12-23-2019

 

Another polluted day today, except I had to go outside because I had class.

I still don't understand what factors affect pollution. I know that winter is generally more polluted than summer because (at least in China) winter = cold = burn coal for warmth = pollution. I also know that nighttime air is generally more polluted than daytime air, I promise I read about it before but I don't remember the science off the top of my head (it's never been my strong suit).

Anyways, I unintentionally happened to take two pictures in about the same location at two different times during the day. In the morning, the air was fine. But when I went out for lunch, totally different story. And it just about stayed that way for the rest of the day.

The picture above was taken at about 11:00am. Not sure what the AQI was at that time, but if I had to guess it was probably less than 100, definitely less than 150.

The picture below was taken at about 5:00pm. The AQI then was probably about 300-350.

12-22-2019

 

Had a much needed extremely lazy day during which I didn't even go outside (just as well since the pollution is terrible)

So, here is another round of vegetable-isms to live by 😁

12-21-2019

 

Tonight was our skit performance! Here is a group picture. We were all in costume but they are relatively thin and we were standing near the entrance to the building so we were FREEZING, hence the coats. 

One of my Chinese classmates added in two other group members who weren't in the picture 😁

 

 The girl on the left is a Chinese classmate. In the middle is my Mongolian classmate.

 

Selfie with another Chinese classmate 

Here is a video of part of our performance!

 

12-20-2019

 

Participated in a poetry recitation competition today (I actually didn't want to 😅) 

The two people in the picture were the emcees. The girl is from Mongolia, she is a bachelor student studying computer science and is in my evening classes. I had dinner with her once, and she seems really nice! I have seen the guy before, but have never talked to him.

12-19-2019

 

 Went to Chinese corner again today! The teacher who led the informal class is in orange. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but the teacher lived in Russia for some time (I think it was both studying abroad and teaching Chinese there? But I'm not sure).

 The girl on the right in pink is from Mongolia, and the other students are from Russia.

 

Selfie!

The lady next to me in the blue is one of the teacher's Chinese friends, she said she works for a company based in Beijing but recently has been working at a branch in Kazakhstan. It was interesting because today there was a brief discussion on the different sounds/letters in Russian, Mongolian, and Kazakh.

12-18-2019

 

Finally went to the library on the south campus today! A friend helped me find the English books section, not because I want to read English books here, but because I was curious to see what books they had. There's more than I expected, although most of the books seem relatively old. 

Below are pictures from a book of 'Chinese nursery rhymes' that I found intriguing......

 

I think the the translator wanted to use rhyme and rhythm to make the English sound more poetic because a more literal translation of the pig line (which actually comes first) would be something like 'we keep a pig to eat its meat'. 

But yeah, never mind that you need girls to give birth to the boys that were so dearly coveted in older times. Not that girls didn't or couldn't do other things, but you think they would at least think of that!

 

I never anticipated seeing the phrase "saucy baby" in an actual published book.

I have trouble understanding what exactly the last line in Chinese means, something like the baby will cry and wail at the grandpa (because it is a baby, not because it hates the grandpa)?

12-17-2019

 

More wise knowledge from the south campus cafeteria

Bet you kids didn't see that one coming

12-16-2019

 

New snow!!

 

Featuring today's sub-par air. Can't see the mountains in the horizon 😟

12-15-2019

 

Talked to my mom once about the avocados I have seen in China, and she suggested I buy one just to try it. 

But when I thought about this at the store today, this is what I found - puny, little avocados that are green and hard as rocks. And the price! I could buy a meal with that.

So for now - no way.

12-14-2019

 

Yesterday evening after class a few Mongolian classmates invited me to eat lunch with them the next day (today). They cooked/prepared this food!

They gave me so much and it looks like I barely ate anything, but I promise I did!! And it was good!

So the noodles had meat and vegetables in it. There was mutton, chicken, carrots, broccoli, I think some onion, sweet potato...not sure what else. On the left is a salad with mayonnaise, tomatoes, eggs, cucumber or zucchini (probably the latter), I think? and again, not sure what else.

They showed me the mayonnaise they used:

 

 I recognized the package before because I'm in a WeChat group which consists of students living in my building, most of whom are Mongolian, and a lot of times people post that they are selling things, including this mayonnaise. I wonder how or if it is different from American mayonnaise? For some reason I couldn't place the taste until they told me what it was 😅 but I'm not a huge fan of mayonnaise. It's fine to eat in small quantities, but too much is not my thing. I still liked the salad, though.

