My Vietnamese Wedding which I failed to mention...

Hello... Is anybody still listening?

I wouldn't expect you to be since I kind of disappeared for more than half a year and never finished telling the stories of my time abroad. For that I am very regretful, because the best few months of my life happened during the time that I didn't update this blog. Let me catch you up briefly...

So my wonderful boyfriend Huy proposed to marry me on May 7th, through Skype!!! I know, I know, it's crazy; and of course I accepted his offer! haha. So after that I spent my time making the wedding plans because we wanted to get married in Vietnam and then have a reception in the US after we graduate in May 2014. My last few weeks in China were a blast. I studied hard, got good grades, and had the best time with my friends. My American friend who was moving to Beijing to work even surprised me at my door, which was just magical! I also had my friend from Hangzhou come to Beijing, and I was her tour guide of Beijing!

Of course, after finding out that not only was I going to be meeting Huy's family, but I was also going to BECOME part of his family, I tried to learn as much Vietnamese as possible! I didn't learn much though because I had to also focus on Chinese studies, but I had enough to get by during the first few days.

So, leaving Beijing wasn't as hard as I thought because I was super excited for the next chapter of my adventure, and of my life. I ended up getting stuck in Kuala Lumpur because the first flight missed the connection, so I was there for 8 hours, nervous of course! It was pretty cool though, because I met a Vietnamese girl who was studying in Beijing and heading home for the break. We talked a lot and she kind of taught me some Vietnamese. We sat together on the flight from Malaysia to Vietnam but after we separated in the airport I didn't see her again. I do have her contact in my phone though.

Meeting Huy's parents at the airport was so amazing. It was seriously like a dream. I came out from the airport and I saw Huy and walked over and we hugged (even though PDA is frowned upon in Vietnam). Then mom and dad were there waiting for me. Mom had a basket with flowers and they both gave me a hug. I greeted them in Vietnamese and they seemed pleased. The house was a 5 minute drive from the airport which was very convenient. We got to the house and the Karaoke manager helped to carry my stuff inside. When I got in I took a hot shower and then ate dinner. I was very tired from the traveling so I went to bed early, but I was happy to be back with my love again, and to be in his home country with his amazing family.

So the family at home consists of grandma, dad, mom, brother-in-law Hai, sister Lien, Lien's baby Nhím, Huy, and me. Honestly, I'm trying to write about my time in Vietnam but I'm almost at a loss for words because it was so amazing, I just don't know how to describe my time there in a way that can even halfway convey my feelings for this amazing country and family. I don't know where to start, but there is so much to write, it might actually take me all night to compose this entry. My heart is melting and I feel like crying as I remember all the times I had in Vietnam.

I just sit here and I think about different moments, and I get lost in my memories. I'm infatuated with my life in Vietnam and I want to be there now. I feel like life has more meaning because I felt I was special to everyone there. There wasn't a day that went by that felt like it was wasted, which is how I feel a lot of the time in the United States. Sorry, I keep getting off track, I will try to actually TELL you what I did in Vietnam.

So the next day after arriving, I had to try on some dresses because we were getting out wedding photo shoot done, which is common in Vietnam. You get professional photos done before the wedding and then you have a wedding album to show off. :) So I was trying on dresses and getting to know the people who would be taking our photos. The first few days were a little hard because my mind was still in Chinese language mode and I didn't know much Vietnamese, so a lot of the time I just sat in my own little world, unsure what the conversation around me entailed.

During the first few days, I was also trying to make friends with my soon to be niece, Nhím. Those days, she would just stare at me whenever I was around, but wouldn't want to come near me. I'm also not usually good with babies and young children, that's more my sister's field of expertise. This little girl though, she was the cutest ever. I wanted her to love me. I just wanted to pick her up and hold her tight. But I had to wait, and within a few days we started to play together. In a few short weeks we became great friends, playing all the time. She would come and grab my hand to dance, make me put on random high heeled shoes, and I also had to sing songs for her and she would clap at the end. She didn't talk when I first got there, but started to while I was there. I was so happy when she called her mother "mum" and when she learned to say "bye" and wave. Now, her parents can speak English but they only really speak English to me at home. As you know my Vietnamese was not good, but when it was just Nhím and I, I would practice what I could and she would understand me. I could go on and on about my dear baby Nhím, but I will get back to the story.

