CAUTION: This will be the cutest thing you will ever see.

This video actually has nothing to do with China, but it is wayy too cute. And I am celebrating the return of youtube in China! So enjoy. P.S. The baby is my niece Lily.

It's been awhile...

and there is A LOT to update on (because, as my cheesy blog title suggests, every day in China really is an adventure).

I am feeling too lazy to update with pictures (because it takes me a surprisingly long time to upload pictures onto blogger). First I have to choose which pictures to upload, since I take so many stupid pictures. Then i need to wait for them to load onto photobucket first. Afterwards, I need to copy and paste the html link onto blogger and wait for those to load. Then I need to arrange them, and give each of them captions, and blah blah blah. So yeah, no photos tonight. Maybe later this week, when I want to procrastinate even further with grading.

Let's see what I've been up to lately.

I went to the summer palace last weekend (on Oct. 20). It was absolutely gorgeous. It was my third time at the summer palace and I have to say, this was probably the best time. It was so relaxing, to sit at the edge of Kunming Lake and just watch the late afternoon sun glistening on the surface of the water. Sitting in the sun, on rocks, under trees. I miss that so much. I wish I could go to the summer palace every weekend to sit in the sun.

Also, before I went on my trip to Inner Mongolia, I got free tickets to go to a Chinese folk music concert at the Forbidden City concert hall. The performance was a special national holiday performance for foreigners working in Beijing. It was really great. All the performers were youth studying in a local music school. There were singers, er'hu players, and other cool musical instruments that I don't know the names of. There's this one instrument that is plucked, that I guess kinda sounds like birds chirping; but the first time I heard it, I swear I thought it was the choir clicking their tongues. And there were these other instruments that I've seen in old school Chinese paintings. And this is going to sound really ignorant of me, but whenever I saw this instrument in the old paintings, I kinda just always assumed it was some imaginary musical instrument, since I had never actually seen one in real life. Durh eurocentric American Wendy.

So freaky bizarre story of the day. Earlier tonight, another teacher and I were having dinner in one of the dining halls on campus. We both had the wonton soup noodles (I swear we have these delicious wonton soup noodles at least once a week, if not more). Anyhow, it started off like any other uneventful meal. But at one point, we see this one guy running down the aisle of the cafeteria tables, right past us, and towards the exit. Two other guys dressed all in black were chasing after him. And I mean sprinting after the guy.

About 5 feet before the original guy (the guy being chased) gets to the exit, the other two guys catch up to him, and start beating the crap out of him. I mean really really kicking the crap out of him. One guy is holding him, while the other guy is punching him in the face, and kneeing him in the chest. And I mean over and over and over. Not letting up at all.

Meanwhile, everyone else in the cafeteria is sitting silently staring at the fight. No one did anything. No one was screaming for it to stop. No one approached the men to try to break it up. No one got out their cell phones to call security. Literally, everyone was captivated, deer in headlights, staring at the fight.

I was really scared because I didn't know when it was going to end, since no one was interfering. I mean, in the States, someone would have interfered by now to pull the people away from each other. But not here. It got to a point where I was even considering jumping in the middle of it, to freak them out and get them to stop hitting the guy. Obviously that was a ridiculously stupid idea, so I didn't actually do it.

And by then, the two guys had pinned the other guy on the floor on his back. They continued to pound and pound on him, one guy struggling to wrestle something from original man's grip. He finally snatches it away and holds up the bag and screams into the cafeteria, "Whose bag is this?!?! Whose bag is this?!!?" Absolute. dead. silence. No one said a word. He keeps shouting, "Whose bag is this?! Whose bag is this?!?!" Again, no one responded.

I was really freaked out at this point since I was scared that maybe they had made a huge mistake by beating up a completely innocent random guy, that it might actually be the beaten up guy's own bag, and not a stolen bag. But then the beater-upper-guy, with the bag in his hand, pulls out a walkie talkie from his jacket and starts talking into it. Then literally, no joke, everyone in the cafeteria breaks into applause.

