Blogs from XiCheng District, Beijing, China, Asia - page 5

And I'm back. So when I last left off, I had just done orientation, walked a marathon that was the forbidden city, and saw racism in a club. And one other thing. A lot of these are being written in very limited spare time, so any typos I apologize for, but I really don't have a ton of editing time (not that that would help anyway, but it's still something to hide behind) Sat, June 18: Woke up, went to orientation where I found out I was put in ... class level 260! And since that means almost nothing to y'all, it basically means I'm the fourth level from the top possible class. So this summer will be a mix of learning new words/grammar as well as some review of stuff I never get to use, ... read more

Well, I finally made it. Without my luggage. But let's start off at the beginning. So I left Charlotte on the 13th to Newark. The plane arrived a bit late, and I managed to power walk my way to the the gate with 30 minutes before take off (which was the cut off time for boarding). The plane took off, and I was seated next to a Chinese woman who I think was from NYC (if my chinese is correct, which is questionable at best). We talked in Chinese for a while, and helped me review some characters. In the back of the plane with us was a U14 (or U16, not sure) Puerto Rican girls soccer team who was playing a tournament in Beijing. Where's Jay when you need him? Oh right, slacking off in ... read more

Today was mostly a work day catching up with homework save that this afternoon was my first practice with the Houhai Lake dragon boat team. There were about twenty people there and we split into two boats. A large number of the participants were foreigners and the lingua franca was English. The principle members of the crew are expat Aussies, a Mongolian guy, and a few Chinese. It was pretty easy to get into the swing on the boat. The stroke rate is very high but the strokes are also relatively short. Because you face forwards in a dragon boat the body torsion seems reversed in direction, that is you twist into the boat rather than out of the boat. This way instead of never seeing your teammates face to face like in a rowing shell ... read more

I got lost on my way to Mass Sunday as I mixed up which bus to get on. Luckily the cab I used to get back on track cost only two U.S. dollars to take me a non-trivial distance. Mass itself was interesting. The only phrase I understood was the "Peace be with you" equivalent "Zhu ni ping an." Amen is just about the same in any language. After Mass I bought a Chinese bible from the attached religious store. It is not at all easy to read but I expected as much. Later on Sunday there was a yoga/wushu demonstration set up in a nearby park. Unfortunately I got no pictures as the group participated in various exercises. We started with stretching followed by unarmed forms and then forms with two knives a piece. The ... read more

Orientation continued today leaving the group plenty of free time to explore. This gave me a chance to begin my education in Chinese transportation. Right of way for example is slightly different that the larger vehicle always has the right of way. Also if you beep your horn you aren't liable for any damages incurred on those who don't get out of the way. The subway however is very convenient, as it is only 30 or so cents per trip and you can get a card to hold your money rather then buying a new ticket every time. Several of us took the subway to the People's Revolution Museum which was wonderfully stocked with ancient swords, modern missiles and tanks and propaganda. We Americans especially enjoyed the exhibit on the War of United States aggression (Korean ... read more