Yong bu fangqi

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22:37 Beijing time

Yong bu fangqi, literally 'never give up', is a phrase that I picked up at an Asian Champions League match between Beijing Guoan and some korean team. I mention this as I feel it is applicable to my authorship of this blog through the danger of it becoming swiftly outdated and obsolete.

The last two weeks have been intensely busy and the flat has been packed full of people. Sigrid, Roisin and Carys came to visit, the former two from Vietnam and the latter from London. My flatmate Lara also had a friend staying (Barnaby) so it was all a tad chaotic. Nonetheless, we went about seeing some sights and soon enough ventured to the night market in the centre of town where one can buy pretty much any kind of meat, vegetable, seafood, or unknown substances they please. Feeling at bit hairy after the night before and having being ruled by hunger in motivation to go there, the idea of starfish and beetles was not so appetising. We sampled some snake, which actually turned out to be squid after some chancer had taken advantage of our overwhelmed dispositions. Suffice to say this didn't go down necessarily well. The next couple of days were dedicated to exposing the ladies to the Beijing nightlife whilst chilling out during the day. One notable night was a thorough schooling of the resident Americans in the pub quiz which saw us claim victory in admirable style - the bottle of Jack Daniels was (I have heard) enjoyed by all. This led us up to the 18th of April, the most important of all days, the day where great things have happened, my birthday. After having been taken out by some classmates for pizza and a cake(?!) the day before I was already not keen on much more attention. So during the day myself and Lara ventured to the China Job Fair in an unmemorable fancy hotel in towards the centre. It was advertised as the be all and end all of job fairs in Beijing and if indeed it was then the recession is hitting China harder than they are willing to let on. Most jobs were aimed at teaching english here.. I wouldn't subject even the most desperate of Chinese to a confused-Manchunian accent like my own. The birthday night started with pizza at a very cheap drinking establishment where the food is good and the beer is cheap. A good number of people attended with their drinking shoes on so much was consumed and many drinking games were played before moving on to the previously mentioned GT Banana. A good night overall.


The ladies then went to Xi'an for a couple of days which was a pleasant opportunity to reacquaint myself with my comfortable bed and to catch up on some Chinese work. Upon the Stokettes return they started to embrace the cultural amenities that Beijing has to offer whilst I took it upon myself to enjoy the few days holiday that Beida granted us. Having not managed to secure a train to Shanghai on the Monday, one last night of debauchery was necessary before seeing them off on the Tuesday. The main activity of this week, as agreed by all men of footballing fanfare, was the Champions league. My flatmate Julian being a Chelski fan, I humored him by rising at the most inconvenient of hours (3am) to try in vain to stream the game over the internet. The lack of password on our wireless internet seems to be hampering any efforts to undertake any activity on the internet and so after 2 hours of trying we managed to flawlessly witness about 4 and a half minutes of a pretty average game. 5am was a time for big decisions, whether to stay awake and brave the day ahead which was to start at 7am, or to fall asleep for two measley hours. I opted for the latter and yet it still did not set me in good stead for the day ahead. This was the day of the much hyped 'trip to the countryside'. It started with a meet at 7.30 and a hellish journey of an hour and a half to a middle school in order to see how Chinese lessons are taught. As you can guess not much differed from back home. However, the powers that be insist that this is cultural enlightenment. The next stop was a model village, claimed by the Chinese government to be the way forward in rural living. It was one big propaganda tool, large open spaces with irrelevant buildings and a lack of people. I can only compare it to being in the film 'The Truman Show' where it felt like one big masquerade and great difficulty was had trying to identify anyone who actually lived there. We were subjected to an unhealthy amount of food and about 300 different dances by the same collection of old age pensioners clad entirely in a rather obtrusive pink. Much of the day was allocated to waiting time, and then waiting time for the waiting time. I can't say that I achieved anything from this trip apart from the hours reduced to the 3am kick off of the much anticipated semi-final against Manchester united. After a quick power nap and a shower we headed off to wet our palettes and lubricate our voice boxes for the spectacle ahead. After losing a fair proportion of last weeks winnings on poker we graced Pyro Pizza with our presence. I advise against a spicy meat feast pizza at 4am, and I advise Arsene Wenger to next time instruct his team to actually play football. Thursday was allocated to much overdue sleep and Friday (today) has been one of preparation for the two exams I have next Wednesday, awkwardly placed immediately in the wake of the second leg.

I promise to deliver the next installment with much more haste, worry not.

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Comments

[Andrew Aidan Pyrah]

A-Hawo, Sounds like you're keeping your blood alcohol levels sufficiently dangerous, so well done on that count. Eaten any swan? Some news. I have glasses, think i caught 'blind' off you in Asia and have since been suffering, rectified the sitch yesterday with a pair of Tom Vek-esque goggles. Diss.er.tat.ion, has been submitten, as have all other undergrad essays, just two exams on the 29th and 30th then it's all downhill from whence. This summer, I have applied for a job at Wimbledon, that will be a cool grand or so if I get it and temporary work with AQA (the exam board). I have a Bestival ticket and am going to work SGP with the whole of August being spent en London mit intern. After that, possibly a trav, Central America I'm thinking, prospective leaving date Jan 2010, or possibly teaching in Japan, or possibly something ludicrous like getting a jeffing job. Hit me up/back.