Wednesday, November 12, 2008
China Journal 2008-11-13, 1:42PM I May be Addicted
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
2008-11-05, 7:32PM New Style and My Dissolving Censor
I’ve also discovered a weird side effect of being in a country where very few people understand me. Me and my friends walk down the road and we talk in English together more often than not. Because no one really understands us, we don’t lower our voices when we say crude or objectionable things. This means that my friends and I can often be heard (by an English speaker) swearing, naming body parts, or talking about nearby people in a hilariously offensive way. I have a theory. Most people don’t voice everything that goes through their heads. This is because we all have what I like to call a “censor” that keeps us from saying things that other people would either not appreciate or think was just odd. Because no one understands us we don’t use our censor as often as we usually would back home. I think that when I get back to Canada I will be thought of as a loud, obnoxious person until I get my censor back. I’ll just have to start speaking in Chinese back home to compensate.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
2008-10-11, 1:12PM: Fitness in China
Old people are monsters here. They often seem to remain in very good health despite the fact that they all smoke like chimneys. We were shown a way down from the Great Wall by a man who was nearly 60 and he was smoking while climbing a cliff and set a pace that our young bodies (tired from hiking and carrying bags, mind you) could barely keep up to. Seniors often are seen in some parks doing Tai-Chi or maybe dancing or other styles of martial arts. I had to laugh a little when I saw someone with a poster trying to show the plight of senior citizens. It was about how they don’t have a way to retire and have to work even in old age. It showed a picture of an old woman with a huge bundle of sticks on her back. I could see the point that the guy was trying to make, about how old people shouldn’t have to do backbreaking labour and all that, but I couldn’t help but laugh to myself that this tiny old woman was about 70 probably and as strong as an ox! She didn’t look like she needed any help whatsoever.
Being here makes me think how dependant we are on our cars and all of our other little devices that make our lives easier. We drive around the block! Here, I use the subway but it’s still a few blocks away. If I had a bike (and the courage to drive it on the roads here because it’s insane here) I’d probably ride it everywhere. My mind is hectic today so I think I’m jumping all over here, but my point is that fitness is just ingrained in the culture a lot more than it is with our culture. People are just healthier.. except for the chain-smoking and pollution.
I guess I’ll take a moment to update on my training. Starting next week I train in the meteor hammer on Tuesday and Thursday for two hours each! My schedule will be this: Sanda at 7:40-10:30am M-F, meteor hammer from 2-4pm T,Th, Chinese language 2-5pm M,W,F and weight lifting with some friends whenever, probably a few times a week and maybe some jogging tossed in for effect. By the way, my legs are sore today. And, it turns out, the Wushu that I’m going to learn can be anything. The teacher told me I could just learn whatever I wanted! So I’m probably going to do some kind of stick or another weapon or long fist or something. I’ll decide that before November. Any ideas?
Oh right, by the way, the Sanda teacher was late on Friday and the Wushu teacher decided to help us all stretch. Have you ever had someone physically tear at your ligaments? That’s what he did. we stretched our farthest and he pushed us until we wanted to cry. It turns out my reaction to pain is laughter. I don’t know why. I was laughing when he made my joints hurt. It does work though. I'm limber like Gumby
Monday, October 6, 2008
China Journal: The Great Wall Epic 2008-10-03 4:42PM
My great wall trek starts in my dorm at six thirty am the day that we start. Me and my friends are not at all prepared because we procrastinated and went out the previous night to enjoy spirits and social interaction. We skip off to the market which is luckily open early and buy sandwiches and processed snacks. I made sure to buy at least a couple of packs of peanuts as peanuts are a magical snack supplying the snacker with boundless energy. I also bought some tubes of meat. The best food we bought was from a guy with a stand right outside our school. He made little breakfast sandwiches with lettuce, chicken and egg in a bun with tasty, brown sauce. This man was a master of the chopstick arts. They moved as if by themselves and assembled a sandwich in zero time. I was flabbergasted. My friends were less than impressed. Whatever. We each bought four and packed them along with the rest of our snacks. I had little space for all of my food so I had to tie a bag of bananas to the back of my bag. To reiterate, the plan was to hike, sleep on the wall, then hike some more. We needed sleeping bags. We didn’t have any. We didn’t want to spend the money. We rolled up the covers from our beds and tied them with belts and spare rope to our bags. My one friend had a Samsonite satchel. We set off for the subway station with our program leader Hunter.
To get to the wall we had to ride the subway across Beijing and then get on a bus to travel to the very outskirts and then we found a guy in a van who did his own tourism stuff with the wall and he drove us the rest of the way. Luckily, we stopped at a supermarket and Tyler bought a backpack to use instead of his laptop satchel. Later in the story you will realize that this was the wisest decision he made.
