The Last One

After a few eventful, stressful, and jam-packed full of stuff last few weeks in China I am back in the US. I couldn't update for a long time due to the Chinese government blocking Blogger and just about all the proxy servers too, but now I am safe and sound, forever changed by China: a little older, a lot better at speaking Mandarin, and with a great new appreciation for Asian girls. In terms of online communication, my life will likely return to being mainly facebook based now. Farewell, China blog, and thanks to everyone that made my experience for the past year so great.

-周乐民, Joe Lemien

I feel like I live in Little Italy

Every now and then I hear this sound. Maybe it is someone practicing trumpet. Maybe it is someone practicing trombone, or tuba. Who knows? All I know, is it really makes this place seem like a neighborhood. Makes it seem really friendly and homey. This morning, from just outside my window, I heard some old man berating some other guy for throwing a cigarette butt on the ground. Again, it makes it feel like a real neighborhood. This neighborhood, after all, home to several hundred people. And I am sure there are over one thousand within the gates of the complex. The gates which, as convenience would have it, have a single piece of metal missing a few feet to the side, allowing for easy access, regardless of what time it is. I like that. Why does the sound of some unknown brass instrument make me feel like I am in Little Italy (for brass it is, no woodwind has that much power)? And why does the concept of a friendly, livable neighborhood immediately bring Little Italy to mind? I have never even been to Little Italy. The closest I have been to little Italy is exchanging 'chiao's with Federicco, an Italian here in Beijing who Juggles (and juggles well, I might add). It certainly makes me miss that tiny Italian restaurant in Duluth though. There are many Italian restaurants here in Beijing, but none even come close to the scent, the feel, the atmosphere of authenticity that imbued that place. I'd like to eat there again when I am back in Duluth.

In other news, I am learning Spanish. I had my first class yesterday, I skipped all of class today, and I plan to be a very good student from now on. I am the only foreigner in the class (aside from the teacher, who I assume is Latin American from her accent), and I think I actually have a big advantage over many of the Chinese students. This is just because I grew up with a small amount of Spanish vocabulary and pronunciation in my environment (having a dad that majored in Spanish probably helped a little bit), so I already know the numbers 1-10, how to say hello and goodbye, and I can roll my tongue like there's no tomorrow. Makes the Spanish sounds is a lot easier for me than for the Chinese students. But with our four hours of class each day I imagine any gap there is starting should be gone pretty quick. Actually, I had to miss two hours of the first day of class so that I could see Jamie to the airport. He left the country yesterday afternoon (plane took off at 4:10), so I left class early to meet him one last time before fall quarter at Kalamazoo. It made me a bit sad to see him off. I didn't cry, but my eyes got a little wet as I watched him show his ticket and passport to the security guard, and walk away, becoming smaller and smaller against the background of imposing airport architecture. That evening I actually got sicker and sicker, until Lili finally pumped me full of Chinese medicine and made me eat something. Currently, I am feeling the most healthy I have felt in the past week. However, this morning I was unable to go to Spanish class at all. This is because I had to work. I had scheduled the work Monday afternoon, but the Cetvantes Institute didn't tell me that the class was starting on Tuesday until Monday evening. By then it was too late to rearrange my work schedule (believe me: I tried). But starting tomorrow morning 9:30am I am going to go to class for four hours every weekday, and study in the afternoons and evenings. I obviously won't be fluent after 60 hours of class, or even conversational, but I am excited to be able to get a basic education in the Spanish language.

A wonderful job come and gone, and a new language about to start

I found this awesome job with a group called Dandelion Hiking(http://www.chinahiking.cn/). A Chinese lady runs the group, and she needed an English speaking assistant/secretary to help her translate emails, put adds online, and translate on the hikes for any guests that can't speak Chinese. AWESOME! We went to an old part of the great wall two weekends ago, and this past weekend we went to JingXi ancient road, an old roadway that has been used for hundreds of years since the Yuan Dynasty (that's the one that the Mongols established). The pay wasn't great, but for the ease of the work and how much I enjoyed it I was pretty satisfied. Also, the groups tends to go to more "off the beaten track" places, so there aren't lots of other tourists, and there is a lot of calm and nature. Unfortunately, the boss sent me an email last night saying that she would rather have a female assistant. As much as I enjoyed working for her, I am gonna have to find something else to do now. *sad*

I am still waiting for my English Teaching companies (I am now with three of them) to get me some students. I really want to get some more, but I don't like just waiting for them to contact me. I have called my original company again, telling them again that I want some more students. I am, however, a bit unsatisfied with my current work situation, so I am gonna resume searching TheBeijinger.com for work. I have done the voice recording again, and they called me up to do it again tomorrow, which makes it an average of once a week. However, regardless of how nice the pay may be, I don't want to rely on that as my base income, since it is freelance work, and thus by definition unstable and unreliable.

This means that I am back to my original situation: the only steady reliable income I have is from the two high school students that I teach English to twice a week. Although that 440 RMB a week is enough to cover my food, transport, and other living expenses, it is not enough to earn back the money I paid for this apartment, nor enough to pay for the acrobatic school I plan on for August. I just picked up another expense too: I am gonna take Spanish class. I think it is cheaper here than it would be to take a community college class in the US, and I have free time up the wazoo. So tomorrow I am gonna take my passport and 1,750 RMB to the Cervantes Institute of Beijing, and sign up for a three week super-intensive Spanish class. It will be from 9am to 1pm, Monday to Friday for three weeks, and it starts next Monday. I am glad that I can sign up so last minute, and that they have this kind of a short-term intensive class, particularly since I can't make a commitment to a longer term study due to my plan to attend the acrobatic school in August.

I also need to take care of my visa stuff. Specifically, I need an extension. I found a company that can help me for a bit under 2000 RMB. I called today but there was no answer, so I am gonna talk to some of the other foreign students I know that are still in Beijing to see what they are doing. Getting a visa is pretty important, since staying here is impossible without one.

Yeah, I guess I am a little worried about the job stuff and the visa stuff, both of which are pretty important. I am excited about learning Spanish though. My roommate, Veronica, can speak Spanish, so if I have questions I can just ask her. I am also excited because I am getting closer to being able to juggle 5 balls. I'm still not there, but I can feel progress. I can't think of anything else to write, so I am gonna just end it there.

Time to start doing this thing!

Two things I wanna say to preface this. First, I think I am gonna try and write a blog every week for the summer. Afterall, I have the free time now. That is my goal, secondly my sister finally got a facebook, and I had this nice long message written out to her about my life here in Beijing. I was just editing out some mistakes, so I hit 'backspace'... and lo and behold I returned to the previous page. Of course, when I forwarded to the message writing page, all my hard work was gone. :( Here is the revised and updated general info about my life which I had intended to send to my sister, here for her, my parents, and the entire world to see.

I suppose I will start with my new place. Well, my room doesn't have much floorspace, but the bed is really big. I can roll around as much as I want, comfortably sprawl out to read, watch movies on my computer, and lay almost completely sideways without my feet sticking out. Sheets here seems to lack the elastic billowing section at the corner that allows them to conveniently grip a mattress, so I just have them tucked in on the sides, but as much as I tend to wiggle around trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in they usually get tugged undone a bit. The kitchen is really small, but I imagine I won't be using it for much other than putting the meat/veggie/sauce combination that you get when you order gaifan(盖饭) on top of the rice, and then washing my chopsticks after I am done eating my takeout. If I make plenty of money and I decide to get really fancy maybe I will purchase a rice cooker, but I don't really see that happening. The bathroom is similar size to the kitchen, but it has all the necessities and then some: in addition to the toilet, sink, and shower trinity of bathroom needs, it also has a washing machine. That is DAMN nice, because I do NOT want to have to walk to the local laundromat every time I get tired of re-wearing my clothes for the 4th time. The living room is nothing special. In order to liven the room up a bit, it could really use a red, blue, or similarly strong-colored rug to warm it up a bit, as well as some more stuff hanging on the walls (Lili put up a painting I got in Xi'an, but it is kind of gray-blue colored, and positioned on a wall that I don't see very often). In retrospect, I think I shouldn't have given Veronica the big bedroom so readily, or I should at least have requested that she pay a bit more of the rent, since she has a bit more of the floorspace. I think maybe I will talk to her about that when she gets back from her vacation in Yunnan. The location of my apartment is fantastic too! Less than a 10 minute walk (or a 3 minute bus ride) from the subway, not to mention the bus routes that go by here can get me all over the city. The neighborhood has lots of little shops, although less cheap restaurants than I would like. I have yet to do a thorough exploring of the shops, but I want to find somewhere to buy a yoga mat, and a guy told me that there is a magic shop around here too! There are several music shops, and if I had the disposable income for it I would waltz right in and sign up for lessons on some Chinese instrument, but I don't want to make any more financial commitments until I get some more work, preferably at least 1500 RMB per week.

