With that said this weekend was really fun. This week was a good week because my weekend started on Thursday, which also happened to be St. Paddy’s Day. Everyone’s plan for St. Paddy’s Day was to go to this Irish Pub that we found and get wasted. However, I planned to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day studying in my room, like a good student. That plan was quickly thrown out the window at about 9:30, but it wasn’t my fault. But before I explain that I have to explain something that happened earlier in the week.
After one of the basketball practices, the coach of the basketball team approached me and another Middlebury student, saying that she was studying English and that she wanted us to help her. But because we have a language pledge we said that we couldn’t. But she said that she would still like to hang out sometime, so we exchanged numbers. I didn’t really think that she would call me to hang out because the only thing that she wanted to do was have us teach her English. However, I was so wrong.
So on St. Paddy’s Day, right when I wake up from my nap to start studying again, like the good student I am, MOM, I get this call from the coach’s wife. She says that she wants to meet with me and some kid that she coaches to have tea. So I meet with her and the kid she coaches, his name is Chen Yu Long and her name is Shan Yi, to go have to somewhere on campus. As I enter the tea place it looks really realized and chill. Everyone is having a good time conversing. We end up sitting down at some table with other Chinese students and they are all speaking English. I come to find out that this tea place is place to come and practice your English. She tricked the hell out of me. But it was cool because they let me speak Chinese while the spoke English to me. Some them spoke really good English and some of them; I had no idea what the hell they were saying. It made me understand what I sound like when I speak Chinese. But some the Chinese people were really “Li Hai” and refused to let me speak to them Chinese, so I made them feel bad and corrected them every time they said something wrong, they quickly got the hell away from me.
After having fun doing that, Shan Yi decide to take me, Chen Yu Long, and this girl that I meet at the English speaking place, named Yi Hui out to the bar. At the bar we played a lot of drinking games. It was hella fun. It was much better than studying. After downing a few beers because I wasn’t so good at their Chinese drink games They liked playing games where you have to think and stuff. Not so good at that when I have been drinking, or even when I am sober for that matter. But after getting right, Shan Yi took us all out to eat and walk around Xi Hu. By the time I got back to my room it was like 2 a.m. So much for the studying plans. I guess I have been going out a lot since I have been here.
St. Paddy’s Day was Thursday. Friday was one of the most interesting days I had in China. The day started normal went to my one and only class and after that I went with my roommate to his basketball class. In his class, I swear there is this kid that looks like the Chinese version of Prince. He has the little pencil type mustache, really skinny, short, tight clothes, and everything. He was even really pretty like Prince is; I tried not to look him in the eyes. The only difference is that he didn’t play basketball as well as Prince does. I heard that Prince is hella good at BBall, this kid throw the ball over the backboard, so a little different.
After playing ball the strangest thing happened to me. It made me feel like a breezy. These three Korean girls gamed me down (for those that don’t speak West Coast Slang that means they hit on me). It was hella awkward, especially because they used broken English to do it. One of them came up to me and was like, “My flend rinks you ham some.” I didn’t know what to say. After she was like give me your number before I don’t want it anymore. I didn’t know what to do but give her the number. I was just in shock that was getting gamed down by these Korean girls in broken English, and that it was working, because they ended up getting my number. I wonder what their game is like in Korean, because in broken English it was off the hook. I have to remember how they spit their game so that I can use it when I get back to the States.
After being turned into a breezy I prepared to go to Suzhou for the weekend, this also brings me to the title of this blog, which the majority of you reading this probably can’t understand. It says, “Shang You Tian Tang, Xia You Su Hang,” which means, “In heaven there is paradise, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou.” It is a famous Chinese proverb. Another famous Chinese proverb, probably my favorite is, “上有天使，下有马渡.” This reads, “Shang You Tian Shi, Xia You Ma Du,” this means “In heaven there is angels, on earth there is Ma Du. Personally, I think this proverb is so true.
