So, I started an entry the week before last to talk about that eventful weekend, and then just let it rot like carrion because I was to lazy to relive the whole thing. Then last weekend occurred, which was also eventful, as far as my weekends go, and you might notice that I haven't written about that one either. Let me just enumerate, for posterity's sake.
--Friday: Was angry at the cleaning lady for placing my shoes on top of my backpack and getting crap all over it. Got over it. Explored San Francisco near the eastern wall of the Presidio. Wandered the Lucasfilm campus, walked along the coast, found the wave organ. Drank champagne at Alice's and slept over. Developed scratchy throat.
--Saturday: Woke up, went to sports basement, went climbing, went back to sports basement, went back to Alice's, went to the sunset, went into a korean restaurant, escaped said restaurant when we discovered that there were no free side dishes, found San Tung, had noodles, headed towards beach, waylaid by Great Stuff store, did not make it to the beach. Scratchier throat.
--Sunday: Climbing at the Pinnacles (only not really for me cuz I'm physically and mentally weak), dinner at eNoodle: real guotie, vinegar at the tables, but beef noodle soup was really weird. Aaand I'm officially sick.
The week passes.
--Saturday: Met Alice after lunch, got on the bus, arrived at Exploratorium, met Yash and Adam, a day Exploring the wonders of our world, got herded out at closing time, balance beam jousting, driving to dinner, looking for parking, Adam's ipod, B44, got tipsy, perhaps I behaved strangely, Muni to Alice's, got my climbing stuff, went home.
--Sunday: Old Navy and Borders. Yeah.
And it's Friday again! I really meant to flesh out a lot of those experiences, but I know myself well enough to admit that that's probably just not going to happen at this point. It's sad because I don't know how to tag this entry now...
Showing posts with label Excursions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Excursions. Show all posts
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Thursday, May 03, 2007
May Day!
So, I had a post started that talked all about class schedules and stuuuuff, but I don't want to deal with it, so I'm starting a new one.
At the tail end of my "vacation" now. We had a whole slew of makeup classes last weekend (and a few more this weekend), and then starting Tuesday and going until tomorrow, we've had days off. Not gonna bother checking back over the grammar of that one, so whatever. Currently doing laundry, which is taking predictably forever.
It's been a pleasant enough week. Tuesday, May 1, was a big deal, but one which thankfully didn't produce any fireworks. We'd been planning on hitting "the mountains" but were at kind of a loss as to which/where/how the hell to get there. Dave and I grilled some of the high school students about Meiligeng, which he'd somehow heard about, but most students said just not to go there. We didn't really know of any alternatives (weren't even really sure what Meiligeng itself even entailed), so Russ ended up asking one of his students, Ann, who ended up taking us to Meiligeng anyways, which ended up being gorgeous.
Tuesday morning, we met up at the walking street at 8am, and piled into a car. It was a taxi-ish car, but slightly bigger, nicer, and black. That ride cost us Y150, which I thought was pretty steep. We split it 3 ways to treat Ann, which honestly was unexpected... I don't mind saying that I thought we were gonna do 4 ways. Whatever though, not a huge loss (except then I might have considered taking a cheaper car... I can be an assy skinflint when I want). Apparently when locals go, they take a bus or even just their bikes. So yes, we were just basking in luxury in that car. It was the first time I'd gone to the east side of the city... I remember asking Alice during Chinese New Year if she wanted to walk that way, and she adamantly declined, saying pretty much that it's disgusting cuz the only thing there is Baogang. Well, she was sort of right. The sky turned outright gray, and the streets were crowded with coal trucks and other trucks, and so on. We had to drive a ways before the sky cleared up again. I started taking photos at that point, where you could just barely make out the outlines of the Qingshan range in the smog, and photographed the progression from that out to the countryside. There, garbage lessened, civilization was spread a lot thinner, and the sky turned an amazing crystal blue. You could see the mountains pretty clearly after that.
The drive wasn't even an hour, so I guess that means we were ripped off a bit on the ride. But you know, we got there fast, comfortably, and relatively safe, so... yeah I'm not really sure how much that's worth to me exactly, so I'll just leave the whole topic of money cuz I sound stupid when I talk about it.
Since most people take May 1st off, we were expecting a good number of people to be at the mountain, one of the few (but proud) places of interest around these parts. Alice had to go to the monastery again with her company, and reported that it was crowded there also. But since we got there early, the population was still pretty manageable. We really lucked out on the weather, which was absolutely perfect: few clouds, bright sun, slight breeze, warm, not hot.
Not sure what I was expecting when I heard "mountains," but for some reason it didn't occur to me that there'd be admission. It was only Y20 though, which is less than half the price of the monastery, and really for triple the chance for enlightenment. Alice told me that back in the day, it was a dangerous place to go, and people died in ways ranging from falling to drowning. She didn't say that this happened regularly, but that's the image I got in my head. Anyways, since then, it's been "cultivated" into a tourist-friendly sort of trek, through the addition of steps and railings, and a few well-placed "no-climbing" officers with walkie-talkies. Once you start up the path though, you're given a choice every now and then of the safer, easier route, or the "more dangerous and more exciting" one. Of course we took the latter, which consisted of railings plugged next to footprints carved into the rockface, some set for strides much wider than my own. To its credit, the "wilder" paths really did make things much more interesting than, say, Taishan, which is just stair after stair after stair. There was a surprisingly slim margin for error in some places, and people stumbled fairly often.
For the number of people at the mountain that day-- there were some bare areas where folks literally looked like they were meandering through an ant farm (I have photographic evidence!)-- there was still quite a bit of unobscured view. In all I took about 250 pictures of... well, more or less the same thing. Blue sky, gnarled pines, scrubby bushes, and rock. Mountains of beautiful frictive rock. It's the kind of landscape you really just want to clamber all over.
The attractions of Meiligeng are usually listed as the following... "green" and "water." People were in various states of denial over whether or not there'd be either at this time of year. Fortunately, there were both. The waterfalls and creekbeds were already flowing, in a very benign and non-lethal sort of way. The trek up the mountain passes a lot of smaller waterfalls, all unique and interesting in their own rights, to a tall gusher at the top. The volume of water was much less than, say, Taughannock-- people were skipping across the pool to stand on a rock just in front of it without getting so much as sprinkled-- but it was still pretty impressive. If you hold out your right hand in front of your face and turn it 45 degrees counter-clockwise, you have the rock formation that the waterfall's nestled in. It's called the "hand of Buddha" or some such, and the water flows down the crook between the thumb and index finger. The resemblance really is there too. I have a semi-detailed record of all the waterfalls, having been inspired by the h2o pictures on Drew's website. I could really sit around and take close-ups at the same stream of water for like... an hour or something. Of course, the outcome is different every click!
All around the "summit" as it were, are the people who got there before you, staking out rocks and other hard places for their families and friends. You see things like picnic blankets draped over boulders, heated card games, and cans of beer cooling in shallow pools (cuz that water was freeeezing!). People of all ages start at the foot of the waterfall and scramble downwards on the rocks to find a place to settle down. Uniformed guards stand here and there saying goodness knows what into kschhhhking radios while also taking photos for various groups of people and occasionally yelling at others to quit climbing stuff.