The photo shoot was so intense! We had to wake up at 3am and get a taxi to the studio. I was so tired but at 3:30am I was getting false eyelashes and makeup applied. Just before the sun came up, we went to this church to get the first photos. From there we went to many locations, first in the city and then in more rural places, and finally at the beach. I was so cool, I felt like a princess with all the beautiful clothes. We didn't get home from the photo shoot until dinner time. Below is a link to the youtube video which I uploaded the wedding photos. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_koI4SETqNg

That was just amazing! So the photo shoot was on July 10th, and the wedding was on July 19th. We had to go to the embassy and other government places to take care of a lot of paperwork.. Marriage between foreigners is not an easy task! There was documents, and interviews, the works! In order to go to the different places, Huy drove us on the motorbike which was another highlight! That was so much fun!!! I loved to zip around, or sometimes get caught in traffic, but it was still so cool.

We had two big dates for our wedding, July 19th was the traditional wedding at home and July 31st was the reception at a restaurant. None of my family came to the wedding but it was fine. Let's talk about the traditional wedding. So it was held at Huy's house and I got to wear the traditional áo dài.

So cool! Man, there is a lot to write if I want to get into details about the ceremony but I will actually try to make it kind of brief.

First, I got ready and then Huy and I went over how the ceremony was going to happen. I was going to have to pour alcohol into a small cup and offer it to all of the family members, starting from oldest to youngest. They would give us good wishes and a gift, usually of money or jewelry. At the beginning of the ceremony, we had to light the incense for the ancestors and Huy said something I didn't understand. We had to bow and then begin the ceremony. We started with mom and dad and then offered the drink to everyone. After, we put the rings on each other and we were married!!! No kissing the bride though.. I know, strange!! hah.

Me and sis

Mom and Dad

Grandma

Uncle and Aunt

The rings

Family

Mom and Dad <3 

Officially part of the family!!!!! :) 

So that was the traditional ceremony, and on the 31st we had the reception. Wedding reception in Vietnam is very different from the United States. There is no music and dancing and cake. Instead, 250 people, almost all of whom I did not know, came to the restaurant, took a photo with us, and then had a nice dinner. Then we went on the stage, they announced us, we cut a fake cake, poured fake champagne, and confetti flew. We went to each table of people, took photos, and then it was time for them to go so we went back to the door to say goodbye to everyone and thank you. I was exhausted by the end of it, and was so glad to be going on our honeymoon! 

                              



So there! All of the wedding things had finished, butttt of course we went on a honey moon!!! We went to Mũi Né and stayed at a beach resort for 2 days and 3 nights. It was so good to finally relax after all of the preparing for the wedding.

After the honeymoon we went back to the city, but a week later we went on a family vacation.. well, me, Huy, mom, sis, bro, and Nhím went to Nha Trang, another beach city. First, we went on the longest train ride of my life! So terrible. We went on a hard seat train for 18 hours to go to the middle part of the country to visit uncle's grave. The train was so cold and I was so tired when we finally got out. I took a short nap at the house where we stayed to prepare the food for the grave. Then we went to the grave, had lunch, and got back on the train for 5 more hours to get to Nha Trang. We went to the beach, did a mud bath, and ate lots of seafood, which, by the way, is NOT my favorite. haha. So we had a good time there, and lucky for us, we FLEW back to Ho Chi Minh City. No more crazy trains!

