I discovered...

....that these earrings I bought in Guizhou last year have characters written in the designs. I'm not sure why this made me so happy, but it did. So, here are some pictures. The one on the bottom right (but on the left in the picture of both) says 平安 means safe and sound or peaceful/safe/good, and the one on the bottom left (which will not load horizontally!) says 出入which means coming and going. Together it means (as you can probably guess) safe and sound both coming and going 平安出入。

This is pretty funny.

http://www.theonion.com/video/china-celebrates-its-status-as-worlds-number-one-a,14220/

This may or may not work... but here are a bunch of the videos I've taken on my iPod since being here (both of Nanjing and New Zealand).

China China China

It's been two weeks since we got back from New Zealand, and it appears to have been a fortuitous time for us to leave (though not the rest of New Zealanders) because of the recent earthquake in Christchurch and large scale whale beachings
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/21/stranded-whales-die-new-zealand).
All around, not a good week for New Zealand.

But China seems to be doing comparatively well, for the time being at least. The second semester is pretty much in full swing now. We've just finished the second week of classes and lots of indecision I decided to take (in Chinese): East Asian Economies, Religions Systems of China and Environmental Law and (in English): Politics of Rural Development and (auditing) International Dispute Resolution.
The religions class seems especially interesting because the professor is very keen on explaining how and why Chinese people are the way they are now based on the history of religion in the country. The EA Economies professor speaks very quickly and has a bit of an accent, but the material looks interesting, so we'll see.

Nothing especially exciting yet.

I've been walking a lot lately and learned that Nanjing is not really as large a city as I thought it was. Very walkable, especially with the weather warming up a bit. I generally walk to and around Xuanwu Lake which takes a good 2-3 hours, but is nice relief from the streets and excessive amounts of people. Nanjing's city wall surrounds the lake and there are a few spots where one can climb up the wall and walk along the top of it for a marginally better view of the city and the lake. In my opinion, parks are one thing China does right. They still need to work on desserts, public spitting and a few other things, but they have parks down. Xuanwu has nice sidewalks around the whole lake and a few man-made (I think) islands in the middle with lovely little boardwalks and stone walkways all around. I often go walking to the lake at night, when it's even calmer and fewer people try to talk to you or shout laowai 老外 (foreigner). It's nice. And all the trees bordering the lake are lit up with different lights, as are the boardwalks. Recently, because of the new year, there have been an abundance of tacky rabbit decorations (it's the year of the rabbit!) which detract from the calming lake atmosphere, but one can't expect any less from China. Tackiness is rampant here.

I apologize for my lack of ability in making these pictures and text more visually appealing in layout (also I finally figured out how to get my iPod's photos on to my laptop, so these were all taken with and it and hence not as high quality as ones taken with my camera)... I wanted to show some more day-to-day photos. The first one is from our field trip to the dump last semester in Social Issues class. It was likely the most foul smelling place I've ever been, which was made sadder by the fact that there were dozens of people picking through the piles of trash looking for recyclables or usable items and exposing themselves to who know what. Stray dogs were also running around all over the place (rabies??).

The second picture is pig mantou 馒头 (steamed buns) that were most adorable. One of the main tourist attractions in Nanjing is the Confucius Temple (夫子庙）which is a small temple surrounded by scores of restaurants and gift shops and places that generally suck money out of you.

The third picture of the delicious looking food is 干锅 or literally "dry pot/bowl" and it's divine. It's a large bowl filled with green peppers, onions, chicken, potatoes, and rice crispy things and all cooked with delicious spices and oil. So good.

The next picture's food is not quite so good, but a good example of the cafeteria's fare. And it's a lot cheaper. That one was probably around 3 kuai or 40 cents. they have generally the same food every day, but it's reliably mediocre and clean.

The penguin poster is a part of a series of posters I've seen around the city, especially in the subway stations promoting "green thinking" and basically spewing facts about environmental degradation in China and the rest of the world. This one says talks about the rate of global temperature increase and melting of the polar ice caps. Some of the other posters are a bit accusatory and extreme, but I think they are definitely beneficial and people probably need to be shocked a bit.

The lat picture is Xuanwu Lake at night with the trees lit up.

