2/11-12/09

Today was a day off from class. Sorta. We didn't have language class in the morning so a bunch of us went to find the silk market. Traveling in big groups sucks. Everything moves exponentially slower with every person added to our groups. If you want to get something done here do it by yourself or with one other person. Because we had such a big group we knew we weren't going to get back to Beiwai in time for afternoon class so Zach, a student from last semester took us to a closer cheap clothes market - a lot of people needed warm clothes for Harbin.

We went to a 5 story mall closer to the center of town. It wasn't like the other mall i went to and it's nothing like an American mall. There are little cubicles selling almost the exact same thing in each. The same knock-off brand shirts, jeans and shoes. I'm not really sure how these places make that much money all selling the same thing. I heard families often own multiple stands or are in co-ops with other stand

s. I didn't really need anything so i just wandered around without everyone else. I got into an accidental haggling with a lady selling be a button down shirt. I just wanted to know my size, so she measured me. I said I didn't want the shirt, or any shirt, but she took this as lower the price. I got this price down to 30 kuai, about 5 bucks. Pretty neat for not even trying.

We were a little bored and hungry so we wandered down to a Korean restaurant. In the same building was a Dairy Queen (wtttffff?!?!) I've already mentioned this, but this dairy queen only sold milkshakes, ice cream, coffee and hot dogs. What? No chicken fried steak burgers?! What's wrong with this country....

That night after coming back from the gym everybody had eaten so I went out to the xiaochi to get some quick noodles. Upon entering I saw three of the RA's, who had just ordered, and sat down with them. They were in the middle of a discussion about cannibalism and the ethics of eating people in emergency situations - great pre-meal chit chat.  They kept referencing the Donner party and getting lost in the mountains. I couldn't help but think about our upcoming trips to Harbin (where right now it's -16

 C) and Yunnan, a Tibet-like province which brushes the Himalayas. Was this discussion friendly banter or prudent planning?

Nothing worth mentioning happened the next day. Class in the morning, studying in the afternoon.

NO it rained that day. It was cloudy all day but I didn't think it would rain. But it did. First rain in a very long time, I hear.

Alright. So right now it's Friday afternoon. We had our first kaoshi, test, today. It wasn't too bad. I have my first calligraphy class this afternoon. I hear the teacher used to ride a Harley Davidson around Beijing in the 80's and can trace his lineage back to the last emperor of China. 

After class we're leaving for Harbin. The plan is to take an overnight train - 10 hours. We'll hang out in Harbin and visit the ice festival there. There's some sort of tiger and lion park there too. We've heard, but not confirmed, t

hat we'll have the ability to buy some sort of small livestock and feed it to the big cats there...alive. I, for one, am excited. Some people are disgusted. I'm not really sure why. We humans kill thousands of cows, goats and sheep per day anyway. And lions and tigers kill animals in the wild all the time too. I think it will be an interesting biological lesson. Oh well. We fly back Sunday night so we can get to class in the morning.

Here's a nice lil' map.

So yeah this will be my last post until we get back.

再见