Tian'anmen Trifecta
This morning I had a home-stay advising session, and an academic advising session. In the Homestay session Ai Laoshi asked us some questions about how we would react in certain situations, and what we want to get out of the home-stay. We also turned in a matching questionnaire (Rumor has it that it is from e-harmony.com). So Ai Laoshi can match us with a family based on the questionnaire and our responses to his questions. My biggest fear is that I will be unable to communicate something important to my host parents, or they will be unable to communicate with me. After that I was free until 1:30 when we went on the “Tian’anmen Trifecta.”
Basically there were two trips planned for the day and you got to choose which one you wanted to go on. One outing was to the 789 Artist District, which sounded really cool, but my sociology class is going to go on a field trip there during the year. The trip I chose was the “Tian’anmen Trifecta” which went to Tian’anmen Square, the City Planning Exhibition Center, and an area of Hutongs just South of Tian’anmen.
It was really fun, but I’ll have more to say on this when I return home.
One of the girls in the program brought a Frisbee and we played the flying plate game. Some random Chinese tourists also wanted to get pictures with Alicia because she is tall, blonde, and white. One of the full year students said that will happen all of the time, especially when we go to Yunnan. It is possible that our little school group will be the first tourists that most of the towns in Yunnan will see, so they will all want pictures with the waiguoren.
The city planning center was pretty cool, even though almost everything was in Chinese and nothing cool was translated. There was a model of Beijing in 1942, and a giant map of Beijing now that you can walk on. There was also a “future home” which (like most future homes) is all white and uncomfortable looking. I want to know when the future will figure out that wood and brown colors show less dirt.
One section of the hutong that we walked through was full of little shops. A couple of guys got North Face knockoff hiking packs for 100 kuai. The second section of the hutong was rather dilapidated but very cool from a historical point of view.
We walked around for a little longer before splitting off into groups. Some people wanted to go home, some people wanted to eat, and I wanted to explore some more. So I went with Hao Laoshi to buy a knife. Hao Laoshi is a little old Chinese woman who works with IES Beijing, she communicates with the homestay families and gives you meds when you get sick, but she only speaks Putonghua (Mandarin). Apparently one of Hao Laoshi’s cool hobbies is that she carves stone seals (stamps, not the animal), so she wanted to buy a little knife to carve the stones with. We walked around and played a lot of charades, because she speaks a little English and I speak a little Chinese. After we found the knives Hao Laoshi went home and I explored a little more before going back to Beiwai using public transportation. I was very impressed that I managed to do it all by myself.
Then a huge group from IES met our RAs at Bar Blu for quiz night. It was really hard, especially since most people in our group were becoming more tipsy as the quiz wore on.
In the end IES won the game... But there were 20 of us playing on one team.
Basically there were two trips planned for the day and you got to choose which one you wanted to go on. One outing was to the 789 Artist District, which sounded really cool, but my sociology class is going to go on a field trip there during the year. The trip I chose was the “Tian’anmen Trifecta” which went to Tian’anmen Square, the City Planning Exhibition Center, and an area of Hutongs just South of Tian’anmen.
It was really fun, but I’ll have more to say on this when I return home.
One of the girls in the program brought a Frisbee and we played the flying plate game. Some random Chinese tourists also wanted to get pictures with Alicia because she is tall, blonde, and white. One of the full year students said that will happen all of the time, especially when we go to Yunnan. It is possible that our little school group will be the first tourists that most of the towns in Yunnan will see, so they will all want pictures with the waiguoren.
The city planning center was pretty cool, even though almost everything was in Chinese and nothing cool was translated. There was a model of Beijing in 1942, and a giant map of Beijing now that you can walk on. There was also a “future home” which (like most future homes) is all white and uncomfortable looking. I want to know when the future will figure out that wood and brown colors show less dirt.
One section of the hutong that we walked through was full of little shops. A couple of guys got North Face knockoff hiking packs for 100 kuai. The second section of the hutong was rather dilapidated but very cool from a historical point of view.
We walked around for a little longer before splitting off into groups. Some people wanted to go home, some people wanted to eat, and I wanted to explore some more. So I went with Hao Laoshi to buy a knife. Hao Laoshi is a little old Chinese woman who works with IES Beijing, she communicates with the homestay families and gives you meds when you get sick, but she only speaks Putonghua (Mandarin). Apparently one of Hao Laoshi’s cool hobbies is that she carves stone seals (stamps, not the animal), so she wanted to buy a little knife to carve the stones with. We walked around and played a lot of charades, because she speaks a little English and I speak a little Chinese. After we found the knives Hao Laoshi went home and I explored a little more before going back to Beiwai using public transportation. I was very impressed that I managed to do it all by myself.
Then a huge group from IES met our RAs at Bar Blu for quiz night. It was really hard, especially since most people in our group were becoming more tipsy as the quiz wore on.
In the end IES won the game... But there were 20 of us playing on one team.