My age-old dilemma: would I rather spend my time...
~ doing things worth writing?
~ Or writing things worth reading?
It's hard to reach a happy medium.
Over the past two weeks, my life in Nanjing has been transformed from the life of a lonely liu xue sheng (foreign exchange student) with few Chinese friends to a life filled with invitations from my new Chinese friends to go out to eat, hang out, go to museums and performances, to sing KTV (the Chinese version of karaoke), etc. It's been a blast!!!
Over the past two weeks, my life in Nanjing has been transformed from the life of a lonely liu xue sheng (foreign exchange student) with few Chinese friends to a life filled with invitations from my new Chinese friends to go out to eat, hang out, go to museums and performances, to sing KTV (the Chinese version of karaoke), etc. It's been a blast!!!
But now my other age-old dilemma:
~ Experience?
~ Or sleep?
Again, tough to strike a good balance.
Lately, I've been leaning towards the "doing things worth writing" and the "experience" end of things. Which explains why I haven't been updating my blog as regularly as ideally I'd like to. But I've put together a few new posts for the time being, and I promise there will be plenty more to come after I return from my 10-day excursion to Inner Mongolia.
Lately, I've been leaning towards the "doing things worth writing" and the "experience" end of things. Which explains why I haven't been updating my blog as regularly as ideally I'd like to. But I've put together a few new posts for the time being, and I promise there will be plenty more to come after I return from my 10-day excursion to Inner Mongolia.
I'll be taking off for the Nanjing Train Station in a matter of hours, with my hiking backpack (the only luggage receptacle I brought to China) packed with camping gear, for a trip to Inner Mongolia. Students in the CIEE study abroad program at Nanjing U get a 10-day vacation during Guo Qing Jie, or the National Day of the PRC, and I'm using that time to join my host dad and a group of 24 or so other participants for a camping trip in Inner Mongolia.
A bit about this Guo Qing Jie: the actual holiday falls every year on October 1st, the day the nation was founded back in 1949, but many people have a substantially longer holiday and use it to travel: from my understanding, Guo Qing Jie is the most popular time of year to travel here in the PRC. So the more touristy sites (Taishan, for example: the mountain I visited with my fellow CIEE students earlier this month) are typically overrun with tourists this time of year. But I think we'll be able to escape the crowds in the wilderness of Inner Mongolia.
Out there in the Mongolian caoyuan (grassy plains), while I'll escape the Guo Qing Jie influx of tourists, I'm also certain that I won't get any opportunities to update my blog. I hope these recent postings will tide you over until my return to Nanjing. Until then, take care & Guo Qing Jie kuai le (have a happy PRC national founding day)!
1 comment:
It was the goverment's policy to make a long holiday for Guo Qing Jie so that plenty of tourism would boost the economy. I don't like it for there is no fun to travel in "people mountain people sea".
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