What a great week. I got all of the pictures up from Guilin, I've turned in a paper, passed a Chinese test and had a great weekend. First, Friday night DJ Armin van Buuren, ranked #1 by DJ Mag top 100 DJs, was at GT Banana here in Beijing. All of us at TBC prebought tickets and went all out for this. Personally, I had no idea what to expect from something like this and techno music really isn't my thing but everyone had the time of their life. After a stressful week, this was what all of us needed. Besides the fact that everyone dressed in neon-colors, multiple layers, hats, ridiculous sunglasses and even wigs (Devon & Brittany), the best part of the night was the fact that we didn't return home until nearly 4:30 am. Saturday was spent mostly sleeping and my ears are still ringing from the hours of loud music. (Really, they are.)
Saturday, after sleeping until 1 pm, I woke up, ate and went to get paid. Tutoring really does pay off! Then, I came back to the dorms, we went out to eat and went back to Wangfujing Street to the night market. This time, we made sure it wasn't closed and that we could eat some creepy crawlers. Just wait for some of the pictures. There were kidneys, hearts, livers, testicles, penis, crickets, cicadas, grubs, silk worms, and scorpions. I ate something from that list and to be frank, it wasn't all that bad. I actually had another just to try it again. When the night market was about to close we all got some fresh fruit on a stick and called it a night. I was exhausted from the night before and when I got home, I watched some Entourage and slept.
This morning, I woke up all too early to tutor but in the end I just reminded myself I get paid way too much to talk with a 10 year old about nothing. Today, we went over action verbs to try and get him to form complete sentences, but he wasn't having it really. We eventually got him to say all the verbs with a simple subject (always "I"), verb, and object. We're making a bit of progress I think?
This week, I also dropped serious kuai when I went Christmas shopping. Sean and I headed to some of the largest markets around Beijing, including the Silk Market, and came back with nearly everyone checked off of our Christmas lists. But the homework still continues without end. I have two weekends in December when I'm going to be away from Beijing and out exploring Asia. This means that I have to write one art paper by December and another by the last class. Chinese class is relentless, always new characters to be memorized and learned. Further, my Buddhism class has a 15 page paper due at the end of the semester. School is school. It won't do much to complain but the only problem is that now everyone is scrambling to see Beijing. Many students have procrastinated and a majority of them haven't been to Tian**men Square yet, let alone the Summer Palace, Llama Temple, Olympic Green or Beihai. There are plans unfolding all around me to take a trip to this place or that place, to see this market this weekend or that district this day. As for me, I only have to see the Temple of Heaven, but I might not get around to that. I also planned on going to an acrobat show, which I think we're planning soon.
I'll post pictures of the party Friday and the Wangfujing eatings later on this week. Stay warm. Thanksgiving is in 11 days!
Showing posts with label Wang Fu Jing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wang Fu Jing. Show all posts
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Summertime Cookout at the Summer Palace
Last time I wrote, I was able to post a few extra pictures of random things from around town. We went out to a place near the Worker's Stadium (an Olympic event) and had a really fun time. Most of the Chinese are really excited when foreigners enter their shops or clubs because they know most likely we'll be spending money there. For this reason alone, they treat you like royalty. At the club we went to, a few of the girls were approached by the manager and shown a special VIP room and given cards to received half-off drinks M-Th. Also, after showing the girls the room, the manager came over to our table and asked us to come back. I think it is easy to get used to this part of China.
The next morning we got up bright and early to go to the Summer Palace. The only people from my apartment who went were Rachel, Jimmy and myself. We met up with Devon at the group meeting spot. Devon hadn't gone out with us the previous night, so she was pretty well rested. The rest of us had to deal with the 8 o'clock wake up call. Heading to the Summer Palace, which was a place where the empress vacationed, isn't too bad. It used to be considered a very remote place outside of Beijing, but just like any other city, the far suburbs eventually get swallowed by the urban sprawl. We took the subway from one end to the other and got off. When we heard we still had a bus ride to go, we asked our leader if we could grab a bite to eat and take a cab and meet them later on. She said this was fine and this gave us a chance to eat and rest before we walked around all day. We were all glad to separate from the group. They usually go at a slower pace and everyone knows its much easier to do things like this when your not in a large tourist group. Don't worry, our leader isn't a tour guide, so we didn't even miss any cool facts. We ate at a noodle place, and it was more difficult than usual to order food because we were in a very non-tourist part of Beijing. Eventually we got our noodle bowls and ate and caught a cab to the Palace.
