Beijing: Up & down but then back up again: crown relocations, coffee-like substance, POTO
Today I found it a little hard to wake up .... so I decided to ride my bike to uni given that it was already 7.25am and it was too late to catch the light rail. Fortunately it wasn't too cold - there also wasn't too much traffic so I made it to class in 10 minutes which is pretty good!!!
Admin
Since I got there early, I went to the student office to ask them to put a chop on the letter that Crown Relocations had prepared for me. Once I get that, then hopefully customs will release my belongings. Basically the letter says - I'm a six month student but if I meet all the requirements for next semester, I can re-enrol for another six months. Crown had already phoned the student's office several times and had been told it was fine, they would chop the letter. Unluckily for me, when I arrived, the only two people manning the desk were Mr Grumpy Glasses and Mr Grumpy Turtleneck. Both flatly refused to chop the letter. They said: "How can we chop this? You haven't enrolled for a second semester."
This was quite a shock for me because I had been so excited all week about finally getting my furniture and my BOOKS!!!..... I called Cynthia from Crown and she tried her best to negotiate with Grumpy Turtleneck. He continued to refuse and said they would only chop that document NEXT SEMESTER when I had already enrolled for a second semester and paid my fees. She argued in vain. I was very upset - visibly so but Cynthia said don't worry, she would try to think of a way to solve the problem.
I went to class, upset but knowing there was nothing I could do about it. Bad Karma to Grumpy Turtleneck!!! I've never liked him - hence his nickname. He just has a really awful, abrupt attitude. Why they put him behind the service desk of the uni is beyond me. Apparently he's a teacher - maybe it's a punishment for being a bad teacher .....
He just seems to spend his whole time surfing the net and making my life hell. May his tofu always disintegrate when he tries to pick it up :P Dad - how do you say that in Chinese???? :)
Conversation Class
Class was good though. The first class was conversation class and the Korean guy with the baseball cap was giving a speech which was a brief introduction to general things of interest about Korea. Unfortunately, he had written the entire speech down - new words and all - so read it out in a very comical, wooden way which was hard to understand. It was a good talk though and made us laugh a lot. In the end it generated a lot of questions. Our conversation teacher is really nice and very patient with us. When people make mistakes, he corrects them but explains how they should say it etc.
Zhang Suan Shou and Se Hyun, the 2 Korean boys I saw on the weekend were noticeably different today. Very friendly and chatty - in Chinese not English. I was also talking to the Japanese student a little bit and Lin Yi Shu seemed to get jealous (????). I have no idea why she thinks I belong to her .... She accused me of only wanting to talk to boys. I didn't want to say that it was because she never lets me talk to the girls on our side of the classroom - always interrupts! I've given up trying to talk to the nice Indonesian girls during breaks.
Zong He Class
Then it was zong he (comprehension) class and the bossy old teacher came along. As usual whenever anyone made a mistake she snapped: "Wrong! Very wrong! Start again and reflect upon your mistake!" or "Completely wrong!" She makes everyone quite nervous and we all kind of ummm and ahh self-consciously when we are put on the spot. One sentence we had to say was: "When there is heavy rain, no one knows why, but he frequently goes wandering alone."
Anyway the Chinese grammar pattern we had to use was "在下雨中" (zai xia yu zhong) with the "zhong" comment making it basically mean: "in the middle of the (pouring) rain". So some people said: "He likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain because he likes to wander on his own in the rain". That was ok.
The Japanese guy 中町秀庆 said: "He likes to walk in the middle of the rain because he likes to look at the frogs".
The teacher said: "Grammatically this is correct - but in Beijing have you EVER seen frogs hopping to and fro on the roadside? Hmmm???? Hmmmmmmm?????"
Without hesitation 中町秀庆 said: "Well in Tokyo they do all the time."
The teacher frowned and said: "Are there any other Japanese classmates who can confirm his assertion?"
中町秀庆 gave the teacher a rather sweet smile and said: "相信我把？" "Xiang xin wo ba" - Come on - just believe me, ok?"
That seemed to convince the teacher and she let him get away with it.
