Next Plan In Life

Hello all of my amazing readers.

I am going to study abroad in Japan. I am hunting for jobs and scholarships everyday but I have yet to find a non-temp job and scholarships? Those all take so much time and are very tricky to win. Trust me. Thankfully I have found a way to fund raise for myself so if you can ( or you know somebody who can) Please help me get what it takes to live in Japan for 12months.

The total is $33,300 and the program I will be using is CIEE Tokyo. I'm going to take classes with local Japanese students this time around. I think that will boost my skills faster. I will upload their site so you can see exactly what I'm getting into. I will also upload the site that should direct you to my fund raiser.

Thank you so much! I will definitely blog about Japan and I will try to make sure it's better than this one. (Talking about how I still haven't adequately updated the last few days in China and the reverse culture shock of being home.) But not to worry! I have a lot more time now and I will start back up tomorrow.

Love ya!


CIEE page:

http://www.ciee.org/program_search/program_detail.aspx?program_id=55&type=part


fundraiser:

http://www.fundable.com/groupactions/groupaction.2009-06-09.6216557616/groupaction_view?portal_status_message=Your%20changes%20have%20been%20saved



P.S. I have only read 3 blogs of past participants but none have been able to network with me a little to know more about the program, so if you are a past participant, please let me know if you can answer some of my questions. Thanks again.

What a Day! and Night

So besides being sick and in pain I ventured out into the world to continue with my plans.

A friend of mine wanted so bad to see Jay Chou in concert and so I tried to help her out. I went to the campus early and got a massage across the street. After my friends were ready so we made our way down to the Shanghai train station to buy a ticket to Kunshan. [It's about 25min away by bullet train.] In the purchasing area we found that there are certain lines for certain cities, so we had to stand in the line for Kunshan. While we were there, we noticed that the line wasn't really moving. Why? The girls at the front were taking money from people who had just randomly walked up and buying tickets for them. I don't mind finding ways to make money, but I don't want to be inconvenienced by it. We had to literally push them out of the way and then decided to take a long time, pretending we couldn't read chinese, to buy our tickets.

After we went to get lunch but since I was having trouble swallowing I just ordered something small. **Funny story. I ordered you tiao (a bread stick like food) and I think it tastes like funnel cake with out the sugar. Therefore I wanted sugar lol I asked the lady for tang but I was so worried that she thought I meant tang . at that time I wasn't sure of which tone to use hahaha**

Finally we got on the bullet train. It was kind of like an airplane. I think it was new. Someone was sitting in my seat so I just sat next to my friends, but a man came on complaining so I ended up asking the people to move and taking my actual seat. He wasn't able to sit with his friends so I don't know why he didn't let me sit with mine...:( Oh well.

So we arrived in Kunshan but no taxis knew where to go!! The concert started at 7 and it was about 6:45 already!!! We walked down a random street and found a taxi (it was rush hour so almost all taxis were taken). A guy was going to grab that taxi but he let us have it. I thank him and said a prayer. The driver didn't know the exact place but he knew the area but as we were driving he noticed we were talking about the concert and he knew where to go :)

when we got there (6:58) my voice was going, but I wasn't worried because I'd never lost it. ***Notice: There are many people selling fake tickets in the open!! With cops around!!***We found the ticket office and the only tickets left were the ones we wanted to buy :) 380 yuan. And it turned out to be directly facing the stage. haha no need for front row seats.

Unfortunately the last train back to Shanghai was 10:28 and we hadn't been able to pull that friend away until 10:00. and of course there were no taxis...I was a bit chilly from that concert outside and my throat was killing me, so I did the unthinkable. I had some random guy give us a ride for 20 yuan. **Notice: There are 'unofficial' taxi drivers who bargain with you to give you a ride.** I know it's not common in America but I did and I'm still here. So....we missed the train anyway and I wasn't about to trust the unofficial van/bus drivers...We bought tickets for 12yuan on a 4am train. we had no passports so we stayed in the station. I had completely lost my voice by then because in my group they depend on my Chinese...I think I should start charging for setting these things up.

It was horrible to spend the night sick and in pain there but I survived. Now that I am home at 6:40 I have to try and sleep before my next adventure.

