It's been a month and a half since I've come to Beijing, and things are pretty good h
ere. I've definitely settled into a routine: classes in the mornings, and studying and sleeping in the afternoons. Throw in hanging out with friends and going shopping a few times a week. Lunch is always with friends, usually with the Chinese-Fils, who I hang out with most. Let's see, there are tourist trips, snowboarding days, grocery-shopping dates, late dimsum lunches, jiaozi 饺子 (dumplings) nights, massage 按摩 nights, bowling nights, karaoke nights, and McDonald's sundae nights, not to mention all those trips to bargain haunts and random meals and study
ing at cafeterias and restos everywhere around and off campus. And not to forget hanging out during the hourly breaks in the mornings at the 2nd floor of the Run Run Shaw Building (Yifu Teaching Building), where we have earned notoriety as the Chinese-Filipino Mafia/Gang--we take up a whole section of the hallway, thus the bestowed name. Oh, they're the greatest to be with. You laugh like crazy with these guys. It's like, a big family--everyone looks out for each other. I mean, when you get sick, you just know that there are people who'll be looking after you, even if you're all so far away from home.
It's still fun hanging with my other foreign friends, but the thing is, it's really different to be with people like you. We still have lunch dates, but it's good to have a regular group you can always count on. Like, barging into each other's rooms unannounced for unplanned girl-talk sessions is always something I look forward to. =)
Okay, right off the bat, I'm gonna say I love how the holiday concept works here in China. They have like, two major holidays in a year, and for each, the government gives a whole week off. I think that's better than having a billion holidays in a year, popping up in the middle of the week. But then, that's just me. The National Holiday (黄金周) was 7 days long, so most everyone in school went on trips to Inner Mongolia 内蒙古, Xian 西安, Qingdao 青岛, Shanghai 上海, and everywhere else! Only a few people were left on campus. So the Chinese-Filipinos here got together and planned a week's worth of activities for Chi-Fils left behind.
That Monday, everyone had just left for the trips, so we had a late dimsum lunch somewhere near the Lama Temple (and no, I don't think there are lamas there) near the city center. Oh, it was so good! Or maybe I just haven't had a decent dimsum meal since we got here. =) It was at this really good restaurant, and I say it's really good coz it has the rating of 5 diamonds, which is the highest rating for a resto in Beijing or China. It's supposed to be a bit pricey, but at around 2:30pm onwards, the dimsum is at half-price, so yay! We took the subway, and on the way home, we all went to Subway to buy sandwiches for our trip to the Great Wall the next day. Subway sandwiches are usually a bit expensive, like in Manila, but again, one of the guys here found out that on Mondays, they have a buy 1 take 1 promo (买一送一), so that's what we got. So typically Chinese-Filipino, always on the lookout for the best deals. =)
The plan for Tuesday was to hike on the Great Wall 长城. And to climb. From the Jinshanling 金山岭 section to Simatai 司马台 of the Great Wall, which is about 7.5miles (12km) in all! It's really beautiful there, and most of it is unrestored, so you can imagine all the loose rocks. And some parts were so steep and slippery! The steps were uneven, and at times very high, so it really is CLIMBING. It was a good thing that we had guys with us, so at least we had some people to help us up/down and to hold on to. It's really hard!
But it was fun, coz the view from up there was absolutely stunning. We made rest stops in the towers there, and the guys offered to guard the doors in case the girls had to go, but no one did. We left campus at around 7:30am, got to the Wall's entrance at 金山岭 and started hiking at about 10am, and we ended past 5pm. In all, we were nine, 5 girls and 4 boys. Oh, and to cap it all off, we zip-lined down. And over a river too! It was fun. After zip-lining down, we rode a boat to the Wall's exit. We got to the city about 7:30pm, had dinner at a resto near school (and had what we call Peking ham), and headed back home. Initially, the plan was to go for foot massages, coz for sure we'd have aching body parts the next day, but then everyone was so tired, we all just went home to sleep.
