A Quick Update

A Quick Update

All is well here. We had a major test today in “Global Studies”, so between studying for that and catching up on sleep I haven’t had time to write my Japan Journal. But don’t worry, it’s in the works.

We have quite a long stretch at sea right now. We are almost half way through the 9 days until Hawaii. We even had one day twice! LOL. Since we crossed the International Date Line we had two April 12ths. We went from ahead of you guys (east coast) by 15 hours to behind by 9. Pretty crazy.

My days at sea have been busy. I am being good about exercise and have been using the bikes and ellipticals upstairs. I have also been catching up on reading and notes for my classes. Its hard to be academic when there are so many things and countries going on!

I’m excited for Hawaii. We’re staying on the ship at night (its only 2 days, 1 night), but we are going to go to the Pearl Harbor Museum and the beach, plus explore the other parts of the island. I can’t wait!

Tomorrow we don’t have classes so I am going to try to get to business on my journaling.

I have to go to class, but I’ll post Day One soon.

Happy Sailing,
Elyssa

PS. It’s rocky. We haven’t had these kinds of waves since Spain. Luckily, I don’t get sea sick but I don’t know how some students made it through the Global test with the movement.

Days 5-6, China (PRC)

Day 5- Beijing, PRC
We awoke for our 9:30 check-out just in the knick of time to call home and run out the door. Our first destination of the day was to the Summer Palace also known as the Yihe Tuan or “Gardens of Nutured Harmony”. Besides the beauty of the palace itself, there is the Kunming Lake which is just under three square kilometers. It was actually man made and the soil that was taken out was used to create Longevity Hill.

It was originially called the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750, but after it was attacked and rebuilt after the Anglo-French invasion of 1860 and after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. It is also a World Heritage Site.

The entrance to the park and palace reminded us a lot of epcot as it was pretty hokey. But once we got to the main palace, with its green and yellow roof tops, it was apparent that this place was architecturally beautiful and unique. Situated on Longevity Hill one could sit amongst the pagodas (circular and rectangular) and view the massive lake with it’s dragon decorated longboats. It was absolutely gorgeous as the red pillars once again accented the green, yellow and blue trimmings. We played around, taking pictures in “meditation stances” before descending the hill and heading onto dragon (they served as the base of the long boat) boats with yellow roof trimmings. It was really cool to see the palace from the water and I once again borrowed Jordan’s long lens.

Our next stop was to this amazing hibatchi buffet. They had more food and options then I have ever seen before it was quite decadent for SAS. I sampled a bunch of dishs from seasoned oysters to banana sushi to shrimp tempora and even some dishes that I didn’t know what the contents were! The place itself was very “hip” with a bright color scheme. After we ate I realized that the lobby had wifi and with my ipod touch in hand I was able to send a few emails.

After everyone had had their fill (it took quite a while, actually) we headed to the “Bird’s Nest” the site of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. It was a pretty gorgeous and massive structure. It is called the “Birds Nest” because it is basically a hodge podge of steel, which is woven through itself. It was very pretty in person and we once again we took a bunch of pictures. We then went into the stadium, which was packed, quite a contrast to the one in Barcelona that was kind of abandoned.

The 2008 games had these adorable characters which looked like little stuffed animals. They had large scale ones which we happily took pictures with, fighting off the others who wanted to get in (it was actually quite hilarious). From there we moved on to the gift shop, where I could almost hear Dad’s voice going “we throw this type of stuff away”, so you will be happy to know that I did not buy a cute stuffed animal, lol. Brittany bought a few souvenirs for her and her family and then we went back outside to take more pictures.

We walked over to “The Icecube” which is made of steel and plastic. It was pretty cool from the outside. We ran out of time (and didn’t want to pay the entrance fee) to see the inside, but we were quite content to take pictures with the structure which was the highlight.

From there we headed to the bus and went to the Cloths market. Our last market of the trip. I bought Ilana a Buddha chop with her name carved in it and I got Bubbie a magnet, while Brittany bought some LeSportSacs and pearls.

We then headed to the airport (which was very modern, another contrast to Russia which had a very soviet style, old school airport). We took a 747-400 to Shanghai. It was huge. I’m pretty sure we took one to Israel, but it seemed sort of a waste to take a double decker two hours. On the flight the stewardess helped me with my calligraphy practice, bringing me water for the book and helping me get the hang (and meaning) of the characters. It was quite nice and she was very excited to be a “teacher”. By the time we got home it was almost midnight and I was excited to be able to see the Shanghai TV Tower from our room. Sometimes we get the best views!