Nanjing and Park Pics

Oh yes. The most comfortable Chinese beds.平静。
Me and Veronica. We like to actually explore China.
Just had to let you see how some babies get bundled up. Poor 8mo old. It's actually not even cold this day.胖乎乎的
Haha chess baby! 下棋！
I'm gonna ride this....one day...before I leave.我要乘这个。。。有一天。。。我回国前。
Fishing in Zhabei park 在闸北园钓鱼
I was pulled in to XinZhang style dancing...
We walked all that way to construction... :(
This is what I go through to get good pics...O.O 惨死了！！
Nanjing Massacre Memorial
南京大屠杀纪念碑
I didn't take pictures inside because it's really not allowed. Sorry. I chose to be respectful of this FREE museum. Please see it yourself.
Lantern Festival at Fu Zi Miao 夫子庙的元宵节
我属龙。I belong to the Dragon. (Year)
They wanted my picture at a lake in Nanjing 南京。 对我就是这么有名的。呵呵


sorry it's not in any order. and it's late lol

The Park

After returning home at about 10pm I ate dinner and went to bed. Not as comfy as the hotel but far better than the dorms.

I awoke to *sings* SUNSHINE! not rain! ( I know the song's not like that but who cares.) I showered and ate breakfast while sitting by Ahyi at her request. I told her about the trip. The downs and the ups. Then I set off to hang with a black girl!!! Yeah!! (I'm glad I'm not the only black girl anymore. She's American of Cayman Island decent.)

We went to the park across the street, behind some stores, from school. We walked around the whole thing to watch the old people play badminton, do some exercise that I think is too graceful to be exercise, do tai chi, and dance. There was even a childrens' area for rides and painting and such.

While taking pictures of a Xin Zhang minority dance, I was pulled in by someone. So we took pictures and danced away! lol Actually I had to have them teach me a bit but it wasn't too hard.

We left there and my friend was approached by...a secret police? He was asking her how she liked China and I was snapping away on my camera and taking videos. This is how I found that he was a secret police. He politely asked me if he was in the photos or footage and please edit him out. If we needed anything call him. Cool.

We went to take pics with a statue and a lady walked her baby to us so we could....I don't really know. I wouldn't walk my baby up to strange but beautiful black girls! haha It was cute anyway. Then a mother and daughter walked in our direction. The girl asked her mom where we were from. The mom said Africa. I had to correct her (no I didn't say Jamaica this time) people need to know that blacks can be American. We talked a bit and the girl was sooooo sweeeeet she called me jiejie [big sister] and asked a few questions. I wish my friend wasn't a complete beginner so they could be mezmerized by her too.

After, we went to see some young boys practicing their WuShu. While taking some video I acknowledged the boys' nervousness in front of the 'cute black girls' and told my friend we should leave.

We ended up going to a bigger park. Century park I think. It was 10 to get in but it was huuuuuge. I think next time I go I'll rent a bike. There were boats, tents, kites, you name it. Families enjoyed themselves.

We were in need of lunch and since my friend has not enjoyed any Chinese food here we went to Papa John's. They messed up my order and a delightful Cantonese elderly couple gave the waiters a piece of their mind for me. hehe They were the one's who reminded me it was women's day!! So we got ice cream at Cold Stone and headed home.

At dinner I talked to the family about my day and they asked me questions about America and then we practiced learning foods and so on and so on.
I went to bed early. School on Monday.

(I've tired myself out. I'll upload pics and Mondays events later. My hind quarters need a break.)

Rushing Nanjing 南京

We woke up early to be able to eat breakfast before 8:30am check out. It was the best breakfast I've had in my time of china. We were scheduled to leave at 9. For some reason 3 students had caused a problem and 2 became victims.

One girl washed off heavy makeup with the hotel's excellent quality blindingly white rags and didn't wash it out. They wanted to charge her 30 yuan. She washed it out herself and didn't have to pay.
Two girls spilled "drips" of red wine on the incredibly similarly blindingly white sheets and the hotel wanted 2000yuan. Needless to say those girls rushed to wash them out.