Wednesday, we slept in a bit late, and at around 1pm, went to Carrefour in Zhongguancun (家乐福-中关村) to do some grocery shopping, and coz some of them needed thermal underwear. A lot of people there! I guess it's coz it was a holiday, and there was a sale. Anyway, everyone met up after, and headed to Wangfujing 王府井 to look around and shop a bit. But 王府井的东西很贵，所以我们不买 (Wangfujing stuff is expensive, so we didn't buy anything), just looked around. Leaving two of the girls behind at 王府井, everyone else rode the subway to the Silk Street Market, which is a 7-storey bargain place. You really have to haggle, but if you know how, 东西很便宜 (things are very cheap)! One of the guys here has been here in Beijing since February, so he knows how much prices are, and gave us the price ranges for the stuff we needed. It was tiring though to have to bargain and argue with the vendors. Some of them were really pushy and rude. They grab you sometimes, but most are okay. Others speak okay English, even. We all met up after, talked about what we bought for what prices, and got a bit of a scolding from Rainy (the Chi-Fil guy who's been here since last sem) coz we could've gotten some stuff cheaper. =) We rode the subway back to 王府井, as some of the guys were hungry and they wanted to have xiaolongbao (I don't know the characters for that). And it was so good! The best xiaolongbao, with soup inside! Only 14元 for 8 pieces! Yum!
Thursday was our rest-and-study day. Rainy demanded that we all stay in and study, and no one should go out. We did go to IKEA in the afternoon to get some stuff for storage. I love IKEA! Can you imagine, after a whole month, we actually only then started unpacking our luggages and putting clothes in the closet.
Friday, most of us went to see the Temple of Heaven 天坛. It was so crowded, with local Chinese especially. I hear how China's tourism is looking up since the Chinese are getting richer, and as such, more local Chinese travel to see the rest of their country. Anyway, we had a late lunch at this chicken resto near campus. Everyone got together again that night for dinner at La Bamba, and afterwards, headed to this hotel just off campus for a game of bowling, two teams. It was crazy, but the best game I've ever watched. Not that I'm such an expert, since I'm not too much of a bowling enthusiast. Some of us girls sat out on the game, and stayed to the sides to watch and cheer them on. It was pretty cool, a bit competitive but in a fun way, no drama at all. Near the end, it was all about teasing and having fun, even if they got a lot of gutter balls. Our group was the loudest in the bowling alley--what do you expect with 20 people laughing and teasing--but it was great.
Saturday was the best! Snowboarding! We went to this indoor snow resort, I think on the outskirts of the city. From morning to late afternoon, we did nothing but snowboard. And fall on butts and faces. And get frozen fingers, toes, ears, and noses; the temperature inside was about -2 degrees Celsius. But it was awesome! Most of us didn't know how to balance the board at first, but by the end of the day, we all did pretty well on them,
I think. Some of us could do turns and jumps already, and some couldn't. And it got so cold sometimes that we'd randomly go back into the locker rooms for breaks, to defrost and to sleep. But it was the best thrill to be snowboarding down. I think snowboarding is a dangerous addiction, but only because it's pretty expensive to go all the time. But even so, I am definitely going back there soon. It's incredible. =) When we were all tired from playing around, we went back to the city and had hotpot for dinner at Minbao 火锅, which was just right, considering how freezing cold we all felt. I had the best sleep that night though, with all the aching body parts I got from falling and snowboarding all day.
The Chinese-Filipinos are great here. It's like, a family, a home away from home. Everyone here looks out for each other, like brothers and sisters. Taking everyone around, telling us what to get and what not to get, to get things cheaper, etc. The guys are like our ahias, our bodyguards. Especially when riding the subway 地铁, which is crazy here! Everyone squeezes into the subway, with no consideration for others, so they act as our buffers, making a wall when dirty old men push against us. They usually put us girls in the middle of all of them, so they get the most of the stinky, body-odored people. And they make sure to have a guy in the back most of the time, to make sure no one gets left behind. Don't get me wrong. I love all the other friends I've made here--Colombians, British, Americans, and all others. But being with these guys makes Beijing seem a little less alien and a bit more like home.
So, tell me. With a National Holiday week like mine, what else could I ask for, right?
Spent the afternoon with Maria, Camila, and Allie. We tagged along the Colombians and had Peking duck (北京烤鸭) for lunch today. I have to say it was expensive, but really good. And since the fancy-pants resto was in Chaoyang District (朝阳区), we took a cab going there, which cost us about 10元. Including lunch, in all, it was about 60元. THE most expensive meal by far, since everything in Beijing is cheap. We usually get full meals at about 7 to 8元. We shouldn't have gone. Now that I've re-tasted authentic 北京烤鸭, I want more. =)
Oh, and I met with the small group from BICF tonight. I love it. In all, we're like, around 15 people. Pretty diverse bunch. Let's see, there's a Korean PK (pastor's kid), two German girls from small villages in the Black Forest, a Korean-American dude, an Aussie girl who grew up in HK, an American girl who studied at Wheaton College, and who'll be going to med school soon, a girl from Kazakhstan, and about 6 Chinese-Fils. It was fun, meeting them and getting to know them. It's awesome how I was able to easily find a small group so soon, and so convenient, it being in the same dorm as I'm in, just 2 floors down. There's so much to look forward to, even laser tag!!! I can't wait.
