Don't be too cocky.

Because it will come back to get you. Today at lunch I tried to order the spicy pork noodles, which had a spice option of 1-4. So I tried to go for two. In China, the waitresses always repeat your order back to you once you finish. And many times you have to pay in advance.

So it was: Pork noodles. Number 2. Number 2 pork noodles. (Pointing. Spicy #2. Hot flavor #2. [Desperately trying to remember the word for chili pepper]. The order was repeated back. The bill came, and it seemed a little high, but I did get the chocolate shake. Then lunch came. Then it came again.

So that was 2 orders of #2 spicy pork noodle.

My mistake, my money. They kindly gave it to me to go, giggling the whole time.

Played tennis last night for the first time. Spoke to someone at the National Library today to try and arrange 3 more visits. And trying hard to get organized for Xi'an immediately after school ends. The lack of consistent internet at the compound is making this a lot harder.

Plus I'd really like to find some expectorant, as I feel like I'm working on a little chest cold. The Chinese multi-purpose store only has Chinese medicine and vitamins. The supposedly Western drug store only has beauty products, tooth stuff, vitamins, and many, many, many different brands of condoms. What's a guy gotta do to get some cough syrup in this country?

Wi-fi heaven.

15RMB (just about exactly $2. But I've been using 8RMB to the dollar because it makes the math easier) for all you can drink coffee and tea (the cold papaya milk tea{冰的木瓜奶茶。} is a winner after a cup of jasmine tea to settle my stomach after the coffee and breakfast sausages started playing mahjong in my belly). It's a little rowdy, but not as noisy as the place next door that is 18RMB and uses ethernet.

Speaking of the network, I can 5 wi-fi networks. Only one has security enabled.

Here's a couple links to recent events as well.
The cardboard baozi story continues to confound. Here's a deconstruction of events, details of a Hong Kong follow up story, and a photo essay showing how to make your own cardboard baozi at home!

On the same blog is a lament to the recent Jinan flood, which confirms my suspicions about the shopping district being flooded. Turns out it rained more than a meter in 3 hours! I'm not even sure if that's possible. Maybe some of the details got lost in translation?

The blog itself is something I've read on-and-off for a while now. I think the author used to live in Beijing, but now seems to be south somewhere.

On the way over I saw another reminder of where I am. A man was selling cicadas off the back of his bicycle. He had dozens of little bamboo cages strapped to his luggage rack, and the sound was fairly deafening. I wonder if these are 'sounds of summer' for people who live in apartment buildings, or if there is a tradition of this. Someone did give me a 'cricket cage' years ago, so I'm guessing this is not a modern invention. I wonder what the deal is?

Similarly, I have seen a couple other examples of manual labor around town that blow me away. For a few days now a group of 5 or 6 men have been building a little bamboo fence along the path of No Name Lake on campus. One guy cuts about a dozen 2 foot lengths of bamboo at a time with a hacksaw for criss-crossed posts. Another splits longer pieces in half with a meat cleaver. These cross sections are wired to the posts to keep them together. A third worker makes post holes by hammering a rail spike into the ground at regular intervals. It's a nice looking fence, but I'm not sure how long it will last. I suppose once it falls apart they'll just make another.

The second example was a weeding crew. Many of the trees and walkways on campus are surrounded by square cement pavers that have 2 half-circles on each edge. When put together, the effect is to have regularly spaced circles. One morning on the way to class a work party was meticulously using hand trowels to dig the grass and weeds out of each circle, sorting it the dirt from the vegetable matter, and putting the dirt back into the holes. Lots of squatting, sweeping, and chatter.

All this hand work is starting to seem normal to me. I think weed wackers and gas-powered blowers are going to be a bit of a shock when I return.

Updates

Not too much spare time this week. It seems like any day an outing is planned we get a slight change in the way a class is taught that causes several extra hours of study. Or if I designate a 'let's catch up on the blog' afternoon, the Internet is down. There was even debate whether we would pay the compound for our second month of service. Even when it's up, it's slow.

So this morning I packed up the laptop and headed over to Wudaokou. I've heard that Lush has good breakfast, so I decided to check it out. It's no great shakes. Although the wi-fi is free. I think I prefer Kava, which is around the corner a few steps. Lush is so oriented to foreigners that there isn't even Chinese on the menu. At the moment, only 1 of the 12 tables is occupied by someone speaking a language other than English. And I think that they are Japanese. And some guy just walked in wearing a big cowboy hat. I was here earlier in the week I tagged along with some classmates to 'quiz night.' That's right: pub quiz night in China. Exactly the same. Same format. Same questions. A little more advertising for drink specials.

Well, the wi-fi is free.

Last night was a designated night of rest. Two classmates, including one who has committed to using Chinese 24/7 (there's sort of a contest going on) and I had Korean barbecue close to the compound. It was really good. We had a little futomaki for vegetables to go along with the plate full of mutton. Yum bo. I've only had Korean bbq once in the States, so I don't have much to compare it to, but one difference between the two restaurants: in Chicago you had to tend to your own meat. Here the fuwuyuan grills it for you and puts it onto your plate as it's done.

