Bye For Now

It's been a whirlwind adventure. I loved every minute of it.

Here are some pictures wrapping up the trip. I have to admit I was getting a little sentimental toward the end so I took pictures of a lot of things that I always loved seeing around town.

It's still weird to be back, a lot less asian. But I can't wait to go back!

Cell Phones

China Mobile dominates when it comes to cell phone coverage here.  Granted they do a pretty good job.  I usually get service in elevators, in all buildings, even on most subways.  They make getting a cell phone and making it work very cheap and easy.  The first day of work with NBC they gave us all cellphones with unlimited minutes (I was pretty stoked about it and still am enjoying the free service.)  The first in-office crisis we faced was: setting up voicemail.  This was the first thing all the reporters and photogs wanted to do, but of course here in China, they don't believe in voicemails.  This was a hard concept for many of them to grasp at first, but soon you realize texting is way more efficient anyway.  There a couple special little characteristics of the phones here when you are making a call.  Most chinese people pride themselves in having really schnazy phones, so they want to use all the cool gadgets such as ring backs (I think thats what they're called.)  When you make a call, instead of hearing it ring, you hear ring backs – these horrible little songs that play on repeat until someone picks up.  Another wonderful part of making calls is when someone is busy or they don't pick up.  That's when you get this recorded message that first speaks chinese, but then in english and says, "the subscriber you've called is busy now please try again later."  Usually when I hear this message I want to chuck my phone against a wall...it frustrates me a bit.  But, today I got a new message that I've never heard before and this is a direct quote, "sorry the subscriber you've dialed is power off."   It's wonderful Chinglish like this that makes my day a little brighter.

It all makes sense now

I was riding in a cab today on my way home from work, and I realized why i like being able to speak Chinese.  As a child, like most children, I loved to have secret languages with my friends.  It started at a very young age.  Before I could write in cursive, I would fill notebooks with this chicken scratch stuff that really resembled a squiggly line.  Page after page of these squiggly lines!  Then in elementary school my friends and I would write notes in our secret language that we had made up.  So when the opportunity arose to take chinese in middle school how could I pass it up?  I got to learn a whole country's secret language.  Even today I get a little joy in speaking Chinese to other people when you know people around you won't understand a thing.  Like in the workspace at NBC, the other runners and I often talk in chinese when it is something about wanting to go home or something you wouldn't want to talk about around your boss.  hehe

On a completely other note, all the olympic volunteers (mostly chinese people) were given these really awesome outfits to wear to identify them as volunteers.  They're these collared shirts with a swirly blue and white pattern on it plus these khaki pants with the zip-off legs so they can turn into shorts.  You can't buy them anywhere except, of course, Ebay.  On ebay the whole outfit is going for about 5,000 yuan ($720USD)!!  I guess every volunteer received two of these get-ups and many of them are keeping one and selling the other to make a pretty penny. 

This picture is one of the Chicago reporters, Phil, in his brand new volunteer pants.  He has been talking non-stop this whole trip about how much he wants one of the volunteer outfits.  Well today, Blessing (one of the other amazing runners) came in with a surprise for him.  One of her friends is a volunteer and gave her his extra pair of pants so that she could give them to Phil.  Phil was so excited he immediately went to put them on and he will probably wear them for the rest of the trip.  Needless to say, Blessing has probably now secured herself a job at NBC Chicago.

Tonight is the closing ceremony, so security is really tight all over the city and a lot of the buses aren't running their normal routes.  There aren't very many cars on the roads either, it makes me wonder if they put an even bigger restriction on driving today because of the ceremony.  Last night it rained, so it was a beautiful day today...the weather was obviously planned, but it is extremely hot out, so to be honest I would not want to go sit in the Bird's Nest tonight to watch the closing ceremony because it will be soooo hot in there!

Tonight should be some crazy parties because USA took gold in basketball – men's and women's – and men's vollyball...definitely going to check it out.  I have yet to stay awake all night and then go to Tiananmen Square for the flag raising ceremony at sunrise, but maybe tonight is the night?

Added some more pictures

This is the same album from below,

but I added a bunch more to it.

Work is winding down, so it's time to play!

Yesterday was good fun! I was at work and one of my friends, Amy (the Aussie) came up to me and offered Matt (another runner like me) and I tickets to go watch Canoeing and Kayaking. Gosh, I love obscure sports! We went to our boss and nicely asked if we could go. He knows how much we wanted to go so, of course, he said yes.

They offer a free shuttle bus just for the media to and from this venue. The venue is a hike away, it isn't even in Beijing, so we jumped on the opportunity to have a free ride out to the middle of nowhere, in this case called Shunyi. On our way there, our bus crashed full-speed into a little white car. This being a busload of photographers, everyone whipped out their fancy sports-lensed cameras and started snapping shots. I was truely amazed as to how fast 5 police cars, a SWAT team and 4 soldiers with machine guns showed up at the scene considering we were in the middle of the countryside. Click here for all the pictures. As you can see the bus came out pretty much unscathed, but the little car was destroyed and their peaches went everywhere!

Gotta run, more later.

why I keep getting massages

Turning the corner onto Ji Qing Li Street, I am greeted with flashy lights welcoming me to Long Island.


