Hao Jiu Bu Jian! 好久不见！

Long time, no see! I'm sorry that I've been out-of-contact for such a long time. I've been a bit busy. :) Five hours was not enough time to complete this post, but I consider it to be complete. Another post shall follow, once I've completed my midterm exams.

Much has happened since my last lengthy post (the post about my change of address doesn't count). I have received many questions from my loyal readers; I plan to answer these questions within this post.

Blocked!
My blog is blocked in China, along with all other blogs with a web address ending in '.blogspot.com'. That means that although I am able to post and preview my posts, I am unable to view things quite the way everyone outside of China does. That means that I am unable to add comments in response to comments made on my blog, although I am able to approve others' comments and respond in different ways. I am also unable to read others' comments after I approve them. I'm looking into ways to circumvent this.

Cheryl's Birthday Dinner #1
Unbeknownst to her, Cheryl's classmates planned a birthday dinner for her, go be held on the evening of 20 October. One of her classmates, Michael, enlisted my aid in ensuring that she actually be available to come to the surprise dinner.

A wrench was thrown into their plans when, on the morning of 20 October, the instructor for their comprehensive class offered them free tickets for Beijing Opera for that evening. Cheryl was apparently the first or second person to grab a ticket, while all of the classmates involved in the planning of her dinner watched in dismay. They eventually recovered from their shock and all grabbed tickets for that they take her to dinner afterwards. I joined them after they heard the 'cats wailing', and all had a good time. They reportedly had a better time after hearing Beijing Opera than they would otherwise have had because, as Sam, one of Cheryl's classmates, puts it, 'everything seems so much better after you leave the Beijing Opera'.


Scenic Spots And Historic Sites #1: Tianjin (第一个名胜古迹：天津)

Tada! Tianjin!

The school organised for 21 October another trip, this time to Tianjin, China's third-largest city. The organisation of the trip extended only to organising buses to and from the biggest tourist trap in all of Tianjin, Ancient Culture Street (古文化街). While we were at the Ancient Culture Street, we looked at many shops which had different wares for sale. Much of it was touristy kitsch. However, Cheryl and I saw some candy-makers at work. They melted some rock candy, and then formed different shapes from the melted candy. Cheryl's was in the form of a dragon. At the cost of 10 kuai, it was a real steal.

The colour checker was really antsy to have his photo taken in the Ancient Culture Street area, so we acquiesced. Can you find him in these photos?

With only four and a half hours available for exploring Tianjin, Cheryl and I spent about two hours exploring that area before taking a cab to a 'food city' in an attempt to find some of Tianjin's famous buns, Goubuli baozi (狗不理包子).

We were stymied during our first attempt. After arriving at the food city, we arranged to meet our cab driver an hour after he deposited us. We spent five minutes, or so, looking for a restaurant, and we finally decided on a restaurant which looked good from the outside. We ordered a doufu dish, some Chinese fries (made from egg-covered fried strips of pumpkin (南瓜) rather than the potatoes used for making French fries), which are really tasty, and a tray of Goubuli baozi. The doufu dish arrived approximately ten minutes after we placed our order. Please note that after our first dish arrived we had only forty-five minutes remaining before we were to meet our cabbie. After that, we asked them about our dishes once or twice. Thirty minutes after the first dish arrived, we received the fried pumpkin. We had only fifteen minutes left to eat that dish, eat our remaining dish, settle our bill, then return to the cab. By the time that second dish arrived, Cheryl and I were quite displeased. Cheryl tried several times after that to have them bring our baozi. We knew that they had many baozi available because other tables seemed to be getting their baozi. At the fifty-five-minute mark, we bugged the fuwuyuan for our bill and refused to pay for the baozi, which were never delivered.

We learnt afterwards, from an amazing cab driver who made the trip to Tianjin worthwhile, that one of Tianjin's customs is to have dishes one after another, rather than having all of them arrive at the same time. When in Tianjin,one must be very specific about the order in which the dishes should be delivered, and with what timing, if one does not want to go with Tianjin's traditions.

After we left the restaurant, we were late meeting our cabbie. I suspect that he found another fare. We hailed a different driver, who brought us to a place which I think was not whither we'd wanted to go. We spent about half an hour there, and then found our third cab driver of the day. She is a wonderful woman who took us to a few different places, including Tianjin's TV tower, which reminds me of Toronto's CN Tower and Seattle's Space Needle. After we left the tower, she brought us to the Food City, at which we bought some baozi to go. She then deposited us at the Ancient Culture Street. Although the giving gratuities is not a common custom in China, we convinced her to take one for to show our appreciation.

Success!

My Azerbaijani classmate, Parviz

Uhhhh ... right

Ancient City Centre

Mmmm ... mahua!

