introduction ... to uhmm... Kindergarden??

Well... today was the first official thingy at the uni - the introduction for all the exchange students. There are about 230 of us, the largest group coming from mainland China, and - how could it be different - the second largest group from... Germany (where in the world can you get rid of those Germans??... its really a desease!) Well,.... after a never ending series of speaches from all kinds of heads of offices, professors... chairpersons and whatever... which took about 3 hours... we were invited to a campus tour... which most of us didnt do cause 1st of all it was waaay to warm to walk around the campus for ages and not to remember all the stuff anyways, and secondly we all got a campus map so we should be fine! so I went to buy some paper stuff for the uni and to select more classes, as almost all of hte ones I had chosen before were not offered this semester... so now I am actually taking Chinese, Airline management, visitor and service management and china hotel and tourism oh and another interessting one: tourism business, ethics and law. oh and meeting management. like most of them... just think its quite a lot... well, I will see how the workload is.
after that we had a "welcome party" organised by the what was it called? international club or something like this. it seemed to be typical chinese to play all kinds of funny games... however it was a quite "dry" party, with all the drinks being orange juice and tea of course... so we went on to a bar after the welcome party had ended at 8:30!!! went to a coffee bar... really cool.. they had the cutest pink couch and pink flowers and I wore a matching pink shirt and so I just thought it was very nice!!! haha
well it was really cool because Fiona and I went there with our buddy Warning and Pete's buddy Cissy and so we learned a lot of new stuff aobut china and the culture and some chinese and a chinese song... and just had a lot of fun!!
oh and well, one stupid thing happened this week, totally forget to write it, actually not very interessting for you but devasting for me: I accidentally deleted the "my music" folder on my computer with all the music and movies in it which I had downloaded throughout the last like 5 years or so... so now I am just downloading some chilli peppers... little compensation so far!! :(
oh and I got my name written in chinese, and since all the signs have meanings here, I found out that my name actually means "song" ... is there any connection to the music folder? did I actually delete myself? hmm.... ;)

Friday, 25th of August

woke up too early but couldnt sleep as it was too loud in the dorm and I too excited. two showers are broken today so there is actually a line forming to wait ages for the shower – glad that this only happened today!! Afterwards I finished packing and then had a C H E E S E sandwich. And since they usually don’t have cheese here in China, this was a special treat for myself!! and then, I took off!! Martin, my host at the PolyU (Polytechnic University of Hong Kong) will pick me up from the station, as Warning (my buddy) can’t come…
After checking out I walked with my 25kg backpack on the back and the small one in the front all the way to the busstop… having the eyes of all the locals… as if they’ve seen an UFO (hope that was due to my luggage and not my appearance ;) )
Met a friendly chinese girl on the way who asked me out over where I came from and where I was going and what I was doing and told me that she also studies now and wants to go to Europe someday. Was really nice to talk with her… and she told me about another better bus… costs 1Yuan more but has airconditioning…
then everything went quite quickly, I got to the station, checked in, went through the immigration thingy and had my luggage checked and already I was in the train at about 12 noon. The compartments were all about 5m² having beds on each side, three over each other, mine beeing the top one. I made a chinese guy heave up my backpack as the highest hard sleeper bed is like … quite high! with me in the compartment was a chinese stutent who actually spoke a little English and a mom with her 3year old son… and her nephew. the last bed was empty – luckily, otherwise I fear they would have to close this thing due to overcrowedednessss… Since the others in the compartment didn’t speak any english I had to switch to my 5-words-hand-feet-and-drawing-picture-pointing-on-things-chinese, which was quite funny. The only annoying fact was the little boy crying all the time and nobody finding the switch off button…. anyways… its only a 25 hour train ride… so who cares, right?

