June 18, 2008 photos

Hello again! 

Our internet was a bit messed up earlier, so I didn't get to add photos to the blog.   They're a little out of order, though!

Photo #1: These are the figures (I'm not sure exactly what they are) running away from the dragon and chasing the man on a chicken.

Photo #2: This is Ryan doing his favorite thing - bargaining.  They use calculators everywhere.  They put in a price, then you erase it and put in your own price.  Ryan has been to this lady several times buy purses.  For this one, he put in a price and she turned to me and said, "I'm so sad for you.  You need new husband."  Haha!

Photo #3: This was taken at the Bazaar in Shanghai.  They you smell something different every 20 minutes in China.  Here it was more like every 20 seconds.

Photo #4: There were people all along the streets selling produce.  I wouldn't eat it!

Photo #5: I love this picture!  They have these at the zoo to help Americans tell what kind of animal it is because all of the signs are in Chinese.  He looks like he's giving a knuckle sandwich!

Photo #6: This is one of the grizzly bears begging for food.  He got Lay's potato chips.

Photo #7: This is Trisha and I at the techno bar wearing our awesome sunglasses.

Photo #8: These are Ryan's best buddies, Tudor and Raymond.  

Photo #9: This is a blurry photo of Shanghai on a rainy night!  The lights are cool, though.  The tall tower on the left is the tv tower we went into.

Photo #10: This was in the breakfast room at our hotel in Shanghai.  The sign says "Happy Wedding."  Ryan and I were doing the prom pose, but I couldn't stop laughing.

Photo #11: This is a view of cloudy Shanghai atop the tv tower.

Photo #12: This is the Bazaar in Shanghai.  Packed!

:) Christy

June 18, 2008

Hello all!

I thought this blog would easy to keep up with, but it's much more time-consuming than I imagined!

Last Friday, our whole group flew to Shanghai for the weekend.  It was a 2 hour flight.  It's the rainy season there and it rained almost the whole time, but we saw some very neat things.  They accidentally booked Ryan and I separate rooms, so we got to choose between a room with a view of the very poor area or a view of the city with skyscrapers and all.  Of course we chose that one!

The first night we were there, we walked 30 minutes in the rain to a popular restaurant called The Bund.  To be honest, I don't remember much about the food, just that they had something that tasted like Mom's beef stew, so I really liked it.  Haha!  We walked around and looked at the city a bit, but it just poured all night.

On Saturday, our tour guide, Uncle Eddy, took us on a bus tour of the city.  We rode a train - the fastest train in the world, supposedly - the 20 miles to the airport and back.  It gets up to a top speed of 270 mph.  That was really neat.  We also went up into a huge tv tower that has a 360 degree view of the city.  It was raining, so we didn't see a whole lot, but it was still fun.  They're building a new skyscraper there that will be the tallest in China when it's finished.  Every 17th floor is a fireproof floor.  In case of something happens like 9/11, everyone can flock to one of those floors and it'll only destroy a small part of the building.  There's also an elevator that takes cars up to one of the top floors, where there's a car showroom.  We also went to the Bazaar, which is just a market with tons of little shops to bargain at.  We got some souvenir-type things there.  

On Saturday night, we went to dinner at a German restaurant and it was DELICIOUS.  Their portions are actually normal-sized portions, so I could finish a whole meal.  We found a techno bar down the street when we finished, which was really funny.  Some people really get into their techno music!  Of course we had to try it out and we got some fun free glasses in the process.  I kept thinking of Sarah Naville and her crazy glasses collection in her car. :)  Once we'd had enough techno, we went to a bar called Bon Bon.  It was recommended to us by Uncle Eddy.  (He told us to call him that because he's older than us.  We also called him Fast Eddy and Eddy Money.)  He said it had "high music," which apparently means club music like we have at home.  They played Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas, Akon, etc.  They had a dance contest to see who could dance "the sexier."  Weird.  It was scary, though!  The Chinese guys were trying to hit on all of the girls and one of the bouncers beat up a customer.  Needless to stay, we didn't stay long.

We hung out around the city for a bit on Sunday and then returned to Beijing late Sunday night.