This paragraph marks the start of the actual trip! We reach a town where there is a path up to
the wall. We decided to forgo the nice, happy gondola and the clean and tidy remade great wall and instead wanted to go to the broken down, falling apart old Great wall. Hunter asks a couple of locals and the point us to a path. We pass a tiny kennel on the way and I pet some disgustingly cute puppies. I have pictures of that. Go look. They’re cute. On the left after the kennel is a little path. We assumed that this path was the right one and walked in. After a few minutes we pass an elderly woman and I begin to think that this path may turn out to be too easy. I quickly forget this when the path gets steeper and I decide that the old lady is just a monster. (By the way, sorry to all of the grammar Nazis out there that are hating how I sometimes switch from past to present tense.) The path eventually goes from steep to steeper and we start to climb a little. It started out with one little rock face that had little risk to it and we soon found ourselves climbing near vertical cliffs with death waiting below. I might sound as if I’m laying it on a little thick but I’m really not. Though the hand and footholds were numerous, if we were to have fallen it would have been a short drop and a long roll. At one point we heard what was unmistakably the hum of a hive of bees. My friend, Tyler, chose that moment to mention that he was deathly allergic to bees. My only advice was to climb slowly and steadily and make no erratic movements. We got to the top without incident and sat on some rocks eating some roasted nuts. Tasty.
This top that I just mentioned was not quite the “top” top. The great wall was still a little way ahead. The whole first part of the climb, Rolf, our Norwegian Sherpa, took the lead by a good distance. The last leg Tyler was the first one in line. I stayed in the back as I often took pictures and then caught up. I heard Tyler from up ahead yell that there was a wall in the way and that the path was impassable. I let out a cheer and ran up to join him to see that the wall he was talking about was a wall of rock, not the Great Wall. I hated him for a short time. Luckily, around that rock wall was the Great Wall itself. I ran up and let out a cry of triumph! We made it to the top using the most dangerous route and a minimal amount of preparedness. Congrats to us.
We met a Canadian couple who took another, easier route. I guess we took the path on the left when we should’ve taken the path on the right. Oh well. I liked our route. We didn’t die so it’s all good. Next time I’ll bring rope though.
The first site of the wall was a guard tower. An old man had made a camp there and was selling beer. I had one, of course. It was very nice after the long walk and it served as my celebratory treat. the view from the tower was amazing. I can’t describe it well enough to do it justice, so use your imagination because I’m going to try. I could see the entire mountain range that surrounded us. Not mountains like home, but more like foothills. Nothing goes over the tree-line so everything is green right to the horizon. Bah, this isn’t working. They should’ve sent a poet. Up there we could see our path clearly. The wall wound out in both directions from us. Off to the right we could see in the distance the gondola up to the reconstructed part. The other way was more overgrown and rough looking, even from a distance. The clean, easy way wasn’t for us so we set off to the left. Far off we could see the tower called “Eagles Flies Upward Tower” that Hunter, our Chinese friend/program director, pointed out.
We were told by a couple of Chinese people that we met that there is a metal ladder with a drop-off in the direction we were heading. We found it. What happened with it is there was a stone walkway around a cliff and the walkway was so decrepit that it had fallen away at one point directly below the steel ladder. I went down first. I like climbing and am very sure of my feet below me and I was nervous going down it. The ladder was easy. The bottom of the ladder, however, hangs in the air with a thirty foot drop to a rock slide. The trick is to hold onto the metal railing that is set up after the ladder that used to border the stone walkway and walk along the rock wall. I had a large backpack so moving was tricky for this part. One slip and I would have fallen to the rock slide below and rolled for awhile. Of course, I set my foot down on the solid rock and walked away from the edge and pulled out my camera on video mode. Tyler, with his short legs, took his time but got down without incident. Rolf, who is a little more reckless, had a little incident. He started off normally but as soon as he got to the wall, he stepped on and let go of the rail, turned around and spied his landing and went to jump. He made what could have been a fatal mistake. He hesitated. He second guessed himself and stumbled, went to grab the railing and missed. He landed on his side and would have rolled under the railing but luckily his large bag jammed him for a moment, long enough for Tyler to grab him. He came close to a nasty fall. I have it on video. In it I’m swearing loudly. Sorry. Hunter, who’s been here before and is smaller, simply climbed down the rail. That guy, he could’ve told us. But I guess if he did I wouldn’t have the story.
