Cheapest Haircut Ever

I would just like to announce that I just had the cheapest haircut ever (at a hair salon). It cost me 5 RMB, which roughly equates to 65 cents. It also turned out much better than the $20 haircuts from Phil's or Y Cutting. Yet another great reason to be in China.

Correction: I have just been regrettably informed by Yu Xia that his 2 RMB haircut was cheaper than mine. It turns out that my "cheapest haircut ever" is actually more than double the price that Yu paid. I am sorry for any confusion that I may have caused.

Hong Kong: Days 2 and 3

Hello everyone! I am posting from my grandparents’ house in Changzhou. The weather here is cooler and less humid than Hong Kong (thank goodness) but there are many more mosquitoes and the air is much more polluted o.O

My second and third day in Hong Kong were eventful, but much less tiring than the first!

On Saturday, we had a Yale Club lunch at a restaurant called American Peking. Caroline, the president of the Yale Club of Hong Kong had reserved 3 round tables for us. I sat at the table where there happened to be a ’77 grad and also with 2 Hong Kong pre-frosh. One sitting next to me asked, “What residential college do you recommend?” I didn’t want to disappoint him, but I informed him, “Actually, you don’t get to choose… although Morse is great! (hehe)” Overall, the food quality was average, but others thought it was great. I personally am more of a fan of more authentic Chinese cuisine, especially when I am physically in East Asia. Later on Saturday, I moved all my belongings with the Bulldogs to their new dorms at the City University of Hong Kong (located in Kowloon Tong), but the dorms were too small to fit an extra person, so I planned to stay that night with a friend in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. That night, I headed off with the Bulldogs for another round of Mongkok (where we enjoyed some more mango-goodness at 许留山. Man, I love that place. That evening, I left the Bulldogs to join Minh and KaWing @ CUHK.

Sunday morning was spent mostly packing and getting ready to go. KaWing and I had an enjoyable breakfast in United College (one of the 4 colleges of CUHK), and I left to gather my belongings. My YUNA penpal, and also my Hong Kong guide, traveled with me all the way across the border to Shenzhen, where I took a shuttle to the airport. To my surprise, Shenzhen airport is remarkably clean and orderly (I had envisioned something along of the lines of another Beijing Train Station… where scalpers would literally breathe down your neck the moment you neared). I boarded my China Eastern Airlines to Nanjing without a hitch, and the dinner served on the airplane was one of the best airplane dinners I have had (although I guess that isn’t saying too much, it is something). The plane did however seem to experience turbulence quite often, and to get off the plane, they had to roll in those stairs. From Nanjing, my uncle and one of his chauffeurs from his company took me directly to my grandparents’ house in Changzhou, which is where I am now. Changzhou is located 2 hours away from Nanjing, and 1 hour from Shanghai, and 1 hour from Suzhou as well. I really like visiting home because everyone here speaks the Changzhou dialect (which I use to communicate with my parents at home). Therefore, nobody treats me as an outsider because I understand the local dialect, although many people tell me I dress very ‘American’.

For the next few days, I plan on relaxing and perhaps even reviewing some of my Chinese. I also am in dire need of a haircut, and I need to shop for socks. Hope to see all of you soon in Beijing!

Hong Kong: Day One

So today was a very busy day indeed. I'll try to recap as much as I can. First, May (one of the Yalies here who is doing Bulldogs in Hong Kong) and I went to McDonalds to grab breakfast. The weather outside was horrible: very rainy and windy. The door to McDonalds actually blew open, and the employees spent a good amount of time trying to shut the door and clean up the flooded floors.

However, the weather cleared up and May and I were able to meet Amy (a fellow Light Fellowship Yalie who lives in Hong Kong). We traveled to Causeway Bay and had lunch at a delicious Shanghai restaurant. After going various malls, we naturally decided to try Mongkok, which is an outdoorsy market that has a lot of cheap, fake, and interesting goods.

May and Amy in front of some of the more interesting "goods":


Later, we visited Festival Walk, a ginormous mall located in Kowloon Tong. Naturally, we decided to go figure skating:



We also ate at this yummy mango place called 许留山 (xu3 liu2 shan1). While eating our mango shakes, we enjoyed taking pictures of us looking like flowers:



For dinner, I headed over to Wan Chai to a restaurant called Thai Farmer. There, I met up with some fellow Chinese University of Hong Kong students who did the YUNA program with me over Spring Break. I also had a chance to meet some of the Yale-China service interns. We had a chance to catch up, chat about Hong Kong life and work, and of course celebrate Faith's 21st birthday.



To end the night, we went to the main expat club/bar area called Lan Kwai Fong. This is the area where there are plenty ibankers and sketchiness (although not as sketchy as the clubs in Wan Chai). There, we headed to a bar called La Bodega to enjoy some mojitos, margaritas, and of course, company. After we sufficiently filled our stomachs with alcohol, we decided to head back for the night. The commute back to the Gold Coast took over an hour and half, but we made it back. Now it's time to hit the sack!