When I enter the spa, I head down this well lit staircase lined with little potted plants.  I can here the waterfall and soothing music coming from the reception area.  I cross a little bridge 

a little pond of water and make my way to the front desk to check in for my appointment.

If they have me wait, I take a seat in one of these canopy daybeds and kick back with a magazine.  Then I am escorted to my private room.

 

The foot massage room usually has two plushy purple velvet chairs with a matching footstool.  Each room is geared with air conditioning and a TV if you choose to use them.  Before your escort leaves you in the room to either change or get comfy in the chair, they take your order.  Did I mention that they give you free food from a full menu.  They offer anything from dumplings, fruit plates, beef and noodles, and hamburgers to watermelon juice, tea, and omelets.  Also if you feel like it you can change into these little scrubs that they give you.  Next your masseuse will come in with a giant wooden barrel of hot water.  As you slowly ease your feet into the extremely hot water, they add cinnamon and aromatherapy bath salts to soothe the skin and make it smell yummy.  Next the masseuse will have you turn around and sit on the foot stool with your back to him and your first half hour of the 90 minute massage begins with a deep tissue back massage.  Once you're completely relaxed, he will move onto your feet.  You turn back towards him, this time he brought me a couple hot pads...one for my neck and one for my back, then you recline the chair and the reflexology foot massage begins.  All this for only $25!!  Just writing this made me realize I should probably go back tomorrow for another one!

Weirdo Baby Haircuts

This is the haircut I was talking about...have no idea how this became a trend

Pin Trading Pros

The Olympics are over in 3 days, that's unbelievable!  The weeks have gone by so fast!

I just got home from a press conference with the 4 of the star athletes of the women's softball team.  Softball has been cut from the Olympic roster, but they are hoping to get it back on for the 2016 games.  Speaking of the 2016 games, I completed my collection of bid city pins today.  Every city that is bidding for the 2016 summer games are handing out pins: Madrid, Chicago, Tokyo, and Rio.  As of today I have all their pins.  Yes, this complete collection makes me one of the cool kids at work.  And yes, I'm a complete nerd.

Pin trading is a pretty big deal, I'm not going to lie.  Just ask Telemundo.  I went on a shoot with them today and it was all about trading pins.  I took them to a subway stop at the base of the olympic green and we didn't even need to go inside the station.  Just standing outside we were swarmed by people.  Between the NBC camera and our Olympic credentials hanging around our neck with loads of pins on them, we were a definite target for pin traders of all shapes and sizes.  We were pretty much causing a mini mob scene and this police guard was in on it too.  At first I thought he was going to give us trouble for creating mayhem, but it turns out he wanted pins just as much as everyone else.  In the end I gave him one for his co-operation and I tried to get him to trade his security pin or one of his official velcro badges, but he wouldn't give them up!

This is making me sound like a huge pin trading freak.  But to be honest, I'm really not that into it at all.  There are just a couple pins I've had my eye on that I want to get before I leave, but other than that, I really would rather people didn't stare and grab at my chestal area claiming they are looking at my pins.

Speaking of pins and grabbing...Awhile back, one of the Today show runners was with one of our drivers out running errands.  The driver turned to her and was looking at her pin collection that was displayed on her badge lanyard around her neck.  Then all of a sudden he just grabbed her boob.  Yikes!  Her immediate response was to slap him in the face, then she gave him a tongue lashing (someone at work used the phrase "tongue lashing" and I really like it so I've been trying to slip it into conversation whenever possible.)  I'm pretty sure this driver is no longer with us, but this was outrageous and seemed relevant to whatever the heck I was talking about before, no?

Things I must do before leaving:

-KTV (which is what they call karaoke)

-at least 2 more massages... :-)

-drink oodles of watermelon juice

-go shopping (any last minute requests can be sent to cgolds@umich.edu)

-attempt to find a packaging tube for all my posters...though apparently they don't have them here, no one has seen them

-get a Hooters Beijing shirt

-visit the Lama Temple (or any temple for that matter) and light some incenses for good fortune and good health

-stay out all night and then go to the flag raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square at sunrise

-eat duck dinner

-go hiking at Fragrant Hills (this is still up in the air, I have to be really motivated to do this)

-figure out how to use the saying: something is "two-fold" 

-don't miss my flight out of town

Cullen Jones & Vanderkaay

Today my job finally paid off.  I met two gold medal swimmers in one day.  Yes, this is the part where I get to gloat a little about meeting awesome athletes.

In the afternoon we had a quick visit with Cullen Jones.  Although he now holds a gold medal for the mens 400 free relay and is , he is still really down to earth and has just shot to the top of my "Favorite Olympian List."  (Please note: this list is very unofficial and Cullen is currently the only one on it)  I truly think he and I could have a wonderful future together.

Right after that, I headed to this fancy, schmancy Imperial restaurant to help with a shoot with Peter Vanderkaay.  He trains in Ann Arbor and is from metro Detroit, so I definitely know the family name.  Plus he's a two time Olympian and won a gold and a bronze medal in Beijing this past week.  Didn't get to spend much time with him, but overall I can say he was kind of shy and very midwestern, but also very nice and easy-going.

