Monks in the Mountains (Gansu Trip part 1)

My first big adventure in China (Hong Kong doesn't count) was completely different from anything I have ever experienced, and completely outside the realm of what most people think of when they think "CHINA". I went to the very western part of the country. One part mountains (think: Everest), one part desert (think: oceans of sand) make up the province of Gansu. Unlike the eastern seaboard, western China is still developing and very poor. So, no tall buildings or interesting architecture, no shopping malls or even large cities. Just open spaces and lots of nature.

The trip had two very distinct parts. For the first half of the trip, we were in the cold Tibetan region (as close to Tibet as any American can get these days) where the air is thin and yaks are abundant. The second half of the trip we spent in the dry, arid, sandy, warm desert. There's so much to tell about each location that I think I'll split the trip into two blog posts so that it's bearable. I'll go chronologically. So let's start with Tibet.

Now Entering Tibetan Territory

After a 5am wake-up call, 5 hour flight and 5 hour bus ride (we were really in the middle of freakin nowhere) we arrived at the tiny town of Xiahe (pronounced "she-ah-huh"). When I say "tiny," I mean it. Xiahe has one street running through it. The town is almost dead because no one actually lives there. Most people in the region are farmers or herders so they only come into town once in a while to purchase stuff they can't make themselves.

Being college students, we located just about the only bar in town the first night...well, we didn't find it ourselves, our awesome tour guide Emma took us. She was the best. She was so excited to have a group of young people--she told us on the first day that she usually only guides old people because they have time to see this remote region of China. She also taught us that when you "ganbei!" (cheers!) at the beginning of the night in China you have to down your full glass......of...yak milk. Of course.

On our first full day in Xiahe we visited Labrang Monastery, which is apparently the most famous Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the world. Western China is interesting because it's actually very religious, as opposed to the more developed eastern half. What's more interesting is that much of western China is Muslim. During our long bus rides we could look out the window onto this rural landscape with a few houses and ranches, and right in the middle of the desolate village would be this great, beautiful, elaborate mosque. These mosques are actually a politically divisive issue...but we spent out time in the Buddhist region, so I'll stick to that.

Labrang Monastery (Labuleng Si in Chinese) is a large school of the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. They are called the Yellow Hats because they actually do wear these big, silly looking yellow hats. There are about 700 monks in residence at the monastery, most of them studying theology at one of the four religious schools housed within the monastery. To gain entrance to the school of theology, a monk must pass a very rigorous exam. Many monks spend years living and working at the monastery before they pass the entrance exam. Once a monk graduates from the school he has chosen, which may take many many years, he becomes a Master. Only specially chosen monks may be Lamas. Lamas are usually chosen from a very young age, many families choose to send their sons to the monastery, because they are said to be the reincarnation of a recently deceased Lama.

Our tour guide through the monastery was a monk who had been guiding tours of the monastery for many years and had recently been accepted to the school of theology. He didn't think he would ever become a Master, which gives you a sense of just how intense their studies are. The monastery houses 60,000 sutras (sacred Buddhist books) along with an extensive library of historic and religious books written in both Tibetan language and Hindi.

Our Tibetan Monk Guide

We were lucky enough to be there right when all of the monks, Masters, and Lamas gathered in the main hall for prayers and meditation. Their chants sound very strange, but listening to all of them chanting together was pretty cool.

Warm feet get in the way of proper meditation

It's pretty late here, and I'm getting a bit tired, so I think the rest of Tibet will have to wait for another time.
...I should have left you with a cliffhanger or something so that you'll be left wanting more...hmmm.......
AND THEN SOMEBODY SHOT JR!
Until next time!

Big Buddha

Hong Kong is home to the world's largest outdoor Buddha. Go figure.
It sounds silly, but the 112 feet tall, 250 ton bronze Buddha is very impressive.

The Buddha is located at Po Lin Monastery, which was founded in 1906.

One of the coolest parts of our trip to the giant Buddha was getting there. You can either take a long winding bus ride over the mountains, or just glide right over them! The Ngong Ping 360 is a gondola that takes you right over the Tung Chung bay and the hills of Lantau Island to the Po Lin Monastery.

I spent my last day in Hong Kong relaxing at a sea side resort area. I took a winding bus ride over the hills to the secluded side of HK Island. Sitting on the upped deck of the bus as it went careening around tight turns was a little unnerving. But as crazy as Chinese drivers are, they know what they're doing. After making it safely to the other side of the island I sat down for a lunch of fresh mussels and prawns.

The next morning I woke up early, left my tiny apartment and headed to the airport so that my real China adventure could begin. Hong Kong is a beautiful and vibrant city. Luckily, I'll be going back for a weekend in November with my classmates!

