Shhh.... Don't tell....

...but I pull into parking lots and side streets in order to avoid having to stop at red lights on hills. You see, I just dropped Janson off at the airport and while he's gone I'm using his truck, which happens to be a stick shifter. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, but as Murphey's Law dictates, I tend to stall it on the really short green lights and get going again about the time it turns yellow. I can feel I'm getting better with practice, but I am still pretty nervous while driving. And starting up on hills is the bane of my stick-shift driving experiance. As stressful as learning to drive a standard has been, I'm glad I'm doing it, now if there is ever an emergency and I have to drive a stick, I can get behind the wheel with confidence, well... more confidence than before.

I'm finding that as nice as it is to be eating familiar foods again, I wish I could be heading back to China right away.
The food there was delicious- well, for the most part- I mean, there were somethings like the pig lower intestine and the tree fungus which I found appallingly gross, and there were things like the tomato and egg dish and some of the spices which I didn't like at first, but by the end I was not only used to, but really enjoyed. And of course, there was jiaozi and xiao long bao and some of the vegtables which I miss dearly. But, even more than the different foods, I miss the simple sense of adventure of eating out; not knowing what something is, or what it has in it. Sometimes that sense of adventure gets old and thankfully I quickly learned some of the names of the dishes that I really liked so if all else failed I could order a familiar dish, or if I was really not feeling adventurous I could go to KFC, which I did maybe 8 or 9 times.
Towards the end of the semester I was getting to be a familiar face at one particular resteraunt. They had really good jiaozi and lots of choices (with pictures) on ther menus. There were 5 or 6 fuwu yuan (sp?) that work there that knew me by sight and they were always friendly and smiling. They were patient with me when I had no clue what they were saying and when they were trying to figure out what I was trying to say. On my last night in Beijing my friend Matteo and I went to this resteraunt. He has much better Chinese than I do and he helped me tell them that I was going back to Meiguo (USA) and that I really liked their resturant and would miss the good service and good food. They got all smilely (which was really cute) and we said goodbye. I really do miss them and their good food.... If only they weren't a 18 hour travel day away.

Name Change? And Merry Christmas Wishes

I'm thinking I might have to change the name of my blog to just "Sara's Adventures" since I'm not in China anymore. Although, but by the time I stop procrastinating and do that, I might be back in China.
I'm up in Alliston, Ontario right now visiting my parents for Christmas. My boyfriend Janson is here too so there is just enough people to have some good competition for Settlers of Catan games. Here is my brother playing Settlers:

Surprisingly enough for my family, there are actually presents wrapped under the tree. It's surprising because in years past the majority of the gifts usually show up about 20 minutes before they are unwrapped.
Since Laura and Andrea aren't here, Matt and myself were the only ones competing for the top branch position for our hallmark Baby's First Christmas" ornaments. After moving around a bit Matt's ornament seems to be on top, then mine, then Laura's and then Andrea's.

Despite Laura and Andrea not being here we are still managing to stay entertained. Part of that I'm sure is because of Mom:

Yup, that's my mom, imitating Rudolph by using crab legs for antlers.

Without intending, all four of us Rips ended up wearing purplish colors. And after taking 20 different pictures to get the settings on the camera right, we did manage to pull off a nice picture

And one last picture for the road... This is Janson opening up his pinecone and pipecleaner present.

To Everyone and Anyone who might be browsing through here:

Merry Christmas!

Things Feel Different

It is a bit of an adjustment coming back to North America after 3.5 monthes in a strange place. There are sooo many memories that people here just don't understand. I've really missed being around my friends at CNU so I started looking through my pictures, finding the really good ones to show off when I visit my parents for Christmas. I keep laughing at pictures and I really wish I had a couple people from my trip around so we could all laugh together.

Seeing as how they aren't around, I might as well post a few pictures up here....

(Give me a few hours and I'll put some up)

>>EDIT
So a few hours is actually 24, sorry about the delay.


This picture would be Christi, Heather and myself. Earlier in the semester when we realized ice cream bars would still be sold mid-winter we made a deal to take a picture eating ice cream bars all bundled up. Shortly after we took this picture we all hopped back inside the dorm to warm up and finish our frozen treats.


When the three of us girls went to Datong we stopped by this little bakery where the staff were wearing little crowns. We told them that we really like their little hats and could we please have one. So they gave us three. Very nice of them. We also found little cookies that remind me of Dutch Windmill cookies there.


