tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50826031838171647142024-03-12T21:42:15.816-07:00A Semester in Oz. Followed by China.I studied for a semester in Australia at ANU, then for 6 weeks in China at PKU. note: I got lazy and decided to reuse this blog that was originally for my ANU study abroad experience. Now you get to read about two countries, two schools and two different experiences in ONE blog! Great deal!Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-23939126947043832212010-09-02T22:16:00.000-07:002010-10-01T18:45:47.212-07:00回国, 回家<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAUucqBoC8hZL_ESOFDq6ENtRG32M2PpQfS3zjgSdq4HenRYCUvSMpkXD1asSV0qQ0XPfHjI_6PwUqbZ4EfcBh94hy9CZ1uJWmhKfxX5I6WzhmfOBWc3Y2RpTKNEet6xOhf5IVJnc_Rx7/s1600/60801_1452166657859_1044030140_31359922_137938_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>I'm back in the US! It's been a week since I've been back and boy do I love and appreciate the sight of blue skies, white clouds more than ever. I also love how much diverse foods you can find in my hometown and I'm sorta experiencing reverse culture shock. I realize how much I've gotten used to the differences in Beijing and China in general from the way things are here. I love discovering new things and new places but I love rediscovering the familiar even more! lol<br />
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</a></div>after the final dinner, lots of ppl went to houhai or clubbing to party it up one last time. i didnt go but both my roomates did and i have no idea when they came back in the morning. in the morning, i finished packing, altho sean didnt help cause he brought over overfill from his luggage to pack into mine -__- anyway, the ppl going on the traveling checked out <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAUucqBoC8hZL_ESOFDq6ENtRG32M2PpQfS3zjgSdq4HenRYCUvSMpkXD1asSV0qQ0XPfHjI_6PwUqbZ4EfcBh94hy9CZ1uJWmhKfxX5I6WzhmfOBWc3Y2RpTKNEet6xOhf5IVJnc_Rx7/s1600/60801_1452166657859_1044030140_31359922_137938_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAUucqBoC8hZL_ESOFDq6ENtRG32M2PpQfS3zjgSdq4HenRYCUvSMpkXD1asSV0qQ0XPfHjI_6PwUqbZ4EfcBh94hy9CZ1uJWmhKfxX5I6WzhmfOBWc3Y2RpTKNEet6xOhf5IVJnc_Rx7/s200/60801_1452166657859_1044030140_31359922_137938_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>and i said final goodbyes to whoever liked us enough to wake up at 8am to say final farewells. from<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiSveLLpz2maLGfXUzqwe44M26BOTP_HTpk59Z9ZcHhnQbYWeq1ec98oxdg2Apb0kp9rb1uz_P9ceaaQ6CKFsqIib7Mc1IC8jLA7SD8VKvJhGHCs3y-8wAW4qbrKTemKzTB9ZZMDE-05hF/s1600/47172_1438096026102_1044030140_31328054_8179440_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiSveLLpz2maLGfXUzqwe44M26BOTP_HTpk59Z9ZcHhnQbYWeq1ec98oxdg2Apb0kp9rb1uz_P9ceaaQ6CKFsqIib7Mc1IC8jLA7SD8VKvJhGHCs3y-8wAW4qbrKTemKzTB9ZZMDE-05hF/s200/47172_1438096026102_1044030140_31328054_8179440_n.jpg" width="200" /></a> our group only ken and cody came down to see me, sean, gandhi and matt off. dora and kat were crying saying goodbye to jessica. other friends were there too, even the korean girl, sorae (aka emily, the cute one). so everyone was hugging each other, so touching <3 our little group of 17 got on the bus and left, waving goodbye to everyone as we drove away. awwwwww <br />
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</a></div>ok so ud think we'd leave beijing pretty efficiently, but nooo there was very heavy traffic on the highway and i think gui laoshi was nervous we'd miss the plane but wen we got there, we were told the flight was delayed for at least 3 hours. 3 hours?! are you kidding me? thats how long our flight is! XD so gui laoshi organized us and checked us into a very sleezy hourly hotel by the airport. we took hotel shuttles there. oh man the hourly hotels were shitty as hell. every one of our rooms stank of pee, smoke, or the combination of that and other unidentified smells. it was gross. sooo what were we supposed to do to kill time? play mahjong! room too small? drag a table out and play in the hallway! bryan had brought his set of mahjong tiles and him, matt, charles, and someone else started playing mahjong in the middle of the hallway, heck, we owned the hall and all the rooms down it anyway. they played a few games and me and sean relaxed in our rooms, playing computer games and watching TV like the original monkey king, classic spiderman and winnie the pooh (in 3-D CGI, oh boy), all in chinese of course.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEglKROZx3EltKw_18c1lJZxDCK_E34GzdjLTC47UN7yZ9eXqA-3N2N65j_hXtCdI2jUbyTbi8T5EVMaZYfwsN1czcS_H42dXlMRSy1DI963-eD0k4ZhvSV5q0kp4KFN0WwuCKIdL9V4f3/s1600/58686_1610728587623_1218500345_1698766_1374186_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEglKROZx3EltKw_18c1lJZxDCK_E34GzdjLTC47UN7yZ9eXqA-3N2N65j_hXtCdI2jUbyTbi8T5EVMaZYfwsN1czcS_H42dXlMRSy1DI963-eD0k4ZhvSV5q0kp4KFN0WwuCKIdL9V4f3/s200/58686_1610728587623_1218500345_1698766_1374186_n.jpg" width="200" /></a> we had lunch at the hotel's restaurant. the food was terrible. it was potluck style and everyone had metal trays with compartments, like you see in jails or bad high schools or something. anyway, the food was gross and i barely ate anything. at that point, it was time to go back to the airport.<br />
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omg security was a bitch. not for me, but waiting for sean. he accidentally left his swiss army knife in his backpack along with lots of other things like chargers which the machine picked up so he had to take almost everything out of his backpack, and he was carrying a really heavy backpack jammed full of crap. he had to go thru the security line all over again. i was also cramping by then so i was not a happy camper. everyone also had to do patdown, where you have to stand on a platform and the woman pats you down with her hands and her metal detector thingy. kinda embarrassing and invasion of my privacy bubble. =/ ugh 8:30am leaving our friends, and our dorm, the beijing campus, and finally, finally at 3p we departed beijing. took fooooorrrever to get out of there. <br />
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</a></div>the plane to kunming was half full- or half empty, whichever way you want to see it so the stewardesses were giving seconds during lunch to whomever wanted it. the food, i recall, wasn't very appetizing. when we landed, the sun was setting, so it was soo nice. after being in beijing for 6 weeks, i tell you there was literally only 3 or 4 days that you could actually see the blue sky. and then we landed in kunming and everyone could breathe properly, and could see the beautiful, gorgeous setting sky and clouds. man, it felt soo good to leave the congested grey capital. our tour guide picked us and gave everyone a red carnation. =) she explained, kunming is also called city of spring or city of flowers because there are always flowers growing here, there is never an off season for flowers. the hotel was really nice and in some ppl's room, there was a mahjong table in the corner. soo guess what we did for the rest of the night? <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwhFfVtZC2tftBcMFJx6HDK572pQBT4_nuzgcSu-jzYRwpwMkmSNF77otmMTIpStRYUUhWjd3bg6OAZiG4pj2_-Xx7JX46W7usGTraGMWYGh9EmGqbjmJk1j3MZQmNB6bSy7Fc8qygiH7/s1600/61692_1452168057894_1044030140_31359932_4591450_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXwhFfVtZC2tftBcMFJx6HDK572pQBT4_nuzgcSu-jzYRwpwMkmSNF77otmMTIpStRYUUhWjd3bg6OAZiG4pj2_-Xx7JX46W7usGTraGMWYGh9EmGqbjmJk1j3MZQmNB6bSy7Fc8qygiH7/s200/61692_1452168057894_1044030140_31359932_4591450_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>lol we played mahjong! on a proper mahjong table!! we felt so lucky! hehe. the table could also be plugged in and the middle of the table would pop out and you could shove all ur pieces in and it would automatically shuffle!! alas, we couldnt figure out how to make it work for us. the table was too high tech for us and there was no instructions. i had to fish out the tiles from inside the table. i had small hands, they said. but really, if we figured out how to work the table, it woulda been soo epic. automatic shuffling and lying out the wall for you, plus blinking lights and rolling dices in the middle, drawers on each side for stashing ur gambling money. oh man, woulda been so sweet. <br />
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</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtwI_NlM3-nK4JnhmqwXIRLoYzqXN2b7vhKDS1mxQ_DBTni8oPoiZeHh44ZQDnaAu0r0Mz_jCHKnObugjybF8v9TVaoR-ZgQQKdwGjptrcdRbUIG8FJRdzTE2ik5N3RXL9tFZx0NPylCQ/s1600/60866_1452174818063_1044030140_31359972_6927228_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_ubyqwSzCBng2qfhhY2K4H0bRZVlKs5G4rMEEebpOZiuOHg8KYRwk7Yw6ccasftn0g36I_80QfIliSkY9Ed5GDIVD7u7xED6RcuSEh6r4y_QIG_I4mC9C23sQG6pYJR65GZARYGdEFLi/s1600/61214_1452168977917_1044030140_31359937_26090_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_ubyqwSzCBng2qfhhY2K4H0bRZVlKs5G4rMEEebpOZiuOHg8KYRwk7Yw6ccasftn0g36I_80QfIliSkY9Ed5GDIVD7u7xED6RcuSEh6r4y_QIG_I4mC9C23sQG6pYJR65GZARYGdEFLi/s200/61214_1452168977917_1044030140_31359937_26090_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>the next day, saturday, we first went to take pictures at the iconic gates of the city, named jade rooster and golden horse gate. 10 years ago, they did not exist, let me tell you that. lol. ive been on this exact literary before, 10 years ago with family. so everywhere that we were going to go for the next 10 days, ive already been. ok, so after that gate, we traveled to the stone forest. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtwI_NlM3-nK4JnhmqwXIRLoYzqXN2b7vhKDS1mxQ_DBTni8oPoiZeHh44ZQDnaAu0r0Mz_jCHKnObugjybF8v9TVaoR-ZgQQKdwGjptrcdRbUIG8FJRdzTE2ik5N3RXL9tFZx0NPylCQ/s1600/60866_1452174818063_1044030140_31359972_6927228_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtwI_NlM3-nK4JnhmqwXIRLoYzqXN2b7vhKDS1mxQ_DBTni8oPoiZeHh44ZQDnaAu0r0Mz_jCHKnObugjybF8v9TVaoR-ZgQQKdwGjptrcdRbUIG8FJRdzTE2ik5N3RXL9tFZx0NPylCQ/s200/60866_1452174818063_1044030140_31359972_6927228_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>we rode thru the scenic rural countryside, it was a looong ride. the stone forest was actually pretty cool. the area used to be the floor of the ocean millions of years ago and the rock formations, which used to be at the bottom of the sea floor survives today. this was a karst type park so the rock worn by time, weather, all that good stuff formed some pretty interesting stuff to look a <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">It was a great day to be outside and enjoying the sunshine but after an hour of walking, it soon felt pretty hot. Parts of the rock trail would be worn smooth when ppl use the rocks for leverage climbing up the stone steps. But some parts were still pretty sharp stone jutting out, so you had to be careful. We had lunch at a restaurant nearby and they were holding an auction selling chinese paintings. This was obviously a place for foreigners, we even saw a white family. Next, we headed to “colourful yunnan” which is basically a government controlled shopping area selling mostly yunnan jade and silverware. We went inside but couldn’t afford much since the price range was waaaay beyond us. Everything was really beautiful though. The best jade for the best price you could find in china (or so the gov tells us). After this, we went for tea tasting. We sampled 5 kinds of tea: sleeping beauty which was bland tasting, very light colored, young pu-erh which was very bitter which was supposed to compare to aged pu-erh, which was very strong tasting, and wine colored, jasmine tea which smelled SO good lol but had very little taste, and finally black tea. I sampled a few more since I was buying other kinds of tea-green tea and qing tea for my grandpa. Other ppl in the group bought pu-erh tea to bring home. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Sunday we went to the western mountains, the mountains near kunming. There were Taoist and Buddhist temples carved into the side of the mountain and we hiked up there to see it. 10 years ago, these temples weren’t there. We had a great view of the city down below. For lunch, we went to eat the specialties of the kunming. There was an eggshell stuffed with …things…lol. It was pretty unique cause ud have to peel off the eggshell as if inside was a hard boiled egg, but its not. After lunch, we went on the road to dali. We trekked through the beautiful rural countryside with its usual run down mountainous roads. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Monday we went to the historical 3 pagodas, symbol of Buddhism and the icon of the city of Dali. The centre pagoda is over 1000 years old and the two smaller ones on either side of it are more than 800 years old. Hard to imagine they stood for that long. We then took a 4 decker ship cruise on the nearby lake. We all enjoyed the nice breeze and we stopped on an island with a huge white statue of the bodhisattva, Guanyin. Going back to shore, we attended a minority dance performance on the boat accompanied with their 3 course tea. The 2<sup>nd</sup> course of tea was reaaaaally sweet and tasty. The other ones were blah. We got back to the hotel with plenty of sunlight left, some ppl were already getting sunburned from the day’s activities. The centre courtyard is open to the sky and so picturesque chinese, so some ppl from the trip took this opportunity to play mahjong there lol. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Tuesday, we went back on the road again, destination: Lijiang. Every time we changed cities, we had a new local tour guide and this tour guide took us to Ancient Town Suhe where it showcases the minority ppl called the Naxi and their ancient trading town, one of the stops along the Tea and Horse trail in ancient china. The place had a lot of historical feel to it and canals of running water was on every street. Something about fengshui and the king’s superstition. We walked around there for a while and later went to the cultural museum where we learned more about the Naxi, Dali and Tibetan people. We then went to a park called Black Dragon Pool, it was very scenic and we enjoyed a recreation of a simple ancient chinese symphony using chinese traditional instruments. We ate dinner in a little restaurant in the city of Lijiang, soo many chinese tourists here!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Wednesday, many ppl from our group got really sick, including me. The tour guide said it was probably reaction to the high altitude, so not many ppl joined the day’s activites, which was going to a dance performance about the minority ppl and then going up to the snow mountain and learning about the Naxi myths. Most ppl stayed at the hotel and slept/threwup/took advil/had diarrhea. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Thursday, most ppl were feeling better and we continued our trip, on to Shangri-La. Going even higher altitude! 11,000 feet! It took all day to get there, but we did stop and a Tibetan family welcomed us to take a look inside their traditional house. The living room was a wide open space, integrated with the kitchen. I was familiar with the layout since the art museum had shown me an exhibit on this before. We travelled thru bad mountainous narrow and windy roads. The driver even got into a screaming fight with an oncoming car that almost hit us. and we were so scared we were going to fall down the mountain, the roads were tiny! Yet the driver would go speeding at 80mph. Terrifying. At night, some of us opted to go to the tibeatan folk dance and song performance. Admission price included unlimited chinese wine, called baijiu, and tea and snacks. This audience was more rowdy an probably more tipsy than most lol. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Friday, we had reached Shangri-la and getting accoustomed to the high elevation. We went to a horse riding place and we all rode on our own tiny tibetan horse! some of us were poo-ing at the fact we couldnt control our horse, it was lead on a rope by someone walking along side us. safety reasons, they said. boooo. but it was still very refreshing wide open place, filled with purple (!) wildflowers and plains stretched as far as you could see, with green lush mountains surrounding and horses and buffalo dotting the surface. After, we went up the a Tibetan monastery, commissioned by the 14th dali lama, they said. To get up there, we had to climb up a set of very steep steps. OMG Most of us were completely out of breath like we had run a marathon, but it was only lack of oxygen and we weren’t used to it. Going inside the monastery there were so many rules you had to follow like you had to walk in a clockwise direction around the temple and of course, you couldn’t take any pictures. Everything inside was so colourful just like their flags/banners and so much gold everywhere, so many intricate designs. Pretty cool. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Saturday we took the flight to shanghai. Omg blast of hot air all over again. The last week travelling the weather was perfect like in the bay area, but once we got to shanghai and metropolis, we were reminded it was full on summer in china again. Our hotel was really really nice and at night I went with a group of ppl to a shopping and eating district in shanghai, just like most districts in shanghai, im sure. We had mcdonald’s. and yes we couldn’t wait to go back home lol. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sunday we went to the World’s fair, AKA world expo. I don’t see how ppl can survive the heat and sun all day standing in line. Honestly this wasn’t the funnest day. sean got high fever that wouldn’t go down, heatstroke I believe and I didn’t feel well myself only after half a day at the expo. We just relaxed at the luxurious hotel and rested.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Monday we went up to the pearl tower, 3 hours of lines ugh. I liked the museum inside the tower, showed a lot of shanghai history and made it interesting too. We went to the shanghai museum next, a lot of ppl weren’t interested and wanted to do their own thing. It wasn’t that interesting lol. Then the tour guide took us to a very popular tourist shopping area. TONS of ppl omg in very narrow alley/walkways. Didn’t really get much done, just a lot of sightseeing and I hate that. At night, we had our farewell dinner at the hotel. All you can eat buffet, and very beautiful and delicious food, the kind served at upscale hotels hehe. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Tues: homeward bound! Flight back to US. Bye bye china, ill come see you again in shanghai. I didn’t get a good feel for you at all this time around. And Beijing, hopefully ill see you soon too.</span>t. not to mention its pretty impressive looking.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQpzcGf8sBoN4FP0nw1B6ygcyWVL7MIAj9VwALanXN_LNXHkuW_pwbWfv6KkgZc__XQFvywgW8VwhykPNI7FSfF4S29Hgu8HgiUZo1D7nrzvqjqEHDKUb698IJqM9Yajfq3LzQiRQAhnON/s1600/P1010560.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQpzcGf8sBoN4FP0nw1B6ygcyWVL7MIAj9VwALanXN_LNXHkuW_pwbWfv6KkgZc__XQFvywgW8VwhykPNI7FSfF4S29Hgu8HgiUZo1D7nrzvqjqEHDKUb698IJqM9Yajfq3LzQiRQAhnON/s320/P1010560.JPG" width="240" /></a>Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-46333306008520773152010-08-12T07:24:00.000-07:002010-09-19T17:27:31.341-07:00Catchup Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Why do I always take so long between posts? I'm always a week behind. I'm only doing this post cause internet stability is going to be nonexistant until I come home and/or I steal it from the hotels I'll be staying at. <br />
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Let's continue from the last post, last day of painting class. I was late for my classes in the morning cause I slept in late but I got to kouyou class on time and it was my day to do a baogao- a report on anything topic you chose. I did mine on the dialects of china and wouldnt you know it, the substitute teacher not only teaches chinese but is also a linguisitcs major! so after my brief intro of chinese linguistics to the class, the sub decided to ignore the lesson plan and instead continue my baogao and talk in depth about chinese linguistics and tones across dialects, in chinese of course. i was so happy hehe =D<br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG96bYPFBQXV9hfNOSiZgkj4rvsZ6YHoiuDKDQBFVRB9GipxXSgOTYpxqDV1NOt4ysxWHL5rg5oDYsIIKFNpIEuVCEuIQ9daiwhJZX9AnN8S-E79E-Ak7OPOjaCWi1P4dkcPyyZZvmcIjA/s1600/1.+P1010307.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG96bYPFBQXV9hfNOSiZgkj4rvsZ6YHoiuDKDQBFVRB9GipxXSgOTYpxqDV1NOt4ysxWHL5rg5oDYsIIKFNpIEuVCEuIQ9daiwhJZX9AnN8S-E79E-Ak7OPOjaCWi1P4dkcPyyZZvmcIjA/s200/1.+P1010307.JPG" width="200" /></a>the last painting class, we did grapes. not too interesting but some ppl's grapes were so big, they practically became plums or something lol. well we took a group pic of the painting class <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYOmagKDEZEF2wGM0w4avGsVLwjz5G4YWNLRcxATEJlIfTCGVIHnEjgP0QTI17fxScHgpUlWzv7fgIGLCZqryFt_eMN_KnGvkUAmIRrCp9mceqds43Idbm8KgPIwZ6TX6glRBzb1DNucrl/s1600/2.+P1010305.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYOmagKDEZEF2wGM0w4avGsVLwjz5G4YWNLRcxATEJlIfTCGVIHnEjgP0QTI17fxScHgpUlWzv7fgIGLCZqryFt_eMN_KnGvkUAmIRrCp9mceqds43Idbm8KgPIwZ6TX6glRBzb1DNucrl/s200/2.+P1010305.JPG" width="200" /></a>and the mounting guy came and gave us all our final mounted pieces. standing ovation for sean's waterfall piece. it was pretty epic. really nice, musuem quality. <br />
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on friday, i discovered my first big bug bite since coming to china. this is actually a pretty good score so far, bug:1, maggie:0. im surprised it took so long for me to get one of those epic-ly big bug bites 5 weeks into coming to beijing. =p i got bit on my upper arm so when it swells, it looks like ive been working out lol. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhutRT5PCjP0uQBDUhlLXBwfOW0Diejr5FMG3ZiPFZdbTC35xDkWsyC1uLxEKGva3F8jsRKLYx5DzQwEebPwrZMX8OrvSJV-RBsQp_XbPuYM9GWlH80Fj9fLNEvdlXfgD8QczgY2R_qcsqj/s1600/3.+Photo-0033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhutRT5PCjP0uQBDUhlLXBwfOW0Diejr5FMG3ZiPFZdbTC35xDkWsyC1uLxEKGva3F8jsRKLYx5DzQwEebPwrZMX8OrvSJV-RBsQp_XbPuYM9GWlH80Fj9fLNEvdlXfgD8QczgY2R_qcsqj/s200/3.+Photo-0033.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>i missed classes completely on friday and got a good 14 hours nights rest. felt so good and refreshing. then matt, cody, gandhi, sean and me went to a tailoring place in sanlitunr to get custom made shirts. matt and cody ordered full suits for only 1000RMB, so thats about $150 for blazer, dress shirt and trousers, tailored to your body. not bad, not bad at all. shirts were 200RMB each. gandhi some shirts and pants while sean got 2 shirts. when we went to get them on monday, everyone's turned out really nicely, even sean's dark purple shirt. guess who picked that color lol. we saw other CLERC ppl come by and pick up their orders. this is because we all got recomendations from david, the mob boss of our group, he gets alot of his wardrobe done here. no wonder he looks so good. afterward, we walked around the dept stores section of sanlitun and didnt find anything. everything was american pricing so we didnt buy stuff. we did see the alanna dress from a 3 story Uniqlo, the grey one with shoulders open. sean wanted me to get it lol but it wasnt on sale like alanna's. but wen i tried it on, everyone said i looked just like her lol. <br />
