Sunday, February 28, 2010

Pictures of Jeju!

We went to a glass museum which had, among other things, fish made out of old bottles:



There are walking trails all over Jeju, like this one:


They often have views like this:


There are also beaches everywhere:



There are also many waterfalls. I LOVE how the rock wall is reflected in the water here:
This is farther downstream from the pool pictured above:
Look, it's me!

Thursday, February 25, 2010


Always in motion, the future is.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Back in Nanjing!

It feels like home here, which is stranger than I've been able to put into words.

Coming back was another adventure, of course. Christian taxi'd with me to the airport around 7:30 in the morning on Saturday and we had breakfast in the airport before I went through security for my 9:05 flight. I flew up to Seoul, took a 10 minute shuttle bus loop from the domestic airport to the international one, re-checked my duffel bag and flew to Shanghai (the first flight was only an hour long, the second was two hours. Both uneventful).

China makes itself known pretty quick. I stood in line for about half an hour after getting off the plane to go through customs and then picked up my bag and walked out the airport doors to find myself, along with two or three hundred other people, standing in line for a taxi. the line swept along the curve of the airport building, narrowing by means of a canvas rope from being sidewalk-wide, to a three people across, to two, and down to single file before winding back and forth in a metal queue six or seven times. The wait was only about half an hour, despite what the taxi driver who accosted me as soon as I came out of the building looking foreign assured me would happen. "You want taxi? Come with me. Here you wait two hours." "NO." I didn't even ask him how much he would have charged to take me to the train station, but probable 200 or so yuan. The drive on a meter cost me 53 yuan (just under 8 dollars), and my driver refused even to keep the change from the 55 I gave him.

The taxis were lined up eight in a row. One wave would drive up and the worker standing at the front of the queue directed whoever was next to the first one to stop, and so on until they were all taken. As soon as a taxi drove away another would zoom up to take its place, the driver hopping out to expediate luggage moving if necessary. My driver took me on an expressway through downtown Shanghai and it was wonderful to be moving so fast so close to the ground and see the buildings. The sky was clear and it was sunny and warm. My hair was messed up from leaning on my seat on two planes and blowing in the wind from the taxi's open window by the time I got to the train station, but sometimes I like to give people something to stare at me for other than my skin color.

I got a train bound for Nanjing with less than an hour to wait at the station. There were three or four stops on the way and Nanjing was the end of the line, and miraculously no one got joined our car after we left Shanghai, so the car emptied bit by bit until I was left with a table and five foot window to myself watching the sun set over Chinese cities and hills and fields and factories. It was beautiful.

I took the subway from the train station to the Gulou stop, just a ten minute walk from campus. My duffel bag was feeling pretty heavy by the end (I wouldn't have this probably if I didn't travel with more books than clothes) but I made it back cheerfully and found the German bakery down the street was open and gratefully ate a sandwich.

I am currently trying to decide which classes to take. I think it's going to be Religion Systems in China, Environmental Law, and East Asian Economies, but Chinese Interpersonal Relationships and International Political Economics were both pretty interesting today.

Love from China!

Wrapping up Jeju thoughts

I had grand plans of writing while I was on break in Korea. Of emptying all the cluttered thoughts out of my head onto paper (or my hard drive), organize them, and be able to start this semester focused and fresh.
The writing part didn’t happen, as you’ll notice by the slim blog post pickins, but I am feeling so much better for my time in Korea and so much more confident about my semester.
I spent a lot of time in Korea doing little to nothing, which seemed to confuse and perhaps frustrate Christian who felt it was his duty to show me the island and keep me entertained. I had a marvelous time lying around watching old Poirot episodes and reading.
We also did have PLENTY of adventures. During my last week I went to class with Christian and made some buddies, particularly in the third grade (It was one of the days when he’s on his own, with no Korean co-teacher to translate and help him, so I’m pretty impressed that he has had any kind of a first grade class. The kids have plenty of energy but don’t understand any instructions that can’t be mimed). At one point Christian was asking his class to sit down and they were too busy talking about their last activity and/or not really understanding, so I sat down at one of the student tables and two girls shrieked and ran across the classroom to sit next to me. It was very sweet, and pretty hilarious.
You don’t wear shoes in school in Korea (or homes). When we walked in Christian led me to a set of shelves with extra plastic slipper-sandals and gave me a pair before going to his cupboard and taking out his own personal pair. The sandals were the kind with lots of almost sharp plastic bumps on the bottom, which I suspect are good for reflexological or circulatory reasons, but made my feet feel awful weird and tingly by the end of the morning.
We ate (twice) at a restaurant that served pie-sized Herb Burgers, cut into eight pieces and requiring the help of at least two friends to consume.
We played a lot of games with friends, most notably Settlers of Catan and Warcraft III (I’m expecting my Huge Nerd badge to be upgraded to a Super Huge Nerd badge any day). We ate pancakes and broccoli (not at the same time) and I think I made up for all the cereal I had not eaten all semester in Nanjing.
Being on Jeju felt WAY more like home than my time in Nanjing has, and while I think Christian “Chuckles” Yetter (only super special people get obnoxious nicknames, dude, trust me) was definitely the main reason, it’s made me think about changing the way I structure my life in Nanjing. I’m going to try to read and maybe write every night, and spend more time just talking to people. Basically, I’m going to do less homework. Probably this is a good plan.