-Finally it's time to add another chapter to this blog thing. For a while I was questioning whether or not I even need to keep it up, as my days have become more routine and there wasn't so much to write about other than "my roommate said something funny today..." But! That is not true. I guess it's just getting to the point where it will take a bit longer to accumulate enough interesting things to justify creating a post. So here we go:
-First off, I have to talk about how I finally EXERCISED today! It was pretty amazing. As cold as it's been so far, I haven't had any desire to do anything physical outside. And there aren't exactly any indoor basketball courts for me to play on. Even the gym only has weights outside. But the weather has gradually improved, and suddenly it is amazing out! Today it got up to 65 degrees, and a group of us went out to the sports fields to play some soccer. The pickup game was huge, with a good number more than 11 on each side most of the time. Yet we were playing on only half a field. That turned out to be a blessing because, in case you hadn't heard, when you haven't done so much as run in over two months, it becomes a little difficult to do so. I still had a ton of fun, getting the old endorphins going and remembering how much I love the game. We split teams between Chinese and foreigners, just a team could actually communicate. The locals here are pretty good and SOMEHOW beat us. But I blame it on the fact that it was really a game of 'which team is outnumbered this time?' as people kept coming in and out so often. I came back feeling good, and the pollution was not so bad, as far as I could tell.
-My teaching job has been going pretty steady. It looks like I've locked down a regular time on Sundays, which is the best anyways because it's movie day. Last time we watched Casablanca, a much more interesting movie than I had remembered. We put the subtitles on, and I wrote down difficult words or expressions as they came up. Then every 10-15 minutes or so, we stopped and explained the words. My roommate Mike helped me out this time. Him, combined with the fact that we had such a structured format, made things a lot smoother and sooo much more fun.
-I can't exactly say the same about my OTHER teaching job, however (yea that's right). I walked into the Study English Bar one day and the Peng, owner immediately jumped on me. "Do you want to teach tomorrow at a high school? They will come pick you up." Sure why not, I thought. I had to be there at 1:30 the next day, and a gruff Beijing man came right away to take me. He of course didn't speak any English, but I was able to hold some conversation with him on the way. He pointed out a good place to hike in the mountains and an indoor shooting range...surprising because I had always thought guns were illegal in China. I guess you can only use them there. The school turned out to be way out on the outskirts of town, a 30 minute drive with no traffic. When we arrived I was brought into a small room with 3-4 young women, all of whom were teachers. They all were very happy to have me there. One woman introduced herself and gave me my brief instructions. The regular English teacher had suddenly told them she could no longer come on Wednesdays, so they were very glad that I could come on such short notice. Apparently I was to be teaching two classes. The students' English was very poor she said, which makes sense because middle school is usually when kids here begin learning, at the earliest. I asked her if she wanted me to speak only in English. She told me that I should for the most part, but if they have a difficult time understanding I can speak Chinese. She then quickly had to leave for a lecture but told me she would come get me when my class was to start. I had 'some time to prepare,' but that didn't mean much because they didn't give me anything to prepare with. All I had was a pocket-sized phrase book that Peng had given me before I left. The book began with various things you would say in the morning. "Good morning." "Did your alarm clock go off?" "Did you sleep well last night?" Pretty simple. I wrote down a number of phrases and copied down the characters and pinyin to make sure I could explain their meaning. While I waited I talked with the other teachers. They were all about my age and were very, very nice. A few times people (I couldn't tell if they were teachers or students) would come into the room for a minute, and they seemed to smile when they saw me there. I got the impression that foreigners aren't so common at this place. After about 45 minutes, I was taken upstairs to a small classroom with 12 desks, a blackboard and some chalk. The students came in pretty quickly, and I immediately could see that this was going to be very different from the adult classes I had been teaching. These were not people that came to learn of their own accord; these were kids...who had to take English because of a requirement. There was a large amount of apathy, and they acted pretty much the way you would expect a high schooler to act around a substitute teacher. However, there weren't too many problems. Those who were being disruptive I just made participate more, and the woman who had given me instructions sat in the back to help keep order. I started with a few phrases and had them repeat. Then I would put them together to create a short dialogue and had them recite it, with one or two blanks in each sentence where they could pick their own word to use. I was a little surprised at how long it took them to understand, but I guess I had overestimated their language level. The only difficult part was the complete blank stares I got. On difficult words I wrote the meaning out in Chinese characters and tried to explain it in Chinese. Still, they barely even reacted. The time actually went by pretty quickly, and I was told the next group would be middle schoolers, who would be "better behaved." They were for the most part, except for one especially loudmouthed kid. He was funny, though and loudly said "Hey teacher!" when he came in. This time I decided to try to make things more interesting (the last class had seemed painfully bored) and skip the book for a while. I just started talking with the kids and asking them what they liked to do for fun. I again made a little dialogue that I put on the board. But once again, all I got was blank stares. This time it was even worse. They didn't seem to know hardly any English at all. Whenever I asked them a question, they looked around, confused, and could only respond after I basically outlined what they should say. Again, my Chinese didn't help either. After class I was invited to eat at the cafeteria. The food was all Korean...pretty good, but not quite up to the Chinese food I usually eat. I guess it was cafeteria food anyways, what should I expect? At that time, I learned something that was good to know. It turned out that all the students were KOREAN and spoke Chinese about as well as they spoke English. That explained why their dialect sounded so foreign! Plus it was good to know that I didn't need to bother speaking Mandarin anymore. Though I realized it is going to be really difficult to teach with no common language whatsoever. After dinner the teachers sat with me and asked what kind of schedule I wanted. Apparently I was not just substituting for the English teacher, I was the new English teacher. We decided that I would come in on Sundays and Wednesdays, and they would come pick me up every time. Not a bad deal. When I went to the English Study Bar again, however, Peng told me that he needed me to work for him Sundays, and he had already arranged for one of my classmates to take over for me at the school. That was actually a relief, because I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with that twice a week.

My New Hangout Spot

-So it has been a long time since my last entry, but there is good reason for that: not too many eventful things have happened. I’m at the point where I’ve settled in pretty well to my routine, and there aren’t many new and crazy things I do during the day. That isn’t to say I’m not enjoying myself; I’m still having a blast!

-I’ve been hanging out at the Study English Bar a lot lately. It started when we didn’t have internet in our dorm because they have free wireless, delicious free beverages (the first time there they gave us kiwi milk tea—soooooo good), and plenty of Chinese-speakers eager to converse with you! So now I’ve gotten in the habit of bringing my laptop and schoolwork there a couple times a week. It’s a great place to do my Chinese homework because if I have a question about anything, I can just ask anybody there. I got my best grade so far on my latest weekly journal because I had people there look over it and give me suggestions.

-I’m also really happy at how many people I’ve been able to meet there. I now have a few people I exchange emails with. It’s unbelievable how much of a difference it makes to have native speakers to practice Chinese with. I feel like I’m starting to turn the corner in my understanding of the language. A while ago I realized that my biggest problem was I didn’t know hardly any vocabulary. So I decided to work on memorizing as many helpful terms as I could and to just throw them together in a sentence, worrying about grammar later. It worked, because by conversing with native speakers I started to pick up on how their sentences are structured. The next step for me is to improve my listening comprehension, which I suppose mostly means vocabulary. I can express myself pretty well, but if someone speaks to me I often have to think for a minute before I fully understand what they said. My teacher and some friends have told me that watching Chinese TV actually helps a lot. It gets your ears attuned to the language. So I think when I’m sitting in my room doing nothing, I’ll trying turning on the tube for a while.

