To those of you who are calendarily challenged, today is the first day of the new month! It is strange to think that the first month of the new year has already passed. This day also means that I have almost been in China for a month. Now that is strange to think about.
I was dead tired upon waking. I have made a decision: I am going to talk to the roommate about his insane antics. This stuff must come to an end, lest I meet an untimely death here at the program.
I ate breakfast, as usual, and then walked to class. My teachers immediately noticed that the usually marginally chipper lad who sits in their class was absent today, only to be replaced my an ill-tempered, slow-responding dunce. In short, one of them said that I looked like death. Thanks. I tried telling them that I was going to sleep at a decent hour, but my roommate is an insane ninja. However, they seem unwilling or unable to accept the idea that I could not sleep due to the actions of another, and they regarded my fitful verbal ejaculations with a skeptical eye at best.
I do have one important piece of news to share. I had debate class with a girl that I have not seen or met since the beginning of the program. I would have passed her presence off as that of a specter; however, my delusions were shared with those around me. If nothing else, we have all gone insane together.
After surviving my first three classes of the day, I went back to the room and slept a beautiful sleep.
Then, I went to my individual class with the best teacher this side of the Yellow River: Teacher Zhu. I will have to take a picture of this lady to share with you. I’ve already mentioned her a couple of times (see January 13th and 14th), but I will probably continue to do so until the end of this program. After conversing with Zhu on the topic of satire (a branch of literature not well understood by the Chinese people), I went back up to my room and played guitar again. I would like to give another shout-out to the parents and Morgan for persuading me into taking my guitar with me. It has probably been the single best item that I have brought from the states, and everyone on the floor has enjoyed playing it at least once or twice.
At four, I emerged from my musical hermitage and went with Shazeda to meet a “friend” that she met in a bar a few weeks ago. Supposedly, this girl works in the independent film industry in Beijing, which sounds like a dubious occupation at best. This is what I’ve gathered about this industry: independent film is only marginally legal here, and can only be sold in certain areas of the city. I don’t think that independent film artists can have public showings of their movies, which does not surprise me at all. The central Entertainment Bureau must certify all films that the Chinese people enjoy, and the idea of having an independent film artist (oh no!) make their own movie outside the mechanisms prescribed by the government is only too gruesome. However, these hardships do not justify the fact that we were stood up by this girl.
We had already taken a cab to the locale where we planned to meet her before we realized the folly of our maneuver, and we were found as a fish without water, aimlessly tossed in the sea of corny advertisements and gaudy decorations. We looked around for a little while, and we found ourselves near an electronics emporium. We entered the room with great caution, and we were amazed at the selection to behold. We ambled about the store for over an hour without passing the same booth twice. I must say, dear readers, that if you come to China, do take some time to find electronics facility similar to the one that we found. You are in for a treat. You can purchase any knock-off electronic item in the world here: Nikon, Cannon, Sony, and Pentax cameras; Mac, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, IBM, and Gateway computers; iPhones, Blackberries, Motorola, Notarola, Nokia, Nckia, and China mobile phones; video cameras, from professional grade to security cameras; USB drives; webcams; I think that you get the picture.
And the greatest thing about these huge vendors is the unbridled capitalism. Yes, capitalism in China. You can see so many economic factors at work here: The stalls are either having price wars with each other, selling items way below cost, just to cut off operating expenses, or they cross stall lines to fix prices across the board. This entire market’s existence can be traced right back to the high tariffs that the government places on luxury items to the country; no one can afford to pay the ridiculous prices of the real goods, not even government officials.
After we could walk around the electronics market no longer, Shazeda and I took a tour of the neighborhood. We found my favorite Chinese clothing store, Meters/bonwe, which you may remember from my previous China saga. Meters/bonwe was the store that was celebrating the production of Transformers 2, and all of their clothes were Transformer themed. We window-shopped some, and then we found what we had been looking for the entire time: a way to escape Chinese cuisine.
We found a Papa Johns. It was great. We ordered a design-your-own pizza to the tune of great 90s pop songs in the background. In Shazeda’s words, “I have never felt so American during my time here, as I do at the Beijing Papa John’s.” We savored great American cheese, mushrooms, peppers, and ground beefy goodness, and we talked about life in New York and the Great South. I think that the two of us are both simultaneously mesmerized and repulsed by the notion of living in the other’s hometown.
After eating, we took the “scenic route” back to the school, which mostly entailed me guessing the right way back to campus and having to ask directions numerous times. I once, had to look at Shazeda and say: “I need you to not freak out here, but I don’t really know where we are…” We made it back to the dorm unscathed. Walking through the city now is a little unnerving. The place has become a ghost town, and the streets are all but deserted. The only places that have any sign of life are the stores that sell wares to be devoured on Spring Festival, stores selling nuts and dried fruit. How delicious!
As we walked through the streets of Bejing, Shazeda and I decided that Chun Jie (Chinese for Spring Festival) would be the perfect time for murdering someone. Not only is no one around to see you, but the sound of fireworks fills the air, and no one could possibly hear the sounds of a gun or the cries of the assailed.
We made it back to the room with no harm done, and I just hung out the dorm for a little while. I had a date with my host family in the morning, and I needed my rest for the Spring Festival.
I’ll write soon!
Love,
Jamey
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