The Summer Palace is awesome. It sits right on lake and has many different places to walk around and enjoy the weather. The views are spectactular and it is amazing to think that the ancient Chinese rulers used to walk around the same place, enjoying the same scenery. They lake was full of paddle boats, so we decided to rent one out. Another thing I really love about this country is the exchange rate. It allows for us to do all of the things and not really have to worry about money. The boats were really cheap and we went off wandering around the lake. It was sunny and pedaling around make it really hot. We went to the other side of the lake and looked at all the grass and trees. There were bridges and people with their families and it looked like a great place to have a Summertime BBQ. We returned the boat after an hour and a half and walked over the the Tower of Buddhist Incense. this is one of the tallest points at the Summer Palace. To get there we had to walk through one of the longest covered walkways in the world. It has thousands of hand painted pictures on the ceiling and goes on forever.
When we get to the Buddhist tower, we had to walk up a few long flights of stairs before we got to the top. The views were amazing. You could see the outskirts of Beijing and all of the boats on the lake. Inside the Tower of Buddhist Incense was a bronze casted gold guilded 1000 armed Buddah. It was awesome even though we couldn't take pictures. Inside, a few people were praying. We walked a little further up to a smaller building with a golden Buddah statue. That was really cool. Again, no pictures, but it was big.
We poked around at the top for a bit. Stopped to rest on some rocks and look out at the view. We headed down and took a rickshaw back to the subway stop. That was a fun ride back. A rickshaw is a two seat carriage pulled by a bikeman. Our man was older but he did pretty good. It was a nice relaxing ride, except for the time we went through an intersection and the other time we went one way on the highway. I was glad that Jimmy and Rachel were in front of Devon and I because they were the ones that were getting honked at. Some of the oncoming traffic were flashing their lights at us too. We made it safely to the next exit ramp and even though we were still going the wrong way, there was far less traffic. We got to the subway, took it back to our apartments, and decided to look around a new mall they just built by us. We were all exhausted. We had been walking around all day outside. We hadn't eaten since the noodle place and we just wanted to relax. The mall was really nice. It wasn' crowded at all and a lot of the stores were American priced. We ate again and went back. I just relaxed at home and crashed.
The game plan for today is to get another massage with the roommates, going to see Gymnastics finals today and when I get back we're having a huge going away party for all of the 14 day volunteers. Oh-- and speaking of volunteering, I'm going to the orphanage soon.
Media links: Video of Me, Rachel, and Kelly on Wangfujing Catapult!
The next morning we got up bright and early to go to the Summer Palace. The only people from my apartment who went were Rachel, Jimmy and myself. We met up with Devon at the group meeting spot. Devon hadn't gone out with us the previous night, so she was pretty well rested. The rest of us had to deal with the 8 o'clock wake up call. Heading to the Summer Palace, which was a place where the empress vacationed, isn't too bad. It used to be considered a very remote place outside of Beijing, but just like any other city, the far suburbs eventually get swallowed by the urban sprawl. We took the subway from one end to the other and got off. When we heard we still had a bus ride to go, we asked our leader if we could grab a bite to eat and take a cab and meet them later on. She said this was fine and this gave us a chance to eat and rest before we walked around all day. We were all glad to separate from the group. They usually go at a slower pace and everyone knows its much easier to do things like this when your not in a large tourist group. Don't worry, our leader isn't a tour guide, so we didn't even miss any cool facts. We ate at a noodle place, and it was more difficult than usual to order food because we were in a very non-tourist part of Beijing. Eventually we got our noodle bowls and ate and caught a cab to the Palace.
The Summer Palace is awesome. It sits right on lake and has many different places to walk around and enjoy the weather. The views are spectactular and it is amazing to think that the ancient Chinese rulers used to walk around the same place, enjoying the same scenery. They lake was full of paddle boats, so we decided to rent one out. Another thing I really love about this country is the exchange rate. It allows for us to do all of the things and not really have to worry about money. The boats were really cheap and we went off wandering around the lake. It was sunny and pedaling around make it really hot. We went to the other side of the lake and looked at all the grass and trees. There were bridges and people with their families and it looked like a great place to have a Summertime BBQ. We returned the boat after an hour and a half and walked over the the Tower of Buddhist Incense. this is one of the tallest points at the Summer Palace. To get there we had to walk through one of the longest covered walkways in the world. It has thousands of hand painted pictures on the ceiling and goes on forever.