-The weather has been surprisingly nice lately. I guess it’s becoming Spring! The more I think about it, the more the New Year here makes sense. Whereas ours happens randomly in the middle of the bleak, cold winter, the Chinese New Year takes place at the end of the winter. So the new year actually feels new, as the weather begins to warm up. I’m amazed how on 40-degree days we’ve been ecstatic as to how nice the weather is. Back home I would be huddled up in a blanket in front of the fire. I guess my body is toughening up! Apparently the temp got up to 50 degrees this week! Simply amazing. There have also been several days of blue skies, something that just doesn’t happen here. I learned last week that there are mountains outside of Beijing. I just could never see them before. A friend from the English Study Bar actually invited me to go hiking on one of them, which apparently is a big thing to do around here. I’ll have to check it out.

-Thursday I began my first day teaching English at the study bar! It was actually a bit harder than I was expecting. They just gave me a “common phrases” book (that had obviously seen better days) and put me in front of a class. Most of the students that day were also coming for their first time, so I wasn’t exactly sure where I should start. It was an adult class, so everyone could speak really well. They just needed to learn commonly used colloquial phrases. It was difficult to find where to start, but once I got started on a subject it became really easy to find related topics to jump to. I taught them things like “going off on a tangent” (because I seemed to keep doing that), “take a hike” and “put on an act.” By the end they were just asking me various questions, like the difference between jogging and hiking, American holidays, and other stuff. I’ll be teaching again at 6pm today, I hope it goes well again!

-On to the important stuff, the Chinese New Year. At the wee hour of 8:00 on chuxi (New Year’s Eve) we packed into a bus and headed to Taiyuan, a big city near to Pingyao, where we were to spend the next few nights. They took us to Taiyuan for the New Year just to make sure we got the real experience of the holiday. Boy, was I glad they did.

-The scenery on the way up was very beautiful, yet strikingly bizarre. I could not really compare it with any place in the states because it was such a mix of things I hadn’t seen together. We traveled through mountains with 10-ft wide terraces. Cities contained regular buildings mixed in with structures built in to the mountains, similar to the cliff dwellings in the Southwest US.

-Before arriving in Taiyuan, we stopped at a Buddhist temple. Very beautiful and peaceful, as well as HUGE. We walked about a quarter of a mile in what I thought was the temple, when it turned out we were just in the “front yard.” There were many buildings, ponds, and streams, the place was surrounded by mountains, and it was filled with tall trees. One giant tree was growing at about a 30 degree angle, which it had apparently been doing since the temple was built, over 1000 years ago. There were many buildings with statues of Buddha surrounded by incense, where people would come to pray and leave an offering. Unfortunately Buddha is not supposed to be photographed, so I couldn’t get any pictures of the elaborate statues.

-At one of the few rest areas, I got a taste of what New Year was going to be like. There were all these strange exploding sounds coming from all around us. Were we in a bombing range? No, those were firecrackers, going off literally every second. When we arrived in Taiyuan, it was exactly the same, only getting more intense as the day went on. By the time the sun went down, I felt like we were in a war zone. We had a little fun making fools of ourselves running and ducking behind corners to give ourselves the full effect. Then! Starting around 11:30, fireworks really started going off. It was like the climax of the fireworks on the 4^th of July, but it lasted for over an hour, all around us. It seemed as though every point in the city had someone shooting them off. Simply amazing. I made sure to take a 10-minute long video of it while leaning out our hotel window, just to prove to people how ridiculous it was.

-On the road again, we stopped at some fancy mansion or something to visit. I remember so little about the attraction because of what happened before I got to it. When I first got off the bus, I had to immediately find a bathroom. Dr. Li pointed one out to me but said it’s “probably not very good.” Considering the state of most bathrooms in China, I wasn’t afraid. It was probably just a bit dirty, like most of them, right? No. The women’s room was a small shack, while the men’s “room” was a curtain with a bucket behind it. HA! I couldn’t help but laugh. What really got me was that as I left, two people ran out saying “Wu mao! Wu mao!” They were actually trying to charge me for that. My first reaction was to just crack up. Somehow I didn’t feel like that restroom cost them very much money in upkeep.

-We then went to find some lunch. Eerily, there was a row of restaurants that all looked exactly the same, inside and out. And none of them could serve more than one table of us because they said “it would take too long.” A group of us went into one place, mainly because a woman ran outside with her menu, very intent on getting us to eat there. It didn’t seem like the best idea to eat at the one place that’s desperate for customers, but they all seemed the same anyways. As we were sitting down, the woman ran outside again and chased after another group from our program and convinced them to come in. They seemed very friendly when taking our order, and they brought out the first dish someone had ordered. It wasn’t bad. But we didn’t get another dish for about 45 minutes. A group of Chinese people came in and sat down about 20 minutes after we had gotten there. We didn’t think much of it when they got one or two dishes before us, but soon it became apparent that they were getting their entire meal before us. We had a deadline to make in order to get into the mansion place with the group, so this was ridiculous. Yay for the “American” service. We couldn’t even do much other than think about leaving because we had no idea how to say what we needed in Chinese. Fortunately, one of our program directors came in, and after hearing what was going on, gave the owners what was coming to them. Our food then came out immediately, but I feel like they just threw together whatever they could as soon as possible. It was by far the worst food I’d had in China. Frustrated, we threw money on the table and left. In the states I wouldn’t have even considered putting money down, but I’m not sure I could have done that to people in China who are obviously so poor.

-Our next stop was Pingyao, a small, very historic town. The weather was much colder, though not as bad as Harbin. However, it was made 10 times worse because for some reason our hotel did not have HEAT! Well, that’s not fair to say. There was a guy who appeared to be working hard shoveling coal into an oven, which apparently was supposed to heat the rooms. All I know is that I could touch my radiator without it feeling hot at all, and I could see my breath in my room. We went outside to huddle around a brick oven when we wanted to warm up. I should be fair and say that not everyone was stuck without heat. The town was so small that no hotel could fit our entire group, so they split us up by gender into two hotels. The boys got what I like to call “the shaft.” We didn’t have heat, the girls did. We slept on wooden platforms with a blanket folded over it as a “mattress,” the girls had normal twin beds. Our bathroom consisted of a toilet that didn’t flush, a “shower” that was simply a faucet sticking out of one of the walls (you were expected to just stand in the middle of the floor to shower), and an overbearing stench of feces. Take that back, the entire room smelled of it. The girls had a standup-shower with jets, JETS! They also got full-sized towels, while we were given a nice, 1ft by 2ft loincloth to use when we showered. I was at least happy to see that what I thought was a tiny towel was actually TWO really thin, tiny towels. Great! I can dry off BOTH my hands now! Also we only “got hot water” between the hours of 7-11pm (I actually never found any hot water during those hours even), while the girls had hot water the entire day. But! I’m not complaining. I actually thought the hotel was very pretty, especially the little courtyard area outside. I just find it funny to list the infinite number of ways in which the girls had it better than us. This is China! Whatever happened the Confucianist chauvinism? The town was very charming, with narrow stone streets that felt like a labyrinth and reminded me of my time in Antigua, Guatemala. The streets were filled with merchants selling statuettes, swords, furs, and whatever else you wanted. I bought a very ancient-looking xylophone-type instrument and a GORGEOUS vertical landscape painting in watercolor.