It was good to eat with the 24/7 student as I did my best to communicate with him using my limited vocabulary. It was pretty exciting when I was able to give him a word or two that he didn't know. Mostly though it was information transfer from him to me.

Later on two of us went to the HouHai bar district, which surrounds the narrow part of one of Beijing's artificial lakes. There were a lot more people walking around than there were actually inside many of the bars. Maybe it doesn't get hopping until later at night (we left at midnight). There was also a massive difference in price between beer being sold by stands versus the bar prices. $.50 for a big bottle from the convenience store. $2 for a small bottle from the bar. I had completely forgotten the term "Traveller."

On a personal note, school has its ups and downs. One day I know all the words on a dictation, the next day I'll be stumped when the teacher asks us to write out a text using only the English version for a guide. In 5 minutes. Most days include 4 (or 6 or 8) hours of additional study. I'm learning, but I'm not sure if I'm using it enough because I'm spending all my time learing. Meetings with the tutor help a lot. So much so that I've asked to spend some time with her tomorrow: partly out of appreciation, and partly out of a desire for more practice. I think we'll make it an art day.

I've attempted the video three times now without success. I'm not sure if it's going to work out.

It's getting a little crowded here, so I'm going to switch to one of the 'all you can drink' places for study and more blogging. Keep reading, and feel free to send email as well!

Same old same old.

Not to sound too boring, but being back in school for a couple days has me in a bit of a routine. There's not much adventuring to be had when you're in class for 4 hours and then spent most of the rest of your time studying.

Yesterday I did do a little shopping with a classmate. I invested in an electronic dictionary, which means I have also made the decision that this is not the end of my Chinese study. I'm not necessarily taking 301 in the fall, but I will try to at least maintain what I learn here by doing language exchange and keeping up a correspondence with all the new 朋友 (friends) I am making here. And there's the thesis work, which I have every reason to believe I will be able to complete.

The dictionary kiosk was in yet another HaiDian mega-bookstore mall. Neither one of us wanted to bargain, so we were aiming for a chain bookstore when we ducked into this other building. Wow--4 floors of books, videos, and software. We may have paid a few bucks extra, but I can't find one of these online for less than $300.

Tonight it was back to the same area to help another classmate try to pick one out. We tried the Carrefours (which I believe is a British WalMart clone), but the clerks there couldn't even help up get a 'ni hao' out of the selection there. We gave up, but I did by some underwear, plaid shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt. I have promised to wear the plaid with the floral tomorrow, because I am trying to assimilate.

Speaking of assimilating, some of my studying on Sunday night was over in Wudaokou with my roommate and Lisa, who was my dictionary-buying partner. The roommate couldn't bring himself to drink a beer after a long weekend in Shanghai, and Lisa did not want to take a cab back by herself. So in a moment that made me feel like a real Chinese, she rode all the way to the compound on the back of my Flying Pigeon.

Finally, just so you don't think I've gone totally native, this afternoon I tried the Indian restaurant that is halfway down Chengfu Lu. It turns out to be run by a Nepalese manager and an Indian cook. The manager greeted me in English and struck up a conversation. He turns out not to speak Chinese, except for 'kitchen Chinese' and he feels a bit lonely. He speaks only Hindi with the chef. The other staff only Mandarin. He complained that those Chinese that do speak English choose not to speak to him too much. I think his primary clientele are the engineers from Google, Microsoft, and Sun, which all have offices directly across the street.

The food was excellent. And the TV was playing the exact sort of Indian musicals that you find in any Indian restaurant in the US. I guess it's just another example of globalization.

Back in Beijing

Well, that was quite the adventure. So I'll sit here and eat my jianbing (a big scallion-y, spicy crepe that I finally had my first of last week. They deserve a post of their own) and finish the description of my trip.

You've already seen quite a bit of it thanks to the 'Top Star' hotel's wi-fi and the 3 网吧 （wang ba, or 'net bar'. I've taken to just calling them net ba.) that I visited during the weekend. Just like bicycle accidents, net bas seem to be much more visible in the smaller cities.

A major task yesterday turned out to be finding lunch. Three restaurants turned me away because I was by myself. After the last one, I found myself trying to put together a sentence that would say 'can I stay if I pay for enough food for 4 people?'. I am almost positive that the final guy said "你自己。 在路吃。 快吃 " (You are by yourself. Eat in the street. Eat fast food.)

I just couldn't do it. I had no idea how long my train ride was going to be yesterday, and with recent experiences in mind, I'm still a little queezy about certain things. Besides: I wanted a meal.

(Keep in mind I'm typing this with my street crepe sitting next to me.)

So it was fast food fried chicken again. Not KFC, but something Chinese. I have to admit to being tempted by the fried tofu on the street, but in the end an indoor kitchen won out.

