Mom Does Beijing

你好!我们很好！我的妈妈觉得北京很多人！

Mom arrived safe and sound Tuesday evening, a few hours after my graduation. It turns out that I, very surprisingly, passed all of my final exams and courses. In short, I graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University! The school requires a minimum grade of 60 to pass each course. I received a 60.3 in my Ting Li course (aka Listening). Talk about putting in the absolute minimal effort in order to graduate! ha ha!

Since Mom has arrived, we've seen and done quite a bit. We broke the law by disobeying all of the 'don't step on the ice' signs when we visited the Summer Palace and stood on Lake Kunming which is frozen solid. Mom is making with friends with anyone who makes eye contact with her, and so we have some cute pictures of her with her new '中国朋友'...Chinese friends! We rode an ice chair around Hou Hai lake and had a hilarious time at dinner (for me, anyway!). Mom didn't realize that there are orange-colored spicy peppers here, and before I could warn her, she had chewed up an entire pepper thinking it was a carrot! Her head started throbbing and her tongue was swollen....she had no taste buds for over an hour either. It worked out well for me because I got to enjoy the entire bottle of white by myself, but I did feel bad for her! She won't eat anything now without an explanation as to what it is before she woofs it down!

We spent an afternoon in Bei Hai Park, where we saw couples waltzing and others performing various songs and dances in the gazebos around the lakeside. A couple was writing Hanzi (Chinese characters) on the sidewalk with a large brush and water. I asked if I could do it too....attached is a picture of me writing my name in Chinese. The couple was very nice to talk with, and Mom thinks that I am the smartest person in the world because I can tell people that I just finished studying Chinese, my name is Jia Li and that I am an American all in Chinese...very funny!

Today, we made the 2 1/2 hour trek to Simatai, my favorite section of the Great Wall. The weather was in the mid-30'sF and on top of the wall, it was extremely windy! We managed to walk on the wall through 5 towers, for about 1 1/2 hours before succumbing to the cold and wind. Yesterday, we went to an acrobatic show where the performers contorted their bodies in ways I didn't know the human body could twist. Mom tasted her first Peking Duck last night with my friends Michael and William, along with some of their family members. Last but not least, we went to the 'weird food street' where Mom bravely consumed 4 scorpions! It must run in the family, because she insisted on having a beer to wash it down!

All in all, I'm pleased with how she's handling the squatter toilets, throngs of people, pollution and cold. She's been a trooper! Thankfully, the weather has been sunny and clear since she's arrived, and it's been slightly warmer than in the last few weeks, so I think that is helping both of us survive! Zai jian! - Jamie (aka 佳丽）

The following was written by Temporary Blog Contributor: Pat Barden (aka Mom)

Oh my gosh, what an experience this has been!!! First of all, I am amazed at how Jamie can converse with all these Chinese people. I listen and wonder what they are saying to each other. They just talk away and laugh and I just nod my head and smile. :)

The scorpions really were not bad at all. The beer was a lot better, though. Our Peking duck dinner was delicious and so much fun with Jamie's friends and their families here visiting, too.

The Great Wall walk was awesome!! I keep pinching myself because I still can't believe I walked on The Wall.

The thing I am enjoying the most is when we are mingling with the people in the parks, on the streets, in the local restaurants , on the bus, taxis, and subways. They are friendly and helpful. It makes me wish I could speak their language.

We are healthy, happy, and staying warm. Hope you are, too.

Off the Grid

Greetings Earthlings. I'm officially off the grid. My time in my comfortable, luxurious dorm room ends today. I'm heartbroken! (ha ha!). No pictures to post this entry as not much has happened! I finished exams last Thursday and then fell terribly ill (might have something to do with the crazy high pollution levels?!?!). Therefore, I have spent the last 3+ days lying in bed coughing. So lovely! Today I am a little more motivated to be vertical because I have to pack for the next leg of this wonderful journey. 41 lbs of stuff are now on its way to Mom's house, and I am left once again with only my backpack.

A lot of you have asked how I did on my exams. I'm still not sure. Graduation is this evening, and I'm attending, so I guess that's a good thing!?? I might end up getting a 'thanks for coming' certificate as opposed to a 'certified Chinese language studies' certificate. Either way, my time here has been a wonderful experience. I've made some great friends and have learned a lot. So, regardless of what is inked on the certificate I receive, I am happy!

A lot of you have also asked what my plans are now that school has finished. My Mom, Pat, arrives late tonight (barring the snow storms currently hitting Tokyo, one of her layover stops!). She and I will spend about a week exploring Beijing. Then, we'll visit some of the supposed highlights of China: Xi'an, Chengdu (pandas!), Lijiang, Kunming and Shanghai. We will be spending Chinese New Year (celebrated on February 14th, although the real party is the evening of February 13th) in Lijiang. I'm really excited that Mom is coming and am looking forward to our adventure together. I've already warned Mom that visiting China will not be a relaxing vacation. Every day will present a new challenge...I'm glad that she's up for it! Although, based on how many times she's had her friends email me from the airport, I think she's more excited about the airplane ride! ;) We'll be co-authoring blog entries while she's here and since we're seeing a lot of new places, we'll likely have more frequent entries...so check often for updates over the next 3 weeks!

