beijing is a little bizarre at times.

Today was xmas eve in Beijing. Another teacher, Brandy, and I went to an Italian restaurant named Annie's Italian Experience. I had awesome penne with creamy white sauce, a Caesar salad, bread dipped in oil, vinegar and pesto, a glass of white wine, and one of the best tiramisu's I've had in my entire life. All for about 10 US dollars. It was really really awesome. And the plate of pasta was so huge that I have leftovers that I am going to eat for breakfast tomorrow, woohoo!

After dinner, Brandy and I went to this bar called the People's Bus Bar, which was pretty much a trailer in a parking lot converted to a bar. They had 10 kuai (= $1.35 USD) giant mugs of draft beer and the dj was spinning an awesome mix of reggaeton and hip-hop, my fave.

So in case you didn't know, there is no legal drinking age in China. That means, little kids as young as five (or 1 even) can buy beer (and presumably drink it), though most shopkeepers simply assume that a five year old is buying beer for parents, and not guzzling the stuff themselves. Anyhow, I mention that because at the bar that we were in, there was a 3 year old tottering around. YES! At 11pm, someone brought a 3 year old in a BAR! I'm pretty sure her parents were wasted, and the little 3 year old was running around the dance floor hugging people. The kid was sooo cute, I wanted to dance with her.

So, I checked the weather for Beijing today on weather.com and the weather condition for today in Beijing is... SMOKE. No joke. I mean, I've seen Partly Cloudy, Sunny, Windy, Showers, etc. but never ever in my entire life have I seen SMOKE as a weather condition. Seriously? That's ridiculous. I had to copy and paste it just to prove to everyone it's true. And yep, it's cold in Beijing (though that's the temperature for the middle of the night and the wee early morning; usually we're in the 30s or 40s during the day.).






Also, on the way to dinner tonight I saw a car on the highway that was smoking and on fire! It was absolutely crazy.

Other random events of the day/night: I found a Coldstone ice cream place in Beijing! I wandered around a fancy schmance hotel (China World Hotel). And I went to a swing dance club earlier tonight!

i'm feeling good.

I'm feeling great. No more homesickness. No more annoyance (okay, well, less annoyance). No more depression. Still confused, but that's expected. I've been keeping in touch with my family a lot recently, which is making me happy. I'm excited about being able to go home for my sister's wedding (I'll be in L.A. and in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico during Memorial Day weekend). I'm not sick anymore! (well technically I still have a dry cough, but it's not as bad as being sick and having a cold sore). I just cleaned my room, so now I have a nice serene environment to be in. And I've found a friend here that I really like hanging out with. So things in the life of Wendy are going well.

I was also put in charge of (against my will of course) planning a holiday concert at my school, where all the students performed Christmas songs. I didn't volunteer to do the planning, but since the Director of Teaching Affairs was leaving early (and he was supposed to plan it), he cornered me and asked me to take over since he knows I'm ridiculously organized. Even though it was more work (that I didn't get any extra pay for), part of me really missed planning events. I didn't get stressed out from it, and everything went smoothly. And I got sooo much affirmation from the other teachers, during the process and afterwards, it was great. I was shocked actually at how good these people were at affirming, but it is nice to be appreciated so much.

And earlier this week, we had a staff holiday dinner at an all-you-can-eat (and drink!) Japanese restaurant. I stuffed my face with so much raw fish, it was awesome. And I got ridiculously drunk from drinking mugs and mugs of beer, plus I had to chug with one of my bosses. Kinda awkward, but oh so fun.

Happy post/ Photo mania!

Since I haven't uploaded any photos in a really long time, this is gonna be a big one (hah, overused The Office quote here). I've decided to date the photos and present them in reverse chronological order (with captions!)

Friday, November 9, 2007This is a photo of my world culture class (some students are missing). The teachers decided to treat the students to dinner because they won the Halloween costume contest. We ate at the restaurant above the swimming pool on campus. Yummy in my tummy; though it would've been yummier if I didn't have to avoid the spicy dishes because of my sore throat. Wahh.


Saturday, November 3, 2007
Some of my students invited me to go shopping with them, at 8:30 in the morning! We took the subway and bus for over an hour to go to TianYi market (which is the same market I ventured to when I was abroad). We only stayed there for 20 minutes because the students didn't like the clothes, so we took the bus to another market. There I bought a bajillion and a half pairs of earrings for myself and my little sister. Then we ate hot pot. We ordered wayyy too much food. I didn't get the boots or the coat I had been longing for. The students were majorly disappointed.


Friday, October 26, 2007

Halloween Partay! I literally spent over two hours searching for the perfect dance party '90s jock jams mix to play for the kiddos. This is me with some teachers. The teachers wanted to go for the beauty pageant contestants from each of our states, but I wanted to dress up and embarrass myself in front of the students so I tied a bunch of balloons to myself and went as a bunch of grapes (A California grape from Napa Valley!). I don't think any of the students could guess what I was. And then some snotty boys starting chasing me and popping my balloons.

My boys! All these boys bought the same costume. Cute as all hell. I heart these boys so much. They were too shy to dance, and just kept shoving their friends into the circle.