My apartment costs 4000 in rent per month, so I pay 2000 per month. The acrobatic school I am planning on going to for August will cost about 4000-5000 RMB. Add on a bit of guesswork for food and miscellaneous necessities, and I came up with the goal of earning 12,000 RMB before August. With eight weeks, that breaks down to 1500 per week. My first week's earnings (not counting freelance work): 440 RMB. ...Hmmm. A bit of a gap there, eh? Yeah, I need some more students. The way my English teaching works is that I go through a company. Students go to the company to request one-on-one tutoring, and the company then introduces the student to a teacher. However, I have no students at the moment. I have let my company know for quite a while now that I want more students, but I am still sitting at zero. I am gonna get in touch with another English teaching company (the one my flatmate, Veronica, works with) this week, and try to work with them too. Outside of the English teaching companies, I have two steady students that have negotiated pay and classes with me personally, two high school students. We meet twice a week in a coffee shop in the trendy, international part of town, and I usually bring an article from an American newspaper, something I found on Simple English Wikipedia... something with an interesting topic that will teach them more than just language, but also about culture and life in America. It is always fun to teach them, because all three of us meet together (cheaper for them, and more money for me too), so we can have small discussions rather than just two way dialogues. I am trying to introduce a lot of ideas, but there are some things that they are not comfortable talking about or don't have much to say about (gay marriage) and some things that simply don't interest them at all (the US's international relations), so there is a lot communal decision making about what we should study each class. I like that a lot, because this way I don't feel like a totalitarian ruler, arbitrarily imposing my plan, but more like a little commune, deciding what we want to do as a group. Outside of teaching English, last week was my first time working as a voice recorder. Reading simple texts for three and a half hours was boring as hell, but at 200 RMB an hour (about $30/hour) it felt really nice to walk out of there with that wad of hundreds in my wallet. It is a freelance thing, so if they want me again the will call me. It is nice money, but since it isn't regular it isn't the kind of thing I want to rely on. There is also a place that calls me to teach English to a group of elementary school kids for several hours on some weekends for a few hundred RMB, but again: it's freelance work, so it not steady and I don't want to rely on it for my necessary income. Ideally, I want to get four or five more English students, so that my steady, reliable income will increase to 1500 per week, with occasional freelance work here and there. Not counting the freelance (which shouldn't be more than 600 or so each time), that would have me working about 12 or 14 hours each week, a significant increase from the three hours each week I am working now, just teaching the high school students.

I haven't just been hanging around though. Three things have been taking up my time recently: looking for more work, reading, and Meng Lili. Lili really like my new apartment. It is A LOT more comfortable than her dorm room, so she is hanging out here a lot. I am sure that her liking me has something to do with it, but the couch and the big screen TV probably help draw her here too. I am cool with her hanging out here though, not only 'cause I like her back, but also because she helped me out BIG TIME. Ya see, there are lots of English language books at the national library in Beijing, but foreigners aren't allowed to rent them. With my money put on the card as a deposit, Lili successfully got a library card, and is kindly letting me rent books off of it. I have my own library card for the national library as well, but I can only enter to read the books there. I am not allowed to take them out of the library using my own card. As far as the reading itself goes, I just finished my first book of the summer, one which has been on my reading list for a while, ever since seeing it recommended by my favorite anarcho-punk group: Cunt. To be honest, a lot of the book I didn't like. Her talk about how powerful women are, how playing chess prepares you for self-defense, and buying products only produced by fully women owned enterprises seemed a bit silly to me. (not to say that women are weak, but power is measured in relative terms. If you claim that women are powerful, the only people to contrast that with is men, who are just as numerous and just as powerful. In other words, stating that women are powerful implies that men are weak, and, tearing away all the socio-economic stuff and muscle mass, I fail to see a power difference between women and men as individuals in terms of will-power, passion, desire, etc.) However, it did have what seemed to me like some good recommendations in other sections of the book, so I would advise all of my female friends to read it, both as a to reawaken awareness to some of the constant dangers toward women in our society, and just as a way of being more aware of their own bodies. I agree with the author in the respect that I am surprised at how some of my female friends are so ignorant of what is actually happening in their body every month. Other books on my reading list for this summer include Wolf Totem, a story about a man who was sent to Inner Mongolia during the cultural revolution and his experience with the nature and culture there, Opening Up, a sociological work about sex and youth culture in Shanghai, The End of Poverty, concerning global wealth distribution, and several writings about various aspects of China, globalization, and minority cultures here. I can't spend my whole time here just reading books I find interesting though. I have to do some reading about potential SIP topics as well. I hope that some of the books I read about China and globalization can help give me some direction, and there are papers I can download from Jstor to supplement the books I read too. My current plan write now is to read a lot about ethic minorities in China and have that be my SIP, but we'll see how I feel about that subject come autumn. I have found another interesting work though, entitled Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, written by Kató Lomb, a Hungarian who ended up being able to use about twenty different languages to communicate, also being mostly self-taught. I have had vague plans to pick up French and Spanish after I leave China, and this has really helped me realize this vague idea into a real goal. Afterall, I am only 21! I have decades left, and if I spend the same amount of time and energy on French of Spanish for three years, I will be much more proficient in those languages than I am now with Chinese!

My job hunt has had some success, which is almost surprising considering how lazily I have been looking. I have been accepted as a secretary with a hiking group, Dandelion hiking. It is a really small business, and my pay will be appropriately small, but so will my working hours. I will mostly be doing fairly simple tasks which make use of my having English as a mother tongue: responding to emails which are written in English, and some minor translating. As a benefit, I get to go and climb the great wall or a nearby mountain every weekend! I went with the group just yesterday to a new part of the great wall, the most run down and un-restored section I have been to yet! It was raining, which actually made the hike not much fun, but It was nice to see some good sights. That was not the only time I got out of Beijing recently though! Last week at Juggling Club, Fede introduced me to Li Zhengkai, who was planning a two month performance tour from Beijing to Sichuan province. Fede felt I was one of the only Juggling Club regulars that had the confidence and skill to perform, so I signed my name right then and there. Zhengkai called me on Thursday afternoon to ask me if I could leave Beijing with him and his friends that evening, and I said yes as I started to pack my bags. A few hours later there with five of us in a car and Nirvana on the radio (these guys were musicians, and one of the retirements of being a modern musician in China is to be well-acquainted with whatever is popular in the West), it really felt like the beginning of a road trip. It was for them, but not me. Due to the fact that I had to go to the great wall on Saturday I wasn't able to stay with them for long, but during the two days we hung out in Hebei province I did my first real street performance. On a public square in a little city in Hebei, I span my fire staff, make jokes with the crowd, breathed fire, and earned 20 RMB in doing so. I was not the only member of the group to perform though. I was most impressed by Xifi, a crippled man with almost no use of his arms who does calligraphy, uses chopsticks, and does just about everything else with his feet, including performance art.

One thing I have not been doing at all? Studying Chinese. I could use the excuse that I am still arranging my life (what work I will do, what community organizations I will partake in, etc), but the thought of studying Chinese hasn't even crossed my mind... until tonight. I went into a resturant, looked at the menu on the wall, and I was amazed by how many characters I still didn't know. I think I will take a photograph of that wall, and then learn those characters. Then I will be able to order ANYTHING in the restaurant!

As a side note, June 4th just passed, anniversary of you-know-what back in '89. The Chinese
government is going crazy with their internet security, and Hotmail, Blogger, Youtube, and Twitter are all blocked. (I use a proxy server) I went to the square twice that day, once in the morning with Lili and her friend (an ethnic Tibetan who gave me the pleasure of hearing my first ever Tibetan rap), and again in the evening with Li Zhengkai before we left the city. There were more police officers than there were regular people in the square, and most of the security was in plain clothes. The need some acting classes though, and a better plan, because it was pretty damn easy to tell who was a cop and who was a tourist. The fact that stoic looking guys in t-shirts and polos (and Olympic volunteer shirts! What would the IOC think of that?) would hold umbrellas for other stoic looking guys in t-shirts and polos who were talking on a walkie-talkie, or would hang out and chat with uniformed guards helped to give it away a bit. Also, the fact that they tended to move in pairs of small groups, all have the same plaid umbrella (it was really bright that morning), and never lose their disciplined walk make it plain as day. When I was there in the evening, one Chinese guy even asked one of the guards “walking around here all day like that, do you get tired?”, and a pair of young Chinese guys mockingly waved Chinese flags and shouted “yeah!” to some security forces. It was nice to see these little expressions of joy on such a somber day. The night before I actually spent some time showing Lili youtube videos (accessed ia proxy server, of course. Youtube has been blocked for months) about what had happened twenty years ago.

Time for a Real Update!

It has been too long. The business of life as of late, the stress of studying and preparing for classes everyday, the frustration of not learning what I want to learn, and the desire to get off campus and do things in the city have kept me from writing for quite a while. Also, I am motivated to write about novel and interesting things. When I first arrived in China, almost everything was amazing and new, but I have adapted, and crossing the street in heavy traffic, spitting on the sidewalk, and the public transit system here all feel normal now, so it is rather unusual that so many blog-worthy things have happened lately. It feels good to have a bit of this motivation back.

What can I owe it too? A small amount is to the benefit of communicating in relationships. I mean relationships of any kind between people, but in my personal situation I am indeed talking about the connotation that the word usually has in English (a meaning which it lacks in Chinese), namely romantic relationships. More so, however, I believe that I owe it to John Lennon. It wasn't just listening to old Beatles songs that made my mood better. I am just now discovering what a damn cool guy John Lennon was. I am currently a little less than halfway through the film "U.S. vs John Lennon", and I have to admit: I had no idea he was this politically active. How inspiring. Especially due to how I have been in China these past several months, mostly disconnected from political happenings in the U.S., disconnected from people who would help to motivate me, and just disconnected from conversations about politics (conversations about politics are usually just conversations about people's opinions about politics. In China, most individuals have no effect on the political system. Having a strong opinion has no benefit or advantage, and often has large disadvantages, so why bother?), politics has mostly left my mind. Certainly, every now and then I will read a news article in the New York Times or the Christian Science Monitor(recommended by Noam Chomsky!), and when I feel particularly receptive to liberal or radical news I even wait for the daily Democracy Now! show to load, but in day to day life I am usually more concerned with eating, studying, sleeping, studying, and finding fun things to do when I am done studying. Due to this gap between my current mindset and all of the political and radical things that I have been interested in for the past few years, watching this documentary about John Lennon is like a blast from the past; a little drop of amnesia elixir, reminding me that the world is big and Beijing is actually not the center of it.

