Saturday February 19th, 2011

I woke up this morning and finally felt like a person! I had but one choice open to me, and that was to walk around the city and explore. I left the dorm at 10:30, with no map in hand. I am following the advice of Fodor’s and leaving my map behind; today it is just me and Beijing. The weather could not have been better today. It has finally cleared off, and visibility is over 2-3 miles.

I took the subway to west of Tian’An Men Square, and then took a winding course to the northeast. Traveling so, I wound my way through the southeastern part of Dong Cheng, and then across the Chao Yang district. I saw some really interesting things on this tour, including a group of people pulling cooked duck skulls out of what looked like congealed BBQ sauce for consumption. I was thoroughly disgusted. I walked through some of the older Hu Tongs in those districts, and one thing that I noticed today was the situation that these Hu Tongs face. Again, many of them are being destroyed by the CCP for newer, better housing projects. At the same time, the people living in the Hu Tongs are preserving traditional housing in Beijing, but many are being forced out of their homes due to rent increases. Real estate in China is a very interesting monster, and I will be sure to elaborate on that soon.

I also passed a good number of shopping centers and an innumerable amount of bike shops. I passed one center that boasted to be a hypermarket – even better than a supermarket. We are falling behind, I fear. Seeing all of these bike shops and walking around in this 60-degree weather really makes me want to get a bike. I also stumbled across the Chinese “State” Department, and that was very cool to see. It was covered with guards, and I was a little afraid to try to take a picture of the building.

I eventually wound my way through Chao Yang, and saw all of the foreigners in all their splendor. While I was in this district, I tried to take another street around San Li Chuar, and as a result, I got lost in a huge housing facility. The apartment complex kept expanding farther into the recesses of the city, and it took me a while to realize my folly in trying to pass through a Chinese residential district. By this point, it was after 1:00 in the afternoon, and I needed to find somewhere to eat.

I entered the next restaurant that I chanced upon, where I was snubbed by the waitress. She would not even look at me to get me a table, so I left. I didn’t want to eat their crappy food anyway. I had better luck at the next one, and I ordered a Kung Pao Chicken roof food. The dish was at best sub par, and I left most of it uneaten.

I then felt my way to a subway station using my impeccable direction skills. I headed back to campus, where I played some guitar and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Around 6:30, I was coerced into going to eat hotpot with other member of the 6^th Floor Club. We visited the restaurant with the free beer again, and the owner recognized us immediately. We have some serious guan xi with him, and that is very important for g us foreigners. We ordered a plate of beef and lamb, along with mushrooms, pumpkins, lotus, noodles and more.

We took a cab back the dorm, and I engaged in my second favorite activity in China – talking to taxi drivers. What is the first, you ask? Why making faces at Chinese people who stare at me, what else? This taxi driver was not much fun, though, not much fun at all. He had no hobbies, nor does he like being a cab driver. He is only driving because he can find no other work, but even so, I don't think that he could find a job that he would like. I believe the cab driver just liked to complain – and do nothing.

We came back to the dorm and celebrated Joy’s birthday by eating cake, and hanging out in her room. I found some obscure pretense to leave the room, as I was not in the health or the state of mind to go out with them tonight. I got some sleep.

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

Friday February 18th, 2011

This morning, I took a test. After said test, I went back to my room, and in said room I immediately fell asleep. This is probably not the best way to recover from being sick, but frankly I don’t care about messing up my sleep schedule right now. I just want to be better.

I woke up around 12:00, feeling like my head has been underwater. I skyped some, and then read for a few hours. I finally roused myself from my reverie, went to the bank, put some money on my phone card, and got some food – my first meal of the day.

Then I came back to the dorm and read some more, and after a few hours, I was hungry again. I went to faithful Ma Lan, and ordered a bowl of noodles.

Came back and read more.

Went to sleep.

Thursday February 17th 2011

Today has been much like the other days this week. I have not been feeling my best, and so I’ve taken it easy – checking email, preparing applications for summer internships, writing scholarship applications, reading, and playing guitar. I studied a little for my test, but on the whole, the test this week isn’t going to be that hard, partly because the text simply isn’t as hard as ones in the past, and partly because I don’t have an excuse not to study.

My phone has been out of minutes for 5 days now, and my host family invited me to eat supper with them tonight. I wanted to get out of the dorm for a little while if possible, but I had no way of contacting them. I talked to my “host sister” about going, and we both agreed that we would set out from the dorm a little after 5:00 that evening.

What was the nature of our tramp into the city, you ask? Today is the world-renowned Lantern Festival, and marks the first full moon of the Chinese lunar year. The Chinese typically celebrate this day by eating with their family, viewing the moon, drinking alcohol, and setting off fireworks. Why the alcohol? There is an old Chinese poem about how one can never drink by oneself when the moon is full: you have yourself, your shadow, and your moon. That sounds like as good of an excuse as any, I guess.

Our host father picked us up from the subway station around 6:00, and drove us to a Beijing-style hot pot restaurant. We rode in his Passat, and he executed some of the most daring driving maneuvers that I have ever seen. We crossed one intersection while we had the red light, and he drove straight into a line of uncoming traffic. Sandra and I had to check that we were both alive on several instances. We parked the car, and made our way into the Beijing hot pot restaurant.