Now on to the good stuff...this restaurant we went to was pretty ridiculous.  There is this special cuisine in Beijing known as Imperial Food – more specifically food eaten by the emperor in the last imperial Qing dynasty.  It is known to be very bland and a little strange.  Emperors often ate venison, sea cucumber, and lots of animal innards.  We tried the venison which was delicious, the goose (which I really didn't like, I can compare the taste to one thing...you know the way dogs smell when they really need to be groomed, if you could eat that smell it would be similar to the aftertaste of goose), we also had the standard veggies and dumplings and a salad made of flower petals (very yummy) but stayed clear of the sea cucumber and boiled deer placenta.  If anyone has tried deer placenta, please let me know I would really love to hear about the experience seeing as there is no way I will EVER try it.  

You don't just go to this restaurant for food, you go for the ambiance as well.  The restaurant is in an old house that the emperor's second son lived in, so needless to say it is beautiful.  The tables are both inside the different housing quarters and outside in the beautiful gardens.  Of course Vanderkaay, his girlfriend, and sister sat with the reporter in this wonderful island pavilion.  Whereas Jessie (another runner), Peter's agent, and I sat at another table, off camera.  Unfortunately for our tushes, the chairs were little cement stools with no cushioning, making the 2 hour dinner experience a little painful.  When we sat down at our table and put our bags on the ground, the waitress came around and draped large pieces of fabric over our belongings to protect them.  I'm still not exactly clear on what the reason for that was, but it was a nice thought and a little unusual.  What really completes the Imperial atmosphere is that all the wait-staff are dressed in traditional qi pao (gowns/robes) that were worn by empresses, concubines, and royal servants.  The whole evening you are literally treated like royalty, dine like royalty, and entertained with live shows and music like royalty.  It is all very elaborate making it a hot spot for westerners to check out while visiting Beijing.  (P.S.  This segment should be on Monday night on the Olympic Zone, so check it out!)  Also if you want look at this website, you can see even more about the restaurant. 

Pictures to come soon...gotta go to bed now, it's almost 2am.

Blue Sky Friday

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous.  We were all taking pictures of the sky because Beijing hasn't seen a day like that in about 6 months.  Standing on the Olympic Green you can look out and see the beautiful mountains and even part of the Great Wall that surrounds the city.  I have to admit it makes total sense seeing that Track and Field events started yesterday and the Bird's nest stadium doesn't have a roof, so they had to fix the weather fast, or else.

Thursday night was my boss' last night in town.  She had to head back to New York for another project.  In the late afternoon on Thursday, everyone got an email saying that there are basketball tickets available for that night and to respond ASAP if you want them.  But of course the runners weren't included in this, we would be given tickets if no one else wanted them.  The game was US vs. Greece at 8pm.  Please keep in mind that all the reporters and photographers that I'm working with are covering the Olympics because they are heavily into sports.  As 7pm  rolled around there were three of us runners begging for them and only 2 tickets remaining.  So of course they did a raffle.  Blessing and I won the raffle and Matt was stuck staying at work.   (don't worry one of the reporters surrendered their ticket to him, so he ended up coming.)  All 22 of us crowded into the work vans and headed over to the sweet Basketball Stadium and watched an awesome game in ROW 8!  They were such good seats and USA won.  Afterward we went back to the crew's hotel and overtook the bar.  Hooked up our own ipod, started a dance party, and had a fun little work party to say goodbye to Jen. 

Last night I went out to the Holland House sponsored by Heineken and just a temporary party hotspot for the Olympics.  And as I've mentioned before the Dutch are freaking crazy!  They had tents set up for drinks, food, and of course, ping-pong.  Tonight it looks like we will be checking out some of the other countries houses, probably Russia and Italia.

Some of the most recent Olympic debauchery. 

Long Island

I just got home from Long Island.  It's a beautiful little spa only 5 minutes from my apartment and they're open until 2am.  I had an hour long massage for about $40USD which included a private room with a shower.  Plus I could have ordered free food, but I didn't.  I have to admit that my reasons for going were not only that I was in desperate need of a massage, but also because I was in desperate need of a good shower.  The shower at our apartment is either SCORCHING hot or FREEZING cold, it will be the perfect warm temperature for less that a minute barely enough time to rinse the shampoo out of your hair.  So that was definitely fueling the whole massage extravaganza.  I have to admit I'm getting used to these frequent, cheap, amazing massages; a lifestyle I can easily acclimate to.

Ricky Berens (swimmer, gold medal, 4x200 Free Relay w/ Phelps) came to the workspace today.  He is unbelievable good looking, but unfortunately I only got this lousy picture.

 

I also managed to snag a pic with Al Roker this morning.  My roommate just informed me that his full name is Albert Lincoln Roker, in case you were wondering.

Is that you Dominos?

