It's the Pollution...

I'm sorry. Let it be done. It's been more than a month since my last blog posting and I realize that is an extremely long time for me to have absolutely nothing interesting to write about. I can only attribute this to one thing, the pollution. If you woke up every day and looked out your window and couldn't see more than a kilometer away from your 15th story apartment, you'd want to fall back to sleep and avoid thinking and writing as much as possible too. Almost like if you're living in Seattle! I'm about to summarize a month of living in Beijing in something you should be able to read in less than five minutes.

Beijing is mediocre. Sometimes I feel like life in Beijing is so unpredictable; one third of the time life is great, one third of the time life kind of sucks, and one third of the time it's in the middle. Right now I'd say I've reached a trough. I hope this wave will hold out for another 6 weeks. 

Since the last time we spoke, I have been to Xi'An (西安）, Tokyo（东京）, and of course all over Beijing (北京). I'll start with Xi'An. The place is probably best known for the Terra Cotta Warriors (Wikipedia them), and for good reason. The fact that one man ordered the building of thousands of life-sized clay warriors to be buried with him and that order was carried out is astonishing. Unfortunately for us, the warriors happened to be the only interesting site in the whole city. We saw several other places that would be considered "interesting" if it was your first time in China, but the fact that every important building ever built in the thousands of years of history of China looks the exact same really puts a damper on things that have a real potential for attracting people. Probably the second most entertaining thing we did was bike ride on top of the wall that surrounds Xi'An city. We were able to do it in under 4 minutes and we saw much of the modern city while enjoying the fact that everyone kept laughing as we passed by: did I mention we were riding a tandem bike with no shirt on? Other than the fact it was 95 degrees outside and humidity was that of a small bathroom with no fan after a long hot shower, it wasn't the most pleasant experience. Quick side note, I can't go without mentioning that Xi'An is flooded with pick-pocketers, all potential visitors beware.  

After what felt like the longest semester of my life, we were given a five day break in between the start of the next semester of classes. Naturally, I, along with two friends, decided to spend that time in Asia's most interesting Capital, Tokyo. Now before I went to this delightful place, I knew absolutely nothing about it. When I think of Japan I think of two things, sushi and World War II. While both extremely important in the country of Japan, they would be two of the least impressive aspects of Japanese modern culture. Our outlook out of the gate wasn't very positive, it turns out the weathermen all over the world are equally wrong, they forecasted thunderstorms every day we were there and it only rained the night we got there and the morning we left. While most of these days blended together I can tell you about the most interesting experiences we had and even post pictures below. I'll make the summary short: Bring your best walking shoes. Stay away from Shibuya at night, turns out it's the red light district. If you're a college student, never use a taxi, subways only. Choose a hostel that keeps its doors open 24 hours a day; I say this because ours was closed from 2 am to 4:30 am, this creates a huge problem, 2 am is way too early and 4:30 am is way too late to be coming home from Tokyo's nightlife. NEVER eat raw horse meat. Pull an all nighter in Raponggyi and then at 4 am catch a taxi to the fish market to see the most fascinating tuna auction on earth. Tokyo spas (onsen as they call them) are for naked people only. The only people that speak English are the Nigerians on the street who try and trick you into entering their bosses brothel. Massage in Japanese means sex. Don't trust travel guide books, talk to the locals. Every attractive girl you see walking with a man over 50 is for hire. If a girl who is way too attractive for you starts dancing with you in a club, she's trying to increase her client base. Unless you are willing to pay thousands of US dollars at a hostess bar, stay away, the rest are just brothels. Finally, don't let friends with weak stomachs eat sea urchin sushi for breakfast at 5 am. 

For the most part, Tokyo was a lot of fun, it was really hard to be in a country where we couldn't communicate with anyone other than thank you and hello and goodbye. I was able to eat sushi just about every day which was pretty much heaven on earth. The best sushi, by far, was the sushi that you eat for breakfast right after the tuna auction. It's relatively cheap and absolutely delicious. Sushi for breakfast is a little strange, but if you can get over that idea, you should definitely try it out. 

As for studying in Beijing, it's not changing much. A typical weekday consists of me waking up around 7 am, studying in the lobby or cafe for an hour to prepare for my daily quiz where I have to memorize about 50 new characters, class from 9 to 12, lunch at the Japanese restaurant in the basement from 12-1, speaking with a Chinese partner from 1-1:30. Then homework until dinner time. During the weekends, we go dancing sometimes and we go watch world cup games sometimes but most of the time is filled with homework. I think my Chinese is improving but it's hard to tell. I'm able to hold conversations without stopping and asking for an explanation too many times, classes are entirely in Chinese, we aren't allowed to speak english, and I love arguing with taxi drivers about why Mao Ze Dong was not the god they think he was. It's a genuine blast.  

