Friday, July 31, 2009

July 6-July 31, 2009

This will be my last journal entry of the summer here in Qingdao. Again, it was very difficult for me to find a way to log onto this website because it was blocked but I want to thank everybody who has been reading about my adventures. I cannot believe that it is July 31 and I will be coming home in about 7 days. I would write more as the week continues until I leave…but unfortunately I will not have internet access. In the beginning of the trip I had to pay a fee for the internet for the two months that I was here. Since tomorrow is August 1st my internet time is up. So with that being said, I will share some of what I have been doing for the past month….

My first week back in Qingdao was good. All of the Communication students started their internships while the other half of the students remained in their language classes. Time definitely slowed down once we returned from the 17 day trip around China. It was nice to finally have a chance to relax some but I would have to say that traveling was my favorite part of the program. My internship went very well with Creative 100 and it was interesting seeing the business side of China. Overall it was good experience and I also enjoyed seeing how different the American and Chinese work styles were from each other. The Chinese are very hard workers but I noticed over the last month that the work atmosphere is much more relaxed and flexible than back in the States.

Within Creative 100, two other girls from the study abroad program and I were working for the Olympic Call Center. You are probably saying, “Aren’t the Olympics over?” Believe me I was saying the same thing. Last year, since Qingdao held the sailing events for the Olympics, there was also a volunteer Call Center that was created. Now that the Olympics are over, the Call Center wants to become a business within Qingdao. With that being said, this upcoming September will mark the beginning of this business. Basically for us as interns, Sunny Yanli (our boss) wanted us to find information about different call centers in America. The other project that she had us work on was making a study abroad guide for Chinese students who will soon be going abroad to Australia. Again, you’re probably questioning, “Why Australia?” haha…but it was what they needed help on. So for the past few weeks we have been gathering data over American call centers and we have been collecting tons of information for these students who will be traveling to Australia. I did think that the internships would be much different but we still we were able to stay busy and help with their projects. Our boss, Sunny is such a friendly person and we all really enjoyed working for her.

Other than my internship, I also had another A&M Communication course to take with our professor, Antonio La Pastina. We had to read a book called, “What Does China Think” and have class discussions and papers written over the book. I have enjoyed my classes with Antonio this summer…he is a great teacher and I have learned a lot about China that I did not know before. Qingdao has been great as well! The weather was very rainy at first when we returned but lately it has been so sunny and in the low 80’s. I have heard Texas is in need of some rain, so I will try and bring some back with me J Every morning I run down to the beach which is so nice, I am really going to miss that when I leave.

I have a conversation partner here so I have been getting together with him a lot over the month too. I have been helping him with his English while he helps me with some Chinese. Like I have said before, apparently he is known for being a fabulous ping pong player here at Ocean University. We had a ping pong tournament a couple weeks ago and I definitely impressed him with my ping pong skills! Last weekend three girls from the study abroad program and I decided to go back to Beijing one last time before we left. Beijing is my favorite city in China, we went to see the Summer Palace and visited the Pearl Market again which was a lot of fun. We travelled by the bullet train, it took five hours but the train was so comfortable it was not bad at all. That is also something I will miss here in China. Traveling by train is so easy and convenient…I wish America has more passenger trains. Last week I was able to see the solar eclipse here in China!! I had never seen an eclipse before so yet again, another fabulous experience for me this summer!

I cannot believe that this is my last entry and that I will be coming home so soon. This summer has flown by so fast and I would do it all over again in a heart beat. There have been waves of homesickness throughout the trip and of course right now I am very excited to get back home…but the memories that I have made in China will never be forgotten. Thank you all who have been reading about my study abroad adventures and thank you for supporting me throughout the summer. Like I said earlier, starting in about two hours from now it will be August 1st which means I will have no internet. I have posted more pictures up on photo bucket (information below) so I hope you all can take a look at them. Hope everybody is doing well and I will see you all in just a few days!!

