a week left in the middle country

Ok, the past week, I’ve pretty much eaten enough to last me quite awhile. WAY TOO MUCH GOOD FOOD. I must remember, everything in moderation, as my roommate tells me. So I’ve manage to cut down on the amount I’m eating, but still enjoying the food. Let me continue to chant, “everything in moderation, etc.” Oh my gosh.

Today, I went to the Wuai Market with my cousin’s cousin. Actually, I was able to recognize him pretty easily. He sat in McDonalds waiting for me. We talked for a bit, and made our way to the Wuai market to buy some stuff. Ok, this should have been in MODERATION. Except you can’t get a good prices there if you don’t buy a lot. So I manage to get stuff for my professors ok, but some other stuff, oh my gosh, it was ridiculous. Q_Q oh well.   

I thought we were just going to go shopping and eat lunch, but we ended up staying til 7pm. He dropped me home and I waited for my uncle to pick me up. Tomorrow he’s taking me to Tian Xia Di Yi Guan. I’ve been there in 2002, but I have no recollection of it anymore. Hence, I’ve brought my camera, and my determination. It’s 2.5. hours of train ride each way. Should be fun. I’m super excited.

My cousin’s cousin took me to this huge mall where on the top floor, there’s a glass floor and you can see all the way to the bottom. He tried to scare me with that, but ended up scaring himself instead.

I told him that if you can dream in the language you're learning, it means your brain is soaking it up, being fluent. He said he had a dream where he was being forced to learn English vocab words and he ended up killing his English teacher. I was like...I don't think that counts. 

A few more days to Beijing, and then back to the states!

catching up part 1 October 23rd, 2011

Huge lunch party yesterday totally made me feel like I exploded from all the food. I think I had a massive food coma, which absolutely did not help my jet lag at all. I got home around 15h-ish. I believe I passed out on my bed around 17h-ish, waking up around 21-ish when my friend called telling me that we’re going shopping the next day. I stayed up for about another 2 hours just doing some stuff and reading before falling back asleep again. And this morning, I woke up around…4:30-5ish. I’m actually pretty surprised that I’m not dying from the lack of sleep at the moment (it’s 4:43pm). Good thing my friend invited me to dinner at 6pm. It gives me incentive to try to stay up and not sleep.

There were so many relatives yesterday that I absolutely do not remember at all. Most of them asked me, “ do you remember me” to which my response was “….no.” Or they’d exclaim to me, “oh my gosh! You’re so big now. I remember you were only up to here (gesturing).” To which my response was “….oh my gosh…” 

I really need to get back to running when I get back to the states, or else I feel like I’m going to explode soon from all this deliciousness.  To be fair, I am moving quite a bit, but I think I’m eating more than I’m moving.  That is definitely not the ideal situation for me. I’ve probably eaten more in 5 days than I have in a month.

And today…I went shopping today. I’m almost done buying the stuff on my list. But seriously I need to get back to studying. I haven’t really done any Russian stuff in awhile, except memorize cases. I’m done with the nouns, but I haven’t memorized the adjectives. Ideally, I’d like to memorize the adjectives by the time I leave China.  That way, I can get more learning done when I get back to the states. I’m sure my roommate would love to torture me with more Russian. Not that I mind, since Russian is like the only thing that can completely distract me from anything. I love it. Since I have that dinner tonight, perhaps I can get some studying done tonight, and hopefully, not fall asleep too early. I’m going to try super hard to get some studying done tonight.

In a week, I’m going to Beijing. Having not been there since 2006, I’m pretty excited to be getting there and seeing what Beijing has to offer. I’ll also be visiting my other relatives and staying with them. Those 3 days in Beijing will go by super fast, I know. So I’ll have to make the most of my time over there. I’d like to visit the Forbidden Palace again, and see Tiananmen Square.  I can’t wait to take some pictures over there.

Over the past few days, I’ve managed to talk to a few people, tax drivers, sales people and ask them 2 questions:

What do you think of China’s development, and whether or not you like it?

Do you think the wage you’re being paid can keep up with the inflation?

Most of the response I got was no, the wage can’t keep up with the rate of inflation. And on the subject of development, some said they think China is developing too fast, or too slow, or can’t tell. One person I asked graduated from middle school, but had no further education since then. Another person told me that he thought China is like Russia, and that Putin is doing a pretty good job managing the country. I was like….. wow. Seriously. Wow.  I mean, he did to some extent, but at what expense? I should ask more people about this later on.  

