and woke up early to test it out. This turned out to be a good decision, because the streets are a lot less crowded early in the morning, and it was easier to get oriented. Anyway, when I got off the first bus, downtown-ish, I had a potential plan for getting a bus to take me to the bus stop that would take me out of town, but I knew I was already on the right street, so I decided to take a chance and wander down it and see if I could find it myself. And it actually worked! It took a little bit of wandering around because of some construction, but I found it and caught a seat. (Note: I'm still enough of a country kid that whenever I get on a city bus I'm kind of like, wheeeee! I'm on a bus! The same goes for subways. I'm a dork, I know.)
It took about an hour to get to the city of Fuyang, and then I had to figure out how to get to Longmen. I didn't really have a plan for this part, so I stood around outside the bus station for a little while, looking totally awkward I'm sure, trying to figure out if there was a bus to Longmen. I eventually decided there wasn't, and found a minibus driver to take me to Longmen. This was a little inefficient, since those things fit about 7 people and I was paying for the whole thing myself, but the 20 minute ride was only 40 kuai ($5.87), so I guess that's reasonable. And more importantly, he was willing to come pick me up when I wanted to go back to Fuyang. He was pretty friendly, and we chatted a little on the way over. His southern accent wasn't too heavy, which made things a lot easier for me.
Longmen was a pretty tiny, very old town with several old houses and cute cobbled streets and buildings. It only took about an hour and a half to see everything, but that was okay because it all this independence was starting to wear me out anyway. So I got some lunch, had the restaurant owner call my driver, and went back to Hangzhou.
It wasn't the most exciting excursion ever, but I made it to Longmen, saw Longmen, and made it back to Hangzhou all by myself, so I decided to call it a success, and bought some baked deliciousness from Cafe 85 to celebrate. It was also a pretty educational dry run for going out to the countryside, so it should come in handy when I (hopefully) go visit some farms.
Tuesday we had our first cooking class with Chen Laoshi offered, and I enthusiastically participated. We made hongshao rou (pork braised in soy sauce) and noodles with greens. It was soooo delicious. Chen Laoshi talked a little fast and used some words I don't recognize, but she's really enthusiastic so it's a lot of fun. She's also apparently a bit of a local celebrity, with her own cooking show and everything, so she puts on a little bit of a performance and gives us a lot of tips on eating healthy.
Next Thursday is Chinese National Day, so we get Thursday and Friday off! I am so excited!! However, even though this gives us a four-day weekend, I probably won't be going out of town. The rest of China is also on holiday, and it kind of bogs down transportation. So I'll probably use this as an experiment to see how far I can get by walking/taking obscure bus routes.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Lingyin & Zhouzhuang & in between
I've been awfully busy the last two weeks, which is why I've been neglecting to blog. Two weeks ago we had our first week of classes to figure out our schedules. Since we were still choosing classes we had no class on Friday, giving us a 3 1/2 day weekend, woohoo! On Friday I went with a bunch of other students and Su Aimei to go hiking in a bamboo forest near West Lake. It was really beautiful and I've got some pics of the views of the lake and the city. Saturday I went with a couple students to Lingyin temple, apparently a pretty famous Buddhist temple to the south of West Lake. The hills at the base of the temple were full of carvings set into the rock and caves - I don't know much about Buddhism, so I can't give you specifics on the statues :( but they were pretty sweet.
The temple itself was a series of - buildings? smaller temples? that you progressed through as you worked your way up the mountain. I think there were 4-5 or so. Anyway outside of each one there was incense smoke billowing everywhere and tons of people praying, and inside each had unique artwork and adornments, and, most exciting of all, freaking GINORMOUS statues! Completely stunning, I'll hazard a guess at around 40-60 feet tall, and painted gold or blue... it was breathtaking. Out of respect for the religious nature of the site, taking pictures weren't allowed inside the temples, which, being the culturally respectful tourist I am, I adhered to, unlike some other people I saw, grumble, grumble. Anyway, that's why I don't have any pictures of them to share with you.
Afterwards we had a late lunch, cooked home-style in a little tea village just outside of Hangzhou. Chuchu and I taught the Chinese students with us how to play spoons (using some spare change) and it was super fun.
Sunday was completely dedicated to homework, of which I have a ton. My schedule is as follows:
Monday: Newspaper Reading 8:20-10:00, One-on-One tutorial 10:10-11:50, Living in Hangzhou 1:15-2:00
Tuesday: Everyday Chinese 10:10-11:50, Living in Hangzhou 1:15-2:00
Wednesday: Newspaper Reading 8:20-10:00, One-on-One tutorial 10:10-11:50
Thursday: Everyday Chinese 10:10-11:50, Living in Hangzhou Oral Presentation 1:15
Friday: Everyday Chinese Exam 8:20-10:00, Newspaper Reading Exam 10:10-11:50
So yeah, I've got 3 hours of exams every single week, plus 2-3 oral presentations, plus homework... it keeps me busy.
Last weekend Xiaoxiao and a friend of hers and I all went to the little town of Zhouzhuang in Jiangsu province. It's one of many old "canal towns" in southern china. This one was pretty cute, but unfortunately a little too touristy for my taste. It took us about 4 hours to get there (via train and bus), and when we arrived mid-afternoon the place was crawling with people and the streets were filled with shops hawking touristy souvenirs (including some seriously beautiful folk art, a tad overpriced). We spent the evening poking through the old houses of the upper class that lived there back in the day, and sampling the local specialty - leg o' pork, apparently. After nightfall we took a boat ride through the canals paddled by a guy standing on the back, gondola-style, and I tried to take some night shots but they didn't work out so well. It was quite lovely, minus the slightly intoxicated dude from chongqing who wanted to practice his English (not the most awkward encounter I've had in China by far, trust me).