-You could, however, tell how much of a tourist town Pingyao was, and once again, everyone did their best to rip off the foreigners. I can’t say I blame them, considering how much wealthier I’m sure we are than any of the merchants, but it did get pretty annoying. We learned the best call for restaurants was to find the ones where a). There was no English writing on the outside and b). The inside was filled with Chinese customers. We managed to find the best food I’ve had in China so far using that strategy.

2/11/2008

-Once again, I’m back in Beijing, this time after a slightly less frozen adventure in Taiyuan and Pingyao for the Chinese New Year! I return to find that most of the city is still on vacation for another week (slackers). This means:

1. I have no internet. We’re not quite sure what the story is, but it’s not here. I’ve heard that all the IT guys are on vacation, so nobody has fixed the internet after one of its routine breakdowns that happen once every 30 hours or so. Others say that the school intentionally cut off the internet because it interferes with the school’s wireless systems, if that even makes sense. There is also rumor that a giant beast invaded the server while we were all in Harbin, to only release its grip on the school’s internet after a so-called “chosen one” arises to slay it. Either way, I am stuck without internet in my dorm. Somehow the PKU campus wireless still works, as does the internet at our program directors’ offices across the street. I think once again we’re just getting the “American” service. If I do need to go online I can easily go to the SIS building across the street. The Study English Bar also has free wireless, and they give you delicious free drinks like kiwi tea! So it’s not actually that bad.

2. None of the cafeterias on campus are open. Well, that’s not actually true. There is one eatery I have dubbed “the rice house,” simply because every other campus food place is called the _____ house, and this place serves rice. And they do have many other things! The typical choice is a selection of stir-fry dishes that they will then dump a bowl’s worth of rice onto. Yet, in the morning they have baozi (delicious, delicious dumplings, bigger than regular Chinese dumplings with a thicker breading) and we were happy to find at lunch today that they also had jaozi (the regular old Chinese dumplings). The place is not bad, but I’m a little afraid I will tire of it soon. There are usually about 6 eateries in our immediate vicinity to choose from, plus the eight jillion random other ones spread about campus. And I miss the noodle house!!

3. The banks are not open. Well, that’s not true either. The only bank that is of any use to me is not open, that is the Bank of China. I went across the street to the Bank of Beijing to happily see it was open. Yet, for some reason, despite the many transactions they were obviously performing at the time, I was told I could not cash my traveler’s checks because “they were on holiday.” Oh well. It’s not like I spent all of my cash and don’t have a check card to get money out of an ATM. …wait, it is like that? Hm. In all seriousness, it isn’t much of a problem. Since RMB has such a low value compared to the dollar, it’s very easy to borrow money from friends here. It’s just a bit annoying to think I will have to do that for a whole other week.

-So you may have noticed I never finished retelling the Harbin trip. In a nutshell, we went to snow world the next day, it was fun but not as fun as ice world, we flew back home, and that’s the end of it. A few noteworthy events to mention:

1. While in the shower Saturday night in Harbin I noticed the phone was ringing. I was especially surprised because this was a bathroom, and what the hell was a phone doing there? Obviously I couldn’t answer it at the time, so I continued on with my business. Perhaps our room phone was located in the bathroom, or maybe you could call the bathroom phone from the room and my roommates thought that was the funniest thing in the world to do? Could be anything. Once I stepped out of the shower, the phone rang again, so I answered. A bunch of incomprehensible Chinese followed, until they realized I only spoke English, when they said “Beautiful girl?” …what? I was confused. “You want…beautiful girl?” HA! Ohhhhh. No no no no no was my response, and I laughed hysterically after hanging up. Although I was so curious as to what exactly would have happened if I’d said yes.

2. The next day we took a gondola to cross the river to snow world. It was fun.

3. That night a few of us decided to wander into the bright, flashy club across the street. There were so many lights, it had to be important! We were led to a table immediately. Hm, I thought, I’d never been led to table in a club before. Wait a minute, there are poles everywhere here. Wait a minute, a GIRL just walked out and started DANCING on that pole. Ohhhhh. I started to wonder what section of town we were in. Laughing, we quickly left, but not before noticing the menu. It listed items around the range of 5800 kuai…I’m not sure I want to know what that was.

4. The next morning I tried to watch the Superbowl at 7am, but no! The best we could get was espn.com’s gamecast, which is a sad, sad thing. The fact that the Patriots lost made up for it a little, and seeing a pot of porridge labeled “gruel” at breakfast made up for it a lot. Ohhh translations in China. How poor they are.

5. At the airport restaurant we were handed menus in Cyrillic. I guess we look Russian.

Ice World!

2/5/2008

-Ice world! We had made it. Words really cannot describe with justice the beauty of this place, so hopefully the pictures can do a better job. Even from the outside we were amazed. The entrance was set up like a giant castle, and a ten-foot high wall of ice surrounded the perimeter. I was actually surprised at how big it was. It really was an entire amusement park…made of ice.

-First things first, after the longest, coldest walk of my life, we needed to warm up and get some grub. There was a small shack/convenience store in the parking lot. All they had to eat were “just add water” buckets of noodles. But man, those were the best noodles I’d had in my life. =)

-We went in! Like I said, I cannot do this place justice with words. The place was filled with many buildings and sculptures, all of which had different colored fluorescent lights inside the ice. So the entire city glowed with color. The first station we stopped at had a set of completely accurate-looking, life-sized cars. I liked them a lot, and yet they still were probably the least interesting exhibit of all. Other buildings included a Forbidden City palace with steps going up two stories to the top, Westminster Abbey (or Notre Damne, I couldn’t tell), a Greek acropolis about five stories high with steps going up to the top, a Disney-like castle, and plenty of other buildings that were probably replicas of things I simply wasn’t familiar with. In the center was a 100-200ft high tower that flashed and changed colors in various patterns. A 10ft-wide orange and white walkway ran in a loop around the park. If you’ve ever played Mario Kart, it was basically the rainbow road. That’s right. Best of all, there was a five-story high ice luge made in the shape of the Great Wall. They sent us shooting down on a tiny plastic sled. I couldn’t believe how fast it went! They have a pile of soft snow for you to crash into at the end, and as soon as you do a big, burly Chinese man picks you up and throws you to the side, just as the person behind you comes flying in.

-Yea that’s another thing, this place could never exist in the states. It would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. They didn’t bother with any “handrails,” “regulations” or “safety.” On the luge alone, I don’t understand how somebody doesn’t get run into every five minutes. It’s really too bad that Americans have to be so paranoid and quick to sue people at the drop of a hat. This was an amazing park.