The trail gets rougher from there. They call it climbing the Great Wall for a reason. There isn’t much walking involved. The stairs for that first day were mostly crumbled and rocky. Tricky because there were more than a few loose bricks. The crawling pace we had going down those stairs was definitely necessary. I would’ve upped the pace for sure but I’m not a foolhardy guy when I can see my handicap, ie my bag’s size in this case. This was a bit of a pain for the whole trip. Not because it was hard to climb as such, but more because my bag would catch on branches and also make it hard to turn around in narrow corridors.
Towards the end of the first day, we arrived at a guard tower. The sky was getting dim and we thought we should stop before it got dark. Sadly, the tower was a little below our lofty standards for living. The walls were quite crumbly and we were going to be forced to sleep in rubble. We moved on. In the failing light we carefully climbed down a crumbling stairway to another tower not too far from the last. This was one of the more dangerous times because we had to be very sure of our footholds and in the failing light it gets harder to find them. Luckily the stairway was only approximately 25ft high and the climb was short. We walked into our new home and it was glorious. The ground was mainly free of debris with a couple of the windows already partially blocked with bricks to keep out the wind. We quickly made our living quarters and went to find wood. We found two twigs and some green stuff. After a half hour of failed attempts at a fire we gave up and sat in the dark talking and eating cold food.
Sleep was harder to find that night than wood. We were sleeping in the blankets off of our beds and didn’t bring ground mats. It was drafty and chilly and the souls of the dead Chinese workers buried below us were very talkative. My legs were bundled up in my tiny sleeping nook, crossed like I was sitting when I fell backwards into sleep. What little sleep I did have was filled with restless dreaming, most of which is remembered only with feelings and small fragments and one scent that stood out even to my dreaming self. One part that made me glad for the terrible sleep was seeing the stars. Out in the countryside the stars are bright and clear and they twinkle more than at home. I woke up and looked out my tiny window to see Orion perfectly framed. I laid there looking at the stars for a good hour that night. I wouldn’t have traded that sight for a restful night. It was an odd sleep. When the sun rose I was glad to get out of my little nest, stretch my legs and await the coming warmth of the sun.
We were lucky when we woke up to see something that I thought was pretty amazing. The clouds were everywhere around and below us so that the sky was clear but the ground below the mountains was cloudy. The clouds were flowing from the Beijing side onto the other side through a short spot on the wall and it looked like a white river steadily streaming down the mountain.
We cleaned up and set our sights on the Eagle’s Tower. Our goal was a long way off but we figured we could make it in a few hours. I had on my jeans and a long shirt because the sun was being a jerk and hiding behind the peak of the tower we slept in. We climbed down a steep staircase, the jagged rock sharp on our cold hands. The area below us was relatively flat and we all took the time to change to warm weather clothes as soon as the sun hit us. That was nice sun too. It just seemed like the most pure sunlight shining down after being cold all night, tossing and turning. I felt charged by it like I had solar panels hooked into my system.
Walking along the wall I marvelled at the forest within the wall itself. It really showed me how old the wall actually is. The wall is in great condition on the outside because it is made of huge bricks cut from the mountain itself and the smaller bricks are on top of those to make the actual walking surface. The trees seem to have taken root within these little bricks and stretched their roots all through the wall itself. Walking along the narrow trails the tree canopy almost blocks the sun for long stretches. There are broken archways and stacks of old bricks and stone stairways every so often, all hidden inside the Great Wall’s garden. The guard towers are the same in this respect as some of their roofs have collapsed in the middle and overgrown leaving them looking like small, contained gardens with fifty foot cliffs all around.
The sheer size of the great wall blew my mind! Trying to grasp the concept of how many people and how long it took to build it is almost too much to try and comprehend. The foundation bricks are gigantic, about one meter long by half a meter tall, and carved from stone. I cannot really understand how they could move them around and place them when I have a hard time just climbing the cliffs themselves. I’m, guessing at some kind of system with ramps and pulleys or something. The most mind boggling part is the tall stairways, namely Sky Stairs. These stairways climb the steepest parts of the mountains. The stairs themselves are half a meter tall and only about 10-20 cm wide! We theorized that ancient Chinese are eight feet tall and thin as rails because that is the only type of person who could use stairs like this in a normal fashion. These Sky Stairs were very tall and became narrower the higher I climbed. At the narrowest point I wouldn’t have been able to turn sideways with my huge bag. I loved it. As soon as we got to the top and celebrated our conquering of these monster stairs we looked ahead on the path to see another set almost as tall and a lot more crumbly. How nice. The second one was definitely a harrowing climb. The stairs lay mostly in a pile at the bottom so we had to rely on the shattered rock wall to serve as our stairs. The rock in China is great in that it always seems to have excellent handholds and footholds. Also, because these paths are frequented by other hikers, the loose rocks haven mostly fallen down with those ill-fated travelers, the wall is relatively clear of trick holds.
