Beijing: First Month Highlights

For the past month I’ve been living in Beijing. My hostel is in a hutong, the narrow alleyways of traditional Beijing. These have been now made increasingly busy (and potentially dangerous) with the popularization of cars, motorcycles, and all kinds of electric vehicles and carts. I spend most of my time  taking language classes, learning to cook Chinese food, and exploring the city.

beijing hutong street

Last week I went on a tour of Maliandao tea market. This market practically takes up an entire street, but is centered on a massive 3 story wholesale tea shopping mall. It was an eye-opener to try so many different teas – from the lightest of green teas to the darkest of blacks. Each tea has a variety of health benefits, and traditionally has no sweeteners or milk added.

beijing maliandao tea market loose leaf teas

Good quality tea does not come cheap in China, as the entire process is done by hand. The tea was sold in a variety of forms – from loose leaf, bags, and blocks to the massive sculpture below.

beijing maliandao tea market store

One of my favorite spots has become Houhai, a popular restaurant/bar area located on a series of massive manmade lakes. I love standing alongside the water, watching the boats go by and waving at everyone inside.

beijing houhai park duck boats

On a completely random note, as I was heading home one night I discovered the bathroom at the subway line 10 had a full-fledged band playing. While it was slightly awkward to walk past them (and even more awkward to photograph), I have to admit that they were pretty good!

beijing subway bathroom guitar player

One night I attempted to watch a Beijing Guoan match. This is Beijing’s professional team in the Chinese Super League, and this year they are doing exceptionally well. I had read online that tickets should cost just about $7-14 from scalpers by the entrance. However, because they were playing the best team in the league for the number one position, tickets were over $60. Realizing that price was the cost of 40 lunches, I decided to head back to my hutong and watch the match on tv.

Nonetheless, I bought an absurd amount of Beijing Guoan apparel on the street. I might be their #1 fan in China who has never been to a match!

beijing guoan soccer match souvenirsFinally, Trey Ratcliff of Stuck In Customs, a popular travel photography blog, came to Beijing and hosted a photo walk. He brought with him a remote controlled drone with a GoPro camera attached – which was loads of fun to watch him fly.

beijing photo walk trey ratcliff flying quadcopter

Trey invited his modeling friend, Ms. Leona Xu over during the photo walk. The photo Trey deemed most interesting would get to keep his camera, so everyone went nuts over photographing her.

beijing photo walk leona xu factoryI found the paparazzi-like crowd and blatantly sponsored baby formula to be quite amusing, while at the same time realized how aggravating it could be to be famous.

beijing photo walk train tracksOther highlights include hiking on the Great Wall and general hutong life, which will have their own posts soon enough. Until then, thanks for reading and 再见!

My Colombian Mami

Does a perfect person truly exist? One without a single imperfect thought running through their head – a perfect embodiment of kindness, gratitude, and unconditional love?

Ask me last year, and I would’ve doubted this. But after visiting Villa de Levya, I am a believer. Meet Martha de León, the owner of Hostel Colombia. Or, as I came to know her, Mami.

colombian mami

What makes Mami such a special person? How can someone change from being a stranger to being family over the course of 48 hours? For starters, the first thing you notice upon meeting Mami is her voice. The softness and gentleness in her every word cannot be overstated. The love in her voice permeates the compound – leaving no souls untouched.  

Her trademark phrase, mi amor, makes figurative baby puppies roll over in joy. It’s repeated in intervals anywhere from three to ten seconds, and despite the repetition, remains purely genuine. Rarely will Mami go a sentence without saying mi amor; occasionally will her sentence consist of only mi amor.

The first thing Mami did when we met her (besides cal me mi amor) was to plant a juicy kiss on my cheek and hand me a refreshing fruit smoothie. She’s not shy about kissing – an undeniable part of Colombian culture. Each peck has the love of a box-full of bunnies, only a little less wet. Being in a bad mood is impossible after her kiss; she simply exudes positive energy.

Mami is genuine in every respect; one example is her purposely speaking Spanish slowly so  foreigners will understand her every word. When she brought us a breakfast of toast with homemade mora (blackberry) jam, and huevos con queso, we asked about her life – trying to understand how such a perfect embodiment of benevolence was shaped throughout her life.

Mami painted a picture of herself as an ordinary Colombian. From what we were able to translate, she worked in an “old woman clothes” factory most of her adult life. Married for 30 years, she had a bad separation with her husband nearly a decade ago. “Para muchos años, yo siempre llorar, llorar, llorar,”  (For many years, I always cried, cried, and cried), she said with tears in her eyes. She came to Villa de Levya and started Hostel Solar 8 years ago – in search of rest and peace.

The instant I met Mami, I became one of her sons. The fact that I arrived from a foreign land carrying a week of belongings in a  40 lb backpack and didn’t quite understand her fluently was a non-issue; the love she shared with each and everyone of us was pure and genuine. Through her love and acts of kindness Mami not only represented herself, but also Colombians as a whole. If you can make it to Colombia or Hostel Solar, please do so. But be sure to bring two hearts, because you’ll be leaving one behind.

colombian mami group photo
Photo by Rachel Jones

Spring Break in Colombia

It’s official – I made it out through midterm week alive! From endlessly memorizing Chinese characters for weather/food to analyzing the structures of Chilungu and Populuca, this week has been crazy. But now that I have, it’s SPRING BREAK TIME!

I’ll be spending spring break this year in Colombia, with a pretty awesome club I joined here at UF called OAR (Outdoor Adventure Recreation). We bought very discounted plane tickets through Spirit, and it should make a pretty awesome trip. We’ve talked about hiking, waterfall climbing, and I hope to take a cooking class (among other things). The others have mentioned bungee jumping off of an abandoned bridge… but I think I’ll leave that activity to them 🙂

So that’s my plans for spring break! I’ll be away for exactly week, and plan on journaling while I’m gone so hopefully a blog post or two can come out of it.

Random story of the day: We were learning directional prepositions in Chinese class (behind, front, etc), and had a slide showing a dog that was in front of a house. To describe the house, we had to say 狗前邊 (gou qianbian) – literally dog in front. My professor then asked where she was standing compared to us, and instead of saying 前邊 I accidentally said 狗. Which means dog. Yes… I called my professor a four legged mammal. Thankfully she was not offended, and instead just laughed at my mistake.

Happy break everyone!