First Stop: Hong Kong

As a Special Administrative Region of China, you don't need a visa to visit Hong Kong. As a former British Colony it is like a city half-way between London and Shanghai. So it was a great place to start my adventures in China. Kinda ease myself into it.

But I did have my first experience with strict Chinese bureaucracy directly upon arrival in the Hong Kong International Airport. After a very uncomfortable 15 hour flight, I was feeling a little sick when we finally landed. The medical screening agents of course chose me to inspect and, yes, I did indeed have a fever. Great. So they slapped a SARS mask on me and took me to the Nurses' Office. Even better. They asked me a couple of questions about how I was feeling and where I had been. They finally decided that they would allow me to leave the Hong Kong airport because I was from America and hadn't been touching any wild birds lately. Good thing I had quit my hobby of playing with diseased birds a few months ago.
Stepping outside of the huge airport was another shock. Hong Kong is incredibly hot and humid. When walking down the street I would walk close to the buildings to feel the blast of air conditioning from the open storefront doors. The funny thing is that Asians don't sweat, which made me feel even worse walking around looking like a sweaty mess.

Instead of staying in a ridiculously expensive hotel or a very sketchy hostel, I rented an apartment. Hong Kong is a pretty small city in terms of area, but a big city in terms of population. This means that there are high-rise apartment buildings everywhere and apartments are teeny tiny. My apartment was no exception. Just a bed, closet, kitchenette, and bathroom. But it was in a great location! The street it was on was full of dai pai dong, which are specifically southern Chinese (Cantonese) outdoor kitchens.  They were a little dirty, but the food was so good! I got to try my first crazy Chinese food there: goose intestines. They're a little chewy.

Even though Hong Kong is small, it has a lot of personality. Most of the Center, the financial district, is very modern and full of shopping malls. Everywhere you walk, mostly on elevated walkways, you see shopping mall after shopping mall. It's all designer brands marked up 100% and advertised by white models.  The Center also has beautiful skyscrapers that house banks and financial institutions. I wouldn't mind working in one of them some day.

I spent a day taking the tram up to Victoria Peak to take in the view of the whole city. It was so beautiful! I saw the ships coming into the piers--Hong Kong is the most active shipping city in the world--and looked out over the ocean.

This post is turning out to be pretty long, so I'll split my trip up into segments.
Next time: Buddhism and sea food!

People's Republic of China

I've been in China for three whole weeks now, so I guess it's time to start blogging again.

New York: 12979km (8064.77 mi)

It's been quite a struggle finding time to sit down and write, what with all of the culture shock and atrocious Mandarin speaking I've been dealing with.  It really is strange being in a place where everyone stares at you when you walk down the street. And don't even get me started on the language barrier.

There's so much to talk about. Even in the 3 short weeks I've been here I've experience so much. I don't even know where to start... I guess the background image would be a good place.

A Nice Day for a White [Royal] Wedding

I can say it. I can boast that I was in London on the day that Prince William married Catherine Middleton. And the event was as fun, happy, amazing, and magical as you would think a fairy tale wedding like this would be. I didn't get a personal invitation from the Queen, as I had hoped I would, but I got to see everything and had tons of fun anyway. My friends and I woke up at the crack of dawn on Friday to head to Hyde Park to watch the ceremony.  We weren't even the craziest wedding-watchers, though. I know people who got up at 3 AM to get a spot in front of Buckingham Palace, and others who CAMPED OUT OVER NIGHT in front of Westminster Abbey. But you can't really blame them, because the ones you camped out had a pretty sweet spot right in front of the doors of the Abbey, so they could see everyone arrive. And you've probably even seen a picture of them! (They're the really excited Asian ones with the pillow). This image was used by BBC, CNN, and The Daily Beast. Pretty impressive.

Anyway. We went to Hyde Park. BBC set up three HUGE screens and tons of speaker towers in the center of the park for people to come and watch. It was amazing. So many people. I think I heard around 120,000 people were there watching with us. So everyone just brought blankets and picnics (and alcohol) to celebrate.

Everyone was excited and waving flags with Will and Kate's faces on them and cheering. It sounds pretty cliche, but it was exciting to be there and just be a part of that huge crowd, and of the even bigger audience of about 2.5 million people around the world who were watching the ceremony. It was also pretty cool to think about all of the people around the world who would be watching the BBC broadcast and be jealous of me because I was in London when this happened and they were not.

There were people dressed up fancy with their traditional English hats snacking on tea and crumpets.

There were girls in ugly bridesmaids dresses, men in dresses, and flags everywhere.

