Life as of Lately

Hello,

Sorry I haven't updated in a while but it is exam week so I have been stuck in coffee shops for the last few days trying to memorize what feels like thousands of characters. These are our last exams and then we have two weeks left of class! Most everyone in my study abroad group is leaving right after classes are over but a few of us (like me!) are sticking around for a little bit.

Anyways, I think it is safe to say summer has FINALLY come to Beijing. I seriously doubted there for a few months that there was any other season here besides winter. Fortunately, it hasn't been too hot yet..or smelly!

With the arrival of summer comes my topic for this current post: Chinese clothing style. When we went to Xi'an a few months ago we got stared at for wearing shorts. I figured it was just cause it was March and they thought it was too early to be wearing shorts. Well I thought wrong. Chinese people constantly look like there is about to be a blizzard even if it's 90 degrees out. The crazy part though is they never seem to look hot. Meanwhile, I am about to have a heatstroke. The craziest thing I've noticed though is they don't believe in work-out clothes. I often see women wearing high heels while playing badminton! Now that is some skill.  I can't say enough good things about China, but seriously..their style needs some help. However, I guess I'm not one to talk since I literally roll out of bed every morning and put on sweat pants.

One other thing I want to touch on that I am sure most Westerners are not aware of is "double eyelids". A word in my textbook the other day was "double eyelids". Neither me nor any of my friends had any clue what this meant so we asked the teacher. Asians either have single eyelids or double (Almost all Westerners have double). Double eyelids are seen as more beautiful because usually the eyes are bigger. I will include a picture below so you can see what I am talking about. Now I catch myself staring at Chinese peoples eyelids to see which one's they have!

I have made a list of cool cultural aspects that I want to touch on in the next few weeks since I feel like I've been lacking on that. So stay posted! I know you can barely sit still..

Ok back to studying I go! Love and miss you all!!


Single eyelids vs. double
Chinese people sleep in the weirdest places..this guy was changing a billboard sign Chinese couples loooove to wear matching shirts. This was a sign on my campus to get a matching shirt made for you and your loved one

上海 Shanghai!!!

This past weekend we had a long weekend so a few of us girls decided to take a girls weekend and go to Shanghai. We left Saturday morning and got there Saturday night. Fortunately, our hostel was located right next to a subway stop so we had no problem getting there. We had all heard how great Shanghai’s nightlife is so we were eager to check it out and it definitely did not disappoint (even though a beer was about the same as US prices!)

Sunday we woke and were ready to hit the town. Our first stop was the Yu Garden. The garden was this stunningly beautiful garden enclosed by walls in the middle of the city. There were times where we would be sitting at a pavilion over looking the water and you could see on the other side of the wall the Starbucks. This is something that I’ve come to accept as normal in China. Everything ancient and beautiful here is right next to something modern. The garden though was one of my favorite things I’ve seen so far in China.

After that we headed to Nanjing Lu which is suppose to be the best shopping street in Shanghai (what’s a girls weekend without a little shopping?!). The only problem with this best shopping street is it was all stores I could not even dream of entering (Prada, Cartier, you get the picture). So pretty much the street was a bust.

That night we headed to an American style restaurant called Boxing Cat Brewery. We sat out on the patio and had two different kinds of their own brewed beer. The best part though was not only did the appetizers and entrée’s come out in the right order (Chinese people tend to eat soups and salads last) but we got free bread! The waiter put this plate in front of us and we all looked at each other like “what is that” and he said “free bread” and we all just screamed “FREE BREAD!!” It’s the little things about America that I guess we miss. The meal was unbelievable and we just sat there for about two hours having girl talk. It was fantastic to say the least.

Monday morning we grabbed our Starbucks and headed to the Oriental Pearl Plaza. It is the most famous building in Shanghai and you can go up 293 km and see all of Shanghai. The view was breathtaking and mindboggling that a city can have so many skyscrapers. The coolest part though (as long as you didn’t look down) was the floor was glass so it felt like you were walking on top of the clouds. After that we walked to the Bund which is along the river and you get a great view of the famous Shanghai skyline. That night we headed to the tallest bar in the world which was on the 91st floor. The drinks were pricey but it was all worth it cause the owner gave us two free bottles of champagne!

