感恩节快乐--Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, today has been a great Thanksgiving Day. Kind of. It definitely does not feel like the holiday season in China. I'm actually really excited to eat a great Thanksgiving meal at the Radisson Hotel in Beijing. However, I wasn't excited to wake up this morning at 7:30am to go to Chinese class. They couldn't even cut us any slack when it comes to the holidays. I told my teacher I was going to be missing next Thursday's class, and she told me I was going to fail. I think she was kidding? Actually, I couldn't have asked for a better Chinese teacher this semester. There are only four students in my class, two of them already know Chinese very well and can't take the intensive class because of credit restrictions, and the third person is about my level of Chinese. This means we can set the pace of the class, which is crucial when studying another language. I am very lucky to have her too, because from what it sounds like, some of the other teachers are very strict and not very flexibile. There have been a few times when I've gone a little less than prepared for class, but our teacher understands the fact that we are here to explore China, and not to stick our noses in our Chinese books. When you can walk outside and live your life in the language, the class should be used as a suppliment, not as a base. All in all, she's a great teacher, with a great sense of humor and a bubbly energetic enthusiasm that keeps me awake in the mornings. She isn't like my old Laoshi (老师-teacher) from Fordham, who I thank for giving me the foundations of my Chinese lanugage skills, but she is a new Laoshi who has taught me how to use what I've learned in everyday situations.

After Chinese, I was in the mood to be productive, so Brittany and I went to the gym. Then, I spent a good three hours with my Chinese tutor going over the past few lessons. It's about time to get ready for my feast, and of course, I have a great substitute family here with me in China. I can surely add myself in to John, Jim, or Devon's families for the time being.

In honor of the Thanksgiving spirit, I think I have a lot to be thankful for. I can't belive my semester abroad is already coming to a close. This time last year, coming to China was still a vague plan. Now that it has come to fruition, I must say, it's a lot better than I ever thought it would be. I've had a safe trip on top of that and I can't wait to get home and be with everyone again. Have a great day with your families. Stuff yourself like the turkey, and don't forget about those American's who don't have the chance to be home for the holidays.

Beijing: Scene 11, Acts 21-23

What a weekend! It was beyond busy and once again it's Sunday and I'm left with a pile of Chinese homework and not much time to do it. Further, I need to prepare myself for my upcoming weeks of travel. I'm organizing what needs to be shipped home, what I'm bringing with me on the plane, and what I'm leaving behind. Devon left Thursday for Hong Kong and she arrives back to Beijing shortly. Friday night was a blast.  The whole crew went out to eat and to see the acrobat show. We dressed up a little nicer than usual to give the night out a more mature ambiance. Lauren knew of a Japanese restaurant not too far from the theater and we all had a delicious meal for just under $10. It was a pretty fancy restaurant actually.

The show was amazing. Among the many acts, these were some of the noteworthy scenes. Three women wereso flexible she could twist into any shape and pretzel herself into a ball.  Jumping men flung themselves off a spring board, landing on top of tall platforms, raised chairs, and on the shoulders of 3 men standing on top of each other. There were girls riding bikes, but they didn't just ride them. They stood on the handle bars, had people stand on their shoulders, and they even finished with 12 girls on one bike! There was a hanging contraption that was lowered from the ceiling, it was horizontal with two circles on the ends. Inside the circles, they were not spheres, was a man. They began the act by spinning the contraption with them inside the circles. Then, they exited their circles and walked along the outside as the contraption was spinning. It was really crazy and I don't know if I can expain it any better but I thought they were going to fall off. Especially when they tried to do it blindfolded. There was also three guys who did gymnastic type things. They would hold each other in mid air using just their hands. They were incredibly strong and it was really cool. There was also a spinning plates act that was really spectacular and I think one or two more that I can't recall. I have a few pictures to post and I'll try and find more. Overall, the show was great, the dinner was fantastic, and our after party moved to Houhai bar district to finish the fun evening.

Saturday morning, I went to Temple of Heaven on a TBC sponsored trip. It was great. The temple was beautiful and here are some pictures. 

Temple of Heaven

After the Temple of Heaven, I returned home and relaxed. John's mother and brother arrivedin Beijing on Saturday. Jim's sisters come in today, as does Matt's girlfriend and Devon's family. I should be able to get a lot of work done with everyone busy showing their family around town. But, I have that wonderful procrastination problem, so I'm sure I'll end up eating dinner with everyone every night and not be doing what I'm supposed to. I had another tutoring session today with Doug. The lessons are going well but he really doesn't like to speak English. I'm going to have to call my aunt who teaches kindergarten to give me some pointers. Hope everyone is doing well. Can't wait to talk to everyone on Thursday (well, Friday for me).

Hello. My Name Is...

My Name is Regis. What's yours?

Salad? Rain? Echo? No, try again...

Dreamer? China? Krithy? No, not quite...

Dong Dong? Yo Yo? Maybe not...

Alta Vista? Definitely Not.

Those are just a few of the many interesting and (How do I say this?) unique, names our Chinese friends have introduced themselves as. There isn't much we can do to help them. In a country where people are named anything from Snow White (雪百）, Fog Between the Mountains (岚), Striding Over Mountains (迈岭), and other honorable names, it would probably be too much to expect regular English names from all 1.3 billion people. Ironically, in America, Native Americans often associate names with honorable characteristics. Swift Wolf, White Lily, Brown Bear, Shining Star, and other names are given to children for many reasons. A child's name could also hold with it the weight of parental aspirations. For example, in China, a female receiving a male name, (such as Brittany's name- Su Hai -苏海), the daughter is expected to be very successful in whatever she wishes to do, especially business or politics. A parent may name a child and, coincidentially, their personalities may match their given name. There are so many meanings that are associated with a person's name, that you can learn so much from a person having just heard their name. Jimmy, my roommate, is James L. III. His name has been passed on for generations. Other people, such as my friend Skippy, have names stemming from friendly nicknames. Skippy, who's real name is John, doesn't even go by John at home. In fact, Skippy goes by Charlie (Charles), which is his middle name.

