Crazy Life

I bought a train ticket at the Shanghai station leaving tomorrow night (Tuesday Sept. 2nd) for Beijing. Unlike last time, which I have still not documented in the blog (but will soon, as I took notes on the experience in a moleskine), I will actually have a place to sleep this time, not just a hard plastic chair to sit on for 14 hours.

The Chinese train system is amazing though, to say the least. It always leads to an eventful experience that sticks in the mind forever.

The other day I spent four or five hours talking politics with two Chinese students around my age, a Chinese businessman, a road-worker, and a farmer. All walks of life end up on the trains, especially in the hard seat section.

Anyway, like I said, I am going to talk about that later. Maybe I already did write about it some....I can't remember clearly through the delirium of those few days.....


So here's what happened today as of 2:30pm:

I woke up at the semi-late hour of 10:30am and gave Brian from MRI Worldwide a text-message to see what time he wanted to meet up, just as he asked me to do yesterday. I sent the text, then proceeded to fall back a sleep for about thirty seconds before being woken by his nearly-instantaneous return text. He wanted to meet at 12:30pm at the Starbucks at Xintiandi 新天地, perhaps one of the nicest (if not the nicest) places in Shanghai.

No going back to sleep for me! I got up, ate a bowl of cereal, checked my email, and then listened to some music to try and ease my nerves prior to the interview.

Having brought absolutely nothing nice (as far as interviewing is concerned) to Shanghai, I had to borrow some dress-clothes from Daegan's roommate Christian, who is the man. Seriously, she lucked out having such a cool roommate.

At 12:00 I embarked for Xintiandi, arriving a few minutes early for the meeting. I ordered a drink for myself, then immediately regretted that, thinking it might have been rude to not wait on Brian before ordering. I considered finishing the drink really quickly and then pretending I never had one in the first place, but that seemed even more ridiculous.

So I just sat and waited.

Brian arrived exactly on time. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the meeting, but I will say that it was relaxed, and that it went quite well. Brian was a really cool guy, and he is going to set up a meeting for me with upper-management upon my return to Beijing in two days.

However, the Beijing and Shanghai debate is still waging on, for I don't know where I will be placed if a job is available.

Anyway, after Brian and I parted ways, I walked down Huangpi Street to the office where Daegan works, which happens to be only a few minutes from Xintiandi. Her office was really cool, and it was interesting to see the inside of a Chinese startup company building. So many different companies, mostly IT stuff, all getting something going....crazy stuff. I was mentioning to Daegan how nuts it is to think that Google started out in a place like that.


Now I am back in Xintiandi, and just spent too much money on a small cup of coffee at a coffeeshop. That's ok though because internet is free, and I'm going to milk it for a while here.....

Not too long though, because today is perhaps the prettiest day I have seen yet in China. I'm going to make sure I get out and see a bit more of Shanghai, and then tonight: more rock climbing! I can't wait.

Shanghai and Finally Some Sleep

Life has gotten confusing again, that is for sure....though not confusing in a bad way at all.

I'll lay it out as simply as I can....

About a week ago I agreed to pay a downpayment on an apartment at Dongzhimen in Beijing, as well as pay a full month's rent. On top of that, I am supposed to be paying another two months rent at the end of September, making for a total of three month's rent payed up in the next little bit, plus the initial downpayment.

However....I can honestly say now that I rushed into things and made a mistake. I'm not afraid to admit it. The apartment is pretty cool, and the two people that currently live there are nice as well. The thing is, I'm now thinking about moving to Shanghai, especially after a few opportunities opened up here. Yeah, it's kind of sudden, but I think that I might be a little Beijing'ed out for the moment. Anyway, the fact that I've put down that payment makes things really frustrating! I definitely should have waited until after the OMEGA deal was over and just stayed at a hostel (or a friend's) until I got my mind straight instead of just nervously rushing into an apartment deal.


That being said, I am really enjoying being in Shanghai. Maybe I just caught some really good weather, but something about the face that there is actually a breeze here instead of stagnant air just makes the entire city seem so much more...alive. On the same note, there are so many trees here! And rooftop gardens! I'm not trying to compare cities too much, but Beijing could use some more trees...to say the least.

Maybe it's just the fact that I am not having to work at the moment, or maybe it's because I have some cash on hand from the last month, thus allowing me to live life a little.

Anyway, my interview in Beijing went well the other day, except for the fact that the salary that I was offered (the initial 3 months with the company are a "training period" where there is a limit on the salary) was just enough to cover rent, but not nearly enough to provide for food and other such necessities for a month. However, tomorrow I am meeting with a guy who works for MRI Network here in Shanghai. I'm excited to meet him because I have heard only good things, plus he is an older guy from the US that has made things happen over here. I got in touch with him after a recommendation by my friend Pierre, an awesome guy whom I was working with all of August at the China Club.

I will definitely write more about Pierre at some point.

So yeah. This has been a quite "discombobulated" entry...but one that needs to be written.

Now the question remains.....Beijing? Or Shanghai? Any ideas?

Quick Sloth

Well, thanks to China blocking Godaddy.com for a few weeks I was unable to purchase a web domain that I really wanted, www.quicksloth.com. In the meantime, some other person snagged it and is already building a site.....

Damn!

