First Aid at Castelo de Sao Jorge

Actually, when I went to the castle, I had more of an adventure than just seeing an awesome view.  I was sitting on an ancient wall shortly after walking up the hill to the castle, drinking in the view, when I heard a clatter behind me. I turned around to see a man lying prone on the cobblestones, bleeding from his head.  I and a French couple rushed over, and it was a good thing they were there, because he didn't understand English or French, (and I didnt even try my limited Chinese!) and seemed to be really dazed.  The French lady spoke Portuguese, and we managed to get some tissues pressed to his forehead to stop the bleeding and gave him some water.  The French lady went for help, and soon everything was back to normal again, but it made me eager to get back to school and get my ACLS training - what if the fall had been worse and he wasn't breathing or something?  I am not sure I would have reacted appropriately - hopefully after my Emergency Medicine rotation in July I will be more prepared.

Portugal 2

We finished our pure sightseeing days by meeting a friend of mine from Grenoble named Sofia for a local delicacy, 'pasteis de belem'.  It was kind of like an egg/custard tart, but tasted creamy and delicious, especially good with a little cinnamon and powdered sugar on top.  

We did manage to fit in a little tourist-action around the conference, during times when the meetings were un-interesting or not pertinent to us, or during the fantastically long 3.5 hour lunch break each day.  We both had a lot of fun eating Western food again - Adam was particularly happy that he could get meat without it being smothered in some sort of soy-based spicy sauce!

I still tried to be adventurous with the food; this was a shrimp bread/gumbo thing special in Portugal.  It was good but oh so filling!

The area around the conference center was right on the river with great views (look familiar anyone? - built by the same company as the Golden Gate in SF!)

A monastery that was destroyed in 1755 in the earthquake

A house with cool tilework!

The Tower of Belem

and has several museums free on certain days, so we hit up several of those, including a modern art museum, a coach museum with horse-drawn carriages from years gone by, a national guard museum complete with armed bicycles, and a maritime museum with hundreds of miniature models of Portuguese explorers' vessels.  There was also a big monument to Portuguese explorers, with Vasco de Gama on the prow.

Another excursion we took was to the National Aquarium, which was really well laid out and had loads of cool aquatic animals.  My favorites were the rays, both giant and manta.  The train station by the aquarium also reminded us slightly of the starship Enterprise - do you see it?

Train station

Random artwork near the aquarium

The Tower of Vasco da Gama near the aquarium

The last day of the conference, meetings ended at 2 pm, and since there were no planes leaving back to Beijing until the next day, I had more exploring time.  I went up to the Castele Sao Jorge, or Castle of Saint George, which offers commanding views over Lisbon and the surrounding river/ocean, as well as a lovely walk through Alfama to get there and a guitarist playing traditional melodies in a courtyard.  Overall I really enjoyed my time in Lisbon and it makes me want to return to see the rest of Portugal!

View of the fort from the other side of town

The Se Cathedral, near our apartment

A church I could see from the castle

Portugal 1

Our first view of Lisbon as we left our hotel

I have already blogged about some of the differences between Portugal and China that Adam and I immediately noticed upon arrival, so I will make this more of a travel blog, for those interested in my activities while in Lisbon.  We arrived 3 days before the start of the conference, so we were able to get in some good sightseeing before being confined to the conference center.  The first day, we went to a small town called Sintra, the seat of royal and semi-royal palaces for many years.  The most famous building is the National Castle, home of the last kings of Portugal, and known for its massive kitchen chimneys that have been compared to Madonna's bra! 

The inside of the castle was very very different than inside Chinese royal buildings, something I think Adam and I both noticed more than the actual decor.  There were tiles everywhere, known as 'azulejos', decorating both interior walls and exterior ones.  Sometimes they were just a simple geometric pattern over and over, but other times they had more elaborate scenes in varying colors, although blue/white seemed to be a favorite.  There was an entire room of the castle with massive tile pictures on the walls!

Sintra also has an ancient Moorish Castle which we climbed up to see, known as the 'Great Wall of Lisbon'.  It wasn't nearly as impressive as the Great Wall, but it did have some really cool views down to the sea and across the land surrounding Lisbon.  We also visited a nearby castle that was partially built by a king from Bavaria called 'Mad Ludwig' (or something like that), and it did have some eccentric twists to its architecture and a very colorful exterior!

some of the tile work at the castle

The second day, we went on a self-guided walking tour of the old Moorish part of Lisbon known as Alfama.  Alfama was built by muslim immigrants from northern Africa, and it has twisting alleyways, cobblestones, and hidden courtyards.  It was also the only part of Lisbon that wasn't destroyed in the great earthquake in 1755, so its the oldest part of the city now.  These old-style trams are an icon of Lisbon and barely fit in the narrow streets of Alfama!