Our last day in Shanghai was spent at the World Expo. Most of the pavilions were really cool on the outside but did not have much on the inside. We also did not bother going into many of the big ones because the lines were so long. It was basically Disney World for adults. It was a pretty cool event but the last few hours were miserable because my feet were in serious pain. I literally felt like I had walked all over the world. That night we got on a train and were all asleep by 10 pm.

Overall, I loved Shanghai! It was so much cleaner (mostly because of the Expo) and had a much more Western feel to it. Beijing has more culture and history but Shanghai was so much more modern and chic. I really hope I get to live there one day. One thing though that was shocking was how few foreigners we saw. We thought because of the Expo the city would be packed with foreigners but we rarely saw any.

I’d also like to thank the Chinese government for such an awesome weekend because they seeded the clouds to get rid of the pollution and it resulted in beautiful blue skies. The also told the people of Shanghai they should stay in their houses so we were able to get everywhere in less than 10 minutes.

I think summer has finally come to Beijing (only took 5 months!) so I hope to spend my weekend outside soaking up some rays. Hope everyone is doing well. Thinking about y’all all the time!

The girls out on the townYu Garden
Pretty!
Had to get a picture of them taking a picture of us.
Oriental Pearl Tower
The skyscrapers never end
Standing on top of the world!
Shanghai!!

杭州 Hangzhou

Hey Y’all!
Sorry I haven’t updated in a while. Life is so incredibly busy here! But classes and life are both going pretty well.

This last weekend our entire study abroad group went to Hangzhou. It is a city south of Shanghai and is absolutely beautiful! The worst part about it though was we spent 32 hours in total on the train and only 24 in Hangzhou. I would have definitely liked to stay there longer!

After we got off the train we headed to the West Lake which is what Hangzhou is famous for. It is a man made lake with mountains on one side and the Hangzhou skyline on the other (only in China!). Hangzhou is often said to be the Heaven on Earth and I could see why! It was so much greener and cleaner than Beijing and honestly a fresh breath of air (no pun intended).

After the boat we headed to a mountain where there are all these carvings of Buddha in the mountain. My friend Charlie and I made it our personal goal to get to the top of the mountain to see what kind of view we could see. No one told me I was going to be hiking so this was quite challenging in a dress and flip-flops. We would stop every 10 minutes or so and just sit on rocks and listen to the wind and take in all the beauty. I couldn’t have been more at peace.

That night a few of us sat in a tiny little restaurant and played Big 2 (a Chinese card game that I will have to teach everyone) for four hours. The only problem with this was they were cooking stinky tofu in the restaurant the entire night!

Perhaps the highlight of my day was I was standing around the West Lake and this lady just came up to me, held her baby out in the air, and demanded I hold the baby. I don’t know what it is about Chinese babies but they are all so incredibly adorable so I was more than thrilled to hold the child and be it’s first picture with a blonde.

The next day we only had about 5 hours to explore the city so we went to this little street lined with food and shops. Hangzhou is famous for their silk and tea so we all purchased a little. I also had to buy a kite so we went back to the lake to fly it! I must have missed out on that step in my childhood cause I could not get that kite to fly at all but my friend Anthony had no problem.
I think it’s safe to say we were all really sad to leave and go back to Beijing. Of course, we step off the train in Beijing and the weather is as miserable as always. My Communications professor has lived in Beijing for 10 years and says this is by far the coldest Spring Beijing has ever had (I’m pretty sure the government bans summer!)

On a side note, the other day Charlie and I were walking home and saw a food street vendor getting in a fight with about 9 policemen. She was yelling and stabbing them with her utensils. It was one of the craziest things I’ve seen yet in China, but was also extremely sad because they took her cart and cooking utensils and I know this is how this lady survives. The worst part though is her food was my favorite street food! We went back the next day and had a moment of silence for “Egg McMuffin Lady”.

This weekend we have a long weekend so I am going to Shanghai for the World Expo. Till then!
Much love

How many people can we fit in one train cabin?!

The latest addition to our family..she doesn't look as excited as I am
The West Lake
Buddha!
Blonde buddha chilling in a hut
I'm really good at using chopsticks
Egg McMuffin lady getting in a fight (to the right you can see the cops taking away her cart)

A few things you probably didn't know about China

Since nothing too exciting has happened to me lately I decided it'd be cool to mention a few interesting facts about China and add my own commentary to them.