Unfortunately for my friends they ended up paying for a missing laundry bag that even I had not seen while staying in their room until late. The funny thing about their case is that my director asked them if they had it, to which they replied no. Then she returned with a bag to say 'this is what it looks like but if you really didn't take it I'll fight for you'. One friend was asked to go look for it herself(before this happened) and the other one felt so embarrassed being taken as a thief that she paid. I thought the Chinese were good at saving face? She had taken everyone else's word for missing things. (There were about 5)

Those things are only told to you because they affected me in the way that we couldn't leave the hotel until well past 10 and everyone knew we were trying to pack all of day ones events into day two.

We went to the city wall which was nice but we were told we only had until 10:40...The majority of the kids returned at sometime past 11. (Mind you when I was walking back I saw all of them and said we only had 2minutes...Not to be bossy/mean 'cause I'd directed it towards my friends)

We went to the Nanjing memorial site. A place to remember how the Japanese troops ridiculously eliminated over 300,000 Chinese people. It was a breath-taking place. We were supposed to stay for an hour but that place is huge and so it took an hour and a half for everyone to get out. (Yes I was late. I'll tell you what I thought about this in a different post.)

We went to lunch late and I decided that all of Nanjing served small portions. Remember this is China. Dishes are a grab what you can from the middle type of deal.

After lunch we went to check out Sun Yatsen and Ming Xiaoling's mausoleums. That was a great experience too. Because the weather was great, I had some friends run up the billion stairs with me, watched Chinese men in uniform, and was informed that I was black.

lol here's that conversation.
him: Hey! Hey you! You are black!! haha Can you understand me?
me: Yes I understand...ummm-
him: That's great!! Yea you're black!haha *thumbs up*
me: right ummmm thank you?
lady in his group: how cute she is *smiles at me*

[ at the wall some lady didn't know I understood her and when asked if she wanted to take a picture with me, she ran over while saying 'How black! How beautiful!' Before her group bombarded me, mind you, I was trying to take a picture of a bird with slightly green feathers....-_-]


But anyway. I really love China. Only here do people tell me that I'm black.

( I'm posting pics Tuesday my time.)

NanJing Here We....*sigh*

ok. the internet was being stupid so i'm goin back a few days.


We were scheduled to go to Nanjing 南京 last weekend but because of a trip to the expo on a Tuesday some students signed up to be weekend volunteers. Why they had to pick that weekend I'll never know. ('cause I'm not asking.)

Well I arrived slightly early at school but the bus "wasn't there" for our 8:30am departure. If they would have walked to the front gate (visible from where we normally take the buses) they would have seen a huge white bus awaiting our arrival. We get on the bus and as usual somebody says 'you know i wanna go get some type of breakfast' and 'oh i just woke up i'll be down in a bit.' And because our director allows this we leave a little after 9.

During the ride I couldn't really sleep so I listened in on my friends conversations and it was funny. They were having a good time and some kids in the back were not happy cause they wanted to sleep. It was a Friday morning. A day that we usually have class. They should have been just as awake but there will always be rude people who think that just cause they are tired the world should stop.

The bus broke down....Oh well. We fortunately broke down minutes before hitting a gas station slash mechanic. Too bad they weren't bus mechanics. (didn't know things were so different from cars...)
We ended up waiting for another bus...2hrs. I went and waited outside of the bus with friends. We salsa-d, talked and just became crazy until we boarded the next bus.

Finally we reached a, maybe, 4 star hotel. It was soooo comfortable. We arrived around 3:30 ish and everyone was craving food. So we went to eat across from the hotel and then our director informs us that all museums close at 4:30pm. Since we wouldn't even eat dinner together she gave us 50元 per person. Then we were left to do whatever.

I went with my classmates to go see a Lake. It was nice. I ate cotton candy that was delicious (how can you mess up cotton candy??). Then we rushed back to the hotel to go to 夫子庙 as a group. Fu Zi Miao is a ... temple with shopping areas. They were having a little lantern festival so I got a couple of pictures thinking 'This sure is...lacking'. Then I went with some friends to eat. When we got back to the hotel we were all tired but we debated going to a club and karaoke.