I ran into two students up there, which was vaguely awkward, but we took some photos and said "seeya" and moved on. I sat around a while, a ways from Russ and Ann (some interesting, but ultimately confused observations there) and ate a quick snack. Dave had marched on ahead of us long before and spent 30 min or so at the waterfall before heading back and bumping into us along the way. I took more photos. Eventually the three of us started picking our way down the rocks to go back.
Actually, going down was the hard part. It was only about 11, but more people had arrived by this time and were making their way up. Meanwhile, a lot of folks who had already been sitting around were making their way down. Here and there, both groups must use the same narrow path/bridge/stairs/footprints. Then there are the people who think they can take shortcuts but going off the path (I participated at times), and while that does get you there faster, it's still sort of at the expense of others. I have the utmost admiration for the parents who carried their babies/small children both ways.
We met up with Dave and headed back to the front to get some food. There's one restaurant there, and I guess it's part of the Meiligeng resort. Yeah, there's a whole litter of villas where dwell large parties of vacationers. Actually, I think the restaurant was booked mostly full of them. We may have been the only ones there who didn't live on-site. That food was expensiiiiive, but I have no complaints about flavor or any of that. I mean, service was slow, but it's cuz they were also taking care of 3 full tables next to us, and it ended up giving us time to just unwind. The most interesting dish was the last one... chicken and mushrooms, where the mushrooms were like... big honking mushroom caps and stems. Very chewy and, uh, resilient, but I got a kick out of them. They held the sauce pretty well.
Afterwards, we started the long walk back. Meiligeng is actually at the end of a long road along which there is nothing. It's apparently around 8km long, but we figured what the heck, we like walking, and just went ahead. We were like the only people walking at the time, even though I know we saw a whole bunch of people coming the other way that morning. It was maybe 2:30 at that point. We walked a real long time, but it wasn't the least bit tiring or anything. The sun felt good, but my right hand and wrist were turning gray and totally mummifying. I couldn't really wiggle my fingers so well because of how dry my skin was getting. Also my fingers had swollen quite a bit. When I finally looked down I was all like "holy crap!" On either side you could see piles of scree, some last trickling vestige of the waterfalls and streams, scrubland, boulders, and weird animal tracks. Every now and then a vehicle would come literally screaming by. There was a temple on the side of the road, but it was gated and quiet. Also there was a small colony of abandoned tourist yurts, which intrigued me.
The end of the road fed into the road home, and the mouth was clogged with people waiting for the bus. Ann had planned for us to take the train back, so we walked a ways further away from town to a totally deserted train station. I didn't even realize there was a train station there. Anyways, the first thing I thought when we got there was how much like a computer game it felt to be on a totally empty platform and to be staring at signs but at no people. Very Myst-like, or at least Syberia-esque. Despite that, we went inside to inquire about tickets and the employees informed us that the schedule had been changed and the train now comes at 3 instead of 4 or 5 or whatever we thought it was. Aaaand it was 3:30. So we turned around and decided to hail a cab. But the road wasn't really a happening place either, and most vehicles coming by were 3-wheeled cars and cargo trucks. Otherwise you'd see cabs that already had fares or which the owners were using to take their families out for the day.
We walked back past a mian jing restaurant (how much business could they possibly get out there?), where a woman standing outside started asking us if we were looking for a taxi. She said she could get us a car. We took her up on the offer of a van for Y80 and went inside while she called whoever it was. He wouldn't do it for Y80, but Y100 was about what we expected, so we offered that instead. Then we waited around for the van. The woman looked sort of like how you'd expect Natalie Portman to look if she were Chinese.
We went back in a nice white van along the very bumpy terrain of Liuyuan district (or something to that effect). Suspension on these vehicles is really, uh, springy (I don't even know if suspension is what i'm talking about), so a lot of bumps sent me bouncing off the rear seat to the degree that all body parts lost contact with all car parts. Getting air that way was pretty fun. Got some more pictures of the drive back. I kept dozing off and smacking my head against the window.
He dropped us off at the far end of the walking street, so I walked back home via the north gate of our xiaoqu (uh... small district/living district/apartment complex/subdivision/what have you), and took pictures! So now you can see what my neighborhood is like.
I got home at about 4:30 maybe, and fiddled with pictures until almost dinner time. Alice and I took the bike back over to her place and I took pictures along the street too. We posed with the bike a bit, and her mom took pictures of us. Then we had a nice fairly light meal. I ate mostly xiancai (pickes) and this tofu rind(?... i'm just calling it that)-cucumber salad cuz it was goood. We made fun of the tv for a bit, and came home to watch It's a Boy/Girl Thing.
I don't know why I've never heard of this movie, but actually it was... cute. Parts of it were really dead-on in the humor department... others, not so much. It's weird that after all these years since Freaks & Geeks and The OC, Samaire Armstrong is still playing a teenager. Anyways, it wasn't the best movie experience cuz Alice was QQing with some pilot the whole time, but whatevs. I then decided to sleep, and I did.
At the tail end of my "vacation" now. We had a whole slew of makeup classes last weekend (and a few more this weekend), and then starting Tuesday and going until tomorrow, we've had days off. Not gonna bother checking back over the grammar of that one, so whatever. Currently doing laundry, which is taking predictably forever.
It's been a pleasant enough week. Tuesday, May 1, was a big deal, but one which thankfully didn't produce any fireworks. We'd been planning on hitting "the mountains" but were at kind of a loss as to which/where/how the hell to get there. Dave and I grilled some of the high school students about Meiligeng, which he'd somehow heard about, but most students said just not to go there. We didn't really know of any alternatives (weren't even really sure what Meiligeng itself even entailed), so Russ ended up asking one of his students, Ann, who ended up taking us to Meiligeng anyways, which ended up being gorgeous.
Tuesday morning, we met up at the walking street at 8am, and piled into a car. It was a taxi-ish car, but slightly bigger, nicer, and black. That ride cost us Y150, which I thought was pretty steep. We split it 3 ways to treat Ann, which honestly was unexpected... I don't mind saying that I thought we were gonna do 4 ways. Whatever though, not a huge loss (except then I might have considered taking a cheaper car... I can be an assy skinflint when I want). Apparently when locals go, they take a bus or even just their bikes. So yes, we were just basking in luxury in that car. It was the first time I'd gone to the east side of the city... I remember asking Alice during Chinese New Year if she wanted to walk that way, and she adamantly declined, saying pretty much that it's disgusting cuz the only thing there is Baogang. Well, she was sort of right. The sky turned outright gray, and the streets were crowded with coal trucks and other trucks, and so on. We had to drive a ways before the sky cleared up again. I started taking photos at that point, where you could just barely make out the outlines of the Qingshan range in the smog, and photographed the progression from that out to the countryside. There, garbage lessened, civilization was spread a lot thinner, and the sky turned an amazing crystal blue. You could see the mountains pretty clearly after that.
