Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everybody,

As the title says, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! :D Even though I am half a world away, I still got to celebrate the holiday with some friends here, and we even had an American Thanksgiving dinner, although some of the foods were a little different. We had spaghetti, grilled cheese, stuffing (which was made by me, and was my first attempt at cooking :P ), mashed potatoes, brownies, and s'mores.  It was wonderful, and I ate more than I think I have at any other point here.  I was very thankful for all of the food and good company on that day. :)

In other news, this week was the last week of regular classes.  Next week, we are handing in our final papers, and taking our final exam in Language class.  The semester is quickly drawing to a close, and its really a bittersweet moment.  Even with the struggles to begin with, this has been quite the adventure.  I've met a lot of new people, made new friends, and had many experiences I don't know that I'll get to experience again.  Leaving it all behind is going to be sad.  However, I am very excited to be returning to everyone and everything I have waiting for me in the states.  My family, girlfriend, friends, professors, and everyone else that will play a role in my life are all waiting, and I can't wait to see them all again. And, two weeks from this posting, I'll get to. :)

The final thing that I want to talk about in this post was a trip we took this Saturday to a Buddhist temple and a garden here in Shi Jiazhuang.  The Buddhist temple was very interesting, and had many statues that were intricately carved and very cool to look at.  We also ate lunch at the temple before heading to the garden.  This garden had many different sections that represented different parts of China, such as the Great Wall.  It also had a fountain show that we were lucky enough to catch while we were there.  Overall, it was a very good Saturday, and I'm glad I got to go on the trip.

Well. that about wraps up my post for this time.  I'm thinking there will probably only be one more post from here in China, and then the final post will be once I get back to the states. :) Thank you to anyone that has stuck with me through this whole blog.  I hope I've been able to give you at least a little sense of what this trip was like. Until next time. :)

Adam

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Xi'an Trip

Hello everybody,

As the title says, the biggest event of the week this time around was our trip to the city of Xi'an.  This city is located in the same province as my solo trip to Pingyao was.  However, this city was farther away than Pingyao, and so we took a plane to get there instead of a train or a bus. This was a chance for me to see how flights within the country run, and I must say that they run much more smoothly than flights I've taken within the United States.  When the boarding is called, people are for the most part at the gate and ready to go.  Within a half hour of the first call for boarding, our plane was taxing to the runway on both trips.  Everything seemed very organized and ready to go as far as travelling was concerned.

As far as the city itself was concerned, Xi'an was interesting.  We visited many locations around the city during our three days there.  The two major stops on day one were the Great Wild Goose Pagoda and a history museum nearby.  These were both small stops, as we were only there in the afternoon after our flight, and we were all tired from getting up early that morning to catch the plane.

The temple at the Wild Goose Pagoda.

An ancient chess board with jade playing pieces, found at the history museum.

The high light of the second day was visiting the location of the terracotta warriors.  These warriors are fascinating to hear about, but even more interesting to see in person.  The rows of warriors, all crafted from clay and designed to look different from one another, stand in three separate pits.  The warriors, all of which are taller than me, are very intricately designed.  There are still locations in all three pits that are being excavated, and they hope to continue to find warriors the longer they dig at the sites.

This is just pit number one.  It is the largest of the pits, but all three are massive pits full of standing soldiers.

This is the best close up of a face I could get. The crowds are kept well away from the warriors, so getting detailed close up photos was difficult.

On our final day, we went to visit the old city wall, which is still standing in the city.  Development has happened on both sides of the wall, and roads go underneath the wall in many locations.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the wall, as I forgot my camera in the vehicle when we arrived at the wall. :/ However, it was very similar in design to that of Pingyao's wall. The biggest difference between the two sites is that the city of Pingyao is contained intisde the wall, while Xi'an has grown and absorbed the wall into the city.  I apologize for not having any pictures to share from that location. :/

Other than that, we celebrated one more birthday this week of a friend from Nepal.  That was entertaining, and involved more singing and eating, just as the first birthday did a while ago.  Also, with only three weeks left here, we have started work on our final papers for our classes.  That has started to eat up some of my time as well.  Hopefully all keeps going well during these last few weeks, and I can make the most of my time left here.  Of course I'll keep you posted on anything that does happen during these final weeks, especially the interesting things. ;) Thanks again for reading,

Adam

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The One Month Mark

Hello everybody,

Well, its been another rather uneventful week here. There are a couple things that deserve mentioning, but the exciting update will come again next week, after our big trip to Xi'an. That leaves this Friday the 15th, and we'll get back on Sunday. Hopefully, I'll get a post up either Monday or Tuesday so that you all don't have to wait too long before finding out what happened there.  Anyways, with that short update out of the way, lets move on to the couple of things that happened this week.

