Quiet Day, What's Popular

I haven't done much today, largely because I didn't wake up until 2pm.

I lazed around the hotel for awhile. Since finishing The Opposite of Fate a couple days ago I haven't had anything to read. So I tried my hand at poetry. Eventually I got up and checked my email before going to the gym. It seems to be just as popular on Sundays as it is during the week...

I've compiled a short list of the songs I've heard most often this summer.

• 中国话 (Chinese language) by S.H.E
  http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=5IXO3vv4tvE
• 朋友 (Friends)
  http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ydingPIMWsg
• 青花瓷 （Flower Design on Porcelain) by 周杰伦 (Jay Chou)
  http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjc2NjU2NjA=.html
• 童话 (Fairy Tale)
  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rsa1GhsGUHA&feature=related

And also of other media I've looked at in the last 24 hours.

• Amusing page by guy selling ex's wedding dress: http://nomarriage.com/ebay_wedding_dress.html
• Build vocabulary while donating food: http://www.freerice.com/index.php
• Lily Tomlin Sketch: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ajflqMwLMmw
• Chinese Mob Over Girl's Death, Coverup: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7479810.stm
• Visa Policies Hurting Olympic Tourism? (thx Aviv): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/business/worldbusiness/24visa.html?_r=2&ei=5087&em=&en=242b06ef020b0134&ex=1214452800&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1214753564-CWUCAuQBWdkxz0mtsm5y3A

Enjoy!

Dance Like No One's Watching

Kat, Katie and I spent most of Saturday shopping. Come nightfall, we wanted to go out dancing in our fabulous new clothes (and to celebrate the impending anniversary of my birth). But how could three beautiful girls feel safe in a club among so many guys? Strike that, Katie's sick; how could two beautiful girls feel safe in a club among so many guys? Well, we (primarily me) had a flash of brilliant inspiration, of course! It's simple: you head to a popular club packed full of (mostly) men... none of whom are interested in you, because it's a gay club! We had a great time, secure in the knowledge that the vast majority of people there didn't care one bit how we looked or danced. I don't know if it would work in the US, but here it worked like a charm. And now that I'm (almost) old, I can't stay up so late, so I'm heading to bed. (I used a lot of parentheses in this post; what's up with that?)

The Floor, and Dinner

I took this picture of the floor the other day while I was waiting in the lobby. I like it. I also like my Chinese classes more than I used to. I feel more productive when we are doing some writing. The teacher also forces Kat and I to struggle through reading things. Sometimes she tells us neat cultural things. For instance, there's a fairly straightforward way to talk to someone in a store which Kat and I can handle. But when my teacher's parents were in their 20s, you absolutely had to use this phrase which means something like, "For the sake of the people, could you bring me..." when you were interested in buying something. Anyways, that's enough ado. Here's the floor. Two nights ago I went out to dinner with Kat, her mentor, and his girlfriend. The cab got stuck in traffic so we walked the last leg through a hutong (quaint alleyway). That's Darren (the mentor) in the China shirt, followed by Kat.
We came to this little tucked-away restaurant with delicious food and German lounge music... that sortof confused me. Emily joined us there. She and Darren go out to eat all the time and know lots of neat places to eat. They also gave us tips on markets and clubs. And they have cute little spats where they use words like 'rubbish,' because they're British.
After a delicous dinner, including mango salad, mashed potatoes, kebabs, tofu, and fruit bathed in rice wine, we took the obligatory group photo.
Then we wandered along a nicer hutong with a lot of shops, stopped for rum of various flavors (mine was honey-banana) in a neat little lounge with a second level, and relaxed. We got the coolest seats; we had to walk over a bit of a gangway to get to them.

Work is going forward, with its ups and downs. A big batch of interns is leaving and being replaced by another big batch. I wrote an article for the intern newsletter about the trip to the amusement park and was rewarded with a t-shirt, probably to be featured in a picture on the blog shortly, since I'm running out of clean clothes.

