Just to let everyone know I’m Taigu after an uneventful yet interesting journey from the glitz and glamour of Hong Kong to the dust and dirt of rural China. I will post all my observations tomorrow, once my internet works, but for now I’m on borrowed internets, so I can’t write much.
More to come
I received my passport, complete with new visa today, and I also found out that I’m leaving Tuesday. That leaves me about 36 hours from writing this to get packed, see some last sights, spend the rest of my money, and do some work for the lovely people who have put me up. All in all it’s been an interesting week and a half, and if I come back here again I will definitely know where to go back to, and I still have some places I need to see.
Today I came across a very interesting phenomenon: Filipino nannies. Apparently, there are over 400,000 nannies from the Philippines, Indonesia, and other southeast Asian countries living in Hong Kong, mostly working as live-in nannies. They cook, clean, take care of the kids, and live in a small room in the house. Sunday is almost universally their day off, so hit the streets, the markets, wherever there are groups of young to middle ages Filipinos running around. It was crazy once it was pointed out to me, because they started popping up everywhere. It’s really quite a sight.
Hong Kong is a great place. One thing that stuck out to me was how well designed and convenient the subway system is. Let’s compare Beijing to Hong Kong: In Beijing, transferring between two lines can be a hike, sometimes taking 5-10 minutes. In Hong Kong, the next train is no more than 20 steps away. In Beijing, you buy a card that you can recharge, it only works on subways and busses. In Hong Kong, the same card works at 7-11, the supermarket, on all public transportation, and probably a whole bunch of other places I can’t remember right now. And finally, the bottom line is that Hong Kong’s subway just has more lines, is cleaner, and more modern.
Yesterday I bought myself an early birthday present. One of the most complex model kits ever made, a perfect grade rx-178 gundam. Click the link for a photo gallery. It has something like 800 pieces, lights up, and stands over a foot tall. And if you’re looking at the price, don’t worry, I got it for half of what it would cost to get in the States. I’ve got it all wrapped up nice, ready to carry back with me and open up for a rainy day.
The last few days have been uneventful up until yesterday, when I was informed by an employee of the NGO putting me up that there might be a typhoon coming today. As I was walking around town in the afternoon I saw signs that said “Typhoon Signal 1 has been raised”. Uh-oh, I had done some research back at my room, and I know they go up to 10, but this is scary that they post this in front of malls and stuff.
So I decide to stay in today after hearing winds last night that sound like they are going to knock something down. But then at some point David, the man in charge, came down to tell me that the signal went up from an 8 to a 9, and that it might even go up to a 10 tonight. A 10 means that the storm passes directly over the island. I’m sure I’ll be fine where I am, but I just think it’s wild to be in the middle of a tropical storm when even been close to one in my life.
I can’t wait for the storm to blow over though, I have so much left to the see in Hong Kong and I could kill for a slurpee.
Hong Kong is what Nick in high school would have pictured China to be like. That view of China was shaped by San Francisco Chinatown and 99 ranch, both very Hong Kong influenced institutions (I’m not sure about 99 ranch, but it’s definitely not a mainland thing). This explains why I enjoy walking around so much. It is like a whole new world.
Kate gave me an explanation based on a comic book I gave to her about adjusting to a new culture, and basically adjusting to a new culture goes in four phases. The first is amazement. Everything is new and cool and wonderful and you just want to get out and experience it all. That’s where I’m at in Hong Kong right now, and I don’t think I will be here long enough to leave it. The second is the worst, and it’s the anger phase. Things make you mad. You’re shocked and appalled at what people here do. I definitely went through this in Beijing this summer. There was this little kid pissing in the middle of the sidewalk and I want just horrified. A couple of weeks later, I saw an old grandma just kicking her leg against a tree, presumably for exercise, and that just made me laugh. Laughter is the third stage, things like kid pissing in the middle of the sidewalk make you laugh. And finally you get to a stage where you come to accept everything, and now if you leave you miss it and think other things are weird.
Here is a picture of live fish being sold at a market, I wish there were some in the air, but they didn’t want to jump for my camera. I have some more sweet pictures.
I discovered just yesterday that some 7-11s in Hong Kong have slurpees. Also, please check out that link from slurpees, it is a wild site, and I think I learned how to say brain freeze in Chinese, “上脑”.
Now I just need to find one of these bad boys on the mainland. Also, there are more 7-11s here than starbucks in some parts of the states. I literally think that one block I was on had a 7-11 on each side, one for each cardinal direction.
I checked out a place called Chi Lin Nunnery today, because it was supposed to a be pretty cool buddhist temple and also because it was right next to a gundam model exhibition. Both were pretty awesome, and it took all the willpower I had not to buy the extremely cheap (half US price) Gundam models. There may be no holding me back tomorrow. Here are the pictures:
I still need to take the ferry to Lantau island and go to the top of Hong Kong island. Plus, there is ultimate to played tomorrow night! So much to do and so little time, my passport is already in the States as I write this.