Sunday, October 21, 2007
This was on a Sunday afternoon after teaching at the Qinghua campus. That's the new CCTV tower in construction. Kinda crazy huh? They're in the process of building a part that is going to connect the two leaning towers.

This is a mock-up of what the final product is going to look like. Crazy huh? Oh yeah, just imagine a layer of brown pollution and a bunch of other buildings covering half of the structure to imagine what the real thing will look like.

Seriously, this is just an example of why China is so amazing. After buying a knock-off power cord for my laptop, I found these two men trying to balance this mess of metal frames and poles on a tricycle cart.

Saturday, October 20, 2007
My third time at the Summer Palace ever. I've got to say this was my most favorite time at the Summer Palace. It was a nice sunny fall day, and it was so relaxing. I could just lay on the rocks by Kunming Lake forever.

Check out the gorgeous sun on the gorgeous lake through the gorgeous trees. And paddle boats! I didn't go on one since we didn't have enough time.

My third time to the Summer Palace but this was actually my first time on this bridge and the little island area. Pretty stuff.

This is the marble boat. That's right, a boat, made out of marble. It looked a lot dinkier than I remember. Yes I just called a marble boat dinky.


Sunday, October 14, 2007
My first ride on the new Number 5 subway line that opened up a few weeks ago. This subway line is ni-ice. I'm talking nice. The other subway lines in Beijing are really old, and so the train cars are dirty and worn. But in addition to the trains being brand new, they made the station all tourist friendly, with Beijing advertisements all over the place and Chinese art and everything.

And of course, part of that means making things look really "Chinese," like traditional Chinese, as shown by the banisters of this staircase. P.S. That person on the left is posing for a picture.

I felt really cheesy and touristy wanting to take pictures of a new subway line, but then I reached the platform and literally every single person there was taking pictures. I think everyone is really impressed by how clean it is and that there are sliding doors (which none of the other lines in Beijing have). There were soo many people taking pictures it was kinda ridiculous. In fact there were people taking pictures of people taking pictures!!! Redonkulous. And inside the train they have the poles that jut out in three for more handle space (like the ones in Bangkok), and an electronic light that shows what stop is coming up next.

Saturday, October 13, 2007
Partying for Tori's birthday. It was a theme party, so it explains the outfits.

Monday, October 8, 2007
Dinner at a delicious sushi restaurant. The restaurant reminded me of something I would find in L.A. It was sooo yummy, and there was avocado!!! I went a second time and gorged myself on tons and tons and tons of free sushi. I found out the owner is a Chinese American guy from SoCal, who is not so generous since the "free" dinner didn't end up being free after all (it was still free for me though since I bailed before the check came)

Sunday, October 7, 2007
"Reunion" dinner (from the National Holiday vacation) with the teachers at Vineyard Cafe. I got lovely red wine and delicious cheesy lasagna from this place. LOVE it.

Sunday, September 30, 2007
Woke up at 4:30 am to go see the flag-raising at Tian'anmen Square. Look at how dark it still was! This was at 5:30 am for the 6:00am flag raising. There was already a crowd. And this guard was literally falling asleep while standing up. I felt sorry for him. Who knows how long he's been standing out there in the cold?

Even though it was the national holiday weekend, the flag raising was pretty uneventful. I mean, it is exactly how it sounds. Guards march out holding the flag, they play the national anthem and they raise the flag. I bet it would've been better if I could actually see something. Too bad practically everyone is the same damn height so all I could see was the back of people's heads. And personal space is non-existent here, so I was pretty up close and personal with some Chinese people.

They had all these special floral arrangements and decorations on Tian'anmen Square for the National Holiday. Behind me is the Monument to the People's Heroes. And the giant picture? I actually have no idea what that guy's name is, but I've seen his picture on a lot of stuff, especially Chinese school books in the states. And yes, it was cold cold cold that morning and everyone was looking at me like a freak for wearing flip-flops.

The Olympic countdown outside the Chinese National Museum. I've never been and it's closed for renovations until years from now. I am bummed, and feeling stupid for not going when I was here two years ago.
Guards marching across the street to enter Tian'anmen Square.

After hanging out at Tian'anmen, I found my way to a baozi (steamed bun) shop. Since it was so early in the morning, they were unloading lots of veggies. Here is a bunch of bok choy. Omg, I've never seen so much bok choy in my life. I kinda don't think they wash veggies before cooking them here, just speculation though. The guy is using the cleaver to slice these bunches of bok choy.

Saturday, September 29, 2007
In the lobby of the Forbidden City concert hall for the Chinese fold music concert.

Look at the outfits! They're uh, kinda awesome, and pink. The instrument on the left is the plucking instrument.

Friday, September 28, 2007
A night out at Area bar. This place was gorgeous. All these curtains and beds to relax on. It felt like a nice club in L.A. that I could probably never afford.

So we showed up ridiculously early and of course were the first ones there. We assumed it would be more happening as it got later into the night. But we ended up being only 1 of two groups of people there. But it was soo much fun cuz it just meant that we dominated the dance floor. :-)

Yayyy all caught up on pictures!

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!

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.