Christmas in the Philippines: Siquijor

Finally I made it to my island! Siquijor is one of the smaller independently governed islands in the Philippines and also one of the wealthier, due to its rich resources and relative self sufficiency. Fish, coconuts, mangoes, and corn are the main industries, and nearly everyone seems to work in one of these trades -- (notice I didn't mention tourism!)

Most Filipinos who have heard of Siquijor will tell you about its reputation for being inhabited by mysterious healers practicing witchcraft. Many locals won't visit the island. But they all live up in the mountains, away from the beaches - so I wasn't worried. (Actually that's one of the reasons I decided to come here.. There isn't much in the guide books that would make any one island more appealing than the next - they all have "white -beaches", so the fact that Siquijor had something unique sold it for me.)

I didn't have a Lonely Planet with me to help in the selection of a hotel, so when I got off the ferry I figured I would just look around the town to see what I could find. Of course I was instantly smothered by taxi drivers yelling "where you going sir?" "I'll drive you!" -- I've dealt with enough of this in my near-5 months in Asia to know how to deal with that: ignore, walk fast. I found a small shop where I bought a water from a friendly old lady whom I asked for advice about the best place to rent a motorcycle. The guy standing next to me just happened to own a motorcycle rental business, and he also just happened to have a pamphlet with the name and price of every hotel on the island. I picked the cheapest, and he dropped me off there and went back to get me a bike. The hotel wasn't on the beach, but I figured that since I had my own transportation, I could sacrifice the convenience for the great prices.

When the guy came back with my motorbike, I grabbed my bathing suit and headed out on my first expedition to find the perfect beach. With 75 km of coastline, I had plenty of options, so I decided to head west - maybe I would get to catch a nice sunset too. The road was beautifully smooth (compared to my last experience in Vietnam..) and the weather was perfect for a leisurely ride. Soon enough, the road met up with the coastline, and I could see through the palm trees to a gorgeous "white-sand beach". I drove along the beach for a while looking for a public access point, but it seemed like the string of locals' huts was never ending, and I didn't want to walk through somebody's property. Eventually I found a cafe, where I figured I would park my bike, grab a drink, and then conveniently use their "back yard" as a way to get to the beach.

When I sat down at the bar, an Australian guy came out to greet me and give me a menu. We ended up chatting for a while about the island (which is where I found out my facts about industry, agriculture, self sufficiency, etc...) Apparently he doesn't get to talk to other westerners much because he talked at me for a solid hour without me getting a word in, and apparently he had a very simple life because about 45 minutes of that hour was spent talking about the intricacies of the past month's weather (which had been unremarkable lately). Luckily, he got a call in the other room, and his Filipina wife came out to chat while he was gone. She explained more about the island, about the Philippines in general, and about the languages they speak and why everyone can speak English. It seemed that she had lived a far more interesting life that her husband, and she was excited that I had come from China because it reminded her of the six years she had spent working in Taiwan. She invited me to use their beachfront, and I immediately accepted and headed off to do some relaxing at last.

As I walked along the beach, it was easy to see that the island hadn't yet been ruined by tourism. There was not a single foreigner, and there was absolutely no one enjoying leisure time. There were lots of fishermen hauling their boats between the shade of the palm trees and the ocean, and there were lots of kids scavenging in the shallow water. I felt uncomfortable laying down and enjoying the sun while the locals were going about their not-so-leisurely daily activities around me. As much as I see myself as a poor college student, using most of my meager savings to be on this beach, the fact that I was able to be there in the first place is a luxury that they will probably never know. Somewhat embarrassed by my privileged intentions, I found an isolated area with no houses nearby to lay down my towel.

I was able to get in some quality napping and reading time before, I was joined by 4 mischievous kids who wanted to find out what I was doing on their beach. They introduced themselves as Chris, Christopher, Christian, and "Monkeyballs" (which I guess is on of the less common New Testament names?) They ran around throwing rocks at each other for before stealing my book, so they could read from it and impress me with their English skills. We talked about Christmas for a while, which they were all excited about, and they told me what gifts they wanted from Santa -- who, even in the Philippines, wears the red winter clothes and rides on a reindeer-driven sleigh.... A volleyball for Chris, a toy ship for Christopher, a new Bible for Christian, and for Monkeyballs: an AK-47.... They reluctantly left to go eat dinner, but they told me that they wanted to meet me there again the next day at 1pm sharp.. and they expected me to give them "lots of money." --- I didn't meet them the next day....