Also present this evening was another guest. She was a lady from Si Chuan, which is where my host mother and father re both from, as I learned that evening. The most logical relationship between the guest and the host family is that the guest must know my host mom, Bing-Bing, from MinZu, for that is where they both work. Otherwise, my host dad must have a thing for middle-aged intellectuals. The guest, whose name I never did divine, had an extremely thick Si Chuan accent, and was quite spirited. She was a lot of fun, but that may have had something to do with the large quantities of bai jiu that she consumed tonight.

The restaurant was a fairly big establishment, and we had our own private room. Allow me, dear reader, to elaborate on the finer points of Beijing-style hot pot. Beijing style hot pot, unlike Si Chuan-style hot pot, which is run off of Sterno fuel or a natural gas eye in the table, Beijing-style hot pot is heated by placing charcoal inside a hollow cone. This cone tapers to a 3-inch hole at the top, which serves as both the source of air and also the exhaust for the device. One can vary the size of the hole at the top to alter the amount of heat that the charcoal generates. The water is held in a circular basin that wraps around the heating cone. When the water heats up, as is the case with regular hot-pot, you simply boil your food and enjoy. Beijing style also has a few minor culinary differences: whereas Si Chuan hot pot primarily relies on beef and pork, Beijing hot pot uses almost exclusively lamb. There are some minor differences in the accepted vegetables that one eats with Beijing hot pot, as well as the soup, but on the whole they are very similar. I have to say that I like Si Chuan style better, though.

The meal was enjoyable, and I avoided our SiChuanese guest’s numerous attempts to entice to drink bai jiu. We had another Christmas-tree conversation, but the majority of it revolved around American college life. Ben-ben, as mentioned earlier, plans on going to college in the States, and I believe that his parents are trying to “feel-out” American college life.

From there, we traveled to the host family’s apartment district and set off some fireworks. The neighborhood looked much larger the second time that I was there, and I asked the host family how many houses (apartments) were in his neighborhood. The answer? 2,000! He said that that number is the standard size of neighborhood in Beijing! Setting off fireworks was quite the adventure, and setting them off myself was as fun as watching the insane firework displays of other families. Our fireworks included a lot of Roman candles, a few large fireworks, a huge chain of firecrackers, and several standing fireworks that made a lot of sparks. Other displays included a 2-inch diameter firework whose sole purpose was to make an incredibly loud noise, and several other noisy and dangerous-looking displays.

Our host father took us back to campus for the evening, where I attempted to study a little more, before retiring to sleep much later than I should have in my state of health.

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday February 13th – 16th

On Sunday, Gabe and I slept in. I studied, and tried to make up for a weekend of not studying. Gabe lounged around the dorm.

Class on Monday, shortly followed by my development of a sinus infection.

Sleep.

Class.

Napping. Studying.

Gabe left on Wednesday morning, while I blew my nose everywhere.

Sinus infection.

There is absolutely nothing going on here, besides the slight changes in my sickness. All in all, the most noteworthy feature of these 4 days is their absolute noteworthylessness.

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

Saturday February 12th, 2011

On this day, Gabe and I slept in until around 11:00 AM. I didn’t really have anything fun in mind for the day, so I followed Gabe’s lead. He’d been reading a book about this guy’s experiences living in Beijing as a reporter. The guy apparently had a number of crazy experiences (imagine that, here in China), and the epicenter of all of this craziness was a place called Ya Bao Lu. That was our destination for the day. If I have not dwelt on the point enough, I would like to mention again that it is very cold. It was well below freezing today, for the entire day, and we were still being mauled by the CCP snow commissioned a few days ago.

A little history: Ya Bao Lu (Street of Graceful Treasure) used to not be called Ya Bao Lu at all. It used to be called Ya Ba Hu Tong (Hu Tong of the Mute), but the government “beautified” the name sometime in the hazy past. The defining feature of this street (which is actually not a street in our sense of the word, but rather a neighborhood sprawling to the north and south of said street) is not Chinese wares, or artists, or Confucian scholars, or any of the national treasures of the Great Republic. No, the finest feature of Ya Bao Lu is Russians. The Russians come from far and wide to flock to this area of Beijing, establishing their own little Moscow under the nose of the CCP.

What does a Russian want to do here in Beijing? Why are they here? As Gabe points out, China and Russia share one of the longest borders in the world, and the assistance that Russia provided for the Republic (more ideological than financial or military), helped Mao establish the China that we know and love today. These roots of cooperation have greased the process of more Russians coming to the country, but their current occupation remains somewhat ambiguous. According to Gabe’s book, written in the mid-1990s, many of the Russians in the area were involved with the smuggling of illegal or ambivalently purchased goods. In the past at Ya Bao Lu, one could, for instance, order clothes manufactured in USSR sweatshops by the ton.

Aside from that facet of the Russian trade, you have your money exchangers. The central government, at the time the book was written, was keeping the currency artificially low – sometimes up to 13 Yuan to the dollar. This rate was well below the actual exchange rate, and anyone involved in international trade would be doubly taxed by the central government’s mandated exchange rate. Thus, there sprang up a number of money exchangers, Russian and otherwise, that would exchange Chinese Yuan to foreign currency at a rate closer to the actual rate. Much of this currency exchange was facilitated by the Russian mafia, and they did not get along well with the other “traders” in the area, to say the least.