Firstly, one of the girls in our dorm from Nepal had a birthday on Friday, and we celebrated that with traditional, homemade food from India and Nepal.  It wasn't exactly the same because they couldn't get all of the same ingredients here.  But if it was anywhere near the same, they eat very good food in those countries, and I definitely wouldn't mind eating it more often.  Unfortunately, I don't know anyone from Nepal when I return to the states... :/ I think I may have to go to more of the UNK cultural events and try out many new foods, as well as meet new foreign students on our own campus.

The second thing I did this week that was slightly less important, but still very fun, was that I went to see the new Thor movie in the 3D IMAX theater at one of our local malls.  It was even in English, which made things that much better.  And I must say, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly.  I don't know if it was the fact that I was watching a movie in English, or if it was just a good movie, but I definitely enjoyed it more than the first.

I know, that doesn't really explain much of the culture here, but I think this next part might a little:  there were actually a lot of Chinese people in the English theater watching Thor, even though there was a Chinese showing in the same theater.  I don't know the reason for that, but it could be that they like watching the movies in English to practice their language skills, or maybe they like watching it in its original format, without the dubbing.  I know that when I watch movies like Ip Man or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, I prefer to listen to the original actors and just use subtitles.  Maybe that's what they were doing as well.

Anyways, with my pondering aside, that has really been the extent of my week.  Again, there has been the usual studying, sleeping, going to class and all those other wonderful things that don't really liven a post up.  We had a quiz over section two of our language book this week, and I only missed five points on that, so my language skills are still staying up there.  Hopefully they just keep improving the rest of the time, and I don't lose them as soon as I leave. :P As the title of my post says, this week also marked the point in the trip where we only have one month left.  Looking back, the time has really gone by quickly.  There have been some struggles, but there have also been some really cool parts.  Its going to be a bittersweet moment leaving Hebei Normal.  Thanks again to everyone that's reading these, and I'll update you as soon as I can with the details from Xi'an.

Adam

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

A Slow Week

Hello everyone,

I don't really have much to tell you about this week. Not too much happened this week, in comparison with past weeks. To jump right into the meat of the week, Halloween was on Thursday. However, China doesn't really celebrate that holiday, so we ended up going to our UNK professor, Vani's, apartment.  We had good food there, and got to chat with her and a group of students from Nepal that were also invited.

The next thing that happened this week was then on Sunday.  Vani is of the Hindu religion, and this Sunday the 3rd was one of the biggest holiday's celebrated by Hindus:  Diwali.  This is the "festival of lights," and is celebrated often with the lighting of candles around the home.  Vani said that there can be up to 1000 candles lit on this holiday, although there weren't anywhere near this number at the apartment we celebrated at.  Other than that, there was a prayer to begin the night, and then we shared good food and most everyone performed some sort of entertainment. When it was my turn, I sang a couple songs for the group of almost 20 that were there. So even though I couldn't sing for a festival at the college, I did still get to perform for a group, which was fun.

Other than those two events, this week has been mostly devoted to studying some, sleeping, and otherwise just being lazy. :P With only 37 days, a month and a week, as of this posting, my time in China is rapidly coming to an end. This also means that my posts will be ending soon as well. Five more posts from China, and then possibly a post after I return home, recapping my overall experiences and highlights and low points of the trip.  Hopefully everyone has enjoyed reading this blog at least a little bit.  I'm sorry again that this post is so much shorter than normal. Hopefully some entertaining things happen this week/weekend that I can update you on next time.  Thanks again to everyone who has been reading this.

Adam