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we took the subway back, it takes an hour to get back and we just ate the food stalls still open on campus, the ones we pass by when we go to class in the morning. afterward, the guys and me, minus stuart all watched stepbrothers on cody's laptop in gandhi's room. there was so many guy jokes and toilet humor that i almost couldn't stand it, but being around so many guys, i kinda get used to it and i could say i even sorta enjoyed the movie. by the time we finished, it was close to 1am and we went to bed.<br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqxPwnO8TtRmY6bphcMu3CPSfi9vwu4_Ius1gyiGEaAUm_iLmUFrJ1FO4Doh070lzAcpHZDfjmPIRrg73eIZMNXFHX9BD3VNotrjPMGpNSJAdrVzjfgfxhraRU_fQ5auPzXRRLj6xumvh/s1600/4.+61987_1452116656609_1044030140_31359797_8281056_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMqxPwnO8TtRmY6bphcMu3CPSfi9vwu4_Ius1gyiGEaAUm_iLmUFrJ1FO4Doh070lzAcpHZDfjmPIRrg73eIZMNXFHX9BD3VNotrjPMGpNSJAdrVzjfgfxhraRU_fQ5auPzXRRLj6xumvh/s200/4.+61987_1452116656609_1044030140_31359797_8281056_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>saturday was the last CLERC fieldtrip day. we went inside both bird's nest and the watercube. man, the bird's nest is pretty impressive up close and its hard to imagine all the seats being filled when its so emptied out now. everything is so red <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-GUoaRwf436IkdOTbxkWv7NXi2UiF7foyO7Mzxi6a65d1TFjgEmdIinW1AB4scEgemvoXMxuon9lm1KLOSOmODOkNI-KSoHCk7gSkOr86K4nVcJQDNlGmCTgbD3Nyyyx2LL7ZqUZe9OH4/s1600/4.558436_1610615304791_1218500345_1698531_4191720_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-GUoaRwf436IkdOTbxkWv7NXi2UiF7foyO7Mzxi6a65d1TFjgEmdIinW1AB4scEgemvoXMxuon9lm1KLOSOmODOkNI-KSoHCk7gSkOr86K4nVcJQDNlGmCTgbD3Nyyyx2LL7ZqUZe9OH4/s200/4.558436_1610615304791_1218500345_1698531_4191720_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>and intense. the field is so big and just the capacity of the stadium is impressive. so is the selection at the souvenir store lol. next we went inside the water cube, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHndq6by50Wla_8731YpT6-UH6CHwziTtTZxuxsesszqvhsKlAw5rC3K7qbfTpp0Ja06L8ZKPQ0rYOj2fpt925YY1kPD1jZwaEVShdpw6G2gUFTNy37BLon6yfHCBiEJAnScLfH0nvUem/s1600/5.+P1010379.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHndq6by50Wla_8731YpT6-UH6CHwziTtTZxuxsesszqvhsKlAw5rC3K7qbfTpp0Ja06L8ZKPQ0rYOj2fpt925YY1kPD1jZwaEVShdpw6G2gUFTNy37BLon6yfHCBiEJAnScLfH0nvUem/s200/5.+P1010379.JPG" width="200" /></a>this building was alot smaller and half of it was access denied since they made it into an indoor water park. the water park looks soo much fun! i havent been to one since elementary school probably. the rest of the water cube was very boxy but airy. there was also lots of bubble motifs everywhere. the award pool wasnt as big as i thought but you know, some things looks<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgye3245piWYUJNqmXO0ZIHtCtL1fW8G6pUkGr5tcfaPVkGWinaPOEChGs-FPxnGvpczvtJgasaSq5uERdNYzUoWPgvGLWs8fwJYMTiV2Du1-uzwmfLOteaahkJQmkaLeK870XYTsNf7P9o/s1600/6.+P1010387.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgye3245piWYUJNqmXO0ZIHtCtL1fW8G6pUkGr5tcfaPVkGWinaPOEChGs-FPxnGvpczvtJgasaSq5uERdNYzUoWPgvGLWs8fwJYMTiV2Du1-uzwmfLOteaahkJQmkaLeK870XYTsNf7P9o/s200/6.+P1010387.JPG" width="150" /></a> bigger on tv i guess. by the time we finshed touring both places, we were starving, we went to a restuarant to eat and the food was finished off pretty quickly. the restuarant also had a stage where after we finished eating, there was some minority group dances but they werent that good. i was too busy playing with a rubiks cube that bryan brought. he is a wiz at it, can solve it in literally a minute. <br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZHcUwOFro-GJHhb0Vyj-UY_LDqduGRbJKL7uf_lPvmoMz1FTSeW2X0GgQVt-AOFFulUQ7xavG-yGzRm96Dnrw6ioBdXG47Ox-YzzowdsQWn46pQOsWecRfIXQVPIvpDAlDRT-euVVXxc/s1600/9.P1010411.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZHcUwOFro-GJHhb0Vyj-UY_LDqduGRbJKL7uf_lPvmoMz1FTSeW2X0GgQVt-AOFFulUQ7xavG-yGzRm96Dnrw6ioBdXG47Ox-YzzowdsQWn46pQOsWecRfIXQVPIvpDAlDRT-euVVXxc/s200/9.P1010411.JPG" width="150" /></a>after lunch, we got driven to the hutongs near houhai. i felt familiar with these lol since i got lost in one for an hour. first we went up to the drum tower and saw a drum performance. back in <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaPlhyphenhyphenYTi8_CyIZlgtvJg1-txTWbfKZ2502lwyxdUUGVWH5OQh5otO7QKvbQaPoP2WYqoqoY5Arl8jK0EscTGWqq2S78TXMkGkr7DgQlyVUdvsQQwEq-hrxZ01u3OL9rU7wt6MMucrQ7G/s1600/10.P1010418.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaPlhyphenhyphenYTi8_CyIZlgtvJg1-txTWbfKZ2502lwyxdUUGVWH5OQh5otO7QKvbQaPoP2WYqoqoY5Arl8jK0EscTGWqq2S78TXMkGkr7DgQlyVUdvsQQwEq-hrxZ01u3OL9rU7wt6MMucrQ7G/s200/10.P1010418.JPG" width="150" /></a>ancient china before clocks, drums and bells were used to announce the time. the drum tower is in the same line as the olympic stadiums, forbidden palace and tiananmen square. they say that if you live near this line, you'll live longer and happier lives. good fengshui. the drum performance was pretty cool, front row standing seats lol. the climb up that tower was really steep tho, i felt like doing a stepmaster but on steroids. the steps were really really steep!! and as gandhi will never let us forget, it takes 69 steps to climb up to the top. coming back to solid ground, we went on a ride thru the hutongs driven by a guy on a bike, two ppl to a seat in the back. we stopped at a guy's house, his family's been living there for 5 generations. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC6Kz3ofQEDTBl7DIkbnryqPyFyHJX-QDgP8UVZoRVb3LPUuP0vSzXqcbwAZYLYhFoJAhxHwnGZ52AbLRClik6YHdAYI5UTTwJsrogrALrBFqtBbyVD6vu8iiFrWOMFVt7iV6X4j2FoBI-/s1600/11.P1010426.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC6Kz3ofQEDTBl7DIkbnryqPyFyHJX-QDgP8UVZoRVb3LPUuP0vSzXqcbwAZYLYhFoJAhxHwnGZ52AbLRClik6YHdAYI5UTTwJsrogrALrBFqtBbyVD6vu8iiFrWOMFVt7iV6X4j2FoBI-/s200/11.P1010426.JPG" width="200" /></a>hutongs are the old school communities in beijing, narrow alleyways connect houses and its where everyday normal ppl live. the houses and the area looks shabby but <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQn-mQSUHEWUBOlYsnE6lMm2KiR95okv8XPtL4Yj9sCbS2lAgMk0iXLrV7LLSDaGuqYzEzVm3FIngAVexE4cgdF3NPQU4I1fkGodlDt9iLp-XZJdi1eTSQJBllwRgnKndegM41jPW4ZSun/s1600/12.+41038_1610619744902_1218500345_1698564_5701805_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQn-mQSUHEWUBOlYsnE6lMm2KiR95okv8XPtL4Yj9sCbS2lAgMk0iXLrV7LLSDaGuqYzEzVm3FIngAVexE4cgdF3NPQU4I1fkGodlDt9iLp-XZJdi1eTSQJBllwRgnKndegM41jPW4ZSun/s200/12.+41038_1610619744902_1218500345_1698564_5701805_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>actually are the most expensive places to live in, mostly because ppl want the experience of a real neighborhood instead of high rises. anyway, we went into this guys <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2nkRe3V961v068T54404GxiSsHEzuEqfBgU0U9HcjLNXx_vh43hk_4G_IK5LK2K8XmA9klIxSOJj_BoWIoHjER5rmPRxmX44ZMe_5scs9wjok3ConZbCGtqik6r1r5rCealvQsMjFZAzj/s1600/13.+P1010443.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2nkRe3V961v068T54404GxiSsHEzuEqfBgU0U9HcjLNXx_vh43hk_4G_IK5LK2K8XmA9klIxSOJj_BoWIoHjER5rmPRxmX44ZMe_5scs9wjok3ConZbCGtqik6r1r5rCealvQsMjFZAzj/s200/13.+P1010443.JPG" width="150" /></a>house, very modest place and chatted with him. he's had olympic guests come visit him and all sorts of famous ppl. we were more interested in his birds. they could speak chinese if you talked to them! they could say hello and have you eaten in mandarin. that was pretty cool. <br />
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on sunday, we basically studied and took a chill day. i did my survey and had to go out and ask ppl around campus questions in order to do a questionaire type thing for class. it was so embarrasing and nervewracking and very very frustrating. i had to ask in chinese, afterall, they couldnt understand english and most ppl i asked werent university students or they just didnt want to spend time answering my questions. matt came with me and mostly we just stood around picking targets out of the ppl passing by. finally i went up to a group of ppl and they answered my question. it wwas a very simple question: after you graduate, what are the best jobs? after coombining answers with my partner, priscilla, we concluded that the best jobs were governement officals, public affairs type. ah china. <br />
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sunday was also ken's bday and we had a very low key dinner with the ppl he liked the most lol. we went to zhongguancun's bellagio again and had dinner. we noticed that all the waitresses who worked there had the exact same boyish short haircut. it was kinda scary how they all looked alike and there was alot of them...we went shopping afterward and discovered the underground shopping mall that linked to a subway stop. everyone bought something, even sean who found an anime store and got more one piece posters lol. i got a dress at h&m. prices there were comparable to the ones in the us. <br />
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monday wasnt much. tuesday the koreans in my kouyu class taught me the kroean expressions "teba" and "hrrrr" and "didodi". yes, they actually say those things. bascially, in terms of smilies, "teba" means =D and "hrrr" and "didodi" means -_-. following this principle, they were impressed i could use them in the correct situations. they said that if you knew how to use them, any young korean person you meet will be impressed. teba! lol<br />
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at night, sean's uncle took us the mounted guy's store past 17 mile KTV. i got some maobis and maobi stand for my mom, 4 high quality brushes cost me 150RMB. not bad, i think. his store was really small but well stocked with soo many brushes and everything you need for calligraphy and painting. makes sense, right, he did all our mountings, carvings and fan supplies for both our painting and calligraphy classes. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiunfaVOPMY4RKnOtKkeT_f-NMMBleVFQmASRgyxOewKU0Ru7zGSY_92Hh74K8ULZ2cot-Sr_Gy3FZ9dqPfEdbOGnOdv713GZq-VMCPLrPf-Uriyao6hIHjKfReGFzmwickYUlG38Dnb5D/s1600/14.+59192_148244011876741_100000734304954_276378_939503_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiunfaVOPMY4RKnOtKkeT_f-NMMBleVFQmASRgyxOewKU0Ru7zGSY_92Hh74K8ULZ2cot-Sr_Gy3FZ9dqPfEdbOGnOdv713GZq-VMCPLrPf-Uriyao6hIHjKfReGFzmwickYUlG38Dnb5D/s200/14.+59192_148244011876741_100000734304954_276378_939503_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>on wed we had our hanyu final. i tried to cram words but in the end, i passed. thursday we had our kouyu final and i also tried to cram words, but in the end, i did better than hanyu, still passing. passing is all i need. i didnt really study and i didnt want to stress so i think i did ok considering. since today, thursday was the last class before we leave, we had to say goodbye to our korean friends. aww..... i never imagined that we would know koreans from this program, i only thought id be making friends who came from the states, but this was a very nice surprise. global friends is always nice =D<br />
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wednesday lunch was pretty interesting. we got lunch at the last eating place inside the jiaozi building. a grad student starting eating with us after ken sat down, then we all gathered around ken. i guess this guy didnt know hed soon be surrounded by waiguoren (foreigners) lol. we started up a conversation and surprisingly his english was very good. we asked his about youtube and facebook and he said everyone knows about it but we can only imagine how they look like. it takes a very skilled hacker to access those and he's learning to become one! lol also hes a earth science student and he was asking us about schools in the US, well, since we were bascially repping rutgers and berkeley, we said the west coast and east coast of the US were very different, but he didnt care about the weather, as long as he could have the chance to do research in the US. such different mindset than us americans. he got all of our contact info. that's called taking advantage of the situation. lol also he told us that CHOMSKY was in the area and is going to be giving a lecture here on friday. im flying out friday morning. didodi. i cant believe im missing out on chomsky! when hes in the same city as me! only the most famous linguist (still alive)!<br />
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</a></div>thursday after class, sean's mom's cousin took us out for last minute shopping. we went to a really expensive mall and sean took forever but eventually got 2 dress pants. literally over 2000RMB. >.< i thought that it the place was too expensive so after, she took us to the zhongguancun outlet store!!1 LOVED this place, a whole floor of discounted shoes!! omg!! i couldnt decide what to get! and when i did, they never had my size t.t well, i finally found a pair of low heels that was only US$30 (compared to the dept one we just went to, everything was over 1500RMB, so US$200+) we came back, late to the CLERC graduation dinner. well everyone else was late too. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhH7eqCPPEwiyo_qU_-H8rYlnNvmmftf_lZSRqEXiq8YPpA7hK04Svig-woWPeOb6QhKpvztLnbH2P4Arud792WYQQIzw2VeP2Hz78l858uYjjNM9v9bSnz-r_GyjYyYNkKMuLkuGUTWr/s1600/15.+62061_1452139337176_1044030140_31359866_6795739_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhH7eqCPPEwiyo_qU_-H8rYlnNvmmftf_lZSRqEXiq8YPpA7hK04Svig-woWPeOb6QhKpvztLnbH2P4Arud792WYQQIzw2VeP2Hz78l858uYjjNM9v9bSnz-r_GyjYyYNkKMuLkuGUTWr/s200/15.+62061_1452139337176_1044030140_31359866_6795739_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>we got our certificate and there were skits and musical performances, taichi performance.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhouP53OsZboCT9E9eOjZJ6vUEy6iTEztqEUAUqB-pKqiFXcXwmbpvlJafYlx8sw0WiRqBS4ngiKG-Iq6YcinT9gpidJelt4p1mWA7kEGE3u2r9P0-n0dMXa1z8mDo50Po3Yv7K0YhDFM3d/s1600/16.+P1010482.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhouP53OsZboCT9E9eOjZJ6vUEy6iTEztqEUAUqB-pKqiFXcXwmbpvlJafYlx8sw0WiRqBS4ngiKG-Iq6YcinT9gpidJelt4p1mWA7kEGE3u2r9P0-n0dMXa1z8mDo50Po3Yv7K0YhDFM3d/s200/16.+P1010482.JPG" width="200" /></a> the best one hands down was the all guys oone with synchronized sexy dancing to laoshuaidami. it was outrageous, and so entertaining. i got to wear my new shoes hehe. now its night time and im waiting for my mom to call my dorm. im stuck inside while everyone else is getting their last party on in bejing. *sigh* tomoro, the 16 or so ppl going on the traveling portion of the trip will leave, check out 8:30a. we'll be going to a different place everyday but mostly around the yunnan province, also shangri-la and then 2 finals days in china in shanghai before we head home and ill have to face reality and enter the workforce *shudder* goodnight!Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-78447833914512872402010-08-05T22:38:00.000-07:002010-09-19T17:04:20.816-07:00空山不见人The past week I've been feeling less and less movtivated for class. We're wrapping things up in the remaining elective classes- painting and calligraphy. Alanna left the program a few days ago on wednesday and our group feels so empty without her. The queen bee is gone. =( The saturday trip to the temple of heaven and the pearl market wasn't that exciting. but then again, nothing could beat the great wall, at least in my opinion. let's continue from the last post.<br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR2Awg2_ohyVmXK6FunGBWpJCsGCA0oJsROULIMAt-dSVFIrQpSzZhiUcs7VGDNdEkq5yDu7DlQngYrwbJZShxJ6_e5ajTlxZSKAD9TSpnulvsygKF8B8NEuwfjGvHcjGBSUFGF5RYm_VH/s1600/1.+59554_148244001876742_100000734304954_276377_3378491_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR2Awg2_ohyVmXK6FunGBWpJCsGCA0oJsROULIMAt-dSVFIrQpSzZhiUcs7VGDNdEkq5yDu7DlQngYrwbJZShxJ6_e5ajTlxZSKAD9TSpnulvsygKF8B8NEuwfjGvHcjGBSUFGF5RYm_VH/s200/1.+59554_148244001876742_100000734304954_276377_3378491_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>last wednesday we went to pizza hut for dinner. that's right, we missed<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYYOFoCUnU5ItIeSKbuc6wSbHgCum9SXu2mVXki7fXIVgpW11tpy3uuZiYKQUNLUMTs7FHEHWTvy8nZEv8RdA4tTys6Tk4YAlA8iBcdvp8jZCf17iq1m1z_kzj_Cq7ekSfq47ydjdrSGW2/s1600/2.+58540_1444611828993_1044030140_31342407_7513311_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYYOFoCUnU5ItIeSKbuc6wSbHgCum9SXu2mVXki7fXIVgpW11tpy3uuZiYKQUNLUMTs7FHEHWTvy8nZEv8RdA4tTys6Tk4YAlA8iBcdvp8jZCf17iq1m1z_kzj_Cq7ekSfq47ydjdrSGW2/s200/2.+58540_1444611828993_1044030140_31342407_7513311_n.jpg" width="133" /></a> american food, especially pizza. but it was more than that, the pizza hut here in china is completely different than the ones in the states. the pizza hut was a really nice restaurant. a real sit in, dine in restuarant complete with starters, desserts and cocktails.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYYOFoCUnU5ItIeSKbuc6wSbHgCum9SXu2mVXki7fXIVgpW11tpy3uuZiYKQUNLUMTs7FHEHWTvy8nZEv8RdA4tTys6Tk4YAlA8iBcdvp8jZCf17iq1m1z_kzj_Cq7ekSfq47ydjdrSGW2/s1600/2.+58540_1444611828993_1044030140_31342407_7513311_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a> they still have pizzas but they also have salads, pastas, and even steaks. it was soo delicious, we got different kinds of pizzas and very colorful drinks. i never expected pizza hut to be reinterpreted like this, in such a good way too. the furniture was nice and comfy, there was even a huge dangling chandelier thing on the spiral staircase up to the main floor of the restuarant. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmp9DPqy5wFp0QAoHfNDeia-LdOOqaqA0vGlhXLodktzZu3BPM4R_R9xmKYy9gZNwB1EoxEyIqGsDYt__2WDyu1fGkqUu4VFj_YurvX4cjPJWjXykOpLUt3OuXL0cpvKi9pCWWTTd0eIav/s1600/3.45176_10100115393138033_1239424_54205405_1055594_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmp9DPqy5wFp0QAoHfNDeia-LdOOqaqA0vGlhXLodktzZu3BPM4R_R9xmKYy9gZNwB1EoxEyIqGsDYt__2WDyu1fGkqUu4VFj_YurvX4cjPJWjXykOpLUt3OuXL0cpvKi9pCWWTTd0eIav/s200/3.45176_10100115393138033_1239424_54205405_1055594_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>we still had some tokens left from playing at the wudaokou mall arcade and it hadnt closed yet so we played a few games. they were turning down the lights and mopping the floor as we were playing our last games, kicking us out lol. why do we always go right when things are closing?! this happens alot to us. bad planning skills. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihbSvdHHjZ0bNuxF3g03xaGJgntRRkS7j0S65yS0uaHoZepgTlEcEIkcOA710mbcfKqPEL_ozkqQvoSIY_1NzVCwzyDUsqwCPz1_ugXDwXzumFg8P2LN6dR0B43eFD3ieFYTdkyaN7ew1y/s1600/4.Photo-0022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihbSvdHHjZ0bNuxF3g03xaGJgntRRkS7j0S65yS0uaHoZepgTlEcEIkcOA710mbcfKqPEL_ozkqQvoSIY_1NzVCwzyDUsqwCPz1_ugXDwXzumFg8P2LN6dR0B43eFD3ieFYTdkyaN7ew1y/s200/4.Photo-0022.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>thrusday i missed my class for the first time and decided to sleep in. at noon, me and sean went on our own to the dumpling place and it was so weird how there was so few ppl. usually during lunch hour, the place gets packed and the lines are so long, but we got there 10 min before the mad rush and it was so nice to actually be able to find seats to sit at. at painting class, we drew something our teacher recently published- a scholar in robes sitting under a tree reading. he gave us all photocopies of the drawing so you could trace it if you decided not to draw it on your own, no one did that and everyones painting turned out really well. everyone's improving! but then again, everyone only included 8 people. its so sad how in both classes, the number of ppl who come and who come consistantly keeps dwindling. <br />
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it was really hot that day. when you go outside, it literally feels like you walked into a sauna. its so hot and stuffy that you cant clearly see 50 feet in front you because of the mist/fog that isnt evaporating. and this is in the middle of the day! we went to sean's grandparents place for dinner but had no appetite. sean was completely soaked from sweat, just walking from our dorm to his grandmother's is a good 15 min walk but sean was pretty sweaty, even me. we changed clothes and his grandmother gave me a really breezy blouse to wear. she served us dragonfruit, which i kept eating cause i didnt want to eat hot food, having no appetite. ive never seen dragonfruit before. it's sorta like kiwi in that theres little black seeds intersperced throughtout but instead of green, dragonfruit is a muddy white. it also has no taste, maybe a little sweet, but just barely. at his grandparents place, we eat dinner and watched primetime dramas. we've been consistantly watching the same 2- one is a cop story, where theres a mafia boss guy, his associates and assassins and the cops want to catch him and all that. everyone is related to each other somehow, i get lost by the story plot. the second to the mafia boss man is an actor that looks oh so much like yuxuan. its kinda scary, except i know im gonna offend yuxuan when i say that this actor has more hair than you. sorry! i should take a pic or something, but really, this guys looks so much like yuxuan, its kinda creepy. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmhnD8EEV1pvyibvMc04zNGBjXXvCXMWzVofc6FkU3lCUMIn4YC0Vs9RFREUwbaQEZfkgtMZyJR_VFSN0mrtpxxkibB6lmOfe9asSaWR5AtZNvpzx28vi_VNCa1rij5542qf50v4YmzaI/s1600/5.P1010261.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwmhnD8EEV1pvyibvMc04zNGBjXXvCXMWzVofc6FkU3lCUMIn4YC0Vs9RFREUwbaQEZfkgtMZyJR_VFSN0mrtpxxkibB6lmOfe9asSaWR5AtZNvpzx28vi_VNCa1rij5542qf50v4YmzaI/s200/5.P1010261.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>friday after our second big unit test, we took cabs to the amusement park. it was super hot, just like the day before and the biggest ride wasnt even open. so, we went on the second biggest ride lol. most of the ppl in our group, including army matt who came with us (sean's roomate) loves roller coasters so we immediatly go for the biggest, scariest ones which is completely fine with me, but sean cant handle it as well as us. after the second one, the rocking boat kind but is circular and spins as you go across, sean wasnt feeling very good. he got really clammy and even more sweaty and threw up. we couldnt really do much for him since it was an amusement park and theres no place to lie down without having to be outside on the benches in 100 degree weather and 100 humidity. he felt so bad =( i kept fanning him, but he was so dizzy and felt so bad, we left early from the group and matt came with us. on the taxi ride back, sean fell asleep, it was a long way from our campus and matt caught me up on gossip girl lol. i cant believe guys watch this, but i guess matt is different. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfWddh60c8dsskqA4luU1wTw5zqpw69Omik0ayoJuQ-gGWlUHscO9qNUIGfZGZ4X76UC_jP9bftZo0s-iLv9fXbCcIXxkMvmK0P0wpQx-7-GV6_4eIsnxFRLmOphY5xuoGZZejrar2Ebe/s1600/6.Photo-0032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosPDDauFluw7oQ3rHJRrhEY1bU-a9iETfjRfcgtpRxBF0r8RRBgv25Oq-3lqYGuDyxRI7EQQhw4B4VpT_O8KjYcEP62gTboHMThGoOIT41SrzbTyzSv69q8hsCR0iAX7HN4FNt2CUk7gL/s1600/7.38634_1416935023692_1242090120_31220667_6481096_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7X6_5kwOlMKdaKzc0kMoOlc8XyC_PVDuvapIljURfpDtki6BabdD7BCzQxMVpWnJtVUv_tqg1FiCr0TMEPwgbpwsOj8EnJTPWO0h_tpdseFCp1utCbypGA-2p6MQAKi_TfNi68vtk9qaZ/s1600/8.38634_1416935103694_1242090120_31220669_7332478_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7X6_5kwOlMKdaKzc0kMoOlc8XyC_PVDuvapIljURfpDtki6BabdD7BCzQxMVpWnJtVUv_tqg1FiCr0TMEPwgbpwsOj8EnJTPWO0h_tpdseFCp1utCbypGA-2p6MQAKi_TfNi68vtk9qaZ/s200/8.38634_1416935103694_1242090120_31220669_7332478_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>sean rested back in his air conditioned room, and at night i went out with the others to houhai. houhai is a hangout place for the locals and its super romantic. really nice fancy restaurants are lined up along the bank of a big lake and its lit up everywhere, theres lots of people and live music is blasting from the clubs intersperced thruout the place. you walk by and someone is trying to get you to go into their club and listen to their music. theres paddle boats on the lake and candlelit tables along the lake. soo nice. theres also vendors selling food, souvenirs and the best one: super <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosPDDauFluw7oQ3rHJRrhEY1bU-a9iETfjRfcgtpRxBF0r8RRBgv25Oq-3lqYGuDyxRI7EQQhw4B4VpT_O8KjYcEP62gTboHMThGoOIT41SrzbTyzSv69q8hsCR0iAX7HN4FNt2CUk7gL/s1600/7.38634_1416935023692_1242090120_31220667_6481096_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosPDDauFluw7oQ3rHJRrhEY1bU-a9iETfjRfcgtpRxBF0r8RRBgv25Oq-3lqYGuDyxRI7EQQhw4B4VpT_O8KjYcEP62gTboHMThGoOIT41SrzbTyzSv69q8hsCR0iAX7HN4FNt2CUk7gL/s320/7.38634_1416935023692_1242090120_31220667_6481096_n.jpg" width="320" /></a>strong laser lights. i think we bought 4 of them and played with it the entire night. the lasers are so strong, you can see the line of light all the way up to the sky, the light can go all the way to the other side of the lake, oh man, ive been wanting one of these babies ever since my astro gsi used it to point out stars in the sky, thats how strong they are. i havent found it in the states, at least not for a cheap price, and of course, they sell these dangerous lasers in china, on the street no less lol. the 6 of us; me, cody, alanna, ken, matt and army matt had dinner at one of the fancy restuarants there. it was soo amazing. the presentation was beautiful,<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfWddh60c8dsskqA4luU1wTw5zqpw69Omik0ayoJuQ-gGWlUHscO9qNUIGfZGZ4X76UC_jP9bftZo0s-iLv9fXbCcIXxkMvmK0P0wpQx-7-GV6_4eIsnxFRLmOphY5xuoGZZejrar2Ebe/s1600/6.Photo-0032.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfWddh60c8dsskqA4luU1wTw5zqpw69Omik0ayoJuQ-gGWlUHscO9qNUIGfZGZ4X76UC_jP9bftZo0s-iLv9fXbCcIXxkMvmK0P0wpQx-7-GV6_4eIsnxFRLmOphY5xuoGZZejrar2Ebe/s200/6.Photo-0032.jpg" width="200" /></a> iron chep worthy, the food was delicious and everything was overpriced but still a good price for the quality, when you convert into american dollars. we sat at a window seat so you could see the glittery lake right outside. everything was so nice!! great atmosphere, very fancy but still comfy and intimate. we tried alot of things we havent had before like lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice (my favorite), vegetarian bacon hung on a frame with dipping sauce, lightly fried softshell crab. omg im getting hungry all over again. matt even had a glass of wine to go with the meal. lol<br />
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has there been any drama in the program yet? not anything huge, i dont think, but within our group, theres a bit of hidden romantically tension. its already out there so i can finally say it now. on the taxi ride back from houhai, we let alanna and cody have a taxi to themselves cause they're sorta a couple. but the thing is, alanna is leaving earlier than all the rest of us cause she has med school. and she doesnt want to be in a relationship when shes starting med school. cody, though, likes her alot and alanna finally gave in. theyre not exactly going out, but they were keeping it, whatever "it" is from everyone else until i said its pretty obvious you guys were together, doesn't matter how you yourselves define it, everyone already knows. anyway so me matt and ken took a cab together and thats when ken spilled that he liked alanna too, ever since the first week of the program, but didnt want to ask her out cause he thought she didnt want to get into anything during this program. and now he cant do anything about it cause cody is with alanna. sort of. so during temple of heaven, ken and alanna sat together on the tour bus and ken hinted to her that he liked her. alanna was all tell me what happened last night on the taxi ride! lol. but its the last few days that alanna will be in beijing so it all comes out the last couple of days. [eta: and now i have to edit that alanna and cody aren't going out and they're definately not a couple. alanna is a single woman. whoever tries to dates her better be worthy enough.]<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXCdNHPm5MPMuYC83tcJZMxNf4gJwdeSNzxB5vddeOwTSrzNLtYAJcwRN_OcRquddRTzluJ1yeZoxWtT0WpXgGOansPsm7m8z59lfAl0wusrNlDXLe7blgPzU7IGVqUF4QUbjm_MZ6j6YH/s1600/9.46667_1446047864893_1044030140_31345798_6734737_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXCdNHPm5MPMuYC83tcJZMxNf4gJwdeSNzxB5vddeOwTSrzNLtYAJcwRN_OcRquddRTzluJ1yeZoxWtT0WpXgGOansPsm7m8z59lfAl0wusrNlDXLe7blgPzU7IGVqUF4QUbjm_MZ6j6YH/s200/9.46667_1446047864893_1044030140_31345798_6734737_n.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>good dish huh? now for temple of heaven, which i reassure you isnt very interesting. apparently the night before, alot of people got wasted at a club or something so only the good kids showed up to the temple of heaven trip at 8:30 in the morning. all the bad kids were probably hung over in their rooms and didnt bother to get up. tsk tsk tsk. we were the good kids group along with some of the other good kids in the program. i forgot my camera so i had to use my phone camera, which actually gave me ok pictures. it was also super hot that day, it feels so terrible when you have to be outside in weather like that, hot and muggy. first you see the outdoor alter where they do the sacrafices, its this big white circular stone thing with a flat surface open to the elements, god i wish i had brought my umbrella that day. then you see a smaller temple before you get to the big one, you have to walk down a huge wide open walkway space before you get to the temple of heaven. its pretty big i guess, and really good picturesque site. but i talked to the tour guide and he said it was all a recreation cause the real one got burned down and it hasnt acutually been used for ceremonial purposes since the ming dynasty or something and during the qing dynasty it was just a temple for show. but i still saw groups of old women prayin in front of the temple. we exited thru the east gate where you walk thru a really green area, lots of grass and trees and open spaces to play shuttlecock and some kind of taichi ball thing with a paddle. they were trying to sell it to us lol, some of us got pretty good at the ball thing cause this old man took the time to teach us. its sorta like when you play badminton and you catch the birdie in the air with you racket before it drops to the ground, but here you pass it to your partner. let me tell you, it was nothing like badminton.<br />