Now, one can find a number of vendors selling whatever it is that Russian people like. From my casual observations, that list includes lewd advertisements, fur coats, shoes (and lots of them), vodka, and barbeque. We had the honor of visiting the Ya Bao Mall, where one could buy anything that you wanted from Russia, as long as it was lingerie and shoes. This brings me to the fourth occupation (and logically the fifth) that a Russian has in the Ya Bao area. The street is lined with lovely little shops for KTV, and cute little hotels, all covered with gaudy decorations. Wait: crazy decorations, decrepit building, ambiguous labeling of the building, strange Russian men going in and out… I think you guessed it – prostitution. It’s everywhere there; no need to mince words.

From the top of the Ya Bao Mall I espied the shopping center that I’d visited some days before: The Place. Gabe was as enticed by the prospect of purchasing cigars as I was, and we decided to pay ourselves a little visit. The cigar store was, if I may be frank, a letdown. The shop reminded me of something that my parents mentioned about China – something they’d noticed while they were here. Most of the items – widgets, gadgets, and clothing – that you get here are extremely cheap by Western standards, but you will occasionally find something that is insanely expensive for no apparent reason. I recall an instance where my parents visited a furniture store and laid eyes on a $100,000 table. What would one need that for? There is no practical answer, and the only one remains is that rich Chinese people want you to KNOW that they are rich. This cigar store was a prime example of that: you could buy a cigar that would cost about $6 in the US for the all-time low price of $50! I was beside myself. Why?! Even more than they are in the US – where cigars are the “cool thing” for fratty guys in college, eccentric professors, and pretentious businessmen – cigars in China are the symbol of the gloriously rich in China. Therefore, CEOs and government officials are willing to pay exorbitant prices for a moderate cigar. We couldn’t leave without getting one, however, and we each bought an $8 cigar.

We left The Place and went in search of another adventure. We found just what we were looking for in Ri Tan Park, or The Temple of the Sun. This park was another park commissioned by an obscure emperor in the distant past, for an even more arcane purpose. I left without grasping the full implications of the Temple of the Sun, but I doubt that I ever will. The park was very well maintained, and the most interesting features were the plum trees and the area around the frozen lake. The plum trees were given by the Japanese as a token of friendship after the Sino-Japanese War – or as the Chinese call it,The War of Japanese Aggression. The trees are meticulously pruned, and appear to be in excellent shape, despite the bone-chilling weather. There were a few kids playing on the frozen lake (see photo), and they appeared to be having the time of their life. There was a small group of men ice-fishing across the lake from the kids. We went over to talk to them, and they had had no luck today with the ice-fish.

“It’s too cold. They don’t want to eat.”

I’ll agree with that first statement, it was too cold. In Fodor’s, there was mention of a charming café called the Stone Boat, near the southwest of the park, which was, incidentally, right where we were. Despite our geographic proximity to said café, I could see nothing that told of its existence. So I asked an unlucky fisherman about the café, and he gave me the what-a-dumb-foreigner-look that I have seen oh so many times in this city.

“It’s right there. See the boat?”

Oh yeah, the boat. The thing that doesn’t look like a boat at all, but is in the water? Got it. This reminds me of another phrase that has been incorporated into everyday life at ACC: TIC. It stands for “this is China,” and saying it has a more resounding affect, dear readers, if you say it with an English/Australian accent.

We left Ri Tan park behind us, and planned on making a route back to the subway stop from whence we had emerged some 4 hours before. We took the most direct route from the park, which took us right through the mysterious embassy district of Beijing. Troops lined the streets on both sides, embassies stood guard behind ten-foot walls, and all was silent. I don’t exactly know what would happen if we actually needed to get in an embassy because there was a host of Chinese army officers whose sole purpose was to tell people that they could not get in, or take pictures of the embassy. We passed the American, Kuwaiti, Thai, Beninese, and another dilapidated embassy, and continued on our way to the dorm.

We arrived sometime after 6:00 PM, and we took a moment to freshen ourselves for what would prove to be one of the wildest evenings that I have seen in Beijing.

A little before seven, a contingent of 9 people (myself, Gabe, Christina, Alex, Joy, Laura, Lee, Wes, and Hannah) left the dorm, bound for an abstruse Mexican restaurant in the Hou Hai district that Christina found on the Internet. Our impetus for going to this restaurant, you ask? The slim chance of getting half-price margaritas on Saturday. However, after making the trip, we found that the margaritas were not, in fact, half price on the weekends. That ad expired over two years ago – imagine that – and no one had bothered to take it down. They were quite expensive, and Christina nearly had a fit upon entering the restaurant and learning this fact. She negotiated with the head waitress after pacing up and down the length of the restaurant, while the rest of us took a seat and made ourselves comfortable for the visit. In the end, she obtained 6 free beers for the table to recompense us for our lost cause.

We were all voraciously hungry at this point, and ordered nachos to ease our appetite. I ordered a burrito after perusing the menu. The name of the restaurant, Amigo, and the decorations in the restaurant were quite misleading. Of the 10-page menu, only two pages were devoted to Mexican food, and one could order any hamburgers, pasta, salads, and all other Western treats at this facility. The food eventually emerged, and I devoured the burrito instantaneously. Paying for the meal, as paying for all meals, turned into a 20-minute ordeal, in which everyone shouts, no one takes charge, and one patron tries to shimmy her way into not having to pay for her meal.