As the afternoon grew warmer, I sought refuge in a cafe. This was a cafe of a particular type (chains such a Also Milo, UBC Coffee, and C Straits) that offers a few types of Western Food, some small Chinese dishes, and an array of coffee, and fancy drinks like smoothies, fresh juices, and milkshakes. I think they might be trying to be Swiss or Austrian cafes, but I'm not quite sure. The drinks are expensive by anyone's standards, which is probably due to the 2:1 staff to customer ratio. They don't seem to mind if one hangs out for a while, but linger too long reading gets you a cold stare. But I've discovered a little trick. If I do a little Chinese homework, the fuwuyuan are fascinated and want to talk to me. I'm not sure if this works in Beijing, where foreign students are not at all uncommon, but in Shijiazhuang and Jinan I had new best friends complimenting me on how well I speak Chinese. And, this is the best part, if I didn't know how to say a character, all I had to do was call the waitress, point to the character, and say "zenme du?" And the answer was given. Maybe it was the novelty, or maybe it was just preferable to the middle aged business man complaining about his food (a ubiquitous phenomena whenever I'm someplace with high prices. These guys tend to have young girlfriends and table manners that would make a Beijing granny blush), but it was pleasant enough that I'm willing to try it here in town.

As it turned out, I didn't have to worry about the train: it was was a high speed model, nonstop all the way to Beijing.

More later. For now you can enjoy the photos:

Long weekend

Leaving Jinan

Quite a couple days here in Jinan. I saw a few things I don't understand, but can guess at. I think there was some flooding here in recent days. There was news about floods, but I didn't see any about here. (That's part of the reason I came.)

Jinan is definitely not a tourist destination. I was stared at pretty openly in a number of places, and I did not see a single other non-Asian both days. It's healthy though, because it's closer to a real immersion experience. It inspires me to study my characters even harder and to re-double my efforts in speaking class. L has encouraged me to make up a reference question every day and to go to the library. I think that going to the cafe to do my lessons might be more effective (if not more expensive) because the waitresses are much more patient with my Chinese than the librarians are. Perhaps it is the financial nature of the transaction?

Must feed myself before getting on the train. It's been a challenging couple of days, but very rewarding. If the netword is up when I get back to Beijing, and I'm not too exhausted, I will spend time getting photos (AND VIDEO!) up for your enjoyment.

There will be dancing in the parks

I’ve noticed this from a distance in Beijing a few times, but last night was my first close up. It seems to happen on weekend nights, and sure enough, in the park across the street from my hotel there is currently a little dance party going on. It’s mostly old folks, but there is a mix of people. When I walked up there was tango to Middle Eastern music, but then it turned into standard Chinese pop.

Also in the park last night were 2 soccer games, Chinese hacky sack (a weighted bundle of feathers), some badminton, and a few folks doing calisthetics.

China definitely is still a culture that likes to spend time in public spaces. And it’s gratifying to see that they continue to be built. One of the times I saw the dancing was in the front plaza of a new office building. I very much like this because everyone looks like they are very much having fun.

Arrival in Jinan

My arrival in Jinan was tough, after a great train ride. The cab drivers at the station were incredibly pushy, trying to convince me that they would take me to a very close hotel. I can’t believe that actually ever works. I thought there might be a couple right here by the station, so I walked around a little bit, with a one driver after another grabbing my arm, speaking to me in a mixture of Chinese and God knows what, and saying it was only five minutes away. I had to walk this gauntlet again when I failed to find anything here in the square other than the one hotel that looked a little too nice for my budget. It was very late, and I know that the Jinan East station is close to the provincial library, so I decided to stay here.

Turns out the place is totally swank, recently remodeled (or perhaps even recently built) and I’ve got a king size bed, fancy shower, and a view for 160 RMB. That’s $20 for those of you keeping track.

This morning it was back to the cab drivers, who basically caused me to lose my patience for the first time in China. None of the 6 people standing right outside the station would admit to being a cab driver after I told them where I wanted to go. There was another little group a little further away. They wanted to barter, and started at 50RMB. I told them “You are a taxi. You have a meter. Use the meter.” They didn’t want anything to do with me. For the first time I actually found myself swearing at someone in English. Catching myself, I said “I will take the bus.” If I knew more Chinese I would have leaned my head in the window and grabbed a license number and threaten them with calling the police (I hear that’s a really good bargaining tactic, but since we weren’t haggling it probably wouldn’t have worked.

So the bus got me where I wanted to go for 1RMB (I did walk a little bit, because when I first read a bus stop schedule I read it backwards and got confused). I took a cab back to the hotel for 7. Jerks.

Shijiazhuang to Jinan

(This is a little out of order and the time is messed up. In the interests of getting these up before checkout time, I'm not going to fix the tenses. Just enjoy the wackiness.)