Work today was a little slow because when the reporters aren't out shooting stories, they are sitting in the office in front of their computers and they don't really need us.  So I took a quick trip with Telemundo to Tiananmen Square in the morning.  That was amusing because they wanted to interview Chinese people and have me translate, it was pretty ridiculous and I am totally unqualified, but I thing I pulled it off.  Watch for me on Telemundo's Olympic Zone maybe I'll make it on TV!  haha  The rest of the day was spent researching bars and restaurants for some other stories.  Beijing closed many of their big dance clubs and some bars this summer for the Olympics because they were deemed "unsafe."  Places where there had been drug busts and such, they are trying to clean up their act for the time being.  As a result, our job is to call all the bars we are interested in taping at and make sure they are currently open.  We found quite a few clubs still open and now the reporter is working on a good way to convince our boss that he needs to take all the runners with him for this story...because of course we all want to go party and call it work.

The BICC – our workspace – sets out a free lunch and dinner buffet everyday.  Plus there is

 always ice cream, beverages, and PB&J available.  It's nice to have free food and I have to admit to stuffing my bag full of water and fruit when I leave work sometimes. 

  Anyway, usually the meals are passable but tonight's dinner was terrible.  Some sort of mystery chicken curry and some other junk that no one could enjoy.  So our boss, Jen, decides to order 8 pizzas and puts me in charge of calling Dominos.  Now this call would have gone smoothly had the women on the phone stuck to the normal questions like "where do you want it delivered," "what do you want," etc.  But after we got past the address part of the conversation, she decided to go off on a chinese rampage and I honestly had no clue what she was saying.  Since she couldn't move past this question, I handed off the phone to Jessie, another runner, and she finished dealing with this nut-case at Dominos.  Turns out the woman was asking me if I had a Dominos VIP Card.  wtf.  Apparently if you have one, for every pizza you buy, you get one free.  Pretty sweet deal, i guess.  But you don't learn about that in Chinese class at Michigan.  

Met a guy last night at the bar that was trying to sell me his tickets to a Handball event.  (That was not meant to sound dirty, but I think it does a little.)  The guy actually went to Michigan, it's a crazy small world out here.  Go Blue :-)

Let the Games Begin

It's hard to believe, but the games have started. I hope everyone and their dog watched the Opening Ceremony. It was like China's coming out party and I feel that only a country of this size could pull something off like that. I watched most of it on TV (CCTV to be exact and they did a terrible job shooting it, but I guess it was live so I'm probably being a little harsh.) The fireworks alone were AMAZING. I was watching it with a bunch of people on TV (inside the NBC workspace) right across the street from the Bird's Nest and the second the torch was lit, we all bolted, nay, stampeded outside into the parking lot to watch the fireworks live. They were unbelievably loud, but still awesome. But the best view of the fireworks was on the TV because the aerial view allowed you to see all the ones going off around the city. Truly spectacular.

We shall see what happens next. But here are some pictures from work so far.

Yesterday I worked with these two crazy guys from Chicago. They are so goofy, working with them is really fun. This past week, Chicago's Mayor Daly is in town pushing his bid for the 2016 Olympics, so Phil and Ringo are on Mayor Duty – following him around town reporting on how the bid is going. We all went to the USA House yesterday for a press conference with Daly, and then they shooed us out of the building because George Bush Sr. was on his way. They couldn't get us out of there fast enough, so we stood outside, cameras off, and watched the Bush Sr. and his entourage of Secret Service hobble into the building. That was definitely a highlight of my day. That, and I got a sweet new pin for the Chicago Olympics 2016 Bid. Pin trading is growing fast and furiously. I'm trying not to get to wrapped up in it, but I dabble a bit. My collection is pretty amateur right now, but hopefully I'll get better at grabbing and trading new ones every place I go.

So yesterday after Chicago Mayor Duty, I got back to the workspace and my roommate (who is the head runner for the Today show) came over to me and offered me a ticket to Beach Volleyball. The ticket was for that night and the games started in an hour. I rushed over to my boss, told her the story and she just let me leave early! I hopped in a cab and rushed over the the Beach Volleyball venue. I watched the USA Womens kill the Netherlands and Germany Womens beat Cuba. There was a lot of excitement and there were people from all over the world. Plus they had dancing Fuwa's running around :-) haha

Today is my first day off, so I'm going to go enjoy myself. Probably get another wonderful foot massage. If you watch the Olympic Zone this week, look for the two segments I helped with...going to the silk market and the great wall with wrestler T.C. Dantzler. Also here are a few more pictures of the Olympic fever.

8/6/08: Hunter and Mr. Yu

Hunter and Mr. Yu are both drivers for NBC.  They are both totally awesome because they drive us places, sit around and wait for us (sometimes up to 5 hours+), and will still greet you 

excitedly with a giant smile on their face.  Hunter is probably my favorite because he speaks English pretty well and is quite a character.  The second day we were going on a shoot, so he drove us down to the market area.  All the other drivers usually just do their own thing when we leave.  But with Hunter, he parked, threw on his backpack and announced that he was coming with us!  He ended up being a lifesaver and really helped me out a lot.  Later in the day, he helped me run errands at IKEA and Walmart (the chinese call it War Ma, it sounds like they're trying to say walmart only they have a ton of cotton stuffed in their mouths).  I think we are definitely pretty tight now since I told him I love him and gave him a big hug (what can I say, stress makes you do strange things).  The picture is us shopping at Walmart, Hunter is the tall, gangly Chinese dude on the right, Jared is on the left and he is one of producers who needed an activity so he got stuck shopping with us, poor guy. 