This has been a crazy week. Between getting traveler’s diarrhea, which brought three days of fever, going to Olympic events, having my final exam, packing up, and then flying to Hong Kong yesterday, I have had little time to post on my blog.
I am finally feeling better, thanks to taking the cipro that Shansi provided me. Unfortunately I felt pretty bad at my first event, greco-roman wrestling. The weather was pretty bad that day. Here is a before and after picture from the 10th floor of my dorm:
Yes, you are looking at exactly the same view.
Anyways, watching wrestling was pretty fun. I figured out the rules by watching and watching the scoreboard, and when I got home I looked them up on wikipedia. There were some really sweet suplex slams and stuff like that got the crowd going. What I was shocked with was the Chinese crowd, both by how annoying their cheering was, and by how few people were in the stands. The cheering was so annoying and they had this volunteer with a microphone that was egging people on. Then the same volunteers were telling the Kazakhstan fans to sit down. I was happy when the Kazakhstan wrestler beat the Chinese guy, that shut some people up.
The next day I spent most of the day studying for the final, and all the classes were devoted to review, but I was still feeling crummy, but I had started taking antibiotics at this point, so I was on the road to recovery. Friday I took my test, but the most meaningful thing to me was my entry-exit test score. I scored 37% better at the end of the summer than I did in the beginning, which I think is fantastic. I really like my program, even though it was a little bit tiring and monotonous at times, I learned so many words (over 1000 !).
Friday night brought the chance to see Korea play Canada in a baseball qualifier. Steve had gotten the tickets from a teacher and I got invited. It was a lot of fun to eat popcorn (less than $1) and watch the game. For people who are wondering, all of the food and refreshments at olympics events is cheap as dirt. Beers are 5 yuan (75 cents), water is 3 (less than 50 cents) and snacks are in between 10 cents and one dollar. It’s great. We had a lot of fun heckling Canada. I was cheering for Korea because before the game we got free Korean flags for free. The game was not too exciting, and ended 1-0 Korea, but I had a blast and afterwards we hit up the merchandise stand.
We had five people so each bought a head band representing each of the five Fuwa. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of this, but hopefully my classmates who took some will email them to me. It was hilarious though, and we were stopped twice on our way back by Chinese people to take pictures with us. We hung out until really late in the night and said our goodbyes.
The next morning I woke up in a panic. It was light out and my alarm hadn’t gone off yet. It wouldn’t go off at all, and I had slept 2 hours longer than I had planned. I had 2 hours to get on an international flight and I was freaking out. Luckily I had packed all my stuff, so I started the checkout procedure and got a cool 200 yuan for checking out the right way, instead of just fleeing. Luckily I got a cab driver who had a F-1 fantasy. I got to the airport in 30 minutes, and I always thought it took 45. The cabs in China have no seatbelts, so I was pretty freaked out at points, but I got there and checked in fine. My plane left from the new terminal built specially for the olympics. It was awesome! Not only was it open and airy it was really clean and high tech. My plane ride was really nice, and I even got lunch (Mapo tofu) which came with Hagen Daaz ice cream.
I took a train from the airport in Hong Kong to Hong Kong island where I am actually staying. I found the place easily enough. I am staying at the offices of Mother’s Choice an NGO that does stuff for teenage mothers, runs daycares, and other things. The NGO is run by an Oberlin and Shansi alum. I got set up in a really nice apartment with internet, AC hot water, and everything else you could imagine. The really wonderful thing however is Hong Kong! My goodness this place puts the mainland to shame. Not only is it the beautiful blue skies, ocean breezes, and soaring green mountains, but the crazy and fun street scene. I bought a subway card today and went down to the far end of the island and took a trolley car back. They have these cute little double decker trolleys here that go down the main road, so I got set up on the top floor and looked out the windows. Tomorrow I don’t even know what I’m going to do, but there is plenty. Here is a picture close to where I am staying:
Now I’m just pooped, but I will have a lot more to talk about tomorrow!
I haven’t posted about my trip to the Olympics yet because there is so much to write about, and I’m still fighting this mystery illness, now with the help of antibiotics. I will work on my post tonight and put it up along with pictures! Also, I’ve started to get some spam comments, so I will approve comments, and then as long as you use the same email address each time (only I get to see it), your comments will automatically be posted without me having to approve them. Sorry for the delay.
I thought I would relate an interesting observation I had when watching swimming on Sunday. First, Chinese TV always interviews the chinese person, wether or not they got first or last. In one case, a female swimmer came in last in the medal round, but she did well in her heat the day before. The announcer asked her something like “You did so well, yesterday, why did you was performance so unsatisfactory today?”. The poor woman, who I think was just 18, just stood there looking sad and didn’t answer. The reported rephrased the question, adding “were you very nervous?”. Finally the young lady barely spoke, saying, “maybe I was a little bit nervous”. I couldn’t believe how harsh the Chinese are on their athletes.
