So this afternoon I was overcome with a sudden wave of homesickness, regret and the general blues.  I'm not sure what brought it on.  I hadn't had much work to do in the office that day, so I tried my best to busy myself, but there was only so much I could do. I tried my usual tricks of listening to the music of my favorite artists to bring me back to happiness here, but for some reason I wasn't feeling like myself.

When I got home, I was looking around online and I came across video from a group I was a member of 8 years ago in high school called The Experience.  The Experience is a traveling youth choir from Christ Lutheran Church in Charlotte, N.C. Without this becoming a faith blog, the Experience was one of the best things about high school for me.  And watching the video, I was taken back to those years.

High school isn't a time I'd relive, even if paid.  I really never felt like I fit in high school, and anxiously awaited my chance to escape to college.  But, in The Experience, some of my best memories from high school were made.  I remember learning songs and dances on Wednesday nights, poking fun at our director, and the tours.  We traveled to Florida, New York City, San Antonio and Colorado.  I grew so much as a person and really learned to develop the values I still hold.  

Watching The Experience summer show online from Beijing I couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia and jealousy.  The group has grown so much since I was there.  The sound of the choir is full, the energy is great and they are truly exciting to watch. It's also fun to see two young men who I used to babysit performing with so much confidence, (I'm talking about you Brice and Chris - way to go!).  I was blown away by the groups talent, joy and spirit-filled performance.

So I owe a HUGE thanks to The Experience for bringing me back to a place of joy.  When nothing could bring me out of my funk this afternoon, your performance did.  The message you conveyed, and the way in which you conveyed it brought me back to center.  You grounded me, and I'm feeling rejuvenated. Thanks guys.  

Know that what you're doing matters.

So apologies in advance.  I'm way behind on updating this thing.  I've been doing some reporting at work, and running around at night which doesn't leave a ton of time for updating this. So here goes.  I'm going to spare you the details of work, I'm pretty sure I've put up all the stories I've had published thus far on here.  My weekends, however, are worth sharing.  I'm so blessed to be in a country and city with so much to offer.  There are all sorts of historical, cultural, and just plain fun things to experience.  I think the easiest way to do this is to show you some pictures and tell you just a little bit about it.  If you want to know more, e-mail me, or comment on here and I'll explain. 

The weekend started with a trip to Yanqing Valley Gorge about 2.5 hours outside Beijing.  There we visited the gorge, a polo club and Yeya Lake (Wild Duck Lake).  It was a photo trip sponsored by our parent company, and I took it as a chance to play around with a really great SLR camera.

Saturday we went to the Beijing Zoo. Enough said.  But Sunday, we spent the day hiking around Summer Palace.  I'll spare the stories, for the sake of space.

I hope you enjoy (cameras never capture things as well as our eyes do).

I know its a cliche, but it really tends to be true.  Most days I only edit a couple stories at work and spend my time doing research for stories or reading news articles online.  Not the case today.  Today I was busier than I've ever been here, and I loved every minute.

The workload of today really began yesterday afternoon when I went out on the streets in our neighborhood with a colleague to interview street vendors.  I was curious what their lives were like, and decided to write a story about it once I found out.  The story and photos were published today.  It can be found HERE.

I spent most of today at work writing, editing and re-editing my story for publication.  Richard Cole and Winston Cavin from UNC were there to help me edit my story.  I'm so thankful to have editors. 

Suddenly I found myself juggling several projects all at once.  A pace I'm more accustomed to back home, but here, I'd started to adjust to the slower pace.  As the day came to a close we knew it was supposed to rain.  But rain would be an understatement.  At about 4p.m. the sky was pitch black -- as dark as night -- and then the sky opened up.

I knew I was going to need to take off my shoes and walk home barefoot when I saw the pools of water in the lot outside our office.  I never could have prepared myself for the sheer volume of water rushing down our streets on the way home.  When we were fortunate, we were only trudging through ankle deep water, but in some places it was much worse.  Knee-deep currents of water turned what was a dirty dusty street (where infants and dogs alike pee and poop wherever they please) into a river of sewage... yeah, picture that.  I felt so gross when I got home that I immediately washed all my clothes and scrubbed the gross water off of me.