We actually have a proficiency test tomorrow morning. I don't think I can study for it anymore, not that I want to. Lol. Even our teacher was like, "没关系，不用怕。" (Don't worry, no need to be afraid.) And we have classes this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, to make way for the super long National Holiday week. Yes, that's how they do it here in China, week-long holidays. You just gotta love it. =)
Running at night here at the university's track and field is awesome. It's become one of my favorite, most-looked-forward-to thing in the evenings. Especially since the temperature's gone down to like, 12 degrees Celsius the past few days; from 30 degrees just the last Sunday, it's crazy how cold it is now. Anyway, I just love to run, and when winding down, walking around, looking up at the big black expanse of the sky, lit only by the moon. Funny enough, it doesn't make me homesick or yearn for everyone back home--it does the opposite, making me wonder how I could ever leave Beijing when the time comes. I guess I'm really starting to enjoy and embrace 北京 as a second home. 我特别喜欢北京比别的地方. There's just so much to see and do here. And I like how I've been able to slowly fall into habit in how I do things here. And how friends are everywhere. When we just got here, I didn't leave anything out at all. Everything was safely tucked into my luggage, locked. It just seemed like if I start making a home for my things and clothes, it would be like I'm settling in for good. Like, I'm making the dorm room my home. And I didn't want that. I still don't. But the truth is, for the next four months, this is what it is. And I'm really growing to love it. I'd love it better if everyone I loved were here too; I still miss my family, I do, and I guess that's the little part of me holding back from fully embracing Beijing. But again, there's Skype. It's kinda like I never left home. Maybe I can have the best of both worlds for now.
I think it's incredible how the past few days have been all about meeting new people, and getting to know people I've already met. Yesterday, some friends, new and old, decided to head on to Beihai Park (北海公园). It's this tourist spot near the Forbidden City. It was an adventure for the girls: me, Katzu, Margaux, Angelle, Kazue, Shani, Carina, and Pat. Except for Kazue, who's Japanese (日本人), everyone else is Chinese-Filipino. And what an adventure it was! We took the subway (地铁), made about three transfers (it's insane how many subway lines Beijing has!), made our way through a huge throng of tourists and locals in front of the Forbidden City (故宫) and Tienanmen Square (天安门), rode a superduper crowded bus (公共汽车), and walked under the sun in high noon. Took a whole lot of pictures though, as only girls would do. Our lunch consisted of corn on a cob, mineral water, and Chips Ahoy. We then rented out 2 paddle boats, and rested a bit, although it was still a little hot. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we w
ere through with Beihai. But since we were starving from all that walking around, and tired of the tourist-priced tasteless food there, we decided to go to Wangfujing (王府井) and get some real, genuine, cheap Beijing food. Yum! Window-shopped a bit, treated ourselves to some ice cream (冰淇淋) and frozen yogurt (酸奶), and finally got back to BLCU at around 9pm. I was so pooped out, I was sure I'd fall right on my face onto the bed and sleep til who-knows-when. It was a whole new experience, especially the bus ride! It was our first time to ride a bus here in Beijing, and it was craaaaazy! They totally squished everyone in, and even when it seemed like there wasn't any more room for even a mouse, they made everyone squeeze against each other. It was disgusting, although I hear that's pretty much the case too back in Manila. Think all the body odor and sweat from others pushing against our clean, freshly bathed selv
es. Ugh. And like one guy had his butt to my back, and since the bus was so packed, well, you can just imagine my horror. And the subway was bad too, at times. There were funnies though, like everytime we got on and we'd count if we were complete. And when we thought we had to get off and started to get off, only to realize we were wrong, and rush back into the train, laughing and squealing 
all the way. Bouncing around in the trains and buses. Shani and Car being constantly camera-ready with their reflex-like poses. A lot of great laughs apparently, what with an 8-strong group of girly girls. And oh, let's not forget all the Chris-Tiu-is-coming-to-Beijing and he's-too-good-to-be-true talks; sorry, it's a girl thing. Lol.