We left the Mexican diner in our wake; while the meal was good, I personally did not plan on returning there. We wound our way to the nearest subway station (by the map). If you had polled Chinese people on the street that we encountered, we were either 1) traveling to a subway stop 2) going way out of our way to walk to a subway station or 3) not walking towards a subway station at all. Joy and Laura parted ways with us in the subway station.

The remaining seven took the subway in the direction of San Li Chuar, and we found that the exit was right in front of the acrobatic show that we’d been to the night before. We strolled in the direction of San Li Chuar, while CPP-ordained snow fell all around us. We eventually found what we were looking for: Smugglers, also known as Swash-bucklers. There, we found a table and hung out for a little while. Wes and Hannah parted ways with us around 11 PM – a decision that I would wish to have emulated. Gabe, Christina, and myself found ourselves alone in the facility, bored out of our minds, while Alex and Lee commiserated in the outdoors, searching for cheap beer from the vendors. Gabe eased our monotony by finding us a set of dice, and we played Yatzee for an eternity.

Lee and Alex emerged after their absence, saying that we absolutely had to go to this club across the street. They had great music, cheap beer, and a dance floor. I was along for the ride, so I acquiesced. This would prove to be a mistake. I would never stop writing if I told you all of the shenanigans that happened to us before the night was over, but I’ll give a little timeline:

12:30 – went to Shooters, the club

1:30 – Gabe accosted by a lone American/Russian girl

2:30 – Christina and Alex leave, to “have a talk”

3:00 – I decide that it is time to leave; round up Gabe and Alex

3:10 – Halted by Lee and Christina, who all “want to dance some more”

3:20 – Gabe and I realize that since I had to pay for Gabe’s dinner, I don’t have any money. Gabe has no money on his person.

3:25 – We realize that we are at the mercy of our fellows to get back to the dorm.

3:30 – Finally convince Lee to leave

3:35 – We turn around to see that Lee is no longer behind us; she has returned to tell the child to “never forget her.”

3:40 – Finding a cab is no easy feat for us, as the cabbies are all charging egregiously high prices to foreigners, charging 2 to 3 to 4 times more than the normal fare.

3:45 – We find a cab to take the girls back

3:55 – We finally find a cab that will take us back to the dorm for only 10 Yuan more than the normal fare.

4:15 – Alex decided that he isn’t going to pay the extra 10 Yuan on principle, and Gabe and I get out of the cab as soon as we can, with Alex close on our heels.

4:17 – The cabbie, realizing that he has been “shortchanged” speeds off to cut us off at the East Gate. We sprint down a side street to evade the froggy, enraged cabbie.

4:25 – We jump the fence into MinZu, and take a winding evasive path back to the dorm.

4:35 – We finally get into the dorm room.

What a day.

Friday February 11th, 2011

Today is the day of the Great Weekly Friday Test. I was ready for action, but I decided to take some extra time to study the material before walking to the classroom. I had answered all of the questions on the study guide without flaw. What would be the destiny of my test? I would have guessed pretty good, walking out of the classroom…

I swung by the room to check on Sleeping Beauty in my room. He is doing exceptionally well considering that he just got here the day before. He was up, and my ploy for keeping him secret has worked! There is a switch that we can flip by the threshold of the door that turns on a small “Do not disturb” light on the outside of the door. To be truthful, I did not expect the cleaning ladies to observe my plea for non-disturbance, but I was delighted to find that they had. They haven’t caught wind of the ultimate reason that I’ve asked for another blanket and pillow. If you can believe it, I’m actually not afraid of my room being cold at night…

All of the students reported back to the teachers at 11:00, so that we could watch a movie together. The movie was filmed entirely in Beijing in the late 1990s, and it was very interesting to see the way that the city has changed in the last 15 years. If not for some of the well-known landmarks (i.e. the Forbidden City) I would not have been able to tell where some of the movie was filmed.

After the film, we met the teachers in the lobby of our dorm for Chinese Table. This is where we all eat with the teachers and attempt to use our Chinese in a more relaxed setting. Gabe came with us and got to know some of the people in the program. I do believe he was impressed by the progress of our Chinese – but don’t let him know that. The meal was incredible: pork with mushrooms, roast lamb, eggplant, eggplant with green beans, rice, lotus, stir-fried beef, and more. We probably left half of the food that we ordered uneaten on the table.

We left the restaurant around 3:00, leaving us a mere 3 hours of free time in the afternoon. In the words of one of the other 4^th year students: “The teachers have managed to make Fridays not fun with all of these activities.” I made a quick run over to Bally, in hopes that I would be able to find my shampoo and conditioner, which I mistakenly left in the shower the day before. My conditioner was in the shower area – used by some scheming club-goer! However, my shampoo was nowhere to be found. I would have my vengeance!

Joy and Cailin needed to do some shopping, and since Gabe and I had naught to do, we decided to tag along. My philosophy on this sort of thing is that if someone has an errand that I’ve never been on, I will gladly accompany him or her on his or her mission. These missions somehow turn into great cultural adventures, and today was no different.

We took a two-story bus to a wholesale market near the Beijing Zoo. This was my first time to experience the wonders of a two-story bus, and there are photos to document my utter amazement at watching the street from ten feet in the air. Our first wholesale market was closed for the Chinese New Year, which I still find incredible. Parts of the city have been deserted for over 8 days now. The count continues.