When we get to the Buddhist tower, we had to walk up a few long flights of stairs before we got to the top. The views were amazing. You could see the outskirts of Beijing and all of the boats on the lake. Inside the Tower of Buddhist Incense was a bronze casted gold guilded 1000 armed Buddah. It was awesome even though we couldn't take pictures. Inside, a few people were praying. We walked a little further up to a smaller building with a golden Buddah statue. That was really cool. Again, no pictures, but it was big.
We poked around at the top for a bit. Stopped to rest on some rocks and look out at the view. We headed down and took a rickshaw back to the subway stop. That was a fun ride back. A rickshaw is a two seat carriage pulled by a bikeman. Our man was older but he did pretty good. It was a nice relaxing ride, except for the time we went through an intersection and the other time we went one way on the highway. I was glad that Jimmy and Rachel were in front of Devon and I because they were the ones that were getting honked at. Some of the oncoming traffic were flashing their lights at us too. We made it safely to the next exit ramp and even though we were still going the wrong way, there was far less traffic. We got to the subway, took it back to our apartments, and decided to look around a new mall they just built by us. We were all exhausted. We had been walking around all day outside. We hadn't eaten since the noodle place and we just wanted to relax. The mall was really nice. It wasn' crowded at all and a lot of the stores were American priced. We ate again and went back. I just relaxed at home and crashed.
The game plan for today is to get another massage with the roommates, going to see Gymnastics finals today and when I get back we're having a huge going away party for all of the 14 day volunteers. Oh-- and speaking of volunteering, I'm going to the orphanage soon.
Media links: Video of Me, Rachel, and Kelly on Wangfujing Catapult!
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| Summer Palace |
Saturday, August 16, 2008
The Same Thing I Always Do
After my adventure with Jimmy it was pretty hard to go back to normal life in Beijing. I got to sleep in the next day because I had nothing planned for the day (again). Jimmy and Rachel had tickets to water polo, so Devon and I went down to the Olympic venues to see if we could scalp tickets for something good. There weren't any really awesome tickets, so we just settled for some more volleyball. Actually it's Olympic Volleyball, so it was really awesome. We saw Brazil and Russia and Serbia vs Poland. It was great to watch, but we were volleyballed out. The major plus is that not only do Chinese people not form lines, they also don't care where their official seat is at a venue. This means that during breaks, everyone moves around until they get moved. After the Brazil/Russia game (which Russia won), we moved really close to the court. So close that we got to see the Serbia/Poland teams come out of the locker room. The Serbia/Poland teams are HUGE. You can see by the pictures most of the guys are over 2m tall. Which I assume is around 6' or over. After the second game of Poland and Serbia, Devon and I called it quits. Too much volleyball.
We left the venue and it was pouring. It has rained a few days here and there is one thing we learned. If it rains, you'll see the sky tomorrow. But it's not that great when your in flip flops and a t-shirt. We ran around in the rain trying to find the subway station but the directions we were given we apparently didn't understand to the fullest. We asked someone else and took a bus to the subway stop. When we got off we saw a huge mall and decided to check it out. The malls here are nice but really expensive (for China). Although you'll pay American prices, you can find some pretty cool Chinese brands. I'm really into the whole Chinese brand. I'm probably one of the only people in our group that hasn't eaten KFC, McDonalds, or 7-11 food. I'm eating some American snacks, but I try to avoid the name brand American meals. I really like their fast food noodle places and I think they're really good.
At the mall, everyone loves foreigners. You can't go into a store without someone following you around asking you to try everything on. And since I'm a good lookin guy, OK really good looking guy, haha, all of the girls want me to talk to them for a little while. When I was checking out, one of the workers, who I wasn't even talking to, just said "Dong dong." I was kinda confused because she said it kind of loud and I thought I was doing something weird. I looked at Devon and she didn't know what was going on either. Our confusion must have shown on our faces because the girl I was talking to let me know what was going on. "Her name is Dongdong" I thought it was pretty funny.