Come to find out the next day that the storm was the worst in Beijing not only for the summer, but it was the worst storm of the past decade.

Let's hope it doesn't rain like that again.

This past week, for me, was a grand display of Chinese hospitality. Now I'd been forewarned that the Chinese people are kind-hearted, generous, gracious and warm, but I never expected those qualities to be at the level I've experienced thus far.  A new friend I've met here used a cultural oddity to describe why the Chines are so warm-hearted.  In China warm water is served at meals, not iced.  This friend said "we drink warm water because we are warm-spirited.  In America, people are colder and that is maybe why they drink iced water."  I'm not sure how I feel about my entire country being described as "cold" but I can definitely see where some people might think that.

On Thursday our landlady and her son invited us to dinner with them at a very nice restaurant near us.  We had known we were going to eat with them for some time, as our landlady's son, Xiaofeng, studied in America and would be able to help facilitate conversation.  After work, Xiaofeng and his mother picked us up (Audrey, Daniel, Lauren, Celine, Richard Cole and myself), we drove to the restaurant and ordered a FEAST.  I'm not sure I can even remember all the food we ate, but I remember how full I was.  Here's my attempt at remembering:  two peking duck dishes, pork ribs, kung pow chicken, peas, two soups, noodles, bread dumplings, roasted chicken, icecream, blueberry tart. Once we'd loosened our belts a notch or two, our landlady offered to take Audrey to the hair salon.  She'd been wanting to get a trim for a couple of weeks, and now we would have Xiaofeng to translate for us.  After much back-and-forth discussion we weren't sure whether Audrey would end up with the long layers she'd asked for or a bob with bangs straight across, but alas the trip was a success.  Our landlady refused to let Audrey pay for the cut, insisting that it was her treat.  In the car on the way home, Audrey and I chatted about the groceries we needed to buy the next day (we'd been out of eggs for a few days), and immediately our landlady asked us if we needed to stop at the store.  We declined the offer and mentioned that we might just pick up an apple on the way to work, to which she responded "Oh what kind of fruit do you want, I'll buy you some fruit for your apartment."  We thanked her for the generous offer, but told her she'd already done more than enough for us that evening.  She said she just wanted to help us because she knew we were so far from home, and a mother always wants to help.  I guess motherhood is the same in every culture - a good mom wants to make sure kids are taken care of.  I only hope someone was as generous and caring for Xiaofeng while he was studying in the Chicago.

The next day I woke up with my stomach in knots... I knew something was off, but couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.  It's funny how when you pack for a long trip in a foreign place you try to think of everything, but inevitably something always gets left behind.  Well I'd resolved myself to thinking the only things I'd left behind were a hoodie sweatshirt and a rain jacket... but I was wrong.  One specific, less than enjoyable, medicine also did not make the journey to China with me.  I'd brought TUMS but they weren't doing the trick, so while I was at work I asked one of my colleagues to write down the characters for the medicine I was looking for so I could go to the pharmacy and try my luck.  Maverick insisted he go with me to try to help me.  The pharmacy near where we work didn't have what I was looking for, but rather than give up, Maverick asked his Aunt (a doctor in Shanghai) what she would suggest.  He then told me he would look over the weekend and sent me home early to rest.  I found out later that weekend that he had tried several pharmacies but didn't find what he was looking for, and he called to check up on me.  It was so relieving to be taken care of.  There's nothing worse than being sick in a foreign place where you can't find the medicines you're used to. Thankfully, I've got some good friends here to help out.

From what I've seen Southern Hospitality and Chinese Hospitality are in a race to the top!

Sitting in the back of a taxi cab, I find myself lost in thought.  I still can't believe I'm really spending my summer in Beijing, sometimes.  When I do allow the realization that I'm here to sink in, it hits me that I've just finished my third full week of work (14 work days).  I've only got 40 more working days left and I know that time is going to absolutely fly by.

