KTV

If you ever come to China, there's one thing you have to experience: KTV.  It's Karaoke, but you and your group get your own private room to do it in.  The KTV we went to only cost 15 kuai per person (about 2 American dollars) for 3 hours. Surprisingly, they had a wide selection of English music.  We sang just about everything from Katy Perry to Bon Jovi to the Beach Boys.  Some of my personal favorites were "Beat it" by Micheal J, "Mama Mia" by Abba, and "All Star" by Smash Mouth.  Even though there were two microphones, we all sang just about every song. 

Dave...you would love this.

Some of the songs we picked had the actual music video playing in the background.  Others had weird filler videos during the music.  The video during "Hey Jude" was of little girls horse back riding.  The video during "Let it Be" showed random churches and buildings around the world.  Other videos included people sitting against tree trunks and shots of Niagara falls.  Those were really awesome.

It was so much fun, the only thing I'll do differently next time we go is bring/buy lots of water.  Three straight hours of singing can really do a number on your throat.

Small victories

It's all about the little things here in China.

Today I hemmed my own pants (took about 2 hours...I'll never take a sewing machine for granted again), repaired my other pair of pants, and I ate a whole fish at the school cafeteria.

I just gave myself a high-five.  

Making the most of our time

A lot of fun things about China are the daily adventures we take part in.  Teaching, of course, is our main priority, but we have lots of time to do other things.

At the school:

This school is the bomb.com.  They've arranged for us to be a part of so many things.  On Mondays we have Chinese class where we've started to learn a little about this crazy language.  Earlier today we had to get up in front of the class and have a mini conversation in Chinese.  I got a little flustered, but Soren, Jenna, Maddie, and Heather totally rocked it. 

On Tuesdays we meet with a "culture club."  Basically, we get together with a group of Senior students and talk about differences between American and Chinese culture.  We've talked about food, music, family, schooling, and other stuff like that.  We also went out to Xuanwuhu park with a bunch of them for an afternoon of paddle-boating, picnicking, badminton, and Frisbee.  It's really hard to get together with these kids because they are constantly going to class or studying.

Paddle-boating

The culture club picnic

On Thursdays we have Kung Fu class.  It's awesome and I feel like Tigress from Kung Fu Panda, but I look like a moose trying to do water ballet. Soren picked up on it super quick.  This past week was a challenge because the routine we learned involved a lot of squatting on one leg.  So that one leg got super sore.

View of the school tower through the blossoming trees

In Nanjing:

Typical weeknights are spent at the food court we call the smorgasbord.  It has fried rice, chow mein, dumplings, Chinese BBQ, and a lot of other things we haven't tried yet.  Soren and I love to go there to get Squid on a Stick.  Our favorite Milk Tea place can also be found there.  Mmmmmmm...milk tea.

Sometimes we like to go out and explore.  This past Saturday night Soren and I stumbled upon a group of older people dancing in a bank parking lot.  I guess the best way to describe it would be to say it was like an informal social dance gathering.  Traditional type Chinese music would start to play, and they'd all grab a partner.  I don't know what kind of dances they were doing, but Soren and I joined in and did some Cha Cha, Lindy, Night Club 2-step, and Tango.  We want to find them again one of these days.

There are so many opportunities for us in this city.  We're just trying to do everything we can before we have to go.

Just because...

Beijing Part 3: The Return of the ILP teachers

Saturday was completely devoted to the Great Wall of China.  Although it was cool the first time I went, this trip was totally epic.  We dragged ourselves out of bed at 6 am and boarded a bus bound for the Jinshanling section of the wall. Three hours later, we arrived.

The party at the back of the bus

In Beijing, you can buy all kinds of t-shirts that say "I climbed the Great Wall" on them.  This had always perplexed me because I'd been to the Great Wall and there hadn't been a ton of climbing involved.  There were a lot of stairs, but not enough to justify the term "climbed." When we caught our fist glimpse of Jinshanling, I began to understand.

It was a mountainous area and much of the wall there had not been restored.  We all decided to ride the tram because the climb to the wall would've taken an extra 45 minutes.  We only had 3 1/2 hours to enjoy this ancient wonder and we were going to make the most of it. The tram ride was slow and rickety, but other than worrying about plunging to our deaths, it was an efficient way up the mountain.

Getting ready to exit the tram

Once on the wall, all we wanted to do was take pictures.  The view was breathtaking and the state of the wall showed just how old it was.

View of the wall

The "stairs"

Taking a quick breather

Inside one of the towers

But we couldn't stand around taking pictures forever: we had a mission to accomplish. We were trying to get to the five window tower near the old crumbling Simitai section.  The tour guide had cautioned us that only fast hikers can make it there and back in time to return with the bus. 

