Sunday, October 30, 2011

Happy Hallows from the East Side of Life

Hello Everybody!

Long time no blog, but I'm finally back from the adventure on the Silk Road in western China and super excited to tell you all about it in the next few posts (trust me, it'll take a few with all of the craziness that went on in Xinjiang (aka Uyghur [pronounced Wee-Ghur]Wonderland) and Gansu (home of pulled beef noodles) Provinces.  Before I begin my thoughtful ranting post on my weeklong trip, I'd like to take this brief post to wish you all a wonderful Halloween weekend and start to the holiday season.

Shanghai, as I've mentioned much too frequently, is an epic place for nightlife. Luckily Halloween is no different. Although we arrived home from our respective cultural trips yesterday afternoon, we still managed to pull together costumes for partying that night. From searching around the trusty backgate shops to perusing sketchy street vendors' wears, we managed to scrounge up some light up devil horns. Those, with the addition of red sequin body dots, black dresses, and some liquid courage, resulted in our cute group of "little devils" that took Shanghai's streets by storm...well maybe not the streets, but at least a couple of clubs.

We made our way to Barbarossa, in People's Square, first. Great ambiance and free "bloody shots" all around. The bar had a nice rooftop terrace and enough people in costumes to almost feel like I was in a bar in Georgetown rather than halfway around the world. After Barbarossa, we made our way to the real fun and dance floor at M1NT. M1NT is one of those places that ever expat/Shanghai dweller must visit at least once. With glass tanks filled with sharks lining the walls, two amazing dance floors, and a guest list/table list system that would made any person trying to ascend to M1NT's top floor club location cringe, this club was the place to be for Hallow's Eve Debauchery.


Long story short, the group of us had an awesome night parading around the city in our lightup horns and dancing the night away. Although, my feet are paying dearly for 5+ hours of 4inch+ heels....eeek! what a fright.








Sending lots of "Boos" from Shanghai!

Enjoy your Halloween Weekends,

e

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Whimsy of Haerbin and Upcoming Wanderings

Once more I am failing at consistent blog posting...I guess it's a good sign cause it means I'm too busy living life to document it...or it means that I'm a bit lazy. Either way I'm back with another update on my wanderings in the East. Alex and I survived our Beijing layover and managed to make a few friends on our way. Of course, standing in line to scan our ticket, we had a few "omg it's a real foreigner!"stares. Usually these stares from people result in, A. more staring, or B. a conversation. Therefore, when a middle-aged Chinese man struck up a conversation with us, we weren't surprised. Something tells me he really wanted to practice his English though, and did so a bit creepily due to the fact that he relentlessly followed us chattering away until we made it to the safety of our seats. Sitting down quickly, I figured I should use the plane ride to sleep...no such luck. Immediately after my sigh of relief from being able to plug into my iPod and relax, the gentleman next to me struck up a conversation. He was incredibly friendly, and very excited to speak with a "老外lao wai (foreigner)" who could speak Chinese.  





火锅!
We managed to fly in at 10pm, go out to SanLiTun (one of the larger nightlife areas in Beijing), and after dancing until 4am on a rooftop patio, we pulled ourselves together and headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Haerbin (哈尔滨)! If that isn't a whirlwind trip, then I don't know what is.








China's Little Europe
After arriving to Haerbin, we soon realized we were in for an amazing weekend. Haerbin is known for being a mix of Chinese-Russian culture due to its proximity to the Russian boarder. Visiting this far north city made the group of us feel as though we were in our own little Chinese version of Europe. Haerbin is probably one of the only cities in China where the influence of religion seeps into the surrounding culture. From St. Sofia's Church, to our hostel, which was an old synagogue transformed into one of the coolest international youth hostels I've seen. The Haerbin people were also amazing! They were incredibly friendly, curious, and often would strike up conversations about our travels, Chinese studies, and America. While visiting Haerbin, we had the chance to visit many of Haerbin's well-known attractions. Even though Haerbin is known for their Ice Festival, which occurs in late-January, we got to visit some of Haerbin's churches, walk around the old Russian quarter, and visit a Tiger preserve (老虎公园,Tiger Park)!



Finally, the Haerbin food was some of the best in China. Our first lunch we had 火锅(hot pot, sort of like a Chinese version of Fondue where boiling broth is placed in a giant bowl in the middle of a table and a variety of meats and veggies are placed around it for individuals to cook in the hot, hot soup!). Then that evening we walked around our hotel's neighborhood, which happened to be in one of the best locations possible for a group of traveling college students. With cobblestone roads, ice cream shops, and pop-up dinner areas, we had a lot of options for exploration. Our favorite was probably an outdoor dining area that boasted street food stands with anything from sausages on sticks, to squid, to egg pancakes, to purple rice, etc so forth. Obviously foodie's paradise. We we also had some great Russian food that kept us super warm in Haerbin's chilly night air.


Overall, my break was a great experience. I feel as if my Chinese ability quickly improved because I had to use it so much in both Shenzhen and Haerbin. Traveling from the southern most point of China up to the northern, really put how vast and diverse China is into perspective. From the people, to the food, to the terrain, there's always something new to see and experience. And to think, I'll be shoving off for my program trip this Friday!

