capital museum & forbidden city

i just got back from chongqing last night and i know im behind on updating pictures but we're going to have to take it slow and catch up to that trip first. so here are some pictures from last last weekend before my danish friend, peter, left our school. its always such a bummer when you spend a month loving these people then they go back to their countries. michela is leaving next week and its going to be very empty here without her. i will officially be the only one left here at the hostel once she's gone. but enough about that.
so the school took us to the captial museum to learn all about chinese history and peter and i just got separated and lost so taught ourselves about chinese history.

welcome to the museum















family photos






cute lil lamps



most awkward painting in the entire museum.



double dragons, anyone?



i wish i had an apt that looked like this



even the gift shop was cute






in all honesty idk why they were selling these or how they're even relevant to chinese history.



lil bombs?






gimme that jade





















honestly so impressed by the fact that human hands created this






the next day was women's day...why dont we have this holiday in america? so messed up. anyway, yu, lydia and i went to the forbidden city since we got discounts just for being women. it was the first time sunshine actually came out in beijing. of course we haven't had that nice of weather since then, but it was nice for one day. even though i had been there before i didn't remember it being so fun.













lydia



yu & me. she was so scared i was actually going to fall into that river..pshh ive got incredible balance.






when i cant remember words in chinese i use my incredible charades skills






what's up ladies discount



inside the forbidden city






quite the attractive tree



learning about good luck charms





















drinking someone elses trash...nbd



breaking the rules and climbing cultural relics
























like i said earlier...gimme that jade. ugh.



best exhibit in the forbidden city






idk why we look so awkward









why do they have sooo many things made from real gold? i politely asked if america could have them...









sitting in a well









tangled up in the coolest tree ever















i was just too tall to fit in that building...









just another door i couldnt fit in






loving on nature



you all know how much i love action shots



it would have taken like 30 of us to wrap our arms around this tree






no one wanted to answer my question about how this building got burned down...hmm suspicious?















i really dont know why im making this face









this place was off limits



being an airplane












best action shot



idk why we're doing these things









puppy shadow puppet. everyone thought i was really cool for this. apparently this is a new phenomemon in china so i looked cutting edge haha




































swinging from important pieces of chinese history

































this was the only thing i remembered from my last visit here a couple years ago






titanic






showing all of china who's boss


















the most intense water jugs






i actually used this sundial correctly. tell me im not native american.



turagon...thats a mix bw a turtle and a dragon.



bye forbidden city

at dinner learning new words in chinese






and trying new foods..yes, i actually tried new food. edible fungus.



i know that was an extreme amount of pictures but yu literally took 600 pictures so be thankful that i slimmed it down.
also last week i got to listen to the screenwriter from the wire speak at the international book festival. i somehow weasled myself in for free and got to ask him all about hamsterdam. all i know is that that man is AMAZING. and while i was there i bought "Petals of Blood" by Ngugi Wa Thiong O (who spoke at my graduation from NYU oddly enough) and "The Uninvited" by Geling Yan. Just finished Dharma Bums and i must say, it gave me such a positive outlook on life and traveling. i wont get too into it bc i could write for hours. but now im knee deep in two new books and stoked about it.
and i sent out postcards so i hope you'll all be receiving them soon.
xo

the swing of things

after being here for a couple weeks i feel like im finally starting to get the hang of things. im actually beginning to appreciate the fact that i have so much free time. my mom always told me theres nothing wrong with being bored...and no matter how many times she'd tell me this- i always objected. but for the first time ever, i can finally admit she was right on this one. after hearing from all my friends who are over worked and stressed im beginning to realize how amazing it is that i actually have this time. why did i miss being busy and stressed in the first place haha. so i love it here. i could say that a million times and mean it each time.
so this week Ofalia left and headed back to Brazil. she lived here for 6 months so we had a tearful goodbye the morning she left. im already starting to miss her. now our class has dwindled down to 3 students. and today no one came so i had my own private teacher for a few hours. you dont see me complaining. but here are some pictures from her last day here.

ugh bunny ears...eric is a dead man.









please take a look at the cups they use to give us tea. karate cups!



over here people have re-vamped hackey sack...and they play it NON STOP.



they broke their lil faux hackey sack. EVERYONE was upset. seriously. everyone.







this weekend Michela and i went to visit Ilaria at her internship which is in this art epicenter of Beijing. it was literally one of the coolest places i've seen in a long time. its a few long streets strictly devoted to art exhibitions. young artsy folk gather, drink and discuss art...heaven. i went to a few really interesting exhibitions and even had some gross chinese man ask me to be his wife. homie was trying to get someone to bring him to america...pshhh NOT GONNA HAPPEN.
im hoping to get back to this art area next weekend because in the couple hrs we were there i didnt even come close to seeing even 30% of it. its an hour or so away so i need to make the trek much earlier next time. while i was there i bought myself this little doll..yes, i have an affinity for dolls. this old chinese woman sews each one by hand and had this crazy exhibit full of them. i just HAD to buy one.

his name is "sai weng shi ma yan zhi fei fu." but you can call him "sai weng shi" for short.




last night we actually went out for dinner and a drink. my first time being out at night! we didnt stay out all night and rage, but i still got to take a few pictures. two of the girls that work at the lounge in our hostel came out with us which was a nice surprise. their american names are lydia and lydia #2 hahaha. eveyrone here has the worst american names. the managers name is cherry... anyway, we all met up after some serious shopping...i bought a beautiful turqouise ring and a summer dress (which i'll be posting pictures of next time). then Ekber took us to some restaurant for dinner. to be honest, i had NO clue what type of food it was or which country it came from. the writing on the menu looked like arabic, but i was informed it wasn't. and ekber was the only person able to communicate with the waiter. and in a language ive never heard before. but the food was straight up AMAZING. nice and spicy.

eric & yu (aka lydia #2).



delicious foreign food



yu & lydia



yu, lydia & ilaria






i almost beat eric in pool...almost.



yu & me (har har)



choi



classy art in this bar




on my walk home from school i bumped into my canadian friend duane and we decided rather than rush home to nothing, we should explore the school grounds. esp since we live in a cultural tourist spot thats not open to the public.
















look at how beautiful that detail is



























if i ever join a band, this is going to be my instrument of choice.



how do they do it? the roofs are all so detailed.















you all should know by now how much i love jumping action photos








thats it for now. this week ive got laundry to do. teaching ekber english. maybe heading out to some museums. oh and just a quick side note, my chinese name is "mei mei." not the same mei mei as little sister. either way, these past few weeks the non native speakers thought my name meant "pretty eyebrows" bc those are the characters used to write my name. but guess what, a native chinese speaker told me that its not meant to be literally translated bc it actually just means "pretty girl." Xiao Laoshi (at NYU) had my back by giving me the best chinese name ever. shout out to the best teacher ever.
hope all is well with all you lovely people. peace & love.