Now that I have explained my motivation for writing, I suppose I might as well go ahead and tell you what life has been like recently. Well, I went to a Chinese school dance the other night, and I noticed some cultural differences. One thing is that the "DJ" (With my experience behind the DJ table, I find it difficult and a little painful to use that term to refer the OBVIOUSLY unskilled person controlling the music) clearly had no objection to playing the same song as many as three or four times throughout the night, and variety of songs available (of which I think there were six or seven) all sounded similar enough that they could conceivably just be techno remixes of each other. I was actually surprised at how quickly kids got out on the dance floor one the fast music started. Just like in the U.S., nobody wants to be the first out there, but I expected critical mass to accumulate much slower here. It seemed about the same as any high school dance in America (granted, these were Chinese graduate students). Another factor about this dance, first a bunch of fast songs were played, then a bunch of slow songs, and then the same bunch of fast songs. Aside from what I already commented about the songs all sounding suspiciously similar, the only slow songs played were waltzes. I could understand this as a cultural thing, except for the fact that hardly any of the students knew how to walks. One couple was doing some excellent salsa moves, but they were completely ignoring the rhythm of the music and just doing there own thing. I ended up teaching four or five people the basic box step waltz, and I was treated like such a hero for doing so (mostly because I was white and could speak decent Chinese. If I was a Chinese guy teaching the waltz it would be a lot more normal.) The last special observation I have to share is about the time frame. It went like this: The dance started at 7:30, and it ended at around 9:30. For those of you who may have trouble remembering being in your early twenties, I will paint a clearer picture. Most American youth have not even begun to prepare to dance by 9:30. Out the door at 10pm would seem early to many of the people that I know form college in America. This was a night where I really wish that I had my DJ equipment, and I would just rock that floor.

Dancing is not all that I have been doing of late, however. Looking has been a primary activity for the past week or so. For what, one may ask? When decided to live in a city (as I have done), it is usually convenient to have a home. As a young foreigner without much savings, a cheap apartment is exactly what I am looking for. I found one today that I like quite a bit. It is in the Jiao dao kou (交道口） area of Beijing, which is pretty centrally located, near the subway, near convenient bus stations, and a neighbor hood that is kind of hip, not to mention my favorite theater in town, home to both the Beijing Actors Workshop and Beijing Improv. It has two bedrooms, and is going for 4000 RMB per month. Or perhaps I should say it went for 4000 RMB per month, as I just payed the deposit today. Not gonna lie: I am a little worried about two things. First, I don't have a roommate yet. I have two possibilities, but neither has given me a definite yes. The other, I was only able to meet with the agent not the landlord, so I haven't actually signed the contract. Hmmmm. I didn't think about this until Meng Lili told me that I was stupid, but now I am a little worried that I just got scammed big time. I didn't get any vibes or anything, and everything seemed pretty legit, but worrying won't do any good until Monday when I give 'housing agent lady' a call to see whether or not she pick up her phone. If not, then I just learned an expensive (and painful) lesson.

Just a pre-warning here: Anyone not comfortable with reading about facts that are (or should be) obvious to everyone, and blunt and honest conversations about sex and private parts may want to skip the this paragraph. Warning over.Returning from meeting with the agent and paying the deposit is by far my most interesting conversation with a taxi driver to date. (although just the other day I had an encounter with an ethnic Manchu cabbie who told me that his ancestors were banner men in the Ming Dynasty. Kind cool!) It all started with that all too natural male impulse. As I got in his cab, I scratched my crotch and rearranged... well, I think everyone reading this is old enough to know what I was rearranging. I noticed something was funny when I noticed him eying my crotch. It started out innocently enough: he asked me if I wore underwear. I said no, and although it took a while for me to actually explain to him that I meant I did not find it comfortable, and I found no sufficiently convincing reason to wear it, I eventually made myself understood. He then asked how old I was and I replied that I was only 21, still a child. After having discussed our underwear habits for five minutes, he must of felt fairly comfortable, because the conversation kept expanding from there (get the pun? hehe). He started to ask me if I had sex, how big I was (I don't mean height in cm), how long it takes me to... well, finish, and similar questions all relating to sex and genitals. I found one of the more humorous questions to be when he asked "舒服吗？", which translates to "Comfortable?" (with the implied context being having sex. Chinese is big on implied things and context) Well, comfortable is not the first word I would use to describe the major motivation in life for young people with hormones around the world, but I eventually managed to portray the fact that although sex was enjoyable, in my opinion neither "fun" nor "comfortable" really described it very actually. He went on to ask if my girlfriend was a virgin, if my first time was with a virgin, and various other questions, all of which I am sure that I am the only student from CET who would understand (I think I am the only CET student whose Chinese vocabulary includes the ability to describe sexual organs, virginity, and sexual orgasm). In fact, I am getting a very humorous image in my head imagining some of my classmates in a similar situation, trying to guess from context what the word 处女 or 射 means. Arriving back home, I paid him his money and went on my way, wondering when the next time would be that I would have that open and relaxed a conversation about such private, personal, and intimate matters with a complete stranger (all I know about him is that he is a Beijing taxi driver, and he has been married for six or seven years).

Meng Lili and I got together for dinner tonight, and we went to a place of her choosing, a Mongolian restaurant near 民族大学, which might be translated at Ethnicity University. Most of the students there are ethnic minorities, and there are a lot od ethnic minority restaurants in the area. After dinner we walked around the 民族大学 campus, and we discovered some kind of community dance. According to Lili they were doing an Tibetan dance. I sort of wanted to join in and learn it, but my mood wasn't right, and jumping into it just seemed wrong. Lili and I ended up talking though, and it was a good thing we did. There are a lot of cultural differences between the U.S. and China, and to make this kind of a cross-cultural relationship work, communication skills have to be at a maximum. The things we say, how we say them, and the things we don't say are interpreted completely different ways from what we intend, just because we send out these messages from one cultural lens, but they are interpreted my a lens with different standards and norms. I need to display more appreciation for her (she feels like she is in second place compared to juggling, a complain I never thought I would hear), and all of her making fun of me and teasing about flirting with other with boys is apparently very common in Chinese couples. There were several times during the evening when if she was an American girl, I would have been sure we would be talking about breaking up within minutes, but I guess to Chinese girls complaining about how "you don't understand me" and "I need to look out for future prospects" don't have the same meaning they might have in an American couple. I gotta wonder: after working with this, what is it gonna be like dating an American girl again (something I do plan on doing again eventually)?

My summer plans are almost set. Apartment is almost secured, the visa situation is almost taken care of, the job situation is looking good, and my application to the acrobatics school is almost complete. It is, however, past midnight here in the Northern Capital, and I need to get up early tomorrow to buy munchies and drinks for the bike hike along the big wall. 晚安.

Spring Break '09: Big Buddha, Big Mountain... I want to say a third big too, but I can't think of a good one

It is Saturday evening, and I am sitting in an inernet cafe in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, waiting for the lastest episode of heores to load, and for my cellphone to recharge. It has been a fun week. I'm not gonna lie: there have been times where I felt lonely, or bored, or frustrated. I am still glad I made to decision to travel alone though, since I have not gotten close enough to people on my CET program that I would want to spend a week in their company, comprisiming my freedom to choose where I want to go. On the whole, it has been a pretty enjoyable week. What have I done the past seven days? Let me think for a minute...

* I saw the big buddha in Leshan (I quick internet search just revealed to me that this is NOT the world's biggest Buddha statue, but it was still of an impressive size)
* Decided that my favorite bridge in the world is located just to the South of the big Buddha (pictures will come up once I am back in Beijing)
* Made friends with a Uigher boy who led me to an umbrella shop (don't worry, it gets stranger...)
* Climbed all the way up the holy mountain of Emei in one day, covering a little over 30 kilometers on foot, plus climbing to a height of 2,500 meters.
* Chatted with a Buddhist monk, and heard about how carefree the life of a Buddhist monk is.
* Observed an incredible sunris through the clouds with a bunch of Chinese college students at 3000 meters, shortly followed by observing a bunch Chinese college student starting a giant snowball fight at 3000 meters.
* While decending from the summit of Emei Shan, I randomly bumped into two classmates from Beijing, and procceeded to hike down the mountain with them. Wow. What a small world. (and it is hard to say that in a country with this many people!)
* Monkeys. HOLY SHIT were there monkeys! There were times I was amused by monkey theft of other people's snacks, times I was afriad that big mother monkeys were gonna maul me, times I wanted to cuddle babt monkeys, and the time where a monkey jumped on my head in an attempt to get a snack out of my pocket (I'm not sure what he was thinking. Maybe is was a diversionary tactic to help his buddy get the food).
* A cool Daoist temple. I have now seens dozens of Buddhist temples, but this is the first full Daoist temple I have seen, with minimal, if any, Buddhist influence.
* Chengdu does indeed have pretty girls. A combination of clothing style, laid-back attitude, and facial structure?
* Sichuan Opera has a lot more potential than Beijing Opera. Balanceing a bowl of fire on my head while sliding under a bench is now a new goal of mine, and is using my hands to make shadow puppets.
* What is cuter than a banby panda? A dozen baby pandas all in one area playing, laying on their backs munching bamboo off of their cute, fat bellies, amd climbing trees. No wonder the Chinese name means "big bear cat."
* I gave a Buddha statue an offering of fruit. It is really common here, but the strawberries I gave him were fairly mushed and they didn't look very tasty anymore. But hey, a statue doens't need to worry about the consistency of his food, right?
* I met two recent graduates from Minnesota travelling the East, one lady from Australia with pink hair, a lip piercing, and tatoos, and a British girl who likes foreign food, architecture, and animals.
* I went to a yoga class in Chengdu, and it felt awesome. My legs still hurt from climbing the mountain, though.
* Almost fell into a Chinese toilet
* Considered the consequences of streaking Tiananment square while yelling things the Chinese government would prefer it's citizens not to hear. ...I decided that the consequences of this might be a bit too dire for me to do at the end of study abroad (although I would certainly make international news, as well as have a fairly unique chance to document how the Chinese police treat foreign 'political undesirables'), but I will certainly try to do it if I find out that my death is imminent (dur to fatal ilness, enemies in high places, or whatever).
* Continued to contemplate my SIP, with out a final plan. I have come up with two more topics though: Cultural exchange between tibetans and mongolians (did you know that Mongolians are the one's who MADE the Da'hl-ai La.ma?), and working at a youth hostel in Beijing this summer. I have decided that I do NOT want to do Chinese acrobat school as a SIP, although I still hope to go for a month on my own to learn staff spinning, and/or balance board, and/or meteor.
* I miss Meng Lili a lot. I thought about her a lot while I was climbing the mountain (other than enjoy the incredible scenery, I had very little to do but think), and she seems like just the right amount of everything. The right amount grown up and mature and the right amount playful and childish. The right amount seriously motivated to make the world a better place, and the right amount naively dreaming for a perfect little life. The right amount strong and independent and the right amount of needing/wanting me by her side. I am really glad we ended up meeting.
* I visited the Tibetan section of town, and I was amazed by how many people there can't speak Chinese. I learned some basic Tibetan from three monks who were sitting on the sidewalk, and I bought an outfit of traditional Tibetan clothing.
* I realized that I can understand the Sichuan dialect (in Chengdu, anyway). It must be more similar to Standard Mandarin than I thought, and my language skills must have made a signifigant improvement since this semester started.
* I finally learned my lesson: foreign food here usually sucks. The pasta wasn't good. The burrito wasn't that great either. Other than the dominoes pizza I had with Jamie, the foreign food has usually been a let down. I should just save up my cravings until I get back to the US, and then eat everything in one week and get really fat. Well, maybe I'll just save my cravings until I get back to the US.

