It's Day 7??

The days have blown by so fast, I can't believe it's already day 7. We've already left Beijing, we've already "finished" one project. I don't know if I can recap it all, but let's try:

Day 1:

Plane ride. It was too goddamn long.

Day 2:

798 art distric. This was phenomenal, I took about a million pictures of all the textures and colors and artistic styles that I liked. Some of my favorites (I'll post pictures later when I can write from my own computer) were giant versions of little lion toys in stacked cages, a clothing store with mostly coats and a gallery show of paintings that looked like little plastic toys. But there were so many beautiful, wonderful things to be seen.

We also went to CAFA and met the head of the Graphic Design program. His studio designed the Olympic medals. How awesome is that? The museum on campus was full of art about the Olympics (everything seemed to be about the Olympics in Beijing) and there was some amazing fashion design work when we first entered. I tried to photograph it, but the guards said it wasn't allowed. Boo.

After CAFA, we went back to 798 to look some more, but I was too tired. Lexis and I went to a little cafe and got smoothies. I wrote postcards home, she worked on her journal. It started pouring rain at one point, so I was glad to be inside! After that, we went out to dinner at a "Thai" resturaunt. One of the dishes was meat jello. Meat jello! I was actually really impressed because my family is Mormon and there's a joke (unfortunately it's fairly accurate) that jello molds, especially with fruit in them, are a staple at Mormon gatherings. I look a picture. I wonder if that's weird in Chinese culture.

Day 3:

Forbidden City. Emperial China really knew how to impress. The buildings here were huge and extravagant. The colors struck me again. I started formulating my project for Beijing (some fashion design work) here and realized that I wanted my palatte to be pulled from the ancient buildings. So my colors are vibrant red, blue, green and yellow. Hopefully I'll be able to find a scanner here soon and I can post the sketches.

After the Forbidden City, Brooke, Sylvan, Christian, Matt, Steven and I went to find the cultural district of Beijing where there were supposed to be art supplies. After quite a lot of exploration (and buying a "Dolce and Gabbana" purse), we found it but there wasn't much to be seen. It was mostly calligraphy supplies. Oh man was I shocked by how pushy people are about sales on the alleys, though. They shout at you from across the street! Jesus Christ, it made me uncomfortable. Once we realized we weren't going to find what we were looking for, Steven left for the hostel and the rest of us got beers and curry chicken to kill time until we needed to be at the Laoshe Tea House. Said tea house was nice, but I was so tired and antsy by the time the show started that waiting for it to be over just about killed me. I think I fell asleep pretty much immediately upon returning to the hostel.

Day 3:

Temple of Heaven. I'd like to go back. My tiredness and my bad hips (god, I sound like an old lady when I say that, but it's true...) made me really cranky and while I know what I saw was beautiful, I didn't fulfill my assignment for the park and really, I just sat and sketched in a couple of spots rather than exploring.

We went back to the hostel and hung out, worked on some crafts and generally rested for the afternoon. Then, Brooke, Matt, Steven, Braeden and I went to Ya Show, the counterfit mall. If I thought the salespeople near Tian'anmen Square were pushy, it was nothing compared to Ya Show. Every time I turned around, someone was yelling "hey lady, you need..." at me. I was fairly uncomfortable, but got good at walking fairly quickly and ignoring them. I was looking for a particular Louis Vuitton bag that just started appearing in the September fashion magazines, but didn't find it. I found a similar "Marc Jacobs," though. So...I don't know. That plus two pairs of "Pumas" and a perfume cost me almost 500 Yuan. Way better than in the states, even on Canal Street, but still more than I should have spent, probably. I did still have two more cities, as Ying would later point out to the whole group.

Before going to Ya Show, I put on sneakers. They made my feet and my knees and my hips feel so much better. Turns out supportive shoes make for a happier Megan.