On Monday, I went with a few people to the Forbidden City, where the emperor used to live.  It's sacred ground smack dab in the middle of this huge city.  There's a huge building there that's the mausoleum for the emperor.  They bring him up and show him twice a day, but we didn't see him.  I'm not sure how true this is, but I was told that there's 2 of him - one that's his real body that's been preserved and one that's a wax figure of him.  A few years ago when visitors got to see his body, his EAR FELL OFF.  Now no one knows if they're looking at the real one or the wax one.  

Anyway, at the Forbidden City, on each building, there are figures chasing a man on a chicken and running away from a dragon on the sides of the roof on each building.  However many figures are chasing the man on the chicken tell the importance of the building.  For example, the building where the emperor lived has 9 figures chasing the man on the chicken.  That's how you know it's the most important building.  It was interesting, but it all looked the same to me after a while!

Yesterday (Tuesday), we went to the zoo.  I don't know how else to describe it but interesting.  Their enclosures were such that the animals could pretty easily get to you if they wanted to.  A fence about 3 feet high separated you from the giraffes.  A valley about 5 feet deep separated you from the gorillas.  You could reach out and touch the zebras.  The gorillas were actually inside because it was raining, but they didn't have any lights on inside where you could see them.  We were right up next to them, but could barely see them.  The two gorillas actually started fighting each other - and we only thought there was 1 until this happened.  Kinda scary!  There were also cages with DOGS in them - a Saint Bernard, a Dalmation, and a few other kinds.  It was awful.  At the grizzly bear display, people were feeding them chips and flavored water.  I felt so sorry for them.  We did get to see the pandas, which was really neat!  They were all laying on their backs eating bamboo!

Last night, we went to an area of town that has little shops and restaurants along a bunch of alleys, but it was actually pretty safe.  There were lots of tourists there.  They try to fit as many tables in at these tiny restaurants as they can.  We had to climb up a ladder and squeeze through to get to a table.  Anyone much taller than Matt or bigger than Ryan would have had a hard time getting through.

I guess that's it for now!  We are going to a nice dinner tonight and are just trying spend a lot of time with the people on the trip before we leave.  I'm so glad a lot of them go to school in Indy so we can see a lot more of them!  One of the people on our trip even lives in our apartment complex.  Small world!

We hope everyone's doing well!

Christy :)

June 12, 2008

Hello all!

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote, but nothing quite as fun as the Great Wall.

One of the girls is our group is from India, so we had Indian food on Sunday night.  I'd never had it before.  (Ryan was busy out buying watches.)  It was delicious!!

On Monday we went to the Old Summer Palace ruins.  Some kind of ruler lived there and a bunch of people burnt down everything he owned in the 1800's.  The most interesting part to me was the stone maze you had to walk through to get to a "birdcage."  It would have been nice to have a tour guide to tell us more about it.

We also climbed a mountain.  I don't know the name of it.  Ryan didn't either.  There's a statue of a mother close to the top of it (you can see the whole city of Beijing, what's not covered up by smog) who watched her sons fighting during a war, one on each side of the city.  That was a lot of fun.  You think you're in great shape until you get passed climbing a mountain by a Chinese jogger who's doing his daily run up the mountain.

After dinner on Monday, we got a bottle of wine to split between 6 people.  We went to a tiny little store along the road we were walking on to find it.  On the shelf was a huge bottle of wine with SNAKES inside it.  Three dead snakes.  Apparently they help ferment the wine and it's not very uncommon, supposedly.  Next time I'll have to take a picture.  Anyway, we got a bottle of wine, but didn't have an opener.  So they uncorked it at the store.  We walked back to our hotel with this uncorked bottle of wine and noone even looked at us funny.  

On Wednesday for lunch, we ate at a Korean restaurant.  I had rice with a fried egg on top - didn't realize that was Korean.  It cost 15 RMB, or about $2.10.  I didn't even eat half of it, there was so much.  Then we went to DQ and got blizzards.  A small is actually small!  It was about a cup of ice cream.  No wonder they're so skinny here.  

