Huangzhou

This Saturday morning a group of 28 students took the 2 hour train-ride to Huangzhou. We stayed there in a hotel until Sunday evening.

The train was really nice. It is sort of lame that the U.S. doesn’t use passenger trains more often. It is a relatively cheap, fast, and environmentally friendly form of transportation. I know that there are a lot of arguments as to why it isn’t particularly feasible for the States, but it sure would be nice.

We arrived in Huangzhou, and after a bit of struggling with herding 28 people around and deciding where to stay, we finally decided to follow some local to a hotel. The hotel required that we all fill out a bunch of passport info and crap, but after much adieu, we finally got to our rooms. Subsequently we toured the area.

Huangzhou is famous for its massive and ornate pagodas, temples, and natural surroundings. I’d elaborate on the coolness of the Buddhist temple that I visited, the water show on the lake, the boats and other Chinese style activities, or the way that the giant pagodas looked, but I’ll leave that to the pictures that I will eventually post.

Until the pictures arrive, I will tell you a few short stories that are harder to tell through pictures:
Ben was swarmed by Chinese people obsessed with hearing a blonde, white, American speak English.
A group of about 4 of us jumped into a picture of Chinese students, and ended up the center of a long series of photographs.
I decided it would be an awesome idea to join the hoards of old women in some elaborate line-dancing. A few of the UC students joined me after they saw that I was picking up the moves. I wish there was a video of our sweet moves, the old ladies laughing at us, or the other old ladies looking at us like we were ruining their culture. It was fun as hell, though.

Sunday morning we rode rented bikes around the giant lake. It was exactly what I felt like China should be. I even saw some stereotypical Chinese drifter (clad in rags, a walking stick, and giant fumanchu) being forcibly removed from the area by some PRC cops. Heaven forbid there be poverty in a tourist area... the western people might see!

Anyway, it was a super fun trip. Ben and I plan on visiting Beijing over the National Day holiday. It should be crazy, particularly since it is the PRC’s 60th birthday.

Oh! I bought a bike. It was pretty gay with butterfly stickers on it, which I promptly removed to find a pretty cool silver bike. I bought it for relatively cheap, and it cut 25 minutes off of my trip to class in the morning. Fudan is significantly bigger than W&J.

Today was Chang’s birthday. Chang is a friend of mine from UC. About 17 of us went to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant to celebrate. It proved to be the most expensive meal since I arrived: about 15 USD. Allow me to rub this in everyone’s face: Things barely cost any money here.

Tonight I was told: “Holy crap, Andy! I just realized how white you are!” Was this because I was doing the Carlton Banks dance to some songs on the Scrubs soundtrack? Maybe. But it still surprised me to look around and realize that I am in the extreme minority. By “still” I mean that I feel like I should be used to it by now. It isn’t that it bothers me: I consider it a really awesome experience. But even after this time I still look around and go “Holy crap haha I AM the minority... SWEET”

In this entry I was planning on doing a shout-out to Slepsky: What up, Sleppers. I hope you are still sane.
I thought of Sleperton today because I was wearing a super sweet vintage Batman teeshirt he gave me before departure. (fyi, Sleprock- everyone digs it... well I don’t know that, but I do)

I will also give a shout-out to Katie Mulvaney on account of I just received an e-mail from her: Hey. Keep the vow alive. I have been much regretting my failure to do so. (If you don’t know what that is about, you aren’t meant to)

Ok. Well that is all I have to say for now. I am not proofreading this entry, on account of the fact that it is 2:30 am here. (Coincidentally, that is precisely the reason why I SHOULD proof read it, but eh, whatever)

More to come.