It was cloudy the next morning, so I decided that instead of sitting on the beach I would do some exploring on my motorbike. The first place I went, of course, was to the mountains to look for witches. I didn't find any of course, but it was an incredible drive either way. While winding my way up mountain roads, through thick jungle, and past steep ravines at every bend - I got back into my "motorcycle zen" mode, and enjoyed the peace and sense of pure freedom that go with it. I passed through small barangay villages with old women preparing vegetables and practicing voodoo, young men cleaning their motorcycles, lounging around on benches outside of their shacks, and smoking cigarettes, and little kids - who would always take a break from kicking chickens and climbing trees to scream a hearty "hello!!" to me, the strange white guy riding down their road. The villages on the mountain were clearly poorer than the ones on the coast, so it was interesting to see the contrasting personalities of the locals -- these ones were completely shocked to see me.

At the top of the highest point on the island, is a nationally protected rain forest, where I got to do some great off-roading before descending to the other side of the island, which was sunny and warm. With the unexpected change in weather, I decided to go find a beach. I had heard of a great spot near on the southern coast, and my directions to get there were: turn off the main road by a small church, pass a limestone mine, take a dirt road through the forest and pass a little cove on your left before you get to some concrete steps at a cliff, which will take you down to a beautiful, secluded beach. I had an exciting time finding the place, but when I did it was completely worth the search. I stayed there until just before sunset, when I headed back to my side of the island for a great Filipino dinner of spicy dry beef strips and rice..

I spent the rest of my week doing a lot of exploring and beach-ing, and I think I successfully rid myself of any stress that I had acquired in the overwhelmingly hectic land of China. Christmas was pleasantly spent on a secluded beach, where I saw my best sunset of the whole trip. The steady stream of carolers at the hotel never thinned out, even after the holiday had clearly ended. And after the 748th time I heard "I'm Dreaming of a WHITE Christmas" I was ready to scream at someone and remind them that it NEVER snows in the Philippines... They have completely adopted America's strangest aspects of the Christmas season.... unfortunately....

After I had had enough isolation, I hopped on a ferry and headed back to Cebu to catch my plane back to Hong Kong. I spent a day exploring the city, which was not overwhelmingly exciting, but did have some interesting sights - a few cathedrals, a Spanish fort, and the site where Magellan was murdered by native tribesmen.... I visited the Carbon Market, where I saw some of the most intense poverty I have ever encountered, and felt for the first time in my travels that I might get mugged and killed if I didn't keep walking quickly, but it was definitely a "cultural experience"...

Despite the beautiful beaches, friendly people, and relaxed atmosphere.. I am incredibly glad to now be back in Hong Kong -- a city which holds its place very high on my favorite Asian cities list.

Arrival in the Philippines - Cebu to Dumaguete

So taking a 1am flight might not have been the best idea, but it was cheap so I took it. I arrived at the Cebu International Airport around 4am and headed outside to find a taxi after clearing customs. I was caught off guard by the heat and humidity as I exited the terminal, even at such an early hour, and I was then pummeled by cab drivers who were trying to offer me "cheap" fares into the city. I knew they were all trying to rip me off, so I bargained the trip down to what I thought was acceptable and got a ride to the ferry docks to catch my boat to Dumaguete. I ended up getting ripped off anyway because the guy "had no change" and I had no other option because the exchange booth only gave me large bills (they also ripped me off).

After I bought my ferry ticket and went through security at the dock, I sat down in the waiting area as far away from other people as I could. It was 4:30 at this point, and I hadn't slept, and I was starting to feel like the Filipinos were all out to get me, until a kid around my age approached me and told me that I had to go to a desk on the other side of the lobby to fill out some paperwork in order to board the ferry. He walked me through the process that I never would have been able to figure out on my own. I sat back down in my corner spot with my faith renewed in the Filipino people by his gesture of kindness. I had two hours to wait until my boat arrived, so I was planning on taking a nap -- until somebody turned on the TV over my head and a group of 7 blind musicians began playing the Filipino version of every American Christmas carol I have ever heard -- mariachi style...

