First and foremost, my life has taken on something of a rhythm, which I think is contributing more than anything to my emotional and mental stability. It's nice to know that every Sunday I do laundry and homework, Wednesdays I go to the pub quiz with everyone from BLCU, Thursdays I generally play Beer Pong with Ben and Fridays/Saturdays are up for grabs. My classes are starting to get harder, which is actually nicer than I would like to admit. Everything up until now has largely been review, and though I've been introduced to hundreds of new words, I'm only expected to know a small fraction of them. I'm trying to remember as many as is possible though, in the name of fluency.
Other than that, I've had a few minor adventures and a major one or two in the last little while.
A couple weeks back, when the weather was still wonderfully warm in the daytime and not so windy you can easily be knocked off your bike, Sarah and I visited the grounds of the old Summer Palace. Called 圆明园 (Yuan Ming Yuan), this is largely a well maintained park with wonderful pathways winding around stone bridges, canals, old buildings and ruins. It's actually really interesting because I had been told of the park in a history class at the U of C. The park used to house wooden buildings from hundreds of years ago that was the traditional Summer home of the Qing dynasty. However, it was all burned down when the Western forces invaded Beijing during the 1860's as a part of the 2nd Opium War. The professor mentioned the fact that all that remained was the western style stone buildings that the Chinese had included as an homage to their relations with the west.
Seeing these was actually pretty neat, and I got to give a brief history lesson about 'em to boot!
More school and random stuff. Our quiz team is a regular 4 or 5 people with a few more randomly coming and going, but we've come in 4th place by 1 point for the last 2 weeks. This week we're fairly determined to win the bottle of Jack Daniels that the 1st place team gets.
No more serious drinking shenanigans to report, as I've decided to both conserve a bit of cash and a bit of liver in order to participate more fully when it actually makes sense to go drink a lot of alcohol. That and I just don't really feel like getting hammered with the people who regularly drink around these parts.
This last week I didn't eat dinner on Campus until Sunday though! I had Korean food, Japanese food, pizza, a proper pub burger, Amazing Indian food and Hot pot. It was a good week. Halloween wasn't anything special. I didn't have a fireworks show to work, so I went out for dinner and came back to sleep.
Saturday Sarah, James and I went to a place called 爨底下, which is a village with architecture largely preserved from the Ming dynasty. Wandered there, had lunch, saw a goat slaughtered and prepared for dinner then we left for Beijing. It was actually quite a beautiful place and the atmosphere was far different from Beijing. There was even an oddly placed mountain of corn for people to sit on. I don't know if that is why they had the mountain of corn, but that's sure as hell what we did with it. It was definitely worth the 100元 and 4 hours of highway driving to just get out of Beijing for a day and experience some rural China. Definitely a neat place to see too. Our taxi driver had a bit of a crush on me too; he randomly broke the silence by turning to me and saying "我爱你" (Wo Ai Ni), which translates exactly to 'I love you'. I turned to him, turned to Sarah and James in the back seat who were just as floored as I was, then turned to the cabbie (whose eyes weren't on the road, but on me) and replied that I loved him as well. Surreal.
Anyhow, I did warn you that life wasn't ALL that exciting for the past week or two. I do have midterms coming up like a freight train, so I'm going to post a little more often simply due to being in the room more often.
And now... photos! Enjoy. They're not in any specific order. I just put 'em up in the order I uploaded them.
A sign at YuanMingYuan. I liked how the guy wasn't just climbing, but doing graffiti as well.
Me in front of a pavillion in YuanMingYuan. It's surrounded by this massive concrete maze that's about shoulder height. We couldn't think of a single reason why there would be a maze there, but it was fun to wander.
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
Chinese tourists taking photos in front of ruins denoting one of the greatest examples of foreign incursion on Chinese soil.
Intact bridge at YMY. Beautiful stonework, all clearly hand carved.
Speakers that piped soft music AND animal sounds. If you can't import animals, have rock-speakers make it sound like you have animals.
Just a neat shot of some weeping willows I particularly liked.
Yes, those are real lily pads. They're about 2-3 feet in diameter and are real. I threw a rock at one to see if they were. They are. People give you funny looks if they catch you throwing rocks at aquatic foliage in a national park.
One of the ubiquitous flower arrangements.
One of my favorite photos of China so far. CuanDiXia at dusk.
This sign translates directly to "I participate, I contribute, I am joyful." Makes sense if you know the Chinese.
This one, on the otherhand, was just amusing. It's on a random back path, against a non-descript tree with no really interesting things within sight.
Sarah, James and I in a pagoda above CuanDiXia
James with his head in the same bell.
Detail of the Iron Incense holder at the temple.
The Incense Holder
CuanDiXia from the Temple
A really beautiful painting painted right onto a wall. No idea how old or by whom.
CuanDiXia street with the Turtle in the background
The Tiger (left), Turtle (middle) and Bat (right), all supposed to be visible in the mountains about CuanDiXia. I can see the turtle really easily, the bat with a little squinting and NOTHING of the tiger.
Signs warning that you may be missing vague shapes in rock.
This is the character for Cuan. It's the traditional form and is incredibly complex but beautiful. It translates to the verb for "To Cook".
Not just old, but high.
Another CuanDiXia street
The whole village is on this massively steep slope. This just sort of gives you perspective of that.
This is the National Center for the Performing Arts. It's adjacent to Tian'an Men square, and pisses off a lot of the Chinese who subscribe to Feng Shui. It's neat, and in the summer is surrounded by a MASSIVE reflecting pool (they had drained it for winter/maintenance when we visited).
Sunset after a rainstorm taken from a balcony on my floor. I just liked the colors!That's it for now! Tune in next week for another update and hopefully more photos.
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