Then Ori, the Israeli guy said: "He likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain because he likes to visit his friend".
The teacher said sarcastically: "I see you have just replaced 秀庆's frogs (Japanese student's frogs) with your friend." Then she went OFF at him. She said: "Grammatically this is correct, but the sentence makes absolutely no sense. The fact that he likes to visit his friends has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the fact that he likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain. What on earth are you talking about?"
She kicked his limp, bleeding body aside and moved onto her next victim. She didn't make a fat people comment today but perhaps she was having too much fun kebabbing her pupils. :)
Cui got away with saying that he likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain because he thinks it's romantic. She then grilled him and asked him if he really thought this etc. It's a weird approach. Usually answers to these sorts of exercises are purely for example or grammar practice. It's not a truth or dare session. I mean normally you make up anything just to use the words in a sentence......
Then my phone rang and I wanted to answer it because it was Crown. Problem was, I had forgotten to turn it to silent so I grabbed it and dashed out the door. I heard the teacher going ballistic through the door saying that Beijing Language School had strict rules that students are to turn off their mobile phone during class. Anyway I was glad I took the call. Cynthia said she had found a way for me to get my stuff without the need for Grumpy Turtleneck to chop the document and she would have my passport and student card returned to me this afternoon. She said she'd call me later to arrange a time and said she'd let me know what my customs duty would be......
About 15min later, the Israeli guy's mobile went off and oh dear.... the teacher had a spaz attack again and reprimanded the class again. I felt terrible and said VERY apologetically that I was sorry - I had forgotten to turn off my mobile this morning and it wouldn't happen again. Gawd.
Lunch with 3 Korean girls, bumping into Zhang Xuan Shou & Se Hyun again
After class I hurtled off before Lin Yi Shu could grab me and bumped into the 3 Korean girls who I met in my first week. They were super-friendly and asked me to join them for lunch so I said sure, I didn't have any plans and off we went for lunch. The kept admiring my bike but were fretting that it looked too new and kept telling me to be careful with it. :) I have the same fear. I make sure I visit it every day to make sure it hasn't been stolen yet!! One day I am sure it will be stolen as a stolen bike seems to be an experience that one must go through .... a Beijing Rite of Passage? I've already broken the bell somehow - I have no idea how that happened!
Having lunch with them was fun. They were a bit mournful about their classes - it doesn't sound like their classmates are very entertaining and their classes are boring. All of them have room-mates and one of them has a Thai room-mate who doesn't like to do any of the cleaning so she has to do all of it. That would be a real pain. I bid them goodbye, saw I had a missed call from Cynthia and phoned her. She said someone would deliver my passport and student card between 4.30 and 5.30. Looking at my watch I discovered I had a couple of hours to spare so I thought I'd go to the library to study for a little bit.
I couldn't find any free spots upstairs so I sat downstairs, not realising that I'd have to order a cup of very disgusting hot chocolate made from water and chocolate powder. Even though it was only RMB4, that's still a lot of money for something that tastes so truly awful. That being said, I always swore I would never drink that appalling coffee that has sugar and whitener all in one ..... (it has a name, I can't remember what it's called!) but at the break I frequently buy a cup of what I now call: "The Worst Coffee In The World". It's intensely sweet, but it's hot and it has caffeine in it. For some reason they only fill it up half way anyway :) For RMB2 I can't complain ;) That being said, they sell some great snacks out the front of the teaching building - warm croissants, sponge cake, apple pie etc. They must have a Western Grandma hidden away somewhere on campus baking furiously!! So I sat in the foyer area of the library writing up my notes.
Zhang Xuan Shou (Korean guy learning English) and Nam Se Hyun (Korean guy who still seemed a bit serious) appeared and wanted to know why I was downstairs instead of upstairs. I said I couldn't find a spot upstairs and couldn't be bothered to do another circle around to find another spot. Then I started teasing Nam Se Hyun because almost all of his examples in class and his homework sentences relate to food eg
"Chinese food is too greasy so I'm getting thinner every day".
"My biggest problem in China is finding somewhere to eat".