-So you may have noticed that an entire city of ice would require the place to be pretty dang cold. It was…and then some. How cold was it you ask? We never got an exact number because we never found any thermometers, but it was so cold that the batteries in my camera froze. At first I thought the batteries I used just ran out quickly, but when I put a brand-new pair in and it immediately said “low battery” and turned off, I realized what was happening. By the end of the night, I had to clasp the batteries in my hands for several minutes just to warm them up enough to take one, maybe two pictures before they froze up again. Within seconds they were unusable. I was bundled up enough that I didn’t feel all that cold, meaning I didn’t feel like my health was in danger by being outside. Some of our friends, however, were not dressed well enough to feel that confident, so we had to make sure to take a break inside every once in a while. Fortunately, they had plenty of heated cafés spread about the place, so we never had to worry.

-On our trip back we grabbed the first taxi driver we saw but made SURE to ask him how much ahead of time. He told us 80 kuai to fit all six of us in one cab, which isn’t even a good deal but at that point we didn’t care. We were cold, and that was good enough. Yet, when we finally got to the hotel the guy thought he could get away with telling us there was an extra “20 kuai fee.” No way, buddy. We threw 80 at him and got out, despite what he yelled at us. It seems like everybody tries to squeeze extra money out of us.

Frozen River Fun

2/4/2008 (cont’d)

-Our next job was to meander on over to the river, which we would cross and make it to ice world! I say meander because we didn’t really have an exact idea of how to get there. But since the river loops around the town, there’s only so far you can go before you eventually hit the river anyways. On our way, we got an idea of Harbin’s personality. First of all, it was just as crowded as Beijing, if not more so. All of the shops had people out front doing everything they could to attract customers. Some had speakers blasting rave music that you could hear several blocks away. Some had people singing with a microphone and speakers, or even just a guy yelling things into a megaphone.

-I also had never felt like such a target before in my life, but I suppose a group of six Americans is pretty hard not to spot in a place such as this. Everyone who saw us chased after us, saying “Hello!” followed by a bunch of Chinese that in some way was instructing us to buy things. The one cool thing about being hassled so much is it allowed me to bargain, something I hadn’t experienced yet in China. I remember bargaining in Guatemala, only barely knowing how to say numbers in Spanish. Now it was nice to have a quicker understanding of what I was saying and hearing, and I could even throw in a few phrases to make the bargaining more genuine. I felt a little too guilty to bargain the person down all that much, though, since I could really afford it more than any of them could.

-On our way to the river, I saw a funny-looking dog that I stopped to take a picture of. As I did, a woman came up and tried to get me to buy the dog from her. I’m pretty sure she was not the owner, as she kept on walking when I said no.

-The river itself was gorgeous! Tons of entertainment was set up along the “shore,” like snow tubing, an ice luge, skating, and of course, blaring music. People sat on horse-drawn carriages and dog sleds to take people across, and far off in the distance we could see a cable car taking people across by the sky route. We, however, decided to go the fun way and cross it by foot! The river was incredibly wide, maybe as much as half a mile. Very slippery at parts but most of it was covered in snow as well. At the areas of exposed ice, you could see it was frozen for at least a meter down.

-Once we made it across the river, we were eager to find this magical world of ice! But as we started walking, we realized the island was empty. Where were all the people coming to see the festival? This was a bit strange. The few people we could find to ask said there was no ice festival on the island and pointed us back to where we came from. No! This couldn’t be! Determined, we began walking towards the cable car line. Surely the gondolas were there to take people to the ice world. The one problem? It was getting dark, and with darkness came even more cold. I hadn’t really thought that could be possible at this point. It took us a good long walk to make it to the cable car let off point, where we saw bright green lights. Yes! This was it! No. Actually, this was snow world, an area of various snow sculptures. This was another cool attraction (no pun intended) that we were planning on visiting but not nearly as good as ice world. Plus, it was closed at night. Fortunately, there was still someone at the ticket booth who told us to travel down the road a bit further, but that we “should take a cab because it is far.” Somehow, though, there were no cabs in existence on this stretch of abandoned road. So we continued to walk, across a long bridge, and on to roads that seemed to be going further and further away from civilization. I began to get a little nervous about our situation… We were wandering blindly through Siberia in the dark with the temperature rapidly dropping, and we had no idea exactly how far we needed to go. This is the way bad things can happen. Then! Miraculously, we came upon a slew of taxis waiting in a parking lot, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We couldn’t believe or understand it, but we didn’t care! We all piled into a taxi van that took us quickly to ice world. It turned out to not be much farther away but still was further than we would have (or should have) walked.

2/4/2008

-It appears that whenever I write a post, I get suddenly cut off before I can really finish. Maybe I just type too slowly. Anyways, I’m now back in Beijing. It is almost hilarious how warm this place feels! A week ago I could barely stand to go outside. I had to bundle up in every way just to walk down the block to the market. But now! I happily stroll down the streets at night with no gloves or earmuffs, my coat unzipped even. No exaggeration, Beijing feels like springtime compared to Harbin.

-So yes, Harbin was cold. Ohhh so cold. My daily outfit included long underwear (top and bottom), warm pants, a T-shirt, a long-sleeved warmer shirt, another long-sleeved shirt, a fleece, and my heavy down coat. Of course I also had two pairs of socks, gloves, and earmuffs. I was still cold. The high is usually around 15-17 degrees, while the coldest part of the night is probably around -10. That’s right, below zero. A wee southern lad like me couldn’t even imagine such temperatures. Our first step out into the day was probably about the same as a cold day in the North Carolina winter would be…if you were naked.

-Our goals for day 2 were to see the St. Sophia church, then wander around town to the frozen river, which we would cross to find ice world! The church was very beautiful but rather small. Apparently it was one of the few Russian Orthodox churches that survived the liberation of Harbin by the glorious People’s Republic. Actually, I think the city became Chinese way before 1949, but I’m keeping that phrase there. Anyways, the church was no longer being used for religious services and was just set up as a museum inside. Still very pretty.

-One thing made me a bit sad. I had thought Beijing was polluted. Oh no no no no. Beijing at least has mostly transparent air. Harbin, however, has a thick smoky haze to it. The day seemed very foggy, but no that was just toxic gas. I could actually feel it in my throat this time. I guess that’s what the improved environmental efforts in Beijing are doing. They’re keeping it from looking like Harbin! Fortunately, the smoke did seem to clear out in the afternoon and we were able to even see blue skies.

-The town itself is pretty trashy. Part of it may be our less than cheery introduction to the city with the taxi drivers, but everything seemed rather dark and eerie. Buildings were all covered in some sort of black soot, and the streets were spotted with slabs of ice made from questionable liquids. We ended up walking through a pretty cool street market, though, with lots of trinkets and delicious-smelling foods. Despite the calls from my stomach, I refrained from buying any of the street eats. I’m sure I’ll end up eating some street food sooner or later, but I don’t really want to risk it away from Beijing. Before too long we found a tiny little soup shop with some scrumptious noodle/soup stuff! I’m not sure how much I’ve gone into detail over the food here, but one of my favorite things now is a meat broth with noodles, vegetables and pieces of meat (which are usually just to add flavor and have too much cartilage to actually eat). This was by far the best I’ve had so far in China.