As for Mr. Yu, today I went to the transportation desk (where you order your car) and I told them the car number.  Then I asked, "Is Yu driving us?"  And the woman replied, "No, I don't drive the cars, I have to call the driver."  So I said, "Ya I know, but Yu the driver."  We went through this who's-on-first bit a couple more times, then cleared the whole thing up.  I found this amusing and so China.

Everyday I get to do new things.  Usually go on one big trip per day.  Today I went to the Summer Palace.  Got interviewed (again) by CCTV (China Central TV).  Because they thought it was great that I could speak Chinese.  The reporter and the camera man that I was with are both from San Diego and were born in raised in California.  So they got a lot done, but they were really chill and we all had a great time.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Great Wall again.  Only this time we are going to a different part and we are going with the American Greco-Roman Wrestling team!  I'm pretty excited about this one.  We are climbing with them on the Great Wall and then tobogganing down the side of the mountain.  Then tomorrow night I'm sitting in on an interview with Rory Mcgowan, the head engineer for Arup – the European architects that designed and built the newest most talked about venues in Beijing such as the Birds Nest, Water Cube, the new CCTV Tower, Terminal 3 at the Beijing Airport, etc.  The reporter said she would be happy to introduce me, so I can do a little networking!  Everything is going great, OLYMPICS START IN 2 DAYS!

First Day!!

I started work today!  I wasn't entirely sure what my job description was going into this, but I've got a good sense of it now.

In the morning we all met together: the 5 runners, a few producers, several camera men/photographers, and a handful of reporters from all different NBC stations around the US.  They are all in charge of shooting segments and promos for the Olympic Zone and for their home news stations.  Basically what happens is a reporter will decide on a story, run it by a producer, then they will come to one of us runners and have us call the location to set up a time to come and make sure it's ok with them.  Sometimes we will do a little research about the area so that the reporters have some interesting facts to drop in when they are talking on film.  When they are ready to head off to a location, they grab a camera man and a runner, hop into one of our NBC vans and go.  Today I was paired up with with Bruce, a reporter from NYC that usually reports on sports, and Billy, the Chief of Photography back at NBC Chicago but for our purposes, the camera guy.  We went down to Tiananmen Square to shoot a few promos and action shots.  We didn't really have any problems with the soldiers or security guards that are everywhere there.  They were actually quite accommodating and didn't even make us go through security because we have the right badges.  While we were filming, oodles of people would crowd around taking pictures of us.  It's really awkward, or maybe I'm just really awkward and don't know how to act in those situations.  Bruce and Billy were really awesome about it and would stop what they were doing to be in pictures with all these people.

Tonight we had our big dinner party thing with everyone that is working with the Olympic Zone (I guess they call it the O-zone, but not on camera because the ozone is a touchy subject here).  The restaurant we went to was really schnazy with crushed velvet chairs and booths.  We were in this private room with loads of books painted gold, all with the same title, "Furniture."  It was such a good attempt at being ritzy, you had to hand it to them for creativity.  The food was traditional Sichuan food.  There were some pretty strange flavors, Sichuan food is known for being REALLY spicy and also for putting in this weird spice I believe it's called, "wei la."   It's kind of like MSG only it not only adds a kick to the taste, but it also numbs your tongue.  Very odd sensation. Overall, the food was excellent, but very spicy...as the meal progressed the food got less spicy because we kept yelling at them to make it milder and milder.

This whole experience is going to be so crazy!  And this was only day one!!  Let the games begin...

Temple and Antique Market

Today the weather was absolutely beautiful.

Ok, that's a lie.  It was blue skies and sunny, but too hot for my taste.  Everyone had their umbrellas out hiding from the sun.  When I was at the Temple of Heaven this morning people were only walking on the parts of the street that were shaded by trees.  Even the ones that had an umbrella were walking in the shaded parts.  If you ask me, they were just being greedy.  Anyway, the Temple of Heaven was pretty cool.  

On the park grounds surrounding the temple, there is lots of shade, so there are lots of people.  People doing tai-chi, playing weird looking instruments, singing, and dancing with ribbons.  There were lots of local and international visitors taking pictures and soaking up this common weekend scene.

After having lunch at a restaurant that had Fried Croaker (frog, I'm assuming) and Nutritious Turtle with Ginseng.  I didn't order anything like that.  I really don't know how to eat a turtle.

Then I headed over to this place called Pang Jia Yuan (see above pic).  It's this outdoor antique shopping market that is really bustling on the weekends.  There are a million little cubbies filled with old stuff.  Lots of the same old stuff.  I love bargaining with the vendors, I wish I could just bargain and not buy stuff.  It could be my new hobby.

I'm approaching week 3 of being here and word on the street is that the 3rd week is when foreigners get struck down with sickness due to lack of nutrition.  So far so good, but one can only live so long on dumplings and steamed buns.  I'm starting to actually go into restaurants and order real food now.  

On a completely unrelated note...I also started riding the bus the other day.  Turns out it is much more convenient than I thought.  (picture to the left is view from the bus window, aka proof that 

I rode the bus)

One more day until work starts!  I can't believe it!  Time is going to fly by when I actually have stuff to do during the day.

Happy Day at My Happy Place

I finally went to see the pandas! They were absolutely amazing!

