First Yurt on the left

I spent the weekend in the cold steppes of Inner Mongolia, in Hohhot and the nearby Xilamuran grasslands and Kubuqi desert. A group of seven of us arrived in the Hohhot train station Friday morning and immediately went to the grasslands by way of the Anda Guesthouse, a hostel that I stayed at last year when I traveled to Hohhot for the Nadaam Festival. The weather was cold and cloudy, which made me very glad that I had bought a real winter coat the week before. 

We spent the day enjoying the scenery, horseback riding, practicing archery, and eating meals prepared by our hosts. At night, we all packed into our yurt for cards, a few games of mafia, and eventually and early night sleep. 

We woke up early to see the beautiful sunrise on a clear sky in freezing temperature somewhat below 30 degrees. We huddled together, used our blankets, and shot arrows for warmth as we eagerly awaited the sun's warmth. 

After a quick breakfast, we loaded into the van to go to the desert, stopping to pick up four European travelers who joined us for the day. We drove for about six hours, passing grasslands, grazing animals, farms, a delicious restaurant, very curious locals, and at least two nuclear power plants (one of which had a cooling tower feet from the road blocked of by a mere six foot fence). Finally we arrived in the desert, where we put on sand socks, and embarked on an afternoon of sand-surfing, camel-riding (which, I discovered, are much more suitable for my height than Mongolian horses), taking part in sand-rolling contests (video should be on Facebook soon), and getting sand in every possible nook and cranny. 

We returned to Hohhot, had a delicious dinner of grilled meat with some rice and canned peaches (the modern man's chips and salsa), and slept wonderfully until breakfast, snack-buying, and our train back to Beijing. 

Now we are moving our feet back to the crowded streets of Beijing and our noses back to the grindstone.

 Modern day sheep-herding

 Some Chinese adventurers had almost flipped their car as they sped around dunes, requiring another car to use a chain to pull them straight

Second week from two weeks ago

After being VPN-less for the past week and a half, I'm back! It ended up that all I needed to do to make the VPN work was to restart my computer, which is easy enough to do, but with my computer it becomes a long process of multiple restarts until the screen decides to turn on with the motherboard. Anyhow, here I am.
The time has mostly been filled with Chinese and more Chinese. We finished one book and decided to skip a level or two and start on the book the 510 class just finished (I am in 311). Our main teacher, Weiwei, fought with one of the program's directors (who is also 510's main teacher) to convince him that our class was able to handle the book, ending with us getting our new books this afternoon. It is certainly a step up in difficulty, but I think a major piece of that is simply getting accustomed to a new book with a new teaching style.
While that is interesting, exciting, and important in my classmates' and my view, I admit it makes rather poor blog material. So here is some blogging gold.
This past weekend, I acted in a Chinese TV show called "娘要嫁人",  which roughly means "Mother wants to remarry." I believe it comes from the saying: "天要下雨，娘要嫁人," or "If heaven wants it to rain or your mother to remarry, there is no way to stop them." About a week and a half ago, a Chinese young woman came up to me while I was waiting for the bus and, after the usual pleasantries about where I was from, asked me if I would like to act in a movie or TV shows. Surprised by the randomness of the question, I cautiously agreed and gave her my email and phone number. 
This past Friday I got a text from her asking if I had time on Saturday to act in a TV show. The role wouldn't have any lines, would take only an hour or two, and would pay 300 yuan (about $50). She (I think used to kissing up to foreigners) used really strange language that made me a little apprehensive about the whole thing (for instance, when asking for some photos presumably to show to the director and to remember who I am, she texted, "And u need sent me some of ur cute photos tonight:), I will wait.[I was out and would send them late at night]" and later, when I asked her what I wouls be doing and what clothes I should wear, she said "you just wear ur beautiful clothes,  in the shooting place, you will act with another beautiful foreigner girl.")
As I joked with my friends, I might unwittingly be being pulled into a porn video (though how that would be done without my consent is beyond me).
As it turned out, it wasn't. I played the role of Hunter (with lines, as it happened), an American student in China in 1979 who the main two characters try to practice English with. It took much longer than two hours, going late into the night as we waited for our time to shoot, but it was a lot of fun simply for the experience. I was able to practice my Chinese with the agent, the other foreigner (actually from Hungary, but playing an American), the casting director, and a bus-load of Chinese college students who, in the TV show (and in life), were circled around us asking us questions and practicing English (in life they just had questions, pictures wanting to be taken, and hugs wanting to be had [a Dylan hug is, of course, a precious commodity in China]). I was also able to meet a relatively famous actress and director, and see the insides of a movie being made. Really an amazing experience. The episode should air in March, and I will definitely post a link when it does. 
Beyond that, I bought a tailored suit (black pin-stripe) and four tailored shirts (white, light blue, plaid red and black on white, and black), which was a lot of fun. I also bought a winter coat to prepare for a trip this weekend to Inner Mongolia, which is quite cold right now. Luckily I packed my biking pants with me when I came to China.
 Beijing itself is really starting to cool down, with cool days and very chilly nights. I ride my bike to class (about 30 minutes away) about half the time and take the bus (equal or more time) when I am feeling lazy or need to study vocab on the way. Please leave comments with any questions or anything of the sort!

