Goodbye Beijing

At 12:00 AM tonight, my host mom, her boyfriend, and I leave Beijing for Anhui, a province of China which takes about 10 hours to arrive at by car. We will be staying at a hotel part of the time, and at my mom's boyfriend's house half the time. By "time", I am referring to the week long break that all of China has for Liberation.

QUICK HISTORY: The fall of the Qing Dynasty was officially declared around 1912, which is when the Nationalistic Party was established. Foreign nations took hold of China and China became really poor and awful until Mao Zedong fought off the Japanese and forced the nationalists to flee to Taiwan and thus officially fixed everything on October 1st, 1949, where Mao announced the establishment of the People's Republic of China, or the PRC, and China officially had "Liberation" from foreign powers and nationalists and Communism was established. October 1st to October 8th is celebrating China's emergence from its North Korea-like (the way my mom described it) state, as far as peoples' living conditions, into one that was much better, economically and health wise (until the Great Leap Forward where approximately 40 million people died of starvation but that's irrelevant in the purpose of this QUICK HISTORY).

I'm not exactly sure what to expect of this trip. All I know is that we will be hiking the best mountain in China which is somewhat cool, I guess. I wish I could sound more enthusiastic about climbing the best mountain in China, but I really hate hiking.

Today was our last day of school. It doesn't really count as school, because it was actually the 69th BNU #2 sports meet, but any time I have to show up on a school campus at 7:15 AM and stay for more than a couple hours, I count it as a school day. I participated in the jumprope game, which was a team game. Two people would turn the rope while twelve people jumped through in a line, and the more jumps the better. SYA did a great job in the race. We earned 3rd place in the 11th grade, which had twelve classes total. It was quite the accomplishment, considering that the Chinese students supposedly practice for half a year, while most of us spent two days practicing our events.

After completely bombing a practice Calculus quiz, getting 3 out of 20 correct, Mr. Chen, the most enthusiastic math teacher and borderline one of my favorite teachers (so far) of all time, approached me suggesting that I drop Calculus and take Honors Precalculus instead, which is what I am now doing. This alleviated the pressure I was experiencing after getting back that practice quiz. I felt like crying more than usual once I got it, and I think I'll feel that way less with Precalc, which is a class I already took over the summer. On top of that, our APES teacher decided, on a whim, or maybe because every other student had been feeling the way that I was, to pretty much cut our workload in half. Our bi weekly papers are no longer expected to be 5-6 pages, but 3-4, and our assigned reading has been decreased greatly as well. So far, things have been improving on the education front.

As for the money situation, the school gave me ¥3000 in cash, which I currently keep in one of my six subject bags (students in China uses these flat plastic bags to hold papers for each school subject), a subject which I will not name in case for some reason one of you SYAers is reading this and is a kleptomaniac and finds it. Basically what I'm saying is that I need a wallet.

I've already spent some of this cash for a ticket to a Mariah Carey concert. I'm going to this concert with about eleven other people who know just as many of her songs as I do, which consist of her rendition of "All I Want for Christmas" and "Obsessed", which came out in 2009. Despite the our lack of knowledge of her music, seeing one of the most materialistic people in the US perform in this part of the world is up there on the list of the most entertaining concepts to process. Besides, tickets were only ¥280.

Outside the living room balcony currently reveals a view of the Olympic Park, which is colorfully lit for the national holiday. I wonder how much energy it takes to light up that place... Sorry, APES is, in my dad's words, "brainwashing" me. Another thing that has changed about my perspective on life since being in China is that I am very environmentally concious. Stop complaining about how ugly/overpriced Pruises are! They cause less fossil fuels to be extracted from the earth, people!! 

Anyway, my mom is pestering me telling me to go to sleep because of our departure in four hours, even though it's only 8:43 PM. Goodnight!

EPIPHANY TIME

"Money on My Mind" by Sam Smith came on just as I began to write this post, which is appropriate because of what I am about to write.

I think that China has already influenced my career choices quicker than I had expected. Before I came here, my plans were to become sophisticatedly fluent, enough to communicate in the business/politics world, go to college and major in economics, get a master's degree in business, and become an international businesswoman. The main goals of this career choice was to make a million dollars per year, have three mansions/penthouses around the world, and to be able to travel around the world as much as I did with my dad when I was a little girl. Since I became freshman class president, I started to become transfixed with this idea of having a lot of power over people (not to say that I had any power over anyone whatsoever during freshman year. I just liked to pretend that I was in charge of all 660 students in my class), and I became very competitive about my grades, which turned into a subconscious desire to be the best of the best not necessarily just in school, but beyond. That all changed the day after my mental breakdown.