The drive wasn't even an hour, so I guess that means we were ripped off a bit on the ride. But you know, we got there fast, comfortably, and relatively safe, so... yeah I'm not really sure how much that's worth to me exactly, so I'll just leave the whole topic of money cuz I sound stupid when I talk about it.
Since most people take May 1st off, we were expecting a good number of people to be at the mountain, one of the few (but proud) places of interest around these parts. Alice had to go to the monastery again with her company, and reported that it was crowded there also. But since we got there early, the population was still pretty manageable. We really lucked out on the weather, which was absolutely perfect: few clouds, bright sun, slight breeze, warm, not hot.
Not sure what I was expecting when I heard "mountains," but for some reason it didn't occur to me that there'd be admission. It was only Y20 though, which is less than half the price of the monastery, and really for triple the chance for enlightenment. Alice told me that back in the day, it was a dangerous place to go, and people died in ways ranging from falling to drowning. She didn't say that this happened regularly, but that's the image I got in my head. Anyways, since then, it's been "cultivated" into a tourist-friendly sort of trek, through the addition of steps and railings, and a few well-placed "no-climbing" officers with walkie-talkies. Once you start up the path though, you're given a choice every now and then of the safer, easier route, or the "more dangerous and more exciting" one. Of course we took the latter, which consisted of railings plugged next to footprints carved into the rockface, some set for strides much wider than my own. To its credit, the "wilder" paths really did make things much more interesting than, say, Taishan, which is just stair after stair after stair. There was a surprisingly slim margin for error in some places, and people stumbled fairly often.
For the number of people at the mountain that day-- there were some bare areas where folks literally looked like they were meandering through an ant farm (I have photographic evidence!)-- there was still quite a bit of unobscured view. In all I took about 250 pictures of... well, more or less the same thing. Blue sky, gnarled pines, scrubby bushes, and rock. Mountains of beautiful frictive rock. It's the kind of landscape you really just want to clamber all over.
The attractions of Meiligeng are usually listed as the following... "green" and "water." People were in various states of denial over whether or not there'd be either at this time of year. Fortunately, there were both. The waterfalls and creekbeds were already flowing, in a very benign and non-lethal sort of way. The trek up the mountain passes a lot of smaller waterfalls, all unique and interesting in their own rights, to a tall gusher at the top. The volume of water was much less than, say, Taughannock-- people were skipping across the pool to stand on a rock just in front of it without getting so much as sprinkled-- but it was still pretty impressive. If you hold out your right hand in front of your face and turn it 45 degrees counter-clockwise, you have the rock formation that the waterfall's nestled in. It's called the "hand of Buddha" or some such, and the water flows down the crook between the thumb and index finger. The resemblance really is there too. I have a semi-detailed record of all the waterfalls, having been inspired by the h2o pictures on Drew's website. I could really sit around and take close-ups at the same stream of water for like... an hour or something. Of course, the outcome is different every click!
All around the "summit" as it were, are the people who got there before you, staking out rocks and other hard places for their families and friends. You see things like picnic blankets draped over boulders, heated card games, and cans of beer cooling in shallow pools (cuz that water was freeeezing!). People of all ages start at the foot of the waterfall and scramble downwards on the rocks to find a place to settle down. Uniformed guards stand here and there saying goodness knows what into kschhhhking radios while also taking photos for various groups of people and occasionally yelling at others to quit climbing stuff.
I ran into two students up there, which was vaguely awkward, but we took some photos and said "seeya" and moved on. I sat around a while, a ways from Russ and Ann (some interesting, but ultimately confused observations there) and ate a quick snack. Dave had marched on ahead of us long before and spent 30 min or so at the waterfall before heading back and bumping into us along the way. I took more photos. Eventually the three of us started picking our way down the rocks to go back.
Actually, going down was the hard part. It was only about 11, but more people had arrived by this time and were making their way up. Meanwhile, a lot of folks who had already been sitting around were making their way down. Here and there, both groups must use the same narrow path/bridge/stairs/footprints. Then there are the people who think they can take shortcuts but going off the path (I participated at times), and while that does get you there faster, it's still sort of at the expense of others. I have the utmost admiration for the parents who carried their babies/small children both ways.
We met up with Dave and headed back to the front to get some food. There's one restaurant there, and I guess it's part of the Meiligeng resort. Yeah, there's a whole litter of villas where dwell large parties of vacationers. Actually, I think the restaurant was booked mostly full of them. We may have been the only ones there who didn't live on-site. That food was expensiiiiive, but I have no complaints about flavor or any of that. I mean, service was slow, but it's cuz they were also taking care of 3 full tables next to us, and it ended up giving us time to just unwind. The most interesting dish was the last one... chicken and mushrooms, where the mushrooms were like... big honking mushroom caps and stems. Very chewy and, uh, resilient, but I got a kick out of them. They held the sauce pretty well.
Afterwards, we started the long walk back. Meiligeng is actually at the end of a long road along which there is nothing. It's apparently around 8km long, but we figured what the heck, we like walking, and just went ahead. We were like the only people walking at the time, even though I know we saw a whole bunch of people coming the other way that morning. It was maybe 2:30 at that point. We walked a real long time, but it wasn't the least bit tiring or anything. The sun felt good, but my right hand and wrist were turning gray and totally mummifying. I couldn't really wiggle my fingers so well because of how dry my skin was getting. Also my fingers had swollen quite a bit. When I finally looked down I was all like "holy crap!" On either side you could see piles of scree, some last trickling vestige of the waterfalls and streams, scrubland, boulders, and weird animal tracks. Every now and then a vehicle would come literally screaming by. There was a temple on the side of the road, but it was gated and quiet. Also there was a small colony of abandoned tourist yurts, which intrigued me.
The end of the road fed into the road home, and the mouth was clogged with people waiting for the bus. Ann had planned for us to take the train back, so we walked a ways further away from town to a totally deserted train station. I didn't even realize there was a train station there. Anyways, the first thing I thought when we got there was how much like a computer game it felt to be on a totally empty platform and to be staring at signs but at no people. Very Myst-like, or at least Syberia-esque. Despite that, we went inside to inquire about tickets and the employees informed us that the schedule had been changed and the train now comes at 3 instead of 4 or 5 or whatever we thought it was. Aaaand it was 3:30. So we turned around and decided to hail a cab. But the road wasn't really a happening place either, and most vehicles coming by were 3-wheeled cars and cargo trucks. Otherwise you'd see cabs that already had fares or which the owners were using to take their families out for the day.
We walked back past a mian jing restaurant (how much business could they possibly get out there?), where a woman standing outside started asking us if we were looking for a taxi. She said she could get us a car. We took her up on the offer of a van for Y80 and went inside while she called whoever it was. He wouldn't do it for Y80, but Y100 was about what we expected, so we offered that instead. Then we waited around for the van. The woman looked sort of like how you'd expect Natalie Portman to look if she were Chinese.
We went back in a nice white van along the very bumpy terrain of Liuyuan district (or something to that effect). Suspension on these vehicles is really, uh, springy (I don't even know if suspension is what i'm talking about), so a lot of bumps sent me bouncing off the rear seat to the degree that all body parts lost contact with all car parts. Getting air that way was pretty fun. Got some more pictures of the drive back. I kept dozing off and smacking my head against the window.