Day 6-Shanghai

Brittany had to wake up early for a Taiji FDP, while I slept. We met around 8am for breakfast before heading out. We found Perri and Becca and the four of us shared a taxi to the downtown area for about a dollar each. Our plan (Brittany and I) was to go to the Art Muesuem, the park and just walk around exploring the city since we were tired from Beijing.

Unfortunately the Museum was closed due to a special event and we had to scrap that idea. We moved on (a little bitterly, lol) to People’s Park, a beautiful public park full of pink roses, neatly trimmed topiaries and a local people (who make it a habit of blowing their noses onto the street and spitting, gross, but I guess it is their culture).

After walking around and taking pictures for a while I saw two older Chinese women practicing Taiji. Although Brittany had gotten her fill of it, I hadn’t tried it yet so I decided to go up to the women and “ask” (no English) for a lesson. They were quite helpful and funny and we played for quite a while, they weren’t happy with our stances but tried to help us anyway. My chi was centered at times, but when they tried to test us by pushing us (if you have the proper stance and alignment you shouldn’t be able to be pushed over) we both failed pretty miserably. It was quite remarkable to be learning Taiji from to ladies in a park in china and I am confident that I won’t forget it anytime soon.

As we exited the park two young Chinese women (about our age) started chatting us up and told us they were from a nearby province and that they were visiting and asked us if we wanted to go with them to a tea ceremony. Being a good traveler I had already looked up scams on wikitravel and this one seemed to fit the bill. We politely declined their offer and I was a little sad since I was unsure if it was truly a scam. When we returned to the ship later it was apparent that it was and that a lot of people had fell into it, some getting charged over 50 USD for some tea.

After our near run in, we continued out to the busy streets, Shanghai being a bustling city. We walked in and out of shops without much luck our remaining money burning a hole in our pocket. We walked through Nanjing Road, a closed shopping street and I found some hot wheels for my dad at a toy store. Feeling tired we ended up stoping for lunch before exploring side streets. Similar to NYC, many fake bag sellers ran up to us, I kept saying no, but they were quite aggressive. We followed one into their back room (similar to NYC, again) where Brittany bought a LeSportSac. Frustrated that I couldn’t find anything to spend my last 100 Yuan (about 15 dollars) we continued searching the streets.

We ended up stumbling upon a calligraphy shop and I happily bought some colored ink sticks and papers. Purchases complete we hailed a cab and returned, sleepily to the ship.

We took some pictures on the decks with the skyline before passing out for a couple of hours (dock time was early!). We headed to Shabbat and then to Mindy and MickeyG’s room to watch the nighttime skyline (I bought a flexible tripod in China for like 8 dollars so I could take the pictures very well!), the TV Tower a colorful glow with ships passing by.

Reflections
I really enjoyed China, especially Beijing. Besides the fact that the communist party controls and censors the press, I felt that the country as a whole felt very capitalistic and free. The people seemed happy and taken care of. I’m sure if I had seen more rural areas my opinion would have been VERY different, but the big cities did seem quite progressive. The fact that their economy has been loosened for 30ish years made it a big contrast to Russia where its only been so for 15-20.

Ok, I’m off to explore Japan.

Happy Sailing!
Elyssa

No more updates for a while...

The internet is about to go out (due to Japan) so I can't update the last two China days. I had a great time and will post them when I get back!

Elyssa

No more updates...

...my internet is about to go out until we leave Japan, so the last two days of china won't get put up until we leave. Sorry :( I'm having/had a great time!!

Elyssa

Day 4-Beijing, PRC

Day 4-Beijing, PRC
I was very excited, albeit a little nervous for the climb itself, to finally go to The Great Wall. Its one of the wonders of the world! It is basically a compilation of stone walls created between the 5th century and the 16th century. It covers over 4,000 miles from Shanhaiguan to Lop Nur. Over 2 million people died during its creation and at one time it was guarded by over one million men.

We went to the Mutianyu section, which houses a toboggan that we took down. The climb was pretty intense and we were all out of breath by the time we made it to the top, Brittany and I stopped half way through to take pictures by a lovely red pagoda. Jordan had his long lens, so I popped it on my camera and shot some spectacular shots of the wall from afar (I decided against bringing mine due to the weight and the long climb).

We spent the next hour or so exploring the wall itself. Constantly stopping to take pictures, the day crisp and sunny (what luck!). The wall itself was pretty amazing. Made of stone and seemingly going on forever I tried to picture the Mongols on one side with the Chinese forces holding them back on top of this massive peak. I felt so lucky to have been able to see such a magnificent sight (Thanks Mom and Dad!). After taking pictures from every angle we possibly could we headed down to the toboggan station. I took my time, while Brittany whizzed right off. The view was spectacular, despite my nerves as I looked out to see what would happen if I flipped it, lol.