There are some things that China has taught me about my previously established goals. What had kickstarted my epiphany is what Ms. Becker told me during my flurry of emotion. The thing about my goals is that it's not that they were unreachable, but that I was setting myself up for misery in the sense that any time I have a setback, I will become stressed to a point of breaking. Another thing is that I realized is that being the smartest person in the world is not only impossible, nor will it make me a better person. School Year Abroad is ridden with smarties whose intellectual capacities greatly surpass mine, which means I have to accept that I am not going to be near the top anymore, as I was at Salinas High. Having to accept this fact forced me to think about what else I have to offer. Athletic ability was most certainly out of the question, as it has always been since day 1. Of my life. I thought about the defining factors of people, and I realized one of the main factors was the way that they treated others (to sound as un-cliché as possible). Even though that does sound cliché, it is what makes them who they are (oh god so cliché). I decided that I am going to take my extreme level of competitiveness and aim it towards being a better person (I CAN'T STOP), because I would rather be known as a good person rather than the girl who can't control her emotions because of the pressure she puts on herself to succeed therefore causing her to take it out on the people around her.

A second factor in my change of heart was that calculus made me realize that I am not good enough at math to become an economics major. I had to reevaluate my purpose. What was I good at? What do I like to do? What do I actually want to do in life? After several minutes of thinking on the bus home, I came down to the answer that I've had all along (well, since seventh grade): photojournalism. Photojournalism has the answers to all of the questions which I had stated above and thought about while holding my rolling backpack for balance on the bus. 1) I believe that I am good at photography, and writing. I believe this because people tell me that I am, or else I wouldn't say so. 2) I absolutely love taking pictures, and I have for the past four years. Ever since my dad gave me his old Canon 10D during October of seventh grade, I fell in love with the art. There's nothing better or cooler than capturing moments that can't always be remembered by memory. In just a fraction of a second, a piece of history is saved forever. How much cooler can that get??? Probably a lot cooler to many other people but let me have my moment. I have also loved to write since 4th grade, when I got a journal for Christmas. Ever since then, I've gone through about 5 journals, but until now I haven't really been able to express my writing to so many people, and I like writing even more than before. 3) What better career choice than to combine the two together? And as I stated before, the main goal was to travel, which is something that is basically in the job description of photojournalism. The other part of the original plan was to make a ton of money, which is highly unlikely. But that leads me to my third point.

The third way that China influenced me to change my goals is the lifestyle of people here. One night, I went out to dinner with my mom in an outdoor restaurant. The floors were dirt, the chairs were of cracked plastic, the tables were all a little bit dusty, and a couple of stray puppies were running around. The people, men wearing dirty white tank tops and slippers telling stories and laughing and their children, who were chasing each other around in their underwear, seemed as joyful and happy as they could be. It was the opposite of glamorous, yet the humble lifestyle of those people, and many others in Beijing, is what made me realize that being able to go out to five star restaurants every night clearly isn't the key. Making millions did not seem as important anymore after that night. "I don't have money on my mind" anymore, as Sam Smith stated (I'm sorry that the way this portion ended in relation to the beginning was the most anti climactic way possible for it to end but it was too perfect to pass up).

Now that that's over with, my style of writing will now become just a tiny bit less self-centered. As I stated before, our class went to the Great Wall. Quick fact about the Great Wall: it is not one continuous wall. There are several sections of it. The section that we went to, of which the name I already forgot, had very few other tourists. There's not much I can say about the wall itself besides that it was incredible, just as I suspected. Our group was pretty spread out for most of the time, but we managed to get the official class picture of SYA China 2015. For half of the time, a female seller, a short, pudgy woman whose tanned skin was wrinkled and looked like she was in her mid fifties followed me and only me around, insisting that I bought some of her paraphernalia all because I showed a little bit of interest in a t-shirt that she had. She tried selling it to me for 80 kuai, which is incredibly overpriced. I told her I'd take it for 30, and she was exasperated at this. I had originally planned on not getting anything at all that day but she finally brought it down to 30 and in admiration of her persistance and me thinking I got a good deal and also because I simply grew fond of her, I bought the stinkin shirt, which says "The Great Wall of China" in Chinese and English. My American naivety made me think I had gotten a good deal because I then found out that someone had gotten one for 15 kuai. 