I went ahead and took hold of www.thequicksloth.com.... I'll just have to make sure that my site is the dominant force.

More sleep deprivation....

I am crashing at my friend Gilbert's apartment. Last night I only got about 3 hours of sleep...and it looks to be the same tonight as well. Woohoo!

Hopping on a train to Shanghai in the morning!

One more thing....

Has anyone else besides me noticed that my Google Adsense block on the right side of the page continually displays a link for a very sketchy 24-hour massage service in Beijing?

Pretty funny haha.

Goodnight

Lack of Sleep

It's 4:20AM, and I can't sleep.

Maybe it's just the coffee I had earlier, but I think it's actually a slight attack of the nerves.... tomorrow I have an interview with Fleishman-Hillard, which should be interesting, and I am moving out of the apartment that I have been staying in for the last month. Gilbert has agreed to let me stay at his place afterall, which is really convenient, because otherwise I would be hopping around from hostel to hostel for the next week.

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Writing is amazing. It always seems to calm me down some. I am really just rambling about nothing at this point, but it still makes me feel better about everything and settles my nerves.

Hopefully I will be able to get some sleep after this.

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I've only been gone one month so far, but it feels like a lifetime. Oftentimes I feel bad that I have moved so far away for the time being because I miss so many important events in my friends and family's lives.

Reid and Jon just moved into their new place downtown, for example, and I wish I could have been there to celebrate with them. It sounds really cool from what I have heard.

Another example is that we just sold our lake place, and I wasn't there to help out with the move at all.

Those are just a few examples, of course....but I guess what I worry about is people back home thinking that I don't want to be near them or have anything to do with them, or that I don't miss them....that's not the case at all.

I guess that is just one of the negative points of being so far away....you feel utterly helpless when it comes to friends and family who are not in your direct vicinity.

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Anyway, forgive this post, for it is kind of a downer.

I'll write again as soon as possible, perhaps after my interview tomorrow. Wish me luck!

晚安!

Motorbike Fun in the Rain

Today was interesting for many reasons:

First of all, I got payed for my month of work with OMEGA, which brought forth great feelings of success and accomplishment.

Second of all, I put down a down payment and payed for a month's rent at an apartment on Dongzhimen Inner Street 东直门内路, which is the two level apartment that I believe I have written about once before. Coco, the girl who is renting the room, agreed to drop the price by about 5oo RMB each month, so I went for it.

The place is really nice, and honestly quite Chinese (which should be an experience, to say the least...). I will post some pictures of it once I move in.

However, the newest problem in my life is that I cannot move into the place until September 2nd, so I have to find a place to stay until then. I suppose I may just live in a hostel until I can figure out a place. My friend Gilbert has also offered me his apartment for a few days, but I cannot currently get in touch with him.

Third interesting thing: tonight was the goodbye dinner for our China Club Residence OMEGA team. We ate at Liqun Beijing Roast Duck Restaurant, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. I highly suggest it to anyone who's passing through Beijing.

The goodbyes were sad, but I know most of the team is excited to get home and have a breather away from the crazyness of the Olympics, which I completely understand. I will try to keep in touch with the team as best as I can, and they are definitely nice contacts to know for the future if I am ever in Europe, etc.

As we said goodbye on the street, it began to rain. Not a gloomy rain, but more of a refreshing rain.

While looking desperately for taxis, a random motorbike-car pulled up to our group and offered to take one or two of us where we needed to go. My hotel was only about 5 minutes away, so I was volunteered to take the bike. I hopped on and we sped off into the rain, leaving the team behind to head to the subway.

On the way through the pouring rain, the biker weaved in and out of slow-moving traffic, which was a blast (though I thought I would slide off the seat and into the road at any moment). We were having a brief conversation about where I was from, how he liked Beijing compared to his hometown around Shandong, etc, when suddenly he asked me if I would like to have a girl sent to my room at the hotel later.

"Cheap! Cheap!" He exclaimed in Chinese.

"No, that's ok." I said, trying to not sound too surprised.

"Why, do you have a girlfriend?" He asked curiously as though that would be the only reason to not hire someone's services....

"I'm just not really interested, thanks." I responded.

"Ok, well just let me know..."

And that was the end of our conversation.

By the time the bike arrived at the hotel, we were both soaked. I payed the driver, and then he tried to give me his number in case I changed my mind about the girl.

"That's ok." I said. "Maybe next time..." trying not to sound to weird about the situation.

"Ok Ok! See you!" He said before speeding off into the rain.

Fun times on the back of a motorbike. You never know what to expect!

I can't believe it's over...

Well, that's it! The 2008 Beijing Olympics are over!

Of course, they will live on in the hearts of many for years to come.

The closing ceremony was intense, though I must say that I wish I had been able to attend the opening instead. Oh well! The tower of humans was most definitely one of the most amazing spectacles I have ever witnessed. My favorite part by far was when the performers turned into blooming flowers along the edge of the tower, opening and closing rapidly.

All of the Chinese in attendance at the event were emotional, though I did not see as many crying as during the opening ceremony.

Tonight, August 25/26th, was the fairwell party for OMEGA staff at the China Club. It was the first time that I was actually a guest of the club instead of part of the team running an event, so that was an interesting experience.

