Live from Tsinghua University

That's right, I'm posting from Cheng's dorm at Qinghua while he makes himself pretty before we go out to eat. Yesterday we discovered that this restaurant/cafeteria place right next to his dorm serves individual style hotpots and they are delicious! For 5 kuai you get the boiling soup thing, and 5 more kuai gets you a plate of raw meat to cook. Vegetables, noodles, and beer are all 3 kuai each, so basically, it's an afforable affair and all around good time.

The past two days I've had off from classes, which has been wonderful. I could have gone somewhere far away but I was too lazy to plan a trip and get train tickets and all that. Besides, Beijing has so much to offer that it's nice to kick it around here, especially when I don't have to worry about having a tingxie in Chinese class the next day.

So we've been chilling like villians, except the real villian today is the air pollution. It's one of those days where "fresh air" outside simply does not exist. Hopefully it'll clear up soon because it sure puts a damper on sight-seeing when you can't actually see anything.

In other news, Wednesday our program got to meet a bunch of Chinese BFSU students from the English department, and we had a grand old networking and chatting session. The girls I talked to were all really nice and seem very chill. They all seemed to enjoy watching movies and most of us had the same taste in films, which is to say, we all like Johnny Depp. Haha. But seriously, we exchanged info and I'm hoping to get together with some of them in the future and a) eat some food b) watch some movies c) go shopping d) see some sights e) all of the above plus chatting.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera once again but maybe I will talk Cheng into using his fancy camera phone to take some shots of our dinner tonight, since we're going to hotpot it up again. P.S. I might need to change my Chinese name. More to come on that later...

I got a package!

Hurray my name was on the board today and I got a wonderful gift in the mail from the parents :) It was like Halloween come early. Chocolate is actually really expensive here, since it's all imported, so I'm glad I have a mianfei stash now. Though I should really be laying off the sweets... you would think since being here I've been eating more healthy, but I actually have been snacking more since it's just so darn cheap! I should really be better to my body but it's funny how I can rationalize things since I'm in a different country.

This weekend there was a trip to the Great Wall but more people signed up than could actually go, so I gave up my spot to a friend in order to spend the weekend chilling in Beijing with Cheng. So while my friends were hiking 10km up and down that darn wall, Cheng and I were getting our feet massaged at Sanlitun :) We both bought fake Adidas shoes on Friday and then wore them all around on Saturday, so I think the massage was well deserved. Fake shoes just aren't as comfy as the real thing, although they still look cool.

We wandered around the shopping mall across from the Sanlitun bar street and it was pretty much like Easton x10. Bigger, more stores, awesome architecture... of course we didn't want to buy anything since you get get stuff at the Silk Market for cheaper, but it was still cool to walk around. It's still under construction so give it five years (assuming China's economy continues to improve) and it'll be a huge attraction. Oh, not to mention it has some of China's best Western food restaurants, including two burger places and Element Fresh, where I'm going to have to go in a few weeks when I'm really craving a salad. And we had Coldstone! Guess how much.

Go on, guess how much. Consider that your average icecream cone from the supermarket costs 4 kuai at most... but that most Western food places have prices comparable to their actual American prices...

Ok I'll admit it: I spent 27 kuai on a small scoop of banana ice cream with cake and chocolate fudge and whipped creap inside. It had to be done! I could not resist! And now, never again!

Next week is midterms already and I'm pretty depressed. That means the semester is already half over?? I feel like there just isn't enough time here. China is just so... big. Huge. Enormous. And there's so much to see. But I know that I have to go back to NYC is January and face the real world, or at least graduate and then face the real world. The more days that pass the more I'm dreading it! I want to stay in this crazy Chinese world of not working, eating lots, learning Chinese, having random conversations with people wanting to practice English (except for the weirdo on the bus, he was not cool), and basically not facing reality. Don't make me go back to American dollars, pleeeeease!

And the rest

Thursday: Cynthia's mom and aunt and uncle picked me up from the West Gate and we drove down south of Tiananmen to Qianmen Dajie. It's a recently renovated street that makes up the southern axis from the center of the city that used to have cool buildings along its sides and a tram car that went up and down the street. Now the buildings have been re-done to look ancient and soon the shops that will open there will be feichang feichang expensive. There were already a couple open, including a bookstore and pharmacy, and only about two restaurants but they all had lines out the door.