I got home at around 5 PM and took the subway to meet some friends for dinner. The subway was a little bit scary because I had never ridden it by myself and I had to make 3 stop changes, but everyone around me was able to easily point me in the right direction. It was right before I got off the final stop to Sun Li Tuan, which is where the restaurant was, when I checked my purse only to find that it was about .5 lbs lighter. My body temperature dropped and my heart started racing and tears welled up in my eyes when I realized the fact of the matter: I had been pick pocketed, and my wallet was gone forever. That morning, I had withdrawn Y1000, or $166, too. My debit card, school IDs, drivers license, and 3 gift cards which all have less than $2 left on them are in the possession of a thief. My friends offered to cover me for dinner, but I had lost my appetite. It was about time to get a new wallet, anyway.

In other news, I started my English class on Wednesday. I taught the first 12 letters of the alphabet to some hilarious old ladies, which I guess is good enough to get me in the newspaper.

In case you don't know what I look like, I'm the one on the far right. I know I'm not wearing the SYA shirt like everyone else but that's because I went home before they took pictures, so they asked me to send in a headshot. Now all of China knows an alumni from Charles E. Teach Elementary. Go Tigers!

It's 1:49 am, which is a good time for me to sleep since I took a 4 hour nap today. We only have 1 day of school this week, because our school wide sports day, sports meaning track and field and the jump rope game, in which I am participating, is on tuesday, and our week long October break starts on Wednesday. Hooray for being Chinese.

good news!!

As the title of this post states, good news!!:

• As I got to school this morning, I received my history quiz back and saw that I scored a 98% which means I probably don't have a D anymore and my desire to jump out of the balcony has slightly decreased!
• The 6 page synthesis paper that was due on Monday is now due on the day we get back from October break, which is in about a week and a half from now!
• I now enabled the comment section of my blog to allow comments from EVERYONE which includes people who do not have google accounts so for those of you who have been struggling to leave a comment, struggle no more! You can now give me as many compliments as you want!

I'd just like to say thank you to those who gave me feedback on my sorrowful previous post. You all make me happy to be on planet earth. Okay now this is getting corny!! (But really I love you guys).

An interesting fact that I learned today: During Chinese class my teacher explained to us that Erfuzhong, the five stories underneath SYA, is one of the top high schools in Beijing. She said that virtually every single student attending Erfuzhong, which consists of around a thousand students, goes to a top tier university in China or elsewhere in the world. This was eye opening, as I had no idea that the giggly, shy students who I try to make conversation with on the soccer field and pass by going up and down the stairs are actually a mass of geniuses. Last year, there was a student who attended Erfuzhong who was the best student in all of Beijing. I'm not exactly sure what factors are considered in determining the best student in Beijing, but from what I've heard about the Chinese education system, this kid must've studied literally 24/7 or had an extra brain or was a prodigy or who knows what.

I've decided to spend the rest of my friday watching a few hours of Netflix for the first time in a month while eating the dark chocolate that I received in the mail (thanks Uncle Sean and Aunt Jean!!) and hopefully getting to bed at 9pm because I deserve to treat myself. Peace out.

warning: sad stuff

I could be spending this valuable time finishing math, Chinese, APES, history, or English homework, but I realized that if I didn't take a break anytime soon, I'd jump off the balcony that's across from my bed. As I've said before, this is an honest take on my time in China. So far, I have gotten used to everything culture-wise (except for on the bus, I was looking over this lady's shoulder to see if my stop was coming up and she pushed me away, but I don't think that's a cultural thing. I think that's just plain rudeness), and my friends are great, but the fact of the matter is, my grades are plummeting and I'm not okay.

Besides the pushing lady incident, everything today was going well. The history quiz we took was a lot easier than I had expected, and I understood the calculus lesson we were being taught. Then I was called into Ms. Becker's (our Resident Director and my advisor) office during class and she gently told me that she is going to have to write a letter to my parents saying that I have a D in history. At that point, I sort of broke down and cried. It was around two o'clock in the afternoon at that time, and since then, I've been crying on and off throughout the day. As I am writing this, I actually realizing how pathetic I sound but the truth is that I've never let my grades go below a B and I have no idea how else to handle it but to have random sobbing sessions. Oh and I haven't told my parents about the D yet either, so... surprise dad! Happy late birthday (his birthday was on the 24th so be sure to say HBD).

I have a 6-page synthesis paper due on Monday which I haven't started, too btw. Just another item on the stress agenda that I thought I'd add because it's subtracting years from my life.