A Delicious Monday

Mmm... Monday. For lunch Kat and I were taken out by Dr. Jian Wang to his favorite place. He's the Assistant Managing Director and also interviewed us last fall. His driver picked us up at MSRA and took us past the Technology Institute so we could see its library, and then to a nice relaxing lunch. We had all sorts of delicious foods. Sometime people would come out to finish the preparation in front of us or explain how to eat the food. In one case, a guy explained the food and a woman translated from his regional dialect to Mandarin. After which, of course, Dr. Wang relayed the information to us in English. We also had a nice conversation and got some ideas about nifty places to visit in China if we get the chance. I was slightly confused when the conversation suddenly shifted to "Bill," but caught on...
And here we are after lunch. Aww, we're so cute.

Then for dinner Kat and I met up with Eric Chang, also listed as Assistant Managing Director online, though I think he's recently changed to Technology Director or something like that, and he treated us to Japanese food. Which was also quite nummy. We talked about MIT and course 6 and Microsoft and putting children through Chinese public school versus International school.

Several of you have asked, 'What about the actual work you're supposed to be doing, Kim?' Well, it's progressing. I'm under a fairly strict nondisclosure agreement, so I can't talk much about work. As I said before, I'm working in the speech group on Text To Speech. It's interesting, but I've also been exploring other options. Today I found something that might work well for me. I'd be working under someone nicknamed Crazy Bird, so how could this be anything but an excellent idea?

The Great Wall of China

Hi guys! Look Mom and Abby, that purse really comes in handy :) It can hold a book, my camera, my (small amount of) money, AND 3 bottles of water. Speaking of books: I finished the Lord of the Rings last night! It didn't take me quite 5 years...



So on Sunday morning I set out from my apartment after a whopping 3 hours of sleep. I managed to get myself on the subway in the right direction and change lines when necessary. Then came the trickier part. I had to find the bus station. Once there I had to differentiate between the buses, all labeled 919, which were headed on different trips, several of which were the Wall. I was going with 7 other people, and for a while I was afraid I wouldn't find them because the meeting location chosen was, as usual, too vague. Also, my pre-paid cell phone had run out of money the night before, so I couldn't contact anyone. (Grumble grumble. When I bought it they told me it would last me the summer.) Eventually we all found each other, and there was great rejoicing.



Well, sortof. So many groups I join seem to contain at least one easily annoyed person. Sigh. There was widespread but not unanimous rejoicing. Anyways! Who we were: 8 current or recently graduated MIT students, some working in Beijing, some just passing though on their graduation victory trip. Our Chinese skills ranged from completely fluent to absolutely none. Our opinions on what to do about transportation were varied, but after much commotion we all got on a 919 bus to the Ju Yong Guan pass of the Long Wall (as the Chinese literally translates.)



(Speaking of 9s and 1s. The emergency number here is 119 instead of 911. Odd.)



And we learned what it was to take a Chinese tourist bus. First a guy talked on the loudspeaker (just loudly and piercingly enough that it ruled out sleep and reading.) Granted, it was an interesting and sometimes amusing speech about the history of the wall and such. But it was difficult to understand and long. Then we stopped at 'the reststop' which was actually a jade factory. They took us on a really cool museum tour of jade, hosted in a nifty cave-like area. Then we got to see people on the other side of glass windows working with the jade. Then I wandered away from a sales pitch. And then we had the opportunity to buy a bunch of jade. There were also supplies of snacks, water, and toilet paper to buy. (The provided toilets didn't have paper. Finally the pack of tissues in the bottom of my purse comes in handy.) Later in the day, when we were returning from the Wall, we would stop at a supermarket known to the operators of the bus line. Apparantly planning these unannounced and relatively involved stops on bus trips is a relatively common Chinese thing.



Anyways, we arrived at the wall. Half of us stayed near the bottom for the guided temple tour and the other half headed up. The first thing we saw was a long chain with many locks.



Couples put these locks on when they get married. In many cases their names and the date are engraved on the lock. The tradition seems to have caught on with tourists; the couple of locks I looked at featured distinctly non-Chinese names.



This is the best-maintained portion of the Wall. If I get the chance, I might go to another section later in the summer. Perhaps because this section is so well-restored, many people on both extremes of the age spectrum were about. Of course, as we climbed higher people of all ages became less dense. We lost Sarah partway up to a threatening migraine. A stranger later gave her some sort of herbal Chinese medicine smelling of eucalyptus.

As you can see below, there were a bunch of towers along the length of the wall.