This weekend was a blast! We started things off with a fun dinner with some friends Audrey has who were visiting Beijing from Shanghai.  They are students at Fudan University, and part of the Holland Fellows program Audrey is a member of at App State University.  Daniel, Audrey and I met up with Zoey, Peggy, Nathan and Robert to eat at a Sichuan restaurant a little ways away from our apartment.  The food was delicious, but I knew it would be when we had to wait an hour to get a table.

While we were waiting, we decided to explore the shopping mall nearby, and venture into the Carrefour store (read: French Wal-Mart).  This store put Wal-Mart to shame!  We found a bunch of American granola bars and breakfast foods... needless to say we'll be shopping there again.  In the mall we figured we'd have a snack before dinner.  It ended up that we had desert first, but we're in China where it doesn't matter, right?

Nathan, Peggy and Zoey took us to a stand called Beard Papa which sells cream puffs.  They fill the puff with different flavors of cream, and man I've been craving them ever since.  Yum!  The dinner we ate was also incredible.  It was a bit pricy, but to taste a new cuisine for the first time, I think we did it right. We had pork, chicken, potatoes, fish, vegetables and more.  I was so stuffed when we headed home!

Saturday morning, we woke up relatively early to head out to the Ming Tombs.  A taxi and one long bus ride (which I slept through, oops!) later we arrived in the foothills of green, lush mountains.  The architecture of the park where the tombs are is exactly what people expect when they think China.  Rooftops with the edges that curve upward poked through the trees and stone walkways created paths leading from the museum area to the tombs themselves.  I was amazed by the forethought of the emperors to begin the construction of such a huge plot of burial grounds long before their deaths.

As we finished walking around the second tomb area, thunder boomed in the distance.  Before we knew it, a storm was surging over the mountains and filling the sky with dark, ominous clouds.  We walked quickly to the bus, but luckily the storm skirted to the side of where we were.  Apparently, though, the storm was a nasty one.  In Beijing, torrential rain and hail pounded the area near where we live.  By the time we were home though, the storm had passed leaving clean air and blue skies. Guess we timed that one right!

Saturday night I went out to a part of town called Wudaokou, which apparently means "Fifth Rail Station" or something like that, for the first time since we've been here.  A few of the American students we met last week joined us and we went to a dance club called Sensation.  It wasn't too busy, but man do I miss the "no smoking indoors" law we have in NC.  We danced for hours, and had a really good night.  I enjoyed loosening up and dancing for a little while.  Thankfully, our Sunday plans didn't involve an 8am alarm.

After sleeping in, my first time actually sleeping in since I've been here, I made lunch for myself before heading out to meet up with some of our friends at their university.  We met up with Cleaire, Jassum, Branden and Lutong and headed out towards the Olympic park.  The architecture of the Water Cube and Bird's Nest are definitely something worth seeing.  I was surprised to see that the Water Cube is somewhat sheer, so when the sun was setting behind it, you could see the bolts holding the panels of glass together.  We took TONS of photos, goofy, candid, posed.  We were complete tourists, but that's ok.  Some of the chinese people even took photos of us because we stood out like sore thumbs.

That's all I've got.  I'm off to another week at work. I know I'm writing at least one story, but we'll see what else I can drum up.

So I know it's Sunday over here, but I've been busy... well sort of.  Anyways I've now finished my second full week of work and have definitely settled into the swing of things at China.org.cn.   I've already had one story (and photos) published in the travel section, and I attended a press conference and tour of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, but more on that later.  I'm not going to get into my weekend, I'll save that post for tomorrow so that 1.) this post isn't tremendously long, and 2.) you'll have something to read later on.

Let me describe our office to you.  China.org is what I would call an online news aggregate.  Publishing reports in nine languages, the biggest bulk of what is done is finding interesting, quality news stories published in Chinese media or elsewhere and translating them into the various other languages.  When you enter our office, it's basically one giant room with tons of cubicles arranged in rows throughout the room.  I'd venture a guess that the entire space is about the size of a decent-sized high school gymnasium.  Two people share each cubicle (it's big enough to share, I'll take a picture), and each station comes with a desktop computer and a relatively comfortable chair.