A few days before I left Beijing this was how the smog looked. It was even worse the next day, but right before I left it cleared up beautifully.


A picture is worth a thousand words.... Matteo and I went shopping together shortly before I left Beijing. We saw this dress at the market and we were so stunned we had to take a picture. There is no way that dress could be adequately described in words.


After seeing the dress in the previous picture we were in a rather silly mood. Also, Matteo likes UPS so when we saw this advertisment in the subway, we just had to stop.


I've been converted. Just kidding. It's actually Mike Westrate's hat but whenever I visited his and Matteo's room I would wear it. They are very comfy and warm. Next time I go back I am getting one for myself.

Back from Outer Space

Wow, I made it back. I left CHina at 9:05am Thursday and after 18 hours of traveling got to Grand Rapids at 4:30pm on Thursday. Go figure.

I was pretty antsy on the plane from Detroit to GR because I knew when I got off Janson would be there to greet me. Thankfully the woman who sat next to me was a good conversationalist and we talked the whole flight.

There is a lot that seems strange here. Its weird to see houseses and the air feels sooo much cleaner. On the plane someone was talking about how a movie had just come out on DVD for the holidays and I laughed because the same movie had been availible on street corners everywhere in Beijing since the beginning of October.

My cats are doing great. The one was a kitten when I left and now is all grown up. They still like to wander around the computer when I am using it which is a bit annoying because I can never quite see what I'm typing.

Anyway, I'm back.... I miss China.

Counting Down

I have finally gotten to a internet bar where I can hop on. The only problem is everything on the blogger website here is in characters. It makes it a bit hard to figure out.

I'm counting off the days until I go back to the States (3). But I am also counting down people.

Yesterday three of the guys left for their ski trip to Harbin.
Tomorrow 5 people head back to the states and 3 go off to Viet Nam for a week.
Tuesday morning one leave to Hong Kong and then I'll go back on thursday.

I'm ready to see my friends and family but I'm not ready to leave China.

Not ready at all.

PS I intended the person who wrote the last post to make it clear not to expect another post from my until my return to the US. I didn't see what he wrote until today and now I understand why people keep asking me to update. I'm glad I was able to do one last post before I leave. Maybe if I have time I'll be able to do one more... who knows...

Noww... if I can just figure out what buttons to push to post this thing.

Substitute teacher.

It has grown increasingly difficult to find my way here. Apparently, the internet tubes don't travel well through the center of the earth. Who knew?

In any case, don't go expecting a veritable torrent of new information from "the other side", as I am about to embark on some galivanting. Ten days burrowing across the heartland. I hear it's like graceland, but way cooler.

'Till then.

Grrr....

I came to the internet place fully intending to upload some pictures since the internet in my room has been super sketchy as of late. Unfortunatly this internet place will not let my get pictures from my camera or a flash drive. But I suppose it still might be nice to write something up, even if I can't put pictures with it.
The other night I sat by the window in our hallway and looked out over a very small portion of Beijing and N. 3rd Ring Road. It was mezmerzing to watch all the cars still whizzing by, even at 11pm at night. I watched as the huge office buildings slowly grew darker and darker. It is always amazing to see all the places and people in Beijing.
Things are going pretty well. The weather is finally getting cold enough to put on sweaters and jackets. Tomorrow we are going to the Forbidden City and Saturday is a trip to the Great Wall. I am looking forward to both very much.
This past weekend was an incredible amount of fun. On Friday night I went out with Mike, Mike, Mike, Eric, Dave, Tom, and Christi. We first got korean fried(?) chicken and soujiu. The chicken was delicious, but I don't recommend soujiu. As I understand it, it is the Korean equivilant of vodka. It smells and tastes pretty much like rubbing alchohol (for that matter so does baijiu, the Chinese version of vodka). We then went to a bar out by Sanlituan(sp?) where we just hung out, talking and laughing for awhile. About 12:30am we made it to a club where supposedly the hottest DJ in England was at. I'll admitt, he was good, but I think I would have enjoyed it regardless. I had so much fun dancing with my friends that before I knew it, it was 3:30! I got back to CNU and fell into bed exhausted. The next day I went over to Aunt Jan and Professor Bay's apartment and baked and decorated a cake for Lorraine's surprise party. It was quite a bit of fun.
Oh yeah, last thursday we went to the Summer Palace which was amazing.
Well, the time I paid for on the internet is almost up....
Hope everyone is doing well.

