Gu Jin (Both Ancient and Modern)

Long time no write! First of all, I just want to thank everyone who's gotten in touch with me at one point or another to let me know that you actually a. read this and b. liked it. I have to say, I never for a moment thought that anyone but my family and a handful of people who are better friends to me than I deserve would come and read. But, thank you so much. What has only been 3 weeks so far has been some of the most meaningful 3 weeks of my life -- to learn that those who make up my world 12 time zones away care not only deeply touches me, but also makes me grateful to know all of you.

Now, the juicy details. I'm going to start at the beginning of last week, so this will come as really old news. Usually, school days are pretty uneventful. However, at the beginning of last week, my friend Alec asked me if I wanted to go for a run with him. I like running with other people -- when running with a buddy, I never stop, so I always feel like I'm getting in a higher quality workout -- so I said yes. I thought we would go to the good old campus track. However, Alec had other things in mind. A couple days before, he had gone for a run around the campus surroundings. In the city. We did the same thing together. I was curious to get to see what was around school because, to be honest, I don't get many opportunities to see anything except my favorite grocery store. This run, though, turned out to be quite an experience. We got started just as rush hour descended upon the city, so we might have been better off if we had chosen a better time. Anyway, not many people run around here. A lot of the pedestrians sharing the sidewalk we were running on either wouldn't step aside to allow the graceful specimens of athletic prowess glide by or shot us (especially me) looks of confusion or something like it. I was doing fine until the bicycles. First, our sidewalk led us right into a bicycle stand where there were way too many bicycles parked than there was room for. There were bicycles that were more rust than bike, new bikes, bikes of every color, boy bikes, girl bikes ... pretty much any bike you could imagine. But, because they were too many bikes for a limited space, they were all locked up on top of and around each other. There was so little room to run that Alec and I felt like we were in some kind of urban-themed video game, maneuvering around this unbelievably difficult and long obstacle course to get to the next level. When we finally got past the stationary bikes, we had to stop at railroad crossing to make way for the train that was about to hurtle by. As we stood there, a sea of people on bikes amassed on the other side of the crossing. At least 100 people who had just gotten off work were all chomping at the bit, waiting for the moment that the guard lifted so that they could try and get a straight shot towards home. We were in their way. For the next five minutes, we desperately tried to safely get through the throng without injuring ourselves or injuring anyone else. It was an adventure. When we finally got back to campus, my chest was not doing so well. Pollution out there was a lot worse than at the track. This could have been because we were practically running behind cars. Alec was not that affected, but I had to take a little break. Nonetheless, it was a very interesting experience. I've seen Beijing car traffic, but now that I've seen Beijing bike traffic, I feel like I've achieved a whole new level of understanding of this city.

The rest of the week, we studied for our big Friday test. Test came, test went, and we all did relatively poorly because it was so hard. Before we knew how disappointing our test results were going to be, we went out for our weekly Friday Chinese Table lunch with our teachers. We went to the same restaurant as the one I showed you pictures from before. This time was the best because we talked about and imitated all the teachers' various distinctive teaching style features. It was a lot of fun and the teachers couldn't believe that we were paying such close attention to their key phrases, their hand motions, and their little sounds that they make when they are frustrated with or proud of us. Here are some pictures from the lunch:

This is Yu lao shi (center). He is one of my favorite teachers. Very strict, but in an effective and helpful way. He is very meticulous and manages to correct every mistake without making us feel like failures. Outside of class, he is a jokester and is constantly teasing us. Side note: his last name Yu is a homonym of the word for "fish," so sometimes we call him Professor Fish.

This is the shrimp that was in my soup. I hate shrimp. I hate looking at things that are supposed to be eaten, but that still have eyes.

After lunch, I went back to my dorm to try and sleep, but I couldn't fall asleep! I was still too hyped up from the exam. So, I decided to go for a run, but the track was closed and I was not about to go throw myself into bike hell alone. So, I just decided to walk around instead. I discovered a little market tucked away that seems very popular among locals (unlike the grocery store, which is a staple for all of the foreign students in the area). They had a lot of interesting tea and fruit. Here are some pictures:

All tea.

I shouldn't even caption this because I don't know what these are. I just know that they were being sold among other fruit.

Next, I headed back to the dorm and realized that our dorm has a hair salon tucked away on the first floor. I went there and got my hair straightened. I paid less than men pay for their haircuts in the US, got to practice Chinese while chatting with the people doing my hair (yes, plural because I have that much hair. They couldn't stop laughing because they have never seen someone with as much hair.), and got all fancied up for July Fourth festivities in one fell swoop.

For July Fourth, our by now normal group of Yale and Harvard students went out to an Outback Steakhouse for some food that we missed dearly. Onion rings, steaks, French fries, and SALADS were all involved. We were so happy. Until we got the bill, which wouldn't be considered expensive next to US prices, but in China was jaw-dropping. My dinner alone, which was less expensive than those of my friends who ordered meat of the cow, was equal to about 7 normal weekday dinners. It was worth it. Such a good dinner.