The view from the top of the eagle’s tower was better than the first tower. I think this is because we had worked so much harder to get to it. It lived up to its name. The cliff off the one side was a straight drop down for what may have been hundreds of feet. I’m not good at estimating distances, especially from memory, but believe me when I say that if I’d have jumped, I could have screamed for a breath and a half at least.
That was it. We had climbed the great wall! We were at our destination and now it was time to walk to the town. It was two in the afternoon and we figured about an hour hike. This calculation was made before we remembered what the great wall was made for. It’s not called the Great Fence. It turns out that the walls leave a good twenty to thirty foot drop even if there’s no cliff. We had no rope so we had to find a hole in the wall. That’s not hard. Just by walking the length of the wall we would eventually find a way down as we’d seen at least half a dozen on our way up here. We climb up to the next tower and run into our first dilemma. The staircase down the other side is completely crumbled leaving a cliff that would need rope. We’ve been in this situation before earlier that day and just find a path around it. In about ten minutes we’re down the stairs after our little detour. That’s when we see the next cliff that used to be stairs. We are all tired and don’t want to tackle a full-on cliff as we’ve been hiking for about six hours on little
sleep. We decide to hike around again.
The hike takes us down a path that steadily gets steeper. The dirt turns to leaves and the leaves turn to mud. My shoes have no grip and if I step on the many rocks I risk sending them down to meet my friends. Whenever we have been on a path that doesn’t seem often used, like this one seemed, we regain our faith in it by seeing the scattered water bottles and other wrappers along the path. These sure signs kept us going up the first path to the mountain and they kept us going down this sure path off the mountain. We came to a cliff. We went back to the wall. Hunter made a call to someone who knew the wall. We tried another path. We hit a cliff, taller than the other one. We scrambled up the mud and rocks to the wall again. After another phone call we tried again. Third tries are always the luckiest. We reached a cliff again. Luckily, it was small and easily climbable so we went down. The next cliff, about twenty feet after it, was very tall. Very, very tall. At this point we deduced that the wrappers and bottles were not cast aside along this trail but along another and washed down our slippery path by the rain. Elementary, my dear Watson. We climbed back to the great wall. That’s thrice that we climbed down and up. I loved it though. The whole time I was laughing and saying it was great. My friends hated that. I’ll also not that Tyler is Hypoglycaemic and hadn’t had any fruit in a while. Rolf, nice guy that he is, noisily munched an apple down while Tyler was suffering a sugar shortage in his body. Suffice to say, Tyler did not appreciate my happy-go-lucky attitude.
How did we get down? I’ll tell you. Hunter called again and a local of the nearby village, a fifty year old man, hiked up from his house in forty minutes. We saw him on the other side of the broken wall and waved. We figured he would take some secret, invisible path up and started to wait. In less than a minute he was there beside us. We were flabbergasted. After he paused for another smoke (how he got here that fast while smoking, I’ll never get) he showed us a small climbable path near the collapsed portion. In less than an hour we were down the mountain and getting into the van of a local tourism business. It was now about five. We spent at least a couple hours climbing the nearby mountainside.
The drive back was the most nerve-wracking, scary part of the whole trip. The guy whizzed through the mountain roads and at one point passed a bus on a blind turn. He refused to give way and forced the oncoming vehicle and bicycle onto the shoulder. I cheered at that move but tightened my grip on the holy *expletive deleted* handle. By the way, seatbelts are not often worn in China and the seat I had did not have one.
