I should have gotten off at Crackton...

Tonight was the first time I took the bus! I was confident I could work out where to go but somehow I managed to get lost for the hundredth time this trip. I was under the belief that the bus was heading to the subway station however I realised something was wrong when we were pulling into the bus depot instead. The driver didn't realise I was still there until I tried to sneak my way over the closed gate guarding the bus door. He spluttered something to me in Chinese but I couldn't understand it so I just quickly got out of there. Fortunately most people here are willing to help you. My first attempt at asking for directions in chinese played out exactly like a scene from the game Shenmue II. For those of you who have played this game, the main character can ask for directions to anyone that crosses his path. On most occassions they lead you to your destination. So after he led me to the subway station I shook his hand and thanked him - its that easy guys :)

Can't remember if DJ mentioned these mosquitoes at night but they are vicious. D got plenty on juicy wounds on his face and two nights ago I got bitten on the hand. I had a pretty bad reaction to it and a rash started to appear which slowly crawled up my arm. It very nearly reached my shoulder :( I went to the BLCU hospital the following day and they put some smelly ointment on it. The swelling seems to have reduced so it should be ok now. The BLCU hosptial is very well run. The info desk helped me translate with the doctor and it only cost 2 RMB.

 

You can't see it very well but it looked like a red swollen vine crawling all the way up my armpit

On the bright side, D and I found decent tasting ice creams. In general, Chinese ice cream suuuucks! It always tastes like it has melted then refrozen, the texture of the cone always tastes like paper and there is hardly any dairy in the ice cream. Magnums here are at a pricy 5 RMB a pop and they look a lot smaller than the ones back home lololol. I've also noticed that the roles are reversed when we are eating. Back home, D is the one usually struggling to finishing the meals we put on the table for him. But for some strange reason he is a human waste disposal in China. I on the other hand can never seem to finish my meals and at times the food doesn't agree with my stomach. Check out the hot pot meal we had tonight. I tried man, but D bested me yet again....it was pitiful. I will not leave this country until I have conquered this food!

D convinced me to eat the cube of duck blood. I was gullible enough to believe that it was a different type of tofu......

I like turtles

Hello! It's been over a week since I last posted. I apologise for this but since class started I've had very few opportunities to sit down and write a post. Everything in Beijing runs at a fast pace: the service at the student dining hall, the subway, the mini scooters and my mandarin course. I've nearly had a weeks worth of classes at BLCU and there is already a ton of stuff that has been unloaded onto our desks. 4 volumes of reading comprehension, listening and conversation textbooks; plus extra vocab books of words that we should know. I find the reading comprehension fine at the moment, having done chinese at high school, but its the listening and conversation classes that really prove their worth. Unlike high school, all classes are taught in mandarin and there are plenty of opportunities for the teachers to pick you out and have mock conversations with. These conversations are actually quite useful and I have used them when trying to talk to the local chinese here.

Local people at BLCU are much more friendlier than back home. I don't know if its just me or my interesting accent, or that I come from a far away place but I seem to be able to socialise with local chinese just fine despite my lack of communication skills. Its always funny when trying to explain what rugby is and that our nation has pretty much come to a halt to host the World Cup. DJ and I couldn't be bothered catching the subway in order to watch NZ v Japan so we found a site that was showing a live stream. With 500ml cans of Asahi as our beverage of choice (4 yuan each at the local store) we invited our Japanese neighbour over and had a great time laughing at every All Blacks try. I regret not being able to enjoy the atmosphere of the World Cup but this is the best we can do with what we have got. Definately looking forward to the latter rounds of the tournament.

