My crack-of-dawn train ride back to Beijing went smoothly, though it was a bit lonely after being surrounded by friends the past few days. I must say, though, it felt pretty good being able to travel through China on my own without problems.
Once I arrived in Beijing, I took a subway and then a bus back to my apartment, where I pretty much crashed for the rest of the day. I used that night to make a list of the things I wanted to do for my last week in Beijing. I think I have done a pretty good job so far.
On Thursday, I finally had Peking duck, Beijing’s most popular dish. Katherine called me, and we took the 701 bus to Houhai Lake to find a place with roast duck. It isn’t hard to find and it’s not too expensive. We watched the chef carve and serve the roast duck, which we then put in “pancakes,” added cucumber, scallions and hoisin (Chinese dried plum sauce), wrapped up, and gobbled down. It was DELICIOUS. I can’t believe it took me THIS long to try it.
After lunch we walked over to Nanlougu Xiang, where I immediately spotted something else on my list of things to do – cupping. You may have seen this in movies or on TV, where a Chinese masseuse lights cotton on fire, puts it in an open glass globe, and places the globe on another person’s back, forming a suction and making huge bruises. It sounds painful, and it was at first, but the Chinese believe wholeheartedly that this will eradicate any diseases within your body. I kind of just did it for the badass bruises. Later in NLGX, I finally found a stuffed panda cute enough to become mine. I had been looking for the perfect one all summer, and it took me until now to find it! The best part about it is that its head pops off and the body folds out to form a pillow. Thirteen hour plane ride companion? I think so.
The next thing on my list was to go to the Silk Market. I’ve somehow avoided this tourist trap until now, but certain people (read: my mom) want scarves from China. I didn’t think it could happen, but I actually felt guilty about my stellar bargaining this time. I even got myself a nice trench coat for 200 yuan (US$30).
With a few hours to spare before the subway shut down, I paid one last visit to Friends Café in SOHO. This time there were different episodes on, and I tried a milkshake. I noticed a portrait of the Girl With the Pearl Earring – the same as the book I was currently reading!
On Friday, I woke up early to go do something I had really been looking forward to – go to a water park! And not just any water park – the biggest one in Asia… and it was in the Olympic Watercube – how cool! The 200 yuan ticket included a self-guided tour of the aquatics facilities. It was really cool to be able to sit in the stands and imagine watching Michael Phelps winning one of his eight gold metals. The water park itself was a little bit of a letdown, but only because of the crowds. Initially I wanted to ride the biggest water slides, but those lines took over 30 minutes. After suffering through one of those lines for a 30-second ride, I took to the Lazy River. I’m not sure if Chinese people understand that a LAZY River is supposed to be relaxing, because everyone – not just kids – turned it into more of a bumper-tube course. I also went on several smaller slides and rides that were fun. In one of the lines, I met a Chinese girl named Apple (yes, like Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter) who was on vacation from her university in Hangzhou. It turns out she had seen me earlier in the day and had just now worked up the courage to talk to the mei guo ren. As the title of this blog suggests, she was a big fan of American television and recognized my name from one of her favorite shows. Her English was great, and it was fun to have a friend to spend the rest of the day with.
I had to leave the park to meet Jessie to go try on my suit that I had tailored. The pants fit perfectly, but the jacket was a little too loose, so I will be returning to pick up the finished product Sunday. Jessie also wanted to take me to a Korean place to eat, since Korean cuisine is her favorite. I thought it was good, but kind of wished we had done it barbecue style like those seated around us. Each table had a small grill in the middle where they were barbecuing meat, fish and vegetables. Instead, we had noodles, squid with rice, sushi, and ice cream.
When I got off the bus to head back to my apartment, I ran into Brian and Pang Li heading to the Beer Garden for some pijiu. I said, what the hell, and joined them. It was a fun night, mainly consisting of Brian and I trying to convince Pang Li to apply to spend a semester at UNC. He would have some guanxi with Dean Cole and I there, and I KNOW he would love it.