Getting up to them was fun. The stairs were very steep, and in some cases worn away except on the sides. These particular stairs shown below weren't terribly worn, just steep. Of course, being a walking tourist attraction, I had to take a few pictures with random strangers. (I don't know him. \/ )
Eventually we achieved the highest peak. The wall led up to here (this picture's taken from the last tower), then retraced its steps and went off in another direction. But there wasn't time for that. We headed back down the way we came and found the other 5 MIT students (including Sarah) at a plateau maybe 1/3 of the way up. Then, on the bus ride back, we stopped at aforementioned supermarket.



And I bought corn flavored ice cream. Which was sweet and corny and strange.



And then I went home and took half a cold shower, finished The Lord of the Rings, contemplated life (but did not omphaloskepsize), and fell asleep early.

Saturday: An Overview

On Saturday morning I wandered through Beijing with Lepac. We found some old buttresses.

And pomegranites.

Later we went pearl and clothing shopping.

Then I huried back to MSRA using the newly opened subway line 5.
I met Kat and Fei, and we went to Peking University. Fei showed us around the campus and told us a bit about its history. Here's the water tower, which is well-known.

As is the lake, which we walked around as the sun set. There were lots of recent graduates happily taking pictures with each other and their parents.

The students aren't allowed to cook in their rooms. Nonetheless, we went and had some delicious homemade hotpot with Fei and watched Kung Fu Panda. Several of his friends/dormmates stopped by and we did some karaoke and talked about MIT (many people's 'dream school.') I also taught them the cup clapping game, because they saw it in Random's rush video and thought it was cool. They learned quickly :D

And now I've got to go; it's a busy day at work!

Happy Valley

On Friday I walked with fellow MSRA interns through Atlantis on our way to Shangri-La. Later we passed by the Aegean Harbor, the land of the Lost Maya, the Ant Kingdom, and a Wild Fjord. So, I'd give the day about a 9/10 ;)

At least for now, I'll just highlight three of the best rides of the day.

This coaster, Golden Wings in Snowfield, was absolutely amazing. I rode in the front row :D There was a nice suspenseful (but not boring) rise to the first height, and after that plenty of time upside down as well as right-side up and corkscrews. The corkscrews were this ride's specialty, with some that were straight corkscrews and others that happened more gradually as you changed orientation. The coaster had excellent speed and a nice smooth ride. And the line wasn't even too long, maybe half an hour's wait!

I've always liked the swings, and these were well done. The machine got a nice high angle of tilt while it was swinging them, the music worked well, and the height and speed were both great.

This was pretty awesome. It was called the Trojan Horse, with the outer head and rear being decorative wood and the ride part as the stomach. Most of my group was afraid to go on it, so I went alone the first time and some of them joined me for a second ride. Also in this ride's favor is that it doesn't run the same pattern every time. Just watch the video clip! I especially like the part starting at about 12 seconds in...

Τα λέμε σύντομα!

Land, land, everywhere, nor any place to sit

The Tuesday trip to KTV Karaoke was fun, with a dozen people besides myself. We went to a bigger place than last time. I think the overall voice talent was down, but there were a handful of people who were good to listen too. And it was also fun when the whole room would sing to a popular song. There's this one song, 朋友, 'Friends,' that everyone likes a lot, and it's easy enough that I can sing too. It's set to a video of a team of rugby players fighting it out together. Everyone always sings the chorus loudly about always being together and sharing one cup of wine. There was lots of food again, and Kat, Katie and I tried to teach some of them to dance to songs like Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie. Here I am on White Flag (I got applause!)

On Wednesday, Kat and I went to Wudaokou, a shopping area nearby, and bought a bunch of individual pieces of baked goods and fruit (and even though we each got about 6 things, both of us spent less than $1 US :) Then we tried to find somewhere to sit. We sat at an empty table at an outdoor food place which wasn't very busy. But a waiter came and told us to leave. We mischeviously pretended that we couldn't speak Chinese! But he wouldn't stop pestering us, so we gathered all our little bags of food and left. Next we walked past the outdoor basketball-arcade-game and went to sit on some grass. I ate an absolutely delicious plum.

