Sexy Sherry

At the request of a really good friend, I've decided to write a new blog! Yay! I was SUPPOSED to write some while I was in China, but I got really busy with school and then China blocked blogspot...so it's not COMPLETELY my fault. :)

So, what do I blog about now that I'm not in another hemisphere? Anything I want, damn it! Yeah, I'm bored.

Tonight I decided to take a break and try and relax. I've been so busy sleeping and watching TV these past few days..er..months... and I thought a little "me" time was in order. I poured myself a glass of Merlot and explored my parents wine rack. Bottles upon dusty bottles of Spanish wine triggered flashbacks of my years spent in Spain. Andalusian culture and crooked, cobblestone streets that wound around the small, seaside city I called home. I found a bottle of Tio Pepe sherry...Tio Pepe was my favorite bodega, not because I like sherry, in fact, I despise it...I guess my palate just isn't sophisticated enough. :( The reason I like Tio Pepe is because the bottles wear cute little jackets, a large brimmed hat and they carry little plastic guitarras (that's spanish for guitar...yeah, I'm a genius). Everything about Spanish wine and sherry is sexy. The Germans could never pull it off. A bodega named Tio Hans conjures images of a blond haired, blue eyed German man with man boobs.

Not sexy.

The Germans should stick with beer.

Until next time,

Hehsssee...that's Jessie in Spanish...

P.S. If you say it out loud you get 10 cool points. :]

Sick. As. A. Dog.

As you can tell from my blog title, I haven't been feeling too hot these past few days. Please, don't cry. I'll be alright...I'm highly medicated (thanks mom!) and I can't feel my face (is that a good thing?). I figured I'd feel a wee bit better if I write a new blog and tell you guys just HOW AMAZING my life is...or not... :]

So I hit up Russian Size on Friday and I think I'm the most popular person in the Pakastani crowd's book. The DJ played a famous Punjabi MC song This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gef48exMfo&feature=related

And I pretended I knew the words but I just kept saying "Chock a lock a nock a nocka tucka lucka naaaaaaa" and they thought I was singing along. They were all really impressed...sorry to disappoint guys... :]

Besides Russian Size...this past weekend I got my first blind massage! It was really cool, I must say...although the woman who gave me my massage wasn't blind...so I'm not sure if it was really authentic. My friend Cooper was the lucky one and got the REAL blind guy. Originally, I thought the guy was a douchebag because he kept bumping into me in the massage parlor- whoops! Guess I'm the D-bag...I wanted so badly to swing my hand in front of his face and see if he flinched, but I guess some people would find that rude. Whatevz. ;) Back to the massage - It wasn't too bad. The lady kept asking me 疼不疼(teng bu teng which means: does it hurt?) and I didn't want to seem like a sissy so I just kept saying no. There were times that I thought I might just cry...which of course made me laugh, and if you've ever laughed lying on your face it makes your butt bounce up and down...yeah...that was awkward. I lied and told her I had a bad cough so she wouldn't think I was weird... :[ After the massage the lady told me that my skin and muscles might hurt the next day but it'd get better....oh she wasn't lying!

The next day I basically crawled out of my bed. I'm pretty sure my roommate thinks I'm retarded (sorry Hu Fang.. :[ ) I felt like Bruce Lee went to town on my lower back and butt. I'm gradually feeling better and better...I think I would feel a WHOLE lot better if I didn't have a really bad head cold too. Double whammy. :[

That weekend a group of us got together and went to the Dragon Tower. It's the highest tower in Asia and the second highest tower in the world! It was pretty cool. We got to wear slippers and walk on some really thick (I hope) glass at the top and look down. I had one of my crazy daydreams again, they play out in my head like mini movies...in my daydream the glass broke and I fell screaming to my death. It was pretty vivid and kind of freaked me out, not gonna lie...but it was still a really fun experience.

