Blogs from Wudaokou, Beijing, China, Asia

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Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou September 30th 2016

2nd week in China : Temple du ciel et Shynui district Ce week end, visite du fameux Temple du Ciel qu’on voit partout en représentation. Il est situé en plein Sud de Pékin, donc à l’opposé de Tsinghua. Le site est bondé mais reste fort sympathique à visiter. Ce temple est l’exemple le plus achevé d’architecture Ming. Il symbolise aujourd’hui Pékin dans toute sa splendeur. Il se situe dans un parc de 267 ha, ce qui en fait l’un des plus grands complexes de temples taoïstes et parcs d’adoration du ciel au monde. C’est donc sans surprise qu’il a été inscrit par l’Unesco à la liste du patrimoine mondial en 1998. À l’origine, c’était l’endroit où les empereurs de la dynastie des Ming (1368 – 1644) et Qing (1644 – 1911) tenait la cérémonie de culte ... read more
Beijing (2)
Beijing (3)
Beijing (4)

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou September 24th 2016

WEEK 1: Adaptation et découvertes Et voilà, c’est parti pour trois mois de vie en Chine. Le vol se passe sans encombre contrairement à la récupération des bagages. Je n’en ai qu’un sur deux, ce qui me pose problème. Je récupérerai le deuxième deux jours plus tard mais bonjour le stress. A la sortie de l’aéroport, nous faisons la connaissance de nos cinq camarades chinois. Ils avaient réservé le bus de l’université pour nous emmener ce qui était assez classe. Arrivés sur le campus, on nous emmène directement à la réservation des chambres. Comme les attributions s’étaient closes le 11 septembre, cela ne correspondait plus du tout à ce qu’on avait demandé. Au final, on s’est retrouvés dispersés dans trois bâtiments et à des étages différents. Je suis en coloc avec une certaine Géraldine, super sympa. ... read more
Campus (2)
Campus Mon école - The School of Environment (1)
Campus Mon école - The School of Environment (2)

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou October 3rd 2015

Hey everybody! This past Thursday marked the beginning of China's National Holiday, meaning that we had both Thursday and Friday off, and will have no classes for the entirety of the coming week. In celebration, I went out dancing with some friends. At the club, there was a specific black guy who was pinning for one of the girls for most of the night. Until about 2:30, we managed to keep her back to the stage/area where the bouncer was while we were dancing so that he couldn't make a move. However, eventually he snuck up on us and got up behind her. She was too nice to tell him to back off, so she ended up dancing with him for a while. Poor choice, because after that he wouldn't go away. When we went to ... read more
Model Houses
Just chillin
Fighting crickets

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou September 26th 2015

Hey everyone! I guess I should start off with saying that the most interesting part of my week was getting a tattoo. Yep, a real tattoo. I've been planning on getting this tattoo for a little over a year now, so it wasn't a on-the-spot thing at all, but I had been originally planning to wait until after graduation to get any tattoos. Yeah, that didn't quite work out. It started when Ian mentioned that he wanted to get a tattoo (紋身 wénshēn) while in China. I thought about it, and figured China would be as good a place as any to get my tattoo, since the style I wanted is originally Chinese (see picture). So on Tuesday Ian and I went to a couple of nearby tattoo shops to inquire about prices/safety with one of ... read more
Ian's tattoo
Lama temple
Jude paying his respects

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou September 20th 2015

Hi everyone! This week, I finally got to meet my language partner (語伴 yǔ bàn or 語伴兒 yǔ bà'ér in the Beijing dialect)! This is a Chinese native whom I will meet with for at least three hours per week, who will help me with my Chinese. Somehow, I have managed to spend something like four hours with him now and still don't know his name... we never really got to that part when we first met, oops... But he's super nice and very good at explaining things, whether that be new words or confusing grammar, so I am excited to work with him this semester! Did I mention he's also very tall and super cute? Yep. He's those things, too. I met with him yesterday, and in between his freaking out over common music interests ... read more
The LG twin towers, across from 秀水市場
Rush hour
Twinning!

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou September 6th 2015

Hey everybody! So I have successfully finished my first week of classes... And I have concluded that I have chosen probably the most difficult study abroad program that I possibly could have. It seems like for most of my friends/most of the stories you hear about being abroad, being abroad tends to be easier than school in the US, as school is supposed to be easier in order to give you more time to explore the area you are in and whatnot. Not so much. I average about 5 hours of class per day, with between 5-7 hours of homework per night. It seems like that would leave plenty of time to relax and sleep, but between mealtimes, travel time, procrastination (because it's impossible not to), and time for socializing (which is not usually a relaxing ... read more
Out on the town
Alcohol is so available
Dream come true. This was a total blast

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou July 12th 2011

After returning from North Korea everything seemed to move at lightning speed. A few weeks prior, towards the end of April, our school, , informed us that our teaching quality had decreased and therefore they were reducing our pay by about 1000 U.S. Dollars. There was nothing in our contract about this so we had no choice but to accept this unfortunate situation and hope for the best. By mid-May we were informed that again our salary would be reduced by about 1000 U.S. Dollars. It was at this point we started to make preparations to leave China. By June I was reduced to a paid-by-the-hour part time status and the situation as not tenable. During June Laura continued to work for Clever Kids on a full time basis. Actually June was the only month we ... read more

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou March 10th 2011

Hello from China, Our spring and summer plans are progressing along quite nicely. We are happy to report that we now have a city we are moving to and a date when we need to be there. We need to be in Seattle, Washington by the 23rd of September as this is where Laura has chosen to do her PhD. I am applying to various actuarial and math programs in the area as well. All of the applications are due in early April so I am working hard to finish up the essays and get all of the paperwork in order. We have settled in quite nicely. In the end it looks like our schedules are finally pretty much decided. The final results seem to have Laura teaching 2 English classes and a Health class and ... read more
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Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou January 31st 2011

What a difference a week makes! Or how about a month? Last month at this time we were celebrating the secular new year in Delhi, India. Now we are about to celebrate the year 4760 (or there about) in China. We now have a wonderful job teaching English and a splendid little apartment! After considering many offers we decided to go with Clever Kids on a Dramatic Adventure in English. First of all, the company really invests in its employees. Last month there was a company paid for spa weekend. This month we all went out for dinner and drinks and got a really nice New Year's gift hamper (thats British English for a gift basket). They actually pay us to come in during the week and prepare our lessons for the weekends. The downside is ... read more

Asia » China » Beijing » Wudaokou January 22nd 2011

Hello hello! I should call this one "an arduous journey." When we arrived in Beijing we gave ourselves 1 week to find a job, otherwise we were going to go down south to a rural village and teach there. I am so glad we found a job in Beijing and chose to stay here! Beijing has a really nice metro system and bus too. Unfortunately I work a bit far away and am obliged at this point to take 3 different subway lines and a bus! What a journey! I should start from the beginning though. We have been couchsurfing exclusively since the end of last month. When we arrived in Bj (Beijing) we stayed with some Israeli Russians. We then shifted to the flat of a another American grad (woot woot) who has graciously allowed ... read more




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