I am flying back to Beijing at 8am tomorrow, which, in retrospect, is a few hours earlier than I should have arranged it. :( Oh well. I have about 250 kwuai left in my wallet, which means I have used up most of the money that I saved during the first half of this quarter and my week of working at American House. But I will work more and earn more, so it is no biggy. I have to say, I am really looking forward to geting back to the capital. Having a good shower, a shave (it has been a week and I look pretty scruffy), and some good old Beijing-style gai fan (a dish served on top of rice). I am also itching to practice juggling again. When I left Beijing I had just started to practice using five balls, and I am making progress. I am still a long ways away from actually being able to juggle five, but I am getting more used to throwing them, and I can catch a few. Little by little...

Pics will come once I am back in Bejing.

I sent an email, and I am lazy

I am such a lazy son of bitch, I am just gonna copy and paste an email I sent to my best bed, and consider that a real update on my blog. Keep in mind that unless you are Jamie, you might now get some of the references in here, but that's okay. Just go with the flow.

开始！
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Yeah, that last blog entry way a bit of a bummer. I was feeling pretty out of it that day. Fortunately it was just a day or two day slump. What has been on and off annoying me is my lack of time to do things. However, once I cut the daily exercise out of my schedule I do okay with time. It's no lie to say that I stay pretty busy. I usually put in between one and a half hours and two hours of studying/homework each weekday. On Monday CET has a kung fu class that I have been going to, and after that I go to the Beijing juggling club. I teach an 一对一 English class on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and two on Sunday evenings. I also started taking a modern dance dance class with a Chinese company (really cool, it has been years since I have done modern dance! Not since high school, really.), which is on Thursday. With a test every Friday morning, the afternoon is free, so I end up spending it doing that weekend's homework, or hanging out with 张强. 张强 and I have gotten together two or three times since the beginning of this semester, and having a college student friend outside of the CET program really helps me to feel grounded in the city. (as if I don't have enough other stuff going on. Ha!)

Every now and then I get frustrated with the classes, usually on days when I have a commitment in the evening so I feel rushed for time, and days that class feels particularly useless. I believe that am indeed using the same book that you used last semester, the red one. Although I am occasionally dissatisfied with the practicality of learning about AIDS and world population problems, it is usually okay. The business class (and to a lesser extent the 一对一) really gets to me though. The teacher for the business class is just terrible. Every day in class we just read through the text and a list of words. I am not kidding when I say that half of the class is her saying a word and the students repeating it. Another factor is that so much of the stuff in that class is the kind of thing I would use in a business conference, or two companies negotiating prices, but these are things that I really don't see myself using. The 一对一 classes were fine back during fall semester, but now they feel like a waste. If I have questions about the grammar or stuff it is great, but I usually understand the stuff fine (it is wonderful how grammatically simple this language is, right?). In the fall it provided an opportunity to speak Chinese for a while in just free conversation, but now I know plenty of Chinese people out in the city, and I speak Chinese with the roommates and other CET students. Especially on days when I decide I want to exercise, I don't want to go to 一对一.

I think the combination of the tight schedule gives me the desire for more time, and the perceived uselessness of some of my classes really makes me wish that I didn't have to take those classes, resulting in a bit of simmering rebellion.

Meng Lili and I are doing pretty good. She is really romantic, and I think sometimes she wishes that I was more romantic too, but I am gonna planning a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant over in Chaoyang (that's on the East side, if you have been away from Beijing too long to remember. Hehehe. 我跟你开玩笑), and then go see a vidoe/dance performance in the 798 art district. I figured that I should do something really nice, since last time we got together it felt a little akward, and I am going away for a week for Spring break. Having a Chinese girlfriend really makes me realize what a fantastic resource TheBeijinger.com is. Every time I wanna do something cool with Meng Lili I just search TheBeijinger.com for an event on that day, and there is ALWAYS something going on. Ethnic Mongolian folk music, Beijing Improv shows, an environmental saving-energy party... It's a good method. I have learned a few new words from her too. Ya know how when you are hanging out with Chinese people, every you tend to pick up a few new terms or phrases every now and then, right? It's kinda cool.

You definitely influenced my flirtation skills and habits while in Beijing. I was never that outgoing in America. Now I need to constantly reel myself in whenever I find myself with a really strong desire to flirt with {insert pretty girl, Chinese or foreign, here}.

My neighbor is pretty cool, so we end up hanging a lot. It is nice to be right next to him, 'cause he is relaxes and fun. He likes to go to bars and drink and dance, but he doens't live for getting wasted. It's a good 情况.

By the way, my bits of Chinglish here remind me, you should hear some of the people here talk! A few of the girls say 'like' all the time when they are speaking Chinese. As in: "这个周末我想去，like， 一个新的酒吧"。 I get a kick out of it.

I have a goal: I want to juggle five balls. I just started working on it. I am a long ways away, but I can already see my progress. I also did some fire staff twirling last weekend, outside of Obiwan. A buddy put a clip on facebook. Check it out if you get the chance. It is super simple stuff, but it was fun!

Spring break I am heading to Sichuan. To see the big Buddha in Leshan was my first goal, but when I learned that one of China's holy mountains was right next to Leshan I got put on my plan too. It it only about an hour bus ride from Leshan to Emei Shan, and I hear the monkeys on the mountain are absolutely wild, stealing cameras and drinks from hikers, and even not letting you pass if you don't give them a 'toll'. It is weird that I am totally hyped to be mugged by shaggy yellow-haired primates? I also wanna check out the panda breeding center, and spend a few days in Chendu, getting a feel for the city. I am flying out of Beijing on Saturday morning. Working on a regular basis is kinda nice, 'cause now I have the cash to spend on a plane ticket. :)

I am indeed still with learn first, doing 3-4 classes a week, pulling 260 a class. My spending habits have gone up like crazy this quarter, and I must be taking cabs half as often as Steph now! My students are cool though. I only have two, and one of them I have 2-3 classes a week. His English is pretty good, and he is going to high school in America in the fall, so we talk about American dating, youth culture, school, and that kind of stuff a lot. Pretty easy, and really fun. I love getting paid to do something I enjoy. That is the best kind of work, hand down.

My summer plans aren't finalized yet. But I am thinking about going to that acrobatic school south of 4th ring road. I figure that I am young, and if I don't spend at least a little time pursuing my dream then I will regret it later. I also emailed Madeline Chu to ask about SIP stuff, and she said that she thinks doing a bunch of research and interviews with the people at the acrobatic school would be a great SIP. I asked her if she could be my SIP adviser, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet, and it had been like two weeks. :( If the acrobatic school works as a SIP, then I will probably go for those study abroad SIP grants too. If going to the acrobatic school doesn't pan out, I am still at a loss for SIP ideas, and I am just gonna find a place to rent and hang out/play/work in Beijing for the summer until Fall quarter starts. I was worried about visa stuff, but a friend from juggling club is opening a business in about two weeks (a bicycle and juggling supplies shop), and she says that it would be pretty easy for her to list me as her employee. I'd like to even really work for her, but I don't know what my situation will be yet. With teaching English and my still fairly cheap lifestyle, I could make it work. It would also give me the time to do so many things that I have started doing, or have wanted to do in Beijing, like dance class, martial arts class, practice juggling more, go to community lectures/classes, read and research for SIP, read and research my personal interests, check out cool events, volunteer at NGOs, spend time with local friends, respond to some of those adds looking for foreigners to be in movies/adds, etc.

Wow, that took a while! I am gonna to teach an English class now. Good luck on your 期中考试!
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Disatisfaction. I am upset.

I am not terribly pleased with my academic program at the moment. I know that CET is about cramming a lot of knowledge into my head so that I have a good foundation for studying Chinese in the future, but I have my own goals for Chinese studying. My goals... well, are mostly already accomplished. I am able to communicate in Chinese with Chinese people, using no (or minimal) English. Every time I have a conversation with a Chinese friend I hear them use a word I don't know, and I want to add those words to a list study that, ensuring that the things I study are actually what people talk about. However, concerning the vocabulary I am actually studying now, very little of it is useful to me. I readily admit, there are a few words that are good, but the majority of the vocabulary in my class are not things that I am going to use. We are studying subjects that I am not going to talk about. I don't even have conversations about AIDS, lung cancer, or old folks homes in English, much less in Chinese.

That is just one factor of it though. The other is time. I don't like my schedule the way it is. Specifically, I would prefer less time spent studying, and more time with friends. There are friends in the city that I have wanted to get together with since this semester started over a month ago, and I still haven't had the ability to see them. There are half a dozen people outside of China that I want to skype chat with, but I have spoken to only one of them since starting my spring semester. That conversation (just last night) made me realize just how easy it is/will be to lose the friends that I was so close to in the past, and there are some people that I really don't want to lose. And Beijing still has so many parks and museums that I still want to see. Every week there are live bands, or lectures, or community clubs that I want to go to, but EVERY WEEK I am instead stuck studying a bunch of words, many of which I have no desire to learn.