I saw a couple pandas back in the day when I came to china with school, but both times they were really lame. So my standards were pretty low going into the zoo today. When I finally made it into Panda houses I was so surprised to see them laying around on rocks really close to the people at the windows. They were so comfortable and loved all the attention, so cute!

The Beijing Aquarium is inside the Beijing Zoo. It's an additional fee, but totally worth it. It's no secret that I absolutely LOVE the aquarium. I walked in and went straight for the "Walk Through the Rainforest" section. The first thing I saw was a bunch of those big Chinese fish swimming around in a pond, I didn't know they were in the rainforest. haha But I was still super excited and took loads of pictures :-)

Two in one day!

I just moved to another cafe.  I'm now at this place called The Bookworm.  It was opened by this British ex-pat who wanted a bookstore and library with English books.  The Chinese libraries have very tight restrictions on what books the public are and are not allowed to read, so she wanted to offer an alternative.  If you have a permanent address in Beijing and you pay 200 yuan, you can borrow 2 books at a time as long as you promise to bring them back.  (P.S.  The owner is sitting next to me right now :-)  They have a great selection of all sorts of books philosophy, art, travel, china, classics, childrens, history, etc.  Plus they have a full menu of extravagant meals and alcoholic beverages!

I just noticed an award framed on the wall from some ex-pat english magazine...

"Best Place to Find a Date"

sorry what?!? well then, my jury's still out on that one

Life Here

First off, I put up a few more pictures. I've been taking it pretty easy lately.

Secondly, there are few things I'd like to address today...construction workers, food, and babies.

Construction Workers: When passing a construction site, you will notice several workers all clad in grungey clothes and no safety gear. But that is not really a big deal because when you see this group of workers, they are all gathered around just standing there watching one guy do all the work. I guess thats communism for you.

Food: Many have asked and I've been a little hesitant on responding because I don't want to repeat what happened at Space Camp. I will start by sharing a typical dining experience. Most restaurants are non-smoking now because of the Olympics, so you don't have to worry about that much. The menu usually has chinese and english (sometimes the english is a little off, but you can get the idea) and there are always lots of pictures. The pictures definitely help, but no matter how good the picture looks of say, pig knuckle in brown sauce, I will not order it. You call loudly for the waiter, "Fu Yuan," and accompany it with an obnoxious waiving hand in the air, otherwise they'll ignore you (and this goes for pretty much every restaurant.) When you're done eating you can usually sit as long as you want and they don't care, but as soon as you ask for the bill, they stand there until you pay and then expect you to get up and leave immediately.

When I'm not in the mood for the whole restaurant scene, there are these little hole-in-the-wall places that serve all sorts of chinese-y things. The front of these places have a little window that you order at and they make your food right there, put it into a little clear plastic bag, and give it to you. It's always hot and fresh, very yummy. In these types of places the most popular

thing is fried egg sandwiches. There is a guy right outside my apartment building that works every day from probably 7am to 10pm maybe longer. The shop is no bigger that a small walk-in closet. He has a cute little apron with cartoon pictures on it. He stands at his window with a large cooking stone like the ones you make crepes on. When you order he will whip you up one of these awesome crepe sandwich things: First he pours a crepe-like mix down and spreads it out, then he cracks an egg on top of that, breaks the yolk and spreads that around on top of the crepe. Next he flips it over so the egg is on the outside of the sandwich. He then smears some sauces on it, spicy and sweet, throws some cilantro on that (cilantro is huge here, everything has cilantro in it!) and then places a crispy wonton wrapper on top of that. He strategically breaks the wonton sheet so that he can fold the crepe into a nice little square. He plops it into a plastic bag (like a mini grocery store bag) you pay, and he hands you a steaming hot meal in a bag. I'm really into this whole thing, so next time I'll see if I can take pictures of him doing it :-)

This is just one of the many little windows you can stop at. There are also bread places that make fresh flatbread very similar to naan. One of the best things I've had here so far, plus I get to watch the woman make it.

I should stop now, because I went on for a long time about food, but real quick I'll tell you about the babies.

Chinese babies are like all babies either really cute or really ugly. Unfortunately for the cute chinese babies, there is this heinous haircut that all parents are giving their children.

This is just my subjective opinion, but it looks something like a little poop turd on their forehead...no joke. This is the best example I could find, so image Chinese baby not western baby and black hair not brown. In addition to these strange little haircuts, babies here don't wear pants or diapers. And if they do wear pants, the crotch it missing. That way when they gotta go, they can just go. They walk around with their little wee-wees and bottoms hanging out for all to see. Great for them. But I was in an old temple/museum the other day and a baby started peeing on the floor, no big deal, the parents carried it outside eventually, but left a nice little water trail on their way out. Luckily they don't seem to poop too much...

These are just some of the little cultural observations I've made over the past couple of weeks. Stay tuned...next I'll tell ya all about the taxi cabs here!

7/28/2008: Lazy Sundays

It's truly amazing how tired I was after the Great Wall hike.

Yesterday was sunday and a very good one at that because my roommates had the day off and I could barely walk.  I mean sounds great, right?  