So, St. Patty's Day in China was pretty fun as well. A local Aussie bar was having a little St. Patty's party so a couple of friends and I decided to wear some green boas and grace them with our presence. It was a fun night full of green beer and lyrically belligerent irish music. FUUUN! I participated in the Centskyrion (Centurion: the bar is named Sky) drinking game. It's a drinking game where you have to drink half a shot of beer every minute...for an hour...yeah, I quit after the 3rd shot. I didn't want to pull an exorcist and projectile vomit green beer on everyone. It's not my style. But I DID cheer on all the guys crazy enough to think that they could do it. It got down between two guys: a bleary eyed Chinese guy and a French guy...I yelled at the Chinese guy not to give up, he smiled.....and then threw up all over himself and a little on my leg... :[ If I had to guess I'd say he'd been eating Ritz crackers for the past 3 days. Is that a good mental picture for everyone?? If not just let me know...

Well, other than that I've been studying (seriously, I have) and studying, oh yeah and studying. I'll keep you all updated on all the fun things that happen this weekend. We're going to see Old Harbin and then eat at a Muslim restaurant...mmmm! It'll be nice to not eat noodles and rice for a day. So, until then!

Word.

bU jIeXi Out!

Shady Fun!

Hey Guys!

Sorry I haven't written for a while, school can do that to you. So, I reckon a little updating is necessary. Last weekend the CET activity was a scavenger hunt. It was soooo much fun, but it made me realize two things: 1) I had no idea how big Harbin actually is and 2) I'm too competitive. Don't get me wrong, I laughed when two of the guys on my team had to put lamb kebabs in their mouths and hold a tango pose while someone else took their picture. Or the fact that if it came down to it I would be the one who had to eat the shrink-wrapped chicken foot to get the extra points to win the game....but man did I get angry when a couple of the guys were walking around taking pictures. I didn't say anything but deep down I was really pissed off...if only chill pills were real... prozac? nah. I'll pass. As for who won...obviously it was my team, yay! and I DIDN'T have to eat the chicken foot which was even better! :)

So, now for THIS weekend's update. The CET activity was bowling, how American of them! A lot of the Chinese didn't know how to bowl, but they still bowled really really well. It was a lot of fun making them laugh by moon walking to and from different places. I put one of the bowling balls under my shirt and walked around like a pregnant lady too. One of the head program leaders was there and he took my picture, don't think that one's going on the CET website tho...too bad... That night some of the CET guys wanted to head out to a disco/bar called Russian Size. I arrived early with some of my friends and we got a table loaded with popcorn, fruit, beer, vodka, and pepsi. Any other time I would've chowed down immediately...not in China, if you did that you'd end up paying 50 USD for a 2 dollar bag of popcorn. Buuuut turns out everything was free, so I gave all the hosts there high-fives and chowed down. The bar was smoky but fun, the music was good for a Chinese disco. Usually they just play techno and everyone jumps up and down...a good calf workout but not dancing in my book.

The thing I like the most about Chinese discos is that you get to meet people from all over the world. My friends and I met a girl from Nigeria, a girl from Mongolia, a guy from Ghana, and (of course) some Russians. The Russian guys kept asking me if I was Russian in Russian...I guess they couldn't take the hint when I kept saying no in English and Chinese....I should've just said nyet (no in Russian), that would've really messed 'em up. One of the Russians was really nice and the other was really weird...I'm not sure if he was trying to give me a "sexy look" but it was more like "sexy serial killer". I kept waiting for someone to whisper "Hullo Clarisse" in my ear....oh well, I had a good time anyway. My legs hurt really bad from dancing so much, and it doesn't help that I live on the 4th floor of my dorm. I sound like an old woman climbing the stairs. :[

Well, next week CET's activity is to visit a Chinese family...I think I'm gonna pass on that one. I've already got a schedule to watch grass grow and paint dry...sorry! Sorry for not being a good blogger, I'll try and keep this thing updated a little better. Thanks for reading! I miss you guys!!

BJX

Ice Lantern and Hockey!

So this past weekend was pretty amazing! We got to go to the Harbin Ice and Snow World (Ice Lantern), which was FREEZING! but amazing nonetheless. Earlier that day my friend Cooper and I went to 中央大街 (Zhong Yang Da Jie) which is a really famous area known especially for its Russian architecture and history. I'll take pictures later, promise! At Zhong Yang I bought these cotton surgical masks that all the Chinese wear to protect their nose and mouth from the freezing cold. You can buy plain old white ones or get more stylish ones, I obviously opted for the more stylish ones...that's just how I roll. Here's a pic of the ones I bought.