There. That’s my book. Sorry it was a little long winded.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Travis Panasiuk
The news about Travis reached me out here in China too. The distance dulls the shock a little, making it seem less real; hard for me to comprehend. Hearing about something like this purely through email doesn’t work the same. I almost don't really believe it. Or I don’t want to believe it, but I know he's gone and it hurts. He pretty much just started Kung-Fu, not even at the best parts yet, and now he's done. I liked training with him because even though he was a relative beginner, he wasn’t afraid to try things. Being afraid is a huge hindrance to experience and the experience that Travis gained was huge. I know that a lot of people gained from seeing that exhibited as well. You can’t help but be influenced by that kind of an attitude; it’s infectious at the very least. Training with him was fun because I could see that smile going strong even when he was tired and even if I was kicking him too hard. He didn’t seem to really think about being tired or sore, but more just enjoyed being there and that can cut out pain like nothing. His passing reminds me that life is precious, every second of it. I think he understood that very well. I barely knew the guy outside of Silent River, though I had hung out with him a couple times. He came to my going away party and he’s luckily one of those people that can go to a party where they know very few people, be sober and still have a good time. He was a great guy to know, though I knew him so little. Never really got the chance. No, I had the chance, maybe if I hung out with him more earlier on. But the road of “If” leads to madness and regrets would be something that a guy like Travis wouldn’t appreciate. A better idea is to instead learn from that and don’t delay in doing something. Invite that interesting, new person out for a drink, learn that instrument, try that game, eat that odd dish. Everything is new in the beginning, so don’t be afraid to do something new. Approach it without fear but with a lust for gaining experience, for knowledge. Almost no one looks back and says, “I wish I hadn’t tried that.” But I’ve heard a lot of people say that they wish they had. This is a piece of Travis that I’ll try to keep in me forever. I feel bad that I cannot attend the funeral as I’m in China currently. I’ll have to pay tribute to his life in a different way out here. It may not sound like much, but I’ll keep him in mind while I train and try and emulate his frame of mind and attack my training with the same vigour that he did.
Jonathan Robinson
China Journal 2008-09-17, 11:11PM
Tried some weird kind of Chinese breakfast crape thingy. It was ok. That’s all on that.
In Chinese class today I slept during one of the breaks. It was a really odd thing I did and I’ll tell you about it in a second. First, let me say that I don’t usually sleep in class but I was really tired and I think I have a cold today. So I’m falling asleep and starting to dream and Tyler asks if I want his peach. I, in my insane, dozing state, do not think I am being offered a peach but something else, what I can’t remember, and I tell him “No” with a lot of attitude mixed in. He offers again, knowing that I do want the peach. I tell him no again. He offers one more time saying, “Jon! Do you want to eat this peach?” I clue in and grab it and eat it. I don’t thank him until later. I’m out of it. I get up to put the pit in the garbage but instead trip and fall. I’m really in a stupor at this point. I crawl over to the garbage, put it in and roll over onto the floor again. Martin almost tripped on me. Sorry for you literary types reading this and hating my grammar but I’m really tired.
Oh, one more thing. Yesterday Tyler and I tried a new noodle place. They were fantastic. For about two bucks Canadian we enjoyed huge bowls of noodles with beef chunks! I slurped mine back, as slurping is polite in China, and at the end I found a little tiny, approximately one point five cm, cockroach type bug floating dead in my broth. I picked it out with my chopsticks and put it on the table, as the Chinese do for anything that they don’t want to eat, and I have a quick mental debate. On the one hand the noodles were delicious, on the other there was a freaking cockroach in it. As always, logic prevails! I didn’t die from the bug and the noodles were grrreat! I decide to finish my pasta. We took Rolf there today and enjoyed the same dish. MMMMMmmmmmmmmmm Noodles!
Friday, September 12, 2008
China Journal 2008-09-11, 3:27PM
The first day of training was yesterday. Just so you know what we did and how it seems to work, I’ll tell you. To start, we start at nine and go until about eleven thirty. We get a ten minute break about halfway through and the only other breaks are the slow jogs around the training hall between exercises. We never really stop moving for the two point five hours. Warm-up, like in Silent River, is the most strenuous part so far. We do a lot of things with jumping, foot work and really odd exercises that are really painful. Quick stepping and a lot of hip movement. There are a couple where it looks like I’m skipping through a field of daisies or trying to shimmy out of a pair of shorts without my hands, but they help in warming up and working the core. For warm-up we also play soccer, aka 足球. It was me, Rolf, Tyler and another guy, none of us being pro in soccer, versus the three instructors and a russian guy who seems to play often. The final score was something like twelve to one against us. After that we split up between the three instructors. Rolf, Tyler, Sasha the Russian guy, and I study Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) on the far left mat. A short, quick and acrobatic Indian guy studies Wushu (the flying stuff) on the middle mat. And a crazy Danish guy studies Taichi (slow and relaxing) on the far right mat. Our instructor is in his forties, the oldest one of the three, and agile for a guy his age by western standards. At one point, while we were doing fifty slow side kicks, I saw him pop up into a straight and steady handstand. He’s funny too and patient with the language barrier. He knows a little English but luckily he speaks mostly Chinese, giving us a good chance to learn more. Oh, side note, we train in tiny kickboxing shorts so I show a lot of leg during practice. Sorry for the mental picture, but you have to know. When we get into the actual Sanda the first thing we do is stand in a fighting stance for ten minutes in left then right lead. After that we practice proper punching technique by punching slowly then quickly, one hundred times, both sides. There is a lot of repetition, I find, which is good. We pared up and did some blocking practice with one guy throwing punches and the other blocking and parrying. At one point he got us to put our hands behind our backs with our partner punching us all over, body, face, and we were told to look at him and not blink. Also, a lot of stretching. And running and jogging and walking around. We did some pad work too, kicking and punching them. The teaching style is different too. because communication is tricky he’ll just walk up and move your hand or leg, or show exactly what to do. An eye for detail is handy here, I’m definitely practicing mine. Also, I’m sore and, what with more than two hours formal training every weekday morning, I expect to be sore for a while. I also will be practicing some extra stuff for fun. I bought a meteor hammer so I have to learn how to use it.