Saturday
waaaa… we’re running 1,5 hours late… I know every screw of this train by now and I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE! I want a toilet, not a hole in the train floor (really true!) I want a shower. I want real food, no instant noodels. I don’t want to hear any more chinese… but actually the night itself was nice…. you could almost see it as an improvement from the hostel, as there I had to share the dorm with 11 others…. right? the ride goes through mountains now, great landscape, definitely have to come back here someday! uhhh.. and there is the Yangzi River, yuck, this is diarrhea-brown our dirt-yellow, you may chose. but it is v e r y wide. looking outside, we pass rice-fields now and little towns, you can see peope gardening or working on the fields… its very impressive.
finally I arrive in Hong Kong at 14:45PM. An am surprised by Warning and Martin both picking me up, Warning together with Yi, or ii or similar – her boyfriend. We go to the “Student Halls of Resicence” (did anybody read the book by Meg Cabbot “size twelve is not fat”? … if not.. read it for the explanation of the terms student dormitory or residence hall ;) ) (Antoinette, stop laughing!) well, we went there and I checked in. My room number is 815R, on the 8th of 21 floors. After dumping my stuff in my room we go out again to buy bedsheets and pillow and stuff for me… then I return to unpack and puhh… take a deeep breath, I am finally alone, for once! I enjoy the space around me and then I go out again, shopping for toilet paper, something to drink and a glass, 1 bowl, 1 spoon and cereal and milk for breakfast tomorrow… and something to clean here (typical German thing? or maybe its just me but I think its uhmm.. not so uhm… nice in the Bathroom)
oh did I mention that the room is very nice?? I have a bed and a desk and some shelves and a closet, and everything comes double for my roommate who didn’t move in yet. I have a wonderful view on a construction opposite the street, if I look to the right I can see the university and if I look to the left I can see the ocean!
When I get back from the shopping, Warning calls me, oh yes, I have a phone also in the room, and we go out to have dinner with the other buddy she just picked up from the Airport, Fiona from Scottland!

Sunday:
Wow, what a day. First of all I slept in and then I’ve been just lazy around here… writing emails, chatting, typing this stuff of the last days and then Fiona and me went to the Hong Kong Convention and exhibition centre, where Warning works. We don’t know exactly what to do there, but just go as she can get us in for free. After finding our way through the horrifying subway and train system, switching trains 3 times and then finding the right one out of a zillion exits and then the right building and in there the right hall… we are astonished of the view over the harbour. feel like in a movie for a sec and then we push further through the crowds to Hall 1C. Arriving Warning comes out of nowhere and brings us in. And then we find ourselves in the middle of a computer stuff fair… and looking around we realise that everythign is so much cheaper than in Europe, no wonder that so many Chinese run around with the cellphone on the ear, the mp4 player in the ears and the palm pilot in their hands… ;)
I buy a pack of 50 CD-Roms for burning for 6€ and then a new card reader for my SD card for 1,80! … we look around for a while and then Warning finishes working and we make our way to have dinner HongKong style… a rice and a meat dish, both very nice, and with it some milk tea! delicious, and we had a blast! uhh.. and then – have to mention this – we jump into a supermarket and they actually have a ton of German and American stuff here: Oreos, Toffifee, Kinder Schokolade, and soooo much more… I found paradise!! unfortunately, they don’t let me spend the night there and so we make our way for Warning’s boyfriends workplace – he is a: FIREMAN!!! hahaha.. we actually go to a HongKong fire Station. I didn’t expect it to be sooo much different form the german ones… and thus not too exciting, but as it showed I failed completely. not that the station was much different. but the Firemen were so nice!!! Fiona and I seemed to be the attraciton of the week and had so much fun! We played a weird Chinese marching game and learned some Chinese – as well the characters as also speaking… and then we took a ton of picutres with the Firemen.. some even wanted single pics with us.. haha!! Oh and the view from the roof of the station was also quite special! So, what a blast!!