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the next place we visited was the pearl market and that was a huge dissapointment. the pearl market is a place where they sell pearls but it was worst than the silk market. the layout was bascially the same, but there was barely anyone there, it was alot more rundown, the pearls were all fake anyway. only the real ones are up on the top floor and no one was there buying anything. we also saw the green lasers on sale here too lol. only alanna bought some pearl earrings and they were really pretty on her. we all knew it was fake, it was so cheap. sean bought a 128 GB flash that didnt even work when he got back and tried it. it corrupts everything. so yeah, dont buy electronics at places like this, its fake, just like all the wiis, ds, iphone that they are selling there too. i hope he learned his lesson. <br />
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for lunch (we were starving) we ate at a porridge place at the restaurants across the street from campus. they had sweet cold porridge(!) it was so hot outside, who actually would eat hot porridge in a season like this? the food was ok, but not really filling and the cold porridge wasnt actually that sweet. also, we couldnt read the menu so we just randomly pointed to pictures lol. sometimes that works, sometimes that doesnt. the rest of the day, i just hung out with sean in his room and listened to music. <br />
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sunday we didnt do anything in particular. alanna was going on a tour to the ming tombs but they said it was pretty bad, didnt get to see anything. the rest of the group that didnt go had a free day, and it felt so good to do nothing. i had a steak with eggs lunch, did my laundry, napped for a bit, tried to upload pics.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig60GwfPnxqh4olVb1StWTFyWyefolBi0D7rC1Pr4VFdYl1hJftsE6Q7zFUrCjNsGMYeHChhBDdIXugAJ7Qn54Sv3JrQEx4c6tWk0_DRoQineqAbvGcEviVgdGcEHMJZBRLsUso8Y0WWfT/s1600/10.38634_1416936063718_1242090120_31220693_6141644_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig60GwfPnxqh4olVb1StWTFyWyefolBi0D7rC1Pr4VFdYl1hJftsE6Q7zFUrCjNsGMYeHChhBDdIXugAJ7Qn54Sv3JrQEx4c6tWk0_DRoQineqAbvGcEviVgdGcEHMJZBRLsUso8Y0WWfT/s200/10.38634_1416936063718_1242090120_31220693_6141644_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>at night, 10 of us, with steven and mark went to a really nice taiwan restaurant at zhongguancun to eat. it was as expensive as the houhai place but they gave u alot less food here, that was maybe also cause more ppl came with us this time. we ordered too many veggie dishes and we felt like we were only eating greens, not enough meat. but thats cause the meat dishes went quickly cause it was so well seasoned. we went kinda late and while we were having our creme brulee dessert and gandhi ordered another round of this especially good chicken dish, the staff were mopping the floors and putting chairs on the tables, cleaning up on us. even the lights were all turned off except to light our table. we were saying how the chef must have hated us for ordering food the last minute before the restuarant closes. when the amonia smell from the cleaning detergents got too overpowering, we wanted to leave but gandhi, the slowest eater of all of us was still not even halfway enjoying his rice and chicken "dessert". lol. gandhi! eat faster! outside the restuarant was a roller blading area. it was like 11 at night but ppl were still going at it, still lots of ppl up and having a good time. off to the side were couples dancing, waltzing or something, music coming from the loudspeakers. pretty cool. this is where everyone is lol. <br />
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on monday, there was barely anyone who was on time for class. i walked into kouyu class and only a few of the koreans where there on time. XD anyone, ppl trickled in as the hour went by. terrible. in calligraphy class, we practiced for our fan project. in the end i didnt do a fan but i still practiced anyway. i practiced one word characters instead of doing a whole poem, since ive already done that for my big final calligraphy project. i practiced characters that meant great wave, silence, undecorated beauty and peaceful. great wave was giving me a hard time. the teacher said i write pretty well but i know i give myself high standards so im always still frustrated. <br />
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</a></div>after class, we went to beijng zoo area to go shopping. but when we got there, there was a huge mass migration wave coming from the direction we wanted to go to. it was really hard to go against the wave of people and we thought it was kinda weird until we found out that all the shops had just closed and that wave of people were just leaving the stores. damnit! what shops close at 5pm! the sun is still up! XD so since we couldnt shop there, we took the subway to xidan instead. we went to the little vendor mall instead of the dept store mall and me and alanna were so happy and excited because finally we found a place that had clothes and jewlery that looks good. we wanted to buy everything we saw, we were like little girls in a candy shop, except big girls in a clothing shop lol. but we had a hard time acutallly buying anything, even tho everything looked so good. in the end, i got some chii keychains, alanna got a pair of earrings, and sean got some one piece posters and phone cover. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUN1l3-2XALTJME2vuofH9EMV7Bfj6dV4nLl3aJp9xiCcygDaTXUBvOm6jCE09nv9U78xDy0VjcXPBA-DYXoAyJMvjidk-88Akdei5QB_fMMi_kdpbiCsupzVMWJyIsY869hl3AIMg3Off/s1600/11.46962_1438094866073_1044030140_31328038_5205755_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUN1l3-2XALTJME2vuofH9EMV7Bfj6dV4nLl3aJp9xiCcygDaTXUBvOm6jCE09nv9U78xDy0VjcXPBA-DYXoAyJMvjidk-88Akdei5QB_fMMi_kdpbiCsupzVMWJyIsY869hl3AIMg3Off/s200/11.46962_1438094866073_1044030140_31328038_5205755_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>stuart wandered around on his own. we all met up with matt and ken in the big dept store. on the way over there, alanna and cody were holding hands. it was so cute, the 2 couples (sorta) from our group, it was like a double date and they were so happy together. <3 we all had a sushi dinner which wasnt very filling even though we were starving. it was also pretty expensive, comparable price to sushi in the states, but we didnt trust sushi that much in china but just wanted to try it out. again, the restuarant was closing down on us as we were eating, we were like the last groups to leave. XD on the subway ride back, we gossiped about everyone in CLERC. alanna didnt hold anything back cause she was about to leave china anyway. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfkWZUa3JCvVIOe4NxuLyBm_n3FEJZQKqQp8pI7wsDBzz22_uok2J6vu_5WvoekuWdFc4yHv_23K8cdiiFGDgk-OD0OcAs696K-joKg96t_07DOReqVrsR1IusNG2kXCsXpFiM17SCgSsN/s1600/12.+Photo-0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfkWZUa3JCvVIOe4NxuLyBm_n3FEJZQKqQp8pI7wsDBzz22_uok2J6vu_5WvoekuWdFc4yHv_23K8cdiiFGDgk-OD0OcAs696K-joKg96t_07DOReqVrsR1IusNG2kXCsXpFiM17SCgSsN/s200/12.+Photo-0004.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>tuesday was the last full day alanna was gonna be in beijing with us. =( after class, all 9 or 10 or us along with brian went to a xiaolongbao place right outside campus (a different gate) it was DElICIOUS. if uve ever been to the dumpling place in arcadia, you know what im talking about. it was just as good, if not better at a MUCH better price than you could ever get in the states. xiaolongbaos are dumplings filled with soup so that when you bite in, you get the stuffing as well as a hot mouthful of soup. the way they make it is they stuff the soup cube into the filling so that when it steams, the soup geletin melts within the baozi itself. we had i think 11 baskets of them, and rice bowls that came with soup. omg that was sooo good too. i walked away completely stuffed, it was so delicious me and sean went back with matt and cody the next day lol. <br />
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the rest of wednesday, we went to seans grandmothers and left relatively late around 9p since we watched alot of dramas. we took the bus to houhai. do not do that. it is a very bad idea. it took us an hour to get there by bus, we had to transfer once. and then you still have to walk up to the lake. we spent an hour wandering in the hutongs trying to get there and before you knew it, we've almost walked around the whole freaking lake. turns out houhai isnt just a lake, the name of one of the lakes is houhai but the area, also called houhai is actually 3 lakes connected to each other and the most banging part isnt at houhai lake, its actually the lake east of it, called qing lake or something. so yea. now me and sean know the area very well lol. we met up with alanna and them and ate late snack at a fancy restauarant, a different one from the one we ate at last time. brian and annie were with us this time. we went up to the top level of the restuarant cause the bottom part was a club sorta with live music and singing so it was too loud to talk. we tried to order dessert but they werent serving it anymore i guess cause it was so late? but it wasnt THAT late. so i just got a long island iced tea and it was kinda diluted. they got really overpriced ice cream that was served in a paper cup. wow. the restuarant space was pretty nice tho, lots of cool decorations, like the wall behind us was a maya stone thing and there were couches next to the big windows overlooking the lake with curtains and candlelight. everyone was too tired tho, so we just talked for a bit and went back. when we arrived at school, we got meat on a stick served by the roadside vendors that are always there outside our school gate. it was like midnight and they still havent closed shop. i was kinda scared to eat it cause i was afriad ill get diarreha but i was fine and the meat was surprisingly tasty. it was cooked on a grill, made to order. so good. <br />
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</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Ey_uWrjF6JOZCfnLf_OCpjGUTqpHW0zFPp0pk0thc6bdtA_Qa4P8eRZyTB6GypWYQ9siR-kBO1kc9asIh6xj7T4zvPaF0ir6Oft5P3w09zkrnUoJ-8EvpOY0TTuERbXy-gIECLuv3JGs/s1600/16.+40240_1392174927793_1334730169_31066035_4174762_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Ey_uWrjF6JOZCfnLf_OCpjGUTqpHW0zFPp0pk0thc6bdtA_Qa4P8eRZyTB6GypWYQ9siR-kBO1kc9asIh6xj7T4zvPaF0ir6Oft5P3w09zkrnUoJ-8EvpOY0TTuERbXy-gIECLuv3JGs/s200/16.+40240_1392174927793_1334730169_31066035_4174762_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYpE875i6F8qG-bnGWF5HnutyWcgooX2RvwRb-VyqV5jLRwZMHpQxB9tWAa03N1EQE7_FPcgI4WJmdEHk2cCvDBNVDgvYCOzg7hEn1LzDVBJYOoO85z4zfbY8UO7YplFK6gpBnjDp1HBA/s1600/14.+40240_1392174807790_1334730169_31066032_631321_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYpE875i6F8qG-bnGWF5HnutyWcgooX2RvwRb-VyqV5jLRwZMHpQxB9tWAa03N1EQE7_FPcgI4WJmdEHk2cCvDBNVDgvYCOzg7hEn1LzDVBJYOoO85z4zfbY8UO7YplFK6gpBnjDp1HBA/s200/14.+40240_1392174807790_1334730169_31066032_631321_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>wednesday, alanna left us. we skipped the last part of class to have one last lunch at yoshinoya's with her. the sky was pouring rain down on us. it was a very wet and very sad day last day with her. the streets were completely flooded, you had to wade water that went up to ur ankles. it was so gross. alanna even lost her flipflog wading thru a particularly deep pond on the way back to campus. all the guards standing by saw and were laughing. so, cody carried her across in his arms. hehe. she drove away in a taxi and cody and matt went with her. alanna hugs very tightly and i was already missing her alot. things from them on were very different without her. we tried to eat dinner together at night, the guys and me, but everyone was so out of it and so tired and miserable, no energy without her. alanna had some sort of magical hyperenergy that we all picked up on, without her, this is how we're normally like. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK60v65VHHtUrOg9n5tkKOlfR60bz1Qc-nVbPL0TFaT0zwEf2UcB9rrEoIwXk9XVi9AzA_rN_im0AOuIRVENznxZCUJP18CG54K5cWxmBn5uCBnQgNteD0G5EzdZjiqrmCI1X-f1nDjJ6y/s1600/17.P1010272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK60v65VHHtUrOg9n5tkKOlfR60bz1Qc-nVbPL0TFaT0zwEf2UcB9rrEoIwXk9XVi9AzA_rN_im0AOuIRVENznxZCUJP18CG54K5cWxmBn5uCBnQgNteD0G5EzdZjiqrmCI1X-f1nDjJ6y/s200/17.P1010272.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>thursday was last calligraphy class. i got my mounted final project back and the title of this post is the first line from the poem i wrote. ah time to go out for custom made shirts, ill finish later.Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-51897565035934826382010-07-28T03:43:00.000-07:002010-09-19T16:36:45.724-07:00我爬了长城! part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKG046RQmMSjtfCPyWrbysDON7S07tB-S3ENeV2psH-TisurCklx0qkdIDANZf7LvwZFhTwmxloU74U780fVkoP6XBXeDtV2_VRFdNfyhKkr0chwY5sidP_TpHxmnW6qN5FFhc2xqh3Qn/s1600/1.59386_1606919612401_1218500345_1688641_2779918_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>我爬了长城! part 2<br />
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i got interrupted in my last post. i never even got to the good part- the great wall, peking duck and silk market.<br />
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</a></div>since theres no elective class on friday, we all went to a shopping mall far away called jinyuan centre, its where alanna's kouyu teacher said we could get our cute notebook fix. it took both the subway and the bus to reach there and once inside, the fuwuyuans (store workers) thought we were strange cause rarely do foriegners stray over there. we brough nicci, so thats probaby why. one of them i talked to was so confused lol that we were american since some of us look chinese. chinese heritage, american nationality was a very weird mix for him lol. so we found the cute notebook store and got some cute notebooks and pens and went back home by bus, which took us directly to pku's southwest gate. very convienent, on the way, we bunmped into gandhi's lang partner. this time, our meeting with our lang partner was all about making dumplings. none of us did a very good job and matt's lang partner never showed up so he sat with me and erica's lang partners. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKG046RQmMSjtfCPyWrbysDON7S07tB-S3ENeV2psH-TisurCklx0qkdIDANZf7LvwZFhTwmxloU74U780fVkoP6XBXeDtV2_VRFdNfyhKkr0chwY5sidP_TpHxmnW6qN5FFhc2xqh3Qn/s1600/1.59386_1606919612401_1218500345_1688641_2779918_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKG046RQmMSjtfCPyWrbysDON7S07tB-S3ENeV2psH-TisurCklx0qkdIDANZf7LvwZFhTwmxloU74U780fVkoP6XBXeDtV2_VRFdNfyhKkr0chwY5sidP_TpHxmnW6qN5FFhc2xqh3Qn/s200/1.59386_1606919612401_1218500345_1688641_2779918_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>after that, we went to KTV yet again and did some street browsing at wudaokou. this time, the KTV was the kind i was used to, like jaguar in oakland, small and no AC, no background singers in the music, weird videos that go with the songs. This is Annie, Alanna and me at the Lion King KTV. it was only 70kuai an hour, no matter how many ppl. very very cheap compared to 100kuai per person per hour at the other place. but then again, the other place, 7mile, included free scotch and a big ass bottle of it too. this place, lion king was apparently rated top 5 in beijing. i liked 17mile alot more lol. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDQEWMmusHQnn0ltQUn1r-XD273GzuVdBghWDOVrD-tsg3XWQkxynm64k9cvAqKGbZduml6F8EWOkcIPVISjU4-gp17UjjgLe7RArDSOtrlMBDKck73pvhZe8ZJNy9VACWmzgFHC1C7IA/s1600/58536_1444548187402_1044030140_31342174_3711904_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDQEWMmusHQnn0ltQUn1r-XD273GzuVdBghWDOVrD-tsg3XWQkxynm64k9cvAqKGbZduml6F8EWOkcIPVISjU4-gp17UjjgLe7RArDSOtrlMBDKck73pvhZe8ZJNy9VACWmzgFHC1C7IA/s200/58536_1444548187402_1044030140_31342174_3711904_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>There's everyone singing A whole new world at 17 Mile KTV. There's street shopping at wudaokou was really crowded and it was really hot so it made us tired even before we got to the KTV. <br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZRM4pZISZpim38lB7vUFeZ8O0oZl1jw0ecGa0ElkrjPPhdNmupkcn3GKDKCCI-O8UldCsNABzZyovX0pDwjb1WbF7egnpszDzQG9rMLo4SZalBgR6quu5rNWtbD4RINcRawctlMOEYqt/s1600/2.+47501_1444598028648_1044030140_31342298_3652873_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZRM4pZISZpim38lB7vUFeZ8O0oZl1jw0ecGa0ElkrjPPhdNmupkcn3GKDKCCI-O8UldCsNABzZyovX0pDwjb1WbF7egnpszDzQG9rMLo4SZalBgR6quu5rNWtbD4RINcRawctlMOEYqt/s320/2.+47501_1444598028648_1044030140_31342298_3652873_n.jpg" width="214" /></a>saturday we climbed the great wall! on the way over, our bus stopped working in the middle of the highway! the driver would gun the engine but it still wouldnt work. maybe it was overheating or something but thank god it worked again. once there, u had to hike up a steep hill up to all the vendors selling great wall souvenirs before u get to the actual start of the trail up the wall. we were already tired and havent even set foot on the wall yet! some ppl actually hiked up the 40 min trail up to the great wall in 40C weather. insteead me and sean sanely took the gondola thing up the mountain. it was so hot that day, i felt so gross at the end of it, the dirtiest, smelliest, grossest, wettest and tiredest ive ever felt. other than that, it was beautiful and i had a great time.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYEc7GG9e5leoxwCfaRBsKWp1d4j7ITD_zXpw3PEKdCjotG__JA9R34jf3-bVblMfEhRQ_2sjjvAwqO-PrE6SjYsxc69pcxN1YwyQXGA9ABnJc2P30E9J_hyBKB8Lrp1qs3VAq2GTguY6m/s1600/3.+46923_1444596988622_1044030140_31342294_2806631_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYEc7GG9e5leoxwCfaRBsKWp1d4j7ITD_zXpw3PEKdCjotG__JA9R34jf3-bVblMfEhRQ_2sjjvAwqO-PrE6SjYsxc69pcxN1YwyQXGA9ABnJc2P30E9J_hyBKB8Lrp1qs3VAq2GTguY6m/s200/3.+46923_1444596988622_1044030140_31342294_2806631_n.jpg" width="133" /></a>That's me with my korean girls in my kouyu class. the view is pretty amazing. you can see miles and miles of the wall, snaking thru the hills. it was really impressive but word of caution, do not sit on the ground, it is really hot! baked from the sun, oh! i bet u could fry an egg on that! <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh221RSZWM6HxH7FPhWxd0zODCKARocQwu81rko3JBnQYLI8HX-dlQd5ccUQSi6F5cSmz5XIExWThC8AZ0n5_5flM_RI5jlVGzuVUoFwCa-S4aqWsl9bkLDkvxwxveo2ZBdOHZlPMR7exkn/s1600/4.+59553_1444603508785_1044030140_31342338_7145094_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh221RSZWM6HxH7FPhWxd0zODCKARocQwu81rko3JBnQYLI8HX-dlQd5ccUQSi6F5cSmz5XIExWThC8AZ0n5_5flM_RI5jlVGzuVUoFwCa-S4aqWsl9bkLDkvxwxveo2ZBdOHZlPMR7exkn/s200/4.+59553_1444603508785_1044030140_31342338_7145094_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>the best part were the watch towers cause it's so much cooler inside and u get relief from the sun blindingly shining down on you. we took the slide down. yup, u can slide down from the great wall to get back down the mountain. except a korean guy in front of the line busted his knee cap and we americans tried to help him, but we only held up the line. we couldnt <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhltr9w3BP7SKTAySV_6Pa22qBSKvHGJH45GyFdSN-QbBxCdI7z2mnu1S0bWYzabA2WnwpG-GjoBl8axSU5HQjIcl4LruXvLpnu411UWv8LhXqh1_QygBMZu4ezxwYGIICaB0FFY2iDAV-c/s1600/5.+P1010187.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhltr9w3BP7SKTAySV_6Pa22qBSKvHGJH45GyFdSN-QbBxCdI7z2mnu1S0bWYzabA2WnwpG-GjoBl8axSU5HQjIcl4LruXvLpnu411UWv8LhXqh1_QygBMZu4ezxwYGIICaB0FFY2iDAV-c/s200/5.+P1010187.JPG" width="200" /></a>do anything anyway, poor guy. its hard to get medical attn when ur so far away from civilization and up a hill. these kinds of rides would not exist in the states, liabilty issues heh. so we got to the bottom, it was fun to go fast and sean was on the phone part of the way haha. kids, do not do that, its very dangerous. we had lunch and it felt so good to be in AC. the tour guide, i should mention, was extremely rude, did not even give us any info on the wall and was not nice to anyone at all. i dont know who hired him but he was really umprofessional, very snobby and in your face. <br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-cvpXXe2ZhC4S1PAVduUOSmbXLhcA3vYp-s0RxEzbKHcjMjBwg6aL6XuuZ-7KMFgYfTMkuoZvR7U_Q7Hb6QOQwgkL_YTXcJATUXrEOVqukWNm2cVHbRfbon3sWf1Zge1pkieR_L50gI6/s1600/6.+P1010201.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-cvpXXe2ZhC4S1PAVduUOSmbXLhcA3vYp-s0RxEzbKHcjMjBwg6aL6XuuZ-7KMFgYfTMkuoZvR7U_Q7Hb6QOQwgkL_YTXcJATUXrEOVqukWNm2cVHbRfbon3sWf1Zge1pkieR_L50gI6/s200/6.+P1010201.JPG" width="200" /></a>at night, we tried to visit qinghua, the rival university to peking uni across the street. but the guards wouldnt let us in without a pass. so we just went to the pekin duck restaurant near its campus. the restuarant was really fancy, chandeliers on the ceilings and omg cream and purple tablecloth. the duck was delicious. we got 2 for the 8 or 9 of us. the chef would cut the duck right beside your table and one of the waitresses/manager? <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmBc1aHn5Aay2ummMbzm-u3CZDwwEi6R2TbZZuy7zzT_AcBGo0bluiK8mZwqKUNkcy3_4VlshnW2jzM9FokYp4Nxi9__tBjBW8n1_WXqXKJYuZHr3n5g-TBNNzzmKYHa74US8h0VomXVt/s1600/7.+P1010213.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmBc1aHn5Aay2ummMbzm-u3CZDwwEi6R2TbZZuy7zzT_AcBGo0bluiK8mZwqKUNkcy3_4VlshnW2jzM9FokYp4Nxi9__tBjBW8n1_WXqXKJYuZHr3n5g-TBNNzzmKYHa74US8h0VomXVt/s200/7.+P1010213.JPG" width="200" /></a>gave us a demo on how to wrap and eat the duck. the duckskin just melted in your mouth, it was soo good. the best part of the skin, u just dip it in sugar and eat it without wrapping it, that was soooo good. i loved it. the ducks even came with certificates or something which you could look up online and find out where the duck was grown and stuff. pretty legit. the restaurant was closing on us cause we got there at 8ish so we paid and left, it was about 100kuai per person. not bad. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCKSQTvG6FqiOzuYQeOmCot0dOApuMCC1dmQVlYNUO8ByiJsywKYNsQS1IqVvToC2vAB_cvCFX_tFhVwiWmcc1H97jeRk2VL-aoRdJWkc27zX6gi-pC92DPiYcUwdSZIqq2jQ3gy9OwwP/s1600/P1010231.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiCKSQTvG6FqiOzuYQeOmCot0dOApuMCC1dmQVlYNUO8ByiJsywKYNsQS1IqVvToC2vAB_cvCFX_tFhVwiWmcc1H97jeRk2VL-aoRdJWkc27zX6gi-pC92DPiYcUwdSZIqq2jQ3gy9OwwP/s200/P1010231.JPG" width="200" /></a>the restauarnt is in the so called silicon valley part of beijing cause microsoft and google have gigantic office buildings close by. we saw both on our way back. me and sean stopped by his grandmothers place to get our laundry and took the bus back, almost midnight by then. loooooong day.<br />
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sunday, i went out to the zhongguancuan bookstore by myself in the morning to buy the dictionary i wanted last week. on the way back with my new book, i saw blair's lang partner, the one who helped me pick out the dictionary from before. what a coincidence! but i had some bad luck today. i lost my meal card AND i locked myself out of my room twice. i got a new meal card and the money from my old card transferred over, i was relieved. my room card i had to get the hotel staff to let me back in, so embarrasing. im the kind of person who is clumsy and forgets things very easliy so im surprised it took me this long, a month into the program for me to finally lose something. and once i did, on this lucky day, i manage to lose things 3 times. XD<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDpE3GmH7UPEK7_dHXEMCGNR8-NmWng_g3Z5U8bAoLFIohcIIkDLwvfXkPUTeIF_haiLvBKhb0Beo6VlhjBbY9hquvMcp0PwAdaSggiJQm9-lx8D4qYFYWokUis4Qub6mP0BONMv1aU2s/s1600/58362_148100405224435_100000734304954_275562_5860961_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDpE3GmH7UPEK7_dHXEMCGNR8-NmWng_g3Z5U8bAoLFIohcIIkDLwvfXkPUTeIF_haiLvBKhb0Beo6VlhjBbY9hquvMcp0PwAdaSggiJQm9-lx8D4qYFYWokUis4Qub6mP0BONMv1aU2s/s200/58362_148100405224435_100000734304954_275562_5860961_n.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDpE3GmH7UPEK7_dHXEMCGNR8-NmWng_g3Z5U8bAoLFIohcIIkDLwvfXkPUTeIF_haiLvBKhb0Beo6VlhjBbY9hquvMcp0PwAdaSggiJQm9-lx8D4qYFYWokUis4Qub6mP0BONMv1aU2s/s1600/58362_148100405224435_100000734304954_275562_5860961_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>ok so silk road. me and sean met up with alanna, cody, matt, and ken. we took the subway and its very convinent, but it takes a long time cause its very far and you have to transfer subways. there were so many tour buses parked outside the place. the silk market is bascially a 5 story mall with venders lined up selling fake and low quality merchandise. hey, im not complaining, theres a whole floor devoted to bags and shoes. i didnt buy anything, but practiced a big of bargaining. cody got a jade necklace, but thats about it. there were so many foreigners, not just white ppl but lots of arabic families too. we took the taxi back, had to split up the group. on the way back, our car almost got into an accident. we were on the highway and had to brake suddenly cause of traffic. our tires screached so bad and we stopped so close to the car ahead of us. the car behind us stopped real close to us too and next thing you knew, someone didnt have fast enough reflexes and crashed into the car behind us. it wasnt too loud but u knew a car got hit. i almost thought it was ours but we pulled away, safe, a scratch away from an accident and the car behind us had his rear bumper completely totaled from the car behind him. we counted our blessings and drove away unharmed. thats the closest ive ever been to a car accident in my life! omg so scary! poor guy, probably ruined his day and the next few days too. <br />
