Great wall, 798, meat on sticks, awkward moments

Well, it's been a long week, but thankfully the weekend finally arrived. We went to the Great Wall today, which was a lot of fun! I think the game plan for this blog post will be Great Wall, 798 Art District, and then random thoughts. So read on!


Great Wall: This morning we met in the lobby at 7:45 (which sounds early, but I actually woke up an hour later than I usually do for class) and got onto two tour buses, the kind  commonly used in Asia (surprise). It was funny to be a passenger on one of these buses for once, instead of just watching Asian tour groups pile out of them. Anyways, after an hour and a half ride we arrived at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. This section has cable cars, and a toboggan slide which you can take from the top of the wall down the side of the hill towards the parking lot area. It was really hot today, so walking up all the steps to the top was pretty arduous. However, once we were on the wall it was amazing. The views were the same as I remembered them from five years ago. The thing that surprises me the most about the great wall is just how massive it is. Not only is it wide and tall, but it stretches off into the distance as far as you can see in both directions. We were on top of the wall for about two hours, taking pictures and such. Highlight of the day was a Chinese couple asking to take a picture with Anna. Haha so funny. We decided to take the toboggan slide off of the wall, which was 60 kuai. Definitely worth it, because it was 10 minutes long! Some people in our group bought a few souvenirs in the slew of small shops along the path, all selling pretty much identical products. Anna is pretty good at bargaining, so we didn't get ripped off too badly. Then again, we were talking today about how we don't mind getting ripped off, to a point. For instance, there's really no point in trying to haggle down a price 5 or 10 kuai more. That's really just a one US dollar difference, but to the people who sell the goods, it's their livelihood. We left to go eat lunch all together at a restaurant ("free" meal!) and then headed back to the university.

Anna, Thanh-Ha and I on the Great Wall

I'm sure this is what they had in mind when constructing the wall 

haha Anna with the Asian tourist

All ready to toboggan (is that a verb? maybe)

woooo

798 Art District: Yesterday, a group of ten of us or so went to the 798 Art District in Beijing, which is about a 20 minute cab ride from the university. Soon after arriving, we split into smaller groups. My group (Allison, Thanh-Ha, and Zach) decided to pretty much aimlessly wander through the district. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but it does not look like Beijing at all. All of the buildings are two stories, some are maybe three. Most of them are brick, and look like warehouses. But the buildings themselves are not what are interesting. There are statues, and murals, and graffiti, and other works of art seemingly randomly placed on walls, or down alleyways, or outside of studios. Most of the studios had their doors open, but some required an admission fee (we didn't check those out). During our wanderings we saw many interesting things, but unfortunately we didn't have a guide book and there were no explanations for any of the art, so we were in a sense left hanging. Nonetheless, it was a really cool place to go for the afternoon; certainly a unique experience to have in Beijing a little off the beaten path (I'm looking at you, Great Wall).

Thanh-Ha and I, Asian tourist style (which seems appropriate)

one of many murals

Allison, Thanh-Ha and I. Shortly after this picture was taken, the shopkeeper came over to the window to creep on us...we turned around,  and she was just standing there...

Random Thoughts:
- street food: Tonight, Allison, Thanh-Ha, and I went to dinner at a baozi place a two minute walk from the university (baozi are kind of a mix between dumplings and buns, best way I can describe them). We each got three baozi and a plate of vegetables. After we left the restaurant, we decided to walk down the street a little and maybe try some street food. We came across a man and woman pouring what looked like a corn mixture into a large-ish machine with a motor. In went the mixture, and out came these long sticks. We were intrigued, to say the least, so we asked the woman if we could buy just one stick. Everyone else was buying large bags, so she laughed at us. But agreed to sell it to us for 2 or 3 kuai. Surprise, it was like eating the Kix cereal, but in stick form. Weird, unexpected, but definitely good. Next, I wanted to try some of the meat on sticks that street vendors all over sell. We coincidentally ran into a group from the school who had just bought a dozen sticks of meat or so (they're really not that big), so I got to try one. I think it was pork (?) and it was pretty spicy, but once again really good. We next encountered a man cooking fish balls in what looked like muffin pans (once again, best way I can describe them). He would add oil, and then slowly rotate the fish balls in their individual slots in the pan until they were perfectly round. Then, he would put six in a little container, and put some kind of sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, and dried fish on top. I really wanted to try one, but the sign said four or six. I asked if I could only buy two, and he said no. But we explained to him that I only wanted to try them, and had a brief conversation with him, and he agreed to give me two for 3 kuai. They were also very good! So in conclusion, street food is good, actually very good because there is such a variety. We walked past people selling more meat on sticks, fruit, tofu, noodles, more meat on sticks, some kind of pancake type things, oysters, and yet more meat on sticks. In fact, there were just tables and chairs set up on the sidewalk with people sitting all over the place eating their meat on sticks. I'll have to eat more meat on sticks, apparently it's a thing here.