On Thursday Ryan and I went shopping and then went to Hooters for dinner.  Oh yes, Beijing Hooters.  It was hilarious.  They have a sign that says: "CAUTION: BLONDES THINKING."  Obviously none of them were blonde.  They played a lot of old N'Sync music.  Interesting, but I enjoyed it!

Two of the people in the program had birthdays yesterday (Thursday), so we all wanted to go out for their birthday.  So what do you do in Beijing for fun at night?  KARAOKE!  There's a big building where you rent out karaoke rooms for your party.  So we had 20 people (just people from our program)  in a room with a stage and big tv's for karaoke.  We were there for FIVE hours, doing nothing but karaoke.  It was a blast!

A few other interesting things I haven't mentioned yet: 1. We've been eating a lot of popsicles.  With the weather being so hot and humid and having to walk so much, they're delicious.  They cost about 15 cents.

2. Lost of Chinese people, especially women, carry umbrellas EVERYWHERE.  I'll have to take a picture of it.  They do it to stay cool and keep the sun off of them.

Mom asked me yesterday if I feel safe breathing here.  Sometimes it's uncomfortable to breath because of the smog and so much exhaust.  There are busses and taxis everywhere.  It makes you kind of sick to your stomach, too - well, it does to me at least.  

Christy :)

*Photo 1: This is Ryan and I about half-way up the mountain that overlooks Beijing.

*Photo 2: This is the bathroom that's on the way down the mountain.  It makes the squatty potties look good.  I should have attached the picture Ryan took of Jeanna and I with our noses in our shirts so we couldn't smell the stinch.

*Photo 3: This is Ryan and Raymond with our Hooters waitress, Elva.  They all take on American names since their names are difficult for us to pronounce.  Ryan met a girl who named herself Elf.  That makes me think of, "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"

Photo 4: Here are the birthday boys singing karaoke: Hero Mike (as the Chinese people call him, because he's about 6'4") and Mike again.

Photo 5: Ryan got in on the karaoke, too.  This is probably a Journey song.

Photo 6: This is Mike and Allison.  They are roommates and work with the school program.  They said their apartment is big for postgraduates and they pay $3500 a month ($500 for us), but Ryan said you can hardly move in their apartment because it's so small.

Photo 7: This is 1 picture of the ruins.  Can you imagine how huge that house must have been?  There was reading material at a station next to it that said there was a 7-tier fountain right there in front of the house.

The Great Wall

Hello again!

Today was an exciting day!  We left at 7:30 this morning for a 3 hour bus ride to see the Great Wall.  It was AMAZING.    It's something I've always wanted to do and it was very surreal to see.

We had the option to take a cable up close to the top, to the 7th tower, and then walk back down (there were 12 towers you could climb to until it got too dangerous) or you could walk the whole way.  Of course we decided to walk the whole way.  Little did we know what was ahead.  It took about 30 minutes of walking just to get to the base of the wall to start climbing up.  

All of the pictures I've seen of the Great Wall are of people standing on a level walking path.  Did I miss something?!  There were more stairs than I've ever seen in my life and some areas that were just steep inclines you almost had to crawl up.  But do you stop at tower 8 or 9 when you're with Ryan Schulz?  Of course not!  Haha.  We made it all the way to 12, to the sign that said you'd be fined 200 RNB (about $28-30) if you go past.  We took some amazing pictures, though, and it feels great to know I made it to the very top.  

Climbing back down was almost as difficult as climbing up because the stairs are so steep.  There were several times we had to step down sideways to keep from falling.  I tried to count stairs on the way down (I figured that's a question 6 and 7-year-old inquiring minds would ask) and I lost count around 1, 430.  

What's also interesting is that there are ice cream/drink/souvenir vendors all the way up until about tower 8.  They walk up every single day and set up shop.  But boy did that orange popsicle taste good on a 99 degree day!  There are also people who follow you up to a certain point to try to get you to buy books, postcards, t-shirts, etc.  Ryan thought I should have a book of pictures of the Great Wall, so this lady finally accepted 5 American $1 bills from him.  

On our way down, once we got past the wall and to the path that led back to civilization, we had the option to keep walking or to zipline down the rest of the way.  You know since Ryan talked me into going up to tower 12, I talked him into ziplining over the water!  It was so much fun!