Meanwhile, the "bag snatcher" is still getting beaten up and pounded on by walkie-talkie man's sidekick. A moment later, a woman walks up and claims the bag. Then a giant giant crowd forms near the entrance around the bag snatcher, who is literally pinned to the ground. And I swear it looks like the two guys (who I guess are security guards?) are trying to break his arm off or dislocate his shoulder. I couldn't really see what happened next, since the giant crowd was blocking my view. But they took the guy away somewhere.

But seriously, even if those guys were school security guards, they were being wayy wayy too violent. It was bizarre and scary, and a little traumatizing. Probably the scariest part was that absolutely no one did anything to intervene. I mean, one of the guys could've taken out a knife and stabbed and killed someone in front of everyone in the cafeteria, and no one would've done a damned thing. Granted, that's a bit extreme, but I'm pretty sure people would've still just sat and stared. It's times like this when I really feel the culture difference.

You know, I had never thought of the whole collectivist/individualist difference in this way before, until I heard a speaker in Shanghai. I mean, we learn about collectivism and individualism in introductory psychology. I always hated talking about it, because I felt like when we learned about it, it was implied that individualism was not just different from collectivism, but better (Hello, we're Americans. We're taught to be individuals from elementary school). And for the longest time I refused to believe there was actually a difference. And before coming to China this time around, I envisioned collectivists as people who were inclusive of everyone in their entire country/culture. That collectivists didn't just think of themselves and their own needs (like selfish Americans do), but that they were considerate of everyone else and put their own needs last. So I thought collectivist people would act overly nice, generous, selfless, polite, and pushovers to everyone they met; basically, all the stereotypes of Asians in the U.S.

So when I came to China, I was honestly a little put off by how "rude" people were (rude according to U.S. etiquette). I mean, people shove into you to get onto a subway train, people will steal the seat from you on a bus, people will literally grab you by the shoulders to move you to the side so that they can get past you, people will cut right in front of you in line, people will bump you while walking on the road and not apologize. And granted, it's not everyone but it's happened enough for me to notice and complain about it. And I dunno about you, but all that sounds pretty individualist to me. "Hey you, get out of my way, I want a seat on the train, so I am going to push right past you and make sure I get that seat no matter what!"

And it didn't make any sense at all to me until this speaker explained the inner circle outer circle aspect of collectivism to me. Yes, collectivist people are caring, considerate, selfless, but only to people within their inner circle (ie. family, friends, co-workers), but they don't give a crap about anyone else, cuz hey, you're not in my inner circle. That explains all the seemingly "rude" and contradictory actions I get from strangers. I am not in their inner circle, so they don't need to treat me like a friend. Collectivism is about keeping your friends close, and not really giving a damn about anyone else. In fact, everyone else can go to hell, cuz they ain't in my inner circle, so I don't care if I bump into them, shove them, cut in front of them in line. They don't mean anything to me. And that is also why people don't get involved when they see a man get absolutely beat up in public. And that is why they just stand by and stare, no questions asked. Not because they're emasculated silent cowards. But because they don't know those people, so they have no reason to know or care about what happens to those strangers. So collectivism ain't so simple after all. And individualists? For being selfish assholes, we're pretty darn polite and considerate.

This post has got its issues. It's still written in an us-them way. I don't identify as being collectivist (and to be perfectly honest, I find myself putting more value in individualist qualities than in collectivist qualities) but I'm definitely not purely individualist either. I'm definitely a little of both, which I feel justifies me in being able to generalize about both sides, when obviously I can't. But this is my blog, so I get to write whatever I want, and if you don't like it, then DEAL! (hahaha, gosh, I love using that excuse.)

Anyhow, remind me later to talk about that other traumatizing thing I witnessed last week, involving a man getting hit/almost getting hit/pretending to get hit by a taxi, that I was sitting in! Ugh, too much drama in one post.

