Most people who work abroad and are stationed in Beijing prefer to leave the city and jet set to other more exciting Chinese places when a three day national holiday comes 'round. Those of us who teach along the 6th Ring Road (The middle of cussing nowhere) prefer to stay in a downtown hostel to celebrate National Moon Cake Day so that home is a stumbling distance away at the end of a glory filled night on the town. The Sunlutin Youth Hostel was the best hostel I have ever stayed in; it was incredibly clean, cozy, and well-trodden. It boasted a tasty menu, cheap long island iced tea and other luxurious drinks for adults. It also came with a handful of 'intelligently good looking' young male travellers who were incredibly friendly. I could live there every weekend! And I might...
The first night we went to Bar Street, which is the place we usually troll on Fridays; though it catered to a much younger crowd that night (maybe this had something to do with the Full Moon). Instead of playing "Where Are You From" as we sat and drank on the streetside bar patios, we played "You Look Like You're Twelve, Are You Twelve." I spoke with a few Justin Bieber types who fessed up to being fifteen. These kids were wild-like nobody owned them. It was strange to watch them on Bar Street, because they were mostly allowed in everywhere, but so often I'd catch glimpses of curiosity, fear, and trepidation when they realized they could walk in anywhere, and drink/smoke anything. They must have felt like child versions of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, or Drew Barrymore. "Hey! Dude, are you Drew Barrymore circa 1991? Yea, like post ET..." "Go cuss yourself!" "Kiss yo momma with that mouth?" Oh bar street got old fast.
I rode a very crowded subway up to Tianmen Square and the Forbidden City, and found a hostel to rent a sketchy bicycle from. Then I proceeded to do the most dangerous thing I could choose to do in Beijing; ride my bike according to Chinese bike laws.
** Chinese bike laws (unofficial version)
1. If you are not a car, you are fair game for road kill.
2. There are designated bike lanes; however, taxis, buses, scooters, wheelchairs, strollers, hovercrafts, and little old ladies can swerve in and out of these as often as they please-and if they hit you-they get one thousand million billion gold coins.
3. What's a helmet??
4. The green pedestrian sign is merely for show. When it comes on, you better peddle for your life to make it across because it only stays on for 3 seconds, and even still, pedestrians must yeild to traffic.
It was the best afternoon of my life! The thrill from being so close to death was almost as exciting as being born. I also found a cool park and while I was locking up my bike this little boy came over and peed on my back wheel. He didn't even notice me until he was almost done, and then when he did look up at me staring in shock at him, his eyes got really wide, and he just played with his wiener and stared me down for awhile. It was wierd.
**Kids here pee and poop everywhere. Toddlers have giant holes cut into the crotch to bum portion of their pants for easy access. Please brace yourself for this story-and if you are my parents, stop reading here and skip to the next paragraph: At dinner in an alleyway restauraunt one night, there was this kid who seriously owned the restaurant. Everyone catered to him, so we called him Godzilla. Anyway, he was probably 4 years old, and still playing with his semi truck or whatever he could get his hands on. I'm eating and I look over, and all I can see is this kid, facing me, bent down to the ground in a low squat, playing with his semi, and there is a massive hole in the crotch of his pants, and his junk is just hanging out, dragging along the dirty floor as he is vroom vrooming along. Godzilla is a king.
So Baihai Park was incredible; small buddhist temples, actual greenery, and lovers in paddle boats, just a paddlin'. It was neat to watch people praying in the temples too (though I was discusted when people actually took photos of the people praying. Like come on, you really can't just remember what this looks like??) Frustrating.
Oh, and then later a man in a shop startled me by grabbing me (because the merchants in Beijing are really aggressive and because I didn't want to buy the sandals afterall) and I kind of retaliated immediately and pushed him overly hard and got right up in his grill and snarled that he better not touch me again. He was mad. I was mad. And then I felt bad, but also proud. He grabbed my arm really hard. My friend Jess said initially she was scared because he grabbed me so suddenly, but then she was scared becasue she thought I was going to rage on this guy and knock him out. She dragged me out of there. It was awkward.
The next day I found more eclectic shops and restaurants that I know my Mum would devour if she were here, so I missed her greatly all day long. That night we found a neat hookah bar and met some friendly fellows from England and chit chatted the night away until it was the stumbling hour (praise buddha for Sunlutin Hostel). Beijing is getting colder too, so it was a brisk stumble, but somehow, Bri and I managed to find our way into the rock hard bunk beds.
I was excited to return to the campus today though. It's nerdy, but as soon as I arrived and saw a few of my students and chatted with them, I realized how much I missed them. It's like coming home to a very quirky, wide eyed family that giggles a lot. I wrote down all the things I didn't know how to say but needed to say in Chinese so tomorrow I can spend a portion of each class having my kids teach me the phrases. They love to watch me struggle with pronunciation. They also love Mr. Bean and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. And wearing their backpacks on their chests, even while at their desks. It kills them when I make spelling errors while typing, and they don't understand the terms "choose, downtown, and what's up." Sometimes they eat weird wet snacks that smell like death and they eat them, trying to sneak it on me because you can't snack in the classrooms. What they don't realise is that I'm not used to their food smells yet, so I can smell the death snack immediately and Helen really hates it when I bust her for eating freezer dried tofu mized with squid, lotus, and sewer sludge. Ugh. "Helen, stop eating." "But I love eating!" "I know. But stop it." "...Okay....sawy teachugh." See why I love them? They don't have the english capacity to argue with me for very long about anything, so they usually relent quickly and skulk while muttering in Chinese.
I'm also helping my students form this Snowboarding Club, and we have 40 members so far and after the October break we will have our first trip to an indoor snowboard hill!! Apperently the outdoor ones are pretty far away and we won't be able to hit those until the winter and we'll make a weekend of it. Too bad I didn't pack any snowgear at all. Not even a winter coat. My poor visa is taking a beating.
Okay, I'm tired and I have to plan something productive to do while my kids have library periods tomorrow. I've grown weary of policing their lack of ambition to do the assigned tasks I give them in the library on the computers. So instead of punishing myself by cancelling library time, I have just decided that those who want to get the work done will, and those who don't won't. Rather than hold their 17 year old hands, I'll use the library time as another prep and get some work done myself or help those who are actually working. Those who wish to waste valuable time on RenRen (facebook) or QQ (msn) better have some quality assignments to hand in to me because that is when my wrath will surely reign down upon them. I refuse to have an ulcer before 30 because I spent my late twenties nagging students to use their computer time wisely and trying to argue with an ESL student about what they are supposed to be doing, and no, no, you DID know RenRen was on my list of things YOU SHOULD NOT BE DOING RIGHT NOW! YOU KNEW! YOU KNEW! CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TRANSLATE THIS FOR ME, HE'S NOT GETTING IT... Cuss. I need to learn chinese.
Boo= means No. Dway= means yes. Ting Bu Dong= means don't understand.
That's all I got folks. Sorry for the lack of photos of my first holiday in Beijing, I lost my camera :( But, that is a whole other story entitled, "Nothing Is Easy In China."
Missin' you,
xox