There was drinking, dancing, speaches, photographs being taken....all of that. I took a lot of photos with some of the hostess girls who work at the club because it is probably the last time that I will see most of them. Four girls asked me out of the club for a minute to take photos with them because they said they had never taken photos with a laowai before. I felt like a celebrity or something around them.

Anyway, the party was a lot of fun, and it is now 4:45am. I am going to bed. I have some climbing to do in the morning, as well as some job hunting and apartment securing.

All the best!

Closing Ceremony

I just found out that I am going to be able to go to the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics tomorrow! Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure that it will not be as spectacular as the Opening, but hey, who's complaining?

Bird's Nest, here I come!

Michael Phelps

I forgot to write about the fact that Michael Phelps came to the China Club two days ago! He seemed a little stressed out, which is understandable, for he had people covering him from every angle trying to take pictures of him and get his autograph. In fact, he was so surrounded at one point that after dinner he and his crew snuck out the back of the facility so that he would not be further bothered by all of his fans.

Pretty impressive guy though....all those medals!

Last night was "A James Bond Touch: A night with Caterina Murino". Caterina seemed a lot more chill than Michael....plus she was beautiful.

The night of Phelps was by far our busiest night, and I spent a good hour and a half straight finding taxis for people at one point.

Afterwards, most of our staff, including myself, went to join a bunch of other people out at Susie Wong's, an expat/tourist club. I've been there a few times, but never really been that impressed. It's nice to hang out with friends though, regardless of the location!

I ended out staying out until about 6:30, and didn't get to sleep until 7am.

It was raining that morning as the sun rose, casting a beautiful fog on the city as shops began to open and the world came alive. I was lucky to get to see such an interesting side of Beijing.

I'm still catching up on the missed sleep though.

Breaking the Key

Yesterday, August 21st, I went on an adventure to Ghost Street 鬼街, a famous restaurant street, at Dongzhimen 东直门 to take a look at an apartment that is up for rent.

A very nice Chinese girl named Coco (short for Corinne, apparently) met me at the Dongzhimen subway stop and accompanied me to the apartment complex, which is only a four or five minute walk from the station. Convenience! Nice!

Anyway, we walked into the apartment complex through the front entrace that touches Ghost Street. The entire area consisted of a few different buildings surrounding a tree-filled, semi-lush courtyard, which is a rare find in many parts of Beijing. The buildings were old, and honestly a little more run-down than I was looking for, but I figured that I would give it a shot anyway because Coco had taken so much time out of her day to come and meet me.

Coco announced to me that the apartment I was going to see was actually not the apartment that I had seen on her advertisement, but actually a similar one that had three rooms for rent. She did not live there, but in fact lived in the building next door. Anyway, the apartment was the exact same layout as the one in the advertisement, so there was no problem.

We walked into the building, up six flights of stairs, and finally arrived at the door of the apartment.

It was pretty nice, though not quite nice enough for the price that was being offered, I think. The room that interested me composed the second floor of the apartment, but the bed was only a large sofa-style pullout bed. The current residents are a Columbian girl, a Chinese Girl, and an American guy, and since they were not there at the time, I am unsure as to whether or not I would like to live with them, etc.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the fun part of this tale occurred when we were leaving the apartment.

Coco accompanied me out the door, and I began to make my way down the stairs. After I few seconds I did not hear her following me, so I turned around and noticed her struggling with the key to the door.

"I just had a copy of their key made yesterday...." She began. "It doesn't seem to be a very good copy....I can't get the door to lock! Can you try?"

"No problem" I said, coming back up the stairs and taking the key from her.

I pulled it out of the lock, looked at it, then put it back in the lock and began to turn slowly.

I thought that the key turning in the lock was actually the lock coming unlocked, but actually it was the cheap metal twisting and bending upon itself.

"Snap!" I smiled, for clearly I had defeated the lock. But no, once again, just as in the case of the toe-nail clippers, the metal broke clean in half, leaving the front section of the ket stuck inside the lock of an apartment that I did not even live in.

Fantastic! None of the people who lived there were home, and now their door would be unlocked all day! I felt pretty bad that my clumsy self broke the key off in the lock, but in the end it was not my fault.


Chinese metal products defeated me once again!

Finding a Home

My time with OMEGA is running short.

I can't believe it! Only five days until I was originally scheduled to fly home.... it seems like only yesterday I was sitting on a plane pulling into the Beijing airport.

Recently I have been stressed out. My apartment is only payed for for the next four days, so I've been running around town looking at different apartments....trying to find a decent place to live.

Today I found out just how dependent I am on coffee. I usually have a cup in the morning, and then another in the afternoon at some point. However, today I woke up late and had no time to grab a cup whilst running out the door, nor did I get a cup at work. Come dinner, I was extremely grumpy, tired, and unable to focus on anything. Realizing that it was because of lack of caffeine, I've been trying to decide whether or not I should give up coffee altogether so that I have no dependencies. For now however, I will simply continue to have a cup in the morning.

Ok, so I have a story to tell about my recent housing adventures...but I'm going to write a seperate post for it.

Stick around, it's gonna be a blast.

Dear Family and Friends

It's nearly 3am, and I'm quite tired.