While I normally would have embraced this mariachi exhibition as an opportunity to enjoy a true local experience, I would have appreciated a few hours of sleep far more. When one of the group leaders came over to me to offer me a "Christmas letter" (an appeal for donation for the Cebu school for the blind), I decided to switch my focus to the TV above me so it didn't look like I was enjoying the music too much, and therefore marking me for a big donation. (I would have felt too guilty.) The TV was pretty interesting anyway. It was my first substantial exposure to the Filipino language. I was completely blown away that I could actually understand about a quarter of everything they were talking about! Apparently during the various periods of colonial subjugation that the islands have undergone, the country's language has developed into a mixture of mostly native Tagalog roots with about 20% English vocabulary, 15% Spanish vocabulary, and random smatterings of Chinese, Javanese, Malay, and Arabic words. So you could easily overhear a conversation that has a phrase like this: "Anako mapu ng sa ciento setenta y cuatro pesos por the motorcycle he bought ang bohol." (I made up the Tagalog parts.. but that's what it sounds like when I listen to them.) Numbers are frequently said using Spanish or English, and English vocabulary pops up all the time, and is spoken with perfect American pronunciation. Very surreal...

The sun was rising as I boarded the ferry, and it illuminated the beautiful tropical scenery that would be the backdrop for the rest of the cruise down the coast of Cebu to my destination - Dumaguete - a college town on the east coast of Negros Island. After walking into the city from the pier through the scorching morning sun, I checked into a room and took a much needed nap. I did some exploring around the town, had some Filipino food, which it very simple but tasty (lots of barbecued, fried, and grilled meat with rice). I people watched from a seafront cafe as creepy old white guys paraded down the boulevard with their far-too-young Filipina girlfriends.

One thing I noticed about Filipino culture before I even got on the plane is how family and child oriented they seem to be compared to Europeans (especially the British). I noticed this in an almost-too-perfect display of the idea while I was waiting in the check-in line at the Hong Kong airport. In the ticket line to my right there were three British families with little kids. All of the kids were whining/crying/complaining/etc, and their parents were all scolding/yelling/complaining/etc back at them and with each other. On the other side of me was a line of Filipino families with kids. They were all joking, laughing, and playing with each other. Rather than frustratedly wait in line while their kids got bored and restless, the Filipino parents and an older siblings would take the young kids out of the line to distract them with games and attention. British kids -- all crying. Filipino kids -- all laughing. I found that really interesting...

Back to Dumaguete -- it's definitely similar to Southeast Asia with respect to dirtiness, smelliness, and chaos, but it has a pleasant tropical seaside charm. The poverty is pretty obvious, but the lively college campus at the north end of the city is an encouraging sign of better times to come.

(About the violence and semi-war going on between the military and various local militant factions...) No need to worry about that. They conveniently made a 21 day Christmas truce that encompasses my entire stay, so I'll be fine Mom.

Overall, I think I'm ready to veg on the beach for the next week. I'll tell you how that goes the next time I can muster up the motivation to find a computer.

Hong Kong - Pretty Awesome

After packing all of my belongings into one enormous "Samsonite" suitcase that I bought for 15 bucks at a market in Beijing, I put it in storage, said goodbye to all of my China friends who were headed home for Christmas, and I hopped on a 24 hour train to Hong Kong to begin my winter of travel.

As much as mainland China would like you to believe that Hong Kong is part of the PRC, it is definitely not. Nothing is the same at all. Hong Kong's language is different, the government is different, the people act and dress differently, the transportation and traffic patterns are efficient and they drive on the other side of the road. The city is clean, it doesn't smell like feces, the food is safe, and the prices are about 40 times what they are on the mainland. (I guess that's the price you pay for being a developed country.) I had to get my passport stamped out of China and into Hong Kong -- that counts as a different country to me.

After checking into a tiny hostel in a high rise in the middle of Kowloon with my friend Ling from Beijing, we explored the peninsular part of the city. We enjoyed the fresh, tasty food, which is nowhere near as oily as Beijing's and which is very similar to what we get back in the States. We immediately noticed the high Hong Kong prices and how much it hurt to pay the equivalent of 4 to 8 dollars for a restaurant meal. I had to pay almost 20 dollars for a haircut!!! (In Beijing, this could have cost me only 2 dollars.)

