An Update Long Overdue
On Saturday 6/4, we all went out to this club called Rock n’ Roll that played again techno music, but it had R&B when we walked it. It was kinda messed up because all the white people didn’t have to pay, so March paid for me and Monica. JoJo had to pay, too. I had 4 tequila shots that night all within 10 minutes because obviously I don’t know how to pace myself and that was pretty much it for me.
Classes aren’t too bad. The characters suck, but they’re not that many. History’s boring as f- but we get breaks every hour so that’s good. We either get McDonald’s downstairs or we play CP. Last week we’ve been to the Lao Ma Temple, the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. I’ve done a little bit of shopping, but most of what I’ve spent is on food. It’s so cheap here! I’ve bought so many DVD’s. Beer is like 25cents for a big bottle. I played Hold’em twice since the first time and I won the first time. We played using Q-tips as chips, so I have all the Q-tips to prove it. I lost the last one, which was good because I definitely didn’t know any of my characters for the quiz the next day. Hence, I studied, and went to bed.
Whenever I get to walk around, I always drag someone with me to go into alleyways, because there are always alleyways on the sides of streets in Beijing. It is so much fun to explore, and it allows me to see more of the local culture that all the tourist places we are going to. I can’t say I feel very connected to them, seeing I can’t talk to them, and this is not the life I can ever imagined leading. There are things that you see that’ll always amaze you and it’s nice to break away from the group to see it with an open mind. Russell, in answer to your question, we definitely have seen people playing CP on the street and one day, we’re gonna ask if we can join them. Or we’re just gonna start our game on the streets like they do, squatting like the locals…it’ll be great.
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oh, I ate scorpion. Yup, when we were at the market on Wednesday, March got these little scorpions fried on a skewer and ate them. Emily, Li Laoshi’s 12 yr old daughter, said that she would do it if I would do it, not thinking that I would, and we shook on it. So we all turned back on our way out of that area and Emily and I went with March to get it. The scorpions were definitely alive and wriggling in the skewers before they went on the grill. A minute later, they were done and we had ourselves a snack.
Then on Thursday, we had a calligraphy class in the morning, went to see the Ming Tombs in the afternoon, and went out to this club called Vick’s at night. It was so awesome. About 8 of us went, took two cabs, and ladies got in free! I paced myself this time with the tequila. I had about 5 shots and the night was awesome.
The next morning, we left for Chengde, another city about 4-5 hours outside of Beijing. We went to yet another temple there, and we all played basketball outside our hotel before dinner. We went “downtown” that night, and there really wasn’t much of a downtown there. We went into a bar and I played pool with one of the locals there, and I think he was throwing the game in my favor before he has moments of being really good, and other moments of stupidly missing shots. Whatever. Then I played doubles with Jacques against Mike and Ilan. I think that that Friday night made a lot of things clear to me about the differences between the Mali group and this group. Before I was playing pool, about 14 of us were all upstairs ordering beer and asking for whatever food they have because we were all hungry. The problem was that March wasn’t there and Yeou was the only person there who could take the role of translating. Some people behaved so poorly that night, and they were so rude in general, that I had wanted to take a cab back pretty soon after. I just didn’t expect such poor behavior. A lot of them were drunk, too before we even got there, so that didn’t help. I felt pretty bad because we all convinced her that she should come, and she shouldn’t have had to put up with it.
I think everyone is well taken care of, but it seems that some are so sheltered that coming to China, they just never seem content with what is out there. It’s not perfect. It was never supposed to be. With Mali, we all understood why we were there, and understood how lucky we were to experience whatever we could. Everyone was respectful of the people and culture. It disappoints me that that just isn’t so with this group. I mean, I’m still having a great time, and I enjoy hanging out with the people I’m hanging out with. But they don’t think before saying things, and the comments that come out are something culturally abrasive and disrespectful. Well, now that I got through the rant portion of this program…
Right now, I just got back from Chengde. Yesterday, we spent the day at the Chengde Mountain Resort, the world’s largest imperial garden, and we played basketball again that evening after dinner. I got injured so many time, I have so many bruises…I hurt everywhere. But I’m still gonna play later today at the courts on campus, hopefully against Chinese students.