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we had dinner at yoshinoyas which alanna isnt getting tired of, but i am. its expensive compared to our uni's cafeteria food and very manufactured too. at night, ppl were trying to finish hw projects and i was in the shower when the power went out. XD its like my worst fear when suddenly everything is black. the entire building had no electricity and we had to rely on our laptop screens or cell phones for light. most of us didnt think to bring a flashlight. i didnt either, cause i thought, oh its china, they'll have electricity. i am now proven wrong. the front desk said power would be out until 3am and that it was posted in the front door or something. hello, not like we can read chinese. steven on our floor came out with alanna and started hanging out in hallway and we talked by flashlight since they had one. sean came by since he couldnt work on his project anymore and brought out a glowstick. we were playing with it in the hallway when a black guy came out of his room across from my room and started talking with us too. he's from africa and said this situation reminded him of home, the blackouts that happen alot for him. interesting situation, huh? so anything, since i couldnt get anything done, i just went to bed, it was almost midnight anyway. <br />
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this week monday, me alanna and matt went back to silk street and i got by chinese bargaining skills on. i bought some clothes and a fake todd bag, and by the end of the night i ran out of money lol. we found out that alanna has terrible bargaining skills and matt had to cover for her instead lol. you have to pick out the good looking stuff from the ugliness. phew bargaining is tiring and you have to be stubborn but still a little flexible and you also have to speak only in chinese or else the americanness gives you away and they'll give you foreigners price. afterward, with matt and alanna carrying my newly bought stash of clothes, we tried to get a peek of the birds nest and water cube at night but they close down at 10 and it was 10:30. so close! wasted time! even cody came out to meet us to see it. but no, fail, missed it by half an hour. <br />
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tuesday was an interesting day. our kouyu teacher is such a character. hes always smiling like hes gonna play a joke on you, like everything has a secret funny meaning in it. we notice he lets us out early for break and goes away somewhere with his cell phone and always comes back late. so the girls in the class were very giggly and he wouldnt tell us. then in the middle of class, he got another phone call and took it outside. we confronted him indirectly of our suspicions and this time he was like, this one ill tell u about. the call was actually from his father whom hes never seen in 40 years, since he was 1 and left his mother. so his long lost father calls him out of the blue and now he doesnt know if he should tell his mother that he wants to meet his father or not. omg soo much drama. then we felt really bad cause he is in such a difficult situation, and the cute korean girl said outrightly that we thought it was your girlfriend. our teacher admitted yeah, the phone call before this was my girlfriend! OOOOOoOoOOooo!!! haha and immediatly we started asking about his gf, where did he met her, how long have they been goin out, etc etc. lol. he said, maybe he'll let us see a picture of her in a few days. haha got sooo off topic! i love this class lol<br />
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painting class we drew the great wall and the teacher said i didnt have to add color, so me and sean's are black and white painting. good grey shading. sean's painting was so good, ppl were mistaking it for the teachers. natural talent, right there. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCP0oIpGhdADr30Iiri-Lb6aNRT2s_SC-hJnjOvdWeKRZSbYQoYhW_7BGCNmP2HzIQFj6OvgqyHx6YpPNAg0RhbDN2fiX6Ea2mdheCXFKc1aUY3gtSpWhJQV_EIJdv3Vxr_ktA6twjV9B/s1600/8.+P1010019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCP0oIpGhdADr30Iiri-Lb6aNRT2s_SC-hJnjOvdWeKRZSbYQoYhW_7BGCNmP2HzIQFj6OvgqyHx6YpPNAg0RhbDN2fiX6Ea2mdheCXFKc1aUY3gtSpWhJQV_EIJdv3Vxr_ktA6twjV9B/s200/8.+P1010019.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>the last two eating places we went to were different. last night we went to a restarant on campus that had american food-steaks, sphagethi, and coffee stuff. it was really bad, the only thing that was good was the steak. this afternoon, we had lunch at a hole in the wall place right across from our dorm. ppl dont notice it cause the entire building is covered with vines. it was so creepy when i walked in to the front hallway, not a soul in sight. there was barely anyone there and the food was so american style chinese food, it wasnt bad, but it wasnt as good as the normal cafeteria food. the cafeteria food on campus is actually pretty good, beats crossroads anyway and id say, better than clark kerr cause here, its consistantly delicious, havent messed up anything up so far.Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-73177070306760872702010-07-25T01:44:00.000-07:002010-09-19T16:06:53.998-07:00我爬了长城!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdnwBwcQ1znOsfoA4fYZt0yMZlD4d3iHmspVH_AN-aD5-AHl8XFF0Tpi8KB2VvRQ2iDDoPurh5I-qb90YugbcmvxHQEQ7kuN2oSZrin2_QYghyphenhyphenY0V0nOoszBAFSYV0zmi1AW_OuTpnALeH/s1600/1.58544_1444550867469_1044030140_31342199_7648328_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdnwBwcQ1znOsfoA4fYZt0yMZlD4d3iHmspVH_AN-aD5-AHl8XFF0Tpi8KB2VvRQ2iDDoPurh5I-qb90YugbcmvxHQEQ7kuN2oSZrin2_QYghyphenhyphenY0V0nOoszBAFSYV0zmi1AW_OuTpnALeH/s320/1.58544_1444550867469_1044030140_31342199_7648328_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdnwBwcQ1znOsfoA4fYZt0yMZlD4d3iHmspVH_AN-aD5-AHl8XFF0Tpi8KB2VvRQ2iDDoPurh5I-qb90YugbcmvxHQEQ7kuN2oSZrin2_QYghyphenhyphenY0V0nOoszBAFSYV0zmi1AW_OuTpnALeH/s1600/1.58544_1444550867469_1044030140_31342199_7648328_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>so much has happened since the last post...lets see, more than 10 days ago? man, i suck at blogging periodically. buti have a good excuse: i'm busy having too much fun! :D there's no time to sit down at a comp and write when i could be exploring new places with my friends and having a good time! plus internet is pretty bad here.Oh these are my friends, Alanna, Ken, Stuart and Matt. Only Cody is missing. This was at the summer palace<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPcllcoXFmUBegxxLC0p19J2SBxosZH5C0-I2zQLMH34iI6dKYpu9ypk4OxgTH7pZhK4spU5EUYvQdzxPnR66vM-yEf29Zm0M47vMvicoOZ94rFTyeAHG-y8PC5UVG2R6EJTMIz9cylTV/s1600/2.P1010016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPcllcoXFmUBegxxLC0p19J2SBxosZH5C0-I2zQLMH34iI6dKYpu9ypk4OxgTH7pZhK4spU5EUYvQdzxPnR66vM-yEf29Zm0M47vMvicoOZ94rFTyeAHG-y8PC5UVG2R6EJTMIz9cylTV/s200/2.P1010016.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>so last saturday, we went to the summer palace. this is the garden where the old emperors come to relax duirng the summer because its cooler here surrounded by trees and a huge lake. its all a recreation now cause it got looted and burned like 3 times when china opened its doors to white people back in the 1800s. anyway, its still really pretty and relaxing but there were alot of people visiting. the last emperor of china was a puppet emperor controlled by the actual person in power- his mother, the "empress". her living quarters were in the summer palace and we wandered in her courtyard and her VIP euneuch's courtyard. it was so hot and walking around made you really tired. we took a boat to the other side of the lake and took our tour bus back to school. <br />
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i sat in the front row of the bus and i got a birds eye view of traffic in china. one word on traffic here: CRAZY. no one follows the lights, or the signs or even the lines on the road. its a complete mess. one minute every car is perfectly aligned in their own lanes and the next minute, u hear honking everywhere and it becomes a huge group of cars in no discerable shape. i dont understand it here. plus u add in the bicyles and the pedestrians, i dont see how more ppl dont get killed in traffic accident here in china. anyway, im so glad, i dont have to deal with the traffic jams. they get really bad in the highways. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgykEjeNZaOrlxAwYcUy0kThvv9NYiSXb6eKqee2jzZ8jExIaXyVrMNcEqVH0-PRseuQH99ktGCyng-CBMDw8n-DQeOptsn6umxYS3yQMdoKcNdT4b9YXnU8GRkbnzvi4GMXCleHSpB7jds/s1600/3.45738_1438093586041_1044030140_31328025_1159951_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgykEjeNZaOrlxAwYcUy0kThvv9NYiSXb6eKqee2jzZ8jExIaXyVrMNcEqVH0-PRseuQH99ktGCyng-CBMDw8n-DQeOptsn6umxYS3yQMdoKcNdT4b9YXnU8GRkbnzvi4GMXCleHSpB7jds/s200/3.45738_1438093586041_1044030140_31328025_1159951_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>saturday night we went clubbing at Vic's. it was the best club ive ever been to. i didnt stay for long but omg the minute you walk in, it feels like its a set from a movie, those kinds of clubs you see that are so badass. it was so awesome and it seemed like the entire CLERC program was there, even the assistant to gui laoshi, fiona. we all got in for free too, cause one of the people from the program lives in china with his wife and he likes to go clubbing with her here. sooo awesome!! lots of ppl got drunk that night and got back really late. the next day lol some ppl didnt even get up until 3pm and they were soo wasted haha. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaY3MwCi6PHW5Vbc04qUuWCHhWgfv0k7xnemMkFsTQ4JlhWGUdqAqOBgl-uq_pKErV4803x32gwZGmT75QVF7Aek9p0ihaTjkLMS4YPLVph1v7v2UHm6YnuzsEP8zCULjwp5m61spbpika/s1600/4.6797_1606891731704_1218500345_1688467_6699085_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaY3MwCi6PHW5Vbc04qUuWCHhWgfv0k7xnemMkFsTQ4JlhWGUdqAqOBgl-uq_pKErV4803x32gwZGmT75QVF7Aek9p0ihaTjkLMS4YPLVph1v7v2UHm6YnuzsEP8zCULjwp5m61spbpika/s200/4.6797_1606891731704_1218500345_1688467_6699085_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>on sunday, i met up with sean and blair's lang partner to go to the nearby bookstore, zhongguancun. it was HUGE, just like everything else in china. 5 stories and soo many ppl! i got a simon's cat book and looked at the chinese-english dictionaries. after lunch, we headed out to xidan to get some shopping done. this is where all the natives go for the shopping, in the huge malls and expensive labels. again, hella ppl. but thank god for AC inside lol. we didnt find anything, we just walked around, tried on shoes. the boys were with the boys, and me and alanna (with annie sorta) together talking and bonding. theres so few girls in this program! t.t i finally found a watsons inside the mall but i just recently found a closer one, right next to the zhongguancun bookstore. watsons is like CVS, a better version of wumei lol. That pic is Wumei, just for Eileen to reminise lol. Just like her, I go there alot.<br />
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so i take my laundry to seans grandmothers. i feel kinda bad cause i get it done for free and everyone else have to think of a way to get their laundry done-either the laundry service, the sketchy laundry machines in the dorm, or by hand. at least i do my undies myself and hang them to dry in my room. <br />
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this past week, sean got a little sick, everyone else in the program is getting sick so im a little paranoid and wash my hands or purell myself everytime i get the chance and so far im healthy (so far.) i did ok in the unit test, im going to do less studying cause its not that important, im not doing it for credit like most ppl are for their schools. on monday, bryan was teaching ppl how to salsa in his room, too many guys and not enough girls were interested but our little salsa group got too big for the suite and we moved downstairs to the lobby of our hotel-dorm. it was pretty cool, learned some basics. <br />
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oh! sorry! gotta head out, gonna go to silk market! ill finish this later!Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-87225266890132929032010-07-16T01:25:00.000-07:002010-09-19T16:13:24.421-07:00挨功课<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwlqicYlgUcLyJrhwT5AsK3xO2LoG1StpvtYUHhra65jDmSs78HlIzUdH0GWFCmqYj9E3tDufxyyzsml-wSFynezz_uGXuwXaW2g_FHS6dgMvVULX9QE7TlZfBzs-0MaDaPssxaPlyTnKz/s1600/114P1010093.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwlqicYlgUcLyJrhwT5AsK3xO2LoG1StpvtYUHhra65jDmSs78HlIzUdH0GWFCmqYj9E3tDufxyyzsml-wSFynezz_uGXuwXaW2g_FHS6dgMvVULX9QE7TlZfBzs-0MaDaPssxaPlyTnKz/s200/114P1010093.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>hello everyone. i am feelin the schoolwork this week. we had our first of three unit tests, which covers 3 chapters of vocab. you don't want to know how many words that is. and we also had an essay due. XD to add to that, ive been going to taichi class at 6:30a everyday and the painting/calligraphy class after chinese class ends. and let me tell you, it is really tough. ive never been so tired in my life. well, at least thats how it feels like it to me. after doing taichi for an hour, you just want to fall asleep and so... you do. but in class. not exactly somethin you should be doing esp since you cant hide amongst your classmates in the big lecture room cause first of all, we have a small little cramped classroom and second of all, theres less than 20 people per class. so yeah, the teacher can see you drooling as you're nodding off. so i decided to sleep in today and just go to class and skip taichi and oh man, i feel like a new woman, i actually have energy during the day. im not a walking zombie anymore. it feels so much better. but alanna is mad at me. lol so far, only stuart and alanna have been to every elective class, everyday. props to them but i want to be awake and present, man. the taichi teacher was even like, if you guys come everyday, mr. gui will give u a reward at the end. lol he's trying to keep us in the class. i also got keith from 10BX class to come to taichi. he doesnt come everyday but he likes it, since his eap program doesnt include these fun electives we have. <br />
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we have painting class every other day and calligraphy class the days we dont have painting, except for fridays, theres no electives. we've had i think 4 classes of each so far. in calligraphy, we're tracing in pencil and going over in ink to help us learn the form. its nice and relaxing in that class, the teacher put on some classical chinese music as we were writing. she also knows me by name. in painting, we've done 4 chinese paintings- ive done 3: fish and bamboo, waterfall, and lychee and a couple of birds. sean did such an amazing job at the waterfall, the teacher scouted him out and held it up for everyone to see. the whole class went OOOOOOOh lol and embarrassed the hell out of poor sean. but seriously, that sean has talent in painting. so now, the painting teacher knows him by name and by association since i sit next to him, and he says my painting was not bad, and he knows my name too. XD <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDq7ea9KzC5bEarE9_oNhR8ccQa0Mwv4HTxT0_PLSA5Yf7754V3lDBcRA5w-jqC_gq_l7aXm_QW3wPGSMzOKAdEJS3L5B-iDv1TgRBddgkmnIMvk0IVea8Us7CCNKuF0sFrU6XTfgiOt75/s1600/1.540491_1416777533153_1044030140_31270262_3055746_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDq7ea9KzC5bEarE9_oNhR8ccQa0Mwv4HTxT0_PLSA5Yf7754V3lDBcRA5w-jqC_gq_l7aXm_QW3wPGSMzOKAdEJS3L5B-iDv1TgRBddgkmnIMvk0IVea8Us7CCNKuF0sFrU6XTfgiOt75/s200/1.540491_1416777533153_1044030140_31270262_3055746_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>on monday, we went to shabu shabu. it was terrible. the menu had no pictures and we couldnt read anything. plus the service was so bad, they bascially left us there and didnt even give me back change, or our drinks, or paid us back for the things they ran out of. they bascially knew we were foreginers and cheated the hell out of us. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7TPpDPOiIAeRC6-1RBrZIzvfpT3scT2K5nTUpQSE5UupNrWuHndIc4Ao9NSb3ef_XHLpuFA5d7iZN7YrppEOQChD1d1FtYJ8xRS9NP0khf_r-a8zkWOtd87QEEISaZt0FTA3YU22SOFRI/s1600/2P1010057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7TPpDPOiIAeRC6-1RBrZIzvfpT3scT2K5nTUpQSE5UupNrWuHndIc4Ao9NSb3ef_XHLpuFA5d7iZN7YrppEOQChD1d1FtYJ8xRS9NP0khf_r-a8zkWOtd87QEEISaZt0FTA3YU22SOFRI/s200/2P1010057.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>theres this pancake place near the baozi place and we went there for lunch. you tell them what you want to be put into it, its basically like a crepe. i got the works- everything they had including duck, chinese sausage, bacon, ham, egg, meat floss lol, it was so bad for you and the guy was laughing as he was making it, it was humongous compared to everyone else's crepe. it was interesting flavour tho, the meat floss kinda runied the whole thing, plus it was orange and weirded me out. <br />
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</a></div>on wednesday, we had kfc. it was ok, kinda weird. the burger was really plain and empty. instead of cole slaw, they had bits of vegetable, like the frozen kind in mayo. weird tasting too. thank god coca cola is the same everywhere. we had to get kfc cause we wanted something quick since clerc was taking us to see a kung fu show. it took the bus an hour to get there because of the perpetual beijing traffic. on the way there, the conversation was the nerdiest ive ever heard. alanna, chris, and gandhi was talking about star trek. like seriously, about how cool spock was and how natasha yar was such a bad character, how the romulans were the best kickass villans ever-well, that was debated over length. man, i love these ppl lol. it brings tears to my eyes now that there are some hardcore trekkies in this group lol. and then the converstation turned to computers and hwo to write viruses. lol anyway, the show itself was pretty bad, the kungu wasnt even that <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWAwjgNqkNWNsODTVtgB7HXbrkoxSS9yui3x7SW0pYgVlkxZOmDLt4DhXfRt6f_5ueRNfzsX6TWOlvqGol05oOijg7GPX44ka51eYi6YgFeNJXCea-BUo88hMW8iIVRDkilBS4QjnFAihe/s1600/345167_1438142787271_1044030140_31328185_3242771_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWAwjgNqkNWNsODTVtgB7HXbrkoxSS9yui3x7SW0pYgVlkxZOmDLt4DhXfRt6f_5ueRNfzsX6TWOlvqGol05oOijg7GPX44ka51eYi6YgFeNJXCea-BUo88hMW8iIVRDkilBS4QjnFAihe/s200/345167_1438142787271_1044030140_31328185_3242771_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>good, the actors kept messing up, the story line was laughable and i felt overly stimulated by the whole spectable. it was also targeted for foreingers and we even saw our tour guide from tiananmen, miguel. the whole thing was in english and when we left, we felt like we wasted 2 hours of our lives. on the way back, i talked to alvin, who is from the phillipines. his wife and 2 kids are at home and he kept saying how good i was at taichi and we talked about our lives and stuff. but honestly i was falling asleep cause its been a long day, esp with that taichi class in the morning. <br />
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thrusday, in kouyu class, the cute korean girl, sorae said they went to the pekin opera last night and pam from the office sat in front of them!! apparently jenna fischer is on her honeymoon in beijing and they got a picture with her and even got her signature! i am sooo jealous, they didnt even know who she was, only that she's an actress. omg how lucky of them!! celebrity sighting!!<br />
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painting class was alot of fun yesterday. theres barely anyone who goes anymore so it feels very intimate and social since everyone knows each other. we joke around and even had an improntu KTV session lol singing from an ipod. the teacher was so happy we were laughing so much and enjoying ourselves. he was like, your words are funny, but i dont understand them. we like him alot, hes so cute. and hes like everyone is tired from class, this painting class is time for you to relax yourselves. very true, we use this time to just relax and have a good time. everyone loves painting class even tho the paintings are so hard to draw! sometimes he comes around and looks at your progress and just laughs and walks away! lol! that happens to jessica alot lol. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPi39aW7L4ZzqiGMuwC1BA1HXEqf7GHYy2fS1Ve2MMor26CJSd3VBqqd9t7SEXgDAe2BKO1W828rZu17mkqW9k0e-o18knM6f8K5yDI_Q4Ip8lA9b24X75SqIoyPJnqUJERKxOIBoWC65H/s1600/58536_1444548267404_1044030140_31342176_651675_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPi39aW7L4ZzqiGMuwC1BA1HXEqf7GHYy2fS1Ve2MMor26CJSd3VBqqd9t7SEXgDAe2BKO1W828rZu17mkqW9k0e-o18knM6f8K5yDI_Q4Ip8lA9b24X75SqIoyPJnqUJERKxOIBoWC65H/s320/58536_1444548267404_1044030140_31342176_651675_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>so yesterday ppl were singing kesha, nsync, journey, beatles, all these random songs and the 4 guys in the back were in perfect harmony, everyone just looked at them, amazed lol. we didnt realize there was a boy band up in here haha. so we're planning on doing KTV (karoke) tonight, after we meet with out language partners.We went to one near campus, called 17 Miles. It was really nice, expensive but there was free hard liquor and snacks included. SCORE. we had such a good time ^^ That's everyone including Magic Chris and someone's language partner lol oh except for Stuart.<br />
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today for lunch, me, sean, alanna, stuart, ken, matt, mark, chris, and cody went out for all you can eat korean bbq, above the terrible shabushabu place. you pay up front first, it was 300 something yuan, so came out to be less than $7 american. soo cheap!! it was really all you can eat, buffet style. you cook the food yourself and the best part was, they had soo much alcohol in the drinks section omg. we found a little bottle of 100proof wine. i smuggled it out and keeping it as a souvenir. its such a cute little bottle, old school chinese jug lol. anyway, i ate so much, food coma now. XDMaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-27662000384540648022010-07-11T09:33:00.000-07:002010-09-19T15:50:39.468-07:00Beijing Tourist Checklist: (Almost) Complete<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgaro3rCabM_UqQ9kKExNzNFslQ9pSLn8noIyI7NVAXgNDFgyETIk24n6hhAvKxyVcdgDTqAiBA-HcDqadD3YOhHRwrS6zatBuV_lATchwXQTfoVN_cXci-47h4L8S4yD7P6Q_g4Bm95kK/s1600/6P1010058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>This last week has been crazy busy with activity! Which is exactly what I want. lol. I should also say that blogspot doesn't always decide to load the editing window so I can't guarantee a post every few days. Which is why it's been so long since I last posted. Sorry guys! So I went to visit sean's grandparents and also his uncle and gf. His grandparents make such good food omg and his grandmother is quite a painting artist and calligrapher. His uncle has such a nice place too. It's close to Bird's Nest so we can just walk there from his apt but I'm getting ahead of myself. What have I been doing the past couple of days? I've been having class and also yesterday, saturday was a field trip to Tian'an Men Square and the Forbidden Palace which was great. More on that later.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCS3Oa4TmQLicEtFCoA8uoCtxUaABWz6EWi-_FnXU7D6tRbpFb__j38y-pNknAC4bIs4IhzFgOL7thmJEKak5OjF5YONx27vM2qe7aAvj5p5yKjk5i_QKwLc3KmMV_JZ7AZhVSi3Vmexnc/s1600/844400_1438084185806_1044030140_31327971_7107944_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgaro3rCabM_UqQ9kKExNzNFslQ9pSLn8noIyI7NVAXgNDFgyETIk24n6hhAvKxyVcdgDTqAiBA-HcDqadD3YOhHRwrS6zatBuV_lATchwXQTfoVN_cXci-47h4L8S4yD7P6Q_g4Bm95kK/s1600/6P1010058.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgaro3rCabM_UqQ9kKExNzNFslQ9pSLn8noIyI7NVAXgNDFgyETIk24n6hhAvKxyVcdgDTqAiBA-HcDqadD3YOhHRwrS6zatBuV_lATchwXQTfoVN_cXci-47h4L8S4yD7P6Q_g4Bm95kK/s200/6P1010058.JPG" width="200" /></a>So far every morning, we have breakfast at the roadside baozi place (steamed buns with filling) It's so cheap and fast which is good cause i need more time to cram before class starts. A baozi is 1RMB which is crazy cheap, like $0.15 and you only need 2 to fill you up. Basically I can get all my meals in china for less than a couple of american dollars each day. its hard tho to order cause alot of the menu is in chinese. the good thing is that sometimes, they have pictures so you can just point and say "nei ge" lol. they're so many on campus cafeterias. you can only use your meal card for that and only students have them so you have random ppl who will ask you to use ur card to pay for their meal and they reimburse you with cash on the spot. <br />
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after class, we have a calligraphy elective and i really like that class. its not something im good at but it feels <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCS3Oa4TmQLicEtFCoA8uoCtxUaABWz6EWi-_FnXU7D6tRbpFb__j38y-pNknAC4bIs4IhzFgOL7thmJEKak5OjF5YONx27vM2qe7aAvj5p5yKjk5i_QKwLc3KmMV_JZ7AZhVSi3Vmexnc/s1600/844400_1438084185806_1044030140_31327971_7107944_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCS3Oa4TmQLicEtFCoA8uoCtxUaABWz6EWi-_FnXU7D6tRbpFb__j38y-pNknAC4bIs4IhzFgOL7thmJEKak5OjF5YONx27vM2qe7aAvj5p5yKjk5i_QKwLc3KmMV_JZ7AZhVSi3Vmexnc/s200/844400_1438084185806_1044030140_31327971_7107944_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>good when you finally wrote something that looks good and not just a blob of ink on your paper. its kinda like yoga, the peaceful feeling when you meditate. oh and i also like my taichi class, which starts crazy early at 6:30a each day. everyone's poses are so messed up. people walking by stop and watch us (and are probably laughing silently in their heads), a huge group of foreigners attempt taichi lol. we have a teacher of course but he speaks only in chinese so most ppl dont understand him. he says as long as you show up and dont be late, you will learn it. so far, its good, only gone thru the first 4 poses. we also have painting class, which was really hard. well, at least im not the only one who screws up alot. its so embarrasing, i just want to throw it away. things are out of porportion and the colors are all messed up, the lines are too thick or too thin. then you look up and you see the sample demo one the teacher is painting in front and yours looks nothing like it. but its fun and ur not the only who whose fish looks like giant red balls with flames. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjH2sirwE6i_N0Q6VJ2vToygYKRDBvuIczmzqVQSXJH8Z3fkF8ykDa1arHD8keuzXm12FYsi9lVHv-TaxSdsA6yYOVMkj9cB7CAv_uS_OUqlYlXiC4gKZjSVVE7tlvbnzf-DbYQUnHIIdB/s1600/9P1010101.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjH2sirwE6i_N0Q6VJ2vToygYKRDBvuIczmzqVQSXJH8Z3fkF8ykDa1arHD8keuzXm12FYsi9lVHv-TaxSdsA6yYOVMkj9cB7CAv_uS_OUqlYlXiC4gKZjSVVE7tlvbnzf-DbYQUnHIIdB/s200/9P1010101.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>i got a cellphone finally, borrowed it from sean's uncle and its a really nice phone too, he even threw in a 50Yuan phone card for me too. <br />