After coming home from this trip, we went on one more small day trip. It was Huy, me, and Huy's friend Luân. We went out west to the Mekong river delta and we also visited a huge pagoda. We got to see coconut candy be made, rode in small boats on the river, and I got a conical hat!

That was so much fun! We actually did go on one more trip like 2 days before we left Vietnam, to Vũng Tàu, another beach. I guess I got to travel a lot in Vietnam! In China I stayed in Beijing the whole time, so it feels cool to be able to name a few places I've been in Vietnam. :) Seriously, it was so amazing!

So, the day I left, you can only imagine how upset I was. Mom took Huy and I to the airport, and when I said goodbye to baby Nhím, I started to cry in the taxi. It just killed me to know that I had to leave her and go back to America, and miss her growing up. I got hold of myself and we went to the airport and got ready to go to our gate. For the last 20 minutes we sat on the bench with mom, my head on her shoulder. Mom and I have an interesting relationship. We cannot communicate well because of the language barrier, but we both love each other very much. With my last minutes being in Vietnam, I wanted to be as close to mom as I could. She is so amazing. She cares so much for everyone in the family, and she makes sure everyone is safe, healthy and happy. She is the ideal mother in my eyes, and I can't believe I am lucky to call her mine now. Of all the luck that has been involved with me meeting Huy and falling in love with him, I feel so happy to have gotten his parents. Dad and I were not too close, but he is still a great man who also cares for his children so much. They are both very beautiful people. Mom, well, there just isn't enough that I can say to describe the feelings, so I will tell you what happened when we said goodbye. I said to her, "con chào mẹ" (bye mom) and I couldn't say anything more, because I started to cry heavily. I clung to her tightly and shook and wept, I didn't want to leave her. She treated me with so much love and kindness and I didn't want to say goodbye for this extended period of time. She also did not say much, "mẹ chào con" (bye child), and Huy was trying to get me to walk away. I held onto mom once more and then made my back back into the airport doors as we made the way to our gate. I don't think anyone expected me to cry as much as I did when saying goodbye to mom, I know I didn't expect it myself. Even as I write this I feel like I'm going to cry again, stirring up this memory and those feelings with are still deep within my heart, and shall stay forever.

Lung linh,lung linh tình mẹ tình cha

Lung linh,lung linh cùng một mái nhà

Lung linh,lung linh cùng buồn cùng vui

Lung linh,lung linh hai tiếng gia đình.

---Gai đình---

And Beijing Life Becomes Normal...

Hi everyone,

So yes, I feel super guilty that I haven't been updating this blog as often as I anticipated, but I think this is something most exchange students go through. First they have so many new things that they want to write about and share with the world. As time passes though, life in their foreign country then turns to the norm. This is pretty much the stage I am in right now. Well, in all honesty I am caught in the middle of two stages, one being the stage where everything is seeming normal even though I'm in this totally different world, but also I am in that stage of being abroad where you start to get angry with the host country. I think it's called an emotional phase.. I mean, the honeymoon feeling of being in Beijing is gone. I still have days where I say, "I can't believe I'm in China right now," and I really still can't believe it, but then I have times where I'm saying, "this place is so stupid, I hate these people, I want America back!" Sorry, China. I don't mean it (that much).

I have found that now I just go about my daily routine and life here has become normal. I get up and go to class and do my homework, go out and eat rice, rice, and more rice, and it's just the way it is. Things that I was like OMG about when I got here now go unnoticed.

I will say I am proud to be an American, which I don't think I understood how much I loved my country until I came here.

And the one thing that kills me here is how wrong I was about the food. I remember people telling me before I left, "oh the food is going to be really hard to get used to." I was like, "no way, I love Chinese food" (what little Chinese food I had eaten in America, that may or may not have been authentic...). Now I can't even believe myself thinking it would be so easy to eat the food here when every day that goes by I am dying for "normal" food. I don't want rice and crazy sauces, I want soup that doesn't include eggs, I want real home sandwiches, and I want oven roasted chicken!!! I have visited McDonald's here in China more times than I'd like to admit, just because I'm missing familiar foods.