Love you all,
Alison Benedict

www.photobucket.com
Username: abenny12@neo.tamu.edu
Password: aggie2010

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Excursions

Most of you have already read this entry through the email that I sent out. For those of you who have been keeping up (but probably lost interest because I never posted anything) again certain websites were blocked and there was no way that I could figure out how to get onto my blog! However, just recently I found another one so I am now able to post.

The newest entry is long but it explains my 17 day excursion which is definitely worth the read!

Beijing

We left Qingdao on June 19 and rode a 5 hour bullet train to Beijing which actually was my first passenger train ride. Overall I would say that Beijing is by far my favorite city in China and would recommend all travelers to visit Beijing. The 2008 Olympics definitely led Beijing to become a touristy area…so it was noticeable that the pollution is well controlled and new modern attractions were built. We were able to enjoy many tasty cuisines and even went to a very famous restaurant that is known for Beijing duck.
Day number two in China was simply amazing. I can finally now say that I have visited one of the 7 wonders of the world…The Great Wall of China! It was such a gorgeous day…no clouds, the sun was bright and I could see the wall for miles into the horizon. I am so glad that we have had such great weather at places like the Great Wall and Mount Taishan. Looks like we brought the Texas weather with us! Like I said, the wall was phenomenal and like usual I took about a thousand pictures…so check out my photo bucket page! (Username and password are above)
Day number three we first went to a flea market called the Panjiayuan market. This market was so much fun and it was neat learning how to properly bargain some very beautiful merchandises. Everything from pots, artifacts, art work, jewelry, clothing, bags, sculptures and more were found here. Three hours in this market was definitely not enough time to see everything, so you can imagine the size of Panjiayuan. The rest of the day was devoted to a 6 hour tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Our guide unfortunately had very broken English which made learning somewhat difficult but I tried to gather as much knowledge as I could. That night as a group we went to a famous food vender area called Wanfujin Street where I enjoyed my first taste of scorpion!! It was actually really good and was not bad at all! The kids from last were right when they said scorpion tastes like popcorn. However, I will say that starfish is not my favorite dish to eat J
Day four was another exciting day. The famous Pearl Market was incredible and I had never seen a place like it before in my life. Four stories of knock of clothes, jewelry, electronics, shoes, purses and more…my bargaining skills became even better! After the Pearl Market even more adventure came our way when we went to visit the 2008 Olympic Center! Actually seeing the Olympic Center in person was so fun and I still can’t believe that we went inside both the Aquatic Center and the Nest. The architecture on both buildings were so different and modern looking, again go and check them out in photo bucket. Throughout my four days in Beijing we also went to many temples. I believe in total we visited a Lama, Daoism, two Buddhist temples and the Temple of Heaven. They were all very peaceful and it was neat to see people praying and worshiping. Overall, like I said in the beginning, Beijing has been my favorite place to visit. It is so modern and as you can tell we did a lot during our stay…maybe if we have a free weekend I can visit Beijing again!

Xi’an
Xi’an was a short visit, mostly amazing but at some parts…horrible. On the 11 hour train ride from Beijing to Xi’an I ended up waking up at 5:00am on the train… horribly sick. I will not go into details but being sick on a moving train is not fun at all. I definitely felt my first little wave of homesickness and it was hard being that sick and not having my loved ones around me to comfort me. The whole day I really felt terrible but I was not about to pass up the Terracotta Warriors! The history behind the Terracotta Warriors was fascinating to learn about. There were many uncovered from the dirt (found only 20 years ago!) and there are still areas that are being excavated. It makes me wonder what else is below us that we have no idea about! The farmer who actually discovered the Terracotta Warriors was also at the museum but unfortunately no pictures could be taken with him.
The second day in Xi’an I felt normal again. We rode bikes on Xian’s city wall and it was a blast. At some points I really thought my bike was going to break on me…they look/feel so old! It was a very memorable day J Later that day after the bike ride we boarded another train…this time a 16 hour train ride to the Sichuan Province.