Anyway. This post is going to be fairly short because I do have to get back to homework. I don't have anyone to talk to about my problems because everyone I know and love is either in a deep sleep, doing homework, or doesn't speak enough English, so I figured, why not tell the entire world? Thanks for reading about my woes. Time for me to go back to mental labor.

rolling backpacks are universally ugly

Pictures from the Olympic Park and Tianenmen Square/Forbidden City are finally on my photo blog, in case you were wondering. Shoutout to Miles for lending me his mini USB cord for his calculator. Right now I'm sitting in a room that smells faintly of urine with my mom waiting for Billy to finish English class. He goes to school on Sunday to learn English, so that means school 6 days a week. Today he went from 10-12 and 4:00-7:10, which means we will be sitting here for another hour and ten minutes. Earlier we went to a market and bought a hula hoop and a rolling backpack for me. My mom thought the hula hoop would be good exercise for the family, and decided to get a rolling backpack because I was sore from carrying 200 lbs on my back every day. It was originally 150 kuai, and my mom was in disbelief about how expensive it was, so she told the seller she saw it for 70 kuai at the grocery store (which it wasn't). The seller scoffed and insisted his was the best price, so my mom took me by the arm and we started to walk away, and the seller ran after us and said "fine! Seventy kuai." It's pink and has a large Hello Kitty on the front. Super cute, I know. It'll look really good with my uniform. I'm expecting a trend to start. My mom made fun of me for getting one because it's fit for more of a first grader, but I would rather have good posture than care about backpack fashion.

As we were walking through the market, we saw a really tiny adorable toy poodle. Mom offered to buy me a dog, even though she said she and Billy are scared of them. Of course I said no, because that would be absurdly nice of her, but I secretly would love an animal to cuddle. I'll settle with staring at the koi fish in the living room.

Tianenmen Square and the  Forbidden City were  pretty fantastic. When we arrived at the square, herds of sellers immediately flocked towards us and started to sell us Communist hats, Mao's  red book, maps of Beijing, and more miscellaneous China-related thingys. I gave in and bought a hat for a staggering 10 kuai. The city itself was huge. There seemed to be an endless  amount of temples, but for some reason, the group I was with got to the end about an hour before everyone else. We sat down for a moment and sellers once again saw their opportunity to make some money, even though there were just four of is. One tried getting me to buy a rickshaw ride, but was dejected once he realized I spoke good Chinese. Another seller thought our exchange was humorous and he took a picture of us on my phone. When we got back to school it was around 5:30, an hour later than expected. I was also surprised to find that I was supposed to go to dinner with the old ladies in charge of the tutoring program for retired intellectuals. So me, three other students who volunteers, and the ladies went out to get baozi, which has become a staple food in my every day life. They bought plenty of food and were sweet and adorable, but we all ended up leaving the place at 7:00 and we all still had loads of homework to finish and all of the Chinese provinces and capitals and surroundings countries to study for a test the next day.

I've been slacking on homework, only because for the past two school nights I didn't stay up past 9:30. My plan has been to go to bed early and wake up at 3:30am to study or do homework, but it hasn't worked out so well since each time I studied for about an hour and decide to go back to sleep. This is nothing like I've ever experienced before, but I'll force myself to get used to it.

I just had a staring contest with a baby until his mom noticed and I felt awkward so I came back to writing this. I'm obsessed with the babies here. Every one I have seen is adorable and round and soft and I want to squeeze their fat cheeks!!!

Well, that's it for the week-ish. So much has been happening, yet nothing has, because I'm getting used to everything. This is my life now!

I don't have [chinese] friends.

Right now I am writing this at the kitchen table, the primary place for good wifi connection, where out of my peripheral vision I see the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in Beijing and maybe in the duration of my life.

It isn't your average, unfamiliar, wrapped up Chinese food item. During breakfast a couple of days ago, I took a bite of it, not knowing what it contained. Many who know me well can say that I am not a picky person, and even if I encounter a food that I generally don't like, I will still be able to eat it. But upon encountering a bite of this atrocity, I had to fight a gag from coming out of my throat, which is something that probably has never happened to me from eating a food. It was a moon cake stuffed with flower petals. There's a first for everything, I guess.

In other news, about 5 minutes ago, I was listening to music in the dark (because yesterday, my mom frantically informed me that our building switched to this system where we have to conserve electricity or else we will not be able to have any until this weekend) when the intro to "Team" by Lorde started playing, and I almost had a heart attack because I thought it was someone coming up from behind me and trying to scare me. Thrilling, I know.