And then a security guard came and told us to leave. Now, the sign on the grass forbid skateboarding and pets, but said nothing about peacefully eating some food. So in English we complained to him, 'First we tried to sit at the empty tables and he wouldn't let us, and now we can't sit here! Where can we sit to eat the food that we've bought!' His response was much funnier than the first guy's. He squatted down to indicate sitting and eating, and then moved his arms past each other in a 'not allowed' gesture, and repeated it a couple of times for us. So we got up and moved on. We had been mostly finished eating anyways. We walked away, and then back, since we were waiting for friends. When we came back the spot we saw another guy sitting where we had been, smoking. As we watched, the guard came to him... and started chatting! They seemed to be friends. We thought about complaining to the guard in Chinese, but then of course he'd be annoyed at us for pretending not to be able to.

Then Erik and Lepac arrived. We went to check out the nightmarket but couldn't find it. So we wandered on past Wudaokou, talking and walking Lepac towards her place. Kat got tired and Erik carried her. Later the three of us returned and found a small amount of the nightmarket. The police were around, so the nightmarket vendors would pull up and hide as they approached and set back down as the coast cleared. It's kindof neat how quickly they can disappear. Many lay their wares on what I assumed on the first night were normal blankets. But there are strings embedded in the edges blankets, so with a quick pull the blanket and everything on it becomes a nice bundle to run away with. Erik found some Cultural Revolution posters he liked, and we headed out. Oh, and there were cute puppies for sale!

I go to enjoy my Saturday...

Pictures to My Heart's Content

Welcome, friends. When last I left you (save those filler quotes) I was on my way to KTV, the Chinese version of karaoke. I went with 5 others to the most upscale KTV joint in town, the 'Money Cabinet' / 'Party World.' The reception and waiting area looks like a cross between the lobby of a Hilton and an ipod store. This picture is poor; apologies.


It being Saturday night, we had to hang out in the lobby for a bit, then proceed to the 5th (of 6) floors. We walked down shining hallway, passing tons of food (which I assumed would be expensive. On the contrary, much was free, and the rest could be gotten in semi-limited amounts by using tokens that come with use of the room.) As we continued down the hallway, we passed many doors, and as I got close to each one I could hear bits of music. Eventually we got to our room (537) and went in. A few people went and got some food, then we proceeded to hang out there for 3 hours, eating, drinking, singing, and generally being merry. Two of the guys we went with were really good. Not pictured below are Kat (who's taking the picture) and the flatscreen TV and computer setup for playing songs. Watching lyrics as people sang in Chinese was a great way to 'study.' Kat and I sang some old American songs (think Tearin' Up My Heart by N'Sync) and the Chinese kid sang some older American songs (think My Way by Frank Sinatra.) Many songs were set to largely unrelated video clips of Chinese dancers and/or orchestras. It was a great time, and each of us paid about US $7 for everything!


So I had a pretty awesome Saturday. Who would have guessed that I would also have an awesome Sunday! It started out at Reasonable O'Clock in the morning (11:30) at the Wudaokou subway stop. First, I got a picture of those brooms I've seen people sweeping in the street with. (As shown just below this paragraph.) Then I didn't die because Erik heroically gestured at me to move out of the way of the large pole about to hit my head. (Also shown in imminently appearing photograph.) Well, actually, I was too focused on the broom and didn't notice Erik. But I got out of the way of this train crossing pole in time anyways. And then many people waited for the *single engine* to cross. These barricades were really really ghetto by the way. Also, Kat taught the Chinese guys at work the work "ghetto" recently, and they took the fact that (espec. when it comes to slang) their dictionaries are not always correct the hard way. Oh! And today I learned the expression, 'er bai wu.' Literally: 250. In common usage, for inexplicable reasons: a bad-impulsive-careless person.
Eventually we proceeded to get in some cabs and arrive at the Summer Palace, located in the North of Beijing at higher elevation than much of the city. 'We' by the time we entered the grounds had become a group of 6; 3 MIT students, 2 Beijingers, and 1 Lepac. Lepac is, among other things, Erik's former boss. Having her along improved the trip by an order of magnitude. She began by telling us about why old Chinese bronze urns are so intriguing and often impossible to replicate with today's methods.

