I'm out this week for National Day. Don't ask me why you get a week for a day. I'm not Chinese, and I most likely wouldn't understand. Tomorrow is the Day itself. I plan to head down to Tian'anmen Square like every red-blooded Chinese and celebrate. I really don't know what to expect, but I read that the whole square is covered in flowers in celebration of the People's Republic being another year older. I'm excited about the possibility of going, and I very well may do it alone.

The rest of this week is up in the air, but I have some homework to do and I need to study some Chinese language.

I'd like to take a moment to recommend that everyone stop what they are doing and go read East of Eden. I will finish it tonight, and I had forgotten why I love Steinbeck so much. I read The Grapes of Wrath a couple of years ago, and this book is right there with it. Go read it if you haven't already.

I want to do something beautiful with my life. I just don't know what that means yet.

T

Watch as the person shifts from first to third to second to first.

I realize that this blog of mine has been sparse lately, and I apologize. It seems that life has been coming at me quickly of late.

Yesterday, I in fact did not buy a bicycle. Instead, I went with the other guys on a Beijing adventure! Actually, we were just looking for a bookstore, but we went the wrong way and got a little lost. Eventually, though, we found a Subway (as in the sandwiches), a Starbucks, and the foreign bookstore. That said, this was not a good night for Mr. I'm-on-a-budget. (That's me.) Actually, it was a really good night, but I have to be careful the rest of the week. I've been tracking my spending all week thus far, and it's been a bit on the high side, but at least I'm aware of that. By the high side, I mean I've spent around $30 US for three days' living (food, transit) and about $10 of that was on a book at the bookstore.

The book I bought is titled Lhasa and it is an Immersion Guides book. In case I haven't said so yet (and how would I go back and look? It's blocked...) I really want to go to Tibet in January/February. Really really. At this point it is admittedly a pipedream, but it needn't be! The Lhasa guide (Lhasa is the capitol of Tibet, people) tells me how to get there on the cheap, where to stay, where to eat, and how not to be strapped to a tour guide. I kind of just want to go and see the temples and palaces and try drinking some yak butter tea. Maybe hang out with some cool Tibetans, perhaps spin a (subversive) prayer wheel, and ride the train across China. I'd get to see the Himalayas. I'd probably meet the Dalai Lama. He lives in Lhasa, you know.

I'm met with a couple of problems:
1. It is illegal to go to Tibet without a special permit by the same friendly folks who give you visas. And to get one, you have to be traveling with a tour group. (The book reminds you that you can just choose not to call the guide when you get there.) Anyway, a tour package is always more expensive than a plan it yourself trip with a train ticket and a hostel reservation.
2. This brings me to the next problem. I've got about $0.50 to put toward this trip at the moment. That may change, but most likely not by much.

So it's time for a bit of shameless internet whoring. Who wants to see a twentysomething American in China not be able to get out of Beijing? I mean, he'll be off for a month between semesters. Stuck watching the ugly pink of the dorm walls? Now, who wants to see that same twentysomething living an adventure? Who wants to see pictures of his face as he tastes yak butter tea? Who wants to get him to offer a Christian prayer for them in a Buddhist temple? I thought you might raise your hand. Yes, I see you. You see, they don't have Christmas in China. I'll still be in school until mid-January. So, your last minute charity donations might be sending me to some Autonomous Region of western China. I bet that gets written off the taxes, eh?

Ok, now I really do feel a bit sleazy, so know that I really do want to go, but I'm kidding about the tax write-offs. Also know that I understand how fortunate I am to be here and be living in Beijing. I know how much my plane tickets have cost, and how much I've paid for tuition and dorm room, and how little of it I worked for. I know that I'm in an amazing position, and that I'm sounding spoiled.

So I leave you with a quote from Lhasa:
"Yak butter," of course, is arguably a misnomer. A true yak would be no more likely to produce butter than Mike Tyson would be to successfully breastfeed a baby kitten. In Tibetan, the word "yak" refers only to the male of the species - the females are called "dri." Therefore the punctilious term would be "dri yoghurt," and "dri milk." Luckily, foreign languages don't know any better, and yak in English refers to both genders. Somehow "dri butter" just can't compare to the therapeutically intoned hard finals of "yak butter."

T

Well, well, well. I'm feeling somewhat better. My head and shoulders are achey, but otherwise I'm mostly well.

Classes are going headlong and harrowingly forward. The vocabulary is a tremendous amount of work, but I don't suppose one speaks the language without words to say.

I hope to go buy a bicycle today, and that will mean transportation! Hopefully it won't be too expensive-- a decent bike is around the $40 US mark. Insanely cheap by American standards, but I like it like that.

I'm out of school all next week for National Day, so that's pretty exciting. I hope that it is a relaxing time, and that I'm able to do some touring around Beijing.

More later, but I'm off to buy some wheels!

T

A brief history of time.

It's been so long.

Friday my computer died (again) and I haven't been able to resuscitate it yet. I'm trying, though. Tena and Will, I wasn't trying to ignore you, that's what happened! I had come back to my room before my second class because I wasn't feeling well. I got online, then when the lappy died I went to bed. Friday night the guys and I went to a place called Pyro's Pizza. It was very American feeling. It is a pizza-serving sports bar, I guess. The three of us sat with some students from Beida (Peking University) and they nicely yelled at the fuyin (waitress) for us and told her to hurry up with the pizza.

Saturday I went to the Great Wall. It's great! I was amazed at how long and high it is. It seems to run the crest of a mountain range, and it makes me wonder at how people built it at all. I know that a large part of that reality has to do with slavery and inhumane working conditions, but the end is nonetheless a feat. At the end of my Great Wall tour, I got on a toboggan and slid, zigging back and forth down the mountain, down a metal chute with only a handbreak to slow me. It was probably the single coolest thing I've ever done.