However, we found another wholesale market! This holiday will not take me yet! The establishment is known as 鞋城, alias Shoe City and Shose City. Shose City was 5 floors of wholesale goodness, but I was a little crestfallen upon further examination of the premises. You see, there was only one floor of shoes, and four other floors and glorious mistranslations of the English language, accompanied by other strange fashion choices. I was cornered more than once by shopkeepers trying to hustle me into buying their cheaply manufactured goods, but I did my best to say no to sweatshop labor and yes to my self-respect, which would have undoubtedly been sacrificed should I have purchased any of the their wholesale goods.

We left Shose City after an hour and a half of perusal, and we boarded the bus yet again, bound for home. I word to the wise, if you are over 5 ½ feet tall, you will not be able to stand up in Chinese double-decker buses. The bus deposited us at the base of the Heavenly Bridge on the opposite side of the road of the dorm, whereupon we crossed said bridge to make a quick trip to our toilets before reuniting with the group for the evening activity: acrobatics.

We all loaded on the bus, and traveled transversely across the monstrosity which is none other than Beijing. The trip lasted a solid 45 minutes, and deposited us close to San Li Chuar – the chosen locale for ACC weekend debauchery. We got to the theatre around 6:30, with our stomachs eating themselves. The teachers gathered us in the auditorium, gave us a few words of confuddlement, and sent us on our way.

“You have 40 minutes to be back here.”

Impossible! For one, we were in the only part of the city that was effectively a food desert. We passed no restaurants on the way to this theatre, and none were in sight. Secondly, nothing in this country can come to pass that fast. We needed twice that time to accomplish anything in the way food. We did the only logical thing for one to do in our situation: decided upon a trajectory and hooped for the best.

We wandered and wandered, eventually stumbling upon our saving grace: a McDonalds. Dear readers, I do not know if you know of my hatred of this establishment, their sub-standard beef products and their crappy service, but I pass the majority of my time in the States attempting to convert others to my boycott of this hegemony. There is but one time that I call off said boycott: China. Sometimes, one has no choice but to give in to a Big Mac, forgetting that one has been dumped in a crazy world on the other side of the planet. This is was one of those times. I ordered a Big Mac meal, with a double quarter pounder on the side. Don't judge! Every once in a while, one needs a (relatively) good burger.

Needless to say, we didn’t make it to the show on time. I would tell about the dancing of men dressed in skeleton costumes, of girls in spandex creating towers of themselves, of a juggling mastermind, of girls who played with giant white tops, of men who climbed 30-foot poles to perform incredible feats, of a sneaky little clowns interrupting the show, of 12 girls gracefully riding a single bicycle, or the final act when all of this acrobatic greatness clashed in one final bout of acrobatic prowess, and I would accompany these illuminating descriptions with beautiful photographs, but alas, the usher at the show said that I could not take pictures. You will have to come yourself and see the acrobatic show.

After the show, we boarded the bus bound for our dorms, for a lively evening of music, ma jiang, and more. The sixth floor came over to my room, and we listened to American tunes whilst we played the game of middle-aged Chinese women. Around 3 AM, the party ended, and we retired for the evening.

Keep it classy!

Love,

Jamey

Thursday February 10th, 2011

Today I woke up ready to roll. Gabe is coming today, and that thought (along with the fact that I had an excuse to get off campus) managed to get me through the arduous lessons today. I had an eerie replay of the day before, and then I left the dorm around 3:15. My day immediately got better after that.

I took the subway to the DongZhiMen station, studying for the morrow’s test. I talked to Richard on the way, and he let me know how his internship was going. He says that he likes it a lot, and that is he the translator/tour guide/whatever-they-need-to-do person for this NGO in Yunnan province. It sounds like interesting work, and ahead of its time for rural China.

Then I proceeded to the International Terminal of the Beijing Airport, where I waited on Gabe’s plane to get it. I was a little dumb before I left, forgetting to look at his flight information before I left the dorm, and I couldn’t remember the city from which he took off. However, I knew when the flight got in, and that put me there right on time.

I waited and waited and waited. I waited at the airport for about two hours, watching the endless stream of people emerging from the baggage claim. If for no other reason than the volume of people going through the airport, the Beijing Airport is impressive. I got a call from someone around 5:50, and it was Gabe. For some reason, his flight came into the other terminal of the airport – not the international one. And the 2^ndterminal was a 15-minute bus ride away. By 6:30, I’d met Gabe, and we headed back towards the city.

A word of advice: the airport subway line is not like your average subway line. Traveling in one direction incurs a 25-Yuan fee, which is pretty steep by Chinese standards. With that said, the airport line is the absolute fastest way to get to the airport from the city, and the train drops you off right by the international terminal) along with the other two.

It took us around 40 minutes to make it back to the dorm, where Gabe and I made a quick turn-around to get some supper at the West Gate. We went to a little Cheng Du restaurant, and ordered green beans with peppers, tree fungus, and rice. Fireworks continue to go off all around us. Please keep in mind that New Year’s was a week ago. According to Joy, the more noise that one makes with your fireworks, the better one’s business will be in the next year. The Chinese must really trust this superstition because the average Chinese businessman will spend approximately 20,000-30,000 Yuan in fireworks for the New Year. That’s between $3,000 and $4,000!

Then, we walked back to the dorm through the frozen landscape, where I studied some more for my test. I felt that I was truly prepared for the test on the morrow.