Then we learned about the Taihu rock, and about the flora. Especially the flora; botany is Lepac's specialty. I'm sorry that I don't remember the name of this one; a Standing something-or-other... I do remember that it's 200 years old...

Eventually I realized that asking Lepac the, "Do you know anything about _________," question was a waste of time. The answer was always some variant of yes for such diverse topics as Designer Jewelry, Architecture, History, Science Fiction, Wilderness Survival, Pearls, Fitness Routines, Practical Engineering, and especially Botany.

This is a really neat corridor. One side is windowed and the other screened; it's designed such that you get best results looking out one side in the morning and the other in the evening (because of the position of the sun.) The windowed side has four windows of different shapes and with different paintings on them and angles on the outside garden. Looking through each gives you a different 'feel.' On the painted decoration about the windows, the blue paint has faded more than the red or green because of its composition. Thanks Lepac! Seen in the corridor below, from Right to Left are Erik, the hand of Lepac, Linda, two random tourists, Callie, and Callie's friend.

We climbed up worn stone steps lined with mosaics of stone with characters of good fortune depicted. As we reached a peak, we paused on these rocks and asked one of the nice elderly couples if they would take our picture. Left to right: Me, Linda, Erik, Lepac, Callie, Callie's friend.

From that height we were able to see a misty image the 17-arch bridge and many boats on the lake. Descending a again, we found bamboo groves as well as a marble boat built by the Extravagant Empress Dowager Cixi.

Those of you who've read my last summer's blog may recall that I enjoy autotimer races; that is, setting my camera up with a view of something nifty, giving myself ten seconds, and racing into position. Here are the results of this Sunday's autotimer races. I actually got each of these in one take, in contrast to the one on the slippery rocky hill on Helgoland last summer!After we ceased to be amused by the Summer Palace, we moved on to... Yuanmingyuan! Ok, that likely doesn't mean anything to you :) It's this nearby ruins of an imperial garden, and it was Absolutely Gorgeous! We visited some ruins (blame/thank the French as you will) and a maze (of course we walked through it.)I think I could have spent all day sitting by the water lillies and trying to take pictures of them.

Lucky water lillies (so say I because of the abundance of what appears to be four-leaf clover beneath them.)

Water lillies with drops of water on them shining in the sun.
Water lillies under a willow.
Water lillies being blocked by me... Well, it's my blog; I have to show up sometimes.
So that more or less wraps up the weekend's adventuring. There's been some minor adventuring this week, particularly on Tuesday night. But that can be written later, since it is already the increasingly-less-wee hours of Wednesday morning for me. Tomorrow evening after work I plan to go out with coworkers for 6 hours of KTV, to send off a bunch who are finishing their internships this week. And so, 21 pictures (well, 22 if you add in the thousand+ words as well) later, we've come back to where we started :) 再见!


ps. If you want anything from China, let me know asap so I can look around...

Context Not Included

"I'm an ordinary person. I like to eat ordinary food."
My Chinese Teacher

"I'm also a very mild person. Guangdong's food is very mild."
My Chinese Teacher Again

"I am talking, not of reality, but of Mr. Caldwell's point of view. "
Mr. Fogg

"Engineering evolved from one of the first groups created in Microsoft Research Asia..."
Promotional Booklet

"Squee!"
me

Adventure on the (Relatively) High Seas

Yesterday (for me; you're still in my yesterday) Professor Sodini came to visit all the MIT students in Beijing and to talk with companies about 6a. At Microsoft he talked with me and Kat, and our mentors and the University Relations personnel. The meetings went well and people exchanged little gifts, because that's what you do in China. Kat and I got him a fancy set of chopsticks. Microsoft got him something significantly more expensive, or so it looked from the box. Afterwards, Prof. Sodini wanted to meet with some friends for dinner, so used my phone to call out... but the line was busy. So we chatted and Kat and I showed him our 'kitchen' and we all listened to and watched the suddenly arrived thunderstorm. There was no sign of rain in the morning, and Beijing is not a place known for heavy rain.

Funny story told to us by Professor Sodini at this point. He was traveling in the islands near Fiji. The way it worked is he would stay with someone, and then be given a note explaining his presence and sent to the next person. Eventually he got as far out as you can get, as evidenced by the following conversation he had upon arriving.