My nose is also running more than I ever have in my life. I did end up getting sick, like I predicted. I also have a cough, but it's hasn't gotten to the degree of Lizzie's, whose coughs echo past the mountains of Mongolia. Every time I sniffle, which is about every 7 blinks, my mom asks me if I need to go to the hospital. I'm okay, really! is my response every time, but maybe she has short term memory loss. Either way, I appreciate her concern.

This Saturday, Hugh, Tim, and I went to an EDM (electric dance music, for those of you born before 1990 or so) festival. Below is a beautiful portrait of me in the front row during the first set:

It was really fun. I didn't know that many of the acts that were playing but the music was energetic and exciting. The only set I knew was Sky Blue from LMFAO, and the last set was Dirty South, who apparently has won two Grammys. There was a large crowd of people there, about half Chinese and half Caucasian. The Caucasians consisted mostly of European high school students living in China. We ended up meeting a few girls from France, Germany, and Russia. One of the Russian girls spoke good English, with a little bit of a Russian accent, but her first language was Chinese, which was impeccable! It is always really strange to me when I see a white person speaking perfect Chinese. I feel guilty that I didn't make any Chinese friends. I still need to make Chinese friends at school. Hopefully when badminton club starts I will have that opportunity.

I really have been missing out by going to large schools my whole life. During free period, I can talk to any teachers I want during the day because they have a lot of time during the day to help students. Today, I had to go to Mr Chen's office twice during free period to ask him questions about the calculus test tomorrow. It only took 15 seconds to walk from his office to the library, and he was able to quickly answer my questions because he was sitting at his desk. Last year, it would take me 2 minutes to walk to math class during lunch to ask questions, and often times I had to wait to talk to my teacher because he had other students to speak with. Once, I waited 20 minutes outside of his classroom and had a nice conversation with Kapil, Salinas High's notorious Class of 2016 designated valedictorian since freshman year, only to find that my teacher was absent that day. At SYA, it's easy to be helped as soon as possible and it seems that everyone's questions get answered immediately.

Tomorrow, we are going to go to the Tianenmen Square, which is an important place in China for those of you who aren't history buffs. Expect pictures on my blog soon. As soon as I get my package in the mail, actually. When my parents at in the US asked what I wanted in the mail I didn't even know what to ask for besides a mini USB cord. I have lost all my appetite for junk food, an anomaly that I never imagined occurring in any lifetime or parallel universe, for some unfathomable reason. But in case you want to send me gift cards or books on how to bargain at the Silk Market, here is the address:

My self-declared educational break is over and it is now time for me to memorize all of China's provinces and their capitals and surrounding countries for Chinese History. ttyl

The sickest 90's rap group of all time

The week is over. I've spent all week drowning in stress of homework and I think I deserve a relaxed night dedicated to writing this post and listening to Kanye West. I'll do my best to tell you, reader, about the most exciting parts of my week, but I can't promise chronological order since everything was a bit of a blur thanks to sleep deprivation.

I went to Pulsation for the first time on Wednesday by myself and again today with Kelly. I discovered that he has approximately the same amount of strength as I do (which is saying a lot cause I'm extremely buff!) so we were a fair match for each other. After we left, he was calling a cab, when a Chinese kid came up to me on a bike and asked me if Kelly dyed his hair, which is curly and blonde. Kelly came over to see what was going on, and he told the kid that his hair was natural, and he bent down so the kid could touch his hair. It was pretty funny, as it was the first time I actually witnessed a Chinese person's fascination with an American.

Mom keeps making me spaghetti, which is one of the highlights of me being here. It's amazing to me how there isn't a hint of Chinese essence in the pasta, since after all it's noodles, which is basically a staple here next to rice. I've also not had any complaints about my family whatsoever. I really enjoy their company. I've talked with Billy more, who is a really goofy kid. I have decided that on the days I don't work out, I'm going to play badminton with him in front of our apartment, which is what we did yesterday after I got home from school. His relationship with Mom cracks me up. One minute she'll be shouting at him for not doing homework, and the next moment she'll be helping him do a handstand during the middle of dinner which ends up with him collapsing to the ground because of his nonexistent arm strength and all three of us laughing. After this incident, Mom asked me if I could do a handstand, and I took advantage of the opportunity for my chance to shine. I walked about ten feet down their hallway on my hands and my mom was extremely gleeful, clapping in delight and repeatedly calling me "Zhong guo nu hai!" which, in context, approximately translates to "the ultimate Chinese girl" or something like that. I couldn't help but flex my 'ceps for them, and astonished they said, "wa sai, you ji rou!!" which directly translates to "wow, there's chicken meat!!" When saying "chicken meat," they are referring to muscle. Strange, I know.