He dropped us off at the far end of the walking street, so I walked back home via the north gate of our xiaoqu (uh... small district/living district/apartment complex/subdivision/what have you), and took pictures! So now you can see what my neighborhood is like.
I got home at about 4:30 maybe, and fiddled with pictures until almost dinner time. Alice and I took the bike back over to her place and I took pictures along the street too. We posed with the bike a bit, and her mom took pictures of us. Then we had a nice fairly light meal. I ate mostly xiancai (pickes) and this tofu rind(?... i'm just calling it that)-cucumber salad cuz it was goood. We made fun of the tv for a bit, and came home to watch It's a Boy/Girl Thing.
I don't know why I've never heard of this movie, but actually it was... cute. Parts of it were really dead-on in the humor department... others, not so much. It's weird that after all these years since Freaks & Geeks and The OC, Samaire Armstrong is still playing a teenager. Anyways, it wasn't the best movie experience cuz Alice was QQing with some pilot the whole time, but whatevs. I then decided to sleep, and I did.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Whoo dang!
That's sort of a tasteless title actually, but that's how some tourists pronounce it, so whatever.
What I actually refer to is the Wudang Lamasery out in the brushier environs of Inner Mongolia, almost a 2-hr drive from where we are. I went there this morning. On the one hand I enjoyed getting out and seeing something new, on the other hand, I feel like we were ripped off by a friend of ours, which sucks a bit.
So yesterday, Alice informed me that we'd been invited to the monastery, which was cool, as long as we paid the gas to get there. She seemed sort of uneager about the gas part, but I knew Russ really wanted to go there, and I didn't want to keep turning these things down, so I agreed. Now... it probably would never have occurred to me to visit at this time of year. I had planned on going at some point, but never would I have opened my mouth to say "let's go tomorrow." Which this person did. I was a bit annoyed at having to get up so early, but I always am, so whatever.
We set out around 8 and had breakfast. I ordered some funky soymilk and was a little depressed about that, but moved past it pretty quickly. Then I passed out in the van, waking up a few times to stare out the window at some prime bouldering rock and some really crappy rock, neither of which I'll probably have a chance to see again before the spring, and again to chuck in Y10 for a toll booth, and to watch the introduction of gas into the van. Here's where I was astonished. So we agreed to pay gas for the excursion. Russ actually did this part. What I didn't expect was that we'd be asked to pay for an entire tank of gas (I'm feeling it was the entire tank). The total came to like Y105 and I'm feeling like we didn't use all of that on this trip. Now, I'm realizing that I was partly asleep and that there's no way now of knowing how much gas was left before we filled up, but... well, it was weird.
The monastery apparently raised their prices since the folks from my guidebook came by this way. It was a Y45 entrance fee, which was kind of a surprise for a monastery, but actually now I think it was worth it, because there were 9 different buildings to visit. I borrowed a camera and got to snap some shots at last. You're not supposed to take pictures inside monstery building, though I accidentally did inside one where I didn't see the No Cameras sign until I came out. But I got some nice compositions of pretty much all there was to see outside-- mountains, trees, shrines, living quarters, ramparts, exteriors, etc. When I'll see those, I'm not entirely sure, but they exist somewhere in this world, which is a relief.
We stopped for lunch on the way back, and I ended up paying for this meal which I think I ate very little of, but whatevs, though it never occurred to me to ask for the leftovers, which bothers me now.
I talked to Alice about the whole thing later and we were both like... were we taken advantage of for gas money? And we just sort of went through various reasons we were uncomfortable in general. I'm not really good at getting into details of this sort of thing without sounding paranoid, so I won't bother. But anyways it was odd, and I probably will start by refusing most offers from this person in the future. It's not that they're not... nice... it's just that I don't have an overwhelming sense of trust in them, so I'm going to follow my instincts some more since that usually works for me.
At a shop outside to monastery, I bought a really nice ring (well I think so) for too much money. Y30, but it's not entirely my fault. I mean, I have a fundamental problem with bargaining to begin with, and that's that I only open bargaining on items that I want and I don't want to walk away without it. This has been a real problem only once before when I didn't actually want an item, but because I was curious and asked the price, I accidentally matched wills with a hard-boiled seller and paid waaaay more for a bracelet (that I often wore afterwards, because dammit I paid for it) than I would have wanted to. But anyways, Y20 seemed about right, but I was willing to settle on Y25-27 andI'm pretty sure I could have gotten it down to there since the asking price was only Y45. Person who was with me though sort of cramped my style though and I had to settle on Y30 if I wanted it. So damn. But I like the ring a lot.
More about the monastery's buildings-- they were really cool, it shows that they're being taken care of. Most of the walls are covered in intricate Buddhist artwork which made me want to learn more about the symbolism in it. In one of the display halls was a large sand painting that was just awesome. I want to do sand painting.
I imagine that the scenery is really something in the right season, but again, I wouldn't have chosen myself to come this time of year, when most of the trees were on their way to being totally bare. Also it was really cold this morning, and that put me in a pretty nasty mood, though I'm pretty sure I did a good job of hiding it. Seriously.
So yeah, when pictures come in (I assume they will), I'll put them up!
What I actually refer to is the Wudang Lamasery out in the brushier environs of Inner Mongolia, almost a 2-hr drive from where we are. I went there this morning. On the one hand I enjoyed getting out and seeing something new, on the other hand, I feel like we were ripped off by a friend of ours, which sucks a bit.
So yesterday, Alice informed me that we'd been invited to the monastery, which was cool, as long as we paid the gas to get there. She seemed sort of uneager about the gas part, but I knew Russ really wanted to go there, and I didn't want to keep turning these things down, so I agreed. Now... it probably would never have occurred to me to visit at this time of year. I had planned on going at some point, but never would I have opened my mouth to say "let's go tomorrow." Which this person did. I was a bit annoyed at having to get up so early, but I always am, so whatever.
We set out around 8 and had breakfast. I ordered some funky soymilk and was a little depressed about that, but moved past it pretty quickly. Then I passed out in the van, waking up a few times to stare out the window at some prime bouldering rock and some really crappy rock, neither of which I'll probably have a chance to see again before the spring, and again to chuck in Y10 for a toll booth, and to watch the introduction of gas into the van. Here's where I was astonished. So we agreed to pay gas for the excursion. Russ actually did this part. What I didn't expect was that we'd be asked to pay for an entire tank of gas (I'm feeling it was the entire tank). The total came to like Y105 and I'm feeling like we didn't use all of that on this trip. Now, I'm realizing that I was partly asleep and that there's no way now of knowing how much gas was left before we filled up, but... well, it was weird.
