A taste of pop culture

It's been a while since I blogged any real text, eh?

Let's see... the photos do a pretty decent job of keeping you updated with my life; it's just easier to journal my thoughts and experiences by hand in a notebook (you know, the way they did it before fabulous MacBooks came along) so I have been doing so. It's pretty cathartic because I've never been good at keeping a written account of my life. 1) I like attention and comments and affirmation that people care about my doings, 2) My brothers used to read my journals and 3) It's just way too slow. But it's been good so far. I'll copy the pertinent doodlings into this blog sometime, but for now...

First experiences for today include going to a hip-hop club (Yu Gong Yi Shan) here in Beijing and smoking hookah. #1 was absolutely fabulous and #2 was sort of... Meh, it was interesting... fun, but it's not on my list of top 10 things to do again. I'm not a fan of the smell of smoke, so it's not 100% enjoyable for me. (If you do want to know about smells I like, they include chlorine, gasoline and cologne) The hip-hop club was just way too rad! Mmm, the DJs were really talented. Really, really good. They talked about all sorts of political stuff, and the Olympics, and Beijing, and how proud they are of their city and nation. It was incredible. I've never really had much opportunity to sample the nightlife or the youth culture in Asia before. Afterward Suzanne and I did some fun dancing and got the dance floor started. We sorta felt like we did a good job, except that after we stopped, everyone vanished again. (OK, it was just the two of us and then like... eight guys and two couples on a very bare dance floor while the rest of our team stood around and... took pictures) Still. Good times.

Backtracking... before that Pat, Michelle, Suzanne, and Rio and I went to the Houhai area (a very touristy lakeside strip of coffeehouses and bars) to sit, chill, escape the rain and smoke hookah/drink. I'm not a huge beer fan but I've been drinking Tsingtao. It seems to be one of the most tolerable as far as I'm concerned. :P We had apple-scented...flavored... something... hookah. Interesting, but not my favorite thing to do, I think. It was pretty trippy, though, so I'm glad I tried it. Nice to know: They give you little removable plastic mouthpieces so you don't have to touch other people's germs.

Prior to that, we had a very fantastic dinner with our new translators. :D

I have photos of none of the above events (although there might be hip-hop dancing shots later on from other people) because I decided to "live" the experience instead of documenting it. This is a choice I always end up regretting. ;p

Going back farther, we spent the day at a CCTV studio watching them film a segment of a show for their English channel or something like that - it was a high school competition for the best English proficiency in the nation. It was boring, touching, endearing, funny, random, and tear-jerking all at once. That's when you know it's good, I guess. That being said, I probably wouldn't do that again either. ;P

The food here has been pretty all right. You know, I'm sad to say it but I've been a little disappointed several times. I am a total racist when it comes to food, and I still swear by Taiwanese food. :D

I did a lot of journaling on the bus. Whoo. Sometimes the only way for me to create my own space is to put on my headphones loud enough to tune out the rest of the world. Hah.





My breakfast :D



Michelle bought dog-hair Nike shoes!

Beating the streets

We walked smack-dab into a peaceful protest outside our front door. The govt. apparently offered an "investment opportunity" for individuals across the nation about a decade ago, promising fast and high returns within a couple years. A few years later, there was no mention of the "project" any more and many people are still out of their money.

These Hebei province residents (mostly represented by Beijing residents) meet three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, to speak up for themselves.

They have been doing so for the past eight years.

The lady on the left is telling me, "The government has deceived us. We just want our money back. We are meeting here because this is an administrative office; we're not trying to cause trouble for the officials. We just want to peaceably speak up. Many of us are retired government workers, and all of us could use the money. We deserve to have our rights. Some of us have invested a few thousand yuan - some have invested up to eighty thousand yuan. The total amount the government owes is in excess of three hundred million yuan."

Temple of Eternal Harmony and Peace

College kids know how to have fun

But sometimes they need to be taught Texan fun. ;)


We met up with some kids Zach Lown met when he was here last weekend. They're "civil engineering" majors (?) who design gardens and parks, etc. We sort of had an... impromptu... English class/get-to-know-you/food/alcohol in a little bar in the basement of a youth hostel converted from an old concubine house that is 280 years old. It's like a little microcosm of China.


Yep, I had a shot. As alcohol goes, it wasn't bad... but whooooo, those herbs left a rather nasty taste in my mouth. There were two snakes in it, for your information. ;p Also, allegedly, the penises of three different animals. I think it was something like dog, donkey and ...tiger? But don't quote me on that, and don't take it for real.


"Getting to know you" taking place.

Me being effervescent as always. Note the men staring at the weird ABC kid in the background, and the horrendous dust spots/glare that should teach you to get something better than a point-and-shoot.



Chris... decided to randomly give his T-shirt away. Off his back. Yeah. :P

It was good times... also the first time I've ever had alcohol outside the U.S.

As always, more pictures here.

Forbidden City

Shot through a really grimy window