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
Sunday, June 14, 2009
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
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.
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.
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.
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