Monday:
it is Monday which means: work, study, business… haha but not for me!! at least not today yet!! So Fiona and I just quickly went to the PolyU (our University) to complete our registration. Now I am the proud owner of a Hong Kong Polytechnic University Student ID Card!! so… after paying some stuff at one of the on-campus-banks and buying something to drink on the on-campuss-supermarket, on the way to which we passed the on-campus-bookstore… we had to go back to the student halls, as I managed to break both of my extra-cheap flip flops. Had to fix them to my feet with tape and walk back like on eggs…. reaaaly careful… sorry, now all those chinese who saw me actually have a reason to think “weird-westerner”!!
anyways, after switching to better shoes, we went to Hong Kong island by train and subway… to take one of those green dubble decker busses who go around everywhere for really cheap and to get an overview there… well, after an endless search for this bus we found out that I had mixed some things up and it was a tram instead of a bus and also they werent green but came in all colours… we even saw a really cute pink one!!! :D
got on one of them then, but hunger made us leave in Wan Chai for Dinner… Wan Chai seemed like a part of Beijings Hutongs… small narrow streets, and small dirty fully stuffed shops, selling fish (alive and dead and in all pieces), a variety of other indefineable food … and chicken, dead without feathers or alive at least 10 of them stuffed into a cage of shoeboxsize… but next to that we found a restaurant…
afterwards we took the tram back to the star ferry port and took the ferry back to Hung Hom… and that was THE highlight of the day I guess… the skyline. totally undescribable…. amazing… shiny… flashing.. and large! we also saw the laser show they do here every night and then went back to the hall though the rain… at about 30°C!

now guys and girls... I know this was a veeeery long blog... haha... but at least now I am up to date here.... try to keep it short in the future

Thursday the 24th - half a bike tour!!

so now, I am actually making some progress here and will now let you know about my Thursday of last week!
That was actually already my last day in Beijing, I was still sick but of course wanted to go out anyways... who cares about health, rihgt?! so I thought lets hit the life-threatening-less-than-ruleless-traffic with the most frequently used mode of transport in Beijing - a bike (lalala ... there are 9 million bycicles in Beijing... lalala... thats a fact... lalala... ) so William, Jen and I rented some bikes and took of. After about an hour Jen, who was also sick, got worse and we had to go on without her... too bad. Hey Jen if you read this, are you better now???
well, so William and I took off towards the Silk market, where we arrived a little later... left the bikes next to the building, locked them and went in in the seach for a non-fake IPod... which I didnt find, instead we of course bought some other stuff... a new watch (pink with cute little diamonds) and a ring... and everythin so totally cheaaaaap!! I love Beijing!! well... after having satisfied my shopaholic character, we went back to the bikes, or at least you could say next to the building were we had left them. But the bikes were gone. Trying to get something out of the construction workers who slept in a mini bus next to it and the personel who seemed to try to order the traffic on this parking thingy there... we didnt have any success and also after a long search of the surroundings we found no bikes. Quite pissed off because of the caution money we lost, almost 20€, so a Chinese fortune, we took a bus to Wangfuyang Dajie, where we'd both been before, but just wanted to go again, for a bite to eat.
Our effort to forget about the bikes succeeded at the latest by the time we saw THE "snack" it should be today: living Scorpions (pics on pic-page ;) ). We just baught one stick with 4 of them... they were still wiggeling their tails and feet - until the guy in the booth (dont know if I would call him a cook :S ) threw them on the grill... where they starved, either because of the heat or because of the thing he put on top to press them onto it... who knows... ?? well... a minute later we were the proud owners of a stick of 4 grilled scorpions and it took quite some effort to take the first bite. However... "Augen zu und durch, ne?" we overcome our struggles and just bit in... and actually it was quite yummy, a little bit like potato chips.. quite crispy... and the guy who sold them said that the poison in the tail is actually healthy!! After having done this we were up for more.. but when we saw the little birds, ducklings, 5cm long and quite thick bugs and seahorses we agreed to save this until our next trip to Beijing and then had some real food, cause the Skorpions were not quite filling!
After that we just went back to the hostel ... I had to pack up, how annoying.
I had dinner that night with a new australian guy... quite yummy (its up to you to decide if that goes for the food or the guy!) ... and then it was ... Friday!