Last night, I was missing Lyon for no reason at all, and I was missing Lyon like crazy. Memories kept on running through my mind regarding the things I did, experienced and learned there. I can’t help but miss it.  It was my home for 9 months. 9 glorious months of dreams, wishes and hopes. I’d give anything to go back. I can’t stop thinking about the walks next to the Saone and Rhone rivers. I can’t stop thinking about the cobblestones in Vieux Lyon, and walking on it in 3-inch heels.  The tingling aroma of autumn, with a hint of coffee, while lingering past a café, is just a new sensation all together. Walking along the Saone River in the morning with the fresh farmer’s market, you could just smell the mixture of olives and cheese. The fresh smell of baguettes while walking past every boulangerie is to die for.  ARGH. I must stop thinking about this.

I have a week left to enjoy Shenyang. Let’s make the most of this.

ALL DAY, EVERYDAY

This jetlag will be the death of me. By the time I correct my jetlag here in China, I’ll be going back to the states. I have a feeling that the jetlag back in the states will be harder to get over. Last time it was, and I don’t really know why, but I just did. After blogging the last post, I went back to sleep for about an hour and half. My cousin kept inching her way over on my side, so that in the morning, she had ¾ of the bed, while I had ¼ of the bed.

After getting up, showering and eating breakfast, we set out to the Shenyang Royal Palace. It is situated in Zhong Jie, where some of the biggest shopping stores can be found. Overall, I thought it was a nice experience, though definitely not as big or fancy than the Forbidden palace in Beijing. But I really enjoyed the nice sceneries, the history (as I’m a huge history buff). They have a beautiful garden in there. My cousin said if she lived here, she’ll probably get so lost that she’ll lose her sanity. I said, you’d probably lose your sanity sooner if you lived in the Forbidden palace in Beijing. That would be a nightmare. I’d get lost left and right there, ALL DAY, EVERYDAY.

After that, I did some inline skating at the Indoor Garden in this huge mall next to the Palace. We ate cold noodles and went to do some more shopping. And later in the evening, I went to meet someone I found on couchsurfing! She’s a student at the Northeastern University here, so it’s super close to where I live. She speaks Russian :) I’m super happy. Haha.

I was going to come back and write all the post cards, except I fell asleep promptly around 8:30pm. Woke up once around 1am-ish and went back to sleep. It is by far the most amount of sleep I’ve gotten, which is probably a good thing.

Some pictures:

the toilets that the emperor Qianlong used

the garden in the back of the palace

chinglish, for your enjoyment. I'm sure the foot is forgiving

my cousin and I at the Phoenix hall

night view of a bridge in Shenyang

A colleague of my grandparents offered to speak Russian to me this coming week. I'm super excited for that. Today we're celebrating my grandfather's 80th birthday. More than half of the relatives coming, I don't even recognize. Oh gosh. It'll be excitng. Muahaha

jetlagged and content

It's approx 4:30am and I'm awake. Another blog post from the across the pond. Last night I spent the night with my aunt and uncle. Tonight I'm at another uncle and aunt's place.

I went to the bookstore yesterday. YES. I believe I bought 13 books total and I can't wait to get through them. I will probably buy some more books when I get to Beijing. And I bought clothes! Having only brought one pair of jeans here, I needed to buy some more so I went shopping with my cousin. One salesperson asked me where I was from:

Salesperson: " Did you come back from South Korea?"
Me: "... no"
Cousin: " No, she's from the states"
Salesperson: " OMG, let me touch you. I'm finally touching someone from America"
Me: "..." Thinking: please get off of me.

Lunch, an overload of goodness. This place is called Papa's:

I walked so much yesterday, but to be fair, I also ate a lot. Such as this:

And I bought something at this store called Tasty:

I bought something else to eat, since this was too cute to consume. I would have just kept on staring at it until it went stale.

I finally took the subway in Shenyang!

After getting to my aunt's house and having dinner, I fell asleep in front of the tv around 8:30 because of jetlag. That feeling...is like some heavy stone on your eyelid. Like you know you shouldn't sleep so early, but you can't control your own eyelids from closing. I vaguely remember my aunt draping a blanket over me. Finally around 12am, she woke me up again, telling me to go to bed. My cousin and I ended up talking and telling each other stories for the hour and half. Good times, not to mention funny.

Today's agenda:

Shenyang palace
Inline skating
Sight seeing
EATING

Oh, and HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY TO MY GRANDFATHER! Tomorrow will be the celebration.

I really should try to get back to sleep...so I can survive the majority of the day without caffeine.