First Night(mares) =)

2/3/2008

-Harbin! The land of magical dreams! Let me keep you updated on the comings and goings of our trip so far:

-First night. We arrived a bit later than expected, partly because of our plane being delayed 40 minutes and partly because we mixed up the time of our flight. We also showed up about a million hours ahead of time to make sure we got through the supposed hellish traffic of Chinese New Year, so there was lots of sitting around. Fortunately I brought my ipod so I was well entertained by watching UNC take out dook on their home floor in 2001. We ended up at Harbin airport around 12:30 am, quickly bundling ourselves up as much as possible before getting off the plane. I was already cold going through the walkway between the plane and the airport, so I knew we were in for some fun.

Before we could even make it out of the airport, a horde of taxi drivers descended upon us. Our group had gotten split up at the baggage claim, so I was trying to find the rest of my friends before any of us got into a taxi. The drivers, however, would have none of it. They were yelling, standing in our way, even grabbing our luggage to “assist” us, trying to make us choose them as our chauffeurs. We found the rest of our group at the exit, but still wanted to get outside and see the cabs before we agreed to anybody’s offer. We had already heard about unregistered taxis in Beijing who try to rip foreigners off. Fortunately, those can be clearly spotted because they don’t have any “Taxi” sign on the top, nor do they have the registration stickers on their windshield and dashboard. They basically look like normal cars. As we were walking towards the cabs, the first group of drivers still wouldn’t leave us alone. A couple actually began pushing us towards their cab, and I literally had to grab my suitcase from them to keep them from taking it for me. We found two cabs that looked legit (at least they looked like the legit ones in Beijing), but I was still nervous at how excited and eager they were to take us for a ride. We had the name of the hotel written in characters on a sheet of paper, so we had to show it to both drivers before either of us could go. The second driver went ahead and put my luggage in the trunk before we had even shown him where we were going. Fortunately, I was relieved to see stickers on his windshield and dash, so I was feeling alright. It was amazing already to see the culture change after leaving Beijing. Dr. Sun had told us to watch out in traveling to Harbin, that the people in the north are “not as nice” as in Beijing. Maybe this is what he was talking about.

Anyways, we’re riding along for about 5 minutes when we get a call from the girls in the other cab. They were making sure our meter was running because their driver hadn’t turned on his and just said “you’re both going the same place, so you’ll pay the same as the others.” Ours was running, so everything seemed okay, but still…that’s a little strange. We realized it was even more strange in a few minutes when our meter had already hit 60 kuai after driving for no more than 10 minutes. An hour-long drive in Beijing only gets up to about 75 kuai. This wasn’t right. We had assumed since he had a meter on that it was legit, but no. He apparently had a faster setting to put it on for the “American” taxi ride. Now it makes sense why each driver was so eager to grab us as their customers. The worst part was we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Even if we had known enough Chinese to argue with him (which we didn’t), we couldn’t really say anything when he had a meter telling us the “correct” price. And if we refused to pay that much, what would he do? We were in the middle of cold Siberia, after midnight, in a town we don’t know whatsoever. Even Beijing seemed safe and sound compared to this place. We realized just how far away from home we were. Fortunately, the driver indeed took us to our hotel, and the price wasn’t TOO bad, at least not nearly as high as we were fearing it would be. 170 kuai for each cab (a little over $20). We could get over that.

Checking into our hotel took a little while, as nobody at the desk spoke any English. Fortunately, Hillary has taken up to 400 level Chinese, so she was able to do most of the talking for us. We were still, however, pretty paranoid that every step we took, somebody was going to rip us off. It was amazing, while waiting in the lobby two different cabs could see us through the glass and stopped outside. I had never felt like such a target. We ended up getting everything straightened out with the room and spent the rest of the night laughing about how everything was going to be a trick. We imagined getting into the shower, only to have a cage fall down around us, requiring money to exit. Our sleep was comfortable if short.

2/1/2008

-Today is Friday, a very IMPORTANT day. It is because we are leaving for Harbin tonight! *gasp* I’m still a little nervous as to how this whole thing will work out. We’re flying off on a plane to some mysterious land in the north where we supposedly have a hotel room booked. What will actually happen…I’ll have to wait and see.

1/30/08

-Laundry day! I figured after nearly three weeks it was about time, despite my total procrastination. I was hoping to put it off long enough that the problem would just go away, but apparently that doesn’t happen. Fortunately the washing machine is on our floor and the maids were right there to help me (read: do everything for me). I was at least able to hold the entire conversation in Chinese! There may not be too many linguistic intricacies in “I don’t know how to use this,” but I was happy with myself. Now I have time to kill while I play the waiting game.

-Wednesdays are my free day, meaning I only have my language class from 9-12 and then I’m free! It’s even nicer because, unlike home, there are very few ways I can waste my time. The only things I have to choose are sitting around twiddling my thumbs or accomplishing something.

-Today my accomplishment was to check out the “single’s bar” on the way to Wudaokao. No, I’m not trying to explore the dating scene of Beijing. Instead, I’m taking advantage of their need for English teachers! The guy who owns it, Pang, has set up a bunch of classes there for people to learn English or Chinese, and they are looking for native speakers of either to teach classes in the afternoons/evenings. A number of students from our program have already signed up, including my roommate, and they love it. They basically just hand you a book and put you in front of a class. And the staff is so appreciative! Apparently you get a free meal and all the drinks you want, in addition to the 100 kuai/hour. Because of the Spring Festival, I won’t get to start for about two weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.

-You might ask, how could I possibly wait two weeks to start such a fun endeavor? Because Spring Festival will be AMAZING of course! Everyday I hear more sweet things about Harbin. Not only is it supposedly the “Paris of the East” but also home to the most beautiful people in the world, according to our language instructor.

A pretty vanilla week, honestly

1/26

-Well it’s been almost a week since I’ve added anything, and once again it’s a weekend morning, so I guess that means I’m about due for another entry. A couple times this week I had time to blog it up, but I really wouldn’t have had anything to say. This week has been rather uneventful, but mostly because at this point we’ve gotten into the swing of things and not so much is new. This place is old, I’m tired of it. Just kidding.

-We had our first test in language class yesterday. Some people were stressing over it ahead of time, but I wasn’t too worried. It’s all pass fail! So everything here is just fun and games. The test was kind of crazy actually. The reading comprehension was full of words we’d never seen before. That’s a pretty common theme in our class, actually. When we were reviewing grammar right before the test, none of us could completely read any of the sample sentences. I guess that’s just the Chinese way...