The bottom of the mountain was full of vendors. One woman held out a “I Climbed the Great Wall” and pronounced that it was only 1 USD. When we followed her to her stall she quickly rebuked on the offer and even pinched Brittany as we walked away, it was quite shocking. Once we realized just how aggressive the vendors were we decided to divide and conquer. Brittany got a chop made (I got a case and ink for mine for only 10 Yuan), while I bargained one of those shirts down to 10 Yuan (I was/am out of cloths due to the slow laundry, but they say we’ll get it back before Japan, so we’ll see). We got back on the bus a little late (along with some other people) and promptly took our seats.

The tour guide pulled quite a trick on us, telling us that since we had been so late that we would have to go to McDonalds rather than a pizza buffet. Many people on the bus were extremely angry, while I was disappointed, I didn’t see any sense in getting worked up so I put on my ipod and looked out the window. We eventually pulled up to a “Big Pizza” and figured out that Jeff had pulled a prank on us. Many didn’t think it was funny, but I sure did. The buffet was very yummy and it was nice to have a change from Chinese food (though who could really complain about authentic Chinese food?).

From our Pizza filled feast we headed to the Silk Market. My goal was to get my chop carved for under 20 Yuan (bringing the sum total to around 8 dollars), while Brittany wanted to get pearls. After quite some searching, I found a shop that would do it (the stone I bought was very strong and they needed a special electronic carver), so I left it with them after having them literally promise their lives away if it wasn’t completed. While Brittany was hard at work buying like 10 sets of pearls, I found a small family owned calligraphy shop.

Having not made real art in TOO long, I was so excited when they offered me a lesson (albeit to get me to buy the supplies, but still). I really enjoyed doing it (their English wasn’t so good, so it was a little hard) and since I had overestimated the amount of cash I should have taken out the first day, I haggled for a quality brush, a box for the brush, black ink and a practice book (the coolest thing ever, it dries after you paint on it with water) all for under 10 dollars. The women took pity on me after a while as she was pretty adamant about selling it for more than twice that. It will really come in handy over the long stretches of sea time coming up. I was also able to get a bendy tripod for under 8 dollars (I already used it to take pictures of the Shanghai skyline at night). At the last minute Brittany ended up getting another LeSportSac.

We all piled back on the bus comparing our finds. It was very interesting to see what other people had bought. Many bought a ton of fake clothes, bags and even shoes! I was happy with my art related purchase.

We headed back to the hotel for dinner with the Chinese students. We ended up sitting with two Chinese students who had been dating for two years. They were really friendly and the boy kept refusing to eat until we had all eaten, which meant that I kept putting food on his plate. It was quite funny in person. After another lazy susan filled dinner, Brittany and I excused ourselves to go get her a phone card (I still had time left on mine).

On our way back we bumped into Faye and her boyfriend (our Chinese friends) and we asked them if there was a grocery store around. They walked us through some very dark streets and we ended up at a multistory department store complete with a bathroom. Brittany looked for a belt for her mom and cloths for her, although she didn’t end up buying any cloths because they weren’t very high quality despite the large price tags (weird since everything was, you guessed it, made in china). I got some cup-of-noodles (but a Chinese version) and Brittany got moisturizer.

On our way back to the hotel we got some street vendor popcorn (it was yummy and cheap, I’m still surprised about the lack of street food in china though, I guess the government is strict about it). I talked to the male student about politics and he seemed very pro-American, stating that he wants to continue his studies in the USA.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were very tired, but excited for the coming day!

Day 3-Beijing, China

Day 3-Beijing, China

Our first true day in Beijing was truly a highlight. Our first stop was to Tiananmen Square. Maybe it is due to my political science background or the many east asian classes I have taken, but, when I think of China, I think of this infamous Square.

Tiananmen means “Gate of Heavenly Peace” which is kind of ironic due to the events that have taken place there. On October 1, 1949 Mao Zedong declared the People’s Republic of China in that very square. His government would ultimately, directly or indirectly, kill millions. Many parades have also taken place in the square be it during the Cultural Revolution or a military parade. Finally, the infamous protests of 1989 unraveled in the square and just when students thought their communist government was loosening up they were massacred for their protest. The accuracy of how many were killed or how the event went down varies tremendously. Some people who witnessed the event say that no one was killed in the square itself, while NATO believes 6,000 were killed. It is rarely discussed in Chinese textbooks. Some of our guides seemed to deny that even,t but the Chinese students I talked with did say that it happened. It’s a particularly interesting event, both in analysis of the actual event and the denial, by some, of the event.