'So, you're from the United States? Whereabouts?'

'California.'

'Oh, we had someone from there about five years ago. His name is Bill; do you know him?'

Of course, for the Olympics, the city is trying to increase its number of 'blue sky days.' Part of the problem is pollution, and they're taking measures to cut down on the number of cars and factories and burnt coal and the like. But part of the reason that the sky isn't clear has nothing to do with pollution... it's just a very dusty place. As Donald Morrison wrote for the New York Times,

"Beijing lies downwind of the Gobi Desert, and every year, that dusty ocean
advances by a few more li or chi or something toward the gates of the city, if
those gates hadn’t been demolished by Mao and other visionaries. Beijing is
built on dust. It seeps and creeps and glides and slides across the floor, under
the door and all around the walls. My wife says it’s like living in a beach
house, nowhere near the ocean, as she sweeps up her daily dustpan of grit. The
caulking around our plumbing fixtures has blackened. My shirt collars go brown
after a few hours’ wear. My bicycle wears a powdery coat every morning."

(excerpted from http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/travel/01globe.html?em&ex=1212811200&en=a2480785ebe680b4&ei=5087%0A)

As part of their attempts to improve the weather, Beijing officials have started to send up rockets to 'seed the clouds' at night, so that if it is supposed to rain the next day the rain can be moved up to a time when everyone is conveniently asleep. Speculation yesterday was that they were experimenting with dosages and went way, way too high. The rain was torrential, and the drainage system completely inadequate. Professor Sodini and I were going to share a cab (since I was on my way to the same side of town,) but they were all taken, stuck, or both.

We decided to brave the subway. First I ran to my hotel, rolling my dress pants up above my knees and wading through two feet of water on some parts of the street, and grabbed my raincoat and spare umbrella (noting as I was there the lack of electricity). Then Professor Sodini rolled his pants legs up too, and we went out to try to take the subway. On the way we saw people on motorbikes with fully half their tires submerged. Once we arrived, this is what we found:

See the bubbling font by the bicycles? That would be the sewer system working in reverse. People were crowding into the subway even as officials and police were pushing them out and saying that it wasn't safe to ride on the subway. We were inside getting information about when the next train would be (not until tomorrow) when they began to barricade the doors. Many people were trying to crowd in, presumably to shelter for the night if they couldn't get anywhere else. We got out just in time to avoid being locked in the subway station. Then we walked a couple of blocks to places which were less waterlogged and began to try for a cab.

(Note: you might ask why we didn't give up and go back to Microsoft. Well, Professor Sodini really wanted to meet his friends, since he had to leave town the next day. And I thought that running around a flooded Beijing on an epic quest to get to Sarah's apartment sounded like a fun way to spend a Friday night.)

So after a bit of work we eventually got a cab, and had to go a bit out of our way to avoid the water, and I took my socks off and squeezed lots of water out onto the street which we were riding on the 4th ring road, and we had a great conversation. And then after dropping him off with his friends, the cabbie and I got only the teeniest little bit lost as we found Sarah's apartment.

So, Sarah's got this apartment with 3 other people, but 2 are moving out... I have the chance to move in and have this be my bedroom. In the second picture you can see what would be my desk and porch.

I'm strongly considering moving in, because it's more of a commute, but not more money, and it's this really awesome 15-room place that feels a bit more like a home instead just a place to put my stuff down and sleep.

Then Sarah and I went out with a friend of hers and ate here:

The went salsa dancing afterwards, but I was tired. I took a cab since the subway still wasn't fully functional. When I got back around 11:30 pm I saw lots of flashing lights, fire trucks, sewage system trucks, and police cars. Many city workers were working through the night to repair the subway and the street below it (which had become a little sea of mud.) There were also dozens of people just hanging out and leaning over the railings watching.

I got home, washed my legs off, and slept. Then I woke and played on the internet.

And now I'm going to go out to a KTV place. How exciting! Other coming attractions include more reading and The Summer Palace. ("I hear the place is so gorgeous that French soldiers stopped intheir tracks and forgot their orders when they saw it during the BoxerRebellion. Or maybe it was just that they were French, nobody is sure." -- Erik Fogg)

Ok, time to go! Write me comments!