Opaque beer, hula hooping and a stairway to heaven
I have a confession: We’ve been a bored this week. Everything is closed for the New Years holiday and its been cold and rainy. The fireworks have become annoying. We’ve gotten tired of Chinese soap operas (the king is always evil). We’ve been entertaining ourselves with ping pong,
IM’ing with the webcam,
hula hoping (I wish I had a photo. It turns out that I am a natural) and, of course, physics.
When the snow let up yesterday (cold, wet snow, not like the nice stuff in Boston) I set off with Monica, Aaron and David in search of bars and good beer.
The beer we had had so far came in two varieties in the grocery store—weak and weaker. Its very cheap but I think that’s because it’s a watered down version of Budweiser. I’m not even convinced that it contains alcohol.
The guys had done some research and had some help from Greg; we ended up at an Irish Pub (called, of course, the “Shamrock”) in a touristy part of town (newly reconstructed 6th century market street) and ordered ourselves some Guiness. The Guiness was the worst Guiness I’ve ever had—not at all smooth or filling, lacking a decent head—it was also the most expensive Guiness I’ve ever had (54 yuan!). The pub was not very interesting: the only people there were overweight white guys and their Chinese girlfriends. So we didn’t stay too long.
We then headed for a street that runs along the lake and has a lot of bars on it. We ended up in a more local joint that didn’t have Guiness but did have a wide selection of light beers at 24 yuan a bottle (closer to American prices). Monica and I ordered a pizza and were thrilled that it had real CHEESE on top. After two beers, I had trouble getting down from my super high bar stool (I had to climb in and out of it. Think: high chair) and the squat toilet was challenging. (Fortunately there was a pipe that I could hold onto) I was informed when I got back that Aaron had visited the same squat toilet, not realizing that he was in the ladies bathroom. He said it was the strangest urinal he’s ever seen.
The precipitation held off today as well and after lunch Andy, Aaron, Josh, David, Monica and I went for a hike in the hills behind campus. Behind the giant statue of Chairman Mao is the Library and behind that is a hill with a pagota on top. We walked behind the library and found a nice garden
with its own little gazebo
(you can see the hill and the pagota in the background)
and from there we picked up the trail into the hills.
I’m using the word *trail* in a loose sense. It was more like a stairway and appeared to be pretty new. I think our American Walmart dollars are going here:
The stairs seem to go on and on forever—I think there is hope that I’ll stay in shape here. This beats any stairmaster and might be a good way to battle my bun-and-dumpling-pot-belly.
At the top of the stairs there was a trail that connects a bunch of the hills and the pagota.
There is also a nice view of Hangzhou and the West Lake, although it was a bit foggy today.
Finally we gathered at the pagota and I took this photo.
Andy decided that he wanted to do some physics. I tried to talk him out of it but he insisted. So he hiked down while the rest of us explored the tops of the hills a bit.
We reached some kind of summit and did impersionations of Chairman Mao
Then we hiked down.
Ok. So this isn’t the most exciting blog entry. It certainly isn’t as interesting as giant Buddhas or having my hair lit on fire. But we’ve been horribly bored. Its been nothing but ping-pong, hula hooping, physics, and goofing around on the computers for an entire week. Really. We’ve been crawling out our skins in need of exercise.
I could tell you about the physics I’ve been thinking about. Are you interested?
The other thing I’ve been doing this week is looking online and in my guidebook for places to travel to next month with Mike. I’ve found this article in the New York Times about Yunnan. (If you are worried about having to login to their website, try username and password "booger").
We've been making noises about Sichuan, Tibet, Shaanxi (and Xi'an), Guangxi (and Guilin & Yangshuo), Beijing, Shanghai and Mike is interested in seeing Hangzhou. Here is a map. This list covers an enormous portion of China!
IM’ing with the webcam,
hula hoping (I wish I had a photo. It turns out that I am a natural) and, of course, physics.
When the snow let up yesterday (cold, wet snow, not like the nice stuff in Boston) I set off with Monica, Aaron and David in search of bars and good beer.
The beer we had had so far came in two varieties in the grocery store—weak and weaker. Its very cheap but I think that’s because it’s a watered down version of Budweiser. I’m not even convinced that it contains alcohol.
The guys had done some research and had some help from Greg; we ended up at an Irish Pub (called, of course, the “Shamrock”) in a touristy part of town (newly reconstructed 6th century market street) and ordered ourselves some Guiness. The Guiness was the worst Guiness I’ve ever had—not at all smooth or filling, lacking a decent head—it was also the most expensive Guiness I’ve ever had (54 yuan!). The pub was not very interesting: the only people there were overweight white guys and their Chinese girlfriends. So we didn’t stay too long.
We then headed for a street that runs along the lake and has a lot of bars on it. We ended up in a more local joint that didn’t have Guiness but did have a wide selection of light beers at 24 yuan a bottle (closer to American prices). Monica and I ordered a pizza and were thrilled that it had real CHEESE on top. After two beers, I had trouble getting down from my super high bar stool (I had to climb in and out of it. Think: high chair) and the squat toilet was challenging. (Fortunately there was a pipe that I could hold onto) I was informed when I got back that Aaron had visited the same squat toilet, not realizing that he was in the ladies bathroom. He said it was the strangest urinal he’s ever seen.
The precipitation held off today as well and after lunch Andy, Aaron, Josh, David, Monica and I went for a hike in the hills behind campus. Behind the giant statue of Chairman Mao is the Library and behind that is a hill with a pagota on top. We walked behind the library and found a nice garden
with its own little gazebo
(you can see the hill and the pagota in the background)
and from there we picked up the trail into the hills.
I’m using the word *trail* in a loose sense. It was more like a stairway and appeared to be pretty new. I think our American Walmart dollars are going here:
The stairs seem to go on and on forever—I think there is hope that I’ll stay in shape here. This beats any stairmaster and might be a good way to battle my bun-and-dumpling-pot-belly.
At the top of the stairs there was a trail that connects a bunch of the hills and the pagota.
There is also a nice view of Hangzhou and the West Lake, although it was a bit foggy today.
Finally we gathered at the pagota and I took this photo.
Andy decided that he wanted to do some physics. I tried to talk him out of it but he insisted. So he hiked down while the rest of us explored the tops of the hills a bit.
We reached some kind of summit and did impersionations of Chairman Mao
Then we hiked down.
Ok. So this isn’t the most exciting blog entry. It certainly isn’t as interesting as giant Buddhas or having my hair lit on fire. But we’ve been horribly bored. Its been nothing but ping-pong, hula hooping, physics, and goofing around on the computers for an entire week. Really. We’ve been crawling out our skins in need of exercise.
I could tell you about the physics I’ve been thinking about. Are you interested?
The other thing I’ve been doing this week is looking online and in my guidebook for places to travel to next month with Mike. I’ve found this article in the New York Times about Yunnan. (If you are worried about having to login to their website, try username and password "booger").
We've been making noises about Sichuan, Tibet, Shaanxi (and Xi'an), Guangxi (and Guilin & Yangshuo), Beijing, Shanghai and Mike is interested in seeing Hangzhou. Here is a map. This list covers an enormous portion of China!
posted by Michelle at 7:06 a.m.
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