I like the three part combination of study, work, and play, but right now the time I have to play is not enough, and the time spent studying is too much. (Working 6-8 hours a week is just about right for now) There are so many more things I want to do in this city, but every day I spend learning half of a new lesson. And it is not even that I spend that time studying, but more that I don't have to time/energy/motivation afterward to study the words I feel I need in order to round out and fill in my vocabulary. I seriously have a few lists of words (of food things, of political issues that I would like to be able to discuss, of words that are useful in personal relationships [trust, commitment, and the like]) that I want to learn on my own, but I am so busy being force-fed the words from the text book that by the time I am done learning those each day I am sick of studying, and would rather just zone out with a movie or on facebook rather than learn more new words. I like to think of myself as a person of impressive capabilities (obviously not true all the time, as any reference to reality will prove), but there is a limit to how many words I can (want to?) learn and retain in a single day.

I am so ready for spring break. I am gonna climb a holy Buddhist mountain in Sichuan and hug a panda. I don't want to be a full-time student anymore. I would rather be a part-time student. Rant over.

Kung fu, dance, and other things I do when not studying

Life has been busy. Actually, that is a bit of an understatement. The only reason I have the time to write this update is because one of my students decided that he didn't want to have English class tonight. The longer I stay in Beijing, the more friends I make, and the more things I want to do, so the academic schedule becomes more and more restricting on my life. However, although there are opportunities for activities and community classes every week I can't go to, I am still managing to find time for a few of the most important things.

So, CET (the academic program I am in Beijing via) has these extra evening classes. They are optional, and focus on various cultural things specific to China, like calligraphy, ping pong (a big thing here. Huge really. It is the national sport.), Chinese painting, and Wu Shu. Wu Shu is different from many other martial arts that I have practiced, in that many of the martial arts I have practiced can be used in a combat situation. Now, I am sure that a devoted Wu Shu practitioner will tell you other wise, but from my experience (personal experience, and research) Wu Shu has considerable less which can be applied in a fight that, say, Judo, Karate, Jeet Kune Do, Escrima, or a dozen other martial arts. It is kind of like fighting moves were taken, made prettier, and then strung together in a choreographed dance. That being said, I get to use a staff, two knives (don't worry mom, there not sharpened), and to pretty jumps while at Wu Shu class. Although there is a minimal amount I am learning that I will be able to use next time I spar (or in the eventuality that a am attacked and need to use my body to fight), the class is still enjoyable. It is closest thing to a martial art that I have done steadily since last summer when I had Jeet Kune Do classes in Kalamazoo. Also, when I asked the teacher what style we were doing, his answer roughly meant "Were kind of doing Shaolin long fist," which is at least reputable as a cultural thing, even if I am not learning combat applicable techniques. Another nice part of it is the opportunity for other people to see my MAD FIGHTIN' SKILLZZ! I mean, I don't show off or anything, but the teacher has a good enough eye that he can tell that I know what I am doing with my body, and that I have more control over it that the other students. Every now and then the teacher will have one student do a section of a form alone, and he picked me the other night. I was pretty happy for the opportunity, since it was a form with a knife in each hand. Going through it, a lot of it felt really dancey, and I definitely heard some "oooohh"s when I did the jump in the form (not gonna lie. That kind of recognition of my abilities from my peers felt pretty good). It is interesting to watch some of the other male students, and how their faces get so serious, like they are trying to fight off a bunch of terrorists with Bruce Willis or something. Comparing that to how I feel when I do the form brings such a contrast, since I am not even trying to make it a fighting thing, I am just going with the flow of the moves. Really more of a kung fu dance.

But speaking of dance, my first chance to do some modern dance in about two years is just around the corner. I found the Beijing Dance LDTX Modern Dance Company online, and I am planning to check it out. The classes are all in Chinese, and from what I got from a phone call, although some of the teachers were trained in the west, it has distinctly Chinese elements, making it different from modern dance that I would take in the US. The best part is that CET will reimburse students up to 70 RMB a week for cultural activities, and I just got the stamp of approval today for these classes, meaning that I get free modern dance classes in Beijing until the end of the semester. WOOHOO!!

Although I end up spending more time that I want to every day preparing for the next days lesson, I recently started exercising every day. I returned to my old standby for an extensive list of stretches, combined with various simple strength-building exercises (sit-ups, push-ups, the basics) and ballet/kung fu style leg stretches for 45 minutes each afternoon. Not gonna lie: it feels good to get back into my body. Yesterday I even did my first front-handspring since arriving in China. It has been more than six months since doing gymnastics, and it felt SO damn good to do some again.

Another thing I have somehow managed to find time for it hanging out with Meng Lili. I suppose it doesn't take a genius to guess that if I am gonna go through the hassle of having a girlfriend whom I can only %70 communicate with, I am gonna make it a priority to spend some time with her. This weekend got together in the afternoon to walk through 圆明园 (Yuán míng yuán, the Old Summer Palace). I really enjoyed that place, since I learned about the history behind it during my Sophomore year at K, and it holds such symbolic importance to China. In 1860, during the second opium war, the British and French destroyed the Summer Palace, and the Chinese government has left it as ruins ever since to serve as a reminder of Western barbarism, imperialism, and to remind people how much China was humiliated and made to suffer during the hundred years of shame (a century of time preceding the CCP's revolution in the mid-20th century, during which China was subjected to foreign rule by Japan, America, and the European Powers). It was really cool to look at fallen pillars and the remains of pavilions, knowing that a palace had stood there long ago. After strolling thought the Old Summer Palace and getting some dinner, Meng Lili and I watched 非诚勿扰/If You Are The One The English title has nothing to do with the Chinese title, actually. An accurately translated name might be something like "Dishonest, But Not Hasselsome." Of course, that doesn't sound nearly as cute and romantic. It was a really nice movie though, so I definitely recommend that you check it out.

Believe it or not, I am wiped. I am gonna get some rest. Chinese class, kung fu class, juggling club (still awesome! I learned how to toss two balls behind by back), working as an English teacher, spending time with Meng Lili (only on weekends, it is too difficulty during the week), and soon to have dance class... I feel really ready to be done with full-time school. If I had my choice I would just graduate right now, and then continue my education on a part-time basis, so that I could satisfy mjavascript:void(0)y thirst for knowledge while allowing myself enough time for other passions, hobbies, and desires.

EDIT: I forget to mention, but you totally need to check out my new favorite cartoon. It is called "Three Monks".

Time with friends

So, it is Sunday morning here in Beijing, and my weekend has been really awesome so far. I'll give you the play by play breakdown.

Friday, after my Chinese test was over, I arranged to meet a friend, Zhang Qiang, from fall quarter (she has been the roommate of another CET student) over at ShouShiDa. ShouShiDa is where I lived and had class during the fall semester, but I have moved away to a different part of the city now, so I haven't seen Zhang Qiang in a while. Before I headed out to meet her though, I had a mini-adventure of my own: my first Chinese haircut. I was a little scared, because I don't know how to talk about volume, cleaning up the curly and shaggy part in the back and on the sides. Furthermore, a friend of mine had recently gotten a haircut and she came out with the typical Chinese young-girl hairstyle: bangs. Intense bangs. So I was a little worried that when I walked in and told them I don't want too much of a change, just 'clean it up' a bit, that I would walk out with some punk-rocker hairstyle that is popular with the young hipsters guys of Beijing this year. It probably wasn't made any easier by the fact that I don't know vocabulary specific to cutting hair, so when I told him to clean it up I actually used the word that I would use if I was talking about sweeping the floor, 打扫, dǎ sǎo. However, when I said that I didn't want too big of a change, I think that put me into the safe zone. No matter what my hair-cutter did, it wouldn't be much. All in all it came out good. Just what I wanted: a little clean up and trim so that I didn't look so shaggy.

Hair trimmed (and washed!), I hopped on the bus to go see Zhang Qiang. We met at the front gate of the campus, and walked to, of all places, a KFC to get lunch. (If you want to know about the cultural differences in the percepton of fast food places, check out the book Golden Arches East. McDonalds and KFC are viewed very differently in China than they are in the US. We munched on (mediocre tasting) chicken burger thingies, and gossiped about the latest stuff, her messed up roommate, my new girlfriend, out buddy Jamie that left Beijing for the freezing north. She had a gym class that afternoon, so eventually we walked back to campus, but her gym class just happened to be a badminton class. Badminton is super popular in China, and you see people playing it outside in parks or in the street all the time. I didn't have anything planned for the afternoon, and I am actually getting more into badminton and other popular Chinese past times, so I stuck around for her gym class. Zhang Qiang and her class mates had to run for 10 minutes to warm up, and when the came back Zhang Qiang and I just started hitting the birdie back and forth. It was pretty awesome that I was allowed to just jump in on a Chinese gym class. When the class was over, Zhang Qiang and I wandered around and talked some more. It feels good to have a fairly close friend like this. Before that day Zhang Qiang just felt like a regular casual friend, but now I really feel like we are 好朋友 (hǎo péng you, good friends). But that was not the last of cementing good friendships that day!

I actually had an appointment to meet Fan Rong that evening up in the North Eastern part of the city, so after bidding Zhang Qiang goodbye I got on the bus, which took my to the subway, which took my strait to Fan Rong's part of town. We had dinner, she complained about her co-workers that didn't like her, and I did my best to convince her that she is not cursed. She has had a bit of a rough month though. She was robbed on the street, so she had to get a new phone, new ID cards, the works. She also happened to her her co-workers trash talking her behind her back, so I think it is a bit understandable that she hadn't quite been on top of the world lately. He headed back to her place for tea, and hung out for a while. I helped her with her English a little bit, and when we were exchanging vocabulary that you wouldn't learn from a classroom or a textbook, I made a horrific discovery: Chinese has no phrase for 'making out.' That has to be put up on the list with the other human rights abuses over here. I asked Fan Rong and the friends that she shared her apartment with what Chinese people call what they do between holding hands and having sex, and they replied that there really isn't anything between holding hands and having sex. Wow. Talk about cultural differences. In the US, a high school or college student CAN'T HAVE a romantic relationship without knowing what making out is. But I guess they are kind of all-or-nothing here. After this kind of 'language exchange' (she taught me how to say the Chinese equivalent of "so fucking cute" or "so fucking fast", basically the use of a curse word as an adverb) we headed out to another friends place. This was a French lady that was a friend of Fan Rong, and she was having a house party (er... apartment party, I guess). It was mostly standing around and talking, drinking, and munching on crackers. I still don't like the taste of alcohol, despite having tried sips on multiple occasions, so I ate a lot of crackers and drank a lot of the orange juice that was there, assumable as a mixer. However, I am not as much of a late night person as Fan Rong, so I ended up bidder her goodnight and leaving earlier, maybe around one or so. End Friday.