Sheepies and Goaties

When last we left our travelers, they had just arrived in Wellington, an adorable little gathering of people and buildings and also the capital of our fair New Zealand. Wellington is on the southern tip of the North island and it requires a ferry to travel across to Picton, on the north end of the south island, so that is what we did. Wellington also has a wonderful museum- one of the best I've been to- about New Zealand in general. It's very multi-sensory and colorful and has a huge variety of exhibits on art, culture, history, science, sociology, technology, sculpture, etc. And it's free!

The ferry was lovely and very windy and also transporting a lot of sheep, as well as travelers, to the south. Recently the price of cows has gone up compared to the price of sheep in New Zealand (something like $5 for a kilogram of (live) cow vs. $3 for (live) sheep--I think), solots people are switching from sheep farming to cows to make more money.

We stayed one night in Nelson in an adorable little hostel where they gave us free ice cream and chocolate brownie pudding! We didn't quite believe the brochures, but it turned out to be true- free every night. The next day Susie, our wwoofing (http://www.wwoof .co.nz/) host came to pick us up and take us to her farm in Moutere, about half an hour north of Nelson. Susie and her non-husband because they are hippies own a 40 acre goat and sheep and vegetable farm that, in my opinion, in highly wonderful. The idea behind wwoofing is that volunteers (us) contact host farms, which are generally organic farms, and offer to work for 4-6 hours a day in exchange for free room and board. There are countries all around the world with wwoofing networks and one of their main goals is for volunteers to learn some of the principles behind organic farming while they are working at various farms.

Each day we began by feeding and milking thirteen goats (they have about 35 or 40 goats total, but only 13 get milked- the others are too young), which took around 1.5-2 hours depending on how well we could remember each step. We were lucky enough to use automatic milking machines, so it goes a lot faster, but it's still a process. After that we sometimes picked veggies or moved fences or cleared non-native weeds or cooked and then had lunch. In the afternoon we did similar chores to the morning and then the goats get fed again in the evening and three get milked again.

The yearling goats, male goats and baby goats also needed to be fed every day. The babies are highly adorable and were having a hard time adjusting to being fed three instead of four times per day. Our hosts, Susie and Kevin, moved from England 12 years ago, bought the farm in 2002 and became a wwoofing farm in 2007 and they are working toward becoming self-sustainable. Lots of the food we ate everyday they produced themselves, including all of the vegetables, fruits and milk. They also make their own bread, cheese and cereal and have an all around healthy attitude towards food and food production. And let me tell you, the food was delicious. mmmm. Eating so locally and freshly made me painfully aware of how little I know about the origins of my food in China and all the preservatives that are undeniably added.

Nelson and the surrounding are where they are located is known in NZ for having the most sunny days in the country, a reputation it lived up to. Their area also has frequent rainbows- we saw two the week we were there. The landscape is mostly rolling hills, and a few trees, but mostly pasture land for cows, sheep and goats. Since it's summer down south, the sun doesn't set until 9:00 or 9:30, so the evenings are long and the light lingers- quite beautiful.

So all around, my first wwoofing experience was a resounding success and I would highly recommend it. When we first arrived, they were surprised we were American and said they had expected Danish (for some reason). They were a bit disenchanted with Americans after having a couple from California that did not adjust well to farm animals and did not like dust. However, by the end of our stay Kevin said we were the best Americans they had hosted, and some of the best overall, so, yay! (Here is Kevin's blog: http://kevthefarmer.blogspot.com/ He and Susie are very into GE free New Zealand and think the best thing one can do to prepare for the future world is become as close to self-sustainable as you can.)

We were sad to leave the goaties and delicious food, but continued to forge south, moving down the west coast of the south island. But first! we went skhydiving! in Abel Tasman national park!
I was originally very opposed to this idea, but Stan put in great effort to convince me during the first two weeks and NZ is all about the extreme sports, so I had to do it. And, I'm glad I did, because it was glorious! the views were amazing and free-falling for over a minute is the closest I'll ever voluntarily get to flying. We jumped from 16500 feet and fell until 3000 feet in free fall and the parachute opened and we floated slowly to the ground.

Delightful.

Lots more pictures here:
http://nanjingchina.shutterfly.com/pictures

New Zealand (plus bits of Hangzhou, Gold Coast and Kuala Lumpur)!

It has certainly been ages, so it may take a few posts to fully explain my various adventures during the last few months, particularly over the winter break, from which I have just returned.
First of all, it is really nice to be back in Nanjing, and China in general, which is a feeling I thought I wouldn't really have, but I have definitely missed it. I guess going away for such a long time and primarily living out of a backpack make it feel like home. However, it is certainly still winter here, which is quite a contrast to the sunny summertime New Zealand is experiencing.