I was sent an interesting article about Shanxi province, my home for the next two years. Everybody should check it out and look at the pictures, hopefully to get some ideas about what to do and see when you come visit me.
I went to an Indian buffet for lunch today, hoping that their delicious kidney beans (There are no beans in China at all) would restore my strength. I have yet to find out about my strength, but I got a funny flag to wave around. On one side it says 中国加油！. Which is what you hear all the people chanting on TV, it literally means, China, add oil!, but really means add extra effort, or it can have no meaning except as a chant like U - S - A. But the flag that I got translated it as China- Come On!. I found this hilarious, because I can’t really think of a situation where telling someone to “come on” is positive. The back of my flag also had a schedule of events. Some of the translations here were even more hilarious. Rowing was translated as “Gig”, and cycling as “Top Model”. Maybe is some parts of the English-speaking world, rowing is referred to as “gigging”, but “Top Model” just makes no sense at all.
I’m curious, when the papers in the States list the total medal count, do they do it by total medals or most gold medals? Everything here is by gold medals of course, so that China is at the top. I have really conflicted feelings about the way China approaches the Olympics. Here they have people competing in shooting events, when nobody in their country can own a gun, and they are winning gold medals in events that the newspapers have to explain because some people haven’t even heard of them. In America there is always some story about how the parents had to sacrifice and how the athletes have to sacrifice to get this level, but in China, they get picked up when they are around 6 years old and sent to specials schools. Sure their parents have to live without their kid but the financial kickbacks are substantial for giving birth to a gold medal winner. Whatever, two different systems, I guess that’s what I’m here to learn about.
I’m still sick, but I feel better than yesterday. Today was actually a really beautiful day, even though I spent most of it bed. The rain really does a lot to the weather. On one hand, it clears all the dust out of the air, which is really one of the biggest problems. Second, it cools things off a whole bunch. I think it was probably 75 most of the day today! But if the past 7 weeks have taught me anything, it’s that it will probably be 95 and humid tomorrow, or raining.
I have been really craving some dental floss. They definitely don’t sell it in most supermarkets here. I hear that I have to go to a big supermarket to find it. That will be a fun adventure. I don’t really have much else to write about, except that I missed the 4×100 relay today and I’m super bummed about it. Oh well, Phelps still has 6 more medals to win.
Today was kinda a crummy day. I woke up at 10:00 to watch Michael Phelps, which was AWESOME, but I also had the chills like a fever was coming on. The fever did come and is still lingering, but I have no sore throat or runny nose or anything to go along with it. It’s very mysterious. So given this fact, I slept with my pants and sweatshirt on for most of the day, drifting in and out of sleep to watch various events. My favorite today beside Michael Phelps, was the women’s team archery competition. The South Korean team actually set a record for the highest score ever in the event, and they went on to win the gold. It was a really suspenseful event, they way they traded off shots.
It was also thundering, lightening, and raining all day here, and as I write this, I hear thunder off in the distance. Usually a big storm will bring some really nice weather, and also take all the dust out of the air, which would be really nice. This is my last week in Beijing, and I’m heading to Hong Kong on Saturday, which will probably be extremely extremely hot and humid, so I hope this week is not as miserable as last.
Tonight is the big US-China basketball game, which will start at 10:15pm/10:15am Eastern time, but I don’t know if NBC is going to cheat you guys and delay it like they did the opening ceremony. I figure I’ll be able to stay up long enough to watch it, considering how much I slept today. Right now I am watching China vs. Bulgaria in men’s volleyball, and it looks like a blowout right now.
Is there anything I should check out before I leave Beijing, it’s not like I can’t come back, but I will do an investigation if people want to hear about something in particular.
By now everyone has probably seen the crazy over-the-top opening ceremonies. I have to say that watching them in the pizza restaurant on campus was probably not the most exciting place in the whole country. It was packed but there were still seats for us foreigners. The TV reception was really terrible, which I only realized once I got closer, so I am jealous of everybody who got to watch it in HD.
The crowd wasn’t too friendly or interested in talking, so the only conversation I had was “are you from America?” “I say yes, and he says “oh”. So I stayed at this place until a little bit after America came out, then I got bored and decided to go get some snacks and watch it in my room. This was much more fun, as I could actually see the fireworks from my window. I tried to take some pictures but they came out bad, but I have to say it was quite a lot of fireworks and they were awesome.
Today has been a lackluster day. I went and bought a synonym dictionary, and I’ve watched women’s basketball and now I’m watching gymnastics. But I’m ready to go out for some dinner now, and hopefully I will happen upon a giant screen that is playing a medal even tonight, which will be really fun.
The place where I bought the book actually brought me lots of joy, because it is filled with electronics markets. Imagine those places on convoy and claremont mesa in San Diego, except crammed into huge markets, with each stall selling something different. If I were building a computer I could go hog wild in the markets around this area, but for now it was just cool to browse. I did a price check on the iPhone, and the 8gb model is 8,800 yuan, or $1,267. So if anybody has an iPhone they want to mail me and turn a big profit on, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
