I was roused from my bed around 8:30, as is becoming my norm. I think that China does something to people, making them sleep less. I do not know a single Chinese person that sleeps more than 5 to 6 hours a night and this strange behavior is rubbing off on me. I went through the Saturday morning routine of checking emails and getting on Skype.
I went over to Bally for a long-ish run. I have developed a scheme for the coming weekend, in preparation for the trip to Chengdu. It involved me modifying my weekly long run, so that I could run much longer on Thursday, as we are going to be on a train for 25 hours beginning on Friday at 6:30.
I should also mention some of the political upheaval that has been going on in Beijing beginning last Sunday. Last Sunday there was a general protest for civil rights in China. This is the weekly norm, and the government has accepted these weekly demonstrations, more or less. However, beginning last Sunday, the Chinese president met with a number of other higher-ups in the CCP. The hotel in which they met was not very far from the location of the weekly demonstration, but the government took no mercy on the protestors, treating them as if they were directly protesting the meeting of President Hu. As was the norm, policemen drove street sweepers through the area allotted for the debates to scatter the protestors. People shopping nearby were locked in stores for hours on end, to that they could no participate in the goings-on. Being locked in department stores does not sound that bad in contrast to the fate of some protestors: hear tell that two foreigners – journalists or not – were brutally beat by the police, resulting in their hospitalization. Others claim that the police took water hoses to the crowd, but I don’t know very much about the validity of this claim. One of my classmates took a trip over to the demonstration, and the police made her register her camera, as it was “professional grade.” I believe it is safe to say there is some phobia of Western journalists cataloguing events in the Motherland…
What did these events mean for me? I had to carry my student ID everywhere, as there were about 4 policemen and random soldiers posted at each gate of the MinZu campus, and they would not let me, or anyone else, into the campus without said student ID.
Sandra and I met ours host dad – Mr. Wu – for a day at the Beijing Museum around 2:00 that afternoon, which turned out to be an interesting experience. I had not eaten at this point, and Mr. Wu swung by a Uighur BBQ shack so that I could get some lunch. I ate it ravenously on the ride, trying not to get any crumbs in the interior of his spotless VW.
Beijing Museum = awesome. We checked out the Beijing history and the folk history exhibits, but of which were informative and engaging. The Beijing history exhibit was a large room, and visitors proceeded around the edge of the room in a counterclockwise fashion. Maps of world history accompanied the artifacts on display, so that the visitors could keep a perspective on world events as China developed. As the last true Chinese emperor was haughtily forcing the British ambassador to kow-tow in Beijing, George Washington was president of the United States. The folk museum was even more interesting, as there were a lot of dioramas depicting life in old Beijing.
We stayed till the museum closed, and Mr. Wu and I chatted on the long ride back to campus, while Sandra slept in the backseat. I read for the remainder of the afternoon, perfectly content to be lethargic after my morning of exercise.
Wes came by the room to awake me from my stupor and we jammed. We took turns playing guitar and rotating singing harmony and melody. A small contingent of us – Wes, Hannah, Lee, Shazeda, Joy, and I – went to dine at The West Pizza. It was a good meal and a nice escape from Chinese cuisine. I have but one complaint of the establishment: there was no ranch dressing anywhere to be found.
After the long meal – Chinese meals seem to last forever – we walked to the dorm to celebrate Tim’s birthday. The party was cool, and I would say that it was even more so for those who really like parties. I was very soon over stimulated and snuck back to the room early. When I got back to the dorm, I decided to watch a movie. This was a bad decision, as it was a horrible movie.
Sleep.
I’ll write soon!
Love,
Jamey
No comments:
Post a Comment