Each program here has their own trip that they participate in as a part of our cultural practicum. The Advance Chinese Studies group (my group!), is traveling to XinJiang!! If you know nothing about XinJiang, the basics are: it's the start of the Silk Road, it's in the middle of the desert (very far west!), it's home to one of China's minority groups, the Uyghurs (notorious for their conflicts with the Han majority ethnic group, but according to the Chinese government those types of problems don't "exist"), and XinJiang is apparently home to some of the best honeydew melon (who knew!). There are 11 of us going on this trip, which makes it especially fun because we'll be able to cover more ground. Our itinerary has me practically dancing in circles with excitement. We'll be starting in Urumqi and head along the Silk Road toward Gansu Province. Along the way we'll have the opportunity to ride camels, see the Thousand Buddha Caves (UNESCO World Heritage Site), visit 天山(Heaven Mountain), have dinner with a Uyghur family, and shop in a Bazaar. I believe this trip will be another collide of cultures, much like Haerbin! Can't wait :)







I'll try to get better at this blogging thing. *sigh* 


Thursday, October 6, 2011

Shenzhen in Review-Fake Market Madness, Strolls Along Rivers, and MUN





Hellllllo again my reader friends,

For those of you who have been keeping up, you know that I'm currently on National Holiday Break, meaning I'm getting the chance to travel a bit. As I mentioned, Alex and I have been in Shenzhen (southern China) for the past 5 days teaching Chinese students about Model UN, International Affairs, and various workshops. We've had a bit of cabin fever cause of being in a hotel most of the time, but last night and today we broke out a bit.

We finally went into downtown/bar area of Shenzhen, which turned out to be gorgeous! With a square/"garden" of outdoor bars and clubs, a group of us "teachers"sauntered our way over to one of quieter locations for a round of drinks. Each of the bars was really nice and sort of bled into each other. With fairylights strung from each overhang, sleek chairs, and a sea of people holding pina coladas, daiquiris, and margaritas, it was hard to tell whether we were in the Caribbean or China. I guess that's what happens when you hit southern China; everything becomes more tropical!





Today was a really nice break from teaching lessons too. We finished up classes with our kids at about 11am and headed back to Luohu, which is a massive MASSIVE shopping center. With less than 3 hours to browse, bargain, walk away multiple times, and finally pay, we knew we'd have to be strategic about our shopping trip. Thank goodness we only brought a portion of our salary, otherwise we probably would have spent it all in one go. If you've never been to a fake market, let's just put it this way, it's like a maze of twisting stalls filled with shoes! purses! jeans! coats! dresses! watches! makeup! jewelry! so on forever and ever until the end of time....plus, you have dozens of Chinese shopkeepers swarming you and dragging your arm toward their store. All in all....it's EPIC!

Anyway, we head to Beijing tonight to meet up with some other friends from our program

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Hello Shenzhen!

Flying into Shenzhen




Nimen hao!

After spending the night celebrating the start of our break at the Apartment, we managed to survive making our 8:45am flight to Shenzhen on Friday morning. Alex and I flew Air China out of Hongqiao International Airport, which surprisingly wasn't a mob scene! As many of you either know or are able to guess, crowds in China are about as common random people on the street trying to sell you a "Rolex" watch. The ticket counter line moved fast, security was a breeze, and we made it to our gate in time to take a 30minute nap and grab breakfast, which was a egg mcmuffin...yes, I know, why support the global domination of mickey d's? I'll tell you why, 1. it was either that or KFC, 2. real cheese! (none of that random sweet stuff they produce here)...also, there may have been a cup of coffee and hashbrown involved.

Shenzhen
Our flight was pretty normal, except for a random 20minute layover in a city called Jingdezhen. We had no idea that this layover existed, so as the plane descended almost 2 hours ahead of schedule, we were a bit confused. Luckily we finally got the message that we were supposed to disembark for our odd 20 minute layover and then quickly return.

Shenzhen is gorgeous! It's apparently like a smaller version of Singapore; with palm trees, tropical flowers, and temperatures that are currently around 86/90 (which is going to make going to Harbin where it's 30deg a be a traumatizing experience). We're only here for 5 days, but the hotel is really nice and the food is pretty great; so even though we're technically working for GMUNC, it's like a mini vacation.

Shenzhen
Yesterday, after a team meeting, a group of us went to Luohu Shopping center. Now, if you didn't already know, China's like the bargaining/fake capital of the world; and since we're so close to Hong Kong, the quality, variety, and overall craziness of shopping in a knock off market is pretty much incomparable to anything else. We went with the intent of spending 2-3hours, and somehow managed to stay from about 3:30pm-11pm! Let me say though, it was epic. From shoes, to bags, to trench coats, to iphones, to 3hrs massages for 100rmb, and 10rmb pedicures, it's madness!! 

We also grabbed dinner at said knock off superstore. A Chinese man who had been stalking us screaming "missies! gucci! prada! shoes! purses!" for the past five minutes showed us to a restaurant and then proceeded to drag us to his boss's shop while we waiting for a table. The shop was pretty nice. It's amazing how much detail/organization goes into the fake market operation. There are the people to lure you in, the sales people who try to sell you everything, the runners who go to the warehouses to get the best fake stuff (because, yes, there are different levels/qualities of fake everything), and then the owners who you struggle to negotiate with! But anyway, the dinner was pretty amazing too! We had cauliflaouer with corn and this clay pot rice dish with meat and veggies :)
Claypot Rice

Hope everyone's enjoying the start of fall! I'm sort of sad I'm missing the start of Pumpkin Spice season haha.
 <3 from china,
Peking Duck in Shenzhen

e