A person's namesake is an integral part of a person. Not only does it identify and distinguish one person from the other, but your character and personality can influence the way a person thinks about a name. Everyone can always remember the name of their arch enemy and often times people tend to associate that name with a negative connotation. There are some names we love, some names we hate, some names that are just too weird, but the fact of the matter is, we all need one. The Chinese names, although unique, have a special meaning in my opinion. For many of these people, this is their first time giving themselves English names. This is a huge step forward in terms of cross-cultural integration and in terms of cultural discovery. I was lucky enough to be given my name from my Chinese professor in college, taking the burden of decision off my shoulders, but what would you do if you were suddenly asked to give yourself a name in another language? Where do you begin? And how would you describe yourself? When it comes to Chinese names, we can't sit back and just laugh at their naïvity. We can and we do, but really. What are they trying to say about themselves? Rain, Echo, Dreamer...and even Salad too, chose their name for a reason. Whatever reason that may be deserves our respect and reverence. I mean, for most of us, picking our name wasn't even our decision, so we're stuck with what we've got, but if worse comes to worse, they can always change their poorly choosen name to whatever they want. As for me, Zeng Li (曾力) will always be my name, what's yours?

Posting Paparazzi Pictures: Priceless

Alright. I might not have been clear enough when I told everyone about our fantastic night out to GT Banana to see DJ Armin van Buuren. The club had promotional photographers out and about taking pictures and now me and other TBC students are all over the website. Brittany and Devon are actually on the homepage for Clubzone.cn. They turned their picture into a clickable icon to go to the Top 10 photos of the week. If you click on the link, it will take you to the Top 10 Photos Page, and none other than yours truely has made it in the background of one of the pictures (for now, people are still voting whether it is worthy or not). Hilarious, yes. Famous, maybe not yet. This is definitely a huge deal for the ex-pat community and for the publicity of Beijing's nightlife. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up in The Beijinger's next issue. If you want to see the pictures we took before we went out, I've made an album for everyone.

DJ Armin Van Buuren

I think it is hilarious that Devon and Brittany are on the link to the Top 10 pictures of the week. In all actuality, we are practically celebrities here in Beijing. I'm already expecting the students on campus will be asking us for autographs and I hope I don't have to get physical with anyone to keep the mobs away. Until that day comes, I'll keep on living the normal life.

I have a lot of things planned this weeks. Tomorrow, Brittany, Matt, myself and some others are heading down to Tian**men Square to visit Mao's Tomb. This is a must see when visiting Beijing. Rumor has it the hours are always changing and haven't been constant since the opening of the tomb. There are always days when people arrive to find it closed when it should be open, and that is besides the fact that it is open Tuesday through Sunday 10am until 3:30pm or something ridiculous. No cell phones, no cameras, no water bottles, no backpacks, no purses, no anything inside unless it is the clothes on your back. We have to go in groups because half of the people have to wait outside with our stuff while the other half goes in. It's absolutely nuts and absolutely Chinese at the same time. After we visit the tomb, I have some more gifts to finish getting and then some serious loads of laundry to do.

Thursday, the plan is to head back to the tailor to get my suit made (thank you!) and I'm picking some other things up in the area. Friday, the plan is to head to an acrobat show at the Chaoyang Theater after a wonderful dinner. Devon leaves on Thursday to visit her family in Hong Kong and the whole crew comes to Beijing on Sunday. Everyone is really excited to meet them and, of course, I am too. Saturday, TBC is hosting a trip to see the Temple of Heaven, which I didn't get to see during the Olympics. I think that day I decided to scalp tickets to indoor volleyball. Anyway, I'm glad to be going this Saturday. The weather has taken a turn for the worst and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to see anything over 50°F for a long time. The pollution has let up for a few days, but with the winter, you never know what the air is going to be like. It's been really dry lately and our art teacher advised us to get a cheap humidifier to help with any congestion we may have. (Speaking of art, the paper was a success and I did well.) I hope I can actually get done what I have planned. I've gotten pretty adept at procrastination the past few weeks and it's getting crunch time before I begin travelling again. I'll keep you updated. Have a good one!

My Life's a Soundtrack, I'm Just Playing DJ

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!

Picture This! Again

River rafting, Mud caves and Dazhai Village School. Enjoy!

Yulong River Rafting

Mud Caves

Xiaozhai Village School

Picture This!

I hope everyone is happy. I've been procrastinating all weekend and look at the results. I finally got Brittany's pictures, which are spectacular by the way, and I've made all of my Guilin albums. I really owe a shout out to Jeff, Brittany, and Ryan for their contributions to the photo albums. Jeff and Ryan had their cameras during the river rafting (the album is created but my internet connection is too slow to upload it right now). Brittany has spectacular pictures of the karst, the village people (funny I know, but the Dazhai village is a different album yet to be posted) and many others. I think well should thank them. Further, I have been calling my trip the Guilin trip just because the TBC itinerary says Guilin Trip on the front. Actually, a majority of our trip took place outside of Guilin, in smaller towns. Yangshuo (阳朔) was the village we spent a majority of the time in. The village school was located in Dazhai, Guangxi Province, China (大寨，广西，中国). Anyway, most of that stuff is nominal, here are the pictures:

Guilin

Li River Cruise

Cooking Class