Changes

My hair is the shortest it's been in six years. That's right, I decided to cut my long, beautiful, flowing hair. I should actually describe it as hay, because that's how dry and yellow it was after bleaching it. This is something I would have never done in the states, because the last time I cut my hair this short was in fourth grade, and I vowed to myself that I would never do it again. Here's a picture of the result of the bravest risk I've ever taken because I know you're all dying to see it:

I broke my promise with my 10 year old self only because I have really stopped caring about my appearance in this country. Something about wearing a shapeless tracksuit almost every single day of the week does that to you.

Before I cut my hair, I found a place to develop the film that has been sitting in my camera for about two and a half months. Just another comment about how much I love this country: It costs 40 kuai, or $6.66 to develop 24 pictures, whereas in the states it costs twice as much. Expect to see some film pictures on my photo blog!

The APEC (asia pacific economic cooperation) conference is today. Well, I think it's today, because we don't have school because of it. I'm not sure exactly sure why, but I'm not complaining, because I know that the US would never ever cancel school because of a government event. Anyway, because of the conference, China wants to make their capital look appealing, so it made people leave the country and stop driving and turned off the factories in order to get this result:

That's right, it's a blue sky with REAL clouds! Why would Beijing clear its skies for some dumb conference? you might ask. Well, I'll have you know it's probably cause the guest list includes Barack Obama, and you wouldn't want Obama to be talkin smack about your smoggy capital in your superpower country. Well, that's what I think. SYA won't be seeing much of Obama, though, because we will be leaving for a week long trip on Sunday to the Shaanxi province. We will do some things. Like visit the hanging monastery and go into an inactive coal mine. All the while carrying one bag for an entire week. It should be quite an experience, and I'm actually looking forward to it. Don't expect any posts or pictures until I get back, because we ARE NOT ALLOWED to bring our computers.

A couple Saturdays ago, I went to the silk market and bargained for the first time. I bought a light down "North Face" jacket for 300 kuai when it was originally 1150 kuai. 300 is not very impressive, but I took the deal because I had a lot of adrenaline because Angela, the sales woman, was getting me riled up. I shot for 150 kuai and she kept saying "Give me SERIOUSLY price!" The combination between her bad grammar and outrage made me give up at 300, even though I could have brought it down lower. I'm going back today with some friends to get a heavier coat, so we'll see how that goes.

The convenience of living here is something I'll miss going back to the states. When I'm done with homework, my weekends consist of going out basically whenever I want within curfew. When I go to dinner with friends, I never really end up spending more than the equivalent of $7. I can take a bus to the subway stop (.4 kuai), get on the subway (2 kuai), get off the subway (2 kuai), get dinner (30 kuai), and the same way back. Public transportation needs to spread more in the states, because not only will it save people a ton of money, but it will also be much more environmentally efficient. I won't go into an APES lecture but that's just my little blurb about that.

One of the places that I like to go on weekends are the hutongs. Hutongs are these alleyways that are filled with restaurants, clothing and convenience stores, bars, and other random stores. A more modern hutong has many restaurants with foods from a bunch of different ethnicities, ranging from Greek to Italian to American to Indian. In the same hutong, there are cat-themed pottery places, restaurants, cafes, and bars, where you will see cats randomly walking around the place or sitting on the tables. At an older hutong, there are a bunch of chinese restaurants lined up, one after the other. Last weekend, Miles, Lily, Nadia and I went to a restaurant where we could cook our own food on a metal pan which was heated up by hot coals. Lily had overheard a group of waiguoren making a language pledge to only speak Chinese, so we decided that for the rest of the night, we would only speak Chinese too. We lasted an impressive 2 hours!

It's almost unsettling to think that nine weeks have already gone by. One fourth of this insane trip is over. The semester students will be going home in less than seven weeks, and our group will be reduced to around 35 students. Hopefully some of the semester students decide to stay because it'll be hard to say goodbye.

By the way, check out SYA China's campus photographer page on flickr and see some of my pictures there!