Sunday we went to International, and it was the best Sunday I've had in months. My American friend and I spent the afternoon and evening studying in a little park we found on campus. It was really nice.

Last night I think I got a bit of a fever. I woke up feeling dehydrated and so I drank some water and took some ibuprofen. Then I went back to bed. I finally got up later and spent a leisurely morning reading and journaling and studying a map. Finally my roommate and I went to lunch, and I had a chef's salad. Then in class this afternoon I started to get a headache again. I think my fever returned. So I crashed after class. I rehydrated, took some more ibuprofen, and laid still for a while. Then I went down to the corner store (I understand the name convenience store now) and bought some orange juice (well, it's kind of like OJ if you removed all the actual juice), instant noodles, and more water. I had a nice dinner of instant noodles, and I am about to study.

I am studying here more that I have ever studied in my whole entire life.

So, that's what's going on with me. What's happening outside my bubble?

T

Blow Me Down!

It's Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day. I had no idea! I found this joke online, and I laughed out loud. Mild, pirate-intrinsic language which I didn't know how to edit out. Anyway, here 'tis.

A bartender looks up from the bar and sees a pirate with a peg leg, a hook hand, and patch over one eye.

Startled, the bartender asks "What happened?! Just a month ago your body was relatively whole, now..."

The pirate responded:
"Aye, 3 weks agor a conn'n ball took me leg. Now juss this peg to use.
"Thin 2 weks ago I gave up my h'nd in a sword duel.
"Thin 13 days agre a cursed bird shat in me eye."

The bartender, perplexed, said, "But you have a patch over it; certainly a little guano would not cost you an eye."

With a chagrinned grin the pirate told him, "Well, it were my first day wit der hook..."

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That made my day. This morning's class was kind of less than good. I'm realizing how hard I need to be studying. Ouch. So today I made flash cards (yes, flash cards) of all the vocabulary we've covered thus far. I made 113 flash cards-- character on the front and pinyin (phonetics) and English meaning on the back-- today from lunchtime until 2 something. Then an American friend of mine and I studied them all afternoon and evening. We stopped tonight to eat some PB&J, then we studied a little more. Finally he left to go to the café across the street, and I did my written, turn-in homework for tomorrow.

Mandarin does not come naturally to speakers of other languages. It just doesn't. If I need to study a full three hours a day, then I will, but that stinks. I hardly ever study in the States. I'm one of those sob-stories who never studied in school. And I really don't study much in college, either. Maybe this will encourage me to have better study-habits. I spent most of my afternoon in the park near the center of campus, and that was cool. I almost met some people. I think it could happen. I talked to some random girl who wanted to know about my textbook.

T

Life is complex, indeed.

It rained today. It washed some of the smog out of the air. I can see the mountains from my room's window. I'd told my roommate that he was crazy for thinking that, but he was right. Mountains, check.

(in the middle, yo)

I'm finding a way, though I don't yet know if it's the right one. I think it could be, though. I had lunch today with four others: two Australians, one Filipino, and a Swedish Brit. It was far better than some outings I've been on lately, and I'm glad of it. Today I intend to study with a friend from Mississippi. Also, today I'm going to register for a weekend trip to the Great Wall of China(!!), about which I'm a little excited. It'll be touristy and all, but I couldn't care less.

I am a bit concerned about people back home. I've been reminded (perhaps too often) that my life is here now. But I know all too well that my life is only here for 9.5 more months. After that, to what might I return? Home. That is, the States, my state, the cities I live in, my friends and family. I can be concerned if I want, and I feel I have good reason.

T

You Ought To Be Here With Me

If you think it's lonesome where you are tonight,
Then you ought to be here with me
If you think there's heartache where you are tonight,
Then you ought to be here with me.

'Cause with you I'm whole
Without you I'm cold.

If teardrops are fallin' where you are tonight,
Then you ought to be here with me.
Loneliness callin' where you are tonight
And you ought to be here with me.

'Cause with you I'm whole
Without you I'm cold.

So, if you think about me where you are tonight,
Then you ought to be here with me.

Roger Miller wrote that. Even though I've never listened to his stuff, I understand that he's an important figure in country music. I just know him because he wrote the words and music for Big River, which is perhaps my favorite musical. It's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and it reaches some deep material (as did Twain with the book) even as it presents itself as a story of a drifter-boy and his adventures down the Mississippi River. It's really about his descent into the world of slavery, his realization of the cost of freedom, and the importance to right versus the status quo. It also deals with loneliness and waiting for a better day.

(If you don't know the show, you should. It's excellent, and I bought the soundtrack on Amazon a couple years ago.)

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I guess I said all that to say that I'm feeling lonely. It's probably because I had a good day, and someone wants to ruin it. I went to an international gathering this morning, and it was alright. I'm hoping that the other campus is better, but it was nice to be with others like me anyway.
Then I read a bunch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (only 100 pages left!) and studied Chinese.
Tonight I went to a dinner party that happened before the housewarming that was postponed until tonight. It was nice just to chat with a bunch of fellow international students. The food was not bad, either, especially these fried glutinous balls with sesame seeds around the outside and a sweet bean paste inside. I referred to them as China's Krispy Kremes, and they're probably the closest one would get to a KK here.
On the way back to the school, my roommate and I spotted rambutan at a fruit stand. I didn't stutter. Those of you who are long-time readers understand the beauty of the rambutan. We bought about a kilo of them.

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There is very little sunshine through the smog here in Beijing.

T