Chengdu
The 16 hour train ride wasn’t too bad. Sleeping was a little difficult but wow the scenery throughout the mountains was beautiful. Each day in Chengdu I feel was very unforgettable. The first day we were able to see the city and view some very gorgeous Chinese gardens. One of them that we went to was very well kept with traditional buildings in areas, bonsai trees, lotus flowers and peaceful ponds. It reminded me of pictures that I had seen of China that I had always wanted to visit.
The next day we rode a 2 hour bus trip to Leshan. I have always wanted to see what a jungle was like and I definitely got to be in one during our stay in Leshan! Our first visit was a place called the Thousand Buddha’s. We walked along paths through the trees and soon came to the historical landmark. On one side there was a huge river with lush vegetation and then on the other side was a huge mountain with thousands of Buddha’s carved into the rock! It was beautiful and also really interesting/sad to see that most of the Buddha’s had missing heads. It’s sad to think people stole these carvings and interesting to think where they would be in our world. To continue on with the day the Leshan Grand Buddha was phenomenal. I cannot believe that I have actually seen the biggest Buddha in the world…70 meters high!
Day number two in Leshan, we went to Mount Emei and hiked throughout the mountain in the jungle. I would say this was my favorite day in Leshan because I had always wanting to view/feel what it was like to be in a jungle…wow was it humid! To continue, the day got even better when we visited the wild monkey park!!! I will admit it was a little scary being so close to those wild monkey but in all it was very entertaining. The first monkey we saw was gulping down a coke he pulled from the tourist trashcan. We saw baby monkeys playing, mothers carrying their young and hundreds climbing throughout the trees. One monkey even grabbed a water bottle from a boys hand and quickly took it up a tree haha. It was a fun day.
The next day was a rainy one but we got to visit a Panda Bear park! They were adorable and of course we all loved to watch the cuddly bears. I will say that Panda’s are by far the laziest animals I have seen haha….but they are still fascinating creatures. It’s sad to think they really are becoming extinct in this world but reassuring that there are still parks devoted to breeding Pandas. We left for the train station after the park for a 12 hour train ride for our next excursion to Xichang.

