Speaking of time...

In the last post I wrote that I was packing up my laptop. The reason for this was that I was supposed to drop it off along with my suitcase at her aunt's apartment at 1:00 PM local time. I had confirmed this with Shino, and she had said several times that her aunt would "wait for me" at "around" 1 o'clock. Well I got there at 1:10 and she apparently was simply not there. I knocked several times, then texted and called Shino. Her aunt was, in fact, just not there. Now I am very thankful that they are holding my bag for a week, especially given how small their apartment is and how I basically imposed on her, and there is no way I'm going to come even close to complaining. But all times are not equal, and there is a reason for this afternoon over this evening, namely that I have a soccer match I would like to attend. I am sure she didn't know this, and she was probably doing something important, but it is a tad annoying. Perhaps there was a breakdown in communication somewhere along the line, whatever. At least I know what my mom has been through for the past 20 years.

It's not a huge deal as I should still be able to see the Americans get their asses handed to them by the Dutch in a few hours.

Winding down (the last line is rated PG-13)

This was across from our hotel in Xi'an. It is a standard noodle restaurant. Or at least as standard as they get with a sign like that.

Tonight is my last night here in the Golden Bridge International Hotel. I will be packing up my computer in a couple hours, and will be without internet until at least the 16th, perhaps my return on the 18th. I'm going to try to write the Xi'an entry now.

After the Pizza Hut deliciousness (you'll get a full report, sometime...) we took a taxi to the larger of the two Beijing train stations and got on a train to Xi'an. This was a pretty decent train, and it went a lot faster than the regular trains, though that might be because of fewer stops. Instead of an 18 hour ride it was closer to 14 or so. The train consisted entirely of soft sleepers. Soft sleepers have cabins of 4 beds instead of 6, your own mini TV that gets a decent number of channels, an actual closing door, and more all-around space. The price increase over a hard sleeper though was quite steep, though I can't recall exactly how much.

Anyhow we arrived in Xi'an around 8:00 AM or something, too early to check in to our hotel. We went to the ghetto outskirts
to see the E Pang Gong which is basically a palace that first Qin emperor (the dude with the terracotta soldiers) built for his long lost love. He never found her. He even built a little brigade of terracotta soldiers for her. I met a couple of them. The first one is me giving the general the Buddy Jesus.
After that we checked into the hotel which was pretty good by China standards. It had two beds, a TV, and a bathroom that had walls for the shower, so it had to be pretty classy. It also didn't look like a grim place unlike my dorm hotel room, and was a pretty cheery place. After finding it we wandered around looking for a "Little eats street" that was supposedly the place to go for tourists. After wandering around the city center for a good 30 minutes, it turned out we were going in wide circles around it and that the street was basically dead center of the city. We got there and I had a mirrorcake which was basically some sweetened rice paste topped with in my case, chocolate. It was also here that I discovered 羊肉泡馍 which is a soup/stew that has chunks of tender lamb, a few noodles, and balls of dough/bread. It is also served with garlic and a pepper paste on the side to mix in. It was simply fantasmagorically delicious. I bought a pack of dried instant-made variety to bring home but I'm not sure if it will compare. We shall see. Since this street was a massive tourist destination it also had some street vendors. Remember the Iraqi Most Wanted playing cards we released in 03/04 soon after the invasion? Well they had Chinese versions of those. I bought a pack, and I don't think I'm ever going to open it, I'll just admire it like a pet that doesn't move around a lot or require much care.

The next day we went to see the terracotta warriors. First though the tour guide took us to a bunch of other significantly less interesting places as if in an attempt to justify the cost of however much we paid for the day. Some of these were actually interesting. One was a place where someone held a dinner party and tried to assassinate his rival. There I had my fortune read by a genuine monk. Another was a mountain where the Communists skirmished with the Nationalist forces in 1937. They had a captured tank, and several artillery pieces. There was also a nice big piece of propaganda insulting that Nationalist dog Chiang Kai-shek. If you click, the picture should be massive enough to be able to read all the text.

Eventually we made it to the 兵马俑 and it was pretty cool. Walking into the massive pit and just seeing them arrayed before me was awesome. There really isn't a lot more to say about them. Except that on the actual site, I saw more white people concentrated in one place than I ever had before in China. They were everywhere. Americans, French, Italians, English, all sorts of the white devil had come to see just what the Discovery Channel had been blathering about.