1) China executes three times as many people as the rest of the world. Supposedly there are around 6,000 executions a year but the exact number is a state secret. Most executions are done on 24-seater buses called death vans. China believes the death vans are a civilized alternative to a firing squad. However, this has supposedly helped facilitate an illegal trade in prisoners' organs. Sixty-eight different crimes — more than half non-violent offenses such as tax evasion and drug smuggling — are punishable by death in China.


A death van:

2) There are already more Christians in China than in Italy and it is on track to becoming the largest center of Christianity in the world. Of course, with so many people it is on track to becoming the largest anything. My language partner told me that her grandma was a very poor peasant who was illiterate and one day received a bible and taught herself to read Chinese by reading the bible. Can you imagine how difficult that would be? She also asked me how anyone could believe that a god exists. I would imagine that if no one you knew was religious it would be hard to believe that there is someone up above so I could understand why she did not believe there's a "god".

3) Over 4,000 babies were named "Olympic Games" when the country was getting ready for the games. The name for Olympic Games is Aoyyun (haven't learned the characters for that word which is pretty surprising since they are still talking about how amazing the olympics were)

4) China uses an average of 45 billion chopsticks per year. This equals to about 25 million fully grown tree's a year. I've gotten very good at using chopsticks to say the least. In fact, I think I am going to start using chopsticks when I get back because it helps you eat slow. It is funny though cause at some restaurants they will bring you forks because your white.

5) Over 700 million people drink polluted water. When I first came here I wouldn't even brush my teeth with sink water but I quickly learned that as long as you don't swallow any you are ok. This statistic doesn't surprise me at all because not even Chinese people can drink the sink water because it is so dirty. Therefore, they all carry around huge canteens of hot water. The school I'm at lays out hundreds of huge canteens every day and you must come and pick one up if you want to have water. The only problem is the water remains boiling hot. Definitely not helpful if you are dehydrated from drinking! Fortunately, the hotel gives us two free water bottles a day of room temperature water. But I have really started to like hot water!

The water canteens on campus:

6) By 2025 China will build 10 New York sized cities. I can not imagine there being any more cities than China already has. In fact, for a place to be considered a small town it has to have less than a million residents. Boulder must look tiny to them! In 20 years, China's cities will add more than 350 million people- more than the entire population of the US. By 2025 China will also have 219 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. Right now Europe only has 35!

Ok well I hope this gave you a better feel for some of the interesting aspects of China. Take care!

Greetings from the future

Hey y’all sorry I haven’t updated in a while but I’ve been extremely busy. We had exams last week and it was pretty intense. I ended up getting a B and B- on my exams. Not as good as I had hoped for but probably what I deserved.

Last weekend was pretty fun but the only eventful thing that really happened was I pulled a typical Lauren move and lost my wallet. Of course, the first problem that came with this was my debit card. I quickly got in touch with my mom and took care of that and luckily have a spare one with me at the hotel! The real problem came though the next day. At every enterance to campus there are guards who are suppose to ask to see your student ID. Until Sunday I had only been asked once to show my ID. We have this joke that as long as you show your hair color to the guards they let you through. Well this time that wasn’t the case. I tried to explain to the guard I lost my wallet but he wasn’t having it. Finally, after about 5 minutes I think he gave up on me since I couldn’t understand anything he was saying nor properly explain myself ( I realized the next day I had been saying the totally wrong word for wallet).

In my Intercultural Communications class we had to rank “intensity factors,” or the things that affect stress levels the most among study abroad students. Of course, I rated “language” as my most intense factor. After reading the description, “the less linguistically capable you are, the greater the intensity”, I knew there was no point in reading any other factors. Some days I feel more frustrated than others and yesterday was one of those days. It just feels like a never ending battle that I’m not sure I’ll ever win. But it does help when you are studying in a café near a window and Chinese people come up to see what you’re doing (I’m pretty sure they think I can’t see out the window) and give you a thumbs up. It’s actually pretty funny cause all you have to do is say “Ni hao” (or hello) and they all say, “Oh my god you’re Chinese is so good!”. So maybe I’ll just stick to saying that and forget the rest!