-Speaking of language, a really cool thing happened Thursday night. I made a pengyou! (that is, friend) Like I’ve been saying, I haven’t really interacted with the locals too much so far, which is too bad because that was one of my main goals in going to a country that speaks another language. But! This Thursday I got home from my internship way later than everybody as usual, so I went to the jiaozi house (dumplings, yum!) by myself to get some food. As I was sitting at my table, a Chinese girl sat down next to me. This is pretty common since the cafeterias are usually pretty crowded, but I thought it was a bit strange since there were plenty of open tables. The funny thing is that, if that happened back home, the two people would usually acknowledge each other to some degree at least with a simple “hello.” But here it’s all business, and you only say hello to someone if you have something you want to talk to them about. Like I said before, everyone keeps to themselves in public. But I really have been wanting to meet the locals, so I started talking to her! Haha I think I sorta scared her at first; she jumped back when I first said something. But she was really nice and seemed very excited to talk! I’m still very limited in what I can say. She knew English pretty well, however, so whenever I didn’t know how to say a word I could speak it in English and she would tell me what the Chinese word was. She told that despite studying English for eight years, she still couldn’t speak very well because they hardly ever have an opportunity here to speak it. That makes sense. Anyways, we talked for a good while and at the end we exchanged emails. I thought to myself “That worked out about as well as it could have.” Now I have someone to practice my speaking with! And hopefully I can move outside of my American bubble here.

-At work I still have yet to do ANYTHING (this is starting to get old) but I have been keeping up msn conversations with my coworkers. I mostly spend my internship days doing Chinese homework, and I ask one of the girls when I have questions. It’s nice because our communication is strictly in Chinese. That way I keep up the habit of it. I can already tell that speaking is becoming more natural to me.

-We are getting a week off for Chinese New Year, and a group of six of us are going on a wild, wacky adventure! …to Siberia. Yay! Apparently there is a city, Harbin, which used to be part of Russia. Fortunately it has been returned to the glorious People’s Republic so we can easily visit. Every year they have an ice festival! An entire Disney World-like city is made of ice. We’re trying to get the logistics figured out, and right now it looks like we’ll take a plane up there, as the train station is apparently going to be INSANE. The picture at the top is from the station. Since it’s Chinese New Year, everybody travels home to see their families and it’s going to be the most packed time of the year. We heard that last week an American even died at the train station. He was getting knocked over by the crowd, and as he tried to get up he got pushed in front of a train. The sad thing is, I wonder how many people around even noticed.

-I’m starting to get really tired of this “keep to yourself, don’t have any manners whatsoever to strangers” thing. On the subway the other day during rush hour (meaning there wasn’t an inch between you and the next person), an English woman holding her baby was trying to get off at one of the stops. Granted, she wasn’t very smart in that she waited until the subway stopped to start moving towards the exit. But she managed to make it to about a foot away from the door pretty easily. Once she got there, however, NOBODY would make ANY effort to move to let her through. She was trying to get through, yelling “Excuse me, please!” (granted, in English, but anyone could tell what she was trying to do) There were only one or two people between her and the door, and they just stared at her, making NO attempt at allowing her to get out. She had a baby, for crying out loud! Eventually she got out, by having to bull her way through the people (with the baby in her arms!) right before the door closed. Jeez.

-Wednesday afternoon is now a time that I have off, so I went for a walk to explore campus. I didn’t realize how beautiful it is! The southern side has a big lake (all frozen over now) that tons of people were skating and having general fun on. I added some pictures I took there to facebook.

-There isn’t too much else to say. I’m sorry, I feel like this has been a pretty uninteresting post. Boooooring. I’ll try to do something wild and crazy by next time!

Starting to get the hang of things

1/21/08

-Dah! So I got cut off in the middle of last entry because I had to rush off to catch the bus to the Beijing City Museum for our Saturday adventure. The museum was ENORMOUS and had lots of beautiful artifacts. I took plenty of pictures and posted them on facebook, so check em out! I unfortunately can’t tell you a single thing about any of it because nearly all of the descriptions were written in Chinese characters. So I had to make up my own explanations for the things I was seeing. Still a sweet place, though!

-So to continue with the second day of my internship! Jesse and I both downloaded msn messenger to talk to each other at work since they stuck us each at our own lonely desk on opposite sides of the office. Suddenly! Some of the employees added us on msn and started talking to us! (sweet sweet human contact!) They too didn’t speak English very well at all, but that was perfect for me to practice my Chinese. They even invited us out to lunch on Tuesday, and said “I’m sure we will become good friends!” This is great because I’ve been reeeeally meaning to get in touch with more local people. Of course to practice the language but also to experience Chinese culture for what it really is! I will keep you posted.

-Haha although I am going in a little bit cautiously after hearing what one of my friends here went through in “interacting” with a local. On the first day of his internship, he finished early so he went to Tiananmen Square to walk around. A young, very pretty Chinese girl came up to him, saying “Oh, you are American? Can I talk with you for a bit to practice my English?” Of course, to him this seemed like the perfect situation. They walked and talked for a bit, and then he wanted to sit down so he suggested they go to a tea house to talk. Conveniently there was one right in front of them, and so they went in. The girl immediately opts for the private, back room. She asks him if he wants to see the famous “tea ceremony,” which he agrees to. A woman comes out and does a bit of a dance as she serves them the tea. They drink and continue to talk before it is time for the girl to go. My friend gets the bill, a whopping ONE THOUSAND KUAI. When we spend about 5 kuai for a meal here, that is unfathomable. Apparently this kind of thing happens quite often around here, so I’ll have to keep my guard up. I know it would be hard to say no to a cute local wanting to talk. =)

-Saturday eve a group of us went to a restaurant downtown where I got to experience the famous Beijing “hot pot,” sort of like the Chinese fondue. You all sit around a table with a burner in the middle. They bring out a huge vat of a soup/broth substance (we ordered one that was divided into three parts with spicy chili, “bone” and mushroom soups) which you put on to boil. You then order meats, vegetables, noodles and the like to drop into the soup once it boils, and pick out the deeeliciously flavored end product to eat. It’s a pretty fun experience because everyone is throwing things in and grabbing pieces out in a frenzy. The meat is cut thin enough that it cooks almost immediately, so there’s not even any waiting around time. Mmm I’m getting hungry just thinking about it now.

-So I’m very happy with how much I’m progressing in my language class. Honestly, the first day I was the one guy who couldn’t even read the dialogue as we took turns reading parts aloud, and now I can chime in on conversation just as well as everybody. I really noticed how much things are clicking already when, right after leaving class, I saw a friend and my small talk came out in Chinese. I realized I had to stop because she was only in a beginner level, but I couldn’t help but smile to myself that my brain is starting to work in Chinese mode. After all, our classes are three hours long, so by the end of the period you’ve been thinking in Chinese so long that it makes sense.

-On that note, I think I am starting to prefer the schedule of classes they have for us here. Language is three hours a day, three days a week, which is more helpful for obvious reasons. Surprisingly, however, I like the 2.5-hour, once a week schedule of my other two courses. Since we have a whole week between each class, you don’t get tired of the material and really appreciate the time you are there. I was glued to every word my professor was saying today in the second session of my Chinese Lit and Society class today, though that could just be due to the quality of the teacher. He is obviously a brilliant guy who is incredibly knowledgeable. So far we have gone through a bit of history of China, briefly going through the various dynasties (with special attention paid to the 5 most important, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing), and focusing on the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. It is great how he keeps going back to the differences between China and the West and how it is reflected throughout history, especially the contrast of the “Western mind” and “Chinese mind.” Interesting points: you don’t find tragedies hardly at all in Chinese literature, which seems to be the most common theme in the West. Our professor attributed that to the way Chinese culture emphasizes “going with nature,” as opposed to the Western “man versus nature” point of view. Western tragedies are focused on a hero who fails to achieve his goal, whereas Chinese literature does not view a single person’s goal as the most important. “Man is much smaller than nature,” as he says, according to Chinese culture. Thus, there is no “fighting” and no “failure.”