The monastery apparently raised their prices since the folks from my guidebook came by this way. It was a Y45 entrance fee, which was kind of a surprise for a monastery, but actually now I think it was worth it, because there were 9 different buildings to visit. I borrowed a camera and got to snap some shots at last. You're not supposed to take pictures inside monstery building, though I accidentally did inside one where I didn't see the No Cameras sign until I came out. But I got some nice compositions of pretty much all there was to see outside-- mountains, trees, shrines, living quarters, ramparts, exteriors, etc. When I'll see those, I'm not entirely sure, but they exist somewhere in this world, which is a relief.
We stopped for lunch on the way back, and I ended up paying for this meal which I think I ate very little of, but whatevs, though it never occurred to me to ask for the leftovers, which bothers me now.
I talked to Alice about the whole thing later and we were both like... were we taken advantage of for gas money? And we just sort of went through various reasons we were uncomfortable in general. I'm not really good at getting into details of this sort of thing without sounding paranoid, so I won't bother. But anyways it was odd, and I probably will start by refusing most offers from this person in the future. It's not that they're not... nice... it's just that I don't have an overwhelming sense of trust in them, so I'm going to follow my instincts some more since that usually works for me.
At a shop outside to monastery, I bought a really nice ring (well I think so) for too much money. Y30, but it's not entirely my fault. I mean, I have a fundamental problem with bargaining to begin with, and that's that I only open bargaining on items that I want and I don't want to walk away without it. This has been a real problem only once before when I didn't actually want an item, but because I was curious and asked the price, I accidentally matched wills with a hard-boiled seller and paid waaaay more for a bracelet (that I often wore afterwards, because dammit I paid for it) than I would have wanted to. But anyways, Y20 seemed about right, but I was willing to settle on Y25-27 andI'm pretty sure I could have gotten it down to there since the asking price was only Y45. Person who was with me though sort of cramped my style though and I had to settle on Y30 if I wanted it. So damn. But I like the ring a lot.
More about the monastery's buildings-- they were really cool, it shows that they're being taken care of. Most of the walls are covered in intricate Buddhist artwork which made me want to learn more about the symbolism in it. In one of the display halls was a large sand painting that was just awesome. I want to do sand painting.
I imagine that the scenery is really something in the right season, but again, I wouldn't have chosen myself to come this time of year, when most of the trees were on their way to being totally bare. Also it was really cold this morning, and that put me in a pretty nasty mood, though I'm pretty sure I did a good job of hiding it. Seriously.
So yeah, when pictures come in (I assume they will), I'll put them up!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Hohhot and why I was there for 2 days
Convincing the medical staff was a complete no-go from the beginning, first of all. But that came later.
The two hour train ride went well enough. I fell asleep with my mouth wide open, but no flies landed in it, which was fortunate. The other people around me fell asleep too, and since I was window seat, I pretty much built my body into an impermeable fortress around my purse, which had many important documents in it-- not only mine, but Russ's too. And I could just envision everyone's face if I let Russ's passport get stolen too.
The Hohhot train station was insanely crowded. I guess just more so than I expected. Anyways, all the empty taxis were trapped by all these full taxis, so I gave up and walked a block to where things were less crazy. The driver I found was like... Xtreme stunt driver taxi man. I really didn't know how to communicate how impressed I was with his inter-traffic fluency, so I just mentally cheered him on from the backseat. The man had like... raptor-like problem solving ability behind the wheel. It was cool.
By the time I met Alice's friend at the university around 11, she still hadn't been able to locate the place we needed to go. She and her boyfriend had been asking people all morning apparently, TO NO AVAIL. That was initially a capslock mistake, but... i sorta liked the way it looked.
After many a phone call, the two of us asked a taxi driver, who got us there in like 2 min. About here is where I realized I had no control over whatever the situation might be, and that it's really difficult to deal with 3 screaming receptionists. They were like yelling, and I'm not really sure why or what about, but what Meng managed to explain was that no way in hell were they going to accept my documentation and it was going to cost almost twice as much as we thought to get the exam done. Because Russ and I had faxed and e-mailed everything over to save time, we had to subject ourselves to the exact same tests again.
Only Alice forgot to give me the photographs necessary to complete the process. And since they only conduct the exam between 8 and 11:30am, I'd have to wait until the next day anyway. So Alice headed to the train station to meet me, Russ was informed that he'd have to join us, and I went back to the Inner Mongolia U campus with Meng for lunch and a nap.
On the way, I watched her get mowed down by some middle schooler on a bike. I felt sooo bad for this girl, it must have been one of the most inconvenient days ever. But she wasn't injured, thank goodness.
Lunched at Yong He, which sports a Chinese lookalike of the Colonel as its spokesman. Actually, it's not even distinctly Chinese. The only thing that distinguishes it from trademark/copyright/whatever infringement (and not very well) is a slightly different perspective... and well... maybe shorter hair. Had some steamed baozi and tea eggs which all ruled.
Then a quick walk through the campus to the dorms... and it looked really nice-- yesterday was a pretty day. We passed: two white girls outside a shop speaking Chinese, the artificial lake, some nice buildings, a "slope" (a lengthy handicap entrance?), a exploded-looking sewer, and the shower building. Disembuildinged showers (indoors, but still!)... terrifying thought when you consider the winters here.
Nap. Alice showed up around 3 or 4. We went over to her dorm room and met her roommates-- one of whom is getting married in a few days. She was really cool actually, and was busy packing up all of her things. Alice is avoiding going back to school-- she's 3rd year grad so it's possible for her to do that. So we sat around there a while then waded through rush hour traffic to dinner at a Korean restaurant. They definitely served dog at that restaurant. I was really shocked. Speaking of which, I'm really gonna have to get a dog when I get home. You know how some women get baby envy when they see happy little children? I'm that way with nearly every dog I see these days... it's unusual. Afterwards, we went into a little shop, and then checked out a few things that folks were selling on the street.
Actually, Alice's dorm had dorm mothers, whose jobs were to keep non-residents from being in the building. Really lucky about that whole Chinese ancestry thing. But we were still really careful, and I didn't speak while we were walking down the first floor hall or anything. Alice's engaged roommate offered to sleep in a different room so that we wouldn't have to share a bed. Oh, yeah, it's 4 people to a room there (undergrads get 6). The rooms are about the size of a typical cornell single, and they get bunk beds, a carrel of 4 desks, two wardrobes, and some cubbies, plus a little tv above the door that was playing attractive Korean dramas that evening. So yeah, all 3 of Alice's roommates were present. So I'd just finished washing my face in the basin, when there was a knock at the door. Suddenly one of the dorm mom's burst through with her clipboard, saying something like, "Room 424 (my freshman room #... weird, huh? ok, maybe not)... 4 girls, right?" And then she launched into what sounded like a list of rules. There were definitely 5 of us in there, but one of the girls happened to be in bed in some configuration that made her invisible to this woman. I, meanwhile, just went about my business, blowing my nose, with my face hidden, etc. I was thinking of all the possible ways that I could spend the night if she caught me, among them: hanging out at the train station or scaling 4 stories of wall to come in the open window.
