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!
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