Sam, one of my roommates, Diane, another NBC runner, and I went to this amazing french place for brunch.  Diane's lemon ricotta pancakes were amazing and I'm definitely trying the Chocolate Brioche French Toast.  Wowza!  

The restaurant doubles as a night club/bar at night (the name changes too, china is weird like that) so we got to sit at this really cool booth that you take your shoes off and climb in.  We decided this booth was more comfortable than our mattresses here.  

Then the three of us headed up to the 798 Art District (they both had never been before), I showed them some of the more popular things, but we ended up sitting at cafes most of the time because we were all so tired.  That's when we decided it was time to hit up one of the millions of spas they have here.  We ended up at Bodhi where we each got an hour and a half massage for $35 USD and it was good too!  Also if you go there during the week before 6pm, you can get an hour massage for $14...I mean really now, what is stopping me from going back there everyday before I start work?  

A Wonderful Wall

I did it! A 6 mile hike on some of the toughest terrain of the Great Wall and I came back pretty much unscathed (except for some really sore muscles and complete fear of having to climb stairs ever again). I found this trip through a random hostel that I passed the other day. I reported to the bus at 6:20am this morning. They gave me a strange egg sandwich breakfast that had 3 pieces of bread, ham, an egg, and what I believe was breaded eggplant. Anyway, we set off on a 3 hour bus ride to the mountains. We passed all the main tourist sections of the wall and eventually got to this area called JinShanLing. There were about 35 people with my group from all over the world: Israel, Germany, Brazil, France, Mexico, US, Thailand. It's pretty amazing to hear someone speak Polish to their friends and then turn to the driver and speak fluent Chinese to him, but then speak English to everyone else. I couldn't help but be incredibly jealous of their sweet skills. When we were at the base of the mountains about to set lose on the trail, I befriended a guy from Brazil, Carlos. He hasn't actually lived in Brazil for two years because he went to Australia to make money and learn English, now he's checking out Asia and Beijing is his first stop, after a few more stops around Asia he wants to go to London in the Fall for a bit. I can't help but mention that he had this huge tattoo of the world map on his leg and he wore flip-flops on this hike. We made a deal at the beginning that we would be happy to take pictures of each other on the wall because we both have families complaining that we aren't in any pictures :-)

Moving on, the wall was absolutely amazing. This was probably the most tiring thing I have ever done to experience history and culture. The slopes were very steep most of the time going up and down. There were lots of Chinese people haggling on the wall trying to get you to buy their ice cold water or their "I Climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts. That would get a little annoying after a while, but it couldn't ruin the amazing picturesque world I was walking through. Unfortunately the pictures really don't do it justice, so I didn't take any.

Just kidding. They're right here.

On a completely unrelated note. If your not sick of looking at pictures or you're bored at work, take a look at these great architectural finds.

My legs are numb from all the stairs. I'm off to bed. Goodnight.

My Humble Abode

Here is my nice little apartment building.  15 floors of glory (I'm on the 12th).  Apparently the Beijing Olympic Committee gave our building money to freshen-up the outside.  So they painted it pink and gave us a little front lawn out front.  Maybe now I can go tan outside on the lawn!  Then again, maybe not.

Last Weekend's Pictures

Oh gosh, I forgot to share these, sorry!

My roommates had the day off, so we went shopping! These are all from Wangfujing, a very westernized area and home of the Olympic Superstore.

Then I also came across these sweet Olympic posters on display at the mall thanks to BMW.

798 Art Space

Bottom Line: Sweetest place in Beijing.

The 798 Art District has taken over an area of decommissioned factories that manufactured military supplies during the World War II era. The area is filled with lots of narrow alleyways and large, lofty buildings. Just recently it started to take on a new complexion of this hipster art district. Artists both new and old have moved in and refurbished these old buildings to house their collections. Pretty much all of the galleries are free except for a giant new contemporary art museum commissioned by a European couple. The streets are lined with little cafes and art book stores. Most of the cafes look deserted, but really all the people are inside enjoying the air conditioning because it is so ridiculously hot out. There weren't mobs of people, but it definitely drew a steady international crowd.

Check out the pictures of 798. And the graffiti art I found.

Needless to say, I loved every minute of it! It's like they built the place with people like me in mind.

I talked a bit with a girl who worked in one of the little art shops that sells beautiful ceramics. She was busy packaging and sending out orders to people all over the world. She spoke a little english - because here everyone starts learning english in middle school, but they don't have a lot of opportunities to speak it, so they don't. She had a list of western names written down and showed it to me and asked me the meaning behind the names. This of course completely stumped me. She had the name "Angela" written down and next to it, "Angel" sure this one made sense to me. But I had no idea if it was true. She wanted to know if the name Sarah meant princess. Since I didn't have my Name Dictionary on me, I couldn't really give her a good answer.

After a little while I decided to go on a poster hunt. Every gallery that I went into, I'd ask for a poster. Some would give them to me for free others wanted anywhere from 15-100 yuan for them. Let's just say I wouldn't pay over 20 yuan, so my poster collection is a little challenged. But I went klepto on all the free stuff and can't wait to decorate my room at school :-)

I finally found my place in Beijing, this is totally it. So if you need to find me, I'll be in the 798.