Oh, that open window! After we finally got to bed... Ok, well I woke up intermittently to just... scratch. I was really dry and itchy and ugh. But I woke up this morning and found that I was just lying there scratching my cheek. I was like... aw, man... a mosquito bite on my FACE. I went to splash my face in the... sink... room... and noticed not one, but 3 bites on various parts of my face. Additionally, there's an entry-exit wound type situation near my collarbone on the right and the corresponding region by my shoulder blade on my back. Meaning that I was snacked on through my clothes. Then later I discovered another bite on my neck near my jaw and one on my chin also. I look like I have the pox, frankly, it's kinda funny but also uncomfortable.
Popped two pieces of gum into my mouth, and we made it to the... place... around 8. The cashier didn't show up for another 30 min, so that sucked. But yay, I finally got to start my exam around 9ish maybe? This examination... I could compare it maybe to a scavenger hunt or a fraternity house-party... or maybe like one of those elementary school carnivals. An activity in every room! The adventure began in the blood room. I sometimes am not a morning person. Today was such a day, when the first thing I had to do = one of my greatest irrational fears. I was a meeeeess. But after that initial... stab... the rest went ok. The doc who filled out the sheet may have been even less thorough than my practitioner back home, but she was sympathetic to the whole date problemo.
Then to the ECG room, which... well, it's a good thing I'm not really modest or anything, cuz they definitely make you bare a lot more than you usually would. The lady was all like "get on the table and lift up your shirt... oh yeah, and this too" and just... took the liberty of flipping up my bra. I was all like "k..." And whereas the ECG I had in the states had like those little sticky pads... this one used a series of clamps for the ankle and wrist and a cluster of suction cups... at least three of which left a line perfectly circular hickeys along my ribcage.
Then a chest x-ray, which was really really casual. Whereas in the US it was really expensive and involved wardrobe changes and being lost in a hospital, here you could just stand there while the doctor examined someone (waaay cool, by the way), and then it was just like "next!" and then the person leaves through a door, you enter through the door, stand on a platform, breathe while the doc reminds you to do so, and you're done.
Then, the ultrasound. I don't know why we needed an ultrasound. Maybe for parasites? This was maybe the most stressful one, if only because it was in demand and people were lining up and sorta pushy about getting in. But the woman chose me, and proceeded to like... yell... in harsh fast Chinese and I wasn't 100% sure what she was telling me to do. It was over in seconds, and I didn't know if I should take the piece of paper back out with me so I stood there a sec for a clue. The woman kept telling everyone there "she doesn't understand, she doesn't understand," which she may have just figured out herself. At last, the cute doctor next to her turned around and said very sweetly " mei shi" which means that I ain't got no issues, so I left.
That concluded my part of the exam, and Alice & I bused over to the train station (really long, really crowded ride, but thank goodness we had seats) to pick up Russ. Then back for his examination, which went fast, then we were done!
There was a moment where we thought we might have to stay another night to wait for the results, but Mr. Liu said that he'd take care of it the next day since he's going to Hohhot to get our foreign expert cards anyway.
So we went to get noodles. Ever see an episode of Yan Can Cook where he makes noodles? It's like a 3 ring circus, it's so awesome. Anyway, this place Yan Can Cooked the noodles right in front of your face, then covered them in broth and dressed them with the obligatory greens and beef. Very nice. Very mesmerizing. Very hard to hide the fact that you're staring very hard.
Then walk to the bank, past some shops, back to the south gate of the university. Then... DVD adventures! What I've been waiting for! First we checked out the piles some folks were selling in an alley (a really roomy, commercial alley). I didn't get anything, but Alice got 2 Korean drama series' which look as exciting as they do incomprehensible. One of them is the one that I got in Maryland this summer, for about 1/14 of the price. I saw one episode with my mom, with every combination of Chinese Language, Korean Language, Chinese Subtitle, and English Subtitle, and neither of us understood much more than the very basics of it. Alice said she'd explain it to me, which is really really good news. The man even gave her the guarantee that if she didn't like that show, she could call him and she could return it. THEN CAKES. BOUGHT CAKES. I ate two of them already and they ruled. One of them was like... a mini-pie/turnover/pastry. Mmmmm. Then we went into a store and I went crazy go nuts. Bought a bunch of movies and some CDs... got a Chinese CD for free... and free is cool. I really wanted to build more of a collection... I mean, they had The Philadelphia Story, for goodness sakes, but I couldn't really afford many more. I know, right? I'm sort of poor.
Then back to the dorm to pick up a bunch of Alice's belongings. She's like... really good at convenience lying. By this I mean... you have to explain every time to try to remove things from the building. And a woman like yelled at her through the window on our way out trying to figure out why she had so many bags with her. So she just said that she was helping her engaged friend move out. Less trouble for everyone! I was so impressed.
Then pilgrimage to McD's to sit. I'd been wanting to go there since the day before, just because it's the place I go to drown my frustrations in french fries, which I've come to embrace as my favorite food.
We went to the train station at 4, and on our way into the ticket hall, we heard some dude lament that there were no tickets for Baotou left! So a little background: October 1 is their National Day here, it's one of their big holidays, with significance comparable to July 4 for us. Buuut, it's like a weeklong government holiday and entails a lot of travel or family reunifying, so the train was booked. Alice got us some standing tickets, just for me and Russ though, since she had just been ordered by her uncle to stay in town (which was kind of rough of him, but I guess he still didn't know that she wants to take care of her mom here). Then we went to the bus station to see if we could get a bus.
The short answer is no. The crowd at the gate was sooo thick. It was like a mosh pit, and every once in a while you could hear people screaming or like... shouting for everyone to quit pushing. I didn't really feel like insinuating myself into that. Russ, on the other hand, didn't feel like standing on the bus for 2 hrs. So? He asked if we could just make a deal with a taxi driver. Alice estimated that it'd take us $300 to get back to Baotou using this method. Which, I guess, it cheaper than certain articles of clothing. But it was worth it to Russ, so we went in search of a driver, and found one real fast. He already had two other guys paying their way, so we had a nice full car. I think these other two guys might have met on the plane. One of them was a middle aged-ish businessman type. The other was a really young looking guy in a suit with a briefcase full of people's business cards. This one sat next to me. He was real friendly though. I think the other man had offered to help pay his ride or something, but he spent a really long time trying to fix him up with one favor or another. He like... networked like crazy. I think he ended up getting the man a discount at the Baotou Hotel, which I saw tonight is really posh. He also tried telling me about some English teaching job somewhere in... Lanzhou? But ended up just giving me his business card. I'm a little confused as to what I'm supposed to do with it. I don't know if Russ and I now have some social obligation to fulfill. Because he left with a "call me, ok?" sort of statement, but I didn't really get when or why I was supposed to do so. I thought maybe he was offering to show us around, but he's only visiting for a little while I think. So then I thought his company might do something with tours, but no. It does like... consulting? Advertising? Construction? Not sure. So yeah. Impasse. I think I may have fallen asleep on him briefly though. Oops.
