I Feel Trapped in a 99c Store...

My new dorm is amazing. I have everything I could want. But of course, being in China, they're going to nickle and dime me for everything I've got. Where do I start? Well, when I turn on the lights, I need to make sure the ones I'm not using are off because we only have 400 "units" of electricity a month. This means that if we leave our air condition on for 12 days straight we'll run out of electricity. When I wash my hands in the sink, I better make sure to do it fast because we have 4 tons of hot water and 4 of cold water. We have to pay for any extra that we use. The laundry room is in a different building and there are no dryers. Since it's been pretty hot lately, my laundry only took about a day and half to dry but when winter comes, that's going to be a lot of fun picking my frozen socks off of our balcony. There is no internet in my room. Well, of the two jacks one works (mine), but I can only get on Google. And since Blogger.com is part of Google, I can post. My Skype doesn't work nor do any other sites outside of Google. This isn't terrible right now, especially because we leave Sunday morning for 2 weeks and I'm not bringing my computer. Later on this year, I'll probably be writing about the situation again when I slip on ice and break all of my electronics at once. Our kitchen doesn't have any gas to light the stove, so we have to pay extra for that as well. No pots or pans provided. Jimmy and I were laughing this morning about how frustrating it is to live here sometimes. Everything is so cheap, but I've always said you get what you pay for. Things don't work properly, like the power strip I took from our old apartment. Sure we bought it at the supermarket, but there are 6 outlets on it and only 3 work. The handles on our plastic/cloth environmentally friendly grocery bags have broken already. The internet is a fiasco. Even in the other building (where we have to go to access wireless), it works sporadically. We laugh that we get things so cheap, but when you have to buy 10 of them to finally get one that works, you kind of come out short. It's kind of like being trapped in a 99c store. But, who doesn't like things from the 99c store. You can get pretty cool stuff there sometimes...

Most of the TBC students went to the Great Wall today. Mutianyu. The same exact place that we had gone a few days ago. Devon, Jimmy and I decided to opt out of this one. Good thing we did, the smog is horrible today and the weather is not the best. Plus they all had to leave at 8 o'clock or some ridiculous time. No way. Instead, we decided to go the Happy Valley Amusement Park. I love theme parks. Roller coasters are my thing. This theme park wasn't huge but they had some pretty great rides. We went on a flying coaster, which we got front seats for. Then they had one just like Elitch Gardens in Denver. The Mind Eraser. Almost an exact replica of that one. We went on another spinning one that moved like a pendulum. We had a great time. Admission was $24 and all worth it. It was really expensive though. A bottle of water was Y5. Ridiculous. We usually pay Y2 ($0.30). I took a lot of pictures. The park was divided into 5 different worlds. Atlantis, Greece, Mayan Ruins, Shangri-la, and Ant Kingdom (Kiddie land). We rode a few rides in each part and just enjoyed the day. Camera #2 is still doing alright too.
We're all still getting used to our new surroundings. We're meeting some cool people and a few of us went out last night. We're all pretty stoked for the two week Silk Road trip we're about to go on. Here's the deal, what I know so far at least. There are 120 students at TBC this semester. We're split into two groups. I'm in Group B, which travels from West to East. This means I start in the Gobi Desert. We go to the very end of the Great Wall, and leave the very last gate. It was here that people were exiled. Once they exited the gate, which was underground, they looked ahead of them at the Gobi. There was, and still is, no life on this desert. They looked behind them and the gate would just be a stone wall. Most of the exiled chose to die at the gate, and it is said their bodies still haunt this gate. We are starting our trip here. We are going to go on camels at 4am to watch the sunrise over the sand dunes. Then we begin our journey to Xi'an. It is here that the famous terracotta warriors are. We are unable to go to Tibet on this trip so instead we are going to the Shaolin Monastery also known as the Shaolin Temple. Many of the major martial arts have evolved from this very temple. Here we will watch the monks practice their arts. They recruit boys as young as 8 years old to begin training. On our Silk Road trip we'll be travelling to inner Mongolia and staying in traditional huts with locals. This will not be our only time camping out. In Mongolia, we will watch them race horses and participate in local Mongolian wrestling. I have never ridden a horse and really hope I get to ride one here. That would be an experience. Besides seeing the local Mongolian's customs and rituals, we will be living in their round tents (forget the name) and living with them for a few nights. Our other home stays will be indoors but we will be completely submerged in the real China. If this trip doesn't get me to the belly of the dragon, I don't know what I'll have to do.