Now, I don't want to give the wrong impression. No, I am not miserable here. I still enjoy it here, but I can easily say that I would not want to live in China forever, but I would like to visit again someday.

While I still have 2 more months here in China before jetting off to Vietnam for another adventure, I can already say I know why people tell you that the best decision you can make during your undergraduate career is to go abroad. I have so much more respect for anyone who has done it. It's not easy, but it's totally worth it to test your limits and see just who you are when you've been taken out of your comfort zone. Before I came to China I was proud of myself and I had already thought I was a strong person, but I feel I've become even stronger. I want to be able to share this feeling of self understanding with you all but I just don't really know how to put it in words. Being in this new place has allowed me to get to know myself deep down even more, and I'm happy for that.

4/4 Qing Ming Holiday

Hey y'all!

Sorry for that sad post back there... just got a little bit homesick for a second. But of course it's passed and I'm my normal self again all crazy and such. Right now I'm feeling sleepy after going all around in the subway and exploring the Hutong a bit near BeiHai. Today is the Qing Ming Festival, which is actually really sad.. well it's the day of the dead kind of. I mean, the date is 4/4 and 4 is kind of like the number for death so it's just really morbid. For me though, it's just a day off from school, I ain't got no tombs to visit, Although I do think about the dead. Weirdly enough this death day is also my dead Pepere's birthday, so Happy Birthday Pepere. haha love you!! :)

So I'm having lots of fun here in Beijing, I love ittt. The city life is so fun, I don't know how on earth I will go back to living in the sticks in Maine!!! It's going to kill me to not be able to grab the 地铁 to go all over the place. So sad. I love the subway man, it's one of my favorite parts of Beijing. For those of you who know me, I get obsessed with strange things. Many know me as the girl who is crazy about The Weather Channel, and while I still love my good old TWC, it ain't in China, so I had to find a new obsession for the time being, which is Beijing Subway. Being the longest subway in the world, I'm blown away and I just want to ride it all day. I like to go to the first car and look out the window in the front to see where we are going. I like to lol at the crazy Chinese people I see there. I like to change lines and beep my card and even pushing through the people when I'm trying to 下车 is fun. It's cool that you can just go anywhere you want to, just get on and go go go! And only costing 2 Yuan, why would you go any other way?!?! (Like 33 cents man!!! and you can go anywhere!). So yeah, I am going to miss this wonderful thing when I have to go back to Maine. Oh, and here is a map of this crazy subway which I love, Jinsong is my home station yo! It's on line 10, can you find it?? :)

Lets see, I didn't talk about my trip to the Forbidden city did I? Well there isn't really much to talk about, I saw it and it was pretty cool, took my pictures and what not. It's still crazy though that I was in the place where all those emperors walked! I even got to see the throne man, though that was a challenge. I really wanted a photo though so I pushed those 中国人 out of my way and got a photo. :)

Pretty awesome, huh?? I thought it was cool. Too bad I couldn't actually go sit on it.. haha. And then there was this thing that your are not supposed to be touching but everyone touches it for good luck, so here is a photo of me doing as the Chinese do and touching the lucky thingy!

Oh yeah! Now I'm a lucky girl! :) Look at that old LaoWai in the background. :D Oh and here is a dragon turtle!!

So overall the Forbidden city was cool. These days they weather is getting warmer and warmer, so much warmer than it is for you folks back at home, ha-ha!!! It's around 60 in the afternoons on some days which I'm happy about. I'm about ready to ditch that winter coat and actually look cute when I take pics.

Class is pretty good, but I'm glad we are having a break. I have a test next week on 100 characters which I pretty much forgot them all, so this weekend it's STUDY TIME. Only China isn't very generous, while we get Thursday and Friday off for the holiday, we have class on SUNDAY. Man, that's like a crime in the US. So that's pretty craycray, ganna have a 6 day school week. >.< At least I like my classmates. I can have a good time in class, especially during 休息一会儿！That's my fav (break time every 45 minutes). By the way, sorry for the Chenglish.. I love this language, talking English and then just throw some Chinese in there. Of course it's better for those who know both languages but hey, I want to express myself in this manner.

