Starting out in Beijing...

This was written at the date below. Also for my family back in Alaska, so a lot of the article is directed for my family.

March 10, 2008

So, I have now successfully started class at BLCU. I have class every day except Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to noon. There are four 50-minute intervals with two 10-minute breaks and one 20-minute break in the middle of the four hours. I like the schedule in Alaska better, but this works nicely; I’m done with school for the day at noon.

Lunch is a nightmare though. Everyone eats at about the same time. It seems that students finish morning classes at 12 or 12:30. For one person to find a table is hard, sometimes it’s better to eat in a large group and go to a restaurant on campus and get a big table. That way you actually get a table. There are many restaurants and three cafeterias, and they are all full!

By the way, this article is going to be a patchwork of a few stories and facts about my stay in Beijing so far.

The first one is about the TV commercial shoot.

Last week, on Tuesday, the fourth of March, my friend Adam from Poland was an actor in a commercial. Although, he didn’t really act, he just ran about 20 feet 10 times over and acted like he was in a race.

A TV company was making a commercial for the Olympics. A famous Hong Kong actor, Andy Lau (for a famous actor, he seemed very nice), would be in it, and a Chinese disabled athlete. The disabled athlete had one leg, so he used a curved metal piece in order to run. It allowed him to run as if he had a second leg.

A Chinese man had found four young men, including Adam, at BLCU to take part in the commercial and act as Olympic runners from four countries. Adam could bring three friends, so Stuart from Washington, Lily from Korea, and I went along.

We took taxis to a film school, where we got on a coach bus. There were two buses and they were filled with people. Chinese, black, white. We didn’t know it yet, but these people were going to be the screaming audience in the commercial.

The drive was an hour long. We came to a big training center for the disabled. There was an indoor running track, outdoor running track, pool, arena, hotel-like housing, all in the middle of nowhere. We ate lunch in a big dining room and waited for Adam and the other three to have their makeup done.

I don’t remember the names of the other three men, but one was from England, one from Alabama and one from Cuba. All were students at BLCU and of various ages.

The makeup took a long time for how little it did to their faces. It was really just powder to make their faces look immaculate. Adam had a hard time succumbing to the fact that he had got himself into this mess of makeup.

Then, they got their uniforms, running shorts and a t-shirt. They had colors to match the USA, Jamaica, Britain, and colors we couldn’t match to a country. They also got oiled, so that they were nice and shiny.

Adam complained most of the time. His face felt weird, he was oily, and his shorts were too short. We had a lot of fun making fun of him.

It took a few hours to actually get started because Andy Lau wanted to take a rest; we past the time playing Chinese Hack-sack. We finally began after dinner.

The filming took place in the indoor track. They had lights, lots of them, and they were hot. You felt like you were in a tanning bed. There were flashing lights. Pieces of styrofoam were put up too.

Then the fun began. The screamers did their best as the six runners ran over and over. Stuart, Lily and I just watched and laughed. We were actually almost a hindrance. We always seemed to be in the wrong place and were told to stop laughing more than once.

At midnight, the filming was still in process. They had finished with the yelling crowd and now they worked on filming the runners at the take off.

Lily, who had helped Adam communicate with the man who had hired the four students, got a little bit mad about how long it was taking. Stuart, Lily and I got to go back an hour before Adam finished, at one in the morning.

But being there all day and half the night was worth it. I got to see how filming works and saw a famous Hong Kong actor. And I learned good lessons from it; never work in the filming business, and if you become famous enough, you can have your jacket and tea brought to you and a lady following you around with a chair for you, and you can rest whenever you feel like it.

The second story: my trip in the He’nan Province.

On Friday evening, my roommate, Zhanar, and I got on a coach bus to go on a school-planned trip to the He’nan Province. With about 30 other students we took a train to Luoyang.

After breakfast at a hotel, we took another coach bus, with a tour guide along, to Kaifeng city where we saw the Dragon Pavilion, Iron Pagoda and the Temple to Lord Bao. And because I’m lazy and because this article will become too long, as schoolwork, you kids have to find information about those places so I don’t have to tell you.

I did run around the Iron Pagoda three times –go look up what that means. I made Zhanar do it with me, and Jeff from California ran too.

That night we stayed at a hotel. We had to get up at six the next morning so we could leave at 7:30 AM.

The second day, Sunday, we went the Shaolin Temple and watched a Kungfu performance. The history of the Shaolin Temple is really interesting, so I recommend looking it up. I had lots of Chinese ask to take their pictures with me. One even stood next to me like he was looking at something, while his friend took a picture. I noticed as soon as the picture was taken.

