May Breaaaakkkkk....

It's 4.21 in the morning in Beijing.. and I'm blogging. Just came back from a night of drinks with friends, foosball craziness and an "early morning" Korean meal. It was great fun. I learned that there really is nothing better than chilling over a round of drinks with people that you enjoy being around with... We just Chill.. until people no longer can "chill" anymore.. and just start getting rowdy and hence begin the bouts of screamfests... and endless swearing...

"It's all cool," Yong would say..
"Chill, Suling, Chill," Leo would say..

So I sit back.. and watch the rowdiness and think about how I am going to miss everyone. Then I just feel like giving everyone hugs. I'm weird like that..

Anyway, I have no idea what I'm trying to say. All I know is that, I'll be leaving for QingDao in about half an hour.. and completely pulled an all-nighter right after my whole-day trip to a village in Beijing. My train to Qingdao leaves at 6.45am, and I'll be hopping onto a cab at 5am to get to the train station... I haven't slept... not yet at least.

and 6 hours later... QingDao!!!

Wooo Olympics!

Finally finally made that trip out to the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest. I could never leave Beijing without seeing those two places. It was well worth it. Definitely would recommend it to anyone coming to Beijing. Buying tickets to get into the Water Cube was a big pain in the butt though. We had to fight and push for our tickets. It was pretty ridiculous. People were cutting lines and well, we cut lines too without knowing we were in the wrong. Well, we got yelled at by Chinese people. Literally yelled at. We contemplated pretending we didn't understand why we were being yelled at... but that didn't work out. It was one helluva experience, buying tickets. Pushing my way through, dealing with impatient ticket counter workers... all the while scowling at this Chinese girl in a yellow blouse who just could not wait in line. Hmph.

Bird's Nest

FuWas... Beijing Olympics mascot.

"Queuing up" to get our WaterCube tickets.

The Water Cube

Only in China....

I haven't blogged in the longest time. And so much has happened since then. Every day here is a new day, seeing new things, trying new things.. learning more about China.. Every day, I catch glimpses of "Only in China" moments.... it's these mind-boggling sights that are really not 正常 'normal' that cause my friends and I to stare for a moment, trying to process what we saw in our minds, and then we look at each other and say, "Only in China, only in China!"

And it's moments or sights like...
- Kids in Crotchless pants. (My tutor thought that kids all around the world wore pants like that, Annika and I definitely burst her bubble on that one)
- Kids in Crotchless pants, peeing in a drain or in bushes in a public area... by public area, I mean like right in the middle of the street...
- Road cleaning people sweeping water with their huge brooms to the side of the street. Sweeping water, like it's a very normal thing...
- People standing in the middle of the road with cars whizzing past them, waiting for that right split-second moment to dash across without getting hit.
- What really surprised me in Beijing is the extent of PDA here.. public displays of attention is really prevalent. (listen to me talk.. haha) Couples have their hands all over each other in subways, when crossing the street, in dark alleys, and of course, you cannot miss out in Peking University. There are so many couples on campus, it almost makes it seem like PKU is the place where you are most likely to meet your significant other. It's so weird. From 9pm onwards, walking into the SouthWest gate to our dorm, you walk past this lane where Chinese couples hang out and the girl sits on her boyfriend's lap (baby style). Or they'll be just hugging each other for the longest time by the sidewalk without saying anything... Or, couples will just be making out.. all along this sidewalk. It's the weirdest thing.
- Then there's always that scene on campus that you come across... the Chinese girl screaming at her boyfriend, while he has his head hung low, not saying a single word to her. Even better, the scene of a Chinese girl screaming at her boyfriend, while Hitting him. How can you not stare, right?
- Steph and I were walking through this underground tunnel while changing trains, and there were cleaners mopping the walls of the tunnel. Not just wiping with cloths, they were mopping the walls. The guy walking in front of us puts his hand out to touch the 'clean' wall and then proceeds to smell his hand.. Steph and I just burst out laughing. Who does that..? Smelling the wall?
- Oh oh, and then while walking back to campus, this man walking in the opposite direction of us stops, and lets out a loud huge fart, while we walked past him. That was really very gross.
- This doesn't happen to me.. but my Caucasian American friends always get Chinese people who come up to them wanting to take pictures with them. Always. Not gonna lie, sometimes I secretly wish Chinese people thought I was a celebrity too. Being a Caucasian here, not only gives you automatic celebrity status.. you also have double standards that work in your favor. You get into certain clubs in Beijing for free... you will most likely not be turned down when you show up at a busy restaurant asking for a table... you will also most likely be able to get Chinese people to buy you alcohol when at a bar or club. Yeah, us Asians... we don't get anything.