So many bloopers. We got lost and pretty confused a lot of times. And judging by the look on people's faces, I think they could tell that we were not locals. And our mangled attempts at speaking Chinese. Embarrassing, considering the fact that we look very Chinese, and ARE Chinese. =)
I really don't think though, that I could have chosen a better bunch of girls to spend the day with.
Katrina's been going on about finding her CC, and now I feel bad coz it's been 2 weeks already, and I haven't found mine yet! Sigh. There's just so many people we see and meet every day, it's pretty hard to recall their faces back into memory. I can't even remember Katzu's CC's face, which is sad. LOL. ;)
Today was a good day. It didn't start out so well though. I woke up to an urgent nudging, which I later discovered was Katzu's way of waking me up. I looked at my cell phone, and gasp! It was 6:50am already! I totally rushed through taking a bath and eating yogurt for breakfast, all the while thinking, "Oh no, whatta way to start the day." The sky was dark and grey, adding to the gloom and doom of my waking up late possibly setting the tone for the rest of the day--everyone knows I hate being late. I'd rather be absent than late, which was usually the case back in uni. Anyway, we left the dorm room at around 7:40am, which is normal, and amazingly, when we got to class by 7:50am, only a few people were in the building. I was like, "Oh, this is good."
I got to talk more with my American classmate Jake. It's seriously amazing how everyone here seems so out of place in China, but then to know how much they wanna learn Chinese, and even more, how much they love Beijing itself is awesome. Had fun with the class. My teacher is really nice, and she teaches pretty well too, so everyone just loves her. She made some of the class get up and introduce themselves in Chinese, and then gave everyone else a chance to throw whatever we wanna know about the person standing in front. I think it serves a double purpose, giving us a chance to get to know each other, and at the same time making us learn to speak and listen to Chinese conversations. It was pretty cool. Today's victims were Jake (American), Damien (French), Maxime (Swedish), and Sam (British), all guys, by the way. It was loads of fun. Boys will be boys. Oh, and what was shocking for me to know was that a few in my class are just 18 years old. If you see them, you would have never guessed. Some of them I thought to be at least 25 years old. But they're all great. I love my class. I'm still trying to match the Chinese names with their English ones though, which is harder than it seems.
Some friends from Manila invited a bunch of us Chinese-Filipinos to have lunch together, plus videoke, but we already made plans with some friends, so yeah. It's good though, to have so much friends everywhere and anywhere.
Katz and I had lunch with her Colombian classmate Camila and my Colombian classmate Maria, who are also childhood friends. We also had along two other of my classmates, Allie (British) and Heiko (German). They're awesome to be with. Ate at the Conference Centre, and had a whole lot of delicious Chinese food. Afterwards, we went back to the dorm for a bit, but met up with the girls (Camila, Maria, and Allie) at Wudaokou (五道口) Station to ride taxis to Carrefour (家乐福) at Zhongguancun (中关村), not too far from the school. Shopped a bit, and got to find where the malls are, oh joy!
Supposedly, Katz and I were going to Camila and Maria's place with Allie for the night, to hang out, then head on to one of my classmate's birthday thing. But since we have a trip to Beihai Park planned early tomorrow morning, we begged off for now. Next time.
Exhausted, we stayed in tonight. Armed with a movie, popcorn, and noodles, we had a quiet night. I never thought I'd say this, but I have grown to love seeing the dorm after a tiring day. For now, it needs to be my home sweet home.
Look at me, studying and doing my homework even during dinner, and in restaurants, too!
But not as big a geek as some library geeks, right, Katz? Hahaha. ;)
Perhaps what I love most about BLCU is the diversity of culture you find here. Name a country, any country, and I'm pretty sure we have it. In my class alone, we're all either: Canadian, American, Mexican, British, Danish, Swedish, Colombian, Italian, or French. And while I like the melting-pot feel of the campus here, I guess there's still nothing like the Chinese, or, to be more specific, Chinese-Filipinos.
For the past week we've been here, we didn't really run into any of them. At first, I was like, oookay, it's not like I came here to meet my own kind anyway. But after a week, I started to sound like a baby, "Where in the world are those Chinese-Fils??" I couldn't believe that there weren't much around, coz even in Manila, all I've heard was how many of us go to Beijing to study. It got to the point that we constantly kept our ears peeled for anyone speaking a bit of Tagalog.
