The In's & Out's on Inner Mongolia

Double Update Power!

So- as some of you may or may not know: Cristina Mansilla spent two weeks with me here in Beijing. But sometimes you need to escape the big city for a simpler place....and a simpler time.

We were off to Inner Mongolia. We flew in to Hohhot, the capital city of the Inner Mongolian province. It;s a short hour flight a way. It's about 10 degrees cooler then Beijing- and a bit clearer. Not as much industry.

It's really interesting up here because you get a TON of actual Mongolian here. After living in a city dominated mostly by the Han's- its neat to see a totally different but similar genetic make-up. (check out Zorigoo- our Hostel owner/operator to see what i mean.) They look way more Eskimo or Sherpa-esque then Chinese.

There are two places to visit in Mongolia: The grasslands and the desert.

Day 1 we went out to the grasslands accompanied by Nick & this lovely German girl whose name I cannot remember. Animal everywhere- flat lands for miles- just blue sky and earth for as far as the eye can see.
One thing I forgot is that when there are no visual markers it messes with your depth perception. We would just want to hike "right over there" but then 20 minutes later we still weren't there. Weird sensation.

Other great thing about the grasslands- it is your bathroom. Which is great because you also burn poop for fires. I have some nice action shots of scooping poop.
We rode horseys and they ARE not trained ANYTHING like ANY horse I have ever ridden. They are all verbal commands- in Mongolian. So ya know- we struggled to communicate, IE my horse did not move. Even the horsey trainer couldn't get him to move. Lazy horse.

Day 2- Desert. It was along drive to the desert- when we left in the morning they said BEAUTIFUL weather. By the time we arrived a strong gust had picked up. So yes- we did visit the desert in a sand storm. My included picture is of all the sand that is on my face and underneath my sunglasses. My camera now makes an AWFUL grinding sound while it open and closes- but it still full functional. The sand got in EVERYTHING. I am still discovering sand in clothes and trinkets that went on this trip. We arrived and then jeep/sand bugged over the dunes- which was terrifying at best. Then we arrived at the camels- and oh were they GLORIOUS. Just check out the pictures- I mean- other then the platypus I'm not sure there is a more hilarious animal on earth. I want 3.

They gave me the brunette- so I named her Jill. And we traipsed through the deserts. They are a bit like giant beagles- in that they follow their stomach and can be sort of stubborn. I was entranced by their goofiness.

We also slid down a sand dune, played some beach volleyball, and harassed some other animal at a "ZOO." (HEAVY ON THE QUOTES THERE....they have two pens, wolves and ostrich/emu)

The Hostel was AMAZING and friendly. They were so kind and made you feel at home. The mongolian food was amazing. We ate meat pasties and cereal in whole milk. I could have had like seven of them. Guang our guide and staffer earned an extra special place in our hearts. She was funny and sweet- she is sitting next to me in the group shot.

Also Cristina and I had some great bonding time. I have missed her so much and we had a nice time away from the city. It was hard to fly back soooo soon- but these are memories that will last us a lifetime.

Why Cab Drivers Are the Bane of My Existance

As you may or may not know- Chinese is the hardest fricken' language to learn. On earth. Period.

Yes-  I may be biased but it is really difficult. The tones are killer- and the Chinese people don't seem to be very tolerant of a slight tone deafness.

I have been doing a language exchange and try to use my Chinese as often as possible. If you don't use it- it goes away. And every time I build up a little bit of confidence I inevitably have to take a cab and my spirit is crushed. Let me set the scene for you:

It's 11pm at night, I'm returning home from Rugby practice and have to travel the entire length of the city. I stick out my hand and quickly a cab comes over.

Cab Driver: Ni Hao (Hi!)

Anna: Ni Hao. Wo yao qu Suzhoujie ditie. (Hi! I want to go to the Suzhojie subway stop.)

Cab Driver: ::very confused:: Su---zhou----jie.... suzhoujie, suzhoujie....ni yao qu suzhoujie ditie? (I don't know seem to know suzhoujie....let me repeat it. You SURE you want to go the the suzhoujie subway stop?)

Anna: Shi de! (yes!)

Cab Driver: Suzhoujie? (I still am not sure where you need to go....let me repeat the name to you)

Anna: Suzhoujie! (At this point I'm in crises- I assume I must be saying the tones wrong I start to doubt myself. I start trying to repeat in my head- this time with different tones.) Su-zhou-jie! Su-zhou-jie! Suuu-zhoooou-jiiieeee!

Cab Driver: Su-zhou-jie? (I've known where you want to go- I'm going to repeat it one more time just to mess with you)

Anna: Shi de! (YES!)

---End Scene----

What I'm trying to get at here is that every time you start feeling good about having mastered some Mandarin, inevitably there is a Cab Driver out there to make sure you feel like you don't know jack.

The icing on the cake was that about a week ago a cab driver took me for a ride- a 20RMB more expensive ride then it should have been and I was helpless to tell him that: A. I knew we was GOING the LONG WAY and B. I didn't want to pay that much. But there wasn't much I could do about it.

But- as easy as it is to get discouraged- you have to keep trying. Or else ya know, you'll never get a cab ride home.

To My ADORING Fans

And by fans- I mean all 12 of you loyal readers. I want to apologize for being mostly silent. My return to Beijing has been a whirlwind of 5 weeks of insanity. And right now my BFF Cristina is here visiting.

But hold on to your seats, upcoming updates include (BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TOO):

-What's Out In Inner Mongolia

-Great Wall: What's so GREAT anyway?

