Today at work was great, because I've been asking both my new and old managers for more work to do, and today they both delivered. So I felt more useful than I have since I came, which was good. Besides that there are two stories I'd like to tell.
One is about my Ayi. She's this squat Chinese woman who works at the gym in the basement. she's very well meaning and treats me as though I'm about 4. When I go to the gym, I turn in my card and get a key to a locker, where I put my things. Also in the locker are this teeny little red plastic shower shoes to wear when you shower off afterwards. Today I got into the shower and was mostly done showering, when I realized I'd forgotten to wear the shoes! When Ayi showed me around she was very specific about wearing the shoes and then putting them in a bucket for her to wash afterwards. Not many people use the gym... there's no way she wouldn't notice that my shoes weren't in the bucket if they weren't, but then again putting clean shoes in the bucket would just be silly. Oh well, it's not a big deal, I think to myself. I finish my shower and go to dry my hair. Ayi and another employee are in the locker room talking. Then Ayi sees my feet. (Note that she only speaks Chinese, and I'm going to take a rather literal translation.) 'Where are your shoes?'
'I forgot them!'
'Do you want your feet to get sick on this floor? Put your shoes on.'
'What?' (Since I was already finished showering.)
'Put your shoes on.' (She puts them on the floor in front of me.)
'Ok.' (I put on the shoes and go on drying my hair.)
'Now go shower again to clean your feet.'
'What?'
'Go shower again with the shoes, so your feet don't get sick.'
There's no arguing with her, especially in Chinese. So I go and shower again. The other lady reminds me that Ayi just doesn't want me to get sick as they leave the room. I wait until they leave to laugh.
Story 2: An adventure!
There was a talk I wanted to go to this morning by this guy called Bill Emmott, about economic competition between China, Japan, and India. But, I couldn't make it to the talk this morning, which was conveniently located at Microsoft and included breakfast. However, the talk was given again tonight, across town at a place called The Bookworm. So, I set off after work to get there. Despite leaving fully an hour early, I only had 10 minutes to spare when I got off the subway, and I didn't know where the bus I needed left from. As I was talking with a couple of old Chinese people to get directions, someone came up and asked me if I knew how to get to the Bookworm. '我刚在问他们。。。 I mean, I was just asking them where the bus station was...' It was confusing, since I'd been speaking Chinese, and she looked Chinese, but addressed me in English, and I wasn't sure if she'd used that because I was white or because she really didn't know Chinese... Anyways, her name is Hinia, she's Brazilian-raised-Chinese, and she can get along quite well in both Chinese and English (as well as Cantonese, which her parents speak, Brazilian, and Spanish.) We decided that since we didn't have much time we'd split the cost of a cab... less than a dollar each since we were so close.
We got there before the talk began. Unfortunately, as the nice British woman told us, the room had been packed full for fully half an hour, so we'd have to listen over the speaker in the back. The two of us snagged the last single chair and took turns on it. Afterwards I asked the lady at the door how many ｐｅｏｐｌｅ had come. 110 in the rooms, 50 out in back, and 40 out in front. Wow! Many people stood or sat on the floor. The talk was interesting, mostly an overview of the main points of the book. One person during the Q&A afterwards commented that he was relieved by a parallel drawn between Japan in the 60s and 70s and China today. At that point Japan was the terrible polluter of the world, so maybe Beijingers can have hope. Another audience member asked when Asia would have one currency, like Europe, and Emmott led that into a joke about the fact that, while it would be before the British used the Euro, it wouldn't be anywhere in the forseeable future.
There were so many Europeans in the audience, and Americans... I haven't seen so many white people in one place since the plane ride to Beijing. The atmosphere in the place was great. They had food, and a libary (the room used for the speech,) and shelves and shelves of books for sale. Books of all sorts! Books by American political candidates, travel guides for places all over the world, the Harry Potter series, books about the culture and history of China, collections of Chinese propaganda...
After the talk was over Emmott did a book signing... but his book (Titled 'Conflict' or 'The Three Kingdoms' depending where -- well, in which language -- you buy it) was expensive and I'm running low on cash. But I wanted to meet him anyways. So I asked him to sign a book about a different conflict... The Lord of the Rings. He did, too, and gave me his 'Best Wishes.' He was great at the book signing... despite the long line of people, he looked everyone in the eye, smiled, and took the time to talk to them individually as well as signing their books.
Afterwards Hinia and I walked back to the subway. She's a pretty impressive person. She started studying English by herself with tapes when she was 15, and now she has a job translating Chinese into English. On the way to the talk she said to me, 'I'll just go and see what I can learn,' and that seems to sum up her approach to life to a large extent. She's come to China to work for two years because she won tickets in a lottery and wanted to see what she'd find here. We plan to get together and do a bit of a language exchange. I 'll critique her English and she'll tutor me in my choice of Chinese, Spanish, Cantonese and Portugese, with her preference being to the last two since she knows them best. What do you guys think I should chooｓｅ？ Ｌｅｔ ｍｅ ｋｎｏｗ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｃｏｍｍｅｎｔｓ！！
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Lazy Day
After all the travel and adventuring of yesterday, I took today to rest. Coming to internet is the first I've left my hotel. I spent time sleeping, reading, and munching on leftover snacks from the trip. And now I don't want to see another prepackaged strawberry cake for a while :-) I finished book 3 of the Lord of the Rings, and feel well rested again.
I called one of the vehicles we got around in yesterday a 'relic.' You start it with a crank. There's no side mirror, no odometer, not even a gas gauge. We passengers rode in the back, in a cage of metal that rattled and shook loudly with the motor. Seven of us sat in back, and one up front with the driver. But judge for yourself; here it is, in all its three-wheeled glory ... what do you think?