We got our uniforms on Thursday. We look, like I said in the title of this post, like the sickest 90's rap group of all time. For those adults who are reading this post right now, when I say "sickest," I don't mean that we all have the flu, I mean we are cool. I don't have a picture of me wearing the blue and white tracksuit, but I will be sure to post a picture in my next blog post. Come to think of it, I take back my statement about us not having the flu. There's been a bug going around school which has caused a few students misery and even a couple teachers. I believe that I am feeling the early symptoms of the bug (sore throat and cough), so we'll see if I end up having to throw up during school at some point.

Jackson and I had our 10 month anniversary on the Wednesday. Before him, I never pictured myself being in a high school relationship longer than 6 months, but here I am, 10 months deep and 5911 miles away from a boy (or Abercrombie model, as Kelly describes him) who I can't help but think about every day. 

I have not been able to post the pictures from the Olympic Park because I am lacking a mini USB cord to import pictures onto my computer. So, Dad, since I know you somehow manage to read these posts within an hour of their debuts into cyberspace, remind me to ask you about sending one to me at some point. Love ya :)

I think I'm getting the hang of things here. I definitely feel that I am in a routine. My claustrophobia on the bus is dissipating, and I was able to ride it this whole week without asking anyone around me where I needed to get off. It's the little things.

Christmas in September

I might end up getting into the habit of mentioning something about the internet/wifi/gigabytes in every introduction of each blog post, I might not, but as you may guess, I'm about to. This morning I checked my phone for notifications, and to my surprise, there were none (I say I was surprised because I usually have TONS because I'm really popular!). I also checked twitter, instagram, and Facebook, and saw that none of my news feeds were refreshing, and it was all posts from the night before. I started getting a little panicky, as my life depends on connection to the American world. However, I noticed that I was receiving texts that were all in Chinese. I had Mom read them, and upon further investigation, I am ashamed to admit that we came to this realization: in one week, I had used up 1.3Gs of my monthly data AND used up an extra 1.3Gs, leaving a grand total of 2.6Gs and a $60 fee. So we went to the China Unicom and I purchased a portable wireless router which has 2.6Gs on it per month during the day, and unlimited Gs during the night. Including the 1.3G and 200 minute plan I have on my phone, this means I have 4Gs per month for a total of ¥150 a month, or $25. I love using China's inexpensiveness to my advantage.

Most of this weekend consisted of doing homework, but on Saturday evening, I went out with my family to this mini Times Square sort of place, where there were designer stores like Prada and Burberry, as well as more middle class stores like Forever 21 and H&M that I'd actually be able to afford. We skipped the shopping, however, and ate instead. There were many different stands to chose to eat from, like the animal leg stand and the live scorpion kabob stand. I went with the animal leg stand. I'll probably try live scorpion kabobs around March.

Today was the Mid Autumn Festival, and also the second day in the history of me living in Beijing where I got to see a clear blue sky. It actually amazes me how different the city looks when it's sunny. It seems like a whole different place. Shu Shu and Mom took Billy and I to a mall. Malls aren't like the grocery stores here, where you have to completely warp your imagination to prepare yourself to shop. They're actually a lot like American malls, except I've never been to a six story mall in America nor have I heard The First Noel play during September. And it kind of blew my mind how the free wifi managed to connect to my phone throughout the whole mall. Billy and I saw Planet of the Apes, which was more than half decent, except that it would have been a lot easier to watch if I understood sign language. Also, is it embarrassing that it almost made me cry eight times? I'm an emotional person, alright!!

We also just got home from the Olympic Park. I couldn't believe I was there. I mean, it's not like I saw it on TV for two weeks straight during the summer of fifth grade, or anything. My mom took about 700 pictures of me, and I also took some pictures which I will put on my blog when I have time.

It's getting late here, and I have 25 Chinese characters to memorize and 15 pages of Chinese History to force myself to read. PS: thanks for taking the time to read these posts! I appreciate the positive feedback so much, and I'm elated to have entertained all you awesome, beautiful, super cool people. To close, I leave you with this:

I feel famous.

Sitting on the floor of the bus isn't as bad as it seems

Finally. Internet connection. I've been trying to use my computer at home for the past day or so but it appears that the wifi hates me. Not that I'm complaining, though. Having 1.3Gs on my phone per month compensates for this.