Hong Kong!

I have arrived safely in Hong Kong! It took a while (12 hours on a plane ride to Tokyo Narita, waiting for 3 hours to transfer planes, and another 4 hour ride from Tokyo to Hong Kong)... but I finally made it. Right now, it's 6:40 in the morning over here, and yes, I am jetlagged.

Currently, I'm staying at the Gold Coast Residences with a friend of mine who is doing Bulldogs in Hong Kong this summer. The apartments are very nice, except they're FAR (by FAR, I mean, a 1-1.5 hour commute from Central - where everything happens in HK). The weather here is REALLY hot and humid, so I try to keep the AC on at all times.

Today, I'll be exploring a bit of HK with Yalies who haven't started working yet, and then there will be a dinner hosted by Yale-China :) Yum, I love free food!

Here are some pics that I took from the Gold Coast apartments (view is from the 7th floor):

Sister's Shopping List

So my 8 year old sister was telling me today all the stuff that she wanted me to bring back from China. I told her that I couldn't remember everything she had said, and that she was better off making a list for me:

This is what she wrote (this is word for word, by the way, and she used this computer to type it)

• 3 Chinese paintbrushes
• Chinese paint (all 7 colors of the rainbow)
• Chinese book on how to paint
• Chinese painting paper
• Chinese watch
• 2 Chinese stamps
• A ring (a flower on it)
• A shirt with a mouse on it
• 1 elephant (pink) (stuff animal)
• 1 panda (stuff animal)

A shirt with a mouse on it? And I love how she clarifies that she wants the stuffed animal version of the elephant and panda, and not the real living creature. Oh, how I am going to miss home...

Shopping for Gifts

Whenever our family has someone returning to visit China, we usually get many requests for gifts. This year was no different. Our uncles usually ask for name-brand shirts. Aunts usually ask for sweets or cosmetics. Grandparents ask for vitamins, ginseng, or fish oil (? apparently it's really popular in China). Cousins usually ask for toys and such (one wanted the entire Lego Mindstorm collection).

This year, I'm packing light (translation: only one luggage and one carry-on). This is mainly due to the weight restriction for air travel within Asia (the Shenzhen to Nanjing flight only allows 25 KG). Nevertheless, I am bringing home these as gifts:

1 Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop (for my uncle & grandparents)
3 Polo Shirts (for uncles)
1 Large Picture Book on Tuscany (for my host in Hong Kong, who happens to be in love with Italy)
1 Book on Drinks & Cocktails (for a friend who is celebrating his birthday in Hong Kong)
1 Pink Yale T-Shirt (for Duke Language Partner.. I'm banking on the fact that she will be a girl)
1 Plush Bulldog (for teachers at Duke/miscellaneous gift)

And I am still missing gifts for some other people in Hong Kong. Looks like I'll have to go shopping again soon.

Visa

Because Duke (or rather Capital Normal University) has been rather slow with getting our materials to us, I still have not yet applied for my Chinese student visa. Instead of waiting for the materials, I have decided to take the train down to Chicago tomorrow to visit the consulate and apply for a 'travel visa' instead. The lady over at Duke has reassured that this should be OK, and that they'll switch it over to a 'student visa' when I get to Beijing.

Exactly 2 more weeks till I leave for Hong Kong!

Welcome!

大家好！Hello everyone,

Welcome to my summer blog. Here I will be posting stories and pictures from my summer in China. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of the Richard U. Light Fellowship, I will be able to spend the bulk of my summer studying Chinese through the Duke Study in China program (which will be hosted by the Capital Normal University in Beijing)!

The URL for my blog is http://zaibj.blogspot.com (zai is the pinyin for the chinese word 在, referring to where someone or something is located, bj is short for beijing, therefore this summer, I will be zaibj - a perfect blend of chinglish to start off this blog)

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Here's a look at my itinerary:

6/6 - fly from Chicago O'Hare to Tokyo Narita, transfer planes on route to Hong Kong International Airport

6/7 - 6/10 - Hong Kong: staying with bulldogs & traveling Hong Kong & Macao

6/10 - 6/14 - take bus/ferry to Shenzhen, fly to Nanjing, visit family in Changzhou and Yalies in Shanghai

6/14 - take the overnight train from Shanghai to Beijing (anybody want to ride w/ me?)

6/15 - 8/12 - studying Chinese in Beijing! i'll be staying at Capital Normal University (北京首都师范大学） (please do visit!)

8/12 - 8/18 - traveling China (anybody wanna come with?)!

8/18 - fly from Shanghai Pudong back to Chicago O'Hare