My China adventure came to an end yesterday. My plane landed in New Jersey last night and for the first time in a long time, I slept in my own bed at home.

So many things happened in my last two weeks in China, that I did not have an opportunity to blog about them. Here is a recap of what happened. Don’t worry, this isn’t the end of Mel in the Middle, there are still many things and stories I have to share!

The 2nd Annual Yangtze River Tournament is a debate tournament for Chinese University students from all over China. I was invited by my college debate team to attend the tournament and be a judge. I was so impressed by the Chinese students, who gave speeches and communicated complicated policy ideas in English. If my Chinese was half as good as their English, I would be very proud.

I also had an opportunity to teach English to a class of 5th grade students in a school for migrant children in northern Beijing. Migrant workers in Beijing are people from the countryside who come to Beijing to work. Their children often have trouble getting into a school. As a result, there have been many charity schools established in Beijing to teach children of migrant workers. These schools do not have as much funding as the public schools. As a result, their quality of education may not be as good and the quality of their facilities are not as good as those in public schools. The school I taught at had no heat and only sometimes had electricity. It was so cold! We all had to wear our winter coats inside. I was so impressed by the spirit of the students; even though they were coming to school on Saturday to take this English class, they were so excited to learn and thrilled to be at school. I taught them how to sing “Are you sleeping?” and “Jingle Bells.”

One of the last field trips I took in China was a visit to the Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube. They definitely have very cool architecture and it was awesome to look at the pool where Micheal Phelps won eight gold medals! This was by no means my favorite site to see, but it was great to see the pool where so many of my favorite athletes competed.

Meet Niki, my language partner. I invited her to join me and a few classmates in having a small Christmas party (complete with ugly sweaters, Santa hats, cookies, and paper snowflakes). Christmas is not really a holiday in China. Sure, you may see some Christmas trees in malls, but that is more of a commercial stunt than actually celebrating the holiday. Niki told me that this was her first time celebrating Christmas. Happy first Christmas Niki!!

On Friday, we had our end of the semester “graduation” ceremony. Technically, it was suppose to be a “business casual” occasion, however my classmate and I decided that wearing traditional Chinese clothing would be more fun. I am wearing a Chinese dress called a qipao (chee-pow). Don’t we look hot?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This was my first time spending Thanksgiving away from home, so I tried to make the day special in a way that can only happen in China. At first, I nearly forgot that it was Thanksgiving at all. I went to class in the morning like any other Thursday and remembered just before lunch that it was Thanksgiving. I quickly called a few friends and put together the perfect holiday plans.  Four hours later, the festivities began.  It started with a few classmates and I going to a small on-campus park and playing a makeshift game of football.

For Thanksgiving dinner, a group of us went out to eat at a nearby restaurant. I’m afraid that turkey is very hard to come by in China, so our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of sweet and sour fish, kung pao chicken, snow peas, hot spiced string beans, sweet buns, and eggplant in soy sauce. For dessert, we ordered a dish of potatoes covered in a caramelized sugar sauce (potatoes that are sweet, get it? Sweet potatoes! Great traditional Thanksgiving food!).

On Black Friday, I went out to the Hutongs with my tutor and classmate. A Hutong is like an alleyway, except instead of being formed by tall buildings, they are formed by one story homes that are crammed together. Many people live there, but you can also find some small shops.  They are now considered to be the historical parts of Beijing and are surrounded by stores, restaurants, bars, and other attractions. We went there and walked around, tried some of the local food, and toured they area by rickshaw.  We spent a full 7 hours there! I’m so thankful for the chance to have such awesome experiences like this!

I guess I should mention this as well: while trying out the local foods, my tutor suggested I try a very famous dish: cow stomach. While everyone else back at home enjoyed turkey and potatoes for Thanksgiving, I got to chew on a strip of cow intestinal lining. Yum? Haha just kidding. It was gross. But hey, at least I tried it!

I’d like to shout out to my friends and family back in the US. I hope everyone enjoyed watching (and playing) football, eating pumpkin pie, and watching the parade!

This past week was full of dancing! On Thursday, I saw the Chinese ballet 红色娘子军 hongse niangzi jun “The Red Detachment of Women.” This ballet has an interesting political history and was one of the ballets featured in the movie “Mao’s Last Dancer.” I haven’t seen a ballet in a loooonnngg time, so I was very excited to see this performance.

On Friday, I had a very cool experience, but first I need to tell you some background information: about three weeks ago, my classmate invited me to join her in going to dinner with two young Tibetan women whom she met near the neighboring university. Tibet is the region in Western China that borders the Himalayan Mountains and India. The people who live there are Tibetans, a minority ethnic group in China. These two young women had come from Tibet to Beijing in order to study English at a university here. We had dinner at an authentic Tibetan restaurant, which was little more than an apartment that was equipped with a small kitchen, a couple of tables, and a few chairs. As we spoke over dinner, I began to learn these women’s stories and why they wanted to learn English. “Everyone in the world, I think, will be speaking English, so it will be very useful to learn,” said one of the women, “besides, I love English!!”

The passion and dedication these women had for learning and studying English is astounding and inspiring. On top of that, they have totally adorable personalities! One of them is a huge Beyonce fan; the other one is very outgoing and quick to make friends. They invited me to go with them to a Friday night dance at the neighboring university, so I agreed to go. It was not what I expected.