DJ and I joined the gym. Considering all we do is eat, sleep and attend class we thought it would be a good idea (actually we do walk a lot). Gym membership for a sememster is around 800RMB, extremely cheap when compared to NZ standards - and no, don't expect a buff version of me when I return. DJ is the one doing the heavy lifting and its pretty hilarious watching him stuggle to put his shirt on everyday. For those who know Deej, imagine him saying "ahh f*** my arms, man!" in that overly exaggerated voice that everyone mocks him with. One funny moment occured after we signed up for the gym. Two personal trainers came along, took us aside and tried to convince us that we needed them for our future workouts. These guys were unnaturally big, narcissistic individuals who were not going to take no for an answer. I don't know how Darren wriggled out of his but I sort of laughed explaining how I would using the cardio machines most of the time. I think this insulted him a bit which led to him pulling out his planner and trying to pencil me in for a day and time. 20 consultations with this guy was worth 1000's of RMB so there was no way I was signing up for something I wasn't going to do. We both just slowly walked to the door giving any excuse we could come up with. So after one session at the gym, DJ can't hold his arms horizontally for more than a second without me cracking up. Good start!

                                       DJ half obliging to taking a photo of him carrying me

We went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City in the weekend. It was an amazing site and we could have spent all day there. I was blown away by the amount of detail that was put into each building. We went on an unusually hot sunny day which was good overall. The downside was that there were so many people (I'm told that its always packed) so everytime we ventured deeper into the heart of the City our patience for walking in the sun and wading through people was wearing thin. This is the most tourist-y place I've visited in Beijing so far and you could tell. More white people, more people trying to hassle you for souvenirs and these annoying lurchers who want your empty water bottles as soon as you finish it. Shoutout to DJ who I managed to carry me up a staircase inside the Forbidden City (after much convincing).

                                                 Me after exploring the Forbidden City

                                   DJ celebrating another AB try and talking smack to our Jap friend

Its pretty late now, so I better get some sleep before the long week ahead.

climbing the wall....

This whole Chinese firewall thing is getting to my nerves. Thought we had it under control with our little Freegate VPN programme. That didn't last long. Those Chinese censors are a bunch of persistent fuckers, I tell you. Not only do they not want me to share my experiences on this blog, but more importantly, how can I feel good about myself if I can't check the number of likes on my Facebook status update(s) several times a day? Took us a while to find a decent paid VPN service to replace Freegate, because China has blocked the majority of VPN websites too. So far so good with this one, though. Hope it lasts.

I've been in China for a good 6 days now. Caught a flight from Vancouver to Guangzhou for a little stopover on route to Beijing. China Southern airlines has a shockingly bad entertainment system (i.e. it doesn't work), but the stewardesses were easy on the eye. The last time I flew on a plane with good looking flight attendants was back when I was prepubescent. Cathay Pacific, I believe it was. Continuing with the theme of eye candy, I ended up getting frisked at customs by this pretty girl. I must say, she was rather thorough. I was too tired to even care, and I bet she enjoyed it, considering she was smiling the majority of the time. Funny thing is though, I'm 100% certain I had no metal items in my posession.

Finally arrived in Beijing at around 11.pm. All I wanted was to get my luggage quickly and jump into the next taxi. One by one each person left with their possessions, until I was the only one left. It took me a while to realise that I was in a awkward situation. According to the luggage reception desk, my luggage was still in Guangzhou. In hindsight, it does make sense that I would need to retrieve my check-in luggage at an international airport upon arrival before boarding a domestic flight, but the broad in Vancouver assured me that I was checked in all the way through to Beijing. Ended up having to return to the airport the next day.

I won't get into too much detail about our room here at BLCU, but we live in student dormitory 4 on the second floor. Dorm 4 is one of the international student dorms. Ironically, I met more Americans on my first day here than during my whole San Fran/New York trip. Our room has a funny, musky smell. No doubt it's the pipes and drainage, but it's definitely not as bad as what others have claimed (edit: OK, maybe I was wrong. I think someone next door ate a carcass or something. Having trouble breathing). What I didn't expect was how easily the toilets get blocked. At the time of writing, the current tally for blocking the the toilet stands at Rogers with 5 times, and me with a slightly lower number of 1 (I still think it was a carry-on from the other tenant *ahem*). Rogers initially didn't understand the concept of having to put any toilet paper in the rubbish bin, rather down the bowl (who would?), and as a result, he had to get the maintenance/ janitor dude to come unblock the toilet for him. Twice. By the third or fourth time the thing blocked, we had learned how to use a plunger (shout out to our neighbour for lending us his), but the receptionist(s) was already assuming the toilet was blocked whenever Rogers approached the reception desk. On a related note, be wary of spicy, Szechuan food when it's your first time in China.