Another thing we learned in my Communications class that I thought was interesting is the teacher had done a values and beliefs survey using people from all over the world and then compared the values of different countries. Most were not too shocking but one really stuck out to me. From his findings, gender and sexuality in China was rated a 66 while in America it was rated a 62 with 100 being the most manly and non-sexually open society and 0 being very a feminist and sexually liberal society (Norway got an 8). This shocked me that China and America were so close because I have noticed there is absolutely nothing promiscuous on TV or in ads (think the government might have something to do with that one…) Also, my tutor was telling me (we’ve gotten a lot closer) that most women only date one man in their life and end up marrying him. Thank goodness this isn’t the case in America! She also said that girls NEVER talk about anything sexual with their girlfriends. From being here for a few months I would have guessed China was more like an 80 and America like a 30. I wanted to bring this up to my teacher but decided I’d keep my findings to myself.

On a less interesting and dreary note, the weather here might drive me crazy. For every nice day (and by nice I mean 50 degrees) we have 10 days of cold grey weather. If I ever live in China I hope its somewhere down south cause you know how I am about being cold…

My dad is convinced I am not actually enrolled in school so I am including some pictures of campus. Better start learning a few more key phrases than “hello” so he knows I actually did something these past few months when he comes to visit!
Love you all!



Pretty building on campus..I realize it actually looks like a nice day but its very deceitful


The building where I have all my painful 8 am's
1000 year old preserved eggs with ginger sauce..not as good as they look
Angie requested a picture of me with my panda hat so here ya go!

Chengde 承德

This weekend we had a long weekend so we decided to take a night trip somewhere. We originally wanted to go to the countryside to see what real China was like but sleeping arragnements are slightly limited there so we opted to go to Chengde instead.

Chengde is about a 5 hour train ride to the northwest of Beijing and is most famous for its mountain resort which is a big resort like place with a lake and temples and what not that the emperors would stay at during the summer.

I should have known it was going to be interesting trip by the way it started out. We had to take the subway to get to the train station and most of the time I don’t really pay attention to which stop we have to get off at because someone else is in charge. So we get to a stop and my friend Alex quickly says, “ok get off!”. So what does Lauren do? I get off to realize I am the only one who actually got off and see the doors close and everyone in the train laughing at me. Next thing I know I get a text saying “April fools”. Leave it to the blonde to fall for an April fools joke!

The train ride there was pretty uneventful besides all the games we played and the massage I got from a Chinese dude (he was learning to be a masseuse and I just happened to be so lucky to get a free massage). The real adventure came though when we get off the train. We decided we wanted to live life on the edge so we never booked a hotel reservation. We get off the train at about 10 at night and all looked around and said, “Now what do we do?” We bought a map and just decided to put our finger on the map and said take us there. Fortunately, there were multiple hotels in the area so we went around to about five of them till we decided one that was cheap but not disgusting (even though some of the beds did have stains on them…)

After we got situated in our fine living arrangements we decided it was finally time to eat. We ended up going to this amazing Korean bbq restaurant. You basically order all this meat and they cook it in front of you. We ate and drank like kings all for about $8. And got to sit in a cool VIP booth! Of course, it ended with us serenading the entire restaurant with Disney songs.

The next day we decided to head to the Mountain Resort. It took us a while to get our act together and actually go in because we ended up meeting some Chinese girls that wanted to be our friends. The Mountain Resort was really pretty and had a nice big lake but it would have been even better if it were summer (the temperature was probably low 60’s).

After we explored there we went to eat, played pool, and ate again. Around 11 at night we then got back on the train to go to Beijing. This time though we had hard sleepers which are basically six bunks (or benches) to a room with no doors so you are with a bunch of Chinese folks. Unfortunately, we couldn’t all get seats together so we were all dispersed around the train. We arrived in Beijing around 4 am and were all glad to be home. However, it was truly shocking to see how many people there were at the train station at 4 am. I swear Chinese people don’t ever sleep. In fact, I know they would be appalled by my sleeping habits.