my kouyu (speaking) class is crazy hard, im always struggling. but its fun cause we do impromtu skits and play games. at the end of each class, someone presents a chengyu(idiomatic expression) and/or a joke so we always end on a good note. ppl from liuban, which is the highest level class say that our class is harder than theirs. which makes me want to switch but i think a challenging class is better for me cause in the end, you'll learn more. but still, lots of hw, mostly from hanyu (writing) class. 15 vocab words quiz daily. XD<br />
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for dinner, on thursday we went right outside campus. crossing the street itself is a life threatening experience. cars are soo rude! so are the bicyclists! they dont slow down for you, they just honk very loudly at you and if you don't move, i swear they'll probably run you over, dont even care. if you want to cross the road, its better to go with the pack of ppl and stay on the other side of incoming traffic just in case so if they do hit the crowd, you'll have a human cushion first. at least, that's what i do. its really scary!! and also your ears hurt from all the bikes braking. do ppl not care for their bikes? the brakes sound like nails on chalkboard and you hear so frequently, how can ppl get used to that sound?! so many nails on chalkboard, which probably means every few seconds, someone was almost run over by a bike. so anyway, there's a strip of restaurants across the street. there was KFC, dairy queen, golden phoenix and yoshinoya (sp?) we went to the latter and it was soo good! also milk tea in china sucks. dont even go for the pearls, if you want boba, go to taiwan, trust me. <br />
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we met our language partner on friday. except when the time came to go to the meeting place, it was POURING outside. it was raining so hard, that even tho we only had to walk a couple hundred feet away to the next building, ppl were soaked head to toe by the time they got there. it was seriously raining cats and dogs and most ppl didnt have an umbrella. this wasn't rain. it was continuous buckets of water. and it didnt stop for the entire night. the puddles were ankle deep, and the streets became ponds. my language partner was late because of the rain and she was stuck at the subway station because of it. but she did come eventually and she's pretty nice. she calls herself rachael but her chinese name translates to snow white. lol. we are in groups of 2 language partner pairs so im paired with matt, sean's roommate and his langauge partner and mine found out they have mutual friends and went to the same school , even had the same major sorta. we think they make a cute couple lol. hidden agenda, we gotz it. <br />
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</a></div>ok, so yesterday was the highlight of the week. we took a tour bus to tianan men square. our tour guide was really funny. the first thing he said was that his english name is michael. his spanish name is miguel. and this was a chinese man talking in accented english to us. lol. we had a good time walking thru the huge square. it was raining that day too, but not as hard as friday night. it was kinda sad how terrible the weather is now compared to the first couple of days when we just arrived in beijing. before you could enter tian an men, you had to do a security check, xray your bag and all. and then once you get inside and walk past the picture mao's giant head, which they change every year to keep mao fresh, there's so much stuff beyond it. and there was soo many ppl, couldnt believe it. fiona said this was a good day too, wasn't too badly crowded. also it was funny how chinese ppl would come up to the white ppl in our group and ask them to take a picture with them. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVD8jrWmvrFBMMhcu5IDm0tNxJOo-c-gj3CAqunX8EgXoH6Gygr_aiB7ppCgBUZFruuaQ-l7GugZ5zlxSbQY8yRKV7dtpE84AyvLZHKXsHx6ZICm8sP7lsFQEjOtuIpK_w2QxnRiQu5tB/s1600/10P1010136.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVD8jrWmvrFBMMhcu5IDm0tNxJOo-c-gj3CAqunX8EgXoH6Gygr_aiB7ppCgBUZFruuaQ-l7GugZ5zlxSbQY8yRKV7dtpE84AyvLZHKXsHx6ZICm8sP7lsFQEjOtuIpK_w2QxnRiQu5tB/s200/10P1010136.JPG" width="200" /></a>many chinese who come to tianan men have never seen a white person before so its a curiosity. we had a running score between the nonchinese in our group of how many times they were asked to have their picture taken lol. the forbidden palace was incredible. it just keeps going on and on. that place is humongous. if there's one adjective to describe china, especially the architecure, it would be: BIG. the bigger, longer, and<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAttF1HWtvLDXRwkxUWrvuJKMsGPIMbtJ8a0J7RP_DhK9MUZfjSD1Kv7XVQh2XxfxyxUnfGYYs4voHvb6u9LlRtjDWXrlOKD8-gG5oiKrFPqw-aKhEXJpd5-k4vjFd_L8MoK5SHFUQOd10/s1600/11P1010134.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAttF1HWtvLDXRwkxUWrvuJKMsGPIMbtJ8a0J7RP_DhK9MUZfjSD1Kv7XVQh2XxfxyxUnfGYYs4voHvb6u9LlRtjDWXrlOKD8-gG5oiKrFPqw-aKhEXJpd5-k4vjFd_L8MoK5SHFUQOd10/s200/11P1010134.JPG" width="200" /></a> taller it is, the better. i guess you need that much space since theres so many ppl in china. but it wasn't just big, it was also beautiful. hundreds of years of history was made in this place, its hard to fanthom how much drama and how many ppl have spent their entire lives there. even the number of rooms is incredible: 9,999. can you believe it? if you were to be born in a room in the forbidden palace and every night, slept in a different room, you would be more than 27 years old before you were done. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtumfZLCtbO93Nxbz-6eNGZimcyP3DXKc6N4sof_0Fhav1wCGb5iGyToXIcYrzF5Yh_p8qkaEVkJq8OwulSq9Orexc-dbg5sRoHG1ImegBmNJBtPJb6I0C_kz5X4ySGPRGTWzcaaYn3DEM/s1600/1241080_1438086105854_1044030140_31327993_5428831_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtumfZLCtbO93Nxbz-6eNGZimcyP3DXKc6N4sof_0Fhav1wCGb5iGyToXIcYrzF5Yh_p8qkaEVkJq8OwulSq9Orexc-dbg5sRoHG1ImegBmNJBtPJb6I0C_kz5X4ySGPRGTWzcaaYn3DEM/s200/1241080_1438086105854_1044030140_31327993_5428831_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>after the forbidden palace, the tour guide took some of us to a hole in the wall baozi and mian (noodle) place. and it was delicious. i havent had diarrhea yet so its all good. we also found a nice bathroom nearby and yeah my first squatting toilet since getting here! it was actually an upscale bathroom, even had luxuries like toilet paper AND hand soap there for you. me and alanna pretty amazed lol. so afterword, i dont know how alanna and them weren't tired after that long walk thru tianan men and forbidden palace but they wanted to go to the nearby park. me and sean called it quits and took a taxi back. let me tell you, a whole day of walking takes alot out of you. not to mention your feet starts hurting too. <br />
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we went to his grandmothers place at night and the accupunturist was there so i got to see some accupunture right there in her bedroom. it was pretty frightening, to say the least. sean even got some in his leg. he said it felt like a shot of electricty running down when the accupuncturist twisted the needle in. i dont know if i could do it, i hate needles. afterword, i did laundry and it took forever cause i handwashed it. i tried put a clothesline in my room but the hook failed me and snapped off lol so its still slowly drying in my closet. sad. <br />
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</a></div>today was another long day. since getting here, i havent gotten up past 8am. but i also sleep relatively early. shit i just checked and its midnight now. ok so really fast, his uncle came to pick us up in the morning and took us to his high scale apartment building. he works for the air defense. we watched cartoons and i was so happy haha. there was sheep and rabbits and eggs who could talk. it was adorable. we had some baozi and milk that came in a bag for breakfast. then he took us outside and walked to birds nest and water cube. we took a golf cart tour which went around both buildings. it was sooo smoggy and because of the rain, you couldnt see very far. i havent seen such bad fog like this before and it was in the middle of the day! again, everything was huge. altho, its true, these two buildngs do look better at night. along the way, there were kite vendors and kids running around flying them. so cute. even saw picture of the sheep cartoon on some of them. most had the beijing olympic fujia(mascot) or beijing opera faces. farther down the opposite direction where it was less crowded, ppl were playing badminton and roller blading. so anyway, after, he took us the a really nice resturant and had peking duck! it was delectable. the skin was crispy but if you bite into it, the fat just <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKe7UjMGJoh04hL6qA3By1cb3m8p4-HaAChDRmSz-Eysn1GsDp9SY-j0jfj-jrj6LKoq_w8BlMQKAiqvmVmgrwZ_82kZt0wFlRq0Z50VaETYRJ1EH0t09gQOsbHiG_d5EYTn0JfR-QbbK/s1600/13P1010068.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKe7UjMGJoh04hL6qA3By1cb3m8p4-HaAChDRmSz-Eysn1GsDp9SY-j0jfj-jrj6LKoq_w8BlMQKAiqvmVmgrwZ_82kZt0wFlRq0Z50VaETYRJ1EH0t09gQOsbHiG_d5EYTn0JfR-QbbK/s200/13P1010068.JPG" width="200" /></a>gushes out, so much flavor, you would be surprised. there was no fat between the skin and the meat either, so thats a sign of a good duck. the way to eat it is to wrap it in a tortilla like wrapper, sorta like the vietnamese spring roll kind and you put in the thick sauce and some veggies like spring onion(?) and cucumber slices. there was also a bunch of other dishes ive never tasted before like duck tongue, feet, liver, ginko nuts, i dont even remember the rest. they were really nice to us, that must have been a really expensive meal...<br />
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ok so the rest of the day matt had to buy a new camera so we went to the electronics "city" to get one. omg the salespeople were so aggresive. the minute you walk into the store, they shout at you from either side about their products. if they see you looking at something, theyll talk to you, make you want to buy it. if you point, they'll see it immediatly and come over like lightening to your side. the minute you walk into their shop space, they're all over you. man, its pretty scary if you're not prepared. yeah so i really need to sleep, i have taichi tomro at 6am and i still need to cram my vocab words (like always...) nite!Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-59643122973955699932010-07-06T02:09:00.000-07:002010-09-19T15:44:57.924-07:00热死了<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>hey guys,<br />
im about to head out to visit the bf's family here in beijing but its been a very hot and exciting 3 days since ive landed in beijing. classes have started and i have hw already XD. Here's whats been going on here. I arrived with a small group of 14 in Beijing 2 hours behind schedule, since our plane got delayed. By the time we got to our dorms on campus, it was alrady 10pm. The cool thing was, we passed by the Bird's Nest and Water Cube on the highway over and they were soo beautiful at night. Once we got to the dorms, we checked in and got our information packets along with phone cards, meal cards, PKU id card, oh and also our room card.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgVjhu9V_eTSaJHbloZNyFuSJ3Lx4Dbo6jWnnZpqi1n-gWJmRu9Q_tJc-8SL4aK6E2gnZWhPVYXm9lrp_rO1dnRYUqFRub6cnWQnrfXWSfgsx-mL_haZcigDRy4GVnMYaR_zjfc_ELCLf/s1600/3P1010090.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgVjhu9V_eTSaJHbloZNyFuSJ3Lx4Dbo6jWnnZpqi1n-gWJmRu9Q_tJc-8SL4aK6E2gnZWhPVYXm9lrp_rO1dnRYUqFRub6cnWQnrfXWSfgsx-mL_haZcigDRy4GVnMYaR_zjfc_ELCLf/s200/3P1010090.JPG" width="200" /></a> Our campus dorm is really nice, it's almost like a hotel and apparently, this is the nicest dorms on campus since its for foreigners. i mean, who has chandeliers in the lobby of a dorm? <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_i64s9D7ICmnqVercnGryY_OydcGf9azeXqARa44GnUbPuZ89RhZ-f8dzlqCjbaFkYcxaQRDoJIt272Sx40AFSMaSTO84cA6cr1QrAWevDBX7YZE1qfxM6SR-856DlOEBphiENSZQ3Fb/s1600/2.P1010001.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_i64s9D7ICmnqVercnGryY_OydcGf9azeXqARa44GnUbPuZ89RhZ-f8dzlqCjbaFkYcxaQRDoJIt272Sx40AFSMaSTO84cA6cr1QrAWevDBX7YZE1qfxM6SR-856DlOEBphiENSZQ3Fb/s200/2.P1010001.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_i64s9D7ICmnqVercnGryY_OydcGf9azeXqARa44GnUbPuZ89RhZ-f8dzlqCjbaFkYcxaQRDoJIt272Sx40AFSMaSTO84cA6cr1QrAWevDBX7YZE1qfxM6SR-856DlOEBphiENSZQ3Fb/s1600/2.P1010001.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Turns out we all got our own room within a suite! I was not expecting this at all. I thought we had roommates but this is soo much better!! My roommates are Nikki, from Arkansas and Jessica from Hong Kong/Malaysia. They're both pretty cool and not in their rooms alot, at least so far. Nikki was on the same flight as me and Jessica arrived the day before us. Total, theres about 50 of us in this program. So anyway, we got to our rooms and crashed. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjN8_hEI8NqvPoc0K8glcKkOguJseBcHp8NpKDLTPyktE3qWm0zDYdXYeBs6z___uHasG0tyUSt6ai-pbD9HGqEOcswXCnDhCvbvZ-jp3dBuJAMcUh9TPeElmiwpTn2VOllhjamJwifsS/s1600/P1010513.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjN8_hEI8NqvPoc0K8glcKkOguJseBcHp8NpKDLTPyktE3qWm0zDYdXYeBs6z___uHasG0tyUSt6ai-pbD9HGqEOcswXCnDhCvbvZ-jp3dBuJAMcUh9TPeElmiwpTn2VOllhjamJwifsS/s200/P1010513.JPG" width="200" /></a>Or well, tried to, I was pretty tired but I couldn't sleep well, jet lag and all. <br />
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</a></div>I gave up trying to sleep around 5am got ready for the placement test. Yup, 8am bright and early Monday morning, we all had to take a hour and a half placement test to see what level Chinese class we were going to be placed in. While they were scoring our tests (presumably) we got taken on a tour of campus. In retrospect, I think it was the worst possible time to be doing this. One it was record breaking 40C (104F) for that day, it was almost noon time, with the flaming hot sun beating down on us, no shade and no wind, and you expected us to walk around outside in that oven and pay attention to what you have to say? No. I was falling asleep, it was like sleepwalking, expect in a blazing oven, full on heat. The only good thing was, at least it wasn't 100% humidity and you could actually see the blue sky, which in beijing is something of a miracle and a rarely seen event. <br />
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We had a welcome banquet, which was incredibly boring but I got to know some more people. it was then that i realized that not only did people come from all over the US for this program, but also all over the world. At my table, I met a british HKer, a frenchmen, and an australian. Thats pretty cool, i wasn't expecting that. next after the banquet, i went to the nearby market with sean and stuart to buy a LAN cable and other stuff I needed. stuart is actually a berkeley student and he was in chinese 10BX at cal with me, but we had different sections! such a coincidence to meet someone like that here! anyway, by that time, we had to go back to find out our class placements. i got put into level 5 for chinese reading and speaking class (HanYu and KouYu) which is low advanced i guess. the highest was level 6. stuart got into the same classes as i did. we got our textbooks and also had a welcoming orientation in ppt, complete with similes like v(^.^)v and i'm not even kidding lol. <br />
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</a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XMEKAbIDZ2Xn8mmpyWy7vsLc4GmEtvyXSUTQxWt4B3hrCSsRB2-EhjTnuyFxeacbWztinNygKJHtsQ4msqzWPqOic28vgr2xSha7RswbBvupp6F-l7G957dXf3hi5YcwFgDCN95yirrT/s1600/4P1010030.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XMEKAbIDZ2Xn8mmpyWy7vsLc4GmEtvyXSUTQxWt4B3hrCSsRB2-EhjTnuyFxeacbWztinNygKJHtsQ4msqzWPqOic28vgr2xSha7RswbBvupp6F-l7G957dXf3hi5YcwFgDCN95yirrT/s200/4P1010030.JPG" width="200" /></a>after that, i went with a bunch of people to get gym membership and it took almost an hour to bargain for the best price. >.< then we had dinner at the campus' largest cafeteria, 2 floors of food, it was incredible how much selection there was and how many people there were and also how hot and stuffy it could be inside lol. we then explored campus a bit, by then it was alot cooler, probably 90F or 80F and went by the subway station right outside campus. we also walked by No Name lake right wen it was sunset. it was really beautiful, serene and felt extremely summery, cicadas chirping, walking under full lush trees and benches spaced evenly along the walkway beside a lake with a majestic pagoda in the foreground. absolutely amazing. our little group also checked out west gate since we were in the area and took the obligatory picture. there are alot of new graduates everywhere on campus. i guess its graduation time for PKu right now cause everywhere you go, there is someone in their graduation gown and cap. <br />
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the 3rd day in beijing, which is today, i had breakfast with some people at the closest cafeteria to our dorm. and after, we walked to our 8am class for our first day of instruction. my reading class was ok but sean had a hard time. the class i think im going to have trouble with is the speaking class. half our classes is made of korean students and they were soo much better than us! it wasnt fair how they already knew the vocab and of course theyre going to win at a game of taboo when i've just seen the characters for the first time. the teacher made the losers- me and stuart do penalty homework =( <br />
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classes end at noonish and we had lunch at the big cafeteria. it was another hot day and it was even more crowded at lunchtime than dinner last night. also, i ran into a guy from my chinese class this past semester! we were so surprised to see each other, because we both didn't know the other was going to Beida (beijing university) for the summer. he was there for EAP and he was also speed eating since he had to go to class in 10 min. but that was such a nice and unexpected surprise to see someone you know from cal! (i also saw another one of my classmates from the same chinese class on the plane over to beijing from the states. what is with all chinese 10BX run ins?) <br />
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after lunch, there was painting class but since i was late, i didnt get a spot in the class and also they ran out of materials, which was fine for me cause i didnt want to sit in the classroom anyway. it was a small room stuffed full and NO AIR CONDITIONING. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXErNDjiCo0yn2zrlSar4pf0ljwZhxLuRc0me5YAUxdtMkB3hYU1iANqo1RxPqQkwXSd7W2PW_NtiwR8quMTav6a4y-BcRYOdPnt3iEgSVBs76xMcijcU1tHiNlUXla8hxtj4tOAZFlqLO/s1600/5P1010065.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXErNDjiCo0yn2zrlSar4pf0ljwZhxLuRc0me5YAUxdtMkB3hYU1iANqo1RxPqQkwXSd7W2PW_NtiwR8quMTav6a4y-BcRYOdPnt3iEgSVBs76xMcijcU1tHiNlUXla8hxtj4tOAZFlqLO/s200/5P1010065.JPG" width="200" /></a>you can't imagine how hot it was in there. everyone was sweating like crazy. outside, which was another record breaking temperature, now the 2nd in a row was cooler than the classroom inside. to walk into the classroom was to walk into a sauna. and you were stuck there for 2 hours until you were finished with your painting. people in there were regretting coming to class. it was so terrible. me and sean got water for everyone, carried 30 bottles of ice cold water up 5 flight of stairs from the convienance store downstairs cause i felt so bad for them to sit thru such heat. we left before class ended cause there was no point in staying around anymore. annie, a girl in that class sold me her painting supply kit cause she didn't want to do the class anymore, so yay! i can still do painting class on friday! me, sean, stan and nicole, who were all sitting outside the class, left and we went to Wumei (the campus convienance store) to buy some toilettries and notebooks and such. i also got an umbrella so i can be shielded from the death sun. the sun shining down on you makes everything 10F hotter. alot of the women here carry umbrellas here when its sunny so hey, now i fit in more. <br />
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me and sean went back to our dorms and i finally got a proxy server thingy to access everything china decided to firewall, including this blog, facebook, meebo, and youtube. soon it was time to leave again, this time to have dinner at sean's grandparent's place right across from campus. his grandmother was so happy to see sean, it was so cute and omg she spoke so fast! i couldnt even try to understand his grandpa, he had such a thick thich beijing accent! thank god im in an advanced chinese class or else i seriously could not understand a thing there were saying. his grandpa also went over the lesson we did in class today and surprisingly, she didnt ask me any background questions, like where am i from, where are my parents from etc. i guess that information got relayed over already heh. we got back 3 hours later and here i am, writing a ridiculously long blog. <br />
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thank you so much for reading this if you're still here listening to my ramblings. lol nikki, my suitemate just came into my room and said she just woke up from a 6 hour nap. lol! now to do homework and cram vocab!! tomorrow is class bright and early at 8am and then calligraphy class! i can't wait for that! and hopefully the air conditioning is fixed for that room....Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-12586678754157948022010-07-02T22:21:00.000-07:002010-07-02T22:21:22.074-07:00Heading off! See you in Beijing!This is my "I'm so excited to be leaving for China" post. I'M SO EXCITED TO BE LEAVING FOR CHINA!!!! I can't wait to see how Beijing is like and I can't wait to meet everyone on the trip. I'm actually looking forward to the chinese classes and to be learning and hopefully vastly improving my chinese. I'm really looking forward to the electives too-taichi, calligraphy, ink painting. =D I want to explore Bejing and I can't wait to go to the Great Wall of China! This is one of the things in my bucket list! And after the 6 weeks hanging around Beijing, I can't wait for the week long tour of selected tourist traps lol. I've actually been to the places before exactly 10 years prior, when I was 12. Can you imagine it? Now, ten years later, as a mature (=p)22 year old, I'll be visiting Stone Forest, Lijiang, Dali all over again! Not to mention Shanghai as the last pit stop before returning to China. I am worried about some things tho, like how I'll get around with my terrible Chinese and making a good first impression meeting my bf's grandparents who are Beijing natives. Also, hopefully I won't go broke spending money buying everything in sight. <br />
