Goodbye 再见 ...

I spent my last day in the shopping mall that we frequently visited, called Auchan. We were stuck inside with the heavy summer rains pouring down (by the way, we went to class in s typhoon even though the university had shut down). Someone joked, "You haven't seen rain until you've seen rain in China!" On the typhoon day, it rained before I woke up at 7am and didn't stop until well past 11pm. The rain was THICK and never ever stopped the entire duration of the day. I said my final goodbyes to my teachers and newly made friends. Our Chinese professors held a large banquet at the place we ate on our first day in China to celebrate the end of classes. My trip wasn't over until I walked through my front door in Phoenix. China Eastern airlines left so late that I missed my connecting flight in LA! It was odd, even after a month, to see everyone roaming around the LA airport with unique styles, different hair colors, and speaking English! I would never change anything about my study abroad experience, because I made the most of my trip. I usually have a couple regrets, oh I wish I tried this or I wish I went here, but this time I can say I got out of that dorm room and explored China! I hope to return to China some day to visit, absorb, and learn even more! I am very, very happy NAU has so many study abroad programs to choose from, because I found one that suited me best. Please let me know if you have any questions about my trip or if you are interested in traveling abroad!

Excursion #4 Buddhist Temple

On our fourth and last class excursion, we went to a Buddhist temple. It was interesting to witness the people worshiping. I could smell the burning incense and even got to ring the huge bell in the tower. I got to climb one of the temples and watch the people bowing before the statues.

Wuxi 无锡

On our last weekend, we visited the Chinese friends we made on campus in their hometown Wuxi （无锡）. They had left Suzhou University a couple weeks before, because their summer program had finished. We left about an hour and fifteen minutes before our train was going to leave. TIP: Allow PLENTY OF TIME!! However, we took the bus going in the wrong direction. We figured the bus would just make an extremely long loop around the city, but there was actually a dead end. We had to transfer buses in order to keep going on the same route, route 10. By the time we had arrived at the train station, we had definitely missed our departure time. We stood in line for what seemed like forever to exchange our ticket only to find out we needed to get into another lengthy line. This instance caused me to be able to apply what I had learned in class about tickets! In Chinese I told the ticket officer I wanted to exchange our tickets, what time was available, and did she have a 10:30am ticket for the four of us? She understood me and acknowledged that indeed she did. I felt like my language attempts were becoming successful near the end of our stay in China. From that moment on, I felt more confident about listening to clerks selling clothing, food, and other products. Here is the Suzhou train station, always crowded:

By the time we got to Wuxi, the girls had been waiting for us for nearly 2 and a half hours. They told us to meet them at a hospital (an easy general location for everyone to find). The only strange thing about arriving at the hospital was we didn't know why the taxi driver had taken us there. I had been asking the taxi driver to take us to .... the entire time but didn't know I had been saying the word hospital. It was an odd location to arrive at until we knew why we were there. The girls took the four of us American girls to eat lunch in a buffet style restaurant where you pay for what you grab. Afterwards, they surprised us by taking us to a very nice "place of interest" as they call it. It was an old style park for tourists. We enjoyed walking around the park despite the heat. Then they took us to two different shopping districts which were both fairly modern, located in the center of Wuxi. I was expecting Wuxi to be a much smaller town, because Sarah's hometown Zhang Jia Gang was nearby and very small but it spanned over three hours of land by car. That day we took 5 busses, 4 taxis, and 2 trains!

Downtown 苏州城市

I had the opportunity to travel to the center of Suzhou with my friend from Nigeria and Val to view the tall buildings and newly built bridges. There was a display representing the olympics and also gigantic television screens with the olympic games, China against Great Britain at that moment in time. As we looked straight up, the picture became up-right and almost gave a sense of a panoramic or I-MAX screen. It would have been easier to just lie down in the middle of the sidewalk than crane our necks into such awkward positions! After strolling the plaza, we made my way over to the fountain show once again by subway. Luckily it drizzled a little causing the thick humidity to lighten a bit. It was nice to stroll the downtown district area and enjoy the people surrounding me.