The next day we walked around Xi'an a little and saw a couple interesting things. First, there was a "street surgery" that was basically a plan to fleece passers-by, though it was quite ingenious. There were 3 guys; one laid down and pretended to be ghastly wounded or terminally ill or something. The other two pretended to be trying to care for their friend by conducting surgery. The guy on the ground was almost completely covered by blankets, except for some opportune places uncovered where there were some intestiney-looking things supposedly coming out. Despite the massive amount of poor people in Xi'an, I believe this was fake mostly because of how they presented it: there was not a lot of urgency in them, and also it looked like due to the massive amount of covers over the man on the ground that they were trying to conceal the lack of any real trauma. Another interesting thing was the mentally disabled people.

Before you say "Eric, it's mean to laugh at retarded people!" I'll tell you I wasn't laughing so much as cringing. And not out of disgust either; many of them looked in pretty sorry states, but nothing worse than seen in Mexico. Their ploy to get money was what hurt my ears. Quite literally. One would push a wheelchair that contained another, singing, positively blasting music from a boombox. It was the loudest sustained sound I have ever heard. It was awful, several fire alarms worth of decibels and equally piercing. I am usually a sucker for giving poor people money, but no one in Xi'an got anything of mine.

Later that day we went to a large park situated around a lake in the north of town. It was pretty cool and for the second time on this trip (once at E Pang Gong) we rented a paddle boat. I was just like one of the English admirals forcing the Chinese to accept the opium trade I tell you. Just like them. Along the edge of one of the smaller ponds was a series of glass stepping-stones. We eventually had to turn back for fear of being yelled at as the sign strictly said not to walk on these, but someone before us was not so graceful. Look at the lower-left of the picture. (click for big as always)Yes, that is a shoe.

After that, we once again went to Little Eats Street and went to dinner with Shino's mom's colleague. He treated us to tons of lamb skewers and dumplings. The most filling meal I have had in this country, and the lamb skewers were probably the best food I have had here period.

The day after we went to Mount Hua, which is among the most dangerous tourist attractions around. It is not fraught with spike traps, but some of the paths up the mountain have rather inadequate railings. A slip and a fall and you're going straight down a couple hundred feet. Thankfully they had their own protection system in place: (click and read the sign)The locks at the bottom of the picture are part of a tradition: newlyweds are supposed to buy a lock and take it up then affix it to one of the chains to show something symbolic about love I'm sure. We made it maybe two thirds of the way up but had to go back down to get back to the van on time. We were supposed to be in the gondola line to the bottom at 5:00 PM which would have you back at our van by about 5:20 or 5:30. We didn't depart until after 7:00 PM thanks to one couple that maybe got lost or something, I wasn't paying attention I was too busy giving them the evil eye once they got on the bus. A similar thing happened at the terracotta warriors and we were a full hour late departing because one guy got separated from his group then apparently forgot how to use his cell phone or perhaps can't tell time. With only two samples there is an exceedingly good chance that this is just unlucky, and the other people on the buses both days seemed rather miffed too, but from my extremely limited experience it seems as though some Chinese people have a rather fluid concept of time. And when I note that, it means that someone is running very, very slow. Here is a picture of some cute little girls that were playing such universal games as tag and red-light green-light while waiting for the couple to come down from Hua Mountain:
I'm sorry if the 质量 (quality) of this entry has seemed lacking. I've tried to make up for the lack of polish by throwing ever more pictures at you. I started this an hour and a half ago, when my statement about losing the computer in two hours was more truthful. I won't be able to tell you about the soccer game or final days of the program until after Kunming at the least. Xi'an actually involved a bit more than just this but you haven't missed out on too much. You especially didn't miss out on the time I almost went number 2 in a disgusting bathroom without any toilet paper, and realized that last fact at the very last moment possible and successfully avoided a catastrophe of catastrophic proportions.

再见！

想家

At the risk of turning this into something of a "real" blog, (which I do not want to do) but in the interest of full disclosure to you dear reader, (which I do try to aim for) I am going to talk about FEELINGS! I also don't feel like like doing the Pizza Hut post now. That will be tomorrow.

Well nothing too heavy, as that's not what you pay me for. Except to say that after the field trip week, the day immediately following our return, was when for the first time I felt "I would rather be sleeping in Wilmette or Madison tonight, and I can't wait to." Probably a nearly textbook definition of homesickness, if however vague; I can't say I was missing anything in particular. It's probably mostly the fact that I have not least seen a family member for 9 weeks, now 10. A significant minority of it however is the wear of being in China, the return of gray skies, a busy couple weeks coming up, class never far from mind, and simply hearing Chinese everywhere. It's also something about the fact that I'm leaving a place and people that I do still like very much, and it is a feeling of a departure more permanent than any other I've made before. It's not like leaving camp, it's not like leaving for college; it's an exodus from the unknown to the keenly familiar for a seeming eternity. I'll stop waxing poetic here, but you catch my drift. How can I possibly fathom when I'm coming back?