Mom leaves me in Shanghai on February 23rd. After that, I'll spend a few days longer in Shanghai. Then, I fly to Guilin, another Chinese village that I really want to see before leaving. After that, I'm taking a new approach (for me, anyway) to backpacking. I am not going to plan anything. I don't have any hostels booked, no trains, no flights other than to Guilin. I'm going to see where the wind takes me....and I'm super excited about it!

China Pictures Posted

I just finished posting over 300 pictures of my time in Beijing. Click the link below to view the 'My Life in Beijing' album. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie1209/MyLifeInBeijing?feat=email#

My Friend Tom

你们好！明天，我有口语考试。我觉得学习汉语非常难！I have my final exams this week. Completed listening today, speaking is tomorrow and comprehensive is Thursday from 8 AM -10AM. I can't wait for 10 AM on Thursday! I haven't really been that good of a student recently, what with Christmas, New Years and my birthday....studying has been low on my list of priorities. However, considering that I knew nothing but 'ni hao' (hello) when I arrived, I'm pretty pleased with the progress I have made! I only hope I have learned enough for Mom and I to survive traveling to smaller cities and villages throughout the rest of China!

Mei Xian left China to spend some time back in Korea before her next semester starts. I am lucky to have had some terrific roommates over the years. Mei Xian is one of my favorites because I was able to teach her a lot of new things such as: the Gators are awesome (she does the Gator Chomp on her own, without my asking now, just to make me smile!), that Junior Mints might just be the best candy on the planet, how to say cuss words with perfect inflection in English, how to make popcorn and peanut butter and banana sandwiches, etc. She is by far one of the happiest people I have ever met - always positive, enthusiastic and smiling. We spent our last night in our room together eating Oreos and dipping them in milk (I taught her that too!). The t-shirts we're modeling in the picture stands for 'I love Beijing (BJ)". Neither one of us are crazy about Beijing, so we thought it'd be funny to wear these t-shirts to remind us that we should love it!

I had a quiet Thursday and Friday night in my room enjoying the solitude. I have only had a room to myself about 7 nights since I left the US in June...so it was much needed downtime for my soul! Saturday, several of my classmates and I went to a fantastic Arabic restaurant. The belly dancers were hilarious. I was expecting Middle Eastern women, but no, they were slightly chubby and tattooed Chinese girls (and one Russian!). My classmate, David (English), definitely enjoyed the show (picture)!

On a sad note, Dexter was stolen on Sunday morning. I rode him to the market to buy some cereal and yogurt. I left him alone, locked up, for no more than 10 minutes. When I came back out of the market, he was gone. I hope that whomever took him will treat him well. They obviously needed him more than I did. The truth is that quite a lot gets stolen in China. Mei Xian's moped got stolen a few weeks ago, Ashley's cell phone, Jessica's camera, etc. If you do travel to China, please be mindful of your possessions!

This blog post is dedicated to my friend Tom, from England. He's just started reviewing my blog and did a Control-F search to see how many times I have written about him. He was disappointed that he hadn't been written about more! The truth is that Tom is one of the funniest Brits I've ever met. He has a passion and enthusiasm for meeting women unlike any man I've ever met. Tom is way better at Chinese than I am because he exerts most of his effort in learning pick up lines. Tom will be staying behind in Beijing to continue learning Chinese. Through family connections, he has set me up with a volunteering opportunity with tsunami orphans in Thailand. For that and his friendship, I will be eternally grateful. Is that better Tom!!? xoxo ;)

By the way, for any of you who have been watching the pollution index tracker I put on my blog, it's been relatively low (less than 100) for the last few weeks, which is acceptable air quality. For the last few days, it's been really bad here...dangerous to be outdoors for long periods of time. When I am outside, my eyes sting and I can feel it in my throat. I can't wait to breathe healthy air again!

I'm 31 Already!

30 rocked and judging by how I entered into my 31st year on this planet, 31 will be just as awesome! I spent my birthday eve catching up with friends from home on Skype. My Mom and roommate sang Happy Birthday to me as the clock struck midnight. I had great Korean food with some classmates for lunch, then we went to get a two hour massage (foot and body!). I took a nap and then got my haircut. 8 of my friends took me to dinner at a fantastic sushi place - it was awesome to be surrounded by new friends, all but one of whom are from other countries! Michael bought me the panda hat in the picture and made me wear it most of the evening. Mei Xian, Masami and Ashley bought an assortment of cakes as a birthday cake, and they all sang happy birthday to me in English and Chinese! Very cool! After dinner, we went to a Korean bar and had several rounds of soju (Korean alcohol). Then, we proceeded to a nearby karaoke bar. Karaoke is not done like it is at home. In China, you get your own room, with u-shaped couches, tv, microphones and song lists. It's a good set up because we didn't sound all that great! We sang for about 5 hours...got home at 5 AM this morning. Not a bad way to start 31 in my opinion!

