Shanghai was an interesting city..there wasn't much to see, but I'm sure if we stayed longer I would take some daytrips to the outer areas. I got to walk along the Bund riverwalk and view the amazing contrast of modern day buildings and the older buildings leftover from the Europeans. We also went to the IFC building, the tallest building in Shanghai, and the view was so beautiful! But it cost an arm and a leg to get up there. There was also the Bund Tunnel which goes under the river and it shows the Chinese interpretation of heaven and hell. To be honest, it was the cheesiest thing I've ever seen, with blowup figures and tacky Christmas lights, but it was definitely a sight. I suppose we were just experiencing some of the culture.
Our hotel was right next to the main pedestrian street with lots of shopping, so of course Maibritt and I made several trips, but not much lucky with actual buying. We were approached by the usuals, "bag, watch. gucci, prada!". I got used to ignoring people while I was in China. There was also a mall nearby, and I went there to get Subway, luckily they understood english! Most of the food in the "food" court was dessert! If anything, more locals were going for the sweet stuff rather than real food. It's amazing to see how the Chinese absolutely love sweets now! Everywhere I went in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China there were tons of bakeries and dessert shops.
We traveled to our company visits by coach and many of our lunches were provided. My fave company visit in China was to Philips. We had an excellent speaker who gave us a clear history and Philips' goals in China. There was even a Human Resources presentation which felt like they were trying to recruit us, but hey, why not?
I hung out with Maibritt a lot since we were roomies for the trip and she even got me to do some morning exercises! Most nights we stayed in and caught up on TV via internet since there wasn't much else to see around the city. Overall, a really relaxing trip and a nice change of pace from my crazy traveling before.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Kunming
After the crazy schedule from Beijing, I was ready for some rest, but not too much! Jenny, David, and I left for Kunming in the Yunnan province. I've dreamed of going to Yunnan ever since I saw a Yunnan dance performance at UNC my freshman year. I was so excited to see the ethnic minorities and traditional dress of Yunnan.
Kunming was definitely a bustling city, something I didn't expect. We settled down in our hotel and planned out our weekend. My Lonely Planet guide came in handy the entire trip. The first order of business was to grab some lunch, so we tried to find Mama Fu's nearby, but accidentally went into the wrong one! Nevertheless I got a huge bowl of noodles for less than $1! That's definitely good enough for me. Next, we went to the Chuang Ku, or Loft, art section of the city. Our hotel was centrally located, so we walked there, and it took much longer than I thought it would. But once we got there it was so charming, and there were some cool cafes and art galleries. The art we saw seemed so European, so it was reminiscent of my trek across Italy. Seeing something different like this was so refreshing after all of the traditional Chinese art and buildings. There was even one gallery that was born from an artist from China and one from Sweden.
Afterwards we walked to the East and Western pagodas. They were pretty close to each other, and nice to see, but we couldn't go inside because they aren't really restored. There was some kind of food festival going on in the area too! Tons of dried fruit, nuts, snacks, etc...even ostrich eggs?
It was starting to get dark, so we headed back to the hotel and tried to find a teahouse to sit in and relax since our feet were hurting. At least mine and Jenny's feet hurt, David's a trooper. Couldn't find anything, so we referred to the handy dandy Lonely Planet guide and went to a cafe. We relaxed for awhile and drank some tea, and waited for our appetites to kick in. Jenny and I shared some traditional "Across the Bridge" noodles, which turned out to be more food than we could handle. Oops...
Okay, so I've decided I've gone into too much detail, so I'll try to go for more highlights now.
The next day we went to the Stone Forest and Da Shui Pu Bu, a waterfall. We hired a driver, who turned out to be not so nice at the beginning. We planned on running to Wal-Mart or Carrefour to buy lunch supplies, but he refused because of traffic, so instead he took us to a nice local place at the Stone Forest. We tried some of the local mushrooms, since they are more expensive everywhere else in the world. Some of the best dishes I've had since I got to China! I even asked the waitress to write down the names for me. The Stone Forest seemed pretty artificial, until we found a path that led down and then up to the top of the rock formations! There was no one else up there, so we took our time and sometimes I thought I'd fall. There were no railings, but you could tell which rocks were used as handholds since they were smoother than the rest of the formations. Before we got to the Stone Forest our driver took us to the Waterfall, and I'm pretty sure he got lost for a bit...but once we got there it was just good to get out of the car. We took a cable car down so we could explore the area around the waterfall too. Jenny and I were posing for a picture in front of the waterfall when donkey almost ran us over? Next thing you know its owner comes down running after it, haha, that was pretty fun. Then on the walk back to the car a herd of goats came by...and there were cows by the waterfall. It was an animal filled day for us.
The other highlight was going to the Western Hills. We managed to take public transportation all the way there! We made our own lunches and enjoyed them before the real climb started. We followed the road for awhile, it was strange since there wasn't really a walking path. But eventually we found one and of course it was filled with locals trying to sell us little toys and trinkets. We trekked all over the mountain and found some more paths leading to another side...Jenny and I didn't make it all the way, but we waited so David could get to a higher point. Obviously, David was more gung ho about going the extra mile during the trip. Then we took a long cable car halfway down and walked the rest of the way. The walk was much further than I remembered...
That night we found the real Mama Fu's and I had a hamburger for the first time in MONTHS...maybe a year or something! Crazy! It was so delicious and juicy, I scarfed the whole thing down. The best part was that everything seemed home cooked. The patty was handmade and the bread was fresh..mmm...now I'm hungry and it's almost lunchtime!
Coming up next....the study trip to Shanghai and Tokyo!
Kunming was definitely a bustling city, something I didn't expect. We settled down in our hotel and planned out our weekend. My Lonely Planet guide came in handy the entire trip. The first order of business was to grab some lunch, so we tried to find Mama Fu's nearby, but accidentally went into the wrong one! Nevertheless I got a huge bowl of noodles for less than $1! That's definitely good enough for me. Next, we went to the Chuang Ku, or Loft, art section of the city. Our hotel was centrally located, so we walked there, and it took much longer than I thought it would. But once we got there it was so charming, and there were some cool cafes and art galleries. The art we saw seemed so European, so it was reminiscent of my trek across Italy. Seeing something different like this was so refreshing after all of the traditional Chinese art and buildings. There was even one gallery that was born from an artist from China and one from Sweden.
Afterwards we walked to the East and Western pagodas. They were pretty close to each other, and nice to see, but we couldn't go inside because they aren't really restored. There was some kind of food festival going on in the area too! Tons of dried fruit, nuts, snacks, etc...even ostrich eggs?
It was starting to get dark, so we headed back to the hotel and tried to find a teahouse to sit in and relax since our feet were hurting. At least mine and Jenny's feet hurt, David's a trooper. Couldn't find anything, so we referred to the handy dandy Lonely Planet guide and went to a cafe. We relaxed for awhile and drank some tea, and waited for our appetites to kick in. Jenny and I shared some traditional "Across the Bridge" noodles, which turned out to be more food than we could handle. Oops...
Okay, so I've decided I've gone into too much detail, so I'll try to go for more highlights now.
The next day we went to the Stone Forest and Da Shui Pu Bu, a waterfall. We hired a driver, who turned out to be not so nice at the beginning. We planned on running to Wal-Mart or Carrefour to buy lunch supplies, but he refused because of traffic, so instead he took us to a nice local place at the Stone Forest. We tried some of the local mushrooms, since they are more expensive everywhere else in the world. Some of the best dishes I've had since I got to China! I even asked the waitress to write down the names for me. The Stone Forest seemed pretty artificial, until we found a path that led down and then up to the top of the rock formations! There was no one else up there, so we took our time and sometimes I thought I'd fall. There were no railings, but you could tell which rocks were used as handholds since they were smoother than the rest of the formations. Before we got to the Stone Forest our driver took us to the Waterfall, and I'm pretty sure he got lost for a bit...but once we got there it was just good to get out of the car. We took a cable car down so we could explore the area around the waterfall too. Jenny and I were posing for a picture in front of the waterfall when donkey almost ran us over? Next thing you know its owner comes down running after it, haha, that was pretty fun. Then on the walk back to the car a herd of goats came by...and there were cows by the waterfall. It was an animal filled day for us.
The other highlight was going to the Western Hills. We managed to take public transportation all the way there! We made our own lunches and enjoyed them before the real climb started. We followed the road for awhile, it was strange since there wasn't really a walking path. But eventually we found one and of course it was filled with locals trying to sell us little toys and trinkets. We trekked all over the mountain and found some more paths leading to another side...Jenny and I didn't make it all the way, but we waited so David could get to a higher point. Obviously, David was more gung ho about going the extra mile during the trip. Then we took a long cable car halfway down and walked the rest of the way. The walk was much further than I remembered...