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Monday, August 16, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Safety is heavier than Mount Taishan [23-25]
My frustration phase has come and gone… for now. Mainly because I’m super excited for this weekend – I won’t give too much away, but it involves excellent landmarks, fireworks, and PANDAS!
Dr. Charlie Tuggle is visiting from UNC for a few weeks. He is a broadcast journalism professor and seems like a cool guy. He is giving a few lectures, one of which I went to on Monday, on video journalism. China.org.cn is a good news website but could use some improvement. Video is one thing that is becoming more prevalent in online journalism, so it will be good for them (and me!) to learn about how to effectively capture a story through film.
On Monday, the UNC interns had our last swim practice. I think this is where my frustration set in. After a week of training, I still wasn’t feeling confident at all.
I took it easy on Tuesday and finished a book that my mom gave me, Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It was an emotional read, and I definitely recommend it.
Wednesday was the big day, and I have to say, it went much better than I expected. We arrived at the indoor pool at about 8:15a.m., but our first event, the individual 100-m race, wasn’t until 10a.m. We were the ONLY white people there, and I felt extra white, standing there in my skimpy bathing suit with everyone staring.
The men’s 100-m was split into two heats. Brian was in the first one, and he got third place! I was in the second heat, racing against ONE other person. I had a great start, but got extremely tired about 60 meters in, and slowed down, but still beat the guy in the lane next to me. When times were posted, it turned out that I beat Brian by a HAIR, and got third place overall!
There were barely 15 minutes between the individual race and the relay race. My Chinese teammates offered me Red Bull and Dove bars between the races, which I declined for obvious reasons. Brian was the first leg of the relay, I was second, and our Chinese co-workers and teammates were third and fourth. We only had to swim 50 meters this time, which was much more my style. We were already in the lead with Brian’s start, but according to Courtney, I helped separate us from the others even more with my 50-meter swim, and we eventually won our heat! We ended up in second place, and the girl’s relay got first. Go CIIC! I was so happy to have that over with.
We celebrated with hot pot for lunch, and it was delicious. We all had our individual pot of boiling water with things like lemon, mushroom, and cilantro flavoring the water. The Lazy Susan was full of meats and veggies, some to be cooked in the pots and some to be eaten raw. My favorite was actually a salad with pig ears. Another highlight was rice-covered sausage dipped in garlic sauce (Chinese pork-rinds, if you will). After a few toasts and way too much food, we headed back to the office for work.
In the afternoon, I attended Dr. Tuggle’s second lecture. I enjoy being able to learn things that I cannot fit into my schedule at UNC. Just trying to make the most of my experience here in more ways than one!
After work, Annie’s Chinese colleague, Swatch, took us to the bus stop by work where we rode the bus to the subway station so that I could buy a transportation pass that works for the subway and the busses. It felt great to finally conquer the bus route, even if it was only once. It only costs 0.4 kuai to ride, which will save us LOTS of money in the long run!
We took the subway to Beihai Park, where we met Chris, my conversation exchange partner. He showed us around the lake, which had pretty scenery and was bustling with activity. We had some great conversations about national identity, learning languages, and personal tales. Chris took us to a Chinese restaurant that he really liked, and once again, we had great food. Sweet and sour pork, beef stir-fry, rice and Cokes. He finally let me pay for something, so I felt better about things. Such a nice guy!
Chris accompanied us to Salud, a bar near Keith’s apartment, where he left us and we met up with Keith and Ithzel. The bar was cool, with two floors, a live band (French, maybe?), and strong margaritas. We will definitely be returning with our bus passes for tapas.
We successfully took the last bus home and got in just in time before the gate closed. I needed a good day like this one to put me in a better mood. I have a month and a half left here, and I don’t want it to go any faster than it is!
Dr. Charlie Tuggle is visiting from UNC for a few weeks. He is a broadcast journalism professor and seems like a cool guy. He is giving a few lectures, one of which I went to on Monday, on video journalism. China.org.cn is a good news website but could use some improvement. Video is one thing that is becoming more prevalent in online journalism, so it will be good for them (and me!) to learn about how to effectively capture a story through film.