Erik had his doubts. This is him asking me telling me that I'm crazy (or something like that.)
But, it turned out to be a fun ride (and he said so, once we were underway.) Besides, we didn't have many options. Sarah had to work today, and so we needed to get back to Beijing. From the lonely mountain we couldn't get a ride back to where we'd come from, and the buses our van driver promised in Qidu weren't enough for the many people wanting to get to Beijing that way. So we joined with a few others and convinced the driver of that vehicle to take us back to Zhangfang where the buses were more frequent. As we were waiting to see if a bus would come in Qidu, this particularly shrewd lady walked around selling refreshments and trinkets.
And, just because this is my blog, here's another picture of me. (As I fall to my doom.)
I called one of the vehicles we got around in yesterday a 'relic.' You start it with a crank. There's no side mirror, no odometer, not even a gas gauge. We passengers rode in the back, in a cage of metal that rattled and shook loudly with the motor. Seven of us sat in back, and one up front with the driver. But judge for yourself; here it is, in all its three-wheeled glory ... what do you think?
Erik had his doubts. This is him asking me telling me that I'm crazy (or something like that.)
But, it turned out to be a fun ride (and he said so, once we were underway.) Besides, we didn't have many options. Sarah had to work today, and so we needed to get back to Beijing. From the lonely mountain we couldn't get a ride back to where we'd come from, and the buses our van driver promised in Qidu weren't enough for the many people wanting to get to Beijing that way. So we joined with a few others and convinced the driver of that vehicle to take us back to Zhangfang where the buses were more frequent. As we were waiting to see if a bus would come in Qidu, this particularly shrewd lady walked around selling refreshments and trinkets.
And, just because this is my blog, here's another picture of me. (As I fall to my doom.)
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Journey To The Lonely Mountain
Today began early. I woke at 4:30, got a taxi ride to a bus stop, and directed Erik and Sarah to the bus stop (since their cab failed to get them all the way there.) We grabbed some quick baozi and red-bean sesame balls off the street for breakfast. Then it was time for a long (~2 hours) ride on bus 917 to Zhangfang. The bus was packed, with as many people as possible standing in the aisle, but Sarah, Erik and I managed to squeeze into some seats above the wheel hub.
When we arrived in Zhangfang, the entire little town attempted to get us to go in their car. It seems, especially in light of later experience, that they often take (Chinese) tourists to our destination, The Lonely Mountain. But Erik and Sarah were a bit sketched out by them, and so we kept walking until we found a less pushy lady, who ended up getting us up there in a little bus with a semi-official sign in its window, for free! And so we came out of smoggy gray Beijing to foggy, great Gushanzhai.
It seems to be quite the Chinese tourist destination. In the bottom left of the above picture, you can see a big inflatable plastic ball with openings on the side. Children crawl into them and then run like hamsters on the water. The entrance ticket was 60 rmb, which is high for China. After buying tickets, we headed over the 200 meter long rope bridge:
It was a beautiful area. The lower part had a lot of tourists, but it cleared out some as we climbed higher. I took many, many pictures.
My favorite spot by far: Chinese Petra! (Well, I don't know if anyone else has ever called it that, but...) It was cool inside this canyon, and parts of the walls were wet. You can see that it wasn't too wide. The Chinese name translates to "One Line of Sky."
We climbed out onto a nice ledge and had some lunch before heading down. After that, Sarah felt sick, whether from sun, the red bean buns, or dehydration... Whatever the case, we rested in the shade for a couple of hours. I spent my time sketching, which was surprisingly fun.
After visiting the park, we had quite an adventure getting back. After much uncertainty, we took a van to Qidu, a crank-driven relic to Zhangfang, and a bus to Beijing. I may post a picture of what I call the 'relic' in a later post. Then Erik and I walked around lost for a while before taking the a bus plus subway lines (3 of them for me, 2 for him) home.
And now, I am tired. So I rest.
When we arrived in Zhangfang, the entire little town attempted to get us to go in their car. It seems, especially in light of later experience, that they often take (Chinese) tourists to our destination, The Lonely Mountain. But Erik and Sarah were a bit sketched out by them, and so we kept walking until we found a less pushy lady, who ended up getting us up there in a little bus with a semi-official sign in its window, for free! And so we came out of smoggy gray Beijing to foggy, great Gushanzhai.
It seems to be quite the Chinese tourist destination. In the bottom left of the above picture, you can see a big inflatable plastic ball with openings on the side. Children crawl into them and then run like hamsters on the water. The entrance ticket was 60 rmb, which is high for China. After buying tickets, we headed over the 200 meter long rope bridge:
It was a beautiful area. The lower part had a lot of tourists, but it cleared out some as we climbed higher. I took many, many pictures.
My favorite spot by far: Chinese Petra! (Well, I don't know if anyone else has ever called it that, but...) It was cool inside this canyon, and parts of the walls were wet. You can see that it wasn't too wide. The Chinese name translates to "One Line of Sky."
We climbed out onto a nice ledge and had some lunch before heading down. After that, Sarah felt sick, whether from sun, the red bean buns, or dehydration... Whatever the case, we rested in the shade for a couple of hours. I spent my time sketching, which was surprisingly fun.
After visiting the park, we had quite an adventure getting back. After much uncertainty, we took a van to Qidu, a crank-driven relic to Zhangfang, and a bus to Beijing. I may post a picture of what I call the 'relic' in a later post. Then Erik and I walked around lost for a while before taking the a bus plus subway lines (3 of them for me, 2 for him) home.And now, I am tired. So I rest.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Shopping, Nightmarket, Forbidden City
Last night, Kat and I went shopping at a shopping center, ate some pizza (my first western food here), and then found a nightmarket! The nightmarket was a lot of fun, with lots of people set up on the sidewalks with their goods spread out on blankets. We had fun bargaining.
