Back in Canada!!

So yesterday at about 9:30pm I arrived in Toronto! The plane rides really sucked but it was totally worth it! Good to get back to some fresh air. It's nice and cool over here, which is so very excellent. For those who still read this thing every now and then, I'm going to continue the blog for my roadtrip around Canada to keep everyone updated. Thanks for reading about my Korean Adventures!

Beijing 2

Okay, basically this is going to be all of the other places I went.

This was part of a Chinese Traditional Opera that I saw at Laoshe Teahouse. All of the female roles were played by men, which made for some very interesting singing. At least once a day I would have a random person come up to me and ask where I was from. Then they'd ask to take me to a teahouse to have tea and practise their English. This of course was code for "Hey! I'm going to take you to a tea place that I work for. You'll end up spending about thirty bucks on a cup of "traditional tea" you sucker!" So I was always telling people that I was just about to meet up with some friends. The one I went to was nice and cheap since I went with this girl I met at my hostel from Rome who's Chinese was amazing (weird story: she'd been told by someone that someday China would be the biggest world power, so she's devoted a ridiculous amount of her time to learning Mandarin; is this brilliant or is she crazy? I'm not really sure).

"Snack Street" on Wangfujing. Selling the weirdest food on a stick you can find anywhere: scorpions, starfish, squid, baby lobsters, silkworm, mystery meats and other very random things.

The entrance to the Forbidden city. The most crowded place to be in all of Beijing I'm sure. It was big and old and under a massive amount of renovation to prepare for the 2008 Olympics.

Ming Tombs. This is the gate of life and death. We could only exit through it to enter the land of the living. Fun!
The Temple of Heaven. I got completely lost trying to find it and eventually had to hire a rickshaw to get there, which was interesting as well. This was on my last day in Beijing so I was already all "templed out", but it was still quite beautiful.

Beijing

Ni Hao! I've already talked about my China trip a few times, so this is just so I can put some photos up. I'll start with the Great Wall since that was my favourite part of the trip. First I took a 10km hike from Jinshangling to Simitai. Some pictures:went with a tour group comprised of a bunch of hardcore Swedish hikers who were filming everything. It was really rainy and foggy, so apart from Mongolian souvenir sellers, we were the only ones there.This part of the wall was about three hours away from Beijing and therefore much less popular and falling into ruin, which was a lot of fun. All of the stairs were crumbly and broken, making the steep climbs that much more interesting!It was the ultimate stairmaster! A few days later I went to the Badaling section which is much closer to Beijing and infinitely more touristy. But this time it was a gorgeous day.
The Badaling great wall was so very crowded, and had obviously been renovated and kept up several times, but still quite entertaining. Everyone scrambling for the perfect "On The Great Wall" shot (myself included). Lot's of dodging cameras and stopping so that people could take pictures.So here's my requisite shot, looking like a jerk as usual. The Badaling Great Wall was also the site of my worst bathroom experience in my entire life. without going into too much detail; I was feeling a little vomitus, so I rushed to the bathroom (which the tour guide had warned us was terrible). First I had to pay to get in, which seemed pretty wrong, but I shrugged off. Then I realized there was no toilet paper and there was a little old man, conveniently selling tissues. Brutal! TP in hand I went into the bathroom. On a hot, sunny and incredibly humid day I was immediately punched in the face by a horrible smell, which didn't help to make my fluish feelings dissipate! Then I realized that every single stall was a squatter and most of the stalls didn't even have doors. So there were all these old Chinese ladies squatting all over the place without a care in the world in a bathroom that most likely hadn't been cleaned in a month; have I gone too far into detail?

Templed Out

So today I went to have a look at the Temple of Heaven. Meh. My brain realizes that it's an interesting temple with a long history (blah blah blah), but I'm just templed out. I've seen too many!! No more!

In other news; feeling fine (since I've decided that Chinese food doesn't like me), I've got one more full day here then it's back to Korea to say goodbye to everyone!

Left My DNA on the Great Wall of China!! Cool!!

That's right, I fell down! Not all that surprising is it?

So yesterday I signed up for a tour to the great wall that involved a 10km walk from the Jinshinaling section to the Simitai section of the great wall. It's one of the less popular sections of the wall because it's so far from Beijing, so myself and the rest of the tour group were pretty much the only people there. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting! There were a few Mongolians on the wall trying to sell souvenirs (or waiting for me to pass out from the heat so they could steal my Canadian passport!), but beyond that it wasn't too much of a tourist trap at all! The wall is absolutely huge, and goes up and down mountains in an incredibly picturesque way! Shortly after the hike had begun though, it started to rain a little bit, so within five minutes of walking along the wall I tripped and slidd down a set of wet and very steep steps. Then the thunder and lightning began, which was scary and exhilarating since I was walking around above mountain peaks and through towers, feeling the reverberations from the nearby lightning. Very cool! Then it started pouring, so much so that there was water running down the steps as I walked, which made things a little slow, but definitely more interesting!

So today I'm taking a "reading and sitting around day" since I'm a little cut up/bruised and tired. Last night one of my dorm-mates opened the window in the night (AND the screen) letting in a little bastard mosquito that bit my face and even now my left eye is really swollen and grotesque looking, which has only added to me not wanting to do anything today!

Killin' Time

Today I walked through the Forbidden City and T'iannamen (sp?) Square, so I'm just taking a nice long indoor sitting-down break at the moment. The Forbidden City was pretty cool; I think the thing that most shocked and awed me was the mass amounts of humanity surrounding me at all times. SO MANY PEOPLE.



Funny/strange story: Yesterday I went to the Art Museum of China which was absolutely beautiful, and has a bunch of European Baroque style paintings in an exhibition right now (Tintoretto, Goya etc.). As I was entering that section of the gallery, there was a man yelling at one of the gallery workers (you know, one of those people who stands there and makes sure no one uses flash photography etc.). I was a little shocked and confused, wondering what he could possibly be upset about. Were the paintings not to his liking?). Then I hear yelling and screaming and the sound of people slapping eachother! I couldn't see what was going on since a crowd gathered in the span of five seconds, but it was very weird. I usually think of galleries as a quiet contemplative place, not a potential for violent outbursts!

I Made It!

Just a note to all the loyal readers (all two of you!) that I'm alive and well in Beijing! I'll be back to the RofK on the 12th. More later...

Holy Shit

Today is my last class EVER and tomorrow I'm going to China!! Holy shit!

Candy Teacher Has A Vision

Last night I had a dream that I was in China. For whatever reason I was also in university again and doing some sort of crazy art project for an old professor (Robert, a CRAAAAZY dude). I had to go to this huge department store and get supplies. This place was a big huge confusing Chinese maze. I pay for my purchases and walk off, then much too late I realize that my purse is just plain gone. I start panicking since I have no idea where I am or how to get back to the store where I must have left my purse. Of course in my purse I have my credit card, passport, beloved ipod, directions in Mandarin so that I can get back to my hotel, and all of my cash so I'm freaking out. Eventually I just had to wake myself up because I was getting nowhere. So today I'm going to buy myself one of those "money/passport belts" instead of carrying everything around a purse.