Wednesday, 23rd... Forbidden City

So, Wednesday, I actually finally made it to THE sight of Beijing - the forbidden city. Anyhow, I had - thanks to the air conditioning everywhere - a cold since the evening before and was not feeling quite well, which made the visit not as good as it could have been. Also due to the fact that it was becoming slightly too much "old stones" ;) (sorry, of course I do appreciate what I saw - really!) we all made our way though the palace quite fast - meanign we only spent about 3 or 4 hours there. It was brutally hot but we still resisted the starbucks which they actually set up INSIDE the forbidden city - in my view a totally hillarious idea, quite out of place. well, all the halls and palaces and other buildings were quite impressive - really. What might be funny for you to hear is some of the best "Chinglish" ever. I think the number one sign said: Any act of carelessness will lead to the eternal loss of beauty" We assume that it was supposed to tell us that this cultural relic was unique and if we broke it it could not be replaced... but that is of course just our own interpretation... ;)
After the visit to the great wall I stepped into a pharmacy and managed to buy somehting for my throat, ears, nose... whatever: head! ... then I went back to the hostel and spent the rest of the day in bed... until I got out at night for a quick dinner across the street with Jen and William... thats all... so not that much to tell for once!!

Tuesday the 22nd... Lama temple and "home" in Beijing ;)

now, finally (it is now Sunday the 27th) I have the time to write what I did last Tuesday, the 22nd!!
First of all, I went with Megan (USA) to the Lama temple. The Lama temple is the largest Tibetian temple outside of Tibet which is still actively in use…meaning there are still monks living there as well as many Buddhists coming there to pray. It is full of colours and smells and just quite impressive. Anyhow… as you can imagine… after seeing the Summer Palace on Sunday, the Temple of Heaven on Monday, the Lama temple now seemed quite similar, even though it was different… in a way. Anyhow, also because it’s much smaller than the other palaces, we had seen everything after about two hours. So what do we do with the day? Lets see whats close by on the map! Oh… well… you know… uhm… there is, I mean, would you maybe, like, to uhm.. go to the IKEA??? hahahhah yesssss…so we actually went (to satisfy my addiction) to the IKEA in Beijing! This is by the way the largest IKEA in the world. I was happy!! BUT… dont think that that was so easy!! First of all, we took a subway to the station closest by. From there, we took a street which seemed to go into the right direction… the street went through an area were there are obviously only seldomly any tourists, if there ever was one. The locals looked at us as if we just emerged from Pluto… but other than that they didn’t care much about us, which was a nice change from the many beggars in the city centre. Here, they seemed to be very poor, but still accepting there situation and it actually made the impression as if they were satisfied with their lifes. It was very interessting to walk through there. At the end of the street we came to a large park, which had, on my greatest map ever, an entrance right were we were, and an exit exactly on the other side…. where we assumed the IKEA! So, lets take the straight way through. Done so.. and walked for about a half an hour through this exceptionally funny (yes that is really possible) we had still not found an exit. Why the park was so funny? well, it was full of Chinglish again… had funny signs all over, and made the overall impression that it was made for the case of a huge immergency, like a meteor destroying the rest of the world and only this little park surviving, as it had “emergency dwells” (invisible though ;) ) and special spaces all over for “emergency makeshift tents” (as to evacuate?) … though we were absolutely positive about the fact that there has never ever even stood anything close to a tent in this park… however… this all doesnt matter, we were urgently (addiction signs becoming more obvious with the closer approach to the IKEA) looking for the exit. We had by then of course seen the ultimate and absolutely unmistakable IKEA blue building with IKEA yellow letters on it and were close to hyperventilation due to all the excitement… when we found out (through asking a park gardener) that there was actually no exit on this end and we had to go all the way back and then alllll the way around the park, cross over or under a highway and then approch the destination from it’s rear side. We were devasted that, even though we actually were already in smelling distance of the one and only, we were so brutally rebuffed. Anyhow, there was no other solution (no wings mysteriously growing on us) so we turned our backs on the IKEA (not to understand methaphorically please) and took it as our duty to embrace the challenge… so, exhausted but happy we arrived about a half an hour later and celebrated our achievement with some Swedish “Kötbullar” meatballs and salmon! For my dear colleagues back in Holland I can say that IKEA is pretty much the same here, but everything is cheaper as in Breda (what costs 1 € over there costs about 1-5 Yuan here… so between 0,10 and 0,50 €), but since these prices are still quite high for Chinese standart, it is really the higher class people who shop here. Too bad, I think it takes some of the IKEA culture away (very sad moment here ;) )… and something I was especially interessted in was seeing that even though this store is 8 times as large as the one in Breda, they have not more articles, only more on stock. The only article I found that they dont have much of is cutlery (forks, knives, spoons….) and instead they have a L A R G E variety of chopstics of different designs!! seems quite logic to me!!!
So, after this great escape of the outside world I almost felt like back home, and after some melancholy we left and went back to the hostel! And at night we had a funny dinner with Jen (England), William (France), Neil (Wales) and Megan and I.