Day 4:

The Great Wall. I hadn't prepared myself for this mentally or physically. Like...it's the Great fucking Wall of China. In the pictures it looks like it just gently rolls across the countryside. Actually, it's steep and it's crumbling and it is a really hard hike. There were 30 guard towers from where we started to where we finished...in an effort to lose a souvenier peddler (they just follow you or guide you until you buy something or tell them that you absolutely will not be buying anything from them) I took a break in tower 9 (I thought if I made it clear that I was having lunch, he would leave me alone) and ended up sketching for about 45 minutes. Edwin caught up to me then and was kind of in a rush to get to the end, so he asked me if I wanted to take a shortcut to tower 25 with him (and some souvenier sellers, obviously). I took the shortcut (which is probably really good, becasue I don't think I would have finished in time, given the 45 minute break) and it was actually really beautiful. We walked down into the valley on the Beijing side of the wall and through this farming community. I ended up paying the ladies 50 yuan for the scenic tour, but they really wanted me to buy something from them. It took forever, even with Edwin translating, for them to accept that I didn't want a book about the Great Wall or postcards. Even with the shortcut, the end of the hike was really steep. I'm so glad I was on the wall for a while, but I'm even more glad I took the shortcut. Not because it was easier, but because it was so pretty and so different from what I would have seen otherwise. We've done a lot of tourist-y stuff in China, but this didn't feel like that. At least, it's not something I would have done as a tourist, without Edwin there to translate and make sure I wasn't going to be trafficked...at least alone!

After the wall and a lovely rest, a group of us went out to the bars. The first place we went to was kind of a dud and nobody seemed to be having a good time, but then we went to another place that we thought was a karaoke bar...turns out it was just a pretty bad band that only did covers! I had a great time there, dancing and singing at the table. Even if Stan was a downer. Jerk. We got a little lost on the way home and got directions from several locals. I really like the people on this trip!

Day 5:

Just bussing it to Jinan and a crazy fucking banquet. There was so much food. So much. Each of us could have easily had our own table for the food we were given. We tried a mystery Chinese liquor. It was pretty good, but strong as hell. I switched over to beer after one cup. Jackie, the head of international affairs for SUAD, seems like a really awesome guy. Like he could drink just about anybody under the table.

Day 6:

We met our SUAD partners. Mine's name is Ren Yan. She's really cool. We had a little introduction and show-and-tell of art with all of us, then went to lunch, which was pretty good. After a tour of the campus (which is like an art wet dream, I can't fathom actually going to school there. When I saw room after room filled with sewing machines, I almost dropped out of UO to go here. Never mind applying. Then I saw one of the black and white darkooms, which had probably 15 enlargers and an attached lighting studio and almost died.) we brainstormed ideas for our project. Yan and I have an idea....but it's secret! The SUAD student took us out to dinner at a Korean resturaunt. We had sushi, too, but it had...I think a cut up hot dog in it. It was fucking strange.

Upon arriving home, I pretty much passed out. No joke, I think I was asleep by 9:30. Edwin called Braeden and I's room at 10:30 or so and not only did it wake me up, but I thought it was early in the morning. So disorienting. But I was planning on getting up at 5:45am, so I think going to sleep at 9:30 is acceptable.

Day 7:

We visited Confucius' hometown, Qufu. I slept for the whole 2 hour bus ride there...eep! The building sites were pretty, but we kept rushing through everything! Then, I opted out of going to Confucius' gravesite, so I ended up with a lot of free time before lunch. Oh well. I got a really awesome little lion toy from a street vendor and some silk scarves for my project from the shop at the hotel where we had lunch. Lunch was so good. I don't know if it was because we were at the fanciest resturaunt we could have possibly found (it's where dignitaries go when they're in Qufu) or if they served slightly Westernized food to us, but it was the best meal I've had since arriving in China. There was fried chicken that tasted like American fried chicken. Fried rice, fried fish (I've been missing fried food, so this was grrrr-eat!). sweet-and-sour chicken, egg flower soup, broccoli and beef. Oh my goodness...

Next, we went to Mount Tai. Rode a cable car almost all the way up, rushed to get to the top and then turned around to rush back down to catch the cable car again before service ended. The whole day felt so rushed. I guess that's the way it goes, but I would have been happy to do just the Confucian adventure or just Mount Tai and taken the whole day to really experience it. Oh well, this is the way it went and I'm still glad I saw the monuments.

Tomorrow, we work with our partners more. Wish me luck!