The climbing began.  Soren and I quickly fell behind the other girls.  There were three reasons for this: 1. We were taking lots of pictures 2. It was an intense and challenging hike and 3. Sickness plagued my respiratory system and cut my stamina in half.  But despite my coughing and shortness of breath, the hike was still exhilarating, beautiful, and 100% worth it.  Climbing on crumbly, uneven bits of stone is one of my favorite things to do ( I'm sure some of you recall the great rock adventure).  Soren was completely in his element.  He cruised along the ups and downs of the wall with ease.  If I hadn't been slowing him down, I'm sure he would've made it to the tower an hour or so before we did.

Many sections of stairs were this steep or steeper

Going up was hard, and going down was a little scary

The ILP girls on top of the wall

Each section of wall had its ups and downs

This was just beyond the 5 window tower.  WE MADE IT!

 This is Soren's epic wall picture.  (It took us like 20 tries to get it)

He's adorable

Soren managed to get my pic in one try.  The craziest thing about being on the wall was that it was my second time.  Who'd have thought I'd get to walk on the Great Wall of China...TWICE!

Once reaching the 5 window tower, we took a few photos and then began the trek back.  The climb back was almost as hard as the climb there.  When we finally reached the tram we were startled by the news that because the wind had picked up, the tram was closed.  Lunch would be starting in about 40 minutes and then the bus would be leaving.  Our growling stomachs urged us to sprint down the restored section of the wall and down the mountain.  We made it with time to spare and before we knew it, we were back on the bus.

Sunday we went to the Lama temple.  I didn't take many pictures since it's a place of worship for Buddhists.  It was a beautiful and interesting place.  Soren especially enjoyed it and got to live out a life long dream to roll the prayer scrolls.  The Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses building contained an 26m tall (18m above the ground and 8m underneath) statue of the Maitrya Buddha carved from a single piece of White Sandalwood.  This statue was seriously huge.  It was like Ursula at the end of The Little Mermaid...only not as terrifying...and with less tentacles.  But yeah...it was big.

The Prayer Scrolls

We also spent some more time and money at the Pearl Market.  It was a delightful day.  The only problem was that my bug bites started acting up and I had gotten a bad cold sometime during the night (probably because of my shenanigans on the Great Wall).  Once our pockets were emptied, we headed to the train station.

None of us were looking forward to our 10 hour train ride since we thought we'd purchased seats.  But as it turned out, it was a semi-sleeper train.  Our compartment housed 6 people (7 once we brought Morgan in) and had four beds.  We averaged two people to a bed.  It wasn't the most comfortable arrangement, but before we knew it, we were back in Nanjing.

Maddie and Krista

Heather

Soren, Morgan, and Maddie (Jenna is on top)

Me and Soren.

And that was it!  We made it back, I started recuperating, and the teachers dug back into their lessons.  I think we were all glad to be back in our own beds. 

Beijing Part Two: The Two Towers, the Stadium, and the Market

Day one in Beijing was a day of ancient and modern marvels. The morning was spent at the Forbidden City.  I forgot just how amazing it is there.

Mulan saved the Emperor here!  ...ish (this is Tower 1)

Soren's panoramic

Emily's panoramic

Ground view

Although the weather was cool, the rain didn't start until we left.  Btw...the purple coat you see me wearing and the orange and white jacket you see Soren wearing are part of the Nanjing Foreign Language School uniform.  They have the school seal on them. We weren't required to buy them...we just wanted to.

After the Forbidden City we ate lunch at a little hole in the wall (decent chow mien...decent chow fan).  We then got lost on the streets trying to find a metro entrance.  We wandered around for about an hour, asking random people where the subway was by showing them the Chinese characters for "subway" in one of our English-Chinese dictionaries.  We made it to the metro just as it started to rain.

We rode the metro up to the Olympic park.  It was pouring at this point.  Most of the girls didn't want to stick around (I can't blame them), but Maddie, Soren, and I decided to go into the Bird's Nest (the Olympic Stadium).  When I was at the Olympic park in 2009, we went inside the Water Cube.  It was cool, but then we didn't end up going into the Bird's Nest and I have regretted that ever since.  We paid the 50 yuan to go inside and I started to worry that maybe it wouldn't be as cool as I hoped.  As it turned out, I had worried in vain because it was AWESOME!  It was huge, and beautiful, and amazing, and...yeah.

The Bird's Nest

Inside the Bird's Nest

Little Mascots of the Olympics

Panoramic of inside the stadium (highest point)

The lights after dark

Bird's Nest + the Water Cube

The next morning we went to the Summer Palace.  This is another "must see" when you're in Beijing.  It's gorgeous and huge. We spent the entire morning and some of the afternoon there...and we didn't get to see everything.

On Suzhou market street

The Chinese people love stairs

This gentleman painted "Barker" for us in beautiful Chinese Calligraphy

Playing dress-up

Soren knows when to work, but he also knows when to be Idol.