"I am not yet accustomed to eating Chinese food" etc
He clearly misses Korean food / his mum's cooking.
So they asked where I just ate, and I said in the Chinese restaurant near the Japanese restaurant with a group of Korean girls - not from our class. Zhang Xuan Shou said: "Oh, those 3 girls."
I asked: "How do you know that?????" And he said they saw me walking with those girls. They went to look for a place to sit and I kept studying. Then a bit later, Zhang Xuan Shou appeared again and I wasn't sure whether he was going to ask me to help him pronounce some English words but Victor showed up and pulled up a chair to sit down and tell me about his weekend trip to see some mountain which I think scared Zhang Xuan Shou away so off he disappeared. I started getting very cold in the foyer so finished my page of writing and went to the laundromat to pick up my bedsheets.
I put my laundry in the basket at the front of my bike and my backpack was on back and feeling quite heavy because it had 2 textbooks, 2 exercise books, a normal dictionary, an electronic dictionary, my wallet, my glasses, a bottle of water, a slice of cake, my mini ipod ....... I really have to stop carrying around so many things with me ..... As I was riding out the West Gate, I heard someone say: "Where are you going?" And I glanced around and saw that riding on my left was Nam Se Hyun (the Korean guy who still seemed a bit serious). On his own though he is not serious at all and was very friendly. He started to laugh at me because I started to wobble on my bike because he had distracted me. Then I seized control of my bike again and we rode along side by side out the outer gate. Riding 2 abreast is very hard because there are people everywhere and it involves riding very slowly. Also he was asking me questions at the same time so I was trying to concentrate on not falling over, not hitting any pedestrians or cars and answering his questions.
He told me his bike was shared with his housemate, but his housemate didn't like riding a bike so he got to ride it most of the time. He also told me he didn't live on campus either - and he also has no desk. Then I started to wobble again and he laughed and me and it sounded like he said: "Seems like you're not very 方便 (fāngbiàn)????" Which is weird, because 方便 usually means "convenient". Anyway, whatever it means, it was clear that he was saying my riding skills were pretty bad.
I got embarrassed and tried to say that it was because my bag was very heavy - 书包 (shūbāo) but for some reason I made a mistake and said my 包子 bāozi (steamed stuffed bun!!!!!!) was too heavy. Fortunately he was distracted by my laundry and was asking me what that was. Anyway, then I had to make a left turn and rode home by myself muttering 包子, 书包, 包子, 书包 to myself. :) So Nam Se Hyun was the last of the Serious Koreans who has turned out to be extremely amiable :) I like it when people surprise you - surprise in a good way, not in a bad way of course.
Just spoke to Nudge, we're going to have dinner tomorrow night. Poor him, he can't speak Mandarin and couldn't order food today so ended up eating KFC! Anyway, it sounds like I'm having dinner with him tomorrow, I'm having dinner with my classmates on Friday and Wednesday and Thursday will either be with Lynette or with Nudge and others from The Firm's Beijing office ..... Nudge kindly offered to print out anything I needed printed out. It's funny how you adapt though - I haven't got a printer and have no access to a printer so haven't felt the need to print anything!
Eek I just hit the wrong button and almost lost EVERYTHING I had just typed. Thank goodness for the back arrow in Mozilla .........
Oh one more thing, I just read a horrible review for the Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack. It's kind of funny:
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/phantom_opera.html
Bro who hated the film should enjoy the review. eg:
"Avoid it... if you have any love whatsoever for the original 1986 cast recording and don't wish to hear this magnificent composition crucified by hideous vocals."
"I approached this with an open mind. I really did. And it made me want to claw out my own eyeballs and use them to plug my ears." But could it really be that horrible? After all, how could one of the greatest compositions of modern times be so thoroughly ruined?
Butler's lack of formal vocal training is blindingly obvious, with the man shouting his role rather than singing it. He cannot hold notes worth a damn, and the entire demeanor of his voice is wrong for the role. The Phantom was both mysterious and romantic. There was something overpowering and seductive about his voice, as captured perfectly by Michael Crawford. Butler does well with the anguish and anger, but that's it. Volumes could be written about the particulars of how this actor was terrible for the role, but at some point, you have to just denounce the poor guy as the wrong choice and move on.