I went back to my room to put my stuff down. Laid on the bed and thought 'Denied! I am going to indulge in this extravagant sack of comfy-goodness. I got out of bed though to visit the friends I had not hung out with to see if there was a grudge against the 2 that I was with. (I do not want to be in the middle of any mess.) They said there wasn't but speaking in a language unknown to the other and avoiding counts as having a problem with somebody. We ended up talking until way too late as my eyes were closing and my roommate went back to our room with me.(No we did not go back to the problem topic. I don't linger over hot water.) We watched a little bit of a show and were knocked out. haha


I will post these pictures tomorrow (Tuesday for me) ;p

Trip to Suzhou

苏州！SuZhou!

This was a very interesting place. We went to a garden and I realized something. Anytime a place is a "garden" we think of green and flowers galore. In China it seems to be green trees of few and rock formations of many....In any event I was happy and loved the place.




Then we went to the silk factory and took a guided tour of the place the ate in their restaurant.



Finally we went to Tiger Hill which is famous because they have a leaning tower...of...i'm not sure but it's leaning all right. and it's huge!!

Lantern Festival Final Day

haha Actually the last time I put Day 1 was because it was my first day, but in reality it was the second to last day.

So this time I went with the Modern Culture and Society class (I'm not in it). I thought that this was a good way for a free tour guide. I was right. I learned a little (little) bit of the history at the famous Yu garden!!
I took pics again because the day and night have obvious differences.

The program director had visited every language class to let us know that the teacher wanted to leave at 12:30 because admission was free before 1pm or 1:30..(she wasn't exactly sure) After that, it would be 50per person even though last night I paid 30... No need to tell me twice. I was in the lobby by 12:20. SOME people could care less since 50yuan is only about $7 but I say if it's worth 50yuan that's my $50 and I wanted to save it. Needless to say those people didn't show up until about 12:40; we'd waited because there was a token saying the others were coming. When we finally encouraged her to leave them behind we found out that we were taking the public bus. Great. That was at least a minute walk. We got on the bus after rushing and suddenly the other students were being waited for again as they decided to take their time and catch up. They walked so slowly too when we got off the bus. (No transportation could get close to Yu garden because of the police blocking off the streets) Luckily when we arrived at 1:20 and the free admission was until 1:30.

(I don't understand why it seems ok for these students to just ignore the ime structure and the teachers just look annoyed/worried and deal with it.)

This time I went around with various friends who needed to find lunch. They chose some restaurant that looked like a cafeteria style. I warned them that every dish had its own price, but:

them: Oh okay lets eat!
As soon as we stepped in the line with our trays.
them: Oh you know this looks like it'll be expensive. Do you want to eat here?
Me: -_- I told you it was one specific price for one specific dish.
them: i know. well, it doesn't matter to me if you want to eat here I'll stay. It just seems expensive.
Me: ....yep we're already in line so I'll stay. (angrily turns toward food and randomly grabs dishes)


whatever!!! At the end of the day. I bought a souvenir lantern and went back to the dorm and studied my eyes out.


here's some promised pics.

Day 1 Of The Lantern Festival

I was trying to sleep for a long time but my mind woke me up at 6:20 in the morning. HA! I noticed that my body wouldn't move though and it felt heavy so i forced myself to sleep. I woke up constantly but I finally slept until 11:30AM.

This is when I started the battle of finding a Carrefour家乐福 close to me. Since no one knows how to give me directions， I was online mixing and matching maps and addresses until 4pm! (well I was watching a drama first so I really didn't start until 1 or so...) But I finally made a good guess of which was closer and how to get there by the metro. (Taxi =$$)

I was quite impressed with myself getting there so fast! It was getting back that was a complete hassle. I had planned to meet my friends to eat dinner by Yu Garden and then go in to see the lantern festival.(Sorry I will post the amazing pics tomorrow) The problem was I had to take the line 3 (which got me there) back to transfer to line 8 and then walk to the garden (since I don't know bus routes still).

