Ni Hao is Joe Doing?

(Almost) Home

It’s done. I have left China.  As I sit here in my hotel room in Toronto, I am waiting for a huge rush of nostalgia to hit me; hasn’t come yet (my flight from Shanghai was delayed, so I missed my transfer and have to stay until my flight to D.C. in the morning).  That’s a good thing, I think; it means that there is a certainty of returning to China, and my stories aren’t even close to over.

I spent almost 10 months in China, and with the exception of spending a week in Thailand, I never once left the country.  I saw Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Zibo, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xi’an, Nanji Island, and several places out in the country.  I won’t recount each activity (the blog covers a lot of it), but the things I’ve done in the past two semesters—and the people I’ve met and the connections I’ve made—are things that have absolutely changed my life outlook, and made me a much more international and cross-cultural person.  My language, people, and travel skills have all improved exponentially.  I also consider myself a master of not getting hit by cars.

We’ll see where I go from here.  Wherever it may be, I feel completely confident, thanks to the arsenal of experience I’ve acquired.  Thanks to all for reading, and until next time…

Joe

唐志文 

Spring Break: Thailand

As usual, here is my post, a couple weeks late.  Before I get into detail, I just want to give a friendly reminder to everyone: before heading out of the country, make sure that your visa won’t expire while you are gone.  One of us CET’ers had a problem with that, and was forced to fly into Hong Kong, get a new visa, then finally come back to Shanghai.  Fun.

So, Thailand was phenomenally enjoyable.  We flew into Bangkok, and took a long bus ride to the coast.  From there, we took a speedboat out to Koh Samet, a super awesome island with lots of crazy Thai people.  There were coconuts everywhere, bars on the beach, bucketfuls (literally) of different kinds of drinks; too much to go on about.  We spent three days on Koh Samet, then headed back to Bangkok for the remainder of the trip.

Little did we know, our return to Bangkok coincided with the Thai new year; in other words, we walked into a water war.  You couldn’t go five feet down the street without getting soaked by either a water gun, hose, or bucket. Out of fear for our camera’s safety, not many pictures were taken of the actual water fighting.  We quickly armed ourselves, and joined in the fighting.  Unequivocally the best spring break I’ve ever had.

Yesterday, Paisley and I went to the Asian Xgames, and saw some rad skateboarding, rollerblading, and BMX biking.  

And now, everyone’s favorite part:

These babies kept us amped up for the majority of the trip.  Devotion, courage, sacrifice, yellow 5.

First day in Bangkok!

At the docks, before heading to Koh Samet.

Heading off.

Koh Samet.

Where we stayed.

We had some good food.

Everybody (except me!) got temporary ink.

Buckets o’ fun.

Beachside lounge.

Banana boat; killing it.

Back to Bangkok.

Water festival parade.  Snuck the camera out quickly to take this one.

Paisley made a new friend.

Xgames.  No parents allowed.

Acid-roach.

Gnar-bone.

Tripple-whipple.

That’s it for now.  We’re heading to Beijing next weekend to reunite with some good friends.

Joe

What Does “Free Time” Mean Again?

Hey team, remember me?  Don’t worry, I don’t either.  Life has turned upside down since coming to Shanghai (but not in a bad way).  The JUE festival just finished, so I should FINALLY have a chance to relax a little bit, and just in time, too.

I’ll do my best to remember what’s happened since my last post.  The amazing Professor Claudia Ross, who is (among many other things!) my Chinese teacher at Holy Cross, dropped by Shanghai for a couple of days and sat in on our class.  She even took Will and me out to dinner with her and her husband. Holy Cross and CET grad Dave Dorson, who has been in Shanghai for several years, joined us as well.

I won’t bore you with the details of my work, but I spent most of the past several weeks helping to keep our JUE music festival (http://juefestival.com/) on track, which involved working at several shows, including Death Cab For Cutie.  It’s a busy job, but damn is it fun.

CET gives us 3(4?) three day weekends during this semester, which they promote as great opportunities to travel.  We have thus far seized the opportunity.  A couple of weeks ago, we took a train to Suzhou, a city not far from Shanghai.  We did some sightseeing, mainly at a beautiful garden.  The next three day weekend, CET took a trip to Hangzhou, were we went bikeriding around a great lake, climbed a big mountain (I’m sunburned like you’ve never seen before, shouldn’t have worn the black wifebeater…), and ate a delicious and massive country meal with some farmer friends.

Spring break is coming up in two weeks, and about 7 of us will be heading to Thailand, where we’ll spend the first few days on a legendary beach, and the last couple in Bangkok.  Pics from spring break to follow, well, after spring break.  Stay tuned.