The airport is a very interesting monster in this city. The most recent development – Terminal 3 – was made specifically for the 2008 Olympics. Dear readers, please, please be sure that you double and triple check your travel information when traveling to the Beijing airport. It truly is a pain in the butt that the terminals are not connected, except by a rickety transfer bus. And for the record, there aren’t any KFCs in the newest terminal of the Beijing Airport. If your plane lands at Terminal 3, don’t plan on getting any delicious Chinese spicy chicken sandwiches there.

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

Wednesday February 9th, 2011

Today was much the same as the other days this week: class, then working out, speaking then back to the room to do homework. I ended up doing the most of it by 4:30 this afternoon. I had a chess class at 4, but I lost track of the time. I went over to the class with Alex, and we played two games. We were 1 – 1 after the first two games.

Then we came back to the dorm and played two more games whist we did our homework. I did not do too well, and ended up losing two more games. Today was not my day for Chinese chess. By this time, it was 7:30, and everyone was either sick or not hungry. So Alex and I walked over to Ma Lan (again) and got some roof food.

Then, I literally came back to the dorm and did more homework. I played some guitar at one point, but that was about it. Today was not a very exciting day, I’m sad to say.

Everyone get ready; tomorrow, I'm going to pick up Gabe from the airport!

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

 was awakened from my slumber at 6:30 this morning, to the tune of Chinese folks songs – my alarm. I had to do some studying for class today, and luckily, there wasn’t very much to do. I read what I needed to get through class today, ate some breakfast, donned my winter clothes, and headed off to class, eating a banana as I read through the vocabulary list.

I was a little drowsy in class today, but other than that class went well. I do have one problem with class, though. The desks are made for midgets. I really am sorry if I’ve offended any midgets out there reading this, but you should really come to China. You can sit in all of the chairs, for they are all made for people your size. So I sit like Will Ferrell from Elf, kicking the desk every time I move and making an inordinate amount of racket. The seats also have no cushion. They are designed specifically to make students uncomfortable while they are in class.

Class finished, and I trudged back to the dorm, eyes heavy. I needed a nap to survive the rest of the day, and I did just that. I got up, and skyped Morgan for a bit. Then I went back to my individual class with Teacher Zhu. Teacher Zhu can make the afternoon classes pretty interesting, and I really am feeling good about the progress of my Chinese since I’ve been here. My tones are slowly getting better, and that is good news for me.

Then I got some top-food at Ma Lan – o trustworthy and faithful Little Chinese Herb! Top-food (gai-fan) is where you put some food on a bed of rice, and it is delightful. The cashier’s daughter was there, hanging out behind the register. She was really cute, and I talked to her some. She was seven, and it made me think of Amelia back home. Amelia, I met your doppelganger today! She was sassy and businesslike, telling me my number and that my food would be out shortly with an air of authority.

After leaving my phone at the restaurant and having to return and retrieve it, I went to my pronunciation class, which basically entailed talking to a teacher about whatever and her telling me all of my tonal mistakes. It was slow going, as my mistakes were plentiful, but it was worth the trouble. Then I went to my cheng yu (ancient Chinese proverb) class. The class was pretty fun, and I learned lots of Chinese proverbs. The meaning of these proverbs doesn’t translate to English very well, so I won’t bother trying to tell you what they mean. Maybe one day in the future I will, when we are all very bored.

Then I came back to the dorm, where I ran into Joy. She was about to watch a rather creepy movie by herself, and wanted to know if I’d like to watch it. I didn’t really have anything special going on, and I agreed. The movie, banned in China, is about two coal miners that get tired of their meager earnings and decided to make money by pretending to be relatives of fellow coal miners, killing them, and then collecting bribes from the mine boss. It was a really weird movie, to say the least, but was very well filmed. I really enjoyed it, and this certainly had something to do with the fact that I like movies that are social critiques.

Then, I did a little homework, and around 8 Joy and I went to get some food. No one else in the dorm wanted to get food, and it was getting a little late. We ate a vegetarian meal at the Roast Duck restaurant (how ironic). We talked about our plans for the future, and Joy also wants to work for a multinational corporation. She also has a marginal interest in Chinese investment in Africa, and has a friend living here in Beijing that is trying to get an internship at an African firm this summer. It sounds like this guy and me have some similar interests, and she gave me his email address.

Then we went back to the dorm for the evening, where I finished my studies, and then read a little Sherlock Holmes before retiring.

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

Monday February 7th, 2011

Today I woke up feeling refreshed! However, the day did not look refreshed after the weekend, and we all awoke to a dawn of smog and cloud cover. And while I may not have looked it when I walked into class, I was almost ready to be back in class again after a long break… Almost. This is an update from the ACC program: They have now decided to push up the time that class starts to about 7:55 in the morning. I came to class right at 8, and missed the first half of the morning quiz. What do you know? I have a theory, and starting class before 8 in the morning is just inhumane… You may not agree with me, but we will have to agree to disagree.

Class was fun – in a way that only grueling Chinese classes can be – and I met someone interesting. There is only one other person with a beard to speak of, and he is Shazeda’s good friend who lives off campus. I met him today, and we talked about the importance of beards for mental health and other reasons in between classes. It is good to know I have a comrade-in-beard here in the program. I got out of my last class and hotfooted it over to the gym to get some exercise in before my individual class.

However, Bally was not in the mood to let me in. It turns out that this horrible holiday is still going on, and they were going to open at 12 (I got there at 11). What is going on? I decided that I needed to get an extra week at the end of my membership to compensate this last week. We will see how that goes down; I’m sure you can guess.

