Yunnan Day One

We left Beijing and headed to Kunming—about a 3 and a half hour flight. The plane was a little delayed so we ended up arriving around 5:30pm (an hour later than planned). We collected our suitcases and headed outside, immediately greeted by the not-so-frigid air (like we had experienced in Beijing). Three buses, 20 people per bus, and we were off driving through the capital city of Yunnan Province. That night we watched the “Dynamic…

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Introduction to Yunnan Trip

From January 15th to January 29th, I travelled through China’s southernmost province: Yunnan. Yunnan borders Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar (formerly Burma). I travelled all over the province, racking up more than 60 hours of bus time. We started in the provincial capital of Kunming, drove south to the border of China and Myanmar, drove north to the Tibetan autonomous region, and finished the trip with an overnight train back to Kunming. Yunnan is incredibly diverse…

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On the plane ride over…

This post was written on January 7th on the plane (somewhere over Russia).  I’m currently on hour 3 of my 14 hour flight from Chicago to Beijing, heading back to China because I just couldn’t get enough of it the first time. I spent a three week hiatus from my Chinese life in good ole’ Des Moines, Iowa. There I was kept perennially busy by a confluence of family and friends. I had a few…

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Introduction to Spring Semester

Anastasiataber.com has been silent for two months. The silence ends now. I have a few posts for you, one I wrote on the plane ride over from China on January 8th and another introducing you to my 16 day excursion in Yunnan Province that took place January 15-29. It is my goal to write posts for every day experienced on the Yunnan trip, which was amazing just in case you were wondering. As always, I…

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This semester has changed my life

This semester has changed my life. From a young age I have read books as a way to gather knowledge about the world. Both of my parents share an ardent love of books; my dad a passionate devotee to non-fiction, my mother with her perennial stack of bedside fiction that never seems to shrink despite constant reading. Growing up, my mother filled the house with movies and TV shows, and some of my fondest memories…

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Nanhu Peasant Market

The following is a reflection I wrote for my film class, Moving China. Our assignment this week was to visit the Nanhu Peasant Market in Beijing and film and edit a video (which I’m in the middle of right now). For those of you who wish to see my films, I’m sorry to inform you that I cannot post them until I return in December, but no doubt I will keep you posted on the…

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It’s gonna be an interesting semester…

I know that it’s been about two weeks since my last update, which is a virtual no-no in the blogosphere. Since the Silk Road trip, I have been struggling to find that nice balance between classes, sleep, and actually going out there and getting to experience Beijing (for some reason, sleep always gets the shaft). When I say struggling to find a balance…I’m not kidding. In the past two weeks I have: gone to Tiananmen…

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Night Ten: Clubbing in Xi’an

My friends and I met up, going to dinner and settling on McDonalds (Xi’an is very westernized). Since the beginning of the trip, my digestive system has had trouble keeping up with the Chinese food. It’s kind of amazing, that in America, McDonalds upsets my stomach, whereas in China I was using it to settle my stomach. Apparently McDonalds can run out of fries, or at least in China, because we were served curly fries…

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Day Ten: I want a shower

We arrived in Xi’an around 7:30am. My last shower had been the previous previous night in Xia’he, about five cities ago. I brushed my teeth, wet-wiped my arms, and changed my shirt, but that was still not enough to rid myself of the gross feeling that comes after a Chinese night train. Xi’an was the train’s last stop, so we waited 10 minutes or so after stopping to disembark. We dragged our stuff across the…

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Day Nine Part Four: The Long Road

We finally arrived in Lanzhou around 5 or 6pm. A number of my friends decided that they didn’t really like Lanzhou. Perhaps it was the layout of the city, but I think it was mostly because of the people. The staring there was the worst, and after one day my black friend couldn’t stand it anymore. At least in other cities, a nice portion of the people don’t bother to stare at you (at least…

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