All of the good looking pictures are from Paisley’s camera…

Dinner with Dave and Professor Ross!

Cheddar strikes again.

Ma La Tang, a soup/stew where you pick your own ingredients; fantastic.

Josh and I at Donghua University’s New Students Welcome Ceremony.

SUZHOU:

The train station in Suzhou.  This was the line to get a taxi…

First night.

In the 500-or-so-year-old restaurant.

Fried fish/shrimp/squid/god-knows-what.

Right by our hostel.

All handmade.

One of Suzhou’s famous parks.

Wilson on his 3 wheel cart, taken from OUR 3 wheel cart.  We persuaded our driver to pass everyone in front of us; he floored it.

Good ad campaign?

HANGZHOU:

Cet bus.

On the way up to the tea fields, home of the world’s most expensive tea.

The tea/money fields and hiking trail.  

Will.

Some new friends.

Lingyin Temple.

Scary cave.

The whole town came out to welcome us, and put on a huge ceremony.

Big country meal.

These were gooood.

We took a 3 hour bike ride around West Lake.

On the mountain trail.

At the top.

Joe

…And Some Pictures

Here they are:

Uncle Don, Aunt Terry, Dad, Dan, and Mom (Dave not pictured)

My little bro was a big hit.

Outside the Forbidden City.

Inside the Forbidden City.

Stone gardens in the City.

Plantamuras on the Great Wall.

Dave at the slide, which you can take down from the Wall.

Danny coming down.

Dave went car-hunting, and was successful.

My family’s first Beijing roast duck.

Mom and Dan in Wangfujing.

First day in Shanghai!

Views from our hotel, which was RIGHT on the Bund.

No big deal.

The streets of Shanghai.

Some Chinese kid and me, on the Bund.

Mom, at Nanjing Lu, at night.

We checked out several landmarks.

At the Shanghai Museum.

At the bottom of the Shanghai World Finance Center, 101 stories tall.

And from the top, 101 stories up. (the highest observation deck in the world)

The new roomy, Fanbo, and the cat, Cheddar, who always walks into our room.

More in a week or two.

Joe

Shanghai Begins

As usual, my apologies for the late post.  I’m just going to make this a quick one (and without pictures), and do a more detailed, picture oriented post in a few days.  I now live in Shanghai.

This city is crazy.  After Janterm ended, my family met me in Beijing, and I showed them all of the key spots: Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, CET, Sanlitur, and Kro’s Nest pizzeria.  The pictures in the next post will narrate for me.

After our time in Beijing, we took the high speed train to Shanghai, and spent a good week here, checking out many of the cooler sites, like the top of the Shanghai World Finance Center, which is the world’s highest observation deck.  This city is crazy (as the pictures will explain.) 

Classes are interesting as always, but significantly harder than before!  I went from 200 level Chinese to 400, and it is a whole new game.  We also have an awesome econ class once a week.  The main draw of this semester, though, is the internships.  Each student has his or her own internship site; I work at Splitworks 3 days a week (after class, from 12:30-7:30.)  They are China’s biggest music promoters, akin to Live Nation.  We have a huge concert coming up soon; Death Cab For Cutie is headlining.

As I said, (MANY) pictures to come very soon, so sit tight.  I’m off to attempt to grab a quick dinner before I write my 800 character essay.

Joe

Out With The Janterm, In With The Year Of The Dragon

Hey, long time no post.  Janterm has been eventful, but in small doses; I therefore decided to make one big(ger) post containing all of the pictures I took over the past four weeks.  We have two more days of class, and then close out with a final test.  Two days after that, my mom, dad, youngest brother, aunt, uncle AND cousin will be arriving in Beijing.  Will and I will take them around for a few days, and then we will all head to Shanghai by train, where Will and I will be spending our next semester.

Janterm had several highlights.  A few weeks ago, my cousin Matt stopped by on his way to Singapore.  I had a few days to show him around, and he adapted to Beijing life very quickly (he bargained at the market like a natural.)  Immediately after his departure, CET took a trip to the nongcun (countryside) where we got to spend an afternoon with some of its residents.  We were served many delicious vegetables, many of which I had never seen/heard of.

We just finished our five day New Year’s break (the Chinese New Year), and I saw more fireworks over that break than I have seen in the rest of my life to date. Simply awesome.  Finally, we capped off our break by going to one of many New Year’s festivals, which entail food, dancing performances, carnival games, and shopping.  We chose the Llama Temple festival, as it is one of the biggest Beijing has to offer (also, it was the closest, and it’s damn cold outside right now!)

Here come the pics:

 

Matt tries out the metro.