-Again, here are some random things I’ve noticed.

1. The staff. I guess it’s because we’re in a communist country, but every store/restaurant you go seems to be incredibly overstaffed. I swear, they’re crawling with employees here! As soon as you take one gander at a product being sold, you’re offered help by someone. Unfortunately, those offers are always in Chinese, so they can’t really help me too much until I learn to understand it better.

I also thought it was interesting how Wumei (the local grocery) does things. They sell various things, from food to school supplies to shoes to electronics. Each area has its own staff and its own register, and you HAVE to pay for your items at that section’s register. It’s at least noteworthy to me.

2. At restaurants, you are expected to give your order almost as soon as you sit down. No more than 1 minute after we’re taken to our table, the waiter arrives eager to write down what we want. When we’re not ready, they wait patiently by the table, no matter how long it takes, until you’re ready. I think we’ve been pegged as “slow Americans” at the Medicine House (deeelicious food on campus), however, since today when we went they took a good 10 minutes to come up and take our order. We saw several groups of locals come in and quickly have their orders taken. We’re already developing a reputation!

3. People do their own thing and don’t really care what you’re doing, as long as you’re not bothering them. The most striking bit of evidence wasn’t something I saw myself but a story I heard from the summer. One guy said in the subway a woman was holding her baby out in front of her as the child pooped onto a newspaper on the ground. And everyone passed by without seeing anything wrong with it!

4. Speaking of subway, I haven’t found it to be so bad here. Everyone told me horror stories about how ridiculously crowded they were. But we’ve been on them during rush hour, and they don’t seem to be too different than what I would expect a New York subway to be like. I’m not complaining!

5. Traffic laws are optional here. Things like lane dividers, street lights, and right of way…that’s all just a suggestion. I can’t tell you how many times a three-lane road has become a four-lane road. Cars will pull out whenever they feel like it, even though a car is speeding towards the intersection. It’s the other guy’s job to slow down, I guess. They just use their horns and bright lights a lot to tell people to get out of their way. It’s also pretty fun trying to cross the street. I try to follow right behind one of the locals whenever they cross because they don’t exactly have crosswalks in a lot of places. Even when they do, cars just speed through them, only moving around pedestrians if they really have to. Usually they just keep on going and hardly ever stop. People don’t always cross the entire street at once, either. The other day I followed a construction worker across. We had to stop in the middle of an insanely busy road because the left-turn lane suddenly got a green light. Giant buses zoomed by within a foot of us on either side, and he didn’t even flinch. And yea, buses don’t stop for anybody. Or even slow down at all. I’ve seen a couple people very nearly get flattened.

The weeks are busy!

1/19/08

-I’ve gone a few days without writing anything. Sorry, blog, you and I have some serious catching up to do. I can’t really accomplish this right now as we’re about to go on our second weekend trip. We’re going out to some “museum” of “cultural things” I believe? I really have no idea what this place is; the description they gave us only talked about how great and fantastic it is, but not about what’s in it. We shall see soon enough!

-Last night we went out to celebrate the belated birthday of a girl in the group who was here last semester too, Jessie! Unfortunately I can’t say I got to see her much at all, as our ENTIRE GROUP seemed to come out. We literally took over every club/bar we went to, so we had to split up. I had good fun. The area we went to was a strip full of bars and clubs, which we switched between pretty frequently. We finally settled on the “hot” or “poppin” spot where most of our group was. It was at that point that we realized how early we had gone out. Nobody was on the dance floor yet! However that just allowed us to grab the sweet nook right next to the floor so when it finally did start up we were the real ballers. I think the club was called “Blu Bar” or something. The floor was lit-up in Carolina blue (my kind of place). Lots of dancing to American music (we can’t escape it can we?) but honestly the club area didn’t seem to be anything better than Wudaokao, the place we went the weekend before which isn’t all the way across town. Plus there wasn’t any karaoke there =)

-So I don’t mean to make it seem that all I’m doing here is going out to clubs (ie: the same thing I could do back home). It’s just that the only times I have been writing in this thing seem to be on the weekend mornings. During the week I’m purdy busy. So the most vivid thing in my mind is the crazy night before.

-So yea, my weeks are pretty busy. This week especially because I decided to move up two levels into the 301 language class, rather than just moving up to 203. The first day of class was basically me embarrassing myself because I forgot EVERYTHING. But by the end of the day even I felt better just from refreshing everything. I definitely gave a lot of blank stares at my instructor when being asked a question, however. The instructor, btw, is really good! They are graduate students who majored in teaching English as a foreign language in college, so I suppose they know what they’re doing. She is very enthusiastic and prepared, and she makes the class very fun and enjoyable. She’s also very prone to getting off topic by engaging us in conversation on Chinese culture, but it works because it gets us to practice speaking anyways.

-And it SNOWED Thursday! The total accumulation was less than an inch, but it was still enough to cover everything in a beautiful white blanket. We woke up to snow on the ground, and it continued to fall throughout the day. What I love about absolutely freezing weather is that when snow arrives, it sticks around! The city has been white ever since.

-Thursday, day two of my internship, was fantastic. Well, not fantastic…what’s the word….barely-not-as-horribly-boring-as-the-first-day. That’s it! I had a meeting with my boss as soon as I showed up, so it looked like I might be doing something. However, it didn’t get very far because he speaks English roughly as well as I speak Chinese. He just wanted to hear what I study in school, what I am looking for by working for the company, and the like. It’s at least good because I can then practice my Chinese by speaking with him, and it gives me much more of an incentive to become conversational. Then maybe I will have something to do! He did set up an email for me and had me write him a more detailed account of what I told him in the interview. That was an effort, as I found it hard to go into much detail using the Chinese language. Oy.

-For lunch we again did not partake in local Chinese eatery. Unfortunately Jesse seems to be down for getting American food whenever he can, and so I just go along with it. We tried to check out Pizza Hut, but man. I don’t think we were dressed well enough for it. Here in China, Pizza Hut is a very fancy, sit-down restaurant. A pizza ran up to nearly 200 kuai, close to $30! That’s barely too expensive in the states but here that is a rich-man only price. So we went next door to the KFC, where made myself look like a complete moron. Trying to order in Chinese, I go up to the register saying I want “san ge” and point to combo #3. The only problem is I forgot to add in the keyword “di” beforehand to make it mean “number three.” Instead I told them I wanted “three of” that combo. It took me awhile of confused arguing to even realize what I had said…and yea. I looked dumb.

Zhanzuo!

