Friday, May 23
Photo 1: Cards on the train
Photos 2 & 3: Out the train window
Our week got a lot more interesting this Friday, as we got to break free from our typical routine to venture out into the rural lands of China.
But that would have to wait until the afternoon. So once again, we woke up for our 8:00am classes to continue our studies, anxiously waiting for our adventure. Luckily, my class had a nice surprise; since there was a confusion between teachers, one teacher never came to class and we only had a half day. WHOO! It brought me back to the middle/high school days when we could enjoy a nice afternoon, but for us, it was filled with studying for our quiz in a few hours…
After our class, our student teacher, mid-twenties, took us out to a jiao zi fan guan (dumpling restaurant). While I do love my Muslim noodle place, it was refreshing to try some new dishes and this dumpling haven will definitely become a new favorite among my classmates. It is probably best to go with someone who knows the area because they really know the best food places in the city. She took us down a street to a dumpling store way at the end; I would’ve never even thought to go down this street in the first place! We all agreed that these were the best dumplings we ever had and for about $3.00 per person…there is no beating that.
It was finally time for us to leave our comfortable, Western hotel and journey off to Anhui for our mini-vacation. But first we had to get to the train station… We were carrying our backpacks and other luggage for the weekend in humid, 90 degree weather to first walk to the nearest subway station. Luckily it is under a mile away but still we worked up a good sweat and tried to find any cool air in the subway. Of course though, we were only met with more and more people on the subway and at Nanjing Railway Station, so we continued sweating. We were, though, lucky enough to wait for our train in a special section designated for military members, pregnant women, and families with small kids, but I guess it applies for wai guo ren (foreigners) too.
Our train ride was a lot more comfortable and enjoyable than our one from Beijing to Nanjing. This time we actually got seats! As soon as the train took off, people started playing cards, doing magic tricks, and getting some work down (which all of us probably should’ve done…). Train rides, especially in China, are great because you get to see what life might be like outside of the hustle and bustle of Chinese cities. The sky starts to clear up, the land becomes flatter and more open, and you see beautiful landscape. It is interesting to see how the Chinese use their land; from what I can tell, the land is either a big city or it is being used for farming, and there are infrastructure projects everywhere. The Chinese really utilize all usable land for farming outside of the cities; it is actually really beautiful to see an open landscape with lush green farms. It also weird though to see all of this farming and then industrial parks or high rise construction projects right next door. It really shows that China may still be a heavily agrarian society, but it is on a fast track to development.
Our train was a quick five hours but weren’t done yet. We then had to catch a bus for some amount of time (I fell asleep as soon as I got on) before we could reach our destination. We arrived in a pitch dark area but our “hostel” was much nicer than any of us expected. It had a traditional open court yard and very classic looking architecture. But things can only be so nice; most rooms had some “big friends” (very large spiders) in them so we had to get over our fear of spiders if we wanted to get some rest before our exciting weekend ahead!
-Jon Laks
Photo 1: Cards on the train
Photos 2 & 3: Out the train window
Our week got a lot more interesting this Friday, as we got to break free from our typical routine to venture out into the rural lands of China.
But that would have to wait until the afternoon. So once again, we woke up for our 8:00am classes to continue our studies, anxiously waiting for our adventure. Luckily, my class had a nice surprise; since there was a confusion between teachers, one teacher never came to class and we only had a half day. WHOO! It brought me back to the middle/high school days when we could enjoy a nice afternoon, but for us, it was filled with studying for our quiz in a few hours…
After our class, our student teacher, mid-twenties, took us out to a jiao zi fan guan (dumpling restaurant). While I do love my Muslim noodle place, it was refreshing to try some new dishes and this dumpling haven will definitely become a new favorite among my classmates. It is probably best to go with someone who knows the area because they really know the best food places in the city. She took us down a street to a dumpling store way at the end; I would’ve never even thought to go down this street in the first place! We all agreed that these were the best dumplings we ever had and for about $3.00 per person…there is no beating that.
It was finally time for us to leave our comfortable, Western hotel and journey off to Anhui for our mini-vacation. But first we had to get to the train station… We were carrying our backpacks and other luggage for the weekend in humid, 90 degree weather to first walk to the nearest subway station. Luckily it is under a mile away but still we worked up a good sweat and tried to find any cool air in the subway. Of course though, we were only met with more and more people on the subway and at Nanjing Railway Station, so we continued sweating. We were, though, lucky enough to wait for our train in a special section designated for military members, pregnant women, and families with small kids, but I guess it applies for wai guo ren (foreigners) too.
Our train ride was a lot more comfortable and enjoyable than our one from Beijing to Nanjing. This time we actually got seats! As soon as the train took off, people started playing cards, doing magic tricks, and getting some work down (which all of us probably should’ve done…). Train rides, especially in China, are great because you get to see what life might be like outside of the hustle and bustle of Chinese cities. The sky starts to clear up, the land becomes flatter and more open, and you see beautiful landscape. It is interesting to see how the Chinese use their land; from what I can tell, the land is either a big city or it is being used for farming, and there are infrastructure projects everywhere. The Chinese really utilize all usable land for farming outside of the cities; it is actually really beautiful to see an open landscape with lush green farms. It also weird though to see all of this farming and then industrial parks or high rise construction projects right next door. It really shows that China may still be a heavily agrarian society, but it is on a fast track to development.
Our train was a quick five hours but weren’t done yet. We then had to catch a bus for some amount of time (I fell asleep as soon as I got on) before we could reach our destination. We arrived in a pitch dark area but our “hostel” was much nicer than any of us expected. It had a traditional open court yard and very classic looking architecture. But things can only be so nice; most rooms had some “big friends” (very large spiders) in them so we had to get over our fear of spiders if we wanted to get some rest before our exciting weekend ahead!
-Jon Laks
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