So, New Zealand! This trip included many firsts for me, as follows:
1. First time in the Southern Hemisphere
-first time in Oceania in general, Hangzhou, Australia, and Malaysia
2. First time renting a car
3. First time driving on the left side of the road
4. First time wwoofing
5. First time hitch-hiking (not as dangerous in NZ, I promise)
6. First time jumping out of a plane (from 16500 feet)

We started our trip with the long journey to New Zealand which began in Nanjing, obviously. The Center closed its doors on Saturday and kicked us last remaining students out, so four of us stayed in another student's apartment close to campus for a few nights before leaving for our respective break destinations. Very early on Monday morning, we left the apartment for the Nanjing train station to take a 7 hour train to Hangzhou and from there fly to Kuala Lumpur. We had a few hours in Hangzhou to walk around the famous West Lake and eat our last Chinese breakfast for a while. mmmm. 豆浆。 We then flew to Kuala Lumpur, where we discovered that Australia would not let us in without a visa. hmmm. Even though we planned to not leave the airport for our layover, Australia requires people who are staying for more than 8 hours to buy a visa. So with only an hour or so between flights we somehow made it through customs and managed to buy internet time (with the Malaysian ringgit Stan luckily had) and purchase an electronic visa.
lesson learned: do not have such a long layover in Australia; or pay close attention to visa requirements

Perhaps it was lucky we were forced to buy a visa, because the Gold Coast airport it very small and could probably not provide adequate entertainment for an 8 hour layover. So we went to the beach. Gold Coast is the Florida of America, with surfing galore and beautiful beaches and lots of sun. So much sun that my poor, unweathered skin got a nice sunburn.
After gold Coast we flew to Auckland, on the North Island of New Zealand. Although Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand (500,000 of NZ's 4 million), Wellington, on the south tip of the North island is the capital. Auckland was fine, not really beautiful, as some of the other cities in NZ are, but the weather was beautiful. We went to Rangitoto Island, which is a (thought to be) extinct volcano on an island near the city, where one can hike around and admire the volcanic rock and lava caves. At the top, there was some sort of school group listening to a ranger talk describing eradication measures taken against invasive species. He was describing their efforts to get rid of rats (I think) or perhaps some other kind of small mammal, saying the the DOC (department of conservation, which runs all the national parks, etc.) dumped 12 tons of some type of poison on the island to get rid of these animals. Perhaps this is excessive? Was there damage to other native plants or animals?

Presence of non-native species seems to be a very important topic in New Zealand (as well as in Australia). Just going through customs and immigration in the Auckland airport, there are signs all over the place reminding you that bringing any foreign species into the country could result in the death of their fragile environment, and there are large garbage cans for you to dump these offending items. I guess being a small island in the middle of nowhere makes one more susceptible to these types of threats.

Stan's cousin, Ben (who is also my neighbor!), is studying abroad in Auckland, so we waited for his classes to finish on Friday and then rented a car and started heading south.
Our first stop was in Rotorua, which is a center of geothermal activity, and a bit like a tiny Yellowstone. The whole town lives with the constant smell of sulphur from the geysers and hot mud pools. We then went on to Taupo, a bit further south. There was a lovely lake there, which we walked around, but unfortunately it was raining for most our our time there- so not so lovely. We went looking for some "hot streams" as they were advertised, but because of the excessive rain, they were only lukewarm, so we ran back to the car and went for a walk somewhere else. At the somewhere else, we looked as some water falls and continued down the river and came across some kiwis (New Zealanders, not the bird or the fruit) jumping into the river from great heights. They seemed pretty fearless and were jumping out of trees into the river, maybe 30 or so feet up. New Zealand is all about the extreme sports, and seems rather lawless in that way.

After Taupo, Ben went back to Auckland and we continued south to Wellington, where the skies were blue and the sun came out after days of rain up north.

Rainy, Rainy

Today and yesterday have been rainy and cold. I guess this is a positive thing because it has been really dry here and I can't remember the last time it rained.
It is also the 73rd anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre today (Dec. 13). To commemorate the day, there were very, very loud siren/horns going off starting at 10:00 AM this morning and continuing for almost an hour.
Nothing much of especial interest has happened recently. We had a Christmas decorating party this past weekend, which was nice. There was even hot cider (!) but that's about as Christmas-y as it gets. It's hard to believe it's already mid-December....