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 4th 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
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