A happy start to the Year of the Dragon
I know it has been a long time since I've updated, and I'm sorry it has taken so long! I was pretty busy with Rudy visiting and us touring Beijing and whatnot, and then after that I just felt a bit overwhelmed for a while about how much I might have to say on here. But I'll try to keep it short(ish) so as not to overwhelm you. :)
Rudy's visit went very well, and it was a lot of fun, though the tour to Beijing was also tiring and a little stressful. I don't think I'd say that I'll never take another tour again, but I know Rudy feels that way, because they packed so much into each day that we felt pretty rushed half the time, instead of feeling like we could really take our time to enjoy where we were and take everything in. But we did see a lot, and I'm glad we did everything we did:
• Temple of Heaven
• Tiananmen Square
• Forbidden City
• Sledding on ice!
• Yuanmingyuan Park (Old Summer Palace)
• Summer Palace
• Skiing
• Great Wall of China
• Taiwanese pedestrian street w/ street food
There were a few other small things in there, too. It was great going with Cinnamon and Richard (her boyfriend); I hadn't spent a lot of time around Richard, at least not since he left 2 weeks after I moved here, so it was nice to spend more time around him and learn that he really is a nice person. When I had first moved here, we had a bit of a clash because he seemed kind of insensitive about my culture shock and my need to talk with Rudy when we were having internet problems here. Anyway, Cinnamon was also amazingly helpful since the tour itself was all in Chinese, and she did a lot of translating for us. We literally couldn't have done it without her.
Of course Rudy's stay felt entirely too short. It was great to get to celebrate Chinese New Year with him, though. On New Year's Eve, we had a party at my flat and Cinnamon cooked an amazing Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, we drank, were merry, and went out and set off fireworks, watched more fireworks, and then went out to KTV (Chinese karaoke) for the rest of the night. So much fun!
I'll just give you one picture from each event I've mentioned, so you can get an idea of what things were like:
The amazing dinner that Cinnamon made for us.
Fireworks!
KTV!
Temple of Heaven. There was a ceremony going on for Chinese New Year, so that's why these people are on the steps wearing green robes. There were 123498239482 people there.
Tiananmen Square. It was so freezing!!
Forbidden City. The building behind us is what most of the buildings in the Forbidden City look like. Lots of detail and ornate-ness.
Sledding on ice! This lake was frozen, and half of it was being used for ice skating, and then this half was used for sledding! None of us had tried this before, so we decided to try it and it was a lot of fun. :D In this photo, Richard is sitting in front of me and Rudy.
Yuanmingyuan Park, ruins of the Old Summer Palace (not to be confused with Summer Palace), destroyed during the Second Opium War in 1860 by French and British troops. It's pretty sad, but beautiful at the same time.
Summer Palace. There was so much to see here that was so beautiful, it was difficult to choose just one photo to share. This is a pagoda that is part of the long corridor, and it's a VERY long corridor. There are tons of paintings inside the ceilings of the corridor, and all over the top parts of this pagoda, as you might be able to see.
Oh, and we had lunch that day right by Bird's Nest.
Skiing. It was Cinnamon's, Rudy's, and my first time trying it, and Richard was feeling rusty since he has gotten more into snowboarding. We went to a place called Snow World, which of course had fake snow slopes, and the ski rentals were quite overpriced. But we decided to do it anyway, since we wanted to try it and we wouldn't have anything else better to do. We ended up only having enough time to go down the slope once, since the line to the lift was so long, so that was disappointing, but the skiing itself was fun. Cinnamon and I didn't fall at all, and it was our first tries. :) Rudy fell, but he still had fun. I just wish we'd had more time to try it more than once.
The Great Wall. :) It was freezing cold, since we went there right before sunrise so we could see the sunrise on the Wall, but it was amazing. Nice that there weren't too many people there at that time of day, too.
Well, just one more picture of the Great Wall, because it's the Great Wall. :P
At the pedestrian street with Taiwanese street food... we decided to try stinky tofu. Stinky tofu has its name because it is VERY stinky. It stinks like, well, I probably shouldn't describe it. I don't even know if I can. Anyway, Rudy and I were told that it doesn't taste how it smells, and that it's actually good, and we should try it. Upon trying it, both of us had the same experience: it didn't really taste like anything, so our bodies, trying to compensate for the lack of flavor coming to our taste buds, tried using our noses... and we just tasted the smell. It was pretty disgusting. Not too much later, we got something else to eat to clear our palettes.
I've posted tons and tons of photos on Facebook from our tour, so if you want to see more, check them out. If you're not a friend of mine on Facebook already, tell me and I'll probably add you so you can see the photos. :)
Anyway, now I'm getting excited because I'm planning to return to San Francisco for a visit April 20 through May 1st. I've gotten the leave approved from my boss, and these dates coincide with the SF Blues Exchange, which I have already registered for. :D Now I am just waiting to have enough money to buy my plane tickets, and on ctrip.com they are pretty cheap - about $914 for round trip. Rudy is going to help pay for it, so I should be able to get the tickets once my health insurance reimburses me from when I was sick in December. So, that means I only have about two more months before I see Rudy again! And all my friends!