That night we found the real Mama Fu's and I had a hamburger for the first time in MONTHS...maybe a year or something! Crazy! It was so delicious and juicy, I scarfed the whole thing down. The best part was that everything seemed home cooked. The patty was handmade and the bread was fresh..mmm...now I'm hungry and it's almost lunchtime!
Coming up next....the study trip to Shanghai and Tokyo!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Beijing
Wow. I know where I should start, but it's so difficult because my entire trip to Beijing and Kunming was absolutely amazing and breathtaking. I went with a great group of people, which made the trip that much better.
On April 30, I left on a 24-hour train from Hong Kong to Beijing with Jenny, David, and Weck. I thought we had booked a 4-person soft sleeper compartment, but to my initial unfortunate surprise we ended up in 2 different 6-person hard sleeper compartments. Hope that makes sense. It's amazing how people can be packed into a train. All four of us had the top bunks too, which could be likened to a coffin. Kinda scary, huh? But I hardly spent any time up there, we stayed in the dining car for most of our awake time since it was impossible to sit up on our top bunks. Played some Mahjong, read, and finally went to bed. The lights were turned on at 7:00am and then they started serving breakfast at 7:30, but I couldn't get out of bed til after 8. Then we spent the whole day in the dining car, and waited to arrive in Beijing.
Since we didn't get settled into our hostel until around 5ish, we decided to just wait for Linea and Sabrina to get to the hostel so we could go find some dinner. I'm so glad they found the hostel okay since it's located in a hutong. Hutongs are winding alleyways that are a part of history in China. We asked the staff to point out the closest night market, and we finally found Donghuamen Night Market, known for its interesting selection of snacks. I had all sorts of snacks, but nothing too crazy. They had silk worms on a stick...starfish, baby sharks, seahorses, snake, etc. None of us tried the crazy stuff.
The next day we walked through the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. Our hostel was located in a great location just 5 mins. north of the Forbidden City. Once we took a winding way out of the Forbidden City we saw the picture of Mao and wanted to get a closer look. BIG mistake. That just led us right back into the gate of hte Forbidden City and the guards wouldn't let us straight back out, so we had to take another 30 min. detour. I was slightly unsatisfied with China's inefficiency at that point, but once we got to Tian'anmen Square we were bombarded by Chinese tourists wanting to take pictures with the Caucasians in our group. At the end of the day we went to Temple of Heaven, but had to stroll through quickly since things were closing and we had to get to dinner. For dinner we went to a famous Beijing dumpling house and ordered tons of dumplings by accident, but the total was only about 70RMB, which is about 10USD for 6 people! Amazing!
The next day was our 10km hike or 6 miles from Jinshanling to Simatai. My quads hurt for a few days after that. But it was all worth it for the views and the satisfaction completing the hike. Linea and Weck were definitely my motivators since they stayed ahead the entire time. Linea would even run ahead up the gravity defying stairs in order to take pics of us etc. I thought she was crazy. Around tower 18 we stopped for lunch and had a picnic on the Great Wall. It was a much needed break and refueling time. There were 30 towers for us to get through. Afterwards we took a zip line down and got to ride a little boat to our meeting point.
It's hard to describe the whole trek across the Great Wall. I know many of my pictures look the same, but each view is different and special to me.
The next day we took it easy since it was the day of our Peking Duck reservation and we were meeting up with Stephen, a fellow UNC Glober. Amazingly we were able to meet him at the Olympic area, so we walked around and went inside the Bird's Nest. Surprisingly, it seemed a lot smaller than on TV. From there we took a metro and found the Hongqiao market, or Pearl Market. Tons of fakes and miscellaneous items for sale there, but I was able to bargain hard for a few key items, like a pearl necklace, blush brush, and "silk" scarf. Then it was time to find Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant. I was really excited since I looooooove duck and I was going to meet up with my KKG sister!! It was so awesome seeing her again and it makes me look even more forward to getting back to UNC. It took us awhile to find hte restaurant since it was located in a hutong. Dinner was delicious and we were all satisfied afterwards.
Our last day in Beijing was spent at the Summer Palace. A relaxing day and saw tons of beautiful scenery. We even took peddle boats across the lake, but the current was really fighting us. We got stuck under the bridge and had to give up and just go back so our time wouldn't run over.
I know this post is slightly haphazard, but I will update soon on Kunming and all of my pics are posted on Picasa now!
Enjoy!
On April 30, I left on a 24-hour train from Hong Kong to Beijing with Jenny, David, and Weck. I thought we had booked a 4-person soft sleeper compartment, but to my initial unfortunate surprise we ended up in 2 different 6-person hard sleeper compartments. Hope that makes sense. It's amazing how people can be packed into a train. All four of us had the top bunks too, which could be likened to a coffin. Kinda scary, huh? But I hardly spent any time up there, we stayed in the dining car for most of our awake time since it was impossible to sit up on our top bunks. Played some Mahjong, read, and finally went to bed. The lights were turned on at 7:00am and then they started serving breakfast at 7:30, but I couldn't get out of bed til after 8. Then we spent the whole day in the dining car, and waited to arrive in Beijing.
Since we didn't get settled into our hostel until around 5ish, we decided to just wait for Linea and Sabrina to get to the hostel so we could go find some dinner. I'm so glad they found the hostel okay since it's located in a hutong. Hutongs are winding alleyways that are a part of history in China. We asked the staff to point out the closest night market, and we finally found Donghuamen Night Market, known for its interesting selection of snacks. I had all sorts of snacks, but nothing too crazy. They had silk worms on a stick...starfish, baby sharks, seahorses, snake, etc. None of us tried the crazy stuff.
The next day we walked through the Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. Our hostel was located in a great location just 5 mins. north of the Forbidden City. Once we took a winding way out of the Forbidden City we saw the picture of Mao and wanted to get a closer look. BIG mistake. That just led us right back into the gate of hte Forbidden City and the guards wouldn't let us straight back out, so we had to take another 30 min. detour. I was slightly unsatisfied with China's inefficiency at that point, but once we got to Tian'anmen Square we were bombarded by Chinese tourists wanting to take pictures with the Caucasians in our group. At the end of the day we went to Temple of Heaven, but had to stroll through quickly since things were closing and we had to get to dinner. For dinner we went to a famous Beijing dumpling house and ordered tons of dumplings by accident, but the total was only about 70RMB, which is about 10USD for 6 people! Amazing!
The next day was our 10km hike or 6 miles from Jinshanling to Simatai. My quads hurt for a few days after that. But it was all worth it for the views and the satisfaction completing the hike. Linea and Weck were definitely my motivators since they stayed ahead the entire time. Linea would even run ahead up the gravity defying stairs in order to take pics of us etc. I thought she was crazy. Around tower 18 we stopped for lunch and had a picnic on the Great Wall. It was a much needed break and refueling time. There were 30 towers for us to get through. Afterwards we took a zip line down and got to ride a little boat to our meeting point.
It's hard to describe the whole trek across the Great Wall. I know many of my pictures look the same, but each view is different and special to me.The next day we took it easy since it was the day of our Peking Duck reservation and we were meeting up with Stephen, a fellow UNC Glober. Amazingly we were able to meet him at the Olympic area, so we walked around and went inside the Bird's Nest. Surprisingly, it seemed a lot smaller than on TV. From there we took a metro and found the Hongqiao market, or Pearl Market. Tons of fakes and miscellaneous items for sale there, but I was able to bargain hard for a few key items, like a pearl necklace, blush brush, and "silk" scarf. Then it was time to find Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant. I was really excited since I looooooove duck and I was going to meet up with my KKG sister!! It was so awesome seeing her again and it makes me look even more forward to getting back to UNC. It took us awhile to find hte restaurant since it was located in a hutong. Dinner was delicious and we were all satisfied afterwards.
Our last day in Beijing was spent at the Summer Palace. A relaxing day and saw tons of beautiful scenery. We even took peddle boats across the lake, but the current was really fighting us. We got stuck under the bridge and had to give up and just go back so our time wouldn't run over.
I know this post is slightly haphazard, but I will update soon on Kunming and all of my pics are posted on Picasa now!
Enjoy!
Monday, April 27, 2009
More Shenzhen
Well, since my last post about Shenzhen, I have been there 4 more times. I went again with Linea, Jenny, Weck, and Daniel to stroll around and go back to the spa. Only the 3 girls went to the spa, and it was absolutely amazing again! I just can't believe how cheap the services are, though it is not a traditional spa, and you definitely get what you pay for. I asked for a pedicure, but they offer nail painting services for extra. The pedicure was just trimming the nails, then I got my feet smoothed. And I swear, my feet have not been so smooth since I was baby! They were so soft! Haha, I really enjoyed that. We ended up staying there and talking/eating dinner for a few hours then finally headed back to Hong Kong.