The Yi civilization
I have noticed that in a lot of these entries and for my personal journey, I always say, “Today has been the best day so far in China.” Or “This has been my favorite place to visit so far”. I have to say that everyday has been a blessing but nothing has come close to what we all I have experienced over the past two days. I would try to sum up the last few days but I feel every detail that I can give will help paint you a picture of what all I have done. When signing up for this study abroad program, in the beginning we were informed that we would be doing a community service project with people who had been affected by the August 2008 earthquake. The people that we worked with were affected by the earthquake but our main focus was towards an orphanage. The society that I am speaking of is known as the Yi civilization that lives in the Zhao Jue Mountains. They are known for being one of the poorest civilizations in China. This society also is known for having hundreds of kids left as orphans because their parents had passed away from HIV/AIDS.
The first day we were in Xichang, had an introduction from the Yi Empowerment Center, visited a museum about the people and soon were on a bus traveling up steep mountains to our destination (Zhao Jue). I believe it was a 3 hour bus ride…very windy and bumpy…but wow the scenery was gorgeous. It reminded me of Ireland with the rolling tall hills and very green vegetation. I am so happy that I have seen the city life, beaches, jungle and mountain terrains of China!
The next day at the orphanage was simply incredible. I am guaranteeing that none of us will ever forget this day with the kids. We arrived at the school and met up with the, “love class” which consisted of 37 students that have all lost their parents. Throughout the whole day we played games with them, drew pictures, sang songs, colored, played with toys, danced, ate dinner with the kids that the school provided for us and we even were able to witness their cultural Torch Festival Ceremony. When we first got there we said our hellos and soon enough we were coloring and drawing pictures. The kids were a little shy at first but they grew to love all of us and would never leave our side haha. After coloring we went to play with the love class outside. For hours we were all running around playing tag, monkey in the middle, duck duck goose, soccer and much more. We all had a blast. Around 4 the children were having their dinner and we were going to eat with them as well. We all sat in circles with the kids and ate rice, potatoes, pig and chicken which overall was a feast and a specialty dish for the kids. Apparently chicken is very expensive so eating this meal was very special. The food was very good and the kids seemed to enjoy it as well. They even delivered the bowls and spoons to us…and would always offer us more and more even when we would say we were full haha.
After dinner we were able to see the kid’s living areas too since they actually live there at the school. Tears could not be held back when I saw their tiny little rooms. There were 4 bunk beds and 3 kids slept in one bed…totaling to 24 children to a room. At this point I couldn’t help but think what my room looked like when I was there age. I shared my bathroom with my brothers but it was still a big bathroom, I had my own room phone, my own stereo system, a closet of clothes, posters on my walls and a bed to myself. I even had both of my parents down the hall from me. I realize that the kids do not know a difference but it is hard when I personally know the difference. For a minute I had to go off by myself and become, “strong” again so the kids wouldn’t see me…and as soon as we walked back onto their play ground…their smiling faces made me return back to myself.
While we were waiting for the Torch Ceremony, I was hanging out with the kids taking pictures of them and letting them take pictures with my camera but I was soon snatched by the arm by somebody! I found myself being tugged by two women and was pulled into a house. They were laughing and I had no idea what was going on but soon enough they were layering me with clothing. They wrapped a gorgeous skirt around my waist and put another gorgeous shirt on me for my top. I won’t lie…the string that they put around my hips to keep the skirt up was definitely cutting off some circulation haha, but I didn’t want to say anything. Everybody crowded around us when we went to the playground it was so much fun taking pictures with the kids and the adults. I soon found out that the woman who put the clothes on me was the wife of the man who was in charge of the orphanage! She seemed to like me a lot and stayed by my side the rest of the night. She also styled my hair into a bun with a hand crafted/painted barrette which in the end she gave to me as a present…I still cannot believe she gave that to me as a gift.
The rest of the night became even better. Just a little information about the Torch Ceremony for the Yi people…it is basically a big festival of dancing, eating and lighting big torches that is supposed to bring good harvest. The ceremony began with them lining us up, toasting us individually and then taking a small shot of their Baijiou (“Liquor” which I will say was horrible haha). We had a translator that told us what they would say for our toasts…my toast was, “Half of your cup is filled with this liquor, because half of your love will remain here with us”. Once the toasting was complete the fire was lit, everybody joined hands and we all learned traditional dances to their traditional music. After about an hour of dancing HUGE torches were brought out for us to light! Wow did they light on fire and we were all dodging the hundreds of ashes that were floating in the air. Saying goodbye that night was difficult and it was very hard to leave. Even though we were all exhausted from the day I am positive that all of us would have loved to stay much longer.
The next day we did not go to the school but instead visited some of the orphan’s relatives and their homes (mainly grandparents). I will not go into details for each house but again…tears arise as I think back to what I saw. Some houses were close walking distances and some were far but each relative was grateful to have us enter their home…even with the mass amounts of mud on our shoes. The rain made the ground very muddy and it was obvious animal feces was mixed in with it due to their livestock actually living outside their doorsteps. Pigs, cows, chickens, cats and dogs were running around everywhere and the smell was pretty intense at times. Their houses barely had electricity and some barely had any furniture. The houses in general had nothing. The relatives were so sweet and some even offered to cook a meal for us. I couldn’t believe they were offering to cook us a dinner. Of course we declined but thanked them greatly for their generosity. We also brought them some food and they appreciated it very much. Some of the relatives even started to cry as they would talk about their families and would also cry when we would leave. That was very hard to see. Overall the day was very sad but also an experience. Just like when I saw the orphanage rooms, seeing these homes made me think about my home back in the States. It made me think how grateful I am to have two living parents that have a comfortable roof over their heads. It made me think how I live in a duplex back in College Station that is a mansion compared to what the Yi people live in. Seeing the kid’s grandparents made me miss my own grandparents too. I feel I really have changed in ways after these last two days. I have seen poverty in America and some…on TV… but nothing compares to what I have seen here. I feel I have never been a spoiled child and I have always appreciated the things that I have but after this…I feel in the future I will in all just be more grateful about everything that I have. My health, the mind, my family, my country, my house, my car, doctor’s offices, HEB, clean water…god the list could go on forever. I am thankful for everything and even more thankful that I am able to go to a University that has this program! The rest of the trip we were learning more about their culture…visiting arts and craft museums and museums.

