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.