The third time I went to get some tailor made suits. We found a really nice woman, who I thought was the top recommended tailor, but it turns out her store was literally right around the corner! Either way, I am pleased with the results. I printed out pictures so they would know exactly what I wanted my pieces to look like. She even brought us to the fabric market to help us get good deals, then took our measurements. We went back a week later to get fitted, then had to get some adjustments made, but my stuff turned out pretty well. I ordered one skirt suit and an extra pencil skirt. For the three pieces I paid around $50! The lining is thinner, but I think that's nice for the summer months. I highly suggest you to go to Shenzhen for tailor made suits if you're ever in Hong Kong in the future! It's just a metro ride away and there's also tons of shopping you can do in the area. I've honestly never seen so many fake stuff in my life. I've bought DVD's and a nice little coin purse, as well as some other random cheap stuff. As a result of my many trips to Shenzhen, I've gotten a lot better at bargaining and even managed to get a small makeup bag down about 75% from their original asking price. Success!
The third time I went to get some tailor made suits. We found a really nice woman, who I thought was the top recommended tailor, but it turns out her store was literally right around the corner! Either way, I am pleased with the results. I printed out pictures so they would know exactly what I wanted my pieces to look like. She even brought us to the fabric market to help us get good deals, then took our measurements. We went back a week later to get fitted, then had to get some adjustments made, but my stuff turned out pretty well. I ordered one skirt suit and an extra pencil skirt. For the three pieces I paid around $50! The lining is thinner, but I think that's nice for the summer months. I highly suggest you to go to Shenzhen for tailor made suits if you're ever in Hong Kong in the future! It's just a metro ride away and there's also tons of shopping you can do in the area. I've honestly never seen so many fake stuff in my life. I've bought DVD's and a nice little coin purse, as well as some other random cheap stuff. As a result of my many trips to Shenzhen, I've gotten a lot better at bargaining and even managed to get a small makeup bag down about 75% from their original asking price. Success!
My Dreams have been realized!
On the weekend of March 13-15 I went to Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province with Jenny and Daniel. It was like Italy all over again! If you don't know, Sichuan is where the Panda Research Base is, as well as the home of 麻辣, a special spice they use in Sichuanese food. I was so excited a bout seeing the pandas, REAL LIVE PANDAS, in a semi-natural environment, not behind a glass wall.
When we first got to Chengdu we went to the main temple there and walked around a bit, it was definitely made into a tourist destination because the walking areas looked so new. Even some of the buildings looked fake authentic. Inside the temple grounds it was so peaceful and beautiful, and blocked all sounds of construction and traf
fic jams outside. 
Eventually we got hungry, but it was too early to eat dinner, so we checked out a restaurant that looked pretty busy and had the spice in the dishes. I ordered some spicy wontons, and I was so surprised once I started eating! Basically..I kept eating, and I didn't think it was traditional spicy kind of taste. I slowly began to realize that I couldn't quite feel my tongue anymore, and the spice had a pine taste to it..it also made everything taste much saltier. I believe the english translation is Szechuan food, but this was nothing like that, and unlike anything I've ever tasted before. Maybe not my fondest eating adventure, but I enjoyed it and if was cool to try something new. Afterwards we sat in a teahouse for awhile to get hungry again so we could go to Chen's Mapo Tofu for dinner. 
I LOVE mapo tofu, and this place is the number one restaurant to go to in Chengdu. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. We ordered two bowls which turned out to be too much, along with some other small dishes. In contrast to my expectation of Sichuan spicy food from before, the Mapo Tofu tasted more like what I expected. The spiciness was kicked up a notch, and it was cooked with more oil than my mom uses. But I still loved it! And it was super cheap. The three of payed about 2USD each for our fulfilling dinner!
The next day we woke up early to get to the Panda Research Base around 9-10, so we could catch
them at feeding time. We had one hour since we got a deal with the taxi driver to drive us from the research base back to the city. I was running around everywhere like a crazy woman so I could see all of the pandas! I loved seeing the pandas munching on bamboo..looking all lazy. Wow..that's the life. What was even better is that they had great jungle gym type structures and I swear the red pandas could have jumped out at us. There were even peacocks, and we saw one on the sidewalk. I'm pretty sure it had escaped somehow, haha. Before I knew it, my panda adventure was over, but I took plenty of pictures.
Another highlight of the trip? THE BUFFET BREAKFAST! Just in case you didn't notice, I love traveling and eating the local food, etc. But the buffet breakfast had everything and I took full advantage of it. They offered everything from dumplings to waffles to tons of fresh fruit. Mmmm...
When we first got to Chengdu we went to the main temple there and walked around a bit, it was definitely made into a tourist destination because the walking areas looked so new. Even some of the buildings looked fake authentic. Inside the temple grounds it was so peaceful and beautiful, and blocked all sounds of construction and traf
fic jams outside. 
Eventually we got hungry, but it was too early to eat dinner, so we checked out a restaurant that looked pretty busy and had the spice in the dishes. I ordered some spicy wontons, and I was so surprised once I started eating! Basically..I kept eating, and I didn't think it was traditional spicy kind of taste. I slowly began to realize that I couldn't quite feel my tongue anymore, and the spice had a pine taste to it..it also made everything taste much saltier. I believe the english translation is Szechuan food, but this was nothing like that, and unlike anything I've ever tasted before. Maybe not my fondest eating adventure, but I enjoyed it and if was cool to try something new. Afterwards we sat in a teahouse for awhile to get hungry again so we could go to Chen's Mapo Tofu for dinner. 
I LOVE mapo tofu, and this place is the number one restaurant to go to in Chengdu. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. We ordered two bowls which turned out to be too much, along with some other small dishes. In contrast to my expectation of Sichuan spicy food from before, the Mapo Tofu tasted more like what I expected. The spiciness was kicked up a notch, and it was cooked with more oil than my mom uses. But I still loved it! And it was super cheap. The three of payed about 2USD each for our fulfilling dinner!The next day we woke up early to get to the Panda Research Base around 9-10, so we could catch
them at feeding time. We had one hour since we got a deal with the taxi driver to drive us from the research base back to the city. I was running around everywhere like a crazy woman so I could see all of the pandas! I loved seeing the pandas munching on bamboo..looking all lazy. Wow..that's the life. What was even better is that they had great jungle gym type structures and I swear the red pandas could have jumped out at us. There were even peacocks, and we saw one on the sidewalk. I'm pretty sure it had escaped somehow, haha. Before I knew it, my panda adventure was over, but I took plenty of pictures.Another highlight of the trip? THE BUFFET BREAKFAST! Just in case you didn't notice, I love traveling and eating the local food, etc. But the buffet breakfast had everything and I took full advantage of it. They offered everything from dumplings to waffles to tons of fresh fruit. Mmmm...
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Shenzhen
Wow! Two posts in such close proximity?! It's amazing!
Well, I went to Shenzhen last Thursday for the primary reason of conducting some field research about Wal-Mart and Carrefour for my marketing case. Maibritt was pretty excited since it was going to be her first visit to a Wal-Mart ever!! We left pretty early, met at the train station at 7:45 am, which meant a 25 min. walk from my place to the station..oi. I also realized I forgot my passport halfway there, so I ran back, then walked up the giant hill and ran back down. I thought I was going to trip over my feet the whole way down..but I made it safely! It took us only half an hour by train to get to the border, meaning I'm closer to China than to the central area of Hong Kong. Wow. We crossed the border, and the immigration man didn't think it was me, so he had someone else come look at my passport. At least he's careful? I gave him a death glare though, there was no way I was getting detained at immigration.
We made it through and took a taxi to Queen's Spa to prepare ourselves for the 'rigorous' research we'd have to conduct later. Going into the spa was like walking into a different world. Everyone's walking around in a standard issued set of PJ's. There's also reclining seats with TV's where you can sleep! That's where you can order different services, such as foot massages. All of us went for the 90 minute Chinese massage. I'm fine with a 30 min. but 90 min. was all they had. My body felt like jello afterwards since I was so relaxed! Afterwards we indulged in the free fruit and juice bar! I got tons of lychee! And some weird tasting Taro Ice Cream. We took some time to rest in the sleeping seats. Maibritt and I went upstairs to get our eyebrows done while Svenja and Simone got foot massages! We ended up having lunch/dim sum there too. It was strange sitting in PJ's while eating lunch in the dining area since it was decorated nicely.
We finally left and took a taxi to Carrefour, a French-based hypermarket. Svenja took tons of pics for our presentation! Their live market was more extensive than Wal-Mart's. You could catch your own live fish, prawns, turtles, etc. I saw a woman with a fish still jumping around in the net, she handed it to the man at the scale/register and he proceeded to whack it on the floor, which proved to be an effective way to make the fish stop jumping around. Wow.
Wal-Mart was Wal-Mart, just tailored to the Chinese consumer. We bought some wontons, Chinese pancakes, etc. for dinner and sat outside. How lovely. Check out my pics!