After hearing this Chinese Proverb, and hearing that Suzhou is supposed to be the Venice of the East and filled with beautiful gardens, I made travel plans. We left around 6 pm for Suzhou and didn’t get there until 10 pm. Because my roommate was busy I ended up going with two of my roommate’s friends, one named “Re Qing” and the other one the call “Ye Zhu.” Ye Zhu is his nickname, which means THE BOAR in English. Here is a picture, tell me if the name fits:
He is really like 5’9’’. I have grown a little since I have been in China. Because we got to Suzhou kind of late there wasn’t much to do so Ye Zhu and me decided to go and see what Suzhou’s nightlife be like. We walked around for a while and finally found this street full of foreigners and bars. After walking around for 20 minutes we finally found a bar that was playing hip hop music. As we enter the bar, I quickly notice that everyone in the bar is of the female nature. The girl that greeted me at the door quickly shows me an open sat at the bar. As I am sitting down, I glace to my left and notice that this foreigner is intensely sucking face with some Chinese girl. I see this and think what the fuck, this is not normal. As I see this I quickly stand up to reevaluate my situation. I look back around at my surrounds and think, hey all the people in here are female. As continue to think to myself, I say self, this isn’t a bar, silly, this is a brothel. At the point I got scared and ran out of the bar screaming like a little girl. I am much to innocent to be in a place like that. After that incident we gave up looking for good bars and just went back to the hotel for the night.
On Saturday, We got early start to try to an experience the paradise that is Suzhou. We started out by going to a place called Huqiu Shan (Tiger Hill). Huqiu Shan has a famous pagoda named Yunyan Ta (Cloud Rock Pagoda). Sometime in the 10th century it started to lean, much like The Leaning Tower of Pizza. Here is a picture of it leaning in all of its beauty.
This is me and Re Qing’s friend, she goes to school ins Suzhou. In reality, this pagoda was not leaning that much. You actually could barely tell that it was leaning at all. Here is what it really looked like:
However, it was still pretty cool. The gardens surrounding the pagoda were the real highlight of Huqiu Shan. They were are beautiful with there own fill and flavor.
After going to Huqiu Shan we walked around for a little while and saw so of the other sites that Suzhou has to offer. We stopped by this really crowded shopping area near the temple of Xuanmiao Guan. It is a cool area because it combines the traditional style builds with modern companies. The area was pretty crowd so decided to leave and explore more of Suzhou.
Suzhou is a beautiful water town but I am pretty sure that its waterways can’t compare to Venice’s. However, Suzhou is filled with absolutely beautiful gardens. Here is pictures of another garden that we went to that day, called Zhouzheng Yuan (Humble Administrator’s Garden).
After going leaving this garden walked around and went in to a few shops near by. In one of the shops I bought these really cool Chairman Mao and Culture Revolution T-shirts. At first the lady wanted like 8 dollars for one. But after some intense haggling I talked her down to 11 dollars for three. According to my Chinese friends my bargaining skills are pretty Li Hai. So if any you come to China, I can get you a good deal.
After so intense hanging I was pretty hungry, so went back to around our hotel and ate. And after eating we pretty much walked around until we were bored and went back to the hotel and went to bed at like 10 pm.
The next morning because Re Qing wanted to hit on his friend, Ye Zhu and I went to another the most famous garden in Suzhou called Wangshi Yuan (Garden of the Master of the Nets). It was cool but not that cool, I think Zhouzheng Yuan was better. However, this garden was still beautiful. Here are some pictures:
After Wangshi Yuan, Ye Zhu and I went to Panmen (Coiled Gate). Panmen might be the prettiest place I went to out of all the place. Panmen is the last remaining original city gate in Suzhou. Around the city gate is a wooden and brick pagoda. The area around the pagoda and gate was beautiful. The first picture in the series is from the top of the pagoda, which was incredibly high, good thing I am scared of heights.
The last picture in the series is me preparing to go turkey hunting when I get back to Middlebury. After going to Panmen Ye Zhu and I meet back up with Re Qing and his friend. We just spent the rest of the time in Suzhou around Xuanmiao Guan, shopping. After we finished shopping we just left.
I have to say the best thing Suzhou is not the gardens or the beautiful waterways. It was the Xiao Long Bao (these dumplings). A lot of cities have Xiao Long Bao, but by far Suzhou’s Xiao Long Bao are the best. If you ever go to Suzhou you have to get some of the Xiao Long Bao.
Well, because I don’t really no how to end this blog I will end it with random pictures of Suzhou. Enjoy. Oh, the first picture is of a stone liger. I guess in ancient China they had ligers.
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