The only bad thing about turning 30 is the gray hairs that have started to sporadically show up. Bonnie, a co-worker of mine from BB&T, first experienced this as she talked me into coming to work after I found my first one early in 2009. She convinced me that finding a gray hair was not worthy of a sick day. Mei Xian got to experience my horror of finding four (4!!) more late last week. I started screaming in the bathroom and she ran in thinking I had hurt myself. After she stopped laughing at me, she plucked them out for me. I'm just going to have to think of the gray hairs as battle wounds, kind of like my appendix scar.

Last week, Mei Xian and I had street food for dinner. I actually had meat on a stick that cooks in the boiling water you can see in the picture, before I was only brave enough for vegetables. There are skewers of all kinds of different meats, vegetables, tofu and eggs. They cook in spicy water or slightly seasoned water and they are really cheap! We had dinner for $1 each and, although we didn't know what we were eating, it was tasty!

Ashley, Anna-Lina and I attended an all day cooking class in a hutong last weekend. It was great! We did a market tour where the teacher taught us about the spices used in Chinese dishes, explained the different parts of the animals that are used, talked about how to make tofu, etc. Back at the teacher's house, we made three fantastic dishes: gong bao chicken, Canton-style steamed fish and ginger custard. I learned how fish are actually killed (bang it over the head with a mallet) before eating, that you can eat the scales once a fish has been steamed, the proper way to use a wok and that you add salt to a dish to make it taste salty. (After a series of explanations such as, 'add light soy sauce for flavor, add dark soy sauce for color, etc. I asked why we added salt. The teacher turned her head and said, "to make it salty". Probably the dumbest question she'd ever been asked! It was embarassing.) We chopped, steamed and stir-fried all of our own dishes, and I didn't make myself sick! I touched raw chicken and slit my own fish, quite an accomplishment for me. The recipes are really easy and delicious, and I hope that I can recreate them whenever I have a kitchen again! ;)

It's 2010 Already!!

I got to visit the new US Embassy here in Beijing to have more pages added to my passport. I may not have a boyfriend, a car, a job, a house, a couch, a dresser, any kids, etc., but at least I have a lot of stamps in my passport! Security was crazy at the embassy as I'm sure you can imagine, especially following the terrorist threat last week. At any rate, it was efficiency in action - only 2 hours to staple 24 pages into my book! Like the Chinese, I fell asleep in my chair while waiting. I swear these people will sleep anywhere. Like at IKEA. Rumor has it that they go there on dates and to take naps. I'm going this week to check it out. The mattresses have to be better than the one in my dorm room!

I went to a fantastic Peking Duck restaurant with some classmates to celebrate the end of 2009 on New Year's Eve Eve. I felt I needed to test the menu before taking Mom there later this month! I also watched Mei Xian perform in some kind of show for the Chinese Minister of Education and other dignitaries here on campus (picture). She and 11 or so other Koreans dressed in traditional Korean outfits and danced and sang....pretty cool even though I didn't have a clue as to what they were saying!

For New Year's Eve, I went to Michael's house for some winter wassailing, then to eat sushi. Michael (left - Danish) and Tom (next to me - English), Anna-Lina and Lena (Greek) ate our weight in fantastic sushi, then headed to a warehouse party in the arts district. It was packed, great light show, music etc. The countdown, as always, is the best part of NYE in my opinion...otherwise it's just like a normal night dancing in a warehouse!

To usher in 2010, Michael and I watched a movie (no substitute for a lazy day watching football, but it worked!). Tom, Michael and I went to dinner last night and I couldn't resist the temptation to have a dance off with a Chinese guy who was tearing up the dance game at the arcade. I gathered quite a crowd who, like Michael and Tom, were shocked by how uncoordinated I am. It was quite embarrassing. After dinner and arcade dancing, we went to meet up with some Chinese friends in a VIP room at a high end night club here. Of the Chinese who actually have a lot of money, they can certainly blow a lot of it in one night. For the room and bottles it easily cost $1,000 USD. They were nice enough to share, so I reciprocated by singing karaoke for them. Again, I embarrassed Michael and Tom...not sure why they still hang out with me!

It has been snowing now for over 16 hours. Have I mentioned that I hate the cold? Yesterday on my way back from the gym, as the temperature was dropping drastically, I noticed that little piles of spit were actually frozen on the asphalt. That was amusing.