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I'll blog again when I've landed in China! This is assuming the blog isn't blocked. XDD. Probably not, right? Alright, bye bye USA!Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-74569572303904018342010-04-13T15:30:00.000-07:002010-04-13T15:35:27.844-07:00Recent Events IIGuess what, I decided to study abroad. AGAIN! Guess the first time wasn't enough to satiate me haha. This time, I'm going to Beijing for 6 weeks exclusively to study Chinese culture and improve my Chinese. I won't be earning credit that will go toward my degree, since I'll have graduated in May. So I suppose this counts as some time off after college before I try to enter the workforce. This program is sponsored by CLERC, the trip lasting from July 4th to August 24th. After the 6 weeks of study at Peking University (PKU) we will be traveling around different places in China including Yunnan, Shangri-La and Shanghai. My friend did this program when she was in high school and from what I've heard, she really enjoyed herself. I'm so excited!! I can't wait!Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-32305216520630223802009-07-01T21:13:00.000-07:002009-07-01T23:21:00.182-07:00Back from Outer Space!I'm back in good ol' cali! My home sweet home. ah *sigh* its good to be home ^^<br /><br />After my last final, which I tried to finish as soon I got it, I packed my bags, cleaned up my room, (threw away tons of stuff that would make my luggage overweight....) and headed to the airport to cairns with sean!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSAYmVjQbYF9dGVDxH4GCS7bXHSm5Vcd4LgxomPZOuhiGnNzrXeGp29pm4RlE3jA5_TgqwXdcIRRG7C3Dp0u21oRnAfFA4uWi27BH2VioFIPT0pF4lIY-ryQDLT3r-kMSQsodkZ0XB4LdH/s1600-h/scene+airplane.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSAYmVjQbYF9dGVDxH4GCS7bXHSm5Vcd4LgxomPZOuhiGnNzrXeGp29pm4RlE3jA5_TgqwXdcIRRG7C3Dp0u21oRnAfFA4uWi27BH2VioFIPT0pF4lIY-ryQDLT3r-kMSQsodkZ0XB4LdH/s320/scene+airplane.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353739902161083522" border="0" /></a>we took murrays bus, a 3 hour ride to sydney from canberra, (only 15 bucks, hella cheap) and flew from sydney to canberra, another 3ish hours. immediately even before we landed, cairns looked like a tropical paradise =D lush green mountains, water, humid and wet with tons of palm trees lol, ah ^^ perfect for vacation esp right after a final. we checked in to a hostel complete with a small lagoon-ish pool, hammocks and overhead fans in every room. it was pretty hard to fall asleep at night lol it was so hot even tho it's technically winter in australia! that's cause cairns in pretty far north, which brings us real close to the equator, hence its tropical rain forests and warm waters all year round.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmuSuj27eslEzfbv_wDKYagj5D328sOO3-OXWoTNo1AucsTyJY5AfTH16VBrLc746LWdvoYBLAYyaXez55i11t9AuswOAC-L1k2bRgCDNJNVTEIX1ijQou8tdswnPohxUm4tXbYeuxEQT/s1600-h/esplanade+at+night.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmuSuj27eslEzfbv_wDKYagj5D328sOO3-OXWoTNo1AucsTyJY5AfTH16VBrLc746LWdvoYBLAYyaXez55i11t9AuswOAC-L1k2bRgCDNJNVTEIX1ijQou8tdswnPohxUm4tXbYeuxEQT/s320/esplanade+at+night.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353740622162886114" border="0" /></a>the city is kinda dead at night, well at least compared to sydney or something but i guess it wont be fair to compare. they do have a night market but we just strolled along the esplanade- a promenade along the water edge, hehe pretty romantic, "summer"'s balmy air and everyone wearing flip flops and shorts and the sea melts into complete black in the horizon. (it was kinda scary tho lol seemed like the world just ended right there) oh when ur walking down the esplanade, one side is the ocean, and the other is a huge public pool, they call it a lagoon, so seriously, the pool is right there up against the beach!<br /><br />the only bad thing was that i kept getting lots of nosebleeds every day (i tallied it up and the total number was 9 nosebleeds in 5 days XD yikes!) in my family, im pretty known getting nosebleeds alot but it sure freaked sean out alot!<br /><br />we only spent really a few days in cairns and i wish we could stay longer, mostly to snorkel some more ^^ <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhOkoReBTRmtjBNh3XFnUXfHHEbHcl5pA6aspl5UnQdOElGOcqyg7FiYDIzH-0Fn3ObMGcVANIQtpCspNlm15ylyMuahAPRBk-AchEMSPQeZ6VcHQGgc0R-eS6j5Ga9OmS4F3v7bQq84iy/s1600-h/fig+tree.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhOkoReBTRmtjBNh3XFnUXfHHEbHcl5pA6aspl5UnQdOElGOcqyg7FiYDIzH-0Fn3ObMGcVANIQtpCspNlm15ylyMuahAPRBk-AchEMSPQeZ6VcHQGgc0R-eS6j5Ga9OmS4F3v7bQq84iy/s320/fig+tree.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353741497759351714" border="0" /></a>the second day, we joined a tour group to visit milla milla falls and other sights south of cairns- mostly lots of waterfalls and rainforests lol. it was alot of fun cause our tour guide was a funny man and kept us entertained and informed at the same time. everyone on the tour were like us in their 20's and traveling around. we went to 2 crater lakes, of which one, most everyone jumped in for a swim (i didnt go in but everyone said the water was really cold! lol) and we also trekked through some rainforest. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIfC-Vis-bbYoHOlpHtMxiIOMWa09ME2D41_NbVCfNe_PY4QGdn5UrU1-D9Ed9-XngMH1R5TBg8Vt25JCuW91-dNcQK7qHL4F9SmRfcHyZH1dJ-KWL1zPYBsFSY7NCMyg0AlqTYgKYuUN/s1600-h/milla.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMIfC-Vis-bbYoHOlpHtMxiIOMWa09ME2D41_NbVCfNe_PY4QGdn5UrU1-D9Ed9-XngMH1R5TBg8Vt25JCuW91-dNcQK7qHL4F9SmRfcHyZH1dJ-KWL1zPYBsFSY7NCMyg0AlqTYgKYuUN/s320/milla.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353743093834013282" border="0" /></a>it was really nice and cool in there under the shade ^^ but like 90% of the stuff in there is poisonous XD. then we went to see a gigantic fig tree randomly in the rain forest. basically it towers over overthing else lol and the root system is all u see. its kinda cool finally we went to a series of waterfalls- one is the famous milla milla falls-apparently the most photographed waterfalls in australia, some of us on the tour group went in for a swim again. i didnt but sean did and he said it was completely freezing! lol then we went to a national park and visited some more extremely picturesque waterfalls and a deep gorge which leads to god knows what. we threw a rock down it, it had water with green algae at the bottom and it took 6 seconds for the rock to hit bottom, once it had, it made a hole in the algae and seconds later, the hole would be refilled with algae! crazy! to get to the park, we went up a road that had more than 200+ turns in it. lol needless to say, if you get carsick, im pretty sure you would throw up if u drove on this windy road...<br /><br />the next day we reported at the pier, bright and early at 8am to check in at the boat to go snorkeling! we drive out 60km out from land, it takes about an hour and a half to get to the site. along the way, we get instructed on what to do, safety stuff and all that. of course the divers get more training and info. the ppl on the ship were pretty nice too and were very helpful. oh and they also give u lunch, cold meat and cold salads, very refreshing after a day swimming in the ocean. a word of advice tho, take their sea sick tablets. its only $1 insurance. sean got preeetty seasick and snorkeling made it worse. so yea. just to be cautious and not jeopardize your day of amazing sightseeing swimming amongst some incredible stuff.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzjMq8TRPmpc-cQweKhohityIEWE0Lm6qrgFe07QD68v5F_dpSQbwLEWD5G0fT4P57s1gwbn5Dz1K0BR4EPBg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br />we all got wetsuits, snorkel masks and flippers and me and sean rented waterproof camera and got prescription masks. they took us to two different places out on the reef and gave u more than an hour to swim at ur leisure. it was reeeeallly amazing the first time you see the coral reef. it's so up close and intricate and the water is totally clear- u can see all the way to the bottom- and its a long way to the white sandy bottom. you see all the fish swimming about and eating at the coral- i saw nemo and even a sea turtle! i was so stoked!! lol we had guides in the water to point us in the right direction and tell us if they sighted anything interesting. they even have hand signals to signify shark, nemo, etc fishes. and no there werent any jellyfish around and i heard there was some small sharks but i didnt see them. it was really nice ah...crystal clear water, clear blue skies and the beautiful reef right below you stretching in all directions and fish, large, small and colourful darting about. i absolutely loved it. everyone should have this experience. it's really breathtaking!<br /><br /><br />it was also exhausting lol esp if u wander off too far. ud be surprised when u finally lift your head up out of the water and find yourself waaay far from your boat! i know that everyone does diving but i have my own personal problems lol but id encourage ppl to go diving! you only really see 10% if u go snorkeling. it's still an amazing 10% that i saw!! you definately wont be dissapointed. it's like swimming in a huge aquarium, cept it's actually really the pacific ocean lol.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpo3v2B9Y5_meIMbBxWUzjtJVP3SQWjemtEr554xPHcXUFCooOqR-wYrS_PBdAKG1hYC48o-QyHdpmQ7MuMj9_WFcupHlw3m8EeUgZOHN8ReFUVYWsV2T_ppA-64TiV6YlDiPgZh0A2Wm0/s1600-h/food.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpo3v2B9Y5_meIMbBxWUzjtJVP3SQWjemtEr554xPHcXUFCooOqR-wYrS_PBdAKG1hYC48o-QyHdpmQ7MuMj9_WFcupHlw3m8EeUgZOHN8ReFUVYWsV2T_ppA-64TiV6YlDiPgZh0A2Wm0/s320/food.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353743634200717810" border="0" /></a>the last night in australia, or rather, in a real city we splurged and ate some quality australian steak, also had australian game platter haha- kangarroo, crocodile, emu and barramundi fillet. and we randomly had some czech beer to wash everything down. for dessert, we had pavlova and gelato.<br /><br />the next day we flew back to sydney and then on to sfo. we spent the night at an airport hotel cause our flights were a good 15 hours apart. our flight back, i sat at the exit row. lol and i had a blast there. i had a priest and a lady, both from sydney sitting in my row. facing us there were also seats for 2 flight attendants and they kept us laughing with good conversation. so, all in all, it wasnt a bad trip back. oh and as we left, we flew right over the sydney opera house and bridge! even the lady next to me was amazed, she'd never seen the sight from up in the plane before!<br /><br />i had a great time overall studying abroad, especially the traveling bit lol. i have tons of memories and sorry cheriz, i didnt party like an animal cause u kno im not like that but i had lots of fun and ill definitely be going back.Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-25209066168707056412009-06-04T04:46:00.000-07:002009-06-04T05:07:26.713-07:00Last Day of School!Today was my last day of instruction! Now for 2 final projects due BEFORE final week....and then finals...-_-<br /><br />The fruits of my (and my group's) labour: http://ling2022g709.wetpaint.com/ for my Language Planning and Language Policy class. (hopefully it's not locked to private setting) I must admit, it was a really interesting assignment and I enjoyed doing it. It's also worth 40% of the course mark.....we had to do a case study of a country and my group got Vanuatu.<br /><br />Oh and I also got 68% (which is 2% away from a "D" - D for Distinction!, which is like a A- or something) on my Language in Indigenous Australia essay (worth 30%). That was also really interesting because I chose a cool topic: numbers and counting terminology in Aboriginal languages. It was like 10 pages long. They like it long here >.<<br /><br />I learnt sooo much here from my classes- about the sociopolitical side of linguistics, about a tiny island country called Vanuatu that I've never even heard of before, about the structure of conversation, about all sorts of topics on Aboriginal languages and some Asian languages (that was in the intensive course) I think got a lot better at researching for essays too and writing them in terms of technicalities.<br /><br />But if I were given the chance to do it all over again, I would definately do things differently. I would put myself out there more and join student groups and clubs. I would try my luck at getting a research assistant position for a semester, like the studentships here. I would also start those essays earlier lol.<br /><br />I'm kinda scared thinking about my finals. Basically I have to answer two questions and that is worth 30% or more of my total mark for a single course. TWOO!??? questions?! c'mon!! that's putting ALOT of weight on just a couple of free response answers......*terrified*<br /><br />well, at least after i turn in my last final, me and sean will be traveling again for a few days before heading back home. we're going to cairns. Basically, that's headquarters for the great barrier reef! i'm so excited!! finally i'll get to snorkel!Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-48731744943313536812009-05-29T17:58:00.000-07:002009-05-29T18:27:32.061-07:00Update since easter break!It's been a long time since i last posted, yes. i'm sorry. but my computer was broken even before i went traveling to new zealand. i had to get a new hard drive installed and it cost me $AU245, which includes service fee and the actual new 160GB hard drive. not bad, right? the geek squad at best buy charges more (in US currency at least).<br /><br />so what have i been doing since vacation? bascially its been really busy. really really busy. between last week and then, i had5 assignments due, 3 of them were essays, of which 2 were 10 or more pages. yikes! yes, yes, thats how it works at universitites here in australia. they enslave you to your microsoft word =( i've still got 2 more projects due and im not even counting final exams!! XD i work so hard here, it doesnt feel like a vacation...<br /><br />the good thing, at least is that the content of my essays are interesting because the classes im taking are particularily interesting. i mean, youd never find a sociolinguistic or political linguisitic class at berkeley. its so much more old school topics at cal, the basic 4: phonetics, phonology, semantics and pragmatics. you never get beyond those. it gets pretty boring. i was talking to my language planning and langauge politics professor (who likes to single me out because she's from socal and im from norcal) who commented on that, she said the lingusitcs dean here is concerned that the classes offered here covers too wide a spectrum. but its because of this that i chose this uni! the breadth of classes offered! actually interesting ones unlike the ones at cal!<br /><br />its definitely fall in canberra. the walk down to union court from my dorm is lined with autumn trees and its heartstopping beautiful for a brief couple of weeks when the trees stretching down the walkway is golden yellow, yellow as youve never seen (maybe cept new england haha) and the leaves falling down are like glitter in the breeze. its truly amazing. i like to walk down the centre between the rows of trees to crunch underneath its gold leaves and to surround myself in yellow =] the leaves fall like snow, and they fall so thickly on the ground. you can even make leaf angels, but sean wouldnt let me. boooo =p here's a picture, but it cannot capture the feeling:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHwws5fLDGuNoXGXKv5KW5a2e3gyzpjWE-RA_UaLD7KIRuY65JTkMQ5XhEgdHCsUCINptkfzqtXvK_7lbl01s7hZI3PiSmCuVnGl7duafF6pUyhtozsc7BYcUmZPNZSiKq96-OpIruznH/s1600-h/P1010161.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHwws5fLDGuNoXGXKv5KW5a2e3gyzpjWE-RA_UaLD7KIRuY65JTkMQ5XhEgdHCsUCINptkfzqtXvK_7lbl01s7hZI3PiSmCuVnGl7duafF6pUyhtozsc7BYcUmZPNZSiKq96-OpIruznH/s400/P1010161.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341418574749862338" border="0" /></a><br />they have free comic book day in australia! i didnt know this was an international event! but unfortunately, we missed it. we totally forgot!! ahhh!! but its ok, next year i guess. but i wonder if the free stuff they give out is different...<br /><br />according to other ppl who dont live at bruce hall, apparently we have the best dorm food, which is utterly laughable because i cannot stand the food here. i mean, id would much MUCH rather take crossroads over bruce food. that, my friends, is how bad it is here. i guess bruce lives up to the sterotypical cafeteria food. because the food is so bad, i fill myself up with fruit. i eat so much fruit here compared to at my apartment. youd think im eating healthier but since i dont eat the bruce everyday (thank god, theres places to eat on campus) i eat ramen instead haha and theres some pretty interesting types of ramen they sell at the asian supermarket....<br /><br />the upcoming week is the last week of instruction. how time flies... ive got finals exams spread out almost 2 weeks apart so ill be exploring canberra a bit- <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6g4C0EcRKl_c-FJlzfZJbQ-aG_aDm8KQZ9FxcTq3ohtfInhkzEt8doUkqzTQdLBpov8oKtNhEhroKeXlHbb5GaFadYlgiegp_PkoVFxZyTbvSMBGcnpyKqg37Ns-NFghh0HVXM-C4twMF/s1600-h/P1010172.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6g4C0EcRKl_c-FJlzfZJbQ-aG_aDm8KQZ9FxcTq3ohtfInhkzEt8doUkqzTQdLBpov8oKtNhEhroKeXlHbb5GaFadYlgiegp_PkoVFxZyTbvSMBGcnpyKqg37Ns-NFghh0HVXM-C4twMF/s400/P1010172.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341421587314615538" border="0" /></a>i havent been to the national library or the war memorial. they're both on the other side of the lake. speaking of which, i finally went down to the lake. you can rent bikes and ride around the perimeter, you can rent canoes and even those boats that you power by paddling with your feet. when we got there, there were these two black swans. sean is wearing his bruce hall shirt hehe, ive got one too =)<br /><br />sean has his finals during those two weeks when i got nothing so i cant travel then, i wish i could though. but we want to go to the great barrier reef after all our finals end. thats still a maybe, im still planning for that now that ive got the time.Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-92145418780905899312009-04-25T00:15:00.000-07:002009-05-29T17:57:02.308-07:00Easter Break Travels - Auckland<span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 1</span><br />well day 1 i suppose was spent traveling from melbourne to auckland, which is detailed in the following post. so here comes day 2 instead:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 2</span><br />one of the first things we did once we got there was to go the the nearest internet cafe, korean owned of course. seriously, the homepage was korean, all the writing was in korean. google results were in korean! omg... XD we stayed there for a good long time trying to plan out what the heck we wanted to do in auckland. it got really stressful cause it was activity overload. there was so much you could do and we only had a limited amount of time to do it. well, we gave up after a bit and decided to go to the tourist centre to ask for help later. we walked down queen st to downtown and ate lunch. oh we noticed that in new zealand, burgers kings are no longer hungry jack's like it is in australia. they're named burger king again. anyway, we went to that tourist centre where they helped us out immensly. they did <span style="font-style: italic;">everything</span> for us. omg such a relief to have someone else do it for you. like travel agent, but free! yay! we knew that today was the only day that week that was sunny <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvDzSIYpYI5-vOpGwJybZnOtXFjzh6B4AIaagZY4kb18BW9Ke5QhFQKDgeFfdv3DFAz9M_HiDWy6GvEraeU7vAFayzNR0YfGOSeoXRetmHUCn_c0hv3uQA_nycZcZzzJTH5hV64b6U3uS/s1600-h/3238_1097946282571_1044030140_30469825_7791011_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvDzSIYpYI5-vOpGwJybZnOtXFjzh6B4AIaagZY4kb18BW9Ke5QhFQKDgeFfdv3DFAz9M_HiDWy6GvEraeU7vAFayzNR0YfGOSeoXRetmHUCn_c0hv3uQA_nycZcZzzJTH5hV64b6U3uS/s320/3238_1097946282571_1044030140_30469825_7791011_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328896289923923858" border="0" /></a>so we decided to do kayaking last minute right then. they got us booked a kayak trip on waiheke island and thats where we headed next. we bought lunch and ate it on the ferry ride to waiheke island, a good 50 min ride out. the kayak rental place was convienently located next to the ferry terminal and we got taught how to kayak. >.<; <img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1uGkXgCt_drjuJDh_NZELEYXf3bqPRfHK1jsjkjOwKVqi-fHzwSLX3ZkR0JwZvxBiNdf2gkwhh90ND6HO8JxZKJL6Dnrh8WRPnXh1He1DmSlwT_RhNS159NM-HGWrjYh7PFeVX5s7QeFB/s320/3238_1097946402574_1044030140_30469828_1603725_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328896467747869122" border="0" />it was a gorgeous day to seakayak in open water! refreshing and sunny, with green waters under us. a breeze sometimes and if we went out far enough, there would be waves toying our little kayak around. ok, that part was scary. we stayed mostly to the coast haha. oh while trying to land the first time, sean dropped his camera into the saltwater. yea...it died. we did have trouble getting back into the kayak after we landed on a black sandy beach. it was really scary!! we kept getting washed back ashore, the waves were hard and the litle inlet we got ourselves in was dotted with rocks in and sticking out of the water. we paddled hard, wanting to get the hell out of there. our pants got wet heh. we werent expecting to go kayaking and i only had my jeans. (no other clothes wahh..!! my clothes were lost in the bag i forget to get from the bus!) and that is why you wear waterproof shorts wen u go kayaking. we paddled around the island a bit, it didnt seem like 2 hours had past, but it goes by quickly and your muscles tell you to stop. our arms were crusty with white sand but it was actually the saltwater that dried. we dragged ourselves out and ate at the ferry foodcourt, wet pants and all. lol and ferried back to mainland, showered and changed immediately once we got back to the hostel. it was getting dark too. we went back to the korean internet cafe and booked a tour online, staying there at the cafe until 1am XD<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 3</span><br />we got up at 7;30a and ate breakfast, bread and nutella we got from a convienence store nearby. yum. we walked to the coach terminal 15 min away to go to matamata! thats where the LOTR's set of the shire was filmed! it took 3.5 hours to get there....yea...long way out... we went on the hobbiton tourand drove from town into a farm to see the shire!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidvHEyjyVQtZ-JV9L2G5Byva6KcxSz_IXMT7oaOeJvLq9JmP0fQgxDI_I7kxElhWTxnKPyny3BeanOkaNgQ06aA6xSseImVP7zzrJSqPhV2Aw296uasF2NEffSqUVKsNoOeVhrXm7FHbCP/s1600-h/P1010061.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidvHEyjyVQtZ-JV9L2G5Byva6KcxSz_IXMT7oaOeJvLq9JmP0fQgxDI_I7kxElhWTxnKPyny3BeanOkaNgQ06aA6xSseImVP7zzrJSqPhV2Aw296uasF2NEffSqUVKsNoOeVhrXm7FHbCP/s320/P1010061.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341414182116707266" border="0" /></a> it was really cool to see all the hobbit houses. well not all. while driving there, the lady told us the history of the farm, and how peter jackson found the place and molded it, and how much effort he put into the place and everything. yes, i am being vague. but it was really cool. paramount studios has very strict guidelines on what we, tourists and everyone else can and cannot do on the premises. the set was suppsed to be temporary and after filming, it was supposed to be all torn down but because of some reason or another, it was saved. only 17 of the 30 or so hobbit houses are still there today. most everything else is gone, like the bridge and the mill and the tree above bags end. but the party tree is there- that is part of the farm and hey, bag's end is still there, theres even a small room built in where we went inside. it has suprisingly high ceilings for such a dinkly front door. there were colored stakes everywhere where certain events happened in the movie, like where gandolf came down the road with his wagon, where mat or perrin said this was the farthest he's been from the shire, where bilbo stood at the tree, the window where gandolf pulled matt/perrin in from outside the house, etc etc etc. tons of this stuff. no wonder the tour went on so long! the only thing was that the swamp is no longer there, and the pretty gardens are gone. the lake is there, its part of the farm like the tree. actually, those two things and the rolling hills there were why peter jackson decided to chose this place for the shire. perfect location. the perfect tree along the perfect lake with the perfect green hills. hehe we took lots of pictures. the guide told us that fans of LOTR actually would dress up as hobbits and have a party, complete with music right in front of the party tree. ppl would cos-play and reenact scenes! crazy... we didnt have those fans on our tour haha, tho it woulda been cool. darn! shoulda brought my hobbit clothes! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDu63_IWZXPPKa038fj9TSNLufpXA4YedOXFMX6ktCVwJQiAviqEgpuwNN4VFJhGaNcRLUyA-mavwyyHg7pYAKAhzjXZ4ANKNR92psUYiRx-GQfBT9FaTNdzoFgm02B_YvsSgeNJMLmqIR/s1600-h/P1010140.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDu63_IWZXPPKa038fj9TSNLufpXA4YedOXFMX6ktCVwJQiAviqEgpuwNN4VFJhGaNcRLUyA-mavwyyHg7pYAKAhzjXZ4ANKNR92psUYiRx-GQfBT9FaTNdzoFgm02B_YvsSgeNJMLmqIR/s320/P1010140.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341414464601666658" border="0" /></a>jk jk! after the shire, we went to the nearby sheep shearing farm to see a little lamb sheared right in front of our eyes...the poor thing. then i got myself a milk bottle and hungry lambs got turned loose right in the barn. i was just holding the bottle of milk and a lamb almost ran into me to suckle the bottle. so hungry and so eager. the tour had only say, 15 people and 3 bottles of milk between us. all of a sudden, people were crowded around me, cameras in my face with the lamb nursing the bottle i was holding. the lambs were so cute! there was another one that finished early and was just walking around the barn. he was so soft! hehe so we went back to town and ate a late lunch. the coachbus to go back to auckland was late and it was getting dark. it was a long drive back to auckland and we ate dinner (korean). we went to the cafe again to look at other places we could go.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 4</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0r2AOTfRZQcUHb64jaC2BJn0iNphxA-IyUOAaNpflfWICfWo4kOeAzhO7zLxhn8gFdI_q_ZNL6YOs_ypcnyuvUOhMBLZISvH7G6EYYdrs-ZcwYes48ZMBNc9XfbCgQ-3SuC6iril3TEe/s1600-h/P1010155.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0r2AOTfRZQcUHb64jaC2BJn0iNphxA-IyUOAaNpflfWICfWo4kOeAzhO7zLxhn8gFdI_q_ZNL6YOs_ypcnyuvUOhMBLZISvH7G6EYYdrs-ZcwYes48ZMBNc9XfbCgQ-3SuC6iril3TEe/s320/P1010155.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341412741553286386" border="0" /></a><br />today was cloudy and we just walked around downtown auckland. we window shopped for clothes and got some souvenirs. sean got his camera fixed. we ate lunch at a food court where they had yum cha. finally got my yum cha. it was not bad acutally. oh and there was boba too! quickly's acutally. i didnt know it was international. i was pretty happy. yum cha AND boba?! yes! we went to a internet cafe again, then went back and watched tv, then slept. we basically just chilled.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Day 5</span><br />we woke up later today and heard the rain and wind outside the window. gloomy and wet day =( we tried to contact airbus to get my bag back and they said it was found, but at the airport. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2Tky9AinuoM_aLLSkCNDWA62juGbSHNNNeSrY5wFnz2j41DoveAvIrcyDggOMAuUj_Hya0_BLMetXBIa9A1YrfMeCa4bvK9BLLKHK237m7foNFvjmcXizgxoI_gW2Ypn9JrLut-vCtQX/s1600-h/P1010158.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2Tky9AinuoM_aLLSkCNDWA62juGbSHNNNeSrY5wFnz2j41DoveAvIrcyDggOMAuUj_Hya0_BLMetXBIa9A1YrfMeCa4bvK9BLLKHK237m7foNFvjmcXizgxoI_gW2Ypn9JrLut-vCtQX/s320/P1010158.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341413090918720642" border="0" /></a>a relief off of my mind, though still. since there wasnt much we could do about it, we went to a thermal spring. haha. logical right? =p we took the bus to parakai springs. i wanted to go to another one but this place was cheap. since i didnt have my swimsuit, i had to buy one. i randomly bought one at a nearby opshop(opportunity shop, like salvation army or goodwill but hipper). i was so rushing, got it 15 min before the bus came. haha it was sooo cheap at $6.50 for a top! we took the 1.5 hour bus ride there and the springs was more of a local swimming spot. they had an indoor and outdoor pool where many families were gathered. the really cool thing was they had a giant slide (!!), like one of those you see at waterworld! the only thing was that the water was all hot. even the slides! we got a private spa aka a jacuzzi, also filled with hot thermal water. i got dizzy after a while. but it was really nice to soak in there. so warm....=] and bubbly =) the place definately wasnt a resort, nothing fancy at all. next time, ill treat myself to one of those. we took the bus back and at dinner at a chinese noddle place off of queens. it was soo good cause it almost tasted homemade, like something my mom would cook up. the lady who billed me even spoke to me in canto. do you know how long its been since ive spoken canto?! ah... =] back at the hostel, we did laundry and packed for tomorrow.