Saturday morning can mainly be described by productivity. I studied, wrote my required essay (we have one every weekend, getting progressively longer), and happily watched the latest two episodes of heroes. Early that afternoon, lǐ xuān, the guy I share an apartment with (he lives in the room next door) came into my room and said that he and some other folks were going to Jing Shan park that afternoon. Being one of the places in Beijing that I hadn't been to yet, and one that I really wanted to see, I jumped in on the group, and we were soon on the bus to Jing Shan Park. We didn't spend too much time at the park, but there was a great view of the Forbidden City from the top of the park. (Jing Shan Park is just to the north of the Forbidden City)
I also got to see the tree where an emperor hung himself. That was the end of the Ming dynasty. There was a rebel army of peasants converging on the capital, and there was an army of Manchu barbarians at the North-Eastern frontier about to break through, so the emperor was just like "Crap. This sucks. I don't wanna be hear when that crazy rebel leader arrives." So he hung himself. Dinner time rolled around, and lǐ xuān said that he knew of a vegetarian restaurant. One of the people in our group was a veggie, so she was very pleased, and the rest of us had no objection. The restaurant was very Buddhist-y, and the ambiance and atmosphere was really cool. And the foo d was really tasty, and lǐ xuān was happy to show his joy.

I had planned to go to a local bar for to see the monthly break dancing/hip-hop party/competition, but my buddy that was gonna go with me had to back out due to an upcoming test, so I decided just to check it out next month instead. Arriving back at the dorm/apartment, lǐ xuān recommended that we three who lived together hang out some more and watch a movie, which we did. By the time the film was over we were all 好困 （hǎo kùn, so sleepy), so it was straight to bed.

A suprisingly liberal girl, and an amazingly usefuul website

Well, my first week of classes for the new semester is almost over. I like the guys I live with a lot. I haven't been spending much time with many of the other students on the program, mostly because I have been busy with studying, working, and getting together with 孟利利 (Mèng Lìlì). I have gone out to dinner with groups of CET students two or three times, but when a group has ten or twelve people, it starts to feel kind of impersonal, and each person just focuses on two or three people that they find interesting. Well, that is what I do, anyway. There are maybe five or six students that I think are particularly interesting who attract me for whatever reason, so I may try to become friends with those people over the course of the semester. The language pledge does create a bit of a barrier though, especially for those who can't say so much. My writing sucks, but I can talk pretty well compared to most of my classmates. I am in the second highest class here, and I am one of the more comfortable and fluent speakers in that class. I am actually one of the more competent Chinese speakers on the program, maybe in the 80th or 90th percentile here. Anyway, even I have a fairly limited ability to express my thought, emotions, feelings, and tell stories, so I imagine it is even more difficult for people who are less comfortable speaking Chinese than I am.

I already mentioned that my roommate, Wèi Dèngyǔ is of the Huí ethnicity, and that the guy living in the other room in our apartment is Japanese, I didn't mention Lǐ Xuān, the Japanese guys roommate (I actually don't know the Japanese guy's Chinese name! Ack!), at all. Lǐ Xuān and Dèngyǔ are both fourth year students (Seniors in college, as people normally say in America), and that means that they have no classes. Seriously. That means that half of the guys that live in our apartment have no classes, ever. Granted, they don't just slack around or anything. They both have huge theses to write, and they are working on various other things too. Lǐ Xuān, for instance, a big friendly guy with a big wild head of hair that makes me think he would be a great Asian equivalent to Larry (minus the receding hair line, of course), is teaching himself Dutch. When I asked him why, he replied because he wants to go to Holland. I gotta admit, that is a good reason to learn Dutch. My own roommate, Dèngyǔ, is majoring in city planning and control, and he, although not the tallest Chinese guy I have ever seen, is still pretty tall. Especially for a Chinese guys, who usually make me feel pretty average height (except for the young folk, who are getting taller nowadays, possibly due to a more Western diet, but I am just speculating here).

Most of the time that I spend in my room I am sitting at my desk studying, or sitting at my desk using my computer to waste time online because I am bored of studying. The work load is pretty heavy here. We are getting about thirty new words every day to learn, and although there are usually some that I already know from other classes, and some that are partially composed of characters that I am familiar with already, I still end up spending most of my time studying. In fact, I have a test tomorrow (we have a test every Friday), so I should probably be studying right now, but I have been studying on and off since about 1pm (it is 6 here now), so I am gonna get some food after this to get my mind out of this study mode. Not all is lost, however. The other day a wonderful man came to the CET program to give a presentation on his group's website, iKnow. Free, more enjoyable that doing my own flashcards, and some vocabulary are pretty easy to find associated images, audio, or sentences for. It also gets pretty scientific on learning science, with optimal times to review being recommended and all that, but I just think it is a nifty way to study new vocab. Mostly though, it is free. That a winner for me. I have been using it a lot the past day and a half, and I have already made vocab lists for the first two lessons of our text book, as well as a miscellaneous list of vocab I want to learn above and beyond the scope of class. It is nice because it makes it really convenient and fast to study, and it is focusing on visual recognition of the characters (and knowing the meaning of course) instead of my own personal writing of the characters. I enjoy this because I am fairly convinced of the very limited use in learning to write characters and I would rather focus on spoken communication.

So, I got something pretty big to talk about outside of my studies too: I officially have a Chinese girlfriend now. Yup, that's right. I had been contemplating my girl problem for a while (very recently I have felt like I had a lot more options/choices than was good for me), and when Mèng Lìlì and I went out together on Saturday (which just happened to be Valentine's Day, which I assure you was purely an accident) to see a goofy variety theater/vaudeville-sque show called Dirty Dancing: One Night in Beijing that some people I know were organizing, I guess some things just went right. She loved the show, saying that she would have never seen anything like that if I hadn't invited her, since generally Chinese people were not so open and wild as foreigners (her opinion, although I do agree with it to an extent). After the show we were both in high spirits, and she said she was hungry so we headed to a 24 hour restaurant that I knew and sat and talked while slurping up our noodles. (in retrospect she didn't eat much of her dish, and when I asked her why she responded in this riddle-like way that she was too hungry to eat. Maybe her wanting to go to a restaurant was just an excuse to spend some more time together?) We talked for a while, and eventually headed out. At this point it was maybe 11:00 or 11:30, which is really late for Beijing, 'cause the subways stop at 11:00, so other than the foreigner-heavy bar districts there is basically no-one out and about. We walked for a while, but it was clear that I had not worn enough clothes as I was basically shivering to death, so we decided it was best to part ways and go home. We found a nearby area with a bunch of taxis and parting ways time arrived. There was a nice goodnight kiss (which I wasn't really planning or expecting, but she seemed pleased enough with it), and I was pretty surprised when she so readily returned my kiss. Then I hopped into a cab to go my way, and she hopped into one to go hers. I was pretty damn pleased. On a personal level I was really happy to see the potential for a close relationship blossoming, and it was nice to kiss a girl again (I actually hadn't kissed a girl in more than six months now, which was the longest that I had gone without since I started kissing girls back in 11th grade!). On another level, there are a couple of guys from Kalamazoo I know who spent half of there time in China trying to get dates with Chinese girls, or trying to turn a one-time coffee dates into big relationship plans. I feel kind of happy that they didn't ever succeed, cause I am pretty sure it wouldn't have turned out that great for the girls (the guys I am thinking of both have American girlfriends outside of China). Not gonna lie: I am also happy that I beat them in their little "get a Chinese girl" game. However, I wasn't really sure what the kiss meant. So I decided to get together with her and have a "我们有什么关系？" ("what kind of relationship do we have?") talk.

We met at a local bar/music joint which I was familiar with, and listened to some Mongolian folk music. I saw a horse head fiddle, and throat singing. The throat singing was amazing! I would never have imagined that a guy so small, about the same size as me, could sing so deeply and so strongly. When we had enough of the music, Mèng Lìlì and I sat down a table and talked. We talked about lots of different things, coming back to the "us" subject every now and then only to meander away from it. I was again surprised by how open and liberal minded she is. At one point she leaned forward close to me and asked me if I thought T i_a.i-w./ia^n should be independent. (just so you know, I am spelling it like that so that Chinese government search engines don't easily find it and close down my blog, and possibly track down Mèng Lìlì, although I am sure I am being overly-cautious) That prompted me to talk about my views on independence, which started with me talking about the important of being able to make your own decisions, and ended with me "confessing" to her that I had been really influenced by anarchist though when I was in the US. She said her too, although I think that was more of agreement with a general radical mindset and dislike of the government rather than telling me that she had also read anarchist literature. After talking about the Dah-lie la.mma, his old home, and how Chinese viewed the history of Chinese going there and taking over, we eventually meandered back to the "us" topic. I could go on for another page or two on discussion and decisions, but I am just gonna cut to the chase: in the end she said okay. I didn't stop smiling for a while. ;) We went outside and walked for a bit, but it was about midnight or 12:30, and snow outside (Beijing's first snow in a few years was just the other day. It has been coming down lightly but steadily since then), even with my big winter coat, was a bit chilly. After walking for maybe 10 or 20 minutes, we grabbed a cab. I got off near my school, and she went on back to her home.