Actually that reminds me, last week one of our assignments was to find a foreigner working in China and talk about differences in business in China and foreign countries. It was kind of a strange assignment, because not all foreigners speak Chinese, so for this one occasion we were allowed to break the Chinese pledge and speak English. So I called up a friend of Su Aimei's working in Shanghai, and one of the first things he said was "Wow, your English is already getting worse." I took this as a high compliment. :) It did feel really weird speaking English, and it was surprisingly difficult to find the words I wanted. Anyway, it was nice to get a little reassurance that the language pledge is having some effect.
In Zhouzhuang we woke up early Sunday morning and got a chance to wander around the streets when they were mostly empty, so most of my pictures are from then.
Right, this week. My time is pretty much dominated by schoolwork - like I said before, my classes are rather demanding, especially since they're all made up of 7 students or less, so the professor knows if you haven't prepared. My toughest class is definitely newspaper reading, just because there are sooo many new characters I don't recognize. And it's just pretty fast-paced, every class I'm always straining to keep up with what the professor is saying. Last week my exams didn't go too well, and Monday I went to Tao Laoshi's office with the intent of having a calm, adult conversation about my academic options. Instead, I may have cried just a wee little bit. Or a lot. It was kind of mortifying, but it prompted Tao Laoshi to say lots of nice things about me, so that's a plus. This week went slightly better, so I guess I'll just keep chugging away and we'll see what the end result is.
The temple itself was a series of - buildings? smaller temples? that you progressed through as you worked your way up the mountain. I think there were 4-5 or so. Anyway outside of each one there was incense smoke billowing everywhere and tons of people praying, and inside each had unique artwork and adornments, and, most exciting of all, freaking GINORMOUS statues! Completely stunning, I'll hazard a guess at around 40-60 feet tall, and painted gold or blue... it was breathtaking. Out of respect for the religious nature of the site, taking pictures weren't allowed inside the temples, which, being the culturally respectful tourist I am, I adhered to, unlike some other people I saw, grumble, grumble. Anyway, that's why I don't have any pictures of them to share with you.
Afterwards we had a late lunch, cooked home-style in a little tea village just outside of Hangzhou. Chuchu and I taught the Chinese students with us how to play spoons (using some spare change) and it was super fun.
Sunday was completely dedicated to homework, of which I have a ton. My schedule is as follows:
Monday: Newspaper Reading 8:20-10:00, One-on-One tutorial 10:10-11:50, Living in Hangzhou 1:15-2:00
Tuesday: Everyday Chinese 10:10-11:50, Living in Hangzhou 1:15-2:00
Wednesday: Newspaper Reading 8:20-10:00, One-on-One tutorial 10:10-11:50
Thursday: Everyday Chinese 10:10-11:50, Living in Hangzhou Oral Presentation 1:15
Friday: Everyday Chinese Exam 8:20-10:00, Newspaper Reading Exam 10:10-11:50
So yeah, I've got 3 hours of exams every single week, plus 2-3 oral presentations, plus homework... it keeps me busy.
Last weekend Xiaoxiao and a friend of hers and I all went to the little town of Zhouzhuang in Jiangsu province. It's one of many old "canal towns" in southern china. This one was pretty cute, but unfortunately a little too touristy for my taste. It took us about 4 hours to get there (via train and bus), and when we arrived mid-afternoon the place was crawling with people and the streets were filled with shops hawking touristy souvenirs (including some seriously beautiful folk art, a tad overpriced). We spent the evening poking through the old houses of the upper class that lived there back in the day, and sampling the local specialty - leg o' pork, apparently. After nightfall we took a boat ride through the canals paddled by a guy standing on the back, gondola-style, and I tried to take some night shots but they didn't work out so well. It was quite lovely, minus the slightly intoxicated dude from chongqing who wanted to practice his English (not the most awkward encounter I've had in China by far, trust me).
Actually that reminds me, last week one of our assignments was to find a foreigner working in China and talk about differences in business in China and foreign countries. It was kind of a strange assignment, because not all foreigners speak Chinese, so for this one occasion we were allowed to break the Chinese pledge and speak English. So I called up a friend of Su Aimei's working in Shanghai, and one of the first things he said was "Wow, your English is already getting worse." I took this as a high compliment. :) It did feel really weird speaking English, and it was surprisingly difficult to find the words I wanted. Anyway, it was nice to get a little reassurance that the language pledge is having some effect.
In Zhouzhuang we woke up early Sunday morning and got a chance to wander around the streets when they were mostly empty, so most of my pictures are from then.
Right, this week. My time is pretty much dominated by schoolwork - like I said before, my classes are rather demanding, especially since they're all made up of 7 students or less, so the professor knows if you haven't prepared. My toughest class is definitely newspaper reading, just because there are sooo many new characters I don't recognize. And it's just pretty fast-paced, every class I'm always straining to keep up with what the professor is saying. Last week my exams didn't go too well, and Monday I went to Tao Laoshi's office with the intent of having a calm, adult conversation about my academic options. Instead, I may have cried just a wee little bit. Or a lot. It was kind of mortifying, but it prompted Tao Laoshi to say lots of nice things about me, so that's a plus. This week went slightly better, so I guess I'll just keep chugging away and we'll see what the end result is.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
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