Anyhow, my schedule for the next two weeks is as follows:
Monday 4th/Tuesday 5th: regular class, "talent show" ie chess competition on Tuesday
Wednesday 6th: Oral final, review day
Thursday 7th: Big final, presentation on field trip, soccer game
Friday 8th: Program closing ceremonies, Olympic opening ceremonies (only watching these on TV unfortunately)
Saturday 9th: Do nothing/wikigroan. I am already mostly packed, as I put 2 of 3 suitcases at Shino's parents' apartment earlier today and do not have a lot left to do.
Sunday 10th: Put last bag at Shino's aunt's. Attend soccer game. Get backpack ready for flight to Kunming.
Monday 11th: Board bus to Beijing at 6:00 AM, arrive around 9:00. Wait 4.5 hours until Kunming flight departs.
Tuesday 12th-Friday or Saturday 15th/16th: Spend time in Yunnan, including Tiger Leaping Gorge, Stone Forest, Shangri-La county, Dali.
Saturday 16th/Sunday 17th stay in Tianjin. Do nothing in particular, hang with Shino's family.
Monday, August 18th: Leave Tianjin for the foreseeable future on a bus headed Northwest to Beijing at around 9:00 AM. Get to airport 3 hours later. Board United Flight 850 bound for Chicago O'Hare International Airport departing at approximately 4:00PM. Arrive at ORD 6 minutes before I landed, at least by local times.
And then drive home.

PS When I said "real" blog I meant I do not have any designs on turning this into a blog that I update about what I had for breakfast, the new DnD character I'm thinking of in class, or unpleasant opinions about any coworkers or classmates. That's all for the most part incredibly boring, and I have no desire to keep a LiveJournal or its equivalent. I have an email address (eric.mathis@gmail.com, if you have any questions go ahead and send away) and most of you already know my phone number or AIM name anyway if you want to get in touch. This blog will pretty much die a few days after I get back probably, after I post any reports on coming back to America and things I didn't even realize I missed. (Though I have realized most all of them it seems.) I will return to it in the event I go abroad for a significant period of time again, be it France, China, or wherever.

Inner Mongolia -or- Showering: Why Bother?

Blue skies!

As usual protocol for overnight train trips, we left late at night to sleep on the train and save lodging costs and arrive at a reasonable time and not 4am. In retrospect I would have preferred a plane. Being on a train for half the nights of a vacation kind of sucks. For anyone bemoaning the death of the railroad industry in the US, shut up until you can tell me you actually enjoy taking the train from Chicago to New York, and on a regular basis too. Once a year isn't enough. It's a 20 hour ride and you're in what basically amounts to an airline business-class seat. For a bed you have to pay an extra $300 so you might as well just fly at that point. Point is, unless you're in a small to midsized country in Europe (okay every country there I guess) trains generally suck. Our train was delayed by an hour or so and we arrived at Hohhot around 10am. This is a small to midsized Chinese city of 2.5 million much like any other. Its got the dirty feel, only this one had fewer McDonalds' (on the return trip we looked for a place to eat before leaving but nothing convenient was nearby, no KFC either). Also, Mongolian writing adorns most businesses and in theory is required for any establishment open to the public.

We got in a van and headed to a yurt camp. The yurt camps were quite honestly a little disappointing. All of the ones I saw were clearly tourist traps and the actual yurts themselves were nothing special, basically a large and circular box tent like at a summer camp. When our van pulled up and we got out, they greeted us with shots of baijiu (白酒) that was the most foul liquor I have ever tasted. Far worse than the beef cough syrup. Worse than Skol vodka. This was liquid fire in your throat, and it truly did make you feel warm for many minutes afterward, as long as you could still feel nerve endings.

After the shot and a lunch that was decidedly untasty and unfilling that involved some very un-tender lamb, chicken stomachs, and more bad-tasting vegetables we went for a horse ride. It was 200 kuai for a couple hours so very expensive. In front of the horse paddock there was a genuine Mongolian man wearing a not-so-genuine Dolce & Gabbana hat: (click for big)

I don't think he even realized I was taking a picture of him.