Outside of the regular feeling of happiness I get from having just gotten a girlfriend last night, I also feel that this is gonna be a really interesting cross-culture experience. So many things are different between Chinese dating culture and American dating culture. For instance traditionally, not much physical affection is displayed, the boy pays for everything (don't worry, she is pretty modern in that sense, so taking her our isn't gonna run my bank account dry. Besides, I am working, so I am making about 1000 kuai a week. When a NICE dinner costs 100 kuai (the most expensive Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing has duck at about 250 or 300)... well, I think I'm okay), "dates" involve going to the movies, going out to eat together, and lots of talking walks in parks, to which I will add my own "foreign flavor" with listening to bands (there is actually a decent amount of folk music in Beijing), going to theater and dance performances, and maybe a weekend trip or two out of Beijing... Okay, so maybe that part isn't so different from American dating culture as a whole, but this "dating outside of your school in a big city" different from me, since almost every girl I've dated/hung out with and likes has gone to the same school as me, so it has been convenient and easy to spend time together. Now I have a girls friend that lives in a different part of a huge city than I do, so it will actually take a bit of planning and effort whenever we want to get together. Furthermore, I am going to personally experience one of the side effects of China's enormous population: lack of private space. I do not have my own room, and she lives with her teacher, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was not just lots of going over to the other person's place to hang out, read, watch movies, or whatever. Most (umm, knowing China, I would say nearly all) of the time we spend together will be in public places, like theaters, parks, or restaurants. Not gonna lie: I can't wait for the weather to get warmer. That is gonna make taking walks a much more enjoyable past-time.

Interestingly enough, this is the first time I've told my parents (and who knows how many other people via this blog, but probably not too many) about a romantic relationship of mine since I told my dad about my "girlfriend" when I was in 8th grade. (I don't remember too clearly, but I think that was a "girlfriend" that I didn't even hold hands with) I suppose my parents both knew about Kasey the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college, but I by no means explicitly introduced her as my girlfriend. Actually, our we didn't really restrict our relationship with those kinds of labels. You should however, either ask myself or my dad how He and Kasey first met. I think it was a F**king HILARIOUS situation. Don't worry mom and dad: Mèng Lìlì is NOT my first relationship since 8th grade.
EDIT: Oops. I just remembered that they met Michelle when I was a Sophomore at Kalamazoo. That's kind of embarrassing: I forget about an ex-girlfriend. But on the bright side, she is one that I had a really hard time getting over, so maybe it is good that I forgot about her.
I also can't help but think what an interesting exercise in self-control this relationship will give me, in two ways: first with Mèng Lìlì herself, since I can't let things get intense or serious with her (I am again and again surprised by how open she was. She, like me, said she wants something very relaxed and low-pressure, accepted fully that I am leaving in the summer regardless of how good or bad our relationship is. And if you are concerned about the standard American definition of a "casual relationship", don't worry. We talked about that too and we aren't walking that path). But also it will be an excessive in self control with my having two lives: the CET on-campus life and my with-Mèng Lìlì off-campus life. I will readily acknowledge that there are three or four really cute girls that are CET students, a some of whom have really attractive and funky styles that I like, the kind of hippie/vegetarian/wearing bright colors with a fun-loving attitude. I know that if I wanted to I could try to become friends with them and see what kind of people they are (meaning: if I wanted or not to date them), so it feels kind of weird to have that kind of opportunity/chance/potential so close but to make myself ignore it. I don't have to by any means (not a single person at CET knows who Mèng Lìlì is), but I certainly don't want to be that kind of slimebag. Like I said before, this will be an interesting experiment in self-control for me, as well as an experiment my commitment to my morals.

I haven't posted any pictures for a while, but I promise that I soon as I get some (Mèng Lìlì and I will surely get them sooner or later. I is practically a right of passage for couples here) I will post them.

Yeah. This was a long one. In summary: the two biggest things in my life for the past 24 hours have been iKnow and my new Chinese girlfriend: Mèng Lìlì. I'm gonna alternatively study and look for tasty restaurants to go out with Mèng Lìlì to now. Bye bye!

Moved, Part 3: A new home, new people, and a new life

So, after my week of work at the elementary school was done and had bid Jamie a final farewell, I moved across town to my new dormitory. It is really more of an apartment complex, just with really small apartments, each only having two bedrooms and a bathroom. I think it is pretty nice though. The location is not as convenient as where I was recently living (it took me less than 15 minutes to get to the subway), but there are a decent number of shops and restaurants around, and with a bus ride of four or five stops I can get to the subway. My room is kind of big, the floor is made of really nice-looking wood, and I even have a little balcony area for hanging clothes up to dry and storing stuff. One thing I wish our apartment had was a common space, but we only have a little entryway/hallway between the bedrooms and the bathroom. It is like the suite I lived in my junior year, minus the common space and the two singles, with a big fancier appearance. Each of the bedrooms has two people, a CET student and a Chinese roommate. I just met my roommate today, and, like me, he seems like a very 好孩子 (a good kid, a kind of not drinking, not smoking, not often going out to bars to party kind of label). He is also 回族 (hui ethnicity), so he doesn't eat pork, and prefers to go to restaurants that don't serve pork (since a limited number of pots and pans used for cooking would cause his non-pork food to be contaminated by pork). He is not Muslim though, which is interesting. This means that his not eating of pork is not a religious thing, but rather a cultural thing. When we had a conversation about religion, he said he didn't really subscribe to any religion, but he believes in something. (I am paraphrasing, by the way. I don't know how to say 'subscribe' in Chinese) He has also expressed interest in coming to juggling club with me sometime, and having me teach him how to juggle three balls. Cool!

I am also very excited that the CET student in the other room of my apartment in NOT an American! He is Japanese. His English is heavily accented, and he has only been speaking English for two years. He goes to Soka University in California, which seems to stress all the points that Kalamazoo College likes to brag about (high number of students going on study abroad, high number of students pursuing PhDs and graduate school, international students at the school, focusing on creating global citizens), except that Soka seems to actually outperform K in all these respects. I am definitely gonna recommend that place to people. I am glad that there are going to be no bastions of American culture in our apartment. The Japanese guy also had two female friends that also go to Soka who are CET students here. They are all the same sect of Buddhist, so they get together regularly to chant (and maybe other stuff too, but I don't know yet. I've only been living with him for two days). It is nice to have a regular presence of other people in the place. It just makes it feel like more of a community.

Part way through this program's orientation, I have a few impressions. First, the uselessness of most of the orientation to me, since I have been in Beijing for several months already. I am not the only one either. About 8 or 10 students on this program ave already been studying in Beijing, anywhere from 1 to 5 months. Another feeling, because I have been in Beijing for a while already I have a level of comfort with the city (the transit, the food, the places) and the language that none of the new kids have. This means that there is a divide between us in terms of ability to communicate in Chinese (the same way that when I first arrives in Beijing I couldn't communicate very much), which may be hasslesome once the language pledge starts, which is Monday morning. Although I am sure that there will be many times when I have the urge to speak in English, I know that with my current ability in Chinese it will be easier for me than for many of the other students here to get by with just Chinese. A very cool thing I found out about this program though is that I can be reimbursed 70 kuai every week for cultural activities, which can include going to parks, temples, museums, and performances. I am totally gonna make the most of this, starting with getting mostly reimbursed for the 75 ticket for CIPA's Dirty Dancing this weekend.

An exciting thing happened the morning of my placement test (which determines which level of Chinese class I will be in). During the oral portion of the test, my tester was none other than my Chinese language teacher from fall semester: 周老师! (meaning: teacher Zhou). It was really exciting to see her again, so I was really relaxed for my oral test, just telling her about what I did during my vacation in the South, and about my current situation with Chinese girls.

I also bought a badminton set. Playing badminton is a really Chinese thing to do, and I think it is an easy excuse to spend time with people. I am also really excited about having my first set of slippers. It is pretty common in a Chinese home to take your shoes off at the door and put on a pair of slippers that are worn around the home. I was the first person to move into the apartment, so I decided set establish that as the norm. I am the only non-Asian though, so it may have ended up being the norm even if I hadn't!

I am bit worried about time during this next semester. My students at my English teaching job haven't gotten a hold of me yet, but once that starts up it will take a lot of my time. I may have to scale it back, depending on how intense the academic workload is here, and how much free time I want to have for other things. I want to go to juggling club every Monday, and I have not made a commitment to the aikido school I found, but it would be nice to be able to do that (although realistically speaking, I think it is pretty likely that I will not have the time to make a commitment to that). I also want to be able to have the free time to get together with the Chinese friends that I have made during my time here, as there are three of four people who I plan to get together with once they return to Beijing for classes, and whom I would like to see on a semi-regular basis from then on. I also don't want to spend loads of time studying characters, due both to the ability of doing more enjoyable activities in my free time and due to the (extremely) limited use of being able to write Chinese characters. Seriously. Even in Beijing, the capital city of China, it is pretty useless to be able to write characters. The ability to speak or understand the words spoken is of utmost importance, and being able to recognize them when written can be useful for some characters, but writing really never comes up.

I was planning of having a lot longer blog post, but I really can't think of anything else to write! I've updated you all on just about everything.

Moved, Part 2: Jobs and Three Girls

I'm not gonna lie. The majority of my first week at my new dorm (located conveniently near the most North West stop of subway line 2) was spent watching movies and playing video games that I had downloaded. I had big plans to read a lot of academic papers that I had downloaded from Jstor, but I never got around to reading more than a few short ones. Those video games were damn enjoyable though, and I had a great time getting involved in the plots and intrigues of those imaginary worlds. However, after a week of that comfortable couch potato lifestyle, it was time to do things again. During that week I had started working on some new juggling tricks, as well as balancing a ball on my head. I went to the Temple of Heaven one afternoon to see a re-enactment of a blessing ceremony. This is the ceremony that the emperor of China used to do each year after the spring festival, and it would be done at each the four most important temples in Beijing, Temple of Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon. The temple of Earth and Heaven are a lot more famous though, and are bigger tourist spots than the temple of Earth or the moon are. I found the event online, and finding out that it was happening in about an hour, I hurriedly hopped on the subway to head down to the Temple of Heaven and take a took. I had never been to the Temple of Heaven before, and it was on my list of places that I wanted to visit anyway, so I was pretty excited to finally be there. Most of my time there was taken up playing though, because what did I find other than a middle aged Chinese man juggling five balls! He was excited to meet a foreigner that could juggle, and the two of us quickly gathered a crowd. He encouraged me to try a few new tricks, and I quickly discovered that I was a lot closer to getting a 3 ball flash(one of the primary requirements for juggling five balls), three in one hand, and a three ball shower. I was very pleased with this. He even gave me three Russian style balls (they have a fluid or sand inside them, so that the weight is always in the bottom section of the ball).

