6/26/07 - Caroline

Soo I just got back from Beijing about an hour ago. We took the overnight train there and back. It was an interesting trip. The trains each have about 10 cabins. within the cabin is six bunks, three on each side. On the way there, the entire program was pretty much together in a few consecutive cabins, a little cramped but no problem. Of course, we were the loud crazy Americans who wouldn't let anyone sleep. Someone had the brilliant idea to bring drinks, so we had a little party! On the way back, we were all split up. So me, my friend Dan, and four Chinese men were together in a cabin. The top four bunks are really short, you can't even sit up, so the bottom bunk (mine) was highly coveted. Basically, they all sat on my bunk until the stewardess turned the lights out. I loved that... NOT!! There was a crazy lady who kept eating weird pieces of chicken, it smelled funny, you all know how I feel about weird smells.

Beijing was amazing though! Our tour guide's name was Jingle, as in Jingle bells. She was hilarious and a little off kilter. We arrived on Wednesday morning and from the train station we went straight to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden city. Both were incredibly packed! Everyone was pretty much too tired function, but we managed to see a lot in one day. We returned to our dormitory. I could have kicked myself. Our teacher told us to bring a small carry on, everyone pretty much brought a roller suitcase. However, when we got to our dorm, we discovered that there was no elevator and we were on the 4th floor. Luckily I hadn't packed too much so my suitcase was pretty light. Then, there were no towels and we had not been warned. I ran over to the local grocery and bought one for 2 bucks. When we got back to the "hotel" the service lady allotted us each three bars of soap and a small washcloth. If you could have only seen my "are you kidding me??" face, I think my eyes had rolled completely into the back of my head. i was sooooooo tired, grumpy, and dirty all I wanted to do was shower! Come to find out, they think Teacher Pong (our shanghai contact) cheated us and stole the money. Apparently, we paid like 2x the cost of our rooms in Shanghai and the Beijing rooms didn't even compare. Honestly, I find the entire situation pretty hilarious. No worries, once I got over that I was fine.

Thursday we went to the Great Wall. It was a perfect day because there wasn't a lot of fog, so you could see a lot of the wall. We went to a verry secluded spot too so there weren't a lot of tourists, although there were still plenty of CHinese vendors hawking their goods for incredibly high prices. One lady tried to sell me some postcards for 250 kuai. I finally got her down to 4 kuai, but she had me backed into her shop and wouldn't let me out, so I ended up with 3 sets! After the Great Wall, we visited some Ming Dynasty Tombs. Ironically, they wouldn't let you actually see the tombs, so you just got to see the reconstructed animal statues. The gardens were really pretty! You don't usually see too much grass and trees in China, and this was a very manicured looking garden! From here, we went to an "ancient" Chinese medicine factory that just so happened to have a large restaurant and theater performing traditional acrobatic shows. This is so stereotypical of China, everything is built for tourists. I doubt the authinticity of this place, but it was fun and we got massages! Then back to Beijing and SLEEP! ! I was soooo tired!

Friday we visited a local park and talked to the old people. They were dancing around in big groups doing Disco and ribbon dancing. After that we visited the old district of Beijing and the Hutongs (traditional Beijing houses) and took a rickshaw ride through the district. We visited some old peoples' home and they had fighting crickets! It was pretty entertaining. After that, I found my most favorite location in all of Beijing....the jewelry market. I racked up to. Now that I have decent Chinese skills, they all found me very entertaining as I tried my best to converse in Chinese. I was doing really well and I got some really good deals. I was so pleased with my bargaining skills that when I got back to the dormitory, I tried to buy some fruit. Usually, you can get a decent amount for like 1 kuai. So I picked out what I wanted and handed the guy my money. I kind of stood there awkwardly waiting for some change and then asked the guy how much it was. He said 10 kuai. I was confused and asked for my money back, but he refused. He kinda looked crazy anyways. So I am arguing with him and trying to get my money back and this other fruit seller comes over and just starts throwing random fruit in my bag. I couldn't get him to stop! It was crazy, so I did get "shang dang le" which means taken advantage of in Chinese. O well, it was like $1.

Saturday we visited the Summer Palace, Heavenly Temple, ate Beijing Duck, yyayayayayyaaaa, same ole stuff. Nothing particularly interesting happened except Jingle (our tourguide) started making some really weird jokes. Like "your mama", "you're so fat..." and some other random jokes about the similarities between the words "peony" and "penis" and gardens...I don't really know what she was talking about. Then she sang for us and encouraged all of us to sing with her! IT WAS SOOOO WEIRD! but we participated because we were bored. After that, we went straight to the train station, VERY DIRTY, and boarded the train and it was the longest 13 hours of my life.

So now I am back in Shanghai and very happy because it is so much more comfortable here!

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll see you guys when I am back in the US!!

I am uploading my pictures right now, but I will send everybody the link when I am done!

Love,

Caroline