This morning dawned hot and smoggy.
We spent a long time figuring out travel, and eventually met Sarah and Erik at the *North* gate of The Forbidden City. We had a lot of fun exploring that. We learned a bit about the system of concubines that existed, and how some (like the Dowager Empress CiXi) rose through the ranks. We saw a chart detailing the food alloted to each of them... being higher ranking seems to get you more food. Most of the buildings had trim like this:
Here we all are as a group (Me, Kat, and Sarah in front, Erik in back).
I had a talk with some art (a concubine enjoying her tea.)
After a while we came to a series of courtyards:
Then we went and hung around Tiananmen square, had a snack, took a picture with some Chinese people (upon request, as usual), and headed off for some food. We got into some lively discussion of politics and ideology, had some hot soup, did some shopping, and experienced the most delicious tea ever.
Tomorrow morning we leave for an epic adventure!
This morning dawned hot and smoggy.
We spent a long time figuring out travel, and eventually met Sarah and Erik at the *North* gate of The Forbidden City. We had a lot of fun exploring that. We learned a bit about the system of concubines that existed, and how some (like the Dowager Empress CiXi) rose through the ranks. We saw a chart detailing the food alloted to each of them... being higher ranking seems to get you more food. Most of the buildings had trim like this:
Here we all are as a group (Me, Kat, and Sarah in front, Erik in back).
I had a talk with some art (a concubine enjoying her tea.)
After a while we came to a series of courtyards:
Then we went and hung around Tiananmen square, had a snack, took a picture with some Chinese people (upon request, as usual), and headed off for some food. We got into some lively discussion of politics and ideology, had some hot soup, did some shopping, and experienced the most delicious tea ever.
Tomorrow morning we leave for an epic adventure!
Friday, June 6, 2008
I like being a princess
Last night (Wednesday night) I went in a group of 17 people, mostly interns, for hot pot. Not just any hot pot, the best in Beijing, they assured me. Well, the wait was probably the longest I've had for a dinner... and it was wonderful! There are an outer room and porch just devoted to waiting due to the restaurant's popularity. While in the waiting room, you can sit at tables constantly supplied with watermelon, some sort of seed, tea, and some sort of fresh light cousin of bread. These tables also have cards on them, which some people played until the second cab arrived. Then, we had a couple of large games of mafia. We played with a dozen people, 3 each of mafia and police and 6 citizens. There was a nice structure to it, with the beginning of each waking round requiring everyone to make a statement about their opinion of the situation. And it was all in Chinese, until a Japanese girl (Yuki) joined who didn't speak Chinese. So, it was great for improving my Chinese... it seems that this group plays together a lot, so I'll probably get to play with them again. Also, in the corner of the room were women doing customers' nails while they waited for food, and as a result my nails are much sparklier than they used to be. Anyways, our private room was eventually ready, and we moved on. There was a large table with 4 basins of boiling water, and a couple of waitstaff continually adding plates of raw meat, dough, and vegetables to the table. Some we dumped in the hot water and fished out, others we just needed to dip in. We got to wear aprons to guard against splashes :) Sometimes it's better not to ask what some of the food is... stomachs and magic fish :) At one point near the end of the long, noisy and cheerful meal a new server came in. He did a show with dough, holding two ends of a small piece and flipping it in and out to lengthen it. Then he started to snap it at faces, mostly mine since I was close and he seemed to think he could make me flinch... but he couldn't, not even when he touched my nose with the dough! He had good precision with that stuff. When it was worked thin enough he quickly folded it and tore the creases apart, then dumped it in the hot pots for us. He also let Yuki have a try twirling the dough. I'm going to try to embed a video someone took of that here:
After we were all quite full, we played more games. A lot of it involved passing around cards, one per person, and putting the card face out on your forehead, such that you could see everyone's but your own. Everyone looked around quickly to deduce whether or not they'd drawn a King. Then the 2 who had gotten the Kings would have to do some sort of feat or dare for the general amusement.
Today after work I went to the Beihai/Houhai area of Beijing again to look for the lady to teach me fan dancing. She wasn't around, but I got to walk around some nice lakes and see lots of tourists, including what seemed to be a Senior Citizens' outing to Beijing. I wandered around a hutong again ... I'm beginning to be more comfortable moving about in them.
I really love how, in Beijing, you can be waiting at a bus stop and see some people playing badminton on the sidewalk, or walk by a parking lot and see several people gathered around a game of go. Or see a couple hundred people gathered at the base of a park, doing classical dances to music coming from a speaker system on the back of a bicycle. This guy brings music every night, and for 5 Yuan a month (less than one US dollar) you can come and dance for a month. Not only can you dance, you can be taught... there was a group of 20 or so people off to the side being given a lesson. If only that area wasn't so far (an hour or 2) from where I live, I would definitely have given them the 5 Yuan then and there. Some of those dancers were really good!
I made a new friend while I was watching the dancers, a masseuse from Hebei, Pei WANG. Capitalizing the family name when you're referring to someone in a mixed Chinese/English environment is a really useful convention that seems to be semi-standard here. Then my friend Julia showed up. After a while we went to a restaurant along Qianhai that I'd been eyeing.
And we sat in the window! Not just any window. This window was a huge recessed window. It had beautiful drapes which hung down enough to give a little privacy, but were open enough to let people walking past notice the occupants of the window room. The inside was red and a rich yellow, with a large painting on the back wall and a pair of couches separated by a small round table. The couches were covered in silk pillows of varying sizes and were quite comfortable. Julia and I got some fruit (for me) and whiskey (for her) and lounged about chatting about travel, boys, and the future.