Usually when people talk about going out dancing on a Friday evening, I tend to think of loud hip-hop/techno music and strobe lights. This Friday, however, there were no strobe lights and no pop music. Instead, we gathered in an outdoor court yard where traditional Tibetan music was being blasted from a laptop connected to an amplifier. There, everyone danced in a circle around the computer in traditional Tibetan fashion. My Tibetan friends guided me through the steps: 4 steps forward, tap the right foot, tap the left foot, spin in a circle, 4 steps backwards, step and turn, REPEAT. Each dance was a different combination of these basic steps with maybe a hop or a stomp thrown in. There were nearly 100 people there dancing! Most of them were Tibetan and knew the dances and the songs fairly well. Needless to say, I was the only foreigner there. Going to this dance is definitely one of my favorite experiences so far, it is such a unique experience that could not have been replicated anywhere else. I plan to go back next Friday and the Friday after that so that I can practice and become the best Tibetan Dancer that Ballston Spa, NY has ever seen.

My final dance story is about Saturday morning. My other classmate recently became friends with the person who teaches a ballroom dance class at the gym on Saturday mornings. I went along with her last Saturday to see what it was like. The first half of the class was spent learning the steps to a basic waltz without a partner. After about an hour of practice on our own, the teacher announced that we would next move onto dancing with a partner. No sooner did he finish saying this than did one of the boys in the class ask to be my partner. I was very surprised. Back in the US, I am NEVER the first girl picked for a dance… this is probably because I rarely ever go to dances…but whatever, that’s not the point! I was surprised to have been picked first to dance out of all the girls there who had been attending this class throughout the semester and who clearly knew what they were doing better than I did. The classmate who I came to dance with (who also acquired a dance partner rather quickly) told me her theory: we look very different from everyone in the room, we are clearly foreign. That means that people are curious about us; what language do we speak, what country do we come from, and why did we come to China?

I believe this theory to be true, or at least it was supported by the conversation I had with my dance partner as we practiced our waltz. He asked me where I was from, where I studied Chinese, how long I would be here, what did I think of China, etc. It appears to me that many Chinese people, even those in Beijing, are still not used to seeing foreigners. I’m sure as China continues to grow, the number of travelers and students who go there will steadily increase and locals will eventually get used to seeing people from all over the world in their city. Until then, I think I will enjoy the fact that if I ever choose to take more ballroom dance classes in China, I won’t have to worry about not having a dance partner.

Last weekend our study abroad program took us to two cities outside of Beijing in order to study the histories of the Chinese Tang (618-907AD) and Song (960-1279AD) Dynasties.  Luoyang and Kaifeng respectively are the ancient capitals of these dynasties.

In Kaifeng, we went to an entertaining park which I can only describe as a Chinese Dynastic version of a Renaissance fair. The park was designed in the Song Dynasty fashion; all the buildings, worker’s outfits, and music looked like they just came out of an ancient painting.

The entertainment they had in this park had some very Renaissance Fair-ish qualities. For example, I watched a fire-breather, they had monkeys performing tricks, and comical performances were available around every corner. They also had historical reenactments such as a traditional Chinese wedding, a game of women’s polo, and shadow puppetry.

After the polo game, I had the opportunity to ride one of the horses around the pitch. This was my first horseback riding experience!  It was scary to say the least. They helped me up on the horse and just said “Ok Go!” I had no guidance except for one of the performance riders, who was on his own horse about 7 feet away and shouting directions at me which I did not understand. But hey, it was totally fun!

The Lama Temple (aka the Yonghe Temple, constructed in 1694) is famous throughout China for its grandeur, Tibetan influence, and historical artifacts. I went there the other day with a friend from Middlebury to explore. Fortunately, this famous site is located in Beijing, so no need to travel by train.

The air surrounding and inside the temple was fragrant with burning incense. From the moment you exit the subway station all the way until to you reach the gates of the temple, street venders are selling incense and beads.

The inside of the temple is lush. Overgrown gardens and trees that haven’t yet changed colors are integrated into every courtyard throughout the entire structure. Like the Forbidden City, the temple has many courtyards on the inside, and each courtyard is surrounded by halls. Within each hall is at least one statue of a Buddha, some paintings of Buddha and Bodhisattvas, and figurines of important Buddhist figures.

The climax of the Lama Temple was the largest hall in the back called the Pavilion of Infinite Happiness. It is three stories tall and houses the Maitreya Buddha, a humongous Buddha statue that was carved out of wood. In 1990, this Buddha was added to the Guinness Book of World Records.  It about 18 meters tall and has a foundation that goes 8 meters underground!

This is about a picture I took in the city of Luoyang at a Buddhist Temple. CIEE took us to this temple to explore and learn about Buddhism. After our official tour, they let us explore on our own. While most of my classmates went to the shopping center in the front of the temple, I decided to walk down a small sidewalk and go deeper into the heart of the temple. I thought I heard running water ahead, like from a stream or small waterfall,  so I decided to cross over a stone bridge in search of the water source. When I arrived at the other side of the bridge, I looked over the edge to see what I had just crossed over and this is what I saw. This Monk is pretty young, maybe 20 years old. He is washing his clothes outside of his bedroom, which is located in a small stone cabin under the bridge. I wondered what his life must be like.

Hello again, everyone! Here are more pictures from my travels during the holiday vacation! Have a small taste of my trip to Tiananmen Square, the Beijing Zoo, and the 798 Art District.