That same day, we took a hovercraft on the Yellow River near Zhengzhou City. We stopped at an island in the middle of the river. There were people with horses there. For 10 kuai, you could have a short horse ride. The horses were small. Their withers came up to my neck. I persuaded one of the women let me ride by myself.

We also went to the Longmen Caves. It’s along a pretty river and it’s really big. This place had so many caves, small ones, big ones, buddhas were everywhere. There was a temple and a big bridge over the river.

We came back to BLCU on Monday at seven in the morning by train. It was a fast trip, but I got to see a lot. It was just weird following a guide with a blue flag. I have never done that before.

Third, a note on life in Beijing: the city of more than 12.8 million.

One day, just before school had begun, Zhanar and I decided to take a walk through Beijing. We went to an area called Zhong guan cun. Past a few colleges, lots of stores, restaurants, and markets. We got to a big, busy road. We wanted to cross it to get to a store on the other side. Basically, we followed other Chinese, weaving through the huge lines of cars. Stopping every once and a while to let the cars drive by. Lines of people weaved in and out of the cars, going from one side to the other. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Another point of interest: remember when Tata (Dad) always told us not to sit on the rack over the back bike tire because it would break? Well, in China everyone gets rides by sitting on the racks on the back of bikes. And I haven’t seen a broken one yet.

One more thing, in Guangzhou, I saw a hummer, a yellow hummer. I know, I couldn’t believe it either.

First time in Guangzhou, China

I wrote this at the time and date written below. At that time I was writing for my family, they knew all the details and I did not need to explain. I will add in parenthesis the important details that I left out before.

February 21, 2008 at 5:30 PM:
In this column, I’m now in Beijing, sitting in my hotel, the Xi Jiao (pronounced shee jao). I have a big bed, bigger than the beds at Alyeska (ski resort in Alaska), and a very nice bathroom.

I have gotten a room in the dorms, which I will share with another girl. We have gotten along well so far (she and I had dinner together tonight and she paid). :)

But before I get ahead of myself and talk about all my time in Beijing, I have to finish telling you about Guangzhou.

I did a lot of exploring in the area around Oliver’s factory (my close Chinese friend). I took the housekeepers bike and took a little trip to the river that runs close by. I also rode by a graveyard, which was very different than ours.

There were two big, beautiful buildings in the middle, with rows of small trees and bushes. Behind and to either side were hills of what looked like little concrete walls in rows and columns. There was also a small monument for Chinese soldiers.

Edward and Aaron (other Chinese friends of mine) showed me a small island not far away. If I walked along side the river and over a beautiful, old stone bridge, I could walk all the way around a small island, full of houses and people, of course. I went back later to walk around the island, and realized it was going to take me forever to go around the island, so I turned back.

Saturday night, we did Karaoke with about 10 others from their factory. They have a place all covered with lights that has private rooms for karaoke. The rooms are really nice, each with a big couch and tables. You get fruit, peanuts, little fish, olives, tea and wine. There’s a big screen TV where the music videos and words play and a computer for picking the songs you want. A server is there the entire time to wait on you. I played a game with five dice in a cup. It’s the game they play on Pirates of the Caribbean Two. I forget what they call it. I did really well at that game. I beat almost anyone who played with me.

They had English songs to choose from, so I sang a few. Some of the Chinese were really good at the English songs. And Aaron has an amazing voice. He deserves to be complimented on that.

On Sunday, Edward and Aaron brought me to White Cloud Mountain. You paid 5 RMB per person to go up. There was a paved road going all the way up and over the mountain, but there were also side paths and steps. It was raining at first, but we had brought umbrellas. We walked by a steam that went over rocks, and over a bridge.

Getting to an old Buddhist Temple, we had to pay 5 RMB each, again. Edward said that the temple was probably over 100 years old at least. There were three big buildings, one behind the other and each a little higher on the hill. Inside each were shrines to the various gods all in gold and pretty colors. There were also big holders for incense. Dragons were perched on the roofs as protection. Two of them played with a ball. It was very pretty.

We then walked up what seemed like a million steps and came to about half way up the mountain. A man walking up ahead of us sang, what we thought were Tibetan songs, which was really pretty. There was a spectacular view of the way we had come, even though it was cloudy. There were a lot of people, some played hacky sack with a feather-adorned group of circular pieces of metal and rubber, and others took pictures. There was a big display of air filled dragons, coins and other decoration to celebrate the lunar New Year.