Back in Qingdao!
It is now July 5 and we are back in Qingdao. It is good to be, “home” and very nice to actually get some rest. 17 days of traveling was very tough at times but honestly I could travel the rest of my time here in China and be perfectly content! July 4th this year for me came and went. That day we were traveling back to Qingdao and of course there were no fireworks shot into the air. I hope everybody had a fun and safe one! A group of us actually know of an Italian food restaurant so we decided to go eat some Italian food last night. Oh gosh…spaghetti had never tasted so good! I miss my mama’s spaghetti!!
Today was rainy so it was a perfect movie day J Rest was much needed and tomorrow two girls on the study abroad program and I will be starting our first day at our internship! The company is called Creative 100, an advertising firm I believe. We have yet to meet with them so tomorrow I will have more information about what we will be doing exactly for the next 4 weeks.
-Alison Benedict

Sunday, June 14, 2009

June 15, 2009

After a 7 hour bus ride from Qufu I am back now and exhausted from such a busy weekend. We left last Friday around 1pm and driving around China’s countryside was really neat to see. I have seen the city life of Qingdao and Shanghai but driving in the car on highways in the mountains was relaxing. It was a very nice way to decompress from such a busy week. The hills had crops growing on them all the way to the top and almost every farm that I saw the farmers (wife, husband and child) were tending to their crops.

We stayed in a hotel in Taishan which was a nice change from the dorms. Saturday we all awoke and were ready to climb the mountain! 9 out of the 15 of our group chose to climb, I was one of those who decided to climb and it was so worth it. I really would do it again today if I could…I just really enjoy outdoor activity and have never experienced outdoor activity like that before! The climb was tough and my legs were and still are sore from those 6,000 steps. When we all met at the top we had a quick lunch and then were able to walk around to the shops and walk, “All the way to heaven” as our guide, “Tiger” called it. I don’t remember his Chinese name but apparently it means, “Fierce Tiger” haha. The view was beautiful from the top and all of the religious/sacred areas to pray to Buddha were amazing to observe. Many people stopped to bow and pray for good luck. Also, there were thousands of gold hand locks linked together that symbolized good luck within a marriage. Basically, a married couple can bring a lock to Buddha and it would bless their marriage to have everlasting love and luck. After climbing back down the mountain we then traveled to Qufu which is about an hour drive from Taishan.

The city of Qufu was small and of course the main attraction to the city is the Emperor Confucius’ temple, home and tomb. They were all so fascinating to see and also to learn about. Our guide did a great job, but at times I found it very hard to understand what he was saying so unfortunately I and other in the group feel like we missed out of some history. One thing he did mention that I thought was really intriguing was how the people (or really the slaves) transported huge rock columns all the way from Beijing to Qufu on ice! History like that and people building Mount Tai or the Great Wall is so mind boggling to think about. This was also more, “touristy” spot than I thought it was going to be. Most of the tourists were Chinese so you can imagine their excitement to see an American. Maybe it was their excitement or maybe they are just very strong people but I was tugged and pulled on so much it definitely got a little tiring towards the end! So as you can tell the weekend was a lot of fun.

This week is going to be another busy week…school, test on Thursday, visiting the Tsingtao brewery, visiting the Qingdao museum, meeting with my conversation partner, having a nice dinner at a restaurant where they perform classical Chinese music and finally Beijing this upcoming weekend! I will post sometime in the next few days probably before I head out on Friday.