Chinese language class started as well. It’s at two in the afternoon for two hours on Monday and Friday and three on Wednesday. It’s very good. We actively engage in conversation with the teacher and each other all class. I think Wed is the conversation class. Writing is on Fri or Mon. It is even better because we have only three people in our class. Tyler, Martin and I. Rolf is with the crazy Danish guy in a lower class. Class here will serve as a good complement to my practical practice that I constantly have just living here and that seems to me to be the best way to learn a language.
It’s really interesting being a foreigner. I notice people always look at me and some full on stare. The Chinese students at school are extra friendly and just last night Rolf and I played with what we like to call a bird-ball. (a birdie type thing that’s used like a hackie sack. Young and old people alike play with it. it’s a traditional Chinese toy. It’s made of four feathers on a rubber base that has some small aluminum washer-sized rings to make a pleasing noise when you kick it.) We were soon joined by two girls and a guy. We tried to talk to them and one of them knew a little English so, after playing bird-ball for about forty-five minutes, him, Rolf and I sat down and talked about Beijing and whatever else came to mind. Friends are easy to come by here it seems. Also, last night while roaming the market for food, four of us, Canada, Amsterdam, Norway and America, were standing and talking when a young kid ran right up to us and just stared at us with a large smile! Chinese kids are cute. I want one. I probably won’t marry a Chinese woman though, or father random half-Chinese children though. I’ll just get a Chinese kid and take him home in my luggage or something. Or maybe not…
China Journal 2008-09-09, 10:50Pm
Finally ate after all that! Noodles. Good. Best thing about Chinese noodle eating is that you don’t actually twist the noodles, like we do, around the fork. Instead you slurp like a vacuum in a puddle. It’s awesome! All my manners from home are now forgotten and replaced with slurping, grabbing food from other people’s plates and putting my elbows on the table. Burping is fine too.. I assume… ha! After a bit of a break we took a half hour bus ride to a kung fu store. Weapons everywhere. EVERYWHERE!! I have pictures. Go look at them. I bought some good stuff too. Rolf got crazy metal claw gloves with spikes! We were like kids in a candy store! We were allowed to pick up and play with everything so, of course, we did. there was a sword almost as tall as me! I wanted to buy everything so I may go back and buy more someday. I bought a meteor hammer and will learn it. After getting back from the store Rolf, Tyler and I went for food at an awesome place only a short subway ride away. They had something called princess made milk bun or something like that. I need the recipe. It was the best thing ever. EVER!! It was sweet but not strong sweet. I can’t even describe it. best thing ever. EVER! EVER! I will eat it again. also, vinegar looks like soya sauce. I made my rice taste crappy. It made me sad. The buns made me happy though!! We ran back through the rain. Turns out I love running in the rain. I am tired. I’ll respond to emails tomorrow after training! Night night.
China Journal 2008-09-09, 10:54AM
Wow. Just spent all day since eight looking for some hospital to get a physical. All foreigners need it supposedly. But this means that we couldn’t eat all morning so we’re starving! 饿死了Uh si le. Literally starving to death. Soon we eat because the place we went doesn’t do it anymore and we could not find the other place. Kind of annoying but whatever. Tomorrow we start kung fu and Chinese language!! I can’t wait! Booyah!