It's clear the reviewer absolutely hated it. :)
Admin
Since I got there early, I went to the student office to ask them to put a chop on the letter that Crown Relocations had prepared for me. Once I get that, then hopefully customs will release my belongings. Basically the letter says - I'm a six month student but if I meet all the requirements for next semester, I can re-enrol for another six months. Crown had already phoned the student's office several times and had been told it was fine, they would chop the letter. Unluckily for me, when I arrived, the only two people manning the desk were Mr Grumpy Glasses and Mr Grumpy Turtleneck. Both flatly refused to chop the letter. They said: "How can we chop this? You haven't enrolled for a second semester."
This was quite a shock for me because I had been so excited all week about finally getting my furniture and my BOOKS!!!..... I called Cynthia from Crown and she tried her best to negotiate with Grumpy Turtleneck. He continued to refuse and said they would only chop that document NEXT SEMESTER when I had already enrolled for a second semester and paid my fees. She argued in vain. I was very upset - visibly so but Cynthia said don't worry, she would try to think of a way to solve the problem.
I went to class, upset but knowing there was nothing I could do about it. Bad Karma to Grumpy Turtleneck!!! I've never liked him - hence his nickname. He just has a really awful, abrupt attitude. Why they put him behind the service desk of the uni is beyond me. Apparently he's a teacher - maybe it's a punishment for being a bad teacher .....
He just seems to spend his whole time surfing the net and making my life hell. May his tofu always disintegrate when he tries to pick it up :P Dad - how do you say that in Chinese???? :)
Conversation Class
Class was good though. The first class was conversation class and the Korean guy with the baseball cap was giving a speech which was a brief introduction to general things of interest about Korea. Unfortunately, he had written the entire speech down - new words and all - so read it out in a very comical, wooden way which was hard to understand. It was a good talk though and made us laugh a lot. In the end it generated a lot of questions. Our conversation teacher is really nice and very patient with us. When people make mistakes, he corrects them but explains how they should say it etc.
Zhang Suan Shou and Se Hyun, the 2 Korean boys I saw on the weekend were noticeably different today. Very friendly and chatty - in Chinese not English. I was also talking to the Japanese student a little bit and Lin Yi Shu seemed to get jealous (????). I have no idea why she thinks I belong to her .... She accused me of only wanting to talk to boys. I didn't want to say that it was because she never lets me talk to the girls on our side of the classroom - always interrupts! I've given up trying to talk to the nice Indonesian girls during breaks.
Zong He Class
Then it was zong he (comprehension) class and the bossy old teacher came along. As usual whenever anyone made a mistake she snapped: "Wrong! Very wrong! Start again and reflect upon your mistake!" or "Completely wrong!" She makes everyone quite nervous and we all kind of ummm and ahh self-consciously when we are put on the spot. One sentence we had to say was: "When there is heavy rain, no one knows why, but he frequently goes wandering alone."
Anyway the Chinese grammar pattern we had to use was "在下雨中" (zai xia yu zhong) with the "zhong" comment making it basically mean: "in the middle of the (pouring) rain". So some people said: "He likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain because he likes to wander on his own in the rain". That was ok.
The Japanese guy 中町秀庆 said: "He likes to walk in the middle of the rain because he likes to look at the frogs".
The teacher said: "Grammatically this is correct - but in Beijing have you EVER seen frogs hopping to and fro on the roadside? Hmmm???? Hmmmmmmm?????"
Without hesitation 中町秀庆 said: "Well in Tokyo they do all the time."
The teacher frowned and said: "Are there any other Japanese classmates who can confirm his assertion?"
中町秀庆 gave the teacher a rather sweet smile and said: "相信我把？" "Xiang xin wo ba" - Come on - just believe me, ok?"
That seemed to convince the teacher and she let him get away with it.
Then Ori, the Israeli guy said: "He likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain because he likes to visit his friend".