I got off of work at around 1am after finding some taxis for a group of Spanish guests eating a late, late dinner, and now I am getting ready for bed after searching the internet for apartments (I only have seven more days to find one!!!!).

Just before I left work at the China Club, some of the bartenders treated me to an enormous flaming B-52, which was a delicious little treat before heading home. However, the drink capped off the long night and gave me a case of the yawns, which has since spread into a case of drooping eyelids......

Anyway, this post is going to be extremely short. I really just wanted to tell everyone, my family and friends, that I miss you all very much.

Skype and other such technologies make communication easier, but more often than not (as Derek Leslie just commented an hour or so ago....) I end up "sounding like Lord Vader", or something whenever the call goes through. Other times the calls are clear as crystal. Regardless, the time difference, as well as the crazy hours I have been working, makes communication difficult in general.

That being said, thanks to everyone who has read my blog so far. It really means a lot to me to know that others are reading what I have written, and supporting my travels and adventures in China.

I hope that I can repay the favor to you all one day!

Ok. I'm going to go pass out face-down on my concrete-slab bed. I miss everyone, and I'll be thinking of you!

Much Love,
Ben

Wu Zi Qi 五子棋

Finally, after a few years of seeing the game randomly from time to time, I have learned to play Wu Zi Qi (五子棋) thanks to a few Chinese friends at a local bar.

Wu Zi Qi is that classic game involving black and white round pieces on a board (or sheet) of lines, where the first person to get five of their pieces in a line (vertical, horizontal, diagonal) wins. The object is to defend and block against the other person while simultaneously setting yourself up to get your pieces in a row.

Yeah, it sounds like Connect Four, but it involves a whole lot more thinking and strategy.

Maybe I can set up some sort of online version on my blog for people to play.....

Famous People

It's not everyday that you find yourself in an Olympic Basketball Stadium (Wukesong Stadium) sitting five or six seats down from Cindy Crawford and simultaneously watching LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, Carlos Boozer, Tayshaun Prince, Dwayne Wade, Michael Redd and Deron Williams ball out on the court.

Of course, the ever-terrible, devilish, rat-looking Coach Krzyzewski of Duke University was there as well, but no situation is perfect right? (GO HEELS!)

It's only a matter of time until Roy coaches the Olympic team, I'm sure.

Anyway, I arrived at work on August 11th to find out that I had received a ticket for the August 12th USA Men's Basketball vs. Angola game. I was ecstatic! I expected to go to an Olympic event, but in all honestly I was 100% convinced that I would not be able to make it to any of the USA Basketball games. I figured that I would end up at Badminton, or shooting or something, but not Basketball.

My co-workers Ludo and Aurelie also received tickets, so we hitched a ride with one of the company vans and arrived at Wukesong Stadium just in time for the beginning of the game.

Wukesong is huge! Not only that, but the lighting on the building is fantastic! Every ten or twenty seconds, the entire building changes from Red, to Yellow, then to Blue, and all sorts of other colors. Security was semi-tight, with two waves of bag checks at different points. After that though, it was just like going to any other basketball game.

Oh wait, I must add that the beer was extremely cheap as far as important sporting event venue pricing goes: one good-sized cup of Yanjing was only 5 kuai, which is less than 1 USD. Ludo and I had a pretty constant feed of the stuff coming our way, which made the event that much better!

About five minutes or so after sitting down with our first cups of beer, I noticed Sasha, OMEGA's major VIP-PR agent, looking for her seat. Almost any other time that I have seen Sasha she has been in the presence of one celebrity or another, so I immediately began scanning the nearby crowd for famous faces.

Sure enough, about ten seconds later I spotted Cindy Crawford sitting closeby. I must admit, she still is still pretty striking.

Anyway, trying to be as professional as possible in the presence of my co-workers (we were surrounded by other OMEGA staff), I kept my eyes on the game. This was not a difficult feat, for the court was full of the NBA's biggest stars.

Speaking of which, I must say that while MVP Kobe Bryant is impressive, no player is more interesting to watch than LeBron.

I known very little about basketball, but there is something about LeBron that simply sets him apart from all of the other players. It's not just his scoring or his amazing skills, but something in the way that he watches everyone move on the court, waiting to strike like a lion in tall grass awaiting a wandering gazelle.

Alright, I'm going to stop that cheesy rambling before it gets out of control.....just know that LeBron is awesome, that is all that's important.

Go USA!

Even Bluer Skies in Beijing

It is now August 15th, and the weather could not be better. Seriously, for all I know, this may easily be the prettiest day that the people of Beijing have seen in the last decade or so. The sky is a deep, deep blue, and whispy white clouds are floating around aimlessly. The sun is out and shining brightly, but the weather is actually farely cool for this time of year (comparatively speaking). Everyone seems a little more upbeat to me today, but perhaps it's just the fact that I actually got more than four or five hours of sleep last night.

How is August halfway over? I keep asking myself that everytime that I glance at my watch to check the time. The Olympics are flying by, and I have the feeling that my job with OMEGA will be over before I know it.

Speaking of jobs, I've recently been asked to interview for two English Teaching positions around Beijing, both at small international schools. I will most likely go to the interviews, but I don't know if I would take either of the jobs because they really don't pay that well.

