This past week

In response to some emails/comments:
Hi Bernice.
Ben, my Chinese is Ok; I can survive in Beijing by asking how
much things cost, telling the taxi driver where to go or where to go
on the subway, telling the cellphone store people that their SIM
cards cost too much and also that my phone needs to be fixed because
it can't use Chinese SIM cards. However I really cannot understand
people very well. I am learning to get bits, but thats the hardest
part. I have two teachers at school, one of which talks in almost all
Chinese to us, and that teaches me to listen. So I'm getting better.
Mrs. Tucker, the main reason I haven't updated is because I've
been pretty busy and lazy. Since I started 8 am classes this week, I
have to wake up around 7, and I've managed to be occupied each night
until late. However, I just managed to get my Bank of China debit
card to work, at first it had USD$ in the account and ATMS wouldn't
let me use it, so I had to go back and tell them to convert the $ to
RMB. I've met some girls, nobody has distracted me that much though.

So I left off at Sunday night. I went back to the hair saloon,
taught some English words, and found out they were having a mid
Autumn festival party. They invited me. Around 10 they started
clearing this room out and setting up a TV and speakers and a
microphone. Then all the employees of this hair salon/massage parlor
started pouring in. Chinese businesses are like rabbit holes, they
have a lot of space that you don't initially see, they keep going and
going, plus they have tons of employees. I hear the strategy is
employ everyone, but don't pay them as much. They are happy to work,
everyone is employed and there is barely any bad crime. No murders or
rapes from what I hear. Anyway there were about 50 people in this
little place. The party started and they sang pop songs with the
karaoke and did dances. Then they played musical chairs. Everyone got
to play, so there were a bunch of games. They invited me to play, so
I played and won. Its really crazy because when the music stops,
you've got about 50 girls just screaming. They just scream when the
music stops. So then I was in the winner's circle. So I won. I'm now
the musical chairs champion of the place. Everyone got a bag of
fruit and moon pies and a toothbrush and toothpaste as a gift for the
mid autumn festival.

Over the week I went to class, went to the police station to get
a temporary residence permit, went to a classmates apartment and
spoke Chinese and English with some Chinese people learning English
he knows. I took my language partner out to dinner with some other
WorldLink people. We went to an "Italian" restaurant and got a pizza,
it was a lame pizza. Then we watched Fantastic Four at my apartment.
I also ate some seaweed soup one night at this girl in my class'
apartment. Asian people like their seaweed, I don't.

On Friday my class and some others went to the Great Wall. It is
about 1.5 hours from here. The entrance area down off the mountain is
sort of rural but there are tons of people lining the entrance with
their booths trying to sell you stuff. It goes "Hello, (used as name,
not hi) 1 dollar, hello, hello". My theory is they address you as
"hello". Its like that everywhere, someone wants to offer you a ride,
its "hello, where you going". So then you climb an incredible number
of stairs through the woods to get up there. They are very steep.
Everyone from my school there was panting and sweating profusely and
taking breaks. But they were all wimps, I went the whole way, my skin
got a little hot but whatever. So up at the great wall it was pretty
cool. The temperature was very nice, on the cool side. The wall is
very large. We walked a ways, took some pictures etc.





The visibility was poor, like normal, so we couldn't see the wall extend very far
but thats ok. To get down the mountain, we went to this slide place,
where you buy a ticket and ride this toboggan cart down a metal
track. That was awesome. You get going pretty fast and take some
sharp turns.

Friday evening I went to WorldLink for a trip to the Chaoyang
Theater for an acrobatics show. Thats in the city, about 30 of us
went. The show was amazing. You have seen Chinese acrobats here and
there. These guys were like that except x 10. I was just like, thats
impossible. So that was fun. After that 6 of us walked to a jazz
club, the original Jazz club in Beijing. Its a nice place, with
Italian food. We hung out there for a while, it was good music. I
heard some classics that I called, the people I was with were
impressed. We went home, I saw my friends on the street, went with
them to a Korean bar/restaurant, then went to an apartment and hung
out for a while.

I am getting used to being in China, when I was first here, 2
things would happen:
1. I would be doing something like watching a movie with my
roommates, or playing frisbee with mostly white people, and I would
forget that I was in China. I would then realize it and it was sort
of shocking, like oh yeah, I'm in Beijing.
2. I would have dreams where I was with people I know in the
U.S. and we would be doing something like going on a cruise or going
to a birthday party, and I would see someone I know, and they would
be like, I thought you were in China? And then I would realize that I
was supposed to be, and figured I had flown home for the weekend.
Then I would think, how am I getting back? I have no way of getting
back, I have class. Then my brain would slightly wake up and I would
realize that I am in China. Sort of like when you have a nightmare
and then realize that you are in fact still alive or something like
that.
So now that stuff doesn't happen any more.

Now today I have learned that I can get my cellphone fixed here,
and I will head to an electronics district to see if I can find a
good price.