The teacher said sarcastically: "I see you have just replaced 秀庆's frogs (Japanese student's frogs) with your friend." Then she went OFF at him. She said: "Grammatically this is correct, but the sentence makes absolutely no sense. The fact that he likes to visit his friends has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the fact that he likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain. What on earth are you talking about?"
She kicked his limp, bleeding body aside and moved onto her next victim. She didn't make a fat people comment today but perhaps she was having too much fun kebabbing her pupils. :)
Cui got away with saying that he likes to walk in the middle of the pouring rain because he thinks it's romantic. She then grilled him and asked him if he really thought this etc. It's a weird approach. Usually answers to these sorts of exercises are purely for example or grammar practice. It's not a truth or dare session. I mean normally you make up anything just to use the words in a sentence......
Then my phone rang and I wanted to answer it because it was Crown. Problem was, I had forgotten to turn it to silent so I grabbed it and dashed out the door. I heard the teacher going ballistic through the door saying that Beijing Language School had strict rules that students are to turn off their mobile phone during class. Anyway I was glad I took the call. Cynthia said she had found a way for me to get my stuff without the need for Grumpy Turtleneck to chop the document and she would have my passport and student card returned to me this afternoon. She said she'd call me later to arrange a time and said she'd let me know what my customs duty would be......
About 15min later, the Israeli guy's mobile went off and oh dear.... the teacher had a spaz attack again and reprimanded the class again. I felt terrible and said VERY apologetically that I was sorry - I had forgotten to turn off my mobile this morning and it wouldn't happen again. Gawd.
Lunch with 3 Korean girls, bumping into Zhang Xuan Shou & Se Hyun again
After class I hurtled off before Lin Yi Shu could grab me and bumped into the 3 Korean girls who I met in my first week. They were super-friendly and asked me to join them for lunch so I said sure, I didn't have any plans and off we went for lunch. The kept admiring my bike but were fretting that it looked too new and kept telling me to be careful with it. :) I have the same fear. I make sure I visit it every day to make sure it hasn't been stolen yet!! One day I am sure it will be stolen as a stolen bike seems to be an experience that one must go through .... a Beijing Rite of Passage? I've already broken the bell somehow - I have no idea how that happened!
Having lunch with them was fun. They were a bit mournful about their classes - it doesn't sound like their classmates are very entertaining and their classes are boring. All of them have room-mates and one of them has a Thai room-mate who doesn't like to do any of the cleaning so she has to do all of it. That would be a real pain. I bid them goodbye, saw I had a missed call from Cynthia and phoned her. She said someone would deliver my passport and student card between 4.30 and 5.30. Looking at my watch I discovered I had a couple of hours to spare so I thought I'd go to the library to study for a little bit.
I couldn't find any free spots upstairs so I sat downstairs, not realising that I'd have to order a cup of very disgusting hot chocolate made from water and chocolate powder. Even though it was only RMB4, that's still a lot of money for something that tastes so truly awful. That being said, I always swore I would never drink that appalling coffee that has sugar and whitener all in one ..... (it has a name, I can't remember what it's called!) but at the break I frequently buy a cup of what I now call: "The Worst Coffee In The World". It's intensely sweet, but it's hot and it has caffeine in it. For some reason they only fill it up half way anyway :) For RMB2 I can't complain ;) That being said, they sell some great snacks out the front of the teaching building - warm croissants, sponge cake, apple pie etc. They must have a Western Grandma hidden away somewhere on campus baking furiously!! So I sat in the foyer area of the library writing up my notes.
Zhang Xuan Shou (Korean guy learning English) and Nam Se Hyun (Korean guy who still seemed a bit serious) appeared and wanted to know why I was downstairs instead of upstairs. I said I couldn't find a spot upstairs and couldn't be bothered to do another circle around to find another spot. Then I started teasing Nam Se Hyun because almost all of his examples in class and his homework sentences relate to food eg
"Chinese food is too greasy so I'm getting thinner every day".
"My biggest problem in China is finding somewhere to eat".
"I am not yet accustomed to eating Chinese food" etc
He clearly misses Korean food / his mum's cooking.