China Journal 2008-09-09, 12:12AM
Wow long day. To start, I had the first good sleep of the trip so I feel rested. Sadly, Rolf and I slacked off for a good chunk of the day. We went for breakfast sandwiches and a cookie then lounged in the room all day until early afternoon when we decided to go on an adventure. We almost immediately ran into Eda, Hunter and the new guy, Tyler. He’s a pretty good guy so far, funny and easy-going so he fits right in. he’s here studying Sanda and Chinese language from Ohio. After waiting an hour for him and Hunter to figure out the phone for overseas calls we all went to a crazy street with all sorts of stuff to buy and haggle for! It was sweet because I figured out the secret to haggling. Pretend that the merchandize is a piece of crap that you don’t even want and say no at least five times and then start to walk away and they’ll drop the price at least by half, more if you work it. Rolf got a thing priced at five hundred yuan dropped to one hundred yuan so he bought it. Some kung fu clothes. Lots of neat stuff there; I’ll be returning with some money to buy some stuff. Presents! I saw the infamous scorpion shish kebob as well and will be eating it. More on that later. Wow are the people selling things pushy. Taking the subway was bloody long! Transferred three times and probably rode and walked for half an hour to get to where we were going. It was fun though. We ended up racing through the stations on the way back. Eda’s crazy and at one point tried to sneakily beat us to the top of a huge set of stairs and escalators. That started a race that made us all super sweaty by the time we got to the subway. We were all rushing by people who were content to slowly ride up and jumping over railings and sprinting up dozens of steps. Good fun! On the last stop Rolf went back to keep the door open while me an Tyler went to check emails. I took the trusting country boy into some dark alleys. These dark alleys, luckily, contained no thugs so the short-cut worked! And for my parent’s sake I will point out that the alleys were not shifty, merely poorly lit. after more awkward conversation we finally got on some computers. After getting back to the apartments I needed to alert Rolf to our return and open the doors. I shouted up to the windows but of course he didn’t hear me. it was open so I decided to throw my hackie-sack in. I missed and it fell into a bamboo patch. I’ll find it tomorrow I hope. Sadly the door was actually still open at this time and we had no problem getting in. turns out that I’m dumb when tired. Turns out. A few things that I’ve noticed: guys have no problem carrying a girl’s purse without feeling like wussies and even wear them over their shoulders. People in dark back alleys sound even shiftier when you don’t know what they’re saying. Tea is awesome. We drank some tea just now actually. Bed time! I have some kind of physical tomorrow it turns out…
China Journal 2008-09-07, 11:23PM
Turns out we weren’t going to see birds, but the bird’s nest, aka the Olympic stadium. Haha! It was really spectacular. I’ve never seen a building with no sharp edges before, it’s rounded out all over! Also, I found a toy that I need to buy. It’s this large birdie type thingy that they use like a hacky-sack! So fun and I impressed a few of them with some tricks from my years hackie-sacking. Must buy toy. Also had more delicious food! I like food. It’s such good food here too. Eda and her friend who’s name I forget showed me and Rolf a sweet bar filled with foreigners. I’ll probably drop in there when I feel the need to have a good, English conversation. Oh right, we rode the subway for this little expedition today. It’s so high tech and it goes everywhere! It puts Edmonton’s to shame. Their transit compared to Edmonton’s is like an Olympian to a retarded cripple. Bed time. I hope I can sleep this time.
China Journal 2008-09-07, 6:28PM
Good day so far! After a crappy sleep, woke up at least twenty times, I got up and Rolf and I went to the internet café. Also bought a keychain. Hey, the keychain is a big thing for me! I’ve been planning on buying one for two days now. We came back and wasted time for a while. We got hungry ( 饿了Uh le) 安定bought some noodles and found hot water. With this newly acquired boiling water we had big plans for tea. After killing more time I found myself falling asleep so we went to market. On the way a friendly yet pushy girl tried to sell us make-up and something about our feet.. it was hard to understand her because she spoke excellent Chinese. We spent a good forty-five minutes buying noodles and snacks along with some tea and, very important, toilet paper. Also bought a knife for the watermelon we purchased on the side of the road on the way back. Delicious, by the way. This may sound boring to you but there is actually so much going on that I can’t really describe it all. Everything is different. Here, I’ll try a bit. People walk in the middle of the road and drivers honk to get through when off the main road-ways. There is garbage all over. It doesn’t seem like anyone worries about littering. I saw a window level with the ground that had broken glass spread in front of it for security. It turns out I suck at haggling. I paid full price, 14 yuan, for a watermelon. That’s a bit over two bucks. I’ll think of more later. Eda’s going to be by soon to take us to a park to see birds or something.