Eventually we left our luxurious perch and went off exploring the neighborhood. We found a hutong where people were filming a movie, and wandered through some little shops. There are these jars of whitish stuff that are commonly sold on the street, but neither of us knew what they were, so we stopped at a small store to find out. Julia asked what they were and got the result "nai3," meaning milk. "nu3 nai3 ma?" she asked, causing much commotion. Now, what she meant to ask was, "niu3 nai3 ma?" which means "cow's milk?" What she actually asked was, "women's milk?" After we sorted that out (it was cow milk), we found out that it wasn't milk itself, it was actually yogurt.
At that point it was late, and I headed back to my homebase, having a lovely conversation along the way with the taxi driver, whose sister lives in Michigan, along the way. Did you know that cabs are supposed to turn the light on top off when they're full? I didn't because they don't actually do it in the US... but they do here! It's useful!
Oh, and one final thing I like about living here: having a roommate who calls to check on me when I'm out wandering late at night. Thanks Kat :-)
After we were all quite full, we played more games. A lot of it involved passing around cards, one per person, and putting the card face out on your forehead, such that you could see everyone's but your own. Everyone looked around quickly to deduce whether or not they'd drawn a King. Then the 2 who had gotten the Kings would have to do some sort of feat or dare for the general amusement.
Today after work I went to the Beihai/Houhai area of Beijing again to look for the lady to teach me fan dancing. She wasn't around, but I got to walk around some nice lakes and see lots of tourists, including what seemed to be a Senior Citizens' outing to Beijing. I wandered around a hutong again ... I'm beginning to be more comfortable moving about in them.
I really love how, in Beijing, you can be waiting at a bus stop and see some people playing badminton on the sidewalk, or walk by a parking lot and see several people gathered around a game of go. Or see a couple hundred people gathered at the base of a park, doing classical dances to music coming from a speaker system on the back of a bicycle. This guy brings music every night, and for 5 Yuan a month (less than one US dollar) you can come and dance for a month. Not only can you dance, you can be taught... there was a group of 20 or so people off to the side being given a lesson. If only that area wasn't so far (an hour or 2) from where I live, I would definitely have given them the 5 Yuan then and there. Some of those dancers were really good!
I made a new friend while I was watching the dancers, a masseuse from Hebei, Pei WANG. Capitalizing the family name when you're referring to someone in a mixed Chinese/English environment is a really useful convention that seems to be semi-standard here. Then my friend Julia showed up. After a while we went to a restaurant along Qianhai that I'd been eyeing.
And we sat in the window! Not just any window. This window was a huge recessed window. It had beautiful drapes which hung down enough to give a little privacy, but were open enough to let people walking past notice the occupants of the window room. The inside was red and a rich yellow, with a large painting on the back wall and a pair of couches separated by a small round table. The couches were covered in silk pillows of varying sizes and were quite comfortable. Julia and I got some fruit (for me) and whiskey (for her) and lounged about chatting about travel, boys, and the future.
Eventually we left our luxurious perch and went off exploring the neighborhood. We found a hutong where people were filming a movie, and wandered through some little shops. There are these jars of whitish stuff that are commonly sold on the street, but neither of us knew what they were, so we stopped at a small store to find out. Julia asked what they were and got the result "nai3," meaning milk. "nu3 nai3 ma?" she asked, causing much commotion. Now, what she meant to ask was, "niu3 nai3 ma?" which means "cow's milk?" What she actually asked was, "women's milk?" After we sorted that out (it was cow milk), we found out that it wasn't milk itself, it was actually yogurt.
At that point it was late, and I headed back to my homebase, having a lovely conversation along the way with the taxi driver, whose sister lives in Michigan, along the way. Did you know that cabs are supposed to turn the light on top off when they're full? I didn't because they don't actually do it in the US... but they do here! It's useful!
Oh, and one final thing I like about living here: having a roommate who calls to check on me when I'm out wandering late at night. Thanks Kat :-)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Bei Hai Park
I <3 Beihai! 1000-year old Imperial Gardens, open for the public's enjoyment. I made this my goal on Sunday morning. After learning a bit more about the bus system and discovering hutongs, the national library, and a humongous police station, I arrived at the Western Entrance. The park was filled with people exercising, strolling, conversing, and generally enjoying the beautiful day.
Picture 1: Woman With Sword
Picture 2: Shows part of a dancing group of couples. Many groups seem to have just shown up with their own boombox and were enjoying the nice day. This picture also shows (if you look at the woman in the green dress) the masks you see people wearing, even on nice days. The masks/scarves I've seen vary from purely functional to fashionable. They're more commonly seen on cyclists.
Picture 1: Woman With Sword
Picture 2: Shows part of a dancing group of couples. Many groups seem to have just shown up with their own boombox and were enjoying the nice day. This picture also shows (if you look at the woman in the green dress) the masks you see people wearing, even on nice days. The masks/scarves I've seen vary from purely functional to fashionable. They're more commonly seen on cyclists.
3: Just a conversation I passed by...
4: FansI sat for a while watching these people practicing with their fans. First they were all doing different things, warming up I suppose. Then I turned to watch an aerobics class... suddenly there was a loud WHACK. I looked back over and they were doing a coordinated routine, including suddling flicking their fans open which was the source of the noise. After a while watching, I mustered up my best Chinese language skills and went to ask if I could learn. They said I could, and one of them went with me to buy a fan, and then took me back to her place to practice a little bit. I'm supposed to go back to her place and practice more when I have the time. We'll see how it goes... using the fan is harder than it looks :-)
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Your Daily Dose of Pictures
My place of employment:
A family that wanted to take their picture with me between Tiananmen and the Forbidden City:
A family that wanted to take their picture with me between Tiananmen and the Forbidden City:
Lion! Isn't she cute? (You can tell it's a she because she's playing with a cub. The male lions have their paw on a big sphere.) At Tiananmen:
This totally awesome lake of full of lily pads at MSRA's family day. There were all these different bridges to the island. The one the girl in pink is on looks easier than it is; at the ends it's constrained to be flattish, but as you walk in the middle it pretty much folds in half and is much less stable.
