This photo basically sums up my weekend: Yes, I finally made it to the Beijing Zoo.  I had been putting it off all this time because everyone I’ve ever talked to about the zoo has told me how terrible it is.  I had always heard it’s constantly teaming with people, the cages are tiny, and the animals seem unhappy.  You tell me, are those sad pandas?  I didn’t think so. So admission to the zoo was $1.15.  The pandas were an extra $0.80.  Can’t complain there.  I was shocked by [...]

Spring has somehow been busy although on the surface it always seems like I don’t do anything.  The fact is that this whole thing hasn’t gotten any easier.  It’s still a battle every single day, me versus China.  Me versus crossing the street, aka Frogger.  Me versus my teacher telling me I’m inadequate.  Me versus developing asthma from running outside.  Me versus getting ripped off.  Me with a load of wet laundry versus a ten foot laundry line.  Last night I woke up at four in the morning feeling like [...]

Last week on Thursday, Michael and I took a very hot and uncomfortable sleeper train to the northern city of Harbin for a weekend getaway.  Harbin is home to one of the world’s largest and most famous snow and ice festivals, which was the main motivation for us to go, however we quickly discovered that the city has much much more to offer than just subzero temperatures.  This is a city of remarkable cultural heritage is also home to a haunting remnant of Japanese occupation, religious venues of all kinds, [...]

Adventure.  Of.  A.  Lifetime.  In ten days time, Brian and I got burned by the sun of the Yuanyang rice terraces, “wasted away” with other washed up expats on the banks of Erhai in Dali, strolled the Epcot-esque streets of Lijiang with a serendipitously encountered old friend, almost died in Tiger Leaping Gorge, and woke up to frozen toothpaste in Shangri La.  FYI we both lived to tell the tale, with a few first degree sunburns, some minor frostbite, and a blown out knee. After showing Brian a bit of [...]

I am tired.  After a truly excruciating week of exams (one test had over 225 new characters), Michael and I headed to WuDaoKou last night to ring in the new year, albeit without plans or 150 RMB tickets to Nova, Beijing’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.  Before we knew it, we found ourselves in a bar surrounded by friends!  In a blur of colors, lights, drinks, and taxis, we were waltzing down the red carpet leading into Nova, housed in a giant, disused industrial gas tank.  Beijing nights…  Happy New [...]

I have ultra exciting news times about five and only about five minutes to write, so here’s the scoop: 1. After class today I’ll be jumping on a five to six hours train ride to the coastal city of Qingdao, we’re I’ll be spending the weekend with Michael, my cool Nebraska guy.  Qingdao is perhaps most well-known as the home of the Tsingdao (pronounced the same as Qingdao) brewery.  Tsingdao is the most exported Chinese beer, and apparently the street just outside the factory, literally called “Beer Street,” has some of the [...]

After a rough week of exams and an even rougher weekend, Megan, my Jersey girl, and I set out for some therapy that only the Swedes can provide.  IKEA, or 宜家家具.  I adore this Chinese name.  宜 by itself means “suitable,” but it is more well-known as one of the two characters that make up 便宜, the word for “inexpensive.”  家 refers to anything to do with “household” or “family,” and 家具 means “furniture.”  Thus, we’re left with “suitable household furniture.”  When read aloud, it sounds something like yi jiā [...]

Today I received an email from Yao Yao, one of the Chinese friends I met while visiting the “small city” of Loudi, population 4 million, in 2008.  It’s a strange reality three and a half years later, that I may so casually return to Nowheresville, China to run around with some very old friends in a place with a two-story Walmart but no white people. It makes me think of when this all started during the spring of 2007.  A fifteen-year-old me was probably watching some crappy MTV reality TV show [...]

Fall has finally arrived in Beijing, and the ginkgo trees on campus are nothing short of spectacular, lighting up the grounds like big golden suns.  In the spirit of the season, I thought I’d bring my camera to campus today to capture the colors before they’re gone in a week or so.  I figured my blond hair already attracts enough attention, so obnoxiously snapping photos on my own college campus wouldn’t really do all that much more damage in the staring department.  After class this afternoon, I set off to [...]

At long last, the Halloween celebrations having finally finished.  What a weekend!  I couldn’t stand the idea of not dressing up as anything for Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, so I embarked on the seemingly impossible quest of tracking down a costume in Beijing.  Carrefour, a French hypermarket, had all of one costume for females – pirate wench.  One size fits all of course.  Well, one size didn’t quite fit all, and I ended up making a few alterations that fell out throughout the course of the weekend.  And [...]

One of my American friends here grew up on the east coast and is attending a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania studying business.  Some weeks ago a few of us were out for drinks when he asked us what cities he should try beginning his career in after graduation.  Naturally, I suggested Minneapolis – I’ve always seen it as a great place to be a young professional thanks to a good local economy and several Fortune 500 companies.  Beyond that, the city literally sparkles.  There’s a distinct Midwesterness about it.  Lakes [...]

Today was kind of a big deal.  For the first time ever, a Chinese person complemented my Mandarin.  It was my cab driver on the thirty-minute ride across Beijing from Little Moscow to Haidian.  I told him where I wanted to go, that I was American, that I was here studying Chinese, and asked how long he’d been driving his cab – clearly extremely complicated topics of conversation.  After he told me how good my Chinese was (nali nali), rather than continuing to practice I elected to stop talking, savoring [...]

On Friday, September 30, I left Beijing with one backpack, a train ticket to the city of Shenyang, two people I had just met a mere week before, and virtually no plans schemed, reservations made, or even a return ticket purchased.  However, we did have one clear goal in mind: to get as close to North Korea, currently one of the world’s most “closed” countries, as possible.  Nine days later, I returned to Beijing renewed with about 500 photos, two new very good friends, a few new contacts in China [...]

Yes, sadly Marg is quite derailed.  I’m beginning to realize that studying and working hard isn’t going to cut it with my classes.  There’s a huge gap in my education between what I learned at Minnesota and what I’m supposed to be learning here.  I can’t magically make up for the language foundation that I never had.  Taking this level of hanyu would be comparable to reading the Sorcerer’s Stone and then skipping to the Deathly Hallows.  None of it would any sense, and the reader would endure 759 pages of Avada Kedavra and [...]

It’s been a little more than three years since I first went to Tiananmen Square and the notorious silk street market, and I must say, not much has changed!  The weird bits are 1. I am no longer a tourist, and the fact that I actually live here gives going to both places a new feeling, and 2. I can actually speak some Chinese now, which made silk street a whole different ballgame. Of course when I woke up this morning, it was pouring rain, so what better activity to [...]