On Thursday, we had to sit a placement test to allow class allocation for each student. My results could be described as "high level of speaking/ conversational skills, shittier level of reading and writing skills". I was happy with my final placement as I probably would ahve been rolled in a higher level class. Skill levels range from classes A to F (F being the highest), with several levels in each letter group. I'm not going to lie, I'm closer to the A end on the spectrum, having been placed in high B class. However, I'm definitely learning more difficult content than "yi, er, san, si"... 

We hit a expat bar called Tim's Texas Bar-BQ to watch the All Blacks vs. Tonga game. For the unacquainted, the All Blacks are the New Zealand national rugby team who are competing at the 2011 Rugby World Cup which happens to be in New Zealand this time round. It only took us two and a half hours to commute from BLCU to our destination. Someone suggested that a taxi would be quicker than taking 3 trains. Made sense at the time. However, the fact that it took us nearly half an hour to wave down a taxi in the first place should have given us a massive hint framed in neon lights that what we were doing was stupid. We completely forgot that it happened to be the weekend of China's mid-autumn festival. This translates to a shit load of cars on the road. We were literally moving at one block every 5-10 minutes at one point. Luckily for us, the broadcast at Tim's was delayed by half an hour, so we managed to catch half of the second half. Sadly, this was apparently the boring portion of the game, as I later discovered on the sports news online. Beer wasn't exactly cheap at this place either, with a Tiger costing around 30RMB, which is probably what we would pay back home at a bar. Overall, though, we had a good time. Especially when we got our hands on a endless supply of Yanjing beer....

Food is comparatively cheap over here, but prices do vary. In our student cafeteria, a meal costs on average around 8-10RMB, which is nothing when you consider that you are essentially paying $2NZ for something that would cost $10 back home. Then we have your 500RMB roast duck dinners. The place we went to, Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant (or something) is highly recommended in Steve's travel guide. Since Beijing Roast Duck is a must eat while in Beijing, we decided to give this place a try. The wait time to be seated was around half an hour and getting the food was another half an hour, but it was good duck, I must say. Just to clarify, the duck itself didn't cost 500RMB, we did order other stuff. Again, this is cheap as chips (not literally) considering the type of meal we got, but I don't intend on spending the equivalent of $100NZ on every meal. Looking forward to the places that the locals prefer, where the duck is apparently even better.  

I wonder what they do with the rest of the duck

Will post again soon. Glad we got this internet issue sorted out.

DJ

PS: will also try to post stuff about NY/Canada at a later date....



     

 

大家好！ Today will be my first of many posts contributing to DJ’s BLCU blog. We are both taking this adventure together and hope to share some insight and all the good times we have in Beijing to you guysJ. I arrived first so I thought it would be appropriate to share my first experiences of BLCU before DJ. I was slightly anxious about arriving first as I would have to find my way to the university and secure our accommodation alone. My mandarin is at an elementary level which meant I could not rely on my conversation skills alone to get me there. Fortunately I know someone who is currently living over here and he was kind enough to give me the instructions. After taking 3 trains (since I did not trust the taxi drivers) I ended up in Wudakou, the district where BLCU is located. It was a bloody hot and humid morning and I was wearing jeans, a thermal and a hoodie…..yes, the plane trip was cold alright?! I ended up walking around in circles for about 30 minutes trying to ask various people where BLCU was. No one was helpful so I succumbed to the toothless grin of a dirty looking taxi driver. He was actually very nice about it all and led me straight to BLCU for 10RMB. China can be genuine at times! My misfortune did not end there however. I arrived at the international office and found out my name was not on the list of students who had reserved a room at one of the dorms. I slightly panicked and got a hold of Deej. His mum rang the office and she put him in his place. Shot DJ’s mum!

The campus is massive. Besides the many dorms its has basketball courts (incl one self enclosed rubber court), tennis courts, volleyball, table tennis, a gym, football field, track and field, dozens of convenience stalls, restaurants, cafés and a 3 storey dining hall – as well as classrooms, library etc.  