On Monday, the UNC interns had our last swim practice. I think this is where my frustration set in. After a week of training, I still wasn’t feeling confident at all.
I took it easy on Tuesday and finished a book that my mom gave me, Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It was an emotional read, and I definitely recommend it.
Wednesday was the big day, and I have to say, it went much better than I expected. We arrived at the indoor pool at about 8:15a.m., but our first event, the individual 100-m race, wasn’t until 10a.m. We were the ONLY white people there, and I felt extra white, standing there in my skimpy bathing suit with everyone staring.
The men’s 100-m was split into two heats. Brian was in the first one, and he got third place! I was in the second heat, racing against ONE other person. I had a great start, but got extremely tired about 60 meters in, and slowed down, but still beat the guy in the lane next to me. When times were posted, it turned out that I beat Brian by a HAIR, and got third place overall!
There were barely 15 minutes between the individual race and the relay race. My Chinese teammates offered me Red Bull and Dove bars between the races, which I declined for obvious reasons. Brian was the first leg of the relay, I was second, and our Chinese co-workers and teammates were third and fourth. We only had to swim 50 meters this time, which was much more my style. We were already in the lead with Brian’s start, but according to Courtney, I helped separate us from the others even more with my 50-meter swim, and we eventually won our heat! We ended up in second place, and the girl’s relay got first. Go CIIC! I was so happy to have that over with.
We celebrated with hot pot for lunch, and it was delicious. We all had our individual pot of boiling water with things like lemon, mushroom, and cilantro flavoring the water. The Lazy Susan was full of meats and veggies, some to be cooked in the pots and some to be eaten raw. My favorite was actually a salad with pig ears. Another highlight was rice-covered sausage dipped in garlic sauce (Chinese pork-rinds, if you will). After a few toasts and way too much food, we headed back to the office for work.
In the afternoon, I attended Dr. Tuggle’s second lecture. I enjoy being able to learn things that I cannot fit into my schedule at UNC. Just trying to make the most of my experience here in more ways than one!
After work, Annie’s Chinese colleague, Swatch, took us to the bus stop by work where we rode the bus to the subway station so that I could buy a transportation pass that works for the subway and the busses. It felt great to finally conquer the bus route, even if it was only once. It only costs 0.4 kuai to ride, which will save us LOTS of money in the long run!
We took the subway to Beihai Park, where we met Chris, my conversation exchange partner. He showed us around the lake, which had pretty scenery and was bustling with activity. We had some great conversations about national identity, learning languages, and personal tales. Chris took us to a Chinese restaurant that he really liked, and once again, we had great food. Sweet and sour pork, beef stir-fry, rice and Cokes. He finally let me pay for something, so I felt better about things. Such a nice guy!
Chris accompanied us to Salud, a bar near Keith’s apartment, where he left us and we met up with Keith and Ithzel. The bar was cool, with two floors, a live band (French, maybe?), and strong margaritas. We will definitely be returning with our bus passes for tapas.
We successfully took the last bus home and got in just in time before the gate closed. I needed a good day like this one to put me in a better mood. I have a month and a half left here, and I don’t want it to go any faster than it is!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Shouldn’t you be in school? [18+19]
First, the good news – the swim competition was changed from Friday to Wednesday! Courtney, despite her clever ploys to be exempt from the competition, has been sucked back in and enjoyed her first day of practice on Wednesday. The company paid for us to go shopping for bathing suits, goggles, and caps. I think this is the first time I’ve actually used a cap and goggles. Mike, a Chinese employee here, took us to this tacky mall during work today. It had life-size nutcracker-like models of Santa, reindeer, pandas, and any other silly figure you can think of, wrapped in Christmas lights, lining the exterior of the mall. So, our reason to go was so that we could pick out our own gear, but that wasn’t quite the case. The salesgirl (I swear, she was no older than 10), saw the caps (with the Chinese flag on them) that Brian and I picked out and said that we shouldn’t get those. She also nixed our choices in bathing suits (Spandex… oh yeahhh) and picked out plain black ones for us. The goggles? Plain black. So glad I took time out of my day to go along for that trip…
Practice was a lot better than day 1, but I was still dying after a few laps. Our next and last practice isn’t until Monday. Not that any amount of practice will get me anywhere near ready for Wednesday…
Courtney and I went back to the noodle place for dinner Wednesday night and got two of the dishes that Chris advised us to get Monday night. I’ve been eating the leftovers ever since. It’s such a good feeling to have a menu item that I know I’ll actually enjoy (for days)!