But the three of us set off for the top, and when we were almost there, we had to pay 5 RMB again! There were some teahouses on the other peaks and a military building. The very top of White Cloud Mountain was just as nice as half way, but could see less because of the clouds.

Once we came down from the mountain we had lunch and then walked through two campuses and took a quick boat ride across the river.

The campuses were very nice, much nicer than the one I’m at now (Beijing Language and Culture University) or UAA’s (University of Alaska, Anchorage) campus. We found a broken kite and Edward ran with it trying to make it fly. And it did not fly.

There were people flying kites everywhere and lots of kites stuck in trees.

That night we took a two-hour cruise on the Pearl River. It went from 8 to 10 pm and we got to see Guangzhou all lit up. Guangzhou really tries to show off at night. Each building has its own style of lights and the trees along the river have green lights and along the waters edge there are blue lights. There are lots of night cruises and each boat has its own style of lights as well.

The next day, I took the train to Beijing. Aaron brought me to the station and all the way onto the train. The crowd getting on the train was huge. And when the time came to get on the train, EVERYONE began moving toward the train. It reminded me of a herd of animals, only we moved more slowly.

Over all, the train ride was really nice. I saw lots of countryside, mountains in haze, old abandoned houses, dirt roads, farmland, little towns, and bigger ones. It was a joy to look out the window. It was long, but worth it.

The compartments had six small beds in each, but there was enough room. I met a girl going back to music school, who played piano. She thought it was cool that I played violin.

Now in Beijing, I will start school next week and be in the very lowest class. You have to know quite a few characters to be any higher, and I hardly know any characters.

And to put the thrift stores to shame, I bought a brand new warm coat for 14 USD. I think that’s a deal.

And another note, I remember mom saying that people have said that eating with chop sticks forces you to take smaller bites and eat slowly. Yeah right! People here eat faster than me and eat twice as much! And they’re all skinny! I don't know how they do it.

Introduction...kind of

I have been in Beijing, China for two years now. Although I have written a lot about my experiences, I have never had a blog before. So this is my first try at blogging! I hope whoever comes across my blog and reads it, finds something interesting. :)

About Two Years Ago:

I got to Hong Kong at about 9:30, after one very long flight -from Alaska to Taipei- and one short flight -from Taipei to Hong Kong.

I wasn’t very comfortable but I did all right. The first flight played a movie about a man who thinks that a life-sized doll is real and falls in love with her. I guess there’s a disorder for believing things that are not real, are real. I am not one who knows about these things, unfortunately. I didn’t watch the whole thing- I was asleep for the beginning- but it was peculiar.

The airport in Taipei was easy to go through, and nothing much happened. I sat in the big, gym-like waiting room, and did what you’re supposed to do in a waiting room.

Hong Kong was amazing. It’s huge and it seems to be made of only tall buildings built very close together. Everything written has English, not just Chinese, and may people can speak English, or know enough to sell you something. There are people everywhere, constantly coming and going. At night, it only slows down because not as many shops are open.

The subway is huge. Think of London but twice that size and in some places more spread out. When I went to the Hung Hom Train Station, I had to walk three or four minutes to get from one line to the other; all under the ground and walking fast, because everyone does. But it is clean and very cheap and efficient. I used the subway for going everywhere.

The hostel I stayed at was very high on a big hill. It overlooked the water and Kowloon, main land Hong Kong. It was very pretty, even with the smog and I liked it. The road to the hostel was very thin, for the most part room for only one vehicle. There were rocks, fences or trees on both sides and it was steep. The shuttle bus driver should be in NASCAR. He went up and down that little road at neck breaking speeds, to the point where you got a funny noise from the shuttle and I couldn’t tell if it was the clutch in the wrong gear or the tires grinding against the asphalt. On my first time up, I had my backpack on the seat next to me and every time we went around a left turn, I thought my pack would throw me off the seat.

I explored Hong Kong a lot. I tried to get to an art exhibit at a University, but couldn’t find it and gave up. I walked so much that by the time the day came for me to go the Guangzhou, my legs were beat. It hurt to walk. I also tried to go to an Art Museum in Kowloon, but went in the wrong direction and by the time I figured it out, I was too tired and went back to the hostel. But I got a first hand view on Hong Kong neighborhoods. I even walked through an area that was full of shops with funeral stuff: coffins, flowers and such.

The shops in Hong Kong are amazing. If you want to really go shopping, go to Hong Kong, everything else is a joke. I even found real alligator skin bags.