Some Things Never Grow Old

When I was a little kid, well, even at a not so little age, I used to get sick at least every other month. This occurred throughout high school resulting in me missing many many days of school, which I guess isn’t that bad. These bouts of sickness would also obviously come back every time I was about to go on vacation. Yes, the day before I go somewhere fun, somewhere exciting, somewhere I have been dreaming about for at least a few days… my body would mysteriously decide to pull a sore throat up on me… leaving me at the peak of my sickness during the trip. The last few years, I thought my body had finally matured, finally snapped out of this not so desirable way of getting sick, after all, with age comes… er… more immunities to sickness? Yea, not so much. If you guys recall, Shanghai trip in the summer. No exception to this rule. And this past week: Henan, likewise simply followed along with this stupid rule my body seems to be fond of.

a happy group of people at the beginning of the trip. I was happy too.

That’s not to say I didn’t see some pretty sweet things on the trip. The first day we go off to the Longmen Grottoes. I had no idea what to expect here, and we come to a place with tons of buddhas carved into the side of the mountain.

Many of these things...

Of course I’m thinking… wow these people had WAY too much time on their hands, maybe could have done something a bit more… useful with their time, no?

a wall full of mini Buddhas

so detailed! Gah!

Audrey, Jeff and I are bashing, half-jokingly, these people… when suddenly we come to this:

I’ve seen this before!!! In textbooks! Most likely in my MMW book (shout-out to ERC kids!!!) For all the million of other buddhas they carved, and every single one that we bashed on, this humongous one made it worth it. I’m not sure whether it’s because I’ve seen it in books, or because of the sheer size of the thing (the ear itself is supposed to be larger… taller … stronger… (ok, not stronger) than the average human being. But here I was standing there like a true tourist, gaping at the Big Buddha. Lucky for me, there wasn’t a million other people there. Only a couple hundred…

we couldn't resist, had to sneak behind the rail...

That same day we went to Yuntai Mountain. I admit the scenery here was pretty nice. Waterfalls, caves, bridges, stones, trees, rushing water…

so tranquil...

Yey! with my sick buddy Malissa. :D

Ugh, i look deceptively happy at this point. No, actually i was. It was all so pretty!

human nature really is quite the … scene. At this point in our trip, I already wasn’t feeling too hot. Or maybe better words would be feeling a little too hot. Just a small fever... nothing some walking around wouldn’t take care of… so I thought. After walking for a few hours, and then climbing up stairs for about an hour, and back down, I felt GREAT.

some very steep steps to go up..

and equally steep steps going down (of course they are the same stairs)

and more steep stairs coming down. I love the look of terror on Audrey's face... teheh

At that point I would have been an advocate of exercise to cure sickness. However, a couple hours on a tour bus later, I was dead. Feverish, headaches, chills, coughs, runny/stuffy nose (it couldn’t seem to decide what it wanted to be). Nothing a good nights sleep couldn’t take care of, right? WRONG. The next morning I woke up (after a terrible nights sleep, dreaming the weirdest, most troubling things ever) with the world’s greatest headache, at least in my books. My tour guide comes in, freaks out when she touches my forehead. Her reaction after taking my temperature: 40 degrees Celsius!? We are going to the hospital right now. Running back and forth only a couple times to see different doctors (the hospital situation in china is quite different, and dare I say less efficient and effective), to get my blood tested, I finally escaped the hospital after they gave me shot in the butt, while I sat on a super sketchy wooden chair. Okay, that’s enough details about the hospital, and about this sickness… let’s just says the past week has not been pleasant, lots of time in my room. But I’m doing better, minus the fact that every time I step outside my nose turns into a faucet again. It’s consistently at 0 degrees Celsius here.

our sickness/coldness mask :D

This is very random – and I think of this because I was about to say it’s so cold that I would never want anyone from California to come over here… I’m not sure how I’m surviving this cold, but then … I heard that plane tickets over here are only 650 dollars. ROUND TRIP. Yes. 650. They are usually close to 1000. :D okay, that’s my shameless plug. Plan a trip, I promise to take care of you once you’re here… especially since now I am no longer a working person. So besides school, I am FREE.

Before this random insert I was talking about my trip to Henan. So basically the hospital trip was the last thing that I did in that province. My classmates got to see the city Kaifeng while we were there, supposedly it’s pretty and fun; but all I got to see was the hospital in Kaifeng, which was not pretty nor fun.