Needless to say, I was pretty glad to hear that some guys were organizing an initial dinner for Chinese-Fils. I was a bit hesitant to go at first though, but I figured, what have I got to lose? And I'm so glad I went. We met a whole bunch of people, some we've seen around but didn't know they were like us, some we've never seen, and others from different nearby universities, like Tsinghua Univ and Peking Univ. And it was so cool to see so many familiar faces from uni back home--I counted at least 10 people I went to uni with, and in the same college too. In all, I think we were about 70 or so.
The organizer arranged for some 黑车 to bring us to the restaurant. Oh, we had dinner at this hotpot place near school, and it was fab. Too bad I was sleepy, and we had to leave with the first batch; the others were heading to this party place somewhere. Next time.
Most of the time, I don't feel like I belong, even with Chinese-Fils. You know me, always holding close to my Canadian roots. So I never thought I'd say this, but how I missed being around Chinese-Fils! It felt like home to hear the chatter of Chinese+English+Tagalog words. For once, it felt right to be Chinese-Fil-Canadian.
It's something to get used to, being so far from home. But I have to say, I'm kinda getting the hang of it.
I still miss my family, and my friends--even anything that has to do with Manila! It's saddest at night, before I go to bed, and weekends, where it's so quiet without them. But it helps that we have Skype, and talk to each other every day--I especially love it when the whole clan is there to talk to me. =)
So far, we've been getting settled in Beijing, falling into routine. One thing we have learned to love is going to the supermarket to buy groceries. The first time Katz and I went to the supermarket, we spent like, 2 hours there. Of course, the place was huge, but we just had to stop and look at every single aisle. And the thing I love about here is that their supermarkets have so much fruits and yogurt! Katz refers to me as "that health freak;" I can't say she's wrong. Our fridge is full of my fruits and yogurt. =)
And I've actually had real conversations IN CHINESE with locals here!!! Oh, my daddy would be so proud. Haha! One time, Achi Candy left us alone, so we had to fend for ourselves. So we headed to this fast food place in the mall, and the only thing I could read was 牛肉面 (beef noodles)，which Katz ordered. I don't really like beef, so I just pointed and said, "那个，那个，十三元的面, no, no, yeah, that one!" It turned out to be 两面, or cold noodles, which was pretty good, but A LOT. I got tired eating it, and I couldn't finish it. :| And we discovered frozen yogurt here! TCBY! It'll be my temporary replacement for Yoh-gurt Froz's Classic Fro-yo while I'm here. =)
Okay, so we've enrolled in school, had our rooms connected to the Internet, gotten China sim cards, undergone evaluation to determine what level we should be in, attended the orientation, and explored the campus a bit. And thanks to Achi Candy who, growing up, really was like my own big sister, we've eased into life here in Beijing, or at least, in BLCU, or 北京语言大学.
And, we attended our first worship service in Beijing at BICF (Beijing International Christian Fellowship) at the 21st Century Theater. It was awesome. People from probably every country in the world is represented there. And it's huge. I really liked it there. I think I'll probably go to that church. I want to get involved in their ministries--they have so much--and Katz and I both wanna help in the children's ministry. But we have yet to attend Achi Candy's church, which is the Zhongguancun branch of BICF, so we'll see. By the way, to attend BICF, you have to be a foreigner, and you have to present your passport at the door as proof you're not a mainland Chinese.
But wait, there's mooooore (haha, like one of those TV shopping voice-overs)! Achi Candy's uncle had extra tickets to the Olympic Green, and since she'd already been, she gave them to us. So yesterday afternoon, Katz and I rode the subway alone for the first time, and in my opinion, we managed pretty well. Except for the rude people and old Chinese. Oh, and do not underestimate the senior citizens here; they move really fast for old people when it comes to squeezing into the trains. Anyway, when we got there, there were so much people! Everywhere! Even McDonald's had a line so long, it spilled out onto the sidewalk. And the Beijing 2008 Olympic Superstore was, well, super. Haha, it was pretty big, and had just about every souvenir for the Olympics and Paralympics. I wanted to buy, but the lines were too long, so I didn't. We walked around the Green, and took some pictures with the Bird's Nest. We didn't get too close to the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube coz it was hot, and we were too tired to go any further. But at least we can now say we've been. =)
Classes officially start tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous. I'm afraid I won't understand the teachers, the lessons, and that I won't be able to catch up. Sigh. :| But I am determined to learn. I don't think I've ever been as determined to learn as I am now. I want to speak fluent Chinese. I guess this is the price I have to pay. Oh, what it does to my poor nerves.
For now, I can tolerate Beijing. For now. 