Frustrated

So, went into the teacher's office today to talk about classes grades and such.  It was fine, no big deal, except for one thing.  Wednesday during my 8 AM class, I was a bit tired and not exactly on focus.  I mentioned to my teacher that I was up late finishing a movie I was watching (after I had finished studying, mind you), so what does she proceed to do? Tell the head of our program that my class performance is suffering because I've been watching too many English movies and English tv shows.  What the heck?  Was she kidding?  I mean, really, who does that?  Anyway, so instead of having a constructive talk today with the head of the program, she instead berated me for 20 minutes for not "immersing myself completely" in the program by being in contact with English too much.  I'm in college now...pushing 22 years old.  I think I can handle things myself without someone telling me to stop watching tv.  And the thing is, I'm not watching that much, if it even makes a difference.  Ugh, whatever.  I'm so over this program at this point.  I'm just ready to finish up and looking forward to my next few weekends of travelling.

Elementary School...

Just got back from a trip to a local elementary school with my classmates.  On Wednesdays, my classmates and I usually go on trips organized by the school here.  Last week, we went to a small tea village where we got to look around, help pick tea, and climb into the hills to talk with the women picking tea. Quite fun.  Anyway, today we went to an elementary school to look around and see how they're run in China.  It ended up being really fun, though I was really tired going into it.  We sat in on two classes: the first was an art class where they painted and performed with shadow puppets.  We all got to help make the puppets, so that was fun.  The second class was an English class, maybe?  Anyway, alot of the kids has questions written out to ask us in English like "What's your favorite color/food/type of weather/etc.?"  I signed my name there more times than I can count.  It seemed like every kid in the whole school wanted our autographs...it was fun for awhile, but got a bit overwhelming when there were literally 15 kids swarming around you demanding your name.  It was weird...but fun.  

Anyway, just got back from that, and now I'm about to watch some Offce on the computer.  Might go to the gym in a bit, but will probably just go eat Korean food instead, haha.  Update again later. Bye!

Here's a link to my Picasa Web album with all of my pictures from China so far...this one is far better organized than the stupid Photobucket.com account.  Anyway, Thailand pictures are up. Please have a look!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cnreves

P.S.  Added comments on lots of the Thailand photos...so have a look.  It's easier to do it and and just link to it than try to upload them all to here.

Short Post...

Wore shorts and a short sleeved collared shirt today because the weather was nice, but I swear I've never gotten so many stares in my entire life.  People in China don't seem to change clothes with the seasons seeing as everyone is still decked out in winter coats, boots, and jackets.  It's really strange, so I thought I'd be a rebel today and dress weather-appropriate.

Went to a market today with a friend to buy some luggage for Thailand.  I have a weekend back but it wasn't  big enough for everything I need for a week, and I don't particularly want to bring a suitcase.  I'm not sure I trust SoutEast Asian airlines with my luggage.  Anyway, went to the market, and it was an experience.  Nothing has tags so we got to bargain which was fun.  I bought a fake NorthFace duffel for 40 kuai (less than 6 dollars) which was a pretty good quality.  Think I still paid a bit too much, but whatever.  My friend bought a couple of nicer quality bags that were sorta expensive (though still under 20 bucks, haha) so all in all, it was a fun trip.

Currently trying to finish up studying for midterms.  I only have 2 more this week.  Additionally, I have to register for classes at Ole Miss later tonight, which is proving to be quite a hassel.  Regardless, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Anyway, update again before I leave for THAILAND ON SATURDAY!!!!!!

Had a bit of free time tonight so thought I'd blog for awhile...

So this weekend was a blast! On Friday after classes, Erin and I along with another of our friends here went to Maya Bar yet again for Mexican food and margaritas.  We were feeling alright after our Friday tests, but absolutely DID NOT want to go travelling for the weekend.  Good thing the school had already made plans for us to travel to a local mountain village, right? Haha, anyway after we got over the fact that we would have to ride a bus into the mountains for a few hours and stay at a house with people we didn't know, it was alright.

