Finished with Finals and the Fall semester~!

Finally, I'm done with finals, no more Latin American studies! No more Chinese news....until January of course.

I'm now planning on applying to schools in Korea, my adviser said I could definitely study in Korea if I wanted to. He seems to want me to go to Taiwan, but I really don't want to. i've seen pictures of their sky and its all hazy and off-white, no blue sky with clouds like Korea has. I can't stand that, it really has such an affect.

Now I'm just enjoying having my apartment to myself~ It's so clean now! And quiet and I don't have to worry about anything :D I thought I would be bored but I'm keeping myself entertained: I learned HTML and now I'm going to start on PHP. It's my backup for my liberal arts degree :p

Visiting a Buddhist Temple in Qingdao

Today we went to a Buddhist Temple near our school. There were a lot of monks and other visitors there, and one monk gave us a tour of the different halls for praying.
I asked the monk if people pray just out of respect or if they actually pray for certain things, and he gave me a very Chinese answer. He said that they don't actually believe that Buddha or the statues will do anything, they just thank him for his teachings and pray that they can receive his teachings. But then he said they also ask him for wisdom in decisions like finding work, or buying a house.
There's also plates of apples in front of the Buddhas and if you're having troubles or if someone is sick, you can take an apple for them to eat as a kind of blessing.
There were a lot of people cow-towing (if that's what its called), they would bow and turn their hands palm-up to receive his teachings.
It was very beautiful there, everything was so intricately done.

After a while, they also let us eat with them in a cafeteria room. They put out bowls for everyone, and then the monks chanted for a while. I took a video but I can't seem to upload videos on here. It was pretty cool. Then we ate. You have to eat everything you're given, cause they don't believe in wasting food. And they also don't eat meat. The food they gave us was really good though. We had white rice, cucumber, a type of thin green vegetable/herb, and eggplant. It was pretty good.
Then we left.
Today was the first day of sun in a week, everyday this week it rained non-stop, so it was a really nice day for visiting the temple.
I tried to take close-up pictures of the temple's details, it was really beautiful.

The Beijing Opera~

Today we went to see the Beijing Opera. It took place in a small theater room, and we were the only guests. I took lots of videos but they probably can't be uploaded on here properly.

After the performances, they did our make-up. Don't I look awesome?!

I tried to call Nick so he could see before I take it off but its too early there :( I guess he can see the pictures- I don't look too good on the webcam anyway.

Then we went to a cafeteria at the school where they had prepared dumpling stuffing and dough, and they taught us how to prepare the dough into the round shells, and then we stuffed them.

That's about it. Today was pretty fun- I wish I could upload those videos!

Thursday 17-July- 2008

Oh, and a few days ago, I went to MYKAL with some classmates, and we went to a children's play station and made the little thing in the picture, it will stick to mirrors and windows I think, so i'm going to put it up when I get home~ Cute cute cute!

Yesterday I went to get a facial. I paid $11 for a 2 hour facial and massage! It was awesome! Although somewhat embarrassing cause they were shocked by how bad my skin is :(
What can I do?~
My classmate told me that I shouldn't use any microbead things, and I do think they've been hurting my skin, so I went and bought some Olay. I wanna go see a dermatologist when I get home, I'm 21! My skin needs to chill!!

This afternoon my tutor helped me book a $152 ticket from Qingdao to Seoul, I'll arrive in Seoul at 9:45 pm on August 8, about the same time as Nick! So that's awesome, I just have to remember to go pay for the ticket tomorrow, they need cash. Oh, developing countries....

I think the massage and facial made me feel sooo much better, I've been in such a good mood since. Its only $11 the first time, and then its $50 the second time, so I'm going to ask around and find a different cheap place to get a massage. In the US I think its at least $60 for half an hour, so really $50 wouldn't be bad, but I'm running out of money!

Anyway, if anyone who reads this wants anything specific from China please tell me soon! I only have three weeks and I have a lot of work to do so I won't have that many chances to shop. I should be shopping this weekend~ I think I'll get some people some skin food products from Korea, skin care and makeup is cheap and good there, so if thats what you want tell me soon!
China is better for little things to put around on shelves, so if thats what you want you need to say something.

Tuesday

Today after class, I went with a few other students to the korean restaurant that I like, and found out there are actually 3 (THREE!) different types of galbi. Galbi, for those of you who don't know, is marinated beef/AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!
I also found out that this restaurant has amazing mixed rice. I'm so happy. It's the only good thing about China: the Korean food. There's also the Italian pizza and gelato at Da Milano. Yep, best thing.
And coffee places are really nice, too.
Today I used DimSum to finish most of my homework in about an hour and a half. It used to take about six hours or more. I also told my teacher that our director that we weren't learning anything, so hopefully they'll slow down the class to make it more useful. I know I didn't pay any money to come here (some kids paid $10,000 to come here for the summer!!!), but I still don't think my summer should be wasted looking up words in dictionaries and not having time to learn them. Now that I have Dimsum I can study a little bit more, so that should help.
Yesterday at a coffee place, I picked up a magazine cause I was bored, and I could get the gist of a few of the articles. It was really cool, I felt superfly~.
Ok, well, back to studying.......merr.