Later, we planned to go out and explore a little bit, but as soon as we had taken 3 steps out of the restaurant, the heavens opened up and started to pour every drop of rain they have up there. No one had brought umbrellas. So, we ran over to a little bus stand that had a narrow strip of shelter. In a single file line, we pressed ourselves up against the advertisement boards, trying to stay dry and to wait it out. An older Chinese man came up to us and started to talk to us, but before we could answer, a Yale heavyweight rower from the end of the line demanded that we start singing the National Anthem. So, sing we did. You can imagine that the Chinese man was a little confused as to how our song answered his question. He quickly forgot any confusion, though, and started conducting. He probably would have started singing along, but didn't know the words. It was a really fun night, except for the rain. When we realized the rain was not going to let up, most of us went back to the dorm to get a good night's sleep before an early wake up the next day.

And my, my, was it an early wake up. I had to get up at 6 so that I could get a breakfast and lunch together for our excursion out to the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs are the resting places of 13 of the Ming Dynasty emperors along with several empresses and concubines. The site was not too far from the city. It was drizzling a little bit, so everything looked so green and beautiful. All in all, this was not my favorite site. It was very interesting, but I think we spent too much time at the tombs, which are all very similar to each other. Walking on the "Spirit Way," a long road lined with 24 pairs of statues of animals and people meant to accompany an emperor on his journey into the next world was fantastic. The statues were all so beautiful and we had a lot of fun taking pictures next to, under, and around them. Each pair of statues was really part of a group of four. The first pair was sitting and the second pair was standing. This feature is supposed to reflect the power and importance of the emperor's status, even as he passes, because the statues are rising greet him. Anyway, here are some pictures from the day:

Me with Gao laoshi (left) and Fu Qiuyu lao shi (right). I adore Fu lao shi. She is not only a great teacher, but also a fun and extremely playful person.

This lion looked a little down, so Eli and I gave him a little love.

The beginning of the pathway to the tombs. The weeping willows seemed particularly insulating and purifying through rain. Everything was really quite lovely and especially enjoyable at this point because there were very few other tourists.

Me and the Camel.

Some of my favorite Harvard buddies under the Elephant.

This makes me miss Miles. Left to right: Zane, Alec, Ye lao shi (a really great teacher from Taiwan!)

Fu lao shi, laughing after doing the "I really have to go to the bathroom run."

I'll be honest. I was too tired to notice which emperor this was. But, look -- he's still making money!

Each tomb's museum was attended to by these lovely Chinese women in traditional dress.

Eli and Me.

Eli and Me again. The tombs were peppered with beautiful gates like this one.

Every entry has to have a cute little Chinese baby. This girl was it. The umbrella, and you can't hear it, but the singing, everything. So beautiful!

The view from the top of the "Soul Tower," which preceded the actual underground part and looked out at miles of green trees and mountain tops. You probably can tell from this picture how peaceful these tomb sites were.

It was raining, so I'm really glad they had this sign. Otherwise, if the rain had turned into a thunderstorm, I probably wouldn't have remembered to turn off my cell phone and then I can only imagine the disasters that would result!

Great sign.

"LUXURIANT GRASSLAND PLEASE DON'T TRAMPLE"

Coffins. There were also a lot of stone thrones, vases, and other offerings along the way in this underground part of the site. Everywhere, money had been thrown around these artifacts.

This was the scariest tourist stop we could have imagined. I don't know if you can tell, but this was a dark passage way off to the side of the main exhibit. Considering we were underground in a tomb, no one was about to go take a break in there.

After the Ming Tombs, we went to a place called 798. In Chinese this is a pun because the words for 98 sound like the word for a bar. True to the irony of its name, 798 is a hotbed for Beijing's young, edgy, creative, and artistic crowd. We were there for about an hour and a half. Everywhere were galleries, artists' exhibitions, statues, graffiti, coffee shops, etc. It felt like a little Soho. We saw some amazing art, a lot of which had political underpinnings since the Chinese government apparently has no control over this area. Here are some pictures of what we saw:

Graffiti being spray painted on! Before this, I had only seen the finished product.

Cool mural. Also, notice the steel pipes. These went all around the neighborhood. We couldn't figure out if they were some kind of big urban artwork or if they were actually utilities.

Statues like this were all around. On shop stairs, at the corners of streets, in parks...

Art in the buildings and art on the buildings.

I know they look like doormats and yarn. But, these are all made out of little wads of Chinese newspaper. Usually, I don't like this kind of art, but I really really enjoyed getting to see these kind of things. After only being in class or soaking in a really industrial landscape, these kinds of eccentric and offbeat pieces were a welcome sight.

This was another piece that I really liked. At the center of that golden disc is the Temple of Heaven, I think. Statement about Beijing's urbanization? Perhaps ...

A shot of a typical little street in 798.

Models posing for an artist.

Another statue. Probably the most interesting and interestingly placed statue we saw that day.

A long futuristic corridor plastered with sketches, paintings, photographs, and other creations behind the glass panels.

Here was one of the works in that corridor. I liked it because it is impossible to be here without feeling like everyone's watch has a countdown set to the Olympics.

I don't usually do shout outs, but I think that my friend Paul Wang would like this.

More statues.

My first glimpse of the Bird Nest on the way back to the dorm!

That's all for now! We went to The Forbidden City and Beihai Park the next day, so I have to get those pictures up. I will try to do it before the week is done, but I can't promise anything. Again, thanks for all of your emails and messages. I love hearing from you and can't wait to see you all again soon!