I'm just off of 2 days off. Well, kind of. It’s been fairly intense. This afternoon I would up taking an almost 3 hour nap. Last night was a pretty late night, and I didn’t actually get any sleep on the cattle train. I’ve think I’ve discovered the difference between hard seat and soft seat on the train. Sure, the soft seats are more comfortable, but the real difference seems to be that the hard seats are the cars where the standing-room-only folks stand. And the Chinese don’t hesitate to pack multiple folks onto 2 person seats. I wound up sharing mine with 2 middle school girls. So today the half of my ass that was hanging off into the aisle is a bit sore. Keep in mind that on Chinese trains, all the seats face each other with little tables in between.

Facing me were a granny and a truck driver. At least he claimed to be a truck driver. He didn’t look older than 13, and he was trying awfully hard to flirt with the middle schoolers. I think he may have had more luck if he had a few more teeth. But he did teach me some sign language. I now know how to say stop.

We talked a little bit, but the truck driver kept making fun of my Chinese and the girls patience wore a little this. The granny wound up trading seats with a young lady who spoke some English and was helping out a bit over our shoulder. I had already determined that she was getting off at the same stop as I. Early in the trip I had takend a little poll about who was getting off in Jinan. They don’t really annouce the stops, and Jinan was not the final destination of the train. Hence the need to know the line: 到了你告诉我吗？有济南。 (When we arrive at Jinan, will you tell me?) The ayi let her husband sleep for a while after he got a seat after the first stop, and then they switched later on. Please don’t think I made the lady stand: she sat on her luggage, and so far I’ve noticed that I’m far more likely to be offered someone’s seat than an elderly person.

With translator ensconced, our conversation resumed. The girls already knew that I was a librarian, that I use a computer everyday, both at work and at home, and that I am here studying the language. And they had let me know that they think I am very rich. I tried to explain that it might seem that way, but everything in America is more expensive, so I am not that well off. I showed them my used book and did the currency conversion for them. When they found our it was a 64RMB book, I think they started to understand the nature of things. Still, I admit I am very lucky and am, globally speaking, well off. That’s a lot of information to be traded with little language skills, eh?

They wanted more details, and also wanted to convey that they think I am very lucky to have this time to travel. It was about this point that I finally figured out that one of the girls wasn’t making fun of my Chinese, but actually had a cleft palate. I could still understand a lot of what she said though, because she really stressed her tones. And of course, we had our interpreter, who said she works in a big tourist town on the coast.

We did have a little crowd for a while, but as more people got on at each stop, and it got later, most people lost interest. We all drifted off for a while, but for the last hour or so, me and the more outgoing girl (dang I wish I had gotten her name) played vocabulary. We would take turns giving a word. Me in Chinese if I knew it, in English if I wanted to know it. She did the opposite. I’d say our ability in each other’s language is about even. She was a little surprised that I didn’t know more body parts and colors, but I think she was impressed with my verbs. Our translator helped out when we both got stuck.

I have realized that some of the more in depth conversations I’ve had have been with very young people. They seem a lot more patient with me, and also willing to speak slowly and re-phrase things into simple words. Maybe it’s also that they all know at least a few words of English from school. Tonight for example, yet another person said ‘Hello!’ as I walked past. I said 你好 back and he and his buddy laughed and gave me a thumbs up. He visibly gathered his thoughts for a second and then said “Welcome to China!” I said thank you, and then “认识你高兴我。” which means “Meeting you makes me happy.” They thought that was hilarious.

One last thing about the train ride. At one point the truck driver and the girls had a fun little argument about the variations in their regional accents / dialects. While I couldn’t actually follow it, I asked our translator if I was correct about what they were talking about. Yes, she said, “She is studying Putonghua in school, and she is making fun of him a little bit because he can’t understand some of her language. They have to fall back on slang.” This was really interesting to me, and I told them all that we do the same thing in the States with accents. Only later did I realize that a few times when the girl couldn’t understand something I was saying, the translator told her that I was correct and the girl was wrong. Lest you think I’m bragging, during one such breakdown in our communication, I distinctly heard our translator friend say “Beijinghua.” So I guess I am picking up a little bit of an accent.

So I’m not feeling too bad about not studying my characters and grammar these past couple days. I feel that the conversation on the train was pretty good practice.

I'm here!

Finally have a little blogger access, so I'll be making a quick succession of posts instead of eating breakfast. I'm in a rail station hotel in Jinan with wifi! Getting here is quite the story, but before anything else, look at my fancy hotel room!



$20USD.

The Canadians giveth.

I am now the proud owner of a Flying Pigeon via a Canadian student from McGill U. Thanks a lot Ben!

This bike is rusty, its basket is fixed with wire. And the seat is torn. I don't think this one will be walking off. Although I did just get a free break shoe, seat adjustment, and air from the card game, er, bike repair stand down the block. I got wave of the hand when I asked the price, and the dealer got a big smile and handshake in return.

The Chinese taketh away the free time: I was informed today that we will be having a midterm tomorrow in my spoken class. Well, half of us will (including me) and the other half will do it next Tuesday after the long weekend. I didn't want it hanging over my head, and besides I can only guess that I'll get a merciful grade by agreeing to do it early.