I was not about to twiddle my thumbs for an hour, so I came back to the dorm and skyped Morgan. It was great to talk to her, and she definitely helps me keep my sanity in this place! Sadly, I didn’t have time to get food before my individual class, and I pigeonholed food for a little while longer. After my individual class, I had to talk to the director of the program for a few minutes. She was checking on our mental health, and I think that I passed…

Then I made a quick run by the room and went over to Bally. I did my running and exercising, then came back to the dorm. I was getting pretty hungry at this point. I heard that Lee was getting a little sick, and I stopped by her dorm to see how she was doing. Turns out that she was not doing so well. She said that she could use some good medicine for her sinuses and lungs, as she was having a lot of problems with her asthma today. (Most of the other people in the program were also having problems with their breathing. Luckily, I have escaped this fate! This is a real first for me, not being the some sick with all of the things that I get sick from.) With a smile on her face and a challenge in her eyes, she also said that she could use some antibiotics. I said that I could find her some, no problem. She did not believe me.

So what does one who has recently been commissioned to find medications do? I had to employ by Sherlockian logic to the situation: find the guy from Uganda. Wes would assuredly have some medications. He did have some medicine, but mostly for malaria and other sorts of deadly tropical diseases. That does me no good. I also learned that he was sick with either malaria or the flu; he would have to wait and see what his symptoms are in a few days. That’s not very good. He can’t keep any food down, is running a fever, and is extremely tired. I made a mental note of that.

He did mention that Hannah, his girlfriend, had some medicine, and I went and talked to her about the situation. Hannah is the daughter of a doctor, and she is all business when it comes to medicine. Lee couldn’t believe it when I strolled into the room and presented her with her very own doctor. Victory! Hannah and I had enough meds between the two of us to get her on a little regimen. We had to do something for her; she had been getting worse over the last few days.

That’s when I realized that I’d told Shazeda that I would go to Carrefour with her (I still have not eaten). I had a little bit of a panic attack when I realized that (I still hadn’t done any of my homework at this point). So we took a cab over to the supermarket of dreams, and vowed to make this a quick run. We found breakfast food for the next week, and I found some jelly to augment the peanut butter that Morgan sent me! We spent a little while trying to find ginger ale for Wes. You can buy a two-liter of Coke in this country for 5 Yuan, but to get a little can of ginger ale, it costs 4 Yuan. What is happening to all of the ginger grown in this country that the price of ginger ale is 4 Yuan per bottle?!

We left Carrefour, having burned 45 minutes in the labyrinthine shelves. It wasn’t a land speed record, but may have been a personal record (I still haven’t eaten; I’m about to eat our cabbie or another Chinese person). We cabbed it back to the dorm, separated our food, and then pulled together a party to get some food. Hannah, Lauren, Shazeda and I all crossed ZhongGuanCun Street to eat at the roast duck restaurant from two Fridays ago. We ate roast lamb, stir-fried potatoes, eggplant, green beans with peppers, and rice. It was a very good meal. We chatted during the meal, and everyone was mesmerized that Morgan and I are as serious as we are in our relationship J

We all walked back to the dorm, to a disharmonious chorus of fireworks. Today marks the 5^th day of the new year, and that means that everyone has to set off more fireworks. Why?! The air quality in the city has not been improved by the millions of fireworks that are being set off tonight. I walked into the dorm and vowed to do some homework. But before I managed to begin my work, I checked my email, which led me to turn on Skype, through which, I in turn did not go to sleep until one in the morning. However, it was very nice to talk to Morgan and Ma some. I hadn’t heard from the family in what seemed like a long time. Now I’m caught up on life in Demopolis.

Sleep!

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

Sunday February 6th, 2011

I woke up this morning around 9, and I talked to Morgan some on Skype. I surfed the Internet some, and it is really interesting what the government decides to block here and what they decide to let people see.

I showered and did a little schoolwork, and then Shazeda, Lillian, Marianne, and I went to 5 Points to find a western coffee shop that was reported to be in the area. After much searching and deliberation, we found the little gem. It was a very nice little shop, and was almost like being in a coffee shop in the States. We ordered American breakfasts for a late lunch (oh glorious pancakes, sausage, and eggs!).

We all studied there for the next few hours, and I did most of my homework for the night. I also reviewed a little for my independent project. It was a very productive afternoon.

We came back to the dorm and studied some more. Around 8 this evening, we went to a little restaurant across the street, where we ate tofu, eggplant, potatoes, soup, rice, and sesame buns. We were with Joy (who came back this morning), and she is a vegetarian. Thus, most of the meals I eat with her are devoid of meat.

We came back to the dorm, and I ended up hanging out in Shazeda’s room. We talked for a long time, and it was so encouraging to talk to her about my faith! Then her roommate came back to the room, and we all hung out and talked until about one in the morning. Around that time, I came back to the room and I fell asleep, glad to not have to fight the strange sleeping behavior of my roommate, for he was already gone…

Sorry for the brusqueness of this post, but there has been little going on…

I’ll write soon!

Jamey

Saturday February 5th, 2011

Saturday was spent much like Friday and Thursday; not much going on. I read some, putting some more Sherlock Holmes behind me. Those really are great stories. I literally chilled in my room the entire day, and when we finally left the dorm for supper that night it was the first time that I’d been out of the dorm that day, haha.