The Summer Palace across the water (this is Tower 2)

The Palace from below

When we finished up at the Summer Palace we buzzed on down to the Pearl Market for some shopping.  The Pearl Market is so much fun.  The first floor is electronics, make-up, table cloths, and other odds and ends;  the second floor is shoes, clothes, and accessories; the third floor is pearls upon pearls, and souvenirs; the fourth and fifth floors are really expensive pearls.  We spent a lot of time (and money) there.

A glimpse of the Pearl floor

You can get just about anything made.

They have strands of jade as well.

The sales people at the Pearl Market sound something like this:
"Pretty lady, want to buy a pearl necklace? All real pearls, all real! Are you student? I give you good price!"
Others would say something more like:
"What do you need? I give you what you need!"
Or possibly:
"Buy Converse sneaker? Any color.  Or Toms.  All for good price." 
After they'd give me an outrageously high price for something, I'd give them my price and they'd say something like:
"No, no.  You are joking.  Give me your serious price.  These are real. Good quality. Give me your serious price."
Sometimes I'd barter with them, sometimes I'd just walk away.

One lady tried to sell me a Great Wall of China t-shirt for 140 yuan.  Soren had bought that same shirt for 20 yuan.  I told her my price was 20 and she said "Good bye."  I bought my shirt somewhere else.

When we got back to the hostel we all had show and tell.  The telling was just as important as the showing.  We all wanted to know whether or not we really did get good deals on things.  Overall, Soren and I got pretty good deals. 

To continue hearing the tales of the ILP adventurers, tune in for the final installment of the Beijing Trilogy, coming soon...

Beijing Part One: The Fellowship of the Train

Because we are a bunch of crazy people, we decided to do our Beijing vacation in 4 days.  Whew!  Every day was jam packed and filled with adventure upon adventure.

Getting there was one of the most pleasant travel experiences I've had in China.  Although it cost us about 450 yuan, we took a high speed train from Nanjing to Beijing.  It got us there in a cozy four hours.  I didn't even have time to get board.  The only problem with the train ride was that we didn't arrive in Beijing until after 11 pm.  My directions to our hostel were by metro, but the metro in Beijing closes down around 10:30 pm.  So we had to get in a huge line to wait for a taxi.  We had to take two taxis and I showed the hostel address to both drivers but neither of them seemed to have any idea how to get there.  The guy in charge didn't seem to care, so he hurried us into our separate taxis and we sped off to somewhere.

I've been really fortunate to have a cell phone here in China (courtesy of Nanjing Foreign Language School) and as it turns out, we might've been in some serious trouble if I hadn't had it.  I had emailed our hostel a few days before to let them know that we'd be checking in really late.  They had emailed me back the day we left to let me know that they wouldn't be able to accommodate us, but that their "sister hostel" on the other side of Beijing would.  The email also said that when we arrived at the hostel, they would drive us over to the sister hostel.  As long as we had somewhere to sleep, I didn't really care. 

So there we were in the taxis.  It was getting close to 1 am--our check in time.  Suddenly, my phone started to ring.  It was the hostel, checking to make sure we were still coming.  I assured them that we were on our way, but that the taxi driver seemed to be having a hard time finding the hostel.  I handed the phone to the driver and pretty soon, we were driving in a new direction.  Before too long the taxi driver asked to see my phone again, but after that call we made it.

The hostel felt really bad because of what had happened, but as it turned out, they had a good reason. The pipes in our room had broken and they hadn't been able to get them repaired in time.  The receptionist took good care of us while we waited for a new driver to come get us.  She gave us free water and offered to give us free beer (which we refused).  The new driver arrived, helped us into a van, and got us to our new hostel.

The hostel were we ended up staying

At last, we were all set...except OH WAIT, our door was busted.  That's right.  The door to our room wouldn't shut or lock.  I guess I shouldn't say the "door," it was the frame that was broken.  It looked like somebody had kicked the door in.  I was super tired and annoyed at this point.  The hostel promised that they'd fix it the next day...but they didn't and Krista ended up taping the frame together so that we could get in and out without causing more damage.

Krista to the rescue

So it wasn't the most secure hostel we've stayed in, but we put a suitcase in front of the door by night, and we stored all of our things in the hostel luggage room by day.  Poor Soren was in another room with complete strangers (just like in Shanghai), but our last night there he had the room all to himself.   My complaints with the hostel also include the series of bug bites I seemed to mysteriously get at night.  Altogether I think I had over 32 bites by the end of the trip.  Super weird and not fun.  But I digress. 

A small sample

Another small sample

These ones were the worst.  They don't look as bad because I have make up on them.

And that's it for now.  To find out what happens to Soren, Emily, and the ILP gang, tune in next time!