On our walk, we discovered the National Pantheon, which was made of beautiful white marble and housed some famous deceased, including the famous 'fado' singer, Amalia.  Fado is a type of singing very famous from Portugal, which seemed to me kind of a mix of folk and blues and opera, but I never heard much so I'm not sure.  There were also good views of Lisbon from the top of the Pantheon.

We made sure to eat one of the specialities of Lisbon, 'sardines', a very ubiquitous fish in the surrounding waters.  It had zillions of tiny bones, but they were so fine that you could eat them.

Finally, on the last day before the conference, which we dubbed 'church day' we  went inside several famous churches and monasteries.  One monastery had a huge exhibition of the azulejos which were telling parables that sometimes didn't make much sense!  There was a lot of intricate stone and woodwork in all the cathedrals and the differences between temples in China and in Europe were again striking.  Here is a random chapel that I don't remember the name of, but its quite pretty.

The most famous monastery was the Monastery of Belem, and its attached church.  It was HUGE and very beautiful, with intricate stonework that I've never seen the like of in Asia.  Asian temples do have things that awe, but somehow nothing to match the soaring arches and rose-windowed colored silent space of a cathedral.  There is a famous courtyard in the Manuelline style that was also breathtaking.

Me with the view from a mountain near Sintra

Where Have I Been?

Sorry for the hugely long lack of posting on my part - when in Portugal I was busy with sightseeing, conference, and hanging out with Adam in the evening, and then when I returned to China I have been frantically getting ready for my departure.  I only had 1.5 weeks from returning until I left China for (semi-) good, so I had a lot to do with cleaning, packing, organizing, giving away bigger household items I've bought, and saying goodbye to everyone in Beijing.  

By 'semi' good I mean that I have a crazy flight schedule for returning to the States, involving 4 straight days of transcontinental flying in mid-June!  My scholarship bought my original roundtrip ticket to and from China, and when I decided to stop off in France on the way home to see Max, my boyfriend, for a few weeks, I hoped that they could just change the city of my return ticket.  They were unable to change anything about the ticket however, leaving me with the choice of cancelling my return and buying 2 one-way tickets (Beijing-Paris, and Paris-US) or keeping the return and buying a roundtrip to Paris from China.  The latter option ended up being vastly cheaper, but it means that when I leave France on June 14th, I will travel to China, arrive on the morning of the 15th, and then have only 18 hours in Beijing before leaving for Chicago on the morning of the 16th.  Crazy!  So I will actually return to Beijing one last time, but only for a brief period and I will not have time to see anyone or do anything except re-pack my bags. 

Despite the inconvenience of this arrangement, it has its good sides as well; I did not have to pay extra luggage fees to take 2 checked bags to France, not to mention having to get around on planes/trains with too much stuff.  Plus I can still use my apartment in Beijing to store my stuff and sleep on the last night since my lease doesn't expire until June 20th.  I am currently on the plane from Beijing to Paris, on my way to Grenoble to see Max and other people that I knew when I lived in France.  I hope to post several consecutive blog posts as a catch-up for the past few weeks.

Portugal musings

Adam and I have had a great 3.5 days of sightseeing so far in Portugal!  We have seen so many amazing things and I have a ton of cool pictures but I don't have enough time to post them right now, as we've been hanging out in the evenings and working on our presentations.  But I wanted to give a brief outline of the things we've done and some major differences we've noticed in our short time here.

We've basically done many of the major tourist attractions in the main city of Lisbon, including a day trip to a little town called 'Sintra' which has several former royal palaces and a Moorish castle on a hill with fantastic views of the surrounding countryside and the ocean.  We've been to several museums, including an art museum, maritime history museum, and old coach museum.  We've seen several churches and monasteries in Lisbon, including the famous 'Jeronimos Monastery' which is just absolutely intricate and beautiful.

Things that have struck us about Lisbon/Portugal:

- Things are EXPENSIVE!!  China is cheap and Europe is expensive, so the combination is a bit staggering...umph!

-Sky - there is beautiful blue sky with fluffy white clouds everyday!  Its amazing! And we can breathe the air and our feet aren't dirty and our noses aren't completely stopped up...

-Diversity of people - we are not the only 'foreigners' anymore!  In Germany on our layover we noticed that we were short in height compared to Germans; that's not really a problem in Portugal but there are still loads of white and black people around, which is not so in China.

-Understanding conversations/signs - even in Portuguese, I can read most signs, at least the general idea, and Adam speaks fluent Spanish and can communicate with most people.  Its been so great!

- Slower pace of life/tranquility of everyday life.  Things are all rush rush rush in China, even worse than in the US, and Europe is famously opposite of that.

-The food...oh the food.  Its not American, but its generally recognizable, and many more dishes are based around a meat with vegetable sides in the way that is common in America. I am so gaining weight on this short vacation...