We shall see, I suppose. I think that I would make a great English teacher, and I definitely like interacting with people. However, part of me feels the urge to seek out a more "professional" position around town somewhere to gain what everyone considers "valuable work experience", whatever that means.

Anyway, next post is going to be a catch-up post about the last few days, including USA Basketball and Cindy Crawford. Stay tuned!

Lack of Quality Control, or Iron Toenails?

So, as much as I like China, there are certain aspects of the country (just as there are in any country) that could use revision. One such example is the quality of everyday useful goods.

I'll give you an example:

Yesterday I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, putting in my contacts, etc., when I decided that it was time that I clipped my toenails. (Yeah I know that's gross, but I'm gonna write about it anyway).

So there I was, my right foot on the ground, left foot up on the counter, doing a crazy quasi-Olympic-gyminst maneuver to find the best position in which to clip my nails.

Once in position, I picked up my toenail clipper and placed the clipping side over the edge of the toenail on my big toe (I don't know about you, but I always start with the big toe and work down the line). Having found the best clipping angle, I applied pressure to the lever on the clipper, lightly at first, but steadily increasing until I heard a loud SNAP! from down near my toe.

Expecting to have to search the surrounding area for the missing piece of toenail shrapnel, I removed the clipper from my toe and placed it down on the counter.

Much to my surprise, upon placing the clipper on the counter, the entire lever on the topside fell off, having snapped clean off at the base.

"Damn!" I thought to myself. "That's my only clipper.......where is this thing from anyway?"

I turned it over, and written in all capital letters was the word: "CHINA".

Not "Made in China", but just "China".

I couldn't help but laugh out loud as I held the broken clipper in my hand.

Yeah, that's the way it went down alright.


*This is just one example of many such incidents. Unless I just happen to have extremely strong toenails, it seems to me that the production of many of China's basic products could use an improved system of quality control.

A Day Off

Today is my day off! Awesome! It's nice to have been able to sleep in and get up without the pressure of work looming in the background.

As much as I want to run around and see things today, I think I may keep things low-key and just watch some of the Olympics on TV. In fact, I had Men's Gymnastics on for a while before writing this. China definitely dominated, but I must say that the US and Japan did great as well.

Speaking of the Olympics.... (and when am I not?).... I got a ticket for the USA Men's Basketball Game today at 8pm! I'm extremely excited! USA Vs. Angola, I believe. I don't know much about Angola....but I have the strong feeling that they have little chance of beating our US guys.

The game is at 8pm, so I should probably leave this area sometime pretty early to make sure that I get to the event at a decent time.

Anyway, that is going to be really cool.

China just took home the gold in Men's Team Gymnastics as I type this...exciting for them for sure!

Misty and the Economist

Today's weather is strange, making one wonder whether or not the Chinese government is preventing rain or not for real during the Olympics.

The air is wet....humid as all get out, yet there has been no rain. It should be raining....yet nothing is falling from the sky. Crazy technology eh?

I was going to go rock-climbing today, but decided to give myself one more day's rest before mounting the wall again. Instead, I'm sitting in a cafe translating a Chinese Economist article about the use of stun-guns over the past ten years. The website I use for the Chinese Economist is really interesting: it's a database of actual Economist articles in English that Chinese students have translated into Chinese. Therefore, each article may have two or three translations, so one can compare and contrast them against one another.

Since I'm using the website to learn, I am therefore translating the articles back into English while reading through them. It takes a while, but I am learning some good vocabulary and grammar along the way.

There's a link to it on my homepage, but here is is incase anyone wants to see it:

www.ecocn.org

Enjoy!

Beijing is Here

Finally, after the intense hustling and bustling of the last few years, the 2008 Beijing Olympics have begun. The people of China could not be more excited, nor could they be more emotional.

At work I was able to watch the majority of the opening ceremony with a large group of OMEGA staff and some of our co-workers at the residence.

For anyone who did not get the chance to see the ceremony, I highly suggest that you find it on youtube or something and check it out, because it was an amazing performance. I think that my personal favorite was the dove in the center of the bird's nest stadium made of hundreds of people wearing neon suits with glowlights on them.

I said that many of the Chinese were emotional.....

Sitting beside my co-worker Bonnie Wang during the opening ceremony, I turned to her to say something about one of the performances and saw tears just streaming down her face. She started "laugh-crying", which made even more tears come, and, speaking chinese, she continually remarked about how wonderful the entire display was.

Most of the Chinese at the residence were quiet during the event, watching intently and making quick comments about the entrances of different countries from time to time. The Europeans, however, were a little more boisterous, and one time during the raising of the Olympic flag I actually had to tell some of them to be quiet because the Chinese around us were looking at them as though they were being quite rude.

As each country presented itself, cheers went up from within our crowd depending on different people's nationalities. There were many French, a few Italian and Spanish, British, and of course, Swiss. My friend, Diana, is Ecuadorian, so she was excited to see Ecuador.

I was the sole American in the residence, but I recruited a few people to clap and cheer along with me during the US' procession. However, our cheering turned to "booooos" (jokingly) when President Bush popped up on screen, for he is not exactly the face that anyone wants representing our country at such an important international event as the Olympics. He does not necessarily represent sentiments of international peace....

Anyway, I don't want to get into politics.