A minor complaint that I have about this trip is taking the 618 bus to school. I know I briefly explained my experience with it on my last post, but I'm going to go ahead and give more detail. It's not the fact that I have to wake up at 5:45 to get there on time, or that it takes one hour total to arrive at Erfuzhong, or its timely unpredictability . It's the amount of people. Almost every day, I've received involuntary hugs from completely random strangers. It's not necessarily an embrace, but rather people drape their arms around me in order to hold onto a pole to keep their balance. There's also hardly any breathable air. It's not that it smells or anything, but it's just so hot that I feel like I'm in a sweaty oven. Except like mentioned before, I'm the only one sweating. I actually feel bad for the people around me who have to be squeezed up against a gross, damp, American girl. It seems that they never experience perspiration, so it's probably more uncomfortable for them than me. Plus sides of taking the bus to school is that it only costs about 1 kuai, or less than 20 cents, per ride. And if you don't know where to get off, everyone around you is willing to help you find your stop.

On Wednesday, we took a field trip to the Temple of Confucius as well as the Lama Temple. It was the first time going on the subway, which turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than expected. It wasn't extremely crammed, like the bus to school, and it was cleaner than the New York subways that I visited during the summer of eighth grade. The temples were beautiful and loaded with color. If you're interested in seeing what it was like, check out my photography blog, which is linked in my bio. The extravagant architecture of the temples did not compare to the amount of pain in my feet that I experienced walking back to school and taking the bus home. There were no seats, which is somewhat less common on the ride home. Lizzie and I were so desperate to sit down that we decided to sit on the floor, which is the ultimate decision of shame. We didn't care, though. The relief was overwhelming.

Another aspect of this trip that has been overwhelming is the amount of homework that we have. It's mostly reading, but it's a lot of reading. It's about 20 pages out of the APES textbook and 10 pages from Chinese History a night. We also have some reading from English and fortunately, our math homework is done during class. Maybe that doesn't sound like a lot, and for some of the SYA kids, it isn't, but freshman and sophomore year at Salinas High definitely didn't prepare me for this.

I LOVE FREE PERIOD. We only get two of these per week, but it's much more than enough. Yesterday, a small group of us who had free period went out to get potstickers, and as soon as we were done, it was lunch. During lunch, I went back to school and Skyped Jackson. It was basically almost 2 hours of free time all to ourselves. I've also used that time to do homework. 

After school yesterday, Lizzie, Grace, and I decided to go out to eat. We took a taxi to an area near a university and ate noodles. We walked around the city more, and took taxis home. It took us three tries to find a taxi who would take us home, and the taxi driver who took Lizzie and I home still didn't know where exactly where to go. It was okay, though. It was a cool night (a low, only mildly humid 73 degrees) and halfway through, we ended up having to take a different taxi home.

Yesterday, we signed up for memberships at Pulsation, which turned out to only consist of one floor out of the giant building. We will be required to go to the gym a total of 50 times this year since the school is paying for our membership. I also volunteered to teach English to "retired intellectuals," as our activities director referred to it. Basically I'm going to be teaching English to a bunch of smart old people who speak Russian because they were alive during the time where Russia was still a thing and it was important to speak Russian, I guess. On top of that, I'm going to be taking a watercolor class and play a musical instrument. I'm not sure what instrument yet, but taking those two classes will fulfill my art requirement. So with going to the gym at least twice a week, music once a week, art once a week, teaching once a week, and homework, I have no idea how I'm going to manage my time. I might end up going insane. Oh well.

We all got an email on Wednesday night from SYA asking people to apply to be campus reporters photographers, and videographers, which are people who will be writing, taking pictures, and taking videos from each countries. They select 4-5 people to be reporters, and to apply, each person is required to submit a sample of their writing, photography, or videos, and why they would be best for the job. Even though the deadline is Sept. 30th, I applied that night to be photographer. It was good timing, because I had just put up all the pictures from the trip. If I get this position, it would go on my professional portfolio, which would be awesome, considering that I've wanted to be a photojournalist for awhile.

All in all, it's been a very long week. I miss home a lot, but I'm surviving. Luckily I'm with a group of 42 other kids who are stuck here. I shouldn't use the word stuck, because I know that this opportunity is once in a lifetime, but I'm still transitioning from normal weather to weather that makes me feel like I'm eternally walking through a sauna. Despite this, I'm ready to experience more.