I Washed Too Many Socks At Once...

But at least this time I didn't turn them green.

Living in a country where I don't speak the native language is proving to be quite the interesting adventure. Even the simplest tasks are sometimes impossible to do right. Like for example laundry. The first time I washed some medium color clothes, I tossed in a couple pairs of socks (just like I've done a thousand times in the States). When I pulled them out I discovered they had aquired a definant lemon-lime green color. This time my mistake was my own fault. I put a few too many socks in the washer and now I am having a difficult time find enough places to hang them all. (The dryer machine here is a waste of yuan). I'm slowly getting used to the crispy feeling of air dried clothes.

Sometimes it gets unbelievibly frusterating. Like when I'm trying to write a paper and the computer keeps writing characters instead of letters. Or when I go to the shopping market and the sellers double or triple their starting price because they know that Westerners 1. don't know how much it should cost, and 2. usually have poor bargining skills.

Overall, China is proving to be a great experiance. I am really liking my Chinese language course. I have my first exam on Monday. We just finished up on Traditional Chinese History and will start the next session after National Day Holiday Week.

To appease certian people who have repeatedly requested pictures (and because I want to) here are some more pictures:

Way back on September 7th we went to the Imperial Academy and the Confucious Temple. in ancient times when a scholar passed his examination his name would be engraved on one of these large stone slabs. I decided that it was somewhat fitting (and a cool picture) for me to stand amoungst the names of people who had spent plenty of time studying for exams in the pursuit of higher education.


The next two pictures are from that same day, only at the Buddhist Temple run by Tibetan Lamas. The first one is of a temple structure with another odd little structure in front of it. I'm unsure of the purpose of the building. The other little one (with the fence around it was covered with coins which people were throwing. As I understand it, if you can get your coin to land on it you get some luck in return.

This other picture is of a man using a stick of incense to sweep out coins which he would then share with his wife so they could throw them back again hoping to get one of them to stick.



On September 21st we went to the Capital Museum which just opened in March of this year. It was phenomenal. Here is a picture of what ancient Chinese people used for money. Kinda looks like it would hurt to carry around. (The holes are to put it on a string).


I couldn't resist testing out my camera's macro mode on on of Beijing's many roses.


Hopefully I'll add some more in the next few days. On Tuesday afternoon we leave for our National Day Holiday trip. I'd tell you where we're going but I don't remember.

Too Much Too Do To Wait For The SLOOOOW Internet

So I've attempted twice to write posts regarding my lack of posting but I keep getting interupted by new or different things to do. I finally figured out how to get pitures up on here so I hope you enjoy.
This first one is of Captial Normal's North Campus (where I live and go to class). It is a really classy looking place. Just the other day for some big event they lined the steps along the banisters with potted flowers because some big event was taking place. We aren't sure what the event was but all of us are greatful because the entrance looks even cooler now.

A lot has been going on since I wrote last. We made a trip to Beihaide which is on the Ocean. About 45 mins north of Beihaide is the place where the great wall meets the ocean. It was awesome to see and I wish I could go back. At one of the shops along the shore I found two georgeous paintings. I got a resonabledeal on them and they have definantly livened up my dorm room which was fairly bare white before.

The weekend trip was quite a bit of fun even though I was sick the first day. I did feel good enough by Sunday to take a dip in the ocean and now I can say that I have been swimming on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
Beihaide is for the Russians as Cancun is for Americans. It is also a place where a lot of the wealthy Chinese go to retire and vacation.
Although the weather doesn't look great in this picture it was actually very nice. In general here there is usually a nice layer of clouds (smog?) which occasionally the wind blows away.

Time seems to be flying by. All of the sudden October is approaching but it doesn't feel like I've been here that long.

Last night Christy, Heather and I went to go look for Yashow Market which Christy had been to before but didn't really know where it was. We took the bus and subway and got to the general place before we ot direction turned and ended up wandering around the back streets of an apartment complex. We finally found a busy street but there was a rod iron fence blocking us. We had no idea what to do until a Chinese man kindly showed us that section of fence where one of the rods was missing and we were supposed to squeeze through (a little bit more than 1 foot wide and about 4 feet tall). We then found a Finnish man who owns a Mediterean (sp?) resteraunt here in Beijing who showed us the way to the right direction. Despite our detour we had plenty of time to shop and even got bagels with cream cheese (oh sooooo good).