some things I learned that day:
- they have the same trashcans in Beijing as in Germany, also having the “OTTO” sticker on them!!
- I can count to 10 in chinese… yi, ar, sun, si, wuo, liu, chi, ba, chiu, shi,… shiyi, shiar… it’s actually quite easy
- Beijing is actually quite prepared for emergencies of any kind (wonder if there is some kind of nuclear protection zone over this park as well)
- at the IKEA in Beijing they fold the yellow bags after the customers put the back… they obviously have either to many bored employees…

I can not upload any more pictures here, so all future ones will be on www.claudia-schmitz.medion-fotoalbum.de

Monday - 21st of August!

ok, the week is over and its time for a new post here... which means that I have to try to remember what I did!! oh my... thats hard (maybe this little hangover today has something to do with that?) well... on uhhm Monday, I went to the Temple of Heaven. Its quite close to the Hostel, which means only 15 min. in the bus. Even though I had no clue where to leave the bus or how to recognise that I was there I was lucky and the bus driver gestured me to leave... didnt know if he just wanted to get rid of me first hehe... well, lucky me that I listened to him - it was the right exit! The Temple of Heaven was very interessting and had a beautiful park around it, so I enjoyed to escape the busy streets and noises and smells and whatever for a while... there were ton of Chinese people there (of course), and some of them just sat around and talked, played a funny cardgame where you have to do some VERY WEIRD yelling and shouting... and some others sat there alone or in groups and made chinese musik with a chinese intstrument.. which I am still desperately trying to figure out its name. It seems to be a crossing between a guittar and a violin, "nice" music though - really, just different that is!
After the Temple of Heaven I went to the Pearl market just across the street from it. No, I did not go there to buy pearls... basically just to look around at all the other stuff they sell... and well, couldn't resist the deep urge to spend some money on shockingly cheap stuff... so I got a new 2GB SD-Card for my camera... for about 13 Euros haahahahaha!! then I got a new headset for 2 and some other small stuff hehe. As you can see I spend a fortune... in Chinese views at least I did!
Then on Monday evening I had the greatest dinner ever at a really fancy Duck Restaurant. They had pics hanging there of George Bush, Gerhard Schroeder and quite some other people eating there... and it was veeeery expensive (in Chinese terms again that is!). Therefore they actually had a table cloth, napkins and chopsticks which were not for one-time-use only! I went there with Abby and Grant from Scotland, and together we shared a duck. This time we could really be sure that it actually was duck, since the cook brought the bird to our table to cut it in pieces there! very nice evening!
now, I spent quite some time on Monday, letz make it a quickie Tuesday! what did I do again?
oh... well, cant cut that short... gonna have to write it next time!! I will also upload some pictures when I get to Hong Kong... take care everybody!! (have added the pics now.. so no more here!)

where do I start? so much to tell!