Until then I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all! Because I cannot post pictures onto this blog like I had hoped, if anyone would like to see some you can go to:

www.photobucket.com
Username: abenny12@neo.tamu.edu
Password: aggie2010

Love you all!
-Alison

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

June 11, 2009

Yesterday was such a great day and by far one of the most memorable days I have had so far in China. We had our language class in the morning, then we went to the markets to eat lunch by our campus with Tio (the Communications professor) while having a class discussion. After our lunch, Tio had set up conversation partners for us to meet and form times to get together with them twice a week to help them with their English and they would help us with our Chinese. Turns out I get paired up with the Dean of the Liberal Arts Department who is the professor of the Chinese conversation students. At first I wanted somebody closer to my age but I am so glad that I was paired up with him because he is such an interesting man and so nice as well. His English was actually pretty good so we talked for an hour and a half getting to know one another. I learned that he is a Dean here at Ocean University, teaches ancient Chinese writing and during the week he switches off days to either run the mountain behind our campus, swim laps in the ocean or play ping pong! Apparently he is a champion ping pong player in Qingdao!! I am looking forward to getting to know him better and someday I will show him my ping pong skills :) thank you mom and dad for the ping pong table at the ranch! Professor Huang Ya Ping will be impressed!

To continue on with the day, Tio then took us to our next scheduled event which was meeting China Youth League…basically they are an organization that forms international students with a host family! We will not be staying with the families because we are living on campus…it was just a chance for us to see the traditional Chinese home and family life. We were all split up into groups so I was with two other girls from our study abroad program and were paired up with Jaime. Jaime is her American name she is 19 years old and has just graduated high school. We arrived to her house, sat down on their wooden couch and there on the table was a buffet of fruit. Jaime said she had bought it all just for us! We talked with her for about 2 hours, while her mother brought in even more fruit and hot green tea. I knew the tradition of the Chinese being very hospitable to guests but I was so blown away by how genuine they really were at making sure we felt at home. We were already full from all of the food so far but next it was time to make traditional Chinese dumplings! Jaime’s mom and aunt soon brought out the dough, the pork and the beef and taught us how to prepare them. It took about 20 minutes to make the dumplings but they were soon steamed in water and I kid you not, hundreds were placed in front of us to eat. Plate after plate, they kept bringing them out! The dumplings were delicious but I can’t remember the last time I was that full from food haha. While we were eating, Jaime’s mom and aunt also entertained us with their Tai Chi skills which were fun to watch. :) As you can tell it was a pretty neat experience. We exchanged numbers with Jaime too and will meet up with her sometime again this summer.

That is all for now but I will post more information after this weekend to Qufu. We will be visiting the Confucius’ temple, tomb and home and will also climb Mount Taishan (Mount Tia- one of the 5 sacred mountains in China. 1,440 meters high/6,000 steps to the top!)

-Alison

Monday, June 8, 2009

June 8, 2009

I have finally figured out how to get onto my blog! As most of you know, some sites are blocked in China such as Youtube, some Google and in my case...Blogspot but I was able to find a way to go around the restricted sites. So much has happened over the last several days and I am having such a great time here in Qingdao. To start some from the beginning, the flight was very long but fortunately I was able to sleep through most of it which was helpful. As soon as we arrived into China, we all had to have our temperatures checked about 5 times before leaving the airport. We finally were free from the airport but soon enough once we arrive at our University…we were checked again. Well, apparently two girls had a little higher temperature than the rest of our group…so we were put into quarantine!! It was not severe but the two girls were taken to be hospital to check and see if they had the H1N1 virus, and of course they did not. We had to stay in our dorms only for the first day we were there which actually ended up being ok due to our jet lag. The next day we were able to leave our dorms and were finally able to explore the city.

I will not go into every detail from the day I left until today but my first day in China was definitely an experience. I would have never guessed we would have been put on quarantine… but it is a little humorous if you think about it :)

So far, everyday I have learned so much about the Chinese culture and also myself. I have class everyday, beginners Chinese from 8:00am until 12:00pm, a lunch break and then my Intercultural Communications class from 2:00pm until 4:00pm. The language course is challenging but it really is a lot of fun learning such a different language. My Communication class is so interesting and I am learning a lot about the Chinese culture that I did not know before. The weather here is perfect…sunny skies normally in the 80’s during the day and 70’s at night with no humidity. The beach is so close to the campus and the mountains are literally right outside my back window. It is so nice waking up in the morning to hot green tea and looking out our 4th floor balcony towards the beach, then turning around and seeing tall mountains. The beach is rocky in some places and sandy in places too but the water is very cold.