At this point, I should just say that I am extremely excited to be here for the 2008 Olympics....it's truly one of the most important gatherings of international representatives, and I am lucky to be right at the heart of it.

Given the amount of problems that still exist in the world, it is nice to know that we can all still come together peacefully for sporting competition.

Let the games begin!

The Olympics Have Begun!

I just got in from a night out on the town..... it's 5:30am, and the mist in the sky is already refracting light from the sun, lighting up the city.

The past evening was a crazy combination of work and play...but unfortunately I don't have the energy to write about it yet.

That's what tomorrow is for!

Goodnight Beijing, and everyone else out there....

Porridge

Is that how you spell porridge?

Anyway, it's called "zhou" (first tone) in Chinese, and it is now what I am being served for breakfast every morning. It's not bad, but comes with a bag of veggies that I for some reason keep dumping into it, thus giving it a strange taste.

Anyway, porridge aside...today is opening ceremony day for the Olympics!!!!

...and I'm working till 1am! Woohoo!

I may still try to go out and meet up with some people later tonight, depending on how I feel after work....but it's going to be pretty flippin' late.

Work doesn't start for me until 5pm today, so that leaves me a good 5 hours still to go do things....... like Rock Climbing! Yeah!

Happy Chinese Valentines Day!

Yep! It's Chinese Valentines Day!

中国情人节快乐！

Continuation....

So to continue that story from the other day....

Basically I spent a few hours in Gilbert's apartment, learning all sorts of new Chinese phrases and looking at stuff on the internet with him.

Then we were talking about music, and I found out that he had a guitar that he hadn't used in years in his closet. He offered to let me borrow it as long as I promised to return it, which has been awesome because it is a real stress reliever to have the guitar around. It's kind of crappy, but that's ok...it's still a guitar!

Anyway, after hanging out in his apartment and drinking tea for a while, Gilbert and I went to a local outside bar near his school where lots of students gather after class, etc.

To make a long story short, I ended up speaking Chinese, Spanish, and English for about half an hour on and off with some people, before ending the evening with a two-hour, beer-driven lecture by a Chinese economics professor who sat down with us. A lot of the words he used I did not understand, for they were huge economics words, etc, but overall I understood the majority of the conversation.

The entire situation was quite otherworldly, but really made me remember why I love languages so much, especially when we spoke some sentences that combined three languages.

Well, that's the story really. I guess I cut it short...there are lots of little details in there....but at this point it's important just to know that the day really made me feel good, and was a nice break from the work I've been doing at the Residence.

Being at the Foreign Language University made me think that I should most definitely go to Grad school at some point....I just don't know where.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Falling is Awesome

Yes, Maddy, I did find a rock climbing place. However, it was not the one that I originally set out to find!

It just so happens that there is a park semi-close to where I live called Ri Tan Gong Yuan (Ri Tan Park) that has a huge outdoor climbing wall. It costs about 40 Kuai a trip, which is not too bad honestly. However, you can buy a year-long pass that saves a lot of money, so I may do that soon if I get a real job somewhere haha.

The wall is sweet though. There is a full climbing wall (huge), and also a pretty good sized bouldering area. Under the bouldering area is a soft cushy crash pad (also huge), and honestly it makes falling a lot of fun. I fell a good twenty or twenty-five feet yesterday, and it was awesome.

Anyway, I will continue my last story in a little while! Hooray rock-climbing wall!

Time of My Life

Today was easily one of the best days of my life...I can say that without much of a second thought.

It's hard to explain, I guess, but it was just one of those days. I woke up early, ate breakfast, and set out on an adventure to find a climbing wall as noted earlier.

Well, in order to get to the climbing wall that I was attempted to find, I had to take the subway to the Xizhimen stop, which happens to be about a ten minute walk from CET, which is the school that I was at last summer.

Upon arrival at Xizhimen I thought "Eh, what the heck. I'll go see what's happening at CET."

So I walked down the street a bit, noticing that things had already changed a good bit since last summer. New overpasses existed over the highway, and new shops seemed to have sprung up everywhere, replacing old ones. It's amazing how quickly Beijing changes.

The area seemed cleaner in general as well, though still not amazingly clean by any means.

Anyway, I ran into a laowai walking in the opposite direction and supposed that she was a student at CET.

Me: "Do you study at CET?"
Her: "No, just visiting a friend....but I can tell you how to get there if you want."
Me: "Oh, no worries, I know how to get there....I studied there last summer...."

We continued on for a minute before parting ways.

I reached the street that CET backs up to and was shocked to see that most of the tiny restaurants there have been replaced by clothing stores and other such shops. The little beverage store directly beside the main gate of the school has been replaced by a t-shirt shop or something, which was a little sad because there used to be a fun little child who played around with the old owners.

Anyway, I walked into CET and made my way up to the main office, assuming that most students and teachers were still in class (it was right around 12 noon). Zuocui, a funny girl who worked in the office last summer was still there, though it seems she has moved up from secretary to some other position higher on the totem pole.

She told me that most everyone was in class, but that I could wait for my old teachers in the other building across the tiny campus.

So I did. I waited, and I wrote a bit in my moleskine notebook while sitting on the steps of the facility.