I know I've said it before, but I work with some really great people.  And although the office remains relatively quiet, much more calm than the crazy atmosphere in some newsrooms back home, everyone is great and eager to help when they can.  Each morning starts with a cup of coffee from Becky.  This is a real treat because she makes drip coffee and most Chinese drink the instant stuff if they're drinking coffee at all.   Most  days are actually quite relaxing.  Outside of the occasional interesting MSN chat with a colleague, or friendly discussion with Maverick I spend my time copy editing stories that have been translated into English from Chinese.  Some days I'm lucky and I'll get four or five stories to edit during my seven hour workday.  This week I didn't edit as much.  On Tuesday and Wednesday I only edited one story each day.  I mostly spent my time reading news at my desk and trying to find story ideas to pitch.  My bosses seem surprised when they hand me a story to edit and I'm finished editing it in less than a half hour.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I can't seem to justify taking my time with stories when I know I can get the assignments done and move on to another task.

On Tuesday, in between my reading for pleasure and story editing, I finished writing my very first story for China.org.cn.  You can find the story here.  I was able to write about my trip last weekend to Miyun, which I also shared on this blog.  My story was well received on the site, and was the second most viewed story the day after it was published.  I was blown away and humbled by the response. Because I've been trying to do reporting of some sort - or just to get out of the office to see and do anything I was forwarded a press release from the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.  They were holding an "open house" of sorts for foreign journalists and foreign members of the Chinese media in an attempt to promote openness.  I, logically, jumped at the opportunity to go, so two colleagues and I got to spend our Friday morning meeting with members of the Party.  The meeting was largely what I expected, however I was surprised that the Party gave us a relatively high-level minister for the press conference.  Ai Ping answered several questions from the press, in what I thought was a much more candid manner than most would expect from the Chinese government.  Ping had an epic combover, like the one's often exaggerated in political cartoons, and was an older man with thick large glasses circa 1990.  The spokesman for the department, who gave a brief historical introduction first thing in the morning, was much younger and "modern" in his appearance.  The entire event was translated from Chinese into English, and was an even I'm not soon going to forget.  I'll be writing a story with Corey Cooper for China.org.cn and will make sure to let you all know when it's finished.

Well that's all I've got about work.  On a side note:  when my boss told me work attire at the office was casual, I assumed business casual.  I was mistaken, and am often overdressed compared with my colleagues.  But at least I feel like a real professional, even if I am just reading news online all day long.

So after speaking at the Communications University of China last week, one of the girls invited Lauren Russell and me to join them on a weekend outing.  Because it is the spring Dragon Boat Festival, or Dwanwu, everyone had three days off.  We gladly agreed to experience life outside the hustle and bustle of Beijing.

Nicole, Jesse, Wu and Zhong met us early in the morning at the long distance bus station called Zongzhimen.  It was our first time truly navigating the city on our own, so one of our colleagues wrote on a business card how to get to a nearby subway station so we could navigate from there.  We left with just over an hour to get there, unsure of how bad the traffic and subway system would be.  The ride to the bus station only took 30 minutes so we swinged into the McDonalds so Lauren could get a caffeine fix.  I was feeling awake, so decided to just sit and listen to the same Chinese song (or maybe it was an advertisement) play over and over again inside the McDonalds.  We slowly made our way to the bus line, and believe me it was a line - I've never seen that many people packed so closely together waiting for a bus.  It's as if the Chinese have very little concept of personal space.  They pack in the subways (which I can understand) but even if they are waiting in line, they act as if they think that by slamming in close together and touching the person in front of them that somehow it will make the bus or whatever they are waiting for come sooner or something.