So I'm off to the Learner's Cafe to cram for 2 hours. Then it's to a tutoring session. Then Peking Opera.

Far too smoky.

Where I'm working tonight is waaaaayyy too smoky. Makes me miss Oregon.

Tomorrow night is a group outing, and Wednesday I'm going on the road for a long weekend. I'm considering not bringing along the laptop, so there might be quite a bit of radio silence from Beijing for the next 5 or 6 days (even if I do bring the laptop, I have no idea what the interweb situation is in my hotels). Do not be alarmed. Do not adjust the controls on your monitor screen. The growbot will return ASAP.

Conversation

Isn't all this talk of food better than talk of being sick?

Yesterday was our group outing to the Great Wall. Some of the classmates raced up and were covered with sweat. I knew it was going to be a long day, so I played lazy and took the tram up and walked down. One of the staff walked with me and we talked about my progress. I see her almost every day, and she has been very encouraging, saying that my improvement is constant.

Somehow we managed to have this conversation:

吴老师: How come you took the tram? Now you can't say that you climbed the Great Wall.

Me: Sure I can, I climbed down the Wall.

吴老师: Ha ha.

Me: I'm too old to race. Besides, look at how wet you are.

吴老师: You are right, plus climbing mountains is not good for your knees. My knees are a little sore. Are you ready to go down?

Me: Yes.

吴老师: Let's walk together. Why do you study Chinese.

(I explain my full-time work, half-time student life in Chinglish and we talk about my project. Halfway down we stopped for a break.)

Me: Last night I got cramp in my leg and I can still feel it. And now my legs are shaky. I do not think I am eating enough fruit. But I will buy bananas today for the potassium.

吴老师: I do not like bananas. Most Chinese do not like bananas, You should eat peaches! They are very good right now.

Me: But you warned us about eating thin skinned fruit. Besides, I see bananas everywhere. How can you say that Chinese do not like bananas?

吴老师: You are right, there are a lot of chemicals. Buy a knife and peel them.

Me: That will be safe? OK, I will try the peaches. They look very good.

OK, I have to admit that I don't know the word for potassium. Or knife. Or cramp. Or thin skinned. So there was some vocabulary to learn during the conversation. But you have to admit that's not bad, right?

Great Wall

The interweb has been down in the compound the last couple days. I'm in a coffee shop doing this, and a: need to study. b: need to conserve battery. So I'll sign off for now and work on the vocabulary.

My American Afternoon

I hope you didn't think I was kidding.

Finding a Starbucks, much like in the States, is just a matter of finding a large office building. Remember our friend who waved his arms around and said "This isn't China, this is globalization." Well, if where we were at the time wasn't globalization, this is:



One thing the Starbucks corporation didn't do was adjust its menu or its prices. If anything, the coffee is actually a little bit more expensive here. I saw very little traffic as I sat there studying and sipping my tall vanilla latte, but a classmate insists that this place is usually hopping.



My next stop was a short bus ride away. I'm getting pretty good with the buses--as long as I know the name (in characters) of where I'm going. The Wal Mart, unlike the Starbucks, has completely transformed itself to local tastes and practices. They have a huge live seafood section. (Yes friends, those are turtles. And yes they'll clean them for you.)



There's lots of free samples from the prepared food cases, a big book section (make sure to see the slide show), and an 'import' section that is mostly Australian brands.

Despite the localization, there was a steady stream of white folk in the place. This might have something to do with the store's location kiddy-corner from a Microsoft facility. Or it just might be because it's Wal Mart. One thing I noticed though: the prices were not cheap.



Finally I completed my day by paying a visit to KFC. No English signage for the Colonel. Just corn burger sandwiches, dark meat pieces, and plenty of popcorn chicken. I would have killed for a breast, but I didn't learn the word until today.



I finished up the day stopping at yet another coffee shop. So even with my three stops yesterday, quite a bit of studying was completed. Being here is not quite so different from being in school at home--just as little free time, just as hard to finish what needs to get done, but no L to come home to at the end of the day.

America

The Chinese giveth...

...and they taketh my bike away. I think the insist on selling us the new ones so that they can spot them sitting around and knick them.

So the question is: do I get another one?

I'm going with my tutor to the train station tonight to buy tickets for the long weekend next week. She's also going to make hotel reservations for me. If only I could take her along to smooth the whole process--but that would defeat the process wouldn't it.

I'll get photos us shortly.

Success!

After receiving a completely lackluster grade on yesterday's test, I decided that enough was enough. I needed a decent cup of coffee.

So I promised it to myself assuming I could order lunch to go at the 4th restaurant from the gate (the one that was bare brick walls the night I arrived and opened 4 days later. I accidentally ordered tripe there yesterday). With only a little help from the next table, and no pointing on my part (the waitress did have to point to a picture of fried dumplings and a picture of steamed ones. But it wasn't the menu, it was a pinup calendar on the wall) I managed to leave with exactly what I wanted.