Sadly line 8 is outside and across the street inside a hotel from the line 3 station...-_- I know. I got lost because a sign told me to walk by the Soccer stadium but the stadium has no signs to guide you，so I just made a big circle. Then I went out of the other exit that the map showed and got lost again because the only sign I saw was broken and pointed to a convenient store...literally directly at the convenient store.
SO! I asked a few people while aimlessly walking back and forth and finally asked a family ( inside what I thought was a night watch stand) and they told me. It's on the other side. O.O (The other side was an alley... a dark alley behind a hotel with what turned out to be a garage.)
After seeing me walk into that alley the son ran to me and said "Where are you walking?! What's even back here!?!" haha
We started laughing as I apologized for making him run (it was an alley so I walked fast). Then he said "my parents are at the corner they'll help you."
So sure enough at the corner the mom says "it's inside the hotel exactly on the left." Then I saw the sign, apologized to them for having to come show me, to which they said it's nothing and watched me safely go inside, and finally got on the sub.

My friends texted at 7:15 sayin they were just leavin and I let them know that I was just on the way too. Thinking they'd meet me at the restaurant (I was so hungry) I walked there first. For some reason they had paid and gone into the Festival area and then said ‘so where's the restaurant?-_-. [Usually you wait outside for the extra 5-10min your friend is late.] So we ended up walking around and checking out all of the lanterns and watching the dragon dancing and parade, until finally we knew we should eat. With luck gone out the window, the food I had been craving for 2weeks was closed. So we started walking back to the metro (as everything else was closed) until I looked at the bus stop sign and said 'let's just take the bus'. For some reason they questioned whether I knew where it would go, but the sign said 人民广场 [People's square]. So of course I knew.

We got to our destination outside of campus and chose to eat dumplings. They go 6 for 2.5yuan[$.37] and so a meal of that is cheap and de-lurcious. Now I am thinking I should study for my class in the morning but I'm tired so I'll study before it starts (because I wake up unconsciously before 7:30 anyway).

Day 4/5 Transition

We took a train to Xi'an西安. As soon as we got there we went straight to some museums...

I don't even remember off the top of my head,but it was a day of museums in a city I don't know much about with no tour guides...
You can imagine walking around looking at things and not knowing what they are for or the story behind them. It was almost meaningless. Luckily I can read a bit of Chinese but when they are explaining ancient things, there's no way to know what the new words are.
My favorite chubby statue lol

Oh well. I guess I can go back someday, because the city wall that goes all around the city was pretty awesome!
It even has a moat!!
We have the same eyes.
We are being completely crazy in front of the stone garden. (More pics on photobucket)

Day 3

We went to the summer palace. It was actually much bigger than I expected. I mean it's a palace so of course it's big but they built a man made lake with a small island and then has it's own .. mountain if you will.

We were free to roam so I made the best of it. (Again they only gave us 2 hours...shame) I watched a few performances and got lost enjoying the weather and the land and the new sights to be seen.

Again people took pictures with me but no one has ever ran to me to do it. The girl was so cute!

**Speaking of pictures. I saw one of the princess and her concubines...it just wasn't what I expected...**

Later we went to a place called the Silk Market and I bargained quite politely this time to get gifts lol Earrings
The shop keepers were a little more mild but they still have no problem trying to hold you until you buy.

This day I realized that you can tell people and their personalities intertwine with there money. A few people in the Shanghai program are good at spending like there's no tomorrow. With that the attitudes were quite uppity. certain foods are "unedible inedible or whatever" and you should "just take a taxi anyway. You may only spend 60-80 yuan."

Personally coming to China meant immersing in the culture to learn the language. That means try to enjoy the food...only thing is the food turned out to depend on where you go...what a concept. Then for transportation I learned the bus route. Only 1/2 yuan depending on the bus. I even got a monthly card so I can ride 40 times for 20yuan. If we had a subway, I'd use that. Only 5 yuan. Just in case the buses are down for the night or too packed.

I just want to say that just because you have money (in their case it's unlikely all their own) doesn't mean you have to throw it away. Also doesn't mean you need to scrimp and pinch it all. But the attitude you show to others is important if you want to climb the ladder of success.


[P.S. I thought to post the "earring" pic because sometimes we need to admire black girls with nothing stereotypically extra. But i wore a hat. I'll probably write about this later.]