When I got home, we ate and went out to the Houhai bar district. I really liked this place. It is a bit expensive but it overlooks a small lake. You can look out and see all the bar lights reflecting on the lake. It's a good vibe and the people are fun.
The next morning we all woke up and everyone had stuff to do except for me, Rachel, and Kelly. I made an American breakfast (eggs, toast, and ham) and we decided to go out and explore a different part of the city. We planned on going to see the Olympic gardens, but instead we ended up at Wangfujing street market. Kelly ended up having a pretty bad day and it all started when we got on the subway to go the Wangfujing. Getting on the subway, Kelly's flipflop hit the door step and it got kicked into the crack. It was lost forever and she had to walk barefoot through the subway station and through the street. She finally got another pair in one of the stores but no one really likes to walk barefoot. It was pretty funny and she got some stares. When we got there we met up with Andrew, Monica, and Devon. Some people bought things at the official flagship store and afterwards we ended up just poking around. The weather was the best it has ever been here. It actually looked like a normal city in the world. You could see clouds, the blue sky, and even airplanes. Further down on the Wangfujing street market there was a carnival ride. Y100 to go on one of those rides where you sit in a ball on the ground and it bungees up into the sky. I took pictures but it was amazing. Rachel was hilarious. Right before we were about to go she asks, "How safe do you think this ride is? 10 being American standards" I would say about 7 or 8. When Rachel asked to get her seatbelt tightened, they said no. It was a fun 10 minute ride and by the time we launched we had attracted quite a big crowd. So many people were watching us that people had to cross the street to walk on a sidewalk.
After our ride, I headed back. I had nothing to do so I slept for a bit and then we went out as an apartment to dinner. We of course had a good dinner. Ate some duck feet. Nothing special. Everyone let me order dinner and of course everything looks good when you're ordering off a picture menu. haha. Other than being really spicey, the duck feet had 3 toes and the small bone/cartlidge in the toes felt like undercooked rice. The ankles had a lot of bones and weren't good. The webbing was the best part. Look at the pictures.
When I got the apartment, I was reading some e-mail and I had just poured myself a nice glass of cold Coke. With my luck, I break cameras and cell phones and all of that so naturally my computer had to have something happen to it while I'm here. You can probably put the two together before I tell you, but someone bumped into the table and the Coke sloshed out of the cup and onto my keyboard. It short circuited the keyboard. After that happend, I went to bed. I knew I wasn't going to be in the mood for anything exciting. This morning, I went out with Kelly to the computer store and bought a keyboard. We also got more eggs and some bacon. We made breakfast and it was delicious.
Today, August 16, I was supposed to go to the Temple of Heaven, but Jimmy met some Chinese guys who are going to UIBE (The Beijing Center) with us this semester. They are volunteering for the Olympics and get tickets to events. From what Jim understood he had three tickets to basketball, but what he really had was three tickets to different events on different days. I wished I would have seen the Temple of Heaven, but Jim reminded me that we're here for a while. We have time. Plus, Devon said it was awesome, but she doesn't need to go again. Which is just like T--nanmen square.
Tonight is Hotpot dinner. We'll see what surprises come from that.
We left the venue and it was pouring. It has rained a few days here and there is one thing we learned. If it rains, you'll see the sky tomorrow. But it's not that great when your in flip flops and a t-shirt. We ran around in the rain trying to find the subway station but the directions we were given we apparently didn't understand to the fullest. We asked someone else and took a bus to the subway stop. When we got off we saw a huge mall and decided to check it out. The malls here are nice but really expensive (for China). Although you'll pay American prices, you can find some pretty cool Chinese brands. I'm really into the whole Chinese brand. I'm probably one of the only people in our group that hasn't eaten KFC, McDonalds, or 7-11 food. I'm eating some American snacks, but I try to avoid the name brand American meals. I really like their fast food noodle places and I think they're really good.
At the mall, everyone loves foreigners. You can't go into a store without someone following you around asking you to try everything on. And since I'm a good lookin guy, OK really good looking guy, haha, all of the girls want me to talk to them for a little while. When I was checking out, one of the workers, who I wasn't even talking to, just said "Dong dong." I was kinda confused because she said it kind of loud and I thought I was doing something weird. I looked at Devon and she didn't know what was going on either. Our confusion must have shown on our faces because the girl I was talking to let me know what was going on. "Her name is Dongdong" I thought it was pretty funny.