We sat on the edge of the harbor and watched the Hong Kong island skyline as the sun dipped below the huge mountains behind the city. -- Which reminds me to mention how vastly different the landscape and climate is here. When I left Beijing it was below freezing, and light snow was still covering most of the ground. The air was dry and polluted, and I had almost forgotten that we have mountains because they were hidden behind an ocean of smog. Hong Kong -- we stepped off the train and into humid, sunny, 80 degree weather. Beautiful!! Hong Kong is literally a cluster of monolithic skyscrapers plopped down on the coast of a tropical island. The harbor has hundreds of small mountainous islands covered in a thick belt of jungle. (80% of the city is actually forest.) However it IS winter.. so people feel the need to wear scarves with their t-shirts... China....

I only stayed one night in the city, but I think I got a pretty good feel for it in two days, and I'm definitely excited to come back for the week after Christmas. (Hong Kong celebrates Christmas like nothing you would EVER find on the mainland. Christmas carols were playing in every restaurant, mall, subway station, etc... Keep in mind this is a Buddhist country -- you think America has commercialized the holiday? Come here..)

After taking a double-decker London style bus across the mountain in the middle Hong Kong Island this afternoon, we descended the tight windy jungle road that lead to a beautiful tropical beach where we spent the afternoon eating mangosteens and watching the fishing boats. (Yes, this is about a mile from the center of one of Asia's biggest cities.) On our way back to Kowloon I continued my Cantonese lessons with Ling (the languages are pretty similar -- probably the difference between Portuguese and French). We got some Vietnamese food for dinner with Christmas music videos playing on a TV in the background, walked down goldfish street where thousands of types of decorative fish are sold, and I got my bags and took the subway to the airport where I am now waiting to board my flight to the Philippines.

I'll write more about HK when I get to spend some more time there in a few weeks. Until then, Merry Christmas everybody -- I'll be thinking about you all while I'm lying on the beaches of Siquijor sipping tropical drinks = )

China - An Overview

Yeah... I know... it has been three and a half months since my last post. Blogging can be exhausting sometimes, and the Chinese government blocks all useful websites (like this one), so rather than go through the mildly time consuming process of using a proxy website to illegally access my blog, I took the lazy route and neglected it altogether. I apologize.

So China --

There is no way I can sum up these past three and a half months in one blog post, but I'm going to try because I don't have the patience to tell every story. (Plus - if I told you everything now what stories would I have when I get back home?) So, this post has the potential to be a long one.

--Arrival and First Impressions--

My 48 hour train ride from Hanoi to Beijing was very exciting. Most of the passengers were Vietnamese students heading north for to start their fall classes in Chinese universities, who could speak either English or Chinese -- enough in common to do some basic communicating. I ran into two other Westerners who were very nice to have when crossing the quite intimidating Vietnam-China border. We spent both days on the train talking with people from all over Asia (including the coach of the North Korean Women's Soccer Team), and it was eye opening to say the least.

Our first actual stop in China was a tiny city of 1.5 million people called Nanning, in the Guangxi province. I was helping to interpret Chinese for the two girls I had met, and was very impressed with my ability to find banks, restaurants, and discuss border clearance issues with the Chinese immigration officials. About China though, I was thoroughly impressed. The countryside was VERY "Chinese" looking, which is in contrast to many places in Southeast Asia that seemed either Western influenced, generically simple, or just lacked a respective cultural aesthetic. The city of Nanning was clean and lively. The people were friendly and happy. The language was clear and easy to understand. And best of all, whenever the train stopped at a new station, the Vietnamese kids would pull me off the train with them to grab a quick bowl of noodle soup from the platform vendors, and the food was great!

When we arrived in Beijing, I decided to spend the day with the two girls I had met, find a hostel, and then head off to campus the next day for orientation at my program. While riding from the train station to Tiananmen Square in a taxi, I was blown away by the colossal grandeur of Beijing. The main boulevards were 10 lanes wide, the forbidden city palaces and central government offices were monolithic, the number of cars was incredible but so far efficiently managed, the sidewalks were sparkling clean, the bridges and roads were in pristine condition, and the skyscraper littered cityscape extended far into the horizon (which I had no problem seeing because it was sunny and very clear.. what is this terrible pollution everyone always complains about??) This couldn't be the capital of a third world country! Compared to some of the places I had been in the last two months, I was very excited to call Beijing my new home.

After walking around downtown for a while, I found a hostel in the middle of a hutong - Beijing's one story, traditional , narrow-alleyway neighborhoods (very cool). Inside the hostel was a large courtyard with traditional Chinese layout and decoration. Aesthetics were clearly important, which was overwhelmingly impressive. The neighborhood was teeming with life, and I walked around exploring the alleys and street vendors, noshing on snacks I picked up along the way - a fried pancake for 5 cents here, a lamb kebab for 10 cents there.