7/21/2008: The Summer Palaces

This past Sunday Beijing opened up 2 new subway lines and tested the Olympic line.  I've been mainly using the subway to get around because it is the most convenient and up until recently it was free because of my Olympic Visa, but of course yesterday they just decided they didn't want to let me ride free anymore...grr.  

Anyway, yesterday I decided I would utilize the new subway line to go Northwest of the city and check out the Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan) and the Old Summer Palace (Yuan Ming Yuan).

This is the preserved Summer Palace.  It is where the Qing Emperor's wife lived because she preferred it over the Imperial  Palace at the Forbidden City and I definitely don't blame her.  It is a huge park now and you have to pay to get in.  You can rent boats on the lake and there are lots of little mini museums in all the buildings.  When I was walking around the lake, I met this Chinese man.  He just randomly started talking to me, people do that sometimes here I think it's because they want to practice their English.  This guy's english wasn't too hot, so we ended up speaking mostly in Chinese.  Apparently he is a brain doctor, he lives in Beijing, and he has an 8 year old son.  When asked why he wasn't at work (seeing as it is Monday and all) he just said he was taking a break.  I was a bit skeptical about his answers and still don't know if all this is true.  Well, we ended up spending about 3 hours wandering around the Summer Palace and he took on the role of my tour guide even though he said he had never been before.  He was a very nice fellow, but I didn't know if I should just enjoy his kindness or be completely creeped out.  After we climbed over this huge mountain, he bought me a water and then he was going to take me on the bus to show me where the Old Summer Palace is.  That's when I decided to be too creeped out and basically ditched him.  I'm sorry if this makes me a terrible person and gives Americans a bad image.  But enough was enough and like a good American I went and sought refuge at a nearby McDonalds.

After a short recovery, I grabbed a taxi over to the Old Summer Palace.

When I first arrived I was a little freaked out that I would run into this dude and I really don't think I could have handled that!  Luckily this park was huge and I kept getting lost, so I figured I was in the clear.  For the first hour or so I had no idea where I was going, I knew there were supposed to be really cool ruins from the old palace, but I had no idea where they were and the map didn't help much.  I was about ready to head home,  but then I stumbled upon the old European ruins.  This palace was designed by Europeans and built by local Chinese craftsmen and they ended up building gorgeous grounds like this mini labyrinth (it's much harder than it looks)

It is such a unique kind of architecture!  It didn't look like every other old building here, so it was really refreshing.

That's all for now!

PICTURES!

I've been busy getting lost, finding cool places, and taking lots of pictures!

Here is the link to check out photos from around Beijing.

Then I also ventured to the Olypmic Village. Everything is under construction and there aren't really any people, so it will be really interesting to see what it looks like when it's open to the public. They have been practicing for the Opening Ceremony everyday for the past week or so. Bus loads of people come in for the day that all look the same and are dressed the same. I guess the story is that every person in the ceremony was hand-picked because for each part of the show, they had to have a certain look. That way when you see hundreds of them doing something you aren't overwhelmed by trying to look at all the faces and you can enjoy what they're actually doing instead.

I had to take the pictures down because I could get fired from my job (that I haven't even started yet) if they find them.

7/18/2008: Rainy Morning

The sun rises very early here, probably around 4:45am.  The curtains in our apartment are just for show, they don't actually do anything.  We all get up pretty early because of this, but I'm very thankful that I brought along one of those sleeping masks, it helps me sleep SO much.  Plus, when I wear it I feel very Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany's).  As a rainy day activity I took pics of my apartment and thought I'd share them.

Here is our kitchen/dining area plus the bed/couch

And this is one of the bedrooms that the 3 girls share.  I have the purple bed on the floor (I think I got the best deal...the big bed is like a wooden box with sheets and the blue bed sinks down to the floor when you sit on it, but mine is stiff but not bad)

Here is a view from our window...we are right on a big street and as you can see today's weather=crappy

7/17/2008: I'm Here!

I've made it to the mainland and I'm all settled at my apartment.  My jarbled chinese is getting me around and people are being very patient and friendly which makes everything a lot easier.

Today it was really sunny (you could actually see the sun which is kinda a big deal here) So I decided to walk out the front door of the apartment building, turn left, and walk straight with no real destination.  Eventually I ended up at 

Hou Hai - a beautiful lake surrounded by a walking path with lots of restaurants and bars.  All of which were way too intimidating to go into.  When I finally worked up an appetite, I started scouting out my very first Beijing restaurant experience, this was no easy task.  I ended up walking into this cute little place, I took one look at the menu and found that the place had a theme...Pride and Prejudice.  I took this as the perfect sign, seeing as this is one of my favorite stories, and had a very tasty lunch.  When I headed back to my apartment, I jumped on the subway.  Turns out the with my Olympic visa, I get to ride the subway for free...not too shabby.  

Needless to say I'm exhausted and can't wait to go to sleep!  This weekend I've got some plans to meet up with a couple other NBC Nightly News runners that are also just hanging out until we have to start working.  And on Sunday my roommates get the day off so we're going to the zoo to see PANDAS!! 

*Please Note

Due to unknown circumstances (probably something to do with the Chinese government blocking it) I cannot get on my other website...so this will have to suffice