It was kind of stormy the morning we left for Miyun County.  But after riding the 80 km outside of Beijing, the air was cleaner and the sky was blue.  We got lucky for sure.  Nicole had planned every aspect of the weekend and written a detailed itenerary, which I appreciated because I find it nice to at least have some sort of initial game plan.  After getting off the bus, she was approached by a van driver who uttered something in Chinese to her.  Before I knew it we were piled into this little van and driving in what I thought was the direction of the restaurant where we were supposed to have lunch.   During the van ride, Nicole and the driver seemed to have a heated discussion or debate about soemthing.  Of course, the entire conversation was in Chinese, but by body language and voice levels, I assumed neither party was entirely happy with the other.  Only later did Nicole tell us that the driver essentially refused to take us to the restaurant we asked to go to, but instead "recommended" a different one and drove us there.  All ended well though, the food at lunch was excellent, but I'm convinced the driver must make commission from the owner there.  For lunch we had hot tea, whole fish from the nearby reservoir, a soup with tofu, fried shrimp (i did not eat these), fish tail, pancakes and some sort of bitter green vegetable.  Honestly, as someone who doesn't eat a lot of fish to begin with the idea of putting a giant fish (or half fish, as the case was... we got the head) on a plate whole and digging in with chopsticks kind of revolted me.  But I was pleasantly surprised, the fish was DELICIOUS, and I left the meal completely stuffed.  To go to the bathroom after our meal involved walking through the back of the restaurant and outside.  I'm so glad I did this after our meal, because we looked into the kitchens and storage rooms and they were filthy.  They would not pass health inspection standards in the US.

Once we'd all filled our stomachs and picked some unripe apricots (they were sour ,but interesting to try) from the nearby tree, the driver drove us to the Reservoir. Here's the thing about the reservoir.  It's beautiful.  The water is clean and blue, it reflects the images of the mountains and trees along its shores and stands in stark contrast to the smog and business of Beijing.  The reservoir also provides all the potable water for Beijing, and a couple other nearby cities.  Because of this, the Chinese are incredibly protective of the water and terrified that someone might poison it if they get too close.  I can understand not wanting people to swim in the water, or urinate in it or anything, but they don't even want you within throwing distance of the shores.  Naturally, our group wanted to get close to the water to take pictures because it was a beautiful place and we wanted evidence of the memories we were making.  We had to pay 10 yuan to a woman running a fruit stand to let us in to the gate to the reservoir park area, I'm convinced she's paying off the police in the area.  We were told to walk along the paths and if the Waterway Patrol ask you, say you are picking fruit.  Sure enough about 2 minutes into the walk we were stopped.  We told them the story, but they said to go back.  Instead we walked into the garden and because apparently the male police said we could go down but the women were not as friendly.  Eventually we made our way nearer to the water where the police hollered at our friends again saying "we told you to go back up."  Even with the tense encounters with the police, the views were worth it.

After our hike to the Reservoir, we waited on the side of the road for the Hostel owner to come pick us up.  We bought some apricots from the fruit stand for very cheap, and they were so delicious.  Even though we'd only spent a little bit of time together, I can already tell some big differences in our four Chinese friends.

Nicole: Her Chinese name is He Junqing. She is 20 and is almost finished with her first year at CUC.  She's got strong features and short black hair.  Her laugh is infectious, and she desperately wants to make sure everyone around her has a good time.  She meticulously planned our weekend, and confessed she had lost sleep worrying that the trip would not be as fun as it ended up being.

Jessie:  Jessie's Chinese name is Chen Wenjie.  She is 19 years old and one of the most beautiful young women I've seen here so far.  She's got these big eyes and soft features.  She's soft spoken, but kind and generous. She invited me to her hometown of Guanxi after her school lets out in late July, and I'm really considering taking her up on it and going.

Zhong Yinyan is a 20 year old freshman.  She's somewhat reserved, but has a beautiful smile and is very easy going. She doesn't have an English name, but is very interested in asking questions about America and getting to know us as people.  I very much enjoyed my time getting to know her.

Wu Xujun is very quiet.  She almost seemed disengaged or disinterested, as if something was weighing on her heavily.  She's kind-hearted and seems painfully shy.  I honestly didn't get much of a chance to get to know her because she always was wondering off away from the group and had headphones in when we were together.