Onto happier subjects.

This past Friday (on Oct. 26), our school had a Halloween dance for the students. We cleared out one of the classrooms, decorated it with black and orange paper pumpkins and vampires and real pumpkin jack-o-lanterns. We turned out the lights, blasted my very own music mix of jock jams meets the Middle School Music Party Series Soundtrack of every party I ever had in college, and had a full blown dance party.

And by full blown dance party, think awkward junior high dance. I knew it would happen. A giant circle formed, with absolutely no one in the center, then one by one, or two by two, people were shoved into the center. Every single person resisted of course. And then there were the boys who sat along the sides of the room most of the time, only getting up once to attempt to break dance, and failing miserably. There were the women who stayed in their clique by the snack table, swaying ever so slightly, wanting so badly to dance, but feeling just a little too self-conscious to actually do it. And then there were us, the obnoxious American teachers, who just got a little too excited when 'Everybody Dance Now' and 'Tubthumping' got played. We were such a spectacle, students were actually taking pictures of us dancing. Jeez, I didn't think I was that much of a novelty.

A lot of the students actually dressed up, which was really great. There was only one man who decided it would be funny to crossdress, who wasn't even a student at our school, but a crasher, who just ruined the mood by being way too over the top, acting like he was high on something, and flailing a fake pistol in the air (which by the way was actually a piece of metal piping). I was actually frightened. But I think he got kicked out.

I dressed up as a grape, not creative. I tied balloons all over myself, and wore a sash that said California on it (Napa Valley? California grapes? California raisins?). All the other teachers decided to be beauty pageant contestants from their own state, so they each had sashes. I had one, but you know how I am, I had to be over the top ridiculous and silly. Few of the Chinese students actually knew what I was. They just thought I tied a bunch of balloons to myself. About 20 minutes into the party, one student (the one who is in love with Arnold Schwarzenegger and who is kinda creepy and in his 20s) decided to pop one of my balloons. Then he got the other boys in his clique to start popping my balloons too. It got to a point where the boys were following me, trying to pop my balloons. It was extremely uncomfortable, since I felt like they were flirting with me and picking on me at the same time. Extremely uncomfortable.

I think that's all I want to update on now. This has turned out to be a ridiculously long post. I promise, more pictures next time!

My Mailing Address

Send me stuff!

Just copy and paste the Chinese address onto a word document, print out the address and tape it onto an envelope. You can also just write the address in English.

北京第二外国语学院

世界交流英语学院

2号教学楼110室

北京市朝阳区定福庄南里１号

100024

BEIJING, P.R. CHINA

Beijing WECL English College

Beijing Second Foreign Languages College

No. 1 Ding Fu Zhuang Nan Li

No. 2 Teaching Building, Room 110

Chaoyang District

Beijing, P.R. China

100024

Photos of my campus

I wanted to take pictures of my campus while it's still autumn and pretty. Once winter comes, campus is going to look gray and cold and depressing.


That's a picture of the north gate of campus. Crossing this intersection is crazy crazy. Cars do not yield to pedestrians, and people drive on the opposite side of the road (temporarily yes, but still scary).


This is the hallway of the main teaching building. It's very cold and drafty. And on either end of the hall there are restrooms, and somehow, the smell of the bathrooms manage to find its way throughout the ENTIRE hallway. Not pleasant at all.


This is the front of our office. I love that the paint is chipping and that letters have fallen off our name sign, and no one cares at all!


This is a view inside our office, where I make copies and print stuff.


This is a view of the main walkway leading to the north gate. Doesn't it look gorgeous? At the start of the semester there were flowers planted all along the walkway and there were giant red inflatable archways.

This is the outside of our dorm. It's probably the nicest dorm on campus. I honestly don't know why there is so much glass. None of the Chinese student dorms are like this. Maybe it's so that they can stare at the foreign people?