When I got home, we ate and went out to the Houhai bar district. I really liked this place. It is a bit expensive but it overlooks a small lake. You can look out and see all the bar lights reflecting on the lake. It's a good vibe and the people are fun.
The next morning we all woke up and everyone had stuff to do except for me, Rachel, and Kelly. I made an American breakfast (eggs, toast, and ham) and we decided to go out and explore a different part of the city. We planned on going to see the Olympic gardens, but instead we ended up at Wangfujing street market. Kelly ended up having a pretty bad day and it all started when we got on the subway to go the Wangfujing. Getting on the subway, Kelly's flipflop hit the door step and it got kicked into the crack. It was lost forever and she had to walk barefoot through the subway station and through the street. She finally got another pair in one of the stores but no one really likes to walk barefoot. It was pretty funny and she got some stares. When we got there we met up with Andrew, Monica, and Devon. Some people bought things at the official flagship store and afterwards we ended up just poking around. The weather was the best it has ever been here. It actually looked like a normal city in the world. You could see clouds, the blue sky, and even airplanes. Further down on the Wangfujing street market there was a carnival ride. Y100 to go on one of those rides where you sit in a ball on the ground and it bungees up into the sky. I took pictures but it was amazing. Rachel was hilarious. Right before we were about to go she asks, "How safe do you think this ride is? 10 being American standards" I would say about 7 or 8. When Rachel asked to get her seatbelt tightened, they said no. It was a fun 10 minute ride and by the time we launched we had attracted quite a big crowd. So many people were watching us that people had to cross the street to walk on a sidewalk.
After our ride, I headed back. I had nothing to do so I slept for a bit and then we went out as an apartment to dinner. We of course had a good dinner. Ate some duck feet. Nothing special. Everyone let me order dinner and of course everything looks good when you're ordering off a picture menu. haha. Other than being really spicey, the duck feet had 3 toes and the small bone/cartlidge in the toes felt like undercooked rice. The ankles had a lot of bones and weren't good. The webbing was the best part. Look at the pictures.
When I got the apartment, I was reading some e-mail and I had just poured myself a nice glass of cold Coke. With my luck, I break cameras and cell phones and all of that so naturally my computer had to have something happen to it while I'm here. You can probably put the two together before I tell you, but someone bumped into the table and the Coke sloshed out of the cup and onto my keyboard. It short circuited the keyboard. After that happend, I went to bed. I knew I wasn't going to be in the mood for anything exciting. This morning, I went out with Kelly to the computer store and bought a keyboard. We also got more eggs and some bacon. We made breakfast and it was delicious.
Today, August 16, I was supposed to go to the Temple of Heaven, but Jimmy met some Chinese guys who are going to UIBE (The Beijing Center) with us this semester. They are volunteering for the Olympics and get tickets to events. From what Jim understood he had three tickets to basketball, but what he really had was three tickets to different events on different days. I wished I would have seen the Temple of Heaven, but Jim reminded me that we're here for a while. We have time. Plus, Devon said it was awesome, but she doesn't need to go again. Which is just like T--nanmen square.
Tonight is Hotpot dinner. We'll see what surprises come from that.
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| Around Beijing |
Monday, August 11, 2008
A Weekend Around
The past few days have been a whole lot of fun. Saturday we decided to go out to lunch after our meeting. Of course we think it is a great idea to take the subway to a random stop, get off and find a restaurant. Well that may sound like a great idea, we should have remembered the some stops are in business areas and some are in shopping districts. Well, naturally, we choose one of the stations that is in the middle of an industrial park. We get out of the subway to look aroudn and see nothing. A small landfill dump and a nearby factory were pretty much the only things besides some office buildings. I asked a girl if she knew of any good places to eat nearby and she was able to point us to a street that she said "had a lot of restaurants." When you are hot, sweaty, and hungry, the last thing you want to do is walk aimlessly trying to find a place to eat. Especially a place that doesn't have some weird food. After walking for a while we found a restaurant. They took us to the basement where we had a private room. We sat a huge round table, ordered 5 dishes and feasted. It was one of those delicious authentic Chinese meals. We had bak choi and musrooms in delicious sauce, bak choi and meat stuff w/ another delicious sauce, a peanut-something spicey dish (not my favorite), some sweet red bean squishy things, and some cooked bamboo w/ delicious sauce (again). All that may sound good but the best part was the fish we got. I took pictures of it. I think a few people were apprehensive about being served a whole fish w/ the head and tail and everything, but I assured them. 1. We aren't going to find a place that doesn't serve the head and tail. 2. It will be delicious. And it was. After we were fat and happy for $4 a person we walked back to the subway stop. On the way, Jimmy bought a sweet bike that folds in half for storage. I think it was around $30-40 USD.