Here is a picture of all the girls in our group.
The yellow shirts are a part of a running joke in our group. From left to right: Aunt Jan, Julie, Me, Jessica, Christy, Heather and Monica is on top of the lioness.

So I still have lots to write about (including today's outing to the Temple of Heaven), but that will have to wait for another time.

I hope that this suffices for all the people who have been asking me for information (at least temporarily).

Mmmmm.... Chinese Food

I just remembered a fun story from the other day. Natsun, Tom and I went out for lunch at a small local resturant (of which there are hundreds in the area). None of us really spoke chinese so we looked at the pitures in the menu and pointed at stuff that looked good. One of the dishes came out and it was small little pieces of meat with some spieces and garnish. It was very tasty, but we couldn't quite put a name with the taste. It wasn't beef and it certainly wasn't chicken or pork. Pretty much it tasted exactly like you would expect dog to taste like. Since over the past week we had been asked numerous time if we wanted beef, chicken, pork or dog, we were a bit worried that it might actually be dog. We ended up getting the waiter to write don what it was and showed the characters to Loraine. It turned out to be mutton.

Classes and What-Nots

Note: This week has been very busy and everytime I try to post I get interupted with something. So now that it is Friday and I am done with classes I'm going to try again. Also, I don't know how practical it is for me to try and put Chinese characters in here so I'll just use pīnyīn when I post unless it is a really special occasion. Pīnyīn is the letter/phonetic version of chinese characters. Although many of the letters and letter combonations are pronounced very differently than is natural to Westerners.

On Monday morning I had a "not-really" class, meaning that my class met but we didn't do anything other than meet the teacher and get our books. Chén Lǎoshī (Professor Chén) asked us all to introduce ourselves and say how much experiance we had with Chinese. Her face when I said "none" was priceless. I don't think that she fully understood what the "beginning" Chinese class really meant. The first couple of days was rough going, but it has gotten better as she learns the best way to explain stuff to us and we get better at understanding what she means. She speaks English fairly well, but sometimes her accent makes the words sound a lot different than we are used to and sometimes she askes us how to say and spell things in English. Since half of us in the beggining class have never had Chinese before, she gave us Chinese names. Mine is "Shā Lā" which doesn't really mean anything, but according to Chén Lǎoshī it is "a pretty girl's name." Oh yeah, instead of "Rip" my Chinese surname is "Rén". So if I was to indtroduce myself to someone I would say "Wǒ de míngzi Rén Shā Lā."

Tuesday was a bit more interesting. She brought in pīnyīn pronunciation charts for little kids. As silly as we all felt using materials targeted for Chinese kindergartens the posters were very helpful. A few of the people in my class have had a semester of Chinese at Calvin and say that what we have learned in just 4 short days is more than what the typical beginning class at Calvin learns in several weeks.

Besides pīnyīn pronunciation we have also learned and practiced tones, basic sentance stucture, 3 types of question sentences, numbers up to the ten thousand level (wàn), bunches of vocab, how to write characters (left to right and up to down). I am definantly learning things here in China.

I am also really liking my history class taught by the Calvin prof (Bays). Today as a fun little break from our normal lecture we read Daoist poems we had written for homework. Our prof and his wife, Aunt Jan (she asked us to call her that because calling her Professor Bays would get confusing) said that this year's Daoist poems are the best group they've heard since starting the exercise (I don't know if that is true, but it certainly is a cofidence boost). The central belief of (ancient) Daoists is the idea of non-striving so that the world and all that is in it can go back to its natural state. The Way (Dao) cannot be explained by mere human words and "is like water. Water benefits all creatures but does not compete," (from Daoist text "Laozi"). There is also the idea that in everything good there is already something of the bad and vice versa. "If you want to take from something/ Be sure to give to it," (Laozi). In class we also talked about the Daoist paradox and how it is impossible for there to be a true Daoist (striving to be non-striving).

Thursday (xīngqīsì) we had our first excursion. We went to the Imperial Academy and the next door Confucian Temple. Both were unfortunatly under repair so it was hard to really get to see the place amidst all the scafolding and constuction. Because of that, we decided to also go to a nearby Buddist Temple run by Tibetan Lamas called Yong He Gong (I'm not sure if that needs any tone marks or not). I took lots of pictures at all three places and I will include a few here and try to figure out the best way to display the rest.