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 6</span><br />we woke up early again and got on the 8:30 bus to wellsford. it was 1.5 hour ride and on the next leg, a lady from parakai beach picked us up to go horseback riding! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbz42wpBA-FDOj1XVMuxHxI2wwZ0JJYnKm12IJm_UpvdrG8DY6X4VgI_Xsvpw4kKSg9bImcHxkvu5etx8zBaxIGqHMHEsc9-F7sAoad-mBhgnr0fYH0arYC8gsacb8THOaw6K_NNeYCvJA/s1600-h/3238_1097948082616_1044030140_30469834_3283852_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbz42wpBA-FDOj1XVMuxHxI2wwZ0JJYnKm12IJm_UpvdrG8DY6X4VgI_Xsvpw4kKSg9bImcHxkvu5etx8zBaxIGqHMHEsc9-F7sAoad-mBhgnr0fYH0arYC8gsacb8THOaw6K_NNeYCvJA/s320/3238_1097948082616_1044030140_30469834_3283852_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328897021389969842" border="0" /></a>it took a while to get there, a long and windy road that passed though wide open green pastures with sheep grazing, so much sheep. sooo much sheep. seriously. so picturesque and new zealand hehe. =) we went horse riding on the beach for 2 hours wandering into the sand dunes with native wildlife and bushes. my butt and thighs hurt like hell. omg...i dont know how ppl horseback ride all day! it was a cold and windy day, even more so at the beach. but it was nice still. my 1st time riding on a horse and i was nervous but the guide was friendly and helped me out. the owner's dogs followed us out on our ride. after the 2 painful hours, we got off the horse on very shaky and legs. omg...it hurt to sit! we ate lunch there and discovered the farm a bit more. there was a little cat that we played with. oh and they have so many horses there! the same lady drove us back to town, we fell asleep in the car, so sore and tired. we walked a bit around town, as the ppl at the horse farm told us to walk it off to feel better while waiting for our coachbus to take us back. at the hostel, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijwS2H80TR-9dtUPzx22zqo_NkpLd5vz7Mwo4lNPxo1UPkPmvvKJU9Ks9LtCrfZlVxM4UWRvxcE5R_PYtH7pNVvYOmfqtc0L4cjW2B1kFogVx_KRiYfGD2eWncXXzvBL9TBeSY8TxZdQ6Y/s1600-h/3238_1097948162618_1044030140_30469836_8083494_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijwS2H80TR-9dtUPzx22zqo_NkpLd5vz7Mwo4lNPxo1UPkPmvvKJU9Ks9LtCrfZlVxM4UWRvxcE5R_PYtH7pNVvYOmfqtc0L4cjW2B1kFogVx_KRiYfGD2eWncXXzvBL9TBeSY8TxZdQ6Y/s320/3238_1097948162618_1044030140_30469836_8083494_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328896597872451218" border="0" /></a>we rang up airbus as someone called about the bag but the work day was over so i would have to wait until the next day. well, we didnt have that long cause our flight leaves at 5;30am. we quickly packed and ate dinner (korean) and took one of the last airbuses to the airport. we got in contact with airbus lost and found again and the guy said he found out a way for me to get my bag. we waited for a park n' ride bus which came around every 15 min all night to bring my bag to me. and i got it back! omg...a week without my clothes and toiltries and i survived (living off sean's stuff)!! now i know that i really can pack light. i didnt need all that stuff that was in my bag all this time! ha...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 7</span><br />we hung around the airport all night and checked in at 3am for our flight back to sydney, then transfering to canberra. i didn't sleep for 24 hours it seems. oh! oh! the plane ride back was interesting. i felt like we were on the wrong plane cause it was full of south americans. everything was in spanish. the pilot was spanish, all the attendents. the ppl who sat around me, the movies. (well, i set everything to english so i could understand) but the plane actually took us to sydney, and not brazil or something. lol thank god. the explanation: the plane was an affilate of qantas and mostly did flights to and from south america. i think this plane was stopping in new zealand from south america to australia. i watched how to lose a guy in 10 days but didnt have enough time to finish. we arrived in sydney airport which was now familiar to us. we transfered to a domestic flight but didnt make it in time to catch it. there were so many ppl like us that had to transfer and it took too long getting our bags, going thru custons to make it on the plane to canberra. but we took the next one out. it was a really small plane, we had to go on the tarmac and go up steps to get to the plane, didnt use the long hallway that connects you directly into the plane. ppl on the plane were all business suited up, probably politicians, or something ahah since we were going to canberra. we took the taxi back to bruce and i finally fell asleep, having not slept for 24 hours. phew long long day. but id go back to new zealand anytime. that dang island has waay too much stuff packed in there for tourist to do. you can spend half a year traveling around. hmm maybe i should do that... =pMaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-62449712264743049522009-04-24T22:54:00.000-07:002009-04-26T00:58:03.985-07:00Easter Break Travels - MelbourneI just came back from traveling a couple of days ago. My laptop broke and the stupid comps at school wont upload pics onto facebook. (we took alot of pics too) but i can still describe it in words here until we get that fixed =) we went to melbourne for 5 days then to new zealand, auckland for 7.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 1</span><br />me and sean left canberra early saturday morning and took a taxi to the airport. we got there at 7:30a and the place was completely empty. even our cab driver said it was strange how there were no other cars around. our plane to melbourne was delayed for an hour though. the really cool thing was that they(tiger airways) barely checked our bags, maybe not very legit as the plane ticket was so damn cheap. we had to actually walk down the tarmac to the plane and climb up steep stairs to get inside. have you ever had to do that? i mean, we didn't even had a gate! you just go outside and climb up the plane yourself! and then wen we landed, we didnt even go inside the airport! it was so shady haha it was just a 3 walled room and then a fenced gate where you collected your luggage and off you go. just go out the fenced gate and its the parking lot. we took the skybus shuttle to downtown and from there, got transfered to another shuttle that took us directly to our hostel, victoria hall. the skybus system was beautifully efficient and convienent. the city sure knows how to accomodate travelers. no taxi needed. wonderful. so we checked into our hostel. it was really clean and was newly renovated, walls painted with fun, bright colours. the rooms were nice too, although the people that you share with will make or break the experience. the ppl sean had in his room were rude and inconsiderate but my room had quiet people who minded their own business. everyone got their own little closet.actually, big enough to put a suitcase in, and then some. after we put down our stuff, we walked downtown and found the nearest hungry jack's lol. yes, yes. the tummy dictates us all haha =p oh and our hostel was right across the street from the city gaol (pronounced JAIL...XDD). they even have night tours....spooky... also if this is of interest, the infamous ned kelly was sentenced and hanged there. right across the street from us a hundred years ago. XD aaaanyway... we walked around the city a bit for the rest of the day- chinatown was the closest to us. we walked around <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYdeRtWLENuEQb2XlJw0zvOuCD674TIpcOSZQgJe9Ak-C-eae38xUUv_w45dBNkVRcQli6c68b9b_xwiYKASeAetPhXwXYrNgxrzqbk5rN2l1kdgL5oYRsUg77fqfN2R16syc1WhUaELh/s1600-h/3238_1097604234020_1044030140_30468732_7252947_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYdeRtWLENuEQb2XlJw0zvOuCD674TIpcOSZQgJe9Ak-C-eae38xUUv_w45dBNkVRcQli6c68b9b_xwiYKASeAetPhXwXYrNgxrzqbk5rN2l1kdgL5oYRsUg77fqfN2R16syc1WhUaELh/s320/3238_1097604234020_1044030140_30468732_7252947_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328893629503448610" border="0" /></a>Queen Victoria Market for the 1st time. thats where they sell lots of fresh fruit and veggies along with meat, and clothes, shoes, souvenirs, your basic flea market sorta. it was really really crowded! downtown was really crowded too! i think even more crowded than sydney! later we were told that melbourne has wider streets than sydney because it was made for horse carridges, and not just a temporary settlement. but yea,even at night, the streets were so busy. i wish canberra was like that. we ate at a restaurant at a chinatown arcade and went back to the hostel. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv3rQQf5uVvnbdzuypEhnIZhnDShCCRmH-UM4gIWue_u6wCPUnoImyTr9mNKXd-keu8qXMwHVbjc__wxkN0bamMIwAYnRP1lw9SwGeT1rxXPu0cLYsczyQt190iVFIEAHLWoxnO_xX1gbq/s1600-h/3238_1097604674031_1044030140_30468743_5602558_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv3rQQf5uVvnbdzuypEhnIZhnDShCCRmH-UM4gIWue_u6wCPUnoImyTr9mNKXd-keu8qXMwHVbjc__wxkN0bamMIwAYnRP1lw9SwGeT1rxXPu0cLYsczyQt190iVFIEAHLWoxnO_xX1gbq/s320/3238_1097604674031_1044030140_30468743_5602558_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328894261667156258" border="0" /></a>then we walked around some more, passing through more night life and eventually making our way to the skydeck. it was real pretty up there, seeing the night skyline. there were even fireworks near the 2 stadiums and a little fire show along the harbour. very nice and peaceful.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 2</span><br />we woke up at 8:30 and ate a sad breakfast of canned sardines (they were good! and cheap!), crackers and museli bars (granola bars). we walked the rest of queen victoria market, that place is huge! we got there early so alot of the vendors were still setting up shop but as we walked along, the place got more and more crowded again, although less people than the day before. probably because it was easter sunday. we ate lunch at the foodcourt there and took the city tour bus (especially made for tourists, the city is very thoughful) that went around the city, the harbour docks, the botanical garden and domain. the bus was really crowded and i sat next to an old shanghainese lady who talked to me in mandarin, making conversation. omg my mandarin is sooo bad now, but i could still talk to her somehow heh. we jumped off the bus at federation square where there was a street performer surrounded by lots of people. we was just juggling fire and such atop a pole he was clinging onto held straight by a few ppl from the crowd. after he was done, we went to the tourist centre and waited a long ass time to book a tour for later in the week, the penguin parade tour. i found the cheapest one at just under $100 per person. we walked back to the hostel from there stopping by the melbourne library, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKw-fIrstctuHQDHSwKjOVKcgFDUsdGCc-YTctDorXrPTuRxUDi2CZbVYZqKYpt4BBc-hLn3a4JtE503NDHxBb0DCtgJu1De1_T4hev9Z0gaFogIe2OuOqCK1sA-CIUg0R8_7mKq0fIih/s1600-h/3238_1097605354048_1044030140_30468759_1291973_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKw-fIrstctuHQDHSwKjOVKcgFDUsdGCc-YTctDorXrPTuRxUDi2CZbVYZqKYpt4BBc-hLn3a4JtE503NDHxBb0DCtgJu1De1_T4hev9Z0gaFogIe2OuOqCK1sA-CIUg0R8_7mKq0fIih/s320/3238_1097605354048_1044030140_30468759_1291973_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328894614050065826" border="0" /></a>which was gorgeous. id say it can compete with doe library although this library wasnt as big. the central room had high high ceilings with old desks arranged like rays of the sun from a centre dais. really magnificent. oh free internet. sean was getting regretful that he didnt bring his laptop. in the side rooms, we played a game of chess there haha. sean won -_- then the library was closing so we went back to the hostel to drop off things and went to eat at lygon street with the concentration of italian restaurants. really though, one side of the street were the italian restaurants and the other side were the chinese, japanese, malay, korean haha. they lied when they said it was all italian! but we ate at an italian one that sean chose cause the restaurant had the same name as him. it was a really bad place, dont go there. we ate at those outdoor tables along the sidewalk, but we sat right next to a table of blokes smoking all the while. not pleasant. oh and they dont let you byo unless it's wine. booo. right next to lygon street was the museum and imaxx theatre but all was closed so we walked back to the hostel and we turned in for the night? nope, the cool thing about our hostel is that they had their own little theatre room, huge screen and plush seats. hehe we watched autumn rush and we drank some skyblue too =)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 3</span><br />sean didnt wake up and i<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsO7BdhkRYrzd47b4uf78XYkROvB_VXnt9s7OqgyFEpu8NzZ1HrbX5hsJJboIU834TCbVby6S3T2X4v7ErD9zLPeXHlg4u1V7ng_LMl2pDV4Tv32BVd4C6m9frn9p9pdX94kfNyCyNSfsD/s1600-h/3238_1097605754058_1044030140_30468769_573817_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsO7BdhkRYrzd47b4uf78XYkROvB_VXnt9s7OqgyFEpu8NzZ1HrbX5hsJJboIU834TCbVby6S3T2X4v7ErD9zLPeXHlg4u1V7ng_LMl2pDV4Tv32BVd4C6m9frn9p9pdX94kfNyCyNSfsD/s320/3238_1097605754058_1044030140_30468769_573817_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328894941061546674" border="0" /></a> was mad at him cause he didnt set his alarm. he didnt get much sleep that night cause of the bad ppl in his room drunk and talking loudly. today we went shopping on famous collins and burke street! actually i couldnt find anything to buy so it was really only window shopping. but thats ok, everything was really expensive, all retail stores. we stopped by the block arcade and royal arcade too. then we ate at that same chinese restaurant cause sean really liked their chili sauce. haha. it was a pretty popular restaurant, it was crowded to capacity at every moment. we finished off window shopping and went to imaxx hoping to see watchmen. unfortunately, it wouldnt be showing the days we were free so we watched alien vs monsters instead. in 3-D!! alriiight. hehe then we went back to the hostel haha feeling a little nauseous. the screen was really big O.O 3rd largest in the world or something. then we had dinner at a japanese restaurant where we had our first taste of hot sake. haha and sean burned his tongue a bit. yea, i definately like it more than beer. very fragrant and doesnt burn alot. only if its hot tho, wen it cools down, it tastes bad. along the street, especially around chinatown, theres a few aracade game places, you know, the racing cars and shooting people and ddr. we went there cause sean is always pulled by it and played a few games. each game cost $2 to play! so expensive!!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 4</span><br />we woke up even earlier this day and went to victoria market, which was very close to our hostel, we realized. we got some fresh fruit. yumyum. it was also the last chance to buy stuff. i got a heat pack, and a dress. haha, of course a dress. im still a sucker for th<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPASYjN-QvbYXgsBSyQhbAdSvEW1ZHIazd5LqbWDLNrAeeYiU6h_aQC9wPgSCSo2Tj1OiIRxBDLBzsytPv27MOukmm-NdjsQDz5IOHnxCayz9XVMS_hhfWyx1lW6rOTIalJ_KJ2PvjNuq/s1600-h/3238_1097614234270_1044030140_30468836_2349617_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPASYjN-QvbYXgsBSyQhbAdSvEW1ZHIazd5LqbWDLNrAeeYiU6h_aQC9wPgSCSo2Tj1OiIRxBDLBzsytPv27MOukmm-NdjsQDz5IOHnxCayz9XVMS_hhfWyx1lW6rOTIalJ_KJ2PvjNuq/s320/3238_1097614234270_1044030140_30468836_2349617_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328895256248746178" border="0" /></a>at. sean was sad that he couldnt get anything, but it's true that things there were cheap quality. we went back to the hostel where the phillip island tour was picking us up. we were the first ones to get picked up and the bus dropped us off the tour office where we waited for a few more people to join us. total, there were 22 people on the tour plus a little kid. not bad. i still have nightmares about the huge tourgroup to the east coast. (just kidding, phil.) we drove to moonlit sanctuary where dingos, a koala, and many wallabies run free in the wild! just kidding. but there was a little forest trail where wallabies were hiding. we tried to coax them out but only had a little luck. oh the tour guide, bernie, even had an emu pecking/eating out of his hand! scary bird. we had a short lunch there, then off to a winery! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5nW-EmH9jmoBC_yc2aoxtGFMouzBdtVrBZVaZmXPO0DCdN0I4G67Rl4yyDINuWgYK7ExCocviq11XY8cYtNoJu623lgP5X8R9-1jPqVlK-UOao8C6kS17bWDzzIdiIKKUVkrlQJeLI8H/s1600-h/3238_1097941282446_1044030140_30469798_5836924_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5nW-EmH9jmoBC_yc2aoxtGFMouzBdtVrBZVaZmXPO0DCdN0I4G67Rl4yyDINuWgYK7ExCocviq11XY8cYtNoJu623lgP5X8R9-1jPqVlK-UOao8C6kS17bWDzzIdiIKKUVkrlQJeLI8H/s320/3238_1097941282446_1044030140_30469798_5836924_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328895542928898194" border="0" /></a>yeah! i picked this tour out of all the other ones cause this one had the wine tasting hehe. mmm and the wine was good. i could sorta taste the difference between the different wines now, red and white. we even had some fortified wine. and now me and sean are looking everywhere for our favorite: white port. grrrr and we still cant find anywhere that sells it! after this, we finally headed down onto the island where we stopped at wiamia(?) beach. it was nice to see the beach again, sunny and sparkly in all its glory. very windy <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhph_NFPQFuEqvYB-j-ZmyfFMlP0La0iufJUcNbikH4-SG3h0SQSyh0hls7oZKI9UxukIxyS3asPTqA4lGi22QCLteLmz85gJU4XDC0rmurW2ckp2_kYnyx-nTQ-b1lBsH3gHPpLfcryDA8/s1600-h/3238_1097941762458_1044030140_30469810_1703204_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhph_NFPQFuEqvYB-j-ZmyfFMlP0La0iufJUcNbikH4-SG3h0SQSyh0hls7oZKI9UxukIxyS3asPTqA4lGi22QCLteLmz85gJU4XDC0rmurW2ckp2_kYnyx-nTQ-b1lBsH3gHPpLfcryDA8/s320/3238_1097941762458_1044030140_30469810_1703204_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328895778329181826" border="0" /></a>too, the sun was about to be setting soon then. we headed to nookie island, all the way on the western side where we walked along the rugged cliffs, with platforms for the tourists and the sun really was setting now. quite beautiful: water, clouds and sun. and still very windy. finally we drove to the penguin parade site. the bleachers were all full by then and they wouldnt let us even crouch on the remaining ledges (it was wet) so it was either sit there, getting your butt wet or sitting on the sand, closer to the beach, and still getting your bum wet. we sat on the sand, the closest you can get to the penguins and a nice lady gave us a large brochure (waterproof) for us to sit on. everyone waited for the sky to get darker, the floodlits came on and aftera while, the penguins popped out of the surf! ....and dove right back in! then in little groups, they would waddle up to the sand, and all of a sudden, they would race back into the water! a few minutes later, they would come up again and do it all over again haha. they're not very brave, are they? but so cute!! and so small!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjANbA3A2hAQcMsxcxokndAFAql_QUbilU_4qt5zHyB3Jpc9etuU1N1Ft-J_k-sWi2Ijh9wfUZKhwpAzpD32DzzN5vweqe7MLz0ahQ5UCtqdA8IVVVzmw02P-29qiBXwAA3YIEKlAxiyosy/s1600-h/3238_1097941842460_1044030140_30469812_1804977_n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjANbA3A2hAQcMsxcxokndAFAql_QUbilU_4qt5zHyB3Jpc9etuU1N1Ft-J_k-sWi2Ijh9wfUZKhwpAzpD32DzzN5vweqe7MLz0ahQ5UCtqdA8IVVVzmw02P-29qiBXwAA3YIEKlAxiyosy/s320/3238_1097941842460_1044030140_30469812_1804977_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328895843108540690" border="0" /></a> we watched this little show until they got brave enought to venture all the way onto the sand, leaving the waters behind and into the bushes, past the bleachers to find their home. there are the smallest penguins in the world, just over a foot tall. very very small and adorable. after a while, the crowd got bored and started to leave (it was pretty cold out there) but you could still see the penguins waddling up the beach and up to their burrow. and if you turned your attention away from the penguins to look up into the sky, you would be breathless. the sky was full of stars, concentrated into a milky white band stretching across the sky. i wasnt the only one walking and bumping into people, face up looking at the sky. so, while i was oogling at the starts, sean steered me throught the crowd haha to go back to warmth and food. it was amazing to finally see the milky way. no light pollution and the sky so dark, with so many sparkling white diamonds there in the milky way, so many you couldnt count. *sigh* =] we were also very hungry, not eating much since we left, our fruit hoard was long gone. we left the island at 9pm and ate at the pizza place. i scarfed down like 5 slices. by the time we got back to melbourne, it was 10:30p and time to turn in for the night, bringing back 2 little stuffed penguin plushies, gifts courtesy of the tour. i definately recommend this tour.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 5</span><br />we ventured into an asian supermarket to get asian snacks and green tea. it was like $2 for 2 litres! super ridiculously cheap!! oh and we went into the victoria library this time for the exhibit about books. (sean finally gave in and let me go see it. hey, i was excited, the geek i am.) then we went back to the hostel to take a nap, or at least sean did. he moved into my room cause his roommates were so bad. at night, we went out to dinner at a pho place. i was missing my pho. back at the hostel, we chilled and watched 2 movies from the hostel theatre room. we watched sweeny todd, which wasnt as scary the 2nd time you watch it, and we watched the illusionist, which was scary, at least for me. after those two movies, we went to back well past midnight<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 6</span><br />we had to wake up early the next day to check out and take the shuttle bus to the airpot. it was a 3.5 hour planeride to auckland with a really fat guy sitting next to me. you know, one of those people who can just barely fit into their seat. yea. XD but it was a pleasant ride. qantas airlines is really good! they kept us hydrated with popsicles and good food. i mean, what airlines hands out popsicles?!! very nice touch. compared to qantas, united airlines sucks. mostly cause they dont have your own screen to watch movies. qantas does! i bet almost every airlines has it, cept united. i dont want to think about the flight back to sfo with united. *shiver* now that i have experienced qantas. so anyway, we took the airbus shuttle from the airport once we landed which took us near our hostel. and just like that, 2 minutes after we got off, we realized i forgot to take my luggage off the bus. we decided to pursue the matter later, cause we were starving and discovered that the neighborhood our hostel was in was smack in the middle of korean town or something. the restaurants that lined the street was; korean, korean, chinese/korean, korean, korean, korean, japanese/korean, korean. yea...the hostel manager was even korean! and very nice lady too, who advised us how to best track down my duffel bag, with all my clothes and toiletries!! i tried to phone the bus company but my phone eventually died, saying i had no credit left. bullshit. this is what ive learned: vodaphone au =/= vodaphone nz. your vodaphone credit in oz doesnt work in nz, nor does any credit you buy in nz work toward your phone if your sim card is australian. so DO NOT buy vodaphone vouchers in nz. they do not work. i have $40 of vodaphone nz credit if anyone wants it. T.T sigh. well at least our room at the hostel, (called BK hostel) was ok. until at night...... we got a room that overlooked the main street, where the clubs rock their music till late at night. ugh. we walked down the street later the next few days and found that we were in the middle of nightclubs, stripping joints and sex toy shops galore. wonderful. lol the good thing was that we were pretty tired at the end of the day to notice too much the noise at night. oh and our room was the only in the hostel to have our own TV! yes! ...with only 2 channels. >.<;Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-11451686321276092202009-04-01T21:33:00.000-07:002009-04-03T19:52:54.187-07:00Pictures galore!yayy so finally pics? =D yes. that's right. i havent been updating with pictures, but here they are, when i am procrastinating my hw! no haha.. ive been having trouble getting stable internet. ugh its so slow here!! its driving me crazy!!<div><br /></div><div>Earth Hour 2009: Chiefly field on campus, not very exciting, mostly just sausage feast (ie free BBQ hehe, can u see the line on the far left?) and entertainment for 3 hours >.<<br /><br />Sean's Bio Fieldtrips: He went to Jervis Bay, with its absolutely gorgeous beaches and a huge ass national park that apparently took 3 hours of walking to walk thru in order to actually get to the beach. then there was Kiolia, somewhere along the bay, not as famous as Jervis Bay's beaches. but still pretty darn nice. His last fieldtrip is this w eekend (right now) at the Snowy mountains. The 2nd to last pic is a blue squid ( i think.) he was stepping on them and they made popping noises, he said.<br /><div><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2-eFwleWGcDaWD0ksQJuadIxrkN700PcjmC2SuCeVq_eDdrQ5iQboVxUXaBd8yRoSNRwUt9mu_XA-C-THabM4-iNcokP9Akm8NGoovJVdR82vYSBfgwrfJ2FWgLVoJY-3-m3b3irR_7A/s320/DSC07765.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319950920121061810" border="0" /></div></div><div><div> <div> <div> <div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGf6UzOo5GxoiCoPGL0I9ONVEhqo58telzuxxahksDrcQfdGJMZFb70j2BNB7XL1VRB6bjW5U8Vs92sy9_2wpDD4Jgw4_xKFIJasSLe30mp-nckly0egQWBW3PqmX90g_v9E3rHeLxjtU/s1600-h/DSC07768.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGf6UzOo5GxoiCoPGL0I9ONVEhqo58telzuxxahksDrcQfdGJMZFb70j2BNB7XL1VRB6bjW5U8Vs92sy9_2wpDD4Jgw4_xKFIJasSLe30mp-nckly0egQWBW3PqmX90g_v9E3rHeLxjtU/s320/DSC07768.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320657558596057634" border="0" /></a></div> </div> </div> </div></div><div><div> </div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div> <div> </div> </div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg53_T3UL1x2vv_gRsFLPtbDRnL73KcCnwLci5L-beu8Rjzc_wI3OrBHLxV7mvHkVBN-dlZuPSy4n0wyPVCmfC33_xrESwZsqKJE1m84-JRHC0TEqKpTiTxtIlT6g6UUTcuRfs92XWkLEs/s1600-h/DSC07774.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg53_T3UL1x2vv_gRsFLPtbDRnL73KcCnwLci5L-beu8Rjzc_wI3OrBHLxV7mvHkVBN-dlZuPSy4n0wyPVCmfC33_xrESwZsqKJE1m84-JRHC0TEqKpTiTxtIlT6g6UUTcuRfs92XWkLEs/s320/DSC07774.