Maibritt and I stayed behind in the Lo Wu Comercial Center. There were so many stalls and people yelling at us to come look at bags, wallets, etc. all fakes. I'm glad I'm Chinese so they don't bother me as much, but at every shop they would say to Maibritt, "Hey lady, wanna look at bag or wallet?", "Hey nice lady! come look!", etc. It's like the papparazzi. Really.
And that's my trip to Shenzhen!
Well, I went to Shenzhen last Thursday for the primary reason of conducting some field research about Wal-Mart and Carrefour for my marketing case. Maibritt was pretty excited since it was going to be her first visit to a Wal-Mart ever!! We left pretty early, met at the train station at 7:45 am, which meant a 25 min. walk from my place to the station..oi. I also realized I forgot my passport halfway there, so I ran back, then walked up the giant hill and ran back down. I thought I was going to trip over my feet the whole way down..but I made it safely! It took us only half an hour by train to get to the border, meaning I'm closer to China than to the central area of Hong Kong. Wow. We crossed the border, and the immigration man didn't think it was me, so he had someone else come look at my passport. At least he's careful? I gave him a death glare though, there was no way I was getting detained at immigration.
We made it through and took a taxi to Queen's Spa to prepare ourselves for the 'rigorous' research we'd have to conduct later. Going into the spa was like walking into a different world. Everyone's walking around in a standard issued set of PJ's. There's also reclining seats with TV's where you can sleep! That's where you can order different services, such as foot massages. All of us went for the 90 minute Chinese massage. I'm fine with a 30 min. but 90 min. was all they had. My body felt like jello afterwards since I was so relaxed! Afterwards we indulged in the free fruit and juice bar! I got tons of lychee! And some weird tasting Taro Ice Cream. We took some time to rest in the sleeping seats. Maibritt and I went upstairs to get our eyebrows done while Svenja and Simone got foot massages! We ended up having lunch/dim sum there too. It was strange sitting in PJ's while eating lunch in the dining area since it was decorated nicely.
We finally left and took a taxi to Carrefour, a French-based hypermarket. Svenja took tons of pics for our presentation! Their live market was more extensive than Wal-Mart's. You could catch your own live fish, prawns, turtles, etc. I saw a woman with a fish still jumping around in the net, she handed it to the man at the scale/register and he proceeded to whack it on the floor, which proved to be an effective way to make the fish stop jumping around. Wow.
Wal-Mart was Wal-Mart, just tailored to the Chinese consumer. We bought some wontons, Chinese pancakes, etc. for dinner and sat outside. How lovely. Check out my pics!
Maibritt and I stayed behind in the Lo Wu Comercial Center. There were so many stalls and people yelling at us to come look at bags, wallets, etc. all fakes. I'm glad I'm Chinese so they don't bother me as much, but at every shop they would say to Maibritt, "Hey lady, wanna look at bag or wallet?", "Hey nice lady! come look!", etc. It's like the papparazzi. Really.
And that's my trip to Shenzhen!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Macau
I guess I'm going to aim for monthly reports! February has flown by, I really don't know where the time has gone...my last exam is April 22nd, so I'm already halfway through! Really? I would say February has been pretty intense with activity. I went to Macau for Valentine's weekend with Jenny, Sabrina, and Maibritt. It's only an hour ferry ride away. We stayed at the Venetian, which I heard has the most square footage of any building in the world? Or something like that. And to explain, Macau is basically the Las Vegas of the east. There are tons of new hotels being constructed, but they already have tons of casinos, such as the Wynn, Sofitel 16, Grand Lisboa, etc. The Venetian is a little further out, but you could spend days in there shopping! Haha. Right when we got to the hotel we were able to check in, and then we took a taxi to St. Paul's Cathedral Ruins. Macau used to be a Portuguese colony, so it was really cool to see European style buildings and streets in an Asian city. It was a nice area with a fortress, tons of almond cookie shops, and Portuguese egg tarts, so we had a sweet lunch there. You could really tell it was all tourists though, so we left around 3pm to head back to the hotel. We got ready for dinner and the Cirque du Soleil show, Zaia.
We took a taxi to a village to have dinner. Everyone stared at us since we were so overdressed and the restaurants there definitely weren't high class, but I was excited about tasting some Asian food with a Portuguese flair! The restaurant we wanted to go to didn't open until 6, and we were half an hour early so we walked around...not much to see, went back to hte restaurant and hovered outside waiting for it to open. A woman was standing inside...not doing anything, so I tried to get her attention, but it didn't work. About 5 minutes til 6, a guy goes in, and it turns out they were fully booked for the night, so we waited for nothing :( Needless to say, we were bitter towards the woman that basically watched us for half an hour. So we went to another restaurant the concierge had suggested called Dumbo. And it actually had a picture of dumbo the flying elephant outside so I was pretty skeptical. But we go upstairs and it turns out to be a nice place with a number of customers already. We ordered the local specialties, such as African Chicken and Fried Fishballs (balls made out of fish..just to clarify). Then we went to another place and got the Sawdust cake, it was really fluffy and whipped with yummy crushed biscuit, making the sawdust part of the cake. Went back to the hotel and watched Zaia. It was amaaaaazing, as to be expected from a Cirque du Soleil show. Before the show I noticed a guy was walking up the aisle and I did a double-take since I realized he was NOT wearing normal clothes. Turns out it was one of the performers from the show and he gave us roses! Ahhhh Romeo!
After the show we went to the casino, I only played slots and lost all my money since I had no idea what I was doing and the instructions were in Chinese. Instead, I lived vicariously through Jenny who played War, and another game called Sic...something. It was really cool walking around the casino, but there were a lot of tourists there, so there weren't many high stakes games going on.
The next morning we had a delicious breakfast buffet at the hotel. There was so much good fruit, scrambled eggs, chicken sausage..mmmmm. I've been missing a hearty breakfast, so I was pretty excited when I saw the HUGE buffet line. Afterwards we spent the whole morning shopping around the Venetian Canal Shoppes, and left around 1pm. We all had work to do :( But it was a lovely Valentine's weekend!
Coming up next, my trip to Shenzhen and the island of Tap Mun!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Lunar New Year
Happy Lunar New Year to everyone!
I've had a week off for the holiday, which has been so relaxing. Thankfully I was able to contact a travel agent and get a great deal for my friends and I to go to Taiwan for 4 days. We got to stay in a 5-star hotel right by the Main station and round trip air tickets for less than what you'd pay just for the airline tickets! I went with Jenny, Simone, Maibritt, Linea, Svenja, and Sabrina.
We arrived on Tuesday and went to the Shilin Night Market where we had a successful shopping and eating adventure! I had stinky tofu, taro milk tea, and a cream bun. Mmmm, I was so excited that everyone really enjoyed the night market. It can be really overwhelming because of all the people and items for sale. The next day we went to Ding Tai Fung, the famous dumpling house for brunch. We ordered the must-eat dish, Xiao Long Bao. Basically small pork dumplings witha little soup in them. Everyone loved the food and from there we walked to Taipei 101, formerly the tallest building in the world. It took awhile to walk there, but it was so warm and sunny! Perfect weather! Definitely not what I was expecting, so I was wearing Uggs and a sweater. I even had to pull out my UV umbrella to help cool down. The weather really agreed with us while we were there. Went to the top of 101 and got some ice cream while enjoying the view of Taipei. From there we attempted to go to the Maokong Tea Plantation, but the gondola to the plantation was closed for the New Year. But at least I got to see where the pandas are! It was pandamania down there. I will have to save time to go see the pandas when I go back to Taiwan in May.
That night we kind of split up and I showed Linea, Jenny, and Maibritt around the mall under the Main station. We got some snacks, and went back to the hotel to rest a little. For dinner Sabrina, Maibritt, Linea, and I attempted to find another night market, but never did, so we went back to the main station for dinner and shared some huge steamed buns. The guy at the restaurant remembered us from earlier and had a lot of fun talking to us trying to guess where the girls were from.
The next day we had some traditional Taiwanese breakfast called Fantuan. It has shredded pork, a fried dough stick and maybe something else all wrapped up in rice. Then we headed over to the National Palace Museum. Spent a few hours there and we split up. Most of the girls went to Beitou for a hot spring, while Maibritt and I went to the Confucius Temple and explored the markets around there. I later found out that the hot spring they went to was nude, oops! But they still enjoyed it. That night we went to the younger area of Taipei called Ximending. There's always a lot going on, but there were so many people a few of us left early since we were going the next day anyway.
Our last day in Taipei was really relaxed. I took some sticky pics with Maibritt and we wandered around Ximending, the train station and the area around our hotel.