On a weirder/funnier note, I was walking to a café the other day and this Chinese girl approached me and asked if I wanted to be friends. I didn’t think twice about this because it is very common for them to want to practice their English so I gave her my number. Well, I should have known this friendship wasn’t going to last when she called me (no exaggeration) 6 times in a row at 10:00 am the other morning. She then proceeded to text me numerous times. I was already extremely sketched out but then today she texted me asking if I had a camera and if I’d wanted to come to her place on Saturday. That’s when I decided to “blacklist” her on my phone. Yes, Li Qin and I will no longer be friends.

Yesterday (Monday) we didn’t have school because it was Qing Ming holiday (or tomb sweeping day). It is basically a day to remember the dead, which is exactly what I did. The weather has been getting warmer here so I sat outside on campus and reflected on all the great memories I have of those who I was fortunate enough to have in my life. May they rest in peace.
Love you all! Missing you tons.

So what do we do now?
The hotel shower/toilet..not getting the floor wet proved to be quite tricky

The first stroller I've seen in China
At the Mountain Resort
Pretty!

A beautiful weekend in Xi'an 西安

This weekend we all traveled to Xi’an which is in the Western part of China (Xi stands for West).
The trip started off on a 9 hour train ride. Fortunately for us, and for the rest of the train, we got a train car to ourselves (there were about 40 of us). The train ride was really fun but we were all pretty exhausted when we landed in Xi’an at 8 am.

Our first stop was the Great Mosque of Xi’an. It is a Muslim mosque and was extremely beautiful. The weather was about 70 degrees and the sun was shining. This was the first day since I’ve been here that I actually saw the sun so you can imagine how happy I was.

For lunch we went to a really nice restaurant but the highlight of it was there was a wedding reception taking place in the restaurant. The wedding party was very delighted to have us partake in the festivities. It was also really cool to see what a Chinese wedding looks like.

After lunch we headed to the Terracotta Warriors. There were three pits all filled with warriors and horses. You could even get a picture and signature of the farmer who stumbled upon the warriors for 300 kuai (about $40). Considering this man is now loaded I figured it wasn’t worth it. The warriors were really impressive but I was more in love with sitting outside since it was such a beautiful day.

That night we headed to a few bars and one huge Chinese club. We were the only foreigners in the club so we quickly got greeted with free beer and VIP seats. It could have been a really cool experience but unfortunately my friend Charlie got pickpocketed so we left in a bad mood.

Sunday we woke up and had the day to do whatever we want. A few of us headed to the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. It was a really pretty Buddhist pagoda. There was also a huge water fountain show that we got to enjoy. But of course, we were the local tourist attraction. Numerous people asked to take our pictures but even more people just took our pictures thinking we didn’t notice. Having been in China almost 6 weeks I am still not use to having my picture taken by strangers. Not sure I’ll ever get use to that though.

After the Pagoda we headed to bike the city wall. The city wall is the most complete city wall to have survived in China. This was the highlight of the trip and perhaps one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. We decided to rent a tandem and bike around the city wall (its 8 miles around). My biking partner, Charlie, and I were quite the site to see on our tandem. He is a about 6’4 and 260 lbs so we decided it would be best if he steered the bike. The only problem with this is I could not see anything over him. However, when we tried to switch positions I could not even peddle the bike one foot. To say the least, it was a hilariously amazing experience.

That night we headed back to Beijing on another train ride. It was definitely a less energetic train ride since we were all exhausted.

The only problem with the city (besides Charlie getting pickpocketed) were the taxi’s. There always seemed to be ample taxi’s around but none of them would ever stop for us (not sure if it had to do with our skin color..). But this just made our adventures around the city even more fun.

I was really bummed that I wasn’t going to be at the Cup this year but I am glad I got to experience a beautiful and what seemed like a calmer city than Beijing. Hope everyone at the Cup had an amazing time. I thought about y’all all weekend. Much love.

Market near the Muslim Mosque

Mao's inspirational words come in many languages
So beautiful!!
All the babies here wear slit pants so they can just pop a squat where ever they feel like it
At the Mosque
A Chinese bride
Pit 1 (the largest one) of the Terracotta Soldiers
Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (and yes, we climbed to the top!)
Getting my picture taken with a Chinese stranger
Of course we won the Tour de Xi'an
My view from the tandem
The city wall