The Lama Temple (YongHeGong)
On Saturday Erik, Sarah and I visited the Lama Temple in Beijing. It's Tibetan, and contains a 26-meter high Buddha carved from a single tree. The building which houses it had to be built up around it. It' s large and impressive and a tiny bit dusty. No pictures allowed inside the buildings, though. But there were plenty of neat pictures to take outside, of people offering incense and the nifty architecture. Erik explained the major characteristics of the Mahayana, Theravada and Zen Buddhist belief systems.
Beijing: Night, Day, and Subway
This is in the area of Beijing where Sarah lives. She, Erik and I went to eat there last week. In front of every restaurant people ask you to come in. If you don't plan to go in, don't hesitate. They'll only become more insistent. We had a nice dinner, although Sarah spent a while trying to figure out how to get some soy sauce, since we couldn't remember the word. Also, Erik either had an allergic reaction (his version of events) or is sensitive to spicy food (Sarah's version of events).
Taken from a pedestrian overpass on one of our nice days. The first two days I was here were muggy and the sky was full of yellow dust. Then it cleared up and I could even see stars at night last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. After that it began to feel like rain, and for the last couple of days it's been raining on and off. The sky is white but featureless. Anyways, in this picture the sky was beautiful. I also love how wide the roads are and how open it makes the city feel. It reminds me of the width of the streets in Paris. Not only are the streets wide; the bicycle paths and sidewalks are also quite generous.
Taken from a pedestrian overpass on one of our nice days. The first two days I was here were muggy and the sky was full of yellow dust. Then it cleared up and I could even see stars at night last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. After that it began to feel like rain, and for the last couple of days it's been raining on and off. The sky is white but featureless. Anyways, in this picture the sky was beautiful. I also love how wide the roads are and how open it makes the city feel. It reminds me of the width of the streets in Paris. Not only are the streets wide; the bicycle paths and sidewalks are also quite generous.
The subways are nicely decorated. I think this is on line 1, near Tiananmen (on the wall.)
One of my favorite posters. This one's all over the subways. It's one of a set (each featuring a different sport) of ads by Adidas. The tagline is "Impossible is Nothing," and they all show the Chinese people supporting their athletes. The woman is Sui Feifei. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_Feifei)
Beijing: Buildings
Taken on my way back from buying a cord to upload photos from my camera:
This is one of my favorites. I really like the color. Taken while transferring between lines 13 and 2 of the subway:
At night by XiDan, while with XiaoLin, Kat, Erik, and Julia (the bright thing is a shopping mall):
Taken somewhere in the northern part of the city, as we bussed to Family Day last Friday:
People and Places
This is my roommate, Kat. She's also an MIT student and interning at Microsoft (as am I.) I took this picture last Friday at Microsoft Research Asia's Family Day/Tenth Anniversary Celebration.We have about 300 fellow interns, most of whom seem to want to kill us, as evidenced by the second picture, also from last Friday. We played what they called "a CS game." As far as I could tell, it what what I'd heard called Laser Tag in the US, though I've never played so I don't know if it was the same.
In the third picture, you can see Kat accessing our lovely abode (it even comes with mood lighting!) The inside of the room is really nicely lit in the morning since the window faces east, so we can wake with the sun.
The fourth picture shows two more of our small community of MIT-expats in Beijing, Sarah and Erik. They live about 45 minutes from Kat and me by subway. They're interning at the UN and a consulting firm.
The North Pole
I'll post some photos in sets, chronologically, since I haven't found a way to publish more than 4 in a single post. It must be possible though, I think I've seen it in other Blogger blogs. If anyone knows how, let me know!These are some shots taken out the window of the plane on the flight to Beijing. Even from around 40 thousand feet up you can see a lot of cracks in the ice (look at the third picture especially.)
It's only been about 6 years since it was politically and technically possible for commercial airliners to fly routes over the North Pole (see http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/06/19/polar000619.html as well as the other link mentioned in the next clause of this sentence), but even in that time pilots have have noticed a lot of widening of cracks (see http://www.eastbayri.com/story/304534092544220.php).The strange pattern you see in the sky in the second picture (if you look closely) is my camera reflected in the window. I sort of like it when that happens in my pictures... sometimes I do it intentionally to subtly include myself in them. This time it was just because of the window constraint though. I took lots of pictures as we flew over these areas It was really bright because of all the sunlight reflecting off of snow and ice.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
The Past
Before I settled on running a blog, this is the email I send out recapping my first week.
Hi, So, this summer I haven't set up a blog, so I'll try to do a periodic email update. If you'd rather not get these emails, or if you know someone who'd like to but isn't on the list, let me know. I'm likely to write quite a lot, so don't feel bad if you just skim the emails, or check that they keep coming so you know I'm alive :-)
Sunday: I spent most of the day flying from Boston to New York to somewhere over the North Pole. On the first flight, I was sitting in front of two really cute Chinese kids. On the second, I was sitting behind a huge choir group w/ parents and kids. A stewardess complained to me that the kids were better behaved than the parents (b/c at the beginning of the flight the parents didn't sit down right away and so it took us longer for everyone else to find seats, so we were a little late leaving.) The same stewardess also tried to steal my stuffed Tiger and hold him for ransom. There was a large crew... about 16 I think. Continental Airlines rocks. They not only still give you real meals, they even give you silverware. And they've got a very new set of planes, with lots of nifty things. For instance, touch-screens on the back of the seat in front of you that let you watch movies, tv, and short programs, listen to music, see information about the flight statues, etc. And numerous and well-designed bathrooms, providing free pads and tampons :) As I said, we flew over the north pole in the middle of the night (based on original time zone). It was really beautiful. At first during the flight, before the north pole, all I could see was brilliantly white clouds out the window. Over the north pole the view was also brilliantly white, but with bumps and noncontinuous lines indicating drifting snow and cracked ice (or frozen snow). Eventually the stewardess who had been talking to me originally asked me to put my shade down, because she said that it made the passengers less anxious and excitable when the lighting was dimmer. There really was a lot of sun reflecting up off the snow. I was extremely lucky and somehow managed not to have anyone sitting next to me, despite the fact that the flight was declared 'full.' So, I curled up on the seats and read some, slept some.