Night Market - Taidong

Today I went to the night market again, but I didn't buy anything, everything seemed pretty junky. There were so many people, so I took a few pictures. The first is of the crowded (and incredibly SMELLY) bus we were on. Chinese people need to learn: De-O-Der-Ant!!! Why is that so much to ask!!??

you know, China really does have too many people.......

I ate McDonald's, and I do so despise McDonald's, but i didn't want to get lost looking for somewhere better to eat.

Anyway, cool pics. Always bargain.
Peace.

Trip to Laixi, and eating in a korean restaurant in Qingdao

Thursday morning we went on a trip to a "small city" called Laixi. Laixi is probably five times as big as Memphis, but they still say it's small. We rode on a comfy bus for about two hours, and then we went inside out hotel to put our stuff down. The hotel was pretty nice, but had no hot water D: and an ugly floor, so we didn't walk around barefoot at all.
We ate at this really pretty hotel right next to ours. It was nicer and the food was awesome. The first good Chinese food I've had the chance to eat since coming here.
Then we went to see a Nestle factory, but we didn't go inside, we just listened to a guy who worked there tell us about it, and how they process milk and cream. Fun. But he wouldn't give us free ice cream.. :(

Then we went to a small school where some 11-13 yr old girls performed very long dances and skits for us, it was really impressive. But we couldn't understand what they said. Then we made the Chinese knots in the picture. Then we went outside to play jump rope and Red Rover.
Later we went to a city square, where a classmate named Jacki and I rented small play-cars for ten minutes and rode around the square honking at people and telling other classmates in play-cars to "Stop! Pull-over!" I wish we could rent those cars in America....After that, we noticed a huge crowd of people and realized they were gathered around two boys from our class and listening to them speak in Chinese and laughing. People were very friendly, but they followed just a little too much. It was kind of creepy.....

Then we went to a KTV place, a karaoke room. There were about 13 of us, we all sang together for about four hours. We sang Michael Jackson, Nsync, and other silly songs.

The next day we went again to another school in a poorer area. We walked through a small neighborhood of houses that seemed to not have toilets. We visited an elementary student's home. It had two rooms, one with a bike and a huge bag of corn that they eat and also sell, and some other things, and then one with a small kitchen right next to a large bed, called a "kang", which means its extrememly hard and heated with pipes underneath somehow.

Then we went back to Qingdao. I think Laixi people were friendlier and more curious. They usually smiled at us, whereas people in Qingdao stare and don't smile.

Last night, one of the tutors, Lulu, took us to see Kungfu Panda at the really nice theater at a mall called Mykal. That movie was awesome! Then she went with us to eat at a Korean restaurant. We had the worst service ever, the waitress didn't seem to know what she was doing, and she burned some of the meat. I think she was really busy though. And the meat was still gooooood. They bring a grill to your table and cook it there and cut it up with scissors. Then you take a leaf of lettuce, put the meat and whatever you want with it, and roll up the lettuce and eat it all. And you have to eat it in one bite, otherwise its rude. That's why Koreans eat with so much food in their mouths, haha! Our service took so long that we were almost late getting back to our dorm.
Today I think I'm just gonna chill, I hurt my knee somehow on the trip, so I can't go shopping today.

So, three weeks into it......

No, i'm not naked in that picture!!

I think I really do like china a lot more this time. my problem now is that i have no friends here, s o its hard to have fun.
the class is not hard, just annoying cause they tell us to prepare for one thing and then do something else in class, so you basically waste hours of preparation time and you don't know whats gonna happen. or you fail two quizzes cause they told you they would be over completely different words than they actually were.

i got my hair cut. its nice, slightly more thin than i thought it would be, but i like it.

so i went to an indian restaurant the other day, there's a lot of indians in qingdao. and i have been eating a lot of korean food. its awesome, but i'm getting fatter, so i need to eat less.
can't wait to get to korea! and see nick and my friends!

Nick is my tree kangaroo! My 樹袋鼠!

I want one for my birthday. ><
'



Today we found out that we have to take the HSK test again on Sunday and again on next Sunday. This is a four hour test that I could not read Monday, yet they want us to take it twice more in less than a month? They must have eaten some bad jiaozi or something cause this is ridiculous.

So far today I've spent $1.86, wahahaha! and actually that's because i bought some imported chips ahoy cookies, so actually only $0.42 was on my breakfast and lunch. muhaha!

Now I'm writing a homework paper about the differences between chinese and american families. gotta go~

Seoul Korea~~