One street over to the west, normal Chinese stores and small restuarants remain, and it has a much more authentic contemporary Beijing feel. BUT one more street beyond that used to be a huge maze of hutongs that have all been torn down. It was quite eerie to cross the overpass on the nearby highway, look back at the neighborhood we just walked near, and see a raized area with only a single crumbling house still standing. What will become of that hutong area? Judging from expectations from Qianmen Dajie, some pretty expensive housing will go in... but what became of the people who used to live there is a more interesting question.

Cynthia's mom had never been to Sanlitun, so we went there next (note this is pretty much on the opposite side of town). Had dinner at a classy and delicious restuarant (I think called 1949?) located behind a shopping center. Since it was removed from the main roads it was very quite and peaceful. And best yet, they specialized in roast duck! I don't know how I've gone a month living here and still hadn't eaten that, but I was soooo soo glad to shove all that delicious duck goodness in my face. Plus other wonderful morsels that I am drooling about while I remember them.

K. After dinner we walked around the Sanlitun shopping area and then found a bar playing some acceptable live music. Only... once the musicians took a break, some random scantily clad dancers came on the stage. One did a belly dance and looked extremely unhappy the entire time, and the other did a weird repetative techno thing in a shiny silver mini skirt and white gogo boots. Awkward. We drank our apple juice in various states of amusement and horror.

Unfortunately I had tons of homework to catch up on, and had to call it a night kinda early. But we definitely had some good conversation about Beijing (better than Shanghai! Best city in the world!) and journalism and I tried to use my Chinese but towards the end of the night, as the topics got deeper, abandoned that. But at least I answered preliminary questions to the best of my ability (except when Cynthia's uncle tried to ask me how long I was in Beijing for... I blame the Beijing accent but still feel like a failure).

Fast foward to Friday: Girls night out at Nanluoguxiang. Can't get enough of this place. Love it every time. Must go back. Shopped, ate Indian food, got our nails done, and then went back and watched Gossip Girl. Good times.

The rest of the weekend was spent at Carrefour and then Wudaokou. Saturday was Cheng's friend's bday so we ate Indian food again and it made me feel drunk it was so good. Wish there was an Indian restuarant around my campus but I digress... then we went to La Bamba and had a couple drinks (their happy hour lasts till 11pm, how amazing is that?). But it was cold and rainy so I headed back early after breathing in too much second hand smoke.

Sunday I went back to Wudaokou to meet Cheng for some serious shopping. I haven't bought anything since being here except food, entrance tickets to tourist things, and transporation! So I got myself a yellow cardigan and a silver scarf, both from this little place with a bunch of even littler shops selling cute clothes, jewelry, and accessories. Next shopping destination: the Silk Market.

Ok so now I'm caught up! Tonight I've been catching up on other things, reading the news, doing some research for my project, watching the Daily Show. You know how it goes. This week is starting to look busy already, so this might be my only night to just chill. And speaking of chill, it's freakin cold here already! Too bad the Chinese socialist state doesn't turn on the heaters until October 20th. Until then I guess I'll be sleeping in my sweatshirt and taking extra hot showers so as to steam up the freezing-tile bathroom. But I shouldn't complain because after all the rain this weekend today was a true blue sky day, and nothing beats a fall blue sky day.

The first weekend

Even though I couldn’t go out to Sanlitun this weekend and get my drink on (this has yet to happen here) I definitely had an amazing two days before classes start. On Saturday I got to sleep in (hurray!) so I felt a little rejuvenated from the previous day’s jaunting around the city. Cheng came over to campus and even though it was slightly rainy out, we went on an excursion to the 798 art district. It turned out to be all the way on the other side of the city, but it was awesome and I would love to go back sometime, since we only got to explore about half of the area.