This group was probably my favorite, though!
So we watched all of the BBC live coverage of the event and got to see the whole thing. We watched David and Victoria Beckham arrive, we saw Elton John, we saw all of those crazy hats and outfits. As soon as Prince William came on screen driving to the Abbey with his brother, everyone began cheering.  And every time Prince Harry showed up, the crowd would burst into screams and cheers...he is the cuter brother, after all...plus, he still has hair. 

Even got to see the Queen (do you think Will and Harry call her "grandma"?)! The really big deal was when Kate--sorry, Catherine, now Duchess of Cambridge--appeared. Of course everyone wanted to see her dress and her hair and everything else.  Poor Will, no one cares about what he wore to his wedding.  But the wait to see Kate was worth it. She looked absolutely beautiful.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but I'm sure you've already seen her dress anyway.

It had been cold and windy in the park all morning, and there were reports of rain on the horizon. But just as Kate stepped out of her Aston Martin or Rolls Royce or whatever it was, the sun broke through the clouds over the park. It was a pretty great moment. Then, luckily, it stayed a little bit sunny for the rest of the day.

 After we watched Kate walk down the aisle and the couple say "I Will" (doesn't sound as epic or momentous as "I Do"), everyone zoned out of the ceremony for a while, because no one really cares about some special hymn composed just for them...sorry. But of course we perked up again when they all exited the Abbey and processed back to Buckingham Palace.

Of course we watched the balcony kiss and everything.

Best part: Can we just be done with this now?!

But the really cool part was the RAF fly-by. They flew a WWII plane over Buckingham Palace, which is only about a mile from Hyde Park.  After the planes passed the palace, they had to fly over the park and we all got great views of the plane.

After the ceremony, there was a live [cover] band and a huge dance party, which we didn't really stay for, but was fun for a while.
Over all, it was an amazing experience to be there with all of my friends and all of Britain celebrating these two beautifully happy people on their wedding day. So congratulations to the happy couple...and thanks for the day off!

Baloney and Bolognese in Bologna

So I just got back from a week-long spring break trip to Italy (cue: jealousy). And let me tell you, it was AMAZING. Everything everyone tells you about Italy is true. The food is delicious (if you're able to stay away from the tourist traps), the cities are beautiful, as is the countryside, there's so much history and art everywhere you look (if you're into that kind of thing), and the people are kind of assholes. But that's OK! Because it's freaking ITALY! And you are not really worthy to be in their fabulous country anyway!

First stop on our trip was Bologna. The people here were actually pretty nice. It's not really a tourist-y city, so no one speaks English. They were really patient and encouraging while I practiced my high school Italian on them (thank you, Mr. Marcheschi!).

Bologna is everything you'd expect a non-touristy city to be. It's tiny (perfect day-trip size) filled with ancient buildings (the oldest university in the world), old towers, and great little restaurants. Bologna is even called "la citta' grassa", the fat city, because every food you think of as being Italian originated in this region: bolognese sauce, lasagna, ravioli, tortellini, cured ham, prosciutto, bologna (baloney)...  Yep! Bologna is a real meat in Bologna. And it actually tastes good! It doesn't always have to be questionable lunch meat. And it's first name doesn't always have to be Oscar.

After our lunch of bologna and prosciutto sandwiches and avoiding a sudden rain storm, we walked all over the small city and saw all of the cool stuff. And by cool stuff I mean old buildings. Bologna's Chamber of Commerce was even kind enough to print a brochure of how to spend "a half-day in Bologna"...I guess they didn't have much faith in their tourist attractions either. We saw the old town square and a few churches, walked down some side streets and walked into some medieval buildings. By far the coolest thing we did in Bologna was climb the old tower. 100m high and way too many steps to count. It led to some great views of the city and surrounding area. Simply beautiful.

yummmmm

Then we got to my favorite part of the trip. GELATO! We walked out of the main square to find a gelateria we had heard about, and it was well worth the walk. La Sorbetteria Castiglione was my first Italian gelato, and will always hold a special place in my heart.  They had fancy flavors, so I can't even tell you what I got, but I can tell you that it tasted like heaven. I would travel to Bologna just to go back to this place.

Finally we got to try bolognese sauce for dinner. Just as good as we thought it would be!

Then we hopped on a train and headed for Florence...which is a story for next time...

The view of the old town square from atop the tower

London Wanderings

We take advantage of the few sunny days we have around here. We walked all the way from Bloomsbury to the Tate Britain along the river, past Parliament Square. It was wonderful.

The spring time weather didn't last long, though. It is once again cloudy and cold.

And I must content myself with pictures of sun and blue sky.