Day 2 The GreaT Wall

The scenery is as beautiful as the books, the feeling of being in a part of history is amazing, the Great Wall itself is a great mountainous pain in my body and mind as I look up to see only more uneven steps and old people who've gotten a head start. (I'm just kiddin' those old people will always be honored in my book.)

I made a video in case death came upon me but I recommend people to work out and then go climb the wall. Some how I chose the more difficult one on the right rather than the on that was mostly a flat path on the left. But I accomplished a dream and shouted 'Go Jamaica!' at the top so I'm happy.(Yes thinking of you Papa ;p )

I also saw a young black girl going up and I was so happy she was there! Unfortunately she was cute and wore heels...don't know if she made it.

* Later we stopped by Olympic park but I was carsick somehow and I didn't get a good picture. Sorry.

**Then we went to an acrobatic show and it was good but I had to laugh at the boys who wore 6 pack costumes...

Day 1 北京

We went to Tian'an men Square 天安门广场 but it just an entrance to the forbidden city 故宫. That place was amazing, because as the Chinese name shows, it's not a city it's a palace 宫. Unfortunately we only had 2 hours in this great place and the map we received made it seem like a small palace...as if.

I did a good job of not being lost and decided that I can still be a ninja. You just have to know exactly where to go to get anything done. Of course being a foreigner a lot of people took pictures with me but this is the best time；

Guy: Can I take a picture with you?
Me: Sure thing! (Glad he took that as a yes, I forgot he asked in Chinese)
(while taking the picture)
His Mom?: Why do you keep taking pictures with black girls! What's wrong with those cute white girls?!
Him: ...
Me: ...

I wanted to hug that guy and say thanks for not being racist. It's amazing what people will say when they think you don't know their language.

*Later we went to a place called the pearl market and it turned out to be a big store open for bargaining. The thing is some of those people speak the rudest English and some grab and hold you so you'll buy their merchandise...I was not the one. I don't even bargain much but being grabbed made me buy something extremely cheap. ( I mean I took the price down about 80 percent. But I really needed a scarf there. It was windy.)

Overall I enjoyed the day.

Also go to my photobucket for all of the pics
user name: jamasianblog


This place doesn't let me upload the way I want.

Just so you know...

The first thing I saw.

It was clean.
I am a poor college student and thus took the train from Chengdu 成都 to Beijing 北京. It was almost forever!!! lol nah it was like a plane ride. Unfortunately I was in an area with 5 other chinese ppl. Which could have been a good thing but the only speaking ppl were speaking some random dialect so didn't talk to them the whole time. One lady was very nice though. She spoke to me a little and gave me some fruit because I had no food!! (SOMEbody forgot to mention that train rides don't include food.) It was okay though I had some snack money...seriously. The only thing I'd buy is snack because everything else is ridiculous.

I did get to walk down to my program buddies area though so I wasn't completely bored...I also did my homework. (I know I'm a geek.)


When we got to our hotel we met other members of the USAC program that are studying in Shanghai 上海. They were pretty cool people. we all went out for dinner and had Peking duck of course. I'm gonna say duck is miiighty tasty.

It had a nice ins

Monestary Viewing

Sorry about not updating. It's been a little hectic. Anyway, we went to see 乐山Leshan. The place with the big Buddha carved into a mountain. It was a complete let down. I've read up on all of the places that we'd be visiting this year and I have seen cool things about Leshan online so i was pretty excited to see this 233foot tall, 90 yrs to carve Buddha. But when we got there we just took the boat ride to pass it by. I felt like I had just watched the ending of a movie I'd always wanted to see. So I'm warning everyone, if you ever want to see the Buddha climb it. it's much more exciting. then we went to 峨眉山 Emei mountain. and i went to my first hot spring!! lol they are very nice but only one was really "hot" most were like a heated pool. The funny thing is that people kept asking aloud what country I was from. and one group was joking around saying "I can't tell if that's a foreigner or not" ....yea it was strange. The next day we climbed the mountain to see 3 different temples. I felt like the stairs were endless!!! Of course the next day my legs were sore. The mountain was completely beautiful and the temples were very nice for being hundreds of years old. I went on adventure to see wild monkeys too. I have to find a way to upload them. but videos take a long time so I'll have to wait for a patient day lol Thanks for reading!!