It’s kinda the same idea as Chelsea, with open galleries you can just wander into and look at contemporary art. But the cool thing is that the neighborhood is actually a bunch of old factories and low buildings, so the spaces where the artwork is hung makes the art even more intense. Now, the area used to be for the avante garde, but of course once people caught on to the fact that this neighborhood was quite hip, gentrification began. As a result, most artists can’t afford to live there anymore, but it still seemed like an impressive place to have work shown. The strange part was this random Nike building where you can go in, exchange you ID card for an iPod touch, and have a guided tour through the history of Nike shoes. It was actually really cool, and the second floor of the building had all the gear Nike made for the Chinese Olympic team, along with explanations as to why it was so special. Then at the end when Cheng returned the iPod, he got a free Nike propaganda book, complete with blank pages for him to sketch his own shoe designs. I think he was in love.

We quickly ate some noodles when we got back to campus, and then departed to see the Beijing acrobats at the Heaven and Earth Theater. Now, I’ve already seen Cirque du Soleil’s version of Chinese acrobatics, and was very very impressed. But this show was really cool too. There were cute little boys doing jump rope, cute girls throwing around Chinese yoyos, an androgynous man wearing hot pants juggling, and much more. Crazy fun times. I heard lots of “oh my god, no they’re not going to…” and “what, how is this happening” around me, so I’m guessing the other people on my program were suitably impressed. Awed, even.

Since I had to get up at 7.30 this morning I again opted out on any bar shenanigans for the night. I actually woke up feeling much better, though I still have a cough and sound like Janis Joplin (no karaoke-ing for me till my voice goes back to normal!). The I looked outside and WO DE TIAN LE! I could see the mountains in the distance! And… blue skies! The rain yesterday did the most wonderful thing and gave us the most beautiful day anyone could ask for. Zero humidity and cool breezes… could it get any better? Oh yes, because the reason I got up so early was that we were going on an excursion outside the city to a village in the mountains called Cuandixia, an outpost town to Xi’an that has been preserved since the Ming Dynasty.

The bus ride took like 2 hours but it was worth it. We got there and immediately climbed a mountain. I am not kidding. We pa’d a shan at 11 and I would have eaten a better breakfast had I know how rigorous it would be. Oh, and I also would have worn tennis shoes and shorts instead of flip flops and a skirt. But all they said was we were visiting a village! Anyway, footwear woes aside, climbing that mountain was worth it. We got a spectacular view of the entire village and surrounding countryside (read: mountains). It made me realize how terribly out of shape I am, but hey, at least I made it to the top. And down again! Going down was worse, since it was so steep.

After all that work we were duly rewarded with a tremendous meal cooked by a local townsman (a friend of our program director) and his wife. They made us so much food! Like, they would not stop bring out dishes. My favorites were: cucumber with apricot seeds, potatoes and green peppers with beef, and scallion pancakes. All the food was from the village, and apparently three chickens died that morning in our honor. Well, it was delicious. And then the host gave us a history of the village; he is the 15^th generation of the Han family who settled the village after the Ming dynasty fell. His grandson is 17^th generation. Can you even imagine?? And at one point, this village housed the dynasty’s gold treasure, in a hole underground in the guy’s house. What?? Crazy talk! But it’s true, and that’s why China is amazing.

After lunch we were free to explore on our own for a couple hours. The director took a group over some more mountains to view an abandoned town nearby, but my footwear forced me to stay in the village. Which was fine by me. A small group of us found our way to a terrace restaurant overlooking the town and sat there for a while, drinking pijiu and laotiar-ing with the owner. Between one other 300 level guy and myself, we had a cool conversation with him about Korean people riding scooters, his favorite movie Snakes on a plane (me: you mean… she zai feiji? Him: dui! (and he mimes a snake biting a guy’s head)) and the village itself. A Canadian woman joined us at one point and she was cool too. She had just published a book about Beijing and wanted to revise it later to add a description of this village. Later, one of the RA’s on our program came over and she really helped translate; she even translated the restaurant’s Chinese name into English so more tourists could find out about it. Go ahead, Google Cuandixia and see what you find. I was there! It was feichang piaoliang!

Whelp, tomorrow class officially starts. Although for this week we only have Chinese class, and it doesn’t start till 2. Nice. But it’s four hours long. Not so nice. I read over my 300 level hw and it seems pretty easy actually… so I might have to move up a level. We’ll see. My reading is good but speaking and listening not so much. I’m getting by though. I figured out Snakes on a Plane and Koreans riding motorbikes!