Why I no longer suck at buying pirated goods
Silk Street
Sadly, it’s our last week here at CET. Surprisingly I’m not all that busy, and because Christmas is quickly approaching and I hadn’t gotten any gifts for people back home, I figured last Sunday was a prime opportunity to hit up the Silk Market (aka Silk Street, Silk Street Market, Xiùshuǐjiē, and 秀水街) and try my hand at bargaining. (If you remember, my last experience was some what of a failure.) I’m happy to say that I was successful, but only after going back again on Wednesday. Here’s why it took 2 attempts.
Read the rest of this entry
Because people are more willing to give you gifts when you’re about to leave the country
There's a striking resemblance between me and the big man in red
After the success of last years’ “
The Study Abroader’s Post-Christmas List“, I decided I’m going to make it a yearly thing. I did realize that it’s more beneficial to publish it
before Christmas, so that’s one big improvement over last year’s list. It’s basically going to be a compilation of things I used, thought might be useful, or wish I had bought before I went abroad all together in one easy-to-email to friends and relatives list. While some things will remain on the list from year to year, I’ll do my best to keep it as up to date as possible. So here’s this year’s, The Study Abroad Student’s 2011 Christmas List.
Read the rest of this entry
The beginning of the end here at CET
Me and my group of kids
We have a language practicum almost every Wednesday – basically an activity that helps/forces us to use our Chinese (interviewing elderly people about their life at a park was one of these activities). Last Friday, as a sort of final practicum “test”, we all went to the Pugongying Middle School to give short presentations in Chinese, answer some questions, and just hang out with the kids.
Read the rest of this entry
Friday of Fall Break at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
Me, Mao, and some random woman
This is the long-delayed ending to the photo documentary of my Fall break in Beijing – Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I guess you could say I saved the best for last, although I had just as good of a time at the Olympic Park and Liulichang. The one thing Tiananmen and the Forbidden City had over everything I’ve done in Beijing, except for maybe the Great Wall, was the shear size of it. It was almost overwhelming, and not just because of the crowds.
Read the rest of this entry
How to see the best of Xi’an in two days
Just mingling with the ladies of Xi'an
This past weekend was our last CET organized excursion, the Xi’an Historical Trip. In Chinese, the characters “西安” in Xi’an literally mean “Western Peace”. I’ll admit I was a bad traveler, and neglected to do any research beforehand. I associate any place in Western China with the desert, comparatively spicy food, Islam, and rock cut cave dwellings. Needless to say I was a little surprised when we arrived in a place that had a pretty strong resemblance to Beijing (bad traffic, polluted air, high rises built next to ancient architecture, family run butcher shops next to McDonald’s, all of which can be called the best attempt at preserving culture while promoting modernity).
Read the rest of this entry
I'm a 23 year old college grad, and during my junior year abroad in Scotland, I came to the realization that it's hard to know what you want to do in this world if you've never seen it. With that in mind, I decided to study abroad again during the 2011-12 academic year, this time in Beijing, China. Read more