The hostel we stayed at was a family-run hostel.  We had two rooms, one of which slept 4-5 people on one large bed called a Kang. They are traditionally found in the north of China, and during the winter fires are lit underneath them to warm the bed platform from below.  The hostel was relatively clean, the people were friendly, but the bed was very hard.  One woman was making Zongzi, a traditional food eaten during the Dragon Boat festival.  It was neat to see it being prepared by hand.

Our dinner that night was interesting, and very good.  We ate tomatoes with sugar, wild greens, small reservoir fish, shrimp, veggie and tofu soup, Chicken in some sort of brown sauce, bell peppers with pork, and eggplant.  The food was really good, and by the end I was stuffed.  The food might sound good, and simple enough, but let me tell you - it wasn't.  The fish were whole, and eating them required not only finding the meat but sucking the meat off the bones before spitting the bone onto the table.  It's really an attractive way to eat.  The chicken, too is served whole.  It's as if they took a giant knife to the chicken, chopped it up and threw it in the bowl.  Lauren reached into the bowl and pulled out a chicken claw... after much prodding she decided to go for it and gave it a taste.  She said it "tasted like chicken," but that there really wasn't much meat.  When I reached in, I came up with the chicken head.  There was NO way that it was going in my mouth, and our Chinese friends said they didn't eat it either, so we threw it to the puppy.  It was hard to know exactly which piece of meat you were getting, and you always had to suck it off the bone.  It tasted good, but was an experience for sure.  I was so exhausted by the end of the day  after walking around the reservoir, the village and all the travel that I fell fast asleep pretty early.  

The next morning we woke up to begin our day of hiking.  We went to a Chinese National Tourist attraction called Black Dragon Pond.  I figured that getting there at 10:30 in the morning would help us beat some of the heat, but I was mistaken.  Who ever said the suburbs weren't as hot must have been crazy, because I found the park to be very hot.  We walked along a path in a gorge for about 20 minutes before the "hiking" set in.  I use the quotes because the entire way was paved with stones, but in some of the areas we were climbing pretty steep staircases up to different pools and waterfalls.  These waterfalls must have been beautiful before the climate of the region shifted and became much drier.  I was underwhelmed by the water, but let me tell you how beautiful the views  were.  I can't even count the number of times I said, "wow, this is breathtaking," to Lauren.  And it was.  Towering mountains with yellow-colored rock cliffs surrounded us.  Green trees filled out the mountains and the valleys, and contrasted with the pure blue of the sky, it was really magnificent.  I had thought I'd have to travel so much further than just an hour outside of the city to find such beauty.


We ate watermelon and cucumbers for lunch while inside the park, and the meal was light, filling and utterly refreshing.  After lunch we made our way out of the park and began the trek home.  We all were exhausted but I know the memories and new friends I made this weekend will stay with me for a long time.  I'm so thankful Nicole and Jessie invited "the Laurens" to join them on their mini holiday.

So I've been in Beijing for just over one week now and I've got a few observations.  The weather is hot, but some days it has been breezy which has masked the heat and kept the smog at bay.  I've been surprised to see blue sky.  I was told that in Beijing the pollution was so bad that seeing the sky would be a rarity, but I would venture to say that we've had more blue sky and puffy cloud days than smog covered ones.  The traffic is as I expected, lots of it!  What's interesting is how traffic lanes and signs appear to be merely suggestions (especially for taxi drivers).  My mother would be so nervous if she had video of us riding in one of these taxis!  Drivers honk, drive in the middle of lanes and swerve around like it's NASCAR, it's rather comical.

Walking is also a "risky" mode of transportation.  If you're going to cross the street, going to a crosswalk is pointless.  You basically pick a place on the street and cross to the halfway point when there is a small break in the cars, then you wait to do the same on the other side of the street.  Cars will not stop for pedestrians.  In fact, if you are too slow or you are too close to the m they will honk at you until you move. But I've got the hang of it now, and in some ways it is nice to cross the street wherever you want.  It's a good thing my mother taught me to look twice before crossing the road!