Well, I suppose I will end the post here. I may or may not study now. Bye Bye. :)

我一点儿想家

Well here I am sitting in my room, and I found that I wasn't being productive (when I should be) so I thought it would be a good time to drop a line or two to the world out there. Just want to say that I'm still surviving in Beijing, thriving actually. I'm getting used to the life here and I embrace the differences of China. I love this place. But despite the fact that I feel I have finally settled into Beijing life, I am for the first time in my life feeling a little bit homesick. I'm not talking like I want to go to my physical house, I don't know, it's weird. I just feel like I miss my home at odd times. When the wind blows and the trees make some noise, it reminds me of home where on a warm summer day the breeze will give us relief and the leaves sound like music to me. Seeing a pine cone now a days I go crazy and I just want to stare at the green trees that I sometimes can find around the city. I'm a nature girl at heart so I miss the times when I can just lay on the grass near the trees with the birds and blue sky and little animals and all those wonderful things. City life is a lot of fun but because I grew up around trees at times I just miss it so much that I could just sit here and think about it, relive the feelings I have while I am in my home, Maine. I can feel everything in my heart like I'm there now, sitting in a green field with dandelions, though I'm just sitting in a dorm room in an overcrowded and polluted city. I don't want to sound all sad but it's just how I feel these days. I don't just miss home because I'm a nature freak, but I miss my home meaning being with the people I love the most. Life just doesn't have the same glow when you can't bask in the presence of the person you love. While I have not shed a tear since arriving here, I feel perhaps my heart is crying everyday. You can imagine the last thing I want to do is study Chinese characters.

Of course everyone knows I am a very happy person, and I am happy here. I love living in this city and I have had the chance to meet great people, and my Chinese is getting better, I'm surprising myself on how much I can learn in such a short period of time, I like it. I even find myself thinking in Chinese before English! So I guess it's good that I can address these sad times, because after I can push forward. I just need to focus on why I am here, to have an experience of a lifetime, and it will be over before I know it, so I want to make the most of it. I will work hard, 努力学习, and I will keep on going, 加油！

This Sunday is Easter. I will go to Church and out to eat Easter dinner at a restaurant which has American food with others who celebrate this holiday. So I'm not completely missing out on America. :) Happy Easter all! 

So where was I?

Oh yes, so Monday was the first day of school. Here's the thing though, I was tested into level one since the test was crazy hard, but when I went to that class I was so bored. It was learning tones, and guess what we learned to write!? 你 (you) and 好 (good) and get ready for this... 你好 (hello)!!! hahaha man I was like, "we gotta get out of here" to Kate, my friend from Ukraine, and Jade, a girl from the US. So for the next period we went to level two. This one was much better because I was having some trouble so I knew it was better for me. And before long I was getting used to the teacher's voice. She was only speaking Chinese, and I thought it was so cool that I could understand her. So I knew I needed to ask to be let into the level two. I went and asked the teaching affairs office and the lady was trying to make me think I wasn't good enough for it because my "test" score wasn't high enough. Well lady, I ain't paying for 你好!!! So in the end I got into the 202 class, which was great. Only too bad for me, at the end of the week they made me switch to 201 because there were too many students in 202. It's the same teacher and same course, just different times. I was a little mad because first I need to change my room twice and then I need to change my whole schedule. In the end it's fine though, I'm warming up to my new classmates and the schedule isn't that bad. I can sleep in on Friday morning. So class is good but I know I will have to study a lot because it's faster than in the US. I really feel good though. I don't like Thursdays though because I have class from 8am-11:30am and then again from 1:30pm-3:05pm. That's so long man, but we get breaks every 45 minutes which I enjoy. Then we can regroup and focus for 45 more minutes. This is really a good idea in my opinion, but I still get restless at my little desk. It's actually really cool to be in a class with foreigners. In my class I have people from Russia, Korea, Vietnam, America, France, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Germany, and others from other places, but my Chinese isn't good enough to know what their country was in Chinese. It's interesting because classmates will chat in native language for explaining somethings, so all of the sudden the Russian speakers are talking and the teacher says, “听不懂，听不懂！” (literally "listen don't understand, listen don't understand"). What a place. And during the break people go out and get food because we have from 9:35am-9:55am break and people visit other classrooms and it's great. I just can't believe it though, when I'm sitting there and I just look around and think, "we're all foreign". I mean, I live in a building with hundreds of foreigners, but to just think about it from time to time it's interesting. My classes are on the tenth floor of the classroom building, so we all pile into the elevator and the elevator makes weird sounds because it's old and sometimes the light shuts off. Normally though I use the stairs after class because waiting for the elevator takes too long. So that's just a brief note about my classes in general, and here is a photo I took on the first day, enjoy:

Okay so what else can I tell you about. I need to remember what activities I did on what days but I am having a really hard time to do so. During the week I met with Vince again and we ate hotpot. It was very good since I was having a hard time to find some foods that I like, so I ate a lot that night. I enjoy spending time with Vince because he talks about interesting things that really make you think about life and simple things instead of being distracted by modern things. I will meet him again maybe next week. Also over the past two weeks I have met with Amy again and ate together in the dinning hall, and also with Michelle I met in the dinning hall and I spent time with Kate, my friend from Ukraine, as well as some American girls, Jade, Stephanie, and Briana. They are all so nice. And Stephanie and Briana introduced us to their friend Sam, also another American girl who works here in Beijing. She is sooo nice!! But that's what I say about many people, but she really is a sweet girl. And I have been having great times having with the Americans because after a long day of Chinese you just want to talk to the people who can understand your jokes and you can have a good laugh and eat American food. Believe me, we have had many laughs thus far, laughing until we are crying in most cases. It's my favorite. <3 haha.

Something that really gave me a laugh was last Friday night when I decided to take Jade and Kate to 后海 even though I wasn't quite sure how to get there after getting out of the Subway station. It was so spur of the moment, so we got out of the subway and I asked a Chinese girl for the directions and we found it. We walked around and since there are many bars around there were guys trying to get us to go into this bar or that one (it's their job to drag in customers). Kate was mad about them since they were annoying and pushy, but I just said, "不要" (don't want) and kept walking away. Later though, after eating some fried chicken, we went in one to just sit and I wanted water and Kate wanted a 可口可乐 (Coca Cola). Okay side note, I think this is so cool. The meaning of Coca Cola in Chinese literally means like "tastes good and makes you happy". hahah I think it's crazy though because the way you say it is "ke kou ke le" which sounds like Coca Cola. I was blown away by this even though I hate Coke. Anyway, we sat for a bit and then went out and walked around and I saw a funny old man on the ground playing an instrument and singing. Here is an image of what I saw:

Pretty awesome, right??! haha he was a funny guy. So then more funny things happened. We went back to the subway to go back to the school and we were just on one of the lines minding our own business. We were standing chatting and then we noticed a guy was filming us with his cell phone camera, trying to discrete but we knew what he was doing. So then there were some seats available so we sat down and he turned the camera towards us there so we knew it was true and he was really making a video!! hahah. Then Jade was turning her face away and I said, "what are you doing?" and she said, "I don't want to be on Youku!!" (Youku = Chinese Youtube). That's when we lost it laughing like mad. I was crying too!! And the old Chinese were looking at me all angry like. Thennnnn I said to Jade, "I AMMMM on Youku!!!!!!!" because when I did a dance at UMF it was filmed by our Chinese friend Jiaxin who uploaded it to Youku. So then we laughed even more about it. I felt so tired from laughing by the time we got back to the dorm. It was just awesome, until the morning when I was sick from what I think was the chicken I ate (boooooo I love this one and now I'm afraid of it!!!). So I didn't go on the trip to the Temple of Heaven because I stayed in bed all day. Well actually at night I met Sam for the first time because we went out to get food and met her.