And of course in the mug is Mongolian milk tea, which I think I said before is slightly salty and not all that sweet. But I like it?? Before I left they also gave me two packets of a different kind of tea, I think they said it is a fruit tea?? Or yellow tea?? I honestly have no clue. I could try to search it on the internet, but I haven't yet. Anyways, I'll let you guys know how it is once I try it.

(Also I know the picture doesn't really look like it, but they ate food too! Not just me 😂)

 

A picture of all of us in their dorm room! Yay!

The girl in the black shirt is the same major as me.

The girl in gray usually sits next to me during our evening classes.

It's weird because sometimes I don't know what to call them. Some (most?) Mongolians have really long names and thus REALLY LONG CHINESE NAMES. It's already hard for me to learn regular Chinese names!! And then I feel bad for using their Chinese name, like I should be using their Mongolian names instead. 

Then I think about it more and realize, 'well it's not like anyone calls me Valerie..'. 😆 And I don't mind.

12-13-2019

 

Took these pictures yesterday as I was going to buy peanut butter and jelly for my sandwiches 😆 More English fun!

So I know this sign is hard to read, but the English says 'Pickpockets'. I know the meaning of the sign is obvious (at least I think so??) but I think it's funny if you read it too literally, like 'pickpockets what? what about pickpockets?' Fortunately, the Chinese is more descriptive and actually includes a warning to beware of pickpockets.

 

And check out these ear masks I saw! Again, I know the picture isn't super clear, but they were ear muffs 😁

12-12-2019

 

 There was a Christmas potluck party today and I had no idea what to take! If I had an oven, I definitely would have taken banana bread. I settled on mini pb&j sandwiches because obviously it's an American classic. But something about them didn't taste like an 'authentic' pb&j sandwich 😂 I think maybe it was the bread. The lady at the store told me there was no sugar used in making the bread, but it was somehow still sweet?? Oh well.

No idea if they were received well or not because I was too busy being bombarded by Chinese students who wanted to practice English 😆

 

Here's the room where the party was! It is actually in the library (also my student card FINALLY gets me into the library now??? A miracle if I do say so myself!!). The girl/lady giving a presentation is the English teacher from the United States. Apparently her husband is German and was also at the party, but I didn't get to meet him. There were other foreigners at the party as well, there was a guy from Luxembourg there that I have heard about, one of my roommate's classmates was there, I forget where he is from...there also might have been someone from the Netherlands? Not sure. Anyways, I had fun even though I am awkward at talking and meeting new people!

12-11-2019

 

 Life lessons as presented by signage containing slightly creepy vegetables at the south campus cafeteria

12-10-2019

 

Lunch at the student canteen today! I took this picture while I waiting for my food.

So the cafeteria I usually go to next to my dorm is called Aodu. The security guard (保安) told me I should eat at the student canteen instead of Aodu because it is cheaper, but honestly I think the prices are fairly similar. Anyways, I end up going to Aodu a lot because it is close and convenient, especially if I need to eat before class or another event. 

Today I had (performed?) my PE final on the south campus, and was able to leave class after that, so my Mongolian classmate and I rode the public bus together back to the north campus (the school bus wasn't due to leave for another hour or so).

The bus stop is closest to the south entrance of the north campus, which also isn't too far from the student canteen, hence my lunch choice for today.

 

I ordered the 石板豆腐 (first item on the menu), which is basically tofu cooked and served on a stone plate. It was good and I didn't take a picture because I was so hungry 😆 Also it was just tofu, not like it was anything super special looking. I liked it, though 😁

12-09-2019

 

Roommate: "Do you know that there is a market in this area that all the foreign students go to? I just learned about it this week from a friend.."

And then we went there! This was yesterday, during the weekend.

12-08-2019

 

Evening pictures

12-07-2019

 

Spent the afternoon/evening practicing our routine, this time in costume! Our teacher seemed pleased with our progress.