Along this trip, I will try and update here, but if I can't I'll be posting pictures up when I return. I probably won't have the time (or the will) to write about every day, so I'll take extra pictures. I will have my Chinese mobile phone, so you can call me on that. To call me from the US you must first dial 011-86-10 Which is the international code for Chinese phone numbers. After dialing that code, you can then dial my cell phone number, which is 13671373273. Make sure you get a calling card if anyone wants to call me. (Probably not but hey, I want to think I have some fans)

Here are some pictures for you to catch up on.

The Great Wall

Track & Field

I forgot to talk about a dinner I went to a few days ago. It the was our orientation day and we had a few host students take me and my neighbor Ryan on a tour around campus. We met up with Jimmy and his host student and we all went out to get some stuff for the room. We got pots and pans and a few packages of instant noodles. Since we're leaving on the Silk Road trip we can't really stock up on bacon and eggs and stuff because it will all spoil. We went out to dinner to a really cool restaurant where we ate like kings. They even had a free show of multiple traditional dances and performances. It started with some girls doing a traditional dance, followed by a mask dance, and ending with a small portion of the Beijing Opera performed by a young lady. The mask dance was awesome. The guy would change his mask within the half second it took for his hand and sleeve to pass over his face. Literally instantaneously. It was amazing. The opera singer was good? I had to ask my host student if the woman was performing well and she said yes. I probably just don't have the ear for opera. Well, I'm already hard of hearing as it is so I know I don't have the ear for it. We had some of the best Beijing Roast Duck I've had out here. They had some cool stuff on the menu that sounded really good. There was this eel pasta dish that looked really delicious but we didn't order it. This bone marrow drink that had bones with straws in the middle looked interesting to try but we didn't. I took a picture. Also, we did order some shrimp rolls dipped in pink cream cheese type sauce. That was delicious. Ryan wanted to try the duck head but we didn't get that so we got some dumplings, broccoli and a fish that was really meaty and tasted awesome.

I have more pictures from dinner, the amusement park, and my new dorm are going to be posted sometime soon.

A Wonder of the World & the End of the Beginning

We woke up at 8:00AM yesterday to go to the Great Wall. I was really stoked to head out of Beijing and finally see the Great Wall. The last time we tried to go to the Wall, the weather was rainy and none of us felt like risking a 2 hour bus ride to be stuck in the rain. Late the night before, we had to search for the best way to get to the Wall. We didn't want to go to a tourist part with tons of people, so we decided to go to Mutianyu. This was probably the best place to go for our first time to the Wall. I looked up directions online and wrote down the Chinese for the names of the cities and bus stations. We left at 9:05 AM, which is way better than any family trip I've been on. I was expecting to leave at 10 or 10:30 because everyone knows the Zamudio's need miracles to leave on-time for a roadtrip. We got cabs to the bus station, where we were the only tourists around. Many tourists have pre-made arrangements when they head to the Wall, so we were definately adventuring when we decided to go on our own. Anytime you do something on your own out here, you can never know what to expect. When we arrived at the bus station, this cab driver wanted to arrange a deal to take us to the Wall. We had heard about taking a taxi to the wall, but we wanted to save money and take public transportation. It is much much cheaper for not too much of an inconvenience. The only problem with saying, "No!" to this guy was he didn't get it. We were trying to find our bus, the 916 to Huairou, but the cab driver wouldn't leave us alone. When I went to ask a volunteer where the bus left from, he even went as far as to tell the volunteer not to tell us and then told us there was no bus to the Wall and we had to take a cab. All that did was make me mad and soon after he got the point that we didn't need a cab. I asked another nearby person where we could catch our bus, and they pointed us in the right direction. Although they pointed us to the non-express bus, we quickly found the express bus and were on our way. Air-conditioning and seats. What more could you ask for? I snoozed a little bit on the bus ride and woke up in Huairou. I didn't know that there were multiple stops in Huairou, but a guy came on the bus (seeing we were tourists) and told us that this was the stop for the Wall. Well, we didn't know that this guy was also a cab driver and not just a helping friend. Either way, I knew we had to take a cab from Huairou to the Mutianyu so it didn't bother me. We bartered him down for a good price, where he took us to the Wall, waited for us, and then took us back to the 916 station to Beijing. Good deal, right? We crammed five of us, me, Jim, Devon, Kelly and Monica, into the cab and took off.