This is a walkway by my dorm in between the tennis courts (which are right in front of my dorm, and right next to the teaching building). People are rollerblading and skating between these tiny cups. It looks so fun!

The autumn sun makes the campus look so happy and gorgeous (which it is), but I am simply dreading winter.

Enjoy some Videos

I took the first video across the street from my campus while waiting for the bus one afternoon. I didn't do narration since I didn't want the people around me to notice me filming (and because I think my voice sounds weird on recordings... doesn't everyone?). So read my narration below if you want to hear me explain everything.

The tall buildings are giant apartment complexes, which are found all over Beijing. A lot of units in newer buildings are empty, since the rent is too expensive.

In the center divider is construction that has been going on since I arrived. I have no idea what they're doing. But they have reduced the road to one lane in each direction, which means MORE TRAFFIC!

The TKL thing is the supermarket where I buy all my stuff.

Next to the supermarket are lots of little shops. Each of the clothing shops are like boutiques, since they usually have only one of each item in only one size.

That's an example of a broken up sidewalk, which is pretty much how all sidewalks in Beijing are. I hate them because it means I can't wear flip-flops around.

People are waiting for the bus.

People are getting off the bus. So many of the buses are brand new, probably for the Olympics.





This next video is actually quite boring. It's a short clip of a welcoming ceremony the school had for foreign teachers. I had to take a video because during the entire ceremony I just kept repeating in my head, "I can't believe this is happening." I mean, on video you can't tell at all, but the rest of the room was standing around awkwardly listening as the sound was blasting out of massive speakers with that ridiculous echo. The echo made it seem like we were at some sporting event in a giant stadium. But everyone was being so formal and completely not acknowledging the awful sound set-up. I honestly think the echo was intentional, you know, for dramatic effect. Here, they're introducing the different campus administrators.

Superficial rant post

A list of shallow things that irk me about Beijing and make me scream silently to myself, "Argh! Why can't every place in the world be like Los Angeles?!"

Things that annoy me in Beijing:

1. Couples grooming each other in the park, and in the subway, and everywhere else on campus (imagine animals picking insects out of their partner's hair). Okay, so you're dating, so you're madly in love, so you're in deep infatuation, that does not give you free range to pick at each other's pimples, pluck at each other's facial hair with your fingernails, or clean each other's eye wax, ear wax, dried mucus, or any other form of crusted bodily fluid. It's really really not cute.

2. Super emo couples who are obviously in an argument, not happy together, just staying together out of sheer habit (okay, so the last one was just an assumption, but it's one based on personal experience). Sometimes I'll see these straight couples just sitting right next to each other, or walking alongside each other, pouting, not saying a word, and just looking thorough annoyed and upset at each other.

3. Those really slippery tiles all throughout subway tunnels and inside hallways and lobbies and other buildings. That in combination with the zero traction low quality shoes sold in China and the massive crowds of people who are always rushing and pushing past me means that I have to resort to doing the next thing that annoys me to no end, dragging my feet on the floor. I literally have to shuffle in order to get anywhere without falling on my freaking face.

4. People are constantly dragging their feet and shuffling in buildings. Why can't people just walk like I do?! Oh yeah, cuz the floor is way too slippery to walk normally on.

5. The uneven pavement of every sidewalk in Beijing. Honestly you can never tell when you're walking through a construction site in Beijing or not, since it seems like everything is under construction. And sometimes the sidewalks are literally piles of rocks. Not very safe, which brings me to my next point.

6. Not being able to wear flip-flops every day of the year. And the fact that most women here wear high heels every day. I don't know how they do it! And on uneven pavement too! The other day I wore high heels to work (this was before I bought some boots) and I was walking down the sidewalk, not paying attention because I was texting on my cell phone, and I walked into a brick. A brick! In the middle of the sidewalk. I stubbed my toe like whoa.

