First two weeks and some Admin

Well just as I thought, I wasn’t able to post the other day. Our Internet on Friday was totally out again because of “unforeseen problems.” I waited until today to make another entry so I could include yesterday’s activities. I’ll try to get better at regularly updating so people know to check back more frequently.

I have some administrative things to handle first. You may have noticed that ad above this post. I found out from a friend here that I can get paid for every click and the ad isn’t very intrusive. He had his blog during the summer and this week he just got a check for over $100. Right now I have the ad up there, but it’s not linked to an account yet because I don’t know how to submit my mailing address to Google because they need the pinyin (Chinese Romanization if you weren’t aware) and Chinese characters for it. Once I get that setup I would appreciate it if anyone would click it and then close it if they want to. Next thing is that I setup an account on Webshots so I can host my pictures for anyone to see. I’m trying to use some software to upload them all at once, but I can’t seem to connect. I’ll get it setup eventually and add the link to the Links section on the right. Right now I have a link to my Threadless account. If you want to buy some really cool t-shirts you can use that and for every purchase I get $3 off the next one I buy.

OK now back to China. Every Friday everyone has a written and oral test in their respective classes. I didn’t think the last one was too bad and it sure was nice to be done with the week. Everyone is saying how this is the most work they’ve ever done in school and for the most part it is true because we have work to do everyday instead of papers/reading scattered throughout a semester. We do a lesson a day so we need to study the new words for our daily quiz. We also have a daily assignment and usually have to prepare something for the next day’s discussion class. This frequently involves asking random Chinese people questions about different topics, but since I can’t really understand their gritty Beijing accents I usually just ask the roommates. We also have an essay to write every week, which takes up a good chunk of time. I think that almost everyone here signed up knowing that it was going to be a lot of work with the language pledge and everything, so we are fighting through it. We also are all living here and know it’s frustrating when we can’t speak, so that is a big motivator to learn.

Anyway, last Friday some of my friends and I went to the Beijing Zoo and it was really wild. I had heard that the zoo was somewhat depressing because the conditions weren’t as good as US zoos, but its inadequacies are what made it fun. The first thing we did was go straight to the panda house because that’s why the zoo is there. The first two pandas were just sleeping like most bear exhibits, but the next one put on the greatest show I have ever seen at a zoo. When we walked over the panda was playing with a seesaw. He was biting it, picking it up, kicking it and would usually end up in a funny looking position. We even got a video of it which you can watch right here. It’s about 50MB so it might take a bit to load. Every couple of minutes he would get up and run over and play with something else. He stood up against a tree, he went and ripped some roots out of the ground, he tried to climb up the wall to eat some of the tourists, he climbed on top of his playground and rolled down the stairs at the end of it, but eventually he got tired so he went and sat in his pond. The way he carried himself made it look like it was a person in a bear suit.



Later we found ourselves watching the monkeys being fed and while we were there two Chinese girls came up to us and asked in English if we were Americans. After we told them we were they asked us if we wanted to be in a commercial. The friends that I was with were Ben, who is 6’3” with blonde hair and a beard, Stewart, who is pretty tall and has long dark hair, and Ken, who has big mutton chops, so I can see why. At first I was thinking yes, but then they told us that they would pay for our transportation out of Beijing. Apparently they wanted to take us on an all expenses paid tour of China and shoot commercials. Unfortunately we had to decline, but now we know that option is out there somewhere.

The next best thing we saw was the ostriches and the total lack of safety precautions. If these big angry birds wanted to peck you in the face, they very easily could. We saw one make a good attempt at a girl’s hand. There was something wrong with these birds though because most of their tail feathers were missing and many of them were broken, bleeding stumps. Another really funny thing we saw was one exhibit that contained a gigantic two-humped camel, one St. Bernard, and a blind in one eye Huskie. I think we were the only people in the world to be seeing such a sight at that moment in time.


On Saturday we had a CET group trip to the Lao She Teahouse to watch different performances such as music, comedy, magic, and kung fu. It was fun, but some of the performances were pretty average. Afterwards a group of us went along with some roommates to eat and see Tiananmen Square at night because it’s suppose to be really cool. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed off for some reason.

During the week nothing really memorable happened, but we started our extracurricular classes. I signed up for the wushu (martial arts) class, which looks like it will be fun. We also started our 1:1 and 1:2 classes where we either meet by ourselves or with one other student and a teacher to work on pronunciation, ask questions, and practice speaking. I also finally went and found an adequate gym. It’s at the other campus that CET has a program, so at first I took a cab there and back, but I knew I had to get a bike. The gym is another example of China’s idea of “it’s good enough.” The free weights there are listed in kilograms as expected, but after doing the conversion to pounds they didn’t feel like they were suppose to. I asked one of the other CET kids that was there and he said the same thing. I think that they are somewhere in between pounds and kilograms, so I’m going to have to figure that out.

After my test on Friday I went with my neighbor, his roommate, and another student to buy bikes. Recently the government made it illegal to sell second hand bikes to try and deter theft, so now there is a secret bike black market. Some stores will be selling used bikes that are parked outside the store right next to the customers’ bikes, so they blend in. We found our first pair of used/stolen bikes by walking down the street and asking a random guy on a corner if he had any and sure enough he did. My friend and his roommate followed this guy through a couple of neighborhoods while the other student and I waited around. They ended up riding back with two bikes that they bought for 100 kuai total, which is around $12.50. We kept looking around for more used ones, but none of them really fit me or they were just really bad. Since I’m going to be here for the year and using everyday to go to the gym I decided I was willing to spend more and get a new bike. The other student bought a new bike from one store, but they were too much for me. The next store we went to had a good bike, but wouldn’t let us bargain. When we were asking for lock prices though I noticed that they didn’t have price tags, which could mean any price. One of them did though, but the employee didn’t notice so he asked his supervisor who said 120 when it actually said 80. We called them out on it and left. I ended up going by myself to Carrefour, the French version of Wal-mart and an absolute nuthouse in China, to buy a new bike for a decent price. This whole ordeal took six hours and left me dirty and tired.

On Saturday Stewart, Ben, Ken and I went to Jingshan Park and Beihai Park. We took the bus and got off at the stop right after Beihai to find a restaurant and unfortunately it was the exit of the Forbidden City, which is probably home to the most intrusive vendors in China. It took a while for us to find a restaurant, but we ended up going down a back road into a hutong (neighborhood) and found a good one. This place gave us a good story too when one table ordered a fish from the tank. The waiter went over and grabbed it, but it was fighting and splashing all over. He got it out of the tank and it flopped onto the windowsill and then onto the floor. He and another waitress got it into a plastic bag and then he proceeded to walk outside and crack the fish’s skull onto the front step of the restaurant. After the first crack it flopped onto the road, so he smacked it again.

The rest of the day we spent at the two parks taking pictures of the smog filled city in the distance. We also rented a paddleboat that was designed as a big swan. We were getting a lot of stares while we were out there and ended up getting into a little bumper boat match with two other boats that were following us around.

That about wraps it up for now. I’m going to post some pictures, but right now I have my homework to start, so check back if you read this and there weren’t any. If you want you can post specific questions in the comments of these posts if you have any. I think you can post without registering if you don’t want to and then just sign your name at the end. Talk to you later.