Unshaven, but Outside at Last!
Well I've certainly been lazy, but the cause of my lack of updates is not so much sickness as a general lack of stories to tell... which I suppose is directly related to sickness, but I've come to accept that I'm never going to feel like a million bucks in a place where a nice day is indicated by the phrase "I can see some blue today." I've been a bad traveler, though- staying in, talking only to Americans... I did put pants on at about 5PM today, and I considered that a great success.
There was an old man that I met on the plane to Harbin. His name was William, and he described himself as "German, with Russian parents, but I lived in Malaysia for fifteen years and am an Australian citizen." His observation on language learning is another reason I have not been posting- it's not like a straight slope, it's more like a series of plateaus. I'm on the plateau where I can now tell people what I want in very simple terms, but I still can't really understand anything that they say to me. I am not discouraged by this, but it does cut down on my "I can finally do this!" stories.
On Friday we had a mixer with all of the other programs in Beijing that we could find. John "The Duke" Wayne has a way with going up to any random person and instantly becoming best friends with them, and so he found tons of other groups and pledged a good portion of our 70-person contingent to the party. I met some cool people, but the true highlight of the night was an amazing DJ who actually had enough skill to convince me to come out and dance for an hour and a half straight. Anyone who has ever been with me in a dancing situation knows that this was quite a feat, but he kept mixing good songs one into the other, so I kept dancing. I mean... flailing my arms and jumping up and down.
Saturday we went to the Llama Temple, which is a very very old Buddhist temple complex. It is exactly like every other temple that we have been to... around every corner is what looks like a barbecue pit, and inside every pit is enough incense to choke the gods and cause them to pass out and fall out of the clouds. I imagine that's the point. The only object of real note in the temple is a giant, four-story (ish) Buddha carved out of a single, enormous tree a couple hundred years ago. Of course, there was no picture taking allowed, so you have to come to Beijing to see it.
I did walk around campus a little and was able to take pictures here. It's getting very close to being warm!
It's almost sort of Spring! The ice is kind of in a way melting a little bit!
And I DID discover a new favorite food. I'm not sure exactly what they're called, but as far as I can tell it's "Jin Bing." Imagine a crepe that's rolled up in a tiny omelet that has spices and sauce and a crunchy rice-y center. It's the perfect snack to carry around, and it only costs 30 cents! That's not a huge surprise around here anymore, but it is really really good and we need a few Jin Bing stands in America.
The preparation of the delicious crepe/omelet/crunch thingy...
That's all the general news I have. In non-China news, I haven't started working on an eight minute piece of music that I need for Italy (maybe I'll make an Italy blog!) this summer and it's due in two months. If anyone has any one-word ideas for what the piece should be about, please send them to me. I'm looking for some inspiration here.
As a final thought, my roommate Junta came in the other night with this card that a random guy on the street handed him. The more Chinese I learn, the more I see why it's so hard for them to translate anything into English, but I still get a kick out of these. Here's exactly what the card has on it:
Quote of the Day-
"Well, at least in China you can always be sure of someone lurking in a dark corner." -I forget where I heard this, but I'm pretty sure in context it was very true.
5 comments:
I am glad you are feeling better and venturing into the sunlight! And you still know more Chinese than I do, so you have that to hold on to.
Also, thank you for your periodic encouraging "Have a great show!" type comments this weekend. They were always wonderful to receive!
I highly doubt that you will ever run out of stories to tell or adventures to relate. Haha I miss the "in person" MJ humor though! And your business classes sound like way more fun than mine are...
Yay! He's alive!
(this is Mary D, by the way...)
Hey, mind if I show your blog to my blogging class? Respond quickly, because I'm going to do it in 2 hours whether you like it or not.
Take care!
i'm glad you're alive too mike. keep writing...
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