Monday: Much of Monday (by Beijing time) was also spent on the plane. It was quite enjoyable. I watched some Kimpossible, as well as giving half my attention to the movies Juno and Enchanted (well, just the first 10ish minutes of that one; enough to sate my curiosity) I finished going over the first book of the 6 in the Lord of the Rings. From time to time I would be fed or sleep. Eventually we got to Beijing and went through security, changed money, and collected luggage. I got a map from an info desk which has proved quite useful since. I also helped a bmx racer from Texas whose name I forget get around. He sort of showed up at the info desk seeming lost. Seeing that the info desk guy didn't speak much English, and I was talking to him about how to get to my hotel in Chinese, the guy seemed to decide that I was more useful than the info desk. :-) I took a taxi to the hotel, which was about an hour's drive across the city, and rather uneventful. On the way I saw a person riding a bike with a heavy cloth scarf over their mouth, which I had heard of but not really expected. It's very dusty and smoggy in Beijing. Of course, the vast majority of the multitude of bikers weren't wearing scarves. I also saw several women carring umbrellas, presumably to keep their skin from the sun? I would think carrying an umbrella around constantly would get annoying pretty quickly. The taxi driver and I had basic conversation about the hot and muggy weather, and how we both prefer hot weather to cold. He didn't know the place I needed to go, so we stopped a couple of times to look at the map and ask directions. Cabs in Beijing are pretty well organized. They say how much they cost per unit distance (plus an initial fee, which is slightly higher at nighttime) on the outside, with the more expensive cabs being generally nicer cars. I had a cheap cab, but it still had air conditioning. We eventually found my hotel, and I checked in (which required showing my passport and visa) and was taken to my room on the 4th floor, with the owner of the hotel carrying my suitcase for me. It was a fairly standard double hotel room, smelling slightly of smoke (that cleared up after a day or so). I put my stuff down and walked over Microsoft to check in. Check-in was fairly standard. I filled out an NDA and my Contract and stuff like that, was given a book about Beijing, a t-shirt and a badge holder, and taken to my workstation. Which at that point consisted of only a monitor :) That was fixed by the next morning. I met my supervisor and some of the other interns who sit near to me. I sent out an 'I'm alive' email from Yin's computer. Then he went with me to dinner at the Chinese place in the basement (which also has several other foods, including Japanese, and some European and American stuff, as well as a cafeteria and a gym w/ a pool). After that he walked me back to my hotel. I was really tired, and decided to quickly shower and then sleep. I was unfortunately surprised to find that the shower temperature ranged from luke cold to very cold. I cut my shower quite short and went to bed. Tuesday: I woke up only 6 hours later (I didn't know what time it was, but I turned my clock on before going to sleep, so know time relative to then). I suppose it was maybe 2 or 3 am. I tried and failed to withstand the cold shower again. Then I spent some time sleeping, some time reading my books (Beijing guide and LOTR) and sleeping when I was able, until it was light out and the birds were chirping. I eventually found the time by flipping through tv channels. At work on Tuesday I set things up and settled in. My new email address is v-kidiet@microsoft.com , if you'd like to send something to me there. I now have office supplies and am able to access the printer and use the copy machine and know where to get snacks and all those good things. I went to a talk by Yin. I met with my supervisor to talk about projects, and then he arranged for me to meet someone else to talk about working as part of his group. After work I went out to a hot and spicy Cantonese restaurant w/ my advisor and several other interns. We each ordered a dish, and they were put onto a glass circle in the middle of the table which is free to spin so that everyone can take from all the dishes. I've seen these turn-tables before, but this one moved more smoothly than I've seen before. The food was indeed quite spicy, so spicy it left my lips numb and tingling. After the restuarant, I went to Tiananmen square. I was supposed to meet Sarah Proehl there, but since the dinner went later than I expected I didn't get there until 8 minutes after she'd left (as we figured out the next day). There were a lot of people out, at the Gate, (mostly Chinese) some to look at it for the first time but many just to enjoy the warm night. There were vendors selling souveniers and toys, and a ridiculously cute little Chinese boy dragging around a toy fish. The subway system that I used to get to and from Tiananmen was extremely clean and efficient, and had announcements in English as well as Chinese, presumably in preparation for the Olympics. Also cheap: only 2 yuan for a ticket, which is the equivalent of thirty cents.
Wednesday:Went to work again, met with the guy whose project I might work on again, but didn't have much to do yet. Watched some lectures online. After work checked out the gym in the basement. There was a really nice ayi-like attendant in the changing room. The changing room had squat toilets, which really confused me because my office's toilets are western, and these weren't cheap squatting toilets, they were high-quality materials, and besides, it's Microsoft. What makes it really funny is that I had had a conversation with Aviv about an hour before I left work about squatting toilets (Since he saw them in Singapore), in which I told him I hadn't seen any yet in China and didn't expect to. So, I take it back Aviv. The gym was pretty nice, smallish but with a lot of specialty stuff, eg a rowing machine. Also, there's a basketball court and a swimming pool (so I hear). After the gym I went to a small smoky restaurant. The waitress helped me choose something off the menu, and brought me water without me asking. Hot water, of course, which is what's served everywhere... at the hot and spicy restaurant, even at water coolers -- they have a hot and a 'cold' output, where cold really means lukewarm. I've discovered a water heating device in my hotel, which I use to boil tap water before I drink it. There was a table of 10ish very drunk guys in the smoky back of the restaurant with piles of Tsingtao beer bottles around, which the waitress would occasionally carry away handfulls of. Their cheeks were all pink, and they still kept egging each other on to drink another round and buy more beer. Then I got mildly lost in the dark for a bit on the way back to my hotel, since I had used the back exit of Microsoft and gone off to the restaurant. But I found the hotel again fairly quickly, and had a brief shower before bed. I still can't bring myself to use the full force of the water.