The food here is SO delicious…I have eaten some very different dishes but have not had any problem with anything that I eat. For example: jellyfish, lamb, pork, pigs feet, squid, clams, fish, conch, oysters, beef, dumplings, frog and I am still waiting on the day that scorpion is available to try! Green tea is served with every meal or hot water because the water here is unsanitary unless boiled. They have Sprites and Cokes but they usually are not cold. We have all mentioned that is something we miss…ice. The markets by our campus are so much fun and are crowded at all times of the day. Everything is so inexpensive here too…for example; all of our study abroad group could literally order a buffet meal and maybe pay $7.00 per person towards the end. Or for lunch the other day I got a big bowl of soup for 10 cents!

To continue, observing and studying the people in Qingdao is always fun to do too. Everybody is so friendly here and I have never once felt threatened by anyone. I have noticed couples walk everywhere together holding hands, younger girls with locked arms means they are best friends, most women and some men carry umbrellas to protect their skin and it is also a fashionable thing to do, elderly people playing games on sidewalks, food sellers lining the streets, people flying kites along the coast in the park, dogs wearing booties!, taxi drivers are even crazier drivers than in New York and so much more. I have also noticed people always look at us while we walk by them and some have even wanted to take pictures with us. The other day I wore a braid and was told I looked Russian haha. It is also fun to point out the signs the are in English but are completely grammatically wrong such as, “Wi thanks your four comeeng by” (The was on the way out of a restaurant)

My roommate, Lisa, is adorable and we are so alike in so many ways. This past weekend Lisa and I took a trip to Shanghai for the weekend! Her tutor back at A&M was born in Beijing and was visiting his family for a few weeks before returning back to the States so he came with us which was very nice because he is fluent. We went to the Pearl TV tower and viewed the city from 263 stories high, we went to the Bund, Yuyuan, Xintandi, some of the clothing shops, Peoples Square, saw Shanghai’s skyline which was breath taking, ate great meals and even had our first karaoke experience! Karaoke is HUGE in China and it was fun singing American songs but even more entertaining listening to the Chinese songs and lyrics haha. Overall the trip was perfect and I will always remember visiting Shanghai. If anyone does not recognize the sites I mentioned above, please Google them and see Shanghai’s beauty!

We arrived in Qingdao yesterday evening and have already started the busy week of school. It is about 11:00pm right now (10:00am back in Texas) so I am going to say goodnight for now. Thank you all who posted your sweet comments on my blog. Even though I have not been able to get onto it, I was able to read the messages today which put a big smile on my face. I love and miss you all!

-Alison

PS- Unfortunately I am not able to post pictures on my blog here in China...but I am creating a photo album on PhotoBucket and will let you know when that is ready to view.

June 8, 2009

I have finally figured out how to get onto my blog! As most of you know, some sites are blocked in China such as Youtube, some Google and in my case...Blogspot but I was able to find a way to go around the restricted sites. So much has happened over the last several days and I am having such a great time here in Qingdao. To start some from the beginning, the flight was very long but fortunately I was able to sleep through most of it which was helpful. As soon as we arrived into China, we all had to have our temperatures checked about 5 times before leaving the airport. We finally were free from the airport but soon enough once we arrive at our University…we were checked again. Well, apparently two girls had a little higher temperature than the rest of our group…so we were put into quarantine!! It was not severe but the two girls were taken to be hospital to check and see if they had the H1N1 virus, and of course they did not. We had to stay in our dorms only for the first day we were there which actually ended up being ok due to our jet lag. The next day we were able to leave our dorms and were finally able to explore the city.

I will not go into every detail from the day I left until today but my first day in China was definitely an experience. I would have never guessed we would have been put on quarantine… but it is a little humorous if you think about it :)

So far, everyday I have learned so much about the Chinese culture and also myself. I have class everyday, beginners Chinese from 8:00am until 12:00pm, a lunch break and then my Intercultural Communications class from 2:00pm until 4:00pm. The language course is challenging but it really is a lot of fun learning such a different language. My Communication class is so interesting and I am learning a lot about the Chinese culture that I did not know before. The weather here is perfect…sunny skies normally in the 80’s during the day and 70’s at night with no humidity. The beach is so close to the campus and the mountains are literally right outside my back window. It is so nice waking up in the morning to hot green tea and looking out our 4th floor balcony towards the beach, then turning around and seeing tall mountains. The beach is rocky in some places and sandy in places too but the water is very cold.