Is DC or the maker of Ultraman more easily able to sue for copyright?

Take care not to drink and drive

Cheryl and our Indonesian classmate from salsa, Sally

The gate for entering a palace in Ancient Culture Street

Hand-made candy

Cheryl'll never fill those shoes (or Ricky's feet)

Cool Carriage

I'm channeling Zappa right now. Or am I channeling Doug Henning? It's Larry The Dwarf!

Gou Bu Li

Cool stones

Not the CN Tower

Take care not to sleep and drive

Somebody please explain this to me

Cucci cucci coo!

Cheryl's Birthday Dinner #2
On the day of Cheryl's birthday, 23 October, ten of us went to a local Japanese restaurant to celebrate. I was responsible for fetching Cheryl's birthday cake and ensuring that everyone arrived at the restaurant at the right time. What hadn't occurred to me was to make a reservation. When ten of us arrived, hoping to sit together, we had inadvertently given them a bit of a problem. Some other patrons were gracious enough to accommodate us, so all was good. I'm afraid that I currently have no pictures from either of Cheryl's birthday dinners, so you'll have to wait, true believers.


Scenic Spots And Historic Sites #2: Beihai Park (第二个名胜古迹：北海)
On 28 October, Cheryl and I went to Beihai Park, one of the most beautiful places to visit in Beijing. We spent several hours going through the park without actually completing our trip through it. I plan to return in the Spring. At this point, I have neither the time nor the wherewithal to write about Beihai. I'll describe it in a post after I've written my midterms.


Free Hugs Movement
While Sam, Cheryl, and I were on our way to Wudaokou to study, on 29 October, we encountered some placard-waving young adults who advertised 'free hugs'. Sam grabbed one hug and I got two. Apparently, this was a bigger movement than I had previously realised. Mike B., who you may remember from our trip to Tian'anmen, sent me a link to a blog which reported the story. You may read about the phenomenon here, here, and here.


Crazy Engrish
Signs
I buy many of my groceries at the Lotus Centre, a local mall which has a department store / supermarket. I admit that I admire the Lotus Centre's campaign to eliminate smoking and spitting. Here are a few signs from Lotus's campaigns.

Look at that baby fly!

Would you want to date him?

Would you want to date her?

That bomb's got 'virus' written all over it

Tea Pots
Quite often, our clique eats at the lower-quality of the two on-campus Japanese restaurants. Incidentally, both restaurants serve the best fries I've eaten in China. The one in question has pots of tea at each table. The messages on them are somewhat incomprehensible. I'm not sure why any manufacturer would go to the trouble to manufacture these things without double-checking that what is being printed actually sounds good, unless they are trying to cater to those whose English is poor, and are better able to understand these unfathomable messages.

Flavenue: Fresh flower, in any color, are thrillingly beautiful.

Time And Time Waits far Na men

Television Ads For Magical Devices
The first of the magical devices I saw advertised I saw on a Friday night while I was still living in Building Number 9, with my ex-roommate Omer. This is a magical device when, inserted into a shoe, could make a 5'6" Chinese man look like a 6'2" caucasian man. I saw so many times the same little clip of the white man happily walking in front of the less-happily walking Chinese man that I'm convinced that I owe to buy them for that I may turn into a 6'4" black basketball player if I wear those insoles.

The second of the magical devices I saw while I was working-out at the on-campus gym which, incidentally, costs me more money than did while I was working for RIM, if you don't count my $200-per-year athletic benefit from RIM. I saw an ad which I think was hawking girdles, and not some form of diet pill of weight-loss scheme. I was really unable to tell from my position whether the girdle was the thing being advertised but, for the sake of my article, I'll assume that it was. Apparently, this magical girdle is able to make women look as if they've lost fat in their bellies and heinies, but also they shall lose fat in their legs, where the girdle itself has no business being.

The ideal shape for a seated woman when seen from behind, is that of a pear, if I am to believe the ad. Many times I was shown a clip which started with the image of a pear superimposed on the back of a seated woman, with the pear being removed after a few seconds. This left a misshapen outline only roughly approximating the woman's shape.

Thefts
You may have noticed that I have neglected until now to describe the circumstances of my relocation to different lodgings.

The single rooms in my old building have shared showers and bathrooms, but cost more than the single rooms in my current building. I guess that the refitted things in the building which I left are considered to be more valuable than the chronologically older ones in my new lodgings.

The single rooms in my current building cost 90 kuai per day. My scholarship covers 30 kuai per day. I have paid, in advance, 60 kuai per day. I had some problems with having a roommate, in general. However, the tipping point for me was a theft from my room, while I was sleeping in the room. I don't know whether my roommate took it, or what really happened. However, that was the second time that money disappeared from my room while I was sleeping.