This experience in Taipei has really given me a better understanding of where everything is. Usually my mom takes me everywhere and I don't really think about it. But now I feel a lot more confident travelling around in Mandarin-speaking countries. I can already tell my Mandarin is improving! Jenny felt the same way too. It's different being there with family where we just go out and eat, shop, etc. This time I got to see some different areas of Taipei and fend for myself. We were so nervous the girls wouldn't enjoy Taipei, but I can tell they all enjoyed the hotel and all the things we introduced them to.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
FYI
For letters:
Jamie Yang
Flat 807B, PGH4
CUHK
Shatin, New Territories
Hong Kong SAR
For packages and bulkier items:
Jamie Yang
c/o International Asian Studies Programme
Office of Academic Links
Lady Ho Tung Hall
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin N.T. Hong Kong SAR
Jamie Yang
Flat 807B, PGH4
CUHK
Shatin, New Territories
Hong Kong SAR
For packages and bulkier items:
Jamie Yang
c/o International Asian Studies Programme
Office of Academic Links
Lady Ho Tung Hall
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Shatin N.T. Hong Kong SAR
Sunday, January 18, 2009
I suck
I apologize for my lack of attention to this blog! I was counting on being better at updating it, but lately I've just been so busy trying to settle in in my new school. This semester is already panning out to be fairly busy, but I'm glad I'll have some more variety here. My classes only meet once a week, so I only have class Monday-Wednesday. And to fill in the rest of my time, I've signed up to teach English at a rural primary school in HK on Thursdays! I'm also planning several trips already...like Taiwan for Chinese New Year!! Jenny and I are going to show our friends around since we talk so much about Taiwan and how much we love it.
Basically, I arrived here on the 30th with my mom and sister, and we spent a fun week exploring the island and mainland, and eating LOTS of awesome dim sum!! It was so nice to have them there to help me move in. My room already feels much more homey than my room in Denmark. Though there are ups and downs for each place, but I'm not complaining! I actually have a prime location in my flat with 8 masters/PhD students. I am not on the hallway of rooms, instead my room is in a corner of the flat with a half bath, so I consider it a super suite! Seven of my roomies are from the mainland, and one is an older PhD student from Taiwan. She's helped me out so much, and I feel lucky to have so much help here!
I've mostly been busy with getting everything I need here, books, etc. And catching up on homework, there's not too much yet, but I am definitely behind. I don't know where the time goes!!! On that note, I'm going to get working on cover letters due this week...
Sorry again for the randomness!
Anyway, the three girls spent
Basically, I arrived here on the 30th with my mom and sister, and we spent a fun week exploring the island and mainland, and eating LOTS of awesome dim sum!! It was so nice to have them there to help me move in. My room already feels much more homey than my room in Denmark. Though there are ups and downs for each place, but I'm not complaining! I actually have a prime location in my flat with 8 masters/PhD students. I am not on the hallway of rooms, instead my room is in a corner of the flat with a half bath, so I consider it a super suite! Seven of my roomies are from the mainland, and one is an older PhD student from Taiwan. She's helped me out so much, and I feel lucky to have so much help here!
I've mostly been busy with getting everything I need here, books, etc. And catching up on homework, there's not too much yet, but I am definitely behind. I don't know where the time goes!!! On that note, I'm going to get working on cover letters due this week...
Sorry again for the randomness!
Anyway, the three girls spent
Thursday, December 11, 2008
One Semester Down...
Well, I've completed one semester abroad. This may be cliche, but I've definitely learned a lot this semester about myself, about others and become much more independent. I've learned how to cook...well, my version of cooking. I mean, I've survived. It's impossible to even name all of the experiences I've had since I've come here. At first, I felt sad being away from my friends, but then I grew to love Copenhagen! It's funny to think I've never considered studying abroad here before the GLOBE program, but I think it's a great city, but maybe not the best schooling..
Some of the discussions I've had lately with Jenny are about what we will take away from this semester. One thing we agree on: we are not taking away CBS. I definitely learned a lot about business and management here, but the actual system is nowhere near where it should be. Also, the exams are unbelievably subjective. There was a huge grade discrepancy in my oral exam for Organizational Behavior since we had two different examinators, though there is a censor there, so maybe the grades will even out. Either way, I'm fine with the grades I've gotten so far! Though, I have to wait a month and a half before one more is posted for my written exam.
I know this has been short, but I need to finish packing. I'll be on a plane in about 9 hours!
Some of the discussions I've had lately with Jenny are about what we will take away from this semester. One thing we agree on: we are not taking away CBS. I definitely learned a lot about business and management here, but the actual system is nowhere near where it should be. Also, the exams are unbelievably subjective. There was a huge grade discrepancy in my oral exam for Organizational Behavior since we had two different examinators, though there is a censor there, so maybe the grades will even out. Either way, I'm fine with the grades I've gotten so far! Though, I have to wait a month and a half before one more is posted for my written exam.
I know this has been short, but I need to finish packing. I'll be on a plane in about 9 hours!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thanksgiving in Copenhagen
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Since Thanksgiving isn't really a big thing outside of the US, I spent my thanksgiving with my sister. We started out the morning by going to the Carlsberg Brewery Visitor's Center. We learned a LOT about beer, and the history of Carlsberg. Then we were able to test 2 at the end. I only tested one..since I don't like beer. While we were sitting there, some school band from Norway came in and started playing music? Quite bazaar, but interesting nonetheless.
Then we prepared for our evening out! We went to Tivoli, which is an old amusement park here. They transform it into a Christmas wonderland from mid-November to Christmas, and there's tons of stalls everywhere selling christmas trinkets and goodies. I tried some Glogg, which is a traditional Danish Chrstimas drink. It's mulled red wine that is served warm with almonds, spices, and some kind of fruit..maybe raisins? But it turned out to be too sweet and made my tummy sad :( But, my tummy was quite happy when we got to dinner. We ate at Herman Restaurant, and had a 4-course meal. Just a rundown of the courses: bisque with scallops and mushrooms; some kind of white fish with bacon, onions, and apple; smoked duck with duck and potatoes on the side; lots of traditional danish cakes and some kind of amazing dessert that looked like art. My descriptions don't do them justice. This was perhaps, the most fabulous, sumptuous dinner I've ever had in my LIFE. They even served little extras at the beginning, including the fanciest pork rinds my sister and I have ever seen. They were served in an airtight jar, and opened the jar at the table, and a puff of steam came out. Wow.
After dinner, we rushed to see a hip hop version of the Nutcracker. Amazing dancing and show, but there was a lot of dialogue in Danish, so we didn't understand anything. And I'm not quite sure how it resembled the nutcracker at all. But at least we saw cool dancing?
And now we're back. Stuffed, yet satisfied. So, despite the lack of Thanksgiving-ness in Copenhagen, I still had a day full of delicious food!
Hope everyone had a filling Thanksgiving, and you're probably all falling asleep by now because of the tryptophan.
Since Thanksgiving isn't really a big thing outside of the US, I spent my thanksgiving with my sister. We started out the morning by going to the Carlsberg Brewery Visitor's Center. We learned a LOT about beer, and the history of Carlsberg. Then we were able to test 2 at the end. I only tested one..since I don't like beer. While we were sitting there, some school band from Norway came in and started playing music? Quite bazaar, but interesting nonetheless.
Then we prepared for our evening out! We went to Tivoli, which is an old amusement park here. They transform it into a Christmas wonderland from mid-November to Christmas, and there's tons of stalls everywhere selling christmas trinkets and goodies. I tried some Glogg, which is a traditional Danish Chrstimas drink. It's mulled red wine that is served warm with almonds, spices, and some kind of fruit..maybe raisins? But it turned out to be too sweet and made my tummy sad :( But, my tummy was quite happy when we got to dinner. We ate at Herman Restaurant, and had a 4-course meal. Just a rundown of the courses: bisque with scallops and mushrooms; some kind of white fish with bacon, onions, and apple; smoked duck with duck and potatoes on the side; lots of traditional danish cakes and some kind of amazing dessert that looked like art. My descriptions don't do them justice. This was perhaps, the most fabulous, sumptuous dinner I've ever had in my LIFE. They even served little extras at the beginning, including the fanciest pork rinds my sister and I have ever seen. They were served in an airtight jar, and opened the jar at the table, and a puff of steam came out. Wow.
After dinner, we rushed to see a hip hop version of the Nutcracker. Amazing dancing and show, but there was a lot of dialogue in Danish, so we didn't understand anything. And I'm not quite sure how it resembled the nutcracker at all. But at least we saw cool dancing?
And now we're back. Stuffed, yet satisfied. So, despite the lack of Thanksgiving-ness in Copenhagen, I still had a day full of delicious food!
Hope everyone had a filling Thanksgiving, and you're probably all falling asleep by now because of the tryptophan.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Changes
Hello all!!!
I know I've been absolutely awful at posting on this blog this semester, but I guess I just get so caught up in my own personal travel journal, traveling, and school. I promise I will provide more updates about the rest of my trip to Italy, but as for now I have to announce some changes in my schedule. But first, let's start with a story....