Back in Beijing, things have gotten continuously chillier. October 31 was the first time I experienced true cold, as I know it to be. For Halloween, a few friends and I went to an amusement park (Happy Valley) to … torture ourselves … in the cold. It was sort of overrated – too many people, no rides open, there wasn’t even anything slightly scary to help me forget how cold it was. I miss trick-or-treating for sure. But in all… it was alright, got to hang out with some friends, and freeze.

this was at the beginning of the night, before we realized how cold it could be.

of course though, with friends (ellie) the cold becomes... less cold.

Yea, okay, I’ve mentioned cold, freezing, cold, and more freezing a lot. It wasn’t that great. It was so cold… that I froze. Haha. Just kidding… enough. Now in all seriousness, it was so cold that the next day it snowed! For the first time ever, I saw snow fall from the sky, and slowly cover the ground, and the trees, the buildings, in a beautiful white sheet.

For someone who hates cold as much as I do, I surprisingly like snow, especially when it is falling from the sky. Snowball fights, snowmen, snow angels… its all so much fun. If it snowed in San Diego, maybe once in a while, but maintained it’s low of 10 degrees Celsius on other occasions, I would without a doubt argue that San Diego has hands down the best weather. (Yes, I realize that was redundant, but all to say, I would love it)

I was so excited to see snow i ran outside to take a picture of this. exciting i know.

I'm pretty sure this was the snowball Nelson was gonna throw at me...but didn't. Lucky for him.

Our really ugly ... i mean beautiful (of course) snowman named Fredrick.

Anyways, I digressed as usual. Before the weather gets worse, (degree wise, it supposed to maintain constant; but wind speed is supposed to pick up, causing the cold to STING your face), anyways… before the weather got any worse, I’ve finally managed to make it to the Summer Palace. This is probably one of my favored tourist places, maybe because of the sheer size of the place, making all the tourists that were there, seem less, because they were all over the place. It’s such a pretty place though, although the amount of money they must have spent on the place has to be in the … disgusting range. One of the empress, Empress Dowager, took a lot of tax money to redecorate, add to, and what not, this place, just so her ‘summer palace’ could be … like this.

the lake was massive. I've gotten to hang out with Crystal here in Beijing!

entrance to the thing... with a good number of tourists.

He was writing chinese phrases on the ground with water. Pretty sick.

pretty bridge that connects different parts of the place. has wedding spot potential. :p

this Marble boat makes absolutely no sense to me.. really? marble boat?

So as old things go, I still haven’t managed to learn how to be a good college student. I thought last year, I had finally gotten over the procrastinating, waiting till the last minute to study, yada yada, but nope. Most of this was written BEFORE my midterm, and I also managed to churn out a number of emails as well. WHY?! And to make matters worse, I don’t know if any of you guys remember my addiction with watching dramas … end of junior year, but that has come back to haunt me again. Deng it. Lately, it’s been “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Glee.” But I guess once I finish them; I’ll stop. Ha. GAH. I need to sign a contract with someone to make me stop. Or at least limit myself. Self-restraint… self-restraint Michelle!

It’s probably not just the dramas though. It doesn’t help that this is my last quarter of college, and I thought I had senioritis spring quarter… but nope. I have senioritis right now. And I have it BAD. I just do things like clubbing, go-carting, working, movie watching, and eating... all instead of studying, researching and paper writing -- which really does need to get done (although I cannot forget that I am an ERC student... and thus 25 page papers do not intimidate me in the least. THAT'S RIGHT independent study project!... :x I mean, I should probably start tomorrow)

go-carting hella gives me a rush. and i get way too competitive. trust me, you don't want to be in my way...

the face can be deceiving... i know ;p

but this is the price I am willing to pay to win. the nastiest bruise up to date.

went to watch the Beijing Marathon. Look at all those old Chinese men going! I'm determined to run another one... soon.

celebrating Ellie's birthday! I caked her good that day :p

happy birthday jason! this night probably didn't help my sickness at all.

hosting a mixer even for work... how fun.

managing to still bike around sometimes. found a sign that says: "love Beijing, ride bikes"

As for future plans, I can’t guarentee there will be another blog in the horizon, I’d like to think I will write one more before America sees my face again, but, as old things go… I don’t know if that’ll happen. General update on my plans: I’ve applied to work at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. If I get that, I’ll be back in Milpitas for a few months before returning to … here.

If not, then thus begins the search for a JOB… anywhere. Suggestions are welcomed.

I really do miss everyone from home, and I can’t wait to see everyone. Till I do, much love.

and this is just because I've been thinking about old things... freshmen year of college with the first roomie: SARA!!!! some things really do never grow old; I still giggle every time I see this picture..