7. The driving. Oh yes, the driving. Riding in a bus is so torturous, through traffic, with the loud, ridiculously loud honking of the horn every few minutes, the unintelligible (to me) yelling of the ticket person on the bus announcing the name of every single stop, and the stop and go driving with the sudden halting jerks at every brake and start. Puke fest, oh yes.

8. And of course the three big S's of Beijing: smoking, spitting, and shoving.

9. And maybe this is incredibly internally sexist of me, but I am so annoyed by the self-infantilization of women here. You don't have to freaking squeal at everything, or cover your mouth and giggle, or scream ahhhh and throw tantrums. Get over yourself.

Gosh, I realize that this entire post sounded so bratty and bitter, but I just had to rant to someone about these random unimportant things.

National Holiday trip to Inner Mongolia

This might just be the longest photo post ever. But I've got 5 whole days of photos I want to show off. And I've tried my best to just post the important ones. (Check out the rest of my pictures in my facebook photo albums). So away we go, in chronological order, with painful detail.

Day 1: Monday, October 1

Meeting time was 5:30 am at XiJiao Hotel in WuDaoKou (wudaokou is a college-y area in the northwest part of town, ie. the opposite part of Beijing from where I live). It was raining furiously that morning and we spent a full 40 minutes running around trying to find our bus, since there were 4 other tours leaving at the same time and place and no one knew what the hell was happening.

The bus ride was supposed to take about 6 hours to go from Beijing to Hohhot. It ended up taking 14 hours, since we left an hour late, and there was traffic like mad. It was stopped traffic for hours. People parked like crazy in the middle of the highway, people were wandering around the highway, peeing off guardrails. Pure madness.

We finally got to our tourist yurt camp at 9pm that night. We were force-fed baijiu right off the bus and greeted with Mongolian singing. We stayed in fakey yurts, which were pretty much individual hotel rooms in buildings shaped like yurts. But there was nothing else yurt-like about it at all. There was a t.v. and bathroom with running water inside. That night we watched some dancing and singing around a bonfire at the camp.

Day 2: Tuesday, October 2

We woke up at 5am the next day to watch the sunrise. The gates were closed so we had to jump the fence to wander onto the road to watch the sun in the cold. There was too much haze to actually see the sun break through over the horizon.

Took a nap after waking up for the sunrise. Then had icky breakfast and rode horses through the grasslands. It was my first time riding a horse ever!

Look at how awesome I look! I am rocking that horse! Later on in the ride I switched to a different horse and it was so speedy. It actually galloped and everything. My ass was sore the next day. We rode for about 3 hours. There was drama with the horse guides about how long we could ride and how much it would cost and stuff. But yeah, we only saw 3 sites since we couldn't handle the drama.

We stopped at a little house and drank milk tea and had these cheese butter candy snacks. I don't like Mongolian milk tea and I don't like these snacks.

After having lunch at the camp, we saw the guides ride around in a circle in a horse race. The start of the race was so funny since about a third of the riders didn't know the race had started.


Then we saw some Mongolian wrestling. They wear these little jackets, and you grab your opponents jacket straps. Then you kick your opponents feet and try to knock the other person onto their back.


Then we got on a bus for many hours to drive to the desert. We got to the hotel area and watched this performance after dinner. We were all around this bonfire and there were fire eaters and dancers in bikini tops and grass skirts. I was a little confused by this. Then there were acrobats doing balancing acts and stuff. Then the whole thing ended in a giant trance dance party.

Then we rode these giant vehicles (called amphibicars) through the sand dunes to get to our hotel. It was soo soo soo much fun. I had a smile on my face the whole time and I could not stop repeating, "This is so much fun. This is so much fun." It felt like we were on an amusement park ride, but it was so much cooler since it was dark and we were going up and around sand dunes.

Day 3: Wednesday, October 3


We thought we were going to stay in these outdoor rooms, equipped with twin size beds, a tv and electricity but no heat. But at the last minute, after lots of drama with the tour guide, we got bumped into the hotel, where it was a lot warmer and there was hot running water.


