Temporary but Torrential Rains

Yesterday three of my friends and I decided that we wanted to do some last minute shopping at the shopping area surrounding the Confucius Temple in the late afternoon. We took a taxi there and everything was great until out of nowhere it starting storming. Not just raining, or pouring, but storming. There was thunder, lightening, and the rain was endlessly coming down. Only one of us had our umbrellas so we were all drenched by the time we got back to the dorms. Within maybe an hour every street was no longer a street, but a river in knee-deep water. Our taxi driver dropped us off maybe 50 ft. from the entrance to our dorm but it took us another good 10 minutes to actually get to the entrance. The rain water wasn't just water, but a mix of feces, dirt and who knows what else... definitely slightly traumatizing to have to walk through. Afterwards I showered with my clothes on because they were so drenched and dirty it reallydidn't make a difference.... That was by far one of the most insane and hilarious experiences so far on our trip.

.... oh ,and of course one hour later the rain had completely stopped and there was almost NO trace of the overflowing gutters, broken pipes or large river/streets that were everywhere only an hour before...

These pictures are from about 20 minutes after we were out there, the rain had already stopped by then

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Nanjing Massacre Museum & Purple Mountain

On tuesday we went to the Nanjing Massacre Museum which was very disturbing and upsetting. The museum had tons of evidence of the Massacre, both visual and physical. We couldn't take pictures inside of the museum but at the entrance and exit there were many symbolic statues and monuments regarding the Massacre. The massacre was committed by the Japanese whenthey invaded China and Nanjing was still the capital city. 300,000 were killed in Nanjing, innocent civilians and those who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. My favorite part of the museum was the peace monument near the exit (below).

Purple Mountain was our last culture class trip on Wednesday, and we visited a Buddhist

temple at the base of Purple Mountain. Aside from a few Monks, the temple was basically deserted

which was a little creepy but there was also some construction going on so that could have been the

reason. There was also a mass amount of mosquitoes so maybe they've scared the tourists and locals away... The temple itself was very beautifully with deep reds and golds and huge statues of Buddha

and the other figures worshipped. Behind the temple there was a trail up into the base of Purple

Mountain that had worship caves and alters(such as the one below).

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Suzhou

Our day in Suzhou was very nice, though definitely one of the hottest days we've had. The bus ride from Nanjing to Suzhou was about three hours and our first stop was at the Administrator's Humble Gardens. The gardens were very pretty with an abundance of lilypads and chinese structures. Oddly enough, it felt like the most crowded place we've been to so far in China, every pathway and building was packed with people.

After the gardens we took a boat ride down the Suzhou canals which was really interesting because the water level was very very high due to the recent rain. Our boat was half submerged because of the rains. The canal runs through almost all of Suzhou and there's about 255 bridges throughout the city.

This past week has literally flown by! Our chinese language class is great, our teacher's are hilarious and we've almost learned more in these past two weeks that I have in the past two years! This week we had Karaoke night, a trip to the Presidential Palace and a Chinese Calligraphy class. Karaoke night was fun, no one got too into it but we all had a good time. The Presidential Palace housed the President of the Republic of China before 1949 when the republic moved to Taiwan. It was pretty but not as grand as the White House, which was what a few of us seemed to be expecting to see.

Our Second calligraphy class was just as great as our first, last time we painted cherry blossom trees while our teacher taught us how to paint bamboo and shrimp this past class. He seemed to paint with such ease that we all thought calligraphy would be a cinch but it turned out to be very difficult.

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The weather here is still rainy and humid, although a few days ago we actually saw the sun! That makes four times in the past three weeks where we've been able to see the sun while in China. crazy!

Nanjing Zoo

Our visit to the Nanjing zoo was mostly just depressing. Although we saw many animals and there was greenery and a natural setting all around the Zoo, it was obvious the animals were not being taken care of. We saw three Chinese pandas, one of which looked almost lifeless, sprawled out in a corner of it's glass enclosed living space. I didn't take too many pictures but here are a few of the better ones (animal-wise and photography-wise).

yes, that is a bear riding a bicycle. It looked just as unnatural and horrible as it sounds...

Adventures in Nanjing

Due to sporadic Internet connection I haven't been able to write daily posts so here's a summary of the several adventures we've had so far in Nanjing. It's been exactly a week since we first arrived in Nanjing , but it feels like much longer than that! Aside from adventures in our culture class we have plenty of free time to experience Nanjing for ourselves. Even just getting three meals a day is an adventure (we're given meal allowance, but besides that we're on our own!). We've had some great local Chinese food from nearby streets and restaurants, one street known by the university students as "Bird Flu Alley". I've also experienced the classicChinese food induced upset stomach... but hey, a person can't consider a trip to China complete without the food sickness aspect!A few days ago I went with a couple of my friends to a Chinese masseuse, which was quite an experience. The masseuses were blind, which at first seemed risky but the massages were amazing. It makes so much sense to have a blind masseuse, someone who's sense of touch is much stronger than a person with their vision.

Our culture class also took us to Xuanwu Lake where we rented peddle boats and hung out on the lake for a few hours. We also went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum which was quite beautiful but had tons of stairs! It also had an open music forum full of doves. The forum played music such as Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson...ironic how american culture followed us all the way to a mausoleum in China!

Culture Class

So far we've had about three culture classes and they've all been very different. Our first class was with Professor Xu Xin who founded the Institute of Jewish Studies at Nanjing University. We met in a meeting room full of Jewish artifacts donated to the institute such as menorahs, kipot and talitot. Along one wall was a case full of Hebrew books that had been translated into Chinse by Xu and his students

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One of his students brought out a torah kept in an Ark that was donated to the institute. I know Lizzie (my roommate and the other Jewish student in our group) and I definitely felt a sense of pride at the accomplishments and prestige the institute seemed to carry. Xu talked to us about the Chinese understanding of the Jews and the common ancient roots that both Judaism and and China share. When asked about his interest in the Jewish people Xu said that "to understand yourself you have to understand your fellow man".

Professor Xin showed Lizzie and I the library full of donated books (above, left) and He told me the Jewish books I brought for him would be added to the library.