Entry tags:

beijing, orientation

Orientation week in Beijing
Starting a little late, about 3 weeks ago when I first got here. Just a little description of the city. I'm sure I'll go into much detail later, but this is what I wrote back then! If anyone has any questions about this place that they want answered...let me know :)

More Pictures
(Don't even get me started on how much I loved California *sigh*)


Guh, Liz (my roommate) just checked the weather on her computer and said it was 86 degrees but felt like 107 with the heat index. A constant 94% humidity with very little rain. Beautiful weather. Standing still and breaking a sweat. Gross.
I don't know what we would do if we didn't have airconditioning in our dorm rooms. I'm surprised that anyone ever ventures out of their rooms, quite honestly. We have to turn the a/c off whenever we leave the room because we are only allotted a certain amount of electricity a month. Same with the water. 3 cubic meters of hot water and 3 of cold. Over that and you get charged at the end of the year. Probably not very much though. Conserve, conserve, conserve. We shouldn't really complain, the Chinese dorms close at 10pm at night and all the electricity shuts off at 11. And they don't have showers or bathrooms in the dorms at all. They have to go to a different building. So, no complaining from these dorms.
The more I walk around this part of the city, the more it seems like any other big city. Obvious differences though. I'll have to take more pictures when I walk down to Ito next time. It's a Japanese superstore type thing. Bottom floor is groceries and a walmart type set up and then the next 4 floors are everything else. Clothes, cosmetics, shoes, purses, housewares, electronics. Just about everything you can think of. I think a lot of the big supermarkets are like this. I went to one before this and it was two floors of everything you could think of. Really pretty convenient. All within walking distance too! Of course it would be better with a bike, but I'll worry about that after the Silk Road trip.
I've had really fantastic food here!! Nothing to out of the ordinary, though I wouldn't recommend any of you to try tendon any time soon, it's much to chewy. Everything is really great though! It really doesn't seem that much different from the Chinese food back home, but I guess it does taste a little different. Fresher too, I imagine. And cheaper. Holy hell, is everything CHEAP. Huge meals for $.50!! Sometimes we splurge and go to a fancier place that ends up costing us about $3 for pretty much a feast. It's wonderful. I'm sure we all seem like greedy Americans, but I'm sure they expect it. Bottles of water are $.10 a piece; I got a Chinese fan for a dollar (best investment EVER! It's disgusting here, it really helps); just everything!!! Well, except for cell phones, but whatever. Most things are seriously cheap. You could live like a king here on the salary people normally make in the states. It's wonderful. Only expensive thing I've bought so far has been that cell phone. I can't imagine even the most expensive things costing more than $30; backpacks, jackets, comforters, you name it. Wonderful. I think in the end I'll end up spending the most money on water. You can't use tap water for anything, not even brushing your teeth, and you just drink so much of it!! You have to have so much of it on hand! But at only $.10….whatever :P
Went to this amazing restaurant with The Beijing Center. A welcome banquet sort of thing. Very fancy. Seemed a little touristy, but whatever. All the classic over the top Chinese decorations, but it was actually in china!! The food was great. Course after course after course of food. All tasted great!! But the best part was that they put on a show after most people finished eating. WOW. The singers were iffy. I mean they were good, Beijing opera and all, but honestly, Chinese music/singing is slightly grating. High pitched, etc, etc. The most fabulous part though was the acrobats! First girl was amazing. Very bendy, much more than anything I've seen at say, Cirque du Soleil. At the end of her act, which was totally jaw dropping the entire time, she added lit candelabras. First balancing on her head while she moved and bent around. Then on the ball of her foot, which was straight up in the air the whole time…while she bended and moved around. Then she added 2 on her feet, 2 on her hands, one in her mouth and one on her forehead. AND MOVED. It was amazing. Wow. There was also this guy that came out and danced who was really impressive. My camera is awful, so the none of the pictures I took inside really turned out well, but we are all going to find a way to share pictures. Anyway, this guy was all in costume and had this fantastic mask and headdress on. Through the dance and the waving of his arms, he would turn for a split second and the mask would have changed!! He did it instantly, I never saw it. It was really, really fun to watch.

[EDIT] on a side note, the weather did break a little while before we left on our trip...got MUCH nicer.


A lot about the Beijing Opera performance we saw at the restaurant, but I guess that's what I had just come from :P

~Nikki