Cousins in Tiananmen Square.

Matt and some CETers crash some tourists’ photo.

Attempting (successfully) to get a much cheaper price.

A trip to the country.

Franklin poses with some country boys. (did that sound weird?)

ALL of the Chinese restaurants/stores were closed for new year, so we made do.

Libby, Jess and Brittany bringing in the new year in the most ridiculous hats I’ve ever seen.

There were some fireworks (I’m still hearing people set them off as I write this post.)

After the clock struck New Year, James got a little hungry: who says China can’t make an impressive burger?

Made some pancakes (with a wok and cleaver) before heading to…

…the Llama Temple festival.

Offering incense to their ancestors.

Dragon dance.

There were some interesting carnival games.

We are men, and we eat chuar.

Until next time, Beijing.  Post from Shanghai in a couple of weeks.

Joe

A New Year in China

So, Janterm has begun, and we are back to the language pledge; it’s a LOT easier this time around, at least for Will and me.  On new year’s eve, we took the Holy Cross students (along with about 20 other new CETers who wanted to know what to do on the weekends) to Smuggler’s, our favorite bar in Sanlitur.  There, we met up with a whole slew of characters, ranging from other Holy Cross/CET alum to a few new Chinese friends.  

He Laoshi, one of our Chinese teachers at Holy Cross, just arrived at CET; he is here to visit us/attend some meetings, and he’ll be here for a few days (I’ll try to get a picture of him up on here soon.) Here are some pics from the night, showcasing our new Holy Cross friends! 

Cary and Brittany on the crowded Beijing subway, an unforgettable experience.

Will and James don’t always go to bars, but when they do, they prefer Smuggler’s. 

Will (or half of him) and me with the Holy Cross newbs.

The legendary Bu He made an appearance, and with him came much partying.

Nate, Hank and Sandra (Holy Cross ‘11, CET ‘10) with Will and Joe (Holy Cross ‘13, CET ‘12)

More adventures to come.

Joe

Random Pictures

The new students arrive tomorrow, and with them arrives the beginning of Janterm; I’m pretty pumped.  I thought I’d post a few miscellaneous pictures while I still have time.

Me as the co-MC of a Chinese Christmas party. (it’s a long story)

Some new, and desperately needed, guitar picks.

I taught some middle school kids how to rock.

Joe

Half Way There

Graduation Banquet

Zhu Laoshi, academic director of CET

200 level Chinese! (with our three teachers in the front)

Holy Cross pic with CET’s three awesome Res-life directors: Jason Wang, Li Xuan, and Zhang Yuan.

Merry Christmas!

Joe

The Terracotta Army, Beijing Zoo and a Chinese Thanksgiving

To those of you who read this blog, I think both of you will be pleased with the pictures coming up in this post.  CET took a trip to Xi’an, and we got to see the Terracotta soldiers, among other really old, ancient and probably magic Chinese artifacts; all very, very cool.  This past week, my class took a trip to the Beijing zoo (literally a five minute walk from our campus,) and got to chat with lions, tigers and (panda) bears.

We exchange students did not allow being in China to stop us from stuffing our faces with turkey, mashed potatoes and pie.  All of CET chipped in, and we had a Thanksgiving feast, boasting over 100 guests in attendance; students, roommates, teachers, program directors, Jackie Chan, etc.

Here’s a bunch of pictures that will—as per usual—tell the story much better than my writing.  (using English is getting HARD)

Xi’an

Nate with his new friends.

DELICIOUS lamb/bread stew, an authentic Xi’an dish.

Xi’an market street, in the Muslim district.

Ancient Muslim temple grounds.

Blaine, Paisley, yours truly and Will.

Blasting the quads!

Hang on, internet is slow, way more pics to come!

I have developed many skills since coming to China.

Xi’an at night.

Gotta love it.

Don’t worry, I don’t know what it means either.

 

The Terracotta army.

Yep, at the sacred burial grounds.

Beijing’s attempt at Disney Land.

A food stand? I don’t know…

Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

No, it’s not dead.

This guy was hungry.

The picture doesn’t capture how magnificent this beast is.

Seriously, this thing almost ate our shoes.

Thanksgiving in the cafeteria!

Will, Nate and me reppin’ Holy Cross.

The first of many. (the food was GOOD)

Me with my awesome teachers: Peng Laoshi, Liu Laoshi, and Bai Laoshi.

Four out of the six students in 200 level Chinese.

Zhang Da, Bu He(the roommate), Fei Yu, and Zhi Wen (me.)

Some bros.

Me with Paisley.

One of two HUGE turkeys, and damn were they good.

That’s all for now, 再见！

Joe