First Day of School

Oooh wee! what a day! School, lunch, school, HouHai Lake for dinner, boats, walking around, etc...too bad I didn't have my camera for ANY of it. So no pics to post for today. I think we are thinking about going back to HouHai so I will go back prepared!

But more specifically, we had two lectures today at BJTU. One about Business and Product Strategy for Foreign Funded Companies and one about Employee Relations and Chinese Philosophy. They were each two hours and I was surprised that I didn't fall asleep! The first professor was somewhat interesting but he was nice so it made up for the language barriers and the sort of slow pace of the lecture. The second professor was definitely stricter but her lecture did have some good information as well. Nonetheless, I have good notes.

Between the two lectures we had a 2 hour and 45 minute lunch. LOVE IT! Definitely wish I could get away with that back in the states...so Andrew B., Mark C., Leah, Matt B., Matt F., Mark E., Josh and I all went to lunch. A bit of a struggle but well worth it. We originally wanted street food, but once we approached the one we wanted, the lady scooted us into an actual restaurant. We tried to tell her we wanted to eat outside, but it didn't work out. So we just went with it and ate off of the menus. The food was pretty good and SO CHEAP.  The total bill was 96 Yuan...then divided equally among the group to be 11 Yuan each...which is not even TWO AMERICAN DOLLARS. Yes, you heard it. We ate a huge family style delicious Chinese lunch for less than what 2 five piece chicken nugget sets cost from Wendy's.

So after we finished the second lecture, we ran back to the hotel on campus and got ready to go to HouHai Lake area. SO BEAUTIFUL! As I mentioned I didn't really know what was happening so I was camera-less. So sad. But it gives me a reason to go back. So after some dinner, a boat ride on the lake and some more walking and hanging out, it was time to come back. This girl always needs a good night's rest. After all, I have school again in the morning and then a visit to the Summer Palace.

If you want some more info about HouHai or Summer Palace, check these wikipedia posts...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houhai

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace

Well that is enough for now. Room organization and bed are both calling...

Write soon.

-G  

Pictures from yesterday (6/26)

So it turns out I do not hate this flickr thing...so I am going to keep rolling with it. Once again, I need to find the time later to add descriptions and such so be patient. I am going to spend a little time adding info to the set I posted two nights ago...

ENJOY!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35503188@N06/sets/72157626926915019/

-G

PICTURES!

I am too dead right now to explain what I did today. So for now, I refer you to a flickr account I made where I will upload all of my pictures...hope you like it! I stayed up to get this done... (COUGHguiltCOUGH)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35503188@N06/sets/72157626918970349/


All for now...

-G

Special post just for Chuck

So Chuck asked two pretty good questions in my last post...so I figured I'd take a sec and answer them for you all...

"What's your room at the University like? Had any exciting meals yet?"

1-The hotel at the university is nice (chandeliers and marble in the lobby, etc)...except for one HUGE thing...the beds. Absolutely the hardest bed I have ever slept on...I already hurt after the first night. But I am glad there is just enough space for my and Megan (my roommate during the trip)'s stuff which is good. Sometimes non-American hotels might lack the space...which I can understand because you don't need to be hanging out in your room. But when you have two girls with a fair amount of baggage, space is key. Also, its nice to know we can really unpack here and get (somewhat) comfortable because we won't be moving for 8 days.

2-As far as exciting meals go...I have had one so far: breakfast. Yesterday morning Mark and I stumbled upon a little pastry shop called "Holiland"...sort of like a place where you could go buy pan dulce. You get a tray and tongs and load up. I LOVE pastry breakfast in China. Really delicious but not overloaded with sugar like in the US. Other than that we have just been snacking on foods from the convenience store (like wasabi peas, chips, lemon wafers, etc). But that does remind me of something wonderful about this country...they make it so easy and affordable to buy bottled water here. I can buy a 1.5L bottle of water for 3RMB...which is basically 50 cents. Amazing. Love it. Since Mark and I are now settled in the group and aren't moving around so much, I hope to be excited about something else besides 50 cent water going forward. Once I am,  I will let you know.

Today is the day we go see Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. Charging up the camera so I can post tons o pics!

Enough for now.

-G

Beijing Jiaotong!

So today Mark and I moved out of our hostel and into the university hotel at Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU). This campus is huge and there is a lot of green space, lakes, as well as pedestrian friendly roads (pictures soon). But what really caught me off guard is that there seems to be less use of English here than over where our hostel was (we moved from the NE side of Beijing to the NW side). For a university where we are told that many students know English I just figured I would hear it a bit more. Also, with as much Mandarin I have tried to learn, it is just not sinking in like I would want it to. I feel out of place and like a deer in headlights...even more than any other time I have been here. I really wish I knew this language more. It's not that I expect to hear English everywhere I go...it was just that we were told that a lot of people would speak English. I hope that once everyone else gets here, it will feel a bit better. The other weird part about this school is that it feels so far from the city. We luckily stumbled upon a small convenience store so I stocked up on some random snacks in case of hunger-related emergencies.

Tomorrow is the first day of the program through UC. We are going to the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. Hopefully it is less smoggy than when Mark and I went yesterday...none of the pictures I took then were worthy of posting. Then on Sunday we are going to the Great Wall. After that starts a busy week of lectures at BJTU and visits at various companies in the city.

Well, that seems like enough for now...

-G

SMOG!

Just to give you an idea of how bad the pollution is here...

I am here safe

Finally made it to the hostel in Beijing and we are absolutely dead. Going out to buy insane amounts of bottled water and some food and then coming back and sleeping for a long time. The internet here is terrible and the VPN we were told we could rely on is being fussy (thanks UC). So I am actually posting this via e-mail from my Yahoo account...oh wow. Such a travel back in time technology-wise. So because of that, I have no pictures for you all right now...I miss Google products already.

It is insanely smoggy here that you cannot see the sun...but it is definitely there because you can feel the HEAT!!! Preparing myself for lots of sweat...

Called the parents and got to speak to them for a bit which was good. It's always just best to call asap so they don't have brain hemorrhages.

Anyway, that's enough. More later.

-G

So Canadian!!!

Trying to kill some time before we leave at 1pm. It took forever to find outlets near tables and options for food.

Engines turning on!!!

It's time for Toronto!!!

-Gretchen

In the car to CLE!!!

It's go time!!!

-Gretchen

In the Car!!!

Mark and I are in the car to Cleveland and the weather is absolutely atrocious...ugh! The rain isn't so bad. It's just when someone gets in front of you and the spray from their car makes everything worse...

Nothing like starting this trip on a slightly interesting note...cross your fingers that this is the biggest annoyance we encounter...

More later. :-)

-Gretchen

It's Getting So Close!

So our flight takes off Tuesday morning and I am feeling a big mixture of emotions (anxious, nervous, excited, etc).

Packing my bags has been the most challenging assignment of them all...normal US airlines have a policy where each checked bag must weigh less than 50 pounds. I am not having any issues with that. But when we fly between cities in China, the limit is 44 pounds. But the English translations on these websites are not clear so I don't know if it means 44 pounds per bag or 44 in total. Those are two very different limits. So we will see when we get to our flight from Beijing to Chengdu as to what the rule REALLY is. Cross your fingers it's the first of those two options.

Well since I haven't even gotten there yet, that's enough for today.

Talk soon!

-Gretchen