Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Hi!!! I'm finally in China!

After a long flight of 18 hours I arrived safe and sound in Guangzhou. Getting off the plane at 11pm at night, taking a bus and taxi to the 小区 that my aunt lives in and then climbing up eight flights of stairs with my two suitcases was quite the experience. But alas, jetlag has allowed me to sleep for only a couple of hours (I woke up at 7am!!!).

So far, in the five hours that I've been in Guangzhou I've already learned quite a lot.

First, the people of Guangzhou love to "yumcha" meaning dim sum and can spend hours on end at the restaurant (my aunt told me that you can sit from 8am to 4pm if you wanted :O). The newly installed subway systems of China are so pretty AND nicely air conditioned, unlike the dirty New York subways.

The streets are really different from the streets of New York, some places don’t even have sidewalks, there are no lights for crossing the streets and most small shops don't have doors, it looks like a hole in a wall, kind of like the small shops in Chinatown on Canal Street.

Right now I'm already on a three hour bus ride traveling to Hong Kong! I can't wait to start eating all the 小吃 (snacks) that Hong Kong is famous for. I'll be in Hong Kong for the next several days and then on the 30th I'll already be off on a plane to 南京(Nanjing) to embark on my tour of the famous cities of China. Super excited to see the Shanghai Expo!


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Monday, May 24, 2010

Getting Ready for...Takeoff!!!

Hi everyone!

It's been awhile since my last post but I've just been mostly catching up with friends in NYC for the past two weeks.

I'm about to board the plane in about six hours and it feels pretty surreal. I never realized how stressful going on vacation can be, especially when I have to deal with all my relatives in China (I have one whole suitcase full of gifts for my relatives). This whole morning was spent with my parents talking about how to get money when I'm in Beijing, how to deal with taxi drivers, and...how to not piss off my relatives by saying the wrong things, lol.

I still haven't really figured out what I'm doing about housing yet, so I guess I'll be apartment hunting the first couple days. But the whole bringing money to China issue is a real pain, my dad said he'll be sending money via Western Union to Beijing so we'll see how that works out. Sorry for complaining so much :( I just tend to worry a lot, but on the brighter side I am excited to see my aunts and uncles after 6+ years of not going back, and obviously I'm looking forward to the FOOD, yummmmm. For those of you living vicariously through me, don't worry I'll be posting plenty of pictures of things I eat! :p

I'll be in China the next time I post!

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

My First Post!

I'm still home in NY, but I decided to start blogging already because being away from the Yale bubble has already made me feel sad. Added on with the fact that I just learned I'm going to be an aunt really puts me in a weird mode. While I'm excited for this summer, its also scary to not have a confirmed place to stay (Tsinghua doesn't let us pre-book their dorms and renting an apartment before you arrive is nearly impossible). But I'm sure things will work out...right?

Well, for now I'll just be excited about visiting Hong Kong and Guangzhou relatives, which I'll be doing 5/24-6/10.

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