Week 2: BOCOG Tour, ONS training!

Hello all!

Since I spoke to you last, I've been on many adventures! Last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the BOCOG people (Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) were gracious enough to organize a city tour for all the students from my school! An overview of the tours:

Day 1: Friday: We went to a Water Treatment facility. The workers showed us around the plant, and it was really nice and technologically advanced. It is being used to treat water to use at the Olympics and for the Olympic lake. It was pretty neat.

After the Water Treatment plant, we had lunch, and then headed out to a village called XIang Tang. Here, we visited a couple different spots. First, we visited the grounds, and saw a Temple. It had a beautiful giant Buddha in it. It was gorgeous, and breathtaking. Then we walked to an area where there was a Senior Citizen center. Here, we talked with some of the people who live in the home, who said they are very happy! They even sang us a song. It was nice! One of the old men chatted with Laura and I for a while, even though we couldn't understand what he was saying. He gave us cucumbers out of our garden when he was teaching us the Chinese names for veggies.

Then we saw a section where there were calligraphy writers, and ink paintings. They were also very beautiful! One of my friends, Marc, walked into the room and the man painting looked up and was shocked because the painting he was drawing looked exactly like him! The man painting the picture even took a picture of Marc! It was very funny.

Then we saw some people practizing Tai Chi, which was pretty interesting. We even learned some moves! Then it was back to the bus, for a Welcome Dinner at a restaurant that served Peking Duck--delicious!! It was very funny.

Day 2: Saturday: The Great Wall at Badaling

The second day of the tour we went to the Great Wall. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was. I was shocked and awestruck by how big and beautiful it looked. We had to wait for a long time at the bottom because the Mexican President was in town, so he had a half of the way closed off for him and his people. After they opened it, we got to climb. It was much bigger than I could have ever imagined. We climbed up pretty far, and spent some time at the top. One of the Chinese students, Cindy, told me that in China you are considered a hero if you make it to the top of the Great Wall. She said now that we did, we are all heros. It was very cool.

After the Great Wall, we had lunch, and then headed to the Ming Tombs. These were very interesting indeed! There was an entire underground Palace dedicated to these tombs. The underground part was very cold, and refreshing indeed! It was interesting to see how they respect the dead here. After this, we all headed home for an evening of rest.

Day 3: Sunday: Summer Palace, Old Summer Palace

On the third day we visited the Summer Palace in the morning. It was beautiful--and huge! The palace is set on a beautiful lake, and after Rock (our tour guide) gave us a tour of the area, we all went out on paddle boats! It was very fun! After that, we got lunch, and we then headed to the Old Summer Palace, which was where the palace had been until it was burnt down by the French and I believe, the British. It was mainly ruins, but it was still beautiful to see what used to be a beautiful palace. It reminded me of the ruins in Rome. That night, we went to the Peking Opera, which was also very very beautiful.

That was the entire tour! On Monday, I woke up feeling a little sick. We went to the American Embassy, which was a treat! Then, since we were all dressed up and looking nice, we went to the St. Regis Hotel. We were invited to sit in a private bar, and we were treated to a round of drinks by Paul. Then we went to the Champagne ceremony, and then we went back to the bar to chat. After awhile I left, because I was feeling sick, and went to bed early. (Not to worry--I just have a little cold!)

On Tuesday, we had training with the ONS, or Olympic News Service, which is who I will be taking quotes for during the Olympics. After the training, a couple girls (Laura, Sara, Sylvie, and Rosie) and I all went to North Chaoyang, an area of the city, to go to a place called Jenny Lou's. It is an expatriot (people who live in other countries than their native country) grocery store. We couldn't find it, but we did find a restaurant to eat crepes at!! It was really great--a good break from eating buffet Chinese food. After dinner, we ended up finding Jenny Lou's which was nice to shop at on a full stomach!

On Wednesday, we continued the training, and then came back and rested. And I've already written about what I've done today! So there you are--my second weekly update! I hope you are all doing well! Check out my pictures!

http://jenniepalluzzi.blogspot.com/

(Click the "photos" tab for photos!)

xoxo

Jennie

Chinese Silk Market!

Nihao all! Today Laura, Anna (pictured to the right, in the Hello Kitty stall), and I traveled to the Silk Market! We left school at 9:10 am, and got to the silk market 40 minutes ready to shop. We brought our own bags, and the knowledge that the prices at the Silk Market tend to be marked up--especially for foreigners.

We walked into the first floor, eager to bargain. At the first stall, we focused all our energy, ready to talk the shop keeper down. When we started to bargain with her, she said, "Maybe you go to the third floor. Cheap there." That made us a bit discouraged, but once we realized we were on a "nicer" floor, we moved up to floors where we thought we could do better.

On the next level, we managed to talk down some nice jeans from around 500 yuan to a mere 150 yuan. Laura and Anna each bought a pair. We walked past stall by stall, sometimes getting pulled in (literally) by shop keepers, some times just glancing up at a shirt or two, all the while keeping our eyes down. As we went on, we each started to separate a little, and bargain separately. I bought some souvenirs for myself as well as for friends, and got some pretty good deals. I even bought a really nice bag--something you'd pay $30-$50 for in the US, for only $7 US.

The Silk market was a cultural experience in itself. Walking though aisles of jade, jewelry, silk scarves, shirts, toys, etc., was a little overwhelming, but Anna, Laura, and I got some good stuff, and are definitely planning on going back--and soon! All and all, three hours later, we walked out confident to bargain again--and none of us spent much over $100 US dollars.

Photos!

Hi guys!