This was a giant cart filled with trash. There is a lot of waste in China (and the U.S.).


After breakfast, we rode cable cars over the gorge to get to the sand activities. It was my first time riding in a cable car/ski-lift thing.


We got these colorful sand booties to protect our shoes and pants from the sand. I went on the trip with Julie, who's another teacher, and her friend Matt.


Here's a gorgeous view of the desert during our amphibicar ride. And we drove by some awesome sand sculptures.


Here's me with a camel trashcan. I love taking pictures with trashcans.



Here are all the camels in a pen, waiting for a ride. The camels all looked so sad. It was really scary mounting the camel, since when they extend their legs, they have like 3 joints.


Me on the camel ride.


Line of camels walking through the desert sand dunes.


Me sliding down a sand dune. The slope was really steep. And it looked really scary. But the slide wasn't that fast and it was soo much fun! What was not fun, was climbing back up the mountain after sliding down.


I rode an ATV through the sand dunes!


Then I went parasailing through the desert. That's me getting strapped into the parachute.


The parachute was tied to the back of a car, and when the car speeds through the dunes, I got pulled into the air and cruised in my parachute in the air. I've got a really freaked out look on my face here, since the guy was giving me directions in Chinese but I couldn't understand him.


Once I got in the air it was relaxing smooth cruising. I also held up the entire bus since I had to wait 30 minutes for my turn and we were ridiculously late. More drama on the bus since we we finally got back to the meeting spot, the bus was speeding away and people were having a screaming match with the guide inside.


Then we drove to the Genghis Khan mausoleum. The guide overcompensated for giving us too little time at the sand gorge by giving us way too much time at this place.


Me and Julie jumping in front of the Genghis Khan statue.


This is a picture of a little Chinese girl wearing a headband that had blonde hair attached to it. Absolutely ridiculous.


That night we stayed at the Baotou Aluminum Smelter Hotel. Freaking ridiculous name. AND hot water in the showers. Woohoo.

Day 4: Thursday, October 4

Got a chance to sleep in till 9am this day. Then we drove to the WuDang Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple. Very cool place. It made me feel like I was in Tibet again.


I love all the different color clothes tied to the trees.


We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the temple, but I snuck pictures anyways.


This was inside the museum there. I think it's ridiculous that the mannequins here are white.

After visiting the temple, we went to a handicraft factory (ie. a commissioned tour group shopping spot). What can I say, it's super effective. I bought a comb and some Mongolian chocolate.

We stayed in a hotel in Hohhot that night, and we hung out at the hotel bar for a bit, singing karaoke with some Chinese men. I got creeped out after this one older man grabbed me and pulled me away trying to chat me up.

Day 5: Friday, October 5

Woke up early. Didn't get a chance to explore the city. Again, the ride home to Beijing was supposed to take 6 hours. But about 3 hours from home, our bus broke down. It was leaking water, so the bus driver told us to pass up all of our bottled water so he could pour it into the bus. He pulled over on the side of the highway, and about 100 flies flew into the bus while we were parked trying to repair the bus. The driver cut off the handle of a screwdriver, shoved it into the leak pipe and held it together with plastic bag and chewing gum. Seriously. And yep, the ride took 9 hours.

That night we had dinner in my favorite Muslim restaurant on campus. Then we ventured off in search of a cafe called Candy Floss, hidden away in a nook down a sketchy hutong alley. (I forgot to take a picture, otherwise you bet I would have that posted up here). We hung out with some of the Europeans we met on the tour. Then we went to this club called The World of Suzie Wong's. It's apparently the most famous club in Beijing, which probably explains why it was so sketchy. The name of the club comes from a novel/film about an English man who lives in a brothel in Hong Kong and falls in love with a Chinese prostitute. Irony of ironies. The club was filled with sketchy white businessmen checking out everything that moved. Shit was so bizarre I felt like I was in a movie. And to top it off, they were playing the cheesiest techno music all night.