Finally, after about half and hour, I ran into my old teacher, Lin Laoshi, as well as Zhang Laoshi, and had a good conversation with the two of them. Then, extremely randomly, I ran into a fellow student, Sonya, from last summer who was back at CET studying once again. We talked for a bit and promised to meet up at a later point, and then I took off for lunch at the Jiaozi Fanguanr (dumpling restaurant) right around the corner from the school.

Lunch was good: 12 big pork filled dumplings and a plate of spicy beans similar to Gan Bian Siji Dou (my favorite dish), but not quite the same (they were fried almost). I washed it all down with a big bottle of Tsingtao.

Anyway, after that I gave my friend Gilbert, who previously worked at the OMEGA residence, a call to see what he was up to since I had some time off.

As it turns out, he lives quite close to Xizhimen, so I hopped in a cab and made my way to the Beijing Waiguo Yu Daxue (Beijing Foreign Language University) where he has an apartment..............

Ok. Honestly I'm really tired from today, and think I may just pass out for now.... continue writing tomorrow. The story will go on I promise!

Climbing Beijing

Today will be a good day, I can feel it.

I have the day off from work, so I am going to use this time to my advantage to find somewhere to boulder and climb. From the sound of it, the closest place may be at the Beijing School of Geological Sciences, or possibly at another wall pretty far outside the city. Either way, I will track something down. The Metro runs almost everywhere, so that should definitely help.

I'll write more later if I'm met with success.

Wish me luck.

Killers and Walnuts

Alright. It's that time again.

The last two days have been interesting. As far as the job goes, there has been little action at the residence. Because the Olympics have yet to start, the flow of guests, both foreign and Chinese, has been a slow trickle.

However, this has given me a valuable chance to get to know a lot of the staff and speak lots of Chinese. In fact, I feel like I spoke Chinese for about 8 hours straight yesterday while standing around the front of the facility.

Two of the girls who are always in the front, Ru Yun and her friend (whose name has just escaped my memory) are a lot of fun....they are always playing pranks on each other, telling me stories, etc. Yesterday afternoon at around 4:30 they discovered that the tree in the middle of the parking lot of the front courtyard was full of walnuts, so they had some of the maintenence staff jump up on a wall and knock down some of the nuts. Ru Yun was somehow able to magically open them with her teeth, cracking them in half with a quick chomp. They handed me some of the walnut meat, which was only about half ripe and softer than I'm used to eating in the US. They were tasty though.

Throughout the day they collected more walnuts, and gave me two to take home.

I may go get one right now actually.

Ok, I just cracked it open.

Anyway, the craziest part of yesterday, August 3rd, was when I had a conversation with that guy I was talking about the other day, the large, extremely serious, mafia-esque guy with the square head and huge, bone-crushing hands.

It turns out that he is not one of the owners, but the head of security of the Chinese staff there. That explains the intimidation.

(walnut is a little sour, honestly)

For a ten or fifteen minute period yesterday evening he stood within a few feet of me and just stared at me, as though he were testing me or judging me or something. After a few minutes, I saw his mouth move, but in perfect mafia-like form his voice was nearly inaudible unless I was directly beside him. So I leaned in and asked him to say it again:

in Chinese:

Him: "Which country are you from?"
Me: "America"
Him: "America? The American Basketball team and Chinese team face each other in the Olympics. The Chinese will win."
Me: "How do you know?"
Him: "America does not know how to play international basketball, Chinese do."
Me: "Well, we will see.
Him: "Why are you sweating so much?"
Me: "I'm foreign....and I'm not used to the humidity here."
Him: But I am wearing a full suit, and I do not sweat."
Me: "Yeah....I guess it just feels really hot here to me."

We continued on like that for a while, me sweating and him wondering why, and then he started to ask me how I knew Chinese. After talking about that some, he noticed my OMEGA Seamaster and said:

Him: "I like your watch."
Me: "Thank you, it was a gift from my father."

Pulling up his sleaves and revealing his thick wrists, he said:

Him: "I don't wear a watch"
Me: (pointing to his head) "You keep your time in there?"

He let out a scary bad-guy laugh.

We talked for a few more minutes, and then I asked him how long he had been working at the Residence. He took his two pointer fingers and crossed them in the air, which makes the Chinese character "Shi", meaning ten.

Me: "Ten years? Wow, that's impressive."
Him: "Yes, I've been here a while."
Me: "What did you do before working here?"

He then held up his right hand and formed it into the shape of a pistol, and then made the motion of pulling a trigger.

Enough said.

Food Times

Food, as it usually is, has been an interesting aspect of this journey so far.

The last time I was in China, I ate Chinese food for nearly every meal. For some reason I expected to be eating Chinese food for the majority of meals on this trip as well, but so far that has not been the case.

Twice I've been labeled "Food Boy", and had to run out and get food for the Euro staff. Generally speaking, people only want food items like sandwiches, salads, wraps, etc, which is fine by me, but the thing is they are quite hard to find sometimes in the middle of Beijing, especially because the Residence is not located in a silly ex-patriot area.

For that reason, the nearest place that has any sort of Western food has been a small Starbucks stand in a shopping mall outside the back door of the residence. I've been there a few times now searching for western food to please the staff, and once completely cleaned out the Starbucks of all wraps and sandwiches because we had so many people eating.