We went to a hot-pot restaurant that had free beer. The food was alright, but it didn’t sit too well with me. Some other people went to dance, but I went back to the dorm and chilled. That’s it.

Friday, February 4, 2011

oday was, in many ways, a mirror image of yesterday. I vegged out in the room until the afternoon, with the rationale that nothing was open, despite oaths that I would do otherwise. I’m sure that nothing was open, however.

Around 2 in the afternoon, Christina, Alex, Shazeda, and I left the dorm in search of food. We found a noodles restaurant, Yoshinoya, which was that same restaurant where I supped my first supper of this trip to China. Christina and Alex parted ways with us after the meal, and Shazeda and I went off in search of a mythical cigar store whose information I’d espied on the World Wide Web. The store was in a part of the city that I’d not explored very much, the Chao Yang District. This is, again, the ex-pat/foreigner hangout in Beijing.

We looked around the district for some time, and we eventually found the area where the cigar store was to be found. The cigar store, the Cigar Ambassador, was in a huge shopping center called The Place (italics my own). The Place reminds me of the Summit, but only if the summit was piled four or five stories high, and with two basement levels. The Place tailors very much to the ex-pats in the area, but also to Beijing high life, and the stores are quite pricy, to say the least. As I was with Shazeda in this shopping emporium, I had to be patient to find this cigar store, as she wanted to visit every clothing store in the facility. What can I say? Women be shopping J.

We eventually found this store, but after all of our searching, we found the place to be… Closed! Such disappointment… We vowed to return to the store again, after the end of the Spring Festival. We found an advertisement for a bookstore, and as we have both been incredibly bored over the last two days, with naught to do, we looked around for this bookstore. After about 30 minutes of searching, and several instances where Chinese people gave us wrong directions, we found the store. We found the ex-pat section of the store, and after much deliberation, I decided to get two books – Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, and Ghost Stories of Henry James. I’d read part of each of these books, but there was enough unread material to warrant their purchase, at a ridiculously low price.

Then, we wound our way back to the subway, and eventually to the dorm. There, we joined forces with Christina, Alex, and Lee to create a force capable of traveling to Wu Dao Kou (Five Points) to eat some pizza at an ex-pat restaurant! As we were a group of 5, we were unable to fit in one cab. Thus, we separated on the basis of sex. I decided to make the most of our late start from the dorm, and told the cabbie that we wanted to race against the cab in front of him. At first he declined, and I thought that he didn’t want to do it. He made no more mention of the race, but within a minute or two we were racing through the city at speeds greater than I thought possible. Be careful what you wish for…

When we got to 5 Points, the place where we wanted to eat was closed for festivities. So what did we do, you ask? We did the only thing that any rational person would do in the situation: go to the restaurant/bar next door called Old Foreigners. There are many levels to the reasoning that going to this restaurant was wrong, including our dignity, or the service, or the sketchy ex-pats at this bar, but the main reason was that it cost each of us 41 Yuan to eat dinner, which involved two measly thin-crust 10-inch pizzas (that weren’t even that good), and an order of nachos made with bad cheese and with the toppings under the chips. We were livid, and still very hungry when we left.

We were on the prowl again for a dining establishment. Keep in mind, dear reader, that it is around 10:30 at night, as this first adventure has taken about 2 hours of our time. We found a little Italian restaurant not far from The Old Foreigner. It was owned by a 20-something guy from Italy, who was extremely nice. He treated the five of us to lemoncello, which is an Italian liquor made of lemons and cellos. We ordered a cheese pizza and ravioli made with pumpkins. Let me say this: the food was not to par with that of Italy itself, but it was close. That made this restaurant a little piece of heaven for the five of us. The cheese was melted, the dough doughy, and the pumpkin ravioli was better than I expected. This place will most assuredly be visited again in my future here in China.

We ended up hanging around the establishment for a while, chatting and swapping jokes. When we finally paid the bill, which is always interesting, it was 12:30 in the morning. My fellow adventurers wanted to go to Propaganda, the hopping-est club in 5 Points. I didn’t particularly want to go, nor do I think that I will ever really want to go to many clubs in this country – or my own country for that matter. However, I consented, and we entered Propaganda. We checked in our coats and proceeded into the belly of the beast, an underground dancing floor. The bar was immaculate underneath, and the air was quite clear. The music was actually pretty good, and all of the ACC students who found their way to the club – which was a good many – were dancing in a clump near the edge of the dance floor, while the Chinese attendees gawked at our rhythmic movements and opposable thumbs. Christina maintains that I am not dancing right while I’m there, but I don’t exactly know how to dance correctly :P While I did enjoy the music and the crazy cultural clash that was occurring before my very eyes, within a short amount of time my eyes were stinging something fierce, and I had to return to the surface.

Upon emerging, I found that Lee and Shazeda had come to the top for different reasons. We all decided to catch a cab back to the dorm, and we parted ways for the evening.

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey

The Place, Beijing's "most well-known shopping center"

The cigar store we were looking for...

The giant screen above the main courtyard of the Place. If you can't tell, the screen is no less than 80 feet across and 200 feet long

Eternal Peace street at night

ZhongguanCun Street

Chinese Chow; these dogs are everywhere

The east of the city, looking from the Yong'An Li subway station

ZARA, the finest of international clothing chains