I hung out with Jamie a lot during this time between semesters, seeing him every day or every other day. After telling me about an American that he had been in contact with who ran an English immersion school, Jamie and I ended up getting jobs! My other English teaching job was on pause, since the students were all out of Beijing for the holidays, so my plan to stay in Beijing and earn cash for the springtime was so far a total bust. This opportunity was perfect timing too, since I was done with my video games and with nothing to do for a week. It was a one week job, but full time, from 8am to 4pm. I had a classroom of thirteen Chinese first graders, whose English was worse than my Chinese (this was a first, since usually Chinese people who study English can say lots more in my language than I can in theirs). I was expecting to be a teacher's assistant, but the teacher of my classroom was meeting with student's parents all day long, so I ended up teaching most of the class. There were a few troublemakers, and a lot of what I said wasn't understood (no matter how slowly or clearly I speak, when somebody just doesn't know a word there is nothing more to be done), but it was a great experience. It is awesome to earn a week's work worth of money, and although my throat is very hoarse from speaking so loudly over the noise of the class for the past week, it was fun to have my job be to play with kids at recess. Some of those kids are absolutely adorable! Jamie and I totally wanted to adopt some of them, and my class had a couple of really cute little 7 and 8 year olds too. I learned about disciplining as a teacher, and it was interesting to think about the power relations between teacher and student as well. Since I was unable (or maybe unwilling, I don't know what the rules are in China) to use physical force to make the students obey, the only power I had over the students was what they gave me. I could tell them to stand up or sit down, or to recite a particular passage, but if they were to have adamantly refused to obey my orders then I could have done nothing to force them. It was also really interesting to see students that were at such a beginning stage of language learning, since most of the people I interact with who can speak English have a vocabulary at least as large as my Chinese vocabulary, and usually much larger. Of course, there were other benefits to the job too. Since I just at what the kids ate, I got free lunches, not to mention two snack times each day (and being the teacher gave me the privilege of eating all the leftover snacks), but about two hours of playing outside each day (there was about half an hour after each snack time and an hour after lunch). I played a lot of badminton with the kids, as well as tag as well the ever-popular "pick up the kid and spin him/her in a circle so s/he flies like an airplane." Jamie took a lot of photos, and there are some really great ones in there, but I don't have them yet. Knowing how busy he will be at his program in Haerbin it may be a while until I get them. The assistant teacher that was in my room, Maggie, was pretty nice too, and, after the meddling of the friendly Jamaican fellow who also worked there, we eventually exchanged phone numbers. That however, is the beginning of another section.

Maggie is nice, fun, is a third year student in college like I am, and is a Business English major (although I have to say that she makes a lot of grammatical errors and has pretty poor pronunciation for being a Business English major). She also won the badminton tournament in her department, did rhythmic gymnastics when she was little, and does both yoga and pole dancing (CULTURAL NOTE: Pole dancing has a really sexual connotation in the US. It's not like that in China. Pole dancing in China is just seen as another way to keep fit, like a pilates class or running on a treadmill). The fact that she is doing something to stay physically active is pretty attractive, since as a very physically active person myself that is something that I am drawn too. Furthermore, the fact that she does pole dancing is really hot. Even though it doesn't have erotic connotations in Chinese culture, I am a Westerner viewing it through a half-east/half-west lens, so I suppose that makes in 50% sexy. Maggie, however, is only one of them. Meng Lili is a 23 year old graduate student that I met when I was volunteering for the China Center for Desertification Control during the fall. She was actually my main contact person, and barring my first two visits to the college, she was the only person I ever saw or interacted with while I volunteered. After the second week, she asked me to come to her apartment instead of meeting her at Agricultural University, since it was more convenient for her. Her place is closer to my college than Agricultural University, so I gave no objection. She shared the apartment with her teacher and friend, whom I met twice. I was even invited to stay for dinner once. Although I never did anything but work on my volunteer assignment (sort of prepping a book for translation, deciding which parts were important enough to translate) over time I started to view Meng Lili as pretty cute, and I think I may have even flirted with her a bit. Either way, after my fall semester ended and I traveled through the south, when I returned to Beijing Lili sent me a text saying that we should get together so that I could tell her about my travels. We had a hot pot together, and it was one of the most enjoyable dinners I have ever had. We talked about so many different things, and I felt great the whole time. The food was good, seeing Lili and spending time with her was good, we both were smiling the whole time, and I told of my adventures in the South and made lots of funny jokes (probably with poor grammar and terrible pronunciation, but hey! I'm still learning.) It wasn't until then that I really started to think of Lili in a romantic way. Actually, the last time we hung out we were walking down a hutong we linked arms (I honestly don't remember who initiated that or how it happened) and then she asked me "这是什么关系?" (what kind of a relationship/meaning is this?) and I replied "我还没决定" (I haven't decided yet). I am seeing her again this Saturday though, and I am taking her to see the CIPA's (a collaboration of many arts groups in Beijing. Jamie and Alana and I were involved in the Death Prom that they did during the fall.) special Beijing version of Dirty Dancing. But of course, I haven't mentioned Fan Rong yet. I met Fan Rong at the Beijing Juggling Club, and maybe she is just the kind of girl that is really friendly, but she always seems to smile to me, talk to me a lot, and gives nice hugs. At about 27 she is much older than me, but that means a lot less to me here in Beijing then it would in the US, since age is difficult to tell as a foreigner to the culture, so she appears to be in her early twenties. To serve as examples of this cross-cultural age judging difficulty, it is easy for myself and my American classmates to pass ourselves off as twenty somethings. Also, look at some pictures on Chinese pop stars like Jay Chou or 李宇春 and try to guess their age. Anyway, Ran Rong is smart, fun, energetic, and very friendly. I also cannot deny that the outfit she wore for yuánxiāo jié (元宵节, the last day of the Chinese new year) was really attractive. However, I am the least sure of her, since her playful style makes me suspect that any romantic attraction I perceive from her is merely a mis-perception on my part. Although Fan Rong is definitely the most physically affectionate and provocative of the three, Maggie is the one whom I know the most about how she feels (and she is my age, which doesn't make too much of a difference, but I feel as though is something I should make note of), where as I am unsure about how Meng Lili feels. Of course, since I will see her again this weekend I may find out more about that situation fairly soon. Regardless, this isn't something I am going to rush into, and it is something I will have to exert a lot of caution with if there will be anything at all.

In China, being somebody's boyfriend involved a lot more holding of hands and talking walks in the parks than it does in America, and there are huge differences in the youth and sex culture too, namely that Chinese people don't often have sex before marriage (although this trend is changing). Although I can't point to any hard facts, I have the impression that boyfriends and girlfriend in China do a lot less kissing, making out, and generally those physically passionate activities that we American youth seem to enjoy so much. Relationships with foreigners can be tricky things too. By our nature, we are fleeting and temporary, so I cannot allow any kind of childish fantasies about bringing her back to America with me, and need to make 100% sure she understands that I am leaving come summertime (unless of course I have that Walt Disney style greatest love in a hundred years kind of thing, but I find that pretty unlikely, don't you?). College students, if they are found to be having sexual relations with a foreigner, can be kicked out of college, suffer rejection and harassment from peers and family, and I hear they can even be arrested for prostitution. Also, a Chinese friend told me that having sex with a Chinese girl if you are not going to marry her will basically ruin her life, since it will make it so much harder for her to find a husband in the future. Apparently Chinese men only want to marry virgins. I am sure that with the opening of the economy and the liberalizing of the culture this is changing, but it is still a risk that I do not plan on taking.

For those you who are reading this and worrying (my mother among your ranks, I am sure), don't. If any romantic relationships happen at all between myself and Chinese girls during my time here, I am NOT going hastily rush into things. I am NOT going to violate cultural (and in my opinion, moral) boundaries by sleeping with a Chinese girl, particularly since I have no intention of getting married to any Chinese girl, or any girl at all, at this point of my life. If I were to have a relationship, it would be a lot of holding hands, photos with the peace sign (very popular in China), going out to dinner together, and paying badminton (if it weren't for ping pong, badminton might very well be the national sport. As a recreational activity, it is even more popular than tai chi).

I had to say goodbye to Jamie the other day. He is leaving for Haerbin, where he will spend his spring semester, while I will be staying in Beijing for the springtime. It was kind of sad. Okay, fine, it was really sad. Jamie is the closest friend I have had in China, and our mutual desire to really learn the language and make Chinese friends has caused us to be even closer. I'll miss him.

I watched Hello, Dolly! recently, and decided that it was really good. Of course, with a dancing genius like Gene Kelly, the star of Singing in the Rain, directing it, how could one expect anything else? To anyone that hasn't seen it, I really recommend it. Funny characters, clever dialogue, and absolutely fantastic dancing. Every time I watch something like that it makes me wish that I chose a college with a dance program. I will have to start taking dance classes again eventually, otherwise I am just gonna be living with a big chunk of regret from not having pursued something with I enjoy. I have also resumed my listening of War and Peace. I am near the end of book 9. I'm not sure how many books there are, but I love the cast of characters so far, although the Russian names are so foreign to me that I have trouble keeping some of the less central characters strait much of the time. War and Peace is just solidifying my respect and appreciation for Leo Tolstoy though.

I am have been typing for so long that my fingers are sore. Next time I will write about my new home, and what is the start of my new life.