Thursday:The sky is blue today! For the first time since I've been here! There was also a nice breeze as I walked to work. I talked to Kevin for awhile, then I went to another talk this morning, by a guy from the UK who's got really superb Chinese. Then I went to lunch, which was good, because I starving. I had a conversation with a guy who really wants to choose an English name for himself but doesn't want it to be too common. Apparently in their English classes in school the teachers just randomly dole out common names: Bill, Tom, Fred, etc. He's thinking about 'Richard' for himself. Change of topic: I got accepted into the speech group! I'm going to be working on tts (text to speech) stuff. And that's about all I can say about that. At our 3pm fruit break today there was this really strange cross between a kiwi and a watermelon. And somthing white. This thing had the shape of a watermelon, but the rind was bright bright pink, and the flesh was white. The seeds were spaced as they would be in a watermelon, but shaped and sized like those of kiwis. The taste also most closely resembled that of kiwis, although the water content seemed higher. Tonight I'm going to meet Sarah (aforementioned) and Erik Fogg (another MIT student) for dinner and exploration on Beijing.
Friday:Yes, I know this hasn't happened yet. :P Buut, I thought I'd tell you that it's a company holiday and Microsoft's anniversary, so I'm going to go to what promises to be the coolest company picnic ever! No, really. There are go-carts. And something that seems as though it will resemble laser-tag, or something. And a long list of other things, such as parenting classes and a rummage sale and many many arts and crafts. Saturday:I'm sure it will be awesome :-) Ok, so that's my week. What about yours? (No really, keep me posted on what you guys are up to too!) Kim
Hi, So, this summer I haven't set up a blog, so I'll try to do a periodic email update. If you'd rather not get these emails, or if you know someone who'd like to but isn't on the list, let me know. I'm likely to write quite a lot, so don't feel bad if you just skim the emails, or check that they keep coming so you know I'm alive :-)
Sunday: I spent most of the day flying from Boston to New York to somewhere over the North Pole. On the first flight, I was sitting in front of two really cute Chinese kids. On the second, I was sitting behind a huge choir group w/ parents and kids. A stewardess complained to me that the kids were better behaved than the parents (b/c at the beginning of the flight the parents didn't sit down right away and so it took us longer for everyone else to find seats, so we were a little late leaving.) The same stewardess also tried to steal my stuffed Tiger and hold him for ransom. There was a large crew... about 16 I think. Continental Airlines rocks. They not only still give you real meals, they even give you silverware. And they've got a very new set of planes, with lots of nifty things. For instance, touch-screens on the back of the seat in front of you that let you watch movies, tv, and short programs, listen to music, see information about the flight statues, etc. And numerous and well-designed bathrooms, providing free pads and tampons :) As I said, we flew over the north pole in the middle of the night (based on original time zone). It was really beautiful. At first during the flight, before the north pole, all I could see was brilliantly white clouds out the window. Over the north pole the view was also brilliantly white, but with bumps and noncontinuous lines indicating drifting snow and cracked ice (or frozen snow). Eventually the stewardess who had been talking to me originally asked me to put my shade down, because she said that it made the passengers less anxious and excitable when the lighting was dimmer. There really was a lot of sun reflecting up off the snow. I was extremely lucky and somehow managed not to have anyone sitting next to me, despite the fact that the flight was declared 'full.' So, I curled up on the seats and read some, slept some.
