Saturday, May 31, 2008

Suzhou Weekend Trip ;)



I still haven't written anything about my trip to Sanya. Maybe I'm lazy or maybe there are many more appealing things. It's not even like I can take a look at the photos from Sanya, simply because I didn't take that many. What I want to remember from there will stay in for a little while I think.

So this time I'll write about my trip to Suzhou. I basically just stepped off the train, put my computer on, downloaded photos, and now I will write about it.

Suzhou was absolutely amazing. I went there with my Chinese friend – Sophie, so it was a very nice Chinese experience. Sophie guided me to a special ancient street in Suzhou, where we were wandering on Friday evening, constantly clicking with our cameras, and opening our mouths as wide as possible express ''WOW'' in Chinese. So beautiful. The hostel staff was right, one should go there in the evening. I cannot say we were wandering aimlessly, we were searching for the breathtaking spots. It would be easy to suffocate that way, so we stopped in a little alley where houses were on the river. Simply wonderful.

One thing we might have had problems with is finding food. Every time we tried it took us about an hour. I think it's a catastrophe to put two indecisive girls together. Thankfully, it's survive-able if they can entertain each other while walking into the 15th restaurant and deciding that 'it's not the one'.

So next day, today... We went to the Lion Forest Garden. It's not very big, but definitely takes a couple hours to walk it all. That place would be a heaven for climbers (and fishermen). You walk on man-made stone mountains, walking into the 'caves' and back up again. All around a lake.

There are absolutely huge fishes swimming there and fishing is prohibited. :D Well, even there we were taking photos of everything, whether moving or not.

It was all nice, so I will not write about how we almost missed the train, just to remember the beauty of Suzhou and nice company :)

Saturday, May 10, 2008

China Experiences

People say that we experience new things every day. Being in China has supplied me with quite a few new experiences. I've experienced how people change by the new culture or in some cases how they remain the same. I have experienced many breathtaking scenes: the sea, the mountains, the cities; but also many sights that destroyed the picture I would like to have: the pushing crowds, the spitting women, the polluted sky. I have also experienced a whole new range of foods and smells. Some sweet ones that take you to heaven and some others that are best not to mention.

Being here has given me a lot perspective on life, on myself and on people around me (far or close, and sometimes the latter being much worse.)

Being far away from home caused many tears to drop and made my dear ones spent hours on-line consoling me. Right now I can't really say if it was worth it, but in perspective I think I have achieved a great lot. I still have little more than a month of what should be hard-work and interaction with the Chinese, to use my time in the very best way. I'm not sure how well I will accomplish that... I certainly want to wish good luck to myself.


Sometimes it's easier to do what you're supposed to, and in other circumstances it's impossible. I'd say that the environment that Nanjing University provided for us foreign students requites a lot of effort to fulfill oneself. I think the worst thing is that we're all put in a foreign student's building, where the only Chinese we meet are the 'fuwuyuan' (receptionists, guards, food sellers, servants etc.) There are extremely few Chinese students that we can meet on a regular basis. We are definitely not provided with many opportunities to befriend them. This is a harsh reality, where only the daring devils get a chance to understand this culture. Others are deprived of it. And to be totally honest, I think it's can be difficult to feel confident in a place that doesn't resemble home in any way.


Some of us are lucky. They get Chinese boyfriends/girlfriends; they go traveling, they find a hobby... and that way they get out of the foreign bubble. Others think that the ones dating a Chinese merely want language advantages; they travel in groups of foreigners or have foreign hobbies, such as drinking and smoking. I don't think I can be placed in any of those groups. I have tried to avoid contacts with foreigners but I haven't been very lucky in melting into the Chinese world. Maybe in the time that remains for me here, I'll adjust that slightly. Maybe I'll change my eye color to black and use the whitening cream for my tanned skin? ;)