Okay, I'll leave off here. Happy Year of the Dragon, everyone!
Rudy's visit went very well, and it was a lot of fun, though the tour to Beijing was also tiring and a little stressful. I don't think I'd say that I'll never take another tour again, but I know Rudy feels that way, because they packed so much into each day that we felt pretty rushed half the time, instead of feeling like we could really take our time to enjoy where we were and take everything in. But we did see a lot, and I'm glad we did everything we did:
• Temple of Heaven
• Tiananmen Square
• Forbidden City
• Sledding on ice!
• Yuanmingyuan Park (Old Summer Palace)
• Summer Palace
• Skiing
• Great Wall of China
• Taiwanese pedestrian street w/ street food
There were a few other small things in there, too. It was great going with Cinnamon and Richard (her boyfriend); I hadn't spent a lot of time around Richard, at least not since he left 2 weeks after I moved here, so it was nice to spend more time around him and learn that he really is a nice person. When I had first moved here, we had a bit of a clash because he seemed kind of insensitive about my culture shock and my need to talk with Rudy when we were having internet problems here. Anyway, Cinnamon was also amazingly helpful since the tour itself was all in Chinese, and she did a lot of translating for us. We literally couldn't have done it without her.
Of course Rudy's stay felt entirely too short. It was great to get to celebrate Chinese New Year with him, though. On New Year's Eve, we had a party at my flat and Cinnamon cooked an amazing Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, we drank, were merry, and went out and set off fireworks, watched more fireworks, and then went out to KTV (Chinese karaoke) for the rest of the night. So much fun!
I'll just give you one picture from each event I've mentioned, so you can get an idea of what things were like:
The amazing dinner that Cinnamon made for us.
Fireworks!
KTV!
Temple of Heaven. There was a ceremony going on for Chinese New Year, so that's why these people are on the steps wearing green robes. There were 123498239482 people there.
Tiananmen Square. It was so freezing!!
Forbidden City. The building behind us is what most of the buildings in the Forbidden City look like. Lots of detail and ornate-ness.
Sledding on ice! This lake was frozen, and half of it was being used for ice skating, and then this half was used for sledding! None of us had tried this before, so we decided to try it and it was a lot of fun. :D In this photo, Richard is sitting in front of me and Rudy.
Yuanmingyuan Park, ruins of the Old Summer Palace (not to be confused with Summer Palace), destroyed during the Second Opium War in 1860 by French and British troops. It's pretty sad, but beautiful at the same time.
Summer Palace. There was so much to see here that was so beautiful, it was difficult to choose just one photo to share. This is a pagoda that is part of the long corridor, and it's a VERY long corridor. There are tons of paintings inside the ceilings of the corridor, and all over the top parts of this pagoda, as you might be able to see.
Oh, and we had lunch that day right by Bird's Nest.
Skiing. It was Cinnamon's, Rudy's, and my first time trying it, and Richard was feeling rusty since he has gotten more into snowboarding. We went to a place called Snow World, which of course had fake snow slopes, and the ski rentals were quite overpriced. But we decided to do it anyway, since we wanted to try it and we wouldn't have anything else better to do. We ended up only having enough time to go down the slope once, since the line to the lift was so long, so that was disappointing, but the skiing itself was fun. Cinnamon and I didn't fall at all, and it was our first tries. :) Rudy fell, but he still had fun. I just wish we'd had more time to try it more than once.
The Great Wall. :) It was freezing cold, since we went there right before sunrise so we could see the sunrise on the Wall, but it was amazing. Nice that there weren't too many people there at that time of day, too.
Well, just one more picture of the Great Wall, because it's the Great Wall. :P
At the pedestrian street with Taiwanese street food... we decided to try stinky tofu. Stinky tofu has its name because it is VERY stinky. It stinks like, well, I probably shouldn't describe it. I don't even know if I can. Anyway, Rudy and I were told that it doesn't taste how it smells, and that it's actually good, and we should try it. Upon trying it, both of us had the same experience: it didn't really taste like anything, so our bodies, trying to compensate for the lack of flavor coming to our taste buds, tried using our noses... and we just tasted the smell. It was pretty disgusting. Not too much later, we got something else to eat to clear our palettes.
I've posted tons and tons of photos on Facebook from our tour, so if you want to see more, check them out. If you're not a friend of mine on Facebook already, tell me and I'll probably add you so you can see the photos. :)
Anyway, now I'm getting excited because I'm planning to return to San Francisco for a visit April 20 through May 1st. I've gotten the leave approved from my boss, and these dates coincide with the SF Blues Exchange, which I have already registered for. :D Now I am just waiting to have enough money to buy my plane tickets, and on ctrip.com they are pretty cheap - about $914 for round trip. Rudy is going to help pay for it, so I should be able to get the tickets once my health insurance reimburses me from when I was sick in December. So, that means I only have about two more months before I see Rudy again! And all my friends!
Okay, I'll leave off here. Happy Year of the Dragon, everyone!