700 kuai went missing from my wallet two nights before I went to Badaling Great Wall. At the time of the first theft, I had withdrawn money to lend to someone. That person no longer needed the money, so I had it in my wallet overnight. I had left my wallet in my pants, which were draped over my desk-chair in my room. I didn't lock my wallet in a drawer because, I was thinking, 'if I I'm not able to trust my roommate, then I should move'.

However, he had a habit of leaving the door open while I was sleeping. Omer would leave for half an hour at a time. The door would be wide open, and I would occasionally awaken to the door being open. Anyone could enter and look throughout things silently. Anyway, I learnt the next day, when I was going to lend someone else money for to pay immediately for a train ticket, that seven 100-kuai notes were missing. After that, I tried to remember to lock my wallet every time I left it in my room unattended.

At one point shortly after that, I asked Omer never to leave the room with the door ajar. One of our floormates, who is fluent in Arabic and in English, translated my need to him. I told him that money had gone missing,and that I'd thought that someone walked into the room while I was sleeping.

Anyway, I forgot twice to lock my wallet. The first time I forgot to do it, nothing special happened. The second time was last Friday night. I received my scholarship money last Friday, and I hadn't had a chance to put it somewhere safe.

Anyway, I had that money in my wallet, and I was too tired to remember to lock my wallet. I awakened in the morning and showered. After I showered, I donned my clothing. I realised at that time that I had forgotten to lock my wallet. Because I was curious, I decided to count the money. The amount of money I had in my wallet was much lower than I should have had. I had some 100-kuai notes in my wallet before I received my scholarship money, which comprised eleven 100-kuai notes. I had spent less than 100 kuai on Friday: I used one of the notes to pay for some pop, and then I paid for Indian food with other. When I checked, only eight 100-kuai notes remained. If I'd had no 100-kuai notes before I fetched my scholarship money, then I would say that two were missing. However, I had five, I think, before that. While the amount, in Canadian funds, is relatively small, though not inconsiderable the total amount I lost is a king's ransom in China. I felt too uncomfortable to stay in the room, so I left.

On Monday, I went to my advisor, Guo Laoshi (郭老师) and asked him for his help. He helped me to give a statement to the on-campus police. The officer who took my statement accompanied me to my dorm for to ask my roommate some questions, and Guo Laoshi accompanied me for to help me switch to a different room. Neither my roommate nor the sole person able help me to move to a single-person room in that building was present, so neither of the men who accompanied me was able to help me immediately.

Later that day, Cheryl helped me to determine that my former building had no remaining unoccupied single-person rooms. She also helped me to secure a room in a neighbouring building, to move my belongings to that building, and to clean the place before I became too settled. She is my shining star. :)

Later, while I was walking to the shitang (食堂) for dinner, I saw that the inspector had returned to my former residence; through the glass, I could see him climbing the stairs. Ten minutes later, I saw a Vietnamese friend of my former roommate's pass through the shittang while I was awaiting the arrival of Cheryl and Courtney. A few minutes later, my former roommate came to confront me, along with his friend. Immediately after they arrived, Cheryl also arrived, and served as my translator for the parts which I didn't understand. Omer said that he was sorry that I had any problems, and that he had always considered me a very good friend. He added that if I thought he took the money, he would give me the amount which I thought he took. My response was that I felt uncomfortable staying in the room, regardless of what happened.

I don't know where he got the idea that I'm a very good friend: our conversations have always been difficult, partly because of his pronunciation, but mostly because of my incredibly poor Mandarin. For some reason, I have been more easily able to communicate in Mandarin with those whose Mandarin is poorer than his, maybe because their vocabulary is limited in similar ways to mine. :)

Grammatical Example
Earlier today, I saw one of the funniest examples I have ever seen for teaching grammar. During one of my class's breaks, while I was returning from the washroom, I happened to look into a neighbouring classroom. On the PowerPoint presentation which was used for the lecture, I saw an example and explanation for appending '-ry' to words to turn them into concrete nouns. Please note that the lecture was delivered in Mandarin, whereas the wording on the slide was entirely in spotless English: '..., such as masonry, carpentry, slavery, and savagery'.

Meet El Presidente
Despite my best efforts, including saying that I didn't want the job, I was elected 'Class Co-president' (or 'Co-captain', with another in my class. It's sorta like 'head boy' and 'head girl'. We take attendance, quieten the class, and bring possible issues confidentially to the instructor. Oh, and we're also 'birthday monitors'.

Questions From My Fans
I've gotten several questions from persons who read this blog about various things. I decided to respond to them in this forum because I think that many persons will want to hear the answers.

Questions #1, #2, and #3
The first three questions all came from a single reader; all of the rest came from different individual readers. I'm going to leave the questions in their original form.