The food here is SO delicious…I have eaten some very different dishes but have not had any problem with anything that I eat. For example: jellyfish, lamb, pork, pigs feet, squid, clams, fish, conch, oysters, beef, dumplings, frog and I am still waiting on the day that scorpion is available to try! Green tea is served with every meal or hot water because the water here is unsanitary unless boiled. They have Sprites and Cokes but they usually are not cold. We have all mentioned that is something we miss…ice. The markets by our campus are so much fun and are crowded at all times of the day. Everything is so inexpensive here too…for example; all of our study abroad group could literally order a buffet meal and maybe pay $7.00 per person towards the end. Or for lunch the other day I got a big bowl of soup for 10 cents!

To continue, observing and studying the people in Qingdao is always fun to do too. Everybody is so friendly here and I have never once felt threatened by anyone. I have noticed couples walk everywhere together holding hands, younger girls with locked arms means they are best friends, most women and some men carry umbrellas to protect their skin and it is also a fashionable thing to do, elderly people playing games on sidewalks, food sellers lining the streets, people flying kites along the coast in the park, dogs wearing booties!, taxi drivers are even crazier drivers than in New York and so much more. I have also noticed people always look at us while we walk by them and some have even wanted to take pictures with us. The other day I wore a braid and was told I looked Russian haha. It is also fun to point out the signs the are in English but are completely grammatically wrong such as, “Wi thanks your four comeeng by” (The was on the way out of a restaurant)

My roommate, Lisa, is adorable and we are so alike in so many ways. This past weekend Lisa and I took a trip to Shanghai for the weekend! Her tutor back at A&M was born in Beijing and was visiting his family for a few weeks before returning back to the States so he came with us which was very nice because he is fluent. We went to the Pearl TV tower and viewed the city from 263 stories high, we went to the Bund, Yuyuan, Xintandi, some of the clothing shops, Peoples Square, saw Shanghai’s skyline which was breath taking, ate great meals and even had our first karaoke experience! Karaoke is HUGE in China and it was fun singing American songs but even more entertaining listening to the Chinese songs and lyrics haha. Overall the trip was perfect and I will always remember visiting Shanghai. If anyone does not recognize the sites I mentioned above, please Google them and see Shanghai’s beauty!

We arrived in Qingdao yesterday evening and have already started the busy week of school. It is about 11:00pm right now (10:00am back in Texas) so I am going to say goodnight for now. Thank you all who posted your sweet comments on my blog. Even though I have not been able to get onto it, I was able to read the messages today which put a big smile on my face. I love and miss you all!

-Alison

PS- Unfortunately I am not able to post pictures on my blog here in China...but I am creating a photo album on PhotoBucket and will let you know when that is ready to view.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Goodbye Texas, Hello China!

Wednesday May 27, 2009

Hello loved ones and friends and welcome to my blog! I will be keeping this blog as an online journal for everybody to view throughout my summer study abroad trip to CHINA. I will be taking my computer overseas but of course communication will be minimal, so this is a perfect way for everyone to read my adventures and see photos that I will be posting.

Today I am departing from Houston at 5:50pm and arriving in Los Angeles at 7:30pm. There is a long layover and will be departing from Los Angeles at 1:40am and will arrive in Beijing at 5:20am. Oh its not over yet! Finally I will depart from Beijing at 8:05am and will arrive in Qingdao at 9:30am which at this point it will be May 29.


I will be staying at Ocean University in Qingdao, China for a 10 week Texas A&M faculty led study abroad program. For those of you that do not know, Qingdao is is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city is a major seaport, naval base and industrial center and the city also held the 2008 Olympics sailing events. The picture at the top is the city where I will be staying and there is also a map to show where Qingdao is. Well, it is time for me to head off to Houston now...next posting will be in a few days once I get my computer set up in my dorm room!