Spring break awesomeness

Whew! So it's been awhile since I've been in Shanghai. Just got back in this evening from our May break trip! (Basically, the equivalent of spring break =P). We actually left on Sunday and just got back so it's been a whole week...it feels like forever! I'm posting pretty late, which reminds me - my blogging times are off because my computer is still on California time. It's actually 2:30 AM on a Sunday morning so yeah...

Anyway, so we ended up going to Sichuan province for spring break. It was so PRETTY! China truly has so much natural beauty. We went with a tour group to see the highlights of the province so we also ended up meeting some local people. I now have a new "didi" (little brother, haha), a ten year old kid (he's the same Chinese zodiac as me!) who's pretty chubby but he's so adorable! Haha...

The tour went something like this:

Day 1 - Fly to Chengdu and check into the hotel. We ate a pretty nice restaurant across from our hotel...it was owned by a Taiwanese guy. But that's all.

Day 2 - 12 hour bus ride up the mountain to reach the Jiuzhaigou area. Yeah, you read right. Twelve hours. TWELVE. We then partied it up with the local mountain people, haha.

Day 3 - Jiuzhaigou. So pretty! Lots of lakes, waterfalls, mountain scenery, etc. but the water was so blue and everything is just so...NICE! I'm actually pretty surprised at how well kept the area was and I was happy to see that China really cares about preserving its natural wonders. The whole area is very clean and well kept.

Day 4 - Huang Long (Yellow Dragon) Valley. We stopped on the way to get a better view of the snow-capped mountains and then hiked for a few hours to see these special pools...kinda hard to describe so hopefully I'll get pics up soon. Unfortunately, it was kind of the wrong season so there was only water on the upper part of the hike. It was a bit sad because if there had been water in these other areas, I'm sure it would've been really cool...

Day 5 - Mostly driving but we stopped at this dam/ irrigation place on the way. It was alright...not to eventful.

Day 6 - Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Yep! We got to see the famous pandas of China! SO ADORABLE! Pandas are incredibly cute, oh man. At this place it was possible to pay 400 RMB to take a picture with a panda or 1000 RMB to hold a panda and play with it for about 4 minutes. One of my friends did this...a little ridiculous but worth it? I dunno...maybe. But I did pay 50 RMB to hold a red panda, haha. So cute! Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip... Then we proceeded to...

Leshan Giant Buddha. This is apparently the largest carved stone Buddha in the world, carved straight onto the mountainside. We had to wait in a line (yes, literally like a Disneyland line, that has rails and curves around) for about 3 hours before we could even hike down the mountainside to get a look. It is HUGE. I almost can't believe someone would just decide one day to carve a huge Buddha into the mountain. It's incredibly impressive. However, this was also the place where I really, REALLY got pissed off at these Chinese people for being such jerks. Geez...seriously, they need to relax, good grief! So I will now take a break to rant - a lot of Chinese people are rude jerks. I think I've become a meaner, ruder person after living here because after dealing with these people, you just have to assimilate or else you won't get anywhere.

Day 7 - Emeishan. Another Buddhist temple-type area but probably the cooler part of this place was seeing the monkeys, up close and personal. We were pretty much standing right next to these monkeys. The ones with the babies were super cute! But I did witness a monkey steal a water bottle from some lady's backpack and then bite it open...it was kinda freaky. After our monkey adventure we got on the bus and went to the airport to head back home to Shanghai. Ah, it feels so nice to be in the dorms again! Even though our beds are just a hard wooden board, it just feels nice to be wrapped up in your own blankets...

Spring break was super fun and it's a bit strange being back in "school" again, even though I have yet to go to a class. Next weekend I'll be headed to Hangzhou again because my mom is coming to visit me, YAY! I'm super excited =)

I just slept in until 1 pm...

Sleep is soooo good.

Anyway...where has the time gone?! Apparently the last time I posted was about Jingdezhen...which was ages ago! We spent a weekend here in Shanghai and completely WASTED it. Well, sort of...there was some studying and we had made plans for funfilled day of Mexican food, zoo, pho, declious dessert, and massage but that was thrown out the window after Shanghai weather messed up our plans. Ah, I suppose we'll just have to save it for another day... Did I even go shopping that weekend? Somehow I feel as if I did not...poop.