Headed into the mountains about 2 and a half hours outside of Hangzhou and ended up in this tiny little village in a valley of sorts.  Although still a village, this couldn't have been anymore different than the previous village I visited.  The people here were rich and all had HUGE houses.  Like 4 stories huge.  It was really quite impressive.  Apparently the people here grow and sell walnuts, which is a lucrative business in China it turns out.  Anyway, we stayed with these really great families, and I actually got a room to myself. An entire room!  It was intense!

Friday night, they cooked for us, and after a delicious dinner including bamboo shoots from the backyard, we all went outside to play with the kids from the village.  These kids were so cute and so happy to have us there, so it was fantastic.  All were under the age of 12-ish, because after that age, kids go to boarding school and/or have to study all day long for the gaozhong(the intense state-run testing system to determine what colleges kids can get into...think the ACT/SAT but instead of testing your thinking ability, it tests raw knowledge of subject matter.) so they're not around much.  We played hide and seek all night long, and after an hour or so, collapsed into bed.

Saturday, we woke up early and went on a hike after breakfast.  The hike was rather fun, winding through bamboo covered mountains and valleys punctuated by winding rivers.  Before returning to the village, we explored a dam on one of the rivers.  After the hike, I was really struck by the amount of actual planning and construction that China puts into creating the scenery.  It seemed that every hillside was cleared at least partially of the trees to allow for foot traffick and the path of every river seemed meticulously controlled for maximum usage.  Really strange.

That night, the village threw a party in our honor.  We met in the "town square" where several groups of women from the village performed choreographed dances and played instruments.  A couple of women even did a line dance to an American country song.  That part was extremely surreal.  After several hours of festivities, we all went to sleep because we were waking up early the next morning to go to church.

Sunday morning, most of us headed to the local church.  When I go to foreign countries, I always make it a point to go to a church service, because I think religion is so indicative of the culture.  If you want to have any grasp at all on the situation of the locals, I feel like a church service is a must.  I'd already been to a Buddhist shrine in my first village, so luckily, on this visit, we all headed to a local Christian church.  Once we arrived, everyone seemed to stare and us, but unsurprisingly, they were very hospitable...offering us all Bibles to read (in Chinese, of course) and cups of hot tea.  Overall, I had a great time translating familiar Bible verses in my head while attempting to understand the preacher.  The church service wasn't actually that much different from one at home.  The preacher seemed a bit "fire and brimstone," but besides that, I was pretty comfortable.  Wish I could say the same for everyone else, though.  The Chinese roomates/teachers all seemed extremely uncomfortable with the situation, and after 5 minutes or so, most had left to walk back to the village.  I'm not really sure how I felt about that...we were invited to the church and everyone was extremely hospitable, so it seemed like even if you didn't necessarily believe in this, you could at least sit for a bit and watch.  But oh well...I guess it might just be another cultural thing I won't understand for awhile.  Regardless, I had a fun time learning about Chinese Christianity.  By the way, the Chinese translation of the Bible was hilariously literal.  Think Genesis..."God said LIGHT!, so LIGHT!  Now do not have dark"

After church, a couple of us decided to go hiking on our own up a nearby mountain.  The mountain was beautiful climbing up, and though a bit steep at times, it was manageable.  Getting down was another matter.  We tried walking down the way we came but soon realized this would be impossible.  Walking up a muddy mountain is surprisingly easier than walking down it.  So we slid down.  On our buts.  At high velocity.  I can easily say it was the most outright fun thing I've done in China so far.  We were basically pinballs on the way down, ricochetting between bamboo stalks, brambles, and each other.  Once at the bottom, we all stood up and started jogging, but couldnt stop.  The hill was still steep, so I managed to grab onto a passing bamboo stalk and stopped myself from flying into the forest.  It was absolutely great.

Once we got back and cleaned off our pants, we had lunch and then departed for Hangzhou.  A few hours later, we got back, but on the bus ride back I got to finish reading my book, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.  Easily one of my favorite books now...I can't believe I haven't read it before.  I also bought a new CD, "The Hazards of Love" by the Decemberists, so I'm pretty set right now.  Little homework this week and possibly heading to Shanghai on Thursday, so all is well in China.

P.S. Here's a link to a friend's online photo album.  It's got some really great China pictures on it, so have a look.  I've been to most of the places she's been too: http://picasaweb.google.com/lubyx010

PICTURES

Part of an archaeological dig that we visited.  They were excavating the site of the Hemudu civilization from something like 2-3000 years ago.  Very cool.  The gov't built a roof over the site to protect it...but it leaked.  Thus, the cave-in in the next picture.  Nice, China.