All in all, it took 2 and 1/2 hours to climb to the top, and 40 minutes to get back down.

Needless to say, I slept for 2 hours when we got back to the hotel.  I think I would have slept through the night if Ryan hadn't woken me up to go out to dinner.  Either way, I'm ready to go back to bed now!  

Enjoy the posted photos!

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Christy :)

Photo #1: Ryan climbing up the wall.  I took this because it was so steep.  (Do you see Andrew, in the red shirt, trying to catch his breath?)

Photo #2: These are the people we have been hanging out with the most.  (Back row: Chinese Mike, Raymond, Tudor, Ryan, Andrew.  Front row: Christy, Leticia, Trisha, Chinese Allison) People always stop to touch Leticia's hair or have their picture taken with her because they've never seen a black person before!  It's hilarious!  We like to call her Janet Jackson because she's so popular. :)  *Chinese Mike & Allison go by American names because their names are too hard to pronounce!

Photo #3: This is just a really cool picture looking down that Ryan took.

Photo #4: I am obviously struggling.

Photo #5: Ryan and I made it to the top of tower 12!

Photo #6:  This is me ziplining down the to bottom.  Ryan took it and then had the camera when he came down, so we don't have one of him on our camera.  Someone else took one of him coming down, though, so I'll have to get my hands on a copy of it!

June 5

Good afternoon!

I hope you enjoy our blog!  We'll keep up with it the best we can. :)

Ryan's been here a little over 2 weeks now and Christy has been here for 3 days.

The culture is very interesting, but MUCH different than at home.  It is much cleaner than I thought it would be; however, I've heard that they've cleaned up a lot for the Olympics and that if you go outside of Beijing, into the outskirts of town, it's much dirtier.

The people are very nice and there sure aren't many of them that speak English.  Noone in our group speaks Chinese, or Mandarin, so that doesn't help much either!  For the most part, there are Chinese people who speak limited English, but it's interesting just trying to order food or tell the cab driver where you want to go.

The food is pretty good, but I think 3 weeks of it will be plenty for me.  It's spicy a lot of times  and they do eat a LOT of rice.  I caught on pretty quickly with the chopsticks.  We're drinking lots of bottled water, as well, which is normal for me.  The food seems much healthier.  THey give you smaller portions and don't use so much artificial flavoring.  The people are very fit.  I'd say I've seen a handful over overweight people.  I wouldn't say I've seen anyone that's fat, and certainly not obese.  They are always walking or riding their bikes.  THey even walk on the track after work in their nice work clothes.  It's packed at 7PM with walkers and runners.

We went to the Silk Market on Tuesday and an antique market on Wednesday.  At the Silk Market, they grab you, pull you, push you, anything to get your attention to buy from their store.  One lady told Ryan, "You so handsome, I give you good price."  Then, when he didn't buy from her, as he was leaving she shouted, "You no handsome!  You no handsome!"  They weren't so pushy at the antique market.  I did see something interesting there, though.  A little boy, probably about 2 years old, had a split cut into his pants, from the front to back.  He was wearing no diaper or underwear.  There were small holes in the concrete and whenever he needed to use the bathroom, 1 or 2, he just squatted over that hole and went.  Right in the middle of the market.  Apparently a lot of little boys do that.

The weather has been nice so far.  Ryan said it was hot and humid before I got here, but it hasn't been that way since I arrived.  It was rainy on Tuesday and very nice yesterday.  Today it's in the mid 70's and sunny.  It's interesting, though, because you never see a blue sky like you do at home.  I saw a faint shade of blue today, but because of the smog, it's never a bright, beautiful blue sky.

 I went for a run this morning and it was so nice out.  We're on a college campus, so there's lots of young people around.  There's a track, soccer fields (concrete) and basketball courts (probably 10 of them, no nets on the rims) within a 3 minute walk.  There's also a very nice park with a pond in the middle of campus.  The girls have very cute clothes - they're very stylish.    

I'll close for now.  I think I'll go outside and read my book, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. :)  

I hope everyone's doing well!  

Christy :)