But this past weekend, BEIJING! Actually, it did seem as awesome as it should have been, which is quite unfortunate. We signed on with a tour group to make things easier (got a big bus for all 22 of us...yes 22 in our group of people =P) however it also forced us to visit a lot of tourist traps. Boo, tourist traps are NOT FUN, especially cuz you know that they're intentionally trying to rip you off. But we did visit all the major sites - Ming Tombs, Forbidden City (which was under heavy construction, which made me sad...), Summer Palace, and Temple of Heaven. It was cool seeing all these sites, though I wish I knew more history so I could appreciate it better... My fault, I suppose. But another thing that bothered me was how incredibly touristy everything was made! There are people trying to sell all kinds of stupid touristy toys in these historical places...everything is just so crowded. I feel like it really ruins the atmosphere, so that made me a bit disappointed. Sigh...oh well. Oh yes, and we can't forget climbing the Great Wall...intense! But we made it and it was awesome and then we all proceeded to buy "I Climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts (talk about falling for tourist traps, doh!).

But probably one of the better highlights of Beijing was the SHOPPING. I ended up buying 5 pairs of shoes, haha... All of them fake, of course. Let's see, I bought green Pumas, brown Adidas "Dragons", two pairs of Chucks, and a replacement pair of checkered Vans. Yep, the shopping was pretty swell, not gonna lie =D.

Anyway, now once again back in Shanghai. Went to H&M yesterday...oh yeah, did I mention they just opened an H&M in Shanghai? Actually they're opening another one here today as well. But man, in the States, H&M was not impressive to me, but here it's like I want everything! Too bad I've gained so much weight to look good in anything...JK! Sort of... =P We also celebrated Ricky's 21st birthday yesterday...perhaps the reason why I slept in til 1pm this morning, haha!

Oh yeah, and I took my first exam here at Fudan. Cake. That is all.

Photos: Hangzhou!

So I finally found time to show you guys some pics from Hangzhou, YAY! This place is gorgeous!

We went up on a gondola to North Peak near Lingyin Temple. The freaking fan in the stupid thing didn't work so the 5 of us were literally baking in an oven the entire way up.

Of all places we decided to eat in Hanzhou...but apprently there's only four in all of China!

Me and my boys on the Su Causeway, the strip of land that runs all the way across the West Lake.

Barring out the bai ren at Yue Fei's Mausoleum.

So you know how at Dairy Queen you can order a blizzard and since it's soooo thick, they serve it to you upside-down and it stays intact? Well we decided to test this theory...

It apparently didn't work too well when done over Tiff's head...hahaha...

Trying to imitate a Chinese family portrait. Nobody smile now...lol.

Awww, picture perfect with my roomie =)

My bus looks like a lot of fun

We rented bikes so we could bike around the West Lake, so much fun!

We had our last meal at the famous Louwailou restaurant, right on the lake. Yummy!

Pretty dragons at Yue Fei's Mausoleum.

So, besides the beautiful West Lake, Hangzhou is famous for their tea. We decided to join the workers in the tea fields...yeah, we're ridiculous =P

Always gotta have a jumping pic...this is in front of the tea museum...which was boring, haha.

Man, we look dangerously cool. It's like the Next Karate Kid(s)!

Group picture outside of the tea amusement park. That place was kinda weird, but it was alright =P

Hmmm...I still have more pics from Jingdezhen. Geez, so much traveling! We still haven't even planned out our spring break...doh!

Back again!

Alright, it feels like it's been the longest week ever and I finally have some downtime to tell you guys about it!

So, went to Jingdezhen over the weekend as an EAP/UC planned trip so everyone on the program went...or at least was supposed to go. Three of my good friends OVERSLEPT and missed the plane. And yes, I DID try to call them before we got on the bus to the airport but there was no answer. One of my friends tried to get to the airport in time but just missed the plane...and it was tragic. And so of course, me, being the caring friend that I am, acted as the liason between them and the people running the trip and before they decided to board a 15 hour train ride from Shanghai to Jingdezhen, we were able to simply reschedule their flights to the next day, YAY. But anyhow, the first part of the trip was slightly stressful with all the chaos O_o.

Jingdezhen was...alright. It could've been done in two days but we were there for a full four days. Oi... But it was still fun. Jingdezhen is supposedly the porcelain capital of the world so the first day we made our own pottery and our own plate designs, etc. Remember doing arts and crafts in elementary school? Well nothing much has changed - everyone's still doesn't look that great, haha. Including mine! However, Ellen, being the amazing Chinese painting person that she is, made this GORGEOUS plate. I offered her $100 for it but she wouldn't accept =(. It was still fun though, and I got to throw clay (uh...is that the right term?). Makes me want to take up pottery...even though all of the clay things I made look like deformed cups.

The second day we went out into the countryside to a small village, Yaoli. It was pretty cool being able to see what a small village in China is like...not to mention the scenery...sooo pretty! We got to hike around in the hills and it was so nice! Although a bit touristy... Pictures will come later =).