China Journal 2008-09-07, 3:35AM
Jet lag again, I think. Either that or I just can’t sleep. That’s ok though, this gives me a chance to write about the day’s events. I got up at about seven this morning after not having much sleep and finally being fed up with not being able to sleep and I unpacked a bit of my stuff. I had a shower too. The shower is a little different than at home. Instead of being in a little stall or behind a curtain, it’s just there on the wall of the bathroom. There’s a drain on the floor of the bathroom and it just drains down. I can brush my teeth and shower, even poo and shower if I want because the water easily reaches the toilet! I met up with Hunter at about ten am. We hung out and talked about random stuff until Summer and Esmeralda, Eda for short, arrived from the airport with my roommate. His name’s Rolf. He’s from Norway. A student of martial arts since he was 13 (he’s 20 now) and seems like a decent guy so far. We’re probably going to swing by an internet café tomorrow and send some emails because our room internet is unavailable until the tenth. Food was the first stop after dropping off his baggage. I ordered 25 dumplings, aka jiaozi, and tried the spicy sauce. It hurt. I stuck to the other sauce. I tried my first bit of conversation with a stranger as asked for a box to take the leftovers in as my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I walked up. “Qing gei wo yi ge he.” “Mei you he” was the response I got. Luckily I only had to think about it for a few seconds until I realized he said that he had no boxes. I didn’t know what to say. No box? My plan is ruined and Plan B doesn’t exist! Oh no! I was about to panic and run away when he gave me a little baggie. I thanked him with a “xie xie” and sat back down to bag my jiaozi. I stored them in the community fridge and we started the tour. Listening to our Chinese friends talk I am happy to find out that I understand some words and phrases. Not nearly enough to engage in any good conversation but enough to leave me in high spirits for the semester. I saw a bunch of buildings where para-olympic training is happening. Neat! Library, classrooms, training hall and, best of all, cafeteria, are in short walking distance. We left the campus and walked down some nearby streets. Food everywhere, cheap goods too. I found a super comfy pair of sandals for only 6 yuan, about one buck, but sadly the biggest size they had was 45 and I’m about a 46-47… darn my gargantuan size! Rolf got a pair and they are supposedly great. Jerk. Just kidding, he’s not bad. We split the cost of a big jug of water and a manual pump to jam in the top. we watched some children’s cartoon in Chinese, which are hilarious by the way, and went to bed at about eight. Bad idea, because I’m awake. Neat thunderstorm though! I’m going to bed again, wish me luck.
China Journal 2008-09-06, 1:39AM
Darn Jet Lag. I had a dream though. I was in my house with this kid. I was being mean to him in a funny way, funny to me anyway. Basically I kept beating him at anything that he tried to be better than me at. At one point I finally said, “Fine, you can have the hose” during a water fight we were having. I was surprised to see him ready to use it, even in the house. I run up the stairs before he can drench me (we were in the basement), then I run out the front door, down to my basement door. As I’m running outside, I remember looking at the trees behind my house with a paranoid glance, thinking something might come out at me. I was hesitant to turn my back on them. I run across the basement until I’m almost behind the kid and I slam the water valve off. He makes a defeated grunt and throws the hose on the floor. I pick up the hose and use the last bit of water pressure to drench him, telling him that there’s always some pressure left after you shut it off. He was pissed. Now, in the real world, I’m in a kind of crouch, typing on my computer in my undies. Just thought I’d throw in that visual, suckers. Ha!
China Journal 2008-09-05, 9:45PM
I boarded the plane from Edmonton after I ate a delicious breakfast with my parents. Everything went smoothly, I was genuinely surprised. The flight from Edmonton to Vancouver was less that eventful. I played some pokemon to pass the time. Upon arriving in Van, I rushed out of the plane and down the many hallways, following the sign for international travel. I turned left at least sixteen times which should be impossible without going in circles but that’s Vancouver airport, I guess. I found my gate easily, checked in easily and then went for a rum and spinach dip. Tasty. I board my plane. The flight across the ocean was long. Really long. I literally did not stand up once until I was in china. That’s about 11+ hours of sitting. I played a lot of pokemon and read a book and slept for about 2 hours. Boring boring boring shoot me it was boring. I lived. I walked with my new friend Rachael to customs. We were friends because we both are English speakers and therefore could actually converse. I grabbed my bag off the spinny bag thingy and set off in search of my supposed school. I walked out of the baggage claim into a sea of signs for people. I was starting to think I’d fallen for an internet scam when I saw that the biggest sign was for me!! Hazah! I was greated warmly by Summer and Esmeralda. We grabbed a cab and went to the campus I’m staying and learning at. Turns out, it’s an Olympic training ground too! We met up with Hunter, an outgoing and friendly guy. I was shown my room, which is a basic bed, shower, toilet and internet access and then we ate some food. Mmm food. After eating and a couple drinks and some good conversation, they left me to my own devices and I’ll be getting a tour tomorrow! Sleepy. The next one will be better, I’m tired. Oh right, the air is clean because of the Olympics . Quite breathable, so far.