Work is not too difficult, and the atmosphere is very relaxed.  Right now I'm copy editing stories that were either written by non-native English speakers or stories that were translated from Chinese into English.  I'm finding that some stories require only a few changes and most of those changes are minor like taking out extra words or making sure nouns and verbs agree. Every once in a while stories are in rough shape and require extensive grammatical rewrites.  I've enjoyed the editing for the most part because it has given me the chance to learn about news and culture in China.  Many of the stories I have edited have been "Top 10" features and one of them was very funny to do.  I had to edit a piece on 1990s Hong Kong porn stars.  Yes, you read that correctly: PORN.  I had to delete so many extra "sexy"s that it was almost unbearable, but the idea of the story made me laugh.  I'm not sure why anyone woud want to read an outdated porn star story, but I just do what I'm told.  The pace of work there is much slower than I expected and my bosses seem surprised when I have a story edited in less than half an hour.

On Thursday of this week we were given raquettes and balls to participate in Taichi Ball.  It's apparently a newer sport that seems to combine balance, dance and catch.  That's probably the easiest explanation I can give.  The people who participate are for the most part international because they want foreigners to experience the culture.  Our colleagues have been taking lessons each week by a coach for the past month so we were a bit behind.  We started with the ball on our raquettes moving our arm in a swinging motion.  From there things built until we were taking the ball in a complete circle, twirling and attempting to complete a full routine.  I can sort of handle all of the elements that don't involve the twirling.  Once the "dance" like elements are added I'm hopeless.  It was fun to try, and despite all of our Chinese colleagues calling it a sport for the elderly, I enjoyed it.

Now for what you might be wondering most:  What did I eat?  Well, we've eaten porridge which reminded me of oatmeal, we've had dumplings which were excellent, duck and a few dishes that I'm not quite sure what was in them.  At the cafeteria it is probably best that I can't read the signs to know what I'm eating.  I'm living by the philosophy that if it tastes good I'm not going to ask until after I've finished the meal.  So far I've had four memorable meals: the Duck which I've already told you about, the Nepalese Vegan restaurant, a Hunanese restaurant and a random pork dish which was fun to order.  At the Hunan restaurant, our colleague, Matt, and his girlfriend, Bing Bing ordered all sorts of dishes for us.  Hunan is a province in China known for having the spiciest foods.  We had   lamb, beef, tofu, eggplant and a green stalky vegetable.  The food was very spicy but so very delicious.  At the restaurant where we ordered the Pork, Lauren and I did not have anyone to help us order.  When we got in the restaurant I asked the server if he spoke English.  He understood me, but didn't know how to respond.  When we were looking through the menu, he pointed at a dish.  Because we had had a colleague write in Chinese characters the words for pork, beef, chicken and tofu, I pulled the card out so we could see if we recognized a character to know what we were eating.  The waiter immediately realized what I was trying to do and pointed at the word pork on our card and then to the dish.  We decided to go for it, after knowing it was pork.  Boy, was that a good decision.  The pork was lightly battered and crispy and covered in a brown salty sauce.  We ate that dish with white rice and a leafy green vegetable.  For ordering all by ourselves, I thought we did a pretty good job.

We also cooked spaghetti in our one pan the other night.  We were given a large sautee pan that we decided looked big enough to boil some water in.  We tried, and sure enough it was big enough to boil rotini noodles.  We dumped a packet of Hunts sauce on it, and added a bell pepper which I diced up.  While the meal left a lot to be desired and was an embarrassment to spaghetti lovers everywhere, It was nice to be able to have a night in not worrying about ordering off a menu or being out late.

Anyways, this weekend I'm off to Miyun County with some of our Chinese college student friends and then we have Monday off work for the Dragon Boat festival.  Until then...

Zaijian

On My first day of work I didn't actually do any work for the website.  Not a single story was copy edited, nor stroke of the keyboard made.  Instead I got the opportunity to learn about life for students at the Communications University of China (CUC).  During the morning, three students from the university named Harvey, Kiddy and Mae arrived to share lunch with us at the Canteen and take us all the way across Beijing to their school. We knew we would be talking with their class about something - I assumed I would be discussing the American media landscape and my experiences as a young journalist thus far but I was somewhat mistaken.  Harvey told me and the other Lauren that they had prepared questions for us in advance of our coming.  