So I went to Starbucks. Spendy, pricey, American-priced Starbucks. While on the way, I decided that if I was going to soil myself like that, I may as well wade chin deep in the muck. So I had an American afternoon. It's a new trifecta: Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and KFC.

On my way back I had another small triumph. I stopped for more coffee at an expat place and when finished asked (in Chinese) for my leftover cashews to be put in a bag. It's the little things that excite me.

I'll post the photos once homework is finished.

My loyal readers...

...have demanded the fever dream. So here it is in all its Freudian glory.

I don't think I have ever dreamed about being sick, but I guess there's a first for everything. I ditched class last week while down with the Beijing Belly, and slept for several hours. The weird thing is I had this extended dream that I was horribly sick and needed help. My roommate kept coming back to the room and I would wake up and ask him if he had just been here. He would insist that he had been in class all morning and hadn't been in the room at all.

So I would tell him, "I must be sicker than I thought. I think I hallucinated you being here." This happened a bunch of times, and each time he became more insistent that a: he hadn't been here, and b: no, I really wasn't that sick.

Meanwhile there is some sort of political protest going on outside in the courtyard (which I had a view of in my dream). It seemed like some sort of SOA-watch, South American solidarity rally, which I thought was really strange, seeing that I'm in China. Things kept escalating outside and people in the hotel started to panic. The didn't want to go anywhere, but I kept telling my classmates that I was really sick and needed a doctor. They said I wasn't sick enough. Then I'd remind them that they claimed not to be here earlier, but that I had had the same conversation with them. Then I started pulling broken pieces of plastic out of my mouth saying, 'Well, if I'm not sick, why have I been eating plastic water bottles?"

At this point I tried crawling into the hallway calling for the fuyuan. My classmates dragged me back into the room saying not to bother them. Finally I escaped and made it into a service closet (there really are a couple of them here) and my Chinese co-worker was in there tied up! So I untied her and we dressed in fuyuan uniforms and made our escape.

It was about this time that my roommate returned home from class.

Update

I feel like it's been forever since I gave a detailed update. I should at least tell you about my weekend and share the latest round of photos. The net is pokey this afternoon, but I'm sure we can muddle through.

Saturday saw an organized trip to the summer palace. We had the same tourguide that we had the previous week. I wonder if BeiDa has a whole staff just for this purpose?



The Summer Palace was, well, another big palace. I don't want to say that I can't tell them apart, but not knowing much about the architecture, I have to admit that all the buildings start to look the same after a while. I don't think I could explain the difference between the eunich's quarters and the opera house.

Friday night I traveled with the pack. I could have lived without the American bar food, but overall it was a good night out. The scale of the expat scene is really something to behold. Saturday night, as mentioned earlier, was another trip. I really enjoyed the Korean liquor, and our 'host' for the evening is a character. Not only is he a great KTV singer, with good showmanship and a strong voice, yesterday I came home to him playing saxophone in the hotel. And playing well. If you've seen Lost in Translation, you've got a pretty good idea of what the KTV is like. You take an elevator up to a floor in a non-descript commercial building and enter a lobby made up like a 1970s casino. The staff is all in matching uniforms, which for us was red pants, vests, and ribbon ties. Men and women. The room itself is like the VIP room of a tacky disco: mirrors, vinyl couches, low table. There's a button on the wall to call the waiter--beer and snacks are on offer. And then you sing.

Sunday I took the train into the city and then walked to the China Art Gallery. This walk made me realize that we're not staying in the best neighborhood that Beijing has to offer. The street meat was of a much higher quality. The view down the street was closer to Vancouver than Bangalore: many, many small shops on the blocks with larger places on the corners. Even the public toilets were of a conspicuously better quality than those on offer around here.



I even wandered into Hutong (and got quite a giggle from a couple kids, who were astonished when I passed them a second time and said "这八没 有出口" [here there is no exit]), which was non-touristed, but still cleaned up and livable.

So I wonder if this was a middle class neighborhood or something more? I have so little sense of what is 'average' for around here.

The China Art Gallery wasn't huge, but it was very nice. Two photo displays, one a National Geographic-ish show of Tibet (and I mean that in the nicest possible way. 赵红 has a great sense of the dramatic) and the other a heroic-worker-building-the-Olympic-Stadium show. Two rooms were filled with contemporary American and Chinese artists playing off of each other. 王南飞 （Wang Nanfei) had a couple great table-top tableaux, and Linda Girvin had some really nice lenticular photos that fascinating to the kids in the room. One striking thing in the museum: despite the warning sign at the entrance, no one was stopping people from touching the art.


There was also a big blockbuster show of Enlightenment paintings from a collection in Spain. It was wall-to-wall packed. There was some great stuff, and the Chinese were eating it up.