Isn't China just the most entertaining place ever? I think so...

Living It, coz we know it's coming to an end.

I have only about 6 weeks more here in China. Thinking about how my semester here in Beijing is going to end in a blink of an eye, has made me want to do and experience as much as I can. There is no time to be tired and lazy and wanting to stay in. I know that if I didn't do as much as I could possibly do in Beijing, and didn't hang out with my friends here as often as I could, I would regret it once this is over. It's like a person wanting to live his life to the fullest after knowing that he is about to die in a few months. That is a rather depressing analogy... but it's the best one that I can think of. Sure school work still comes first, but that does not mean that I should forgo going out and seeing China and partying because of school work. What it does mean is that I should time-(micro)manage more. Get my homework done as soon as possible so that I can play hard. I don't know when I will ever come back to Beijing.. I also don't know when I will see all these people that have become my family in Beijing again after this semester is over. This semester here has just been really surreal and it's like living a dream. Once I get back to Oxford, Ohio, things are going to be different. That's when my real life resumes its routine once more.

That's why, I'm going to do everything that I can here in Beijing. I'll party till 6 am... (definitely will never be able to do that again ever!), I'll willingly brave the crazy Beijing traffic alone and walk to the hotel off-campus to hang out with friends if I have to, I'll ask friends out spontaneously for meals, I'll eat good Beijing food, willingly go the distance to see a part of Beijing that I haven't. Heck, I'll do 6 hours of karaoke... Celebrate people's half birthdays (even though I know it's just another excuse for people to drink -_-) Talk as much as I can in my classes... Eat as much 鸡蛋饼 egg pancakes, 煎饼 fried pancakes and red bean pancakes as I can... I'll do all those things because I know that I am going to miss it once I leave this place. But enough of being sentimental.

Last week was Yong's birthday. We opened our 6-hour karaoke ceremony with a round of 祝你生日快乐 with a baozi and 21 Pocky 'candles' poked into it.

Who knew we would have become good friends? I definitely didn't.

Ying Jia and Michiyo, beers and singing. Wooooo!

Annika's Belgium friend, Jan came to Beijing for a visit. It was awesome bringing him around. As you can tell, we had a Sweet time.. as sweet as 糖葫芦 and cotton candy.

太阳出来了！很暖和。现在可以在北大的公园一边学习，一边晒太阳。啊，很幸福！The sun peeked its head out last week... Makes studying much more bearable especially when you can sit in the gardens whilst studying, people watch and getting a lil sun in your skin. Then there's activities like flying a kite (yeah, really... flying a kite) and learning how to ride a bike. Not just any bike, but Evelyn's Pink bike, that we haggled for together. My friends decided that it's time for me to face my fear and learn how to ride a bike. So I had Biking 101 last Friday in front of everyone. And now have big blue bruises to show for it.


On Saturday, I got my fair share of a workout by climbing Fragrant Hill 香山。The English name of this place really is a big fat lie. Fragrant Hill is definitely not a hill. It's not just A mountain, more like Multiple Mountains. I climbed about 1000 steps up to the peak and decided not to go any further because it was foggy and brown. No flowers or greens anywhere. The only fun part was my 登山队 climbing group. Haha. We made lame videos, released stress by screaming our lungs out at the peak, ate our snacks, climbed perilous rocks, took a gazillion pictures... good times, good times.

So deceiving.. the "hill" was really pretty at the foot, with flowers and everything.

Then we got to the top, and this was all we could see. Fog and more fog. Brown and more brown. *sigh* The view could have been spectacular.. if we only had a 蓝色天 'blue sky day'.

Climbing down.. we decided to take the road less taken.... yeah.

The Friday night before, Steph, Andrea and I decided to have a girls night out. So yeah.. Andrea and I climbed a freaking mountain on 4 hours of sleep. It was amazing.. WE were amazing! Steph was too much of a 瞌睡虫 sleepy worm to wake up that morning.

One of the many signs at NanJie bar... So encouraging.

And of course, a weekend would be wasted and futile if we did not had good Beijing food.

Yummy, homecooked Hakka food on Thursday night.

烤鸭Beijing Roasted Duck on Friday night. Finally finally tried the famous Beijing must-try. Had the best of the best too at the QuanJuDe 全聚德 branch in 前门 Qian Men. I made bookings online but after having a long conversation with a Chinese person on the phone, we decided to head there early and order our own dishes instead of paying 350yuan for a set meal. There were 9 of us and we each paid 130 yuan each. For a whole lot of 凉菜 and 2 ducks. Must say that I'm glad I've finally tried it.. but the duck definitely did not have that distinct duck taste that I love. I think Malaysian duck still taste better.

