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.