put me in my place

Our spring semester is about to begin. I'm sure that sounds strange to you students and teachers back home who are almost halfway done with your spring semester, just a couple weeks away from Spring Break. But for us the semester doesn't begin until March 2; I guess that's the tradeoff for having our fall semester stretch past New Year's Day.

This morning I had to go up to campus to take my semester placement test. Last semester I tested into (and completed) the Beginners-2 level of Chinese language classes at Nankai University. I could just go directly into Beginners-3 this semester if I wanted, but in our program we also have the option of taking a placement test to try get into a higher level class. I was hoping to skip right over Beginners-3 and get into Intermediate-1.

I had originally planned to spend a good chunk of my semester break studying and reviewing, in order to ensure that I could test into a higher level. Unfortunately, those plans were never really put into action. After spending the majority of the break traveling and recovering from traveling, my last minute plan was to cram for the last week of the break. Unfortunately I came down with the flu Ben has had, so I've spent the past few days doing little but lounge on the couch, nap and watch X-files.

With essentially no study/review under my belt, I felt pretty underprepared when I walked into the classroom this morning. Sitting in the test room, I convinced myself that, while I would give the test my best shot, I would be okay if I didn't test up a level.

Then I started taking the test, and was amazed to see how much I knew without having studied or reviewed. The answers just came to me, completely naturally, with little thought at all. Even when I came across words I didn't know, I felt like I could understand well enough from the context of the sentence to figure them out. I started to think that maybe--just maybe--I might be able to test two levels higher, into Intermediate-2 instead of Intermediate-1. I walked away from the test feeling pretty good, but a little anxious to find out if I had done as well as I felt I had done.

Well, my friend Lawrence called a little bit ago. He was standing in front of the test scoreboard outside our classroom building, and he wanted to know if I wanted him to look at my score while he was there. My heart skipped a beat, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to know or not, but I finally told him to tell me how I did.

He told me I didn't test into Intermediate 1 or 2. In fact, I not only skipped over Beginners-3, but also skipped Intermediate levels 1, 2, and 3, and tested directly into Advanced 1! I couldn't believe it! I tested four levels higher than I would have been at without testing!

I still haven't decided if I'm actually going to enter Advanced 1 on Monday. I'm not entirely convinced that my Chinese level is actually that advanced. I may just try it out for a couple of weeks, see if it's a good fit or not, and then go from there. Or I may chicken out and go into Intermediate-2. Either way, it's good to know that I really am learning, I'm really making progress in my language study--maybe even more than I know.

trip update: Dazu County

My last trip-related post was about our train-ride to Chongqing. Unfortunately, Chongqing itself was not one of the most pleasant stops in our month-long trip. So much so, in fact, that I'm not really going to post much about Chongqing. Actually the big highlight of Chongqing was the one day we left Chongqing proper to see the stone carvings of nearby Dazu County.

The stone and cave carvings of Dazu county are actually located in a number of spots all over the county, but we had the opportunity to visit only one of these spots. That one location was enough, though. The carvings are generally depictions of scenes and figures, influenced by Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist beliefs. They are incredibly intricate, and really impressive. Some of the carvings are quite large, like the reclining Buddha below. Others are broad scenes with hundreds of small figures, carved in incredible detail. It wasn't really something we had planned on seeing, but it ended up being one of the most impressive places we visited on our entire trip.

One of many Buddhas

Scenes of filial piety

Figures of the underworld

Me and the reclining Buddha

Ben's getting better!

I hope the last post, about Ben being sick, didn't worry anyone too much. The good news is: things are looking up. The meds are working! Eastern, Western, hot toddies, some, or all--makes no difference to us. We're just glad he's on the road to recovery. Thanks for all your well-wishes and prayers.

He's not 100% yet, but he's definitely on the mend. Hopefully he'll be all better by the time we both start classes again on Monday, March 2.

poor, sick Ben

Poor Ben has had a terrible cold ever since we were in Chengdu, complete with runny nose, hacking cough, sore throat--all the terrible stuff that comes with a cold. He has had an awful time trying to sleep at night because his cough and congestion (and the accompanying inability to breathe) wake him up. He just hasn't been getting better, and in fact today, he was feeling worse. And his sinuses were hurting. And he was pretty sure he had developed a sinus infection. Poor Ben.

So, we decided to go to a Chinese pharmacy, in the hopes that we might be able to get our hands on some amoxycillin (I guess you don't necessarily need a prescription for that stuff here). Ben is more than ready to get this nasty stuff knocked out of his body.

We walked into the pharmacy, and the first woman we saw asked what was wrong. I told her Ben had a cold, and she directed us to the appropriate counter. The woman there asked what Ben's symptoms were, and she started pulling out boxes of medicine for each of the symptoms. I explained to her that Ben had been sick a long while, hoping she would understand it was serious (I wasn't sure how to say sinus infection). Her response (which I actually had to call Sam to have him help me understand) was that she thought Ben had too much heat/fire in his body, and if you have too much heat for a long time, it will develop into a serious cold, but it wouldn't be unusual for it to last so long. She then pulled out some more boxes of Chinese medicine.