When we walked onto the plaza we immediately began taking pictures with the red gate which has a brown “typically Chinese” roof (the corners turn up), which is decorated with Mao’s picture, the crisp, cool breeze chilling our skin.

Then we took a few pictures with the National Centre for the Performing Arts which is also known as The Egg, since it is dome shaped and made of titanium and glass and encompassed by a lake. It was pretty gorgeous.

From there we walked toward the center of the square which has the “Monument to the People’s Heroes” which is a 10-story obelisk, sort of similar to our Washington monument in shape. It has a quote by Mao on it and even an inscription by Zedong himself.

Next, we dropped our bags with the guide who promised me like 10 times that he would watch my camera closely, in order to go to Mao’s Mausoleum. China having been my third communist (if you count Russia) country I am constantly trying to look for bias or “sucking up” or similar tilts. I found a major sign in this mausoleum. Not only were people bringing rented flowers to this man (who killed so many) but they were bowing and seemed genuinely sincere in their actions. Besides that (which I guess I can understand because some people view many of Mao’s worst creations, i.e. the cultural revolution, as things that just backfired but were not meant to hurt people) the fact that we were ushered so quickly by his “actual” (embalmed) body that it looked so fake. Who knows? It was odd. Maybe its just cultural.

Then we headed back to meet the group and walk to the gate to go to the Forbidden City. While Jeff (the university guide) explained how to use our headsets (which were super cool and would just start talking when we walked to a certain place in the FC) a cute Chinese family came up to us and asked us to take our pictures with them. Apparently that is very common and we were asked to take our picture with Chinese individuals many times throughout our trip.

The Forbidden City itself was the imperial palace for China, starting in the Ming Dynasty all the way until the Qing Dynasty. During this time, almost 500 years, the Emperor used it as his home and as the center for politics in China. It was created from 1406 until 1420 and there are still 980 buildings which have made it until today. It is also a World Heritage Site and holds the most old wooden structures on the globe. Its north-south axis is still used as the axis of Beijing.

The FC is constricted by a 26 ft high wall and a 170 ft wide moat. They were used for defense of the city as well as for keeping the servants in. One of the main colors of the city (amongst the blues and reds) is yellow which is the color of the Emperor. Most of the roofs have yellow tiles, which sparkle in the sun. Most of the roofs are adorned with a line of statuettes, most of them depict a man riding a phoenix who is chased by a dragon. The more statuettes, the more important the building.

I could go on for pages about the beauty of the buildings. The bright reds mixing with gold carvings, The paintings of dragons, in gold, on top of bright greens and blues, the sloped roofs contrasting to the thick beams, the beauty was endless.

At one point Brittany remarked that she had gotten dusk in her eyes, I laughed as I told her that it was actually a snow flurry! Very cool. Time seemed to fly by as we posed with gold lions, intricate beams and everything in between. It seemed like we could spend days getting lost in this Forbidden City. Just before we made it to the exit we were surrounded by the beautiful Imperial Garden. Branch like vines twirled and we felt the zen.

Since our guide was not a regular tour guide, rather a professor from UIBE, he took the fact that we had extra time to take us to another site rather than a shop where he got kickbacks (oh, India). Anyway, he directed us up the Jingshan hill which is about 45 meters high (it was a bit of a hike). It had amazing views of the FC and we were really able to see to the massive size and quality of it. The pagoda on top was magnificent in itself. Bright red beams with two layers of roof, all in golds, blues and greens. It was magnificent.

We headed back onto the bus, flushed with images of imperial greatness. The next stop on our itinerary was lunch and we were slightly surprised to hear that we would be eating at the Temple of Heaven.

Large golf-like carts took groups of us through the chilly park to a Chinese restaurant on the side of one of the buildings. Once again we had lovely Chinese food (and toilets, lol, non-western, hole in the ground style) on a lazy susan, enjoying more duck, orange chicken and rice.

After our food fueling, we headed out with Nicole and Ben (the trip leaders) to explore the tripartite temple. The Temple of Heaven is a compilation of Taoist buildings. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, emperors would come to pray to heaven for good harvests for their people.

It was very interesting as the three separate temples were laid out on a hill and we decided to go to the bottom first and make our way up to the “best” one last. The first was an altar and is known as the “Circular Mound Alter” it is basically a large circular platform made of marble stones. It is where the emperor would go to pray for good weather. The next building we visited was the Imperial Vault of Heaven which is a one tired building on small round alter. It was beautiful. Its circular shape was accented by red around the base and then gold, blue and green trimming with a blue roof-a distinction from the yellow roofs in the Forbidden City.