LL is very slow for me here, but I am always thinking about my rocks. It has been abundant sunshine for the past couple of days. I still don’t have a ticket out of Hong Kong. I had to bad idea myself recently. Not me at my best self, but that’s for another time.
Classes aren’t too bad. The characters suck, but they’re not that many. History’s boring as f- but we get breaks every hour so that’s good. We either get McDonald’s downstairs or we play CP. Last week we’ve been to the Lao Ma Temple, the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. I’ve done a little bit of shopping, but most of what I’ve spent is on food. It’s so cheap here! I’ve bought so many DVD’s. Beer is like 25cents for a big bottle. I played Hold’em twice since the first time and I won the first time. We played using Q-tips as chips, so I have all the Q-tips to prove it. I lost the last one, which was good because I definitely didn’t know any of my characters for the quiz the next day. Hence, I studied, and went to bed.
Whenever I get to walk around, I always drag someone with me to go into alleyways, because there are always alleyways on the sides of streets in Beijing. It is so much fun to explore, and it allows me to see more of the local culture that all the tourist places we are going to. I can’t say I feel very connected to them, seeing I can’t talk to them, and this is not the life I can ever imagined leading. There are things that you see that’ll always amaze you and it’s nice to break away from the group to see it with an open mind. Russell, in answer to your question, we definitely have seen people playing CP on the street and one day, we’re gonna ask if we can join them. Or we’re just gonna start our game on the streets like they do, squatting like the locals…it’ll be great.
----
oh, I ate scorpion. Yup, when we were at the market on Wednesday, March got these little scorpions fried on a skewer and ate them. Emily, Li Laoshi’s 12 yr old daughter, said that she would do it if I would do it, not thinking that I would, and we shook on it. So we all turned back on our way out of that area and Emily and I went with March to get it. The scorpions were definitely alive and wriggling in the skewers before they went on the grill. A minute later, they were done and we had ourselves a snack.
Then on Thursday, we had a calligraphy class in the morning, went to see the Ming Tombs in the afternoon, and went out to this club called Vick’s at night. It was so awesome. About 8 of us went, took two cabs, and ladies got in free! I paced myself this time with the tequila. I had about 5 shots and the night was awesome.
The next morning, we left for Chengde, another city about 4-5 hours outside of Beijing. We went to yet another temple there, and we all played basketball outside our hotel before dinner. We went “downtown” that night, and there really wasn’t much of a downtown there. We went into a bar and I played pool with one of the locals there, and I think he was throwing the game in my favor before he has moments of being really good, and other moments of stupidly missing shots. Whatever. Then I played doubles with Jacques against Mike and Ilan. I think that that Friday night made a lot of things clear to me about the differences between the Mali group and this group. Before I was playing pool, about 14 of us were all upstairs ordering beer and asking for whatever food they have because we were all hungry. The problem was that March wasn’t there and Yeou was the only person there who could take the role of translating. Some people behaved so poorly that night, and they were so rude in general, that I had wanted to take a cab back pretty soon after. I just didn’t expect such poor behavior. A lot of them were drunk, too before we even got there, so that didn’t help. I felt pretty bad because we all convinced her that she should come, and she shouldn’t have had to put up with it.
I think everyone is well taken care of, but it seems that some are so sheltered that coming to China, they just never seem content with what is out there. It’s not perfect. It was never supposed to be. With Mali, we all understood why we were there, and understood how lucky we were to experience whatever we could. Everyone was respectful of the people and culture. It disappoints me that that just isn’t so with this group. I mean, I’m still having a great time, and I enjoy hanging out with the people I’m hanging out with. But they don’t think before saying things, and the comments that come out are something culturally abrasive and disrespectful. Well, now that I got through the rant portion of this program…
Right now, I just got back from Chengde. Yesterday, we spent the day at the Chengde Mountain Resort, the world’s largest imperial garden, and we played basketball again that evening after dinner. I got injured so many time, I have so many bruises…I hurt everywhere. But I’m still gonna play later today at the courts on campus, hopefully against Chinese students.
LL is very slow for me here, but I am always thinking about my rocks. It has been abundant sunshine for the past couple of days. I still don’t have a ticket out of Hong Kong. I had to bad idea myself recently. Not me at my best self, but that’s for another time.