Meanwhile, Ben was standing, looking longingly at the boxes of antibiotics, muttering under his breath, "They have amoxycillin. I just want some amoxycillin." Poor Ben.

We ended up leaving without the amoxycillin, but with a whole bag full of various remedies, including effervescent vitamin C tablets, licorice lozenges, and some kind of pill that I was supposed to take too, because the pharmacist thought I probably had too much heat, too. We also had one box that the pharmacist identified as "Western medicine." What kind, we didn't know.

Ben's many boxes of pills

I just got done giving Ben his first dose of everything: 7 pills, an effervescent glass of vitamin C solution, and a sachet packet of medicine meant to reduce his "heat." Ben was feeling pretty unhappy about walking away without an antibiotic . . . until he did a little research and found out that the unidentified Western medicine was an antibiotic after all.

So, we've got the Chinese herbal medicine, and we've got the Western antibiotics, too. Hopefully something in that mass of medicines will do the trick, and Ben will be back to his old self soon.

trip in review: train to Chongqing

After we left lovely Guilin, we took a long train (21 hours, I think?) to Chongqing. Along the way we gained a new little friend.

This little guy is probably about 4 or 5 years old, and was riding with his dad in the sleeping berth next to ours. He was kind of scared of us at first--didn't even want to make eye contact, even though he couldn't stop watching us--but we eventually lured him in using Oreos and the opportunity to wrestle with Nathan, the supersized foreigner.

After I took a couple pictures of him, he became enamored of my camera, and asked to take a few shots of his own. Here are some of the things that caught his attention.

The guy sharing our sleeping berth who was not amused, not amused at all.

The bottom half of Nathan's face

The ceiling light in our berth

The patch on the knee of his jeans

Super-close-up of the book Ben was reading


His dad

He probably took a dozen other shots, but this last one was the one that brought about the end of his photo-snapping extravaganza.

Definitely made the 21-hour trip seem a little shorter.

springsick

I'm taking just a little break from blogging about our trip today to write a little bit about the current state of things (although I am still working on loading more photos (and writing more captions) on my picassa page, so keep checking in).

I am feeling a little disappointed to be back in Tianjin today. It may seem silly, but I think my disappointment is mostly weather-related. Most of the time we were in Guilin, Chongqing, Chengdu and Xi'an, we didn't need hats, gloves or scarves, and some of the days we didn't even need to wear coats. There were days in Chengdu and Guilin in particular when we could walk around with short sleeves, and no jackets even!

Spending so many days in that kind of beautiful weather, I kind of got my hopes up about returning to a warmer, springier Tianjin. I was looking forward to walking around our home city in a light jacket, feeling the spring breezes blow through my hair, and sensing the days getting warmer and warmer as we advanced deeper into spring.

Then we actually arrived in Tianjin, where the temperatures were (still!) at a blustery 28 degrees Fahrenheit. It snowed Tuesday night, a little bit yesterday, and some more early this morning. The temperatures haven't risen above freezing since we've been back, and we've barely left the house in the past couple of days, trying to stay where it's warm and dry.

The other night I was chatting with my sister, Megs, online. She said she had recently bought a spring-colored new purse, because she thought if she carried it, it might make spring come more quickly. I understand that feeling. I've been perusing spring clothing online (even though I can't buy it) and daydreaming about spending afternoons on warm patios with cold beers or hot coffees. In my head, spring is already supposed to be here, even if it is still mid-February.

But the reality outside of my head (confirmed by the reality outside my window) is that we are still firmly within winter's grasp. Here's hoping it will let go of us soon.

our local winter wonderland

more trip pictures!

I just wanted to post out the new little slideshow gadget on my site--right there on the top left side. Pretty cool, eh? You can see all the pictures I haven't posted on my blog, as well as the ones I have.

The only downside is that I can include only one album of pictures at a time on the slideshow. Since I've divided my photos into albums based on which city they were taken in, I actually have several albums worth of photos, so I can't make them all visible in the slideshow at once. That's actually probably a good thing. If you sat through all the photos I took in the last four weeks, you'd be sitting there for quite a while.

If you're interested in seeing more pictures from our entire trip, you can see them here, in my picasa.com account. I'm in the process of adding more (I took a TON of photos, so it's a long process), so please, check in later to see even more shots.

trip in review: Guilin

I can't speak for everyone, but my favorite city among the cities we visited was by far Guilin. We were there from January 28 to February 1. I already wrote a little bit about it here, but I'll just reiterate: Guilin was beautiful.

Besides climbing dozens of mountains and exploring their weird, rock-star light-show caves, we also got the opportunity to ride on a bamboo raft down the Li River. The weather was warm and springlike every day that we were there (except for the very first foggy day). It was amazing.