How Many Tries Does It Take?! 加油

The second half of the trip I made some new friends, one friend from Nigeria, one from Ghana, and a few from China. My friend from Shanghai, who also goes to NAU, visited me in Suzhou. It was so awesome to be able to visit with people I knew from the states in their home country. He welcomed me to his culture. My friends from Ghana and Nigeria did not speak proficiently, so I was able to help them learn useful phrases and order food for them! Although everyone speaks at a different level in multiple languages and dialects, it is interesting to see their facial expressions and hand gestures in order to communicate a meaning. My American classmates and foreign friends often went to a shopping street called Guang Jie Qian. It reminded me of the lantern lit street in Hangzhou. On one occasion, Liu Laoshi recommended a great place for dumplings (饺子）. It took my friend Val and I six tries to find the restaurant! We asked people and showed them the Chinese characters of the restaurant's name. Ultimately, we just kept trying to use our language skills and listening comprehension along with the directional pointing of fingers in order to find the restaurant. Those were the best dumplings I had ever had in China. It was definitely worth the 30 minutes wait and 6 people's directions to find the small restaurant near the main shopping street. Here are two pictures of the street at different times of day.

Sarah's Hometown Zhang Jia Gang 张家港

On Saturday our TA Sarah from NAU invited us to her hometown! She picked us up at about 9am in a big van to head to Zhang Jia Gang, about an hour and a half ride from the university. We had a general idea of the activities she planned for us, but we were surprised along the way. First, we went to a peach farm, a farm consisting of about 10,000 acres of orchards. It was owned by her father's friend. These peaches were distributed throughout China to major cities such as Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. We had the chance to eat freshly picked peaches, walk among the rows of orchards, and even pick some fruit if we wanted to. After eating fresh peaches, Sarah took us to her father's farm where he grows organic food. There was a courtyard in the center of a plaza in the shape of a square. The square was completely surrounded by but connected with individual rooms. We entered a room to eat our meal, a large room decorated with very fancy curtains and furniture . Sarah's cousin and dad joined us. Whenever the class ate out, there was always a "lazy susan" or a turn table in the middle of the table. A waitress served us our meal. At first, it appeared as if there was not enough food, but after two hours of eating, there were between 25-30 plates of food on the table!! There were only 12 of us.

Following our gigantic lunch, Sarah took us to a foot massage facility to relax. We were served flower tea and fruit while watching the olympics. Some students decided to take a nap upstairs. Once we felt rested, we took the van to a hotel of approximately 72 stories. It is the 8th tallest building in China and the 15th tallest building in the world. We toured around the hotel by first zooming up to the top to have a look at the city. Then we went down 12 levels at a time (by elevator, of course) to view a themed level. The Chinese believe the five elements gold, wood, water, fire, and earth balance each other out. Five levels out of the 72 were completely dedicated to one of the five elements. Finally after a fun-filled day, Sarah spoiled us once again by taking us to a five-star hotel's all-you-can-eat buffet. We were amazed with the quantity and quality of food we ate that day. Once arriving back on campus 14 hours later, we decided to go sing karaoke at KTV. Our 17 hour day was quite an experience. 1. Foot massage room

2. The 72 story hotel

3. The 5 Chinese elements balance chart

4. The water level

5. The entire gold level was plated in gold including the floor!

6. Plated in gold in the lobby

Excursion #3 Tiger Hill and Hot Pot 火锅

On our third excursion, we went to Tiger Hill. In order to get there, we took another canal cruise, but this canal was extremely narrow compared to the one surrounding the city. It was enclosed by small, ancient houses (looking exactly like the photos people imagine when one thinks of China) where people still live today. Once we got to Tiger Hill, we took a tram up the hill to the pagoda. We had the chance to walk down winding steps from the top of the hill to the base. The pagoda was so steep that it appeared much further away than it actually was. Our Chinese student id's saved enough money on admission that the class was treated to a large meal called Hot Pot (火锅）following the excursion. There were at least ten types of meat and several vegetable dishes dumped into a large pot, which sits in the center of the table. It remains steaming throughout the duration of the meal and cooks the meat as guests sit around the table. We were wondering why our food was taking so long to be served. It turned out we had ordered chicken and the servers were in the process of catching and killing it!