Schoolin, life

School has started and I think I've had more homework tonight and last night than I've ever had at my two years at Salinas High, combined. Fun stuff. Has it really only been three days since I last blogged? Because it feels like two weeks.

I must say, I do already miss the US. Seeing the sun, or at least more than a square inch of a blue sky would be nice. At least I can get 20 jiao zi, potstickers, for two American dollars at every other store. I'll do my best to write this post in chronological order.

Sunday

The day started off at 7:30 am, when all of Erfuzhong (the name of my school), including the Chinese students, participated in the school's opening ceremony. Participation, for SYA, included sitting through several speeches given in Chinese and randomly standing up and sitting down and clapping. At 9 AM Lizzie, her dad, and I went to the grocery store to get more school supplies.

Let me just tell you that when I say grocery store, do not picture the inside of a Vons or Safeway or Albertsons or whatever store to which you live closest. First, I want you to close your eyes. Wait, don't do that. You need eyes to read this post. First, I want you to imagine lots of Chinese people yelling at you to buy stuff. Actually, I call it loud-talking, because they're not quite yelling, they're just amplifying the sounds of their voices without using force. Next, I want you to imagine hundreds of ginormous, bright, red and yellow banners with large Chinese characters written all over them plastered on the walls and hanging from 12-foot ceilings. Then, picture people filling spaces around you and being no more than 5 feet away from each other all moving at a speed walking space. Finally, imagine being in an endless maze with all of the previously listed things I told you to imagine. This may or may not seem like an exaggerated description of what it is actually like, but I can honestly say that the sensory overload I experiences caused me to conjure up this very accurate depiction.

At around 3:30 PM, my Uncle Sean's nephew, Dylan, and his girlfriend, Jenny, came to visit the apartment. They had been in town for three weeks and planned on leaving on Monday, so it was perfect timing for us to meet up. For a couple of hours, the three of us chatted about the Beijing life and they gave me some advice on getting around/surviving in the city. Jenny speaks perfect Chinese, so she was able to communicate with Mom much better than I can. It was really nice seeing American relatives who are close to home and even close to Jackson, as they happen to be grad students at Berkeley. It made me feel a little less homesick.

Monday

First day of junior year. We started off with Chinese placement tests. I know that I aced the listening portion, but as for the reading portion, I was the first one to finish, only because I wasn't able to answer a single question. We're on a block schedule, but my so far, my classes are Chinese History, English, AP Environmental science, Calculus, and free period. Being in such a small program, we only have about 10-15 people per class, something I have never experienced, having only been in classes with 30+ people. This is great because students get more individual help. Calculus was very exciting because we learned about limits, and while doing an example problem, Mr. Chen cited Mean Girls in saying, "the limit does not exist."

It thunderstormed last night. I, being a Californian who has never experienced a thunderstorm, much less rain more than twice a year, of course had to take pictures. I used the burst effect on my phone, so you can see the progression of the lightning flashing.

I couldn't get a clear picture of the actual lightning strike, and you can thank pollution for that. 

Today

Mom didn't want Lizzie and I to take the bus to school cause it was raining, so she started to drive us. When we were halfway there, she started panicking, realizing that she wasn't supposed to be driving that day. Apparently there are laws where people aren't allowed to drive on certain days, or else they'll be given a huge fine. So she dropped us off at a bus stop.

I have never had a more claustrophobic experience than I had riding the public bus today. I could not turn more than an inch, and I was literally shoved up against the exit. This picture may not reveal much, but at the same time, it does:

It was a very uncomfortable experience. Not to mention I was drenched in sweat. I think I was the only one on that bus that was sweating, too. Chinese people seem to be able to withstand the most humid of weather, a physical quality along with minimal leg hair in which I am thoroughly lacking.

Yesterday, Mom asked me if there was anything I liked to eat. I told her I liked to eat anything except mushrooms, but she asked me again, so I told her spaghetti. She laughed, saying she's never eaten or made it before, but nevertheless, she made quite a delectable meal of Italian cuisine for Lizzie and I tonight. 

The rain lasted until about 6 this evening, and I looked outside my balcony only to see this:

That's right, folks, a sunset. Sorta. It's most likely the closest we'll get for awhile, so I'm not complaining. It's much more sightly than what is usually seen out the window. By the way, here is a picture of the Pulsation fitness building that I mentioned earlier. This picture, which I took yesterday, will not only give you an estimation of the size of the building, but the severity of Beijing's pollution:

That hazy view of the twin towers-esque building contains the place where I will be doing cardio and pumping iron.