                           Hard day of walking around - we end up in our beds at 8.00pm lol
                                 

Our room is small, so small that our suitcases practically touch. I think it’ll be fine provided that my roommate doesn’t spill his beloved pistachios on my half of the room….We had our entrance exam today (I think it was called SEC but can’t be sure now). We both sat the level 2 test (ppl who know between 100 and 1000 characters). Provided we don’t end up switching classes DJ is in class B12 and I am in A11. The higher the letter and number the more advanced your class is. After the test we did a little exploring and saw some new places outside Wudakou. We ended up in a huge shopping mall and we had some sort of spicy steamboat for lunch but it was fried in a big bowl – not steamed. The chillies were so hot not even my spicy pallet could handle those things. I’m still feeling the side effects…

I’ll leave some of the quirkier stuff for DJ. I’m sure he will take pleasure in writing about our toilet situation . But stay tuned because we will be posting about all sorts including different challenges that have been set for each other. Some of them are gonna be hilarious J

Capt. America (post transformation ofc)

t-rex diiiiiiiied peow peow

It's been a very good week in Vancouver. I've explored a decent chunk of the place. At times, though, I couldn't tell the difference between here and Hong Kong. The number of asian people, predominantly Chinese, is pretty insane. This is especially so in the Richmond region. Auckland doesn't compare.  The transition to Beijing will be quite smooth

But anyway, I'll post more about New York and Canada soon. What I really wanted to show you was a picture of my cousin's two kids. omg they are so fluffy cute i could die. Ayden is six and Tristan is three. Smart kids.

Ayden

Tristan

Next time I post will most likely be in Beijing. Hopefully there are no issues with the internet there.

D

ny continued

 

The skyline has undoubtedly changed since then, and there were no tourists gawking from the base of the statue,but immigrants of yesteryear would have seen a very similar sight when they first reached the shores of their new home. That is, if you weren't part of the two or so percent that were turned back. Gutted much?

If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again.

Easier said than done when you have traveled hundreds or thousands of kilometers by sea. 

The little cruise around the Statue of Liberty and our subsequent visit to Ellis Island was quite interesting, to say the least. It really gave us a good insight into why people made such long journeys for this opportunity, as well as the difficult process that was involved. After all, Ellis Island was the main gateway into the country for millions of people. Not wanting to miss the ferry back to Manhattan, our visit was fairly brief as a result, but we managed to take in all the important parts (I think). I'm sure the movie "Island of Hope-Island of Tears" that we attended would have been a great watch, but half an hour of napping in a dark room was more appealing to me. I'm sure it's available on Youtube anyway.    

The hall at Ellis Island where
immigrants were processed.

Having accomplished another "must-do" New York attraction(s), we made our way back to Manhattan. Do you like BBQ meats? Unless you're vegetarian (Respect. I can't do that shit), or rely on photosynthesis, I assume that you do. Well, my mate Jono suggested this place called Hill Country on his list of must dine places. He highly rated their ribs. In fact, he claimed they were the best ribs he has ever eaten. Bold claim. 

Turns out Monday was all you can eat night. $25US each person.How it works is that each "batch" consists of 4 types of meat (ribs, roast pork, roast chicken, whatever else it was), 2 sides, etc, and when you finish one batch, you request another one. I set a goal of at least six rounds of meat and sides (I was starving). Only managed two and a half measly portions. Regardless of how obese everyone else was in the restaurant, I still don't get how one person can stuff themselves in a single sitting the equivalent amount of food that could feed a whole Ethiopian village for months. I think we were close to throwing up at one point. The constant laughter over our weakness didn't help our cause. The collage of photos below is a rough photographic timeline of my progress over the evening.    

Slow death

Despite nearly splitting my stomach, I'm sure this was one of the most fun meals I've had in New York. My girlfriend wasn't stupid enough to gorge herself to the brink of death, but I was willing to self-mutilate my body to provide us with a few laughs. Next time I'll consider sticking a finger down my throat after each plate.

 

D