See you all in a week!

In less than twenty-four hours, I embark with the rest of TBC to Guilin, for a roughly week long trip. Until I return, I wish you all a wonderful week!

And if you could, please pray for my sanity tomorrow....because we're traveling to Guilin via train.

Mind you, that in of itself is nothing to fret about...it's the fact that the train ride is going to take at least twenty-two hours. 

....Hooray?

TBC Second Decade Symposium

As I mentioned an entry or two ago, as part of its Second Decade celebration, TBC helped host a symposium on Westerners at the Qing Court. Although it went from last Friday to Sunday, I only went to it on Saturday and Sunday (I have a class in the middle of the afternoon on Fridays.)

But when I did attend it, it was... er .... well, here's the thing - when I heard that it'd basically be several panels where groups of Sinologists would give various lectures, I was under the assumption that all those lectures would be in English.

Apparently, I was a bit naive on that aspect of the symposium. At least half of the lectures were given in Chinese, and the big booklet with all the lectures in print didn't help either...not with at least half of them written in Chinese as well.

At least I ended up with a lot of time to think and to engage in deep, intense contemplation, where I could wonder things such as "I wish I had a clue what he/she is talking about," or "Oh dear God Almighty in Heaven, I hope the next speaker will use a language that I can understand," and "I really want to take a quick doze, but Professor Weist needs us to write a paper on this....let's hope the speaker after this will speak in....wait, let's check out the lecture booklet and see if.... aw nuts, that's definitely not in English.... okay, what time is lunch supposed to be again?"

 I swear, at times it was like listening to white noise.

Fortunately, at least lunch was free every day (it was all mainly Chinese food....no more western-style cuisine, unfortunately). And it also provided a tad more sight-seeing. While on Friday and Saturday the conference was held in a hall at Renimin University (People's University), on Sunday it was held at the Old Summer Place, which provided for some gorgeous sights.

I know, I know, I've already been there before, but you'd be amazed what difference a healthy amount of sunlight will make for the views there (whereas the sun had almost completely set over the horizon by the time I arrived when I last visited).

While clearly alive, this cat didn't even do so much as lift its head. Whether its just supposed to be a permanent installation part of the park for some reason, I have yet to figure out. 

Hey, it could happen. It's China - weird stuff goes on here.

Prince Gong's Mansion

Yikes, my deepest apologies for not updating at all in a while! Things have been a bit busy here as of late, with an ever-growing amount of my time being spent with my nose buried in a book of some sort more than anything else. Still, I'm finding opportunities here and there to do things that are actually worth reporting back home about. 

Just last Friday morning, I paid a visit to Prince Gong's mansion, a residential compound that formerly belonged to one of the brothers of one the the Qing emperors, and the only mansion of its type that's actually open to the public. As usual, I woke up early, but not simply because I'm usually an early riser, but because this place gets absolutely flooded with tourists and tour groups. I should know, for I actually tried visiting this place a week ago to no avail, for it was absolutely close to bursting with a solid mass of humanity. 

Probably the biggest draw to the mansion by far is its exquisite garden, located in the back of the compound. 

After making my way to the small pond located inside the garden, it didin't take me to realize that the pond came fully equipped with....

Actually, let me put it this way- I now present to you a little something titled "A Completely Unnecessary Number of Photographs Featuring Ducks."

The End (of the duck pictures)

This has been a work of Staysniak Productions. 

....Anyway, about half-an hour later, at least, I finally remembered that there was actually a garden for me to take a gander around in.

While all very scenic and pretty indeed....being the uncultured and unsophisticated swine that I am, my favorite part of this little tour was the plethora of the ducks and their chorus of quacking that filled the air, which filled me with the same type of infantile joy one should only expect to find in a three-year-old. 

Needless to say....once I got back to campus just in time for lunch, it didn't take too long for me to realize that I had already reached the high point of my day. 

It's not as if the rest of the day was terrible or anything, it's just that ducks are so darn amusing. 

C'mon. Admit it. 

You know you want to.