The rest of the trip as a series of factories and museums highlighting the achievements in pottery and stuff. It's actually really cool how they made all this stuff. People who shape pottery are crazy! Especially the gigantic ones... And then all the carving and artwork on the outside. So pretty! But the most entertaining thing on the trip was the damn circle game... Andrew decided to teach the rest of us this STUPID game where you make a circle with your fingers below your waste and if you get someone to look at it, you can sock 'em. Yeah, my little bro has definitely played this game with me too... But yeah, that was able to provide hours of endless amusement...and it's still continuing to this day. How sad...lol.

Anyway, finally back in Shanghai for a relatively extended period of time - don't leave for Beijing until next Wednesday night. Already went to get our visa stuff taken care of and did some shopping yesterday (got three pairs of jeans and some Converse shoes!) I think I need to actually start doing work now... Boo...

Nobody writes me anything! You people suck! =P Just kidding <3

Upcoming events, etc., etc...

• I'm going to Jingdezhen this weekend! Yep, traveling once again, but this time, it's organized by EAP so we don't have to worry about flights, hotels, food, or ANYTHING, YAY! This place is supposed to be the porcelain capital of China so we'll see what kind of goodies I can bring back...
• No class the Monday after next as well, but instead of planning yet ANOTHER trip (3 trips, 3 weekends in a row is a little intense, wouldn't you say?) we're going to chill in Shanghai and actually explore the city. I've only been downtown once during the day since I've been here and that was for the UC organized tour. Hopefully the weather will be good, we'll be able to visit the zoo, get custom-made clothing (YAY!), go shopping, eat pho, get dessert, and massages...yep, that's the plan!
• Then, next NEXT weekend I'm going to BEIJING, woot. We were able to get a big group of people together and book a tour that includes airfare, hotel, and food for a pretty darn sweet deal. Can't wait!
• Still need to figure out spring break...right now it looks like it might be Thailand/ Malaysia/ Singapore... Don't know for sure though, might just stay in mainland China...
• I might go to India at some point...should I?
  
• I need to actually write my gecko article by TONIGHT since I'm leaving for the weekend...but instead of doing that I'm blogging...craaaaaap...
• Karaoke tonight! My buddy Ricky and I have been trying to go for the longest time...geez! Hot pot is planned for dinner...agh, I'm hungry!
  
• My Aussie ABF#2 got socked in the face last night by a bouncer...saw him with a fat lip this morning...ouch!
• I actually worked out for the first time yesterday and ran 2 miles. I hate running and my legs hurt. Boo.
• People in China smoke too much and it's annoying. I think I might have mentioned this before but seriously, my lungs hate my guts right now. I'm pretty sure one of our neighbors is a pretty heavy smoker because our room smells completely of cigarettes every now and then. Now is one of those times and I feel like I'm going to be sick. It sucks because it's so bad that when you go out clubbing or something, you have to be careful what you wear because chances are, the stench of cigarettes will have pemanently seeped into your clothing. It's gross. Smoking is gross. So is pollution and Chinese squat toilets. Bah!

Alright, I think I should really go back to writing this article now...doh!

Pollution...

...sucks. When a bus drives away from a bus stop, a HUGE, ugly cloud of pitch black smog comes pouring out the back and completely blackens the air. It's disgusting and takes forever to clear up. Gross.

China also doesn't recycle. Boo.

Photos: Nanjing/Suzhou + other random moments =D

So...Blogger is annoying and it's hard to put pictures in the right order so being the lazy one that I am, the following photo post will be entirely out of order =D.

This is the group that I went with to Nanjing and Suzhou...yay, bonding time!

Random Chinese people always want to take a picture with the bai ren...especially when they're carrying around such a pretty umbrella =P

Me and my buddies at Sun-Yat Sen's mausoleum

Jump! It's all the girls at Sun-Yat Sen

Introducing...my roommate! I don't know if I blogged about it before but yeah, here's my roommate Jessi. She's from UCLA and I <3 her =)

We're such intellectuals

Smile and be Asian!

It's the whole group! Still at Sun-Yat Sen's

It's an elephant...can you see it??

SCAAAARY!

Sweet, I look like Legolas.

I was born in the year of the ox! We're finally in Suzhou!

Rickshaw-ing it up to get to the pagoda

No joke - we slept 11 people in this room at Suzhou

Mmm...McDonald's soft serve...

UCs, REPRESENT! This is actually in my dorm room...we're back from our travels!

Big group, eating Japanese food...I think I ate a raw egg that night by accident...

Mike, my ABF, Andrew and me being silly...I do like silly random pictures =)

Yes, I do like silly pictures a lot

Quite a lot =D

And that is all for now.