Well, we have now finished up our Chinese class and our Intercultural Communication class. I am VERY excited and relieved. Before we start our internships we are headed off to Beijing and Xian for 10 days. Beijing is one of my favorite cities, however I am a little apprehensive about being out of contact for so long,especially during a critical time in wedding planning. Speaking of which, I just want to apologize for being a little behind on most of that. I did not anticipate that planning would be so difficult from China. I love it here and I am learning so much. I would not change my decision, but I would have prepared better if I had the chance to do it all again. I know yall understand and most of you probably haven't noticed. So, thanks. I love yall so much.
Here are a couple points....
- I could now probably win against a second grader in a Chinese counting contest. I can count pretty high... ;)
- We found out that our favorite Chinese food place by our camps serves french fries!!
- I can order my meals in Chinese, I can give directions in Chinese, and I can tell the doctor what's wrong with me if I get sick!!
- I found the secret room in the local Chinese video store. Tori and I are working through watching season one of the Gilmore girls in our study breaks.
- I miss B.J. more and more everyday.
- I am going to miss getting yall's encouraging notes and emails for the next 10 days.
Love,
meg
Beijing-Xian Schedule
Pack light. Remember you will most likely buy things so pack some kind of extra bag if you have one. Bring umbrella, but most likely you won’t use it…we are going to dryer lands. But you will need sun screen and a hat. You will also need your passport, camera, batteries, etc, etc, etc. and a very good notebook and pen to take notes for your final paper.
Friday June 27
6:20 am - front gate of OUC
Take taxi to train station (Qingdao Sifang)
Train # D58; departs at 7:41 am
Arrive in
Ministry of Education Hotel
160 Fuxingmennei, Xicheng District,
86-10-6641-7030
(If time:
18:30 (6:30 pm) – meet YingNa for Peking Duck at Quan Ju De (expensive but very famous….has a one hour acrobatics show, I think
(Tio’s golden advice: keep an eye on your wallet…all the time….and if someone offers you something, I suggest you say no, and keep on walking…)
Saturday June 28
9 am meet at the lobby of hotel
Lunch - noodle place across the street, very famous, very very good, very busy, very cheap, and hopefully easy to order…..
Pearl Market – on your own…Meg is our guide…shop till you drop and make sure to be at the hotel lobby at 6 pm so we can go to ….
(Tio’s golden advice: use your best bargaining skills here…and if it looks like they are suffering, keep on bargaining. You know their limit when they get intense and defensive…They will not sell you anything at a loss. So if they set a minimum and will not go below that, most likely you hit the bottom…but if you are not serious about the purchase do not enter into a major bargaining war because the seller will loose face if you don’t buy it and you will lose respect and will get harder for you to bargain on other booth….the word spreads very fast….)
7:30 pm - Kung Fu show
http://you.video.sina.com.cn/b/14296097-1060886587.html
Sunday June 29
Meet at the lobby at 9 am
Pan Jai Yuan market….the mother ship of all flea markets…shop, observe, observe some more and remember, this is as much fun as it is work for you….how does this place looks like, what it say about China? What it say about their views of tourists? How do people communicate? How they behave? What is this place about? How you feel? How you behave? What images does this place create in your mind about
(We might go to hotel to drop stuff in case we shopped…too much…hehe)
4 pm - Tiananmen Square – hopefully by 4 pm so we can have a couple of hours here to soak in and observe life in the heart of
7:30 pm Lao she Tea house show
http://www.laosheteahouse.com/scg/
Monday June 30
7 am - Meet at the lobby ready to go to Great Wall
Hiking 6 km from JinShangLin to Simatai (no long…but the ups and downs are suppose to be challenging. Tio’s golden advice: Wear good, sturdy shoes and a light backpack)
Need to pack water and food
Evening free
Tuesday July 1
Meet at 9 am in the lobby with luggage ready to be stored
This is an amazing place. It can easily consume many many days. We will get audio guides and pace ourselves. We do not need to be in a group if we don’t want to, but I strongly recommend that you take your time and enjoy. There are few places on earth that inspire such awe…. Take advantage of this opportunity.
Afternoon free OR If you’ll want I can try to hire a van to take us on a tour of the city to see the Bird’s nest, the aquatic center and a couple of other amazing buildings and drop us at the hotel or somewhere else. But I am not sure if we can get in or to close to any of the buildings. Would mostly be a road tour…what do you think?). This would require us to decide how many hours we want to be at the
7 pm at hotel to retrieve luggage
Train to Xian departs at 21:24
Wednesday July 2
Arrive in Xian at 8:25 am
Nanyang Hotel
29 87665566
Thursday July 3; Friday July 4;Saturday July 5 – I am working on this pat of the trip… the University in Xian will have a plan for us…I hope….but one thing is known…if you like biking there is an amazing 30 km bike on top of the city walls…. Xian will be amazing even if a bit of a surprise to us all
Flight to
MU 2167
Electronic ticketing
Arrive in
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