After the museum I practiced my bartering skills by buying a new bag for school. I really need to improve this skill. So later I bought a cell phone. This will keep me in better touch for making appointments--it's amazing how busy daily life has become after being here only a couple weeks! On Monday I visited with a librarian on campus. Our speaking skills are at about the same level, so the conversation didn't go all that far. But he was incredibly warm and welcoming, and said I should stop by anytime. So it looks like I have another conversation partner. And he even has AC in his office!

Random news / events:

• No, the power wasn't out in my room last week, I had turned off the outlets on the control panel. The switch marked 'TV' controls the outlets.
• L really wanted me to post the fever dream I had last week. So if you want to hear about it, you'll have to comment.
• 张丽：我认为 中国人不可以 'post a comment' 因为blogger.com限制。 所以你能看whatsgrowing.com你不能blogspot.com.

More Beijing scenes.

明天课时

I have a test tomorrow, so I won't be catching up on the blog. But I couldn't let the evening go by without telling everyone about another accidental dinner. This time in the opulent direction. The guidebook said it was a good Hong Kong style dim sum restaurant. My friend was in shorts and a T-shirt, so we were a little intimidated pulling our bikes into the skyscraper parking lot and walking past the line of staff from the two competing restaurants in the building. One set had sassy cowboy hats on, but that wasn't our restaurant.

It turns out our attire wasn't a problem, because we got a private booth. I opened the menu to see a page where the lowest cost dish was 400rmb, and went up to 5000. --oops. A little out of our range for the day. A little page turning (my menu was 30+ pages long) and a little comparison of the cash in our pockets let us know it was ok. The prices dropped tremendously the deeper we got. And it took us a while to figure out that we each had completely different menus, so the sum total was about 60 pages, divided regionally.

So we set a budget of 100rmb each, and ordered from our own menus. I had small plates. Seth had main dishes. We wound up with:

• A plate of seaweed salad. Less flavorful than Japanese, but very tasty.
• Thin slices of dried seasoned beef. Very salty and tender.
• Scallops and scallions served cold. there were a couple extra parts of the scallop that I recognized from our West Seattle adventure a while back. This was the top dish in my opinion.
• Fried shrimp sticks. No other way to put it. Shrimp chopped into a seasoned paste, battered and fried. Served with a little mayo.
• A clay pot of vegetable soup with noodles. I have no idea what some of the stuff was. I latched onto some sort of fungus that I didn't care for, but overall it was delicious.
• A noodle dish served with cabbage and a vinegrette.

And for all the crappy service I've received in the past couple weeks, this evening's experience made up for it. The fuyuan looked a little upset when we attempted to serve the noodles to ourselves. I think the intention was for her to let us look at it for a few minutes, then she was supposed to remove it to a side table for dressing. There was no reason to call "fuyuan, maidan" (I'm not sure if I've said it yet, but frequently, and especially at the sorts of places we've been at, this is yelled at the top of your lungs--I - am - not - kidding.) at the end of the meal, because the fuyuan was never more than a whisper away.

A plate of melon (some sort of honeydew), watermelon and lychees was served for dessert. And I even resisted spitting the seed onto the table.

We got someone else's bill, so we still had a little sticker shock. Profuse apologies were offered when we started opening our dictionaries trying to figure out what cost 195rmb on our table.

And in the end, the 500rmb dishes were for table-style dishes. We might not be able to read fast, but eventually we figure stuff out. I just wish I had a picture of the expression on my face when I first saw the menu.

Total bill in US dollars: $25.

Suddenly...

I'm doing boatloads of homework. Today was difficult, because it seemed like I hit a brick wall with my speaking and writing ability. I couldn't recall any new words from last week. My 口语 teacher made me tell the story of buying my new bag three times--and I kept forgetting the word for bag. He was very amused that I sat outside the alley (sorry, I'm from Chicago, so I consider a lot of shopping streets here to be alleys.) studying my notes before attempting to go into the store. I talked the shopkeeper down about 45%, but I was told I could have done better. I was just very happy to understand her when she said "well go ahead and name a price." There's apparently some art to telling whether you are supposed to drop a zero (cutting the price by 90%), two thirds, or half. Cut it by 90% in the wrong store and you get yelled at.

I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of haggling. I even had to do it for a cellphone. I paid 60RMB more than many of my classmates (but I know I didn't get the worst deal). I figure $8 is a pretty fair price for a little conversation practice. Or maybe it's just the economic penalty I have to live with for shopping alone and having worse language skills than my classmates.

I want to tell you about the weekend, my trip to the China Art Gallery, the Summer Palace, continued menu shenanigans, new photos, and all the weirdness that is being here. But instead it's time for bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bloggy day after class.

Korean food

One of the few advantages of travelling in a pack is that inevitably someone knows the specialties of wherever we are. And to be fair, last night we were only 6. That's not much of a pack, right?