I was in bed again on Sunday because I was still sick. I would share the details but maybe you don't want to know about them. I did homework with Kate though and then later I decided to go see Wu Yiyu, our Chinese friend who came to UMF last year. She invited me to dinner at her uncle's apartment. So her cousin and his girl picked me up at the school and took me there. I was so happy to see her. We were on like the 19th floor there. It was a nice little apartment, and her family was all so nice and smiling. We ate dinner, and I ate something that I LOVED. Well there was a plate of meat and I asked what it was since it looks like beef but I'm not sure. Wu Yiyu didn't want to tell me, but I said if she won't tell me I won't eat it. She said, "In China we raise dogs for eating". I said, "I want to eat it!!" and she said, "really????". I was excited to try it, and she took a video of me eating and also a photo. Here is the photo:

IT WAS SO GOOD. SPICY DOG, WHO WOULDA THUNK IT!? Yeah I would eat it again. :)) Sorry, Rocco! <3 So we ate the meal and I spoke some Chinese a bit and they were all happy. Then I came home later trying to buy the flight ticket home. Man, them banks are crazy! They blocked my transaction and I had to call them with Stephanie's Skype credits and sort it all out. But after many hours of this I have my ticket and things are good. I will fly back from Vietnam with Huy on August 27th and will be home on August 28th, just in time for school.

Let's see what else happened. I went to the school hospital on Monday with Amy because I was still sick in the morning. They gave me medicine to clear my system of whatever was in there, and I was back to new in no time. And it was so cheap to go to that doctor, like $2.50USD.

It's still weird to think that I am in Beijing, China right now. I feel so used to the place in a way, like it's normal to be here. It's a really weird feeling, though I did have one day where I felt like I hated everything here because I was so frustrated. And I do miss my UMF life a little bit, and of course my friends and my honey, but I'm enjoying myself here. Everyday is an adventure and I don't know how I will feel when it's all over, so I am enjoying everyday, going places and seeing people and getting better with my Chinese. Well, I met a girl and also a guy from Vietnam, my classmates, so I hope they can help me learn some Vietnamese before I go there. It was funny in class today because the guy was telling me when I meet Huy's parents to say to them, "Hi mom, Hi dad (in Vietnamese of course)" and then girl was like, "noooo!!!" and telling me the respectful one to say which I already knew about this. Anyway, sorry I wasn't good at explaining that just now because it's rather complicated but I found it was funny and I hope they will teach me things to really say. :)

I don't know what else to say right now, so I will just end this post and go study. And I will update this more often for sure, I promise!!!

我太忙了！！！ (I'm too busy!!!)

Hi everyone!!

Sorry for the delay in posting here. I actually got my own wifi here now so the internet is a bit better so I don't have any excuses besides the fact that I am super busy these days. I'm a little disappointed with myself because not only do I want to share my stories of Beijing with all of you, but I also want to have them for me to look back at, and I just feel like there are not enough hours in a day to write about the things that I have been doing lately. Also despite the good internet, the pictures still take FOREVER to upload, but I will try again in another photo post shortly. Also I will try to add tons on Facebook since I have a lot of photos already.

So what have I been up to??