Monday: Much of Monday (by Beijing time) was also spent on the plane. It was quite enjoyable. I watched some Kimpossible, as well as giving half my attention to the movies Juno and Enchanted (well, just the first 10ish minutes of that one; enough to sate my curiosity) I finished going over the first book of the 6 in the Lord of the Rings. From time to time I would be fed or sleep. Eventually we got to Beijing and went through security, changed money, and collected luggage. I got a map from an info desk which has proved quite useful since. I also helped a bmx racer from Texas whose name I forget get around. He sort of showed up at the info desk seeming lost. Seeing that the info desk guy didn't speak much English, and I was talking to him about how to get to my hotel in Chinese, the guy seemed to decide that I was more useful than the info desk. :-) I took a taxi to the hotel, which was about an hour's drive across the city, and rather uneventful. On the way I saw a person riding a bike with a heavy cloth scarf over their mouth, which I had heard of but not really expected. It's very dusty and smoggy in Beijing. Of course, the vast majority of the multitude of bikers weren't wearing scarves. I also saw several women carring umbrellas, presumably to keep their skin from the sun? I would think carrying an umbrella around constantly would get annoying pretty quickly. The taxi driver and I had basic conversation about the hot and muggy weather, and how we both prefer hot weather to cold. He didn't know the place I needed to go, so we stopped a couple of times to look at the map and ask directions. Cabs in Beijing are pretty well organized. They say how much they cost per unit distance (plus an initial fee, which is slightly higher at nighttime) on the outside, with the more expensive cabs being generally nicer cars. I had a cheap cab, but it still had air conditioning. We eventually found my hotel, and I checked in (which required showing my passport and visa) and was taken to my room on the 4th floor, with the owner of the hotel carrying my suitcase for me. It was a fairly standard double hotel room, smelling slightly of smoke (that cleared up after a day or so). I put my stuff down and walked over Microsoft to check in. Check-in was fairly standard. I filled out an NDA and my Contract and stuff like that, was given a book about Beijing, a t-shirt and a badge holder, and taken to my workstation. Which at that point consisted of only a monitor :) That was fixed by the next morning. I met my supervisor and some of the other interns who sit near to me. I sent out an 'I'm alive' email from Yin's computer. Then he went with me to dinner at the Chinese place in the basement (which also has several other foods, including Japanese, and some European and American stuff, as well as a cafeteria and a gym w/ a pool). After that he walked me back to my hotel. I was really tired, and decided to quickly shower and then sleep. I was unfortunately surprised to find that the shower temperature ranged from luke cold to very cold. I cut my shower quite short and went to bed. Tuesday: I woke up only 6 hours later (I didn't know what time it was, but I turned my clock on before going to sleep, so know time relative to then). I suppose it was maybe 2 or 3 am. I tried and failed to withstand the cold shower again. Then I spent some time sleeping, some time reading my books (Beijing guide and LOTR) and sleeping when I was able, until it was light out and the birds were chirping. I eventually found the time by flipping through tv channels. At work on Tuesday I set things up and settled in. My new email address is v-kidiet@microsoft.com , if you'd like to send something to me there. I now have office supplies and am able to access the printer and use the copy machine and know where to get snacks and all those good things. I went to a talk by Yin. I met with my supervisor to talk about projects, and then he arranged for me to meet someone else to talk about working as part of his group. After work I went out to a hot and spicy Cantonese restaurant w/ my advisor and several other interns. We each ordered a dish, and they were put onto a glass circle in the middle of the table which is free to spin so that everyone can take from all the dishes. I've seen these turn-tables before, but this one moved more smoothly than I've seen before. The food was indeed quite spicy, so spicy it left my lips numb and tingling. After the restuarant, I went to Tiananmen square. I was supposed to meet Sarah Proehl there, but since the dinner went later than I expected I didn't get there until 8 minutes after she'd left (as we figured out the next day). There were a lot of people out, at the Gate, (mostly Chinese) some to look at it for the first time but many just to enjoy the warm night. There were vendors selling souveniers and toys, and a ridiculously cute little Chinese boy dragging around a toy fish. The subway system that I used to get to and from Tiananmen was extremely clean and efficient, and had announcements in English as well as Chinese, presumably in preparation for the Olympics. Also cheap: only 2 yuan for a ticket, which is the equivalent of thirty cents.
Wednesday:Went to work again, met with the guy whose project I might work on again, but didn't have much to do yet. Watched some lectures online. After work checked out the gym in the basement. There was a really nice ayi-like attendant in the changing room. The changing room had squat toilets, which really confused me because my office's toilets are western, and these weren't cheap squatting toilets, they were high-quality materials, and besides, it's Microsoft. What makes it really funny is that I had had a conversation with Aviv about an hour before I left work about squatting toilets (Since he saw them in Singapore), in which I told him I hadn't seen any yet in China and didn't expect to. So, I take it back Aviv. The gym was pretty nice, smallish but with a lot of specialty stuff, eg a rowing machine. Also, there's a basketball court and a swimming pool (so I hear). After the gym I went to a small smoky restaurant. The waitress helped me choose something off the menu, and brought me water without me asking. Hot water, of course, which is what's served everywhere... at the hot and spicy restaurant, even at water coolers -- they have a hot and a 'cold' output, where cold really means lukewarm. I've discovered a water heating device in my hotel, which I use to boil tap water before I drink it. There was a table of 10ish very drunk guys in the smoky back of the restaurant with piles of Tsingtao beer bottles around, which the waitress would occasionally carry away handfulls of. Their cheeks were all pink, and they still kept egging each other on to drink another round and buy more beer. Then I got mildly lost in the dark for a bit on the way back to my hotel, since I had used the back exit of Microsoft and gone off to the restaurant. But I found the hotel again fairly quickly, and had a brief shower before bed. I still can't bring myself to use the full force of the water.
Thursday:The sky is blue today! For the first time since I've been here! There was also a nice breeze as I walked to work. I talked to Kevin for awhile, then I went to another talk this morning, by a guy from the UK who's got really superb Chinese. Then I went to lunch, which was good, because I starving. I had a conversation with a guy who really wants to choose an English name for himself but doesn't want it to be too common. Apparently in their English classes in school the teachers just randomly dole out common names: Bill, Tom, Fred, etc. He's thinking about 'Richard' for himself. Change of topic: I got accepted into the speech group! I'm going to be working on tts (text to speech) stuff. And that's about all I can say about that. At our 3pm fruit break today there was this really strange cross between a kiwi and a watermelon. And somthing white. This thing had the shape of a watermelon, but the rind was bright bright pink, and the flesh was white. The seeds were spaced as they would be in a watermelon, but shaped and sized like those of kiwis. The taste also most closely resembled that of kiwis, although the water content seemed higher. Tonight I'm going to meet Sarah (aforementioned) and Erik Fogg (another MIT student) for dinner and exploration on Beijing.
Friday:Yes, I know this hasn't happened yet. :P Buut, I thought I'd tell you that it's a company holiday and Microsoft's anniversary, so I'm going to go to what promises to be the coolest company picnic ever! No, really. There are go-carts. And something that seems as though it will resemble laser-tag, or something. And a long list of other things, such as parenting classes and a rummage sale and many many arts and crafts. Saturday:I'm sure it will be awesome :-) Ok, so that's my week. What about yours? (No really, keep me posted on what you guys are up to too!) Kim
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