Got dropped off at the Baotou Dong station, which is on the waaay other side of town (it's like another 30 min by train from there to the Baotou station, which is in our district). But we cabbed with the businessman and he paid Y15 of the fare (which... may have been less than I thought he would, but whatev). This cab driver. Whoa. It's like he's not from this town. Man clearly subscribes to the anything-goes school of cab-driving. Like holy shit. So far, it's been my only experience in this town where a driver willfully crosses into oncoming traffic for extended periods of time. And it wasn't exactly like oncoming traffic was clear. I mean, it was still coming. But really, it was up to them to rearrange themselves... our driver wasn't going back over until he felt like it. Even on the right side of the road, he was like Matrix driver. Bullet-time driver. Moses-parting-the-Red-Sea driver. It was intense. And it was like he was too good for any single lane. He's all living between the lanes. Also, he was driving really fast for a town where no one utilizes reflective tape-- especially not bounding pedestrians.
Made it home! Mr. Liu stopped by to pick up my last remaining passport photo for Hohhot tomorrow. We walked over to his office at the training center to get the ATM card and credit card that arrived the other day concurrent with my new passport (best mail call ever). There was some waiting involved since the building was locked. He went to find the key, and I just stood around. Lucky I did cuz the key came riding up on a bike with this man who asked me what I was doing standing around there. Alice is coming back to town tonight after all, though she'll probably stay at home. Showered at last, and I really needed it by then, cuz whoa. And I don't mind telling you that.
And my face itches.
The two hour train ride went well enough. I fell asleep with my mouth wide open, but no flies landed in it, which was fortunate. The other people around me fell asleep too, and since I was window seat, I pretty much built my body into an impermeable fortress around my purse, which had many important documents in it-- not only mine, but Russ's too. And I could just envision everyone's face if I let Russ's passport get stolen too.
The Hohhot train station was insanely crowded. I guess just more so than I expected. Anyways, all the empty taxis were trapped by all these full taxis, so I gave up and walked a block to where things were less crazy. The driver I found was like... Xtreme stunt driver taxi man. I really didn't know how to communicate how impressed I was with his inter-traffic fluency, so I just mentally cheered him on from the backseat. The man had like... raptor-like problem solving ability behind the wheel. It was cool.
By the time I met Alice's friend at the university around 11, she still hadn't been able to locate the place we needed to go. She and her boyfriend had been asking people all morning apparently, TO NO AVAIL. That was initially a capslock mistake, but... i sorta liked the way it looked.
After many a phone call, the two of us asked a taxi driver, who got us there in like 2 min. About here is where I realized I had no control over whatever the situation might be, and that it's really difficult to deal with 3 screaming receptionists. They were like yelling, and I'm not really sure why or what about, but what Meng managed to explain was that no way in hell were they going to accept my documentation and it was going to cost almost twice as much as we thought to get the exam done. Because Russ and I had faxed and e-mailed everything over to save time, we had to subject ourselves to the exact same tests again.
Only Alice forgot to give me the photographs necessary to complete the process. And since they only conduct the exam between 8 and 11:30am, I'd have to wait until the next day anyway. So Alice headed to the train station to meet me, Russ was informed that he'd have to join us, and I went back to the Inner Mongolia U campus with Meng for lunch and a nap.
On the way, I watched her get mowed down by some middle schooler on a bike. I felt sooo bad for this girl, it must have been one of the most inconvenient days ever. But she wasn't injured, thank goodness.
Lunched at Yong He, which sports a Chinese lookalike of the Colonel as its spokesman. Actually, it's not even distinctly Chinese. The only thing that distinguishes it from trademark/copyright/whatever infringement (and not very well) is a slightly different perspective... and well... maybe shorter hair. Had some steamed baozi and tea eggs which all ruled.
Then a quick walk through the campus to the dorms... and it looked really nice-- yesterday was a pretty day. We passed: two white girls outside a shop speaking Chinese, the artificial lake, some nice buildings, a "slope" (a lengthy handicap entrance?), a exploded-looking sewer, and the shower building. Disembuildinged showers (indoors, but still!)... terrifying thought when you consider the winters here.
Nap. Alice showed up around 3 or 4. We went over to her dorm room and met her roommates-- one of whom is getting married in a few days. She was really cool actually, and was busy packing up all of her things. Alice is avoiding going back to school-- she's 3rd year grad so it's possible for her to do that. So we sat around there a while then waded through rush hour traffic to dinner at a Korean restaurant. They definitely served dog at that restaurant. I was really shocked. Speaking of which, I'm really gonna have to get a dog when I get home. You know how some women get baby envy when they see happy little children? I'm that way with nearly every dog I see these days... it's unusual. Afterwards, we went into a little shop, and then checked out a few things that folks were selling on the street.
Actually, Alice's dorm had dorm mothers, whose jobs were to keep non-residents from being in the building. Really lucky about that whole Chinese ancestry thing. But we were still really careful, and I didn't speak while we were walking down the first floor hall or anything. Alice's engaged roommate offered to sleep in a different room so that we wouldn't have to share a bed. Oh, yeah, it's 4 people to a room there (undergrads get 6). The rooms are about the size of a typical cornell single, and they get bunk beds, a carrel of 4 desks, two wardrobes, and some cubbies, plus a little tv above the door that was playing attractive Korean dramas that evening. So yeah, all 3 of Alice's roommates were present. So I'd just finished washing my face in the basin, when there was a knock at the door. Suddenly one of the dorm mom's burst through with her clipboard, saying something like, "Room 424 (my freshman room #... weird, huh? ok, maybe not)... 4 girls, right?" And then she launched into what sounded like a list of rules. There were definitely 5 of us in there, but one of the girls happened to be in bed in some configuration that made her invisible to this woman. I, meanwhile, just went about my business, blowing my nose, with my face hidden, etc. I was thinking of all the possible ways that I could spend the night if she caught me, among them: hanging out at the train station or scaling 4 stories of wall to come in the open window.
Oh, that open window! After we finally got to bed... Ok, well I woke up intermittently to just... scratch. I was really dry and itchy and ugh. But I woke up this morning and found that I was just lying there scratching my cheek. I was like... aw, man... a mosquito bite on my FACE. I went to splash my face in the... sink... room... and noticed not one, but 3 bites on various parts of my face. Additionally, there's an entry-exit wound type situation near my collarbone on the right and the corresponding region by my shoulder blade on my back. Meaning that I was snacked on through my clothes. Then later I discovered another bite on my neck near my jaw and one on my chin also. I look like I have the pox, frankly, it's kinda funny but also uncomfortable.
Popped two pieces of gum into my mouth, and we made it to the... place... around 8. The cashier didn't show up for another 30 min, so that sucked. But yay, I finally got to start my exam around 9ish maybe? This examination... I could compare it maybe to a scavenger hunt or a fraternity house-party... or maybe like one of those elementary school carnivals. An activity in every room! The adventure began in the blood room. I sometimes am not a morning person. Today was such a day, when the first thing I had to do = one of my greatest irrational fears. I was a meeeeess. But after that initial... stab... the rest went ok. The doc who filled out the sheet may have been even less thorough than my practitioner back home, but she was sympathetic to the whole date problemo.