I am quite glad that today is Friday. This was definantly a busy week and I am ready to relax. As an added bonus yesterday we had some rain and it has been windy which has blown away the smog so it is sunny and we can actually see the mountains!

Currently I am experiancing technical difficulty with uploading pictures. Sorry!

By the way, I'll probably be doing most of my posting on the weekends as I don't seem to have enough long stretches of time for posting during the week (I'm too busy learning characters!)

Wu-Mart

I just got back from Wu-Mart (Thing-Mart) . Kind of like a Wal-Mart but not really. It has lots of different things like food, cosmetics, household stuff and the like, but it is much smaller than what North Americas would typically think of. There aren't as many variaties of certian items.
Earlier today part of our group went out for a brief walk around the campus area with Loraine and Aunt Jan. Loraine is Chinese and is helping our group with a lot of different things like how and where to take the bus, subway, etc. Aunt Jan is Professor Bay's wife and knows quite a bit about Beijing, too. Afterwards I went to lunch with Christy and Heather at a little place near campus we had two dishes of these very good xaio long boa which are mini versions of another dish. Basically they are a hamburger-like meat wrapped in a doughy breading. I like them very much. You also dip them in soy sauce.
In about ten minutes a bunch of us are going to the market. I really need a towel as all that is in our room are hand towels and that really doesn't cut it for showers.

View

Here is the view from my room.

Pretty nice, huh? We are on the 7th floor. If you'd want to send me anything address it to me at the following address:

Room # 725

INTERNATIONAL CULTURE PLAZA

Capital Normal University, North Campus

83 West 3rd Ring Road

Haidian District

Beijing 100089

China

Just like emails, don't include anything political or ask me for such information.

Safe and Sound

I'm here. Beijing is hot and humid. I finally got the internet in my dorm room to work. But now I have to go register for my classes.

I have a very busy evening coming up, but lots of free time tomorrow.

4 hours

Well, I leave for the airport in 10 mins. Next time I write/talk/communicate hopefully it will be from China. Thanks for all the well wishes.

Be on the plane around 12 noon.

24 hours

One day. That's it... just one day until I leave. I have four more hours at work. I'll go home, do one last load of laundry and zip up the suitcases for good. I still have to say goodbye to myapartment-mates Andrea and Ruth and give them my keys. I have to get up early tommorrow so I'm ready to leave for the airport at 8am.

Should all go as planned this time tommorrow I'll be sitting in a plane.

2 days 11 hours 30 minutes

Can you tell? I'm excited. Very excited. I only have a few things to finsh before I'm completely ready to go. There isn't much new to say, only that I'm going to be leaving for China in less than three days. Of course, I won't get there until Thursday, but I'll be leaving Wednesday. Sorry that I keep repeating that I'm going to China, but I can hardly believe that I'm actually going. I'm hoping that if I say it enough times it will really sink in. I talked to my sister tonight and she said it probably won't hit me until I'm on the plane, or in the Beijing Airport.

I'm going to China!!

4 days 22.5 hours

I'm getting more and more excited about leaving. I'm getting emails about traveling, packing up my suitcases, getting my textbooks, repacking my suitcases... and it all makes me more and more anxious to leave.

I'm not really looking forward to being in a plane for 17 hours, but I figure it's a small sacrifice to make for seeing the other side of the planet.

Speaking of being on the other side of the world, Beijing is GMT +8, while EST time (Grand Rapids) is GMT -5. What that means is when it is 10:30am in Grand Rapids on August 25th, it's 10:30pm in Beijing on August 25th. When it is 7:00 pm on August 25th in Grand Rapids, it will be 7:00am on August 26th in Beijing. The whole time zone thing is kind of crazy when you think about it.

7 days 20 hours

I decided to switch to this web-blog service since uploading photos here is easier than xanga. It shouldn't be a problem for me to post here while I'm in China, but if it is I'll try to find a way to let you know.

I'm pretty excited about going. This whole summer it seemed like time was going by so slowly, like my departure date wasn't real. With just a bit more than a week left leaving seems almost surreal. I can't believe in 7 days and 20 hours I'll be flying halfway around the world.

Here is a picture of my whole family at graduation. I'm going to miss them while I'm in China. Laura will be in Antartica, my parents in Canada and who knows where Matt and Andrea will end up going in the next 4 months.

This is me with my cute and cuddley kitty, Absinthe (Abby). I'm going to miss her and Dante.