How I spend my time...
Before I forget, don't forget to check out Lucas' 8 1/2 by Eleven, in which sad food plays a role...and spaghetti, which is one of my favourite foods, so...go read it!
I'm supposed to be doing laundry, but as you can see, I'm procrastinating. Haven't done laundry here yet. The past two times I used my friend Guillaume's machine, not the school's. The school's scares me, but I suppose today I'll have to find out how to use it...sigh.
I'm leaving Sunday around noon for Shandong province. Candice got a ticket, so there'll be quite a few of us (unfortunately): Melanie and Candice (American), Katia, Gaetan, Loic, Guillaume (French), and me. Seven. Yikes.
The plan is to go to the seaside city of Qingdao, which is supposed to be beautiful. We arrive at 2 AM, so not sure if we're going to find a place to stay beforehand, or spend the night on the beach and look for a place to stay the next day...
We also want to go to Qufu, Confucius' hometown, and we want to climb the famous Taishan mountain (the most revered of China's five sacred Taoist peaks).
Hopefully five days is enough. We'll have to buy our train and bus tickets as we go along, which might take up some time since nobody speaks Chinese that well in our group. I really hope our return ticket won't be a problem. I don't want to be coming back any later than Saturday during the night, since I do need to work on Monday. I can't afford to miss a day of work!
I had lunch at an American-style restaurant today, called AIR but also Banana Leaf, funnily enough. My picture's on the wall. One of the waitresses took a picture of Dave, Geoff and me, sitting at our table, when I took the two Vancouverites to that restaurant. It's enlarged and framed and up on the wall along with pictures of other customers (from all over the world). I'll have to take a picture of the picture...
Last night was the fancy teacher's dinner. I was under-dressed but oh well. I sat at the same table as the university's vice-president. What an honour. We drank good wine (every five minutes we had to drink to someone's health - Gambai!) and ate delicious food (always different - I really liked the pudding-like desert) and I learned how to say, "Happy National Day" in Chinese. The university foots the bill. There were all the foreign experts and the Chinese leaders from the university and some teachers (the ones who take care of us). It was impressive. The President of the university said when the banquet started, and an hour and a half later, he said when the banquet ended, and that's when everyone left. Very strange in a way. Usually people sit awhile and talk, but I guess everyone had their things to do.
So, this is a huge deal, after dinner, two American teachers (Matt, 23, and Karen, in her thirties) wanted to go to McDonald's. I went with them and Loic (French teacher) and ordered a strawberry milkshake. This is the first time since I arrived that I set foot in McDonald's!!! It's actually quite the happening place. We went around 8:30 PM and there were quite a few people. Today Matt's stomach was hurting him, and he thinks it's the ketchup he had with his hamburgers (can you imagine, he ate a couple hamburgers after the fancy Chinese dinner we had just eaten!). But I thought it was a big deal to go to a McDonald's in Beijing. Don't especially want to go back, either...
OK, should go do my laundry. Will go shopping with Katia later (need to buy some anti-rain and cold clothes). Tomorrow I'd like to participate in the National Day celebrations, so will need to wake up early to make it to Tainanment Square in time to get a good view...
Hope life is going well for you all.
I'm supposed to be doing laundry, but as you can see, I'm procrastinating. Haven't done laundry here yet. The past two times I used my friend Guillaume's machine, not the school's. The school's scares me, but I suppose today I'll have to find out how to use it...sigh.
I'm leaving Sunday around noon for Shandong province. Candice got a ticket, so there'll be quite a few of us (unfortunately): Melanie and Candice (American), Katia, Gaetan, Loic, Guillaume (French), and me. Seven. Yikes.
The plan is to go to the seaside city of Qingdao, which is supposed to be beautiful. We arrive at 2 AM, so not sure if we're going to find a place to stay beforehand, or spend the night on the beach and look for a place to stay the next day...
We also want to go to Qufu, Confucius' hometown, and we want to climb the famous Taishan mountain (the most revered of China's five sacred Taoist peaks).
Hopefully five days is enough. We'll have to buy our train and bus tickets as we go along, which might take up some time since nobody speaks Chinese that well in our group. I really hope our return ticket won't be a problem. I don't want to be coming back any later than Saturday during the night, since I do need to work on Monday. I can't afford to miss a day of work!
I had lunch at an American-style restaurant today, called AIR but also Banana Leaf, funnily enough. My picture's on the wall. One of the waitresses took a picture of Dave, Geoff and me, sitting at our table, when I took the two Vancouverites to that restaurant. It's enlarged and framed and up on the wall along with pictures of other customers (from all over the world). I'll have to take a picture of the picture...
Last night was the fancy teacher's dinner. I was under-dressed but oh well. I sat at the same table as the university's vice-president. What an honour. We drank good wine (every five minutes we had to drink to someone's health - Gambai!) and ate delicious food (always different - I really liked the pudding-like desert) and I learned how to say, "Happy National Day" in Chinese. The university foots the bill. There were all the foreign experts and the Chinese leaders from the university and some teachers (the ones who take care of us). It was impressive. The President of the university said when the banquet started, and an hour and a half later, he said when the banquet ended, and that's when everyone left. Very strange in a way. Usually people sit awhile and talk, but I guess everyone had their things to do.
So, this is a huge deal, after dinner, two American teachers (Matt, 23, and Karen, in her thirties) wanted to go to McDonald's. I went with them and Loic (French teacher) and ordered a strawberry milkshake. This is the first time since I arrived that I set foot in McDonald's!!! It's actually quite the happening place. We went around 8:30 PM and there were quite a few people. Today Matt's stomach was hurting him, and he thinks it's the ketchup he had with his hamburgers (can you imagine, he ate a couple hamburgers after the fancy Chinese dinner we had just eaten!). But I thought it was a big deal to go to a McDonald's in Beijing. Don't especially want to go back, either...
OK, should go do my laundry. Will go shopping with Katia later (need to buy some anti-rain and cold clothes). Tomorrow I'd like to participate in the National Day celebrations, so will need to wake up early to make it to Tainanment Square in time to get a good view...
Hope life is going well for you all.
posted by Caro at 2:58 PM
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