When we entered the classroom, it was filled to the brim.  Karen Chen, their professor told us that there were actually two classes in the room because most of the students there had never had any chance to interact with Americans before and wanted to participate. We also found out that we would be talking during two different class periods.  We introduced ourselves and were separated so that the students could be in smaller groups to interact with us.  During the first class, I was hit hard with questions ranging from politics, to Bin Laden's death, and what I thought the consequences would be for the US and for al-Qaida.  They asked me what I knew about Tibet and Taiwan and I was fortunate to be uninformed on the issues, so I could give a truthful "I don't really have a good answer for you" answer. They loved the fact that I went to UNC, the school of Michael Jordan and virtually every girl seemed to watch Gossip Girl and wanted to know if that was one of my favorite shows.  At one point, Karen asked me to write words that I knew, or had learned, to describe China.  I wrote: Big, Communist, Pollution, Little religion, and a couple others I can't remember.  The Chinese students did the same about the US and wrote: powerful, democracy, free, contradictory, environmental, religious. Those words prompted a back and forth about how those images were created - and a very interesting discussion about morals and religion.  Karen asked her class how they know right from wrong, and they said the law.  Then they asked me what I believed, personally.  I told them that while the law does say what is right and wrong from a legal sense, religion in America tells some people that the distinction between right and wrong, even in things that are legal, comes from God.  Then they asked me about punishment and what should happen to people who do bad things, from a religious perspective and a legal perspective.  I got the chance to explain the creation story and how we do bad things, but Christians believe that God is like a parent who doesn't stop loving his children when they do wrong, they love them the same.  It was a very cool experience that I'm not bound to forget any time soon. During the second class, the questions were much less taboo.  They wanted to know about how I balanced studying with friends in college, what kinds of activities I did outside of school and whether college life was really like Gossip Girl and the TV shows they have seen or not.  They told me about the national college entrance exam that every student must take before going to a university. It seems like the SAT, only way more pressured.  Students take the exam on the same day and you only get one chance.  The score you make determines the Universities you are allowed to attend. I can't imagine the pressure they must feel to score high.  They said that they wished getting into a University also relied on skills outside of the test score. I don't blame them for wanting that.

After class the students indulged me by taking photos with me by a statue of Confucius on their campus.  I was informed that it is unusual to have your photo taken in a group like that, but once we got started many of the students wanted to take their photos with me and Lauren.  We were also ushered around the campus and got to tour the library and the cafeteria.  I learned that the University used to provide housing to faculty members but with the price of apartments skyrocketing they no longer do so. Teachers do, however live on or near campus in high-rise buildings.

Down a small street we came up to the restaurant we would eat at.  There were five Chinese students: Harvey, Kiddy, and Mae (the three who brought us to campus) and Sally and Mandara (who would take us home) in addition to Karen.  The restaurant was a Nepalese Vegan restaurant which immediately intrigued me.  I knew for sure I wouldn't be eating any mystery meat!  Karen ordered six or seven dishes and I tried all but one.  There was a lotus dish, spicy potatoes, eggplant-fish substitute, lettuce wraps, dumplings , some sort of fried eggplant thing and potatoes in toffee.  The only dish I didn't try was the eggplant fish dish.  The Chinese students said it tasted exactly like fish, and since I don't usually eat much fish anyways I though tit best just to eat the other foods in front of me.  But everythign was inicredible!  I was so stuffed and satisfied with the meal.

As the sun began to fall we walked down another side street which was also a little market of sorts. Stalls serving Chinese bar-b-que were everywhere and we also saw a few stands serving Milk Tea.  I thought it looked like a drink I had tried in Hong Kong and made a comment about it.  Before I realized it, Mandara ran back to get teas for me and the other Lauren.  It was just as I had remembered: sweet, creamy and utterly refreshing.  Students also walked along the market purchasing clothing, shoes and other little items in addition to their dinners.  It's like nothing I've ever seen in the United States.