Later on, a Chinese guy from the hostel helped me negotiate for a cheap second hand cell phone - about 20 bucks for the phone plus 100 minutes. When choosing your number, there is a book with different pages displaying the numbers under different price categories. If a number has more 4's for example, it will be cheaper because 4 is an unlucky number - 4 is pronounced sì in Chinese, which is almost identical to the word for death - si (with a different tone). Similarly, 514 is a terrible combination. Pronounced wuyaosi, it sounds very close to woyaosi, which means "I will die." Because of the way the Chinese language repeats its limited set of spoken syllables, assigning many meanings to one sound, most phone numbers have hidden messages, making some more desirable than others, and therefore more or less expensive.

-- My Program and Peking University --

I took a cab to the university the next morning to settle into my room for orientation week. I was really enjoying talking to the cab drivers at this point and listening to their strange version of Mandarin which uses the famous Beijing erhua - a fairly obnoxious obsession with adding the -er suffix to every sound possible. For example the sentence "Where do you want to go? Peking University's West Gate?" Normally this would be pronounced - "Qu nali? Beida xi men ma?" However a Beijing cab driver somehow makes this sound like "Qu naerr? Beida xi mrrr ma?"

The campus is fantastic, I have plenty of pictures of it in my albums if you're interested. After moving in to my room and unpacking, I wandered around and met my new dorm mates. I returned to my room later on in the day to find a bald guy in his mid 40s standing at my door, who greeted me with "Hi, I'm you're room mate.." I had no clue what to say, as this was completely unexpected - I was flooded with horrific hypotheticals of 9 o'clock bedtimes, smelly bathrooms, awkward conversation, and a stunted social life. And then he said, "but lucky for you I got myself an apartment down the street, so you have the room to yourself all semester!" Thank god.... Either way, he ended up being pretty cool, and since he had spent time here already over the summer and was familiar with the area, he showed some of us newcomers around and explained the basic routines and necessities of life in Beijing.

My program begins --

CIEE - some love it, most regard it as the hand of Satan. The first few days of orientation were appreciated, but we quickly discovered that our directors and the program layout are very unorganized and arbitrary. We also realized that this is how pretty much everything is in China. They charge us 10 times the regular price for Beida tuition, and do very little to make up for it. We have been on two main group trips to different parts of the country - Henan and Nanjing - and although interesting, I would have gotten way more out of the experiences had I traveled independently.

I have class 5 days a week, anywhere from four to six hours a day (way more than back home, but I'm getting less credits....) Everything is in Chinese, and I'm not sure my professors can speak any English. The classes are very hard, and no - China has not figured out a better way of teaching its language than America has -- it's exactly like back home but more intense.

I live in a dorm with all Americans, and we take classes with all international students -- meaning it is very difficult to meet the Chinese students.

-- The Food --

Chinese food is great, and it is definitely better than the Chinese food back home. Although three food poisonings later, I do miss American Chinese food a little... I can never quite look at lamb intestine shish kabobs the same way again.

After three months, I can definitely say I miss American food. I crave fresh, raw vegetables more than anything else. (As much as you may enjoy that Chinese mandarin orange salad back home, keep in mind that it is an American luxury -- salad does not exist in China.)

I also miss boneless chicken. Fillet is not in the Chinese vocabulary, while unfortunately, "hacked-into-tiny-bony-pieces" definitely is. That goes for fish too, which are cooked and served whole, and somehow have more bones than scales.

The one thing I can't complain about though is the price. You will never find something cheaper than a meal in Beijing. It is easy to go out with a group of ten people and pay no more than 20 US dollars.. TOTAL!

-- The People --

They yell, the spit, they fart, they scratch, they pick, they piss, they smell, they snarl, and they eat babies -- all in public. Period.

-- The City --

No joke, Beijing is the size of Belgium. It takes me an hour to get into the city center with no traffic. -- Public transportation across town? Expect a good two hours of hell and frustration.