Then on Saturday, we finally decided to go vegetarian for Andrea's sake. It was goood.

The girls... that make my days and nights so much more colorful.

Tis a Beeyootiful Day

First very very warm beautiful day in Beijing today.
Everyone was basically walking around campus with smiles on their faces. It was a very pretty sight. Kids were hanging around the campus gardens running around under the watchful eye of their parents. They were so adorable. Even though it's like 25 degrees Celcius today, Chinese kids are still wearing two pairs of pants, a shirt and a jacket. I watch them run around and wonder if they feel hot in all those clothes. Chinese people still have their light jackets on, socks and shoes, and long pants... where else all the 外国人 foreigners have shorts, flipflops and tank tops on. Chinese people actually stare at those who chose to wear shorts on a day like this. I guess it's really uncommon to start wearing shorts this early? I haven't worn my shorts just because it's not warm enough yet for me. It has to be as hot as Malaysia for me to start wearing them.

Stephanie and I sat outside in one of the BeiDa gardens today, while studying and talking. Then I hear music floating in the air. It's an old Chinese song that my mum loves listening to. I can't write the characters for it.. but it goes like this "long ban, long lao, man nei -somethingsomething- meng pat kao" .. and then Steph and I hear a little boy singing along to the song. We turned our heads, and was greeted with the cutest sight ever. A little boy, standing next to his mum while singing and shaking his cute little butt. *sigh* So adorable.

My tutor just told me today that she thinks it will be very easy for me to find a boyfriend in China. According to her, I am like a "typical Chinese girl".
My reaction: WHAT?! I am? 什么？真的吗？为什么。。。？？
Annika's reaction: WHAT?! *with horror* 淑玲真的不象中国女人。
My tutor: Why? She really is like a typical Chinese girl. Her character is like a typical Chinese girl. 为什么？她真的很象中国女人。她的性格，很多中国男人会喜欢。

Really??!! o_O

Little things make my day

This is my table. This is basically how it looks like everyday. I found these amazing tea sweets from the TenFu tea shop that day when I was out with my tutor. Need I say that I love them? Planning to bring some back with me to Malaysia. It's obviously too hot to drink tea all the time at home.. so I can pop tea sweets in my mouth whenever I think of China.

I honestly think Snacks are the most important thing in a college student's life.
No snacks = Hunger = Unable to Study. Am I right? Back in the US, Annie and I always had Hershey Kisses in our fridge to binge on when we felt like it. Here, I have yummier snacks. Like this packet of dried fruit here that I got from XiAn.

Ah, I finally finally bought a tea bottle for myself. It's fast becoming my prized possession. ;D I'm sipping on Lychee Rose tea as I'm typing. It's so convenient and so simple. I fill it with tea leaves, and hot water and take it to class. Here in China, every building has this huge hot water container thing - instead of water fountains like in the US. So when there's no more tea in your tea bottle, you can easily just fill it up. Cool eh?

Annika and I are satisfied and happy every morning, when our Chinese hot water flasks are replaced by the 服务员。It's all we ask for. That we have boiling hot water in our hot water flasks. For us to drink tea, and soothe our scratchy throats after a day out breathing Beijing air. Here in China, you don't drink ice cold water (it's bad for Chinese people's stomach digestion), or room temperature water (like we do back in Malaysia)... it's boiling hot water that Chinese people drink. See that little head thing in front of the flask? I got it from one of the antique shops in LiuLiChang. I still have no idea why I was so attracted to it. It's a 4 sided Laughing Buddha head. I got it for 50 kuai, originally 260 kuai. Haha.

My Calligraphy class products. Haha. We've moved on to doing characters. Tracing the outline of characters and then filling them up with our brush using the correct technique.

My little midget of a terracotta warrior from XiAn that CIEE gave to us as souveniers.

My Chinese animal mobile thing that I bought. They sell it everywhere in China, and I just think it's the most adorable thing ever. This is a really really bad picture of it. It really looks much more colorful and happy-clappy.

My Chinese handpainted porcelain dolls that I bought from WangFuJing. And that's my own attempt at a papercutting of a butterfly.

What we do in the lobby of our dorm. Well actually, what my friends do. They get real excited after coming back from 'Nike Rockstar' dance classes at the gym and love showing off the moves that they learnt. Of course, I took a video of their Diva moment.