Xiamen

After two days in Chuxi Village, we returned Xiamen. We stayed the night in a hotel on a small island off Xiamen called Gulongyu, which was colonized by the British back in the day, and had some interesting Colonial Architecture. It was an "open" night, which means the time was ours to do whatever we liked. Some friends and I toured the island, then took the ferry to Xiamen for dinner, followed by some aimless wandering around the quickly modernizing city. Although I would have enjoyed staying in Xiamen longer than we did, I don't think I would like living there as much as living in Beijing. Two months ago I couldn't have pointed out a single difference between the two cities, but that night, I found myself noticing small things about Xiamen that were quite different from Beijing. It was somewhere around this time that I began actually missing Beijing. It was quite an odd phenomenon, because I also began missing America. I was homesick for the two strikingly different places I call home. Nevertheless, I greatly enjoyed my time in Xiamen, and was sad to leave the next morning. We were allowed to sleep in relatively late at our hotel on Gulongyu, and after check out headed to the Xiamen Botanical Garden. We had a quick group meeting at which we were instructed to follow a road that wound up and down a large hill (almost mountain) thru the Botanical Garden, and then branch off onto another path which would supposedly lead us to a large Buddhist temple. Then we were let free. I guess all the teachers must have gotten ahead of us, because soon enough I was alone, with the exception of my friend Sam. We must have diverged from the correct path at some point, because after an hour and a half of sweaty hiking, we wound up EXACTLY where we started. There was not a teacher or student in sight, so we laughed ourselves and then hush-hush... decided to be cheaters and take a taxi to the other side of the mountain, where the temple was located. The temple was beautiful inside, but unfortunately we didn't have much time to look around since we arrived late due to our unfruitful expedition to nowhere. I'm off to go start homework, but will write more when I get a chance.

The first 4 pictures are of the Temple, the Botanical Garden, and a view of Xiamen from the Botanical Garden (it was a smoggy day). The fourth picture is a view of Xiamen from the ferry to Gulongyu. 

苏娥俐

Chuxi Tulou Village

This blog will be relatively short, since I have rather massive amounts of 作业 (homework) to do. We arrived in Xiamen, The capital of Fujian, and stayed there in a hotel for one night. The shower I had that night was one of the best I have ever taken. Xiamen could be described as a little Shanghai (still, it has over a million people), with bright lights, new freeways, and signs of modernization all around. I quite liked it, but it lacks the history that Beijing is so rich in. Anyway, the following morning we headed, for the first time, into real rural China. Our destination was Chuxi Tulou village. A Tulou is a huge building in either a circular or square shape that houses many families, and has a large courtyard in the center. It is kind of like the rural Chinese equivalent of an apartment, except they are hundreds of years old (the literal translation of the word "Tulou" is earth building). Needless to say, We kissed our Showers, hot water, and flushing toilets goodbye when we left Xiamen. We stayed in the Tulous for 2 nights. The first day, we just explored the village and fields, and the second day, we traveled to a slightly larger, nearby village to visit a middle school. The chinese students were thrilled to see us and the school even set off firecrackers when we entered. We got to participate in gym and English class. Gym class was fun, but it was extremely hot and we were all soaked in sweat by the time it was over. We had a relay and my team won, so I high fived a couple of boys and they got all excited and ran off to tell their friends. It was funny. Right after gym class, we learned that Obama had won the election, which made most SYA students pretty happy. The Chinese students were completely oblivious to the fact that an election had even occurred that day:) English was rather interesting. The class recited in unison (in a shouting voice) their vocab from the previous night, and then the teacher proceeded to play a tape in English and call randomly on students to answer questions about the material they had heard in the tape. Most were following along, but there were of course those few who were called on, stood up to answer, and had nothing but a deer-in-the-headlights look on their face. I think that undoubtedly happens in every language class on the planet. After we left the school, we headed back to the village and talked to the mayor about how the village was run. It was interesting, and the one thing that stuck with me from his speech was when he said (through Mr. Bissell translating) that the villagers must like the mayor and think that he is a good person, because if they begin to think otherwise, they will find a way to get him out of office. Mr. Bissell asked him how they went about "overthrowing" a mayor they didn't like, but he said he wouldn't tell. He also mentioned that in this particular village, a family may have 2 children if the first one is a girl. After the mayor talked, I went back to my Tulou and took a nap, then went to explore the village more. Later that evening I went with some friends to wash my hair in the river. Probably not the most sanitary thing, but it was fun, and my hair felt exponentially cleaner after washing it. I've got to go do homework, but will hopefully get another post up tomorrow. 

The pictures are of my Tulou (pronounced Too-low), A lady and her grandson (she loved having her picture taken and was fascinated with us), A view of part of the village, A building on the campus of the school we visited (with Chinese students peering down from balconies to see us), and My friend Kara and me at the school. Our friend Mike also got in the picture, but we didn't realize that until a while after the picture was taken, haha. 

Toodles,

苏娥俐

The Train

On Friday, I returned from a two week trip to Fujian and Jiangsu provinces. I have decided to describe the trip in segments, as to not make just a single, ridiculously long blog post. So... the first topic will be the train. Our first train ride was a little over 32 hours, from Beijing to Xiamen (The capital of Fujian province). The train itself was relatively clean and comfortable. Sleeper trains like ours are organized into compartments, each compartment housing six beds (2 sets of 3 story bunk buds). It is a wee bit difficult to describe, which is why I have included pictures. Next to the bed compartments is a narrow aisle, and on the other side of the aisle are very tiny fold down seats and tray tables. Lights are turned of at 10:00 p.m. sharp, and on the first train ride, I swear I slept no more than 2 hours. I woke up 1:11 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep to save my life, so I simply listen to my iPod until about 4:30, when I dazed off for about a half an hour. At about 5, I woke up again and just closed my eyes and tried to rest. Besides the lack of sleep, however, the train ride was quite pleasurable - 54 American teenagers all stuffedon one train car for a day and a half can be quite entertaining. I laughed until I cried with my friends, played cards, listened to my iPod with people, talked, ate train food (not the best cuisine, but passable) and took frequent naps. By the end of the ride, however, the air in the train had grown stuffy and smelly, and I was overjoyed to finally be able to take a shower once we got off. Xiamen was filled with bright lights, and had a modern feel to it at night. But I'll have to save the rest for another blog:)

The First picture is looking down the aisle from the top bunk. The guy is my friend Nick, who also aspires to become an anesthesiologist. Woot! The second picture is of my AWESOME teacher Shen Laoshi, who told me to delete the photo as soon as he saw It. But I told him I couldn't delete it, because I had to show it to my parents in America. Haha. He was horrified. The third picture kind of shows how the train was arranged. The kid semi-looking at the camera's name is Sam. He's a cool kid. The last picture is of a whole bunch of us crammed into one bed compartment. Good times. 

I'll write more tomorrow. 

苏娥利

A Post For Ming

This post is dedicated to the one and only Ming Tran, who made my funny little blog his homepage for reasons known but to god. I have been inordinately busy, so have not posted in awhile, and tomorrow we leave for a two week trip to Fujian province in southern China. Mr. Bissell has planned for us to stay in host families in rural Fujian, visit a tea farm, a coke bottling plant, a silk factory, and many more fabulous places that I cannot remember at this late hour of the night. Anyways, Ming, you can expect a wonderful blog in a couple weeks describing my Fujian trip. Until then... toodles.

Elle