Saturday night we went out again to the bar district. I was pretty tired from the whole week so we didn't have too much fun. It was good to just have a low key night. When we woke up on Sunday we had to have a meet at 11 am to go to our assignment. I was paired up with Jim and Bill, two of my roommates, and we thought we were going to the orphanage. Apparently the orphanage doesn't take volunteers on Sunday's so instead we were doing a survey for the International Olympic Committed (IOC). We had to go out to a tourist attraction, (ie Silk Market, T--nanmen Square, etc.) and find English speaking people to see if they knew anything about the IOC. The way it was presented to us was very laid back. If you get hungry, eat, if you want to shop around, shop around. We got the jist and headed over to the Silk Market. Jimmy hadn't been yet. After this trip, I'm pretty sure I'm putting myself on Silk Market intervention. I'm not going to let myself go there because you can't leave without buying stuff. I magically ended up with a button down for Y100 and a wallet for Y40. Total purchase: $20. Also, walking back to the subway I went into a Chinese CD/DVD store. Picked up a few Chinese hip hop CDs. Tracy, a Chinese roommate of mine, said that she doesn't think they are authentic but it doesn't really matter because it comes in a pretty official looking case and everything. Overall, I'm glad I got to go back to the area and get some stuff. This doesn't even count the stuff that I decided I had to purchase before the end of the trip. I'm glad I didn't bring any winter clothes because there are really nice sweaters and coats for really cheap.
Like usual, walking down the isles was intense. People love bargaining and I like practicing my Chinese so I got prices down easily. It is funny to see their reactions when I speak a little Mandarin. Most likely they ask if I'm part Chinese. They must not think American's are cool because if they have to guess a western country they choose Canada or England. I had a lady argue with me that "surely you must have some Chinese!" to which I responded and then she pointed to her eyes, touched her index to her thumb, and pointed at my eyes. ha-ha. I had forgotten the Chinese word for Mexico until now. I always say my dad is "Mo xi ge" which means Mexican and my mom is "Fa guo" or French. I don't even think my mom is French but its one of the only countries I know how to say and I don't want to spend another 10 minutes explaining I don't know my countries.
After coming back from the market, everyone took a much needed nap. Our roommates Kelly and Rachel went to go see gymnastics. The orphans get to attend the games with us, so they had a little girl and boy. Everyone enjoyed it. When we woke up, we got a quick bite to eat and realized it was our roommate's birthday. We decided to go out. Somehow a huge plastic bottle of "bai jiu" ended up in our freezer...which is a Chinese liquor. I don't know what it is, but I'll just say a little goes a long way.
Today, which is Monday, I had volunteer duty again. Jimmy, Giro, Bill, Devon, Andrew, and myself met at 11 am to get our assignment. Since I had survey duty before, I didn't have to do that again. Instead, I got to go to Wang Fu Jing Shopping district to work at an internet cafe for something. Well, when we got to the district we all wanted to go to the official Olympic flagship store. It is the biggest in Beijing. I got some refridgerator magnets and a t-shirt for myself and my dad. The line was so long that the group must have moved on while I was in there and there is no way I could find them. So I decided to give myself the day off and take a look around. I went to the Adidas store and got another shirt (Y180) and I found a local type store that had nice shirts with Chinese writing. I got a really cool one with "xiong" on it. I think it has something to do with gymnastics maybe because there is an upside person kinda drawn on it. Well, it wasn't that exciting. I got bored really fast and went to find a place to eat. I found this back alley with tons of food and got a dish that was called "nu mian" nu is beef and mian is noodle. It was kind of like Vietnamese pho. Hopefully I don't get sick from it, but it kinda looked safe enough. Sorta. I really want to try these Chinese candied fruits. They are dunked in a sugar glaze or something. Once I'm more established I'll have plenty of time.