The horse ride was rough. First off, I was wearing shorts as I tend to do in any month not named Decemember or January. The amount of chafing my calves endured was nigh unbearable until I nerded up and stretched my socks way up. And in more evidence that this country was not built with whitey in mind, my feet did not fit into the stirrups. The shoes were just too wide. So I jammed them in as best I could and just hoped nothing bad would happen. This worked out surprisingly well. I have not ridden a horse in at least a few years. The amount of times I have ridden a horse at any appreciable speed can probably be counted on one hand. I am not experienced by any stretch of the imagination. My horse was apparently obedient (乖) enough to not be required to be tied to our guide's horse while Shino's and our other co-tourist's were. Due to the aforementioned shoe problem, sitting up in the saddle was a very dodgy prospect. I tried as best I could, but for too long I simply sat my ass down while it slowly got grated like a very fine parmesan. Perhaps you didn't want to know that , but I didn't particularly enjoy it so be glad you're a degree removed from the experience. It started raining in the middle of our ride so we got off to stop into the yurt-home of a woman who lived out in the grasslands. She made her living selling tourists like us soy milk, milk balls, and other little snack items. After the cessation of precipitation we resumed our hard ride and returned to camp. On the way my horse, untethered, decided to chill with his friends as we passed by a rival yurt camp's horse party. I felt and looked like an idiot for not being able to control my horse.

Upon return we spotted a little white goat just chilling and munching on grass. His owner eventually came by and she let me hold him. I probably have fleas now that are just incubating and waiting for a chance to get to America. Also, half a dozen middle-aged Chinese men asked to have their picture taken with me. This would happen again too. We later had a dinner that was as disappointing as lunch (and just as throatburning) and then returned to the yurt. Our tentmates were playing a game similar to Presidents, Asshole, or whatever regional appellation you want to give it. I couldn't figure out some of the more subtle rules so I opted not to play. We were then invited to witness a prepackaged and touristy version of Naadam festivities. We saw a simple horse race and some Mongolian wrestling. After the wrestling they asked for volunteers from the audience. I did have an inkling of a desire to go wrestle a Mongolian and get laughed at by both him and the Chinese tourists as I got my ass handed to me. Unfortunately by the time I worked up the testicular fortitude to have my "I'm Spartacus" moment the offer was apparently dead as the wrestlers and their special vests had disappeared.

After a nap on my part, it came time for the touristy Mongolian tribal performance. I don't know what was going on precisely, but I assume it had something to do with Mongolians and a desperate attempt to preserve culture while at the same time packaging it into Disney-like authenticity. Regardless of reasons or implications, some Mongolians dressed up in traditional costumes and did some skits and dances about God knows what. It then degenerated into open-mic night. There was a jam session by our hosts. The dean of the local police academy whom had earlier arrived in a motorcade of black sedans led by a cop car got up and started rambling, visibly intoxicated. A little girl got up and made a speech about the Olympics and how proud she was of China and how she hoped everyone could come together etc... In the middle of a speech by one of the Mongolian guys who actually worked there, a random (and drunk) guy got up on stage with him and started talking and singing. He also handed the Mongolian a Qingdao beer. Then a couple probably in their 30s got up and sang a song "甜蜜蜜" that is basically one of the most popular love songs in the country. Upon hearing it here I realized it was also one of the Chinese songs one of my teachers sang at KTV a few weeks ago. There was also a miniature fireworks show being set off ridiculously close, only a few meters from yurts and well within a couple hundred of the crowd watching the stage.

I experimented with a few long-exposure shots of the moon through cloud cover, I went to sleep. After all we had to get up early the next morning (This is a theme basically for my entire time in China it seems, even when it is on weekends.) to get back in our van, leave the yurts, and head to the start of the Gobi. That day was the first day I wore pants this entire summer. I also wore my long-sleeved zip-up to the desert. The sun was apparently too fierce that Shino, in loco parentis, threw a fit when I took off the jacket so I put it back on. It was surprsingly not sweltering though the sun was indeed fierce. At the edge of the Gobi we put on special cloth "boots" to prevent sand from getting in and took a gas-chugging jeep up a few dunes. We followed a "duck", the type used in the Wisconsin Dells, that was spewing black fumes--check the video "recdesertoffroad" to see this and also get an idea of how bumpy it was. I recorded it in black and white for that extra frontier feel. That's not exactly true, I can't even say I did it to save space; I just forgot that the video uses the manual settings and I had it last set to black and white. At the little outpost we rode camels

YEAS?

for half an hour, then took a toboggan ride down the dunes. Shino was supposed to take a movie of me but somehow managed to grab a half-second video of basically nothing. Despite how steep it was which you can see in the picture, the sand created plenty of resistance and it never picked up an incredible amount of speed. Our desert adventures over, we returned to Hohhot, went on a very boring tour of a traditional Mongolian clothing factory, and returned to the train station. In the entire relation of this story, I was never able to shower.
24 hours, 30 hours, whatever. As Kid Nation's very own Taylor put it: Deal with it! My next entry will be solely dedicated to Pizza Hut and maybe a quick rundown on the 4 train rides.