I left off on the Saturday I was going with Vince and Amy to climb a mountain. That was a fun day. First they took me to have breakfast in the dinning hall before we left. I ate a weird tofu soup thing that I didn't like, something called  油条 (you tiao) , and baozi. The we headed for the west of Beijing to the Black Stone Mountain (I think that was the name, but honestly I'm not so sure about it...). We had to drive a long time and Amy was getting car sick, and I wasn't feeling the best either. Vince was driving and it was very congested traffic on the freeway so we had to stop and go a lot. We finally got to the mountain and I used the bathroom before climbing. I was so shocked in there man!!! I walked in and saw some woman squating at the holes, NO DOORS, NO PRIVACY, SO STINKY!!!! hahahaha it was very strange to me, but I had to pee. Took me like 2 minutes to finally go because I was hoping no one is looking at me. It's actually funny to me now, but before I was not laughing as I was squatting over a hole with some old ladies around holding my pack of pocket tissues.. hahaha. I got out of there quick and then we went up the mountain. I saw some goats there, they were cute but they pooped everywhere, little jelly bean pellets. We chatted and climbed up the mountain, and when we got to the top we took some photos. I thought it was really cool even though the pollution was covering the city a bit, but honestly the air wasn't that bad. It was also a warm day. I can't imagine mountain climbing in Maine in February with only a sweater, but man even on the top of the mountain there was only one tiny piece of snow! This place is crazy. Okay well let me see if I can add a photo here in this post, what a miracle it would be....

Oh!!!! Well would you looky here!!! It went almost as fast as a turtle as opposed to a snail! Yeah, that's my on the mountain top with Beijing behind me. I also took photos wit Vince and Amy but I will not add those ones because I just need to write this before I get too lazy! So after the photos we made our way down the mountain and then Vince wanted to take me to a restaurant that serves "delicacies". Don't listen to a Chinese person when they use this word. It means "food that Americans are going to hate with a passion because it's so out of this world because it's insides of animals and yucky bean/tofu mixtures with weird sauce". Just beware!!!!! So yes, I tried everything, which included sheep stomach and pig intestines... They were all very terrible. So after this time of Vince eating almost everything and even Amy didn't eat many of them because she didn't really like it like Vince does. After we went and I got some chicken elsewhere which was good. :) Then we went to a place called 后海 (hou hai), which is a little place near a small pond with bars and food stands that young people like to go to on the weekends. So it was just the afternoon and we went into a little bar and got hot chocolate and listened to a girl playing some music which we were chatting for a few hours. Then it got later and Vince took up home. I really had a lot of fun though, I felt like I made some great friends, they both are so nice and helpful to me. Okay here is a photo of my day which is from Amy:

hahahah look at me suffering through this jelly soup thing!!!! hahhahaha. Oh, and Amy! <3 

So that was Saturday, what happened on Sunday...? I don't even remember man!! .................... I'm really thinking about this. What did I do..??? Oh!!! It was the lantern festival. I don't know what I did during the day, but at night I went with a woman named Loraine, also a professor in UMF and we went to see the lanterns on the street for the festival. Here is a photo:

Yeah look at those lanterns man! I thought they were really cool and I have tons of photos, but this is the only one I will include here. So we just walked and talked and saw the lanterns and took photos with Chinese people, which is a bit odd. They just come and say, "hello, can we have picture with you???". hahaha aww man. Also there were a lot of fireworks/firecrackers booming everywhere. We almost walked on firecrackers! And when I went back in my room at 11pm there were girls outside shooting some off outside the window. I could see them so well man! But I had to go to bed so I could go to class in the morning. 

Now sorry, I am going to stop this here, but I promise to write another post later to continue the story. Right now I will go to the dinning hall for dinner with some Americans. :)) So bye!! 

The place is jumping!

10:33pm Friday night:
Trying to sleep right now without a fan is like trying to sleep in a night club... there is music blasting in the room next door of remixes of awesome songs which I would appreciate under normal circumstances, but not now. I can hear the music so clear like I'm in that room. This is almost worse than dead silence. Also there are people yelling outside my door, same as every night. This is nuts. I need that fan stat! Where are the CAs to enforce the quiet hours when you need them?!??!

*Written last night while laying in my bed dying. Surprisingly I fell asleep.