I guess there isn't much more to say today, life has pretty much entered a rhythm, unfortunately I hate rhythms. I am looking forward to New Zealand with my wonderful mother and getting back to SC after that. 

I have been called many things in my life, but one thing I will most certainly never be called is a "Consistent Blogger." For this I must apologize. Thank you for reading, enjoy the pictures below!

Michael

Pictures!

Click on them to enlarge if you want. 

I'd like you to meet my teacher, AKA Mao Ze Dong's younger brother. 

Me on the Great Wall at BaDaLing. I jumped over the wall that said "Do Not Go Beyond This Point". It was worth it.  

A fraction of the clay soldiers that were made for this Emperor.

Me giving a talk to Singapore students in Chinese... Well, it was more like half Chinese, half English. 

Riding tandem on the Xi'An wall. 

Dad's Visit to Beijing

My name in Tradition Characters. Simplified looks like this: 吴小龙

Can someone tell me what this flower is? Saw it in Japan, it's beautiful. 

Some Japanese people are very big fans of ours... I guess that doesn't need an explanation. 

Tokyo from a viewing Tower.

Red Bull Girls in Tokyo that speak no English!

What is more strange in this picture, the guys dressed as Greasers dancing at the entrance to Yoyogi Park or the French dude crouching dressed as a Nun?

They do this every Sunday. Yoyogi Park is a must see in Tokyo, strangest place I've been. We actually danced Salsa with several of the people who were just playing music and dancing in the middle of the park. 

Skyline in the day from Tokyo Tower. 

Skyline in Evening from Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo Tower from the base. 

The biggest Tuna I've ever seen. That one in front of that guy is at least his length without a tail and weighs twice as much. 

How Did I End Up At the UN?

Welcome back... to what just might be the most solipsistic blog in the current blogosphere. As I reached Beijing this summer I started to think about my blog and what exactly I could add to it that would make it even remotely interesting and it dawned on me--this blog is entirely about me, does anyone really care? Mom and Dad, you don't count.

So here I am, continuing my blog dismissing those thoughts and wishing upon Betelgeuse that most of you might actually care about what my life has in store for me in China.

And we begin by taking you to a far away land, formerly known as the Orient, more commonly referred to as the People's Republic of China, more commonly referred to as China, and most commonly, given the number of Chinese people in the world, 中国.

I arrived a little over a week ago in the beautiful Beijing airport. With little to do I spent most of my time in my hotel room but managed to make it out and meet some old friends from last year. I met a friend at Hou Hai, the Riviera of Beijing if there ever was one, and quickly learned the West has been influencing China a great deal. I came across several homosexual people, and what looked like a communist attempt at a strip club (no I did not enter if you were wondering). After wandering about we had some dinner and I headed back to my hotel, this repeated for several days until it came time to move into my temporary home (shout out to Carrie Underwood).

ShouDu ShiFan DaXue, 首都师范大学, Capital Normal University is where I will be living for the next two months. It has two campuses, the first is a major attraction for taxi drivers, the second is a major attraction for foreigners and was never placed on the map that is currently being used for taxi drivers, or so it seems. I am living on the second campus. Though quaint, it has more than its share of interesting features. The gym is nice, my dorm is comparable to my dorms in Boston and it's proximity to everything in Beijing is far from convenient. But hey, I'm here to learn Chinese and as we all learned from my previous times in China getting lost is the best way to put homework into practice.

USC's group currently consists of 15 students either in Chinese III or Chinese V. I am proud to say I am a representative of the minority non-asian group. A whopping four of us stand proud, ready to prove though lacking in appearance, our language skills can often compete with those that fit in simply by appearance.

Class is going well, we are swamped with homework and are being forced to memorize about 150-200 characters per week--what a blast. With the repetition of characters over the next two months, it's safe to say I will lose all feeling in my hand while simultaneously becoming closer and closer to being fluent in this God-forsaken yet beautiful language.

Life is good in China, I can't complain. I miss family and friends but I'm making plenty of the latter and don't be surprise if I come home having started a new former (totally kidding). I think I'm truly in love with this facility though. There are kids from at least 20 different countries here, the majority being Korea. I've met a kid from Iraq, several from Russia, several from Italy and too many to count from China. My favorite part is that none of these kids speak English so we all have to converse in Chinese. Picture it, myself, and American, getting to know a college student from Iraq conversing in a language from an entirely different continent than either of us were born on. It's quite the sight and really fun.

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post but I'll work on that for the next one. We plan on traveling to Xi'An in a week or two and I'll definitely have pictures from that. The Great Wall is this weekend and several other small trips in Beijing.

I look forward to reading your comments.

再见！Ciao! Goodbye!

吴小龙