Hangzhou 杭州

Half the class decided to take a weekend trip to Hangzhou (杭州）, a city about an hour away by train and at least two hours by car. There was more traffic by taxi than anticipated, so when we got to the train station, we had to RUN as fast as we could. Luckily we found the correct entry way where everyone was lined up. We followed everyone outside to line up at our appointed train car number. We were unaware that our car was hundreds of feet away and the train was about to take off! We had to make a run for the car and made it just as the doors were closing. Once we were on, the train moved at a much quicker pace than I would have expected.

Upon arriving at the Hangzhou train station (杭州火车站）we waited in an extremely large crowd of people for the next available taxi. After settling into our hotel, we were close enough to walk to the West Lake, a lake containing the "broken bridge". In ancient times, when there was snow on the bridge, it appeared from the distance that the bridge was split in half because the one side of the bridge blended in with its background. At night, we walked to the shopping street lit with many Chinese lanterns. Hangzhou is a terrific city with picturesque landscapes!

Making Friends 我的朋友...

A few of us made some awesome Chinese friends. They showed us their favorite places to eat and constantly helped us learn common Chinese phrases. For many days, we just shared our differences and lifestyles with one another. It was quite interesting to learn that the girls had never made American friends before they met us, yet their English was nearly fluent. I could not believe how well-trained they were in their communication skills regarding English. As I got to know these girls better, they took me to the lake where a light-up fountain show was held. There were crowds and crowds of people (人山人海,a phrase meaning too many people) viewing the mystical scene. I had the opportunity to walk around the modern, inner city of Suzhou. I took my first subway back to campus. Here is the restaurant I ate at nearly EVERY day, because I knew exactly what it was I was eating. We also met lots of people who were interested in foreigners at this restaurant.

Excursion #2 The Canal 水

We often took extremely crowded public buses and taxis to explore the city. There was also a substantial amount of walking. On our second class excursion, we took the city bus to a canal which surrounds Suzhou. On the hour-long boat ride, a vocalist sang ancient Chinese folk songs along with her musical instrument, the erhu, while the tour guide spoke about the structures we passed. We enjoyed beautifully lit paths, trees, parks, and bridges. Here are a couple photos highlighting our experience...

Movie Theatre 电影

In our free time, we decided to go to a movie. It turned out, the theatre was inside of a very fancy performing arts center which regularly holds art shows, ballet, acrobats, and many other interesting activities. The building reminded me of the bird's nest in Beijing, China where the 2008 olympics were held. It was shaped into a curve and looked like webs of grey as the outside texture. When we arrived, we forgot to research what movies were out and could not manage to make-out the movie descriptions on the over-head board, so we chose a movie based upon the picture from the cut-out poster near the ticket booth. We ended up seeing "The Four" which was an action-like film with English subtitles. Each theatre showing a movie was separated from one another, no food or condiments were for sale (everyone brought their own food), and there were assigned seats! After the movie, we enjoyed a spectacular view of the lake right outside the performing arts building with a nice breeze blowing by.

Silk Museum 丝

After visiting the garden, Liu Laoshi took use to the silk museum. We were introduced to the process of turning silk worms into elaborate quilts, pillows, and garments. We even got to try to stretch some of the tough silk material across a large area the size of a bed. When we returned to campus, we continued to explore a bit longer.

First Day and Excursion #1 Humble Administrator's Garden 花园

Our first morning began with class, Chinese 201 taught by Tao Laoshi, a Chinese professor from Suzhou University. He started the class by having us introduce ourselves in Chinese. He taught through English, provided much repetition so that the vocabulary and tones (4 major tones in the Mandarin language) were engrained in our heads, and supplied a structured class with detailed instructions. Tao Laoshi and our Chinese professor from NAU Liu Laoshi held a large banquet for us to celebrate our first lunch in China. Our first class excursion included a trip to the Humble Administrator's Garden, the largest garden in southern China and the most famous garden in Suzhou. It contained very traditional Chinese structures and a vast history dating back to the Tang dynasty.

Beginnings...

Upon arrival at Soochow University after a 24 hour journey (14 hour plane ride), my classmates and I settled into our dorm rooms for oversea students. As I explored the campus I discovered an extremely serene, green, and friendly atmosphere. The East Campus (one of five campuses) on which I stayed had a large bridge over-looking the vast canal stretching for miles across the city. This is the view from my dorm room, the fifth story of the building with no elevator! The beautiful lilies were found throughout the campus. I was eager to begin classes and absorb the incredible language surrounding me.