Before I left for Brussels, I was spending the day window shopping and just walking around Stroget; it had been far too long since I had done that! I realized all of the stores had window displays up ready for Christmas, and one of the large department stories was blaring Christmas music. All of the sudden, it hit me. I wanted to be home, and I wanted it to be Christmas. Thus, the onset of some homesickness, it's not affecting my everyday life here or anything, but I decided to look into the possibilities of having my flight changed. Originally, I was coming home the 18th, but now, due to some luck and changes in prices, I am coming home the evening of the 12th!!! Can't wait to see you all.
xoxo
Jamie
P.S. I've been watching way too much Gossip Girl...
I know I've been absolutely awful at posting on this blog this semester, but I guess I just get so caught up in my own personal travel journal, traveling, and school. I promise I will provide more updates about the rest of my trip to Italy, but as for now I have to announce some changes in my schedule. But first, let's start with a story....
Before I left for Brussels, I was spending the day window shopping and just walking around Stroget; it had been far too long since I had done that! I realized all of the stores had window displays up ready for Christmas, and one of the large department stories was blaring Christmas music. All of the sudden, it hit me. I wanted to be home, and I wanted it to be Christmas. Thus, the onset of some homesickness, it's not affecting my everyday life here or anything, but I decided to look into the possibilities of having my flight changed. Originally, I was coming home the 18th, but now, due to some luck and changes in prices, I am coming home the evening of the 12th!!! Can't wait to see you all.
xoxo
Jamie
P.S. I've been watching way too much Gossip Girl...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Venice
After Milan, we left on a train the next morning to go to Venice! Our hotel was on Mestre, which is a small island right outside of Venice, so we had to take a bus to get to the island. Once we were there, it was overwhelming how picturesque everything was. Especially compared to Milan! I was actually slightly disappointed with Milan in comparison to the other cities, but it still had its perks.
We grabbed lunch at an Italian cafeteria and just started wandering the streets. There were street vendors EVERYWHERE, and I heard a lot of American voices. By the end of the day, we concluded that Venice is like DisneyLand, because there are so many tourists and it's almost too beautiful to be a city. But it's definitely easy to get lost in Venice because there are so many side streets and narrow alleys between the tall buildings. We got so lost that we didn't even make it to St. Mark's Basilica in time, or the Doge's Palace. But at least we got to go up the bell tower right as the sun was setting. Before that we went on a gondola ride, and heard all about the history of Venice and the different buildings we passed. We even got to see Marco Polo's house, and Casanova's!
Venice also had tons of glass, masks, and bakeries everywhere! Every single time I passed a bakery I wanted to buy something because everything looked so delicious, and I could always smell the yummyness! I eventually gave in and bought some pistachio bread, just because it was green. I thought it would be interesting, lol. It definitely wasn't as soft as normal bread, it was like eating biscotti, or a giant round cookie. Needless to say, it was really really good.
Just a note to those who may travel to Venice, don't take bathrooms for granted! We had to sneak into restaurants all day to use the bathroom! Otherwise you have to pay over one euro to use the public restrooms which are probably disgusting. Actually...come to think of it, since we walked all day during our entire trip, we ducked into a lot of different restaurants to use the bathroom...yea..that's all for now, haha!
Oh, and here's a little gift, I finally uploaded some pictures!! I haven't added descriptions to all of them yet, and I definitely haven't uploaded everything, but I will soon! I have so much work to catch up on.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/Venice#
For your convenience, I also added a link to the right for my album gallery!
We grabbed lunch at an Italian cafeteria and just started wandering the streets. There were street vendors EVERYWHERE, and I heard a lot of American voices. By the end of the day, we concluded that Venice is like DisneyLand, because there are so many tourists and it's almost too beautiful to be a city. But it's definitely easy to get lost in Venice because there are so many side streets and narrow alleys between the tall buildings. We got so lost that we didn't even make it to St. Mark's Basilica in time, or the Doge's Palace. But at least we got to go up the bell tower right as the sun was setting. Before that we went on a gondola ride, and heard all about the history of Venice and the different buildings we passed. We even got to see Marco Polo's house, and Casanova's!
Venice also had tons of glass, masks, and bakeries everywhere! Every single time I passed a bakery I wanted to buy something because everything looked so delicious, and I could always smell the yummyness! I eventually gave in and bought some pistachio bread, just because it was green. I thought it would be interesting, lol. It definitely wasn't as soft as normal bread, it was like eating biscotti, or a giant round cookie. Needless to say, it was really really good.
Just a note to those who may travel to Venice, don't take bathrooms for granted! We had to sneak into restaurants all day to use the bathroom! Otherwise you have to pay over one euro to use the public restrooms which are probably disgusting. Actually...come to think of it, since we walked all day during our entire trip, we ducked into a lot of different restaurants to use the bathroom...yea..that's all for now, haha!
Oh, and here's a little gift, I finally uploaded some pictures!! I haven't added descriptions to all of them yet, and I definitely haven't uploaded everything, but I will soon! I have so much work to catch up on.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/Venice#
For your convenience, I also added a link to the right for my album gallery!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
The First of Many
Right after I got back from Berlin I got to studying for my Strategic Management exam, which was on Thursday. I also had to catch up on my reading for International Management. I have International Management at 8am on Wednesday, that morning my laptop charger short circuited, or something like that. I plugged it in, saw a spark, which can be normal, but I also heard a buzz sound, and noticed a burnt smell. Alas, my charger was dead. I went to a store selling Apple after class and they gave me the AppleCare number. Turns out I can get a brand new one for free! Yay! Hopefully it'll be here in a few days. My sunglasses also broke Wednesday morning right as class was starting, so it was really hard to concentrate. Needless to say, it was a bad morning. The one positive that I found out of the mess was the fact that I got tons of studying done on Wednesday since I didn't have a computer.
The next morning I had my exam, and right when I was done, I had to rush back to my room and pack for my trip to Italy and Paris!!! We left around 4ish and got to our hostel in Milan around 8ish? We went to dinner at a place on the corner that seemed to be really homey. I had a simple penne pasta with spicy tomato sauce. We quickly learned that Italy's restaurants like to have "seating charges" just for sitting and eating. I also learned that it is nearly impossible to find a pasta dish with meat and sauce. You can either order pasta and sauce, or meat, not both. All of the dishes were simple. I was really surprised...
The next day we walked all around Milan, we were seriously on our feet for probably 8 hours. But we saw all of the big sights. The "Wedding Cake" Cathedral, Sforzesca Castle, and the shopping street. It was easy to figure out the metro system, and how to get around. Milan was huge though! It had more of a city feel to it, so it took some getting used to after living in Copenhagen.
This is just a super short update for now, I will write more about my trip soon! And post pics once my laptop is revived!
The next morning I had my exam, and right when I was done, I had to rush back to my room and pack for my trip to Italy and Paris!!! We left around 4ish and got to our hostel in Milan around 8ish? We went to dinner at a place on the corner that seemed to be really homey. I had a simple penne pasta with spicy tomato sauce. We quickly learned that Italy's restaurants like to have "seating charges" just for sitting and eating. I also learned that it is nearly impossible to find a pasta dish with meat and sauce. You can either order pasta and sauce, or meat, not both. All of the dishes were simple. I was really surprised...
The next day we walked all around Milan, we were seriously on our feet for probably 8 hours. But we saw all of the big sights. The "Wedding Cake" Cathedral, Sforzesca Castle, and the shopping street. It was easy to figure out the metro system, and how to get around. Milan was huge though! It had more of a city feel to it, so it took some getting used to after living in Copenhagen.
This is just a super short update for now, I will write more about my trip soon! And post pics once my laptop is revived!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
All I did in Berlin was eat Asian food
The past week in Berlin was amazing! We took a bus to the ferry for 2 hours, got on the ferry for 2 hours, and drove another 4 hours. It definitely didn't seem that long because of the break on the ferry. I got lunch, currywurst with fries! It's been so long since I had fries, unfortunately they were not good. But the sausage was huge and filled me up!
Once we got to Berlin we got settled into our hostel. The location was great! We were in the center of the city, right by the church that got bombed during the war. They never fixed the church, instead it is used as a memorial. The main shopping street was also right there. We had tons of cheap food below the hostel as well! Anyway, I stayed in a room with 8 other girls, so 9 total, with one bathroom! It actually worked out quite well. For the rest of the post I'm just going to do a day by day account of events.
Monday:
Went on a city tour in the bus, but our tour guide never showed up, so Ole gave us his own version. We went to the Berlin Wall and walked around for a little. Afterwards we had the whole day off, so I went to the Jewish museum with most of the group. It was interesting to see the history, because most people only think about the Holocaust. The architecture and creativity behind the design of the museum helped me get a sense of the history. There was even an outdoor area called the Garden of Exile. It was amazing how you could walk outside to this area and it would be completely serene. There was also a room called the Holocaust tower, which was a cold, concrete room that stretched up really far. It was completely silent in there, and had an overwhelming effect. The museum took up a few hours, and we went to Checkpoint Charlie since it was on the way to the U-bahn (metro). Took some pictures, and I went with Maibritt and David to Potsdamer Platz to meet the CUHK students at the IMAX theater. It was a good walk, and we got to see the Holocaust Memorial up close. I was glad we had some time to explore. Maibritt and I got pretzels, because we had spent the whole day looking for them, but couldn't find any! Had dinner at an amazing vegetarian Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, and ended the day with The Dark Knight at the theater. Neither of them had seen it before.