I skyped with my BFF Annie from home the other day, and it was amazing! (Annie: An alternative title to this blog was “Sorry, I can’t read.”) I can’t even imagine studying/working abroad without the technology we have today. Honestly… so far, I’ve talked to my parents and friends for a relatively low cost, watched live performances of Bonnaroo, blogged to all my hordes of followers (sarcasm), and done plenty of other things that would be otherwise impossible a couple decades ago.
Walking home from the office last night, I saw this ferret-like animal cross the road. I need to ask someone here what the hell that thing was, because it’s the first foreign animal I’ve really seen. Annie said that her Chinese partner from Fudan was enchanted by the squirrels in Boone when she visited, so maybe I shouldn’t make a big deal out of it to avoid looking stupid.
Nanlan, one of the editors here, gave Courtney and me an event to cover this weekend. It’s a film festival with two different films – A Farmer’s Struggle and The Children in the Depths. I’ll be viewing and writing about the latter. It’s kind of sad, but I’m kind of living for the weekend right now. Our week is a bit of a drag with not much to do in this part of town except for eat and work out. Hopefully I’ll have fun stories to recount in my next post.
Practice was a lot better than day 1, but I was still dying after a few laps. Our next and last practice isn’t until Monday. Not that any amount of practice will get me anywhere near ready for Wednesday…
Courtney and I went back to the noodle place for dinner Wednesday night and got two of the dishes that Chris advised us to get Monday night. I’ve been eating the leftovers ever since. It’s such a good feeling to have a menu item that I know I’ll actually enjoy (for days)!
I skyped with my BFF Annie from home the other day, and it was amazing! (Annie: An alternative title to this blog was “Sorry, I can’t read.”) I can’t even imagine studying/working abroad without the technology we have today. Honestly… so far, I’ve talked to my parents and friends for a relatively low cost, watched live performances of Bonnaroo, blogged to all my hordes of followers (sarcasm), and done plenty of other things that would be otherwise impossible a couple decades ago.
Walking home from the office last night, I saw this ferret-like animal cross the road. I need to ask someone here what the hell that thing was, because it’s the first foreign animal I’ve really seen. Annie said that her Chinese partner from Fudan was enchanted by the squirrels in Boone when she visited, so maybe I shouldn’t make a big deal out of it to avoid looking stupid.
Nanlan, one of the editors here, gave Courtney and me an event to cover this weekend. It’s a film festival with two different films – A Farmer’s Struggle and The Children in the Depths. I’ll be viewing and writing about the latter. It’s kind of sad, but I’m kind of living for the weekend right now. Our week is a bit of a drag with not much to do in this part of town except for eat and work out. Hopefully I’ll have fun stories to recount in my next post.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The white elephant in the room [Days 16+17]
You can thank Annie for that title. Also, you should check out her blog, Courtney’s blog, and PA’s blog. Blogging is too hippie for Brian.
The cafeteria food is growing on me. If you know me, you know I have an intense sweet tooth. The buffet line here occasionally has sweet dishes that you wouldn’t expect to be sweet – like tomatoes with sugar or boiled peanuts with sugar. I’m especially happy when there’s watermelon, which is about every other day.
The work load has been picking up a bit, with us being assigned a whole zipped folder of articles to edit each morning. They are mostly for the travel section, so I’m keeping them in case I get to visit any of these places in China!
