A Collage

In order to make up for the several blogs I've posted without any pictures, I decided to dedicate this blog solely to pictures. There will be about 15 pictures in total with a caption on each to make for some interesting stories. If you have questions about any of the pictures, please feel free to ask and I will explain in more detail. 

ENJOY!

Every weekend we never fail to stop by the Southwest gate of Beijing University's campus for the best 串儿 (chuan - kebabs) in town. In this picture you can see the guy who looks like a boss, IS the boss. The girls are from Japan and they were here studying for one month. Boston is actually from Korea, his name is Steve and he lives on my floor.  

A lot of people with cake on their faces. This picture was taken on Nozomi's birthday after we went out for sushi. She turned 20, which apparently is a big deal in Japan, so we celebrated in style with a huge cake and a food fight to follow. Nobody was spared.  

You're probably thinking "Who's that really hansome guy?"  Okay, probably not. But the reason I took this picture right before my haircut was because I'm starting to come to terms with what my brother has been telling me the past 22 years of my life. I'm going to go bald, sooner or later, most likely sooner. I took this picture because I'm at the point where I think I might not have that much hair on my head ever again.  

This is a wonderfully ironic picture. Dad in the foreground saluting Mao (in the background) while wearing a Red Guard winter hat. The good news is he had a great time while in Beijing with Janie, the bad news is, he might not ever be allowed to return after this picture...  

Ignore me, I primarily posted this picture to show two things: First, the pollution on a bad winter day, second, Beijing University's campus. It's a really pretty campus when you can see more than 300 yards. I shouldn't complain too much, the past few weeks have been amazing. The weather has been between 40 and 60 and the sky has been blue for quite a few days now! 

Take it back one month to my birthday. These next few pictures belong with the blog about my wonderful birthday night. This is a picture of us at Hou Hai on my birthday stopping on the barely frozen lake for a quick and safe picture.  

My best guess is that this is saline solution and some other important little bottle of medicine. I don't really know because I didn't read. I was too busy running up and down the halls trying to find where to buy the medicine that presumably saved my friend's life. Thank God for spoken Chinese.  

This is what an emergency room looks like in Beijing at about 2 am. There were about 15 other people laying out in the hallway on the beds that are more easily observed in the following picture.  

Face blurred for confidentiality reasons. This individual had a very rough night. It's a blessing he is still alive today and it surely made for a lot of memories on what could have been a much worse birthday. Kindly take note of the missing shoe. I advise you to enlarge this picture and laugh for a few minutes before moving on.  

As I mentioned before, Beijing University has a feline rescue program where they just bring stray cats from all over the city to their campus and let them run wild and feed them. This is one of those cats. She/He sits in front of our dorm every morning meowing waiting for the cleaners to feed her. Her eyes are pretty awesome!  

My first experience with snake. I know this is cliche, but it really does taste like chicken... or fish.  

The Great Wall. I tried to take this picture to make me look like I was on the edge of the world and about to fall, but it didn't really come across that way. Probably because my face is a horrible mix of falsified fear and laughter. Anyway, the ground is about 12 feet below, I was in no danger. I'm sure you already guessed that though.  

This picture was taken with someone who I do not know. We both happened to buy these wacky glasses at the Summer Palace and saw each other. I helped her put it together and she was very grateful--so grateful she let me take a picture with her. 

We stumbled across the North Korean Embassy after eating dinner. I tried to take a picture of the front sign but the guard was defiant. These pictures really represented the beautiful side of North Korea. They almost make you want to visit the place and set up shop. 

Janie, Dad, and I at Asia's largest screen (seen above our head). You can probably only see 1/5 of the entire thing in this picture. It was massive.  

Janie and Dad were blessed with incredible weather while they were here. In the 5 times I've been to the Great Wall, I've never seen such a beautiful sky as a backdrop. 

It was her 20th birthday. One of the cutest girls I've ever seen. Too bad she speaks no english and just started studying Chinese! 

Thanks for tuning in. Pictures courtesy of John Wurth who helped me come by a camera! 

Well, At Least I'm not a Journalist

I'm sure many of you have heard about the protests going on around the world and the crazy revolutions that have pretty much taken over the Middle East, but... You probably haven't heard about the so called "Jasmine Revolution" that is kindling in China. As of right now, there's nothing very newsworthy to be blogging about but I thought I would share some things I've read and some things I've seen since I have been here that strike me as interesting.

Click Here for More Information

I realize that I probably shouldn't be writing about this on my blog, considering some foreign reporters have had their faces beat in for tracking this issue, but I figured it would just make things even more interesting if something like that happened to me right? Ok, maybe not so fun while it was happening but definitely a story for the grand kids.

This past Sunday, Gabe and I took a trip to Tiananmen Square and Wangfujing with no prior knowledge of the allegedly planned protests. (Please read the article above for more information on these places). When we first arrive at Tiananmen we took a detour to check out the shops to the left of the Forbidden City. As I was waiting for Gabe outside the shop, I noticed people running around and cops coming from all directions. First thing I thought was, "Time to make my peace with God." But then I realized that their attention was on the moat that surrounds the entrance of the Forbidden City. Apparently a woman had jumped into the moat on her own will, perhaps as a sign of defiance, and was swimming around as several people attempted to lower a ladder and drag her out. While this was happening, hoards of police and undercover police started pushing all the people back and putting up caution tape. Because I was a foreigner, I just pretended I didn't understand Chinese and was waiting for my friend who was in the store. At this point, I saw two police officers dragging the woman out of the moat and dropping her, sobbing, on the ground. Once this happened, the police car backed into the cordoned of section and she was loaded into the car. Where was she taken? Why did she do it? I have no idea.

But, as we continued walking around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen, we started noticing how many police officers there were and more importantly how many "civilians" were wearing wires and headphones. When we arrive in Wangfujing, mentioned in the article, we were there right around 2:30 pm when this meeting was supposed to occur. Of course, we didn't know about it so weren't exactly on watch for interesting things but we did see the "construction zone" that hadn't been there the week before. I actually asked a police officer why there were so many police and he didn't respond to my question. In hindsight, having known what was happening, I probably wouldn't have asked that question.

Anyway, the day was pretty much uneventful other than that. Shortly after, I went to Church and met a priest who actually studied at seminary in the United States. He's a really nice guy and invited us to participate in their youth group so we could improve our Chinese. All is well in the Middle Kingdom, if anything interesting catches my eye, I'll be sure to convey it as quickly as possible!

Michael

News Article Courtesy of Rachel Will!