So they asked where I just ate, and I said in the Chinese restaurant near the Japanese restaurant with a group of Korean girls - not from our class. Zhang Xuan Shou said: "Oh, those 3 girls."
I asked: "How do you know that?????" And he said they saw me walking with those girls. They went to look for a place to sit and I kept studying. Then a bit later, Zhang Xuan Shou appeared again and I wasn't sure whether he was going to ask me to help him pronounce some English words but Victor showed up and pulled up a chair to sit down and tell me about his weekend trip to see some mountain which I think scared Zhang Xuan Shou away so off he disappeared. I started getting very cold in the foyer so finished my page of writing and went to the laundromat to pick up my bedsheets.
I put my laundry in the basket at the front of my bike and my backpack was on back and feeling quite heavy because it had 2 textbooks, 2 exercise books, a normal dictionary, an electronic dictionary, my wallet, my glasses, a bottle of water, a slice of cake, my mini ipod ....... I really have to stop carrying around so many things with me ..... As I was riding out the West Gate, I heard someone say: "Where are you going?" And I glanced around and saw that riding on my left was Nam Se Hyun (the Korean guy who still seemed a bit serious). On his own though he is not serious at all and was very friendly. He started to laugh at me because I started to wobble on my bike because he had distracted me. Then I seized control of my bike again and we rode along side by side out the outer gate. Riding 2 abreast is very hard because there are people everywhere and it involves riding very slowly. Also he was asking me questions at the same time so I was trying to concentrate on not falling over, not hitting any pedestrians or cars and answering his questions.
He told me his bike was shared with his housemate, but his housemate didn't like riding a bike so he got to ride it most of the time. He also told me he didn't live on campus either - and he also has no desk. Then I started to wobble again and he laughed and me and it sounded like he said: "Seems like you're not very 方便 (fāngbiàn)????" Which is weird, because 方便 usually means "convenient". Anyway, whatever it means, it was clear that he was saying my riding skills were pretty bad.
I got embarrassed and tried to say that it was because my bag was very heavy - 书包 (shūbāo) but for some reason I made a mistake and said my 包子 bāozi (steamed stuffed bun!!!!!!) was too heavy. Fortunately he was distracted by my laundry and was asking me what that was. Anyway, then I had to make a left turn and rode home by myself muttering 包子, 书包, 包子, 书包 to myself. :) So Nam Se Hyun was the last of the Serious Koreans who has turned out to be extremely amiable :) I like it when people surprise you - surprise in a good way, not in a bad way of course.
Just spoke to Nudge, we're going to have dinner tomorrow night. Poor him, he can't speak Mandarin and couldn't order food today so ended up eating KFC! Anyway, it sounds like I'm having dinner with him tomorrow, I'm having dinner with my classmates on Friday and Wednesday and Thursday will either be with Lynette or with Nudge and others from The Firm's Beijing office ..... Nudge kindly offered to print out anything I needed printed out. It's funny how you adapt though - I haven't got a printer and have no access to a printer so haven't felt the need to print anything!
Eek I just hit the wrong button and almost lost EVERYTHING I had just typed. Thank goodness for the back arrow in Mozilla .........
Oh one more thing, I just read a horrible review for the Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack. It's kind of funny:
http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/phantom_opera.html
Bro who hated the film should enjoy the review. eg:
"Avoid it... if you have any love whatsoever for the original 1986 cast recording and don't wish to hear this magnificent composition crucified by hideous vocals."
"I approached this with an open mind. I really did. And it made me want to claw out my own eyeballs and use them to plug my ears." But could it really be that horrible? After all, how could one of the greatest compositions of modern times be so thoroughly ruined?
Butler's lack of formal vocal training is blindingly obvious, with the man shouting his role rather than singing it. He cannot hold notes worth a damn, and the entire demeanor of his voice is wrong for the role. The Phantom was both mysterious and romantic. There was something overpowering and seductive about his voice, as captured perfectly by Michael Crawford. Butler does well with the anguish and anger, but that's it. Volumes could be written about the particulars of how this actor was terrible for the role, but at some point, you have to just denounce the poor guy as the wrong choice and move on.
It's clear the reviewer absolutely hated it. :)