When I went to the village a few weekends ago to stay with one of the roommates' family's, we went to a pig farm that they owned.  Very strange.


Piglets.  Very cute.
This is the house that we stayed in that weekend.  It was super nice.
This is the front of the Buddhist shrine that was in the village.  Everyone came here to worship, and they hold festivals and religious celebrations here as well.
Buddhist idols/whatever you want to call them.  They were really beautiful.  I think I like Buddhism.

This was a view from my balcony in the house...mountains in the distance and a river down below.
This was what some of the village houses looked like...but alot were smaller than this. And dingier.
I'm standing next to one of the other guys in our program.  On the far right is that guys roommate.  In the middle is the roommate's mother...she cooked for us most of the weekend.  Really nice lady and a really good cook as well.
Cute dog that I saw.  I wanted to keep him.
Funny sign I found on a wall in the village...it was advertising "Radiation Protection Screens" for your computer because apparently, computers emit tons of radiation that will fry your face.  The text is hilarious.

Random street in the village.
These were shoes on display inside the Buddhist shrine...the ones on the right are what really threw me off.  They're shoes used for the practice of foot-binding.  People don't do that in China anymore, but it was really strange seeing that on display.

And finally, this is the room that we stayed in that weekend...there are three beds total.  It was actually pretty nice.

Finally...New Post

Hi everyone.  Writing to you from the most beautiful Starbucks in the history of the world.  It's in XiHu TianDi which is this Epcot-ish grouping of restaurants, bars, and other things all nestled against the lake.  The Starbucks is in the middle of the rainforest, and seeing as it's currently raining outside, it seems rather fitting.

Chinese is....rather difficult.  Tests are hard and studying is taking over my life, but I don't want to talk too much about that because then I'll just sound negative.  I'm having a great time in China, and it's really nice that I can actually see how much better my Chinese is getting as the days go on.

Spring Break is in a month (April 4th-9th, or something like that), so this weekend, Erin and I along with some of the other students we're friends with are planning our trip.  We have it narrowed down to either XinJiang (a predominantly Muslim province in the far west of China.  It borders 8 countries including Russia, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, etc.) or Thailand.  Both have cheap flights, so I'm not really sure right now.  We'll see.

Well, went to the mountains a few weekends ago with the roommate and a few other students.  We stayed with the family of one of the roommates in this tiny village of about 100 people.  The village is based around this Buddhist shrine/small temple and everyone congregates there.  The first day we were there, we went trekking into a local bamboo forest.  The villagers all grow their own bamboo to eat (which is phenomenal, by the way), so it was really cool to see their rows of bamboo growing.  We slept in really nice rooms (for China), but there was no heat anywhere or hot water, so things got cold that weekend.  The next day, we got up early and explored the village with the family.  It turns out that the family business is pig farming, so we went to their farm and visited.  Baby pigs are cute, by the way.  Later, we went to this really cool archaelogical dig nearby that the Chinese government is currently excavating.  It's the remains of the civilization of the HeMuDu people from something like 2,000-3,000 years ago.  Really neat stuff, except for the fact that the rain had eroded alot of the people's progress and caused several cave-ins.  Oh well...that's China for you.  They tried to build a roof over the site, but of course, it leaked.  Hahahaha, oh China...

Last weekend, we stayed in Hangzhou and explored the city some more.  We got a few glimmers of nice weather, so we all went to West Lake to walk around.  It was a really nice weekend overall.  This weekend looks to be more of the same.  My friend, Katelyn Wear, mentioned to me that she knew a high school friend who was in Hangzhou working this semester, so a few days ago, we got into contact with one another, and I think we're all going to go out tonight.  Apparently, there are several Americans working with her, so it'll be nice to meet some more Americans in Hangzhou.

I promise to be more diligent with the blogging from now on.  I think I'm finally adjusted to life in China, so things should get more consistent from now on.  Until next time, here are some pictures that I've accumulated.  I started a Photobucket.com account that I'll update occasionally, so you can just follow me there.  Oh, and there are some videos too: Here