I just got back to the apartment and no one is home. That's probably why this post is so long and it actually makes sense. I'm waiting to go to a "Traditional Chinese Dinner" tonight with CCI. That will be a story for next time.
Saturday night we went out again to the bar district. I was pretty tired from the whole week so we didn't have too much fun. It was good to just have a low key night. When we woke up on Sunday we had to have a meet at 11 am to go to our assignment. I was paired up with Jim and Bill, two of my roommates, and we thought we were going to the orphanage. Apparently the orphanage doesn't take volunteers on Sunday's so instead we were doing a survey for the International Olympic Committed (IOC). We had to go out to a tourist attraction, (ie Silk Market, T--nanmen Square, etc.) and find English speaking people to see if they knew anything about the IOC. The way it was presented to us was very laid back. If you get hungry, eat, if you want to shop around, shop around. We got the jist and headed over to the Silk Market. Jimmy hadn't been yet. After this trip, I'm pretty sure I'm putting myself on Silk Market intervention. I'm not going to let myself go there because you can't leave without buying stuff. I magically ended up with a button down for Y100 and a wallet for Y40. Total purchase: $20. Also, walking back to the subway I went into a Chinese CD/DVD store. Picked up a few Chinese hip hop CDs. Tracy, a Chinese roommate of mine, said that she doesn't think they are authentic but it doesn't really matter because it comes in a pretty official looking case and everything. Overall, I'm glad I got to go back to the area and get some stuff. This doesn't even count the stuff that I decided I had to purchase before the end of the trip. I'm glad I didn't bring any winter clothes because there are really nice sweaters and coats for really cheap.
Like usual, walking down the isles was intense. People love bargaining and I like practicing my Chinese so I got prices down easily. It is funny to see their reactions when I speak a little Mandarin. Most likely they ask if I'm part Chinese. They must not think American's are cool because if they have to guess a western country they choose Canada or England. I had a lady argue with me that "surely you must have some Chinese!" to which I responded and then she pointed to her eyes, touched her index to her thumb, and pointed at my eyes. ha-ha. I had forgotten the Chinese word for Mexico until now. I always say my dad is "Mo xi ge" which means Mexican and my mom is "Fa guo" or French. I don't even think my mom is French but its one of the only countries I know how to say and I don't want to spend another 10 minutes explaining I don't know my countries.
After coming back from the market, everyone took a much needed nap. Our roommates Kelly and Rachel went to go see gymnastics. The orphans get to attend the games with us, so they had a little girl and boy. Everyone enjoyed it. When we woke up, we got a quick bite to eat and realized it was our roommate's birthday. We decided to go out. Somehow a huge plastic bottle of "bai jiu" ended up in our freezer...which is a Chinese liquor. I don't know what it is, but I'll just say a little goes a long way.
Today, which is Monday, I had volunteer duty again. Jimmy, Giro, Bill, Devon, Andrew, and myself met at 11 am to get our assignment. Since I had survey duty before, I didn't have to do that again. Instead, I got to go to Wang Fu Jing Shopping district to work at an internet cafe for something. Well, when we got to the district we all wanted to go to the official Olympic flagship store. It is the biggest in Beijing. I got some refridgerator magnets and a t-shirt for myself and my dad. The line was so long that the group must have moved on while I was in there and there is no way I could find them. So I decided to give myself the day off and take a look around. I went to the Adidas store and got another shirt (Y180) and I found a local type store that had nice shirts with Chinese writing. I got a really cool one with "xiong" on it. I think it has something to do with gymnastics maybe because there is an upside person kinda drawn on it. Well, it wasn't that exciting. I got bored really fast and went to find a place to eat. I found this back alley with tons of food and got a dish that was called "nu mian" nu is beef and mian is noodle. It was kind of like Vietnamese pho. Hopefully I don't get sick from it, but it kinda looked safe enough. Sorta. I really want to try these Chinese candied fruits. They are dunked in a sugar glaze or something. Once I'm more established I'll have plenty of time.
I just got back to the apartment and no one is home. That's probably why this post is so long and it actually makes sense. I'm waiting to go to a "Traditional Chinese Dinner" tonight with CCI. That will be a story for next time.
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