so now, it is Sunday and I have been in Beijing for uhm... 4 days or so... and well, forget what I wrote on thursday because of course I changed all my plans completely. So here's what happened:
On thursday night I met some English people here at the hostel... and we decided to go to the Great Wall together on Friday, when I had actually planned to visit the forbidden city... anyways.. the great wall was great, wonderful, unique, impressive, and just wow!! I did a tour from Jingshanling to Simatai, which is only about 10 km hiking, but due to the stong inclines it takes about 4 hours... there are parts which are up to 75% steep... I have never walked so many steps in my life, and these are steps of 40 or 50cm hight each... never ending... but great! Also this part is special because the wall is not restored at all parts, especially the part of Jingshanling is very authentic, which also means quite some climbing. I would definately not call it walking over the wall!! There were not many tourists there which is also great, and there are at least no annoying souvenier stalls there... only some people selling "waaer, coca, beea - you buii - waaer, coca, beaa" and "tshiat, haai quuoolity tshiat!" but they are nice, and we were glad to be able to buy some water for 20 Eurocents a bottle.
When we got back at night we had a great dinner, in the Hutong where the hostel is,... just outside on the street, on one of the smallest chairs inbetween babbeling chinese... so yummy, we had Beijing duck I think that night!
on Saturday I actually then wanted to go to the forbidden city.... however, I thoguht I would quickly get my trainticket before that... haha... "quickly" is a feeling which I should forget about here... it took me 4 hours... to go to the train station and actually stand in about 7 - 9 different lines... before I was at the end of the zillions line and refused to leave... and explained to the officer in chinese (haha, thank god for lonely planet language guide!!) what I wanted... and I actually got my ticket!
then it was too late though for the forbidden city and so I went to one of the shopping districts... where I just looked around basically... the new and fancy part and then also the old and authentic part where you can get all kind of traditional stuff and can bargain hard again!! I had a wonderful meal there ... chinese food is yummy - realy!!
then I went back home to the hostel and went out with Sam, Cat and "Sparkey" from England, whom i had been to the great wall with... found a kinda interessting chinese Techno club... but even though the music was crap the beer was cheap so we stayed!!
Today we (same people again) went to the Summer Palace at the border of the city. There it was actually a little cooler than here... but still hot... well, that was also great, all the old buildings and the historical palaces.
now I'm gonna go downstairs to party at the hostel tonight... yummy chinese Rice wine!
and my plans of the forbidden city... well, maybe I'll go tomorrow!! we'll see!!
now thats it ... keep me updated whats happening in Europe, the US and Mexico (Kathrin, u got lazy!!) take care everybody, nihao!!

oh and finnally some tips and tricks if you ever plan to visit beijing:
1. Are you able to eat with chopsticks?? are you sure?? are you R E A L L Y sure? if not, practice in advance (I am glad that I can do it - there is no way to survive this without!)
2. buy a map with the streets both in English and in Chinese on them!
3. forget what you learned about manners in Europe: burp and spit around as much as you like - if you manage to do so you will be almost chinese!!
4. are you afraid of food where you dont know what it might be? yes? --> do not come here
5. bargain hard!! everything goes at least for half the price... some places up to 10 times cheaper than the first offer!!

... more pictures are on www.claudia-schmitz.medion-fotoalbum.de...

first impressions of Beijing

oh my god I am really here!! There is so much to tell already even though I just arrived this afternoon... I had a good flight... just took f***ing two hours to get through the immigration here... and then to get the luggage another "uurtje" (hour!)... but everthing arrived so thats at least something!
Other than that, what is Beijing like ? ? ?
It is hot. it is really really hot. Glad that the hostel dorm has an airco, oh by the way - to get to the hostel I already tried out typical Chineese way of transportation (or dutch?) - I came by bike... but since I am the absolute luxury traveller, I didnt cycle myself but took one of the rickshaws... if the pics are good I will put them on soon! Anyways it was a funny half hour ride thriough Beijing traffic, which you should explore one day yourself!
Other than that I didnt do that much yet... just a little bit of shopping and wandering up this "street" here.... in total I spent like 70 Eurocents!! haha... I wanna stay here!! hmm....
ok guys, tomorrow I'll go check out the forbidden city and Tiananmen square (Platz des Himmlischen Friedens in German!) and I am planning to sleep over at the Great Wall on Monday night...
will write again soon!

party in Aachen

Saturday I went partying in Aachen... Rebecca, Jenny and Jenny, I really had a blast! ... here is just a pic from the Starfish now, ...since I don't feel like writing much and I should actually get started with packing... thats it for now!

I've also put more pictures on www.claudia-schmitz.medion-fotoalbum.de... yet there are some pics from the last year in Breda mostly!

lülülüüü....

nothin' new here... only 5 days left in Germany.... starting to pack up ...