Myanmar Part II

Sorry for the delay! I was only just able to get my VPN working so I could get to blogspot to post this. I am very busy right now preparing for my midterm tomorrow, so I will just post more photos from my trip and leave the rest to your imaginations for now. More to come this weekend when I am finally able to sleep!

One of two countries not affected by the global financial crisis

     Before I read a few articles about Thein Sein, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the reform taking place in Myanmar/Burma, all I knew about it was a vague position and that illustrious description given to it by an International Relations professor.
     After that, I had a vague idea of a country opening up, which led to casual discussion with my friend Emily over a dinner at Peter Chang's in RVA about meeting each other there sometime during the fall semester when she and James would be studying in Singapore while I studied in Beijing.
    That became a serious series of e-mails, which became a very real (painfully so for my bank account) plane ticket, still more or less devoid of plans of real substance.
    Now it is so much more. For me, Myanmar has become a beautiful country full of incredibly friendly and earnest people. When I think of Myanmar, I think of endless temples, each deliberately placed so natural light highlights the structure within. I think of monks, and the sound of chanting and the smell of incense in the air. I think of people wearing skirts (longyi) with face paint to protect from the sun and to act as a cosmetic (thanaka). I think of people smiling at me in curiosity and in welcome.
     It was an unforgettable trip. I plan to write more about it later, but I am in the midst of making up the work I missed for it, so photos will have to do for now.
     The photos are all mainly in Bagan, which Emily, James, and I took a night bus to from Yangon (Rangoon) soon after I arrived. We found ourselves in Bagan at about 4am with no hotel and no plans, but with the absolute perfect opportunity. We bought tickets for a night bus to Inle Lake for that evening, and took a horse cart into temple-filled Old Bagan. Bagan is a town on the plain in central Myanmar that has hundreds if not thousands of temples as far as the eye can see, built over a number of centuries. Many are still in use, while others have yet to be repaired after a devastating earthquake in 1975. 
      Our driver knew the perfect place to climb a temple and get a beautiful view of the sun rise. After that, we rode from temple to temple, from extravagant golden pagodas (which Emily, James, and I agreed looked gorgeous at night but a little tacky in the daytime) to stone temples that seemed almost to hark back to the Aztecs. 
      One thing that both surprised and delighted me was the decorations surrounding many of the Buddhas. Rather than the simple stone or gold statues that tourists like yours truly was expecting to find, Buddha statues were surrounding by colorful lights like a tacky creche near Christmas time. I liked it because it was neither what we tourists expected nor what we wanted, but rather true Buddhist temples portraying the greatness and wonder of Buddha with everything they could, including Christmas tree lights. I think tourists (myself certainly included in that category) want a peek into the past to see the mysterious and beautiful relics of another time, but what those lights showed me was that Buddha is still very much a part of Myanmar of the present.
      Well, I ended up writing a lot more than planned, but it all just spilled out, with tomorrow's vocabulary words putting up a feeble protest. I will continue the story of my trip to Myanmar tomorrow along with more pictures!

Keeping immortals out of Myanmar since 1954 

James and I at Bagan at dawn 

What had been dark shapes against the night sky begin to reveal themselves in the morning light 

Awwwww... Emily and James 

 All the temples had this sort of lighter colored path around them since the sun would heat up the darker colors to a burning heat for our bare feet (no shoes, no shorts, and no spaghetti straps in temples)

Fierce 

One of the larger temples of Bagan

An extravagant Buddha with colorful lights in front. James, Emily, and I were convinced this sort of set up would make a good bar. In our defense, we were very tired from a long bus ride with little sleep, we were beginning to be templed-out after dozens of temples, and it was (is) a great idea.