Then to the ECG room, which... well, it's a good thing I'm not really modest or anything, cuz they definitely make you bare a lot more than you usually would. The lady was all like "get on the table and lift up your shirt... oh yeah, and this too" and just... took the liberty of flipping up my bra. I was all like "k..." And whereas the ECG I had in the states had like those little sticky pads... this one used a series of clamps for the ankle and wrist and a cluster of suction cups... at least three of which left a line perfectly circular hickeys along my ribcage.
Then a chest x-ray, which was really really casual. Whereas in the US it was really expensive and involved wardrobe changes and being lost in a hospital, here you could just stand there while the doctor examined someone (waaay cool, by the way), and then it was just like "next!" and then the person leaves through a door, you enter through the door, stand on a platform, breathe while the doc reminds you to do so, and you're done.
Then, the ultrasound. I don't know why we needed an ultrasound. Maybe for parasites? This was maybe the most stressful one, if only because it was in demand and people were lining up and sorta pushy about getting in. But the woman chose me, and proceeded to like... yell... in harsh fast Chinese and I wasn't 100% sure what she was telling me to do. It was over in seconds, and I didn't know if I should take the piece of paper back out with me so I stood there a sec for a clue. The woman kept telling everyone there "she doesn't understand, she doesn't understand," which she may have just figured out herself. At last, the cute doctor next to her turned around and said very sweetly " mei shi" which means that I ain't got no issues, so I left.
That concluded my part of the exam, and Alice & I bused over to the train station (really long, really crowded ride, but thank goodness we had seats) to pick up Russ. Then back for his examination, which went fast, then we were done!
There was a moment where we thought we might have to stay another night to wait for the results, but Mr. Liu said that he'd take care of it the next day since he's going to Hohhot to get our foreign expert cards anyway.
So we went to get noodles. Ever see an episode of Yan Can Cook where he makes noodles? It's like a 3 ring circus, it's so awesome. Anyway, this place Yan Can Cooked the noodles right in front of your face, then covered them in broth and dressed them with the obligatory greens and beef. Very nice. Very mesmerizing. Very hard to hide the fact that you're staring very hard.
Then walk to the bank, past some shops, back to the south gate of the university. Then... DVD adventures! What I've been waiting for! First we checked out the piles some folks were selling in an alley (a really roomy, commercial alley). I didn't get anything, but Alice got 2 Korean drama series' which look as exciting as they do incomprehensible. One of them is the one that I got in Maryland this summer, for about 1/14 of the price. I saw one episode with my mom, with every combination of Chinese Language, Korean Language, Chinese Subtitle, and English Subtitle, and neither of us understood much more than the very basics of it. Alice said she'd explain it to me, which is really really good news. The man even gave her the guarantee that if she didn't like that show, she could call him and she could return it. THEN CAKES. BOUGHT CAKES. I ate two of them already and they ruled. One of them was like... a mini-pie/turnover/pastry. Mmmmm. Then we went into a store and I went crazy go nuts. Bought a bunch of movies and some CDs... got a Chinese CD for free... and free is cool. I really wanted to build more of a collection... I mean, they had The Philadelphia Story, for goodness sakes, but I couldn't really afford many more. I know, right? I'm sort of poor.
Then back to the dorm to pick up a bunch of Alice's belongings. She's like... really good at convenience lying. By this I mean... you have to explain every time to try to remove things from the building. And a woman like yelled at her through the window on our way out trying to figure out why she had so many bags with her. So she just said that she was helping her engaged friend move out. Less trouble for everyone! I was so impressed.
Then pilgrimage to McD's to sit. I'd been wanting to go there since the day before, just because it's the place I go to drown my frustrations in french fries, which I've come to embrace as my favorite food.
We went to the train station at 4, and on our way into the ticket hall, we heard some dude lament that there were no tickets for Baotou left! So a little background: October 1 is their National Day here, it's one of their big holidays, with significance comparable to July 4 for us. Buuut, it's like a weeklong government holiday and entails a lot of travel or family reunifying, so the train was booked. Alice got us some standing tickets, just for me and Russ though, since she had just been ordered by her uncle to stay in town (which was kind of rough of him, but I guess he still didn't know that she wants to take care of her mom here). Then we went to the bus station to see if we could get a bus.
The short answer is no. The crowd at the gate was sooo thick. It was like a mosh pit, and every once in a while you could hear people screaming or like... shouting for everyone to quit pushing. I didn't really feel like insinuating myself into that. Russ, on the other hand, didn't feel like standing on the bus for 2 hrs. So? He asked if we could just make a deal with a taxi driver. Alice estimated that it'd take us $300 to get back to Baotou using this method. Which, I guess, it cheaper than certain articles of clothing. But it was worth it to Russ, so we went in search of a driver, and found one real fast. He already had two other guys paying their way, so we had a nice full car. I think these other two guys might have met on the plane. One of them was a middle aged-ish businessman type. The other was a really young looking guy in a suit with a briefcase full of people's business cards. This one sat next to me. He was real friendly though. I think the other man had offered to help pay his ride or something, but he spent a really long time trying to fix him up with one favor or another. He like... networked like crazy. I think he ended up getting the man a discount at the Baotou Hotel, which I saw tonight is really posh. He also tried telling me about some English teaching job somewhere in... Lanzhou? But ended up just giving me his business card. I'm a little confused as to what I'm supposed to do with it. I don't know if Russ and I now have some social obligation to fulfill. Because he left with a "call me, ok?" sort of statement, but I didn't really get when or why I was supposed to do so. I thought maybe he was offering to show us around, but he's only visiting for a little while I think. So then I thought his company might do something with tours, but no. It does like... consulting? Advertising? Construction? Not sure. So yeah. Impasse. I think I may have fallen asleep on him briefly though. Oops.
Got dropped off at the Baotou Dong station, which is on the waaay other side of town (it's like another 30 min by train from there to the Baotou station, which is in our district). But we cabbed with the businessman and he paid Y15 of the fare (which... may have been less than I thought he would, but whatev). This cab driver. Whoa. It's like he's not from this town. Man clearly subscribes to the anything-goes school of cab-driving. Like holy shit. So far, it's been my only experience in this town where a driver willfully crosses into oncoming traffic for extended periods of time. And it wasn't exactly like oncoming traffic was clear. I mean, it was still coming. But really, it was up to them to rearrange themselves... our driver wasn't going back over until he felt like it. Even on the right side of the road, he was like Matrix driver. Bullet-time driver. Moses-parting-the-Red-Sea driver. It was intense. And it was like he was too good for any single lane. He's all living between the lanes. Also, he was driving really fast for a town where no one utilizes reflective tape-- especially not bounding pedestrians.
Made it home! Mr. Liu stopped by to pick up my last remaining passport photo for Hohhot tomorrow. We walked over to his office at the training center to get the ATM card and credit card that arrived the other day concurrent with my new passport (best mail call ever). There was some waiting involved since the building was locked. He went to find the key, and I just stood around. Lucky I did cuz the key came riding up on a bike with this man who asked me what I was doing standing around there. Alice is coming back to town tonight after all, though she'll probably stay at home. Showered at last, and I really needed it by then, cuz whoa. And I don't mind telling you that.
And my face itches.
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