The thing is, no one can survive on a tiny little wrap from Starbucks. I mean the miniscule little things fuel me for half and hour, or an hour, tops. The last two days we have been eating them at around 1:00pm or 2:00pm, then eating again at 8:00pm or 9:00pm.

Maybe this is just the crazy, on-the-go business people lifestyle, I don't know.

Last night, for example, the staff wanted some sandwiches, but the Starbucks had none left because we ate a bunch of them at lunch and other people finished them off throughout the day. Therefore, I went to a UBC Coffee Shop and Restaurant, the next closest semi-Westernized place near the residence, at 10:00pm and ordered some sandwiches.

By the time they were ready thirty-minutes later, I, along with everyone else, was starving. Luckily the sandwiches (which strongly resembled the pickle-tomatoe-mystery meat-cheese sandwich I get every morning for breakfast) were tasty and came boxed with soggy french-fries and slices of cheese strewn about on top.

Delicious, and nutricious.

I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. I'll literally eat anything that this world can throw at me. However, I do strongly feel that because we are currently living and working in China, we should be eating Chinese food, especially because it is extremely filling and provides a good amount of energy for the work day.

I suppose people are worried about getting sick, etc, and messing up their work schedule, which I definitely understand.

Why don't I personally go out and get Chinese food, you may ask? Well, for one thing, the Western food gets taken care of by the company. If they are providing it, I am definitely going to eat it. However, I have been getting out a bit on my own when there is time, and it seems from now on I will be eating lunch on my own since my shift starts in the afternoon, so that's cool.

Aside from some Chinese fast-food meals and on the go stuff, I still have yet to actually have a nice family-style sit down meal here on this trip. Some Beijing kaoya (roast duck) would be nice about now.

Those little quackers are expensive though.

"Hollywood Scary Foreign Bad-Guy English"

Today, for the first time since I arrived four or five days ago, the sky is blue. It's beautiful out, though quite hot. I must say that I am pleased to be able to see more than a quarter of a mile down the street without my vision being blocked by an ominous gray or tan haze.

Yeah, everyone (including myself) claimed that the pollution would be better before the Olympics, but so far it certainly seems worse than last year.

Until today, that is. Maybe the government just cut the power to all the factories surrounding the city? I will have to do some research and return to that point at a later date.

For now, I will simply enjoy the sunshine as much as I can, which will most likely be a lot since my job involves a lot of standing and walking around outside and in open courtyards.

I'll focus on my job now:

So far I have done very little work as transportation manager, but I think that is about to change because I just received a packet of information from OMEGA with details about the different cars at our disposal, etc.

What I have done, which honestly was extremely interesting and fun, was stand at the front entrance of the residence as security (basically a nicely dressed bouncer), checking people's passes and letting them into the facility. I hope I get to continue with that job from time to time, because whenever there is a break in people I spend time talking to the hostesses and other Chinese standing at the front entrance. Not only is that good practice for my language, but it also allows me to get a better glimpse of the culture.

Most of the hostesses and staff are from provinces outside of Beijing, with the majority coming from Henan province as far as I can tell so far. Henan is known for it's beautiful women/girls, so I suppose that is exciting for all of the Laowai guests at the residence.

The actual managers of the China Club are a mix of intimidating and humorous.... I don't really know how I came to feel that way, but that is the general feeling I get when around them. Writing an earlier entry, I said that the club is owned by someone outside of Beijing. Well, there is a couple, originally from Hong Kong, who manages every aspect of the facility and arranges from interaction with companies that want to use it as a venue, like OMEGA.

Anyway, they are both stern, serious people, especially the Mafia-esque husband who speaks what I will call "Hollywood Scary Foreign Bad-Guy English". A thick-set, square-jawed man, he walks around the facility surveying everything with his arms crossed, dressed in a black pin-striped suit. From time to time as he is walking by me he will let out a short quip in English and then walk away before I even have time to respond.

His wife, Kay, is similar: all business, little play. Her office is two stories below the residence in the dark, gloomy, and all-too spooky basement that for very much reminded me of the setting of the original Half-Life. I spent about half an hour moving boxes for her, navigating through the maze of dreary halls and fearing the many creatures that lurked around every corner. Where's Gordan Freeman when you need him?

Anyway, overall they are very nice people, just a little serious that's all.

My day was long yesterday, lasting from 9:30am until about 12:30am the next morning. Today's not bad at all however, with work starting at 4:00pm and ending at midnight.

A good portion of my free-time today will be taken up with a trip to the OMEGA office at the Peninsula Hotel, on Jinyu (Goldfish) Avenue, to pick up two extra polo shirts that I did not originally receive.

Oh yeah, I should talk about my uniform!

It's pretty simply honestly. Tailor-made beige pants with a white and red OMEGA polo shirt during the day, and black pants with black dress shirt during the evenings. Because we have to change outfits in the middle of shifts, the front office of the residence is a madhouse full of everyone's clothing strewn about everywhere.

I'm not going to lie: I like the black on black much more than the polo and trousers, but wearing black during the day would be body-temperature suicide.

There's more to say about my first day yesterday, but I am going to write a seperate post for it.

Oh yeah, my French is getting better because I'm surrounded by it a lot. I've started greeting people in French some.

Languages are fun.