One is black and white (in case I'm going some where formal duh!) and the other is my everyday 口罩(kou zhao or surgical mask) which is lime green and has little pigs on it. :)

Now, back to the Ice Lantern Festival! Although I was surrounded by ice and snow, and my camera had a battery life of 2 mins before it would freeze and refuse to work, it was a lot of fun. I got to slide down these ice chutes (which I hurt my back on but I'll be fine...), I got to see 5+ story buildings and designs carved out of ice and snow, and (most importantly) I got to hold a REAL arctic fox haha! For the low price of 15 kuai (it was originally 20 but I told him I'd only do it for 15...I'm sure I still got ripped off...welcome to China) The pic is below! Jealous? I know you are! :] The three pics below are me (notice the surgical mask on my face?) and Cooper in front of one of the ice sculptures, the other is a dark one of me in front a gigantic snow sculpture, I wanted you guys to see just how humongous these snow scultpures were! The last is of me dancing on a block of ice to techno music! The Chinese had a good laugh at that!

So yesterday I got to attend an ice hockey game! America vs Russia woo! Apparently, Russian ice hockey players go straight to the pros after high school and THEN got to college...strange...so the average age of the Russian players was 28 whereas our guys' was 20. Needless to say, the Russians beat us 8-0..which is actually pretty good seeing as they beat the other 2 teams they played 12-0 and 14-0 (these are hockey scores!). All in all though I had a good time. It just so happpened that a couple of my friends were at the game too so we got together and cheered for the Americans and booed the Russians. Harbin has a HUGE Russian population so there were yells for Ruskisya! all over the place. My friends and I actually ended up being filmed yelling SUCKS! after the Russians would yell. Classy I know. Don't worry, the Russians were reciprocating and it was all in good fun. Although we did get a little nervous we would be shanked by broken vodka bottles a few times...but all is well. :] If the men's U.S. team beats Japan tomorrow we'll be in the semi-finals! Hopefully I can get a ticket to see that too...

Well, other than that I've just been keeping up with my studying. Seeing as the only extra-curriculars offered by CET were cooking (which got filled up before I could sign up), Chinese radical etymolgy (BORING!), calligraphy (I've already made that mistake, bleh) and Chinese Kung fu (I wanted to do it but no one else signed up and you need at least 3 other people)...I will not be partaking in any CET extra-curricular fun. :[ Instead, I'm going to try and find a gym and take a martial arts class, something I think would be suited more towards what I'm interested in. I'll keep you all informed on what I finally end up doing! Thanks for reading!

Zai Jian!

Jessie :]

Ice Ice Baby!

Well, I finally had my one-on-one class. Yeah. I wasn't sure whether to scream or cry. Maybe it was because I was tired, or maybe it was because she was talking at an unnaturally fast speed but after class my head hurt like a bitch. I'm not too excited about that class anymore, but I'm going to try and stay optimistic about it...after all, it's only WEEK ONE! It's been snowing like crazy the past day or so which makes for some slippery situations. I haven't completely fallen on my face yet, but I'm pretty sure I've created some new dance moves. I'll have to try 'em out in the clubs and see how it goes. Haha! Speaking of clubs... word on the street is that all the bars are closed until March 1st due the University winter games....oh well... speaking of the winter games... (read below)

So apparently Harbin is hosting the 24th University Winter Games! yay! Which means that college students from all over the world (America, Slovakia, Estonia, Australia etc etc.) are here in Harbin competing in various winter activities. Soooo I'm pretty excited to announce that I bought an ice hockey ticket! It's the U.S. vs Russia (Rocky 4-esque) and it was the LAST 100 kuai ticket!! woo-hoo! I'm in the 5th row so maybe I can catch a tooth for a keepsake or something! Not to go all Hannibal Lector on you or anything....;) I'd love to see the snowboarding competition but it's at a ski resort called Yabuli so I'd have to take a bus (3 hours) or train to get there. :( I'm gonna try and see if I can get a group together and possibly go...but we'll see. I'm pretty pumped for the hockey game tho! :D

This weekend we're all going to see the Harbin Ice Lantern Festival and going to eat hot pot. Should be a pretty exciting time, if I don't freeze to death that is. Our RA here told us that one of the guys' lithium battery in his camera froze while he was there...so I'm guessing it'll be pretty cold, esp being surrounded by ice and all. Hmmm....