I'm sure you've heard about the pollution, and yes it is that bad. It is bad enough to be considered its own category of weather. -- "Tomorrow will be dry and sunny with a change of rain. Wednesday will be polluted and windy." -- When the pollution rolls in and gets caught by the bowl of mountains that surround Beijing, it is probably better not to leave your house. There are days when I literally can't see further than half a city block in front of me. You wouldn't be able to play tennis outside because you wouldn't be able to find your partner unless you had dolphin-like echolocation -- but I'm sure the toxic pollution cloud would interfere with that too, so sorry, forget about outdoor activities.

Beijing does have pretty much everything you would need on a day to day basis, and has plenty of options for amusement and killing the time.

The food options are pretty good, but I wouldn't go into a foreign restaurant with any expectations whatsoever (except for one Indian place we found.. not too shabby.)

-- The Prices --

Beijing is incredibly cheap if you know how to bargain. Some things like food and transportation are cheap no matter what, but the Beijing market is the true test of your haggling skills. The Silk Street Market is no place for the weak. A foreigner here will be approached in his native language, whether it be English, Spanish, Japanese, German, Finnish, or Swahili (these ladies know it all) with a price that he or she would expect to find in his or her own country -- maybe higher. For example, a polo t-shirt could be offered at 280 RMB (about 40 USD) because they know stupid westerners will pay this much. However, after some very hard bargaining, it is not uncommon to end up paying 20 RMB (a little under $3). Not only will they try to rip you off, however, they will also make up the most ridiculous lies to convince you to buy their product. A week ago I was in a market looking for winter coats. I found one that I liked and tried it on, but it was too big and I told the lady trying to sell it to me. She assured me that Beijingers only wear coats 5 times their size because they are warmer and they are much better looking. I told her that I would rather have a coat that fit. She told me that if I were to wear a smaller jacket I would probably freeze to death, and I would also have no friends because small coats are ugly. So - I asked for a smaller size (the tag said XXL) and the lady reluctantly said "fiiinneee, stay here, I'll see if I can find a smaller one". She ran out of the stall with the jacket and came back a few minutes later with another one wrapped in plastic, sized XL. It was still too big when I tried it on, so I asked again for a smaller one. She complained to me that that was the smallest they had, and that it looked soooo good on me the way it was. But I wanted one that fit, so I said smaller or nothing. She took the jacket and yelled to someone in another stall in another dialect that I don't understand, and then tossed the jacket over the separator to him, telling me that he had a smaller one, which he quickly passed back over in a plastic bag. It was size L, but it was exactly the same as the first and second jackets. I looked at the tag and realized that they had been taking the same jacket and cutting X's off the tag so that it went from XXL to XL to L. I called her out on the scam, and she was a little embarrassed, but she promised to give me a pengyou (we're friends!) discount if I bought it. Of course I didn't. --- Such is shopping in Beijing, a long, tedious, frustrating process that leaves most bitter and exhausted. If you call your friend and they say they just got back from the Yaxiu clothing market, it is probably not a good idea to ask them out for drinks -- let them sleep off their hatred for the world.

-- The Tourists --

Simple -- we despise you. Foreigners living in Beijing feel some kind of strange right to the city that does not belong to tourists. Unless you are a family member or friend visiting us personally, and we are showing you around, we will complain about you and how you have no place in our city. We will hypocritically call you a laowai or a waiguoren, which are the discriminatory terms used by the native Beijingers against all foreigners (including us).

I do encourage you to visit Beijing, but please do not go to the hutong or other cultural places and pay 40 dollars for an "authentic" rickshaw ride around the alleyways that lasts 10 minutes. Please do not go to quanjude Peking Duck restaurants and pay 80 dollars for a terrible touristy bastardization of a Beijing delicacy. Please do not go to a market and assume you are getting a good price if you are speaking English -- chances are that you are paying 5x the actual price. And last, but not least, please respect the local culture. I can't tell you how many times I've seen screaming matches between westerners and locals because of cultural differences and ignorant Americans who expect everyone to speak English and give them everything they want.

Sorry for ranting..

-- The Language --

Chinese is a great language that I will never master. I have never heard a foreigner who can fluently speak it like a local, and I have met a lot of foreigners. Learning any European language would sound like a vacation to me compared to Chinese. I have definitely improved since arriving, but I have a LONG way to go.

-- The Conclusion --

Despite my complaints, which I express far more than my compliments, I love China and I love Beijing. This is an adventure for me that I can never replace -- it is a challenge, not a vacation. I enjoy every minute of it, and the difficulties that I encounter only make me appreciate even more what I have back home.