-Anna Czaplicki: Unprofessional Tour Guide

-Taxi Drivers are the Bane of My Existence

-Why Breaking Up With Work Is Hard to Do

Fer SERIOUS?

Things that are tolerable to the Chinese:

-Spitting everywhere

-Parking on the side-walk

-Preventing peaceful gatherings of the people

-Making well-known artists "disappear"

-Accusing human right's activists as 'medaling'

-Imprisoning Chinese dissidents

-Putting relatives of said dissidents under permanent house arrest

Things that are intolerable to the Chinese:

-Closing down a Mac Store when I'm trying to get my iPad on

My Chinese Family

So- one of the biggest events of the past 3 weeks was the arrival of the Czaplicki family in China. For my parents this was their first time out of the country- and they made it pretty much to the other side of the world. Let's give them a round of applause for making the jump.

After the 13 hours flight- they were feeling a little rough to say the least. Everybody does. We made the hour long trip back to my apartment and immediately started fighting the jet-lag. Luckily- I have worked so much overtime that I more or less took the entire week off to be with them.
My parents have called their trip to China the gauntlet- they claim that I put them through a torturous 7 days of non-stop tourism. I feel that I just made them well-educated on the Beijing area.

First day we hit up dumplings, grocery shopping, & Summer Palace.
Second day was Great Wall with Herbie (!) at Mutanyu. The wall is a hike (no pun intended) so we just took it easy the rest of the day.
Then it was on to Forbidden City, Jingshan Park and LiQin's Duck. LiQin's is tucked in a hutong- and no cab drive EVER seems to know where the 'frick this duck place is. Our cab drive took us most of the way there stopped- and then this pedi-cab came out of nowhere. In broken English he told us "hutong too big" and "I take you Liqin's-you never find it!" aka I'm going to charge you 30 yuan for a joke ride around a hutong. I repeated Buyao! (NO WANT!) and instructed the cab drive to keep driving. We drove straight 20 more feet- and there was LiQin's. I felt a great amount of accomplishment. I'm no tourist!

One thing my parents quickly came to realize was the transportation dilemma. The three major choices for getting around are: your legs, taking cabs, and subway/bus. Each one comes with a benefit. Like your legs are free but can only take you so far so fast. Since I was already making us walk halfway around the city each day, we were greatly limited by our legs. Cabs. Now cabs are the most expensive form of transportation, but they get you directly from point A to point B. They are comfortable, sometimes even air conditioned, but they are limited by two things: Beijing traffic and Beijing drivers. The traffic here is bad, comparable to Washington, DC's rush hour. But you also have the driving style here, which, if your not use to it can be a hair raising experience. It's very aggressive and people dart in and out of lanes like it's their job. The final form is the subway. It's cheap, goes almost everywhere in the city, but can be horrible crowded, hot and uncomfortable. Jill and I have both had moments where we felt like we might pass out. Luckily there are so many people in each car, that if you did pass out, you would be held up my the sheer pressure exerted by the mass amounts of bodies. So- every trip requires the debate- how the heck are we going to get there?

Thursday we went to 798 Art District and the Acrobat show. My parents by Thursday were ready for some Western food, and I was happy to oblige. Unfortunately- they seem to have acclimated to the Chinese food too quickly and the rich Western food left us feeling a little gross. We did some quick bargaining and then it was off to the Acrobat show.

Friday we crashed. We thought we were going to go to Temple of Heaven but we all just collapsed and napped away the afternoon. At night we went out for dinner at a Korean place and did a little more grocery shopping.

Saturday we went to the Lama Temple, poked around another Hutong and came home for a Mac & Cheese dinner.

Sunday, we FINALLY made it to Temple of Heaven and then did dinner with my friends at Hot Pot! Yummy yummy hot pot. It was so nice to have my Chinese 'family' and my actual family together.

Monday, in the early morning hours, we gathered our things and jumped on a plane bound for the USA.

It was a whirlwind trip but I loved having my parents here in China. I'm pretty sure that they never would have come here otherwise- but it's such an amazing culture I'm glad they got to experience it. LOVE YOU GUYS!

Blog WHAT?

Well- look at me. 60 days left and I have run out of things to say. Ha!
Never! I just ran out of time to type it. So. Let me begin at the appropriate place: the beginning. I've always found in the most logical and easiest place to begin. Unless I'm of course writing a movie like Young Adam...and then you never know quite where to begin.

Almost 3 weeks ago I arrived back in Beijing. And....it was amazing. It's really impressive how you can have a relationship with a place. I arrived back in Beijing in the evening. It was warm....about 30 degrees warmer then when I had left. I threw on flip flops and a light sweater and headed out the door. I B-lined it for Subway...my craving for sandwiches having reached a fever pitch, I hurried over. And I felt so happy. Everything was familar and cozy. Everything made me excited: my red velvet couch, extra mayo with out asking for it, walking to 7/11. Even though I again was alone, separated from Jill, I felt as if I had returned to an old friend. It really was like reuniting with somebody after a long time, their flaws not so noticeable, or maybe I reveled in the small flaws. I didn't notice the trash or the crazy hub bub. It was just the way it was suppose to be.

Thus began a feverish 3 weeks. Immediately went into work mode- back to the grind. I was getting away with teaching 4 classes a day in Wuhan- two in the morning, two at night, and only on two days a week. Reality check came in back at Beijing- how much work lay ahead of me. But- the following weeks each deserve their own blog. So. For those of you who wonder: I am fine. I am alive. And yes- we're down to two months. I'll fill in the blanks as soon as I can.