Well that's all for now. I'll let you guys know how the weekend and hockey game goes!

Zai Jian!

Jessie

Not so bad...

So I'm sitting in my favorite little coffee shop right out of the west gate from campus. The coffee is a bit on the expensive side, for China at least...but the internet is free and the atmosphere is good. I'm currently listening to "Sexual Healing" and thinking if I should give the Chinese guy to my left a little wink...hmmm. ;) Maybe some other time, seeing as we've already been warned about Russian prostitutes.

I had my first 1 on 2 class today! It wasn't too bad besides coming to the harsh realization that my tones suck horribly. :) yay! My teacher is really nice and the 1 on 2 class work isn't too bad. I have my newspaper reading class in about 20 mins, I'm a little nervous but we'll see how it goes. They can't kill you on the first day!...they save that for day 2.

I had a sorta crappy morning trying to use my computer. My favorite little coffee shop doesn't open til 10 (which I didn't know). I assumed it opened at the ass crack of dawn like everything else in china...so I entered a shady wang ba (internet bar) to find a little old woman behind the desk. I told her I only needed 20 mins which she scoffed at and started talking really fast shaking her head. Finally, she held up two fingers signalling it would be 2 kuai. Whatevs. Then I couldn't figure out how to work the computer and she got mad that she had to help me. Stupid laowai. Oh well. It made me a little upset but then I told myself atleast I don't work in a wangba and I felt a little better. I've heard the dong bei ren (northeastern chinese) have a pretty bad temper...so I guess this is my practice if I ever want to live in NYC. :)

Well, I'm gonna study a little more before my class. Thanks for reading and the comments! I miss you guys!

Zai Jian,

Bu Jie Xi

In Harbin!

So we all got into Harbin yesterday by train. The train ride was amazing and super comfortable, I slept like a baby. When we woke up we looked out the window and saw snow everywhere juuuust like Christmas morning. Fuuun! But then we found out that our train had been delayed 2 hours in Shenyang because of the snow. Oh well. When I did get off the train in Harbin it was super freaking cold. There's really not much you can do to prepare yourself for just how cold Harbin really is...unless you take cold showers for like 5 weeks prior to coming here. It's only been a day but my lips are already chapped, and I forgot to pack my long underwear in my carry on so it's been a bit cold.

Yesterday Cooper, Richard and I all decided to explore Harbin a little bit on our own. We started walking and within 5 minutes I couldn't feel my face and pretty soon none of us couldn't even form words. It was pretty funny but secretly we were all dying a little on the inside. We kept popping into little shops along the way for a reprieve from the weather. One such shop was loaded with weird "health foods" such as bear bile and some form of frog capsules that are supposed to be good for something...who knows.

We had the writing and speaking tests already. The writing wasn't too bad but I know I could've done better. Oh well... My speaking test went pretty good...I kept the two women who interviewed me laughing and they said my tones were good. Since today is Valentines day they asked what I normally do. I told them since I don't have a boyfriend I just watch movies, eat and cry. They thought that was pretty funny....little did they know I wasn't joking... :|....haha! Well, I'm supposed to meet my Chinese roommate tonight so that should be interesting. I went with some of the guys to the Sky bar last night to talk to some people. It was fun, there were some Americans there and I talked to a Chinese girl for awhile...my head hurt from that so I'm kind of freaking out about the whole roommate thing...it'll probably get better tho. All the CET students are trying to speak as much English as possible before the language pledge begins Sunday, so we all had a nice intellectual conversation about Obama, the economic situation, racism and I gave my spiel about how I hate affirmative action and everyone was pretty enlightened... :) haha!

I'm kinda freaking out about the language pledge, especially since my jokes aren't funny in Chinese. :( A bunch of the students have already said they're going to be sad when the language pledge starts because I won't be able to joke as much...sadness. :( Oh well, we'll see how everything goes...I'm gonna play on the computer a little and continue sipping my coconut coffee, wasn't the best choice I've made so far. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, it really meant a lot! :)

Zai Jian

Jessie