1/15

-Today is my first day interning at Zhanzuo, the Chinese version of facebook! Coming into this I was beginning to get nervous; I had no idea what to expect working at a company in China. But I think I may have lucked out on this one. I’ll be working with the IT department, doing various projects they give me. It sounds like I will actually be contributing to the group! I had just figured I would be getting coffee and making copies for everyone. The employees are mostly young, in their mid- to late-twenties, dress is casual, and the place sounds pretty laid back in general. During our initial meeting with our contact, James, in the conference room, he told us “we don’t really have a regular schedule here, people mostly show up around noon or so” and “it’s alright if you listen to music, use instant message, or check facebook., just make sure you look busy.” Sounds like my kind of place. A good number of the people here speak some English (a first for me so far), but he told us to try to speak Chinese as much as possible, so as to “blend in” with the group. I hadn’t thought about that, but it should be a very fun and helpful way to better pick up the language!

My only instructions so far have been to find my resume online and print it out, which I already did. The guy working next to me had to help me get the printer to work, as most of the software is in Chinese, but it still didn’t take long. Now I’m sitting here wondering how exactly I’m going to use the next 8(?) or so hours…

The trip here went more smoothly than expected. I’m first of all really fortunate to have another guy, Jesse, from the program working at the same place with me. His roommate, Ben, also is working on the same block so we were all able to split a taxi over here. We’re on the complete other side of the city, so the ride took almost an hour. The cost? Only 75 kuai, which split between three people is about $3. We were told to take a taxi here the first day just to make things easier, but James said the subway would be a cheaper (and feasible) option. When we’re making the trip here and back twice a week, it adds up, no matter how many of us are splitting the cost. I had heard most of the subway lines were under construction, but I’m glad to hear we’ll be able to use them. A Chinese subway should be an experience in itself to say the least.

Overall, the internship was the one last thing I was a bit nervous about. Glad to see it won’t be so bad. Around here the best plan looks to be to lower your expectations to the LOWEST possible degree, so nothing surprises you!

James also said we are apparently in the “party district” of town, and that we’ll certainly know the night life here by the end. Good to know, now maybe I’ll be able to spend some time on the town with my coworkers and experience China the way the locals do. As fun as it is going out with a group of Americans, I really want to spend more time with the locals. Looks like this might present a good opportunity for that!

Driving here was still an experience. I don’t understand how you can have sooo many cars with sooo few crashes. The stereotype of Asians as bad drivers? It’s unfounded, or maybe they just ship all the bad drivers to America. This whole time I have seen more cars fit into a small area than I thought possible. And I didn’t see my first car wreck until today! There was a point when five lanes squeezed into about two. Our driver just pushed his way through it all, seeming to put us in an inevitable sandiwich between two giant busses a couple times. But no! We made it alright.

This part of the city is obviously more businessy than our side. Lots of expensive shops and tall buildings. I’m glad I’m getting out to see the city twice a week. By the end of it all I should be pretty accustomed to life in Beijing.

So this is probably going to be my longest entry so far. I really have nothing better to do with myself, and typing on a word document really makes me look like I’m doing actual work! I guess I’m preparing for the business world eh? So far I’ve been given a notepad (with a pen!) and a cup. Surprisingly I do have my own desk, though! And my own diannao (computer) even.

-Anyways, what else has been going on these days? Mike and I rearranged our room to make a very snazzy lounge area. It makes getting stuck in the double room not seem so bad. Everyone who comes in now is amazed and envious of our fancy living. The past two nights we’ve had a nice tea party in our room to end the day. I have no idea what room anyone is in, and I haven’t gotten my phone set up yet, so I’ve mostly been hanging out with whomever I happened to run into that day.

-I’ve finally gotten to the point where I need to get more money. So far I haven’t used a single traveler’s cheque. At the airport I got 800 yuan out of an ATM (a little over $100) and it’s done me pretty well. I would still be going strong for a while, too, if I hadn’t had to put down a 300 yuan deposit on the phone or pay for various things like internet that will last the whole semester. It looks like I really may not spend much money here at all.

-So where did I leave off last time? I believe I was talking about the first weekend. After our guided tour we all broke down and went out to a local pizza place for dinner. It was pretty hilarious how our tiny group grew. It started out with just the three of us who had been sitting next to each other on the busride back from Tiananmen, but as we walked down the halls, people jumped out of their rooms at the sound of pizza. The place was walking distance, so our crew of about 15 or so made the trek to “The Crow’s Nest.” The atmosphere was good and the pizza even better. A couple Americans were there but it was really still mostly locals, which was surprising because I had heard of this place as being the most Westernized place to eat around town.

-That night we went to a karaoke bar! Apparently such places are the classy of the classy around here. I felt like a VIP as we were led to our private room to enjoy our bad singing. I was slightly disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm for karaoke by my companions. There were only a few very diehard singers, and everyone else was just hanging out. It was still a great time, though, but not as much fun as the night before. I would’ve rather been around more locals, as it isn’t too new and exciting to be in a room alone with a bunch of Americans.

-So I guess that catches us all up. I had written a whole other paragraph but Jesse came along and, trying to transform my Windows into English, restarted my computer and lost it. Zaogao. It wasn’t too important anyways.

In the meantime, my director finally got here (they really do wait until noon to show up here) so I was introduced, but it turns out he speaks almost no English. He seemed happy and surprised to see that I know a little bit of Mandarin, though. This should force me to learn pretty well, since I can only speak to the person I report to in his own language. He pretty much confirmed, though, that I won’t be doing anything today. He gave me his email and…that’s about it.

-So yea, here are a few things I have learned about China so far:

1. Toilets! They don’t have them, at least in most places you go. I was pretty surprised to see when I first ventured into a bathroom outside of our dorm that in the stall sits a very nice, white, porcelain…hole in the ground. I really don’t understand how if they put that much effort into building something like that they couldn’t just make a toilet. Maybe I’m missing something. I also noticed that a lot of places don’t even put toilet paper in each stall. At the academic building yesterday, there was one big roll that you were apparently supposed to grab from before you went into the stall. It can really help you work on your problem solving skills when you don’t realize this until AFTER you get into the stall. Fun times. Fortunately our dorms and the Zhanzuo building both have real toilets! Also, people don’t seem to think bathrooms need to be heated here. So each one feels about as cold as the outside (20-something degrees). I guess it makes sure you hurry up.

2. Tips! They don’t give them. Apparently it’s disrespectful and an insult to try to tip someone. And there’s not sales tax, either. So everything you buy ACTUALLY costs what it says it does. We can learn something from these people. Also, I was told that it is very shameful in Chinese culture to owe money to anyone. Thus, credit cards have had a very hard time catching on around here.

3. Also, mealtime does not equal drinktime. In all the dining halls, you don’t see anyone drinking anything while they eat. I can’t understand it! I get so dried out during the day that I have to make sure I chug water whenever I get the free time.

-It is now 3:37, and nobody has come to say anything to me yet. Oh well. Jesse and I went out to lunch, and amazingly we found a Mexican restaurant around the corner. We’d both thought for sure we wouldn’t see such a thing the entire semester, so we had to check it out. Food was pretty good, and we received much more American service. The staff seemed to speak English, and we were given a knife and fork rather than chopsticks at our table! The waitiress came to take our order before we were really ready, so we both got whatever random item I pointed at on the menu. Turned out to be the most expensive thing on the menu at 88 kuai! Aiya!