I have posted some photos to a photobucket site, since my grand plan to use Jeff's site didn't work because the internet here is too slow! Feel free to look!!

http://www.photobucket.com/jenniepalluzzi

xo

Jen

A few photos from my adventures

Lanterns at XiangTang Village's Temple

Chinese caution tape at the sewage plant

Me on the Great Wall of China at Badaling

Another Great Wall shot

All the customs should respect each other.

Wa-maart

Nihao!

I am in China. I apologize for not getting an email out faster, but it has been a busy first couple of days! I will try to go over what I have done and learned so far in this email, and then I am going to try to update you weekly.

On the first day, we arrived to Beijing around 2 pm. Some of the students from the Communication University of China met us at the airport (Leo and Cindy) and a couple of others. In China, students often have an Americanized or English name that they use when dealing with people who speak English. So Leo and Cindy are not really their names (but they didn't tell us what their names were in Chinese.)

We all got on a bus to the CUC, and it took about a half an hour to arrive at school. Then we unloaded our bags and all got our meal cards and room numbers/keys. We had a few minutes to check out our rooms and change, and then we met the Chinese students for a tour of the campus. We saw the dining halls, the super market, and the gym. Then we had a chance to go to the supermarket, where I bought a toothbrush, since I left my other one in Boston. (It cost 1 yuan, which is about 14 cents.)

Then we adventured to the dining hall above the super market, but it was closing. So we went to a restaurant on campus that has no English speaking waitresses, or waiters. But the menus had pictures and some information in English, so we got by on our little Mandarin and by smiling a lot. Dinner ended up costing around $3 a person, and we ate six or seven dishes, and each got rice. (There were around 10 of us.) It was quite a deal! The restaurant is connected to our building, and we plan on going there a lot. (In fact, I've already been back!)

After dinner the first night, we came back to the dorms, where we intended to plug in our internet and settle in to our room a little. Laura (my roommate) and I were attempting to plug in the ethernet cable and the power into the wall. Jeff and I had bought a convertor before I came, so I was trying to figure out what plug I needed, and after I figured out which one I thought, I plugged it into the outlet, and the TV turned off...I had blown a fuse! Then we went into the hallway to get Janet (our prof and chair of the journalism department) or Paul (our prof) and found out that one of the other students didn't have power in his room and didn't have lights. We attempted to read the fuse box, and use the map, but it was all in Chinese characters.

So we figured we would go downstairs and ask the reception people if their was a way to fix it. They, however, speak no English. So we brought our phrase book and our plug, and attempted to explain it to the people downstairs. I basically pretended to plug it into the wall, and then said "bu" (which means no) and "mia dian" which is electricity. Needless to say, they eventually understood me, and sent up a maintenance man who helped us fix our problems.

The next day, we all met in the morning to go to our Olympic meeting, where we met with the Olympic committee and found out more about our venues. We then had to try on uniforms. (I am a size XXXL in pants, on account of the Chinese being very small, and they don't have a size 10 shoe size, on account of they have little feet.) We then had a long discussion with one of the teachers here on the history of China, but he mostly talked about how much he liked Kung Fu Panda.

After that, we went out with the guy who gave the lecture to get coffee. It was a pizza place called Danata, and we got coffee and pizza called Volcano Explosion and Fruit Passion, and they were both very very good. The coffee was very good as well! Thank Goodness, because we hadn't been able to find any.

Then we had an outing to a store to get cellphones. The store was called Suning, and it was much like a Best Buy, only in China. It was cool. I went with a whole group, and one of the CUC students, Cindy. She was very nice and we took her out to dinner afterwards because she was so helpful. After the phones, we got Korean food, and then we went to meet up with the CUC students to play Ping Pong with them.

They were MUCH better (obviously) then we were. Some of the Chinese students, Roger and Henry, were teaching us how to serve. Laura (my roommate) and I were actually getting pretty good!

Today, we woke up and went to Wal-Mart (I know, I know, the worst. But it's all we have here!) and we got a little lost on the way. I was asking the Chinese men how to get to the Wal-Mart, and I was like "Qingwen, Wal-mart?" (Which is "Please, Wal-mart?) and no one knew what I was asking. Finally, Paul showed someone the piece of paper, and this kid who I had already asked where the Wal-Mart was was like, "OHH! Wa-maart!" It was quite funny.

Laura and I spent about an hour in the Wal-Mart getting some snacks and other items, and when we were done we both had a bag of stuff and had only spent 6 US dollars each.

Then we went back to the dorms with Jim and Helen, and we went to get lunch with Helen in the dining hall, but it was closed! So we went to the restaurant we had gone to yesterday and got lunch. Then we decided to go to Jishuitan, which is near Xihai Lake, downtown north of the Forbidden City. It took us nearly an hour to get there, and we had to transfer twice, and use 2 subway lines. But Helen, Laura, and I made it safely. We walked around for a little while and went to a temple there. (I'll figure out the name soon enough.) We then found out we had to go back to campus for a meeting, so we went to this supermarket, ironically called Wau Mart, and got noodles...in a bag...from the hot food section. We shared them in the parking lot--not one of the most shining moments of our travels.

Then we got home late because rush hour traffic on the trains is insane--we were very close to everyone, and some of the trains didn't have air conditioning. Then we got off at the wrong stop, and had to get back on. But we made it safely back for the tail end of the meeting.

Then the three of us watched a pirated copy of Kung Fu Panda that Helen had bought yesterday. Very funny. And now I am here, finishing this update. Tomorrow we are going to the rural area outside of Beijing, so wish me luck! I hope that its fun, but I bet it'll also be a little sad. We'll see how it goes.

More next week. Until then, zài jiàn!
(goodbye!)

Arrival

Hello all,

Today I arrived in Beijing. After the 13 hour flight, I am mighty
tired! I am, because of this, going to go to bed, but I wanted you all
to know that I am safe!

Love

Jennie