- buying my passport picture: To make a long story short, I messed up when I applied for my visa and miscounted the days that I will be in China. Instead of putting down 61, I put 60. So my visa is one day too short, and apparently that would be a problem when I tried to leave (but what would they do? deport me? ok good I was leaving anyways. thanks for expediting the process). My teacher was helping me out with the problem, but by helping I mean that she was exclusively speaking in Chinese. She wrote me a note telling me what to do to apply for a new visa here at the university, but that too was in Chinese. Oh well. Anyways, I needed to get two passport size pictures taken for the visa application, but I had no idea where to go. After class on Tuesday, I walked to the street right outside of the university, determined to find a Kinko's. After about two minutes of walking, I realized that it was pointless to look because I probably wouldn't even be able to read the characters for Kinko's if I found one (by probably not I mean 0% chance). So I walked into a bank, because I figured the bank employees would be friendly, and willing to help someone speaking really bad Chinese. I was correct! I asked them where I could buy a passport picture, and three of them started talking with me trying to help me figure it out. I thought I was doing ok in the conversation, until halfway through one of them turned to me and asked if I understood Chinese. Cool, I've been speaking to you for like five minutes. Anyways, they gave me directions and said it'd be a five minute walk. I followed their directions, and stumbled upon a Kodak store in a smaller alley! Once inside, I told the man what I needed, he took the pictures, I paid, and left. I was (am) so so excited, because all of the speaking, with the bank employees, with the Kodak man, was in Chinese. Baby steps.


- bubble tea: I have had bubble tea every day that I have been here. It's Saturday. That's 8 consecutive days. I'm a champ. And have no intention of breaking that streak.


- awkward moment of the week: I've written about this before, but I have a language partner here at the university, and we meet together Monday-Thursday for one hour each day. We had agreed to meet Thursday night at 7 pm right outside of my dorm. So two of my friends and I were walking back from dinner, and it was a few minutes after seven as we were approaching the dorm. My language partner usually calls me right about the time we are going to meet just to make sure I'm ready or on the way. So I was expecting a phone call. I saw my language partner standing outside of the dorm, on her phone. My friends and I were speaking english (what rebels! but actually...) and I told them "look! I told you my language partner would call me!" and waved at her. She waved back. As we walked up, I started to tell her in Chinese that I was going upstairs to get a piece of paper but would be back downstairs in a second. But I couldn't construct that sentence so I asked my friend to tell her in Chinese for me. And she did, and then I told my language partner to wait a second, I would come back down shortly. As we were walking away, she said "don't speak english!" (in Chinese), which I thought was a little odd, because my language partner seems pretty chill, not the kind of person who would care if we were breaking the language pledge. As we were walking away and about to walk into the dorm, my actual language partner walked up from a different direction. Yup, that woman that we were talking to before? Not my language partner. Actually, she was one of our teachers. And that was why I recognized her. The moment when I realized that we had just straight up spoken English to a teacher...a teacher who I had never spoken to and who was probably very confused as to why I told her to wait one second I was going to get a sheet of paper and I would be back down shortly...awkward moment of the week.


p.s. my language partner has no name in this blog because I haven't figured out how to pronounce her name/can't remember it/can't read the characters/can't even write the characters correctly. And now it's that amount of time where I've known her for too long to ask again. Awkward. Oh well. The strategy here is to bring my friends to meet her, and get her to introduce herself to them, and then get them to report back to me later as to what they think her name is. I'm thinking maybe a spreadsheet or a Doodle poll to compile their answers. You can't say I'm not determined.


p.p.s. for those of concerned for my wellbeing, do not fear. My friends figured out what is wrong with my ridiculously hard mattress. It is upside down.