 

And of course, an obligatory bathroom selfie

12-06-2019

 

We have an assignment for my Ancient Literature class where we have to 'perform' a poem, which consists of singing the words and choreographing a short dance to it. This is what we have so far! Seeing it on video is actually pretty cool. And the latter half we just learned today because it was changed from another movement we had before that we couldn't really get coordinated correctly. I am first from the left in the front row. There's a girl with blue jacket and long black hair in the back row, kind of diagonal from me - she is my Mongolian classmate. All of the other classmates are Chinese, although one of those classmates is of Mongolian ethnicity. There is one guy in our group, and the rest are girls. The guy is the one who took the video - he doesn't have a dancing part, he does some acting later on in our performance along with a narration of the poem.

(edit: just listened to the video on the blog and there's a lot of background noise, like the phone also picked up another group practicing?? Which is weird because it didn't sound like that when I played the video on WeChat..)

12-05-2019

 

I went to a Chinese corner event today! The teacher leading the event is in two of the pictures and is wearing an orange top. The other two girls are students from Russia. The man is from Korea, and the boy with him is his son. Chinese corner was fun, I learned new Chinese words and learned not only about Chinese culture, but a little bit about culture in Korea and Russia.

12-04-2019

 

 The pond/lake/water feature thing at my school with ice and snow

12-03-2019

 

Yesterday's dinner. I'm blanking on the name. I was actually a little disappointed when I ordered it because I wanted soup/broth, but this was SO GOOD. I know it looks plain, but still SO GOOD.

12-02-2019

 

My modern Chinese literature professor is on a business trip, so there was no class this morning. However, I forgot and arrived at the south campus early, so I bought breakfast in the cafeteria. Noodles with vegetables and tofu. Only ¥1. Not that the bowl was very big, but I don't usually eat very much for breakfast anyway.

12-01-2019

 

韭菜 (chives) and 鸡蛋 (egg) dumplings that I had for lunch on Friday at the south campus cafeteria

11-30-2019

Inner Mongolia Museum! I was here just a week ago, but at that time there was no snow! 

The reason I came back is because there is a theater next to the museum (you can see the entrance on the right side of the photo), and my friend wanted to go see a movie.

There are movies at this theater, but it turns out that what we had tickets for was not a movie, but actually a play/show activity for kids.  

My understanding is that the plot was something like this: a prince named 泡泡王 (Prince of Bubbles) had a Princess friend that got taken away by a villain or something? (I know, original.) But he didn't have bubbles or bubble powers, so him and his friend-zoned female sidekick visited a scientist who helped them make bubbles and give him bubble powers. Then you know the rest - bad guy is defeated, princess is saved, everyone lives happily ever after, yadda yadda yadda.

 

It was really cute though because they asked some kids to participate in the show! Here is the female sidekick leading two kids to the scientist's lab/table thing.

There were also some really cute plot elements involving the villain for the kids to participate in. The first is that when the villain was being 'defeated', he ran off stage and then through the middle of the auditorium. The 'good guys' called out something along the lines of, "小朋友，快点儿抓住他！" (Kids, quick, catch him!) and then the kids ran to the villain as he was making his way back to the stage 😁

Later, the villain admitted his misdeeds and apologized. Then the 'good guys' asked the kids if it was okay to forgive him and have him join in the next bubble activities. Of course they said yes 😊

Another thing that they did with some kids that went on stage was ask them what their favorite animal was. Then the prince gave them bubble features of that animal. So for example, a few kids said they like cats, so the prince gave them bubble ears and a bubble tail. Obviously these didn't last very long, but it was still sweet.

 

And there were a LOT of bubbles. A. Lot.

 

A lot. of.

 

Bubbles!

And it was funny to see the kids in the front section go crazy trying to pop the bubbles 😂

I think Frederick would have enjoyed all the bubbles ^__^ Maybe even have been a little overwhelmed xD 

Also, apologies that the theater pictures are not great. I really should have used my American phone, my Chinese phone takes really crappy pictures..

11-29-2019

 

Snow day! The top picture was taken from the fifth floor of the south campus classroom building, where I first saw the snow before venturing into the winter wonderland.

 

There's an outdoor stairwell leading to the cafeteria, and this picture was taken from the top (third) floor looking out.

 

South campus, a parking lot

 

South campus

This is a zoomed in version of a photo I took from the 6th floor

 

North campus

Near the south campus gate. As you can probably guess from the cars, there is some parking here.

 

North campus

Turned the camera to the left after taking the above picture. Here you can actually see the south gate. And more parking.

 

And saw a couple snowmen!

I'm having trouble reading the right side of the note, but basically it is a request for the public to only look and not touch this lovely friend.

 

Two friends in one!