-Churches - there are cathedrals and churches everywhere.  Not so in China. Although there are no Buddhist/Daoist temples here ;)

Tomorrow we start our conference-attending in earnest, so our culture shock might trail off to some extent, but be ready for more pictures coming soon!

Portugal

Adam and I are currently in Portugal!  We both had abstracts accepted for a conference about HPV called Eurogin, and it will be my first oral presentation at a scientific conference.  I have had abstracts published before and done poster presentations, but never an oral.  I am a little nervous, but its only 12 minutes long, including questions, so hopefully I won't have time to screw up too badly!

We actually came to Portugal on Wednesday, a little early, to get in 3 days of sightseeing before the conference.  I have never been to Portugal before so I didn't want to see nothing but the conference center, which is quite possible during the conference itself since our boss from UNC will be here and we will most likely be really busy!  Stories and pictures from Portugal to come!

Carmen

Sometime recently, I decided that I wanted to see 'The Egg', or National Center for the Performing Arts, up close.  It was built around the same time as the grand Olympic Venues and was supposed to complement 'The Bird's Nest' in name as well as in architectural design.  It resembles a huge smooth grey egg from far away, but up close and inside it has further wonders of design, as I discovered when I went to see an opera with Adam, Alison, and a french friend of Lara's (and mine) named Audrey.  

Audrey and I

There were wall designs evocative of the outside of the Olympic Stadium, cool statues, and - get this - the walkway from the outside into the atrium had a glass ceiling, with flowing water on top which was visible from underneath.  It was really quite impressive.  And the building glitters at night!

An upstairs atrium with the sloping outside wall on the left

A cool sculpture

We saw the French opera 'Carmen' since there were no Chinese operas showing.  It was really Carmen with Chinese characteristics anyway as all the actors were Chinese except for the 3 main characters, and there were more than twice as many extras as normal per Adam who is more experienced with opera than I.  I suppose that makes sense since 1/5 of the world's population lives in this country - lots of people auditioned!  We had a mild fiasco with cameras not being allowed inside; Adam and Alison got caught with theirs and had to check them - but I managed to sneak mine inside and got some good shots.  It was a very enjoyable evening on the whole :)

A scene in Carmen

Adam, Alison, and I

We were in the 3rd balcony!!

Adam and Alison outside the Egg after the show

Soong Ching Ling

Shane left on a Saturday morning, and that Sunday I decided to visit the former home of Soong Ching Ling, the wife of Sun Yat-sen and Chinese revolutionary in her own right.  Visiting places like this make me heartily wish I had taken some Chinese history in high school or college, because I feel like I'm visiting blind.  I had heard of Sun Yat-sen before my visit, and knew that he was involved with overthrowing the last emperors, but that's about it, and I knew next to nothing about his wife.  When I visit historic places, I feel like I only pick up tidbits that can fit into the extremely sketchy historical framework I possess, and if I had more of a framework my visits would be more meaningful.  I also feel like I risk falling for government propaganda when I don't have independent scholarship to support me.

Qianhai Lake, right outside Soong Ching Ling's house

Regardless, I thought Soong Ching Ling's house and museum were really well done.  The museum walked visitors chronologically through her life from birth to death, and by the time I finished, I felt like I really knew her!  I actually shed a tear or two viewing pictures of her at her funeral and of the nation in mourning.  I had no idea that she had attended college in Alabama, but this was instrumental in her life as a revolutionary and activist as she maintained friendships with Americans throughout her life and did much of her revolutionary work in English.  She was able to really spread the message to the world about the Chinese people struggling to overthrow the emperors in a way that would not have been possible without fluency reading and writing in English.

A picture of her college in Alabama, along with some Vermont syrup she brought
home from the States on vacation!

The pistol Sun Yat-Sen gave her as a wedding present...not exactly what I
hope to receive on my wedding day!

I also thought it was interesting that during the years of the Cultural Revolution and the years of opening to the world that followed, the museum really managed to portray her life without mentioning that time period.  Its amazing how you can fill in gaps with trivial activities which still make people look fantastic - her activities according to the museum during that time were humanitarian and focused around China's schoolchildren and orphans.  This is where I most keenly felt my lack of outside knowledge about her and her life.

I think this is a statue of Sun Yat-sen

About 20 years ago, the government gave her the house near Qianhai lake in the hutongs of Beijing, and she lived there until her death.  The furniture and rooms are preserved well and the signage is again superb, allowing visitors to imagine her reading, working, and entertaining in the various rooms.  The gardens were also very pretty, as they used to belong to a Ming courtier before her.  On the whole, I felt like I learned about an admirable women in Chinese history during my visit, but I need to do some additional research to really understand her role.

Garden outside her house, with a picture of her visible through the
trees on a poster.