Okay...so Monday was really long, to speed things up. For the rest of the week we visited Deutsche Bahn, Transparency International, and Berlin Chemie for company visits. We went to the German Bundestag twice, once to go up the Glass Dome, and the second to listen to the Minister of Education give a talk about education and innovation for learning. On Friday we visited Topography of Terror and went to Potsdam to see the Sans Souci and Cecilienhopf. I'm pretty sure I got sick that morning because the Topography of Terror tour was outside, and everyone was freezing, the sun wasn't out either! But Potsdam was beautiful! We walked through gardens, and had a guided tour in Cecilienhopf.
As for the food, it was so nice to eat out. Maybe not everyday, but I haven't been able to do that in Denmark. Besides the vegetarian restaurant, I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch one day, Chinese that night (super yummy!!), and an all you can eat sushi buffet. 17 plates!!! I was completely stuffed...and couldn't sit, lol.
I don't have all of the awesome pictures, I'll need to steal them once some of the others post their pictures. But for now, please enjoy!
Berlin
Once we got to Berlin we got settled into our hostel. The location was great! We were in the center of the city, right by the church that got bombed during the war. They never fixed the church, instead it is used as a memorial. The main shopping street was also right there. We had tons of cheap food below the hostel as well! Anyway, I stayed in a room with 8 other girls, so 9 total, with one bathroom! It actually worked out quite well. For the rest of the post I'm just going to do a day by day account of events.
Monday:
Went on a city tour in the bus, but our tour guide never showed up, so Ole gave us his own version. We went to the Berlin Wall and walked around for a little. Afterwards we had the whole day off, so I went to the Jewish museum with most of the group. It was interesting to see the history, because most people only think about the Holocaust. The architecture and creativity behind the design of the museum helped me get a sense of the history. There was even an outdoor area called the Garden of Exile. It was amazing how you could walk outside to this area and it would be completely serene. There was also a room called the Holocaust tower, which was a cold, concrete room that stretched up really far. It was completely silent in there, and had an overwhelming effect. The museum took up a few hours, and we went to Checkpoint Charlie since it was on the way to the U-bahn (metro). Took some pictures, and I went with Maibritt and David to Potsdamer Platz to meet the CUHK students at the IMAX theater. It was a good walk, and we got to see the Holocaust Memorial up close. I was glad we had some time to explore. Maibritt and I got pretzels, because we had spent the whole day looking for them, but couldn't find any! Had dinner at an amazing vegetarian Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, and ended the day with The Dark Knight at the theater. Neither of them had seen it before.
Okay...so Monday was really long, to speed things up. For the rest of the week we visited Deutsche Bahn, Transparency International, and Berlin Chemie for company visits. We went to the German Bundestag twice, once to go up the Glass Dome, and the second to listen to the Minister of Education give a talk about education and innovation for learning. On Friday we visited Topography of Terror and went to Potsdam to see the Sans Souci and Cecilienhopf. I'm pretty sure I got sick that morning because the Topography of Terror tour was outside, and everyone was freezing, the sun wasn't out either! But Potsdam was beautiful! We walked through gardens, and had a guided tour in Cecilienhopf.
As for the food, it was so nice to eat out. Maybe not everyday, but I haven't been able to do that in Denmark. Besides the vegetarian restaurant, I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch one day, Chinese that night (super yummy!!), and an all you can eat sushi buffet. 17 plates!!! I was completely stuffed...and couldn't sit, lol.
I don't have all of the awesome pictures, I'll need to steal them once some of the others post their pictures. But for now, please enjoy!
Berlin
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Busy Busy Bee
That would basically explain why I have been neglecting the blog! Classes have finally started up for real, and it's proven to take up a lot of time. They like to have about 2.5 hour long classes with one or two breaks in between. I just started one GLOBE course called Strategic Management. It's taught by a guy who got his degree from MIT. I think he's really laid back at times, but he likes to talk...A LOT. He also likes to talk about himself. I know he is sharing his experiences with us, but sometimes they don't seem as relevant as others. But enough complaining! I'm just glad I finally have a purpose here in Copenhagen! For awhile I felt pretty useless. I thrive on being busy and on the go.
I've been here for a tiny bit over a month now, and I am feeling quite at home. I've taken 4 different classes at the gym, and they're all taught in Danish. Somehow, I managed to make a fool out of myself! I'm pretty proud, haha! As I will mention time and time again, I am learning how to cook. So far I've made couscous..which didn't turn out as I planned, beef picadillo, stir fry, pasta with meat sauce...yep. Today I went to the "China Town", I'd like to call it China...corner with my neighbor Solbi. It's just a few stores, but it's enough for me to get my Chinese food fix. Although my mom taught me how to make dumplings and steamed buns from scratch this summer, it is way too complicated to make here! So I found some frozen ones!! I made some vegetable steamed buns tonight, by using the microwave. It actually turned out decent!
Another exciting update: I've booked my flights to Italy and Vienna!!! (Downside, we haven't booked hostels...so I could be homeless? lol) I'm going with four others to Italy for our midterm break in October, we'll be there for about a week, and then fly to Paris for 2 days, and return to Copenhagen! I am also flying to Vienna at the beginning of November with Jenny for a weekend trip. We also have our first study trip coming up on the last week week of September to Berlin. There's just been so much excitement!!
This weekend we are having another common dinner, and I'm part of the group going to Sabrina's house. We are going to have some delicious Polish food! And apparently I am helping Phoebe make fried rice. She doesn't want to take all of the blame if it turns out bad! Hopefully we'll do alright. Maybe this will be the weekend I finally go to Louisiana Museum of Art. It's supposed to be one of the top places to see while we're here!
A month has gone by so fast, and I can see how time will fly by this semester. Next thing I know, I'll be on a plane back to the States! But I won't think about that until the time comes. I hope everyone back home is doing amazing!
New Pics
Hej Hej!
I've been here for a tiny bit over a month now, and I am feeling quite at home. I've taken 4 different classes at the gym, and they're all taught in Danish. Somehow, I managed to make a fool out of myself! I'm pretty proud, haha! As I will mention time and time again, I am learning how to cook. So far I've made couscous..which didn't turn out as I planned, beef picadillo, stir fry, pasta with meat sauce...yep. Today I went to the "China Town", I'd like to call it China...corner with my neighbor Solbi. It's just a few stores, but it's enough for me to get my Chinese food fix. Although my mom taught me how to make dumplings and steamed buns from scratch this summer, it is way too complicated to make here! So I found some frozen ones!! I made some vegetable steamed buns tonight, by using the microwave. It actually turned out decent!
Another exciting update: I've booked my flights to Italy and Vienna!!! (Downside, we haven't booked hostels...so I could be homeless? lol) I'm going with four others to Italy for our midterm break in October, we'll be there for about a week, and then fly to Paris for 2 days, and return to Copenhagen! I am also flying to Vienna at the beginning of November with Jenny for a weekend trip. We also have our first study trip coming up on the last week week of September to Berlin. There's just been so much excitement!!
This weekend we are having another common dinner, and I'm part of the group going to Sabrina's house. We are going to have some delicious Polish food! And apparently I am helping Phoebe make fried rice. She doesn't want to take all of the blame if it turns out bad! Hopefully we'll do alright. Maybe this will be the weekend I finally go to Louisiana Museum of Art. It's supposed to be one of the top places to see while we're here!
A month has gone by so fast, and I can see how time will fly by this semester. Next thing I know, I'll be on a plane back to the States! But I won't think about that until the time comes. I hope everyone back home is doing amazing!
New Pics
Hej Hej!
Monday, September 1, 2008
New Information!
Well, my whole building just had a meeting with the inspector and housing department and I found out some new information! Don't use the address I put on my little info. cards I handed out at the party. I have 2 separate addresses to use for packages and letters.
For postcards/letters:
Jamie Yang
Peder Skrams Gade 23, rm 403
1054 København
Denmark
For packages, or as they like to say, parcels I'll have to get back to ya'll. They can be sent to the tie shop downstairs...so I'll ask the inspector tomorrow.