Before heading with to the final temple, we went with Ben and Nicole to do geocaching. Which is a global treasure hunting game in which individuals utilize GPS to navigate to find little containers with logbooks or small trinkets. Ben let me be in charge of the GPS which had a virtual compass. It took us a while, walking through the garden and surrounding forests, but we found a 35mm film canister which had been signed by individuals from across the globe. It was pretty awesome.

Feeling proud of our find, we headed to the last temple which was called “The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests”. This was a combination of the first two temples we had seen. It was amazing. Almost 40 meters tall and 32 meters in diameter this three tiered circular building, on three layers of marble stone is where the emperor would go to prayer for good harvests. It is made in entirety of wood, without any nails or the like. The prominent color in it is blue with accents in red(the base of the building) and golds. The top of the building (it comes to a conical point) is a fiery gold. Once again we took a plethora of pictures including some of the surrounding rectangular buildings which were mainly red with gold accents.

Our feet were aching by the time we returned to the bus. Jeff told us that the acrobatic show that we were supposed to see before dinner was sold out so we would “have to” see the longer one after dinner, but that we would have time to go to The Pearl Market. Brittany and I were pretty psyched about the news since we wanted to see what the shopping was like in the city and who doesn’t like a longer show?

The pearl market is a multiple story air conditioned (or heated) building which has individual vendors selling everything from knock off lesportsacs to knick-knacks. We only had a little over an hour and we didn’t know what we wanted to buy so we just explored. The vendors were VERY aggressive. They literally pulled us or blocked us from leaving their shops. It was intense but with the right attitude it wasn’t too bad. I ended up getting Mom some glass pendants before we went upstairs to see the touristy goods. I really wanted a chomp which is their version of a name stamp. They are carved into decorative stone and then you use them with special inks to stamp your name on art work, etc. The Chinese still use them today.

After circling the place for while, Brittany worked on bargaining some pearls down while I found the perfect chop. It was sparkly and had a dragon (my year sign) carved into it and I managed to bargain it down to only 40 Yuan (6.7 Yuan=1 USD). They promised me it would take only 20 minutes (I had only 30 until we had to be back), so I gave them a deposit and walked around pricing out various items (I got black pearl earrings for 10 Yuan). Brittany wanted a LeSportSac so we literally ran downstairs to haggle for one before running back upstairs to check on my chomp. It turned out that they couldn’t get it done in time and they kept telling me 5 minutes. Well we didn’t have 5 minutes and I really wanted that Chop, so after some pleas, slight raising of my voice and a tinch of back and forth I got my uncarved Chop for 20 Yuan, with the plan to get it carved elsewhere.

Exhausted, we headed back to the bus. The deal with going to the acrobatic show later was that we wouldn’t get dinner until after and we were hungry. We ended up stopping at…McDonalds, for a crutch dinner which we ate in our seats at the acrobatic show. The show was VERY impressive. The acrobats were particularly talented from the Juggler who could balance TEN balls to the TWELVE women who managed to all fit on a bicycle, we were very impressed.

By the time the show was over our  beds were particularly welcoming, especially knowing we had The Great Wall to explore and climb in the morning.

Day 2- Traveling to Beijing

Day 2- Traveling to Beijing

This day was mostly spent traveling. We woke up earlish to meet our group of 50 around nine oclock. After going through formalities we headed to the bus and then arrived at the impressive airport. It even had free wireless. After heading through customs (since its considered an international flight) and getting our temperatures electronically taken (you walk through a machine) we boarded the plane for our three hour flight, which was pretty uneventful. From the airport we headed to our hotel-Ying Hua. The hotel its self was pretty nice and very convenient to the university (we did a university hosted trip through University of International Business and Economics).

After throwing down our bags, Brittany and I headed to the lobby to meet for dinner. After the group had assembled we walked a couple of blocks to a Chinese restaurant. We headed upstairs and were greeted by very Chinese décor (red, calligraphy, etc). We sat around a lazy susan adorned circular table and were joined by other SASers. SAS really went all out on this meal; we had everything from Peking Duck (which Beijing is known for and I actually really liked) to Orange Chicken to Chicken with Cashews to Broccoli to Caramelized Sugar Apples. It was quite the feast.

After stuffing ourselves (remember ship food=inedible, so any really good food is like heaven), we walked across the street to the university. We had mixers and icebreakers with about 30 UIBE students. It was really cool and interactive. The students all seemed really interested in us and in the United States, many of them had plans to continue their studies there. They seemed politically aware without traces of communism. (I’ll talk about the communism stuff in my reflections). They played music but very few people got up to dance, it seemed that boys and girls dance separately.

After the mixer we walked back to the hotel and fell fast asleep in anticipation of our full next day.