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320657877702765922" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsEsmvqBz-0AjWML9TA864MczcmbwbQ-LkoDSUXfvePtYTgDtkadftNAs-X0fjGfnBMB_Ds6QhrG-Yq_eS0OUof13YR4T4tTCUKq7iIrU5qYoyFUSo8M5DU5XKqjnyq2-w4usaWe9row_c/s1600-h/DSC07772.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsEsmvqBz-0AjWML9TA864MczcmbwbQ-LkoDSUXfvePtYTgDtkadftNAs-X0fjGfnBMB_Ds6QhrG-Yq_eS0OUof13YR4T4tTCUKq7iIrU5qYoyFUSo8M5DU5XKqjnyq2-w4usaWe9row_c/s320/DSC07772.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320658014617546290" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3IgffPLPcd_HaWMYWnJYGgDC5vMwl2AYfJrKSFSUX2-jioxBtKTM3sKvm4TN09mU0wG5piirdQVIN_OIdTSDGwOxLsltWoMDJgUsQBPjDHXs_mQn2NYE53wd1eLwzxCuI8YgZbCGFuX9/s1600-h/DSC07726.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3IgffPLPcd_HaWMYWnJYGgDC5vMwl2AYfJrKSFSUX2-jioxBtKTM3sKvm4TN09mU0wG5piirdQVIN_OIdTSDGwOxLsltWoMDJgUsQBPjDHXs_mQn2NYE53wd1eLwzxCuI8YgZbCGFuX9/s320/DSC07726.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320659522349221730" border="0" /></a></div> <img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZsSt8J3auKbvPK_b7liRcEE-t4Op1UrHnmVZe-oJRP5tqBkzVHSrAkzF1Jbhr1bIlorp-nWlyBP5wB6ng_N-aWlGKqKx11FPgaLc_EtXCCPP0VkuBgD6h4UHMkHTux8fT-MXTfjISRZnt/s320/DSC07720.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319952733905028130" border="0" /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXxNuGkaBmiNGKHFvxdOG5-abdDMoeorndqxAb24fKr8AQ6gGMrCPiMJ1GSag_zV7kLKF32kwsIV9_tnORiD3Ok8ketAfmj_GGHrdAEbpMyXdH1o8rwiR4UCGV3ejXye-51v05K_ofFgt/s1600-h/DSC07676.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXxNuGkaBmiNGKHFvxdOG5-abdDMoeorndqxAb24fKr8AQ6gGMrCPiMJ1GSag_zV7kLKF32kwsIV9_tnORiD3Ok8ketAfmj_GGHrdAEbpMyXdH1o8rwiR4UCGV3ejXye-51v05K_ofFgt/s320/DSC07676.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320659368285466722" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_41ir-wKK58lL7ZrgWoW1kzPJFyTtSbfOuDLaDV_CsATNbpvL1InP-NSzOgCP_iVpkO5gCUb4i5yb-42OK5-TRGryRbR-NhzntGa6Tme7cxo9HD7Kw7_8Yid4n_xM3YPkJrzfSnLNvwKd/s1600-h/DSC07742.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_41ir-wKK58lL7ZrgWoW1kzPJFyTtSbfOuDLaDV_CsATNbpvL1InP-NSzOgCP_iVpkO5gCUb4i5yb-42OK5-TRGryRbR-NhzntGa6Tme7cxo9HD7Kw7_8Yid4n_xM3YPkJrzfSnLNvwKd/s320/DSC07742.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320660962539048146" border="0" /></a> <div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGBe1inve3biJeiJleOH6EvEMr95zDBPzvEfyFqRczDC_GuiNs_sa_IGt_zHAF_TGz3K8InXle2X8JSznqGsMichhengfyNg4_xvyy0OV90wY7y-M8Ka5CQ1VH0QW-UOQbbcnXr1NA4NI/s1600-h/DSC07755.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGBe1inve3biJeiJleOH6EvEMr95zDBPzvEfyFqRczDC_GuiNs_sa_IGt_zHAF_TGz3K8InXle2X8JSznqGsMichhengfyNg4_xvyy0OV90wY7y-M8Ka5CQ1VH0QW-UOQbbcnXr1NA4NI/s320/DSC07755.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320661834933295282" border="0" /></a></div> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdXxNuGkaBmiNGKHFvxdOG5-abdDMoeorndqxAb24fKr8AQ6gGMrCPiMJ1GSag_zV7kLKF32kwsIV9_tnORiD3Ok8ketAfmj_GGHrdAEbpMyXdH1o8rwiR4UCGV3ejXye-51v05K_ofFgt/s1600-h/DSC07676.JPG"></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZX1d96tVa9Ko8PQpXTRkzpPRZlFHu3V7PLv2mghyTIjmh6Xsi0BHnVzcX4aOW8gOdvYRxoXiy23On8_KBMTI0EMgpNaAnwRDzhAofbM0Z6Gw9-v-XaGsi4DMo4lmwxZMWWkuQpqWxej-/s1600-h/DSC07695.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZX1d96tVa9Ko8PQpXTRkzpPRZlFHu3V7PLv2mghyTIjmh6Xsi0BHnVzcX4aOW8gOdvYRxoXiy23On8_KBMTI0EMgpNaAnwRDzhAofbM0Z6Gw9-v-XaGsi4DMo4lmwxZMWWkuQpqWxej-/s320/DSC07695.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320659708458502658" border="0" /></a></div> </div>Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-19852989469786735082009-03-25T21:02:00.000-07:002009-03-25T21:14:03.139-07:00Noticingsomg my convo analysis prof always uses that. noticings. "lets have a look at the noticings" XD they also use 'have a think' alot alot... i snicker inside everytime they say that.<br /><br />another thing that was quite curious were arcades. there were big arcades in sydney, and a small one here in canberra. i was like ooooOoOo an arcade! but i didnt really see any flashy games or loud arcade-y sounds. rather, here, they are just an open air mall, sorta. dang it!! they even have big letters at the entrace: ARCADE. suckered me in....XD<br /><br />oh yea, and since im in an ex-british land, they say cheers alot. i'm not really sure what it means but you can use it in alot of situations. i looked it up http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:-wZEh6x8xEwJ:www.english-test.net/newsletter/well-hello-96.html+when+can+you+use+expression+cheers&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk and i guess that helped. but seriously, wen i come back to the states, i should just say cheers every other sentence hahaha.<br /><br />actually, ive never heard anyone say g'day. ppl say 'how ya goin' alot more. so much for that so called overused aussie expression.<br /><br />last one:<br />sms=texting. isnt that more syllables? lol i think its just US that says texting. if you say 'sms me' or something. us americans'll go huh??<br /><br />i almost get run over cause i still dont know which way to look first when i cross the road and if you look wrong, and start to cross and a car is coming, you'll most likely be hit cause drivers arent lawfully bidden to yield to pesky pedestrians. so much for being courteous on the road. i jaywalk so much and i take it for granted that they'll slow down for me. but NOOOO they don't!! ive got to be more careful aiya...<br /><br />okies, imma put up pics later. sean went on another bio fieldtrip to the beach, darn him. he even saw the stars at night, the milky way and everything!!*cries*Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-71953183713171462592009-03-14T22:36:00.000-07:002009-03-14T22:48:08.225-07:00Essay....x.xi just finished my 1,000 word essay that is due tomorrow morning and i just started this morning ha! actually its like barely 900 words cause they give you 10% leeway- min of 900, max of 1100 words. but omg writing essays here in australia is really hard! its such a high level of expectation. i spent all day doing this essay which would have been so easy to do back home. the deathkill here is they ask for referencing. usually i just write and blab haha, then again, linguistics dont really make you write essays much. good thing this wasnt like an english essay where you need a thesis. this "essay" was just answering a question that was answered in lecture, if you were paying attention so i was like shoot! how will i make my answer long enough for the essay?!<br />they use harvard style referencing which is not what im used to. they also dont indent paragraphs- you start skip a line to start the new paragraph there so it seems like your essay is really long but its not. and since they dont set the essay by how long it is, you cant do all those tricks with font and page setting like you can in the states. dang it!! but anyway, i hate referencing. it takes so much time and i had to figure out how to use the journals online. its not very good, unlike the ones cal provides. but yea...im beat. x.x time for nap.Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-42722406487200562272009-03-14T16:18:00.000-07:002009-03-13T22:18:49.414-07:00mmm i found my new favorite drink: irish cream and coca cola mixed. SOOo good... its like root beer float, with a kick! =D<br /><br />other news: oh yea, its my birthday. but no one here knows that. ppl back home know because its on fb but no one uses fb here. <br /><br />wow. it is POURING outside as i type. i just got back from civic too. good thing i came back in time. <br /><br />sean is on his botany fieldtrip. it sounds like he's having a good time, walking thru forest, seeing kangyroos, chilling with his classmates drinking lol. but he's there with his class to collect plant specimans. right. <br /><br />what will i do? go see a movie haha. after all it is the weekends and anu film group has movies 4 days of the week =]<br /><br />i think ill go drink my booze and listen to the rain. its so refreshing =DMaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-4987284869692983822009-03-09T17:59:00.000-07:002009-03-10T04:15:50.509-07:00ANU tipsthose fucking bastards. libraries are just out to shit you. i got fined $80 cause apparently my books got recalled by someone and that means the old due date no longer applies. who the fuck does that? i mean, u check out a book, you get it for 3 weeks. you're happily reading them, havent finished and then a little fuck comes along and snatches it away from you just cause they can.<br /><br />now the question is, should i write a pissy letter of appeal to those bastards? or should i play nice and bomb the place? no? alright, ill pay the fucking $80.<br /><br />moral of story: check your snail mail everyday cause thats how satan rolls. (they alert you to recalls by the default way: mail.) fuck them.<br /><br />at yu-xuan: there, you got more cursing out of me<br /><br />at everyone else: yea, im mad.Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-54715096575195792272009-03-08T03:26:00.000-07:002009-03-08T03:37:27.505-07:00Weekend ClassesThis weekend was the first weekend of a 2 weekend course. we got lecture from 9a to 4p with an hour lunch break in the middle. we have hours and hours of lecture... ugh. but it only lasts a total of 4 days, since we do both saturday and sunday. oh yea and the course is called lanugage in asia, where they consolidate the undergrad and grad together into this one course. actually, its more like 4 classes put together cause the you(undergrad or grad) also have the option of doing the essay assignments in an asian language and that counts as a different course number. but its the same class. im being confusing. anyway, the lectures are really interesting. so far we talked about javanese, east-timor, singapore english, chinese writing, tagalog and its only half way over! other than that, im exhausted at the end of the day. its pretty tough, this intensive class. we also have lots of essay writing and omg im so scared at all the researching and writing that is expected of you here at this uni and generally in australia! i mean, i kno i kno, they warned us. at least i dont have to do it in another languge which would have happend if i went to a different country. tomorrow is canberra day so everyone gets a 3 day weekend! (cept i had class...) next weekend, sean is going on a fieldtrip for one of his bio classes. he's got his mosquito repellent, his tagging labels, and he's even got a hat! yay haha. actually, he'll be going on 3 different fieldtrips for each of his bio classes. that's pretty cool!! i wish i could go...! linguists. boooo. always into their data sets and never going anywhere! lol thats not true tho i wish we had fieldtrips tooMaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-57603238257494862852009-03-05T18:11:00.003-08:002009-03-05T18:12:52.656-08:00Missing out.Dear Cal Students:<br /><br />It is with great pleasure that we announce that His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama has<br />accepted an invitation from the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies and<br />the American Himalayan Foundation to present his talk Peace Through Compassion, on<br />Saturday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m. in The William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre. Doors<br />will open at 12 p.m.<br /><br />Please visit the official website for more information about tickets and security at<br /><a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/dl/" target="_blank">http://www.berkeley.edu/dl/</a><br /><br />Yours sincerely,<br /><br />Robert J. Birgeneau<br />Chancellor<br /><br />*cry cry cry* i can't make it! why does berkeley have cool events the semester im gone????Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-61487192391973172922009-03-05T00:01:00.000-08:002009-03-05T00:20:47.469-08:00No worriesi like it here how ppl are so relaxed, laid back and happy. (and probably getting skin cancer) they just go to pubs, drink and talk....and talk and talk...>.< im not that sort of person unfortunately. it feels like slow torture if i have to put myself in that setting. im getting off course. so anyway, this is usually what happens:<br />A: Thank you!<br />B: No worries *smiles*<br />=D so far i havent heard anyone saying "you're welcome". actually, when people say thank you to me, im not even sure what im supposed to say. no one says you're welcome. should i say 'you're welcome'? or 'no worries'?<br /><br />during eap orientation, kay warned us that we might find that something thats quite ordinary in the US, they might not have here and you'll be so perplexed as to why on earth could australia not have it? her thing was baby carrots. australia simply does not have baby carrots. they have the regular kind of long carrots youd have to peel and such. but no baby carrots. ive found my thing: there is no boba in canberra!! oh google map mocks me and says there boba places in sydney. which is 3 and a half hours away. but in my small pathetic town there is no pearl milk tea. as a result, i am dearly DEARLY misssing my boba....*cry cry* when i go to melbourne, im going straight to their chinatown and getting me some milk tea T.T<br /><br />but there is one thing i am getting accustomed to. ppl here go to bed early and wake up early. makes a man healthy wealthy and wise. lol i couldnt resist putting that in. so, early as in around 10pm and early as in 7 or 8am. that's early for a berkeley college student! but its quite a refreshing change. you wake up early and the glaring afternoon sun hasnt shown its UV death rays completely and the air is nice and breezy. most of my classes are in the morning so by 2pm it feels like the day is almost over. ive done all that i needed, gone to my classes, even done some of my reading already. if this was berkeley, id probably have just eaten my first meal of the day and gotten up only a couple hours before. XD i guess because we wake up early, or actually we are forced to wake up early if you want a hot breakfast, we go to sleep early. late late for me here is midnight. i havent stayed up later than that, i usually try to be in bed by 10p. i guess the meal times here at bruce dictate my schedule. breakfast ends at 9am so i have to be up by then. lunch is at the normal noon-ish time. dinner ends at 6:30 so i have to have eaten by then and before you know it, its 9 or 10 and you go to sleep. well, theoretically, because my floor is the loudest in my wing so i cant exactly fall asleep by then. it would be wonderful if i could. i like getting my sleep. and lots of it.<br /><br />that is why like any other college student, i sleep in on weekends. it doesnt matter which country im in haha<br /><br />other news: im learning an aboriginal language! it sounds like they dont have teeth when you try to speak it (no fricatives that's why, very strange)Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-59229136031236873512009-03-04T02:10:00.000-08:002009-03-10T01:01:02.593-07:00ANU tipsIf you want to get an australian bank account, use the commonwealth bank because a) theres a branch on campus right in union court and b) you can apply for an account before you're actually in australia. this beats standing in line during 0-week to set up an account because everyone else is trying to do the same thing. instead of standing in the LONG line that never moved to get a commonwealth account, i just went to the regular bank teller's window and it was alot faster. (i had applied online right before i left the US) also, its a good idea to wire money over as soon as you know the account number of the australian bank, before you leave but there are service fees on both sides - commonwealth and wells fargo charged me. the only down side is that i got the student type account and i have yet to figure out how to access my card in order to know the balance, and whether or not i get statements. (so far, i dont think so) its more convienent in the US cause you can just go online to look at a glance at your bank acccount but here, there's more obstacles in order to be able to do that. booooo!!<br />the only thing about the commonwealth bank is that since its right on campus, its pretty popular and so far, everytime i walk by, i see a long long line for the atm. >.< that is why i go on movie nights, which is at dusk, on my way to the movies cause there's fewer people by then and sean's with me.<br /><br />also, get your school supplies, ie notebooks especially, before 0-week or as soon as possible. well.. at least that applies if you want to get the cheapest notebooks (its expensive here!), which is at big w (i got the spirax brand, which is bad only if you use pencil cause it doesnt erase well on this paper) cause wen i went back in a week, the entire aisle of shelves were empty. O.O also, im having a hard time finding folders... another thing, i brought a binder from the US but my handouts don't fit inside! that's cause the folders are perfect for 8.5 by 11 paper but ppl use A4 paper here! agh! i wish someone told me this! the binder's useless, my handouts are hanging out cause the binder's too short for it! the school newsagency, which is like the asuc store i suppose, doesn't have very many kinds of school merchandise or even very many of the ones they do stock. im surprised at how little variety they have in ANU logo-ed T-shirts (they're pretty ugly and too simple and of course, very expensive) . they don't even have ANU logo-ed folders....i need a pretty folder...=( ok ok im asking for too much. this town is too small....! freaking 300,000 people!! last thing is you can get free diary (planner) at the ASUC undergrad association and free wall month planner and highlighters at the Co-op but the highlighters get taken quickly. so grab a huge fistful -you'll need alot as the pen's ink runs out fast-its cheap, but free! =DMaggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5082603183817164714.post-3472480128959378192009-03-02T16:57:00.001-08:002009-03-02T17:27:00.383-08:00Iono about smaller updates...<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Cuz</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">im</span></span> lazy and i find new things everyday but i <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">dont</span></span> want to post stuff up everyday... so it'll just get crammed into bigger ones whenever i feel like updating..which is right now! =)<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">okies</span></span> so i <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">dont</span></span> have class on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">mondays</span></span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">fridays</span></span>. w00t! but in this little town, it <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">doesnt</span></span> mean its good....there's NOTHING to do here! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">sean</span></span> still has the regular 5 day week so we cant go anywhere for the weekend. two days <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">isnt</span></span> enough. but anyway, i went to the 3 block mall on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">monday</span></span>, just trying to figure out how to navigate the maze that is the mall. yes, my sense of direction is terrible, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">ok</span></span>? well, of course, i got lost... but its <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">ok</span></span> cause i got everything that i needed, although i was frustrated that target didn't sell <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">band aids</span> or earplugs (i figured out you have to go to the chemist for that, which is like a drugstore), big w <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">doesnt</span></span> sell fans and that i could have bought everything for cheaper at the discount store or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">aldi's</span></span>. man, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">aldi's</span></span> has some cheap sunscreen... they sold sunscreen by the liter. can you imagine that? its like a jug of laundry detergent, and it even has a pump! oh they have really cheap booze too. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">haha</span></span>.<br />its been pretty dry here stuck in the middle of bush country. my heels are cracking. anyone know good moisturizers? that i can find in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">australia</span></span>?<br />its jarring how much <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">australians</span></span> are so in tune with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">american</span></span> culture. they have a store in the mall called valley girl <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">XD</span></span>, just like forever 21 or wet seal. and i cant tell what <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">australian</span></span> music is cause they play <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">ne</span></span>-yo and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">britney</span></span> spears just like in the US. their cinemas play the same thing the US is playing, although they release it later i think.<br />its also jarring how close to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">asia</span></span> you really are. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">sean</span></span> said something like if you take the people that go to cal and make all the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">asians</span></span> REAL fobs, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">thats</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">ANU</span></span>. there's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">alot</span></span> of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">asians</span></span> here, more than i expected. and its weird how <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">indonesian</span></span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">japanese</span></span> are the foreign language of choice. those two are the most popular <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">langauge</span></span> courses. i have never even considered <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">indonesian</span></span> being taught. just today, my ling prof asked how many <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">ppl</span></span> have studied <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">indonesian</span></span> and 3 people out of 22 there raised their hand. how many at cal have studied <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">indonesian</span></span>? is there even an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">indonesian</span></span> course at cal?? so strange how french or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">italian</span></span> aren't the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">foreign</span> language of choice here.<br /><br />tips for travel:<br />-you need to have loose change when you first arrive at a new country. i only had $50s and $100s. not smart. the first thing i needed was to make a call, which was like $2 or something. i know you can just buy something there to get some loose change, but ugh, its pretty annoying. the smallest bill i had was $5 which is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">ok</span></span>, but i ended up going up to a stranger and asking to use their mobile.<br />-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">dont</span></span> lose your contacts lenses. which leads to the fact that i have lost my contacts. all $200 or so, and that's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">american</span></span> dollars. i should have put them in my carry on. i have no idea where they are, probably lost somewhere during traveling or something. i dunno if i should buy new ones here, i brought the prescription from my <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">optometrist</span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46"></span> but that means i have to shell out money. *sigh*<br />-i also lost my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">zune</span></span> cable. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">wtf</span></span>, its like only <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">ipods</span></span> exist here. i have not seen any other kind of mp3 players since <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">ive</span></span> come here. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">ipods</span></span> are ruling the entire world. i went into <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">dixon's</span></span>, which is like a best buy and asked someone where are the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">zune</span></span> accessories and he gave me a look and was like, what's a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">zune</span></span>? oh my god..... so i tried to buy it off of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">ebay</span></span> but. UGH! you can't use your <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">paypal</span></span> account to ship to another country! the only way is to cancel your <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">paypal</span></span> account, set up a new one, where you need an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_58"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">australian</span></span> bank account.<br /><br />*sigh*<br /><br />more translations:<br /><br />foot path=sidewalk<br />lippy=lipstick<br />barbie=BBQ<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">eskie</span>=cooler<br />a burger with the lot= a burger with tons of stuff in it, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">iono</span> how to eat it without dripping everywhere <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">lol</span>. it has the tomatoes, lettuce, cheese? i think? but also an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_58">omelette</span>, radish and pineapple. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_59">sean</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_60">doesnt</span> like the radish but the pineapple in the burger is really <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_61">goooood</span>...Maggiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13446115804906187673noreply@blogger.com0