EDIT:
For packages:
Jamie Yang
c/o Søren Skifter A/S
Peder Skrams Gade 23
1054 København
Denmark
While I'm at it, I'll give a little insight as to what's been going on. Most classes started this week, unfortunately, the system here is a little...frustrating. Many of the classes that are actually still open conflict with my GLOBE classes, like the one I was originally signed up for. So I dropped that one, added another one that doesn't even have a schedule posted, and I've been to the International Office 3 times now. Each time I've been there for over an hour because there is only one person helping all of the undergrad exchange students with their courses and everyone is having issues. I decided to just show up to a class at 8am this morning that I'm on the waitlist for to see if the professor could add me. I think he will, but I'm not sure if that really works here in Denmark. I really enjoyed the class and the professor because it's about International Management, which is exactly what I need!
Like the business classes back home, CBS focuses on group work, so in both of my classes today I already have groups. It was cool finally meeting some other exchange students. My group in International Management had 2 students from Germany, 1 from England, and 1 from Spain. It was easy to get along with them right off the bat. The classes here are about 2.5 hours long, but we get 10 minute breaks...usually 2 I think, but I got dismissed early from both classes. This may sound weird, but I really enjoyed finally going to class! Even though there is so much to explore in Denmark, I have an entire semester, but it's nice to get back into the school mode. I feel like I'm finally doing something productive!!
In other news, I've been trying to plan trips, and so far we have the obligatory GLOBE study trips to Berlin and Brussels. Berlin is the last week of September, and Brussels is in November. I plan on meeting my big sis from KKG in England, as well as a friend from Taiwan last summer who lives in London! I'm also planning to go to Italy during our midterm break in October. Nothing's been set in stone, but hopefully it will be soon so I can still book cheap flights!
Hej Hej for now! (Pronounced Hi hi, that's bye in Danish! lol)
More pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/BuddiesAndMuseums#
For postcards/letters:
Jamie Yang
Peder Skrams Gade 23, rm 403
1054 København
Denmark
For packages, or as they like to say, parcels I'll have to get back to ya'll. They can be sent to the tie shop downstairs...so I'll ask the inspector tomorrow.
EDIT:
For packages:
Jamie Yang
c/o Søren Skifter A/S
Peder Skrams Gade 23
1054 København
Denmark
While I'm at it, I'll give a little insight as to what's been going on. Most classes started this week, unfortunately, the system here is a little...frustrating. Many of the classes that are actually still open conflict with my GLOBE classes, like the one I was originally signed up for. So I dropped that one, added another one that doesn't even have a schedule posted, and I've been to the International Office 3 times now. Each time I've been there for over an hour because there is only one person helping all of the undergrad exchange students with their courses and everyone is having issues. I decided to just show up to a class at 8am this morning that I'm on the waitlist for to see if the professor could add me. I think he will, but I'm not sure if that really works here in Denmark. I really enjoyed the class and the professor because it's about International Management, which is exactly what I need!
Like the business classes back home, CBS focuses on group work, so in both of my classes today I already have groups. It was cool finally meeting some other exchange students. My group in International Management had 2 students from Germany, 1 from England, and 1 from Spain. It was easy to get along with them right off the bat. The classes here are about 2.5 hours long, but we get 10 minute breaks...usually 2 I think, but I got dismissed early from both classes. This may sound weird, but I really enjoyed finally going to class! Even though there is so much to explore in Denmark, I have an entire semester, but it's nice to get back into the school mode. I feel like I'm finally doing something productive!!
In other news, I've been trying to plan trips, and so far we have the obligatory GLOBE study trips to Berlin and Brussels. Berlin is the last week of September, and Brussels is in November. I plan on meeting my big sis from KKG in England, as well as a friend from Taiwan last summer who lives in London! I'm also planning to go to Italy during our midterm break in October. Nothing's been set in stone, but hopefully it will be soon so I can still book cheap flights!
Hej Hej for now! (Pronounced Hi hi, that's bye in Danish! lol)
More pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/BuddiesAndMuseums#
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tivoli
I've had a lot of extra time to just take care of some housekeeping and updating the blog as well as my personal journal. Unfortunately the vacuum is missing from our floor, so I haven't been able to vacuum yet! But I've done some other chores.
Last night I tried to make couscous. That turned out horribly wrong. I don't know where I went wrong, but it's just not as moist as it's supposed to be. I also got so flustered I forgot about spices, etc. so it's also really bland. I made the whole box, so I'll be living off of couscous for the next few days! I'll find a way to make it better. My stir fry has always turned out tasty though! It's included as part of the pics I posted on Picasa.
Other than cooking, I had a blast this week. We had a sports day, which included bocce ball, volleyball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. My team lost 2, tied 1, and won at ultimate frisbee. We hustled for that win because it was our last event. At the end everyone just joined in one large game of volleyball.
On Wednesday we attended a reception for the release of our professor's book. Sabrina also played two piano pieces, which were absolutely beautiful! Afterwards they served finger foods and drinks. The reception actually took place at a brewery called Carlsberg. It had beautiful gardens, and the inside was really cool too. It was raining so I didn't go outside at all. The GLOBErs also made a trip to Tivoli on Thursday! Tivoli is an old, charming amusement park. It doesn't have huge roller coasters, but the atmosphere is nice, and it's fun to just walk around. We arrived around 7pm, and at that point there were free rides for an hour! I ran from ride to ride with a few people so we could make the most of the hour. We managed 5 rides! Later on I got some amazing hot cocoa because it was getting really cold. They basically melted a chocolate bar in milk, so it was really rich, and kept me cozy! I took some pictures at nighttime. I'm excited about my sister visiting because they decorate Tivoli for Christmas time.
Last night we had a casino themed party, but I am really bad at all of the casino games. The only game I know how to play is blackjack. We had a blast dancing, etc. One girl dressed up as a die! That was probably the fanciest costume, most people just wore dress clothes. Weck used gel in his hair and wore glasses to look like one of those greasy casino guys, and Stephen dressed up as a college kid going to Vegas. None of us were super creative because of time and money constraints, but we all had fun anyway!
On another note, I signed up for the gym here, and have managed to take the classes even though they speak in Danish. Maybe I can pick up some Danish from the exercise classes! They use the same system of classes I attended at home this summer, so I can basically follow along fairly easily. I'm sad I don't have a workout buddy here, but I've managed to motivate myself a little since I'm going to participate in the CBS (Copenhagen Business School) relay. Four people on each team, and each person runs 3K, so I need to make sure I dont' let anyone down!
I've posted a few pics from Tivoli and the casino night! Just use the link from the last post. That's all for now!
Last night I tried to make couscous. That turned out horribly wrong. I don't know where I went wrong, but it's just not as moist as it's supposed to be. I also got so flustered I forgot about spices, etc. so it's also really bland. I made the whole box, so I'll be living off of couscous for the next few days! I'll find a way to make it better. My stir fry has always turned out tasty though! It's included as part of the pics I posted on Picasa.
Other than cooking, I had a blast this week. We had a sports day, which included bocce ball, volleyball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. My team lost 2, tied 1, and won at ultimate frisbee. We hustled for that win because it was our last event. At the end everyone just joined in one large game of volleyball.
On Wednesday we attended a reception for the release of our professor's book. Sabrina also played two piano pieces, which were absolutely beautiful! Afterwards they served finger foods and drinks. The reception actually took place at a brewery called Carlsberg. It had beautiful gardens, and the inside was really cool too. It was raining so I didn't go outside at all. The GLOBErs also made a trip to Tivoli on Thursday! Tivoli is an old, charming amusement park. It doesn't have huge roller coasters, but the atmosphere is nice, and it's fun to just walk around. We arrived around 7pm, and at that point there were free rides for an hour! I ran from ride to ride with a few people so we could make the most of the hour. We managed 5 rides! Later on I got some amazing hot cocoa because it was getting really cold. They basically melted a chocolate bar in milk, so it was really rich, and kept me cozy! I took some pictures at nighttime. I'm excited about my sister visiting because they decorate Tivoli for Christmas time.
Last night we had a casino themed party, but I am really bad at all of the casino games. The only game I know how to play is blackjack. We had a blast dancing, etc. One girl dressed up as a die! That was probably the fanciest costume, most people just wore dress clothes. Weck used gel in his hair and wore glasses to look like one of those greasy casino guys, and Stephen dressed up as a college kid going to Vegas. None of us were super creative because of time and money constraints, but we all had fun anyway!
On another note, I signed up for the gym here, and have managed to take the classes even though they speak in Danish. Maybe I can pick up some Danish from the exercise classes! They use the same system of classes I attended at home this summer, so I can basically follow along fairly easily. I'm sad I don't have a workout buddy here, but I've managed to motivate myself a little since I'm going to participate in the CBS (Copenhagen Business School) relay. Four people on each team, and each person runs 3K, so I need to make sure I dont' let anyone down!
I've posted a few pics from Tivoli and the casino night! Just use the link from the last post. That's all for now!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Pics
I finally uploaded some pictures! I'll put descriptions up later...I'm lazy.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/SoFarInCopenhagen
http://picasaweb.google.com/jsueyang/SoFarInCopenhagen
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