I made a Chinese friend on Monday! If you’ve ever read Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, you know that she has a language exchange partner in Italy, whom she teaches English in exchange for Italian language lessons. I knew I wanted to do this when I got to China, but wasn’t sure how until I read an article in Time Out Beijing magazine that featured conversationexchange.com. It’s really simple – just post a profile with your name, age, sex, current city, primary language, and desired language, and wait for a response or browse potential exchange partners. I posted my profile and had five or six replies within the day. Apparently lots of Beijingers want to learn English! I e-mailed back and forth with the first person to reply, a 21-year-old Beijinger called Chris. He seemed to have good written English already but wanted to practice more. We decided to meet for dinner on Monday, so I invited Annie along, and we all met up at the office. I was a little nervous – not about meeting a stranger, but more about making a fool out of myself with Chinese etiquette (Who should pay? What will he think about our typical ordering method of pointing at the menu? Is the “noodle place” even a nice restaurant by Chinese standards?). I have to say, it went really well! We didn’t share much language pointers, but we shared cultural norms for college students and had a great meal. It helped immensely having a local point out good things on the menu. Annie and I could also tell that he was happy to be talking to English-speakers, as he ate very little but talked a lot. He also paid for the meal, which was unexpected. I tried to pay, but gave up when the waitress wouldn’t take my cash, as I had read that this could cause the other person to lose face. Chris said he would like to show us around other parts of Beijing, so it looks like we gained a tour guide as well!
Tuesday night was equally eventful, but not in a fun way. Brian and I had swim practice. I might have mentioned before how we got suckered into signing up for a company swim competition, which is Friday. Let me tell you, after ten minutes of swim practice, I thought I was going to die. We also found out that we won’t only be competing as individuals, but we will also be in a team relay. Kill me now. If I don’t come down with the flu (please!!!!!) in the next couple of days, I might lose my breakfast in the pool on Friday.
The cafeteria food is growing on me. If you know me, you know I have an intense sweet tooth. The buffet line here occasionally has sweet dishes that you wouldn’t expect to be sweet – like tomatoes with sugar or boiled peanuts with sugar. I’m especially happy when there’s watermelon, which is about every other day.
The work load has been picking up a bit, with us being assigned a whole zipped folder of articles to edit each morning. They are mostly for the travel section, so I’m keeping them in case I get to visit any of these places in China!
I made a Chinese friend on Monday! If you’ve ever read Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, you know that she has a language exchange partner in Italy, whom she teaches English in exchange for Italian language lessons. I knew I wanted to do this when I got to China, but wasn’t sure how until I read an article in Time Out Beijing magazine that featured conversationexchange.com. It’s really simple – just post a profile with your name, age, sex, current city, primary language, and desired language, and wait for a response or browse potential exchange partners. I posted my profile and had five or six replies within the day. Apparently lots of Beijingers want to learn English! I e-mailed back and forth with the first person to reply, a 21-year-old Beijinger called Chris. He seemed to have good written English already but wanted to practice more. We decided to meet for dinner on Monday, so I invited Annie along, and we all met up at the office. I was a little nervous – not about meeting a stranger, but more about making a fool out of myself with Chinese etiquette (Who should pay? What will he think about our typical ordering method of pointing at the menu? Is the “noodle place” even a nice restaurant by Chinese standards?). I have to say, it went really well! We didn’t share much language pointers, but we shared cultural norms for college students and had a great meal. It helped immensely having a local point out good things on the menu. Annie and I could also tell that he was happy to be talking to English-speakers, as he ate very little but talked a lot. He also paid for the meal, which was unexpected. I tried to pay, but gave up when the waitress wouldn’t take my cash, as I had read that this could cause the other person to lose face. Chris said he would like to show us around other parts of Beijing, so it looks like we gained a tour guide as well!
Tuesday night was equally eventful, but not in a fun way. Brian and I had swim practice. I might have mentioned before how we got suckered into signing up for a company swim competition, which is Friday. Let me tell you, after ten minutes of swim practice, I thought I was going to die. We also found out that we won’t only be competing as individuals, but we will also be in a team relay. Kill me now. If I don’t come down with the flu (please!!!!!) in the next couple of days, I might lose my breakfast in the pool on Friday.
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