So we were aiming for Japanese sushi, but wound up at a Korean restaurant. The menu helper was Joel, a Korean immigrant to the DC area. Sushi was still had, but so was the whole array of Korean sides, as well as a couple main dishes. The sushi was respectable, but the whole table was exceptional. Noodles wrapped in nori then breaded and fried. Kimchee and noodles together (bim bop?). Fried rice with a fried egg on top. A platter of veggies and tobiko to wrap in small pieces of nori. And 'bai si jiu', (I have no idea about that pinyin, especially because most everything was a mixture of Korean and Chinese--to the point that when Joel attempted to order, the Cantonese student yelled "STOP! You just asked her what time she gets off.") a liquor made with Chinese medicines.

Dinner led to a bar, and the bar led to KTV. A whole other cultural experience to be talked about at a later date.

I like bikes.

My first bike ride. Click on the pins in a counterclockwise direction, starting at 12 o'clock.

And remember, you can always click on the photo for the full size version.

All better.

And back in business. And it turns out the outlets are controlled by switches on the 'master control panel' that sits in between the beds. I'm sure '笨的美国人' (stupid American) gets muttered around here quite a bit.

On the plus side I keep running into a staff member on the street and she always insists on stopping to talk to me. She tells me that my speaking Chinese (口语 or kou yu) improves every day. And I think it does. In some ways, and sorry if I'm repeating myself, being here is like one giant, constant review session of everything I learned last year. With lots of added vocabulary thrown in.

And people will randomly stop you on the street and attempt to practice English. The conversation typically goes like this:

Chinese guy/gal: Hello! Excuse me. Where are you from? Hello!
Me : 我是美国人。
Chinese guy: OH! You speak Chinese.
Me: 一点.
Chinese guy: That is wonderful. Where did you learn?
Me: 我在北大学中文。
Chinese guy: How long have you been studying at BeiDa?
Me: 一个星期.
Chinese guy: Only one week? That's amazing!
Me: 我在美国学写学的一年. 在这会来两个月.
Chinese guy: Well, I hope you can travel. This (pointing to campus, the street, the restaurant, or wherever it is we happen to be standing) is not China. This is New York. This is globalization. To see China you must go to the countryside.

I don't really have a comeback for that one. And besides, I know the grammar on my last sentence is atrocious, so it's usually around here the person loses interest. Or insists on giving me their phone number so that they can connect me with their uncle / cousin / brother-in-law who runs a travel agency / gives tours / owns a hotel / needs to practice English. Although I have learned something to say to disengage from these conversations: 我有事. (Literally: 'I have an affair/matter/business.') Haven't had a chance to try it yet. But I do have the phone number of a lawyer if I need one.

More random observations:

• More manual labor observed today: they were trimming hedges on campus. With hand clippers.
• There are latin characters everywhere. Enough to make you lazy as you're walking around.
• They allow smoking in the gym I joined. But only near the snooker tables.
• Our rebar friends from last week? Turns out they live on the construction site in little shacks. And they work in dress slacks and loafers. Some even in flip flops. No OSHA here.
  

The Americans commandeered the patio for the 4th of July yesterday in order to play beer pong. The Canadians huddled in a corner playing scrabble and tried hard not to admit sharing a border with us.

• The beer here really, really sucks. Not that I can stomach it at this point. I made my map instead.

It was only a matter of time.

You knew I would be making a map, didn't you?

Internet yes. Electricity no.

All the power outlets in my rooms are out. I have a feeling it's because I had the electrician 'fix' one of them yesterday. Did he turn off the power before coming in and re-connecting the wired in the box? Nope. I bet there's a short in there now.

Anyway, I'm ditching class with permission today. Too weak to get there. But I'm feeling much better. I hate hate hate missing class. It's so hard to catch up. But yesterday I couldn't even walk into a restaurant for the smell. Then I fairly well collapsed after getting home. So I'm taking it easy, putting calories in, being careful, and taking my damn meds.

Sure Alan, I'd try some herbs if I could get to a part of town where I'd trust the pharmacist, but for this time, I'm using the cipro. I'm a total believer in the alternatives, but they are known for being more effective on chronic conditions rather than acute illnesses.

Perhaps today will also be a good blogging day--as long as my battery holds.

Overheard

"I don't understand why everything is so dirty. Do the people in this neighborhood have, like, zero aesthetic ability?"

Sometimes it's a little hard to relate to my classmates. The little old lady in the park did teach me a useful word: 贫困的。 Poor. She was saying that people are a lot less poor than they used to be, but there are still many poor in China. I tried to convey that there are poor people everywhere. I'm not sure if she didn't understand or if she was just doubtful that there are poor people in America.

And no Mr. Russell, the 73 year old woman was not coming on to me. She was explaining that Chinese kung fu helps keep her balanced (perhaps regular? My own grandmother had a peculiar obsessin with regularity) and has done wonders for her high blood pressure. She also says that we Americans eat too much butter (黄油。 literally 'yellow fat').

It was a very rough 48 hours. I had to leave class 5 times today, but I got a 95 on my quiz while sweating profusely and shaking. I still haven't eaten anything, but at least I've stopped shaking. I'm trying to save my cipro for when I'm really sick, since I've only got one course.