It's hard to describe just how nice it was there, so I'll let some pictures speak for themselves.





Kung-Fu Erin! Hi-YA!




View from bamboo raft




Me in front of Elephant Nose hill



Inside one of Guilin's caves

mmm...breakfast!

New Year's lanterns at Fubo mountain

On top of Fubo Mountain

Misty mountains behind Ben

In the underwater tunnel between Sun and Moon pagodas

Sun and Moon pagodas

trip in review: Wuzhen

So, I was looking back at the entries I've already posted about our trip, and I thought the best way to fill in the gaps would be to post an entry about each of the places we visited, along with some pictures. I already put up some pictures from Shanghai and Hangzhou, our first and second destinations (from 1/20-1/27). I'll just pick up from there.

Wuzhen wasn't really a destination of it's own, but still cool enough to warrant a blog entry. We took a day trip from Hangzhou to visit this little town. It's kind of hard to describe. Basically, it's built on a series of waterways, and has been restored to resemble a Qing-era village. But people just go on living and working right in the areas of the town that have been restored, so when you go to visit it, it's not like you're walking through a dead museum house of the Qing. Instead, you're walking right through the place where people live today, surrounded by artifacts and elements of a previous era.

Kind of strange.

But fascinating all the same. Also, there are demonstrations put on by the townspeople of a number of crafts, such as weaving, winemaking, and dyeing the blue and white cloth they have been making for centuries.

Ben in a Wuzhen alleyway

Wuzhen market




Play in the public square





River ferry




Ben and Wuzhen dyed fabric

We loved Wuzhen. And then we almost got stuck there. The day we went there was the first day of the Chinese New Year, and so some of the later buses were cancelled that day (I'm still not entirely sure why). We didn't know that the buses were cancelled in advance, so when we showed up to take the last bus back to Hangzhou (where all our stuff was, and where we needed to be in order to take a train away from there the next morning), we were told there was no bus for us.


Oh, man.


A moment of panic followed. And then two really nice girls from Guangzhou, who were planning to take the same bus, showed up like knights on gleaming white horses. Hearing that we, too, needed to get back to Hangzhou, they simply said to us, "Let's go to Hangzhou," and even though we had no idea how they intended to accomplish that, we followed them like puppies. They knew what they were doing. They instantly starting negotiating with a line of taxi drivers lined up outside the station. We all ended up hiring a guy in a van to drive us all the way back to Hangzhou for 300 kuai (about $40 USD). We were all a bit stunned when we realized we had actually made it back.

we're home!

We made it! We are back in Tianjin. We walked into our neglected (and incredibly dusty) apartment about 45 minutes ago. First task: change into some clothes that aren't one of the three outfits I've been wearing for the past four weeks. Second task: order pizza. Third task: get online and let you all know we've made it back.

Fourth task is going to be kind of a multi-step process: 1.) eat the pizza we ordered, 2.) watch a DVD, and 3.) completely veg out on the couch before falling into an exhausted sleep in our very own bed. Woo-hoo!

The plan is to post some trip photos and stories and stuff tomorrow (probably while doing laundry), so tune in for more fun and excitement really soon!

still alive in Xi'an

Just wanted to let you, my faithful readers, know that we are still alive and still making our way through China. Still. We are in Xi'an, home of the terra-cotta warriors, right now. Thankfully, this is our last stop before heading home the day after tomorrow. I have to say I am really ready to get home and stay put for a little while. All this traveling has worn me out!

I've pretty much given up on really posting photos and things from our trip until we get home. It's not that it's impossible, but just difficult and time-consuming while on the road. But don't worry--I've got plans for tons of posts (with tons of pictures) to catch you up on our great adventures once we get back home again. We went to see the terra-cotta warrior museum today (all day. . . seriously . . . all day), and got some great pictures of the archaeological digs I can't wait to post.

More on that, and all our adventures, very, very soon.

Ben fits in with the locals (and I helped)

it's picture time: Hangzhou

I think I'm actually going to be able to post some pictures, thanks to the wonders of Starbucks and its amazing free wi-fi. You never know how much you should appreciate Starbucks until you've been wandering through China for two weeks with terrible internet quality the whole time.

Just to fill in you moms out there (you know who you are): we're in Chongqing, a big city on the Yangzi river. This is our last day in town--we leave for Chengdu tomorrow afternoon--just a short 5 hour train ride away. I've been under the weather since before we left Guilin, so Ben convinced me to take it easy today, sleep in, rest, chill out at Starbucks for a day. I have to say, it's been a wonderful respite.

Here is a handful or two of shots from Hangzhou. I'll post some from Guilin and Chongqing in separate posts.


View across West Lake, Hangzhou


Goldfish pond near West Lake


Me at the top of Leifeng Pagoda


Ben rides the escalator to enlightenment


Candles in a Buddhist temple


Red lanterns at the Buddhist temple


Happy New Year! (now can I go inside, please?)