Question #1
Are there anything that you thought that would be culture shot for you?

Answer #1
I assume that this reader means 'culture shock', and I shall answer the question as if that's what was asked. I expected that many things would be shocking, but I knew about only some of them ahead of time. Some of them I'll leave until my answer to Question #2.

The service industry is amazingly inattentive when one is guaranteed to give them money, whereas if one is not, the members fall over themselves, and each other, to prove that they've got exactly what you want, even though you may only be browsing and not really interested in buying. This is part of a grand set of phenomena which may be explained-away by the statement 'This Is China' (T.I.C.).

Cheryl's auntie introduced her to this term in the summer, and I think that it's brilliant. Courtney's version is 'That's China For Ya!', which I think is wonderful. However, I heard T.I.C. first, so that's the one which I shall use. Welcome to the topsy-turvy land of China where down is up, left is right, and things only make sense when explained by T.I.C..

I was a bit surprised by the amount of dust in the air from all of the construction. One thing which I noticed on my campus is that the materials with which the buildings are built are actually quite poor. The cinder-blocks and the clay brick seem to crumble easily. The piles of the those materials always have huge amounts of dust around them, leading me to believe that they're more susceptible to crumbling. T.I.C..

I'm also a bit dismayed by the lack of concern for workers' safety. However, the lack of safety for workers pales in comparison to the lack of safety in traffic. For all of the traffic 'laws' here in China, there seems to be a distinct lack of concern for the loss of a single person. One Italian girl was run-over by a truck, immediately outside one of the residences here. T.I.C.. See? It works!

Another thing which I don't understand is the sales model in which the cost of a large bottle of beverage of a certain volume is more than the combined cost of two smaller bottles, the sum of the volumes of which is identical or almost identical to that of the larger bottle. Please keep in mind that we pay an invisible deposit on each bottle here. Here's a practical example. In the on-campus 'Friendship Store', at which the fuwuyuan have habits as described below, and are anything but friendly, one may buy pop. A 1.25-litre bottle of Diet Coke (or Coke Light, or 健怡可乐, here) costs 8 kuai. Each 600-mL bottle costs 3 kuai. Ignoring the deposit on bottles, I don't understand how .05 litres of pop can cost 2 kuai, two thirds the cost of one of the smaller bottles of pop. T.I.C.. I'm really getting the hang of this, now!

Question #2
Are there anything that you consider as Chinese bad habits?

Answer #2
a) Spitting. The older the loogie-hocker, the further-hocked the loogie. On the day in which I went to Yonghe Gong with Ali, a man who was walking to my left and half a pace ahead of me spit to his side, and some drops of spittle landed on my left leg (I was wearing shorts). I was not impressed in a good way by his behaviour.

b) Encouragement of public urination by the (grand-) parents of small children. On many occasions, I have seen children encouraged by adults to either urinate or defaecate in public. During the aforementioned trip to Yonghe Gong, while I was standing in front of one of the shrines there, a child opened his already-handily-split-pants-which-are-useful-for-impromptu-squatting and started to urinate on the steps of the shrine, while being encouraged by his parents to do so. He did this immediately to my left. Again, unsolicited foreign fluids were splashed upon my largely unclothed left leg, and I was none too happy about it. Let's just say that being pissed-off than being pissed-on.

c) Nose-picking. I don't particularly relish the idea of being served by a fuwuyuan who has picked her nose, whether that be on the street or in an enclosed establishment. I have seen nose-picking done in enclosed establishments only by women. T.I.C. (Aside: Korean women apparently pick their friends, pick their noses, and pick their friends' noses. Don't ask.)

Question #3
Type of Chinese Female that foreigner think is fair ----- you must hear some from other students, don't you?

Answer #3
Some questions are better left unasked, while others are better left unanswered. This one falls into the latter category.

Question #4
What about your Mandarin study? Do you find it is a lot more helpful to study Mandarin in Beijing?

Answer #4
I think that if I were able, in Waterloo, to devote four hours a day to Mandarin classes taught in Mandarin, then I would actually be able to learn more easily than I have done so far in Beijing. The main reason for that is that I know far fewer native speakers of any form of Mandarin in Beijing than I do in Waterloo, at least for the time being. I also spend another two or three hours per day studying on my own, to practise reading or learn my new vocabulary, so I'm not actually speaking to anyone at those times. The biggest aid living in Beijing gives me is the opportunity to read newly-learnt characters on signs everywhere. I am quite thankful for that, as well as for the opportunity to see so many beautiful places.

Now that I've answered all of these questions, you may be asking yourself another question. 'If he hates everything so much, why in the heck is he over there?' The answer is really quite simple. I really like my time here; I just happen to be frustrated or confused by various things at times. Right now, I'm happy to be in China.