Wow. The Wall is awesome. We took a gondola from the parking lot to the Wall (otherwise we would have to walk 30-40 minutes up to it). Remember the catapult I took on Wangfujing? That was a safety standard 7 or 8. This thing. Not so much. Probably about a 4. Imagine a rickity ski lift, when every time you moved, the boards your sitting on teeterd on their nails. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every moment of eminent danger. All the way to the top. We walked up the wall, through the gaurd houses and up the stairs. Overlooking the beautiful mountains, you could look at the wall snaking along the moutain sides. It was just like the pictures. Awesome. The best part was we weren't pushing through people to walk up it. We went on a perfect day too. It was a bit hot, but it was clear blue skys all around us. The walking is more like doing a 2 hour stair stepper and it was hot enough to be drenched with sweat in the first 20 minutes. We got some awesome pictures. When we made it to one of the top most gaurd houses (I don't know if that is the correct term), we could look back at the part we had just climbed and enjoy what we have conquered. Some of the Wall is really steep and although it looks like we didn't travel that far, we probably walked about a mile or so down the Wall. One of the best days I've had. It was good to be out of the city, looking at mountains (that I miss very much), and being with some of my best friends to enjoy it all with. We had a good time laughing when people almost fell up and down the steps because they are all uneven. Someone in our group (not naming names) had a few too many scares and ended up falling down a step not on the Wall, but after we had gotten down. Haha. It wasn't me this time. On the Great Wall, you could see many people from around the world too. We passed by two Tai boxers each wearing their Gold and Silver medals. Jimmy got to hold the Gold medal and he got some pretty cool pictures with them. The medals are exremely shiny and looked amazing.

The Wall was great, but possibly the best part of the whole trip was taking the luge down. Jimmy and I were trying to go really fast. You turned with the curves and banked on the sides of the luge track. It was a blast. Unfortunately, there were older people in front of our group, and we had to stop a few times to give them space so we didn't run them over. Monica went first for our whole group and at one point near the end, I kept yelling "Go Mon, Go!" Kind of in a Jamaican accent but mostly because I was catching up to her too quickly. They have a few workers along select parts of the track that yell at you when you're going to fast and of course, being American, I couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me...haha. When we got to the bottom, we were starving. We ate, got ripped off because it was a tourist restaurant, and then poked around a few of the shops. Didn't see anything interesting. A few Chinese style t-shirts and some wooden stuff, but nothing I couldn't find at the Silk Market.

We all crashed on the bus ride back to Beijing. When we got home, we had to all get ready to go to Casas Americas for the Closing Ceremony. Free food and drinks. We're there. I'm sure everyone caught clips of the closing ceremonies. Great great great finish to the Olympics. It actually kind of bummed me out watching the Olympics. Now I'm not going to be able to just go see all of the world's athletes compete and break records. And, most of the people I've been meeting have been from all over the world. Many are going back to their home countries and the worldwide party is going to start coming to an end. In a way, it is kind of a good thing. Soon, I'll be starting a new part of my life in China. I'll actually have a set schedule every week and I'll be living in an apartment permanently. I was talking with a lady at Casas Americas during the Closing Ceremony and she turned out to be a tour leader. She worked for a company that plans 10-30 day excursions throughout China. Devon and I got to talk with her for hours about all the cool places in China to visit. She was a living book of knowledge. We got some valuable advice. Such as, when flying to Hong Kong, fly to Shenzhen and take a bus into Hong Kong. You'll save money that way. Also, Shenzhen's market isn't as good as Beijing's Silk Market. The Yangze River cruise I wanted to do. Not a great idea. Boring and you're stuck on a boat for 3 days with nothing to do except for play cards. Plus the food is terrible she said. Also, she gave us tons of advice about Vietnam. We're taking a 10 day trip the first week of October to visit Thailand and Vietnam. She gave us plenty to do in Vietnam. It was great to meet her and it was finally a turn of luck.

This morning I went to take my camera to the Nikon store to get it fixed. I handed the cab driver the paper the camera guys had given me and he took me to Wangfujing. The Nikon shop was actually in an office building on the third floor and when I entered there was crazy guy who was extremely pissed about his camera. Thank God I don't speak Chinese fluently because I wasn't about to listen to this guy go off forever about whatever was wrong with his camera. Some part must have been loose because he kept telling everyone in the room to listen as he shook his camera. He would go up to everyone, asking them questions and yelling about things. When I got there there were 3 people in front of me, but I got there just in time because shortly after I arrived the small room was full of people. A guy tried to cut everyone in line and someone yelled at him. I stood in line and waited my turn. Luckily the girl at the counter was pretty understanding. Of course she went off speaking Chinese, so I just smiled and nodded and they said they'd call me when it was done. Total price: Y280 plus labor. So hopefully it's around Y500. Much cheaper then buying a new one. I'm still waiting for a phone call.

We also had to consolidate apartments today, so Jimmy and I moved to the 11th floor of our buildilng. This room is way nicer than our old room but unfortunately we leave to move into the school dorms tomorrow morning. I'll let you know what happens when I get pictures.